Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/86

 ladle. This, being a temple rite, does not evoke much enthusiasm, but evidences of its popular observance may be seen in decorations of azalea sprays, shikimi boughs, and u (Deutzia scabra) blossoms set up at the gates of houses. As usual, the idea of averting evil dictates the procedure of the time. Worms are the special object of exorcism. A leaf of shepherd's purse (nazuna) is tied inside the lantern of the sleeping-chamber, and over the lintel is pasted an amulet written with ink which has been moistened with the liquid of lustration (amacha). Again the rice-flour cake is offered at the domestic altar. It now takes the form of a lotus petal with capsule of bean-paste (an). In the cities hucksters go about selling ducks' eggs, which, eaten on this day, are supposed to be efficacious against palsy; and occasionally itinerant priests, with close-cropped hair and a peculiar costume, pass from street to street calling out, ''O-shaka! o-shaka!'' or "Buddhas to sell, Buddhas to buy," and performing buffoon tricks to gaping crowds. The stock in trade of these gwannin-bo (depraved priests) consists of little images of Sakyamuni and five-coloured flags of the u flower, the whole carried ignominiously in common water-pails.

The fourth month of the old calendar, the May of modern times, is distinguished above all other months as the season of flowers. It is then that the cherry blooms, and in Japanese eyes the