Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/225

Rh other things which were connected with the gods were carefully kept clean that is, away from any unclean things. For this purpose the shimé-nawa, or clean rice-straw rope, is used in many cases to mark off the sacred objects. If one travel in Japan even at present he will find many things thus marked off, especially in temple precincts. Here he may find an old tree with the shimé-nawa around its trunk. There he may see an old well marked off in the same manner. Thus, if he find anything with the shimé-nawa, he never does wrong to conclude that some kind of superstition, fear, or reverence is entertained by the people toward that object. Especially the unclean people are afraid of coming in contact with any object thus distinguished, because they believe they may thus incur some evil or punishment for defiling the sacred object.

In many cases, however, men can not avoid coming in contact with unclean things, and hence there are several means of purification in Shintō. Purification by washing with water is the commonest method. Sprinkling salt is another common method, and purification by fire is also common. Purification is performed at any time when it is necessary, either privately or publicly. The length of the time required for purification differs in different cases and degrees of uncleanness. Often one purifies himself, but sometimes he asks the help and intercession of the priest. There are two semiannual national acts of purification—one on the last day of the sixth month and the other on the last day of the twelfth month—when all the sins committed and impurities incurred by the whole nation during the past half year are purged away. These are called the "Great Purifications," and even now are performed at the great temples of Ise by the Emperor in deputy.

To the Shintōist the essential character of sin is impurity or uncleanness, and it has more of a physical than of a moral nature; for with the early Japanese, as with any primitive people, morality, if there was any, was more external than internal, more physical than spiritual. Many an act was regarded as unclean, not because it was morally and intrinsically wrong, but more because it caused physical uncleanness and made the parties concerned liable to the anger and curse of the gods. If anything is meritorious in Shintō, this strong emphasis of physical purity and cleanliness is one; and there can be no doubt that this Shintō teaching of physical cleanliness has had much influence upon the progress of moral cleanliness of the Japanese nation.

How the meaning of purity and cleanliness passed from external or physical to internal or spiritual, and how strong the practical influence of such a transference of the meaning was, can be seen from many facts. The great Shintō scholar Motoöri, who lived during the latter half of the last century and was one of the