Page:Shinto, the Way of the Gods - Aston - 1905.djvu/366

356 another so that one might think they were veritable official bringers-down of the God.

"At Tenōji there is a Miko-machi, or street of mediums who pretend that it was established by Shōtoku Taishi. When the cries of these mediums reach the street, people look in at the windows. They differ, however, from the Inari-oroshi. Some there are who use the formula, 'Is it a living mouth or a dead mouth?' so that they probably belong to the Shinano mediums, who talk of [the God] being drawn by the adzusa bow. There is also a kind of witchcraft called Inugami. But the Miōjin-oroshi [or yoridai] we speak of repeats over and over again the phrase 'Be pleased to cleanse, be pleased to purify,' so long as he retains his senses. Then his complexion changes and he becomes pale, while the gohei in his hands shake themselves erect. He will then answer, one after another, by manifest inspiration, any questions which the applicant may put to him."

The Sankairi is a Buddhist book, and goes on to tell a story of a Kami being brought down by nembutsu (Buddhist prayers) and the medium repeating a Buddhist hymn.

It need hardly be said that, as in the case of our own spiritualistic séances, the net value of the information obtained by this process is nil. It is hardly fair to Shinto to call this sort of thing "esoteric Shinto," as Mr. Lowell does. Spiritualism is not esoteric Christianity, but a diseased excrescence on it. The higher Shinto functionaries do not condescend to such practices, and, indeed, they are commonly performed by laymen, or even by Buddhist priests. The official Shinto mode of ascertaining the will of the Gods was by the "Greater Divination," that is, by the deer's shoulder-blade or the tortoise-shell. Kangakari, or inspiration, was, however, known at all periods of Japanese history; and although no detailed accounts have