16. Nihon Shoki I — 16

1Ritual purity is of the very essence of Shinto. It applies to food, clothing, and language. There was in later times a special set of terms for certain Buddhist objects and ideas. It was probably to avoid contamination to the ordinary dwelling that special huts were erected for the consummation of marriage, and for childbirth. Death contaminated a house, and therefore a new one had to be erected on the decease of the owner, a practice which was long continued in the case of Imperial Palaces.

2Big Bob was a prominent member of the tribe, and claimed to be a "tenanimous" man, which, translated from the Chinook, means an Indian doctor. By Indian superstition a "tenanimous" man is held responsible if any general calamity befalls the tribe. Things had not been going well with the Swinomish Indians for some time. There was much sickness among them, and Big Bob was regarded as responsible for it. So at a meeting of the tribe four Indians were appointed to execute him. The day upon which the murder took place Big Bob was waylaid by four assassins, who seized him, held him, and cut his throat from ear to ear. The red men were arrested and bound over for murder by the Justice of the Peace of Laconner."

3In the "Nihongi" times the Imibe occupied a subordinate position in performing the ceremonies of Shinto, and at a still later period this term became a mere surname. Vide Satow, "Ancient Rituals," in "J.A.S.T.," Vol. VII., Pt. II., p. 126.

4The Be, or heredilary corporations, were a peculiar institution of Old Japan. This term has been rather inadequately rendered by clan, tribe, or guild. But they differed from clans, as it was not even supposed that there was any tie of blood-relationship between the various classes of members. And if we call them guilds we lose sight of their hereditary character, and of the fact that they were essentially branches of the Government. Perhaps if we imagine the staff of one of our dockyards in which the director and officials should be drawn from the governing class, the artisans being serfs, and the whole having a more or less hereditary character, we shall have a tolerable idea of a Be. The origin of some, as of the Imibe, is lost in antiquity, but many were instituted in historical times, and for all manner of objects. There were Be of weavers (Oribe), of figured-stuff weavers (Ayabe), of executioners (Osakabe), of fishers (Amabe), of farmers (Tanabe), of clay-workers (Hasebe or Hashibe), and many more. The sole function of some was to perpetuate the name of a childless Emperor or Empress. The local habitation of these corporations was also called Be, just as our word admiralty may mean either a body of officials or the building where they discharge their duties. This accounts for the frequency with which this termination occurs in names of places. A familiar example is Kobe, the open port in the Inland Sea. Kobe is for Kami-be, and meant originally the group of peasants allotted to the service of a Deity (of Ikuta?), and hence the village where they lived. A good number of Japanese surnames contain the same termination.

5O-bito is a title of nobility, perhaps for Oho-bito, great man. It is represented by a Chinese character which means head or chief.

6There are ancient mirrors in Japan with a number of suzu or bells projecting round them, or of an octagonal shape, and I am disposed to think that the epithet yata has reference to this peculiarity, the corners or projections being taken for handles. Compare the analogous word Yatagarasu (Index).

7It is said to be this mirror which is worshipped at Ise as an emblem of the Sun-Goddess. See Satow's "Handbook," second edit., p. 176.

8The poems in this work are translated so that a line of the English version corresponds to a line of Japanese, but it has not always been possible to preserve the original order of the lines.

9It has been already observed that the erection of a special building for the consummation of the marriage had a ceremonial as well as a practical significance.

10By beasts wild beasts are meant. In addition to the real injuries caused by them, we must remember that in Japan all manner of imaginary effects are attributed to the enchantments of foxes and badgers.

11One of the Norito (rituals) mentions calamities of birds flying in by the smoke-hole in the roof—perhaps because their droppings polluted the food which was being cooked.

12The term hafu mushi (creeping things) includes both insects and reptiles. The stings of wasps, centipedes, and vipers are doubtless meant. The ancient Japanese houses, slight structures often built in pits, would be especially obnoxious to such calamities. Possibly also the injury to the crops and to domestic animals by insects and snakes may be referred to. It should be remembered, too, that the Japanese suppose many ailments, such as toothache and children's convulsions, to be owing to mushi, and these are no doubt to be included in the hafu mushi no wazahahi. Hirata remarks that it is the opinion of the men of the Western Ocean that by examining ringworm (called in Japanese ta-mushi, i.e. rice-field insect), itch and other diseases under a microscope, it would appear that they are due to the presence of exceedingly small insects. It would also appear, he says, from a work recently published, that the human body is full of such animalcules.

13The words "prevention and control" are rendered in the interlinear kana by Majinahi, i.e. witchcraft, including incantations, etc. Possibly the author had in mind the Oho-harahi, which deprecates "calamities of creeping things" and of "high birds." Here is a modern majinahi directed against hafu mushi. If you wish to keep your house free from ants, all you have to do is to put up a notice at the place where they come in, "Admittance, one cash each person." The economical ant goes no further.

14Yamada in his dictionary defines majinahi as "the keeping off of calamity by the aid of the supernatural power of Gods and Buddhas."