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The mother is standing there, smiling as if pleased at the stranger's interest in her butsuma a middle-aged woman of the poorest class, not comely, but with a most kindly face.
A slip of pine is then ignited at this flame, and with it the lamps of the ancestors and the gods are lighted. If several great deities are represented in the miya or upon the kamidana by several ofuda, then a separate lamp is sometimes lighted for each; and if there be a butsuma in the dwelling, its tapers or lamp are lighted at the same time.
The form of the butsudan or butsuma, the character of its holy images, its ofuda, or its pictures, and even the prayers said before it, differ according to the fifteen different shu, or sects; and a very large volume would have to be written in order to treat the subject of the butsuma exhaustively.
When a husband dies, two ihai are made, in case the wife resolves never to marry again. On one of these the kaimyo of the dead man is painted in characters of gold, and on the other that of the living widow; but, in the latter case, the first character of the kaimyo is painted in red, and the other characters in gold. These two tablets are then placed in the household butsuma.
And she sometimes also writes upon the papers words signifying 'For the sake of . . inscribing never the living, but the kaimyo or soul-name only, which the Buddhist priest has given to the dead, and which is written also upon the little commemorative tablet kept within the Buddhist household shrine, or butsuma. Doubtless this pious little woman, praying beside me in the dusk, is very poor.
'Yes, will you come to my room? asks Akira. 'It is not far in the Street of the Aged Men, beyond the Street of the Stony River, and near to the Street Everlasting. There is a butsuma there a household shrine -and on the way I will tell you about the Bonku. So, for the first time, I learn those things which I am now about to write.
Early on the morning of the 13th, new mats of purest rice straw, woven expressly for the festival, are spread upon all Buddhist altars and within each butsuma or butsudan the little shrine before which the morning and evening prayers are offered up in every believing home.
At night, and also during the day upon certain festivals, both candles and a small oil-lamp are lighted in the butsuma a lamp somewhat differently shaped from the lamp of the miya and called rinto On the day of each month corresponding to the date of death a little repast is served before the tablets, consisting of shojin-ryori only, the vegetarian food of the. Buddhists.
Then the butsuma is decorated to the utmost, special offerings of food and of flowers are made, and all the house is made beautiful to welcome the coming of the ghostly visitors. Now Shinto, like Buddhism, has its ihai; but these are of the simplest possible shape and material mere slips of plain white wood. The average height is only about eight inches.
Occupying the alcove, which is an indispensable part of the structure of Japanese guest-rooms, is a native cabinet painted with figures of flying birds; and on this cabinet stands the butsuma. Akira opens it with a sort of compassionate smile; and I look inside for the image.
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