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The Seven Happy Gods of Fortune form nominally a Buddhist assemblage, and their effigies on the kami-dana or god-shelf, found in nearly every Japanese house, are universally visible. The child in Japan is rocked to sleep by the soothing sound of the lullaby, which is often a prayer to these gods.
They are Buddhists, and practise polyandry, but their young men do not become lamas, and owing to the scarcity of fuel, instead of burning their dead, they expose them with religious rites face upwards in desolate places, to be made away with by the birds of the air. All their tents have a god-shelf, on which are placed small images and sacred emblems.
He prescribed ten prayers for persons having time to repeat them, but lightened the duty for busy folk, observing: "Persons whose daily affairs are so multitudinous that they have not time to go through all the prayers, may content themselves with adoring the residence of the Emperor, the domestic god-shelf, kamidana, the spirits of their ancestors, their local patron-god, Ujigami, the deity of their particular calling."
In most Japanese houses to-day, the "god-shelf" and the Buddhist shrine can both be found; both cults being maintained under the same roof.* ... But I am mentioning these facts only as illustrating the conservative vitality of Shinto, not as indicating any weakness in the Buddhist propaganda.
Pilgrims also buy from each shrine of note some charm, "o mamori," "honorable preserver," and "o fuda," "honorable ticket," which to them are exceedingly precious. There is hardly a house in Japan but has some, often many, of these charms, either nailed on the front door or placed on the god-shelf. I have seen a score nailed one above another.
It was the shades of our ancestors, nothing more or less what would Uncle John have thought, or what would Aunt Anna think? It was never what would your own soul think was it now? It was pure Shinto. Our god-shelf bore the family-portraits." "A jolly good worship, too. You can't do anything very far wrong if you never disgrace the honour of your ancestors.
Besides all the gods, supreme, subordinate and local, there is in nearly every house the Kami-dana or god-shelf. This is usually over the door inside. It contains images with little paper-covered wooden tablets having the god's name on them. Offerings are made by day and a little lamp is lighted at night. The following is one of several prayers which are addressed to this kami-dana.
He advised that the following prayer should be daily repeated before the "god-shelf":
For when a poor farmer, whose crops failed, could not pay his rent or loan on the date promised, these hard-hearted money lenders would turn him out of his house, seize his beds and mats and rice-tub, and even the shrine and images on the god-shelf, to sell them at auction for a trifle, to their minions, who resold them at a high price for the money-lender, who thus got a double benefit.
The kamidana or 'God-shelf, upon which are placed the miya and other sacred objects of Shinto worship, is usually fastened at a height of about six or seven feet above the floor.
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