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But the ordinary kamidana is of white wood, and is made larger or smaller in proportion to the size of the miya, or the number of the ofuda and other sacred objects to be placed upon it.
If there be no miya, the tablets or ofuda are simply placed upon the shelf in a certain order, the most sacred having the middle place.
The kakemono of the Goddess of Mercy with her lunar aureole was gone, but on the wall facing the shrine he beheld his own dainty gift suspended, and an ofuda beneath it an ofuda of Hito-koto-Kwannon that Kwannon unto whom it is unlawful to pray more than once, as she answers but a single prayer.
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.
Then it writhed its arms and groaned, and blood spurted at every stroke of the axe. At the spacious residence of the kannushi some very curious ofuda and o- mamori the holy talismans and charms of Yaegaki are sold, together with pictures representing Take-haya-susa-no-wo-no-mikoto and his bride Inada-hime surrounded by the 'manifold fence' of clouds.
Should any member of the family be thus buried, then during fifty days the kamidana must be entirely screened from view with pure white paper, and even the Shinto ofuda, or pious invocations fastened upon the house-door, must have white paper pasted over them.
The ofuda are not so curious as those of other famous Izumo temples; but they are most eagerly sought for. Those strips of white paper, bearing the deity's name, and a few words of promise, which are sold for a few rin, are tied to rods of bamboo, and planted in all the fields of the country roundabout. The most curious things sold are tiny packages of rice-seeds.
The white papers at once interest me; for they are ofuda, or holy texts and charms, of which I am a devout collector.
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.
At parting our kind host presents me with the ofuda, or sacred charms given to pilgrimsh two pretty images of the chief deities of Kitzuki and a number of documents relating to the history of the temple and of its treasures. Having taken our leave of the kind Guji and his suite, we are guided to Inasa-no-hama, a little sea-bay at the rear of the town, by the priest Sasa, and another kannushi.
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