conceptions underlying the use of the nademono, certain prepared papers which are rubbed over the body in order to remove with themselves all psychically impure influences. That very definite supernatural influences (whether they be personified ones or mere undefined impurities) are believed to be pushed—either by themselves or because they are clinging to the particles of dirt displaced—or driven before a broom in action, seems to be shown by the belief that if a person stand directly in front of the sweeping he will be unfortunate in his undertakings [Yokohama[1]]—i.e. he will have become subject to the influence of the evil supernatural beings to whom the occurrences of misfortune are ascribed—or he will become stupid.[2]
Towards the middle of the last month of the year the Japanese house undergoes a thorough cleaning, the susuharai ("soot-sweeping"), in part of a practical, in part of a ceremonial character. "Orthodox chroniclers state that the custom of new year's dusting in the [12th month, now taken as the] month of December was already in vogue in the 'Age of the Gods,' more than thirty centuries ago, and to prove this point we are directed to certain passages in the 'Kojiki.'" The date fixed for this operation varied in different epochs, but in recent times it was the 13th day of the last month, "when in Yedo and elsewhere furniture was removed, mats carried out of doors and beaten, and floors, galleries, pillars, and so forth were polished bright with scrubbing-cloth, and ceilings and cornices and projections were thoroughly swept of soot,
- ↑ Place-names given thus identify the localities in which I recorded the respective beliefs or practices cited, or those where they had been observed by my Japanese informants.
- ↑ P. Ehman, "Volksthümliche Vorstellungen in japan," in Mittheilungen der deutschen Gessellschaft für Natur- und Völkerhunde Ostasiens, vol. vi. p. 338. Compare with these beliefs the Silesian notion that if sweepings are sent over a person's feet he will get some evil ("unheil ") at his throat (Samter, op. cit. p. 38, footnote 1); and the Transylvanian idea that stepping over (see p. 201, infra) heaped-up sweepings may lead to death (Kunze, op. cit. p. 157).
