Special buildings were erected for the Ohonihe at Kitano, a suburb of Kiōto. After a purification ceremony, a site 480 feet square was marked out by twigs of sakaki hung with tree-fibre. On the arrival of the yuki and suki rice from the provinces, this site was propitiated. The Brewer-maidens then with a pure mattock turned the first sod and dug the holes for the four corner posts. The Urabe went to the mountain where the timber was to be cut, and worshipped the God of the mountain. The Brewer-maiden struck the first blow with a pure axe, and wood-cutters completed the work. Similar formalities were practised in cutting the grass for thatch and in digging wells.
The sacred enclosure (yu-niha) was divided into two sections, an inner and an outer, and contained numerous buildings, such as shrines to the eight Gods already mentioned, storehouses for the rice and other necessaries, lodgings for the Brewer-maidens and their assistants, kitchens, &c.
The site of the principal building, or Ohonihe no Miya, measured 214 feet by 150 feet. It was erected after the others and was in duplicate, one being for the yuki, the other for the suki. Each was forty feet long by sixteen feet wide. The roof-tree ran north and south. Undressed wood was used for the erection, which was covered by a roof of thatch. The floor was strewn with bundles of grass over which bamboo mats were placed. In the centre of the sleeping-chamber (the sanctum) several white tatami (thick mats) were laid down and upon them the Saka-makura, which was a cushion three feet broad by four feet long, for the use of the God or Gods.[1] This was called the "Deity seat." The Mikado's seat was placed to the south of it.
The preparation of the sake for the ceremony was preceded by worship of the Well-God, the Furnace-God, and
- ↑ Sir Ernest Satow says that sleeping in a house being regarded as the sign of ownership, a pillow (makura) is often placed in the shrine as a symbol of the God's presence.
