could not he made up in that office, it was supplied
from other departments of state. To the tribe of quiver-makers was
intrusted the special duty of weaving the quivers of wistaria tendrils.
The service began at twenty minutes to seven in the morning, by our
reckoning of time. After the governor of the province of Yamashiro had
ascertained that everything was in readiness, the officials of the
Jin-Gi-Kuan arranged the offerings on the tables and below them,
according to the rank of the shrines for which they were intended. The
large court of the Jin-Gi-Kuan where the service was held, called the
Sai-in, measured 230 feet by 370. At one end were the offices and on the
west side were the shrines of the eight Protective Deities in a row,
surrounded by a fence, to the interior of which three sacred archways
(torii) gave access. In the centre of the court a temporary shed was
erected for the occasion, in which the tables or altars were placed. The
final preparations being now complete, the ministers of state, the
virgin priestesses and priests of the temples to which offerings were
sent by the Mikado, entered in succession, and took the places severally
assigned to them. The horses which formed a part of the offerings were
next brought in from the Mikado's stable, and all the congregation drew
near, while the reader recited or read the norito. This reader was a
member of the priestly family or tribe of Nakatomi, who traced their
descent back to Ameno-koyane, one of the principal advisers attached to
the sun-goddess's grandchild when he first descended on earth. It is a
remarkable evidence of the persistence of certain ideas, that up to the
year 1868 the nominal prime-minister of the Mikado, after he came of
age, and the regent during his minority, if he had succeeded young to
the throne, always belonged to this tribe, which changed its name from
Nakatomi to Fujiwara in the seventh century, and was subsequently split
up into the Five Setsuke or governing families. At the end of each
section the priests all responded 'O!' which was no doubt the equivalent
of 'Yes' in use in those days. As soon as he had finished, the Nakatomi
retired, and the offerings were distributed to the priests for
conveyance and presentation to the gods to whose service they were
attached. But a special messenger was despatched with the offerings
destined to the temples at Watarai. This formality having been
completed, the President of the Jin-Gi-Kuan g