212 THE POPULAR SCIE]SCE MONTHLY. 



and after a childbirth, was regarded as unclean. Uncleanness in 

 these cases means liability to dangers. Thus the woman just 

 before a childbirth was confined to a "parturition house," in 

 order to keep her separate from the rest of the family to avoid 

 the spread of danger by contagion. More than birth, death was 

 feared because of its accompanying uncleanness. The dead body 

 and anything which came in contact with it were regarded as 

 unclean and dangerous. How much the uncleanness of death 

 was feared is plain from a very singular custom among the early 

 Japanese of abandoning the old house together with the dead 

 body whenever a death occurred in it. This explains the reason 

 why coffin-carriers, grave-diggers, as well as butchers, were classed 

 among the outcasts and were called " not-men." 



The reason why the idea of uncleanness was associated with 

 the idea of dangerousness was, in my opinion, because unclean- 

 ness was thought to be the enemy of the gods, and the gods can 

 not be where any uncleanness exists. The gods are clean and pure, 

 and those who are not clean and pure can not but forfeit the pro- 

 tection of the gods. Those who are not protected by the gods 

 can easily be attacked and injured by the evil and unclean spirits, 

 and hence the idea of danger came to be associated with the idea 

 of uncleanness. This is perhaps made plainer by some concrete 

 case. When I was a young boy, the custom of eating beef began 

 to spread. As blood was regarded as unclean, and also as Japan 

 had been a strong agricultural country, there was a very deep- 

 rooted disinclination to eat beef. In this, of course, one has also 

 to recognize the influence of the vegetarian principle of Bud- 

 dhisrh. But to anybody who had ever tasted beef, it was so de- 

 licious that he could hardly control his natural appetite by his 

 religious scruple. My father was one of those who knew its 

 taste, and so now and then we used to treat ourselves to beef. 

 But where did we eat it ? We did not eat it inside of the house. 

 We cooked and ate it in the open air, and in cooking and in 

 eating we did not use the ordinary utensils but used the special 

 ones kept for the purpose. Why all these things ? Because beef 

 was unclean, and we did not like to spread this uncleanness into 

 our house wherein the " gods-shelf " is kept, and into our ordinary 

 utensils which might be used in making offerings to the gods. 

 The day when we ate beef my father did not offer lights to the 

 gods nor say evening prayers to them, as he did usually, for he 

 knew he was unclean and could not approach the gods. Then 

 my mother, who did not and could not eat beef till very recently, 

 did these things ; and I, who used to partake of the new dainty 

 dish, often went to bed feeling as if I was unclean and subject to 

 dangers. 



As the gods hate uncleanness, temples, temple utensils, and all 



