The priest leads the way into a vast and lofty apartment opening for its
entire length upon the broad gallery to which the stairway ascends.
I have barely time to notice, while following him, that the chamber
contains three immense shrines, forming alcoves on two sides of it.
Ofthese, two are veiled by white curtains reaching from ceiling to
matting--curtains decorated with perpendicular rows of black disks
about four inches in diameter, each disk having in its centre a golden
blossom. But from before the third shrine, in the farther angle of the
chamber, the curtains have been withdrawn; and these are of gold
brocade, and the shrine before which they hang is the chief shrine, that
of Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami. Within are visible only some of the ordinary
emblems of Shinto, and the exterior of that Holy of Holies into which
none may look. Before it a long low bench, covered with strange objects,
has been placed, with one end toward the gallery and one toward the
alcove. At the end of this bench, near the gallery, I see a majestic
bearded figure, strangely coifed and robed all in white, seated upon the
matted floor in hierophantic attitude. Our priestly guide motions us to
take our places in front of him and to bow down before him. For this is
Senke Takanori, the Guji of Kitzuki, to whom even in his own dwelling
none may speak save on bended knee, descendant of the Goddess of the
Sun, and still by multitudes revered in thought as a being superhuman.
Prostrating myself before him, according to the customary code of
Japanese politeness, I am saluted in return with that exquisite courtesy
which puts a stranger immediately at ease. The priest who acted as our
guide now sits down on the floor at the Guji's left hand; while the
other priests, who followed us to the entrance of the sanctuary only,
take their places upon the gallery without.