Homes are protected from evil spirits by holy texts and charms. In any
Japanese village, or any city by-street, you can see these texts when
the sliding-doors are closed at night: they are not visible by day,
when the sliding-doors have been pushed back into the _tobukuro_.
Such texts are called _o-fuda_ (august scripts): they are written in
Chinese characters upon strips of white paper, which are attached
to the door with rice-paste; and there are many kinds of them. Some
are texts selected from sutras--such as the Sûtra of Transcendent
Wisdom (Pragña-Pâramitâ-Hridaya-Sûtra), or the Sûtra of the Lotos of
the Good Law (Saddharma-Pundarikâ-Sûtra). Some are texts from the
dhâranîs,--which are magical. Some are invocations only, indicating
the Buddhist sect of the household.... Besides these you may see
various smaller texts, or little prints, pasted above or beside
windows or apertures,--some being names of Shinto gods; others,
symbolical pictures only, or pictures of Buddhas and Bodhi-sattvas.
All are holy charms,--_o-fuda_: they protect the houses; and no goblin
or ghost can enter by night into a dwelling so protected, unless the
_o-fuda_ be removed.
[Footnote 59: _Hégashi_ is the causative form of the verb _hégu_,
"to pull off," "peel off," "strip off," "split off." The term
_Fuda-hégashi_ signifies "Make-peel-off-august-charm Ghost." In my
_Ghostly Japan_ the reader can find a good Japanese story about a
_Fuda-hégashi_.]
Vengeful ghosts cannot themselves remove an _o-fuda_; but they will
endeavor by threats or promises or bribes to make some person remove
it for them. A ghost that wants to have the _o-fuda_ pulled off a door
is called a _Fuda-hégashi_.
Hégasan to
Rokuji-no-fuda wo,
Yuréï mo
Nam'mai d[=a] to
Kazoëté zo mini.
[_Even the ghost that would remove the charms written with six
characters actually tries to count them, repeating: "How many
sheets are there?" (or, repeating, "Hail to thee, O Buddha
Amitábha!"[60])_]
[Footnote 60: The fourth line gives these two readings:--
_Nam'mai da?_--"How many sheets are there?"
_Nam[u] A[m]ida!_--"Hail, O Amitâbha!"
The invocation, _Namu Amida Butsu_, is chiefly used by members of the
great Shin sect; but it is also used by other sects, and especially in
praying for the dead. While repeating it, the person praying numbers
the utterances upon his Buddhist rosary; and this custom is suggested
by the use of the word _kazoëté_, "counting."]
Tada ichi no
Kami no o-fuda wa
Sasuga ni mo
Noriké naku to mo
Hégashi kanékéri.
[_Of the august written-charms of the god (which were pasted
upon the walls of the house), not even one could by any effort
be pulled off, though the rice-paste with which they had been
fastened was all gone._]