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gaki and the Soto-tamagaki, stands the Géheiden, or Heihakuden, of a construction similar to that of the two Treasuries. This building is destined to contain the gohei, or mitegura, as they are called by the pure Shintôists. A gohei, when plain, consists of a slender wand of unpainted wood, from which depend two long pieces of paper, notched alternately on opposite sides, so that they assume a twisted appearance. In some shrines which have been long in the hands of the Buddhists, gilt metal has been substituted for paper. The gohei represent offerings of rough and fine white cloth (aratae and nigitae are the words used in the norito or addresses to the gods), and as the offerings were supposed to have the effect of attracting the gods’ spirits to the spot, it was by a natural transition that they came in later times to be considered as the seats of the gods, and even as the gods themselves. At Isé, however, the gohei have retained their original meaning. There is but one gohei to each god worshipped at any particular shrine, and where three or five are seen in a row the fact indicates that the building is dedicated to the same number of deities. I mention this because it has been stated that the three gohei which are often seen in one shrine have some connexion with the dogma of the Trinity.
Gohei is compounded of two Chinese words meaning ‘august’ or ‘imperial’ and ‘presents.’ Mité-gura is compounded of the honorific mi, corresponding in meaning to the Chinese go, té, a contraction of taë, an archaic word for cloth, and kura, a seat. This is the derivation given in the Wakunkan. Motoöri, in the Kojikiden (Vol. VIII p. 43) says that kura, which he connects with kureru, to give, means a present, and that té is either ‘hand’ or a contraction of tamuké, an offering. If té is hand, then the compound signifies that which is taken in the hand and presented. The wand was originally a branch of the sacred tree called sakaki (Cleyera japonica).
On the northeast corner in a special enclosure within the Itagaki stands the mikéden, a building in the same
