A Chinese description of Japan, written long before the Kojiki or Nihongi, gives the following account of what were in all probability the predecessors of the Imbe:—
"They (the Japanese) appoint a man whom they call an 'abstainer'. He is not allowed to comb his hair, to wash, to eat flesh, or to approach women. When they are fortunate, they make him presents, but if they are ill, or meet with disaster, they set it down to the abstainer's failure to keep his vows, and unite to put him to death."[1]
This is a description of a typical ascetic. In the Imbe of historical times we have the closely allied idea of scrupulous attention to religious purity. But they were not celibates or vegetarians except ad hoc when a festival was impending, and so far from neglecting the care of their persons, strict cleanliness was incumbent upon them.
Urabe.—A third hereditary religious corporation in ancient Japan was that of the diviners or Urabe. They are mentioned in the Nihongi under the date A.D. 585. They were divided at a later period into four branches, belonging respectively to the provinces of Iki, Tsushima, Idzu, and Hitachi. Twenty of these diviners were attached to the Jingikwan. It was their duty to decide by the deer's shoulder-blade or tortoise-shell divination such matters as were referred to them by the superior officials of the department. Urabe were despatched to the provinces to fetch the rice which was used in the Ohonihe ceremony. It was also their duty to take away and throw into a river the harahe-tsu-mono, or offerings of purification. For many centuries this office has been in the hands of the Yoshida family, whose exorbitant pretensions fill Hirata with indignation.
- ↑ For an account of similar priests or medicine men in many other countries, see 'The Golden Bough.' The Nazirite (Numbers vi.) is their Jewish counterpart.
