harai

harai, in Japanese religion, any of numerous Shintō purification ceremonies. Harai rites, and similar misogi exercises using water, cleanse the individual so that he may approach a deity or sacred power (kami). Salt, water, and fire are the principal purificatory agents. Many of the rites, such as bathing in cold water, are traditionally explained as the method used by Izanagi (the mythical male creator of Japan) to rid himself of the polluting effect of seeing the decaying body of his wife and sister, Izanami, in the land of the dead.

The rites are observed to some degree before entering a temple, taking part in worship, beginning a festival, or taking out a religious procession. The simpler rites consist of washing the hands or rinsing the mouth or having the priest shake over the worshiper the harai-gushi, a wooden wand to which are attached folds of paper. Priests participating in public ceremonies are required to undergo much more extensive purification periods in which they must regulate the body (bathing, diet, abstention from stimulants), heart, environment, and soul. Great purification ceremonies called ō-harai are held regularly twice a year, on June 30 and December 31, and at times of national disasters to purge the entire country from sins and impurities.