At regular intervals were flags of white, blue, yellow, black, and red. Each colour has its meaning, though what it is must remain the subject of controversy. Some maintain that these primary colours represent five elements--earth, air, water, fire, and death: others contend that they are emblems of the four seasons and of the end of all things: some hold that yellow signifies the earth, blue the East, red the South, white the West, and black the North: others will urge that blue symbolises the beginning of life, red prosperity, white perfection, yellow the earth, and black death. That they have meaning is certain, though, like much of the ritual of Shinto and Buddha, it is lost in the mist of ages. At the back of the enclosure was the inner sanctuary, formed by four poles hung with rope, from which were suspended narrow strips of white paper known as “go-hei,” emblems of purity and resting places for the souls of the departed. The altar was a table spread with a white cloth upon which rested a mirror--symbol of perfection borrowed from the Shingon sect of Buddhists. On each side stood an earthen pot from which rose great paper flowers, red and white and blue, and before the altar was a small table with a porcelain bowl that held a large pine branch hung with strips of white paper. At the back of this inner sanctuary rose a tablet of plain white wood bearing in Chinese characters the legend: “To the memory of the souls of the departed.” Close by stood a wooden pail with a wooden dipper, decorated with “go-hei,” to perform the ceremony of lustration before prayer, and, at a short distance on the right, was a small screened enclosure where the offerings were laid. And about the shrine stood white covered trays and baskets, laden with sacrificial gifts for the solace of the _manes_--heaps of radishes, piles of rice cake, bottles of beer, flasks of saki, or rice spirit, fish, and fowl--the fruits of the earth and of the waters thereof.