摘要：This study deals with the meaning of these three terms denoting offerings in the Shinto ritual. Heihaku, according to its literal sense, was an offering consisting in silk or also in cloth made of the bark of the mulberry-tree, but it signifies also any other kind of offerings. The literal meaning of mitegura, however, cannot be ascertained, it also includes various kinds of dedications to the gods. The author examines competent texts of the ancient Japanese classics and comes to the conclusion that there are chiefly three types of offerings understood when mitegura are mentioned, i.e. 1. food and parts of clothing, or cloth to be used for the making of clothes. 2. Weapons that are used on certain occasions and in certain shrines. 3. Utensils for a specified use, e.g. buckets, yarn-spools; living animals. The gohei of to-day seems to be a simplified substitution of cloth-offerings that were hung on a sakaki-tree (Eurya ochnacea, a sacred tree), or instead of it, on a special stand made for this purpose, the so-called heigushi.
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