English: Illustration from page 249 of A SHINTO FUNERAL PROCESSION..
Caption: "A SHINTO FUNERAL PROCESSION." Quote: "When a death takes place, it is reported at once to the shrine of the local tutelary deity, and a Shinto priest called in. The date of the funeral is then fixed. The body is laid in the upper part of a room, and the face is covered with a white cloth; before it is set a table, on which are put some washed rice, water, and salt, and a lamp is lighted; and perfect silence reigns in the room. A tablet is placed before the body and the ceremony of transferring the spirit of the dead to the tablet is performed. Then a new bed and pillow are put in the coffin and the body is laid on them with the face covered and a new quilt put over it; and at the same time many favourite articles of the deceased are laid beside him. The coffin is then filled up, and the lid nailed on it. The body is never washed, but it is sometimes wiped with a wet cloth if it has lain long in the sick-bed. The coffin is laid on wooden rests, and rice, water, and salt offered before it; it is next placed in a bier which has a roof like that of a Shinto shrine. The funeral procession is led by the guide, who is followed by bearers of lanterns and branches of cleyera japonica; after them come priests and carriers of red and white flags with a box of offerings between them. Next comes the officiating priest and after him is carried a flag bearing the name of the deceased with his court rank and title, if he had any; and then, more lanterns, followed by the hearse and the rests behind it. The grave-post is carried next, and after it marches the chief mourner, behind whom walk the near relatives and after them, the general mourners."