Akiko felt rather self-conscious standing on the doorstep in her vestments, especially as they had left Akira at the shrine to keep an eye on things. Shiraishi, however, looked very confident, completely at home in her robes. The door opened, and Mrs Tanaka, obviously nervous, bowed to them.

“Good afternoon Revd Shiraishi. Akira, er, Mr Takenaka said that you would perform a cleansing ritual on our house.â€

“That’s right. Thank you for agreeing.â€

“No, that’s quite all right. Er, we don’t really have much to do with the shrine, so I wasn’t sure what we needed to do.â€

“We only need some space for the himorogi; we brought everything else.â€

“Well, please come in. We cleared some space in the living room.â€

The space between the furniture was a bit tight, but Akiko got the himorogi set up while Shiraishi spoke to the family, asking them to attend the harae. Akiko remembered how the grandmother had looked, and wanted her to be close to the harae.

“My mother isn’t feeling well, so is it all right for her to stay in her room?â€ Akiko’s stomach lurched as she heard Mrs Tanaka’s words, and she quickly turned towards her.

“It would be better for her to attend, if it’s at all possible.â€ Mrs Tanaka looked at her a little strangely for a moment, then nodded.

“Oh, if that’s how things are done. I’ll go and speak to her.â€

Akiko bowed in acknowledgement, and turned back to finish preparing the himorogi.

A few minutes later the old woman came in, leaning heavily on her daughter’s arm and looking very weak. For a moment, Akiko felt guilty about asking her to come, but the memory of the kegare was still with her. Settling herself in position, she shifted her perception so that she could see it again.

The himorogi stood out, clean against the mould coating every other surface, spore-bearing threads reaching out into the air, waving in the air currents and exploding in brown clouds when anyone passed close by. Shiraishi was almost completely clean, even so, but the family were heavy with pollution. The grandmother was invisible within the cocoon of webs, but a huge, spider-like creature sat on her back, thrusting barbed and pointed limbs through the threads and presumably into her body, then pulling them out with a ugly chittering before striking again. Akiko could not entirely repress the shudder as she looked away.

As Shiraishi began the ceremony, the noise from the spirit got louder, and Akiko glanced round to see it perched on the old woman’s back, waving its limbs in anger and hissing at them. The sounds of the norito seemed to hurt it, as its legs skittered on the cocoon, and then, with a shriek, it fell to the floor, on its back, its legs flailing in the air. More spider-spirits emerged from the webs, struggling and then collapsing on the floor around the large one.

Shiraishi picked up the ohnusa and waved it, and there was a high-pitched squeal that hurt Akiko’s ears as the spiders seemed to dry up, crumbled, and blow away, as if in a high wind. Around the old woman, the threads of webbing crumbled, dropping from her in a rain of dust. Shiraishi continued to wave the ohnusa, glancing at Akiko. Mr and Mrs Tanaka were clean now, but there were still strands of kegare wrapped around the grandmother’s throat. As Akiko watched, they also crumbled, and blew away.

She nodded, and Shiraishi turned back to the himorogi, replacing the ohnusa.