The Empress Komyo: purifying the soul

In the past in Japan taking a bath was generally more for purification of the soul that only for cleaning the body.
People believed that the bath would exorcize the imputities like the death, illness, menstrual blood.
In the West one makes effort to avoid to sin and so have a chance to go to the heaven.
In Japan on thinks that the vileness of the soul get fixed on the body like the bad smell all along live, but could be vanish through a daily bath.


The Empress Komyo : Old writings have shown that in the budhist temples during the 8th century there were steam bath. Wealthy people were paying all costs hopping to be payed back by god. Those wealthy people were taking care of the bath of the poor and the sick person themselves.
The exemple came from of the beautiful Empress Komyo:
People were saying she was embraced with a divine light proof of here spiritual progression. One day the light disappeared. She sought that the reason comes from the fact that she was not enought pious, and committe to give a bath to 1000 poor and disabling of any age and any gender.
The thousend person who came was a leprous one. The Empress did not vacillate and during the time she was giving him the bath the aura came back.