To review, Shinto rituals, viewed as structured, artful performances, exemplify the tension between ideal pattern and concrete instance and are sometimes transformative by means of liminal phases. Further, our understanding of these formal and liminal features can be aided by consulting the related aesthetic theories that explore them as they operate in the fine arts. It remains to make good on our original claim that the formalist and liminal features of art are related to ritual's role in purification.

Here is our argument: art, by its very nature, has ample resources for mirroring or imaging purity as it is envisioned in the Shinto tradition. This is because there is a surprisingly exact correspondence of structure between the Shinto concept of purity and the formal features of art (in this case, Shinto ritual art). The concept of purity in Shinto has three logical features. First, it establishes the distinction between the pure and the impure. Second, in the context of the tradition there is a difference in value between the two: purity is better than impurity. Third, the two contrasting states are related in a specific way. Compared to the pure, the impure has accretions or blemishes that are in principle removable; this is the relationship alluded to by the metaphor of the dust-covered mirror. In bare logical terms, there are two opposite, contrary notions or states, one of which is in context to be preferred to the other; and lastly, the lesser state can be viewed as blemished or as containing superfluous elements compared to the former.

That the formal features of art share this same structure can be seen from what has already been said. Formalism describes a family of distinctions-- form vs. content, pattern vs. instance, or underlying structure vs. surface expression. Further, the above examples emphasize the unequal relation between the paired elements. We contrasted the perfect musical form (score) with the possibly flawed performance, and the divine "uselessness" of art with the utilitarian concerns of mundane living, and the formal ritual sequences with their actual instantiation. Over and over, the pattern/instance structure of the formal ritual art of Shinto repeats and reinforces differences between the ideal or pure and that which is irrelevant, deformed, inessential, i.e., impure.

Also, since liminality is a distinct and widespread power of ritual art, and since it creates an extra-mundane effect, it shares with formal features a similar relation to the idea of purity. Liminal phases of ritual are experienced as compelling and out-of-the-ordinary, with their own sense of time and space. The participants return from them as from a journey. More importantly, because liminal experience involves temporarily stripping away some of the normal social ties and conventions, it is a fitting representation of purification-as-recoverable. Though one does not live permanently in a liminal state, it can afford a glimpse of a more fundamental level of community not encumbered by convention, hypocrisy, or undue self-interest. All this is reinforced by the clearly delineated visual appearance of the ritual setting and the uncomplicated order of service.

Our claim is not that a ritual can merely exhort us to purity, or allude to pure actions, though it may well do these things. Rather, something more fundamental about artistic expression--having to do with its essential nature and powers--allows Shinto ritual art to image the traditional idea of purity.

We have used the word "image" in the phrase "Art images purity" to indicate a complex, multi-layered situation. To begin with, we are all familiar with what ritual "images" can do; they are, for example, the fitting gestures of the dancer, the priest's hypnotic intonations, and the visual expressions of settings and costumes. In the present case, such images can not only refer to purity, they can be compelling to both heart and mind, and they can also reveal something of the nature of purity by displaying its constituents and their relationships. This latter point can be illustrated by a cinematic example: there is a moving scene in Wim Wenders' film Paris Texas, during which a woman welcomes her brother-in-law into her home after his unexplained absence of many years. The camera looks down on them from the landing above as she tentatively and silently puts her arm on his shoulder. It is a unique and powerful gesture, evoking the universality of welcoming a lost family member, but expressing as well the uncertainty and reserve she feels toward him. That is, it not only moves us but also reveals the structure of her conflicting emotions.

But this does not yet reach the point we are making in the present essay, for we are not talking about the ritual image per se and what it can do, but about certain universal or widespread features of the arts that underlie and condition such images and account in part for their power. These underlying conditions make art possible. If our argument about the formalist and liminal features of Shinto ritual is correct, some of these conditions--e.g., the distinctions between pattern and performance, or between liminal and ordinary--share a common form with the purity/ impurity distinction and thus also provide a compelling expression and structural description of the Shinto ideal. The arts of ritual are well placed, therefore, to mirror or provide images of purity, and this not by accident, but because of some of their most fundamental and unique features.

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