Purification in Ryōbu Shintō unfolds as a meeting point between classical Shintō harae and the liturgical world of esoteric Buddhism. Practitioners retain familiar Shintō forms such as misogi, the ritual washing in rivers, waterfalls, or the sea, and ōharae, the Great Purification, with its recitation of norito and the use of haraigushi or ōnusa to sweep away defilement. Salt, fire, sake, and other traditional Shintō implements may be employed to cleanse people, objects, and spaces of kegare associated with misfortune, death, or disorder. At the same time, these outward actions are reinterpreted through a Buddhist lens, so that impurity is also seen as mental obscuration that veils an underlying purity.

Into this Shintō framework, esoteric Buddhist ritual structure is woven with considerable care. The officiant often proceeds according to a shidai very close to a Mikkyō liturgy, opening with homage to buddhas and bodhisattvas and then moving through sequences of mantra, mudrā, and visualization. Mantras of Dainichi Nyorai and other deities identified with major kami are chanted alongside, or in some cases in place of, purely Shintō norito, with the intention that their subtle sound “burns away” impurity at a level deeper than physical ablution. Dhāraṇī and seed syllables are likewise used as verbal instruments of purification, joining the Shintō concern for ritual cleanliness with a Buddhist concern for karmic purification.

The body itself becomes a field of practice through mudrā and the alignment of body, speech, and mind. Hand seals associated with purification and protection are formed while the practitioner maintains correct posture, recites mantras and prayers, and sustains focused visualization. This threefold alignment is understood as cleansing the channels of action, speech, and thought, so that purification is not merely external but reaches into the subtle dimensions of conduct and awareness. Traditional gestures such as bowing and hand-clapping remain, yet they are now interlaced with esoteric hand signs and circumambulation that echo Buddhist ritual movement.

The ritual space is likewise transformed into a mandala field in which kami and buddhas are not separate. The shrine or temporary altar is treated as a manifestation of the Two-World Mandala, with kami occupying positions as local expressions of cosmic buddhas and bodhisattvas. Through visualization, the area, the participants, and the officiant are bathed in the light of Dainichi Nyorai or another central deity, understood as the true nature of the kami themselves. Impurity is envisioned as dissolving into this luminous field, so that the power of the kami to purify is experienced as the direct working of the buddhas, restoring both ritual purity and the deeper clarity of mind.