{"collection":"earth","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/earth/pf/pf18.htm","path":"earth/pf/pf18.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/earth/pf/pf18.htm","text":"Paradise Found, by William F. Warren, [1885]\nAccording to the mast ancient texts, Japan is the centre of the earth.\u2014W. E. Griffis.\nAccording to the earliest cosmogony of the Japanese, as given in their most ancient book, the Ko-ji-ki, 1 the creators and first inhabitants of our world were a god and goddess, Izanagi and Izanani by name. These, in the beginning,\u2014we quote from Sir Edward Reed,\u2014\"standing on the bridge of heaven, pushed down a spear into the green plain of the sea, and stirred it round and round. When they drew it up the drops which fell from its end consolidated and became an island. The sun-born pair descended on to the island, and planting a spear in the ground, point downwards, built a palace round it, taking that for the central roof-pillar. The spear\nbecame the axis of the earth, which had been caused to revolve by the stirring round.\" 1\nThis island, however, was the Japanese Eden. Here originated the human race. Its name was Onogorojima, \"The Island of the Congealed Drop.\" Its first roof-pillar, as we have seen, was the axis of the earth. Over it was \"the pivot of the vault of heaven.\" 2 Mr. Reed, who has no theory on the subject to maintain, says, \"The island must have been situated at the Pole of the earth.\" 3 In like manner, with no idea of the vast anthropological significance and value of the datum, Mr. Griffis remarks, \"The island formed by the congealed drops was once at the North Pole, but has since been taken to its present position in the inland Sea.\" 4\nHere, then, is the testimony of the most ancient\n[paragraph continues] Japanese tradition. Nothing could be more unequivocal. Izanagi's divinely precious spear of jade, 1 like the transverse jade-tube of the ancient Sh\u00fb King, 2 is an imperishable index, not only to the astronomical attainments of prehistoric humanity, but also to humanity's prehistoric abode.\nIn Part fifth, chapter fourth, further illustration of the Japanese conception of the origin of their race will be given.\n140:1 Speaking of this work, M. L\u00e9on de Rosny calls it l\u2019un des monuments les plus authentiques de la vieille litt\u00e9rature japonaise, and says, \"Nous devons non seulement \u00e0 cet ouvrage la connaissance de l\u2019histoire du Nippon ant\u00e9rieure au vii. si\u00e8cle de notre \u00e8re, mais l\u2019expos\u00e9 le plus autoris\u00e9 de l\u2019antique mythologie sintau\u00efste. Il y a m\u00eame ce fait remarquable, que les dieux primordiaux du panth\u00e9on japonais, mentionn\u00e9s dans ce livre, ne figurent d\u00e9j\u00e0 plus au commencement du Yamato bumi, qui est post\u00e9rieur seulement de quelques ann\u00e9es \u00e0 la publication du Ko ji ki. Ces dieux primordiaux paraissent oubli\u00e9s, ou tout au moins n\u00e9glig\u00e9s, dans les ouvrages indig\u00e8nes qui ont paru par la suite.\" Questions d\u2019Arch\u00e9ologie Japonaise. Paris, 1882: p. 3. An English translation of the Ko-ji-ki, by B. H. Chamberlain, has just appeared in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. v.\n141:1 Sir Edward J. Reed, Japan, vol. i., 31.\n141:2 L\u00e9on Metchnikoff, L\u2019Empire Japonais. Gen\u00e8ve, 1881: p. 265.\n141:3 Ibid.\u2014Our interpretation of ancient cosmology and of the true Eden location at once brings light into the whole system of Japanese mythology. In the following, extracted from Mr. Griffis, no one has ever before known what to make of \"the Pillar of Heaven and Earth,\" \"the Bridge of Heaven,\" the position of primitive Japan \"on the top of the globe,\" and at the same time at \"the centre of the Earth:\"\u2014\"The first series of children born were the islands of Japan. . . . Japan lies on the top of the globe. . . . At this time heaven and earth were very close to each other, and the goddess Amaterazu being a rare and beautiful child, whose body shone brilliantly, Izanagi sent her up the Pillar that united heaven and earth, and bade her rule over the high plain of heaven. . . . As the earth-gods and evil deities multiplied, confusion and discord reigned, which the sun goddess (Amaterazu), seeing, resolved to correct by sending her grandson Ninigi to earth to rule over it. Accompanied by a great retinue of deities, he descended by means of the floating Bridge of Heaven, on which the divine first pair had stood, to Mount Kirishima. After his descent, heaven and earth, which had already separated to a considerable distance, receded utterly, and further communication ceased. . . . According to the most ancient texts Japan is the centre of the earth.\"\n141:4 McClintock and Strong, Cyclop\u00e6dia, vol. ix., p. 688. Art. \"Shinto.\"\n142:1 \u00c9mile Burnouf, \"La pique c\u00e9leste de jade rouge.\"\u2014La Mythologie des japonais d\u2019apr\u00e8s le Kok\u016d-si-Ryak\u016d. Paris, 1875: p. 6.\n142:2 \"He examined the pearl-adorned turning sphere, with its transverse tube of jade, and reduced to a harmonious system the movements of the Seven Directors.\" Legge's Translation in The Sacred Books of the East, vol. iii., p. 38. Professor Legge once examined this passage in my presence, and found unexpected corroboration of the interpretation which identifies \"the transverse tube of jade\" with the axis of heaven.","title":"Paradise Found: Part Fourth: Chapter II. The Cradle of the Race in Ancient Japanese Thought","type":"page"}