{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_42747/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_42747","id":"gutenberg_42747","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42747","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Shinto -- Japan"],"text":"Note: Images of the original pages are available through\n      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See\n      http://archive.org/details/shintocultchrist00terrrich\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).\n\n      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SHINTO CULT\n\nA Christian Study of the Ancient Religion of Japan\n\nby\n\nMILTON S. TERRY, D.D.,\n\nLecturer on Comparative Religion in Garrett Biblical Institute.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCincinnati: Jennings and Graham\nNew York: Eaton and Mains\n\nCopyright, 1910,\nBy Jennings and Graham.\n\n\n\n\nNOTE.\n\n\nThe following pages are the substance of a course of lectures on the\nold Shinto cult which the author has been giving for a number of\nyears to his classes in Comparative Religion. They are here condensed\nand adapted to the purpose of a little manual which, it is believed,\nmay interest many readers, and bring together within a small space\ninformation gathered from many sources not easily accessible to\nordinary students. At the same time it is hoped that this little\nvolume may serve to suggest some valuable hints to the Christian\nmissionary who is to come face to face with the Japanese people in\ntheir \"beautiful land of the reed plains and the fresh ears of rice.\"\nIt is possible that some portions, if not every jot and tittle, of\nthis ancient cult may, like the law and the prophets of Israel, find a\nglorious fulfillment in the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. The principal\nauthorities relied on in the preparation of this essay are named in the\nSelect Bibliography given at the end.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n  1. THE COUNTRY                                                       7\n\n  2. IS SHINTO A RELIGION?                                            10\n\n  3. ORIGIN AND RELATIVE AGE OF THE PEOPLE                            12\n\n  4. MEANING OF THE TERM SHINTO                                       14\n\n  5. SOURCES OF INFORMATION                                           15\n\n  6. JAPANESE COSMOGONY AND MYTHOLOGY                                 19\n\n  7. THE JAPANESE A SELF-CENTERED PEOPLE                              29\n\n  8. ESSENCE OF THE SHINTO CULT                                       30\n\n  9. THE GREAT SANCTUARIES                                            31\n\n 10. FIVE NOTEWORTHY OBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE WORSHIP               34\n\n 11. THE ANCESTOR WORSHIP                                             37\n\n 12. ELEMENTS OF ANIMISM                                              41\n\n 13. THE DOMESTIC CULT                                                43\n\n 14. THE COMMUNAL CULT                                                45\n\n 15. THE NATIONAL CULT                                                49\n\n 16. THE HARVEST SERVICE                                              52\n\n 17. THE GREAT PURIFICATION                                           54\n\n 18. OTHER RITUAL SERVICES                                            60\n\n 19. INFLUENCE OF CHINA ON JAPANESE THOUGHT                           63\n\n 20. INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM                                            64\n\n 21. REVIVAL OF PURE SHINTO                                           68\n\n 22. ESOTERIC SHINTO                                                  70\n\n 23. MINGLING OF SHINTO, CONFUCIANISM, AND BUDDHISM                   71\n\n 24. ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN JAPAN                                       73\n\n 25. ALLEGED PRESENT RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE                           74\n\n 26. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS                                          78\n\n\n\n\nTHE SHINTO CULT.\n\n\n=1. The Country.= In taking up the study of a religion which has never\nextended beyond the limits of an easily defined territory, we may\nappropriately first of all take a hasty glance at the geographical\noutlines of the system we call Shinto, the primitive faith of the\npeople of Japan. To appreciate the geographical position of Japan,\none needs to have before him a map of the world. He may then see at a\nglance how remarkably the three thousand islands of that Empire stretch\nfor some twenty-five hundred miles along the coast of Asia, from\nKamchatka on the north to the island of Formosa on the south, which\nisland is crossed by the tropic of Cancer. It may be called the longest\nand the narrowest country in the world. It looks like an immense\nsea-serpent, with its northern tail twisting toward the Aleutian\nIslands, which our Government acquired from Russia in 1867, and its\nsouthern head pointing toward the Philippine Islands, which we acquired\nfrom Spain in recent years. It seems to guard the whole eastern coast\nof Asia, and along with China, on the mainland, is suspected and feared\nby some European diplomats as embodying some sort of a \"Yellow Peril.\"\nIt may be that its noteworthy contiguity to our Alaskan possessions at\none extremity and our Philippine wards at the other bodes some sort of\nperil to any Western nation that may hereafter presume to enlarge its\ndominions in the Orient by force of arms.\n\nAttention has often been called to the fact that the British Isles, in\nthe Atlantic Ocean, just off the northwestern coast of Europe, occupy a\ncorresponding geographical relation to the Western world. The islands\nthemselves are comparatively small, but their measuring line has gone\nout into all the earth, and their civilization is dominating the world.\nAsia, on the east of the Eastern hemisphere, is a land of innumerable\npopulation; Europe, on the west, is a land of new ideas and of hopeful\nprogress. The United States, resting her Atlantean shoulder on the\nisland-empire of Europe, and her Pacific shoulder on the island-empire\nof the Orient, may be, in the order of God, a mighty mediator,\npossessed both of a great population and of new and commanding ideas,\nand destined to bring about the universal peace, the sound knowledge,\nand the highest prosperity of the world.\n\nWe are told that Japan is a country of diversified beauty. Compassed\nround about with the vast ocean, yet not far from the Asiatic mainland;\nsupplied also with a wonderful inland sea, and with lakes and rivers\nand fountains of waters; a land of mountains, and valleys, and broad\nmeadows, and all manner of trees and shrubs and fruits and flowers,\nand charming landscapes, and all varieties of climate; it is no wonder\nthat the people and their poets have called this group of islands \"the\nsun's nest,\" \"the country of the sun-goddess,\" \"the region between\nheaven and earth,\" \"islands of the congealed drop,\" \"the grand land of\nthe eight isles,\" \"central land of reed-plains,\" \"land of the ears of\nfresh rice,\" \"land of a thousand autumns,\" and other similar names\nindicative of manifold excellence.[1]\n\nThis island-empire of the Orient is the home of the religious cult\ncalled \"Shinto,\" a religion which has never traveled nor sought to\npropagate itself beyond the dominions of Japan. It has never put itself\nin a hostile attitude toward any other form of religion, either at home\nor abroad, except when a foreign cult has entered its ancient home and\nsought to meddle with affairs of State or to interfere with loyalty to\nthe Emperor.\n\n=2. Is Shinto a Religion?= At a meeting of the Society of Science, held\nat Tokyo in 1890, the president of the Imperial University expressed\nthe opinion that Shinto should not be regarded as a religion. He\nbelieved it to be an essential element in the existing national thought\nand feeling of Japan, but destitute of the essential qualities of a\nstrictly religious cult. Others have expressed a similar opinion; but\nwe are disposed to think that this judgment arises from an incorrect\nconcept of religion, and a consequent defective definition of the same.\nA similar denial has been made of the religious character of other\ncults and systems. Taoism, Confucianism, and even Buddhism have been\nsaid to lack the elements essential to a real religion. But if these\nsystems do not constitute a religion for the peoples who accept them,\nthey are in every case their substitute for religion. Any religion\nor any form of religion may so involve its thought and its practices\nwith philosophical speculation, or with social customs, or with the\npolitical management of the State, as to have the appearance of a\nphilosophical or a political system, rather than a form of religion.\nBut, however it may, in such ways, ignore the religious ideas and\npractices of other systems, if there be no other religious cult among\nthe people, the philosophy, the ethical policy and the customs, which\nmake up this important element of the civilization and the national\nlife, are as truly tantamount to a religious cult as any form of faith\nand practice which all men agree to call religion.\n\n=3. Origin and Relative Age of the People.= The main body of the\nJapanese people are believed to have migrated in old times from the\nnorthern central part of Asia, and to have worked their way eastward\ninto Korea, and thence into the islands of Japan. They expelled\nor subjugated the aborigines of the country, and made themselves\nmasters of the great islands and the inland and surrounding seas.\nBut their origin and early history are involved in dense obscurity.\nThey doubtless brought with them from their earlier dwellings in Asia\nvarious myths, legends, and traditions, and these grew and strengthened\namid the simple habits of life which they adopted in their new\nisland-world. According to a writer[2] in the _Westminster Review_ of\nJuly, 1878, Japan is yet, in more senses than one, a young country.\nTheir language and their institutions \"show us a people still in a very\nearly stage of development.\" W. G. Aston holds that the earliest date\nof accepted Japanese chronology is A. D. 461, and he says that Japanese\nhistory, properly so called, can not be said to exist previous to A.\nD. 500. He regards Korean history more trustworthy than that of Japan\nprevious to that date.[3] According to Satow, \"everything points to the\ndescent of the Japanese people in great part from a race of Turanian\norigin, who crossed over from the continent by way of the islands\nTsushima and Iki, which form the natural stepping-stones from Korea to\nJapan.\"[4]\n\nBut the last twenty-five years have witnessed a most remarkable advance\nin the use of modern inventions, and more than any other nation of\nthe far East have the Japanese displayed both a willingness and an\nambition to improve their condition by means of the ideas and usages of\nWestern civilization. The war with China in 1894, and that with Russia\nin 1904-1905, displayed a wisdom, tact, and energy which were a great\nsurprise to the world. The self-poise, the generosity, the far-sighted\nstatesmanship exhibited in her concluding terms of peace with her\nhaughty but defeated enemy, have commanded universal admiration. These\nfacts make the study of this people's ancient religious cult, which is\nstill a powerful element in the popular life, a matter of no little\ninterest at the present time.[5]\n\n=4. Meaning of the Word Shinto.= The word Shinto means the \"way of the\ngods.\" It came into use when Buddhism was introduced into Japan, and\ndesignates the old, ancestral worship as a way of the gods distinct\nfrom the way of the Buddhists, or of any other rival way of religious\nlife. The Japanese name is _Kami no michi_. In its essential elements\nit is a commingling of Animism and ancestor-worship. Not only are the\nspirits of departed ancestors reckoned among the gods, but there are\ninnumerable deities of other kind and character. The mountains and\nvalleys, the rivers and the seas, the trees, the wind, the thunder, the\nfire, all moving things and objects of sense are supposed to have each\na deity within. And these deities seem for the most part to have been\nregarded as beneficent powers, and their worship is of a joyous kind.\n\n=5. Sources of Information.= The sources of our knowledge of this\nancient cult are quite numerous, but not as accessible to English\nand American students as is desirable. The oldest existing monument\nof Japanese literature is known as the \"Ko-ji-ki,\" the text of which\nwould make a book about the size of our four Gospels. It contains\n180 short sections or chapters. The word _Ko-ji-ki_ means a \"Record\nof Ancient Matters,\" and appropriately designates this oldest known\nrecord of the mythology, history, and customs of the people of Japan.\nIt is the nearest approach to a sacred scripture of the Shinto cult\nwhich we possess. It has been translated into English, and supplied\nwith a learned introduction and many explanatory notes by Basil H.\nChamberlain,[6] a distinguished scholar, who has made the Japanese\nlanguage, literature, and arch\u00e6ology a subject of extensive and minute\nresearch.\n\nAnother and much larger work, comprising thirty books, and containing\na record of much of the same mythology and history as the _Ko-ji-ki_,\nis called the _Nihongi_, or \"Chronicles of Japan.\"[7] It is a composite\nof various elements derived from numerous different sources, and while\nit reports in substance the myths and stories of the gods as they are\nfound in the _Ko-ji-ki_, it makes no mention of that older work and\nomits some things which the older work records. It gives, however, a\nnumber and variety of reports of the myths and traditions, informing\nus how, in one ancient writing, it is so and so recorded; in another\nwriting, it is somewhat differently told. This feature enhances its\nvalue for purposes of comparison among the varying traditions.\n\nThis later production lacks the simplicity and originality of the\n_Ko-ji-ki_, and bears abundant evidence of the Chinese influences under\nwhich it was composed. It is written for the most part in Chinese, and\nexhibits numerous examples of the learning and philosophical cast of\nthought peculiar to certain well-known Chinese writings. As a specimen\nof this rationalistic type of construing the ancient myths of creation,\nwe here cite the opening sentences from the first book of the _Nihongi_:\n\n\"Of old, Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and Yo\n[or _Yin_ and _Yang_, female and male principles] not yet divided.\nThey formed a chaotic mass, like an egg, which was of obscurely\ndefined limits and contained germs. The purer and clearer part was\nthinly drawn out and formed Heaven, while the heavier and grosser\nelement settled down and became Earth. The finer element easily became\na united body, but the consolidation of the heavy and gross element\nwas accomplished with difficulty. Heaven was therefore formed first,\nand Earth was established subsequently. Thereafter Divine Beings were\nproduced between them. Hence it is said that when the world began to\nbe created, the soil, of which lands were composed, floated about in\na manner which might be compared to the floating of a fish sporting\non the surface of the water. At this time a certain thing was produced\nbetween Heaven and Earth. It was in form like a reed-shoot. Now\nthis became transformed into a god, and was called _Kuni-toko-tachi\nno Mikoto_ [\"Land-eternal-stand-of-august thing\"]. Next there was\n_Kuni-no-sa-tsuchi_ [\"land-of-right-soil\"], and next, _Toyo-kumu-nu_\n[\"rich-form-plain\"]--in all, three deities. These were pure males,\nspontaneously developed by the operation of the principle of Heaven\"\n[the Yo, male principle].\n\nThe _Ko-ji-ki_ was written about 712 A. D., and the _Nihongi_ in\n720 A. D., and they are both remarkable for the na\u00efve and peculiar\nmanner in which they unite together in their narratives matters of\ntraditional mythology and of history without apparent consciousness of\nany noteworthy differences between the two. Besides these remarkable\nbooks there is a Code of ceremonial laws, in fifty volumes, known as\nthe _Yengishiki_, which was published A. D. 927. It includes a large\nnumber of ancient Japanese rituals, called _Norito_, of which several\nhave been translated into English and provided with a commentary and\nlearned notes by Ernest Satow and Karl Florenz.[8] There is also\nan interesting collection of ancient poems, called the _Manyoshu_,\n\"Collection of Myriad Leaves,\" which furnishes numerous pictures of\nthe life of the early Japanese, both before and after the time of the\ncompilation of the _Ko-ji-ki_ and the _Nihongi_. There are also the\nvoluminous writings of the three famous Shinto scholars, Mabuchi,\nMotowori, and Hirata, who flourished between the middle of the\neighteenth and the middle of the nineteenth century, and effected an\nintellectual revolution and a remarkable revival of the Shinto cult.[9]\n\n=6. Japanese Cosmogony and Mythology.= Our study of Shinto may well\nbegin by a brief notice of Japanese cosmogony as presented at the very\nbeginning of the _Ko-ji-ki_:\n\n\"I, Yasumaro, say: Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force\nand form were not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught\ndone, who could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first\nparted, and the Three Deities performed the commencement of creation;\nthe Passive and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits\nbecame the ancestors of all things. Therefore did he [Izanagi] enter\nobscurity and emerge into light, and the Sun and Moon were revealed by\nthe washing of his eyes; he floated on and plunged into the sea-water,\nand heavenly and earthly Deities appeared through the ablutions of his\nperson. So in the dimness of the great beginning, we, by relying on the\noriginal teaching, learn the time of the conception of the earth and\nof the birth of islands; in the remoteness of the original beginning,\nwe by trusting the former sages, perceive the era of the genesis of\nDeities and of the establishment of men.\"\n\nThis brief fragment from the compiler's \"Preface\" furnishes a condensed\noutline of what we read in the first part of the _Ko-ji-ki_, and\nit indicates the peculiar cosmogony of the Japanese mythology. The\nearly sections of the book record the names of the first deities,\nwho are said to have been \"born alone, and hid their persons;\"\nwhich seems to mean that they came into being in some exceptional\nway, and then disappeared. Then followed what are termed \"the\nSeven Divine Generations,\" among which we find such names as \"the\nEarthly-eternally-standing-Deity,\" \"the Mud-Earth-Lord, and his younger\nsister, the Mud-Earth-Lady;\" \"the Germ-Integrating Deity, and his\nyounger sister, the Life-Integrating Deity.\" These seven generations of\ngods end with the birth of a brother and sister, named _Izanagi_ and\n_Izanami_ (_i. e._, \"the male-who-invites and the female-who-invites\").\nThese two are commanded by the higher and more ancient heavenly deities\nto \"make, consolidate, and give birth to this drifting land;\" whereupon\nthey two, \"standing upon the floating Bridge of Heaven, pushed down a\njewelled spear, and stirred the ocean brine till it became thick and\nsticky;[10] and then, drawing the spear upward, the brine that dropped\ndown from the end of the spear became an island.\" Upon this island\nIzanagi and Izanami descended from the Heaven above, and in course of\ntime generated all the islands of the Japanese world. When they had\nfinished giving birth to countries they proceeded to give birth to\ndeities, and so by them were begotten fourteen islands and thirty-five\ndeities. There is little room to doubt that Izanagi and Izanami are a\nmythological representation of the generative powers of nature; but\ntheir portraiture in the Japanese literature has probably received some\ncoloring from Chinese influence and thought.\n\nBut in giving birth to the deity of fire, Izanami died, and her\nbrother buried her, and drawing his mighty sword he proceeded\nto cut off the head of his son, the deity of fire. Whereupon,\nwonderful to tell, sixteen deities were born from the blood and\nthe different parts of the body of the fire-god. Among the names\nof these we find such titles as \"Rock-splitter,\" \"Root-splitter,\"\n\"Brave-snapping,\" and \"Possessor-of-Mountains;\" and the name of\nthe sword which cleft the head of the fire-god was \"Heavenly,\" or\n\"Majestic-Point-Blade-Extended.\"\n\nAfter the birth of these deities, Izanagi longed to see again his\nsister and spouse, and went to seek her in the underworld. He called\nto her and asked her to come back to him. She answered that such was\nher desire, but she must consult the deities of Hades, and she bade him\nwait, saying, \"Look not at me.\" One can not help comparing here the\nGreek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus descended into the lower\nworld, charmed Pluto with his lyre, and obtained permission for his\nwife Eurydice to return, following behind him, but only on condition\nthat Orpheus should not look back at her till they had both reached the\nupper world. He grew impatient, looked back to see if she were indeed\nfollowing, and she at once vanished from his sight. According to the\nJapanese myth, however, Izanagi grew tired of waiting outside, made a\nlight and entered, and was shocked to behold maggots swarming over her\nbody, and eight thunder-deities dwelling in her rotting form where they\nhad been born. He turned and fled back, but she pursued him with the\nforces of the underworld. He succeeded in driving them all back, and\nwith a mighty rock blocked up the pass of Hades. Then he went to purify\nhimself by bathing in a stream, and from his staff, and girdle, and\nbracelet, and various garments, and from the filth which he contracted\nin the underworld were born a multitude of deities, bearing composite\nnames of strange significance. There was also born, as he washed his\nleft eye, a deity who was called \"the Heaven-Shining-Great-August One;\"\nand from his right eye was born the \"Moon-Night-Possessor,\" and as he\nwashed his nose there was born _Susa-no-Wo_, \"Impetuous-Male-Deity.\"\n\nBut we need not pursue further this seemingly \"endless genealogy\" of\nthe deities. We are told in section xxx that in a divine assembly of\neight hundred myriad deities it was decided to send one of their number\nto govern \"the Central Land of Reed-Plains,\" and subdue the \"savage\nEarthly Deities.\" Various deities were sent, and at length a grandchild\nof the Sun-Goddess[11] became the Ruler of the Empire, and bears the\ncomposite name of _Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko_, but is commonly called\nby his \"canonical name,\" _Jimmu_, a title given him long after his\ndecease. From such heavenly origin sprang all the Emperors of Japan,\nand the present Mikado, like all his predecessors, is thus conceived\nas an offspring of Heaven, a direct descendant of the ancient heavenly\ndeities. The significance of this fact will appear conspicuously when\nwe come to notice more particularly the essential elements in the\nShinto cult.\n\nOn this remarkable cosmogony and mythology we do well at this point to\noffer the following observations:\n\n(1) These accounts of the origin of the Japanese Archipelago and its\nrulers are regarded as _genuine traditions handed down from former\nages_. One part of the tradition is that the Emperor, who took pains to\nhave the old records carefully looked after, employed a person living\nin his household, who was gifted with marvelous memory; \"he could\nrepeat without mistake the contents of any document he had ever seen,\nand never forgot anything that he had heard;\" and from the lips of this\nman of prodigious memory the scribe Yasumaro wrote down the contents\nof the _Ko-ji-ki_.[12]\n\n(2) Notice, in the next place, that the island world of _Japan is all\nthe world_ which these records know anything about. The universe of\nthis cosmogony consists of \"the islands of the Central-Land of the\nReed-Plains,\" with their inland and surrounding seas, and \"the Plain of\nHigh Heaven,\" which, however, was not conceived as very far away above\nthem.\n\n(3) The entire description of the beginnings of heaven, and earth,\nand gods, and men accords with the idea of a continuous process of\nevolution. The first three heavenly deities \"were born alone, and hid\ntheir persons,\" or disappeared. All the other deities are spoken of as\nbegotten, or born, and the deities give birth to the different islands\nof the earth.[13]\n\n(4) The world-idea of this old mythology is in notable keeping with\nthe ancestor worship, and the Animism which enter so largely into the\nShinto faith. In spite of all the wars and discords of the deities,\nthis a primordial monism, so to speak, at the basis of Japanese\ncosmogony, and of all its diverse generations of the heavens and the\nearth; and yet there is no one Supreme Ruler in all the Pantheon of\neight hundred myriad gods. When a great council of the gods assembles\nin the bed of the Tranquil Heavenly River, no one deity is chief among\nthem, and we are at a loss to imagine who has authority to call them\ntogether or to preside over the assembly. Izanagi seems for a while to\nbe the chief creator and ruler, but after a time he disappears, and the\nSun Goddess, his daughter Amaterasu, has her heavenly domain shaken\nand ravaged by her younger brother, but is avenged by the heavenly\nassembly of gods, who fine and punish the offender, \"and expel him with\na divine expulsion.\" So the Sun Goddess maintains her dominion by the\nhelp of the eight hundred myriad gods, no one of whom is invested with\nsupreme power. It appears from certain poems of the _Manyoshu_ that the\nmoon as well as the sun was extensively worshiped among the primitive\nJapanese.[14]\n\n(5) It accords with all these ideas that the devotees of the \"pure\nShinto\" faith trace all their history back to the age of the gods,\nand recognize some deity in, or back of, all phenomena. Japan is the\ncountry of the gods; every Japanese is a descendant or offspring of\nthe gods, and the Mikado is the direct descendant of the imperial line\nwhich has continued in unbroken succession from the beginning of the\nworld. Japan is, therefore, superior to all other countries, and the\nJapanese, being thus directly from the gods, are superior in every\nrespect to other people. Sprung from the gods, they need no codes of\nmoral law (like the Chinese), for they are naturally perfect, and do\nthe right things spontaneously.\n\n=7. The Japanese a Self-centered People.= The Japanese people, with\nsuch traditions and such a faith, would naturally be a self-centered\npeople, and they conceived their island-empire as occupying the summit\nof the earth. The Mikado is the Son of Heaven, entitled and empowered\nto reign perpetually over the land and the sea. But as all the people\nare descendants of the gods, and the islands and all that is in them\nhave also been begotten of the gods, it follows that the worship of\nancestors is a worship of all the gods of whom they have knowledge, and\nall the lower animate and inanimate things in the world are also in\nsome way instinct with the deities from whom they were born, and whose\nthey are.\n\nAccordingly, the honoring of the gods is a fundamental thing in the\nShinto thought and in the Japanese civilization and government. Every\nloyal subject of the Mikado's Empire is expected to be true to the\nancient faith. It is assumed that religion and worship and the proper\nadministration of government are all essential to each other. The\nJapanese word (_Matsuri-goto_), which is used to denote the art of\ngovernment, means, literally, _worshiping_. And it is a common thought\nand saying: \"Everything in the world depends on the spirit of the\ngods of heaven and earth, and therefore the worship of the gods is a\nmatter of primary importance. The gods who do harm are to be appeased,\nso that they may not punish those who have offended them; and all the\ngods are to be worshiped, so that they may be induced to increase their\nfavors.\"[15] One of the rules which all the ministers of the Mikado\nemphasized in the old times, before the introduction of Buddhism into\nJapan, was, \"First serve the gods, and afterwards deliberate on matters\nof government.\"[16]\n\n=8. Essence of the Shinto Cult.= From what we have now stated it is to\nbe seen that reverence and worship of the ancestors of the Japanese,\nand the recognition of the Mikado's divinity as the incarnation and\nearthly representation of the celestial gods, constitute the essence\nof the Shinto cult. All the Japanese are offsprings of the gods, but\nthe imperial \"Sovran Grandchild\" of _Amaterasu_, the Sun-Goddess,[17]\nis pre-eminently divine and worshipful. The first Mikado, however, was\nnot the real son of _Amaterasu_, according to the mythic tradition of\nthe prehistoric time, but her nephew, the son of _Oshi-ho-mi-mi_, whom\nshe adopted as her son. But the title of \"Sovran Grandchild,\" having\nbeen applied first to the founder of the Mikado's dynasty, came in time\nto be the common title of all the Mikado's successors. The imperial\nworship, accordingly, represents the most conspicuous national form of\nthe Shinto cult.\n\n=9. The Great Sanctuaries.= The Mikado's palace would, accordingly, be\nthe most holy shrine of the national worship, the private and exclusive\nsanctuary of the imperial ancestors. But the most notable shrine of the\nSun-Goddess is not now the residence of the Mikado. On account of some\ngreat calamity that occurred far back in prehistoric times, her worship\nwas removed to a separate temple, and was finally established in the\nprovince of Is\u00e8, in which the temples, called the \"Two great divine\nPalaces,\" are the resort of thousands of pilgrims every year, and,\nthough not the most ancient, are regarded as first among all the Shinto\ntemples in the land.[18] These two divine palaces, or temples, called\n_Geku_ and _Naiku_, are about three miles apart, and stand in the midst\nof groves of aged cryptomeria trees.[19] They are approached through\narchways (called _torii_, or _toriwi_) of simple construction. The\n_Geku_ temple is an irregular oblong structure, 247 feet wide at the\nfront, but only 235 feet wide in the rear; while the side to the right\nof the entrance is 339 feet, and that on the left is 335. Within this\nlarge enclosure are others of similar structure, all made of the wood\nof cryptomeria trees, and left unpainted and without ornamentation. The\nvarious buildings of the temples are thus fashioned after the manner\nof the simple huts, or dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of these\nislands. Some of the buildings are covered with thatched roofs and\nhave their walls and doors made of rough matting. Mr. Satow, who has\nvisited and described the temples of Is\u00e8, says that \"All the buildings\nwhich form part of the two temples are constructed in a style that\nis disappointing in its simplicity and perishable nature.... None\nbut those which are roofed with thatch are entitled to be considered\nas being in strict conformity with the principles of genuine Shinto\ntemple architecture.\"[20] The perishable nature of these temples is\nsuch that it becomes necessary, and is, in fact, the standing rule, to\nrebuild them every twenty years. Two sites for each temple are used\nalternatively; they lie close to each other, so that the new building\nis constructed and ready for use before the old one is removed.\n\nThe temple which, though less venerated than those at Is\u00e8, is the\nshrine-center of the more ancient Shinto cult, is the one at Kitzuki,\nin the ancient province of Idzumo. These famous shrines of Is\u00e8 and\nKitzuki represent the two supreme cults of Shinto; namely, that of\nthe Sun-Goddess, _Amaterasu_, and that of _Oho-kuni-nushi_, offspring\nof the brother of the Sun-Goddess, who became the ruler of the unseen\nworld of the spirits of the dead. But there are many other great\ntemples maintained in whole or in part from the imperial revenues.\nSome are of greater sanctity and renown than others, but those of Is\u00e8\nand Kitzuki are the most celebrated, and every Shinto worshiper is\nexpected, at least once in his lifetime, to make a pilgrimage himself,\nor send a deputy to one of these most famous shrines.\n\n=10. Five Noteworthy Objects Connected with the Worship.= One\nnoteworthy fact is the absence of images from the pure Shinto temples;\nthat is, images exposed as objects of worship. But there is a number of\nobjects connected with these sacred places which should receive brief\nnotice:\n\n(1) There is, first, the wooden archway (called _torii_, or _toriwi_)\nthrough which one passes in approaching the temples. It consists of\ntwo upright posts set in the ground on the tops of which is laid a\nlong straight beam, the two ends of which project a little beyond the\nuprights. Under this top beam is another horizontal beam connecting the\ntwo side posts after the manner of a girder. According to Satow, \"The\n_toriwi_ was originally a perch for the fowls offered up to the gods,\nnot as food, but to give warning at daybreak. It was erected on any\nside of the temple indifferently. In later times, not improbably after\nthe introduction of Buddhism, its original meaning was forgotten, and\nit was placed in front only and supposed to be a gateway.\"[21]\n\n(2) Opposite the various entrances to the temples is placed a wooden\nscreen, or fence, called _Banpei_, which serves as in other dwellings\nto guard and hide the privacy of the interior.\n\n(3) Another object of special interest is the _Go-hei_, a slender wand,\noriginally a branch of the sacred tree called _sakaki_. From the Go-hei\nhang two long slips of white paper notched on the opposite sides. These\nwands of unpainted wood are supposed to represent offerings of white\ncloth and to have the power of attracting the gods to the places where\nthey are kept.\n\n(4) The offerings presented consist of cups of water and small vessels\nfilled with rice, vegetables, fruits, salt, fish, birds, and other\nsimplest products of the land and of the sea. It is noteworthy that we\nfind no bloody sacrificial rites in Shinto worship, in which one life,\nanimal or human, was made a vicarious substitute for a guilty soul.\n\n(5) The sacred _mirror_, which figures in the mythology of the\nSun-Goddess, and is said to have been once used to entice her from a\ncave into which she had hid herself in a spell of anger, is carefully\nguarded in one of these temples, and also many copies of the mirror.\n\"Each mirror is contained in a box which is furnished with eight\nhandles, four on the box itself and four on the lid. The box rests on a\nlow stand and is covered with a piece of cloth said to be white silk.\nThe mirror itself is wrapped in a brocade bag, which is never opened or\nrenewed, but when it begins to fall to pieces from age, another bag is\nput on, so that the actual covering consists of numerous layers. Over\nthe whole is placed a sort of cage of unpainted wood with ornaments\nsaid to be of pure gold, and over this again is thrown a sort of\ncurtain of coarse silk, descending to the floor on all sides.\"[22]\nOne can not read this description of the sacred mirror thus secretly\nguarded in a costly box without being reminded of the sacred ark of the\nLevitical sanctuary, and its enclosed \"tables of testimony.\"\n\n=11. The Ancestor Worship.= We have already observed that ancestor\nworship is the basis of the Shinto cult. This kind of worship is also\nconspicuous among the Chinese, and is held by many writers to have been\nthe original cult of all civilized races and peoples. It began, they\ntell us, with a belief in ghosts, and at the first there was no clear\ndistinction between ghosts and gods. The departed spirit was thought\nof as abiding near the place where the dead body was deposited, and\nthe earliest shrines would therefore be the graves or tombs of the\ndead. Later thought would beget the idea that the invisible spirits\nwere present to witness the acts, and share the joys and sorrows of the\nliving. And this fundamental idea would, of course, develop into many\ndiverse conceptions and practices among the different tribes.\n\nWithout here discussing this theory of aboriginal religious thought\nand practice, as applicable to all peoples, we may note that it\naccords with the facts of Japanese history and civilization so far as\nwe can now trace them back into the mists of prehistoric time.[23]\nWe have seen that Japanese history and mythology run together and\nblend in remarkable artlessness as they stand recorded in the oldest\nliterature (_e. g._, the _Ko-ji-ki_ and the _Nihongi_). Unthinkable\nmonstrosities of the origin of gods and lands and men are told with\nthe same simplicity as the unquestionable facts of historic times. But\ntaking the one leading thought which runs through all these records and\nappears to be fundamental in the Japanese civilization--namely, that\nall their islands and emperors and chiefs and people are offspring of\nthe gods, the very first of whom were somehow self-evolved from the\nprimordial elements of the universe--we look upon the Shinto worship as\nit exists in its purest form to-day, and note the most apparent facts.\n\nMr. Lafcadio Hearn, in his \"attempt at an interpretation\" of Japan,\nhas, more clearly than any other writer I have consulted, described\nthe Shinto ancestor-worship under its three forms of _Domestic_,\n_Communal_, and _State_ cults. In every case it is a worship of the\ndead, but the individual, whether he be the most obscure servant, the\ninfluential citizen, the commanding chieftain, or even the Mikado, is\nbut a part and parcel of the body politic. There is a most remarkable\nunity of popular and national life. Government and religion are\nvirtually identical, and there is no distinction between religion and\nmorality. Obedience and conformity to the rules of family life, and to\nthe customs of society and the requirements of the State--these are\nthe simple sum-total of Shinto law and gospel. The individual must\nalways stand ready to be sacrificed for the good of the community or\nof the State. Everything is to be regarded as public, and must serve\nthe public weal. There is no such thing as privacy, and oddities have\nno respectable standing. Tradition and custom seem to constitute the\nessence of religion as well as of family, communal, and more public\nlife. There is no code of moral law; there is nothing in the worship\nthat is fairly comparable to what we understand by dogma, creed, or\nChurch. Strictly speaking, this system has no heaven or hell, no deep\nsense of sin, and no concept of mediatorial redemption from sin and\nevil. The dead--all the dead of all the ages--are conceived as somehow\nliving in the unseen vacancy around, above, below; they are present at\nthe worship; they haunt the tombs; they are interested in the life and\nworks of their descendants; they visit their former homes and attend\nthe family worship there; their happiness, in fact, depends upon the\nhonor and worship which their living descendants pay them; and also the\nhappiness and prosperity of the living is believed to depend upon their\nsense of filial duty and proper reverence toward the dead. Furthermore,\nall the dead are supposed to become gods and attain to supernatural\npower. But there is no one Supreme Deity; no central throne of God;\nno paradise of heavenly blessedness. So far as any ideas of this kind\nobtain among the people, they may be regarded as later conceptions\nintroduced by missionaries or adherents of other religious systems.\nBut the cult implies beyond question a belief in some kind of future\nlife. The _Yomi_, or Hades, of Shinto mythology, into which Izanagi\nwent to seek his lost sister, was conceived as \"a hideous and polluted\nland,\" and even the realm of the unseen heavenly deities was never\nlonged for by the devotees of Shinto. Dooman observes that \"to the\nJapanese mind and imagination Japan, as a place of residence, was far\nsuperior to heaven, and its inhabitants a far more desirable society\nthan those living in the transcendent regions. We see that every god\nwho is sent from heaven to Japan on some important business by the\ndivine assembly marries, and is utterly unwilling to go back once more\nto the place from which he descended.\"[24]\n\n=12. Elements of Animism.= The ancestor-worship of Shinto can not be\ndisassociated altogether from the elements of Animism which appear in\nthe names and titles of certain deities, and also in the fact that\nthere are \"evil gods\" and demons who are capable of working mischief\nand calamity in the family, the community, and the State. How these\nevil deities originated is matter of myth, legend, and speculation. Bad\nmen would naturally be supposed to carry their evil character with them\ninto the unseen world of the dead, and to have the same power to work\nharm among the living as the good spirits have to bestow benefits. But\nhuman spirits would hardly be supposed to become deities of the wind,\nand the thunder, and the waves, and the mountains; of the trees, and\nthe fire, and the sun, and the moon, and the autumn, and the food of\nmen. Here the old mythology of the _Ko-ji-ki_ comes in to tell us of\na prehistoric and cosmical origin of evils. When Izanagi went to find\nhis sister Izanami in the hideous and polluted underworld, and found\nher body swarming with maggots and eight thunder deities dwelling in\nthe different parts of her decaying form, he fled back in astonishment\nand awe, and she in a rage of shame pursued him with all the horrid\nforces of that nether sphere. He escaped, but not without contracting\nmuch pollution on his august person, and when he sought to wash and\ncleanse himself in the waters of a certain river, there were born from\nthe filth of his person two deities, named \"the wondrous deity of\neighty evils,\" and \"the wondrous deity of great evils.\" These evil gods\nafterwards multiplied, and may be supposed to be the authors of all the\ndemons, goblins, and mischievous spirits of evil that disturb the world\nand its inhabitants. But there are also good spirits innumerable that\nanimate all moving things. The winds and the waters, the songs of birds\nand the hum of the bees, the growing plants and trees, are all instinct\nwith a sort of conscious life, and the spirits that live and move in\nthem are to be recognized and reverenced by prayers and offerings.\n\nThe spirits of dead ancestors and the powerful spirits of the winds and\nthe storms and the growths of nature may or may not have been supposed\nto have concert of action understood between them. The Japanese mind\nseems never to have elaborated any formal philosophy of this life or\nany specific theories of the life to come.\n\n=13. The Domestic Cult.= The simplest and most original form of the\nShinto worship is that of the family. In the inner chamber of every\nhome there is a high shelf against the wall called the \"Shelf of\nthe August Spirits.\" Upon it is placed a miniature temple, in which\nare deposited little tablets of white wood bearing the names of the\ndeceased members of the household. These are often spoken of as \"spirit\nsticks\" and \"spirit substitutes.\" Before these household shrines simple\nofferings are offered daily and a few words of prayer are spoken. The\nceremony is a very short one, but as regular as the coming of the day.\nIt is usually performed by the head of the family, but it frequently\ndevolves upon the woman, the mother or the grandmother, rather than\nthe father. \"No religion,\" says Hearn, \"is more sincere, no faith\nmore touching than this domestic worship, which regards the dead as\ncontinuing to form a part of the household life and needing still the\naffection and the respect of their children and kindred. Originating\nin those dim ages when fear was stronger than love, ... the cult at\nlast developed into a religion of affection; and this it yet remains.\nThe belief that the dead need affection, that to neglect them is a\ncruelty, that their happiness depends upon duty, is a belief that has\nalmost cast out the primitive fear of their displeasure. They are not\nthought of as dead: they are believed to remain among those who loved\nthem. Unseen, they guard the home and watch over the welfare of its\ninmates; they hover nightly in the glow of the shrine-lamp, and the\nstirring of its flame is the motion of them.... From their shrine they\nobserve and hear what happens in the house; they share the family joys\nand sorrows. They were the givers of life; they represent the past of\nthe race, and all its sacrifices.... Yet, how little do they require in\nreturn! Scarcely more than to be thanked, as founders and guardians of\nthe home, in simple words like these: 'For aid received, by day and by\nnight, accept, august ones, our reverential gratitude.'\"[25]\n\n=14. The Communal Cult.= The next phase of the Shinto worship to be\nnoticed is that which is represented in the temples scattered about\neverywhere in the land and which are said to number over 195,000 at\nthe present time. In every community, village, and large city is found\nthe parish-temple, and in the larger towns each section or district\nhas its public shrine, in which the whole community honor the deified\nancestors of certain noble families of ancient time, or the spirit of\nthe first great patriarch of the clan. The farmers, or those who till\nthe fields, usually dwell in a village on the principal highway, and\ngo out thence to work the rural districts round about. So the villages\nvary in size from fifty houses set on a single street half a mile long\nto a large town of many hundred houses. In Simmons and Wigmore's \"Notes\non Land Tenure and Local Institutions in Old Japan,\"[26] we read that\nthe Japanese rural population is, as a rule, \"exceedingly stable.\nThe villagers are for the most part engaged wholly or partially as\ncultivators of land, and in the vast majority of cases many generations\nof cultivators have been born and have died on the same spot. From the\nalmost numberless replies to inquiries, the answer usually is, 'We do\nnot know where our ancestors came from, or when they came to live on\nthis spot. Our temple register may tell, but we have never thought\nabout the matter.'\"\n\nThe deity honored at these village temples is called the _Ujigami_,\nand recognized as the patriarchal and tutelary god of the community.\nJust whether he were the clan-ancestor of the first settlers in\nthat particular parish, or the spirit of some mighty ruler of that\ndistrict at a former time, or the patron-god of some noble family\nonce resident there, is as uncertain as the knowledge of the common\nvillagers touching their earliest progenitors. But in every class these\n_Ujigami_ were worshiped as the tutelar deity of the community in which\nthe temple stood. Also, in the larger towns there are Shinto temples\ndedicated to certain patron-gods of other localities.\n\nEach one of these parish temples naturally has a most intimate relation\nto the life of the community about it. Thither every child born in the\nparish is taken, when a month old, and formally named and placed under\nthe protection of the ancestral deity. As it grows up it is regularly\ntaken to observe all the festivals and the processions and ceremonies,\nand the temple groves and gardens become its common playground. There\nis nothing somber or solemn about this religious cult to scare a\nchild, but rather very much to attract and interest.[27] Every village\ntemple has its appointed days of public worship, and neighboring\ndistricts vie with each other in making their great festival days\noccasions of popular delight. To these joyous festivals every family\ncontributes according to ability, and the worship is accompanied by\npublic amusements of various kinds, athletic sports, and the sale of\ntoys for children. The temple worship consisted in the presentation\nof offerings of cloth, herbs, fruits, and other of the most common\nproducts of the country, and in a ritual prayer enumerating the various\ngifts and supplicating for prosperity and success in all communal\naffairs, for protection against sickness, plague, and famine, and\nfor the triumph of their chieftains in time of war. In this way the\n_Ujigami_ was recognized as the tutelar deity of the community and the\ndistrict, the abiding friend and helper of his offspring. The communal\ncult thus powerfully confirmed the family cult, and enforced the lesson\nthat no man could live unto himself alone.\n\n=15. The National Cult.= But it is in the State or National observances\nof the great temples that the Shinto worship is seen in its most\nelaborated form. The substance and manner of this worship may be\nlearned from the ancient Japanese rituals, which make mention of the\nchief deities, enumerate the offerings that are presented at the sacred\nshrines, and furnish us the very language employed \"in the presence of\nthe sovran gods.\" How early these rituals of worship were committed\nto writing is an open question, but it is altogether probable that in\nsubstance they had been transmitted orally through many generations\nbefore they were put in written form. From these rituals, and the\npractices of the worship as they may be observed at the present time,\nwe are able to learn the chief features of the service.[28]\n\nIn connection with this national worship we may here note (1) that\nthe great festivals and occasions of worship were observed in all the\nprincipal temples at the same time; (2) the _Yengishiki_ mentions\n3,132 shrines distinguished as great and small; there were 492 great\nshrines, and 2,640 small ones. But besides these there were many\nthousands of smaller, undistinguished temples scattered all over the\nlands. (3) These various shrines were dedicated to a great number of\ndeities, and there were many gods who received worship in a number\nof temples at one and the same time. (4) The offerings were made in\nthe name of \"the Sovran Grandchild\" of the sun-goddess, the divine\ntitle of every Mikado, and Satow remarks that \"it is difficult to\nresist the suggestion that the sun was the earliest among the powers\nof nature to be deified, and that the long series of gods who precede\nher in the cosmogony of the _Ko-ji-ki_ and _Nihongi_, most of whom are\nshown by their names to have been mere abstractions, were invented\nto give her a genealogy, into which were inserted two or perhaps more\nof her own attributes, personified as separate deities.\"[29] (5) The\npriesthood seems to have been for the most part hereditary, and many\npriests claimed descent from the chief deity to whom the temple was\ndedicated. The reader of the ritual was a member of the priestly tribe\nwhich traced its origin to _Oho-nakato-mi_, chief of the whole Nakatomi\nfamily. Another priestly family is the Imbibi tribe.[30] (6) Virgin\npriestesses also figure in the celebration of the great ceremonies\nof State. Princesses of the Mikado's family have been consecrated to\nofficiate in the temples of Is\u00e8 and in other great temples also. While\nsome of the priestesses are virgin princesses, some of them also are\nyoung, not yet having reached the nubile age, and when they reach that\nage they cease to be priestesses. With others the office is hereditary,\nas it is with men, and the women of this class retain and exercise\ntheir priestly office after marriage.\n\n=16. The Harvest Service.= As an example of public worship of\nexceptional interest, we take the ritual ceremony for Harvest, which\nis celebrated once a year--the fourth day of the second month. The\nchief service is at the capital, but the festival is observed in all\nthe provinces under the direction of the local rulers. Preparations go\non for a fortnight beforehand, and the service begins twenty minutes\nbefore seven in the morning. At the capital, in the large court used\nfor the worship of the Shinto gods, the ministers of State assemble,\nalong with the priests and priestesses of many temples which are\nsupported from the Mikado's treasury. When all things are in readiness,\nthe ministers, priests, and priestesses enter in succession and occupy\nthe places assigned them. The various offerings are duly presented and\nthe ritual is read. At the conclusion of each section of the ritual as\nrecited by the reader, all the priests respond, \"O!\" (Yes, or Amen.)\n\nThe following is a portion of the ritual used on one of these\noccasions: \"Hear, all of you, assembled priests of higher and lower\norder. I declare in the presence of the sovran gods[31] whose\npraises are fulfilled as heavenly temples and country temples.[32] I\nfulfill your praises by setting up the great offerings of the sovran\ngrandchild's augustiness, made with intention of deigning to begin the\nharvest in the second month of this year, as the morning sun rises in\nglory. I declare in the presence of the sovran gods of the harvest: If\nthe sovran gods will bestow in many-bundled ears and in luxuriant ears\nthe late-ripening harvest which they will bestow, the late-ripening\nharvest which will be produced by the dripping of foam from the arms\nand by drawing the mud together between the opposite thighs, then I\nwill fulfill their praises by setting up the first fruits in a thousand\nears, and many hundred ears, raising high the beer-jars, filling them,\nand ranging them in rows.\" The ritual goes on to specify, among the\nofferings, sweet and bitter herbs, \"things which dwell in the blue\nsea-plain;\" clothes bright, and glittering, and soft, and coarse; a\nwhite horse, a white boar, and a white cock. The names also of many\ndeities are declared: the \"divine Producer,\" the \"great Goddess of\nFood,\" \"wonderful-rock-Gate,\" \"the from-heaven-shining-great Deity who\nsits in Is\u00e8,\" \"sovran gods who sit in the Farms,\" \"sovran gods who sit\nin the mouths of the mountains,\" and those \"who dwell in the partings\nof the waters.\"\n\nAs soon as the reader had finished the words of the ritual, he retired,\nand the priests distributed the various offerings and presented them to\nthe gods for whom they were set apart.\n\n=17. The Great Purification.= But the ritual of the Great or General\nPurification is said to be \"one of the most important and most solemn\nceremonies of the Shinto religion.\" Professor Karl Florenz, who has\ngiven us a translation of this ritual,[33] informs us that it is by\nmeans of this ceremony that \"the population of the whole country, from\nthe princes and ministers down to the common people, is purified and\nfreed from sins, pollutions, and calamities.\" It is celebrated twice\na year, on the thirtieth day of the sixth and twelfth months. \"The\nchief ceremony was performed in the capital, near the south gate of the\nimperial palace, and might be styled the purification of the court,\nbecause it was to purify all the higher and lower officials of the\nimperial court. In a similar way the ceremony was celebrated also at\nall the more important public shrines of the whole country.\" Besides\nthe regular semiannual celebration of the \"Great Purification\" (called\n_Oho-harahe_), it is also performed on such special occasions as at the\naccession of a new emperor to the throne, or when an imperial princess\nwas chosen as a virgin priestess and sent to the temple of Is\u00e8.\n\nWithout detailing the movements, positions, and practices of the\nassembled priests, officials, and common people at the service of the\nGeneral Purification, we simply cite a few extracts from the ritual\nwhich may serve to show us the underlying concept of purification.\nWhile the ritual is only a part of the entire ceremony of the\noccasion, we are told that it is not infrequently recited without\nperforming the ceremony. Moreover, while in ancient times the reader\nwas always a member of the priestly Nakatomi tribe, at the present time\nthe ritual is read by the officiating priest of each particular temple.\nThe following excerpts are made from Florenz's translation:\n\n\"Hear, all of you, assembled princes of the blood, princes, high\ndignitaries, and men of the hundred offices. Hear, all of you, that\nin the Great Purification of the present last day of the sixth month\nof the current year, [the Sovran] deigns to purify, and deigns to\ncleanse the various offenses which may have been committed either\ninadvertently, or deliberately, especially by the persons serving\nin the imperial court: (viz.) the scarf-wearing attendants, the\nsash-wearing attendants (of the kitchen), the attendants who carry\nquivers on the back, the attendants who gird on swords, the eighty\nattendants of the attendants, and, moreover, by the people serving in\nall offices.\"\n\nThe ritual goes on to declare how the Sovran's dear progenitors, in a\ndivine assembly, ordained that the \"Sovran Grandchild's Augustiness\nshould tranquilly rule the luxuriant reed-plain region of fresh\nyoung spikes as a peaceful country;\" how they expelled with a divine\nexpulsion the savage deities, and \"silenced the rocks and trunks of\ntrees;\" how they let him go down from his heavenly place, \"and dividing\na road through the eightfold heavenly clouds,\" they sent him down and\ngave the land into his peaceful keeping. The ritual also makes mention\nof various kinds of offenses which need to be cleansed and purged away,\nand distinguishes them as \"heavenly offenses\" and \"earthly offenses.\"\nAmong the former are \"breaking down the divisions of the rice fields,\nfilling up the irrigating channels, and opening the floodgate of\nsluices,\" and the evacuation of one's bowels in improper places. Among\n\"earthly offenses\" are the cutting the skin of the living or the dead\nbody so as to become defiled by blood, being affected with corns,\nbunions, boils, or proud-flesh; sins of adultery, the offense of using\nincantations, and various kinds of personal calamity.\n\n\"It is expected,\" the ritual adds, \"that the heavenly gods will be\nfavorably disposed by reason of these offerings, ceremonies, and ritual\nof the Great Purification, and will deign to purify and cleanse, and\nmake all the specified offenses disappear, even as the clouds of heaven\nand the dense morning and evening mists disappear before the blowing\nwinds.\" It is expected that \"the goddess who resides in the current of\nthe rapid stream that comes boiling down the ravines, from the tops\nof the mountains,\" and the goddess who resides in the currents of the\nbriny ocean will carry them away, and \"swallow them down with gurgling\nsound,\" and they shall be utterly \"blown away, banished, and got rid\nof,\" so that \"from this day onwards there will be no offense in the\nfour quarters of the region under heaven, especially with regard to\nall people of all offices who respectfully serve in the court of the\nSovran.\" The offenses were thought of as somehow swept away by the\nwinds and the waves, and then swallowed into the depths of the sea, and\nso cast down into the underworld, the realm of death and pollution,\nwhence all defilements were supposed to have originated. So they were\ncast down into the depths whence they came forth.\n\nThe concluding words of this ritual are a command for the \"diviners\nof the four countries to leave and go away to the great river-way, and\ncarry away the offenses by purification.\" Thus divination was honored,\nas moving in the will and way of the gods; but incantation is mentioned\namong the \"earthly offenses.\" Probably these evil incantations refer to\nevil-minded witchcraft and invoking calamity on others.\n\nThis great ritual ceremony of purification, being one of the most\nsolemn formal expressions of the Shinto cult, calls for the following\nremarks:\n\n(1) The central idea is purification from certain forms of evil, or\ncertain kinds of offenses.\n\n(2) The offenses are conceived as either willfully committed, or\ncommitted inadvertently.\n\n(3) They are also spoken of as heavenly and earthly. This distinction\nseems to us quite arbitrary and unnatural, but it probably had a\nmythical origin and the offenses called heavenly are mainly such\nas involve distress for an agricultural community. They are sins\nagainst the _land_ of the gods, while the earthly offenses are mainly\nmatters of personal defilement. In all cases it is conspicuous that\nthe Shinto concept of offenses which need purging away is that of\noutward physical pollution and damage. They are all offenses committed\nagainst the interests of the community and likely to bring some kind of\ncalamity upon the people.\n\n(4) We should also remark that while, according to the ritual of the\nGreat Purification, it is expected that from that day forwards \"no\noffense which is called offense\" will occur again in the four quarters\nof the whole region under heaven, the same ceremony of purification is\nrepeated every six months--year in and year out.\n\n(5) These facts serve to show a moral and religious basis for the\nJapanese love of cleanliness and the scrupulous care with which these\npeople of \"the luxuriant central land of the ears of fresh rice\" study\nto keep their bodies, their houses, their temples, and their whole\ndomain free from all manner of physical impurity.\n\n=18. Other Ritual Services.= Other rituals for other occasions and\npurposes furnish nothing of a different character or of exceptional\nimportance that we need here give further attention to their various\ncontents and suggestions. There are, in the voluminous _Yengishiki_,\nrituals for the service of the gods of Kasuga, for the service of the\ngoddess of food, and of the gods of the wind, and for the service of\nparticular temples. Some of these services are occasions of grand\nceremonial display. The place, the day, the hour, and all the details\nof the service are arranged beforehand. The procession of those who\ntake part is ordered with extreme precision and made in every way\nmagnificent. Various orders of officials move along in separate ranks.\nThe priestess, accompanied by many mantled attendants, is drawn in a\ncar, and on either side four men in scarlet coats carry a silk umbrella\nand a huge, long-handled fan. The female attendants and servants of\nthe priestess, each a lady of rank, follow in seven carriages. Chests\nfilled with sacrificial utensils and food offerings, the messenger of\nthe Mikado and his attendants of rank, have their assigned places in\nthe procession. Upon arriving at the temple enclosure, the priestess\nalights from her car or palanquin, passes into the courtyard behind\ncurtains so held by her attendants as to hide her from the gaze of the\ncrowd, enters her private room and changes her traveling dress for the\nsacrificial robes. Meantime the Mikado's presents and all the other\nofferings are duly placed on the tables and in the various chapels\nprepared for them and the high officers of State take their seats\nwithin the temple enclosure. All the prescribed forms are observed with\nscrupulous care, and the ritual is read. In many services harpists,\nflute-players, singers, and dancers perform their several tasks. At\nthe conclusion of the services the company clap their hands and then\nseparate. The priestess changes her robes again for her traveling\ndress, and returns to her lodging in like stately procession as she\ncame to the shrine.\n\nThe mirror, sword, bow, and spear, which are mentioned in the rituals\nas presents offered to the gods at the great festivals, doubtless have\ntheir symbolical significance, and like the three divine insignia\nof sword, precious stone, and mirror--the regalia or symbols of\nJapanese power and glory--have doubtless their mythic connection with\nprehistoric traditions; but these belong to the study of Japanese\nantiquities rather than to the religious elements of Shinto.[34]\n\n=19. Influence of China on Japanese Thought.= So far we have spoken\nonly of what may be called the original or pure Shinto cult as the\nreligion of the ancient Japanese. But it is important to observe that\nthe moral and religious ideas of other peoples and other systems have\nfor some two thousand years past been affecting the life and thought\nof the Japanese people. One noteworthy foreign influence came in from\nChina, and as early as the first century of the Christian era--perhaps\nsomewhat earlier--Chinese scholars made their way into Japan. This was\nvery natural, for the proximity of China favored intercourse between\nthe two nations, and Confucianism was at the beginning of our era\nfive hundred years old. Ancestor-worship was common to the people of\nboth lands, and the arts and industries of the two countries might\nhave found affiliation in many ways we can not now determine. That\nsuch a leavening Chinese influence was early introduced into Japan is\nsimply matter of fact. The Preface of Yasumaro, the compiler of the\nmost ancient records of the _Ko-ji-ki_, shows the effect of Chinese\nphilosophy in its incidental mention of \"the Passive and Active\nEssences\" which co-operated at the beginning of the creation; and\nChamberlain, in his Introduction to his English translation of the\n_Ko-ji-ki_, observes that \"at the very earliest period to which the\ntwilight of legend stretches back, Chinese influence had already begun\nto make itself felt in these islands, communicating to the inhabitants\nboth implements and ideas.\" Then it is to be further remarked that the\n_Nihongi_, completed in 720 A. D., although essentially a parallel\nchronicle of Japanese traditions, is in thought and style conspicuously\nChinese. It is made in every aspect and element of its composition to\nresemble as far as possible a Chinese history.\n\n=20. Influence of Buddhism.= But a deeper and more widespread influence\nthan that of anything of Chinese origin was the introduction into Japan\nof Buddhism, which was first brought in about A. D. 552, but did not\nsucceed in leavening the whole country until the middle of the ninth\ncentury. It was quietly propagated by leaders of various Buddhist sects\nwhich differ in minor practices, and slowly it gained ascendency,\nbut its first more notable triumph followed the teaching of Kukai,\nfounder of the Shingon sect, who so adapted Buddhist doctrines to the\ntraditional ideas of ancestor worship as to maintain that all the\nShinto deities were _avatars_ or incarnations of Buddha. With great\ningenuity and cunning, a new interpretation was given to ancient\nmyths, and new constructions were put upon old beliefs. The Shinto\ngods, rites, customs, and traditions took on a Buddhist significance,\nand many of the mysteries of birth and of death were explained in a\nmanner so simple and popular as to commend them to all who listened\nto the new teaching. For Buddhism had already learned in India and\nin China the clever art of appropriating old beliefs and customs and\nof clothing them with a new and higher meaning. Confucianism itself\nhad already in part prepared the way for Buddhism in Japan, and the\nsuccessful Buddhist propagandists were wise enough to suppress or\nkeep out of sight all that might be offensive in their system, and\nto teach only such forms of doctrine as could be made attractive to\nthe masses of the people. Kukai thus succeeded in converting the\nMikado to his new interpretations of the Shinto beliefs, and the new\nsystem thus put forward received the name \"Riyobu Shinto,\" which means\n\"two parts,\" or the \"double way of the gods,\" or the twofold divine\nteaching. So complete and general did this Riyobu Shinto become in its\nspread throughout Japan that for a thousand years it dominated the\ncivilization of the Empire. It had its priests, its gorgeous temples\nand ritual services, its philosophy, and its divers sects, and it is\nsaid that there are at least twelve distinct Buddhist sects in Japan\nto-day. According to Lafcadio Hearn, \"the religion of the Buddha\nbrought to Japan another and a wider humanizing influence--a new gospel\nof tenderness--together with a multitude of new beliefs that were\nable to accommodate themselves to the old, in spite of fundamental\ndissimilarity. In the highest meaning of the term, it was a civilizing\npower. Besides teaching new respect for life, the duty of kindness to\nanimals as well as to all human beings, the consequences of all present\nacts upon the conditions of a future existence, the duty of resignation\nto pain as the inevitable result of forgotten error, it actually gave\nto Japan the arts and the industries of China. Architecture, painting,\nsculpture, engraving, printing, gardening--in short, every art and\nindustry that helped to make life beautiful--developed first in Japan\nunder Buddhist teaching.\"[35] To which may well be added the following\nstatement of Aston: \"There was nothing in Shinto which could rival in\nattraction the sculpture, architecture, painting, costumes, and ritual\nof the foreign faith. Its organization was more complete and effective.\nIt presented ideals of humanity, charity, self-abnegation, and purity\nfar higher than any previously known to the Japanese nation.\"[36]\n\nBut after a thousand years of mixture, who can now tell for certain\njust what is original Shinto and what is the Buddhist supplement\nor modification? The Buddhism of Japan is as far from the original\nteachings of Gautama as the Roman Catholic religion of Spain is from\nthe simple precepts and practices of Christ and His first apostles.\nThe same is true of the Buddhism of China and Thibet. The Shingon\nsect of Buddhists in Japan, of which Kukai was the founder, has taken\nup into itself many ideas which are neither purely Buddhist nor purely\nShintoist. Superstitions alien to both cults are likely to have found\ntheir way among the people and to have exerted influences on the\npopular cult, and no man is now able to point out their origin or their\nhistory.[37]\n\n=21. Revival of Pure Shinto.= We are not here concerned, however, with\nJapanese Buddhism. Our inquiry is after the facts and the significance\nof the essential Shinto cult. A great and remarkable revival of the\nolder Shinto began near the beginning of the eighteenth century and\npersisted with great success for more than one hundred years. The most\ndistinguished scholars of Japan were the chief leaders in this reform.\nWe have already had occasion to mention the names of the three most\nfamous men among them--Mabuchi, Motowori, and Hirata. These by their\nexpositions of the ancient scriptures and traditions turned the tide\nof popular thought against Buddhism and Chinese philosophy. It is\nquite interesting to note in some of their writings the antipathy and\nhostility to Chinese teachings. Motowori had a remarkable answer to\nthose critics who say that Shintoism knows no moral code. He declared\nthat all a loyal Japanese subject was concerned to do was simply\nto obey the Mikado, whether his commands were right or wrong. He\nmaintained that morals were invented by the Chinese because they were\nan immoral people; but in Japan there was no necessity for any system\nof morals, as every Japanese acted aright if he only consulted his\nown heart.[38] Whatever we may think or say of such self-complacency,\nit accords well with Japanese religion, mythology, and history,\nand it is a simple fact to be noted that in 1871 Buddhism in Japan\nwas disestablished and disendowed, and the old Shinto was declared\nto be the national religion. Percival Lowell observes that this\nreinstatement of the Mikado and the old national faith is \"a curious\ninstance of a religious revival due to arch\u00e6ological, not to religious\nzeal.\"[39] But while the old Shinto is at present the official cult of\nJapan, it appears to have little life or force. Japanese Buddhism is\nsaid to be showing signs of renewed activity, and is likely to prove\na powerful antagonist of Christianity. It is certainly a question of\nvital importance to the future civilization of Japan which of these\nmighty rivals shall gain ascendency over the popular mind.\n\n=22. Esoteric Shinto.= Shinto did not continue very long to hold its\nnewly proclaimed status as the State religion. Its own most devoted\nadherents and leaders felt that its highest interests would be best\nserved without official and governmental prestige. A wise and prudent\nState policy determined that its permanence and success should be\nleft to care for themselves and to depend upon the merits of its\nteachings and its historic and popular hold upon the national, the\ncommunal, and the family life. As a cult it is deeply rooted in the\ncivilization of the empire, and its pilgrims swarm along the highways\nof travel and at the historic shrines. They are found journeying to\nthe summits of sacred mountains, and there performing esoteric rites\nwhich induce mystic divine possession. The performance of such mystic\nrites and incantations seems to be no modern innovation. It may have\nits connections with Buddhist counting of rosaries, and possibly other\nforeign influences have helped to cultivate its somewhat mantic forms,\nbut its origin is from a remote antiquity. This \"esoteric Shinto\" is\nessentially akin to that self-induced religious fervor which exhibits\nitself in many lands and in connection with various cults, and is often\nseen among the Mohammedan dancing and howling dervishes. Its existence\nand its practices in Japan refute the notion of those who would deny\nto Shinto the character of a real religion.[40] The excrescences and\nextravagancies of religious fervor must have some sort of a religion to\ninspire them.\n\n=23. Mingling of Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism.= The noteworthy\nfact that Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism have for more than\na thousand years mixed with each other in Japan demonstrates the\nsusceptibility of the Japanese people to foreign influence and\nteaching, and their natural hospitality toward the various religious\ncults. The ethical teachings of Confucius prepared the way for\nBuddhism, and, in spite of antipathy and wars between the nations,\nmaintain a powerful hold upon the thoughtful Japanese to-day. Still\nmore remarkable is it that millions of the Japanese appear to accept\nboth Shintoism and Buddhism, and good Shintoists and good Buddhists\nmay be found worshiping in some temples at one and the same time.[41]\nA Japanese scholar, speaking at the Chicago \"Parliament of Religions\"\non the \"Future of Religion in Japan,\" declared that the three\nsystems named \"are not only living together on friendly terms with\none another, but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds\nof the people. One and the same Japanese is at once a Shintoist,\na Confucianist, and a Buddhist. Our religion may be likened to a\ntriangle. One angle is Shintoism, another is Confucianism, and a\nthird is Buddhism, all of which make up the religion of the ordinary\nJapanese. Shintoism furnishes the objects, Confucianism offers the\nrules of life, while Buddhism supplies the way of salvation.\"[42]\n\n=24. Roman Catholicism in Japan.= We must not omit altogether a notice\nof the introduction of Roman Catholic Christianity into Japan about the\nmiddle of the sixteenth century. It was in 1549 that the famous Jesuit,\nFrancis Xavier, landed at Kagoshima, and began his marvelous missionary\nwork through Japanese interpreters, and in two years of strenuous toil\nhe succeeded in winning many converts from all classes of the people.\nFifty years thereafter the Christian converts throughout the country\nare said to have numbered nearly a million. But the Jesuit habit\nand policy of meddling with affairs of State, their intolerance of\nother cults, and at length their crusade against the ancient national\nfaith and their burning of Buddhist temples and slaughter of Buddhist\npriests, aroused the bitter reaction and bloody persecutions, which,\nafter some forty years of struggle, succeeded in obliterating every\npublic sign of Christianity from every province of the empire. And for\nover two hundred years Japan closed her doors to all foreign influences\nand appeals. It was not until 1873 that the edicts against Christianity\nwere withdrawn. Of the Protestant missionary movements in the island\nempire since that date, it is not the purpose of this essay to speak.\n\n=25. Present Religious Indifference.= Much is said nowadays about the\napparent religious indifference of the Japanese. Some writers seem to\nthink that the Japanese and the Chinese people are alike inferior and\ndefective in religious nature. Mr. Gulick, in his \"Evolution of the\nJapanese,\" reports Marquis Ito, Japan's most illustrious statesman,\nas having said: \"I regard religion itself as quite unnecessary for\na nation's life; science is far above superstition, and what is\nreligion--Buddhism or Christianity--but superstition, and therefore a\npossible source of weakness to a nation? I do not regret the tendency\nto free thought and atheism, which is almost universal in Japan,\nbecause I do not regard it as a source of danger to the community.\"\nAnd yet this same distinguished statesman is reported on the same\npage (288) to have given utterance to the following much more recent\nstatement: \"The only true civilization is that which rests on Christian\nprinciples, and consequently, as Japan must attain her civilization\non these principles, those young men who receive Christian education\nwill be the main factors in the development of future Japan.\" Possibly\nthese two discrepant statements may be reconciled by supposing\nthat, in the first case, Ito's thought was turned especially to the\nsuperstitions and temporary phases incident to all religious cults,\nand in his later remark he spoke of Christianity as somehow synonymous\nwith Western civilization. But in any case it would seem that one\nwho deems the Japanese either irreligious, or non-religious, or\ndeficient in religious sense, ought to explain the manifold facts of\nthe Shinto cult, such as the \"god shelf,\" the ancestral tablets, the\ndaily offerings, and the family worship in almost every household of\nthat Eastern island-empire. What mean the hundreds of thousands of\nwhite-robed pilgrims who annually visit the numerous sacred shrines?\nAnd is there no element of religion in the devout patriotism that is\never ready to sacrifice life and all that men hold dear for the faith\nand inheritance of their beloved \"central land of Reed-Plains\" given\nlong ago to the care of the \"Sovran Grandchild\" by the celestial\ndeities?\n\nIt is only a one-sided concept of religion, and a too prevalent failure\nto distinguish between its local temporary phases and its deeper\nessentials as grounded in the spiritual nature of man, that have led\nsuperficial observers to deny the profound religious element in the\nShinto and Buddhist worship of Japan. If Paul, waiting at Athens, and\nbeholding the city full of idols, could truly say, \"I perceive, O\nAthenians, that in all things ye are very religious,\" just as truly may\nwe say, in view of the 195,000 temples and the innumerable deities of\nthe Shinto cult, that the Japanese are exceedingly religious.\n\nLet me add the testimony of Mr. Gulick himself, who spent years in the\ncountry: \"The universality of the tokens of family religion, and the\nconstant and loving care bestowed upon them, are striking testimony\nto the universality of religion in Japan. The pathos of life is\noften revealed by the family devotion of the mother to these silent\nrepresentatives of divine beings, and departed ancestors or children. I\nhave no hesitation in saying that, so far as external appearances go,\nthe average home in Japan is far more religious than the average home\nin enlightened England or America, especially when compared with such\nas have no family worship. There may be a genuine religious life in\nthese Western homes, but it does not appear to the casual visitor. Yet\nno casual visitor can enter a Japanese home, without seeing at once the\nevidences of some sort of religious life.\"[43]\n\nIt is to be remarked that in the history and evolution of religion,\nwhere there has been obvious evolution, periods of long peace and\nrepose, marked by formalism, skepticism, and indifference to religious\nobligation, are generally followed by great revivals and reforms.\nSome new light breaks in; some great prophet appears; new ideas and\nhopes take hold on the popular mind, and thereupon a new era opens in\ncivilization. The renaissance in Japan of the last fifty years may be\nthe prelude to an epoch-making revival of the Orient.\n\n=26. Concluding Observations and Suggestions.= Our study of Shinto has\nled us over a somewhat unfamiliar field of thought. The mythology and\nthe records of the _Ko-ji-ki_ and the _Nihongi_ are far apart from all\nour Western legends and ideals of the early world, and in great part\nseem like monstrosities of fantastic speculation. It is affirmed by\nsome that the Japanese people have been halting for two millenniums\nin a state of childhood, receiving nothing from Confucianism or\nfrom Buddhism to quicken or change the national life; but with the\nintroduction of Western thought and enterprise they have suddenly\nleaped into comparative maturity, and their new departure from a dreamy\npast is likely to astonish the whole world. It is very obvious that\nthe introduction of modern science into her thousands of elementary\nschools must sooner or later undermine all faith in the traditional\ncosmogony, and, along with that, a whole world of notions bound up with\nthe Shinto cult must needs be overthrown. Eminent Japanese scholars\nsay that Western learning has sounded the knell and signed the death\nwarrant of the ancient religion of their island-world.\n\nIt is for us very easy, in the light of our New Testament revelation,\nto point out defects in the Shinto system. Some four or five of these\nwe may briefly mention as matters which a Christian missionary should\nkeep in view as evincing the need of preaching among these people the\ndeeper demands of the religion of Jesus Christ. (1) The first and\nfundamental defect in Shinto as a religious system is its lack of any\nclear or helpful concept of one God and Father of all. The doctrine\nof God is fundamental in any cult, and where the idea is vague and\nimperfect the entire system of doctrine and practice must needs possess\nan element of uncertainty and weakness. (2) Another defect is its want\nof a clear concept of sin as a moral disease of the heart. The Japanese\nmind needs to be turned inward to a deeper sense of the real sinfulness\nof sin. (3) Another serious fault in the Japanese civilization is its\nlow estimate of womanhood. Here as in China woman has not attained her\nproper sphere. She is subjected to three forms of obedience, which\nin actual life are too abject for her higher development--she must\nbow to her parents, to her husband, and to her son in a manner that\ninvolves what we should call a humiliating form of domestic slavery.\nJapan needs the practice of a monogamy of the highest Christian type\nin order to rectify this inferior and one-sided view of the male\nand female constitution of humanity. (4) There is also in Japan an\napparently low estimate of human life. It is probably due largely to\nthe communal and feudal system which has for a long time ruled the\npeople. The individual is nothing; the community is everything. These\nand other defects show our grounds for believing that the old order and\nsystem must sometime change. But it is no strange or unheard of thing\nin our world for an old order to change and give place to something\nnew and higher. Western civilization has seen not a few examples of\nsuch changes; but, as touching religious evolution, what a monumental\nexample we have in the transition from the Old Testament Judaism to\nthe New Testament kingdom of heaven! The main contents and scope of\nthe Epistle to the Hebrews point out the fact that the old covenant,\nwith its sanctuary and altars and tables and sacrifices and priests,\ncould not make their worshipers perfect. Notwithstanding its long and\nglorious history, it waxed old, and when the Epistle was written it\nwas nigh unto vanishing away (Heb. viii, 13). It did pass away and\ngive place to a more spiritual cult, the gospel of peace on earth and\nuniversal love. May not the national cult of Japan--with its faith in\nthe unseen, its rituals of purification, its concepts of a heavenly\nancestry, and its intimations of deification after death--be made to\ngive way before a superior cult that may have the wisdom to offer a\nhigher and more rational presentation of the essential truths embodied\nin the Shinto worship? Whatever men may think or say about the mystical\nand legendary elements in the Hebrew Scriptures, no one familiar with\nthe literatures of the nations can hesitate for a moment to acknowledge\nthe immense superiority of the Old Testament law and prophets and\npsalms over the contents of the _Ko-ji-ki_ and the _Nihongi_. If, then,\nthe covenants and the rituals of Judaism waxed old and vanished away\nbefore the clearer light and truth of the teachings of Jesus Christ,\nmuch more should we expect that the same superior \"Light of the world\"\nmust needs, sometime, supersede and supplant the rituals of the Shinto\ncult.\n\nAccordingly, I shall venture to specify sundry elements of ancient\nShinto, which, to use the language of Jesus, are not to be _destroyed_,\nbut rather _fulfilled_, in the higher and more universal truths of the\nkingdom of Christ. _Fulfilled_, I say for I look upon all the religious\nlongings, and prayers, and penitential psalms of the nations, and\ntheir inquiries after the Unseen and Eternal, as so many foregleams of\na coming Light, destined to enlighten every man that cometh into the\nworld.\n\nWe have seen that one of the most conspicuous aspects of the Shinto\ncult is its ceremonial of the Great Purification. Physical pollution\nof any kind is abhorrent to the Japanese. The touch of a dead body,\ncontact with a foul disease, failure to wash and keep one's person\nclean, are regarded as of the nature of calamities. We know that there\nwas much in the practices and traditions of the Jewish elders that\nclosely resembled these Shinto ideas of pollution. The Pharisees and\nscribes found fault with Jesus because of His indifference to their\n\"washings of cups, pots, and brazen vessels.\" But cleanliness, we all\nadmit, is a near neighbor of godliness. St. Paul said, \"Glorify God\nin your body,\" for he maintained that \"your body is a sanctuary of\nthe Holy Spirit which is in you.\" Jesus found no fault with Jewish\nablutions, and enjoined the highest personal purity. But He pointed\nout the deeper lesson that the more horrible defilement of man is\na pollution of the heart. \"For from within,\" He said, \"out of the\nheart of man, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders,\nadulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil\neye, railing, pride, foolishness:--all these evil things proceed from\nwithin, and defile the man.\" This, then, is one fundamental truth\nwhich the Shinto worshiper should learn from the teachings of our\nLord. The clean body and the pure white robes are eminently proper and\nbeautiful in their way; but they should symbolize the consciousness\nof a pure heart, and a blameless life that keeps itself \"unspotted\nfrom the world.\" Shinto purification needs the supplement of a deeper\nknowledge of spiritual defilement in order to a deeper knowledge of\npurity.\n\nMore exalted than any mere forms of purification, or rituals of\nworship, is that notion of a living Presence concealed in all\nphenomena. There has been and is to-day among all peoples a belief in\nmany invisible spirits that have some sort of power over the clouds,\nthe winds, the waters, the earth, and all its teeming growths. We call\nit Animism, Shamanism, and in a certain specific form, Fetishism.\nBelief in a countless multitude of spirits who can influence the\nelements about us for good or for evil, is firmly rooted in all the\nancient peoples of Eastern Asia, from India to Japan. We have seen\nhow deep a hold it had upon the earliest Shinto cult, and the later\ninfluences of Confucianism and Buddhism in Japan have tended rather to\nstrengthen than to suppress it in the popular mind.\n\nThese animistic conceptions have played a noteworthy part in connection\nwith most, if not all, the religions of mankind. When combined with a\ngroveling fear of the spirits, and with the practice of magic rites and\nincantations to propitiate them as so many evil demons, the belief has\nrun into the lowest forms of superstition. But is there no element of\ntruth in Animism? Why should we speak disparagingly of the old Japanese\nworshiper hearing the voices of unseen spirits in the moaning winds,\nin the sounding waterfalls, in the rolling thunder? Why should he not\nadore the Sun as the heavenly Benefactor, and see in waving trees and\nblooming flowers and drifting clouds the presence and activity of\nbeings, perhaps sometimes a Being Supernatural? One-sided, defective\npuerile notions controlled, no doubt, his thinking, but the one supreme\nand fundamental fact was that he felt himself in the presence of the\nSupernatural. And that primeval concept is the one most essential\ntruth of all religion. We have only to divest it of sundry errant,\nnon-essential interpretations in order to come face to face with the\ngrandest, noblest, and most affecting theism, and monotheism as well.\nFor monotheism finds its most advanced exposition in the doctrine of\nthe universal immanence of God,--one God, the Eternal Spirit, in all,\nthrough all, over all. How far from such a concept of universal Animism\nwas the old Hebrew psalmist, who sang of Jehovah \"laying the beams of\nHis chambers in the waters, making the clouds His chariot, walking upon\nthe wings of the wind, sending forth springs into the valleys, causing\nthe grass to grow upon the mountains,\" and receiving tribute of praises\nfrom the \"sea-monsters and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and vapor;\nstormy wind performing His word; mountains and all hills; fruitful\ntrees and all cedars; beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying\nbirds.\" To such a worshiper the world was all alive with God. And Jesus\nadded an intensity and an affecting beauty to this whole concept of an\nimmanent God when He said: \"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,\"\nand \"not one sparrow falleth on the ground without your Father.\" I\ncan conceive no Animism and no Supernaturalism more minute or more\nadorable than the ever acting and ever continuous presence of an unseen\nbut all observant \"Father in the heavens.\" The heavens in which He\ndwells are above, below, within, and all around us.\n\nAnd this is the higher Animism which ought to be welcomed by the\nShinto pilgrims of Japan as the beautiful fulfilling of their ancient\ndreams. Not so many gods, not a multitude of unfriendly spirits that\nneed propitiation by our gifts of food and clothing, but ONE Heavenly\nFather, immanent in every plant that grows and in every dewdrop on the\nflowers, forever working for our good, caring for every birdling, and\nnumbering the very hairs of our head.\n\nWith such a monotheistic conception of the world all mythologic and\npolytheistic notions of deity and the rule of the spirits of the dead\nmust sooner or later disappear. Japanese scholars of high rank are\ntelling their people and others that the modern Western learning has\nalready destroyed the cosmogony of the Shinto cult. What is now most\nneeded is a class of teachers straightforward and broad enough to\nshow these people a nobler and truer concept of the world. The new\nconception need have no conflict with the belief that the spirits of\nthe dead are all about us, and are deeply interested in us still. The\nfamily cult may adjust itself to the new and higher doctrines, and lose\nnone of the beauty and tenderness and sanctity which old affection\nconnects with the domestic tablets of the honored and beloved dead.\nHerein the new faith is to fulfill rather than destroy the ancient\nrites of love. Such a monotheistic cult will find no reason or occasion\nto commit the blunder of the Jesuit missionaries, and seek interference\nwith the government of the land. The Mikado may still command the\nreverence and the love of the people and be rationally honored as\na child of heaven. Loyal Christians do that under every form of\ngovernment. \"Fear God; honor the king; for there is no power but God,\nand the powers that be are ordained of God; for they are the ministers\nof God's service;\"--these are the precepts of the earliest apostolic\ngospel, and the modern missionary of Christ is bound to observe and\nteach them. He should exhibit common sense and discretion in foreign\npolitics, recognize and honor the legitimate power, and like the Great\nTeacher, \"render unto C\u00e6sar the things that are C\u00e6sar's, and unto God\nthe things that are God's.\"\n\nThe Shinto cult is essentially a religion of race and national\npatriotism. It is the secret of Japanese heroism and sacrifice in the\nday of battle. He counts it sweet and glorious to die for his country.\nHe is not his own; he belongs to the State. We are told that the three\nprincipal commandments of the public and official Shinto faith are\nthese:\n\n1. \"Thou shalt honor the gods and love thy country.\n\n2. \"Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and the duty\nof man.\n\n3. \"Thou shalt revere the emperor as thy sovereign, and obey the will\nof his court.\"\n\nSurely these principles and precepts are capable of easy adjustment to\nany form of national government, and the ethics of Christianity are in\nfundamental accord with their essential claims.\n\nBut how can the Christian religion, with its monotheistic worship,\nadjust itself without antagonism to the ancestor worship of Japan?\nMany seem to think that in this particular there must needs be an\nirrepressible conflict, for the worship of ancestors is central and\nfundamental in the Shinto faith, and the most precious and hallowed\nbond that holds the family, the community, and the State together.\n\nIn this matter we do well to observe a number of relevant facts.\nAncestor worship has existed in a variety of forms among many peoples.\nIt has undergone various modifications in different countries, and it\nappears to have ceased among some peoples and given place to other\nideas and forms of worship. The Japanese conception is that their\nMikado and all his people are offspring of the gods, and each one,\nwhen he dies, becomes a deity, but does not cease to have interest in\nthe relatives and companions of his earthly life. During the siege of\nPort Arthur, Togo sent the Mikado a message in which he expressed the\nthought that the patriotic _manes_ of the fallen heroes might hover\nover the battlefield for a long time and give unseen protection to the\nImperial forces. Such a faith and such inspiration from the dead are\nthings which a proud nation does not easily let die.\n\nBut may we not approach the devotees of such a faith with the words of\nthe old Hebrew prophet: \"Have we not all one father? Hath not one God\ncreated us?\" Ye think your honored ancestors still live, and love to\nthink of you and aid you from their higher sphere; is it not also just\nas true of the ancestors and heroes of other lands and peoples? You\nhave learned that your beautiful \"land of the reed-plains and the fresh\nrice-ears\" is only a very small portion of the world of men. Have these\nbroader lands and more numerous peoples sprung from other and greater\ngods than yours? May it not rather be that, as there is only one sun to\nshine on all this habitable world, so there is one Heavenly Father of\nus all? Then we are all offspring of one Supreme God and we should all\nbe brethren. Our ancestors and dear kindred who have passed out of our\nsight should lose no place in our affection by this larger thought.[44]\n\nBy some such suggestions, and by such friendly and persuasive appeal to\nlarger truths, it would seem that a higher and purer faith may commend\nitself to the adherents of Shinto, without provoking their hostility,\nand without the compromise of any essential Christian truth. As surely\nas self-evidencing science wins her onward way among the nations, so\nsurely will self-evidencing truths of religion win the hearts of men.\nWe are familiar with the Christian congregations singing:\n\n    \"Faith of our fathers, holy faith!\n    We will be true to thee till death.\"\n\nBut Christian and Shintoist should note the fact that the fathers and\nthe sons are greater than the faith. As \"the Sabbath was made for man,\nand not man for the Sabbath,\" so the faith, the forms of worship,\nthe \u00e6sthetic arts, the culture, the learning, and all the ennobling\nelements of the highest civilization are made for man, not man for\nthem. Being, therefore, not an end in themselves, but a means to the\nattainment of some higher boon, they must all be judged according to\nthe broad and noble proverb: \"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever\nthings are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things\nare pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good\nreport; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, take\naccount of these things\" (Phil. 4:8).\n\nIt may be that ancestral shrines will become more sacred and more\nheavenly when lighted with the glimmer of immortal hopes of blessed\nreunion in the unseen world, and our forms and manner of honoring\nfather and mother and friends that pass out from our homes may be\nsafely left to adjust themselves to an uplifting faith that lives in\nthe heart and ever longs for all that is holiest and best.\n\nThe whole world looks with admiration upon that island-empire of the\nOrient that has shown within thirty years such marvelous capacities\nof adaptation and improvement. If she thus go on to \"prove all things\nand hold fast to that which is good,\" who knows but her brilliant\nrising to great power and influence among the nations may mark the\nbeginning of world-wide reforms? Her tremendous, bloody battles should\nsay to all mankind: \"Let us have no more of this. Let us establish\ngreat, trustworthy tribunals of arbitration, and settle our rights\nand differences there. Let us beat our swords into plowshares and our\nspears into pruning-hooks.\" Such triumphs of peace and righteousness\nmight well bring to pass the old Shinto ideal of a code of morals\nso deeply written in the hearts of men and of rulers that they\nspontaneously do that which is obviously right. For is not this lofty\nideal in accord with that of the Hebrew prophet who descried a coming\ngolden age when \"they should teach no more every man his neighbor, and\nevery man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know\nthe Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest\" (Jer. 31:34)?\n\nOn the assumption that the highest form of religion must needs respond\nto the highest moral test, the editor of _The Hibbert Journal_[45]\npropounds the following startling question, \"How would the general\nstatus of Christianity be affected by the appearance in the world\nof a religion which should stand the test better than herself?\"\nThat is, a religion or people that should present an exhibition of\nmoral excellence superior to that seen among the Christian nations.\nOur own belief is that such an exhibition of moral excellence in\na non-Christian people would set the Christian searching his own\nstandards of morality. It may be that Japan in her late exhibitions\nof ability in political diplomacy, and her sacrifice and waiving of\ncertain rightful claims to indemnity, and the exalting of the right\nand the truth above narrow, selfish interests, has put to shame the\n\"Christian Powers\" of Europe, whose conspicuous qualities have been\nbaneful statecraft, jealousy of rivals, and greed to enlarge their\nterritory by crushing feebler States, and grinding down the masses\nof the people. Such an exhibit would not prove the inferiority of\nChristian ethics, but the failure of the so-called Christian Powers to\nhonor and exemplify the ethics of our gospel. The plain fact in this\nmatter is, as thoughtful men must everywhere acknowledge, that the\naggressive \"Christian Powers\" have enlarged their empire at the expense\nof weaker States and, by taking advantage of their day of weakness and\nadversity, have by such ambitious procedures belied and violated the\nfundamental commandments of the religion which they profess.\n\nWe Americans have dreamed and sometimes boasted that our great Republic\nof freedom has proven a mighty evangel of human liberty and rights.\nIt is a luminous star of the first magnitude, and it arose in the\nWestern hemisphere. But this brilliant star of the West has cast its\nhelpful beams across the Pacific Ocean upon the blooming rice-fields\nof Japan. It may be that those grandchildren of the sun-goddess may\nby their skill and prowess flash upon the world a light so strong as\nto eclipse to some extent our own, and be so self-evidently excellent\nthat all mankind will bid it welcome. It may or may not be that all\nwill acknowledge the radiant Evangel as \"the root and the offspring of\nDavid.\" With the Japanese it may for long be insisted that this new\nLight is the root and offspring of the Mikado and the Goddess of the\nDawn. But we can waive that point and all of us cry out, Let the true\nLight come. If it make for righteousness and love and the peace of the\nworld, we shall hail its rising in the far East as the light of \"the\nbright, the Morning Star;\" for there is no other that can ultimately\nprove itself to be \"the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh\ninto the world.\"\n\n\n\n\nSELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY.\n\n\n ASTON, W. G. Shinto, The Way of the Gods. London, 1905.\n\n BRINKLEY, F. Japan and China. 12 volumes. London, 1903.\n\n CHAMBERLAIN, B. H. Things Japanese. London, 1902.\n\n DYER, HENRY. Dai Nippon. A Study in National Evolution. London, 1904.\n\n GRIFFIS, WILLIAM ELLIOT. The Mikado's Empire. New York, 1876.\n\n    Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Meiji.\n    New York, 1895.\n\n GULICK, SIDNEY L. Evolution of the Japanese, Social and Psychic.\n    Chicago, 1903.\n\n HEARN, LAFCADIO. Japan. An Attempt at Interpretation. New York, 1904.\n\n KO-JI-KI, or Records of Ancient Matters. Translated by Basil H.\n    Chamberlain.\n\n    _Published as a Supplement to Vol. X of the Transactions of the\n    Asiatic Society of Japan._ Yokohama, 1883.\n\n LOWELL, PERCIVAL. The Soul of the Far East. Boston, 1896.\n\n MACLAY, ARTHUR C. A Budget of Letters from Japan. Reminiscences of\n    Work and Travel in Japan. New York, 1886.\n\n NIHONGI, Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A. D. 697.\n    Translated from the original Chinese and Japanese by W. G. Aston. 2\n    vols. London, 1896.\n\n    _Published as a Supplement to the Transactions and Proceedings of\n    the Japan Society, London._\n\n REED, EDWARD J. Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religion. London,\n    1880.\n\n Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. From 1872 to the present\n    time.\n\n Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London. From 1892\n    to the present time.\n\n    These separate series of volumes of Transactions of Japanese\n    Societies, running through many years, are an invaluable repository\n    of information on the history, customs, religion, and literature of\n    Japan.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The _Ko-ji-ki_ (section XXX) has this remarkable combination: \"The\nluxuriant-reed-plains-land-of-fresh-rice-ears-of-a-thousand-autumns-of-\nlong-five-hundred-autumns.\" The Ritual of the Great Purification and\nother rituals call Japan \"the luxuriant reed-plain region of fresh\nyoung spikes.\" The word \"spikes\" here is a synonym for ears of rice.\n\n[2] Understood to be Sir Ernest Satow.\n\n[3] \"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,\" vol. xvi, part I,\npage 73.\n\n[4] Westminster Review, July, 1878, p. 18.\n\n[5] It may not be improper to suggest that some of the notions of\nthe Western peoples as to the backwardness of Japan in the past, and\nthe relative stage of civilization reached generations ago in the\nisland empire may be very ludicrous to the mind of a self-respecting,\nthoughtful son of Japan. The Mikado's minister at Paris is reported\nto have said: \"We have for many generations sent to Europe exquisite\nlacquer work, delicately carved figures, beautiful embroidery, and many\nother things which show our artistic ability and accomplishments, but\nthe Europeans said we were uncivilized. We have recently killed some\n70,000 Russians, and now every European nation is wondering at the high\ncivilization we have at last attained!\"\n\n[6] It is published as a Supplement to vol. x of the \"Transactions of\nthe Asiatic Society of Japan,\" pp. lxxv and 369. Yokohama, 1883.\n\n[7] There is an English translation of the Nihongi, by W. G. Aston: 2\nvols. London, 1896. It is published as a Supplement to \"Transactions\nand Proceedings of the Japan Society, London.\"\n\n[8] These appear in vols. vii, ix, and xxvii of the \"Transactions\nof the Asiatic Society of Japan.\" Over thirty-five volumes of these\nTransactions have appeared, and they are an invaluable repository of\ninformation on the history, customs, religion, and literature of Japan.\nOther journals of like value are the \"Transactions and Proceedings\nof the Japan Society of London\" and the \"Deutsche Gesellschaft f\u00fcr\nNatur-und V\u00f6lkerkunde Ostasiens in Tokio.\"\n\n[9] Sketches of these men and numerous extracts from their works may\nbe found in Satow's essay on \"The Revival of Pure Shin-tau,\" published\nas Appendix of vol. iii of the \"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of\nJapan.\"\n\n[10] Japanese cosmology seems to postulate eternal matter, but \"it\nis matter almost completely lacking consistency--an indescribable,\nnebulous, unsubstantial, floating, muddy foam\"--\"Japan: Its History,\nArts, and Literature.\" By Captain F. Brinkley. Vol. V, p. 108. (J. B.\nMillet & Co., Boston and Tokyo.)\n\n[11] In the rituals he is often called \"The Sovran Grandchild,\" though\nan adopted son of the Goddess; so \"the sovran grandchild\" is first\napplied to the founder on earth of the Mikado's dynasty, and afterward\nto each and all of his successors on the throne of Japan.\n\n[12] See Chamberlain's English translation of the _Ko-ji-ki_, p. iv. It\nis interesting to compare the story of Ezra dictating the lost sacred\nbooks of Israel, from a memory inspired supernaturally, while five\nrapid scribes wrote down what was told them. See 2 Esdras, chap. xiv.\n\n[13] We may compare the fact that in our book of Genesis the formation\nof the earth and the heavens is called \"the _generations_ of the\nheavens and the earth\" (Gen. ii, 4). In a paper of the \"Transactions\nof the Asiatic Society of Japan\" (vol. xvi, part I), Dr. J. Edkins has\nan interesting comparison of \"Persian elements in Japanese legends,\"\nin which he shows analogies between Mithra and Amaterasu, the seven\nJapanese deities of wood, water, fire, wind, earth, sea, and mountain\nwith the Mazdean Amesha-spentas, and analogies of the underworld in\nseveral other mythic cults.\n\n[14] See the valuable paper on \"The Beginning of Japanese History,\nCivilization, and Art,\" by the Rev. I. Dooman, in Vol. XXV of\n\"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan;\" especially his chapter\niv, on \"The Fundamental Religious Ideas of the Early Japanese.\"\n\n[15] See Satow's \"The Revival of Pure Shintau, in Transactions of the\nAsiatic Society of Japan,\" vol. iii, Appendix, p. 71.\n\n[16] Lafcadio Hearn puts this whole matter very tersely, thus: \"The\nethics of Shinto were all comprised in the doctrine of unqualified\nobedience to customs originating, for the most part, in the family\ncult. Ethics were not different from religion; religion was not\ndifferent from government, and the very word for government signified\n'matters of religion.' All government ceremonies were preceded by\nprayer and sacrifice; and from the highest rank of society to the\nlowest every person was subject to the law of tradition. To obey\nwas piety; to disobey was impious, and the rule of obedience was\nenforced upon each individual by the will of the community to which he\nbelonged.\"--\"Japan, an Interpretation,\" p. 175.\n\n[17] This respect for the Sun-Goddess points to an aboriginal worship\nof the sun among the ancestors of the Japanese people.\n\n[18] Strictly speaking, the Shinto sanctuaries are shrines rather than\ntemples, so that the Japanese would always speak of Shinto shrines as\ndistinct from Buddhist temples.\n\n[19] A kind of evergreen, like the pine, and peculiar to Japan.\n\n[20] \"The Shintau Temples of Is\u00e8.\" \"The Transactions of the Asiatic\nSociety of Japan,\" vol. ii, p. 108.\n\n[21] \"The Shintau Temples of Is\u00e8.\" \"Transactions of Asiatic Society of\nJapan,\" vol. ii, p. 104.\n\n[22] Satow's \"The Shintau Temples of Is\u00e8,\" pp. 119, 120.\n\n[23] According to Aston, ancestor worship, in the sense of a\ndeification and honoring of the departed spirits of one's own\nancestors, was no part of the oldest Shinto cult, but rather a later\nimportation from China. See his \"Shinto, the Way of the Gods,\" pp.\n44-47. London, 1905.\n\n[24] \"Japanese History of Civilization and Arts.\" \"Transactions of the\nAsiatic Society of Japan,\" vol. xxv, p. 89.\n\n[25] \"Japan: an Interpretation,\" pp. 52, 53. New York, 1904.\n\n[26] In vol. xix, pt. I, of the \"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of\nJapan,\" pp. 93, 94.\n\n[27] This cheery and jubilant aspect of Shintau worship ought not to\nbe deemed an objectional element of true religion. Rather the opposite\nidea, that religion is a matter of soul-peril and seriousness so grave\nas to produce fear or dread of the deity, is a perversion of the truth.\nTrue love of God (or of the gods) must needs have wholesome reverence\nfor what is adorable, but also ought to inspire a warmth of affection\nand a confidence that drives out superstitious fear and begets\nexquisite delight in the heart and soul and mind of the true worshiper.\n\n[28] See \"Ancient Japanese Rituals,\" translated and annotated by E.\nSatow, in \"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,\" vol. vii,\npart II, and part IV; vol. ix, part II. Also by Karl Florenz, in vol.\nxxvii, part I. In vol. vii, part II, pp. 106-108, Satow gives a list\nof the Norito rituals contained in the Yengishiki, to the number of\ntwenty-seven. Of these he translates only nine.\n\n[29] \"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,\" vol. vii, part II,\np. 127.\n\n[30] \"The priests who officiated at the chief festivals belonged\nexclusively to two families, the Nakatomi and the Imbibi, both of whom\nwere descended from inferior deities, who accompanied the 'Sovran\nGrandchild' when he came down to earth.\"--Satow, in Westminster Review\nfor July, 1878, p. 16.\n\n[31] The reader of the ritual here personates the Mikado.\n\n[32] Temples here used by metonymy for deities.\n\n[33] In vol. xxvii, part I, of \"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of\nJapan.\" From this our extracts are taken. Florenz gives in great detail\nthe various practices, and the ancient and modern forms of the ritual,\nand the customs at different shrines. He also discusses the question of\nthe origin and age of the ceremony.\n\n[34] See the interesting article by Thomas R. H. McClatchie on \"The\nSword of Japan,\" in \"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,\"\nvol. ii, pp. 50-56.\n\n[35] \"Japan: an Interpretation,\" p. 208.\n\n[36] \"Shinto, the Way of the Gods,\" p. 360.\n\n[37] It is admitted by all writers on Japan that the practical ethics\nof Confucianism has from the first largely nullified the more subtle\nand dreamy elements of Buddhism. The common sense of the Japanese\npeople, in spite of all peculiarities, has made it necessary for\nBuddhism to adjust itself to the popular mind.\n\n[38] Satow, in \"Transactions of Asiatic Society of Japan,\" vol. ii, p.\n121. Compare the statement of Mabuchi as given in Satow's paper on \"The\nRevival of Pure Shin-tau,\" in Appendix to vol. iii of \"Transactions of\nthe Asiatic Society of Japan,\" p. 14.\n\n[39] \"The Soul of the Far East,\" p. 166.\n\n[40] For interesting information on this mystic phase of Shinto see the\narticles of Percival Lowell on \"Esoteric Shinto,\" in \"Transactions of\nthe Asiatic Society of Japan,\" vols. xxi and xxii.\n\n[41] \"The gods of Japan,\" writes Gulick, \"are innumerable in theory\nand multitudinous in practice. Not only are there gods of goodness,\nbut also gods of lust and of evil, to whom robbers and harlots may\npray for success and blessing.\" But in all this multitudinous pantheon\nthere is no one Supreme Deity. \"There is no word in the Japanese\nlanguage corresponding to the English term God. The nearest approach to\nit are the Confucian terms Jo-tei, 'Supreme Emperor;' Ten, 'Heaven,'\nand Ten-tei, 'Heavenly Emperor;' but all of these terms are Chinese;\nthey are therefore of late appearance in Japan, and represent rather\nconceptions of educated and Confucian classes than the ideas of the\nmasses.\"--\"Evolution of the Japanese,\" p. 311.\n\n[42] \"The World's Parliament of Religions,\" vol. ii, p. 1282.\nWe must not overlook the fact that the modern Shintoism has its\nsects, as well as Buddhism. There is the sect called \"Ten-Ri-Kyo\"\n(\"Heaven-Reason-Teaching\"). Also the Kurosumi sect, putting noteworthy\nemphasis on morality.\n\n[43] Gulick's \"Evolution of the Japanese,\" p. 294. Whatever may be\nthe defects of Japanese character in general, it is common for nearly\nall travelers who have visited the country and studied the habits\nof the people at their homes, to speak of them as mild, courteous,\ncleanly, frugal, intelligent, quick to learn, and gifted with a genius\nfor imitation. Their soldiers have proved themselves a match for the\nmost renowned warriors, and are marvelously apt to make the most of\nopportunities.\n\n[44] In his \"Evolution of the Japanese\" (p. 75) Gulick quotes from the\nJapan Mail (of September 30, 1899) a number of special instructions\nto be given to the pupils in the Japanese schools touching their\nbehavior toward foreigners. One of the orders reads thus: \"Since all\nhuman beings are brothers and sisters, there is no reason for fearing\nforeigners. Treat them as equals and act uprightly in all your dealings\nwith them.\" Such instruction should surely, in time, enlarge the\nworld-conception of the Shintoist.\n\n[45] Vol. iv, 1906, pp. 19-41.\n\n\n\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\nEvery effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as\npossible including inconsistencies of hyphenation.","title":"The Shinto Cult: A Christian Study of the Ancient Religion of Japan","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":18842}