{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_55973/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_55973","id":"gutenberg_55973","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55973","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Shinto"],"text":"RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND MODERN\n\n\n                          SHINTO: THE ANCIENT\n                           RELIGION OF JAPAN\n\n\n\n\nRELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN\n\n\n =Animism.= By EDWARD CLODD, author of _The Story of Creation_.\n\n =Pantheism.= By JAMES ALLANSON PICTON, author of _The Religion of the\n Universe_.\n\n =The Religions of Ancient China.= By Professor GILES, LL.D., Professor\n of Chinese in the University of Cambridge.\n\n =The Religion of Ancient Greece.= By JANE HARRISON, Lecturer at\n Newnham College, Cambridge, author of _Prolegomena to Study of Greek\n Religion_.\n\n =Islam.= By the Rt. Hon. AMEER ALI SYED, of the Judicial Committee\n of His Majesty\u2019s Privy Council, author of _The Spirit of Islam_ and\n _Ethics of Islam_.\n\n =Magic and Fetishism.= By Dr. A. C. HADDON, F.R.S., Lecturer on\n Ethnology at Cambridge University.\n\n =The Religion of Ancient Egypt.= By Professor W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE,\n F.R.S.\n\n =The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria.= By THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES,\n late of the British Museum.\n\n =Early Buddhism.= By Professor RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D., late Secretary of\n The Royal Asiatic Society.\n\n =Hinduism.= By Dr. L. D. BARNETT, of the Department of Oriental\n Printed Books and MSS., British Museum.\n\n =Scandinavian Religion.= By WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, Joint Editor of the\n _Oxford English Dictionary_.\n\n =Celtic Religion.= By Professor ANWYL, Professor of Welsh at\n University College, Aberystwyth.\n\n =The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland.= By CHARLES SQUIRE,\n author of _The Mythology of the British Islands_.\n\n =Judaism.= By ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in\n Cambridge University, author of _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_.\n\n =The Religion of Ancient Rome.= By CYRIL BAILEY, M.A.\n\n =Shinto, The Ancient Religion of Japan.= By W. G. ASTON, C.M.G.\n\n =The Religion of Ancient Mexico and Peru.= By LEWIS SPENCE, M.A.\n\n =Early Christianity.= By S. B. BLACK, Professor at McGill University.\n\n =The Psychological Origin and Nature of Religion.= By Professor J. H.\n LEUBA.\n\n =The Religion of Ancient Palestine.= By STANLEY A. COOK.\n\n =Mithraism.= By W. J. PHYTHIAN-ADAMS.\n\n\nPHILOSOPHIES\n\n =Early Greek Philosophy.= By A. W. BENN, author of _The Philosophy of\n Greece, Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century_.\n\n =Stoicism.= By Professor ST. GEORGE STOCK, author of _Deductive\n Logic_, editor of the _Apology of Plato_, etc.\n\n =Plato.= By Professor A. E. TAYLOR, St Andrews University, author of\n _The Problem of Conduct_.\n\n =Scholasticism.= By Father RICKABY, S.J.\n\n =Hobbes.= By Professor A. E. TAYLOR.\n\n =Locke.= By Professor ALEXANDER, of Owens College.\n\n =Comte and Mill.= By T. WHITTAKER, author of _The Neoplatonists\n Apollonius of Tyana and other Essays_.\n\n =Herbert Spencer.= By W. H. HUDSON, author of _An Introduction to\n Spencer\u2019s Philosophy_.\n\n =Schopenhauer.= By T. WHITTAKER.\n\n =Berkeley.= By Professor CAMPBELL FRASER, D.C.L., LL.D.\n\n =Swedenborg.= By Dr. SEWALL.\n\n =Nietzsche: His Life and Works.= By ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.\n\n =Bergson.= By JOSEPH SOLOMON.\n\n =Rationalism.= By J. M. ROBERTSON.\n\n =Pragmatism.= By D. L. MURRAY.\n\n =Rudolf Eucken.= By W. TUDOR-JONES.\n\n =Epicurus.= By Professor A. E. TAYLOR.\n\n =William James.= By HOWARD V. KNOX.\n\n\n\n\n                                SHINTO\n                         THE ANCIENT RELIGION\n                               OF JAPAN\n\n\n                                  By\n                       W. G. ASTON C.M.G. D.LIT.\n\n\n\n\n                                LONDON\n                        CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD\n            10 AND 12 ORANGE STREET LEICESTER SQUARE W.C.2\n                                 1921\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  CHAP.                                                             PAGE\n\n    I. INTRODUCTORY,                                                   1\n\n   II. GENERAL CHARACTER OF SHINTO,                                    5\n\n  III. MYTH,                                                          18\n\n   IV. THE GODS,                                                      35\n\n    V. THE PRIESTHOOD,                                                55\n\n   VI. WORSHIP,                                                       58\n\n  VII. MORALITY AND PURITY,                                           64\n\n VIII. DIVINATION AND INSPIRATION,                                    75\n\n   IX. LATER HISTORY,                                                 78\n\n       SELECTED WORKS BEARING ON SHINTO,                              82\n\n\n\n\nSHINTO: THE ANCIENT RELIGION\n\nOF JAPAN\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nINTRODUCTORY\n\n\n=Origins.=\u2014The Japanese are in the main a continental race. Their\nlanguage and physical characteristics show conclusively that they come\nfrom Northern Asia, and geographical considerations indicate that\nKorea must have been their point of embarkation. Indeed a desultory\nemigration from Korea to Japan continued into historical times. When\nwe say Northern Asia we exclude China. The racial affinity of the\nJapanese to the Chinese, of which we hear so often, really amounts to\nvery little. It is not closer than that which unites the most distantly\nrelated members of the Indo-European family of nations. The Japanese\nthemselves have no traditions of their origin, and it is now impossible\nto say what form of religion was professed by the earliest immigrants.\nNo inference can be drawn from the circumstance that Sun-worship is\ncommon to them with many North-Asiatic races. The Sun is, or has been,\nworshipped almost everywhere. There is distinct evidence of a Korean\nelement in Shinto, but, with the little that we know of the old native\nreligion of that country, anything like a complete comparison is\nimpossible. Some have recognised a resemblance between Shinto and the\nold state religion of China, and it is true that both consist largely\nof Nature-worship. But the two cults differ widely. The Japanese do\nnot recognise Tien (Heaven), the chief Nature-deity of the Chinese,\nnor have they anything to correspond to their Shangti\u2014a more personal\nruler of the universe. The Sun is masculine in China, feminine in\nJapan. The Sun-goddess takes precedence of the Earth-god in Japan,\nwhile in China Heaven and Earth rank above the Sun and Moon. Some\nChinese traits are to be found in the old Shinto documents, but they\nare of later origin, and are readily distinguishable from the native\nelement. A few similarities exist between Shinto and the religion of\nthe Ainus of Yezo, a savage race which once occupied the main island\nof Japan. But it is reasonable to suppose that in this case the less\ncivilised nation has borrowed from its more civilised neighbour and\nconqueror rather than _vice versa_. It is significant that the Ainu\nwords for God, prayer, and offering, are taken from the Japanese. If\nthe Malay or Polynesian element, which some have recognised in the\nJapanese race, has any existence, it has left no trace in religion.\nSuch coincidences as may be noted between Shinto and oceanic religions,\nmyths and practices are attributable to the like action of common\ncauses rather than to inter-communication. The old Shinto owes little\nto any outside source. It is, on the whole, an independent development\nof Japanese thought.\n\n=Sources of Information.=\u2014The Japanese had no writing until the\nintroduction of Chinese learning from Korea early in the fifth century\nof our era, and the first books which have come down to us date from\nthe beginning of the eighth. One of these, called the _Kojiki_ (712) is\nsaid to have been taken down from the lips of a man whose memory was\nwell stored with the old myths and traditions of his country. He was\nperhaps one of the guild of \u2018reciters,\u2019 whose business it was to recite\n\u2018ancient words\u2019 at the ceremony which corresponds to our coronation.\nThe _Kojiki_ is a repertory of the old myths and legends, and, in the\nlatter part, of the ancient history of Japan. The _Nihongi_, a work of\nsimilar scope, though based more on an existing written literature, was\nproduced a few years later (720). It quotes numerous variants of the\nreligious myths current at this time. There are voluminous and most\nlearned commentaries on these two works written by Moto\u00f6ri and Hirata\nin the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For the ritual of Shinto\nour chief source of information is the _Yengishiki_, a compilation made\nearly in the tenth century. It contains, along with minute directions\nregarding offerings, ceremonies, etc., a series of the _norito_\n(litanies) used in Shinto worship which are of the highest interest,\nand of great, though unequal, antiquity.\n\nThe above-mentioned authorities give a tolerably complete account of\nthe old state religion of Japan, sometimes called \u2018Pure Shinto,\u2019 in\norder to distinguish it from the Buddhicised cult of later times. Its\npalmy days may be taken to extend from the seventh to the twelfth\ncentury. Shinto, literally \u2018The Way of the Gods,\u2019 is a Chinese word,\nfor which the Japanese equivalent is _Kami no michi_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nGENERAL CHARACTER OF SHINTO\n\n\n=Kami= is the ordinary Japanese word for God. It means primarily above,\nsuperior, and is applied to many other things besides deities, such as\nnobles, the authorities, the \u2018missus,\u2019 the hair of the head, the upper\nwaters of a river, the part of Japan near Ki\u014dto, etc. Height is in\nevery country associated with excellence and divinity, no doubt because\nthe first deities were the Sun and other Heavenly objects. We ourselves\nspeak of the \u2018Most High\u2019 and use phrases like \u2018Good Heavens\u2019 which\ntestify to a personification of the sky by our forefathers. But though\nKami corresponds in a general way to \u2018God,\u2019 it has some important\nlimitations. The Kami are high, swift, good, rich, living, but not\ninfinite, omnipotent, or omniscient. Most of them had a father and\nmother, and of some the death is recorded. Moto\u00f6ri, the great Shinto\ntheologian, writing in the latter part of the eighteenth century,\nsays:\u2014\n\n  \u2018The term _Kami_ is applied in the first place to the various\n deities of Heaven and Earth who are mentioned in the ancient records\n as well as to their spirits (_mi-tama_) which reside in the shrines\n where they are worshipped. Moreover, not only human beings, but\n birds, beasts, plants and trees, seas and mountains, and all other\n things whatsoever which deserve to be dreaded and revered for the\n extraordinary and pre-eminent powers which they possess, are called\n _Kami_. They need not be eminent for surpassing nobleness, goodness,\n or serviceableness alone. Malignant and uncanny beings are also called\n _Kami_ if only they are the objects of general dread. Among _Kami_ who\n are human beings I need hardly mention first of all the successive\n Mikados\u2014with reverence be it spoken.... Then there have been numerous\n examples of divine human beings both in ancient and modern times,\n who, although not accepted by the nation generally, are treated as\n gods, each of his several dignity, in a single province, village, or\n family.... Amongst _Kami_ who are not human beings, I need hardly\n mention Thunder [in Japanese _Naru Kami_ or the Sounding God]. There\n are also the Dragon, the Echo [called in Japanese _Ko-dama_ or the\n Tree Spirit] and the Fox, who are _Kami_ by reason of their uncanny\n and fearful natures. The term _Kami_ is applied in the _Nihongi_ and\n _Many\u014dshiu_ to the tiger and the wolf. Izanagi gave to the fruit of\n the peach, and to the jewels round his neck names which implied that\n they were _Kami_.... There are many cases of seas and mountains being\n called _Kami_. It is not their spirits which are meant. The word was\n applied directly to the seas or mountains themselves as being very\n awful things.\u2019\n\n=The Kami-Beneficent.=\u2014The saying of the old Roman poet that \u2018Fear\nfirst made the Gods\u2019 does not hold good of Shinto. It is rather, as\nSchiller called the worship of the gods of Greece, a _Wonnedienst_, a\nreligion inspired by love and gratitude more than by fear. The three\ngreatest gods, viz. the Sun-goddess, the Food-goddess, and Ohonamochi\n(a god of Earth, the universal provider), are all beneficent beings,\nthough they may send a curse when offended by the neglect of their\nworship or an insult to their shrines. Their worshippers come before\nthem with gladness, addressing them as fathers, parents, or dear divine\nancestors, and their festivals are occasions of rejoicing. But there\nare some malevolent or mischievous deities who have to be propitiated\nby offerings. The Fire-god, as is natural in a country where the houses\nare built of wood and great conflagrations are frequent, is one of\nthese, and, in a lesser degree, the Thunder-god and the deity of the\nRain-storm. The latter has, however, good points. He provides trees\nfor the use of humanity, and rescues a maiden from being devoured by a\ngreat serpent.\n\nLafcadio Hearn\u2019s view that Shinto was at one time a religion of\n\u2018perpetual fear\u2019 is unsupported by evidence.\n\n=Classes of Kami.=\u2014Although the Kami are deficient in several of the\nattributes of the Christian God, they possess two essential qualities\nwithout which it would be impossible to recognise them as deities at\nall, viz., sentiency and superhuman power. The union of these ideas\nmay be accomplished in two ways, first by attributing sense and will\nto the great elemental objects and phenomena, and secondly by applying\nto human and other living beings ideas of transcendent power derived\nfrom the contemplation of the mighty forces on whose operation we are\ndaily and hourly dependent for our existence. We have therefore two\nclasses of deities, Nature-gods and Man-gods, the first being the\nresult of personification, the second of deification. It has been\nthe generally received opinion that the Shinto gods belong to the\nlatter rather than to the former of these two categories. Nine out\nof ten educated Japanese will declare with perfect sincerity that\nShinto is ancestor-worship. Thus Mr. Daigoro Goh, a former secretary\nof the Japan Society, says:\u2014\u2018Shinto or ancestor-worship being the\ncreed of the ancient inhabitants.\u2019 The same view is held by some\nEuropean scholars, notably the late Lafcadio Hearn, whose interesting\nand valuable work, _Japan, an Interpretation_, is greatly marred by\nthis misconception. It is quite true that there is a large element\nof ancestor worship in modern Japanese religious practices, but a\nvery little examination shows that all the great deities of the older\nShinto are not Man, but Nature gods. Prominent among them we find the\ndeities of the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, the Sea, the Rain-storm,\nFire, Thunder, etc. And when the so-called ancestors of the Japanese\nrace are not actually Nature-gods, they are usually the satellites\nor children of Nature-gods. In imitation of the Mikados who selected\nthe Sun-goddess as their ancestral deity, the hereditary corporations\nor clans by whom in ancient times the Government of Japan, central\nand local, was carried on, chose for themselves, or perhaps invented,\nnature-deities, or their children or ministers, as their patron-gods,\nto whom special worship was paid. From this to a belief in their\ndescent from him as an ancestor, the transition was easy. The same\nprocess has been observed in other countries. It was assisted by the\nhabit of addressing the deity as father or parent, which, at first a\nmetaphorical expression, came ultimately to be understood in a more\nliteral sense. These pseudo-ancestral deities were called Ujigami,\nthat is to say \u2018surname-deities.\u2019 In later times the Ujigami ceased to\nbe the patron-gods of particular families and became simply the local\ndeities of the district where one was born. Children are presented to\nthe Ujigami shortly after birth, and other important events, such as\na change of residence, are announced to him. A deity of any class may\nbecome an Ujigami, and there have been cases of a Buddha attaining\nto this position. The cult of one\u2019s real forefathers, beginning with\ndeceased parents, as in China, was hardly known in ancient Japan.\nIndeed there is but little trace of any religious worship of individual\nmen in the Shinto of the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_. Living Mikados\nwere styled Kami, and spoken of as the \u2018Heavenly Grandchild\u2019 of the\nSun-goddess. But their godship was more titular than real. It was much\non a par with that of the Pope and Emperor who in the Middle Ages were\ncalled \u2018Deus in terris.\u2019 No miraculous powers were claimed for them\nbeyond a vague general authority over the minor gods of Japan. Deceased\nMikados were occasionally worshipped by their descendants, but whether\nthere was anything in this so-called worship to distinguish it from\nthe ordinary funeral or commemorative services there is nothing to\nshow. They had no shrines, and no rituals in their honour are preserved\nin the Yengishiki collection. At a later period, the cult of deceased\nMikados acquired a more definite character. They were prayed to for\nrain, to stay curses, to restore the Mikado\u2019s health, etc. They had\nshrines erected to them, the offerings at which were assimilated to\nthose made to Nature-deities. The Mikado \u00d4jin, if we may believe an\noracle delivered by himself, became an important War-god under the name\nof Hachiman. The Empress Jing\u014d, the legendary conqueror of Korea, also\nreceived divine honours. At the present day, solemn services are held\nperiodically in the Imperial Palace for the worship of all the dynasty.\n\nBoth categories of deities, Man and Nature gods, have three\nsubdivisions according as they are deities of individuals, of classes,\nor of qualities. All these are exemplified in Shinto. The Sun-goddess\nrepresents an individual object; Kukuchi, the god of Trees, a class;\nand Musubi, the god of Growth, an abstract quality. Temmangu is a\ndeified individual statesman, Koyane represents the Nakatomi clan or\nfamily, and Ta-jikara no wo (hand-strength-male) is a personified human\nquality.\n\n=Development of the Idea of God.=\u2014The Nature-gods of Shinto, as of\nother religions, are in the first place the actual material objects\nor phenomena regarded as living beings. Sometimes the personification\nproceeds no further. There are Mud and Sand deities which have no\nsex, and no mythical record beyond a bare mention. But in the case of\nothers the same progressive humanising process that is to be observed\nelsewhere has already begun. The Sun is not only the brilliant heavenly\nbeing whose retirement to a cave leaves the world to darkness, she is\na queen, a child, and a mother\u2014in a miraculous fashion. She speaks,\nweaves, wears armour, sows seed, and does many other things which\nhave nothing to do with her solar quality. At a still more recent\nstage\u2014though not in the old records\u2014she becomes an independent\npersonage who rules the Sun, while with many worshippers at the present\nday her solar character is forgotten altogether, and she is considered\nmerely as a great divine ancestor who dwells at Ise and exercises a\nprovidential guardianship over Japan. This line of development is\nfamiliar to us in other mythologies, the two stages of thought being\noften confounded. In Shakespeare\u2019s _Tempest_, Iris is at once the\nrainbow and an anthropomorphic messenger of the gods. Phoebus is not\nonly the sun but a deity distinct from that luminary, though associated\nwith it, as in the story of Phaeton. As the god of music and poetry,\nhis solar function is not obvious. The same is true of the gods of the\nVedas.\n\n=Impersonality of Shinto.=\u2014The faculty of imagination was not powerful\nwith the ancient Japanese. It was active, and produced many deities\nof all classes. But they are very feebly characterised. Indeed, most\nof them may be said to have no characters at all. They are popularly\nreckoned at eighty myriads, or eight hundred myriads. Though this is a\nfanciful exaggeration, Shinto is a highly polytheistic religion, and\nnumbers its deities by hundreds, even if we do not go back to that\nearlier period when the rocks, the trees, and the foam of water had\nall power of speech. There is a constant depletion in their ranks by\nthe mere force of oblivion, while, on the other hand, new deities come\ninto notice. Different gods are identified with one another, or the\nsame deities may be split up like Musubi into a pair, or a number of\ndistinct persons. The same deity at different places may have different\nranks and attributes.\n\n=Spiritism.=\u2014The gods of ancient Shinto are, on the whole, as\nunspiritual beings as the gods of Olympus. Their doings are modelled\non those of living men and women, not on those of ghosts. When Izanagi\nfollowed his wife Izanami to the land of the dead he found there not a\nspirit, but a putrefying corpse. Ghosts are as absent from the _Kojiki_\nand _Nihongi_ as they are from the Old Testament Scriptures. Herbert\nSpencer\u2019s ghost-theory of the origin of religion derives no support\nfrom the Japanese evidence. There is, however, a spiritual element in\nShinto which demands notice. Some of the gods are represented as having\n_mitama_ (august jewels or souls) which reside invisibly in their\ntemples and are the means of communication between Heaven and this\nworld. The Earth or Kosmos deity Ohonamochi had a _mitama_ (double)\nwhich appeared to him in a divine radiance illuminating the sea, and\nobtained from him a promise that, in consideration of the assistance\nthe latter had rendered in reducing the world to order, he should\nhave a shrine consecrated to him at Mimoro. Susa no wo\u2019s _mitama_ was\n\u2018settled\u2019 at Susa in Idzumo. The element _tama_ (soul) enters into\nthe names of several deities. This implies a more or less spiritual\nconception of their nature. Sometimes we hear of two _mitama_, one of a\ngentle, the other of a violent nature.\n\nThere are only one or two cases of deceased men having mitama. In\none of these the mitama takes the shape of a bird. Metamorphoses are\nfrequently mentioned in the old legends.\n\n=Shekinah.=\u2014As in the analogous case of the Shekinah of Judaism, the\ndoctrine of the mitama of gods apparently does not arise from that of\nthe separability of the human soul and body. It seems rather to have\nbeen invented in order to smooth over the difficulty of conceiving\nhow the gods of Heaven can exercise their power and hear and answer\nprayer in their shrines on earth. It may, however, owe something to the\nnotion of separate human souls, which, though we do not find it in the\nolder Japanese records, is familiar to races of a much lower degree of\ncivilisation.\n\n=Immortality of the Soul.=\u2014This doctrine is nowhere directly taught\nin the Shinto books. There is a land of Yomi to which we are told that\nsome of the gods retired at death. It is represented as inhabited by\nvarious personifications of death and disease, but not by human beings\nor their ghosts, though the phrase \u2018even pass of Yomi,\u2019 like the\n_facilis descensus Averni_, seems intended to express the facility with\nwhich all we mortal men find our way thither. In one passage of the\n_Nihongi_, Yomi is clearly no more than a metaphor for the grave. A\nbrother of Jimmu Tenno, the first Mikado, is said to have gone to the\n\u2018Eternal Land\u2019 at his death, and in a poem of the Many\u014dshiu, a deceased\nMikado is said to have ascended into heaven. The prehistoric custom of\nsacrificing wives and attendants at the tombs of dead sovereigns may be\nthought to imply a belief in their continued existence. But there are\nother motives for this practice than the wish to gratify the deceased\nby providing him with companions in the other world. The _norito_ or\nrituals contain no reference to the immortality of the soul.\n\n=Shintai.=\u2014The mitama is represented in the shrine by a concrete\nobject termed the Shintai or \u2018God-body.\u2019 It may be a mirror, a sword,\na tablet with the god\u2019s name, a pillow, a spear, etc. A round stone,\nwhich is cheap and durable, is a very common Shintai. The god is\nsometimes represented as attaching himself to the Shintai, and may\nbe even considered identical with it by the ignorant. The _mitama_\nand _shintai_ are frequently confounded. The latter was in many cases\noriginally an offering which, by long association, came ultimately to\nbe looked upon as partaking in some measure of the divine nature.\n\n=Idols.=\u2014With a few unimportant exceptions, Shinto has no idols.\nThe Shintai is not in the least anthropomorphic. The pictures of the\ngods sold at shrines at the present day are due to Chinese or Buddhist\ninfluence.\n\n=Functions of Gods.=\u2014The two great classes of deities, Nature-gods\nand Man-gods, have a tendency mutually to encroach on each other\u2019s\nfunctions, so that ultimately they become assimilated under the one\ngeneral term Kami. As we have seen above, the Sun-goddess does not\nconfine herself to her function as a giver of light and heat, but does\nmany things characteristic of a magnified human being. Susa no wo, the\nRain-storm, provides mankind with useful trees. He and his wife are\nregarded as gods of wedlock. Inari, the Grain-god, is a comprehensive\nanswerer of prayer from a petition for a good harvest to one for the\nrestoration of stolen property. On the other hand, a genuine deified\nman like Temmangu may send rain in time of drought. An obscure deity,\nknown as Suitengu, is worshipped in Tokio at the present day as a\nprotector against the perils of the sea, burglary, and the pains of\nparturition. Almost any Kami, whatever his origin, may send rain,\nbestow prosperity in trade, avert sickness, cure sickness or sterility,\nand so on, without much discrimination of function.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nMYTH\n\n\n=Character of Japanese Myth.=\u2014Japanese myth covers much the same\nground as the myths of other countries. We have the explanatory myth,\ninvented in order to account for some custom or rite, some natural\nphenomenon, a name of a place or person, etc. There is an abundance\nof highly frivolous, revolting, childish, and unmeaning\u2014to us at\nleast\u2014matter, and the various versions of the stories which have come\ndown to us are often wholly inconsistent with one another. From the\nsketch of the mythical narrative which is given below, many details of\nthis description have necessarily been omitted. There are, however,\ntwo leading ideas by which Japanese myth is redeemed from summary\ncondemnation as a mere farrago of childish nonsense. In the first\nplace, it is permeated by the conception of the so-called inanimate\nuniverse as being in reality instinct with sentient life. The old\nShintoists had not grasped the more general and philosophic notion of\nthe Immanence of Deity in all things. With their limited scientific\nknowledge this was impossible. But they had the same idea in a more\ndesultory, fragmentary way. To them, the Sun, the Wind, the Sea, were\n_Kami_ who could hear and answer prayer, and exercise a providential\ncare over mankind. But the synthesis of these and other aspects of\nnature and humanity into one divine whole is necessarily wanting. The\nsecond idea which inspires Japanese myth corresponds to our European\nnotion of the divine right of kings, which, apart from the accident of\nheredity, is not such a negligible quantity as is sometimes supposed.\nThe Mikados are represented as deriving their authority, whether as\nhigh-priests or sovereigns, from their ancestor, the Sun-goddess,\nand have, therefore, a divinely ordered right to the reverence and\nobedience of their subjects.\n\nThere is no summer and winter myth in the old records, no deluge myth,\nand no eclipse myth. The stars are strangely neglected. Earthquakes are\nhardly noticed. There is no Returning Saviour myth, and no Journey of\nthe Dead, though the expressions \u2018Even Pass of Hades\u2019 and _Yaso-kumade_\n(eighty-road-windings, an alternative word for the land of Darkness)\nsuggest that this idea was not unknown. The creation of mankind\ngenerally is not accounted for; but the origin of many of the ruling\ncaste is ascribed to direct descent from the principal divinities, just\nas the Mikado is said to be descended from the Sun-goddess.\n\n=First Gods.=\u2014Four different first gods are mentioned by the various\nauthorities. None of these ever attained to much importance. They\nwere no doubt collected or invented with the purpose of eking out a\ngenealogical tree for the greater divinities who came afterwards. One\nof these, called _Ame yudzuru hi ame no sagiri Kuni yudzuru tsuki Kuni\nno sagiri_, is described as the Heavenly Parent. But we know nothing\nmore about him or her\u2014the sex is doubtful\u2014and it is impossible to\nregard this interminable title as the name of a real god, any more than\nwe can think that Shakespeare\u2019s _honorificabilitudinitatibus_ was ever\nmeant for a genuine word. The derivation, however, shows that this,\nlike the other first gods, was intended as a nature-deity. The four\ngenerations which follow consist of obscure personages, all of whom\ndisappear at once from the record. Their names, too, are suggestive\nof nature, and more especially agriculture-deities. In the sixth\ngeneration we find two deities, named _Kami-musubi_ and _Taka-musubi_,\n_i.e._ High-growth and Divine-growth, who were of some importance in\nlater times.\n\n=Izanagi and Izanami.=\u2014With these two deities Japanese myth really\nbegins.\n\nThe _Nihongi_ tells us that\u2014\n\n \u2018Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of Heaven (the\n rainbow) and held counsel together, saying \u201cIs there not a country\n beneath?\u201d Thereupon they thrust down the \u201cJewel-Spear of Heaven,\u201d and\n groping about with it, found the ocean. The brine which dripped from\n the point of the spear coagulated and formed an island which received\n the name of Onogoro-jima or the \u201cSelf-Coagulating Island.\u201d The two\n deities thereupon descended and dwelt there. Accordingly they wished\n to be united as husband and wife, and to produce countries. So they\n made Onogoro-jima the pillar of the centre of the land.\u2019\n\nThe _Kojiki_ says that Izanagi and Izanami were commanded by all the\nheavenly deities \u2018to regulate and fully consolidate\u2019 the floating\nland beneath. But all the accounts, the _Kojiki_ included, proceed to\nrepresent the islands of Japan as having been generated by them in\nthe ordinary manner. We have therefore three distinct conceptions of\ncreation in Japanese myth\u2014first, as generation in the most literal\nsense; second, as reducing to order; and third, as growth (_Musubi_).\n\n \u2018The two deities having descended on Onogoro-jima erected there\n an eight-fathom house with an august central pillar. Then Izanagi\n addressed Izanami, saying, \u201cLet me and thee go round the heavenly\n august pillar, and having met at the other side, let us become united\n in wedlock.\u201d This being agreed to, he said, \u201cDo thou go round from the\n left, and I will go round from the right.\u201d When they had gone round,\n Izanami spoke first and exclaimed, \u201cHow delightful! I have met a\n lovely youth.\u201d Izanagi then said, \u201cHow delightful! I have met a lovely\n maiden.\u201d Afterwards he said, \u201cIt was unlucky for the woman to speak\n first.\u201d The child which was the first offspring of their union was\n the Hiruko (leech-child), which at the age of three was still unable\n to stand upright, and was therefore placed in a reed-boat and sent\n adrift.\u2019\n\nIzanagi and Izanami then procreated the islands of Japan with a number\nof other gods, among whom were _Iha-tsuchi-biko_ (rock-earth-prince),\n_Oho-ya-biko_ (great-house-prince), the Wind-gods, a variety of marine\ndeities, _Ame no Mikumari_ (the heavenly water distributor), the god\nof Moors (who is also the god of Herbs and Grasses), the god of Trees,\nthe gods of Mountains and Valleys, and the goddess of Food. The last\ndeity to be produced was the god of Fire, _Kagu-tsuchi_, also called\n_Ho-musubi_ (Fire-growth). In giving birth to him, Izanami was burnt\nso that she sickened and lay down. From her vomit, f\u00e6ces, and urine\nwere born deities which personify the elements of metal, water, and\nclay. When Izanami died, Izanagi, in his grief and rage, drew his sword\nand slew Kagu-tsuchi, thereby generating a number of other deities, two\nof whom, named Take-mika-tsuchi and Futsunushi, were favourite objects\nof worship in later times.\n\nThe creation of the Sun and Moon is variously accounted for. Some say\nthat they were the children of Izanagi and Izanami, others that they\nwere born from the lustrations of Izanagi when he returned from Yomi. A\nthird child, Susa no wo, the boisterous and unruly Rain-storm god, was\nproduced at the same time.\n\nWhen Izanami died she went to the Land of Yomi, whither she was\nfollowed by her husband. But as she had already eaten of the food\nof that region, he could not bring her back with him. She forbade\nhim to look on her, but he persisted and saw that she was already a\nputrid corpse. Izanami then complained that he had put her to shame,\nand caused him to be pursued by the Ugly Females of Hades and other\npersonifications of corruption and disease who dwelt there. She herself\nhad become Death personified. Izanagi, in his flight, flung down\nvarious objects which delayed his pursuers\u2014a well-known incident of\nmyth\u2014until he reached the Even Pass of Hades, where he pronounced the\nformula of divorce.\n\nWhen Izanagi returned to earth he bathed in the sea in order to remove\nthe pollution incurred by his visit to Yomi, and in so doing produced\na number of deities, some of whom are Ocean-gods and others associated\nwith the ancient Japanese ceremonies of religious purification.\n\n=Susa no wo and the Sun-Goddess.=\u2014Susa no wo (the Rain-storm god)\nwas at first appointed to rule the Sea, but he preferred to join his\nmother, Izanami, in Hades, and was accordingly despatched thither by\nhis father. Before taking his departure, however, he ascended to heaven\nto take leave of his elder sister Amaterasu, the Sun-goddess. All the\nmountains and rivers shook, and every land and country quaked as he\npassed upwards. Amaterasu, in alarm, armed herself as a warrior with\nsword and bow, stamped her feet into the hard ground up to her thighs,\nkicking away the earth like rotten snow, and, confronting him like a\nvaliant man, challenged him to declare the reason of his coming. Susa\nno wo protested that it was only a friendly visit, and as a proof of\nhis good intentions proposed that they should produce children between\nthem by each one crunching in his mouth and spurting out fragments\nof the sword and jewels worn by the other. One of the children thus\nborn was called _Masaya a katsu kachi hayahi ama no oshihomimi_, the\nforefather of the present Imperial dynasty. There were seven others who\nfigure largely in the genealogies of the Japanese nobility.\n\nBut the true nature of the Rain-storm god was not long repressed. He\ndestroyed his sister\u2019s rice-fields, defiled the sacred hall where\nshe was celebrating the harvest festival, and flung a piebald colt\nthat had been flayed backwards into the sacred weaving-room where\nthe garments of the gods were woven. The Sun-goddess had borne his\nprevious outrages with calmness and forbearance, but this last (a\nmalicious magical practice?) was beyond endurance. She retired in\ndisgust and shut herself up in the Rock-cave of Heaven, leaving the\nworld to darkness. This proceeding of Amaterasu was followed by dire\nresults. \u2018The voices of the evil deities were like unto the flies in\nthe fifth moon as they swarmed, and a myriad portents of woe arose.\u2019\nThe gods, in consternation, held an assembly in the dry bed of the\nRiver of Heaven (the Milky Way) to devise means for inducing her\nto emerge from the cave, and a number of expedients were adopted\nwhich were evidently borrowed from the ritual of the time when the\nmyth became current. The deities who were specially concerned with\nthis duty are obvious counterparts of the actual officials of the\nMikado\u2019s Court, and included a prayer-reciter, an offering-provider,\na mirror-maker, a jewel-maker, a diviner, with\u2014according to some\naccounts\u2014many others. All this is most convenient for the genealogists\nof later times. Amaterasu at length reappeared, to the great delight\nof everybody. Susa no wo was fined in a thousand tables of offerings\nand expelled from Heaven. Before proceeding to Yomi, he went down to\nEarth. Here he appears in a totally new character as the Perseus of a\nJapanese Andromeda, whom he rescues from a huge serpent, having first\nintoxicated the monster. Of course they are married and have numerous\nchildren. Her name, Inada-hime (rice-land-lady), is probably not\nwithout significance as that of the wife of a Rain-storm god. Another\nstory represents him as the murderer of the Food-goddess, who had\noffended him by producing viands for his entertainment from various\nparts of her body. But a different version ascribes this crime to the\nMoon-god, and gives it as the reason why the Sun-goddess refused to\nhave any further relations with him. This, of course, explains why the\ntwo luminaries are not seen together.\n\nHere it may be pointed out that, notwithstanding the anthropomorphic\ncharacter of many of the above details it is evidently the sun itself\nwhich is concealed in the Rock-cave. Modern Euhemerists deny this. But\nthe evidence is far too strong to be disregarded. Her names, Amaterasu\n(Heaven Shining-one) and Hirume (Sun-female), are conclusive on this\npoint. The modern commentator Moto\u00f6ri agrees, or rather maintains,\nthat Amaterasu is the very sun which we see in heaven. Those Japanese\nwho in the twentieth century talk of the imperial visit to Ise as\nancestor-worship are sorely puzzled to justify their position. Imbued\nwith the philosophy of China and the science of Europe, they naturally\nfind it difficult to understand how the Mikado can be really descended\nfrom the sun. Some resort to the Euhemeristic theory that she was a\nmortal Empress who lived in a place on earth called Takanna no hara\n(plain-of-high-heaven), and speak of rice-culture and the art of\nweaving being known in her reign.\n\nThe myth of the Sun-goddess and Susa no wo is the central pivot on\nwhich the old mythology turns. All that precedes may be regarded as a\nsort of genealogical introduction, and the subsequent narrative as an\nepilogue designed to complete the connexion between the living Mikados\nand their celestial ancestor.\n\n=Ohonamochi.=\u2014One of Susa no wo\u2019s children was an Earth-god named\nOhonamochi (great-name-possessor), who is at this day a very important\ndeity. The _Kojiki_ relates his adventures at great length. He was\nbadly treated by his eighty elder brothers, but assisted by a hare\nto whom he had rendered service. He went down to the land of Yomi,\nwhere he married the daughter of Susa no wo. Susa no wo imposed tasks\nupon him which by his wife\u2019s assistance he performed successfully,\nand ultimately made his escape, taking her with him. The Yomi of this\nnarrative has little that is characteristic of the abode of the Dead.\nOhonamochi is frequently referred to as the \u2018God who made the land,\u2019\nand his various names show that he is an Earth-god. He was assisted in\nreducing the country to order by his own _mitama_ or double, and by a\ndwarf-god called Sukuna-bikona, who came from beyond the sea and is\ncredited with having instructed mankind in the arts of medicine and\nbrewing. Ohonamochi had a numerous progeny by various mothers. Among\nthem were the Harvest-god and the Food-goddess. The _Kojiki_ gives\na genealogy of them and their descendants, most of whom are wholly\nunknown to us.\n\n=Ninigi.=\u2014Meanwhile the Sun-Goddess became desirous of establishing\nthe rule of her own grandchild Ninigi, son of Masaya a katsu, in\nJapan. After several fruitless attempts to prepare the country for\nhis reception by purging it of the swarms of evil deities which\ninfested it, two gods named Take-mika-tsuchi (Thunder?) and Futsunushi\n(Fire?) were sent to summon Ohonamochi to yield over his authority.\nAfter some demur he did so, and Ninigi was accordingly despatched\nto earth, accompanied by a long train of attendants who provide\nfurther material for the genealogists. They descended on a mountain\nin Kiushiu. Here Ninigi took to wife a Mountain-god\u2019s daughter, named\nKonohana Sakuya-hime (the lady who blossoms like the flowers of the\ntrees), rejecting as too ugly her elder sister Iha-naga-hime (the\nrock-long-lady). The latter, indignant at this slight, uttered a\ncurse:\u2014\u2018The race of visible men shall change swiftly like the flowers\nof the trees, and shall decay and pass away.\u2019 Hence the shortness of\nhuman life. By Konohana Ninigi had three children. The eldest, Ho no\nSusori, became a fisherman, the second son, Hohodemi, a hunter.\n\nHo no Susori once proposed to his brother to exchange their respective\ncallings. Hohodemi accordingly gave over to his elder brother his bow\nand arrows and received a fish-hook in return. But neither of them\nprofited by the exchange, so Ho no Susori gave back to his brother the\nbow and arrows and demanded from him the fish-hook.\n\nHohodemi, however, had in the meantime lost it in the sea. He took\nhis sword and forged from it a number of new fish-hooks which he\npiled up in a winnowing tray and offered to his brother by way of\ncompensation. But the latter would have none but his own, and demanded\nit so vehemently of Hohodemi as to grieve him bitterly. Hohodemi went\ndown to the sea-shore and stood there lamenting, when there appeared\nto him the Old Man of the Sea, by whose advice he descended into the\nsea-depths to the abode of the god of the Sea, a stately palace with\nlofty towers and battlements. Before the gate there was a well, and\nover the well grew a thick-branching cassia tree into which Hohodemi\nclimbed. The Sea-god\u2019s daughter Toyo-tama-hime (rich-jewel-maiden)\nthen came out from the palace to draw water. She saw Hohodemi\u2019s face\nreflected in the well, and returning within reported to her father\nthat she had seen a beautiful youth in the tree which grew by the\nwell. Hohodemi was courteously received by the Sea-god, Toyo-tama-hiko\n(rich-jewel-prince), who, when he heard his errand, summoned before\nhim all the fishes of the sea and made inquiry of them for the lost\nfish-hook, which was eventually discovered in the mouth of the Tai.\nToyo-tama-hiko delivered it to Hohodemi, telling him when he gave it\nback to his brother to say, \u2018a hook of poverty, a hook of ruin, a hook\nof downfall,\u2019 to spit twice, and to hand it over with averted face.\n\nHohodemi married the Sea-god\u2019s daughter Toyo-tama-hime and remained\nwith her for three years. He then became home-sick and returned to\nthe upper world. On the beach where he came to land, he built for his\nwife, who was soon to follow, a parturition house which he thatched\nwith cormorant\u2019s feathers. The roofing was still unfinished when she\narrived, riding on a great tortoise. She went straight into the hut,\nbegging her husband not to look at her. But Hohodemi\u2019s curiosity was\ntoo strong for him. He peeped in and behold! his wife had become\nchanged into a _wani_ (sea-dragon) eight fathoms long. Deeply\nindignant at the disgrace put upon her, Toyo-tama-hime abandoned her\nnew-born child to the care of her sister, and barring behind her the\nsea-path in such a way that from that day to this all communication\nbetween the realms of land and sea has been cut off, returned hastily\nto her father\u2019s palace.\n\nHohodemi\u2019s troubles with his elder brother were renewed on his arrival\nhome. He was obliged to use against him two talismans given him by his\nfather-in-law. One of these had the virtue of making the tide flow and\nsubmerge Ho no Susori and thus compel him to sue for mercy (another\naccount says that Hohodemi whistled and thereby raised the wind and the\nsea). Then by a second talisman the tide was made to recede and Ho no\nSusori\u2019s life was spared. He yielded complete submission to his younger\nbrother and promised that he and his descendants to all generations\nwould serve Hohodemi and his successors as mimes and bondservants. The\n_Nihongi_ adds that in that day it was still customary for the Hayato\n(or Imperial guards), who were descended from Ho no Susori, to perform\na mimic dance before the Mikados, the descendants and successors of\nHohodemi, in which the drowning struggles of their ancestor were\nrepresented.\n\nThere are several features in this story which betray a recent origin\nand foreign influences. A comparatively advanced civilisation is\nindicated by the sword and fish-hook forged of iron. The institution\nof the Hayato as Imperial Guards belongs to a period not very long\nantecedent to the date of the _Nihongi_ and _Kojiki_. The palace of the\nsea-depths and its Dragon-king are of Chinese, and therefore of recent\norigin.\n\nOne of Hohodemi\u2019s grandchildren was Jimmu Tenn\u014d, who is usually\nreckoned the first human sovereign of Japan. He was the youngest of\nfour brothers and his selection as heir shows that primogeniture,\nthough to some extent acknowledged in Ancient Japan, was by no means\nthe universal rule. At the age of forty-five he started from Kiushiu,\nwhich had been the home of the Imperial family since Ninigi descended\nthere, on an expedition for the conquest of the central part of Japan,\nknown as Yamato. This event is dated in B.C. 667, 1,792, 470 years\nafter the descent of Ninigi from heaven. He finally succeeded in\nestablishing his capital there in B.C. 660. From this date Japanese\nhistory is usually said to begin. In reality there is no genuine\nhistory of Japan for one thousand years more. The chronology for all\nthis period is a colossal fraud and there is abundant intrinsic\nevidence that the narrative itself is no better than legend when it is\nnot absolute fiction. There is, however, much to be learned from it of\nthe beliefs and customs of the ancient Japanese.\n\nThe descent of the Imperial dynasty from a Sea-god has been noted as an\nauspicious omen for the development of Japan as a great naval power.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE GODS\n\n\nNATURE-GODS OF INDIVIDUALS AND OF CLASSES\n\nSome of the principal gods have already been introduced in the\npreceding chapter. Let us now consider them separately, according to\nthe classification already indicated (p. 8). It is often difficult to\nsay whether a nature-god represents an individual object or phenomenon,\nor a class. This is chiefly owing to the circumstance that Japanese,\nlike other Far-Eastern languages, habitually neglects the distinction\nbetween the singular and the plural number. The idea of making verbs\nand adjectives agree in number with the substantives to which they\nbelong does not seem to have occurred to these nations, and, even in\nthe case of nouns and pronouns, plural particles are very sparingly\nused. _Yama no Kami_, for example, may mean either God of the Mountain,\nGod of Mountains, Gods of the Mountain, or Gods of Mountains.\n\n=Amaterasu=, the =Sun-Goddess=.\u2014The Sun-goddess belongs unmistakably\nto the first class, viz., that of individual objects personified.\nShe is much the most prominent member of the Shinto Pantheon, and is\ndescribed as the Ruler of Heaven and unrivalled in dignity. She wears\nroyal insignia, and is surrounded by a court. The chief religious\nceremony of state was in her honour. Yet she is not what we should call\na Supreme Deity. She is by no means an autocrat. Even in heaven, which\nshe is supposed to govern, there is a Council of the Gods which decides\nimportant matters. In some myths she has a formidable rival in _Taka\nmusubi_, a god of Growth.\n\nThe ascription of the female sex to the deity of the Sun has more\nmeaning than might be supposed. Women held a far more important and\nindependent position in ancient Japan than they did at a later time\nwhen Chinese ideas of their subjection became prevalent. Several of\nthe ancient Mikados were women. Old Chinese books call Japan the\n\u2018Queen-country.\u2019 Women chieftains are frequently mentioned. Some of the\nmost important monuments of the old literature were the work of women.\n\nLike the Sun-Gods of ancient Greece and Egypt, Amaterasu possesses\na sacred bird, the Yatagarasu, or eight-hand-crow. An old Japanese\ndictionary identifies this bird, rightly in my opinion, with the Yangwu\nor Sun-crow of Chinese myth. The Yangwu is a bird of a red colour with\nthree legs which inhabits the sun. The Yatagarasu was lent by the\nSun-goddess to Jimmu Tenn\u014d as a guide to his expedition against the\ntribes who then held the province of Yamato. A noble Japanese family\nclaimed descent from this bird.\n\nThe Sun-goddess is represented in the shrine of Ise by her shintai\nor token, which is called the Yatakagami or eight-hand mirror. It is\nrelated that when she sent down her grandchild Ninigi to rule the\nearth, she gave him this mirror with the injunction: \u2018Regard this\nmirror exactly as our mitama (soul) and reverence it as if reverencing\nus.\u2019 At this day the Yatakagami is held in high reverence. It is kept\nin a bag of brocade which is never opened or repaired, a new one being\nadded on the top of its predecessor when the latter is too much worn\nfor further use. The _Nihongi_ calls it the \u2018Great-God of Ise.\u2019\n\nAmaterasu is not the only Sun-deity of Japanese myth. We hear of a\nWaka-hirume (young-sun-female) who is no doubt a personification of\nthe morning sun, and of a Nigi-haya-hi (gentle, swift-sun). The latter\nis said to have come down from heaven in a heavenly rock-boat, and\nto have become the chieftain of one of the tribes subdued by Jimmu\nTenn\u014d. He may, however, have been a human being named as a compliment\nafter the Sun. This proceeding is not unknown in Japanese history. But\nI rather suspect that he is a real Sun-god. Then there is the Hiruko\nmentioned at p. 22 as the first-born of all the deities. Now Hiruko,\nthough written with Chinese characters which mean leech-child, may also\nmean Sun-male-child, and this is obviously its proper meaning. The\nHiruko was a male Sun-deity who afterwards became obsolete. For some\nunknown reason Hiruko has been identified with a popular modern deity\nnamed Yebisu, who has to all appearance nothing to do with either the\nsun or the leech. He is pictured as an angler with a fish dangling\nat the end of his line. He has a smiling countenance and wears old\nJapanese costume. Merchants pray to him for success in trade.\n\nAt the present day the title Amaterasu no oho-kami (the great\ndeity who illumines heaven) is generally replaced by its Chinese\nequivalent Tensh\u014ddaijin. The meaning of the latter is less clear to\nthe uneducated, who forget that she has any connection with the sun.\nSun-worship, however, proceeds independently. Women and children\nespecially call it by the respectful name of Otent\u014d sama, without\nattribution of sex, with no formal cult, and no myth, but endowed\nwith moral attributes, punishing the wicked and rewarding the just.\nDr. Griffis describes a scene which he witnessed in Tokio when, late\none afternoon, Otent\u014d sama, which had been hidden behind clouds for a\nfortnight, shone out on the muddy streets. In a moment scores of people\nrushed out of their houses, and with faces westward began prayer and\nworship before the great luminary. Many people keep awake all night on\nthe last day of the year so as to worship the rising sun on the first\nday of the New Year.\n\n=Tsuki-yomi.=\u2014The Sun being feminine, Tsuki-yomi, the moon-deity, is\nnaturally masculine. Though he has shrines at Ise and other places, he\noccupies a far less prominent place in Japanese myth and cult than his\nelder sister Amaterasu.\n\n=Susa no wo.=\u2014The true character of this deity had been forgotten by\nthe Japanese themselves until he was shown by an American scholar,\nDr. Buckley of Chicago, to be a personification of the Rain-storm.\nThe generally accepted etymology of his name derives it from a verb\n_susamu_, to be impetuous. This accords well with his character\nas described in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_. Mr. B. H. Chamberlain\ntranslates by \u2018the Impetuous Male,\u2019 and he may be correct. But there is\na town in Idzumo called Susa where this god had a shrine, and it seems\npossible that it was from this that he took his name.\n\n=Star-Gods= are few and unimportant in Shinto.\n\n=Earth-worship.=\u2014The direct worship of the Earth is well-known in\nJapan. At the present day, when a new building is erected or new\nrice-land brought under cultivation, the ground is solemnly propitiated\nby a ceremony called Ji-matsuri or earth-worship. Localities were\npersonified under names which recall Erin, Britannia, Dea Roma, etc.\nSuch deities were called Kunidama, country or province spirit. The\ngreatest of these, and one of the three greatest gods of Shinto, is\nOhonamochi. His shrine at Kitsuki in Idzumo is known as the Taisha or\ngreat shrine, and he has numerous other shrines, called Sann\u014d or Hiye,\nin all parts of the country. In his case the deification has proceeded\nbeyond the mere personification of the soil. Legend represents him\nas the maker of the land, not the land itself, and in modern times\nnobody thinks of him as an Earth-god. His various names, however, show\nconclusively that he is as much an earth-deity as the Greek Gaia, who,\nlike him, was \u2018one shape of many names.\u2019 Lafcadio Hearn would make\nhim out to be the god of the dead, though there are already two other\nrulers of Hades, and Dr. Buckley thinks that he is a Moon-god. With\nOhonamochi there is associated his minister, an important deity named\nKotoshiro-nushi, and a dwarf-god, Sukuna-bikona, who is credited with\nthe invention of medicine, magic, and the art of brewing sake.\n\nAnother Earth-god is Asuha, an obscure personage, who is supposed to be\nthe deity of the courtyard. Mud, sand, and clay are deified under the\nnames of Uhijini, Suhijini, and Hani-yasu-hime, the last name meaning\nclay-easy (in the sense of plastic) lady. Clay was deified because\nit supplied the material for the domestic cooking furnace, a defence\nagainst the encroaches of that unruly power, fire.\n\n=Mountain-Gods.=\u2014Most mountains have their deity, which is sometimes\nconceived of as the mountain itself, at others as a god of the\nmountain. Mountain gods do not take high rank in the Shinto Pantheon.\nThey were propitiated before trees were cut for building purposes.\n\n=Earthquake-Gods= are little heard of. But any god might cause an\nearthquake if offended.\n\n=Sea-Gods.=\u2014The chief Sea-gods of Shinto are Sokotsu-wata-dzumi\n(bottom-sea-body), Nakatsu-wata-dzumi (middle-sea-body), and\nUhatsu-wata-dzumi (upper-sea-body), three deities produced from\nIzanagi\u2019s ablutions in the sea when he returned from Hades. They\nare also represented as forming one deity. So that we have here an\nexample\u2014not the only one\u2014of a Japanese Trinity. They have a famous\nshrine at Sumiyoshi near Osaka, and are much prayed to for safety from\nshipwreck and for fair winds.\n\nAnother Sea-god, Toyotama hiko, has been already mentioned above (p.\n31).\n\n=River-Gods= are represented as dragons or serpents. The resemblance\nof a river with its winding serpentine course, and its mysterious\nmotion without legs, to a great serpent, has struck mankind in many\ncountries. The Chinese, the Mexicans, and the Semitic nations concur in\nassociating water with the serpent. It is mostly the maleficent aspect\nof rivers that is thus symbolised. There are traditions in Japanese\nlegend of human sacrifices to rivers.\n\n=Rain-Gods.=\u2014Special Rain-gods are mentioned in the old myths, but in\npractice any deity might be appealed to for aid in time of drought.\n\n=Wells.=\u2014There are sacred wells from which the water required in\nsacrifice was drawn. The water itself was made a female deity under the\nname of Midzuha no me. At the present day, the ordinary well or stream\nfrom which water is taken for domestic purposes is propitiated early on\nthe morning of the New Year by small offerings.\n\n=Wind-Gods.=\u2014Sometimes one Wind-god is spoken of, sometimes two, one\nmasculine and one feminine. They were formerly much prayed to for\ngood harvests. One legend calls them the Ame no mihashira and Kuni no\nmihashira (august pillar of heaven and august pillar of earth). The\nidea that the winds support the sky is not unknown in other mythologies.\n\nTAKE-MIKA-DZUCHI and =Futsunushi=.\u2014The proper character of these\ntwo deities is not quite clear. The name of the former is frequently\nwritten with Chinese characters which imply that he is a Thunder-god,\nand Futsunushi is probably a god of fire, perhaps more specifically\nthe lightning. They are constantly associated in legend and worship.\nThey were sent down from heaven together to prepare Japan for the\nadvent of Ninigi, the Sun-Goddess\u2019s grandchild, and their shrines\nat Kashima and Katori, on the east coast of Japan, are adjacent to\none another. At the present day they are universally recognised as\nWar-gods. This accounts for the choice of Kashima and Katori as the\nnames of recently-launched battle-ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy.\nThese deities also predict the weather. The Japanese equivalent of old\nMoore\u2019s Almanac is the Kashima no Kotofure, _i.e._ notification from\nKashima.\n\nThere is another Thunder-god called Ikadzuchi (dread father) or Naru\nKami (sounding-god).\n\n=Fire-Gods.=\u2014_Kagu-tsuchi_, mentioned above (p. 22), is the chief\nfire-deity. He is also known as Ho-musubi (fire-growth), and his shrine\nstands on the summit of the high hill of Atago near Kioto. Hence\nthe name Atago-Sama by which he is usually called. Hill-shrines are\ndedicated to him at the chief cities of Japan; and he is believed, when\nduly propitiated, to preserve them from conflagration. In the old State\nreligion the god and fire are regarded as identical.\n\nThe sacrificial fire was deified, and also the _Nihabi_, a fire kindled\nwith the object of producing sunshine. Both in ancient and modern times\nthe domestic cooking-furnace has been considered as a deity.\n\n=Ukemochi=, the Food-goddess, is one of the two great gods worshipped\nat Ise, the Sun-goddess being the other. There is a tendency in modern\ntimes to identify her with Inari, a male grain-deity. Shrines of Inari\nare to be seen in every village, and even in many houses. They may\nbe recognised by two figures of foxes which stand before them. These\nanimals are thought by many to be the god himself, and small offerings\nof such food as is thought acceptable to foxes are placed before\nthem. Shinto scholars say that they are only the god\u2019s attendants\nor messengers. But grain is often represented by an animal in other\nmythologies, and possibly this may be the case in Shinto also. Inari is\nmuch invoked by the peasant to grant him good crops, but as is so often\nthe case, his proper agricultural character is frequently forgotten,\nand he is appealed to for help in all imaginable difficulties, as for\nthe cure of small-pox or the discovery of a thief.\n\nThere are several harvest-gods not very clearly distinguished from the\ngrain-deities. One of these, as well as Ukemochi, is said to be the\nchild of Ohonamochi, the great Earth-god.\n\n=Tree-Gods.=\u2014Trees of great size and age are worshipped in almost\nevery village in Japan. They are girt with honorary cinctures of\nstraw-rope, and have tiny shrines erected before them. Other sacred\ntrees are not themselves gods, but only offerings to the deities\nbefore whose shrines they are planted. Orchard trees are the object\nof a quaint ceremony which has its counterpart in many other places,\nDevonshire amongst the number, of cajoling or intimidating the trees\ninto bearing good crops. In Japan one man climbs the tree, while\nanother stands at the bottom with an axe, threatening to cut it down if\nit does not promise to bear plentifully. The man above responds that it\nwill do so. Perhaps, however, the pleasure of acting a little drama has\nmore to do with such customs than any real belief in their efficacy.\n\nWe also meet with a Kukunochi (trees-father) and a Kaya nu hime\n(reed-lady). Their worship was probably prompted by gratitude for their\nproviding materials for house-building and thatching.\n\n=A House-God= named Yabune is mentioned in one of the old rituals. A\ncertain sanctity attaches to the Daikoku-bashira, or central pillar of\nthe house, corresponding to our king-post. There is also a Gate-god (or\ngods), who guards the dwelling against the entrance of evil things,\nand, in modern times, a God of the Privy.\n\n\nGODS OF ABSTRACTIONS\n\n=Izanagi and Izanami.=\u2014I have little doubt that these deities (see\nabove, p. 21) were suggested by the Yin and Yang, or male and female\nprinciples, of Chinese philosophy. They were probably introduced into\nJapanese myth in order to account for the existence of the Sun-goddess\nand other deities, and to link them together by a common parentage.\nTheir names are supposed to be connected with a verb, _izanafu_, to\ninvite, and to refer to their mutual invitation to become husband and\nwife. They are not important in ritual.\n\n=Musubi= means growth or production. In the old myths there are two\nMusubi deities, viz. Taka-musubi and Kamu-musubi (high-growth and\ndivine-growth). It is not difficult to conjecture that \u2018high\u2019 and\n\u2018divine\u2019 were originally nothing more than laudatory epithets of one\nand the same personage. Poetry recognises only one God. In later times\nthere were no fewer than eight Musubi who had shrines in the precincts\nof the Imperial palace. The worship of this god is now much neglected.\n\n=Kuni-toko-tachi.=\u2014Nothing is really known of this deity. The name\nmeans literally \u2018land (or earth)-eternal-stand,\u2019 and I offer as a mere\nconjecture that he is a personification of the durable character of the\nearth. The circumstance that he is the first god of the _Nihongi_ myth\nled to his receiving a prominence in later times which is justified by\nnothing in the older religion. There was an abortive attempt to make of\nhim a sort of Supreme Deity, and to substitute his worship for that of\nthe Food-goddess at Ise.\n\n\nDEIFIED INDIVIDUAL MEN\n\nThough all the greater gods of the old Shinto were Nature-gods, we\ncannot affirm that none of the numerous obscure deities mentioned in\nthe _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ were deified individual men. The impulse to\nexalt human beings to the rank of deity has always existed, and may\nhave left traces in the older Shinto, though the evidence that this was\nso in any particular case is not forthcoming.\n\n=Take-minakata=, the god of Suha, in the province of Shinano, _may_\nbe a deity of this class. He was a son of Ohonamochi, who refused\nallegiance to the Sun-goddess and fled to Suha, where he was obliged to\nsurrender. Tradition says that the present high priests of his shrine\nare his direct descendants. They are held to be his incarnation, and\nare called Ikigami or \u2018live deities.\u2019 There are at the present day\nshrines to Suha Sama in many parts of Japan.\n\n=Hachiman= is not mentioned in the _Kojiki_ or _Nihongi_. His history\nis a curious one. The original place of his worship was Usa in Kiushiu,\nnear the Straits of Shimonoseki, an old, perhaps the oldest, Shinto\ncentre of Japan. He first came into notice in 720, when he helped\nto repel a piratical descent by Koreans. At a somewhat later period\nhe became associated with the great Minamoto family, and attained\nto popularity as a War-god. But his cult is deeply tinctured with\nBuddhism. In his oracles he calls himself by the Buddhist title of\nBosatsu (Boddhisattwa), something like our \u2018saint,\u2019 and ordains\nhumanitarian festivals for the release of living things, a thoroughly\nBuddhist institution, and quite incongruous with his character as a\nJapanese Mars. It is explained that the reason for his deification as a\nWar-god is that he was an unborn child in his mother Jingo\u2019s womb when\nshe achieved her famous conquest of Korea. His identification with the\nEmperor \u00d4jin, however, dates from long after he became popular.\n\n=Temmangu=, the God of Learning and Caligraphy. If we pass over the\nhonours paid to living and dead Mikados as of doubtful religious\nquality, the first genuine deified human being on the Shinto record\nis Sugahara Michizane, who was raised to divine rank under the name\nof Temmangu. Michizane was born in 845. His family had a hereditary\nreputation for learning, and traced its descent from the Sun-goddess\nherself. His erudition gained him high rank in the government, and a\nsystem of national education which he established acquired for him the\ngratitude of the people, who called him the \u2018Father of letters.\u2019 But\nowing to the calumnies of a rival he was banished to Kiushiu, where he\ndied in exile. Great calamities followed, which were attributed to the\nwrath of Michizane\u2019s ghost, and it was not until his sentence had been\nformally cancelled, shrines erected, and other honours paid him that it\nceased to plague his enemies and the nation. The story has come down to\nus enriched with a profuse embroidery of legendary details drawn from\nBuddhist and Chinese sources.\n\nTemmangu is, or was until recently, one of the most widely worshipped\nof Shinto deities, especially by pedagogues and school-boys. In 1820,\nthere were twenty-five shrines to him in Yedo and its neighbourhood.\nHis cult was probably suggested, and was certainly promoted, by the\ncorresponding Chinese honours to Confucius.\n\n=Later Deifications.=\u2014In the Kojiki and Nihongi, a sort of titular\ndivinity is ascribed to some of the Mikados. It was not until a later\nperiod that they had shrines or regular offerings. Chief among deified\nMikados are Jimmu, Jingo, and Kwammu, the founder of Kioto. Takechi\nno Sukune, Jingo\u2019s chief counsellor; Prince Yamatodake, the legendary\nhero who, in the second century of our era, subdued the eastern parts\nof Japan to the Mikado\u2019s rule; Nomi no Sukune, the patron deity of\nwrestlers; Hitomaro, the poet and Soto\u00f6rihime, the poetess, though\ntreated as ordinary human beings in the old records, were deified in\nsubsequent times. Quasi-divine honours are paid to Iyeyasu, the founder\nof the Tokugawa dynasty of Sh\u014dguns, and to many other distinguished\nmen. Strange to say, a kind of religious cult is rendered to remarkable\ncriminals, such as the famous robber Kumazaka Ch\u014dhan, and to Nishi no\nBuntaro, who in our own day assassinated the Minister of Education,\nMori Arinori, because he raised with his walking-stick a curtain which\nscreened off part of the shrine of Ise from vulgar gaze.\n\n\nGODS OF CLASSES OF MEN\n\nIn the older Shinto, gods of types or classes occupy a fairly prominent\nposition. They represent the hereditary corporations by which the\ngovernment of Japan was carried on in early times. The officials of the\nMikado\u2019s Court had their mythical counterparts in the ministers of the\nSun-goddess, who were supposed to be their ancestors. Thus the Nakatomi\nfamily, who besides holding other high offices, were the recognised\nvicars of the Mikado in the discharge of his priestly functions, traced\ntheir descent from Koyane, a deity who, by reading a liturgy in honour\nof the Sun-goddess, helped to entice her from the dark Rock-cave of\nheaven. The Imbe, who provided the offerings for the state Shinto\nceremonies, recognised as their ancestor a god called Futo-dama (great\noffering), who fulfilled the same office in heaven. Uzume, the Dread\nFemale of heaven, had descendants in the female officials of the\npalace. There is a _norito_ in her honour, in which she is besought to\npreserve order among the courtiers of all ranks. May we not trace a\nrelationship between her and our own \u2018Dread Female\u2019 deity, Mrs. Grundy?\nThe mirror-makers of the palace had their prototype in Ishikoridome,\nthe jewellers in Toyotama (rich-jewel), and so on.\n\n\nGODS OF HUMAN QUALITIES\n\nStudents of Far-Eastern mythology and literature have observed the\nfeeble grasp of personality which distinguishes them from the similar\nproducts of the Western mind.[1] They are characterised by a certain\npoverty of imagination which is manifested in various directions, and\nmore especially by the almost total absence of personified abstractions\nof human qualities. We look in vain for such conceptions as Age, Youth,\nLove, Fear, Patience, Hope, Charity, and a host of other personified\nqualities. Ta-jikara no wo (hand-strength-male) is one of the few\nexamples of this class. He it was who, when the Sun-goddess partly\nopened the door of the Rock-cave to which she had retired, took her by\nthe hand and dragged her out. But he is little worshipped, and indeed\nis only a poetical adjunct to the mythical narrative. In this respect\nhe greatly resembles the Kratos and Bia of Hesiod and \u00c6schylus.\n\n  [1] See Percival Lowell\u2019s _Soul of the Far East_.\n\n=Phallic Gods.=\u2014Far more important are the Sahe no Kami, or phallic\ndeities. Their symbols were a familiar sight by the roadsides\nand at crossings in ancient Japan. They might be seen even in the\nbusy thoroughfares of the capital itself. At first representatives\nof the procreative, life-giving power, they were used as magical\nappliances for promoting fertility. But they became symbolical of life\ngenerally\u2014the enemy of death and disease\u2014and, on the well-known\nprinciple of magic that the symbol possesses something of the actual\nphysical virtue of the thing which it represents, were employed as\nprophylactics against death and pestilence. For their services in this\ncapacity they were deified. Their cult has long ago disappeared from\nthe state religion, but it still lingers in the out-of-the-way parts of\nEastern Japan.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE PRIESTHOOD\n\n\nIn ancient Japan, the sacred and the secular were imperfectly\ndifferentiated from one another. The Department of Shinto was simply\na Government bureau. Miya meant equally shrine and palace. Matsuri, a\nShinto festival, is the same word that we also find in Matsurigoto,\ngovernment. The Mikado was at once the high priest and the sovereign\nof the nation. In the oldest legends he appears frequently in a\nsacerdotal capacity, and, even at the present day, he takes a personal\npart in some of the Shinto rites. Only last year he went to Ise to\nperform the ceremony of Nihiname, or tasting the first rice of the\nnew harvest after making an offering of it to the Sun-goddess. But\neven in the oldest records there occur instances of his deputing his\nsacerdotal functions. Jimmu Tenno is said to have appointed Michi No\nOmi (minister-of-the-way) as \u2018Ruler of a festival.\u2019 The rubrics of the\n_norito_ (rituals) show that they were intended to be read by a deputy\nand not by the Mikado in person.\n\n=The Nakatomi.=\u2014The chief officials of the Bureau of Shinto were\nappointed from the hereditary clan or family of the Nakatomi, from\nwhich the principal ministers of state and the Imperial Consorts were\nalso selected. The great Fujiwara House, so famous in later times, was\na branch of the Nakatomi.\n\n=The Imbe= had the duty of preparing the offerings for sacrifice. Their\nname, which includes the word \u2018imi,\u2019 signifying religious abstinence,\npurity, refers to the strict avoidance of ritual pollution which was\nincumbent on them in the discharge of this function.\n\n=The Urabe= were diviners attached to the bureau of Shinto.\n\n=Kannushi= is the ordinary word for a Shinto priest. The Kannushi\nare not celibates, and are not distinguishable from the laity except\nwhen in the actual discharge of their functions. Even the costume\nwhich they wear on these occasions is not properly sacerdotal. It is\nonly an ancient court uniform. All Shinto priests are appointed by\nthe civil authorities. They have no \u2018cure of souls,\u2019 and their duties\nare confined to reading the litanies and seeing to the repairs of the\nshrine.\n\n=Priestesses.=\u2014In ancient times it was the custom to attach a virgin\nprincess of the Imperial blood to the great shrine of Ise. All great\nshrines have a corps of girl dancers for the performance of the sacred\npantomimes (Kagura). The latter, on reaching a marriageable age,\nusually resign their office, and are merged in the general population.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nWORSHIP\n\n\nWith a few exceptions, of no great importance in Shinto, the outward\nforms of the worship of the gods have been previously made use of as\ntokens of respect to living men. Whether I take off my hat to a lady or\non entering a church, the act is the same, it is the ideas associated\nwith it that make the difference. The word worship must therefore\nbe used with caution. We ought not, for example, to assume that\nancestor-worship is necessarily divine worship. It may only mean acts\nindicating affection and reverence for the dead, common to ourselves\nwith non-Christian peoples, and need not involve any superstitious\nbelief in a supernatural power exercised by dead forefathers or heroes.\nIn modern Japan, ancestor-worship is a comparatively rational cult, and\nit is surely undesirable that missionaries should create for themselves\ngreat and needless difficulties by condemning it indiscriminately.\n\n=Gestures of Worship.=\u2014In Shinto, as in other religions, bowing is\na common form of respect to the gods. It is the custom to bow twice\nbefore and after making an offering. Kneeling is also known, but is\nless usual. I have not met with any case of prostration as an act\nof adoration. Clapping hands was in ancient Japan a general token\nof respect, now confined to religious worship. Sometimes a silent\nhand-clapping is prescribed in the rituals. Offerings and other objects\nused in worship were raised to the forehead as a mark of reverence.\n\n=Offerings= were in the older Shinto regarded as tokens of respect, and\nwere not supposed to be eaten, worn, or otherwise enjoyed by the deity.\nThere is, however, a more vulgar current of opinion according to which\nthe god actually benefits in some obscure physical way by the offerings\nmade to him.\n\nThe general object of making offerings is to propitiate the god or to\nexpiate offences against him. Sometimes it is very plainly intimated\nthat a _quid pro quo_ is expected.\n\nThe original and most important form of offering was food and drink of\nvarious kinds. The cardinal feature of the great ceremony by which the\nMikado inaugurated his reign was an offering of rice and sake to the\nSun-goddess. Other food-offerings were cakes, fruit, vegetables, edible\nseaweed, salt, water, and the flesh of deer, pigs, hare, wild boar,\nand birds. There were no burnt-offerings or incense. Next to food,\nclothing took the most important place. Hemp and mulberry-bark fibre,\nwith the stuffs woven from them, are frequently mentioned. They are now\nrepresented by the Gohei. These are wands to which scollops of paper\nare attached, and are to be seen in every shrine and at every Shinto\nceremony. Sometimes the god is supposed to come down and take up his\ntemporary abode in the Gohei.\n\nSkins, mirrors, jewels, weapons, and many other articles are mentioned\nin the Yengishiki enumerations of offerings.\n\n=Human Sacrifice.=\u2014We nowhere hear of human sacrifices in connection\nwith official Shinto. But there are several indications of the\nexistence of this practice in ancient times. River-gods especially\nwere propitiated by human victims. Human figures of wood or metal are\nfrequently mentioned, but it is doubtful whether these were by way of\nsubstitutes for living persons.\n\nSlaves were dedicated to some of the more important shrines. Presents\nof horses are often mentioned. Albinos are usually selected for this\npurpose. They may be seen at the present day stabled near the entrance\nto all the important shrines. Pictures of horses are often substituted\nfor the animals themselves. Galleries are sometimes provided for the\nreception of these and other _ex voto_ works of art. The carriage\n(mikoshi) in which the deity, or rather his _shintai_, is promenaded\non the occasion of his annual festival is a very elaborate and costly\nvehicle. The miya or shrine may be regarded as a kind of offering. Miya\nmeans august house, and applies equally to the palace of a sovereign or\nprince. Originally there was no building but only a consecrated plot\nof ground which was deemed to be the dwelling of the deity. The miya\nis not a tomb. The shrines are purposely small and simple edifices. In\n771 a \u2018greater shrine\u2019 had only eighteen feet frontage. The majority of\nthe existing 150,000 to 200,000 shrines of Japan are tiny structures\neasily transportable in a cart or even a wheelbarrow. To the larger\nshrines are usually attached an ema-do (horse-picture hall), a small\noratory for the use of the Mikado\u2019s envoy, and a stage for the Kagura,\nor pantomimic dance. A number of smaller shrines to other gods who are\nin some way associated with the chief deity may usually be seen within\nthe precincts. The approach to a Shinto shrine is marked by one or\nmore honorary gateways of the special form known as tori-i, literally\nbird-rest, from its resemblance to a henroost. It has its analogues in\nthe Indian turan and the Chinese pailoo, and is doubtless of exotic\norigin. It is not mentioned in the older books.\n\n=Prayer.=\u2014The _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ contain scarcely any notices\nof private individual prayer. But there are abundant examples in the\n_Yengishiki_, and other authorities, of the official liturgies known as\n_norito_, addressed by the Mikado, or his vicars, to various Gods or\ncategories of Gods, on ceremonial occasions. They contain petitions for\nrain in time of drought, good harvests, preservation from fire, flood,\nand earthquake, for children, health and long life to the sovereign.\nSometimes the wrath is deprecated of deities whose services had been\nvitiated by ritual impurity, or whose shrines had been neglected.\nImportant national events were announced to them. There were no\n_norito_ addressed to deceased Mikados before 850, when Jimmu Tenno was\nsupplicated to spare the life of the reigning sovereign, who was then\ndangerously ill. Shinto prayers are for material blessings only.\n\n=Rank of Deities.=\u2014In the seventh century a system of official\nranks was introduced into Japan from China. It was extended from the\nCourt functionaries to the Gods, and was very prevalent in the eighth\ncentury. A curious feature of this practice was the low rank given to\nthe deities. It was seldom that they received so high a rank as that of\na Minister of State.\n\n=Kagura.=\u2014The Kagura, or pantomimic dances with masks and music,\nrepresenting some incident of the mythical narrative, has been at all\ntimes a prominent part of Shinto religious festivals, and, as in other\ncountries, has become the parent of the secular drama.\n\n=Pilgrimages= are an ancient institution in Japan. Even the Mikado\npaid occasional visits to the shrines in or near Kioto. At the present\nday most Japanese think it a duty to make a pilgrimage at least once\nin their lifetime to one or more of the most famous Shinto fanes, and\nbelieve that their success in life depends on their doing so. Clubs are\nformed for the purpose, the subscriptions going to pay the expenses of\nthese fortunate members who are selected to represent their fellows.\nPilgrim trains take the place of our excursion trains. Boys and girls\nfrequently run away from home in order to make a pilgrimage to Ise.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nMORALITY AND PURITY\n\n\n=Moral Code.=\u2014Shinto has hardly anything in the shape of a code\nof morals. The Ohoharahi, a service in which the Mikado, by divine\nauthority, declared to his ministers and people the absolution of\ntheir offences against the gods, makes no mention of any one of the\nsins of the Decalogue. M. Revon, the author of a valuable treatise\non Shinto, challenges this statement, which I had already made in my\n_History of Japanese Literature_. He maintains that from a comparison\nof the Decalogue and the Ohoharahi, \u2018Il r\u00e9sulte avec \u00e9vidence que tous\nles commandements essentiels du D\u00e9calogue (sur le meurtre, le vol, la\nfornication, etc.), se retrouvent dans notre rituel.\u2019[2] In view of the\nimportance of the subject, and of M. Revon\u2019s acknowledged competence\nas a writer on Shinto, it is desirable to examine this assertion more\nclosely. His \u2018etc.\u2019 puzzles me. I am unable to find in the Ohoharahi\nthe smallest trace of any of the seven commandments which it covers,\nand can only suppose that it is a mere flourish of M. Revon\u2019s exuberant\nimagination. It will be seen that for the \u2018adultery\u2019 of the Decalogue\nM. Revon has substituted \u2018fornication.\u2019 Is it not a _cas pendable_ to\ntamper with the ten commandments in this way? But neither adultery\nnor fornication are mentioned in the Ohoharahi. Incest _is_ included\nin the latter\u2019s schedule of offences, but, _pace_ M. Revon, incest\nand adultery are distinct offences. Theft is _not mentioned_ in the\nOhoharahi. The planting of skewers (of offerings in rice-fields) is one\nof its offences, but even if the commentator is right who conjectures\nthat this was done for a dishonest purpose, I submit that so highly\nspecific an offence is by no means the same thing as the far more\ngeneral theft of the Decalogue. The case of \u2018murder\u2019 of the Mosaic\ncode, and \u2018the cutting of living bodies\u2019 of the Ohoharahi is more\ncomplicated. Murder is at the same time more and less comprehensive\nthan the corresponding Shinto offence. The Jewish prohibition is more\nextensive, as it includes murder by poison, strangling, drowning,\netc., and it is more restricted as it omits minor injuries. But there\nis a profound difference between the motives which prompted the two\nprohibitions. It is the crime of taking away human life which is\ncondemned in the Decalogue: the Ohoharahi objects to wounds as nasty,\nunsightly things, unmeet for a God to look upon or to be in any way\nassociated with. Self-inflicted wounds, the cutting of dead bodies,\nor wounds inflicted by others, caused uncleanness just as much as the\nwounding of others. Justifiable homicide required absolution equally\nwith felonious murder. In a word, the Japanese offence was ritual, the\nJewish moral.\n\n  [2] See his _Shintoisme_, p. 15, _note_.\n\nThere are moral elements in the Ohoharahi, but they are scanty, and\nM. Revon greatly overestimates their importance. Not only does it\ncontain no explicit mention of any of the sins of the Decalogue\u2014which\nis all that I contended for\u2014but it has hardly anything which even\nimplicitly condemns them. Shintoists do not deny this feature of their\nreligion, but claim that the absence of a code of ethics is a proof of\nthe superior natural goodness of the Japanese nation. It needs no such\nartificial aids to virtuous conduct.\n\n=Purity.=\u2014But if ethics are conspicuously absent from Shinto, the\ndoctrine of uncleanness holds a prominent position. Actual personal\ndirt was obnoxious to the gods, as is evidenced by the frequent\nmention of bathing and putting on fresh garments before the discharge\nof religious functions. Sexual acts of various kinds, such as the\nconsummation of a marriage, incest (within narrow limits), interference\nwith virgin priestesses, menstruation and child-birth, were accompanied\nwith disabilities for the service of the gods. Curiously enough,\nadultery, though cognisable by the courts of justice, did not entail\nreligious uncleanness. Disease, especially leprosy (as in the Mosaic\nlegislation), wounds and sores involved various degrees of pollution.\nThe death of a relative, attendance at a funeral, touching a dead\nbody, pronouncing or executing a capital sentence, all incapacitated a\nman temporarily for the discharge of religious duties. Lafcadio Hearn\nthought that the _miya_ or shrine was a development of the _moya_ or\nmourning house, where the dead bodies of sovereigns and nobles were\ndeposited until their costly megalithic tombs could be got ready. This\nview harmonises nicely with Herbert Spencer\u2019s well-known theories, but\nan ancient Shintoist would have considered it not only erroneous, but\nblasphemous. As in ancient Greece, the gods had nothing to do with\nsuch a polluting thing as death. Shinto funerals, of which we have\nheard a good deal of late, were unknown in ancient Japan. They date\nfrom 1868. Shinto shrines have no cemeteries attached to them. Eating\nflesh was formerly not considered offensive to the gods, but later,\nunder Buddhist influence, it fell under prohibition. The fire with\nwhich impure food was cooked also contracted impurity. To avoid the\ndanger of such defilement, fresh fire was made by a fire-drill for\nall the more important ceremonies. Everything Buddhist, rites, terms,\netc., were at one time placed under a Shinto tabu. When a festival was\napproaching, the intending participant was specially careful to avoid\n(_imi_) all possible sources of pollution. He shut himself up in his\nhouse, refrained from speech and noise and ate food cooked at a pure\nfire. A special _imi_ of one month was observed by the priests before\nofficiating at the greater festivals. An _imi-dono_ (sacred hall) was\na hall in which purity was observed, _imi_-axes and _imi_-mattocks\nwere used to cut the first tree and turn the first sod when a sacred\nbuilding was to be erected. If, in spite of all precaution, defilement\ntook place, consciously or unconsciously, various expedients were\nresorted to for its removal. Lustration was the most common. After\na funeral, it has been the rule at all periods of Japanese history\nfor the relatives of the deceased to purify themselves in this way.\nIzanagi, after his visit to Hades, washed in the sea. Salt is sometimes\ndissolved in the water used for this purpose, and is employed in\nother ways to avert evil influences. Spitting, rinsing the mouth, and\nbreathing on an object to which the impurity is communicated, are\nfamiliar practices. Human figures were sometimes breathed upon and\nflung into the sea in order to carry off pollution. In modern times a\ngohei is shaken over the person to be purified.\n\n=Ceremonial= is the combination for some specific purpose of the\nvarious elements of worship described above. The great ceremony of the\nShinto religion is that known as the Ohonihe or Daij\u00f4we, which means\n\u2018great-food-offering.\u2019 It is the equivalent of our coronation, and its\ncardinal feature was the Mikado\u2019s offering in person to the god or\ngods, represented by a cushion, the first rice of the new harvest, and\nof sake brewed from it. A modern Japanese writer says:\u2014\n\n  \u2018Anciently the Mikado received the auspicious grain from the Gods\n of Heaven, and therewithal nourished the people. In the Daij\u00f4we (or\n Ohonihe) the Mikado, when the grain became ripe, joined unto him the\n people in sincere veneration, and, as in duty bound, made return to\n the Gods of Heaven. He thereafter partook of it along with the nation.\n Thus the people learnt that the grain which they eat is no other than\n the seed bestowed on them by the Gods of Heaven.\u2019\n\nThe Ohonihe was a most elaborate and costly function. The preparations\nwere begun months in advance. In times of scarcity, it had to be\nomitted as too great a burden on the nation.\n\n=The Nihiname=, or new-tasting, is the annual harvest festival when the\nnew season\u2019s rice was first tasted by the Mikado. The Ohonihe was only\na more sumptuous form of it. The English counterpart of the Nihiname\nis Lammas, _i.e._ loaf-mass, in which bread made from the new season\u2019s\nwheat was used for the first time in the Holy Communion. There was, in\nformer times, a household as well as an official celebration of this\nrite. Strict people will not eat the new rice until it is over.\n\n=The Toshigohi= (praying for harvest) was another important ceremony\nof the state religion. Not only the special gods of harvest, but\npractically all the divinities were propitiated by offerings, and a\n_norito_ recited in their honour, of which the following is a passage:\u2014\n\n  \u2018If the Sovran Gods will bestow in ears many a hand\u2019s breadth\n long and ears abundant the latter harvest which they will bestow,\n the latter harvest produced by the labour of men from whose arms\n the foam drips down, on whose opposing thighs the mud is gathered,\n I will fulfil their praises by humbly offering first fruits, of\n ears a thousand, of ears many a hundred, raising up the tops of the\n sake-jars, and setting in rows the bellies of the sake-jars, in\n juice and in ear will I present them, of things growing in the great\n moor-plain, sweet herbs and bitter herbs, of things that dwell in\n the blue sea-plain, the broad of fin and the narrow of fin, edible\n seaweed, too, from the offing and seaweed from the shore, of clothing,\n bright stuffs and shining stuffs, soft stuffs and coarse stuffs\u2014with\n these I will fulfil your praises.\u2019\n\n=Kiu no matsuri= (praying for rain) was a service in which the gods of\neighty-five shrines were asked to send rain. To some of these a black\nhorse was offered as a suggestion that black rain-clouds would be\nwelcome.\n\n=Ohoharahi=, great purification or absolution. This is one of the most\ncurious and interesting of the great ceremonies of the state religion.\nIt is often called the Nakatomi no Ohoharahi, because a member of\nthe Nakatomi priestly clan performed it on behalf of the Mikado. It\nwas celebrated twice a year, on the last day of the sixth and of the\ntwelfth month, with the object of purifying the ministers of state,\nofficials, and people from their ceremonial offences committed during\nthe previous half year. It was also celebrated on occasions of\nnational calamity, such as an outbreak of pestilence, or the sudden\ndeath of a Mikado. The offerings made were thrown into a river or the\nsea, and were supposed, like the scapegoat of Israel, to carry with\nthem the sins of the people. The offences more specifically referred\nto are various mischievous interferences with agricultural operations,\nflaying animals alive, flaying backwards, cutting living or dead\nbodies, leprosy and other loathsome disease, incest, calamities from\nthe high gods and from high birds, and killing animals by bewitchment.\nThere were also local and individual purifications. In the latter case,\nthe person to be purified had to pay the expenses of the celebration,\nand so a regular system of fines for such offences came into existence.\n\n=Ho-shidzume no matsuri=, or fire-calming-ceremony. The object of this\nrite was to deprecate the destruction of the Imperial Palace by fire.\nThe Urabe made fire with a fire-drill and worshipped it. The service\nread is anything but reverent. The Fire-god is reminded that he is \u2018an\nevil-hearted child\u2019 who caused his mother\u2019s death when he came into the\nworld, and that she had come back from Hades purposely to provide the\nmeans of keeping him in order. If, however, he would be on his good\nbehaviour, he should have offerings of the various kinds specified.\n\nNumerous other services are mentioned in the _Yengishiki_, such as the\n\u2018Luck-wishing of the Great Palace,\u2019 the _Michiahe_, which is a phallic\nritual for the prevention of pestilence, a festival in honour of the\nFood-goddess, one in honour of the Wind-gods, etc.\n\n=Modern ceremonies.=\u2014At the present day, most of the former elaborate\nritual of Shinto is neglected or shorn of its ancient magnificence. One\nof the most important state ceremonies which is still kept up is the\n_Naishidokoro_, so-called from the chamber in the palace where it is\nperformed. It is here that the regalia are kept, consisting of a mirror\nwhich represents the Sun-goddess, a sword, and a jewel or jewels. The\nceremony, which is performed by the Mikado in person, was formerly in\nhonour of these sacred objects, but is now apparently addressed to\nthe tablets of the Emperors from Jimmu downwards\u2014an instance of the\nprogressive development of ancestor-worship in Shinto. In many private\ndwellings there is a Kami-dana (god-shelf) where a harahi, consisting\nof a piece of wood from the Ise shrine, and tickets with the names of\nany gods whom the household has any special reason for worshipping,\nare kept. Lafcadio Hearn says that nowadays there is also a Mitamaya\n(august-spirit-dwelling), which is a model Shinto shrine placed on a\nshelf fixed against the wall of some inner chamber. In this shrine\nare placed thin tablets of white wood inscribed with the names of the\nhousehold dead. Prayers are repeated and offerings made before them\nevery day. The annual festivals (_matsuri_) of the Ujigami or local\npatron-deity are everywhere important functions. Offerings are made,\nand the god, or rather his emblem, is promenaded in a procession which\nreminds one of the carnivals of Southern Europe. There are Kagura\nperformances which go on all day and late into the night. There are\nalso booths for the sale of toys and sweetmeats, wrestling, fireworks,\nraces, conjurors and tumblers\u2019 performances. In short, the _matsuri_ is\nnot unlike an English fair. With the pilgrimages, it does much to help\nto keep alive the not very ardent flame of Shinto piety.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nDIVINATION AND INSPIRATION\n\n\n=Divination.=\u2014The most ancient official method of divination was\nby interpreting the cracks made by fire on the shoulder-blade\nof a deer. This process is known in many places from Siberia to\nScotland, in which latter country it is called \u2018reading the speal\u2019\n(_\u00e9paule_). A tortoise-shell was afterwards substituted for the deer\u2019s\nshoulder-blade, in imitation of China. There was attached to the palace\na college of diviners whose business it was to ascertain by this means\nwhether a proposed expedition would be successful, the best site for\na shrine, a tomb, or a dwelling-house, from what provinces the rice\nfor the Ohonihe should be taken, etc. etc. With private persons,\nthe Tsuji-ura, or cross-road divination, was a favourite method of\nascertaining the future. The person who wished to consult the god\nwent out at dusk to a cross-roads and inferred the answer to his\nquestion from the chance words spoken by the first person who made his\nappearance. Other kinds of divination were by the sound of a boiling\ncauldron, or of a harp, by lots, by beans boiled in gruel, by the head\nof a dog or fox that had been starved to death, and by dreams and\nomens. Ordeal was practised by fire and boiling water.\n\n=Inspiration.=\u2014There are frequent notices of oracles in the old\nrecords. Legend has preserved an \u2018inspired utterance\u2019 given forth\nby the Goddess Uzume before the Rock-cave of Heaven to which the\nSun-goddess had retired. It consists of the numerals from one to\nten! The famous legendary invasion of Korea by the Empress Jingo was\nsuggested by a deity. Oracles had generally reference to the worship of\nthe god concerned, directing that a shrine should be built for him, or\nreligious observances inaugurated in his honour. They were sometimes\nused for political purposes. There is evidence that the inspired\nperson, generally a woman, delivered the divine message when in a\nhypnotic trance. This is undoubtedly the case at the present time. Mr.\nP. Lowell\u2019s _Occult Japan_ gives a detailed description of a s\u00e9ance of\nthis kind at which he was present. There are mediums in Japan as there\nare nearer home, who, for a consideration, will place their customers\nin communication with deceased friends or relatives.\n\nDivination and the hypnotic trance are not recognised by modern or\nofficial Shinto.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nLATER HISTORY\n\n\nBuddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century, but it had\nat first little influence on the native religion. Two centuries\nlater a process of pacific penetration began which had some curious\nand important results. The missionaries of Buddhism applied to the\nShinto gods a principle which had been already adopted in China.\nThey discovered that whether Nature-gods or Man-gods they were\nnothing more than avatars or incarnations of the various Buddhas. The\nSun-goddess, for example, was made out to be Vairochana, the Buddhist\npersonification of essential _bodhi_ (enlightenment) and absolute\npurity; and deified men received the Buddhist titles of _Gongen_\n(avatar) or _Bosatsu_ (saint). Iyeyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa\ndynasty of Shoguns, is the Gongen-sama _par excellence_.\n\n=Ry\u00f4bu Shinto=, which was in practice little more than a form of\nBuddhism, was the result of this process. Its principal founder was\nthe famous K\u014db\u014d Daishi. At a later time other similar schools or sects\nwere originated which drew their inspiration from Chinese philosophy\nor from Buddhism. Under these influences the true Shinto was much\nneglected. The Mikados themselves, after a few years of reign, shaved\ntheir heads and became Buddhist monks. One of them called himself a\nslave of Buddha. The greater Shinto ceremonies were omitted, or worse\nstill, were performed by Buddhist monks, who also took possession of\nmany of the Shinto shrines and celebrated Buddhist rites there.\n\nIt should not be forgotten that the foreign religion contained valuable\nelements unknown to the older Shinto, and that the latter had much to\ngain by their absorption. The Ry\u014dbu Shinto inculcated uprightness,\npurity of heart, charity to the poor, humanity, and the vanity of mere\noutward forms of worship; of all which there is little trace in the\nolder cult.\n\n=Chinese Learning.=\u2014The civilisation of Japan during the Tokugawa\ndynasty of Sh\u014dguns (1603-1868) was modelled on Chinese originals.\nIts moral ideals were drawn from the writings of the ancient sages\nConfucius and Mencius, and the sceptical philosophy of the Sung\ndynasty (960-1278). But in the eighteenth century a patriotic reaction\nset in, which strove to establish more purely national standards of\nethics and principles of government and religion. This movement, known\nas the \u2018Revival of Pure Shinto,\u2019 was first revealed to Europeans by a\npaper contributed by Sir E. Satow to the _Transactions of the Asiatic\nSociety of Japan_ in 1875. The principal promoters were Moto\u00f6ri and\nhis pupil Hirata, two earnest, able, and stupendously learned writers\nwho devoted their lives to an endeavour by oral teaching and in a\nseries of voluminous works to the dethronement of the established\nChinese ethics and philosophy in favour of a Shinto purified from\nBuddhist and other foreign adulterations of later times. They succeeded\nto some extent in this object. It was no doubt partially owing to\ntheir teachings that the Mikado was restored in 1868 to his sovereign\nposition as the descendant of the Sun-goddess, the Shinto shrines\npurified from Buddhist ornaments and practices, and the monks expelled\nfrom them. In reality Moto\u00f6ri and Hirata\u2019s movement was a retrograde\none. The old Shinto, which they wished to restore, could not possibly\nhold its own as the national faith of a people familiar with the\nfar higher religious and moral ideas of India and China, not to\nspeak of civilised Europe. Without a code of morals, or an efficient\necclesiastical organisation, with little aid from the arts of painting,\nsculpture, and architecture, and with a sacred literature scanty and\nfeeble compared with those of its foreign rivals, Shinto is doomed\nto extinction. Whatever the religious future of Japan may be, Shinto\nwill assuredly have little place in it. Such meat for babes is quite\ninadequate as the spiritual food of a nation which in these latter days\nhas reached a full and vigorous manhood.\n\n\n\n\nSELECTED WORKS BEARING ON SHINTO\n\n\n 1. _History of Japan_, by Engelbert Kaempfer, 1727-1728. Worthless for\n Shinto.\n\n 2. _Nippon Archif._, 1897 (new edition), by P. F. von Siebold. Good\n when first published, but superseded by later works, in so far as\n Shinto is concerned.\n\n 3. _Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan._\n\n (_a_) A series of papers on \u2018The Revival of Pure Shinto\u2019 and \u2018Ancient\n Japanese Rituals,\u2019 by Sir Ernest Satow. 1874-81. The serious student\n may safely neglect all that precedes these epoch-making articles.\n\n (_b_) The _Kojiki_, translated by B. H. Chamberlain, 1883. Accurate,\n indispensable for myth.\n\n (_c_) _Ancient Japanese Rituals._ The _Ohoharahi_, with translation\n and notes by Dr. Karl Florenz, 1899. Valuable.\n\n 4. _Transactions of the Japan Society._ the _Nihongi_, Translated By\n W. G. Aston, 1896. Similar in Scope To The _Kojiki_.\n\n 5. _Japan, an Appreciation_, by Lafcadio Hearn, 1904. Sympathetic\n insight, admirable style, blind acceptance of H. Spencer\u2019s philosophy,\n imperfect knowledge. His outlook is seen at its best in the recently\n published _Life and Letters_ (Constable, 1907).\n\n 6. _The Mikado\u2019s Empire_, by W. E. Griffis. Useful for some aspects of\n modern Shinto, and the Folk-lore associated with it.\n\n 7. _The Religions of Japan_, by W. E. Griffis, 1895. Shows the\n relations of Shinto to Buddhism and Confucianism.\n\n 8. _The Development of Religion in Japan._ Lectures by G. W. Knox,\n 1907. Judicious and up-to-date.\n\n 9. _German Asiatic Society of Japan. Japanische Mythologie_, by Dr.\n Karl Florenz. 1901. A good German translation of the mythological part\n of the _Nihongi_, with useful notes.\n\n 10. _Japan and China_, by Captain Brinkley. 1903. Throws light on some\n aspects of modern Shinto.\n\n 11. _Murray\u2019s Japan_, by B. H. Chamberlain and W. B. Mason. 7 ed. 1903.\n\n 12. _Things Japanese_, by B. H. Chamberlain. 5 ed. 1905.\n\n 13. _Shintoisme_, by M. Revon, in the _Revue de l\u2019Histoire des\n Religions_, 1905-1907. Highly recommended for its up-to-date theory,\n and as a comprehensive collection of facts.\n\n 14. _Shinto_, by W. G. Aston, 1905. Of similar scope to the present\n work, but more comprehensive.\n\n 15. _Ancestor Worship and Japanese Law_, by Nobushige Hodzumi. 1901.\n\n 16. _A Fantasy of Far Japan_, by Baron Suyematsu. 1905. These two\n works represent the attitude of modern Japanese towards the old Shinto.\n\n 17. A _Bibliography of the Japanese Empire_ (1895). Gives a classified\n list of books, essays, and maps in European languages relating to\n Japan. Tolerably comprehensive, but inaccurate.\n\n\nPrinted in Great Britain by T. and A. CONSTABLE LTD. at the Edinburgh\nUniversity Press\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes\n\nObvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations\nin hyphenation, accents, spelling and punctuation remain unchanged.\n\nItalics are represented thus _italic_, bold thus =bold=.","title":"Shinto: The ancient religion of Japan","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":16573}