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diff --git a/42747-0.txt b/42747-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b54473e --- /dev/null +++ b/42747-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1963 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42747 *** + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://archive.org/details/shintocultchrist00terrrich + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). + + + + + +THE SHINTO CULT + +A Christian Study of the Ancient Religion of Japan + +by + +MILTON S. TERRY, D.D., + +Lecturer on Comparative Religion in Garrett Biblical Institute. + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +Cincinnati: Jennings and Graham +New York: Eaton and Mains + +Copyright, 1910, +By Jennings and Graham. + + + + +NOTE. + + +The following pages are the substance of a course of lectures on the +old Shinto cult which the author has been giving for a number of +years to his classes in Comparative Religion. They are here condensed +and adapted to the purpose of a little manual which, it is believed, +may interest many readers, and bring together within a small space +information gathered from many sources not easily accessible to +ordinary students. At the same time it is hoped that this little +volume may serve to suggest some valuable hints to the Christian +missionary who is to come face to face with the Japanese people in +their "beautiful land of the reed plains and the fresh ears of rice." +It is possible that some portions, if not every jot and tittle, of +this ancient cult may, like the law and the prophets of Israel, find a +glorious fulfillment in the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. The principal +authorities relied on in the preparation of this essay are named in the +Select Bibliography given at the end. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + 1. THE COUNTRY 7 + + 2. IS SHINTO A RELIGION? 10 + + 3. ORIGIN AND RELATIVE AGE OF THE PEOPLE 12 + + 4. MEANING OF THE TERM SHINTO 14 + + 5. SOURCES OF INFORMATION 15 + + 6. JAPANESE COSMOGONY AND MYTHOLOGY 19 + + 7. THE JAPANESE A SELF-CENTERED PEOPLE 29 + + 8. ESSENCE OF THE SHINTO CULT 30 + + 9. THE GREAT SANCTUARIES 31 + + 10. FIVE NOTEWORTHY OBJECTS CONNECTED WITH THE WORSHIP 34 + + 11. THE ANCESTOR WORSHIP 37 + + 12. ELEMENTS OF ANIMISM 41 + + 13. THE DOMESTIC CULT 43 + + 14. THE COMMUNAL CULT 45 + + 15. THE NATIONAL CULT 49 + + 16. THE HARVEST SERVICE 52 + + 17. THE GREAT PURIFICATION 54 + + 18. OTHER RITUAL SERVICES 60 + + 19. INFLUENCE OF CHINA ON JAPANESE THOUGHT 63 + + 20. INFLUENCE OF BUDDHISM 64 + + 21. REVIVAL OF PURE SHINTO 68 + + 22. ESOTERIC SHINTO 70 + + 23. MINGLING OF SHINTO, CONFUCIANISM, AND BUDDHISM 71 + + 24. ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN JAPAN 73 + + 25. ALLEGED PRESENT RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE 74 + + 26. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS 78 + + + + +THE SHINTO CULT. + + +=1. The Country.= In taking up the study of a religion which has never +extended beyond the limits of an easily defined territory, we may +appropriately first of all take a hasty glance at the geographical +outlines of the system we call Shinto, the primitive faith of the +people of Japan. To appreciate the geographical position of Japan, +one needs to have before him a map of the world. He may then see at a +glance how remarkably the three thousand islands of that Empire stretch +for some twenty-five hundred miles along the coast of Asia, from +Kamchatka on the north to the island of Formosa on the south, which +island is crossed by the tropic of Cancer. It may be called the longest +and the narrowest country in the world. It looks like an immense +sea-serpent, with its northern tail twisting toward the Aleutian +Islands, which our Government acquired from Russia in 1867, and its +southern head pointing toward the Philippine Islands, which we acquired +from Spain in recent years. It seems to guard the whole eastern coast +of Asia, and along with China, on the mainland, is suspected and feared +by some European diplomats as embodying some sort of a "Yellow Peril." +It may be that its noteworthy contiguity to our Alaskan possessions at +one extremity and our Philippine wards at the other bodes some sort of +peril to any Western nation that may hereafter presume to enlarge its +dominions in the Orient by force of arms. + +Attention has often been called to the fact that the British Isles, in +the Atlantic Ocean, just off the northwestern coast of Europe, occupy a +corresponding geographical relation to the Western world. The islands +themselves are comparatively small, but their measuring line has gone +out into all the earth, and their civilization is dominating the world. +Asia, on the east of the Eastern hemisphere, is a land of innumerable +population; Europe, on the west, is a land of new ideas and of hopeful +progress. The United States, resting her Atlantean shoulder on the +island-empire of Europe, and her Pacific shoulder on the island-empire +of the Orient, may be, in the order of God, a mighty mediator, +possessed both of a great population and of new and commanding ideas, +and destined to bring about the universal peace, the sound knowledge, +and the highest prosperity of the world. + +We are told that Japan is a country of diversified beauty. Compassed +round about with the vast ocean, yet not far from the Asiatic mainland; +supplied also with a wonderful inland sea, and with lakes and rivers +and fountains of waters; a land of mountains, and valleys, and broad +meadows, and all manner of trees and shrubs and fruits and flowers, +and charming landscapes, and all varieties of climate; it is no wonder +that the people and their poets have called this group of islands "the +sun's nest," "the country of the sun-goddess," "the region between +heaven and earth," "islands of the congealed drop," "the grand land of +the eight isles," "central land of reed-plains," "land of the ears of +fresh rice," "land of a thousand autumns," and other similar names +indicative of manifold excellence.[1] + +This island-empire of the Orient is the home of the religious cult +called "Shinto," a religion which has never traveled nor sought to +propagate itself beyond the dominions of Japan. It has never put itself +in a hostile attitude toward any other form of religion, either at home +or abroad, except when a foreign cult has entered its ancient home and +sought to meddle with affairs of State or to interfere with loyalty to +the Emperor. + +=2. Is Shinto a Religion?= At a meeting of the Society of Science, held +at Tokyo in 1890, the president of the Imperial University expressed +the opinion that Shinto should not be regarded as a religion. He +believed it to be an essential element in the existing national thought +and feeling of Japan, but destitute of the essential qualities of a +strictly religious cult. Others have expressed a similar opinion; but +we are disposed to think that this judgment arises from an incorrect +concept of religion, and a consequent defective definition of the same. +A similar denial has been made of the religious character of other +cults and systems. Taoism, Confucianism, and even Buddhism have been +said to lack the elements essential to a real religion. But if these +systems do not constitute a religion for the peoples who accept them, +they are in every case their substitute for religion. Any religion +or any form of religion may so involve its thought and its practices +with philosophical speculation, or with social customs, or with the +political management of the State, as to have the appearance of a +philosophical or a political system, rather than a form of religion. +But, however it may, in such ways, ignore the religious ideas and +practices of other systems, if there be no other religious cult among +the people, the philosophy, the ethical policy and the customs, which +make up this important element of the civilization and the national +life, are as truly tantamount to a religious cult as any form of faith +and practice which all men agree to call religion. + +=3. Origin and Relative Age of the People.= The main body of the +Japanese people are believed to have migrated in old times from the +northern central part of Asia, and to have worked their way eastward +into Korea, and thence into the islands of Japan. They expelled +or subjugated the aborigines of the country, and made themselves +masters of the great islands and the inland and surrounding seas. +But their origin and early history are involved in dense obscurity. +They doubtless brought with them from their earlier dwellings in Asia +various myths, legends, and traditions, and these grew and strengthened +amid the simple habits of life which they adopted in their new +island-world. According to a writer[2] in the _Westminster Review_ of +July, 1878, Japan is yet, in more senses than one, a young country. +Their language and their institutions "show us a people still in a very +early stage of development." W. G. Aston holds that the earliest date +of accepted Japanese chronology is A. D. 461, and he says that Japanese +history, properly so called, can not be said to exist previous to A. +D. 500. He regards Korean history more trustworthy than that of Japan +previous to that date.[3] According to Satow, "everything points to the +descent of the Japanese people in great part from a race of Turanian +origin, who crossed over from the continent by way of the islands +Tsushima and Iki, which form the natural stepping-stones from Korea to +Japan."[4] + +But the last twenty-five years have witnessed a most remarkable advance +in the use of modern inventions, and more than any other nation of +the far East have the Japanese displayed both a willingness and an +ambition to improve their condition by means of the ideas and usages of +Western civilization. The war with China in 1894, and that with Russia +in 1904-1905, displayed a wisdom, tact, and energy which were a great +surprise to the world. The self-poise, the generosity, the far-sighted +statesmanship exhibited in her concluding terms of peace with her +haughty but defeated enemy, have commanded universal admiration. These +facts make the study of this people's ancient religious cult, which is +still a powerful element in the popular life, a matter of no little +interest at the present time.[5] + +=4. Meaning of the Word Shinto.= The word Shinto means the "way of the +gods." It came into use when Buddhism was introduced into Japan, and +designates the old, ancestral worship as a way of the gods distinct +from the way of the Buddhists, or of any other rival way of religious +life. The Japanese name is _Kami no michi_. In its essential elements +it is a commingling of Animism and ancestor-worship. Not only are the +spirits of departed ancestors reckoned among the gods, but there are +innumerable deities of other kind and character. The mountains and +valleys, the rivers and the seas, the trees, the wind, the thunder, the +fire, all moving things and objects of sense are supposed to have each +a deity within. And these deities seem for the most part to have been +regarded as beneficent powers, and their worship is of a joyous kind. + +=5. Sources of Information.= The sources of our knowledge of this +ancient cult are quite numerous, but not as accessible to English +and American students as is desirable. The oldest existing monument +of Japanese literature is known as the "Ko-ji-ki," the text of which +would make a book about the size of our four Gospels. It contains +180 short sections or chapters. The word _Ko-ji-ki_ means a "Record +of Ancient Matters," and appropriately designates this oldest known +record of the mythology, history, and customs of the people of Japan. +It is the nearest approach to a sacred scripture of the Shinto cult +which we possess. It has been translated into English, and supplied +with a learned introduction and many explanatory notes by Basil H. +Chamberlain,[6] a distinguished scholar, who has made the Japanese +language, literature, and archæology a subject of extensive and minute +research. + +Another and much larger work, comprising thirty books, and containing +a record of much of the same mythology and history as the _Ko-ji-ki_, +is called the _Nihongi_, or "Chronicles of Japan."[7] It is a composite +of various elements derived from numerous different sources, and while +it reports in substance the myths and stories of the gods as they are +found in the _Ko-ji-ki_, it makes no mention of that older work and +omits some things which the older work records. It gives, however, a +number and variety of reports of the myths and traditions, informing +us how, in one ancient writing, it is so and so recorded; in another +writing, it is somewhat differently told. This feature enhances its +value for purposes of comparison among the varying traditions. + +This later production lacks the simplicity and originality of the +_Ko-ji-ki_, and bears abundant evidence of the Chinese influences under +which it was composed. It is written for the most part in Chinese, and +exhibits numerous examples of the learning and philosophical cast of +thought peculiar to certain well-known Chinese writings. As a specimen +of this rationalistic type of construing the ancient myths of creation, +we here cite the opening sentences from the first book of the _Nihongi_: + +"Of old, Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and Yo +[or _Yin_ and _Yang_, female and male principles] not yet divided. +They formed a chaotic mass, like an egg, which was of obscurely +defined limits and contained germs. The purer and clearer part was +thinly drawn out and formed Heaven, while the heavier and grosser +element settled down and became Earth. The finer element easily became +a united body, but the consolidation of the heavy and gross element +was accomplished with difficulty. Heaven was therefore formed first, +and Earth was established subsequently. Thereafter Divine Beings were +produced between them. Hence it is said that when the world began to +be created, the soil, of which lands were composed, floated about in +a manner which might be compared to the floating of a fish sporting +on the surface of the water. At this time a certain thing was produced +between Heaven and Earth. It was in form like a reed-shoot. Now +this became transformed into a god, and was called _Kuni-toko-tachi +no Mikoto_ ["Land-eternal-stand-of-august thing"]. Next there was +_Kuni-no-sa-tsuchi_ ["land-of-right-soil"], and next, _Toyo-kumu-nu_ +["rich-form-plain"]--in all, three deities. These were pure males, +spontaneously developed by the operation of the principle of Heaven" +[the Yo, male principle]. + +The _Ko-ji-ki_ was written about 712 A. D., and the _Nihongi_ in +720 A. D., and they are both remarkable for the naïve and peculiar +manner in which they unite together in their narratives matters of +traditional mythology and of history without apparent consciousness of +any noteworthy differences between the two. Besides these remarkable +books there is a Code of ceremonial laws, in fifty volumes, known as +the _Yengishiki_, which was published A. D. 927. It includes a large +number of ancient Japanese rituals, called _Norito_, of which several +have been translated into English and provided with a commentary and +learned notes by Ernest Satow and Karl Florenz.[8] There is also +an interesting collection of ancient poems, called the _Manyoshu_, +"Collection of Myriad Leaves," which furnishes numerous pictures of +the life of the early Japanese, both before and after the time of the +compilation of the _Ko-ji-ki_ and the _Nihongi_. There are also the +voluminous writings of the three famous Shinto scholars, Mabuchi, +Motowori, and Hirata, who flourished between the middle of the +eighteenth and the middle of the nineteenth century, and effected an +intellectual revolution and a remarkable revival of the Shinto cult.[9] + +=6. Japanese Cosmogony and Mythology.= Our study of Shinto may well +begin by a brief notice of Japanese cosmogony as presented at the very +beginning of the _Ko-ji-ki_: + +"I, Yasumaro, say: Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force +and form were not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught +done, who could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first +parted, and the Three Deities performed the commencement of creation; +the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits +became the ancestors of all things. Therefore did he [Izanagi] enter +obscurity and emerge into light, and the Sun and Moon were revealed by +the washing of his eyes; he floated on and plunged into the sea-water, +and heavenly and earthly Deities appeared through the ablutions of his +person. So in the dimness of the great beginning, we, by relying on the +original teaching, learn the time of the conception of the earth and +of the birth of islands; in the remoteness of the original beginning, +we by trusting the former sages, perceive the era of the genesis of +Deities and of the establishment of men." + +This brief fragment from the compiler's "Preface" furnishes a condensed +outline of what we read in the first part of the _Ko-ji-ki_, and +it indicates the peculiar cosmogony of the Japanese mythology. The +early sections of the book record the names of the first deities, +who are said to have been "born alone, and hid their persons;" +which seems to mean that they came into being in some exceptional +way, and then disappeared. Then followed what are termed "the +Seven Divine Generations," among which we find such names as "the +Earthly-eternally-standing-Deity," "the Mud-Earth-Lord, and his younger +sister, the Mud-Earth-Lady;" "the Germ-Integrating Deity, and his +younger sister, the Life-Integrating Deity." These seven generations of +gods end with the birth of a brother and sister, named _Izanagi_ and +_Izanami_ (_i. e._, "the male-who-invites and the female-who-invites"). +These two are commanded by the higher and more ancient heavenly deities +to "make, consolidate, and give birth to this drifting land;" whereupon +they two, "standing upon the floating Bridge of Heaven, pushed down a +jewelled spear, and stirred the ocean brine till it became thick and +sticky;[10] and then, drawing the spear upward, the brine that dropped +down from the end of the spear became an island." Upon this island +Izanagi and Izanami descended from the Heaven above, and in course of +time generated all the islands of the Japanese world. When they had +finished giving birth to countries they proceeded to give birth to +deities, and so by them were begotten fourteen islands and thirty-five +deities. There is little room to doubt that Izanagi and Izanami are a +mythological representation of the generative powers of nature; but +their portraiture in the Japanese literature has probably received some +coloring from Chinese influence and thought. + +But in giving birth to the deity of fire, Izanami died, and her +brother buried her, and drawing his mighty sword he proceeded +to cut off the head of his son, the deity of fire. Whereupon, +wonderful to tell, sixteen deities were born from the blood and +the different parts of the body of the fire-god. Among the names +of these we find such titles as "Rock-splitter," "Root-splitter," +"Brave-snapping," and "Possessor-of-Mountains;" and the name of +the sword which cleft the head of the fire-god was "Heavenly," or +"Majestic-Point-Blade-Extended." + +After the birth of these deities, Izanagi longed to see again his +sister and spouse, and went to seek her in the underworld. He called +to her and asked her to come back to him. She answered that such was +her desire, but she must consult the deities of Hades, and she bade him +wait, saying, "Look not at me." One can not help comparing here the +Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus descended into the lower +world, charmed Pluto with his lyre, and obtained permission for his +wife Eurydice to return, following behind him, but only on condition +that Orpheus should not look back at her till they had both reached the +upper world. He grew impatient, looked back to see if she were indeed +following, and she at once vanished from his sight. According to the +Japanese myth, however, Izanagi grew tired of waiting outside, made a +light and entered, and was shocked to behold maggots swarming over her +body, and eight thunder-deities dwelling in her rotting form where they +had been born. He turned and fled back, but she pursued him with the +forces of the underworld. He succeeded in driving them all back, and +with a mighty rock blocked up the pass of Hades. Then he went to purify +himself by bathing in a stream, and from his staff, and girdle, and +bracelet, and various garments, and from the filth which he contracted +in the underworld were born a multitude of deities, bearing composite +names of strange significance. There was also born, as he washed his +left eye, a deity who was called "the Heaven-Shining-Great-August One;" +and from his right eye was born the "Moon-Night-Possessor," and as he +washed his nose there was born _Susa-no-Wo_, "Impetuous-Male-Deity." + +But we need not pursue further this seemingly "endless genealogy" of +the deities. We are told in section xxx that in a divine assembly of +eight hundred myriad deities it was decided to send one of their number +to govern "the Central Land of Reed-Plains," and subdue the "savage +Earthly Deities." Various deities were sent, and at length a grandchild +of the Sun-Goddess[11] became the Ruler of the Empire, and bears the +composite name of _Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko_, but is commonly called +by his "canonical name," _Jimmu_, a title given him long after his +decease. From such heavenly origin sprang all the Emperors of Japan, +and the present Mikado, like all his predecessors, is thus conceived +as an offspring of Heaven, a direct descendant of the ancient heavenly +deities. The significance of this fact will appear conspicuously when +we come to notice more particularly the essential elements in the +Shinto cult. + +On this remarkable cosmogony and mythology we do well at this point to +offer the following observations: + +(1) These accounts of the origin of the Japanese Archipelago and its +rulers are regarded as _genuine traditions handed down from former +ages_. One part of the tradition is that the Emperor, who took pains to +have the old records carefully looked after, employed a person living +in his household, who was gifted with marvelous memory; "he could +repeat without mistake the contents of any document he had ever seen, +and never forgot anything that he had heard;" and from the lips of this +man of prodigious memory the scribe Yasumaro wrote down the contents +of the _Ko-ji-ki_.[12] + +(2) Notice, in the next place, that the island world of _Japan is all +the world_ which these records know anything about. The universe of +this cosmogony consists of "the islands of the Central-Land of the +Reed-Plains," with their inland and surrounding seas, and "the Plain of +High Heaven," which, however, was not conceived as very far away above +them. + +(3) The entire description of the beginnings of heaven, and earth, +and gods, and men accords with the idea of a continuous process of +evolution. The first three heavenly deities "were born alone, and hid +their persons," or disappeared. All the other deities are spoken of as +begotten, or born, and the deities give birth to the different islands +of the earth.[13] + +(4) The world-idea of this old mythology is in notable keeping with +the ancestor worship, and the Animism which enter so largely into the +Shinto faith. In spite of all the wars and discords of the deities, +this a primordial monism, so to speak, at the basis of Japanese +cosmogony, and of all its diverse generations of the heavens and the +earth; and yet there is no one Supreme Ruler in all the Pantheon of +eight hundred myriad gods. When a great council of the gods assembles +in the bed of the Tranquil Heavenly River, no one deity is chief among +them, and we are at a loss to imagine who has authority to call them +together or to preside over the assembly. Izanagi seems for a while to +be the chief creator and ruler, but after a time he disappears, and the +Sun Goddess, his daughter Amaterasu, has her heavenly domain shaken +and ravaged by her younger brother, but is avenged by the heavenly +assembly of gods, who fine and punish the offender, "and expel him with +a divine expulsion." So the Sun Goddess maintains her dominion by the +help of the eight hundred myriad gods, no one of whom is invested with +supreme power. It appears from certain poems of the _Manyoshu_ that the +moon as well as the sun was extensively worshiped among the primitive +Japanese.[14] + +(5) It accords with all these ideas that the devotees of the "pure +Shinto" faith trace all their history back to the age of the gods, +and recognize some deity in, or back of, all phenomena. Japan is the +country of the gods; every Japanese is a descendant or offspring of +the gods, and the Mikado is the direct descendant of the imperial line +which has continued in unbroken succession from the beginning of the +world. Japan is, therefore, superior to all other countries, and the +Japanese, being thus directly from the gods, are superior in every +respect to other people. Sprung from the gods, they need no codes of +moral law (like the Chinese), for they are naturally perfect, and do +the right things spontaneously. + +=7. The Japanese a Self-centered People.= The Japanese people, with +such traditions and such a faith, would naturally be a self-centered +people, and they conceived their island-empire as occupying the summit +of the earth. The Mikado is the Son of Heaven, entitled and empowered +to reign perpetually over the land and the sea. But as all the people +are descendants of the gods, and the islands and all that is in them +have also been begotten of the gods, it follows that the worship of +ancestors is a worship of all the gods of whom they have knowledge, and +all the lower animate and inanimate things in the world are also in +some way instinct with the deities from whom they were born, and whose +they are. + +Accordingly, the honoring of the gods is a fundamental thing in the +Shinto thought and in the Japanese civilization and government. Every +loyal subject of the Mikado's Empire is expected to be true to the +ancient faith. It is assumed that religion and worship and the proper +administration of government are all essential to each other. The +Japanese word (_Matsuri-goto_), which is used to denote the art of +government, means, literally, _worshiping_. And it is a common thought +and saying: "Everything in the world depends on the spirit of the +gods of heaven and earth, and therefore the worship of the gods is a +matter of primary importance. The gods who do harm are to be appeased, +so that they may not punish those who have offended them; and all the +gods are to be worshiped, so that they may be induced to increase their +favors."[15] One of the rules which all the ministers of the Mikado +emphasized in the old times, before the introduction of Buddhism into +Japan, was, "First serve the gods, and afterwards deliberate on matters +of government."[16] + +=8. Essence of the Shinto Cult.= From what we have now stated it is to +be seen that reverence and worship of the ancestors of the Japanese, +and the recognition of the Mikado's divinity as the incarnation and +earthly representation of the celestial gods, constitute the essence +of the Shinto cult. All the Japanese are offsprings of the gods, but +the imperial "Sovran Grandchild" of _Amaterasu_, the Sun-Goddess,[17] +is pre-eminently divine and worshipful. The first Mikado, however, was +not the real son of _Amaterasu_, according to the mythic tradition of +the prehistoric time, but her nephew, the son of _Oshi-ho-mi-mi_, whom +she adopted as her son. But the title of "Sovran Grandchild," having +been applied first to the founder of the Mikado's dynasty, came in time +to be the common title of all the Mikado's successors. The imperial +worship, accordingly, represents the most conspicuous national form of +the Shinto cult. + +=9. The Great Sanctuaries.= The Mikado's palace would, accordingly, be +the most holy shrine of the national worship, the private and exclusive +sanctuary of the imperial ancestors. But the most notable shrine of the +Sun-Goddess is not now the residence of the Mikado. On account of some +great calamity that occurred far back in prehistoric times, her worship +was removed to a separate temple, and was finally established in the +province of Isè, in which the temples, called the "Two great divine +Palaces," are the resort of thousands of pilgrims every year, and, +though not the most ancient, are regarded as first among all the Shinto +temples in the land.[18] These two divine palaces, or temples, called +_Geku_ and _Naiku_, are about three miles apart, and stand in the midst +of groves of aged cryptomeria trees.[19] They are approached through +archways (called _torii_, or _toriwi_) of simple construction. The +_Geku_ temple is an irregular oblong structure, 247 feet wide at the +front, but only 235 feet wide in the rear; while the side to the right +of the entrance is 339 feet, and that on the left is 335. Within this +large enclosure are others of similar structure, all made of the wood +of cryptomeria trees, and left unpainted and without ornamentation. The +various buildings of the temples are thus fashioned after the manner +of the simple huts, or dwellings of the earliest inhabitants of these +islands. Some of the buildings are covered with thatched roofs and +have their walls and doors made of rough matting. Mr. Satow, who has +visited and described the temples of Isè, says that "All the buildings +which form part of the two temples are constructed in a style that +is disappointing in its simplicity and perishable nature.... None +but those which are roofed with thatch are entitled to be considered +as being in strict conformity with the principles of genuine Shinto +temple architecture."[20] The perishable nature of these temples is +such that it becomes necessary, and is, in fact, the standing rule, to +rebuild them every twenty years. Two sites for each temple are used +alternatively; they lie close to each other, so that the new building +is constructed and ready for use before the old one is removed. + +The temple which, though less venerated than those at Isè, is the +shrine-center of the more ancient Shinto cult, is the one at Kitzuki, +in the ancient province of Idzumo. These famous shrines of Isè and +Kitzuki represent the two supreme cults of Shinto; namely, that of +the Sun-Goddess, _Amaterasu_, and that of _Oho-kuni-nushi_, offspring +of the brother of the Sun-Goddess, who became the ruler of the unseen +world of the spirits of the dead. But there are many other great +temples maintained in whole or in part from the imperial revenues. +Some are of greater sanctity and renown than others, but those of Isè +and Kitzuki are the most celebrated, and every Shinto worshiper is +expected, at least once in his lifetime, to make a pilgrimage himself, +or send a deputy to one of these most famous shrines. + +=10. Five Noteworthy Objects Connected with the Worship.= One +noteworthy fact is the absence of images from the pure Shinto temples; +that is, images exposed as objects of worship. But there is a number of +objects connected with these sacred places which should receive brief +notice: + +(1) There is, first, the wooden archway (called _torii_, or _toriwi_) +through which one passes in approaching the temples. It consists of +two upright posts set in the ground on the tops of which is laid a +long straight beam, the two ends of which project a little beyond the +uprights. Under this top beam is another horizontal beam connecting the +two side posts after the manner of a girder. According to Satow, "The +_toriwi_ was originally a perch for the fowls offered up to the gods, +not as food, but to give warning at daybreak. It was erected on any +side of the temple indifferently. In later times, not improbably after +the introduction of Buddhism, its original meaning was forgotten, and +it was placed in front only and supposed to be a gateway."[21] + +(2) Opposite the various entrances to the temples is placed a wooden +screen, or fence, called _Banpei_, which serves as in other dwellings +to guard and hide the privacy of the interior. + +(3) Another object of special interest is the _Go-hei_, a slender wand, +originally a branch of the sacred tree called _sakaki_. From the Go-hei +hang two long slips of white paper notched on the opposite sides. These +wands of unpainted wood are supposed to represent offerings of white +cloth and to have the power of attracting the gods to the places where +they are kept. + +(4) The offerings presented consist of cups of water and small vessels +filled with rice, vegetables, fruits, salt, fish, birds, and other +simplest products of the land and of the sea. It is noteworthy that we +find no bloody sacrificial rites in Shinto worship, in which one life, +animal or human, was made a vicarious substitute for a guilty soul. + +(5) The sacred _mirror_, which figures in the mythology of the +Sun-Goddess, and is said to have been once used to entice her from a +cave into which she had hid herself in a spell of anger, is carefully +guarded in one of these temples, and also many copies of the mirror. +"Each mirror is contained in a box which is furnished with eight +handles, four on the box itself and four on the lid. The box rests on a +low stand and is covered with a piece of cloth said to be white silk. +The mirror itself is wrapped in a brocade bag, which is never opened or +renewed, but when it begins to fall to pieces from age, another bag is +put on, so that the actual covering consists of numerous layers. Over +the whole is placed a sort of cage of unpainted wood with ornaments +said to be of pure gold, and over this again is thrown a sort of +curtain of coarse silk, descending to the floor on all sides."[22] +One can not read this description of the sacred mirror thus secretly +guarded in a costly box without being reminded of the sacred ark of the +Levitical sanctuary, and its enclosed "tables of testimony." + +=11. The Ancestor Worship.= We have already observed that ancestor +worship is the basis of the Shinto cult. This kind of worship is also +conspicuous among the Chinese, and is held by many writers to have been +the original cult of all civilized races and peoples. It began, they +tell us, with a belief in ghosts, and at the first there was no clear +distinction between ghosts and gods. The departed spirit was thought +of as abiding near the place where the dead body was deposited, and +the earliest shrines would therefore be the graves or tombs of the +dead. Later thought would beget the idea that the invisible spirits +were present to witness the acts, and share the joys and sorrows of the +living. And this fundamental idea would, of course, develop into many +diverse conceptions and practices among the different tribes. + +Without here discussing this theory of aboriginal religious thought +and practice, as applicable to all peoples, we may note that it +accords with the facts of Japanese history and civilization so far as +we can now trace them back into the mists of prehistoric time.[23] +We have seen that Japanese history and mythology run together and +blend in remarkable artlessness as they stand recorded in the oldest +literature (_e. g._, the _Ko-ji-ki_ and the _Nihongi_). Unthinkable +monstrosities of the origin of gods and lands and men are told with +the same simplicity as the unquestionable facts of historic times. But +taking the one leading thought which runs through all these records and +appears to be fundamental in the Japanese civilization--namely, that +all their islands and emperors and chiefs and people are offspring of +the gods, the very first of whom were somehow self-evolved from the +primordial elements of the universe--we look upon the Shinto worship as +it exists in its purest form to-day, and note the most apparent facts. + +Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, in his "attempt at an interpretation" of Japan, +has, more clearly than any other writer I have consulted, described +the Shinto ancestor-worship under its three forms of _Domestic_, +_Communal_, and _State_ cults. In every case it is a worship of the +dead, but the individual, whether he be the most obscure servant, the +influential citizen, the commanding chieftain, or even the Mikado, is +but a part and parcel of the body politic. There is a most remarkable +unity of popular and national life. Government and religion are +virtually identical, and there is no distinction between religion and +morality. Obedience and conformity to the rules of family life, and to +the customs of society and the requirements of the State--these are +the simple sum-total of Shinto law and gospel. The individual must +always stand ready to be sacrificed for the good of the community or +of the State. Everything is to be regarded as public, and must serve +the public weal. There is no such thing as privacy, and oddities have +no respectable standing. Tradition and custom seem to constitute the +essence of religion as well as of family, communal, and more public +life. There is no code of moral law; there is nothing in the worship +that is fairly comparable to what we understand by dogma, creed, or +Church. Strictly speaking, this system has no heaven or hell, no deep +sense of sin, and no concept of mediatorial redemption from sin and +evil. The dead--all the dead of all the ages--are conceived as somehow +living in the unseen vacancy around, above, below; they are present at +the worship; they haunt the tombs; they are interested in the life and +works of their descendants; they visit their former homes and attend +the family worship there; their happiness, in fact, depends upon the +honor and worship which their living descendants pay them; and also the +happiness and prosperity of the living is believed to depend upon their +sense of filial duty and proper reverence toward the dead. Furthermore, +all the dead are supposed to become gods and attain to supernatural +power. But there is no one Supreme Deity; no central throne of God; +no paradise of heavenly blessedness. So far as any ideas of this kind +obtain among the people, they may be regarded as later conceptions +introduced by missionaries or adherents of other religious systems. +But the cult implies beyond question a belief in some kind of future +life. The _Yomi_, or Hades, of Shinto mythology, into which Izanagi +went to seek his lost sister, was conceived as "a hideous and polluted +land," and even the realm of the unseen heavenly deities was never +longed for by the devotees of Shinto. Dooman observes that "to the +Japanese mind and imagination Japan, as a place of residence, was far +superior to heaven, and its inhabitants a far more desirable society +than those living in the transcendent regions. We see that every god +who is sent from heaven to Japan on some important business by the +divine assembly marries, and is utterly unwilling to go back once more +to the place from which he descended."[24] + +=12. Elements of Animism.= The ancestor-worship of Shinto can not be +disassociated altogether from the elements of Animism which appear in +the names and titles of certain deities, and also in the fact that +there are "evil gods" and demons who are capable of working mischief +and calamity in the family, the community, and the State. How these +evil deities originated is matter of myth, legend, and speculation. Bad +men would naturally be supposed to carry their evil character with them +into the unseen world of the dead, and to have the same power to work +harm among the living as the good spirits have to bestow benefits. But +human spirits would hardly be supposed to become deities of the wind, +and the thunder, and the waves, and the mountains; of the trees, and +the fire, and the sun, and the moon, and the autumn, and the food of +men. Here the old mythology of the _Ko-ji-ki_ comes in to tell us of +a prehistoric and cosmical origin of evils. When Izanagi went to find +his sister Izanami in the hideous and polluted underworld, and found +her body swarming with maggots and eight thunder deities dwelling in +the different parts of her decaying form, he fled back in astonishment +and awe, and she in a rage of shame pursued him with all the horrid +forces of that nether sphere. He escaped, but not without contracting +much pollution on his august person, and when he sought to wash and +cleanse himself in the waters of a certain river, there were born from +the filth of his person two deities, named "the wondrous deity of +eighty evils," and "the wondrous deity of great evils." These evil gods +afterwards multiplied, and may be supposed to be the authors of all the +demons, goblins, and mischievous spirits of evil that disturb the world +and its inhabitants. But there are also good spirits innumerable that +animate all moving things. The winds and the waters, the songs of birds +and the hum of the bees, the growing plants and trees, are all instinct +with a sort of conscious life, and the spirits that live and move in +them are to be recognized and reverenced by prayers and offerings. + +The spirits of dead ancestors and the powerful spirits of the winds and +the storms and the growths of nature may or may not have been supposed +to have concert of action understood between them. The Japanese mind +seems never to have elaborated any formal philosophy of this life or +any specific theories of the life to come. + +=13. The Domestic Cult.= The simplest and most original form of the +Shinto worship is that of the family. In the inner chamber of every +home there is a high shelf against the wall called the "Shelf of +the August Spirits." Upon it is placed a miniature temple, in which +are deposited little tablets of white wood bearing the names of the +deceased members of the household. These are often spoken of as "spirit +sticks" and "spirit substitutes." Before these household shrines simple +offerings are offered daily and a few words of prayer are spoken. The +ceremony is a very short one, but as regular as the coming of the day. +It is usually performed by the head of the family, but it frequently +devolves upon the woman, the mother or the grandmother, rather than +the father. "No religion," says Hearn, "is more sincere, no faith +more touching than this domestic worship, which regards the dead as +continuing to form a part of the household life and needing still the +affection and the respect of their children and kindred. Originating +in those dim ages when fear was stronger than love, ... the cult at +last developed into a religion of affection; and this it yet remains. +The belief that the dead need affection, that to neglect them is a +cruelty, that their happiness depends upon duty, is a belief that has +almost cast out the primitive fear of their displeasure. They are not +thought of as dead: they are believed to remain among those who loved +them. Unseen, they guard the home and watch over the welfare of its +inmates; they hover nightly in the glow of the shrine-lamp, and the +stirring of its flame is the motion of them.... From their shrine they +observe and hear what happens in the house; they share the family joys +and sorrows. They were the givers of life; they represent the past of +the race, and all its sacrifices.... Yet, how little do they require in +return! Scarcely more than to be thanked, as founders and guardians of +the home, in simple words like these: 'For aid received, by day and by +night, accept, august ones, our reverential gratitude.'"[25] + +=14. The Communal Cult.= The next phase of the Shinto worship to be +noticed is that which is represented in the temples scattered about +everywhere in the land and which are said to number over 195,000 at +the present time. In every community, village, and large city is found +the parish-temple, and in the larger towns each section or district +has its public shrine, in which the whole community honor the deified +ancestors of certain noble families of ancient time, or the spirit of +the first great patriarch of the clan. The farmers, or those who till +the fields, usually dwell in a village on the principal highway, and +go out thence to work the rural districts round about. So the villages +vary in size from fifty houses set on a single street half a mile long +to a large town of many hundred houses. In Simmons and Wigmore's "Notes +on Land Tenure and Local Institutions in Old Japan,"[26] we read that +the Japanese rural population is, as a rule, "exceedingly stable. +The villagers are for the most part engaged wholly or partially as +cultivators of land, and in the vast majority of cases many generations +of cultivators have been born and have died on the same spot. From the +almost numberless replies to inquiries, the answer usually is, 'We do +not know where our ancestors came from, or when they came to live on +this spot. Our temple register may tell, but we have never thought +about the matter.'" + +The deity honored at these village temples is called the _Ujigami_, +and recognized as the patriarchal and tutelary god of the community. +Just whether he were the clan-ancestor of the first settlers in +that particular parish, or the spirit of some mighty ruler of that +district at a former time, or the patron-god of some noble family +once resident there, is as uncertain as the knowledge of the common +villagers touching their earliest progenitors. But in every class these +_Ujigami_ were worshiped as the tutelar deity of the community in which +the temple stood. Also, in the larger towns there are Shinto temples +dedicated to certain patron-gods of other localities. + +Each one of these parish temples naturally has a most intimate relation +to the life of the community about it. Thither every child born in the +parish is taken, when a month old, and formally named and placed under +the protection of the ancestral deity. As it grows up it is regularly +taken to observe all the festivals and the processions and ceremonies, +and the temple groves and gardens become its common playground. There +is nothing somber or solemn about this religious cult to scare a +child, but rather very much to attract and interest.[27] Every village +temple has its appointed days of public worship, and neighboring +districts vie with each other in making their great festival days +occasions of popular delight. To these joyous festivals every family +contributes according to ability, and the worship is accompanied by +public amusements of various kinds, athletic sports, and the sale of +toys for children. The temple worship consisted in the presentation +of offerings of cloth, herbs, fruits, and other of the most common +products of the country, and in a ritual prayer enumerating the various +gifts and supplicating for prosperity and success in all communal +affairs, for protection against sickness, plague, and famine, and +for the triumph of their chieftains in time of war. In this way the +_Ujigami_ was recognized as the tutelar deity of the community and the +district, the abiding friend and helper of his offspring. The communal +cult thus powerfully confirmed the family cult, and enforced the lesson +that no man could live unto himself alone. + +=15. The National Cult.= But it is in the State or National observances +of the great temples that the Shinto worship is seen in its most +elaborated form. The substance and manner of this worship may be +learned from the ancient Japanese rituals, which make mention of the +chief deities, enumerate the offerings that are presented at the sacred +shrines, and furnish us the very language employed "in the presence of +the sovran gods." How early these rituals of worship were committed +to writing is an open question, but it is altogether probable that in +substance they had been transmitted orally through many generations +before they were put in written form. From these rituals, and the +practices of the worship as they may be observed at the present time, +we are able to learn the chief features of the service.[28] + +In connection with this national worship we may here note (1) that +the great festivals and occasions of worship were observed in all the +principal temples at the same time; (2) the _Yengishiki_ mentions +3,132 shrines distinguished as great and small; there were 492 great +shrines, and 2,640 small ones. But besides these there were many +thousands of smaller, undistinguished temples scattered all over the +lands. (3) These various shrines were dedicated to a great number of +deities, and there were many gods who received worship in a number +of temples at one and the same time. (4) The offerings were made in +the name of "the Sovran Grandchild" of the sun-goddess, the divine +title of every Mikado, and Satow remarks that "it is difficult to +resist the suggestion that the sun was the earliest among the powers +of nature to be deified, and that the long series of gods who precede +her in the cosmogony of the _Ko-ji-ki_ and _Nihongi_, most of whom are +shown by their names to have been mere abstractions, were invented +to give her a genealogy, into which were inserted two or perhaps more +of her own attributes, personified as separate deities."[29] (5) The +priesthood seems to have been for the most part hereditary, and many +priests claimed descent from the chief deity to whom the temple was +dedicated. The reader of the ritual was a member of the priestly tribe +which traced its origin to _Oho-nakato-mi_, chief of the whole Nakatomi +family. Another priestly family is the Imbibi tribe.[30] (6) Virgin +priestesses also figure in the celebration of the great ceremonies +of State. Princesses of the Mikado's family have been consecrated to +officiate in the temples of Isè and in other great temples also. While +some of the priestesses are virgin princesses, some of them also are +young, not yet having reached the nubile age, and when they reach that +age they cease to be priestesses. With others the office is hereditary, +as it is with men, and the women of this class retain and exercise +their priestly office after marriage. + +=16. The Harvest Service.= As an example of public worship of +exceptional interest, we take the ritual ceremony for Harvest, which +is celebrated once a year--the fourth day of the second month. The +chief service is at the capital, but the festival is observed in all +the provinces under the direction of the local rulers. Preparations go +on for a fortnight beforehand, and the service begins twenty minutes +before seven in the morning. At the capital, in the large court used +for the worship of the Shinto gods, the ministers of State assemble, +along with the priests and priestesses of many temples which are +supported from the Mikado's treasury. When all things are in readiness, +the ministers, priests, and priestesses enter in succession and occupy +the places assigned them. The various offerings are duly presented and +the ritual is read. At the conclusion of each section of the ritual as +recited by the reader, all the priests respond, "O!" (Yes, or Amen.) + +The following is a portion of the ritual used on one of these +occasions: "Hear, all of you, assembled priests of higher and lower +order. I declare in the presence of the sovran gods[31] whose +praises are fulfilled as heavenly temples and country temples.[32] I +fulfill your praises by setting up the great offerings of the sovran +grandchild's augustiness, made with intention of deigning to begin the +harvest in the second month of this year, as the morning sun rises in +glory. I declare in the presence of the sovran gods of the harvest: If +the sovran gods will bestow in many-bundled ears and in luxuriant ears +the late-ripening harvest which they will bestow, the late-ripening +harvest which will be produced by the dripping of foam from the arms +and by drawing the mud together between the opposite thighs, then I +will fulfill their praises by setting up the first fruits in a thousand +ears, and many hundred ears, raising high the beer-jars, filling them, +and ranging them in rows." The ritual goes on to specify, among the +offerings, sweet and bitter herbs, "things which dwell in the blue +sea-plain;" clothes bright, and glittering, and soft, and coarse; a +white horse, a white boar, and a white cock. The names also of many +deities are declared: the "divine Producer," the "great Goddess of +Food," "wonderful-rock-Gate," "the from-heaven-shining-great Deity who +sits in Isè," "sovran gods who sit in the Farms," "sovran gods who sit +in the mouths of the mountains," and those "who dwell in the partings +of the waters." + +As soon as the reader had finished the words of the ritual, he retired, +and the priests distributed the various offerings and presented them to +the gods for whom they were set apart. + +=17. The Great Purification.= But the ritual of the Great or General +Purification is said to be "one of the most important and most solemn +ceremonies of the Shinto religion." Professor Karl Florenz, who has +given us a translation of this ritual,[33] informs us that it is by +means of this ceremony that "the population of the whole country, from +the princes and ministers down to the common people, is purified and +freed from sins, pollutions, and calamities." It is celebrated twice +a year, on the thirtieth day of the sixth and twelfth months. "The +chief ceremony was performed in the capital, near the south gate of the +imperial palace, and might be styled the purification of the court, +because it was to purify all the higher and lower officials of the +imperial court. In a similar way the ceremony was celebrated also at +all the more important public shrines of the whole country." Besides +the regular semiannual celebration of the "Great Purification" (called +_Oho-harahe_), it is also performed on such special occasions as at the +accession of a new emperor to the throne, or when an imperial princess +was chosen as a virgin priestess and sent to the temple of Isè. + +Without detailing the movements, positions, and practices of the +assembled priests, officials, and common people at the service of the +General Purification, we simply cite a few extracts from the ritual +which may serve to show us the underlying concept of purification. +While the ritual is only a part of the entire ceremony of the +occasion, we are told that it is not infrequently recited without +performing the ceremony. Moreover, while in ancient times the reader +was always a member of the priestly Nakatomi tribe, at the present time +the ritual is read by the officiating priest of each particular temple. +The following excerpts are made from Florenz's translation: + +"Hear, all of you, assembled princes of the blood, princes, high +dignitaries, and men of the hundred offices. Hear, all of you, that +in the Great Purification of the present last day of the sixth month +of the current year, [the Sovran] deigns to purify, and deigns to +cleanse the various offenses which may have been committed either +inadvertently, or deliberately, especially by the persons serving +in the imperial court: (viz.) the scarf-wearing attendants, the +sash-wearing attendants (of the kitchen), the attendants who carry +quivers on the back, the attendants who gird on swords, the eighty +attendants of the attendants, and, moreover, by the people serving in +all offices." + +The ritual goes on to declare how the Sovran's dear progenitors, in a +divine assembly, ordained that the "Sovran Grandchild's Augustiness +should tranquilly rule the luxuriant reed-plain region of fresh +young spikes as a peaceful country;" how they expelled with a divine +expulsion the savage deities, and "silenced the rocks and trunks of +trees;" how they let him go down from his heavenly place, "and dividing +a road through the eightfold heavenly clouds," they sent him down and +gave the land into his peaceful keeping. The ritual also makes mention +of various kinds of offenses which need to be cleansed and purged away, +and distinguishes them as "heavenly offenses" and "earthly offenses." +Among the former are "breaking down the divisions of the rice fields, +filling up the irrigating channels, and opening the floodgate of +sluices," and the evacuation of one's bowels in improper places. Among +"earthly offenses" are the cutting the skin of the living or the dead +body so as to become defiled by blood, being affected with corns, +bunions, boils, or proud-flesh; sins of adultery, the offense of using +incantations, and various kinds of personal calamity. + +"It is expected," the ritual adds, "that the heavenly gods will be +favorably disposed by reason of these offerings, ceremonies, and ritual +of the Great Purification, and will deign to purify and cleanse, and +make all the specified offenses disappear, even as the clouds of heaven +and the dense morning and evening mists disappear before the blowing +winds." It is expected that "the goddess who resides in the current of +the rapid stream that comes boiling down the ravines, from the tops +of the mountains," and the goddess who resides in the currents of the +briny ocean will carry them away, and "swallow them down with gurgling +sound," and they shall be utterly "blown away, banished, and got rid +of," so that "from this day onwards there will be no offense in the +four quarters of the region under heaven, especially with regard to +all people of all offices who respectfully serve in the court of the +Sovran." The offenses were thought of as somehow swept away by the +winds and the waves, and then swallowed into the depths of the sea, and +so cast down into the underworld, the realm of death and pollution, +whence all defilements were supposed to have originated. So they were +cast down into the depths whence they came forth. + +The concluding words of this ritual are a command for the "diviners +of the four countries to leave and go away to the great river-way, and +carry away the offenses by purification." Thus divination was honored, +as moving in the will and way of the gods; but incantation is mentioned +among the "earthly offenses." Probably these evil incantations refer to +evil-minded witchcraft and invoking calamity on others. + +This great ritual ceremony of purification, being one of the most +solemn formal expressions of the Shinto cult, calls for the following +remarks: + +(1) The central idea is purification from certain forms of evil, or +certain kinds of offenses. + +(2) The offenses are conceived as either willfully committed, or +committed inadvertently. + +(3) They are also spoken of as heavenly and earthly. This distinction +seems to us quite arbitrary and unnatural, but it probably had a +mythical origin and the offenses called heavenly are mainly such +as involve distress for an agricultural community. They are sins +against the _land_ of the gods, while the earthly offenses are mainly +matters of personal defilement. In all cases it is conspicuous that +the Shinto concept of offenses which need purging away is that of +outward physical pollution and damage. They are all offenses committed +against the interests of the community and likely to bring some kind of +calamity upon the people. + +(4) We should also remark that while, according to the ritual of the +Great Purification, it is expected that from that day forwards "no +offense which is called offense" will occur again in the four quarters +of the whole region under heaven, the same ceremony of purification is +repeated every six months--year in and year out. + +(5) These facts serve to show a moral and religious basis for the +Japanese love of cleanliness and the scrupulous care with which these +people of "the luxuriant central land of the ears of fresh rice" study +to keep their bodies, their houses, their temples, and their whole +domain free from all manner of physical impurity. + +=18. Other Ritual Services.= Other rituals for other occasions and +purposes furnish nothing of a different character or of exceptional +importance that we need here give further attention to their various +contents and suggestions. There are, in the voluminous _Yengishiki_, +rituals for the service of the gods of Kasuga, for the service of the +goddess of food, and of the gods of the wind, and for the service of +particular temples. Some of these services are occasions of grand +ceremonial display. The place, the day, the hour, and all the details +of the service are arranged beforehand. The procession of those who +take part is ordered with extreme precision and made in every way +magnificent. Various orders of officials move along in separate ranks. +The priestess, accompanied by many mantled attendants, is drawn in a +car, and on either side four men in scarlet coats carry a silk umbrella +and a huge, long-handled fan. The female attendants and servants of +the priestess, each a lady of rank, follow in seven carriages. Chests +filled with sacrificial utensils and food offerings, the messenger of +the Mikado and his attendants of rank, have their assigned places in +the procession. Upon arriving at the temple enclosure, the priestess +alights from her car or palanquin, passes into the courtyard behind +curtains so held by her attendants as to hide her from the gaze of the +crowd, enters her private room and changes her traveling dress for the +sacrificial robes. Meantime the Mikado's presents and all the other +offerings are duly placed on the tables and in the various chapels +prepared for them and the high officers of State take their seats +within the temple enclosure. All the prescribed forms are observed with +scrupulous care, and the ritual is read. In many services harpists, +flute-players, singers, and dancers perform their several tasks. At +the conclusion of the services the company clap their hands and then +separate. The priestess changes her robes again for her traveling +dress, and returns to her lodging in like stately procession as she +came to the shrine. + +The mirror, sword, bow, and spear, which are mentioned in the rituals +as presents offered to the gods at the great festivals, doubtless have +their symbolical significance, and like the three divine insignia +of sword, precious stone, and mirror--the regalia or symbols of +Japanese power and glory--have doubtless their mythic connection with +prehistoric traditions; but these belong to the study of Japanese +antiquities rather than to the religious elements of Shinto.[34] + +=19. Influence of China on Japanese Thought.= So far we have spoken +only of what may be called the original or pure Shinto cult as the +religion of the ancient Japanese. But it is important to observe that +the moral and religious ideas of other peoples and other systems have +for some two thousand years past been affecting the life and thought +of the Japanese people. One noteworthy foreign influence came in from +China, and as early as the first century of the Christian era--perhaps +somewhat earlier--Chinese scholars made their way into Japan. This was +very natural, for the proximity of China favored intercourse between +the two nations, and Confucianism was at the beginning of our era +five hundred years old. Ancestor-worship was common to the people of +both lands, and the arts and industries of the two countries might +have found affiliation in many ways we can not now determine. That +such a leavening Chinese influence was early introduced into Japan is +simply matter of fact. The Preface of Yasumaro, the compiler of the +most ancient records of the _Ko-ji-ki_, shows the effect of Chinese +philosophy in its incidental mention of "the Passive and Active +Essences" which co-operated at the beginning of the creation; and +Chamberlain, in his Introduction to his English translation of the +_Ko-ji-ki_, observes that "at the very earliest period to which the +twilight of legend stretches back, Chinese influence had already begun +to make itself felt in these islands, communicating to the inhabitants +both implements and ideas." Then it is to be further remarked that the +_Nihongi_, completed in 720 A. D., although essentially a parallel +chronicle of Japanese traditions, is in thought and style conspicuously +Chinese. It is made in every aspect and element of its composition to +resemble as far as possible a Chinese history. + +=20. Influence of Buddhism.= But a deeper and more widespread influence +than that of anything of Chinese origin was the introduction into Japan +of Buddhism, which was first brought in about A. D. 552, but did not +succeed in leavening the whole country until the middle of the ninth +century. It was quietly propagated by leaders of various Buddhist sects +which differ in minor practices, and slowly it gained ascendency, +but its first more notable triumph followed the teaching of Kukai, +founder of the Shingon sect, who so adapted Buddhist doctrines to the +traditional ideas of ancestor worship as to maintain that all the +Shinto deities were _avatars_ or incarnations of Buddha. With great +ingenuity and cunning, a new interpretation was given to ancient +myths, and new constructions were put upon old beliefs. The Shinto +gods, rites, customs, and traditions took on a Buddhist significance, +and many of the mysteries of birth and of death were explained in a +manner so simple and popular as to commend them to all who listened +to the new teaching. For Buddhism had already learned in India and +in China the clever art of appropriating old beliefs and customs and +of clothing them with a new and higher meaning. Confucianism itself +had already in part prepared the way for Buddhism in Japan, and the +successful Buddhist propagandists were wise enough to suppress or +keep out of sight all that might be offensive in their system, and +to teach only such forms of doctrine as could be made attractive to +the masses of the people. Kukai thus succeeded in converting the +Mikado to his new interpretations of the Shinto beliefs, and the new +system thus put forward received the name "Riyobu Shinto," which means +"two parts," or the "double way of the gods," or the twofold divine +teaching. So complete and general did this Riyobu Shinto become in its +spread throughout Japan that for a thousand years it dominated the +civilization of the Empire. It had its priests, its gorgeous temples +and ritual services, its philosophy, and its divers sects, and it is +said that there are at least twelve distinct Buddhist sects in Japan +to-day. According to Lafcadio Hearn, "the religion of the Buddha +brought to Japan another and a wider humanizing influence--a new gospel +of tenderness--together with a multitude of new beliefs that were +able to accommodate themselves to the old, in spite of fundamental +dissimilarity. In the highest meaning of the term, it was a civilizing +power. Besides teaching new respect for life, the duty of kindness to +animals as well as to all human beings, the consequences of all present +acts upon the conditions of a future existence, the duty of resignation +to pain as the inevitable result of forgotten error, it actually gave +to Japan the arts and the industries of China. Architecture, painting, +sculpture, engraving, printing, gardening--in short, every art and +industry that helped to make life beautiful--developed first in Japan +under Buddhist teaching."[35] To which may well be added the following +statement of Aston: "There was nothing in Shinto which could rival in +attraction the sculpture, architecture, painting, costumes, and ritual +of the foreign faith. Its organization was more complete and effective. +It presented ideals of humanity, charity, self-abnegation, and purity +far higher than any previously known to the Japanese nation."[36] + +But after a thousand years of mixture, who can now tell for certain +just what is original Shinto and what is the Buddhist supplement +or modification? The Buddhism of Japan is as far from the original +teachings of Gautama as the Roman Catholic religion of Spain is from +the simple precepts and practices of Christ and His first apostles. +The same is true of the Buddhism of China and Thibet. The Shingon +sect of Buddhists in Japan, of which Kukai was the founder, has taken +up into itself many ideas which are neither purely Buddhist nor purely +Shintoist. Superstitions alien to both cults are likely to have found +their way among the people and to have exerted influences on the +popular cult, and no man is now able to point out their origin or their +history.[37] + +=21. Revival of Pure Shinto.= We are not here concerned, however, with +Japanese Buddhism. Our inquiry is after the facts and the significance +of the essential Shinto cult. A great and remarkable revival of the +older Shinto began near the beginning of the eighteenth century and +persisted with great success for more than one hundred years. The most +distinguished scholars of Japan were the chief leaders in this reform. +We have already had occasion to mention the names of the three most +famous men among them--Mabuchi, Motowori, and Hirata. These by their +expositions of the ancient scriptures and traditions turned the tide +of popular thought against Buddhism and Chinese philosophy. It is +quite interesting to note in some of their writings the antipathy and +hostility to Chinese teachings. Motowori had a remarkable answer to +those critics who say that Shintoism knows no moral code. He declared +that all a loyal Japanese subject was concerned to do was simply +to obey the Mikado, whether his commands were right or wrong. He +maintained that morals were invented by the Chinese because they were +an immoral people; but in Japan there was no necessity for any system +of morals, as every Japanese acted aright if he only consulted his +own heart.[38] Whatever we may think or say of such self-complacency, +it accords well with Japanese religion, mythology, and history, +and it is a simple fact to be noted that in 1871 Buddhism in Japan +was disestablished and disendowed, and the old Shinto was declared +to be the national religion. Percival Lowell observes that this +reinstatement of the Mikado and the old national faith is "a curious +instance of a religious revival due to archæological, not to religious +zeal."[39] But while the old Shinto is at present the official cult of +Japan, it appears to have little life or force. Japanese Buddhism is +said to be showing signs of renewed activity, and is likely to prove +a powerful antagonist of Christianity. It is certainly a question of +vital importance to the future civilization of Japan which of these +mighty rivals shall gain ascendency over the popular mind. + +=22. Esoteric Shinto.= Shinto did not continue very long to hold its +newly proclaimed status as the State religion. Its own most devoted +adherents and leaders felt that its highest interests would be best +served without official and governmental prestige. A wise and prudent +State policy determined that its permanence and success should be +left to care for themselves and to depend upon the merits of its +teachings and its historic and popular hold upon the national, the +communal, and the family life. As a cult it is deeply rooted in the +civilization of the empire, and its pilgrims swarm along the highways +of travel and at the historic shrines. They are found journeying to +the summits of sacred mountains, and there performing esoteric rites +which induce mystic divine possession. The performance of such mystic +rites and incantations seems to be no modern innovation. It may have +its connections with Buddhist counting of rosaries, and possibly other +foreign influences have helped to cultivate its somewhat mantic forms, +but its origin is from a remote antiquity. This "esoteric Shinto" is +essentially akin to that self-induced religious fervor which exhibits +itself in many lands and in connection with various cults, and is often +seen among the Mohammedan dancing and howling dervishes. Its existence +and its practices in Japan refute the notion of those who would deny +to Shinto the character of a real religion.[40] The excrescences and +extravagancies of religious fervor must have some sort of a religion to +inspire them. + +=23. Mingling of Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism.= The noteworthy +fact that Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism have for more than +a thousand years mixed with each other in Japan demonstrates the +susceptibility of the Japanese people to foreign influence and +teaching, and their natural hospitality toward the various religious +cults. The ethical teachings of Confucius prepared the way for +Buddhism, and, in spite of antipathy and wars between the nations, +maintain a powerful hold upon the thoughtful Japanese to-day. Still +more remarkable is it that millions of the Japanese appear to accept +both Shintoism and Buddhism, and good Shintoists and good Buddhists +may be found worshiping in some temples at one and the same time.[41] +A Japanese scholar, speaking at the Chicago "Parliament of Religions" +on the "Future of Religion in Japan," declared that the three +systems named "are not only living together on friendly terms with +one another, but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds +of the people. One and the same Japanese is at once a Shintoist, +a Confucianist, and a Buddhist. Our religion may be likened to a +triangle. One angle is Shintoism, another is Confucianism, and a +third is Buddhism, all of which make up the religion of the ordinary +Japanese. Shintoism furnishes the objects, Confucianism offers the +rules of life, while Buddhism supplies the way of salvation."[42] + +=24. Roman Catholicism in Japan.= We must not omit altogether a notice +of the introduction of Roman Catholic Christianity into Japan about the +middle of the sixteenth century. It was in 1549 that the famous Jesuit, +Francis Xavier, landed at Kagoshima, and began his marvelous missionary +work through Japanese interpreters, and in two years of strenuous toil +he succeeded in winning many converts from all classes of the people. +Fifty years thereafter the Christian converts throughout the country +are said to have numbered nearly a million. But the Jesuit habit +and policy of meddling with affairs of State, their intolerance of +other cults, and at length their crusade against the ancient national +faith and their burning of Buddhist temples and slaughter of Buddhist +priests, aroused the bitter reaction and bloody persecutions, which, +after some forty years of struggle, succeeded in obliterating every +public sign of Christianity from every province of the empire. And for +over two hundred years Japan closed her doors to all foreign influences +and appeals. It was not until 1873 that the edicts against Christianity +were withdrawn. Of the Protestant missionary movements in the island +empire since that date, it is not the purpose of this essay to speak. + +=25. Present Religious Indifference.= Much is said nowadays about the +apparent religious indifference of the Japanese. Some writers seem to +think that the Japanese and the Chinese people are alike inferior and +defective in religious nature. Mr. Gulick, in his "Evolution of the +Japanese," reports Marquis Ito, Japan's most illustrious statesman, +as having said: "I regard religion itself as quite unnecessary for +a nation's life; science is far above superstition, and what is +religion--Buddhism or Christianity--but superstition, and therefore a +possible source of weakness to a nation? I do not regret the tendency +to free thought and atheism, which is almost universal in Japan, +because I do not regard it as a source of danger to the community." +And yet this same distinguished statesman is reported on the same +page (288) to have given utterance to the following much more recent +statement: "The only true civilization is that which rests on Christian +principles, and consequently, as Japan must attain her civilization +on these principles, those young men who receive Christian education +will be the main factors in the development of future Japan." Possibly +these two discrepant statements may be reconciled by supposing +that, in the first case, Ito's thought was turned especially to the +superstitions and temporary phases incident to all religious cults, +and in his later remark he spoke of Christianity as somehow synonymous +with Western civilization. But in any case it would seem that one +who deems the Japanese either irreligious, or non-religious, or +deficient in religious sense, ought to explain the manifold facts of +the Shinto cult, such as the "god shelf," the ancestral tablets, the +daily offerings, and the family worship in almost every household of +that Eastern island-empire. What mean the hundreds of thousands of +white-robed pilgrims who annually visit the numerous sacred shrines? +And is there no element of religion in the devout patriotism that is +ever ready to sacrifice life and all that men hold dear for the faith +and inheritance of their beloved "central land of Reed-Plains" given +long ago to the care of the "Sovran Grandchild" by the celestial +deities? + +It is only a one-sided concept of religion, and a too prevalent failure +to distinguish between its local temporary phases and its deeper +essentials as grounded in the spiritual nature of man, that have led +superficial observers to deny the profound religious element in the +Shinto and Buddhist worship of Japan. If Paul, waiting at Athens, and +beholding the city full of idols, could truly say, "I perceive, O +Athenians, that in all things ye are very religious," just as truly may +we say, in view of the 195,000 temples and the innumerable deities of +the Shinto cult, that the Japanese are exceedingly religious. + +Let me add the testimony of Mr. Gulick himself, who spent years in the +country: "The universality of the tokens of family religion, and the +constant and loving care bestowed upon them, are striking testimony +to the universality of religion in Japan. The pathos of life is +often revealed by the family devotion of the mother to these silent +representatives of divine beings, and departed ancestors or children. I +have no hesitation in saying that, so far as external appearances go, +the average home in Japan is far more religious than the average home +in enlightened England or America, especially when compared with such +as have no family worship. There may be a genuine religious life in +these Western homes, but it does not appear to the casual visitor. Yet +no casual visitor can enter a Japanese home, without seeing at once the +evidences of some sort of religious life."[43] + +It is to be remarked that in the history and evolution of religion, +where there has been obvious evolution, periods of long peace and +repose, marked by formalism, skepticism, and indifference to religious +obligation, are generally followed by great revivals and reforms. +Some new light breaks in; some great prophet appears; new ideas and +hopes take hold on the popular mind, and thereupon a new era opens in +civilization. The renaissance in Japan of the last fifty years may be +the prelude to an epoch-making revival of the Orient. + +=26. Concluding Observations and Suggestions.= Our study of Shinto has +led us over a somewhat unfamiliar field of thought. The mythology and +the records of the _Ko-ji-ki_ and the _Nihongi_ are far apart from all +our Western legends and ideals of the early world, and in great part +seem like monstrosities of fantastic speculation. It is affirmed by +some that the Japanese people have been halting for two millenniums +in a state of childhood, receiving nothing from Confucianism or +from Buddhism to quicken or change the national life; but with the +introduction of Western thought and enterprise they have suddenly +leaped into comparative maturity, and their new departure from a dreamy +past is likely to astonish the whole world. It is very obvious that +the introduction of modern science into her thousands of elementary +schools must sooner or later undermine all faith in the traditional +cosmogony, and, along with that, a whole world of notions bound up with +the Shinto cult must needs be overthrown. Eminent Japanese scholars +say that Western learning has sounded the knell and signed the death +warrant of the ancient religion of their island-world. + +It is for us very easy, in the light of our New Testament revelation, +to point out defects in the Shinto system. Some four or five of these +we may briefly mention as matters which a Christian missionary should +keep in view as evincing the need of preaching among these people the +deeper demands of the religion of Jesus Christ. (1) The first and +fundamental defect in Shinto as a religious system is its lack of any +clear or helpful concept of one God and Father of all. The doctrine +of God is fundamental in any cult, and where the idea is vague and +imperfect the entire system of doctrine and practice must needs possess +an element of uncertainty and weakness. (2) Another defect is its want +of a clear concept of sin as a moral disease of the heart. The Japanese +mind needs to be turned inward to a deeper sense of the real sinfulness +of sin. (3) Another serious fault in the Japanese civilization is its +low estimate of womanhood. Here as in China woman has not attained her +proper sphere. She is subjected to three forms of obedience, which +in actual life are too abject for her higher development--she must +bow to her parents, to her husband, and to her son in a manner that +involves what we should call a humiliating form of domestic slavery. +Japan needs the practice of a monogamy of the highest Christian type +in order to rectify this inferior and one-sided view of the male +and female constitution of humanity. (4) There is also in Japan an +apparently low estimate of human life. It is probably due largely to +the communal and feudal system which has for a long time ruled the +people. The individual is nothing; the community is everything. These +and other defects show our grounds for believing that the old order and +system must sometime change. But it is no strange or unheard of thing +in our world for an old order to change and give place to something +new and higher. Western civilization has seen not a few examples of +such changes; but, as touching religious evolution, what a monumental +example we have in the transition from the Old Testament Judaism to +the New Testament kingdom of heaven! The main contents and scope of +the Epistle to the Hebrews point out the fact that the old covenant, +with its sanctuary and altars and tables and sacrifices and priests, +could not make their worshipers perfect. Notwithstanding its long and +glorious history, it waxed old, and when the Epistle was written it +was nigh unto vanishing away (Heb. viii, 13). It did pass away and +give place to a more spiritual cult, the gospel of peace on earth and +universal love. May not the national cult of Japan--with its faith in +the unseen, its rituals of purification, its concepts of a heavenly +ancestry, and its intimations of deification after death--be made to +give way before a superior cult that may have the wisdom to offer a +higher and more rational presentation of the essential truths embodied +in the Shinto worship? Whatever men may think or say about the mystical +and legendary elements in the Hebrew Scriptures, no one familiar with +the literatures of the nations can hesitate for a moment to acknowledge +the immense superiority of the Old Testament law and prophets and +psalms over the contents of the _Ko-ji-ki_ and the _Nihongi_. If, then, +the covenants and the rituals of Judaism waxed old and vanished away +before the clearer light and truth of the teachings of Jesus Christ, +much more should we expect that the same superior "Light of the world" +must needs, sometime, supersede and supplant the rituals of the Shinto +cult. + +Accordingly, I shall venture to specify sundry elements of ancient +Shinto, which, to use the language of Jesus, are not to be _destroyed_, +but rather _fulfilled_, in the higher and more universal truths of the +kingdom of Christ. _Fulfilled_, I say for I look upon all the religious +longings, and prayers, and penitential psalms of the nations, and +their inquiries after the Unseen and Eternal, as so many foregleams of +a coming Light, destined to enlighten every man that cometh into the +world. + +We have seen that one of the most conspicuous aspects of the Shinto +cult is its ceremonial of the Great Purification. Physical pollution +of any kind is abhorrent to the Japanese. The touch of a dead body, +contact with a foul disease, failure to wash and keep one's person +clean, are regarded as of the nature of calamities. We know that there +was much in the practices and traditions of the Jewish elders that +closely resembled these Shinto ideas of pollution. The Pharisees and +scribes found fault with Jesus because of His indifference to their +"washings of cups, pots, and brazen vessels." But cleanliness, we all +admit, is a near neighbor of godliness. St. Paul said, "Glorify God +in your body," for he maintained that "your body is a sanctuary of +the Holy Spirit which is in you." Jesus found no fault with Jewish +ablutions, and enjoined the highest personal purity. But He pointed +out the deeper lesson that the more horrible defilement of man is +a pollution of the heart. "For from within," He said, "out of the +heart of man, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, +adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil +eye, railing, pride, foolishness:--all these evil things proceed from +within, and defile the man." This, then, is one fundamental truth +which the Shinto worshiper should learn from the teachings of our +Lord. The clean body and the pure white robes are eminently proper and +beautiful in their way; but they should symbolize the consciousness +of a pure heart, and a blameless life that keeps itself "unspotted +from the world." Shinto purification needs the supplement of a deeper +knowledge of spiritual defilement in order to a deeper knowledge of +purity. + +More exalted than any mere forms of purification, or rituals of +worship, is that notion of a living Presence concealed in all +phenomena. There has been and is to-day among all peoples a belief in +many invisible spirits that have some sort of power over the clouds, +the winds, the waters, the earth, and all its teeming growths. We call +it Animism, Shamanism, and in a certain specific form, Fetishism. +Belief in a countless multitude of spirits who can influence the +elements about us for good or for evil, is firmly rooted in all the +ancient peoples of Eastern Asia, from India to Japan. We have seen +how deep a hold it had upon the earliest Shinto cult, and the later +influences of Confucianism and Buddhism in Japan have tended rather to +strengthen than to suppress it in the popular mind. + +These animistic conceptions have played a noteworthy part in connection +with most, if not all, the religions of mankind. When combined with a +groveling fear of the spirits, and with the practice of magic rites and +incantations to propitiate them as so many evil demons, the belief has +run into the lowest forms of superstition. But is there no element of +truth in Animism? Why should we speak disparagingly of the old Japanese +worshiper hearing the voices of unseen spirits in the moaning winds, +in the sounding waterfalls, in the rolling thunder? Why should he not +adore the Sun as the heavenly Benefactor, and see in waving trees and +blooming flowers and drifting clouds the presence and activity of +beings, perhaps sometimes a Being Supernatural? One-sided, defective +puerile notions controlled, no doubt, his thinking, but the one supreme +and fundamental fact was that he felt himself in the presence of the +Supernatural. And that primeval concept is the one most essential +truth of all religion. We have only to divest it of sundry errant, +non-essential interpretations in order to come face to face with the +grandest, noblest, and most affecting theism, and monotheism as well. +For monotheism finds its most advanced exposition in the doctrine of +the universal immanence of God,--one God, the Eternal Spirit, in all, +through all, over all. How far from such a concept of universal Animism +was the old Hebrew psalmist, who sang of Jehovah "laying the beams of +His chambers in the waters, making the clouds His chariot, walking upon +the wings of the wind, sending forth springs into the valleys, causing +the grass to grow upon the mountains," and receiving tribute of praises +from the "sea-monsters and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and vapor; +stormy wind performing His word; mountains and all hills; fruitful +trees and all cedars; beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying +birds." To such a worshiper the world was all alive with God. And Jesus +added an intensity and an affecting beauty to this whole concept of an +immanent God when He said: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work," +and "not one sparrow falleth on the ground without your Father." I +can conceive no Animism and no Supernaturalism more minute or more +adorable than the ever acting and ever continuous presence of an unseen +but all observant "Father in the heavens." The heavens in which He +dwells are above, below, within, and all around us. + +And this is the higher Animism which ought to be welcomed by the +Shinto pilgrims of Japan as the beautiful fulfilling of their ancient +dreams. Not so many gods, not a multitude of unfriendly spirits that +need propitiation by our gifts of food and clothing, but ONE Heavenly +Father, immanent in every plant that grows and in every dewdrop on the +flowers, forever working for our good, caring for every birdling, and +numbering the very hairs of our head. + +With such a monotheistic conception of the world all mythologic and +polytheistic notions of deity and the rule of the spirits of the dead +must sooner or later disappear. Japanese scholars of high rank are +telling their people and others that the modern Western learning has +already destroyed the cosmogony of the Shinto cult. What is now most +needed is a class of teachers straightforward and broad enough to +show these people a nobler and truer concept of the world. The new +conception need have no conflict with the belief that the spirits of +the dead are all about us, and are deeply interested in us still. The +family cult may adjust itself to the new and higher doctrines, and lose +none of the beauty and tenderness and sanctity which old affection +connects with the domestic tablets of the honored and beloved dead. +Herein the new faith is to fulfill rather than destroy the ancient +rites of love. Such a monotheistic cult will find no reason or occasion +to commit the blunder of the Jesuit missionaries, and seek interference +with the government of the land. The Mikado may still command the +reverence and the love of the people and be rationally honored as +a child of heaven. Loyal Christians do that under every form of +government. "Fear God; honor the king; for there is no power but God, +and the powers that be are ordained of God; for they are the ministers +of God's service;"--these are the precepts of the earliest apostolic +gospel, and the modern missionary of Christ is bound to observe and +teach them. He should exhibit common sense and discretion in foreign +politics, recognize and honor the legitimate power, and like the Great +Teacher, "render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God +the things that are God's." + +The Shinto cult is essentially a religion of race and national +patriotism. It is the secret of Japanese heroism and sacrifice in the +day of battle. He counts it sweet and glorious to die for his country. +He is not his own; he belongs to the State. We are told that the three +principal commandments of the public and official Shinto faith are +these: + +1. "Thou shalt honor the gods and love thy country. + +2. "Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and the duty +of man. + +3. "Thou shalt revere the emperor as thy sovereign, and obey the will +of his court." + +Surely these principles and precepts are capable of easy adjustment to +any form of national government, and the ethics of Christianity are in +fundamental accord with their essential claims. + +But how can the Christian religion, with its monotheistic worship, +adjust itself without antagonism to the ancestor worship of Japan? +Many seem to think that in this particular there must needs be an +irrepressible conflict, for the worship of ancestors is central and +fundamental in the Shinto faith, and the most precious and hallowed +bond that holds the family, the community, and the State together. + +In this matter we do well to observe a number of relevant facts. +Ancestor worship has existed in a variety of forms among many peoples. +It has undergone various modifications in different countries, and it +appears to have ceased among some peoples and given place to other +ideas and forms of worship. The Japanese conception is that their +Mikado and all his people are offspring of the gods, and each one, +when he dies, becomes a deity, but does not cease to have interest in +the relatives and companions of his earthly life. During the siege of +Port Arthur, Togo sent the Mikado a message in which he expressed the +thought that the patriotic _manes_ of the fallen heroes might hover +over the battlefield for a long time and give unseen protection to the +Imperial forces. Such a faith and such inspiration from the dead are +things which a proud nation does not easily let die. + +But may we not approach the devotees of such a faith with the words of +the old Hebrew prophet: "Have we not all one father? Hath not one God +created us?" Ye think your honored ancestors still live, and love to +think of you and aid you from their higher sphere; is it not also just +as true of the ancestors and heroes of other lands and peoples? You +have learned that your beautiful "land of the reed-plains and the fresh +rice-ears" is only a very small portion of the world of men. Have these +broader lands and more numerous peoples sprung from other and greater +gods than yours? May it not rather be that, as there is only one sun to +shine on all this habitable world, so there is one Heavenly Father of +us all? Then we are all offspring of one Supreme God and we should all +be brethren. Our ancestors and dear kindred who have passed out of our +sight should lose no place in our affection by this larger thought.[44] + +By some such suggestions, and by such friendly and persuasive appeal to +larger truths, it would seem that a higher and purer faith may commend +itself to the adherents of Shinto, without provoking their hostility, +and without the compromise of any essential Christian truth. As surely +as self-evidencing science wins her onward way among the nations, so +surely will self-evidencing truths of religion win the hearts of men. +We are familiar with the Christian congregations singing: + + "Faith of our fathers, holy faith! + We will be true to thee till death." + +But Christian and Shintoist should note the fact that the fathers and +the sons are greater than the faith. As "the Sabbath was made for man, +and not man for the Sabbath," so the faith, the forms of worship, +the æsthetic arts, the culture, the learning, and all the ennobling +elements of the highest civilization are made for man, not man for +them. Being, therefore, not an end in themselves, but a means to the +attainment of some higher boon, they must all be judged according to +the broad and noble proverb: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever +things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things +are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good +report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, take +account of these things" (Phil. 4:8). + +It may be that ancestral shrines will become more sacred and more +heavenly when lighted with the glimmer of immortal hopes of blessed +reunion in the unseen world, and our forms and manner of honoring +father and mother and friends that pass out from our homes may be +safely left to adjust themselves to an uplifting faith that lives in +the heart and ever longs for all that is holiest and best. + +The whole world looks with admiration upon that island-empire of the +Orient that has shown within thirty years such marvelous capacities +of adaptation and improvement. If she thus go on to "prove all things +and hold fast to that which is good," who knows but her brilliant +rising to great power and influence among the nations may mark the +beginning of world-wide reforms? Her tremendous, bloody battles should +say to all mankind: "Let us have no more of this. Let us establish +great, trustworthy tribunals of arbitration, and settle our rights +and differences there. Let us beat our swords into plowshares and our +spears into pruning-hooks." Such triumphs of peace and righteousness +might well bring to pass the old Shinto ideal of a code of morals +so deeply written in the hearts of men and of rulers that they +spontaneously do that which is obviously right. For is not this lofty +ideal in accord with that of the Hebrew prophet who descried a coming +golden age when "they should teach no more every man his neighbor, and +every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know +the Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest" (Jer. 31:34)? + +On the assumption that the highest form of religion must needs respond +to the highest moral test, the editor of _The Hibbert Journal_[45] +propounds the following startling question, "How would the general +status of Christianity be affected by the appearance in the world +of a religion which should stand the test better than herself?" +That is, a religion or people that should present an exhibition of +moral excellence superior to that seen among the Christian nations. +Our own belief is that such an exhibition of moral excellence in +a non-Christian people would set the Christian searching his own +standards of morality. It may be that Japan in her late exhibitions +of ability in political diplomacy, and her sacrifice and waiving of +certain rightful claims to indemnity, and the exalting of the right +and the truth above narrow, selfish interests, has put to shame the +"Christian Powers" of Europe, whose conspicuous qualities have been +baneful statecraft, jealousy of rivals, and greed to enlarge their +territory by crushing feebler States, and grinding down the masses +of the people. Such an exhibit would not prove the inferiority of +Christian ethics, but the failure of the so-called Christian Powers to +honor and exemplify the ethics of our gospel. The plain fact in this +matter is, as thoughtful men must everywhere acknowledge, that the +aggressive "Christian Powers" have enlarged their empire at the expense +of weaker States and, by taking advantage of their day of weakness and +adversity, have by such ambitious procedures belied and violated the +fundamental commandments of the religion which they profess. + +We Americans have dreamed and sometimes boasted that our great Republic +of freedom has proven a mighty evangel of human liberty and rights. +It is a luminous star of the first magnitude, and it arose in the +Western hemisphere. But this brilliant star of the West has cast its +helpful beams across the Pacific Ocean upon the blooming rice-fields +of Japan. It may be that those grandchildren of the sun-goddess may +by their skill and prowess flash upon the world a light so strong as +to eclipse to some extent our own, and be so self-evidently excellent +that all mankind will bid it welcome. It may or may not be that all +will acknowledge the radiant Evangel as "the root and the offspring of +David." With the Japanese it may for long be insisted that this new +Light is the root and offspring of the Mikado and the Goddess of the +Dawn. But we can waive that point and all of us cry out, Let the true +Light come. If it make for righteousness and love and the peace of the +world, we shall hail its rising in the far East as the light of "the +bright, the Morning Star;" for there is no other that can ultimately +prove itself to be "the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh +into the world." + + + + +SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY. + + + ASTON, W. G. Shinto, The Way of the Gods. London, 1905. + + BRINKLEY, F. Japan and China. 12 volumes. London, 1903. + + CHAMBERLAIN, B. H. Things Japanese. London, 1902. + + DYER, HENRY. Dai Nippon. A Study in National Evolution. London, 1904. + + GRIFFIS, WILLIAM ELLIOT. The Mikado's Empire. New York, 1876. + + Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Meiji. + New York, 1895. + + GULICK, SIDNEY L. Evolution of the Japanese, Social and Psychic. + Chicago, 1903. + + HEARN, LAFCADIO. Japan. An Attempt at Interpretation. New York, 1904. + + KO-JI-KI, or Records of Ancient Matters. Translated by Basil H. + Chamberlain. + + _Published as a Supplement to Vol. X of the Transactions of the + Asiatic Society of Japan._ Yokohama, 1883. + + LOWELL, PERCIVAL. The Soul of the Far East. Boston, 1896. + + MACLAY, ARTHUR C. A Budget of Letters from Japan. Reminiscences of + Work and Travel in Japan. New York, 1886. + + NIHONGI, Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A. D. 697. + Translated from the original Chinese and Japanese by W. G. Aston. 2 + vols. London, 1896. + + _Published as a Supplement to the Transactions and Proceedings of + the Japan Society, London._ + + REED, EDWARD J. Japan: Its History, Traditions, and Religion. London, + 1880. + + Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. From 1872 to the present + time. + + Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London. From 1892 + to the present time. + + These separate series of volumes of Transactions of Japanese + Societies, running through many years, are an invaluable repository + of information on the history, customs, religion, and literature of + Japan. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The _Ko-ji-ki_ (section XXX) has this remarkable combination: "The +luxuriant-reed-plains-land-of-fresh-rice-ears-of-a-thousand-autumns-of- +long-five-hundred-autumns." The Ritual of the Great Purification and +other rituals call Japan "the luxuriant reed-plain region of fresh +young spikes." The word "spikes" here is a synonym for ears of rice. + +[2] Understood to be Sir Ernest Satow. + +[3] "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," vol. xvi, part I, +page 73. + +[4] Westminster Review, July, 1878, p. 18. + +[5] It may not be improper to suggest that some of the notions of +the Western peoples as to the backwardness of Japan in the past, and +the relative stage of civilization reached generations ago in the +island empire may be very ludicrous to the mind of a self-respecting, +thoughtful son of Japan. The Mikado's minister at Paris is reported +to have said: "We have for many generations sent to Europe exquisite +lacquer work, delicately carved figures, beautiful embroidery, and many +other things which show our artistic ability and accomplishments, but +the Europeans said we were uncivilized. We have recently killed some +70,000 Russians, and now every European nation is wondering at the high +civilization we have at last attained!" + +[6] It is published as a Supplement to vol. x of the "Transactions of +the Asiatic Society of Japan," pp. lxxv and 369. Yokohama, 1883. + +[7] There is an English translation of the Nihongi, by W. G. Aston: 2 +vols. London, 1896. It is published as a Supplement to "Transactions +and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London." + +[8] These appear in vols. vii, ix, and xxvii of the "Transactions +of the Asiatic Society of Japan." Over thirty-five volumes of these +Transactions have appeared, and they are an invaluable repository of +information on the history, customs, religion, and literature of Japan. +Other journals of like value are the "Transactions and Proceedings +of the Japan Society of London" and the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für +Natur-und Völkerkunde Ostasiens in Tokio." + +[9] Sketches of these men and numerous extracts from their works may +be found in Satow's essay on "The Revival of Pure Shin-tau," published +as Appendix of vol. iii of the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of +Japan." + +[10] Japanese cosmology seems to postulate eternal matter, but "it +is matter almost completely lacking consistency--an indescribable, +nebulous, unsubstantial, floating, muddy foam"--"Japan: Its History, +Arts, and Literature." By Captain F. Brinkley. Vol. V, p. 108. (J. B. +Millet & Co., Boston and Tokyo.) + +[11] In the rituals he is often called "The Sovran Grandchild," though +an adopted son of the Goddess; so "the sovran grandchild" is first +applied to the founder on earth of the Mikado's dynasty, and afterward +to each and all of his successors on the throne of Japan. + +[12] See Chamberlain's English translation of the _Ko-ji-ki_, p. iv. It +is interesting to compare the story of Ezra dictating the lost sacred +books of Israel, from a memory inspired supernaturally, while five +rapid scribes wrote down what was told them. See 2 Esdras, chap. xiv. + +[13] We may compare the fact that in our book of Genesis the formation +of the earth and the heavens is called "the _generations_ of the +heavens and the earth" (Gen. ii, 4). In a paper of the "Transactions +of the Asiatic Society of Japan" (vol. xvi, part I), Dr. J. Edkins has +an interesting comparison of "Persian elements in Japanese legends," +in which he shows analogies between Mithra and Amaterasu, the seven +Japanese deities of wood, water, fire, wind, earth, sea, and mountain +with the Mazdean Amesha-spentas, and analogies of the underworld in +several other mythic cults. + +[14] See the valuable paper on "The Beginning of Japanese History, +Civilization, and Art," by the Rev. I. Dooman, in Vol. XXV of +"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan;" especially his chapter +iv, on "The Fundamental Religious Ideas of the Early Japanese." + +[15] See Satow's "The Revival of Pure Shintau, in Transactions of the +Asiatic Society of Japan," vol. iii, Appendix, p. 71. + +[16] Lafcadio Hearn puts this whole matter very tersely, thus: "The +ethics of Shinto were all comprised in the doctrine of unqualified +obedience to customs originating, for the most part, in the family +cult. Ethics were not different from religion; religion was not +different from government, and the very word for government signified +'matters of religion.' All government ceremonies were preceded by +prayer and sacrifice; and from the highest rank of society to the +lowest every person was subject to the law of tradition. To obey +was piety; to disobey was impious, and the rule of obedience was +enforced upon each individual by the will of the community to which he +belonged."--"Japan, an Interpretation," p. 175. + +[17] This respect for the Sun-Goddess points to an aboriginal worship +of the sun among the ancestors of the Japanese people. + +[18] Strictly speaking, the Shinto sanctuaries are shrines rather than +temples, so that the Japanese would always speak of Shinto shrines as +distinct from Buddhist temples. + +[19] A kind of evergreen, like the pine, and peculiar to Japan. + +[20] "The Shintau Temples of Isè." "The Transactions of the Asiatic +Society of Japan," vol. ii, p. 108. + +[21] "The Shintau Temples of Isè." "Transactions of Asiatic Society of +Japan," vol. ii, p. 104. + +[22] Satow's "The Shintau Temples of Isè," pp. 119, 120. + +[23] According to Aston, ancestor worship, in the sense of a +deification and honoring of the departed spirits of one's own +ancestors, was no part of the oldest Shinto cult, but rather a later +importation from China. See his "Shinto, the Way of the Gods," pp. +44-47. London, 1905. + +[24] "Japanese History of Civilization and Arts." "Transactions of the +Asiatic Society of Japan," vol. xxv, p. 89. + +[25] "Japan: an Interpretation," pp. 52, 53. New York, 1904. + +[26] In vol. xix, pt. I, of the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of +Japan," pp. 93, 94. + +[27] This cheery and jubilant aspect of Shintau worship ought not to +be deemed an objectional element of true religion. Rather the opposite +idea, that religion is a matter of soul-peril and seriousness so grave +as to produce fear or dread of the deity, is a perversion of the truth. +True love of God (or of the gods) must needs have wholesome reverence +for what is adorable, but also ought to inspire a warmth of affection +and a confidence that drives out superstitious fear and begets +exquisite delight in the heart and soul and mind of the true worshiper. + +[28] See "Ancient Japanese Rituals," translated and annotated by E. +Satow, in "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," vol. vii, +part II, and part IV; vol. ix, part II. Also by Karl Florenz, in vol. +xxvii, part I. In vol. vii, part II, pp. 106-108, Satow gives a list +of the Norito rituals contained in the Yengishiki, to the number of +twenty-seven. Of these he translates only nine. + +[29] "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," vol. vii, part II, +p. 127. + +[30] "The priests who officiated at the chief festivals belonged +exclusively to two families, the Nakatomi and the Imbibi, both of whom +were descended from inferior deities, who accompanied the 'Sovran +Grandchild' when he came down to earth."--Satow, in Westminster Review +for July, 1878, p. 16. + +[31] The reader of the ritual here personates the Mikado. + +[32] Temples here used by metonymy for deities. + +[33] In vol. xxvii, part I, of "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of +Japan." From this our extracts are taken. Florenz gives in great detail +the various practices, and the ancient and modern forms of the ritual, +and the customs at different shrines. He also discusses the question of +the origin and age of the ceremony. + +[34] See the interesting article by Thomas R. H. McClatchie on "The +Sword of Japan," in "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan," +vol. ii, pp. 50-56. + +[35] "Japan: an Interpretation," p. 208. + +[36] "Shinto, the Way of the Gods," p. 360. + +[37] It is admitted by all writers on Japan that the practical ethics +of Confucianism has from the first largely nullified the more subtle +and dreamy elements of Buddhism. The common sense of the Japanese +people, in spite of all peculiarities, has made it necessary for +Buddhism to adjust itself to the popular mind. + +[38] Satow, in "Transactions of Asiatic Society of Japan," vol. ii, p. +121. Compare the statement of Mabuchi as given in Satow's paper on "The +Revival of Pure Shin-tau," in Appendix to vol. iii of "Transactions of +the Asiatic Society of Japan," p. 14. + +[39] "The Soul of the Far East," p. 166. + +[40] For interesting information on this mystic phase of Shinto see the +articles of Percival Lowell on "Esoteric Shinto," in "Transactions of +the Asiatic Society of Japan," vols. xxi and xxii. + +[41] "The gods of Japan," writes Gulick, "are innumerable in theory +and multitudinous in practice. Not only are there gods of goodness, +but also gods of lust and of evil, to whom robbers and harlots may +pray for success and blessing." But in all this multitudinous pantheon +there is no one Supreme Deity. "There is no word in the Japanese +language corresponding to the English term God. The nearest approach to +it are the Confucian terms Jo-tei, 'Supreme Emperor;' Ten, 'Heaven,' +and Ten-tei, 'Heavenly Emperor;' but all of these terms are Chinese; +they are therefore of late appearance in Japan, and represent rather +conceptions of educated and Confucian classes than the ideas of the +masses."--"Evolution of the Japanese," p. 311. + +[42] "The World's Parliament of Religions," vol. ii, p. 1282. +We must not overlook the fact that the modern Shintoism has its +sects, as well as Buddhism. There is the sect called "Ten-Ri-Kyo" +("Heaven-Reason-Teaching"). Also the Kurosumi sect, putting noteworthy +emphasis on morality. + +[43] Gulick's "Evolution of the Japanese," p. 294. Whatever may be +the defects of Japanese character in general, it is common for nearly +all travelers who have visited the country and studied the habits +of the people at their homes, to speak of them as mild, courteous, +cleanly, frugal, intelligent, quick to learn, and gifted with a genius +for imitation. Their soldiers have proved themselves a match for the +most renowned warriors, and are marvelously apt to make the most of +opportunities. + +[44] In his "Evolution of the Japanese" (p. 75) Gulick quotes from the +Japan Mail (of September 30, 1899) a number of special instructions +to be given to the pupils in the Japanese schools touching their +behavior toward foreigners. One of the orders reads thus: "Since all +human beings are brothers and sisters, there is no reason for fearing +foreigners. Treat them as equals and act uprightly in all your dealings +with them." Such instruction should surely, in time, enlarge the +world-conception of the Shintoist. + +[45] Vol. iv, 1906, pp. 19-41. + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as +possible including inconsistencies of hyphenation. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42747 *** |