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Title: The Shinto Cult
A Christian Study of the Ancient Religion of Japan
Author: Milton Spenser Terry
Release Date: May 20, 2013 [eBook #42747]
Language: English
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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.
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