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$Unique_ID{bob00788}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{History Of Religions
Chapter I: Part I}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Foot Moore, George}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{gods
goddess
religion
shinto
sun
temples
chinese
god
heaven
susa}
$Date{1913}
$Log{}
Title:       History Of Religions
Book:        Religions Of Japan
Author:      Foot Moore, George
Date:        1913

Chapter I: Part I

The Native Religion, Shinto

     Sources - Character - Gods and Myths - Temples - Priesthood - Ritual -
Festivals - Purifications and Expiations - Morals - Apotropaic Deities - The
Dead - Worship of Ancestors - Domestic Religion - Revival of Pure Shinto.

     The indigenous religion of Japan is called Shinto, "the way of the
(national) gods." The name is Chinese, and was given to the old religion in
the sixth century to distinguish it from the new and foreign Butsudo, or "way
of the Buddha"; "Kami no michi" is a Japanese purist equivalent of "Shinto,"
and of later invention.

     The historical period of Japan, according to native tradition, opens with
the emperor Jimmu Tenno, 660 B.C.; ^1 behind that date lies a mythical
antiquity, "the age of the gods." To our way of looking at things mythical
antiquity lasted much longer, and although in the following ages historical
persons and events stand out here and there from a background of legend,
authentic history does not begin much before the sixth century A.D. Buddhism
came in from Korea about the middle of the sixth century with all the prestige
of a high and ancient civilisation, and having this advantage in addition to
its intrinsic superiority and the zeal of its missionary monks, it is not
strange that it spread rapidly, especially among the upper classes.  Its
complete triumph was won, however, by an astute compromise; the gods of old
Japan were identified with Buddhist saints, or declared incarnations of Buddha
for the enlightenment of the forefathers.  In return the adherents of the old
faith had only to recognise the fuller revelation which the missionaries
brought.  In this way arose in the eighth and ninth centuries what was called
the "Twofold Way of the Gods" (Ryobu Shinto), in which Shinto was fused with
Buddhism.  Buddhist idols and relics found their way into Shinto temples, and
in the domestic religion of the people the rites of the two religions were
observed without any thought of their diverse origin.  For many centuries
Shinto existed almost exclusively in this mixed form; only a few temples, like
those at Ise, successfully resisted the intrusion of the foreign cult.  The
combination was, however, a mechanical mixture rather than a fusion, and when
the religious reformers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries addressed
themselves to the restoration of Pure Shinto they had less difficulty in
recognising and eliminating the properly Buddhistic elements in the mixture
than in clearing their own minds of the preconceptions of Confucian
philosophy. Pure Shinto was easier to restore on paper than to revive in
practice; the tradition and custom of a thousand years cannot be put out of
the world by antiquarian researches, even with the concurrence of a revived
national consciousness.  To the present day there are among the people few who
are exclusive Buddhists or exclusive Shintoists; the greater part seek their
welfare by both ways - it is impossible to have too many patrons and helpers
among the powers above.

[Footnote 1: So the official chronology promulgated in 1872.]

     The most important source for knowledge of primitive Shinto is the
Yengishiki, which contains a minute description of the traditional ritual as
practised in the ninth century A.D., incorporating a body of liturgical texts
recited by the priests at the festivals of the court and in other religious
ceremonies.  These were probably reduced to writing in their present form when
the Yengishiki was compiled, ^1 but the prayers themselves are indubitably
centuries older, having been transmitted from generation to generation in the
priestly families or guilds with little or no change; Chinese influence has
not infected them.  The Shinto mythology is principally contained in two
works: the first book of the Kojiki, or History of Antiquity, collected from
the mouths of various narrators and published in 712 A.D., and the first two
books of the Nihongi, Japanese Annals, in Chinese, completed in 720; with
these may be named the Idzumo Fudoki, an official description of the province
drawn up in the eighth century, which includes numerous local myths,
especially such as are connected with temples or holy myths, especially such
as are connected with temples or holy places.

[Footnote 1: It was promulgated in 927 A.D.]

     The religion which lies before us in these sources is that of a people
upon the plane of primitive civilisation, with many survivals of ruder times,
especially in the myths.  The further development of civilisation was largely
imitative or assimilative.  Chinese models of administration, Chinese law,
Chinese philosophy and ethics, Chinese art, Chinese literary forms, however
accommodated to the national genius, are the dominant factors; and with them
belongs Buddhism as the religion of the superior culture.  In consequence, the
native religion did not keep step with the progress of Japanese civilisation,
but survived in a state of arrested development.

     The Shinto deities are chiefly gods of nature and natural forces.  At the
head of the pantheon is the sun goddess; by her side, but of minor importance,
stand a moon god and an uncertain star god; otherwise heaven and the heavenly
bodies are of no considerable moment in the religion. Gods of storm, rain, and
thunder, of the sea, rivers, or waters in general, of the earth and its
productive powers, a goddess of food-crops, gods of mountains, trees, a god of
fire - in short, the usual constituents of a natural polytheism - have a place
in worship as well as in the mythology. Besides these are gods who were once
men - rulers, heroes, or men eminent in various arts or pursuits.  As has been
observed in another connection, what we call the deification of human beings
involves, from the point of view of the religions in which it occurs, no
translation to another category of being.  It is peculiarly easy in Japan
because the language employs the same word, kami (literally, "high, exalted,"
in both physical and figurative senses), for the "superiors" whom we should
call gods (cf. Latin superi), and for human superiors, living or dead.  It
does not appear, however, that deities of human origin were as common or as
important in primitive Shinto as in later times, and probably the development
of this side of the religion as well as of ancestor worship, with which it is
closely connected, was stimulated by Chinese influence. The name kami is not
restricted to the powers who are habitually beneficent; malignant beings which
are universally feared, such as the fire demon which so often devoured the
flimsy towns, were also kami.

     The nature-deities are personal gods, to whom not merely human
intelligence, passions, and actions are attributed, but human forms.  The sun
goddess was, indeed, the visible orb in the sky, but at the same time the
woman who hid in a cave or with her maidens wove garments in the hall of the
palace.  These gods not only manifest themselves in the operations of nature,
but are present at the shrines where offerings and prayers are made to them,
and one god has often many shrines.  Yet it is evidently neither the orb of
the sun nor the sun goddess in human form who inhabits the shrine at Ise; it
is her mitama, men said, a kind of spiritual presence not unlike the skekinah
of the Jews, and this is frequently associated with some holy object
(shintai), for example, the mirror of the sun goddess.

     It will be seen from this preliminary outline that the religion of the
ancient Japanese was in essentials like that of peoples on similar planes of
culture in all parts of the world.  It is worthy of note that, unlike the
religion of China and of other Mongol peoples, the highest deity is not heaven
but the sun.  Other striking differences from the Chinese religion are due to
different stages or circumstances of development.  The sun goddess is not the
personified moral order of the world, the guardian and vindicator of that
order in the relations of men, like heaven in China; the Japanese had not
arrived at the conception of such an order.  Again the gods of Shinto do not,
as in China, form an organised polytheism with ranks and functions
corresponding to the constitution of the empire; in the old Japan there was no
such political organisation to serve as a model for a hierarchy of gods, nor
has the Japanese mind the same exorbitant fondness for system.  On the other
hand, Shinto has a luxuriant mythology, while in the state religion of China,
whether by original defect or through later expurgation, this element is
almost wholly lacking.

     The myths collected in the Kojiki and the Nihongi exhibit many variants,
in part expressly noted as such in the text, representing divergent traditions
of professional reciters or of local priesthoods. Critical examination
discloses the more important fact that the common stock itself is the result
of a fusion of myths from three distinct regions; namely, the province of
Idzumo, where the invaders, coming probably from Korea, first established
themselves; the island of Kiushiu, Kushiu, the first seat of the tribes which
eventually gained the supremacy over the whole land; and the province of
Yamato, where the same tribes later had the centre of their power.  In
particular, the subjugation of the older colonists in Idzumo by the later
comers from Kiushiu is reflected in the myths in the banishment of Susa no wo,
and still more plainly in the abdication by his son Ohonamochi in favour of
the "heavenly grandchild" Ninigi, from whom the Mikados are descended, and in
the slaying of the rebellious spirits and deities of Idzumo by the two gods
who were sent down to prepare the way for Ninigi.

     In both the Kojiki and the Nihongi the history of the divine age is
introduced by a mythical cosmogony.  The description of chaos and the
formation of heaven and earth by gravity which precedes this in the Nihongi is
clearly a piece of Chinese wisdom, and of interest only as showing that at the
beginning of the eighth century Chinese speculation about Yang and Yin had
already gained currency in Japan.  The first five generations of gods, as
often in similar schemes, have no place in religion; they serve only to
provide the first gods who do anything with a pedigree of respectable length.
The real cosmogonic deities are Izanagi and Izanami. This pair descended from
the floating bridge of heaven upon an island which came into existence in the
ocean ad hoc, where, coming together, they procreated the islands of Japan and
a complete outfit of deities, gods of earth, water, plains, mountains, trees,
the goddess of food, and the god of fire.  The birth of the fire god cost the
life of his mother, who died and went down to the underworld, the land of
Yomi.  Thither Izanagi followed her; but having, against her warning, by the
light of a torch looked upon her in her loathsome corruption, he was forced to
flee, pursued by the "hideous females" of Yomi and by Izanami herself.  By the
hardest, he escaped to the upper air and barred the exit from Hades against
his irate spouse.  The various things which he threw away in his flight turned
to gods, as did the water with which he purified himself from the pollution
contracted in his visit to the land of the dead.  His part being now ended,
Izanagi retired to an island where he dwelt in solitude and silence.

     The next chapter of the mythical history deals with the sun goddess,
Hirume ("sun female"), or Ama-terasu no Oho-kami ("heaven-shining great
deity"), and her boisterous brother, Susa no wo.  According to one version of
the story, the sun goddess sprung from the water with which Izanagi washed his
left eye after his return from Hades, while that with which he washed his
right eye became the moon god, and from the washing of his nose arose Susa no
wo.  It is surmised with much plausibility, however, that this account is an
adaptation of the Chinese myth of P'an Ku.  The simpler, and probably the
older, myth includes all three gods among the children born to Izanagi and
Izanami.  To the sun goddess was given the "plain of high heaven" to rule; to
the moon the night; to Susa no wo in the original partition the sea was
allotted, but he begged for and obtained the empire of the dead.

     Before descending to the nether world, Susa no wo paid a visit to his
sister in heaven.  By crunching jewels, swords, and suchlike, and blowing out
the fragments, each magically produced a number of children, to whom in later
times various noble families traced their lineage.  Susa no wo then proceeded
to justify the popular etymology of his name, "violent man," by breaking down
the divisions in his sister's rice fields and sowing them over, letting loose
in them the piebald colt of heaven, defiling with ordure the hall where she
was celebrating the feast of first-fruits, and, worst of all, flaying a
piebald colt of heaven, beginning at the tail, and throwing the carcass
through a hole in the roof into the room where the goddess was weaving
garments for the deities.  Outraged by this misconduct, the sun goddess shut
herself up in the rock cave of heaven and left the celestial and terrestrial
world in darkness.  The gods resorted to various devices to draw the indignant
goddess from her hiding-place; at last, moved by curiosity to know the cause
of the inextinguishable laughter of the gods - which was in fact evoked by the
not over-decent dance of Ame no Uzume - she opened the door half-way,
whereupon the god Stronghand seized her and kept her from retreating to the
cave again. ^1

[Footnote 1: The myth probably plays upon ancient rites used in time of a
solar eclipse.]

     By sentence of a council of gods, Susa no wo's beard was cut off, his
finger-nails and toe-nails were pulled out, and he was heavily fined and
banished.  On the way to his own realm, he visited first Korea, and then
Idzumo, where, like another Perseus, he slew a dragon and rescued a distressed
maiden.

     The great god of the province of Idzumo was Susa no wo's son Ohonamochi,
of whom the myth tells many things, among them a visit to the nether realm of
Susa no wo, whose daughter saves him from her father's machinations and
finally elopes with him.  Susa no wo, having vainly chased the runaway couple
to the entrance of Hades, calls after them his paternal benediction, bidding
Ohonamochi pursue and destroy his eighty bad brothers, and with his wife reign
over the land - all which came to pass.

     The gods of heaven did not look with favour on the rule of Susa no wo's
son, and sent down in succession several messengers to prepare the world for
the coming of Ninigi, a grandson of the sun goddess, to assume the dominion.
The first did not return, but at length two of them came to Ohonamochi's
residence in Idzumo and induced him to resign the conduct of earthly affairs
to the "august grandchild," while he confined himself to divine affairs.
Ohonamochi accordingly abdicated and withdrew from earth. The ambassadors of
heaven then went on a circuit of pacification, and exterminated all the
spirits and deities who refused allegiance to the new sovereign.  After this
Ninigi, having received from Ama-terasu a commission to rule the world and a
promise of eternal duration for his dynasty, descended to earth, attended by
the progenitors of the five hereditary corporations, and alighted - not in
Idzumo, as the previous course of the story would lead us to expect - but on a
mountain in the island of Kiushiu. From Kiushiu, in a later age, Jimmu Tenno,
the first human emperor, set forth to the conquest of central Japan, and
established his capital in Yamato, according to the mythical chronology, as we
have seen, in 660 B.C.

     In the earliest times the gods did not dwell in houses built by men's
hands; the place of worship was merely a temenos, the sacred precincts being
enclosed by a stone wall.  According to tradition the first temples were
erected about the beginning of the Christian era; in the following centuries
they were multiplied so that the Yengishiki (927 A.D.) enumerates more than
three thousand officially recognised shrines, of which seven hundred and
thirty-seven received appropriations from the central government.  Even the
most famous Shinto temples are of no great size, and the architecture is
simple, resembling, it is said, that of the old Japanese house.  Those at Ise,
which, though periodically renewed, have probably preserved the primitive
form, are built of the white cedar wood, unpainted, with a thatch of rushes.
The characteristic features are the gable timbers crossed and continued beyond
the apex, and the cigar-shaped beams laid on the ridge at right angles to it,
both originally structural, but now only decorative motives.  The interior has
two rooms: an open prayer-hall in front, for the worshippers, and a sanctuary
containing the symbol of the deity, which only priests may enter.  In the
court stand a laver for ceremonial ablutions and a stage for religious dances
and pantomimes at the festivals.  The greater temples have several courts,
enclosing numerous buildings for different auxiliary uses, among them
frequently a hall for the deposit of votive offerings, or pictures and
figurines as surrogates for such offerings.  Before the entrance is the torii,
a kind of portal, standing free, and in its original simple form consisting of
two round uprights of natural wood, with a round cross-beam resting on them
and projecting at both ends.  Some old temples have, however, red torii, and
some temples themselves are painted red, notably all the temples of Inari.

     The emblem or symbol of the deity (shintai, "form of the god," or
mitama-shiro, "representative of the spirit") is in Ise a metallic mirror
which the sun goddess gave, with a sword and a jewel, to Ninigi when he was
about to descend to earth; it is preserved, carefully enveloped and enshrined
from all eyes, in the sanctuary.  In other temples also a mirror is the most
common representative of the god; at Atsuta it was the sword found by Susa no
wo in the great serpent's tail.  On the altar table and elsewhere in the
temple stand gohei, upright wands from the top of which hangs paper in several
thicknesses cut zigzag, a conventionalised substitute for the bast cloth in
ancient times offered to the gods on the bough of a tree.  At the entrance of
the prayer-hall hangs a gong which the worshipper strikes with a rope's end to
attract the attention of the god to his petition, and by it a contribution-box
into which he drops his mites.

     In many places more than one deity is worshipped, either in the same
temple or, as at Ise, where the food goddess shares the honours with the sun
goddess, in separate shrines.  The old sources frequently do not give the name
of the god worshipped even at the greater temples.  This is a not uncommon
phenomenon in religions, and it is unnecessary to call in the supposed
"impersonal habit" of the Japanese mind to account for it; the god is
sufficiently designated by the name of the place.

     The priests did not form a sacerdotal caste or class set apart from other
men by personal sacredness; they were not hindered by their calling from
ordinary occupations; and, on the other hand, secular officials took part in
religious ceremonies in the regular course of their duties.  The cultus, on
which the welfare of the state in no small part depended, was supported and
regulated by the government through a department of religion. It may be
conjectured that in this, as in other features of administration, Chinese
influence led to a more formal organisation, but not to radical changes in the
relation of the state of religion.  The priesthood of the several shrines was
in general hereditary in certain families, and there were two families or
guilds which had special functions and prerogatives in the worship at court:
the Nakatomi, who recited the liturgy (norito) at the festivals and on other
solemn occasions, and the Imbe, who prepared the offerings according to the
rules of ceremonial purity.  Besides these there was a corporation of Urabe,
or diviners, whose business it was to answer by means of their art questions
propounded to them by the emperor or the officials.  The oldest method seems
to have been by interpreting the cracks which appeared in the shoulder-blade
of a sheep when it was held over a fire; the use of the tortoise-shell was
introduced from China.  Urabe were also distributed through the provinces.

     At the greater temples there were numerous priests of different ranks and
offices.  The chief priest at Ise bore the highest title; next in honour stood
the chief priests of Atsuta, Kashima, Usa, and Aso.  The temples of lower rank
had priests of corresponding standing; the vast majority of the little shrines
had no priest permanently attached to them. The priests wear a distinctive
dress only when engaged in religious functions; then they put on a loose robe
with wide sleeves, confined at the waist by a girdle, and a black mitre bound
on by a broad white fillet - a survival of an old form of court dress.

     The daily ritual is simple, consisting in the offering of food and drink
morning and evening.  At Ise the offerings to the two deities there
worshipped, the sun goddess and the food goddess, are to-day four cups of rice
whisky (sake), sixteen saucers of rice and four of salt, besides fish, birds,
fruits, seaweed, and vegetables.

     Much more elaborate, naturally, are the ceremonies at the various
festivals, which differ in number and importance at the different temples; at
some places there is but one in the year, at others they occur with greater
frequency.  The description of such an offering at Ise may serve for
illustration.  As a preliminary, rites of purification are performed in a spot
set off for the purpose before the temple; a special deity of purification is
invoked, and the place, the offerings, and the worshippers are cleansed from
all accidental defilement.  The presiding priest then opens the sanctuary, the
other priests arrange themselves in a broken line between the hall where the
offerings are in readiness and the altar, and pass from one to another the
stands on which the offerings are set out until they are put down on the small
tables of different height arranged like a flight of steps in the sanctuary.
The offerings consist of silk (in ancient times bark cloth); food, as in the
daily offering but in greater variety; a branch of the sacred Sakaki-tree, to
which are attached a mirror, sword, and jewel; and a large gohei.  The
presentation is accompanied by the music of pipes and drums.  When it is
concluded, the chief priest recites the liturgy.  This is followed by two
dances on a permanent stage in the temple court, one executed by men, the
other by a dozen girls twelve or thirteen years old who carry in their hands
branches of the Sakaki-tree.  Finally, the offerings of food are removed and
consumed by the priests.  In olden times these offerings to the gods included
the flesh of the wild animals which the people themselves eat, such as the
deer, wild boar, and hare; when, under Buddhist influence, men abandoned a
flesh diet, the gods had to give it up too.  The food of the gods is commonly
presented uncooked, but at Ise it is cooked over a pure fire and with minute
precautions against contamination by the hands or the breath of the cooks, as
the emperor's food also is prepared.