The Religions of Japan Part 26

[Footnote 19: See the Lecture on Buddhism in its Doctrinal Development.--The Nichiren Sect.]

[Footnote 20: The phallus was formerly a common emblem in all parts of j.a.pan, Hondo, Kiushiu, Shikoku, and the other islands. Bayard Taylor noticed it in the Riu Kiu (Loo Choo) Islands; Perry's Expedition to j.a.pan, p. 196; Bayard Taylor's Expedition in Lew Chew; M.E., p. 33, note; Rein's j.a.pan, p. 432; Diary of Richard c.o.c.ks, Vol. I., p. 283. The native guide-books and gazetteers do not allude to the subject.

Although the author of this volume has collected considerable data from personal observations and the testimony of personal friends concerning the vanishing nature-worship of the j.a.panese, he has, in the text, scarcely more than glanced at the subject. In a work of this sort, intended both for the general reader as well as for the scientific student of religion, it has been thought best to be content with a few simple references to what was once widely prevalent in the j.a.panese archipelago.

Probably the most thorough study of j.a.panese phallicism yet made by any foreign scholar is that of Edmund Buckley, A.M., Ph.D., of the Chicago University, Lecturer on Shint[=o], the Ethnic Faith of j.a.pan, and on the Science of Religion. Dr. Buckley spent six years in central and southwestern j.a.pan, most of the time as instructor in the Doshisha University, Ki[=o]to. He will publish the results of his personal observations and studios in a monograph on phallicism, which will be on sale at Chicago University, in which the Buckley collection ill.u.s.trating Shint[=o]-worship has been deposited.]

[Footnote 21: Mr. Takahashi Gor[=o], in his Shint[=o] Shin-ron, or New Discussion of Shint[=o], accepts the derivation of the word _kami_ from _kabe_, mould, mildew, which, on its appearance, excites wonder. For Hirata's discussion, see T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 48. In a striking paper on the Early G.o.ds of j.a.pan, in a recent number of the Philosophical Magazine, published in T[=o]ki[=o], a j.a.panese writer, Mr.

Kenjir[=o] Hirade, states also that the term kami does not necessarily denote a spiritual being, but is only a relative term meaning above or high, but this respect toward something high or above has created many imaginary deities as well as those having a human history. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I., p. 55, note.]

[Footnote 22: "There remains something of the Shint[=o] heart after twelve hundred years of foreign creeds and dress. The worship of the marvellous continues.... Exaggerated force is most impressive.... So the ancient G.o.ds, heroes, and wonders are worshipped still. The simple countryfolk clap their hands, bow their heads, mumble their prayers, and offer the fraction of a cent to the first European-built house they see."--Philosophy in j.a.pan, Past and Present, by Dr. George Wm. Knox.]

[Footnote 23: M.E., p. 474. Honda the Samurai, pp. 256-267.]

[Footnote 24: Kojiki, pp. 127, 136, 213, 217.]

[Footnote 25: See S. and H., pp. 39, 76.

"The appearance of anything unusual at a particular spot is hold to be a sure sign of the presence of divinity. Near the spot where I live in Ko-ishi-kawa, T[=o]ki[=o], is a small Miya, built at the foot of a very old tree, that stands isolated on the edge of a rice-field. The spot looks somewhat insignificant, but upon inquiring why a shrine has been placed there, I was told that a white snake had been found at the foot of the old tree." ...

"As it is, the religion of the j.a.panese consists in the belief that the productive ethereal spirit, being expanded through the whole universe, every part is in some degree impregnated with it; and therefore, every part is in some measure the seat of the Deity."--Legendre's Progressive j.a.pan, p. 258.]

[Footnote 26: De Verflauwing der Grenzen, by Dr. Abraham Kuyper, Amsterdam, 1892; translated by Rev. T. Hendrik de Vries, in the Methodist Review, New York, July-Sept., 1893.]

CHAPTER II

SHINT[=O]; MYTHS AND RITUAL

[Footnote 1: The scholar who has made profound researches in all departments of j.a.panese learning, but especially in the literature of Shint[=o], is Mr. Ernest Satow, now the British Minister at Tangier. He received the degree of B.A. from the London University. After several years' study and experience in China, Mr. Satow came to j.a.pan in 1861 as student-interpreter to the British Legation, receiving his first drill under Rev. S.R. Brown, D.D., author of A Grammar of Colloquial j.a.panese.

To ceaseless industry, this scholar, to whom the world is so much indebted for knowledge of j.a.pan, has added philosophic insight. Besides unearthing doc.u.ments whose existence was unsuspected, he has cleared the way for investigators and comparative students by practically removing the barriers reared by archaic speech and writing. His papers in the T.A.S.J., on The Shint[=o] Shrines at Ise, the Revival of Pure Shint[=o], and Ancient j.a.panese Rituals, together with his Hand-book for j.a.pan, form the best collection of materials for the study of the original and later forms of Shint[=o].]

[Footnote 2: The scholar who above all others has, with rare ac.u.men united to laborious and prolonged toil, illuminated the subject of j.a.pan's chronology and early history is Mr. W.G. Aston of the British Civil Service. He studied at the Queen's University, Ireland, receiving the degree of M.A. He was appointed student-interpreter in j.a.pan, August 6, 1864. He is the author of a Grammar of the Written j.a.panese Language, and has been a student of the comparative history and speech and writing of China, Korea, and j.a.pan, during the past thirty years. See his valuable papers in the T.A.S.J., and the learned societies in Great Britain. In his paper on Early j.a.panese History, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., pp. 39-75, he recapitulates the result of his researches, in which he is, in the main, supported by critical native scholars, and by the late William Bramsen, in his j.a.panese Chronological Tables, T[=o]ki[=o], 1880. He considers A.D. 461 as the first trustworthy date in the j.a.panese annals. We quote from his paper, Early j.a.panese History, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 73.

1. The earliest date of the accepted j.a.panese Chronology, the accuracy of which is confirmed by external evidence, is A.D. 461.

2. j.a.panese History, properly so called, can hardly be said to exist previous to A.D. 500. (A cursory examination leads me to think that the annals of the sixth century must also be received with caution.)

3. Korean History and Chronology are more trustworthy than those of j.a.pan during the period previous to that date.

4. While there was an Empress of j.a.pan in the third century A.D., the statement that she conquered Korea is highly improbable.

5. Chinese learning was introduced into j.a.pan from Korea 120 years later than the date given in j.a.panese History.

6. The main fact of j.a.pan having a predominant influence in some parts of Korea during the fifth century is confirmed by the Korean and Chinese chronicles, which, however, show that the j.a.panese accounts are very inaccurate in matters of detail.]

[Footnote 3: Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world of learning such signal service by his works on the j.a.panese language, and especially by his translation, with critical introduction and commentary, of the Kojiki, is an English gentleman, born at Southsea, Hampshire, England, on the 18th day of October, 1830. His mother was a daughter of the well-known traveller and author, Captain Basil Hall, R.N., and his father an Admiral in the British Navy. He was educated for Oxford, but instead of entering, for reasons of health, he spent a number of years in western Mid southern Europe, acquiring a knowledge of various languages and literatures. His coming to j.a.pan (in May, 1873) was rather the result of an accident--a long sea voyage and a trial of the j.a.panese climate having been recommended. The country and the field of study suited the invalid well. After teaching for a time in the Naval College the j.a.panese honored themselves and this scholar by making him, in April, 1886, Professor of Philology at the Imperial University. His works, The Cla.s.sical Poetry of the j.a.panese, his various grammars and hand-books for the acquisition of the language, his Hand-book for j.a.pan, his Aino Studies, Things j.a.panese, papers in the T.A.S.J. and his translation of the Kojiki are all of a high order of value. They are marked by candor, fairness, insight, and a mastery of difficult themes that makes his readers his constant debtors.]

[Footnote 4: "If the term 'Altaic' be held to include Korean and j.a.panese, then j.a.panese a.s.sumes prime importance as being by far the oldest living representative of that great linguistic group, its literature antedating by many centuries the most ancient productions of the Manchus, Mongols, Turks, Hungarians, or Finns."--Chamberlain, Simplified Grammar, Introd., p. vi.]

[Footnote 5: Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 13-14; Mr. Pom K. Soh's paper on Education in Korea; Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91.]

[Footnote 6: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 74; Bramsen's Chronological Tables, Introd., p. 34; T.J., p. 32.]

[Footnote 7: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 531.]

[Footnote 8: "The frog in the well knows not the great ocean." This proverb, so freely quoted throughout Chinese Asia, and in recent years so much applied to themselves by the j.a.panese, is of Hindu origin and is found in the Sanskrit.]

[Footnote 9: This is shown with literary skill and power in a modern popular work, the t.i.tle of which, Dai Nippon Kai-biyaku Yurai-iki, which, very freely indeed, may be translated Instances of Divine Interposition in Behalf of Great j.a.pan. A copy of this work was presented to the writer by the late daimi[=o] of Echizen, and was read with interest as containing the common people's ideas about their country and history. It was published in Yedo in 1856, while j.a.pan was still excited over the visits of the American and European fleets. On the basis of the information furnished in this work General Le Gendre wrote his influential book, Progressive j.a.pan, in which a number of quotations from the _Kai-biyaku_ may be read.]

[Footnote 10: In the Kojiki, pp. 101-104, we have the poetical account of the abdication of the lord of Idzumo in favor of the Yamato conqueror, on condition that the latter should build a temple and have him honored among the G.o.ds. One of the rituals contains the congratulatory address of the chieftains of Idzumo, on their surrender to "the first Mikado, Jimmu Tenn[=o]." See also T.J., p. 206.]

[Footnote 11: "The praying for Harvest, or Toshigoi no Matsuri, was celebrated on the 4th day of the 2d month of each year, at the capital in the Jin-Gi-Kuan or office for the Worship of the Shint[=o] G.o.ds, and in the provinces by the chiefs of the local administrations. At the Jin-Gi-Kuan there were a.s.sembled the ministers of state, the functionaries of that office, the priests and priestesses of 573 temples, containing 737 shrines, which were kept up at the expense of the Mikado's treasury, while the governors of the provinces superintended in the districts under their administration the performance of rites in honor of 2,395 other shrines. It would not be easy to state the exact number of deities to whom these 3,132 shrines were dedicated. A glance over the list in the 9th and 10th books of the Yengishiki shows at once that there were many G.o.ds who were worshipped in more than half-a-dozen different localities at the same time; but exact calculation is impossible, because in many cases only the names of the temples are given, and we are left quite in the dark as to the individuality of the G.o.ds to whom they were sacred. Besides these 3,132 shrines, which are distinguished as Shikidai, that is contained in the catalogue of the Yengishiki, there were a large number of enumerated shrines in temples scattered all over the country, in every village or hamlet, of which it was impossible to take any account, just as at the present day there are temples of Hachiman, Kompira, Tenjin sama, San-no sama and Sengen sama, as they are popularly called, wherever twenty or thirty houses are collected together. The shrines are cla.s.sed as great and small, the respective numbers being 492 and 2,640, the distinction being twofold, firstly in the proportionately larger quant.i.ty of offerings made at the great shrines, and secondly that the offerings in the one case were arranged upon tables or altars, while in the other they were placed on mats spread upon the earth. In the Yengishiki the amounts and nature of the offerings are stated with great minuteness, but it will be sufficient if the kinds of articles offered are alone mentioned here. It will be seen, by comparison with the text of the norito, that they had varied somewhat since the date when the ritual was composed. The offerings to a greater shrine consisted of coa.r.s.e woven silk (_ashiginu_), thin silk of five different colors, a kind of stuff called _shidori_ or _shidzu_, which is supposed by some to have been a striped silk, cloth of broussonetia bark or hemp, and a small quant.i.ty of the raw materials of which the cloth was made, models of swords, a pair of tables or altars (called _yo-kura-oki_ and _ya-kura-oki_), a shield or mantlet, a spear-head, a bow, a quiver, a pair of stag's horns, a hoe, a few measures of sake or rice-beer, some haliotis and bonito, two measures of _kituli_ (supposed to be salt roe), various kinds of edible seaweed, a measure of salt, a sake jar, and a few feet of matting for packing. To each of the temples of Watarai in Ise was presented in addition a horse; to the temple of the Harvest G.o.d Mitoshi no kami, a white horse, c.o.c.k, and pig, and a horse to each of nineteen others.

"During the fortnight which preceded the celebration of the service, two smiths and their journeymen, and two carpenters, together with eight inbe [or hereditary priests] were employed in preparing the apparatus and getting ready the offerings. It was usual to employ for the Praying for Harvest members of this tribe who held office in the Jin-Gi-Kuan, but if the number could not he made up in that office, it was supplied from other departments of state. To the tribe of quiver-makers was intrusted the special duty of weaving the quivers of wistaria tendrils.

The service began at twenty minutes to seven in the morning, by our reckoning of time. After the governor of the province of Yamashiro had ascertained that everything was in readiness, the officials of the Jin-Gi-Kuan arranged the offerings on the tables and below them, according to the rank of the shrines for which they were intended. The large court of the Jin-Gi-Kuan where the service was held, called the Sai-in, measured 230 feet by 370. At one end were the offices and on the west side were the shrines of the eight Protective Deities in a row, surrounded by a fence, to the interior of which three sacred archways (torii) gave access. In the centre of the court a temporary shed was erected for the occasion, in which the tables or altars were placed. The final preparations being now complete, the ministers of state, the virgin priestesses and priests of the temples to which offerings were sent by the Mikado, entered in succession, and took the places severally a.s.signed to them. The horses which formed a part of the offerings were next brought in from the Mikado's stable, and all the congregation drew near, while the reader recited or read the norito. This reader was a member of the priestly family or tribe of Nakatomi, who traced their descent back to Ameno-koyane, one of the princ.i.p.al advisers attached to the sun-G.o.ddess's grandchild when he first descended on earth. It is a remarkable evidence of the persistence of certain ideas, that up to the year 1868 the nominal prime-minister of the Mikado, after he came of age, and the regent during his minority, if he had succeeded young to the throne, always belonged to this tribe, which changed its name from Nakatomi to Fujiwara in the seventh century, and was subsequently split up into the Five Setsuke or governing families. At the end of each section the priests all responded 'O!' which was no doubt the equivalent of 'Yes' in use in those days. As soon as he had finished, the Nakatomi retired, and the offerings were distributed to the priests for conveyance and presentation to the G.o.ds to whose service they were attached. But a special messenger was despatched with the offerings destined to the temples at Watarai. This formality having been completed, the President of the Jin-Gi-Kuan gave the signal for breaking up the a.s.sembly." Ancient j.a.panese Rituals, T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, pp.

104-107.]

[Footnote 12: S. and H., p. 461.]

[Footnote 13: Consult Chamberlain's literal translations of the name in the Kojiki, and p. lxv. of his Introduction.]

[Footnote 14: The parallel between the Hebrew and j.a.panese accounts of light and darkness, day and night, before the sun, has been noticed by several writers. See the comments of Hirata, a modern Shint[=o]

expounder.--T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 72.]

[Footnote 15: Westminster Review, July, 1878, p. 19.]

CHAPTER III

"THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS

[Footnote 1: Kojiki, pp. 9-18; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 20.]

[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 43; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Art.

Shint[=o]; in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, is to be found Mr. Satow's digest of the commentaries of the modern Shint[=o] revivalists; in Mr.

Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki, the text with abundant notes.

See also Mr. Twan-Lin's Account of j.a.pan up to A.D. 1200, by E.H.

Parker. T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I.]

[Footnote 3: "The various abstractions which figure at the commencement of the 'Records' (Kojiki) and of the 'Chronicles' (Nihongi) were probably later growths, and perhaps indeed were inventions of individual priests."--Kojiki, Introd., p. lxv. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I, p. 56. "Thus, not only is this part of the Kojiki pure twaddle, but it is not even consistent twaddle."]

[Footnote 4: Kojiki, Section IX.]

[Footnote 5: Dr. Joseph Edkins, D.D., author of Chinese Buddhism, who believes that the primeval religious history of men is recoverable, says in Early Spread of Religious Ideas, Especially in the Far East, p. 29, "In j.a.pan Amateras[)u], ... in fact, as I suppose, Mithras written in j.a.panese, though the j.a.panese themselves are not aware of this etymology." Compare Kojiki, Introduction, pp. lxv.-lxvii.]