The Religions of Japan Part 27

[Footnote 6: Kojiki, p. xlii.]

[Footnote 7: T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 67.]

[Footnote 8: E. Satow, Revival of Pure Shint[=o], pp. 67-68.]

[Footnote 9: This curious agreement between the j.a.panese and other ethnic traditions in locating "Paradise," the origin of the human family and of civilization, at the North Pole, has not escaped the attention of Dr. W.F. Warren, President of Boston University, who makes extended reference to it in his interesting and suggestive book, Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole; A Study of the Prehistoric World, Boston, 1885.]

[Footnote 10: The pure j.a.panese numerals equal in number the fingers; with the borrowed Chinese terms vast amounts can be expressed.]

[Footnote 11: This custom was later revived, T.A.S.J., pp. 28, 31.

Mitford's Tales of Old j.a.pan, Vol. II., p. 57; M.E., pp. 156, 238.]

[Footnote 12: See in j.a.panese Fairy World, "How the Sun-G.o.ddess was enticed out of her Cave." For the narrative see Kojiki, pp. 54-59; T.A.S.J., Vol. II., 128-133.]

[Footnote 13: See Chomei and Wordsworth, A Literary Parallel, by J.M.

Dixon, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., pp. 193-205; Anthologie j.a.ponaise, by Leon de Rosny; Chamberlain's Cla.s.sical Poetry of the j.a.panese; Suyemats[)u]'s Genji Monogatari, London, 1882.]

[Footnote 14: Oftentimes in studying the ancient rituals, those who imagine that the word Kami should be in all cases translated G.o.ds, will be surprised to see what puerility, bathos, or grandiloquence, comes out of an attempt to express a very simple, it may be humiliating, experience.]

[Footnote 15: Mythology and Religious Worship of the j.a.panese, Westminster Review, July, 1878; Ancient j.a.panese Rituals, T.A.S.J., Vols. VII., IX.; Esoteric Shint[=o], by Percival Lowell, T.A.S.J, Vol.

XXI.]

[Footnote 16: Compare Sections IX. and XXIII. of the Kojiki.]

[Footnote 17: This indeed seems to be the substance of the modern official expositions of Shint[=o] and the recent Rescripts of the Emperor, as well as of much popular literature, including the manifestoes or confessions found on the persons of men who have "consecrated" themselves as "the instruments of Heaven for punishing the wicked," i.e., a.s.sa.s.sinating obnoxious statesmen. See The Ancient Religion, M.E., pp. 96-100; The j.a.pan Mail, _pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote 18: Revival of Pure Shint[=o], pp. 25-38.]

[Footnote 19: j.a.panese Homes, by E.S. Morse, pp. 228-233, note, p. 832.]

[Footnote 20: Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12.]

[Footnote 21: Geological Survey of j.a.pan, by Benj. S. Lyman, 1878-9.]

[Footnote 22: The Sh.e.l.l Mounds of Omori; and The Tokio Times, Jan. 18, 1879, by Edward S. Morse; j.a.panese Fairy World, pp. I78, 191, 196.]

[Footnote 23: Kojiki, pp. 60-63.]

[Footnote 24: S. and H., pp. 58, 337, etc.]

[Footnote 25: This study in comparative religion by a j.a.panese, which cost the learned author his professorship in the Tei-Koku Dai Gaku or Imperial University (lit. Theocratic Country Great Learning Place), has had a tendency to chill the ardor of native investigators. His paper was first published in the Historical Magazine of the University, but the wide publicity and popular excitement followed only after republication, with comments by Mr. Taguchi, in the Keizai Za.s.shi (Economical Journal).

The Shint[=o]ists denounced Professor k.u.mi for "making our ancient religion a branch of Christianity," and demanded and secured his "retirement" by the Government. See j.a.pan Mail, April 2, 1892, p. 440.]

[Footnote 26: T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., p. 282.]

[Footnote 27: Kojiki, p. xxviii.]

[Footnote 28: For the use of salt in modern "Esoteric" Shint[=o], both in purification and for employment as of salamandrine, see T.A.S.J., pp.

125, 128.]

[Footnote 29: In the official census of 1893, nine Shint[=o] sects are named, each of which has its own Kwancho or Presiding Head, recognized by the government. The sectarian peculiarities of Shint[=o] have been made the subject of study by very few foreigners. Mr. Satow names the following:

The Yui-itsu sect was founded by Toshida Kane-tomo. His signature appears as the end of a ten-volume edition, issued A.D. 1503, of the liturgies extracted from the Yengishiki or Book of Ceremonial Law, first published in the era of Yengi (or En-gi), A.D. 901-922. He is supposed to be the one who added the _kana_, or common vernacular script letters, to the Chinese text and thus made the norito accessible to the people.

The little pocket prayer-books, folded in an accordeon-like manner, are very cheap and popular. The sect is regarded as heretical by strict Shint[=o]ists, as the system Yuwiitsu consists "mainly of a Buddhist superstructure on a Shint[=o] foundation." Yoshida applied the tenets of the Shingon or True Word sect of Buddhists to the understanding and practice of the ancient G.o.d-way.

The Suiga sect teaches a system which is a combination of Yuwiitsu and of the modern philosophical form of Confucianism as elaborated by Chu Hi, and known in j.a.pan as the Tei-shu philosophy. The founder was Yamazaki Ansai, who was born in 1618 and died in 1682. By combining the forms of the Yoshida sect, which is based on the Buddhism of the Shingon sect, with the materialistic philosophy of Chu Hi, he adapted the old G.o.d-way to what he deemed modern needs.

In the Deguchi sect, the ancient belief is explained by the Chinese Book of Changes (or Divination). Deguchi n.o.buyoshi, the founder, was G.o.d-warden or _kannushi_ of the Geiku or Outer Palace Temple at Ise. He promulgated his views about the year 1660, basing them upon the book called eki by the j.a.panese and Yi-king by the Chinese. This Yi-king, which Professor Terrien de Laeouporie declares is only a very ancient book of p.r.o.nunciation of comparative Accadian and Chinese Syllabaries, has been the cause of incredible waste of labor, time, and brains in China--enough to have diked the Yellow River or drained the swamps of the Empire. It is the chief basis of Chinese superst.i.tion, and the greatest literary barrier to the advance of civilization. It has also made much mischief in j.a.pan. Deguchi explained the myths of the age of the G.o.ds by divination or eki, based on the Chinese books. As late as 1893 there was published in T[=o]ki[=o] a work in j.a.panese, with good translation info English, on Scientific Morality, or the practical guidance of life by means of divination--The Takashima ekidan (or Monograph on the eki of Mr. Takashima), by S. Sugiura.

The Jikko sect, according to its representative at the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago, is "the practical." It lays stress less upon speculation and ritual, and more upon the realization of the best teachings of Shint[=o]. It was founded by Hasegawa Kakugi[=o], who was born at Nagasaki in 1541. Living in a cave in Fuji-yama, "he received inspiration through the miraculous power of the mountain." It believes in one absolute Deity, often mentioned in the Kojiki, which, self-originated, took the embodiment of two deities, one with the male nature and the other female, though these two deities are nothing but forms of the one substance and unite again in the absolute deity. These gave birth to the j.a.panese Archipelago, the sun and moon, the mountains and streams, the divine ancestors, etc. According to the teachings of this sect, the peerless mountain, Fuji, ought to be reverenced as the sacred abode of the divine lord, and as "the brains of the whole globe."

The believer must make Fuji the example and emblem of his thought and action. He must be plain and simple, as the form of the mountain, making his body and mind pure and serene, as Fuji itself. The present world with all its practical works must be respected more than the future world. We must pray for the long life of the country, lead a life of temperance and diligence, cooperating with one another in doing good.

_Statistics of Shint[=o]ism._

From the official Resume Statistique de l'Empire du j.a.pon, 1894. In 1801 there were nine administrative heads of sects; 75,877 preachers, priests, and shrine-keepers, with 1,158 male and 228 female students.

There were 163 national temples of superior rank and 136,652 shrines or temples in cities and prefectures; a total of 193,153, served by 14,700 persons of the grade of priests. Most of the expenses, apart from endowments and local contributions, are included in the first item of the annual Treasury Budget, "Civil List, Appanage and Shint[=o]

Temples."]

CHAPTER IV

THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN j.a.pAN

[Footnote 1: "He was fond of saying that Princeton had never originated a new idea; but this meant no more than that Princeton was the advocate of historical Calvinism in opposition to the modified and provincial Calvinism of a later day."--Francis L. Patton, in Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia, Article on Charles Hodge.]

[Footnote 2: We use Dr. James Legge's spelling, by whom these cla.s.sics have been translated into English. See Sacred Books of the East, edited by Max Muller.]

[Footnote 3: The Canon or Four Cla.s.sics has a somewhat varied literary history of transmission, collection, and redaction, as well as of exposition, and of criticism, both "lower" and "higher." As arranged under the Han Dynasty (B.C. 206-A.D. 23) it consisted of--I. The Commentary of Tso Kinming (a disciple who expounded Confucius's book, The Annals of State of Lu); II. The Commentary of Kuh-liang upon the same work of Confucius; III. The Old Text of the Book of History; IV.

The Odes, collected by Mao Chang, to whom is ascribed the test of the Odes as handed down to the present day. The generally accepted arrangement is that made by the mediaeval schoolmen of the Sung Dynasty (A.D. 960-1341), Cheng Teh Sio and Chu Hi, in the twelfth century: I.

The Great Learning; II. The Doctrine of the Mean; III. Conversations of Confucius; IV. The Sayings of Mencius.--C.R.M., pp. 306-309.]

[Footnote 4: See criticisms of Confucius as an author, in Legge's Religions of China, pp. 144, 145.]

[Footnote 5: Religions of China, by James Legge, p. 140.]

[Footnote 6: See Article China, by the author, Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Chicago, 1881.]

[Footnote 7: This subject is critically discussed by Messrs. Satow, Chamberlain, and others in their writings on Shint[=o] and j.a.panese history. On j.a.panese chronology, see j.a.panese Chronological Tables, by William Bramsen, T[=o]ki[=o], 1880, and Dr. David Murray's j.a.pan (p.

95), in the series Story of the Nations, New York.]

[Footnote 8: The absurd claim made by some Shint[=o]ists that the j.a.panese possessed an original native alphabet called the Shingi (G.o.d-letters) before the entrance of the Chinese or Buddhist learning in j.a.pan, is refuted by Aston, j.a.panese Grammar, p. 1; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 77. Mr. Satow shows "their unmistakable ident.i.ty with the Corean alphabet."]

[Footnote 9: For the life, work, and tombs of the Chinese scholars who fled to j.a.pan on the fall of the Ming Dynasty, see M.E., p. 298; and Professor E.W. Clement's paper on The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., and his letters in The j.a.pan Mail.]

[Footnote 10: "We have consecrated ourselves as the instruments of Heaven for punishing the wicked man,"--from the doc.u.ment submitted to the Yedo authorities, by the a.s.sa.s.sins of Ii Kamon no Kami, in Yedo, March 23, 1861, and signed by seventeen men of the band. For numerous other instances, see the voluminous literature of the Forty-seven R[=o]nins, and the Meiji political literature (1868-1893), political and historical doc.u.ments, a.s.sa.s.sins' confessions, etc., contained in that thesarus of valuable doc.u.ments, The j.a.pan Mail; Kinse Shiriaku, or Brief History of j.a.pan, 1853-1869, Yokohama, 1873, and Nihon Guaishi, translated by Mr. Ernest Satow; Adams's History of j.a.pan; T.A.S.J., Vol.

XX., p. 145; Life and Letters of Yokoi Heishiro; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, London, 1893, etc., for proof of this a.s.sertion.]