The Religions of Japan Part 4

In consequence of this I fulfil his praises, and say that for the things set up, so that he may deign not to be awfully quick of heart in the great place of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness, there are provided bright cloth, glittering cloth, soft cloth, and coa.r.s.e cloth, and the five kinds of things; as to things which dwell in the blue-sea plain, there are things wide of fin and narrow of fin, down to the weeds of the sh.o.r.e; as to LIQUOR, raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows the bellies of the beer-jars, piling the offerings up, even to rice in grain and rice in ear, like a range of hills, I fulfil his praises with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual.

Izanagi, after shedding tears over his consort, whose death was caused by the birth of the fire-G.o.d, slays the fire-G.o.d, and follows her into the Root-land, or Hades, whereupon begins another round of wonderful stories of the birth of many G.o.ds. Among these, though evidently out of another cycle of legends, is the story of the birth of the three G.o.ds--Fire-Shine, Fire-Climax and Fire-Fade, to which we have already referred.

The fire-drill mentioned in the "Kojiki" suggests easily the same line of thought with the myths of cosmogony and theogony, and it is interesting to note that this archaic implement is still used at the sacred temples of Ise to produce fire. After the virgin priestesses perform the sacred dances in honor of local deities the water for their bath is heated by fires kindled by heaps of old _harai_ or amulets made from temple-wood bought at the Mecca of j.a.pan. It is even probable that the retention of the fire-drill in the service of Shint[=o] is but a survival of phallicism.

The liturgy for the pacification of the G.o.ds of fire is worth noticing.

The full form of the ritual, when compared with a legend in the "Nihongi," shows that a myth was "partly devised to explain the connection of an hereditary family of priests with the G.o.d whose shrine they served; it is possible that the claim to be directly descended from the G.o.d had been disputed." The Norito first recites poetically the descent of Ninigi, the grandchild of the sun-G.o.ddess from heaven, and the quieting of the turbulent kami.

I (the diviner), declare: When by the WORD of the progenitor and progenitrix, who divinely remaining in the plain of high heaven, deigned to make the beginning of things, they divinely deigned to a.s.semble the many hundred myriads of G.o.ds in the high city of heaven, and deigned divinely to take counsel in council, saying: "When we cause our Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to leave heaven's eternal seat, to cleave a path with might through heaven's manifold clouds, and to descend from heaven, with orders tranquilly to rule the country of fresh spikes, which flourishes in the midst of the reed-moor as a peaceful country, what G.o.d shall we send first to divinely sweep away, sweep away and subdue the G.o.ds who are turbulent in the country of fresh spikes;" all the G.o.ds pondered and declared: "You shall send Amenohohi's augustness, and subdue them," declared they. Wherefore they sent him down from heaven, but he did not declare an answer; and having next sent Takemik.u.ma's augustness, he also, obeying his father's words, did not declare an answer. Ame-no-waka-hiko also, whom they sent, did not declare an answer, but immediately perished by the calamity of a bird on high. Wherefore they pondered afresh by the WORD of the heavenly G.o.ds, and having deigned to send down from heaven the two pillars of G.o.ds, Futsunushi and Takemika-dzuchi's augustness, who having deigned divinely to sweep away, and sweep away, and deigned divinely to soften, and soften the G.o.ds who were turbulent, and silenced the rocks, trees, and the least leaf of herbs likewise that had spoken, they caused the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to descend from heaven.

I fulfil your praises, saying: As to the OFFERINGS set up, so that the sovran G.o.ds who come into the heavenly HOUSE of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness, which, after he had fixed upon as a peaceful country--the country of great Yamato where the sun is high, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters bestowed upon him when he was thus sent down from heaven--stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, the builders had made for his SHADE from the heavens and SHADE from the sun, and wherein he will tranquilly rule the country as a peaceful country--may, without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be fierce, and deigning to hurt, knowing, by virtue of their divinity, the things which were begun in the plain of high heaven, deigning to correct with Divine-correcting and Great-correcting, remove hence out to the clean places of the mountain-streams which look far away over the four quarters, and rule them as their own place. Let the Sovran G.o.ds tranquilly take with clear HEARTS, as peaceful OFFERINGS and sufficient OFFERINGS the great OFFERINGS which I set up, piling them upon the tables like a range of hills, providing bright cloth, glittering cloth, soft cloth, and coa.r.s.e cloth; as a thing to see plain in--a mirror: as things to play with--beads: as things to shoot off with--a bow and arrows: as a thing to strike and cut with--a sword: as a thing which gallops out--a horse; as to LIQUOR--raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows the bellies of the beer-jars, with grains of rice and ears; as to the things which dwell in the hills--things soft of hair, and things rough of hair; as to the things which grow in the great field plain--sweet herbs and bitter herbs; as to the things which dwell in the blue sea plain--things broad of fin and things narrow of fin, down to weeds of the offing and weeds of the sh.o.r.e, and without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be fierce, and deigning to hurt, remove out to the wide and clean places of the mountain-streams, and by virtue of their divinity be tranquil.

In this ritual we find the origin of evil attributed to wicked kami, or G.o.ds. To get rid of them is to be free from the troubles of life. The object of the ritual worship was to compel the turbulent and malevolent kami to go out from human habitations to the mountain solitudes and rest there. The dogmas of both G.o.d-possession and of the power of exorcism were not, however, held exclusively by the high functionaries of the official religion, but were part of the faith of all the people. To this day both the tenets and the practices are popular under various forms.

Besides the twenty-seven Norito which are found in the Yengishiki, published at the opening of the tenth century, there are many others composed for single occasions. Examples of these are found in the Government Gazettes. One celebrates the Mikado's removal from Ki[=o]to to T[=o]ki[=o], another was written and recited to add greater solemnity to the oath which he took to govern according to modern liberal principles and to form a national parliament. To those j.a.panese whose first idea of duty is loyalty to the emperor, Shint[=o] thus becomes a system of patriotism exalted to the rank of a religion. Even Christian natives of j.a.pan can use much of the phraseology of the Norito while addressing their pet.i.tions on behalf of their chief magistrate to the King of kings.

The primitive worship of the sun, of light, of fire, has left its impress upon the language and in vernacular art and customs. Among scores of derivations of j.a.panese words (often more pleasing than scientific), in which the general term _hi_ enters, is that which finds in the word for man, _hito_, the meaning of "light-bearer." On the face of the broad terminal tiles of the house-roofs, we still see moulded the river-weed, with which the Clay-Hill Maiden pacified the Fire-G.o.d. On the frontlet of the warrior's helmet, in the old days of arrow and armor, glittered in bra.s.s on either side of his crest the same symbol of power and victory.

Having glanced at the ritual of Shint[=o], let us now examine the teachings of its oldest book.

CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS

"j.a.pan is not a land where men need pray, For 'tis itself divine: Yet do I lift my voice in prayer..."

Hitomaro, + A.D. 737.

"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 Pa.s.sive and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things."--Preface of Yasumar[=o] (A.D. 712) to the "Kojiki."

"These, the 'Kojiki' and 'Nihongi' are their [the Shint[=o]ists]

canonical books, ... and almost their every word is considered undeniable truth."

"The Shint[=o] faith teaches that G.o.d inspired the foundation of the Mikadoate, and that it is therefore sacred."--Kaburagi.

"We now reverently make our prayer to Them [Our Imperial Ancestors] and to our Ill.u.s.trious Father [Komei, + 1867], and implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them solemn oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be an example to Our subjects in the observance of the Law [Const.i.tution] hereby established."--Imperial oath of the Emperor Mutsuhito in the sanctuary in the Imperial Palace, T[=o]ki[=o], February 11, 1889.

"Shint[=o] is not our national religion. A faith existed before it, which was its source. It grew out of superst.i.tious teaching and mistaken tradition. The history of the rise of Shint[=o]

proves this."--T. Matsugami.

"Makoto wo mote KAMI NO MICHI wo oshiyureba nari." (Thou teachest the way of G.o.d in truth.)--Mark xii. 14.

"Ware wa Micni nuri, Mukoto nari, Inochi nari."--John xiv. 6.--The New Testament in j.a.panese.

CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS

"The Kojiki" mid its Myths of Cosmogony.

As to the origin of the "Kojiki," we have in the closing sentences of the author's preface the sole doc.u.mentary authority explaining its scope and certifying to its authenticity. Briefly the statement is this: The "Heavenly Sovereign" or Mikado, Temmu (A.D. 673-686), lamenting that the records possessed by the chief families were "mostly amplified by empty falsehoods," and fearing that "the grand foundation of the monarchy"

would be destroyed, resolved to preserve the truth. He therefore had the records carefully examined, compared, and their errors eliminated. There happened to be in his household a man of marvellous memory, named Hiyeda Are, who could repeat, without mistake, the contents of any doc.u.ment he had ever seen, and never forgot anything which he had heard. This person was duly instructed in the genuine traditions and old language of former ages, and made to repeat them until he had the whole by heart. "Before the undertaking was completed," which probably means before it could be committed to writing, "the emperor died, and for twenty-five years Are's memory was the sole depository of what afterwards received the t.i.tle of 'Kojiki.' ... At the end of this interval the Empress Gemmi[=o] ordered Yasumar[=o] to write it down from the mouth of Are, which accounts for the completion of the ma.n.u.script in so short a time as four months and a half,"[1] in A.D. 712.

It is from the "Kojiki" that we obtain most of our ideas of ancient life and thought. The "Nihongi," or Chronicles of j.a.pan, expressed very largely in Chinese phrases and with Chinese technical and philosophical terms, further a.s.sists us to get a measurably correct idea of what is called The Divine Age. Of the two books, however, the "Kojiki" is much more valuable as a true record, because, though rude in style and exceedingly nave in expression, and by no means free from Chinese thoughts and phrases, it is marked by a genuinely j.a.panese cast of thought and method of composition. Instead of the terse, carefully measured, balanced, and ant.i.thetical sentences of correct Chinese, those of the "Kojiki" are long and involved, and without much logical connection. The "Kojiki" contains the real notions, feelings, and beliefs of j.a.panese who lived before the eighth century.

Remembering that prefaces are, like porticos, usually added last of all, we find that in the beginning all things were in chaos. Heaven and earth were not separated. The world substance floated in the cosmic ma.s.s, like oil on water or a fish in the sea. Motion in some way began. The ethereal portions sublimed and formed the heavens; the heavier residuum became the present earth. In the plain of high heaven, when the heaven and earth began, were born three kami who "hid their bodies," that is, pa.s.sed away or died. Out of the warm mould of the earth a germ sprouted, and from this were born two kami, who also were born alone, and died.

After these heavenly kami came forth what are called the seven divine generations, or line of seven kami.[2]

To express the opening lines of the "Kojiki" in terms of our own speech and in the moulds of Western thought, we may say that matter existed before mind and the G.o.ds came forth, as it were, by spontaneous evolution. The first thing that appeared out of the warm earth-muck was like a rush-sprout, and this became a kami, or G.o.d. From this being came forth others, which also produced beings, until there were perfect bodies, s.e.x and differentiation of powers. The "Nihongi," however, not only gives a different view of this evolution basing it upon the dualism of Chinese philosophy--that is, of the active and pa.s.sive principles--and uses Chinese technical terminology, but gives lists of kami that differ notably from those in the "Kojiki." This latter fact seems to have escaped the attention of those who write freely about what they imagine to be the early religion of the j.a.panese.[3]

After this introduction, in which "Dualities, Trinities, and Supreme Deities" have been discovered by writers unfamiliar with the genius of the j.a.panese language, there follows an account of the creation of the habitable earth by Izanami and Izanagi, whose names mean the Male-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites. The heavenly kami commanded these two G.o.ds to consolidate and give birth to the drifting land.

Standing on the floating bridge of heaven, the male plunged his jewel-spear into the unstable waters beneath, stirring them until they gurgled and congealed. When he drew forth the spear, the drops trickling from its point formed an island, ever afterward called Onokoro-jima, or the Island of the Congealed Drop. Upon this island they descended. The creative pair, or divine man and woman, now separated to make a journey round the island, the male to the left, the female to the right. At their meeting the female spoke first: "How joyful to meet a lovely man!"

The male, offended that the woman had spoken first, required the circuit to be repeated. On their second meeting, the man cried out: "How joyful to meet a lovely woman!" This island on which they had descended was the first of several which they brought into being. In poetry it is the Island of the Congealed Drop. In common geography it is identified as Awaji, at the entrance of the Inland Sea. Thence followed the creation of the other visible objects in nature.

Izanagi's Visit to Hades and Results.

After the birth of the G.o.d of fire, which nearly destroyed the mother's life, Izanami fled to the land of roots or of darkness, that is into Hades. Izanagi, like a true Orpheus, followed his Eurydice and beseeched her to come back to earth to complete with him the work of creation. She parleyed so long with the G.o.ds of the underworld that her consort, breaking off a tooth of his comb, lighted it as a torch and rushed in.

He found her putrefied body, out of which had been born the eight G.o.ds of thunder. Horrified at the awful foulness which he found in the underworld, he rushed up and out, pursued by the Ugly-Female-of-Hades.

By artifices that bear a wonderful resemblance to those in Teutonic fairy tales, he blocked up the way. His head-dress, thrown at his pursuer, turned into grapes which she stopped to eat. The teeth of his comb sprouted into a bamboo forest, which detained her. The three peaches were used as projectiles; his staff which stuck up in the ground became a gate, and a mighty rock was used to block up the narrow pa.s.s through the mountains. Each of these objects has its relation to place-names in Idzumo or to superst.i.tions that are still extant. The peaches and the rocks became G.o.ds, and on this incident, by which the beings in Hades were prevented from advance and successful mischief on earth, is founded one of the norito which Mr. Satow gives in condensed form. The names of the three G.o.ds,[4] Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings, and Come-no-further Gate, are expressed and invoked in the praises bestowed on them in connection with the offerings.

He (the priest) says: I declare in the presence of the sovran G.o.ds, who like innumerable piles of rocks sit closing up the way in the mult.i.tudinous road-forkings.... I fulfil your praises by declaring your NAMES, Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings and Come-no-further Gate, and say: for the OFFERINGS set up that you may prevent [the servants of the monarch] from being poisoned by and agreeing with the things which shall come roughly-acting and hating from the Root-country, the Bottom-country, that you may guard the bottom (of the gate) when they come from the bottom, guard the top when they come from the top, guarding with nightly guard and with daily guard, and may praise them--peacefully take the great OFFERINGS which are set up by piling them up like a range of hills, that is to say, providing bright cloth, etc., ... and sitting closing-up the way like innumerable piles of rock in the mult.i.tudinous road-forkings, deign to praise the sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness eternally and unchangingly, and to bless his age as a luxuriant AGE.

Retreating to another part of the world--that is, into southwestern j.a.pan--Izanami purified himself by bathing in a stream. While washing himself,[5] many kami were borne from the rinsings of his person, one of them, from the left eye (the left in j.a.panese is always the honorable side), being the far-shining or heaven-illuminating kami, whose name, Amateras[)u], or Heaven-shiner, is usually translated "The Sun-G.o.ddess."

This personage is the centre of the system of Shint[=o]. The creation of G.o.ds by a process of cleansing has had a powerful effect on the j.a.panese, who usually a.s.sociate cleanliness of the body (less moral, than physical) with G.o.dliness.

It is not necessary to detail further the various stories which make up the j.a.panese mythology. Some of these are lovely and beautiful, but others are horrible and disgusting, while the dominant note throughout is abundant filthiness.

Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world such good service in translating into English the whole of the Kojiki, and furnishing it with learned commentary and notes, has well said:

"The shocking obscenity of word and act to which the 'Records'

bear witness is another ugly feature which must not quite be pa.s.sed over in silence. It is true that decency, as we understand it, is a very modern product, and it is not to be looked for in any society in the barbarous stage. At the same time, the whole range of literature might perhaps be ransacked for a parallel to the nave filthiness of the pa.s.sage forming Sec. IV. of the following translation, or to the extraordinary topic which the hero Yamato-Take and his mistress Miyadz[)u] are made to select as the theme of poetical repartee. One pa.s.sage likewise would lead us to suppose that the most beastly crimes were commonly committed."[6]

Indeed, it happens in several instances that the thread by which the marvellous patchwork of unrelated and varying local myths is joined together, is an indecent love story.

A thousand years after the traditions of the Kojiki had been committed to writing, and orthodox Shint[=o] commentators had learned science from the Dutch at Nagasaki, the stirring of the world mud by Izanagi's spear[7] was gravely a.s.serted to be the cause of the diurnal revolution of the earth upon its axis, the point of the axis being still the jewel spear.[8] Onogoro-jima, or the Island of the Congealed Drop, was formerly at the north pole,[9] but subsequently removed to its present position. How this happened is not told.

Life in j.a.pan During the Divine Age.

Now that the Kojiki is in English and all may read it, we can clearly see who and what were the j.a.panese in the ages before letters and Chinese civilization; for these stories of the kami are but legendary and mythical accounts of men and women. One could scarcely recognize in the islanders of eleven or twelve hundred years ago, the polished, brilliant, and interesting people of to-day. Yet truth compels us to say that social morals in Dai Nippon, even with telegraphs and railways, are still more like those of ancient days than readers of rhapsodies by summer tourists might suppose. These early j.a.panese, indeed, were possibly in a stage of civilization somewhat above that of the most advanced of the American Indians when first met by Europeans, for they had a rude system of agriculture and knew the art of fashioning iron into tools and weapons. Still, they were very barbarous, certainly as much so as our Germanic "forbears." They lived in huts. They were without writing or commerce, and were able to count only to ten.[10]

Their cruelty was as revolting as that of the savage tribes of America.

The family was in its most rudimentary stage, with little or no restraint upon the pa.s.sions of men. Children of the same father, but not of the same mother, could intermarry. The instances of men marrying their sisters or aunts were very common. There was no art, unless the making of clay images, to take the place of the living human victims buried up to their necks in earth and left to starve on the death of their masters,[11] may be designated as such.

The Magatama, or curved jewels, being made of ground and polished stone may be called jewelry; but since some of these prehistoric ornaments dug up from the ground are found to be of jade, a mineral which does not occur in j.a.pan, it is evident that some of these tokens of culture came from the continent. Many other things produced by more or less skilled mechanics, the origin of which is poetically recounted in the story of the dancing of Uzume before the cave in which the Sun-G.o.ddess had hid herself,[12] were of continental origin. Evidently these men of the G.o.d-way had pa.s.sed the "stone age," and, probably without going through the intermediate bronze age, were artificers of iron and skilled in its use. Most of the names of metals and of many other substances, and the terms used in the arts and sciences, betray by their tell-tale etymology their Chinese origin. Indeed, it is evident that some of the leading kami were born in Korea or Tartary.

Then as now the people in j.a.pan loved nature, and were quickly sensitive to her beauty and profoundly in sympathy with her varied phenomena. In the mediaeval ages, j.a.panese Wordsworths are not unknown.[13] Sincerely they loved nature, and in some respects they seemed to understand the character of their country far better than the alien does or can. Though a land of wonderful beauty, the Country of Peaceful Sh.o.r.es is enfolded in powers of awful destructiveness. With the earthquake and volcano, the typhoon and the tidal wave, beauty and horror alternate with a swiftness that is amazing.