DEIFICATION OF MEN.
The importance of the deification of human beings in Shinto has been
grossly exaggerated both by European scholars and by modern Japanese
writers. Grant Allen, for example, says, in his 'Evolution of the
Idea of God': "We know that some whole great national creeds, like
the Shinto of Japan, recognize no deities at all, save living kings
and dead ancestral spirits." He was probably misled by the old writer
Kaempfer, whose ignorance of the subject is stupendous. The truth
is that Shinto is derived in a much less degree from the second of
the two great currents of religious thought than from the first. It
has comparatively little worship of human beings. In the _Kojiki_,
_Nihongi_, and _Yengishiki_ we meet with hardly anything of this
element. None of their great Gods are individual human beings, though
at a later period a few deities of this class attained to considerable
eminence and popularity. An analysis of a list of "Greater Shrines,"
prepared in the tenth century, yields the following results: Of the
Gods comprised in it, seventeen are nature deities, one is a sword,
which probably represented a nature deity, two are more or less
legendary deceased Mikados, one is the deified type and supposed
ancestor of a priestly corporation, one is the ancestor of an empress,
and one a deceased statesman.
=Deified Individual Men=.--Like Nature-Gods, Man-Gods may be divided
into three classes--namely, deified individual men, deified classes of
men, and deified human qualities. The first of these classes comprises
the Mikados, living or dead, and numerous heroes, of whom Yamato-dake,
the legendary conqueror of the eastern part of Japan, and Sugahara
(Tenjin), the god of learning, may be quoted as examples.
=Phases of Conception=.--They are variously conceived of, as follow:--
I. X, alive or dead, is a great man, worthy of our love, reverence,
gratitude, or fear.
II. X, sometimes when alive, more frequently when dead, is possessed of
superhuman powers, usually borrowed from those of nature, such as the
control of the weather and the seasons, and of diseases.
III. X's powers reside not in his body but in a more or less spiritual
emanation from it.
In the first of these three phases, man-worship is not religion. So
long as a man is honoured for those qualities only which he really
possesses or possessed, he cannot be called a God. But although
rational man-worship is not in itself religion, it is a necessary
factor in its development. Our sentiments of gratitude and awe towards
the great nature-powers spring up in hearts already prepared by the
feelings which we entertain towards our parents, superiors, and other
fellow-men. Whether individually or collectively, a man loves his
parents before he loves God. The outward signs of divine worship are
almost exclusively in the first place acts of reverence towards men. A
man bows his head or makes presents to his superiors before he worships
or sacrifices to a deity.
There is a tendency to restrict the word worship to the adoration of
deity. Thus, when we speak of ancestor-worship, we are apt to think of
it as implying deification. But there is much worship of living and
dead men which is perfectly rational, and implies no ascription to them
of superhuman powers.
The second, or religious, phase of man-worship involves the assumption
that some men are possessed of powers of a kind different from those
of ordinary mortals. The mere exaggeration of the human faculties
may produce an inferior sort of deity, but no really great man-God
can be produced without borrowing some of the transcendent powers of
Nature, or in some way identifying him with that increasing cosmic
purpose, which from one point of view is tendency and evolution, and
from another is a loving Providence. Until this is done a deified
king, ancestor, or ghost (if there be such a thing) is a poor specimen
of a God. To become a deity of any consequence, the man-God must
make rain, avert floods, control the seasons, send and stay plagues,
wield thunderbolts, ride upon the storm, or even act as Creator of
the world.[19] When the practice of deifying men was once established
it was enough to entitle them Gods, the term itself implying the
possession of those powers which we call supernatural, but which are
only so when predicated of men.
=Deification of Mikados=.--The misunderstanding of metaphorical
language is a fertile source of apotheosis. The deification of the
Mikados is a case in point. The Mikado is called "the Heavenly
Grandchild," his courtiers are "men above the clouds," rural districts
are spoken of as "distant from Heaven," that is, from the Imperial
Palace. The heir to the throne was styled _hi no miko_, or "august
child of the Sun," and his residence _hi no miya_, "the august house of
the Sun." The native names of many of the Mikados contain the element
_hiko_, or "Sun-child." The appearance in Court of the Empress Suiko
(A.D. 612) is compared to the sun issuing from the clouds. _Tenshi_, or
"Son of Heaven," a Chinese term freely applied to the Mikado in later
times, is a variant of the same idea, which, it need hardly be said,
is known in other countries besides Japan. The Chinese Emperor is said
to call the sun his elder brother, and the moon his sister. Images of
the sun and moon were depicted on the banners which were borne before
him on State occasions. The same practice had been adopted in Japan as
early as A.D. 700, and there is a relic of it at the present day in the
Japanese national flag, which is a red sun on a white ground.[20] The
ancient kings of Egypt called themselves earthly suns. Our own poet
Waller, addressing James II., says:--
To your great merrit given,
A title to be called the sonne of Heaven.
Let us not pass by these metaphors with a disdainful smile, as mere
unsubstantial poetic fancies. They are more or less rude attempts to
give expression to the very important truth that the benefits which
a nation derives from the rule of a wise and good sovereign are
comparable to the blessings of the sun's warmth and light. As Browning,
in 'Saul,' has well said:--
Each deed thou hast done
Dies, revives, goes to work in the world, and is as the sun
Looking down on the earth, though clouds spoil him,
though tempests efface,
Can find nothing his own deed produced not, must everywhere trace
The results of his past summer prime--so each ray of thy will,
Every flash of thy passion and prowess long over, shall thrill
Thy whole people, the countless, with ardour till they too give forth
A like cheer to their sons, who in turn fill the south and the north
With the radiance thy deed was the germ of----.
It may be objected that it is contrary to the general law of human
development to make the higher metaphorical conception precede the
lower physical one. It is no doubt true that the physical idea of
fatherhood must come before the metaphorical use of this relationship.
But it does not follow that when once the metaphor is arrived at, it
may not relapse into its original physical acceptation. The forces
which produce religious progress act by waves, with intervals of
stagnation or retrogression. Even when the general religious condition
of a country is advancing it will be found that the lower popular
stratum of thought consists less of undeveloped germs of future
progress than of a breccia of the debased or imperfectly assimilated
ideas of the wise men of preceding generations. In this retrograde
movement a large part is played by the invincible tendency of the
vulgar to give metaphors their literal signification. This, I take it,
is the source of the numerous actual children or descendants of the Sun
and other deities who are found all over the world, in Greece, Peru,
Japan, and elsewhere. The sequence of ideas may be thus represented:--
I. The King or sage is like the Sun.
II. He is (rhetorically) a Sun, or the Sun's brother or offspring.
III. He is actually descended from the Sun in the _n_th generation, the
intermediate links of the genealogy being _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_, &c., and
he is therefore himself a divinity.
Herbert Spencer, in his 'Sociology,' says:--
"There are proofs that like confusion of metaphor with fact leads to
Sun-worship. Complimentary naming after the sun occurs everywhere, and
where it is associated with power, becomes inherited. The chiefs of
the Hurons bore the name of the Sun; and Humboldt remarks that 'the
"Sun-Kings" among the Natches recall to mind the Heliades of the first
eastern colony of Rhodes.' Out of numerous illustrations from Egypt may
be quoted an inscription from Silsilis--'Hail to thee! King of Egypt!
Sun of the foreign peoples ... Life, salvation, health to him! he is
a shining Sun.' In such cases, then, worship of the ancestor readily
becomes worship of the Sun.... Personalization of the wind had an
origin of this kind."
"Nature-worship, then, is but an aberrant form of ghost-worship."
Surely this is an inversion of the true order of things. Why do
kings bear the name of Sun, or child of the Sun? Is it not because
the Sun is already looked upon as a glorious being (a God?) with whom
it is an honour to be associated? Herbert Spencer himself speaks of
"_complimentary_ naming after the Sun." The Chinese call deification
_hai-ten_, or "matching with Heaven," showing that with them at least
it is the man who acquires his divinity by being placed on a level with
Heaven, not _vice versâ_. Worship of the Sun must be anterior to the
very existence of Mikados, and there are certainly more substantial
reasons for it than the transfer to him, suggested by metaphorical
language, of the reverence paid to human sovereigns or ancestors.
The deification of living Mikados was titular rather than real.
I am not aware that any specific so-called miraculous powers[21]
were authoritatively claimed for them. In 645 a Japanese minister,
addressing some envoys from Korea, described his sovereign as "the
Emperor of Japan, who rules the world as a manifest deity." The same
official recognized the Korean princes as "Sons of the Gods." The
Mikado Keikō, admiring the strength and courage of his son Yamatodake,
says to him: "Whereas in outward form thou art our child, in reality
thou art a God." The Mikados called themselves, in notifications and
elsewhere, _Akitsu Kami_, that is, manifest or incarnate deities, and
claimed a general authority over the Gods of Japan. Yūriaku conversed
on equal terms with the God Hito-koto-nushi. He expected obedience from
the Thunder-God, but speedily had cause to repent his audacity.[22]
The honours paid to deceased Mikados stand on a somewhat different
footing. There is little, however, in the earlier period of Shinto to
distinguish the respect shown to deceased Mikados from the customary
observances towards the undeified dead. The _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ have
hardly a trace of any practical recognition of their divinity. We are
told in the _Nihongi_ (A.D. 679) that the Mikado Temmu did reverence
to the tomb of his mother who had died eighteen years before. In 681
worship was paid (no doubt by the Mikado) to the august spirit of the
Mikado's grandfather (or ancestor). There is nothing in these notices
to show that divine worship is intended. An oath made by Yemishi or
Ainus, when tendering their submission in 581, is more to the point.
They pray that "if we break this oath, may all the Gods of Heaven and
Earth, and also the spirits of the Mikados destroy our race." Still
it must be remembered that the author of the _Nihongi_ was a profound
Chinese scholar, and that his work is deeply tinctured with Chinese
ideas. I should not be surprised to find that the above oath was simply
copied from some Chinese book.
In the time of the _Yengishiki_ (tenth century) the honours paid to
deceased Mikados had become regularized, and offerings similar to those
made to nature-deities were tendered to them periodically. It is,
however, a significant circumstance that of the twenty-seven _norito_
contained in that work not one relates to their worship, and that the
care of their tombs did not belong to the Department of Shinto. Hirata
protests vigorously against a modern practice of using a Chinese word
meaning Imperial Mausoleum for the shrines of Ise and Kamo.
As early as the ninth century there are several cases of prayers
addressed to deceased Mikados for rain, to stay a curse sent by them
for disrespect to their tombs, for the restoration of the Mikado's
health, for preservation from calamity, &c. In more recent times
shrines were erected to them, and prayers put up for blessings which it
is far beyond the power of man to grant. Under the name of Hachiman,
the Mikado Ojin, visibly owing to Chinese and Buddhist influences,
became an important deity in later Shinto. The same may be said of the
Empress Jingo. The _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ treat both as mere mortals.
The honours paid to deceased Mikados were much neglected before the
Restoration of 1868. At present they consist in four solemn mourning
services held in the Palace, one on the anniversary of the death of
the late Emperor, the second on that of the death of Jimmu Tennō, the
third and fourth in spring and autumn, in memory of all the Imperial
ancestors.[23] Embassies are also despatched to the Imperial tombs
(_misasagi_), which now have _toriwi_ (the distinctive Shinto honorary
gateway) erected in front of them. Two of the Mikados, namely, Ojin and
Kwammu, have special State shrines dedicated to them. Concurrent with
the enhancement of the political prestige of the Crown there has been
a strong tendency in the present reign to increase the respect paid to
the Imperial House, so that it now amounts to something like religious
worship. The ceremony of the _naishi dokoro_,[24] which in ancient
times was in honour of the sacred sun-mirror, now includes the tablets
of the deceased Mikados.
=Other Deifications=.--Even in the case of the deification of living
and dead Mikados there is much room for suspicion of foreign influence.
Of the deification of other men I find no clear evidence in the older
records. It is probable, however, that some of the numerous obscure
deities mentioned in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ are deified men. A
number of the legendary and historical personages named in these works
were deified at a subsequent period. Others have been added from time
to time. The case of the God of Suha has a special interest. Here the
God's living descendant, real or supposed, is regarded as a God, and
a cave (probably a tomb) occupies the place of the shrine. A fuller
account of this cult is given below.[25] The high-priest of the Great
Shrine of Idzumo is called an _iki-gami_, or living deity. Not only
good but bad men might be deified or canonized, as in the case of the
archrebel Masakado, the robber Kumasaka Chohan, and in our own day,
Nishitaro Buntarō, the murderer of Mori, the Minister for Education.
Lafcadio Hearn, in his 'Gleanings in Buddha Fields,' tells a typical
story of the deification of a living man. A certain Hamaguchi Gohei,
head man of his village, saved the lives of his fellow villagers from
destruction by a tidal wave, at the sacrifice of his crop of rice,
which he set fire to in order to attract them away from the sea-shore
to the higher ground. "So they declared him a God, and thereafter
called him Hamaguchi Daimyōjin, and when they rebuilt their village,
they built a temple to the spirit of him, and fixed above the front
of it a tablet bearing his name in Chinese text of gold; and they
worshipped him there, with prayer and with offerings.... He continued
to live in his old thatched home upon the hill, while his soul was
being worshipped in the shrine below. A hundred years and more he has
been dead; but his temple, they tell me, still stands, and the people
still pray to the ghost of the good old farmer to help them in time of
fear or trouble."
=Ancestor-Worship=.--If we restrict this term to the religious cult
of one's own ancestors, as in China, this form of religion has hardly
any place in Shinto. The only case of it, except in modern times
and under foreign influences, is that of the Mikados, and even then
there is no evidence of its existence before the sixth century. The
term ancestor-worship is often used more generally of the worship of
dead men of former generations. There is no good reason, however,
for distinguishing between the cult of dead and that of living men.
If the former is the more common, it is because absence and lapse of
time are usually necessary to allow their obviously human character to
be forgotten and to raise the popular imagination to the height of
attributing to them superhuman powers. Deification is the result of
an exaggerated appreciation of what the man was during life, though
there is often associated with this primary reason the ascription of
imaginary powers to his corpse or ghost.
It is often assumed by English writers that Shinto is substantially,
or at least is based on, ancestor-worship. The modern Japanese, imbued
with Chinese ideas, throw them back into the old Shinto, and have
persuaded themselves that it contains a far more important element
of this kind than is actually the case. A recent Japanese writer
says: "Ancestor-worship was the basis of Shinto. The divinities,
whether celestial or terrestrial, were the progenitors of the nation,
from the sovereign and the princes surrounding the throne to the
nobles who discharged the services of the State and the soldiers
who fought its battles." Hirata, notwithstanding his anti-Chinese
prejudices, was unable to resist the influence of Chinese ideas as
regards ancestor-worship. He devotes vol. x. of his 'Tamadasuki' to
the inculcation of an ancestor-worship which is plainly nothing but
the well-known Chinese cult. His _tama-ya_ (spirit-house, or domestic
ancestral shrine) is a Chinese institution under a Japanese name, and
the _tama-shiro_, or spirit-token, is the Chinese _ihai_ (ancestral
tablet). He would have his followers address their prayers, as in
China, to their ancestors of every generation, from the parents of
the worshipper up to the "Great Ancestor," the founder of the family.
Their spirits (_mitama_) are to be adjured to avert evil from their
descendants, to keep watch over them by night and day, and to grant
them prosperity and long life. This is genuine ancestor-worship, but it
is not Shinto. It was to meet the case of a failure of direct heirs to
continue such ancestor-worship that the practice of adoption, unknown
in ancient Japan, was introduced from China. The truth is that only
a very small part of the Japanese nation knew, or pretended to know,
anything about their ancestors. Even of those who had genealogies, many
traced their descent from mere undeified mortals, some being Koreans or
Chinese. There remain in the _Shōjiroku_ and elsewhere a good number of
genealogies in which the descent of noble families from Shinto deities
is recorded. To what class do these deities belong? It is impossible to
assert that some may not be genuine deified ancestors, though I cannot
point to any undoubted case of this kind. Many are nature-deities.
The descent of the imperial family from the Sun-Goddess is a typical
example. The God of Growth, Kuni-toko-tachi, the Yatagarasu or
Sun-Crow, the sword Futsunushi, and many other nature-deities appear
among the ancestors of the _Shōjiroku_. In the 'Ideals of the East,' a
work recently published in English by Mr. Takakura Okasu, the author
speaks of the "immaculate ancestrism of Ise and Idzumo." The so-called
ancestral Gods worshipped at these places are the Sun-Goddess, the
Food-Goddess, Ohonamochi (an Earth-God) and Susa no wo (the Rainstorm).
Dr. E. Caird's observation that "in the majority of cases it is not
that the being worshipped is conceived of by his worshipper as a God
because he is an ancestor, but rather that he is conceived as an
ancestor because he is believed to be their God,"[26] obviously applies
to this feature of Shinto.
Other nobles traced their lineage from, and paid a special worship
to, personages who never existed as individual human beings. Such is
Koyane, the reputed ancestor, but really only a personified type of the
Nakatomi priestly corporation.
If we have any regard for correct terminology we must call this
recognition of nature-deities and class-types as ancestors not
ancestor-worship, but pseudo-ancestor-worship. When Britain's sons
declare, as they do with sufficient emphasis, that "Britannia rules
the waves," is this ancestor-worship? Or supposing that Macaulay's
New Zealander found a remnant of the English people worshipping John
Bull as their reputed ancestor, would he be right to conclude that
ancestor-worship was an English institution?
=Uji-Gami=.--These pseudo-ancestors are called in Japanese _uji-gami_,
or surname gods. The _uji_ were originally official designations,
whether of Court officials or of local officials or chieftains, which,
as these offices became hereditary, took the character of hereditary
titles, and eventually became mere surnames. They may be compared with
such titles as Duke of Wellington or with surnames like Chamberlain,
Constable, or Baillie. In ancient times the common people had no
surnames, and therefore no ancestor-worship, pseudo or real.
The word _uji_ is also used collectively of the noble house of persons
bearing the same surname. It does not seem a very ancient institution,
and must date from a time when an organized Government had already been
established. Of the cult of the _Uji-gami_ as such we know very little.
The _Kojiki_ mentions the fact of various deities being worshipped by
certain noble families. A modern authority says: "All descendants of
deities had _uji_. Every _uji_ consisted of members called _ukara_. The
chief of the _uji_ was termed the _uji no kami_ (the superior of the
_uji_). It was his duty, on festival occasions, to convene the _ukara_
for the worship of the ancestral God." In later times the _Uji-gami_
became simply the tutelary deity of one's birthplace, and was also
called _ubusuna_ (birth-sand). Infants born in his jurisdiction are
presented to him soon after birth, and parturient women pray to him
for relief. They also procure earth from the site of his shrine, in
the belief that it has a magical power to assist their delivery. The
same earth is credited with the property of relaxing the rigidity
of a corpse.
The modern _Uji-gami_ are taken indiscriminately from all classes
of deities, perhaps including even a few genuine ancestors. One or
two Indian deities have been made _Uji-gami_. The Nakatomi had three
_Uji-gami_--namely, Take-mika-dzuchi, Futsunushi, and Koyane. Noble
families have been known to change their _Uji-gami_,
The _Uji-gami_ correspond in some respects to the Greek άρχηγός.[Greek: archêghos]
=Biso=.--Analogous to the _Uji-gami_ are the trades-deities of modern
times. They are called _biso_ (author or inventor), and may be either
nature-deities, deceased men, or merely the deified type of the
particular trade or profession. Wrestlers worship Nomi no Sukune,
who was probably a real person, and Chinese doctors the legendary
Chinese Emperor Shinnung. Confucian pundits worship Confucius, poets
honour Hitomaro, and Haikwai poets Bashô. Professors of the art
of tea-drinking show reverence to the founder of that particular
branch of it which they practise. Soothsayers, _miko_, football
players, flower-arrangers, and actors worship the so-called ancestral
gods of their several professions. There is a _Kaji-so-sha_, or
blacksmith-ancestor-shrine. Carpenters, for some reason, have adopted
Shōtoku Daishi, an Imperial Prince who lived in the seventh century,
as their patron. Merchants worship Yebisu. They also pay some sort of
respect to Fukusuke,[27] a dwarfish figure with a large head, attired
in the ceremonial _kami-shimo_, and seated in a squatting position,
which may often be seen in the larger shops. A figure of a cat with
uplifted paw, called the _maneki-neko_, or "beckoning cat," and a
recumbent cow covered with rugs are also objects of respect with them.
It is in many cases a question whether the honour shown amounts really
to divine worship.
=Spirits=.--The older Shinto scriptures afford but scanty evidence of
the spiritualization of deified human beings. In the _Nihongi_ there
is one reference to the worship of a Mikado's _mitama_ (spirit). In
another case the _mitama_ of the Mikados are called upon to punish
oath-breakers. Yamato-dake's _mitama_ is in one place said to have
been changed into a white bird. Of the _mitama_ of ordinary undeified
human beings there is no mention in the _Kojiki_ or _Nihongi_; but,
of course, this may be owing to the imperfection of the record.
_Tamashiï_, a derivative of _tama_, is the ordinary word for soul at
the present day, and is undoubtedly of considerable antiquity. Still
there are cases where we should expect to find _mitama_ spoken of, but
where a more material conception--namely, that of metamorphosis--takes
its place. Among several instances of this kind may be quoted that of
Yamato-dake. He died, and was buried, upon which he took the form of a
white bird, which flew away leaving the tomb empty. The modern name for
ghost testifies to the prevalence of this conception in Japan. It is
_bake-mono_, or "transformation," and is applied to foxes which change
into human form as well as to the ghosts of the dead and to hobgoblins
of uncertain origin. _Bake-mono_ are not worshipped in Japan, any more
than ghosts are with ourselves, but there is a beginning of reverence
to them in the honorific particle _o_ which is frequently prefixed
to the word, especially by women. There are no proper ghosts in the
_Kojiki_ or _Nihongi_, although the writers of these works were fond
of recording strange and miraculous occurrences. The metamorphosed
appearances mentioned in them are never phantoms with a resemblance
to the human form, and possess no spiritual qualities. Even now the
_bakemono_, though differing little from our ghost, is quite distinct
from the human _mitama_ or _tamashiï_ (soul).
Tama, as we have seen above,[28] may mean either a jewel, a round
object, or the effluence of a deity or a spirit. Here literal-minded
Dullness, with whom the Gods themselves contend in vain, leaps to
the conclusion that the physical globular _tama_ is not merely a
symbol of the soul, but the soul itself. By the ignorant in modern
times it is conceived of as a small round black object, which has
the power of leaving the body during sleep. The popular name for the
will-of-the-wisp, namely, _hito-dama_ (man-ball-soul) enshrines a like
superstition.[29] It is asserted that the souls of the newly dead have
been seen to float away over the eaves and roof as a transparent globe
of impalpable essence.
We may compare with these Japanese notions the following cases, which I
quote from Herbert Spencer's 'Sociology': "According to Ximenes, when a
lord died in Vera Cruz, the first thing they did after his death was to
put a precious stone in his mouth. The object of it was that the stone
should receive his soul. The Mexicans along with a man's remains put
a gem of more or less value, which they said would serve him in place
of a heart in the other world." Such material conceptions of the soul
are to be found everywhere. Mr. Hartland, in his 'Legend of Perseus,'
observes: "To the savage, as to our own forefathers, and to the folk
of all civilized countries still, the idea of an incorporeal soul is
incomprehensible. It is everywhere in the lower culture conceived of as
material, though capable of changing its form and appearance without
losing its identity."[30] Hirata, after pointing out correctly that the
_mitama_ (jewel or spirit) is so called because there is nothing in the
body so precious as the soul, immediately relapses into a more material
conception when he proceeds to explain that, although we cannot discern
its shape, seen from the Gods it must have the shape of a jewel (that
is, spherical).[31]
The history of the _mitama_ suggests that the material, or partially
material, conceptions of the soul are a comparatively recent
development. Though religion is on the whole progressive, it by
no means follows that all movements of religious thought are in a
forward direction. The spiritual edifice which poets and seers build
up is being constantly reduced to ruin by the inept handling of the
material-minded vulgar, to be reared anew by others more splendid than
before. But let us not mistake the ruin for the first courses of a new
building, the dead husk for the living germ. Ghosts and ball-souls are
aberrant conceptions which belong to the former category. The dullards
to whom such notions are due are quite incapable of originating the
pregnant, though artificial, conception of body and soul as two
distinct entities.
Let me add a few more etymological facts which bear on the question of
spirituality.
_Mi-kage_, or "august shadow," is an ancient synonym for _mi-tama_. It
is unnecessary to suppose that anything but a metaphorical meaning was
originally intended. There is, however, a modern superstition that when
a man is near his death his shadow becomes thinner.
The ordinary Japanese word for "to die" is _shinuru_, that is to say,
"breath-depart." Death is also called concealment, long concealment,
body-concealment, rock-concealment (in allusion to the practice of
burial in dolmens), change, and ending. In the case of the Gods, death
is called divine departure or divine ascent.
_Iki_, "breath," one of the vital functions, is put by metonymy for
their sum, that is, life. It has not, like our word "spirit" and the
Greek "psyche," taken the further step of coming to mean the human
soul, except we identify it with the _ke_ of _hotoke_, which has been
plausibly derived from _hito_, "man," and _ke_, "spirit." It is now
the common Buddhist term for Buddha and his saints, and also for the
spirits of the sainted dead. The material-minded man, as usual, drags
it down to his own level. To him the corpse at a funeral is the
_hotoke_. It is not certain, however, that the element _ke_ of this
word is not of Chinese origin, China, always far in advance of Japan in
spirituality, has exercised a profound influence on the development of
Japanese ideas regarding spiritual matters.
Another material conception of the life or soul is contained in a poem
of the _Manyôshiu_, in which a fisherman named Urashima is related to
have found his way to the _Toko yo no kuni_, or "Eternal Land." When
about to return to earth he received from his wife a casket, with
the injunction that he must not open it. He does open it, upon which
his life or soul comes out and flies away like a white cloud to the
"Eternal Land." He dies soon after. But this is a poetic fancy, open to
strong suspicions of Chinese inspiration.
There is a ceremony called _iki-mitama_ (living soul), which consists
in paying respect to an absent parent, &c., as if he were present.
Another similar practice is that of _kage-zen_ (shadow-food), in which
a meal is set out for an absent member of the family, especially when
it is not known whether he is dead or alive. The term _iki-su-dama_
(living spirit) is applied to the angry spirit (double?) of a living
person, which is supposed to work a curse, sometimes unknown even to
himself. _Su-dama_ are defined as the essences of woods or mountains,
which assume a metamorphosed form--elves, as we should say. All these
are comparatively modern ideas.
The _Shinto Do-itsu_, a modern Shinto manual, frankly adopts the
Chinese views of the soul. A manual of this sect has the following:
"The _kom-paku_ are in China the animal and rational souls. When a man
dies, his _kon_ goes up to Heaven and his _haku_ returns to Earth.
Man at birth derives his breath (or life) from Heaven and Earth.
Therefore when he dies it returns to Heaven and Earth. The _kon_ is the
_yang_ or male, positive spirit; the _haku_ is the _yin_ or female,
negative spirit (_tama_). In everything there is the _yin_ and the
_yang_ heart. All men have _ki_ (breath), _kei_ (form), and _sei_
(life). The _kon_ rules the _ki_ and the _sei_. The _haku_ rules the
form and the body. _Ki_ means literally breath, on which man's life
depends. From the Buddhist point of view there are two functions of the
material body, namely, life and death, each of which has its soul. The
_saki-dama_ (spirit of luck) is the _kon_; the _kushi-dama_ (wondrous
spirit) is the _haku_.[32] Again the five viscera have each a God in
shape like a man."
=State of the Dead=.--Like the Old Testament, the ancient Japanese
records afford but few and uncertain glimpses of the condition of the
dead. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul is nowhere taught
explicitly. There are no prayers for the dead or for happiness in a
future life. There is a land of _yomi_ (darkness) which corresponds
to the Greek Hades and the Hebrew Sheöl. It is also termed _Ne no
kuni_ (root-land), _Soko no kuni_ (bottom-land), _Shita-tsu-kuni_
(lower-land), or the _Yaso-kumade_, that is to say, the eighty
road-windings, a euphemistic phrase resembling our "going on a long
journey." Yomi, however, does not seem to be peopled by human beings
or ghosts. Nor do we find any actual cases of their descending thither
at death, although the conception was no doubt originally a metaphor
for the grave. In the _Nihongi_ myth we find that where one version
speaks of Izanami in Yomi, another uses the expression "temporary
burying-place." The same work mentions an opinion that the "Even Pass
of Yomi" is not any place in particular, but means only the space of
time when the breath fails on the approach of death. The _Kojiki_,
after relating the death and burial of Izanami on Mount Hiba, at the
boundary of the Land of Idzumo, goes on to speak of her descent to Yomi
as if it were the same thing. From this it would appear that to many
persons, even in these early times, Yomi was a tolerably transparent
metaphor for the state of the dead. How difficult it is for even
learned and intelligent men to rise above the literal interpretation of
metaphor is illustrated by the fact that Motoöri treats this suggestion
with great scorn, pointing out that there is an actual entrance to Yomi
in the province of Idzumo.
Izanami went to Yomi when she died. She is called the Great Deity of
Yomi. It is also spoken of as the abode of Susa no wo, who, according
to one myth, was appointed to rule this region. We also hear of the
deities of Yomi, the armies of Yomi, the ugly females of Yomi, and the
Road-Wardens of Yomi. Thunder-Gods are said to have been generated
there from the dead body of Izanami. All these are probably various
personifications of death and disease.
In modern times Yomi has been identified with _Jigoku_, the inferno of
the Buddhists, which is a place of torture for the wicked. Our own word
hell has undergone a similar change of application.
In the _Manyōshiu_ heaven is mentioned as the destination of a deceased
Mikado, while in the very same poem a prince is spoken of as dwelling
in his tomb in silence and solitude. The _Toko-yo no kuni_, or Eternal
Land, is another home of the dead. The God Sukunabikona went thither
when he died. So did a brother of the first Mikado, Jimmu. The _Toko-yo
no kuni_ is identified by some with Hōrai-san, the Chinese island
paradise of the Eastern Sea, and by others with China itself. The
orange is said to have been introduced from the _Toko-yo no kuni_.
In the Manyōshiu poem of Urashima, the _Toko-yo no kuni_ is the same
as the submarine palace of the Sea-Gods, where death and old age
are unknown. _Toko-yo tachi_ (ye immortal ones!) is a complimentary
exclamation in a poem of the _Nihongi_.
The most definite statement regarding the continued existence of men
after death occurs in the _Nihongi_ under the legendary date A.D.
367:--
_"The Yemishi rebelled. Tamichi was sent to attack them. He was worsted
by the Yemishi, and slain at the harbour of Ishimi. Now one of his
followers obtained Tamichi's armlet and gave it to his wife, who
embraced the armlet and strangled herself. When the men of that time
heard of this they shed tears. After this the Yemishi again made an
incursion and dug up Tamichi's tomb, upon which a great serpent started
up with glaring eyes and came out of the tomb. It bit the Yemishi, who
were every one affected by the serpent's poison, so that many of them
died, and only one or two escaped. Therefore the men of that time said:
'Although dead Tamichi at last had his revenge. How can it be said that
the dead have no knowledge?'"_
Evidently at this time there were two opinions on the subject. Motoöri
says that this is a subject which transcends human comprehension. He
leans to the view of the old books, that men when they die go to the
Land of Yomi, in preference to the sceptical ratiocinations of the
Chinese sophists. Hirata takes a more decided attitude. He points to
the story just quoted as an example of dead men executing vengeance
upon those who were their enemies during life.
=Funeral Customs=.--Let us now inquire whether anything is to be
learned regarding the views of the ancient Japanese as to the condition
of the dead from their funeral customs. The bodies of nobles, princes,
and sovereigns were deposited in megalithic vaults which were covered
by huge mounds of earth.[33] Pending the construction of these, the
body was placed temporarily in a building called a _moya_, or mourning
house. It was enclosed in a wooden coffin and in some cases in a
sarcophagus of stone or earthenware. These sarcophagi have been found
to contain traces of cinnabar.[34] In all the more modern megalithic
tombs the entrance faces the south. This arrangement is connected with
the idea, common to the Japanese with the Chinese and other far-eastern
races, that the north is the most honourable quarter. The Mikado, on
state occasions, stands on the north side of the Hall of Audience. His
palace fronts the south. Immediately after death corpses are laid with
the head to the north, a position scrupulously avoided by many Japanese
for sleep. They say they are unworthy of so great honour.
With the more eminent dead there were buried food, weapons, ornaments,
vessels of pottery, and other valuables. Eulogies were pronounced over
them, and music was performed at the funeral. Posthumous honours--a
Chinese institution--were conferred on those who had merited them by
distinguished services. In the more ancient times human sacrifices Were
made at the tombs of deceased Mikados and princes. The _Nihongi_, under
the legendary date B.C. 2, states:--
_"10th month, 5th day. Yamato-hiko, the Mikado's younger brother by the
mother's side, died._
_"11th month, 2nd day. Yamato-hiko was buried at Tsuki-zaka in Musa.
Thereupon his personal attendants were assembled, and were all buried
alive upright in the precinct of the tomb. For several days they died
not, but wept and wailed day and night. At last they died and rotted.
Dogs and crows gathered and ate them._
_"The Emperor, hearing the sound of their weeping and wailing, was
grieved at heart, and commanded his high officers, saying 'It is a very
painful thing to force those whom one has loved in life to follow
him in death. Though it be an ancient custom, why follow it if it is
bad? From this time forward, take counsel so as to put a stop to the
following of the dead.'_
_"A.D. 3, 7th month, 6th day. The Empress Hibasu-hime no Mikoto died.
Some time before the burial, the Emperor commanded his Ministers,
saying: 'We have already recognized that the practice of following
the dead is not good. What should now be done in performing this
burial?' Thereupon Nomi no Sukune came forward and said: 'It is not
good to bury living men upright at the tumulus of a prince. How can
such a practice be handed down to posterity? I beg leave to propose an
expedient which I will submit to Your Majesty.' So he sent messengers
to summon up from the Land of Idzumo a hundred men of the clay-workers'
Be. He himself directed the men of the clay-workers' Be to take clay
and form therewith shapes of men, horses, and various objects, which
he presented to the Emperor, saying: 'Henceforward let it be the law
for future ages to substitute things of clay for living men, and to
set them up at tumuli.' Then the Emperor was greatly rejoiced, and
commanded Nomi no Sukune, saying: 'Thy expedient hath greatly pleased
Our heart.' So the things of clay were first set up at the tomb of
Hibasu-hime no Mikoto. And a name was given to these clay objects.[35]
They were called haniwa, or clay rings._
_"Then a decree was issued, saying: 'Henceforth these clay figures must
be set up at tumuli: let not men be harmed.' The Emperor bountifully
rewarded Nomi no Sukune for this service, and also bestowed on him
a kneading-place, and appointed him to the official charge of the
clay-workers' Be. His original title was therefore changed, and he was
called Hashi no Omi. This was how it came to pass that the Hashi no
Muraji superintend the burials of the Emperors."_
This narrative is too much in accordance with what we know of other
races in the barbaric stage of culture to allow us to doubt that we
have here a genuine bit of history, though perhaps the details may
be inaccurate, and the chronology is certainly wrong. In an ancient
Chinese notice of Japan we read that "at this time (A.D. 247) Queen
Himeko died. A great mound was raised over her, and more than a hundred
of her male and female attendants followed her in death."
Funeral human sacrifice is well known to have existed among the Manchu
Tartars and other races of North-Eastern Asia until modern times. The
Jesuit missionary Du Halde relates that the Emperor Shunchi, of the
T'sing dynasty (died 1662), inconsolable for the loss of his wife
and infant child, "signified by his will that thirty men should kill
themselves to appease her manes, which ceremony the Chinese look upon
with horror, and was abolished by the care of his successor"--the
famous Kanghi.
Another missionary, Alvarez Semedo, in his history of the Tartar
invasion, says: "It is the custome of the Tartars, when any man of
quality dieth, to cast into that fire which consumes the dead corpse as
many Servants, Women, and Horses with Bows and Arrows as may be fit to
atend and serve them in the next life."
This custom was also practised in China in the most ancient times,
though long condemned as barbarous. An ode in the 'Sheking' laments the
death of three brothers who were sacrificed at the funeral of Duke Muh,
B.C. 621. When the Emperor She Hwang-ti died, B.C. 209, his son Urh
said, "My father's palace-ladies who have no children must not leave
the tomb," and compelled them all to follow him in death. Their number
was very great.
A King of Kokuryö in Corea died A.D. 248. He was beloved for his
virtues, and many of his household wished to die with him. His
successor forbade them to do so, saying that it was not a proper
custom. Many of them, however, committed suicide at the tomb.
('Tongkam,' iii. 20.)
In A.D. 502, Silla prohibited the custom of burying people alive at the
funerals of the sovereigns. Before this time five men and five women
were put to death at the King's tomb. ('Tongkam,' v. 5.)
Cases of suicide at the tomb of a beloved lord or sovereign have not
been uncommon in Japan even in modern times. There was one in 1868.
The Japanese, like the Chinese, make no distinction between voluntary
deaths and human sacrifices. Both are called _jun-shi_, a term which
means "following in death." Indeed, as we may see by the Indian suttee,
it is often hard to draw the line between these two forms of what is
really the same custom.
In the case of common people, of course, no such costly form of burial
could have been practised. It was called _no-okuri_ (sending to a moor
or waste place), by which simple interment, or perhaps exposure at a
distance from human habitations, was probably meant. The offerings
consisted of a little rice and water.
It is often assumed as too obvious to require proof that such funeral
customs as these imply a belief in the continued sentient existence
of the dead. It is taken for granted that it is for their personal
comfort and gratification that wives and attendants are put to death
and offerings of food deposited at the tomb.[36] 'If we reflect,
however, on the reasons for our own funeral observances, which are less
different in principle from those of barbarous nations than we are
willing to admit, we shall see cause to doubt whether this is really
the ruling motive. Most of us have laid flowers on the coffin of some
dear one, or erected a tombstone to his memory, or subscribed for a
monument to a statesman who in life has deserved well of his country.
Were these things done for the physical gratification of the dead? We
cannot divide them in principle from more barbarous rites. We do not
suppose that the dead see or smell the wreaths laid upon the coffin.
Why should it be thought that in a more barbarous state of society it
is believed that they enjoy the society of the wife who is sacrificed
at the tomb?
The ruling motives for such rites are to be sought elsewhere. In
addition to the practical considerations which, as Sir Alfred Lyall
has shown, are potent in the case of the Indian suttee, it is to be
remembered that the memory of the great dead is a national asset of
the highest value (as the memory of our parents is in the domestic
circle), and that it is worth while going to great expense in order to
perpetuate it. In an age before writing or epic poems existed, cruel
sacrifices, pyramids, great tumuli, and other rude monuments were more
necessary for this purpose than they are in our day. And if barbarians
sacrificed human beings, do not we spend the financial equivalent of
many human lives in statues, memorials, and otherwise useless funeral
pageantry? The difference between them and us lies not so much in the
motive as in the lower value placed by them on human life.
The truth is that offerings to the dead, from a flower or a few grains
of rice to a human victim, are partly a symbolical language addressed
to the deceased, and partly constitute an appeal for sympathy by the
mourners and a response by their friends. They symbolize the union of
hearts among those who have suffered by a common bereavement. We must
also allow something for the despair which counts nothing that is left
of any value, and prompts the survivors to beating of breasts, tearing
of garments, cutting the flesh, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, lavish
expenditure, and even suicide.
Yet it must be admitted that there is a broad, though secondary and
lower, current of opinion, which holds that the dead benefit in some
more or less obscure physical sense by the offerings at their tombs.
Hirata believed that food offered to the dead loses its savour more
rapidly than other food. The ghosts summoned up by Ulysses from Erebus
eagerly lapped up the blood offered them. This, although poetry, no
doubt represents a real belief.
Mr. Andrew Lang mentions the case of an Irish peasant woman, who, when
her husband died, killed his horse, and, to some one who reproached
her for her folly, replied, "Would you have my man go about on foot
in the next world?" But may we not suspect that the real motive of my
countrywoman's action was to express dumbly to the world the love she
bore her husband by sacrificing something which she valued highly, and
that the answer quoted was nothing more than a consciously frivolous
reason, invented for the benefit of an unsympathetic, dull-minded
intruder?
Whether or not the dead, apart from any physical benefit from funeral
offerings, are grateful for the affectionate remembrance which they
symbolize, it may be doubted whether the recognition of such a feeling
on their part enters very largely into our motives. Was it for the
gratification of Nelson's spirit that the column was erected in
Trafalgar Square? Or do those who annually deposit primroses before the
statue of Lord Beaconsfield think that his spirit is sensible of this
observance?
Funeral ceremonies were not recognized as having anything to do with
the older Shinto. It avoided everything connected with death, which was
regarded as a source of pollution. Not until the revolution of 1868 was
there instituted an authorized form of Shinto burial.[37]
=Deified Classes of Men=.--In the older Shinto this category of
deities had more importance than it has at present. Several of the
pseudo-ancestors are in reality deified types, analogous to such
conceptions as Tommy Atkins or Mrs. Grundy. As a general rule they
have two aspects, one as man-Gods, and another as satellites of the
Sun-Goddess, a nature deity. They are more particularly described in a
later chapter.
=Deities of Human Qualities=.--As might be expected, Shinto has
comparatively few deities of this class. It is represented by the Gods
of Pestilence, of Good and Ill Luck, the phallic deities, and the
_oni_, or demons of disease. Such deified abstractions as the Fates,
the Furies, Old Age, Time, Themis, Fear, Love, &c., are conspicuously
absent.
It will be observed that both of the two great currents of
religion-making thought are concerned in the evolution of the last
two categories of man-deities. They involve not only the exaltation
of human types and qualities to the rank of divinity, but the
personification of these general and abstract conceptions. This
complication indicates that they belong to a secondary stage of
development. Ta-jikara no wo (hand-strength-male), for example, is
not a primary deity of the Japanese Pantheon. He is little more than
an ornamental adjunct to the myth of the Sun-Goddess. It may be
gathered from the myths of the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ that the phallic
deities--personifications of lusty animal vigour--were at first mere
magical appliances, which were afterwards personified and raised to
divine rank. It was a personified human abstraction--namely, Psyche,
who was described by Keats as
The latest born and loveliest by far
Of all Olympus' faded hierarchy.
Mnemosyne, Styx, and all the numerous deified abstractions of humanity
in Greek mythology are obviously of later origin than Gaia and Ouranos,
or even Zeus and Here.
It is on the narrow basis of these two secondary classes of conceptions
that Comte strove to establish his Religion of Humanity. But it is
difficult to conceive how on Positivist principles Humanity, whether we
regard it as a class or as a quality, could have a sentient existence
or transcendent power, without a combination of which there can be no
deity and no religion, properly so called. His worship of deceased
individual men is open to the same objection. Comte's recognition of
nature-deities is brief and contemptuous. He allows a certain reverence
to the Sun and Earth as "fetishes."[38]
=Animals In Shinto=.--Animals may be worshipped for their own sakes,
as wonderful, terrible, or uncanny beings. The tiger, the serpent, and
the wolf are for this reason called Kami. But there are no shrines in
their honour, and they have no regular cult. A more common reason for
honouring animals is their association with some deity as his servants
or messengers. Thus the deer is sacred to Take-mika-tsuchi at Kasuga,
the monkey is sacred at Hiyoshi, the pigeon to the God Hachiman, the
white egret at the shrine of Kebi no Miya, the tortoise at Matsunoö,
and the crow at Kumano. The _wani_, or sea-monster, belongs to the
sea-God, and the dragon belongs to (or is) Taka okami (the rain-God).
There is also mention of a thunder-beast. In later times the rat is
sacred to Daikokusama. The pheasant is the messenger of the Gods
generally. The best-known case of the worship of an associated animal
is that of Inari, the rice-God, whose attendant foxes are mistaken by
the ignorant for the God himself, and whose effigies have offerings of
food made to them. The mythical _Yatagarasu_, or Sun-Crow, had formerly
a shrine in its honour. The stone _Koma-inu_ (Korean dogs), seen in
front of many Shinto shrines, are meant not as Gods, but as guardians,
like the Buddhist Niō. They are a later introduction.
The Gods are sometimes represented as assuming animal form. Kushiyatama
no Kami changes into a cormorant, Koto-shiro-nushi into a _wani_
(sea-monster or dragon) eight fathoms long. The God of Ohoyama takes
the form of a white deer. The most usual form assumed by deities is
that of a snake, serpent, or dragon. Ohonamochi, in his amours with
a mortal princess, showed himself to her as a small snake. In the
Yamato-dake legend, there is a mountain-deity who takes the shape of
a great serpent. At the command of the Mikado Yūriaku, the God of
Mimuro was brought to him by one of his courtiers. It was a serpent.
Water-Gods are usually serpents or dragons.
=Totemism=.--I find no distinct traces of totemism in ancient Japan.
Tattooing, which some have associated with this form of belief, existed
as a means of distinguishing rank and occupation. The most probable
derivation of the tribal name _Kumaso_ is from _kuma_, bear, and _oso_,
otter. A very few surnames are taken from names of animals. Dances, in
which the performers represented various animals, were common.
The piecemeal immigration of the Japanese race from the continent of
Asia must have done much to break up their original tribal system and
to destroy any institutions associated with it.
The law of exogamy, with which totemism is connected, was very narrow
in its operation in ancient Japan.[39]
FOOTNOTES:
[19] "Laotze finit par n'être plus que le principe vital universel
existant avant le ciel et la terre et qui s'est plu à chaque époque a
se montrer sous les traits d'un personnage quelconque souvent des plus
obscurs."--'Religion de la Chine,' De Harlez.
[20] See a paper on the _Hi no maru_ (sun-circle) in the _T. A. S. J._,
Nov. 8th, 1893.
[21] Such as touching for scrofula or the assurance of fine weather.
[22] The statements of Kaempfer, in his 'History of Japan,' regarding
the sacred character of the Mikado's person cannot be depended on. His
account of Shinto generally is grossly erroneous, or rather imaginary.
[23] 'Japan,' edited by Capt. Brinkley.
[24] See Index, _sub voce_.
[25] See Index--'Suha.'
[26] 'Evolution of Religion,' p. 239.
[27] Fuku means good fortune.
[28] See p. 27.
[29] In Teutonic mythology the will-of-the-wisps are souls which have
not attained heavenly peace.
[30] See also Mr. Frazer's 'Golden Bough,' ii. 297.
[31] The Stoics held that the world was not only animated and immortal,
but likewise happy and round, because Plato says that that is the most
perfect form.
[32] Hirata denies this.
[33] For full details of the construction of the Japanese dolmen, the
reader may consult two admirable papers by Mr. W. Gowland, in the Japan
Society's _Transactions_, 1897-8, and the _Journal_ of the Society of
Antiquaries, 1897.
[34] "Blood, which is the life, is the food frequently offered to the
dead.... By a substitution of similars, it is considered sufficient to
colour the corpse, or some part thereof, with some red substance taking
the place thereof."--Jevons, 'Introduction to the History of Religion,'
p. 52. But see Index--'Red.'
[35] Some of these figures are still in existence, and one may be
seen in the British Museum, where it constitutes the chief treasure
of the Gowland Collection. The Uyeno Museum, in Tokio, also possesses
specimens, both of men and horses.
[36] "Rites, performed at graves, becoming afterwards religious rites
performed at altars in temples, were at first acts done for the benefit
of the ghost."--Herbert Spencer's 'Sociology,' ii. 8.
[37] See an article by Mr. W. H. Lay in _T. A. S. J._, 1891.
[38] "Comte ramenait toutes les religions à l'adoration de l'homme
par l'homme. Comte, il est vrai, ne faisait pas de l'homme individuel
l'objet du culte normal: il proposait à nos adorations l'homme en tant
qu' espèce en tant qu' humanité et parvenait à deployer une véritable
mysticité sur cette étroite base."--Reville, 'Prolegomena,' p. 26.
[39] See Index--'Incest.'