CHAPTER VII.

THE PANTHEON--NATURE DEITIES.

1. GODS OF INDIVIDUALS AND GODS OF CLASSES.

The neglect of indications of number in the Japanese language often

renders it impossible to say whether a God belongs to an individual

natural object or phenomenon or to a class. I therefore take these two

classes of deities together, noting the distinction wherever it is

possible or desirable.

=The Sun-Goddess=.--The most eminent of the Shinto deities is the

Sun-Goddess. Nor is this surprising. If, as Scotus Erigena has

well said, "every visible and invisible creature is a theophany or

appearance of God," what more striking aspect of Him can there be to

the uncultured mind than the Sun? In a later stage of intellectual

development men find a fuller revelation of Him in the moral order

of the world, in the laws of human progress, and in the spiritual

experiences of saints and sages, culminating in a synthesis of all the

divine aspects of the universe in one harmonious whole. But, naturally

enough, there is little of this in Shinto. The ancient Japanese

recognized the divinity of the universe in a very imperfect, piecemeal

fashion, and almost exclusively in those physical aspects by which

they were more directly affected. Among these the light and warmth

of the Sun and the sources of their daily food held the chief place.

Sun-worship is specially natural to the Japanese as an agricultural

people. Almost all the peasant's doings are in some way dependent on,

or regulated by, the Sun.

The application of the term "fetish" to the Sun considered as an

object of adoration is to be deprecated. It implies a stigma which

is altogether out of place. Socrates prayed to the Sun; Æschylus's

Prometheus appeals to him against the tyranny of Zeus; in Sophocles's'

Œdipus Tyrannus' the Chorus swears by "the Sun, chief of all the Gods";

Plato says that "the soul of the Sun should be deemed a God by every

one who has the least particle of sense"; Goethe admitted his claims to

worship; Don Quixote swears by God and by the Sun in the same breath,

and Tristram Shandy "by the great God of Day." Milton, in the character

of Satan, it is true, addresses the Sun in terms of awe and wonder,

and Swinburne calls him "the living and visible God." The name of the

first day of the week still remains to show what an important place he

held in the religion of our forefathers. The association of the ideas

of light, splendour, and brightness with divinity has its origin in a

primæval sun-worship. William the Conqueror swore "by the splendour

of God." _Divine_ contains the root _div_, brightness. Milton calls

light "of the eternal co-eternal beam." No doubt so long as a nation is

hesitating between sun-worship and a higher form of religion there is

a reason for treating the former with contempt and aversion. No form

of faith is so odious--because of the danger of relapse--as that from

which we have emerged with painful effort to something higher. But

such intolerance is no longer needed. It is now unnecessary to punish

with death the worship of the sun, moon, and stars,[96] or even to

stigmatize it as fetish-worship.

The meaning of the word fetish has become so blurred by indiscriminate

use that there is a temptation to discard it altogether. It is

frequently applied to all concrete objects of devotion, including not

only great nature-gods, like the earth and sun, but their symbols,

images, and seats of their real presence, which have no intrinsic

divinity of their own, and are only worshipped by reason of their

association with genuine deities. The same objects, after their

association with the God has been forgotten and they are blindly adored

as if they were themselves Gods, form a third class of fetishes. The

sword of the shrine of Atsuta is an example. Probably originally an

offering and then a _shintai_, it is still worshipped, for no known

reason except, perhaps, an empiric belief in the efficacy of prayers

addressed to it. Implements of trade, honoured for the help which

they render to man, are a fourth class. To these we may add a fifth,

consisting of stones, sticks, feathers, &c., worshipped for their

imaginary virtues or for no definite reason at all.

The indiscriminate application of the term fetish to objects of all

these five classes is highly inconvenient, especially when we come to

discuss the question whether fetishism is a primitive form of religion.

The answer depends entirely on the kind of fetish which is intended. If

the word is used at all, it would be better to confine it to the last

three of these classes.

The Sun-Goddess is described as the Ruler of Heaven and as "unrivalled

in dignity." She wears royal insignia, is surrounded by ministers,

of whom the Court of the Mikado is the obvious prototype, and is

spoken of in terms appropriate to personages of sovereign rank. She is

selected as the ancestor from whom the Mikados derive their descent and

authority. Yet she is hardly what we understand by a Supreme Being. Her

power does not extend to the sea or to the Land of Yomi. Her charge as

Ruler even of Heaven was conferred on her by her parents, and did not

by any means involve absolute control. When grossly insulted by her

younger brother, instead of inflicting on him condign punishment, she

hid in a cave, from which she was partly enticed, partly dragged, by

the other deities. This is not the behaviour of a Supreme Being. The

punishment of the culprit and other important celestial matters are

determined, not by the fiat of the so-called Ruler of Heaven, but by

a Council of the Gods. The celestial constitution, like its earthly

counterpart, was far from being an absolute monarchy. The epithet

_sumera_, translated "sovran," and derived from a verb _sumeru_, which

means "to hold general rule," is applied not only to the Sun-Goddess

but to many other deities--the Wind-Gods, for example--and also to

the Mikados. The same is the case with _Mikoto_, which corresponds

roughly to our "majesty." Of course Japan is not the only country which

attributes royalty to the Sun. Milton speaks of the Sun's "sovran vital

lamp."

In some parts of the Shinto mythical narrative it is the actual

Sun that the author has in view, as when he speaks of her radiance

illuminating the universe, or of the world being left to darkness when

she entered the Rock-cave. Elsewhere she is an anthropomorphic being,

with no specially solar characteristics. She wears armour, celebrates

the feast of first-fruits, cultivates rice, &c. Inconsistencies of this

kind are inherent in all nature myths, and trouble their authors not a

whit. Some of the modern theologians, however, are much perplexed by

them. Motoöri concludes that "this great deity actually is the Sun in

Heaven, which even now illuminates the world before our eyes, a fact

which is extremely clear from the divine writings." His pupil Hirata,

on the other hand, holds that the Sun-Goddess is not the Ruler of

Heaven but the Ruler of the Sun, a distinction which never occurred

to the myth-makers. Another modern writer attempts to smooth over

difficulties by the explanation that the Sun-Goddess is actually a

female goddess, but, owing to the radiance which flows from her, seen

from a distance she appears round.

The transparent character of the names by which the Sun-Goddess is

known is a formidable obstacle to the tendency to neglect her solar

quality and to give prominence to the anthropomorphic side of her

character. Her most usual appellation is Ama terasu no Oho-kami, or

the Heaven-shining-great-deity. She is also called Ama-terasu hiru-me,

or Heaven-shining sun-female--more briefly Hiru-me, Ama terasu mi

oya, or Heaven-shining august parent, and other variants. Of these

names European writers have generally adopted Ama-terasu, which, like

Phoibos, is in reality a mere epithet, and is applied to other deities.

Hirume, or sun-female, is more expressive, and probably older.

In modern times the appellation Ama-terasu no Oho-kami is little used,

its Chinese equivalent Tenshōdaijin being substituted. Partly under

cover of a name which is less clearly intelligible to the multitude,

the tendency has become accentuated to throw her solar functions into

the background and to conceive of her simply as a general Providence,

at the expense of other deities. In other words, she has made a

distinct advance towards the position of a supreme monotheistic deity.

Even in ancient times there was some recognition of the Sun-Goddess

as a Providence that watches over human affairs, more especially the

welfare of the Mikado and his Government. She provided Jimmu with

the _yatagarasu_, or Sun-crow, as a guide to his army. The following

prayer, addressed to her in 870 by envoys despatched to Ise with

offerings, illustrates this conception of her character:--

"_By order of the Mikado we declare with deepest reverence in the

spacious presence of (with awe be her name pronounced) the Sovran Great

Heaven-shining Deity, whose praises are fulfilled in the Great Shrine,

whose pillars are broad-based on the nethermost rocks, and whose

cross-beams rise aloft to the Plain of High Heaven on the bank of the

River Isuzu in Uji, of Watarahi in Ise, as follows_:--

"_Since the past sixth month reports have been received from the

Dazaifu[97] that two pirate-ships of Shiraki[98] appeared at Aratsu,

in the district of Naka, in the province of Chikuzen, and carried

off as plunder the silk of a tribute-ship of the province of Buzen.

Moreover, that there having been an omen of a crane which alighted on

the arsenal of the Government House, the diviners declared that it

presaged war with a neighbouring country. Also that there had been

earthquakes with storms and floods in the province of Hizen by which

all the houses had been overturned and many of the inhabitants swept

away. Even the old men affirmed that no such great calamity had ever

been heard of before._

_"Meanwhile news was received from the province of Michinoku of an

unusually disastrous earthquake, and from other provinces grave

calamities were reported._

_"The mutual enmity between those men of Shiraki and our Land of Yamato

has existed for long ages. Their present invasion of our territory,

however, and their plunder of tribute, show that they have no fear

of us. When we reflect on this, it seems possible that a germ of war

may spring from it. Our government has for a long time had no warlike

expeditions, the provision for defence has been wholly forgotten,

and we cannot but look forward to war with dread and caution. But

our Japan is known as the country of the Gods. If the Gods deign to

help and protect it, what foe will dare to approach it? Much more so,

seeing that the Great Deity in her capacity (with awe be it spoken)

as ancestress of the Mikado bestows light and protection on the

Under-Heaven which he governs. How, therefore, shall she not deign to

restrain and ward off outrages by strangers from foreign lands as soon

as she becomes aware of them?_

_"Under these circumstances, we (the names of the envoys follow)

present these great offerings by the hands of Komaye, Imbe no Sukune,

Vice-Minister of the Bureau of Imbe, who, hanging stout straps on weak

shoulders, has purely prepared and brought them hither. Be pleased

graciously to hearken to this memorial. But if unfortunately such

hostile acts as we have spoken of should be committed let the (with

awe be it spoken) Great Deity, placing herself at the head of all the

deities of the land, stay and ward off, sweep away and expel the enemy

before his first arrow is shot. Should his designs ripen so far that

his ships must come hither, let them not enter within our borders,

but send them back to drift and founder. Suffer not the solid reasons

for our country being feared as the Divine Country to be sodden and

destroyed. If, apart from these, there should be danger of rebellion

or riot by savages, or of disturbance by brigands at home, or again of

drought, flood or storm, of pestilence or famine such as would cause

great disaster to the State or deep sorrow to the people, deign to

sweep away and destroy it utterly before it takes form. Be pleased to

let the Under-Heaven be free from alarms and all the country enjoy

peace by thy help and protection. Grant thy gracious favour to the

Sovran Grandchild, guarding his august person by day and by night, firm

and enduring as Heaven and Earth, as the Sun and the Moon._

_"Declared with deep reverence."_

The solar character of Ama-terasu or Tenshōdaijin having become

obscured, the people have personified the Sun afresh under the

names of Nichi-rin sama (sun-wheel-personage) and O tentō sama

(august-heaven-path-personage). To the lower class of Japanese at the

present day, and especially to women and children, O tentō sama is the

actual sun--sexless, mythless, and unencumbered by any formal cult,

but looked up to as a moral being who rewards the good, punishes the

wicked, and enforces oaths made in his name. In his 'Religions of

Japan,' Dr. Griffis says: "To the common people the Sun is actually

a God, as none can doubt who sees them worshipping it morning and

evening. The writer can never forget one of many similar scenes in

Tokio, when, late one afternoon, O tentō sama, which had been hidden

behind clouds for a fortnight, shone out on the muddy streets. In

a moment, as with the promptness of a military drill, scores of

people rushed out of their houses, and with faces westward, kneeling,

squatting, began prayer and worship before the great luminary."

I reproduce a drawing by a Japanese artist of a famous spot on the

coast of Ise to which pilgrims resort in order to worship the sun as

he rises over distant Fujiyama. The _tori-wi_, which in some prints of

this scene is seen in the foreground, fulfils the same function as the

great trilithon at Stonehenge, viz., to mark the direction of worship.

I have seen the eastern wall of a private courtyard which was pierced

with a round hole for the convenience of worshipping the morning sun.

There is a modern custom, called _himachi_ (sun-waiting), of keeping

awake the whole night of the 5th day of the 10th month in order to

worship the sun on his rising. The rules of religious purity must be

observed from the previous day. Many persons assemble at Takanaha,

Uheno, Atago, and other open places in Tokio to worship the rising Sun

on the first day of the year. This is called _hatsu no hi no de_ (the

first sunrise).

The myths mention several other deities which, although not identical

with Ama-terasu or Hirume, are plainly of solar origin. Such is

Waka-hirume (young-sun-female), who, according to Motoöri, is the

Morning Sun. The Ise shrine is sometimes called Asa-hi no Jinja,

that is to say, the shrine of the Morning Sun. One version of the

names of the three children of Ninigi calls them Ho no akari (fire or

sun-light), Ho no susori (fire or sun-advance), and Ho no wori (fire or

sun-subside), originally, it may be suspected, names for the rising,

noonday, and setting sun. Such a distinction is recognized in Egyptian

mythology. The mythical founder of the dynasty which preceded Jimmu

in Yamato was called Nigi-haya-hi--that is, gentle-swift-sun--and

he is said to have come flying down from Heaven. One myth gives him

the epithet _Ama-teru kuni-teru_ (Heaven-shining, earth-shining).

I am disposed to regard this personage as the Sun-deity of the

earlier Yamato Japanese, from whom their chieftains were feigned to

be descended. Even in _Shōjiroku_ times many noble families traced

their descent from him, as the Mikados did from Hirume. There are a

good many other names suggestive of solar deities. But here caution

is necessary, in view of the habit, common to the Japanese with other

nations, of borrowing solar epithets for the adornment of human beings.

There is a Take-hi (brave-sun) in the _Nihongi_ who is unquestionably

a mere mortal. And what could be more solar than Takama no hara hiro

nu hime (high-heaven-plain-broad-moor-princess), the last word meaning

etymologically "sun-female"? Yet this is indubitably the name of an

historical Empress who came to the throne A.D. 687. The Mikado Kōtoku's

Japanese name was Ame-yorodzu-toyo-hi (heaven-myriad-abundant-sun).

Although Shinto contains no formal system of ethics, moral elements

are not wanting in the character of the Sun-Goddess as delineated in

the ancient myths. She exhibits the virtues of courage and forbearance

in her dealings with her mischievous younger brother Susa no wo. She

is wroth with the Moon-God when he slays the Goddess of Food, and

banishes him from her presence. Her loving care for mankind is shown

by her preserving for their use the seeds of grain and other useful

vegetables, and by setting them the example of cultivating rice. There

is a recognition of her beneficent character in the joy of Gods and men

when she emerged from the Rock-cave.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

The circumstance that, according to one story, the Sun-Goddess

was produced from the left and the Moon-God from the right eye of

Izanagi is suggestive of the influence of China, where the left takes

precedence of the right. Compare the Chinese myth of P'anku: "P'anku

came into being in the great waste; his beginning is unknown. In dying

he gave birth to the material universe. His breath was transmuted into

the wind and clouds, his voice into thunder, his left eye into the

sun, and his right eye into the moon." Hirata endeavours to combat

the obvious inference from this comparison by pointing out that the

sun is masculine in China and feminine in Japan. How little weight is

due to this objection appears from the fact that two so nearly allied

nations as the English and the Germans differ in the sex which they

attribute to the sun, as do also closely related tribes of Australian

aborigines and Ainus of Yezo. And does not Shakespeare make the sun

both masculine and feminine in the same sentence, when he says, "The

blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta"? There

is, moreover, unsuspected by Hirata and his fellow-theologians, an

unmistakeable vestige in the old myths of an obsolete or abortive

masculine Sun-deity. We are told that the first child of Izanagi and

Izanami was Hiruko. Hiru-ko is written with Chinese characters, which

mean "leech-child"; and it is stated that when this God had completed

his third year he was still unable to stand upright. He was therefore

placed in a reed-boat and sent adrift. But the original author of the

Hiru-ko was never guilty of such a palpable absurdity as to make a

leech the first-born of creation, preceding even the Sun and the Moon.

Hiruko is in reality simply a masculine form of Hirume, the Sun-female,

just as _hiko_, prince, is of _hime_, princess; _musuko_, boy, of

_musume_, girl; and _otoko_, youth, of _otome_, maiden. Egypt had a

Sun-God Ra and a Sun-Goddess Rât.

No doubt with the greater development of the Sun-Goddess myth it was

felt that there was no room for a male Sun-God. The tag of story which

is appended to the leech derivation is one of those perversions of

true myth which arise from an ignorant misunderstanding or a wilful

misapplication of language.

The leech-child can hardly be reckoned among the effective deities of

Shinto. In modern times, however, he has, for some inscrutable reason,

been identified with a widely worshipped deity of unknown origin called

Ebisu. This God has to all appearance nothing in common either with

the sun or the leech. He is a favourite subject of the artist, and is

usually depicted with a smiling countenance (_emi_ or _ebi_ means to

smile), in ancient Japanese costume, and holding a fishing-rod while

a _tahi_ struggles at the end of his line. He is reckoned one of the

seven Gods of good fortune, and is a favourite deity to pray to for

success in trade. Merchants hold a great feast in his honour on the

20th day of the 10th month.

The ascription of the female sex to the most prominent among the Shinto

Gods is not owing merely to caprice. Myth-makers have often more

substantial reasons for their fancies than might be supposed. In the

present case there is evidence that women played a very important part

in the real world of ancient Japan as well as in that of imagination.

Women rulers were at this time a familiar phenomenon. Both Japanese

and Chinese history give us glimpses of a female Mikado who lived

about A.D. 200, and whose commanding ability and strong character have

not been wholly obscured by the mists of legend. Women chieftains

are frequently mentioned. Indeed the Chinese seem to have thought

that feminine government was the rule in Japan, for their historians

frequently refer to it as the "Queen-country." In more historical times

several of the Mikados were women. In some families descent was traced

by the female line. From the _Kojiki_ we learn that in Suinin's time it

was the custom for the mother to give children their names.

One might think that so obviously solar a Goddess as the

Heaven-shining-great-deity, or Sun-female, whose abode is the "Plain

of High Heaven," who fills the universe with her radiance and leaves

it to darkness when she conceals herself, and who is even spoken of

in so many words as the "Deity of the Sun," would have escaped the

temerarious touch of the Euhemerist. Yet I have before me a 'History of

the Empire of Japan,' compiled by doctors of the Imperial University,

and published in 1893 by order of the Japanese Government, which speaks

of the principles of rice-culture and the arts of weaving, mining,

and of making swords, hats, and pantaloons being known in the reign

of Ama-terasu. Other writers are even more precise. Much to Motoöri's

indignation, they say bluntly that she was a mortal empress who reigned

in a locality on earth called Takama no hara (the Plain of High Heaven).

=Yatakagami=.--The _shintai_ of the Sun-Goddess is a mirror,[99]

sometimes called the _yatakagami_, or eight-hand-mirror, probably

because it had a number of leaves or projections round it. It is

also called the _hi-kagami_ (sun-mirror) or _hi-gata no kagami_

(sun-form-mirror). It appears from the _Nihongi_ that similar mirrors

were honoured in Korea. Ama no hihoko is stated to have brought a

sun-mirror from that country in B.C. 27.

The mythical notices of the _yatakagami_ represent it in various

aspects. It is mentioned in the _Kojiki_ among the offerings made

to the Sun-Goddess to propitiate her after her retirement to the

Rock-cave of Heaven. In the same passage Uzume calls it "a deity more

illustrious than thine (the Sun-Goddess's) augustness." When the

Sun-Goddess and Musubi sent down Ninigi to rule the earth they gave him

the _yatakagami_, saying: "Regard this mirror exactly as our _mitama_,

and reverence it as if reverencing us." The _Nihongi_ adds: "Let it be

with thee on thy couch and in thy hall, and let it be to thee a holy

mirror." The _yatakagami_ is frequently spoken of as if it were the

Sun-Goddess herself, and is even called "the Great God of Ise." Another

sun-mirror received an independent worship at Kumano. The _Nihongi_

says, under the date B.C. 92:--

"_Before this the two Gods Ama-terasu no Oho-kami and Yamato no

Oho-kuni-dama were worshipped together within the Emperor's Great

Hall. He dreaded, however, the power of these Gods, and did not feel

secure in their dwelling together. Therefore he entrusted Ama-terasu

no Oho-kami to Toyo-suki-iri-bime no Mikoto to be worshipped at the

village of Kasanuhi, in Yamato._"

Here we must understand that it was the sun-mirror which was sent away

from the palace. It was subsequently (B.C. 5) enshrined at Ise, where

it is to this day preserved with the greatest care and reverence.[100]

It is about eight inches in diameter.

In ancient Peru, the Sun-God was represented by a golden disc, the

Moon-Goddess by one of silver.

We find, however, that in _A.D._ 507 a sacred mirror was still

preserved in the Imperial palace as one of the regalia. It was

destroyed by fire in the eleventh century, but its successor is

to this day transmitted from sovereign to sovereign as a token of

royal authority. The religious ceremony in its honour is described

below.[101] Associated with the mirror as regalia were a sword and a

jewel. These three objects are presented to the Mikado on his accession

with great ceremony. In ancient times there were probably only two

regalia, the mirror and the sword. The latter was lost in the sea at

the battle of Dannoüra. But such losses are not irreparable.

The Sun-Goddess in her capacity as sovereign is attended by a Court of

minor deities who belong to the class of man-deities, and will be dealt

with in the next chapter.

=Yatagarasu=.--Like the Greek Phoibos, who had his κίρκος,[102] the

Egyptian Ra, who was accompanied by a hawk, and the Peruvian Sun-God,

who was attended by a condor, the Sun-Goddess is provided with a

bird as her messenger and attendant. This bird is called in Japanese

_ya-ta-garasu_, which means "eight-hand-crow." It is not, however, a

Japanese invention, but is borrowed from China, where it is called the

Sun-crow or Golden Crow, and described as a bird with three claws and

of a red colour which roosts in the sun. It is mentioned in a Chinese

poem written B.C. 314. Possibly it may be traced even further back. A

three-legged bird was figured on coins of Pamphylia and Lycia in very

ancient times. In Japan the _yatagarasu_, as a symbol of the Sun, was

depicted on the banners set up in front of the Imperial Palace on State

occasions as a mark of sovereignty. This custom is known to go back to

A.D. 700, and is probably much older.

The Euhemerists have tried their hand on the _yatagarasu_. Mr.

Takahashi Gorô informs us in his dictionary that this was the name

of one of Jimmu Tennô's generals, and Klaproth thinks it probable

that the "corbeau à huit pattes designe la boussole dont Zimmu s'est

servi pour se guider dans son expedition." A Japanese noble family

claimed descent from it, and a shrine in its honour is mentioned in the

_Yengishiki_.[103]

There is a God called Ame no hi-washi (heaven-sun-eagle), which,

although not to be identified with the _yatagarasu_, is no doubt a

product of the same tendency to associate birds with the Gods. Both are

inhabitants of the same celestial region.

=Susa no wo=.--The history of Susa no wo[104] illustrates the tendency

of Nature-Gods to have their original character obscured by the

anthropomorphic fancies of successive myth-makers. The _Kojiki_ and

_Nihongi_ accounts of him are extremely vague and contradictory. Later

Japanese, writers have identified him with the Moon-God, with an

Indian Hades deity named Godzu Tennô, and with Emma, the Rhadamanthus

of the Buddhist Hell. He has also been made a God of Pestilence, of

Love and Wedlock, or of War. European scholars have described him as a

"rotating-heavens God" or as "evidently a human being." Dr. Buckley,

of Chicago, was the first to suggest[105] that he is the Rain-storm.

We need not adopt every detail of this scholar's explanations, and

indeed no one theory can solve all the problems presented by the

mutually inconsistent stories related of this deity, but there can be

no hesitation in accepting Dr. Buckley's view as substantially correct.

It is as the Rain-storm that he is "continually weeping, wailing, and

fuming with rage"; that he "weeps the mountains bare and the seas and

rivers dry"; that he is a lover of destruction;[106] that "by reason of

the fierceness of his divine nature he causes a commotion in the sea

and makes the hills and mountains groan aloud" when he ascends through

cloud and mist to visit his elder sister the Sun-Goddess. Torrent

Goddesses are born from the fragments of his sword. He breaks down the

divisions between the rice-fields and defiles his sister's dwelling,

disgusting her so that she hides in a cave and leaves the world to

darkness. He is further represented as going down to earth at the

season of continuous rains, and as wearing a broad hat and a rain-coat.

When he marries, the nuptial hut to which he retires with his wife is

built of thick clouds. The sword which he takes from the serpent's tail

is called _ama no mura-kumo_, that is to say, "the gathering clouds of

Heaven." Another appropriate name for the weapon of a rain-storm deity

is _kusa-nagi_, "the herb-queller." His wife's name, Inada-hime (the

rice-field lady), is probably not without significance.

But mythology is rarely consistent. An explanation which suits one

episode of a story may fail altogether when applied to others. There is

nothing of the rain-storm about the Susa no wo who rescues a Japanese

Andromeda from the great serpent which comes to devour her, or in the

provider of timber and fruit-trees for mankind, or in the names and

attributes of his very numerous children. His visit to Korea can hardly

have a rain-storm significance. Moreover, it is impossible to pass over

the explicit statement of the _Nihongi_ that he was appointed to rule

the land of Yomi. A _Kojiki_ myth[107] gives an account of his abode

here in which no trace of his rain-storm quality is perceptible.

Dr. Florenz summarily rejects Hirata's theory that Susa no wo is

identical with the Moon-God Tsuki-yomi. It must be admitted that if

this deity ever had a lunar quality it had become forgotten in the

times of the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_. Both these works distinguish him

unmistakably from the Moon-God. Nor is the European student likely

to adopt the literal-minded Hirata's notion that the land of Yomi at

first situated at the bottom of the Earth, became detached after Susa

no wo was made its ruler, and was placed in the sky where we now see

it--as the moon. Yet there is something to be said for his contention

that the two deities were originally identical. The analogy of other

mythologies[108] suggests that a God whose relations with the Sun are

at one time marital and at another hostile must be the Moon. There

is nothing strange in the darkness of night and of the grave being

presided over by the same divinity. Persephone, Queen of Hades, was a

Moon-Goddess. The original identity of Susa no wo and Tsukiyomi would

account for both deities being severally described in different myths

as the slayer of the Food-Goddess and as the Ruler of the Sea-plain.

It would also explain why the diviners at Ise ascribed to a curse from

Tsukiyomi a storm of wind and rain which in 772 uprooted trees and

destroyed houses. In an old book quoted by Hirata, Susa no wo is called

Haya-Sasura no Kami, "swift-banishment-deity." His daughter while in

Yomi is called Suseri-hime, probably identical with the Sasura-hime of

the _norito_[109] who dwells in the Root-country, and whose business

it is to "banish" and get rid of the pollutions of the people. A

Manyōshiu poem calls the moon Sasurahe-otoko, that is to say, the

banished or vagabond youth. All this establishes a presumption that

Susa no wo was at one time a lunar deity. If so he would appear in

three closely related aspects, the darkness of the storm, of the grave,

and of night. Brinton, writing without any special reference to Japan,

observes[110]:--"Associated with the gloom of night was the darkness of

the storm, which in many mythologies is contrasted with the sunshine in

some divine struggle. Endless are the tales and rites which bear upon

this contest in early religions."

If we remember the attributes of our own "Prince of Darkness," we

shall not be surprised to find traces of a tendency to make of

Susa no wo a personification of the evil principle. He is the arch

offender of Japanese myth. The crimes committed by him against the

Sun-Goddess agree closely with the so-called "celestial offences"

of the Great Purification Ceremony. Hence his identification with

the horned Godzu Tennô, a minister of the Buddhist hell. The _Shinto

Miomoku_, which makes of him a Trinity under the name Sampô Kwôjin

(three-treasure-rough-god), consisting of Kami Susa no wo, Haya Susa

no wo, and plain Susa no wo, by the epithet "rough," recognizes the

sinister aspect of his character. We may note the same element _ara_,

rough, in the name of the Moon-god's shrine at Ise, namely, Aratama no

Miya.

Several of Susa no wo's acts have an unmistakably beneficent character,

as his rescue of Inada hime, and his provision of useful trees for

man. The modern worship of him as (with his wife) a deity of love and

wedlock also recognizes a beneficent aspect of his nature. Hirata

explains this contradiction by the theory that he is beneficent when

his _nigi-tama_ (gentle spirit) is in the ascendant, and malignant when

his _ara-tama_ (rough-spirit) gets the upper hand, as in the leading

case of Jekyll and Hyde, reported by R. L. Stevenson. The female deity

of Yomi, Sasura-hime, is called by Hirata a _waki-dama_ (side spirit,

or double) of Susa no wo, forming with him a dual divinity, as in the

case of the Wind-Gods.

Etymology helps us little in determining Susa no wo's character. The

ordinary derivation connects his name with the verb _susamu_, to be

impetuous. Hence the "Impetuous Male" of English translators. It

agrees well with the rainstorm conception of this deity. There is at

the present day a festival celebrated in his honour at Onomachi in

Bingo, described as follows by a Japanese writer: "The procession is

a tumultuous trial of speed and strength. Bands of strong men seize

the sacred cars, race with them to the sea, and having plunged in

breast-deep, their burden held aloft, dash back at full speed to

the shrine. There refreshments are served out, and then the race is

resumed, the goal being the central flag among a number set up in a

large plain. Their feet beat time to a wildly shouted chorus, and they

sweep along wholly regardless of obstacles or collisions." The ceremony

here described is no doubt intended as a dramatic representation of

the impetuous character of the God. The _susamu_ etymology derives

some support from a comparison of that of Woden, from _vatha_ (the

modern German _wuthen_), to go violently, to rush, and of Hermes, from

δρμάω; but it is after all questionable. It implies a noun _susa_,

impetuosity, which does not exist. Moreover, one of Susa no wo's wife's

names was Susa no yatsu mimi, where it is not disputed that Susa is the

name of a town in Idzumo. There is a legend which represents Susa no

wo as giving his name to this place and allowing his _mitama_ to rest

here. Susa no wo would therefore be simply the male (God) of Susa, a

territorial title (of Tsukiyomi?) for which there are many parallels in

Japanese mythology.[111]

The _shintai_ of Susa no wo, or rather of his supposed modern

representative, Godzu Tennô, is a _naginata_, or halbert. But there is

some reason to think that the great festival of Goriōye, now held in

his honour at Kioto, was originally that of the Sahe no kami, and that

the _hoko_ or _naginata_ carried in procession on this occasion is a

substitute for an older phallus.

=Tsukl-yomi=.--This God, although worshipped in many places, Ise and

Kadono amongst others, is hardly one of the greater gods of Japan.

The usual derivation of his name is from _tsuki_, moon, and _yomi_,

darkness. It is to be observed, however, that this _yomi_ is often

written with a character which implies a derivation from _yomu_,

to reckon, a word which contains the same root as _yubi_, finger.

"Moon-reckoner" is not an inappropriate name for a luminary which is

recognized in so many countries as a measurer of time. Tsuki-yomi was

represented at Ise as a man riding on a horse, clad in purple and girt

with a golden sword. Another _shintai_ of his was a mirror. Live horses

were offered to him annually. The _Kiujiki_ mentions a Moon-God among

the suite of Ninigi when he descended to earth, and states that he

was the ancestor of the _agata-nushi_ (local chiefs) of Iki. This was

probably a local Moon-deity.

The phases of the Moon are not recognized in Japanese myth.

_Tsuki-machi_ (moon-waiting). On the 17th or 23rd of the lunar month,

people assemble to greet the rising moon. Ritual purity must be

observed beforehand. This custom illustrates the tendency to revert to

the direct worship of nature when the myths have become obscured by

time and no longer fulfil their original purpose.

=Star-God=.--There is only one mention of a Star-God in the _Nihongi_.

He is called Amatsu mika hoshi (dread star of Heaven), or Ame no Kagase

wo (scarecrow male of Heaven), and was one of the malignant deities

conquered by Futsunushi and Mika-tsuchi in preparation for Ninigi's

descent to earth. The scarecrow is regarded as a sort of deity. He is

said to know everything in the empire, though he cannot walk.

The worship of Tanabata (Vega) and of the North Star is also known in

Japan. But these cults have been introduced from China. They are not

Shinto.

=Ame no minaka-nushi=.--The Sky is not deified in Japan as it is

in China. _Ame_ is the region where the Gods dwell, not itself

a God. Possibly, however, we should regard Ame no mi-naka-nushi

(heaven-august-centre-master), as a personification of the sky, which

has already reached that secondary phase in which the God has become

distinct from the natural phenomenon. Some have endeavoured to make of

him a sort of Supreme Being. But his cult is recent. Motoöri says that

he was not worshipped in ancient times. In the _Shōjiroku_ he is the

ancestor of several noble families.

=Earth-Gods=.--Comte calls Earth a great fetish. There are the same

objections to calling the Earth a fetish as there are to applying

this epithet to the Sun. Æschylus's All-Mother Earth, and Swinburne's

Hertha, ought not to be so stigmatized. The Earth is not a factitious

(_feitiço_, fetish) object of adoration, but a real divinity. It

should not be discarded or neglected, but, along with other primary

objects of worship, merged in the supreme synthesis of all the glimpses

of the Divine which are vouchsafed to us.

Several phases of earth worship are exemplified in Shinto. The

simplest of all is the _ji-matsuri_, or _ji-chin-sai_ (earth-festival

or earth-calming-festival), which is the ceremony of propitiating

the site of a new building, or a piece of ground to be reclaimed for

cultivation. Here it is the ground itself that is worshipped, without

distinction of sex, or the adjunct of myth, metaphor, or personal name.

This practice is as old as the _Yengishiki_, and is not extinct at

the present day. Many peasants make sacrifice to the _ta no kami_, or

rice-field god, when preparing the ground for a crop, though here we

perhaps pass into the next stage, in which the God is something apart

from the rice-field itself. A similar phase of thought is implied

by the use of such terms as _Iku-kuni_[112] (living country), and

_Taru-kuni_ (perfect country), though here too the _norito_ of Praying

for Harvest, has already taken the further step of regarding this deity

as a God who "rules" the islands of Japan. _Ikushima_ (living island or

region), is also used both for the country regarded as a God and for

the God of the country.

We have seen above that several of the provinces had two names, one

geographical, the other when considered as a God or Goddess, like our

Britain and Britannia, Scotland and Caledonia.

A still further stage of progress is illustrated by the terms

_kuni-dama_ (country spirit), and _iku-dama_ (live spirit). _Kuni-dama_

is a general term for deified localities. _Iku-dama_, which has the

same meaning, is a contraction for _iku kuni-dama_. Motoöri says that

any God who has done service by "making" a country or province is

worshipped in that province as the Kuni-dama or Oho-kuni-dama. The

_Ichi no miya_ (No. 1 shrines) of later times represent the old Gods of

localities.

The Kunari no kami, or Kunari-hime, were also apparently local

earth-deities. Kunari is for _kuni-nari_ (earth-become).

=Ohonamochi=.--In the case of the great Earth-God of Japan, namely,

Ohonamochi, the direct worship and personification of the country have

already retired into the background. The myths speak of him not as the

land itself, but as the maker of the land. His functions are variously

described as constructing, measuring out, consolidating, subduing, and

ordering or governing. The _Idzumo Fudoki_ frequently calls him the

_ame no shita tsukurashishi Oho-kami_, that is to say, "the great God

who made the Under-Heaven." The spear which he carries is indicative of

warlike prowess and political sway, while the mattock given to him by

one myth points rather to agricultural development. He is also, along

with Sukuna-bikona, the instructor of mankind in the arts of medicine

and magic. The usual tendency to enlarge the sphere of nature deities

by attributing to them providential powers is illustrated by a poem in

the _Manyōshiu_ in which he is appealed to for the protection of the

ship of an envoy who was about to proceed to China.

He could assume the form of a snake or of a human being.

The name Ohonamochi tells us nothing. It means great-name-possessor,

and is simply honorific. An alternative title is Oho-kuni-nushi,

or great land-master, Kuni-nushi being perhaps an honorary epithet

equivalent to "king." Another name of this deity, Oho-kuni-dama

(great land spirit), is more significant. It shows that he was

regarded as one of the Kuni-dama or earth-deities mentioned above. His

Earth-God quality is also implied by the _alias_ Oho-toko-nushi, or

great-place-master.

This God belongs mainly to the Idzumo group of myths. He is the son

of Susa no wo, also an Idzumo God. The great centre of his worship

to this day, and the holiest spot in Japan, next after Ise, is

Kidzuki, a town in that province. His shrine here[113] is known all

over Japan as the _Taisha_, or Great Shrine, and was formerly of

exceptional magnificence. There is a widespread belief that all the

Gods of Japan resort hither in the tenth month, which is therefore

called _Kami-na-dzuki_, or the godless month. But Hirata's suggestion

that _Kami-na-dzuki_ is really for _Kami-name-dzuki_, the divine

tasting-month, that is, the month of the harvest festival, is very

plausible. Kaempfer transfers this annual visit of the Gods from Idzumo

to the Mikado's palace, a blundering account of a myth which itself

rests on a blunder.

The story of his deposition[114] by Take-mika-dzuchi and Futsunushi is

probably an echo of a real historical event, when the rulers of Idzumo

were compelled to yield up their temporal power to the conquerors of

Yamato, retaining however, their control of spiritual matters.

Miwa, in Yamato, was another seat of this deity's worship. To be more

exact, it was his _nigi-tama_, or gentle spirit, which was worshipped

here. He is also associated with the numerous shrines called Sannō or

Hiye. The Sono no kami (garden deity), to whom there was a shrine in

the Palace, is also believed to be Ohomononushi, the _nigi-tama_ of

Ohonamochi. Along with Sukuna-bikona he is worshipped at Kanda, Tokio,

as showing special favour to the inhabitants of that city (_Yedokko no

mitama no kami_). These two deities are supposed to grant protection

against small-pox.

The _Kojiki_ story of Ohonamochi's adventures in Yomi[115] has no

apparent connexion with his status as an Earth-God. Dr. Buckley argues

that the Ohonamochi of this narrative is a Moon-God, and that his

eighty brothers are the stars. I think it will be found to contain

foreign and later elements, and that the introduction of Ohonamochi's

name is merely accidental. The _Nihongi_ passes it over in silence.

The _shintai_ of Ohonamochi is a necklace of jewels. His _nigi-tama_,

or gentle spirit, is represented by a mirror, the _shintai_ of the

_ara-tama_, or rough spirit, being a spear.

=Asuha=.--An obscure deity, called Asuha no kami, said to be the child

of Oho-toshi, the Harvest-God, is referred to in one of the _norito_.

Motoöri fails to identify him or her. Hirata thinks that Asuha is for

_ashiba_, that is, foot-place, and that it means the plot of ground

on which the dwelling stands. He mentions a practice by persons whose

friends were absent on pilgrimages of making a model of a house with a

thatched roof to which they offered tea and rice every morning. They

could not tell him what God it was whom they wished to propitiate.

Hirata had no doubt that it was Asuha. He quotes an old poem which

says: "Until he returns, I will pray to the God Asuha of the middle of

the courtyard." Sir E. Satow calls Asuha no kami the "guardian deity"

of the courtyard. I do not deny that this conception existed. But

we must not lose sight of the earlier phase of thought in which the

courtyard is itself the deity.

=Other Earth-Gods=.--Another obscure earth-deity is Haigi no kami, said

to be the God of the space between the door of the house and the outer

gate. The soil of the earth is deified under the names of Uhijini,

Suhijini, and Hani-yasu-hime, personifications of mud, sand, and clay

respectively. The two former are just mentioned in myth. _Hani-yasu_

means "clay easy," the latter adjective indicating its plastic quality.

Clay was probably deified because it forms the material for the Kamado,

or kitchen-furnace, and is therefore deserving of gratitude for its

service in restraining the unruly element fire. The water-gourd was

deified for the same reason.

=Earthquake-Gods=.--The old myths say nothing about earthquakes, and

although they are mentioned several times in the historical part of the

_Nihongi_, in only one case[116] is a God of Earthquakes spoken of.

In A.D. 684 there was a great earthquake, and a new island was formed

at Idzu. A drumming sound was heard, which was thought to be made by

the Gods in constructing it. The _Shoku-nihongi_, a continuation of

the _Nihongi_, states that in the reign of Shōmu (724-48), there were

shrines to the God of Earthquakes in all the provinces. But any God

might cause an earthquake. There is a legend that the God of Kashima

(Take-mika-dzuchi) sealed down the Earthquake-God--he has no particular

name--by placing over him the _Kaname-ishi_, or pivot-stone, which is

still to be seen near his shrine.

The comparative insignificance of this deity in a country so

notoriously subject to these convulsions as Japan is an instructive

commentary on Buckle's well-known views of their importance in

promoting superstition.

=Mountain-Gods=.--Most mountains of importance have their deity, who

sometimes belongs to the general pantheon and is at others a specific

mountain deity. The Mountain-God sometimes assumes the form of a

serpent.

Though Japan has one hundred volcanoes, of which half are more or less

active, the feelings excited by volcanic phenomena have left little

trace in the religion. The _Kojiki_, _Nihongi_, and _Norito_ do not

recognize any worship of volcanoes. Perhaps the Aso-tsu-hiko and

Aso-tsu-hime of the _Nihongi_[117] are to be reckoned an exception.

These are no doubt personifications of Mount Aso, a remarkable volcano

in the province of Higo, which is frequently referred to in later

history. The drying up or overflowing of a lake within its crater was

supposed to portend famine, pestilence, drought, or the death of the

sovereign. A ninth-century notice states that the Mikado informed the

Sun-Goddess that "the miraculous pond in the district of Aso recently

dried up for about four hundred feet, and in the province of Idzu there

has been an earthquake. After divination I learnt that a drought,

plague, or war would ensue. In order that this land might be peacefully

ruled by the Sun-Goddess, I, having chosen a day of happy omen, send

out the messengers (named) and present offerings." On another similar

occasion, the God Hachiman was appealed to for help. The God (or Gods),

however, of Aso itself was not wholly neglected. There were shrines to

him on the mountain, with hereditary guardians to attend to them, and

we hear of an offering of a horse. But volcano gods were in no high

estimation. In 860 a Satsuma volcano received the junior branch of a

lower division of the fourth rank, which is much as if Vesuvius were

awarded the Italian equivalent for a D.S.O.

A great eruption of a mountain in Deha in the ninth century was

attributed to the wrath of Oho-mono-imi (the Food-Goddess), on account

of a pollution of the mountain water by dead bodies.

Fuji no yama is worshipped under the name of Sengen or Asama. At the

present day nearly every volcano has its deity and a small shrine.

=Mountain Class-Deities=.--The _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ mention a

Mountain-God or Gods,[118] called Yama tsu mi (mountain-body), as

among the children of Izanagi and Izanami, or as born from the blood

of Kagutsuchi when slain by his father. We hear little more of him or

them. The Mountain-God was worshipped before cutting trees for shrines

or palaces.

=Sea-Gods=.--The chief sea-deities of Shinto are the three Gods

produced by Izanagi[119] when he washed in the sea after his

return from Yomi. They are named respectively Soko-tsu-wata-dzu-mi

(bottom-sea-body), Naka-tsu-wata-dzu-mi (middle-sea-body) and

Uha-tsu-wata-dz-umi (upper-sea-body). Their chief shrine is at

Sumiyoshi, near Sakai, and they are prayed to for rescue from shipwreck

and for fair winds.[120] These three Gods are frequently spoken of as

one. Hirata identifies them with Toyotama-hiko, whose legend is related

above.[121]

[Illustration]

With Toyotama-hiko there is associated a fabulous animal called a

_wani_, usually written with the Chinese character for crocodile. There

can be little doubt that the _wani_ is really the Chinese dragon. It

is frequently so represented in Japanese pictures. I have before me a

print which shows Toyotama-hiko and his daughter with dragons' heads

appearing over their human ones. This shows that he was conceived of

not only as a Lord of Dragons, but as a dragon himself. His daughter,

who in one version of the story changes at the moment of child-bearing

into a _wani_ as her true form, in another is converted into a dragon.

In Japanese myth the serpent or dragon is almost always associated with

water in some of its forms.

We also hear of a Shiho-tsuchi, or brine-father, and of local harbour

deities.

=River-Gods=.--The River Gods have no individual names. They are

called generally _midzu-chi_, or water-father. Japanese dictionaries

describe the _midzu-chi_ as an animal of the dragon species with four

legs. Hepburn, in his 'Japanese-English Dictionary,' calls it a large

water-snake. The difference is not material. The dragon-kings of

Chinese myth (of whom Toyotama-hiko is an echo) are in India the Naga

Raja, or cobra-kings.

The conception of a stream as a snake, serpent, or dragon, or of one of

these animals as the embodiment of a water-deity is widespread. Dennys,

in his 'Folk-Lore of China,' quotes from the _North China Herald_

the following: "The River-God is in every case a small water-snake

which popular fancy has converted into a deity." Robertson-Smith,

in his 'Religion of the Semites,' says that "the living power that

inhabits sacred waters and gives them their miraculous or healing

quality is very often held to be a serpent, a huge dragon, or water

monster." Reville tells us that "Le serpent joue en effet un grand rôle

symbolique dans le culte de Tlaloc (the Mexican Rain and Water God) en

tant qu'il represente l'eau qui coule, les nuages, les cours d'eau."

It is easy to understand how a river, with its sinuous course and its

mysterious movement without legs, should come to be thought of as a

great serpent, especially if we remember the aquatic habits of some of

the ophidia. Rivers have their favourable and their maleficent aspects.

On the one hand they furnish water for irrigation, and on the other

they cause destruction and loss of life by their floods, metaphorically

expressed by the serpent's poison. The River-Gods are prayed to for

rain in time of drought. We hear oftener of their sinister aspect.

The Perseus and Andromeda incident related above is probably a trace

of former human sacrifices to rivers, of which further evidence is

afforded by the following extracts from the _Nihongi_:--

_"A.D. 379. This year, at a fork of the River Kahashima, in the central

division of the Province of Kibi, there was a great water-dragon which

harassed the people. Now when travellers were passing that place on

their journey, they were sure to be affected by its poison, so that

many died. Hereupon Agatamori, the ancestor of the Omi of Kasa, a man

of fierce temper and of great bodily strength, stood over the pool of

the river-fork and flung into the water three whole calabashes, saying:

'Thou art continually belching up poison and therewithal plaguing

travellers. I will kill thee, thou water-dragon. If thou canst sink

these calabashes, then will I take myself away, but if thou canst not

sink them, then will I cut thy body to pieces.' Now the water-dragon

changed itself into a deer and tried to draw down the calabashes,

but the calabashes would not sink. So with upraised sword he entered

the water and slew the water-dragon. He further sought out the

water-dragon's fellows. Now the tribe of all the water-dragons filled a

cave in the bottom of the pool. He slew them every one, and the water

of the river became changed to blood. Therefore that water was called

the pool of Agatamori."_

_"A.D. 323. In order to prevent the overflowing of the Northern river

the Mamuta embankment was constructed. At this time there were two

parts of the construction which gave way and could not be stopped

up. Then the Emperor had a dream, in which he was admonished by a

God, saying: 'There are a man of Musashi named Koha-kubi and a man of

Kahachi named Koromo no ko, the Muraji of Mamuta. Let these two men be

sacrificed to the River-God, and thou wilt surely be enabled to close

the gaps.' So he sought for these two men, and having found them,

offered them to the River-God. Hereupon Koha-kubi wept and lamented,

and plunging into the water, died. So that embankment was completed.

Koroma no ko, however, took two whole calabashes, and standing over

the water which could not be dammed, plunged the two calabashes into

the mid-stream and prayed, saying: 'O thou River-God, who hast sent

the curse [to remove which] I have now come hither as a sacrifice!

If thou dost persist in thy desire to have me, sink these calabashes

and let them not rise to the surface. Then shall I know that thou art

a true God, and will enter the water of my own accord. But if thou

canst not sink the calabashes, I shall, of course, know that thou art

a false God, for whom why should I spend my life in vain?' Hereupon a

whirlwind arose suddenly which drew with it the calabashes and tried to

submerge them in the water. But the calabashes, dancing on the waves,

would not sink, and floated far away over the wide waters. In this

way that embankment was completed, although Koromo no ko did not die.

Accordingly Koromo no ko's cleverness saved his life. Therefore the men

of that time gave a name to these two places, calling them 'Koha-kubi's

Gap' and 'Koromo no ko's Gap.'"_

These stories, like that of Perseus and Andromeda, and the Roman

legend that Hercules substituted images of straw for the living men

hurled into the Tiber from the Sublician bridge, belong to a period

when the belief in the efficacy of human sacrifice for propitiating

river-deities had been considerably shaken. The abolition of sacrifices

of living men at the tombs of deceased Mikados is part of the same

movement in the direction of a greater regard for human life. The

decay of the cult of rivers is also to be inferred from a statement

in the _Nihongi_ (A.D. 642) that prayers to the River-Gods for rain

were condemned by the Government as yielding no good result. Reading

Buddhist Sutras was equally ineffectual, but prayers by the Mikado to

the four quarters of Heaven in Chinese fashion were more successful.

There is a superstition at the present day that the mouths and pools

of rivers are haunted by monsters called _kappa_, which destroy human

beings and domestic animals.

=Rain-Gods=.--Two special Rain-Gods are mentioned in the

_Nihongi_, namely, Kura o Kami (valley-august-god) and Taka-o-Kami

(height-august-god). Both are often called simply O Kami, and are

conceived of as having dragon shape. But praying for rain was by no

means confined to them. The _Yengishiki_ gives a list of eighty-five

shrines to which messengers were despatched by the Court to pray

for rain. These included many river and water deities, such as the

Yamaguchi (mountain-mouth) and Mi-kumari (water-distributor) Gods;

but the Wind-God, the Rice-God, the Thunder-God, and many others were

added. Even deified men like Temmangū; might be prayed to for rain.

The following is a modern method of causing rain. A procession is

formed, a Shinto priest carrying _gohei_ at its head. Next to him

follows a conch-blower, and then some men carrying a dragon made of

straw, bamboo, &c. Two flags inscribed to the Dragon-kings come after.

Next follows a drum, then the people in disorderly rout, shouting,

"The black clouds of the honourable peak: from the west the rain comes

pouring." The ceremony ends by the straw dragon being plunged into a

waterfall.

Water from the sacred lake of Haruna is supposed to produce rain. It is

carried to the required place by relays of couriers, for if it stopped

on the way the rain would fall there instead.

=Well-Gods=.--Sacred wells are known in Japan. They are called _mi-wi_

(august well) or _mana-wi_ (true well). There is one at Kitsuki, in

Idzumo, called the _ama no manawi_ (heaven-true-well), whence sacred

water is drawn. Wells or well-gods are widely worshipped, usually in

association with such household deities as Ashiba no Kami (the site

deity) and Kamado no Kami (the furnace deity). We hear of an Iku-wi no

Kami (live-well-god) and a Fuku-wi no Kami (luck-well-god). Special

wells were sunk for the water used in the _ohonihe_ ceremony, and

worship paid to them.

Well-diggers (_idohori_) at the present day sometimes purify the ground

previously to beginning their operations and set up _gohei_. In fine

weather, at night, they apply their ears to the ground, when they can

hear the water-veins below. Old wells should not be wholly closed, or

blindness to one of the family will be the result. Hence to appease

the God of the well a bamboo is let down into it before filling it up.

Wells are worshipped at the New Year.

=Water-Gods=.--The element of water generally is deified under the name

of Midzuha no me (water-female). She is said to have been produced from

the urine of Izanami when dying, or, according to another account, from

the blood of Kagu-tsuchi when he was slain by Izanagi.[122] The Jimmu

legend says that the water used in sacrifice to Musubi was entitled

Idzu no Midzuha no me, that is to say, "sacred-water-female," thus

identifying the element with the deity to whom it belongs.

=Wind-Gods=.--The _Nihongi_ speaks of one Wind-God named Shinatsu-hiko

(wind-long-prince). He was produced from Izanagi's breath when he

puffed away the mists which surrounded the newly formed country of

Japan.[123] The conception of the wind as the breath of the Gods is

also found in the Vedas and elsewhere. In the latter part of the

_Nihongi_ frequent mention is made of embassies to Tatsuta, in Yamato,

to pray to the Wind-Gods for a good harvest. A _norito_ addressed to

them[124] makes two Wind-Gods--one masculine, named Shinatsu-hiko,

and one feminine, called Shinatobe. They are also referred to as Ame

no Mihashira (august-pillar[125] of Heaven) and Kuni no Mihashira

(august-pillar of Earth). Hirata supposes that it was by them that

communication was maintained between earth and sky in the Age of the

Gods, and that it is due to their agency that the prayers of men are

heard in Heaven. Their _shintai_ is a mirror.

Another Wind-God is Hayachi, that is, the swift father, or perhaps

swift wind. He is more especially the whirlwind. He acted as the

messenger of the Gods in bringing up to Heaven the body of Ame no

waka-hiko, who had died on earth.

=Take-mika-dzuchi and Futsunushi=.--There is much confusion as to the

character and functions of these two deities. They are associated in

myth and in worship.[126] Their two oldest shrines at Kashima and

Kadori are close to one another, and they are worshipped together at

Kasuga and other places. Indeed Hirata argues that they are one and

the same deity. He points out that Futsunushi is not mentioned in the

_Kojiki_ story of the pacification of Japan in preparation for the

advent of Ninigi, and that the same authority gives Toyo-futsu no Kami

and Take-futsu no Kami as alternative names of Take-mika-dzuchi. On the

other hand, the Jimmu legend calls Futsu no mitama,[127] apparently a

variant of Futsunushi, the sword of Take-mika-dzuchi, and ascribes a

different parentage to these two deities. There are other features in

the _Nihongi_ myths which are inconsistent with the theory that they

are identical.

Take-mika-dzuchi means "brave-dread-father." His name is frequently

written with Chinese characters which imply that he is identical with

Ika-dzuchi, or the Thunder-God. This is probably correct, although

it is to be remembered that Ika-dzuchi had in more ancient times the

more general signification "dread father," and is applied to other than

thunder deities.

In Futsu-nushi the latter element admittedly means "master." But I

cannot accept Motoöri's explanation of _futsu_ as an onomatopoetic word

expressing the sound made when a thing is cleanly cut or snapped off.

The following facts suggest a different derivation:--

1. The Sun-mirror (_hi-kagami_, which may also mean "fire-mirror") is

called in one writing[128] the Ma-futsu no kagami (true-fire-mirror).

2. Ama no hihoko is said to have brought over with him from Korea a

_hi-kagami_.

3. _Futsu_ is the regular Japanese phonetic equivalent of the Korean

_pul_, "fire." In Furu-no mitama and Furu-musubi (for Ho-musubi)

we have an intermediate form between _futsu_ and _pul_. There is a

God called Saji-futsu or Satsu-futsu, for which the Korean phonetic

equivalent would be _Sal-pul_. This would mean "living fire" (Cicero's

"ignis animal"). I have no doubt that Saji-futsu is an _alias_ of

Futsu-nushi.

4. Futsunushi was produced from the blood of Kagu-tsuchi, the God of

Fire, when the latter was slain by Izanagi.

The inference from these data is that Futsunushi is a Fire-God of

Korean origin.[129]

But while there is a strong probability that Take-mika-dzuchi and

Futsunushi were originally Thunder and Fire deities, by a tendency

which there is for nature-gods to become credited with providential

functions, to the neglect or oblivion of their proper natural powers,

these two deities have in historical times been universally recognized

as war-gods. The myth which represents them as subduing Ohonamochi and

makes Futsu no mitama a sword contains the germ of this view of their

character. A poet of the _Manyōshiu_ speaks of praying to the God

of Kashima when about to start on a warlike expedition. Fencing and

horsemanship were under Futsunushi's special protection. The _shintai_

of both Gods, to some worshippers the Gods themselves, were swords.

That of Take-mika-dzuchi was a sword, five feet long, which at the

annual Kashima festival was drawn from its sheath and worshipped by the

priests,[130] all the people present wearing swords and drawing them

before the shrine. It is probably as a war-god that he was constituted

the Ujigami of the arrow-makers, and that offerings of horses were made

to him. When savage tribes were subdued or foreign invaders repulsed

these Gods led the van and were followed by the other deities. They

were supposed to extend their special favour and protection to the

Mikado, who sent frequent embassies to their various shrines. They

were also prayed to for a calm passage for envoys to China, and for

children. Predictions of the quality of the harvest were recently,

and probably still are, hawked about by persons in the garb of Shinto

priests, called Kashima no koto-fure, that is to say, "notifications

from Kashima." Believers in the ghost and grave theory of the origin

of religion will be interested to learn that not far from Kashima

there is a large sepulchral mound called Kame-yama (pot-hill). On

the 8th day of the 1st month an Imperial envoy offers _gohei_ here

and recites a _norito_. There are dances and music, and the mound is

solemnly circumambulated. Traditions exist of a great battle in this

neighbourhood. Smaller sepulchral mounds are also met with here, as at

all ancient centres of authority in Japan.

=Ika-dzuchi=.--Take-mika-dzuchi having been converted into a war-deity

and general Providence, the Thunder itself continued to be worshipped

under the name of Ika-dzuchi, "dread father," which is short for Naru

ika-dzuchi, "the sounding dread father." He is also called Naru kami,

or "the sounding God." _Kami-nari_ (god-sound) is the modern word for

thunder. There are numerous shrines to this deity. By the Ika-dzuchi,

which were generated from the putrefying corpse of Izanami, we must

understand not thunders but personified diseases, the word being taken

in its etymological signification. The _Kojiki_, however, in this

passage does undoubtedly say "thunders." The distinction into "eight

thunders" is a fancy of the writer, little recognized in later ritual.

The _Nihongi_ ignores it.

The following story from the _Nihongi_ illustrates Japanese ideas

respecting the Thunder-God:--

_"A.D. 618. This year Kahabe no Omi was sent to the province of Aki

with orders to build ships. On arriving at the mountain, he sought

for ship timber. Having found good timber, he marked it and was about

to cut it, when a man appeared, and said: 'This is a thunder-tree,

and must not be cut.' Kahabe no Omi said: 'Shall even the Thunder-God

oppose the Imperial commands?' So having offered many mitegura, he sent

workmen to cut down the timber. Straightway a great rain fell, and it

thundered and lightened. Hereupon Kahabe no Omi drew his sword, and

said: 'O Thunder-God, harm not the workmen; it is my person that thou

shouldst injure.' So he looked up and waited. But although the God

thundered more than ten times, he could not harm Kahabe no Omi. Then

he changed himself into a small fish, which stuck between the branches

of the tree. Kahabe no Omi forthwith took the fish and burnt it. So at

last the ships were built."_

=Other Fire-Gods=.--Futsunushi's quality as a Fire-God had been

quite forgotten even in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ times. But there

are several other Fire-Gods, or perhaps we should rather say local

or occasional variants of the same deity. Kagu-tsuchi, or "radiant

father," is the name given to a Fire-God in the _Nihongi_, where he is

said to have caused the death of his mother Izanami. _Kagu_ contains

the same root as _kagayaku_, to shine. It also occurs in _Kaguyama_, a

sacred mountain in Yamato, from which the needful objects for sacrifice

were in early times provided. This God is worshipped under the name of

Ho-musubi or "fire-growth"[131] on the summit of Atago, a mountain near

Kiōto. There are many hill-shrines to this deity near other cities in

Japan. His business is to give protection against conflagrations.

The Jimmu legend speaks as if fire-worship arose from the deification

of the sacrificial fire. But there must have been other reasons. The

domestic fire renders important services to mankind, and its relation

to the sun is unmistakable. Indeed the Japanese call fire and sun

by the same name, _hi_. Fire has also its terrible aspect, which is

recognized in myth and _norito_.[132]

Hirata identifies the God with the element. He is obviously a class,

and not an individual God. There is a festival at the present day

called the Hi-taki-matsuri (fire-kindle-festival), when bonfires are

lit, and small offerings made to the flames.

=Furnace Gods=.--Along with the Gods of Fire we may place the deities

of the domestic cooking furnace, namely Kamado no Kami and Kudo no

Kami. They are barely mentioned in the _Kojiki_ and not at all in

the _Nihongi_. They have no myth, and although there is a _norito_

addressed to them it contains nothing characteristic. This worship

is nevertheless general, from the Mikado's palace to the home of

the peasant. Sometimes we find a single deity, sometimes a married

pair called Okitsu-hiko and Okitsu-hime, sometimes as many as eight

co-existing furnace-gods are met with. The vulgar call him an

_aragami_ (rough deity), and represent him with three heads, a notion

which, according to Hirata, is taken from Indian myth. Usually the

cooking furnace is the deity. The Japanese kitchen wench at the present

day calls her cooking range Hettsui-sama, the termination _sama_

implying personification and respect. She thinks it unlucky to lay

down an edge-tool on it. But the God is also conceived of as detached

from the furnace. Thus he is said to have taught the art of cooking to

mankind. In that case the _kama_, or pot, is his _shintai_, or material

representative. There was a Kama-matsuri (pot festival) at Kiōto before

the revolution. It was celebrated at the beginning of the year, when

Shinto priests read _harahi_. The pot was addressed in song and adjured

to bring plenty of customers, usually by dyers and others in whose

business caldrons were used.

=Ukemochi (the Food Goddess)=.--Cicero, in his treatise 'De Natura

Deorum,' asks whether any one is mad enough to believe that the food we

eat is actually a God. The modern student of religion has no difficulty

in answering this question in the affirmative. "Eating the God" is

a well-known institution, from the custom of the Ainus of Yezo, who

worship a bear,[133] caught and caged for the purpose, and wind up the

festival in his honour by eating him, up to the most solemn rite of

Roman Catholic Christianity. An Ainu prayer, quoted by Mr. Batchelor,

contains the following words: "O thou God! O thou divine cereal, do

thou nourish the people. I now partake of thee. I worship thee and give

thee thanks." Gratitude in the first place to, and then for, our daily

bread, is an important factor in the early growth of religion. Without

it we should have had no Roman Ceres, no Mexican Maize-God Centliotl,

and no Ukemochi. I do not find the direct worship of our daily food in

Shinto, though perhaps a trace of an older identification of the food

with the God is to be recognized in the myth which represents the

Food-Goddess as producing from her mouth and other parts of her body

viands for the entertainment of the Moon-God. Hirata is indignant at

the idea that there is anything metaphorical about this story.

It is usually the offerings of food which are deified. Jimmu is said

to have directed that the food-offerings to Taka-musubi should be

called Idzu-uka no me (sacred-food-female), which is another name for

Uke-mochi. In a work of the eighth century the Sun-Goddess is said to

have appeared to the Mikado Yūriaku in a dream. She complained to him

of her loneliness at Ise, and directed that "Aga mi ketsu no kami"

should be sent for to Tamba in order to keep her company. This was

the legendary origin of the worship of the Food-Goddess in the outer

shrine (Geku) of Ise. As Motoöri points out, Aga mi ketsu no kami means

"the deity of the food offered to me." But in this last instance the

offering and the deity of the offering are no longer identical.

It was usual for the participants in the ceremony to consume the food

offered to the Gods. We are told that Jimmu "tasted the food of the

sacred jars." The Mikado at all times followed this rule, notably

at the _Nihiname_, or harvest festival, when he partook of ordinary

food with, but after, the Gods. He does not "eat the God," but only

associates himself with the deity as his table-companion--a very simple

and intelligible form of communion. It is on the same principle that

in modern times pilgrims to Ise buy from the priests and eat the rice

which has been offered to the Gods.

There is some confusion in regard to Ukemochi. Her aliases are very

numerous, if, indeed, we ought not to reckon some of them as distinct

deities. No doubt food was deified over and over again in many places.

The etymology of most of her names is sufficiently transparent. They

contain the element _ke_ or _ka_, "food." One of these, namely Uka no

mitama, or the spirit of food, should be mentioned, as it embodies a

more advanced and spiritual conception of the nature of this deity.

The parentage of the Food-Goddess is variously given in different

myths. One story makes her the daughter of Izanagi and Izanami, and

another of Susa no wo. The latter is, perhaps, an expression of the

idea that the rainstorm fits the rice-fields for producing grain.

After the Sun-Goddess, Uke-mochi is, perhaps (especially if we identify

her with Inari), the most universally popular deity in Japan. She was

one of the eight deities of the Jingikwan, and was worshipped at four

of the twenty-two Greater Shrines, of which a list was made in 1039.

There is abundant evidence that her cult was not confined to the State

ceremonies. Hirata calls her an _ihe no kami_, or household deity.

The Sake (rice-beer) God is sometimes the same as the Food-Goddess, and

at others Sukuna-bikona.

=Inari=.--Notwithstanding the difference of sex, and to some extent of

function, the Rice-God Inari is generally recognized by the Japanese

as identical with Uke-mochi. Inari, it is explained, is only the name

of the locality of her best-known shrine near Kiôto, first established

in 711. It is not to be doubted that in Japan the name of the place of

his worship has frequently been converted into the name of the God. In

the present case, however, it may be suspected that the reverse process

has taken place. Might not Inari be _ine_, rice in a growing state, and

_ri_, a termination implying personality?

Naturally Inari is much prayed to for agricultural prosperity. But, as

so often happens, the functions of this God have been enlarged so as

to make him a sort of general Providence who watches over all human

concerns. In a recent Japanese novel he is supplicated by a wife to

make her husband faithful; by a mother to cause her son to divorce an

obnoxious daughter-in-law; by a wrestler for victory in his contests;

by a _geisha_ for a wealthy protector who will give her plenty of

money and rich clothes, and, getting tired of her within a month, will

dismiss her with a handsome present. He is also appealed to for the

restoration of stolen property, to avert pestilence, to cure colds,

to give wealth and prosperity, and to unite friends. The Kiôto Inari

is the special patron of swordsmiths and of _jōrōs_. Another Inari is

celebrated for his protection of children from small-pox and measles.

People who desire his help in this way offer at his shrine a red clay

monkey, and take away with them one which has been deposited there by a

previous worshipper.

The _shintai_ of Inari is a stone, or a wooden ticket with his name

inscribed on it. He is represented as an elderly man with a long beard

riding upright on a white fox. The fox is always associated with this

deity. A pair of these animals carved in wood or stone may usually be

seen in front of his shrines. According to the modern theologians,

the fox is properly his servant or messenger. But there is a more

ignorant current of opinion which takes the animal for the God himself.

Klaproth finds in Japanese books that "the people in Japan worship the

_inari_ (fox) as a tutelar God: little temples are dedicated to him in

many houses, especially of the commoner folk. They ask his advice in

difficulties, and set rice or beans for him at night. They take him to

be a _kami_, _i.e._, the soul of a good man deceased." Be it observed

that _inari_ does not mean fox, and that a _kami_ is something quite

different from "the soul of a good man deceased." It is just possible,

however, that in this case the ignorant multitude are right, and that

the fox is a duplicate representative of the rice or rice-deity. Mr.

Frazer, in his 'Golden Bough,' adduces many instances of the Corn-God

being represented by animals. "In Poitou, the spirit of the corn

appears to be conceived in the shape of a fox."

The festival of Inari is held on the first "horse" day of the second

month. The Shōguns celebrated it with great ceremony, of which dramatic

performances (_nō_) were a part.

=Harvest-Gods=.--The Harvest-Gods, of which there are several,

as Oho-toshi no Kami (Great-Harvest-God), Mitoshi no Kami

(August-Harvest-God), Waka-toshi no Kami (Young-Harvest-God), are not

very clearly distinguished from the food and grain deities. A myth

relating to one of these deities will be found below, p. 196.

The liturgy entitled 'Praying for Harvest' was addressed to all the

chief deities.[134]

The worship of the Sun and of Grain, Harvest and Growth deities,

which forms so important a part of Shinto, is characteristic of an

agricultural nation. It is emphasized by the ancient custom of the

Mikado tilling land in person, and by the Miko at Kasuga planting rice

annually with much ceremony.

=Tree-Gods=.--Individual trees of great age and size are everywhere

worshipped in Japan. An ancient example of this cult is mentioned

above, p. 158. At the present day the sacred trees are often to be seen

girt with _shimenaha_[135] and with tiny shrines at the bottom. The

novelist Bakin, writing in the early part of the nineteenth century,

tells of one which he visited near Uraga. It was a common-looking fir

which had been struck by lightning, no doubt, Bakin says, before the

spirit took up its abode there. This tree healed diseases of all kinds

and brought luck to fishermen. People with sore eyes carried away the

water which collected in a hollow part, and washed their eyes with it.

Incense was burned to it.

At the shrine of Kamo in Kiôto there are two _sakaki_ (sacred

evergreen) trees, which are joined together by a branch which has grown

from one trunk into that of the other. These trees are much visited by

women who desire to live in harmony with their husbands. A small red

_tori-wi_ in front of them shows that they are considered sacred.[136]

Here the emblem of unity has come to be regarded as having intrinsic

virtue.

A Kami-gi (God-tree) was often planted in front of Shinto shrines. It

was sometimes set in a portable box, which could be carried about by

the devotees. A case is recorded in which this was done for the sake

of protection to the bearers. The sacred tree of Japan is the _cleyera

japonica_. It is an evergreen, as the name, derived from _sakayuru_, to

flourish, indicates.

There is a modern custom in places where fruit trees are grown for two

men to go out into the orchard. One climbs up a tree while the other

stands at the bottom with an axe. The latter asks whether it will have

a good crop the next season, and threatens to cut it down if it fails

to do so. Hereupon the man above answers for the tree, promising that

it will bear plentifully. In Hitachi at the time of the Sai (or Sahe)

no Kami feast (the first full moon of the year) a gruel is made of

rice coloured red[137] with _adzuki_ beans. This is sprinkled on the

fruit trees of the neighbourhood. The man who does so wears the straw

covering of a rice-bag by way of hat, and takes with him an axe and the

gruel vessel, saying to each tree, "Will you bear--will you bear, of

bags 1,000 bags, of sacks 1,000 sacks? Say that you will bear." "I will

bear, I will bear." Then he gives the tree three cuts with the axe, and

pours the gruel on it.

Similar customs are found all over the world. M. D'Alviella, in his

Hibbert Lectures, quotes as follows: "Ibn al Awam's agricultural

treatise recommends the intimidation of trees that refuse to produce

fruit. 'You are to flog them mildly and threaten to cut them down if

they go on bearing no fruit.'" The Bohemian Slavs used to say to the

garden trees, "Bud! ye trees, bud! or I will strip you of your bark."

Brand's 'Popular Antiquities of Britain' records several variants of

this custom. "On Christmas Eve," he says, "the farmers and their men

in Devonshire take a large bowl of cider, with a toast in it, and

carrying it in state to the orchard, they salute the apple-trees with

much ceremony, in order to make them bear well the next season." This

salutation consists in throwing some of the cider about the roots

of the tree, placing bits of the toast on the branches, and then,

"encircling one of the best bearing trees in the orchard, they drink

the following toast several times:--

'Here's to thee, old apple-tree

Whence thou mayst bud, and whence thou mayst blow,

And whence thou mayst bear apples enow!

Hats-full! caps-full!

Bushel, bushel sacks-full!

And my pockets full, too! Hurra!'"

Mr. J. G. Frazer has treated this subject with his usual fulness in

'The Golden Bough.'

I suspect that the pleasure we take in dramatic make-believe has more

to do with such practices than any belief in their practical efficacy,

and that they rather contain the germ of a religious cult of trees than

are a survival of a primitive tree-worship.

=Kukunochi=.--The older records mention a Kukunochi (trees-father),

a Ki no mi-oya no Kami (tree-august-parent-deity). There is

also a Ko-mata no Kami (tree-fork-deity) and a Ha-mori no Kami

(leaf-guardian-deity). These are class-deities.

=Kaya nu hime=.--The deity of herbs and grasses is called Kaya nu

hime (reed-lady), or Nu-dzuchi (moor-father) or Kaya no mi-oya no

Kami (reed-august-parent-deity). The chief reason for deifying trees

and reeds was that they furnish materials for house-building, and are

therefore deserving of our gratitude and worship.

=Ko-dama=.--The echo is called in Japan Ko-dama, or tree spirit.

=House-Gods=.--Our knowledge of these deities is chiefly derived from

a _norito_ in the _Yengishiki_.[138] One part of this ritual speaks

of Yabune, which may be either singular or plural; but further on in

the same document we find Yabune Kukunochi and Yabune Toyo-uke-hime.

Perhaps an original single deity has been split up into a wedded pair

by a process of which Shinto affords other examples. _Ya_ is "house,"

and _fune_, which usually means "ship," may also be applied to other

wooden vessels, such as troughs or tubs. The _ya-bune_ is therefore

the shell[139] of the house. Kukunochi, as we have just seen, is the

name of the Tree-God. Toyo-uke-hime, which means abundant-food-lady,

has been identified with the Food-Goddess; but it is more probable that

the prefix _yabune_ was intended to distinguish her from that deity,

as the same prefix made of Kukunochi a distinct God from the ordinary

Tree-God. The functions of these Gods was to guard the palace building

from harm of all kinds. No doubt each household had also its Yabune

no Kami. Hirata, in his _Tamadasuki_, gives a prayer to this deity

intended for general use.

The Oho-toma-hiko and Oho-toma-hime of the _Nihongi_ and the

Oho-ya-hiko of the _Kojiki_ are also House-Gods. Nothing is known of

them.

A certain sanctity attached to the central pillar of the house, called

Daikoku-bashira or Imi-bashira (sacred pillar). The Daikoku-bashira is

worshipped in some places on the 14th of the 1st month by offerings of

rice-ears, flowers, rice bags, &c. The date indicates a connexion with

the phallic Sahe no Kami.[140]

=Privy-God=.--There is in modern times a God of the privy, who has no

particular name, sex, or mythic record. Hirata, in his _Tamadasuki_,

has provided a special form of prayer to him. He himself was his

devout worshipper. He saluted the God on entering and leaving, and,

that people might not forget this duty, recommends that a card be

nailed on the door, with the inscription "Ojigi," or "good manners."

According to him privies, as well as dunghills and all unclean places,

are a favourite resort of evil spirits. They are haunted by flies

and maggots, which are the fractional souls of bad men (a Buddhist

notion?). There is, therefore, all the greater need to put ourselves

under the protection of the presiding deity of the place. He deprecates

spitting into it (which causes ophthalmia) or defiling it, and says

that women who sweep it out daily and make offering to the God of a

light on the last day of each month will be free from diseases below

the girdle.

All this shows that the original identity of demons and diseases has

not yet been wholly lost sight of in Japan.

=Gate-Gods=.--Kushi-iha-mado (wondrous-rock-door) and Toyo-iha-mado

(rich-rock-door). These two Gods are known to us from the _norito_

entitled Mikado no matsuri.[141] They are obviously personifications of

the gates of the Palace. But the difficulty presents itself that these

Gods are (apparently) two in number, these two being differentiated

out of one original deity by the honorary epithets _kushi_ and _toyo_,

while the gates of the Palace were much more numerous. If it is the

gate itself, and not the spirit of the gate, which is worshipped, there

ought to be as many Gods as gates. Hirata would no doubt explain this

by saying that there are really only two Gods, but that each gate is

occupied by a _mitama_, or emanation from them. It seems more probable

that the ancient Japanese had no very definite ideas on the subject.

They conceived of the gates as in some way or another instinct with

life and exercising certain protective functions; but whether there

were two deities for each gate or two for all collectively was a

question which did not occur to them. It must be remembered that the

Japanese language seldom takes the trouble to distinguish between

singular and plural. This is merely another way of saying that the

nation is comparatively indifferent to number, whether of Gods or

gates. Whether the Gate-divinity is one or several does not trouble

them.

GODS OF ABSTRACTIONS.

=Izanagi and Izanami=.--The conspicuous position given by the mythical

narrative[142] to these personifications of the dual creative powers

of the universe has little to correspond with it in cult and ritual.

Although they are no doubt to be reckoned among the _Dii majores_ of

Japan, they occupy a much lower place than the Sun-Goddess and the

Food-Goddess.

Izanagi and Izanami are evidently creations of subsequent date to the

Sun-Goddess and other concrete deities, for whose existence they were

intended to account. I have little doubt that they were suggested by

the _Yin_ and _Yang_,[143] or female and male principles of Chinese

philosophy. Indeed there is a passage in the _Nihongi_ in which these

terms are actually applied to them. It may be said, and Motoöri does

say, that the _Yin_ and _Yang_ are foreign ideas which have found

their way into a purely native myth. We must remember, however, that

the Japanese myths as we have them date from a period three centuries

after the introduction of Chinese learning into Japan, and that there

was communication with China hundreds of years earlier still. It

would, therefore, not be strange if some knowledge of the fundamental

principle of Chinese philosophy and science had reached the Japanese

long before the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ were written.

I conjecture that the early part of the _Nihongi_, taken in the order

of the original composition of the myths which it comprises, would

be somewhat as follows:--First the Sun-myth, which is the nucleus of

all, next that of the creation by Izanagi and Izanami, then the more

abstract Musubi and a number of ill-defined creations of some idle

fancy which precede him. Last of all was composed the philosophic proem

with which the book opens.

Izanagi and Izanami belong to that stage of religious progress in which

the conception has been reached of powerful sentient beings separate

from external nature. Untrue in itself, it has served a useful purpose.

It is obviously easier for nations with little scientific knowledge

to conceive of the same being as a ruler or parent of the Sun, Moon,

and Earth, with all its human concerns, than to recognize in these

phenomena a harmonious living whole. The common parentage of Izanagi

and Izanami formed a link of union between the different aspects of

nature which did not previously exist, and thus was in so far a step

towards monotheism.

The manner of creation is variously represented. In no case is anything

made out of nothing. The first act of creation was the formation

of an island out of the drippings of the brine of the chaos-ocean

from a spear. The other parts of Japan and many of the deities were

produced by the ordinary process of generation. The functions of

Izanagi and Izanami are elsewhere described as "putting in order and

fully consolidating" the floating land beneath. This is precisely what

Ohonamochi is represented as doing several generations of Gods later.

Deities were also produced from Izanagi's clothing and staff which he

threw down on his flight from Yomi, and from his eyes and nose when

he washed in the sea to remove the impurity contracted by his visit

thither. The Wind-God was his breath and the Gods of Water and Clay

were formed of the urine and fœces of Izanami when she was about to

die. These ideas, though not quite identical with, are closely related

to the legends of other countries which describe the creation of the

universe from the fragments of a fabulous anthropomorphic being. The

Chinese myth of P'anku has been already quoted.[144] Norse story tells

how "the vast frame of the world-giant Hymi was completely cut up by

the sons of Bor, with Woden at their head. From Hymi's flesh they made

the earth, from his bones the mountains, from his skull the heavens,

from his blood the sea."[145]

There is nothing spiritual about these two deities. All their actions

are modelled not on those of ghosts, but on those of living men. Even

when Izanami dies and goes down to the land of Yomi, she does not

become a ghost, but a putrefying corpse.

Their _shintai_ is a mirror.

A Japanese writer[146] says: "In the beginning of all sentient things

we have two Supreme Beings, Izanagi and Izanami." Even if we admit the

possible existence of two Supreme Beings, Izanagi and Izanami hardly

realize our conception of the Supreme. They acted by command of other

pre-existing deities, and their creation is limited. It does not

include all the Gods, and, as is only natural, is confined to Japan.

The creation of mankind is nowhere accounted for in Japanese myth.

There is, however, a modicum of truth in this writer's statement.

Though not the first sentient beings, Izanagi and Izanami are the first

who stand out with any distinct characterization, and, although not

supreme, they represent a movement, feeble and abortive it is true,

towards the co-ordination of all the aspects of divinity in one Supreme

Being.

Motoöri proposed, and most European scholars have accepted, a

derivation of Izanagi and Izanami from _izanafu_, a verb which means

to invite, to instigate, the terminations _gi_ and _mi_ meaning

respectively male deity and female deity. Hence the translation

"Male who invites" and "Female who invites." There are, however,

grave difficulties in the way of this interpretation. It is scarcely

appropriate in the case of the female deity. Moreover, we must take

into account the fact that these are not the only pairs of deities

in which the terminations _nagi_ and _nami_ occur. We have also

an Aha-nagi (foam-God) and Aha-nami (foam-Goddess), a Tsura-nagi

(bubble-God) and Tsura-nami (bubble-Goddess), and a Sa-nagi (rapid-God)

and Sa-nami (rapid-Goddess), in all of which _na_ does not belong to

the first part of the word, but is put for _no_, the genitive particle,

by a letter-change of which we have other examples. The first element

of Izanagi is, therefore, not _izana_ but _iza_, which is met with as

an exclamation of incitement. The harshness of making an interjection

followed by a genitive particle is obvious. I am disposed to prefer

the derivation which takes Iza as the name of a place. The _Nihongi_

mentions a "true well" of Isa or Iza. There are two places called Isa

in Hitachi, and an Isa no Jinja, or shrine of Isa, in Idzumo. It is

even possible that these Gods are simply the Gods of Ise (Ise no gi and

Ise no mi). A similar letter-change takes place in _manabuta_, eyelid,

for _me no futa_, and _tanasuye_ for _te no suye_. The difference

between _s_ and _z_ is of little consequence in Japanese.

=Musubi, the God of Growth=.--Musubi illustrates a different conception

of creation from that of the myths of Ohonamochi and Izanagi and

Izanami. This God is the abstract process of growth personified--that

is, a power immanent in nature and not external to it. The emotion

which prompts this personification--so natural to an agricultural

people--is well portrayed in the words of a Kafir to the French

traveller M. Arbrouseille: "Do I know how the corn sprouts? Yesterday

there was not a blade in my field: to-day I returned to the field

and found some. Who can have given the earth the wisdom and power

to produce it? Then I buried my head in both hands." But while the

emotion is the same, the Japanese conception differs. Musubi means

growth or production. It is connected with the word _umu_, to bear, to

bring forth, and with _musu_, to grow, to be born. _Musu_ is said of

moss growing on a stone and of ice forming on water. _Musuko_, a boy,

and _musume_, a girl, contain the same element. As a God's name, Musubi

is usually found with one of the laudatory adjectives, _taka_, high, or

_kamu_, divine, prefixed to it. To these the honorific particle _mi_

is commonly added, giving the forms Taka-mi-musubi and Kamu-mi-musubi.

Even in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ these are recognized as two distinct

deities. The _Yengishiki_ (901-922) enumerates three more Musubi

deities, and to these still others might be added. In poetry a single

God Musubi is alone met with, and the _Wamiōshō_ recognizes but one

such deity. Probably the division into several persons was an esoteric

refinement of which the people took little heed.

Whether we have regard to his name or to the somewhat meagre notices

in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_, there is nothing spiritual in the

Japanese conception of Musubi. But the scribes learned in Chinese who

committed the old myths to writing sometimes use characters which imply

a spiritual view of his nature. They mean "producing-spirit."

He is also called _mi oya_, or august parent. Hirata thinks that

Taka-musubi and Kamu-musubi are husband and wife, the Kamurogi

(progenitor) and Kamuromi (progenitrix) of the _norito_, and condemns

his master Motoöri for holding that we have in these deities a unity

in duality and a duality in unity. But his reasons are not quite

convincing, and there is a passage in the _Kojiki_ which cannot be

reconciled with his view. The same author points out the resemblance of

this God to the Hindu Siva, who represents the fructifying principle,

the generating power that pervades the universe, producing sun, moon,

stars, animals, and plants. Siva is represented in his temples by a

phallus, and Hirata conjectures that this was likewise the _shintai_

of Musubi.

Musubi is sometimes called the Inochi no Kami, or God of life. The

creation of mankind is attributed to him in a poem of the _Jiu-i-shiu_,

where a rejected lover exclaims:--

"I hate not thee,

It is the God I hate,

Great Musubi:--

Why did he men create

Unto so hard a fate?"

The _Kojik_i speaks of the two deities Taka-musubi and Kamu-musubi as

forming the second and third generations of Gods. The original text of

the _Nihongi_ omits all mention of them in this part of the narrative,

but in a note there is a quotation from "one writing" in which they are

named. In the various accounts of the measures taken to prepare the

earth for occupation by Ninigi sometimes the Sun-Goddess is represented

as giving instructions, sometimes Taka-musubi, sometimes both together,

and sometimes Taka-musubi alone. Jimmu, in making mention of the two

deities, gives precedence to Taka-musubi. This discordance in the

various myths seems to indicate a struggle for ascendancy between the

respective adherents of Musubi and the Sun-Goddess. The _Nihongi_

states that in A.D. 487 (a fairly trustworthy date), by request of the

Moon-God and the Sun-Goddess, the worship of Taka-mi-musubi, whom these

two deities call their ancestor and the Creator of Heaven and Earth,

was established in two places, and grants of lands and of peasants made

for the maintenance of the shrines. This is possibly the beginning of

the official worship of this God. In 859 several Musubi deities were

raised to the first grade of the first rank. In the tenth century eight

shrines to various Musubi deities existed within the Palace. With the

official classes Musubi was a dangerous rival to the Sun-Goddess, more

especially during the Augustan age of Japanese literature. But he

was too philosophical for popular favour. His worship is now greatly

neglected. The Musubu no Kami of the present day is identified with the

Chinese Gekka-rōjin (moon-under-old-man), who presides over the fates

of lovers. The strips of cloth frequently seen hung on bushes by the

roadsides are offerings to him. The second meaning of Musubi, namely,

"to tie," has no doubt something to do with this new view of the God's

function.

The _Shōjiroku_ traces the descent of a large number of the noble

families of Japan from the various forms of Musubi. This is a literal

rendering of a statement which, in one sense, is true of everybody. We

all resemble Topsy.

=Kuni-toko-tachi=.--I place this deity provisionally among the

personifications of abstractions. The name means literally

"earth-eternal-stand." He is, therefore, apparently a deification of

the durability of earth. Motoöri and Hirata take _toko_ as for _soko_,

bottom or limit. This would make this deity a personification of the

horizon, or perhaps more accurately Lucretius's "flammantia mænia

mundi." He has no sex and no special characteristics. He is barely

mentioned in myth, and his cult, which is comparatively modern, was no

doubt, as Hirata suggests, a result of the prominent position given

him in the _Nihongi_ as the first God in point of time, and as the

ancestor of the Sun-Goddess, before whom he was therefore entitled to

precedence. He was identified with the Taikyoku, or "Great Absolute,"

of the Chinese philosophers, was said to be immortal, and to comprise

all the Gods in himself, was called "the name of the nameless, the

form of that which has no form," and, in short, erected into a Supreme

Being. In the fourteenth century an unsuccessful attempt was made to

substitute him for the Food-Goddess as the deity of the outer shrine

of Ise. At the present day he is worshipped at Mount Ontake, in the

province of Shinano, a place much resorted to by pilgrims.

O tentō-sama (august-heaven-way-personage) was probably originally

a personification of the natural order of things--Laotze's _tao_, or

Pindar's Νὀμος, the βασιλενς of Gods and men. But this is too abstract

for the common Japanese. To them O tentō-sama is the Sun itself,

endowed, it is true, with certain moral attributes.

Drought and Famine deities belong to this class. None of these is of

much importance.

FOOTNOTES:

[96] Deuteronomy iv. 19; xvii. 3.

[97] The Vice-Royalty of Kiushiu.

[98] In Korea.

[99] See above, p. 70; also Index--'Mirror.'

[100] "The mirror is kept in a box of chamaecyparis wood, which rests

on a low stand covered with a piece of white silk. It is wrapped in a

bag of brocade, which is never opened or renewed, but when it begins

to fall to pieces from age another bag is put on, so that the actual

covering consists of many layers. Over the whole is placed a sort

of wooden cage, with ornaments said to be of pure gold, over which

again is thrown a cloth of coarse silk falling to the floor on all

sides."--Murray's 'Japan,' fifth edition, p. 308.

[101] See Index--_Naishidokoro_.

[102] A kind of hawk. 'Odyssey,' xv. 525.

[103] _Vide_ 'The _Hinomaru_' in the _T. A. S. J._, vol. xxii. p. 27.

[104] See above, p. 65.

[105] 'In the Shinto Pantheon,' in the _New World_, December, 1896.

[106] Japan is annually visited by destructive typhoons, accompanied by

great darkness and a terrific downpour of rain.

[107] See above, p. 106.

[108] Egyptian is one.

[109] See Index--'Sasura-hime.'

[110] 'Religions of Primitive Peoples,' p. 80.

[111] I offer, for consideration only, two conjectures: first, that

Tsuki-yomi was the Ise Moon-God, and Susa no wo the Idzumo lunar deity;

and second, that _Susa_ may possibly be an allotropic form of _sasura_,

banish.

[112] "The large, deep love of living sea and land."--Swinburne,

'Kynance Cove.'

[113] Graphically described in Lafcadio Hearn's 'Glimpses of Unfamiliar

Japan.'

[114] See above, p. 108.

[115] See above, p. 106.

[116] _Nihongi_, ii. 366.

[117] I. 198.

[118] See 'Ch. K.,' p. 33.

[119] See above, p. 95.

[120] See Index--'Sumiyoshi.'

[121] See p. 114.

[122] See above, p. 92.

[123] _Nihongi_, i. 22.

[124] See Index--'Wind-Gods.'

[125] In Yucatan there were four Wind-Gods, who upheld the four corners

of Heaven.

[126] See above, p. 109.

[127] _Nihongi_, i. 115.

[128] _Nihongi_, i. 44.

[129] Is it possible that Fuji no yama is really for Futsu no yama, the

mountain of fire?

[130] The sword was deified in Teutonic myth.

[131] "So called," says Hirata, "because heat makes things grow."

[132] See Index--_Ho-shidzume_, Fire-drill.

[133] As a source of food?

[134] See Index--_Toshi-gohi_.

[135] See Index.

[136] Murray's 'Japan,' fifth edit., p. 383.

[137] See Index--'Red.'

[138] See Index--_Yabune_.

[139] Compare our "nave," from the Latin _navis_.

[140] See below, p. 186.

[141] See Index, _s.v._

[142] See above, p. 86.

[143] In Japanese _In_ and _Yō_.

[144] See above, p. 129.

[145] Rhys, 'Celtic Heathendom,' p. 115.

[146] 'In Japan,' edited by Capt. Brinkley.