THE PANTHEON, MAN DEITIES.
I. DEIFIED INDIVIDUAL MEN.
None of the _Dii majores_ of the more ancient Shinto are deified
individual men, and although it is highly probable that some of the
inferior mythical personages were originally human beings, I am unable
to point to a case of this kind which rests on anything more than
conjecture.
=Take-minakata=, the deity of Suha in Shinano, may be a real ancestral
deity. He is very popular at the present day. This God is not mentioned
in the _Nihongi_, but his legend is given in the _Kojiki_[147] and
_Kiujiki_. He was a son of Ohonamochi, who, after his father's
submission, refused allegiance to the Sun-Goddess and fled to Suha,
where he was obliged to surrender, his life being spared. Tradition
says that the present Oho-hafuri, or chief priests of Suha, are direct
descendants of this deity. The inhabitants hold that the God _is_ the
Oho-hafuri, and that the Oho-hafuri _is_ the God. An oracle of the
God is quoted to this effect: "I have no body, the _hafuri_ is my
body." His house is called the _shinden_ or divine dwelling. He never
leaves the neighbourhood, and takes precedence of the chief local
official. At every change of office the newly appointed high priest
formerly received a cap of honour and robes from the Palace of Kiôto.
He takes no active part in the ceremonies of the annual festival,
but sits on a chair in the middle of the sacred plot of ground and
receives the obeisances of the people. This festival is called the
_mi-hashira-matsuri_ or "festival of the august pillars." It is so
called because instead of a shrine there is only a plot of ground
containing a "rock-cave"[148] with a great wooden post at each of the
four corners.
=Hachiman=.--The War-God Hachiman is one of the most conspicuous of
the later Shinto deities. His origin is really unknown, but he is
placed provisionally among deified human beings in accordance with the
accepted tradition which makes him identical with the very legendary
Mikado Ôjin. The ultimate authority for this statement is an oracle of
the God himself delivered hundreds of years after Ôjin's death. There
is no mention of his worship in the _Kojiki_ or _Nihongi_, and the
legends which carry it back to A.D. 570 are unworthy of credence. The
original seat of this cult was Usa, in the province of Buzen, an old
Shinto centre. Hachiman seems to have first come into notice in 720,
when he rendered efficient assistance in repelling a descent of Koreans
on Japan. Forty years later Kiyomaro, the founder of the great Minamoto
family, made use of his oracles to thwart the ambitious projects of a
priest named Dôkiô, the Wolsey of Japanese history. The rise of the
Minamoto family carried with it that of the God who had been so useful
to them. In Seiwa's reign (859-880) a temple was erected to him at
Ihashimidzu near Kiôto, where he received Imperial presents, and even
visits. In 1039 he was given a high place in the State religion.
Hachiman is nominally a Shinto God. His Shinto quality is recognized
in various ways, notably by the erection of the distinctive Shinto
gateways known as _torii_, before his shrines. But his cult is deeply
tinctured with Buddhism. The numerous inspired utterances ascribed to
him are thoroughly Buddhist in character. In several of these he calls
himself Bosatsu (Bodhisattwa), which is a Buddhist term something
like our saint. He is also credited with giving instructions for the
celebration of an annual festival for the release of living things,
which is, of course, a humanitarian Buddhist institution, wholly
foreign to the _rôle_ of a Japanese War-God.
The _shintai_ of Hachiman may be a pillow, a fly-brush, an arm-rest, or
a white stone.
Other legendary mortals, who in later times were honoured as War-Gods,
are Jimmu, the founder of the Imperial dynasty, Jingō, the conqueror
of Korea, Takechi no Sakune, her counsellor, and Prince Yamato-dake,
the hero who subdued the east of Japan. None of these are treated as
deities in the older Shinto books.
=Temmangu=, the God of Learning and Calligraphy, is undoubtedly a
deified human being.
"_There is nobody in the world, high or low, old or young, man or
woman, who does not look up with reverence to the Divine power of
Temmangu. More especially children who are learning to read and write,
and their teachers, all without exception, enjoy his blessings. Every
one is therefore desirous of knowing the exact truth concerning him.
But there are many false notions handed down by vulgar tradition.
Chinese scholars have wantonly done violence to the history of an awful
deity by introducing Chinese ideas, while the Buddhists, on the other
hand, have been guilty of disfiguring the story by all manner of forced
analogies. Sad to say, there is no book in which the real facts have
been set down after investigation._"
The above is the exordium of a preface to a short life of Temmangu,
prepared by Shintoists of the Hirata school. Of the work itself the
following is a brief summary. The main facts of the story are beyond
question. But the reader will see that, notwithstanding the claims put
forward in the preface, this work must be taken with not a few grains
of salt.
Temmangu's name as a mortal man was Sugahara Michizane. He was born
in 845, and came of a family which had a hereditary reputation for
learning. Nomi no Sukune, deified as the patron of wrestlers and
potters, was one of his ancestors. Through him Michizane traced his
descent up to the Sun-Goddess herself. As a child he was fond of study,
and at an early age his knowledge of Chinese was such that he was
appointed to entertain an ambassador from China. Being ordered by the
Mikado to pray for rain, he observed the rules of ritual purity for
several days, and then prepared a form of prayer to the God of Hakusan
(Izanagi), which had the desired effect. He established a system of
national education, and therefore became known as the "Father of
letters." On reaching his fiftieth year he received congratulations and
a present of gold dust from a genie. Soon afterwards he was made Prime
Minister. In 901, owing to the calumnies of a rival statesman, he fell
into unmerited disgrace and was banished to Kiushiu. On his departure
he addressed the following lines to a plum tree in his garden:--
When the east wind[149] blows,
Emit thy perfume
Oh thou plum-blossom;
Forget not the spring,
Because thy master is away.
A branch of this tree broke off spontaneously and followed him into
exile. There it planted itself in the ground and took root. Two years
after, Michizane climbed a high mountain and, standing on tiptoe on
the summit, prayed with all his heart and all his body for seven days
and seven nights to Tentei (the Supreme Lord of Heaven). Whilst doing
so his hair and beard turned white. The Tentō (way of Heaven) had
doubtless pity on an innocent man, for a cloud overspread the sky and
bore up his petition into the Great Void. Michizane, overjoyed that
his prayers were answered, made nine obeisances and retired. He died
soon after, in his fifty-ninth year, to the great grief of the whole
nation. Two years later, in accordance with a divine inspiration, a
small shrine was erected to him under the title of Tem-man-ten-jin
(the heavenly Kami who fills the heavens). In a few years Michizane's
calumniator died by a curse from him. Other members of his family
had the same fate. From the ears of one of his enemies small snakes
issued who declared themselves the messengers of Michizane. When Prince
Yasuaki died, in 923, everybody said that his death was owing to a
curse sent by Michizane's spirit. Then the Minister of State Kintada
died suddenly. Three days after, he came alive again, and informed the
Mikado that he had been to the Court of the King of Hades, where he saw
Michizane, ten feet high, present a petition for an inquiry into the
crime committed by the Mikado in banishing him unjustly. Influenced
by Kintada's report, the Mikado burnt the decree of exile, recalled
Michizane's children, and conferred posthumous honours upon him. But
the angry ghost was still unappeased. In 929 it came down from Heaven
and appeared to a former friend of his. Terrible storms, inundations,
and other portents ensued. Ministers who tried to stay him from further
ravages were burnt or kicked to death. Ultimately the ghost appeared
before the Mikado and protested his innocence, after which the Kami, as
he is called, ascended. From this day forth the Mikado suffered from a
poison which, in spite of prayers of all kinds, grew worse and worse.
He abdicated in 930, and died a few days later.
Michizane's ghost continued to plague the nation. In 943 he appeared to
a mean woman of Kiôto, and directed that a shrine should be erected to
him in that city. In 947 a boy of six years of age delivered an oracle
from him to the following effect: "All the Thunder-Gods and Demons to
the number of 168,000 have become my servants. If any one does evil
I have him trampled to death by them. Pestilence, eruptive diseases,
and other calamities have been placed in my hands by the Supreme Lord
of Heaven, and no Kami, however powerful, can control me. But I will
give help to those who piously express their sorrow." Eight persons
who were present took down this revelation in writing. At this time
the shrine of Kitano at Kiôto was erected to him. But his wrath was
not yet wholly stayed. Further honours were therefore awarded and
gifts made to him. In 1004 the Mikado visited Kitano in person. At the
present day Temmangu is one of the most widely worshipped of Shinto
deities. In 1820 there were twenty-five shrines to him in Yedo and the
neighbourhood.
_"He still hates the wicked, who do not keep the way of filial
piety, and withholds his favour from those who dislike learning. You
must therefore attend strictly to the commands of your parents and
the instructions of your teachers. You must serve your chief with
diligence, be upright of heart, eschew falsehood, and be diligent in
study so that you may conform to the wishes of Temmangu. If you fail to
do so, you will be cursed by him, and sooner or later incur calamity.
For although the Kami cannot be seen by men, they will know whether
their conduct is good or bad, and whether their hearts are upright or
perverted."_
Although the life of Temmangu, from which the above account is taken,
was compiled by men of the "Pure Shinto" school, and though in the
preface the importation of Buddhist and Chinese ideas is stigmatized,
it is itself penetrated with elements of this very kind. The "Supreme
Lord of Heaven" is Chinese, and the Hades to which Michizane descended
is not the Shinto Yomi, but the Buddhist Jigoku. No doubt the authors
found these things in their materials, and were loth to excise edifying
incidents, however badly they fitted in with Shinto theology.
The acquaintance of the Japanese with the Chinese cult of Confucius
must have greatly promoted, if it did not originate the worship of a
native God of Learning. It will be observed that the attribution of
nature-powers to Michizane was a substantial part of the process of
deification, which was based on the alternate influence of the emotions
of gratitude and fear.
Nomi no Sukune, the Patron-God of wrestlers, was probably a real human
being. Hitomaro, the Poet-God, was undoubtedly so. Another muse of
poetry, Sotoöri-hime, belongs to more legendary times, but was probably
likewise a real person. Iyeyasu, the founder of the last dynasty of
Shöguns, was deified under the title of Töshö Gongen, but this, like
many other similar apotheoses, is, in reality, Buddhist rather than
Shinto.
II. GODS OF CLASSES.
=Ministers and Attendants of the Sun-Goddess=.--The application of the
hereditary principle to Government offices has had many vicissitudes in
Japan. When the country emerges into the light of history, both Court
offices and local chieftaincies were usually transmitted from father
to son. Among the hereditary institutions of this kind were the Be.
The Be were Government corporations charged with some special branch
of service. There were Be of weavers, of farmers, of potters, &c., a
Be for the supply of necessaries to the Palace, an executioner's Be,
and others. If we imagine a dockyard staff in which the director and
officials belonged to a governing caste, the artisans being serfs, and
the whole having a more or less hereditary character, we shall have a
tolerably correct idea of a Be.
The Gods of five Be are represented as in attendance on the
Sun-Goddess, and as accompanying Ninigi to Earth when he was sent down
to be its ruler. These were:--
=Koyane=, ancestor of the Nakatomi[150] House. The etymology of Koyane
is uncertain. The worship of this deity had a special importance, from
the fact that he was the Ujigami[151] of the Fujihara family, a branch
of the Nakatomi, which for many centuries supplied a large proportion
of the Empresses and Ministers of State. It would hardly be too much
to say that the Fujiharas _were_ the Imperial House. The _shintai_ of
Koyane was a jewel or _shaku_, that is, a tablet borne by Ministers as
an emblem of office. Hirata identifies with him a deity named Koto no
machi no Kami, or God of Divination. The corresponding deity in the
Idzumo myth of Ohonamochi was Ama no hohi. The supposed descendants of
this deity had charge of the sacred fire which was handed over by one
generation to another with great ceremony.
=Futodama=.--Futodama means great gift or offering. The Imi-be,[152]
his reputed descendants, discharged a number of duties connected with
the State religious ceremonies, including the provision of sacrificial
offerings.
=Uzume= means "dread female." She was the ancestress of the Sarume, or
"monkey female," who performed religious dances (_kagura_) at Court
and delivered inspired utterances. Hirata identifies this deity with
Oho-miya no me (great-palace-female), worshipped as one of the eight
Gods of the Jingikwan, or Department of Religion. She represents the
chief lady officials of the Palace as a class. Uzume, in announcing
to the Sun-Goddess the approach of Susa no wo, discharged one of
their duties. From another point of view she is a type of the wise
woman, sorceress, or prophetess. She was prayed to for long life,
for protection from evil by night and by day, for honours, and for
posterity. One of the _norito_ splits up Oho-miya no me into five
separate deities.
=Ishikoridome= means apparently "the stonecutter." Why should the
supposed ancestor of the mirror-makers have received this name? The
circumstance that stone moulds for casting bronze objects have been
found in Japan suggests a possible answer.
=Toyo-tama=, "rich jewel," the ancestor of the jewel-makers' Be,
requires no explanation.
The _Kiujiki_ gives a list of thirty-two deities as forming the
Court of Ninigi on his descent to Earth, and adds the names of the
noble families who were descended from them. A few of these are
nature-deities. Of the remainder some _may_ be deified real men, but I
prefer to reckon them provisionally along with such class conceptions
as Tommy Atkins, John Bull, Brother Jonathan, and Mrs. Grundy.
=Koto-shiro-nushi= is one of those secondary formations in which the
personification of nature and the deification of man meet and mingle.
As the son and counsellor of the Earth-God and Creator Ohonamochi he
is related to the class of nature-deities, while as an individualized
type of a class of human beings and as the supposed ancestor of certain
noble families he belongs to the current of thought which exalts man to
divinity.
_Shiro_ in this God's name is for _shiru_, "to know," and so to
attend to, to manage, to govern. Koto-shiro-nushi is, therefore,
"thing-govern-master." The character and functions of this deity
are not well defined. He was one of the Gods who advised Jingô's
famous expedition against Korea, on which occasion he described
himself as "the Deity who rules in Heaven, who rules in the Void,
the gem-casket-entering-prince, the awful Koto-shiro-nushi." In the
Ohonamochi myth he is represented as his father's chief counsellor.
Owing to his services in persuading him to transfer the Government of
Japan to Ninigi without resistance, he was held in great honour at
the Mikado's Court, of which he was considered one of the principal
protectors. The Jingikwan included him among the eight Gods specially
worshipped by them to the neglect of many more important deities,
including even his father, Ohonamochi. In the _Manyôshiu_ he is called
upon by a lover to punish him if he is insincere in his protestations.
In modern times the cult of Koto-shiro-nushi has fallen into decay,
while that of his rebellious younger brother, the God of Suha,
flourishes greatly. The pious Motoöri is much perplexed and grieved by
this state of things.
=Sukuna-bikona=.--Another God who is associated with Ohonamochi in myth
and worship is the dwarf deity,[153] Sukuna-bikona (little-prince). He
is said to have taught mankind the arts of brewing, magic and medicine,
and to have provided medicinal thermal springs, where he is still
worshipped. But in modern times his cult has been greatly superseded by
that of Yakushi the Indian Esculapius, whose avatar he is supposed to
be.
I take Sukuna-bikona to be a deified type of medicine man, a "Father of
medicine" in the abstract. But the story related of him[154] may have
some foundation in the history of a real person.
III. GODS OF ABSTRACT HUMAN QUALITIES.
=Sahe no kami=.--The Sahe no kami are phallic deities. In approaching
this subject, it behoves me to walk warily. For, to some writers so
repulsive that they shirk even its necessary elucidation, it exercises
a fascination upon others which is not conducive to sound reasoning.
Has not a President of the Anthropological Institute declared that
"so soon as a man begins to study phallicism he goes crazy"? With
phallicism we may conveniently associate the corresponding cult of the
_kteis_.
In Japan, the phallus symbolizes two distinct, although not unrelated,
principles. Primarily, it represents the generative or procreative
power, and is recognized in this capacity by myth and custom. By a
natural transition it has become the symbol of the more abstract
conception of lusty animal life, the foe to death and disease. Hence
its use as a magical prophylactic appliance. In Shinto, this latter
principle is much the more prominent. It is embodied in the name Sahe
no kami, which means "preventive deities." The application of this
epithet is clear from the circumstance that in a _norito_ they are
invoked for protection against the "unfriendly and savage beings of
the Root Country," that is to say Yomi or Hades. These by no means
imaginary personages are the same as the Ugly Females, the thunders
generated from Izanami's dead body and the armies of Yomi of myth.[155]
They represent, or rather are identical with, diseases and other
evils associated with death and the grave. Epidemic and contagious
diseases are specially intended. Hence the Sahe no kami are also
called Yakushin, or "Pestilence Deities," meaning the Gods who ward
off pestilence, a phrase wrongly taken in later times to signify the
Gods who produce pestilence. The use of the _phallus_ and _kteis_ for
this purpose is primarily magical, and rests on the wellknown principle
that a symbol possesses something of the virtue of the thing which it
represents. The deification of these symbols came later.
In the _norito_ entitled Michiahe[156] there are three Sahe
no kami, namely, Yachimata-hiko, Yachimata-hime, and Kunado.
The first two of these names mean "eight-road-fork-prince" and
"eight-road-fork-princess." Kunado is the "come-not-place," and is,
therefore, an equivalent to a notice of "no thoroughfare" addressed to
any evil beings who might attempt to pass that way. An alternative form
of this word is Funado, or "pass-not-place."
There is a good deal of confusion about the Sahe no kami.
Yachimata-hiko and Yachimata-hime are not mentioned in the _Kojiki_ or
_Nihongi_. The _Kiujiki_ has a Chimata no kami (God of the Crossways),
which it says is also termed Kunado no kami, and adds two others named
Naga-chiha no kami and Michijiki no kami, both of which names imply a
connexion with highways. The _Nihongi_ makes five of these deities,
adding two to the three of the _Kiujiki_. All are associated in some
way or another with Izanagi's descent to Yomi, having been produced
either from the articles flung down by him during his flight thence,
or when he washed in the sea in order to purify himself from the
pollutions contracted during his visit.
These deities had no temples. The festivals in their honour took place
at crossways on the four sides of the capital, or at the frontier of
the metropolitan province, regularly at the close of the sixth and
twelfth months, and at other times upon occasions of emergency. Thus
in 735, during an epidemic, the Governor of Dazaifu in Kiushiu was
ordered to celebrate a _michi-ahe_, or Road festival, and in 839 the
Mikado directed that honours should be paid to the Gods of Pestilence.
A ceremony in honour of the Sahe no kami was also performed two days
before the arrival of foreign envoys in the capital, in order to
guard against the danger of their bringing with them infection, evil
influences, or demons from abroad.[157]
A work entitled 'Fusô Ryakki' states that in 938 Gods were carved in
wood and set up face to face along the highways and byways, or female
forms were made and set up opposite to males. Children worshipped
them boisterously, and made reverent offerings of pieces of cloth and
fragrant flowers. They were called Chimata no kami, that is to say
"Gods of the Crossways," or Mitama (august spirits), a term which in
its Chinese form Goryō is still preserved in the name of the great
festival (Goryōye) of Gion at Kiôto. The Chimata no kami can be no
other than Yachimata-hiko and Yachimata-hime. A later notice speaks of
the worship of wooden figures, male and female, provided with sexual
organs. Similar figures in stone may still, Hirata says, be seen in
the eastern provinces, where they are sometimes mistaken for Jizō, the
Buddhist children's God, and honoured in the temples.
The third of the Sahe no kami of the _norito_, namely, Kunado, can be
nothing but a simple phallus. Its shape, formed of Izanagi's staff, is
consistent with this view. In the Tsujiura, or Cross Roads divination,
this God was represented by a staff. The same inference is suggested
by its association with Yachimata-hiko and Yachimata-hime, who, as
we have seen, were unquestionably phallic deities; and also with
the peach, which, like Kunado himself, was used by Izanagi for his
protection against the evil beings of Yomi. Like the apricot in India
and the pomegranate in ancient Greece, the peach is in China and Japan
the acknowledged representative of the _kteis_, as the pestle and
the mushroom are of the phallus. Peach-wood staves were used in the
_oni-yarahi_ (demon-expelling) ceremony on the last day of the year.
A similar interpretation is, perhaps, applicable to the horseshoes
nailed over doors in England which, intended at first to keep out
evil spirits, are now meant simply "for luck," in accordance with the
tendency for the more special functions of Gods and magical appliances
to become obscured and merged in a hazy, general notion of their
beneficence or usefulness. Peach-shaped charms from China figure in a
London tradesman's catalogue which has just reached me.
There is a custom, called _sammai_, of scattering rice, which was
formerly observed at purification ceremonies, and is kept up at the
present day in rooms where there is a new-born child. Hirata tells
of a case in which the rice so scattered was found marked with
blood-stains, showing, as he infers, that the object of this practice
was to drive off demons, not to conciliate them by an offering. I have
more than a suspicion that the efficacy of rice for this purpose, and
also of the beans used to drive off demons on the last day of the
year,[158] is due to a resemblance of this kind.[159]
The _wo-bashira_ (male-pillar) is doubtless only a modified Kunado.
This term is applied to the end-post of the railing of a bridge or of
the balustrade of a staircase, and is so called from its obviously
phallic shape and function. It is a post surmounted by a large knob,
and its position commanding the thoroughfare shows that it is intended
to arrest the passage of evil beings or influences. It is still to
be seen everywhere in Japan, but its meaning is now forgotten. The
end-tooth of a comb was also called _wo-bashira_. We now see the
significance of Izanagi's selection of this object for converting into
a torch in order to light up the darkness of Yomi. In Italy even at the
present day the phallus fulfils a similar function.
The phallus appears in another form at the festival held in honour of
the Sahe no Kami on the first full moon in every year. The _Makura no
Sōshi_, written about A.D. 1000, tells us that it was then the custom
for the boys in the Imperial Palace to go about striking the younger
women with the potsticks used for making gruel on this occasion. This
was supposed to ensure fertility. It reminds us of the Roman practice
at the spring festival of Lupercalia, alluded to by Shakespeare in his
'Julius Cæsar':--
"Forget not in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calphurnia; for our elders say
The barren touched in this holy chase
Shake off their steril curse."
The Japanese novelist and antiquary Kiōden, writing about a century
ago, informs us that a similar custom was at that time still practised
in the province of Echigo. He gives a drawing of the sticks used for
the purpose, of the phallic character of which there can be no doubt.
They were called _kedzurikake_ (part-shaved), and consisted of wands
whittled near the top into a mass of adherent shavings, as in the
illustration.
_Kedzurikake_ of elder or willow are still made in some places. In
Harima, on the 14th day of the 1st month, _kedzurikake_ are hung up
under the eaves in substitution for the _kadomatsu_, or fir trees
placed by the entrance gate at the New Year. In Suwo, _kedzurikake_,
made of a thorny tree called _tara_, are placed on each side of the
front and back doors at this season, no doubt with the object of
averting evil influences. When the _kadomatsu_ and other New Year's
decorations are removed on the 15th day of the 1st month, they are
in many places collected by the boys as material for a bonfire. This
is called _dondo_ or _sagichō_, and the burning of the _kedzurikake_
is a feature of it. In the Yamagata ken, wherever there are stone
images of Dōsōjin, the phallic God of Roads,[160] the boys at this
time make a bonfire of fir trees and straw, and build for themselves
a hut beside it. When the people assemble, they come out and fire it.
If the dumplings made on the 14th are roasted in this fire and eaten,
malignant diseases need not be feared during the ensuing half year. In
Hitachi this hut is called the "Hall of the Sai no Kami." The embers
are used for re-lighting the domestic fires or kept as charms against
pestilence.
[Illustration]
Fire, kindled from _kedzurikake_ after prayer, was given out to
the people by the priests of Gion in Kiōto on the last day of the
year. It was transferred to a slow match, and used for rekindling
the household fires, the object being to prevent pestilence during
the coming year.[161] The mythical burning of a _wobashira_ (also a
phallic emblem) by Izanagi in Yomi was probably suggested by some such
custom.[162] It will be observed that the prophylactic virtue of the
phallus has not been forgotten in the _kedzurikake_.
The _kedzurikake_ are sometimes described as the _shintai_ of
Dōsōjin, and are placed on the domestic altar to be worshipped as
his representative. They are also, by a known confusion of ideas,
presented to the Gods as offerings. The Ainus of Yezo, who have adopted
the _kedzurikake_ as the general form of offering to their Gods at
all times, and attach to it no phallic signification, were no doubt
familiar with this use of it by their Japanese neighbours. It is by
them called _inao_ or _nusa_, the latter being the old Japanese word
for offering. The facility with which such offerings could be prepared
by savages must have been a recommendation.
The two cylindrical _shingi_, or "divine sticks," eight or nine inches
in circumference and one foot long, thrown to the crowd by the priests
of Seidaiji, near Okayama, on the night of the 14th day of the 1st
month, and called _o fuku_ (luck), to keep off pestilence and bring
prosperity, are probably of phallic origin.
The gruel partaken of at the Sahe no Kami festival on the 15th of
the 1st month was made of rice, and was coloured with an admixture
of the small red bean called _adzuki_.[163] The bean is a well-known
synonym in Japan for the _kteis_. The colour red is also significant.
It suggests the ruddy complexion of health caused by an abundance of
life-giving blood in the lips and cheeks. Children love this colour.
Max Nordau says: "As a feeling of pleasure is always connected with
dynamogeny or the production of force, every living thing instinctively
seeks for dynamogenous sense impressions. Now red is especially
dynamogenous." In 'Œdipus Tyrannus,' the Chorus invoke the aid of
ruddy-faced Bacchus against pestilence. In Korea red is a terror to
devils. A modern Japanese writer says that red is obnoxious to devils
on account of its cheerful appearance.
Small-pox being a _Kijin biō_, or demon-sent disease, the colour red is
freely employed in combating it. The candles at the bedside are red,
and the clothing of the patient and nurse. The God of Small-pox is
worshipped with offerings of red _gohei_ (there is here some confusion
of ideas) and of red _adzuki_ beans. Red paper is hung round the necks
of the bottles of _sake_ offered to him. Red _papier maché_ figures of
Daruma are placed near the sick-bed. It is explained that red, being
a _yô_ (male, bright, positive) colour, is fitted to counteract dark,
wintry, negative influences. The potency of red as a charm against
small-pox is not unknown to European folk-lore.
Phalli are coloured a bright red, or, what comes to the same thing,
gilt. Saruta-hiko, a phallic deity, has a bright red complexion. Torii
are painted red. Demons and stage villains have red faces, probably as
an indication of great animal vigour.
Griffis, in his 'Mikado's Empire,' tells us that "when by reason of
good fortune or a lucky course of events there is great joy in a
family it is customary to make _kowameshi_, or red rice, and give
an entertainment to friends and neighbours. The rice is coloured by
boiling red beans with it. If for any cause the colour is not a fine
red, it is a bad omen for the family." There is a modern superstition
that if, on the 7th day of the 1st month, a male swallows seven, and
a female fourteen red beans, they will be free from sickness all their
lives.
The _Tō-yū-ki_, a work published in 1795, has the following:--
_"In many places along the highway at Atsumi, in the province of
Deha, where the cliffs stand up steeply on both sides, shime-naha are
stretched across from one cliff to another. Below these shime-naha
there are placed skilfully carved wooden phalli fronting the road.
They are very large, being seven or eight feet in length and perhaps
three or four feet in circumference. I thought this too shocking, and
questioned the inhabitants why they did so. Their answer was that it
was a very ancient custom. They were called Sai no kami,[164] and were
made afresh every year on the 15th day of the 1st month. As they were
local Gods, they were by no means neglectful of them, allowing them
to remain even when high officials passed that way. They were not at
all, I was told, put up for the amusement of the young folks. Moreover,
seeing a number of slips of paper attached to the shime-naha, I
inquired what they might be. It appeared that they were fastened there
secretly by the women of the place as a prayer for handsome lovers.
Truly this is one of those old customs which linger in remote parts.
Phalli and ktenes of stone are worshipped by the country-folks in many
places as the shintai of their ujigami."_
The selection of a rocky pass for the erection of these objects,
and the association with them of _shime-naha_,[165] show that their
original function, namely, to prevent the passage of evil beings or
influences, was not forgotten. The prayers of the women betray a
misconception of the proper object of this cult.
Near the end of the _Kogojiui_ there is a passage which makes mention
of the phallus as a magical appliance. As it has some anthropological
interest, I quote it at length:
_"Of yore, in the age of the Gods, Oho-toko-nushi no Kami
(great-earth-master-deity), on a day that he was cultivating a
rice-field, gave his labourers the flesh of oxen to eat. At this
time the child of Mi-toshi no Kami (august-harvest-god) went to
that rice-field and spat upon the food, after which he returned and
reported the matter to his father. Mi-toshi no Kami was wroth and let
loose locusts on that field, so that the leaves of the young rice
suddenly withered away and it became like dwarf bamboos. Upon this
Oho-toko-nushi no Kami caused the diviners to ascertain by their art
the reason of this. They replied that it was owing to a curse sent by
Mi-toshi no Kami, and advised him to offer a white pig, a white horse,
and a white cock in order to dispel his anger. When amends had been
made to Mi-toshi no Kami in the manner directed, the latter replied,
saying: 'Truly it was my doing. Take bare stalks of hemp, and make
of them a reel with which to reel it, take the leaves and sweep it
therewith, take "push-grass"[166] of Heaven and push it therewith.
Take, moreover, crow-fan[167] and fan it, and if then the locusts do
not depart, take ox-flesh and place it in the runnels, adding to it
shapes of the male stem (phalli). Moreover, strew the banks of earth
between the fields with water-lily seeds, ginger, walnut leaves and
salt.' When these instructions were carried out the leaves of the young
rice became thick again, and the harvest was a plentiful one. This is
the reason why at the present day the Department of Religion worships
Mi-toshi no Kami with offerings of a white pig, a white horse, and a
white cock."_
The facts quoted in the preceding pages show that there was some
confusion between the use of the male and female emblems as
non-religious magical appliances and their cult as deities. Primarily
they were symbols, next objects of magic. Finally Religion intervened,
and by her handmaids Personification and Myth raised them to the
rank of deities, consecrating this step still further by devoting a
formal ritual to their service. The _kteis_ has received somewhat less
attention than the phallus. It is no doubt identical with the Yachimata
hime of the Michiahe _norito_, and in the _Kojiki_, its representative
the peach is dubbed _kami_. But the _Nihongi_ in the parallel passage
merely speaks of its efficacy in repelling evil spirits, and refrains
from deifying or even personifying it.
The circumstance that the Sahe no Kami were worshipped by the roadsides
and at crossways[168] led to their being looked upon as guide-Gods
and the special friends of travellers. Saruta-hiko, a phallic deity,
represented as dwelling at the eight crossways of Heaven, is said to
have acted as guide to Ninigi on his descent to earth. He is popularly
called Dōsōjin, or Road-ancestor-deity, and is depicted as of gigantic
stature, with a portentously long nose, which (the suggestion is not
mine) may perhaps have a phallic morphological signification.
The worship of these deities was extremely popular in ancient Japan.
They were much appealed to in divination,[169] and were prayed to by
most travellers when starting on a journey. The phrase _chi buri no
Kami_ (Gods along the road) means the Sahe no Kami. The Sahe no Kami
were the _mitama par excellence_. They were also called _tamuke no
Kami_ (Gods of offerings) because travellers were in the habit of
carrying a _nusa-bukuro_ (offering-bag) containing hemp leaves and
rice, of which a little was offered to each of them when passing. All
unforeseen disasters or illnesses on a journey were attributed to a
neglect of the worship of these deities.
But a very little advance in enlightenment shows that the sexual
instincts need restraint[170] rather than the stimulus which they must
derive from such a cult. So early as A.D. 939 a deity of this kind
which stood in a conspicuous position in Kiōto, and was worshipped by
all travellers, was removed to a less prominent situation. Phallicism
ultimately disappeared from official Shinto. But it lingered long in
popular customs, and is not quite extinct even at the present day,
especially in eastern Japan. I have myself witnessed a procession
in which a phallus, several feet high and painted a bright red, was
carried on a bier by a crowd of coolies in festal uniform, shouting,
laughing, and zig-zagging tumultuously from one side of the street
to another. In the lupanars they are honoured by having a lamp of
simple construction kept burning before them, and are prayed to by the
proprietor for numerous clients. The boys' festival of _dondo_, on the
15th of the 1st month, still retains traces of its phallic origin.[171]
=Oni=.--_Oni_, or demons, have no individual names. It is clear from
the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ mythical narratives that the _oni_ exorcised
by means of the peach[172] are the same as the "thunders" and the
"armies of Yomi." In other words, they are primarily personified
diseases.[173] They afterwards lost this specific character. Motoöri
defines _oni_ as _ashiki kami_, or "evil deity." He condemns their
identification by the _Wamiôshô_ with the spirits of the dead. There
is a story of a tenth-century hero who cut off the arm of an _oni_ and
brought it home with him, but was tricked out of it by the owner, who
came to his house in the disguise of an old woman.
The _oni_ have red faces, hairy persons, horns, and sometimes only one
eye. They are said to devour men. The modern ideas respecting them are
mostly borrowed from Buddhist sources.
=Gods of Good and Ill Luck=.--Among deified human properties we may
reckon the Gods of Good and Ill Luck produced when Izanagi washed in
the sea after his return from Yomi. Their names, Naobi and Magatsubi,
contain the elements _nao_, straight, and _maga_, crooked.
Naki-sahame, the Goddess of weeping, Ta-jikara-wo (hand-strength-male),
whose _shintai_ is a bow, and Omohi-kane, the thought combiner, are
rather mythical personages than deities on the effective list. It is
doubtful whether Mari no kami, the foot-ball God, who has three faces,
is a personification of skill or a hazy, imaginative recollection of
some distinguished player.
The very terrible deity known as Bimbō-gami, the God of Poverty, is of
later origin.
FOOTNOTES:
[147] See Ch. K., p. 102.
[148] Probably a sepulchral dolmen. There are many in this district,
said to be the tombs of Minakata's descendants.
[149] The east is in Japan the soft wind--our zephyr.
[150] See Index, _Nakatomi_.
[151] See Index, _Ujigami_.
[152] See Index, _Imibe_.
[153] "There lies in dwarfs a special acquaintance with the healing
virtues hidden in herbs."--Grimm, 'Teutonic Mythology.'
[154] See above, p. 107.
[155] See above, p. 93.
[156] See Index, _Michiahe_.
[157] "Before strangers are allowed to enter a district certain
ceremonies are often performed by the natives of the country for the
purpose of disarming them of their magical powers, of counteracting
the baleful influence which is believed to emanate from them, or of
disinfecting, so to speak, the tainted atmosphere with which they are
supposed to be surrounded."--Frazer's 'Golden Bough,' i. 150.
[158] See Index, _Tsuina_.
[159] Eustathius, the commentator on Homer, points out that the
barley-corn denoted the vulva with the writers upon the Bacchic Komuses.
[160] I have before me a picture of a Dōsōjin. It stands at
cross-roads, and is a phalloid natural boulder over which depends a
_shimenaha_ supported by two bamboos. In front of it are little piles
of stones, of which the similar offerings to the Buddhist children's
God Jizōsama are doubtless a survival. The modern practice of bringing
the Jizō of the neighbourhood and dumping them down before the lodging
of a newly-married couple is no doubt a similar case of survival. A
custom which began with the Dōsōjin is continued with the Jizō, which
now occupy their place at crossways.
[161] We may compare with this an old English custom mentioned by Brand
of the priests blessing candles at Candlemas and distributing them to
the people, "so that the Divil may fly out of the habitation."
[162] See above, p. 93.
[163] _Phaseolus radiatus_.
[164] The modern spelling _sai_ implies an altered conception of the
function of these objects. It means good luck, a vaguer and more
general idea than _sahe_, which means prevention (of disease).
[165] See Index.
[166] The names of plants.
[167] The names of plants.
[168] Crossways had a special sanctity in many countries. The Hermæ of
ancient Greece stood at crossways.
[169] See Index, _Tsuji-ura_.
[170] Measures were taken in ancient Greece to check the excesses of
the Bacchanalian rites.
[171] For further evidence on this subject, Dr. Buckley's 'Phallicism
in Japan' (Chicago, 1895), the _Nihongi_, i. 11, and Dr. Griffis's
'Religions of Japan' may be consulted.
[172] Nihongi, i. 30.
[173] According to St. Augustine, the devils of Scripture are our
passions and unbridled appetites.