two kinds of religious control. All his acts were regulated according
to the traditions either of the domestic or of the communal [106]
cult; and these conditions probably began with the establishment of a
settled civilization. We have also seen that the communal religion
took upon itself to enforce the observance of the household religion.
The fact will not seem strange if we remember that the underlying
idea in either cult was the same,--the idea that the welfare of the
living depended upon the welfare of the dead. Neglect of the
household rite would provoke, it was believed, the malevolence of the
spirits; and their malevolence might bring about some public
misfortune. The ghosts of the ancestors controlled nature;--fire and
flood, pestilence and famine were at their disposal as means of
vengeance. One act of impiety in a village might, therefore, bring
about misfortune to all. And the community considered itself
responsible to the dead for the maintenance of filial piety in every
home.
[107]
DEVELOPMENTS OF SHINTO
The teaching of Herbert Spencer that the greater gods of a
people--those figuring in popular imagination as creators, or as
particularly directing certain elemental forces--represent a later
development of ancestor-worship, is generally accepted to-day.
Ancestral ghosts, considered as more or less alike in the time when
primitive society had not yet developed class distinctions of any
important character, subsequently become differentiated, as the
society itself differentiates, into greater and lesser. Eventually
the worship of some one ancestral spirit, or group of spirits,
overshadows that of all the rest; and a supreme deity, or group of
supreme deities, becomes evolved. But the differentiations of the
ancestor-cult must be understood to proceed in a great variety of
directions. Particular ancestors of families engaged in hereditary
occupations may develop into tutelar deities presiding over those
occupations--patron gods of crafts and guilds. Out of other ancestral
cults, through various processes of mental association, may be
evolved the worship of deities of strength, of health, of long life,
of particular products, of particular localities. [108] When more
light shall have been thrown upon the question of Japanese origins,
it will probably be found that many of the lesser tutelar or patron
gods now worshipped in the country were originally the gods of
Chinese or Korean craftsmen; but I think that Japanese mythology, as
a whole, will prove to offer few important exceptions to the
evolutional law. Indeed, Shinto presents us with a mythological
hierarchy of which the development can be satisfactorily explained by
that law alone. Besides the Ujigami, there are myriads of superior
and of inferior deities. There are the primal deities, of whom only
the names are mentioned,--apparitions of the period of chaos; and
there are the gods of creation, who gave shape to the land. There are
the gods of earth, and, sky, and the gods of the sun and moon. Also
there are gods, beyond counting, supposed to preside over all things
good or evil in human life,--birth and marriage and death, riches and
poverty, strength and disease .... It can scarcely be supposed that
all this mythology was developed out of the old ancestor-cult in
Japan itself: more probably its evolution began on the Asiatic
continent. But the evolution of the national cult--that form of
Shinto which became the state religion--seems to have been Japanese,
in the strict meaning of the word. This cult is the worship of the
gods from whom the emperors claim descent,--the worship of the
"imperial ancestors." [109] It appears that the early emperors of
Japan--the "heavenly sovereigns," as they are called in the old
records--were not emperors at all in the true meaning of the term,
and did not even exercise universal authority. They were only the
chiefs of the most powerful clan, or Uji, and their special
ancestor-cult had probably in that time no dominant influence. But
eventually, when the chiefs of this great clan really became supreme
rulers of the land, their clan-cult spread everywhere, and
overshadowed, without abolishing, all the other cults. Then arose the
national mythology.
We therefore see that the course of Japanese ancestor-worship, like
that of Aryan ancestor-worship, exhibits those three successive
stages of development before mentioned. It may be assumed that on
coming from the continent to their present island home, the race
brought with them a rude form of ancestor-worship, consisting of
little more than rites and sacrifices performed at the graves of the
dead. When the land had been portioned out among the various clans,
each of which had its own ancestor cult, all the people of the
district belonging to any particular clan would eventually adopt the
religion of the clan ancestor; and thus arose the thousand cults of
the Ujigami. Still later, the special cult of the most powerful clan
developed into a national religion,--the worship of the goddess of
the sun, [110] from whom the supreme ruler claimed descent. Then,
under Chinese influence, the domestic form of ancestor-worship was
established in lieu of the primitive family-cult: thereafter
offerings and prayers were made regularly in the home, where the
ancestral tablets represented the tombs of the family dead. But
offerings were still made, on special occasions, at the graves; and
the three Shinto forms of the cult, together with later forms of
Buddhist introduction, continued to exist; and they rule the life of
the nation to-day.
It was the cult of the supreme ruler that first gave to the people a
written account of traditional beliefs. The mythology of the reigning
house furnished the scriptures of Shinto, and established ideas
linking together all the existing forms of ancestor-worship. All
Shinto traditions were by these writings blended into one
mythological history,--explained upon the basis of one legend. The
whole mythology is contained in two books, of which English
translations have been made. The oldest is entitled Ko-ji-ki, or
"Records of Ancient Matters"; and it is supposed to have been
compiled in the year 712 A.D. The other and much larger work is
called Nihongi, "Chronicles of Nihon [Japan]," and dates from about
720 A.D. Both works profess to be histories; but a large portion of
them is mythological, and either begins with a story of creation.
[111] They were compiled, mostly, from oral tradition we are told, by
imperial order. It is said that a yet earlier work, dating from the
seventh century, may have been drawn upon; but this has been lost. No
great antiquity can, therefore, be claimed for the texts as they
stand; but they contain traditions which must be very much
older,--possibly thousands of years older. The Ko-ji-ki is said to
have been written from the dictation of an old man of marvellous
memory; and the Shinto theologian Hirata would have us believe that
traditions thus preserved are especially trustworthy. "It is
probable," he wrote, "that those ancient traditions, preserved for us
by exercise of memory, have for that very reason come down to us in
greater detail than if they had been recorded in documents. Besides,
men must have had much stronger memories in the days before they
acquired the habit of trusting to written characters for facts which
they wished to remember,--as is shown at the present time in the case
of the illiterate, who have to depend on memory alone." We must smile
at Hirata's good faith in the changelessness of oral tradition; but I
believe that folk-lorists would discover in the character of the
older myths, intrinsic evidence of immense antiquity.--Chinese
influence is discernible in both works; yet certain parts have a
particular quality not to be found, I imagine, in anything
Chinese,--a primeval artlessness, a weirdness, and a strangeness
[112] having nothing in common with other mythical literature. For
example, we have, in the story of Izanagi, the world-maker, visiting
the shades to recall his dead spouse, a myth that seems to be purely
Japanese. The archaic naivete of the recital must impress anybody who
studies the literal translation. I shall present only the substance
of the legend, which has been recorded in a number of different
versions:*--
[*See for these different versions Aston's translation of the
Nihongi, Vol I.]
When the time came for the Fire-god, Kagu-Tsuchi, to be born, his
mother, Izanami-no-Mikoto, was burnt, and suffered change, and
departed. Then Izanagi-no-Mikoto, was wroth and said, "Oh! that I
should have given my loved younger sister in exchange for a single
child!" He crawled at her head and he crawled at her feet, weeping
and lamenting; and the tears which he shed fell down and became a
deity .... Thereafter Izanagi-no-Mikoto went after Izanami-no-Mikoto
into the Land of Yomi, the world of the dead. Then Izanami-no-Mikoto,
appearing still as she was when alive, lifted the curtain of the
palace (of the dead), and came forth to meet him; and they talked
together. And Izanagi-no-Mikoto said to her: "I have come because I
sorrowed for thee, my lovely younger sister. O my lovely younger
sister, the lands that I and thou were making together are not [113]
yet finished; therefore come back!" Then Izanami-no-Mikoto made
answer, saying, "My august lord and husband, lamentable it is that
thou didst not come sooner,--for now I have eaten of the
cooking-range of Yomi. Nevertheless, as I am thus delightfully
honoured by thine entry here, my lovely elder brother, I wish to
return with thee to the living world. Now I go to discuss the matter
with the gods of Yomi. Wait thou here, and look not upon me." So
having spoken, she went back; and Izanagi waited for her. But she
tarried so long within that he became impatient. Then, taking the
wooden comb that he wore in the left bunch of his hair, he broke off
a tooth from one end of the comb and lighted it, and went in to look
for Izanami-no-Mikoto. But he saw her lying swollen and festering
among worms; and eight kinds of Thunder-Gods sat upon her .... And
Izanagi, being overawed by that sight, would have fled away; but
Izanami rose up, crying: "Thou hast put me to shame! Why didst thou
not observe that which I charged thee?... Thou hast seen my
nakedness; now I will see thine!" And she bade the Ugly Females of
Yomi to follow after him, and slay him; and the eight Thunders also
pursued him, and Izanami herself pursued him .... Then
Izanagi-no-Mikoto drew his sword, and flourished it behind him as he
ran. But they followed close upon him. He took off his black
headdress and flung it down; [114] and it became changed into grapes;
and while the Ugly Ones were eating the grapes, he gained upon them.
But they followed quickly; and he then took his comb and cast it
down, and it became changed into bamboo sprouts; and while the Ugly
Ones were devouring the sprouts, he fled on until he reached the
mouth of Yomi. Then taking a rock which it would have required the
strength of a thousand men to lift, he blocked therewith the entrance
as Izanami came up. And standing behind the rock, he began to
pronounce the words of divorce. Then, from the other side of the
rock, Izanami cried out to him, "My dear lord and master, if thou
dost so, in one day will I strangle to death a thousand of thy
people!" And Izanagi-no-Mikoto answered her, saying, "My beloved
younger sister, if thou dost so, I will cause in one day to be born
fifteen hundred ...." But the deity Kukuri-hime-no-Kami then came,
and spake to Izanami some word which she seemed to approve, and
thereafter she vanished away ....
The strange mingling of pathos with nightmare-terror in this myth, of
which I have not ventured to present all the startling naiveti,
sufficiently proves its primitive character. It is a dream that some
one really dreamed,--one of those bad dreams in which the figure of a
person beloved becomes horribly transformed; and it has a particular
interest as [115] expressing that fear of death and of the dead
informing all primitive ancestor-worship. The whole pathos and
weirdness of the myth, the vague monstrosity of the fancies, the
formal use of terms of endearment in the moment of uttermost loathing
and fear,--all impress one as unmistakably Japanese. Several other
myths scarcely less remarkable are to be found in the Ko-ji-ki and
Nihongi; but they are mingled with legends of so light and graceful a
kind that it is scarcely possible to believe these latter to have
been imagined by the same race. The story of the magical jewels and
the visit to the sea-god's palace, for example, in the second book of
the Nihongi, sounds oddly like an Indian fairy-tale; and it is not
unlikely that the Ko-ji-ki and Nihongi both contain myths derived
from various alien sources. At all events their mythical chapters
present us with some curious problems which yet remain unsolved.
Otherwise the books are dull reading, in spite of the light which
they shed upon ancient customs and beliefs; and, generally speaking,
Japanese mythology is unattractive. But to dwell here upon the
mythology, at any length, is unnecessary; for its relation to Shinto
can be summed up in the space of a single brief paragraph--
In the beginning neither force nor form was manifest; and the world
was a shapeless mass that floated [116] like a jelly-fish upon water.
Then, in some way--we are not told how--earth and heaven became
separated; dim gods appeared and disappeared; and at last there came
into existence a male and a female deity, who gave birth and shape to
things. By this pair, Izanagi and Izanami, were produced the islands
of Japan, and the generations of the gods, and the deities of the Sun
and Moon. The descendants of these creating deities, and of the gods
whom they brought into being, were the eight thousand (or eighty
thousand) myriads of gods worshipped by Shinto. Some went to dwell in
the blue Plain of High Heaven; others remained on earth and became
the ancestors of the Japanese race.
Such is the mythology of the Ko-ji-ki and the Nihongi, stated in the
briefest possible way. At first it appears that there were two
classes of gods recognized: Celestial and Terrestrial; and the old
Shinto rituals (norito) maintain this distinction. But it is a
curious fact that the celestial gods of this mythology do not
represent celestial forces; and that the gods who are really
identified with celestial phenomena are classed as terrestrial
gods,--having been born or "produced" upon earth. The Sun and Moon,
for example, are said to have been born in Japan,--though afterwards
placed in heaven; the Sun-goddess, Ama-terasu-no-oho-Kami, having
been produced from the left eye of Izanagi, and the [117] Moon-god,
Tsuki-yomi-no-Mikoto, having been produced from the right eye of
Izanagi when, after his visit to the under-world, he washed himself
at the mouth of a river in the island of Tsukushi. The Shinto
scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries established some
order in this chaos of fancies by denying all distinction between the
Celestial and Terrestrial gods, except as regarded the accident of
birth. They also denied the old distinction between the so-called Age
of the Gods (Kami-yo), and the subsequent period of the Emperors. It
was true, they said, that the early rulers of Japan were gods; but so
were also the later rulers. The whole Imperial line, the "Sun's
Succession," represented one unbroken descent from the Goddess of the
Sun. Hirata wrote: "There exists no hard and fast line between the
Age of the Gods and the present age--and there exists no
justification whatever for drawing one, as the Nihongi does." Of
course this position involved the doctrine of a divine descent for
the whole race,--inasmuch as, according to the old mythology, the
first Japanese were all descendants of gods,--and that doctrine
Hirata boldly accepted. All the Japanese, he averred, were of divine
origin, and for that reason superior to the people of all other
countries. He even held that their divine descent could be proved
without difficulty. These are his words: "The descendants of the gods
who accompanied Ninigi-no-Mikoto [grandson of the Sun-goddess, [118]
and supposed founder of the Imperial house,]--as well as the
offspring of the successive Mikados, who entered the ranks of the
subjects of the Mikados, with the names of Taira, Minamoto, and so
forth,--have gradually increased and multiplied. Although numbers of
Japanese cannot state with certainty from what gods they are
descended, all of them have tribal names (kabane), which were
originally bestowed on them by the Mikados; and those who make it
their province to study genealogies can tell from a man's ordinary
surname, who his remotest ancestor must have been." All the Japanese
were gods in this sense; and their country was properly called the
Land of the Gods,--Shinkoku or Kami-no-kuni. Are we to understand
Hirata literally? I think so--but we must remember that there existed
in feudal times large classes of people, outside of the classes
officially recognized as forming the nation, who were not counted as
Japanese, nor even as human beings: these were pariahs, and reckoned
as little better than animals. Hirata probably referred to the four
great classes only--samurai, farmers, artizans, and merchants. But
even in that case what are we to think of his ascription of divinity
to the race, in view of the moral and physical feebleness of human
nature? The moral side of the question is answered by the Shinto
theory of evil deities, "gods of crookedness," who were alleged to
have "originated from the impurities contracted by [119] Izanagi
during his visit to the under-world." As for the physical weakness of
men, that is explained by a legend of Ninigi-no-Mikoto, divine
founder of the imperial house. The Goddess of Long Life,
Iha-naga-hime (Rock-long-princess), was sent to him for wife; but he
rejected her because of her ugliness; and that unwise proceeding
brought about "the present shortness of the lives of men." Most
mythologies ascribe vast duration to the lives of early patriarchs or
rulers: the farther we go back into mythological history, the
longer-lived are the sovereigns. To this general rule Japanese
mythology presents no exception. The son of Ninigi-no-Mikoto is said
to have lived five hundred and eighty years at his palace of
Takachiho; but that, remarks Hirata, "was a short life compared with
the lives of those who lived before him." Thereafter men's bodies
declined in force; life gradually became shorter and shorter; yet in
spite of all degeneration the Japanese still show traces of their
divine origin. After death they enter into a higher divine condition,
without, however, abandoning this world .... Such were Hirata's
views. Accepting the Shinto theory of origins, this ascription of
divinity to human nature proves less inconsistent than it appears at
first sight; and the modern Shintoist may discover a germ of
scientific truth in the doctrine which traces back the beginnings of
life to the Sun.
[120] More than any other Japanese writer, Hirata has enabled us to
understand the hierarchy of Shinto mythology,--corresponding closely,
as we might have expected, to the ancient ordination of Japanese
society. In the lowermost ranks are the spirits of common people,
worshipped only at the household shrine or at graves. Above these are
the gentile gods or Ujigami,--ghosts of old rulers now worshipped as
tutelar gods. All Ujigami, Hirata tells us, are under the control of
the Great God of Izumo,--Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami,--and, "acting as his
agents, they rule the fortunes of human beings before their birth,
during their life, and after their death." This means that the
ordinary ghosts obey, in the world invisible, the commands of the
clan-gods or tutelar deities; that the conditions of communal worship
during life continue after death. The following extract from Hirata
will be found of interest,--not only as showing the supposed relation
of the individual to the Ujigami, but also as suggesting how the act
of abandoning one's birthplace was formerly judged by common
opinion:--
"When a person removes his residence, his original Ujigami has to
make arrangements with the Ujigami of the place whither he transfers
his abode. On such occasions it is proper to take leave of the old
god, and to pay a visit to the temple of the new god as soon as
possible after coming within his jurisdiction. The apparent reasons
which a man imagines to have induced him to change his [121] abode
may be many; but the real reasons cannot be otherwise than that
either he has offended his Ujigami, and is therefore expelled, or
that the Ujigami of another place has negotiated his transfer ...."*
[*Translated by Satow. The italics are mine.]
It would thus appear that every person was supposed to be the
subject, servant, or retainer of some Ujigami, both during life and
after death. There were, of course, various grades of these
clan-gods, just as there were various grades of living rulers, lords
of the soil. Above ordinary Ujigami ranked the deities worshipped in
the chief Shinto temples of the various provinces, which temples were
termed Ichi-no-miya, or temples of the first grade. These deities
appear to have been in many cases spirits of princes or greater
daimyo, formerly, ruling extensive districts; but all were not of
this category. Among them were deities of elements or elemental
forces,--Wind, Fire, and Sea,--deities also of longevity, of destiny,
and of harvests,--clan-gods, perhaps, originally, though their real
history had been long forgotten. But above all other Shinto
divinities ranked the gods of the Imperial Cult,--the supposed
ancestors of the Mikados.
Of the higher forms of Shinto worship, that of the imperial ancestors
proper is the most important, being the State cult; but it is not the
oldest. There are two supreme cults: that of the Sun-goddess, [122]
represented by the famous shrines of Ise; and the Izumo cult,
represented by the great temple of Kitzuki. This Izumo temple is the
centre of the more ancient cult. It is dedicated to
Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami, first ruler of the Province of the Gods, and
offspring of the brother of the Sun-goddess. Dispossessed of his
realm in favour of the founder of the imperial dynasty,
Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami became the ruler of the Unseen World,--that is
to say the World of Ghosts. Unto his shadowy dominion the spirits of
all men proceed after death; and he rules over all of the Ujigami. We
may therefore term him the Emperor of the Dead. "You cannot hope,"
Hirata says, "to live more than a hundred years, under the most
favourable circumstances; but as you will go to the Unseen Realm of
Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami after death, and be subject to him, learn
betimes to bow down before him." ... That weird fancy expressed in
the wonderful fragment by Coleridge, "The Wanderings of Cain," would
therefore seem to have actually formed an article of ancient Shinto
faith: "The Lord is God of the living only: the dead have another
God." ...
The God of the Living in Old Japan was, of course, the Mikado,--the
deity incarnate, Arahito-gami,--and his palace was the national
sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. Within the precincts of that [123]
palace was the Kashiko-Dokoro ("Place of Awe"), the private shrine of
the Imperial Ancestors, where only the court could worship,--the
public form of the same cult being maintained at Ise. But the
Imperial House worshipped also by deputy (and still so worships) both
at Kitzuki and Ise, and likewise at various other great sanctuaries.
Formerly a great number of temples were maintained, or partly
maintained, from the imperial revenues. All Shinto temples of
importance used to be classed as greater and lesser shrines. There
were 304 of the first rank, and 2828 of the second rank. But
multitudes of temples were not included in this official
classification, and depended upon local support. The recorded total
of Shinto shrines to-day is upwards of 195,000.