RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND MODERN
SHINTO: THE ANCIENT
RELIGION OF JAPAN
RELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN
=Animism.= By EDWARD CLODD, author of _The Story of Creation_.
=Pantheism.= By JAMES ALLANSON PICTON, author of _The Religion of the
Universe_.
=The Religions of Ancient China.= By Professor GILES, LL.D., Professor
of Chinese in the University of Cambridge.
=The Religion of Ancient Greece.= By JANE HARRISON, Lecturer at
Newnham College, Cambridge, author of _Prolegomena to Study of Greek
Religion_.
=Islam.= By the Rt. Hon. AMEER ALI SYED, of the Judicial Committee
of His Majesty’s Privy Council, author of _The Spirit of Islam_ and
_Ethics of Islam_.
=Magic and Fetishism.= By Dr. A. C. HADDON, F.R.S., Lecturer on
Ethnology at Cambridge University.
=The Religion of Ancient Egypt.= By Professor W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE,
F.R.S.
=The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria.= By THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES,
late of the British Museum.
=Early Buddhism.= By Professor RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D., late Secretary of
The Royal Asiatic Society.
=Hinduism.= By Dr. L. D. BARNETT, of the Department of Oriental
Printed Books and MSS., British Museum.
=Scandinavian Religion.= By WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, Joint Editor of the
_Oxford English Dictionary_.
=Celtic Religion.= By Professor ANWYL, Professor of Welsh at
University College, Aberystwyth.
=The Mythology of Ancient Britain and Ireland.= By CHARLES SQUIRE,
author of _The Mythology of the British Islands_.
=Judaism.= By ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in
Cambridge University, author of _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_.
=The Religion of Ancient Rome.= By CYRIL BAILEY, M.A.
=Shinto, The Ancient Religion of Japan.= By W. G. ASTON, C.M.G.
=The Religion of Ancient Mexico and Peru.= By LEWIS SPENCE, M.A.
=Early Christianity.= By S. B. BLACK, Professor at McGill University.
=The Psychological Origin and Nature of Religion.= By Professor J. H.
LEUBA.
=The Religion of Ancient Palestine.= By STANLEY A. COOK.
=Mithraism.= By W. J. PHYTHIAN-ADAMS.
PHILOSOPHIES
=Early Greek Philosophy.= By A. W. BENN, author of _The Philosophy of
Greece, Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century_.
=Stoicism.= By Professor ST. GEORGE STOCK, author of _Deductive
Logic_, editor of the _Apology of Plato_, etc.
=Plato.= By Professor A. E. TAYLOR, St Andrews University, author of
_The Problem of Conduct_.
=Scholasticism.= By Father RICKABY, S.J.
=Hobbes.= By Professor A. E. TAYLOR.
=Locke.= By Professor ALEXANDER, of Owens College.
=Comte and Mill.= By T. WHITTAKER, author of _The Neoplatonists
Apollonius of Tyana and other Essays_.
=Herbert Spencer.= By W. H. HUDSON, author of _An Introduction to
Spencer’s Philosophy_.
=Schopenhauer.= By T. WHITTAKER.
=Berkeley.= By Professor CAMPBELL FRASER, D.C.L., LL.D.
=Swedenborg.= By Dr. SEWALL.
=Nietzsche: His Life and Works.= By ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.
=Bergson.= By JOSEPH SOLOMON.
=Rationalism.= By J. M. ROBERTSON.
=Pragmatism.= By D. L. MURRAY.
=Rudolf Eucken.= By W. TUDOR-JONES.
=Epicurus.= By Professor A. E. TAYLOR.
=William James.= By HOWARD V. KNOX.
SHINTO
THE ANCIENT RELIGION
OF JAPAN
By
W. G. ASTON C.M.G. D.LIT.
LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD
10 AND 12 ORANGE STREET LEICESTER SQUARE W.C.2
1921
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTORY, 1
II. GENERAL CHARACTER OF SHINTO, 5
III. MYTH, 18
IV. THE GODS, 35
V. THE PRIESTHOOD, 55
VI. WORSHIP, 58
VII. MORALITY AND PURITY, 64
VIII. DIVINATION AND INSPIRATION, 75
IX. LATER HISTORY, 78
SELECTED WORKS BEARING ON SHINTO, 82
SHINTO: THE ANCIENT RELIGION
OF JAPAN
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
=Origins.=—The Japanese are in the main a continental race. Their
language and physical characteristics show conclusively that they come
from Northern Asia, and geographical considerations indicate that
Korea must have been their point of embarkation. Indeed a desultory
emigration from Korea to Japan continued into historical times. When
we say Northern Asia we exclude China. The racial affinity of the
Japanese to the Chinese, of which we hear so often, really amounts to
very little. It is not closer than that which unites the most distantly
related members of the Indo-European family of nations. The Japanese
themselves have no traditions of their origin, and it is now impossible
to say what form of religion was professed by the earliest immigrants.
No inference can be drawn from the circumstance that Sun-worship is
common to them with many North-Asiatic races. The Sun is, or has been,
worshipped almost everywhere. There is distinct evidence of a Korean
element in Shinto, but, with the little that we know of the old native
religion of that country, anything like a complete comparison is
impossible. Some have recognised a resemblance between Shinto and the
old state religion of China, and it is true that both consist largely
of Nature-worship. But the two cults differ widely. The Japanese do
not recognise Tien (Heaven), the chief Nature-deity of the Chinese,
nor have they anything to correspond to their Shangti—a more personal
ruler of the universe. The Sun is masculine in China, feminine in
Japan. The Sun-goddess takes precedence of the Earth-god in Japan,
while in China Heaven and Earth rank above the Sun and Moon. Some
Chinese traits are to be found in the old Shinto documents, but they
are of later origin, and are readily distinguishable from the native
element. A few similarities exist between Shinto and the religion of
the Ainus of Yezo, a savage race which once occupied the main island
of Japan. But it is reasonable to suppose that in this case the less
civilised nation has borrowed from its more civilised neighbour and
conqueror rather than _vice versa_. It is significant that the Ainu
words for God, prayer, and offering, are taken from the Japanese. If
the Malay or Polynesian element, which some have recognised in the
Japanese race, has any existence, it has left no trace in religion.
Such coincidences as may be noted between Shinto and oceanic religions,
myths and practices are attributable to the like action of common
causes rather than to inter-communication. The old Shinto owes little
to any outside source. It is, on the whole, an independent development
of Japanese thought.
=Sources of Information.=—The Japanese had no writing until the
introduction of Chinese learning from Korea early in the fifth century
of our era, and the first books which have come down to us date from
the beginning of the eighth. One of these, called the _Kojiki_ (712) is
said to have been taken down from the lips of a man whose memory was
well stored with the old myths and traditions of his country. He was
perhaps one of the guild of ‘reciters,’ whose business it was to recite
‘ancient words’ at the ceremony which corresponds to our coronation.
The _Kojiki_ is a repertory of the old myths and legends, and, in the
latter part, of the ancient history of Japan. The _Nihongi_, a work of
similar scope, though based more on an existing written literature, was
produced a few years later (720). It quotes numerous variants of the
religious myths current at this time. There are voluminous and most
learned commentaries on these two works written by Motoöri and Hirata
in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For the ritual of Shinto
our chief source of information is the _Yengishiki_, a compilation made
early in the tenth century. It contains, along with minute directions
regarding offerings, ceremonies, etc., a series of the _norito_
(litanies) used in Shinto worship which are of the highest interest,
and of great, though unequal, antiquity.
The above-mentioned authorities give a tolerably complete account of
the old state religion of Japan, sometimes called ‘Pure Shinto,’ in
order to distinguish it from the Buddhicised cult of later times. Its
palmy days may be taken to extend from the seventh to the twelfth
century. Shinto, literally ‘The Way of the Gods,’ is a Chinese word,
for which the Japanese equivalent is _Kami no michi_.