Shinto

(Shintoism, Sintuism, ;"the Religion of the Kami") is the term for the religion of the ancient Japanese which existed before the introduction of Confucian ethics or Buddhism into Japan, and which was practiced in a more or less pure form until the restoration of the mikado to supreme power in 1868, when a thorough purification and propagation of the ancient cult was ordered by the government. Nearly all accounts of Shinto by European writers prior to 1870 are of little value, as these treat of the impure Buddhaized form. The ancient documents and archaic literature of Shinto have been unearthed and made accessible even to native readers only during the last and present centuries. The ancient faith has always had a distinct life and literature apart from the imported creeds of India and China, and pure Shintoists insist that the native and the foreign religions are incompatible.

Shinto is a Chinese term repudiated by native scholars, who use the pure Japanese word Kami no Michi (way or doctrine of the gods). Since the introduction of Chinese letters in the 6th century A.D., every important Japanese word has a Chinese equivalent and synonyms. The term Shinto was coined to distinguish the native cult from the two other to or do then new upon the soil, viz. Ju-do (Confucianism) amid Butsu-ao (Buddhism). The literal rendering of Shinto is "theology."

I. The Scriptures, Essence, and Characteristics of Shintoism (to A.D. 60).-To decide positively the ultimate origin of Shinto, whether a purely indigenous growth or imported from the Asian mainland, is to decide the origin of the Japanese people. Believing as we do that the aborigines of Japan were Ainos in the north and Malays in the south, ultimately conquered by immigrant tribes from the Mantchurian highlands, descending through Corea, who thus became the dominant race in Japan, we must refer the origin of the germs, but the germs only, of Shinto to the Asian mainland. The pre-Confucian religion of China (see the She King: Book of Ancient Chinese Poetry [transl. by Dr. Legge], p. 46-53) and Shinto had some striking points in common, though the growth and development of Shinto have been on Japanese soil. The Asian invaders in Japan had neither letters nor writing until they were brought from China after the 3d century A.D. Rigid Shintoists, however, assert that previously. there was a native alphabet in use called Shindaiji or Shinji (god letter's, or letters of the divine age). The Buddhists and all foreign scholars maintain that this alphabet was derived from Corea. Certain it is that these "god-letters" were never in general use, nor can their influence be traced on the alphabets now written in Japan, while no literary remains have yet been found written in them.. The origin of most, of the Shinji may be discovered by comparing them with the alphabet invented in Corea in the latter part of the 7th century A.D., and still in use by the Coreans. This subject has been fruitful of literary controversy in Japan.

The oldest monuments both of Shinto and the Japanese language are the Kojiki (book of ancient traditions, or "notices of ancient things"), the Nihongi (chronicles of Japan), and some liturgical works, such as the Nakatomi no Ilirai (the Nakatomi ritual) and the Engishiki (book of the ceremonial law of Shinto). These ancient texts, with the recensions, commentaries, and controversial writings of the native scholars and Shinto revivalists-Mabuchi (1697-1769), Motoori (1730-1801), and Hlirata (1776-1843)-form the chief sources of information concerning Shinto. In the texts are imbedded a number of poetical passages forming' the Norit, or Shinto liturgies, composed most probably centuries before the introduction of writing, and preserved through the medium of the human memory. The ancient texts contain the cosmogony, philosophy, and ritual of Shinto. According to them, Japan is the centre of the earth,. and the mikado is the first of men and vicar of gods. Infallibility is his attribute, and his will is the test of right.

The Kojiki is written almost entirely in pure Japanese style as concerns the forms both of language and thought, while the text of the Nihongi is full of Chinese modes of expression and purely Chinese philosophical conceptions.. Both are expressed by Chinese characters, which in some cases are phonetic for Japanese words, but in others are ideographic. The correct. deciphering of the texts, especially that of the Kojiki, and the interlinear given in kana letters in some editions, is a comparatively modern work, which is as yet by no means infallible. The Kojiki was composed A.D. 712 by order of the 44th mikado, Gemmio, and first. printed in the period 1624-42. The Nihongi was composed A.D. 720, and the evident intent of the writer is to clothe the matter in hand in Chinese garb and give a Chinese character to the native history. The tenor of both works. is best shown by a comparison of their opening sentences 'literally translated:

Kojiki Nihongi

"At the time of the beginning of heaven and earth, there existed three pillar (chief) kami (gods). The name of one kami was 'Lord of the Middle of Heaven;' next, 'High Ineffable Procreator;" next 'Ineffable Procreator.' These three existing single, hid their bodies (dies, passed away, or became pure spirit). Next, when the young land floated like oil moving about, there came into existence, sprouting upwards like a rush shoot, a kami

"Of old, when heaven and earth were not yet separated, and the in (male, active, or positive principle) and the yo (female, passive, or negative principle) were not separated, chaos, enveloping all things, like a fowl's egg, contained within it a germ. The clear and ethereal substanceexpanding became heaven; the heavy and thick substance agglutinating became earth. The ethereal union of matter was easy, but the thickened

names ,Delightful Rush Sprout;' next, "Heavenly Standing-on-the- bottom' kami. The two chief kami, existing single, hid their bodies. Next came into existence these three kami," etc. substance hardened with difficulty. Therefore heaven existed first; the earth was fixed afterwards. Subsequently deity (kami) was born (or evolved, umaru). Now, it is said that in the beginning of heaven and earth the soil floated about like a fish floating on the top of the water," etc.

In the Kojiki we have the original Japanese theory of creation, and in the Nihongi the same account with Chinese philosophical ideas and terms added. Indeed, the first verse of the Nihongi -down to "Now, it is said," etc., is borrowed direct from Chinese books.' Both texts show that the Japanese scheme of creation starts without a Creator or any first cause; matter appears before mind, and deity has no existence before matter,' The idea of space apart from matter was also foreign to these ancient philosophers. There is no creation, properly speaking, but only evolution until the gods (kami) are evolved or get being. The work of creation properly so called begins only when after the genesis of several pairs of (hitori-gami) single, sexless beings, Izanagi and Izanami appear. Standing upon the floating bridge of heaven, Izanagi plunged his jewelled falchion (or spear) into the unstable waters beneath, and, withdrawing it, the drops which trickled from it congealed, and formed an island. Upon this they descended; and planting the falchion in the ground, made it the central pillar of a palace which they built around it, intending that it should be the pillar of a continent. zanagi means "The-male-who-invites," Izanami "The- female who-invites." In Izanagi was the first manifestation of the male principle; in Izanami that of the female principle. They were the first beings who were conscious of a difference of sex. They separated to make a tour of the island. At their meeting the female spirit spoke first "How joyful to meet a lovely male!" Izanagi, offended that the female had spoken first, required the circuit to be repeated. Meeting a second time, the male spirit spoke first, and said, "How joyful to meet a lovely female!" Then followed the first practice of the art of love. Whence the origin of the human race, the' gods (kami), and the ten thousand things in heaven and earth. The first series of children born were the islands of Japan. The details of creation were carried out by the various kami who sprang from Izanagi and Izanami. In the conception of many of the subordinate kami and the objects which make up the world, the two creator deities had a common part, but many others were generated by the separate action of each. Thus, in bringing forth the god of fire Izanami suffered great pain, and from the matter which she vomited forth in her agony sprang the god and goddess of metal. She afterwards created the gods of clay and fresh water to pacify the fire-god when he was inclined to be turbulent. Izanagi, being incensed at the fire-god, clove him in three pieces with his sword. From the fragments sprang the gods of thunder, of mountains, and of rain.. The gods of clay and fresh water married. From the head of their offspring grew the mulberry and silkworm; from the navel, the five esculent grains-rice, wheat, millet, beans, and sorghum. Izanami had enjoined upon her consort not to look upon her during her retirement, but Izanagi disregarding her wish, she fled into the nether world (the "root-land," or "land of, darkness"). Izanagi descended to induce her to return to earth. He found the region one of awful foulness, and the body of his consort a mass of worms. Escaping to the upper -world, he purified himself by repeated washings in the sea. In these acts many gods were born, among others Susanob from his nose and Amaterasu from his left eye. The deities created out of the filth from which he washed himself are the evil deities that war against the good gods. and still trouble mankind ill many ways. At this time heaven and earth were very: close to each other, and the goddess Amaterasu being a rare and beautiful child, whose body shone brilliantly, Izanagi sent her up. the pillar that united heaven and earth, and bade her rule over the high plain of heaven. She ever afterwards illuminated heaven and earth. Her name, Ama- terasu-:O-Mi-Kami, means "From - heaven - far - shining - Deity." The Chinese equivalent is "' Ten - Sho - Dai - Jin," and the common English term "sun- goddess." Susanoo, whose full name is "Take-Haya-Susano-O- Mikoto," was likewise commanded to rule' over the blue plain of the sea and the multitudinous salt waters. He, however, neglected to keep his kingdom in order, was very slovenly, and cried constantly. To cure him of his surly behavior, his father made him ruler over the kingdom of night. He is usually styled the god of the moon. Instead of reforming his conduct, Susanoo grew worse. He turned a wild horse loose into the rice-fields planted by his sister the sun-goddess, defiled the white rice in her storehouse, and, finally, while one day she was weaving, he flung the reeking hide of a wild horse freshly skinned over her loom, and the carcass into the room. Dreadfully frightened and hurt, the sun-goddess withdrew into, a rocky cave and shut the door. Instantly there. was darkness over heaven and earth-a calamity which the turbulent gods improved by making a confused noise like the buzzing of flies. A great congress of all the gods was now held in the dry bed of the River of Heaven (the Milky-way), and after devising and carrying out many expedients which became the foundation of the arts of life in Japan the sun-goddess came out, light shone again, and Susanoo was banished into a distant land, where his adventures took place, the accounts of which fill many pages in the national mythology. As the earth-gods and evil deities multiplied, confusion and discord reigned, which the sun-goddess seeing resolved to correct by sending her grandson, Ninigi, to earth to rule over it. She gave him a mirror the emblem of her own soul-a sword of divine temper taken by Susanoo from the tail of an eight-headed dragon which he had slain, and a seal or ball. Accompanied by a great retinue of deities, he descended by means of the floating bridge of heaven on which the divine first pair had stood to Mount Kirishima (which lies between Hiuga and Satsuma). After his descent, heaven and earth, which had already separated to a considerable distance, receded utterly, and further communication ceased. Ninigi was received with due honors by the earthly kami, and began to rule without much opposition. His grandson, whose mother was a dragon in the form of a woman,, was Jimmu Tenno (as he is usually styled), the first mikado of Japan. At this point the first volume of the Kojiki ends. Thenceforth the narratives of the Kojiki (with Nihongi) form the history of Japan to the time of Suiko (empress), who reigned A.D. 593628, and on these books - all subsequent works are based.

The Kojiki and N'ihongi form the historic and doctrinal basis of Shinto, and from them we gather its characteristics. Its cosmogony and theogony is evolution. In it is no Supreme God, Creator, or Trinity (as some foreign writers have said). Its highest gods were once creatures before being creators, and all its lower grades of deities were once men. The Shinto earth is Japan; its heaven is immediately above the mikado's realm. The literal meaning of the names of the several pairs of deities preceding the first having sex, and the comments of the native writers, show that they are merely names descriptive of the various stages through which they passed before arriving at the perfection of existence. Thus, some of the names of these rudimentary deities are "First Mud," "Sand and Mud," "Body without Hands, Feet, or Head - fetus," "Beginning of Breath," "Complete Perfection," "Awful One," etc. Thus, out of the mud, through a series of protoplastic deities, the first creative pair evolved unto perfection.

So far we have given an outline of the Kojiki and Nihongi texts, refraining from any but the most necessary explanations or comment. From the acknowledged native orthodox commentators, who add much more in works which are the richest mines for the student of Japanese archaeology and religion, we add further explanation. The description of the act of Izanagi and Izanami in creating Japan is only a euphemism for the sexual act. The jewelled spear, Hirata thinks, was in the form of a lingo. The worship of the phallus has from prehistoric times been nearly universal in Japan (The Mikado's. Empire, p. 33, note). The point of the spear became the. axis of the earth. 'That "the motion imparted to the fluid mass of earth was the origin of its daily revolutions" is a statement showing how the acquisition of European knowledge enables a Shinto commentator to accommodate an ancient text to modern notions. The island formed by the congealed drops was once at the north pole, but has since taken its present position in the Inland Sea. Japan lies on the top of the globe, which accounts for the fact that she escaped the flood which took place in China in the reign of Yao (B.C. 2356), and by which Occidental countries were drowned, China and Corea suffering less, because near Japan. The stars were formed when Izanagi's spear was drawn out of the earth; the muck which was unfit to enter into the composition of the world flew off in lumps into space and became the stars. After the birth of the Japan islands (Yezo and Saghalin not being mentioned, as these were not discovered till long after the writing of the Kojiki) by ordinary generation. the remaining small islands and foreign countries were formed by the spontaneous consolidation of the foam of the sea; hence their immeasurable inferiority. Hence Japan is the Holy Country-the Land of the Gods-and the mikado is the Tenno (heavenly king) and the Tenshi (son of heaven) whom all Japanese must reverently obey.

Shinto contains no moral codes. The duty of the Shintoist is to live in fear and reverence of the memories of the dead, to imitate the example of the gods and illustrious ancestors. Shinto prescribes no ritual, formulates no dogmas, contains no argument, teaches no immortality, commands no polemic propagation. These two latter doctrines may be easily developed from its Scriptures, as in practice they have been, since all men are derived from gods who are immortal, and the heavenly kami made war upon the earthly, and the mikados by divine right slew the disobedient rebels. The prescribed ecclesiastical machinery and personnel are extremely, simple. Its temples (miya, "house worthy of honor") are thatched or shingled edifices

of hinokiwood, about which there should be no paint, gilding, or gaudy decoration. The type of Shinto architecture, easily recognised, is the primitive hut with ridge-pole and cross-beams. Within are no idols or emblems. Nothing is visible save the strips'' of notched white paper called the gollei, which depend from a wand of hinoki wood, or are fixed in a pair of vases. A mirror-emblem of the purity of the sun-goddess a closet of inoki containing a paper on which a prayer is written, and, on occasions, the offerings of fruit, fish, and various foods, which become the property of the shrine-keepers, are the appurtenances of a Shinto temple. Outside, at the entrance of the path leading to the shrine, is the to-ii (bird-rest), or portal now serving to the common milmi as a gateway, but anciently used as a perch for the sacred fowls who proclaimed the break of day. Among the most approved of the ancient sacrifices, besides rice, rice-beer, fine cloth and coarse cloth, silk and brocade (now partly symbolized by the gohei), were white horses, boars, and cocks-the first for the personal use of the gods, the second for food, and the third for time-keepers. A peculiarity concerning the living sacrifices was that they were not slaughtered, but after being hung up by the legs before the shrine were again set free. Sin was recognised, and the need of confession and cleansing recognised. All sin was conceived as pollution. The chief Shinto rite is that of purification, and its rituals consist almost wholly, besides offerings, of prayers for cleansing and actual lustrations. Anciently the mikados commanded public ablutions in the river. Later on, the symbolical cleansing from sin was made by the people casting paper figures of men into the river; then the mikado deputed the high-priest at Kioto to perform the symbolical act for the whole nation, and an iron mannikin was made of the size of the mikado and thrown into the river. The ancient elaborate systems of purification by salt or water in the, cases of birth, death, etc., binding the mouth of the officiating priest with paper, lest breath pollute the offerings, are only observed at present by Shinto purists, and their modern expression is that of rinsing the mouth or dipping the hands in water before prayer at the shrine." The' following is a characteristic Shinto prayer. The worshipper at the shrine pulls a white rope attached to a bell hung in the roof above the shrine, claps his hands thrice, folds them palm to palm, bows his head on his thumbs, and prays, "I say with awe, deign, to bless me by correcting the unwitting faults which, seen and heard by you, I have committed; by blowing off and clearing away the calamities which evil gods might inflict; by causing me to live long and hard, like the lasting rock; and by repeating to the gods of heavenly origin and to the gods of earthly origin the petitions which I present every day, along with your breath, that they may hear with the sharp-earedness of the forth-galloping colt." In the Eingishiki, or Book of Ceremonial Law, there are numerous specimens of prayers and joyful chants for harvest, remarkable alike for their solemn simplicity and poetic beauty. The deified forces of nature - thunder, lightning, earthquakes and the kami of the sea, rivers, hot springs, mountains, trees, roads, yards, and wells, are all worshipped and. addressed in prayer.

Suach is "pure Shinto"-a bald mythology, a patriarchal cult of autochthons, a literary scaffolding for propping up the supremacy of a tribe of conquerors, a religious device for a nation in its savage infancy-a Robinson Crusoe among religions. Motoori teaches that morals were invented by the Chinese because they were tan immoral people; but in Japan there is no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acted aright if he only consulted his own heart. The duty; of a good Japanese consists in obeying the mikado, without questioning whether these commands are right or wrong. It is only immoral people like the Chinese who presume to discuss the character of their sovereigns. Hence, in ancient Japan, government and religion were one and the same. The mikado is the centre of Church and State, which are one. He is more than sovereign pontiff. Japan is the land of the gods. The mikado is god and vicar of all the gods, and in. his hands rests the ownership of all the land; hence, what a Japanese eats, drinks, and enjoys is from the mikado and his heavenly ancestors. And, above all, is the crowning glory of the Holy Country-one dynasty of heaven descended rulers, which from all time has stood unchanged, and to all eternity will stand unchangeable. (In Japan: the dynasty has never changed. The present mikado is the 123d of the line, while in China there have been thirty-three or thirty-four dynasties. 'The date fixed for the accession of Jimmu Tenno is B.C. 660.) As a political force, Shinto has no parallel in the history of Japan, if indeed of any nation. More than all else, it has contributed to the unity of the Japanese people. It was the main-spring of the tremendous revolution of 1868, whose secondary effect and outward phases have attracted the attention of the world. Such was Shintoi before the advent of Confucian ethics or Buddhism. "It is quite possible to show that the indigenous belief of the ancient Japanese contained unformed materials out of which might have been evolved, in the course of ages, both positive morality and law, had not the process been interrupted at an early stage."

II. History of Shintoism, including its Developments and Modifications by Buddhism and Chinese Ethics (A.D,. 600-1700).-The Chinese ethical system reached Japan long before Buddhism. Confucianism easily lends itself to despotism, and the Five Relations of the Chinese sage were grafted on Shinto before the creed of Buddha began to influence the Japanese in and after A.D. 552. The new- faith from India met with ready acceptance. its gorgeous ritual soon eclipsing the old cult, which gradually lost many of its distinguishing characteristics, and for centuries was unknown in its purity to the masses, though jealously guarded by a few court nobles. In some sequestered miyas its rites were perfectly preserved, even to the lighting of fire by means only of the fire-drill and Retinispora obtusa wood, whence the native word hinoki, "fire-wood." In spite of the attractions of their more sensuous worship, the Buddhist propagandists found that the roots of Shinto were very deep in the hearts of the martial Japanese. To retain permanent hold upon the national heart, it would be necessary to propound some scheme of reconciliation by which the ancient traditions of their divine ancestors were woven into the Indian dogmas. To do this required some master spirit profoundly learned in both Shinto and Buddhism, a deep student of the Japanese nature, bold, and perhaps unscrupulous. The conversion of a line of theocratic emperors, whose authority was derived from their, divine origin and sacerdotal character, is a striking anomaly in Japanese history; but to fuse into unity such cults as Shinto and Buddhism was a task like that of reconciling Homer and Moses-Grecian and Hebrew culture. Nevertheless, a Japanese Philo was at hand. Kobo, a Buddhist priest (b. 774, d. 835), perhaps Japan's mightiest intellect-the resemblance of whose head to that of Shakspeare has been: pointed out-achieved the' work with almost perfect success. Kobo was a scholar in-Sanscrit, Pali, and Chinese, a zealous student of Buddhism in Corea and China, and a master of the Shinto Scriptures, which he studied at the Japanese Mecca, Ise. While at the shrine :of the goddess Toyo, she manifested herself to him and delivered the revelation on which his system is founded. His scheme, briefly stated. is that the Shinto deities were the incarnations of Buddha in Japan previous to the teaching of his perfect doctrines. Each Shinto kami is rebaptized with a Buddhist name. Thus Amaterasu becomes Amida, Ojin, Hachiman, etc. The legends of the Kojiki were explained according to the philosophy of Buddhism, and shown to contain the essence. and tenets of Buddha's teachings. A characteristic specimen of this style of reasoning is the Sankairi, one of the best Japanese theological works. Kobo's system finally secured the complete ascendancy of Buddhism. The mikado was so pleased that he gave it the name of Ribu-Shinto (twofold doctrine of the: gods). In the daily worship for each month, the Buddhist Bosatsua (Podhisattra) and certain of the Shinto kami are worshipped as one and the same., The general name for the kami, who were incarnations of Buddha, is gongen. Thenceforth, until within the last decade, the form of Shinto generally known and practiced, and as such treated of by European writers, was Ri6bu, impure or Buddhaized Shinto,, which is utterly repudiated by true Shintoists, who accuse, Kobo of fraud and forgery. We have not space to do more than mention that there are fifteen or more sects of corrupt Shintoists, but pass an to glance briefly at the recent developments and sudden outburst of Shinto as a tremendous political force in and since the ever-memorable year of 1868, when Japan achieved the paradox of a return to the ancient regime and to the modern order of things.

III. Revival and Reformation of Shintoism (from A.D. 1700 to the present time). — Within, the last hundred years a school of native writers have attempted to purge Shinto of-its foreign elements and- present it in its original purity. The activity of these scholars bore fruit in the creation of a large body of literature, saome- polemic, but most of it of high historic and antiquarian value. At the same time the eyes of the people were opened to see that the shogun was a political usurper, and the mikado, being the vicar of the gods, was, and ought of right to be, the sole ruler of his people. The increasing reverence for the mikado generated by Shinto scholars soon grew into fiery zeal, and a turbulent determination to restore the mikado, abolish Buddhism, sweep all foreigners from the Holy Country, and rehabilitate Shinto as the State religion. Shinto created one of the most powerful currents of thought that helped to swell the flood which in 1868 swept away the dual system of government and restored the Tenno (son of heaven) or mikado (honorable gate, sublime porte, Pharaoh) to supremacy, abolished the office of shogun, and made the city of Yedo the national capital, now called Tokio. These changes would doubtless have taken place even if Perry or other foreigners had not come to Japan. Their presence gave to the mighty uprising of the nation that outward direction which has filled the eye of Christendom with wonder. No sooner was the new or ancient form of government established in Tokio than successive edicts were issued which utterly purged the Riobu-Shinto temples and all the national shrines of all Buddhist influences, both material and personal, and again the gohei, mirror, and unpainted wood replaced the. symbols, gilding, candles, incense, and paint of Buddhism. The Buddhist monasteries and temples were shorn of much of their revenues, and "sequestration" was the order of the day. A propaganda was instituted in Tokio, and attempts made to convert all the Japanese people to Shinto tenets and practice. Despite of sporadic and local successes, the scheme was a splendid failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the first exultation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society and government, the mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, and gradually the shadowy cult of Shinto waned from its momentary splendor. Its fortunes may be traced in the rank and grade of the Department of Religion. Anciently, and for a while in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan (council of the gods of heaven and earth) held equal authority and influence with the Dai Jo Kuan (the great council of the government). Soon, however, from a supreme Kuan, it was made one of the ten boards of administration, the Jin Gi Sho. In less than a year its dignity was, again lowered by being made the Kio Bu Sho (board of religious instruction). Finally, in 1877, it was quietly turned over to the Home Department and made a bureau with a very shadowy existence. Nevertheless, Shinto is still a living force to millions in Japan, and, with Buddhism, shares the arena against advancing. Christianity in that country. The census of 1874 gave a return of 76,119 Shinto officials and priests, and 128,000 Shinto shrines as against 207,699 Buddhist priests. and monks and 90,000 temples. It is probable that the Buddhists still outnumber Shintoists four or five times over. The cardinal tenets promulgated by the Department of Religion in 1872, which are the central themes of the Shinto lecturers (who, however, enforce them by texts drawn from the Confucian and-Chinese classics), are the three following:

1. Thou shalt honor the gods and love thy country.

2. Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of heaven and the duty of man.

3. Thou shalt revere the mikado as thy sovereign and obey the will of his court. In its higher forms, Shinto is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism.' In its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly dictates. "Shinto, as expounded by Motoori, is nothing more than an engine for reducing the people to a condition of mental slavery." Japan being a country of very striking natural phenomena, the very soil and air lend themselves to support in the native mind this system of hero-worship and worship of the forces of nature. In spite, however, of the conservative power of the ancestral influences, the patriotic incentives, and the easy morals of Shinto. it is doubtful whether, with the pressure of Buddhism, the spread of popular education and Christianity, it can long retain its hold upon the Japanese people. For the details of worship, festivals, symbols, description of temples, etc., see works on Japan.

IV. Literature. — The leading writer on Shinto is Ernest Satow, secretary in Japanese to H. B. M. Legation in Japan, who has written The Revival of Pure Shinto, and The Shinto Shrines of Ise, in the, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan for 1874; The Mythology and Worship of the Ancient Japanese, in the Westminster Review for July, 1878. See also Griffis, The Mikado's Empire, p. 43-53, 96-100, 160, 300; Appletons' Cyclopcedia, 9:538, 551, 562; Fuso Mimi Bukuro (a budget of Japanese),, Notes (Yokohama, 1874); see also, with caution, Klaproth, Apesru des Annales des Empereurs du Japon;. Siebold, Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japchi; Kampfer, History of Japan; and the various sketches of travellers and missionaries., SEE JAPAN. (.W. E.G.)