Gods of Human Qualities
Students of Far-Eastern mythology and literature have observed the feeble grasp of personality which distinguishes them from the similar products of the Western mind.[1] They are characterised by a certain poverty of imagination which is manifested in various directions, and more especially by the almost total absence of personified abstractions of human qualities. We look in vain for such conceptions as Age, Youth, Love, Fear, Patience, Hope, Charity, and a host of other personified qualities. Ta-jikara no wo (hand-strength-male) is one of the few examples of this class. He it was who, when the Sun-goddess partly opened the door of the Rock-cave to which she had retired, took her by the hand and dragged her out. But he is little worshipped, and indeed is only a poetical adjunct to the mythical narrative. In this respect he greatly resembles the Kratos and Bia of Hesiod and Æschylus.
[1] See Percival Lowell’s Soul of the Far East.
Phallic Gods.—Far more important are the Sahe no Kami, or phallic deities. Their symbols were a familiar sight by the roadsides and at crossings in ancient Japan. They might be seen even in the busy thoroughfares of the capital itself. At first representatives of the procreative, life-giving power, they were used as magical appliances for promoting fertility. But they became symbolical of life generally—the enemy of death and disease—and, on the well-known principle of magic that the symbol possesses something of the actual physical virtue of the thing which it represents, were employed as prophylactics against death and pestilence. For their services in this capacity they were deified. Their cult has long ago disappeared from the state religion, but it still lingers in the out-of-the-way parts of Eastern Japan.
[CHAPTER V]
THE PRIESTHOOD
In ancient Japan, the sacred and the secular were imperfectly differentiated from one another. The Department of Shinto was simply a Government bureau. Miya meant equally shrine and palace. Matsuri, a Shinto festival, is the same word that we also find in Matsurigoto, government. The Mikado was at once the high priest and the sovereign of the nation. In the oldest legends he appears frequently in a sacerdotal capacity, and, even at the present day, he takes a personal part in some of the Shinto rites. Only last year he went to Ise to perform the ceremony of Nihiname, or tasting the first rice of the new harvest after making an offering of it to the Sun-goddess. But even in the oldest records there occur instances of his deputing his sacerdotal functions. Jimmu Tenno is said to have appointed Michi No Omi (minister-of-the-way) as ‘Ruler of a festival.’ The rubrics of the norito (rituals) show that they were intended to be read by a deputy and not by the Mikado in person.
The Nakatomi.—The chief officials of the Bureau of Shinto were appointed from the hereditary clan or family of the Nakatomi, from which the principal ministers of state and the Imperial Consorts were also selected. The great Fujiwara House, so famous in later times, was a branch of the Nakatomi.
The Imbe had the duty of preparing the offerings for sacrifice. Their name, which includes the word ‘imi,’ signifying religious abstinence, purity, refers to the strict avoidance of ritual pollution which was incumbent on them in the discharge of this function.
The Urabe were diviners attached to the bureau of Shinto.
Kannushi is the ordinary word for a Shinto priest. The Kannushi are not celibates, and are not distinguishable from the laity except when in the actual discharge of their functions. Even the costume which they wear on these occasions is not properly sacerdotal. It is only an ancient court uniform. All Shinto priests are appointed by the civil authorities. They have no ‘cure of souls,’ and their duties are confined to reading the litanies and seeing to the repairs of the shrine.
Priestesses.—In ancient times it was the custom to attach a virgin princess of the Imperial blood to the great shrine of Ise. All great shrines have a corps of girl dancers for the performance of the sacred pantomimes (Kagura). The latter, on reaching a marriageable age, usually resign their office, and are merged in the general population.
[CHAPTER VI]
WORSHIP
With a few exceptions, of no great importance in Shinto, the outward forms of the worship of the gods have been previously made use of as tokens of respect to living men. Whether I take off my hat to a lady or on entering a church, the act is the same, it is the ideas associated with it that make the difference. The word worship must therefore be used with caution. We ought not, for example, to assume that ancestor-worship is necessarily divine worship. It may only mean acts indicating affection and reverence for the dead, common to ourselves with non-Christian peoples, and need not involve any superstitious belief in a supernatural power exercised by dead forefathers or heroes. In modern Japan, ancestor-worship is a comparatively rational cult, and it is surely undesirable that missionaries should create for themselves great and needless difficulties by condemning it indiscriminately.
Gestures of Worship.—In Shinto, as in other religions, bowing is a common form of respect to the gods. It is the custom to bow twice before and after making an offering. Kneeling is also known, but is less usual. I have not met with any case of prostration as an act of adoration. Clapping hands was in ancient Japan a general token of respect, now confined to religious worship. Sometimes a silent hand-clapping is prescribed in the rituals. Offerings and other objects used in worship were raised to the forehead as a mark of reverence.
Offerings were in the older Shinto regarded as tokens of respect, and were not supposed to be eaten, worn, or otherwise enjoyed by the deity. There is, however, a more vulgar current of opinion according to which the god actually benefits in some obscure physical way by the offerings made to him.
The general object of making offerings is to propitiate the god or to expiate offences against him. Sometimes it is very plainly intimated that a quid pro quo is expected.
The original and most important form of offering was food and drink of various kinds. The cardinal feature of the great ceremony by which the Mikado inaugurated his reign was an offering of rice and sake to the Sun-goddess. Other food-offerings were cakes, fruit, vegetables, edible seaweed, salt, water, and the flesh of deer, pigs, hare, wild boar, and birds. There were no burnt-offerings or incense. Next to food, clothing took the most important place. Hemp and mulberry-bark fibre, with the stuffs woven from them, are frequently mentioned. They are now represented by the Gohei. These are wands to which scollops of paper are attached, and are to be seen in every shrine and at every Shinto ceremony. Sometimes the god is supposed to come down and take up his temporary abode in the Gohei.
Skins, mirrors, jewels, weapons, and many other articles are mentioned in the Yengishiki enumerations of offerings.
Human Sacrifice.—We nowhere hear of human sacrifices in connection with official Shinto. But there are several indications of the existence of this practice in ancient times. River-gods especially were propitiated by human victims. Human figures of wood or metal are frequently mentioned, but it is doubtful whether these were by way of substitutes for living persons.
Slaves were dedicated to some of the more important shrines. Presents of horses are often mentioned. Albinos are usually selected for this purpose. They may be seen at the present day stabled near the entrance to all the important shrines. Pictures of horses are often substituted for the animals themselves. Galleries are sometimes provided for the reception of these and other ex voto works of art. The carriage (mikoshi) in which the deity, or rather his shintai, is promenaded on the occasion of his annual festival is a very elaborate and costly vehicle. The miya or shrine may be regarded as a kind of offering. Miya means august house, and applies equally to the palace of a sovereign or prince. Originally there was no building but only a consecrated plot of ground which was deemed to be the dwelling of the deity. The miya is not a tomb. The shrines are purposely small and simple edifices. In 771 a ‘greater shrine’ had only eighteen feet frontage. The majority of the existing 150,000 to 200,000 shrines of Japan are tiny structures easily transportable in a cart or even a wheelbarrow. To the larger shrines are usually attached an ema-do (horse-picture hall), a small oratory for the use of the Mikado’s envoy, and a stage for the Kagura, or pantomimic dance. A number of smaller shrines to other gods who are in some way associated with the chief deity may usually be seen within the precincts. The approach to a Shinto shrine is marked by one or more honorary gateways of the special form known as tori-i, literally bird-rest, from its resemblance to a henroost. It has its analogues in the Indian turan and the Chinese pailoo, and is doubtless of exotic origin. It is not mentioned in the older books.
Prayer.—The Kojiki and Nihongi contain scarcely any notices of private individual prayer. But there are abundant examples in the Yengishiki, and other authorities, of the official liturgies known as norito, addressed by the Mikado, or his vicars, to various Gods or categories of Gods, on ceremonial occasions. They contain petitions for rain in time of drought, good harvests, preservation from fire, flood, and earthquake, for children, health and long life to the sovereign. Sometimes the wrath is deprecated of deities whose services had been vitiated by ritual impurity, or whose shrines had been neglected. Important national events were announced to them. There were no norito addressed to deceased Mikados before 850, when Jimmu Tenno was supplicated to spare the life of the reigning sovereign, who was then dangerously ill. Shinto prayers are for material blessings only.
Rank of Deities.—In the seventh century a system of official ranks was introduced into Japan from China. It was extended from the Court functionaries to the Gods, and was very prevalent in the eighth century. A curious feature of this practice was the low rank given to the deities. It was seldom that they received so high a rank as that of a Minister of State.
Kagura.—The Kagura, or pantomimic dances with masks and music, representing some incident of the mythical narrative, has been at all times a prominent part of Shinto religious festivals, and, as in other countries, has become the parent of the secular drama.
Pilgrimages are an ancient institution in Japan. Even the Mikado paid occasional visits to the shrines in or near Kioto. At the present day most Japanese think it a duty to make a pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime to one or more of the most famous Shinto fanes, and believe that their success in life depends on their doing so. Clubs are formed for the purpose, the subscriptions going to pay the expenses of these fortunate members who are selected to represent their fellows. Pilgrim trains take the place of our excursion trains. Boys and girls frequently run away from home in order to make a pilgrimage to Ise.
[CHAPTER VII]
MORALITY AND PURITY
Moral Code.—Shinto has hardly anything in the shape of a code of morals. The Ohoharahi, a service in which the Mikado, by divine authority, declared to his ministers and people the absolution of their offences against the gods, makes no mention of any one of the sins of the Decalogue. M. Revon, the author of a valuable treatise on Shinto, challenges this statement, which I had already made in my History of Japanese Literature. He maintains that from a comparison of the Decalogue and the Ohoharahi, ‘Il résulte avec évidence que tous les commandements essentiels du Décalogue (sur le meurtre, le vol, la fornication, etc.), se retrouvent dans notre rituel.’[2] In view of the importance of the subject, and of M. Revon’s acknowledged competence as a writer on Shinto, it is desirable to examine this assertion more closely. His ‘etc.’ puzzles me. I am unable to find in the Ohoharahi the smallest trace of any of the seven commandments which it covers, and can only suppose that it is a mere flourish of M. Revon’s exuberant imagination. It will be seen that for the ‘adultery’ of the Decalogue M. Revon has substituted ‘fornication.’ Is it not a cas pendable to tamper with the ten commandments in this way? But neither adultery nor fornication are mentioned in the Ohoharahi. Incest is included in the latter’s schedule of offences, but, pace M. Revon, incest and adultery are distinct offences. Theft is not mentioned in the Ohoharahi. The planting of skewers (of offerings in rice-fields) is one of its offences, but even if the commentator is right who conjectures that this was done for a dishonest purpose, I submit that so highly specific an offence is by no means the same thing as the far more general theft of the Decalogue. The case of ‘murder’ of the Mosaic code, and ‘the cutting of living bodies’ of the Ohoharahi is more complicated. Murder is at the same time more and less comprehensive than the corresponding Shinto offence. The Jewish prohibition is more extensive, as it includes murder by poison, strangling, drowning, etc., and it is more restricted as it omits minor injuries. But there is a profound difference between the motives which prompted the two prohibitions. It is the crime of taking away human life which is condemned in the Decalogue: the Ohoharahi objects to wounds as nasty, unsightly things, unmeet for a God to look upon or to be in any way associated with. Self-inflicted wounds, the cutting of dead bodies, or wounds inflicted by others, caused uncleanness just as much as the wounding of others. Justifiable homicide required absolution equally with felonious murder. In a word, the Japanese offence was ritual, the Jewish moral.
[2] See his Shintoisme, p. 15, note.
There are moral elements in the Ohoharahi, but they are scanty, and M. Revon greatly overestimates their importance. Not only does it contain no explicit mention of any of the sins of the Decalogue—which is all that I contended for—but it has hardly anything which even implicitly condemns them. Shintoists do not deny this feature of their religion, but claim that the absence of a code of ethics is a proof of the superior natural goodness of the Japanese nation. It needs no such artificial aids to virtuous conduct.
Purity.—But if ethics are conspicuously absent from Shinto, the doctrine of uncleanness holds a prominent position. Actual personal dirt was obnoxious to the gods, as is evidenced by the frequent mention of bathing and putting on fresh garments before the discharge of religious functions. Sexual acts of various kinds, such as the consummation of a marriage, incest (within narrow limits), interference with virgin priestesses, menstruation and child-birth, were accompanied with disabilities for the service of the gods. Curiously enough, adultery, though cognisable by the courts of justice, did not entail religious uncleanness. Disease, especially leprosy (as in the Mosaic legislation), wounds and sores involved various degrees of pollution. The death of a relative, attendance at a funeral, touching a dead body, pronouncing or executing a capital sentence, all incapacitated a man temporarily for the discharge of religious duties. Lafcadio Hearn thought that the miya or shrine was a development of the moya or mourning house, where the dead bodies of sovereigns and nobles were deposited until their costly megalithic tombs could be got ready. This view harmonises nicely with Herbert Spencer’s well-known theories, but an ancient Shintoist would have considered it not only erroneous, but blasphemous. As in ancient Greece, the gods had nothing to do with such a polluting thing as death. Shinto funerals, of which we have heard a good deal of late, were unknown in ancient Japan. They date from 1868. Shinto shrines have no cemeteries attached to them. Eating flesh was formerly not considered offensive to the gods, but later, under Buddhist influence, it fell under prohibition. The fire with which impure food was cooked also contracted impurity. To avoid the danger of such defilement, fresh fire was made by a fire-drill for all the more important ceremonies. Everything Buddhist, rites, terms, etc., were at one time placed under a Shinto tabu. When a festival was approaching, the intending participant was specially careful to avoid (imi) all possible sources of pollution. He shut himself up in his house, refrained from speech and noise and ate food cooked at a pure fire. A special imi of one month was observed by the priests before officiating at the greater festivals. An imi-dono (sacred hall) was a hall in which purity was observed, imi-axes and imi-mattocks were used to cut the first tree and turn the first sod when a sacred building was to be erected. If, in spite of all precaution, defilement took place, consciously or unconsciously, various expedients were resorted to for its removal. Lustration was the most common. After a funeral, it has been the rule at all periods of Japanese history for the relatives of the deceased to purify themselves in this way. Izanagi, after his visit to Hades, washed in the sea. Salt is sometimes dissolved in the water used for this purpose, and is employed in other ways to avert evil influences. Spitting, rinsing the mouth, and breathing on an object to which the impurity is communicated, are familiar practices. Human figures were sometimes breathed upon and flung into the sea in order to carry off pollution. In modern times a gohei is shaken over the person to be purified.
Ceremonial is the combination for some specific purpose of the various elements of worship described above. The great ceremony of the Shinto religion is that known as the Ohonihe or Daijôwe, which means ‘great-food-offering.’ It is the equivalent of our coronation, and its cardinal feature was the Mikado’s offering in person to the god or gods, represented by a cushion, the first rice of the new harvest, and of sake brewed from it. A modern Japanese writer says:—
‘Anciently the Mikado received the auspicious grain from the Gods of Heaven, and therewithal nourished the people. In the Daijôwe (or Ohonihe) the Mikado, when the grain became ripe, joined unto him the people in sincere veneration, and, as in duty bound, made return to the Gods of Heaven. He thereafter partook of it along with the nation. Thus the people learnt that the grain which they eat is no other than the seed bestowed on them by the Gods of Heaven.’
The Ohonihe was a most elaborate and costly function. The preparations were begun months in advance. In times of scarcity, it had to be omitted as too great a burden on the nation.
The Nihiname, or new-tasting, is the annual harvest festival when the new season’s rice was first tasted by the Mikado. The Ohonihe was only a more sumptuous form of it. The English counterpart of the Nihiname is Lammas, i.e. loaf-mass, in which bread made from the new season’s wheat was used for the first time in the Holy Communion. There was, in former times, a household as well as an official celebration of this rite. Strict people will not eat the new rice until it is over.
The Toshigohi (praying for harvest) was another important ceremony of the state religion. Not only the special gods of harvest, but practically all the divinities were propitiated by offerings, and a norito recited in their honour, of which the following is a passage:—
‘If the Sovran Gods will bestow in ears many a hand’s breadth long and ears abundant the latter harvest which they will bestow, the latter harvest produced by the labour of men from whose arms the foam drips down, on whose opposing thighs the mud is gathered, I will fulfil their praises by humbly offering first fruits, of ears a thousand, of ears many a hundred, raising up the tops of the sake-jars, and setting in rows the bellies of the sake-jars, in juice and in ear will I present them, of things growing in the great moor-plain, sweet herbs and bitter herbs, of things that dwell in the blue sea-plain, the broad of fin and the narrow of fin, edible seaweed, too, from the offing and seaweed from the shore, of clothing, bright stuffs and shining stuffs, soft stuffs and coarse stuffs—with these I will fulfil your praises.’
Kiu no matsuri (praying for rain) was a service in which the gods of eighty-five shrines were asked to send rain. To some of these a black horse was offered as a suggestion that black rain-clouds would be welcome.
Ohoharahi, great purification or absolution. This is one of the most curious and interesting of the great ceremonies of the state religion. It is often called the Nakatomi no Ohoharahi, because a member of the Nakatomi priestly clan performed it on behalf of the Mikado. It was celebrated twice a year, on the last day of the sixth and of the twelfth month, with the object of purifying the ministers of state, officials, and people from their ceremonial offences committed during the previous half year. It was also celebrated on occasions of national calamity, such as an outbreak of pestilence, or the sudden death of a Mikado. The offerings made were thrown into a river or the sea, and were supposed, like the scapegoat of Israel, to carry with them the sins of the people. The offences more specifically referred to are various mischievous interferences with agricultural operations, flaying animals alive, flaying backwards, cutting living or dead bodies, leprosy and other loathsome disease, incest, calamities from the high gods and from high birds, and killing animals by bewitchment. There were also local and individual purifications. In the latter case, the person to be purified had to pay the expenses of the celebration, and so a regular system of fines for such offences came into existence.
Ho-shidzume no matsuri, or fire-calming-ceremony. The object of this rite was to deprecate the destruction of the Imperial Palace by fire. The Urabe made fire with a fire-drill and worshipped it. The service read is anything but reverent. The Fire-god is reminded that he is ‘an evil-hearted child’ who caused his mother’s death when he came into the world, and that she had come back from Hades purposely to provide the means of keeping him in order. If, however, he would be on his good behaviour, he should have offerings of the various kinds specified.
Numerous other services are mentioned in the Yengishiki, such as the ‘Luck-wishing of the Great Palace,’ the Michiahe, which is a phallic ritual for the prevention of pestilence, a festival in honour of the Food-goddess, one in honour of the Wind-gods, etc.
Modern ceremonies.—At the present day, most of the former elaborate ritual of Shinto is neglected or shorn of its ancient magnificence. One of the most important state ceremonies which is still kept up is the Naishidokoro, so-called from the chamber in the palace where it is performed. It is here that the regalia are kept, consisting of a mirror which represents the Sun-goddess, a sword, and a jewel or jewels. The ceremony, which is performed by the Mikado in person, was formerly in honour of these sacred objects, but is now apparently addressed to the tablets of the Emperors from Jimmu downwards—an instance of the progressive development of ancestor-worship in Shinto. In many private dwellings there is a Kami-dana (god-shelf) where a harahi, consisting of a piece of wood from the Ise shrine, and tickets with the names of any gods whom the household has any special reason for worshipping, are kept. Lafcadio Hearn says that nowadays there is also a Mitamaya (august-spirit-dwelling), which is a model Shinto shrine placed on a shelf fixed against the wall of some inner chamber. In this shrine are placed thin tablets of white wood inscribed with the names of the household dead. Prayers are repeated and offerings made before them every day. The annual festivals (matsuri) of the Ujigami or local patron-deity are everywhere important functions. Offerings are made, and the god, or rather his emblem, is promenaded in a procession which reminds one of the carnivals of Southern Europe. There are Kagura performances which go on all day and late into the night. There are also booths for the sale of toys and sweetmeats, wrestling, fireworks, races, conjurors and tumblers’ performances. In short, the matsuri is not unlike an English fair. With the pilgrimages, it does much to help to keep alive the not very ardent flame of Shinto piety.
[CHAPTER VIII]
DIVINATION AND INSPIRATION
Divination.—The most ancient official method of divination was by interpreting the cracks made by fire on the shoulder-blade of a deer. This process is known in many places from Siberia to Scotland, in which latter country it is called ‘reading the speal’ (épaule). A tortoise-shell was afterwards substituted for the deer’s shoulder-blade, in imitation of China. There was attached to the palace a college of diviners whose business it was to ascertain by this means whether a proposed expedition would be successful, the best site for a shrine, a tomb, or a dwelling-house, from what provinces the rice for the Ohonihe should be taken, etc. etc. With private persons, the Tsuji-ura, or cross-road divination, was a favourite method of ascertaining the future. The person who wished to consult the god went out at dusk to a cross-roads and inferred the answer to his question from the chance words spoken by the first person who made his appearance. Other kinds of divination were by the sound of a boiling cauldron, or of a harp, by lots, by beans boiled in gruel, by the head of a dog or fox that had been starved to death, and by dreams and omens. Ordeal was practised by fire and boiling water.
Inspiration.—There are frequent notices of oracles in the old records. Legend has preserved an ‘inspired utterance’ given forth by the Goddess Uzume before the Rock-cave of Heaven to which the Sun-goddess had retired. It consists of the numerals from one to ten! The famous legendary invasion of Korea by the Empress Jingo was suggested by a deity. Oracles had generally reference to the worship of the god concerned, directing that a shrine should be built for him, or religious observances inaugurated in his honour. They were sometimes used for political purposes. There is evidence that the inspired person, generally a woman, delivered the divine message when in a hypnotic trance. This is undoubtedly the case at the present time. Mr. P. Lowell’s Occult Japan gives a detailed description of a séance of this kind at which he was present. There are mediums in Japan as there are nearer home, who, for a consideration, will place their customers in communication with deceased friends or relatives.
Divination and the hypnotic trance are not recognised by modern or official Shinto.
[CHAPTER IX]
LATER HISTORY
Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century, but it had at first little influence on the native religion. Two centuries later a process of pacific penetration began which had some curious and important results. The missionaries of Buddhism applied to the Shinto gods a principle which had been already adopted in China. They discovered that whether Nature-gods or Man-gods they were nothing more than avatars or incarnations of the various Buddhas. The Sun-goddess, for example, was made out to be Vairochana, the Buddhist personification of essential bodhi (enlightenment) and absolute purity; and deified men received the Buddhist titles of Gongen (avatar) or Bosatsu (saint). Iyeyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty of Shoguns, is the Gongen-sama par excellence.
Ryôbu Shinto, which was in practice little more than a form of Buddhism, was the result of this process. Its principal founder was the famous Kōbō Daishi. At a later time other similar schools or sects were originated which drew their inspiration from Chinese philosophy or from Buddhism. Under these influences the true Shinto was much neglected. The Mikados themselves, after a few years of reign, shaved their heads and became Buddhist monks. One of them called himself a slave of Buddha. The greater Shinto ceremonies were omitted, or worse still, were performed by Buddhist monks, who also took possession of many of the Shinto shrines and celebrated Buddhist rites there.
It should not be forgotten that the foreign religion contained valuable elements unknown to the older Shinto, and that the latter had much to gain by their absorption. The Ryōbu Shinto inculcated uprightness, purity of heart, charity to the poor, humanity, and the vanity of mere outward forms of worship; of all which there is little trace in the older cult.
Chinese Learning.—The civilisation of Japan during the Tokugawa dynasty of Shōguns (1603-1868) was modelled on Chinese originals. Its moral ideals were drawn from the writings of the ancient sages Confucius and Mencius, and the sceptical philosophy of the Sung dynasty (960-1278). But in the eighteenth century a patriotic reaction set in, which strove to establish more purely national standards of ethics and principles of government and religion. This movement, known as the ‘Revival of Pure Shinto,’ was first revealed to Europeans by a paper contributed by Sir E. Satow to the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan in 1875. The principal promoters were Motoöri and his pupil Hirata, two earnest, able, and stupendously learned writers who devoted their lives to an endeavour by oral teaching and in a series of voluminous works to the dethronement of the established Chinese ethics and philosophy in favour of a Shinto purified from Buddhist and other foreign adulterations of later times. They succeeded to some extent in this object. It was no doubt partially owing to their teachings that the Mikado was restored in 1868 to his sovereign position as the descendant of the Sun-goddess, the Shinto shrines purified from Buddhist ornaments and practices, and the monks expelled from them. In reality Motoöri and Hirata’s movement was a retrograde one. The old Shinto, which they wished to restore, could not possibly hold its own as the national faith of a people familiar with the far higher religious and moral ideas of India and China, not to speak of civilised Europe. Without a code of morals, or an efficient ecclesiastical organisation, with little aid from the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, and with a sacred literature scanty and feeble compared with those of its foreign rivals, Shinto is doomed to extinction. Whatever the religious future of Japan may be, Shinto will assuredly have little place in it. Such meat for babes is quite inadequate as the spiritual food of a nation which in these latter days has reached a full and vigorous manhood.