Copyright, 1910,
By Jennings and Graham.

[NOTE.]

The following pages are the substance of a course of lectures on the old Shinto cult which the author has been giving for a number of years to his classes in Comparative Religion. They are here condensed and adapted to the purpose of a little manual which, it is believed, may interest many readers, and bring together within a small space information gathered from many sources not easily accessible to ordinary students. At the same time it is hoped that this little volume may serve to suggest some valuable hints to the Christian missionary who is to come face to face with the Japanese people in their "beautiful land of the reed plains and the fresh ears of rice." It is possible that some portions, if not every jot and tittle, of this ancient cult may, like the law and the prophets of Israel, find a glorious fulfillment in the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. The principal authorities relied on in the preparation of this essay are named in the Select Bibliography given at the end.

[CONTENTS.]

1.[The Country]7
2.[Is Shinto a Religion?]10
3.[Origin and Relative Age of the People]12
4.[Meaning of the Term Shinto]14
5.[Sources of Information]15
6.[Japanese Cosmogony and Mythology]19
7.[The Japanese a Self-centered People]29
8.[Essence of the Shinto Cult]30
9.[The Great Sanctuaries]31
10.[Five Noteworthy Objects Connected with the Worship]34
11.[The Ancestor Worship]37
12.[Elements of Animism]41
13.[The Domestic Cult]43
14.[The Communal Cult]45
15.[The National Cult]49
16.[The Harvest Service]52
17.[The Great Purification]54
18.[Other Ritual Services]60
19.[Influence of China on Japanese Thought]63
20.[Influence of Buddhism]64
21.[Revival of Pure Shinto]68
22.[Esoteric Shinto]70
23.[Mingling of Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism]71
24.[Roman Catholicism in Japan]73
25.[Alleged Present Religious Indifference]74
26.[Concluding Observations]78