The leech-child can hardly be reckoned among the effective deities of Shinto. In modern times, however, he has, for some inscrutable reason, been identified with a widely worshipped deity of unknown origin called Ebisu. This God has to all appearance nothing in common either with the sun or the leech. He is a favourite subject of the artist, and is usually depicted with a smiling countenance (emi or ebi means to smile), in ancient Japanese costume, and holding a fishing-rod while a tahi struggles at the end of his line. He is reckoned one of the seven Gods of good fortune, and is a favourite deity to pray to for success in trade. Merchants hold a great feast in his honour on the 20th day of the 10th month.
The ascription of the female sex to the most prominent among the Shinto Gods is not owing merely to caprice. Myth-makers have often more substantial reasons for their fancies than might be supposed. In the present case there is evidence that women played a very important part in the real world of ancient Japan as well as in that of imagination. Women rulers were at this time a familiar phenomenon. Both Japanese and Chinese history give us glimpses of a female Mikado who lived about a.d. 200, and whose commanding ability and strong character have not been wholly obscured by the mists of legend. Women chieftains are frequently mentioned. Indeed the Chinese seem to have thought that feminine government was the rule in Japan, for their historians frequently refer to it as the "Queen-country." In more historical times several of the Mikados were women. In some families descent was traced by the female line. From the Kojiki we learn that in Suinin's time it was the custom for the mother to give children their names.
One might think that so obviously solar a Goddess as the Heaven-shining-great-deity, or Sun-female, whose abode is the "Plain of High Heaven," who fills the universe with her radiance and leaves it to darkness when she conceals herself, and who is even spoken of in so many words as the "Deity of the Sun," would have escaped the temerarious touch of the Euhemerist. Yet I have before me a 'History of the Empire of Japan,' compiled by doctors of the Imperial University, and published in 1893 by order of the Japanese Government, which speaks of the principles of rice-culture and the arts of weaving, mining, and of making swords, hats, and pantaloons being known in the reign of Ama-terasu. Other writers are even more precise. Much to Motoöri's indignation, they say bluntly that she was a mortal empress who reigned in a locality on earth called Takama no hara (the Plain of High Heaven).
Yatakagami.--The shintai of the Sun-Goddess is a mirror,[99] sometimes called the yatakagami, or eight-hand-mirror, probably because it had a number of leaves or projections round it. It is also called the hi-kagami (sun-mirror) or hi-gata no kagami (sun-form-mirror). It appears from the Nihongi that similar mirrors were honoured in Korea. Ama no hihoko is stated to have brought a sun-mirror from that country in b.c. 27.
The mythical notices of the yatakagami represent it in various aspects. It is mentioned in the Kojiki among the offerings made to the Sun-Goddess to propitiate her after her retirement to the Rock-cave of Heaven. In the same passage Uzume calls it "a deity more illustrious than thine (the Sun-Goddess's) augustness." When the Sun-Goddess and Musubi sent down Ninigi to rule the earth they gave him the yatakagami, saying: "Regard this mirror exactly as our mitama, and reverence it as if reverencing us." The Nihongi adds: "Let it be with thee on thy couch and in thy hall, and let it be to thee a holy mirror." The yatakagami is frequently spoken of as if it were the Sun-Goddess herself, and is even called "the Great God of Ise." Another sun-mirror received an independent worship at Kumano. The Nihongi says, under the date b.c. 92:--
"Before this the two Gods Ama-terasu no Oho-kami and Yamato no Oho-kuni-dama were worshipped together within the Emperor's Great Hall. He dreaded, however, the power of these Gods, and did not feel secure in their dwelling together. Therefore he entrusted Ama-terasu no Oho-kami to Toyo-suki-iri-bime no Mikoto to be worshipped at the village of Kasanuhi, in Yamato."
Here we must understand that it was the sun-mirror which was sent away from the palace. It was subsequently (b.c. 5) enshrined at Ise, where it is to this day preserved with the greatest care and reverence.[100] It is about eight inches in diameter.
In ancient Peru, the Sun-God was represented by a golden disc, the Moon-Goddess by one of silver.
We find, however, that in a.d. 507 a sacred mirror was still preserved in the Imperial palace as one of the regalia. It was destroyed by fire in the eleventh century, but its successor is to this day transmitted from sovereign to sovereign as a token of royal authority. The religious ceremony in its honour is described below.[101] Associated with the mirror as regalia were a sword and a jewel. These three objects are presented to the Mikado on his accession with great ceremony. In ancient times there were probably only two regalia, the mirror and the sword. The latter was lost in the sea at the battle of Dannoüra. But such losses are not irreparable.
The Sun-Goddess in her capacity as sovereign is attended by a Court of minor deities who belong to the class of man-deities, and will be dealt with in the next chapter.