Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore
=Prehistoric Shinto=.--Ethnologists are agreed that the predominant element of the Japanese race came to Japan by way of Korea from that part of Asia which lies north of China, probably by a succession of immigrations which extended over many centuries. It is useless to specul...
=Prehistoric Shinto=.--Ethnologists are agreed that the predominant element of the Japanese race came to Japan by way of Korea from that part of Asia which lies north of China,...
2. CHAPTER II.=Religion=.--Religion, a general term which includes all our relations to the Divine, is a cord of three strands, namely, Emotion, Thought, and Conduct. Emotion comprises gratit...
3. ii. 20, says, "The Lord is in his holy temple," the Targums have,"Jehovah was pleased to cause his Shekinah to dwell in his holy temple." I cannot see that the Shekinah and _Mitama_ owe anything to the analogous doctrine of the separability o...
4. CHAPTER III.The importance of the deification of human beings in Shinto has been grossly exaggerated both by European scholars and by modern Japanese writers. Grant Allen, for example, says...
5. CHAPTER IV.=Functions of Gods=.--Nature deities seldom confine themselves to their proper nature functions. Shinto exhibits an increasing tendency to recognize in them a providence that in...
6. CHAPTER V.=Nature of Myth=.--Myth and religion have distinct sources. We have seen above[48] that there is a phase of religion antecedent to myth. On the other hand, the earliest form of...
7. CHAPTER VI.No really adequate idea of the old Japanese myths can be gained without a direct study of the _Kojiki_, _Nihongi_, and _Kiujiki_, with all their repetitions, inconsistencies, an...
8. CHAPTER VII.The neglect of indications of number in the Japanese language often renders it impossible to say whether a God belongs to an individual natural object or phenomenon or to a clas...
9. CHAPTER VIII.None of the _Dii majores_ of the more ancient Shinto are deified individual men, and although it is highly probable that some of the inferior mythical personages were originally...
10. CHAPTER IX.Shinto illustrates the principle enunciated by Herbert Spencer, that "in early stages of social evolution the secular and the sacred are but little distinguished." The Mikado wa...
11. CHAPTER X.The term worship applies both to the forms of courtesy and respect towards human beings and of reverence for the Gods. Indeed the latter is not a separate kind of worship, but i...
12. CHAPTER XI.In the previous chapter we dealt with the positive side of religious conduct. We have now to examine its negative aspect, namely, those prohibitions which fall under the general...
13. CHAPTER XII.The _Yengishiki_ is the chief authority for the following account of some of the more important ceremonies of Shinto. I have also availed myself freely of the results of Sir E....
14. CHAPTER XIII.=Magic=.--The older view of magic is that of Prof. Zimmern, who defines it as "the attempt on man's part to influence, persuade, or compel spiritual beings to comply with certai...
15. CHAPTER XIV.=Rise of Buddhism=.--The later history of Shinto is one of neglect and decay. Such vitality as it retained was owing mainly to the Buddhist ideas which were engrafted upon it. T...