Chapter 39

"THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS

[Footnote 1: Kojiki, pp. 9-18; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 20.]

[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 43; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Art. Shintō; in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, is to be found Mr. Satow's digest of the commentaries of the modern Shintō revivalists; in Mr. Chamberlain's translation of the Kojiki, the text with abundant notes. See also Mr. Twan-Lin's Account of Japan up to A.D. 1200, by E.H. Parker. T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I.]

[Footnote 3: "The various abstractions which figure at the commencement of the 'Records' (Kojiki) and of the 'Chronicles' (Nihongi) were probably later growths, and perhaps indeed were inventions of individual priests."--Kojiki, Introd., p. lxv. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I, p. 56. "Thus, not only is this part of the Kojiki pure twaddle, but it is not even consistent twaddle."]

[Footnote 4: Kojiki, Section IX.]

[Footnote 5: Dr. Joseph Edkins, D.D., author of Chinese Buddhism, who believes that the primeval religious history of men is recoverable, says in Early Spread of Religious Ideas, Especially in the Far East, p. 29, "In Japan Amatérasŭ, ... in fact, as I suppose, Mithras written in Japanese, though the Japanese themselves are not aware of this etymology." Compare Kojiki, Introduction, pp. lxv.-lxvii.]

[Footnote 6: Kojiki, p. xlii.]

[Footnote 7: T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 67.]

[Footnote 8: E. Satow, Revival of Pure Shintō, pp. 67-68.]

[Footnote 9: This curious agreement between the Japanese and other ethnic traditions in locating "Paradise," the origin of the human family and of civilization, at the North Pole, has not escaped the attention of Dr. W.F. Warren, President of Boston University, who makes extended reference to it in his interesting and suggestive book, Paradise Found: The Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole; A Study of the Prehistoric World, Boston, 1885.]

[Footnote 10: The pure Japanese numerals equal in number the fingers; with the borrowed Chinese terms vast amounts can be expressed.]

[Footnote 11: This custom was later revived, T.A.S.J., pp. 28, 31. Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 57; M.E., pp. 156, 238.]

[Footnote 12: See in Japanese Fairy World, "How the Sun-Goddess was enticed out of her Cave." For the narrative see Kojiki, pp. 54-59; T.A.S.J., Vol. II., 128-133.]

[Footnote 13: See Choméi and Wordsworth, A Literary Parallel, by J.M. Dixon, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., pp. 193-205; Anthologie Japonaise, by Leon de Rosny; Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese; Suyématsŭ's Genji Monogatari, London, 1882.]

[Footnote 14: Oftentimes in studying the ancient rituals, those who imagine that the word Kami should be in all cases translated gods, will be surprised to see what puerility, bathos, or grandiloquence, comes out of an attempt to express a very simple, it may be humiliating, experience.]

[Footnote 15: Mythology and Religious Worship of the Japanese, Westminster Review, July, 1878; Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., Vols. VII., IX.; Esoteric Shintō, by Percival Lowell, T.A.S.J, Vol. XXI.]

[Footnote 16: Compare Sections IX. and XXIII. of the Kojiki.]

[Footnote 17: This indeed seems to be the substance of the modern official expositions of Shintō and the recent Rescripts of the Emperor, as well as of much popular literature, including the manifestoes or confessions found on the persons of men who have "consecrated" themselves as "the instruments of Heaven for punishing the wicked," i.e., assassinating obnoxious statesmen. See The Ancient Religion, M.E., pp. 96-100; The Japan Mail, _passim_.]

[Footnote 18: Revival of Pure Shintō, pp. 25-38.]

[Footnote 19: Japanese Homes, by E.S. Morse, pp. 228-233, note, p. 832.]

[Footnote 20: Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12.]

[Footnote 21: Geological Survey of Japan, by Benj. S. Lyman, 1878-9.]

[Footnote 22: The Shell Mounds of Omori; and The Tokio Times, Jan. 18, 1879, by Edward S. Morse; Japanese Fairy World, pp. I78, 191, 196.]

[Footnote 23: Kojiki, pp. 60-63.]

[Footnote 24: S. and H., pp. 58, 337, etc.]

[Footnote 25: This study in comparative religion by a Japanese, which cost the learned author his professorship in the Téi-Koku Dai Gaku or Imperial University (lit. Theocratic Country Great Learning Place), has had a tendency to chill the ardor of native investigators. His paper was first published in the Historical Magazine of the University, but the wide publicity and popular excitement followed only after republication, with comments by Mr. Taguchi, in the Kéizai Zasshi (Economical Journal). The Shintōists denounced Professor Kumi for "making our ancient religion a branch of Christianity," and demanded and secured his "retirement" by the Government. See Japan Mail, April 2, 1892, p. 440.]

[Footnote 26: T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., p. 282.]

[Footnote 27: Kojiki, p. xxviii.]

[Footnote 28: For the use of salt in modern "Esoteric" Shintō, both in purification and for employment as of salamandrine, see T.A.S.J., pp. 125, 128.]

[Footnote 29: In the official census of 1893, nine Shintō sects are named, each of which has its own Kwancho or Presiding Head, recognized by the government. The sectarian peculiarities of Shintō have been made the subject of study by very few foreigners. Mr. Satow names the following:

The Yui-itsu sect was founded by Toshida Kané-tomo. His signature appears as the end of a ten-volume edition, issued A.D. 1503, of the liturgies extracted from the Yengishiki or Book of Ceremonial Law, first published in the era of Yengi (or En-gi), A.D. 901-922. He is supposed to be the one who added the _kana_, or common vernacular script letters, to the Chinese text and thus made the norito accessible to the people. The little pocket prayer-books, folded in an accordeon-like manner, are very cheap and popular. The sect is regarded as heretical by strict Shintōists, as the system Yuwiitsu consists "mainly of a Buddhist superstructure on a Shintō foundation." Yoshida applied the tenets of the Shingon or True Word sect of Buddhists to the understanding and practice of the ancient god-way.

The Suiga sect teaches a system which is a combination of Yuwiitsu and of the modern philosophical form of Confucianism as elaborated by Chu Hi, and known in Japan as the Téi-shu philosophy. The founder was Yamazaki Ansai, who was born in 1618 and died in 1682. By combining the forms of the Yoshida sect, which is based on the Buddhism of the Shingon sect, with the materialistic philosophy of Chu Hi, he adapted the old god-way to what he deemed modern needs.

In the Déguchi sect, the ancient belief is explained by the Chinese Book of Changes (or Divination). Déguchi Nobuyoshi, the founder, was god-warden or _kannushi_ of the Géiku or Outer Palace Temple at Isé. He promulgated his views about the year 1660, basing them upon the book called Éki by the Japanese and Yi-king by the Chinese. This Yi-king, which Professor Terrien de Laeouporie declares is only a very ancient book of pronunciation of comparative Accadian and Chinese Syllabaries, has been the cause of incredible waste of labor, time, and brains in China--enough to have diked the Yellow River or drained the swamps of the Empire. It is the chief basis of Chinese superstition, and the greatest literary barrier to the advance of civilization. It has also made much mischief in Japan. Déguchi explained the myths of the age of the gods by divination or éki, based on the Chinese books. As late as 1893 there was published in Tōkiō a work in Japanese, with good translation info English, on Scientific Morality, or the practical guidance of life by means of divination--The Takashima Ékidan (or Monograph on the Éki of Mr. Takashima), by S. Sugiura.

The Jikko sect, according to its representative at the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago, is "the practical." It lays stress less upon speculation and ritual, and more upon the realization of the best teachings of Shintō. It was founded by Haségawa Kakugiō, who was born at Nagasaki in 1541. Living in a cave in Fuji-yama, "he received inspiration through the miraculous power of the mountain." It believes in one absolute Deity, often mentioned in the Kojiki, which, self-originated, took the embodiment of two deities, one with the male nature and the other female, though these two deities are nothing but forms of the one substance and unite again in the absolute deity. These gave birth to the Japanese Archipelago, the sun and moon, the mountains and streams, the divine ancestors, etc. According to the teachings of this sect, the peerless mountain, Fuji, ought to be reverenced as the sacred abode of the divine lord, and as "the brains of the whole globe." The believer must make Fuji the example and emblem of his thought and action. He must be plain and simple, as the form of the mountain, making his body and mind pure and serene, as Fuji itself. The present world with all its practical works must be respected more than the future world. We must pray for the long life of the country, lead a life of temperance and diligence, cooperating with one another in doing good.

* * * * *

_Statistics of Shintōism._

From the official Résumé Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, 1894. In 1801 there were nine administrative heads of sects; 75,877 preachers, priests, and shrine-keepers, with 1,158 male and 228 female students. There were 163 national temples of superior rank and 136,652 shrines or temples in cities and prefectures; a total of 193,153, served by 14,700 persons of the grade of priests. Most of the expenses, apart from endowments and local contributions, are included in the first item of the annual Treasury Budget, "Civil List, Appanage and Shintō Temples."]