CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS

"Japan is not a land where men need pray, For 'tis itself divine: Yet do I lift my voice in prayer..."

Hitomaro, + A.D. 737.

"Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught done, who could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first parted, and the three Deities performed the commencement of creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things."--Preface of Yasumarō (A.D. 712) to the "Kojiki."

"These, the 'Kojiki' and 'Nihongi' are their [the Shintōists] canonical books, ... and almost their every word is considered undeniable truth."

"The Shintō faith teaches that God inspired the foundation of the Mikadoate, and that it is therefore sacred."--Kaburagi.

"We now reverently make our prayer to Them [Our Imperial Ancestors] and to our Illustrious Father [Komei, + 1867], and implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them solemn oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be an example to Our subjects in the observance of the Law [Constitution] hereby established."--Imperial oath of the Emperor Mutsuhito in the sanctuary in the Imperial Palace, Tōkiō, February 11, 1889.

"Shintō is not our national religion. A faith existed before it, which was its source. It grew out of superstitious teaching and mistaken tradition. The history of the rise of Shintō proves this."--T. Matsugami.

"Makoto wo moté KAMI NO MICHI wo oshiyuréba nari." (Thou teachest the way of God in truth.)--Mark xii. 14.

"Ware wa Micni nuri, Mukoto nari, Inochi nari."--John xiv. 6.--The New Testament in Japanese.