Shinto

It can hardly be maintained, however, that the poets and seers of ancient Japan achieved much success in clothing their spiritual conceptions in mythical form. There is little force or beauty in their stories, and there is a plentiful admixture of matter which, to us at least, is frivolous, revolting, or devoid of religious significance.

There is no summer and winter myth in the old Japanese books, no deluge myth, and no eclipse myth. There is, strange to say, no earthquake myth, and but one solitary mention of a God of Earthquakes. There are no astral myths, no "Returning Saviour" myth, and no "Journey of the Dead" beyond the bare mention of an "Even Pass of Yomi," or Hades. The creation of mankind is not accounted for.

Myth and Ritual. – When a myth and a ceremony relate to the same subject-matter, which comes first in order of time? Is the ceremony a dramatic commemoration of the events related in the myth, or, vice versâ, is the myth an attempt to explain the origin of the ceremony? Some go so far as to say that ritual is the source of all religious myth. The late Mr. D. G. Brinton, on the other hand, held that "every rite is originally based on a myth." Robertson Smith's view was that "in almost every case the myth was derived from the ritual, and not the ritual from the myth." No general rule can be laid down in these cases. Every such question must be decided according to the available evidence. A myth is a narrative, and a ceremony a kind of dramatic peformance. It will not be disputed that dramas have been founded on narratives, and that narratives are sometimes taken from dramas, as in the case of Lamb's 'Tales from Shakespeare.' Novels are every day dramatized, and the reverse process, though not common with ourselves, is familiar in Japan. Several of the Shinto deities are worshipped for no other reason than because they are mentioned in the myths of the Kojiki and Nihongi. It was probably the mythical account of the friendship of Ajisuki and Ame-waka-hiko which led to shrines being erected to these deities side by side at Idzumo. A literal interpretation of the obviously allegorical story of Iha-naga-hime and Kono-saku-hime led, in later times, to an actual cult of these personages. On the other hand, the ceremony of religious ablution is certainly older than the myth which represents Izanagi as washing in the sea in order to remove the pollutions of the land of Yomi. The worship of the Sun is assuredly not the outcome, but the source, of the Japanese solar myths, though it may owe to them some of its more modern features.

Many myths have no ceremonial associated with them, and there is much ceremony for which the myth-makers have not attempted to account.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MYTHICAL NARRATIVE

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, and obscurities. In the following outline, taken mainly from the two first-named works, a selection has been made of such incidents as have an interest and significance for European students of mythology.

Both the Nihongi and the Kiujiki begin with a passage which is justly repudiated by the modern school of Shinto theologians as in reality belonging to the materialistic philosophy of China.51 It runs as follows: -

"Of old, Heaven and Earth were not yet separated, and the In and Yo 52 not yet divided. They formed a chaotic mass like an egg, which was of obscurely defined limits, and contained germs. The purer and clearer part was thinly diffused and formed Heaven, while the heavier and grosser element settled down and became Earth. The finer element easily became a united body, but the consolidation of the heavy and gross element was accomplished with difficulty. Heaven was therefore formed first, and Earth established subsequently. Thereafter divine beings were produced between them."

Pfleiderer says:53 "There is not unfrequently found in the mythology of the nature-religions a combination of Theogony and a Divine formation of matter in such a way that the Gods-whether one or all of them-are the first products of chaos, but then they form the rest of the world out of it. In the Indian mythology Prajapati proceeded out of the golden world-egg and then became the creative former of the world. Likewise in the Chaldæan mythology the great Gods arose at first out of chaos, and they then created the other Gods and the living beings of heaven and earth."

But are not such speculations later accretions on the original myth? In Japan, at any rate, formation out of chaos is undoubtedly an afterthought.

First Gods. – We have next what is called "the seven generations of Gods," ending with the creator-deities, Izanagi and Izanami. Of the first six of these generations the most confused and contradictory accounts are given in the various authorities. There is no agreement as to the name of the first God on the list. The Nihongi tells us that the first deity produced between Heaven and Earth while still in a state of chaos sprang up like a reed-shoot, which then changed into a God,54 and was called Kuni-toko-tachi no Mikoto,55 or "Earth-eternal-stand augustness." The Kojiki calls the first God Ame no mi-naka nushi no Kami, that is to say, "Heaven-august-centre-master-deity," identified by some with the Polar Star, a hypothesis for which there is no other ground than the name itself. The same authority gives Kuni-toko-tachi a place lower down in the genealogical table. The Kiujiki has a first God called Ame yudzuru hi ame no sagiri kuni yudzuru tsuki kuni no sagiri, and describes him (or her, for there is no indication of sex) as the "Heavenly Parent." It is impossible to translate this rigmarole; but as it contains the words "earth," "sun," "moon," and "mist," a nature-deity is evidently intended. Both the Kojiki and Kiujiki first Gods disappear at once from the mythical record. There is little trace of their worship in later times, and they must be pronounced mere abortive attempts at deity-making. Two other first deities are mentioned in the various myths quoted in the Nihongi, namely, Umashi-ashi-kabi-hiko-ji (sweet-reed-shoot-prince-father) and Ama-toko-tachi (Heaven-eternal-stand). The latter forms, along with Kuni-toko-tachi, one of those pairs of deities, not necessarily male and female, which are common in Japanese mythology. An enumeration of the Gods of the five generations which follow would be tedious and unprofitable. Some of them had probably no existence outside of the imagination of individual writers. They were doubtless invented or collected in order to provide a genealogy for Izanagi and Izanami. With one exception, they have left no trace in myth or in ceremonial. There are no shrines in their honour. Little is to be learnt from their names, the derivation of which is often doubtful. Several of them, however, show that the divinely mysterious process of growth, so all-important to an agricultural nation, had attracted attention.56

Musubi no Kami (the God of Growth), who forms the sixth generation of deities, is a genuine divinity, of whom more remains to be said hereafter.

Izanagi and Izanami. – The seventh generation consisted of two deities, Izanagi and Izanami. It is with them that Japanese myth really begins, all that precedes being merely introductory and for the most part of comparatively recent origin.

The Nihongi tells us that-

"Izanagi and Izanami stood on the floating bridge of Heaven, and held counsel together, saying 'Is there not a country beneath?' Thereupon they thrust down the 'Jewel-Spear of Heaven' (Ame no tama-boko) and groping about with it, found the ocean. The brine which dripped from the point of the spear coagulated and formed an island which received the name of Onogoro-jima or the 'Self-Coagulating Island.' The two deities thereupon descended and dwelt there. Accordingly they wished to be united as husband and wife, and to produce countries. So they made Onogoro-jima the pillar of the centre of the land."

The Kojiki says that Izanagi and Izanami were commanded by all the heavenly deities "to regulate and fully consolidate" the floating land beneath. But all the accounts, the Kojiki included, proceed to represent the islands of Japan as having been generated by them in the ordinary manner. We have therefore three distinct conceptions of creation in Japanese myth-first as generation in the most literal sense, second, as reducing to order, and third, as growth (Musubi).57

The "floating bridge of Heaven" is no doubt the rainbow. It is represented on earth by the Sori-bashi or Taiko-bashi (drum-bridge) a semi-circular bridge over a pond before some Shinto shrines. It has too steep a slope for ordinary use, and is reserved for the Deity and for the priest on solemn occasions, the custom having been in this instance probably suggested by the myth.

The Ame no tama-boko or Jewel-Spear of Heaven has been the subject of much dissertation. Hirata, whose view is endorsed by several eminent scholars, native and foreign, thinks that it is a phallus. Its use in creating, which in Japanese myth is the same thing as begetting, the first island, countenances this idea. The derivation of tama-boko also lends itself to it. Tama may be rendered ball or knob as well as jewel, and the tama-boko might therefore be a shaft surmounted by a knob representing the glans, reminding us of the spears tipped with pine cones which were carried by the Bacchantes in the Dionysia. We have another Japanese case of a conventionalized phallus in the wo-bashira.58 Moreover, on the theory that the tama-boko is a phallus, we have a satisfactory explanation of the circumstance that tama-boko no is used as a standing epithet of michi, road, which has puzzled Japanese scholars. The tama-boko no michi would then mean "the road where phallic symbols are set up." There is abundant evidence that objects of this kind were a familiar sight by the roadsides near the capital in ancient times. The poet Tsura-yuki (tenth century) has left a short poem in which he expresses his intention of praying to the Tamaboko no chiburi no kami when starting on a journey. The Chiburi no kami were the phallic road deities, protectors of travellers. Notwithstanding the Japanese poets' habit of using stock epithets without much regard to their proper meaning, this juxtaposition is highly suggestive. Another name for the phallic Sahe no kami59 was Chimata no kami, or road-fork-gods, because they had no temples and were worshipped by the road-sides and at cross-ways. The road between Utsu-nomiya and Nikkô, when I travelled along it in 1870, was still a tama-boko no michi-in the phallic sense.60 Another link between the hoko and the phallus is suggested by a statement in the Shiki Monogatari that the weapon which formed, and still forms, the central object in the great Goriōye festival procession at Kioto is known as the Sai no hoko. Now the Goriōye is a survival of the old festival in honour of the phallic Sahe no kami.

But in mythology one explanation does not necessarily exclude another and apparently contradictory one. Whether the myth-makers had in their minds the phallus conception of the tama-boko-and I am persuaded that they had-it is impossible in this connexion to ignore the function of the hoko, or spear, as a symbol of authority. Herbert Spencer61 has shown how universally the spear has this meaning. Britannia's trident is a familiar example. Theseus, in the 'Hippolytus' of Euripides, speaks of "the land ruled by my spear." Lances or arrows are emblems of authority in Korea. In Japan itself there is an abundance of similar evidence. In the Nihongi we hear of local governors being granted shields and spears in token of authority. When Ohonamochi abdicates in favour of Ninigi he delivers over the Kuni-muke no hiro-boko, or land-subduing-broad-spear. The epithet Ya-chi-boko no kami, or God of eight thousand spears, applied to the same deity, has a similar symbolical meaning. The Empress Jingō set up her spear at the palace gate of the King of Silla, in Korea, as a token of conquest. A holly spear, eight fathoms long, was given to Prince Yamatodake when he was despatched on his expedition to subdue Eastern Japan.

It will be observed that the tama-boko as a phallus belongs to the generative conception of creation, and as a spear to the idea of it as a cosmic or regulating process: -

"The two deities having descended on Onogoro-jima erected there an eight fathom house with an august central pillar. Then Izanagi addressed Izanami, saying: 'How is thy body formed?' Izanami replied, 'My body is completely formed except one part which is incomplete.' Then Izanagi said, 'My body is completely formed and there is one part which is superfluous. Suppose that we supplement that which is incomplete in thee with that which is superfluous in me, and thereby procreate lands.' Izanami replied, 'It is well.' Then Izanagi said, 'Let me and thee go round the heavenly august pillar, and having met at the other side, let us become united in wedlock.' This being agreed to, he said, 'Do thou go round from the left, and I will go round from the right.' When they had gone round, Izanami spoke first and exclaimed, 'How delightful! I have met a lovely youth.' Izanagi then said, 'How delightful! I have met a lovely maiden.' Afterwards he said, 'It was unlucky for the woman to speak first.' The child which was the first offspring of their union was the Hiruko (leech-child), which at the age of three was still unable to stand upright, and was therefore placed in a reed-boat and sent adrift."

The "eight fathom house" built by Izanagi and Izanami as a preliminary to their marriage is the fuseya, or nuptial hut, several times referred to in the old records. It was erected less for practical purposes than to avoid the ceremonial contamination of the ordinary dwelling-house by the consummation of a marriage within it.

The number eight is often met with in Japanese myth. It would be a mistake, however, to regard it as in any way sacred. The primary meaning of yatsu is "many," and it might be better to translate it so in this passage.

The central pillar of a house (corresponding to our king-post) is at the present day an object of honour in Japan as in many other countries. In the case of Shinto shrines, it is called the Nakago no mibashira (central august pillar), and in ordinary houses the Daikoku-bashira. The circumambulation of the central post by Izanagi and Izanami reminds us of the Hindu pradakchina.62 Hirata's conjecture that we have here an ancient marriage rite is very plausible. The circumambulation of the dwelling, the fire, a tree, or an altar by the bride and bridegroom is a familiar feature of marriage ritual. It does not follow that the Japanese rite had a religious character. Nothing in the mythical record suggests that this is the case, and at no time in Japanese history has the marriage ceremony had the sanction of religion. Shinto neither consecrates wedlock nor condemns adultery.

It must not be inferred from this narrative that unions between brothers and sisters of the full blood were permitted by ancient Japanese custom. Cain and Abel must have married their own sisters, but this proves nothing against the morality of the Jews. The necessity of the story is the compelling motive in both cases. It is true that marriages were allowed between a man and his sister by the father's side only, but we learn from the Nihongi63 that in the case of full brothers and sisters such connexions were considered criminal. The fact that imo, younger sister, is also used in addressing a wife proves no more than the "How fair is thy love, my sister, my bride!" of the Song of Solomon. The author of the myth of the Sun-Goddess endeavours to smooth over the difficulty of her conjugal relations with her brother Susa no wo by giving them a miraculous character.

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1

At the festival of Nifu Miōjin in Kiī, when the procession bearing offerings arrives before the shrine, the village chief calls out in a loud voice, "According to our annual custom, let us all laugh." To which a hearty response is given. This is because this God does not go to Idzumo for an annual visit like the others.

2

'Sociology,' p. 153.

3

Compare with this the following description of the huacas of the ancient Peruvians. "All those things which from their beauty and excellence are superior to other things of a like kind; things that are ugly and monstrous or that cause horror and fright; things out of the usual course of nature."

4

In the spirit of Wordsworth's

"Listen, the mighty being is awakeAnd doth with his eternal motion makeA noise like thunder everlastingly."

5

M. Goblet d'Alviella says: "I maintain that neither of these two forms of worship necessarily presupposes the other; but that man having been led by different roads to personify the souls of the dead on the one hand and natural objects and phenomena on the other, subsequently attributed to both alike the character of mysterious superhuman beings. Let us add that this must have taken place everywhere, for there is not a people on earth in which we do not come upon these forms of belief side by side and intermingled." Dr. Pfleiderer's view is substantially identical.

6

Max Müller speaks of "that ancient stratum of thought which postulated an agent in the sky, the sun, &c." This is really a secondary conception.

7

It was not unknown in ancient Greece and Rome. Zeus, Hercules, and other deities became divided up in this way.

8

"Mr. Tyler has justly observed that the true lesson of the new science of Comparative Mythology is the barrenness in primitive times of the faculty which we most associate with mental fertility, the imagination… Among these multitudes (the millions of men who fill what we vaguely call the East) Literature, Religion, and Art-or what correspond to them-move always within a distinctly drawn circle of unchanging notions… This condition of thought is rather the infancy of the human mind prolonged than a different maturity from that most familiar to us." – Maine, 'Early History of Institutions,' pp. 225-6. This characteristic of the mental development of the races of the Far East is discussed in 'A Comparative Study of the Japanese and Korean Languages,' by W. G. Aston, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, August, 1879, and more fully by Mr. Percival Lowell, in his 'Soul of the Far East,' 1888. See also Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's' Kojiki,' Introd., lxvi.

9

Homer implicitly denies the spirituality of his Gods when he says that the Hercules which was summoned up by Ulysses was only his eidolon, or phantom, the real man being in Olympus among the happy Gods.

10

See an instructive article on 'Shekinah' in Dr. Hastings's 'Dictionary of the Bible'.

11

"And mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man." – 'Macbeth,' Act III. scene i.

12

The Shekinah was also associated with a divine radiance, or glory.

13

Mi mi (august body) in the names of others involves a more material conception of deity.

14

Corresponding to the mo acha, uncle of peace, and ski acha, rough uncle, of the Ainus.

15

Homer's άντός

16

Sakitake no Ben, 21.

17

See Index.

18

For deities of classes consult Dr. Tylor's 'Primitive Culture,' ii. 242.

19

"Laotze finit par n'être plus que le principe vital universel existant avant le ciel et la terre et qui s'est plu à chaque époque a se montrer sous les traits d'un personnage quelconque souvent des plus obscurs." – 'Religion de la Chine,' De Harlez.

20

See a paper on the Hi no maru (sun-circle) in the T. A. S. J., Nov. 8th, 1893.

21

Such as touching for scrofula or the assurance of fine weather.

22

The statements of Kaempfer, in his 'History of Japan,' regarding the sacred character of the Mikado's person cannot be depended on. His account of Shinto generally is grossly erroneous, or rather imaginary.

23

'Japan,' edited by Capt. Brinkley.

24

See Index, sub voce.

25

See Index-'Suha.'

26

'Evolution of Religion,' p. 239.

27

Fuku means good fortune.

28

See p. 27.

29

In Teutonic mythology the will-of-the-wisps are souls which have not attained heavenly peace.

30

See also Mr. Frazer's 'Golden Bough,' ii. 297.

31

The Stoics held that the world was not only animated and immortal, but likewise happy and round, because Plato says that that is the most perfect form.

32

Hirata denies this.

33

For full details of the construction of the Japanese dolmen, the reader may consult two admirable papers by Mr. W. Gowland, in the Japan Society's Transactions, 1897-8, and the Journal of the Society of Antiquaries, 1897.

34

"Blood, which is the life, is the food frequently offered to the dead… By a substitution of similars, it is considered sufficient to colour the corpse, or some part thereof, with some red substance taking the place thereof." – Jevons, 'Introduction to the History of Religion,' p. 52. But see Index-'Red.'

35

Some of these figures are still in existence, and one may be seen in the British Museum, where it constitutes the chief treasure of the Gowland Collection. The Uyeno Museum, in Tokio, also possesses specimens, both of men and horses.

36

"Rites, performed at graves, becoming afterwards religious rites performed at altars in temples, were at first acts done for the benefit of the ghost." – Herbert Spencer's 'Sociology,' ii. 8.

37

See an article by Mr. W. H. Lay in T. A. S. J., 1891.

38

"Comte ramenait toutes les religions à l'adoration de l'homme par l'homme. Comte, il est vrai, ne faisait pas de l'homme individuel l'objet du culte normal: il proposait à nos adorations l'homme en tant qu' espèce en tant qu' humanité et parvenait à deployer une véritable mysticité sur cette étroite base." – Reville, 'Prolegomena,' p. 26.

39

See Index-'Incest.'

40

In 'Japan,' edited by Capt. Brinkley.

41

Dr. Florenz, in his 'Japanische Mythologie,' says that Sui-tengū is a fusion of the Sumiyoshi Sea-Gods with the Indian Sea-God Sui-ten, that is, Varuna, subsequently identified with the youthful Emperor Antoku (who lost his life by drowning in 1185).

42

"The different peoples conceived and developed this divine hierarchy pari passu with their own approximation to political unity" (Goblet d'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures). Aristotle recognized the same principle.

43

"The symbol or permanent object, at and through which the worshipper came into direct contact with the God, was not lacking in any Semitic place of worship, but had not always the same form, and was sometimes a natural object, sometimes an artificial erection." – Robertson Smith, 'Religion of the Semites,' p. 160.