The Religions of Japan Part 6

Foreigners, whose fancy is nimble, have read in these the symbols of lightning, the abode of the spirits and various forthshadowings unknown either to the j.a.panese or the ancient writings. In reality these _gohei_, or honorable offerings, are nothing more than the paper representatives of the ancient offerings of cloth which were woven, as the arts progressed, of bark, of hemp and of silk.

The chief s.h.i.+nt[=o] ministers of religion and shrine-keepers belonged to particular families, which were often honored with t.i.tles and offices by the emperor. In ordinary life they dressed like others of their own rank or station, but when engaged in their sacred office were robed in white or in a special official costume, wearing upon their heads the _ebos.h.i.+_ or peculiar cap which we a.s.sociate with j.a.panese archaeology. They knew nothing of celibacy; but married, reared families and kept their scalps free from the razor, though some of the lower order of shrine-keepers dressed their hair in ordinary style, that is, with shaven poll and topknot. At some of the more important shrines, like those at Ise, there were virgin priestesses who acted as custodians both of the shrines and of the relics.[26]

In front of the miyas stood what we should suppose on first seeing was a gateway. This was the _torii_ or bird-perch, and anciently was made only of unpainted wood. Two upright tree-trunks held crosswise on a smooth tree-trunk the ends of which projected somewhat over the supports, while under this was a smaller beam inserted between the two uprights. On the torii, the birds, generally barn-yard fowls which were sacred to the G.o.ds, roosted. These creatures were not offered up as sacrifices, but were chanticleers to give notice of day-break and the rising of the sun.

The c.o.c.k holds a prominent place in j.a.panese myth, legend, art and symbolism. How this feature of pure j.a.panese architecture, the torii, afterward lost its meaning, we shall show in our lecture on Riy[=o]bu or mixed Buddhism.

s.h.i.+nt[=o]'s Emphasis on Cleanliness.

One of the most remarkable features of s.h.i.+nt[=o] was the emphasis laid on cleanliness. Pollution was calamity, defilement was sin, and physical purity at least, was holiness. Everything that could in any way soil the body or the clothing was looked upon with abhorrence and detestation.

Disease, wounds and death were defiling, and the feeling of disgust prevailed over that of either sympathy or pity. Birth and death were especially polluting. Anciently there were huts built both for the mother about to give birth to a child, or for the man who was dying or sure to die of disease or wounds. After the birth of the infant or the death of the patient these houses were burned. Cruel as this system was to the woman at a time when she needed most care and comfort, and brutal as it seems in regard to the sick and dying, yet this ancient custom was continued in a few remote places in j.a.pan as late as the year 1878.[27]

In modern days with equal knowledge of danger and defilement, tenderness and compa.s.sion temper the feeling of disgust, and prevail over it.

Horror of uncleanliness was so great that the priests bathed and put on clean garments before making the sacred offerings or chanting the liturgies, and were accustomed to bind a slip of paper over their mouths lest their breath should pollute the offering. Numerous were the special festivals, observed simply for purification. Salt also was commonly used to sprinkle over the ground, and those who attended a funeral must free themselves from contamination by the use of salt.[28] Purification by water was habitual and in varied forms. The ancient emperors and priests actually performed the ablution of the people or made public l.u.s.tration in their behalf.

Afterwards, and probably because population increased and towns sprang up, we find it was customary at the festivals of purification to perform public ablution, vicariously, as it were, by means of paper mannikins instead of making applications of water to the human cuticle. Twice a year paper figures representing the people were thrown into the river, the typical meaning of which was that the nation was thereby cleansed from the sins, that is, the defilements, of the previous half-year.

Still later, the Mikado made the chief minister of religion at Ki[=o]to his deputy to perform the symbolical act for the people of the whole country.

Prayers to Myriads of G.o.ds.

In prayer, the wors.h.i.+pper, approaching the temple but not entering it, pulls a rope usually made of white material and attached to a peculiar-shaped bell hung over the shrine, calling the attention of the deity to his devotions. Having washed his hands and rinsed out his mouth, he places his hands reverently together and offers his pet.i.tion.

Concerning the method and words of prayer, Hirata, a famous exponent of s.h.i.+nt[=o], thus writes:

As the number of the G.o.ds who possess different functions is so great, it will be convenient to wors.h.i.+p by name only the most important and to include the rest in a general pet.i.tion. Those whose daily affairs are so mult.i.tudinous that they have not time to go through the whole of the following morning prayers, may content themselves with adoring the residence of the emperor, the domestic kami-dana, the spirits of their ancestors, their local patron G.o.d and the deity of their particular calling in life.

In praying to the G.o.ds the blessings which each has it in his power to bestow are to be mentioned in a few words, and they are not to be annoyed with greedy pet.i.tions, for the Mikado in his palace offers up pet.i.tions daily on behalf of his people, which are far more effectual than those of his subjects.

Rising early in the morning, wash your face and hands, rinse out the mouth and cleanse the body. Then turn toward the province of Yamato, strike the palms of the hands together twice, and wors.h.i.+p, bowing the head to the ground. The proper posture is that of kneeling on the heels, which is ordinarily a.s.sumed in saluting a superior.

PRAYER.

From a distance I reverently wors.h.i.+p with awe before Ame no Mi-has.h.i.+ra (Heaven-pillar) and Kuni no Mi-has.h.i.+ra (Country-pillar), also called s.h.i.+natsu-hiko no kami and s.h.i.+natsu-hime no kami, to whom is consecrated the Palace built with stout pillars at Tatsuta no Tachinu in the department of Heguri in the province of Yamato.

I say with awe, deign to bless me by correcting the unwitting faults which, seen and heard by you, I have committed, by blowing off and clearing away the calamities which evil G.o.ds might inflict, by causing me to live long like the hard and lasting rock, and by repeating to the G.o.ds of heavenly origin and to the G.o.ds of earthly origin the pet.i.tions which I present every day, along with your breath, that they may hear with the sharp-earedness of the forth-galloping colt.

To the common people the sun is actually a G.o.d, as none can doubt who sees them wors.h.i.+pping it morning and evening. The writer can never forget one of many similar scenes in T[=o]ki[=o], when late one afternoon after O Tent[=o] Sama (the sun-Lord of Heaven), which had been hidden behind clouds for a fortnight, shone out on the muddy streets. In a moment, as with the promptness of a military drill, scores of people rushed out of their houses and with faces westward, kneeling, squatting, began prayer and wors.h.i.+p before the great luminary. Besides all the G.o.ds, supreme, subordinate and local, there is in nearly every house the Kami-dana or G.o.d-shelf. This is usually over the door inside. It contains images with little paper-covered wooden tablets having the G.o.d's name on them. Offerings are made by day and a little lamp is lighted at night. The following is one of several prayers which are addressed to this kami-dana.

Reverently adoring the great G.o.d of the two palaces of Ise, in the first place, the eight hundred myriads of celestial G.o.ds, the eight hundred myriads of terrestrial G.o.ds, all the fifteen hundred myriads of G.o.ds to whom are consecrated the great and small temples in all provinces, all islands and all places of the Great Land of Eight Islands, the fifteen hundreds of myriads of G.o.ds whom they cause to serve them, and the G.o.ds of branch palaces and branch temples, and Sohodo no kami, whom I have invited to the shrine set up on this divine shelf, and to whom I offer praises day by day, I pray with awe that they will deign to correct the unwitting faults, which, heard and seen by them, I have committed, and blessing and favoring me according to the powers which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine example, and to perform good works in the Way.

s.h.i.+nt[=o] Left in a State of Arrested Development.

Thus from the emperor to the humblest believer, the G.o.d-way is founded on ancestor wors.h.i.+p, and has had grafted upon its ritual system nature wors.h.i.+p, even to phallicism.[29] In one sense it is a self-made religion of the j.a.panese. Its leading characteristics are seen in the traits of the normal j.a.panese character of to-day. Its power for good and evil may be traced in the education of the j.a.panese through many centuries.

Knowing s.h.i.+nt[=o], we to a large degree know the j.a.panese, their virtues and their failings.

What s.h.i.+nt[=o] might have become in its full evolution had it been left alone, we cannot tell. Whether in the growth of the nation and without the pressure of Buddhism, Confucianism or other powerful influences from outside, the scattered and fragmentary mythology might have become organized into a harmonious system, or codes of ethics have been formulated, or the doctrines of a future life and the idea of a Supreme Being with personal attributes have been conceived and perfected, are questions the discussion of which may seem to be vain. History, however, gives no uncertain answer as to what actually did take place. We do but state what is unchallenged fact, when we say, that after commitment to writing of the myths, poems and liturgies which may be called the basis of s.h.i.+nt[=o], there came a great flood of Chinese and Buddhistic literature and a tremendous expansion of Buddhist missionary activity, which checked further literary growth of the kami system. These prepared the way for the absorption of the indigenous into the foreign cultus under the form called by an enthusiastic emperor, Riy[=o]bu s.h.i.+nt[=o], or the "two-fold divine doctrine." Of this, we shall speak in another lecture.

Suffice it here to say that by the scheme of syncretism propounded by K[=o]b[=o] in the ninth century, s.h.i.+nt[=o] was practically overlaid by the new faith from India, and largely forgotten as a distinct religion by the j.a.panese people. As late as A.D. 927, there were three thousand one hundred and thirty-two enumerated metropolitan and provincial temples, besides many more unenumerated village and hamlet shrines of s.h.i.+nt[=o]. These are referred to in the revised codes of ceremonial law set forth by imperial authority early in the tenth century. Probably by the twelfth century the pure rites of the G.o.d-way were celebrated, and the unmixed traditions maintained, in families and temples, so few as to be counted on the fingers. The ancient language in which the archaic forms had been preserved was so nearly lost and buried, that out of the ooze of centuries of oblivion, it had to be rescued by the skilled divers of the seventeenth century. Mabuchi, Motori and the other revivalists of pure s.h.i.+nt[=o], like the plungers after orient pearls, persevered until they had first recovered much that had been supposed irretrievably lost. These scholars deciphered and interpreted the ancient scriptures, poetry, prose, history, law and ritual, and once more set forth the ancient faith, as they believed, in its purity.

Whether, however, men can exactly reproduce and think for themselves the thoughts of others who have been dead for a millennium, is an open question. The new system is apt to be transparent. Just as it is nearly impossible for us to restore the religious life, thoughts and orthodoxy of the men who lived before the flood, so in the writings of the revivalists of pure s.h.i.+nt[=o] we detect the thoughts of Dutchmen, of Chinese, and of very modern j.a.panese. Unconsciously, those who would breathe into the dry bones of dead s.h.i.+nt[=o] the breath of the nineteenth century, find themselves compelled to use an oxygen and nitrogen generator made in Holland and mounted with Chinese apparatus; withal, lacquered and decorated with the art of to-day. To change from metaphor to matter of fact, modern "pure s.h.i.+nt[=o]" is mainly a ma.s.s of speculation and philosophy, with a tendency of which the ancient G.o.d-way knew nothing.

The Modern Revivalists of Kami no Michi.

Pa.s.sing by further mention of the fifteen or more corrupt sects of s.h.i.+nt[=o]ists, we name with honor the native scholars of the seventeenth century, who followed the ill.u.s.trious example of Iyeyas[)u], the political unifier of j.a.pan. They ransacked the country and purchased from temples, mansions and farmhouses, old ma.n.u.scripts and books, and forming libraries began anew the study of ancient language and history.

Keichu (1640-1701), a Buddhist priest, explored and illumined the poems of the Many[=o]shu. Kada Adzumar[=o], born in 1669 near Ki[=o]to, the son of a shrine-keeper at Inari, attempted the mastery of the whole archaic native language and literature. He made a grand beginning. He is unquestionably the founder of the school of Pure s.h.i.+nt[=o]. He died in 1736. His successor and pupil was Mabuchi (1697-1769), who claimed direct descent from that G.o.d which in the form of a colossal crow had guided the first chief of the Yamato tribe as he led his invaders through the country to found the line of Mikados. After Mabuchi came Motoori (1730-1801) a remarkable scholar and critic, who, with erudition and acuteness, a.n.a.lyzed the ancient literature and showed what were Chinese or imported elements and what was of native origin. He summarized the principles of the ancient religion, rea.s.serted and illuminated with amazing learning and voluminous commentary the archaic doc.u.ments, expounded and defended the ancient cosmogony, and in the usual style of j.a.panese polemics preached anew the doctrines of s.h.i.+nt[=o]. With wonderful navete and enthusiasm, Motoori taught that j.a.pan was the first part of the earth created, and that it is therefore The Land of the G.o.ds, the Country of the Holy Spirits. The stars were created from the muck which fell from the spear of Izanagi as he thrust it into the warm earth, while the other countries were formed by the spontaneous consolidation of the foam of the sea. Morals were invented by the Chinese because they were an immoral people, but in j.a.pan there is no necessity for any system of morals, as every j.a.panese acts aright if he only consults his own heart. The duty of a good j.a.panese consists in obeying the Mikado, without questioning whether his commands are right or wrong. The Mikado is G.o.d and vicar of all the G.o.ds, hence government and religion are the same, the Mikado being the centre of Church and State, which are one. Did the foreign nations know their duty they would at once hasten to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven in Ki[=o]to.

It is needless here to dwell upon the tremendous power of s.h.i.+nt[=o] as a political system, especially when wedded with the forces, generated in the minds of the educated j.a.panese by modern Confucianism. The Chinese ethical system, expanded into a philosophy as fascinating as the English materialistic school of to-day, entered j.a.pan contemporaneously with the revival of the Way of the G.o.ds and of native learning. In full rampancy of their vigor, in the seventeenth century these two systems began that generation of national energy, which in the eighteenth century was consolidated and which in the nineteenth century, though unknown and unsuspected by Europeans or Americans, was all ready for phenomenal manifestation and tremendous eruption, even while Perry's fleet was bearing the olive branch to j.a.pan. As we all know, this consolidation of forces from the inside, on meeting, not with collision but with union, the exterior forces of western civilization, formed a resultant in the energies which have made New j.a.pan.

The Great Purification of 1870.

In 1870, with the Sh[=o]gun of Yedo deposed, the dual system abolished, feudalism in its last gasp and s.h.i.+nt[=o] in full political power, with the ancient council of the G.o.ds (Jin Gi Kuan) once more established, and purified s.h.i.+nt[=o] again the religion of state, thousands of Riy[=o]bu s.h.i.+nt[=o] temples were at once purged of all their Buddhist ornaments, furniture, ritual, and everything that might remind the j.a.panese of foreign elements. Then began, logically and actually, the persecution of those Christians, who through all the centuries of repression and prohibition had continued their existence, and kept their faith however mixed and clouded. Theoretically, ancient belief was re-established, yet it was both physically and morally impossible to return wholly to the baldness and austere simplicity of those early ages, in which art and literature were unknown. For a while it seemed as though the miracle would be performed, of turning back the dial of the ages and of plunging j.a.pan into the fountain of her own youth. Propaganda was inst.i.tuted, and the attempts made to convert all the j.a.panese to s.h.i.+nt[=o] tenets and practice were for a while more lively than edifying; but the scheme was on the whole a splendid failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the first exultation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society and government, the Mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, as in the ancient ages.

For a little while, in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan, or Council of the G.o.ds of Heaven and Earth, held equal authority with the Dai J[=o] Kuan, or Great Council of the Government. Pretty soon the first step downward was taken, and from a supreme council it was made one of the ten departments of the government. In less than a year followed another retrograde movement and the department was called a board. Finally, in 1877, the board became a bureau. Now, it is hard to tell what rank the s.h.i.+nt[=o]

cultus occupies in the government, except as a system of guardians.h.i.+p over the imperial tombs, a mode of official etiquette, and as one of the acknowledged religions of the country.

Nevertheless, as an element in that amalgam of religions which forms the creed of most j.a.panese, s.h.i.+nt[=o] is a living force, and shares with Buddhism the arena against advancing Christianity, still supplying much of the spring and motive to patriotism.

The s.h.i.+nt[=o] lecturers with unblus.h.i.+ng plagiarism rifled the storehouses of Chinese ethics. They enforced their lessons from the Confucian cla.s.sics. Indeed, most of their homiletical and ill.u.s.trative material is still derived directly therefrom. Their three main official theses and commandments were:

1. Thou shalt honor the G.o.ds and love thy country.

2. Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and the duty of man.

3. Thou shalt revere the Emperor as thy sovereign and obey the will of his Court.

For nearly twenty years this deliverance of the j.a.panese Government, which still finds its strongest support in the national traditions and the reverence of the people for the throne, sufficed for the necessities of the case. Then the copious infusion of foreign ideas, the disintegration of the old framework of society, and the weakening of the old ties of obedience and loyalty, with the flood of shallow knowledge and education which gave especially children and young people just enough of foreign ideas to make them dangerous, brought about a condition of affairs which alarmed the conservative and patriotic. Like fungus upon a dead tree strange growths had appeared, among others that of a cla.s.s of violently patriotic and half-educated young men and boys, called _Sos.h.i.+_. These hot-headed youths took it upon themselves to dictate national policy to cabinet ministers, and to reconstruct society, religion and politics. Something like a mania broke out all over the country which, in certain respects, reminds us of the Children's Crusade, that once afflicted Europe and the children themselves. Even Christianity did not escape the craze for reconstruction. Some of the young believers and pupils of the missionaries seemed determined to make Christianity all over so as to suit themselves. This phase of brain-swelling is not yet wholly over.

One could not tell but that something like the Tai Ping rebellion, which disturbed and devastated China, might break out.

These portentous signs on the social horizon called forth, in 1892, from the government an Imperial Rescript, which required that the emperor's photograph be exhibited in every school, and saluted by all teachers and scholars whatever their religious tenets and scruples might be. Most Christians as well as Buddhists, saw nothing in this at which to scruple. A few, however, finding in it an offence to conscience, resigned their positions. They considered the mandate an unwarrantable interference with their rights as conferred by the const.i.tution of 1889, which in theory is the gift of the emperor to his people.

The radical s.h.i.+nt[=o]ist, to this day, believes that all political rights which j.a.panese enjoy or can enjoy are by virtue of the Mikado's grace and benevolence. It is certain that all j.a.panese, whatever may be their religious convictions, consider that the const.i.tution depends for its safeguards and its validity largely upon the oath which the Mikado swore at the shrine of his heavenly ancestors, that he would himself be obedient to it and preserve its provisions inviolate. For this solemn ceremony a special norito or liturgy was composed and recited.

Summary of s.h.i.+nt[=o].

Of s.h.i.+nt[=o] as a system we have long ago given our opinion. In its higher forms, "s.h.i.+nt[=o] is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism; in its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly dictates." "s.h.i.+nt[=o]," says Mr. Ernest Satow, "as expounded by Motoori is nothing more than an engine for reducing the people to a condition of mental slavery." j.a.pan being a country of very striking natural phenomena, the very soil and air lend themselves to support in the native mind this system of wors.h.i.+p of heroes and of the forces of nature. In spite, however, of the conservative power of the ancestral influences, the patriotic incentives and the easy morals of s.h.i.+nt[=o]

under which lying and licentiousness shelter themselves, it is doubtful whether with the pressure of Buddhism, and the spread of popular education and Christianity, s.h.i.+nt[=o] can retain its hold upon the j.a.panese people. Yet although this is our opinion, it is but fair, and it is our duty, to judge every religion by its ideals and not by its failings. The ideal of s.h.i.+nt[=o] is to make people pure and clean in all their personal and household arrangements; it is to help them to live simply, honestly and with mutual good will; it is to make the j.a.panese love their country, honor their imperial house and obey their emperor.

Narrow and local as this religion is, it has had grand exemplars in n.o.ble lives and winning characters.

So far as s.h.i.+nt[=o] is a religion, Christianity meets it not as destroyer but fulfiller, for it too believes that cleanliness is not only next to G.o.dliness but a part of it. Jesus as perfect man and patriot, Captain of our salvation and Prince of peace, would not destroy the Yamato damas.h.i.+--the spirit of unconquerable j.a.pan--but rather enlarge, broaden, and deepen it, making it love for all humanity.

Reverence for ancestral virtue and example, so far from being weakened, is strengthened, and as for devotion to king and ruler, law and society, Christianity lends n.o.bler motives and grander sanctions, while showing clearly, not indeed the way of the eight million or more G.o.ds, but the way to G.o.d--the one living, only and true, even through Him who said "I am the Way."