the most holy of the three, and is duly practiced by the ultra devout. Of the population of Japan, about twenty per cent., it is estimated, are named thus by the gohei or the god,—about ten per cent, by each.
From such many and various capacities inherent in the gohei may be gathered the part it plays in the thoughts of the Japanese people. Indeed, it is all that is most Shintō, and reversely Shintō is mostly all gohei.
It is, therefore, not surprising that in the wholesale Buddhist spoliation of Shintō the gohei should have been one of the few possessions which Shintō was able to retain. Not that some of the Buddhist sects did not flatteringly adopt it. The Shingon and Nichiren sects have both been pleased to find it useful, and have adapted it to suit themselves, transforming it, for example, from unpretentious paper into solid brass. Nevertheless, its ownership is quite unquestioned. It is not only of Shintō creation, but admittedly so.
