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The facts that many of the gods are invisible now, and have never been visible, furnish no argument against their existence. Existences can be made known to us by other senses than those of sight, such as odours and sound; while the wind[1], which is neither seen, heard nor smelt, is recognized by the impression which it makes on our bodies. The gods of the divine age are indeed no longer visible, but in that age they were visible. The sun-goddess must be excepted, for she is visible to all men even now. And as for the gods whose existence was never perceived by the eyes of men, they are known by their special modes of action upon men. All our knowledge comes to us in fact by our senses. We thus know that fire is hot and water cold, but of the nature of heat and cold we can discover nothing.
There is a tradition in China that the left and right eyes of Puanku became the sun and moon, which is, however, usually discredited because the natives of that country, being admirers of false knowledge, assign the origin of these two luminaries to the Positive and Negative Essences. The real truth is that the sun and moon were produced when Izanagi no kami washed his eyes after returning from his search after Izanami no kami in the nether world. The tradition has evidently travelled to China, and assumed the perverted form in which we find it there, during the lapse of ages.
Motoöri disclaims any intention of endeavouring to resuscitate pure Shintô so far as to make it the rule of life in the present day. His only object is to present the age of the gods in its real form. All that comes to pass in the world, whether good or bad in its nature, is the act of the gods, and men have generally little influence over the course of events. To insist on practising the ancient “way of the gods,” in opposition to the customs of the present age, would be rebellion against that “way,” and equivalent to trying to excel it. If men in their daily practice obey the laws made from time to time by the authorities, and act in accordance with general custom,
- ↑ He probably means ‘air.’
