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they are practising Shintô. It was with this reservation that he vindicated the ancient practice of intermarriage among children of the same father by different mothers, and not in order to recommend its revival.
The Kenkiôjin, or “The madman thrust into an iron collar,” is likewise a controversial work in reply to the Shôkôhatsu, which was apparently an attack upon the ancient records. The latter is a rare book, and we have not been able to procure a copy, but to judge from the short quotations contained in the Kenkiôjin the points in dispute have no direct bearing upon the essential principles of Shintô.
From the central truth that the Mikado is the direct descendant of the gods, the tenet that Japan ranks far above all other countries is a natural consequence. No other nation is entitled to equality with her, and all are bound to do homage to the Japanese Sovereign and pry tribute to him. These truths are enlarged upon in great detail by Motöori in a work entitled Giojiu Gaigen, “Indignant words about Ruling the Barbarians,” written in 1778. It takes the form of a review of the relations between Japan and other countries from the earliest period down the time of Iyeyasu, as recorded in the histories of both countries, but does not touch upon the subject of the intercourse with Christian states in the 16th and 17th centuries, probably because Christianity was a forbidden question.
That on the earliest occasion when the Mikado exchanged letters and envoys with the Chinese Sovereign, the first step should have been taken by the former is a source of deep annoyance to Motoöri. This deplorable event occured in the year 707 under the Empress Suiko, when an envoy was sent to China to fetch a Buddhist Sûtra which Shôtoku Taishi remembered to have possessed during a previous state of existence, when he was learning the sacred mysteries in that country. It is true that the Chinese histories contain notices of tribute bearers from Japan much earlier than this date, but these envoys, whatever may have been their character,
