57
fact which is extremely clear from the divine writings.” It is true that the expression ni mashimasu used in this place may mean either ‘exists in’ or ‘is,’ but the use of sunawachi (actually) favours the latter rendering, which is also supported by the other passages in Motoöri’s writings to which we have alluded. The Sandaikô was written in 1791, ten years before Motoöri’s death, by his favourite pupil Hatori Nakatsune, certainly with Motoöri’s knowledge, for at the end of it is a laudatory notice by the master. It is possible therefore that Motoöri changed his opinion on this important point towards the end of his life, but was not willing to give more than an indirect sanction to the theory, and this supposition has given rise to the belief that the Sandaikô, although published under the name of another, was in reality his own work. It is somewhat strange that, seeing that the Sandaikô forms a supplement to Vol. XVII. of the Kojiki-Den, he should repeat on p. 35 of the following volume the statement that Amaterasu is the Sun. Hirata has interwoven into the text of the Tama no Mihashira a great part of the Sandaikô, as he acknowledges in his preface, but in the body of his work he frequently quotes Hatori almost verbatim, without any special indication that he is using the words of another. A careful comparison is therefore necessary in order to distinguish between the theories which are the particular property of each writer. The following extract from Hatori’s preface exhibits the vein of prejudice which was common to both.
“The accounts given in other countries, whether by Buddhism or Chinese philosophy, of the form of the heavens and earth and the manner by which they came into existence, are all of them inventions of men, who exercised all their ingenuity over the problem, and inferred that such and such things must actually be the case. As for the Indian account, it is only nonsense fit to deceive women and children, and I do not think it worthy of refutation. The Chinese theories, on the other hand, are based upon profound philosophical speculations,
