Shinto: The Way of the Gods/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X.
WORSHIP.
Religious conduct includes worship, morality in so far as it has obtained the sanction of religion, and ceremonial purity.
The term worship applies both to the forms of courtesy and respect towards human beings and of reverence for the Gods. Indeed the latter is not a separate kind of worship, but is composed almost exclusively of the same elements in a new application. Nearly everything in the worship of the Gods is borrowed from the forms of social respect. It is sometimes maintained that these forms, before they become a part of religious ritual, pass through an intermediate stage, namely, the worship of the dead, whether as ghosts or dead ancestors. This view is based on the hypothesis that Gods were originally deceased men. It cannot well apply to Shinto, where all the Great Gods are nature-deities. When a Japanese greets the rising Sun by bowing his head, he does so because that is already with him an habitual form of respect. No doubt he honours the dead in this way as well as the living. But the occasions for the worship of the living so far outnumber those of paying respect to the dead that the latter may be regarded as a negligible quantity in the formation of the habit. There is surely nothing to prevent a man who had never worshipped ghosts or ancestors from transferring direct to nature-deities forms of respect arising out of the relations of living men.
Several practices of worship, such as clapping the hands for joy and the avoidance of contamination by touching a dead body, have no meaning in the case of the cult of the dead.
Worship has a secondary but most important function. It is addressed not only to the Gods but to our fellow-men. It is a means of communicating religious thoughts and emotions from man to man and from one generation to another.
Obeisance.—The simplest and most universal mode of showing reverence to the Gods is by bowing. In Shinto it is the custom to bow twice before and after praying or making an offering. The word ogamu, to pray or worship, means to bend. Kneeling is also practised one of the norito has the phrase "bending the knee like a deer" but is less common. Squatting (kashikomaru) is another form of obeisance.
Clapping Hands.—Clapping hands (kashihade), primarily a sign of joy, as it still is in our nurseries, was in ancient times in Japan a general token of respect. The Nihongi[1] states that the Ministers clapped hands in honour of the Empress when she ascended the throne. More recently, this form was confined to divine worship. One of the norito has the rubric, "Offer three cups of sake, clap hands, and retire." The number of hand-clappings was minutely prescribed in the old ritual. In some ceremonies it was done thirty-two times. A silent hand-clapping (shinobi-te) was sometimes directed. It seems possible that in Shinto at least this was the origin of the simple folding of the hands in prayer, common to so many nations, and explained by anthropologists as the attitude of an unresisting suppliant holding out his hands for the cord.
Other Gestures.—Respect may also be shown by raising objects to the forehead or placing them on the head (ita-daku), as the most honourable and important part of the body. This is done in the case of the implements used in the greater divination. Among less formal gestures used in worship are reverent upward looks (awogu), an almost instinctive practice, which has its root in the idea that Heaven is the dwelling-place of the Gods, and has certainly nothing to do with ghost-worship.
I cannot point to any case of prostration or of uncovering the feet as a form of Shinto worship. Uncovering the head is known in modern times, but I do not find it mentioned in the older ritual.
Offerings.—As the attitude of devotees towards myth varies according to their intelligence and culture, some distinguishing, more or less clearly, between the truth which it adumbrates and its fictitious embroidery, and others accepting it indiscriminately as absolute fact, as the image is by some regarded simply as an aid to devotion and by others as a true representation of the God, or even as the God himself, so in the case of offerings, a double current of opinion is to be traced. There are always worshippers who well know that the God does not eat the food, drink the wine, or wear the clothing which is laid upon his altar; but there are also more literal-minded people who cling, in the face of cogent evidence to the contrary, to the idea that in some ill-defined way he does benefit physically by such offerings. A story in the Konjaku Monogatari tells how a boy, possessed of superior insight, could see the devils carrying away the offerings of the purification ceremony. Even Hirata, a highly educated man, thought that food-offerings lost their savour in a way that is inexplicable by natural causes. Incense and burnt-offerings are adapted to the mental capacity of worshippers of this class.[2] The true reason for making offerings, whether to Gods or to the dead, is to be sought elsewhere. Men feel impelled to do something to show their gratitude for the great benefits which they are daily receiving, and to conciliate the future favour of the powers from whom they proceed. Offerings are part of the language by which the intention of the worshipper is manifested to Gods and men. It is in this rather than in any supposed actual benefit that their chief value consists. The norito state explicitly that the offerings were symbolical. They are called iya-jiro no mitegura, or offerings in token of respect. There is frequent mention of "fulfilling the praises" of the Gods by plenteous offerings. Symbolic gifts are, of course, not confined to religion. In ancient Greece a gift of earth and water indicated a surrender of political independence.
It is on the recognition of the symbolical value of offerings that the practice of substituting humaner, cheaper, or more convenient articles rests. Shinto has many illustrations of this principle.
I shall only mention Herbert Spencer's view that "the origin of the practice of making offerings is to be found in the custom of leaving food and drink at the graves of the dead, and as the ancestral spirit rose to divine rank, the refreshments placed for the dead developed into sacrifices." It must stand or fall with his general theory of the origin of religion, of which the reader will form his own judgment. I would suggest that the earliest offering was rather a portion of the ordinary meal set apart in grateful recognition of the source from which it came.
I find little or nothing in Shinto to bear out Jevons's opinion that "the core of worship is communion. Offerings in the sense of gifts are a comparatively modern institution both in ancestor-worship and in the worship of the Gods." Communion is, of course, out of the question in the case of the various offerings of clothing and implements. Even in the case of food-offerings there is no evidence in Shinto of a "joint participation in the living flesh and blood of a sacred victim."[3]
The general object of making offerings is to propitiate the God. There are several cases in the norito where they are made by way of reward for their services or in bargain for future blessings.[4]. Some are expiatory, and are made with the object of absolving the worshipper from ritual impurity. These are called aga-mono, or "ransom things."
Offerings were frequently duplicated, no doubt in order that one set at least of the things offered should be free from chance pollution.
Offerings were sometimes personified, and even deified, as in the Jimmu legend,[5] where the food-offering is styled Idzu-uka no me, sacred-food-female. Most of the shintai were originally nothing more than offerings.
Shinto offerings are of the most varied description. The Gods being conceived of as beings animated by human sentiments, it is inferred that anything which would give pleasure to men is suitable for offering to a God.
Food and Drink.—The primary and most important form of offering is food and drink. The Jimmu legend, a very ancient document, speaks of none but food-offerings. The word nihe, an element in the names of some of the great festivals, means food-offerings. The central feature of the most solemn rite of Shinto, namely, the oho-nihe, was the offering of rice and sake to the Gods by the Mikado on his accession to the throne. The norito add clothing, and the Yengishiki a great variety of other articles. There are several instances in history of the substitution of cloth for an older food-offering. Under food are included rice, in ear and in grain, hulled and in husk, rice cakes, fruit, sea-ear, shell-fish, vegetables, edible seaweed, salt, sake, water, deer, pigs, hare, wild boar, and birds of various kinds. In 642 horses and cattle were sacrificed in order to produce rain. But even at this early period such sacrifices were condemned. They were no doubt a revival in a case of national emergency of a practice which under Buddhist influence had become more or less obsolete. There are numerous indications that animal sacrifices were very common in the most ancient times. In the Yengishiki period offerings of four-footed animals or their flesh were confined to four services, namely, that of the Food-Goddess, of the Wind-Gods, of the Road-Gods, and that for driving away maleficent deities.
There is no evidence in the older Shinto records of the use of incense or of burnt-offerings, nor is any special importance attached to the blood of slaughtered animals.
White being considered an auspicious colour, white animals were frequently selected for sacrifice.
At the present time the daily offerings made to the Sun- Goddess and the Food-Goddess at Ise consist of four cups of sake, sixteen saucers of rice and four of salt, besides fish, birds, fruits, seaweed, and vegetables. The annual offerings at the tomb of the first Mikado, Jimmu, are products of mountain, river, and sea, including tahi (a fish), carp, edible sea-weed, salt, water, sake, mochi (rice-cake), fern-flour, pheasants, and wild ducks.
Clothing.—The clothing of the ancient Japanese consisted of hemp, yuju (a fibre made of the inner bark of the paper mulberry), and silk. All these materials are represented in the Shinto offerings enumerated in the Yengishiki. Silk, however, was at this time still somewhat of a novelty, and, therefore, religion being conservative, it takes a less conspicuous place. But hemp and bark-fibre, with the textiles woven from them, are very common offerings. They were more convenient than perishable articles of food for sending to shrines at a distance from the capital, and as cloth was the currency of the day, it was a convenient substitute for unprocurable or objectionable articles. In the Yengishiki so many ounces of fibre or so many pieces of cloth are prescribed, but at a later period a more specialized and conventional form, called oho-nusa (great-offering), came into use. The oho-nusa (p. 214) consists of two wands placed side by side, from the ends of which depend a quantity of .jpg)
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of the giver from the receiver. The paper slips represent the yufu, or mulberry-bark fibre. The use of yufu for clothing having become more or less obsolete, owing to the introduction of cotton, paper, which in Japan is made of the same
- material, was substituted for it. The oho-nusa are still employed on important occasions, but for general use they are now replaced by the well-known gohei (p. 215), in which the hemp and one of the wands are omitted. Another form of nusa, called ko-nusa (little nusa) or kiri-nusa (cut-nusa), consists of paper with leaves of the sacred tree chopped up and mixed with rice. Travellers in ancient times carried this mixture with them in a bag and made offerings of it to the phallic deities along their way. It was also used when in danger of shipwreck. The same system of " accommodements avec le ciel " is further illustrated by the substitution of the still more inexpensive hemp leaves for the original hempen fibre or fabric. If, it is argued, the God does not really eat the food or wear the clothing placed on his altar, a few grains of rice or a few leaves of hemp will answer the purpose of expressing the sentiments of the worshipper just as well as more costly gifts.
There were sometimes sets of coloured gohei—blue, yellow, red, white, and black. The awo-nigi-te (blue-soft-articles) and shira-nigi-te (white-soft-articles) consisted of hemp and bark fibre respectively.
Tama-gushi are often mentioned. I take it that in this combination tama means gift or offering, not spirit or jewel, as is taught by some modern Japanese authorities. Kushi means skewer. The tama-gushi are twigs of the sacred evergreen tree (sakaki) or of bamboo, with tufts of yufu attached. They are, in short, a simple form of nusa or gohei. They have a striking resemblance to the ἱκτηρίοις κλάδοισιν (suppliant branches) mentioned in the opening lines of 'Œdipus Tyrannus' and explained by Jebb as "olive branches wreathed with fillets of wool." In one Nihongi myth, Susa no wo is said to have planted kushi in the rice-fields of his sister, the Sun-Goddess, "by way of claiming ownership," says a commentator. Compare with this the following quotation from Hakluyt's 'Historic of the West Indies': "Every one [of the Caribs] encloseth his portion [of ground] onely with a little cotton line, and they account it a matter of sacriledge if any pass over the cord and treade on the possession of his neighbour, and hold it for certayne that whoso violateth this sacred thing shall shortly perish."
Along with the alteration in the form of the nusa to the present gohei there came a change in the mental attitude of the worshipper. Originally mere offerings, they were at length, by virtue of long association, looked upon as representatives of the deity. Scholars like Motoöri and Hirata denounce this view as a corruption of later times, but it is no doubt at present the prevailing conception. Hepburn's Japanese dictionary knows no other. It is illustrated by the fact that instead of the worshipper bringing gohei to the shrine, these objects are now given out by the priest to the worshipper, who takes them home and sets them up in his private Kami-dana (God-shelf) or domestic altar.
A further step is taken when it is believed that on festival occasions the God, on a certain formula, called the Kami-oroshi, or "bringing down the God," being pronounced, descends into the gohei and remains there during the ceremony, taking his departure at its close. In the vulgar Shinto of the present day this belief in a real presence of the God is associated with hypnotism.[7] Akin to the belief in an actual presence of a deity in the gohei is their modern use in the purification ceremony, when they are flourished over or rubbed against the person to be absolved of ritual uncleanness or to dispel any evil influences which may have attached themselves to his person. Like the Homeric στέμμα and the host, they were occasionally used for the protection of the bearer. At the present time a gohei-katsugi, or gohei bearer, is synonymous with a superstitious person.
Skins of oxen, boar, deer, and bear were sometimes offered to the Gods. Jewels (tama) were much worn by the ancient Japanese nobility as ornaments for the head or as necklaces and bracelets. They consisted of round beads, tubes (kuda-tama and comma-shaped objects (maga-tama) of chalcedony, jasper, nephrite, chrysoprase, serpentine, steatite or crystal. Jewels occur sometimes in the lists of Shinto offerings.
Mirrors.—The ancient Japanese mirrors did not greatly differ from those in use at the present day. They were made of a mixed metal, which is described in the myths as "white copper," and were sometimes round and sometimes eight-cornered. The mirror figures frequently in the old records. Mirrors are among the presents made by a female chieftain to a Mikado, and from a King of Korea to another Mikado.[8] The mirror was primarily an offering, and not to the Sun-Goddess only.[9] Mirrors were presented to, and even constituted the shintai of other Gods as well. In the Tosa Nikki (A.D. 935) the author relates that during a storm, an offering of nusa having proved unavailing, he bethought him of some more acceptable gift. "Of eyes I have a pair," said he, "then, let me give the God my mirror of which I have only one. The mirror was accordingly flung into the sea, to my very great regret. But no sooner had I done so than the sea itself became as smooth as a mirror."
Mirrors do not appear among the periodical offerings enumerated in the Yengishiki, which consisted chiefly of perishable articles. They belonged to a separate class called shimpō, or divine treasures, which were not set out on the altar but stored in the treasury of the shrine.
Weapons.—Swords were also among the permanent treasures of the shrine. Wonderful stories are related of them, One which was stolen by a thief is said to have left him and returned to the treasury of its own accord. Swords were made shintai, and even deified.[10] The God worshipped at Atsuta was the sword Kusanagi, found by Susa no wo in the great serpent's tail, and the God of Isonokami was the sword called Futsu no Mitama (spirit of fire?) given by the Sun-Goddess to Jimmu. I have no doubt that these were originally "divine treasures," which owed their deification to long association with the God. A sword is one of the regalia at the present day.
The principle of substitution is illustrated by the models of swords prescribed as offerings in the Yengishiki. I have seen on the top of Ohoyama, sacred to a Goddess named Sekison (Iha-naga-hime?), a pit containing many hundreds of tiny wooden swords which had been deposited there as offerings.
Other weapons which figure as offerings are spears, spear-heads, shields, and bows and arrows.
Agricultural implements, bells, pottery, reels for reeling yarn, are also mentioned. It was the custom, in the case of these and other durable offerings, to offer the same objects again and again.
Human sacrifices formed no part of the State Shinto religion as described in the ancient records. But there are several indications of the existence of this practice in still older times. Human sacrifices to river-Gods have been already mentioned. We have seen that when a Mikado died a number of his attendants were buried alive round his tomb, from which it may be inferred that considerations of humanity would not have prevented similar sacrifices to the Gods. Cases are also recorded of men being buried alive in the foundations of a bridge, a castle, or an artificial island. These were called hito-bashira, or human pillars. The offerings of kane-hito-gata (metal-man-form), so often mentioned in the Yengishiki, were perhaps by way of substitution for human victims. It is significant that the Gods of water-distribution (mikumari), that is, the river-Gods, are specially distinguished as their recipients. Similar human effigies, gilt or silvered, formed part of the oho-harahi, or absolution offerings. In this case they were intended as ransom for the offenders whose ritual guilt was to be expiated. They were touched with the lips or breathed upon before being offered. Peach- wood or paper effigies might be substituted, and in later times articles of clothing or anything which had been in contact with the person to be absolved. These last were called nade-mono (rub-thing) or aga-mono (ransom-thing). When in danger of shipwreck the hair might be cut off and offered, on the principle of a part for the whole, as ransom to the Dragon-God. The Kogo-jiui applies the term aga-mono to the hair and nails of Susa no wo, which were cut off by the other Gods. The principle of ransom is also illustrated by the following extract from the Shinto Miōmoku (1699):—
"At the festival of Nawoye, held at the shrine of Kokubu in the province of Owari on the nth day of the 1st month, the Shinto priests go out to the highway with banners and seize a passer-by. They wash and purify him, and make him put on pure clothing. He is then brought before the God. A block, a wooden butcher's knife, and chopsticks for eating flesh are provided. Separately a figure is made to represent the captive. It is placed on the block with the captured man beside it, and both are offered before the God. They are left there for one night. The next morning the priests come and remove the man and the effigy. Then they take clay, and, making it into the shape of a rice-cake, place it on the captives back, hang a string of copper cash about his neck, and drive him away. As he runs off, he is sure to fall down in a faint. But he soon comes to his senses. A mound is erected at the place where he falls down, and the clay rice-cake deposited on it with ceremonies which are kept a profound mystery by the priestly house. Of late years couriers have been caught and subjected to purification. This was put a stop to. The custom is celebrated yearly, so that nowadays everybody is aware of it, and there are no passers-by. Therefore the priests go to a neighbouring village and seize a man. If they catch nobody on the 11th, they bring in a man on the 12th."
The Nawoye (rectification) festival had probably the same intention as the Harahi, namely, to obtain absolution from ritual impurity, and the captive is therefore apparently a scape-goat. As readers of Mr. Frazer's 'Golden Bough' need not be told, the custom has numerous parallels in European folk-lore. There is some difficulty in applying the principle of substitution for an actual human sacrifice to a custom which was in force so recently. It does not appear probable that it could have descended from such a remote antiquity as the time when real human sacrifice was known in Japan. Might not the instinct of dramatic make-believe alone account for it? Confucius condemned the practice of offering effigies of men on funeral occasions because he thought it led to the substitution of living victims.
Slaves.—Another form of human offerings was the dedication of slaves to the service of a shrine. Such slaves were called kami-tsu-ko, and are to be distinguished from the kamube, who were freemen. The gift by the legendary Yamatodake to a shrine of a number of Yemishi (eastern savages) whom he had captured is to be understood in this sense. There is a more historical instance in the Nihongi, under the date A.D. 469, when a seamstress was presented to the shrine of Ohonamochi. In 562 a man was allowed to be given over to the hafuri as a slave for the service of the Gods instead of being burnt alive for a criminal offence committed by his father.
Horses.—Presents of horses to shrines are often mentioned. They were let loose in the precinct. At the present day albinos are selected for this purpose, white being considered an auspicious colour. Wooden figures might be substituted by those who could not afford real horses. At the festivals of Gion and Hachiman men riding on hobby-horses (koma-gata) or with a wooden horse's head attached to their breasts formed part of the procession. They no doubt represented riding-horses for the deity. In more recent times the further step was
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taken of offering pictures of horses. This practice became so common that special buildings, called emadō (horse-picture-gallery) were erected for their accommodation. But they contained many other pictures as well. The emadō of Kiyomidzu in Kiōto and of Itsukushima in the Inland Sea are very curious collections of this kind. They correspond to the ex-voto churches of Roman Catholic countries.
Carriages.—The Mikoshi, or carriage of the God (pp. 224, 225), in which his shintai is promenaded on festival occa- sions, is usually a very elaborate and costly construction. It is carried on men's shoulders to a tabi no miya (travel-shrine) or reposoir and back again to the shrine. The confusion in many minds between the shintai and the mitama is illustrated by the fact that a standard modern dictionary speaks of the Mikoshi as containing the God's mitama.
Shrines.—A shrine is a species of offering. Whatever may be the case in other countries, in Japan the shrine is not a development of the tomb. They have no resemblance to each other. The tomb is a partly subterranean megalithic vault enclosed in a huge mound of earth, while the shrine is a wooden structure raised on posts some feet above the ground. The Japanese words for shrine indicate that it is intended as a house for the God. Miya, august house, is used equally of a shrine and of a palace, but not of a tomb, except poetically, as when the Manyōshiu speaks of one as a toko no miya, or "long home." Araka, another word for shrine, probably means "dwelling-place." In yashiro, a very common word for shrine, ya means house and shiro representative or equivalent. There is evidence[11] that this word comes to us from a time when the yashiro was a plot of ground consecrated for the occasion to repre- sent a place of abode for the deity. The analogy of the Roman templum will occur to the classical scholar. The himorogi (p. 226), a term which has been the subject of some controversy, was probably, as Hirata suggests, at first an enclosure of sakaki twigs stuck in the ground so as to represent a house. It is probable that in all these cases the make-believe preceded any actual edifice, and was not a substitute for it.
There is a somewhat rare word, namely oki-tsuki, properly a mound, which is applied to both tombs and shrines. Old sepulchral mounds have frequently a small shrine on their summit.
The Shinto shrine is by no means so costly an edifice as its Buddhist counterpart. The hokora,[12] as the smaller .jpg)
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transportable in a cart. Even the great shrines of Ise (pp. 228, 229) are of no great size and of purposely plain and simple construction. In 771 a "greater shrine " had
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only eighteen feet frontage. Some of the more important yashiro have smaller buildings attached to them, such as an emadō, or gallery of votive pictures; a haiden, or oratory, where the official representative of the Mikado performed his devotions, and a stage for the sacred pantomimic dance. A number of smaller shrines (sessha or massha) dedicated to other Gods are usually to be seen within the enclosure. No accommodation is provided for the joint worship of the congregation of believers, which is indeed exceptional. The individual worshipper stands outside in front of the shrine, calls the attention of the deity by ringing a gong provided for the purpose, bows his head, claps or folds his hands, puts up his petition, and retires. A large box stands conveniently for receiving such small contributions of copper cash as he may make.
In many shrines more than one deity is worshipped. These are called ahi-dono no kami, that is to say, deities of a joint shrined They may, like Izanagi and Izanami, have some mythical connexion with each other or they may not. The Yengishiki enumerates 3,132 officially recognized shrines. Of these 737 were maintained at the cost of the Central Government. Some had permanent endowments of lands and peasants. Many minor shrines existed in all parts of the country. The shrines are classed as great and small, the respective numbers being 492 and 2,640. They differed in the quantity of offerings and in the circumstance that in the former case the offerings were placed on an altar and in the latter on the ground. Thirty-six shrines were situated in the palace itself. The most important deities worshipped here were eight in number, comprising five obscurely differentiated Musubi, the Goddess of Food, Oho-miya-no me, and Koto-shiro-nushi. There were also several Well-Gods, a Sono no Kami, a Kara no Kami (Korean God), a Thunder-God, a pair of sake deities, and others of whom little is known.
In enumerating the officially recognized shrines through- out the rest of the country the Yengishiki unfortunately, in the great majority of cases, does not name the God, but only the locality where the shrine was situated, as when we speak of Downing Street, meaning the collective .jpg)
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In 965 a selection of sixteen of the more important shrines was made to which special offerings were sent. These were as follows:—
| Name of Shrine. | Province. | God or Gods Worshipped. |
| Ise. | Ise. | Sun-Goddess and Food-Goddess. |
| Ihashimidzu. | Yamashiro. | Hachiman, Jingō. |
| Kamo. | Do. | ? |
| Matsunowo. | Do. | Thunder-God. |
| Hirano. | Do. | Probably Gods of the Cooking Furnace and New Rice. |
| Inari. | Do. | Food-Goddess. |
| Kasuga. | Yamato. | Koyane and his wife, Take mikadzuchi, Futsunushi. |
| Ohoharano. | Yamashiro. | Do. |
| Miha. Yamato. Ohonamochi. | ||
| Oho-yamato. | Do. | Do. |
| Isonokami. | Do. | Futsu no mitama (a deified sword). |
| Hirose. | Do. | Food-Goddess. |
| Tatsuta. | Do. | Wind-Gods. |
| Sumiyoshi. | Settsu. | Sea-deities. |
| Nifu. | — | Doubtful. |
| Kibune. | Yamashiro. | Rain-dragon-God. |
| Name of Shrine. | Province. | God or Gods Worshipped. |
| Yoshida. | Yamashiro. | Same as Kasuga. |
| Hirota. | Settsu. | Sun-Goddess's aratama. |
| Kitano. | Yamashiro. | Temmangū. |
In 994 there was added
| Name of Shrine. | Province. | God or Gods Worshipped. |
| Mume no Miya. | Yamashiro. | Ancestor of Tachibana family. |
The next to be added was
| Name of Shrine. | Province. | God or Gods Worshipped. |
| Gion. | Yamashiro. | Susa no wo. |
The number was finally raised to twenty-two in 1039 by the addition of
| Name of Shrine. | Province. | God or Gods Worshipped. |
| Hiye or Hiyoshi. | Yamashiro. | Ohonamochi. |
Proximity to the capital no doubt influenced this selection. Idzumo, Kashima, Katori, Usa, Suha, and other important shrines are omitted. All the principal deities, however, are included in this list.
At the present day there are 193,476 Shinto shrines in Japan. Of these the great majority are very small and have no priests or revenues. Capt Brinkley, in his 'Japan and China,' gives the following list of the ten most popular shrines in Japan at the present day : "Ise, Idzumo, Hachiman (Kyōto), Temmangū (Hakata), Inari (Kyoto), Kasuga (Nara), Atago (Kyōto), Kompira (Sanuki), Suitengū (Tōkyō), and Suwa (Shinano)."
Very many houses have their kamidana or domestic shrine, where the ujigami, the ancestor, and the trade-God, with any others whom there is some special reason for honouring, are worshipped.
Tori-wi.—The approach to a Shinto shrine is marked by one or more gateways or arches of the special form shown in the illustration (p. 233) and known as tori-wi. This word means literally "bird-perch," in the sense of a hen-roost. By analogy it was applied to anything of the same shape, as a clothes-horse, or the lintel of a door or gateway. As an honorary gateway, the tori-wi is a continental institution identical in purpose and resembling in form the turan of India, the pailoo of China, and the hong-sal-mun of Korea. When introduced into Japan at some unknown date (the Kojiki and Nihongi do not mention them) the Japanese called them tori-wi, which then meant simply gateway, but subsequently acquired its present more specific application. It sometimes serves the purpose of marking the direction of a distant object of worship.[14]
Hyaku-do ishi.—Near the front of the shrine may sometimes be seen a hyaku-do ishi, or hundred-time-stone, from which the worshipper may go back and forward to the door of the shrine a hundred times, repeating a prayer each time.
A sori-bashi or taiko-bashi, representing the mythical floating bridge of Heaven (the rainbow), is also to be seen at the approach to some shrines.
Prayer.—Private individual prayer is seldom mentioned in the old Shinto records, but of the official liturgies or norito we have abundant examples in the Yengishiki and later works. The authors are mostly unknown, but they were no doubt members of the Nakatomi House. Their literary quality is good. Motoöri observes that the elegance of their language is an offering acceptable to the Gods. The Sun-Goddess is represented in the Nihongi as expressing her satisfaction with the beauty of the norito recited in her honour.
The norito are addressed sometimes to individual deities, sometimes to categories of deities, as "the celebrated Gods" .jpg)
or "the Gods of Nankaido," and sometimes to all the Gods without exception. They contain petitions for rain in time of drought, good harvests, preservation from earthquake and conflagration, children, health and long life to the sovereign and enduring peace and prosperity to his rule, the safety of his ambassadors to foreign countries, the suppression of rebellion, the repulse of invasion, success to the Imperial arms, and general prosperity to the Empire. Sometimes the Mikado deprecates the wrath of deities whose services had been vitiated by ritual impurity, or whose shrines had suffered from neglect or injury.
The phrase "fulfilling of praises," which occurs frequently in the norito, must not be taken literally. It is really equivalent to " show all due honour to," and usually applies to the offerings which were made in token of respect. There is very little of praise in the ordinary meaning of the word. The language of the norito presents a striking contrast to the profusion of laudatory epithets and images of the Vedas, or the sublime eulogies of the Psalms of David. The only element of this kind is a few adjectival prefixes to the names of the Gods, such as oho, great; take, brave; taka, high; haya, swift; toyo, rich; iku, live; yon, good, and perhaps one or two more.
The do ut des principle of offerings is plainly avowed in some of the norito.
Besides petitions we find also announcements to the Gods, as of the appointment of a priestess, the bestowal on the deity of a degree of rank, and the beginning of a new reign. The Mongol invasion was notified to Ise in 1277 with the happiest results.
The Yengishiki contains no norito addressed to deceased Mikados, but several examples of this class, due no doubt to Chinese influence, have come down to us from the ninth century. In 850 Jimmu was prayed to for the Mikado, who was dangerously ill, and who died soon after. In the same year, "evil influences" (the Mikado's illness?) were attributed to his wrath, and envoys despatched to his tomb, in order to ascertain whether he might not have been offended by some pollution to it. The Empress Jingō was prayed to in 866 under similar circumstances. Other norito announce to the preceding Mikado the accession of a new sovereign or the appointment of a Prince Imperial.
The norito contain few petitions for which we might not easily find parallels in modern Europe, but a comparison with Christian, Jewish, or even Mohammedan and Buddhist formulae reveals enormous lacunae in the ancient Japanese conception of the scope of prayer. Moral and spiritual blessings are not even dreamt of. Such prayers as "that we may live a godly, righteous, and sober life," "to grant us true repentance and His Holy Spirit," are foreign to its character. "Lead us not into temptation" and "Thy will be done" are conspicuously absent. No Shinto God is petitioned to "endue the Sovereign with heavenly gifts," nor that "after this life he may attain everlasting joy and felicity." Indeed, there is no reference anywhere to a future life—a significant fact, in view of the circumstance that human sacrifices at the tombs of great men were at one time common. The commonly received opinion that the latter indicate a belief in a future state is, perhaps, after all, erroneous. Nor does any one beseech a Shinto deity to send down on the priesthood the healthful spirit of his grace.
Numerous specimens of norito will be found in Chap. XII.
In connexion with the attempted revival early in the last century of the pure Shinto of ancient times, Hirata composed a book of prayer entitled Tamadasuki, not for official or temple use, but as an aid to private devotion. It was not printed until some years after his death, and I doubt whether it was ever much used even by Shinto devotees. Notwithstanding the author's professed abhorrence of Buddhism and his condemnation of Chinese religious notions, the Tamadasuki owes much to these sources, He instructs his followers to "get up early, wash the face and hands, rinse the mouth, and cleanse the body. Then turn towards Yamato, clap hands twice, and bow down the head" before offering their petitions.
Prayers to the Shinto Gods, even at the present day, are mostly for material blessings. Anything more which they contain may be confidently set down to Buddhist influence. There are prayers on reclaiming a new piece of ground, building a house, sowing a rice-field, prayers for prosperity in trade and domestic happiness, prayers promising to give up sake, gambling, or profligacy (Buddhist), thanks for escape from shipwreck or other danger, &c. Sometimes the prayer is written out on paper and deposited in the shrine, perhaps accompanied by the petitioner's hair or a picture having some reference to the subject of his prayer. When it is answered, small paper nobori (flags) are set up at the shrine or its approaches. A common prayer at the present day is for "Peace to the country, safety to the family, and plentiful crops."
Oaths and Curses.—The Nihongi mentions several cases of Heaven or the Gods being appealed to for the sanction of an oath. Thus in 562 an accused person declares: "This is false and not true. If this is true, let calamity from Heaven befall me." In 581 tribes of Yemishi promised submission to the Mikado, saying: "If we break this oath, may all the Gods of Heaven and Earth and also the spirits of the Emperors destroy our race." In 644 the Mikado made an oath appealing to the Gods of Heaven and Earth, and saying: "On those who break this oath Heaven will send a curse and Earth a plague, demons will slay them, and men will smite them." The author of the Nihongi, however, is grievously open to the suspicion of adorning his narrative liberally with rhetorical ornaments of Chinese origin. The following is an example of a non-religious oath said to have been made by a Korean king in 249: "If I spread grass for us to sit on, it might be burnt with fire; if I took wood for a seat, it might be washed away by water. Therefore, sitting on a rock, I make this solemn declaration of alliance." A curse pronounced over a well in 456 has likewise no religious quality. It is simply "This water may be drunk by the people only: royal persons alone may not drink of it." The instructions of the Sea-God to Hohodemi, "When thou givest this fishhook back to thy brother, say, 'A hook of poverty, a hook of ruin, a hook of downfall,'" are a kind of curse. On the whole, oaths and curses of a religious character are rare in Japanese literature. Profanity is almost unknown. A mild appeal to the "three holy things" (of Buddhism) or to the Sun, or a wish that divine punishment (bachi) may strike one's enemy, are almost the only things of the kind. And they are infrequent. Probably this is due to the want of a deep-seated sentiment of piety in the Japanese nation. Such expressions as "Thank God," "Good-bye," "Adieu," "God forbid," are also rare, whether in speech or in literature. The Mohammedans, with their continual use of the name of Allah, are the antipodes of the Japanese in this respect.
Rank of Deities.—A system of official ranks, borrowed from China, was introduced into Japan in the seventh century. There were at one time forty-eight different grades, each with its distinct costume, insignia, and privileges. The first notice of deities being granted such ranks occurs in 672, when we are told that three deities were "raised in quality" on account of useful military information supplied by their oracles. This practice became systematized in the period 749-757, and was very prevalent for several centuries longer. A rain of volcanic ashes which fell in many of the eastern provinces in 838 was attributed by the diviners to the jealousy of a Goddess, the true wife of a God, and mother by him of five children, at a step of official rank granted by the Mikado to a younger rival. Tantæ ne animis cælestibus iræ! In 851 Susa no wo and Oho-kuni-nushi received the lower third rank and in 859 were promoted to the upper third rank. The Mikado Daigo, on his accession in 898, raised the rank of 340 shrines. In 1076 and 1172 wholesale promotions of deities took place. After this time the custom fell into neglect, owing partly to the circumstance that many of the Gods had reached the highest class and could not be promoted any further. Several of the most important deities were not honoured in this way. The Sun-Goddess and the Food-Goddess were among this number. The same deity might have different ranks in different places. The lowness of the ranks with which the inferior deities were thought to be gratified is rather surprising. It throws a light on the mental attitude of the Japanese towards them. Beings who could be supposed to take pleasure in a D.S.O. or a brevet majority must have seemed to them not very far exalted above humanity.
Kagura.—This word is written with two Chinese characters which mean "God-pleasure." It is a pantomimic dance with music, usually representing some incident of the mythical narrative. Uzume's dance before the cave to which the Sun-Goddess had retired is supposed to be its prototype. Important shrines have a stage and a corps of trained girl-dancers (miko) for the purpose of these representations. Kagura was also performed in the Naishidokoro (the chamber in the Palace where the Regalia were kept), and under Chinese influences became a very solemn function, in which numerous officials were concerned. Many kinds of music, song, and dance are included in this term. It was the parent in the fourteenth century of the No, a sort of religious lyrical drama, and less directly of the modern popular drama.
Some authorities say that the music of the Kagura consisted at first of flutes made by opening holes between the joints of a bamboo, of wooden castanets, and of a stringed instrument made by placing six bows together. Pilgrimages.—Paying visits is a recognized mode of showing respect to Gods as it is to men. The Mikado himself formerly paid frequent visits to the shrines of Ki5to and the vicinity, and in all periods of history embassies were continually despatched by him to the great shrines of the Empire. The private worshipper, besides visiting the shrine of his local deity, generally makes it his business, at least once in his lifetime, to pay his respects to more distant Gods, such as those of Ise, Miha, Ontake, Nantai (at Nikko), Kompira, Fujiyama, Miyajima, &c. Intending pilgrims associate themselves in clubs called Kō, whose members each contribute five sen a month to the pilgrimage fund. When the proper time of year comes round, a certain number of members are chosen by lot to represent the club at the shrine of their devotion, all expenses being defrayed out of the common fund. One of the number who has made the pilgrimage before acts as leader and cicerone. As a general rule the pilgrims wear no special garb, but those bound for Fuji, Ontake, or other high mountains may be distinguished by their white clothes and sloping broad hats. While making an ascent, they often ring a bell and chant the prayer, " May our six senses be pure and the weather fair on the honourable mountain."[15] Many thousand pilgrims annually ascend Fuji, and over 11,000 paid their devotions at Ise on a recent New Year's day. Almost all Japanese cherish the hope of visiting this shrine at least once in their lives, and many a Tokio merchant thinks that his success in business depends largely on his doing so. Pilgrimages are an ancient institution in Japan. It is recorded that in the ninth month of 934, 10,000,000 pilgrims of all classes visited the shrines of Ise.
Boys and even girls often run away from their homes and beg their way to Ise. This is regarded as a pardonable escapade.
When an actual visit to a shrine is inconvenient or impossible, the worshipper may offer his devotions from a distance. This is called em-pai, or distant worship. Special shrines are provided in some places where the God will accept such substituted service. Processions may be joint formal visits of the worshippers to the God's shrine, but they oftener consist in attending him on an excursion from it to some place in the neighbourhood and back again. They much resemble in character the carnival processions of Southern Europe.
Circumambulation.—The Brahmanic and Buddhist ceremony of pradakchina, that is, going round a holy object with one's right side turned to it, is not found in Shinto. The principle, however, on which it rests—namely, that of following or imitating the course of the Sun—is recognized in the Jimmu legend. Jimmu says:[16] " If I should proceed against the Sun to attack the enemy, I should act contrary to the way of Heaven......Bringing on our backs the might of the Sun-Goddess, let us follow herraysand trample them down." It is difficult to reconcile with this a passage in the Kojiki[17] where it is counted unlucky for the Mikado to travel from East to West, because in so doing he must turn his back upon the Sun.
Horses presented to shrines were led round them eight times.
- ↑ II. 395.
- ↑ The old Hebrew idea (Genesis viii. 21) was that the food actually reached God in the form of the fragrant fire-distilled essence, and thus gratified him as an agreeable gift. Hastings, 'Diet, of the Bible.'
- ↑ Robertson Smith, 'Religion of the Semites,' p. 345.
- ↑ See Index, Toshigohi
- ↑ See above, p. 119
- ↑ Reminding us of Homer's στέμμα θεοἲο, which consisted of tufted wool attached to a wand (οκήπτρον). The ancient Jews made offerings of wool.
- ↑ See Index, 'Inspiration.'
- ↑ Nihongi, i. 193, 251.
- ↑ See above, p. 70.
- ↑ Agamemnon's sword was worshipped in Greece in the time of Pausanias.
- ↑ Nihongi, ii. 293.
- ↑ See illustration in Chapter XIV.
- ↑ Murray's 'Japan,' fifth edition, p. 50.
- ↑ See a contribution by Mr. S. Tuke to the Japan Society's Transactions, vol. iv., 1896-7, and a paper by the present writer in the T.A.S.J. for December, 1899. Mr. B. H. Chamberlain holds a different view, which is stated in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1895, and in 'Things Japanese,' fourth edition.
- ↑ See Index, Rokkon Shōjō.
- ↑ Nihongi, i. 113.
- ↑ Chamberlain's Kojiki, p. 312.