312 MAN: PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



not merely the national faith, but is inseparably bound up with 

 the interests of the reigning dynasty, holding the Mikado to be 

 the direct descendant of the Sun-goddess. Hence its three 

 cardinal precepts now are: i. Honour the Kami (spirits), of 

 whom the emperor is the chief representative on earth ; 2. Revere 

 him as thy sovereign ; 3. Obey the will of his Court, and that is 

 the whole duty of man. There is no moral code, and loyal expo- 

 sitors have declared that the Mikado's will is the only test of right 

 and wrong. 



But apart from this political exegesis, Shintoism in its higher 

 form may be called a cultured deism, in its lower a "blind 

 obedience to governmental and priestly dictates 1 ." There are 

 dim notions about a supreme creator, immortality, and even 

 rewards and penalties in the after-life. Some also talk vaguely, 

 as a pantheist might, of a sublime being or essence pervading all 

 nature, too vast and ethereal to be personified or addressed in 

 prayer, identified with the tenka^ "heavens," from which all things 

 emanate, _ to which all return. Yet, although a personal deity 

 seems thus excluded, there are Shinto temples, apparently for the 

 worship of the heavenly bodies and powers of nature, conceived as 

 self-existing personalities the so-called Kami, "spirits," "gods," 

 of which there are "eight millions," that is, they are countless. 



One cannot but suspect that some of these notions have been 

 grafted on the old national faith by Buddhism, which 



Buddhism. 



was introduced about 550 A.D. and for a time had 

 great vogue. It was encouraged especially by the Shoguns, or 

 military usurpers of the Mikado's 2 functions, obviously as a set-off 

 against the Shinto theocracy. During their tenure of power 

 (1192-1868 A.D.) the land was covered with Buddhist shrines and 

 temples, some of vast size and quaint design, filled with hideous 

 idols, huge bells, and colossal statues of Buddha. 



But with the fall of the Shogun the little prestige still enjoyed 

 by Buddhism came to an end, and the temples, spoiled of their 



1 Ripley and Dana, Awcr. Cyc. ix. 538. 



1 Shogun from S/w = general and giin = army, hence Commander-in-chief; 

 Mikado from mi= sublime, and kado = gate, with which cf. the "Sublime 

 Porte" (Rein, op. cit. i. p. 245). But Mikado has become somewhat anti- 

 quated, being now generally replaced by the title Kotci, "Emperor." 



