SHINTO, THE OLD RELIGION OF JAPAN. 207 



Some writers spell the name Shinto, as it is spelled here, and 

 others spell it without h and write Sinto. Either form is practi- 

 cally good, but strictly speaking neither is correct, for the Japan- 

 ese tongue does not distinguish the two syllables shi and si, its 

 corresponding sound being something halfway between the two. 

 By some writers this word is written also Shintoism. The addi- 

 tion of the suffix ism has this practical advantage it gives a clew 

 to the category to which the thing denoted by the word belongs. 

 On the other hand, it makes the word tautological, and hence is 

 not used here. One may ask. Then, is the name Taou^sm tauto- 

 logical ? Certainly not, for there the word taou or to is used in 

 that particular sense which is well known to those who are fa- 

 miliar with the teaching of the founder of that system. 



I have just said that the name Shinto consists of two Chinese 

 not Japanese words, and hence the origin of this name can not 

 be regarded as native to Japan. But here let me emphasize be- 

 cause I know there are some foreign scholars who have made the 

 mistake the fact that the Chinese origin of the name Shinto by 

 no means implies the Chinese origin of the thing indicated by it. 

 Buddhism had already existed for some time before it received its 

 name. Christianity existed before it began to be called by its 

 name. So, after these analogies, we might just as well say that 

 there was the thing Shinto existing before its name was applied 

 to it. The earliest mention of the name Shinto, so far as I know, 

 is found in the Nihongi, the Chronicles of Japan, which was com- 

 pleted in the year 720 a. d. Before the introduction of Confu- 

 cianism and Buddhism the religion of Japan had no need of being 

 called by any name. But when these foreign systems made their 

 appearance and began to spread, there came, it seems, the neces- 

 sity of calling the native faith by a particular name by way of 

 distinction. In Japan, Buddhism was called Butsu-do, the "way 

 of the Buddhas," and Confucianism, Ju-do, the " way of the 

 sages." To contrast with these, the native religion probably be- 

 gan to be called Shin-to, the " way of the gods," the do of the two 

 former names being the same word with the to of the last, only 

 differently pronounced for euphony. At what particular time 

 this happened we have no means of knowing. The name is not 

 found in the oldest extant book of the Japanese language, called 

 Kojiki, the Records of Ancient Matters, which was completed 

 eight years before the Nihongi that is, 712 a. d. ; but as we have 

 already in the Constitution of Prince Shotoku a passage where 

 Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism are called the " three sys- 

 tems," by their respective names, " Shin, Ju, Butsu," and as this 

 Constitution was drawn up by the prince in the reign of the Em- 

 press Suiko (a. d. 593-628), we may suppose that the n^me Shinto 

 was already known toward the close of the sixth century, although 



