SHINTO, THE OLD RELIGION OF JAPAN. 209 



that is, the eighteenth century, this reactionary tendency cul- 

 minated in what is sometimes called the " Japanese renaissance 

 of the eighteenth century." The scholars like Mabuchi, Motoori, 

 and Hirata then appeared in succession, whose far-reaching influ- 

 ence must be regarded at least as one of the main causes of the 

 " restoration of 1868," when an end was put to the Shogunate 

 and the emperor was restored to his proper power and authority. 

 Hence this modern period may be called the " period of the re- 

 vival of pure Shinto." 



It is true that revolution never goes backward. The revived 

 Shinto of this modern period is not that simple and naive Shinto 

 of the ancient period. In the writings of the chief exponents of 

 this revival we find that speculative or allegorizing spirit which 

 is altogether foreign to the old Shinto ; and, moreover, the reason 

 why these men were able to become such exponents was because 

 they were well versed in not to name other things the Bud- 

 dhistic philosophy or the Chinese literature, or both. However, 

 this modern period is the one in which the cry " Return to the 

 things purely Japanese " is emphasized and felt. Especially 

 since the " restoration of 1868 " the interest in those things purely 

 Japanese has steadily increased, although not without some tem- 

 porary hindrances and disturbances. 



This knowledge of the fact that Shinto has met these different 

 fortunes and different interpretations, from time to time, is a 

 necessary condition I might almost say the necessary condition 

 for a proper understanding of its real nature, and one must 

 keep this fact always before his eyes. Without doing so he is apt 

 to make a big blunder. Sometimes, when one is expected to be 

 talking about Shinto in its primitive state, he is really nothing 

 more than describing its present condition. At other times, and 

 that more often, when one is understood to be explaining the es- 

 sential nature of Shinto, he is found, even to his own surprise, to 

 be busying himself with the modified Shinto of the mediaeval or 

 modern period. The little carelessness of a writer results in the 

 great mistake of many a reader, and such seems to be esj)ecially 

 the case with numerous writings of those foreigners who with a 

 positive air sketch in a few strokes " such and such is the real 

 nature of Shinto," notwithstanding the fact that their conclu- 

 sions are hasty ones based on scanty materials which are gath- 

 ered from distant and doubtful sources. 



As I am very anxious to avoid any such blunder, and yet as I 

 can not, in this short paper, follow through the whole history of 

 Shinto from its beginning to our own times, I will content myself 

 with a brief sketch of the most important characteristics of this 

 old religion those characteristics which are common not only to 

 the Shinto of all its different sects, but also to the. Shinto of all 



VOL. XLVI. 17 



