SHINTO, THE OLD RELIGION OF JAPAN. 211 



there is a very strong tendency to identify most of tlie objects of 

 Shinto worship with the ancestors of the imperial and other 

 great families ; but at the same time I firmly assert that among 

 the Japanese of all ages there seems to have been no tendency to 

 represent their objects of worship in the visible form of man or 

 beast. Even the idea that an object of worship must be embodied 

 or represented visibly is unknown to the Japanese mind. If any 

 such idea or tendency is found at present, it is doubtless due to 

 foreign influences, especially that of Buddhism. To the pure 

 Japanese mind, an idol a simulacrum of god was unnecessary. 

 Whether the absence of this tendency speaks favorably or un- 

 favorably as to the place of Shinto in the development of re- 

 ligious consciousness in general, is not the point I am aiming at. 

 My point is this : This absence of the tendency toward idolatry 

 in Shinto indicates the absence therein of a more general tend- 

 ency to assimilate the different kinds of the objects of worship 

 into one type or one kind of objects. To the Japanese mind it 

 was not incongruous or inconsistent to worship all sorts of ob- 

 jects. If certain animals were called kami, certain trees were also 

 called kami, and both were worshiped. If certain ancestors were 

 called kami, the sun and the moon were also called kami, and both 

 were worshiped. Just as the meaning of the word kami is vague 

 and comprehensive, so the objects of Shinto worship were diverse 

 and heterogeneous. 



As to the worship of " Heaven " in the sense of one active and 

 benevolent principle of Nature, which has been said to be the es- 

 sence of Shinto, there is no proof of its existence in our old his- 

 torical records, the earliest of which was compiled in the begin- 

 ning of the eighth century of the Christian era. Such an abstract 

 and refined conception of Nature and its God no one can expect 

 from any of the primitive peoples of the world. However, even 

 in the " ancient period " of Shinto there was not wanting a cer- 

 tain tendency to make one deity specially Amaterasu, the sun- 

 goddess supreme over all other deities. Later, when Chinese 

 philosophy made its way to Japan and began to assert its in- 

 fluence, our forefathers probably for the first time came to have 

 some conception of Heaven as the all-present and all-seeing, and 

 as the punisher of the wicked and the rewarder of the good. 



The physical purity or cleanliness of the Japanese people is 

 unique and almost proverbial. The reason for this fact is found 

 in the very nature of Shinto, which is a religion of purity, and 

 which demands the utmost physical purity and cleanliness of its 

 believers. Its rites and ceremonies for avoiding all sorts of un- 

 cleanness are numerous. For example, blood was considered to 

 be unclean, and so anything stained with blood was also unclean. 

 Thus the woman in her monthly courses or for some time before 



