OBJECTS OF RELIGIOUS CEREMONIAL 197 



sun goddess, Amaterasu no oho Jcami ("heaven-shining-great-deity") 

 is the most exalted of the Shinto deities. She is the ruler of heaven, 

 "unrivaled in dignity," from whom the Mikados derive their descent 

 and authority. Yet, she is hardly what is understood by a supreme 

 being. Her rule does not extend to the sea and the nether world, 

 (the land of Yomi). Her special solar quality having become 

 obscured, she is conceived simply as a general providence who 

 watches over human affaii's, more especially over the welfare of the 

 Mikados, her descendants. Ise, on the west coast of the mainland, 

 is the center of her worship. 



Shusa-no-wo, brother of the sun-goddess, is the god of the rainstorm 

 and lover of destruction, but at the same time provider of fruit trees 

 and timber for mankind. He is also v/orshiped (with his wife) as a 

 deity of love and v/edlock. 



Olionamachi ("great name possessor"), son of Shusa-no-wo, is the 

 great earth god. His shrine is at Idzumo, on the east coast, the 

 second great center of the Shinto cult. 



TTkemoclii (food-possessor"), the goddess of food, after the sun 

 goddess, is perhaps the most popular deity in Japan. She also has 

 her shrine at Ise. 



Inari, the rice god. But, as so often happens, his functions have 

 been enlarged so as to make him a sort of general providence. He is 

 sometimes identified with Ukemochi, the food goddess. He is 

 represented as an elderly man with a long beard, riding on a w hite fox. 

 A pair of these animals, carved in wood or stone, may usually be seen 

 in front of his shrines. 



Miisuhi, the god of growth, deification of the process of growth. 



Then there are gods of mountains, seas, and rivers, of storm, rain, 

 and thunder, of fire and furnace, of earthquake and pestilence, of 

 trees and harvest — in short, the usual constituents of a natural 

 polytheism have a place in worship as well as in the mj^thology. 



In a much less degree is the Shinto pantheon derived from the 

 second group, the deification of men. It comprises rulers, heroes, 

 great patriots, or men eminent in various arts or pursuits. "In 

 modern times the Shinto pantheon has been recruited pretty largely 

 from the ranks of human beings. Trees are still deified, and we have 

 sometimes a new deitj^ making his appearance from nobody knows 

 where." " 



SYMBOLS OR REPRESENTATIONS (MITAMA-SHINTAI) OF THE 



GODS 



In the worship of nature deities three successive stages of the 

 conception of divinity in nature may be distinguished. 1, the natural 

 object is regarded as sentient, and direct worship is paid to it; 2, 



" Q. W. Aston, Shinto, the way of the gods, p. 67. 



