MYTHOLOGY OF THE JAPANESE. 491 



Next ill value to the translation of the Ko-ji ki we have the exteiided 

 review of the writings of Japanese scholars, with (luotations from their 

 works, by Mr. E. M. Hatow. There are other disconnected sources of 

 information, but most of our knowledge of the native literature of Shinto 

 is due to the patient and thorough work of Chamberlain and Satow. 



KAMI. 



The Shinto mythology is an account of the divine ancestry of the 

 Mikado and his people. It is traced back to the creation of the world. 

 These divine ancestors, the spirits which inhabit their heaven or still 

 reside in temples and wayside shrines controlling the affairs of mortals, 

 are known as " kami." The word is usually translated " deity" or " god," 

 but our language has no proper equivalent. Kami are only superior 

 beings. They may be either heaven-born, celestial deities, or the 

 departed spirits of emperors, wise men or heroes. It is doubtful if 

 immortality is one of their attributes. Some of them, we are told, die 

 or disappear. They are by no means always good or virtuous, but 

 they possess many human characteristics. 



The Mikado joins the innumerable company of kami after death. 

 Departed ancestors are the kami of the family and these dwell around 

 the household shrine. There are kami to be worshiped by all the peo- 

 ]de, others of only local importance; some are near and others so dis- 

 tant that it is not worth while to think of them. 



Whatever object, animate or inanimate, is supposed to possess myste- 

 rious or sui)ernatural powers may be called kami. '' The fox and the 

 dragon and goblins are eminently miraculous and dreadful creatures." 

 The fox has a A^ery prominent place in the folk-lore of Japan, and his 

 influence upon men is greatly feared. Hence there are many shrines 

 to the fox kami in the land. 



The ])henomena of nature, such as thunder and lightning, inanimate 

 objects, rocks, seas, mountains, rivers, plants and trees, may be desig- 

 nated kami. Often there seems to be no thought of impersonation. 

 The kami may be the thing itself, or at other times a mysterious i)ower 

 that dwells or moves therein. 



In certain other respects a kami is a remarkable conception. By a 

 peculiar partitive process, not easily understood, the powers or <iualities 

 associated with an individual kami may be divided and exercised by 

 several distinct iiersoualities, which are, at the same time, integral 

 jiarts of the original conception. In other words, a single deity may be 

 wcnshiped under different names, which designate specific attributes 

 or functions of that deity, and each of these names may be applied to a 

 separate personality. As an example, the Goddess of Food, Toyo-uke- 

 bime (Abundant-Food-Lady), also known as Uke-mochi-no-kami, or 

 Food Possessor, is worshijied as Kuku-nochi-no-kami, Producer of 

 Trees, and as Kayami-hime, the Parent of Grasses. This deity is per- 

 haps, as Satow suggests, a personification of the earth. As a more 



