MYTHOLOGY OF THE JAPANESE. 503 



conviction that it is not an idle invention of the fancy, bnt ratber a 

 prodnct of slow development. We can not go far enough back in time 

 to discover its origin. From the very first Ave find a long line of special- 

 ized kanii. There is very littU' in it that can be traced to other lands, 

 and that little not very confidtMitly. It is Ja]»anese in its inception and 

 has remained so. We may imagine that it is an outgrowth of some 

 primitive form of sun woi'shi]), for the sun is still adored as the source 

 of light and life — the great ancestiu- of the emperor and peoy)le. After- 

 wards the ijheuomena of nature came to be represented by kami, and 

 the original functions ami attributes of these have beconu^ «*hanged and 

 forgotten. 



Ancestral worship is one of its great features. The spirits of the 

 dead are believed to live about their <tombs or in temples built for them. 

 They are Kami, dwelling in the unseen world around us, with power 

 to intluence the fortunes and destiny of the living. The object of all 

 worship is to insure protection from evil and success in the affairs of 

 the present. Future rewards and punishments are not offered to make 

 men good. The ruler of the under world has it in his power to make 

 the entering spirits more or less uncomfortable, and he should there- 

 fore be propitiated by prayers and offerings, to secure his favor. 



But there certainly is a future life, although it has been denied by 

 some, who think that because there is no dread torture chamber for the 

 wicked or land of eternal happiness for the good, there can be no thought 

 of a future. But the Shintoist has no fear of death. To him "Life has 

 no more consistency than a dream, and no trace of it remains." The future 

 life is totally distinct from the present and a Japanese is not good be- 

 cause he fears eternal fire and torment. Evil and good are both clearly 

 recognized. One of the great annual ceremonies is that of purification. 

 If there is no written code of morals, a Japanese writer defends his 

 faith by saying that " only immoral people like the Chinese require a 

 system of moral teaching." Every event is attributed to an act of the 

 gods. If anything goes wrong in the world, if the wicked prosper and 

 the good suffer misfortune, it is because the evil gods are sometimes too 

 strong for Amaterasu to restrain them. "The Chinese were ignorant 

 of this fact and were driven to invent the theory of heaven's decrees." 



The Japanese child learns the Irova as our own children do the 

 alphabet, and these are the thoughts instilled by their earliest teach- 

 ing and which are ever before them in after life : 



Coloi' and odor alike pass away. 



lu our world uotbiug is peiuiaiieut. 



The present day lias disappeared in the profound abyss of nothingness. 



It was but the pale image of a dream; it causes us not the least regret. 



The traveler in Japan is often astonished to find houses of })leasure 

 lining the principal thoroughfares leading to the gieat temples. It is 

 scandalous to observe how carnal pleasures are associated with religious 

 worship. But as there are bad deities to be propitiated, these houses 



