SHINTOISM AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE.^ 



By K. Kanokogi, 

 Bachelor of Divinity, Master of Arts, Tokyo, Japan. 



1. HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



In mythical antiquity when as yet nature and mankind, mankind 

 and the gods were viewed as unseparated. a people landed on the 

 island of Kiushu, in the southwest part of Japan. Scholars differ 

 concerning the racial affinity of that people; some would assign it 

 to the Malay race, others to the Mongol, while still others to the 

 Phoenician or even the Greco-Roman race. 



This people seems to have been superior to all others who had 

 previously settled in Japan. It was at all events conscious of its 

 power and imbued with the divine right to rule Japan. Ama-terasu, 

 " the Heaven-shining one," the fair, mild, bright, victorious sun 

 goddess, was its diety, and of whom it was the offspring. x4.ccording 

 to the Japanese myth this sun goddess sent her offspring from the 

 celestial realm to the land of Japan there to establish order and 

 dominion: "The land of Japan, the Middle Kingdom, the rich rice 

 field is the land where my offspring shall rule." This was her word 

 and command. 



But somewhat prior to this people another race, likewise powerful 

 and civilized, had settled, not in the southwestern island, but in the 

 northwestern part of the principal island of Japan, in the coast land 

 of the Japanese Sea — in Idzumo. This people rapidly spread and, 

 at the time of the arrival of the children of the Sun. had nearly 

 subjected the whole of the principal island with the exception of its 

 northeastern portion. It is quite certain that this people, whom we 

 shall here call the " Idzumo," was closely related to the Koreans, and 

 on that account alone was it superior to numerous other peoples. The 

 affinity of the Idzumo with the Mongols can not be established with 

 certainty, but it is probably very close. "Wliether it belongs to the 

 same race as the Sun offspring is still an open question. 



The disposition and the character of both peoples are different; 

 there is especially noticeable a great difference in their religious con- 



1 Translated by pormission from Zcitschrift fiir Religlonspsychologie. vol. fi. pt. 2, 

 Leipzig, Johann Ambrosius Barth, 1912, pp. 57-70. 



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