SHINTOISM KANOKOGI. 611 



world conception of the Shinto religion, while the influence of Ise 

 supplies in hero-worship the active spirit of Shinto. 



Shintoism survived in simple, pure form till the sixth century. 

 Scarcely any distinction was made between priests and laymen, be- 

 tween the holy and the profane — -in contrast to the Hindus and the 

 ancient Gauls. The administration of the state, the governing was eo 

 ipso religious worshijD. The Japanese word for " governing," matsu- 

 rigoto, is derived from Matsuru, " Avorship." Thus among the ancient 

 Japanese, governing and worship were identical. The religious cere- 

 monies were consequently very simple. The greatest and most im- 

 portant ceremony is the purification, which takes place twice every 

 year. The impurity and sins of the entire people are cleansed 

 through a solemn prayer and ceremony. It recalls the Jewish scape- 

 goat. But the ethical aspect is different; in contrast with the com- 

 plex, already far advanced ethical conceptions and the rigorous idea 

 of atonement in the later Jewish religion, here is still found a naive, 

 simple, and chikllike ethical thought with a like simple idea of atone- 

 ment. In the primitive Shinto religion uncleanliness and sin are 

 identical conceptions. 



Here we may find place for the table of the so-called heavenly 

 sins and earthly sins from the old ritual of purification. 



1. The heavenly sins: 



Making of breaches in rice-field dams. 

 Interfering with the irrigation of rice fields. 

 Cranks interfering with agriculture. 

 Skinning of live animals backAvard. 

 Defiling rituall}^ clean places with excrements. 



2. Earthly sins: 



Wounding of the body (because the blood was considered by the 

 ancient Japanese unclean). 



Desecration of a corpse. 



Unusual bodily affections, such as albinism and excrescences. 



Incest and sodomy. 



Killing of other people's animals. 



Witchcraft. 



Plagues inflicted by the gods as punishment, such as snake bites, 

 lightning stroke, etc. 



This Shinto morality ma}'^ be divided into three spheres : 



1. Morals in relation to common property, i. e., peasants' morals. 



2. Morals of the ritual. 



3. The recoil from the unclean and unnatural, a genuine tabu 

 morality. This constituted the origin of ritual morality. 



We do not meet with a morality in our sense; what we find is, 

 however, not mimorality, but childlike naivete. But it can easily 



