SHINTOISM — KANOKOGI. 613 



attacked. One of these scholars went so far as to even assert : " The 

 ancient Japanese had no moral theory whatever, because they were 

 in no need of one, since their natural disposition was moral, while 

 the naturally wicked Chinese needed a moral system." With the re- 

 vival of Shintoism there appeared another powerful factor^ the idea 

 of the divine right of the imperial house. By emphasizing this idea 

 this purely theoretical movement promoted the restoration of 1868. 



5. THE SOCIOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 



SHINTOISM. 



After what has been said in the preceding pages, it must be ad- 

 mitted that Shintoism represents rather a low stage of religion. It 

 has in comparison, for instance, with Judaism, experienced but a 

 slight development. Two reasons may be assigned for this fact: 

 First, the Japanese were on the whole little exposed to external 

 dangers in the struggle for existence. If religion is related to the 

 preservation and expansion of life, it may be concluded that a people 

 living in a continuously keen and perilous struggle for existence, 

 and none the less able not only to preserve but also to expand its 

 life, would also in its own way raise its religion to the highest degree 

 of development. The Jewish people present a good instance. It 

 lived in perpetual danger, and yet by dint of its wonderful vitality 

 it was enabled not only to preserve its existence but also to be re- 

 spected as a power. On the other hand, the Japanese as a whole 

 were beset by little danger. Thus it came to pass that Shintoism was 

 not hardened and strengthened as Judaism was. As a second rea- 

 son for the slight development of Shintoism must be considered 

 the intruding of agnostic Confucianism and pantheistic Buddhism. 

 The native religion and the highly developed foreign religions dif- 

 fered both in kind and in degree. One could not by degrees advance 

 from Shintoism to Buddhism and Confucianism. A radical break 

 was required. The religiously disposed minds abandoned their gods 

 and followed the more jorofound and powerful teaching. Shintoism 

 was forsaken by its best children and remained lonely and poor — a 

 veritable mater dolorosa ! 



Notwithstanding this, Shintoism has survived to the present day 

 and still exhibits a certain vitality. This is a miracle. How, one 

 might ask, can such an apparently low form of religion continue its 

 xery existence amidst a people that has been nourished on the loft}^ 

 conceptions of life and the universe of Buddhism and on the pure and 

 elevated morals of Confucianism? Shintoism is certainly a very 

 remarkable religious and sociological phenomenon. 



But, as it has already been pointed out, Shintoism beheld in all 

 the great, wonderful, mighty, and sublime phenomena of nature, as 

 well as of man, its gods and worshipped them. Everything that was 



