How closely and directly phallicism is connected with the god-way, and why there were so many Shint[=o] temples devoted to this latter cult and furnished with symbols, is shown by study of the “Kojiki.”  The two opening sections of this book treat of kami that were in the minds even of the makers of the myths little more than mud and water[13]—­the mere bioplasm of deity.  The seven divine generations are “born,” but do nothing except that they give Izanagi and Izanami a jewelled spear.  With this pair come differentiation of sex.  It is immediately on the apparition of the consciousness of sex that motion, action and creation begin, and the progress of things visible ensues.  The details cannot be put into English, but it is enough, besides noting the conversation and union of the pair, to say that the term meaning giving birth to, refers to inanimate as well as animate things.  It is used in reference to the islands which compose the archipelago as well as to the various kami which seem, in many cases, to be nothing more than the names of things or places.

Fire-myths and Ritual.

Fire is, in a sense, the foundation and first necessity of civilization, and it is interesting to study the myths as to the origin of fire, and possibly even more interesting to compare the Greek and Japanese stories.  As we know, old-time popular etymology makes Prometheus the fore-thinker and brother of Epimetheus the after-thinker.  He is the stealer of the fire from heaven, in order to make men share the secret of the gods.  Comparative philology tells us, however, that the Sanskrit Pramantha is a stick that produces fire.  The “Kojiki” does indeed contain what is probably the later form of the fire-myth about two brothers, Prince Fire-Shine and Fire-Fade, which suggests both the later Greek myth of the fore- and after-thinker and a tradition of a flood.  The first, and most probably older, myth in giving the origin of fire does it in true Japanese style, with details of parturition.  After numerous other deities had been born of Izanagi and Izanami, it is said “that they gave birth to the Fire-Burning-Swift-Male-Deity, another name for whom is the Deity-Fire-Shining-Prince, and another name is the Deity-Fire-Shining-Elder.”  In the other ancient literature this fire-god is called Ho-musubi, the Fire-Producer.

Izanami yielded up her life upon the birth of her son, the fire-god; or, as the sacred text declares, she “divinely retired"[14] into Hades.  From her corpse sprang up the pairs of gods of clay, of metal, and other kami that possessed the potency of calming or subduing fire, for clay resists and water extinguishes.  Between the mythical and the liturgical forms of the original narrative there is considerable variation.

The Norito entitled the “Quieting of Fire” gives the ritual form of the myth.  It contains, like so many Norito, less the form of prayer to the Fire-Producer than a promise of offerings.  Not so much by petitions as by the inducements of gifts did the ancient worshippers hope to save the palace of the Mikado from the fire-god’s wrath.  We omit from the text those details which are offensive to modern and western taste.