that the thanksgivings of the court were originally to Heaven itself, and not in honor of Amateras[)u], the sun-goddess, as is now popularly believed.  It is related in the Kojiki that Amateras[)u] herself celebrated the feast of Niiname.  So also, the temple of Ise, the Mecca of Shint[=o], and the Holy shrine in the imperial palace were originally temples for the worship of Heaven.  The inferior gods of earthly origin form no part of primitive Shint[=o].

Not one of the first Mikados was deified after death, the deification of emperors dating from the corruption which Shint[=o] underwent after the introduction of Buddhism.  Only by degrees was the ruler of the country given a place in the worship, and this connection was made by attributing to him descent from Heaven.  In a word, the contention of Professor Kumi is, that the ancient religion of at least a portion of the Japanese and especially of those in central Japan, was a rude sort of monotheism, coupled, as in ancient China, with the worship of subordinate spirits.

It is needless to say that such applications of the higher criticism to the ancient sacred documents proved to be no safer for the applier than if he had lived in the United States of America.  The orthodox Shint[=o]ists were roused to wrath and charged the learned critic with “degrading Shint[=o] to a mere branch of Christianity.”  The government, which, despite its Constitution and Diet, is in the eyes of the people really based on the myths of the Kojiki, quickly put the professor on the retired list.[25]

It is probably correct to say that the arguments adduced by Professor Kumi, confirm our theory of the substitution in the simple god-way, of Mikadoism, the centre of the primitive worship being the sun and nature rather than Heaven.

Between the ancient Chinese religion with its abstract idea of Heaven and its personal term for God, and the more poetic and childlike system of the god-way, there seems to be as much difference as there is racially between the people of the Middle Kingdom and those of the Land Where the Day Begins.  Indeed, the entrance of Chinese philosophical and abstract ideas seemed to paralyze the Japanese imagination.  Not only did myth-making, on its purely aesthetic and non-utilitarian side cease almost at once, but such myths as were formed were for direct business purposes and with a transparent tendency.  Henceforth, in the domain of imagination the Japanese intellect busied itself with assimilating or re-working the abundant material imported by Buddhism.

Ancient Customs and Usages.

In the ancient god-way the temple or shrine was called a miya.  After the advent of Buddhism the keepers of the shrine were called kannushi, that is, shrine keepers or wardens of the god.  These men were usually descendants of the god in whose honor the temples were built.  The gods being nothing more than human founders of families, reverence was paid to them as ancestors, and so the basis of Shint[=o]