Suffice it here to say that by the scheme of syncretism propounded by K[=o]b[=o] in the ninth century, Shint[=o] was practically overlaid by the new faith from India, and largely forgotten as a distinct religion by the Japanese people.  As late as A.D. 927, there were three thousand one hundred and thirty-two enumerated metropolitan and provincial temples, besides many more unenumerated village and hamlet shrines of Shint[=o].  These are referred to in the revised codes of ceremonial law set forth by imperial authority early in the tenth century.  Probably by the twelfth century the pure rites of the god-way were celebrated, and the unmixed traditions maintained, in families and temples, so few as to be counted on the fingers.  The ancient language in which the archaic forms had been preserved was so nearly lost and buried, that out of the ooze of centuries of oblivion, it had to be rescued by the skilled divers of the seventeenth century.  Mabuchi, Motoeri and the other revivalists of pure Shint[=o], like the plungers after orient pearls, persevered until they had first recovered much that had been supposed irretrievably lost.  These scholars deciphered and interpreted the ancient scriptures, poetry, prose, history, law and ritual, and once more set forth the ancient faith, as they believed, in its purity.

Whether, however, men can exactly reproduce and think for themselves the thoughts of others who have been dead for a millennium, is an open question.  The new system is apt to be transparent.  Just as it is nearly impossible for us to restore the religious life, thoughts and orthodoxy of the men who lived before the flood, so in the writings of the revivalists of pure Shint[=o] we detect the thoughts of Dutchmen, of Chinese, and of very modern Japanese.  Unconsciously, those who would breathe into the dry bones of dead Shint[=o] the breath of the nineteenth century, find themselves compelled to use an oxygen and nitrogen generator made in Holland and mounted with Chinese apparatus; withal, lacquered and decorated with the art of to-day.  To change from metaphor to matter of fact, modern “pure Shint[=o]” is mainly a mass of speculation and philosophy, with a tendency of which the ancient god-way knew nothing.

The Modern Revivalists of Kami no Michi.

Passing by further mention of the fifteen or more corrupt sects of Shint[=o]ists, we name with honor the native scholars of the seventeenth century, who followed the illustrious example of Iyeyas[)u], the political unifier of Japan.  They ransacked the country and purchased from temples, mansions and farmhouses, old manuscripts and books, and forming libraries began anew the study of ancient language and history.  Keichu (1640-1701), a Buddhist priest, explored and illumined the poems of the Many[=o]shu.  Kada Adzumar[=o], born in 1669 near Ki[=o]to, the son of a shrine-keeper at Inari, attempted the mastery of the whole archaic native language and literature.