Shinto: The Way of the GodsShintoScholarly ReconstructionEnglish study drawing on Japanese sourcesShareShinto: The Way of the Gods 3Aston - EnglishMoreVersion - 1 availableAstonLanguageEnglishEspañol‹Shinto: The Way of the Gods 1Shinto: The Way of the Gods 2Shinto: The Way of the Gods 3Shinto: The Way of the Gods 4Shinto: The Way of the Gods 5Shinto: The Way of the Gods 6Shinto: The Way of the Gods 7Shinto: The Way of the Gods 8Shinto: The Way of the Gods 9Shinto: The Way of the Gods 10Shinto: The Way of the Gods 11Shinto: The Way of the Gods 12Shinto: The Way of the Gods 13Shinto: The Way of the Gods 14Shinto: The Way of the Gods 15Shinto: The Way of the Gods 16Shinto: The Way of the Gods 17Shinto: The Way of the Gods 18Shinto: The Way of the Gods 19Shinto: The Way of the Gods 20Shinto: The Way of the Gods 21Shinto: The Way of the Gods 22Shinto: The Way of the Gods 23Shinto: The Way of the Gods 24Shinto: The Way of the Gods 25Shinto: The Way of the Gods 26Shinto: The Way of the Gods 27Shinto: The Way of the Gods 28Shinto: The Way of the Gods 29Shinto: The Way of the Gods 30Shinto: The Way of the Gods 31›Footnotes:Shinto: The Way of the Gods 3ListenPlay this chapter in spoken English.Save chapterListen to chapter1[1] At the festival of Nifu Miōjin in Kiī, when the procession bearing offerings arrives before the shrine, the village chief calls out in a loud voice, "According to our annual custom, let us all laugh." To which a hearty response is given. This is because this God does not go to Idzumo for an annual visit like the others. 2[3] Compare with this the following description of the huacas of the ancient Peruvians. "All those things which from their beauty and excellence are superior to other things of a like kind; things that are ugly and monstrous or that cause horror and fright; things out of the usual course of nature." 3"Listen, the mighty being is awake And doth with his eternal motion make A noise like thunder everlastingly." 4[5] M. Goblet d'Alviella says: "I maintain that neither of these two forms of worship necessarily presupposes the other; but that man having been led by different roads to personify the souls of the dead on the one hand and natural objects and phenomena on the other, subsequently attributed to both alike the character of mysterious superhuman beings. Let us add that this must have taken place everywhere, for there is not a people on earth in which we do not come upon these forms of belief side by side and intermingled." Dr. Pfleiderer's view is substantially identical. 5[6] Max Müller speaks of "that ancient stratum of thought which postulated an agent in the sky, the sun, &c." This is really a secondary conception. 6[7] It was not unknown in ancient Greece and Rome. Zeus, Hercules, and other deities became divided up in this way. 7[8] "Mr. Tyler has justly observed that the true lesson of the new science of Comparative Mythology is the barrenness in primitive times of the faculty which we most associate with mental fertility, the imagination.... Among these multitudes (the millions of men who fill what we vaguely call the East) Literature, Religion, and Art--or what correspond to them--move always within a distinctly drawn circle of unchanging notions.... This condition of thought is rather the infancy of the human mind prolonged than a different maturity from that most familiar to us."--Maine, 'Early History of Institutions,' pp. 225-6. This characteristic of the mental development of the races of the Far East is discussed in 'A Comparative Study of the Japanese and Korean Languages,' by W. G. Aston, in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, August, 1879, and more fully by Mr. Percival Lowell, in his 'Soul of the Far East,' 1888. See also Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's' Kojiki,' Introd., lxvi. 8[9] Homer implicitly denies the spirituality of his Gods when he says that the Hercules which was summoned up by Ulysses was only his eidolon, or phantom, the real man being in Olympus among the happy Gods. 9[10] See an instructive article on 'Shekinah' in Dr. Hastings's 'Dictionary of the Bible'. 10[11] "And mine eternal jewel given to the common enemy of man."--'Macbeth,' Act III. scene i. 11[12] The Shekinah was also associated with a divine radiance, or glory. 12[13] Mi mi (august body) in the names of others involves a more material conception of deity. 13[14] Corresponding to the mo acha, uncle of peace, and ski acha, rough uncle, of the Ainus. 14[18] For deities of classes consult Dr. Tylor's 'Primitive Culture,' ii. 242. ‹Previous chapterShinto: The Way of the Gods 2Next chapterShinto: The Way of the Gods 4›Similar passagesBy tradition and source labelFind similarCompare selectedCompare with similarAsk Deep ThoughtSelect passages to search for parallels.Tap any verse to select it, then compare selected passages or ask Deep Thought. Public domain in the United States via Project Gutenberg