of Japan. From him was descended, after a few generations, Jimmu Tennō, the first human sovereign of Japan, and the founder, according to tradition, of the present dynasty of Mikados.
There is food for reflection in the fact that it was possible for a man of high intelligence and vast learning like Motoöri, not unacquainted with the philosophy and religions of India and China, to accept these childish fables as the basis of his faith. Yet not only was he himself a sincere believer. He had a large and zealous body of followers, drawn from the highest and most enlightened classes of his fellow-countrymen. Truly it would almost seem as if, in the words of the Japanese proverb, "Iwashi no atama mo shinjin-gara," that is to say, "It is the quality of faith that is important, were its object only the head of a sardine."
The following passage from the Tamagatsuma will help us to define more precisely Motoöri's attitude towards the Chinese school of thinkers. It is headed
"In China all good and bad fortune of men, all order and disorder in the State—everything, in short, which happens in this world—is ascribed to the action of Ten (Heaven). Using such terms as the Way of Ten, the Command of Ten, and the Principle of Ten, they regard it as a thing to be honoured and feared above all. China, however, is a country where the true way generally has not been handed down. There they do not know that all things are the doing of the gods, and therefore resort rashly to such inventions. Now Heaven is nothing more than the region where the gods of Heaven dwell. It is a thing destitute of sense, and it is unreasonable to talk
