Page:Nihongi by Aston.djvu/72

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

The Age of the Gods.

41

in the New^[1] Palace. Moreover, when he saw that Ama-terasu no Oho-kami was in her sacred^[2] weaving hall, engaged in weaving the garments of the Gods, he flayed a piebald colt of Heaven, and breaking a hole in the roof-tiles of the hall, flung it in. Then Ama-terasu no Oho-kami started with alarm, and wounded herself with the shuttle. Indignant at this, she straightway entered the Rock-cave of Heaven, and having fastened the Rock-door, dwelt there in seclusion. Therefore constant darkness prevailed on all sides, and the alternation of (I. 38.) night and day was unknown.^[3]

↑ For the sake of greater purity in celebrating the festival.
↑ The Chinese character here translated sacred is 齋, the primary meaning of which is abstinence, fasting. In the "Nihongi," however, it represents the Japanese word ihahi (pronounced iwai). According to Hirata this contains the same root as imi, avoidance, especially religious avoidance of impurity, and had originally the same meaning. The yu of yu-niha, or sacred plot of ground where rice for the festival of first-fruits was grown, is the same root. But as a strict observance of conditions of ceremonial purity was a chief feature of the Shinto senvices, this word came to be put for religious rites generally, and the Chinese character is even used, if we may believe the interlinear gloss which renders it by ogami, for Buddhist celebrations. The usual modern meaning of ihahi is blessing, well-wishing, congratulation, where we have got a long way from the original sense of tabu, avoidance.

Ritual purity is of the very essence of Shinto. It applies to food, clothing, and language. There was in later times a special set of terms for certain Buddhist objects and ideas. It was probably to avoid contamination to the ordinary dwelling that special huts were erected for the consummation of marriage, and for childbirth. Death contaminated a house, and therefore a new one had to be erected on the decease of the owner, a practice which was long continued in the case of Imperial Palaces.
↑ Ama-terasu no Oho-kami is throughout the greater part of this narrative an anthropomorphic Deity, with little that is specially characteristic of her solar functions. Here, however, it is plainly the sun itself which withholds its light and leaves the world to darkness. This inconsistency, which has greatly exercised the native theologians (see Satow's "Revival of Pure Shinto," p. 50, reprint), is not peculiar to Japanese myth. Muir, in the introduction to Vol. V. of his "Sanskrit Texts," says:—"The same visible object was at different times regarded diversely as being either a portion of the inanimate universe, or an animated being and a cosmical power. Thus in the Vedic hymns, the sun, the sky, and the earth are severally considered, sometimes as natural objects governed by particular gods, and sometimes as themselves gods who generate and control other beings." But this difficulty is inherent in all mythologies.

[1] For the sake of greater purity in celebrating the festival.

[2] The Chinese character here translated sacred is 齋, the primary meaning of which is abstinence, fasting. In the "Nihongi," however, it represents the Japanese word ihahi (pronounced iwai). According to Hirata this contains the same root as imi, avoidance, especially religious avoidance of impurity, and had originally the same meaning. The yu of yu-niha, or sacred plot of ground where rice for the festival of first-fruits was grown, is the same root. But as a strict observance of conditions of ceremonial purity was a chief feature of the Shinto senvices, this word came to be put for religious rites generally, and the Chinese character is even used, if we may believe the interlinear gloss which renders it by ogami, for Buddhist celebrations. The usual modern meaning of ihahi is blessing, well-wishing, congratulation, where we have got a long way from the original sense of tabu, avoidance.

Ritual purity is of the very essence of Shinto. It applies to food, clothing, and language. There was in later times a special set of terms for certain Buddhist objects and ideas. It was probably to avoid contamination to the ordinary dwelling that special huts were erected for the consummation of marriage, and for childbirth. Death contaminated a house, and therefore a new one had to be erected on the decease of the owner, a practice which was long continued in the case of Imperial Palaces.

[3] Ama-terasu no Oho-kami is throughout the greater part of this narrative an anthropomorphic Deity, with little that is specially characteristic of her solar functions. Here, however, it is plainly the sun itself which withholds its light and leaves the world to darkness. This inconsistency, which has greatly exercised the native theologians (see Satow's "Revival of Pure Shinto," p. 50, reprint), is not peculiar to Japanese myth. Muir, in the introduction to Vol. V. of his "Sanskrit Texts," says:—"The same visible object was at different times regarded diversely as being either a portion of the inanimate universe, or an animated being and a cosmical power. Thus in the Vedic hymns, the sun, the sky, and the earth are severally considered, sometimes as natural objects governed by particular gods, and sometimes as themselves gods who generate and control other beings." But this difficulty is inherent in all mythologies.

[1]

[2]

[3]