Michizane was a substantial part of the process of deification, which was based on the alternate influence of the emotions of gratitude and fear.
Nomi no Sukune, the Patron-God of wrestlers, was probably a real human being. Hitomaro, the Poet-God, was undoubtedly so. Another muse of poetry, Sotoöri-hime, belongs to more legendary times, but was probably likewise a real person. lyeyasu, the founder of the last dynasty of Shōguns, was deified under the title of Tōshō Gongen, but this, like many other similar apotheoses, is, in reality, Buddhist rather than Shinto.
II. GODS OF CLASSES.
Ministers and Attendants of the Sun-Goddess.—The application of the hereditary principle to Government offices has had many vicissitudes in Japan. When the country emerges into the light of history, both Court offices and local chieftaincies were usually transmitted from father to son. Among the hereditary institutions of this kind were the Be. The Be were Government corporations charged with some special branch of service. There were Be of weavers, of farmers, of potters, &c., a Be for the supply of necessaries to the Palace, an executioner's Be, and others. If we imagine a dockyard staff in which the director and officials belonged to a governing caste, the artisans being serfs, and the whole having a more or less hereditary character, we shall have a tolerably correct idea of a Be.
The Gods of five Be are represented as in attendance on the Sun-Goddess, and as accompanying Ninigi to Earth when he was sent down to be its ruler. These were:—
Koyane, ancestor of the Nakatomi[1] House. The etymology of Koyane is uncertain. The worship of this deity had a special importance, from the fact that he was the
- ↑ See Index, Nakatomi.
