nature-worship which preceded the introduction of Buddhism into Japan, and which continues to exist in a modified form. Referring the reader to the Article on History and Mythology for a sketch of the Shintō pantheon, we would here draw attention to the fact that Shintō, so often spoken of as a religion, is hardly entitled to that name even in the opinion of those who, acting as its official mouthpieces to-day, desire to maintain it as a patriotic institution. It has no set of dogmas, no sacred book, no moral code. The absence of a moral code is accounted for, in the writings of native commentators, by the innate perfection of Japanese humanity, which obviates the necessity for such outward props. It is only outcasts, like the Chinese and Western nations, whose natural depravity renders the occasional appearance of sages and reformers necessary; and even with this assistance, all foreign nations continue to wallow in a mire of ignorance, guilt, and disobedience towards the heaven-descended, de jure monarch of the universe—the Mikado of Japan.
It is necessary, however, to distinguish three periods in the evolution of Shintō. During the first of these—roughly speaking, down to A.D. 550—the Japanese had no notion of religion as a separate institution. To pay homage to the gods, that is, to the departed ancestors of the Imperial family, and to the manes of other great men, was a usage springing from the same mental soil as that which produced passive obedience to, and worship of, the living Mikado. Besides this, there were prayers to the wind-gods, to the god of fire, to the god of pestilence, to the goddess of food, and to deities presiding over the saucepan, the cauldron, the gate, and the kitchen. There were also purifications for wrong-doing, as there were for bodily defilement, such, for instance, as contact with a corpse. The purifying element was water. But there was not even a shadowy idea of any code of ethics or any systematisation of the simple notions of the people concerning things unseen. There was neither heaven nor hell,—only a kind of neutral-tinted Hades.
