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Error's chains : $b How forged and broken : A comparative history of the national, social and religious errors that mankind has fallen into and practised from the creation down to the present time.Dobbins, Frank S. (Frank Stockton)

Religion

Error's chains : $b How forged and broken : A comparative history of the national, social and religious errors that mankind has fallen into and practised from the creation down to the present time.

Name: Error's chains : $b How forged and broken : A comparative history of the national, social and religious errors that mankind has fallen into and practised from the creation down to the present time.
Author: Dobbins, Frank S. (Frank Stockton)

Dobbins, Frank S. (Frank Stockton)

Idols and images -- Worship; Mythology; Religions

The emperor was the god dwelling in the flesh, and his ancestors
were, of course, to be worshiped. The first emperor, Jimmu Tenno,
receives especial worship and honor. Besides these gods--the deified
emperors and heroes--there were hosts of gods who were the deified
powers of nature. We have already spoken of the sun-goddess and
moon-goddess. Besides these there were gods of storms, winds, rain,
thunder, fertility, of mountains, fields, seas and rivers. Raiden, the
god of thunder, is supposed to have a string of drums, which he beats
when it thunders. The Japanese say that when he is angry, he throws
from the clouds a terrible creature like a cat, with iron claws and a
hairy body. Futen, the god of winds, carries a huge sack slung over
his shoulders, the mouth of which is closed by his hand. It blows a
typhoon, a gale, or a breeze, as he clinches his fingers little or
much. Besides these gods are a number of gods of occupations, of the
household, of the work-shop, the field and the store.

The sun is one of the most common objects of worship among the
Shintoists. The country of Japan is often called “The Land of the
Rising Sun.” Their national flag is of white with a large red sun in
the centre. On the top of Fuji-yama, the famous sacred mountain, and on
the sea-shore, pilgrims and priests often gather to offer their worship
to the rising sun.




                              CHAPTER XV.

                POPULAR GODS AND SHRINES OF SHINTOISM.

   The characteristics of “Pure Shintô” are an absence of an
   ethical and doctrinal code, of idol-worship, of priestcraft, and
   of any teachings concerning a future state, and the deification
   of heroes, emperors and great men, together with the worship
   of certain forces and objects in nature. It is said that the
   _Kami_, or gods, number 14,000, of whom 3,700 are known to
   have shrines; but, practically, the number is infinite. Each
   hamlet has its special god, as well as its _Mirja_, or
   shrine; and each child is taken to the shrine of the district
   in which it is born, a month after birth, and the god of that
   shrine becomes his patron. Each god has its annual festival,
   while many have particular days in each month on which people
   visit their shrines.--MISS ISABELLA BIRD.


                       THE SEVEN HOUSEHOLD GODS.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Error's chains : $b How forged and broken : A comparative history of the national, social and religious errors that mankind has fallen into and practised from the creation down to the present time.

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