Japan: From the Japanese Government History — John Shaqi
Japan: From the Japanese Government History
History
Japan: From the Japanese Government History
Japan -- Civilization; Japan -- History
It is interesting to know that at marriage the bridegroom, contrary to
the modern custom, went to the house of the bride. A man also was
permitted to have several wives, but a woman was never allowed to have
more than one husband. Divination was always employed to solve doubtful
questions. Music and dancing were already known, the _koto_ and the
flute being employed as musical instruments. Emotions of grief or joy,
love or disappointment, were expressed in song, the most ancient song
now extant being attributed to the deity Susanoö. The Emperor Jimmu also
frequently commemorated brave deeds of war in song, thus encouraging and
reviving the spirit of his warriors.
A profound awe and respect toward the national deities, as well as a
superstitious fear of innumerable spirits, seems to have prevailed
everywhere in all classes of society. If the people submitted readily to
the sway of the Emperor Jimmu, it was largely because they regarded him
as a scion of the gods. The emperor, on his side, firmly convinced that
good and evil were controlled by divine will, never neglected to perform
sacrificial rites. Out of the custom of extreme reverence toward the
deities grew abhorrence for impurity in any form, so that separate huts
came to be built for the bodies of the dead or for women at times of
parturition, and if any man came in contact with an unclean object, he
bathed in a river to purify himself.
Naturally, little distinction existed between religion and government,
between shrine and palace. At the completion of his work of conquest,
Jimmu erected a building at Kashiwabara, in which he deposited the
three insignia, and in which he himself resided and personally governed
the empire. Each one of his eight successors followed his example. The
tenth emperor, Sujin, however, fearing that the insignia might be
polluted, made duplicates of the Mirror and the Sword, and reverently
deposited the originals in a shrine at Kasanui in Yamato, where one of
the imperial princesses was intrusted with the duty of guarding them and
performing due religious rites. Thus, shrine and palace were at last
separated. Subsequently, these sacred objects were removed to Ise, and
placed in the shrine now existing there. The Sword, however, was
afterward carried to Atsuta in Owari, where it now lies in the Atsuta
Shrine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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