=Sources of Information.=—The Japanese had no writing until the introduction of Chinese learning from Korea early in the fifth century of our era, and the first books which have come down to us date from the beginning of the eighth. One of these, called the _Kojiki_ (712) is said to have been taken down from the lips of a man whose memory was well stored with the old myths and traditions of his country. He was perhaps one of the guild of ‘reciters,’ whose business it was to recite ‘ancient words’ at the ceremony which corresponds to our coronation. The _Kojiki_ is a repertory of the old myths and legends, and, in the latter part, of the ancient history of Japan. The _Nihongi_, a work of similar scope, though based more on an existing written literature, was produced a few years later (720). It quotes numerous variants of the religious myths current at this time. There are voluminous and most learned commentaries on these two works written by Motoöri and Hirata in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For the ritual of Shinto our chief source of information is the _Yengishiki_, a compilation made early in the tenth century. It contains, along with minute directions regarding offerings, ceremonies, etc., a series of the _norito_ (litanies) used in Shinto worship which are of the highest interest, and of great, though unequal, antiquity. The above-mentioned authorities give a tolerably complete account of the old state religion of Japan, sometimes called ‘Pure Shinto,’ in order to distinguish it from the Buddhicised cult of later times. Its palmy days may be taken to extend from the seventh to the twelfth century. Shinto, literally ‘The Way of the Gods,’ is a Chinese word, for which the Japanese equivalent is _Kami no michi_. CHAPTER II GENERAL CHARACTER OF SHINTO =Kami= is the ordinary Japanese word for God. It means primarily above, superior, and is applied to many other things besides deities, such as nobles, the authorities, the ‘missus,’ the hair of the head, the upper waters of a river, the part of Japan near Kiōto, etc. Height is in every country associated with excellence and divinity, no doubt because the first deities were the Sun and other Heavenly objects. We ourselves speak of the ‘Most High’ and use phrases like ‘Good Heavens’ which testify to a personification of the sky by our forefathers. But though Kami corresponds in a general way to ‘God,’ it has some important limitations. The Kami are high, swift, good, rich, living, but not infinite, omnipotent, or omniscient. Most of them had a father and mother, and of some the death is recorded. Motoöri, the great Shinto theologian, writing in the latter part of the eighteenth century, says:—