All this shows that the original identity of demons and diseases has not yet been wholly lost sight of in Japan. =Gate-Gods=.--Kushi-iha-mado (wondrous-rock-door) and Toyo-iha-mado (rich-rock-door). These two Gods are known to us from the _norito_ entitled Mikado no matsuri.[141] They are obviously personifications of the gates of the Palace. But the difficulty presents itself that these Gods are (apparently) two in number, these two being differentiated out of one original deity by the honorary epithets _kushi_ and _toyo_, while the gates of the Palace were much more numerous. If it is the gate itself, and not the spirit of the gate, which is worshipped, there ought to be as many Gods as gates. Hirata would no doubt explain this by saying that there are really only two Gods, but that each gate is occupied by a _mitama_, or emanation from them. It seems more probable that the ancient Japanese had no very definite ideas on the subject. They conceived of the gates as in some way or another instinct with life and exercising certain protective functions; but whether there were two deities for each gate or two for all collectively was a question which did not occur to them. It must be remembered that the Japanese language seldom takes the trouble to distinguish between singular and plural. This is merely another way of saying that the nation is comparatively indifferent to number, whether of Gods or gates. Whether the Gate-divinity is one or several does not trouble them. GODS OF ABSTRACTIONS. =Izanagi and Izanami=.--The conspicuous position given by the mythical narrative[142] to these personifications of the dual creative powers of the universe has little to correspond with it in cult and ritual. Although they are no doubt to be reckoned among the _Dii majores_ of Japan, they occupy a much lower place than the Sun-Goddess and the Food-Goddess. Izanagi and Izanami are evidently creations of subsequent date to the Sun-Goddess and other concrete deities, for whose existence they were intended to account. I have little doubt that they were suggested by the _Yin_ and _Yang_,[143] or female and male principles of Chinese philosophy. Indeed there is a passage in the _Nihongi_ in which these terms are actually applied to them. It may be said, and Motoöri does say, that the _Yin_ and _Yang_ are foreign ideas which have found their way into a purely native myth. We must remember, however, that the Japanese myths as we have them date from a period three centuries after the introduction of Chinese learning into Japan, and that there was communication with China hundreds of years earlier still. It would, therefore, not be strange if some knowledge of the fundamental principle of Chinese philosophy and science had reached the Japanese long before the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_ were written.