=Biso=.--Analogous to the _Uji-gami_ are the trades-deities of modern times. They are called _biso_ (author or inventor), and may be either nature-deities, deceased men, or merely the deified type of the particular trade or profession. Wrestlers worship Nomi no Sukune, who was probably a real person, and Chinese doctors the legendary Chinese Emperor Shinnung. Confucian pundits worship Confucius, poets honour Hitomaro, and Haikwai poets Bashô. Professors of the art of tea-drinking show reverence to the founder of that particular branch of it which they practise. Soothsayers, _miko_, football players, flower-arrangers, and actors worship the so-called ancestral gods of their several professions. There is a _Kaji-so-sha_, or blacksmith-ancestor-shrine. Carpenters, for some reason, have adopted Shōtoku Daishi, an Imperial Prince who lived in the seventh century, as their patron. Merchants worship Yebisu. They also pay some sort of respect to Fukusuke,[27] a dwarfish figure with a large head, attired in the ceremonial _kami-shimo_, and seated in a squatting position, which may often be seen in the larger shops. A figure of a cat with uplifted paw, called the _maneki-neko_, or "beckoning cat," and a recumbent cow covered with rugs are also objects of respect with them. It is in many cases a question whether the honour shown amounts really to divine worship. =Spirits=.--The older Shinto scriptures afford but scanty evidence of the spiritualization of deified human beings. In the _Nihongi_ there is one reference to the worship of a Mikado's _mitama_ (spirit). In another case the _mitama_ of the Mikados are called upon to punish oath-breakers. Yamato-dake's _mitama_ is in one place said to have been changed into a white bird. Of the _mitama_ of ordinary undeified human beings there is no mention in the _Kojiki_ or _Nihongi_; but, of course, this may be owing to the imperfection of the record. _Tamashiï_, a derivative of _tama_, is the ordinary word for soul at the present day, and is undoubtedly of considerable antiquity. Still there are cases where we should expect to find _mitama_ spoken of, but where a more material conception--namely, that of metamorphosis--takes its place. Among several instances of this kind may be quoted that of Yamato-dake. He died, and was buried, upon which he took the form of a white bird, which flew away leaving the tomb empty. The modern name for ghost testifies to the prevalence of this conception in Japan. It is _bake-mono_, or "transformation," and is applied to foxes which change into human form as well as to the ghosts of the dead and to hobgoblins of uncertain origin. _Bake-mono_ are not worshipped in Japan, any more than ghosts are with ourselves, but there is a beginning of reverence to them in the honorific particle _o_ which is frequently prefixed to the word, especially by women. There are no proper ghosts in the _Kojiki_ or _Nihongi_, although the writers of these works were fond