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Rh in political measures, so that Shintō has often been nothing but a political engine. "In its lower forms [it] is blind obedience to governmental and priestly dictates." It has thus been unfairly used as a test of so-called patriotism, a kind of ecclesiastical patriotism, founded on mythology and superstition. Thus Shintō has been, as Sir Ernest Satow called it, "in a certain sense, a state religion, since its temples are maintained out of the imperial and local revenues, and the attendance of the principal officials is required by court etiquette at certain annual festivals which are celebrated at the palace." Similarly, local officials are required to be present and "worship" on certain occasions at local shrines. As Dr. Griffis has remarked, "To those Japanese whose first idea of duty is loyalty to the Emperor, Shintō?] thus becomes a system of patriotism exalted to a religion."

But the relation of the educated classes toward Shintō is quite different. A knowledge of science has shown the foolishness of personifying and deifying the forces of nature and of worshipping foxes, badgers, and other animals. Moreover, the scientific study of the Japanese annals has revealed the absurdities of much that had been accepted as real history, and has shown that the so-called historical foundation of Shintō?] is a mass of myths and legends. The well-educated Japanese do not believe the nonsense of the "Kojiki" upon which the claim that the Emperor should be worshipped is based; but few, if