Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 1.djvu/89

 offensive to the gods; that the chief Shintô service, the "high mass" of the cult, has for its purpose the purification of the believer's body as well as of his heart: that chastity and simplicity were fundamental features of all the rites, constructions, and paraphernalia of the creed, and that the virtue of cleanliness received practical acknowledgment even among the lowest classes.

Songs and dances appear among the most ancient pastimes of the people. Love is supposed to have inspired the first ode composed in Japan, the Emperor Jimmu having been moved to song on meeting with the maiden Isuzu. The reference here is to mortal poets. A still earlier couplet is attributed to one of the immortals when she danced before the cave into which the Sun Goddess had retired. In the latter incident also ethnologists find the supposed origin of dancing, which from time immemorial has been at once a religious observance and an universally popular amusement. Virgins danced before the shrine of the Sun Goddess at the beginning of the nation, and from the highest noble to the meanest churl everyone loved the music of motion. The first costume-dance was prompted by pain, when a deity, vanquished in fight and threatened with drowning, painted his face red and lifted his feet in an agony of supplication. This hayato-mai (the warrior dance), as it is called, is still included among the classical mimes of the Imperial Court. It was performed to the music of a