Page:Shinto, the Way of the Gods - Aston - 1905.djvu/153

Rh not be discarded or neglected, but, along with other primary objects of worship, merged in the supreme synthesis of all the glimpses of the Divine which are vouchsafed to us.

Several phases of earth worship are exemplified in Shinto. The simplest of all is the ji-matsuri, or ji-chin-sai (earth-festival or earth-calming-festival), which is the ceremony of propitiating the site of a new building, or a piece of ground to be reclaimed for cultivation. Here it is the ground itself that is worshipped, without distinction of sex, or the adjunct of myth, metaphor, or personal name. This practice is as old as the Yengishiki, and is not extinct at the present day. Many peasants make sacrifice to the ta no kami, or rice-field god, when preparing the ground for a crop, though here we perhaps pass into the next stage, in which the God is something apart from the rice-field itself. A similar phase of thought is implied by the use of such terms as Iku-kuni (living country), and Taru-kuni (perfect country), though here too the norito of Praying for Harvest, has already taken the further step of regarding this deity as a God who "rules" the islands of Japan. Ikushima (living island or region), is also used both for the country regarded as a God and for the God of the country.

We have seen above that several of the provinces had two names, one geographical, the other when considered as a God or Goddess, like our Britain and Britannia, Scotland and Caledonia.

A still further stage of progress is illustrated by the terms kuni-dama (country spirit), and iku-dama (live spirit). Kuni-dama is a general term for deified localities. Iku-dama, which has the same meaning, is a contraction for iku kuni-dama. Motoöri says that any God who has done service by "making " a country or province is worshipped in that province as the Kuni-dama or Oho-kuni-dama. The Ichi