Page:TASJ-1-3.djvu/111



By ‘pure Shintô’ is meant the religious belief of the Japanese people previous to the introduction of Buddhism and the Confucian philosophy into Japan, and by its revival the attempt which a modern school of writers has made to eliminate these extraneous influences, and to present Shintô in its original form. The very name of Shintô is repudiated by this school, on the ground that the word was never applied to the ancient religions belief until the introduction of Buddhism and Confucianism rendered its employment necessary for the sake of distinction, and the argument that, because this belief is called by a Chinese name, it must therefore be of Chinese origin, is of no value whatever.

The statement that the study of the Chinese classics was introduced in the year 285 A. D., though received without mistrust by European writers on the authority of native historians, may certainly be questioned. The earliest extant account of historical events (the Kojiki) dates only from the year 711 of our era, while no attempt whatever of the kind is recorded to have been made earlier than the 5th century; and yet the Nihongi (720 A. D.) affects to give the precise dates, even to the day of the month, of events that are ascribed to the seventh century