Page:Things Japanese (1905).djvu/432

420 Some of the gods were good, some were bad; nor was the line between men and gods at all clearly drawn. There was, how ever, a rude sort of priesthood, each priest being charged with the service of some particular local god, but not with preaching to the people. One of the virgin daughters of the Mikado always dwelt at the ancient shrine of Ise, keeping watch over the mirror, the sword, and the jewel, which he had inherited from his ancestress, Ama-terasu, Goddess of the Sun. Shintō may be said, in this its first phase, to have been a set of ceremonies as much political as religious. Whether and how far, even at that remote period, unacknowledged spiritual influences emanating from China had made themselves felt, is a curious question. The coincidence of a few myths, together with other scattered indications, seem to point in that direction. The Chinese tincture of the version of the mythology and legendary history preserved in the Nihongi is obvious to the least critical reader, and shows that, in the eighth century at any rate, the idea of endeavouring to preserve the national traditions free from foreign influence was not present to the Japanese mind.

By the introduction of Buddhism in the middle of the sixth century after Christ, the second period of the existence of Shintō was inaugurated, and further growth in the direction of a religion was stopped. The metaphysics of Buddhism were far too profound, its ritual far too gorgeous, its moral code far too exalted, for the puny fabric of Shintō to offer any effective resistance. All that there was of religious feeling in the nation went over to the enemy. The Buddhist priesthood diplomatically received the native Shintō gods in their pantheon as avatars of ancient Buddhas, for which reason many of the Shintō ceremonies connected with the Court were kept up, although Buddhist ceremonies took the first place even in the thoughts of the converted descendants of the sun. The Shintō rituals (norito), previously handed down by word of mouth, were then first put into written shape. The term "Shintō" itself was also introduced, in order to distinguish the old native way of thinking from the new