III. Hiririil itml Ilifiirrndtioii af Skint oism (from A.D. 1700 to the present time). — Within tlic last hundred years a school of native writers have attempted to purge Shinto of its foreign elements and present it in its orig- inal purity. The activity of tliese scholars bore fruit in the creation of a large body of literature, some po- lemic, but most of it of high historic and antt(|uarian value. At the same time the eyes of I lie peopU; were opened to see that the shogun was a ixditical usurper, anil the mikado, being the vicar of the gods, was, and ought of right to be, the soh; rider of his peojile. The increasing reverence for the mikado generated by Shinto scholars soon grew into liery zeal, and a turbulent de- termination to restore the mikado, abolish Buddhism,
sweep all foreigners from the Holy Country', and rehabil- itate Shinto as the State religion. Shinto created one of the most ])owerful currents of thought that helped to swell the flood which in 1868 swejjt away the dual sys- tem of government and restored tlie Tennu (son of heaven) or mikado (honorable gate, sublime porte, Pha- raoh ) to supremacy, abolished the office of shogun, and made the city of Yedo the national capital, now called Tokio. These changes would doubtless have taken place even if Perry or other foreigners had not come to Ja|)an. Their jjresence gave to the mighty uprising of the nation that outward direction which has tilled the eye of Christendom with wonder. No sooner was the new or ancient form of government established in Tokio than successive edicts were issued wliich utterly purged the Kiobu-Shinto temples and all the national shrines of all Buddhist influences, both material and personal, and again the gohei, mirror, and unpiiinted wood re- placed the symbols, gilding, candles, incense, and paint of Buddhism. The Buddhist monasteries and tem|iles were shorn of much of their revenues, and "sequestration" was the order of the day. A propaganda was instituted in Tokio, and attempts made to convert all the Japanese people to Shinto tenets and practice. Despite of spo- radic ami local successes, the scheme was a splendid fail- ure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the first exul- tation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society and government, the mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, and gradually the shadowy cult of Shinto waned from its momentary splendor. Its fortunes may be traced in the rank and grade of the Department of Religion. Anciently, and for a while in 18G8, the Jin Gi Kuan (council of the gods of heaven and earth) held equal authority and influence wilh the Dai Jo Kuan (the great council of the government). Soon, however, from a supreme Kuan, it was made one of the ten boards of administration, the Jin Gi Slio. In less than a year its dignity was again lowered by being made the Kio Bu Sho (board of religious instruction). Finally, in 1877, it was quietly turned over to the Home Dejiart- ment and made a bureau with a very shadowy exist- ence. Nevertheless, Shinto is still a living force to millions in Japan, and. with Buddhism, shares the arena against advancing Christianity in that country. The census of 1874 gave a return of 76,119 Shinto officials and priests, and 128,000 Shinto shrines as against 207,699 Buddhist priests and monks and 90,000 temples. It is probable that the Buddhists still outnumber Shintoists four or five times over. The cardinal tenets promul- gated by the Department of Religion in 1872, which arc the central themes of the Shinto lecturers (who, how- ever, enforce them by texts drawn from the Confucian and Chinese classics), are the three following :
1. Thou shall lionor the gods and love thy country.
2. Thou slijilt clearly understand the piinciples of heav- en and the duty of man.
3. Thou Shalt revere the mikado as thy sovereign and obey the will of his court.
In its higher forms, Shinto is simply a cultured and in- tellectual atheism. In its lower forms it is blind obedi- ence to governmental and priestly dictates. "Shinto, as ex])oini(k'd by Motoiiri, is nothing more than an en- gine for reducing the people to a condition of mental slavery." Japan being a country of very striking nat- ural phenomena, the very soil and air lend tliemselves to support in the native mind this system of hero-wor- ship and worship of the forces of nature. In spite, how- ever, of the conservalive power of the ancestral influ- ences, the patriotic incentives, and the easy morals of Shinto, it is doubtful whether, with the pressure of Buddhism, the spread of popular education and Chris- tianity, it can long retain its hold upon the Jajianese people. For the details of worsliip, festivals, symbols, descri()tion of temples, etc., sec works on Ja))an.
IV. Literalnre. — The leading writer on Shinto is Ernest Satow, secretary in Japanese to H. B. M. Lega-
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tion in Japan, who has written The Revival of Pure Shinto, and The Shinto Shrinks of Ise, in the Tramac- tions of the Asiatic Society of Japan for 1874; The My- thology and Worship of the Ancient Japanese, in the Westminster Review for July, 1878. See also Gritfis, The Mikado's Empire, p. 43-53, 96-100, IGO, 300 ; Apj^e- tons' Cyclopmliii, ix, 538, 551, 502; Fuso Mimi Bu- kuro (a budget of Japanese), Xotes (Yokohama, 1874) ; see also, with caution, Klaproth, Apergn des A nnales des Empereurs du Japan ; Siebold, A rchiv zur Beschreibung von Japan; Kiimpfer, History of Japan; and the va- rious sketches of travellers and missionaries. See Ja- P.VN. (W. E. G.)