The Shintō religion must be regarded as the primitive religion of the Japanese people. It prevailed among them long before Buddhism was propagated by priests from Korea. It differs from all known [pg 084] systems of religion, in having no body of dogma by which its adherents are held together. The greatest advocate of Shintoism, Moto-ori, a writer of the 18th century, admits that it has no moral code. He asserts that “morals[69] were invented by the Chinese because they were an immoral people, but in Japan there was no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acted rightly if he only consulted his own heart.”
Reference is frequently made in the early stories to divination, or the process of obtaining the will of the gods by indirection. The oldest method of divination was by using the shoulder-blade of a deer. It was scraped entirely free from flesh, and then placed over a fire made from cherry wood. The divine will was determined by the cracks caused by the fire in the bone. A later method of divination was by using the shell of a tortoise in the same way as the shoulder-blade of the deer was used. They had superstitions about fighting with the back to the sun; about using only one light in the house at once; about breaking off the teeth of a comb in the night-time; about the destination of the first arrow shot in battle, etc.
The superstition of impurity being attached to the mother at the birth of a child, and to the house and those associated with it in which a death occurred, is often mentioned. A mother, when about to be delivered, was required to retire alone into a separate dwelling or hut without windows. This cruel custom [pg 085] has prevailed in the island of Hachijō[70] down almost to the present time. A custom prevailed, also, of abandoning the dwelling in which a death had occurred. The dead body was removed to a mourning hut, where amid sobs and weeping the mourners continued to hold a carousal, feasting upon the food provided for the dead. This abandonment of the house occupied by the living may explain the custom, so often referred to, of each new emperor occupying a different palace from that of his predecessor. We have already referred to the dreadful custom which prevailed until the reign of the Emperor Suinin, of burying living retainers around the sepulchre of their dead master. The custom was replaced by burying clay images of servants and animals around the tomb, and this continued till about a.d. 700.
There is no evidence that children received any kind of education other than a training in the use of arms and implements. The art of writing was brought over from Korea in a.d. 284. Up to this time there is nothing to show that the Japanese possessed any means of recording the events which occurred. No books existed, and reading and writing were unknown. The language spoken by the people was an ancient form of that which now prevails. The earliest examples of this language are found in the songs preserved in the Kojiki and Nihongi. As in every language, the earliest preserved specimens are poetry, so in Japanese the fragments which have [pg 086] been remembered and brought down to us, are scraps of songs. The origin of this language is, like the origin of the race, impossible at present to verify. It seems plain that the race came from the continent by way of Korea. If this is to be taken as the origin of the race, then the language which developed into the Japanese came from the northern tribes of China and of Siberia.
There is no indication of the method by which the early Japanese reckoned time. The sun in the daytime and the cocks by night, must have given them their division of hours. The year made itself apparent by the changes of temperature. It was not, however, till the introduction of calendars from China that anything like an accurate system of estimating and recording time was introduced.
The food of the primitive Japanese was much more largely animal than it became in later times. To the early Japanese there was no restriction in the use of animal food, such as the Buddhists introduced. Fish and shell-fish have always been, and doubtless from the first were, principal articles of food. The five grains, so called, are often referred to, and are specially mentioned in the Shintō rituals, whose origin goes back to prehistoric times. These grains[71] are rice, millet, barley, and two kinds of beans. Silkworms and their food plant, the mulberry, are likewise spoken of. The only kind of drink referred to is saké. It will be remembered that in the myth concerning the Impetuous Male Deity in Izumo, [pg 087] the old man and old woman were directed to prepare eight tubs of saké, by drinking which the eight-headed serpent was intoxicated. In the traditional history of the emperors, they are represented as drinking saké, sometimes even to intoxication. And in the rituals recited when offerings are made to their deities, the jars of saké are enumerated among the things offered. The Japanese writers claim that saké was a native discovery, but there is a well supported belief that in very early times they borrowed the art of manufacturing it from the Chinese. There is at least a difficulty in believing that this liquor should have been invented independently in the two countries. Chopsticks are mentioned in early Japanese times, and clay vessels for food, and cups for drinking made of oak leaves. On the whole, the conclusions to be drawn from the earliest traditions concerning the Japanese lead us to regard them as having attained a material degree of civilization in all matters pertaining to food and drink. Yet it cannot be regarded as other than strange that milk, cheese and butter are nowhere mentioned, and had never been used.
In the matter of clothing we have little except hints to guide us in forming inferences. The rituals enumerate[72] “bright cloth, soft cloth, and coarse cloth.” Mr. Satow remarks[73] on this enumeration that “in the earliest ages the materials used were the bark of the paper-mulberry (broussonetia papyrifera), wistaria tendrils and hemp, but when the [pg 088] silkworm was introduced the finer fabric naturally took the place of the humbler in the offerings to the gods.” The paper-mulberry which is now used for making paper, was in early times twisted into a thread and woven into a very serviceable cloth. Cotton[74] which now furnishes so large a part of the clothing of the people is nowhere mentioned. The skins of animals were doubtless used as clothing before the introduction of Buddhism made the killing of animals uncommon. In the legend of the purification of Izanagi[75] we read of a girdle, of a skirt, of an upper garment, of trousers, and of a hat. What the shapes of these garments were we cannot tell, but the number of different garments indicates a considerable development in the ideas of clothing. In the same myth, and in many other places, mention is made of the bracelets which Izanagi wore on the left and right arm. And when he wished to show his pleasure in the daughter who had been produced in washing his left eye, he invested her with his necklace taken from his own neck. Jewelry seems in these prehistoric times to have been more commonly worn than in modern historical times. The jewels[76] used were the magatama and kudatama which have been found in the ancient burial places.
Magatama and Kudatama.
Rings have also been found which are believed to date back to prehistoric times. From the clay images which have come down to us it is now ascertained that the rings were worn as ornaments to the ears and never as rings to the fingers. These rings are of copper or bronze, plated with gold or silver. Combs and mirrors are spoken of, but how the metal mirrors are made we do not know.