its rudimentary ideas were imported from the neighboring Asian continent
and more or less allied to the primitive Chinese religion, is still an
open question. The preponderance of argument tends, however, to show
that it was an importation as to its origin, for not a few events
outlined in the Japanese mythology cast shadows of reminiscence upon
Korea or the Asian mainland. In its development, however, the cultus is
almost wholly Japanese. The modern forms of Shint[=o], as moulded by the
revivalists of the eighteenth century, are at many points notably
different from the ancient faith. At the World's Parliament of Religions
at Chicago, Shint[=o] seemed to be the only one, and probably the last,
of the purely provincial religions.

In order to gain a picture of life in Japan before the introduction of
Chinese civilization, we must consult those photographs of the minds of
the ancient islanders which still exist in their earliest literature.
The fruits of the study of ethnology, anthropology and archaeology
greatly assist us in picturing the day-break of human life in the
Morning Land. In preparing materials for the student of the religions of
Japan many laborers have wrought in various fields, but the chief
literary honors have been taken by the English scholars, Messrs.
Satow,[1] Aston,[2] and Chamberlain.[3] These untiring workers have
opened the treasures of ancient thought in the Altaic world.[4]

Although even these archaic Japanese compositions, readable to-day only
by special scholars, are more or less affected by Chinese influences,
ideas and modes of expression, yet they are in the main faithful
reflections of the ancient life before the primitive faith of the
Japanese people was either disturbed or reduced to system in presence of
an imported religion. These monuments of history, poetry and liturgies
are the "Kojiki," or Notices of Ancient Things; the "Manyöshu" or Myriad