Leaves or Poems, and the "Norito," or Liturgies.


The Ancient Documents.


The first book, the "Kojiki," gives us the theology, cosmogony,
mythology, and very probably, in its later portions, some outlines of
history of the ancient Japanese. The "Kojiki" is the real, the dogmatic
exponent, or, if we may so say, the Bible, of Shint[=o]. The
"Many[=o]shu," or Book of Myriad Poems, expresses the thoughts and
feelings; reflects the manners and customs of the primitive generations,
and, in the same sense as do the Sagas of the Scandinavians, furnishes
us unchronological but interesting and more or less real narratives of
events which have been glorified by the poets and artists. The ancient
codes of law and of ceremonial procedure are of great value, while the
"Norito" are excellent mirrors in which to see reflected the religion
called Shint[=o] on the more active side of worship.

In a critical study, either of the general body of national tradition or
of the ancient documents, we must continually be on our guard against
the usual assumption that Chinese civilization came in earlier than it
really did. This assumption colors all modern Japanese popular ideas,
art and literature. The vice of the pupil nations surrounding the Middle
Kingdom is their desire to have it believed that Chinese letters and
culture among them is an nearly coeval with those of China as can be
made truly or falsely to appear. The Koreans, for example, would have us
believe that their civilization, based on letters and introduced by
Kishi, is "four thousand years old" and contemporaneous with China's
own, and that "the Koreans are among the oldest people of the world."[5]