Not until two centuries after the coming of Buddhism and of Asiatic
civilization did it occur to the Japanese to reduce to writing the
floating legends and various cycles of tradition which had grown up
luxuriantly in different parts of "the empire," or to express in the
Chinese character the prayers and thanksgivings which had been handed
down orally through many generations. These norito had already assumed
elegant literary form, rich in poetic merit, long before Chinese writing
was known. They, far more than the less certain philosophy of the
"Kojiki," are of undoubted native origin. It is nearly certain that the
prehistoric Japanese did not borrow the literary forms of the god-way
from China, as any one familiar with the short, evenly balanced and
antithetical sentences of Chinese style can see at once. The norito are
expressions, in the rhythmical and rhetorical form of worship, of the
articles of faith set forth in the historic summary which we have given.
We propose to illustrate the dogmas by quoting from the rituals in Mr.
Satow's masterly translation. The following was addressed to the
sun-goddess (Amatéras[)u] no Mikami, or the
From-Heaven-Shining-Great-Deity) by the priest-envoy of the priestly
Nakatomi family sent annually to the temples at Isé, the Mecca of
Shint[=o]. The _sevran_ referred to in the ritual is the Mikado. This
word and all the others printed in capitals are so rendered in order to
express in English the force of "an untranslatable honorific syllable,
supposed to be originally identical with a root meaning 'true,' but no
longer possessing that signification." Instead of the word "earth," that
of "country" (Japan) is used as the correlative of Heaven.


Ritual in Praise of the Sun-goddess.