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The Central Master was the
progenitor of the Imperial family; the Constructive Chiefs were the
nobility, the official class. What was originally involved in the
conception of official functions, we learn from incidents prefatory
to the expedition conducted by Ninigi for the subjugation of Japan.
Amaterasu (the Sun goddess) attached to the person of her grandson
four chiefs and one chieftainess. To two of the former (Koyane and
Futodama) she entrusted all matters relating to religious rites, and
they became respectively the ancestors of the Nakatomi and the Imibe
families. To the female Kami (Usume) was entrusted the making of
sacred music and she founded the Sarume family. Finally, all military
functions were committed to the chiefs, Oshihi and Kume, whose
descendants constituted the Otomo and Kume families.

In every case these offices were hereditary for all time, and the
families of their holders constitute the aristocracy of the nation,
marrying among themselves and filling the highest offices from
generation to generation. Their members bore the title of hiko (son
of the Sun) and hime (daughter of the Sun), and those that governed
towns and villages were called tomo no miyatsuko, while those that
held provincial domains were entitled kuni no miyatsuko.

This was the origin of the Japanese polity. The descendants of
Amaterasu, herself a descendant of the Central Master, occupied the
throne in unbroken succession, and the descendants of the two
Constructive Chiefs served as councillors, ministers, and generals.
But the lineage of all being traceable to three chiefs who originally
occupied places of almost equal elevation, they were united by a bond
of the most durable nature. At the same time it appears that this
equality had its disadvantage; it disposed the members of the
aristocratic families to usurp the administrative power while
recognizing its source, the Throne, and it encouraged factional
dissensions, which sometimes resulted disastrously. As to the middle
and lower classes, no evidence bearing on their exact composition is
forthcoming. It is plain, however, that they accepted a subordinate
position without active protest, for nothing like a revolt on their
part is alluded to, directly or indirectly, in the Records or the
Chronicles. The term for all subjects was tomobe.

DWELLING-HOUSES

The palace of the sovereign--called miya or odono--corresponded in
appearance and construction with the shrines of the deities. It was
built by erecting central pillars--originally merely sunk in the
ground but in later times having a stone foundation--from which
rafters sloped to corner posts, similarly erected, the sides being
clapboarded. Nails were used, but the heavy timbers were tied
together with ropes made by twisting the fibrous stems of climbing
plants. A conspicuous feature was that the upper ends of the rafters
projected across each other, and in the V-shaped receptacle thus
formed, a ridge-pole was laid with a number of short logs crossing it
at right angles. This disposition of timbers was evidently devised to
facilitate tying and to impart stability to the thatch, which was
laid to a considerable thickness.

It is not certain whether in the earliest times floors were fully
boarded, or whether boarding was confined to a dais running round the
sides, the rest of the interior being of beaten mud. Subsequently,
however, the whole floor was boarded. Chimneys were not provided;
charcoal being the principal fuel, its smoke did not incommode, and
when firewood was employed, the fumes escaped through openings in the
gable. For windows there were holes closed by shutters which, like
the doors, swung upon hooks and staples. Rugs of skin or of rush
matting served to spread on the boarded floor, and in rare cases silk
cushions were employed.

The areas on which buildings stood were generally surrounded by
palisades, and for a long time no other kind of defence save these
palings seems to have been devised. Indeed, no mention of castles
occurs until the first century B.C., when the strange term
"rice-castle" (ina-ki) is found; the reference being apparently to a
palisade fortified with rice-bags, or to a rice-granary used as a
fortress. The palace of the sovereign towered so high by comparison
that it was termed Asahi-no-tada-sasu-miya (miya on which the morning
sun shines direct), or Yuhi-no-hiteru-miya (miya illumined by the
evening sun), or some other figurative epithet, and to the Emperor
himself was applied the title 0-mikado (great august Gate). The
dwellings occupied by the nobility were similarly built, though on a
less pretentious scale, and those of the inferior classes appear to
have been little better than huts, not a few of them being partially
sunk in the ground, as is attested by the fact that the term "enter"
took the form of "creep in" (hairu).

ADMINISTRATION AND WORSHIP

In the instruction said to have been given by Amaterasu to her
grandson Ninigi, on the eve of his expedition to Japan, the words are
recorded: "My child, regard this mirror as you regard me. Keep it in
the same house with yourself, and make it the mirror of purity."
Accordingly the insignia--the mirror, the jewel, and the sword--were
always kept in the main hall of the palace under the care of the
Nakatomi and the Imibe families. An ancient volume (Kogo-shui)
records that when the palace of Kashihara was reached by Jimmu's
army, the grandson of the founder of the Imibe family--cutting timber
with a consecrated axe (imi-ono) and digging foundations with a
consecrated spade (imi-suki)--constructed a palace in which he placed
the mirror, the jewel, and the sword, setting out offerings and
reciting prayers to celebrate the completion of the building and the
installation of the insignia.

"At that time the sovereign was still very close to the Kami, and the
articles and utensils for the latter were little distinguished from
those for the former. Within the palace there stood a store house
(imi-kura), the Imibe family discharging daily and nightly the duties
relating to it." Thus it is seen that in remote antiquity religious
rites and administrative functions were not distinguished. The
sovereign's residence was the shrine of the Kami, and the term for
"worship" (matsuri) was synonymous with that for "government."

RELIGIOUS RITES

The ceremony spoken of above--the Odono matsuri, or consecration of
the palace--is the earliest religious rite mentioned. Next in
importance was the "harvest festival." In the records of the
mythological age it is related that Amaterasu obtained seeds of the
"five cereals," and, recognizing their value as food, caused them to
be cultivated, offering a part to the Kami when they were ripe and
eating some herself. This became a yearly custom, and when Ninigi set
out to conquer Japan, his grandmother gave rice seed to the ancestors
of the Nakatomi and the Imibe families, who thenceforth conducted the
harvest festival (nii-name, literally "tasting the new rice") every
autumn, the sovereign himself taking part, and the head of the
Nakatomi reciting a prayer for the eternity of the Imperial line and
the longevity of the Emperor. Other important rites were the "great
purification" (Oharai) performed twice a year, on the last day of the
sixth month and the last day of the twelfth month; the "fire-subduing
fete," the "spirit-tranquillizing fete," etc.

Of all these rites the principal features were the recitation of
rituals and the offering of various objects, edible or otherwise
useful. The rituals (norito) being, in several cases, set formulas,
lent themselves with special facility to oral transmission from
generation to generation. It is certain that they were familiar to
the compilers of the Records and the Chronicles, and they contain
expressions dating from such a remote era as to have become
incomprehensible before history began to be written in Japan. In the
year A.D. 927, seventy-five of the norito were transcribed into a
book (Yengi-shiki, or Ceremonial Law) which contains, in addition to
these rituals, particulars as to the practice of the Shinto religion;
as to the organization of the priesthood--which included ten virgin
princesses of the Imperial family, one each for the two great temples
of Watarai in Ise and Kamo in Yamashiro--and as to the Shinto shrines
qualified to receive State support. These shrines totalled 3132,
among which number 737 were maintained at the Emperor's charges.
Considering that the nation at that time (tenth century) did not
comprise more than a very few millions, the familiar criticism that
the Japanese are indifferent to religion is certainly not proved by
any lack of places of worship. The language of the rituals is
occasionally poetic, often figurative and generally solemn,* but they
are largely devoted to enumeration of Kami, to formulae of praise for
past favours, to petitions for renewed assistance, and to
recapitulations of the offerings made in support of these requests.
As for the offerings, they comprise woven stuffs, and their raw
materials, models of swords, arrows, shields, stags' antlers, hoes,
fish (dried and fresh), salt, sake, and, in some cases, a horse, a
cock, and a pig. In short, the things offered were essentially
objects serviceable to living beings.

*The Norito of the Great Purification Service has been translated by
Mr. W. G. Aston in his Japanese Literature.

THE KAMI

The Kami may be broadly divided into two groups, namely, those
originally regarded as superior beings and those elevated to that
rank in consideration of illustrious deeds performed during life. Of
the former group the multitudinous and somewhat heterogenous
components have been supposed to suggest the amalgamation of two or
more religious systems in consequence of a blending of races alien to
one another. But such features may be due to survivals incidental to
the highest form of nature religion, namely, anthropomorphic
polytheism.

There were the numerous Kami, more or less abstract beings without
any distinguishing functions, who preceded the progenitors of the
Yamato race, and there was the goddess of the Sun, pre-eminent and
supreme, together with deities of the Moon, of the stars, of the
winds, of the rain, of fire, of water, of mountains, of mines, of
fields, of the sea, of the trees, and of the grass--the last a female
divinity (Kaya-no-hime).