III. Revival and Reformation of Shintoism (from A.D. 1700 to the present time). — Within, the last hundred years a school of native writers have attempted to purge Shinto of-its foreign elements and- present it in its original purity. The activity of these scholars bore fruit in the creation of a large body of literature, saome- polemic, but most of it of high historic and antiquarian value. At the same time the eyes of the people were opened to see that the shogun was a political usurper, and the mikado, being the vicar of the gods, was, and ought of right to be, the sole ruler of his people. The increasing reverence for the mikado generated by Shinto scholars soon grew into fiery zeal, and a turbulent determination to restore the mikado, abolish Buddhism, sweep all foreigners from the Holy Country, and rehabilitate Shinto as the State religion. Shinto created one of the most powerful currents of thought that helped to swell the flood which in 1868 swept away the dual system of government and restored the Tenno (son of heaven) or mikado (honorable gate, sublime porte, Pharaoh) to supremacy, abolished the office of shogun, and made the city of Yedo the national capital, now called Tokio. These changes would doubtless have taken place even if Perry or other foreigners had not come to Japan.
Their presence gave to the mighty uprising of the nation that outward direction which has filled the eye of Christendom with wonder. No sooner was the new or ancient form of government established in Tokio than successive edicts were issued which utterly purged the Riobu-Shinto temples and all the national shrines of all Buddhist influences, both material and personal, and again the gohei, mirror, and unpainted wood replaced the. symbols, gilding, candles, incense, and paint of Buddhism. The Buddhist monasteries and temples were shorn of much of their revenues, and "sequestration" was the order of the day. A propaganda was instituted in Tokio, and attempts made to convert all the Japanese people to Shinto tenets and practice. Despite of sporadic and local successes, the scheme was a splendid failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the first exultation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society and government, the mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if indeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, and gradually the shadowy cult of Shinto waned from its momentary splendor. Its fortunes may be traced in the rank and grade of the Department of Religion. Anciently, and for a while in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan (council of the gods of heaven and earth) held equal authority and influence with the Dai Jo Kuan (the great council of the government). Soon, however, from a supreme Kuan, it was made one of the ten boards of administration, the Jin Gi Sho. In less than a year its dignity was, again lowered by being made the Kio Bu Sho (board of religious instruction). Finally, in 1877, it was quietly turned over to the Home Department and made a bureau with a very shadowy existence. Nevertheless, Shinto is still a living force to millions in Japan, and, with Buddhism, shares the arena against advancing. Christianity in that country. The census of 1874 gave a return of 76,119 Shinto officials and priests, and 128,000 Shinto shrines as against 207,699 Buddhist priests. and monks and 90,000 temples. It is probable that the Buddhists still outnumber Shintoists four or five times over. The cardinal tenets promulgated by the Department of Religion in 1872, which are the central themes of the Shinto lecturers (who, however, enforce them by texts drawn from the Confucian and-Chinese classics), are the three following:
1. Thou shalt honor the gods and love thy country.
2. Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of heaven and the duty of man.
3. Thou shalt revere the mikado as thy sovereign and obey the will of his court. In its higher forms, Shinto is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism.' In its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly dictates. "Shinto, as expounded by Motoori, is nothing more than an engine for reducing the people to a condition of mental slavery." Japan being a country of very striking natural phenomena, the very soil and air lend themselves to support in the native mind this system of hero-worship and worship of the forces of nature. In spite, however, of the conservative power of the ancestral influences, the patriotic incentives, and the easy morals of Shinto. it is doubtful whether, with the pressure of Buddhism, the spread of popular education and Christianity, it can long retain its hold upon the Japanese people. For the details of worship, festivals, symbols, description of temples, etc., see works on Japan.
IV. Literature. — The leading writer on Shinto is Ernest Satow, secretary in Japanese to H. B. M. Legation in Japan, who has written The Revival of Pure Shinto, and The Shinto Shrines of Ise, in the, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan for 1874; The Mythology and Worship of the Ancient Japanese, in the Westminster Review for July, 1878. See also Griffis, The Mikado's Empire, p. 43-53, 96-100, 160, 300; Appletons' Cyclopcedia, 9:538, 551, 562; Fuso Mimi Bukuro (a budget of Japanese),, Notes (Yokohama, 1874); see also, with caution, Klaproth, Apesru des Annales des Empereurs du Japon;. Siebold, Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japchi; Kampfer, History of Japan; and the various sketches of travellers and missionaries., SEE JAPAN. (.W. E.G.)