ABSTRACT
JAPANESE statesmen-philosophes-the potters at the wheel of the Revolution-do their day's work-their era's work-under the sole foremanship of Reason, and in the evening they play at stitching a crazywork creed for the People, who gape for altar-cloths. Meanwhile the nation, statesmen, philosophes, people, worship the Imperial ancestors and their own. Here the Western mind pauses, or moving forward, is lost in the shadowed windings of an Oriental labyrinth. Let me quote-that is to say, let the Japanese mind lead us, blind, to the heart of this labyrinth, and leave us there dumbfounded :—
* There are two sacred places in every Japanese house: l the Kamidana, or " god-shelf," and the Butsudan> or " Buddhist Altar." The first-named is the Shinto altar, which is a plain wooden shelf. In the centre of this sacred shelf is placed a Taima, or O-nusa (great offering), which is a part of the offerings made to the Daijingu of Ise, the temple dedicated to Amaterasu Omi-Kami, the First Imperial Ancestor. The Taima is distributed from the Temple of Ise to every house in the Empire at the end of each year,
and is worshipped by every loyal Japanese as the representation of the First Imperial Ancestor. On this altar the offering of rice, sake (liquor brewed from rice) and branches of sakaki-tree (cleyera japonica) are usually placed, and every morning the members of the household make reverential obeisance before it by clapping hands and bowing; while in the evening lights are also placed on the shelf. On this shelf is placed, in addition, the charm of Ujigami, or the local tutelary god of the family, and in many houses the charms of the other Shinto deities also.
