ABSTRACT
The first of the three kinds of Ancestor-worship, namely, homage to the Imperial Ancestors, and especially to the First Imperial Ancestor, Amaterasu O-Mikami, or “ The Great Goddess of the Celestial Light,” may be styled the national worship. The places set apart for religious exercises in honour of the First Imperial Ancestor are three in number: the Temple of Daijingū at Isé, the Kashiko-Dokoro (賢所)in the Sanctuary of the Imperial Palace, and Kamidana, which is to be found in every house. In the two first-named, the Divine Mirror, the original and its duplicate respectively, represents the Imperial Ancestor. This is the mirror which, according to old histories, Amaterasu Ŋ-Mikami gave to her grandson Ninigi-no Mikoto (瓊瓊杵尊), accompanied by the injunction that her descendants should look upon that mirror as representing her soul, and should worship it as herself. The Divine Mirror, called “ Yata-no-Kagami” (八咫鏡), was kept and worshipped in the Imperial Palace down to the sixth year of the reign of Sujin (崇神) (92 b. c.), when the Emperor, fearing lest familiarity with it might engender disrespect, ordered Princess Toyo-sukiirihime-no-Mikoto (豐鍬入姬命) to set up a temple in the village of Kasanui in the province of Yamato and decreed that the mirror should be housed and worshipped there. This temple was afterward removed to various localities, until Isé was finally chosen as its permanent site. The Emperor further caused a duplicate of the mirror to be made and placed in the Sanctuary of the Palace in order that he and his descendants might worship as heretofore. Thus, the original mirror is now in the Daijingū or the Great Shrine at Isé, and the duplicate in the Temple of the Kashiko-Dokoro in the Imperial Sanctuary. The Great Shrine at Isé is held in special reverence. A new shrine is built, and the old one taken down, every twenty years, in accordance with an immemorial usage. Anciently, on the accession of each Emperor, a virgin Imperial Princess was appointed Lady Guardian (齋王) of the Shrine; but now a Prince of the Blood is appointed to the sacred post of Lord Guardian of the Great Shrine at Isé.
