ABSTRACT
From a modern viewpoint, based on rationalism and “objective” verification, medieval mythical narratives may seem illogical and invalid. Since people today are unfamiliar with the line of reasoning in such narratives, they criticize them as distorted. The works of medieval authors followed their own special logic or rationality. One of the reasons medieval texts are so difficult to understand is that they employ not only language, but also diagrams and descriptions of ceremonies. The figures and colors of the illustrations and the sounds and actions of the rituals stimulated the imagination. In order to understand the intentions of medieval authors, therefore, their writings must be examined imaginatively. Resemblance of form or similarity of sound was readily taken as an indication of common properties. Today, this kind of reasoning may seem like sophistry or mere punning, but to medieval authors it served as the most convincing means of rhetoric methodology. This paper will examine the “Ten Sacred Treasures,” a set of imaginary objects of political and religious significance, to illustrate this type of medieval logic and to reveal some of the mechanisms that stood behind esoteric logic in medieval Shinto thought.
