Chapter III: "the Kojiki" and Its Teachings

"Japan is not a land where men need pray,
For 'tis itself divine:
Yet do I lift my voice in prayer..."

Hitomaro, + A.D. 737.

"Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were
not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught done, who
could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first
parted, and the three Deities performed the commencement of
creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and
the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things."--Preface of
Yasumarō (A.D. 712) to the "Kojiki."

"These, the 'Kojiki' and 'Nihongi' are their [the Shintōists]
canonical books, ... and almost their every word is considered
undeniable truth."

"The Shintō faith teaches that God inspired the foundation of
the Mikadoate, and that it is therefore sacred."--Kaburagi.

"We now reverently make our prayer to Them [Our Imperial
Ancestors] and to our Illustrious Father [Komei, + 1867], and
implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them
solemn oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be
an example to Our subjects in the observance of the Law
[Constitution] hereby established."--Imperial oath of the
Emperor Mutsuhito in the sanctuary in the Imperial Palace,
Tōkiō, February 11, 1889.

"Shintō is not our national religion. A faith existed before
it, which was its source. It grew out of superstitious teaching
and mistaken tradition. The history of the rise of Shintō
proves this."--T. Matsugami.

"Makoto wo moté KAMI NO MICHI wo oshiyuréba nari." (Thou
teachest the way of God in truth.)--Mark xii. 14.

"Ware wa Micni nuri, Mukoto nari, Inochi nari."--John
xiv. 6.--The New Testament in Japanese.