The Return of the Gods

Standing on the bridge of heaven, the two deities, Izanagi and Izanami, looked down upon the great ocean. Izanagi dipped his jeweled spear in the water, and as he lifted it, salt water dropped from the point and solidified, to form the first of the islands of Japan. Izanagi and Izanami descended to the new land, married, and began to people heaven and earth. By washing his left eye, Izanagi produced the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu O-mikami. She took over the rule of heaven and passed earth over to her grandson and his descendants, the Emperors of Japan.

Thus Japan's primitive folk religion of nature gods and divine ancestors is linked in its beginnings with the Japanese throne. The result was Shinto, the Way of the Gods--a lockstep of temporal rule and religion, more efficient perhaps than any since ancient Sparta. After World War II,

Shinto seemed headed for extinction. Yet one of the most important facts about Japan today is Shinto's surprising rebirth.

Abdominal Heroism. At the beginning of World War II, Shinto was both a doctrine and a patriotic duty. Its symbol was the Emperor, who was not actually worshiped (though his ancestors were), but revered for his divine descent and the heavenly sanction of his rule. The Emperor's picture in government buildings was an object of veneration; a classic tradition tells of a schoolboy who, when his school caught fire, rolled up the picture, slashed open his belly, thrust it inside and struggled through the flames to die a hero's death outside. Even as late as 1927, some Japanese followed the old custom of suicide when the Emperor died.

When other faiths in Japan, chiefly Buddhism and Christianity, objected to compulsory Shinto observances, the government responded by separating private, strictly religious Shinto from "shrine" Shinto, the patriotic ritual required of all Japanese. Some 110,000 shrines got partial state support, and forced contributions supplied the rest of the money needed. Priests were government officials (the Shinto priesthood was sometimes used as a handy niche for overage army officers). In shrine Shinto, the loyal citizen could even hope for his own apotheosis. By 1939, Tokyo's majestic military shrine, Yasukuni, had been dedicated to 10,000 mitama, or glorified souls, who had died for the Emperor.

"Hey Priest!" After World War II, by occupation order, shrine Shinto was disestablished. "The sponsorship, support, perpetuation, control and dissemination of Shinto by Japanese . . . will cease immediately," decreed General MacArthur. And on New Year's Day of 1946, the 124th Emperor of Japan, descended from the Sun Goddess, broadcast to his shocked people that his divine ancestry was "mere myth and legend."

Priests were thrown off the public payroll, official visits by public dignitaries to shrines were forbidden, schoolchildren's pilgrimages were stopped. Shrine attendance dropped 50% to 70%; the gods, in failing to protect their country, had lost face. Many shrines had to rent out space to businesses--some even rented their grounds to carnival operators who staged strip shows. Said one embittered priest in Nagoya of postwar Shintoists: "After a ceremony, they say, 'Hey priest, how much do I owe you?' In the old days the money would have been carefully wrapped in paper as a token of respect."

But today, more than 80,000 of the original 110,000 Shinto shrines are back in operation. They optimistically claim 64,003,772 parishioners, and priests boast that attendance is now voluntary. There are 15,952 Shinto priests in Japan--almost the same number as before the war--80% of them supporting themselves with outside jobs. In public schools "factual" religious instruction is once more permitted.

U.S. Innovations. There are major differences between present-day Shinto and the prewar model. It is less nationalistic, apparently not militaristic. It has generally accepted the U.S. doctrine of state and church separation, and even the priests, who are financially insecure, like their independence from state supervision. Another U.S.-style innovation: the idea of a church as community center; shrines are instituting playgrounds, kindergartens, scout troops, women's groups, Sunday schools.

The Grand Shrine of Ise, where annual attendance dropped to 800,000 in 1947, is now receiving visitors at the rate of 5,000,000 (equal to 1937). There, after rinsing their mouths with the clear water of the Isuzu River, worshipers climb the graveled hillside path between rows of cryptomeria trees toward.the Inner Shrine.

In the Kagura-den, hall for the sacred dances, the worshiper kneels on straw matting before a polished wooden stage to watch six dancing girls, clad in red silk, dance before the ancestor offerings, then pour him a ritual cup of sake. Back in the sunlight again, the worshiper stands under a roofed wooden gate--the second of four concentric square fences that surround the sanctuary where is enshrined the Sacred Mirror given by the Sun Goddess to the first Emperor. The pilgrim may approach no nearer. Here he claps his hands twice (to attract the attention of the gods), says a silent prayer, drops a coin in a box and departs.

Says Iwao Kobayashi, priest in charge of Ise's rituals: "The average Japanese still feels a duty to visit Ise at least once in his lifetime. He has the feeling of visiting the native land of his soul."

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