hs as were formed were for direct business
purposes and with a transparent tendency. Henceforth, in the domain of
imagination the Japanese intellect busied itself with assimilating or
re-working the abundant material imported by Buddhism.

Ancient Customs and Usages.

In the ancient god-way the temple or shrine was called a miya. After the
advent of Buddhism the keepers of the shrine were called kannushi, that
is, shrine keepers or wardens of the god. These men were usually
descendants of the god in whose honor the temples were built. The gods
being nothing more than human founders of families, reverence was paid
to them as ancestors, and so the basis of Shint[=o] is ancestor worship.
The model of the miya, in modern as in ancient times, is the primitive
hut as it was before Buddhism introduced Indian and Chinese
architecture. The posts, stuck in the ground, and not laid upon stones
as in after times, supported the walls and roof, the latter being of
thatch. The rafters, crossed at the top, were tied along the ridge-pole
with the fibres of creepers or wistaria vines. No paint, lacquer,
gilding, or ornaments of any sort existed in the ancient shrine, and
even to-day the modern Shint[=o] temple must be of pure hinoki or
sun-wood, and thatched, while the use of metal is as far as possible
avoided. To the gods, as the norito show, offerings of various kinds
were made, consisting of the fruits of the soil, the products of the
sea, and the fabrics of the loom.

Inside modern temples one often sees a mirror, in which foreigners with
lively imaginations read a great deal that is only the shadow of their
own mind, but which probably was never known in Shint[=o] temples until
after Buddhist times. They also see in front of the unpainted wooden
closets or casements, wands or sticks of wood from which depend masses
or strips of white paper, cut and notched in a particular way.
Foreigners, whose fancy is nimble, have read in these the symbols of
lightning, the abode of the spirits and various forthshadowings unknown
either to the Japanese or the ancient writings. In reality these
_gohei_, or honorable offerings, are nothing more than the paper
representatives of the ancient offerings of cloth which were woven, as
the arts progressed, of bark, of hemp and of silk.

The chief Shint[=o] ministers of religion and shrine-keepers belonged to
particular families, which were often honored with titles and offices by
the emperor. In o