It seems at least possible, if
Buddhism had not come in so soon, that the ordinary features of a
religion, dogmatic and ethical codes, would have been developed. In a
word, the Kami no Michi, or religion of the islanders in prehistoric
times before the rise of Mikadoism, must be carefully distinguished from
the politico-ecclesiasticism which the system called Shint[=o] reveals
and demands. The early religion, first in the hands of politicians and
later under the pens and voices of writers and teachers at the Imperial
Court, became something very different from its original form. As surely
as K[=o]b[=o] later captured Shint[=o], making material for Buddhism out
of it and overlaying it in Riy[=o]bu, so the Yamato men made political
capital out of their own religion and that of the subject tribes. The
divine sovereign of Japan and his political church did exactly what the
state churches of Europe, both pagan and Christian, have done before and
since the Christian era.
Further, in studying the "Kojiki," we must remember that the sacred
writings sprang out of the religion, and that the system was not an
evolution from the book. Customs, ritual, faith and prayer existed long
before they were written about or recorded in ink.
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