Shint[=o], as a state religion
or union of politics and piety, with its system of shrines and
festivals, and in short the whole Kami no Michi, or Shint[=o] as we know
it, from the sixth to the eighth century, was in itself (in part at
least), a case of the absorption of one religion by another.
In short, the Mikado tribe or Yamato clan did, in reality, capture the
aboriginal religion, and turn it into a great political machine. They
attempted syncretism and succeeded in their scheme. They added to their
own stock of dogma and fetich that of the natives. Only, while
recognizing the (earth) gods of the aborigines they proclaimed the
superiority of the Mikado as representative and vicegerent of Heaven,
and demanded that even the gods of the earth, mountain, river, wind, and
thunder and lightning should obey him. Not content, however, with
absorbing and corrupting for political purposes the primitive faith of
the aborigines, the invaders corrupted their own religion by carrying
the dogma of the divinity and infallibility of the Mikado too far.
Stopping short of no absurdity, they declared their chief greater even
than the heavenly gods, and made their religion centre in him rather
than in his alleged heavenly ancestors, or "heaven.
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