Yet, had his life lasted six hundred years instead of sixty, he could
hardly have graven all the images, scaled all the mountain peaks,
confounded all the sceptics, wrought all the miracles and performed all
the other feats with which he is popularly credited.[17]
K[=o]b[=o] Irenicon.
K[=o]b[=o] indeed was both the Philo and Euhemerus of Japan, plus a
large amount of priestly cunning and what his enemies insist was
dishonesty and forgery. Soon after his return from China, he went to the
temples of Ise,[18] the most holy place of Shint[=o].[19] Taking a
reverent attitude before the chief shrine, that of Toko Uke Bime no Kami
or Abundant-Food-Lady-God, or the deified Earth as the producer of food
and the upholder of all things upon its surface, the suppliant waited
patiently while fasting and praying.
In this, K[=o]b[=o] did but follow out the ordinary Shint[=o] plan for
securing god-possession and obtaining revelation; that is, by starving
both the stomach and the brain.[20] After a week's waiting he obtained
the vision. The Food-possessing Goddess revealed to him the yoke (or
Yoga) by which he could harness the native and the imported gods to the
chariot of victorious Buddhism. She manifested herself to him and
delivered the revelation on which his system is founded, and which,
briefly stated, is as follows:
All the Shint[=o] deities are avatars or incarnations of Buddha.
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