No. 673, titled "Japanese Maidens Worshipping at Their Shrine, Tokyo."

Containers:

Box 1, Folder 25

Material specific details:

Printed on back: "No. 673. JAPANESE MAIDENS WORSHIPPING AT THEIR SHRINE, TOKYO. Filial piety is the great, sole commandment of the Japanese moral law. It should continue even after the death of its object, and this is the origin of Shinto, which is chiefly ancestor-worship. But the well-developed aesthetic tastes of the people prompt them to the poetical expression of their worship. Therefore the chosen sacred places are spots of great natural beauty. Every wooded dell and silvery cascade, each limpid lake and lofty hill is consecrated by a shrine to the memory of the revered dead. Shintoism is the primitive religion of the Japanese. It prevailed among them long before Buddhism was propagated by priests from Korea and China. It differs from all known systems of religion in having no body of dogmas. The greatest advocate of Shintoism, Moto-ori, a writer of the eighteenth century, admits that it has no moral code. He says: 'Every Japanese acts rightly if he only consults his own heart; the Chinese invented 'morals,' because they are an immoral people.' A8893"

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