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Lafcadio Hearn - Kokoro
That every impulse or act of man is the work of a god, and that all the dead become gods, are the basic
ideas of the cult. It must be remembered, however, that the term Kami, although translated by the term
deity, divinity, or god, has really no such meaning as that which belongs to the English words: it has not
even the meaning of those words as referring to the antique beliefs of Greece and Rome. It signifies that
which is "above," "superior," "upper," "eminent," in the non-religious sense; in the religious sense it
signifies a human spirit having obtained supernatural power after death. The dead are the "powers
above," the "upper ones," - the Kami. We have here a conception resembling very strongly the modern
Spiritualistic notion of ghosts, only that the Shinto idea is in no true sense democratic. The Kami are
ghosts of greatly varying dignity and power, - belonging to spiritual hierarchies like the hierarchies of
ancient Japanese society. Although essentially superior to the living in certain respects, the living are,
nevertheless, able to give them pleasure or displeasure, to gratify or to offend them, - even sometimes to
ameliorate their spiritual condition. Wherefore posthumous honors are never mockeries, but realities, to
the Japanese mind. During the present year(1), for example, several distinguished statesmen and soldiers
were raised to higher rank immediately after their death; and I read only the other day, in the official
gazette, that "His Majesty has been pleased to posthumously confer the Second Class of the Order of the
Rising Sun upon Major-General Baron Yamane, who lately died in Formosa." Such imperial acts must
not be regarded only as formalities intended to honor the memory of brave and patriotic men; neither
should they be thought of as intended merely to confer distinction upon the family of the dead. They are
essentially of Shinto, and exemplify that intimate sense of relation between the visible and invisible
worlds which is the special religious characteristic of Japan among all civilized countries. To Japanese
thought the dead are not less real than the living. They take part in the daily life of the people, - sharing
the humblest sorrows and the humblest joys. They attend the family repasts, watch over the well-being of
the household, assist and rejoice in the prosperity of their descendants. They are present at the public
pageants, at all the sacred festivals of Shinto, at the military games, and at all the entertainments
especially provided for them. And they are universally thought of as finding pleasure in the offerings
made to them or the honors conferred upon them.
For the purpose of this little essay, it will be sufficient to consider the Kami as the spirits of the dead, -
without making any attempt to distinguish such Kami from those primal deities believed to have created
the land. With this general interpretation of the term Kami, we return, then, to the great Shinto idea that
all the dead still dwell in the world and rule it; influencing not only the thoughts and the acts of men, but
the conditions of nature. "They direct," wrote Motowori, "the changes of the seasons, the wind and the
rain, the good and the bad fortunes of states and of individual men." They are, in short, the viewless
forces behind all phenomena.
(1) Written in September, 1896.
II
The most interesting sub-theory of this ancient spiritualism is that which explains the impulses and acts
of men as due to the influence of the dead. This hypothesis no modern thinker can declare irrational,
since it can claim justification from the scientific doctrine of psychological evolution, according to which
each living brain represents the structural work of innumerable dead lives, - each character a more or less
imperfectly balanced sum of countless dead experiences with good and evil. Unless we deny
psychological heredity, we cannot honestly deny that our impulses and feelings, and the higher capacities
evolved through the feelings, have literally been shaped by the dead, and bequeathed to us by the dead;
and even that the general direction of our mental activities has been determined by the power of the
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