Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/324

makers; while children go to their schools and assemble before the portraits of the Emperor and the Empress, and His Majesty’s famous speech on education is read and explained to them by the schoolmasters.

From the foregoing it will be readily seen that worship of the Imperial Ancestors is the national worship.

The population of Japan was originally divided into three classes: Shin-betsu, the divine branch which consisted of the descendants of the gods; Kwo-betsu, or the Imperial branch, comprising the descendants of the Imperial families; and Ban-betsu, or the foreign branch, comprising the descendants of naturalized foreigners. Each of these three branches was divided again into many clans, each section having a distinctive clan name, ‘Uji’ or ‘Kabane.’ The word ‘Uji’ denoted the clan name, or the common appellation of the descendants of the same ancestor, and sometimes the clan itself. The word ‘Kabane’ was more usually employed to designate titles of honour, but was also sometimes employed in the sense of a clan name. In the course of time each ‘Uji,’ or clan, was subdivided into smaller clans. The ‘Uji’ thus became divided into ‘O-uji,’ the great clan, and ‘Ko-uji,’ or small clan. Each ‘O-uji’ consisted of a number of subordinate bodies, and usually certain words were added to great clan names to distinguish them from the parent community.

Each clan had a clan god, or ‘Uji-gami,’ who was the eponym of that particular community. In early times it seems to have been customary to render homage to the clan god every month, at the house of each individual clansman; but afterwards this practice declined, and festivals in honour of the clan ancestor were substituted, and these were held three times a year in the temple. All clansmen took part in the ceremony, and records still exist which show that Court officials were permitted to set out on a journey to attend the sacra of the clan god or ancestor, which were performed in the temples far away from the capital, without first obtaining leave of absence. Sometimes lands were presented by the Emperors to the temples of clan gods of high officials, in order to mitigate the heavy expense of festivals. The offerings submitted on the occasion of festivals consisted usually of food, drink, and clothing.

The word ‘Uji-gami’ is now used in another sense, meaning local tutelary god, or the patron god of a man’s birthplace or domicile. The change in the use of the word ‘Uji-gami’ from clan god to local tutelary god possibly rose from the fact that in early days clansmen usually lived together in the same locality, and erected