Note 41 — THE SHINTO CULT.

"The gods of Japan," writes Gulick, "are innumerable in theory and multitudinous in practice. Not only are there gods of goodness, but also gods of lust and of evil, to whom robbers and harlots may pray for success and blessing." But in all this multitudinous pantheon there is no one Supreme Deity. "There is no word in the Japanese language corresponding to the English term God. The nearest approach to it are the Confucian terms Jo-tei, 'Supreme Emperor;' Ten, 'Heaven,' and Ten-tei, 'Heavenly Emperor;' but all of these terms are Chinese; they are therefore of late appearance in Japan, and represent rather conceptions of educated and Confucian classes than the ideas of the masses."—"Evolution of the Japanese," p. 311.