of Japanese who lived before the eighth century.

Remembering that prefaces are, like porticos, usually added last of all,
we find that in the beginning all things were in chaos. Heaven and earth
were not separated. The world substance floated in the cosmic mass, like
oil on water or a fish in the sea. Motion in some way began. The
ethereal portions sublimed and formed the heavens; the heavier residuum
became the present earth. In the plain of high heaven, when the heaven
and earth began, were born three kami who "hid their bodies," that is,
passed away or died. Out of the warm mould of the earth a germ sprouted,
and from this were born two kami, who also were born alone, and died.
After these heavenly kami came forth what are called the seven divine
generations, or line of seven kami.[2]

To express the opening lines of the "Kojiki" in terms of our own speech
and in the moulds of Western thought, we may say that matter existed
before mind and the gods came forth, as it were, by spontaneous
evolution. The first thing that appeared out of the warm earth-muck was
like a rush-sprout, and this became a kami, or god. From this being came
forth others, which also produced beings, until there were perfect
bodies, sex and differentiation of powers. The "Nihongi," however, not
only gives a different view of this evolution basing it upon the dualism
of Chinese philosophy--that is, of the active and passive
principles--and uses Chinese technical terminology, but gives lists of
kami that differ notably from those in the "Kojiki." This latter fact
seems to have escaped the attention of those who write freely about what
they imagine to be the early religion of the Japanese.[3]

After this introduction, in which "Dualities, Trinities, and Supreme
Deities" have been discovered by writers unfamiliar with the genius of
the Japanese language, there follows an account of the creation of the
habitable earth by Izanami and Izanagi, whose names mean the
Male-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites. The heavenly kami commanded
these two gods to consolidate and give birth to the drifting land.
Standing on the floating bridge of heaven, the male plunged his
jewel-spear into the unstable waters beneath, stirring them until they
gurgled and congealed. When he drew forth the spear, the drops trickling
from its point formed an island, ever afterward called Onokoro-jima, or
the Island of the Congealed Drop. Upon this island they descended. The
crea