Aston William George. Shinto: the Way of the Gods

New York: Longmans, Green and Co, 1905. — 390 p.
As compared with the great religions of the world, Shinto, the old Kami cult of Japan, is decidedly rudimentary in its character. Its polytheism, the want of a Supreme Deity, the comparative absence of images and of a moral code, its feeble personifications and hesitating graps of the conception of spirit, the practical non-recognation of a future state, and the general absence of a deep, earnest faith - all stamp it is perhaps the least developed of religions which have an adequate literary record.