At the present day the title Amaterasu no oho-kami (the great deity who illumines heaven) is generally replaced by its Chinese equivalent Tenshōdaijin. The meaning of the latter is less clear to the uneducated, who forget that she has any connection with the sun. Sun-worship, however, proceeds independently. Women and children especially call it by the respectful name of Otentō sama, without attribution of sex, with no formal cult, and no myth, but endowed with moral attributes, punishing the wicked and rewarding the just. Dr. Griffis describes a scene which he witnessed in Tokio when, late one afternoon, Otentō sama, which had been hidden behind clouds for a fortnight, shone out on the muddy streets. In a moment scores of people rushed out of their houses, and with faces westward began prayer and worship before the great luminary. Many people keep awake all night on the last day of the year so as to worship the rising sun on the first day of the New Year.
=Tsuki-yomi.=—The Sun being feminine, Tsuki-yomi, the moon-deity, is naturally masculine. Though he has shrines at Ise and other places, he occupies a far less prominent place in Japanese myth and cult than his elder sister Amaterasu.
=Susa no wo.=—The true character of this deity had been forgotten by the Japanese themselves until he was shown by an American scholar, Dr. Buckley of Chicago, to be a personification of the Rain-storm. The generally accepted etymology of his name derives it from a verb _susamu_, to be impetuous. This accords well with his character as described in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_. Mr. B. H. Chamberlain translates by ‘the Impetuous Male,’ and he may be correct. But there is a town in Idzumo called Susa where this god had a shrine, and it seems possible that it was from this that he took his name.
=Star-Gods= are few and unimportant in Shinto.
=Earth-worship.=—The direct worship of the Earth is well-known in Japan. At the present day, when a new building is erected or new rice-land brought under cultivation, the ground is solemnly propitiated by a ceremony called Ji-matsuri or earth-worship. Localities were personified under names which recall Erin, Britannia, Dea Roma, etc. Such deities were called Kunidama, country or province spirit. The greatest of these, and one of the three greatest gods of Shinto, is Ohonamochi. His shrine at Kitsuki in Idzumo is known as the Taisha or great shrine, and he has numerous other shrines, called Sannō or Hiye, in all parts of the country. In his case the deification has proceeded beyond the mere personification of the soil. Legend represents him as the maker of the land, not the land itself, and in modern times nobody thinks of him as an Earth-god. His various names, however, show conclusively that he is as much an earth-deity as the Greek Gaia, who, like him, was ‘one shape of many names.’ Lafcadio Hearn would make him out to be the god of the dead, though there are already two other rulers of Hades, and Dr. Buckley thinks that he is a Moon-god. With Ohonamochi there is associated his minister, an important deity named Kotoshiro-nushi, and a dwarf-god, Sukuna-bikona, who is credited with the invention of medicine, magic, and the art of brewing sake.