This short work is a compilation of religious lore mainly of a historical background. The primordial Japanese religion of Shinto is quite complex, but the linguistic content here is secondary and much of it is a description of the different types and usages of deities and rituals. It is worth noting that Astons' study coincides with the rise of Japan as a power in the world and...
The topic of Shinto is one I haven't really studied much of before; I waited for years to finally attain a proper copy of this book that could reasonably be edited from and was finally able to do so fairly recently. Its author needs little introduction since he wasn't just an avid studier of Asian religion but also an astronomer of considerable fame who proclaimed Mars to be...