"Government law lasts three days," is an ancient proverb in Nippon.

Sharp eyes have, within three months of the writing of this line, unearthed a phallic shrine within a stone's-throw of Shint[=o]'s most sacred temples at Ise.
Formerly, however, these implements of worship were seen numerously--in the cornucopia distributed in the temples, in the _matsuris_ or religious processions and in representation by various plastic material--and all this until 1872, to an extent that is absolutely incredible to all except the eye-witnesses, some of whose written testimonies we possess.

What seems to our mind shocking and revolting was once a part of our own ancestors' faith, and until very recently was the perfectly natural and innocent creed of many millions of Japanese and is yet the same for tens of thousands of them.
We may easily see why and how that which to us is a degrading cult was not only closely allied to Shint[=o], but directly fostered by and properly a part of it, as soon as we read the account of the creation of the world, an contained in the national "Book of Ancient Traditions," the "Kojiki." Several of the opening paragraphs of this sacred book of Shint[=o] are phallic myths explaining cosmogony.

Yet the myths and the cult are older than the writing and are phases of primitive Japanese faith.

The mystery of fatherhood is to the primitive man the mystery of creation also.