(LARGE PRINT EDITION) 1935. In 1912 Hepner was ordained and commissioned by the Board of Foreign Missions of The United Synod South as a Missionary to Japan. During his tenure there he acquired an unusual facility both in speaking and reading Japanese. Within a few years, he decided on Shinto as his special field of study and thus began the study that lead to this publication. This volume contains Hepner's dissertation on the Kurozumi Sect, which introduces academic circles of the Occident to the Culture Religion State of Shinto, and makes a valuable contribution in the field of Comparative Religion.