{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_15516/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_15516","id":"gutenberg_15516","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15516","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Japan -- Religion"],"text":"Produced by Nathan Strom, Frank van Drogen, David King, and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN\n\nFROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY\nTO THE ERA OF MEIJI\n\nBY\n\nWILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.\n\nFORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO; AUTHOR OF \"THE MIKADO'S\nEMPIRE\" AND \"COREA, THE HERMIT NATION;\" LATE LECTURER ON THE MORSE\nFOUNDATION IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN NEW YORK\n\n\"I came not to destroy, but to fulfil.\"--THE SON OF MAN\n\nNEW YORK\n\nCHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS\n\n1895\n\nCOPYRIGHT, 1895, BY\nCHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS\n\nTROW DIRECTORY\nPRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY\nNEW YORK\n\n\nIN GLAD RECOGNITION OF THEIR SERVICES TO THE WORLD\nAND\nIN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY OWN GREAT DEBT TO BOTH\nI DEDICATE THIS BOOK\nSO UNWORTHY OF ITS GREAT SUBJECT\nTO\nTHOSE TWO NOBLE BANDS OF SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH\nTHE FACULTY OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY\nOF WHOM\nCHARLES A. BRIGGS AND GEORGE L. PRENTISS\nARE THE HONORED SURVIVORS\nAND TO\nTHAT TRIO OF ENGLISH STUDENTS\nERNEST M. SATOW, WILLIAM G. ASTON AND BASIL H. CHAMBERLAIN\nWHO LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN JAPAN\n\n\"IN UNCONSCIOUS BROTHERHOOD, BINDING THE SELF-SAME SHEAF\"\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThis book makes no pretence of furnishing a mirror of contemporary\nJapanese religion. Since 1868, Japan has been breaking the chains of her\nintellectual bondage to China and India, and the end is not yet. My\npurpose has been, not to take a snap-shot photograph, but to paint a\npicture of the past. Seen in a lightning-flash, even a tempest-shaken\ntree appears motionless. A study of the same organism from acorn to\nseed-bearing oak, reveals not a phase but a life. It is something like\nthis--\"_to_ the era of Meiji\" (A.D. 1868-1894+) which I have essayed.\nHence I am perfectly willing to accept, in advance, the verdict of smart\ninventors who are all ready to patent a brand-new religion for Japan,\nthat my presentation is \"antiquated.\"\n\nThe subject has always been fascinating, despite its inherent\ndifficulties and the author's personal limitations. When in 1807, the\npolite lads from Satsuma and Ki\u014dto came to New Brunswick, N.J., they\nfound at least one eager questioner, a sophomore, who, while valuing\nbooks, enjoyed at first hand contemporaneous human testimony.\n\nWhen in 1869, to Rutgers College, came an application through Rev. Dr.\nGuido F. Verbeck, of T\u014dki\u014d, from Fukui for a young man to organize\nschools upon the American principle in the province of Echizen\n(ultra-Buddhistic, yet already so liberally leavened by the ethical\nteachings of Yokoi H\u00e9ishiro), the Faculty made choice of the author.\nAccepting the honor and privilege of being one of the \"beginners of a\nbetter time,\" I caught sight of peerless Fuji and set foot on Japanese\nsoil December 29, 1870. Amid a cannonade of new sensations and fresh\nsurprises, my first walk was taken in company with the American\nmissionary (once a marine in Perry's squadron, who later invented the\njin-riki-sha), to see a hill-temple and to study the wayside shrines\naround Yokohama. Seven weeks' stay in the city of Yedo--then rising out\nof the d\u00e9bris of feudalism to become the Imperial capital, T\u014dki\u014d,\nenabled me to see some things now so utterly vanished, that by some\npersons their previous existence is questioned. One of the most\ninteresting characters I met personally was Fukuzawa, the reformer, and\nnow \"the intellectual father of half of the young men of ... Japan.\" On\nthe day of the battle of Uy\u00e9no, July 11, 1868, this far-seeing patriot\nand inquiring spirit deliberately decided to keep out of the strife, and\nwith four companions of like mind, began the study of Wayland's Moral\nScience. Thus were laid the foundations of his great school, now a\nuniversity.\n\nJourneying through the interior, I saw many interesting phenomena of\npopular religions which are no longer visible. At Fukui in Echizen, one\nof the strongholds of Buddhism, I lived nearly a year, engaged in\neducational work, having many opportunities of learning both the\nscholastic and the popular forms of Shint\u014d and of Buddhism. I was\nsurrounded by monasteries, temples, shrines, and a landscape richly\nembroidered with myth and legend. During my four years' residence and\ntravel in the Empire, I perceived that in all things the people of Japan\nwere _too_ religious.\n\nIn seeking light upon the meaning of what I saw before me and in\npenetrating to the reasons behind the phenomena, I fear I often made\nmyself troublesome to both priests and lay folk. While at work in\nT\u014dki\u014d, though under obligation to teach only physical science, I\nvoluntarily gave instruction in ethics to classes in the University. I\nrichly enjoyed this work, which, by questioning and discussion, gave me\nmuch insight into the minds of young men whose homes were in every\nprovince of the Empire. In my own house I felt free to teach to all\ncomers the religion of Jesus, his revelation of the fatherhood of God\nand the ethics based on his life and words. While, therefore, in\nstudying the subject, I have great indebtedness to acknowledge to\nforeigners, I feel that first of all I must thank the natives who taught\nme so much both by precept and practice. Among the influences that have\nhelped to shape my own creed and inspire my own life, have been the\nbeautiful lives and noble characters of Japanese officers, students and\ncommon people who were around and before me. Though freely confessing\nobligation to books, writings, and artistic and scholastic influences, I\nhasten first to thank the people of Japan, whether servants, superior\nofficers, neighbors or friends. He who seeks to learn what religion is\nfrom books only, will learn but half.\n\nGladly thanking those, who, directly or indirectly, have helped me with\nlight from the written or printed page, I must first of all gratefully\nexpress my especial obligations to those native scholars who have read\nto me, read for me, or read with me their native literature.\n\nThe first foreign students of Japanese religions were the Dutch, and the\nGerman physicians who lived with them, at D\u00e9shima. Kaempfer makes\nfrequent references, with test and picture, in his Beschryving van\nJapan. Von Siebold, who was an indefatigable collector rather than a\ncritical student, in Vol. V. of his invaluable _Archiv_ (Pantheon von\nNippon), devoted over forty pages to the religions of Japan. Dr. J.J.\nHoffman translated into Dutch, with notes and explanations, the\nButsu-z\u014d-dzu-i, which, besides its 163 figures of Buddhist holy men,\ngives a bibliography of the works mentioned by the native author. In\nvisiting the Japanese museum on the Rapenburg, Leyden, one of the\noldest, best and most intelligently arranged in Europe, I have been\ninterested with the great work done by the Dutchmen, during two\ncenturies, in leavening the old lump for that transformation which in\nour day as New Japan, surprises the world. It requires the shock of\nbattle to awaken the western nations to that appreciation of the racial\nand other differences between the Japanese and Chinese, which the\nstudent has already learned.\n\nThe first praises, however, are to be awarded to the English scholars,\nMessrs. Satow, Aston, Chamberlain, and others, whose profound researches\nin Japanese history, language and literature have cleared the path for\nothers to tread in. I have tried to acknowledge my debt to them in both\ntext and appendix.\n\nTo several American missionaries, who despite their trying labors have\nhad the time and the taste to study critically the religions of Japan, I\nowe thanks and appreciation. With rare acuteness and learning, Rev. Dr.\nGeorge Wm. Knox has opened on its philosophical, and Rev. Dr. J.H.\nDeForest on its practical side, the subject of Japanese Confucianism. By\nhis lexicographical work, Dr. J.C. Hepburn has made debtors to him both\nthe native and the alien. To our knowledge of Buddhism in Japan, Dr.\nJ.C. Berry and Rev. J.L. Atkinson have made noteworthy contributions. I\nhave been content to quote as authorities and illustrations, the names\nof those who have thus wrought on the soil, rather than of those, who,\neven though world-famous, have been but slightly familiar with the\nethnic and the imported faith of Japan. The profound misunderstandings\nof Buddhism, which some very eminent men of Europe have shown in their\nwritings, form one of the literary curiosities of the world.\n\nIn setting forth these Morse lectures, I have purposely robbed my pages\nof all appearance of erudition, by using as few uncouth words as\npossible, by breaking up the matter into paragraphs of moderate length,\nby liberally introducing subject-headings in italics, and by relegating\nall notes to the appendix. Since writing the lectures, and even while\nreading the final proofs, I have ransacked my library to find as many\nreferences, notes, illustrations and authorities as possible, for the\nbenefit of the general student. I have purposely avoided recondite and\ninaccessible books and have named those easily obtainable from American\nor European publishers, or from Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, of Yokohama,\nJapan. In using oriental words I have followed, in the main, the\nspelling of the Century Dictionary. The Japanese names are expressed\naccording to that uniform system of transliteration used by Hepburn,\nSatow and other standard writers, wherein consonants have the same\ngeneral value as in English (except that initial g is always hard),\nwhile the vowels are pronounced as in Italian. Double vowels must be\npronounced double, as in M\u00e9iji (m\u0101-\u0113-j\u0113); those which are long\nare marked, as in \u014d or \u016b; i before o or u is short. Most of the\nimportant Japanese, as well as Sanskrit and Chinese, terms used, are\nduly expressed and defined in the Century Dictionary.\n\nI wish also to thank especially my friends, Riu Watanabe, Ph.D., of\nCornell University, and William Nelson Noble, Esq., of Ithaca. The\nformer kindly assisted me with criticisms and suggestions, while to the\nlatter, who has taken time to read all the proofs, I am grateful for\nconsiderable improvement in the English form of the sentences.\n\nIn closing, I trust that whatever charges may be brought against me by\ncompetent critics, lack of sympathy will not be one. I write in sight of\nbeautiful Lake Cayuga, on the fertile and sloping shores of which in old\ntime the Iroquois Indian confessed the mysteries of life. Having planted\nhis corn, he made his pregnant squaw walk round the seed-bed in hope of\nreceiving from the Source of life increased blessing and sustenance for\nbody and mind. Between such a truly religious act of the savage, and\nthat of the Christian sage, Joseph Henry, who uncovered his head while\ninvestigating electro-magnetism to \"ask God a question,\" or that of\nSamuel F.B. Morse, who sent as his first telegraphic message \"What hath\nGod wrought,\" I see no essential difference. All three were acts of\nfaith and acknowledgment of a power greater than man. Religion is one,\nthough religions are many. As Principal Fairbairn, my honored\npredecessor in the Morse lectureship, says: \"What we call superstition\nof the savage is not superstition _in him_. Superstition is the\nperpetuation of a low form of belief along with a higher knowledge....\nBetween fetichism and Christian faith there is a great distance, but a\ngreat affinity--the recognition of a supra-sensible life.\"\n\n\"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing\nof the sons of God.... The creation itself shall be delivered from the\nbondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of\nGod.\"\n\nW.E.G.\n\nITHACA, N.Y., October 27, 1894.\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nPRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS, PAGE 1\n\nSalutatory.--The Morse Lectureship and its provisions.--The Science of\nComparative Religion is Christianity's own child.--The Parliament of\nReligions.--The Study of Religion most appropriate in a Theological\nSeminary.--Shortening weapons and lengthening boundaries.--The right\nmissionary spirit that of the Master, who \"came not to destroy but to\nfulfil.\"--Characteristics of Japan.--Bird's-eye view of Japanese history\nand religion.--Popularly, not three religions but one\nreligion.--Superstitions which are not organically parts of the\n\"book-religions.\"--The boundary line between the Creator and his\ncreation not visible to the pagan.--Shamanism: Fetichism.--Mythical\nmonsters, Kirin, Phoenix, Tortoise, Dragon.--Japanese mythical\nzo\u00f6logy.--The erection of the stone fetich.--Insurance by amulets upon\nhouse and person.--Phallicism.--Tree-worship.--Serpent-worship.--These\nunwritten superstitions condition the \"book-religions.\"--Removable by\nscience and a higher religion.\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nSHINTO: MYTHS AND RITUAL, PAGE 35\n\nJapan is young beside China and Korea.--Japanese history is\ncomparatively modern.--The oldest documents date from A.D. 712.--The\nJapanese archipelago inhabited before the Christian era.--Faith, worship\nand ritual are previous to written espression.--The Kojiki, Many\u014dshu\nand Norito.--Tendency of the pupil nations surrounding China to antedate\ntheir civilization.--Origin of the Japanese people and their\nreligion.--Three distinct lines of tradition from Tsukushi, Idzumo and\nYamato.--War of the invaders against the aborigines--Mikadoism is the\nheart of Shint\u014d.--Illustrations from the liturgies.--Phallicism among\nthe aborigines and common people.--The mind or mental climate of the\nprim\u00e6val man.--Representation of male gods by emblems.--Objects of\nworship and _ex-voto_.--Ideas of creation.--The fire-myth,\nPrometheus.--Comparison of Greek and Japanese mythology.--Ritual for the\nquieting of the fire-god.--The fire-drill.\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE KOJIKI AND ITS TEACHINGS, PAGE 59\n\nOrigin of the Kojiki. Analysis of its opening lines--Norito.--Indecency\nof the myths of the Kojiki.--Modern rationalistic interpretations--Life\nin prehistoric Japan.--Character and temperament of the people then and\nnow.--Character of the kami or gods.--Hades.--Ethics.--The Land of the\nGods.--The barbarism of the Yamato conquerors an improvement upon the\nsavagery of the aborigines.--Cannibalism and human sacrifices.--The\nmakers of the God-way captured and absorbed the religion of the\naborigines.--A case of syncretism.--Origin of evil in bad\ngods.--Pollution was sin.--Class of offences enumerated in the\nnorito.--Professor Kumi's contention that Mikadoism usurped a simple\nworship of Heaven.--Difference between the ancient Chinese and ancient\nJapanese cultus.--Development of Shint\u014d arrested by\nBuddhism.--Temples and offerings.--The tori-i.--Pollution and\npurification.--Prayer.--Hirata's ordinal and specimen prayers.--To the\ncommon people the sun is a god.--Prayers to myriads of gods.--Summary of\nShint\u014d.--Swallowed up in the Riy\u014dbu system.--Its modern\nrevival.--K\u00e9ichin.--Kada Adzumar\u014d.--Mabuchi, Moto\u00f6ri.--Hirata.--In\n1870, Shint\u014d is again made the state religion.--Purification of\nRiy\u014dbu temples.--Politico-religious lectures.--Imperial\nrescript.--Reverence to the Emperor's photograph.--Judgment upon\nShint\u014d.--The Christian's ideal of Yamato-damashii.\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN, PAGE 99\n\nIn what respects Confucius was unique as a teacher.--Outline of his\nlife.--The canon.--Primitive Chinese faith a sort of monotheism.--How\nthe sage modified it.--History of Confucianism until its entrance into\nJapan.--Outline of the intellectual and political history of the\nJapanese.--Rise of the Samurai class.--Shifting of emphasis from filial\npiety to loyalty.--Prevalence of suicide in Japan.--Confucianism has\ndeeply tinged the ideas of the Japanese.--Great care necessary in\nseeking equivalents in English for the terms used in the Chino-Japanese\nethics; e.g., the emperor, \"the father of the people.\"--Impersonality of\nJapanese speech.--Christ and Confucius.--\"Love\" and\n\"reverence.\"--Exemplars of loyalty.--The Forty-seven R\u014dnins.--The\nsecond relation.--The family in Chinese Asia and in Christendom.--The\nlaw of filial piety and the daughter.--The third relation.--Theory of\ncourtship and marriage.--Chastity.--Jealousy.--Divorce.--Instability of\nthe marriage bond.--The fourth relation.--The elder and the younger\nbrother.--The house or family everything, the individual nothing.--The\nfifth relation.--The ideas of Christ and those of Confucius.--The Golden\nand the Gilded rule.--Lao Tsze and Kung.--Old Japan and the\nalien.--Commodore Perry and Professor Hayashi.\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nCONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM, PAGE 131\n\nHarmony of the systems of Confucius and Buddha in Japan during a\nthousand years.--Revival of learning in the seventeenth century.--Exodus\nof the Chinese scholars on the fall of the Ming dynasty.--Their\ndispersion and work in Japan.--Founding of schools of the new Chinese\nlearning.--For two and a half centuries the Japanese mind has been\nmoulded by the new Confucianism.--Survey of its rise and\ndevelopments.--Four stages in the intellectual history of China.--The\npopulist movement in the eleventh century.--The literary\ncontroversy.--The philosophy of the Cheng brothers and of Chu Hi, called\nin Japan Tei-Shu system.--In Buddhism the Japanese were startling\ninnovators, in philosophy they were docile pupils.--Paucity of Confucian\nor speculative literature in Japan.--A Chinese wall built around the\nJapanese intellect.--Yelo orthodoxy.--Features of the T\u00e9i-Shu\nsystem.--Not agnostic but pantheistic.--Its influence upon\nhistoriography.--Ki (spirit) Ri (way) and Ten (heaven).--The writings of\nOhashi Junzo.--Confucianism obsolescent in New Japan.--A study of\nConfucianism in the interest of comparative religion.--Man's place in\nthe universe.--The Samurai's ideal, obedience.--His fearlessness in the\nface of death.--Critique of the system.--The ruler and the ruled.--What\nhas Confucianism done for woman?--Improvement and revision of the fourth\nand fifth relations.--The new view of the universe and the new mind in\nNew Japan. The ideal of Yamato-damashii revised and improved.\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA, PAGE 153\n\nBuddha--sun myth or historic personage?--Buddhism one of the\nprotestantisms of the world.--Characteristics of new religions.--Survey\nof the history of Indian thought.--The age of the Vedas.--The epic\nage.--The rationalistic age.--Our fellow-Aryans and the story of their\nconquests.--Their intellectual energy and inventions.--Systems of\nphilosophy.--Condition of religion at the birth of Gautama.--Outline of\nhis life.--He attains enlightenment or buddhahood.--In what respects\nBuddhism was an old, and in what a new religion.--Did Gautama intend to\nfound a new religion, or return to simpler and older\nfaith?--Monasticism, Kharma and Nirvana,--Enthusiasm of the disciples of\nthe new faith.--The great schism.--The Northern Buddhists.--The\ncanon.--The two Yana or vehicles.--Simplicity of Southern and luxuriance\nof Northern Buddhism.--Summary of the process of thought in Nepal.--The\nold gods of India come back again.--Maitreya, Manjusri and\nAvalokitesvara.--The Legend of Manjusri.--Separation of attributes and\ncreation of new Buddhas or gods.--The Dhyani\nBuddhas.--Amida.--Adi-Buddhas.--Abstractions become gods.--The Tantra\nsystem.--Outbursts of doctrine and art.--Prayer-mills.--The noble\neight-fold path of self-denial and benevolence forgotten.--Entrance of\nBuddhism from Korea into Japan.--Condition of the country at that\ntime.--Dates and first experiences.--Soga no\nInam\u00e9.--Sh\u014dtoku.--Japanese pilgrims to China.--Changes wrought by the\nnew creed and cult.--Temples, monasteries and images.--Influence upon\nthe Mikado's name, rank and person, and upon Shint\u014d.--Relative\ninfluence of Buddhism in Asia and of Christianity in Europe.--The three\ngreat characteristics of Buddhism.--How the clouds returned after the\nrain.--Buddhism and Christianity confronting the problem of life.\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nRIY\u014cBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM, PAGE 189\n\nThe experience of two centuries and a half of Buddhism in\nJapan.--Necessity of using more powerful means for the conversion of the\nJapanese.--Popular customs nearly ineradicable.--Analogy from European\nhistory.--Syncretism in Christian history.--In the Arabian Nights.--How\nfar is the process of Syncretism honest?--Examples not to be recommended\nfor imitation.--The problem of reconciling the Kami and the\nBuddhas.--Northern Buddhism ready for the task.--The Tantra or\nYoga-chara system.--Art and its influence on the imagination.--The\nsketch replaced by the illumination and monochrome by colors.--Japanese\nart.--Mixed Buddhism rather than mixed Shint\u014d.--K\u014db\u014d the\nwonder-worker who made all Japanese history a transfiguration of\nBuddhism.--Legends about his extraordinary abilities and industry.--His\nlife, and studies in China.--The kata-kana syllabary.--K\u014db\u014do's\nrevelation from the Shint\u014d goddess Toyo-Uk\u00e9-Bim\u00e9.--The gods of Japan\nwere avatars of Buddha.--K\u014db\u014d's plan of propaganda.--Details of\nthe scheme.--A clearing-house of gods and Buddhas.--Relative rise and\nfall of the native and the foreign deities.--Legend of Daruma.\n\"Riy\u014dbu Shint\u014d.\"--Impulse to art and art industry.--The Kami no\nMichi falls into shadow.--Which religion suffered most?--Phenomenally\nthe victory belonged to Buddhism.--The leavening power was that of\nShint\u014d.--Buddhism's fresh chapter of decay.--Influence of Riy\u014dbu\nupon the Chinese ethical system in Japan.--Influence on the\nMikado.--Abdication all along the lines of Japanese life.--Ultimate\nparalysis of the national intellect.--Comparison with Chinese\nBuddhism.--Miracle-mongering.--No self-reforming power in Buddhism.--The\nSeven Happy Gods of Fortune.--Pantheism's destruction of\nboundaries.--The author's study of the popular processions in\nJapan.--Masaka Do.--Swamping of history in legend.--The jewel in the\nlotus.\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nNORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS, PAGE 225\n\nFour stages of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in Japan.--Reasons\nfor the formation of sects.--The Saddharma Pundarika.--Shastras and\nSutras.--The Ku-sha sect.--Book of the Treasury of Metaphysics.--The\nJ\u014d-jitsu sect, its founder and its doctrines.--The Ris-shu or Viyana\nsect.--Japanese pilgrims to China.--The Hos-s\u014d sect and its\ndoctrines.--The three grades of disciples.--The San-ron or Three-shastra\nsect and its tenets.--The Middle Path.--The K\u00e9gon sect.--The\nUnconditioned, or realistic pantheism.--The Chinese or Tendai sect.--Its\nscriptures and dogmas.--Buddhahood attainable in the present\nbody.--Vagradrodhi.--The Yoga-chara system.--The \"old sects.\"--Reaction\nagainst excessive idol-making.--The Zen sect.--Labor-saving devices in\nBuddhism.--Making truth apparent by one's own thought.--Transmission of\nthe Zen doctrine.--History of Zen Shu.\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE, PAGE 257\n\nThe J\u014d-d\u014d or Pure Land sect.--Substitution of faith in Amida for\nthe eight-fold Path.--Succession of the propagators of true\ndoctrine.--Zend\u014d and H\u014d-nen.--The Japanese path-finder to the Pure\nLand.--Doctrine of J\u014d-d\u014d.--Buddhistic influence on the Japanese\nlanguage.--Incessant repetition of prayers.--The Pure Land in the\nWest.--The Buddhist doctrine of justification by faith.--H\u014d-nen's\nuniversalism.--Tendency of doctrinal development after\nH\u014d-nen.--\"Reformed\" Buddhism.--Synergism _versus_ salvation by faith\nonly.--Life of Shinran.--Posthumous honors.--Policy and aim of the Shin\nsect, methods and scriptures.\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nJAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT, PAGE 287\n\nThe missionary history of Japanese Buddhism is the history of\nJapan.--The first organized religion of the Japanese.--Professor Basil\nHall Chamberlain's testimony--A picture of primeval life in the\narchipelago.--What came in the train of the new religion from \"the\nWest\". Missionary civilizers, teachers, road-makers, improvers of diet.\nLanguage of flowers and gardens.--The house and home.--Architecture--The\nimperial capital--Hiy\u00e9izan.--Love of natural scenery.--Pilgrimages and\ntheir fruits.--The Japanese aesthetic.--Art and decoration in the\ntemples.--Exterior resemblances between the Roman form of Christianity\nand of Buddhism.--Quotation from \"The Mikado's Empire.\"--Internal vital\ndifferences.--Enlightenment and grace.--Ingwa and love.--Luxuriance of\nthe art of Northern Buddhism.--Variety in individual treatment.--Place\nof the temple in the life of Old Japan.--The protecting trees.--The bell\nand its note.--The graveyard and the priests' hold upon it.--Japanese\nBuddhism as a political power.--Its influence upon military\nhistory.--Abbots on horseback and monks in armor.--Battles between the\nShin and Zen sects.--Nobunaga.--Influence of Buddhism in literature and\neducation.--The temple school.--The _kana_ writing.--Survey and critique\nof Buddhist history in Japan.--Absence of organized charities.--Regard\nfor animal and disregard for human life.--The Eta.--The Aino.--Attitude\nto women.--Nuna and numerics.--Polygamy and concubinage.--Buddhism\ncompared with Shint\u014d.--Influence upon morals.--The First Cause.--Its\nleadership among the sects.--Unreality of Amida Buddha.--Nichiren.--His\nlife and opinions.--Idols and avatars.--The favorite scripture of the\nsect, the Saddharma Pundarika.--Its central dogma, everything in the\nuniverse capable of Buddha-ship.--The Salvation Army of\nBuddhism.--K\u014db\u014d's leaven working.--Buddhism ceases to be an\nintellectual force.--The New Buddhism.--Are the Japanese eager for\nreform?\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, PAGE 323\n\nThe many-sided story of Japanese Christianity.--One hundred years of\nintercourse between Japan and Europe.--State of Japan at the\nintroduction of Portuguese Christianity.--Xavier and Anjiro.--Xavier at\nKi\u014dto and in Bungo.--Nobunaga and the Buddhists.--High-water mark of\nChristianity.--Hideyoshi and the invasion of Korea.--Kato and\nKonishi.--Persecutions.--Arrival of the Spanish friars.--Their violation\nof good faith.--Spirit of the Jesuits and Franciscans.--Crucifixion on\nthe bamboo cross.--Hid\u00e9yori.--Kato Kiyomasa.--The Dutch in the Eastern\nseas.--Will Adams.--Iy\u00e9yas\u016d suspects designs against the sovereignty\nof Japan.--The Christian religion outlawed.--Hid\u00e9tada follows up the\npolicy of Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, excludes aliens, and shuts up the country.--The\nuprising of the Christians at Shimabara in 1637.--Christianity buried\nfrom sight.--Character of the missionaries and the form of the faith\nintroduced by them.--Noble lives and ideals.--The spirit of the\nInquisition in Japan.--Political animus and complexion.\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE, PAGE 351\n\nPolicy of the Japanese government after the suppression of\nChristianity.--Insulation of Japan.--The Hollanders at\nD\u00e9shima.--Withdrawal of the English.--Relations with Korea.--Policy of\ninclusion.--\"A society impervious to foreign ideas.\"--Life within\nstunted limits.--Canons of art and literature.--Philosophy made an\nengine of government.--Esoteric law.--Social waste of\nhumanity.--Attempts to break down the wall--External and\ninternal.--Seekers after God.--The goal of the pilgrims.--The D\u00e9shima\nDutchman as pictured by enemies and rivals, _versus_ reality and\ntruth.--Eager spirits groping after God.--Morning stars of the Japanese\nreformation.--Yokoi H\u00e9ishiro.--The anti-Christian edicts.--The Buddhist\nInquisitors.--The Shin-gaku or New Learning movement.--The story of\nnineteenth century Christianity, subterranean and interior before being\nphenomenal.--Sabbath-day service on the U.S.S. Mississippi.--The first\nmissionaries.--Dr. J.C. Hepburn--Healing and the Bible.--Yedo becomes\nT\u014dki\u014d.--Despatch of the Embassy round the world.--Eyes\nopened.--The Acts of the Apostles in Japan.\n\n\nNOTES, AUTHORITIES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE 375\n\nINDEX, PAGE 451\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS\n\n    \"The investigation of the beginnings of a religion is never the\n    work of infidels, but of the most reverent and conscientious\n    minds.\"\n\n    \"We, the forty million souls of Japan, standing firmly and\n    persistently upon the basis of international justice, await\n    still further manifestations as to the morality of\n    Christianity,\"--Hiraii, of Japan.\n\n    \"When the Creator [through intermediaries that were apparently\n    animals] had finished treating this world of men, the good and\n    the bad Gods were all mixed together promiscuously, and began\n    disputing for the possession of this world.\"--The Aino Story of\n    the Creation.\n\n    \"If the Japanese have few beast stories, the Ainos have\n    _apparently_ no popular tales of heroes ... The Aino mythologies\n    ... lack all connection with morality.... Both lack priests and\n    prophets.... Both belong to a very primitive stage of mental\n    development ... Excepting stories ... and a few almost metreless\n    songs, the Ainos have no other literature at all.\"--Aino\n    Studies.\n\n    \"I asked the earth, and it answered, 'I am not He;' and\n    whatsoever are therein made the same confession. I asked the sea\n    and the deep and the creeping things that lived, and they\n    replied, 'We are not thy God; seek higher than we.' ... And I\n    answered unto all things which stand about the door of my flesh,\n    'Ye have told me concerning my God, that ye are not he; tell me\n    something about him.' And with a loud voice they explained, 'It\n    is He who hath made us!'\"--Augustine's Confessions.\n\n    \"Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the\n    shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with\n    night; that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them\n    out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.\"--Amos.\n\n    \"That which hath been made was life in Him.\"--John.\n\n\nCHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS\n\nThe Morse Lectureship and the Study of Comparative\nReligion.\n\n\nAs a graduate of the Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York,\nin the Class of 1877, your servant received and accepted with pleasure\nthe invitation of the President and Board of Trustees to deliver a\ncourse of lectures upon the religions of Japan. In that country and in\nseveral parts of it, I lived from 1870 to 1874. I was in the service\nfirst of the feudal daimi\u014d of Echizen and then of the national\ngovernment of Japan, helping to introduce that system of public schools\nwhich is now the glory of the country. Those four years gave me\nopportunities for close and constant observation of the outward side of\nthe religions of Japan, and facilities for the study of the ideas out of\nwhich worship springs. Since 1867, however, when first as a student in\nRutgers College at New Brunswick, N.J., I met and instructed those\nstudents from the far East, who, at risk of imprisonment and death had\ncome to America for the culture of Christendom, I have been deeply\ninterested in the study of the Japanese people and their thoughts.\n\nTo attempt a just and impartial survey of the religions of Japan may\nseem a task that might well appall even a life-long Oriental scholar.\nYet it may be that an honest purpose, a deep sympathy and a gladly\navowed desire to help the East and the West, the Japanese and the\nEnglish-speaking people, to understand each other, are not wholly\nuseless in a study of religion, but for our purpose of real value. These\nlectures are upon the Morse[1] foundation which has these specifications\nwritten out by the founder:\n\n    The general subject of the lectures I desire to be: \"The\n    Relation of the Bible to any of the Sciences, as Geography,\n    Geology, History, and Ethnology, ... and the relation of the\n    facts and truths contained in the Word of God, to the\n    principles, methods, and aims of any of the sciences.\"\n\nNow, among the sciences which we must call to our aid are those of\ngeography and geology, by which are conditioned history and ethnology of\nwhich we must largely treat; and, most of all, the science of\nComparative Religion.\n\nThis last is Christianity's own child. Other sciences, such as geography\nand astronomy, may have been born among lands and nations outside of and\neven before Christendom. Other sciences, such as geology, may have had\ntheir rise in Christian time and in Christian lands, their foundation\nlines laid and their main processes illustrated by Christian men, which\nyet cannot be claimed by Christianity as her children bearing her own\nlikeness and image; but the science of Comparative Religion is the\ndirect offspring of the religion of Jesus. It is a distinctively\nChristian science. \"It is so because it is a product of Christian\ncivilization, and because it finds its impulse in that freedom of\ninquiry which Christianity fosters.\"[2] Christian scholars began the\ninvestigations, formulated the principles, collected the materials and\nreared the already splendid fabric of the science of Comparative\nReligion, because the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify\nthis. Jesus bade his disciples search, inquire, discern and compare.\nPaul, the greatest of the apostolic Christian college, taught: \"Prove\nall things; hold fast that which is good.\" In our day one of Christ's\nloving followers[3] expressed the spirit of her Master in her favorite\nmotto, \"Truth for authority, not authority for truth.\" Well says Dr.\nJames Legge, a prince among scholars, and translator of the Chinese\nclassics, who has added several portly volumes to Professor Max M\u00fcller's\nseries of the \"Sacred Books of the East,\" whose face to-day is bronzed\nand whose hair is whitened by fifty years of service in southern China\nwhere with his own hands he baptized six hundred Chinamen:[4]\n\n    The more that a man possesses the Christian spirit, and is\n    governed by Christian principle, the more anxious will he be to\n    do justice to every other system of religion, and to hold his\n    own without taint or fetter of bigotry.[5]\n\nIt was Christianity that, in a country where the religion of Jesus has\nfullest liberty, called the Parliament of Religions, and this for\nreasons clearly manifest. Only Christians had and have the requisites of\nsuccess, viz.: sufficient interest in other men and religions; the\nnecessary unity of faith and purpose; and above all, the brave and bold\ndisregard of the consequences. Christianity calls the Parliament of\nReligions, following out the Divine audacity of Him who, so often,\nconfronting worldly wisdom and priestly cunning, said to his disciples,\n\"Think not, be not anxious, take no heed, be careful for nothing--only\nfor love and truth. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.\"\n\nOf all places therefore, the study of comparative religion is most\nappropriate in a Christian theological seminary. We must know how our\nfellow-men think and believe, in order to help them. It is our duty to\ndiscover the pathways of approach to their minds and hearts. We must\nshow them, as our brethren and children of the same Heavenly Father, the\ncommon ground on which we all stand. We must point them to the greater\ntruth in the Bible and in Christ Jesus, and demonstrate wherein both the\ndivinely inspired library and the truth written in a divine-human life\nfulfil that which is lacking in their books and masters.\n\nTo know just how to do this is knowledge to be coveted as a most\nexcellent gift. An understanding of the religion of our fellow-men is\ngood, both for him who goes as a missionary and for him who at home\nprays, \"Thy kingdom come.\"\n\nThe theological seminary, which begins the systematic and sympathetic\nstudy of Comparative Religion and fills the chair with a professor who\nhas a vital as well as academic interest in the welfare of his\nfellow-men who as yet know not Jesus as Christ and Lord, is sure to lead\nin effective missionary work. The students thus equipped will be\nfurnished as none others are, to begin at once the campaign of help and\nwarfare of love.\n\nIt may be that insight into and sympathy with the struggles of men who\nare groping after God, if haply they may find him, will shorten the\npolemic sword of the professional converter whose only purpose is\ndestructive hostility without tactics or strategy, or whose chief idea\nof missionary success is in statistics, in blackening the character of\n\"the heathen,\" in sensational letters for home consumption and reports\nproperly cooked and served for the secretarial and sectarian palates.\nYet, if true in history, Greek, Roman, Japanese, it is also true in the\nmissionary wars, that \"the race that shortens its weapons lengthens its\nboundaries.\"[6]\n\nApart from the wit or the measure of truth in this sentence quoted, it\nis a matter of truth in the generalizations of fact that the figure of\nthe \"sword of the spirit, which is the word of God,\" used by Paul, and\nalso the figure of the \"word of God, living and active, sharper than any\ntwo-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of the soul and\nspirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and\nintents of the heart,\" of the writer to the Hebrews, had for their\noriginal in iron the victorious _gladium_ of the Roman legionary--a\nweapon both short and sharp. We may learn from this substance of fact\nbehind the shadow of the figure a lesson for our instant application.\nThe disciplined Romans scorned the long blades of the barbarians, whose\nvalor so often impetuous was also impotent against discipline. The\nRomans measured their blades by inches, not by feet. For ages the\nJapanese sword has been famed for its temper more than its weight.[7]\nThe Christian entering upon his Master's campaigns with as little\nimpediments of sectarian dogma as possible, should select a weapon that\nis short, sure and divinely tempered.\n\nTo know exactly the defects of the religion we seek to abolish, modify,\nsupplement, supplant or fulfil, means wise economy of force. To get at\nthe secrets of its hold upon the people we hope to convert leads to a\nright use of power. In a word, knowledge of the opposing religion, and\nespecially of alien language, literature and ways of feeling and\nthinking, lengthens missionary life. A man who does not know the moulds\nof thought of his hearers is like a swordsman trying to fight at long\nrange but only beating the air. Armed with knowledge and sympathy, the\nmissionary smites with effect at close quarters. He knows the vital\nspots.\n\nLet me fortify my own convictions and conclude this preliminary part of\nmy lectures by quoting again, not from academic authorities, but from\nactive missionaries who are or have been at the front and in the\nfield.[8]\n\nThe Rev. Samuel Beal, author of \"Buddhism in China,\" said (p. 19) that\n\"it was plain to him that no real work could be done among the people\n[of China and Japan] by missionaries until the system of their belief\nwas understood.\"\n\nThe Rev. James MacDonald, a veteran missionary in Africa, in the\nconcluding chapter of his very able work on \"Religion and Myth,\" says:\n\n    The Church that first adopts for her intending missionaries the\n    study of Comparative Religion as a substitute for subjects now\n    taught will lead the van in the path of true progress.\n\n\nThe People of Japan.\n\n\nIn this faith then, in the spirit of Him who said, \"I come not to\ndestroy but to fulfil,\" let us cast our eyes upon that part of the world\nwhere lies the empire of Japan with its forty-one millions of souls.\nHere we have not a country like India--a vast conglomeration of nations,\nlanguages and religions occupying a peninsula itself like a continent,\nwhose history consists of a stratification of many civilizations. Nor\nhave we here a seemingly inert mass of humanity in a political structure\nblending democracy and imperialism, as in China, so great in age, area\nand numbers as to weary the imagination that strives to grasp the\ndetails. On the contrary, in Dai Nippon, or Great Land of the Sun's\nOrigin, we have a little country easy of study. In geology it is one of\nthe youngest of lands. Its known history is comparatively modern. Its\narea roughly reckoned as 150,000 square miles, is about that of our\nDakotas or of Great Britain and Ireland. The census completed December\n31, 1892, illustrates here, as all over the world, nature's argument\nagainst polygamy. It tells us that the relation between the sexes is,\nnumerically at least, normal. There were 20,752,366 males and 20,337,574\nfemales, making a population of 41,089,940 souls. All these people are\nsubjects of the one emperor, and excepting fewer than twenty thousand\nsavages in the northern islands called Ainos, speak one language and\nform substantially one race. Even the Riu Kiu islanders are Japanese in\nlanguage, customs and religion. In a word, except in minor differences\nappreciable or at least important only to the special student, the\nmodern Japanese are a homogeneous people.\n\nIn origin and formation, this people is a composite of many tribes.\nRoughly outlining the ethnology of Japan, we should say that the\naborigines were immigrants from the continent with Malay reinforcement\nin the south, Koreans in the centre, and Ainos in the east and north,\nwith occasional strains of blood at different periods from various parts\nof the Asian mainland. In brief, the Japanese are a very mixed race.\nAuthentic history before the Christian era is unknown. At some point of\ntime, probably later than A.D. 200, a conquering tribe, one of many from\nthe Asian mainland, began to be paramount on the main island. About the\nfourth century something like historic events and personages begin to be\nvisible, but no Japanese writings are older than the early part of the\neighth century, though almanacs and means of measuring time are found in\nthe sixth century. Whatever Japan may be in legend and mythology, she is\nin fact and in history younger than Christianity. Her line of rulers, as\nalleged in old official documents and ostentatiously reaffirmed in the\nfirst article of the constitution of 1889, to be \"unbroken for ages\neternal,\" is no older than that of the popes. Let us not think of Aryan\nor Chinese antiquity when we talk of Japan. Her history as a state began\nwhen the Roman empire fell. The Germanic nations emerged into history\nlong before the Japanese.\n\nRoughly outlining the political and religious life of the ancient\nJapanese, we note that their first system of government was a rude sort\nof feudalism imposed by the conquerors and was synchronous with\naboriginal fetichism, nature worship, ancestral sacrifices, sun-worship\nand possibly but not probably, a very rude sort of monotheism akin to\nthe primitive Chinese cultus.[9] Almost contemporary with Buddhism, its\nintroduction and missionary development, was the struggle for\ncentralized imperialism borrowed from the Chinese and consolidated in\nthe period from the seventh to the twelfth century. During most of this\ntime Shint\u014d, or the primitive religion, was overshadowed while the\nConfucian ethics were taught. From the twelfth to this nineteenth\ncentury feudalism in politics and Buddhism in religion prevailed, though\nConfucianism furnished the social laws or rules of daily conduct. Since\nthe epochal year of 1868, with imperialism reestablished and the feudal\nsystem abolished, Shint\u014d has had a visible revival, being kept alive\nby government patronage. Buddhism, though politically disestablished, is\nstill the popular religion with recent increase of life,[10] while\nConfucianism is decidedly losing force. Christianity has begun its\npromising career.\n\n\nThe Amalgam of Religions.\n\n\nYet in the imperial and constitutional Japan of our day it is still true\nof probably at least thirty-eight millions of Japanese that their\nreligion is not one, Shint\u014d, Confucianism or Buddhism, but an amalgam\nof all three. There is not in every-day life that sharp distinction\nbetween these religions which the native or foreign scholar makes, and\nwhich both history and philosophy demand shall be made for the student\nat least. Using the technical language of Christian theologians,\nShint\u014d furnishes theology, Confucianism anthropology and Buddhism\nsoteriology. The average Japanese learns about the gods and draws\ninspiration for his patriotism from Shint\u014d, maxims for his ethical\nand social life from Confucius, and his hope of what he regards as\nsalvation from Buddhism. Or, as a native scholar, Nobuta Kishimoto,[11]\nexpresses it,\n\n    In Japan these three different systems of religion and morality\n    are not only living together on friendly terms with one another,\n    but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds of the\n    people, who draw necessary nourishment from all of these\n    sources. One and the same Japanese is both a Shint\u014dist, a\n    Confucianist, and a Buddhist. He plays a triple part, so to\n    speak ... Our religion may be likened to a triangle....\n    Shint\u014dism furnishes the object, Confucianism offers the rules\n    of life, while Buddhism supplies the way of salvation; so you\n    see we Japanese are eclectic in everything, even in religion.\n\nThese three religious systems as at present constituted, are \"book\nreligions.\" They rest, respectively, upon the Kojiki and other ancient\nJapanese literature and the modern commentators; upon the Chinese\nclassics edited and commented on by Confucius and upon Chu Hi and other\nmediaeval scholastics who commented upon Confucius; and upon the\nshastras and sutras with which Gautama, the Buddha, had something to do.\nYet in primeval and prehistoric Nippon neither these books nor the\nreligions growing out of the books were extant. Furthermore, strictly\nspeaking, it is not with any or all of these three religions that the\nChristian missionary comes first, oftenest or longest in contact. In\nancient, in mediaeval, and in modern times the student notices a great\nundergrowth of superstition clinging parasitically to all religions,\nthough formally recognized by none. Whether we call it fetichism,\nshamanism, nature worship or heathenism in its myriad forms, it is there\nin awful reality. It is as omnipresent, as persistent, as hard to kill\nas the scrub bamboo which both efficiently and sufficiently takes the\nplace of thorns and thistles as the curse of Japanese ground.\n\nThe book-religions can be more or less apprehended by those alien to\nthem, but to fully appreciate the depth, extent, influence and tenacity\nof these archaic, unwritten and unformulated beliefs requires residence\nupon the soil and life among the devotees. Disowned it may be by the\npriests and sages, indignantly disclaimed or secretly approved in part\nby the organized religions, this great undergrowth of superstition is as\napparent as the silicious bamboo grass which everywhere conditions and\nmodifies Japanese agriculture. Such prevalence of mental and spiritual\ndisease is the sad fact that confronts every lover of his fellow-men.\nThis paganism is more ancient and universal than any one of the\nreligions founded on writing or teachers of name and fame. Even the\napplied science and the wonderful inventions imported from the West, so\nfar from eradicating it, only serve as the iron-clad man-of-war in warm\nsalt water serves the barnacles, furnishing them food and hold.\n\nWe propose to give in this our first lecture, a general or bird's-eye\nview of this dead level of paganism above which the systems of\nShint\u014d, Confucianism and Buddhism tower like mountains. It in by this\nomnipresent superstition that the respectable religious have been\nconditioned in their history and are modified at present, even as\nChristianity has been influenced in its progress by ethnic or local\nideas and temperaments, and will be yet in its course of victory in the\nMikado's empire.\n\nJust as the terms \"heathen\" (happily no longer, in the Revised Version\nof the English Bible) and \"pagan\" suggest the heath-man of Northern\nEurope and the isolated hamlet of the Roman empire, while the cities\nwere illuminated with Christian truth, so, in the main, the matted\nsuperstitious of Chinese Asia are more suggestive of distances from\nbooks and centres of knowledge, though still sufficiently rooted in the\ncrowded cities.\n\nOne to whom the boundary line between the Creator and his world is\nperfectly clear, one who knows the eternal difference between mind and\nmatter, one born amid the triumphs of science can but faintly realize\nthe mental condition of the millions of Japan to whom there is no\nunifying thought of the Creator-Father. Faith in the unity of law is the\nfoundation of all science, but the average Asiatic has not this thought\nor faith. Appalled at his own insignificance amid the sublime mysteries\nand awful immensities of nature, the shadows of his own mind become to\nhim real existences. As it is affirmed that the human skin, sensitive to\nthe effects of light, takes the photograph of the tree riven by\nlightning, so, on the pagan mind lie in ineffaceable and exaggerated\ngrotesqueness the scars of impressions left by hereditary teaching, by\nnatural phenomena and by the memory of events and of landmarks. Out of\nthe soil of diseased imagination has sprung up a growth as terrible as\nthe drunkard's phantasies. The earthquake, flood, tidal wave, famine,\nwithering or devastating wind and poisonous gases, the geological\nmonsters and ravening bird, beast and fish, have their representatives\nor supposed incarnations in mythical phantasms.\n\nFrightful as these shadows of the mind appear, they are both very real\nand, in a sense, very necessary to the ignorant man. He must have some\ntheory by which to explain the phenomena of nature and soothe his own\nterrors. Hence he peoples the earth and water, not only with invisible\nspirits more or less malevolent, but also with bodily presences usually\nin terrific bestial form. To those who believe in one Spirit pervading,\nordering, governing all things, there is unity amid all phenomena, and\nthe universe is all order and beauty. To the mind which has not reached\nthis height of simplicity, instead of one cause there are many. The\ndiverse phenomena of nature are brought about by spirits innumerable,\nwarring and discordant. Instead of a unity to the mind, as of sun and\nsolar system, there is nothing but planets, asteroids and a constant\nrain of shooting-stars.\n\n\nShamanism.\n\n\nGlancing at some phases of the actual unwritten religions of Japan we\nname Shamanism, Mythical Zo\u00f6logy, Fetichism, Phallicism, and Tree and\nSerpent Worship.\n\nIn actual Shamanism or Animism there may or there may not be a belief in\nor conception of a single all-powerful Creator above and beyond all.[12]\nUsually there is not such a belief, though, even if there be, the actual\ngovernment of the physical world and its surroundings is believed to lie\nin the hands of many spirits or gods benevolent and malevolent. Earth,\nair, water, all things teem with beings that are malevolent and\nconstantly active. In time of disaster, famine, epidemic the universe\nseems as overcrowded with them as stagnant water seems to be when the\nsolar microscope throw its contents into apparition upon the screen. It\nis absolutely necessary to propitiate these spirits by magic rites and\nincantations.\n\nAmong the tribes of the northern part of the Chinese Empire and the\nAinos of Japan this Shamanism exists as something like an organized\ncultus. Indeed, it would be hard to find any part of Chinese Asia from\nKorea to Annam or from Tibet to Formosa, not dominated by this belief in\nthe power and presence of minor spirits. The Ainos of Yezo may be called\nShamanists or Animists; that is, their minds are cramped and confused by\ntheir belief in a multitude of inferior spirits whom they worship and\npropitiate by rites and incantations through their medicine-man or\nsorcerer. How they whittle sticks, keeping on the fringe of curled\nshavings, and set up these, called _inao_ in places whence evil is\nsuspected to lurk, and how the shaman conducts his exorcisms and works\nhis healings, are told in the works of the traveller and the\nmissionary.[13] In the wand of shavings thus reared we see the same\nmotive as that which induced the Mikado in the eighth century to build\nthe great monasteries on Hiy\u00e9izan, northeast of Ki\u014dto, this being the\nquarter in which Buddhist superstition locates the path of advancing\nevil, to ward off malevolence by litanies and incense. Or, the _inao_ is\na sort of lightning-rod conductor by which impending mischief may be led\nharmlessly away.\n\nYet, besides the Ainos,[14] there are millions of Japanese who are\nShamanists, even though they know not the name or organized cult. And if\nwe make use of the term Shamanism instead of the more exact one of\nAnimism, it is for the very purpose of illustrating our contention that\nthe underlying paganisms of the Japanese archipelago, unwritten and\nunformulated, are older than the religions founded on books; and that\nthese paganisms, still vital and persistent, constantly modify and\ncorrupt the recognized religious. The term Shaman, a Pali word, was\noriginally a pure Buddhist term meaning one who has separated from his\nfamily and his passions. One of the designations of the Buddha was\nShamana-Gautama. The same word, Shamon, in Japanese still means a bonze,\nor Buddhist priest. Its appropriation by the sorcerers, medicine-men,\nand lords of the misrule of superstition in Mongolia and Manchuria shows\ndecisively how indigenous paganism has corrupted the Buddhism of\nnorthern Asia even as it has caused its decay in Japan.\n\nAs out of Animism or Shamanism grows Fetichism in which a visible object\nis found for the abode or medium of the spirit, so also, out of the same\nsoil arises what we may call Imaginary Zo\u00f6logy. In this mental growth,\nthe nightmare of the diseased imagination or of the mind unable to draw\nthe line between the real and the unreal, Chinese Asia differs notably\nfrom the Aryan world. With the mythical monsters of India and Iran we\nare acquainted, and with those of the Semitic and ancient European cycle\nof ideas which furnished us with our ancients and classics we are\nfamiliar. The lovely presences in human form, the semi-human and bestial\ncreations, sphinxes, naiads, satyrs, fauns, harpies, griffins, with\nwhich the fancy of the Mediterranean nations populated glen, grotto,\nmountain and stream, are probably outnumbered by the less beautiful and\neven hideous mind-shadows of the Turanian world. Chief among these are\nwhat in Chinese literature, so slavishly borrowed by the Japanese, are\ncalled the four supernatural or spiritually endowed creatures--the Kirin\nor Unicorn, the Phoenix, the Tortoise and the Dragon.[15]\n\n\nMythical Zo\u00f6logy.\n\n\nOf the first species the _ki_ is the male, the _lin_ is the female,\nhence the name Kilin. The Japanese having no _l_, pronounce this Kirin.\nIts appearance on the earth is regarded as a happy portent of the advent\nof good government or the birth of men who are to prove virtuous rulers.\nIt has the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, and a single, soft horn.\nAs messenger of mercy and benevolence, the Kirin never treads on a live\ninsect or eats growing grass. Later philosophy made this imaginary beast\nthe incarnation of those five primordial elements--earth, air, water,\nfire and ether of which all things, including man's body, are made and\nwhich are symbolized in the shapes of the cube, globe, pyramid, saucer\nand tuft of rays in the Japanese gravestones. It is said to attain the\nage of a thousand years, to be the noblest form of the animal creation\nand the emblem of perfect good. In Chinese and Japanese art this\ncreature holds a prominent place, and in literature even more so. It is\nnot only part of the repertoire of the artist's symbols in the Chinese\nworld of ideas, but is almost a necessity to the moulds of thought in\neastern Asia. Yet it is older than Confucius or the book-religions, and\nits conception shows one of the nobler sides of Animism.\n\nThe Feng-hwang or Phoenix, Japanese H\u014d-w\u014d, the second of the\nincarnations of the spirits, is of wondrous form and mystic nature. The\nrare advent of this bird upon the earth is, like that of the kirin or\nunicorn, a presage of the advent of virtuous rulers and good government.\nIt has the head of a pheasant, the beak of a swallow, the neck of a\ntortoise, and the features of the dragon and fish. Its colors and\nstreaming feathers are gorgeous with iridian sheen, combining the\nsplendors of the pheasant and the peacock. Its five colors symbolize the\ncardinal virtues of uprightness of mind, obedience, justice, fidelity\nand benevolence. The male bird _H\u014d_, and female _w\u014d_, by their\ninseparable fellowship furnish the artist, poet and literary writer with\nthe originals of the ten thousand references which are found in Chinese\nand its derived literatures. Of this mystic Phoenix a Chinese dictionary\nthus gives description:\n\n    The Phoenix is of the essence of water; it was born in the\n    vermilion cave; it perches not but on the most beautiful of all\n    trees; it eats not but of the seed of the bamboo; its body is\n    adorned with the five colors; its song contains the five notes;\n    as it walks it looks around; as it flies hosts of birds follow\n    it.\n\nOlder than the elaborate descriptions of it and its representations in\nart, the H\u014d-w\u014d is one of the creations of primitive Chinese\nAnimism.\n\nThe Kwei or Tortoise is not the actual horny reptile known to\nnaturalists and to common experience, but a spirit, an animated creature\nthat ages ago rose up out of the Yellow River, having on its carapace\nthe mystic writing out of which the legendary founder of Chinese\ncivilization deciphered the basis of moral teachings and the secrets of\nthe unseen. From this divine tortoise which conceived by thought alone,\nall other tortoises sprang. In the elaboration of the myths and legends\nconcerning the tortoise we find many varieties of this scaly\nincarnation. It lives a thousand years, hence it is emblem of longevity\nin art and literature. It is the attendant of the god of the waters. It\nhas some of the qualities and energies of the dragon, it has the power\nof transformation. In pictures and sculptures we are familiar with its\nfigure, often of colossal size, as forming the curb of a well, the base\nof a monument or tablet. Yet, whatever its form in literature or art, it\nis the later elaborated representation of ancient Animism which selected\nthe tortoise as one of the manifold incarnations or media of the myriad\nspirits that populate the air.\n\nChief and leader of the four divinely constituted beasts is the Lung,\nJapanese Ri\u014d, or Dragon, which has the power of transformation and of\nmaking itself visible or invisible. At will it reduces itself to the\nsize of a silk-worm, or is swollen until it fills the space of heaven\nand earth. This is the creature especially preeminent in art, literature\nand rhetoric. There are nine kinds of dragons, all with various features\nand functions, and artists and authors revel in their representation.\nThe celestial dragon guards the mansions of the gods and supports them\nlest they fall; the spiritual dragon causes the winds to blow and rain\nto descend for the service of mankind; the earth dragon marks out the\ncourses of rivers and streams; the dragon of the hidden treasures\nwatches over the wealth concealed from mortals, etc. Outwardly, the\ndragon of superstition resembles the geological monsters brought to\nresurrection by our paleontologists. He seems to incarnate all the\nattributes and forces of animal life--vigor, rapidity of motion,\nendurance, power of offence in horn, hoof, claw, tooth, nail, scale and\nfiery breath. Being the embodiment of all force the dragon is especially\nsymbolical of the emperor. Usually associated with malevolence, one\nsees, besides the conventional art and literature of civilization, the\nprimitive animistic idea of men to whose mind this mysterious universe\nhad no unity, who believed in myriad discordant spirits but knew not of\n\"one Law-giver, who is able both to save and to destroy.\" An\nenlargement, possibly, of prehistoric man's reminiscence of now extinct\nmonsters, the dragon is, in its artistic development, a mythical\nembodiment of all the powers of moisture to bless and to harm. We shall\nsee how, when Buddhism entered China, the cobra-de-capello, so often\nfigured in the Buddhistic representations of India, is replaced by the\ndragon.\n\nYet besides these four incarnations of the spirits that misrule the\nworld there is a host, a menagerie of mythical monsters. In Korea, one\nof the Asian countries richest in demonology, beast worship is very\nprevalent. Mythical winged tigers and flying serpents with attributes of\nfire, lightning and combinations of forces not found in any one\ncreature, are common to the popular fancy. In Japan, the _kappa_, half\nmonkey half tortoise, which seizes children bathing in the rivers, as\nreal to millions of the native common folk as is the shark or porpoise;\nthe flying-weasel, that moves in the whirlwind with sickle-like blades\non his claws, which cut the face of the unfortunate; the wind-god or imp\nthat lets loose the gale or storm; the thunder-imp or hairy, cat-like\ncreature that on the cloud-edges beats his drums in crash, roll, or\nrattle; the earthquake-fish or subterranean bull-head or cat-fish that\nwriggles and writhes, causing the earth to shiver, shudder and open; the\n_ja_ or dragon centipede; the _tengu_ or long-nosed and winged mountain\nsprite, which acts as the messenger of the gods, pulling out the tongues\nof fibbing, lying children; besides the colossal spiders and mythical\ncreatures of the old story-books; the foxes, badgers, cats and other\ncreatures which transform themselves and \"possess\" human beings, still\ninfluence the popular mind. These, once the old _kami_ of the primitive\nJapanese, or _kamui_ of the aboriginal Aino, show the mental soil and\nclimate[16] which were to condition the growth of the seed imported from\nother lands, whether of Buddhism or Christianity. It is very hard to\nkill a god while the old mind that grew and nourished him still remains\nthe same. Banish or brand a phantom or mind-shadow once worshipped as\ndivine, and it will appear as a fairy, a demon, a mythical animal, or an\n_oni_; but to annihilate it requires many centuries of higher culture.\n\nAs with the superstitions and survival of Animism and Fetichism from our\npagan ancestors among ourselves, many of the lingering beliefs may be\nharmless, but over the mass of men in Japan and in Chinese Asia they\nstill exert a baleful influence. They make life full of distress; they\ncurtail human joy; they are a hindrance, to spiritual progress and to\ncivilization.\n\n\nFetichism.\n\n\nThe animistic tendency in that part of Asia dominated by the Chinese\nworld of ideas shows itself not only in a belief in messengers or\nembodiments of divine malevolence or benevolence, but also in the\nlocation of the spiritual influence in or upon an inanimate object or\nfetich. Among men in Chinese Asia, from the clodhopper to the gentleman,\nthe inheritance of Fetichism from the primeval ages is constantly\nnoticeable. Let us glance at the term itself.\n\nAs the Chinaman's \"Joss\" is only his own pronunciation of the Portuguese\nword _Deos_, or the Latin _Deus_, so the word \"fetich\" is but the\nPortuguese modification of the Latin word _facticius_, that is\n_feiti\u00e7o_. Portugal, beginning nearly five hundred years ago, had the\nhonor of sending the first ships and crews to explore the coasts of\nAfrica and Asia, and her sailors by this word, now Englished as fetich,\ndescribed the native charms or talismans. The word \"fetichism\" came into\nthe European languages through the work of Charles de Brosses, who, in\n1760, wrote on \"Du Culte des Dieux F\u00e9tiches.\" In Fetichism, the \"object\nis treated as having personal consciousness and power, is talked with,\nworshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, petted or ill-treated with\nreference to its past or future behavior to its votaries.\"\n\nLet me draw a picture from actual observation. I look out of the windows\nof my house in Fukui. Here is a peasant who comes back after the winter\nto prepare his field for cultivation. The man's horizon of ideas, like\nhis vocabulary, is very limited. His view of actual life is bounded by a\nfew rice-fields, a range of hills, and the village near by. Possibly one\nvisit to a city or large town has enriched his experience. More\nprobably, however, the wind and clouds, the weather, the soil, crops and\ntaxes, his family and food and how to provide for them, are the main\nthoughts that occupy his mind. Before he will strike mattock or spade in\nthe soil, lay axe to a tree, collect or burn underbrush, he will select\na stone, a slab of rock or a stick of wood, set it upon hill side or mud\nfield-boundary, and to this he will bow, prostrate himself or pray. To\nhim, this stone or stick is consecrated. It has power to placate the\nspirits and ward off their evil. It is the medium of communication\nbetween him and them. Now, having attended, as he thinks, to the\nproprieties in the case, he proceeds to dig, plough, drain, put in order\nand treat soil or water, tree or other growth as is most convenient for\nhis purpose. His fetich is erected to \"the honorable spirits.\" Were this\nnot attended to, some known or unknown bad luck, sinister fortune, or\ncalamity would befall him. Here, then, is a fetich-worshipper. The stick\nor stone is the medium of communication between the man and the spirits\nwho can bless or harm him, and which to his mind are as countlessly\nnumerous as the swarms of mosquitoes which he drives out of and away\nfrom his summer cottage by smudge fires in August.\n\nOne need not travel in Yezo or Saghalin to see practical Fetichism. Go\nwhere you will in Japan, there are fetich worshippers. Among the country\nfolk, the \"_inaka_\" of Japanese parlance, Fetichism is seen in its\ngrossest forms. Yet among probably millions of Buddhists, especially of\ncertain sects, the Nichiren for example, and even among the\nrationalistic Confucians, there are fetich-worshippers. Rare is the\nJapanese farmer, laborer, mechanic, ward-man, or _hei-min_ of any trade\nwho does not wear amulet, charm or other object which he regards with\nmore or less of reverence as having relation to the powers that help or\nharm.[17] In most of the Buddhist temples these amulets are sold for the\nbenefit of the priests or of the shrine or monastery. Not a few even of\nthe gentry consider it best to be on the safe side and wear in pouch or\npurse these protectors against evil.\n\nOf the 7,817,570 houses in the empire, enumerated in the census of 1892,\nit is probable that seven millions of them are subjects of insurance by\nfetich.[18] They are guaranteed against fire, thieves, lightning, plague\nand pestilence. It is because of money paid to the priests that the\nwooden policies are duly nailed on the walls, and not on account of the\nwise application of mathematical, financial or medical science. Examine\nalso the paper packages carefully tied and affixed above the transom,\ndecipher the writing in ink or the brand left by the hot iron on the\nlittle slabs of pine-wood--there may be one or a score of them--and what\nwill you read? Names of the temples with date of issue and seal of\ncertificate from the priests, mottoes or titles from sacred books, often\nonly a Sanskrit letter or monogram, of which the priest-pedler may long\nsince have forgotten the meaning. To build a house, select a cemetery or\nproceed to any of the ordinary events of life without making use of some\nsort of material fetich, is unusual, extraordinary and is voted\nheterodox.\n\nLong after the brutish stage of thought is past the fetichistic instinct\nremains in the sacredness attached to the mere letter or paper or\nparchment of the sacred book or writing, when used as amulet, plaster or\nmedicine. The survivals, even in Buddhism, of ancient and prehistoric\nFetichism are many and often with undenied approval of the religious\nauthorities, especially in those sects which are themselves reversions\nto primitive and lower types of religion.\n\nAmong the Ainos of Yezo and Saghalin the medicine-man or shaman is\ndecorated with fetichistic bric-\u00e0-brac of all sorts, and these bits of\nshells, metals, and other clinking substances are believed to be media\nof communication with mysterious influences and forces. In Korea\nthousands of trees bedecked with fluttering rags, clinking scraps of\ntin, metal or stone signify the same thing. In Japan these primitive\ntinkling scraps and clinking bunches of glass have long since become the\n_suzu_ or wind-bells seen on the pagoda which tintinabulate with every\npassing breeze. The whittled sticks of the Aino, non-conductors of evil\nand protectors of those who make and rear them, stuck up in every place\nof awe or supposed danger, have in the slow evolution of centuries\nbecome the innumerable flag-poles, banners and streamers which one sees\nat their _matsuris_ or temple festivals. Millions of towels and\nhandkerchiefs still flutter over wells and on sacred trees. In old Japan\nthe banners of an army almost outnumbered the men who fought beneath\nthem. Today, at times they nearly conceal the temples from view.\n\nThe civilized Japanese, having passed far beyond the Aino's stage of\nreligion, still show their fetichistic instincts in the veneration\naccorded to priestly inventions for raising revenue.[19] This instinct\nlingers in the faith accorded to medicine in the form of decoction,\npill, bolus or poultice made from the sacred writing and piously\nswallowed; in the reverence paid to the idol for its own sake, and in\nthe charm or amulet worn by the soldier in his cap or by the gentleman\nin his pill-box, tobacco-pouch or purse.\n\nAs the will of the worshipper who selects the fetich makes it what it\nis, so also, by the exercise of that will he imagines he can in a\ncertain measure be the equal or superior of his god. Like the Italian\npeasant who beats or scolds his bambino when his prayers are not\nanswered or his wishes gratified, so the fetich is punished or not\nallowed to know what is going on, by being covered up or hidden away.\nInstances of such rough handling of their fetiches by the people are far\nfrom unknown in the Land of Great Peace. At such childishness we may\nwonder and imagine that fetich-worship is the very antipodes of\nreligion; and yet it requires but little study of the lower orders of\nmind and conduct in Christendom to see how fetich-worship still lingers\namong people called Christians, whether the fetich be the image of a\nsaint or the Virgin, or a verse of the Bible found at random and used\nmuch as is a penny-toss to decide minor actions. Or, to look farther\nsouth, what means the rabbit's foot carried in the pocket or the various\narticles of faith now hanging in the limbo between religion and\nfolk-lore in various parts of our own country?\n\n\nPhallicism.\n\n\nFurther illustrations of far Eastern Animism and Fetichism are seen in\nforms once vastly more prevalent in Japan than now. Indeed, so far\nimproved off the face of the earth are they, that some are already\nmatters of memory or arch\u00e6ology, and their very existence even in former\ndays is nearly or wholly incredible to the generation born since\n1868--when Old Japan began to vanish in dissolving views and New Japan\nto emerge. What the author has seen with his own eyes, would amaze many\nJapanese born since 1868 and the readers of the rhapsodies of tourists\nwho study Japan from the _jin-riki-sha_. Phases of tree and serpent\nworship are still quite common, and will be probably for generations to\ncome; but the phallic shrines and emblems abolished by the government in\n1872 have been so far invisible to most living travellers and natives,\nthat their once general existence and use are now scarcely suspected.\nEven profound scholars of the Japanese language and literature whose\nwork dates from after the year 1872 have scarcely suspected the\nuniversality of phallic worship. Yet what we could say of this cult and\nits emblems, especially in treating of Shint\u014d, the special ethnic\nfaith of Japan, would be from sight of our own eyes besides the\ntestimony of many witnesses.[20]\n\nThe cultus has been known in the Japanese archipelago from Riu Kin to\nYezo. Despite official edicts of abolition it is still secretly\npractised by the \"heathen,\" the _inaka_ of Japan. \"Government law lasts\nthree days,\" is an ancient proverb in Nippon. Sharp eyes have, within\nthree months of the writing of this line, unearthed a phallic shrine\nwithin a stone's-throw of Shint\u014d's most sacred temples at Is\u00e9.\nFormerly, however, these implements of worship were seen numerously--in\nthe cornucopia distributed in the temples, in the _matsuris_ or\nreligious processions and in representation by various plastic\nmaterial--and all this until 1872, to an extent that is absolutely\nincredible to all except the eye-witnesses, some of whose written\ntestimonies we possess. What seems to our mind shocking and revolting\nwas once a part of our own ancestors' faith, and until very recently was\nthe perfectly natural and innocent creed of many millions of Japanese\nand is yet the same for tens of thousands of them.\n\nWe may easily see why and how that which to us is a degrading cult was\nnot only closely allied to Shint\u014d, but directly fostered by and\nproperly a part of it, as soon as we read the account of the creation of\nthe world, an contained in the national \"Book of Ancient Traditions,\"\nthe \"Kojiki.\" Several of the opening paragraphs of this sacred book of\nShint\u014d are phallic myths explaining cosmogony. Yet the myths and the\ncult are older than the writing and are phases of primitive Japanese\nfaith. The mystery of fatherhood is to the primitive man the mystery of\ncreation also. To him neither the thought nor the word was at hand to\nput difference and transcendental separation between him and what he\nworshipped as a god.\n\nInto the details of the former display and carriage of these now obscene\nsymbols in the popular celebrations; of the behavior of even respectable\ncitizens during the excitement and frenzy of the festivals; of their\npresence in the wayside shrines; of the philosophy, hideousness or\npathos of the subject, we cannot here enter. We simply call attention to\ntheir existence, and to a form of thought, if not of religion, properly\nso-called, which has survived all imported systems of faith and which\nshows what the native or indigenous idea of divinity really is--an idea\nthat profoundly affects the organization of society. To the enlightened\nBuddhist, Confucian, and even the modern Shintoist the\nphallus-worshipper is a \"heathen,\" a \"pagan,\" and yet he still practises\nhis faith and rites. It is for us to hint at the powerful influence such\npersistent ideas have upon Japanese morals and civilization. Still\nfurther, we illustrate the basic fact which all foreign religions and\nall missionaries, Confucian, Buddhist, Mahometan or Christian must deal\nwith, viz.: That the Eastern Asiatic mind runs to pantheism as surely as\nthe body of flesh and blood seeks food.\n\n\nTree and Serpent Worship.\n\n\nIn prehistoric and medieval Japan, as among the Ainos to-day, trees and\nserpents as well as rocks, rivers and other inanimate objects were\nworshipped, because such of them as were supposed for reasons known and\nfelt to be awe-inspiring or wonderful were \"kami,\" that is, above the\ncommon, wonderful.[21] This word kami is usually translated god or\ndeity, but the term does not conform to our ideas, by a great gulf of\ndifference. It is more than probable that the Japanese term kami is the\nsame as the Aino word _kamui_, and that the despised and conquered\naboriginal savage has furnished the mould of the ordinary Japanese idea\nof god--which even to-day with them means anything wonderful or\nextraordinary.[22] From the days before history the people have\nworshipped trees, and do so yet, considering them as the abodes of and\nas means of communication with supernatural powers. On them the people\nhang their votive offerings, twist on the branches their prayers written\non paper, avoid cutting down, breaking or in any way injuring certain\ntrees. The _sakaki_ tree is especially sacred, even to this day, in\nfuneral or Shint\u014d services. To wound or defile a tree sacred to a\nparticular god was to call forth the vengeance of the insulted deity\nupon the insulter, or as the hearer of prayer upon another to whom guilt\nwas imputed and punishment was due.\n\nThus, in the days older than this present generation, but still within\nthis century, as the writer has witnessed, it was the custom of women\nbetrayed by their lovers to perform the religious act of vengeance\ncalled _Ushi toki mairi_, or going to the temple at the hour of the ox,\nthat is at 2 A.M. First making an image or manikin of straw, she set out\non her errand of revenge, with nails held in her mouth and with hammer\nin one hand and straw figure in the other, sometimes also having on her\nhead a reversed tripod in which were stuck three lighted candles.\nArriving at the shrine she selected a tree dedicated to a god, and then\nnailed the straw simulacrum of her betrayer to the trunk, invoking the\nkami to curse and annihilate the destroyer of her peace. She adjures the\ngod to save his tree, impute the guilt of desecration to the traitor and\nvisit him with deadly vengeance. The visit is repeated and nails are\ndriven until the object of the incantation sickens and dies, or is at\nleast supposed to do so. I have more than once seen such trees and straw\nimages upon them, and have observed others in which the large number of\nrusted nails and fragments of straw showed how tenaciously the\nsuperstition lingered.[23]\n\nIn instances more pleasant to witness, may be seen trees festooned with\nthe symbolical rice-straw in cords and fringes. With these the people\nhonor the trees as the abode of the kami, or as evidence of their faith\nin the renown accredited in the past.\n\nIn common with most human beings the Japanese consider the serpent an\nobject of mystery and awe, but most of them go further and pay the\nophidian a reverence and awe which is worship. Their oldest literature\nshows how large a part the serpent played in the so-called divine age,\nhow it acted as progenitress of the Mikado's ancestry, and how it\nafforded means of incarnation for the kami or gods. Ten species of\nophidia are known in the Japanese islands, but in the larger number of\nmore or less imaginary varieties which figure in the ancient books we\nshall find plenty of material for fetich-worship. In perusing the\n\"Kojiki\" one scarcely knows, when he begins a story, whether the\ncharacter which to all appearance is a man or woman is to end as a\nsnake, or whether the mother after delivering her child will or will not\nglide into the marsh or slide away into the sea, leaving behind a trail\nof slime. A dragon is three-fourths serpent, and both the dragon and the\nserpent are prominent figures, perhaps the most prominent of the kami or\ngods in human or animal form in the \"Kojiki\" and other early legends of\nthe gods, though the crocodile, crow, deer, dog, and other animals are\nkami.[24] It is therefore no wonder that serpents have been and are\nstill worshipped by the people, that some of their gods and goddesses\nare liable at any time to slip away in scaly form, that famous temples\nare built on sites noted as being the abode or visible place of the\nactual water or land snake of natural history, and that the spot where a\nserpent is seen to-day is usually marked with a sacred emblem or a\nshrine.[25] We shall see how this snake-worship became not only a part\nof Shint\u014d but even a notable feature in corrupt Buddhism.\n\n\nPantheism's Destruction of Boundaries.[26]\n\n\nIn its rudest forms, this pantheism branches out into animism or\nshamanism, fetichism and phallicism. In its higher forms, it becomes\npolytheism, idolatry and defective philosophy. Having centuries ago\ncorrupted Buddhism it is the malaria which, unseen and unfelt, is ready\nto poison and corrupt Christianity. Indeed, it has already given over to\ndisease and spiritual death more than one once hopeful Christian\nbeliever, teacher and preacher in the Japan of our decade.\n\nTo assault and remove the incubus, to replace and refill the mind, to\nlift up and enlighten the Japanese peasant, science as already known and\nfaith in one God, Creator and Father of all things, must go hand in\nhand. Education and civilization will do much for the ignorant _inaka_\nor boors, but for the cultured whose minds waver and whose feet\nflounder, as well as for the unlearned and priest-ridden, there is no\nsurer help and healing than that faith in the Heavenly Father which\ngives the unifying thought to him who looks into creation.\n\nKeep the boundary line clear between God and his world and all is order\nand discrimination. Obliterate that boundary and all is pathless morass,\nblack chaos and on the mind the phantasms which belong to the victim of\n_delirium tremens_.\n\nThere is one Lawgiver. In the beginning, God. In the end, God, all in\nall.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II - SHINT\u014c: MYTHS AND RITUAL\n\n    \"In the great days of old,\n     When o'er the land the gods held sov'reign sway,\n     Our fathers lov'd to say\n     That the bright gods with tender care enfold\n     The fortunes of Japan,\n     Blessing the land with many an holy spell:\n     And what they loved to tell,\n     We of this later age ourselves do prove;\n     For every living man\n     May feast his eyes on tokens of their love.\"\n\n     --Poem of Yamagami-no Okura,\n       A.D. 733.\n\n    Baal: \"While I on towers and banging terraces,\n    In shaft and obelisk, behold my sign.\n    Creative, shape of first imperious law.\"\n\n    --Bayard Taylor's \"Masque of the Gods.\"\n\n    \"Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my\n    silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of\n    men, and didst commit whoredom with them, and tookest thy\n    broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine\n    oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave\n    thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou\n    hast even set it before them for a sweet savor: and thus it was,\n    saith the Lord GOD.\"--Ezekiel.\n\n    If it be said (as has been the case), 'Shintoism has nothing in\n    it,' we should be inclined to answer, 'So much the better, there\n    is less error to counteract.' But there _is_ something in it,\n    and that ... of a kind of which we may well avail ourselves when\n    making known the second commandment, and the 'fountain of\n    cleansing from all sin.'\"--E.W. Syle.\n\n    \"If Shint\u014d has a dogma, it is purity.\"--Kaburagi.\n\n    \"I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord: and so will I go to\n    thine altar.\"--Ps. xxvi. 6.\n\n\nCHAPTER II - SHINT\u014c: MYTHS AND RITUAL\n\nThe Japanese a Young Nation.\n\n\nWhat impresses us in the study of the history of Japan is that, compared\nwith China and Korea, she is young. Her history is as the story of\nyesterday. The nation is modern. The Japanese are as younger children in\nthe great family of Asia's historic people. Broadly speaking, Japan is\nno older than England, and authentic Japanese history no more ancient\nthan British history. In Albion, as in the Honorable Country, there are\ntraditions and mythologies that project their shadows aeons back of\ngenuine records; but if we consider that English history begins in the\nfifth, and English literature in the eighth century, then there are\nother reasons besides those commonly given for calling Japan \"the\nEngland of the East.\"\n\nNo trustworthy traditions exist which carry the known history of Japan\nfarther back than the fifth century. The means for measuring and\nrecording time were probably not in use until the sixth century. The\noldest documents in the Japanese language, excepting a few fragments of\nthe seventh century, do not antedate the year 712, and even in these the\nChinese characters are in many instances used phonetically, because the\nmeaning of the words thus transliterated had already been forgotten.\nHence their interpretation in detail is still largely a matter of\nconjecture.\n\nYet the Japanese Archipelago was inhabited long before the dawn of\nhistory. The concurrent testimony of the earliest literary monuments, of\nthe indigenous mythology, of folk-lore, of shell-heaps and of\nkitchen-middens shows that the occupation by human beings of the main\nislands must be ascribed to times long before the Christian era. Before\nwritten records or ritual of worship, religion existed on its active or\ndevotional side, and there were mature growths of thought preserved and\nexpressed orally. Poems, songs, chants and _norito_ or liturgies were\nkept alive in the human memory, and there was a system of worship, the\n_name_ of which was given long after the introduction of Buddhism. This\ndescriptive term, Kami no Michi in Japanese, and Shin-t\u014d in the\nChinese as pronounced by Japanese, means the Way of the Gods, the t\u014d\nor final syllable being the same as tao in Taoism. We may say that\nShint\u014d means, literally, theoslogos, theology. The customs and\npractices existed centuries before contact with Chinese letters, and\nlong previous to the Shint\u014d literature which is now extant.\n\nWhether Kami no Michi is wholly the product of Japanese soil, or whether\nits rudimentary ideas were imported from the neighboring Asian continent\nand more or less allied to the primitive Chinese religion, is still an\nopen question. The preponderance of argument tends, however, to show\nthat it was an importation as to its origin, for not a few events\noutlined in the Japanese mythology cast shadows of reminiscence upon\nKorea or the Asian mainland. In its development, however, the cultus is\nalmost wholly Japanese. The modern forms of Shint\u014d, as moulded by the\nrevivalists of the eighteenth century, are at many points notably\ndifferent from the ancient faith. At the World's Parliament of Religions\nat Chicago, Shint\u014d seemed to be the only one, and probably the last,\nof the purely provincial religions.\n\nIn order to gain a picture of life in Japan before the introduction of\nChinese civilization, we must consult those photographs of the minds of\nthe ancient islanders which still exist in their earliest literature.\nThe fruits of the study of ethnology, anthropology and archaeology\ngreatly assist us in picturing the day-break of human life in the\nMorning Land. In preparing materials for the student of the religions of\nJapan many laborers have wrought in various fields, but the chief\nliterary honors have been taken by the English scholars, Messrs.\nSatow,[1] Aston,[2] and Chamberlain.[3] These untiring workers have\nopened the treasures of ancient thought in the Altaic world.[4]\n\nAlthough even these archaic Japanese compositions, readable to-day only\nby special scholars, are more or less affected by Chinese influences,\nideas and modes of expression, yet they are in the main faithful\nreflections of the ancient life before the primitive faith of the\nJapanese people was either disturbed or reduced to system in presence of\nan imported religion. These monuments of history, poetry and liturgies\nare the \"Kojiki,\" or Notices of Ancient Things; the \"Many\u00f6shu\" or Myriad\nLeaves or Poems, and the \"Norito,\" or Liturgies.\n\n\nThe Ancient Documents.\n\n\nThe first book, the \"Kojiki,\" gives us the theology, cosmogony,\nmythology, and very probably, in its later portions, some outlines of\nhistory of the ancient Japanese. The \"Kojiki\" is the real, the dogmatic\nexponent, or, if we may so say, the Bible, of Shint\u014d. The\n\"Many\u014dshu,\" or Book of Myriad Poems, expresses the thoughts and\nfeelings; reflects the manners and customs of the primitive generations,\nand, in the same sense as do the Sagas of the Scandinavians, furnishes\nus unchronological but interesting and more or less real narratives of\nevents which have been glorified by the poets and artists. The ancient\ncodes of law and of ceremonial procedure are of great value, while the\n\"Norito\" are excellent mirrors in which to see reflected the religion\ncalled Shint\u014d on the more active side of worship.\n\nIn a critical study, either of the general body of national tradition or\nof the ancient documents, we must continually be on our guard against\nthe usual assumption that Chinese civilization came in earlier than it\nreally did. This assumption colors all modern Japanese popular ideas,\nart and literature. The vice of the pupil nations surrounding the Middle\nKingdom is their desire to have it believed that Chinese letters and\nculture among them is an nearly coeval with those of China as can be\nmade truly or falsely to appear. The Koreans, for example, would have us\nbelieve that their civilization, based on letters and introduced by\nKishi, is \"four thousand years old\" and contemporaneous with China's\nown, and that \"the Koreans are among the oldest people of the world.\"[5]\nThe average modern Japanese wishes the date of authentic or official\nhistory projected as far back as possible. Yet he is a modest man\ncompared with his medi\u00e6val ancestor, who constructed chronology out of\nink-stones. Over a thousand years ago a deliberate forgery was\nofficially put on paper. A whole line of emperors who never lived was\ncanonized, and clever penmen set down in ink long chapters which\ndescribe what never happened.[6] Furthermore, even after, and only eight\nyears after the fairly honest \"Kojiki\" had been compiled, the book\ncalled \"Nihongi,\" or Chronicles of Japan, was written. All the internal\nand not a little external evidence shows that the object of this book is\nto give the impression that Chinese ideas, culture and learning had long\nbeen domesticated in Japan. The \"Nihongi\" gives dates of events supposed\nto have happened fifteen hundred years before, with an accuracy which\nmay be called villainous; while the \"Kojiki\" states that Wani, a Korean\nteacher, brought the \"Thousand Character Classic\" to Japan in A.D. 285,\nthough that famous Chinese book was not composed until the sixth\ncentury, or A.D. 550.[7]\n\nEven to this day it is nearly impossible for an American to get a Korean\n\"frog in the well\"[8] to understand why the genuine native life and\nhistory, language and learning of his own peninsular country is of\ngreater value to the student than the pedantry borrowed from China. Why\nthese possess any interest to a \"scholar\" is a mystery to the head in\nthe horsehair net. Anything of value, he thinks, _must_ be on the\nChinese model. What is not Chinese is foolish and fit for women and\nchildren only. Furthermore, Korea \"always had\" Chinese learning. This is\nthe sum of the arguments of the Korean literati, even as it used to be\nof the old-time hatless Yedo scholar of shaven skull and topknot.\n\nDespite Japanese independence and even arrogance in certain other lines,\nthe thought of the demolition of cherished notions of vast antiquity is\nvery painful. Critical study of ancient traditions is still dangerous,\neven in parliamentary Nippon. Hence the unbiassed student must depend on\nhis own reading of and judgment upon the ancient records, assisted by\nthe thorough work done by the English scholars Aston, Satow,\nChamberlain, Bramsen and others.\n\nIt was the coming of Buddhism in the sixth century, and the implanting\non the soil of Japan of a system of religion in which were temples with\nall that was attractive to the eye, gorgeous ritual, scriptures,\npriesthood, codes of morals, rigid discipline, a system of dogmatics in\nwhich all was made positive and clear, that made the variant myths and\nlegends somewhat uniform. The faith of Shaka, by winning adherents both\nat the court and among the leading men of intelligence, reacted upon the\nnational traditions so as to compel their collection and arrangemeut\ninto definite formulas. In due time the mythology, poetry and ritual\nwas, as we have seen, committed to writing and the whole system called\nShint\u014d, in distinction from Butsud\u014d, the Way of the Gods from the\nWay of the Buddhas. Thus we can see more clearly the outward and visible\nmanifestations of Shint\u014d. In forming our judgment, however, we must\nput aside those descriptions which are found in the works of European\nwriters, from Marco Polo and Mendez Pinto down to the year 1870. Though\nthese were good observers, they were often necessarily mistaken in their\ndeductions. For, as we shall see in our lecture on Riy\u014dbu or Mixed\nBuddhism, Shint\u014d was, from the ninth century until late into the\nnineteenth century, absorbed in Buddhism so as to be next to invisible.\n\n\nOrigins of the Japanese People.\n\n\nWithout detailing processes, but giving only results, our view of the\norigin of the Japanese people and of their religion is in the main as\nfollows:\n\nThe oldest seats of human habitation in the Japanese Archipelago lie\nbetween the thirtieth and thirty-eighth parallels of north latitude.\nSouth of the thirty-fourth parallel, it seems, though without proof of\nwriting or from tradition, that the Malay type and blood from the far\nsouth probably predominated, with, however, much infusion from the\nnorthern Asian mainland.\n\nBetween the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth parallels, and west of the\none hundred and thirty-eighth meridian of longitude, may be found what\nis still the choicest, richest and most populous part of The Country\nBetween Heaven and Earth. Here the prevailing element was Korean and\nTartar.\n\nTo the north and east of this fair country lay the Emishi savages, or\nAinos.\n\nIn \"the world\" within the ken of the prehistoric dwellers in what is now\nthe three islands, Hondo, Kiushiu and Shikoku, there was no island of\nYezu and no China; while Korea was but slightly known, and the lands\nfarther westward were unheard of except as the home of distant tribes.\n\nThree distinct lines of tradition point to the near peninsula or the\nwest coast of Japan as the \"Heaven\" whence descended the tribe which\nfinally grew to be dominant. The islands of Tsushima and Iki were the\nstepping-stones of the migration out of which rose what may be called\nthe southern or Tsukushi cycle of legend, Tsukushi being the ancient\nname of Kiushiu.\n\nIdzumo is the holy land whence issued the second stream of tradition.\n\nThe third course of myth and legend leads us into Yamato, whence we\nbehold the conquest of the Mikado's home-land and the extension of his\nname and influence into the regions east of the Hakon\u00e9 Mountains,\nincluding the great plain of Yedo, where modern T\u014dki\u014d now stands.\n\nWe shall take the term \"Yamato\" as the synonym of the prehistoric but\ndiscernible beginnings of national life. It represents the seat of the\ntribe whose valor and genius ultimately produced the Mikado system. It\nwas through this house or tribe that Japanese history took form. The\nreverence for the ruler long afterward entitled \"Son of Heaven\" is the\nstrongest force in the national history. The spirit and prowess of these\nearly conquerors have left an indelible impress upon the language and\nthe mind of the nation in the phrase Yamato Damashi--the spirit of\n(Divine and unconquerable) Japan.\n\nThe story of the conquest of the land, in its many phases, recalls that\nof the Aryans in India, of the Hebrews in Canaan, of the Romans in\nEurope and of the Germanic races in North America. The Yamato men\ngradually advanced to conquest under the impulse, as they believed, of a\ndivine command.[9] They were sent from Takama-no-hara, the High Plain of\nHeaven. Theirs was the war, of men with a nobler creed, having\nagriculture and a feudal system of organization which furnished\nresources for long campaigns, against hunters and fishermen. They had\nimproved artillery and used iron against stone. Yet they conquered and\npacified not only by superior strategy, tactics, weapons and valor, but\nalso by advanced fetiches and dogma. They captured the religion of their\nenemies as well as their bodies, lands and resources. They claimed that\ntheir ancestors were from Heaven, that the Sun was their kinswoman and\nthat their chief, or Mikado, was vicegerent of the Heavenly gods, but\nthat those whom they conquered were earth-born or sprung from the\nterrestrial divinities.\n\n\nMikadoism the Heart of Shint\u014d.\n\n\nAs success came to their arms and their chief's power was made more\nsure, they developed further the dogma of the Mikado's divinity and made\nworship centre in him as the earthly representative of the Sun and\nHeaven. His fellow-conquerors and ministers, as fast as they were put in\nlordship over conquered provinces, or indigenous chieftains who\nsubmitted obediently to his sway or yielded graciously to his prowess,\nwere named as founders of temples and in later generations worshipped\nand became gods.[10] One of the motives for, and one of the guiding\nprinciples in the selections of the floating myths, was that the\nancestry of the chieftains loyal to the Mikado might be shown to be from\nthe heavenly gods. Both the narratives of the \"Kojiki\" and the liturgies\nshow this clearly.\n\nThe nature-worship, which was probably practised throughout the whole\narchipelago, became part of the system as government and society were\nmade uniform on the Yamato model. It seems at least possible, if\nBuddhism had not come in so soon, that the ordinary features of a\nreligion, dogmatic and ethical codes, would have been developed. In a\nword, the Kami no Michi, or religion of the islanders in prehistoric\ntimes before the rise of Mikadoism, must be carefully distinguished from\nthe politico-ecclesiasticism which the system called Shint\u014d reveals\nand demands. The early religion, first in the hands of politicians and\nlater under the pens and voices of writers and teachers at the Imperial\nCourt, became something very different from its original form. As surely\nas K\u014db\u014d later captured Shint\u014d, making material for Buddhism out\nof it and overlaying it in Riy\u014dbu, so the Yamato men made political\ncapital out of their own religion and that of the subject tribes. The\ndivine sovereign of Japan and his political church did exactly what the\nstate churches of Europe, both pagan and Christian, have done before and\nsince the Christian era.\n\nFurther, in studying the \"Kojiki,\" we must remember that the sacred\nwritings sprang out of the religion, and that the system was not an\nevolution from the book. Customs, ritual, faith and prayer existed long\nbefore they were written about or recorded in ink. Moreover, the\nphilosophy came later than the practice, the deeds before the myths, and\nthe joy and terror of the visible universe before the cosmogony or\ntheogony, while the book-preface was probably written last of all.\n\nThe sun was first, and then came the wonder, admiration and worship of\nmen. The personification and pedigree of the sun were late figments. To\nconnect their ancestors with the sun-goddess and the heavenly gods, was\na still later enterprise of the \"Mikado reverencers\" of this earlier\ntime. Both the god-way in its early forms and Shint\u014d in its later\ndevelopment, were to them political as well as ecclesiastical institutes\nof dogma. Both the religion which they themselves brought and cultivated\nand the aboriginal religion which the Yamato men found, were used as\nengines in the making of Mikadoism, which is the heart of Shint\u014d.\n\nNot until two centuries after the coming of Buddhism and of Asiatic\ncivilization did it occur to the Japanese to reduce to writing the\nfloating legends and various cycles of tradition which had grown up\nluxuriantly in different parts of \"the empire,\" or to express in the\nChinese character the prayers and thanksgivings which had been handed\ndown orally through many generations. These norito had already assumed\nelegant literary form, rich in poetic merit, long before Chinese writing\nwas known. They, far more than the less certain philosophy of the\n\"Kojiki,\" are of undoubted native origin. It is nearly certain that the\nprehistoric Japanese did not borrow the literary forms of the god-way\nfrom China, as any one familiar with the short, evenly balanced and\nantithetical sentences of Chinese style can see at once. The norito are\nexpressions, in the rhythmical and rhetorical form of worship, of the\narticles of faith set forth in the historic summary which we have given.\nWe propose to illustrate the dogmas by quoting from the rituals in Mr.\nSatow's masterly translation. The following was addressed to the\nsun-goddess (Amat\u00e9ras\u016d no Mikami, or the\nFrom-Heaven-Shining-Great-Deity) by the priest-envoy of the priestly\nNakatomi family sent annually to the temples at Is\u00e9, the Mecca of\nShint\u014d. The _sevran_ referred to in the ritual is the Mikado. This\nword and all the others printed in capitals are so rendered in order to\nexpress in English the force of \"an untranslatable honorific syllable,\nsupposed to be originally identical with a root meaning 'true,' but no\nlonger possessing that signification.\" Instead of the word \"earth,\" that\nof \"country\" (Japan) is used as the correlative of Heaven.\n\n\nRitual in Praise of the Sun-goddess.\n\n\n    He (the priest-envoy) says: Hear all of you, ministers of the\n    gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the great ritual, the\n    heavenly ritual, declared in the great presence of the\n    From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY, whose praises are fulfilled by\n    setting up the stout pillars of the great HOUSE, and exalting\n    the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven at the sources of\n    the Isuzu River at Uji in Watarai.\n\n    He says: It is the sovran's great WORD. Hear all of you,\n    ministers of the gods and sanctifiers of offerings, the\n    fulfilling of praises on this seventeenth day of the sixth moon\n    of this year, as the morning sun goes up in glory, of the\n    Oho-Nakatomi, who--having abundantly piled up like a range of\n    hills the TRIBUTE thread and sanctified LIQUOR and FOOD\n    presented as of usage by the people of the deity's houses\n    attributed to her in the three departments and in various\n    countries and places, so that she deign to bless his [the\n    Mikado's] LIFE as a long LIFE, and his AGE as a luxuriant AGE\n    eternally and unchangingly as multitudinous piles of rock; may\n    deign to bless the CHILDREN who are born to him, and deigning to\n    cause to flourish the five kinds of grain which the men of a\n    hundred functions and the peasants of the countries in the four\n    quarters of the region under heaven long and peacefully\n    cultivate and eat, and guarding and benefiting them to deign to\n    bless them--is hidden by the great offering-wands.\n\nIn the Imperial City the ritual services were very imposing. Those in\nexpectation of the harvest were held in the great hall of the\nJin-Gi-Kuan, or Council of the Gods of Heaven and Earth. The description\nof the ceremonial is given by Mr. Satow.[11] In the prayers offered to\nthe sun-goddess for harvest, and in thanksgiving to her for bestowing\ndominion over land and sea upon her descendant the Mikado, occurs the\nfollowing passage:\n\n    I declare in the great presence of the\n    From-Heaven-Shining-Great-DEITY who sits in Is\u00e9. Because the\n    sovran great GODDESS bestows on him the countries of the four\n    quarters over which her glance extends, as far as the limit\n    where heaven stands up like a wall, as far as the bounds where\n    the country stands up distant, as far as the limit where the\n    blue clouds spread flat, as far as the bounds where the white\n    clouds lie away fallen--the blue sea plain as far as the limit\n    whither come the prows of the ships without drying poles or\n    paddles, the ships which continuously crowd on the great sea\n    plain, and the road which men travel by land, as far as the\n    limit whither come the horses' hoofs, with the baggage-cords\n    tied tightly, treading the uneven rocks and tree-roots and\n    standing up continuously in a long path without a break--making\n    the narrow countries wide and the hilly countries plain, and as\n    it were drawing together the distant countries by throwing many\n    tons of ropes over them--he will pile up the first-fruits like a\n    range of hills in the great presence of the sovran great\n    GODDESS, and will peacefully enjoy the remainder.\n\n\nPhallic Symbols.\n\n\nTo form one's impression of the Kami no Michi wholly from the poetic\nliturgies, the austere simplicity of the miyas or shrines, or the\nworship at the palace or capital, would be as misleading as to gather\nour ideas of the status of popular education from knowing only of the\nscholars at court. Among the common people the real basis of the god-way\nwas ancestor-worship. From the very first this trait and habit of the\nJapanese can be discerned. Their tenacity in holding to it made the\nConfucian ethics more welcome when they came. Furthermore, this\nreverence for the dead profoundly influenced and modified Buddhism, so\nthat today the altars of both religions exist in the same house, the\ndead ancestors becoming both kami and buddhas.\n\nModern taste has removed from sight what were once the common people's\nsymbols of the god-way, that is of ancestor worship. The extent of the\nphallus cult and its close and even vital connection with the god-way,\nand the general and innocent use of the now prohibited emblems, tax\nseverely the credulity of the Occidental reader. The processes of the\nancient mind can hardly be understood except by vigorous power of the\nimagination and by sympathy with the primeval man. To the critical\nstudent, however, who has lived among the people and the temples devoted\nto this worship, who knows how innocent and how truly sincere and even\nreverent and devout in the use of these symbols the worshippers are, the\nmatter is measurably clear. He can understand the soil, root and flower\neven while the most strange specimen is abhorrent to his taste, and\nwhile he is most active in destroying that mental climate in which such\nworship, whether native or exotic, can exist and flourish.\n\nIn none of the instances in which I have been eyewitness of the cult, of\nthe person officiating or of the emblem, have I had any reason to doubt\nthe sincerity of the worshipper. I have never had reason to look upon\nthe implements or the system as anything else than the endeavor of man\nto solve the mystery of Being and Power. In making use of these emblems,\nthe Japanese worshipper simply professes his faith in such solution as\nhas seemed to him attainable.\n\nThat this cultus was quite general in pre-Buddhistic Japan, as in many\nother ancient countries, is certain from the proofs of language,\nliterature, external monuments and relics which are sufficiently\nnumerous. Its organic connection with the god-way may be clearly shown.\n\nTo go farther back in point of time than the \"Kojiki,\" we find that even\nbefore the development of art in very ancient Japan, the male gods were\nrepresented by a symbol which thus became an image of the deity himself.\nThis token was usually made of stone, though often of wood, and in later\ntimes of terra-cotta, of cast and wrought iron and even of gold.[12]\n\nUnder the direct influence of such a cult, other objects appealed to the\nimagination or served the temporary purpose of the worshipper as\n_ex-voto_ to hang up in the shrines, such as the mushroom, awabi,\nvarious other shells and possibly the fire-drill. It is only in the\ndecay of the cultus, in the change of view and centre of thought\ncompelled by another religion, that representations of the old emblems\nally themselves with sensualism or immorality. It is that natural\ndegradation of one man's god into another man's devil, which conversion\nmust almost of necessity bring, that makes the once revered symbol\n\"obscene,\" and talk about it become, in a descending scale, dirty, foul,\nfilthy, nasty. That the Japanese suffer from the moral effluvia of a\ndecayed cult which was once as the very vertebral column of the national\nbody of religion, is evident to every one who acquaints himself with\ntheir popular speech and literature.\n\nHow closely and directly phallicism is connected with the god-way, and\nwhy there were so many Shint\u014d temples devoted to this latter cult and\nfurnished with symbols, is shown by study of the \"Kojiki.\" The two\nopening sections of this book treat of kami that were in the minds even\nof the makers of the myths little more than mud and water[13]--the mere\nbioplasm of deity. The seven divine generations are \"born,\" but do\nnothing except that they give Izanagi and Izanami a jewelled spear. With\nthis pair come differentiation of sex. It is immediately on the\napparition of the consciousness of sex that motion, action and creation\nbegin, and the progress of things visible ensues. The details cannot be\nput into English, but it is enough, besides noting the conversation and\nunion of the pair, to say that the term meaning giving birth to, refers\nto inanimate as well as animate things. It is used in reference to the\nislands which compose the archipelago as well as to the various kami\nwhich seem, in many cases, to be nothing more than the names of things\nor places.\n\n\nFire-myths and Ritual.\n\n\nFire is, in a sense, the foundation and first necessity of civilization,\nand it is interesting to study the myths as to the origin of fire, and\npossibly even more interesting to compare the Greek and Japanese\nstories. As we know, old-time popular etymology makes Prometheus the\nfore-thinker and brother of Epimetheus the after-thinker. He is the\nstealer of the fire from heaven, in order to make men share the secret\nof the gods. Comparative philology tells us, however, that the Sanskrit\n_Pramantha_ is a stick that produces fire. The \"Kojiki\" does indeed\ncontain what is probably the later form of the fire-myth about two\nbrothers, Prince Fire-Shine and Fire-Fade, which suggests both the later\nGreek myth of the fore- and after-thinker and a tradition of a flood.\nThe first, and most probably older, myth in giving the origin of fire\ndoes it in true Japanese style, with details of parturition. After\nnumerous other deities had been born of Izanagi and Izanami, it is said\n\"that they gave birth to the Fire-Burning-Swift-Male-Deity, another name\nfor whom is the Deity-Fire-Shining-Prince, and another name is the\nDeity-Fire-Shining-Elder.\" In the other ancient literature this fire-god\nis called Ho-musubi, the Fire-Producer.\n\nIzanami yielded up her life upon the birth of her son, the fire-god; or,\nas the sacred text declares, she \"divinely retired\"[14] into Hades. From\nher corpse sprang up the pairs of gods of clay, of metal, and other kami\nthat possessed the potency of calming or subduing fire, for clay resists\nand water extinguishes. Between the mythical and the liturgical forms of\nthe original narrative there is considerable variation.\n\nThe Norito entitled the \"Quieting of Fire\" gives the ritual form of the\nmyth. It contains, like so many Norito, less the form of prayer to the\nFire-Producer than a promise of offerings. Not so much by petitions as\nby the inducements of gifts did the ancient worshippers hope to save the\npalace of the Mikado from the fire-god's wrath. We omit from the text\nthose details which are offensive to modern and western taste.\n\n    I declare with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual, which was\n    bestowed on him at the time when, by the WORD of the Sovran's\n    dear progenitor and progenitrix, who divinely remain in the\n    plain of high heaven, they bestowed on him the region under\n    heaven, saying:\n\n    \"Let the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness tranquilly rule over the\n    country of fresh spikes which flourishes in the midst of the\n    reed-moor as a peaceful region.\"\n\n    When ... Izanami ... had deigned to bear the many hundred\n    myriads of gods, she also deigned to bear her dear youngest\n    child of all, the Fire-producer god, ... and said:\n\n    \"My dear elder brother's augustness shall rule the upper\n    country; I will rule the lower country,\" she deigned to hide in\n    the rocks; and having come to the flat hills of darkness, she\n    thought and said: \"I have come hither, having borne and left a\n    bad-hearted child in the upper country, ruled over by my\n    illustrious elder brother's augustness,\" and going back she bore\n    other children. Having borne the water-goddess, the gourd, the\n    river-weed, and the clay-hill maiden, four sorts of things, she\n    taught them with words, and made them to know, saying: \"If the\n    heart of this bad-hearted child becomes violent, let the\n    water-goddess take the gourd, and the clay-hill maiden take the\n    river-weed, and pacify him.\"\n\n    In consequence of this I fulfil his praises, and say that for\n    the things set up, so that he may deign not to be awfully quick\n    of heart in the great place of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S\n    augustness, there are provided bright cloth, glittering cloth,\n    soft cloth, and coarse cloth, and the five kinds of things; as\n    to things which dwell in the blue-sea plain, there are things\n    wide of fin and narrow of fin, down to the weeds of the shore;\n    as to LIQUOR, raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in\n    rows the bellies of the beer-jars, piling the offerings up, even\n    to rice in grain and rice in ear, like a range of hills, I\n    fulfil his praises with the great ritual, the heavenly ritual.\n\nIzanagi, after shedding tears over his consort, whose death was caused\nby the birth of the fire-god, slays the fire-god, and follows her into\nthe Root-land, or Hades, whereupon begins another round of wonderful\nstories of the birth of many gods. Among these, though evidently out of\nanother cycle of legends, is the story of the birth of the three\ngods--Fire-Shine, Fire-Climax and Fire-Fade, to which we have already\nreferred.\n\nThe fire-drill mentioned in the \"Kojiki\" suggests easily the same line\nof thought with the myths of cosmogony and theogony, and it is\ninteresting to note that this archaic implement is still used at the\nsacred temples of Is\u00e9 to produce fire. After the virgin priestesses\nperform the sacred dances in honor of local deities the water for their\nbath is heated by fires kindled by heaps of old _harai_ or amulets made\nfrom temple-wood bought at the Mecca of Japan. It is even probable that\nthe retention of the fire-drill in the service of Shint\u014d is but a\nsurvival of phallicism.\n\nThe liturgy for the pacification of the gods of fire is worth noticing.\nThe full form of the ritual, when compared with a legend in the\n\"Nihongi,\" shows that a myth was \"partly devised to explain the\nconnection of an hereditary family of priests with the god whose shrine\nthey served; it is possible that the claim to be directly descended from\nthe god had been disputed.\" The Norito first recites poetically the\ndescent of Ninigi, the grandchild of the sun-goddess from heaven, and\nthe quieting of the turbulent kami.\n\n    I (the diviner), declare: When by the WORD of the progenitor and\n    progenitrix, who divinely remaining in the plain of high heaven,\n    deigned to make the beginning of things, they divinely deigned\n    to assemble the many hundred myriads of gods in the high city of\n    heaven, and deigned divinely to take counsel in council, saying:\n    \"When we cause our Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to leave\n    heaven's eternal seat, to cleave a path with might through\n    heaven's manifold clouds, and to descend from heaven, with\n    orders tranquilly to rule the country of fresh spikes, which\n    flourishes in the midst of the reed-moor as a peaceful country,\n    what god shall we send first to divinely sweep away, sweep away\n    and subdue the gods who are turbulent in the country of fresh\n    spikes;\" all the gods pondered and declared: \"You shall send\n    Am\u00e9nohohi's augustness, and subdue them,\" declared\n    they. Wherefore they sent him down from heaven, but he did not\n    declare an answer; and having next sent Tak\u00e9mikuma's augustness,\n    he also, obeying his father's words, did not declare an\n    answer. Am\u00e9-no-waka-hiko also, whom they sent, did not declare\n    an answer, but immediately perished by the calamity of a bird on\n    high. Wherefore they pondered afresh by the WORD of the heavenly\n    gods, and having deigned to send down from heaven the two\n    pillars of gods, Futsunushi and Tak\u00e9mika-dzuchi's augustness,\n    who having deigned divinely to sweep away, and sweep away, and\n    deigned divinely to soften, and soften the gods who were\n    turbulent, and silenced the rocks, trees, and the least leaf of\n    herbs likewise that had spoken, they caused the Sovran\n    GRANDCHILD'S augustness to descend from heaven.\n\n    I fulfil your praises, saying: As to the OFFERINGS set up, so\n    that the sovran gods who come into the heavenly HOUSE of the\n    Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness, which, after he had fixed upon\n    as a peaceful country--the country of great Yamato where the sun\n    is high, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters\n    bestowed upon him when he was thus sent down from\n    heaven--stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most\n    rocks, and exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven,\n    the builders had made for his SHADE from the heavens and SHADE\n    from the sun, and wherein he will tranquilly rule the country as\n    a peaceful country--may, without deigning to be turbulent,\n    deigning to be fierce, and deigning to hurt, knowing, by virtue\n    of their divinity, the things which were begun in the plain of\n    high heaven, deigning to correct with Divine-correcting and\n    Great-correcting, remove hence out to the clean places of the\n    mountain-streams which look far away over the four quarters, and\n    rule them as their own place. Let the Sovran gods tranquilly\n    take with clear HEARTS, as peaceful OFFERINGS and sufficient\n    OFFERINGS the great OFFERINGS which I set up, piling them upon\n    the tables like a range of hills, providing bright cloth,\n    glittering cloth, soft cloth, and coarse cloth; as a thing to\n    see plain in--a mirror: as things to play with--beads: as things\n    to shoot off with--a bow and arrows: as a thing to strike and\n    cut with--a sword: as a thing which gallops out--a horse; as to\n    LIQUOR--raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging in rows\n    the bellies of the beer-jars, with grains of rice and ears; as\n    to the things which dwell in the hills--things soft of hair, and\n    things rough of hair; as to the things which grow in the great\n    field plain--sweet herbs and bitter herbs; as to the things\n    which dwell in the blue sea plain--things broad of fin and\n    things narrow of fin, down to weeds of the offing and weeds of\n    the shore, and without deigning to be turbulent, deigning to be\n    fierce, and deigning to hurt, remove out to the wide and clean\n    places of the mountain-streams, and by virtue of their divinity\n    be tranquil.\n\nIn this ritual we find the origin of evil attributed to wicked kami, or\ngods. To get rid of them is to be free from the troubles of life. The\nobject of the ritual worship was to compel the turbulent and malevolent\nkami to go out from human habitations to the mountain solitudes and rest\nthere. The dogmas of both god-possession and of the power of exorcism\nwere not, however, held exclusively by the high functionaries of the\nofficial religion, but were part of the faith of all the people. To this\nday both the tenets and the practices are popular under various forms.\n\nBesides the twenty-seven Norito which are found in the Yengishiki,\npublished at the opening of the tenth century, there are many others\ncomposed for single occasions. Examples of these are found in the\nGovernment Gazettes. One celebrates the Mikado's removal from Ki\u014dto\nto T\u014dki\u014d, another was written and recited to add greater solemnity\nto the oath which he took to govern according to modern liberal\nprinciples and to form a national parliament. To those Japanese whose\nfirst idea of duty is loyalty to the emperor, Shint\u014d thus becomes a\nsystem of patriotism exalted to the rank of a religion. Even Christian\nnatives of Japan can use much of the phraseology of the Norito while\naddressing their petitions on behalf of their chief magistrate to the\nKing of kings.\n\nThe primitive worship of the sun, of light, of fire, has left its\nimpress upon the language and in vernacular art and customs. Among\nscores of derivations of Japanese words (often more pleasing than\nscientific), in which the general term _hi_ enters, is that which finds\nin the word for man, _hito_, the meaning of \"light-bearer.\" On the face\nof the broad terminal tiles of the house-roofs, we still see moulded the\nriver-weed, with which the Clay-Hill Maiden pacified the Fire-God. On\nthe frontlet of the warrior's helmet, in the old days of arrow and\narmor, glittered in brass on either side of his crest the same symbol of\npower and victory.\n\nHaving glanced at the ritual of Shint\u014d, let us now examine the\nteachings of its oldest book.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III - \"THE KOJIKI\" AND ITS TEACHINGS\n\n    \"Japan is not a land where men need pray,\n      For 'tis itself divine:\n    Yet do I lift my voice in prayer...\"\n\n      Hitomaro, + A.D. 737.\n\n    \"Now when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were\n    not yet manifest, and there was naught named, naught done, who\n    could know its shape? Nevertheless Heaven and Earth first\n    parted, and the three Deities performed the commencement of\n    creation; the Passive and Active Essences then developed, and\n    the Two Spirits became the ancestors of all things.\"--Preface of\n    Yasumar\u014d (A.D. 712) to the \"Kojiki.\"\n\n    \"These, the 'Kojiki' and 'Nihongi' are their [the Shint\u014dists]\n    canonical books, ... and almost their every word is considered\n    undeniable truth.\"\n\n    \"The Shint\u014d faith teaches that God inspired the foundation of\n    the Mikadoate, and that it is therefore sacred.\"--Kaburagi.\n\n    \"We now reverently make our prayer to Them [Our Imperial\n    Ancestors] and to our Illustrious Father [Komei, + 1867], and\n    implore the help of Their Sacred Spirits, and make to Them\n    solemn oath never at this time nor in the future to fail to be\n    an example to Our subjects in the observance of the Law\n    [Constitution] hereby established.\"--Imperial oath of the\n    Emperor Mutsuhito in the sanctuary in the Imperial Palace,\n    T\u014dki\u014d, February 11, 1889.\n\n    \"Shint\u014d is not our national religion. A faith existed before\n    it, which was its source. It grew out of superstitious teaching\n    and mistaken tradition. The history of the rise of Shint\u014d\n    proves this.\"--T. Matsugami.\n\n    \"Makoto wo mot\u00e9 KAMI NO MICHI wo oshiyur\u00e9ba nari.\" (Thou\n    teachest the way of God in truth.)--Mark xii. 14.\n\n    \"Ware wa Micni nuri, Mukoto nari, Inochi nari.\"--John\n    xiv. 6.--The New Testament in Japanese.\n\n\nCHAPTER III - \"THE KOJIKI\" AND ITS TEACHINGS\n\n\"The Kojiki\" mid its Myths of Cosmogony.\n\n\nAs to the origin of the \"Kojiki,\" we have in the closing sentences of\nthe author's preface the sole documentary authority explaining its scope\nand certifying to its authenticity. Briefly the statement is this: The\n\"Heavenly Sovereign\" or Mikado, Temmu (A.D. 673-686), lamenting that the\nrecords possessed by the chief families were \"mostly amplified by empty\nfalsehoods,\" and fearing that \"the grand foundation of the monarchy\"\nwould be destroyed, resolved to preserve the truth. He therefore had the\nrecords carefully examined, compared, and their errors eliminated. There\nhappened to be in his household a man of marvellous memory, named Hiy\u00e9da\nAr\u00e9, who could repeat, without mistake, the contents of any document he\nhad ever seen, and never forgot anything which he had heard. This person\nwas duly instructed in the genuine traditions and old language of former\nages, and made to repeat them until he had the whole by heart. \"Before\nthe undertaking was completed,\" which probably means before it could be\ncommitted to writing, \"the emperor died, and for twenty-five years Ar\u00e9's\nmemory was the sole depository of what afterwards received the title of\n'Kojiki.' ... At the end of this interval the Empress Gemmi\u014d ordered\nYasumar\u014d to write it down from the mouth of Ar\u00e9, which accounts for\nthe completion of the manuscript in so short a time as four months and a\nhalf,\"[1] in A.D. 712.\n\nIt is from the \"Kojiki\" that we obtain most of our ideas of ancient life\nand thought. The \"Nihongi,\" or Chronicles of Japan, expressed very\nlargely in Chinese phrases and with Chinese technical and philosophical\nterms, further assists us to get a measurably correct idea of what is\ncalled The Divine Age. Of the two books, however, the \"Kojiki\" is much\nmore valuable as a true record, because, though rude in style and\nexceedingly na\u00efve in expression, and by no means free from Chinese\nthoughts and phrases, it is marked by a genuinely Japanese cast of\nthought and method of composition. Instead of the terse, carefully\nmeasured, balanced, and antithetical sentences of correct Chinese, those\nof the \"Kojiki\" are long and involved, and without much logical\nconnection. The \"Kojiki\" contains the real notions, feelings, and\nbeliefs of Japanese who lived before the eighth century.\n\nRemembering that prefaces are, like porticos, usually added last of all,\nwe find that in the beginning all things were in chaos. Heaven and earth\nwere not separated. The world substance floated in the cosmic mass, like\noil on water or a fish in the sea. Motion in some way began. The\nethereal portions sublimed and formed the heavens; the heavier residuum\nbecame the present earth. In the plain of high heaven, when the heaven\nand earth began, were born three kami who \"hid their bodies,\" that is,\npassed away or died. Out of the warm mould of the earth a germ sprouted,\nand from this were born two kami, who also were born alone, and died.\nAfter these heavenly kami came forth what are called the seven divine\ngenerations, or line of seven kami.[2]\n\nTo express the opening lines of the \"Kojiki\" in terms of our own speech\nand in the moulds of Western thought, we may say that matter existed\nbefore mind and the gods came forth, as it were, by spontaneous\nevolution. The first thing that appeared out of the warm earth-muck was\nlike a rush-sprout, and this became a kami, or god. From this being came\nforth others, which also produced beings, until there were perfect\nbodies, sex and differentiation of powers. The \"Nihongi,\" however, not\nonly gives a different view of this evolution basing it upon the dualism\nof Chinese philosophy--that is, of the active and passive\nprinciples--and uses Chinese technical terminology, but gives lists of\nkami that differ notably from those in the \"Kojiki.\" This latter fact\nseems to have escaped the attention of those who write freely about what\nthey imagine to be the early religion of the Japanese.[3]\n\nAfter this introduction, in which \"Dualities, Trinities, and Supreme\nDeities\" have been discovered by writers unfamiliar with the genius of\nthe Japanese language, there follows an account of the creation of the\nhabitable earth by Izanami and Izanagi, whose names mean the\nMale-Who-Invites and the Female-Who-Invites. The heavenly kami commanded\nthese two gods to consolidate and give birth to the drifting land.\nStanding on the floating bridge of heaven, the male plunged his\njewel-spear into the unstable waters beneath, stirring them until they\ngurgled and congealed. When he drew forth the spear, the drops trickling\nfrom its point formed an island, ever afterward called Onokoro-jima, or\nthe Island of the Congealed Drop. Upon this island they descended. The\ncreative pair, or divine man and woman, now separated to make a journey\nround the island, the male to the left, the female to the right. At\ntheir meeting the female spoke first: \"How joyful to meet a lovely man!\"\nThe male, offended that the woman had spoken first, required the circuit\nto be repeated. On their second meeting, the man cried out: \"How joyful\nto meet a lovely woman!\" This island on which they had descended was the\nfirst of several which they brought into being. In poetry it is the\nIsland of the Congealed Drop. In common geography it is identified as\nAwaji, at the entrance of the Inland Sea. Thence followed the creation\nof the other visible objects in nature.\n\nIzanagi's Visit to Hades and Results.\n\n\nAfter the birth of the god of fire, which nearly destroyed the mother's\nlife, Izanami fled to the land of roots or of darkness, that is into\nHades. Izanagi, like a true Orpheus, followed his Eurydice and beseeched\nher to come back to earth to complete with him the work of creation. She\nparleyed so long with the gods of the underworld that her consort,\nbreaking off a tooth of his comb, lighted it as a torch and rushed in.\nHe found her putrefied body, out of which had been born the eight gods\nof thunder. Horrified at the awful foulness which he found in the\nunderworld, he rushed up and out, pursued by the Ugly-Female-of-Hades.\nBy artifices that bear a wonderful resemblance to those in Teutonic\nfairy tales, he blocked up the way. His head-dress, thrown at his\npursuer, turned into grapes which she stopped to eat. The teeth of his\ncomb sprouted into a bamboo forest, which detained her. The three\npeaches were used as projectiles; his staff which stuck up in the ground\nbecame a gate, and a mighty rock was used to block up the narrow pass\nthrough the mountains. Each of these objects has its relation to\nplace-names in Idzumo or to superstitions that are still extant. The\npeaches and the rocks became gods, and on this incident, by which the\nbeings in Hades were prevented from advance and successful mischief on\nearth, is founded one of the norito which Mr. Satow gives in condensed\nform. The names of the three gods,[4] Youth and Maiden of the Many\nRoad-forkings, and Come-no-further Gate, are expressed and invoked in\nthe praises bestowed on them in connection with the offerings.\n\n    He (the priest) says: I declare in the presence of the sovran\n    gods, who like innumerable piles of rocks sit closing up the way\n    in the multitudinous road-forkings.... I fulfil your praises by\n    declaring your NAMES, Youth and Maiden of the Many Road-forkings\n    and Come-no-further Gate, and say: for the OFFERINGS set up that\n    you may prevent [the servants of the monarch] from being\n    poisoned by and agreeing with the things which shall come\n    roughly-acting and hating from the Root-country, the\n    Bottom-country, that you may guard the bottom (of the gate) when\n    they come from the bottom, guard the top when they come from the\n    top, guarding with nightly guard and with daily guard, and may\n    praise them--peacefully take the great OFFERINGS which are set\n    up by piling them up like a range of hills, that is to say,\n    providing bright cloth, etc., ... and sitting closing-up the way\n    like innumerable piles of rock in the multitudinous\n    road-forkings, deign to praise the sovran GRANDCHILD'S\n    augustness eternally and unchangingly, and to bless his age as a\n    luxuriant AGE.\n\nRetreating to another part of the world--that is, into southwestern\nJapan--Izanami purified himself by bathing in a stream. While washing\nhimself,[5] many kami were borne from the rinsings of his person, one of\nthem, from the left eye (the left in Japanese is always the honorable\nside), being the far-shining or heaven-illuminating kami, whose name,\nAmat\u00e9ras\u016d, or Heaven-shiner, is usually translated \"The Sun-goddess.\"\nThis personage is the centre of the system of Shint\u014d. The creation of\ngods by a process of cleansing has had a powerful effect on the\nJapanese, who usually associate cleanliness of the body (less moral,\nthan physical) with godliness.\n\nIt is not necessary to detail further the various stories which make up\nthe Japanese mythology. Some of these are lovely and beautiful, but\nothers are horrible and disgusting, while the dominant note throughout\nis abundant filthiness.\n\nProfessor Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world such good\nservice in translating into English the whole of the Kojiki, and\nfurnishing it with learned commentary and notes, has well said:\n\n    \"The shocking obscenity of word and act to which the 'Records'\n    bear witness is another ugly feature which must not quite be\n    passed over in silence. It is true that decency, as we\n    understand it, is a very modern product, and it is not to be\n    looked for in any society in the barbarous stage. At the same\n    time, the whole range of literature might perhaps be ransacked\n    for a parallel to the na\u00efve filthiness of the passage forming\n    Sec. IV. of the following translation, or to the extraordinary\n    topic which the hero Yamato-Tak\u00e9 and his mistress Miyadz\u016d are\n    made to select as the theme of poetical repartee. One passage\n    likewise would lead us to suppose that the most beastly crimes\n    were commonly committed.\"[6]\n\nIndeed, it happens in several instances that the thread by which the\nmarvellous patchwork of unrelated and varying local myths is joined\ntogether, is an indecent love story.\n\nA thousand years after the traditions of the Kojiki had been committed\nto writing, and orthodox Shint\u014d commentators had learned science from\nthe Dutch at Nagasaki, the stirring of the world mud by Izanagi's\nspear[7] was gravely asserted to be the cause of the diurnal revolution\nof the earth upon its axis, the point of the axis being still the jewel\nspear.[8] Onogoro-jima, or the Island of the Congealed Drop, was\nformerly at the north pole,[9] but subsequently removed to its present\nposition. How this happened is not told.\n\n\nLife in Japan During the Divine Age.\n\n\nNow that the Kojiki is in English and all may read it, we can clearly\nsee who and what were the Japanese in the ages before letters and\nChinese civilization; for these stories of the kami are but legendary\nand mythical accounts of men and women. One could scarcely recognize in\nthe islanders of eleven or twelve hundred years ago, the polished,\nbrilliant, and interesting people of to-day. Yet truth compels us to say\nthat social morals in Dai Nippon, even with telegraphs and railways, are\nstill more like those of ancient days than readers of rhapsodies by\nsummer tourists might suppose. These early Japanese, indeed, were\npossibly in a stage of civilization somewhat above that of the most\nadvanced of the American Indians when first met by Europeans, for they\nhad a rude system of agriculture and knew the art of fashioning iron\ninto tools and weapons. Still, they were very barbarous, certainly as\nmuch so as our Germanic \"forbears.\" They lived in huts. They were\nwithout writing or commerce, and were able to count only to ten.[10]\nTheir cruelty was as revolting as that of the savage tribes of America.\nThe family was in its most rudimentary stage, with little or no\nrestraint upon the passions of men. Children of the same father, but not\nof the same mother, could intermarry. The instances of men marrying\ntheir sisters or aunts were very common. There was no art, unless the\nmaking of clay images, to take the place of the living human victims\nburied up to their necks in earth and left to starve on the death of\ntheir masters,[11] may be designated as such.\n\nThe Magatama, or curved jewels, being made of ground and polished stone\nmay be called jewelry; but since some of these prehistoric ornaments dug\nup from the ground are found to be of jade, a mineral which does not\noccur in Japan, it is evident that some of these tokens of culture came\nfrom the continent. Many other things produced by more or less skilled\nmechanics, the origin of which is poetically recounted in the story of\nthe dancing of Uzum\u00e9 before the cave in which the Sun-goddess had hid\nherself,[12] were of continental origin. Evidently these men of the\ngod-way had passed the \"stone age,\" and, probably without going through\nthe intermediate bronze age, were artificers of iron and skilled in its\nuse. Most of the names of metals and of many other substances, and the\nterms used in the arts and sciences, betray by their tell-tale etymology\ntheir Chinese origin. Indeed, it is evident that some of the leading\nkami were born in Korea or Tartary.\n\nThen as now the people in Japan loved nature, and were quickly sensitive\nto her beauty and profoundly in sympathy with her varied phenomena. In\nthe medi\u00e6val ages, Japanese Wordsworths are not unknown.[13] Sincerely\nthey loved nature, and in some respects they seemed to understand the\ncharacter of their country far better than the alien does or can. Though\na land of wonderful beauty, the Country of Peaceful Shores is enfolded\nin powers of awful destructiveness. With the earthquake and volcano, the\ntyphoon and the tidal wave, beauty and horror alternate with a swiftness\nthat is amazing.\n\nProbably in no portion of the earth are the people and the land more\nlike each other or apparently better acquainted with each other. Nowhere\nare thought and speech more reflective of the features of the landscape.\nEven after ten centuries, the Japanese are, in temperament, what the\nKojiki reveals them to have been in their early simplicity. Indeed, just\nas the modern Frenchman, down beneath his outward environments and his\nhabiliments cut and fitted yesterday, is intrinsically the same Gaul\nwhom Julius C\u00e6sar described eighteen hundred years ago, so the gentleman\nof T\u014dki\u014d or Ki\u014dto is, in his mental make-up, wonderfully like\nhis ancestors described by the first Japanese Stanley, who shed the\nlight of letters upon the night of unlettered Japan and darkest Dai\nNippon.\n\nThe Kojiki reveals to us, likewise, the childlike religious ideas of the\nislanders. Heaven lay, not about but above them in their infancy, yet\nnot far away. Although in the \"Notices,\" it is \"the high plain of\nheaven,\" yet it is just over their heads, and once a single pillar\njoined it and the earth. Later, the idea was, that it was held up by the\npillar-gods of the wind, and to them norito were recited. \"The great\nplain of the blue sea\" and \"the land of luxuriant reeds\" form \"the\nworld\"--which means Japan. The gods are only men of prowess or renown. A\nkami is anything wonderful--god or man, rock or stream, bird or snake,\nwhatever is surprising, sensational, or phenomenal, as in the little\nchild's world of to-day. There is no sharp line dividing gods from men,\nthe natural from the supernatural, even as with the normal uneducated\nJapanese of to-day. As for the kami or gods, they have all sorts of\ncharacters; some of them being rude and ill-mannered, many of them\nbeastly and filthy, while others are noble and benevolent. The\nattributes of moral purity, wisdom and holiness, cannot be, and in the\noriginal writings are not, ascribed to them; but they were strong and\nhad power. In so far as they had power they were called kami or gods,\nwhether celestial or terrestrial. Among the kami--the one term under\nwhich they are all included--there were heavenly bodies, mountains,\nrivers, trees, rocks and animals, because those also were supposed to\npossess force, or at least some kind of influence for good or evil. Even\npeaches, as we have seen, when transformed into rocks, became gods.[14]\n\nThat there was worship with awe, reverence, and fear, and that the\nfestivals and sacrifices had two purposes, one of propitiating the\noffended Kami and the other of purifying the worshipper, may be seen in\nthe norito or liturgies, some of which are exceedingly beautiful.[15] In\nthem the feelings of the gods are often referred to. Sometimes their\ncharacters are described. Yet one looks in vain in either the \"Notices,\"\npoems, or liturgies for anything definite in regard to these deities, or\nconcerning morals or doctrines to be held as dogmas. The first gods come\ninto existence after evolution of the matter of which they are composed\nhas taken place. The later gods are sometimes able to tell who are their\nprogenitors, sometimes not. They live and fight, eat and drink, and give\nvent to their appetites and passions, and then they die; but exactly\nwhat becomes of them after they die, the record does not state. Some are\nin heaven, some on the earth, some in Hades. The underworld of the first\ncycle of tradition is by no means that of the second.[16] Some of the\nkami are in the water, or on the water, or in the air. As for man, there\nis no clear statement as to whether he is to have any future life or\nwhat is to become of him, though the custom or jun-shi, or dying with\nthe master, points to a sort of immortality such as the early Greeks and\nthe Iroquois believed in.\n\nIt would task the keenest and ablest Shint\u014dist to deduce or construct\na system of theology, or of ethics, or of anthropology from the mass of\ntradition so full of gaps and discord as that found in the Kojiki, and\nnone has done it. Nor do the inaccurate, distorted, and often almost\nwholly factitious translations, so-called, of French and other writers,\nwho make versions which hit the taste of their occidental readers far\nbetter than they express the truth, yield the desired information. Like\nthe end strands of a new spider's web, the lines of information on most\nvital points are still \"in the air.\"\n\n\nThe Ethics of the God-way.\n\n\nThere are no codes of morals inculcated in the god-way, for even its\nmodern revivalists and exponents consider that morals are the invention\nof wicked people like the Chinese; while the ancient Japanese were pure\nin thought and act. They revered the gods and obeyed the Mikado, and\nthat was the chief end of man, in those ancient times when Japan was the\nworld and Heaven was just above the earth. Not exactly on Paul's\nprinciple of \"where there is no law there is no transgression,\" but\nutterly scouting the idea that formulated ethics were necessary for\nthese pure-minded people, the modern revivalists of Shint\u014d teach that\nall that is \"of faith\" now is to revere the gods, keep the heart pure,\nand follow its dictates.[17] The na\u00efvet\u00e9 of the representatives of\nShint\u014d at Chicago in A.D. 1893, was almost as great as that of the\nrevivalists who wrote when Japan was a hermit nation.\n\nThe very fact that there was no moral commandments, not even of loyalty\nor obedience such as Confucianism afterward promulgated and formulated,\nis proof to the modern Shint\u014dist that the primeval Japanese were pure\nand holy; they did right, naturally, and hence he does not hesitate to\ncall Japan, the Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits, the\nRegion Between Heaven and Earth, the Island of the Congealed Drop, the\nSun's Nest, the Princess Country, the Land of Great Peace, the Land of\nGreat Gentleness, the Mikado's Empire, the Country ruled by a Theocratic\nDynasty. He considers that only with the vice brought over from the\nContinent of Asia were ethics both imported and made necessary.[18]\n\nAll this has been solemnly taught by famous Shint\u014d scholars of the\neighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and is still practically\npromulgated in the polemic Shint\u014d literature of to-day, even after\nthe Kojiki has been studied and translated into European languages. The\nKojiki shows that whatever the men may have been or done, the gods were\nabominably obscene, and both in word and deed were foul and revolting,\nutterly opposed in act to those reserves of modesty or standards of\nshame that exist even among the cultivated Japanese to-day.[19] Even\namong the Ainos, whom the Japanese look upon as savages, there is still\nmuch of the obscenity of speech which belongs to all society[20] in a\nstate of barbarism; but it has been proved that genuine modesty is a\ncharacteristic of the Aino women.[21] A literal English translation of\nthe Kojiki, however, requires an abundant use of Latin in order to\nprotect it from the grasp of the law in English-speaking Christendom. In\nChamberlain's version, the numerous cesspools are thus filled up with a\ndead language, and the road is constructed for the reader, who likes the\nlanguage of Edmund Spencer, of William Tyndale and of John Ruskin kept\nunsoiled.\n\nThe cruelty which marks this early stage shows that though moral codes\ndid not exist, the Buddhist and Confucian missionary were for Japan\nnecessities of the first order. Comparing the result to-day with the\nstate of things in the early times, one must award high praise to\nBuddhism that it has made the Japanese gentle, and to Confucianism that\nit has taught the proprieties of life, so that the polished Japanese\ngentleman, as to courtesy, is in many respects the peer and at some\nexternal points the superior, of his European confr\u00e8re.\n\nAnother fact, made repulsively clear, about life in ancient Japan, is\nthat the high ideals of truth and honor, characteristic at least of the\nSamurai of modern times, were utterly unknown in the days of the kami.\nTreachery was common. Instances multiply on the pages of the Kojiki\nwhere friend betrayed friend. The most sacred relations of life were\nviolated. Altogether these were the darkest ages of Japan, though, as\namong the red men of America, there were not wanting many noble examples\nof stoical endurance, of courage, and of power nobly exerted for the\nbenefit of others.\n\n\nThe Rise of Mikadoism.\n\n\nNevertheless we must not forget that the men of the early age of the\nKami no Michi conquered the aborigines by superior dogmas and fetiches,\nas well as by superior weapons. The entrance of these heroes, invaders\nfrom the highlands of the Asian continent, by way of Korea, was\nrelatively a very influential factor of progress, though not so\nimportant as was the Aryan descent upon India, or the Norman invasion of\nEngland, for the aboriginal tribes were vastly lower in the scale of\nhumanity than their subduers. Where they found savagery they introduced\nbarbarism, which, though unlettered and based on the sword, was a vast\nimprovement over what may be called the geological state of man, in\nwhich he is but slightly raised above the brutes.\n\nFor the proofs from the shell heaps, combined with the reflected\nevidences of folk-lore, show, that cannibalism[22] was common in the\nearly ages, and that among the aboriginal hill tribes it lingered after\nthe inhabitants of the plain and shore had been subdued. The conquerors,\nwho made themselves paramount over the other tribes and who developed\nthe Kami religion, abolished this relic of savagery, and gave order\nwhere there had been chronic war. Another thing that impresses us\nbecause of its abundant illustrations, is the prevalence of human\nsacrifices. The very ancient folk-lore shows that beautiful maidens were\ndemanded by the \"sea-gods\" in propitiation, or were devoured by the\n\"dragons.\" These human victims were either chosen or voluntarily\noffered, and in some instances were rescued from their fate by\nchivalrous heroes[23] from among the invaders.\n\nThese gods of the sea, who anciently were propitiated by the sacrifice\nof human beings, are the same to whom Japanese sailors still pray,\ndespite their Buddhism. The title of the efficient victims was\n_hitoga-shira_, or human pillars. Instances of this ceremony, where men\nwere lowered into the water and drowned in order to make the sure\nfoundation for bridges, piers or sea-walls, or where they were buried\nalive in the earth in order to lay the right bases for walls or castles,\nare quite numerous, and most of the local histories contain specific\ntraditions.[24] These traditions, now transfigured, still survive in\ncustoms that are as beautiful as they are harmless. To reformers of\npre-Buddhistic days, belongs the credit of the abolition of jun-shi, or\ndying with the master by burial alive, as well as of the sacrifice to\ndragons and sea-gods.\n\nStrange as it may seem, before Buddhism captured and made use of\nShint\u014d for its own purposes (just as it stands ready to-day to absorb\nChristianity by making Jesus one of the Palestinian avatars of the\nBuddha), the house or tribe of Yamato, with its claim to descent from\nthe heavenly gods, and with its Mikado or god-ruler, had given to the\nBuddhists a precedent and potent example. Shint\u014d, as a state religion\nor union of politics and piety, with its system of shrines and\nfestivals, and in short the whole Kami no Michi, or Shint\u014d as we know\nit, from the sixth to the eighth century, was in itself (in part at\nleast), a case of the absorption of one religion by another.\n\nIn short, the Mikado tribe or Yamato clan did, in reality, capture the\naboriginal religion, and turn it into a great political machine. They\nattempted syncretism and succeeded in their scheme. They added to their\nown stock of dogma and fetich that of the natives. Only, while\nrecognizing the (earth) gods of the aborigines they proclaimed the\nsuperiority of the Mikado as representative and vicegerent of Heaven,\nand demanded that even the gods of the earth, mountain, river, wind, and\nthunder and lightning should obey him. Not content, however, with\nabsorbing and corrupting for political purposes the primitive faith of\nthe aborigines, the invaders corrupted their own religion by carrying\nthe dogma of the divinity and infallibility of the Mikado too far.\nStopping short of no absurdity, they declared their chief greater even\nthan the heavenly gods, and made their religion centre in him rather\nthan in his alleged heavenly ancestors, or \"heaven.\" In the interest of\npolitics and conquest, and for the sake of maintaining the prestige of\ntheir tribe and clan, these \"Mikado-reverencers\" of early ages advanced\nfrom dogma to dogma, until their leader was virtually chief god in a\ngreat pantheon.\n\nA critical native Japanese, student of the Kojiki and of the early\nwritings, Professor Kumi, formerly of the Imperial University in\nT\u014dki\u014d, has brought to light abundant evidence to show that the\naboriginal religion found by the Yamato conquerors was markedly\ndifferent at many vital points, from that which was long afterward\ncalled Shint\u014d.\n\nIf the view of recent students of anthropology be correct, that the\nelements dominating the population in ancient Japan were in the south,\nMalay; in the north, Aino; and in the central region, or that occupied\nby the Yamato men, Korean; then, these continental invaders may have\nbeen worshippers of Heaven and have possessed a religion closely akin to\nthat of ancient China with its monotheism. It is very probable also that\nthey came into contact with tribes or colonies of their\nfellow-continentals from Asia. These tribes, hunters, fishermen, or rude\nagriculturists--who had previously reached Japan--practised many rites\nand ceremonies which were much like those of the new invaders. It is\ncertain also, as we have seen, that the Yamato men made ultimate\nconquest and unification of all the islanders, not merely by the\nsuperiority of their valor and of their weapons of iron, but also by\ntheir dogmas. After success in battle, and the first beginnings of rude\ngovernment, they taught their conquered subjects or over-awed vassals,\nthat they were the descendants of the heavenly gods; that their\nancestors had come down from heaven; find that their chief or Mikado was\na god. According to the same dogmatics, the aborigines were descendants\nof the earth-born gods, and as such must obey the descendants of the\nheavenly gods, and their vicegerent upon the earth, the Mikado.\n\n\nPurification of Offences.\n\n\nThese heaven-descended Yamato people were in the main agriculturists,\nthough of a rude order, while the outlying tribes were mostly hunters\nand fishermen; and many of the rituals show the class of crimes which\nnomads, or men of unsettled life, would naturally commit against their\nneighbors living in comparatively settled order. It is to be noted that\nin the god-way the origin of evil is to be ascribed to evil gods. These\nkami pollute, and pollution is iniquity. From this iniquity the people\nare to be purged by the gods of purification, to whom offerings are duly\nmade.\n\nHe who would understand the passion for cleanliness which characterizes\nthe Japanese must look for its source in their ancient religion. The\nroot idea of the word _tsumi_, which Mr. Satow translated as \"offence,\"\nis that of pollution. On this basis, of things pure and things defiling,\nthe ancient teachers of Shint\u014d made their classification of what was\ngood and what was bad. From the impression of what was repulsive arose\nthe idea of guilt.\n\nIn rituals translated by Mr. Satow, the list of offences is given and\nthe defilements are to be removed to the nether world, or, in common\nfact, the polluted objects and the expiatory sacrifices are to be thrown\ninto the rivers and thence carried to the sea, where they fall to the\nbottom of the earth. The following norito clearly shows this.\nFurthermore, as Mr. Satow, the translator, points out, this ritual\ncontains the germ of criminal law, a whole code of which might have been\nevolved and formulated under Shint\u014d, had not Buddhism arrested its\ngrowth.\n\n    Amongst the various sorts of offences which may be committed in\n    ignorance or out of negligence by heaven's increasing people,\n    who shall come into being in the country, which the Sovran\n    GRANDCHILD'S augustness, hiding in the fresh RESIDENCE, built by\n    stoutly planting the HOUSE-pillars on the bottom-most rocks, and\n    exalting the cross-beams to the plain of high heaven, as his\n    SHADE from the heavens and SHADE from the sun, shall tranquilly\n    ruin as a peaceful country, namely, the country of great Yamato,\n    where the sun is soon on high, which he fixed upon as a peaceful\n    country, as the centre of the countries of the four quarters\n    thus bestowed upon him--breaking the ridges, filling up\n    water-courses, opening sluices, double-sowing, planting stakes,\n    flaying alive, flaying backwards, and dunging; many of such\n    offences are distinguished as heavenly offences, and as earthly\n    offences; cutting living flesh, cutting dead flesh, leprosy,\n    proud-flesh, ... calamities of crawling worms, calamities of a\n    god on high, calamities of birds on high, the offences of\n    killing beasts and using incantations; many of such offences may\n    be disclosed.\n\n    When he has thus repeated it, the heavenly gods will push open\n    heaven's eternal gates, and cleaving a path with might through\n    the manifold clouds of heaven, will hear; and the country gods,\n    ascending to the tops of the high mountains, and to the tops of\n    the low hills, and tearing asunder the mists of the high\n    mountains and the mists of the low hills, will hear.\n\n    And when they have thus heard, the\n    Maiden-of-Descent-into-the-Current, who dwells in the current of\n    the swift stream which boils down the ravines from the tops of\n    the high mountains, and the tops of the low hills, shall carry\n    out to the great sea plain the offences which are cleared away\n    and purified, so that there be no remaining offence; like as\n    Shinato's wind blows apart the manifold clouds of heaven, as the\n    morning wind and the evening wind blow away the morning mist and\n    the evening mist, as the great ships which lie on the shore of a\n    great port loosen their prows, and loosen their sterns to push\n    out into the great sea-plain; as the trunks of the forest trees,\n    far and near, are cleared away by the sharp sickle, the sickle\n    forged with fire: so that there ceased to be any offence called\n    an offence in the court of the Sovran GRANDCHILD'S augustness to\n    begin with, and in the countries of the four quarters of the\n    region under heaven.\n\n    And when she thus carries them out and away, the deity called\n    the Maiden-of-the-Swift-cleansing, who dwells in the\n    multitudinous meetings of the sea waters, the multitudinous\n    currents of rough sea-waters shall gulp them down.\n\n    And when she has thus gulped them down, the lord of the\n    Breath-blowing-place, who dwells in the Breath-blowing-place,\n    shall utterly blow them away with his breath to the\n    Root-country, the Bottom-country.\n\n    And when he has thus blown them away, the deity called the\n    Maiden-of-Swift-Banishment, who dwells in the Root-country, the\n    Bottom-country, shall completely banish them, and get rid of\n    them.\n\n    And when they have thus been got rid of, there shall from this\n    day onwards be no offence which is called offence, with regard\n    to the men of the offices who serve in the court of the Sovran,\n    nor in the four quarters of the region under heaven.\n\nThen the high priest says:\n\n    Hear all of you how he leads forth the horse, as a thing that\n    erects its ears towards the plain of high heaven, and deigns to\n    sweep away and purify with the general purification, as the\n    evening sun goes down on the last day of the watery moon of this\n    year.\n\n    O diviners of the four countries, take (the sacrifices) away out\n    to the river highway, and sweep them away.\n\n\nMikadoism Usurps the Primitive God-way.\n\n\nA further proof of the transformation of the primitive god-way in the\ninterest of practical politics, is shown by Professor Kumi in the fact\nthat some of the festivals now directly connected with the Mikado's\nhouse, and even in his honor, were originally festivals with which he\nhad nothing to do, except as leader of the worship, for the honor was\npaid to Heaven, and not to his ancestors. Professor Kumi maintains that\nthe thanksgivings of the court were originally to Heaven itself, and not\nin honor of Amat\u00e9ras\u016d, the sun-goddess, as is now popularly believed.\nIt is related in the Kojiki that Amat\u00e9ras\u016d herself celebrated the\nfeast of Niinam\u00e9. So also, the temple of Is\u00e9, the Mecca of Shint\u014d,\nand the Holy shrine in the imperial palace were originally temples for\nthe worship of Heaven. The inferior gods of earthly origin form no part\nof primitive Shint\u014d.\n\nNot one of the first Mikados was deified after death, the deification of\nemperors dating from the corruption which Shint\u014d underwent after the\nintroduction of Buddhism. Only by degrees was the ruler of the country\ngiven a place in the worship, and this connection was made by\nattributing to him descent from Heaven. In a word, the contention of\nProfessor Kumi is, that the ancient religion of at least a portion of\nthe Japanese and especially of those in central Japan, was a rude sort\nof monotheism, coupled, as in ancient China, with the worship of\nsubordinate spirits.\n\nIt is needless to say that such applications of the higher criticism to\nthe ancient sacred documents proved to be no safer for the applier than\nif he had lived in the United States of America. The orthodox\nShint\u014dists were roused to wrath and charged the learned critic with\n\"degrading Shint\u014d to a mere branch of Christianity.\" The government,\nwhich, despite its Constitution and Diet, is in the eyes of the people\nreally based on the myths of the Kojiki, quickly put the professor on\nthe retired list.[25]\n\nIt is probably correct to say that the arguments adduced by Professor\nKumi, confirm our theory of the substitution in the simple god-way, of\nMikadoism, the centre of the primitive worship being the sun and nature\nrather than Heaven.\n\nBetween the ancient Chinese religion with its abstract idea of Heaven\nand its personal term for God, and the more poetic and childlike system\nof the god-way, there seems to be as much difference as there is\nracially between the people of the Middle Kingdom and those of the Land\nWhere the Day Begins. Indeed, the entrance of Chinese philosophical and\nabstract ideas seemed to paralyze the Japanese imagination. Not only did\nmyth-making, on its purely \u00e6sthetic and non-utilitarian side cease\nalmost at once, but such myths as were formed were for direct business\npurposes and with a transparent tendency. Henceforth, in the domain of\nimagination the Japanese intellect busied itself with assimilating or\nre-working the abundant material imported by Buddhism.\n\n\nAncient Customs and Usages.\n\n\nIn the ancient god-way the temple or shrine was called a miya. After the\nadvent of Buddhism the keepers of the shrine were called kannushi, that\nis, shrine keepers or wardens of the god. These men were usually\ndescendants of the god in whose honor the temples were built. The gods\nbeing nothing more than human founders of families, reverence was paid\nto them as ancestors, and so the basis of Shint\u014d is ancestor worship.\nThe model of the miya, in modern as in ancient times, is the primitive\nhut as it was before Buddhism introduced Indian and Chinese\narchitecture. The posts, stuck in the ground, and not laid upon stones\nas in after times, supported the walls and roof, the latter being of\nthatch. The rafters, crossed at the top, were tied along the ridge-pole\nwith the fibres of creepers or wistaria vines. No paint, lacquer,\ngilding, or ornaments of any sort existed in the ancient shrine, and\neven to-day the modern Shint\u014d temple must be of pure hinoki or\nsun-wood, and thatched, while the use of metal is as far as possible\navoided. To the gods, as the norito show, offerings of various kinds\nwere made, consisting of the fruits of the soil, the products of the\nsea, and the fabrics of the loom.\n\nInside modern temples one often sees a mirror, in which foreigners with\nlively imaginations read a great deal that is only the shadow of their\nown mind, but which probably was never known in Shint\u014d temples until\nafter Buddhist times. They also see in front of the unpainted wooden\nclosets or casements, wands or sticks of wood from which depend masses\nor strips of white paper, cut and notched in a particular way.\nForeigners, whose fancy is nimble, have read in these the symbols of\nlightning, the abode of the spirits and various forthshadowings unknown\neither to the Japanese or the ancient writings. In reality these\n_gohei_, or honorable offerings, are nothing more than the paper\nrepresentatives of the ancient offerings of cloth which were woven, as\nthe arts progressed, of bark, of hemp and of silk.\n\nThe chief Shint\u014d ministers of religion and shrine-keepers belonged to\nparticular families, which were often honored with titles and offices by\nthe emperor. In ordinary life they dressed like others of their own rank\nor station, but when engaged in their sacred office were robed in white\nor in a special official costume, wearing upon their heads the _\u00e9boshi_\nor peculiar cap which we associate with Japanese arch\u00e6ology. They knew\nnothing of celibacy; but married, reared families and kept their scalps\nfree from the razor, though some of the lower order of shrine-keepers\ndressed their hair in ordinary style, that is, with shaven poll and\ntopknot. At some of the more important shrines, like those at Is\u00e9, there\nwere virgin priestesses who acted as custodians both of the shrines and\nof the relics.[26]\n\nIn front of the miyas stood what we should suppose on first seeing was a\ngateway. This was the _torii_ or bird-perch, and anciently was made only\nof unpainted wood. Two upright tree-trunks held crosswise on a smooth\ntree-trunk the ends of which projected somewhat over the supports, while\nunder this was a smaller beam inserted between the two uprights. On the\ntorii, the birds, generally barn-yard fowls which were sacred to the\ngods, roosted. These creatures were not offered up as sacrifices, but\nwere chanticleers to give notice of day-break and the rising of the sun.\nThe cock holds a prominent place in Japanese myth, legend, art and\nsymbolism. How this feature of pure Japanese architecture, the torii,\nafterward lost its meaning, we shall show in our lecture on Riy\u014dbu or\nmixed Buddhism.\n\n\nShint\u014d's Emphasis on Cleanliness.\n\n\nOne of the most remarkable features of Shint\u014d was the emphasis laid\non cleanliness. Pollution was calamity, defilement was sin, and physical\npurity at least, was holiness. Everything that could in any way soil the\nbody or the clothing was looked upon with abhorrence and detestation.\nDisease, wounds and death were defiling, and the feeling of disgust\nprevailed over that of either sympathy or pity. Birth and death were\nespecially polluting. Anciently there were huts built both for the\nmother about to give birth to a child, or for the man who was dying or\nsure to die of disease or wounds. After the birth of the infant or the\ndeath of the patient these houses were burned. Cruel as this system was\nto the woman at a time when she needed most care and comfort, and brutal\nas it seems in regard to the sick and dying, yet this ancient custom was\ncontinued in a few remote places in Japan as late as the year 1878.[27]\nIn modern days with equal knowledge of danger and defilement, tenderness\nand compassion temper the feeling of disgust, and prevail over it.\nHorror of uncleanliness was so great that the priests bathed and put on\nclean garments before making the sacred offerings or chanting the\nliturgies, and were accustomed to bind a slip of paper over their mouths\nlest their breath should pollute the offering. Numerous were the special\nfestivals, observed simply for purification. Salt also was commonly used\nto sprinkle over the ground, and those who attended a funeral must free\nthemselves from contamination by the use of salt.[28] Purification by\nwater was habitual and in varied forms. The ancient emperors and priests\nactually performed the ablution of the people or made public lustration\nin their behalf.\n\nAfterwards, and probably because population increased and towns sprang\nup, we find it was customary at the festivals of purification to perform\npublic ablution, vicariously, as it were, by means of paper mannikins\ninstead of making applications of water to the human cuticle. Twice a\nyear paper figures representing the people were thrown into the river,\nthe typical meaning of which was that the nation was thereby cleansed\nfrom the sins, that is, the defilements, of the previous half-year.\nStill later, the Mikado made the chief minister of religion at Ki\u014dto\nhis deputy to perform the symbolical act for the people of the whole\ncountry.\n\n\nPrayers to Myriads of Gods.\n\n\nIn prayer, the worshipper, approaching the temple but not entering it,\npulls a rope usually made of white material and attached to a\npeculiar-shaped bell hung over the shrine, calling the attention of the\ndeity to his devotions. Having washed his hands and rinsed out his\nmouth, he places his hands reverently together and offers his petition.\n\nConcerning the method and words of prayer, Hirata, a famous exponent of\nShint\u014d, thus writes:\n\n    As the number of the gods who possess different functions is so\n    great, it will be convenient to worship by name only the most\n    important and to include the rest in a general petition. Those\n    whose daily affairs are so multitudinous that they have not time\n    to go through the whole of the following morning prayers, may\n    content themselves with adoring the residence of the emperor,\n    the domestic kami-dana, the spirits of their ancestors, their\n    local patron god and the deity of their particular calling in\n    life.\n\n    In praying to the gods the blessings which each has it in his\n    power to bestow are to be mentioned in a few words, and they are\n    not to be annoyed with greedy petitions, for the Mikado in his\n    palace offers up petitions daily on behalf of his people, which\n    are far more effectual than those of his subjects.\n\n    Rising early in the morning, wash your face and hands, rinse out\n    the mouth and cleanse the body. Then turn toward the province of\n    Yamato, strike the palms of the hands together twice, and\n    worship, bowing the head to the ground. The proper posture is\n    that of kneeling on the heels, which is ordinarily assumed in\n    saluting a superior.\n\n    PRAYER.\n\n    From a distance I reverently worship with awe before Am\u00e9 no\n    Mi-hashira (Heaven-pillar) and Kuni no Mi-hashira\n    (Country-pillar), also called Shinatsu-hiko no kami and\n    Shinatsu-him\u00e9 no kami, to whom is consecrated the Palace built\n    with stout pillars at Tatsuta no Tachinu in the department of\n    H\u00e9guri in the province of Yamato.\n\n    I say with awe, deign to bless me by correcting the unwitting\n    faults which, seen and heard by you, I have committed, by\n    blowing off and clearing away the calamities which evil gods\n    might inflict, by causing me to live long like the hard and\n    lasting rock, and by repeating to the gods of heavenly origin\n    and to the gods of earthly origin the petitions which I present\n    every day, along with your breath, that they may hear with the\n    sharp-earedness of the forth-galloping colt.\n\nTo the common people the sun is actually a god, as none can doubt who\nsees them worshipping it morning and evening. The writer can never\nforget one of many similar scenes in T\u014dki\u014d, when late one\nafternoon after O Tent\u014d Sama (the sun-Lord of Heaven), which had been\nhidden behind clouds for a fortnight, shone out on the muddy streets. In\na moment, as with the promptness of a military drill, scores of people\nrushed out of their houses and with faces westward, kneeling, squatting,\nbegan prayer and worship before the great luminary. Besides all the\ngods, supreme, subordinate and local, there is in nearly every house the\nKami-dana or god-shelf. This is usually over the door inside. It\ncontains images with little paper-covered wooden tablets having the\ngod's name on them. Offerings are made by day and a little lamp is\nlighted at night. The following is one of several prayers which are\naddressed to this kami-dana.\n\n    Reverently adoring the great god of the two palaces of Is\u00e9, in\n    the first place, the eight hundred myriads of celestial gods,\n    the eight hundred myriads of terrestrial gods, all the fifteen\n    hundred myriads of gods to whom are consecrated the great and\n    small temples in all provinces, all islands and all places of\n    the Great Land of Eight Islands, the fifteen hundreds of myriads\n    of gods whom they cause to serve them, and the gods of branch\n    palaces and branch temples, and Sohodo no kami, whom I have\n    invited to the shrine set up on this divine shelf, and to whom I\n    offer praises day by day, I pray with awe that they will deign\n    to correct the unwitting faults, which, heard and seen by them,\n    I have committed, and blessing and favoring me according to the\n    powers which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine\n    example, and to perform good works in the Way.\n\n\nShint\u014d Left in a State of Arrested Development.\n\n\nThus from the emperor to the humblest believer, the god-way is founded\non ancestor worship, and has had grafted upon its ritual system nature\nworship, even to phallicism.[29] In one sense it is a self-made religion\nof the Japanese. Its leading characteristics are seen in the traits of\nthe normal Japanese character of to-day. Its power for good and evil may\nbe traced in the education of the Japanese through many centuries.\nKnowing Shint\u014d, we to a large degree know the Japanese, their virtues\nand their failings.\n\nWhat Shint\u014d might have become in its full evolution had it been left\nalone, we cannot tell. Whether in the growth of the nation and without\nthe pressure of Buddhism, Confucianism or other powerful influences from\noutside, the scattered and fragmentary mythology might have become\norganized into a harmonious system, or codes of ethics have been\nformulated, or the doctrines of a future life and the idea of a Supreme\nBeing with personal attributes have been conceived and perfected, are\nquestions the discussion of which may seem to be vain. History, however,\ngives no uncertain answer as to what actually did take place. We do but\nstate what is unchallenged fact, when we say, that after commitment to\nwriting of the myths, poems and liturgies which may be called the basis\nof Shint\u014d, there came a great flood of Chinese and Buddhistic\nliterature and a tremendous expansion of Buddhist missionary activity,\nwhich checked further literary growth of the kami system. These prepared\nthe way for the absorption of the indigenous into the foreign cultus\nunder the form called by an enthusiastic emperor, Riy\u014dbu Shint\u014d,\nor the \"two-fold divine doctrine.\" Of this, we shall speak in another\nlecture.\n\nSuffice it here to say that by the scheme of syncretism propounded by\nK\u014db\u014d in the ninth century, Shint\u014d was practically overlaid by\nthe new faith from India, and largely forgotten as a distinct religion\nby the Japanese people. As late as A.D. 927, there were three thousand\none hundred and thirty-two enumerated metropolitan and provincial\ntemples, besides many more unenumerated village and hamlet shrines of\nShint\u014d. These are referred to in the revised codes of ceremonial law\nset forth by imperial authority early in the tenth century. Probably by\nthe twelfth century the pure rites of the god-way were celebrated, and\nthe unmixed traditions maintained, in families and temples, so few as to\nbe counted on the fingers. The ancient language in which the archaic\nforms had been preserved was so nearly lost and buried, that out of the\nooze of centuries of oblivion, it had to be rescued by the skilled\ndivers of the seventeenth century. Mabuchi, Mot\u00f6ri and the other\nrevivalists of pure Shint\u014d, like the plungers after orient pearls,\npersevered until they had first recovered much that had been supposed\nirretrievably lost. These scholars deciphered and interpreted the\nancient scriptures, poetry, prose, history, law and ritual, and once\nmore set forth the ancient faith, as they believed, in its purity.\n\nWhether, however, men can exactly reproduce and think for themselves the\nthoughts of others who have been dead for a millennium, is an open\nquestion. The new system is apt to be transparent. Just as it is nearly\nimpossible for us to restore the religious life, thoughts and orthodoxy\nof the men who lived before the flood, so in the writings of the\nrevivalists of pure Shint\u014d we detect the thoughts of Dutchmen, of\nChinese, and of very modern Japanese. Unconsciously, those who would\nbreathe into the dry bones of dead Shint\u014d the breath of the\nnineteenth century, find themselves compelled to use an oxygen and\nnitrogen generator made in Holland and mounted with Chinese apparatus;\nwithal, lacquered and decorated with the art of to-day. To change from\nmetaphor to matter of fact, modern \"pure Shint\u014d\" is mainly a mass of\nspeculation and philosophy, with a tendency of which the ancient god-way\nknew nothing.\n\n\nThe Modern Revivalists of Kami no Michi.\n\n\nPassing by further mention of the fifteen or more corrupt sects of\nShint\u014dists, we name with honor the native scholars of the\nseventeenth century, who followed the illustrious example of Iy\u00e9yas\u016d,\nthe political unifier of Japan. They ransacked the country and purchased\nfrom temples, mansions and farmhouses, old manuscripts and books, and\nforming libraries began anew the study of ancient language and history.\nK\u00e9ichu (1640-1701), a Buddhist priest, explored and illumined the poems\nof the Many\u014dshu. Kada Adzumar\u014d, born in 1669 near Ki\u014dto, the\nson of a shrine-keeper at Inari, attempted the mastery of the whole\narchaic native language and literature. He made a grand beginning. He is\nunquestionably the founder of the school of Pure Shint\u014d. He died in\n1736. His successor and pupil was Mabuchi (1697-1769), who claimed\ndirect descent from that god which in the form of a colossal crow had\nguided the first chief of the Yamato tribe as he led his invaders\nthrough the country to found the line of Mikados. After Mabuchi came\nMoto\u00f6ri (1730-1801) a remarkable scholar and critic, who, with erudition\nand acuteness, analyzed the ancient literature and showed what were\nChinese or imported elements and what was of native origin. He\nsummarized the principles of the ancient religion, reasserted and\nilluminated with amazing learning and voluminous commentary the archaic\ndocuments, expounded and defended the ancient cosmogony, and in the\nusual style of Japanese polemics preached anew the doctrines of\nShint\u014d. With wonderful na\u00efvet\u00e9 and enthusiasm, Moto\u00f6ri taught that\nJapan was the first part of the earth created, and that it is therefore\nThe Land of the Gods, the Country of the Holy Spirits. The stars were\ncreated from the muck which fell from the spear of Izanagi as he thrust\nit into the warm earth, while the other countries were formed by the\nspontaneous consolidation of the foam of the sea. Morals were invented\nby the Chinese because they were an immoral people, but in Japan there\nis no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acts aright\nif he only consults his own heart. The duty of a good Japanese consists\nin obeying the Mikado, without questioning whether his commands are\nright or wrong. The Mikado is god and vicar of all the gods, hence\ngovernment and religion are the same, the Mikado being the centre of\nChurch and State, which are one. Did the foreign nations know their duty\nthey would at once hasten to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven in\nKi\u014dto.\n\nIt is needless here to dwell upon the tremendous power of Shint\u014d as a\npolitical system, especially when wedded with the forces, generated in\nthe minds of the educated Japanese by modern Confucianism. The Chinese\nethical system, expanded into a philosophy as fascinating as the English\nmaterialistic school of to-day, entered Japan contemporaneously with the\nrevival of the Way of the Gods and of native learning. In full rampancy\nof their vigor, in the seventeenth century these two systems began that\ngeneration of national energy, which in the eighteenth century was\nconsolidated and which in the nineteenth century, though unknown and\nunsuspected by Europeans or Americans, was all ready for phenomenal\nmanifestation and tremendous eruption, even while Perry's fleet was\nbearing the olive branch to Japan. As we all know, this consolidation of\nforces from the inside, on meeting, not with collision but with union,\nthe exterior forces of western civilization, formed a resultant in the\nenergies which have made New Japan.\n\n\nThe Great Purification of 1870.\n\n\nIn 1870, with the Sh\u014dgun of Yedo deposed, the dual system abolished,\nfeudalism in its last gasp and Shint\u014d in full political power, with\nthe ancient council of the gods (Jin Gi Kuan) once more established, and\npurified Shint\u014d again the religion of state, thousands of Riy\u014dbu\nShint\u014d temples were at once purged of all their Buddhist ornaments,\nfurniture, ritual, and everything that might remind the Japanese of\nforeign elements. Then began, logically and actually, the persecution of\nthose Christians, who through all the centuries of repression and\nprohibition had continued their existence, and kept their faith however\nmixed and clouded. Theoretically, ancient belief was re-established, yet\nit was both physically and morally impossible to return wholly to the\nbaldness and austere simplicity of those early ages, in which art and\nliterature were unknown. For a while it seemed as though the miracle\nwould be performed, of turning back the dial of the ages and of plunging\nJapan into the fountain of her own youth. Propaganda was instituted, and\nthe attempts made to convert all the Japanese to Shint\u014d tenets and\npractice were for a while more lively than edifying; but the scheme was\non the whole a splendid failure, and bitter disappointment succeeded the\nfirst exultation of victory. Confronted by modern problems of society\nand government, the Mikado's ministers found themselves unable, if\nindeed willing, to entomb politics in religion, as in the ancient ages.\nFor a little while, in 1868, the Jin Gi Kuan, or Council of the Gods of\nHeaven and Earth, held equal authority with the Dai J\u014d Kuan, or Great\nCouncil of the Government. Pretty soon the first step downward was\ntaken, and from a supreme council it was made one of the ten departments\nof the government. In less than a year followed another retrograde\nmovement and the department was called a board. Finally, in 1877, the\nboard became a bureau. Now, it is hard to tell what rank the Shint\u014d\ncultus occupies in the government, except as a system of guardianship\nover the imperial tombs, a mode of official etiquette, and as one of the\nacknowledged religions of the country.\n\nNevertheless, as an element in that amalgam of religions which forms the\ncreed of most Japanese, Shint\u014d is a living force, and shares with\nBuddhism the arena against advancing Christianity, still supplying much\nof the spring and motive to patriotism.\n\nThe Shint\u014d lecturers with unblushing plagiarism rifled the\nstorehouses of Chinese ethics. They enforced their lessons from the\nConfucian classics. Indeed, most of their homiletical and illustrative\nmaterial is still derived directly therefrom. Their three main official\ntheses and commandments were:\n\n    1. Thou shalt honor the Gods and love thy country.\n\n    2. Thou shalt clearly understand the principles of Heaven, and\n    the duty of man.\n\n    3. Thou shalt revere the Emperor as thy sovereign and obey the\n    will of his Court.\n\nFor nearly twenty years this deliverance of the Japanese Government,\nwhich still finds its strongest support in the national traditions and\nthe reverence of the people for the throne, sufficed for the necessities\nof the case. Then the copious infusion of foreign ideas, the\ndisintegration of the old framework of society, and the weakening of the\nold ties of obedience and loyalty, with the flood of shallow knowledge\nand education which gave especially children and young people just\nenough of foreign ideas to make them dangerous, brought about a\ncondition of affairs which alarmed the conservative and patriotic. Like\nfungus upon a dead tree strange growths had appeared, among others that\nof a class of violently patriotic and half-educated young men and boys,\ncalled _Sosh\u00ed_. These hot-headed youths took it upon themselves to\ndictate national policy to cabinet ministers, and to reconstruct\nsociety, religion and politics. Something like a mania broke out all\nover the country which, in certain respects, reminds us of the\nChildren's Crusade, that once afflicted Europe and the children\nthemselves. Even Christianity did not escape the craze for\nreconstruction. Some of the young believers and pupils of the\nmissionaries seemed determined to make Christianity all over so as to\nsuit themselves. This phase of brain-swelling is not yet wholly over.\nOne could not tell but that something like the Tai Ping rebellion, which\ndisturbed and devastated China, might break out.\n\nThese portentous signs on the social horizon called forth, in 1892, from\nthe government an Imperial Rescript, which required that the emperor's\nphotograph be exhibited in every school, and saluted by all teachers and\nscholars whatever their religious tenets and scruples might be. Most\nChristians as well as Buddhists, saw nothing in this at which to\nscruple. A few, however, finding in it an offence to conscience,\nresigned their positions. They considered the mandate an unwarrantable\ninterference with their rights as conferred by the constitution of 1889,\nwhich in theory is the gift of the emperor to his people.\n\nThe radical Shint\u014dist, to this day, believes that all political\nrights which Japanese enjoy or can enjoy are by virtue of the Mikado's\ngrace and benevolence. It is certain that all Japanese, whatever may be\ntheir religious convictions, consider that the constitution depends for\nits safeguards and its validity largely upon the oath which the Mikado\nswore at the shrine of his heavenly ancestors, that he would himself be\nobedient to it and preserve its provisions inviolate. For this solemn\nceremony a special norito or liturgy was composed and recited.\n\n\nSummary of Shint\u014d.\n\n\nOf Shint\u014d as a system we have long ago given our opinion. In its\nhigher forms, \"Shint\u014d is simply a cultured and intellectual atheism;\nin its lower forms it is blind obedience to governmental and priestly\ndictates.\" \"Shint\u014d,\" says Mr. Ernest Satow, \"as expounded by Moto\u00f6ri\nis nothing more than an engine for reducing the people to a condition of\nmental slavery.\" Japan being a country of very striking natural\nphenomena, the very soil and air lend themselves to support in the\nnative mind this system of worship of heroes and of the forces of\nnature. In spite, however, of the conservative power of the ancestral\ninfluences, the patriotic incentives and the easy morals of Shint\u014d\nunder which lying and licentiousness shelter themselves, it is doubtful\nwhether with the pressure of Buddhism, and the spread of popular\neducation and Christianity, Shint\u014d can retain its hold upon the\nJapanese people. Yet although this is our opinion, it is but fair, and\nit is our duty, to judge every religion by its ideals and not by its\nfailings. The ideal of Shint\u014d is to make people pure and clean in all\ntheir personal and household arrangements; it is to help them to live\nsimply, honestly and with mutual good will; it is to make the Japanese\nlove their country, honor their imperial house and obey their emperor.\nNarrow and local as this religion is, it has had grand exemplars in\nnoble lives and winning characters.\n\nSo far as Shint\u014d is a religion, Christianity meets it not as\ndestroyer but fulfiller, for it too believes that cleanliness is not\nonly next to godliness but a part of it. Jesus as perfect man and\npatriot, Captain of our salvation and Prince of peace, would not destroy\nthe Yamato damashii--the spirit of unconquerable Japan--but rather\nenlarge, broaden, and deepen it, making it love for all humanity.\nReverence for ancestral virtue and example, so far from being weakened,\nis strengthened, and as for devotion to king and ruler, law and society,\nChristianity lends nobler motives and grander sanctions, while\nshowing clearly, not indeed the way of the eight million or more gods,\nbut the way to God--the one living, only and true, even through Him who\nsaid \"I am the Way.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN\n\n\n    \"Things being investigated, knowledge became complete; knowledge\n    being complete, thoughts were sincere; thoughts being sincere,\n    hearts were rectified; hearts being rectified, persons were\n    cultivated; persons being cultivated, families were regulated;\n    families being regulated, states were rightly governed; states\n    being rightly governed, the whole nation was made tranquil and\n    happy.\"\n\n    \"When you know a thing to hold that you know it; and when you do\n    not know a thing to allow that you do not know it; this is\n    knowledge.\"\n\n    \"Old age sometimes becomes second childhood; why should not\n    filial piety become parental love?\"\n\n    \"The superior man accords with the course of the mean. Though he\n    may be all unknown, unregarded by the world, he feels no regret.\n    He is only the sage who is able for this.\"--Sayings of\n    Confucius.\n\n    \"There is, in a word, no bringing down of God to men in\n    Confucianism in order to lift them up to Him. Their moral\n    shortcomings, when brought home to them, may produce a feeling\n    of shame, but hardly a conviction of guilt.\"--James Legge.\n\n    \"Do not to others what you would not have them do to you.\"--The\n    Silver Rule.\n\n    \"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye\n    even so to them.\"--The Golden Rule.\n\n    \"In respect to revenging injury done to master or father, it is\n    granted by the wise and virtuous (Confucius) that you and the\n    injurer cannot live together under the canopy of\n    heaven.\"--Legacy of Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, Cap. iii, Lowder's translation.\n\n    \"But I say unto you forgive your enemies.\"--Jesus.\n\n    \"Thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from\n    everlasting.\"--Isaiah.\n\n\nCHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN\n\nConfucius a Historical Character.\n\n\nIf the greatness of a teacher is to be determined by the number of his\ndisciples, or to be measured by the extent and diversity of his\ninfluence, then the foremost place among all the teachers of mankind\nmust be awarded to The Master Kung (or Confucius, as the Jesuit scholars\nof the seventeenth century Latinized the name). Certainly, he of all\ntruly historic personages is to-day, and for twenty-three centuries has\nbeen, honored by the largest number of followers.\n\nOf the many systems of religion in the world, but few are based upon the\nteachings of one person. The reputed founders of some of them are not\nknown in history with any certainty, and of others--as in the case of\nBuddhism--have become almost as shadows among a great throng of\nimaginary Buddhas or other beings which have sprung from the fancies of\nthe brain and become incorporated into the systems, although the\noriginal teachers may indeed have been historical.\n\nConfucius is a clear and distinct historic person. His parentage, place\nof birth, public life, offices, work and teaching, are well known and\nproperly authenticated. He used the pen freely, and not only compiled,\nedited and transmitted the writings of his predecessors, but composed an\nhistorical and interpretative book. He originated nothing, however, but\non the contrary disowned any purpose of introducing new ideas, or of\nexpressing thoughts of his own not based upon or in perfect harmony with\nthe teaching of the ancients. He was not an original thinker. He was a\ncompiler, an editor, a defender and reproclaimer of the ancient\nreligion, and an exemplar of the wisdom and writings of the Chinese\nfathers. He felt that his duty was exactly that which some Christian\ntheologians of to-day conscientiously feel to be theirs--to receive\nintact a certain \"deposit\" or \"system\" and, adding nothing to it, simply\nto teach, illuminate, defend, enforce and strongly maintain it as \"the\ntruth.\" He gloried in absolute freedom from all novelty, anticipating in\nthis respect a certain illustrious American who made it a matter for\nboasting, that his school had never originated a new idea.[1] Whether or\nnot the Master Kung did nevertheless, either consciously or\nunconsciously, modify the ancient system by abbreviating or enlarging\nit, we cannot now inquire.\n\nConfucius wan born into the world in the year 551 B.C., during that\nwonderful century of religious revival which saw the birth of Ezra,\nGautama, and Lao Tsze, and in boyhood he displayed an unusually sedate\ntemperament which made him seem to be what we would now call an\n\"old-fashioned child.\" The period during which he lived was that of\nfeudal China. From the ago of twenty-two, while holding an office in the\nstate of Lu within the modern province of Shan-Tung, he gathered around\nhim young men as pupils with whom, like Socrates, he conversed in\nquestion and answer. He made the teachings of the ancients the subjects\nof his research, and he was at all times a diligent student of the\nprimeval records. These sacred books are called King, or Ki\u014d in\nJapanese, and are: Shu King, a collection of historic documents; Shih\nKing, or Book of Odes; Hsiao King, or Classic of Filial Piety, and Yi\nKing, or Book of Changes.[2] This division of the old sacred canon,\nresembles the Christian or non-Jewish arrangement of the Old Testament\nscriptures in the four parts of Law, History, Poetry and Prophesy,\nthough in the Chinese we have History, Poetry, Ethics and Divination.[3]\n\nHis own table-talk, conversations, discussions and notes were compiled\nby his pupils, and are preserved in the work entitled in English, \"The\nConfucian Analects,\" which is one of the four books constituting the\nmost sacred portion of Chinese philosophy and instruction. He also wrote\na work named \"Spring and Autumn, or Chronicles of his Native State of Lu\nfrom 722 B.C., to 481[4] B.C.\" He \"changed his world,\" as the Buddhists\nsay, in the year 478 B.C., having lived seventy-three years.\n\n\nPrimitive Chinese Faith.\n\n\nThe pre-Confucian or primitive faith was monotheistic, the forefathers\nof the Chinese nation having been believers in one Supreme Spiritual\nBeing. There is an almost universal agreement among scholars in\ntranslating the term \"Shang Ti\" as God, and in reading from these\nclassics that the forefathers \"in the ceremonies at the altars of Heaven\nand earth ... served God.\" Concurrently with the worship of one Supreme\nGod there was also a belief in subordinate spirits and in the idea of\nrevelation or the communication of God with men. This restricted worship\nof God was accompanied by reverence for ancestors and the honoring of\nspirits by prayers and sacrifices, which resulted, however, neither in\ndeification nor polytheism. But, as the European medi\u00e6val schoolmen have\ndone with the Bible, so, after the death of Confucius the Chinese\nscholastics by metaphysical reasoning and commentary, created systems of\ninterpretation which greatly altered the apparent form and contents of\nhis own and of the ancient texts. Thus, the original monotheism of the\npre-Confucian documents has been completely obscured by the later webs\nof sophistry which have been woven about the original scriptures. The\nancient simplicity of doctrine has been lost in the mountains of\ncommentary which were piled upon the primitive texts. Throughout the\ncenturies, the Confucian system has been conditioned and greatly\nmodified by Taoism, Buddhism and the speculations of the Chinese wise\nmen.\n\nConfucius, however, did not change or seriously modify the ancient\nreligion except that, as is more than probable, he may have laid\nunnecessary emphasis upon social and political duties, and may not have\nbeen sufficiently interested in the honor to be paid to Shang Ti or God.\nHe practically ignored the God-ward side of man's duties. His teachings\nrelate chiefly to duties between man and man, to propriety and\netiquette, and to ceremony and usage. He said that \"To give one's self\nto the duties due to men and while respecting spiritual beings to keep\naloof from them, may be called wisdom.\"[5]\n\nWe think that Confucius cut the tap-root of all true progress, and\ntherefore is largely responsible for the arrested development of China.\nHe avoided the personal term, God (Ti), and instead, made use of the\nabstract term, Heaven (Tien). His teaching, which is so often quoted by\nJapanese gentlemen, was, \"Honor the Gods and keep them far from you.\"\nHis image stands in thousands of temples and in every school, in China,\nbut he is only revered and never deified.\n\nChina has for ages suffered from agnosticism; for no normal Confucianist\ncan love God, though he may learn to reverence him. The Emperor\nperiodically worships for his people, at the great marble altar to\nHeaven in Peking, with vast holocausts, and the prayers which are\noffered may possibly amount to this: \"Our Father who art in Heaven,\nHallowed be thy name.\" But there, as it seems to a Christian, Chinese\nimperial worship stops. The people at large, cut off by this restricted\nworship from direct access to God, have wandered away into every sort of\npolytheism and idolatry, while the religion of the educated Chinese is a\nmedi\u00e6val philosophy based upon Confucianism, of which we shall speak\nhereafter.\n\nThe Confucian system as a religion, like a giant with a child's head, is\nexaggerated on its moral and ceremonial side as compared with its\nspiritual development. Some deny that it is a religion at all, and call\nit only a code. However, let us examine the Confucian ethics which\nformed the basis and norm of all government in the family and nation,\nand are summed up in the doctrine of the \"Five Relations.\" These are:\nSovereign and Minister; Father and Son; Husband and Wife; Elder Brother\nand Younger Brother; and Friends. The relation being stated, the\ncorrelative duty arises at once. It may perhaps be truly said by\nChristians that Confucius might have made a religion of his system of\nethics, by adding a sixth and supreme relation--that between God and\nman. This he declined to do, and so left his people without any\naspiration toward the Infinite. By setting before them only a finite\ngoal he sapped the principles of progress.[6]\n\n\nVicissitudes of Confucianism.\n\n\nAfter the death of Confucius (478 B.C.) the teachings of the great\nmaster were neglected, but still later they were re-enforced and\nexpounded in the time (372-289 B.C.) of Meng Ko, or Mencius (as the name\nhas been Latinized) who was likewise a native of the State of Lu. At one\ntime a Chinese Emperor attempted in vain to destroy not only the\nwritings of Confucius but also the ancient classics. Taoism increased as\na power in the religion of China, especially after the fall of its\nfeudal system. The doctrine of ancestral worship as commended by the\nsage had in it much of good, both for kings and nobles. The common\npeople, however, found that Taoism was more satisfying. About the\nbeginning of the Christian era Buddhism entered the Middle Kingdom, and,\nrapidly becoming popular, supplied needs for which simple Confucianism\nwas not adequate. It may be said that in the sixth century--which\nconcerns us especially--although Confucianism continued to be highly\nesteemed, Buddhism had become supreme in China--that venerable State\nwhich is the mother of civilization in all Asia cast of the Ganges, and\nthe Middle Kingdom among pupil nations.\n\nConfucianism overflowed from China into Korea, where to this day it is\npredominant even over Buddhism. Thence, it was carried beyond sea to the\nJapanese Archipelago, where for possibly fifteen hundred years it has\nshaped and moulded the character of a brave and chivalrous people. Let\nus now turn from China and trace its influence and modifications in the\nLand of the Rising Sun.\n\nIt must be remembered that in the sixth century of the Christian Era,\nConfucianism was by no means the fully developed philosophy that it is\nnow and has been for five hundred years. In former times, the system of\nConfucius had been received in China not only as a praiseworthy\ncompendium of ceremonial observances, but also as an inheritance from\nthe ancients, illumined by the discourses of the great sage and\nillustrated by his life and example. It was, however, very far from\nbeing what it is at present--the religion of the educated men of the\nnation, and, by excellence, the religion of Chinese Asia. But in those\nearly centuries it did not fully satisfy the Chinese mind, which turned\nto the philosophy of Taoism and to the teachings of the Buddhist for\nintellectual food, for comfort and for inspiration.\n\nThe time when Chinese learning entered Japan, by the way of Korea, has\nnot been precisely ascertained.[7] It is possible that letters[8] and\nwritings were known in some parts of the country as early as the fourth\ncentury, but it is nearly certain, that, outside the Court of the\nEmperor, there was scarcely even a sporadic knowledge of the literature\nof China until the Korean missionaries of Buddhism had obtained a\nlodgement in the Mikado's capital. Buddhism was the real purveyor of the\nforeign learning and became the vehicle by means of which Confucianism,\nor the Chinese ethical principles, reached the common people of Japan.\nThe first missionaries in Japan were heartily in sympathy with the\nConfucian ethics, from which no effort was made to alienate them. They\nwere close allies, and for a thousand years wrought as one force in the\nnational life. They were not estranged until the introduction, in the\nseventeenth century, of the metaphysical and scholastic forms given to\nthe ancient system by the Chinese schoolmen of the Sung dynasty (A.D.\n960-1333).\n\n\nJapanese Confucianism and Feudalism Contemporary.\n\n\nThe intellectual history of the Japanese prior to their recent contact\nwith Christendom, may be divided into three eras:\n\n1. The period of early insular or purely native thought, from before the\nChristian era until the eighth century; by which time, Shint\u014d, or the\nindigenous system of worship--its ritual, poetry and legend having been\ncommitted to writing and its life absorbed in Buddhism--had been, as a\nsystem, relegated from the nation and the people to a small circle of\nscholars and arch\u00e6ologists.\n\n2. The period from 800 A.D. to the beginning of the seventeenth century;\nduring which time Buddhism furnished to the nation its religion,\nphilosophy and culture.\n\n3. From about 1630 A.D. until the present time; during which period the\ndeveloped Confucian philosophy, as set forth by Chu Hi in the twelfth\ncentury, has been the creed of a majority of the educated men of Japan.\n\nThe political history of the Japanese may also be divided into three\neras:\n\n1. The first extends from the dawn of history until the seventh century.\nDuring this period the system of government was that of rude feudalism.\nThe conquering tribe of Yamato, having gradually obtained a rather\nimperfect supremacy over the other tribes in the middle and southern\nportions of the country now called the Empire of Japan, ruled them in\nthe name of the Mikado.\n\n2. The second period begins in the seventh century, when the Japanese,\ncopying the Chinese model, adopted a system of centralization. The\ncountry was divided into provinces and was ruled through boards or\nministries at the capital, with governors sent out from Ki\u014dto for\nstated periods, directly from the emperor. During this time literature\nwas chiefly the work of the Buddhist priests and of the women of the\nimperial court.\n\nWhile armies in the field brought into subjection the outlying tribes\nand certain noble families rose to prominence at the court, there was\nbeing formed that remarkable class of men called the Samurai, or\nservants of the Mikado, which for more than ten centuries has exercised\na profound influence upon the development of Japan.\n\nIn China, the pen and the sword have been kept apart; the civilian and\nthe soldier, the man of letters and the man of arms, have been distinct\nand separate. This was also true in old Loo Choo (now Riu Kiu), that\npart of Japan most like China. In Japan, however, the pen and the sword,\nletters and arms, the civilian and the soldier, have intermingled. The\nunique product of this union is seen in the Samurai, or servant of the\nMikado. Military-literati, are unknown in China, but in Japan they\ncarried the sword and the pen in the same girdle.\n\n3. This class of men had become fully formed by the end of the twelfth\ncentury, and then began the new feudal system, which lasted until the\nepochal year 1868 A.D.--a year of several revolutions, rather than of\nrestoration pure and simple. After nearly seven hundred years of\nfeudalism, supreme magistracy, with power vastly increased beyond that\npossessed in ancient times, was restored to the emperor. Then also was\nabolished the duarchy of Throne and Camp, of Mikado and Sh\u014dgun, and\nof the two capitals Ki\u014dto and Yedo, with the fountain of honor and\nauthority in one and the fountain of power and execution in the other.\nThereupon, Japan once more presented to the world, unity.\n\nPractically, therefore, the period of the prevalence of the Confucian\nethics and their universal acceptance by the people of Japan nearly\ncoincides with the period of Japanese feudalism or the dominance of the\nmilitary classes.\n\nAlthough the same ideograph, or rather logogram, was used to designate\nthe Chinese scholar and the Japanese warrior as well, yet the former was\nman of the pen only, while the latter was man of the pen and of two\nswords. This historical fact, more than any other, accounts for the\nstriking differences between Chinese and Japanese Confucianism. Under\nthis state of things the ethical system of the sage of China suffered a\nchange, as does almost everything that is imported into Japan and\nborrowed by the islanders, but whether for the better or for the worse\nwe shall not inquire too carefully. The point upon which we now lay\nemphasis is this: that, although the Chinese teacher had made filial\npiety the basis of his system, the Japanese gradually but surely made\nloyalty (Kun-Shin), that is, the allied relations of sovereign and\nminister, of lord and retainer, and of master and servant, not only\nfirst in order but the chief of all. They also infused into this term\nideas and associations which are foreign to the Chinese mind. In the\nplace of filial piety was Kun-shin, that new growth in the garden of\nJapanese ethics, out of which arose the white flower of loyalty that\nblooms perennial in history.\n\n\nIn Japan, Loyalty Displaces Filial Piety.\n\n\nThis slow but sure adaptation of the exotic to its new environment, took\nplace during the centuries previous to the seventeenth of the Christian\nera. The completed product presented a growth so strikingly different\nfrom the original as to compel the wonder of those Chinese refugee\nscholars, who, at Mito[9] and Yedo, taught the later dogmas which are\northodox but not historically Confucian.\n\nHerein lies the difference between Chinese and Japanese ethical\nphilosophy. In old Japan, loyalty was above filial obedience, and the\nman who deserted parents, wife and children for the feudal lord,\nreceived unstinted praise. The corner-stone of the Japanese edifice of\npersonal righteousness and public weal, is loyalty. On the other hand,\nfilial piety is the basis of Chinese order and the secret of the amazing\nnational longevity, which is one of the moral wonders of the world, and\nsure proof of the fulfilment of that promise which was made on Sinai and\nwrapped up in the fourth commandment.\n\nThis master passion of the typical Samurai of old Japan made him regard\nlife as infinitely less than nothing, whenever duty demanded a display\nof the virtue of loyalty. \"The doctrines of Koshi and Moshi\" (Confucius\nand Mencius) formed, and possibly even yet form, the gospel and the\nquintessence of all wordly wisdom to the Japanese gentleman; they became\nthe basis of his education and the ideal which inspired his conceptions\nof duty and honor; but, crowning all his doctrines and aspirations was\nhis desire to be loyal. There might abide loyal, marital, filial,\nfraternal and various other relations, but the greatest of all these was\nloyalty. Hence the Japanese calendar of saints is not filled with\nreformers, alms-givers and founders of hospitals or orphanages, but is\nover-crowded with canonized suicides and committers of _hara-kiri_. Even\ntoday, no man more quickly wins the popular regard during his life or\nmore surely draws homage to his tomb, securing even apotheosis, than the\nsuicide, though he may have committed a crime. In this era of Meiji or\nenlightened peace, most appalling is the list of assassinations\nbeginning with the murder in Ki\u014dto of Yokoi H\u00e9ishiro, who was slain\nfor recommending the toleration of Christianity, down to the last\ncabinet minister who has been knifed or dynamited. Yet in every case the\nmurderers considered themselves consecrated men and ministers of\nHeaven's righteous vengeance.[10] For centuries, and until\nconstitutional times, the government of Japan was \"despotism tempered by\nassassination.\" The old-fashioned way of moving a vote of censure upon\nthe king's ministers was to take off their heads. Now, however, election\nby ballot has been substituted for this, and two million swords have\nbecome bric-\u00e0-brac.\n\nA thousand years of training in the ethics of Confucius--which always\nadmirably lends itself to the possessors of absolute power, whether\nemperors, feudal lords, masters, fathers, or older brothers--have so\ntinged and colored every conception of the Japanese mind, so dominated\ntheir avenues of understanding and shaped their modes of thought, that\nto-day, notwithstanding the recent marvellous development of their\nlanguage, which within the last two decades has made it almost a new\ntongue,[11] it is impossible with perfect accuracy to translate into\nEnglish the ordinary Japanese terms which are congregated under the\ngeneral idea of Kun-shin.\n\nHerein may be seen the great benefit of carefully studying the minds of\nthose whom we seek to convert. The Christian preacher in Japan who uses\nour terms \"heaven,\" \"home,\" \"mother,\" \"father,\" \"family,\" \"wife,\"\n\"people,\" \"love,\" \"reverence,\" \"virtue,\" \"chastity,\" etc., will find\nthat his hearers may indeed receive them, but not at all with the same\nmental images and associations, nor with the same proportion and depth,\nthat these words command in western thought and hearing. One must be\nexceedingly careful, not only in translating terms which have been used\nby Confucius in the Chinese texts, but also in selecting and rendering\nthe current expressions of the Japanese teachers and philosophers. In\norder to understand each other, Orientals and Occidentals need a great\ndeal of mutual intellectual drilling, without which there will be waste\nof money, of time, of brains and of life.\n\n\nThe Five Relations.\n\n\nLet us now glance at the fundamentals of the Confucian ethics--the Five\nRelations--as they were taught in the comparatively simple system which\nprevailed before the new orthodoxy was proclaimed by Sung schoolmen.\n\nFirst. Although each of the Chinese and Japanese emperors is supposed to\nbe, and is called, \"father of the people,\" yet it would be entirely\nwrong to imagine that the phrase implies any such relation, as that of\nWilliam the Silent to the Dutch, or of Washington to the American\nnation. In order to see how far the emperor was removed from the people\nduring a thousand years, one needs but to look upon a brilliant painting\nof the Yamato-Tosa school, in which the Mikado is represented as sitting\nbehind a cloud of gold or a thick curtain of fine bamboo, with no one\nbefore the matting-throne but his prime ministers or the empress and his\nconcubines. For centuries, it was supposed that the Mikado did not touch\nthe ground with his feet. He went abroad in a curtained car; and he was\nnot only as mysterious and invisible to the public eye as a dragon, but\nhe was called such. The attributes of that monster with many powers and\nfunctions, were applied to him, with an amazing wealth of rhetoric and\nvocabulary. As well might the common folks to-day presume to pray unto\none of the transcendent Buddhas, between whom and the needy suppliant\nthere may be hosts upon hosts of interlopers or mediators, as for an\nordinary subject to petition the emperor or even to gaze upon his dragon\ncountenance. The change in the constitutional Japan of our day is seen\nin the fact that the term \"Mikado\" is now obsolete. This description of\nthe relation of sovereign and minister (inaccurately characterised by\nsome writers on Confucianism as that of \"King and subject,\" a phrase\nwhich might almost fit the constitutional monarchy of to-day) shows the\nrelation, as it did exist for nearly a thousand years of Japanese\nhistory. We find the same imitation of procedure, even when imperialism\nbecame only a shadow in the government and the great Sh\u014dgun who\ncalled himself \"Tycoon,\" the ruler in Yedo, aping the majesty of\nKi\u014dto, became so powerful as to be also a dragon. Between the Yedo\nSh\u014dgun and the people rose a great staircase of numberless\nsubordinates, and should a subject attempt to offer a petition in person\nhe must pay for it by crucifixion.[12]\n\nAs, under the emperor there were court ministers, heads of departments,\ngovernors and functionaries of all kinds before the people were reached,\nso, under the Sh\u014dgun in the feudal days, there were the Daimi\u014ds or\ngreat lords and the Shomi\u014ds or small lords with their retainers in\ngraduated subordination, and below these were the servants and general\nhumanity. Even after the status of man was reached, there were\ngradations and degradations through fractions down to ciphers and indeed\nto minus quantities, for there existed in the Country of Brave Warriors\nsome tens of thousands of human beings bearing the names of _eta_\n(pariah) and _h\u012b-nin_ (non-human), who were far below the pale of\nhumanity.\n\n\nThe Paramount Idea of Loyalty.\n\n\nThe one idea which dominated all of these classes,[13]--in Old Japan\nthere were no masses but only many classes--was that of loyalty. As the\nJapanese language shows, every faculty of man was subordinated to this\nidea. Confucianism even conditioned the development of Japanese grammar,\nas it also did that of the Koreans, by multiplying honorary prefixes and\nsuffixes and building up all sociable and polite speech on perpendicular\nlines. Personality was next to nothing and individuality was in a\ncertain sense unknown. In European languages, the pronoun shows how\nclearly the ideas of personality and of individuality have been\ndeveloped; but in the Japanese language there really are no pronouns, in\nthe sense of the word as used by the Germanic nations, at least,\nalthough there are hundreds of impersonal and topographical substitutes\nfor them.[14] The mirror, of the language itself, reflects more truth\nupon this point of inquiry than do patriotic assertions, or the protests\nof those who in the days of this Meiji era so handsomely employ the\nJapanese language as the medium of thought. Strictly speaking, the ego\ndisappears in ordinary conversation and action, and instead, it is the\nservant speaking reverently to his master; or it is the master\ncondescending to the object which is \"before his hand\" or \"to the side\"\nor \"below\" where his inferior kneels; or it is the \"honorable right\"\naddressing the \"esteemed left.\"\n\nAll the terms which a foreigner might use in speaking of the duties of\nsovereign and minister, of lord and retainer and of master and servant,\nare comprehended in the Japanese word, Kun-shin, in which is\ncrystallized but one thought, though it may relate to three grades of\nsociety. The testimony of history and of the language shows, that the\nfeelings which we call loyalty and reverence are always directed upward,\nwhile those which we term benevolence and love invariably look downward.\n\nNote herein the difference between the teachings of Christ and those of\nthe Chinese sage. According to the latter, if there be love in the\nrelation of the master and servant, it is the master who loves, and not\nthe servant who may only reverence. It would be inharmonious for the\nJapanese servant to love his master; he never even talks of it. And in\nfamily life, while the parent may love the child, the child is not\nexpected to love the parent but rather to reverence him. So also the\nJapanese wife, as in our old scriptural versions, is to \"see that she\n_reverence_ her husband.\" Love (not _agap\u00e9_, but _eros_) is indeed a\ntheme of the poets and of that part of life and of literature which is,\nstrictly speaking, outside of the marriage relation, but the thought\nthat dominates in marital life, is reverence from the wife and\nbenevolence from the husband. The Christian conception, which requires\nthat a woman should love her husband, does not strictly accord with the\nConfucian idea.\n\nChristianity has taught us that when a man loves a woman purely and\nmakes her his wife, he should also have reverence for her, and that this\nelement should be an integral part of his love. Christianity also\nteaches a reverence for children; and Wordsworth has but followed the\nspirit of his great master, Christ, when expressing this beautiful\nsentiment in his melodious numbers. Such ideas as these, however, are\ndiscords in Japanese social life of the old order. So also the Christian\npreaching of love to God, sounds outlandish to the men of Chinese mind\nin the middle or the pupil kingdom, who seem to think that it can only\ncome from the lips of those who have not been properly trained. To \"love\nGod\" appears to them as being an unwarrantable patronage of, and\nfamiliarity with \"Heaven,\" or the King of Kings. The same difficulty,\nwhich to-day troubles Christian preachers and translators, existed among\nthe Roman Catholic missionaries three centuries ago.[15] The moulds of\nthought were not then, nor are they even now, entirely ready for the\nfull truth of Christian revelation.\n\n\nSuicide Made Honorable.\n\n\nIn the long story of the Honorable Country, there are to be found many\nshining examples of loyalty, which is the one theme oftenest illustrated\nin popular fiction and romance. Its well-attested instances on the\ncrimson thread of Japanese history are more numerous than the beads on\nmany rosaries. The most famous of all, perhaps, is the episode of the\nForty-Seven R\u014dnins, which is a constant favorite in the theatres, and\nhas been so graphically narrated or pictured by scores of native poets,\nauthors, artists, sculptors and dramatists, and told in English by\nMitford, Dickens and Grecy.[16]\n\nThese forty-seven men hated wife, child, society, name, fame, food and\ncomfort for the sake of avenging the death of their master. In a certain\nsense, they ceased to be persons in order to become the impersonal\ninstruments of Heaven's retribution. They gave up every thing--houses,\nlands, kinsmen--that they might have in this life the hundred-fold\nreward of vengeance, and in the world-life of humanity throughout the\ncenturies, fame and honor. Feeding the hunger of their hearts upon the\nhope of glutting that hunger with the life-blood of their victim, they\nwaited long years. When once their swords had drunk the consecrated\nblood, they laid the severed head upon their master's tomb and then\ngladly, even rapturously, delivered themselves up, and ripping open\ntheir bowels they died by that judicially ordered seppuku which cleansed\ntheir memory from every stain, and gave to them the martyr's fame and\ncrown forever. The tombs of these men, on the hillside overlooking the\nBay of Yedo, are to this day ever fragrant with fresh flowers, and to\nthe cemetery where their ashes lie and their memorials stand, thousands\nof pilgrims annually wend their way. No dramas are more permanently\npopular on the stage than those which display the virtues of these\nheroes, who are commonly spoken of as \"The righteous Samurai.\" Their\ntombs have stood for two centuries, as mighty magnets drawing others to\nself-impalement on the sword--as multipliers of suicides.\n\nYet this alphabetic number, this _i-ro-ha_ of self-murder, is but one of\na thousand instances in the Land of Noble Suicides. From the\npre-historic days when the custom of _Jun-shi_, or dying with the\nmaster, required the interment of the living retainers with the dead\nlord, down through all the ages to the Revolution of 1868, when at\nSendai and Aidzu scores of men and boys opened their bowels, and mothers\nslew their infant sons and cut their own throats, there has been flowing\nthrough Japanese history a river of suicides' blood[17] having its\nsprings in the devotion of retainers to masters, and of soldiers to a\nlost cause as represented by the feudal superior. Shig\u00e9mori, the son of\nthe prime minister Kiyomori, who protected the emperor even against his\nown father, is a model of that Japanese kun-shin which placed fidelity\nto the sovereign above filial obedience; though even yet Shig\u00e9mori's\nname is the synonym of both virtues. Kusunoki Masashig\u00e9,[18] the white\nflower of Japanese chivalry, is but one, typical not only of a thousand\nbut of thousands of thousands of soldiers, who hated parents, wife,\nchild, friend in order to be disciple to the supreme loyalty. He sealed\nhis creed by emptying his own veins. Kiyomori,[19] like King David of\nIsrael, on his dying bed ordered the assassination of his personal\nenemy.\n\nThe common Japanese novels read like records of slaughter-houses. No\nMoloch or Shiva has won more victims to his shrine than has this idea of\nJapanese loyalty which is so beautiful in theory and so hideous in\npractice. Despite the military clamps and frightful despotism of Yedo,\nwhich for two hundred and fifty years gave to the world a delusive idea\nof profound quiet in the Country of Peaceful Shores, there was in fact a\nchronic unrest which amounted at many times and in many places to\nanarchy. The calm of despotism was, indeed, rudely broken by the aliens\nin the \"black ships\" with the \"flowery flag\"; but, without regarding\ninfluences from the West, the indications of history as now read,\npointed in 1850 toward the bloodiest of Japan's many civil wars. Could\nthe statistics of the suicides during this long period be collected,\ntheir publication would excite in Christendom the utmost incredulity.\n\nNevertheless, this qualifying statement should be made. A study of the\norigin and development of the national method of self-destruction shows\nthat suicide by seppuku, or opening of the abdomen, was first a custom,\nand then a privilege. It took, among men of honor, the place of the\npublic executions, the massacres in battle and siege, decimation of\nrebels and similar means of killing at the hands of others, which so\noften mar the historical records of western nations. Undoubtedly,\ntherefore, in the minds of most Japanese, there are many instances of\n_hara-kiri_ which should not be classed as suicide, but technically as\nexecution of judicial sentence. And yet no sentence or process of death\nknown in western lands had such influence in glorifying the victim, as\nhad seppuku in Japan.\n\n\nThe Family Idea.\n\n\nThe Second Relation is that of father and son, thus preceding what we\nshould suppose to be the first of human relations--husband and wife--but\nthe arrangement entirely accords with the Oriental conception that the\nfamily, the house, is more important than the individual. In Old Japan\nthe paramount idea in marriage, was not that of love or companionship,\nor of mutual assistance with children, but was almost wholly that of\noffspring, and of maintaining the family line.[20] The individual might\nperish but the house must live on.\n\nVery different from the family of Christendom, is the family in Old\nJapan, in which we find elements that would not be recognized where\nmonogamy prevails and children are born in the home and not in the herd.\nInstead of father, mother and children, there are father, wife,\nconcubines, and various sorts of children who are born of the wife or of\nthe concubine, or have been adopted into the family. With us, adoption\nis the exception, but in Japan it is the invariable rule whenever either\nconvenience or necessity requires it of the house. Indeed it is rare to\nfind a set of brothers bearing the same family name. Adoption and\nconcubinage keep the house unbroken.[21] It is the house, the name,\nwhich must continue, although not necessarily by a blood line. The name,\na social trade-mark, lives on for ages. The line of Japanese emperors,\nwhich, in the Constitution of 1889, by adding mythology to history is\nsaid to rule \"unbroken from ages eternal,\" is not one of fathers and\nsons, but has been made continuous by concubinage and adoption. In this\nview, it is possibly as old as the line of the popes.\n\nIt is very evident that our terms and usages do not have in such a home\nthe place or meaning which one not familiar with the real life of Old\nJapan would suppose. The father is an absolute ruler. There is in Old\nJapan hardly any such thing as \"parents,\" for practically there is only\none parent, as the woman counts for little. The wife is honored if she\nbecomes a mother, but if childless she is very probably neglected. Our\nidea of fatherhood implies that the child has rights and that he should\nlove as well as be loved. Our customs excite not only the merriment but\neven the contempt of the old-school Japanese. The kiss and the embrace,\nthe linking of the child's arm around its father's neck, the address on\nletters \"My dear Wife\" or \"My beloved Mother\" seem to them like\ncaricatures of propriety. On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that\nin reverence toward parents--or at least toward one of the parents--a\nJapanese child is apt to excel the one born even in a Christian home.\n\nThis so-called filial \"piety\" becomes in practice, however, a horrible\noutrage upon humanity and especially upon womanhood. During centuries\nthe despotic power of the father enabled him to put an end to the life\nof his child, whether boy or girl.\n\nUnder this abominable despotism there is no protection for the daughter,\nwho is bound to sell her body, while youth or beauty last or perhaps for\nlife, to help pay her father's debts, to support an aged parent or even\nto gratify his mere caprice. In hundreds of Japanese romances the\ndaughter, who for the sake of her parents has sold herself to shame, is\nmade the theme of the story and an object of praise. In the minds of the\npeople there may be indeed a feeling of pity that the girl has been\nobliged to give up her home life for the brothel, but no one ever thinks\nof questioning the right of the parent to make the sale of the girl's\nbody, any more than he would allow the daughter to rebel against it.\nThis idea still lingers and the institution remains,[22] although the\nsystem has received stunning blows from the teaching of Christian\nethics, the preaching of a better gospel and the improvements in the law\nof the land.\n\n\nThe Marital Relation.\n\n\nThe Third Relation is that of husband and wife. The meaning of these\nwords, however, is not the same with the Japanese as with us. In\nConfucius there is not only male and female, but also superior and\ninferior, master and servant.[23] Without any love-making or courtship\nby those most interested, a marriage between two young people is\narranged by their parents through the medium of what is called a\n\"go-between.\" The bride leaves her father's house forever--that is, when\nshe is not to be subsequently divorced--and entering into that of her\nhusband must be subordinate not only to him but also to his parents, and\nmust obey them as her own father and mother. Having all her life under\nher father's roof reverenced her superiors, she is expected to bring\nreverence to her new domicile, but not love. She must always obey but\nnever be jealous. She must not be angry, no matter whom her husband may\nintroduce into his household. She must wait upon him at his meals and\nmust walk behind him, but not with him. When she dies her children go to\nher funeral, but not her husband.\n\nA foreigner, hearing the Japanese translate our word chastity by the\nterm _t\u00e9iso_ or _misao_, may imagine that the latter represents mutual\nobligation and personal purity for man and wife alike, but on looking\ninto the dictionary he will find that _t\u00e9iso_ means \"Womanly duties.\" A\ncircumlocution is needed to express the idea of a chaste man.\n\nJealousy is a horrible sin, but is always supposed to be a womanish\nfault, and so an exhibition of folly and weakness. Therefore, to apply\nsuch a term to God--to say \"a jealous God\"--outrages the good sense of a\nConfucianist,[24] almost as much as the statement that God \"cannot lie\"\ndid that of the Pundit, who wondered how God could be Omnipotent if He\ncould not lie.\n\nHow great the need in Japanese social life of some purifying principle\nhigher than Confucianism can afford, is shown in the little book\nentitled \"The Japanese Bride,\"[25] written by a native, and scarcely\nless in the storm of native criticism it called forth. Under the system\nwhich has ruled Japan for a millennium and a half, divorce has been\nalmost entirely in the hands of the husband, and the document of\nseparation, entitled in common parlance the \"three lines and a half,\"\nwas invariably written by the man. A woman might indeed nominally obtain\na divorce from her husband, but not actually; for the severance of the\nmarital tie would be the work of the house or relatives, rather than the\nact of the wife, who was not \"a person\" in the case. Indeed, in the\nolden time a woman was not a person in the eye of the law, but rather a\nchattel. The case is somewhat different under the new codes,[26] but the\nlooseness of the marriage tie is still a scandal to thinking Japanese.\nSince the breaking up of the feudal system and the disarrangement of the\nold social and moral standards, the statistics made annually from the\nofficial census show that the ratio of divorce to marriage is very\nnearly as one to three.[27]\n\n\nThe Elder and the Younger Brother.\n\n\nThe Fourth Relation is that of Elder Brother and Younger Brother. As we\nhave said, foreigners in translating some of the Chinese and Japanese\nterms used in the system of Confucius are often led into errors by\nsupposing that the Christian conception of family life prevails also in\nChinese Asia. By many writers this relation is translated \"brother to\nbrother;\" but really in the Japanese language there is no term meaning\nsimply \"brother\" or \"sister,\"[28] and a circumlocution is necessary to\nexpress the ideas which we convey by these words. It is always \"older\nbrother\" or \"younger brother,\" and \"older sister\" or \"younger\nsister\"--the male or female \"_kiyodai_\" as the case may be. With\nus--excepting in lands where the law of primogeniture still\nprevails--all the brothers are practically equal, and it would be\nconsidered a violation of Christian righteousness for a parent to show\nmore favor to one child than to another. In this respect the \"wisdom\nthat cometh from above\" is \"without partiality.\" The Chinese ethical\nsystem, however, disregards the principle of mutual rights and duties,\nand builds up the family on the theory of the subordination of the\nyounger brother to the elder brother, the predominant idea being not\nmutual love, but, far more than in the Christian household, that of rank\nand order. The attitude of the heir of the family toward the other\nchildren is one of condescension, and they, as well as the widowed\nmother, regard the oldest son with reverence. It is as though the\ncommandment given on Sinai should read, \"Honor thy father and thy elder\nbrother.\"\n\nThe mother is an instrument rather than a person in the life of the\nhouse, and the older brother is the one on whom rests the responsibility\nof continuing the family line. The younger brothers serve as subjects\nfor adoption into other families, especially those where there are\ndaughters to be married and family names to be continued. In a word, the\nname belongs to the house and not to the individual. The habit of naming\nchildren after relatives or friends of the parents, or illustrious men\nand women, is unknown in Old Japan, though an approach to this common\ncustom among us is made by conferring or making use of part of a name,\nusually by the transferrence of one ideograph forming the name-word.\nSuch a practice lays stress upon personality, and so has no place in the\ncountry without pronouns, where the idea of continuing the personal\nhouse or semi-personal family, is predominant. The customs prevalent in\nlife are strong even in death, and the elder brother or sister, in some\nprovinces, did not go to the funeral of the younger. This state of\naffairs is reflected in Japanese literature, and produces in romance as\nwell as in history many situations and episodes which seem almost\nincredible to the Western mind.\n\nIn the lands ruled by Confucius the grown-up children usually live under\nthe parental roof, and there are few independent homes as we understand\nthem. The so-called family is composed both of the living and of the\ndead, and constitutes the unit of society.\n\n\nFriendship and Humanity.\n\n\nThe Fifth Relation--Friends. Here, again, a mistake is often made by\nthose who import ideas of Christendom into the terms used in Chinese\nAsia, and who strive to make exact equivalent in exchanging the coins of\nspeech. Occidental writers are prone to translate the term for the fifth\nrelation into the English phrase \"man to man,\" which leads the Western\nreader to suppose that Confucius taught that universal love for man, as\nman, which was instilled and exemplified by Jesus Christ. In translating\nConfucius they often make the same mistake that some have done who read\nin Terence's \"Self-Tormentor\" the line, \"I am a man, and nothing human\nis foreign to me,\"[29] and imagine that this is the sentiment of an\nenlightened Christian, although the context shows that it is only the\nboast of a busybody and parasite. What Confucius taught under the fifth\nrelation is not universality, and, as compared to the teachings of\nJesus, is moonlight, not sunlight. The doctrine of the sage is clearly\nexpressed in the Analects, and amounts only to courtesy and propriety.\nHe taught, indeed, that the stranger is to be treated as a friend; and\nalthough in both Chinese and Japanese history there are illustrious\nproofs that Confucius had interpreters nobler than himself, yet it is\nprobable that the doctrine of the stranger's receiving treatment as a\nfriend, does not extend to the foreigner. Confucius framed something\nlike the Golden Rule--though it were better called a Silver Rule, or\npossibly a Gilded Rule, since it is in the negative instead of being\ndefinitely placed in the positive and indicative form. One may search\nhis writings in vain for anything approaching the parable of the Good\nSamaritan, or the words of Him who commended Elijah for replenishing the\ncruse and barrel of the widow of Sarepta, and Elisha for healing Naaman\nthe Syrian leper, and Jonah for preaching the good news of God to the\nAssyrians who had been aliens and oppressors. Lao Tsze, however, went so\nfar as to teach \"return good for evil.\" When one of the pupils of\nConfucius interrogated his Master concerning this, the sage answered;\n\"What then will you return for good? Recompense injury with justice, and\nreturn good for good.\"\n\nBut if we do good only to those who do good to us, what thanks have we?\nDo not the publicans the same? Behold how the Heavenly Father does good\nalike unto all, sending rain upon the just and unjust!\n\nHow Old Japan treated the foreigner is seen in the repeated repulse,\nwith powder and ball, of the relief ships which, under the friendly\nstars and stripes, attempted to bring back to her shores the shipwrecked\nnatives of Nippon.[30] Granted that this action may have been purely\npolitical and the Government alone responsible for it--just as our\nun-Christian anti-Chinese legislation is similarly explained--yet it is\ncertain that the sentiment of the only men in Japan who made public\nopinion,--the Samurai of that day,--was in favor of this method of\nmeeting the alien.\n\nIn 1852 the American expedition was despatched to Japan for the purpose\nof opening a lucrative trade and of extending American influence and\nglory, but also unquestionably with the idea of restoring shipwrecked\nJapanese as well as securing kind treatment for shipwrecked American\nsailors, thereby promoting the cause of humanity and international\ncourtesy; in short, with motives that were manifestly mixed.[31] In the\ntreaty pavilion there ensued an interesting discussion between Commodore\nPerry and Professor Hayashi upon this very subject.\n\nPerry truthfully complained that the dictates of humanity had not been\nfollowed by the Japanese, that unnecessary cruelty had been used against\nshipwrecked men, and that Japan's attitude toward her neighbors and the\nwhole world was that of an enemy and not of a friend.\n\nHayashi, who was then probably the leading Confucianist in Japan, warmly\ndefended his countrymen and superiors against the charge of intentional\ncruelty, and denounced the lawless character of many of the foreign\nsailors. Like most Japanese of his school and age, he wound up with\npanegyrics on the pre-eminence in virtue and humanity, above all\nnations, of the Country Ruled by a Theocratic Dynasty, and on the glory\nand goodness of the great Tokugawa family, which had given peace to the\nland during two centuries or more.[32]\n\nIt is manifest, however, that so far as this hostility to foreigners,\nand this blind bigotry of \"patriotism\" were based on Chinese codes of\nmorals, as officially taught in Yedo, they belonged as much to the old\nConfucianism as to the new. Wherever the narrow philosophy of the sage\nhas dominated, it has made Asia Chinese and nations hermits. As a rule,\nthe only way in which foreigners could come peacefully into China or the\ncountries which she intellectually dominated was as vassals,\ntribute-bearers, or \"barbarians.\" The mental attitude of China, Korea,\nAnnam and Japan has for ages been that of the Jews in Herodian times,\nwho set up, between the Court of Israel and the Court of the Gentiles,\ntheir graven stones of warning which read:[33]\n\n    \"No foreigner to proceed within the partition wall and enclosure\n    around the sanctuary; whoever is caught in the same will on that\n    account be liable to incur death.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM\n\n    \"After a thousand years the pine decays; the flower has its\n    glory in blooming for a day.\"--Hakkyoi, Chinese Poet of the Tang\n    Dynasty.\n\n    \"The morning-glory of an hour differs not in heart from the\n    pine-tree of a thousand years.\"--Matsunaga of Japan.\n\n    \"The pine's heart is not of a thousand years, nor the\n    morning-glory's of an hour, but only that they may fulfil their\n    destiny.\"\n\n    \"Since Iy\u00e9yas\u00fa, his hair brushed by the wind, his body anointed\n    with rain, with lifelong labor caused confusion to cease and\n    order to prevail, for more than a hundred years there has been\n    no war. The waves of the four seas have been unruffled and no\n    one has failed of the blessing of peace. The common folk must\n    speak with reverence, yet it is the duty of scholars to\n    celebrate the virtue of the Government.\"--Ky\u016bso of Yedo.\n\n    \"A ruler must have faithful ministers. He who sees the error of\n    his lord and remonstrates, not fearing his wrath, is braver than\n    he who bears the foremost spear in battle.\"--Iy\u00e9yas\u00fa.\n\n    \"The choice of the Chinese philosophy and the rejection of\n    Buddhism was not because of any inherent quality in the Japanese\n    mind. It was not the rejection of supernaturalism or the\n    miraculous. The Chinese philosophy is as supernaturalistic as\n    some forms of Buddhism. The distinction is not between the\n    natural and the supernatural in either system, but between the\n    seen and the unseen.\"\n\n    \"The Chinese philosophy is as religious as the original teaching\n    of Gautama. Neither Shushi nor Gautama believed in a Creator,\n    but both believed in gods and demons.... It has little place for\n    prayer, but has a vivid sense of the Infinite and the Unseen,\n    and fervently believes that right conduct is in accord with the\n    'eternal verities.'\"--George William Knox.\n\n    \"In him is the yea.\"--Paul.\n\n\nCHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM\n\nJapan's Millennium of Simple Confucianism.\n\n\nHaving seen the practical working of the ethics of Confucianism,\nespecially in the old and simple system, let us now glance at the\ndeveloped and philosophical forms, which, by giving the educated man of\nJapan a creed, made him break away from Buddhism and despise it, while\nbecoming often fanatically Confucian.\n\nFor a thousand years (from 600 to 1600 A.D.) the Buddhist religious\nteachers assisted in promulgating the ethics of Confucius; for during\nall this time there was harmony between the various Buddhisms imported\nfrom India, Tibet, China and Korea, and the simple undeveloped system of\nChinese Confucianism. Slight modifications were made by individual\nteachers, and emphasis was laid upon this or that feature, while out of\nthe soil of Japanese feudalism were growths of certain virtues as phases\nof loyalty, phenomenal beyond those in China. Nevertheless, during all\nthis time, the Japanese teachers of the Chinese ethic were as students\nwho did but recite what they learned. They simply transmitted, without\nattempting to expand or improve.\n\nThough the apparatus of distribution was early known, block printing\nhaving been borrowed from the Chinese after the ninth century, and\nmovable types learned from the Koreans and made use of in the sixteenth\ncentury,[1] the Chinese classics were not printed as a body until after\nthe great peace of Genna (1615). Nor during this period were\ntranslations made of the classics or commentaries, into the Japanese\nvernacular. Indeed, between the tenth and sixteenth centuries there was\nlittle direct intercourse, commercial, diplomatic or intellectual,\nbetween Japan and China, as compared with the previous eras, or the\ndecades since 1870.\n\nSuddenly in the seventeenth century the intellect of Japan, all ready\nfor new surprises in the profound peace inaugurated by Iy\u00e9yas\u016d,\nreceived, as it were, an electric thrill. The great warrior, becoming\nfirst a unifier by arms and statecraft, determined also to become the\narchitect of the national culture. Gathering up, from all parts of the\ncountry, books, manuscripts, and the appliances of intellectual\ndiscipline, he encouraged scholars and stimulated education. Under his\nsupervision the Chinese classics were printed, and were soon widely\ncirculated. A college was established in Yedo, and immediately there\nbegan a critical study of the texts and principal commentaries. The fall\nof the Ming dynasty in China, and the accession of the Manchiu Tartars,\nbecame the signal for a great exodus of learned Chinese, who fled to\nJapan. These received a warm welcome, both at the capital and in Yedo,\nas well as in some of the castle towns of the Daimi\u014ds, among whom\nstand illustrious those of the province of Mito.[2]\n\nThese men from the west brought not only ethics but philosophy; and the\nfertilizing influences of these scholars of the Dispersion, may be\nlikened to those of the exodus of the Greek learned men after the\ncapture of Constantinople by the Turks. Confucian schools were\nestablished in most of the chief provincial cities. For over two hundred\nyears this discipline in the Chinese ethics, literature and history\nconstituted the education of the boys and men of Japan. Almost every\nmember of the Samurai classes was thoroughly drilled in this curriculum.\nAll Japanese social, official, intellectual and literary life was\npermeated with the new spirit. Their \"world\" was that of the Chinese,\nand all outside of it belonged to \"barbarians.\" The matrices of thought\nbecame so fixed and the Japanese language has been so moulded, that even\nnow, despite the intense and prolonged efforts of thirty years of acute\nand laborious scholarship, it is impossible, as we have said, to find\nEnglish equivalents for terms which were used for a century or two past\nin every-day Japanese speech. Those who know most about these facts, are\nmost modest in attempting with English words to do justice to Japanese\nthought; while those who know the least seem to be most glib, fluent and\nvoluminous in showing to their own satisfaction, that there is little\ndifference between the ethics of Chinese Asia and those of Christendom.\n\n\nSurvey of the Intellectual History of China.\n\n\nThe Confucianism of the last quarter-millennium in Japan is not that of\nher early centuries. While the Japanese for a thousand years only\nrepeated and recited--merely talking aloud in their intellectual sleep\nbut not reflecting--China was awake and thinking hard. Japan's continued\ncivil wars, which caused the almost total destruction of books and\nmanuscripts, secured also the triumph of Buddhism which meant the\natrophy of the national intellect. When, after the long feuds and\nbattles of the middle ages, Confucianism stepped the second time into\nthe Land of _Brave_ Scholars, it was no longer with the simple rules of\nconduct and ceremonial of the ancient days, nor was it as the ally of\nBuddhism. It came like an armed man in full panoply of harness and\nweapons. It entered to drive Buddhism out, and to defend the intellect\nof the educated against the wiles of priestcraft. It was a full-blown\nsystem of pantheistic rationalism, with a scheme of philosophy that to\nthe far-Oriental mind seemed perfect as a rule both of faith and\npractice. It came in a form that was received as religion, for it was\nnot only morality \"touched\" but infused with motion. Nor were the\nemotions kindled, those of the partisan only, but rather also those of\nthe devotee and the martyr. Henceforth Buddhism, with its inventions,\nits fables, and its endless dogmatism, was for the common people, for\nwomen and children, but not for the Samurai. The new Confucianism came\nto Japan as the system of Chu Hi. For three centuries this system had\nalready held sway over the intellect of China. For two centuries and a\nhalf it has dominated the minds of the Samurai so that the majority of\nthem to-day, even with the new name Shizoku, are Confucianists so far as\nthey are anything.\n\nTo understand the origin of Buddhism we must know something of the\nhistory and the previous religious and philosophical systems of India,\nand so, if we are to appreciate modern \"orthodox\" Confucianism, we must\nreview the history of China, and see, in outline, at least, its\nliterature, politics and philosophy during the middle ages.\n\n\"Four great stages of literary and national development may be pointed\nto as intervening (in the fifteen hundred years) between the great sage\nand the age called that of the Sung-Ju,\"[3] from the tenth to the\nfourteenth century, in which the Confucian system received its modern\nform. Each of them embraced the course of three or four centuries.\n\nI. From the sixth to the third century before Christ the struggle was\nfor Confucian and orthodox doctrine, led by Mencius against various\nspeculators in morals and politics, with Taoist doctrine continually\nincreasing in acceptance.\n\nII. The Han age (from B.C. 206 to A.D. 190) was rich in critical\nexpositors and commentators of the classics, but \"the tone of\nspeculation was predominantly Taoist.\"\n\nIII. The period of the Six Dynasties (from A.D. 221 to A.D. 618) was the\ngolden age of Buddhism, when the science and philosophy of India\nenriched the Chinese mind, and the wealth of the country was lavished on\nBuddhist temples and monasteries. The faith of Shaka became nearly\nuniversal and the Buddhists led in philosophy and literature, founding a\nnative school of Indian philosophy.\n\nIV. The Tang period (from A.D. 618 to 905) marked by luxury and poetry,\nwas an age of mental inaction and enervating prosperity.\n\nV. The fifth epoch, beginning with the Sung Dynasty (from A.D. 960 to\n1333) and lasting to our own time, was ushered in by a period of intense\nmental energy. Strange to say (and most interesting is the fact to\nAmericans of this generation), the immediate occasion of the recension\nand expansion of the old Confucianism was a Populist movement.[4] During\nthe Tang era of national prosperity, Chinese socialists questioned the\nfoundations of society and of government, and there grew up a new school\nof interpreters as well as of politicians. In the tenth century the\ncontest between the old Confucianism and the new notions, broke out with\na violence that threatened anarchy to the whole empire.\n\nOne set of politicians, led by Wang (1021-1086), urged an extension of\nadministrative functions, including agricultural loans, while the\nbrothers Cheng (1032-1085, 1033-1107) reaffirmed, with fresh\nintellectual power, the old orthodoxy.\n\nThe school of writers and party agitators, led by Szma Kwaug\n(1009-1086)[5] the historian, contended that the ancient principles of\nthe sages should be put in force. Others, the Populists of that age and\nland, demanded the entire overthrow of existing institutions.\n\nIn the bitter contest which ensued, the Radicals and Reformers\ntemporarily won the day and held power. For a decade the experiment of\ninnovation was tried. Men turned things social and political upside down\nto see how they looked in that position. So these stood or oscillated\nfor thirteen years, when the people demanded the old order again. The\nConservatives rose to power. There was no civil war, but the Radicals\nwere banished beyond the frontier, and the country returned to normal\ngovernment.\n\nThis controversy raised a landmark in the intellectual history of\nChina.[6] The thoughts of men were turned toward deep and acute inquiry\ninto the nature and use of things in general. This thinking resulted in\na literature which to-day is the basis of the opinions of the educated\nmen in all Chinese Asia. Instead of a sapling we now have a mighty tree.\nThe chief of the Chinese writers, the Calvin of Asiatic orthodoxy, who\nmay be said to have wrought Confucianism into a developed philosophy,\nand who may be called the greatest teacher of the mind, of modern China,\nKorea and Japan, is Chu Hi, who reverently adopted the criticisms on the\nChinese classics of the brothers Cheng.[7] It is evident that in Chu\nHi's system, we have a body of thought which may be called the result of\nChinese reflection during a millennium and a half. It is the ethics of\nConfucius transfused with the mystical elements of Taoism and the\nspeculations of Buddhism. As the common people of China made an amalgam\nof the three religions and consider them one, so the philosophers have\nout of these three systems made one, calling that one Confucianism. The\ndominant philosophy in Japan to-day is based upon the writings of Chu Hi\n(in Japanese, Shu Shi) and called the system of T\u00e9i-Shu, which is the\nJapanese pronunciation of the names of the Cheng brothers and of Chu\n(Hi). It is a medley which the ancient sage could no more recognize than\nwould Jesus know much of the Christianity that casts out devils in his\nname.\n\n\nContrast between the Chinese and Japanese Intellect.\n\n\nHere we must draw a contrast between the Chinese and Japanese intellect\nto the credit of the former; China made, Japan borrowed. While history\nshows that the Chinese mind, once at least, possessed mental initiative,\nand the power of thinking out a system of philosophy which to-day\nsatisfies largely, if not wholly, the needs of the educated Chinaman,\nthere has been in the Japanese mind, as shown by its history, apparently\nno such vigor or fruitfulness. From the literary and philosophical\npoints of view, Confucianism, as it entered Japan, in the sixth century,\nremained practically stationary for a thousand years. Modifications,\nindeed, were made upon the Chinese system, and these were striking and\nprofound, but they were less developments of the intellect than\nnecessities of the case. The modifications were made, as molten metal\npoured into a mould shaped by other hands than the artist's own, rather\nthan as clay made plastic under the hand of a designer. Buddhism, being\nthe dominant force in the thoughts of the Japanese for at least eight\nhundred years, furnished the food for the requirements of man on his\nintellectual and religious side.\n\nBroadly speaking, it may be said that the Japanese, receiving passively\nthe Chinese classics, were content simply to copy and to recite what\nthey had learned. As compared with their audacity in not only going\nbeyond the teachings of Buddha, but in inventing systems of Buddhism\nwhich neither Gautama nor his first disciples could recognize, the\ndocile and almost slavish adherence to ancient Confucianism is one of\nthe astonishing things in the history of religions in Japan. In the\nfield of Buddhism we have a luxuriant growth of new and strange species\nof colossal weeds that overtower and seem to have choked out whatever\nfurze of original Buddhism there was in Japan, while in the domain of\nConfucianism there is a barren heath. Whereas, in China, the voluminous\nliterature created by commentators on Confucius and the commentaries on\nthe commentators suggests the hyperbole used by the author of John's\nGospel,[8] yet there is probably nothing on Confucianism from the\nJapanese pen in the thousand years under our review which is worth the\nreading or the translation.[9] In this respect the Japanese genius\nshowed its vast capabilities of imitation, adoption and assimilation.\n\nAs of old, Confucianism again furnished a Chinese wall, within which the\nJapanese could move, and wherein they might find food for the mind in\nall the relations of life and along all the lines of achievement\npermitted them. The philosophy imported from China, as shown again and\nagain in that land of oft-changing dynasties, harmonizing with arbitrary\ngovernment, accorded perfectly with the despotism of the Tokugawas, the\n\"Tycoons\" who in Yedo ruled from 1603 to 1868. Nothing new was\npermitted, and any attempt at modification, enlargement, or improvement\nwas not only frowned and hissed down as impious innovation, but usually\nbrought upon the daring innovator the ban of the censor, imprisonment,\nbanishment, or death by enforced suicide.[10] In Yedo, the centre of\nChinese learning, and in other parts of the country, there were, indeed,\nthinkers whose philosophy did not always tally with what was taught by\nthe orthodox,[11] but as a rule even when these men escaped the ban of\nthe censor, or the sword of the executioner, they were but us voices\ncrying in the wilderness. The great mass of the gentry was orthodox,\naccording to the standards of the S\u00e9ido College, while the common people\nremained faithful to Buddhism. In the conduct of daily life they\nfollowed the precepts which had for centuries been taught them by their\nfathers.\n\n\nPhilosophical Confucianism the Religion of the Samurai.\n\n\nWhat were the features of this modern Confucian philosophy, which the\nJapanese Samurai exalted to a religion?[12] We say philosophy and\nreligion, because while the teachings of the great sage lay at the\nbottom of the system, yet it is not true since the early seventeenth\ncentury, that the thinking men of Japan have been satisfied with only\nthe original simple ethical rules of the ancient master. Though they\nhave craved a richer mental pabulum, yet they have enjoyed less the\nstudy of the original text, than acquaintance with the commentaries and\ncommunion with the great philosophical exponents, of the master. What,\nthen, we ask, are the features of the developed philosophy, which,\nimported from China, served the Japanese Samurai not only as morals but\nfor such religion as he possessed or professed?\n\nWe answer: The system was not agnostic, as many modern and western\nwriters assert that it is, and as Confucius, transmitting and probably\nmodifying the old religion, had made the body of his teachings to be.\nAgnostic, indeed, in regard to many things wherein a Christian has\nfaith, modern Confucianism, besides being bitterly polemic and hostile\nto Buddhism, is pantheistic.\n\nCertain it is that during the revival of Pure Shint\u014d in the\neighteenth century, the scholars of the Shint\u014d school, and those of\nits great rival, the Chinese, agreed in making loyalty[13] take the\nplace of filial duty in the Confucian system. To serve the cause of the\nEmperor became the most essential duty to those with cultivated minds.\nThe newer Chinese philosophy mightily influenced the historians, Rai\nSanyo and those of the Mito school, whose works, now classic, really\nbegan the revolution of 1868. By forming and setting in motion the\npublic opinion, which finally overthrew the Sh\u014dgun and feudalism,\nrestored the Emperor to supreme power, and unified the nation, they\nhelped, with modern ideas, to make the New Japan of our day. The\nShint\u014d and the Chinese teachings became amalgamated in a common\ncause, and thus the philosophy of Chu Hi, mingling with the nationalism\nand patriotism inculcated by Shint\u014d, brought about a remarkable\nresult. As a native scholar and philosopher observes, \"It certainly is\nstrange to see the Tokugawa rule much shaken, if not actually\noverthrown, by that doctrine which generations of able Sh\u014dguns and\ntheir ministers had earnestly encouraged and protected. It is perhaps\nstill more remarkable to see the Mito clan, under many able and active\nchiefs, become the centre of the Kinno[14] movement, which was to result\nin the overthrow of the Tokugawa family, of which it was itself a\nbranch.\"\n\n\nA Medley of Pantheism.\n\n\nThe philosophy of modern Confucianism is wholly pantheistic. There is in\nit no such thing or being as God. The orthodox pantheism of Old Japan\nmeans that everything in general is god, but nothing in particular is\nGod; that All is god, but not that God is all. It is a \"pantheistic\nmedley.\"[15]\n\nChu Hi and his Japanese successors, especially Ky\u016b-so, argue finely\nand discourse volubly about _Ki_[16] or spirit; but it is not Spirit, or\nspiritual in the sense of Him who taught even a woman at the well-curb\nat Sychar. It is in the air. It is in the earth, the trees, the flowers.\nIt comes to consciousness in man. His _Ri_ is the Tao of Lao Tsze, the\nWay, Reason, Law. It is formless, invisible.\n\n    \"Ri is not separate from Ki, for then it were an empty abstract\n    thing. It is joined to Ki, and may be called, by nature, one\n    decreed, changeless Norm. It is the rule of Ki, the very centre,\n    the reason why Ki is Ki.\"\n\nTen or Heaven is not God or the abode of God, but an abstraction, a sort\nof Unknowable, or Primordial Necessity.\n\n    \"The doctrine of the Sages knows and worships Heaven, and\n    without faith in it there is no truth. For men and things, the\n    universe, are born and nourished by Heaven, and the 'Way,' the\n    'ri,' that is in all, is the 'Way,' the 'ri' of Heaven.\n    Distinguishing root and branch, the heart is the root of Heaven\n    and the appearance, the revolution of the sun and moon, the\n    order of the stars, is the branch. The books of the sages teach\n    us to conform to the heart of Heaven and deal not with\n    appearances.\"\n\n    \"The teaching of the sages is the original truth and, given to\n    men, it forms both their nature and their relationships. With it\n    complete, naught else is needed for the perfect following of the\n    'Way.' Let then the child make its parents Heaven, the retainer,\n    his Lord, the wife her husband, and let each give up life for\n    righteousness. Thus will each serve for Heaven. But if we exalt\n    Heaven above parent or Lord, we shall come to think we can serve\n    it though they be disobeyed and like tiger or wolf shall rejoice\n    to kill them. To such fearful end does the Western learning\n    lead.... Let each one die for duty, there is naught else we can\n    do.\"\n\nThus wrote Ohashi Junzo, as late as 1857 A.D., the same year in which\nTownsend Harris entered Yedo to teach the practical philosophy of\nChristendom, and the brotherhood of man as expressed in diplomacy.\nOhashi Junzo bitterly opposed the opening of Japan to modern\ncivilization and the ideas of Christendom. His book was the swan-song of\nthe dying Japanese Confucianism. Slow as is the dying, and hard as its\ndeath may be, the mind of new Japan has laid away to dust and oblivion\nthe T\u00e9i-shu philosophy. \"At present they (the Chinese classics) have\nfallen into almost total neglect, though phrases and allusions borrowed\nfrom them still pass current in literature, and even to some extent in\nthe language of every-day life.\" S\u00e9ido, the great temple of Confucius in\nTokyo, is now utilized as an educational Museum.[17]\n\nA study of this subject and of comparative religion, is of immediate\npractical benefit to the Christian teacher. The preacher, addressing an\naudience made up of educated Japanese, who speaks of God without\ndescribing his personality, character, or attributes as illustrated in\nRevelation, will find that his hearers receive his term as the\nexpression for a bundle of abstract principles, or a system of laws, or\nsome kind of regulated force. They do, indeed, make some reference to a\n\"creator\" by using a rare word. Occasionally, their language seems to\ntouch the boundary line on the other side of which is conscious\nintelligence, but nothing approaching the clearness and definiteness of\nthe early Chinese monotheism of the pre-Confucian classics is to be\ndistinguished.[18] The modern Japanese long ago heard joyfully the\nwords, \"Honor the gods, but keep them far from you,\" and he has done it.\n\nTo love God would no more occur to a Japanese gentleman than to have his\nchild embrace and kiss him. Whether the source and fountain of life of\nwhich they speak has any Divine Spirit, is very uncertain, but whether\nit has, or has not, man need not obey, much less worship him. The\nuniverse is one, the essence is the same. Man must seek to know his\nplace in the universe; he is but one in an endless chain; let him find\nhis part and fulfil that part; all else is vanity. One need not inquire\ninto the origins or the ultimates. Man is moved by a power greater than\nhimself; he has no real independence of his own; everything has its rank\nand place; indeed, its rank and place is its sole title to a separate\nexistence. If a man mistakes his place he is a fool, he deserves\npunishment.\n\n\nThe Ideals of a Samurai.\n\n\nOut of his place, man is not man. Duty is more important than being.\nNearly everything in our life is fixed by fate; there may seem to be\nexceptions, because some wicked men are prosperous and some righteous\nmen are wretched, but these are not real exceptions to the general rule\nthat we are made for our environment and fitted to it. And then, again,\nit may be that our judgments are not correct. Let the heart be right and\nall is well. Let man be obedient and his outward circumstance is\nnothing, having no relation to his joy or happiness. Even when as to his\nearthly body man passes away, he is not destroyed; the drop again\nbecomes part of the sea, the spark re-enters the flame, and his life\ncontinues, though it be not a conscious life. In this way man is in\nharmony with the original principle of all things. He outlasts the\nuniverse itself.\n\nHence to a conscientious Samurai there is nothing in this world better\nthan obedience, in the ideal of a true man. What he fears most and hates\nmost is that his memory may perish, that he shall have no seed, that he\nshall be forgotten or die under a cloud and be thought treacherous or\ncowardly or base, when in reality his life was pure and his motives\nhigh. \"Better,\" sang Yoshida Shoin, the dying martyr for his principles,\n\"to be a crystal and to be broken, than to be a tile upon the housetop\nand remain.\"\n\nSo, indeed, on a hundred curtained execution grounds, with the dirk of\nthe suicide firmly grasped and about to shed their own life-blood, have\nsung the martyrs who died willingly for their faith in their idea of\nYamato Damashii.[19] In untold instances in the national history, men\nhave died willingly and cheerfully, and women also by thousands, as\nbrave, as unflinching as the men, so that the story of Japanese chivalry\nis almost incredible in its awful suicides. History reveals a state of\nsociety in which cool determination, desperate courage and fearlessness\nof death in the face of duty were quite unique, and which must have had\ntheir base in some powerful though abnormal code of ethics.\n\nThis leads us to consider again the things emphasized by Japanese as\ndistinct from Chinese and Korean[20] Confucianism, and to call attention\nto its fruits, while at the same time we note its defects, and show\nwherein it failed. We shall then show how this old system has already\nwaxed old and is passing away. Christ has come to Japan, and behold a\nnew heaven and a new earth!\n\n\nNew Japan Makes Revision.\n\n\nFirst. For sovereign and minister, there are coming into vogue new\ninterpretations. This relation, if it is to remain as the first, will\nbecome that of the ruler and the ruled. Constitutional government has\nbegun; and codes of law have been framed which are recognizing the\nrights of the individual and of the people. Even a woman has rights\nbefore the law, in relation to husband, parents, brothers, sisters and\nchildren. It is even beginning to be thought that children have rights.\nLet us hope that as the rights are better understood the duties will be\nequally clear.\n\nIt is coming to pass in Japan that even in government, the sovereign\nmust consult with his people on all questions pertaining to their\nwelfare. Although, thus far the constitutional government makes the\nministers responsible to the Sovereign instead of to the Diet, yet the\ncontention of the enlightened men and the liberal parties is, that the\nministers shall be responsible to the Diet. The time seems at hand when\nthe sovereign's power over his people will not rest on traditions more\nor less uncertain, on history manufactured by governmental order, on\nmythological claims based upon the so-called \"eternal ages,\" on\nprerogatives upheld by the sword, or on the supposed grace of the gods,\nbut will be \"broad-based upon the people's will.\" The power of the\nrulers will be derived from the consent of the governed. The Emperor\nwill become the first and chief servant of the nation.\n\nRevision and improvement of the Second Relation will make filial piety\nsomething more real than that unto which China has attained, or Japan\nhas yet seen, or which is yet universally known in Christendom. The\ntyranny of the father and of the older brother, and the sale of\ndaughters to shame, will pass away; and there will arise in the Japanese\nhouse, the Christian home.\n\nIt would be hard to say what Confucianism has done for woman. It is\nprobable that all civilizations, and systems of philosophy, ethics and\nreligion, can be well tested by this criterion--the position of woman.\nConfucianism virtually admits two standards of morality, one for man,\nanother for woman.[21] In Chinese Asia adultery is indeed branded as one\nof the vilest of crimes, but in common idea and parlance it is a woman's\ncrime, not man's. So, on the other hand, chastity is a female virtue, it\nis part of womanly duty, it has little or no relation to man personally.\nRight revision and improvement of the Third Relation will abolish\nconcubinage. It will reform divorce. It will make love the basis of\nmarriage. It will change the state of things truthfully pictured in such\nbooks as the Genji Monogatari, or Romance of Prince Genji, with its\nexamples of horrible lust and incests; the Kojiki or Ethnic scripture,\nwith its na\u00efve accounts of filthiness among the gods; the Onna Dai Gaku,\nWoman's Great Study, with its amazing subordination and moral slavery of\nwife and daughter; and The Japanese Bride, of yesterday--all truthful\npictures of Japanese life, for the epoch in which each was written.\nThese books will become the forgotten curiosities of literature, known\nonly to the arch\u00e6ologist.\n\nImprovement and revision of the Fourth Relation, will bring into the\nJapanese home more justice, righteousness, love and enjoyment of life.\nIt will make possible, also, the cheerful acceptance and glad practice\nof those codes of law common in Christendom, which are based upon the\nrights of the individual and upon the idea of the greatest good to the\ngreatest number. It will help to abolish the evils which come from\nprimogeniture and to release the clutch of the dead hand upon the\nliving. It will decrease the power of the graveyard, and make thought\nand care for the living the rule of life. It will abolish sham and\nfiction, and promote the cause of truth. It will hasten the reign of\nrighteousness and love, and beneath propriety and etiquette lay the\nbasis of \"charity toward all, malice toward none.\"\n\nRevision with improvement of the Fifth Relation hastens the reign of\nuniversal brotherhood. It lifts up the fallen, the down-trodden and the\noutcast. It says to the slave \"be free,\" and after having said \"be\nfree,\" educates, trains, and lifts up the brother once in servitude, and\nhelps him to forget his old estate and to know his rights as well as his\nduties, and develops in him the image of God. It says to the hinin or\nnot-human, \"be a man, be a citizen, accept the protection of the law.\"\nIt says to the eta, \"come into humanity and society, receive the\nprotection of law, and the welcome of your fellows; let memory forget\nthe past and charity make a new future.\" It will bring Japan into the\nfraternity of nations, making her people one with the peoples of\nChristendom, not through the empty forms of diplomacy, or by the craft\nof her envoys, or by the power of her armies and navies reconstructed on\nmodern principles, but by patient education and unflinching loyalty to\nhigh ideals. Thus will Japan become worthy of all the honors, which the\nhighest humanity on this planet can bestow.\n\n\nThe Ideal of Yamato Damashii Enlarged.\n\n\nIn this our time it is not only the alien from Christendom, with his\nhostile eye and mordant criticism, who is helping to undermine that\nsystem of ethics which permitted the sale of the daughter to shame, the\nintroduction of the concubine into the family and the reduction of\nwoman, even though wife and mother, to nearly a cipher. It is not only\nthe foreigner who assaults that philosophy which glorified the vendetta,\nkept alive private war, made revenge in murder the sweetest joy of the\nSamurai and suicide the gate to honor and fame, subordinated the family\nto the house, and suppressed individuality and personality. It is the\nnative Japanese, no longer a hermit, a \"frog in the well, that knows not\nthe great ocean\" but a student, an inquirer, and a critic, who assaults\nthe old ethical and philosophical system, and calls for a new way\nbetween heaven and earth, and a new kind of Heaven in which shall be a\nCreator, a Father and a Saviour. The brain and pen of New Japan, as well\nas its heart, demand that the family shall be more than the house and\nthat the living members shall have greater rights as well as duties,\nthan the dead ancestors. They claim that the wife shall share\nresponsibility with the husband, and that the relation of husband and\nwife shall take precedence of that of the father and son; that the\nmother shall possess equal authority with the father; that the wife,\nwhether she be mother or not, shall not be compelled to share her home\nwith the concubine; and that the child in Japan shall be born in the\nhome and not in the herd. The sudden introduction of the Christian ideas\nof personality and individuality has undoubtedly wrought peril to the\nframework of a society which is built according to the Confucian\nprinciples; but faith in God, love in the home, and absolute equality\nbefore the law will bring about a reign of righteousness such as Japan\nhas never known, but toward the realization of which Christian nations\nare ever advancing.\n\nEven the old ideal of the Samurai embodied in the formula Yamato\nDamashii will be enlarged and improved from its narrow limits and\nferocious aspects, when the tap-root of all progress is allowed to\nstrike into deeper truth, and the Sixth Relation, or rather the first\nrelation of all, is taught, namely, that of God to Man, and of Man to\nGod. That this relation is understood, and that the Samurai ideal,\npurified and enlarged, is held by increasing numbers of Japan's\nbrightest men and noblest women, is shown in that superb Christian\nliterature which pours from the pens of the native men and women in the\nJapanese Christian churches. Under this flood of truth the old obstacles\nto a nobler society are washed away, while out of the enriched soil\nrises the new Japan which is to be a part of the better Christendom that\nis to come. Christ in Japan, as everywhere, means not destruction, but\nfulfilment.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA\n\n    \"Life is a dream is what the pilgrim learns,\n     Nor asks for more, but straightway home returns.\"\n    --Japanese medieval lyric drama.\n\n    \"The purpose of Buddha's preaching was to bring into light the\n    permanent truth, to reveal the root of all suffering and thus to\n    lead all sentient beings into the perfect emancipation from all\n    passions.\"--Outlines of the Mahayana.\n\n    \"Buddhism will stand forth as the embodiment of the eternal\n    verity that as a man sows he will reap, associated with the\n    duties of mastery over self and kindness to all men, and\n    quickened into a popular religion by the example of a noble and\n    beautiful life.\"--Dharmapala of Ceylon.\n\n    \"Buddhism teaches the right path of cause and effect, and\n    nothing which can supersede the idea of cause and effect will be\n    accepted and believed. Buddha himself cannot contradict this law\n    which is the Buddha, of Buddhas, and no omnipotent power except\n    this law is believed to be existent in the universe.\n\n    \"Buddhism does not quarrel with other religions about the truth\n    ... Buddhism is truth common to every religion regardless of the\n    outside garment.\"--Horin Toki, of Japan.\n\n    \"Death we can face; but knowing, as some of us do, what is human\n    life, which of us is it that without shuddering could (if we\n    were summoned) face the hour of birth?\" -De Quinccy.\n\n    The prayer of Buddhism, \"Deliver us from existence.\"\n    The prayer of the Christian, \"Deliver us from evil.\"\n\n    \"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the\n    earth.\"--Genesis.\n\n    \"I am come that they might have life and that they might have it\n    more abundantly.\"--Jesus.\n\n\nCHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA\n\nPre-Buddhistic India.\n\n\nDoes the name of Gautama, the Buddha, stand for a sun-myth or for a\nhistoric personage? One set of scholars and writers, represented by\nProfessor Kern,[1] of Leyden, thinks the Buddha a mythical personage.\nAnother school, represented by Professor T. Rhys Davids,[2] declares\nthat he lived in human flesh and breathed the air of earth. We accept\nthe historical view as best explaining the facts.\n\nIn order to understand a religion, in its origin at least, we must know\nsome of the conditions out of which it arose. Buddhism is one of the\nprotestantisms of the world. Yet, is not every religion, in one sense,\nprotestant? Is it not a protest against something to which it opposes a\ndifference? Every new religion, like a growing plant, ignores or rejects\ncertain elements in the soil out of which it springs. It takes up and\nassimilates, also, other elements not used before, in order to produce a\nflower or fruit different from other growths out of the same soil. Yet\nwhether the new religion be considered as a development, fulfilment, or\nprotest, we must know its historical perspective or background. To\nunderstand the origin of Buddhism, one of the best preparations is to\nread the history of India and especially of the thought of her many\ngenerations; for the landmarks of the civilizations of India, as a Hindu\nmay proudly say, are its mighty literatures. At these let us glance.[3]\n\nThe age of the Vedas extends from the year 2000 to 1400 B.C., and the\nhistory of this early India is wonderfully like that of America. During\nthis era, the Hindus, one of the seven Aryan tribes of which the\nPersian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Sclav and Teutonic form the other six,\ndescending from the mid-Asian plateau, settled the Punjab in Northwest\nIndia. They drove the dark-skinned aborigines before them and reclaimed\nforest and swamp to civilization, making the land of the seven rivers\nbright with agriculture and brilliant with cities. This was the glorious\nheroic age of joyous life and conquest, when men who believed in a\nHeavenly Father[4] made the first epoch of Hindu history.\n\nThen followed the epic age, 1400-1000 B.C., when the area of\ncivilization was extended still farther down the Ganges Valley, the\nsplendor of wealth, learning, military prowess and social life excelling\nthat of the ancestral seats in the Punjab. Amid differences of wars and\ndiplomacy with rivalries and jealousies, a common sacred language,\nliterature and religion with similar social and religious institutions,\nunited the various nations together. In this time the old Vedas were\ncompiled into bodies or collections, and the Brahmanas and the\nUpanishads, besides the great epic poems, the Mahabharata and the\nRamayana were composed.\n\nThe next, or rationalistic epoch, covers the period from 1000 B.C. to\n320 B.C., when the Hindu expansion had covered all India, that is, the\npeninsula from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Then, all India, including\nCeylon, was Hinduized, though in differing degrees; the purest Aryan\ncivilization being in the north, the less pure in the Ganges Valley and\nsouth and east, while the least Aryan and more Dravidian was in Bengal,\nOrissa, and India south of the Kistna River.\n\nThis story of the spread of Hindu civilization is a brilliant one, and\nseems as wonderful as the later European conquest of the land, and of\nthe other \"Indians\" of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific.\nBeside the conquests in material civilization of these our fellow-Aryans\n(who were the real Indians, and who spoke the language which is the\ncommon ancestor of our own and of most European tongues), what impresses\nus most of all, in these Aryans, is their intellectual energy. The\nHindus of the rationalistic age made original discoveries. They invented\ngrammar, geometry, arithmetic, decimal notation, and they elaborated\nastronomy, medicine, mental philosophy and logic (with syllogism) before\nthese sciences were known or perfected in Greece. In the seventh century\nbefore Christ, Kapila taught a system of philosophy, of which that of\nthe Europeans, Schopenhaur and Hartmann, seems largely a reproduction.\n\nFollowing this agnostic scheme of thought, came, several centuries\nlater, the dualistic Yoga[5] system in which the chief feature is the\nconception of Deity as a means of final emancipation of the human soul\nfrom further transmigration, and of union with the Universal Spirit or\nWorld Soul. There is, however, perhaps no sadder chapter in the history\nof human thought than the story of the later degeneration of the Yoga\nsystem into one of bloody and cruel rites in India, and of superstition\nin China.\n\nStill other systems followed: one by Gautama, of the same clan or family\nof the later Buddha, who develops inference by the construction of\nsyllogism; while Kanada follows the atomic philosophy in which the atoms\nare eternal, but the aggregates perishable by disintegration.\n\nAgainst these schools, which seemed to be dangerous \"new departures,\"\northodox Hindus, anxious for their ancient beliefs and practices as laid\ndown in the Vedas, started fresh systems of philosophy, avowedly more in\nconsonances with their ancestral faith. One system insisted on the\nprimitive Vedic ritual, and another laid emphasis on the belief in a\nUniversal Soul first inculcated in the Upanishads.\n\n\nConditions out of which Buddhism Arose.\n\n\nWhatever we may think of these schools of philosophy, or the connection\nwith or indebtedness of Gautama, the Buddha, to them, they reveal to us\nthe conceptions which his contemporaries had of the universe and the\nbeings inhabiting it. These were honest human attempts to find God. In\nthem the various beings or six conditions of sentient existence are\ndevas or gods; men; asuras or monsters; pretas or demons; animals; and\nbeings in hell. Furthermore, these schools of Hindu philosophy show us\nthe conditions out of which Buddhism arose, furnish us with its\nterminology and technical phrases, reveal to us what the reformer\nproposed to himself to do, and, what is perhaps still more important,\nshow us the types to which Buddhism in its degeneration and degradation\nreverted. The strange far-off oriental words which today scholars\ndiscuss, theosophists manipulate, and charlatans employ as catchpennies\nwere common words in the every-day speech of the Hindu people, two or\nthree thousand years ago.\n\nGlancing rapidly at the condition of religion in the era ushering in the\nbirth of Buddha, we note that the old joyousness of life manifested in\nthe Vedic hymns is past, their fervor and glow are gone. In the morning\nof Hindu life there was no caste, no fixed priesthood, and no idols; but\nas wealth, civilization, easy and settled life succeeded, the taste for\npompous sacrifices conducted by an hereditary priestly caste increased.\nGreater importance was laid upon the detail of the ceremonies, the\nattention of the worshipper being turned from the deities \"to the\nminuti\u00e6 of rites, the erection of altars, the fixing of the proper\nastronomical moments for lighting the fire, the correct pronunciation of\nprayers, and to the various requisite acts accompanying a sacrifice.\"[6]\nIn the chapter of decay which time wrote and literature reflects, we\nfind \"grotesque reasons given for every minute rite, dogmatic\nexplanation of texts, penances for every breach of form and rule, and\nelaborate directions for every act and moment of the worshipper.\"\n\nThe literature shows a degree of credulity and submission on the part of\nthe people and of absolute power on the part of the priests, which\nreminds us of the Middle Ages in Europe. The old inspiring wars with the\naborigines are over. The time of bearing a noble creed, meaning culture\nand civilization as against savagery and idolatry, is past, and only\nintestine quarrels and local strife have succeeded. The age of creative\nliterature is over, and commentators, critics and grammarians have\nsucceeded. Still more startling are the facts disclosed by literary\nhistory. The liquid poetry has become frozen prose; the old flaming fuel\nof genius is now slag and ashes. We see Hindus doing exactly what Jewish\nrabbis, and after them Christian schoolmen and dogma-makers, did with\nthe old Hebrew poems and prophecies. Construing literally the prayers,\nsongs and hopes of an earlier age, they rebuild the letter of the text\ninto creeds and systems, and erect an amazing edifice of steel-framed\nand stone-cased tradition, to challenge which is taught to be heresy and\nimpiety. The poetical similes used in the Rig Vedas have been\ntransformed into mythological tales. In the change of language the Vedas\nthemselves are unreadable, except by the priests, who fatten on popular\nbeliefs in the transmigration of souls and in the power of priestcraft\nto make that transmigration blissful--provided liberal gifts are duly\nforthcoming. Idolatry and witchcraft are rampant. Some saviour, some\nlight was needed.\n\n\nBuddhism a Logical Product of Hindu Thought.\n\n\nAt such a time, probably 557 B.C., was born Shaka, of the Muni clan, at\nKapilavastu, one hundred miles northeast of Benares. We pass over the\ndetails[7] of the life of him called Prince, Lord, Lion of the Tribe of\nShaka, and Saviour; of his desertion of wife and child, called the first\nGreat Renunciation; of his struggles to obtain peace; of his\nenlightenment or Buddhahood; of his second or Greater Renunciation; of\nmerit on account of austerities; and give the story told in a mountain\nof books in various tongues, but condensed in a paragraph by Romesh\nChunder Dutt.\n\n    \"At an early age, Prince Gautama left his royal home, and his\n    wife, and new-born child, and became a wanderer and a mendicant,\n    to seek a way of salvation for man. Hindu rites, accompanied by\n    the slaughter of innocent victims, repelled his feelings. Hindu\n    philosophy afforded him no remedy, and Hindu penances and\n    mortifications proved unavailing after he had practised them for\n    years. At last, by severe contemplation, he discovered the long\n    coveted truth; a holy and calm life, and benevolence and love\n    toward all living creatures seemed to him the essence of\n    religion. Self-culture and universal love--this was his\n    discovery--this is the essence of Buddhism.\"[8]\n\nFrom one point of view Buddhism was the logical continuance of Aryan\nHindoo philosophy; from another point of view it was a new departure.\nThe leading idea in the Upanishads is that the object of the wise man\nshould be to know, inwardly and consciously, the Great Soul of all; and\nby this knowledge his individual soul would become united to the Supreme\nBeing, the true and absolute self. This was the highest point reached in\nthe old Indian philosophy[9] before Buddha was born.\n\nSo, looking at Buddhism in the perspective of Hindu history and thought,\nwe may say that it is doubtful whether Gautama intended to found a new\nreligion. As, humanly speaking, Saul of Tarsus saved Christianity from\nbeing a Jewish sect and made it universal, so Gautama extricated the new\nenthusiasm of humanity from the priests. He made Aryan religion the\nproperty of all India. What had been a rare monopoly as narrow as\nJudaism, he made the inheritance of all Asia. Gautama was a protestant\nand a reformer, not an agnostic or skeptic. It is more probable that he\nmeant to shake off Brahmanism and to restore the pure and original form\nof the Aryan religion of the Vedas, as far as it was possible to do so.\nIn one sense, Buddhism was a revolt against hereditary and sacerdotal\nprivilege--an attack of the people against priestcraft. The Buddha and\nhis disciples were levellers. In a different age and clime, but along a\nsimilar path, they did a work analogous to that of the so-called\nAnabaptists in Europe and Independents in England, centuries later.\n\nIt is certain, however, that Buddhism has grown logically out of ancient\nHinduism. In its monastic feature--one of its most striking\ncharacteristics--we see only the concentration and reduction to system,\nof the old life of the ascetics and religious mendicants recognized and\nrespected by Hinduism. For centuries the Buddhist monks and nuns were\nregarded in India as only a new sect of ascetics, among many others\nwhich flourished in the land.\n\nThe Buddhist doctrine of karma, or in Japanese, _ingwa_, of cause and\neffect, whereby it is taught that each effect in this life springs from\na cause in some previous incarnation, and that each act in this life\nbears its fruit in the next, has grown directly out of the Hindu idea of\nthe transmigration of souls. This idea is first inculcated in the\nUpanishads, and is recognized in Hindu systems of philosophy.\n\nSo also the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana, or the attainment of a sinless\nstate of existence, has grown out of the idea of final union of the\nindividual soul with the Universal Soul, which is also inculcated in the\nUpanishads. Yet, as we shall see, the Buddhists were, in the eyes of the\nBrahmans, atheists, because in the ken of these new levellers gods and\nmen were put on the same plane. Brahmanism has never forgiven Buddhism\nfor ignoring the gods, and the Hindoos finally drove out the followers\nof Gautama from India. It eventuated that after a millenium or so of\nBuddhism in India, the old gods, Brahma, Indra, etc., which at first had\nbeen shut out from the ken of the people, by Gautama, found their places\nagain in the popular faith of the Buddhists, who believed that the gods\nas well as men, were all progressing toward the blessed Nirvana--that\nsinless life and holy calm, which is the Buddhist's heaven and\nsalvation.\n\nIt is certainly very curious, and in a sense amusing, to find\nflourishing in far-off Japan the old gods of India, that one would\nsuppose to have been utterly dead and left behind in oblivion. As\nacknowledged devas or kings and bodhisattvas or soon-to-be Buddhas, not\na few once defunct Hindu gods, utterly unknown to early Buddhism, have\nforced their way into the company of the elect. Though most of them have\nnot gained the popularity of the indigenous deities of Nippon, they yet\nattract many worshippers. They remind one that amid the coming of the\nsons of Elohim before Jehovah, \"the satan\" came also.[10]\n\nFrom another point of view Buddhism was a new religion; for it swept\naway and out of the field of its vision the whole of the World or\nUniversal Soul theory. \"It proclaimed a salvation which each man could\ngain for himself and by himself, in this world during this life, without\nthe least reference to God, or to gods, either great or small.\" \"It\nplaced the first importance on knowledge; but it was no longer a\nknowledge of God, it was a clear perception of the real nature as they\nsupposed it to be of men and things.\" In a word, Gautama never reached\nthe idea of a personal self-existent God, though toward that truth he\ngroped. He was satisfied too soon.[11] His followers were even more\neasily satisfied with abstractions. When Gautama saw the power over the\nhuman heart of inward culture and of love to others, he obtained peace,\nhe rested on certainty, he became the Buddha, that is, the enlightened.\nPerhaps he was not the first Buddhist. It may be that the historical\nGautama, if so he is worthy to be called, merely made the sect or the\nnew religion famous. Hardly a religion in the full sense of the word,\nBuddhism did not assume the r\u00f4le of theology, but sought only to know\nmen and things. In one sense Buddhism is atheism, or rather, atheistic\nhumanism. In one sense, also, the solution of the mystery of God, of\nlife, and of the universe, which Gautama and his followers attained, was\none of skepticism rather than of faith. Buddhism is, relatively, a very\nmodern religion; it is one of the new faiths. Is it paradoxical to say\nthat the Buddhists are \"religious atheists?\"\n\n\nThe Buddhist Millennium in India.\n\n\nLet us now look at the life of the Founder. Day after day, the\npure-souled teacher attracted new disciples while he with alms-bowl went\naround as mendicant and teacher. Salvation merely by self-control, and\nlove without any rites, ceremonies, charms, priestly powers, gods or\nmiracles, formed the burden of his teachings. \"Thousands of people left\ntheir homes, embraced the holy order and became monks, ignoring caste,\nand relinquishing all worldly goods except the bare necessaries of life,\nwhich they possessed and enjoyed in common.\" Probably the first monastic\n_system_ of the world, was that of the Indian Buddhists.\n\nThe Buddha preached the good news during forty-five years. After his\ndeath, five hundred of his followers assembled at Rajagriha and chanted\ntogether the teachings of Gautama, to fix them in memory. A hundred\nyears later, in 377 B.C., came the great schism among the Buddhists, out\nof which grew the divisions known as Northern and Southern Buddhism.\nThere was disagreement on ten points. A second council was therefore\ncalled, and the disputed points determined to the satisfaction of one\nside. Thereupon the seceders went away in large numbers, and the\ndifferences were never healed; on the contrary, they have widened in the\ncourse of ages.\n\nThe separatists began what may be called the Northern Buddhisms of\nNepal, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan. The orthodox or Southern Buddhists\nare those of Ceylon, Burma and Siam. The original canon of Southern\nBuddhism is in Pali; that of Northern Buddhism is in Sanskrit. The one\nis comparatively small and simple; the other amazingly varied and\nvoluminous. The canon of Southern scripture is called the Hinayana, the\nLittle or Smaller Vehicle; the canon of Northern Buddhism is named the\nMahayana or Great Vehicle. Possibly, also, besides the Southern and\nNorthern Buddhisms, the Buddhism of Japan may be treated by itself and\nnamed Eastern Buddhism.\n\nIn the great council called in 242 B.C., by King Asoka, who may be\ntermed the Constantine of Buddhism, the sacred texts were again chanted.\nIt was not until the year 88 B.C. in Ceylon, six hundred years after\nGautama, that the three Pitakas, Boxes or Baskets, were committed to\nwriting in the Pali language. In a word, Buddhism knows nothing of\nsacred documents or a canon of scripture contemporary with its first\ndisciples.\n\nThe splendid Buddhist age of India lasted nearly a thousand years, and\nwas one of superb triumphs in civilization. It was an age of spiritual\nemancipation, of freedom from idol worship, of nobler humanity and of\npeace.[12] It was followed by the Puranic epoch and the dark ages. Then\nBuddhism was, as some say, \"driven out\" from the land of its birth,\nfinding new expansion in Eastern and Northern Asia, and again, a still\nmore surprising development in the ultima-Thule of the Asiatic\ncontinent, Japan. There is now no Buddhism in India proper, the faith\nbeing represented only in Ceylon and possibly also on the main land, by\nthe sect of the Jains, and peradventure in Persia by Babism which\ncontains elements from three religions.[13] Like Christianity, Buddhism\nwas \"driven out\" of its old home to bless other nations of the world. It\nis probably far nearer the truth to say that Buddhism was never expelled\nfrom India, but rather that it died by disintegration and relapse.[14]\nIt had become Brahmanism again. The old gods and the old idol-worship\ncame back. It is in Japan that the ends of the earth, eastern and\nwestern civilization, and the freest and fullest or at least the latest\ndevelopments of Christianity and of Buddhism, have met.\n\nIn its transfer to distant lands and its developments throughout Eastern\nAsia, the faith which had originated in India suffered many changes.\nDividing into two great branches, it became a notably different religion\naccording as it moved along the southern, the northern, or the eastern\nchannel. By the vehicle of the Pali language it was carried to Ceylon,\nSiam, Burma, Cambodia and the islands of the south; that is, to southern\nor peninsular and insular Asia. Here there is little evidence of any\nstriking departure from the doctrines of the Pali Pitakas; and, as\nSouthern Buddhism does not greatly concern us in speaking of the\nreligions of Japan, we may pass it by. For although the books and\nwritings belonging to Southern Buddhism, and comprehended under the\nformula of the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, have been studied in China,\nKorea and Japan, yet they have had comparatively little influence upon\ndoctrinal, ritualistic, or missionary development in Chinese Asia.\n\nAstonishingly different has been the case with the Northern Buddhisms\nwhich are those of Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, China, Korea and\nJapan. As luxuriant as the evolutions of political and dogmatic\nChristianity and as radical in their departures from the primitive\nsimplicity of the faith, have been these forms of Buddhist doctrine,\nritual and organization. We cannot now dwell upon the wonderful details\nof the vast and complicated system, differing so much in various\ncountries. We pass by, or only glance at, the philosophy of the Punjaub;\nthe metaphysics of Nepal--with its developments into what some writers\nconsider to be a close approach to monotheism, and others, indeed,\nmonotheism itself; the system of Lamaism in Tibet, which has paralleled\nso closely the development of the papal hierarchy; the possibly two\nthousand years' growth and decay of Chinese Buddhism; the varieties of\nthe Buddhism of Mongolia--almost swamped in the Shamanistic\nsuperstitions of these dwellers on the plains; the astonishing success,\nquick ripening, decay, and almost utter annihilation, among the learned\nand governing classes, of Korean Buddhism;[15] and study in detail only\nEastern or Japanese Buddhism.\n\nWe shall in this lecture attempt but two things:\n\nI. A summary of the process of thought by which the chief features of\nthe Northern Buddhisms came into view.\n\nII. An outline of the story of Japanese Buddhism during the first three\ncenturies of its existence.\n\n\nThe Development of Northern Buddhism\n\n\nLeaving the early Buddha legends and the solid ground of history, the\nmakers of the newer Buddhist doctrines in Nepal occupied themselves with\ndeveloping the theory of Buddhahood and of the Buddhas;[16] for we must\never remember that Buddha[17] is not a proper name, but a common\nadjective meaning enlightened, from the root to know, perceive, etc.\nThey made constant and marvellous additions to the primitive doctrine,\ngiving it a momentum which gathered force as the centuries went on; and,\nas propaganda, it moved against the sun.\n\nThis development theory ran along the line of _personification_. Not\nbeing satisfied with \"the wheel of the law,\" it personified both the hub\nand the spokes. It began with the spirit of kindness out of which all\nhuman virtues rise, and by the power of which the Buddhist organization\nwill conquer all sin and unbelief and become victorious throughout the\nworld. This personification is called the Maitreya Buddha, the\nunconquerable one, or the future Buddha of benevolence, the Buddha who\nis yet to come. Here was a tremendous and revolutionary movement in the\nnew faith, the beginning of a long process. It was as though the\nChristians had taken the particular attributes, justice, mercy, etc., of\nGod and, after personifying each one, deified it, thus multiplying gods.\n\nWhat was the soil for the new sowing, and what was the harvest to be\nreaped in due time?\n\nWith many thousands of India Buddhists whose minds were already steeped\nin Brahministic philosophy and mythology, who were more given to\nspeculation and dreaming than to self-control and moral culture, and who\nmourned for the dead gods of Hinduism, the soil was already prepared for\na growth wholly abnormal to true Buddhism, but altogether in keeping\nwith the older Brahministic philosophies from which these dreamers had\nbeen but partially converted to Buddhism.[18]\n\nThe seed is found in the doctrine which already forms part of the system\nof the Little Vehicle, when it tells of the personal Buddhas and the\nBuddhas elect, or future Buddhas. In the Jataka stories, or Birth tales,\n\"the Buddha elect\" is the title given to each of the beings, man, angel,\nor animal, who is held to be a Bodhisattva, or the future Buddha in one\nof his former births. The title Bodhisattva[19] is the name given to a\nbeing whose Karma will produce other beings in a continually ascending\nscale of goodness until it becomes vested in a Buddha. Or, in the more\ncommon use of the word, a Bodhisattva (Japanese bosatsu) is a being\nwhose essence has become intelligence, and who will have to pass through\nhuman existence once more only before entering Nirvana.\n\nIn Southern Buddhist temples, the pure white image of Maitreya is\nsometimes found beside the idol representing Gautama or the historical\nBuddha. While in Southern Buddhism the idea of this possibility of\ndevelopment seems to have been little seized upon and followed up, in\nNorthern Buddhism as early as 400 A.D. the worship of two Buddhas elect\nnamed Manjusri and Avalokitesvara, or personified Wisdom and Power, had\nalready become general. Manjusri,[20] the Great Being or \"Prince Royal,\"\nis the personification of wisdom, and especially of the mystic religious\ninsight which has produced the Great Vehicle or canon of Northern\nBuddhism; or, as a Japanese author says, the third collection of the\nTripitaka was that made by Manjusri and Maitreya. Avalokitesvara,[21]\nthe Lord of View or All-sided One, is the personification of power, the\nmerciful protector and preserver of the world and of men. Both are\nfrequently and voluminously mentioned in the Saddharma Pundarika,[22] in\nwhich the good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric, and of which we\nshall have occasion frequently to speak. Manjusri is the mythical author\nof this influential work,[23] the twenty-fourth chapter being devoted to\na glorification of the character, the power, and the advantages to be\nderived from the worship of Avalokitesvara.\n\n\nThe Creation of Gods.\n\n\nPossibly the name of Manjusri may be derived from that of the Indian\nmendicant, the traditional introducer of Buddhism and its accompanying\ncivilization into Nepal. The Tibetans identify him with the minister of\na great King Strongstun, who lived in the seventh century of our era and\nwho was the great patron of Buddhism into Tibet. He is the founder of\nthat school of thought which ended in the Great Vehicle,--the literature\nof Northern Buddhism.[24] From Nepal to Japan, in the books of the\nNorthern Buddhists there is certainly much confusion between the\nmetaphysical being and the legendary civilizer and teacher of Nepal. The\nother name, Avalokitesvara, which means the Lord of View, \"the lord who\nlooks down from on high,\" instead of being a purely metaphysical\ninvention, may he only an adaptation of one epithet of Shiva, which\nmeant Master of View.\n\nLater and by degrees the attributes were separated and each one was\npersonified. For example, the power of Avalokitesvara was separated from\nhis protecting care and providence. His power was personified as the\nbearer of the thunder-bolt, or the lightning-handed one; and this new\npersonification added to the two other Buddhas elect, made a triad, the\nfirst in Northern Buddhism. In this triad, the thunder-bolt holder was\nVagrapani; Manjusri was the deified teacher; and Avalokitesvara was the\nSpirit of the Buddhas present in the church. Before many centuries had\nelapsed, these imaginary beings, with a few others, had become gods to\nwhom men prayed; and thus Buddhism became a religion with some kind of\ntheism,--which Gautama had expressly renounced.\n\nIf any one wants proof of this reversion into the old religions of\nIndia, he has only to notice that the name, given to the new god made by\npersonification of the attribute of power, Vagrapani, or Vadjradhara, or\nthe bearer of the thunder-bolt, had formerly been used as an epithet of\nthe old fire-god of the Vedas, Indra.\n\nIt were tedious to recount all the steps in the further development of\nNorthern Buddhism.[25] Suffice it to say, that out of ideas and\nprinciples set forth in the earlier Buddhism, and under the generating\nforce reborn from old Brahminism, the Dhyani Buddhas (that is the\nBuddhas evolved out of the mind in mystic trance) were given their elect\nBuddhas; and so three sets of five were co-ordinated.[26] That is,\nfirst, five pre-penultimate Buddhas; then their Bodhisattvas or\npenultimate Buddhas; and then the ultimate or human Buddhas, of which\nGautama was one. Or, first abstraction; then pre-human effluence; then\nemanation.\n\nAll this multiplication of beings is unknown to Southern Buddhism,\nunknown to the Saddharma Pundarika, and very probably unknown also to\nthe Chinese pilgrims who visited India in the fifth and seventh\ncenturies. Professor Rhys Davids, in his compact little manual of\nBuddhism, says:[27]\n\n    \"Among those hypothetical beings--the creations of a sickly\n    scholasticism, hollow abstractions without life or reality--the\n    fourth Amitabha, 'Immeasurable Light,' whose Bodhisatwa is\n    Avalokitesvara, and whose emanation is Gautama, occupies of\n    course the highest and most important rank. Surrounded by\n    innumerable Bodhisatwas, he sits enthroned under a Bo-tree in\n    Sukhavati, i.e., the Blissful, a paradise of heavenly joys,\n    whose description occupies whole tedious books of the so-called\n    Great Vehicle. By this theory, each of the five Buddhas has\n    become three, and the fourth of these five sets of three is the\n    second Buddhist Trinity, the belief in which must have arisen\n    after the seventh century of our era.\"\n\nBuddhism has been called the light of Asia, and Gautama its illuminator;\nbut certainly the light has not been pure, nor the products of its\nillumination wholesome. Pardon an illustration. In Christian churches\nand cathedrals of Europe, there is still a great prejudice against the\nuse of pipes, and of gas made from coal, because of the machinery and of\nthe impure emanations. The prejudice is a wholesome one; for we all know\nthat most of the elements forming common illuminating gas are worthless\nexcept to convey the very small amount of light-giving material, and\nthat these elements in combustion vitiate the air and give off\ndeleterious products which corrode, tarnish and destroy. Now though\nBuddhist doctrine may have been the light of India, yet to reach the\nNorthern and Eastern nations of Asia it had, apparently, to be\nadulterated for conveyance, as much as is the illuminating gas in our\ncities. From the first, Northern Buddhism showed a wonderful affinity,\nnot only for Brahministic superstitions and speculations, but for almost\neverything else with which it came in contact in countries beyond India.\nInstead of combating, it absorbed. It adapted itself to circumstances,\nand finding certain beliefs prevalent among the people, it imbibed them,\nand thus gained by accretion until its bulk, both of beliefs and of\ndisciples, was in the inverse ratio of its purity. Even to-day, the\noccult theosophy of \"Isis Unveiled,\" and of the school of writers such\nas Blavatsky, Olcott, etc., seems to be a perfectly logical product of\nthe Northern Buddhisms, and may be called one of them; yet it is simply\na repetition of what took place centuries ago. Most of the primitive\nbeliefs and superstitions of Nepal and Tibet were absorbed in the ever\nhungry and devouring system of Buddhistic scholasticism.\n\n\nThe Making of a Pantheon.\n\n\nLet us glance again at this Nepal Buddhism. In the tenth century we find\nwhat at first seems to be a growth out of Polytheism into Monotheism,\nfor a new Being, to whom the attributes of infinity, self-existence and\nomniscience are ascribed, is invented and named Adi-Buddha, or the\nprimordial Buddha. According to the speculations of the thinkers, he had\nevolved himself out of the five Dhyani-Buddhas by the exercise of the\nfive meditations, while each of these had evolved out of itself by\nwisdom and contemplation, the corresponding Buddhas elect. Again, each\nof the latter evolved out of his own essence a material world,--our\npresent world being the fourth of these, that is of Avaloki. One almost\nmight consider that this setting forth of the primordial Buddha was real\nMonotheism; but on looking more carefully one sees that it is as little\nreal Monotheism as was possible in the system of Gnosticism. Indeed the\nforce of evolution could not stop here; for, since even this primordial\nBuddha rested upon Ossa of hypothesis piled upon Pelion of hypothesis,\nthere must be other hypotheses yet to come, and so the Tantra system, a\ncompound of old Brahminism with the magic and witchcraft and Shamanism\nof Northern Asia burst into view. As this was to travel into Japan and\nbe hailed as purest Buddhism, let us note how this tenth century Tantra\nsystem grew up. To see this clearly, is to look upon the parable of the\nman with the unclean spirit being acted out on a vast scale in history.\n\nIn the sixth century of our era, one Asanga, or Asamga, wrote the\nShastra, called the Shastra Yoga-chara Bhumi.[28] With great dexterity\nhe erected a sort of clearing-house for both the corrupt Brahminism and\ncorrupt Buddhism of his day, and exchanging and rearranging the gods and\ndevils in both systems, he represented them as worshippers and\nsupporters of the Buddha and Avalokitesvara. In such a system, the old\nprimitive Buddhism of the noble eight-fold path of self-conquest and\npure morals was utterly lost. Instead of that, the worshipper gave his\nwhole powers to obtaining occult potencies by means of magic phrases and\nmagic circles. Then grew up whole forests of monasteries and temples,\nwith an outburst of devilish art representing many-headed and many-eyed\nand many-handed idols on the walls, on books, on the roadside, with\nmanifold charms and phrases the endless repetitions of which were\nsupposed to have efficacy with the hypothetical being who filled the\nheavens. That was _the_ age of idols for China as well as for India; and\nthe old Chinese house, once empty, swept and garnished by Confucianism,\nwas now filled with a mob of unclean spirits each worse than the first.\nWith more courageous logic than the more matter-of-fact Chinese, the\nTibetan erected his prayer-mills[29] and let the winds of heaven and the\nflowing waters continually multiply his prayers and holy syllables. And\nthese inventions were duly imported into Japan, and even now are far\nfrom being absent.[30]\n\nPassing over for the present the history of Buddhism in China,[31]\nsuffice it to say that the Buddhism which entered Japan from Korea in\nthe sixth century, was not the simple atheism touched with morality, the\nbald skepticism or benevolent agnosticism of Gautama, but a religion\nalready over a thousand years old. It was the system of the Northern\nBuddhists. These, dissatisfied, or unsatisfied, with absorption into a\npassionless state through self-sacrifice and moral discipline, had\nevolved a philosophy of religion in which were gods, idols and an\napparatus of conversion utterly unknown to the primitive faith.\n\n\nBuddhism Already Corrupted when brought to Japan.\n\n\nThis sixth century Buddhism in Japan was not the army with banners,\nwhich was introduced still later with the luxuriances of the fully\ndeveloped system, its paradise wonderfully like Mohammed's and its\nover-populated pantheon. It was, however, ready with the necessary\nmachinery, both material and mental, to make conquest of a people which\nhad not only religious aspirations, but also latent aesthetic\npossibilities of a high order. As in its course through China this\nNorthern Buddhism had acted as an all-powerful absorbent of local\nbeliefs and superstitions, so in Japan it was destined to make a more\nremarkable record, and, not only to absorb local ideas but actually to\ncause the indigenous religion to disappear.\n\nLet us inquire who were the people to whom Buddhism, when already\npossessed of a millenium of history, entered its Ultima Thule in Eastern\nAsia. At what stage of mutual growth did Buddhism and the Japanese meet\neach other?\n\nInstead of the forty millions of thoroughly homogeneous people in\nJapan--according to the census of December 31, 1892--all being loyal\nsubjects of one Emperor, we must think of possibly a million of hunters,\nfishermen and farmers in more or less warring clans or tribes. These\nwere made up of the various migrations from the main land and the drift\nof humanity brought by the ocean currents from the south; Ainos,\nKoreans, Tartars and Chinese, with probably some Malay and Nigrito\nstock. In the central part of Hondo, the main island, the Yamato tribe\ndominated, its chief being styled Sum\u00e9ru-mikoto, or Mikado. To the south\nand southwest, the Mikado's power was only more or less felt, for the\nYamato men had a long struggle in securing supremacy. Northward and\neastward lay great stretches of land, inhabited by unsubdued and\nuncivilized native tribes of continental and most probably of Korean\norigin, and thus more or less closely akin to the Yamato men. Still\nnorthward roamed the Ainos, a race whose ancestral seats may have been\nin far-off Dravidian India. Despite the constant conflicts between the\nYamato people who had agriculture and the beginnings of government, law\nand literature, and their less civilized neighbors, the tendency to\namalgamation was already strong. The problem of the statesman, was to\nextend the sway of the Mikado over the whole Archipelago.\n\nShint\u014d was, in its formation, made use of as an engine to conquer,\nunify and civilize all the tribes. In one sense, this conquest of men\nhaving lower forms of faith, by believers in the Kami no Michi, or Way\nof the Gods, was analogous to the Aryan conquest of India and the\nDravidians. However this may be, the energy and valor displayed in these\nearly ages formed the ideal of Yamato Damashii (The Spirit of\nunconquerable Japan), which has so powerfully influenced the modern\nJapanese. We shall see, also, how grandly Buddhism also came to be a\npowerful force in the unification of the Japanese people. At first, the\nnew faith would be rejected as an alien invader, stigmatized as a\nforeign religion, and, as such, sure to invoke the wrath of the native\ngods. Then later, its superiority to the indigenous cult would be seen\nboth by the wise and the practically minded, and it would be welcomed\nand enjoyed.\n\n\nThe Inviting Field.\n\n\nNever had a new religion a more inviting field or one more sure of\nsuccess, than had Buddhism on stepping from the Land of Morning Dawn to\nthe Land of the Rising Sun. Coming as a gorgeous, dazzling and\ndisciplined array of all that could touch the imagination, stimulate the\nintellect and move the heart of the Japanese, it was irresistible. For\nthe making of a nation, Shint\u014d was as a donkey engine, compared to\nthe system of furnaces, boilers, shaft and propeller of a\nten-thousand-ton steel cruiser, moved by the energies of a million years\nof sunbeam force condensed into coal and released again through\ntransmigration by fire.\n\nAll accounts in the vernacular Japanese agree, that their Butsu-d\u014d or\nBuddhism was imported from Korea. In the sixteenth year of K\u00e9itai, the\ntwenty-seventh Mikado (of the list made centuries after, and the\neleventh after the impossible line of the long-lived or mythical\nMikados), A.D. 534, it is said that a man from China brought with him an\nimage of Buddha into Yamato, and setting it up in a thatched cottage\nworshipped it. The people called it \"foreign-country god.\" Visitors\ndiscussed with him the religion of Shaka, as the Japanese call\nShakyamuni, and some little knowledge of Buddhism was gained, but no\nnotable progress was made until A.D. 552, which is generally accepted\nand celebrated as the year of the introduction of the faith into Japan.\nThen a king of Hiaksai in Korea, sent over to the court and to the\nMikado golden images of the Buddha and of the triad of \"precious ones,\"\nwith Sutras and sacred books. These holy relics are believed to be still\npreserved in the famous temple of Zenk\u014dji,[32] belonging to the\ntemple of the Tendai Sect at Nagano in Northern Japan, this shrine being\ndedicated to Amida and his two followers Kwannon (Avalokitesvara) and\nDai-s\u00e9i-shi (Mahastanaprapta). This group of idols, as the custodian of\nthe shrine will tell you, was made by Shaka himself out of gold, found\nat the base of the tree which grows at the centre of the universe. After\nremaining in Korea for eleven hundred and twelve years, it was brought\nto Japan. Mighty is the stream of pilgrims which continually sets toward\nthe holy place. A common proverb declares that even a cow can find her\nway thither.\n\nIn A.D. 572 and again in 584, new images, sutras and teachers came over\nfrom another part of Korea. The Mikado called a council to determine\nwhat should be done with the idols, to the worship of which he was\nhimself inclined; but a majority were against the idea of insulting the\nnative gods by receiving the presents and thus introducing a foreign\nreligion. The minister of state, however, one Soga no Inam\u00e9, expressed\nhimself in favor of Buddhism, and put the images in his country house\nwhich he converted into a temple. When, soon after, the land was\nafflicted with a pestilence, the opponents of the new faith attributed\nit to the wrath of the gods at the hospitality given to the new idols.\nWar broke out, fighting took place, and the Buddhist temple was burned\nand the idols thrown into the river, near Osaka. Great portents\nfollowed, and the enemies of Buddhism were, it is said, burned up by\nflames descending from heaven.\n\nThe tide then turned in favor of the Indian faith, and Soga rebuilt his\ntemple. Priests and missionaries were invited to come over from Korea,\nbeing gladly furnished by the allies of Japan from the state of Shinra,\nand Buddhism again flourished at the court, but not yet among the\npeople. Once more, fighting broke out; and again the temple of the alien\ngods was destroyed, only to be rebuilt again. The chief champion of\nBuddhism was the son of a Mikado, best known by his posthumous title,\nSh\u014dtoku,[33] who all his life was a vigorous defender and propagator\nof the new faith. Through his influence, or very probably through the\nefforts of the Korean missionaries, the devastating war between the\nJapanese and Koreans was ended. In the peace which followed, notable\nprogress was made through the vigor of the missionaries encouraged by\nthe regent Sh\u014dtoku, so that at his death in the year A.D. 621, there\nwere forty-six temples, and thirteen hundred and eighty-five priests,\nmonks and nuns in Japan. Many of the most famous temples, which are now\nfull of wealth and renown, trace their foundations to this era of\nSh\u014dtoku and of his aunt, the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), who were\nfriendly to the new religion. Sh\u014dtoku may be almost called the\nfounder of Japanese Buddhism. Although a layman, he is canonized and\nstands unique in the Pantheon of Eastern Buddhism, his image being\nprominently visible in thousands of Japanese temples.\n\nLegend, in no country more luxurious than in Japan, tells us that the\nexotic religion made no progress until Amida, the boundlessly Merciful\nOne, assuming the shape of a concubine of the imperial prince who\nafterward became the Mikado Yom\u00e9, gave birth to Sh\u014dtoku, who was\nhimself Kwannon or the goddess of mercy in human form; and that when he\ngrew up, he took to wife an incarnation of the Buddha elect,\nMahastana-prapta, or in Japanese Dai-s\u00e9i-shi, whose idol is honored at\nZenk\u014dji.\n\n\nThe New Faith Becomes Popular.\n\n\nThen Buddhism became popular, passing out from the narrow circle of the\ncourt to be welcomed by the people. In A.D. 623, monks came over\ndirectly from China, and we find mentioned two sects, the Sanron and the\nJ\u014djitsu, which are no longer extant in Japan. In about A.D. 650 the\nfame of Yuan Chang (Hiouen Thsang) the Chinese pilgrim to India, or the\nholy land, reached-Japan; and his illustrious example was\nenthusiastically followed. History now frequently repeated itself. The\nJapanese monk, D\u014dsh\u014d, crossed the seas to China to gaze upon the\nface and become the pupil of that illustrious Chinese pilgrim, who had\nseen Buddha Land. Later on, other monks crossed to the land of Sinim,\nuntil we find that in this and succeeding centuries, hundreds of\nJapanese in their frail junks, braved the dangers of the stormy ocean,\nin order to study Sanskrit, to read the old scriptures, to meet the new\nlights of learning or revelation, and to become versed in the latest\nfashions of religion. We find the pilgrims returning and founding new\nsects or sub-sects, and stimulating by their enthusiasm the monks and\nthe home missionaries. In the year A.D. 700 the custom of cremation was\nintroduced. This wrought not only a profound change in customs, but also\nbecame the seed of a rich crop of superstitions; since out of the\ncremated bodies of the saints came forth the _shari_ or, in Sanskrit,\n_sarira_. These hard substances or pellets, preserved in crystal\ncabinets, are treated as holy gems or relics. Thus venerated, they\nbecome the nuclei of cycles of fairy lore.\n\nIn A.D. 710, the great monastery at Nara was founded; and here we must\nnotice or at least glance at the great throng of civilizing influences\nthat came in with Buddhism, and at the great army of artists, artisans\nand skilled men and women of every sort of trade and craft. We note that\nwith the building of this great Nara monastery came another proof of\nimprovement and the added element of stability in Japanese civilization.\nThe ancient dread which the Japanese had, of living in any place where a\nperson had died was passing away. The nomad life was being given up. The\nsuccessor of a dead Mikado was no longer compelled to build himself a\nnew capital. The traveller in Japan, familiar with the ancient poetry of\nthe Many\u014d-shu, finds no fewer than fifty-eight sites[34] as the early\nhomes of the Japanese monarchy. Once occupying the proud position of\nimperial capitals, they are now for the most part mere hamlets,\noftentimes mere names, with no visible indication of former human\nhabitation; while the old rivers or streams once gay with barges filled\nwith silken-robed lords and ladies, have dried up to mere washerwomen's\nrunnels. For the first time after the building of this Buddhist\nmonastery, the capital remained permanent, Nara being the imperial\nresidence during seventy-five years. Then beautiful Ki\u014dto was chosen,\nand remained the residence of successive generations of emperors until\n1868. In A.D. 735, we read of the K\u00e9gon sect. Two years later a large\nmonastery, with a seven-storied pagoda alongside of it, was ordered to\nbe built in every province. These, with the temples and their\nsurroundings, and with the wayside shrines beginning to spring up like\nexotic flowers, made a striking alteration in the landscape of Japan.\nThe Buddhist scriptures were numerously copied and circulated among the\nlearned class, yet neither now nor ever, except here and there in\nfragments, were they found among the people. For, although the Buddhist\ncanon has been repeatedly imported, copied by the pen and in modern\ntimes printed, yet no Japanese translation has ever been made. The\nmethods of Buddhism in regard to the circulation of the scriptures are\nthose, not of Protestantism but of Roman Catholicism.\n\nIn the same year, the Mikado called for contributions from all the\npeople for the building of a colossal image of the Buddha, which was to\nbe of bronze and gilded. Yet, fearing that the Shint\u014d gods might be\noffended, a skilful priest named Giyoku,--probably the same man who\nintroduced the potter's wheel into Japan,--was sent to the shrine of the\nSun-goddess in Is\u00e9 to present her with a shari or relic of the Buddha,\nand find out how she would regard his project. After seven days and\nnights of waiting, the chapel doors flew open and the loud-voiced oracle\nwas interpreted in a favorable sense. The night following the return of\nthe priest, the Mikado dreamed that the sun-goddess appeared to him in\nher own form and said \"The sun is Birushana\" (Vairokana). This meant\nthat the chief deity of the Japanese proclaimed herself an avatar or\nincarnation of one of the old Hindu gods.[35] She also approved the\nproject of the image; and in this same year, 759, native gold was found\nin Japan, which sufficed for the gilding of the great idol that, after\neleven hundred years and many vicissitudes, still stands, the glory of a\nmultitude of pilgrims.\n\nIn A.D. 754 a famous priest, who introduced the new Ritsu Sect, was able\nto convert the Mikado and obtain four hundred converts in the imperial\ncourt. Thirteen years later, another tremendous triumph of Buddhism was\nscored and a deadly blow at Shint\u014d was struck. The Buddhist priests\npersuaded the Mikados to abandon their ancient title of Sumeru and adopt\nthat of Tenn\u014d (Heavenly King or Tenshi) Son of Heaven, after the\nChinese fashion. At the same time it was taught that the emperor could\ngain great merit and sooner become a Buddha, by retiring from the active\ncares of the throne and becoming a monk, with the title of H\u014d-\u014d,\nor Cloistered Emperor. This innovation had far-reaching consequences,\nprofoundly altering the status of the Mikado, giving sensualism on the\none hand and priestcraft on the other, their coveted opportunity,\nchanging the ruler of the nation from an active statesman into a recluse\nand the recluse into a pious monk, or a licentious devotee, as the case\nmight be. It paved the way for the usurpation of the government by the\nunscrupulous soldier, \"the man on horseback,\" who was destined to rule\nJapan for seven hundred years, while the throne and its occupant were in\nthe shadow. One of a thousand proofs of the progress of the propaganda\nscheme is seen in the removal of the Shint\u014d temple which had stood at\nNikk\u014d, and the erection in its place of a Buddhist temple. In A.D.\n805 the famous Tendai, and in 806 the powerful Shingon Sect were\nintroduced. All was now ready in Japan for the growth not only of one\nnew Buddhism, but of several varieties among the Northern Buddhisms\nwhich so arouse the astonishment of those who study the simple Pali\nscriptures that contain the story of Gautama, and who know only the\nsouthern phase of the faith, that is to Asia, relatively, what\nChristianity is to Europe. We say relatively, for while Buddhism made\nChinese Asia gentle in manners and kind to animals, it covered the land\nwith temples, monasteries and images; on the other hand the religion of\nJesus filled Europe not only with churches, abbeys, monasteries and\nnunneries, but also with hospitals, orphan asylums, lighthouses, schools\nand colleges. Between the fruits of Christendom and Buddhadom, let the\nworld judge.\n\n\nSurvey and Summary.\n\n\nTo sum up: Buddhism is the humanitarian's, and also the skeptic's,\nsolution of the problem of the universe. Its three great distinguishing\ncharacteristics are atheism, metempsychosis and absence of caste. It was\nin its origin pure democracy. As against despotic priesthood and\noppressive hierarchy, it was congregational. Theoretically it is so yet,\nthough far from being so practically. It is certainly sacerdotal and\naristocratic in organization. As in any other system which has so vast a\nhierarchy with so many grades of honor and authority, its theory of\ndemocracy is now a memory. First preached in a land accursed by caste\nand under spiritual and secular oppressions, it acknowledged no caste,\nbut declared all men equally sinful and miserable, and all equally\ncapable of being freed from sin and misery through Buddhahood, that is,\nknowledge or enlightenment.[36]\n\nThe three-fold principle laid down by Gautama, and now in dogma,\nliterature, art and worship, a triad or formal trinity, is, Buddha, the\nattainment of Buddha-hood, or perfect enlightenment, through meditation\nand benevolence; Karma, the law of cause and effect; and Dharma,\ndiscipline or order; or, the Lord, the Law and the Church. Paying no\nattention to questions of cosmogony or theogony, the universe is\naccepted as an ultimate fact. Matter is eternal. Creation exists but not\na Creator. All is god, but God is left out of consideration. The gods\nare even less than Buddhas. Humanity is glorified and the stress of all\nteaching is upon this life. In a word: a sinless life, attainable by\nman, through his own exertions in this world, above all the powers or\nbeings of the universe, is the essence of original Buddhism. Original\nNirvana meant death which ends all, extinction of existence.\n\nGautama's immediate purpose was to emancipate himself and his followers\nfrom the fetters of Brahminism. He tried to leave the world of Hindu\nphilosophy behind him and to escape from it.\n\nDid he succeed? Partially.\n\nBuddha hoped also to rise above the superstitions of the common people,\nbut in this he was again only partially successful.[37] \"The clouds\nreturned after the rain.\" The old dead gods of Brahminism came back\nunder new names and forms. The malarial exhalations of corrupt\nBrahmanistic philosophy, continually poisoned the atmosphere which\nBuddha's disciples breathed. Still worse, as his religion transmigrated\ninto other lands, it became itself a history of transformation, until\nto-day no religion on earth seems to be such a kaleidoscopic\nphantasmagoria. Polytheism is rampant over the greater part of the\nBuddhist world to-day. In the larger portion of Chinese Asia, pantheism\ndominates the mind. In modern Babism,--a mixture of Mohammedanism,\nChristianity and Buddhism,--there are streaks of dualism. If Monotheism\nhas ever dawned on the Buddhist world, it has been in fitful pulses as\nin auroral flashes, soon to leave darkness darker.\n\nFor us is this lesson: Buddhism, brought face to face with the problem\nof the world's evil and possible improvement, evades it; begs the whole\nquestion at the outset; prays: \"Deliver us from existence. Save us from\nlife and give us as little as possible of it.\" Christianity faces the\nproblem and flinches not; orders advance all along the line of endeavor\nand prays: \"Deliver us from evil;\" and is ever of good cheer, because\nCaptain and leader says: \"I have overcome the world.\" Go, win it for me.\n\"I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more\nabundantly.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII - RIY\u014cBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM\n\n    \"All things are nothing but mind.\"\n\n    \"The doctrines of Buddhism have no fixed forms.\"\n\n    \"There is nothing in things themselves that enables us to\n    distinguish in them either good or evil, right or wrong. It is\n    but man's fancy that weighs their merits and causes him to\n    choose one and reject the other.\"\n\n    \"Non-individuality is the general principle of\n    Buddhism.\"--Outlines of the Mah\u0101y\u0101na.\n\n    \"It (Shint\u014d) was smothered before reaching maturity, but\n    Buddhism and Confucianism had to disguise and change in order to\n    enter Japan.\"\n\n    \"Life has a limited span and naught may avail to extend it. This\n    is manifested by the impermanence of human beings. But yet\n    whenever necessary I will hereafter make my appearance from time\n    to time as a god, a sage, or a Buddha.\"--Last words of Shaka the\n    Buddha, in Japanese biography.\n\n    \"It is our opinion that Buddhism cannot long hold its ground,\n    and that Christianity must finally prevail throughout all\n    Japan.... Now, when Buddhism and Christianity are in conflict\n    for the ascendency, this indifference of the Japanese people to\n    the difference of sects is a great disadvantage to Buddhism.\n    That they should worship Jesus Christ with the same mind as they\n    do _Inari_ or _Mi\u014djin_ is not at all inconsistent in their\n    estimation or contrary to their custom.\"--Fukuzawa, of\n    T\u014dki\u014d.\n\n    \"How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God,\n    follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.\"--Elijah.\n\n    \"Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?\"--Jesus.\n\n    \"Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and\n    bitter?\"--James.\n\n    \"What concord hath Christ with Belial?\"--Paul.\n\n\nCHAPTER VII - RIY\u014cBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM\n\nSyncretism in Religion.\n\n\nTwo centuries and a half of Buddhism in Japan, showed the leaders and\nteachers of the Indian faith that complete victory over the whole nation\nwas yet very far off. The court had indeed been invaded and won. Even\nthe Mikado, the ecclesiastical head of Shint\u014d, and the incarnation\nand vicar of the heavenly gods, had not only embraced Buddhism, but in\nmany instances had shorn the hair and taken the vows of the monk. Yet\nthe people clung tenaciously to their old traditions, customs and\nworship; for their gods were like themselves and indeed were of\nthemselves, since Shint\u014d is only a transfiguration of Japanese life.\nIn the Japanese of those days we can trace the same traits which we\nbehold in the modern son of Nippon, especially his intense patriotism\nand his warlike tendencies. To convert these people to the peaceful\ndogmas of Siddartha and to make them good Buddhists, something more than\nteaching and ritual was necessary. It was indispensable that there\nshould be complete substitution, all along the ruts and paths of\nnational habit, and especially that the names of the gods and the\nfestivals should be Buddhaized.\n\nPopular customs are nearly immortal and ineradicable. Though wars may\ncome, dynasties rise and fall, and convulsions in nature take place, yet\nthe people's manners and amusements are very slow in changing. If, in\nthe history of Christianity, the European missionaries found it\nnecessary in order to make conquest of our pagan forefathers, to baptize\nand re-name without radically changing old notions and habits, so did it\nseem equally indispensable that in Japan there should be some system of\nreconciliation of the old and the new, some theological revolution,\nwhich should either fulfil, absorb, or destroy Shint\u014d.\n\nIn the histories of religions in Western Asia, Northern Africa and\nEurope, we are familiar with efforts at syncretism. We have seen how\nPhilo attempted to unite Hebrew righteousness and Greek beauty, and to\nharmonize Moses and Plato. We know of Euhemerus, who thought he read in\nthe old mythologies not only the outlines of real history, but the\nhieroglyphics of legend and tradition, truth and revelation.[1] Students\nof Church history are well aware that this principle of interpretation\nwas followed only too generously by Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria,\nLactantius, Chrysostom and others of the Church Fathers. Indeed, it\nwould be hard to find in any of the great religions of the world an\nutter absence of syncretism, or the union of apparently hostile\nreligious ideas. In the Thousand and One Nights, we have an example in\npopular literature. We see that the ancient men of India, Persia and\npre-Mohammedan Arabia now act and talk as orthodox Mussulmans. In\nmatters pertaining to art and furniture, the statue of Jupiter in Rome\nserves for St. Peter, and in Japan that of the Virgin and child for the\nBuddha and his mother.[2]\n\nWhat, however, chiefly concerns the critic and student of religions is\nto inquire how far the process has been natural, and the efforts of\nthose who have brought about the union have been honest, and their\nmotives pure. The Bible pages bear witness, that Israelites too often\ntried to make the same fountain give forth sweet waters and bitter, and\nto grow thistles and grapes on the same stem, by uniting the cults of\nJehovah and the Baalim. King Solomon's enterprises in the same direction\nare more creditable to him as a politician than as a worshipper.[3] In\nthe history of Christianity one cannot commend the efforts either of the\nGnostics or the neo-Platonists, nor always justify the medieval\nmissionaries in their methods. Nor can we accurately describe as\nsuccessful the ingenuity of Vossius, the Dutch theologian, who,\nfollowing the scheme of Euhemerus, discovered the Old Testament\npatriarchs in the disguise of the gods of Paganism. Nor, even though\nGermany be the land of learning, can the clear-headed scholar agree with\nsome of her rationalists, who are often busy in the same field of\nindustry, setting forth wild criticism as \"science.\"\n\n\nThe Kami and the Buddhas.\n\n\nIn Japan, to solve the problem of reconciliation between the ancient\ntraditions of the divine ancestors and the dogmas of the Indian cult, it\nwas necessary that some master spirit, profoundly learned in the two\nWays, of the Kami and of the Buddhas, should be bold, and also as it\nseems, crafty and unscrupulous. To convert a line of theocratic\nemperors, whose authority was derived from their alleged divine origin\nand sacerdotal character, into patrons and propagandists of Buddhism,\nand to transform indigenous Shint\u014d gods into Buddhas elect, or\nBuddhas to come, or Buddhas in a former state of existence, were tasks\nthat might appall the most prodigious intellect, and even strain the\ncapacities of what one might imagine to be the universal religion for\nall mankind.\n\nYet from such a task continental Buddhism had not shrunk before and did\nnot shrink then, nor indeed from it do the insular Japanese sects shrink\nnow. Indeed, Buddhism is quite ready to adopt, absorb and swallow up\nJapanese Christianity. With all encompassing tentacles, and with\ncolossal powers of digestion and assimilation, Northern Buddhism had\ndrawn into itself a large part of the Brahmanism out of which it\noriginally sprang,[4] reversing the old myth of Chronos by swallowing\nits parents. It had gathered in, pretty much all that was in the heavens\nabove and the earth beneath and the waters that were under the earth, in\nNepal, Tibet, China, and Korea. Thoroughly exercised and disciplined, it\nwas ready to devour and digest all that the imagination of Japan had\nconceived.\n\nWe must remember that, at the opening of the ninth century, the Buddhism\nrampant in China and indeed throughout Chinese Asia was the Tantra\nsystem of Yoga-chara.[5] This compound of polytheism and pantheism, with\nits sensuous paradise, its goddess of mercy and its pantheon of every\nsort of worshipable beings, was also equipped with a system of\nphilosophy by which Buddhism could be adapted to almost every yearning\nof human nature in its lowest or its highest form, and by which things\napparently contradictory could be reconciled. Furthermore--and this is\nnot the least important thing to consider when the work to be done is\nfor the ordinary man as an individual and for the common people in the\nmass--it had also a tremendous apparatus for touching the imagination\nand captivating the fancy of the unthinking and the uneducated.\n\nFor example, consider the equipment of the Buddhist priests of the ninth\ncentury in the matter of art alone. Shint\u014d knows next to nothing of\nart,[6] and indeed one might almost say that it knows little of\ncivilization. It is like ultra-Puritanic Protestantism and Iconoclasm.\nBuddhism, on the contrary, is the mother of art, and art is her\never-busy child and handmaid. The temples of the Kami were bald and\nbare. The Kojiki told nothing of life hereafter, and kept silence on a\nhundred points at which human curiosity is sure to be active, and at\nwhich the Yoga system was voluble. Buddhism came with a set of visible\nsymbols which should attract the eye and fire the imagination, and\nwithin ethical limits, the passions also. It was a mixed and variegated\nsystem,--a resultant of many forces.[7] It came with the thought of\nIndia, the art-influence of Greece, the philosophy of Persia, the\nspeculations of the Gnostics and, in all probability, with ideas\nborrowed indirectly from Nestorian or other forms of Christianity; and\nthus furnished, it entered Japan.\n\n\nThe Mission of Art.\n\n\nThus far the insular kingdom had known only the monochrome sketches of\nthe Chinese painters, which could have a meaning for the educated few\nalone. The composite Tantra dogmas fed the fancy and stimulated the\nimagination, filling them with pictures of life, past, present and\nfuture. \"The sketch was replaced by the illumination.\" Whole schools of\nartists, imported from China and Korea, multiplied their works and\nattracted the untrained senses of the people, by filling the temples\nwith a blaze of glory. \"This result was sought by a gorgeous but studied\nplay of gold and color, and a lavish richness of mounting and\naccessories, that appear strangely at variance with the begging bowl and\npatched garments of primitive Buddhism.\"[8] The change in the Japanese\ntemple was as though the gray clouds had been kissed by the sun and made\nto laugh rainbows. The country of the Fertile Plain of Sweet Flags was\ntransformed. It suddenly became the land wherein gods grew not singly\nbut in whole forests. Like the Shulamite, when introduced among the\njewelled ladies of Solomon's harem, so stood the boor amid the sheen and\ngold of the new temples.\n\n    \"Gold was the one thing essential to the Buddhist altar-piece,\n    and sometimes, when applied on a black ground, was the only\n    material used. In all cases it was employed with an unsparing\n    hand. It appeared in uniform masses, as in the body of the\n    Buddha or in the golden lakes of the Western Paradise; in minute\n    diapers upon brocades and clothing, in circlets and undulating\n    rays, to form the glory surrounding the head of Amitaba; in\n    raised bosses and rings upon the armlets or necklets of the\n    Bodhisattvas and Devas, and in a hundred other manners. The\n    pigments chosen to harmonize with this display were necessarily\n    body colors of the most pronounced lines, and were untoned by\n    any trace of chiaroscuro. Such materials as these would surely\n    try the average artist, but the Oriental painter knew how to\n    dispose them without risk of crudity or gaudiness, and the\n    precious metal, however lavishly applied, was distributed over\n    the picture with a judgment that would make it difficult to\n    alter or remove any part without detriment to the beauty of the\n    work.\"[9]\n\nIn our day, Japanese art has won its own place in the world's temple of\nbeauty. Even those familiar with the master-pieces of Europe do not\nhesitate to award to the artists of Nippon a meed of praise which,\nwithin certain limits, is justly applied to them equally with the\nmasters of the Italian, the Dutch, the Flemish, or the French schools.\nIt serves our purpose simply to point out that art was a powerful factor\nin the religious conquest of the Japanese for the new doctrines of the\nYoga system, which in Japan is called Riy\u014dbu, or Mixed Buddhism.\n\nWe say Mixed Buddhism rather than Riy\u014dbu Shint\u014d, for Shint\u014d was\nless corrupted than swallowed up, while Buddhism suffered one more\ndegree of mixture and added one more chapter of decay. It increased in\nits visible body, while in its mind it became less and less the religion\nof Buddha and more and more a thing with the old Shint\u014d heart still\nin it, making a strange growth in the eyes of the continental believers.\nTo the Northern and Southern was now added an Eastern or Japanese\nBuddhism.\n\nWho was the wonder-worker that annexed the Land of the Gods to Buddhadom\nand re-read the Kojiki as a sutra, and all Japanese history and\ntraditions as only a chapter of the incarnations of Buddha?\n\n\nK\u014db\u014d the Wonder Worker.\n\n\nThe Philo and Euhemerus of Japan was the priest Kukai, who was born in\nthe province of Sanuki, in the year 774. He is better known by his\nposthumous title K\u014db\u014d Daishi, or the Great Teacher who promulgates\nthe Law. By this name we shall call him. About his birth, life and\ndeath, have multiplied the usual swaddling bands of Japanese legend and\ntradition,[10] and to his tomb at the temple on Mount K\u014d-ya, the\nCampo Santo of Japanese Buddhism, still gather innumerable pilgrims. The\n\"hall of ten thousand lamps,\" each flame emblematic of the Wisdom that\nsaves, is not, indeed, in these days lighted annually as of old; but the\nvulgar yet believe that the great master still lives in his mausoleum,\nin a state of profoundly silent meditation. Into the hall of bones near\nby, covering a deep pit, the teeth and \"Adam's apple\" of the cremated\nbodies of believers are thrown by their relatives, though the pit is\ncleared out every three years. The devotees believe that by thus\ndisposing of the teeth and \"Adam's apple,\" they obtain the same\nspiritual privileges as if they were actually entombed there, that is,\nof being born again into the heaven of the Bodhisattva or the Pure Land\nof Absolute Bliss, by virtue of the mystic formulas repeated by the\ngreat master in his lifetime.\n\nLet us sketch the life of K\u014db\u014d,\n\nFirst named Toto-mono, or Treasure, by his parents, who sent him to\nKi\u014dt\u014d to be educated for the priesthood, the youth spent four\nyears in the study of the Chinese classics. Dissatisfied with the\nteachings of Confucius, he became a disciple of a famous Buddhist\npriest, named Iwabuchi (Rock-edge or throne). Soon taking upon himself\nthe vows of the monk, he was first named Kukai, meaning \"space and sea,\"\nor heaven and earth.[11] He overcame the dragons that assaulted him, by\nprayers, by spitting at them the rays of the evening star which had\nflown from heaven into his mouth and by repeating the mystic formulas\ncalled Dharani.[12] Annoyed by hobgoblins with whom he was obliged to\nconverse, he got rid of them by surrounding himself with a consecrated\nimaginary enclosure into which they were unable to enter against his\nwill.\n\nWe mention these legends only to call the attention to the fact that\nthey are but copies of those already accepted in China at that time, and\nare the logical and natural fruit of the Tantra school at which we have\nglanced. In 804, K\u014db\u014d was appointed to visit the Middle Kingdom as\na government student. By means of his clever pen and calligraphic skill\nhe won his way into the Chinese capital. He became the favored disciple\nof a priest who taught him the mystic doctrines of the Yoga. Having\nacquired the whole of the system, and equipped himself with a large\nlibrary of Buddhist doctrinal works and still more with every sort of\necclesiastical furniture and religious goods, he returned to Japan.\n\nMultitudes of wonders are reported about K\u014db\u014d, all of which show\nthe growth of the Tantra school. It is certain that his erudition was\nimmense, and that he was probably the most learned man of Japan in that\nage, and possibly of any other age. Besides being a Japanese Ezra in\nmultiplying writings, he is credited with the invention of the\nhira-gana, or running script, and if correctly so, he deserves on this\naccount alone an immortal honor equal to that of Cadmus or Sequoia. The\nkana[13] is a syllabary of forty-seven letters, which by diacritical\nmarks, may be increased to seventy. The kata-kana is the square or print\nform, the hira-kana is the round or \"grass\" character for writing.\nThough not as valuable as a true phonetic alphabet, such as the Koreans\nand the Cherokees possess, the _i-ro-ha_, or kana script, even though a\nsyllabary and not an alphabet, was a wonderful aid to popular writing\nand instruction.\n\nEvidently the idea of the i-ro-ha, or Japanese ABC, was derived from the\nSanskrit alphabet, or, what some modern Anglo-Indian has called the\nDeva-Nagari or the god-alphabet. There is no evidence, however, to show\nthat K\u014db\u014d did more than arrange in order forty-seven of the\neasiest Chinese signs then used, in such a manner that they conveyed in\na few lines of doggerel the sense of a passage from a sutra in which the\nmortality of man and the emptiness of all things are taught, and the\ndoctrine of Nirvana is suggested.[14] Hokusai, the artist, in a sketch\nwhich embodies the popular idea of this bonze's immense industry,\nrepresents him copying the shastras and sutras. K\u014db\u014d is on a seat\nbefore a large upright sheet of paper. He holds a brush-pen in his\nmouth, and one in each of his hands and feet, all moving at once.[15]\nFavorite portions of the Buddhist scriptures were indeed so rapidly\nmultiplied in Japan in the ninth century, as to suggest the idea, that,\neven in this early age, block printing had been imported from China,\nwhence also afterward, in all probability, it was exported into Europe\nbefore the days of Gutenberg and Coster.[16] The popular imagination,\nhowever, was more easily moved on seeing five brushes kept at work and\nall at once by the muscles in the fingers, toes and mouth of one man.\nYet, had his life lasted six hundred years instead of sixty, he could\nhardly have graven all the images, scaled all the mountain peaks,\nconfounded all the sceptics, wrought all the miracles and performed all\nthe other feats with which he is popularly credited.[17]\n\n\nK\u014db\u014d Irenicon.\n\n\nK\u014db\u014d indeed was both the Philo and Euhemerus of Japan, plus a\nlarge amount of priestly cunning and what his enemies insist was\ndishonesty and forgery. Soon after his return from China, he went to the\ntemples of Is\u00e9,[18] the most holy place of Shint\u014d.[19] Taking a\nreverent attitude before the chief shrine, that of Toko Uk\u00e9 Bim\u00e9 no Kami\nor Abundant-Food-Lady-God, or the deified Earth as the producer of food\nand the upholder of all things upon its surface, the suppliant waited\npatiently while fasting and praying.\n\nIn this, K\u014db\u014d did but follow out the ordinary Shint\u014d plan for\nsecuring god-possession and obtaining revelation; that is, by starving\nboth the stomach and the brain.[20] After a week's waiting he obtained\nthe vision. The Food-possessing Goddess revealed to him the yoke (or\nYoga) by which he could harness the native and the imported gods to the\nchariot of victorious Buddhism. She manifested herself to him and\ndelivered the revelation on which his system is founded, and which,\nbriefly stated, is as follows:\n\nAll the Shint\u014d deities are avatars or incarnations of Buddha. They\nwere manifestations to the Japanese, before Gautama had become the\nenlightened one, or the jewel in the lotus, and before the holy wheel of\nthe law or the sacred shastras and sutras had reached the island empire.\nFurther more, provision was made for the future gods and deified holy\nones, who were to proceed from the loins of the Mikado, or other\nJapanese fathers, according to the saying of Buddha which is thus\nrecorded in a Japanese popular work:\n\n    \"Life has a limited span, and naught may avail to extend it.\n    This is manifested by the impermanence of human beings, but yet,\n    whenever necessary, I will hereafter make my appearance from\n    time to time as a god (Kami), a sage (Confucian teacher), or a\n    Buddha (Hotok\u00e9).\"[21]\n\nIn a word, the Shint\u014d goddess talked as orthodox (Yoga) Buddhism as\nthe ancient characters of the Indian, Persian and pre-Islam-Arabic\nstories in the Arabian Nights now talk the purest Mohammedanism.[22]\nAccording to the words put into Gautama's mouth at the time of his\ndeath, the Buddha was already to reappear in the particular form and in\nall the forms, acceptable to Shint\u014dists, Confucianists, or Buddhists\nof whatever sect.\n\nDescending from the shrine of vision and revelation, with a complete\nscheme of reconciliation, with correlated catalogues of Shint\u014d and\nBuddhist gods, with liturgies, with lists of old popular festivals newly\nnamed, with the apparatus of art to captivate the senses, K\u014db\u014d\nforthwith baptized each native Shint\u014d deity with a new\nChinese-Buddhistic name. For every Shint\u014d festival he arranged a\ncorresponding Buddhist's saints' day or gala time. Then, training up a\nband of disciples, he sent them forth proclaiming the new irenicon.\n\n\nThe Hindu Yoga Becomes Japanese Riy\u014dbu.\n\n\nIt was just the time for this brilliant and able ecclesiastic to\nsucceed. The power and personal influence of the Mikado were weakening,\nthe court swarmed with monks, the rising military classes were already\nsafely under the control of the shavelings, and the pen of learning had\neverywhere proved itself mightier than the sword and muscle.\nK\u014db\u014d's particular dialectic weapons were those of the Yoga-chara,\nor in Japanese, the Shingon Shu, or Sect of the True Word.[23] He, like\nhis Chinese master, taught that we can attain the state of the\nEnlightened or Buddha, while in the present physical body which was born\nof our parents.\n\nThis branch of Buddhism is said to have been founded in India about A.D.\n200, by a saint who made the discovery of an iron pagoda inhabited by\nthe holy one, Vagrasattva, who communicated the exact doctrine to those\nwho have handed it down through the Hindoo and Chinese patriarchs. The\nbooks or scriptures of this sect are in three sutras; yet the essential\npoint in them is the Mandala or the circle of the Two Parts, or in\nJapanese Riy\u014dbu. Introduced into China, A.D. 720, it is known as the\nYoga-chara school.\n\nK\u014db\u014d finding a Chinese worm, made a Japanese dragon, able to\nswallow a national religion. In the act of deglutition and the long\nprocess of the digestion of Shint\u014d, Japanese Buddhism became\nsomething different from every other form of the faith in Asia. Noted\nabove all previous developments of Buddhism for its pantheistic\ntendencies, the Shingon sect could recognize in any Shint\u014d god,\ndemi-god, hero, or being, the avatar in a previous stage of existence of\nsome Buddhist being of corresponding grade.\n\nFor example,[24] Amat\u00e9ras\u016d or Ten-Sh\u014d-Dai-Jin, the sun-goddess,\nbecomes Dai Nichi Ni\u014drai or Amida, whose colossal effigies stand in\nthe bronze images Dai Butsu at Nara, Ki\u014dto and Kamakura. Ojin, the\ngod of war, became Hachiman Dai Bosatsu, or the great Bodhisattva of the\nEight Banners. Adopted as their patron by the fighting Genji or Minamoto\nwarriors of medi\u00e6val times, the Buddhists could not well afford to have\nthis popular deity outside their pantheon.\n\nFor each of the thirty days of the month, a Bodhisattva, or in Japanese\npronunciation Bosatsu, was appointed. Each of these Bodhisattvas became\na Dai Mi\u014d Jin or Great Enlightened Spirit, and was represented as an\navatar in Japan of Buddha in the previous ages, when the Japanese were\nnot yet prepared to receive the holy law of Buddhism.\n\nWhere there were not enough Dai Mi\u014d Jin already existing in native\ntraditions to fill out the number required by the new scheme, new titles\nwere invented. One of these was Ten-jin, Heavenly being or spirit. The\nfamous statesman and scholar of the tenth century, Sugawara Michizan\u00e9,\nwas posthumously named Tenjin, and is even to this day worshipped by\nmany children of Japan as he was formerly for a thousand years by nearly\nall of them, as the divine patron of letters. Kompira, Benten and other\npopular deities, often considered as properly belonging to Shint\u014d,\n\"are evidently the offspring of Buddhist priestly ingenuity.\"[25] Out of\nthe eight millions or so of native gods, several hundred were catalogued\nunder the general term Gon-gen, or temporary manifestations of Buddha.\nIn this list are to be found not only the heroes of local tradition, but\neven deified forces of nature, such as wind and fire. The custom of\nmaking gods of great men after their death, thus begun on a large scale\nby K\u014db\u014d, has gone on for centuries. Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, the political\nunifier of Japan, shines as a star of the first magnitude in the heavens\nof the Riy\u014dbu system, under the mime of T\u014d-sh\u014d-g\u016b, or Great\nLight of the East. The common people speak of him as Gon-gen Sama, the\nlatter word being an honorary form of address for all beings from a baby\nto a Bosatsu.\n\nIn this way, K\u014db\u014d arranged a sort of clearing-house or joint-stock\ncompany in which the Bodhisattvas, kami and other miscellaneous beings,\nin either the native or foreign religion, were mutually interchangeable.\nIn a large sense, this feat of priestly dexterity was but the repetition\nin history, of that of Asanga with the Brahmanism and Buddhism of India\nthree centuries before. It was this Asanga who wrote the Yoga-chara\nBhumi. The succession of syncretists in India, China and Japan is\nAsanga, Hiuki\u014d and K\u014db\u014d.\n\n\nThe Happy Family of Riy\u014dbu.\n\n\nNevertheless this attempt at making a happy family and ploughing with an\nox and ass in the same yoke, has not been an unqualified success. It\nwill sometimes happen that one god escapes the classification made by\nthe Buddhists and slips into the fold of Shint\u014d, or _vice versa_;\nwhile again the label-makers and pasters--as numerous in scholastic\nBuddhism as in sectarian Christendom--have hard work to make the labels\nstick. A popular Gon-gen or Dai-Mi\u014d-jin, whose name and renown has\nfor centuries attracted crowds of pilgrims, and yielded fat revenues as\nregularly as the autumn harvests, is not readily surrendered by the old\nBuddhist proprietors, however cleverly or craftily the bonzes may yield\noutward conformity to governmental edicts. On the other hand, the\nefforts, both archaeological and practical, which have been made in\nrecent years by fiercely zealous Shint\u014dists, savor of the smartness\nof New Japan more than they suggest either sincerity or edification. It\noften requires the finest tact on the part of both the strenuous\nBuddhists and the stalwart purists of Shint\u014d, to extricate the\nvarious gods out of the mixture and mess of Riy\u014dbu Shint\u014d, and to\nkeep them from jostling each other.\n\nThis reclaiming and kidnapping of gods and transferring them from one\ncamp to another, has been especially active since 1870, when, under\ngovernment auspices, the Riy\u014dbu temples were purged of all Buddhist\nidols, furniture and influences. The term Dai Mi\u014d Jin, or Great\nIllustrious Spirit, is no longer officially permitted to be used of the\nold kami or gods of Shint\u014d, who were known to have existed before the\ndays of K\u014db\u014d. In some cases these gods have lost much of the\nesteem in which they were held for centuries. Especially is this true of\nthe infamous rebel of the tenth century, Masakado.[26] On the entrance\ninto Yedo of the Imperial army, in 1868, his idol was torn from its\nshrine and hacked to pieces by the patriots. His place as a deity (Kanda\nDai Mi\u014d Jin, or Great Illustrious Spirit of Kanda) was taken by\nanother deified being, a brother to the aboriginal earth-god who, in the\nages of the Kami, \"resigned his throne in favor of the Mikado's\nancestors when they descended from Heaven.\" The apotheosis of the rebel\nMasakado had been resorted to by the Buddhist canonizers because the\nunquiet spirit of the dead man troubled the people. This method of\nlaying a ghost by making a god of him, was for centuries a favorite one\nin Japanese Buddhism. Indeed, a large part of the practical and\nparochial duties of the bonzes consists in quieting the restless spirits\nof the departed.\n\nAll Japanese popular religion of the past has been intensely local and\npatriotic. The ancient idea that Nippon was the first country created\nand the centre of the world, has persisted through the ages, modifying\nevery imported religion. Hence the noticeable fact in Japanese Buddhism,\nof the comparative degradation of the Hindu deities and the exaltation\nof those which were native to the soil.\n\nThe normal Japanese, be he priest or lay brother, theologian or\nstatesman, is nothing if not patriotic. Even the Chinese gods and\ngoddesses which, clothed in Indian drapery and still preserving their\nAryan features, were imported to Japan, could not hold their own in\ncompetition with the popularity of the indigenous inhabitants of the\nJapanese pantheon. The normal Japanese eye does not see the ideals of\nbeauty in the human face and form in common with the Aryan vision.\nBenten or Knanon, with the features and drapery of the homelike beauties\nof Yamato or Adzuma, have ever been more lovely to the admiring eye of\nthe Japanese sailor and farmer, than the Aryan features of the idols\nimported from India. So also, the worshipper to whom the lovely scenery\nof Japan was fresh from the hands of the kami who were so much like\nhimself, turned naturally in preference, to the \"gods many\" of his own\nland.\n\nSucceeding centuries only made it worse for the imported devas or gods,\nwhile the kami, or the gods sprung from the soil created by Izanami and\nIzanagi steadily rose in honor.\n\n\nDegradation of the Foreign Deities.\n\n\nFor example, the Indian saint Dharma is reputed to have come to the\nDragon-fly Country long before the advent of Buddhism, but the people\nwere not ready for him or his teachings, and therefore he returned to\nIndia. So at least declares the book entitled San Kai Ri[27] (Mountain,\nSea and Earth), which is a re-reading and explanation of Japanese\nmythology and tradition as recorded in the Kojiki, by a Ki\u014dt\u014d\npriest of the Shin Shu Sect. Of this Dharma, it is said, that he outdid\nthe Roman Regulus who suffered involuntary loss of his eyelids at the\nhands of the Carthaginians. Dharma cut off his own eyelids, because he\ncould not keep awake.[28] Throwing the offending flesh upon the ground,\nhe saw the tea-plant arise to help holy men to keep vigil. Daruma, as\nthe Japanese spell his name, has a temple in central Japan. It is\nrelated that when Sh\u014dtoku, the first patron of Buddhism, was one day\nwalking abroad he found a poor man dying of hunger, who refused to\nanswer any questions or give his name. Sh\u014dtoku ordered food to be\ngiven him, and wrapped his own mantle round him. Next day the beggar\ndied, and the prince charitably had him buried on the spot. Shortly\nafterward it was observed that the mantle was lying neatly folded up, on\nthe tomb, which on examination proved to be empty. The supposed dying\nbeggar was no other than the Indian Saint Dharma, and a pagoda was built\nover the grave, in which images of the priest and saint were\nenshrined.[29] Yet, alas, to-day Daruma the Hindoo and foreigner,\ndespite his avatar, his humility, his vigils and his self-mutilation,\nhas been degraded to be the shop-sign of the tobacconists. Besides being\nruthlessly caricatured, he is usually pictured with a scowl, his lidless\neyes as wide open as those upon a Chinese junk-prow or an Egyptian\ncoffin-lid. Often even, he has a pipe in his mouth--a comical\nanachronism, suggestive to the smoker of the dark ages that knew no\ntobacco, before nicotine made the whole world of savage and of civilized\nkin. Legless dolls and snow-men are named after this foreigner, whose\nname is associated almost entirely with what is ludicrous.\n\nOn K\u014db\u014d's expounding his scheme to the Mikado, the emperor was so\npleased with his servant's ingenuity, that he gave it the name of\nRiy\u014dbu[30] Shint\u014d; that is, the two-fold divine doctrine, double\nway of the gods, or amalgamated theology. Henceforth the Japanese could\nenter Nirvana or Paradise through a two-leaved gate. As for the people,\nthey also were pleased, as they usually are when change or reform does\nnot mean abolition of the old festivals, or of the washings, sousings,\nand fun at the tombs of their ancestors in the graveyards, or the\nmerry-makings, or the pilgrimages,[31] which are usually only other\nnames for social recreation, and often for sensual debauch. The Yoga had\nbecome a _kubiki_, for Shint\u014d and Buddhism were now harnessed\ntogether, not indeed as true yoke-fellows, but yet joined as inseparably\nas two oxen making the same furrow.\n\nMany a miya now became a tera. At first in many edifices, the rites of\nShint\u014d and Buddhism were alternately performed. The Buddhist symbols\nmight be in the front, and the Shint\u014dist in the rear of the sacred\nhall, or _vice versa_, with a bamboo curtain between; but gradually the\ntwo blended. Instead of austere simplicity, the Shint\u014d interior\ncontained a museum of idols.\n\nImage carvers had now plenty to do in making, out of camphor or _hinoki_\nwood, effigies of such of the eight million or so of kamis as were given\nplaces in the new and enlarged pantheon. The multiplication was always\non the side of Buddhism. Soon, also, the architecture was altered from\nthe type of the primitive hut, to that of the low Chinese temple with\ngreat sweeping roof, re-curved eaves, many-columned auditorium and\nimposing gateway, with lacquer, paint, gilding and ceilings, on which,\nin blazing gold and color, were depicted the emblems of the Buddhist\nparadise. Many of these still remain even after the national purgation\nof 1870, just as the Christian inscriptions survive in the marble\npalimpsests of Mahometan mosques, converted from basilicas, at Damascus\nor Constantinople. The torii was no longer raised in plain hinoki wood,\nbut was now constructed of hewn stone, rounded or polished. Sometimes it\nwas even of bronze with gilded crests and Sanskrit monograms,\nsurmounted, it may be, with tablets of painted or stained wood, on which\nwere Chinese letters glittering with gold. This departure from the\nprimitive idea of using only the natural trunks of trees, \"somewhat on\nthe principle of Exodus, 20:25,\"[32] was a radical one in the ninth\ncentury. The elongated barrels with iron hoops, or the riveted\nboiler-plate and stove-pipe pattern, in this era of Meiji is a still\nmore radical and even scandalous innovation.\n\n\nShint\u014d Buried in Buddhism.\n\n\nSo complete was the victory of Riy\u014dbuism, that for nearly a thousand\nyears Shint\u014d as a religion, except in a few isolated spots, ceased\nfrom sight and sank to a mere mythology or to the shadow of a mythology.\nThe very knowledge even of the ancient traditions was lost in the\nBuddhaized forms in which the old stories[33] were cast, or in the\nomnipresent ritual of the Buddhist tera.\n\nYet, after all, it is a question as to which suffered most, Buddhism or\nShint\u014d. Who can tell which was the base and which was the true metal\nin the alloy that was formed? The San Kai Ri shows how superstitious\nmanifold became imbedded in Buddhism. It was not alone through the\nShingon sect, which K\u014db\u014d introduced, that this Yoga or union came.\nIn the other great sect called the Tendai, and in the later sects, more\nespecially in that of Nichiren, the same principle of absorption was\nfollowed. These sects also adopted many elements derived from the\ngod-way and thus became Shint\u014dized. Indeed, it seems certain that\nthat vast development of Japanese Buddhism, peculiar to Japan and\nunknown to the rest of the Buddhist world, scouted by the Southern\nBuddhists as dreadful heresy, and rousing the indignation of students of\nearly Buddhism, like Max M\u00fcller and Professor Whitney, is largely owing\nto this attempted digestion of Japanese mythology. The anaconda may\nindeed be able, by reason of its marvellously flexible jaws and its\nabundant activity of salivary glands, to swallow the calf, and even the\nox; but sometimes the serpent is killed by its own voracity, or at least\nmade helpless before the destroying hunter. When sweet potatoes and\npumpkins are planted in the same hill, and the cooked product comes on\nthe table, it is hard to tell whether it is tuber or hollow fruit,\nsubterranean or superficial growth, that we are eating. So in Riy\u014dbu,\nwhether it be most _imo_ or _kabocha_ is a fair question. If the\nBuddhism in Japan did but add a chapter of decay and degradation to the\nreligion of the Light of Asia, is not this owing to the act of\nK\u014db\u014d--justified indeed by those who imitated his example, yet\nhardly to be called honest? A stroke of ecclesiastical dexterity, it may\nhave been, but scarcely a lawful example or an illustrious and\ncommendable specimen of syncretism in religion.\n\nMany students have asked what is the peculiar, the characteristic\ndifference between the Buddhism of Japan and the other Buddhisms of the\nAsian continent. If there be one cause, leading all others, we incline\nto believe it is because Japanese Buddhism is not the Buddhism of\nGautama, but is so largely Riy\u014dbu or Mixed. Yet in the alloy, which\ningredient has preserved most of its qualities? Is Japanese Buddhism\nreally Shint\u014dized Buddhism, or Buddhaized Shint\u014d? Which is the\nparasite and which the parasitized? Is the hermit crab Shint\u014d, and\nthe shell Buddhism, or _vice versa_? About as many corrupt elements from\nShint\u014d entered into the various Buddhist sects as Buddhism gave to\nShint\u014d.\n\nThis process of Shint\u014dizing Buddhism or of Buddhaizing\nShint\u014d--that is, of combining Shint\u014d or purely Japanese ideas and\npractices with the systems imported from India, went on for five\ncenturies. The old native habits and mental characteristics were not\neradicated or profoundly modified; they were rather safely preserved in\nso-called Buddhism, not indeed as dead flies in amber but as live\ncreatures, fattening on a body, which, every year, while keeping outward\nform and name, was being emptied of its normal and typical life. It is\nno gain to pure water to add either microbes or the food which nourishes\nthem.\n\n\nBuddhism Writes New Chapters of Decay.\n\n\nPhenomenally, the victory was that of Buddhism. The mustard-seed has\nindeed become a great tree, lodging every fowl of heaven, clean and\nunclean; but potentially and in reality, the leavening power, as now\nseen, seems to have been that of Shint\u014d. Or, to change metaphor,\nsince the hermit crab and the shell were separated by law only one\ngeneration ago, in 1870, we shall soon, before many generations, discern\nclearly which has the life and which has only the shell.[34]\n\nThere are but few literary monuments[35] of Riy\u014dbuism, and it has\nleft few or no marks in the native chronicles, misnamed history, which\nutterly omit or ignore so many things interesting to the student and\nhumanist.[36] Yet to this mixture or amalgamation of Buddhism with\nShint\u014d, more probably than to any other direct influence, may also be\nascribed that striking alteration in the system of Chinese ethics or\nConfucianism which differentiates the Japanese form from that prevalent\nin China. That is, instead of filial piety, the relation of parent and\nchild, occupying the first place, loyalty, the relation of lord and\nretainer, master and servant, became supreme. Although Buddhism made the\nMikado first a King (Tenn\u014d) or Son of Heaven (Ten-Shi), and then a\nmonk (H\u014d-\u014d), and after his death a Hotok\u00e9 or Buddhist deity, it\ncaused him early to abdicate from actual life. Buddhism is thus directly\nresponsible for the habitual Japanese resignation from active life\nalmost as soon as it is entered, by men in all classes. Buddhism started\nall along and down through the lines of Japanese society the idea of\nearly retirement from duty; so that men were considered old at forty,\nand _hors concours_ before forty-five.[37] Life was condemned as vanity\nof vanities before it was mature, and old age a friend that nobody\nwished to meet,[38] although Japanese old age is but European prime. In\na measure, Buddhism is thus responsible for the paralysis of Japanese\ncivilization, which, like oft-tapped maple-trees, began to die at the\ntop. This was in accordance with its theories and its literature. In the\nBible there is, possibly, one book which is pessimistic in tone,\nEcclesiastes. In the bulky and dropsical canon of Buddhism there is a\nwhole library of despondency and despair.\n\nNevertheless, the ethical element held its own in the Japanese mind; and\nagainst the pessimism and puerility of Buddhism and the religious\nemptiness of Shint\u014d, the bond of Japanese society was sought in the\nidea of loyalty. While then, as we repeat, everything that comes to the\nJapanese mind suffers as it were \"a sea change, into something new and\nstrange,\" is it not fair to say that the change made by K\u014db\u014d was\nat the expense of Buddhism as a system, and that the thing that suffered\nreversion was the exotic rather than the native plant? For, in the\nemergence of this new idea of loyalty as supreme, Shint\u014d and not\nBuddhism was the dictator.\n\nEven more after K\u014db\u014d's death than during his life, Japan improved\nupon her imported faith, and rapidly developed new sects of all degrees\nof reputableness and disreputableness. Had K\u014db\u014d lived on through\nthe centuries, as the boors still believe;[39] he could not have\nstopped, had he so desired, the workings of the leaven he had brought\nfrom China. From the sixth to the twelfth century, was the missionary\nage of Japanese Buddhism. Then followed two centuries of amazing\ndevelopment of doctrine. Novelties in religion blossomed, fruited and\nbecame monuments as permanent as the age-enduring forests Hakon\u00e9, or\nNikk\u014d. Gautama himself, were he to return to \"red earth\" again, could\nnot recognize his own cult in Japan.\n\nIn China to-day Buddhism is in a bad state. One writer calls it, \"The\nemasculated descendant that now occupies the land with its drone of\npriests and its temples, in which scarce a worthy disciple of the\nlearned patriarchs of ancient days is to be found. Received with open\narms, persecuted, patronized, smiled upon, tolerated, it with the last\nphase of its existence, has reached, not the halcyon days of peace and\nrest, but its final stage, foreshadowing its decay from rottenness and\ncorruption.\"[40] So also, in a like report, agree many witnesses. The\ncommon people of China are to-day Taoists rather than Buddhists.[41]\n\nIf this be the position in China, something not very far from it is\nfound in Japan to-day. Whatever may be the Buddhism of the few learned\nscholars, who have imbibed the critical and scientific spirit of\nChristendom, and whatever be the professions and representations of its\nearnest adherents and partisans, it is certain that popular Buddhism is\nboth ethically and vitally in a low state. In outward array the system\nis still imposing. There are yet, it may be, millions of stone statues\nand whole forests of wayside effigies, outdoors and\nunroofed--irreverently called by the Japanese themselves, \"wet gods.\"\nHosts upon hosts of lacquered and gilded images in wood, sheltered under\nthe temple tiles or shingles, still attract worshippers. Despite\nshiploads of copper Buddhas exported as old metal to Europe and America,\nand thousands of tons of gods and imps melted into coin or cannon, there\nare myriads of metal reminders of those fruits of a religion that once\neducated and satisfied; but these are, in the main, no longer to the\nnatives instruments of inspiration or compellers to enthusiasm. In this\ntime of practical charity, they are poor substitutes for those hospitals\nand orphan asylums which were practically unknown in Japan until the\nadvent of Christianity.\n\nK\u014db\u014d's smart example has been followed only too well by the people\nin every part of the country. One has but to read the stacks of books of\nlocal history to see what an amazing proportion of legends, ideas,\nsuperstitions and revelations rests on dreams; how incredibly numerous\nare the apparitions; how often the floating images of Buddha are found\non the water; how frequently flowers have rained out of the sky; how\nmany times the idols have spoken or shot forth their dazzling rays--in a\nword; how often art and artifices have become alleged and accepted\nreality. Unfortunately, the characteristics of this literature and\nundergrowth of idol lore are monotony and lack of originality; for\nnearly all are copies of K\u014db\u014d's model. His cartoon has been\nconstantly before the busy weavers of legend.\n\nIt may indeed be said, and said truly, that in its multiplication of\nsects and in its growth of legend and superstition, Buddhism has but\nfollowed every known religion, including traditional Christianity\nitself. Yet popular Buddhism has reached a point which shows, that,\ninstead of having a self-purgative and self-reforming power, it is\napparently still treading in the steps of the degradation which\nK\u014db\u014dbegan.\n\n\nThe Seven Gods of Good Fortune.\n\n\nWe repeat it, Riy\u014dbu Buddhism is Japanese Buddhism with vengeance. It\nis to-day suffering from the effect of its own sins. Its _ingwa_ is\nmanifest. Take, for example, the little group of divinities known as the\nSeven Gods of Good Fortune, which forms a popular appendage to Japanese\nBuddhism and which are a direct and logical growth of the work done by\nK\u014db\u014d, as shown in his Riy\u014dbu system. Not from foreign writers\nand their fancies, nor even from the books which profess to describe\nthese divinities, do we get such an idea of their real meaning and of\ntheir influence with the people, as we do by observation of every-day\npractice, and a study of the idols themselves and of Japanese folk-lore,\npopular romance, local history and guidebooks. Those familiar\ndivinities, indeed, at the present day owe their vitality rather to the\nartists than to priests, and, it may be, have received, together with\nsome rather rude handling, nearly the whole of their extended popularity\nand influence from their lay supporters. The Seven Happy Gods of Fortune\nform nominally a Buddhist assemblage, and their effigies on the\nkami-dana or god-shelf, found in nearly every Japanese house, are\nuniversally visible. The child in Japan is rocked to sleep by the\nsoothing sound of the lullaby, which is often a prayer to these gods.\nEven though it may be with laughing and merriment, that, in their name\nthe evil gods and imps are exorcised annually on New Year's eve, with\nshowers of beans which are supposed to be as disagreeable to the\nBuddhist demons \"as drops of holy water to the Devil,\" yet few\nhouseholds are complete without one or more of the images or the\npictures of these favorite deities.\n\nThe separate elements of this conglomerate, so typical of Japanese\nreligion, are from no fewer than four different sources: Brahmanism,\nBuddhism, Taoism and Shint\u014dism. \"Thus, Bishamon is the Buddhist\n_V\u00e2is'ramana_[42] and the Brahmanic Kuvera; Benten is Sarasvat\u00ee, the\nwife of Brahm\u00e2; Daikoku is an extremely popularised form of Mahakala,\nthe black-faced Temple Guardian; Hot\u00e9i has Taoist attributes, but is\nregarded as an incarnation of M\u00e0itrey\u00e2, the Buddhist Messiah;\nFuku-roku-jiu is of purely Taoist origin, and is perhaps a\npersonification of Lao-Tsze himself; Ju-r\u00f3-jin is almost certainly a\nduplicate of Fuku-roku-jiu; and, lastly, Ebisu, as the son of Izanagi\nand Izanami, is a contribution from the Shint\u014d hero-worship.\"[43] If\nRiy\u014dbu Buddhism be two-fold, here is a texture or amalgam that is\n_shi-bu_, four-fold. Let us watch lest _go-bu_, with Christianity mixed\nin, be the next result of the process. To play the Japanese game of\ngo-ban, with Christianity as the fifth counter, and Jesus as a\nPalestinian avatar of some Dhyani Buddha, crafty priests in Japan are\neven now planning.\n\nThis illustration of the Seven Gods of Happiness, whose local\ncharacters, functions and relations have been developed especially\nwithin the last three or four hundred years, is but one of many that\ncould be adduced, showing what proceeded on a larger scale. The\nRiy\u014dbu process made it almost impossible for the average native to\ndraw the line between history and mythology. It destroyed the boundary\nlines, as Pantheism invariably does, between fact and fiction, truth and\nfalsehood. The Japanese mind, by a natural, possibly by a racial,\ntendency, falls easily into Pantheism, which may be called the destroyer\nof boundaries and the maker of chaos and ooze. Pretty much all early\nJapanese \"history\" is ooze; yet there are grave and learned men, even in\nthe Constitutional Japan of the M\u00e9iji era--masters in their arts and\nprofessions, graduates of technical and philosophical courses--who\nsolemnly talk about their \"first emperor ascending the throne, B.C.\n660,\" and to whom the dragon-born, early Mikados, and their\nfellow-tribesmen, seen through the exaggerated mists of the Kojiki, are\ndivine personages.\n\n\nThe Gon-gen in the Processions.\n\n\nWhile living in Japan between 1870 and 1874, the writer used to enjoy\nwatching and studying the long processions which celebrated the\nfoundation of temples, national or local festivals, or the completion of\nsome great public enterprise, such as the railway between T\u014dkio and\nYokohama. In rich costume, decoration, and representation most of the\ncultus-objects were marvels of art and skill. Besides the gala dresses\nand uniforms, the fantastic decorations and personal adornments, the\ndances which represented the comedies and tragedies of the gods and the\nstriking scenes in the Kojiki, there wore colossal images of Kami,\nBodhisattvas, Gon-gen, Dai Mi\u014d Jin, and of imps, oni, mythical animal\nforms and imaginary monsters.[44] More interesting than anything else,\nhowever, were the male and female figures, set high upon triumphal cars\nhaving many tiers, and arrayed in characteristic primeval, ancient,\nmedieval, or early modern dress. Some were of scowling, others of benign\nvisage. In some years, everyone of the eight hundred and eight streets\nof Yedo sent its contribution of men, money, decorations, or vehicles.\n\nAs seen by four kinds of spectators, the average ignorant native, the\nShint\u014dist, the learned Buddhist, and the critical historical scholar,\nthese effigies represented three different characters or creations.\nEspecially were those divine personages called Gon-gen worth the study\nof the foreign observer.\n\n(1) The common boor or streetman saluted, for example, this or that Dai\nMi\u014d Jin, as the great illustrious spirit or god of its particular\ndistrict. To this spirit and image he prayed; in his honor he made\nofferings; his wrath he feared; and his smile he hoped to win, for the\nGon-gen was a divine being.\n\n(2) To the Shint\u014dist, who hated Buddhism and the Riy\u014dbu Shint\u014d\nwhich had overlaid his ancestral faith, and who scorned and tabooed this\nChinese term Dai Mi\u014d Jin, this or that image represented a divine\nancestor whose name had in it many Japanese syllables, with no defiling\nChinese sounds, and who was the Kami or patron deity of this or that\nneighborhood.\n\n(3) To the Buddhist, this or that personage, in his lifetime, in the\nearly ages of Japanese history, had been an avatar of Buddha who had\nappeared in human flesh and brought blessings to the people and\nneighborhood; yet the people of the early ages being unprepared to\nreceive his doctrine or revelation, he had not then revealed or preached\nit; but now, as for a thousand years since the time of the illustrious\nand saintly K\u014db\u014d, he had his right name and received his just\nhonors and worship as an avatar of the eternal Buddha. So, although\nBuddhist and Shint\u014dist might quarrel as to his title, and divide,\neven to anger, on minor points, they would both agree in letting the\ncommon people take their pleasure, enjoy the festivals and merriment,\nand preserve their reverence and worship.\n\n(4) Still another spectator studied with critical interest the swaying\nfigure high in air. With a taste for archaeology, he admired the\naccuracy of the drapery and associations. He was amused, it may be, with\noccasional anachronisms as to garments or equipments. He knew that the\noriginal of this personage had been nothing more than a human being, who\nmight indeed have been conspicuous as a brave soldier in war, or as a\nskilful physician who helped to stop the plague, or as a civilizer who\nimported new food or improved agriculture.\n\nIn a word, had this subject of the ancient Mikado lived in modern\nChristendom, he might be honored through the government, patent office,\nprivy council, the admiralty, the university, or the academy, as the\ncase or worth might be. He might shine in a plastic representation by\nthe sculptor or artist, or be known in the popular literature; but he\nwould never receive religious worship, or aught beyond honor and praise.\nIn this swamping of history in legend and of fact in dogma, we behold\nthe fruit of K\u014db\u014d's work, Riy\u014dbu Buddhism.\n\n\nK\u014db\u014d's Work Undone.\n\n\nBuddhism calls itself the jewel in the lotus. Japanese poetry asks of\nthe dewdrop \"why, having the heart of the lotus for its home, does it\npretend to be a gem?\" For a thousand years Riy\u014dbu Buddhism was\nreceived as a pure brilliant of the first water, and then the\nscholarship of the Shint\u014d revivalists of the eighteenth century\nexposed the fraudulent nature of the unrelated parts and declared that\nthe jewel called Riy\u014dbu was but a craftsman's doublet and should be\nsplit apart. Only a splinter of diamond, they declared, crowned a mass\nof paste. Indignation made learning hot, and in 1870 the cement was\nliquefied in civil war. The doublet was rent asunder by imperial decree,\nas when a lapidist melts the mastic that holds in deception adamant and\nglass, while real diamond stands all fire short of the hydro-oxygen\nflame. The Riy\u014dbu temples were purged of all Buddhist symbols,\nfurniture, equipment and personnel, and were made again to assume their\naugust and austere simplicity. In the eyes of the purely aesthetic\ncritic, this national purgation was Puritanical iconoclasm; in those of\nthe priests, cast out to earn rice elsewise and elsewhere, it was\noutrage, which in individual instances called for reprisal in blood,\nfire and assassination; to the Shint\u014dist, it was an exhibition of the\nrighteous judgment of the long-insulted gods; in the ken of the critical\nstudent, it seems very much like historic and poetic justice.\n\nIn our day and time, Riy\u014dbu Buddhism furnishes us with a warning,\nfor, looked at from a purely human point of view, what happened to\nShint\u014d may possibly happen to Japanese Christianity. The successors\nof those who, in the ninth century, did not scruple to Buddhaize\nShint\u014d, and in later times, even our own, to Shint\u014dize Buddhism\nwhile holding to Buddha's name and all the revenue possible, will\nBuddhaize Christianity if they have power and opportunity; and signs are\nnot wanting to show that this is upon their programme.\n\nThe water of stagnant Buddhism is still a swarming mass, which needs\ncleansing to purity by a knowledge of one God who is Light and Love.\nWithout such knowledge, the manifold changes in Buddhism will but form\nfresh chapters of degradation and decay. Holding such knowledge,\nChristianity may pass through endless changes, for this is her\ncapability by Divine power and the authorization of her Founder. The now\nBuddhism of our day is endeavoring to save itself through reformation\nand progress. In doing so, the danger of the destruction of the system\nis great, for thus far change has meant decay.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS\n\n\n    \"To the millions of China, Corea, and Japan, creator and\n    creation are new and strange terms,\"--J.H. De Forest.\n\n    \"The Law of our Lord, the Buddha, is not a natural science or a\n    religion, but a doctrine of enlightenment; and the object of it\n    is to give rest to the restless, to point out the Master (the\n    Inmost Man) to those that are blind and do not perceive their\n    Original State.\"\n\n    \"The Saddharma Pundarika Sutra teaches us how to obtain that\n    desirable knowledge of the mind as it is in itself [universal\n    wisdom] ... Mind is the One Reality, and all Scriptures are the\n    micrographic photographs of its images. He that fully grasps the\n    Divine Body of Sakyamuni, holds ever, even without the written\n    Sutra, the inner Saddharma Pundarika in his hand. He ever reads\n    it mentally, even though he would never read it orally. He is\n    unified with it though he has no thought about it. He is the\n    true keeper of the Sutra.\"--Zitsuzen Ashitsu of the Tendai sect.\n\n    \"It [Buddhism] is idealistic. Everything is as we think it. The\n    world is my idea.... Beyond our faith is naught. Hold the\n    Buddhist to his creed and insist that such logic destroys\n    itself, and he triumphs smilingly, 'Self-destructive! Of course\n    it is. All logic is. That is the centre of my philosophy.'\"\n\n    \"It [Buddhism] denounces all desire and offers salvation as the\n    reward of the murder of our affections, hopes, and aspirations.\n    It is possible where conscious existence is believed to be the\n    chief of evils.\"--George William Knox.\n\n    \"Swallowing the device of the priests, the people well\n    satisfied, dance their prayers.\"--Japanese Proverb.\n\n    \"The wisdom that is from above is ... without variance, without\n    hypocrisy.\"--James.\n\n    \"The mystery of God, even Christ in whom are all the treasures\n    of wisdom and knowledge.\"--Paul.\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS\n\nChronological Outline.\n\n\nIn sketching the history of the doctrinal developments of Buddhism in\nJapan, we note that the system, greatly corrupted from its original\nsimplicity, was in 552 A.D. already a millennium old. Several distinct\nphases of the much-altered faith of Gautama, were introduced into the\nislands at various times between the sixth and the ninth century. From\nthese and from others of native origin have sprung the larger Japanese\nsects. Even as late as the seventeenth century, novelties in Buddhism\nwere imported from China, and the exotics took root in Japanese soil;\nbut then, with a single exception, only to grow as curiosities in the\ngarden, rather than as the great forests, which had already sprung from\nimported and native specimens.\n\nWe may divide the period of the doctrinal development of Buddhism in\nJapan into four epochs:\n\nI. The first, from 552 to 805 A.D., will cover the first six sects,\nwhich had for their centre of propagation, Nara, the southern capital.\n\nII. Then follows Riy\u014dbu Buddhism, from the ninth to the twelfth\ncenturies.\n\nIII. This was succeeded by another explosion of doctrine wholly and\npeculiarly Japanese, and by a wide missionary propagation.\n\nIV. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, there is little that\nis doctrinally noticeable, until our own time, when the new Buddhism of\nto-day claims at least a passing notice.\n\nThe Japanese writers of ecclesiastical history classify in three groups\nthe twelve great sects as the first six, the two medi\u00e6val, and the four\nmodern sects.\n\nIn this lecture we shall merely summarize the characteristics of the\nfirst five sects which existed before the opening of the ninth century\nbut which are not formally extant at the present time, and treat more\nfully the purely Japanese developments. The first three sects may be\ngrouped under the head of the Hinayana, or Smaller Vehicle, as Southern\nor primitive orthodox Buddhism is usually called.\n\nMost of the early sects, as will be seen, were founded upon some\nparticular sutra, or upon selections or collections of sutras. They\ncorrespond to some extent with the manifold sects of Christendom, and\nyet this illustration or reference must not be misleading. It is not as\nthough a new Christian sect, for example, were in A.D. 500 to be formed\nwholly on the gospel of Luke, or the book of the Revelation; nor as\nthough a new sect should now arise in Norway or Tennessee because of a\nspecial emphasis laid on a combination of the epistle to the Corinthians\nand the book of Daniel. It is rather as though distinct names and\norganizations should be founded upon the writings of Tertullian, of\nAugustine, of Luther, or of Calvin, and that such sects should accept\nthe literary work of these scholars not only as commentaries but as Holy\nScripture itself.\n\nThe Buddhist body of scriptures has several times been imported and\nprinted in Japan, but has never been translated into the vernacular. The\ncanon[1] is not made up simply of writings purporting to be the words of\nBuddha or of the apostles who were his immediate companions or\nfollowers. On the contrary, the canon, as received in Japan, is made up\nof books, written for the most part many centuries after the last of the\ncontemporaries of Gautama had passed away. Not a few of these writings\nare the products of the Chinese intellect. Some books held by particular\nsects as holy scripture were composed in Japan itself, the very books\nthemselves being worshipped. Nevertheless those who are apparently\nfarthest away from primitive Buddhism, claim to understand Buddha most\nclearly.\n\n\nThe Standard Doctrinal Work.\n\n\nOne of the most famous of books, honored especially by several of the\nlater and larger sects in Japan, and probably the most widely read and\nmost generally studied book of the canon, is the Saddharma Pundarika.[2]\nProfessor Kern, who has translated this very rhetorical work into\nEnglish, thinks it existed at or some time before 250 A.D., and that in\nits most ancient form it dates some centuries earlier, possibly as early\nas the opening of the Christian era. It has now twenty-seven chapters,\nand may be called the typical scripture of Northern Buddhism. It is\noverflowingly full of those sensuous images and descriptions of the\nParadise, in which the imagination of the Japanese Buddhist so revels,\nand in it both rhetoric and mathematics run wild. Of this book, \"the\ncream of the revealed doctrine,\" we shall hear often again. It is the\nstandard of orthodoxy in Japanese Buddhism, the real genius of which is\nmonastic asceticism in morals and philosophical scepticism in religion.\n\nIn most of the other sutras the burden of thought is ontology.\nDoctrinally, Buddhism seems to be less a religion than a system of\nphilosophy. Hundreds of volumes in the canon concern themselves almost\nwholly with ontological speculations. The Japanese mind,[3] as described\nby those who have studied most acutely and profoundly its manifestations\nin language and literature, is essentially averse to speculation. Yet\nthe first forms of Buddhism presented to the Japanese, were highly\nmetaphysical. The history of thought in Japan, shows that these\nabstractions of dogma were not congenial to the islanders. The new faith\nwon its way among the people by its outward sensuous attractions, and by\nappeals to the imagination, the fancy and the emotions; though the men\nof culture were led captive by reasoning which they could not answer,\neven if they could comprehend it. Though these early forms of dogma and\nphilosophy no longer survive in Japan, having been eclipsed by more\nconcrete and sensuous arguments, yet it is necessary to state them in\norder to show: first, what Buddhism really is; second, doctrinal\ndevelopment in the farthest East; and, third, the peculiarities of the\nJapanese mind.\n\nIn this task, we are happy to be able to rely upon native witness and\nconfession.[4] The foreigner may easily misrepresent, even when\nsincerely inclined to utter only the truth. Each religion, in its theory\nat least, must be judged by its ideals, and not by its failures. Its\ntruth must be stated by its own professors. In the \"History of The\nTwelve Japanese Sects,\" by Bunyiu Nanjio, M.A. Oxon., and in \"Le\nBouddhisme Japonais,\" by Ryauon Fujishima, we have the untrammelled\nutterances, of nine living lights of the religion of Shaka as it is held\nand taught in Dai Nippon. The former scholar is a master of texts, and\nthe latter of philosophy, each editor excelling in his own department;\nand the two books complement each other in value.\n\nBuddhism, being a logical growth out of Brahmanism, used the old sacred\nlanguage of India and inherited its vocabulary. In the Tripitaka, that\nis, the three book-baskets or boxes, we have the term for canon of\nscripture, in the complete collection of which are _sutra_, _vinaya_ and\n_abidharma_. We shall see, also, that while Gautama shut out the gods,\nhis speculative followers who claimed to be his successors, opened the\ndoors and allowed them to troop in again. The democracy of the\ncongregation became a hierarchy and the empty swept and garnished house,\na pantheon.\n\nA sutra, from the root _siv_, to sew, means a thread or string, and in\nthe old Veda religion referred to household rites or practices and the\nmoral conduct of life; but in Buddhist phraseology it means a body of\ndoctrine. A shaster or shastra, from the Sanskrit root _\u00e7as_, to govern,\nrelates to discipline. Of those shastras and sutras we must frequently\nspeak. In India and China some of those sutras are exponents, of schools\nof thought or opinion, or of views or methods of looking at things,\nrather than of organizations. In Japan these schools of philosophy, in\ncertain instances, become sects with a formal history.\n\nIn China of the present day, according to a Japanese traveller and\nauthor, \"the Chinese Buddhists seem ... to unite all different sects, so\nas to make one harmonious sect.\" The chief divisions are those of the\nblue robe, who are allied with the Lamaism of Tibet and whose doctrine\nis largely \"esoteric,\" and those of the yellow robe, who accept the\nthree fundamentals of principle, teaching and discipline. Dhyana or\ncontemplation is their principle; the K\u00e9gon or Avatamsaka sutra and the\nHokk\u00e9 or Saddharma Pundarika sutra, etc., form the basis of their\nteaching; and the Vinaya of the Four Divisions (Dharmagupta) is their\ndiscipline. On the contrary, in Japan there are vastly greater\ndiversities of sect, principle, teaching and discipline.\n\n\nBuddhism as a System of Metaphysics.\n\n\nThe date of the birth of the Buddha in India, accepted by the Japanese\nscholars is B.C. 1027--the day and month being also given with\nsuspicious accuracy. About nine centuries after Gautama had attained\nNirvana, there were eighteen schools of the Hinayana or the doctrine of\nthe Smaller Vehicle. Then a shastra or institute of Buddhist ontology in\nnine chapters, was composed, the title of which in English, is, Book of\nthe Treasury of Metaphysics. It had such a powerful influence that it\nwas called an intelligence-creating, or as we say, an epoch-making book.\n\nThis Ku-sha shastra, from the Sanskrit _kosa_, a store, is eclectic, and\ncontains nine chapters embodying the views of one of the schools, with\nselections from those of others. It was translated in A.D. 563, into\nChinese by a Hindu scholar; but about a hundred years later the famous\npilgrim, whom the Japanese call Gen-j\u014d, but who is known in Europe as\nHiouen Thsang,[5] made a better translation, while his disciples added\ncommentaries.\n\nIn A.D. 658, two Japanese priests[6] made the sea-journey westward into\nChina, as Gen-j\u014d had before made the land pilgrimage into India, and\nbecame pupils of the famous pilgrim. After long study they returned,\nbringing the Chinese translation of this shastra into Japan. They did\nnot form an independent sect; but the doctrines of this shastra, being\neclectic, were studied by all Japanese Buddhist sects. This Ku-sha\nscripture is still read in Japan as a general institute of ontology,\nespecially by advanced students who wish to get a general idea of the\ndoctrines. It is full of technical terms, and is well named The\nStore-house of Metaphysics.\n\nThe Ku-sha teaches control of the passions, and the government of\nthought. The burden of its philosophy is materialism; that is, the\nnon-existence of self and the existence of the matter which composes\nself, or, as the Japanese writer says: \"The reason why all things are so\nminutely explained in this shastra is to drive away the idea of self,\nand to show the truth in order to make living beings reach Nirvana.\"\nAmong the numerous categories, to express which many technical terms are\nnecessary, are those of \"forms,\" eleven in number, including the five\nsenses and the six objects of sense; the six kinds of knowledge; the\nforty-six mental qualities, grouped under six heads; and the fourteen\nconceptions separated from the mind; thus making in all seventy-two\ncompounded things and three immaterial things. These latter are\n\"conscious cessation of existence,\" \"unconscious cessation of\nexistence,\" and \"space.\"\n\nThe Reverend Shuzan Emura, of the Shin-shu sect of Japan, after\nspecifying these seventy-five Dharmas, or things compounded and things\nimmaterial, says:[7] \"The former include all things that proceed from a\ncause. This cause is Karma, to which everything existing is due, Space\nand Nirvana alone excepted. Again, of the three immaterial things the\nlast two are not subjects to be understood by the wisdom not free from\nfrailty. Therefore the 'conscious cessation of existence' is considered\nas being the goal of all effort to him who longs for deliverance from\nmisery.\"\n\nIn a word, this one of the many Buddhisms of Asia is vastly less a\nreligion, in any real sense of the word, than a system of metaphysics.\nHowever, the doctrine to be mastered is graded in three Yanas or\nVehicles; for there are now, as in the days of Shaka, three classes of\nbeing, graded according to their ability or power to understand \"the\ntruth.\" These are:\n\n(I.) The Sho-mon or lowest of the disciples of Shaka, or hearers who\nmeditate on the cause and effect of everything. If acute in\nunderstanding, they become free from confusion after three births; but\nif they are dull, they pass sixty kalpas[8] or aeons before they attain\nto the state of enlightenment.\n\n(II.) The Engaku or Pratyeka Buddhas, that is, \"singly enlightened,\" or\nbeings in the middle state, who must extract the seeds or causes of\nactions, and must meditate on the twelve chains of causation, or\nunderstand the non-eternity of the world, while gazing upon the falling\nflowers or leaves. They attain enlightenment after four births or a\nhundred kalpas, according to their ability.\n\n(III.) The Bodhisattvas or Buddhas-elect, who practise the six\nperfections (perfect practice of alms-giving, morality, patience,\nenergy, meditation and wisdom) as preliminaries to Nirvana, which they\nreach only after countless kalpas.\n\nThese three grades of pupils in the mysteries of Buddha doctrine, are\nsaid to have been ordered by Shaka himself, because understanding human\nbeings so thoroughly, he knew that one person could not comprehend two\nways or vehicles (Yana) at once. People were taught therefore to\npractise anyone of the three vehicles at pleasure.\n\nWe shall see how the later radical and democratic Japanese Buddhism\nswept away this gradation, and declaring but the one vehicle (\u00e9ka),\nopened the kingdom to all believers.\n\nThe second of the early Japanese schools of thought, is the\nJ\u014d-jitsu,[9] or the sect founded chiefly upon the shastra which means\nThe Book of the Perfection of the Truth, containing selections from and\nexplanations of the true meaning of the Tripitaka. This shastra was the\nwork of a Hindu whose name means Lion-armor, and who lived about nine\ncenturies after Gautama. Not satisfied with the narrow views of his\nteacher, who may have been of the Dharmagupta school (of the four\nDisciplines), he made selections of the best and broadest\ninterpretations then current in the several different schools of the\nSmaller Vehicle. The book is eclectic, and attempts to unite all that\nwas best in each of the Hinayana schools; but certain Chinese teachers\nconsider that its explanations are applicable to the Great Vehicle also.\nTranslated into Chinese in 406 A.D., the commentaries upon it soon\nnumbered hundreds, and it was widely expounded and lectured upon.\nCommentaries upon this shastra were also written in Korean by\nD\u014d-z\u014d. From the peninsula it was introduced into Japan. This\nJ\u014d-jitsu doctrine was studied by prince Sh\u014dtoku, and promulgated\nas a division of the school called San-Ron. The students of the\nJ\u014d-jitsu school never formed in Japan a distinct organization.\n\nThe burden of the teachings of this school is pure nihilism, or the\nnon-existence of both self and of matter. There is an utter absence of\nsubstantiality in all things. Life itself is a prolonged dream. The\nobjects about us are mere delusive shadows or mirage, the product of the\nimagination alone. The past and the future are without reality, but the\npresent state of things only stands as if it were real. That is to say:\nthe true state of things is constantly changing, yet it seems as if the\nstate of things were existing, even as does a circle of fire seen when a\nrope watch is turned round very quickly.\n\n\nJapanese Pilgrims to China.\n\n\nThe Ris-shu or Vinaya sect is one of purely Chinese origin, and was\nfounded, or rather re-founded, by the Chinese priest D\u014dsen, who lived\non Mount Shunan early in the seventh century, and claimed to be only\nre-proclaiming the rules given by Gautama himself. He was well\nacquainted with the Tripitaka and especially versed in the Vinaya or\nrules of discipline. His purpose was to unite the teachings of both the\nGreater and the Lesser Vehicle in a sutra whose burden should be one of\nethics and not of dogma.\n\nThe founder of this sect was greatly honored by the Chinese Emperor.\nFurthermore, he was honored in vision by the holy Pindola or\nBinzura,[10] who praised the founder as the best man that had\npromulgated the discipline since Buddha himself. In later centuries,\nsuccessors of the founder compiled commentaries and reproclaimed the\nteachings of this sect.\n\nIn A.D. 724 two Japanese priests went over to China, and having mastered\nthe Ris-shu doctrine, received permission to propagate it in Japan. With\neighty-two Chinese priests they returned a few years later, having\nattempted, it is said, the journey five times and spent twelve years on\nthe sea. On their return, they received an imperial invitation to live\nin the great monastery at Nara, and soon their teachings exerted a\npowerful influence on the court. The emperor, empress and four hundred\npersons of note were received into the Buddhist communion by a Chinese\npriest of the Ris-shu school in the middle of the eighth century. The\nMikado Sh\u014d-mu resigned his throne and took the vow and robes of a\nmonk, becoming H\u014d-\u014d or cloistered emperor. Under imperial\ndirection a great bronze image of the Vairokana Buddha, or Perfection of\nMorality, was erected, and terraces, towers, images and all the\nparaphernalia of the new kind of Buddhism were prepared. Even the earth\nwas embroidered, as it were, with sutras and shastras. Symbolical\nlandscape gardening, which, in its mounds and paths, variously shaped\nstones and lanterns, artificial cascades and streamlets, teaches the\nholy geography as well as the allegories and hidden truths of Buddhism,\nmade the city of Nara beautiful to the eyes of faith as well as of\nsight.\n\nThis sect, with its excellence in morality and benevolence, proved\nitself a beautifier of human life, of society and of the earth itself.\nIts work was an irenicon. It occupied itself exclusively with the higher\nethics, the higher meditations and the higher knowledge. Interdicting\nwhat was evil and prescribing what was good, its precepts varied in\nnumber and rigor according to the status of the disciple, lay or\nclerical. It is by the observance of the _sila_, or grades of moral\nperfection, that one becomes a Buddha. Besides making so powerful a\nconquest at the southern capital, this sect was the one which centuries\nafterward built the first Buddhist temple in Yedo. Being ordinary human\nmortals, however, both monk and layman occasionally illustrated the\ndifference between profession and practice.\n\nThese three schools or sects, Ku-sha, J\u014d-jitsu, and Ris-shu, may be\ngrouped under the Hinayana or Smaller Vehicle, with more or less\naffiliation with Southern Buddhism; the others now to be described were\nwholly of the Northern division.\n\nThe Hoss\u014d-shu, or the Dharma-lakshana sect, as described by the Rev.\nDai-ryo Takashi of the Shin-gon sect, is the school which studies the\nnature of Dharmas or things. The three worlds of desire, form and\nformlessness, consist in thought only; and there is nothing outside\nthought. Nine centuries after Gautama, Maitreya,[11] or the Buddha of\nkindness, came down from the heaven of the Bodhisattva to the\nlecture-hall in the kingdom in central India at the request of the\nBuddhas elect, and discounted five shastras. After that two Buddhist\nfathers who were brothers, composed many more shastras and cleared up\nthe meaning of the Mah\u0101yan\u0101. In 629 A.D., in his twenty-ninth\nyear, the famous Chinese pilgrim, Gen-j\u014d (Hiouen-thsang), studied\nthese shastras and sciences, and returning to China in 645 A.D., began\nhis great work of translation, at which he continued for nineteen years.\nOne of his disciples was the author of a hundred commentaries on sutras\nand shastras. The doctrines of Gen-j\u014d and his disciples were at four\ndifferent times, from 653 to 712 A.D., imported into Japan, and named,\nafter the monasteries in which they were promulgated, the Northern and\nSouthern Transmission.\n\n\nThe Middle Path.\n\n\nThe burden of the teachings of this sect is subjective idealism. They\nembrace principles enjoining complete indifference to mundane affairs,\nand, in fact, thorough personal nullification and the ignoring of all\nactions by its disciples. In these teachings, thought only, is real. As\nwe have already seen with the Ku-sha teaching, human beings are of three\nclasses, divided according to intellect, into higher, middle and lower,\nfor whom the systems of teachings are necessarily of as many kinds. The\norder of progress with those who give themselves to the study of the\nHoss\u014d tenets, is,[12] first, they know only the existence of things,\nthen the emptiness of them, and finally they enter the middle path of\n\"true emptiness and wonderful existence.\"\n\nFrom the first, such discipline is long and painful, and ultimate\nvictory scarcely comes to the ordinary being. The disciple, by training\nin thought, by destroying passions and practices, by meditating on the\nonly knowledge, must pass through three kalpas or aeons. Constantly\nmeditating, and destroying the two obstacles of passion and cognizable\nthings, the disciple then obtains four kinds of wisdom and truly attains\nperfect enlightenment or Pari-Nirvana.\n\nThe San-ron Shu, as the Three-Shastra sect calls itself, is the sect of\nthe Teachings of Buddha's whole life.[13] Other sects are founded upon\nsingle sutras, a fact which makes the student liable to narrowness of\nopinion. The San-ron gives greater breadth of view and catholicity of\nopinion. The doctrines of the Greater Vehicle are the principal\nteachings of Gautama, and these are thoroughly explained in the three\nshastras used by this sect, which, it is claimed, contain Buddha's own\nwords. The meanings of the titles of the three favorite sutras, are, The\nMiddle Book, The Hundred, and The Book of Twelve Gates. Other books of\nthe canon are also studied and valued by this sect, but all of them are\napt to be perused from a particular point of view; i.e., that of\nPyrronism or infinite negation.\n\nThere are two lines of the transmission of this doctrine, both of them\nthrough China, though, the introduction to Japan was made from Korea, in\n625 A.D. Not to dwell upon the detail of history, the burden of this\nsect's teaching, is, infinite negation or absolute nihilism. Truth is\nthe inconceivable state, or, in the words of the Japanese writer: \"The\ntruth is nothing but the state where thoughts come to an end; the right\nmeditation is to perceive this truth. He who has obtained this\nmeditation is called Buddha. This is this doctrine of the San-ron sect.\"\n\nThis sect, by its teachings of the Middle Path, seems to furnish a\nbridge from the Hinayana or Southern school, to the Mah\u0101yan\u0101 or\nNorthern school of Buddhism. Part of its work, as set forth by the Rev.\nK\u014d-ch\u014d Ogurasu, of the Shin sect, is to defend the authenticity,\ngenuineness and canonicity of the books which form the Northern body of\nscriptures.\n\nIn these two sects Hos-s\u014d and San-ron, called those of Middle Path,\nand much alike in principle and teaching, the whole end and aim of\nmental discipline, is nihilism--in the one case subjective, and in the\nother absolute, the end and goal being nothing--this view into the\nnature of things being considered the right one.\n\nIs it any wonder that such teachings could in the long run satisfy\nneither the trained intellects nor the unthinking common people of\nJapan? Is it far from the truth to suspect that, even when accepted by\nthe Japanese courtiers and nobles, they were received, only too often,\nin a Platonic, not to say a Pickwickian, sense? The Japanese is too\npolite to say \"no\" if he can possibly say \"yes,\" even when he does not\nmean it; while the common people all over the world, as between\nmetaphysics and polytheism, choose the latter. Is it any wonder that,\nalong with this propagation of Nihilism as taught in the cloisters and\nthe court, history informs us of many scandals and much immorality\nbetween the women of the court and the Buddhist monks?\n\nSuch dogmas were not able to live in organized forms, after the next\nimportations of Buddhism which came in, not partly but wholly, under the\nname of the Mah\u0101yan\u0101 or Great Vehicle, or Northern Buddhism. By\nthe new philosophy, more concrete and able to appeal more closely to the\naverage man, these five schools, which, in their discussions, dealt\nalmost wholly with _noumena_, were absorbed. As matter of fact, none of\nthem is now in existence, nor can we trace them, speaking broadly,\nbeyond the tenth century. Here and there, indeed, may be a temple\nbearing the name of one of the sects, or grades of doctrine, and\noccasionally an eccentric individual who \"witnesses\" to the old\nmetaphysics; but these are but fossils or historical relics, and are\ngenerally regarded as such.\n\nAgainst such baldness of philosophy not only might the cultivated\nJapanese intellect revolt and react, but as yet the common people of\nJapan, despite the modern priestly boast of the care of the imperial\nrulers for what the bonzes still love to call \"the people's religion,\"\nwere but slightly touched by the Indian faith.\n\n\nThe Great Vehicle.\n\n\nThe K\u00e9gon-Shu or Avatamsaka-sutra sect, is founded on a certain teaching\nwhich Gautama is said to have promulgated in nine assemblies held at\nseven different places during the second week of his enlightenment. This\nsutra exists in no fewer than six texts, around each of which has\ngathered some interesting mythology. The first two tests were held in\nmemory and not committed to palm leaves; the second pair are secretly\npreserved in the dragon palace of Riu-gu[14] under the sea, and are not\nkept by the men of this world. The fifth text of 100,000 verses, was\nobtained by a Bodhisattva from the palace of the dragon king of the\nworld under the sea and transmitted to men in India. The sixth is the\nabridged text.\n\nIt concerns us to notice that the shorter texts were translated into\nChinese in the fourth century, and that later, other translations were\nmade--36,000 verses of the fifth text, 45,000 verses of the sixth text,\netc. When the doctrine of the sect had been perfected by the fifth\npatriarch and he lectured on the sutra, rays of white light came from\nhis mouth, and there rained wonderful heavenly flowers. In A.D. 736 a\nChinese Vinaya teacher or instructor in Buddhist discipline, named\nD\u014d-sen, first brought the K\u00e9gon scriptures to Japan. Four years later\na Korean priest gave lectures on them in the Golden-Bell Hall of the\nGreat Eastern Monastery at Nara. He completed his task of expounding the\nsixty volumes in three years. Henceforth, lecturing on this sutra became\none of the yearly services of the Eastern Great Monastery.\n\n\"The K\u00e9-gon sutra is the original book of Buddha's teachings of his\nwhole life. All his teachings therefore sprang from this sutra. If we\nattribute all the branches to the origin, we may say that there is no\nteaching of Buddha for his whole life except this sutra.\"[15] The title\nof the book, when literally translated, is\nGreat-square-wide-Buddha-flower-adornment-teaching--a title sufficiently\nindicative of its rhetoric. The age of hard or bold thinking was giving\nway to flowery diction, and the Law was to be made easy through fine\nwriting.\n\nThe burden of doctrine is the unconditioned or realistic, pantheism.\nNature absolute, or Buddha-tathata, is the essence of all things.\nEssence and form were in their origin combined and identical. Fire and\nwater, though phenomenally different, are from the point of view of\nBuddha-tathata absolutely identical. Matter and thought are one--that is\nBuddha-tathata. In teaching, especially the young, it must be remembered\nthat the mind resembles a fair page upon which the artist might trace a\ndesign, especial care being needed to prevent the impression of evil\nthoughts, in order to accomplish which one must completely and always\ndirect the mind to Buddha.[16] One notable sentence in the text is,\n\"when one first raises his thoughts toward the perfect knowledge, he at\nonce becomes fully enlightened.\"\n\nIn some parts of the metaphysical discussions of this sect we are\nreminded of European mediaeval scholasticism, especially of that\ndiscussion as to how many angels could dance on the point of a cambric\nneedle without jostling each other. It says, \"Even at the point of one\ngrain of dust, of immeasurable and unlimited worlds, there are\ninnumerable Buddhas, who are constantly preaching the K\u00e9-gon ki\u014d\n(sutra) throughout the three states of existence, past, present and\nfuture, so that the preaching is not at all to be collected.[17]\n\n\nA New Chinese Sect.\n\n\nIn its formal organization the Ten-dai sect is of Chinese origin. It is\nnamed after Tien Tai,[18] a mountain in China about fifty miles south of\nNingpo, on which the book which forms the basis of its tenets was\ncomposed by Chi-sha, now canonized as a Dai Shi or Great teacher. Its\nspecial doctrine of completion and suddenness was, however, transmitted\ndirectly from Shaka to Vairokana and thence to Maitreya, so that the\napostolical succession of its orthodoxy cannot be questioned.\n\nThe metaphysics of this sect are thought to be the most profound of the\nGreater Vehicle, combining into a system the two opposite ideas of being\nand not being. The teachers encourage all men, whether quick or slow in\nunderstanding, to exercise the principle of \"completion\" and\n\"suddenness,\" together with four doctrinal divisions, one or all of\nwhich are taught to men according to their ability. The object of the\ndoctrine is to make men get an excellent understanding, practise good\ndiscipline and attain to the great fruit of Enlightenment or\nBuddha-hood.\n\nOut of compassion, Gautama appeared in the world and preached the truth\nin several forms, according to the circumstances of time and place.\nThere are four doctrinal divisions of \"completion,\" \"secrecy,\"\n\"meditation,\" and \"moral precept,\" which are the means of knowing the\nprinciple of \"completion.\" From Gautama, Vairokana and Maitreya the\ndoctrine passed through more than twenty Buddhas elect, and arrived in\nChina on the twentieth day of the twelfth month, A.D. 401. The delivery\nto disciples was secret, and the term used for this esoteric\ntransmission means \"handed over within the tower.\"\n\nIn A.D. 805, two Japanese pilgrims went to China, and received orthodox\ntraining. With twenty others, they brought the Ten-dai doctrines into\nJapan. During this century, other Japanese disciples of the same sect\ncrossed the seas to study at Mount Tien Tai. On coming back to Japan\nthey propagated the various shades of doctrine, so that this main sect\nhas many branches. It was chiefly through these pilgrims from the West\nthat the Sanskrit letters, writing and literature were imported. In our\nday, evidences of Sanskrit learning, long since neglected and forgotten,\nare seen chiefly in the graveyards and in charms and amulets.\n\nAlthough the philosophical doctrines of Ten-dai are much the same as\nthose of the K\u00e9-gon sect, being based on pantheistic realism, and\nteaching that the Buddha-tathata or Nature absolute is the essence of\nall things, yet the Ten-dai school has striking and peculiar features of\nits own. Instead of taking some particular book or books in the canon,\nshastra, or sutra, selection or collection, as a basis, the Chinese monk\nChi-sha first mastered, and then digested the whole canon. Then\nselecting certain doctrines for emphasis he supported them by a wide\nrange of quotation, professing to give the gist of the pure teachings of\nGautama rather than those of his disciples. In practice, however, the\nSaddharma Pundarika is the book most honored by this sect; the other\nsutras being employed mainly as commentary. Furthermore, this sect makes\nas strenuous a claim for the true apostolical succession from the\nFounder, as do the other sects.\n\nThe teachers of Ten-dai doctrine must fully estimate character and\nability in their pupils, and so apportion instruction. In this respect\nand in not a few others, they are like the disciples of Loyola, and have\nproperly been called the Jesuits of Buddhism. They are ascetics, and\nteach that spiritual insight is possible only through prolonged thought.\nTheir purpose is to recognize the Buddha, in all the forms he has\nassumed in order to save mankind. Nevertheless, the highest truths are\nincomprehensible except to those who have already attained to\nBuddha-hood.[19] In contrast to the Nichirenites, who give an emotional\nand ultra-concrete interpretation and expression to the great sutra,\nHokk\u00e9 Ki\u014d, the Ten-dai teachers are excessively philosophical and\nintellectual.\n\nIn its history the Ten-dai sect has followed out its logic. Being\nrealistic in pantheism, it reverences not only Gautama the historic\nBuddha, but also, large numbers of the Hindu deities, the group of idols\ncalled Jiz\u014d, the god Fudo, and Kuannon the god or goddess of mercy,\nunder his or her protean forms. In its early history this sect welcomed\nto its pantheon the Shint\u014d gods, who, according to the scheme of\nRiy\u014dbu Shint\u014d, were declared to be avatars or manifestations of\nBuddha. The three sub-sects still differ in their worship of the avatars\nselected as supreme deities, but their philosophy enables them to sweep\nin the Buddhas of every age and clime, name and nation. Many other\npersonifications are found honored in the Ten-dai temples. At the\ngateways may usually be seen the colossal painted and hideous images of\nthe two Devas or kings (Ni-O). These worthies are none other than Indra\nand Brahma of the old Vedic mythology.\n\nSpace and time--which seem never to fail the Buddhists in their\nliterature--would fail us to describe this sect in full, or to show in\ndetail its teachings, wherein are wonderful resemblances to European\nideas and facts--in philosophy, to Hegel and Spinoza find in history, to\nJesuitism. Nor can we stay to point out the many instances in which,\ninvading the domain of politics, the Ten-dai abbots with their armies of\nmonks, having made their monasteries military arsenals and issuing forth\nclad in armor as infantry and cavalry, have turned the scale of battle\nor dictated policies to emperors. Like the Praetorian guard of Rome or\nthe clerical militia in Spain, these men of keen intellect have left\ntheir marks deep upon the social and political history of the country in\nwhich they dwelt. They have understood thoroughly the art of practising\nreligion for the sake of revenue. To secure their ends, priests have\nmade partnerships with other sects; in order to hold Shint\u014d shrines,\nthey have married to secure heirs and make office hereditary; and\nfinally in the Purification of 1870, when the Riy\u014dbu system was blown\nto the winds by the Japanese Government, not a few priests of this sect\nbecame laymen, in order to keep both office and emolument in the\npurified Shint\u014d shrines.\n\n\nThe Sect of the True Word.\n\n\nIt is probable that the conquest and obliteration of Shint\u014d might\nhave been accomplished by some priest or priests of the Ten-dai sect,\nhad such a genius as K\u014db\u014d been found in its household; but this\ngreat achievement was reserved for the man who introduced into Japan the\nShin-gon Shu, or Sect of the True Word. The term _gon_ is the equivalent\nof Mantra,[20] a Sanskrit term meaning word, but in later use referring\nto the mystic salutations addressed to the Buddhist gods. \"The doctrine\nof this sect is a great secret law. It teaches us that we can attain to\nthe state of the 'Great Enlightened,' that is the state of 'Buddha,'\nwhile in the present physical body, which was born of our parents (and\nwhich consists of six elements,[21] Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ether, and\nKnowledge), if we follow the three great secret laws, regarding Body,\nSpeech, and Thought.\"[22]\n\nThe history of the transmission of the doctrine from the greatest of the\nspirit-bodied Buddhas to the historic founder, Vagrabodhi, is carefully\ngiven. The latter was a man very learned in regard to many doctrines of\nBuddhism and other religious, and was especially well acquainted with\nthe deepest meaning of the doctrine of this sect, which he taught in\nIndia for a considerable time. The doctrine is recorded in several\nsutras, yet the essential point is nothing but the Mandala, or circle of\nthe two parts, or, in Japanese, Riy\u014dbu.\n\nThe great preacher, Vagrabodhi, in 720 A.D., came with his disciples to\nthe capital of China, and translated the sacred books, seventy-seven in\nnumber. This doctrine is the well-known Yoga-chara, which has been well\nset forth by Doctor Edkins in his scholarly volume on Chinese Buddhism.\nAs \"yoga\" becomes in plain English \"yoke,\" and as \"mantra\" is from the\nsame root as \"man\" and \"mind,\" we have no difficulty in recognizing the\noriginal meaning of these terms; the one in its nobler significance\nreferring to union with Buddha or Gnosis, and the other to the thought\ntaking lofty expression or being debased to hocus-pocus in charm or\namulet. Like the history of so many Sanskrit words as now uttered in\nevery-day English speech, the story of the word mantra forms a picture\nof mental processes and apparently of the degradation of thought, or, as\nsome will doubtless say, of the decay of religion. The term mantra meant\nfirst, a thought; then thought expressed; then a Vedic hymn or text;\nnext a spell or charm. Such have been the later associations, in India,\nChina and Japan with the term mantra.\n\nThe burden of the philosophy of the Shin-gon, looked at from one point\nof view, is mysticism, and from another, pantheism. One of the forms of\nBuddha is the principle of everything. There are ten stages of thought,\nand there are two parts, \"lengthwise\" and \"crosswise\" or exoteric and\nesoteric. Other doctrines of Buddhism represent the first, or exoteric\nstage; and those of the Shin-gon or true word, the second, or esoteric.\nThe primordial principle is identical with that of Maha-Vairokana, one\nof the forms[23] of Buddha. The body, the word and the thought are the\nthree mysteries, which being found in all beings, animate and inanimate,\nare to be fully understood only by Buddhas, and not by ordinary men.\n\nTo show the actual method of intellectual procedure in order to reach\nBuddha-hood, many categories, tables and diagrams are necessary; but the\ncrowning tenet, most far reaching in its practical influence, is the\nteaching that it is possible to reach the state of Buddha-hood in this\npresent body.\n\nAs discipline for the attainment of excellence along the path marked out\nin the \"Mantra sect,\" there are three mystic rites: (1) worshipping the\nBuddha with the hand in certain positions called signs; (2) repeating\nDharani, or mystic formulas; (3) contemplation.\n\nK\u014db\u014d himself and all those who imitated him, practised fasting in\norder to clear the spiritual eyesight. The thinking-chairs, so\nconspicuous in many old monasteries, though warmed at intervals through\nthe ages by the living bodies of men absorbed in contemplation, are\nrarely much worn by the sitters, because almost absolute cessation of\nmotion characterizes the long and hard thinkers of the Shin-gon\nphilosophers. The idols in the Shin-gon temples represent many a saint\nand disciple, who, by perseverance in what a critic of Buddhism calls\n\"mind-murder,\" and the use of mystic finger twistings and magic\nformulas, has won either the Nirvana or the penultimate stage of the\nBodhisattva.\n\nIn the sermons and discourses of Shin-gon, the subtle points of an\nargument are seized and elaborated. These are mystical on the one side,\nand pantheistic on the other. It is easily seen how Buddha, being in\nJapanese gods as well as men, and no being without Buddha, the way is\nmade clear for that kind of a marriage between Buddhism and Shint\u014d,\nin which the two become one, and that one, as to revenue and advantage,\nBuddhism.\n\n\nTruth Made Apparent by One's Own Thought.\n\n\nThe Japanese of to-day often speak of these seven religious bodies which\nwe have enumerated and described, as \"the old sects,\" because much of\nthe philosophy, and many of the forms and prayers, are common to all,\nor, more accurately speaking, are popularly supposed to be; while the\npriests, being celibates, refrain from sak\u00e9, flesh and fish, and from\nall intimate relations with women. Yet, although these sects are\nconsidered to be more or less conformable to the canon of the Greater\nVehicle, and while the last three certainly introduce many of its\ncharacteristic features--one sect teaching that Buddha-hood could be\nobtained even in the present body of flesh and blood--yet the idea of\nParadise had not been exploited or emphasized. This new gospel was to be\nintroduced into Japan by the J\u014d-d\u014d Shu or Sect of the Pure Land.\n\nBefore detailing the features of J\u014d-d\u014d, we call attention to the\nfact that in Japan the propagation of the old sects was accompanied by\nan excessive use of idols, images, pictures, sutras, shastras and all\nthe furniture thought necessary in a Buddhist temple. The course of\nthought and action in the Orient is in many respects similar to that in\nthe Occident. In western lands, with the ebb and flow of religious\nsentiment, the iconolater has been followed by the iconoclast, and the\novercrowded cathedrals have been purged by the hammer and fire of the\nProtestant and Puritan. So in Japan we find analogous, though not\nexactly similar, reactions. The rise and prosperity of the believers in\nthe Zen dogmas, which in their early history used sparingly the eikon,\nidol and sutra, give some indication of protest against too much use of\nexternals in religion. May we call them the Quakers of Japanese\nBuddhism? Certainly, theirs was a movement in the direction of\nsimplicity.\n\nThe introduction of the Zen, or contemplative sect, did, in a sense,\nboth precede and follow that of Shingon. The word Zen is a shortened\nform of the term Zenna, which is a transliteration into Chinese of the\nSanskrit word Dhyana, or contemplation. It teaches that the truth is not\nin tradition or in books, but in one's self. Emphasis is laid on\nintrospection rather than on language. \"Look carefully within and there\nyou will find the Buddha,\" is its chief tenet. In the Zen monasteries,\nthe chair of contemplation is, or ought to be, always in use.\n\nThe Zen Shu movement may be said to have arisen out of a reaction\nagainst the multiplication of idols. It indicated a return to simpler\nforms of worship and conduct. Let us inquire how this was.\n\nIt may be said that Buddhism, especially Northern Buddhism, is a vast,\ncomplicated system. It has a literature and a sacred canon which one can\nthink of only in connection with long trains of camels to carry, or\nfreight trains to transport, or ships a good deal bigger than the\nMayflower to import. Its multitudinous rules and systems of discipline\nappall the spirit and weary the flesh even to enumerate them; so that,\nfrom one point of view, the making of new sects is a necessity. These\nare labor-saving inventions. They are attempts to reduce the great bulk\nof scriptures to manageable proportions. They seek to find, as it were,\nthe mother-liquor of the great ocean, so as to express the truth in a\ncrystal. Hence the endeavors to simplify, to condense; here, by a\nselection of sutras, rather than the whole collection; there, by\nemphasis on a single feature and a determination to put the whole thing\nin a form which can be grasped, either by the elect few or by the people\nat large.\n\nThe Zen sect did this in a more rational way than that set forth as\northodox by later priestcraft, which taught that to the believer who\nsimply turned round the revolving library containing the canon, the\nmerit of having read it all would be imputed. The rin-z\u014d[24] found\nnear the large temples,--the cunning invention of a Chinese priest in\nthe sixth century,--soon became popular in Japan. The great wooden\nbook-case turning on a pivot contains 6,771 volumes, that being the\nnumber of canonical volumes enumerated in China and Japan.\n\nThe Zen sect teaches that, besides all the doctrines of the Greater and\nthe Lesser Vehicles, whether hidden or apparent, there is one distinct\nline of transmission of a secret doctrine which is not subject to any\nutterance at all. According to their tenet of contemplation, one is to\nsee directly the key to the thought of Buddha by his own thought, thus\nfreeing himself from the multitude of different doctrines--the number of\nwhich is said to be eighty-four thousand. In fact, Zen Shu or \"Dhyana\nsect\" teaches the short method of making truth apparent by one's own\nthought, apart from the writings.\n\nThe story of the transmission of the true Zen doctrine is this:\n\n    \"When the blessed Shaka was at the assembly on Vulture's Peak,\n    there came the heavenly king, who offered the Buddha a\n    golden-colored flower and asked him to preach the law. The\n    Blessed One simply took the flower and held it in his hand, but\n    said no word. No one in the whole assembly could tell what he\n    meant. The venerable Mahahasyapa alone smiled. Than the Blessed\n    One said to him, 'I have the wonderful thought of Nirvana, the\n    eye of the Right Law, which I shall now give to you.'[25] Thus\n    was ushered in the doctrine of thought transmitted by thought.\"\n\nAfter twenty-eight patriarchs had taught the doctrine of contemplation,\nthe last came into China in A.D. 520, and tried to teach the Emperor the\nsecret key of Buddha's thought. This missionary Bodhidharma was the\nthird son of a king of the Kashis, in Southern India, and the historic\noriginal of the tobacconist's shop-sign in Japan, who is known as\nDaruma. The imperial Chinaman was not yet able to understand the secret\nkey of Buddha's thought. So the Hindu missionary went to the monastery\non Mount Su, where in meditation, he sat down cross-legged with his face\nto a wall, for nine years, by which time, says the legend, his legs had\nrotted off and he looked like a snow-image. During that period, people\ndid not know him, and called him simply the Wall-gazing Brahmana.\nAfterward he had a number of disciples, but they had different views\nthat are called the transmissions of the skin, flesh, or bone of the\nteacher. Only one of them got the whole body of his teachings. Two great\nsects were formed: the Northern, which was undivided, and the Southern,\nwhich branched off into five houses and seven schools. The Northern Sect\nwas introduced into Japan by a Chinese priest in 729 A.D., while the\nSouthern was not brought over until the twelfth century. In both it is\ntaught that perfect tranquillity of body and mind is essential to\nsalvation. The doctrine is the most sublime one, of thought transmitted\nby thought being entirely independent of any letters or words. Another\nname for them is, \"The Sect whose Mind Assimilates with Buddha,\" direct\nfrom whom it claims to have received its articles of faith.\n\nToo often this idea of Buddhaship, consisting of absolute freedom from\nmatter and thought, means practically mind-murder, and the emptiness of\nidle reverie.\n\nContrasting modern reality with their ancient ideal, it must be\nconfessed that in practice there is not a little letter worship and a\ngood deal of pedantry; for, in all the teachings of abstract principles\nby the different sects, there are endless puns or plays upon words in\nthe renderings of Chinese characters. This arises from that antithesis\nof extreme poverty in sounds with amazing luxuriance in written\nexpression, which characterizes both the Chinese and Japanese languages.\n\nIn the temples we find that the later deities introduced into the\nBuddhist pantheon are here also welcome, and that the triads or groups\nof three precious ones, the \"Buddhist trinity,\" so-called,[26] are\nsurrounded by gods of Chinese or Japanese origin. The Zen sect,\naccording to its professions and early history, ought to be indifferent\nto worldly honors and emoluments, and indeed many of its devotees are.\nIts history, however, shows how poorly mortals live up to their\nprinciples and practise what they preach. Furthermore, these professors\nof peace and of the joys of the inner life in the S\u014d-t\u014d or\nsub-sect have made the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of Meiji, or\nA.D. 1893 and 1894, famous and themselves infamous by their\nlong-continued and scandalous intestine quarrels. Of the three\nsub-sects, those called Rin-zai and S\u014d-t\u014d, take their names from\nChinese monks of the ninth century; while the third, O-baku, founded in\nJapan in the seventeenth century, is one of the latest importations of\nChinese Buddhistic thought in the Land of the Rising Sun.\n\nJapanese authors usually classify the first six denominations at which\nwe have glanced, some of which are phases of thought rather than\norganizations, as \"the ancient sects.\" Ten-dai and Shin-gon are \"the\nmedieval sects.\" The remaining four, of which we shall now treat, and\nwhich are more particularly Japanese in spirit and development, are \"the\nmodern sects.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE\n\n    \"A drop of spray cast by the infinite\n    I hung an instant there, and threw my ray\n    To make the rainbow. A microcosm I\n    Reflecting all. Then back I fell again,\n    And though I perished not, I was no more.\"--\n    The Pantheist's Epitaph.\n\n    \"Buddhism is essentially a religion of compromise.\"\n\n    \"Where Christianity has One Lord, Buddhism has a dozen.\"\n\n    \"I think I may safely challenge the Buddhist priesthood to give\n    a plain historical account of the Life of Amida, Kwannon,\n    Dainichi, or any other Mah\u0101y\u0101na Buddha, without being in\n    serious danger of forfeiting my stakes.\"\n\n    \"Christianity openly puts this Absolute Unconditioned Essence in\n    the forefront of its teaching. In Buddhism this absolute\n    existence is only put forward, when the logic of circumstances\n    compels its teachers to have recourse to it.\"--A. Lloyd, in The\n    Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene creed.\n\n    \"Now these six characters, 'Na-mu-A-mi-da-Butsu,' Zend-\u014d has\n    explained as follows: 'Namn' means [our] following His\n    behest--and also [His] uttering the Prayer and bestowing [merit]\n    upon us. 'Amida Butsu' is the practice of this, consequently by\n    this means a certainty of salvation is attained.\"\n\n    \"By reason of the conferring on us sentient creators of this\n    great goodness and great merit through the utterance of the\n    Prayer, and the bestowal [by Amida] the evil Karma and [effect\n    of the] passions accumulated through the long Kalpas, since when\n    there was no beginning, are in a moment annihilated, and in\n    consequence, those passions and evil Karma of ours all\n    disappearing, we live already in the condition of the steadfast,\n    who do not return [to revolve in the cycle of Birth and\n    Death].\"--Renny\u014d of the Shin sect, 1473.\n\n    \"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and\n    the Word was God.\"--John.\n\n    \"The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness,\n    neither shadow of turning.\"--James.\n\n\nCHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE\n\nThe Western Paradise.\n\n\nWe cannot take space to show how, or how much, or whether at all,\nBuddhism was affected by Christianity, though it probably was. Suffice\nit to say that the J\u014d-d\u014d Shu, or Sect of the Pure Land, was the\nfirst of the many denominations in Buddhism which definitely and clearly\nset forth that especial peculiarity of Northern Buddhism, the Western\nParadise. The school of thought which issued in J\u014d-d\u014d Shu was\nfounded by the Hindoo, Memio. In A.D. 252 an Indian scholar, learned in\nthe Tripitaka, came to China, and translated one of the great sutras,\ncalled Amitayus. This sutra gives a history of Tathagata Amitabha,[1]\nfrom the first spiritual impulses which led him to the attainment of\nBuddha-hood in remote Kalpas down to the present time, when he dwells in\nthe Western World, called the Happy, where he receives all living beings\nfrom every direction, helping them to turn away from confusion and to\nbecome enlightened.[2] The apocalyptic twentieth chapter of the Hokk\u00e9\nKi\u014d is a glorification of the transcendent power of the Tathagatas,\nexpressed in flamboyant oriental rhetoric.\n\nWe have before called attention to the fact that, with the\nmultiplication of sutras or the Sacred Canon and the vast increase of\nthe apparatus of Buddhism as well as of the hardships of brain and body\nto be undergone in order to be a Buddhist, it was absolutely necessary\nthat some labor-saving system should be devised by which the burden\ncould be borne. Now, as a matter of fact, all sects claim to found their\ndoctrine on Buddha or his work. According to the teaching of certain\nsects, the means of salvation are to be found in the study of the whole\ncanon, and in the practice of asceticism and meditation. On the\ncontrary, the new lights of Buddhism who came as missionaries into\nChina, protested against this expenditure of so much mental and physical\nenergy. One of the first Chinese propagators of the J\u014d-d\u014d doctrine\ndeclared that it was impossible, owing to the decay of religion in his\nown age, for anyone to be saved in this way by his own efforts. Hence,\ninstead of the noble eight-fold path of primitive Buddhism, or of the\ncomplicated system of the later Buddhistic Phariseeism of India, he\nsubstituted for the difficult road to Nirvana, a simple faith in the\nall-saving power of Amida. In one of the sutras it is taught, that if a\nman keeps in his memory the name of Amida one day, or seven days, the\nBuddha together with Buddhas elect, will meet him at the moment of his\ndeath, in order to let him be born in the Pure Land, and that this\nmatter has been equally approved by all other Buddhas of ten different\ndirections.\n\nOne of the sutras, translated in China during the fifth century,\ncontains the teaching of Buddha, which he delivered to the wife of the\nKing of Magudha, who on account of the wickedness of her son was feeling\nweary of this world. He showed her how she might be born into the Pure\nLand. Three paths of good actions were pointed out. Toward the end of\nthe particular sutra which he advised her to read and recite, Buddha\nsays: \"Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought,\nand repeat the formula, of the adoration of Amida.\" \"This practice,\"\nadds the Japanese exegete and historian, \"is the most excellent of all.\"\n\nHow well this latter teaching is practised may be demonstrated when one\ngoes into a Buddhist temple of the J\u014d-d\u014d sect in Japan, and hears\nthe constant refrain,--murmured by the score or more of listeners to the\nsermon, or swelling like the roar of the ocean's waves, on festival\ndays, when thousands sit on the mats beneath the fretted roof to enjoy\nthe exposition of doctrine--\"Namu Amida Butsu\"--\"Glory to the Eternal\nBuddha!\"[3]\n\nThe apostolical succession or transmission through the patriarchs and\napostles of India and China, is well known and clearly stated, withal\nduly accredited and embellished with signs and wonders, in the\nhistorical literature of the J\u014d-d\u014d sect. In Buddhism, as in\nChristianity, the questions relating to True Churchism, High Churchism,\nthe succession of the apostles, teachers and rulers, and the validity of\nthis or that method of ordination, form a large part of the literature\nof controversy. Nevertheless, as in the case of many a Christian sect\nwhich calls itself the only true church, the date of the organization of\nJ\u014d-d\u014d was centuries later than that of the Founder and apostles of\nthe original faith. Five hundred years after Zen-d\u014d (A.D. 600-650),\nthe great propagator of the J\u014d-d\u014d philosophy, H\u014d-nen, the\nfounder of the J\u014d-d\u014d sect, was born; and this phase of organized\nBuddhism, like that of Shin Shu and Nichirer Shu, may be classed under\nthe head of Eastern or Japanese Buddhism.\n\nWhen only nine years of age, the boy afterward called H\u014d-nen, was\nconverted by his father's dying words. He went to school in his native\nprovince, but his priest-teacher foreseeing his greatness, sent him to\nthe monastery of Hiy\u00e9izan, near Ki\u014dto. The boy's letter of\nintroduction contained only these words: \"I send you an image of the\nBodhisattva, (Mon-ju) Manjusri.\" The boy shaved his head and received\nthe precepts of the Ten-dai sect, but in his eighteenth year, waiving\nthe prospect of obtaining the headship of the great denomination, he\nbuilt a hut in the Black Ravine and there five times read through the\nfive thousand volumes[4] of the Tripitaka. He did this for the purpose\nof finding out, for the ordinary and ignorant people of the present day,\nhow to escape from misery. He studied Zen-d\u014d's commentary, and\nrepeated his examination eight times. At last, he noticed a passage in\nit beginning with the words, \"Chiefly remember or repeat the name of\nAmida with a whole and undivided heart.\" Then he at once understood the\nthought of Zen-d\u014d, who taught in his work that whoever at any time\npractises to remember Buddha, or calls his name even but once, will gain\nthe right effect of going to be born in the Pure Land after death. This\nJapanese student then abandoned all sorts of practices which he had\nhitherto followed for years, and began to repeat the name of Amida\nBuddha sixty thousand times a day. This event occurred in A.D. 1175.\n\n\nH\u014d-nen, Founder of the Pure Land Sect.\n\n\nThis path-finder to the Pure Land, who developed a special doctrine of\nsalvation, is best known by his posthumous title of H\u014d-nen. During\nhis lifetime he was very famous and became the spiritual preceptor of\nthree Mikados. After his death his biography was compiled in forty-eight\nvolumes by imperial order, and later, three other emperors copied or\nrepublished it. In the history of Japan this sect has been one of the\nmost influential, especially with the imperial and sh\u014dgunal families.\nIn Ki\u014dto the magnificent temples and monasteries of Chi\u014dn-in, and\nin T\u014dki\u014d Z\u014d-j\u014d-ji, are the chief seats of the two principal\ndivisions of this sect. The gorgeous mausoleums,--well known to every\nforeign tourist,--at Shiba and Uy\u00e9no in T\u014dki\u014d, and the clustered\nand matchless splendors of Nikk\u014d, belong to this sect, which has been\nunder the patronage of the illustrious line of the Tokugawa,[5] while\nits temples and shrines are numbered by many thousands.\n\nThe doctrine of the J\u014d-d\u014d, or the Pure Land Sect, is easily\ndiscerned. One of Buddha's disciples said, that in the teachings of the\nMaster there are two divisions or vehicles. In the Maha-yana also there\nare two gates; the Holy path, and the Pure Land. The Smaller Vehicle is\nthe doctrine by which the immediate disciples of Buddha and those for\nfive hundred years succeeding, practised the various virtues and\ndiscipline. The gateway of the Maha-yana is also the doctrine, by which\nin addition to the trainings mentioned, there are also understood the\nthree virtues of spiritual body, wisdom and deliverance. The man who is\nable successfully to complete this course of discipline and practice is\nno ordinary person, but is supposed to possess merit produced from good\nactions performed in a former state of existence. The doctrine by which\nman may do so, is called the gate of the Holy Path.\n\nDuring the fifteen hundred years after Buddha there were from time to\ntime, such personages in the world, who attained the end of the Holy\nPath; but in these latter days people are more insincere, covetous and\ncontentious, and the discipline is too hard for degenerate times and\nmen. The three trainings already spoken of are the correct causes of\ndeliverance; but if people think them as useless as last year's almanac,\nwhen can they complete their deliverance? H\u014d-nen, deeply meditating\non this, shut up the gate of the Holy Path and opened that of the Pure\nLand; for in the former the effective deliverance is expected in this\nworld by the three trainings of morality, thought and learning, but in\nthe latter the great fruit of going to be born in the Pure Land after\ndeath, is expected through the sole practice of repeating Buddha's name.\n\nMoreover, it is not easy to accomplish the cause and effect of the Holy\nPath, but both those of the doctrine of the Pure Land are very easy to\nbe completed. The difference is like that between travelling by land and\ntravelling by water.[6] The doctrines preached by the Buddha are\neighty-four thousand in number; that is to say, he taught one kind of\npeople one system, that of the Holy Path, and another kind that of the\nPure Land. The Pure Land doctrine of H\u014d-nen was derived from the\nsutra preached by the great teacher Shaka.\n\nThis simple doctrine of \"land travel to Paradise\" was one which the\npeople of Japan could easily understand, and it became amazingly\npopular. Salvation along this route is a case of being \"carried to the\nskies on flowery beds of ease, while others sought to win the prize and\nsailed through bloody seas.\"\n\nLargely through the influence of J\u014d-d\u014d Shu and of those sects most\nclosely allied to it, the technical terms, peculiar phraseology and\nvocabulary of Buddhism became part of the daily speech of the Japanese.\nWhen one studies their language he finds that it is a complicated\norganism, including within itself several distinct systems. Just as the\nhuman body harmonizes within itself such vastly differing organized\nfunctions as the osseous, digestive, respiratory, etc., so, embedded in\nwhat is called the Japanese language, there are, also, a Chinese\nvocabulary, a polite vernacular, one system of expression for superiors,\nanother for inferiors, etc. Last of all, there is, besides a peculiar\nsystem of pronunciation taught by the priests, a Buddhist language,\nwhich suggests a firmament of starry and a prairie of flowery metaphors,\nwith intermediate deeps of space full of figurative expressions.\n\nIn our own mother tongue we have something similar. The dialect of\nCanaan, the importations of Judaism, the irruptions of Hebraic idioms,\nphrases and names into Puritanism, and the ejaculations of the\ncamp-meeting, which vein and color our English speech, may give some\nidea of the variegated strains which make up the Japanese language.\nFurther, the peculiar nomenclature of the Fifth Monarchy men, is fully\nparalleled in the personal names of priests and even of laymen in Japan.\n\n\nCharacteristics of the J\u014d-d\u014d Sect.\n\n\nH\u014d-nen teaches that the solution of abstract questions and doctrinal\ncontroversies is not needed as means of grace to promote the work of\nsalvation. Whether the priests and their followers were learned and\ndevout, or the contrary, mattered little as regards the final result, as\nall that is necessary is the continual repetition of the prayer to\nAmida.\n\nIt may be added that his followers practise the master's precepts with\nemphasis. Their incessant pounding upon wooden fish-drums and\nbladder-shaped bells during their public exercises, is as noisy as a\nfrontier camp-meeting. The rosary is a notable feature in the private\ndevotions of the Buddhists, but the J\u014d-d\u014d sect makes especial use\nof the double rosary, which was invented with the idea of being\nmanipulated by the left hand only; this gave freedom to the right hand,\n\"facilitating a happy combination of spiritual and secular duty.\" At\nfunerals of believers a particular ceremony was exclusively practised by\nthis sect, at which the friends of the deceased sat in a circle facing\nthe priest, making as many repetitions as possible.[7]\n\nIn Mohammedan countries, blind men, who cannot look down into the\nsurrounding gardens or house tops at the pretty women in or on them, but\nwho have clear and penetrating voices, are often chosen us muezzins to\nutter the call to prayer from the minarets. On much the same principle,\nin Old Japan, J\u014d-d\u014d priests, blind to metaphysics, but handsome,\nelegantly dressed and with fine delivery, went about the streets singing\nand intoning prayers, rich presents being made to them, especially by\nthe ladies. The J\u014d-d\u014d people cultivate art and aesthetic\nornamentation to a notable degree. They also understand the art of\nfictitious and sensational miracle-mongering. It is said that Zen-d\u014d,\nthe famous Chinese founder of this Chinese sect, when writing his\ncommentary, prayed for a wonderful exhibition of supernatural power.\nThereupon, a being arrayed as a priest of dignified presence gave him\ninstruction on the division of the text in his first volume. Hence\nZen-d\u014d treats his own work as if it were the work of Buddha, and says\nthat no one is allowed either to add or to take away even a word or\nsentence of the book.\n\nThe Pure Land is the western world where Amida lives. It is perfectly\npure and free from faults. Those who wish to go thither will certainly\nbe re-born there, but otherwise they will not. This world, on the\ncontrary, is the effect of the action of all beings, so that even those\nwho do not wish to be born here are nevertheless obliged to come. This\nworld is called the Path of Pain, because it is full of all sorts of\npains, such as birth, old age, disease, death, etc. This is therefore a\nworld not to be attached to, but to be estranged and separated from. One\nwho is disgusted with this world, and who is filled with desire for that\nworld, will after death be born there. Not to doubt about these words of\nBuddha, even in the slightest degree, is called deep faith; but if one\nentertains the least doubts he will not be born there. Hence the saying:\n\"In the great sea of the law of Buddha, faith is the only means to\nenter.\"\n\n\nSalvation Through the Merits of Another.\n\n\nIn this absolute trust in the all-saving power of Amida as compared with\nthe ways promulgated before, we see the emergence of the Buddhist\ndoctrine of justification by faith, the simplification of theology, and\na revolt against Buddhist scholasticism. The Japanese technical term,\n\"_tariki_,\" or relying upon the strength of another, renouncing all idea\nof _ji-riki_ or self-power,[8] is the substance of the J\u014d-d\u014d\ndoctrine; but the expanded term _ta-riki chin no ji-riki_, or\n\"self-effort depending on another,\" while expressing the whole dogma, is\nrather scornfully applied to the J\u014d-d\u014dists by the men of the Shin\nsect. The invocation of Amida is a meritorious act of the believer, much\nrepetition being the substance of this combination of personal and\nvicarious work.\n\nH\u014d-nen, after making his discovery, believing it possible for all\nmankind eventually to attain to perfect Buddhaship, left, as we have\nseen, the Ten-dai sect, which represented particularism and laid\nemphasis on the idea of the elect. H\u014d-nen taught Buddhist\nuniversalism. Belief and repetition of prayer secure birth into the Pure\nLand after the death of the body, and then the soul moves onward toward\nthe perfection of Buddha-hood.\n\nThe Japanese were delighted to have among them a genius who could thus\nJapanize Buddhism, and J\u014d-d\u014d doctrine went forth conquering and to\nconquer. From the twelfth century, the tendency of Japanese Buddhism is\nin the direction of universalism and democracy. In later developments of\nJ\u014d-d\u014d, the pantheistic tendencies are emphasized and the\nsyncretistic powers are enlarged. While mysticism is a striking feature\nof the sect and the attainment of truth is by the grace of Amida, yet\nthe native Kami of Japan are logically accepted as avatars of Buddha.\nHistory had little or no rights in the case; philosophy was dictator,\nand that philosophy was H\u014d-nen's. Those later Chinese deities made by\npersonifying attributes or abstract ideas, which sprang up after the\nintroduction of Buddhism into China, are also welcomed into the temples\nof this sect. That the common people really believe that they themselves\nmay attain Buddha-hood at death, and enter the Pure Land, is shown in\nthe fact that their ordinary expression for the dead saint is Hotok\u00e9--a\ngeneral term for all the gods that were once human. Some popular\nproverbs indicate this in a form that easily lends itself to irreverence\nand merriment.\n\nThe whole tendency of Japanese Buddhism and its full momentum were now\ntoward the development of doctrine even to startling proportions.\nInstead of the ancient path of asceticism and virtue with agnosticism\nand atheism, we see the means of salvation put now, and perhaps too\neasily, within the control of all. The pathway to Paradise was made not\nonly exceedingly plain, but also extremely easy, perhaps even\nridiculously so; while the door was open for an outburst of new and\nlocal doctrines unknown to India, or even to China. The rampant vigor\nwith which Japanese Buddhism began to absorb everything in heaven, earth\nand sea, which it could make a worshipable object or cause to stand as a\nKami or deity to the mind, will be seen as we proceed. The native\nproverb, instead of being an irreverent joke, stands for an actual\ntruth--\"Even a sardine's head may become an object of worship.\"\n\n\n\"Reformed\" Buddhism.\n\n\nWe now look at what foreigners call \"Reformed\" Buddhism, which some even\nimagine has been borrowed from Protestant Christianity--notwithstanding\nthat it is centuries older than the Reformation in Europe.\n\nThe Shin Shu or True Sect, though really founded on the J\u014d-d\u014d\ndoctrines, is separate from the sect of the Pure Land. Yet, besides\nbeing called the Shin Shu, it is also spoken of as the J\u014d-d\u014d Shin\nShu or the True Sect of the Pure Land. It is the extreme form of the\nProtestantism of Buddhism. It lays emphasis on the idea of salvation\nwholly through the merits of another, but it also paints in richer tints\nthe sensuous delights of the Western Paradise. As the term Pure Land is\nantithetical to that of the Holy Path, so the word Shin, or True,\nexpresses the contrary of what are termed the \"temporary expedients.\"\n\nWhile some say that we should practise good works, bring our stock of\nmerits to maturity, and be born in the Pure Land, others say that we\nneed only repeat the name of Amida in order to be born in the Pure Land,\nby the merit produced from such repetition. These doctrines concerning\nrepetitions, however, are all considered but \"temporary expedients.\" So\nalso is the rigid classification, so prominent in \"the old sects,\" of\nall beings or pupils into three grades. As in Islam or Calvinism, all\nbelievers stand on a level. To Shin-ran the Radical, the practices even\nof J\u014d-d\u014d seemed complicated and difficult, and all that appeared\nnecessary to him was faith in the desire of Amida to bless and save. To\nShinran,[9] faith was the sole saving act.\n\nTo rely upon the power of the Original Prayer of Amitabha Buddha with\nthe whole heart and give up all idea of _ji-riki_ or self-power, is\ncalled the truth. This truth is the doctrine of this sect of Shin.[10]\nIn a word, not synergism, not faith _and_ works, but faith only is the\nteaching of Shin Shu.\n\nShinran, the founder of this sect in Japan, was born A.D. 1173 and died\nin the year 1262. He was very naturally one who had been first educated\nin the J\u014d-d\u014d sect, then the ruling one at the imperial court in\nKi\u014dto. Shall we call him a Japanese Luther, because of his insistence\non salvation by faith only? He is popularly believed to have been\ndescended from one of the Shint\u014d gods, being on his father's side the\ntwenty-first in the line of generation. On his mother's side he was of\nthe lineage of the Minamoto or Genji, a clan sprung from Mikados and\nfamous during centuries for its victorious warriors. H\u014d-nen was his\nteacher, and like his teacher, Shinran studied at the great monastery\nnear Ki\u014dto, learning first the doctrine of the Tendai, and then, at\nthe age of twenty-nine, receiving from H\u014d-nen the tenets of the\nJ\u014d-d\u014d sect. Shortly after, at thirty years of age, he began to\npromulgate his doctrines. Then he took a step as new to Buddhism, as was\nLuther's union with Katharine von Bora, to the ecclesiasticism of his\ntime. He married a lady of the imperial court, named Tamayori, who was\nthe daughter of the Kuambaku or premier.\n\nShinran thus taught by example, if not formally and by written precept,\nthat marriage was honorable, and that celibacy was an invention of the\npriests not warranted by primitive Buddhism. Penance, fasting,\nprescribed diet, pilgrimages, isolation from society whether as hermits\nor in the cloister, and generally amulets and charms, are all tabooed by\nthis sect. Monasteries imposing life-vows are unknown within its pale.\nFamily life takes the place of monkish seclusion. Devout prayer, purity,\nearnestness of life and trust in Buddha himself as the only worker of\nperfect righteousness, are insisted upon. Morality is taught to be more\nimportant than orthodoxy.\n\nIn practice, the Shin sect even more than the J\u014d-d\u014d, teaches that\nit is faith in Buddha, which accomplishes the salvation of the believer.\nInstead of waiting for death in order to come under the protection of\nAmida, the faithful soul is at once received into the care of the\nBoundlessly Compassionate. In a word, the Shin sect believes in\ninstantaneous conversion and sanctification. Between the Roman and the\nReformed soteriology of Christendom, was Melancthonism or the\nco\u014dperate union of the divine and the human will. So, the old\nBuddhism prior to Shinran taught a phase of synergism, or the union of\nfaith and works. Shinran, in his \"Reformed\" Buddhism, taught the\nsimplicity of faith.\n\nSo also _in_ regard to the sacred writings, Shinran opposed the San-ron\nschool and the three-grade idea. The scriptures of other sects are in\nSanskrit and Chinese, which only the learned are able to read. The\nspecial writings of Shinran are in the vernacular. Three of the sutras,\nalso, have been translated into Japanese and expressed in the kana\nscript. Singleness of purpose characterised this sect, which was often\ncalled Monto, or followers of the gate, in reference to its unity of\norganization, and the opening of the way to all by Shinran and the\ndoctrine taught by him. Yet, lest the gate might seem too broad, the\nShin teachers insist that morality is as important as faith, and indeed\nthe proof of it. The high priests of Shin Shu have ever held a high\nposition and wielded vast influence in the religious development of the\npeople. While the temples of other sects are built in sequestered places\namong the hills, those of Shin Shu are erected in the heart of cities,\non the main streets, and at the centres of population,--the priests\nusing every means within their power to induce the people to come to\nthem. The altars are on an imposing scale of magnificence and gorgeous\ndetail. No Roman Catholic church or cathedral can outshine the splendor\nof these temples, in which the way to the Western Paradise is made so\nclear and plain. Another name for the sect is Ikko.\n\nAfter the death of Shinran, his youngest daughter and one of his\ngrandsons erected a monastery near his tomb in the eastern suburbs of\nKi\u014dto, to which the Mikado gave the title of Hon-guanji, or Monastery\nof the Original Vow. This was in allusion to the vow made by Amida, that\nhe would not accept Buddhaship except under the condition that salvation\nbe made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into\nhis kingdom, and signify their desire by invoking his name ten\ntimes.[11] It is upon the passage in the sutra where this vow is\nrecorded, that the doctrine of the sect is based. Its central idea is\nthat man is to be saved by faith in the mercy of the boundlessly\ncompassionate Amida, and not by works or vain repetitions. Within our\nown time, on November 28, 1876, the present reigning Mikado bestowed\nupon Shinran the posthumous title Ken-shin Dai-shi, or Great Teacher of\nthe Revelation of Truth.\n\n\nThe Protestants of Japanese Buddhism.\n\n\nThis is the sect which, being called \"Reformed\" Buddhism[12] and\nresembling Protestantism in so many points, both large and minute,\nforeigners think has been borrowed or imitated from European\nProtestantism.[13] As matter of fact, the foundation principles of\nShin-Shu are at least six hundred years old. They are perfectly clear in\nthe writings of the founder,[14] as well as in those of his successor\nRenni\u014d,[15] who wrote the Ofumi or sacred writings, now daily read by\nthe disciples of this denomination. With the characteristic object of\nreaching the masses, they are written, as we have shown, not in the\nmixed Chinese and Japanese characters, but in the common script, or\nkana, which all the people of both sexes can read. Within the last two\ndecades the Shin educators have been the first to organize their schools\nof learning on the models of those in Christendom, so that their young\nmen might be trained to resist Shint\u014d or Christianity, or to measure\nthe truth in either. Their new temples also show European influence in\narchitecture and furniture. Liberty of thought and action, and\nincoercible desire to be free from governmental, traditional,\nultra-ecclesiastical, or Shint\u014d influence--in a word, protestantism\nin its pure sense, is characteristic of the great sect founded by\nShinran.\n\nIndeed the Shin sect, which sprang out of the J\u014d-d\u014d, maintains\nthat it alone professes the true teaching of H\u014d-nen, and that the\nJ\u014d-d\u014d sect has wandered from the original doctrines of its\nfounder. Whereas the J\u014d-d\u014d or Pure Land sect believes that Amida\nwill come to meet the soul of the believer on its separation from the\nbody, in order to conduct it to Paradise, the Shin or True Sect of the\nPure Land believes in immediate salvation and sanctification. It\npreaches that as soon as a man believes in Amida he is taken by him\nunder him merciful protection. Some might denominate these people the\nMethodists of Buddhism.\n\nOne good point in their Protestantism is their teaching that morality is\nof equal importance with faith. To them Buddha-hood means the perfection\nand unlimitedness of wisdom and compassion. \"Therefore,\" writes one,\n\"knowing the inability of our own power we should believe simply in the\nvicarious Power of the Original Prayer. If we do so, we are in\ncorrespondence with the wisdom of the Buddha and share his great\ncompassion, just as the water of rivers becomes salt as soon as it\nenters the sea. For this reason this is called the faith in the Other\nPower.\"\n\nTo their everlasting honor, also, the Shin believers have probably led\nall other Japanese Buddhists in caring for the Eta, even as they\nprobably excel in preaching the true spiritual democracy of all\nbelievers, yes, even of women.[16] \"According to the earlier and general\nview of Buddhism, women are condemned, in virtue of the pollution of\ntheir nature, to look forward to rebirth in other forms. By no\npossibility can they, in their existence as women, reach the higher\ngrades of holiness which lead to Nirvana. According to the Shin Shu\nsystem, on the other hand, a believing woman may hope to attain the goal\nof the Buddhist at the close of her present life.\"[17] This doctrine\nseems to be founded on that passage in the eleventh chapter of the\nSaddharma Pundarika, in which the daughter of S\u0101gara, the\nN\u0101ga-king, loses her sex as female and reappears as a Bodhisattva of\nmale sex.[18]\n\nThe Shin sect is the largest in Japan, having more than twice as many\ntemples as any four of the great sects, and five thousand more than the\nSo-d\u014d or sub-sect of J\u014d-d\u014d, which is the next largest; or, over\nnineteen thousand in all. It is also supposed to be one of the richest\nand most powerful of all the Japanese sects. In reality, however, it\npossesses no fixed property, and is dependent entirely upon the\nvoluntary contributions of its adherents. To-day, it is probably the\nmost active of them all in education, learning and missionary operations\nin Yezo, China and Korea.\n\nInteresting as is the development of the J\u014d-d\u014d and Shin sects,\nwhich became popular largely through their promulgation of dogmas\nfounded on the Western Paradise, we must not forget that both of them\npreached a new Buddha--not the real figure in history, but an unhistoric\nand unreal phantom, the creation and dream of the speculator and\nvisionary. Amida, the personification of boundless light, is one of the\nluxuriant growths of a sickly scholasticism--a hollow abstraction\nwithout life or reality. Amidaism is utterly repudiated by many Japanese\nBuddhists, who give no place to his idol on their altars, and reject\nutterly the teaching as to Paradise and salvation through the merits of\nanother.\n\nYet these two special developments by natives, though embodying\ntendencies of the Japanese mind, did not reach the limit to which\nNorthern Buddhism was to go in those almost incredible lengths, which\nprompted Professor Whitney[19] to call it \"the high-faluting school,\"\nand which we have seen in our own time under the cultivation of western\nadmirers.\n\n\nThe Nichiren Sect.\n\n\nThe Japanese mind runs to pantheism as naturally as an unpruned\ngrape-vine runs to fibre and leaves.\n\nWhen Nichiren, the ultra-patriotic and ultra-democratic bonze, saw the\nlight in A.D. 1222, he was destined to bring religion not only down to\nman, but even down to the beasts and to the mud. He founded the\nSaddharma-Pundarika sect, now called Nichiren Shu.\n\nBorn at Kominato, near the mouth of Yedo Bay, he became a neophite in\nthe Shin-gon sect at the age of twelve, and was admitted into the\npriesthood when but fifteen years old. Then he adopted his name, which\nmeans Sun-lotus, because, according to a typical dream very common in\nKorea and Japan, his mother thought that she had conceived by the sun\nentering her body. Through a miracle, he acquired a thorough knowledge\nof the whole Buddhist canon, in the course of which he met with words,\nwhich he converted into that formula which is constantly in the mouth of\nthe members of the Nichiren sect, Namu-my\u014d-ho-ren-g\u00e9-ky\u014d--\"O, the\nSutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law.\"[20] His history, full of\namazing activity and of romantic adventure, is surrounded by a perfect\nsunrise splendor, or, shall we say, sunset gorgeousness, of mythology\nand fable. The scenes of his life are mostly laid in the region of the\nmodern T\u014dki\u014d, and to the cultivated traveller, its story lends\nfascinating charms to the landscape in the region of Yedo Bay. Nichiren\nwas a fiery patriot, and ultra-democratic in his sympathies. He was a\nradical believer in \"Japan for the Japanese.\" He was an ecclesiastical\n_Soshi_. He felt that the developments of Buddhism already made, were\nnot sufficiently comprehensive, or fully suited to the common people.\nSo, in A.D. 1282, he founded a new sect which gradually included within\nits pantheon all possible Buddhas, and canonized pretty nearly all the\nsaints, righteous men and favorite heroes known to Dai Nippon. Nichiren\nfirst made Japan the centre of the universe, and then brought religion\ndown to the lowest. He considered that the period in which he lived was\nthe latter day of the law, and that all creatures ought to share in the\nmerit of Buddha-hood. Only the original Buddha is the real moon in the\nsky, but all Buddhas of the subordinate states are like the images of\nthe moon, reflected upon the waters. All these different Buddhas, be\nthey gods or men, beasts, birds or snakes, are to be honored. Indeed,\nthey are both honored and worshipped in the Nichiren pantheon. Besides\nthe historic Buddha, this sect, which is the most idolatrous of all,\nadmits as objects of its reverence such personages as Nichiren, the\nfounder; Kato Kiyomasa, the general who led the army of invasion in\nKorea and was the persecutor of the Christians; and Shichimen--a word\nwhich means seven points of the compass or seven faces. This Shichimen\nis the being that appeared to Nichiren as a beautiful woman, but\ndisappeared from his sight in the form of a snake, twenty feet long,\ncovered with golden scales and armed with iron teeth. It is now deified\nunder the name meaning the Great God of the Seven Faces, and is\nidentified with the Hindoo deity Siva.\n\nAnother idol usually seen in the Nichiren temples is Mioken. Under this\nname the pole star is worshipped, usually in the form of a Buddha with a\nwheel of a Buddha elect. Standing on a tortoise, with a sword in his\nright hand, and with the left hand half open--a gesture which symbolizes\nthe male and female principles in the physical world, and the\nintelligence and the law in the spiritual world--Mioken is a striking\nfigure. Indeed, the list of glorified animals reminds us somewhat of the\nancient beast-worship of Egypt. In the Nichiren hierology, it is as\nthough the symbolical figures in the Book of Revelation had been deified\nand worshipped. It is evident that all the creatures in that Buddhist\nchamber of imagery, the Hokk\u00e9 Ki\u014d, that could possibly be made into\ngods have received apotheosis. The very book itself is also worshipped,\nfor the Nichirenites are extreme believers in verbal inspiration, and\npay divine honors to each jot and tittle of the sutra, which to them is\na god. They adore also the triad of the three precious ones, the Buddha,\nthe Rule or Discipline, and the Organization; or, Being, Law, and\nChurch. The hideous idol, Fudo, \"Eleven-faced,\" \"Horse-headed,\"\n\"Thousand-handed,\" or girt in a robe of fiery flame, is believed by\nBuddhists to represent Avalokitesvara; but, in recent times he has been\nrecognized, detected and recaptured by the Shint\u014dists as Kotohira.\nThe goddess Kishi, and that miscellaneous assortment or group known as\nthe Seven Patrons of Happiness, which form a sort of encyclopaedia or\nmuseum of curiosities derived from the cults of India, China and Japan,\nare also components of the amazing menagerie and pantheon of this sect,\nin which scholasticism run mad, and emotional kindness to animals become\nmaudlin, join hands.\n\n\nThe Ultra-realism of Northern Buddhism.\n\n\nLike most of the other Japanese sects, the Nichirenites claim that their\nprinciples are contained in the Hok-k\u00e9-ki\u014d, which is considered the\nconsummate white flower of Buddhist doctrine and literature. This is the\nJapanese name for that famous sutra, the Saddharma Pundarika, so often\nmentioned in these chapters but a thousand-fold more so in Japanese\nliterature. The Ten-dai and the Nichiren sects are allied, in that both\nlay supreme emphasis upon this sutra; but the former interprets it with\nan intellectual, and the latter with an emotional emphasis.\nPhilosophically, the two bodies have much in common. Outwardly they are\nvery far apart. One has but to read their favorite scripture, to see the\nnorm upon which the gorgeous art of Japan has been developed. Probably\nno single book in the voluminous canon of the Greater Vehicle gives one\nso masterful a key to Japanese Buddhism. Its pages are crowded with\nsensuous descriptions of all that is attractive to both the reason and\nthe understanding. Its descriptions of Paradise are those which would\nsuit also the realistic Mussulman. Its rhetoric and visions seem to be\nthose of some oriental De Quincey, who, out of the dreams of an\nopium-eater, has made the law-book of a religion. Translated into\nmatter-of-fact Chinese, none better than Nichiren knew how to present\nits realism to his people.\n\nIn its ethical standards, which are two, this sect, like most others,\nprescribes one course of life for the monk, which is difficult, and\nanother for the laity, which is easy. The central dogma is that every\npart of the universe, including not only gods and men, but animals,\nplants and the very mud itself, is capable, by successive\ntransmigrations, of attaining to Buddhaship. In one sense, Nichirenism\nis the transfiguration of atheistic evolution. In its teachings there\nare also two forms: the one, largely in symbol, is intended to attract\nfollowers; the other, the pure truth, is employed to convert the\nobstinately ignorant, against their wills. As in the history of the\npapal organization in Europe, a materialistic interpretation has been\ngiven to the canons of dogma and discipline.\n\nContrary to the doctrine of those sects which teach the attainment of\nsalvation solely through the aid of Amida, or Another, the Nichirenites\ninsist that it is necessary for man to work out his own salvation, by\nobserving the law, by self-examination, by reflecting on the blessings\nvouchsafed to the members of this elect and orthodox sect and by\nconstant prayer. They consider themselves as in the only true church,\nand their succession to the priesthood, the only valid one. The strict\nNichiren churchmen will not have the Shint\u014d gods in their household\nshrines, nor will they intermarry among the sects. The Nichirenites are\nalso very fond of controversy, and their language in speaking of other\ncreeds and sects is not that characteristic of the gentle Buddha. The\npeople of this sect are much given to the belief in demoniacal\npossession, and a considerable part of the duty and revenue-yielding\nbusiness of the Nichiren priests consists in exorcising the foxes,\nbadgers and other demons, which have possessed subjects who are\ngenerally women at certain stages of illness or convalescence. The\nphenomena and pathology of these disorders seem to be allied to those of\nhysteria and hypnotism.\n\nThis popular sect also makes greatest use of charms, spells and amulets,\nlays great store on pilgrimages, and is very fond of noise-making\ninstruments whether prayer-books or the wooden bells or drums which are\nprominent features in their temples and revival meetings. In one sense\nit is the Salvation Army of Buddhism, being especially powerful in what\nstrikes the eye and ear. The Nichirenites have been well called the\nRanters of Buddhism. Their revival meetings make Bedlam seem silent, and\nreduce to gentle murmurs the camp-meeting excesses with which we are\nfamiliar in our own country. They are the most sectarian of all sects.\nTheir vocabulary of Billingsgate and the ribaldry employed by them even\nagainst their Buddhist brethren, cast into the shade those of Christian\nsectarians in their fiercest controversies. \"A thousand years in the\nlowest of the hells is the atonement prescribed by the Nichirenites for\nthe priests of all other sects.\" When the Parliament of Religions was\ncalled in Chicago, the successors of Nichiren, with their characteristic\nhigh-church modesty, promptly sent letters to America, warning the world\nagainst all other Japanese Buddhists, and denouncing especially those\ncoming to speak in the Parliament, as misrepresenting the true doctrines\nof Buddha.\n\n\nDoctrinal Culmination.\n\n\nWhen the work of Nichiren had been completed, and his realistic\npantheism had been able to include within its great receiver and\nprocesses of Buddha-making, everything from gods to mud, the circle of\ndoctrine was complete. K\u014db\u014d's leaven had now every possible lump\nin which to do its work. All grades of men in Japan, from the most\ndevout and intellectual to the most ranting and fanatical, could choose\ntheir sect. Yet it may be that Buddhism in Nichiren's day was in danger\nof stagnation and formalism, and needed the revival which this fiery\nbonze gave it; for, undoubtedly, along with zeal even to bigotry, came\nfresh life and power to the religion. This invigoration was followed by\nthe mighty missionary labors of the last half of the thirteenth century,\nwhich carried Buddhism out to the northern frontier and into Yezo.\nAlthough, from time to time minor sects were formed either limiting or\ndeveloping further the principles of the larger parent sects, and\nalthough, even as late as the seventeenth century, a new subsect, the\nOba-ku of Zen Shu, was imported from China, yet no further doctrinal\ndevelopments of importance took place; not even in presence of or after\nsixteenth century Christianity and seventeenth century Confucianism.\n\nThe fourteenth and fifteenth centuries form the golden age of Japanese\nBuddhism.\n\nIn the sixteenth century, the feudal system had split into fragments and\nthe normal state of the country was that of civil war. Sect was arrayed\nagainst sect, and the Shin bonzes, especially, formed a great military\nbody in fortified monasteries.\n\nIn the first half of the sixteenth century, came the tremendous\nonslaught of Portuguese Christianity. Then followed the militarism and\nbloody persecutions of Nobunaga.\n\nIn clashing with the new Confucianism of the seventeenth century,\nBuddhism utterly weakened as an intellectual power. Though through the\nfavor of the Yodo sh\u014dguns it recovered lands and wealth, girded\nitself anew as the spy, persecutor and professed extirpator of\nChristianity, and maintained its popularity with the common people, it\nwas, during the eighteenth century, among the educated Japanese, as good\nas dead. Modern Confucianism and the revival of Chinese learning,\nresulted in eighteenth century scepticism and in nineteenth century\nagnosticism.\n\n\nThe New Buddhism.\n\n\nIn our day and time, Japanese Buddhism, in the presence of aggressive\nChristianity, is out of harmony with the times, and the needs of\nforty-one millions of awakened and inquiring people; and there are deep\nsearchings of heart. Politically disestablished and its landed\npossessions sequestrated by the government, it has had, since 1868, a\nhistory, first of depression and then of temporary revival. Now, amid\nmuch mechanical and external activity, the employment of the press, the\norganization of charity, of summer schools of \"theology,\" and of young\nmen's and other associations copied from the Christians, it is\nendeavoring to keep New Japan within its pale and to dictate the future.\nIt seeks to utilize the old bottles for the new vintage.\n\nThere is, however, a movement discernible which may be called the New\nBuddhism, and has not only new wine but new wineskins. It is democratic,\noptimistic, empirical or practical; it welcomes women and children; it\nis hospitable to science and every form of truth. It is catholic in\nspirit and has little if any of the venom of the old Buddhist\ncontrovertists. It is represented by earnest writers who look to natural\nand spiritual means, rather than to external and mechanical methods. As\na whole, we may say that Japanese Buddhism is still strong to-day in its\ngrip upon the people. Though unquestionably moribund, its death will be\ndelayed. Despite its apparent interest in, and harmony with,\ncontemporaneous statements of science, it does not hold the men of\nthought, or those who long for the spiritual purification and moral\nelevation of Japan.\n\nAre the Japanese eager for reform? Do they possess that quality of\nemotion in which a tormenting sense of sin, and a burning desire for\nself-surrender to holiness, are ever manifest?\n\nFrankly and modestly, we give our opinion. We think not. The average\nJapanese man has not come to that self-consciousness, that searching of\nheart, that self-seeing of sin in the light of a Holy God's countenance\nwhich the gospel compels. Yet this is exactly what the Japanese need.\nOnly Christ's gospel can give it.\n\nThe average man of culture in Dai Nippon has to-day no religion. He is\nwaiting for one. What shall be the issue, in the contest between a faith\nthat knows no personal God, no Creator, no atonement, no gospel of\nsalvation from sin, and the gospel which bids man seek and know the\ngreat First Cause, as Father and Friend, and proclaims that this\nInfinite Friend seeks man to bless him, to bestow upon him pardon and\nholiness and to give him earthly happiness and endless life? Between one\nreligion which teaches personality in God and in man, and another which\noffers only a quagmire of impersonality wherein a personal god and an\nindividual soul exist only as the jack-lights of the marsh, mere\nphosphorescent gleams of decay, who can fail to choose? Of the two\nfaiths, which shall be victor?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT\n\n\n    \"The heart of my country, the power of my country, the Light of\n    my country, is Buddhism.\"--Yatsubuchi, of Japan.\n\n    \"Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese\n    nation grew up.\"--Chamberlain.\n\n    \"Buddhism was the civilizer. It came with the freshness of\n    religious zeal, and religious zeal was a novelty. It come as the\n    bearer of civilization and enlightenment.\"\n\n    \"Buddhism has had a fair field in Japan, and its outcome has not\n    been elevating. Its influence has been aesthetic and not\n    ethical. It added culture and art to Japan, as it brought with\n    itself the civilization of continental Asia. It gave the arts,\n    and more, it added the artistic atmosphere.... Reality\n    disappears. 'This fleeting borrowed world' is all mysterious, a\n    dream; moonlight is in place of the clear hot sun.... It has so\n    fitted itself to its surroundings that it seems\n    indigenous.\"--George William Knox.\n\n    \"The Japanese ... are indebted to Buddhism for their present\n    civilization and culture, their great susceptibility to the\n    beauties of nature, and the high perfection of several branches\n    of artistic industry.\"--Rein.\n\n    \"We speak of _God_, and the Japanese mind is filled with idols.\n    We mention _sin_, and he thinks of eating flesh or the killing\n    of insects. The word _holiness_ reminds him of crowds of\n    pilgrims flocking to some famous shrine, or of some anchorite\n    sitting lost in religions abstraction till his legs rot off. He\n    has much error to unlearn before he can take in the\n    truth-\"--R.E. McAlpine.\n\n    \"There in a life of study, prayer, and thought,\n    Kenshin became a saintly priest--not wide\n    In intellect nor broad in sympathies,\n    For such things come not from the ascetic life;\n    But narrow, strong, and deep, and like the stream\n    That rushes fervid through the narrow path\n    Between the rooks at Nikk\u014d--so he grasped,\n    Heart, soul, and strength, the holy Buddha's Law\n    With no room left for doubt, or sympathy\n    For other views.\"--Kenshin's Vision.\n\n    \"For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the\n    same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place\n    incense is offered unto my name, and a pure offering, for my\n    name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of\n    hosts.\"--Malachi.\n\n\nCHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT\n\nMissionary Buddhism the Measure of Japan's Civilization.\n\n\nBroadly speaking, the history of Japanese Buddhism in its missionary\ndevelopment is the history of Japan. Before Buddhism came, Japan was\npre-historic. We know the country and people through very scanty notices\nin the Chinese annals, by pale reflections cast by myths, legends and\npoems, and from the relics cast up by the spade and plough. Chinese\ncivilization had filtered in, though how much or how little we cannot\ntell definitely; but since the coming of the Buddhist missionaries in\nthe sixth century, the landscape and the drama of human life lie before\nus in clear detail. Speaking broadly again, it may be said that almost\nfrom the time of its arrival, Buddhism became on its active side the\nreal religion of Japan--at least, if the word \"religion\" be used in a\nhigher sense than that connoted by either Shint\u014d or Confucianism.\nThough as a nation the Japanese of the M\u00e9iji era are grossly forgetful\nof this fact, yet, as Professor Chamberlain says,[1] \"All education was\nfor centuries in Buddhist hands. Buddhism introduced art; introduced\nmedicine; created the folk-lore of the country; created its dramatic\npoetry; deeply influenced politics, and every sphere of social and\nintellectual activity; in a word, Buddhism was the teacher under whose\ninstruction the Japanese nation grew up.\"\n\nFor many centuries all Japanese, except here and there a stern\nShint\u014dist, or an exceptionally dogmatic Confucian, have acknowledged\nthese patent facts, and from the emperor to the eta, glorified in them.\nIt was not until modern Confucian philosophy entered the Mikado's empire\nin the seventeenth century, that hostile criticism and polemic tenets\ndenounced Buddhism, and declared it only fit for savages. This bitter\ndenunciation of Buddhism at the lips and hands of Japanese who had\nbecome Chinese in mind, was all the more inappropriate, because Buddhism\nhad for over a thousand years acted as the real purveyor and disperser\nof the Confucian ethics and culture in Japan. Such denunciation came\nwith no better grace from the Yedo Confucianists than from the Shint\u014d\nrevivalists, like Moto\u00f6ri, who, while execrating everything Chinese,\nfailed to remember or impress upon his countrymen the fact, that almost\nall which constituted Japanese civilization had been imported from the\nMiddle Kingdom.\n\nBuddhism, in its purely doctrinal development, seems to be rather a\nsystem of metaphysics than a true religion, being a conglomeration, or\nrather perhaps an agglomeration, of all sorts of theories relating to\nthe universe and its contents. Its doctrinal and metaphysical side,\nhowever, is to be carefully distinguished from its popular and external\nfeatures, for in its missionary development Buddhism may be called a\nsystem of national improvement. The history of its propagation, in the\nland farthest east from its cradle, is not only the outline of the\nhistory of Japanese civilization, but is nearly the whole of it.\n\n\nPre-Buddhistic Japan.\n\n\nIt is not perhaps difficult to reconstruct in imagination the landscape\nof Japan in pre-Buddhistic days. Certainly we may, with some accuracy,\ndraw a contrast between the appearance of the face of the earth then and\nnow. Supposing that there were as many as a million or two of souls in\nthe Japanese Archipelago of the sixth century--the same area which in\nthe nineteenth century contains over forty-one millions--we can imagine\nonly here and there patches of cultivated fields, or terraced gullies.\nThere were no roads except paths or trails. The horse was probably yet a\ncuriosity to the aborigines, though well known to the sons of the gods.\nSheep and goats then, as now, were unknown. The cow and the ox were in\nthe land, but not numerous.[2] In architecture there was probably little\nbut the primeval hut. Tools were of the rudest description; yet it is\nevident that the primitive Japanese were able to work iron and apply it\nto many uses. There were other metals, though the tell-tale etymology of\ntheir names in Japanese metallurgy, as in so many other lines of\nindustry and articles of daily use, points to a Chinese origin. It is\nthe almost incredible fact that the Japanese man or woman wore on the\nperson neither gold nor silver jewelry. In later times, decoration was\nadded to the sword hilt and pins were thrust in the hair.\n\nPossibly a prejudice against metal touching the skin, such as exists in\nKorea, may account for this absence of jewelry, though silver was not\ndiscovered until A.D. 675, or gold until A.D. 749. The primitive\nJapanese, however, did wear ornaments of ground and polished stone, and\nthese so numerously as to compel contrast with the severer tastes of\nlater ages. Some of these magatama--curved jewels or perforated\ncylinders--were made of very hard stone which requires skill to drill,\ncut and polish. Among the substances used was jade, a mineral found only\nin Cathay.[3] Indeed, we cannot follow the lines of industry and\nmanufactures, of personal adornment and household decoration, of\nscientific terms and expressions, of literary, intellectual and\nreligious experiment, without continually finding that the Japanese\nborrowed from Chinese storehouses. Possibly their debt began at the time\nof the alleged conquest of Korea[4] in the third century.\n\nIn Japanese life, as it existed before the introduction of Buddhism,\nthere was, with barbaric simplicity, a measure of culture somewhat\nindeed above the level of savagery, but probably very little that could\nbe appraised beyond that of the Iroquois Indians in the days of their\nConfederacy. For though granting that there were many interesting\nfeatures of art, industry, erudition and civilization which have been\nlost to the historic memory, and that the research of scholars may\nhereafter discover many things now in oblivion; yet, on the other hand,\nit is certain that much of what has long been supposed to be of\nprimitive Japanese origin, and existent before the eighth century, has\nbeen more or less infused or enriched with Chinese elements, or has been\nimported directly from India, or Persia,[5] or has crystallized into\nshape from the mixture of things Buddhistic and primitive Japanese.\n\nApart from all speculation, we know that in the train of the first\nmissionaries came artisans, and instructors in every line of human\nindustry and achievement, and that the importation of the inventions and\nappliances of \"the West\"--the West then being Korea and China, and the\n\"Far West,\" India--was proportionately as general, as far-reaching, as\nsensational, as electric in its effects upon the Japanese minds, as, in\nour day, has been the introduction of the modern civilization of Europe\nand the United States.[6]\n\n\nThe Purveyors of Civilization.\n\n\nThe Buddhist missionaries, in their first \"enthusiasm of humanity,\" were\nnot satisfied to bring in their train, art, medicine, science and\nimprovements of all sorts, but they themselves, being often learned and\npractical men, became personal leaders in the work of civilizing the\ncountry. In travelling up and down the empire to propagate their tenets,\nthey found out the necessity of better roads, and accordingly, they were\nlargely instrumental in having them made. They dug wells, established\nferries and built bridges.[7] They opened lines of communication; they\nstimulated traffic and the exchange of merchandise; they created the\ncommerce between Japan and China; and they acted as peacemakers and\nmediators in the wars between the Japanese and Koreans. For centuries\nthey had the monopoly of high learning. In the dark middle ages when\ncivil war ruled, they were the only scholars, clerks, diplomatists,\nmediators and peacemakers.\n\nJapanese diet became something new under the direction of the priests.\nThe bonzes taught the wickedness of slaughtering domestic animals, and\nindeed, the wrong of putting any living thing to death, so that kindness\nto animals has become a national trait. To this day it may be said that\nJapanese boys and men are, at least within the limits of their light,\nmore tender and careful with all living creatures than are those of\nChristendom.[8] The bonzes improved the daily fare of the people, by\nintroducing from Korea and China articles of food hitherto unknown. They\nbrought over new seeds and varieties of vegetables and trees.\nFurthermore, necessity being the mother of invention, not a few of the\nshorn brethren made up for the prohibition of fish and flesh, by\nbecoming expert cooks. They so exercised their talents in the culinary\nart that their results on the table are proverbial. Especially did they\ncultivate mushrooms, which in taste and nourishment are good substitutes\nfor fish.\n\nThe bonzes were lovers of beauty and of symbolism. They planted the\nlotus, and the monastery ponds became seats of splendor, and delights to\nthe eye. Their teachings, metaphysical and mystical, poetical and\nhistorical, scientific and literary, created, it may be said, the\nJapanese garden, which to the refined imagination contains far more than\nmeets the eye of the alien.[9] Indeed, the oriental imitations in earth,\nstone, water and verdure, have a language and suggestion far beyond what\nthe usual parterres and walks, borders and lines, fountains and statuary\nof a western garden teach. It may be said that our \"language of flowers\"\nis more luxuriant and eloquent than theirs; yet theirs is very rich\nalso, besides being more subtle in suggestion. The bonzes instilled\ndoctrine, not only by sermons, books and the emblems and furniture of\nthe temples, but they also taught dogma and ethics by the flower-ponds\nand plots, by the artificial landscape, and by outdoor symbolism of all\nkinds. To Buddhism our thanks are due, for the innumerable miniature\ncontinents, ranges of mountains, geographical outlines and other\nhorticultural allusions to their holy lands and spiritual history, seen\nbeside so many houses, temples and monasteries in Japan. In their floral\nart, no people excels the Japanese in making leaf and bloom teach\nhistory, religion, philosophy, aesthetics and patriotism.\n\nNot only around the human habitation,[10] but within it, the new\nreligion brought a marvellous change. Instead of the hut, the\ndwelling-house grew to spacious and comfortable proportions, every part\nof the Japanese house to-day showing to the cultured student, especially\nto one familiar with the ancient poetry, the lines of its origin and\ndevelopment, and in the larger dwellings expressing a wealth of\nsuggestion and meaning. The oratory and the kami-dana or shelf holding\nthe gods, became features in the humblest dwelling. Among the well-to-do\nthere were of course the gilded ancestral tablets and the worship of\nprogenitors, in special rooms, with imposing ritual and equipment, with\nwhich Buddhism did not interfere; but on the shelf over the door of\nnearly every house in the land, along with the emblems of the kami,\nstood images representing the avatars of Buddha.[11] There, the light\never burned, and there, offerings of food and drink were thrice daily\nmade. Though the family worship might vary in its length and variety of\nceremony, yet even in the home where no regular system was followed, the\nburning lights and the stated offering made, called the mind up to\nthoughts higher than the mere level of providing for daily wants. The\nvisitation of the priests in time of sorrow, or of joy, or for friendly\nconverse, made religion sweetly human.[12]\n\nOutwardly the Buddhist architecture made a profound change in the\nlandscape. With a settled religion requiring gorgeous ceremonial, the\nchanting of liturgies by large bodies of priests and the formation of\nmonasteries as centres of literary and religious activity, there were\nrequired stability and permanence in the imperial court itself. While,\ntherefore, the humble village temples arose all over the country, there\nwere early erected, in the place where the court and emperor dwelt,\nimpressive religious edifices.[13] The custom of migration ceased, and a\nfixed spot selected as the capital, remained such for a number of\ngenerations, until finally H\u00e9ian-j\u014d or the place of peace, later\ncalled Ki\u014dto, became the \"Blossom Capital\" and the Sacred City for a\nthousand years. At Nara, where flourished the first six sects introduced\nfrom Korea, were built vast monasteries, temples and images, and thence\nthe influence of civilisation and art radiated. From the first,\nforgetting its primitive democracy and purely moral claims, Buddhism\nlusted for power in the State. As early as A.D. 624, various grades were\nassigned to the priesthood by the government.[14] The sects eagerly\nsought and laid great stress upon imperial favor. To this day they\nkeenly enjoy the canonization of their great teachers by letters patent\nfrom the Throne.\n\n\nMinisters of Art.\n\n\nOn the establishment of the imperial capital, at Ki\u014dto, toward the\nend of the eighth century, we find still further development and\nenlargement of those latent artistic impulses with which the Heavenly\nFather endowed his Japanese child. That capacity for beauty, both in\nappreciation and expression, which in our day makes the land of dainty\ndecoration the resort of all those who would study oriental art in\nunique fulness and decorative art in its only living school--a school\nfounded on the harmonious marriage of the people and the nature of the\ncountry--is discernible from quite early ages. The people seem to have\nresponded gladly to the calls for gifts and labor. The direction from\nwhich it is supposed all evils are likely to come is the northeast; this\nspecial point of the compass being in pan-Asian spiritual geography the\nfocus of all malign influences. Accordingly, the Mikado Kwammu, in A.D.\n788, built on the highest mountain called Hiy\u00e9i a superb temple and\nmonastery, giving it in charge of the Ten-dai sect, that there should\never be a bulwark against the evil that might otherwise swoop upon the\ncity. Here, as on castellated walls, should stand the watchman, who, by\nthe recitation of the sacred liturgies, would keep watch and ward. In\ncourse of time this great mountain became a city of three thousand\nedifices and ten thousand monks, from which the droning of litanies and\nthe chanting of prayers ascended daily, and where the chief industries\nwere, the counting of beads on rosaries and the burning of incense\nbefore the altars. This was in the long bright day of a prosperity which\nhas been nourished by vast sums obtained from the government and nobles.\nOne notes the contrast at the end of our century, when \"disestablished\"\nas a religion and its bonzes reduced to beggary, Hiy\u00e9i-san is used as\nthe site of a Summer School of Christian Theology.\n\nAlong with the blossoming of the lotus in every part of the empire,\nbloomed the grander flowers of sculpture, of painting and of temple\narchitecture. It was because of the carpenter's craft in building\ntemples that he won his name of Dai-ku, or the great workman. The\nartificers of the sunny islands cultivated an ambition, not only to\nequal but to excel, their continental brethren of the saw and hammer.\nYet the carpenter was only the leader of great hosts of artisans that\nwere encouraged, of craftsmen that were educated and of industries that\nwere called into being by the spread of Buddhism.[15] It was not enough\nthat village temples and town monasteries should be built, under an\nimpulse that meant volumes for the development of the country. The\nambitious leaders chose sightly spots on mountains whence were lovely\nvistas of scenery, on which to erect temples and monasteries, while it\nseemed to be their further ambition to allow no mountain peak to be\ninaccessible. With armies of workmen, supported by the contributions of\nthe faithful who had been aroused to enthusiasm by the preaching of the\nbonzes, great swaths were cut in the forest; abundant timber was felled;\nrocky plateaus were levelled; and elegant monastic edifices were reared,\nsoon to be filled with eager students, and young men in training for the\npriesthood.\n\nWhether the pilgrimage[16] be of Shint\u014d or of Buddhist origin, or\nsimply a contrivance of human nature to break the monotony of life, we\nneed not discuss. It is certain that if the custom be indigenous, the\nimported faith adopted, absorbed and enlarged it. The peregrinations\nmade to the great temples and to the mountain tops, being meritorious\nperformances, soon filled the roads with more or less devout travellers.\nIn thus finding vent for their piety, the pilgrims mingled\nsanctification with recreation, enjoying healthful holidays, and\ncreating trade with varied business, commercial and commissarial\nactivities, while enlarging also their ideas and learning something of\ngeography. Thus, in the course of time, it has come to pass that Japan\nis a country of which almost every square mile is known, while it is\nwell threaded with paths, banded with roads, and supplied to a\nremarkable extent with handy volumes of description and of local\nhistory.[17] Her people being well educated in their own lore and local\ntraditions, possessed also a voluminous literature of guidebooks and\ncyclopedias of information. The devotees were, withal, well instructed\nand versed in a code of politeness and courtesy, as pilgrimage and\ntravel became settled habits of a life. As a further result, the\nnational tongue became remarkably homogeneous. Broadly speaking, it may\nbe said that the Japanese language, unlike the Chinese in this as it is\nin almost every other point, has very little dialectic variation.[18]\nExcept in some few remote eddies lying outside the general currents,\nthere is a uniform national speech. This is largely owing to that annual\nmovement of pilgrims in the summer months especially, habitual during\nmany centuries.\n\nBuddhism coming to Japan by means of the Great Vehicle, or with the\nfeatures of the Northern development, was the fertile mother of art. In\nthe exterior equipment of the temple, instead of the Shint\u014d thatch,\nthe tera or Buddhist edifice called for tiles on its sweeping roof, with\nornamental terra-cotta at the end of its imposing roof-ridge, or for\nsheets of copper soon to be made verdant, then sombre and then sable by\nage and atmosphere. Outwardly the edifice required the application of\npaint and lacquer in rich tints, its recurved roof-edges gladly\nwelcoming the crest and monogram of the feudal prince, and its railings\nand stairways accepting willingly the bronze caps and ornaments. In\nfront of its main edifice was the imposing gateway with proportions\nalmost as massive as the temple itself, with prodigal wealth of\ncuriously fitted and richly carved, painted and gilded supports and\nmorticings, with all the fancies and adornments of the carpenter's art,\nand having as its frontlet and blazon the splendidly gilt name, style or\ntitle. Often these were impressive to eye and mind, to an extent which\nthe terse Chinese or curt monosyllables could scarcely suggest to an\nalien.[19] The number, forms and positions of the various parts of the\ntemple easily lent themselves to the expression of the elaborate\nsymbolism of the India faith.\n\n\nResemblances between Buddhism and Christianity.\n\n\nWithin the sacred edifice everything to strike the senses was lavishly\ndisplayed. The passion of the East, as opposed to Greek simplicity, is\nfor decoration; yet in Japan, decorative art, though sometimes bursting\nout in wild profusion or running to unbridled lengths, was in the main a\nregulated mass of splendor in which harmony ruled. Differing though the\nBuddhist sects do in their temple furniture and altar decorations, they\nare, most of them, so elaborately full in their equipment as to suggest\nrepeatedly the similarity between the Roman Catholic organization,\naltars, vestments and ritual, and those of Buddhism, and remarks on this\npoint seem almost commonplace. Almost everything in Roman Catholicism is\nfound in Buddhism,[20] and one may even say, _vice versa_, at least in\nthings exterior. We take the liberty of transcribing here a passage from\nthe chapter entitled \"Christianity and Foreigners\" in The Mikado's\nEmpire, written twenty years ago.\n\n    \"Furthermore, the transition from the religion of India to that\n    of Rome was extremely easy. The very idols of Buddha served,\n    after a little alteration with the chisel, for images of Christ.\n    The Buddhist saints were easily transformed into the Twelve\n    Apostles. The Cross took the place of the _torii_. It was\n    emblazoned on the helmets and banners of the warriors, and\n    embroidered on their breasts. The Japanese soldiers went forth\n    to battle like Christian crusaders. In the roadside shrine\n    Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy, made way for the Virgin, the\n    mother of God. Buddhism was beaten with its own weapons. Its own\n    artillery was turned against it. Nearly all the Christian\n    churches were native temples, sprinkled and purified. The same\n    bell, whose boom had so often quivered the air announcing the\n    orisons and matins of paganism, was again blessed and sprinkled,\n    and called the same hearers to mass and confession; the same\n    lavatory that fronted the temple served for holy water or\n    baptismal font; the same censer that swung before Amida could be\n    refilled to waft Christian incense; the new convert could use\n    unchanged his old beads, bells, candles, incense, and all the\n    paraphernalia of his old faith in celebration of the new.\n\n    \"Almost everything that is distinctive in the Roman form of\n    Christianity is to be found in Buddhism: images, pictures,\n    lights, altars, incense, vestments, masses, beads, wayside\n    shrines, monasteries, nunneries, celibacy, fastings, vigils,\n    retreats, pilgrimages, mendicant vows, shorn heads, orders,\n    habits, uniforms, nuns, convents, purgatory, saintly and\n    priestly intercession, indulgences, works of supererogation,\n    pope, archbishops, abbots, abbesses, monks, neophytes, relics\n    and relic-worship, exclusive burial-ground, etc., etc.,\n    etc.\"[21]\n\nNevertheless, these resemblances are almost wholly superficial, and have\nlittle or nothing to do with genuine religion. Such matters are of\naesthetic and of commercial, rather than of spiritual, interest. They\nconcern priestcraft and vulgar superstition rather than truth and\nrighteousness. \"In point of dogma a whole world of thought separates\nBuddhism from every form of Christianity. Knowledge, enlightenment, is\nthe condition of Buddhistic grace, not faith. Self-perfectionment is the\nmeans of salvation, not the vicarious sufferings of a Redeemer. Not\neternal life is the end and active participation in unceasing prayer and\npraise, but absorption into Nirvana (Jap. Nehan), practical\nannihilation.\"[22] At certain points, the metaphysic of Buddhism is so\nclosely like that of Christian theology, that a connection on reciprocal\nexchange of ideas is not only possible but probable. In their highest\nthinking,[23] the sincere Christian and Buddhist approach each other in\ntheir search after truth.\n\nThe key-word of Buddhism is Ingwa, which means law or fate, the chain of\ncause and effect in which man is found, atheistic \"evolution applied to\nethics,\" the grinding machinery of a universe in which is no\nCreator-Father, no love, pity or heart. If the cry of the human spirit\nhas compelled the makers of Buddhist theology to furnish a goddess of\nmercy, it is but one subordinate being among many. If a boundlessly\ncompassionate Amida is thought out, it is an imaginary being. The symbol\nof Buddhism is the wheel of the law, which revolves as mercilessly as\nceaselessly.[24]\n\nThe key-word of Christianity is love, and its message is grace. Its\nsymbol is the cross, and its sacrament the supper, in token of the\ninfinite love of the Father who wrote his revelation in a human life.\nThe resemblances between the religions of Gautama and of Jesus, are\npurely superficial. They appear to the outward man. The inward man\ncannot, even from Darien peaks of observation or in his scrutiny _de\nprofundis_, discover any vital or historical connection between the two\nfaiths, Christianity and Buddhism. In his theology the Christian says\nGod is all; but the Buddhist says All is god. Buddhism says destroy the\npassions: Christianity says control them. The Buddhist's watchword is\nNirvana. The Christian's is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus.[25]\n\n\nThe Temples and Their Symbolism.\n\n\nIn the vast airy halls of a Buddhist temple one will often see columns\nmade of whole tree-trunks, sheeted with gold and supporting massive\nceilings which are empanelled and gorgeous with every hue and tint known\nto the palette. Besides the coloring, carving and gilding, the rich\nsymbolism strikes the eye and touches the imagination. It is a pleasing\nstudy for one familiar with the background and world of Buddhism, to\nnote their revelation and expression in art, as well as to discern what\nthe varying sects accept or reject. There is the lotus, in leaf, bud,\nflower and calyx;[26] the diamond in every form, real and imaginary,\nwith the vagra or emblem of conquest; while on the altars, beside the\ncentral image, be it that of Shaka or of Amida, are Bodhisattvas or\nBuddhas by brevet, beings in every state of existence, as well as\ndeities of many names and forms. Abstract ideas and attributes are\nexpressed in the art language not only of Japan, Korea and China, but\nalso in that of India and even of Persia and Greece,[27] until one\nwonders how an Aryan religion, like Buddhism, could have so conquered\nand unified the many nations of Chinese Asia. He wonders, indeed, until\nhe remembers how it has itself been transformed and changed in popular\nsubstance, from lofty metaphysics and ethics into pantheism for the\nshorn, and into polytheism for the unshorn.\n\nLooking at early Japanese pictures with the eye of the historian, as\nwell as of the connoisseur of art, one will see that the first real\nschool of Japanese art was Buddhistic. The modern school of pictorial\nart, named from the monkish phrase, Ukioy\u00e9--pictures of the Passing\nWorld--is indeed very interesting to the western student, because it\nseems to be more in touch with the human nature of the whole world, as\ndistinct from what is local, Chinese, or sectarian. Yet, casting a\nglance back of the mediaeval Kano, Chinese and Yamato-Tosa styles, he\nfinds that Buddhism gave Japan her first examples of and stimulus to\npictorial art.[28] He sees further that instead of the monochrome of\nChinese exotic art, or the first rude attempts of the native pencil,\nBuddhism began Japanese sculpture, carving and nearly every other form\nof plastic or pictorial representation, in which are all the elements of\nNorthern Buddhism, as so lavishly represented, for example, in that\ngreat sutra which is the book, _par excellence_, of Japanese Buddhism,\nthe Saddharma Pundarika.\n\nTurning from text to art, we behold the golden lakes of joy, the\nmountain of gems, the floating female angels with their marvellous\ndrapery and lovely faces, the gentle benignity of the goddesses of\nmercy, the rays of light and the glory streaming from face and head of\nthe holy ones, the splendors of costume, the varied beauties of the\nlotus, the hosts of ministering intelligences, the luxuriant symbolism,\nthe purple clouds, the wheel of the law, the swastika[29] or double\ncross, and the vagra,[30] or diamond trefoil. All that color, perfume,\nsensuous delights, art and luxury can suggest, are here, together with\nall the various orders of beings that inhabit the Buddhist universe; and\nthese are set forth in their fulness and detail. In the six conditions\nof sentient existence are devas or gods, men, asuras or monsters, pretas\nor demons, beasts, and beings in hell. In portraying these, the artists\nand sculptors do not always slavishly follow tradition or uniformity.\nThe critical eye notes nearly as much genius, wit and variety as in the\nmediaeval cathedral architecture of Europe. Probably the most popular\ngroups of idols are those of the seven or the thirty-three Kuannon, of\nthe six Jizo[31] or compassionate helpers, and of the sixteen or the\nfive hundred Rakan[32] or circles of primitive disciples of Gautama. The\nangelic beings and sweetly singing birds of Paradise are also favorite\nsubjects of the artists.\n\nOne who has lived alongside the great temples; who knows the daily\nroutine and sees what powerful engines of popular instruction they are;\nwho has been present at the great festivals and looked upon the mighty\nkitchens and refectories in operation; and who has gone in and out among\ntheir monasteries and examined their records, their genealogies and\ntheir relics, can see how powerfully Buddhism has moulded the whole life\nof the people through long ages. The village temple is often the epitome\nand repository of the social life of the people now living, and of the\nstory of their ancestors for generations upon generations past. It is\nthe historico-genealogical society, the museum, the repository of\ndocuments and trophies, the place of national thanksgiving and praise,\nof public sorrow and farewell, a place of rendezvous and separation, the\nstarting-point of procession, and the centre of festival and joy; and\nthus it is linked with the life of the people.\n\nIn other respects, also, the temple is like the old village cathedral of\nmediaeval Europe. It is in many sects the centre of popular pleasure of\nall sorts, both reputable and disreputable. Not only shops and bazaars,\nfairs and markets, games and sports, cluster around it, but also\ncuriosities and works of popular art, the relics of war, and the\ntrophies of travel and adventure. Except that Buddhism--outside of\nIndia--never had the unity of European Christianity, the Buddhist temple\nis the mirror and encyclopaedia both of history and of contemporary\nlife. As fame and renown are necessary for the glory of the place or the\nstructure, favorite gods, or rather their idols, are frequently carried\nabout on \"starring\" tours. At the opening to public view of some famous\nimage or relic, a great festival or revival called Kai-ch\u014d is held,\nwhich becomes a scene of trade and merry-making like that of the\nmediaeval fair or kermis in Europe. The far-oriental is able as\nskilfully as his western confr\u00e8re, to mix business and religion and to\nsuppose that gain is godliness. Further, the manufacture of legend\nbecomes a thriving industry; while the not-infrequent sensation of a\npopular miracle is manipulated by the bonzes--for priestcraft in all\nages and climes is akin throughout the world. It is no wonder that some\nhonest Japanese, incensed at the shams utilized by the religious, has\nstruck out like coin the proverb that rings true--\"Good doctrine needs\nno miracle.\"\n\n\nThe Bell and the Cemetery.\n\n\nThe Buddhist missionaries, and especially the founders of temples,\nthoroughly understood the power of natural beauty to humble, inspire and\nsoothe the soul of man. The instinctive love of the Japanese people for\nfine scenery, was made an ally of faith. The sites for temples were\nchosen with reference to their imposing surroundings or impressive\nvistas. Whether as spark-arresters and protectives against fire, or to\ncompel reverent awe, the loftiest evergreen trees are planted around the\nsacred structure. These \"trees of Jehovah\" are compellers to reverence.\nThe _alien's_ hat comes off instinctively--though it may be less\nconvenient to shed boots than sandals--as he enters the sacred\nstructure.\n\nThe great tongueless bell is another striking accessory to the temple\nservices. Near at hand stands the belfry out of which boom forth tidings\nof the hours. In the flow of time and years, the note of the bell\nbecomes more significant, and in old age solemn, making in the lapse of\ncenturies an educating power in seriousness. \"As sad as a temple bell\"\nis the coinage of popular speech. Many of the inscriptions, though with\nless of sunny hope and joy than even Christian grave-stones bear, are\nyet mournfully beautiful.[33] They preach Buddhism in its reality.\nWhereas, the general associations of the Christian spire and belfry,\napart from the note of time, are those of joy, invitation and good news,\nthose of the tongueless and log-struck bells of Buddhism are sombre and\nsaddening. \"As merry as a marriage bell,\" could never be said of the\nboom from a Buddhist temple, even though it pour waves of sound through\nsunny leagues. There is a vast difference between the peal and play of\nthe chimes of Europe and the liquid melody which floods the landscape of\nChinese Asia. The one music, high in air, seems ever to tell of faith,\ntriumph and aspiration; the other in minor notes, from bells hung low on\nyokes, perpetually echoes the pessimism of despair, the folly of living\nand the joy that anticipates its end.\n\nAbove all, the temple holds and governs the cemetery[34] as well as the\ncradle; while from it emanate influences that enwrap and surround the\nvillager, from birth to death. Since the outlawry of Christianity, and\nespecially since the division of the empire into Buddhist parishes, the\nbonzes have had the oversight of birth, death, marriage and divorce.\nParticularly tenacious, in common with priestcraft all over the world,\nis their clutch upon what they call \"consecrated ground.\" In a large\nsense Japan is still, what China has always been, a country governed by\nthe graveyard. These cities of the dead are usually kept in attractive\norder and made beautiful with flowers in memoriam. The study of epitaphs\nand mortuary architecture, though not without elements bordering on the\nludicrous, is enjoyed by the thoughtful student.[35]\n\n    In every community the inhabitants are enrolled at birth at the\n    local temple, whose priests are the authorized religious\n    teachers, and are always expected to take charge of the funerals\n    of those whose names are thus enrolled. So long as an individual\n    remains in the region of the family temple, the tie which binds\n    him to it is exceedingly difficult to break; but if he moves\n    away he is no longer bound by this tie. This explains the fact,\n    so often observed by missionaries, that the membership of\n    Christian churches is made up almost entirely of people who have\n    come from other localities. In the city of Osaka, for instance,\n    it is a very rare thing to find a native Osakan in any of the\n    churches. The same is true in all parts of the country. So long\n    as a Japanese remains in the neighborhood of his family temple\n    it is almost impossible to get him to break the temple tie and\n    join a Christian church; but when he moves to another place he\n    is free to do as he likes.[36]\n\nThis statement of a resident in modern Japan will long remain true for a\nlarge part of the empire.\n\n\nPolitical and Military Influences.\n\n\nA volume might be written and devoted to Japanese Buddhism as a\npolitical power; for, having quickly obtained intellectual possession of\nthe court and emperor, it dictated the policies of the rulers. In A.D.\n624, it was recognized as a state religion, and the hierarchy of priests\nwas officially established. At this date there were 46 temples and\nmonasteries, with 816 monks and 569 nuns. As early as the eighth\ncentury, beginning with Sh\u014dmu, who reigned A.D. 724-728, and who with\nhis daughter, afterward the female Mikado, became a disciple of Shaka,\nthe habit of the emperors becoming monks, shaving their heads and\nretiring from public life, came in vogue and lasted until near the\nnineteenth century. By this means the bonzes were soon enabled to call\nBuddhism \"the people's religion,\" and to secure the resources of the\nnational treasury as an aid to their temple and monastery building, and\nfor the erection of those images and wayside shrines on which so many\nmillions of dollars have been lavished. In addition to this subsidized\npropaganda, the Buddhist confessor was too often able, by means of the\nwife, concubine, or other female member of the household, imperial or\nnoble, to dictate the imperial policy in accordance with monkish or\npriestly ideas. Ug\u00e9no D\u014d-ki\u014d, a monk, is believed to have aspired\nto the throne. Being made premier by the Empress K\u014d-ken, whose\npassion for him is the scandal of history, he made no scruple of\nextending the power as well as the influence of the Buddhist hierarchy.\n\nBuddhism had also a distinct influence on the military history of the\ncountry,[37] and this was greatest during the civil wars of the rival\nMikados (1336-1392), when the whole country was a camp and two lines of\nnominees claimed to be descendants of the sun-goddess. Japan's only\nforeign wars have been in the neighboring peninsula of Korea, and\nthither the bonzes went with the armies in the expeditions of the early\ncenturies, and in that great invasion of 1592-1597, which has left a\nscar even to this day on the Korean mind. At home, Buddhist priests only\ntoo gladly accompanied the imperial armies of conquest and occupation.\nDuring centuries of activity in the southwest and in the far east and\nextreme north, the military brought the outlying portions of the empire,\nthroughout the whole archipelago, under the sway of the Yamato tribe and\nthe Mikado's dominion. The shorn clerks not only lived in camp,\nministered to the sick and shrived the dying soldier, but wrote texts\nfor the banners, furnished the amulets and war cries, and were ever\nassistant and valuable in keeping up the temper and morals of the\narmies.[38] No sooner was the campaign over and peace had become the\norder of the day, than the enthusiastic missionaries began to preach and\nto teach in the pacified region. They set up the shrines, anon started\nthe school and built the temple; usually, indeed, with the aid of the\nlaw and the government, acting as agents of a politico-ecclesiastical\nestablishment, yet with energy and consecration.\n\nIn later feudal days, when the soldier classes obtained the upper hand,\noverawed the court and Mikado and gradually supplanted the civil\nauthority, introducing feudalism and martial law, the bonzes often\nrepresented the popular and democratic side. Protesting against\narbitrary government, they came into collision with the warrior rulers,\nso as to be exposed to imprisonment and the sword. Yet even as refugees\nand as men to whom the old seats of activity no longer offered success\nor comfort, they went off into the distant and outlying provinces,\npreaching the old tenets and the new fashions in theology. Thus again\nthey won hosts of converts, built monasteries, opened fresh paths and\nwere purveyors of civilization.\n\nThe feudal ages in Japan bred the same type of militant priest known in\nEurope--the military bishop and the soldier monk. So far from Japan's\nbeing the \"Land of Great Peace,\" and Buddhism's being necessarily gentle\nand non-resistant, we find in the chequered history of the island empire\nmany a bloody battle between the monks on horseback and in armor.[39]\nRival sectarians kept the country disquieted for years. Between\nthemselves and their favored laymen, and the enemy, consisting of the\nrival forces, lay and clerical, in like array, many a bloody battle was\nfought.\n\nThe writer lived for one year in Echizen, which, in the fifteenth\ncentury, was the battle-ground for over fifty years, of warring monks.\nThe abbot of the Monastery of the Original Vow, of the Shin sect, in\nKi\u014dto, had built before the main edifice a two-storied gate, which\nwas expected to throw into the shade every other gateway in Japan, and\nespecially to humble the pride of the monks of the Tendai sect, in\nHiy\u00e9izan, The monks of the mountain, swarming down into the capital\ncity, attacked the gate and monastery of the Shin sect and burned the\nformer to ashes. The abbot thus driven off by fire, fled northward, and,\njoined by a powerful body of adherents, made himself possessor of the\nrich provinces of Kaga and Echizen, holding this region for half a\ncentury, until able to rebuild the mighty fortress-monasteries near\nKi\u014dto and at Osaka.\n\nThese strongholds of the fighting Shin priests had become so powerful as\narsenals and military headquarters, that in 1570, Nobunaga, skilful\ngeneral as he was, and backed by sixty thousand men, was unsuccessful in\nhis attempt to reduce them. For ten years, the war between Nobunaga and\nthe Shin sectarians kept the country in disorder. It finally ended in\nthe conflagration of the great religious fortress at Osaka, and the\nretreat of the monks to another part of the country. By their treachery\nand incendiarism, the shavelings prevented the soldiers from enjoying\nthe prizes.\n\nTo detail the whole history of the fighting monks would be tedious. They\nhave had a foothold for many centuries and even to the present time, in\nevery province except that of Satsuma. There, because they treacherously\naided the great Hid\u00e9yoshi to subdue the province, the fiery clansmen,\nnever during Tokugawa days, permitted a Buddhist priest to come.[40]\n\n\nLiterature, and Education.\n\n\nIn its literary and scholastic development, Japanese Buddhism on its\npopular educational side deserves great praise. Although the Buddhist\ncanon[41] was never translated into the vernacular,[42] and while the\nlibrary of native Buddhism, in the way of commentary or general\nliterature, reflects no special credit upon the priests, yet the\nhistorian must award them high honor, because of the part taken by them\nas educators and schoolmasters.[43] Education in ancient and mediaeval\ntimes was, among the laymen, confined almost wholly to the imperial\ncourt, and was considered chiefly to be, either as an adjunct to polite\naccomplishments, or as valuable especially in preparing young men for\npolitical office.[44] From the first introduction of letters until well\ninto the nineteenth century, there was no special provision for\neducation made by the government, except that, in modern and recent\ntimes in the castle towns of the Daimi\u014ds, there were schools of\nChinese learning for the Samurai. Private schools and school-masters[45]\nwere also creditably numerous. In original literature, poetry, fiction\nand history, as well as in the humbler works of compilation, in the\nmaking of text-books and in descriptive lore, the pens of many priests\nhave been busy.[46] The earliest biography written in Japan was of\nSh\u014dtoku, the great lay patron of Buddhism. In the ages of war the\nmonastery was the ark of preservation amid a flood of desolation.\n\nThe temple schools were early established, and in the course of\ncenturies became at times almost coextensive with the empire. Besides\nthe training of the neophytes in the Chinese language and the\nvernacular, there were connected with thousands of temples, schools in\nwhich the children, not only of the well-to-do, but largely of the\npeople, were taught the rudiments of education, chiefly reading and\nwriting. Most of the libraries of the country were those in monasteries.\nAlthough it is not probable that K\u014db\u014d invented the Kana or common\nscript, yet it is reasonably certain that the bonzes[47] were the chief\ninstrument in the diffusion and popularization of that simple system of\nwriting, which made it possible to carry literature down into the homes\nof the merchant and peasant, and enabled even women and children to\nbeguile the tedium of their lives. Thus the people expanded their\nthoughts through the medium of the written, and later of the printed,\npage.[48] Until modern centuries, when the school of painters, which\nculminated in Hok\u016dsai and his contemporaries, brought a love of art\ndown to the lowest classes of the people, the only teacher of pictorial\nand sculptural art for the multitude, was Buddhism. So strong is this\npopular delight in things artistic that probably, to this passion as\nmuch as to the religious instinct, we owe many of the wayside shrines\nand images, the symbolical and beautifully prepared landscapes, and\nthose stone stairways which slope upward toward the shrines on the\nhill-tops. In Japan, art is not a foreign language; it is vernacular.\n\nThus, while we gladly point out how Buddhism, along the paths of\nexploration, commerce, invention, sociology, military and political\ninfluence, education and literature, not only propagated religion, but\ncivilized Japan,[49] it is but in the interest of fairness and truth\nthat we point out that wherein the great system was deficient. If we\nmake comparison with Christendom and the religion of Jesus, it is less\nwith the purpose of the polemic who must perhaps necessarily disparage,\nand more with the idea of making contrast between what we have seen in\nJapan and what we have enjoyed as commonplace in the United States and\nEurope.\n\n\nThings Which Buddhism Left Undone.\n\n\nIn the thirteen hundred years of the life of Buddhism in Japan, what are\nthe fruits, and what are the failures? Despite its incessant and\nmultifarious activities, one looks in vain for the hospital, the orphan\nasylum, the home for elderly men or women or aged couples, or the asylum\nfor the insane, and much less, for that vast and complicated system of\norganized charities, which, even amid our material greed of gain, make\ncities like New York, or London, or Chicago, so beautiful from the point\nof view of humanity. Buddhism did indeed teach kindness to animals,\nmaking even the dog, though ownerless and outcast, in a sense sacred.\nBecause of his faith in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, the\ntoiling laborer will keep his wheels or his feet from harming the cat or\ndog or chicken in the road, even though it be at risk and trouble and\nwith added labor to himself. The pious will buy the live birds or eels\nfrom the old woman who sits on the bridge, in order to give them life\nand liberty again in air or water. The sacred rice is for sale at the\ntemples, not only to feed but to fatten the holy pigeons.\n\nYet, while all this care is lavished on animals, the human being\nsuffers.[50] Buddhism is kind to the brute, and cruel to man. Until the\ninflux of western ideas in recent years, the hospital and the orphanage\ndid not exist in Japan, despite the gentleness and tenderness of Shaka,\nwho, with all his merits, deserted his wife and babe in order to\nenlighten mankind.[51] If Buddhism is not directly responsible for the\nexistence of that class of Japanese pariahs called _hi-nin_, or\nnot-human, the name and the idea are borrowed from the sutras; while the\nexecration of all who prepare or sell the flesh of animals is\npersistently taught in the sacred books. These unfortunate bearers of\nthe human image, during twelve hundred years and until the fiat of the\npresent illustrious emperor made them citizens, were not reckoned in the\ncensus, nor was the land on which they dwelt measured. The imperial\nedict which finally elevated the Eta to citizenship, was suggested by\none whose life, though known to men as that of a Confucian, was probably\nhid with Christ, Yokoi H\u00e9ishiro.[52] The emperor Mutsuhito, 123d of the\nline of Japan, born on the day when Perry was on the Mississippi and\nready to sail, placed over these outcast people in 1871, the protecting\naegis of the law.[53] Until that time, the people in this unfortunate\nclass, numbering probably a million, or, as some say, three millions,\nwere compelled to live outside of the limits of human habitation, having\nno lights which society or the law was bound to respect. They were given\nfood or drink only when benevolence might be roused; but the donor would\nnever again touch the vessel in which the offering was made. The\nEta,[54] though in individual cases becoming measurably rich, rotted and\nstarved, and were made the filth, and off-scouring of the earth, because\nthey were the butchers, the skinners, the leather workers, and thus\nhandled dead animals, being made also the executioners and buriers of\nthe dead. After a quarter of a century the citizens, whose ancestry is\nnot forgotten, suffer social ostracism even more than do the freed\nslaves of our country, though between them and the other Japanese there\nis no color line, but only the streak of difference which Buddhism\ncreated and has maintained. Nevertheless, let it be said to the eternal\nhonor of Shin Shu and of some of the minor sects, that they were always\nkind and helpful to the Eta.\n\nFurthermore it would be hard to discover Buddhist missionary activities\namong the Ainos, or benefits conferred upon them by the disciples of\nGautama. One would suppose that the Buddhists, professing to be\nbelievers in spiritual democracy, would be equally active among all\nsorts and conditions of men; but they have not been so. Even in the days\nwhen the regions of the Ebisu or barbarians (Yezo) extended far\nsouthward upon the main island, the missionary bonze was conspicuous by\nhis absence among these people. It would seem as though the popular\nnotion that the Ainos are the offspring of dogs, had been fed by\nprejudices inculcated by Buddhism. It has been reserved for Christian\naliens to reduce the language of these simple savages to writing, and to\nexpress in it for their spiritual benefit the ideas and literature of a\nreligion higher than their own, as well as to erect church edifices and\nbuild hospitals.\n\n\nThe Attitude Toward Woman.\n\n\nIn its attitude toward woman, which is perhaps one of the crucial tests\nof a religion as well as of a civilization, Buddhism has somewhat to be\npraised and much to be blamed for. It is probable that the Japanese\nwoman owes more to Buddhism than to Confucianism, though relatively her\nposition was highest under Shint\u014d. In Japan the women are the freest\nin Asia, and probably the best treated among any Asiatic nation, but\nthis is not because of Gautama's teaching.[55] Very early in its history\nJapanese Buddhism welcomed womanhood to its fraternity and order,[56]\nyet the Japanese _ama, bikuni_, or nun, never became a sister of mercy,\nor reached, even within a measurable distance, the dignity of the\nChristian lady in the nunnery. In European history the abbess is a\nnotable figure. She is hardly heard of beyond the Japanese nunnery, even\nby the native scholar--except in fiction.\n\nSo far as we can see, the religion founded by one who deserted his wife\nand babe did nothing to check concubinage or polygamy. It simply allowed\nthese things, or ameliorated their ancient barbaric conditions through\nthe law of kindness. Nevertheless, it brought education and culture\nwithin the family as well as within the court. It would be an\ninteresting question to discuss how far the age of classic vernacular\nprose or the early mediaeval literature of romance, which is almost\nwholly the creation of woman,[57] is due to Buddhism, or how far the\ncredit belongs, by induction or reaction, to the Chinese movement in\nfavor of learning. Certainly, the faith of India touches and feeds the\nimagination far more than does that of China. Certainly also, the\nanimating spirit of most of the popular literature is due to Buddhistic\nculture. The Shin sect, which permits the marriage of the priests and\npreaches the salvation of woman, probably leads all others in according\nhonor to her as well as in elevating her social position.\n\nBuddhism, like Roman Catholicism, and as compared to Confucianism which\nis protestant and masculine, is feminine in its type. In Japan the place\nof the holy Virgin Mary is taken by Kuannon, the goddess of mercy; and\nher shrine is one of the most popular of all. Much the same may be said\nof Benten, the queen of the heaven and mistress of the seas. The angels\nof Buddhism are always feminine, and, as in the unscriptural and pagan\nconception of Christian angels, have wings.[58] So also in the legends\nof Gautama, in the Buddhist lives of the saints, and in legendary lore\nas well as in glyptic and pictorial art, the female being transfigured\nin loveliness is a striking figure. Nevertheless, after all is summed up\nthat can possibly be said in favor of Buddhism, the position it accords\nto woman is not only immeasurably beneath that given by Christianity,\nbut is below that conceded by Shint\u014d, which knows not only goddesses\nand heroines, but also priestesses and empresses.[59]\n\nAccording to the popular ethical view as photographed in language,\nliterature and art, jealousy is always represented by a female demon.\nIndeed, most of the tempters, devils, and transformations of humanity\ninto malign beings, whether pretas, asuras, oni, foxes, badgers, or\ncats, are females. As the Chinese ideographs associate all things weak\nor vile with women, so the tell-tale words of Japanese daily speech are\nbut reflections of the dogmas coined in the Buddhist mint. In Japanese,\nchastity means not moral cleanliness without regard to sex, but only\nwomanly duties. For, while the man is allowed a loose foot, the woman is\nexpected not only to be absolutely spotless, but also never to show any\njealousy, however wide the husband may roam, or however numerous may be\nthe concubines in his family. In a word, there is the double standard of\nmorals, not only of priest and laity, but of man and woman. The position\nof the Japanese woman even of to-day, despite that eagerness once shown\nto educate her--an eagerness which soon cooled in the government\nschools, but which keeps an even pulse in the Christian home and\ncollege--is still relatively one of degradation as compared with that of\nher sister in Christendom. For this, the mid-Asian religion is not\nwholly responsible, yet it is largely so.\n\n\nInfluence on the Japanese Character.\n\n\nIn regard to the influence of Buddhism upon the morals and character of\nthe Japanese, there is much to be said in praise, and much also in\ncriticism. It has aided powerfully to educate the people in habits of\ngentleness and courtesy, but instead of aspiration and expectancy of\nimprovement, it has given to them that spirit of hopeless resignation\nwhich is so characteristic of the Japanese masses. Buddhism has so\ndominated common popular literature, daily life and speech, that all\ntheir mental procedure and their utterance is cast in the moulds of\nBuddhist doctrine. The fatalism of the Moslem world expressed in the\nidea of Kismet, has its analogue in the Japanese Ingwa, or \"cause and\neffect,\"--the notion of an evolution which is atheistic, but viewed from\nthe ethical side. This idea of Ingwa is the key to most Japanese novels\nas well as dramas of real life.[60] While Buddhism continually preaches\nthis doctrine of Karma or Ingwa,[61] the law of cause and effect, as\nbeing sufficient to explain all things, it shows its insufficiency and\nemptiness by leaving out the great First Cause of all. In a word,\nBuddhism is law, but not gospel. It deals much with man, but not with\nman's relations with his Creator, whom it utterly ignores. Christianity\ncomes not to destroy its ethics, beautiful as they are, nor to ignore\nits metaphysics; but to fulfil, to give a higher truth, and to reveal a\nlarger Universe and One who fills it all--not only law, but a Law-giver.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY\n\n    \"_Sicut cadaver._\"\n\n    \"Et fiet unum ovile et unus pastor.\"--Vulgate, John x. 16.\n\n    \"He (Xavier) has been the moon of that 'Society of Jesus' of\n    which Ignatius Loyola was the guiding sun.\"--S.W. Duffield.\n\n    \"My God I love Thee; not because I hope for Heaven thereby,\n    Nor yet because, who love Thee not, must, die eternally.\n    So would I love Thee, dearest Lord, and in Thy praise will sing;\n    Solely because thou art my God, and my eternal King.\"\n    --Hymn attributed to Francis Xavier.\n\n    \"Half hidden, stretching in a lengthened line\n    In front of China, which its guide shall be,\n    Japan abounds in mines of Silver fine,\n    And shall enlighten'd be by holy faith divine.\"\n    --Camoens\n\n    \"The people of this Iland of Japon are good of nature, curteous\n    aboue measure, and valiant in warre; their justice is seuerely\n    executed without any partialitie vpon transgressors of the law.\n    They are gouerned in great ciuilitie. I meane, not a land better\n    gouerned in the world by ciuill policie. The people be verie\n    superstitious in their religion, and are of diuers\n    opinions.\"--Will Adams, October 22, 1611.\n\n    \"A critical history of Japan remains to be written ... We should\n    know next to nothing of what may be termed the Catholic episode\n    of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, had we access to\n    none but the official Japanese sources. How can we trust those\n    sources when they deal with times yet more remote?\"--Chamberlain.\n\n    \"The annals of the primitive Church furnish no instances of\n    sacrifice or heroic constancy, in the Coliseum or the Roman\n    arenas, that were not paralleled on the dry river-beds or\n    execution-grounds of Japan.\"\n\n    \"They ... rest from their labors; and their works do follow\n    them. \"--Revelation.\n\n\nCHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY\n\nDarkest Japan.\n\n\nThe story of the first introduction and propagation of Roman\nChristianity in Japan, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,\nhas been told by many writers, both old and new, and in many languages.\nRecent research upon the soil,[1] both natives and foreigners making\ncontributions, has illustrated the subject afresh. Relics and memorials\nfound in various churches, monasteries and palaces, on both sides of the\nPacific and the Atlantic, have cast new light upon the fascinating\ntheme. Both Christian and non-Christian Japanese of to-day, in their\ntravels in the Philippines, China, Formosa, Mexico, Spain, Portugal and\nItaly, being keenly alert for memorials of their countrymen, have met\nwith interesting trovers. The descendants of the Japanese martyrs and\nconfessors now recognize their own ancestors, in the picture galleries\nof Italian nobles, and in Christian churches see lettered tombs bearing\nfamiliar names, or in western museums discern far-eastern works of art\nbrought over as presents or curiosities, centuries ago.\n\nRoughly speaking, Japanese Christianity lasted phenomenally nearly a\ncentury, or more exactly from 1542 to 1637, During this time, embassies\nor missions crossed the seas not only of Chinese and Peninsular Asia,\ncircumnavigating Africa and thus reaching Europe, but also sailed across\nthe Pacific, and visited papal Christendom by way of Mexico and the\nAtlantic Ocean.\n\nThis century of Southern Christianity and of commerce with Europe\nenabled Japan, which had previously been almost unheard of, except\nthrough the vague accounts of Marco Polo and the semi-mythical stories\nby way of China, to leave a conspicuous mark, first upon the countries\nof southern Europe, and later upon Holland and England. As in European\nliterature Cathay became China, and Zipango or Xipangu was recognized as\nJapan, so also the curiosities, the artistic fabrics, the strange things\nfrom the ends of the earth, soon became familiar in Europe. Besides the\ntraffic in mercantile commodities, there were exchanges of words. The\nlanguages of Europe were enriched by Japanese terms, such as soy, moxa,\ngoban, japan (lacquer or varnish), etc., while the tongue of Nippon\nreceived an infusion of new terms,[2] and a notable list of inventions\nwas imported from Europe.\n\nWe shall merely outline, with critical commentary, the facts of history\nwhich have been so often told, but which in our day have received\nluminous illustration. We shall endeavor to treat the general phenomena,\ncauses and results of Christianity in Japan in the same judicial spirit\nwith which we have considered Buddhism.\n\nWhatever be the theological or political opinions of the observer who\nlooks into the history of Japan at about the year 1540, he will\nacknowledge that this point of time was a very dark moment in her known\nhistory. Columbus, who was familiar with the descriptions of Marco Polo,\nsteered his caravels westward with the idea of finding Xipangu, with its\nabundance of gold and precious gems; but the Genoese did not and could\nnot know the real state of affairs existing in Dai Nippon at this time.\nLet us glance at this.\n\nThe duarchy of Throne and Camp, with the Mikado in Ki\u014dto and the\nSh\u014dgun at Kamakura, with the elaborate feudalism under it, had fallen\ninto decay. The whole country was split up into a thousand warring\nfragments. To these convulsions of society, in which only the priest and\nthe soldier were in comfort, while the mass of the people were little\nbetter than serfs, must be added the frequent violent earthquakes,\ndrought and failure of crops, with famine and pestilence. There was\nlittle in religion to uplift and cheer. Shint\u014d had sunk into the\nshadow of a myth. Buddhism had become outwardly a system of political\ngambling rather than the ordered expression of faith. Large numbers of\nthe priests were like the mercenaries of Italy, who sold their influence\nand even their swords or those of their followers, to the highest\nbidder. Besides being themselves luxurious and dissolute, their\nmonasteries were fortresses, in which only the great political gamblers,\nand not the oppressed people, found comfort and help. Millions of once\nfertile acres had been abandoned or left waste. The destruction of\nlibraries, books and records is something awful to contemplate; and \"the\ntimes of Ashikaga\" make a wilderness for the scapegoat of chronology.\nKi\u014dto, the sacred capital, had been again and again plundered and\nburnt. Those who might be tempted to live in the city amid the ruins,\nran the risk of fire, murder, or starvation. Kamakura, once the\nSh\u014d-gun's seat of authority, was, a level waste of ashes.\n\nEven China, Annam and Korea suffered from the practical dissolution of\nsociety in the island empire; for Japanese pirates ravaged their coasts\nto steal, burn and kill. Even as for centuries in Europe, Christian\nchurches echoed with that prayer in the litanies: \"From the fury of the\nNorsemen, good Lord, deliver us,\" so, along large parts of the deserted\ncoasts of Chinese Asia, the wretched inhabitants besought their gods to\navenge them against the \"Wojen.\" To this day in parts of Honan in China,\nmothers frighten their children and warn them to sleep by the fearful\nwords \"The Japanese are coming.\"\n\n\nFirst Coming of Europeans.\n\n\nThis time, then, was that of darkest Japan. Yet the people who lived in\ndarkness saw great light, and to them that dwelt in the shadow of death,\nlight sprang up.\n\nWhen Pope Alexander VI. bisected the known world, assigning the western\nhalf, including America to Spain, and the eastern half, including Asia\nand its outlying archipelagos to the Portuguese, the latter sailed and\nfought their way around Africa to India, and past the golden Chersonese.\nIn 1542, exactly fifty years after the discovery of America, Dai Nippon\nwas reached. Mendez Pinto, on a Chinese pirate junk which had been\ndriven by a storm away from her companions, set foot upon an island\ncalled Tan\u00e9gashima. This name among the country folks is still\nsynonymous with guns and pistols, for Pinto introduced fire-arms, and\npowder.[3]\n\nDuring six months spent by the \"mendacious\" Pinto on the island, the\nimitative people made no fewer than six hundred match-locks or\narquebuses. Clearing twelve hundred per cent. on their cargo, the three\nPortuguese loaded with presents, returned to China. Their countrymen\nquickly flocked to this new market, and soon the beginnings of regular\ntrade with Portugal were inaugurated. On the other hand, Japanese began\nto be found as far west as India. To Malacca, while Francis Xavier was\nlaboring there, came a refugee Japanese, named Anjiro. The disciple of\nLoyola, and this child of the Land of the Rising Sun met. Xavier, ever\nrestless and ready for a new field, was fired with the idea of\nconverting Japan. Anjiro, after learning Portuguese and becoming a\nChristian, was baptized with the name of Paul. The heroic missionary of\nthe cross and keys then sailed with his Japanese companion, and in 1549\nlanded at Kagoshima,[4] the capital of Satsuma. As there was no central\ngovernment then existing in Japan, the entrance of the foreigners, both\nlay and clerical, was unnoticed.\n\nHaving no skill in the learning of languages, and never able to master\none foreign tongue completely, Xavier began work with the aid of an\ninterpreter. The jealousy of the daimi\u014d, because his rivals had been\nsupplied with fire-arms by the Portuguese merchants, and the plots and\nwarnings of those Buddhist priests (who were later crushed by the\nSatsuma clansmen as traitors), compelled Xavier to leave this province.\nHe went first to Hirado,[5] next to Nagat\u014d, and then to Bungo, where\nhe was well received. Preaching and teaching through his Japanese\ninterpreter, he formed Christian congregations, especially at\nYamaguchi.[6] Thus, within a year, the great apostle to the Indies had\nseen the quick sprouting of the seed which he had planted. His ambition\nwas now to go to the imperial capital, Ki\u014dto, and there advocate the\nclaims of Christ, of Mary and of the Pope.\n\nThus far, however, Xavier had seen only a few seaports of comparatively\nsuccessful daimi\u014ds. Though he had heard of the unsettled state of the\ncountry because of the long-continued intestine strife, he evidently\nexpected to find the capital a splendid city. Despite the armed bands of\nroving robbers and soldiers, he reached Ki\u014dto safely, only to find\nstreets covered with ruins, rubbish and unburied corpses, and a general\nsituation of wretchedness. He was unable to obtain audience of either\nthe Sh\u014dgun or the Mikado. Even in those parts of the city where he\ntried to preach, he could obtain no hearers in this time of war and\nconfusion. So after two weeks he turned his face again southward to\nBungo, where he labored for a few months; but in less than two years\nfrom his landing in Japan, this noble but restless missionary left the\ncountry, to attempt the spiritual conquest of China. One year later,\nDecember 2, 1551, he died on the island of Shanshan, or Sancian, in the\nCanton River, a few miles west of Macao.\n\n\nChristianity Flourishes.\n\n\nNevertheless, Xavier's inspiring example was like a shining star that\nattracted scores of missionaries. There being in this time of political\nanarchy and religious paralysis none to oppose them, their zeal, within\nfive years, bore surprising fruits. They wrote home that there were\nseven churches in the region around Ki\u014dto, while a score or more of\nChristian congregations had been gathered in the southwest. In 1581\nthere were two hundred churches and one hundred and fifty thousand\nnative Christians. Two daimi\u014ds had confessed their faith, and in the\nMikado's minister, Nobunaga (1534-1582), the foreign priests found a\npowerful supporter.[7] This hater and scourge of the Buddhist priesthood\nopenly welcomed and patronized the Christians, and gave them eligible\nsites on which to build dwellings and churches. In every possible way he\nemployed the new force, which he found pliantly political, as well as\nintellectually and morally a choice weapon for humbling the bonzes, whom\nhe hated as serpents. The Buddhist church militant had become an army\nwith banners and fortresses. Nobunaga made it the aim of his life to\ndestroy the military power of the hierarchy, and to humble the priests\nfor all time. He hoped at least to extract the fangs of what he believed\nto be a politico-religious monster, which menaced the life of the\nnation. Unfortunately, he was assassinated in 1582. To this day the\nmemory of Nobunaga is execrated by the Buddhists. They have deified Kato\nKiyomasa and Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, the persecutors of the Christians. To Nobunaga\nthey give the title of Bakadono, or Lord Fool.\n\nIn 1583, an embassy of four young noblemen was despatched by the\nChristian daimi\u014ds of Kiushiu, the second largest island in the\nempire, to the Pope to declare themselves spiritual--though as some of\ntheir countrymen suspected, political--vassals of the Holy See. It was\nin the three provinces of Bungo, Omura and Arima, that Christianity was\nmost firmly rooted. After an absence of eight years, in 1590, the envoys\nfrom the oriental to the occidental ends of the earth, returned to\nNagasaki, accompanied by seventeen more Jesuit fathers--an important\naddition to the many Portuguese \"religious\" of that order already in\nJapan.\n\nYet, although there was to be still much missionary activity, though\nprinting presses had been brought from Europe for the proper diffusion\nof Christian literature in the Romanized colloquial,[8] though there\nwere yet to be built more church edifices and monasteries, and Christian\nschools to be established, a sad change was nigh. Much seed which was\nyet to grow in secret had been planted,--like the exotic flowers which\neven yet blossom and shed their perfume in certain districts of Japan,\nand which the traveller from Christendom instantly recognizes, though\nthe Portuguese Christian church or monastery centuries ago disappeared\nin fire, or fell to the earth and disappeared. Though there were to be\nyet wonderful flashes of Christian success, and the missionaries were to\ntravel over Japan even up to the end of the main island and accompany\nthe Japanese army to Korea; yet it may be said that with the death of\nNobunaga at the hands of the traitor Ak\u00e9chi, we see the high-water mark\nof the flood-tide of Japanese Christianity. \"Ak\u00e9chi reigned three days,\"\nbut after him were to arise a ruler and central government jealous and\nhostile. After this flood was to come slowly but surely the ebb-tide,\nuntil it should leave, outwardly at least, all things as before.\n\nThe Jesuit fathers, with instant sensitiveness, felt the loss of their\nchampion and protector, Nobunaga. The rebel and assassin, Ak\u00e9chi,\nambitious to imitate and excel his master, promised the Christians to do\nmore for them even than Nobunaga had done, provided they would induce\nthe daimi\u014d Takayama to join forces with his. It is the record of\ntheir own friendly historian, and not of an enemy, that they, led by the\nJesuit father Organtin, attempted this persuasion. To the honor of the\nChristian Japanese Takayama, he refused.[9] On the contrary, he marched\nhis little army of a thousand men to Ki\u014dto, and, though opposed to a\nforce of eight thousand, held the capital city until Hid\u00e9yoshi, the\nloyal general of the Mikado, reached the court city and dispersed the\nassassin's band. Hid\u00e9yoshi soon made himself familiar with the whole\nstory, and his keen eye took in the situation.\n\nThis \"man on horseback,\" master of the situation and moulder of the\ndestinies of Japan, Hid\u00e9yoshi (1536-1598), was afterward known as the\nTaik\u014d, or Retired Regent. The rarity of the title makes it applicable\nin common speech to this one person. Greater than his dead master,\nNobunaga, and ingenious in the arts of war and peace, Hid\u00e9yoshi\ncompelled the warring daimi\u014ds, even the proud lord of Satsuma,[10] to\nyield to his power, until the civil minister of the emperor, reverently\nbowing, could say: \"All under Heaven, Peace.\" Now, Japan had once more a\ncentral government, intensely jealous and despotic, and with it the new\nreligion must sooner or later reckon. Religion apart from politics was\nunknown in the Land of the Gods.\n\nYet, in order to employ the vast bodies of armed men hitherto accustomed\nto the trade of war, and withal jealous of China and hostile to Korea,\nHid\u00e9yoshi planned the invasion of the little peninsular kingdom by these\nveterans whose swords were restless in their scabbards. After months of\npreparation, he despatched an army in two great divisions, one under the\nChristian general Konishi, and one under the Buddhist general Kato.\nAfter a brilliant campaign of eighteen days, the rivals, taking\ndifferent routes, met in the Korean capital. In the masterly campaign\nwhich followed, the Japanese armies penetrated almost to the extreme\nnorthern boundary of the kingdom. Then China came to the rescue and the\nJapanese were driven southward.\n\nDuring the six or seven years of war, while the invaders crossed swords\nwith the natives and their Chinese allies, and devastated Korea to an\nextent from which she has never recovered, there were Jesuit\nmissionaries attending the Japanese armies. It is not possible or even\nprobable, however, that any seeds of Christianity were at this time left\nin the peninsula. Korean Christianity sprang up nearly two centuries\nlater, wind-wafted from China.[11]\n\nDuring the war there was always more or less of jealousy, mostly\nmilitary and personal, between Konishi and Kato, which however was\naggravated by the priests on either side. Kato, being then and afterward\na fierce champion of the Buddhists, glorified in his orthodoxy, which\nwas that of the Nichiren sect. He went into battle with a banneret full\nof texts, stuck in his back and flying behind him. His example was\ncopied by hundreds of his officers and soldiers. On their flags and\nguidons was inscribed the famous apostrophe of the Nichiren sect, so\noften heard in their services and revivals to-day (Namu miy\u014d ho ren\ng\u00e9 ki\u014d), and borrowed from the Saddharma Pundarika: \"Glory be to the\nsalvation-bringing Lotus of the True Law.\"\n\n\nThe Hostility of Hid\u00e9yoshi.\n\n\nKonishi, on the other hand, was less numerously and perhaps less\ninfluentially backed by, and made the champion of, the European\nbrethren; and as all the negotiations between the invaders and the\nallied Koreans and Chinese had to be conducted in the Chinese script,\nthe alien fathers were, as secretaries and interpreters, less useful\nthan the native Japanese bonzes.\n\nYet this jealousy and hostility in the camps of the invaders proved to\nbe only correlative to the state of things in Japan. Even supposing the\nstatistics in round numbers, reported at that time, to be exaggerated,\nand that there were not as many as the alleged two hundred thousand\nChristians, yet there were, besides scores of thousands of confessing\nbelievers among the common people, daimi\u014ds, military leaders, court\nofficers and many persons of culture and influence. Nevertheless, the\npredominating influence at the Ki\u014dto court was that of Buddhism; and\nas the cult that winks at polygamy was less opposed to Hid\u00e9yoshi's\nsensualism and amazing vanity, the illustrious upstart was easily made\nhostile to the alien faith. According to the accounts of the Jesuits, he\ntook umbrage because a Portuguese captain would not please him by\nrisking his ship in coming out of deep water and nearer land, and\nbecause there were Christian maidens of Arima who scorned to yield to\nhis degrading proposals. Some time after these episodes, an edict\nappeared, commanding every Jesuit to quit the country within twenty\ndays. There were at this time sixty-five foreign missionaries in the\ncountry.\n\nThen began a series of persecutions, which, however, were carried on\nspasmodically and locally, but not universally or with system. Bitter in\nsome places, they were neutralized or the law became a dead letter, in\nother parts of the realm. It is estimated that ten thousand new converts\nwere made in the single year, 1589, that is, the second year after the\nissue of the edict, and again in the next year, 1590. It might even be\nreasonable to suppose that, had the work been conducted wisely and\nwithout the too open defiance of the letter of the law, the awful sequel\nwhich history knows, might not have been.\n\nLet us remember that the Duke of Alva, the tool of Philip II., failing\nto crush the Dutch Republic had conquered Portugal for his master. The\ntwo kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula were now united under one crown.\nSpain longed for trade with Japan, and while her merchants hoped to\ndisplace their Portuguese rivals, the Spanish Franciscans not scrupling\nto wear a political cloak and thus override the Pope's bull of\nworld-partition, determined to get a foothold alongside of the Jesuits.\nSo, in 1593 a Spanish envoy of the governor of the Philippine Islands\ncame to Ki\u014dto, bringing four Spanish Franciscan priests, who were\nallowed to build houses in Ki\u014dto, but only on the express\nunderstanding that this was because of their coming as envoys of a\nfriendly power, and with the explicitly specified condition that they\nwere not to preach, either publicly or privately. Almost immediately\nviolating their pledge and the hospitality granted them, these\nSpaniards, wearing the vestments of their order, openly preached in the\nstreets. Besides exciting discord among the Christian congregations\nfounded by the Jesuits, they were violent in their language.\n\nHid\u00e9yoshi, to gratify his own mood and test his power as the actual\nruler for a shadowy emperor, seized nine preachers while they were\nbuilding churches at Ki\u014dto and Osaka. They were led to the\nexecution-ground in exactly the same fashion as felons, and executed by\ncrucifixion, at Nagasaki, February 5, 1597. Three Portuguese Jesuits,\nsix Spanish Franciscans and seventeen native Christians were stretched\non bamboo crosses, and their bodies from thigh to shoulder were\ntransfixed with spears. They met their doom uncomplainingly.\n\nIn the eye of the Japanese law, these men were put to death, not as\nChristians, but as law-breakers and as dangerous political conspirators.\nThe suspicions of Hid\u00e9yoshi were further confirmed by a Spanish\nsea-captain, who showed him a map of the world on which were marked the\nvast dominions of the King of Spain; the Spaniard informing the\nJapanese, in answer to his shrewd question, that these great conquests\nhad been made by the king's soldiers following up the priests, the work\nbeing finished by the native and foreign allies.\n\n\nThe Political Character of Roman Christianity.\n\n\nThe Roman Catholic \"Histoire del' \u00c9glise Chr\u00e9tienne\" shows the political\ncharacter of the missionary movement in Japan, a character almost\ninextricably associated with the papal and other political Christianity\nof the times, when State and Church were united in all the countries of\nEurope, both Catholic and Protestant. Even republican Holland, leader of\ntoleration and forerunner of the modern Christian spirit, permitted,\nindeed, the Roman Catholics to worship in private houses or in sacred\nedifices not outwardly resembling churches, but prohibited all public\nprocessions and ceremonies, because religion and politics at that time\nwere as Siamese twins. Only the Anabaptists held the primitive Christian\nand the American doctrine of the separation of politics from\necclesiasticism. Except in the country ruled by William the Silent, all\nmagistrates meddled with men's consciences.[12]\n\nIn 1597, Hid\u00e9yoshi died, and the missionaries took heart again. The\nChristian soldiers returning by thousands from Korea, declared\nthemselves in favor of Hid\u00e9yori, son of the dead Taik\u014d. Encouraged by\nthose in power, and by the rising star Iy\u00e9yas\u016d (1542-1616), the\nfathers renewed their work and the number of converts increased.\n\nThough peace reigned, the political situation was one of the greatest\nuncertainty, and with two hundred thousand soldiers gathered around\nKi\u014dto, under scores of ambitious leaders, it was hard to keep the\nsword in the sheath. Soon the line of cleavage found Iy\u00e9yas\u016d and his\nnorthern captains on one side, and most of the Christian leaders and\nsouthern daimi\u014ds on the other. In October, 1600, with seventy-five\nthousand men, the future unifier of Japan stood on the ever-memorable\nfield of S\u00e9kigahara. The opposing army, led largely by Christian\ncommanders, left their fortress to meet the one whom they considered a\nusurper, in the open field. In the battle which ensued, probably the\nmost decisive ever fought on the soil of Japan, ten thousand men lost\ntheir lives. The leading Christian generals, beaten, but refusing out of\nprinciple because they were Christians, to take their own lives by\n_hara-kiri_, knelt willingly at the common blood-pit and had their heads\nstricken off by the executioner.\n\nThen began a new era in the history of the empire, and then were laid by\nIy\u00e9yas\u016d the foundation-lines upon which the Japan best known to\nEurope has existed for nearly three centuries. The creation of a central\nexecutive government strong enough to rule the whole empire, and hold\ndown even the southern and southwestern daimi\u014ds, made it still worse\nfor the converts of the European teachers, because in the Land of the\nGods government is ever intensely pagan.\n\nIn adjusting the feudal relations of his vassals in Kiushiu, Iy\u00e9yas\u016d\nmade great changes, and thus the political status of the Christians was\nprofoundly altered. The new daimi\u014ds, carrying out the policy of their\npredecessors who had been taught by the Jesuits, but reversing its\ndirection, began to persecute their Christian subjects, and to compel\nthem to renounce their faith. One of the leading opposers of the\nChristians and their most cruel persecutor, was Kato, the zealous\nNichirenite. Like Brandt, the famous Iroquois Indian, who, in the Mohawk\nValley is execrated as a bloodthirsty brute, and on the Canadian side is\nhonored with a marble statue and considered not only as the translator\nof the prayer-book but also as a saint; even also as Claverhouse, who,\nin Scotland is looked upon as a murderous demon, but in England as a\nconscientious and loyal patriot; so Kato, the _vir ter execrandus_ of\nthe Jesuits, is worshipped in his shrine at the Nichiren temple at\nIk\u00e9gami, near T\u014dki\u014d,[13] and is praised by native historians as\nlearned, brave and true.\n\nThe Christians of Kiushiu, in a few cases, actually took up arms against\ntheir new rulers and oppressors, though it was a new thing under the\nJapanese sun for peasantry to oppose not only civil servants of the law,\nbut veterans in armor. Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, now having time to give his attention\nwholly to matters of government and to examine the new forces that had\nentered Japanese life, followed Hid\u00e9yoshi in the suspicion that, under\nthe cover of the western religion, there lurked political designs. He\nthought he saw confirmation of his theories, because the foreigners\nstill secretly or openly paid court to Hid\u00e9yori, and at the same time\nfreely disbursed gifts and gold as well as comfort to the persecuted.\nResolving to crush the spirit of independence in the converts and to\nintimidate the foreign emissaries, Iy\u00e9yas\u016d with steel and blood put\ndown every outbreak, and at last, in 1606, issued his edict[14]\nprohibiting Christianity.\n\n\nThe Quarrels of the Christians.\n\n\nAbout the same time, Protestant influences began to work against the\npapal emissaries. The new forces from the triumphant Dutch republic,\nwhich having successfully defied Spain for a whole generation had\nreached Japan even before the Great Truce, were opposed to the Spaniards\nand to the influence of both Jesuits and Franciscans. Hollanders at\nLisbon, obtaining from the Spanish archives charts and geographical\ninformation, had boldly sailed out into the Eastern seas, and carried\nthe orange white and blue flag to the ends of the earth, even to Nippon.\nBetween Prince Maurice, son of William the Silent, and the envoys of\nIy\u00e9yas\u016d, there was made a league of commerce as well as of peace and\nfriendship. Will Adams,[15] the English pilot of the Dutch ships, by his\ninformation given to Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, also helped much to destroy the Jesuits\ninfluence and to hurt their cause, while both the Dutch and English were\never busy in disseminating both correct information and polemic\nexaggeration, forging letters and delivering up to death by fire the\n_padres_ when captured at sea.\n\nIn general, however, it may be said that while Christian converts and\nthe priests were roughly handled in the South, yet there was\nconsiderable missionary activity and success in the North. Converts were\nmade and Christian congregations were gathered in regions remote from\nKi\u014dto and Yedo, which latter place, like St. Petersburg in the West,\nwas being made into a large city. Even outlying islands, such as Sado,\nhad their churches and congregations.\n\n\nThe Anti-Christian Policy of the Tokugawas.\n\n\nThe quarrels between the Franciscans and Jesuits,[16] however, were\nprobably more harmful to Christianity than were the whispers of the\nProtestant Englishmen or Hollanders. In 1610, the wrath of the\ngovernment was especially aroused against the _bateren_, as the people\ncalled the _padres_, by their open and persistent violation of Japanese\nlaw. In 1611, from Sado, to which island thousands of Christian exiles\nhad been sent to work the mines, Iy\u00e9yas\u016d believed he had obtained\ndocumentary proof in the Japanese language, of what he had long\nsuspected--the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts\nand the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject\nstate.[17] Putting forth strenuous measures to root out utterly what he\nbelieved to be a pestilential breeder of sedition and war, the Yedo\nSh\u014dgun advanced step by step to that great proclamation of January\n27, 1614,[18] in which the foreign priests were branded as triple\nenemies--of the country, of the Kami, and of the Buddhas. This\nproclamation wound up with the charge that the Christian band had come\nto Japan to change the government of the country, and to usurp\npossession of it. Whether or not he really had sufficient written proof\nof conspiracy against the nation's sovereignty, it is certain that in\nthis state paper, Iy\u00e9yas\u016d shrewdly touched the springs of Japanese\npatriotism. Not desiring, however, to shed blood or provoke war, he\ntried transportation. Three hundred persons, namely, twenty-two\nFranciscans, Dominicans and Augustines, one hundred and seventeen\nforeign Jesuits, and nearly two hundred native priests and catechists,\nwere arrested, sent to Nagasaki, and thence shipped like bundles of\ncombustibles to Macao.\n\nYet, as many of the foreign and native Christian teachers hid themselves\nin the country and as others who had been banished returned secretly and\ncontinued the work of propaganda, the crisis had not yet come. Some of\nthe Jesuit priests, even, were still hoping that Hid\u00e9yori would mount to\npower; but in 1615, Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, finding a pretext for war,[19] called\nout a powerful army and laid siege to the great castle of Osaka, the\nmost imposing fortress in the country. In the brief war which ensued, it\nis said by the Jesuit fathers, that one hundred thousand men perished.\nOn June 9, 1615, the castle was captured and the citadel burned. After\nthousands of Hid\u00e9yori's followers had committed _hara-kiri_, and his own\nbody had been burned into ashes, the Christian cause was irretrievably\nruined.\n\nHid\u00e9tada, the successor of Iy\u00e9yas\u016d in Yedo, who ruled from 1605 to\n1622, seeing that his father's peaceful methods had failed in\nextirpating the alien politico-religious doctrine, now pronounced\nsentence of death on every foreigner, priest, or catechist found in the\ncountry. The story of the persecutions and horrible sufferings that\nensued is told in the voluminous literature which may be gathered from\nevery country in Europe;[20] though from the Japanese side \"The Catholic\nmartyrology of Japan is still an untouched field for a [native]\nhistorian.\"[21] All the church edifices which the last storm had left\nstanding were demolished, and temples and pagodas were erected upon\ntheir ruins. In 1617, foreign commerce was restricted to Hirado and\nNagasaki. In 1621, Japanese were forbidden ever to leave the country. In\n1624, all ships having a capacity of over twenty-five hundred bushels\nwere burned, and no craft, except those of the size of ordinary junks,\nwere allowed to be built.\n\n\nThe Books of the Inferno Opened.\n\n\nFor years, at intervals and in places, the books of the Inferno were\nopened, and the tortures devised by the native pagans and Buddhists\nequalled in their horror those which Dante imagines, until finally, in\n1636, even Japanese human nature, accustomed for ages to subordination\nand submission, could stand it no longer. Then a man named Nirado Shiro\nraised the banner of the Virgin and called on all Christians and others\nto follow him. Probably as many as thirty thousand men, women and\nchildren, but without a single foreigner, lay or clerical, among them,\ngathered from parts of Kiushiu. After burning Shint\u014d and Buddhist\ntemples, they fortified an old abandoned castle at Shimabara, resolving\nto die rather than submit. Against an army of veterans, led by skilled\ncommanders, the fortress held out during four months. At last, after a\nbloody assault, it was taken, and men, women and children were\nslaughtered.[22] Thousands suffered death at the point of the spear and\nsword; many were thrown into the sea; and others were cast into boiling\nhot springs, emblems of the eight Buddhist Hells.\n\nAll efforts were now put forth to uproot not only Christianity but also\neverything of foreign planting. The Portuguese were banished and the\ndeath penalty declared against all who should return, The ai no ko, or\nhalf-breed children, were collected and shipped by hundreds to Macao.\nAll persons adopting or harboring Eurasians were to be banished, and\ntheir relatives punished. The Christian cause now became like the doomed\ncity of Babylon or like the site of Nineveh, which, buried in the sand\nand covered with the desolation and silence of centuries, became lost to\nthe memory of the world, so that even the very record of scripture was\nthe jest of the infidel, until the spade of Layard brought them again to\nresurrection. So, Japanese Christianity, having vanished in blood, was\nsupposed to have no existence, thus furnishing Mr. Lecky with arguments\nto prove the extirpative power of persecution.[23]\n\nYet in 1859, on the opening of the country by treaty, the Roman Catholic\nfathers at Nagasaki found to their surprise that they were re-opening\nthe old mines, and that their work was in historic continuity with that\nof their predecessors. The blood of the martyrs had been the seed of the\nchurch. Amid much ignorance and darkness, there were thousands of people\nwho, through the Virgin, worshipped God; who talked of Jesus, and of the\nHoly Spirit; and who refused to worship at the pagan shrines[24].\n\n\nSummary of Roman Christianity in Japan.\n\n\nLet us now strive impartially to appraise the Christianity of this era,\nand inquire what it found, what it attempted to do, what it did not\nstrive to attain, what was the character of its propagators, what was\nthe mark it made upon the country and upon the mind of the people, and\nwhether it left any permanent influence.\n\nThe gospel net which had gathered all sorts of fish in Europe brought a\nvaried quality of spoil to Japan. Among the Portuguese missionaries,\nbeginning with Xavier, there are many noble and beautiful characters,\nwho exemplified in their motives, acts, lives and sufferings some of the\nnoblest traits of both natural and redeemed humanity. In their praise,\nboth the pagan and the Christian, as well as critics biased by their\nprepossessions in favor either of the Reformed or the Roman phase of the\nfaith, can unite.\n\nThe character of the native converts is, in many instances, to be\ncommended, and shows the direct truth of Christianity in fields of life\nand endeavor, in ethics and in conceptions, far superior to those which\nthe Japanese religious systems have produced. In the teaching that there\nshould be but one standard of morality for man and woman, and that the\nmale as well as the female should be pure; in the condemnation of\npolygamy and licentiousness; in the branding of suicide as both wicked\nand cowardly; in the condemnation of slavery; and in the training of men\nand women to lofty ideals of character, the Christian teachers far\nexcelled their Buddhist or Confucian rivals.\n\nThe benefits which Japan received through the coming of the Christian\nmissionaries, as distinct and separate from those brought by commerce\nand the merchants, are not to be ignored. While many things of value and\ninfluence for material improvement, and many beneficent details and\nelements of civilization were undoubtedly imported by traders, yet it\nwas the priests and itinerant missionaries who diffused the knowledge of\nthe importance of these things and taught their use throughout the\ncountry. Although in the reaction of hatred and bitterness, and in the\nminute, universal and long-continued suppression by the government, most\nof this advantage was destroyed, yet some things remained to influence\nthought and speech, and to leave a mark not only on the language, but\nalso on the procedure of daily life. One can trace notable modifications\nof Japanese life from this period, lasting through the centuries and\neven until the present time.\n\nChristianity, in the sixteenth century, came to Japan only in its papal\nor Roman Catholic form. While in it was infused much of the power and\nspirit of Loyola and Xavier, yet the impartial critic must confess that\nthis form was military, oppressive and political.[25] Nevertheless,\nthough it was impure and saturated with the false principles, the vices\nand the embodied superstitions of corrupt southern Europe, yet, such as\nit was, Portuguese Christianity confronted the worst condition of\naffairs, morally, intellectually and materially, which Japan has known\nin historic times. Defective as the critic must pronounce the system of\nreligion imported from Europe, it was immeasurably superior to anything\nthat the Japanese had hitherto known.\n\nIt must be said, also, that Portuguese Christianity in Japan tried to do\nsomething more than the mere obtaining of adherents or the nominal\nconversion of the people.[26] It attempted to purify and exalt their\nlife, to make society better, to improve the relations between rulers\nand ruled; but it did not attempt to do what it ought to have done. It\nignored great duties and problems, while it imitated too fully, not only\nthe example of the kings of this world in Europe but also of the rulers\nin Japan. In the presence of soldier-like Buddhist priests, who had made\nwar their calling, it would have been better if the Christian\nmissionaries had avoided their bad example, and followed only in the\nfootsteps of the Prince of Peace; but they did not. On the contrary,\nthey brought with them the spirit of the Inquisition then in full blast\nin Spain and Portugal, and the machinery with which they had been\nfamiliar for the reclamation of native and Dutch \"heretics.\" Xavier,\nwhile at Goa, had even invoked the secular arm to set up the Inquisition\nin India, and doubtless he and his followers would have put up this\ninfernal enginery in Japan if they could have done so. They had stamped\nand crushed out \"heresy\" in their own country, by a system of hellish\ntortures which in its horrible details is almost indescribable. The\nrusty relics now in the museums of Europe, but once used in church\ndiscipline, can be fully appreciated only by a physician or an\nanatomist. In Japan, with the spirit of Alva and Philip II., these\nbelievers in the righteousness of the Inquisition attacked violently the\ncharacter of native bonzes, and incited their converts to insult the\ngods, destroy the Buddhist images, and burn or desecrate the old\nshrines. They persuaded the daimi\u014ds, when these lords had become\nChristians, to compel their subjects to embrace their religion on pain\nof exile or banishment. Whole districts were ordered to become\nChristian. The bonzes were exiled or killed, and fire and sword as well\nas preaching, were employed as means of conversion. In ready imitation\nof the Buddhists, fictitious miracles were frequently got up to utilize\nthe credulity of the superstitious in furthering the faith--all of which\nis related not by hostile critics, but by admiring historians and by\nsympathizing eye-witnesses.[27]\n\nThe most prominent feature of the Roman Catholicism of Japan, was its\npolitical animus and complexion. In writings of this era, Japanese\nhistorians treat of the Christian missionary movement less as something\nreligious, and more as that which influenced government and polities,\nrather than society on its moral side. So also, the impartial historian\nmust consider that, on the whole, despite the individual instances of\nholy lives and unselfish purposes, the work of the Portuguese and\nSpanish friars and \"fathers\" was, in the main, an attempt to bring Japan\nmore or less directly within the power of the Pope or of those rulers\ncalled Most Catholic Majesties, Christian Kings, etc., even as they had\nalready brought Mexico, South America, and large portions of India under\nthe same control. The words of Jesus before the Roman procurator had not\nbeen apprehended:--\"My kingdom is not of this world.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE\n\n    \"The frog in the well knows not the great ocean\"\n                            --Sanskrit and Japanese Proverb.\n\n    \"When the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch.\"\n                            --Japanese Proverb.\n\n    \"The little island of D\u00e9shima, well and prophetically signifying\n    Fore-Island, was Japan's window, through which she looked at the\n    whole Occident ... We are under obligation to Holland for the\n    arts of engineering, mining, pharmacy, astronomy, and medicine\n    ... 'Rangaku' (i.e., Dutch learning) passed almost as a synonym\n    for medicine,\" [1615-1868].--Inazo Nitob\u00e9.\n\n    \"The great peace, of which we are so proud, was more like the\n    stillness of stagnant pools than the calm surface of a clear\n    lake.\"--Mitsukuri.\n\n    \"The ancestral policy of self-contentment must be done away\n    with. If it was adopted by your forefathers, because it was wise\n    in their time, why not adopt a new policy if it in sure to prove\n    wise in your time.\"--Sakuma Shozan, wrote in 1841, assassinated\n    1864.\n\n    \"And slowly floating onward go\n    Those Black Ships, wave-tossed to and fro.\"\n                        --Japanese Ballad of the Black Ship, 1845.\n\n    \"The next day was Sunday (July 10th), and, as usual, divine\n    service was held on board the ships, and, in accordance with\n    proper reverence for the day, no communication was held with the\n    Japanese authorities.\"\n        --Perry's Narrative.\n\n    \"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,\n    Praise Him, all creatures here below,\n    Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,\n    Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.\"\n        --Sung on U.S.S.S. Mississippi, in Yedo Bay, July 10, 1853.\n\n    \"I refuse to see anyone on Sunday, I am resolved to set an\n    example of a proper observance of the Sabbath ... I will try to\n    make it what I believe it was intended to be--a day of\n    rest.\"--Townsend Harris's Diary, Sunday, August 31, 1856.\n\n    \"I have called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee, though\n    thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else;\n    besides me there is no God.\"--Isaiah.\n\n    \"I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been\n    slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they\n    held.\"--John.\n\n    \"That they should seek God, If haply they might feel after him,\n    though he is not far from each one of us.\"--Paul.\n\n    \"Other sheep have I which are not of this fold: them also I must\n    bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one\n    flock, one shepherd\"--Jesus.\n\nCHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE\n\nThe Japanese Shut In.\n\n\nSincerely regretting that we cannot pass more favorable judgments upon\nthe Christianity of the seventeenth century in Japan, let us look into\nthe two centuries of silence, and see what was the story between the\npaling of the Christian record in 1637, and the glowing of the\npalimpsest in 1859, when the new era begins.\n\nThe policy of the Japanese rulers, after the supposed utter extirpation\nof Christianity, was the double one of exclusion and inclusion. A\ndeliberate attempt, long persisted in and for centuries apparently\nsuccessful, was made to insulate Japan from the shock of change. The\npurpose was to draw a whole nation and people away from the currents and\nmovements of humanity, and to stereotype national thought and custom.\nThis was carried out in two ways: first, by exclusion, and then by\ninclusion. All foreign influences were shut off, or reduced to a\nminimum. The whole western world, especially Christendom, was put under\nban.\n\nEven the apparent exception made in favor of the Dutch was with the\nmotive of making isolation more complete, and of securing the perfect\nsafety which that isolation was expected to bring. For, having built,\nnot indeed with brick and mortar, but by means of edict and law, both\nopen and secret, a great wall of exclusion more powerful than that of\nChina's, it was necessary that there should be a port-hole, for both\nsally and exit, and a slit for vigilant scrutiny of any attempt to force\nseclusion or violate the frontier. Hence, the Hollanders were allowed to\nhave a small place of residence in front of a large city and at the head\nof a land-locked harbor. There, the foreigners being isolated and under\nstrict guard, the government could have, as it were, a nerve which\ntouched the distant nations, and could also, as with a telescope, sweep\nthe horizon for signs of danger.\n\nSo, in 1640, the Hollanders were ordered to evacuate Hirado, and occupy\nthe little \"outer island\" called D\u00e9shima, in front of the city of\nNagasaki, and connected therewith by a bridge. Any ships entering this\nhill-girdled harbor, it was believed, could be easily managed by the\nmilitary resources possessed by the government. Vessels were allowed\nyearly to bring the news from abroad and exchange the products of Japan\nfor those of Europe. The English, who had in 1617 opened a trade and\nconducted a factory for some years,[1] were unable to compete with the\nDutch, and about 1624, after having lost in the venture forty thousand\npounds sterling, withdrew entirely from the Japanese trade. The Dutch\nwere thus left without a rival from Christendom.\n\nJapan ceased her former trade and communications with the Philippine\nIslands, Annam, Siam, the Spice Islands and India,[2] and begun to\nrestrict trade and communication with Korea and China. The Koreans, who\nwere considered as vassals, or semi-vassals, came to Japan to present\ntheir congratulations on the accession of each new Sh\u014dgun; and some\nsmall trade was done at Fusan under the superintendence of the daimi\u014d\nof Tsushima. Even this relation with Korea was rather one of\nwatchfulness. It sprang from the pride of a victor rather than from any\ndesire to maintain relations with the rest of the world. As for China,\nthe communication with her was astonishingly little, only a few junks\ncrossing yearly between Nankin and Nagasaki; so that, with the exception\nof one slit in their tower of observation, the Japanese became well\nisolated from the human family.\n\nThis system of exclusion was accompanied by an equally vigorous policy\nof inclusiveness. It was deliberately determined to keep the people from\ngoing abroad, either in their bodies or minds. All seaworthy ships were\ndestroyed. Under pain of imprisonment and death, all natives were\nforbidden to go to a foreign country, except in the rare cases of urgent\ngovernment service. By settled precedents it was soon made to be\nunderstood that those who were blown out to sea or carried away in\nstress of weather, need not come back; if they did, they must return\nonly on Chinese and Korean vessels, and even then would be grudgingly\nallowed to land. It was given out, both at home and to the world, that\nno shipwrecked sailors or waifs would be welcomed when brought on\nforeign vessels.\n\nThis inclusive policy directed against physical exportation, was still\nmore stringently carried out when applied to imports affecting the minds\nof the Japanese. The \"government deliberately attempted to establish a\nsociety impervious to foreign ideas from without, and fostered within by\nall sorts of artificial legislation. This isolation affected every\ndepartment of private and public life. Methods of education were cast in\na definite mould; even matters of dress and household architecture were\nstrictly regulated by the State, and industries were restricted or\nforced into specified channels, thus retarding economic\ndevelopments.\"[3]\n\n\nStarving of the Mind.\n\n\nIn the science of keeping life within stunted limits and artificial\nboundaries, the Japanese genius excels. It has been well said that \"the\nJapanese mind is great in little things and little in great things.\" To\ncut the tap-root of a pine-shoot, and, by regulating the allowance of\nearth and water, to raise a pine-tree which when fifty years old shall\nbe no higher than a silver dollar, has been the proud ambition of many\nan artist in botany. In like manner, the Tokugawa Sh\u014dguns (1604-1868)\ndetermined to so limit the supply of mental food, that the mind of Japan\nshould be of those correctly dwarfed proportions of puniness, so admired\nby lovers of artificiality and unconscious caricature. Philosophy was\nselected as a chief tool among the engines of oppression, and as the\nmain influence in stunting the intellect. All thought must be orthodox\naccording to the standards of Confucianism, as expounded by Chu Hi.\nAnything like originality in poetry, learning or philosophy must be\nhooted down. Art must follow Chinese, Buddhist and Japanese traditions.\nAny violation of this order would mean ostracism. All learning must be\nin the Chinese and Japanese languages--the former mis-pronounced and in\nsound bearing as much resemblance to Pekingise speech as \"Pennsylvania\nDutch\" does to the language of Berlin. Everything like thinking and\nstudy must be with a view of sustaining and maintaining the established\norder of things. The tree of education, instead of being a lofty or\nwide-spreading cryptomeria, must be the measured nursling of the teacup.\nIf that trio of emblems, so admired by the natives, the bamboo, pine and\nplum, could produce glossy leaves, ever-green needles and fragrant\nblooms within a space of four cubic inches, so the law, the literature\nand the art of Japan must display their normal limit of fresh fragrance,\nof youthful vigor and of venerable age, enduring for aye, within the\nvessel of Japanese inclusion so carefully limited by the Yedo\nauthorities.\n\nSuch a policy, reminds one of the Amherst agricultural experiment in\nwhich bands of iron were strapped around a much-afflicted squash, in\norder to test vital potency. It recalls the pretty little story of\nPicciola, in which a tender plant must grow between the interstices of\nthe bricks in a prison yard. Besides the potent bonds of the only\northodox Confucian philosophy which was allowed and the legally\nrecognized religions, there was gradually formed a marvellous system of\nlegislation, that turned the whole nation into a secret society in which\nspies and hypocrites flourished like fungus on a dead log. Besides the\nunwritten code of private law,[4] that is, the local and general customs\nfounded on immemorial usage, there was that peculiar legal system framed\nby Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, bequeathed as a legacy and for over two hundred years\npractically the supreme law of the land.\n\nWhat this law was, it was exceedingly difficult, if not utterly\nimpossible, for the aliens dwelling in the country at Nagasaki ever to\nfind out. Keenly intellectual, as many of the physicians,\nsuperintendents and elect members of the Dutch trading company were,\nthey seem never to have been able to get hold of what has been called\n\"The Testament of Iy\u00e9yas\u016d.\"[5] This consisted of one hundred laws or\nregulations, based on a home-spun sort of Confucianism, intended to be\northodoxy \"unbroken for ages eternal.\"\n\nTo a man of western mode of thinking, the most astonishing thing is that\nthis law was esoteric.[6] The people knew of it only by its irresistible\nforce, and by the constant pressure or the rare easing of its iron hand.\nThose who executed the law were drilled in its routine from childhood,\nand this routine became second nature. Only a few copies of the original\ninstrument were known, and these were kept with a secrecy which to the\npeople became a sacred mystery guarded by a long avenue of awe.\n\n\nThe Dutchmen at D\u00e9shima.\n\n\nThe Dutchmen who lived at D\u00e9shima for two centuries and a half, and the\nforeigners who first landed at the treaty ports in 1859, on inquiring\nabout the methods of the Japanese Government, the laws and their\nadministration, found that everything was veiled behind a vague\nembodiment of something which was called \"the Law.\" What that law was,\nby whom enacted, and under what sanctions enforced, no one could tell;\nthough all seemed to stand in awe of it as something of superhuman\nefficiency. Its mysteriousness was only equalled by the abject\nsubmission which it received.\n\nForeign diplomatists, on trying to deal with the seat and source of\nauthority, instead of seeing the real head of power, played, as it were,\na game of chess against a mysterious hand stretched out from behind a\ncurtain. Morally, the whole tendency of such a dual system of exclusion\nand of inclusion was to make a nation of liars, foster confirmed habits\nof deceit, and create a code of politeness vitiated by insincerity.\n\nWith such repression of the natural powers of humanity, it was but in\naccordance with the nature of things that licentiousness should run\nriot, that on the fringes of society there should be the outcast and the\npariah, and that the social waste of humanity by prostitution, by\nmurder, by criminal execution under a code that prescribed the death\npenalty for hundreds of offences, should be enormous. It is natural also\nthat in such a state of society population[7] should be kept down within\nnecessary limits, not only by famine, by the restraints of feudalism, by\nlegalized murder in the form of vendetta, by a system of prostitution\nthat made and still makes Japan infamous, by child murder, by lack of\nencouragement given to feeble or malformed children to live, and by\nvarious devices known to those who were ingenious in keeping up so\nartificial a state of society.\n\nThat there were many who tried to break through this wall, from both the\ninside and the outside, and to force the frontiers of exclusion and\ninclusion, is not to be wondered at. Externally, there were bold spirits\nfrom Christendom who burned to know the secrets of the mysterious land.\nSome even yearned to wear the ruby crown. The wonderful story of past\nChristian triumphs deeply stirred the heart of more than one fiery\nspirit, and so we find various attempts made by the clerical brethren of\nsouthern Europe to enter the country. Bound by their promises, the Dutch\ncaptains could not introduce these emissaries of a banned religion\nwithin the borders; yet there are several notable instances of Roman\nCatholic \"religious\"[8] getting themselves left by shipmasters on the\nshores of Japan. The lion's den of reality was Yedo. Like the lion's den\nof fable, the footprints all led one way, and where these led the bones\nof the victims soon lay.\n\nBesides these men with religious motives, the ships of the West came\nwith offers of trade and threats of invasion. These were English,\nFrench, Russian and American, and the story of the frequent episodes has\nbeen told by Hildreth, Aston,[9] Nitob\u00e9, and others. There is also a\nconsiderable body of native literature which gives the inside view of\nthese efforts to force the seclusion of the hermit nation, and coax or\ncompel the Japanese to be more sociable and more human. All were in vain\nuntil the peaceful armada, under the flag of thirty-one stars, led by\nMatthew Calbraith Perry,[10] broke the long seclusion of this Thorn-rose\nof the Pacific, and the unarmed diplomacy of Townsend Harris,[11]\nbrought Japan into the brotherhood of commercial and Christian nations.\n\nWithin the isolating walls and the barred gates the story of the seekers\nafter God is a thrilling one. The intellect of choice spirits, beating\nlike caged eagles the bars of their prisons, yearned for more light and\nlife. \"Though an eagle be starving,\" says the Japanese proverb, \"it will\nnot eat grain;\" and so, while the mass of the people and even the\nerudite, were content with ground food--even the chopped straw and husks\nof materialistic Confucianism and decayed Buddhism--there were noble\nsouls who soared upward to exercise their God-given powers, and to seek\nnourishment fitted for that human spirit which goeth upward and not\ndownward, and which, ever in restless discontent, seeks the Infinite.\n\n\nProtests of Inquiring Spirits.\n\n\nThere is no stronger proof of the true humanity and the innate\ngod-likeness of the Japanese, of their worthiness to hold and their\ninherent power to win a high place among the nations of the earth, than\nthis longing of a few elect ones for the best that earth could give and\nHeaven bestow. We find men in travail of spirit, groping after God if\nhaply they might find Him, following the ways of the Spirit along lines\ndifferent, and in pathways remote, from those laid down by Confucius and\nhis materialistic commentators, or by Buddha and his parodists or\ncaricaturists. The story of the philosophers, who mutinied against the\niron clamps and governmentally nourished system of the S\u00e9ido College\nexpounders, is yet to be fully told.[12] It behooves some Japanese\nscholar to tell it.\n\nHow earnest truth-seeking Japanese protested and rebelled against the\neconomic fallacies, against the political despotism, against the\nabominable usurpations, against the false strategies and against the\ninherent immoralities of the Tokugawa system, has of late years been set\nforth with tantalizing suggestiveness, but only in fragments, by the\nnative historians. Heartrending is the narrative of these men who\nstudied, who taught, who examined, who sifted the mountains of chaff in\nthe native literature and writings, who made long journeys on foot all\nover the country, who furtively travelled in Korea and China, who\nboarded Dutch and Russian vessels, who secretly read forbidden books,\nwho tried to improve their country and their people. These men saw that\ntheir country was falling behind not only the nations of the West, but,\nas it seemed to them, even the nations of the East. They felt that\nradical changes were necessary in order to reform the awful poverty,\ndisease, licentiousness, national weakness, decay of bodily powers, and\nthe creeping paralysis of the Samurai intellect and spirit. How they\nwere ostracized, persecuted, put under ban, hounded by the spies, thrown\ninto prison; how they died of starvation or of disease; how they were\nbeheaded, crucified, or compelled to commit _hara-kiri_; how their books\nwere purged by the censors, or put under ban or destroyed,[13] and their\nmaps, writings and plates burned, has not yet been told. It is a story\nthat, when fully narrated, will make a volume of extraordinary interest.\nIt is a story which both Christian and human interests challenge some\nnative author to tell. During all this time, but especially during the\nfirst half of the nineteenth century, there was one steady goal to which\nthe aspiring student ever kept his faith, and to which his feet tended.\nThere was one place of pilgrimage, toward which the sons of the morning\nmoved, and which, despite the spy and the informer and the vigilance of\ngovernors, fed their spirits, and whence they carried the sacred fire,\nor bore the seed whose harvest we now see. That goal of the pilgrim band\nwas Nagasaki, and the place where the light burned and the sacred flames\nwere kindled was D\u00e9shima. The men who helped to make true patriots,\ndaring thinkers, inquirers after truth, bringers in of a better time,\nyes, and even Christians and preachers of the good news of God, were\nthese Dutchmen of D\u00e9shima.\n\n\nA Handful of Salt in a Stagnant Mass.\n\n\nThe Nagasaki Hollanders were not immaculate saints, neither were they\nsooty devils. They did not profess to be Christian missionaries. On the\nother hand, they were men not devoid of conscience nor of sympathy with\naspiring and struggling men in a hermit nation, eager for light and\ntruth. The Dutchman during the time of hermit Japan, as we see him in\nthe literature of men who were hostile in faith and covetous rivals in\ntrade, is a repulsive figure. He seems to be a brutal wretch, seeking\nonly gain, and willing to sell conscience, humanity and his religion,\nfor pelf. In reality, he was an ordinary European, probably no better,\ncertainly no worse, than his age or the average man of his country or of\nhis continent. Further, among this average dozen of exiles in the\ninterest of commerce, science or culture, there were frequently\nhonorable men far above the average European, and shining examples of\nChristianity and humanity. Even in his submission to the laws of the\ncountry, the Dutchman did no more, no less, but exactly as the\ndaimi\u014ds,[14] who like himself were subject to the humiliations\nimposed by the rulers in Yedo.\n\nIt was the Dutch, who, for two hundred years supplied the culture of\nEurope to Japan, introduced Western science, furnished almost the only\nintellectual stimulant, and were the sole teachers of medicine and\nscience.[15] They trained up hundreds of Japanese to be physicians who\npractised rational medicine and surgery. They filled with needed courage\nthe hearts of men, who, secretly practising dissection of the bodies of\ncriminals, demonstrated the falsity of Chinese ideas of anatomy. It was\nDutch science which exploded and drove out of Japan that Chinese system\nof medicine, by means of which so many millions have, during the long\nages, been slowly tortured to death.\n\nThe D\u00e9shima Dutchman was a kindly adviser, helper, guide and friend, the\none means of communication with the world, a handful of salt in the\nstagnant mass. Long before the United States, or Commodore Perry, the\nHollanders advised the Yodo government in favor of international\nintercourse. The Dutch language, nearest in structure and vocabulary to\nthe English, even richer in the descriptive energy of its terms, and\nsaturated withal with Christian truth, was studied by eager young men.\nThese speakers of an impersonal language which in psychological\ndevelopment was scarcely above the grade of childhood, were exercised in\na tongue that stands second to none in Europe for purity, vigor,\npersonality and philosophical power. The Japanese students of Dutch held\na golden key which opened the treasures of modern thought and of the\nworld's literature. The minds of thinking Japanese were thus made\nplastic for the reception of the ideas of Christianity. Best of all,\nthough forbidden by their contracts to import Bibles into Japan, the\nDutchmen, by means of works of reference, pointed more than one\ninquiring spirit to the information by which the historic Christ became\nknown. The books which they imported, the information which they gave,\nthe stimulus which they imparted, were as seeds planted within\nmasonry-covered earth, that were to upheave and overthrow the fabric of\nexclusion and inclusion reared by the Tokugawa Sh\u014dguns.\n\nTime and space fail us to tell how eager spirits not only groped after\nGod, but sought the living Christ--though often this meant to them\nimprisonment, suicide enforced by the law, or decapitation. Yet over all\nJapan, long before the broad pennant of Perry was mirrored on the waters\nof Yedo Bay, there were here and there masses of leavened opinion, spots\nof kindled light, and fields upon which the tender green sprouts of new\nideas could be detected. To-day, as inquiry among the oldest of the\nChristian leaders and scores of volumes of modern biography shows, the\nmost earnest and faithful among the preachers, teachers and soldiers in\nthe Christian army, were led into their new world of ideas through Dutch\nculture. The fact is revealed in repeated instances, that, through\nfather, grandfather, uncle, or other relative--some pilgrim to the Dutch\nat Nagasaki--came their first knowledge, their initial promptings, the\nenvironment or atmosphere, which made them all sensitive and ready to\nreceive the Christian truth when it came in its full form from the\nliving missionary and the vital word of God. Some one has well said that\nthe languages of modern Europe are nothing more than Christianity\nexpressed with differing pronunciation and vocabulary. To him who will\nreceive it, the mastery of any one of the languages of Christendom, is,\nin a large sense, a revelation of God in Christ Jesus.\n\n\nSeekers after God.\n\n\nPathetic, even to the compulsion of tears, is the story of these seekers\nafter God. We, who to-day are surrounded by every motive and inducement\nto Christian living and by every means and appliance for the practice of\nthe Christian life, may well consider for a moment the struggle of\nearnest souls to find out God. Think of this one who finds a Latin Bible\ncast up on the shore from some broken ship, and bearing it secretly in\nhis bosom to the Hollander, gains light as to the meaning of its\nmessage. Think of the nobleman, Watanab\u00e9 Oboru,[16] who, by means of the\nJapanese interpreter of Dutch, Takano Choy\u00e9i, is thrilled with the story\nof Jesus of Nazareth who helped and healed and spake as no other man\nspake, teaching with an authority above that of the masters Confucius or\nBuddha. Think of the daimi\u014d of Mito,[17] who, proud in lineage,\nlearned and scholarly, and surrounded by a host of educated men, is yet\nunsatisfied with what the wise of his own country could give him, and\ngathers around him the relics unearthed from the old persecutions. From\na picture of the Virgin, a fragment of a litany, or it may be a part of\na breviary, he tries to make out what Christianity is.\n\nThink of Yokoi H\u00e9ishiro,[18] learned in Confucius and his commentators,\nwho seeks better light, sends to China for a Chinese translation of the\nNew Testament, and in his lectures on the Confucian ethics, to the\ndelight and yet to the surprise of his hearers who hear grander truth\nthan they are able to find in text or commentary, really preaches\nChrist, and prophesies that the time will come when the walls of\nisolation being levelled, the brightest intellects of Japan will welcome\nthis same Jesus and His doctrine. Think of him again, when unable to\npurify the Augean stables of Yedo's moral corruption, because the time\nwas at hand for other cleansing agencies, he retires to his home,\ncontent awhile with his books and flowers. Again, see him summoned to\nthe capital, to sit at Ki\u014dto--like aged Franklin among the young\nstatesmen of the Constitution in Philadelphia--with the Mikado's\nyouthful advisers in the new government of 1868. Think of him pleading\nfor the elevation of the pariah Eta, accursed and outcast through\nBuddhism, to humanity and citizenship. Then hear him urge eloquently the\nright of personal belief, and argue for toleration under the law, of\nopinions, which the Japanese then stigmatized as \"evil\" and devilish,\nbut which we, and many of them now, call sound and Christian. Finally,\nbehold him at night in the public streets, assaulted by assassins, and\ngiven quick death by their bullet and blades. See his gray head lying\nsevered from his body and in its own gore, the wretched murderers\nthinking they have stayed the advancing tide of Christianity; but at\nhome there dwells a little son destined in God's providence to become an\nearnest Christian and one of the brilliant leaders of the native\nChristianity of Japan in our day.\n\n\nThe Buddhist Inquisitors.\n\n\nDuring the nation's period of Thorn-rose-like seclusion, the three\nreligions recognized by the law were Buddhism, Shint\u014d and\nConfucianism. Christianity was the outlawed sect. All over the country,\non the high-roads, at the bridges, and in the villages, towns and\ncities, the fundamental laws of the country were written on wooden\ntablets called kosats\u016d. These, framed and roofed for protection from\nthe weather, but easily before the eyes of every man, woman and child,\nand written in a style and language understood of all, denounced the\nChristian religion as an accursed \"sect,\" and offered gold to the spy\nand informer;[19] while once a year every Samurai was required to swear\non the true faith of a gentleman that he had nothing to do with\nChristianity. From the seventeenth century, the country having been\ndivided into parishes, the inquisition was under the charge of the\nBuddhist priests who penetrated into the house and family and guarded\nthe graveyards, so that neither earth nor fire should embrace the\ncarcass of a Christian, nor his dust or ashes defile the ancestral\ngraveyards. Twice--in 1686 and in 1711--were the rewards increased and\nthe Buddhist bloodhounds of Japan's Inquisition set on fresh trails. On\none occasion, at Osaka, in 1839,[20] a rebellion broke out which was\nbelieved, though without evidence, to have been instigated in some way\nby men with Christian ideas, and was certainly led by Oshio, the bitter\nopponent of Buddhism, of Tokugawa, and of the prevalent Confucianism.\nPossibly, the uprising was aided by refugees from Korea. Those\nimplicated were, after speedy trial, crucified or beheaded. In the\nsouthern part of the country the ceremony of Ebumi or trampling on the\ncross,[21] was long performed. Thousands of people were made to pass\nthrough a wicket, beneath which and on the ground lay a copper plate\nengraved with the image of the Christ and the cross. In this way it was\nhoped to utterly eradicate the very memory of Christianity, which, to\nthe common people, had become the synonym for sorcery.\n\nBut besides the seeking after God by earnest souls and the protest of\nphilosophers, there was, amid the prevailing immorality and the\nagnosticism and scepticism bred by decayed Buddhism and the\nmaterialistic philosophy based on Confucius, some earnest struggles for\nthe purification of morals and the spiritual improvement of the people.\n\n\nThe Shingaku Movement.\n\n\nOne of the most remarkable of the movements to this end was that of the\nShingaku or New Learning. A class of practical moralists, to offset the\nprevailing tendency of the age to much speculation and because Buddhism\ndid so little for the people, tried to make the doctrines of Confucius a\nliving force among the great mass of people. This movement, though\nConfucian in its chief tone and color, was eclectic and intended to\ncombine all that was best in the Chinese system with what could be\nutilized from Shint\u014d and Buddhism. With the preaching was combined a\ngood deal of active benevolence. Especially in the time of famine, was\ncare for humanity shown. The effect upon the people was noticeable,\nfollowers multiplied rapidly, and it is said that even the government in\nmany instances made them, the Shingaku preachers, the distributors of\nrice and alms for the needy. Some of the preachers became famous and\ncounted among their followers many men of influence. The literary side\nof the movement[22] has been brought to the attention of English readers\nthrough Mr. Mitford's translation of three sermons from the volume\nentitled Shingaku D\u014dwa. Other discourses have been from time to time\nrendered into English, those by Shibata, entitled The Sermons of the\nDove-like Venerable Master, being especially famous.\n\nThis movement, interesting as it was, came to an end when the country\nbegan to be convulsed by the approaching entrance of foreigners, through\nthe Perry treaty; but it serves to show, what we believe to be the\ntruth, that the moral rottenness as well as the physical decay of the\nJapanese people reached their acme just previous to the apparition of\nthe American fleet in 1853.\n\nThe story of nineteenth century Reformed Christianity in Japan does not\nbegin with Perry, or with Harris, or with the arrival of Christian\nmissionaries in 1859; for it has a subterranean and interior history, as\nwe have hinted; while that of the Roman form and order is a story of\nunbroken continuity, though the life of the tunnel is now that of the\nsunny road. The parable of the leaven is first illustrated and then that\nof the mustard-seed. Before Christianity was phenomenal, it was potent.\nLet us now look from the interior to the outside.\n\nOn Perry's flag-ship, the Mississippi, the Bible lay open, a sermon was\npreached, and the hymn \"Before Jehovah's Awful Throne\" was sung, waking\nthe echoes of the Japan hills. The Christian day of rest was honored on\nthis American squadron. In the treaty signed in 1854, though it was\nmade, indeed, with use of the name of God and terms of Christian\nchronology, there was nothing upon which to base, either by right or\nprivilege, the residence of missionaries in the country. Townsend\nHarris, the American Consul-General, who hoisted his flag and began his\nhermit life at Shimoda, in September, 1855, had as his only companion a\nDutch secretary, Mr. Heusken, who was later, in Yedo, to be assassinated\nby ronins.\n\nWithout ship or soldier, overcoming craft and guile, and winning his way\nby simple honesty and perseverance, Mr. Harris obtained audience[23] of\n\"the Tycoon\" in Yedo, and later from the Sh\u014dgun's daring minister Ii,\nthe signature to a treaty which guaranteed to Americans the rights of\nresidence, trade and commerce. Thus Americans were enabled to land as\ncitizens, and pursue their avocation as religious teachers. As the\ngovernment of the United States of America knows nothing of the religion\nof American citizens abroad, it protects all missionaries who are\nlaw-abiding citizens, without regard to creed.[24]\n\n\nJapan Once More Missionary Soil.\n\n\nThe first missionaries were on the ground as soon as the ports were\nopen. Though surrounded by spies and always in danger of assassination\nand incendiarism, they began their work of mastering the language. To do\nthis without trained teachers or apparatus of dictionary and grammar,\nwas then an appalling task. The medical missionary began healing the\nswarms of human sufferers, syphilitic, consumptive, and those scourged\nby small-pox, cholera and hereditary and acute diseases of all sorts.\nThe patience, kindness and persistency of these Christian men literally\nturned the edge of the sword, disarmed the assassin, made the spies'\noccupation useless, shamed away the suspicious, and conquered the nearly\ninvincible prejudices of the government. Despite the awful under-tow in\nthe immorality of the sailor, the adventurer and the gain-greedy\nforeigner, the tide of Christianity began steadily to rise.\nNotwithstanding the outbursts of the flames of persecution, the torture\nand imprisonment of Christian captives and exiles, and the slow worrying\nto death of the missionary's native teachers, inquirers came and\nconverts were made. In 1868, after revolution and restoration, the old\norder changed, and duarchy and feudalism passed away. Quick to seize the\nopportunity, Dr. J.C. Hepburn, healer of bodies and souls of men,\npresented a Bible to the Emperor, and the gift was accepted.\n\nNo sooner had the new government been established in safety, and the\nname of Yedo, the city of the Baydoor, been changed into that of\nT\u014dki\u014d, the Eastern Capital, than an embassy[25] of seventy persons\nstarted on its course round the world. At its head were three cabinet\nministers of the new government and the court noble, Iwakura, of\nimmemorial lineage, in whose veins ran the blood of the men called gods.\nAcross the Pacific to the United States they went, having their initial\naudience of the President of the Republic that knows no state church,\nand whose Christianity had compelled both the return of the shipwrecked\nJapanese and the freedom of the slave.\n\nThis embassy had been suggested and its course planned by a Christian\nmissionary, who found that of the seventy persons, one-half had been his\npupils.[26]\n\n\nThe Imperial Embassy Round the World.\n\n\nThe purpose of these envoys was, first of all, to ask of the nations of\nChristendom equal rights, to get removed the odious extra-territoriality\nclause in the treaties, to have the right to govern aliens on their\nsoil, and to regulate their own tariff. Secondarily, its members\nwent to study the secrets of power and the resources of civilization in\nthe West, to initiate the liberal education of their women by leaving in\nAmerican schools a little company of maidens, to enlarge the system of\neducation for their own country, and to send abroad with approval others\nof their young men who, for a decade past had, in spite of every ban and\nobstacle, been furtively leaving the country for study beyond the seas.\n\nIn the lands of Christendom, the eyes of ambassadors, ministers,\nsecretaries and students were opened. They saw themselves as others saw\nthem. They compared their own land and nation, mediaeval in spirit and\nbackward in resources, and their people untrained as children, with the\nmodern power, the restless ambition, the stern purpose, the intense life\nof the western nations, with their mighty fleets and armaments, their\ninventions and machinery, their economic and social theories and forces,\ntheir provision for the poor, the sick, and the aged, the peerless\nfamily life in the Christian home. They found, further yet, free\nchurches divorced from politics and independent of the state; that the\nleading force of the world was Christianity, that persecution was\nbarbarous, and that toleration was the law of the future, and largely\nthe condition of the present. It took but a few whispers over the\ntelegraphic wire, and the anti-Christian edicts disappeared from public\nview like snowflakes melting on the river. The right arm of persecution\nwas broken.\n\nThe story of the Book of Acts of the modern apostles in Japan is told,\nfirst in the teaching of inquirers, preaching to handfuls, the gathering\nof tiny companies, the translation of the Gospel, and then prayer and\nwaiting for the descent of the Holy Spirit. A study of the Book of the\nActs of the Apostles, followed in order to find out how the Christian\nChurch began. On the 10th day of March, in the year of our Lord and of\nthe era of Meiji (Enlightened Peace) the fifth, 1872, at Yokohama, in\nthe little stone chapel built on part of Commodore Perry's treaty\nground, was formed the first Reformed or Protestant Christian Church in\nJapan.\n\nAt this point our task is ended. We cannot even glance at the native\nChristian churches of the Roman, Reformed, or Greek order, or attempt to\nappraise the work of the foreign missionaries. He has read these pages\nin vain, however, who does not see how well, under Providence, the\nJapanese have been trained for higher forms of faith.\n\nThe armies of Japan are upon Chinese soil, while we pen our closing\nlines. The last chains of purely local and ethnic dogma are being\nsnapped asunder. May the sons of Dai Nippon, as they win new horizons of\ntruth, see more clearly and welcome more loyally that Prince of Peace\nwhose kingdom is not of this world.\n\nMay the age of political conquest end, and the era of the\nself-reformation of the Asian nations, through the gospel of Jesus\nChrist, be ushered in.\n\n\n\n\nNOTES, AUTHORITIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\nThe few abbreviations used in these pages stand for well-known works:\nT.A.S.J., for Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan; Kojiki, for\nSupplement to Volume X., T.A.S.J., Introduction, Translation, Notes,\nMap, etc., by Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain; T.J., for Things\nJapanese (2d ed.), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; S. and H., for Satow\nand Hawes's Hand-book for Japan, now continued in new editions (4th,\n1894), by Professor B.H. Chamberlain; C.R.M., for Mayers's Chinese\nReader's Manual; M.E., The Mikado's Empire (7th ed.); B.N., for Mr.\nBunyiu Nanjio's A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects,\nT\u014dki\u014d, 1887.\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nPRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The late Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, LL.D., who\napplied the principles of electro-magnetism to telegraphy, was the son\nof the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., the celebrated theologian, geographer,\nand gazetteer. In memory of his father, Professor Morse founded this\nlectureship in Union Theological Seminary, New York, on \"The Relation of\nthe Bible to the Sciences,\" May 20,1865, by the gift of ten thousand\ndollars.]\n\n[Footnote 2: An American Missionary in Japan, p. 209, by Rev. M.L.\nGordon, M.D., Boston, 1892.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Lucretia Coftin Mott.]\n\n[Footnote 4: \"I remember once making a calculation in Hong Kong, and\nmaking out my baptisms to have amounted to about six hundred.... I\nbelieve with you that the study of comparative religion is important for\nall missionaries. Still more important, it seems to me, is it that\nmissionaries should make themselves thoroughly proficient in the\nlanguages and literature of the people to whom they are sent.\"--Dr.\nLegge's Letter to the Author, November 27, 1893.]\n\n[Footnote 5: The Religions of China, p. 240, by James Legge, New York,\n1881.]\n\n[Footnote 6: The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 22, Boston editions\nof 1859 and 1879.]\n\n[Footnote 7: One of the many names of Japan is that of the Country Ruled\nby a Slender Sword, in allusion to the clumsy weapons employed by the\nChinese and Koreans. See, for the shortening and lightening of the\nmodern Japanese sword (_katana_) as compared with the long and heavy\n(_ken_) of the \"Divine\" (_kami_) or uncivilized age, \"The Sword of\nJapan; Its History and Traditions,\" T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 58.]\n\n[Footnote 8: The course of lectures on The Religions of Chinese Asia\n(which included most of the matter in this book), given by the author in\nBangor Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me., in April, 1894, was upon the\nBond foundation, founded by alumni and named after the chief donor, Rev.\nEllas Bond, D.D., of Kohala, long an active missionary in Hawaii.]\n\n[Footnote 9: This is the contention of Professor Kumi, late of the\nImperial University of Japan; see chapter on Shint\u014d.]\n\n[Footnote 10: In illustration, comical or pitiful, the common people in\nSatsuma believe that the spirit of the great Saigo Takamori, leader of\nthe rebellion of 1877, \"has taken up its abode in the planet Mars,\"\nwhile the spirits of his followers entered into a new race of frogs that\nattack man and fight until killed--Mounsey's The Satsuma Rebellion, p.\n217. So, also, the _Heik\u00e9-gani_, or crabs at Shimonos\u00e9ki, represent the\ntransmigration of the souls of the Heik\u00e9 clan, nearly exterminated in\n1184 A.D., while the \"H\u014dj\u014d bugs\" are the avatars of the execrated\nrulers of Kamakura (1219-1333 A.D.).--Japan in History, Folk-lore, and\nArt, Boston, 1892, pp. 115, 133.]\n\n[Footnote 11: The Future of Religion in Japan. A paper read at the\nParliament of Religions by Nobuta Kishimoto.]\n\n[Footnote 12: The Ainos, though they deify all the chief objects of\nnature, such as the sun, the sea, fire, wild beasts, etc., often talk of\na Creator, _Kotan kara kamui_, literally the God who made the World. At\nthe fact of creation they stop short.... One gathers that the creative\nact was performed not directly, but through intermediaries, who were\napparently animals.\"--Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12. See also on the\nAino term \"Kamui,\" by Professor B.H. Chamberlain and Rev. J. Batchelor,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XVI.]\n\n[Footnote 13: See Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella Bird (Bishop),\nVol. II.; The Ainu of Japan, by Rev. John Batchelor; B. Douglas Howard's\nLife With Trans-Siberian Savages; Ripley Hitchcock's Report, Smithsonian\nInstitute, Washington. Professor B. H. Chamberlain's invaluable \"Aino\nStudies,\" T\u014dki\u014d, 1887, makes scholarly comparison of the Japanese\nand Aino language, mythology, and geographical nomenclature.]\n\n[Footnote 14: M.E., The Mythical Zo\u00f6logy of Japan, pp. 477-488. C.R.M.,\n_passim_.]\n\n[Footnote 15: See the valuable article entitled Demoniacal Possession,\nT.J., p. 106, and the author's Japanese Fox Myths, _Lippincott's\nMagazine_, 1873.]\n\n[Footnote 16: See the Aino animal stories and evidences of beast worship\nin Chamberlain's Aino Studies. For this element in Japanese life, see\nthe Kojiki, and the author's Japanese Fairy World.]\n\n[Footnote 17: The proprietor of a paper-mill in Massachusetts, who had\nbought a cargo of rags, consisting mostly of farmers' cast off clothes,\nbrought to the author a bundle of scraps of paper which he had found in\nthis cheap blue-dyed cotton wearing apparel. Besides money accounts and\npersonal matters, there were numerous temple amulets and priests'\ncertificates. See also B.H. Chamberlain's Notes on Some Minor Japanese\nReligious Practices, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May,\n1893.]\n\n[Footnote 18: M.E., p. 440.]\n\n[Footnote 19: See the Lecture on Buddhism in its Doctrinal\nDevelopment.--The Nichiren Sect.]\n\n[Footnote 20: The phallus was formerly a common emblem in all parts of\nJapan, Hondo, Kiushiu, Shikoku, and the other islands. Bayard Taylor\nnoticed it in the Riu Kiu (Loo Choo) Islands; Perry's Expedition to\nJapan, p. 196; Bayard Taylor's Expedition in Lew Chew; M.E., p. 33,\nnote; Rein's Japan, p. 432; Diary of Richard Cocks, Vol. I., p. 283. The\nnative guide-books and gazetteers do not allude to the subject.\n\nAlthough the author of this volume has collected considerable data from\npersonal observations and the testimony of personal friends concerning\nthe vanishing nature-worship of the Japanese, he has, in the text,\nscarcely more than glanced at the subject. In a work of this sort,\nintended both for the general reader as well as for the scientific\nstudent of religion, it has been thought best to be content with a few\nsimple references to what was once widely prevalent in the Japanese\narchipelago.\n\nProbably the most thorough study of Japanese phallicism yet made by any\nforeign scholar is that of Edmund Buckley, A.M., Ph.D., of the Chicago\nUniversity, Lecturer on Shint\u014d, the Ethnic Faith of Japan, and on the\nScience of Religion. Dr. Buckley spent six years in central and\nsouthwestern Japan, most of the time as instructor in the Doshisha\nUniversity, Ki\u014dto. He will publish the results of his personal\nobservations and studios in a monograph on phallicism, which will be on\nsale at Chicago University, in which the Buckley collection illustrating\nShint\u014d-worship has been deposited.]\n\n[Footnote 21: Mr. Takahashi Gor\u014d, in his Shint\u014d Shin-ron, or New\nDiscussion of Shint\u014d, accepts the derivation of the word _kami_ from\n_kab\u00e9_, mould, mildew, which, on its appearance, excites wonder. For\nHirata's discussion, see T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 48. In a\nstriking paper on the Early Gods of Japan, in a recent number of the\nPhilosophical Magazine, published in T\u014dki\u014d, a Japanese writer, Mr.\nKenjir\u014d Hirad\u00e9, states also that the term kami does not necessarily\ndenote a spiritual being, but is only a relative term meaning above or\nhigh, but this respect toward something high or above has created many\nimaginary deities as well as those having a human history. See also\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I., p. 55, note.]\n\n[Footnote 22: \"There remains something of the Shint\u014d heart after\ntwelve hundred years of foreign creeds and dress. The worship of the\nmarvellous continues.... Exaggerated force is most impressive.... So the\nancient gods, heroes, and wonders are worshipped still. The simple\ncountryfolk clap their hands, bow their heads, mumble their prayers, and\noffer the fraction of a cent to the first European-built house they\nsee.\"--Philosophy in Japan, Past and Present, by Dr. George Wm. Knox.]\n\n[Footnote 23: M.E., p. 474. Honda the Samurai, pp. 256-267.]\n\n[Footnote 24: Kojiki, pp. 127, 136, 213, 217.]\n\n[Footnote 25: See S. and H., pp. 39, 76.\n\n\"The appearance of anything unusual at a particular spot is hold to be a\nsure sign of the presence of divinity. Near the spot where I live in\nKo-ishi-kawa, T\u014dki\u014d, is a small Miya, built at the foot of a very\nold tree, that stands isolated on the edge of a rice-field. The spot\nlooks somewhat insignificant, but upon inquiring why a shrine has been\nplaced there, I was told that a white snake had been found at the foot\nof the old tree.\" ...\n\n\"As it is, the religion of the Japanese consists in the belief that the\nproductive ethereal spirit, being expanded through the whole universe,\nevery part is in some degree impregnated with it; and therefore, every\npart is in some measure the seat of the Deity.\"--Legendre's Progressive\nJapan, p. 258.]\n\n[Footnote 26: De Verflauwing der Grenzen, by Dr. Abraham Kuyper,\nAmsterdam, 1892; translated by Rev. T. Hendrik de Vries, in the\nMethodist Review, New York, July-Sept., 1893.]\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nSHINT\u014c; MYTHS AND RITUAL\n\n\n[Footnote 1: The scholar who has made profound researches in all\ndepartments of Japanese learning, but especially in the literature of\nShint\u014d, is Mr. Ernest Satow, now the British Minister at Tangier. He\nreceived the degree of B.A. from the London University. After several\nyears' study and experience in China, Mr. Satow came to Japan in 1861 as\nstudent-interpreter to the British Legation, receiving his first drill\nunder Rev. S.R. Brown, D.D., author of A Grammar of Colloquial Japanese.\nTo ceaseless industry, this scholar, to whom the world is so much\nindebted for knowledge of Japan, has added philosophic insight. Besides\nunearthing documents whose existence was unsuspected, he has cleared the\nway for investigators and comparative students by practically removing\nthe barriers reared by archaic speech and writing. His papers in the\nT.A.S.J., on The Shint\u014d Shrines at Is\u00e9, the Revival of Pure\nShint\u014d, and Ancient Japanese Rituals, together with his Hand-book for\nJapan, form the best collection of materials for the study of the\noriginal and later forms of Shint\u014d.]\n\n[Footnote 2: The scholar who above all others has, with rare acumen\nunited to laborious and prolonged toil, illuminated the subject of\nJapan's chronology and early history is Mr. W.G. Aston of the British\nCivil Service. He studied at the Queen's University, Ireland, receiving\nthe degree of M.A. He was appointed student-interpreter in Japan, August\n6, 1864. He is the author of a Grammar of the Written Japanese Language,\nand has been a student of the comparative history and speech and writing\nof China, Korea, and Japan, during the past thirty years. See his\nvaluable papers in the T.A.S.J., and the learned societies in Great\nBritain. In his paper on Early Japanese History, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI.,\npp. 39-75, he recapitulates the result of his researches, in which he\nis, in the main, supported by critical native scholars, and by the late\nWilliam Bramsen, in his Japanese Chronological Tables, T\u014dki\u014d,\n1880. He considers A.D. 461 as the first trustworthy date in the\nJapanese annals. We quote from his paper, Early Japanese History,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 73.\n\n1. The earliest date of the accepted Japanese Chronology, the accuracy\nof which is confirmed by external evidence, is A.D. 461.\n\n2. Japanese History, properly so called, can hardly be said to exist\nprevious to A.D. 500. (A cursory examination leads me to think that the\nannals of the sixth century must also be received with caution.)\n\n3. Korean History and Chronology are more trustworthy than those of\nJapan during the period previous to that date.\n\n4. While there was an Empress of Japan in the third century A.D., the\nstatement that she conquered Korea is highly improbable.\n\n5. Chinese learning was introduced into Japan from Korea 120 years later\nthan the date given in Japanese History.\n\n6. The main fact of Japan having a predominant influence in some parts\nof Korea during the fifth century is confirmed by the Korean and Chinese\nchronicles, which, however, show that the Japanese accounts are very\ninaccurate in matters of detail.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Basil Hall Chamberlain, who has done the world of learning\nsuch signal service by his works on the Japanese language, and\nespecially by his translation, with critical introduction and\ncommentary, of the Kojiki, is an English gentleman, born at Southsea,\nHampshire, England, on the 18th day of October, 1830. His mother was a\ndaughter of the well-known traveller and author, Captain Basil Hall,\nR.N., and his father an Admiral in the British Navy. He was educated for\nOxford, but instead of entering, for reasons of health, he spent a\nnumber of years in western Mid southern Europe, acquiring a knowledge of\nvarious languages and literatures. His coming to Japan (in May, 1873)\nwas rather the result of an accident--a long sea voyage and a trial of\nthe Japanese climate having been recommended. The country and the field\nof study suited the invalid well. After teaching for a time in the Naval\nCollege the Japanese honored themselves and this scholar by making him,\nin April, 1886, Professor of Philology at the Imperial University. His\nworks, The Classical Poetry of the Japanese, his various grammars and\nhand-books for the acquisition of the language, his Hand-book for Japan,\nhis Aino Studies, Things Japanese, papers in the T.A.S.J. and his\ntranslation of the Kojiki are all of a high order of value. They are\nmarked by candor, fairness, insight, and a mastery of difficult themes\nthat makes his readers his constant debtors.]\n\n[Footnote 4: \"If the term 'Altaic' be held to include Korean and\nJapanese, then Japanese assumes prime importance as being by far the\noldest living representative of that great linguistic group, its\nliterature antedating by many centuries the most ancient productions of\nthe Manchus, Mongols, Turks, Hungarians, or Finns.\"--Chamberlain,\nSimplified Grammar, Introd., p. vi.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 13-14; Mr. Pom K. Soh's paper\non Education in Korea; Report of U.S. Commissioner of Education,\n1890-91.]\n\n[Footnote 6: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., p. 74; Bramsen's Chronological Tables,\nIntrod., p. 34; T.J., p. 32.]\n\n[Footnote 7: The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., p. 531.]\n\n[Footnote 8: \"The frog in the well knows not the great ocean.\" This\nproverb, so freely quoted throughout Chinese Asia, and in recent years\nso much applied to themselves by the Japanese, is of Hindu origin and is\nfound in the Sanskrit.]\n\n[Footnote 9: This is shown with literary skill and power in a modern\npopular work, the title of which, Dai Nippon Kai-biyaku Yurai-iki,\nwhich, very freely indeed, may be translated Instances of Divine\nInterposition in Behalf of Great Japan. A copy of this work was\npresented to the writer by the late daimi\u014d of Echizen, and was read\nwith interest as containing the common people's ideas about their\ncountry and history. It was published in Yedo in 1856, while Japan was\nstill excited over the visits of the American and European fleets. On\nthe basis of the information furnished in this work General Le Gendre\nwrote his influential book, Progressive Japan, in which a number of\nquotations from the _Kai-biyaku_ may be read.]\n\n[Footnote 10: In the Kojiki, pp. 101-104, we have the poetical account\nof the abdication of the lord of Idzumo in favor of the Yamato\nconqueror, on condition that the latter should build a temple and have\nhim honored among the gods. One of the rituals contains the\ncongratulatory address of the chieftains of Idzumo, on their surrender\nto \"the first Mikado, Jimmu Tenn\u014d.\" See also T.J., p. 206.]\n\n[Footnote 11: \"The praying for Harvest, or Toshigoi no Matsuri, was\ncelebrated on the 4th day of the 2d month of each year, at the capital\nin the Jin-Gi-Kuan or office for the Worship of the Shint\u014d gods, and\nin the provinces by the chiefs of the local administrations. At the\nJin-Gi-Kuan there were assembled the ministers of state, the\nfunctionaries of that office, the priests and priestesses of 573\ntemples, containing 737 shrines, which were kept up at the expense of\nthe Mikado's treasury, while the governors of the provinces\nsuperintended in the districts under their administration the\nperformance of rites in honor of 2,395 other shrines. It would not be\neasy to state the exact number of deities to whom these 3,132 shrines\nwere dedicated. A glance over the list in the 9th and 10th books of the\nYengishiki shows at once that there were many gods who were worshipped\nin more than half-a-dozen different localities at the same time; but\nexact calculation is impossible, because in many cases only the names of\nthe temples are given, and we are left quite in the dark as to the\nindividuality of the gods to whom they were sacred. Besides these 3,132\nshrines, which are distinguished as Shikidai, that is contained in the\ncatalogue of the Yengishiki, there were a large number of enumerated\nshrines in temples scattered all over the country, in every village or\nhamlet, of which it was impossible to take any account, just as at the\npresent day there are temples of Hachiman, Kompira, Tenjin sama, San-no\nsama and Sengen sama, as they are popularly called, wherever twenty or\nthirty houses are collected together. The shrines are classed as great\nand small, the respective numbers being 492 and 2,640, the distinction\nbeing twofold, firstly in the proportionately larger quantity of\nofferings made at the great shrines, and secondly that the offerings in\nthe one case were arranged upon tables or altars, while in the other\nthey were placed on mats spread upon the earth. In the Yengishiki the\namounts and nature of the offerings are stated with great minuteness,\nbut it will be sufficient if the kinds of articles offered are alone\nmentioned here. It will be seen, by comparison with the text of the\nnorito, that they had varied somewhat since the date when the ritual was\ncomposed. The offerings to a greater shrine consisted of coarse woven\nsilk (_ashiginu_), thin silk of five different colors, a kind of stuff\ncalled _shidori_ or _shidzu_, which is supposed by some to have been a\nstriped silk, cloth of broussonetia bark or hemp, and a small quantity\nof the raw materials of which the cloth was made, models of swords, a\npair of tables or altars (called _yo-kura-oki_ and _ya-kura-oki_), a\nshield or mantlet, a spear-head, a bow, a quiver, a pair of stag's\nhorns, a hoe, a few measures of sak\u00e9 or rice-beer, some haliotis and\nbonito, two measures of _kituli_ (supposed to be salt roe), various\nkinds of edible seaweed, a measure of salt, a sak\u00e9 jar, and a few feet\nof matting for packing. To each of the temples of Watarai in Is\u00e9 was\npresented in addition a horse; to the temple of the Harvest god Mitoshi\nno kami, a white horse, cock, and pig, and a horse to each of nineteen\nothers.\n\n\"During the fortnight which preceded the celebration of the service, two\nsmiths and their journeymen, and two carpenters, together with eight\ninbe [or hereditary priests] were employed in preparing the apparatus\nand getting ready the offerings. It was usual to employ for the Praying\nfor Harvest members of this tribe who held office in the Jin-Gi-Kuan,\nbut if the number could not he made up in that office, it was supplied\nfrom other departments of state. To the tribe of quiver-makers was\nintrusted the special duty of weaving the quivers of wistaria tendrils.\nThe service began at twenty minutes to seven in the morning, by our\nreckoning of time. After the governor of the province of Yamashiro had\nascertained that everything was in readiness, the officials of the\nJin-Gi-Kuan arranged the offerings on the tables and below them,\naccording to the rank of the shrines for which they were intended. The\nlarge court of the Jin-Gi-Kuan where the service was held, called the\nSai-in, measured 230 feet by 370. At one end were the offices and on the\nwest side were the shrines of the eight Protective Deities in a row,\nsurrounded by a fence, to the interior of which three sacred archways\n(torii) gave access. In the centre of the court a temporary shed was\nerected for the occasion, in which the tables or altars were placed. The\nfinal preparations being now complete, the ministers of state, the\nvirgin priestesses and priests of the temples to which offerings were\nsent by the Mikado, entered in succession, and took the places severally\nassigned to them. The horses which formed a part of the offerings were\nnext brought in from the Mikado's stable, and all the congregation drew\nnear, while the reader recited or read the norito. This reader was a\nmember of the priestly family or tribe of Nakatomi, who traced their\ndescent back to Ameno-koyan\u00e9, one of the principal advisers attached to\nthe sun-goddess's grandchild when he first descended on earth. It is a\nremarkable evidence of the persistence of certain ideas, that up to the\nyear 1868 the nominal prime-minister of the Mikado, after he came of\nage, and the regent during his minority, if he had succeeded young to\nthe throne, always belonged to this tribe, which changed its name from\nNakatomi to Fujiwara in the seventh century, and was subsequently split\nup into the Five Setsuk\u00e9 or governing families. At the end of each\nsection the priests all responded 'O!' which was no doubt the equivalent\nof 'Yes' in use in those days. As soon as he had finished, the Nakatomi\nretired, and the offerings were distributed to the priests for\nconveyance and presentation to the gods to whose service they were\nattached. But a special messenger was despatched with the offerings\ndestined to the temples at Watarai. This formality having been\ncompleted, the President of the Jin-Gi-Kuan gave the signal for breaking\nup the assembly.\" Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J., Vol. VII, pp.\n104-107.]\n\n[Footnote 12: S. and H., p. 461.]\n\n[Footnote 13: Consult Chamberlain's literal translations of the name in\nthe Kojiki, and p. lxv. of his Introduction.]\n\n[Footnote 14: The parallel between the Hebrew and Japanese accounts of\nlight and darkness, day and night, before the sun, has been noticed by\nseveral writers. See the comments of Hirata, a modern Shint\u014d\nexpounder.--T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 72.]\n\n[Footnote 15: Westminster Review, July, 1878, p. 19.]\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n\"THE KOJIKI\" AND ITS TEACHINGS\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Kojiki, pp. 9-18; T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 20.]\n\n[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 43; McClintock and Strong's Cyclopedia, Art.\nShint\u014d; in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, is to be found Mr. Satow's\ndigest of the commentaries of the modern Shint\u014d revivalists; in Mr.\nChamberlain's translation of the Kojiki, the text with abundant notes.\nSee also Mr. Twan-Lin's Account of Japan up to A.D. 1200, by E.H.\nParker. T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part I.]\n\n[Footnote 3: \"The various abstractions which figure at the commencement\nof the 'Records' (Kojiki) and of the 'Chronicles' (Nihongi) were\nprobably later growths, and perhaps indeed were inventions of individual\npriests.\"--Kojiki, Introd., p. lxv. See also T.A.S.J., Vol. XXII., Part\nI, p. 56. \"Thus, not only is this part of the Kojiki pure twaddle, but\nit is not even consistent twaddle.\"]\n\n[Footnote 4: Kojiki, Section IX.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Dr. Joseph Edkins, D.D., author of Chinese Buddhism, who\nbelieves that the primeval religious history of men is recoverable, says\nin Early Spread of Religious Ideas, Especially in the Far East, p. 29,\n\"In Japan Amat\u00e9ras\u016d, ... in fact, as I suppose, Mithras written in\nJapanese, though the Japanese themselves are not aware of this\netymology.\" Compare Kojiki, Introduction, pp. lxv.-lxvii.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Kojiki, p. xlii.]\n\n[Footnote 7: T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Appendix, p. 67.]\n\n[Footnote 8: E. Satow, Revival of Pure Shint\u014d, pp. 67-68.]\n\n[Footnote 9: This curious agreement between the Japanese and other\nethnic traditions in locating \"Paradise,\" the origin of the human family\nand of civilization, at the North Pole, has not escaped the attention of\nDr. W.F. Warren, President of Boston University, who makes extended\nreference to it in his interesting and suggestive book, Paradise Found:\nThe Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole; A Study of the\nPrehistoric World, Boston, 1885.]\n\n[Footnote 10: The pure Japanese numerals equal in number the fingers;\nwith the borrowed Chinese terms vast amounts can be expressed.]\n\n[Footnote 11: This custom was later revived, T.A.S.J., pp. 28, 31.\nMitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 57; M.E., pp. 156, 238.]\n\n[Footnote 12: See in Japanese Fairy World, \"How the Sun-Goddess was\nenticed out of her Cave.\" For the narrative see Kojiki, pp. 54-59;\nT.A.S.J., Vol. II., 128-133.]\n\n[Footnote 13: See Chom\u00e9i and Wordsworth, A Literary Parallel, by J.M.\nDixon, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., pp. 193-205; Anthologie Japonaise, by Leon de\nRosny; Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese; Suy\u00e9mats\u016d's\nGenji Monogatari, London, 1882.]\n\n[Footnote 14: Oftentimes in studying the ancient rituals, those who\nimagine that the word Kami should be in all cases translated gods, will\nbe surprised to see what puerility, bathos, or grandiloquence, comes out\nof an attempt to express a very simple, it may be humiliating,\nexperience.]\n\n[Footnote 15: Mythology and Religious Worship of the Japanese,\nWestminster Review, July, 1878; Ancient Japanese Rituals, T.A.S.J.,\nVols. VII., IX.; Esoteric Shint\u014d, by Percival Lowell, T.A.S.J, Vol.\nXXI.]\n\n[Footnote 16: Compare Sections IX. and XXIII. of the Kojiki.]\n\n[Footnote 17: This indeed seems to be the substance of the modern\nofficial expositions of Shint\u014d and the recent Rescripts of the\nEmperor, as well as of much popular literature, including the\nmanifestoes or confessions found on the persons of men who have\n\"consecrated\" themselves as \"the instruments of Heaven for punishing the\nwicked,\" i.e., assassinating obnoxious statesmen. See The Ancient\nReligion, M.E., pp. 96-100; The Japan Mail, _passim_.]\n\n[Footnote 18: Revival of Pure Shint\u014d, pp. 25-38.]\n\n[Footnote 19: Japanese Homes, by E.S. Morse, pp. 228-233, note, p. 832.]\n\n[Footnote 20: Chamberlain's Aino Studies, p. 12.]\n\n[Footnote 21: Geological Survey of Japan, by Benj. S. Lyman, 1878-9.]\n\n[Footnote 22: The Shell Mounds of Omori; and The Tokio Times, Jan. 18,\n1879, by Edward S. Morse; Japanese Fairy World, pp. I78, 191, 196.]\n\n[Footnote 23: Kojiki, pp. 60-63.]\n\n[Footnote 24: S. and H., pp. 58, 337, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 25: This study in comparative religion by a Japanese, which\ncost the learned author his professorship in the T\u00e9i-Koku Dai Gaku or\nImperial University (lit. Theocratic Country Great Learning Place), has\nhad a tendency to chill the ardor of native investigators. His paper was\nfirst published in the Historical Magazine of the University, but the\nwide publicity and popular excitement followed only after republication,\nwith comments by Mr. Taguchi, in the K\u00e9izai Zasshi (Economical Journal).\nThe Shint\u014dists denounced Professor Kumi for \"making our ancient\nreligion a branch of Christianity,\" and demanded and secured his\n\"retirement\" by the Government. See Japan Mail, April 2, 1892, p. 440.]\n\n[Footnote 26: T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., p. 282.]\n\n[Footnote 27: Kojiki, p. xxviii.]\n\n[Footnote 28: For the use of salt in modern \"Esoteric\" Shint\u014d, both\nin purification and for employment as of salamandrine, see T.A.S.J., pp.\n125, 128.]\n\n[Footnote 29: In the official census of 1893, nine Shint\u014d sects are\nnamed, each of which has its own Kwancho or Presiding Head, recognized\nby the government. The sectarian peculiarities of Shint\u014d have been\nmade the subject of study by very few foreigners. Mr. Satow names the\nfollowing:\n\nThe Yui-itsu sect was founded by Toshida Kan\u00e9-tomo. His signature\nappears as the end of a ten-volume edition, issued A.D. 1503, of the\nliturgies extracted from the Yengishiki or Book of Ceremonial Law, first\npublished in the era of Yengi (or En-gi), A.D. 901-922. He is supposed\nto be the one who added the _kana_, or common vernacular script letters,\nto the Chinese text and thus made the norito accessible to the people.\nThe little pocket prayer-books, folded in an accordeon-like manner, are\nvery cheap and popular. The sect is regarded as heretical by strict\nShint\u014dists, as the system Yuwiitsu consists \"mainly of a Buddhist\nsuperstructure on a Shint\u014d foundation.\" Yoshida applied the tenets of\nthe Shingon or True Word sect of Buddhists to the understanding and\npractice of the ancient god-way.\n\nThe Suiga sect teaches a system which is a combination of Yuwiitsu and\nof the modern philosophical form of Confucianism as elaborated by Chu\nHi, and known in Japan as the T\u00e9i-shu philosophy. The founder was\nYamazaki Ansai, who was born in 1618 and died in 1682. By combining the\nforms of the Yoshida sect, which is based on the Buddhism of the Shingon\nsect, with the materialistic philosophy of Chu Hi, he adapted the old\ngod-way to what he deemed modern needs.\n\nIn the D\u00e9guchi sect, the ancient belief is explained by the Chinese Book\nof Changes (or Divination). D\u00e9guchi Nobuyoshi, the founder, was\ngod-warden or _kannushi_ of the G\u00e9iku or Outer Palace Temple at Is\u00e9. He\npromulgated his views about the year 1660, basing them upon the book\ncalled \u00c9ki by the Japanese and Yi-king by the Chinese. This Yi-king,\nwhich Professor Terrien de Laeouporie declares is only a very ancient\nbook of pronunciation of comparative Accadian and Chinese Syllabaries,\nhas been the cause of incredible waste of labor, time, and brains in\nChina--enough to have diked the Yellow River or drained the swamps of\nthe Empire. It is the chief basis of Chinese superstition, and the\ngreatest literary barrier to the advance of civilization. It has also\nmade much mischief in Japan. D\u00e9guchi explained the myths of the age of\nthe gods by divination or \u00e9ki, based on the Chinese books. As late as\n1893 there was published in T\u014dki\u014d a work in Japanese, with good\ntranslation info English, on Scientific Morality, or the practical\nguidance of life by means of divination--The Takashima \u00c9kidan (or\nMonograph on the \u00c9ki of Mr. Takashima), by S. Sugiura.\n\nThe Jikko sect, according to its representative at the World's\nParliament of Religions at Chicago, is \"the practical.\" It lays stress\nless upon speculation and ritual, and more upon the realization of the\nbest teachings of Shint\u014d. It was founded by Has\u00e9gawa Kakugi\u014d, who\nwas born at Nagasaki in 1541. Living in a cave in Fuji-yama, \"he\nreceived inspiration through the miraculous power of the mountain.\" It\nbelieves in one absolute Deity, often mentioned in the Kojiki, which,\nself-originated, took the embodiment of two deities, one with the male\nnature and the other female, though these two deities are nothing but\nforms of the one substance and unite again in the absolute deity. These\ngave birth to the Japanese Archipelago, the sun and moon, the mountains\nand streams, the divine ancestors, etc. According to the teachings of\nthis sect, the peerless mountain, Fuji, ought to be reverenced as the\nsacred abode of the divine lord, and as \"the brains of the whole globe.\"\nThe believer must make Fuji the example and emblem of his thought and\naction. He must be plain and simple, as the form of the mountain, making\nhis body and mind pure and serene, as Fuji itself. The present world\nwith all its practical works must be respected more than the future\nworld. We must pray for the long life of the country, lead a life of\ntemperance and diligence, cooperating with one another in doing good.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Statistics of Shint\u014dism._\n\nFrom the official R\u00e9sum\u00e9 Statistique de l'Empire du Japon, 1894. In 1801\nthere were nine administrative heads of sects; 75,877 preachers,\npriests, and shrine-keepers, with 1,158 male and 228 female students.\nThere were 163 national temples of superior rank and 136,652 shrines or\ntemples in cities and prefectures; a total of 193,153, served by 14,700\npersons of the grade of priests. Most of the expenses, apart from\nendowments and local contributions, are included in the first item of\nthe annual Treasury Budget, \"Civil List, Appanage and Shint\u014d\nTemples.\"]\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN\n\n\n[Footnote 1: \"He was fond of saying that Princeton had never originated\na new idea; but this meant no more than that Princeton was the advocate\nof historical Calvinism in opposition to the modified and provincial\nCalvinism of a later day.\"--Francis L. Patton, in Schaff-Herzog\nEncyclop\u00e6dia, Article on Charles Hodge.]\n\n[Footnote 2: We use Dr. James Legge's spelling, by whom these classics\nhave been translated into English. See Sacred Books of the East, edited\nby Max M\u00fcller.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The Canon or Four Classics has a somewhat varied literary\nhistory of transmission, collection, and redaction, as well as of\nexposition, and of criticism, both \"lower\" and \"higher.\" As arranged\nunder the Han Dynasty (B.C. 206-A.D. 23) it consisted of--I. The\nCommentary of Tso Kinming (a disciple who expounded Confucius's book,\nThe Annals of State of Lu); II. The Commentary of Kuh-liang upon the\nsame work of Confucius; III. The Old Text of the Book of History; IV.\nThe Odes, collected by Mao Chang, to whom is ascribed the test of the\nOdes as handed down to the present day. The generally accepted\narrangement is that made by the mediaeval schoolmen of the Sung Dynasty\n(A.D. 960-1341), Cheng Teh Sio and Chu Hi, in the twelfth century: I.\nThe Great Learning; II. The Doctrine of the Mean; III. Conversations of\nConfucius; IV. The Sayings of Mencius.--C.R.M., pp. 306-309.]\n\n[Footnote 4: See criticisms of Confucius as an author, in Legge's\nReligions of China, pp. 144, 145.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Religions of China, by James Legge, p. 140.]\n\n[Footnote 6: See Article China, by the author, Cyclopaedia of Political\nScience, Chicago, 1881.]\n\n[Footnote 7: This subject is critically discussed by Messrs. Satow,\nChamberlain, and others in their writings on Shint\u014d and Japanese\nhistory. On Japanese chronology, see Japanese Chronological Tables, by\nWilliam Bramsen, T\u014dki\u014d, 1880, and Dr. David Murray's Japan (p.\n95), in the series Story of the Nations, New York.]\n\n[Footnote 8: The absurd claim made by some Shint\u014dists that the\nJapanese possessed an original native alphabet called the Shingi\n(god-letters) before the entrance of the Chinese or Buddhist learning in\nJapan, is refuted by Aston, Japanese Grammar, p. 1; T.A.S.J., Vol. III.,\nAppendix, p. 77. Mr. Satow shows \"their unmistakable identity with the\nCorean alphabet.\"]\n\n[Footnote 9: For the life, work, and tombs of the Chinese scholars who\nfled to Japan on the fall of the Ming Dynasty, see M.E., p. 298; and\nProfessor E.W. Clement's paper on The Tokugawa Princes of Mito,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., and his letters in The Japan Mail.]\n\n[Footnote 10: \"We have consecrated ourselves as the instruments of\nHeaven for punishing the wicked man,\"--from the document submitted to\nthe Yedo authorities, by the assassins of Ii Kamon no Kami, in Yedo,\nMarch 23, 1861, and signed by seventeen men of the band. For numerous\nother instances, see the voluminous literature of the Forty-seven\nR\u014dnins, and the Meiji political literature (1868-1893), political and\nhistorical documents, assassins' confessions, etc., contained in that\nthesarus of valuable documents, The Japan Mail; Kins\u00e9 Shiriaku, or Brief\nHistory of Japan, 1853-1869, Yokohama, 1873, and Nihon Guaishi,\ntranslated by Mr. Ernest Satow; Adams's History of Japan; T.A.S.J., Vol.\nXX., p. 145; Life and Letters of Yokoi H\u00e9ishiro; Life of Sir Harry\nParkes, London, 1893, etc., for proof of this assertion.]\n\n[Footnote 11: For proof of this, as to vocabulary, see Professor B.H.\nChamberlain's Grammars and other philological works; Mr. J.H. Gubbins's\nDictionary of Chinese-Japanese Words, with Introduction, three vols.,\nT\u014dki\u014d 1892; and for change in structure, Rev. C. Munzinger, on The\nPsychology of the Japanese Language in the Transactions of the Gorman\nAsiatic Society of Japan. See also Mental Characteristics of the\nJapanese, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., pp. 17-37.]\n\n[Footnote 12: See The Ghost of Sakura, in Mitfoid's Tales of Old Japan,\nVol. II, p. 17.]\n\n[Footnote 13: M.E., 277-280. See an able analysis of Japanese feudal\nsociety, by M.F. Dickins, Life of Sir Harry Parkes, pp. 8-13; M.E., pp.\n277-283.]\n\n[Footnote 14: This subject is discussed in Professor Chamberlain's\nworks; Mr. Percival Lowell's The Soul of the Far East; Dr. M.L. Gordon's\nAn American Missionary in Japan; Dr. J.H. De Forest's The Influence of\nPantheism, in The Japan Evangelist, 1894.]\n\n[Footnote 15: T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 96.]\n\n[Footnote 16: The Forty Seven-R\u014dnins, Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I.;\nChiushiugura, by F.V. Dickens; The Loyal R\u014dnins, by Edward Greey;\nChiushiugura, translated by Enouy\u00e9.]\n\n[Footnote 17: See Dr. J.H. De Forest's article in the Andover Review,\nMay, June, 1893, p. 309. For details and instances, see the Japanese\nhistories, novels, and dramas; M.E.; Rein's Japan; S. and H.; T.A.S.J.,\netc. Life of Sir Harry Parkes, p. 11 _et passim_.]\n\n[Footnote 18: M.E. pp. 180-192, 419. For the origin and meaning of\nhara-kiri, see T.J., pp. 199-201; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I.,\nAppendix; Adams's History of Japan, story of Shimadz\u016d.]\n\n[Footnote 19: M.E., p. 133.]\n\n[Footnote 20: For light upon the status of the Japanese family, see F.O.\nAdams's History of Japan, Vol. II., p. 384; Kins\u00e9 Shiriaku, p. 137;\nNaomi Tamura, The Japanese Bride, New York, 1893; E.H. House, Yon\u00e9\nSanto, A Child of Japan, Chicago, 1888; Japanese Girls and Women, by\nMiss A.M. Bacon, Boston, 1891; T.J., Article Woman, and in Index,\nAdoption, Children, etc.; M.E., 1st ed., p. 585; Marriage in Japan,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; and papers in the German Asiatic Society\nof Japan.]\n\n[Footnote 21: See Mr. F.W. Eastlake's papers in the Popular Science\nMonthly.]\n\n[Footnote 22: See Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II, pp. 181-182. \"It is\nto be feared, however, that this reform [of the Yoshiwara system], like\nmany others in Japan, never got beyond paper, for Mr. Norman in his\nrecent book, The Real Japan [Chap. XII.], describes a scarcely modified\nsystem in full vigor.\" See also Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 289-292.]\n\n[Footnote 23: See Pung Kwang Yu's paper, read at the Parliament of\nReligions in Chicago, and The Chinese as Painted by Themselves, by\nColonel Tcheng-Ki-Tong, New York and London, 1885. Dr. W.A.P. Martin's\nscholarly book, The Chinese, New York, 1881, in the chapter Remarks on\nthe Ethical Philosophy of the Chinese, gives in English and Chinese a\nChart of Chinese Ethics in which the whole scheme of philosophy, ethics,\nand self-culture is set forth.]\n\n[Footnote 24: See an exceedingly clear, able, and accurate article on\nThe Ethics of Confucius as Seen in Japan, by the veteran scholar, Rev.\nJ.H. De Forest, The Andover Review, May, June, 1893. He is the authority\nfor the statements concerning non-attendance (in Old Japan) of the\nhusband at the wife's, and older brother at younger brother's funeral.]\n\n[Footnote 25: A Japanese translation of Mrs. Caudle's Curtain Lectures,\nin a T\u014dki\u014d morning newspaper \"met with instant and universal\napproval,\" showing that Douglas Jerrold's world-famous character has her\ncounterpart in Japan, where, as a Japanese proverb declares, \"the tongue\nthree inches long can kill a man six feet high.\" Sir Edwin Arnold and\nMr. E.H. House, in various writings, have idealized the admirable traits\nof the Japanese woman. See also Mr. Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses of\nUnfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894; and papers (The Eternal Feminine, etc.),\nin the Atlantic Monthly.]\n\n[Footnote 26: Summary of the Japanese Penal Codes, T.A.S.J., Vol. V.,\nPart II.; The Penal Code of Japan, and The Code of Criminal Procedure of\nJapan, Yokohama.]\n\n[Footnote 27: See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 114; the Chapter on Marriage\nand Divorce, in Japanese Girls and Women, pp. 57-84. The following\nfigures are from the R\u00e9sum\u00e9 Statistique de L'Empire du Japon, published\nannually by the Imperial Government:\n\n        MARRIAGES.              DIVORCES.\n        Number.  Per 1,000    Number.  Per 1,000\n                 Persons.              Persons.\n\n1887....334,149  8.55         110,859  2.84\n1888....330,246  8.34         109,175  2.76\n1889....340,445  8.50         107,458  2.68\n1890....325,141  8.04         197,088  2.70\n1891....352,051  8.00         112,411  2.76\n1892....348,489  8.48         113,498  2.76\n]\n\n[Footnote 28: This was strikingly brought out in the hundreds of English\ncompositions (written by students of the Imperial University, 1872-74,\ndescribing the home or individual life of students), examined and read\nby the author.]\n\n[Footnote 29: Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto--H\u00e9auton\nTomoroumenos, Act--, Scene 1, line 25, where Chremes inquires about his\nneighbor's affairs. For the golden rule of Jesus and the silver rule of\nConfucius, see Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese.]\n\n[Footnote 30: \"What you do not want done to yourselves, do not do to\nothers.\" Legge, The Religions of China, p. 137; Doolittle's Social Life\nof the Chinese; The Testament of Iy\u00e9yas\u016d;, Cap. LXXI., translated by\nJ.C. Lowder, Yokohama, 1874.]\n\n[Footnote 31: Die politische Bedeutung der amerikanischer Expedition\nnach Japan, 1852, by Tetsutaro Yoshida, Heidelberg, 1893; The United\nStates and Japan (p. 39), by Inazo Nitob\u00e9, Baltimore, 1891; Matthew\nCalbraith Perry, Chap. XXVIII.; T.J., Article Perry; Life and Letters of\nS. Wells Williams, New York, 1889.]\n\n[Footnote 32: See Life of Matthew Calbraith Perry, pp. 363, 364.]\n\n[Footnote 33: Lee's Jerusalem Illustrated, p. 88.]\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nCONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM\n\n\n[Footnote 1: See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M.\nSatow, T.A.S.J., Vol. X., pp. 1-83, 252-259; The Jesuit Mission Press in\nJapan, by E.M. Satow (privately printed, 1888), and Review of this\nmonograph by Professor B.H. Chamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp.\n91-100.]\n\n[Footnote 2: The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Ernest W. Clement,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., pp. 1-24, and Letters in The Japan Mail, 1889.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Effect of Buddhism on the Philosophy of the Sung Dynasty,\np. 318, Chinese Buddhism, by Rev. J. Edkins, Boston, 1880.]\n\n[Footnote 4: C.R.M., p. 200; The Middle Kingdom, by S. Wells Williams,\nVol. II., p. 174.]\n\n[Footnote 5: C.R.M., p. 34. He was the boy-hero, who smashed with a\nstone the precious water-vase in order to save from drowning a playmate\nwho had tumbled in, so often represented in Chinese popular art.]\n\n[Footnote 6: C.R.M., pp. 25-26; The Middle Kingdom, Vol. I., pp. 113,\n540, 652-654, 677.]\n\n[Footnote 7: This decade in Chinese history was astonishingly like that\nof the United States from 1884 to 1894, in which the economical theories\nadvocated in certain journals, in the books Progress and Poverty,\nLooking Backward, and by the Populists, have been so widely read and\ndiscussed, and the attempts made to put them into practice. The Chinese\ntheorist of the eleventh century, Wang Ngan-shih was \"a poet and author\nof rare genius.\"--C.R.M., p. 244.]\n\n[Footnote 8: John xxi. 25.]\n\n[Footnote 9: This is the opinion of no less capable judges than Dr.\nGeorge Wm. Knox and Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain.]\n\n[Footnote 10: The United States and Japan, pp. 25-27; Life of Takano\nChoy\u00e9i by Kato Sakay\u00e9, T\u014dki\u014d, 1888.]\n\n[Footnote 11: Note on Japanese Schools of Philosophy, by T. Haga, and\npapers by Dr. G.W. Knox, Dr. T. Inou\u00e9, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX, Part I.]\n\n[Footnote 12: A religion, surely, with men like Yokoi H\u00e9ishiro.]\n\n[Footnote 13: See pp. 110-113.]\n\n[Footnote 14: _Kinno_--loyalty to the Emperor; T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p.\n147.]\n\n[Footnote 15: \"Originally recognizing the existence of a Supreme\npersonal Deity, it [Confucianism] has degenerated into a pantheistic\nmedley, and renders worship to an impersonal _anima mundi_ under the\nleading forms of visible nature.\"--Dr. W.A.P. Martin's The Chinese, p.\n108.]\n\n[Footnote 16: Ki, Ri, and Ten, Dr. George Wm. Knox, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX.,\npp. 155-177.]\n\n[Footnote 17: T.J., p. 94.]\n\n[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 156.]\n\n[Footnote 19: Matthew Calbraith Perry, p. 373; Japanese Life of Yoshida\nShoin, by Tokutomi, T\u014dki\u014d, 1894; Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol.\nII., p. 83.]\n\n[Footnote 20: \"The Chinese accept Confucius in every detail, both as\ntaught by Confucius and by his disciples.... The Japanese recognize both\nreligions [Buddhism and Confucianism] equally, but Confucianism in Japan\nhas a direct bearing upon everything relating to human affairs,\nespecially the extreme loyalty of the people to the emperor, while the\nKoreans consider it more useful in social matters than in any other\ndepartment of life, and hardly consider its precepts in their business\nand mercantile relations.\"\n\n\"Although Confucianism is counted a religion, it is really a system of\nsociology.... Confucius was a moralist and statesman, and his disciples\nare moralists and economists.\"--Education in Korea, by Mr. Pom K. Soh,\nof the Korean Embassy to the United States; Report of U.S. Commissioner\nof Education, 1890-91, Vol. I., pp. 345-346.]\n\n[Footnote 21: In Bakin, who is the great teacher of the Japanese by\nmeans, of fiction, this is the idea always inculcated.]\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA\n\n\n[Footnote 1: See his Introduction to the Saddharma Pundarika, Sacred\nBooks of the East, and his Buddhismus.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Buddhism;\nNon-Christian Religious Systems--Buddhism.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The sketch of Indian thought here following is digested\nfrom material obtained from various works on Buddhism and from the\nHistories of India. See the excellent monograph of Romesh Chunder Dutt,\nin Epochs of Indian History, London and New York, 1893; and Outlines of\nThe Mahayana, as Taught by Buddha (\"for circulation among the members of\nthe Parliament of Religions,\" and distributed in Chicago), Toki\u014d,\n1893.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Dyaus-Pitar, afterward _zeus pat\u00ear_. See Century\nDictionary, Jupiter.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Yoga is the root form of our word yoke, which at once\nsuggests the union of two in one. See Yoga, in The Century Dictionary.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Dutt's History of India.]\n\n[Footnote 7: The differences between the simple primitive narrative of\nGautama's experiences in attaining Buddhahood, and the richly\nembroidered story current in later ages, may be seen by reading, first,\nAtkinson's Prince Sidartha, the Japanese Buddha, and then Arnold's Light\nof Asia. See also S. and H., Introduction, pp. 70-84, etc. Atkinson's\nbook is refreshing reading after the expurgation and sublimation of the\nsame theme in Sir Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Romesh Chunder Dutt's Ancient India, p. 100.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Origin and Growth of Religion by T. Rhys Davids, p. 28.]\n\n[Footnote 10: Job i. 6, Hebrew.]\n\n[Footnote 11: Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 29.]\n\n[Footnote 12: \"Buddhism so far from tracing 'all things' to 'matter' as\ntheir original, denies the reality of matter, but it nowhere denies the\nreality of existence.\"--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 156.]\n\n[Footnote 13: See A Year among the Persians, by Edward G. Browne,\nLondon, 1893.]\n\n[Footnote 14: Dutt's History of India, pp. 153-156. See also Mozoomdar's\nThe Spirit of God, p. 305. \"Buddhism, though for a long time it\nsupplanted the parent system, was the fulfilment of the prophecy of\nuniversal peace, which Hinduism had made; and when, in its turn, it was\noutgrown by the instincts of the Aryans, it had to leave India indeed\nforever, but it contributed quite as much to Indian religion as it had\never borrowed.\"]\n\n[Footnote 15: Korean Repository, Vol. I., pp. 101, 131, 153; Siebold's\nNippon, Archiv; Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1890-91,\nVol. I., p. 346; Dallet's Histoire de l'\u00c9glise de Cor\u00e9e, Vol. 1.,\nIntrod., p. cxlv.; Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 331.]\n\n[Footnote 16: See Brian H. Hodgson's The Literature and History of the\nBuddhists, in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which is\nepitomized in The Phoenix, Vol. I.; Beal's Buddhism in China, Chap. II.;\nT. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, etc. To Brian Houghton Hodgson, (of whose\ndeath at the ripe age of ninety-three years we read in Luzac's Oriental\nList) more than to any one writer, are we indebted for our knowledge of\nNorthern or Mahayana Buddhism.]\n\n[Footnote 17: See the very accurate, clear, and full definitions and\nexplanations in The Century Dictionary.]\n\n[Footnote 18: This subject is fully discussed by Professor T. Rhys\nDavids in his compact Manual of Buddhism.]\n\n[Footnote 19: See Century Dictionary.]\n\n[Footnote 20: Jap. Mon-ju. One of the most famous images of this\nBodhisattva is at Zenk\u00f4-ji, Nagano. See Kern's Saddharma Pundarika, p.\n8, and the many referents to Manjusri in the Index. That Manjusri was\nthe legendary civilizer of Nepaul seems probable from the following\nextract from Brian Hodgson: \"The Swayambhu Purana relates in substance\nas follows: That formerly the valley of Nepaul was of circular form, and\nfull of very deep water, and that the mountains confining it were\nclothed with the densest forests, giving shelter to numberless birds and\nbeasts. Countless waterfowl rejoiced in the waters....\n\n\"... Vipasyi, having thrice circumambulated the lake, seated himself in\nthe N.W. (V\u00e1yubona) side of it, and, having repeated several mantras\nover the root of a lotos, he threw it into the water, exclaiming, 'What\ntime this root shall produce a flower, then, from out of the flower,\nSwayambhu, the Lord of Agnishtha Bhuvana, shall be revealed in the form\nof flame; and then shall the lake become a cultivated and populous\ncountry.' Having repeated these words, Vipasyi departed. Long after the\ndate of this prophecy, it was fulfilled according to the letter....\n\n\"... When the lake was dessicated (by the sword of Manjusri says the\nmyth--probably earthquake) Karkotaka had a fine tank built for him to\ndwell in; and there he is still worshipped, also in the cave-temple\nappendant to the great Buddhist shrine of Swayambhu Nath....\n\n\"... The Bodhisatwa above alluded to is Manju Sri, whose native place is\nvery far off, towards the north, and is called Pancha Sirsha Parvata\n(which is situated in Maha China Des). After the coming of Viswabhu\nBuddha to Naga Vasa, Manju Sri, meditating upon what was passing in the\nworld, discovered by means of his divine science that\nSwayambhu-jyotirupa, that is, the self-existent, in the form of flame,\nwas revealed out of a lotos in the lake of Naga Vasa. Again, he\nreflected within himself: 'Let me behold that sacred spot, and my name\nwill long be celebrated in the world;' and on the instant, collecting\ntogether his disciples, comprising a multitude of the peasantry of the\nland, and a Raja named Dharmakar, he assumed the form of Viswakarma, and\nwith his two Devis (wives) and the persons above-mentioned, set out upon\nthe long journey from Sirsha Parvata to Naga Vasa. There having arrived,\nand having made puja to the self-existent, he began to circumambulate\nthe lake, beseeching all the while the aid of Swayambhu in prayer. In\nthe second circuit, when he had reached the central barrier mountain to\nthe south, he became satisfied that that was the best place whereat to\ndraw off the waters of the lake. Immediately he struck the mountain with\nhis scimitar, when the sundered rock gave passage to the waters, and the\nbottom of the lake became dry. He then descended from the mountain, and\nbegan to walk about the valley in all directions.\"--The Phoenix, Vol.\nII., pp. 147-148.]\n\n[Footnote 21: Jap. Kwannon, god or goddess of mercy, in his or her\nmanifold forms, Thousand-handed, Eleven-faced, Horse-headed, Holy, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 22: Or, The Lotus of the Good Law, a mystical name for the\ncosmos. \"The good law is made plain by flowers of rhetoric.\" See Bernouf\nand Kern's translations, and Edkin's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 214.\nTranslations of this work, so influential in Japanese Buddhism, exist in\nFrench, German, and English. See Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXI., by\nProfessor H. Kern, of Leyden University. In the Introduction, p. xxxix.,\nthe translator discusses age, authorship, editions, etc. Bunyiu Nanjio's\nShort History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, pp. 132-134. Beal\nin his Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 389-396, has translated\nChapter XXIV.]\n\n[Footnote 23: At the great Zenk\u014dji, a temple of the Tendai sect, at\nNagano, Japan, dedicated to three Buddhist divinities, one of whom is\nKwannon (Avalokitesvara, the rafters of the vast main hall are said to\nnumber 69,384, in reference to the number of Chinese characters\ncontained in the translation of the Saddharma Pundarika.]\n\n[Footnote 24: \"The third (collection of the Tripitaka) was ... made by\nManjusri and Maitreya. This is the collection of the Mahayana books.\nThough it is as clear or bright as the sun at midday yet the men of the\nHinayana are not ashamed of their inability to know them and speak evil\nof them instead, just as the Confucianists call Buddhism a law of\nbarbarians, without reading the Buddhist books at all.\"--B.N., p. 51.]\n\n[Footnote 25: See the writings of Brian Hodgson, J. Edkins, E.J. Eitel,\nS. Beal, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 26: See Chapter VIII. in T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, a book of\ngreat scholarship and marvellous condensation.]\n\n[Footnote 27: Davids's Buddhism, p. 206. Other illustrations of the\ngrowth of the dogmas of this school of Buddhism we select from Brian\nHodgson's writings.\n\n1. The line of division between God and man, and between gods and man,\nwas removed by Buddhism.\n\n\"Genuine Buddhism never seems to contemplate any measures of acceptance\nwith the deity; but, overleaping the barrier between finite and infinite\nmind, urges its followers to aspire by their own efforts to that divine\nperfectibility of which it teaches that man is capable, and by attaining\nwhich man becomes God--and thus is explained both the quiescence of the\nimaginary celestial, and the plenary omnipotence of the real Manushi\nBuddhas--thus, too, we must account for the fact that genuine Buddhism\nhas no priesthood; the saint despises the priest; the saint scorns the\naid of mediators, whether on earth or in heaven; 'conquer (exclaims the\nadept or Buddha to the novice or BodhiSattwa)--conquer the importunities\nof the body, urge your mind to the meditation of abstraction, and you\nshall, in time, discover the great secret (Sunyata) of nature: know\nthis, and you become, on the instant, whatever priests have feigned of\nGodhead--you become identified with Prajna, the sum of all the power and\nall the wisdom which sustain and govern the world, and which, as they\nare manifested out of matter, must belong solely to matter; not indeed\nin the gross and palpable state of pravritti, but in the archetypal and\npure state of nirvritti. Put off, therefore, the vile, pravrittika\nnecessities of the body, and the no less vile affections of the mind\n(Tapas); urge your thought into pure abstraction (Dhyana), and then, as\nassuredly you can, so assuredly you shall, attain to the wisdom of a\nBuddha (Bodhijnana), and become associated with the eternal unity and\nrest of nirvritti.'\"--The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 194.\n\n2. A specimen of \"esoteric\" and \"exoteric\" Buddhism;--the Buddha\nTatkagata.\n\n\"And as the wisdom of man is, in its origin, but an effluence of the\nSupreme wisdom (_Prajn\u00e1_) of nature, so is it perfected by a refluence\nto its source, but without loss of individuality; whence Prajna is\nfeigned in the exoteric system to be both the mother and the wife of all\nthe Buddhas, '_janani sarva Buddk\u00e1n\u00e1m_,' and '_Jina-sundary_;' for the\nefflux is typified by a birth, and the reflux by a marriage.\n\n\"The Buddha is the adept in the wisdom of Buddhism (_Bodhijn\u00e1na_) whose\nfirst duty, so long as he remains on earth, is to communicate his wisdom\nto those who are willing to receive it. These willing learners are the\n'Bodhisattwas,' so called from their hearts being inclined to the wisdom\nof Buddhism, and 'Sanghas,' from their companionship with one another,\nand with their Buddha or teacher, in the _Vih\u00e1ras_ or coenobitical\nestablishments.\"\n\n\"And such is the esoteric interpretation of the third (and inferior)\nmember of the Prajniki Triad. The Bodhisattwa or Sangha continues to be\nsuch until he has surmounted the very last grade of that vast and\nlaborious ascent by which he is instructed that he can 'scale the\nheavens,' and pluck immortal wisdom from its resplendent source: which\nachievement performed, he becomes a Buddha, that is, an Omniscient\nBeing, and a _Tath\u00e1gata_--a title implying the accomplishment of that\ngradual increase in wisdom by which man becomes immortal or ceases to be\nsubject to transmigration.\"--The Phoenix, Vol. I., pp. 194, 195.\n\n3. Is God all, or is all God?\n\n\"What that grand secret, that ultimate truth, that single reality, is,\nwhether all is God, or God is all, seems to be the sole _proposition_ of\nthe oriental philosophic religionists, who have all alike sought to\ndiscover it by taking the high _priori_ road. That God is all, appears\nto be the prevalent dogmatic determination of the Brahmanists; that all\nis God, the preferential but sceptical solution of the _Buddhists_; and,\nin a large view, I believe it would be difficult to indicate any further\nessential difference between their theoretic systems, both, as I\nconceive, the unquestionable growth of the Indian soil, and both founded\nupon transcendental speculation, conducted in the very same style and\nmanner.\"--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 45.\n\n4. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.\n\n\"In a philosophical light, the precedence of Buddha or of Dharma\nindicates the theistic or atheistic school. With the former, Buddha is\nintellectual essence, the efficient cause of all, and underived. Dharma\nis material essence, the plastic cause, and underived, a co-equal\nbiunity with Buddha; or else the plastic cause, as before, but dependent\nand derived from Buddha. Sangha is derived from, and compounded of,\nBuddha, and Dharma, is their collective energy in the state of action;\nthe immediate operative cause of creation, its type or its agent. With\nthe latter or atheistic schools, Dharma is _Diva natura_, matter as the\nsole entity, invested with intrinsic activity and intelligence, the\nefficient and material cause of all.\n\n\"Buddha is derivative from Dharma, is the active and intelligent force\nof nature, first put off from it and then operating upon it. Sangha is\nthe _result_ of that operation; is embryotic creation, the type and sum\nof all specific forms, which are spontaneously evolved from the union of\nBuddha with Dharma.\"--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 12.\n\n5. The mantra or sacred sentence best known in the Buddhadom and abroad.\n\n\"_Amit\u00e1bha_ is the fourth _Dhyani_ or celestial _Budda: Padma-pani_ his\n_\u00c6on_ and executive minister. _Padma-pani_ is the _praesens Divus_ and\ncreator of the _existing_ system of worlds. Hence his identification\nwith the third member of the _Triad_. He is figured as a graceful youth,\nerect, and bearing in either hand a _lotos_ and a jewel. The last\ncircumstance explains the meaning of the celebrated _Shadaksh\u00e1ri\nMantra_, or six-lettered invocation of him, viz., _Om! Manipadme hom!_\nof which so many corrupt versions and more corrupt interpretations have\nappeared from Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, and other sources. The\n_mantra_ in question is one of three, addressed to the several members\nof the _Triad_. 1. _Om sarva vidye hom_. 2. _Om Prajn\u00e1ye hom_. 3. _Om\nmani-padme hom_. 1. The mystic triform Deity is in the all-wise\n(Buddha). 2. The mystic triform Deity is in Prajna (Dharma). 3. The\nmystic triform Deity is in him of the jewel and lotos (Sangha). But the\npraesens Divus, whether he be Augustus or _Padma-pani_, is everything\nwith the many. Hence the notoriety of this _mantra_, whilst the others\nare hardly ever heard of, and have thus remained unknown to our\ntravellers.\"--The Phoenix, Vol. II., p. 64.]\n\n[Footnote 28: \"Nine centuries after Buddha, Maitreya (Miroku or Ji-shi)\ncame down from the Tushita heaven to the lecture-hall in the kingdom of\nAyodhya (A-ya-sha) in Central India, at the request of the Bodhisattva\nAsamga (Mu-jaku) and discoursed five Sastras, 1, Yoga-karya-bhumi-sastra\n(Yu-ga-shi-ji-ron), etc.... After that, the two great Sastra teachers,\nAsanga and Vasubandhu (Se-shin), who were brothers, composed many\nSastras (Ron) and cleared up the meaning of the Mahayana\" (or Greater\nVehicle, canon of Northern Buddhism).--B.N., p. 32.]\n\n[Footnote 29: Buddhism, T. Rhys Davids, pp. 206-211.]\n\n[Footnote 30: Prayer-wheels in Japan are used by the Tendai and Shingon\nsects, but without written prayers attached, and rather as an\nillustration of the doctrine of cause and effect (ingwa); the prayers\nbeing usually offered to Jizo the merciful.--S. and H., p. 29; T. J., p.\n360.]\n\n[Footnote 31: For this see Edkins's Chinese Buddhism; Eitel's Three\nLectures, and Hand-book; Rev. S. Beal's Buddhism, and A Catena of\nBuddhist Scriptures from the Chinese; The Romantic Legend of Sakya\nBuddha, from the Chinese; Texts from the Buddhist canon commonly known\nas the Dhammapeda; Notes on Buddhist Words and Phrases, the\nChrysanthemum, Vol. I.; The Phoenix, Vols. I-III.\n\nSee, also, a spirited sketch of Ancient Japan, by Frederick Victor\nDickins, in the Life of Sir Harry Parkes, Vol. II., pp. 4-14.]\n\n[Footnote 32: S. and H., pp. 289, 293; Chamberlain's Hand-book for\nJapan, p. 220; Summer's Notes on Osaka, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIL, p. 382;\nBuddhism, and Traditions Concerning its Introduction into Japan,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 78.]\n\n[Footnote 33: S. and H., p. 344.]\n\n[Footnote 34: T.J., p. 73.]\n\n[Footnote 35: Vairokana is the first or chief of the five\npersonifications of Wisdom, and in Japan the idol is especially\nnoticeable in the temples of the Tendai sect.--\"The Action of Vairokana,\nor the great doctrine of the highest vehicle of the secret union,\" etc.,\nB.N., p. 75.]\n\n[Footnote 36: S. and H., p. 390; B.N., p. 29.]\n\n[Footnote 37: \"Hinduism stands for philosophic spirituality and emotion,\nBuddhism for ethics and humanity, Christianity for fulness of God's\nincarnation in man, while Mohammedanism is the champion of\nuncompromising monotheism.\"--F.P.C. Mozoomdar's The Spirit of God,\nBoston, 1894, p. 305.]\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nRIY\u014cBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Is not something similar frankly attempted in Rev. Dr.\nJoseph Edkins's The Early Spread of Religious Ideas in the Far East\n(London, 1893)?]\n\n[Footnote 2: M.E., p. 252; Honda the Samurai, pp. 193-194.]\n\n[Footnote 3: See The Lily Among Thorns, A Study of the Biblical Drama\nEntitled the Song of Songs (Boston 1890), in which this subject is\nglanced at.]\n\n[Footnote 4: See The Religion of Nepaul, Buddhist Philosophy, and the\nwritings of Brian Hodgson in The Phoenix, Vols. I., II., III.]\n\n[Footnote 5: See Century Dictionary, Yoga; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism,\npp. 169-174; T. Rhys Davids's Buddhism, pp. 206-211; Index of B.N.,\nunder Vagrasattwa; S. and H., pp. 85-87.]\n\n[Footnote 6: T.J., p. 226; Kojiki, Introduction.]\n\n[Footnote 7: See in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1893, a\nvery valuable paper by Mr. L.A. Waddell, on The Northern Buddhist\nMythology, epitomized in the Japan Mail, May 5, 1894.]\n\n[Footnote 8: See Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Paintings in the\nBritish Museum, and The Pictorial Arts of Japan, by William Anderson,\nM.D.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Anderson's Catalogue, p. 24.]\n\n[Footnote 10: S. and H., p. 415; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan;\nT.J.; M.E., p. 162, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 11: The names of Buddhist priests and monks are usually\ndifferent from those of the laity, being taken from events in the life\nof Gautama, or his original disciples, passages in the sacred classics,\netc. Among some personal acquaintances in the Japanese priesthood were\nsuch names as Lift-the-Kettle, Take-Hold-of-the-Dipper,\nDrivelling-Drunkard, etc. In the raciness, oddity, literalness, realism,\nand close connection of their names with the scriptures of their system,\nthe Buddhists quite equal the British Puritans.]\n\n[Footnote 12: Kern's Saddharma-Pundarika, pp. 311, 314; Davids's\nBuddhism p. 208; The Phoenix, Vol. I., p. 169; S. and H., p. 502; Du\nBose's Dragon, Demon, and Image, p. 407; Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 134;\nHough's Corean Collections, Washington, 1893, p. 480, plate xxviii.]\n\n[Footnote 13: Japan in History, Folk-lore and Art, pp. 86, 80-88; A\nJapanese Grammar, by J.J. Hoffman, p. 10; T.J., pp. 465-470.]\n\n[Footnote 14: This is the essence of Buddhism, and was for centuries\nrepeated and learned by heart throughout the empire:\n\n  \"Love and enjoyment disappear,\n    What in our world endureth here?\n  E'en should this day it oblivion be rolled,\n    'Twas only a vision that leaves me cold.\"\n]\n\n[Footnote 15: This legend suggests the mediaeval Jewish story, that\nEzra, the scribe, could write with five pens at once; Hearn's Glimpses\nof Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 29-33.]\n\n[Footnote 16: Brave Little Holland, and What She Taught Us, p. 124.]\n\n[Footnote 17: T.J., pp. 75, 342; Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p.\n41; M.E., p. 162.]\n\n[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 101; S. and H., p. 176.]\n\n[Footnote 19: It was for lifting with his walking-stick the curtain\nhanging before the shrine of this Kami that Arinori Mori, formerly\nH.I.J.M. Minister at Washington and London, was assassinated by a\nShint\u014d fanatic, February 11, 1889; T. J., p. 229; see Percival\nLowell's paper in the Atlantic Monthly.]\n\n[Footnote 20: See Mr. P. Lowell's Esoteric Shint\u014d, T.A.S.J., Vol.\nXXI, pp. 165-167, and his \"Occult Japan.\"]\n\n[Footnote 21: S. and H., Japan, p. 83.]\n\n[Footnote 22: See the Author's Introduction to the Arabian Nights'\nEntertainments, Boston, 1891.]\n\n[Footnote 23: B.N., Index and pp. 78-103; Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, p.\n169.]\n\n[Footnote 24: Satow's or Chamberlain's Guide-books furnish hundreds of\nother instances, and describe temples in which the renamed kami are\nworshipped.]\n\n[Footnote 25: S. and H., p. 70.]\n\n[Footnote 26: M.E., pp. 187, 188; S. and H., pp. 11, 12.]\n\n[Footnote 27: San Kai Ri (Mountain, Sea, and Land). This work,\nrecommended to me by a learned Buddhist priest in Fukui, I had\ntranslated and read to me by a Buddhist of the Shin Shu sect. In like\nmanner, even Christian writers in Japan have occasionally endeavored to\nrationalize the legends of Shint\u014d, see Kojiki, p. liii., where Mr. T.\nGoro's Shint\u014d Shin-ron is referred to. I have to thank my friend Mr.\nC. Watanab\u00e9, of Cornell University, for reading to me Mr. Takahashi's\ninteresting but unconvincing monographs on Shint\u014d and Buddhism.]\n\n[Footnote 28: T.J., p. 402; Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn, p.\n129.]\n\n[Footnote 29: S. and H., Japan, p. 397; Classical Poetry of the\nJapanese, p. 201, note.]\n\n[Footnote 30: The Japanese word Ry\u014d means both, and is applied to the\neyes, ears, feet, things correspondent or in pairs, etc.; _bu_ is a term\nfor a set, kind, group, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 31: Rein, p. 432; T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 241-270; T.J., p.\n339.]\n\n[Footnote 32: The Chrysanthemum, Vol. I., p. 401.]\n\n[Footnote 33: Even the Tak\u00e9tori Monogatari (The Bamboo Cutter's\nDaughter), the oldest and the best of the Japanese classic romances is\n(at least in the text and form now extant) a warp of native ideas with a\nwoof of Buddhist notions.]\n\n[Footnote 34: Mr. Percival Lowell argues, in Esoteric Shint\u014d,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., that besides the habit of pilgrimages,\nfire-walking, and god-possession, other practices supposed to be\nBuddhistic are of Shint\u014d origin.]\n\n[Footnote 35: The native literature illustrating Riy\u014dbuism is not\nextensive. Mr. Ernest Satow in the American Cyclop\u00e6dia (Japan:\nLiterature) mentions several volumes. The Tenchi R\u00e9iki Noko, in eighteen\nbooks contains a mixture of Buddhism and Shint\u014d, and is ascribed by\nsome to Sh\u014dtoku and by others to K\u014db\u014d, but now literary critics\nascribe these, as well as the books Jimbetsuki and Tenshoki, to be\nmodern forgeries by Buddhist priests. The Kogoshiui, written in A.D.\n807, professes to preserve fragments of ancient tradition not recorded\nin the earlier books, but the main object is that which lies at the\nbasis of a vast mass of Japanese literature, namely, to prove the\nauthor's own descent from the gods. The Yuiitsu Shint\u014d Miyoho Yoshiu,\nin two volumes, is designed to prove that Shint\u014d and Buddhism are\nidentical in their essence. Indeed, almost all the treatises on\nShint\u014d before the seventeenth century maintained this view. Certain\nbooks like the Shint\u014d Shu, for centuries popular, and well received\neven by scholars, are now condemned on account of their confusion of the\ntwo religions. One of the most interesting works which we have found is\nthe San Kai Ri, to which reference has been made.]\n\n[Footnote 36: T.J., p. 224.]\n\n[Footnote 37: \"Human life is but fifty years,\" Japanese Proverb; M.E.,\np. 107.]\n\n[Footnote 38: Chamberlain's Classical Poetry of the Japanese, p. 130.]\n\n[Footnote 39: S. and H., p. 416.]\n\n[Footnote 40: Things Chinese, by J. Dyer Ball, p. 70; see also Edkins\nand Eitel.]\n\n[Footnote 41: The Japan Weekly Mail of April 28, 1893, translating and\ncondensing an article from the Bukky\u014d, a Buddhist newspaper, gives\nthe results of a Japanese Buddhist student's tour through China--\"Taoism\nprevails everywhere.... Buddhism has decayed and is almost dead.\"]\n\n[Footnote 42: Vaisramana is a Deva who guarded, praised, fed with\nheavenly food, and answered the questions of the Chinese D\u014d-sen\n(608-907 A.D.) who founded the Risshu or Vinaya sect.--B.N., p. 25.]\n\n[Footnote 43: Anderson, Catalogue, pp. 29-45.]\n\n[Footnote 44: Some of those are pictured in Aim\u00e9 Humbert's Japon\nIllustr\u00e9, and from the same pictures reproduced by electro-plates which,\nfrom Paris, have transmigrated for a whole generation through the\ncheaper books on Japan, in every European language.]\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nNORTHERN BUDDHISM IS ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS\n\n\n[Footnote 1: On the Buddhist canon, see the writings of Beal, Spence\nHardy, T. Rhys Davids, Bunyiu Nanjio, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 2: Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 43, 108, 214; Classical\nPoetry of the Japanese, p. 173.]\n\n[Footnote 3: See T.A.S.J., Vol. XIX., Part I., pp. 17-37; The Soul of\nthe Far East; and the writings of Chamberlain, Aston, Dickins,\nMunzinger, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Much of the information as to history and doctrine\ncontained in this chapter has been condensed from Mr. Bunyiu Nanjio's A\nShort History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects, translated out of\nthe Japanese into English. This author, besides visiting the old seats\nof the faith in China, studied Sanskrit at Oxford with Professor Max\nM\u00fcller, and catalogued in English the Tripitaka or Buddhist canon of\nChina and Japan, sent to England by the ambassador Iwakura. The nine\nreverend gentlemen who wrote the chapters and introduction of the Short\nHistory are Messrs. K\u014d-ch\u014d Ogurusu, and Shu-Zan Emura of the Shin\nsect; Rev. Messrs. Sh\u014d-hen U\u00e9da, and Dai-ryo Takashi, of the Shin-gon\nSect; Rev. Messrs. Gy\u014d-kai Fukuda, Keu-k\u014d Tsuji, Renj\u014d\nAkamatsu, and Z\u00e9-jun Kobayashi of the J\u014d-d\u014d, Zen, Shin, and\nNichiren sects, respectively. Though execrably printed, and the English\nonly tolerable, the work is invaluable to the student of Japanese\nBuddhism. It has a historical introduction and a Sanskrit-Chinese Index,\n1 vol., pp. 172, T\u014dki\u014d, 1887. Substantially the same work,\ntranslated into French, is Le Bouddhisme Japonais, by Ryauon Fujishima,\nParis, 1889. Satow and Hawes's Hand-book for Japan has brief but\nvaluable notes in the Introduction, and, like Chamberlain's continuation\nof the same work, is a storehouse of illustrative matter. Edkine's and\nEitel's works on Chinese Buddhism have been very helpful.]\n\n[Footnote 5: M. Abel Remusat published a translation of a Chinese\nPilgrim's travels in 1836; M. Stanislais Julien completed his volume on\nHiouen Thsang in 1858; and in 1884 Rev. Samuel Beal issued his Travels\nof Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun, Buddhist Pilgrims from China to India (400\nA.D. and 518 A.D.). The latter work contains a map.]\n\n[Footnote 6: B.N., p. 3.]\n\n[Footnote 7: B.N., p. 11.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Three hundred and twenty million years. See Century\nDictionary.]\n\n[Footnote 9: See the paper of Rev. Sh\u014d-hen U\u00e9da of the Shingon sect,\nin B.N., pp. 20-31; and R. Fujishima's Le Bouddhisme Japonais, pp. xvi.,\nxvii., from which most of the information here given has been derived.]\n\n[Footnote 10: M.E., p. 383; S. and H., pp. 23, 30. The image of Binzuru\nis found in many Japanese temples to-day, a famous one being at Asakusa,\nin T\u014dki\u014d. He is the supposed healer of all diseases. The image\nbecomes entirely rubbed smooth by devotees, to the extinguishment of all\nfeatures, lines, and outlines.]\n\n[Footnote 11: Davids's Buddhism, pp. 180, 200; S. and H., pp. (87) 389,\n416.]\n\n[Footnote 12: B.N., pp. 32-43.]\n\n[Footnote 13: B.N., pp. 44-56.]\n\n[Footnote 14: Japanese Fairy World, p. 282; Anderson's Catalogue, pp.\nl03-7.]\n\n[Footnote 15: B.N., p. 62.]\n\n[Footnote 16: Pfoundes, Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 102.]\n\n[Footnote 17: B.N., p. 58. See also The Monist for January, 1894, p.\n168.]\n\n[Footnote 18: \"Tien Tai, a spot abounding in Buddhist antiquities, the\nearliest, and except Puto the largest and richest seat of that religion\nin eastern China. As a monastic establishment it dates from the fourth\ncentury.\"--Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, pp. 137-142.]\n\n[Footnote 19: S. and H., p. 87. See the paper read at the Parliament of\nReligions by the Zen bonze Ashitsu of Hiy\u00e9isan, the poem of Right\nReverend Shaku Soyen, and the paper on The Fundamental Teachings of\nBuddhism, in The Monist for January, 1894; Japan As We Saw It, p. 297.]\n\n[Footnote 20: See Century Dictionary, _mantra_.]\n\n[Footnote 21: See Chapter XX. Ideas and Symbols in Japan: in History,\nFolk-lore, and Art. Buddhist tombs (go-rin) consist of a cube (earth),\nsphere (water), pyramid (fire), crescent (wind), and flame-shaped stone\n(ether), forming the go-rin or five-blossom tomb, typifying the five\nelements.]\n\n[Footnote 22: B.N., p. 78.]\n\n[Footnote 23: To put this dogma into intelligible English is, as Mr.\nSatow says, more difficult than to comprehend the whole doctrine, hard\nas that may be. \"Dai Nichi Ni-yorai (Vairokana) is explained to be the\ncollectivity of all sentient beings, acting through the mediums of\nKwan-non, Ji-z\u014d, Mon-ju, Shaka, and other influences which are\npopularly believed to be self-existent deities.\" In the diagram called\nthe eight-leaf enclosure, by which the mysteries of Shingon are\nexplained, Maha-Vairokana is in the centre, and on the eight petals are\nsuch names as Amitabha, Manjusri, Maitreya, and Avalokitesvara; in a\nword, all are purely speculative beings, phantoms of the brain, the\nmushrooms of decayed Brahmanism, and the mould of primitive Buddhism\ndisintegrated by scholasticism.]\n\n[Footnote 24: S. and H., p. 31.]\n\n[Footnote 25: B.N., p. 115.]\n\n[Footnote 26: Here let me add that in my studies of oriental and ancient\nreligion, I have never found one real Trinity, though triads, or\ntri-murti, are common. None of these when carefully analyzed yield the\nChristian idea of the Trinity.]\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nTHE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE\n\n\n[Footnote 1: Tathagata is one of the titles of the Buddha, meaning \"thus\ncome,\" i.e., He comes bringing human nature as it truly is, with perfect\nknowledge and high intelligence, and thus manifests himself. Amitabha is\nthe Sanskrit of Amida, or the deification of boundless light.]\n\n[Footnote 2: B.N., p. 104.]\n\n[Footnote 3: Literally, I yield to, or I adore the Boundless or the\nImmeasurable Buddha.]\n\n[Footnote 4: A Chinese or Japanese volume is much smaller than the\naverage printed volume in Europe.]\n\n[Footnote 5: Legacy of Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, Section xxviii. Doctrinally, this\nfamous document, written probably long after Iy\u00e9yas\u016d's death and\ncanonization as a _gongen_, is a mixture or _Riy\u014dbu_ of Confucianism\nand Buddhism.]\n\n[Footnote 6: At first glance a forcible illustration, since the Japanese\nproverb declares that \"A sea-voyage is an inch of hell.\" And yet the\noriginal saying of Ry\u016b-ju, now proverbial in Buddhadom, referred to\nthe ease of sailing over the water, compared with the difficulty of\nsurmounting the obstacles of land travel in countries not yet famous for\ngood roads. See B.N., p. 111.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 108; Descriptive Notes on the Rosaries\nas used by the different Sects of Buddhists in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol.\nIX., pp. 173-182.]\n\n[Footnote 8: B.N., p. 122.]\n\n[Footnote 9: S. and H., p. 361.]\n\n[Footnote 10: S. and H., pp. 90-92; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II.,\npp. 242-253.]\n\n[Footnote 11: These three sutras are those most in favor with the\nJ\u014d-d\u014d sect also, they are described, B.N., 104-106, and their\ntenets are referred to on pp. 260, 261.]\n\n[Footnote 12: For modern statements of Shin tenets and practices, see\nE.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., pp. 84-86; The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881,\npp. 109-115; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., 242-246; B.N., 122-131.\nEdkins's Religion in China, p. 153. The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, p.\n115.]\n\n[Footnote 13: S. and H., p. 361; B.N., pp. 105, 106. Toward the end of\nthe Amitayus-dhyana sutra, Buddha says: \"Let not one's voice cease, but\nten times complete the thought, and repeat Namo'mit\u0101bh\u0101ya\nBuddh\u0101ya (Namu Amida Butsu) or adoration to Amitb\u0101ha Buddha.\"]\n\n[Footnote 14: M.E., pp. 164-166.]\n\n[Footnote 15: Schaff's Encyclopaedia, Article, Buddhism.]\n\n[Footnote 16: On the Tenets of the Shin Shiu, or \"True Sect\" of\nBuddhists, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 1.]\n\n[Footnote 17: The Gobunsho, or Ofumi, of Renny\u014d Sh\u014dnin, T.A.S.J.,\nVol. XVII., pp. 101-143.]\n\n[Footnote 18: At the gorgeous services in honor of the founder of the\ngreat Higashi Hongwanji Western Temple of the Original Vow at Asakusa,\nT\u014dki\u014d, November 21 to 28, annually, the women attend wearing a\nhead-dress called \"horn-hider,\" which seems to have been named in\nallusion to a Buddhist text which says: \"A woman's exterior is that of a\nsaint, but her heart is that of a demon.\"--Chamberlain's Hand-book for\nJapan, p. 82; T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. 106, 141; Sacred Books of the\nEast, Vol. XXI., pp. 251-254.]\n\n[Footnote 19: Review of Buddhist Texts from Japan, The Nation, No. 875,\nApril 6, 1882. \"The _Mah\u0101y\u0101na_ or Great Vehicle (we might fairly\nrender it 'highfalutin') school.... Filled as these countries (Tibet,\nChina, Japan) are with Buddhist monasteries, and priests, and nominal\nadherents, and abounding in voluminous translations of the Sanskrit\nBuddhistic literature, little understood and wellnigh unintelligible\n(for neither country has had the independence and mental force to\nproduce a literature of its own, or to add anything but a chapter of\ndecay to the history of this religion)....\"]\n\n[Footnote 20: M.E., pp. 164, 165; B.N., pp. 132-147; Mitford's Tales of\nOld Japan, Vol. II., pp. 125-134.]\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nJAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT\n\n\n[Footnote 1: T.J., p. 71. Further illustrations of this statement may be\nfound in his Classical Poetry of the Japanese, especially in the\nSelection and Appendices of this book; also in T.R.H. McClatchie's\nJapanese Plays (Versified), London, 1890.]\n\n[Footnote 2: See Introduction to the Kojiki, pp. xxxii.-xxxiv., and in\nBakin's novel illustrating popular Buddhist beliefs, translated by\nEdward Greey, A Captive of Love, Boston, 1886.]\n\n[Footnote 3: See jade in Century Dictionary; \"Magatama, so far as I am\naware, do not ever appear to have been found in shell heaps\" (of the\naboriginal Ainos), Milne's Notes on Stone Implements, T.A.S.J., Vol.\nVIII., p. 71.]\n\n[Footnote 4: Concerning this legendary, and possibly mythical, episode,\nwhich has so powerfully influenced Japanese imagination and politics,\nsee T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I., pp. 39-75; M.E., pp. 75-85.]\n\n[Footnote 5: See Corea, the Hermit Nation, pp. 1, 2; Persian Elements in\nJapanese Legends, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVI., Part I, pp. 1-10; Journal of the\nRoyal Asiatic Society, January, 1894. Rein's book, The Industries of\nJapan, points out, as far as known, the material debt to India. Some\nJapanese words like _beni-gari_ (Bengal) or rouge show at once their\norigin. The mosaic of stories in the Ta\u00e9ktori Monogatari, an allegory in\nexquisite literary form, illustrating the Buddhist dogma of Ingwa, or\nlaw of cause and effect, and written early in the ninth century, is made\nup of Chinese-Indian elements. See F.V. Dickins's translation and notes\nin Journal of the Royal Oriental Society, Vol. XIX., N.S. India was the\nfar off land of gems, wonders, infallible drugs, roots, etc.; Japanese\nFairy World, p. 137.]\n\n[Footnote 6: M.E., Chap. VIII.; Klaproth's Annales des Empereurs du\nJapon (a translation of Nippon 0 Dai Ichi Ran); Rein's Japan, p. 224.]\n\n[Footnote 7: See Klaproth's Annales, _passim_. S. and H. p. 85. Bridges\nare often symbolical of events, classic passages in the shastras and\nsutras, or are antetypes of Paradisaical structures. The ordinary native\n_hashi_ is not remarkable as a triumph of the carpenter's art, though\nsome of the Japanese books mention and describe in detail some\nstructures that are believed to be astonishing.]\n\n[Footnote 8: Often amusingly illustrated, M.E., p. 390. A translation\ninto Japanese of Goethe's Reynard the Fox is among the popular works of\nthe day. \"Strange to say, however, the Japanese lose much of the\nexquisite humor of this satire in their sympathy with the woes of the\nmaltreated wolf.\"--The Japan Mail. This sympathy with animals grows\ndirectly out of the doctrine of metempsychosis. The relationship between\nman and ape is founded upon the pantheistic identity of being. \"We\nmention sin,\" says a missionary now in Japan, \"and he [the average\nauditor] thinks of eating flesh, or the killing of insects.\" Many of the\nsutras read like tracts and diatribes of vegetarians.]\n\n[Footnote 9: See The Art of Landscape Gardening in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol.\nXIV.; Theory of Japanese Flower Arrangements, by J. Conder, T.A.S.J.,\nVol. XVII.; T.J., p. 168; M.E., p. 437; T.J., p. 163.]\n\n[Footnote 10: _The_ book, by excellence, on the Japanese house, is\nJapanese Homes and Their Surroundings, by E.S. Morse. See also\nConstructive Art in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 57, III., p. 20;\nFeudal Mansions of Yedo, Vol. VII., p. 157.]\n\n[Footnote 11: See Hearn's Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, pp. 385, 410,\nand _passim_.]\n\n[Footnote 12: For pathetic pictures of Japanese daily life, see Our\nNeighborhood, by the late Dr. T.A. Purcell, Yokohama, 1874; A Japanese\nBoy, by Himself (S. Shig\u00e9mi), New Haven, 1889; Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses\nof Unfamiliar Japan, Boston, 1894.]\n\n[Footnote 13: Klaproth's Annales, and S. and H. _passim_.]\n\n[Footnote 14: See Pfoundes's Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 130, for a list of\ngrades from Ho-\u014d or cloistered emperor, Miya or sons of emperors,\nchief priests of sects, etc., down to priests in charge of inferior\ntemples. This Budget of Notes, pp. 99-144, contains much valuable\ninformation, and was one of the first publications in English which shed\nlight upon the peculiarities of Japanese Buddhism.]\n\n[Footnote 15: Isaiah xl. 19, 20, and xli. 6, 7, read to the dweller in\nJapan like the notes of a reporter taken yesterday.]\n\n[Footnote 16: T.J., p. 339; Notes on Some Minor Japanese Religious\nPractices, _Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May, 1893;\nLowell's Esoteric Shint\u014d, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI.; Satow's The Shint\u014d\nTemples of Is\u00e9, T.A.S.J., Vol. II., p. 113.]\n\n[Footnote 17: M.E., p. 45; American Cyclopaedia, Japan,\nLiterature--History, Travels, Diaries, etc.]\n\n[Footnote 18: That is, no dialects like those which separate the people\nof China. The ordinary folks of Satsuma and Suruga, for example,\nhowever, would find it difficult to understand each other if only the\nlocal speech were used. Men from the extremes of the Empire use the\nT\u014dki\u014d standard language in communicating with each other.]\n\n[Footnote 19: For some names of Buddhist temples in Shimoda see Perry's\nNarrative, pp. 470-474, described by Dr. S. Wells Williams; S. and H.\n_passim_.]\n\n[Footnote 20: The Abb\u00e9 Huc in his Travels in Tartary was one of the\nfirst to note this fact. I have not noticed in my reading that the\nJesuit missionaries in Japan in the seventeenth century call attention\nto the matter. See also the writings of Arthur Lillie, voluminous but\nunconvincing, Buddha and Early Buddhism, and Buddhism and Christianity,\nLondon, 1893.]\n\n[Footnote 21: M.E., p. 252.]\n\n[Footnote 22: T.J., p. 70.]\n\n[Footnote 23: See The Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene Creed,\nT\u014dki\u014d, 1894, by Rev. A. Lloyd.]\n\n[Footnote 24: \"I preach with ever the same voice, taking enlightenment\nas my text. For this is equal for all; no partiality is in it, neither\nhatred nor affection.... I am inexorable, bear no love or hatred towards\nanyone, and proclaim the law to all creatures without distinction, to\nthe one as well as to the other.\"--Saddharma Pundarika.]\n\n[Footnote 25: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., p. 247.]\n\n[Footnote 26: For the symbolism of the lotus see M.E., p. 437; Unbeaten\nTracks in Japan, Vol. I., p. 299; M.E. index; and Saddharma Pundarika,\nKern's translation, p. 76, note:\n\n\"Here the Buddha is represented as a wise and benevolent father; he is\nthe heavenly father, Brahma. As such ho was represented as sitting on a\n'lotus-seat.' How common this representation was in India, at least in\nthe sixth century of our era, appears from Var\u00e2hamihira's\nBrihat-Sainhita, Ch. 58, 44, where the following rule is laid down for\nthe Buddha idols: 'Buddha shall be (represented) sitting on a\nlotus-seat, like the father of the world.'\"]\n\n[Footnote 27: See The Northern Buddhist Mythology in _Journal of the\nRoyal Asiatic Society_, January, 1894.]\n\n[Footnote 28: See The Pictorial Arts of Japan, and Descriptive and\nHistorical Catalogue, William Anderson, pp. 13-94.]\n\n[Footnote 29: See fylfot in Century Dictionary.]\n\n[Footnote 30: The word _vagra_, diamond, is a constituent in scores of\nnames of sutras, especially those whose contents are metaphysical in\ntheir nature. The Vajrasan, Diamond Throne or Thunderbolt seat, was the\nname applied to the most sacred part of the great temple reared by Asoka\non the site of the bodhi tree, under which Gautama received\nenlightenment. \"The adamantine truths of Buddha struck like a\nthunderbolt upon the superstitious of his age.\" \"The word vagra has the\ntwo senses of hardness and utility. In the former sense it is understood\nto be compared to the secret truth which is always in existence and not\nto be broken. In the latter sense it implies the power of the\nenlightened, that destroys the obstacles of passions.\"--B.N., p. 88. \"As\nheld in the arms of Kwannon and other images in the temples,\" the vagra\nor \"diamond club\" (is that) with which the foes of the Buddhist Church\nare to be crushed.--S. and H., p. 444. Each of the gateway gods Ni-\u014d\n(two Kings, Indra and Brahma) \"bears in his hand the tokko (Sanskrit\n_vagra_), an ornament originally designed to represent a diamond club,\nand now used by priests and exorcists, as a religious sceptre\nsymbolizing the irresistible power of prayer, meditation, and\nincantation.\"--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 31.]\n\n[Footnote 31: Jiz\u014d is the compassionate helper of all in trouble,\nespecially of travellers, of mothers, and of children. His Sanskrit name\nis Kshiugarbha. His idol is one of the most common in Japan. It is\nusually neck-laced with baby's bibs, often by the score, while the\npedestal is heaped with small stones placed there by sorrowing\nmothers.--S. and H., p. 29, 394; Chamberlain's Handbook of Japan, 29,\n101. Hearn's Japan, p. 34, and _passim_.]\n\n[Footnote 32: Sanskrit _arhat_ or _arhan_, meaning worthy or deserving,\ni.e., holy man, the highest rank of Buddhist saintship. See Century\nDictionary.]\n\n[Footnote 33: M.E., p. 201. The long inscription on the bell in\nWellesley College, which summons the student-maidens to their hourly\ntasks has been translated by the author and Dr. K. Kurahara and is as\nfollows:\n\n1. A prose preface or historical statement.\n\n2. Two stanzas of Chinese poetry, in four-syllable lines, of four verses\neach, with an apostrophe in two four-syllable lines.\n\n3. The chronology.\n\n4. The names of the composer and calligraphist, and of the\nbronze-founder.\n\nThe characters in vertical lines are read from top to bottom, the order\nof the columns being from right to left. There are in all 117\ncharacters.\n\nThe first tablet reads:\n\nLotus-Lily Temple (of) Law-Grove Mountain; Bell-inscription (and)\nPreface.\n\n\"Although there had been of old a bell hung in the Temple of the\nLotus-Lily, yet being of small dimensions its note was quickly\nexhausted, and no volume of melody followed (after having been struck).\nWhereupon, for the purpose of improving upon this state of affairs, we\nmade a subscription, and collected coin to obtain a new bell. All\nbelievers in the doctrine, gods as well as devils, contributed freely.\nThus the enterprise was soon consummated, and this inscription prepared,\nto wit:\n\n\"'The most exalted Buddha having pitiful compassion upon the people,\nwould, by means of this bell, instead of words, awaken them from earthly\nillusions, and reveal the darkness of this world.\n\n\"'Many of the living hearkening to its voice, and making confession, are\nfreed from the bondage of their sins, and forever released from their\ndisquieting desires.\n\n\"'How great is (Buddha's) merit! Who can utter it? Without measure,\nboundless!'\n\n\"Eleventh year of the Era of the Foundation of Literature (and of the\nmale element) Wood (and of the zodiac sign) Dog; Autumn, seventh month,\nfifteenth day (A.D. August 30,1814).\n\n\"Composition and penmanship by Kam\u00e9da Koy\u00e9-sen. Cast by the artist\nSugiwara Kuninobu.\"\n\n(The poem in unrhymed metre.)\n\n  Buddha in compassion tender\n  With this bell, instead of words,\n  Wakens souls from life's illusions,\n  Lightens this world's darkness drear.\n\n  Many souls its sweet tones heeding,\n  From their chains of sin are freed;\n  All the mind's unrest is soothed,\n  Sinful yearnings are repressed.\n\n  Oh how potent is his merit,\n  Without bounds in all the worlds!\n]\n\n[Footnote 34: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 129.]\n\n[Footnote 35: M.E., pp. 287-290, 513-514; Perry's Narrative, pp. 471,\n472; Our Neighborhood, pp. 119-124. The following epitaphs are gathered\nfrom various sources:\n\n\"This stone marks the remains of the believer who never grows old.\"\n\n\"The believing woman Yu-ning, Happy was the day of her departure.\"\n\n\"Multitudes fill the graves.\"\n\n\"Only by this vehicle--the coffin--can we enter Hades.\"\n\n\"As the floating grass is blown by the gentle breeze, or the glancing\nripples of autumn disappear when the sun goes down, or as a ship returns\nto her old shore--so is life. It is a vapor, a morning-tide.\"\n\n\"Buddha himself wishes to hear the name of the deceased that he may\nenter life.\"\n\n\"He who has left humanity is now perfected by Buddha's name, as the\nwithered moss by the dew.\"\n\n\"Life is like a candle in the wind.\"\n\n\"The wise make our halls illustrious, and their monuments endure for\nages.\"\n\n\"What permanency is there to the glory of the world? It goes from the\nsight like hoar-frost in the sun.\"\n\n\"If men wish to enter the joys of heavenly light,\nLet them smell the fragrance of the law of Buddha.\"\n\n\"Whoever wishes to have his merit reach even to the abode of demons, let\nhim, with us, and all living, become perfect in the doctrine.\"]\n\n[Footnote 36: Rev. C.B. Hawarth in the _New York Independent_, January\n18, 1894.]\n\n[Footnote 37: In 781 the Buddhist monk K\u00e9i-shun dedicated a chapel to\nJizo, on whom he conferred the epithet of Sho-gun or general, to suit\nthe warlike tastes of the Japanese people.--S. and H., p. 384. So also\nHachiman became the god of war because adopted as the patron deity of\nthe Genji warriors.--S. and H., p. 70.]\n\n[Footnote 38: Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 90.]\n\n[Footnote 39: Dixon's Japan, p. 41; S. and H., Japan, _passim_; Rein's\nJapan; Story of the Nations, Japan, by David Murray, p. 201, note;\nDening's life of Toyotomi Hid\u00e9yoshi; M.E., Chapters XV., XVI., XX.,\nXXIII., XXIV.; Gazetteer of Echizen; Shiga's History of Nations,\nT\u014dki\u014d, 1888, pp. 115, 118; T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., pp. 94, 134,\n143.]\n\n[Footnote 40: T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII., Hid\u00e9yoshi and the Satsuma Clan in\nthe Sixteenth Century, by J.H. Gubbins; The Times of Taik\u014d, by R.\nBrinkley, in _The Japan Times_.]\n\n[Footnote 41: The Copy of the Buddhist Tripitaka, or Northern\nCollection, made by order of the Emperor, Wan-Li, in the sixteenth\ncentury, when the Chinese capital (King) was changed from the South\n(Nan) to the North (Pe), was reproduced in Japan in 1679 and again in\n1681-83, and in over two thousand volumes, making a pile a hundred feet\nhigh, was presented by the Japanese Government, through the Junior Prime\nMinister, Mr. Tomomi Iwakura, to the Library of the India Office. See\nSamuel Beal's The Buddhist Tripitaka, as it is known in China and Japan,\nA Catalogue and Compendious Report, London, 1876. The library has been\nrearranged by Mr. Bunyin Nanjio, who has published the result of his\nlabors, with Sanskrit equivalents of the titles and with notes of the\nhighest value.]\n\n[Footnote 42: \"Neither country (China or Japan) has had the independence\nand mental force to produce a literature of its own, and to add anything\nbut a chapter of decay to the history of this religion.\"--Professor\nWilliam D. Whitney, in review of Anecdota Oxoniensia, Buddhist Texts\nfrom Japan, in _The Nation_, No. 875.]\n\n[Footnote 43: Education in Japan, A series of papers by the writer,\nprinted in _The Japan Mail_ of 1873-74, and reprinted in the educational\njournals of the United Status. A digest of these papers is given in the\nappendix of F.O. Adams's History of Japan; Life of Sir Harry Parkes,\nVol. II., pp. 305, 306.]\n\n[Footnote 44: Japan: in Literature, Folk-Lore, and Art, p. 77.]\n\n[Footnote 45: Japanese Education at the Philadelphia Exposition, New\nYork, 1876.]\n\n[Footnote 46: See Japanese Literature, by E.M. Satow, in The American\nCyclop\u00e6dia.]\n\n[Footnote 47: The word bonze (Japanese _bon-so_ or _bozu_, Chinese\n_fan-sung_) means an ordinary member of the congregation, just as the\nJapanese term _bon-yo_ or _bon-zuko_ means common people or the ordinary\nfolks. The word came into European use from the Portuguese missionaries,\nwho heard the Japanese thus pronounce the Chinese term _fan_, which, as\n_bon_, is applied to anything in the mass not out of the common.]\n\n[Footnote 48: See On the Early History of Printing in Japan, by E.M.\nSatow, T.A.S.J., Vol. X., Part L, p. 48; Part II., p. 252.]\n\n[Footnote 49: Japanese mediaeval monastery life has been ably pictured\nin English fiction by a scholar of imagination and literary power,\nwithal a military critic and a veteran in Japanese lore. \"The Times of\nTaik\u014d,\" in the defunct Japanese Times (1878), deserves reprint as a\nbook, being founded on Japanese historical and descriptive works. In Mr.\nEdward's Greey's A Captive of Love, Boston, 1880, the idea of ingwa (the\neffects in this life of the actions in a former state of existence), is\nillustrated. See also S. and H., p. 29; T.J., p. 360.]\n\n[Footnote 50: It is curious that while the anti-Christian polemics of\nthe Japanese Buddhists have used the words of Jesus, \"I came to send not\npeace but a sword,\" Matt, x. 34, and \"If any man ... hate not his father\nand mother,\" etc., Luke xiv. 26, as a branding iron with which to stamp\nthe religion of Jesus as gross immorality and dangerous to the state,\nthey justify Gautama in his \"renunciation\" of marital and paternal\nduties.]\n\n[Footnote 51: See Public Charity in Japan, Japan Mail, 1893; and The\nAnnual (Appleton's) Cyclopaedia for 1893.]\n\n[Footnote 52: I have some good reasons for making this suggestion. Yokoi\nH\u00e9ishiro had dwelt for some time in Fukui, a few rods away from the\nhouse in which I lived, and the ideas he promulgated among the Echizen\nclansmen in his lectures on Confucianism, were not only Christian in\nspirit but, by their own statement, these ideas could not be found in\nthe texts of the Chinese sage or of his commentators. Although the\nvolume (edited by his son, Rev. J.F. Yokoi) of his Life and Letters\nshows him to have been an intense and at times almost bigoted\nConfucianist, he, in one of his later letters, prophesied that when\nChristianity should be taught by the missionaries, it would win the\nhearts of the young men of Japan. See also Satow's Kins\u00e9 Shiriaku, p.\n183; Adams's History of Japan; and in fiction, see Honda The Samurai, p.\n242, and succeeding chapters.]\n\n[Footnote 53: In the colorless and unsentimental language of government\npublications, the Japanese edict of emancipation, issued to the local\nauthorities in October, 1871, ran as follows: \"The designations of eta\nand hinin are abolished. Those who bore them are to be added to the\ngeneral registers of the population and their social position and\nmethods of gaining a livelihood are to be identical with the rest of the\npeople. As they have been entitled to immunity from the land tax and\nother burdens of immemorial custom, you will inquire how this may be\nreformed and report to the Board of Finance.\" (Signed) Council of\nState.]\n\n[Footnote 54: In English fiction, see The Eta Maiden and the Hatamoto,\nin Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp. 210-245. Discussions as to\nthe origin of the Eta are to be found in Adams's History of Japan, Vol.\nI, p. 77; M.E., index; T.J., p. 147; S. and H., p. 36; Honda the\nSamurai, pp. 246, 247; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. I., pp.\n210-245. The literature concerning the Ainos is already voluminous. See\nChamberlain's Aino Studies, with bibliography; and Rev. John Batchelor's\nAinu Grammar, published by The Imperial University of T\u014dki\u014d;\nT.A.S.J., Vols. X., XL, XVI., XVIII., XX.; The Ainu of Japan, New York,\n1892, by J. Batchelor (who has also translated the Book of Common\nPrayer, and portions of the Bible into the Ainu tongue); M. E., Chap.\nII.; T.A.S.J., Vol. X., and following volumes; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan,\nVol. II.; Life with Trans-Siberian Savages, London, 1895.]\n\n[Footnote 55: \"Then the venerable S\u0101riputra said to that daughter of\nSagara, the N\u0101ga-king: 'Thou hast conceived the idea of\nenlightenment, young lady of good family, without sliding back, and art\ngifted with immense wisdom, but supreme, perfect enlightenment is not\neasily won. It may happen, sister, that a woman displays an unflagging\nenergy, performs good works for many thousands of Aeons, and fulfils the\nsix perfect virtues (P\u0101ramit\u0101s), but as yet there is no example of\nher having reached Buddhaship, and that because a woman cannot occupy\nthe five ranks, viz., 1, the rank of Brahma; 2, the rank of Indra; 3,\nthe rank of a chief guardian of the four quarters; 4, the rank of\nKakravartin; 5, the rank of a Bodhisattva incapable of sliding back,\"\nSaddharma Pundarika, Kern's Translation, p. 252.]\n\n[Footnote 56: Chi\u016b-j\u014d-him\u00e9 was the first Japanese nun, and the\nonly woman who is commemorated by an idol. \"She extracted the fibres of\nthe lotus root, and wove them with silk to make tapestry for altars.\"\nFuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 128. Her romantic and marvellous story is given in\nS. and H., p. 397. \"The practice of giving ranks to women was commenced\nby Jito Tenn\u014d (an empress, 690-705).\" Many women shaved their heads\nand became nuns \"on becoming widows, as well as on being forsaken by, or\nafter leaving their husbands. Others were orphans.\" One of the most\nfamous nuns (on account of her rank) was the Nii no Ama, widow of\nKiyomori and grandmother of the Emperor Antoku, who were both drowned\nnear Shimono-s\u00e9ki, in the great naval battle of 1185 A.D. Adams's\nHistory of Japan, Vol. I., p. 37; M.E., p. 137.]\n\n[Footnote 57: M.E., p. 213; Japanese Women, World's Columbian\nExhibition, Chicago, 1893, Chap. III.]\n\n[Footnote 58: There is no passage in the original Greek texts, or in the\nRevised Version of the New Testament which ascribes wings to the\n_aggelos_, or angel. In Rev. xii. 14, a woman is \"given two wings of a\ngreat eagle.\"]\n\n[Footnote 59: Japanese Women in Politics, Chap. I., Japanese Women,\nChicago, 1893; Japanese Girls and Women, Chapters VI. and VII.]\n\n[Footnote 60: Bakin's novels are dominated by this idea, while also\npreaching in fiction strict Confucianism. See A Captive of Love, by\nEdward Greey.]\n\n[Footnote 61: \"Fate is one of the great words of the East. _Japan's\nlanguage is loaded and overloaded with it._ Parents are forever saying\nbefore their children, 'There's no help for it.' I once remarked to a\nschool-teacher, 'Of course you love to teach children.' His quick reply\nwas, 'Of course I don't. I do it merely because there is no help for\nit.' Moralists here deplore the prosperity of the houses of ill-fame and\nthen add with a sigh, 'There's no help for it.' All society reverberates\nwith this phrase with reference to questions that need the application\nof moral power, will power.\"--J.H. De Forest.\n\n\"I do not say there is no will power in the East, for there is. Nor do I\nsay there is no weak yielding to fate in lands that have the doctrine of\nthe Creator, for there is. But, putting the East and West side by side,\none need not hesitate to affirm that the reason the will power of the\nEast is weak cannot be fully explained by any mere doctrine of\nenvironment, but must also have some vital connection with the fact that\nthe idea of a personal almighty Creator has for long ages been wanting.\nAnd one reason why western nations have an aggressive character that\nventures bold things and tends to defy difficulties cannot be wholly\nlaid to environment but must have something to do with the fact that\nleads millions daily reverently to say 'I believe in the Almighty\nFather, Maker of Heaven and Earth.'\"--J.H. De Forest.]\n\n\nSTATISTICS OF BUDDHISM IN JAPAN.\n\n\n(From The official \"R\u00e9sum\u00e9 Statistique de l'Empire du Japon,\"\nT\u014dki\u014d, 1894.)\n\nIn 1891 there were 71,859 temples within city or town limits, and 35,959\nin the rural districts, or 117,718 in all, under the charges of 51,791\nprincipal priests and 720 principal priestesses, or 52,511 in all.\n\nThe number of temples, classified by sects, were as follows: Tendai,\nwith 3 sub-sects, 4,808; Shingon, with 2 sub-sects, 12,821, of which 45\nbelonged to the Hoss\u014d shu; J\u014d-do, with 2 sub-sects, 8,323, of\nwhich 21 were of the K\u00e9-gon shu; Zen, with 3 sub-sects, 20,882, of which\n6,146 were of the Rin-Zai shu; 14,072 of the S\u014d-d\u014d shu, and 604 of\nthe O-bakushu; Shin, with 10 sub-sects, 19,146; Nichiren, with 7\nsub-sects, 5,066; Ji shu, 515; Yu-dz\u016b; Nembutsu, 358; total, 38 sects\nand 71,859 temples.\n\nThe official reports required by the government from the various sects,\nshow that there are 38 administrative heads of sects; 52,638\npriest-preachers and 44,123 ordinary priests or monks; and 8,668 male\nand 328 female, or a total of 8,996, students for the grade of monk or\nnun. In comparison with 1886, the number of priest-preachers was 39,261,\nordinary priests 38,189: male students, 21,966; female students, 642.\n\n\nCHAPTER  XI\n\nROMAN CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.\n\n\n[Footnote 1: See for a fine example of this, Mr. C. Meriwether's Life of\nDat\u00e9 Masamun\u00e9, T.A.S.J., Vol. XXI., pp. 3-106. See also The Christianity\nof Early Japan, by Koji Inaba, in The Japan Evangelist, Yokohama,\n1893-94; Mr. E. Satow's papers in T.A.S.J.]\n\n[Footnote 2: See M.E., p. 280; Rein's Japan, p. 312; Shig\u00e9taka Shiga's\nHistory of Nations, p. 139, quoting from M.E. (p. 258).]\n\n[Footnote 3: M.E., 195.]\n\n[Footnote 4: The Japan Mail of April and May, 1894, contains a\ntranslation from the Japanese, with but little new matter, however, of a\nwork entitled Paul Anjiro.]\n\n[Footnote 5: The \"Firando\" of the old books. See Cock's Diary. It is\ndifficult at first to recognize the Japanese originals of some of the\nnames which figure in the writings of Charlevoix, L\u00e9on Pag\u00e9s, and the\nEuropean missionaries, owing to their use of local pronunciation, and\ntheir spelling, which seems peculiar. One of the brilliant\nidentifications of Mr. Ernest Satow, now H.B.M. Minister at Tangier, is\nthat of Kuroda in the \"Kondera\"' of the Jesuits.]\n\n[Footnote 6: See Mr. E.M. Matow's Vicissitudes of the Church at\nYamaguchi. T.A.S.J., Vol. VII., pp. 131-156.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Nobunaga was Nai Dai Jin, Inner (Junior) Prime Minister,\none in the triple premiership, peculiar to Korea and Old Japan, but was\nnever Sh\u014dgun, as some foreign writers have supposed.]\n\n[Footnote 8: See The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan, by E. Satow,\n1591-1610 (privately printed, London, 1888). Review of the same by B.H.\nChamberlain, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., p. 91.]\n\n[Footnote 9: Histoire de l'\u00c9glise, Vol. I, p. 490; Rein, p. 277.\nTakayama is spoken of in the Jesuit Records as J\u00fbsto Ucondono. A curious\nbook entitled Justo Ucondono, Prince of Japan, in which the writer, who\nis \"less attentive to points of style than to matters of faith,\" labors\nto show that \"the Bible alone\" is \"found wanting,\" and only the\n\"Teaching Church\" is worthy of trust, was published in Baltimore, in\n1854.]\n\n[Footnote 10: How Hid\u00e9yoshi made use of the Shin sect of Buddhists to\nbetray the Satsuma clansmen is graphically told in Mr. J.H. Gubbin's\npaper, Hid\u00e9yoshi and the Satsuma Clan, T.A.S.J., Vol. VIII, pp. 124-128,\n143.]\n\n[Footnote 11: Corea the Hermit Nation, Chaps. XII.-XXI., pp. 121-123;\nMr. W.G. Aston's Hid\u00e9yoshi's Invasion of Korea, T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., p.\n227; IX, pp. 87, 213; XI., p. 117; Rev. G.H. Jones's The Japanese\nInvasion, The Korean Repository, Seoul, 1892.]\n\n[Footnote 12: Brave Little Holland and What She Taught Us, Boston, 1893,\np. 247.]\n\n[Footnote 13: See picture and description of this temple--\"fairly\ntypical of Japanese Buddhist architecture,\" Chamberlain's Handbook for\nJapan, p. 26; G.A. Cobbold's, Religion in Japan, London, 1894, p. 72.]\n\n[Footnote 14: T.A.S.J., see Vol. VI., pp. 46, 51, for the text of the\nedicts.]\n\n[Footnote 15: M.E., p. 262, Chamberlain's Handbook for Japan, p. 59.]\n\n[Footnote 16: The Origin of Spanish and Portuguese Rivalry in Japan, by\nE.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII., p. 133.]\n\n[Footnote 17: See Chapter VIII., W.G. Dixon's Gleanings from Japan.]\n\n[Footnote 18: T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., pp. 48-50.]\n\n[Footnote 19: In the inscription upon the great bell, at the temple\ncontaining the image of Dai Buts\u016d or Great Buddha, reared by Hid\u00e9yori\nand his mother, one sentence contained the phrase _Kokka anko, ka_ and\n_ko_ being Chinese for _Iy\u00e9_ and _yas\u016d_, which the Yedo ruler\nprofessed to believe mockery. In another sentence, \"On the East it\nwelcomes the bright moon, and on the West bids farewell to the setting\nsun,\" Iy\u00e9yas\u016d discovered treason. He considered himself the rising\nsun, and Hid\u00e9yori the setting moon.--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan,\np. 300.]\n\n[Footnote 20: I have found the Astor Library in New York especially rich\nin works of this sort.]\n\n[Footnote 21: Nitob\u00e9's United States and Japan, p. 13, note.]\n\n[Footnote 22: This insurrection has received literary treatment at the\nhands of the Japanese in Shimabara, translated in The Far East for 1872;\nWoolley's Historical Notes on Nagasaki, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 125;\nKoeckebakker and the Arima Rebellion, by Dr. A.J.C. Geerts, T.A.S.J.,\nVol. XI., 51; Inscriptions on Shimabara and Amakusa, by Henry Stout,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. VII, p. 185.]\n\n[Footnote 23: \"Persecution extirpated Christianity from Japan.\"--History\nof Rationalism, Vol. II, p. 15.]\n\n[Footnote 24: T.A.S.J., Vol. VI., Part I., p. 62; M.E. pp. 531, 573.]\n\n[Footnote 25: Political, despite the attempt of many earnest members of\nthe order to check this tendency to intermeddle in politics; see Dr.\nMurray's Japan, p. 245, note, 246.]\n\n[Footnote 26: See abundant illustration in L\u00e9on Pag\u00e9s' Histoire de la\nReligion Chr\u00e9tienne en Japon, a book which the author read while in\nJapan amid the scenes described.]\n\n[Footnote 27: _The Japan Evangelist_, Vol. I., No. 2, p. 96.]\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE\n\n\n[Footnote 1: See Diary of Richard Cocks, and Introduction by R.M.\nThompson, Hakluyt Publications, 1883.]\n\n[Footnote 2: For the extent of Japanese influence abroad, see M.E., p.\n246; Rein, Nitobe, and Hildreth; Modern Japanese Adventurers, T.A.S.J.,\nVol. VII., p. 191; The Intercourse between Japan and Siam in the\nSeventeenth Century, by E.M. Satow, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIII., p. 139; Voyage\nof the Dutch Ship Grol, T.A.S.J., Vol. XI., p. 180.]\n\n[Footnote 3: The United States and Japan, p. 16.]\n\n[Footnote 4: See Professor J.H. Wigmore's elaborate work, Materials for\nthe Study of Private Law in Old Japan, T.A.S.J., T\u014dki\u014d, 1892.]\n\n[Footnote 5: See the Legacy of Iy\u00e9yas\u016d, by John Frederic Lowder,\nYokohama, 1874, with criticisms and discussions by E.M. Satow and others\nin the _Japan Mail_; Dixon's Japan, Chapter VII.; Professor W.E.\nGrigsby, in T.A.S.J., Vol. III., Part II., p. 131, gives another\nversion, with analysis, notes, and comments; Rein's Japan, pp. 314,\n315.]\n\n[Footnote 6: Old Japan in the days of its inclusiveness was a secret\nsociety on a vast scale, with every variety and degree of selfishness,\nmystery, secrecy, close-corporationism, and tomfoolery. See article\nEsotericism in T.J., p. 143.]\n\n[Footnote 7: Since the abolition of feudalism, with the increase of the\nmeans of transportation, the larger freedom, and, at many points,\nimproved morality, the population of Japan shows an unprecedented rate\nof increase. The census taken in 1744 gave, as the total number of souls\nin the empire, 26,080,000 (E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., p. 236); that of\n1872, 33,110,825; that of 1892, 41,089,910, showing a greater increase\nduring the past twenty years than in the one hundred and thirty-eight\nyears previous. See R\u00e9sum\u00e9 Statistique de l'Empire du Japon,\nT\u014dki\u014d, 1894; Professor Garrett Droppers' paper on The Population\nof Japan during the Tokugawa Period, read June 27th, 1894; T.A.S.J.,\nVol. XXII.]\n\n[Footnote 8: For the notable instance of Pere Sidotti, see M.E, p. 63;\nS\u00e9i Y\u014d Ki Buu, by S.R. Brown, D.D., a translation of Arai Hakus\u00e9ki's\nnarrative, Yedo, 1710, T.N.C.A.S.; Capture and Captivity of Pere\nSidotti, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 156; Christian Valley, T.A.S.J., Vol.\nXVI., p. 207.]\n\n[Footnote 9: T.A.S.J., Vol. I., p. 78, Vol. VII., p. 323.]\n\n[Footnote 10: See Matthew Calbraith Perry, Boston, 1887.]\n\n[Footnote 11: See the author's Townsend Harris, First American Minister\nto Japan, _The Atlantic Monthly_, August, 1891.]\n\n[Footnote 12: See Honda the Samurai, Boston, 1890; Nitobe's United\nStates and Japan; The Japan Mail _passim_; Dr. G.F. Verbeck's History of\nProtestant Missions in Japan, Yokohama, 1883; Dr. George Wm. Knox's\npapers on Japanese Philosophy, T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. l58, etc. Recent\nJapanese literature, of which the writer has a small shelf-full,\nbiographies, biographical dictionaries, the histories of New Japan, Life\nof Yoshida Shoin, and recent issues of The Nation's Friend (Kokumin no\nTomo), are very rich on this fascinating subject.]\n\n[Footnote 13: A typical instance was that of Rin Shihei, born 1737,\nauthor of _Sun Koku Tsu Ran to Setsu_, translated into French by\nKlaproth, Paris, 1832. Rin learned much from the Dutch and Prussians,\nand wrote books which had a great sale. He was cast into prison, whence\nhe never emerged. The (wooden) plates of his publications were\nconfiscated and destroyed. In 1876, the Mikado visited his grave in\nSendai, and ordered a monument erected to the honor of this far-seeing\npatriot.]\n\n[Footnote 14: Rein, pp. 336, 337]\n\n[Footnote 15: Rein, p. 339; The Early Study of Dutch in Japan, by K.\nMitsukuri, T.A.S.J., Vol. V., p. 209; History of the Progress of\nMedicine in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. XII., p. 245; Vijf Jaren in Japan,\nJ.L.C. Pompe van Meerdervoort, 2d Ed., Leyden, 1808.]\n\n[Footnote 16: Honda the Samurai, pp. 249-251; Nitob\u00e9, 25-27.]\n\n[Footnote 17: The Tokugawa Princes of Mito, by Professor E. W. Clement,\nT.A.S.J., Vol. XVIII, p. 14; Nitob\u00e9's United States and Japan, p. 25,\nnote.]\n\n[Footnote 18: M.E. (6 Ed.), p. 608; Adams's History of Japan, Vol. II.,\np. 171.]\n\n[Footnote 19: See the text of the anti-Christian edicts, M.E., p. 369.]\n\n[Footnote 20: T.A.S.J., Vol. XX., p. 17.]\n\n[Footnote 21: T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., p. 134.]\n\n[Footnote 22: Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., p. 125; A Japanese Buddhist\nPreacher, by Professor M.K. Shimomura, in the New York Independent;\nother sermons have been printed in The Japan Mail; Kino Dowa, two\nsermons and vocabulary, has been edited by Rev. C.S. Eby, Yokohama.]\n\n[Footnote 23: On Sunday, November 29, 1857, Mr. Harris, resting at\nKawasaki, over Sunday, on his way to Yedo and audience of the Sh\u014dgun,\nhaving Mr. Heusken as his audience and fellow-worshipper, read service\nfrom the Book of Common Prayer.]\n\n[Footnote 24: See a paper written by the author and read at the World's\nColumbian Exhibition Congress of Missions, Chicago, September, 1893, on\nThe Citizen Rights of Missionaries.]\n\n[Footnote 25: This embassy was planned and first proposed to the Junior\npremier, Tomomi Iwakura, and the route arranged by the Rev. Guido F.\nVerbeck, then President of the Imperial University. One half of the\nmembers of the embassy had been Dr. Verbeck's pupils at Nagasaki.]\n\n[Footnote 26: A somewhat voluminous native Japanese literature is the\nresult of the various embassies and individual pilgrimages abroad, since\n1860. Immeasurably superior to all other publications, in the practical\ninfluence over his fellow-countrymen, is the S\u00e9iyo Jijo (The Condition\nof Western Countries) by Fukuzawa, author, educator, editor, decliner of\nnumerously proffered political offices, and \"the intellectual father of\none-half of the young men who now fill the middle and lower posts in the\ngovernment of Japan.\" For the foreign side, see The Japanese in America,\nby Charles Lanman, New York, 1872, and in The Life of Sir Harry Parkes,\nLondon, 1894, and for an amusing piece of literary ventriloquism,\nJapanese Letters, Eastern Impressions of Western Men and Manners, London\nand New York, 1891.\n\nSee History of Protestant Missions in Japan, by G. F. Verbeck, Yokohama,\n1893.]\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\nAbbess, 318.\nAbbots, 312.\nAbdication, 214.\nAborigines, 9, 38, 43, 77-79, 177.\nAdams, Will, 334, 340.\nAdi-Buddha, 174.\nAdoption, 122, 126.\nAdultery, 149.\nAidzu, 119.\nAinos, 2, 9, 16, 73, 177, 317, 379.\nAkamatsu, Rev. Renjo, 425.\nAk\u00e9chi, 332.\nAlphabets, 199, 200.\nAltaic, 39, 389.\nAmalgam of religions, 11, 13.\nAmat\u00e9ras\u016d, see Sun-goddess.\nAmerican relations, 11, 12, 157.\nAmidaism, 276, 303.\nAnabaptists, 162.\nAnalects, 128.\nAncestral worship, 106.\nAnderson, Dr. Win, 435.\nAngels, 304.\nAnimism, 15-17.\nAnjiro, 329.\nApostolical succession, 262.\nArabian Nights, 192, 201.\nArchitecture, 82, 84, 210, 298-300.\nArt, 68, 1l4, 195-197, 297, 298, 303-305, 314, 356.\nAryan Conquest of India, 44, 156, 157, 177, 207.\nAsanga, 175, 205.\nAssassination, 367.\nAsoka, 165.\nAston, Mr. Wm. G., 360, 386, 387.\nAtheism, 163, 164.\nAtkinson, Rev, J.L., 410.\nAvalokitesvara, 170, 171, 179.\nAvatars, 201, 208, 221, 247, 269, 295.\n\nBabism, 166.\nBakin, 444.\nBangor Theological Seminary, 378.\nBatchelor, Rev. John, 317.\nBeal, Rev. Samuel, 8.\nBeauty, 207.\nBeggars, 208.\nBells, 307, 308.\nBenten, 204, 207, 218.\nBible, 27, 104, 364, 386.\nBinzuru, 237.\nBirth, 84.\nBishamon, 218.\nBodhidharma, see Daruma.\nBodhisattva, 169, 204, 234.\nBonzes, 310.\nBosatsu, 170, 204; see Bodhsattva.\nBrahma, 247.\nBrahmanism, 163, 185, 186, 218.\nBrothers, 125, 126.\nBuddha. Amida, see Amidaism.\n  the Buddha, 101, 103, 161, 162.\n  Gautama, 155, 161-164.\n  Shakyamuni, 160.\n  Siddartha, 410.\n  Tathagata, 259.\n  Tathata, 243.\nBunyin Nanjio, Rev., 231, 425.\nBuddhism, 42, 74, 76, 106, 133, 136, 137, 140, 185, 186, 227, 231.\nBuddhist, 165, 166, 183, 214, 229, 252.\n\nCannibalism, 74.\nCanon, Chinese, 103; Shint\u014d, 39-41.\nCapitals of Japan, 182, 183, 296.\nCelibacy, 272.\nCemeteries, 308.\nChair of Contemplation, 252.\nChamberlain, Prof. B. Hall, 39, 324, 388.\nChastity, 68, 124, 149, 320.\nCheng Brothers, 138, 139.\nChina, 134, 199, 215, 328, 355.\nChinese, 83, 134; Buddhism, 232.\nChristianity and Buddhism, 166, 183, 185, 187, 195, 217, 218, 265, 270,\n    300-302, 306, 315, 319.\nChronology, 41, 370, 387.\nChu Hi, 11, 108, 139, 143, 144, 356.\nCleanliness, 84, 97.\nClement, Prof. E.M., 407.\nCobra-de-capello, 21.\nCocks, Mr. Richard, 380.\nColumbus, 328.\nComparative religion, 4-6.\nConfucius, 100-106.\nConfucianism, 74, 107, 213.\nConcubinage, 149.\nConstitution of 1889, 96, 122.\nCorea, see Korea.\nCourtship, 124.\nCreator, 145, 285.\nCremation, 182.\nCrucifixion, 115, 368.\n\nDai Butsu, 203.\nDaikoku, 218.\nDai Mi\u014d Jin, 190, 204, 206, 230.\nDaruma, 186, 208, 254.\nDavids, T. Rhys, 155, 172.\nDeath, 84.\nDe Brosses, 23.\nDe Forest, Rev. J.H., 226.\nDemoniacal possession, 281.\nD\u00e9shima, 354, 358, 362-365.\nDharari, 199.\nDharma, see Daruma, 186.\nDhyana Buddhas and Sect, 172, 252, 254.\nDiet, 293, 294.\nDivorce, 125, 149.\nD\u014d-sen, 236.\nD\u014d-sh\u014d, 181.\nDragon, 20, 21, 74, 115, 198, 242.\nDutch, 90, 336, 340, 353, 354, 358, 360, 362, 363-365, 366.\nDutt, Mr. Romesh Chunder, 161.\n\nEbisu, 218.\nEcclesiastes, 214.\nEchizen, 312.\nEdicts against Christianity, 335, 336, 342.\nEdkins, Dr. J., 249.\nEducation, 313, 320.\nEmbassy round the world, 373.\nEmperor, 148.\nEmura, Rev. Shu-zan, 232.\nEngland, 37.\nEta, 115, 150, 275, 316, 317, 367.\nEthics, 92, 94.\nEuhemerus, 192, 193, 197, 201.\nEurasians, 344.\nEvil, 58, 78.\nEvolution, 62.\nEzekiel, 36.\nEzra, 102.\n\nFamily Life, 122, 125-127.\nFemale divinities, 66, 305, 319.\nFetichism, 22-27.\nFeudalism, 10, 108-110.\nFilial piety, 123, 149, 213.\nFire-drill, 55, 56.\nFire, God of, 53.\nFire-myths, 53.\nFive Relations, 105, 114, 148-150.\nFlags, 26.\nFlood, 53.\nFlowers, 58.\nForty-seven R\u014dnins, 118, 119.\nFranciscans, 336, 337.\nFriends, 127.\nFudo, 279.\nFuji Mountain, 400.\nFujishima, Rev. Ryauon, 231.\nFukuda, Rev. Gyo-kai, 425.\nFukui, 23.\nFuku-roku-jin, 218.\n\nGardens, 237, 294, 295.\nGautama, 158, 161, 164.\nGenji Monogatari, 149.\nGenj\u014d, 181, 232, 233, 238, 239.\nGermanic nations, 10, 44.\nGhosts, 206.\nGiyoku, 183.\nGnostics, 193, 195.\nGod-possession, 201.\nGold, 184, 196, 210, 291.\nGolden Rule, 128.\nGongen, 204, 205, 220.\nGore, Mr. T., 7, 384.\nGraveyards, 308, 368.\nGreater Vehicle, 165, 170, 240, 244.\nGubbins, Mr. J.H., 403, 447.\n\nHachiman, 204.\nHades, 53, 64.\nHara-kiri, 112, 121, 339.\nHarris, Mr. Townsend, 145, 352, 360, 370, 371.\nHayashi, 129.\nHeathen, 13, 30.\nHeaven, 62, 63, 70, 81, 105, 112, 118, 144.\nHepburn, Dr. J.C., 372.\nHid\u00e9yori, 340, 342.\nHid\u00e9yoshi, 313, 333, 338.\nHindu history, 156.\nHi-nin, 115, 150.\nHinayana, 165, 167, 169, 228, 232, 238.\nHiouen Thsang, see Genj\u014d.\nHiraii, 2.\nHirata, 86.\nHistory of China, intellectual, 137.\n  of Japan, intellectual, 230.\n  of Japan, political, 10, 37, 44, 219.\n  of Japan, religious, 227, 228.\nHitomar\u014d, 60.\nHiy\u00e9isan, 16, 297.\nHodge, 102.\nHodgson, Mr. Brian H., 411, 414.\nHokk\u00e9-Ki\u014d, see Saddharma Pundarika.\nHokusai, 314.\nHolland, 338.\nH\u014dnen, 261, 264.\nH\u014d-\u014d, 184, 237.\nHospitals, 216, 315.\nHoss\u014d-Shu, 238, 239.\nHot\u00e9i, 218.\nHotok\u00e9, 202, 269.\n\nIdols, 175, 207, 216.\nIdzumo, 44, 65.\nIkk\u014d, 273.\nInari, 190.\nIndra, 163, 247.\nIngwa, 217, 302, 321; see Karma.\nInquisition, 347, 348, 368.\nInsurance by fetich, 24, 25.\nIsaiah, 100.\nIs\u00e9, 28, 184, 201.\nIy\u00e9yas\u016d, 91, 100, 132, 134, 204, 205, 338, 342, 357, 358.\nIzanagi and Izanami, 52, 63, 64, 207, 218.\n\nJade, 292.\nJains, 166.\nJapan, area, 9.\n  Census, 9.\n  Ethnology, 43, 44.\n  Geography, 9, 43, 44.\n  Government, 40.\n  History, 10, 37, 44, 109.\n  Origins, 43.\n  Population, 8, 9.\n  Various names of, 73.\nJapanese Bride, The, 125, 149.\nJapanese characteristics, 112, 285, 361.\n  Language, 113, 116, 135.\n  Writing, 200.\nJataka tales, 169.\nJealousy, 124.\nJesuits, 247, 329, 337, 341, 342.\nJesus, 76, 97, 100, 117.\nJimmu Tenn\u014d, 389,\nJin Gi Kuan, 49, 94, 390-392.\nJizo, 247, 305.\nJ\u014d d\u014d sect, 250, 275.\nJohn, 2, 60.\nJ\u014d-jitsu sect, 181, 235.\nJoss, 23.\nJun-shi, 68, 76, 119.\nJu-r\u016d-jin, 218.\n\nKaburagi, 36, 60.\nKada Adzumar\u014d, 91.\nKamui, 30.\nKami-dana, 86, 88, 295.\nKamui, 30.\nKana, 199, 200, 274.\nKanda, Dai Mi\u014d-Jin, 205.\nKarma, 162, 169, 186, 234, 258.\nKato Kyomasa, 278, 334, 339.\nK\u00e9-gon sect, 242-244.\nK\u00e9ichu, 91.\nKern, Prof. H., 155, 239.\nKi\u014dto, 183, 296, 330, 336.\nKirin, 19.\nKishimoto, Mr. Nobuta., 11.\nKiushiu, 339.\nKiyomori, 120.\nKnos, Dr. George Wm., 182, 228, 288, 385.\nKobayashi, Rev. Z\u00e9-jun, 425.\nK\u014db\u014d, 89, 197, 205, 248, 250.\nKojiki, 29, 32, 40, 41, 52, 74, 82-90, 149, 195, 197.\nKo-ken, Empress, 310.\nKompira, 204.\nKonishi, 334, 335.\nKorea, 9, 21, 26, 40, 41, 74, 106, 107, 168, 179, 180, 292, 310, 328,\n    332, 333, 334, 355, 368.\nKosatsu, 368.\nKu-ya, 198.\nKumi, Prof., 76-82.\nKun-shin, 111, 113, 116, 117, 213.\nKu-sha sutra, 232, 233.\nKwannon, 181, 207, 247, 319.\nKy\u016bso, 132, 144.\n\nLamaism, 107.\nLanguage of China, 237.\n  of England, 295.\n  of Holland, 364, 365.\n  of Japan, 39, 113, 116, 134, 265, 295, 299, 364.\n  of Korea, 116.\nLao Tsze, 102, 144, 218.\nLaws of Japan, 358.\nLecky, Mr., 344.\nLegendre, Gen., 385, 389.\nLegge, Dr. J., 100, 378.\nLibraries, 253, 327.\nLingam, see Phallicism.\nLiterature, 39, 100, 141, 156, 159, 216, 252, 313, 318, 369.\nLiturgy, see Norito.\nLloyd, Rev. A., 258.\nLoo-choo, see Rin Kin.\nLotus, 434, 435, 437.\nLove, 117, 118.\nLowell, Mr. Percival, 397, 423.\nLoyalty, see Kun-shin.\nLuther, 271.\nLyman, Prof. B.S., 383.\n\nMabuchi, 90, 91.\nMacDonald, Rev. James, 8.\nMagatama, 68, 292.\nMahayana, 105; see Greater Vehicle.\nMaitreya, 169, 170, 218, 236, 244.\nMalays, 9, 43.\nMandala, 203.\nMunjusri, 170, 171, 179, 262.\nMantra, 248.\nMany\u016b-shu, 39, 40.\nMarco Polo, 42.\nMark, 60.\nMarriage, 123, 126, 149.\nMartyrs, 337, 344, 359, 360, 362, 366-369.\nMasakado, 209.\nMatsugami, 209.\nMatsuri, 28.\nMeiji Era, 112, 116, 256.\nMencius, 106, 112, 137.\nMendez, Pinto, 42.\nMexico, 349.\nMikado, 44, 45, 76, 92, 95, 96, 114, 117, 184, 191, 201.\nMikadoism, 45-49, 74-82, 184, 202.\nMilitary monks, 247.\nMinamoto, 271.\nMing dynasty, 134.\nMioken, 279.\nMiracles, 216, 267.\nMirror, 83.\nMissionary training, 6-8.\nMito, 111, 134, 143, 366.\nMiya, 82-84, 209.\nMonasteries, 162, 165, 298, 311, 312.\nMonotheism, 15, 81, 103, 104, 145, 174, 187.\nMorse lectureship, 4.\nMorse, Prof E.S., 377.\nMoto\u00f6ri, 80, 91, 290.\nMozoomdar, 411, 420.\nM\u00fcller, Prof. Max, 211.\nMunzinger, Rev. C., 403.\nMurray, Dr. David, 402.\nMutsuhito, 60, 316.\n\nNagasaki, 332, 337, 343, 344, 358, 362.\nNakatomi, 48.\nNames, 127, 202, 265.\nNames of Japan, 73, 82.\nNamu-Amida-Butsu, 259, 261.\nNanjio Bunyin, 231.\nNara, 182, 237, 243, 296.\nNehan, see Nirvana.\nNepal, 167, 168, 171.\nNew Buddhism, 284, 285.\nNichiren, 277, 278.\n   Sect, 277-280, 334, 339.\nNihilism, 236, 240, 241.\nNihongi, 41, 56, 62.\nNikk\u014d, 185, 263.\nNirvana, 162, 163, 186, 200, 302, 303.\nNitob\u00e9, Mr. Inazo, 352, 360.\nNobunaga, 312, 331, 332.\nNorito, 38, 47-49, 54, 55-58, 79, 80, 96.\nNorthern Buddhism, 165.\n\nObaku sect, 283.\nOfferings, 57.\nOgurusu, Rev. Ku-ch\u014d, 214.\nObashi Junzo, 145.\nOjin, 204.\nOnna-ishi, see Phallicism.\nOriginal prayer, 271.\nOriginal vow, 273, 312.\nOrphan asylums, 216.\nOsaka, 130, 312, 368.\n\nPag\u00e9s, Mr. Leon, 449.\nPagodas, 203.\nPantheism, 31, 142, 143, 187, 219, 243.\nParadise, 210, 229, 259, 261, 280.\nParliament of Religions, 5, 39, 72, 283.\nPeking, 105.\nPerry, Commodore M.C., 129, 316, 352, 360, 364, 365.\nPersecutions, 93, 343.\nPersian elements, 195, 202, 304.\nPersonality, 116.\nPessimism, 214.\nPhallicism, 29-30, 49-53, 88, 380-384.\nPhilo, 192, 197, 201.\nPhoenix, 19, 20.\nPilgrimages, 298, 290.\nPindola, see Binzuru.\nPoetry, 223; see Many\u016bshu.\nPoliteness, 74, 241.\nPopular customs, 192.\nPopulation, 8, 9, 177, 291, 359.\nPopular movement in China, 138.\nPortuguese, 344, 345, 347.\nPratyekas, 234.\nPrayers, 86-88.\nPrayer-wheels, 175.\nPrinting, 133, 134, 200.\nPrometheus, 53.\nProtestantism, 155, 162, 252, 274.\nPronouns, 116.\nProverbs, 28, 179, 226, 270, 307, 332, 352, 389.\nPsychology of the Japanese, 230, 241.\nPure Land of Bliss, 198, 263-265.\nPurification of 1870, 206, 210, 213, 222, 248, 360.\nPyrronism, 240.\n\nRai Sanyo, 143.\nRakan, 305.\n\"Reformed\" Buddhism, 270, 274-277.\nRenny\u014d Sh\u014d-nin, 258.\nRevision of Confucianism, 148-152.\nRevival of pure Shint\u014d, 91-96.\nRevolving libraries, 253.\nRis-shu, 236-238.\nRituals, see Norito.\nRiu Kiu, 9, 109.\nRiy\u014dbu, 89, 191, 203, 209, 211, 212, 223.\nRosaries, 266.\n\nSaddharma Pundarika, 170, 229, 246, 280, 304.\nSado, 341.\nSalt, 85.\nSamurai, 110, 119, 146, 151, 152.\nSan Kai Ri, 211.\nSanron sect, 182, 240.\nSanskrit, 25, 182, 200, 210, 245, 249.\nSaratashi, 218.\nSatow, Mr. Ernest, 39, 47, 386.\nSatsuma, 313.\nSchools of Philosophy:\n  Chinese, 136-139.\n  Indian, 159-164, 232.\n  Japanese, 356-358, 369.\nSekigaharu, 338.\nSendai, 119.\nSeppuku, see Hara-kiri.\nSerpent-worship, 30-33, 278, 279, 385.\nSeven Gods of Good Fortune, 217, 218.\nShaka, 160, 161, 179, 254.\nShakyamuni, see Shaka.\nShaminism, 15-17.\nShang-Ti, 103, 104.\nShari, 182.\nShastra and Sutra, 231.\nShichimen, 278.\nShigomori, 120.\nShimabara, 344.\nShingaku movement, 369, 370.\nShingon sect, 185, 203, 248-251.\nShinran, 271-274.\nShin sect, 270-276, 317.\nShint\u014d, 38, 42, 76, 89, 96, 97, 142, 184, 195, 214, 319.\nSin, 285, 288.\nSh\u014d-gun, 110, 115, 143.\nShomon, 236.\nSh\u014dtoku, 180, 181, 208, 236, 313.\nSiddartha, 410.\nSoga no Inam\u00e9, 180.\nSoshi, 95, 278.\nSouthern Buddhism, 165, 167.\nSpaniards, 336, 337, 340, 347.\nStars, 92.\nStatistics of Buddhism, 309.\n  of Shint\u014d, 400, 401.\nSugawara Michizan\u00e9, 204.\nSuicide, 112, 118-121, 147, 151.\nSuiko, 180.\nSung dynasty, 414, 437.\nSun-goddess, 66, 104, 201, 203.\nSun-worship, 46, 47, 82, 87.\nSwastika, 305.\nSwords, 7, 378.\nSyle, Rev. E.W., 36.\nSyncretism, 191-194, 205.\nSynergism, 268, 271, 272.\nSzma Kwang, 138.\n\nTaik\u014d, see Hid\u00e9yoshi.\nTakahashi, Mr. Gor\u014d, 384.\nTakashi, Rev. Dai-Ryo, 238.\nTak\u00e9tori Monogatari, 423.\nTantra system, 194.\nTa\u014dism, 106, 215, 218.\nTathagata, 259.\nTathata, 243, 246.\nTaylor, Bayard, 380.\nTea plant, 208.\nT\u00e9i-Shn philosophy, 139, 145.\nTemples, 83, 93, 209, 305-309.\nTen, 144.\nTendai sect, 185, 244-248, 268.\nTenjin, 204.\nTenn\u014d, 184.\nTenshi, 184.\nTerence, 128.\nTheism, 172.\nTheological seminaries, 6-8.\nTibet, 165, 167, 170.\nTobacco, 209.\nTokugawas, 141, 143, 356, 365.\nTorii, 84, 210.\nTortoise, 19.\nTransmigration of souls, 315.\nTree-worship, 30, 31.\nTriads, 171, 255, 279.\nTrinity, 428.\nTripitaka, 160, 170, 231.\nTsuji, Rev. Ken-ko, 425.\nTsukushi, 44.\nTsushima, 44.\nTycoon, see Sh\u014d-gun.\n\nU\u00e9da, Rev. Sho-Hen, 425.\nUpanishads, 156, 161, 162.\nUshi toki mairi, 31.\nUzum\u00e9, 68.\n\nVagra, 305.\nVagrabodhi, 248, 249.\nVairokana, 184, 244, 250.\nVedas, 156, 158, 159, 160, 162.\nVehicles, the three, 234, 235; see also Hinayana and Mahayana.\nVictims, 74.\n\nWashington, 114.\nWestern Paradise, 277.\nWheel of the law, 302.\nWhitney, Prof. W.D., 211, 277.\nWilliam the Silent, 114.\nWoman, 123, 149, 275, 318-320.\n\nXavier, 324, 329, 330, 345, 346, 347.\n\nYamato, 44, 76, 87, 91, 109, 177, 179.\n   Damashii, 44, 147, 151, 152, 172.\nYamato-Tosa art, 114,\nYedo, 110, 115, 119, 141, 220, 238, 340, 360, 366.\nYen Sect, 252-256.\nYezo, 43, 317.\nYoga, 157, 197, 199, 201, 209, 211.\nYoga-chara, 194, 203, 249.\nYokoi H\u00e9ishiro, 112, 316, 366, 367.\nYori, see Phallicism.\nYoshida Shoin, 147.\nYoshiwara system, 404.\n\nZend\u014d, 261-262, 267.\nZenk\u014dji, 179, 181.","title":"The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of M\u00e9iji","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":122084}