The burden of the teachings of this sect is subjective idealism. They

embrace principles enjoining complete indifference to mundane affairs,

and, in fact, thorough personal nullification and the ignoring of all

actions by its disciples. In these teachings, thought only, is real. As

we have already seen with the Ku-sha teaching, human beings are of three

classes, divided according to intellect, into higher, middle and lower,

for whom the systems of teachings are necessarily of as many kinds. The

order of progress with those who give themselves to the study of the

Hossō tenets, is,[12] first, they know only the existence of things,

then the emptiness of them, and finally they enter the middle path of

"true emptiness and wonderful existence."

From the first, such discipline is long and painful, and ultimate

victory scarcely comes to the ordinary being. The disciple, by training

in thought, by destroying passions and practices, by meditating on the

only knowledge, must pass through three kalpas or aeons. Constantly

meditating, and destroying the two obstacles of passion and cognizable

things, the disciple then obtains four kinds of wisdom and truly attains

perfect enlightenment or Pari-Nirvana.

The San-ron Shu, as the Three-Shastra sect calls itself, is the sect of

the Teachings of Buddha's whole life.[13] Other sects are founded upon

single sutras, a fact which makes the student liable to narrowness of

opinion. The San-ron gives greater breadth of view and catholicity of

opinion. The doctrines of the Greater Vehicle are the principal

teachings of Gautama, and these are thoroughly explained in the three

shastras used by this sect, which, it is claimed, contain Buddha's own

words. The meanings of the titles of the three favorite sutras, are, The

Middle Book, The Hundred, and The Book of Twelve Gates. Other books of

the canon are also studied and valued by this sect, but all of them are

apt to be perused from a particular point of view; i.e., that of

Pyrronism or infinite negation.

There are two lines of the transmission of this doctrine, both of them

through China, though, the introduction to Japan was made from Korea, in

625 A.D. Not to dwell upon the detail of history, the burden of this

sect's teaching, is, infinite negation or absolute nihilism. Truth is

the inconceivable state, or, in the words of the Japanese writer: "The

truth is nothing but the state where thoughts come to an end; the right

meditation is to perceive this truth. He who has obtained this

meditation is called Buddha. This is this doctrine of the San-ron sect."

This sect, by its teachings of the Middle Path, seems to furnish a

bridge from the Hinayana or Southern school, to the Mahāyanā or

Northern school of Buddhism. Part of its work, as set forth by the Rev.

Kō-chō Ogurasu, of the Shin sect, is to defend the authenticity,

genuineness and canonicity of the books which form the Northern body of

scriptures.

In these two sects Hos-sō and San-ron, called those of Middle Path,

and much alike in principle and teaching, the whole end and aim of

mental discipline, is nihilism--in the one case subjective, and in the

other absolute, the end and goal being nothing--this view into the

nature of things being considered the right one.

Is it any wonder that such teachings could in the long run satisfy

neither the trained intellects nor the unthinking common people of

Japan? Is it far from the truth to suspect that, even when accepted by

the Japanese courtiers and nobles, they were received, only too often,

in a Platonic, not to say a Pickwickian, sense? The Japanese is too

polite to say "no" if he can possibly say "yes," even when he does not

mean it; while the common people all over the world, as between

metaphysics and polytheism, choose the latter. Is it any wonder that,

along with this propagation of Nihilism as taught in the cloisters and

the court, history informs us of many scandals and much immorality

between the women of the court and the Buddhist monks?

Such dogmas were not able to live in organized forms, after the next

importations of Buddhism which came in, not partly but wholly, under the

name of the Mahāyanā or Great Vehicle, or Northern Buddhism. By

the new philosophy, more concrete and able to appeal more closely to the

average man, these five schools, which, in their discussions, dealt

almost wholly with _noumena_, were absorbed. As matter of fact, none of

them is now in existence, nor can we trace them, speaking broadly,

beyond the tenth century. Here and there, indeed, may be a temple

bearing the name of one of the sects, or grades of doctrine, and

occasionally an eccentric individual who "witnesses" to the old

metaphysics; but these are but fossils or historical relics, and are

generally regarded as such.

Against such baldness of philosophy not only might the cultivated

Japanese intellect revolt and react, but as yet the common people of

Japan, despite the modern priestly boast of the care of the imperial

rulers for what the bonzes still love to call "the people's religion,"

were but slightly touched by the Indian faith.

The Great Vehicle.

The Kégon-Shu or Avatamsaka-sutra sect, is founded on a certain teaching

which Gautama is said to have promulgated in nine assemblies held at

seven different places during the second week of his enlightenment. This

sutra exists in no fewer than six texts, around each of which has

gathered some interesting mythology. The first two tests were held in

memory and not committed to palm leaves; the second pair are secretly

preserved in the dragon palace of Riu-gu[14] under the sea, and are not

kept by the men of this world. The fifth text of 100,000 verses, was

obtained by a Bodhisattva from the palace of the dragon king of the

world under the sea and transmitted to men in India. The sixth is the

abridged text.

It concerns us to notice that the shorter texts were translated into

Chinese in the fourth century, and that later, other translations were

made--36,000 verses of the fifth text, 45,000 verses of the sixth text,

etc. When the doctrine of the sect had been perfected by the fifth

patriarch and he lectured on the sutra, rays of white light came from

his mouth, and there rained wonderful heavenly flowers. In A.D. 736 a

Chinese Vinaya teacher or instructor in Buddhist discipline, named

Dō-sen, first brought the Kégon scriptures to Japan. Four years later

a Korean priest gave lectures on them in the Golden-Bell Hall of the

Great Eastern Monastery at Nara. He completed his task of expounding the

sixty volumes in three years. Henceforth, lecturing on this sutra became

one of the yearly services of the Eastern Great Monastery.

"The Ké-gon sutra is the original book of Buddha's teachings of his

whole life. All his teachings therefore sprang from this sutra. If we

attribute all the branches to the origin, we may say that there is no

teaching of Buddha for his whole life except this sutra."[15] The title

of the book, when literally translated, is

Great-square-wide-Buddha-flower-adornment-teaching--a title sufficiently

indicative of its rhetoric. The age of hard or bold thinking was giving

way to flowery diction, and the Law was to be made easy through fine

writing.

The burden of doctrine is the unconditioned or realistic, pantheism.

Nature absolute, or Buddha-tathata, is the essence of all things.

Essence and form were in their origin combined and identical. Fire and

water, though phenomenally different, are from the point of view of

Buddha-tathata absolutely identical. Matter and thought are one--that is

Buddha-tathata. In teaching, especially the young, it must be remembered

that the mind resembles a fair page upon which the artist might trace a

design, especial care being needed to prevent the impression of evil

thoughts, in order to accomplish which one must completely and always

direct the mind to Buddha.[16] One notable sentence in the text is,

"when one first raises his thoughts toward the perfect knowledge, he at

once becomes fully enlightened."

In some parts of the metaphysical discussions of this sect we are

reminded of European mediaeval scholasticism, especially of that

discussion as to how many angels could dance on the point of a cambric

needle without jostling each other. It says, "Even at the point of one

grain of dust, of immeasurable and unlimited worlds, there are

innumerable Buddhas, who are constantly preaching the Ké-gon kiō

(sutra) throughout the three states of existence, past, present and

future, so that the preaching is not at all to be collected.[17]

A New Chinese Sect.

In its formal organization the Ten-dai sect is of Chinese origin. It is

named after Tien Tai,[18] a mountain in China about fifty miles south of

Ningpo, on which the book which forms the basis of its tenets was

composed by Chi-sha, now canonized as a Dai Shi or Great teacher. Its

special doctrine of completion and suddenness was, however, transmitted

directly from Shaka to Vairokana and thence to Maitreya, so that the

apostolical succession of its orthodoxy cannot be questioned.

The metaphysics of this sect are thought to be the most profound of the

Greater Vehicle, combining into a system the two opposite ideas of being

and not being. The teachers encourage all men, whether quick or slow in

understanding, to exercise the principle of "completion" and

"suddenness," together with four doctrinal divisions, one or all of

which are taught to men according to their ability. The object of the

doctrine is to make men get an excellent understanding, practise good

discipline and attain to the great fruit of Enlightenment or

Buddha-hood.

Out of compassion, Gautama appeared in the world and preached the truth

in several forms, according to the circumstances of time and place.

There are four doctrinal divisions of "completion," "secrecy,"

"meditation," and "moral precept," which are the means of knowing the

principle of "completion." From Gautama, Vairokana and Maitreya the

doctrine passed through more than twenty Buddhas elect, and arrived in

China on the twentieth day of the twelfth month, A.D. 401. The delivery

to disciples was secret, and the term used for this esoteric

transmission means "handed over within the tower."

In A.D. 805, two Japanese pilgrims went to China, and received orthodox

training. With twenty others, they brought the Ten-dai doctrines into

Japan. During this century, other Japanese disciples of the same sect

crossed the seas to study at Mount Tien Tai. On coming back to Japan

they propagated the various shades of doctrine, so that this main sect

has many branches. It was chiefly through these pilgrims from the West

that the Sanskrit letters, writing and literature were imported. In our

day, evidences of Sanskrit learning, long since neglected and forgotten,

are seen chiefly in the graveyards and in charms and amulets.

Although the philosophical doctrines of Ten-dai are much the same as

those of the Ké-gon sect, being based on pantheistic realism, and

teaching that the Buddha-tathata or Nature absolute is the essence of

all things, yet the Ten-dai school has striking and peculiar features of

its own. Instead of taking some particular book or books in the canon,

shastra, or sutra, selection or collection, as a basis, the Chinese monk

Chi-sha first mastered, and then digested the whole canon. Then

selecting certain doctrines for emphasis he supported them by a wide

range of quotation, professing to give the gist of the pure teachings of

Gautama rather than those of his disciples. In practice, however, the

Saddharma Pundarika is the book most honored by this sect; the other

sutras being employed mainly as commentary. Furthermore, this sect makes

as strenuous a claim for the true apostolical succession from the

Founder, as do the other sects.

The teachers of Ten-dai doctrine must fully estimate character and

ability in their pupils, and so apportion instruction. In this respect

and in not a few others, they are like the disciples of Loyola, and have

properly been called the Jesuits of Buddhism. They are ascetics, and

teach that spiritual insight is possible only through prolonged thought.

Their purpose is to recognize the Buddha, in all the forms he has

assumed in order to save mankind. Nevertheless, the highest truths are

incomprehensible except to those who have already attained to

Buddha-hood.[19] In contrast to the Nichirenites, who give an emotional

and ultra-concrete interpretation and expression to the great sutra,

Hokké Kiō, the Ten-dai teachers are excessively philosophical and

intellectual.

In its history the Ten-dai sect has followed out its logic. Being

realistic in pantheism, it reverences not only Gautama the historic

Buddha, but also, large numbers of the Hindu deities, the group of idols

called Jizō, the god Fudo, and Kuannon the god or goddess of mercy,

under his or her protean forms. In its early history this sect welcomed

to its pantheon the Shintō gods, who, according to the scheme of

Riyōbu Shintō, were declared to be avatars or manifestations of

Buddha. The three sub-sects still differ in their worship of the avatars

selected as supreme deities, but their philosophy enables them to sweep

in the Buddhas of every age and clime, name and nation. Many other

personifications are found honored in the Ten-dai temples. At the

gateways may usually be seen the colossal painted and hideous images of

the two Devas or kings (Ni-O). These worthies are none other than Indra

and Brahma of the old Vedic mythology.

Space and time--which seem never to fail the Buddhists in their

literature--would fail us to describe this sect in full, or to show in

detail its teachings, wherein are wonderful resemblances to European

ideas and facts--in philosophy, to Hegel and Spinoza find in history, to

Jesuitism. Nor can we stay to point out the many instances in which,

invading the domain of politics, the Ten-dai abbots with their armies of

monks, having made their monasteries military arsenals and issuing forth

clad in armor as infantry and cavalry, have turned the scale of battle

or dictated policies to emperors. Like the Praetorian guard of Rome or

the clerical militia in Spain, these men of keen intellect have left

their marks deep upon the social and political history of the country in

which they dwelt. They have understood thoroughly the art of practising

religion for the sake of revenue. To secure their ends, priests have

made partnerships with other sects; in order to hold Shintō shrines,

they have married to secure heirs and make office hereditary; and

finally in the Purification of 1870, when the Riyōbu system was blown

to the winds by the Japanese Government, not a few priests of this sect

became laymen, in order to keep both office and emolument in the

purified Shintō shrines.

The Sect of the True Word.

It is probable that the conquest and obliteration of Shintō might

have been accomplished by some priest or priests of the Ten-dai sect,

had such a genius as Kōbō been found in its household; but this

great achievement was reserved for the man who introduced into Japan the

Shin-gon Shu, or Sect of the True Word. The term _gon_ is the equivalent

of Mantra,[20] a Sanskrit term meaning word, but in later use referring

to the mystic salutations addressed to the Buddhist gods. "The doctrine

of this sect is a great secret law. It teaches us that we can attain to

the state of the 'Great Enlightened,' that is the state of 'Buddha,'

while in the present physical body, which was born of our parents (and

which consists of six elements,[21] Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Ether, and

Knowledge), if we follow the three great secret laws, regarding Body,

Speech, and Thought."[22]

The history of the transmission of the doctrine from the greatest of the

spirit-bodied Buddhas to the historic founder, Vagrabodhi, is carefully

given. The latter was a man very learned in regard to many doctrines of

Buddhism and other religious, and was especially well acquainted with

the deepest meaning of the doctrine of this sect, which he taught in

India for a considerable time. The doctrine is recorded in several

sutras, yet the essential point is nothing but the Mandala, or circle of

the two parts, or, in Japanese, Riyōbu.

The great preacher, Vagrabodhi, in 720 A.D., came with his disciples to

the capital of China, and translated the sacred books, seventy-seven in

number. This doctrine is the well-known Yoga-chara, which has been well

set forth by Doctor Edkins in his scholarly volume on Chinese Buddhism.

As "yoga" becomes in plain English "yoke," and as "mantra" is from the

same root as "man" and "mind," we have no difficulty in recognizing the

original meaning of these terms; the one in its nobler significance

referring to union with Buddha or Gnosis, and the other to the thought

taking lofty expression or being debased to hocus-pocus in charm or

amulet. Like the history of so many Sanskrit words as now uttered in

every-day English speech, the story of the word mantra forms a picture

of mental processes and apparently of the degradation of thought, or, as

some will doubtless say, of the decay of religion. The term mantra meant

first, a thought; then thought expressed; then a Vedic hymn or text;

next a spell or charm. Such have been the later associations, in India,

China and Japan with the term mantra.

The burden of the philosophy of the Shin-gon, looked at from one point

of view, is mysticism, and from another, pantheism. One of the forms of

Buddha is the principle of everything. There are ten stages of thought,

and there are two parts, "lengthwise" and "crosswise" or exoteric and

esoteric. Other doctrines of Buddhism represent the first, or exoteric

stage; and those of the Shin-gon or true word, the second, or esoteric.

The primordial principle is identical with that of Maha-Vairokana, one

of the forms[23] of Buddha. The body, the word and the thought are the

three mysteries, which being found in all beings, animate and inanimate,

are to be fully understood only by Buddhas, and not by ordinary men.

To show the actual method of intellectual procedure in order to reach

Buddha-hood, many categories, tables and diagrams are necessary; but the

crowning tenet, most far reaching in its practical influence, is the

teaching that it is possible to reach the state of Buddha-hood in this

present body.

As discipline for the attainment of excellence along the path marked out

in the "Mantra sect," there are three mystic rites: (1) worshipping the

Buddha with the hand in certain positions called signs; (2) repeating

Dharani, or mystic formulas; (3) contemplation.

Kōbō himself and all those who imitated him, practised fasting in

order to clear the spiritual eyesight. The thinking-chairs, so

conspicuous in many old monasteries, though warmed at intervals through

the ages by the living bodies of men absorbed in contemplation, are

rarely much worn by the sitters, because almost absolute cessation of

motion characterizes the long and hard thinkers of the Shin-gon

philosophers. The idols in the Shin-gon temples represent many a saint

and disciple, who, by perseverance in what a critic of Buddhism calls

"mind-murder," and the use of mystic finger twistings and magic

formulas, has won either the Nirvana or the penultimate stage of the

Bodhisattva.

In the sermons and discourses of Shin-gon, the subtle points of an

argument are seized and elaborated. These are mystical on the one side,

and pantheistic on the other. It is easily seen how Buddha, being in

Japanese gods as well as men, and no being without Buddha, the way is

made clear for that kind of a marriage between Buddhism and Shintō,

in which the two become one, and that one, as to revenue and advantage,

Buddhism.

Truth Made Apparent by One's Own Thought.

The Japanese of to-day often speak of these seven religious bodies which

we have enumerated and described, as "the old sects," because much of

the philosophy, and many of the forms and prayers, are common to all,

or, more accurately speaking, are popularly supposed to be; while the

priests, being celibates, refrain from saké, flesh and fish, and from

all intimate relations with women. Yet, although these sects are

considered to be more or less conformable to the canon of the Greater

Vehicle, and while the last three certainly introduce many of its

characteristic features--one sect teaching that Buddha-hood could be

obtained even in the present body of flesh and blood--yet the idea of

Paradise had not been exploited or emphasized. This new gospel was to be

introduced into Japan by the Jō-dō Shu or Sect of the Pure Land.

Before detailing the features of Jō-dō, we call attention to the

fact that in Japan the propagation of the old sects was accompanied by

an excessive use of idols, images, pictures, sutras, shastras and all

the furniture thought necessary in a Buddhist temple. The course of

thought and action in the Orient is in many respects similar to that in

the Occident. In western lands, with the ebb and flow of religious

sentiment, the iconolater has been followed by the iconoclast, and the

overcrowded cathedrals have been purged by the hammer and fire of the

Protestant and Puritan. So in Japan we find analogous, though not

exactly similar, reactions. The rise and prosperity of the believers in

the Zen dogmas, which in their early history used sparingly the eikon,

idol and sutra, give some indication of protest against too much use of

externals in religion. May we call them the Quakers of Japanese

Buddhism? Certainly, theirs was a movement in the direction of

simplicity.

The introduction of the Zen, or contemplative sect, did, in a sense,

both precede and follow that of Shingon. The word Zen is a shortened

form of the term Zenna, which is a transliteration into Chinese of the

Sanskrit word Dhyana, or contemplation. It teaches that the truth is not

in tradition or in books, but in one's self. Emphasis is laid on

introspection rather than on language. "Look carefully within and there

you will find the Buddha," is its chief tenet. In the Zen monasteries,

the chair of contemplation is, or ought to be, always in use.

The Zen Shu movement may be said to have arisen out of a reaction

against the multiplication of idols. It indicated a return to simpler

forms of worship and conduct. Let us inquire how this was.

It may be said that Buddhism, especially Northern Buddhism, is a vast,

complicated system. It has a literature and a sacred canon which one can

think of only in connection with long trains of camels to carry, or

freight trains to transport, or ships a good deal bigger than the

Mayflower to import. Its multitudinous rules and systems of discipline

appall the spirit and weary the flesh even to enumerate them; so that,

from one point of view, the making of new sects is a necessity. These

are labor-saving inventions. They are attempts to reduce the great bulk

of scriptures to manageable proportions. They seek to find, as it were,

the mother-liquor of the great ocean, so as to express the truth in a

crystal. Hence the endeavors to simplify, to condense; here, by a

selection of sutras, rather than the whole collection; there, by

emphasis on a single feature and a determination to put the whole thing

in a form which can be grasped, either by the elect few or by the people

at large.

The Zen sect did this in a more rational way than that set forth as

orthodox by later priestcraft, which taught that to the believer who

simply turned round the revolving library containing the canon, the

merit of having read it all would be imputed. The rin-zō[24] found

near the large temples,--the cunning invention of a Chinese priest in

the sixth century,--soon became popular in Japan. The great wooden

book-case turning on a pivot contains 6,771 volumes, that being the

number of canonical volumes enumerated in China and Japan.

The Zen sect teaches that, besides all the doctrines of the Greater and

the Lesser Vehicles, whether hidden or apparent, there is one distinct

line of transmission of a secret doctrine which is not subject to any

utterance at all. According to their tenet of contemplation, one is to

see directly the key to the thought of Buddha by his own thought, thus

freeing himself from the multitude of different doctrines--the number of

which is said to be eighty-four thousand. In fact, Zen Shu or "Dhyana

sect" teaches the short method of making truth apparent by one's own

thought, apart from the writings.

The story of the transmission of the true Zen doctrine is this:

"When the blessed Shaka was at the assembly on Vulture's Peak,

there came the heavenly king, who offered the Buddha a

golden-colored flower and asked him to preach the law. The

Blessed One simply took the flower and held it in his hand, but

said no word. No one in the whole assembly could tell what he

meant. The venerable Mahahasyapa alone smiled. Than the Blessed

One said to him, 'I have the wonderful thought of Nirvana, the

eye of the Right Law, which I shall now give to you.'[25] Thus

was ushered in the doctrine of thought transmitted by thought."

After twenty-eight patriarchs had taught the doctrine of contemplation,

the last came into China in A.D. 520, and tried to teach the Emperor the

secret key of Buddha's thought. This missionary Bodhidharma was the

third son of a king of the Kashis, in Southern India, and the historic

original of the tobacconist's shop-sign in Japan, who is known as

Daruma. The imperial Chinaman was not yet able to understand the secret

key of Buddha's thought. So the Hindu missionary went to the monastery

on Mount Su, where in meditation, he sat down cross-legged with his face

to a wall, for nine years, by which time, says the legend, his legs had

rotted off and he looked like a snow-image. During that period, people

did not know him, and called him simply the Wall-gazing Brahmana.

Afterward he had a number of disciples, but they had different views

that are called the transmissions of the skin, flesh, or bone of the

teacher. Only one of them got the whole body of his teachings. Two great

sects were formed: the Northern, which was undivided, and the Southern,

which branched off into five houses and seven schools. The Northern Sect

was introduced into Japan by a Chinese priest in 729 A.D., while the

Southern was not brought over until the twelfth century. In both it is

taught that perfect tranquillity of body and mind is essential to

salvation. The doctrine is the most sublime one, of thought transmitted

by thought being entirely independent of any letters or words. Another

name for them is, "The Sect whose Mind Assimilates with Buddha," direct

from whom it claims to have received its articles of faith.

Too often this idea of Buddhaship, consisting of absolute freedom from

matter and thought, means practically mind-murder, and the emptiness of

idle reverie.

Contrasting modern reality with their ancient ideal, it must be

confessed that in practice there is not a little letter worship and a

good deal of pedantry; for, in all the teachings of abstract principles

by the different sects, there are endless puns or plays upon words in

the renderings of Chinese characters. This arises from that antithesis

of extreme poverty in sounds with amazing luxuriance in written

expression, which characterizes both the Chinese and Japanese languages.

In the temples we find that the later deities introduced into the

Buddhist pantheon are here also welcome, and that the triads or groups

of three precious ones, the "Buddhist trinity," so-called,[26] are

surrounded by gods of Chinese or Japanese origin. The Zen sect,

according to its professions and early history, ought to be indifferent

to worldly honors and emoluments, and indeed many of its devotees are.

Its history, however, shows how poorly mortals live up to their

principles and practise what they preach. Furthermore, these professors

of peace and of the joys of the inner life in the Sō-tō or

sub-sect have made the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of Meiji, or

A.D. 1893 and 1894, famous and themselves infamous by their

long-continued and scandalous intestine quarrels. Of the three

sub-sects, those called Rin-zai and Sō-tō, take their names from

Chinese monks of the ninth century; while the third, O-baku, founded in

Japan in the seventeenth century, is one of the latest importations of

Chinese Buddhistic thought in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Japanese authors usually classify the first six denominations at which

we have glanced, some of which are phases of thought rather than

organizations, as "the ancient sects." Ten-dai and Shin-gon are "the

medieval sects." The remaining four, of which we shall now treat, and

which are more particularly Japanese in spirit and development, are "the

modern sects."

CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE

"A drop of spray cast by the infinite

I hung an instant there, and threw my ray

To make the rainbow. A microcosm I

Reflecting all. Then back I fell again,

And though I perished not, I was no more."--

The Pantheist's Epitaph.

"Buddhism is essentially a religion of compromise."

"Where Christianity has One Lord, Buddhism has a dozen."

"I think I may safely challenge the Buddhist priesthood to give

a plain historical account of the Life of Amida, Kwannon,

Dainichi, or any other Mahāyāna Buddha, without being in

serious danger of forfeiting my stakes."

"Christianity openly puts this Absolute Unconditioned Essence in

the forefront of its teaching. In Buddhism this absolute

existence is only put forward, when the logic of circumstances

compels its teachers to have recourse to it."--A. Lloyd, in The

Higher Buddhism in the Light of the Nicene creed.

"Now these six characters, 'Na-mu-A-mi-da-Butsu,' Zend-ō has

explained as follows: 'Namn' means [our] following His

behest--and also [His] uttering the Prayer and bestowing [merit]

upon us. 'Amida Butsu' is the practice of this, consequently by

this means a certainty of salvation is attained."

"By reason of the conferring on us sentient creators of this

great goodness and great merit through the utterance of the

Prayer, and the bestowal [by Amida] the evil Karma and [effect

of the] passions accumulated through the long Kalpas, since when

there was no beginning, are in a moment annihilated, and in

consequence, those passions and evil Karma of ours all

disappearing, we live already in the condition of the steadfast,

who do not return [to revolve in the cycle of Birth and

Death]."--Rennyō of the Shin sect, 1473.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and

the Word was God."--John.

"The Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness,

neither shadow of turning."--James.

CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE

The Western Paradise.

We cannot take space to show how, or how much, or whether at all,

Buddhism was affected by Christianity, though it probably was. Suffice

it to say that the Jō-dō Shu, or Sect of the Pure Land, was the

first of the many denominations in Buddhism which definitely and clearly

set forth that especial peculiarity of Northern Buddhism, the Western

Paradise. The school of thought which issued in Jō-dō Shu was

founded by the Hindoo, Memio. In A.D. 252 an Indian scholar, learned in

the Tripitaka, came to China, and translated one of the great sutras,

called Amitayus. This sutra gives a history of Tathagata Amitabha,[1]

from the first spiritual impulses which led him to the attainment of

Buddha-hood in remote Kalpas down to the present time, when he dwells in

the Western World, called the Happy, where he receives all living beings

from every direction, helping them to turn away from confusion and to

become enlightened.[2] The apocalyptic twentieth chapter of the Hokké

Kiō is a glorification of the transcendent power of the Tathagatas,

expressed in flamboyant oriental rhetoric.

We have before called attention to the fact that, with the

multiplication of sutras or the Sacred Canon and the vast increase of

the apparatus of Buddhism as well as of the hardships of brain and body

to be undergone in order to be a Buddhist, it was absolutely necessary

that some labor-saving system should be devised by which the burden

could be borne. Now, as a matter of fact, all sects claim to found their

doctrine on Buddha or his work. According to the teaching of certain

sects, the means of salvation are to be found in the study of the whole

canon, and in the practice of asceticism and meditation. On the

contrary, the new lights of Buddhism who came as missionaries into

China, protested against this expenditure of so much mental and physical

energy. One of the first Chinese propagators of the Jō-dō doctrine

declared that it was impossible, owing to the decay of religion in his

own age, for anyone to be saved in this way by his own efforts. Hence,

instead of the noble eight-fold path of primitive Buddhism, or of the

complicated system of the later Buddhistic Phariseeism of India, he

substituted for the difficult road to Nirvana, a simple faith in the

all-saving power of Amida. In one of the sutras it is taught, that if a

man keeps in his memory the name of Amida one day, or seven days, the

Buddha together with Buddhas elect, will meet him at the moment of his

death, in order to let him be born in the Pure Land, and that this

matter has been equally approved by all other Buddhas of ten different

directions.

One of the sutras, translated in China during the fifth century,

contains the teaching of Buddha, which he delivered to the wife of the

King of Magudha, who on account of the wickedness of her son was feeling

weary of this world. He showed her how she might be born into the Pure

Land. Three paths of good actions were pointed out. Toward the end of

the particular sutra which he advised her to read and recite, Buddha

says: "Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought,

and repeat the formula, of the adoration of Amida." "This practice,"

adds the Japanese exegete and historian, "is the most excellent of all."

How well this latter teaching is practised may be demonstrated when one

goes into a Buddhist temple of the Jō-dō sect in Japan, and hears

the constant refrain,--murmured by the score or more of listeners to the

sermon, or swelling like the roar of the ocean's waves, on festival

days, when thousands sit on the mats beneath the fretted roof to enjoy

the exposition of doctrine--"Namu Amida Butsu"--"Glory to the Eternal

Buddha!"[3]

The apostolical succession or transmission through the patriarchs and

apostles of India and China, is well known and clearly stated, withal

duly accredited and embellished with signs and wonders, in the

historical literature of the Jō-dō sect. In Buddhism, as in

Christianity, the questions relating to True Churchism, High Churchism,

the succession of the apostles, teachers and rulers, and the validity of

this or that method of ordination, form a large part of the literature

of controversy. Nevertheless, as in the case of many a Christian sect

which calls itself the only true church, the date of the organization of

Jō-dō was centuries later than that of the Founder and apostles of

the original faith. Five hundred years after Zen-dō (A.D. 600-650),

the great propagator of the Jō-dō philosophy, Hō-nen, the

founder of the Jō-dō sect, was born; and this phase of organized

Buddhism, like that of Shin Shu and Nichirer Shu, may be classed under

the head of Eastern or Japanese Buddhism.

When only nine years of age, the boy afterward called Hō-nen, was

converted by his father's dying words. He went to school in his native

province, but his priest-teacher foreseeing his greatness, sent him to

the monastery of Hiyéizan, near Kiōto. The boy's letter of

introduction contained only these words: "I send you an image of the

Bodhisattva, (Mon-ju) Manjusri." The boy shaved his head and received

the precepts of the Ten-dai sect, but in his eighteenth year, waiving

the prospect of obtaining the headship of the great denomination, he

built a hut in the Black Ravine and there five times read through the

five thousand volumes[4] of the Tripitaka. He did this for the purpose

of finding out, for the ordinary and ignorant people of the present day,

how to escape from misery. He studied Zen-dō's commentary, and

repeated his examination eight times. At last, he noticed a passage in

it beginning with the words, "Chiefly remember or repeat the name of

Amida with a whole and undivided heart." Then he at once understood the

thought of Zen-dō, who taught in his work that whoever at any time

practises to remember Buddha, or calls his name even but once, will gain

the right effect of going to be born in the Pure Land after death. This

Japanese student then abandoned all sorts of practices which he had

hitherto followed for years, and began to repeat the name of Amida

Buddha sixty thousand times a day. This event occurred in A.D. 1175.

Hō-nen, Founder of the Pure Land Sect.

This path-finder to the Pure Land, who developed a special doctrine of

salvation, is best known by his posthumous title of Hō-nen. During

his lifetime he was very famous and became the spiritual preceptor of

three Mikados. After his death his biography was compiled in forty-eight

volumes by imperial order, and later, three other emperors copied or

republished it. In the history of Japan this sect has been one of the

most influential, especially with the imperial and shōgunal families.

In Kiōto the magnificent temples and monasteries of Chiōn-in, and

in Tōkiō Zō-jō-ji, are the chief seats of the two principal

divisions of this sect. The gorgeous mausoleums,--well known to every

foreign tourist,--at Shiba and Uyéno in Tōkiō, and the clustered

and matchless splendors of Nikkō, belong to this sect, which has been

under the patronage of the illustrious line of the Tokugawa,[5] while

its temples and shrines are numbered by many thousands.

The doctrine of the Jō-dō, or the Pure Land Sect, is easily

discerned. One of Buddha's disciples said, that in the teachings of the

Master there are two divisions or vehicles. In the Maha-yana also there

are two gates; the Holy path, and the Pure Land. The Smaller Vehicle is

the doctrine by which the immediate disciples of Buddha and those for

five hundred years succeeding, practised the various virtues and

discipline. The gateway of the Maha-yana is also the doctrine, by which

in addition to the trainings mentioned, there are also understood the

three virtues of spiritual body, wisdom and deliverance. The man who is

able successfully to complete this course of discipline and practice is

no ordinary person, but is supposed to possess merit produced from good

actions performed in a former state of existence. The doctrine by which

man may do so, is called the gate of the Holy Path.

During the fifteen hundred years after Buddha there were from time to

time, such personages in the world, who attained the end of the Holy

Path; but in these latter days people are more insincere, covetous and

contentious, and the discipline is too hard for degenerate times and

men. The three trainings already spoken of are the correct causes of

deliverance; but if people think them as useless as last year's almanac,

when can they complete their deliverance? Hō-nen, deeply meditating

on this, shut up the gate of the Holy Path and opened that of the Pure

Land; for in the former the effective deliverance is expected in this

world by the three trainings of morality, thought and learning, but in

the latter the great fruit of going to be born in the Pure Land after

death, is expected through the sole practice of repeating Buddha's name.

Moreover, it is not easy to accomplish the cause and effect of the Holy

Path, but both those of the doctrine of the Pure Land are very easy to

be completed. The difference is like that between travelling by land and

travelling by water.[6] The doctrines preached by the Buddha are

eighty-four thousand in number; that is to say, he taught one kind of

people one system, that of the Holy Path, and another kind that of the

Pure Land. The Pure Land doctrine of Hō-nen was derived from the

sutra preached by the great teacher Shaka.

This simple doctrine of "land travel to Paradise" was one which the

people of Japan could easily understand, and it became amazingly

popular. Salvation along this route is a case of being "carried to the

skies on flowery beds of ease, while others sought to win the prize and

sailed through bloody seas."

Largely through the influence of Jō-dō Shu and of those sects most

closely allied to it, the technical terms, peculiar phraseology and

vocabulary of Buddhism became part of the daily speech of the Japanese.

When one studies their language he finds that it is a complicated

organism, including within itself several distinct systems. Just as the

human body harmonizes within itself such vastly differing organized

functions as the osseous, digestive, respiratory, etc., so, embedded in

what is called the Japanese language, there are, also, a Chinese

vocabulary, a polite vernacular, one system of expression for superiors,

another for inferiors, etc. Last of all, there is, besides a peculiar

system of pronunciation taught by the priests, a Buddhist language,

which suggests a firmament of starry and a prairie of flowery metaphors,

with intermediate deeps of space full of figurative expressions.

In our own mother tongue we have something similar. The dialect of

Canaan, the importations of Judaism, the irruptions of Hebraic idioms,

phrases and names into Puritanism, and the ejaculations of the

camp-meeting, which vein and color our English speech, may give some

idea of the variegated strains which make up the Japanese language.

Further, the peculiar nomenclature of the Fifth Monarchy men, is fully

paralleled in the personal names of priests and even of laymen in Japan.

Characteristics of the Jō-dō Sect.

Hō-nen teaches that the solution of abstract questions and doctrinal

controversies is not needed as means of grace to promote the work of

salvation. Whether the priests and their followers were learned and

devout, or the contrary, mattered little as regards the final result, as

all that is necessary is the continual repetition of the prayer to

Amida.

It may be added that his followers practise the master's precepts with

emphasis. Their incessant pounding upon wooden fish-drums and

bladder-shaped bells during their public exercises, is as noisy as a

frontier camp-meeting. The rosary is a notable feature in the private

devotions of the Buddhists, but the Jō-dō sect makes especial use

of the double rosary, which was invented with the idea of being

manipulated by the left hand only; this gave freedom to the right hand,

"facilitating a happy combination of spiritual and secular duty." At

funerals of believers a particular ceremony was exclusively practised by

this sect, at which the friends of the deceased sat in a circle facing

the priest, making as many repetitions as possible.[7]

In Mohammedan countries, blind men, who cannot look down into the

surrounding gardens or house tops at the pretty women in or on them, but

who have clear and penetrating voices, are often chosen us muezzins to

utter the call to prayer from the minarets. On much the same principle,

in Old Japan, Jō-dō priests, blind to metaphysics, but handsome,

elegantly dressed and with fine delivery, went about the streets singing

and intoning prayers, rich presents being made to them, especially by

the ladies. The Jō-dō people cultivate art and aesthetic

ornamentation to a notable degree. They also understand the art of

fictitious and sensational miracle-mongering. It is said that Zen-dō,

the famous Chinese founder of this Chinese sect, when writing his

commentary, prayed for a wonderful exhibition of supernatural power.

Thereupon, a being arrayed as a priest of dignified presence gave him

instruction on the division of the text in his first volume. Hence

Zen-dō treats his own work as if it were the work of Buddha, and says

that no one is allowed either to add or to take away even a word or

sentence of the book.

The Pure Land is the western world where Amida lives. It is perfectly

pure and free from faults. Those who wish to go thither will certainly

be re-born there, but otherwise they will not. This world, on the

contrary, is the effect of the action of all beings, so that even those

who do not wish to be born here are nevertheless obliged to come. This

world is called the Path of Pain, because it is full of all sorts of

pains, such as birth, old age, disease, death, etc. This is therefore a

world not to be attached to, but to be estranged and separated from. One

who is disgusted with this world, and who is filled with desire for that

world, will after death be born there. Not to doubt about these words of

Buddha, even in the slightest degree, is called deep faith; but if one

entertains the least doubts he will not be born there. Hence the saying:

"In the great sea of the law of Buddha, faith is the only means to

enter."

Salvation Through the Merits of Another.

In this absolute trust in the all-saving power of Amida as compared with

the ways promulgated before, we see the emergence of the Buddhist

doctrine of justification by faith, the simplification of theology, and

a revolt against Buddhist scholasticism. The Japanese technical term,

"_tariki_," or relying upon the strength of another, renouncing all idea

of _ji-riki_ or self-power,[8] is the substance of the Jō-dō

doctrine; but the expanded term _ta-riki chin no ji-riki_, or

"self-effort depending on another," while expressing the whole dogma, is

rather scornfully applied to the Jō-dōists by the men of the Shin

sect. The invocation of Amida is a meritorious act of the believer, much

repetition being the substance of this combination of personal and

vicarious work.

Hō-nen, after making his discovery, believing it possible for all

mankind eventually to attain to perfect Buddhaship, left, as we have

seen, the Ten-dai sect, which represented particularism and laid

emphasis on the idea of the elect. Hō-nen taught Buddhist

universalism. Belief and repetition of prayer secure birth into the Pure

Land after the death of the body, and then the soul moves onward toward

the perfection of Buddha-hood.

The Japanese were delighted to have among them a genius who could thus

Japanize Buddhism, and Jō-dō doctrine went forth conquering and to

conquer. From the twelfth century, the tendency of Japanese Buddhism is

in the direction of universalism and democracy. In later developments of

Jō-dō, the pantheistic tendencies are emphasized and the

syncretistic powers are enlarged. While mysticism is a striking feature

of the sect and the attainment of truth is by the grace of Amida, yet

the native Kami of Japan are logically accepted as avatars of Buddha.

History had little or no rights in the case; philosophy was dictator,

and that philosophy was Hō-nen's. Those later Chinese deities made by

personifying attributes or abstract ideas, which sprang up after the

introduction of Buddhism into China, are also welcomed into the temples

of this sect. That the common people really believe that they themselves

may attain Buddha-hood at death, and enter the Pure Land, is shown in

the fact that their ordinary expression for the dead saint is Hotoké--a

general term for all the gods that were once human. Some popular

proverbs indicate this in a form that easily lends itself to irreverence

and merriment.

The whole tendency of Japanese Buddhism and its full momentum were now

toward the development of doctrine even to startling proportions.

Instead of the ancient path of asceticism and virtue with agnosticism

and atheism, we see the means of salvation put now, and perhaps too

easily, within the control of all. The pathway to Paradise was made not

only exceedingly plain, but also extremely easy, perhaps even

ridiculously so; while the door was open for an outburst of new and

local doctrines unknown to India, or even to China. The rampant vigor

with which Japanese Buddhism began to absorb everything in heaven, earth

and sea, which it could make a worshipable object or cause to stand as a

Kami or deity to the mind, will be seen as we proceed. The native

proverb, instead of being an irreverent joke, stands for an actual

truth--"Even a sardine's head may become an object of worship."

"Reformed" Buddhism.

We now look at what foreigners call "Reformed" Buddhism, which some even

imagine has been borrowed from Protestant Christianity--notwithstanding

that it is centuries older than the Reformation in Europe.

The Shin Shu or True Sect, though really founded on the Jō-dō

doctrines, is separate from the sect of the Pure Land. Yet, besides

being called the Shin Shu, it is also spoken of as the Jō-dō Shin

Shu or the True Sect of the Pure Land. It is the extreme form of the

Protestantism of Buddhism. It lays emphasis on the idea of salvation

wholly through the merits of another, but it also paints in richer tints

the sensuous delights of the Western Paradise. As the term Pure Land is

antithetical to that of the Holy Path, so the word Shin, or True,

expresses the contrary of what are termed the "temporary expedients."

While some say that we should practise good works, bring our stock of

merits to maturity, and be born in the Pure Land, others say that we

need only repeat the name of Amida in order to be born in the Pure Land,

by the merit produced from such repetition. These doctrines concerning

repetitions, however, are all considered but "temporary expedients." So

also is the rigid classification, so prominent in "the old sects," of

all beings or pupils into three grades. As in Islam or Calvinism, all

believers stand on a level. To Shin-ran the Radical, the practices even

of Jō-dō seemed complicated and difficult, and all that appeared

necessary to him was faith in the desire of Amida to bless and save. To

Shinran,[9] faith was the sole saving act.

To rely upon the power of the Original Prayer of Amitabha Buddha with

the whole heart and give up all idea of _ji-riki_ or self-power, is

called the truth. This truth is the doctrine of this sect of Shin.[10]

In a word, not synergism, not faith _and_ works, but faith only is the

teaching of Shin Shu.

Shinran, the founder of this sect in Japan, was born A.D. 1173 and died

in the year 1262. He was very naturally one who had been first educated

in the Jō-dō sect, then the ruling one at the imperial court in

Kiōto. Shall we call him a Japanese Luther, because of his insistence

on salvation by faith only? He is popularly believed to have been

descended from one of the Shintō gods, being on his father's side the

twenty-first in the line of generation. On his mother's side he was of

the lineage of the Minamoto or Genji, a clan sprung from Mikados and

famous during centuries for its victorious warriors. Hō-nen was his

teacher, and like his teacher, Shinran studied at the great monastery

near Kiōto, learning first the doctrine of the Tendai, and then, at

the age of twenty-nine, receiving from Hō-nen the tenets of the

Jō-dō sect. Shortly after, at thirty years of age, he began to

promulgate his doctrines. Then he took a step as new to Buddhism, as was

Luther's union with Katharine von Bora, to the ecclesiasticism of his

time. He married a lady of the imperial court, named Tamayori, who was

the daughter of the Kuambaku or premier.

Shinran thus taught by example, if not formally and by written precept,

that marriage was honorable, and that celibacy was an invention of the

priests not warranted by primitive Buddhism. Penance, fasting,

prescribed diet, pilgrimages, isolation from society whether as hermits

or in the cloister, and generally amulets and charms, are all tabooed by

this sect. Monasteries imposing life-vows are unknown within its pale.

Family life takes the place of monkish seclusion. Devout prayer, purity,

earnestness of life and trust in Buddha himself as the only worker of

perfect righteousness, are insisted upon. Morality is taught to be more

important than orthodoxy.

In practice, the Shin sect even more than the Jō-dō, teaches that

it is faith in Buddha, which accomplishes the salvation of the believer.

Instead of waiting for death in order to come under the protection of

Amida, the faithful soul is at once received into the care of the

Boundlessly Compassionate. In a word, the Shin sect believes in

instantaneous conversion and sanctification. Between the Roman and the

Reformed soteriology of Christendom, was Melancthonism or the

coōperate union of the divine and the human will. So, the old

Buddhism prior to Shinran taught a phase of synergism, or the union of

faith and works. Shinran, in his "Reformed" Buddhism, taught the

simplicity of faith.

So also _in_ regard to the sacred writings, Shinran opposed the San-ron

school and the three-grade idea. The scriptures of other sects are in

Sanskrit and Chinese, which only the learned are able to read. The

special writings of Shinran are in the vernacular. Three of the sutras,

also, have been translated into Japanese and expressed in the kana

script. Singleness of purpose characterised this sect, which was often

called Monto, or followers of the gate, in reference to its unity of

organization, and the opening of the way to all by Shinran and the

doctrine taught by him. Yet, lest the gate might seem too broad, the

Shin teachers insist that morality is as important as faith, and indeed

the proof of it. The high priests of Shin Shu have ever held a high

position and wielded vast influence in the religious development of the

people. While the temples of other sects are built in sequestered places

among the hills, those of Shin Shu are erected in the heart of cities,

on the main streets, and at the centres of population,--the priests

using every means within their power to induce the people to come to

them. The altars are on an imposing scale of magnificence and gorgeous

detail. No Roman Catholic church or cathedral can outshine the splendor

of these temples, in which the way to the Western Paradise is made so

clear and plain. Another name for the sect is Ikko.

After the death of Shinran, his youngest daughter and one of his

grandsons erected a monastery near his tomb in the eastern suburbs of

Kiōto, to which the Mikado gave the title of Hon-guanji, or Monastery

of the Original Vow. This was in allusion to the vow made by Amida, that

he would not accept Buddhaship except under the condition that salvation

be made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into

his kingdom, and signify their desire by invoking his name ten

times.[11] It is upon the passage in the sutra where this vow is

recorded, that the doctrine of the sect is based. Its central idea is

that man is to be saved by faith in the mercy of the boundlessly

compassionate Amida, and not by works or vain repetitions. Within our

own time, on November 28, 1876, the present reigning Mikado bestowed

upon Shinran the posthumous title Ken-shin Dai-shi, or Great Teacher of

the Revelation of Truth.

The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism.

This is the sect which, being called "Reformed" Buddhism[12] and

resembling Protestantism in so many points, both large and minute,

foreigners think has been borrowed or imitated from European

Protestantism.[13] As matter of fact, the foundation principles of

Shin-Shu are at least six hundred years old. They are perfectly clear in

the writings of the founder,[14] as well as in those of his successor

Renniō,[15] who wrote the Ofumi or sacred writings, now daily read by

the disciples of this denomination. With the characteristic object of

reaching the masses, they are written, as we have shown, not in the

mixed Chinese and Japanese characters, but in the common script, or

kana, which all the people of both sexes can read. Within the last two

decades the Shin educators have been the first to organize their schools

of learning on the models of those in Christendom, so that their young

men might be trained to resist Shintō or Christianity, or to measure

the truth in either. Their new temples also show European influence in

architecture and furniture. Liberty of thought and action, and

incoercible desire to be free from governmental, traditional,

ultra-ecclesiastical, or Shintō influence--in a word, protestantism

in its pure sense, is characteristic of the great sect founded by

Shinran.

Indeed the Shin sect, which sprang out of the Jō-dō, maintains

that it alone professes the true teaching of Hō-nen, and that the

Jō-dō sect has wandered from the original doctrines of its

founder. Whereas the Jō-dō or Pure Land sect believes that Amida

will come to meet the soul of the believer on its separation from the

body, in order to conduct it to Paradise, the Shin or True Sect of the

Pure Land believes in immediate salvation and sanctification. It

preaches that as soon as a man believes in Amida he is taken by him

under him merciful protection. Some might denominate these people the

Methodists of Buddhism.

One good point in their Protestantism is their teaching that morality is

of equal importance with faith. To them Buddha-hood means the perfection

and unlimitedness of wisdom and compassion. "Therefore," writes one,

"knowing the inability of our own power we should believe simply in the

vicarious Power of the Original Prayer. If we do so, we are in

correspondence with the wisdom of the Buddha and share his great

compassion, just as the water of rivers becomes salt as soon as it

enters the sea. For this reason this is called the faith in the Other

Power."

To their everlasting honor, also, the Shin believers have probably led

all other Japanese Buddhists in caring for the Eta, even as they

probably excel in preaching the true spiritual democracy of all

believers, yes, even of women.[16] "According to the earlier and general

view of Buddhism, women are condemned, in virtue of the pollution of

their nature, to look forward to rebirth in other forms. By no

possibility can they, in their existence as women, reach the higher

grades of holiness which lead to Nirvana. According to the Shin Shu

system, on the other hand, a believing woman may hope to attain the goal

of the Buddhist at the close of her present life."[17] This doctrine

seems to be founded on that passage in the eleventh chapter of the

Saddharma Pundarika, in which the daughter of Sāgara, the

Nāga-king, loses her sex as female and reappears as a Bodhisattva of

male sex.[18]

The Shin sect is the largest in Japan, having more than twice as many

temples as any four of the great sects, and five thousand more than the

So-dō or sub-sect of Jō-dō, which is the next largest; or, over

nineteen thousand in all. It is also supposed to be one of the richest

and most powerful of all the Japanese sects. In reality, however, it

possesses no fixed property, and is dependent entirely upon the

voluntary contributions of its adherents. To-day, it is probably the

most active of them all in education, learning and missionary operations

in Yezo, China and Korea.

Interesting as is the development of the Jō-dō and Shin sects,

which became popular largely through their promulgation of dogmas

founded on the Western Paradise, we must not forget that both of them

preached a new Buddha--not the real figure in history, but an unhistoric

and unreal phantom, the creation and dream of the speculator and

visionary. Amida, the personification of boundless light, is one of the

luxuriant growths of a sickly scholasticism--a hollow abstraction

without life or reality. Amidaism is utterly repudiated by many Japanese

Buddhists, who give no place to his idol on their altars, and reject

utterly the teaching as to Paradise and salvation through the merits of

another.

Yet these two special developments by natives, though embodying

tendencies of the Japanese mind, did not reach the limit to which

Northern Buddhism was to go in those almost incredible lengths, which

prompted Professor Whitney[19] to call it "the high-faluting school,"

and which we have seen in our own time under the cultivation of western

admirers.

The Nichiren Sect.

The Japanese mind runs to pantheism as naturally as an unpruned

grape-vine runs to fibre and leaves.

When Nichiren, the ultra-patriotic and ultra-democratic bonze, saw the

light in A.D. 1222, he was destined to bring religion not only down to

man, but even down to the beasts and to the mud. He founded the

Saddharma-Pundarika sect, now called Nichiren Shu.

Born at Kominato, near the mouth of Yedo Bay, he became a neophite in

the Shin-gon sect at the age of twelve, and was admitted into the

priesthood when but fifteen years old. Then he adopted his name, which

means Sun-lotus, because, according to a typical dream very common in

Korea and Japan, his mother thought that she had conceived by the sun

entering her body. Through a miracle, he acquired a thorough knowledge

of the whole Buddhist canon, in the course of which he met with words,

which he converted into that formula which is constantly in the mouth of

the members of the Nichiren sect, Namu-myō-ho-ren-gé-kyō--"O, the

Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law."[20] His history, full of

amazing activity and of romantic adventure, is surrounded by a perfect

sunrise splendor, or, shall we say, sunset gorgeousness, of mythology

and fable. The scenes of his life are mostly laid in the region of the

modern Tōkiō, and to the cultivated traveller, its story lends

fascinating charms to the landscape in the region of Yedo Bay. Nichiren

was a fiery patriot, and ultra-democratic in his sympathies. He was a

radical believer in "Japan for the Japanese." He was an ecclesiastical

_Soshi_. He felt that the developments of Buddhism already made, were

not sufficiently comprehensive, or fully suited to the common people.

So, in A.D. 1282, he founded a new sect which gradually included within

its pantheon all possible Buddhas, and canonized pretty nearly all the

saints, righteous men and favorite heroes known to Dai Nippon. Nichiren

first made Japan the centre of the universe, and then brought religion

down to the lowest. He considered that the period in which he lived was

the latter day of the law, and that all creatures ought to share in the

merit of Buddha-hood. Only the original Buddha is the real moon in the

sky, but all Buddhas of the subordinate states are like the images of

the moon, reflected upon the waters. All these different Buddhas, be

they gods or men, beasts, birds or snakes, are to be honored. Indeed,

they are both honored and worshipped in the Nichiren pantheon. Besides

the historic Buddha, this sect, which is the most idolatrous of all,

admits as objects of its reverence such personages as Nichiren, the

founder; Kato Kiyomasa, the general who led the army of invasion in

Korea and was the persecutor of the Christians; and Shichimen--a word

which means seven points of the compass or seven faces. This Shichimen

is the being that appeared to Nichiren as a beautiful woman, but

disappeared from his sight in the form of a snake, twenty feet long,

covered with golden scales and armed with iron teeth. It is now deified

under the name meaning the Great God of the Seven Faces, and is

identified with the Hindoo deity Siva.

Another idol usually seen in the Nichiren temples is Mioken. Under this

name the pole star is worshipped, usually in the form of a Buddha with a

wheel of a Buddha elect. Standing on a tortoise, with a sword in his

right hand, and with the left hand half open--a gesture which symbolizes

the male and female principles in the physical world, and the

intelligence and the law in the spiritual world--Mioken is a striking

figure. Indeed, the list of glorified animals reminds us somewhat of the

ancient beast-worship of Egypt. In the Nichiren hierology, it is as

though the symbolical figures in the Book of Revelation had been deified

and worshipped. It is evident that all the creatures in that Buddhist

chamber of imagery, the Hokké Kiō, that could possibly be made into

gods have received apotheosis. The very book itself is also worshipped,

for the Nichirenites are extreme believers in verbal inspiration, and

pay divine honors to each jot and tittle of the sutra, which to them is

a god. They adore also the triad of the three precious ones, the Buddha,

the Rule or Discipline, and the Organization; or, Being, Law, and

Church. The hideous idol, Fudo, "Eleven-faced," "Horse-headed,"

"Thousand-handed," or girt in a robe of fiery flame, is believed by

Buddhists to represent Avalokitesvara; but, in recent times he has been

recognized, detected and recaptured by the Shintōists as Kotohira.

The goddess Kishi, and that miscellaneous assortment or group known as

the Seven Patrons of Happiness, which form a sort of encyclopaedia or

museum of curiosities derived from the cults of India, China and Japan,

are also components of the amazing menagerie and pantheon of this sect,

in which scholasticism run mad, and emotional kindness to animals become

maudlin, join hands.

The Ultra-realism of Northern Buddhism.

Like most of the other Japanese sects, the Nichirenites claim that their

principles are contained in the Hok-ké-kiō, which is considered the

consummate white flower of Buddhist doctrine and literature. This is the

Japanese name for that famous sutra, the Saddharma Pundarika, so often

mentioned in these chapters but a thousand-fold more so in Japanese

literature. The Ten-dai and the Nichiren sects are allied, in that both

lay supreme emphasis upon this sutra; but the former interprets it with

an intellectual, and the latter with an emotional emphasis.

Philosophically, the two bodies have much in common. Outwardly they are

very far apart. One has but to read their favorite scripture, to see the

norm upon which the gorgeous art of Japan has been developed. Probably

no single book in the voluminous canon of the Greater Vehicle gives one

so masterful a key to Japanese Buddhism. Its pages are crowded with

sensuous descriptions of all that is attractive to both the reason and

the understanding. Its descriptions of Paradise are those which would

suit also the realistic Mussulman. Its rhetoric and visions seem to be

those of some oriental De Quincey, who, out of the dreams of an

opium-eater, has made the law-book of a religion. Translated into

matter-of-fact Chinese, none better than Nichiren knew how to present

its realism to his people.

In its ethical standards, which are two, this sect, like most others,

prescribes one course of life for the monk, which is difficult, and

another for the laity, which is easy. The central dogma is that every

part of the universe, including not only gods and men, but animals,

plants and the very mud itself, is capable, by successive

transmigrations, of attaining to Buddhaship. In one sense, Nichirenism

is the transfiguration of atheistic evolution. In its teachings there

are also two forms: the one, largely in symbol, is intended to attract

followers; the other, the pure truth, is employed to convert the

obstinately ignorant, against their wills. As in the history of the

papal organization in Europe, a materialistic interpretation has been

given to the canons of dogma and discipline.

Contrary to the doctrine of those sects which teach the attainment of

salvation solely through the aid of Amida, or Another, the Nichirenites

insist that it is necessary for man to work out his own salvation, by

observing the law, by self-examination, by reflecting on the blessings

vouchsafed to the members of this elect and orthodox sect and by

constant prayer. They consider themselves as in the only true church,

and their succession to the priesthood, the only valid one. The strict

Nichiren churchmen will not have the Shintō gods in their household

shrines, nor will they intermarry among the sects. The Nichirenites are

also very fond of controversy, and their language in speaking of other

creeds and sects is not that characteristic of the gentle Buddha. The

people of this sect are much given to the belief in demoniacal

possession, and a considerable part of the duty and revenue-yielding

business of the Nichiren priests consists in exorcising the foxes,

badgers and other demons, which have possessed subjects who are

generally women at certain stages of illness or convalescence. The

phenomena and pathology of these disorders seem to be allied to those of

hysteria and hypnotism.

This popular sect also makes greatest use of charms, spells and amulets,

lays great store on pilgrimages, and is very fond of noise-making

instruments whether prayer-books or the wooden bells or drums which are

prominent features in their temples and revival meetings. In one sense

it is the Salvation Army of Buddhism, being especially powerful in what

strikes the eye and ear. The Nichirenites have been well called the

Ranters of Buddhism. Their revival meetings make Bedlam seem silent, and

reduce to gentle murmurs the camp-meeting excesses with which we are

familiar in our own country. They are the most sectarian of all sects.

Their vocabulary of Billingsgate and the ribaldry employed by them even

against their Buddhist brethren, cast into the shade those of Christian

sectarians in their fiercest controversies. "A thousand years in the

lowest of the hells is the atonement prescribed by the Nichirenites for

the priests of all other sects." When the Parliament of Religions was

called in Chicago, the successors of Nichiren, with their characteristic

high-church modesty, promptly sent letters to America, warning the world

against all other Japanese Buddhists, and denouncing especially those

coming to speak in the Parliament, as misrepresenting the true doctrines

of Buddha.

Doctrinal Culmination.

When the work of Nichiren had been completed, and his realistic

pantheism had been able to include within its great receiver and

processes of Buddha-making, everything from gods to mud, the circle of

doctrine was complete. Kōbō's leaven had now every possible lump

in which to do its work. All grades of men in Japan, from the most

devout and intellectual to the most ranting and fanatical, could choose

their sect. Yet it may be that Buddhism in Nichiren's day was in danger

of stagnation and formalism, and needed the revival which this fiery

bonze gave it; for, undoubtedly, along with zeal even to bigotry, came

fresh life and power to the religion. This invigoration was followed by

the mighty missionary labors of the last half of the thirteenth century,

which carried Buddhism out to the northern frontier and into Yezo.

Although, from time to time minor sects were formed either limiting or

developing further the principles of the larger parent sects, and

although, even as late as the seventeenth century, a new subsect, the

Oba-ku of Zen Shu, was imported from China, yet no further doctrinal

developments of importance took place; not even in presence of or after

sixteenth century Christianity and seventeenth century Confucianism.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries form the golden age of Japanese

Buddhism.

In the sixteenth century, the feudal system had split into fragments and

the normal state of the country was that of civil war. Sect was arrayed

against sect, and the Shin bonzes, especially, formed a great military

body in fortified monasteries.

In the first half of the sixteenth century, came the tremendous

onslaught of Portuguese Christianity. Then followed the militarism and

bloody persecutions of Nobunaga.

In clashing with the new Confucianism of the seventeenth century,

Buddhism utterly weakened as an intellectual power. Though through the

favor of the Yodo shōguns it recovered lands and wealth, girded

itself anew as the spy, persecutor and professed extirpator of

Christianity, and maintained its popularity with the common people, it

was, during the eighteenth century, among the educated Japanese, as good

as dead. Modern Confucianism and the revival of Chinese learning,

resulted in eighteenth century scepticism and in nineteenth century

agnosticism.

The New Buddhism.

In our day and time, Japanese Buddhism, in the presence of aggressive

Christianity, is out of harmony with the times, and the needs of

forty-one millions of awakened and inquiring people; and there are deep

searchings of heart. Politically disestablished and its landed

possessions sequestrated by the government, it has had, since 1868, a

history, first of depression and then of temporary revival. Now, amid

much mechanical and external activity, the employment of the press, the

organization of charity, of summer schools of "theology," and of young

men's and other associations copied from the Christians, it is

endeavoring to keep New Japan within its pale and to dictate the future.

It seeks to utilize the old bottles for the new vintage.

There is, however, a movement discernible which may be called the New

Buddhism, and has not only new wine but new wineskins. It is democratic,

optimistic, empirical or practical; it welcomes women and children; it

is hospitable to science and every form of truth. It is catholic in

spirit and has little if any of the venom of the old Buddhist

controvertists. It is represented by earnest writers who look to natural

and spiritual means, rather than to external and mechanical methods. As

a whole, we may say that Japanese Buddhism is still strong to-day in its

grip upon the people. Though unquestionably moribund, its death will be

delayed. Despite its apparent interest in, and harmony with,

contemporaneous statements of science, it does not hold the men of

thought, or those who long for the spiritual purification and moral

elevation of Japan.

Are the Japanese eager for reform? Do they possess that quality of

emotion in which a tormenting sense of sin, and a burning desire for

self-surrender to holiness, are ever manifest?

Frankly and modestly, we give our opinion. We think not. The average

Japanese man has not come to that self-consciousness, that searching of

heart, that self-seeing of sin in the light of a Holy God's countenance

which the gospel compels. Yet this is exactly what the Japanese need.

Only Christ's gospel can give it.

The average man of culture in Dai Nippon has to-day no religion. He is

waiting for one. What shall be the issue, in the contest between a faith

that knows no personal God, no Creator, no atonement, no gospel of

salvation from sin, and the gospel which bids man seek and know the

great First Cause, as Father and Friend, and proclaims that this

Infinite Friend seeks man to bless him, to bestow upon him pardon and

holiness and to give him earthly happiness and endless life? Between one

religion which teaches personality in God and in man, and another which

offers only a quagmire of impersonality wherein a personal god and an

individual soul exist only as the jack-lights of the marsh, mere

phosphorescent gleams of decay, who can fail to choose? Of the two

faiths, which shall be victor?

CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT

"The heart of my country, the power of my country, the Light of

my country, is Buddhism."--Yatsubuchi, of Japan.

"Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese

nation grew up."--Chamberlain.

"Buddhism was the civilizer. It came with the freshness of

religious zeal, and religious zeal was a novelty. It come as the

bearer of civilization and enlightenment."

"Buddhism has had a fair field in Japan, and its outcome has not

been elevating. Its influence has been aesthetic and not

ethical. It added culture and art to Japan, as it brought with

itself the civilization of continental Asia. It gave the arts,

and more, it added the artistic atmosphere.... Reality

disappears. 'This fleeting borrowed world' is all mysterious, a

dream; moonlight is in place of the clear hot sun.... It has so

fitted itself to its surroundings that it seems

indigenous."--George William Knox.

"The Japanese ... are indebted to Buddhism for their present

civilization and culture, their great susceptibility to the

beauties of nature, and the high perfection of several branches

of artistic industry."--Rein.

"We speak of _God_, and the Japanese mind is filled with idols.

We mention _sin_, and he thinks of eating flesh or the killing

of insects. The word _holiness_ reminds him of crowds of

pilgrims flocking to some famous shrine, or of some anchorite

sitting lost in religions abstraction till his legs rot off. He

has much error to unlearn before he can take in the

truth-"--R.E. McAlpine.

"There in a life of study, prayer, and thought,

Kenshin became a saintly priest--not wide

In intellect nor broad in sympathies,

For such things come not from the ascetic life;

But narrow, strong, and deep, and like the stream

That rushes fervid through the narrow path

Between the rooks at Nikkō--so he grasped,

Heart, soul, and strength, the holy Buddha's Law

With no room left for doubt, or sympathy

For other views."--Kenshin's Vision.

"For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the

same, my name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place

incense is offered unto my name, and a pure offering, for my

name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of

hosts."--Malachi.

CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT

Missionary Buddhism the Measure of Japan's Civilization.

Broadly speaking, the history of Japanese Buddhism in its missionary

development is the history of Japan. Before Buddhism came, Japan was

pre-historic. We know the country and people through very scanty notices

in the Chinese annals, by pale reflections cast by myths, legends and

poems, and from the relics cast up by the spade and plough. Chinese

civilization had filtered in, though how much or how little we cannot

tell definitely; but since the coming of the Buddhist missionaries in

the sixth century, the landscape and the drama of human life lie before

us in clear detail. Speaking broadly again, it may be said that almost

from the time of its arrival, Buddhism became on its active side the

real religion of Japan--at least, if the word "religion" be used in a

higher sense than that connoted by either Shintō or Confucianism.

Though as a nation the Japanese of the Méiji era are grossly forgetful

of this fact, yet, as Professor Chamberlain says,[1] "All education was

for centuries in Buddhist hands. Buddhism introduced art; introduced

medicine; created the folk-lore of the country; created its dramatic

poetry; deeply influenced politics, and every sphere of social and

intellectual activity; in a word, Buddhism was the teacher under whose

instruction the Japanese nation grew up."

For many centuries all Japanese, except here and there a stern

Shintōist, or an exceptionally dogmatic Confucian, have acknowledged

these patent facts, and from the emperor to the eta, glorified in them.

It was not until modern Confucian philosophy entered the Mikado's empire

in the seventeenth century, that hostile criticism and polemic tenets

denounced Buddhism, and declared it only fit for savages. This bitter

denunciation of Buddhism at the lips and hands of Japanese who had

become Chinese in mind, was all the more inappropriate, because Buddhism

had for over a thousand years acted as the real purveyor and disperser

of the Confucian ethics and culture in Japan. Such denunciation came

with no better grace from the Yedo Confucianists than from the Shintō

revivalists, like Motoöri, who, while execrating everything Chinese,

failed to remember or impress upon his countrymen the fact, that almost

all which constituted Japanese civilization had been imported from the

Middle Kingdom.

Buddhism, in its purely doctrinal development, seems to be rather a

system of metaphysics than a true religion, being a conglomeration, or

rather perhaps an agglomeration, of all sorts of theories relating to

the universe and its contents. Its doctrinal and metaphysical side,

however, is to be carefully distinguished from its popular and external

features, for in its missionary development Buddhism may be called a

system of national improvement. The history of its propagation, in the

land farthest east from its cradle, is not only the outline of the

history of Japanese civilization, but is nearly the whole of it.

Pre-Buddhistic Japan.

It is not perhaps difficult to reconstruct in imagination the landscape

of Japan in pre-Buddhistic days. Certainly we may, with some accuracy,

draw a contrast between the appearance of the face of the earth then and

now. Supposing that there were as many as a million or two of souls in

the Japanese Archipelago of the sixth century--the same area which in

the nineteenth century contains over forty-one millions--we can imagine

only here and there patches of cultivated fields, or terraced gullies.

There were no roads except paths or trails. The horse was probably yet a

curiosity to the aborigines, though well known to the sons of the gods.

Sheep and goats then, as now, were unknown. The cow and the ox were in

the land, but not numerous.[2] In architecture there was probably little

but the primeval hut. Tools were of the rudest description; yet it is

evident that the primitive Japanese were able to work iron and apply it

to many uses. There were other metals, though the tell-tale etymology of

their names in Japanese metallurgy, as in so many other lines of

industry and articles of daily use, points to a Chinese origin. It is

the almost incredible fact that the Japanese man or woman wore on the

person neither gold nor silver jewelry. In later times, decoration was

added to the sword hilt and pins were thrust in the hair.

Possibly a prejudice against metal touching the skin, such as exists in

Korea, may account for this absence of jewelry, though silver was not

discovered until A.D. 675, or gold until A.D. 749. The primitive

Japanese, however, did wear ornaments of ground and polished stone, and

these so numerously as to compel contrast with the severer tastes of

later ages. Some of these magatama--curved jewels or perforated

cylinders--were made of very hard stone which requires skill to drill,

cut and polish. Among the substances used was jade, a mineral found only

in Cathay.[3] Indeed, we cannot follow the lines of industry and

manufactures, of personal adornment and household decoration, of

scientific terms and expressions, of literary, intellectual and

religious experiment, without continually finding that the Japanese

borrowed from Chinese storehouses. Possibly their debt began at the time

of the alleged conquest of Korea[4] in the third century.

In Japanese life, as it existed before the introduction of Buddhism,

there was, with barbaric simplicity, a measure of culture somewhat

indeed above the level of savagery, but probably very little that could

be appraised beyond that of the Iroquois Indians in the days of their

Confederacy. For though granting that there were many interesting

features of art, industry, erudition and civilization which have been

lost to the historic memory, and that the research of scholars may

hereafter discover many things now in oblivion; yet, on the other hand,

it is certain that much of what has long been supposed to be of

primitive Japanese origin, and existent before the eighth century, has

been more or less infused or enriched with Chinese elements, or has been

imported directly from India, or Persia,[5] or has crystallized into

shape from the mixture of things Buddhistic and primitive Japanese.

Apart from all speculation, we know that in the train of the first

missionaries came artisans, and instructors in every line of human

industry and achievement, and that the importation of the inventions and

appliances of "the West"--the West then being Korea and China, and the

"Far West," India--was proportionately as general, as far-reaching, as

sensational, as electric in its effects upon the Japanese minds, as, in

our day, has been the introduction of the modern civilization of Europe

and the United States.[6]

The Purveyors of Civilization.

The Buddhist missionaries, in their first "enthusiasm of humanity," were

not satisfied to bring in their train, art, medicine, science and

improvements of all sorts, but they themselves, being often learned and

practical men, became personal leaders in the work of civilizing the

country. In travelling up and down the empire to propagate their tenets,

they found out the necessity of better roads, and accordingly, they were

largely instrumental in having them made. They dug wells, established

ferries and built bridges.[7] They opened lines of communication; they

stimulated traffic and the exchange of merchandise; they created the

commerce between Japan and China; and they acted as peacemakers and

mediators in the wars between the Japanese and Koreans. For centuries

they had the monopoly of high learning. In the dark middle ages when

civil war ruled, they were the only scholars, clerks, diplomatists,

mediators and peacemakers.

Japanese diet became something new under the direction of the priests.

The bonzes taught the wickedness of slaughtering domestic animals, and

indeed, the wrong of putting any living thing to death, so that kindness

to animals has become a national trait. To this day it may be said that

Japanese boys and men are, at least within the limits of their light,

more tender and careful with all living creatures than are those of

Christendom.[8] The bonzes improved the daily fare of the people, by

introducing from Korea and China articles of food hitherto unknown. They

brought over new seeds and varieties of vegetables and trees.

Furthermore, necessity being the mother of invention, not a few of the

shorn brethren made up for the prohibition of fish and flesh, by

becoming expert cooks. They so exercised their talents in the culinary

art that their results on the table are proverbial. Especially did they

cultivate mushrooms, which in taste and nourishment are good substitutes

for fish.

The bonzes were lovers of beauty and of symbolism. They planted the

lotus, and the monastery ponds became seats of splendor, and delights to

the eye. Their teachings, metaphysical and mystical, poetical and

historical, scientific and literary, created, it may be said, the

Japanese garden, which to the refined imagination contains far more than

meets the eye of the alien.[9] Indeed, the oriental imitations in earth,

stone, water and verdure, have a language and suggestion far beyond what

the usual parterres and walks, borders and lines, fountains and statuary

of a western garden teach. It may be said that our "language of flowers"

is more luxuriant and eloquent than theirs; yet theirs is very rich

also, besides being more subtle in suggestion. The bonzes instilled

doctrine, not only by sermons, books and the emblems and furniture of

the temples, but they also taught dogma and ethics by the flower-ponds

and plots, by the artificial landscape, and by outdoor symbolism of all

kinds. To Buddhism our thanks are due, for the innumerable miniature

continents, ranges of mountains, geographical outlines and other

horticultural allusions to their holy lands and spiritual history, seen

beside so many houses, temples and monasteries in Japan. In their floral

art, no people excels the Japanese in making leaf and bloom teach

history, religion, philosophy, aesthetics and patriotism.

Not only around the human habitation,[10] but within it, the new

religion brought a marvellous change. Instead of the hut, the

dwelling-house grew to spacious and comfortable proportions, every part

of the Japanese house to-day showing to the cultured student, especially

to one familiar with the ancient poetry, the lines of its origin and

development, and in the larger dwellings expressing a wealth of

suggestion and meaning. The oratory and the kami-dana or shelf holding

the gods, became features in the humblest dwelling. Among the well-to-do

there were of course the gilded ancestral tablets and the worship of

progenitors, in special rooms, with imposing ritual and equipment, with

which Buddhism did not interfere; but on the shelf over the door of

nearly every house in the land, along with the emblems of the kami,

stood images representing the avatars of Buddha.[11] There, the light

ever burned, and there, offerings of food and drink were thrice daily

made. Though the family worship might vary in its length and variety of

ceremony, yet even in the home where no regular system was followed, the

burning lights and the stated offering made, called the mind up to

thoughts higher than the mere level of providing for daily wants. The

visitation of the priests in time of sorrow, or of joy, or for friendly

converse, made religion sweetly human.[12]

Outwardly the Buddhist architecture made a profound change in the

landscape. With a settled religion requiring gorgeous ceremonial, the

chanting of liturgies by large bodies of priests and the formation of

monasteries as centres of literary and religious activity, there were

required stability and permanence in the imperial court itself. While,

therefore, the humble village temples arose all over the country, there

were early erected, in the place where the court and emperor dwelt,

impressive religious edifices.[13] The custom of migration ceased, and a

fixed spot selected as the capital, remained such for a number of

generations, until finally Héian-jō or the place of peace, later

called Kiōto, became the "Blossom Capital" and the Sacred City for a

thousand years. At Nara, where flourished the first six sects introduced

from Korea, were built vast monasteries, temples and images, and thence

the influence of civilisation and art radiated. From the first,

forgetting its primitive democracy and purely moral claims, Buddhism

lusted for power in the State. As early as A.D. 624, various grades were

assigned to the priesthood by the government.[14] The sects eagerly

sought and laid great stress upon imperial favor. To this day they

keenly enjoy the canonization of their great teachers by letters patent

from the Throne.

Ministers of Art.

On the establishment of the imperial capital, at Kiōto, toward the

end of the eighth century, we find still further development and

enlargement of those latent artistic impulses with which the Heavenly

Father endowed his Japanese child. That capacity for beauty, both in

appreciation and expression, which in our day makes the land of dainty

decoration the resort of all those who would study oriental art in

unique fulness and decorative art in its only living school--a school

founded on the harmonious marriage of the people and the nature of the

country--is discernible from quite early ages. The people seem to have

responded gladly to the calls for gifts and labor. The direction from

which it is supposed all evils are likely to come is the northeast; this

special point of the compass being in pan-Asian spiritual geography the

focus of all malign influences. Accordingly, the Mikado Kwammu, in A.D.

788, built on the highest mountain called Hiyéi a superb temple and

monastery, giving it in charge of the Ten-dai sect, that there should

ever be a bulwark against the evil that might otherwise swoop upon the

city. Here, as on castellated walls, should stand the watchman, who, by

the recitation of the sacred liturgies, would keep watch and ward. In

course of time this great mountain became a city of three thousand

edifices and ten thousand monks, from which the droning of litanies and

the chanting of prayers ascended daily, and where the chief industries

were, the counting of beads on rosaries and the burning of incense

before the altars. This was in the long bright day of a prosperity which

has been nourished by vast sums obtained from the government and nobles.

One notes the contrast at the end of our century, when "disestablished"

as a religion and its bonzes reduced to beggary, Hiyéi-san is used as

the site of a Summer School of Christian Theology.

Along with the blossoming of the lotus in every part of the empire,

bloomed the grander flowers of sculpture, of painting and of temple

architecture. It was because of the carpenter's craft in building

temples that he won his name of Dai-ku, or the great workman. The

artificers of the sunny islands cultivated an ambition, not only to

equal but to excel, their continental brethren of the saw and hammer.

Yet the carpenter was only the leader of great hosts of artisans that

were encouraged, of craftsmen that were educated and of industries that

were called into being by the spread of Buddhism.[15] It was not enough

that village temples and town monasteries should be built, under an

impulse that meant volumes for the development of the country. The

ambitious leaders chose sightly spots on mountains whence were lovely

vistas of scenery, on which to erect temples and monasteries, while it

seemed to be their further ambition to allow no mountain peak to be

inaccessible. With armies of workmen, supported by the contributions of

the faithful who had been aroused to enthusiasm by the preaching of the

bonzes, great swaths were cut in the forest; abundant timber was felled;

rocky plateaus were levelled; and elegant monastic edifices were reared,

soon to be filled with eager students, and young men in training for the

priesthood.

Whether the pilgrimage[16] be of Shintō or of Buddhist origin, or

simply a contrivance of human nature to break the monotony of life, we

need not discuss. It is certain that if the custom be indigenous, the

imported faith adopted, absorbed and enlarged it. The peregrinations

made to the great temples and to the mountain tops, being meritorious

performances, soon filled the roads with more or less devout travellers.

In thus finding vent for their piety, the pilgrims mingled

sanctification with recreation, enjoying healthful holidays, and

creating trade with varied business, commercial and commissarial

activities, while enlarging also their ideas and learning something of

geography. Thus, in the course of time, it has come to pass that Japan

is a country of which almost every square mile is known, while it is

well threaded with paths, banded with roads, and supplied to a

remarkable extent with handy volumes of description and of local

history.[17] Her people being well educated in their own lore and local

traditions, possessed also a voluminous literature of guidebooks and

cyclopedias of information. The devotees were, withal, well instructed

and versed in a code of politeness and courtesy, as pilgrimage and

travel became settled habits of a life. As a further result, the

national tongue became remarkably homogeneous. Broadly speaking, it may

be said that the Japanese language, unlike the Chinese in this as it is

in almost every other point, has very little dialectic variation.[18]

Except in some few remote eddies lying outside the general currents,

there is a uniform national speech. This is largely owing to that annual

movement of pilgrims in the summer months especially, habitual during

many centuries.

Buddhism coming to Japan by means of the Great Vehicle, or with the

features of the Northern development, was the fertile mother of art. In

the exterior equipment of the temple, instead of the Shintō thatch,

the tera or Buddhist edifice called for tiles on its sweeping roof, with

ornamental terra-cotta at the end of its imposing roof-ridge, or for

sheets of copper soon to be made verdant, then sombre and then sable by

age and atmosphere. Outwardly the edifice required the application of

paint and lacquer in rich tints, its recurved roof-edges gladly

welcoming the crest and monogram of the feudal prince, and its railings

and stairways accepting willingly the bronze caps and ornaments. In

front of its main edifice was the imposing gateway with proportions

almost as massive as the temple itself, with prodigal wealth of

curiously fitted and richly carved, painted and gilded supports and

morticings, with all the fancies and adornments of the carpenter's art,

and having as its frontlet and blazon the splendidly gilt name, style or

title. Often these were impressive to eye and mind, to an extent which

the terse Chinese or curt monosyllables could scarcely suggest to an

alien.[19] The number, forms and positions of the various parts of the

temple easily lent themselves to the expression of the elaborate

symbolism of the India faith.

Resemblances between Buddhism and Christianity.

Within the sacred edifice everything to strike the senses was lavishly

displayed. The passion of the East, as opposed to Greek simplicity, is

for decoration; yet in Japan, decorative art, though sometimes bursting

out in wild profusion or running to unbridled lengths, was in the main a

regulated mass of splendor in which harmony ruled. Differing though the

Buddhist sects do in their temple furniture and altar decorations, they

are, most of them, so elaborately full in their equipment as to suggest

repeatedly the similarity between the Roman Catholic organization,

altars, vestments and ritual, and those of Buddhism, and remarks on this

point seem almost commonplace. Almost everything in Roman Catholicism is

found in Buddhism,[20] and one may even say, _vice versa_, at least in

things exterior. We take the liberty of transcribing here a passage from

the chapter entitled "Christianity and Foreigners" in The Mikado's

Empire, written twenty years ago.

"Furthermore, the transition from the religion of India to that

of Rome was extremely easy. The very idols of Buddha served,

after a little alteration with the chisel, for images of Christ.

The Buddhist saints were easily transformed into the Twelve

Apostles. The Cross took the place of the _torii_. It was

emblazoned on the helmets and banners of the warriors, and

embroidered on their breasts. The Japanese soldiers went forth

to battle like Christian crusaders. In the roadside shrine

Kuanon, the Goddess of Mercy, made way for the Virgin, the

mother of God. Buddhism was beaten with its own weapons. Its own

artillery was turned against it. Nearly all the Christian

churches were native temples, sprinkled and purified. The same

bell, whose boom had so often quivered the air announcing the

orisons and matins of paganism, was again blessed and sprinkled,

and called the same hearers to mass and confession; the same

lavatory that fronted the temple served for holy water or

baptismal font; the same censer that swung before Amida could be

refilled to waft Christian incense; the new convert could use

unchanged his old beads, bells, candles, incense, and all the

paraphernalia of his old faith in celebration of the new.

"Almost everything that is distinctive in the Roman form of

Christianity is to be found in Buddhism: images, pictures,

lights, altars, incense, vestments, masses, beads, wayside

shrines, monasteries, nunneries, celibacy, fastings, vigils,

retreats, pilgrimages, mendicant vows, shorn heads, orders,

habits, uniforms, nuns, convents, purgatory, saintly and

priestly intercession, indulgences, works of supererogation,

pope, archbishops, abbots, abbesses, monks, neophytes, relics

and relic-worship, exclusive burial-ground, etc., etc.,

etc."[21]

Nevertheless, these resemblances are almost wholly superficial, and have

little or nothing to do with genuine religion. Such matters are of

aesthetic and of commercial, rather than of spiritual, interest. They

concern priestcraft and vulgar superstition rather than truth and

righteousness. "In point of dogma a whole world of thought separates

Buddhism from every form of Christianity. Knowledge, enlightenment, is

the condition of Buddhistic grace, not faith. Self-perfectionment is the

means of salvation, not the vicarious sufferings of a Redeemer. Not

eternal life is the end and active participation in unceasing prayer and

praise, but absorption into Nirvana (Jap. Nehan), practical

annihilation."[22] At certain points, the metaphysic of Buddhism is so

closely like that of Christian theology, that a connection on reciprocal

exchange of ideas is not only possible but probable. In their highest

thinking,[23] the sincere Christian and Buddhist approach each other in

their search after truth.

The key-word of Buddhism is Ingwa, which means law or fate, the chain of

cause and effect in which man is found, atheistic "evolution applied to

ethics," the grinding machinery of a universe in which is no

Creator-Father, no love, pity or heart. If the cry of the human spirit

has compelled the makers of Buddhist theology to furnish a goddess of

mercy, it is but one subordinate being among many. If a boundlessly

compassionate Amida is thought out, it is an imaginary being. The symbol

of Buddhism is the wheel of the law, which revolves as mercilessly as

ceaselessly.[24]

The key-word of Christianity is love, and its message is grace. Its

symbol is the cross, and its sacrament the supper, in token of the

infinite love of the Father who wrote his revelation in a human life.

The resemblances between the religions of Gautama and of Jesus, are

purely superficial. They appear to the outward man. The inward man

cannot, even from Darien peaks of observation or in his scrutiny _de

profundis_, discover any vital or historical connection between the two

faiths, Christianity and Buddhism. In his theology the Christian says

God is all; but the Buddhist says All is god. Buddhism says destroy the

passions: Christianity says control them. The Buddhist's watchword is

Nirvana. The Christian's is Eternal Life in Christ Jesus.[25]

The Temples and Their Symbolism.

In the vast airy halls of a Buddhist temple one will often see columns

made of whole tree-trunks, sheeted with gold and supporting massive

ceilings which are empanelled and gorgeous with every hue and tint known

to the palette. Besides the coloring, carving and gilding, the rich

symbolism strikes the eye and touches the imagination. It is a pleasing

study for one familiar with the background and world of Buddhism, to

note their revelation and expression in art, as well as to discern what

the varying sects accept or reject. There is the lotus, in leaf, bud,

flower and calyx;[26] the diamond in every form, real and imaginary,

with the vagra or emblem of conquest; while on the altars, beside the

central image, be it that of Shaka or of Amida, are Bodhisattvas or

Buddhas by brevet, beings in every state of existence, as well as

deities of many names and forms. Abstract ideas and attributes are

expressed in the art language not only of Japan, Korea and China, but

also in that of India and even of Persia and Greece,[27] until one

wonders how an Aryan religion, like Buddhism, could have so conquered

and unified the many nations of Chinese Asia. He wonders, indeed, until

he remembers how it has itself been transformed and changed in popular

substance, from lofty metaphysics and ethics into pantheism for the

shorn, and into polytheism for the unshorn.

Looking at early Japanese pictures with the eye of the historian, as

well as of the connoisseur of art, one will see that the first real

school of Japanese art was Buddhistic. The modern school of pictorial

art, named from the monkish phrase, Ukioyé--pictures of the Passing

World--is indeed very interesting to the western student, because it

seems to be more in touch with the human nature of the whole world, as

distinct from what is local, Chinese, or sectarian. Yet, casting a

glance back of the mediaeval Kano, Chinese and Yamato-Tosa styles, he

finds that Buddhism gave Japan her first examples of and stimulus to

pictorial art.[28] He sees further that instead of the monochrome of

Chinese exotic art, or the first rude attempts of the native pencil,

Buddhism began Japanese sculpture, carving and nearly every other form

of plastic or pictorial representation, in which are all the elements of

Northern Buddhism, as so lavishly represented, for example, in that

great sutra which is the book, _par excellence_, of Japanese Buddhism,

the Saddharma Pundarika.

Turning from text to art, we behold the golden lakes of joy, the

mountain of gems, the floating female angels with their marvellous

drapery and lovely faces, the gentle benignity of the goddesses of

mercy, the rays of light and the glory streaming from face and head of

the holy ones, the splendors of costume, the varied beauties of the

lotus, the hosts of ministering intelligences, the luxuriant symbolism,

the purple clouds, the wheel of the law, the swastika[29] or double

cross, and the vagra,[30] or diamond trefoil. All that color, perfume,

sensuous delights, art and luxury can suggest, are here, together with

all the various orders of beings that inhabit the Buddhist universe; and

these are set forth in their fulness and detail. In the six conditions

of sentient existence are devas or gods, men, asuras or monsters, pretas

or demons, beasts, and beings in hell. In portraying these, the artists

and sculptors do not always slavishly follow tradition or uniformity.

The critical eye notes nearly as much genius, wit and variety as in the

mediaeval cathedral architecture of Europe. Probably the most popular

groups of idols are those of the seven or the thirty-three Kuannon, of

the six Jizo[31] or compassionate helpers, and of the sixteen or the

five hundred Rakan[32] or circles of primitive disciples of Gautama. The

angelic beings and sweetly singing birds of Paradise are also favorite

subjects of the artists.

One who has lived alongside the great temples; who knows the daily

routine and sees what powerful engines of popular instruction they are;

who has been present at the great festivals and looked upon the mighty

kitchens and refectories in operation; and who has gone in and out among

their monasteries and examined their records, their genealogies and

their relics, can see how powerfully Buddhism has moulded the whole life

of the people through long ages. The village temple is often the epitome

and repository of the social life of the people now living, and of the

story of their ancestors for generations upon generations past. It is

the historico-genealogical society, the museum, the repository of

documents and trophies, the place of national thanksgiving and praise,

of public sorrow and farewell, a place of rendezvous and separation, the

starting-point of procession, and the centre of festival and joy; and

thus it is linked with the life of the people.

In other respects, also, the temple is like the old village cathedral of

mediaeval Europe. It is in many sects the centre of popular pleasure of

all sorts, both reputable and disreputable. Not only shops and bazaars,

fairs and markets, games and sports, cluster around it, but also

curiosities and works of popular art, the relics of war, and the

trophies of travel and adventure. Except that Buddhism--outside of

India--never had the unity of European Christianity, the Buddhist temple

is the mirror and encyclopaedia both of history and of contemporary

life. As fame and renown are necessary for the glory of the place or the

structure, favorite gods, or rather their idols, are frequently carried

about on "starring" tours. At the opening to public view of some famous

image or relic, a great festival or revival called Kai-chō is held,

which becomes a scene of trade and merry-making like that of the

mediaeval fair or kermis in Europe. The far-oriental is able as

skilfully as his western confrère, to mix business and religion and to

suppose that gain is godliness. Further, the manufacture of legend

becomes a thriving industry; while the not-infrequent sensation of a

popular miracle is manipulated by the bonzes--for priestcraft in all

ages and climes is akin throughout the world. It is no wonder that some

honest Japanese, incensed at the shams utilized by the religious, has

struck out like coin the proverb that rings true--"Good doctrine needs

no miracle."

The Bell and the Cemetery.

The Buddhist missionaries, and especially the founders of temples,

thoroughly understood the power of natural beauty to humble, inspire and

soothe the soul of man. The instinctive love of the Japanese people for

fine scenery, was made an ally of faith. The sites for temples were

chosen with reference to their imposing surroundings or impressive

vistas. Whether as spark-arresters and protectives against fire, or to

compel reverent awe, the loftiest evergreen trees are planted around the

sacred structure. These "trees of Jehovah" are compellers to reverence.

The _alien's_ hat comes off instinctively--though it may be less

convenient to shed boots than sandals--as he enters the sacred

structure.

The great tongueless bell is another striking accessory to the temple

services. Near at hand stands the belfry out of which boom forth tidings

of the hours. In the flow of time and years, the note of the bell

becomes more significant, and in old age solemn, making in the lapse of

centuries an educating power in seriousness. "As sad as a temple bell"

is the coinage of popular speech. Many of the inscriptions, though with

less of sunny hope and joy than even Christian grave-stones bear, are

yet mournfully beautiful.[33] They preach Buddhism in its reality.

Whereas, the general associations of the Christian spire and belfry,

apart from the note of time, are those of joy, invitation and good news,

those of the tongueless and log-struck bells of Buddhism are sombre and

saddening. "As merry as a marriage bell," could never be said of the

boom from a Buddhist temple, even though it pour waves of sound through

sunny leagues. There is a vast difference between the peal and play of

the chimes of Europe and the liquid melody which floods the landscape of

Chinese Asia. The one music, high in air, seems ever to tell of faith,

triumph and aspiration; the other in minor notes, from bells hung low on

yokes, perpetually echoes the pessimism of despair, the folly of living

and the joy that anticipates its end.

Above all, the temple holds and governs the cemetery[34] as well as the

cradle; while from it emanate influences that enwrap and surround the

villager, from birth to death. Since the outlawry of Christianity, and

especially since the division of the empire into Buddhist parishes, the

bonzes have had the oversight of birth, death, marriage and divorce.

Particularly tenacious, in common with priestcraft all over the world,

is their clutch upon what they call "consecrated ground." In a large

sense Japan is still, what China has always been, a country governed by

the graveyard. These cities of the dead are usually kept in attractive

order and made beautiful with flowers in memoriam. The study of epitaphs

and mortuary architecture, though not without elements bordering on the

ludicrous, is enjoyed by the thoughtful student.[35]

In every community the inhabitants are enrolled at birth at the

local temple, whose priests are the authorized religious

teachers, and are always expected to take charge of the funerals

of those whose names are thus enrolled. So long as an individual

remains in the region of the family temple, the tie which binds

him to it is exceedingly difficult to break; but if he moves

away he is no longer bound by this tie. This explains the fact,

so often observed by missionaries, that the membership of

Christian churches is made up almost entirely of people who have

come from other localities. In the city of Osaka, for instance,

it is a very rare thing to find a native Osakan in any of the

churches. The same is true in all parts of the country. So long

as a Japanese remains in the neighborhood of his family temple

it is almost impossible to get him to break the temple tie and

join a Christian church; but when he moves to another place he

is free to do as he likes.[36]

This statement of a resident in modern Japan will long remain true for a

large part of the empire.

Political and Military Influences.

A volume might be written and devoted to Japanese Buddhism as a

political power; for, having quickly obtained intellectual possession of

the court and emperor, it dictated the policies of the rulers. In A.D.

624, it was recognized as a state religion, and the hierarchy of priests

was officially established. At this date there were 46 temples and

monasteries, with 816 monks and 569 nuns. As early as the eighth

century, beginning with Shōmu, who reigned A.D. 724-728, and who with

his daughter, afterward the female Mikado, became a disciple of Shaka,

the habit of the emperors becoming monks, shaving their heads and

retiring from public life, came in vogue and lasted until near the

nineteenth century. By this means the bonzes were soon enabled to call

Buddhism "the people's religion," and to secure the resources of the

national treasury as an aid to their temple and monastery building, and

for the erection of those images and wayside shrines on which so many

millions of dollars have been lavished. In addition to this subsidized

propaganda, the Buddhist confessor was too often able, by means of the

wife, concubine, or other female member of the household, imperial or

noble, to dictate the imperial policy in accordance with monkish or

priestly ideas. Ugéno Dō-kiō, a monk, is believed to have aspired

to the throne. Being made premier by the Empress Kō-ken, whose

passion for him is the scandal of history, he made no scruple of

extending the power as well as the influence of the Buddhist hierarchy.

Buddhism had also a distinct influence on the military history of the

country,[37] and this was greatest during the civil wars of the rival

Mikados (1336-1392), when the whole country was a camp and two lines of

nominees claimed to be descendants of the sun-goddess. Japan's only

foreign wars have been in the neighboring peninsula of Korea, and

thither the bonzes went with the armies in the expeditions of the early

centuries, and in that great invasion of 1592-1597, which has left a

scar even to this day on the Korean mind. At home, Buddhist priests only

too gladly accompanied the imperial armies of conquest and occupation.

During centuries of activity in the southwest and in the far east and

extreme north, the military brought the outlying portions of the empire,

throughout the whole archipelago, under the sway of the Yamato tribe and

the Mikado's dominion. The shorn clerks not only lived in camp,

ministered to the sick and shrived the dying soldier, but wrote texts

for the banners, furnished the amulets and war cries, and were ever

assistant and valuable in keeping up the temper and morals of the

armies.[38] No sooner was the campaign over and peace had become the

order of the day, than the enthusiastic missionaries began to preach and

to teach in the pacified region. They set up the shrines, anon started

the school and built the temple; usually, indeed, with the aid of the

law and the government, acting as agents of a politico-ecclesiastical

establishment, yet with energy and consecration.

In later feudal days, when the soldier classes obtained the upper hand,

overawed the court and Mikado and gradually supplanted the civil

authority, introducing feudalism and martial law, the bonzes often

represented the popular and democratic side. Protesting against

arbitrary government, they came into collision with the warrior rulers,

so as to be exposed to imprisonment and the sword. Yet even as refugees

and as men to whom the old seats of activity no longer offered success

or comfort, they went off into the distant and outlying provinces,

preaching the old tenets and the new fashions in theology. Thus again

they won hosts of converts, built monasteries, opened fresh paths and

were purveyors of civilization.

The feudal ages in Japan bred the same type of militant priest known in

Europe--the military bishop and the soldier monk. So far from Japan's

being the "Land of Great Peace," and Buddhism's being necessarily gentle

and non-resistant, we find in the chequered history of the island empire

many a bloody battle between the monks on horseback and in armor.[39]

Rival sectarians kept the country disquieted for years. Between

themselves and their favored laymen, and the enemy, consisting of the

rival forces, lay and clerical, in like array, many a bloody battle was

fought.

The writer lived for one year in Echizen, which, in the fifteenth

century, was the battle-ground for over fifty years, of warring monks.

The abbot of the Monastery of the Original Vow, of the Shin sect, in

Kiōto, had built before the main edifice a two-storied gate, which

was expected to throw into the shade every other gateway in Japan, and

especially to humble the pride of the monks of the Tendai sect, in

Hiyéizan, The monks of the mountain, swarming down into the capital

city, attacked the gate and monastery of the Shin sect and burned the

former to ashes. The abbot thus driven off by fire, fled northward, and,

joined by a powerful body of adherents, made himself possessor of the

rich provinces of Kaga and Echizen, holding this region for half a

century, until able to rebuild the mighty fortress-monasteries near

Kiōto and at Osaka.

These strongholds of the fighting Shin priests had become so powerful as

arsenals and military headquarters, that in 1570, Nobunaga, skilful

general as he was, and backed by sixty thousand men, was unsuccessful in

his attempt to reduce them. For ten years, the war between Nobunaga and

the Shin sectarians kept the country in disorder. It finally ended in

the conflagration of the great religious fortress at Osaka, and the

retreat of the monks to another part of the country. By their treachery

and incendiarism, the shavelings prevented the soldiers from enjoying

the prizes.

To detail the whole history of the fighting monks would be tedious. They

have had a foothold for many centuries and even to the present time, in

every province except that of Satsuma. There, because they treacherously

aided the great Hidéyoshi to subdue the province, the fiery clansmen,

never during Tokugawa days, permitted a Buddhist priest to come.[40]

Literature, and Education.

In its literary and scholastic development, Japanese Buddhism on its

popular educational side deserves great praise. Although the Buddhist

canon[41] was never translated into the vernacular,[42] and while the

library of native Buddhism, in the way of commentary or general

literature, reflects no special credit upon the priests, yet the

historian must award them high honor, because of the part taken by them

as educators and schoolmasters.[43] Education in ancient and mediaeval

times was, among the laymen, confined almost wholly to the imperial

court, and was considered chiefly to be, either as an adjunct to polite

accomplishments, or as valuable especially in preparing young men for

political office.[44] From the first introduction of letters until well

into the nineteenth century, there was no special provision for

education made by the government, except that, in modern and recent

times in the castle towns of the Daimiōs, there were schools of

Chinese learning for the Samurai. Private schools and school-masters[45]

were also creditably numerous. In original literature, poetry, fiction

and history, as well as in the humbler works of compilation, in the

making of text-books and in descriptive lore, the pens of many priests

have been busy.[46] The earliest biography written in Japan was of

Shōtoku, the great lay patron of Buddhism. In the ages of war the

monastery was the ark of preservation amid a flood of desolation.

The temple schools were early established, and in the course of

centuries became at times almost coextensive with the empire. Besides

the training of the neophytes in the Chinese language and the

vernacular, there were connected with thousands of temples, schools in

which the children, not only of the well-to-do, but largely of the

people, were taught the rudiments of education, chiefly reading and

writing. Most of the libraries of the country were those in monasteries.

Although it is not probable that Kōbō invented the Kana or common

script, yet it is reasonably certain that the bonzes[47] were the chief

instrument in the diffusion and popularization of that simple system of

writing, which made it possible to carry literature down into the homes

of the merchant and peasant, and enabled even women and children to

beguile the tedium of their lives. Thus the people expanded their

thoughts through the medium of the written, and later of the printed,

page.[48] Until modern centuries, when the school of painters, which

culminated in Hokŭsai and his contemporaries, brought a love of art

down to the lowest classes of the people, the only teacher of pictorial

and sculptural art for the multitude, was Buddhism. So strong is this

popular delight in things artistic that probably, to this passion as

much as to the religious instinct, we owe many of the wayside shrines

and images, the symbolical and beautifully prepared landscapes, and

those stone stairways which slope upward toward the shrines on the

hill-tops. In Japan, art is not a foreign language; it is vernacular.

Thus, while we gladly point out how Buddhism, along the paths of

exploration, commerce, invention, sociology, military and political

influence, education and literature, not only propagated religion, but

civilized Japan,[49] it is but in the interest of fairness and truth

that we point out that wherein the great system was deficient. If we

make comparison with Christendom and the religion of Jesus, it is less

with the purpose of the polemic who must perhaps necessarily disparage,

and more with the idea of making contrast between what we have seen in

Japan and what we have enjoyed as commonplace in the United States and

Europe.

Things Which Buddhism Left Undone.

In the thirteen hundred years of the life of Buddhism in Japan, what are

the fruits, and what are the failures? Despite its incessant and

multifarious activities, one looks in vain for the hospital, the orphan

asylum, the home for elderly men or women or aged couples, or the asylum

for the insane, and much less, for that vast and complicated system of

organized charities, which, even amid our material greed of gain, make

cities like New York, or London, or Chicago, so beautiful from the point

of view of humanity. Buddhism did indeed teach kindness to animals,

making even the dog, though ownerless and outcast, in a sense sacred.

Because of his faith in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, the

toiling laborer will keep his wheels or his feet from harming the cat or

dog or chicken in the road, even though it be at risk and trouble and

with added labor to himself. The pious will buy the live birds or eels

from the old woman who sits on the bridge, in order to give them life

and liberty again in air or water. The sacred rice is for sale at the

temples, not only to feed but to fatten the holy pigeons.

Yet, while all this care is lavished on animals, the human being

suffers.[50] Buddhism is kind to the brute, and cruel to man. Until the

influx of western ideas in recent years, the hospital and the orphanage

did not exist in Japan, despite the gentleness and tenderness of Shaka,

who, with all his merits, deserted his wife and babe in order to

enlighten mankind.[51] If Buddhism is not directly responsible for the

existence of that class of Japanese pariahs called _hi-nin_, or

not-human, the name and the idea are borrowed from the sutras; while the

execration of all who prepare or sell the flesh of animals is

persistently taught in the sacred books. These unfortunate bearers of

the human image, during twelve hundred years and until the fiat of the

present illustrious emperor made them citizens, were not reckoned in the

census, nor was the land on which they dwelt measured. The imperial

edict which finally elevated the Eta to citizenship, was suggested by

one whose life, though known to men as that of a Confucian, was probably

hid with Christ, Yokoi Héishiro.[52] The emperor Mutsuhito, 123d of the

line of Japan, born on the day when Perry was on the Mississippi and

ready to sail, placed over these outcast people in 1871, the protecting

aegis of the law.[53] Until that time, the people in this unfortunate

class, numbering probably a million, or, as some say, three millions,

were compelled to live outside of the limits of human habitation, having

no lights which society or the law was bound to respect. They were given

food or drink only when benevolence might be roused; but the donor would

never again touch the vessel in which the offering was made. The

Eta,[54] though in individual cases becoming measurably rich, rotted and

starved, and were made the filth, and off-scouring of the earth, because

they were the butchers, the skinners, the leather workers, and thus

handled dead animals, being made also the executioners and buriers of

the dead. After a quarter of a century the citizens, whose ancestry is

not forgotten, suffer social ostracism even more than do the freed

slaves of our country, though between them and the other Japanese there

is no color line, but only the streak of difference which Buddhism

created and has maintained. Nevertheless, let it be said to the eternal

honor of Shin Shu and of some of the minor sects, that they were always

kind and helpful to the Eta.

Furthermore it would be hard to discover Buddhist missionary activities

among the Ainos, or benefits conferred upon them by the disciples of

Gautama. One would suppose that the Buddhists, professing to be

believers in spiritual democracy, would be equally active among all

sorts and conditions of men; but they have not been so. Even in the days

when the regions of the Ebisu or barbarians (Yezo) extended far

southward upon the main island, the missionary bonze was conspicuous by

his absence among these people. It would seem as though the popular

notion that the Ainos are the offspring of dogs, had been fed by

prejudices inculcated by Buddhism. It has been reserved for Christian

aliens to reduce the language of these simple savages to writing, and to

express in it for their spiritual benefit the ideas and literature of a

religion higher than their own, as well as to erect church edifices and

build hospitals.

The Attitude Toward Woman.

In its attitude toward woman, which is perhaps one of the crucial tests

of a religion as well as of a civilization, Buddhism has somewhat to be

praised and much to be blamed for. It is probable that the Japanese

woman owes more to Buddhism than to Confucianism, though relatively her

position was highest under Shintō. In Japan the women are the freest

in Asia, and probably the best treated among any Asiatic nation, but

this is not because of Gautama's teaching.[55] Very early in its history

Japanese Buddhism welcomed womanhood to its fraternity and order,[56]

yet the Japanese _ama, bikuni_, or nun, never became a sister of mercy,

or reached, even within a measurable distance, the dignity of the

Christian lady in the nunnery. In European history the abbess is a

notable figure. She is hardly heard of beyond the Japanese nunnery, even

by the native scholar--except in fiction.