difficult of explanation, when viewed in the light of two thousand
years of Japanese religious history. They cannot be attributed to a
deficient racial endowment of religious nature. They are a part of
nineteenth-century life by no means limited to Japan. If the
Anglo-Saxon race is not to be pronounced inherently irreligious,
despite the fact that irreligious phenomena and individuals are in
constant evidence the world over, neither can New Japan be pronounced
irreligious for the same reason. The irreligion now so rampant is a
recent phenomenon in Japan. It may not immediately pass away, but it
must eventually. Religion freed from superstition and ceremonialism,
resting in reality, identifying moral and scientific with religious
truth, is already finding hearty support from many of Japan's educated
men. If appeal is made under the right conditions, the Japanese
manifest no lack of a genuine religious nature. That they seem to be
deficient in the sense of reverence is held by some to be proof
presumptive of a deficient religious nature. A few illustrations will
make clear what the critic means and will guide us to an
interpretation of the phenomena. Occidentals are accustomed to
consider a religious service as a time of solemn quiet, for we feel
ourselves in a special sense in the presence of God; His majesty and
glory are realities to the believing worshiper. But much occurs during
a Christian service in Japanese churches which would seem to indicate
a lack of this feeling. It is by no means uncommon for little children
to run about without restraint during the service, for mothers to
nurse their infants, and for adults to converse with each other in an
undertone, though not so low but that the sound of the conversation
may be heard by all. I know a deacon occupying a front mat in church
who spends a large part of service time during the first two sabbaths
of each month in making out the receipts of the monthly contributions
and distributing them among the members. His apparent supposition is
that he disturbs no one (and it is amazing how undisturbed the rest of
the congregation is), but also that he is in no way interfering with
the solemnity or value of the service. The freedom, too, with which
individuals come and go during the service is in marked contrast to
our custom. From our standpoint, there is lack of reverence.
I recently attended a young men's meeting at which the places for each
were assigned by written quotations, from the Bible, one-half of which
was given to the individual and the other half placed at the seat. One
quotation so used was the text, "The birds of the air have nests, but
the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head." It would hardly seem
as if earnest Christians could have made such use of this text. Some
months ago at a social gathering held in connection with the annual
meeting of the churches of Shikoku, one of the comic performances
consisted in the effort on the part of three old men to sing through
to the end without a break-down the song which to us is so sacred,
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me." Only one man succeeded, the others going
through a course of quavers and breaks which was exceedingly
laughable, but absolutely irreverent. The lack of reverence which has
sometimes characterized the social side of the Christmas services in
Japan has been the source of frequent regret to the missionaries. In a
social gathering of earnest young Christians recently, a game
demanding forfeits was played; these consisted of the recitation of
familiar texts from the Bible. There certainly seems to be a lack of
the sense of the fitness of things.
But the question is, are these practices due to an inherent
deficiency of reverence, arising from the character of the Japanese
nature, or are they due rather to the religious history of the past
and the conditions of the present? That the latter seems to me the
correct view I need hardly state. The fact that the Japanese are an
emotional people renders it probable, a priori, that under suitable
conditions they would be especially subject to the emotion of
reverence. And when we look at their history, and observe the actual
reverence paid by the multitudes to the rulers, and by the
superstitious worshipers to the "Kami" and "Hotoke," it becomes
evident that the apparent irreverence in the Christian churches must
be due to peculiar conditions. Reverence is a subtle feeling; it
depends on the nature of the ideas that possess the mind and heart.
From the very nature of the case, Japanese Christians cannot have the
same set of associations clustering around the church, the service,
the Bible, or any of the Christian institutions, as the Occidental who
has been reared from childhood among them, and who has derived his
spiritual nourishment from them. All the wealth of nineteen centuries
of experience has tended to give our services and our churches special
religious value in our eyes. The average Christian in Japan and in any
heathen land cannot have this fringe of ideas and subtle feelings so
essential to a profound feeling of reverence. But as the significance
of the Christian conception of God, endowed with glory and honor,
majesty and might, is increasingly realized, and as it is found that
the spirit of reverence is one that needs cultivation in worship, and
especially as it is found that the spirit of reverence is important to
high spiritual life and vitalizing spiritual power, more and more will
that spirit be manifested by Japanese Christians. But its possession
or its lack is due not to the inherent character of the people, but
rather to the character of the ideas which possess them. In taking now
a brief glance at the nature and history of the three religions of
Japan it seems desirable to quote freely from the writings of
recognized authorities on the subject.
"_Shinto_, which means literally 'the way of the Gods,' is the name
given to the mythology and vague ancestor-and nature-worship which
preceded the introduction of Buddhism into Japan--Shinto, so often
spoken of as a religion, is hardly entitled to that name. It has no
set of dogmas, no sacred book, no moral code. The absence of a
moral code is accounted for in the writings of modern native
commentators by the innate perfection of Japanese humanity, which
obviates the necessity for such outward props.... It is necessary,
however, to distinguish three periods in the existence of Shinto.
During the first of these--roughly speaking, down to A.D. 550--the
Japanese had no notion of religion as a separate institution. To
pay homage to the gods, that is, to the departed ancestors of the
Imperial family, and to the names of other great men, was a usage
springing from the same soil as that which produced passive
obedience to, and worship of, the living Mikado. Besides this,
there were prayers to the wind-gods, to the god of fire, to the god
of pestilence, to the goddess of food, and to deities presiding
over the sauce-pan, the caldron, the gate, and the kitchen. There
were also purifications for wrongdoing.... But there was not even a
shadowy idea of any code of morals, or any systematization of the
simple notions of the people concerning things unseen. There was
neither heaven nor hell--only a kind of neutral-tinted Hades. Some
of the gods were good and some were bad; nor was the line between
men and gods at all clearly drawn."
The second period of Shinto began with the introduction of Buddhism
into Japan, in which period Shinto became absorbed into Buddhism
through the doctrine that the Shinto deities were ancient incarnations
of Buddhas. In this period Shinto retained no distinctive feature.
"Only at court and at a few great shrines, such as those of Ise and
Idzumo, was a knowledge of Shinto in its native simplicity kept up;
and it is doubtful whether changes did not creep in with the lapse of
ages. Most Shinto temples throughout the country were served by
Buddhist priests, who introduced the architectural ornaments and the
ceremonial of their own religion. Thus was formed the Ryobu Shinto--a
mixed religion founded on a compromise between the old creed and the
new, and hence the tolerant ideas on theological subjects of most of
the middle-lower classes, who worship indifferently at the shrines of
either faith."
The third period began about 1700. It was introduced by the scholarly
study of history. "Soon the movement became religious and
political--above all, patriotic.... The Shogunate was frowned on,
because it had supplanted the autocracy of the heaven-descended
Mikados. Buddhism and Confucianism were sneered at because of their
foreign origin. The great scholars Mabuchi (1697-1769), Motoori
(1730-1801), and Hirata (1776-1843) devoted themselves to a religious
propaganda--if that can be called a religion which sets out from the
principle that the only two things needful are to follow one's natural
impulses and to obey the Mikado. This order triumphed for a moment in
the revolution of 1868." It became for a few months the state
religion, but soon lost its status.[CB]
_Buddhism_ came to Japan from Korea _via_ China in 552 A.D. It was
already a thousand years old and had, before it reached Japan, broken
up into numerous sects and subsects differing widely from each other
and from the original teaching of Sakya Muni. After two centuries of
propagandism it conquered the land and absorbed the religious life of
the people, though Shinto was never entirely suppressed. "All
education was for centuries in Buddhist hands; Buddhism introduced
art, and medicine, molded the folklore 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. As a nation they are
now grossly forgetful of this fact. Ask an educated Japanese a
question about Buddhism, and ten to one he will smile in your face. A
hundred to one that he knows nothing about the subject and glories in
his nescience." "The complicated metaphysics of Buddhism have awakened
no interest in the Japanese nation. Another fact, curious but true, is
that these people have never been at the trouble to translate the
Buddhist canon into their own language. The priests use a Chinese
version, and the laity no version at all, though ... they would seem
to have been given to searching the Scriptures a few hundred years
ago. The Buddhist religion was disestablished and disendowed during
the years 1871-74, a step taken in consequence of the temporary
ascendency of Shinto." Although Confucianism took a strong hold on the
people in the early part of the seventeenth century, yet its influence
was limited to the educated and ruling classes. The vast multitude
still remained Shinto-Buddhists.
As for doctrine, philosophic Buddhism with its dogmas of salvation
through intellectual enlightenment, by means of self-perfecting, with
its goal of absorption into Nirvana, has doubtless been the belief and
aim of the few. But such Buddhism was too deep for the multitudes. "By
the aid of hoben, or pious devices, the priesthood has played into the
hands of popular superstition. Here, as elsewhere, there have been
evolved charms, amulets, pilgrimages, and gorgeous temple services, in
which the people worship not only the Buddha, who was himself an
agnostic, but his disciple, and even such abstractions as Amida, which
are mistaken for actual divine personages."[CC] The deities of Shinto
have been more or less confused with those of popular Buddhism; in
some cases, inextricably so.
_Confucianism_, as known in Japan, was the elaborated doctrine of
Confucius. "He confined himself to practical details of morals and
government, and took submission to parents and political rulers as the
corner stone of his system. The result is a set of moral truths--some
would say truisms--of a very narrow scope, and of dry ceremonial
observances, political rather than personal." "Originally introduced
into Japan early in the Christian era, along with other products of
Chinese civilization, the Confucian philosophy lay dormant during the
middle ages, the period of the supremacy of Buddhism. It awoke with a
start in the early part of the seventeenth century when Iccasu, the
great warrior, ruler, and patron of learning, caused the Confucian
classics to be printed in Japan for the first time. During the two
hundred and fifty years that followed, the intellect of the country
was molded by Confucian ideas. Confucius himself had, it is true,
labored for the establishment of a centralized monarchy. But his main
doctrine of unquestioning submission to rulers and parents fitted in
perfectly with the feudal ideas of Old Japan; and the conviction of
the paramount importance of such subordination lingers on, an element
of stability, in spite of the recent social cataclysm which has
involved Japanese Confucianism, properly so-called, in the ruin of all
other Japanese institutions."[CD]
_Christianity_ was first brought to Japan by Francis Xavier, who
landed in Kagoshima in 1549. His zeal knew no bounds and his results
were amazing. "The converts were drawn from all classes alike.
Noblemen, Buddhist priests, men of learning, embraced the faith with
the same alacrity as did the poor and ignorant.... One hundred and
thirty-eight European missionaries" were then on the field. "Until the
breaking out of the persecution of 1596 the work of evangelization
proceeded apace. The converts numbered ten thousand yearly, though all
were fully aware of the risk to which they exposed themselves by
embracing the Catholic faith." "At the beginning of the seventeenth
century, the Japanese Christians numbered about one million, the fruit
of half a century of apostolic labor accomplished in the midst of
comparative peace. Another half-century of persecution was about to
ruin this flourishing church, to cut off its pastors, more than two
hundred of whom suffered martyrdom, and to leave its laity without the
offices of religion.... The edicts ordering these measures remained in
force for over two centuries." Tens of thousands of Christians
preferred death to perjury. It was supposed that Christianity was
entirely exterminated by the fearful and prolonged persecutions. Yet
in the vicinity of Nagasaki over four thousand Christians were
discovered in 1867, who were again subject to persecution until the
pressure of foreign lands secured religious toleration in Japan.
Protestant Christianity came to Japan with the beginning of the new
era, and has been preached with much zeal and moderate success. For a
time it seemed destined to sweep the land even more astonishingly than
did Romanism in the sixteenth century. But in 1888 an anti-foreign
reaction began in every department of Japanese life and thought which
has put a decided check on the progress of Christian missions.
This must suffice for our historical review of the religious life of
the Japanese. Were we to forget Japan's long and repeated isolations,
and also to ignore fluctuations of belief and of other religious
phenomena in other lands, we might say, as many do, that the Japanese
have inherently shallow and changeable religious convictions. But
remembering these facts, and recalling the persecutions of Buddhists
by each other, of Christianity by the state, and knowing to-day many
earnest, self-sacrificing and persistent Christians, I am convinced
that such a judgment is mistaken. There are other and sufficient
reasons to account for this appearance of changeableness in religion.
I close this chapter with a single observation on the religious
history just outlined. Bearing in mind the great changes that have
come over Japanese religious thinking and forms of religion I ask if
religious phenomena are the expressions of the race nature, as some
maintain, and if this nature is inherent and unchangeable, how are
such profound changes to be accounted for? If the religious character
of the Japanese people is inherent, how is it conceivable that they
should so easily adopt foreign religions, even to the exclusion of
their own native religion, as did those who became Buddhist or
Confucian or Christian? I conclude from these facts, and they are
paralleled in the history of many other peoples, that even religious
characteristics are not dependent on biological, but are wholly
dependent on social evolution. It seems to me capable of the clearest
proof that the religious phenomena of any age are dependent on the
general development of the intellect, on the ruling ideas, and on the
entire conditions of the civilization of the age rather than on brain
structure or essential race nature.
XXVII
SOME RELIGIOUS CONCEPTIONS
The conceptions of the common people in regard to deity are chaotic.
They believe in local spirits who are to be worshiped; some of these
are of human origin, and some antedate all human life. The gods of the
Shinto pantheon are "yaoyorodzu" in number, eight thousand myriads;
yet in their "norito," or prayer rituals, reference is made not only
to the "yaoyorodzu" who live in the air, but also to the "yaoyorodzu"
who live on earth, and even to the "yaoyorodzu" who live beneath the
earth. If we add these together there must be at least twenty-four
thousand myriads of gods. These of course include sun, moon, stars,
and all the forces of nature, as well as the spirits of men. Popular
Buddhism accepts the gods of Shinto and brings in many more,
worshiping not only the Buddha and his immediate "rakan," disciples,
five hundred in number, but numberless abstractions of ideal
qualities, such as the varieties of Kwannon (Avelokitesvara, gods and
goddesses of mercy), Amida (Amitabha, the ideal of boundless light),
Jizo (Kshitigarbha, the helper of those in trouble, lost children, and
pregnant women), Emma O (Yama-raja, ruler of Buddhist hells), Fudo
(Achala, the "immovable," "unchangeable"), and many others. Popular
Buddhism also worships every man dead or living who has become a
"hotoke," that is, has attained Buddhahood and has entered Nirvana.
The gods of Japan are innumerable in theory and multitudinous in
practice. Not only are there gods of goodness but also gods of lust
and of evil, to whom robbers and harlots may pray for success and
blessing.
In the Japanese pantheon there is no supreme god, such, for instance,
as the Roman Jupiter, or the Greek Chronos, nor is there a
thoroughgoing divine hierarchy.
According to the common view (although there is no definite thought
about it), the idea seems to be that the universe with its laws and
nature were already existent before the gods appeared on the scene;
they created specific places, such as Japan, out of already existing
material. Neither in Shinto nor in popular Buddhism is the conception
formed of a primal fount of all being with its nature and laws. In
this respect Japanese thought is like all primitive religious thought.
There is no word in the Japanese language corresponding to the English
term "God." The nearest approach to it are the Confucian terms
"Jo-tei," "Supreme Emperor," "Ten," "Heaven," and "Ten-tei," "Heavenly
Emperor"; but all of these terms are Chinese, they are therefore of
late appearance in Japan, and represent rather conceptions of educated
and Confucian classes than the ideas of the masses. These terms
approach closely to the idea of monotheism; but though the doctrine
may be discovered lying implicit in these words and ideas it was never
developed. Whether "Heaven" was to be conceived as a person, or merely
as fate, was not clearly thought out; some expressions point in one
direction while others point in the other.
I may here call attention to a significant fact in the history of
recent Christian work in Japan. Although the serious-minded Japanese
is first attracted to Christianity by the character of its ethical
thought--so much resembling, also so much surpassing that of
Confucius, it is none the less true that monotheism is another
powerful source of attraction. I have been repeatedly told by
Christians that the first religious satisfaction they ever experienced
was upon their discovery of monotheism. How it affected Dr. Neesima,
readers of his life cannot have overlooked. He is a type of
multitudes. In the earlier days of Christian work many felt that they
had become Christians upon rejection of polytheism and acceptance of
monotheism. And in truth they were so far forth Christian, although
they knew little of Christ, and felt little need of His help as a
personal Saviour. The weakness of the Church in recent years is due in
part, I doubt not, to the acceptance into its membership of numbers
who were, properly speaking, monotheistic, but not in the complete
sense of the term Christian. Their discovery later that more was
needed than the intellectual acceptance of monotheism ere they could
be considered, or even be, truly "Christian," has led many such
"believers" to abandon their relations with the Church. This, while on
many accounts to be regretted, was nevertheless inevitable. The bare
acceptance of the monotheistic idea does not secure that
transformation of heart and produce that warmth of living faith which
are essential elements in the altruistic life demanded of the
Christian.
Nor is it difficult to understand why monotheism has proved such an
attraction to the Japanese when we consider that through it they first
recognized a unity in the universe and even in their own lives.
Nature, and human nature took on an intelligibility which they never
had had under the older philosophy. History likewise was seen to have
a meaning and an order, to say nothing of a purpose, which the
non-Christian faiths did not themselves see and could not give to
their devotees. Furthermore the monotheistic idea furnished a
satisfactory background and explanation for the exact sciences. If
there is but one God, who is the fount and cause of all being, it is
easy to see why the truths of science should be universal and
absolute, rather than local and diverse, as they would be were they
subject to the jurisdiction of various local deities. The universality
of nature's laws was inconceivable under polytheism. Monotheism thus
found a ready access to many minds. Polytheism pure and simple is the
belief of no educated Japanese to-day. He is a monist of some kind or
other. Philosophic Buddhism always was monistic, but not monotheistic.
Thinking Confucianists were also monistic. But neither philosophic
Buddhism nor Confucianism emphasized their monistic elements; they did
not realize the importance to popular thought of monistic conceptions.
But possessing these ideas, and being now in contact with aggressive
Christian monotheism, they are beginning to emphasize this truth.
As Japan has had no adequate conception of God, her conception of man
has been of necessity defective. Indeed, the cause of her inadequate
conception of God is due in large measure to her inadequate conception
of man, which we have seen to be a necessary consequence of the
primitive communal order. Since, however, we have already given
considerable attention to Japan's inadequate conception of man, we
need do no more than refer to it in this connection.
Corresponding to her imperfect doctrines of God and of man is her
doctrine of sin. That the Japanese sense of sin is slight is a fact
generally admitted. This is the universal experience of the
missionary. Many Japanese with whom I have conversed seem to have no
consciousness of it whatever. Indeed, it is a difficult matter to
speak of to the Japanese, not only because of the etiquette involved,
but for the deeper reason of the deficiency of the language. There
exists no term in Japanese which corresponds to the Christian word
"sin." To tell a man he is a sinner without stopping to explain what
one means would be an insult, for he is not conscious of having broken
any of the laws of the land. Yet too much stress must not be laid on
this argument from the language, for the Buddhistic vocabulary
furnishes a number of terms which refer to the crime of transgressing
not the laws of the land, but those of Buddha.