LATER HISTORY
Buddhism was introduced into Japan in the sixth century, but it had
at first little influence on the native religion. Two centuries
later a process of pacific penetration began which had some curious
and important results. The missionaries of Buddhism applied to the
Shinto gods a principle which had been already adopted in China.
They discovered that whether Nature-gods or Man-gods they were
nothing more than avatars or incarnations of the various Buddhas. The
Sun-goddess, for example, was made out to be Vairochana, the Buddhist
personification of essential _bodhi_ (enlightenment) and absolute
purity; and deified men received the Buddhist titles of _Gongen_
(avatar) or _Bosatsu_ (saint). Iyeyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa
dynasty of Shoguns, is the Gongen-sama _par excellence_.
=Ryôbu Shinto=, which was in practice little more than a form of
Buddhism, was the result of this process. Its principal founder was
the famous Kōbō Daishi. At a later time other similar schools or sects
were originated which drew their inspiration from Chinese philosophy
or from Buddhism. Under these influences the true Shinto was much
neglected. The Mikados themselves, after a few years of reign, shaved
their heads and became Buddhist monks. One of them called himself a
slave of Buddha. The greater Shinto ceremonies were omitted, or worse
still, were performed by Buddhist monks, who also took possession of
many of the Shinto shrines and celebrated Buddhist rites there.
It should not be forgotten that the foreign religion contained valuable
elements unknown to the older Shinto, and that the latter had much to
gain by their absorption. The Ryōbu Shinto inculcated uprightness,
purity of heart, charity to the poor, humanity, and the vanity of mere
outward forms of worship; of all which there is little trace in the
older cult.
=Chinese Learning.=—The civilisation of Japan during the Tokugawa
dynasty of Shōguns (1603-1868) was modelled on Chinese originals.
Its moral ideals were drawn from the writings of the ancient sages
Confucius and Mencius, and the sceptical philosophy of the Sung
dynasty (960-1278). But in the eighteenth century a patriotic reaction
set in, which strove to establish more purely national standards of
ethics and principles of government and religion. This movement, known
as the ‘Revival of Pure Shinto,’ was first revealed to Europeans by a
paper contributed by Sir E. Satow to the _Transactions of the Asiatic
Society of Japan_ in 1875. The principal promoters were Motoöri and
his pupil Hirata, two earnest, able, and stupendously learned writers
who devoted their lives to an endeavour by oral teaching and in a
series of voluminous works to the dethronement of the established
Chinese ethics and philosophy in favour of a Shinto purified from
Buddhist and other foreign adulterations of later times. They succeeded
to some extent in this object. It was no doubt partially owing to
their teachings that the Mikado was restored in 1868 to his sovereign
position as the descendant of the Sun-goddess, the Shinto shrines
purified from Buddhist ornaments and practices, and the monks expelled
from them. In reality Motoöri and Hirata’s movement was a retrograde
one. The old Shinto, which they wished to restore, could not possibly
hold its own as the national faith of a people familiar with the
far higher religious and moral ideas of India and China, not to
speak of civilised Europe. Without a code of morals, or an efficient
ecclesiastical organisation, with little aid from the arts of painting,
sculpture, and architecture, and with a sacred literature scanty and
feeble compared with those of its foreign rivals, Shinto is doomed
to extinction. Whatever the religious future of Japan may be, Shinto
will assuredly have little place in it. Such meat for babes is quite
inadequate as the spiritual food of a nation which in these latter days
has reached a full and vigorous manhood.
SELECTED WORKS BEARING ON SHINTO
1. _History of Japan_, by Engelbert Kaempfer, 1727-1728. Worthless for
Shinto.
2. _Nippon Archif._, 1897 (new edition), by P. F. von Siebold. Good
when first published, but superseded by later works, in so far as
Shinto is concerned.
3. _Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan._
(_a_) A series of papers on ‘The Revival of Pure Shinto’ and ‘Ancient
Japanese Rituals,’ by Sir Ernest Satow. 1874-81. The serious student
may safely neglect all that precedes these epoch-making articles.
(_b_) The _Kojiki_, translated by B. H. Chamberlain, 1883. Accurate,
indispensable for myth.
(_c_) _Ancient Japanese Rituals._ The _Ohoharahi_, with translation
and notes by Dr. Karl Florenz, 1899. Valuable.
4. _Transactions of the Japan Society._ the _Nihongi_, Translated By
W. G. Aston, 1896. Similar in Scope To The _Kojiki_.
5. _Japan, an Appreciation_, by Lafcadio Hearn, 1904. Sympathetic
insight, admirable style, blind acceptance of H. Spencer’s philosophy,
imperfect knowledge. His outlook is seen at its best in the recently
published _Life and Letters_ (Constable, 1907).
6. _The Mikado’s Empire_, by W. E. Griffis. Useful for some aspects of
modern Shinto, and the Folk-lore associated with it.
7. _The Religions of Japan_, by W. E. Griffis, 1895. Shows the
relations of Shinto to Buddhism and Confucianism.
8. _The Development of Religion in Japan._ Lectures by G. W. Knox,
1907. Judicious and up-to-date.
9. _German Asiatic Society of Japan. Japanische Mythologie_, by Dr.
Karl Florenz. 1901. A good German translation of the mythological part
of the _Nihongi_, with useful notes.
10. _Japan and China_, by Captain Brinkley. 1903. Throws light on some
aspects of modern Shinto.
11. _Murray’s Japan_, by B. H. Chamberlain and W. B. Mason. 7 ed. 1903.
12. _Things Japanese_, by B. H. Chamberlain. 5 ed. 1905.
13. _Shintoisme_, by M. Revon, in the _Revue de l’Histoire des
Religions_, 1905-1907. Highly recommended for its up-to-date theory,
and as a comprehensive collection of facts.
14. _Shinto_, by W. G. Aston, 1905. Of similar scope to the present
work, but more comprehensive.
15. _Ancestor Worship and Japanese Law_, by Nobushige Hodzumi. 1901.
16. _A Fantasy of Far Japan_, by Baron Suyematsu. 1905. These two
works represent the attitude of modern Japanese towards the old Shinto.
17. A _Bibliography of the Japanese Empire_ (1895). Gives a classified
list of books, essays, and maps in European languages relating to
Japan. Tolerably comprehensive, but inaccurate.
Printed in Great Britain by T. and A. CONSTABLE LTD. at the Edinburgh
University Press
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation, accents, spelling and punctuation remain unchanged.
Italics are represented thus _italic_, bold thus =bold=.