THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN, THEIR INFLUENCES AND EFFECTS
Most persons in this country if they were asked what was the religion
of the Japanese people would probably answer Buddhism. As a matter of
fact, though Buddhism was introduced into Japan from Korea as far back
as 552 A.D., it is not and never has been the preponderating religion
in Japan. At the same time I quite admit that it has had a marked
effect on the religious life of the people, and that it again has been
influenced by the ancient Shinto (literally, "The way of the gods")
belief of the Japanese people. This belief, a compound of mythology
and ancestral worship, was about the first century largely encrusted
by Confucian doctrines or maxims, mostly ethical, imported from China.
Of the precise doctrines of Shintoism but little is even now known. It
has apparently no dogmas and no sacred book. I am aware that there are
the ancient Shinto rituals, called Nurito, and that in reference to
them a vast amount of more or less erudite commentary has been
written. The result, however, has not been very enlightening. I think
that Kaemfer succinctly summed up the Shinto faith in reference to the
Japanese people when he remarked, "The more immediate end which they
propose to themselves is a state of happiness in this world." In
other words, if this assertion be correct, Shintoism preaches
utilitarianism. As to the origin of this religion there is very much
the same uncertainty and quite as large an amount of theorising as is
the case in reference to the Japanese race and language. The most
generally received opinion is that Shintoism is closely allied with,
if not an offshoot of, the old religion of the Chinese people prior to
the days of Confucius. Originally Shinto was in all probability a
natural religion, but, like all religious systems, it has developed or
suffered from accretions until the ancient belief is lost in
obscurity. The author of a now somewhat out-of-date book, entitled
"Progress of Japan," asserts that the religion of the Japanese
consists in a "belief that the productive ethereal spirit being
expanded through the whole universe, every part is in some degree
impregnated with it and therefore every part is in some measure the
seat of the Deity; whence local gods and goddesses are everywhere
worshipped and consequently multiplied without end. Like the ancient
Romans and Greeks they acknowledge a supreme being, the first, the
supreme, the intellectual, by which men have been reclaimed from
rudeness and barbarism to elegance and refinement, and been taught
through privileged men and women not only to live with more comfort
but to die with better hope." Such a religion, however it may be
described, seems to me to be in effect Pantheism.
When Buddhism was introduced into Japan the Buddhist priesthood seems
to have made no difficulty about receiving the native gods into their
Pantheon. Gradually the greater number of the Shinto temples were
served by Buddhist priests who introduced into them the elaborate
ornaments and ritual of Buddhism. The result was a kind of hybrid
religion, the line of demarcation between the ancient and the imported
faith not being very clearly defined. Hence perhaps the religious
tolerance of the Japanese for so many centuries, even to Christianity
when first introduced by St. Francis Xavier. About the beginning of
the eighteenth century there was something akin to a religious
reformation in Japan in the direction of the revival of pure
Shintoism. For a century and a half subsequently Shintoism held up its
head, and eventually, as the outcome of the Revolution of 1868, which
marked a turning-point in the history of Japan, Buddhism was
disestablished and disendowed and Shinto was installed as the State
religion. Simultaneously many thousand of Buddhist temples were
stripped of their magnificent and elaborate ornaments and handed over
to Shinto keeping; but the downfall of Buddhism was merely of a
temporary nature. Nevertheless Shinto is, ostensibly at any rate,
still the State religion. Certain temples are maintained from public
funds and certain official religious functions take place in Shinto
edifices.
Buddhism, acclimatised though it has been in Japan for thirteen
centuries, is still a foreign religion, but it has played, and to some
extent still plays, an important part in the life and history of the
nation, and it has, as I have said, materially influenced the ancient
faith of Japan and in turn been influenced by it. I have no intention
of describing, much less tracing, the history of Buddhism, whether in
Japan or elsewhere. It is a subject on which many writers have
descanted and in regard to which much might still be written. There is
no doubt whatever that Buddhism as it exists to-day, whether in
Ceylon, India, China, or Japan, is widely different from the religion
of its founder. Many of its original doctrines were purely symbolical
and poetical. These have been evolved into something they were
certainly never intended to mean. That the principles of the Buddhist
religion are essentially pure and moral no one who has any knowledge
of it can deny. It preaches above all things the suppression of self,
and it inculcates a tenderness and fondness for all forms of life.
According to Griffis, "Its commandments are the dictates of the most
refined morality. Besides the cardinal prohibitions against murder,
stealing, adultery, lying, drunkenness and unchastity, every shade of
vice, hypocrisy, anger, pride, suspicion, greediness, gossiping,
cruelty to animals is guarded against by special precepts. Among the
virtues recommended we find not only reverence of parents, care of
children, submission to authority, gratitude, moderation in times of
prosperity, submission in times of trial, equanimity at all times, but
virtues such as the duty of forgiving insults and not rewarding evil
with evil." This is a pretty exhaustive moral code, and though
Buddhism has often been taunted with the fact that its followers do
not practically carry out its precepts and live up to the level of its
high moral teaching, Buddhism is not, I would suggest, the only
religion against which such taunts can be levelled.
The history of Buddhism ever since its introduction into Japan has
been an eventful one. It has had its ups and its downs. It came into
the country under royal auspices, it has nearly always enjoyed the
royal favour, and I think its existence, during at any rate the first
few centuries it was in the country, has been due to that fact rather
than to any pronounced affection on the part of the mass of the people
for it. One Emperor, Shirakawa by name, is recorded to have erected
more than 50,000 pagodas and statues throughout the country in honour
of Buddha. Many of these works are still, after many centuries, in an
excellent state of preservation, and are of deep interest not only to
the antiquarian but to any student of the religious history of a
nation. The Buddhist priests, like the Jesuits in European countries,
during many centuries captured and controlled education in Japan and
showed themselves thoroughly progressive in their methods and the
knowledge they inculcated. Art and medicine were introduced under
their auspices and, whatever one may think of, or whatever criticism
may be passed on the religion itself, it is impossible, in my opinion,
to deny that Buddhism on the whole has had a vast and, I venture to
think, not an unhealthy influence on every phase of Japanese national
and domestic life. The strength and weakness of Buddhism have
undoubtedly lain in the fact that it possessed and possesses no
dogmatic creed. It concerned itself almost entirely with self-mastery,
self-suppression, the duty of doing good in this world without looking
forward to any reward for the same in the next. It preached
benevolence in the true meaning of that word in every shape and form.
It taught that benevolence was the highest aspiration of a noble
spirit. Benevolence was, indeed, the master virtue, the crown, the
coping stone, of all virtues. As the term is used in Buddhist
teaching, it may be regarded as the synonym of love and a close study
of the teaching of Buddhism on this subject must impress any thinking
man strongly with the idea that it was very much the teaching of
Christ in reference to the love of one's neighbour. Buddhism in Japan
at any rate has not been conservative; it has gone the way of most
religious systems, has been subject to development and has evolved
from time to time different sects, some of which have held and
preached dogmas which would, I think, have astounded, and I feel
certain would have been anathematised by, the founder of Buddhism. The
principal of the sects now existing in Japan are the Tendai, Shingon
Yoko and Ken, all of which, I may observe, are of Chinese origin.
Besides these there are the Shin and the Nichiren evolved in Japan and
dating from the thirteenth century. Respecting the metaphysics of
Buddhism and their effect on the Japanese people I cannot, I think, do
better than quote from that great authority on all things Japanese,
Mr. Basil Hall Chamberlain, whose writings have done so much, not only
to awaken an interest in Japan but to give correct ideas respecting
the life of the people. He remarks, in this connection, "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, the laity no
version at all nowadays, though to judge from the allusions scattered
up and down Japanese literature they would seem to have been more
given to searching the Scriptures a few hundred years ago. The
Buddhist religion was disestablished and disendowed during the years
1871-4--a step taken in consequence of the temporary ascendency of
Shinto. At the present time a faint struggle is being carried on by
the Buddhist priesthood against rivals in comparison with whom Shinto
is insignificant: we mean the two great streams of European
thought--Christianity and physical science. A few--a very few--men
trained in European methods fight for the Buddhist cause. They do so,
not as orthodox believers in any existing sect, but because they are
convinced that the philosophical contents of Buddhism in general are
supported by the doctrine of evolution, and that this religion needs
therefore only to be regenerated on modern lines in order to find
universal acceptance."
The "Reformation" of 1868 in Japan followed much the same course in
regard to religious matters as the Reformation in England. It laid
vandal hands on Buddhist temples and ornaments of priceless value. The
objective point of this religious Reformation was presumably very much
the same as that which occurred in this country, viz., a reversion to
simplicity in religion. The Shinto Temple which is invariably thatched
is a development of the ancient Japanese hut, whereas the Buddhist
Temple, which is of Indian origin, is tiled, and as regards its
internal fittings and ornamentation is elaborate in comparison with
the plain appearance of the Shinto edifice.
So far as the Japan of to-day is concerned these two religions may be
regarded as moribund, although their temples are still thronged by the
lower classes of the people. They exist because they are there, but
they have no vitality, no message for the people, and it is
questionable whether any of Japan's great thinkers or the educated
classes in the country, whichever religion they may nominally belong
to, have faith or belief in it. A man may have, or for sundry reasons
profess, a creed in Japan as in other countries without believing in
it. Custom and prejudices are as strong there as elsewhere, and it is
often easier to appear to acquiesce in a religion than to openly
reject it.
There are, I know, some optimistic persons who believe, or affect to
believe, that Christianity is in due course destined to replace the
ancient faiths in Japan. They point to what was effected by St.
Francis Xavier in the sixteenth century, and they imagine that the
Japan of the twentieth century is only waiting to finally unshackle
itself from Shintoism and Buddhism before arraying itself in the garb
of Christianity. Well, Christian missions have had a fair field in
Japan for many years past, and though many members of those missions
have been men of great piety, zeal, and learning, they have made
comparatively little headway among and have exercised extremely little
influence on the mass of the Japanese people. Indeed, the fair field
that all Christian missions without distinction have had, in my
opinion, accounts for the small amount of progress they have made.
Because all the leading Christian denominations are there--Roman
Catholicism, Church of England, Greek Church, Congregationalists,
Methodists, Baptists, Salvation Army, Society of Friends, and
others--all preaching and proclaiming their own particular dogmas and
all lumped together by the Japanese under the generic title of
Christians. The Japanese may, I think, be excused if he fails to
differentiate between them. He views and hears their differences in
dogma. He observes that there is no bond of union, and frequently
considerable jealousy among these numerous sects. Each claims to
preach the truth, and the Japanese concludes that as they cannot all
be right they may possibly all be wrong. It is only on this assumption
that it is possible to account for the little headway made by
Christianity in Japan in view of the labour and money devoted by
different religious bodies to its propagation for many years past.
There is, let me add, no marked hostility to Christianity in
Japan--only indifference. The educated Japanese of to-day is, I
believe, for the most part an agnostic, and he views Shintoism,
Buddhism, Christianity alike, except in so far as he regards the first
two as more or less national and the last as an exotic.
At the commencement of the seventeenth century the Japanese
Christians are stated to have amounted in numbers to one million. At
the present time it is doubtful if they total up to one hundred
thousand. And this despite the splendid religious organisations that
exist, the facilities that are given for the propagation of the
Christian faith, and the opportunities which were certainly not in
existence three hundred years ago. Into the causes of this comparative
failure of Christianity in Japan to-day as compared with its
marvellous progress in the sixteenth century, I do not propose to
enter. The enthusiasm of a Francis Xavier is not an everyday event,
and the Japanese of the sixteenth century was, mayhap, more impressed
by the missionaries of those days, arriving in flimsy and diminutive
vessels after undergoing the perils and hardships of long voyages,
having neither purse nor scrip nor wearing apparel except what they
stood up in, than he is by the modern missionary arriving as a
first-class passenger in a magnificent steamer and during his
residence in the country lacking none of the comforts or amenities of
life. Or it may be that the Japanese mind has advanced and developed
during the past three centuries, has now less hankering after
metaphysical subtleties, and fails to comprehend or to sympathise with
abstruse theological dogmas and doctrines. If Christianity appealed to
him as in the days of Francis Xavier as the one faith professed by the
Western world, it would probably impress him to a far greater extent
than it does at present when, as I have before said, he views
Christianity as a disorganised body composed of hundreds of sects each
rejecting, and many of them anathematising, what the others teach. He
considers there is no need for investigation until Christianity has
itself determined what is the precise truth that non-Christian
countries are to be asked to accept.
Regarding the influence of the Buddhist and Shinto religions during
the many centuries they have existed in the country on the lives of
the people, I propose to make a few remarks. Too often one hears or
reads of speakers and writers describing Japan as a country steeped in
paganism and addicted to pagan habits and customs with all (somewhat
indefinite this!) that they involve. To describe Buddhism as paganism
merely shows a lamentable amount of ignorance; nor should I be
inclined to include Shintoism in a term which, whatever its precise
meaning, is invariably intended to be opprobrious! After all, any
religion must be largely judged by its effects on the lives of its
adherents, and judged by that standard I do not think, as regards the
Japanese, either Buddhism or Shintoism ought to be sweepingly
condemned. If many of the customs and practices of both religions seem
silly or absurd; if either or both inculcate or lead to superstition,
it can at least be said of both that they teach a high moral code, and
that the average Japanese in his life, his family relations, his
philosophy, his patriotism, his bodily cleanliness, and in many other
respects, offers an example to other nations which deem themselves
more highly civilised, which possess a purer religion and too often,
with that lack of charity which is frequently the result of an excess
of ignorance, unsparingly condemn the Japanese as "pagans" or
"heathens."
[Illustration: A CHERRY BLOSSOM PARTY
FROM A PRINT BY HIROSHIGE]