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author of a now somewhat out-of-date book, entitled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.”