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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5979.txt b/5979.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3add4bd --- /dev/null +++ b/5979.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12672 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation, by Lafcadio Hearn +#3 in our series by Lafcadio Hearn + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation + +Author: Lafcadio Hearn + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5979] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 5, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPAN *** + + + + + + + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: Page numbers are retained in square brackets.] + + + + + + +JAPAN +AN ATTEMPT AT INTERPRETATION + +BY LAFCADIO HEARN + + + +1904 + + + +Contents + +CHAPTER PAGE + + +I. DIFFICULTIES.........................1 + +II. STRANGENESS AND CHARM................5 + +III. THE ANCIENT CULT....................21 + +IV. THE RELIGION OF THE HOME............33 + +V. THE JAPANESE FAMILY.................55 + +VI. THE COMMUNAL CULT...................81 + +VII. DEVELOPMENTS OF SHINTO.............107 + +VIII. WORSHIP AND PURIFICATION...........133 + +IX. THE RULE OF THE DEAD...............157 + +X. THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM.......183 + +XI. THE HIGHER BUDDHISM................207 + +XII. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION............229 + +XIII. THE RISE OF THE MILITARY POWER.....259 + +XIV. THE RELIGION OF LOYALTY............283 + +XV. THE JESUIT PERIL...................303 + +XVI. FEUDAL INTEGRATION.................343 + +XVII. THE SHINTO REVIVAL.................367 + +XVIII. SURVIVALS..........................381 + +XIX. MODERN RESTRAINTS..................395 + +XX. OFFICIAL EDUCATION.................419 + +XXI. INDUSTRIAL DANGER..................443 + +XXII. REFLECTIONS........................457 + + APPENDIX...........................481 + + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES..............487 + + INDEX..............................489 + + + + + + +"Perhaps all very marked national characters can be traced back +to a time of rigid and pervading discipline"--WALTER BAGEHOT. + + + + +[1] +DIFFICULTIES + +A thousand books have been written about Japan; but among +these,--setting aside artistic publications and works of a purely +special character,--the really precious volumes will be found to +number scarcely a score. This fact is due to the immense difficulty +of perceiving and comprehending what underlies the surface of +Japanese life. No work fully interpreting that life,--no work +picturing Japan within and without, historically and socially, +psychologically and ethically,--can be written for at least another +fifty years. So vast and intricate the subject that the united labour +of a generation of scholars could not exhaust it, and so difficult +that the number of scholars willing to devote their time to it must +always be small. Even among the Japanese themselves, no scientific +knowledge of their own history is yet possible; because the means of +obtaining that knowledge have not yet been prepared,--though +mountains of material have been collected. The want of any good +history upon a modern plan is but one of many discouraging wants. +Data for the study of sociology [2] are still inaccessible to the +Western investigator. The early state of the family and the clan; the +history of the differentiation of classes; the history of the +differentiation of political from religious law; the history of +restraints, and of their influence upon custom; the history of +regulative and cooperative conditions in the development of industry; +the history of ethics and aesthetics,--all these and many other +matters remain obscure. + +This essay of mine can serve in one direction only as a contribution +to the Western knowledge of Japan. But this direction is not one of +the least important. Hitherto the subject of Japanese religion has +been written of chiefly by the sworn enemies of that religion: by +others it has been almost entirely ignored. Yet while it continues to +be ignored and misrepresented, no real knowledge of Japan is +possible. Any true comprehension of social conditions requires more +than a superficial acquaintance with religious conditions. Even the +industrial history of a people cannot be understood without some +knowledge of those religious traditions and customs which regulate +industrial life during the earlier stages of its development .... Or +take the subject of art. Art in Japan is so intimately associated +with religion that any attempt to study it without extensive +knowledge of the [3] beliefs which it reflects, were mere waste of +time. By art I do not mean only painting and sculpture, but every +kind of decoration, and most kinds of pictorial representation,--the +image on a boy's kite or a girl's battledore, not less than the +design upon a lacquered casket or enamelled vase,--the figures upon a +workman's towel not less than the pattern of the girdle of a +princess,--the shape of the paper-dog or the wooden rattle bought for +a baby, not less than the forms of those colossal Ni-O who guard the +gateways of Buddhist temples .... And surely there can never be any +just estimate made of Japanese literature, until a study of that +literature shall have been made by some scholar, not only able to +understand Japanese beliefs, but able also to sympathize with them to +at least the same extent that our great humanists can sympathize with +the religion of Euripides, of Pindar, and of Theocritus. Let us ask +ourselves how much of English or French or German or Italian +literature could be fully understood without the slightest knowledge +of the ancient and modern religions of the Occident. I do not refer +to distinctly religious creators,--to poets like Milton or +Dante,--but only to the fact that even one of Shakespeare's plays +must remain incomprehensible to a person knowing nothing either of +Christian beliefs or of the beliefs which preceded them. The real +mastery of any European tongue is impossible [4] without a knowledge +of European religion. The language of even the unlettered is full of +religious meaning: the proverbs and household-phrases of the poor, +the songs of the street, the speech of the workshop,--all are infused +with significations unimaginable by any one ignorant of the faith of +the people. Nobody knows this better than a man who has passed many +years in trying to teach English in Japan, to pupils whose faith is +utterly unlike our own, and whose ethics have been shaped by a +totally different social experience. + + + +[5] + +STRANGENESS AND CHARM + +The majority of the first impressions of Japan recorded by travellers +are pleasurable impressions. Indeed, there must be something lacking, +or something very harsh, in the nature to which Japan can make no +emotional appeal. The appeal itself is the clue to a problem; and +that problem is the character of a race and of its civilization. + +My own first impressions of Japan,--Japan as seen in the white +sunshine of a perfect spring day,--had doubtless much in common with +the average of such experiences. I remember especially the wonder and +the delight of the vision. The wonder and the delight have never +passed away: they are often revived for me even now, by some chance +happening, after fourteen years of sojourn. But the reason of these +feelings was difficult to learn,--or at least to guess; for I cannot +yet claim to know much about Japan .... Long ago the best and dearest +Japanese friend I ever had said to me, a little before his death: +"When you find, in four or five years more, that you cannot +understand the Japanese at [6] all, then you will begin to know +something about them." After having realized the truth of my friend's +prediction,--after having discovered that I cannot understand the +Japanese at all,--I feel better qualified to attempt this essay. + +As first perceived, the outward strangeness of things in Japan +produces (in certain minds, at least) a queer thrill impossible to +describe,--a feeling of weirdness which comes to us only with the +perception of the totally unfamiliar. You find yourself moving +through queer small streets full of odd small people, wearing robes +and sandals of extraordinary shapes; and you can scarcely distinguish +the sexes at sight. The houses are constructed and furnished in ways +alien to all your experience; and you are astonished to find that you +cannot conceive the use or meaning of numberless things on display in +the shops. Food-stuffs of unimaginable derivation; utensils of +enigmatic forms; emblems incomprehensible of some mysterious belief; +strange masks and toys that commemorate legends of gods or demons; +odd figures, too, of the gods themselves, with monstrous ears and +smiling faces,--all these you may perceive as you wander about; +though you must also notice telegraph-poles and type-writers, +electric lamps and sewing machines. Everywhere on signs and hangings, +and on the backs of people passing by, you will observe wonderful +Chinese [7] characters; and the wizardry of all these texts makes the +dominant tone of the spectacle. + +Further acquaintance with this fantastic world will in nowise +diminish the sense of strangeness evoked by the first vision of it. +You will soon observe that even the physical actions of the people +are unfamiliar,--that their work is done in ways the opposite of +Western ways. Tools are of surprising shapes, and are handled after +surprising methods: the blacksmith squats at his anvil, wielding a +hammer such as no Western smith could use without long practice; the +carpenter pulls, instead of pushing, his extraordinary plane and saw. +Always the left is the right side, and the right side the wrong; and +keys must be turned, to open or close a lock, in what we are +accustomed to think the wrong direction. Mr. Percival Lowell has +truthfully observed that the Japanese speak backwards, read +backwards, write backwards,--and that this is "only the abc of their +contrariety." For the habit of writing backwards there are obvious +evolutional reasons; and the requirements of Japanese calligraphy +sufficiently explain why the artist pushes his brush or pencil +instead of pulling it. But why, instead of putting the thread through +the eye of the needle, should the Japanese maiden slip the eye of the +needle over the point of the thread? Perhaps the most remarkable, out +of a hundred possible examples of antipodal action, is furnished by +the Japanese art of fencing. The [8] swordsman, delivering his blow +with both hands, does not pull the blade towards him in the moment of +striking, but pushes it from him. He uses it, indeed, as other +Asiatics do, not on the principle of the wedge, but of the saw; yet +there is a pushing motion where we should expect a pulling motion in +the stroke .... These and other forms of unfamiliar action are +strange enough to suggest the notion of a humanity even physically as +little related to us as might be the population of another +planet,--the notion of some anatomical unlikeness. No such +unlikeness, however, appears to exist; and all this oppositeness +probably implies, not so much the outcome of a human experience +entirely independent of Aryan experience, as the outcome of an +experience evolutionally younger than our own. + +Yet that experience has been one of no mean order. Its +manifestations do not merely startle: they also delight. The delicate +perfection of workmanship, the light strength and grace of objects, +the power manifest to obtain the best results with the least +material, the achieving of mechanical ends by the simplest possible +means, the comprehension of irregularity as aesthetic value, the +shapeliness and perfect taste of everything, the sense displayed of +harmony in tints or colours,--all this must convince you at once that +our Occident has much to learn from this remote civilization, not +only in matters of art and taste, but in matters likewise of [9] +economy and utility. It is no barbarian fancy that appeals to you in +those amazing porcelains, those astonishing embroideries, those +wonders of lacquer and ivory and bronze, which educate imagination in +unfamiliar ways. No: these are the products of a civilization which +became, within its own limits, so exquisite that none but an artist +is capable of judging its manufactures,--a civilization that can be +termed imperfect only by those who would also term imperfect the +Greek civilization of three thousand years ago. + +But the underlying strangeness of this world,--the psychological +strangeness,--is much more startling than the visible and +superficial. You begin to suspect the range of it after having +discovered that no adult Occidental can perfectly master the +language. East and West the fundamental parts of human nature--the +emotional bases of it--are much the same: the mental difference +between a Japanese and a European child is mainly potential. But with +growth the difference rapidly develops and widens, till it becomes, +in adult life, inexpressible. The whole of the Japanese mental +superstructure evolves into forms having nothing in common with +Western psychological development: the expression of thought becomes +regulated, and the expression of emotion inhibited in ways that +bewilder and astound. The ideas of this people are not our [10] +ideas; their sentiments are not our sentiments their ethical life +represents for us regions of thought and emotion yet unexplored, or +perhaps long forgotten. Any one of their ordinary phrases, translated +into Western speech, makes hopeless nonsense; and the literal +rendering into Japanese of the simplest English sentence would +scarcely be comprehended by any Japanese who had never studied a +European tongue. Could you learn all the words in a Japanese +dictionary, your acquisition would not help you in the least to make +yourself understood in speaking, unless you had learned also to think +like a Japanese,--that is to say, to think backwards, to think +upside-down and inside-out, to think in directions totally foreign to +Aryan habit. Experience in the acquisition of European languages can +help you to learn Japanese about as much as it could help you to +acquire the language spoken by the inhabitants of Mars. To be able to +use the Japanese tongue as a Japanese uses it, one would need to be +born again, and to have one's mind completely reconstructed, from the +foundation upwards. It is possible that a person of European +parentage, born in Japan, and accustomed from infancy to use the +vernacular, might retain in after-life that instinctive knowledge +which could alone enable him to adapt his mental relations to the +relations of any Japanese environment. There is actually an +Englishman named Black, born in Japan, whose proficiency [11] in the +language is proved by the fact that he is able to earn a fair income +as a professional storyteller (hanashika). But this is an +extraordinary case .... As for the literary language, I need only +observe that to make acquaintance with it requires very much more +than a knowledge of several thousand Chinese characters. It is safe +to say that no Occidental can undertake to render at sight any +literary text laid before him--indeed the number of native scholars +able to do so is very small;--and although the learning displayed in +this direction by various Europeans may justly compel our admiration, +the work of none could have been given to the world without Japanese +help. + +But as the outward strangeness of Japan proves to be full of beauty, +so the inward strangeness appears to have its charm,--an ethical +charm reflected in the common life of the people. The attractive +aspects of that life do not indeed imply, to the ordinary observer, a +psychological differentiation measurable by scores of centuries: only +a scientific mind, like that of Mr. Percival Lowell, immediately +perceives the problem presented. The less gifted stranger, if +naturally sympathetic, is merely pleased and puzzled, and tries to +explain, by his own experience of happy life on the other side of the +world, the social conditions that charm him. Let us suppose that he +has the good fortune of being able to [12] live for six months or a +year in some old-fashioned town of the interior. From the beginning +of this sojourn he can scarcely fail to be impressed by the apparent +kindliness and joyousness of the existence about him. In the +relations of the people to each other, as well as in all their +relations to himself, he will find a constant amenity, a tact, a +good-nature such as he will elsewhere have met with only in the +friendship of exclusive circles. Everybody greets everybody with +happy looks and pleasant words; faces are always smiling; the +commonest incidents of everyday life are transfigured by a courtesy +at once so artless and so faultless that it appears to spring +directly from the heart, without any teaching. Under all +circumstances a certain outward cheerfulness never falls: no matter +what troubles may come,--storm or fire, flood or earthquake,--the +laughter of greeting voices, the bright smile and graceful bow, the +kindly inquiry and the wish to please, continue to make existence +beautiful. Religion brings no gloom into this sunshine: before the +Buddhas and the gods folk smile as they pray; the temple-courts are +playgrounds for the children; and within the enclosure of the great +public shrines--which are places of festivity rather than of +solemnity--dancing-platforms are erected. Family existence would seem +to be everywhere characterized by gentleness: there is no visible +quarrelling, no loud harshness, no tears and reproaches. Cruelty, +even [13] to animals, appears to be unknown: one sees farmers, coming +to town, trudging patiently beside their horses or oxen, aiding their +dumb companions to bear the burden, and using no whips or goads. +Drivers or pullers of carts will turn out of their way, under the +most provoking circumstances, rather than overrun a lazy dog or a +stupid chicken .... For no inconsiderable time one may live in the +midst of appearances like these, and perceive nothing to spoil the +pleasure of the experience. + +Of course the conditions of which I speak are now passing away; but +they are still to be found in the remoter districts. I have lived in +districts where no case of theft had occurred for hundreds of +years,--where the newly-built prisons of Meiji remained empty and +useless,--where the people left their doors unfastened by night as +well as by day. These facts are familiar to every Japanese. In such a +district, you might recognize that the kindness shown to you, as a +stranger, is the consequence of official command; but how explain the +goodness of the people to each other? When you discover no harshness, +no rudeness, no dishonesty, no breaking of laws, and learn that this +social condition has been the same for centuries, you are tempted to +believe that you have entered into the domain of a morally superior +humanity. All this soft urbanity, impeccable honesty, ingenuous +kindliness of speech and act, you might naturally interpret [14] as +conduct directed by perfect goodness of heart. And the simplicity +that delights you is no simplicity of barbarism. Here every one has +been taught; every one knows how to write and speak beautifully, how +to compose poetry, how to behave politely; there is everywhere +cleanliness and good taste; interiors are bright and pure; the daily +use of the hot bath is universal. How refuse to be charmed by a +civilization in which every relation appears to be governed by +altruism, every action directed by duty, and every object shaped by +art? You cannot help being delighted by such conditions, or feeling +indignant at hearing them denounced as "heathen." And according to +the degree of altruism within yourself, these good folk will be able, +without any apparent effort, to make you happy. The mere sensation of +the milieu is a placid happiness: it is like the sensation of a dream +in which people greet us exactly as we like to be greeted, and say to +us all that we like to hear, and do for us all that we wish to have +done,--people moving soundlessly through spaces of perfect repose, +all bathed in vapoury light. Yes--for no little time these fairy-folk +can give you all the soft bliss of sleep. But sooner or later, if you +dwell long with them, your contentment will prove to have much in +common with the happiness of dreams. You will never forget the +dream,--never; but it will lift at last, like those vapours of spring +which lend preternatural [15] loveliness to a Japanese landscape in +the forenoon of radiant days. Really you are happy because you have +entered bodily into Fairyland,--into a world that is not, and never +could be your own. You have been transported out of your own +century--over spaces enormous of perished time--into an era +forgotten, into a vanished age,--back to something ancient as Egypt +or Nineveh. That is the secret of the strangeness and beauty of +things,--the secret of the thrill they give,--the secret of the +elfish charm of the people and their ways. Fortunate mortal! the tide +of Time has turned for you! But remember that here all is +enchantment,--that you have fallen under the spell of the dead,--that +the lights and the colours and the voices must fade away at last into +emptiness and silence. + + * * * * * * + +Some of us, at least, have often wished that it were possible to live +for a season in the beautiful vanished world of Greek culture. +Inspired by our first acquaintance with the charm of Greek art and +thought, this wish comes to us even before we are capable of +imagining the true conditions of the antique civilization. If the +wish could be realized, we should certainly find it impossible to +accommodate ourselves to those conditions,--not so much because of +the difficulty of learning the environment, as because of the much +greater difficulty of feeling just as people used to feel some thirty +centuries [16] ago. In spite of all that has been done for Greek +studies since the Renaissance, we are still unable to understand many +aspects of the old Greek life: no modern mind can really feel, for +example, those sentiments and emotions to which the great tragedy of +Oedipus made appeal. Nevertheless we are much in advance of our +forefathers of the eighteenth century, as regards the knowledge of +Greek civilization. In the time of the French revolution, it was +thought possible to reestablish in France the conditions of a Greek +republic, and to educate children according to the system of Sparta. +To-day we are well aware that no mind developed by modern +civilization could find happiness under any of those socialistic +despotisms which existed in all the cities of the ancient world +before the Roman conquest. We could no more mingle with the old Greek +life, if it were resurrected for us,--no more become a part of +it,--than we could change our mental identities. But how much would +we not give for the delight of beholding it,--for the joy of +attending one festival in Corinth, or of witnessing the Pan-Hellenic +games? ... And yet, to witness the revival of some perished Greek +civilization,--to walk about the very Crotona of Pythagoras,--to +wander through the Syracuse of Theocritus,--were not any more of a +privilege than is the opportunity actually afforded us to study +Japanese life. Indeed, from the evolutional [17] point of view, it +were less of a privilege,--since Japan offers us the living spectacle +of conditions older, and psychologically much farther away from us, +than those of any Greek period with which art and literature have +made us closely acquainted. + +The reader scarcely needs to be reminded that a civilization less +evolved than our own, and intellectually remote from us, is not on +that account to be regarded as necessarily inferior in all respects. +Hellenic civilization at its best represented an early stage of +sociological evolution; yet the arts which it developed still furnish +our supreme and unapproachable ideals of beauty. So, too, this much +more archaic civilization of Old Japan attained an average of +aesthetic and moral culture well worthy of our wonder and praise. +Only a shallow mind--a very shallow mind--will pronounce the best of +that culture inferior. But Japanese civilization is peculiar to a +degree for which there is perhaps no Western parallel, since it +offers us the spectacle of many successive layers of alien culture +superimposed above the simple indigenous basis, and forming a very +bewilderment of complexity. Most of this alien culture is Chinese, +and bears but an indirect relation to the real subject of these +studies. The peculiar and surprising fact is that, in spite of all +superimposition, the original character of the people and of their +society should still remain recognizable. [18] The wonder of Japan is +not to be sought in the countless borrowings with which she has +clothed herself,--much as a princess of the olden time would don +twelve ceremonial robes, of divers colours and qualities, folded one +upon the other so as to show their many-tinted edges at throat and +sleeves and skirt;--no, the real wonder is the Wearer. For the +interest of the costume is much less in its beauty of form and tint +than in its significance as idea,--as representing something of the +mind that devised or adopted it. And the supreme interest of the +old--Japanese civilization lies in what it expresses of the +race-character,--that character which yet remains essentially +unchanged by all the changes of Meiji. + +"Suggests" were perhaps a better word than "expresses," for this +race-character is rather to be divined than recognized. Our +comprehension of it might be helped by some definite knowledge of +origins; but such knowledge we do not yet possess. Ethnologists are +agreed that the Japanese race has been formed by a mingling of +peoples, and that the dominant element is Mongolian; but this +dominant element is represented in two very different types,--one +slender and almost feminine of aspect; the other, squat and powerful. +Chinese and Korean elements are known to exist in the populations of +certain districts; and, there appears to have been a large infusion +of Aino blood. Whether there be [19] any Malay or Polynesian element +also has not been decided. Thus much only can be safely +affirmed,--that the race, like all good races, is a mixed one; and +that the peoples who originally united to form it have been so +blended together as to develop, under long social discipline, a +tolerably uniform type of character. This character, though +immediately recognizable in some of Its aspects, presents us with +many enigmas that are very difficult to explain. + +Nevertheless, to understand it better has become a matter of +importance. Japan has entered into the world's competitive struggle; +and the worth of any people in that struggle depends upon character +quite as much as upon force. We can learn something about Japanese +character if we are able to ascertain the nature of the conditions +which shaped it,--the great general facts of the moral experience of +the race. And these facts we should find expressed or suggested in +the history of the national beliefs, and in the history of those +social institutions derived from and developed by religion. + + + +[20] + +[21] + +THE ANCIENT CULT + +The real religion of Japan, the religion still professed in one form +or other, by the entire nation, is that cult which has been the +foundation of all civilized religion, and of all civilized +society,--Ancestor-worship. In the course of thousands of years this +original cult has undergone modifications, and has assumed various +shapes; but everywhere in Japan its fundamental character remains +unchanged. Without including the different Buddhist forms of +ancestor-worship, we find three distinct rites of purely Japanese +origin, subsequently modified to some degree by Chinese influence and +ceremonial. These Japanese forms of the cult are all classed together +under the name of "Shinto," which signifies, "The Way of the Gods." +It is not an ancient term; and it was first adopted only to +distinguish the native religion, or "Way" from the foreign religion +of Buddhism called "Butsudo," or "The Way of the Buddha." The three +forms of the Shinto worship of ancestors are the Domestic Cult, the +Communal Cult, and the State Cult;--or, in other words, the worship +of family ancestors, the worship of clan or tribal ancestors, [22] +and the worship of imperial ancestors. The first is the religion of +the home; the second is the religion of the local divinity, or +tutelar god; the third is the national religion. There are various +other forms of Shinto worship; but they need not be considered for +the present. + +Of the three forms of ancestor-worship above mentioned, the +family-cult is the first in evolutional order,--the others being +later developments. But, in speaking of the family-cult as the +oldest, I do not mean the home-religion as it exists to-day;--neither +do I mean by "family" anything corresponding to the term "household." +The Japanese family in early times meant very much more than +"household": it might include a hundred or a thousand households: it +was something like the Greek (Greek genos); or the Roman gens,--the +patriarchal family in the largest sense of the term. In prehistoric +Japan the domestic cult of the house-ancestor probably did not +exist;--the family-rites would appear to have been performed only at +the burial-place. But the later domestic cult, having been developed +out of the primal family-rite, indirectly represents the most ancient +form of the religion, and should therefore be considered first in any +study of Japanese social evolution. + +The evolutional history of ancestor-worship has been very much the +same in all countries; and that [23] of the Japanese cult offers +remarkable evidence in support of Herbert Spencer's exposition of the +law of religious development. To comprehend this general law, we +must, however, go back to the origin of religious beliefs. One should +bear in mind that, from a sociological point of view, it is no more +correct to speak of the existing ancestor-cult in Japan as +"primitive," than it would be to speak of the domestic cult of the +Athenians in the time of Pericles as "primitive." No persistent form +of ancestor-worship is primitive; and every established domestic cult +has been developed out of some irregular and non-domestic +family-cult, which, again, must have grown out of still more ancient +funeral-rites. + +Our knowledge of ancestor-worship, as regards the early European +civilizations, cannot be said to extend to the primitive form of the +cult. In the case of the Greeks and the Romans, our knowledge of the +subject dates from a period at which a domestic religion had long +been established; and we have documentary evidence as to the +character of that religion. But of the earlier cult that must have +preceded the home-worship, we have little testimony; and we can +surmise its nature only by study of the natural history of +ancestor-worship among peoples not yet arrived at a state of +civilization. The true domestic cult begins with a settled +civilization. Now when the Japanese race first established itself in +Japan, it does not appear to have [24] brought with it any +civilization of the kind which we would call settled, nor any +well-developed ancestor-cult. The cult certainly existed; but its +ceremonies would seem to have been irregularly performed at graves +only. The domestic cult proper may not have been established until +about the eighth century, when the spirit-tablet is supposed to have +been introduced from China. The earliest ancestor-cult, as we shall +presently see, was developed out of the primitive funeral-rites and +propitiatory ceremonies. + +The existing family religion is therefore a comparatively modern +development; but it is at least as old as the true civilization of +the country, and it conserves beliefs and ideas which are indubitably +primitive, as well as ideas and beliefs derived from these. Before +treating further of the cult itself, it will be necessary to consider +some of these older beliefs. + +The earliest ancestor-worship,--"the root of all religions," as +Herbert Spencer calls it,--was probably coeval with the earliest +definite belief in ghosts. As soon as men were able to conceive the +idea of a shadowy inner self, or double, so soon, doubtless, the +propitiatory cult of spirits began. But this earliest ghost-worship +must have long preceded that period of mental development in which +men first became capable of forming abstract ideas. The [25] +primitive ancestor-worshippers could not have formed the notion of a +supreme deity; and all evidence existing as to the first forms of +their worship tends to show that there primarily existed no +difference whatever between the conception of ghosts and the +conception of gods. There were, consequently, no definite beliefs in +any future state of reward or of punishment,--no ideas of any heaven +or hell. Even the notion of a shadowy underworld, or Hades, was of +much later evolution. At first the dead were thought of only as +dwelling in the tombs provided for them,--whence they could issue, +from time to time, to visit their former habitations, or to make +apparition in the dreams of the living. Their real world was the +place of burial,--the grave, the tumulus. Afterwards there slowly +developed the idea of an underworld, connected in some mysterious way +with the place of sepulture. Only at a much later time did this dim +underworld of imagination expand and divide into regions of ghostly +bliss and woe .... It is a noteworthy fact that Japanese mythology +never evolved the ideas of an Elysium or a Tartarus,--never developed +the notion of a heaven or a hell. Even to this day Shinto belief +represents the pre-Homeric stage of imagination as regards the +supernatural. + +Among the Indo-European races likewise there appeared to have been at +first no difference between gods and ghosts, nor any ranking of gods +as greater [26] and lesser. These distinctions were gradually +developed. "The spirits of the dead," says Mr. Spencer, "forming, in +a primitive tribe, an ideal group the members of which are but little +distinguished from one another, will grow more and more +distinguished;--and as societies advance, and as traditions, local +and general, accumulate and complicate, these once similar human +souls, acquiring in the popular mind differences of character and +importance, will diverge--until their original community of nature +becomes scarcely recognizable." So in antique Europe, and so in the +Far East, were the greater gods of nations evolved from ghost-cults; +but those ethics of ancestor-worship which shaped alike the earliest +societies of West and East, date from a period before the time of the +greater gods,--from the period when all the dead were supposed to +become gods, with no distinction of rank. + +No more than the primitive ancestor-worshippers of Aryan race did the +early Japanese think of their dead as ascending to some extra-mundane +region of light and bliss, or as descending into some realm of +torment. They thought of their dead as still inhabiting this world, +or at least as maintaining with it a constant communication. Their +earliest sacred records do, indeed, make mention of an underworld, +where mysterious Thunder-gods and evil goblins dwelt in corruption; +but this vague world of the dead communicated with the world of the +living; [27] and the spirit there, though in some sort attached to +its decaying envelope, could still receive upon earth the homage and +the offerings of men. Before the advent of Buddhism, there was no +idea of a heaven or a hell. The ghosts of the departed were thought +of as constant presences, needing propitiation, and able in some way +to share the pleasures and the pains of the living. They required +food and drink and light; and in return for these; they could confer +benefits. Their bodies had melted into earth; but their spirit-power +still lingered in the upper world, thrilled its substance, moved in +its winds and waters. By death they had acquired mysterious +force;--they had become "superior ones," Kami, gods. + +That is to say, gods in the oldest Greek and Roman sense. Be it +observed that there were no moral distinctions, East or West, in this +deification. "All the dead become gods," wrote the great Shinto +commentator, Hirata. So likewise, in the thought of the early Greeks +and even of the late Romans, all the dead became gods. M. de +Coulanges observes, in La Cite Antique: "This kind of apotheosis was +not the privilege of the great alone. no distinction was made .... It +was not even necessary to have been a virtuous man: the wicked man +became a god as well as the good man,--only that in this +after-existence, he retained the evil inclinations of his former +life." Such also [28] was the case in Shinto belief: the good man +became a beneficent divinity, the bad man an evil deity,--but all +alike became Kami. "And since there are bad as well as good gods," +wrote Motowori, "it is necessary to propitiate them with offerings of +agreeable food, playing the harp, blowing the flute, singing and +dancing and whatever is likely to put them in a good humour." The +Latins called the maleficent ghosts of the dead, Larvae, and called +the beneficent or harmless ghosts, Lares, or Manes, or Genii, +according to Apuleius. But all alike were gods,--dii-manes; and +Cicero admonished his readers to render to all dii-manes the rightful +worship: "They are men," he declared, "who have departed from this +life;-consider them divine beings ...." + +In Shinto, as in old Greek belief, to die was to enter into the +possession of superhuman power, to become capable of conferring +benefit or of inflicting misfortune by supernatural means .... But +yesterday, such or such a man was a common toiler, a person of no +importance;--to-day, being dead, he becomes a divine power, and his +children pray to him for the prosperity of their undertakings. Thus +also we find the personages of Greek tragedy, such as Alcestis, +suddenly transformed into divinities by death, and addressed in the +language of worship or prayer. But, in despite of their supernatural +[29] power, the dead are still dependent upon the living for +happiness. Though viewless, save in dreams, they need earthly +nourishment and homage,--food and drink, and the reverence of their +descendants. Each ghost must rely for such comfort upon its living +kindred;--only through the devotion of that kindred can it ever find +repose. Each ghost must have shelter,--a fitting tomb;--each must +have offerings. While honourably sheltered and properly nourished the +spirit is pleased, and will aid in maintaining the good-fortune of +its propitiators. But if refused the sepulchral home, the funeral +rites, the offerings of food and fire and drink, the spirit will +suffer from hunger and cold and thirst, and, becoming angered, will +act malevolently and contrive misfortune for those by whom it has +been neglected .... Such were the ideas of the old Greeks regarding +the dead; and such were the ideas of the old Japanese. + +Although the religion of ghosts was once the religion of our own +forefathers--whether of Northern or Southern Europe,--and although +practices derived from it, such as the custom of decorating graves +with flowers, persist to-day among our most advanced +communities,--our modes of thought have so changed under the +influences of modern civilization that it is difficult for us to +imagine how people could ever have supposed that the happiness of the +dead depended upon material food. But it [30] is probable that the +real belief in ancient European societies was much like the belief as +it exists in modern Japan. The dead are not supposed to consume the +substance of the food, but only to absorb the invisible essence of +it. In the early period of ancestor-worship the food-offerings were +large; later on they were made smaller and smaller as the idea grew +up that the spirits required but little sustenance of even the most +vapoury kind. But, however small the offerings, it was essential that +they should be made regularly. Upon these shadowy repasts depended +the well-being of the dead; and upon the well-being of the dead +depended the fortunes of the living. Neither could dispense with the +help of the other. the visible and the invisible worlds were forever +united by bonds innumerable of mutual necessity; and no single +relation of that union could be broken without the direst +consequences. + +The history of all religious sacrifices can be traced back to this +ancient custom of offerings made to ghosts; and the whole Indo-Aryan +race had at one time no other religion than this religion of spirits. +In fact, every advanced human society has, at some period of its +history, passed through the stage of ancestor-worship; but it is to +the Far East that we must took to-day in order to find the cult +coexisting with an elaborate civilization. Now the Japanese +ancestor-cult--though representing the beliefs of a [31] non-Aryan +people, and offering in the history of its development various +interesting peculiarities--still embodies much that is characteristic +of ancestor-worship in general. There survive in it especially these +three beliefs, which underlie all forms of persistent +ancestor-worship in all climes and countries:-- + +I.--The dead remain in this world,--haunting their tombs, and also +their former homes, and sharing invisibly in the life of their living +descendants;-- + +II.--All the dead become gods, in the sense of acquiring supernatural +power; but they retain the characters which distinguished them during +life;-- + +III.--The happiness of the dead depends upon the respectful service +rendered them by the living; and the happiness of the living depends +upon the fulfilment of pious duty to the dead. + +To these very early beliefs may be added the following, probably of +later development, which at one time must have exercised immense +influence:-- + +IV.--Every event in the world, good or evil,--fair seasons or +plentiful harvests,--flood and famine,--tempest and tidal-wave and +earthquake,--is the work of the dead. + +V.--All human actions, good or bad, are controlled by the dead. + +The first three beliefs survive from the dawn of civilization, or +before it,--from the time in which [32] the dead were the only gods, +without distinctions of power. The latter two would seem rather of +the period in which a true mythology--an enormous polytheism--had +been developed out of the primitive ghost-worship. There is nothing +simple in these beliefs: they are awful, tremendous beliefs; and +before Buddhism helped to dissipate them, their pressure upon the +mind of a people dwelling in a land of cataclysms, must have been +like an endless weight of nightmare. But the elder beliefs, in +softened form, are yet a fundamental part of the existing cult. +Though Japanese ancestor-worship has undergone many modifications in +the past two thousand years, these modifications have not transformed +its essential character in relation to conduct; and the whole +framework of society rests upon it, as on a moral foundation. The +history of Japan is really the history of her religion. No single +fact in this connection is more significant than the fact that the +ancient Japanese term for government--matsuri-goto--signifies +liberally "matters of worship." Later on we shall find that not only +government, but almost everything in Japanese society, derives +directly or indirectly from this ancestor-cult; and that in all +matters the dead, rather than the living, have been the rulers of the +nation and--the shapers of its destinies. + + + +[33] + +THE RELIGION OF THE HOME + +Three stages of ancestor-worship are to be distinguished in the +general course of religious and social evolution; and each of these +finds illustration in the history of Japanese society. The first +stage is that which exists before the establishment of a settled +civilization, when there is yet no national ruler, and when the unit +of society is the great patriarchal family, with its elders or +war-chiefs for lords. Under these conditions, the spirits of the +family-ancestors only are worshipped;--each family propitiating its +own dead, and recognizing no other form of worship. As the +patriarchal families, later on, become grouped into tribal clans, +there grows up the custom of tribal sacrifice to the spirits of the +clan-rulers;--this cult being superadded to the family-cult, and +marking the second stage of ancestor-worship. Finally, with the union +of all the clans or tribes under one supreme head, there is developed +the custom of propitiating the spirits of national, rulers. This +third form of the cult becomes the obligatory religion [34] of the +country; but it does not replace either of the preceding cults: the +three continue to exist together. + +Though, in the present state of our knowledge, the evolution in Japan +of these three stages of ancestor-worship is but faintly traceable, +we can divine tolerably well, from various records, how the permanent +forms of the cult were first developed out of the earlier +funeral-rites. Between the ancient Japanese funeral customs and those +of antique Europe, there was a vast difference,--a difference +indicating, as regards Japan, a far more primitive social condition. +In Greece and in Italy it was an early custom to bury the family dead +within the limits of the family estate; and the Greek and Roman laws +of property grew out of this practice. Sometimes the dead were buried +close to the house. The author of 'La Cite Antique' cites, among +other ancient texts bearing upon the subject, an interesting +invocation from the tragedy of Helen, by Euripides:--"All hail! my +father's tomb! I buried thee, Proteus, at the place where men pass +out, that I might often greet thee; and so, even as I go out and in, +I, thy son Theoclymenus, call upon thee, father! ..." But in ancient +Japan, men fled from the neighbourhood of death. It was long the +custom to abandon, either temporarily, or permanently, the house in +which a death occurred; [35] and we can scarcely suppose that, at any +time, it was thought desirable to bury the dead close to the +habitation of the surviving members of the household. Some Japanese +authorities declare that in the very earliest ages there was no +burial, and that corpses were merely conveyed to desolate places, and +there abandoned to wild creatures. Be this as it may, we have +documentary evidence, of an unmistakable sort, concerning the early +funeral-rites as they existed when the custom of burying had become +established,--rites weird and strange, and having nothing in common +with the practices of settled civilization. There is reason to +believe that the family-dwelling was at first permanently, not +temporarily, abandoned to the dead; and in view of the fact that the +dwelling was a wooden hut of very simple structure, there is nothing +improbable in the supposition. At all events the corpse was left for +a certain period, called the period of mourning, either in the +abandoned house where the death occurred, or in a shelter especially +built for the purpose; and, during the mourning period, offerings of +food and drink were set before the dead, and ceremonies performed +without the house. One of these ceremonies consisted in the recital +of poems in praise of the dead,--which poems were called shinobigoto. +There was music also of flutes and drums, and dancing; and at night a +fire was kept burning before the house. After all this had been [36] +done for the fixed period of mourning--eight days, according to some +authorities, fourteen according to others--the corpse was interred. +It is probable that the deserted house may thereafter have become an +ancestral temple, or ghost-house,--prototype of the Shinto miya. + +At an early time,--though when we do not know,--it certainly became +the custom to erect a moya, or "mourning-house" in the event of a +death; and the rites were performed at the mourning-house prior to +the interment. The manner of burial was very simple: there were yet +no tombs in the literal meaning of the term, and no tombstones. Only +a mound was thrown up over the grave; and the size of the mound +varied according to the rank of the dead. + +The custom of deserting the house in which a death took place would +accord with the theory of a nomadic ancestry for the Japanese people: +it was a practice totally incompatible with a settled civilization +like that of the early Greeks and Romans, whose customs in regard to +burial presuppose small landholdings in permanent occupation. But +there may have been, even in early times, some exceptions to general +custom--exceptions made by necessity. To-day, in various parts of the +country, and perhaps more particularly in districts remote from +temples, it is the custom for farmers to bury their dead upon their +own lands. + +[37]--At regular intervals after burial, ceremonies were performed +at the graves; and food and drink were then served to the spirits. +When the spirit-tablet had been introduced from China, and a true +domestic cult established, the practice of making offerings at the +place of burial was not discontinued. It survives to the present +time,--both in the Shinto and the Buddhist rite; and every spring an +Imperial messenger presents at the tomb of the Emperor Jimmu, the +same offerings of birds and fish and seaweed, rice and rice-wine, +which were made to the spirit of the Founder of the Empire +twenty-five hundred years ago. But before the period of Chinese +influence the family would seem to have worshipped its dead only +before the mortuary house, or at the grave; and the spirits were yet +supposed to dwell especially in their tombs, with access to some +mysterious subterranean world. They were supposed to need other +things besides nourishment; and it was customary to place in the +grave various articles for their ghostly use,--a sword, for example, +in the case of a warrior; a mirror in the case of a woman,--together +with certain objects, especially prized during life,--such as objects +of precious metal, and polished stones or gems .... At this stage of +ancestor-worship, when the spirits are supposed to require shadowy +service of a sort corresponding to that exacted during their +life-time in the body, we should expect to hear of [38] human +sacrifices as well as of animal sacrifices. At the funerals of great +personages such sacrifices were common. Owing to beliefs of which all +knowledge has been lost, these sacrifices assumed a character much +more cruel than that of the immolations of the Greek Homeric epoch. +The human victims* were buried up to the neck in a circle about the +grave, and thus left to perish under the beaks of birds and the teeth +of wild beasts. [*How the horses and other animals were sacrificed, +does not clearly appear.] The term applied to this form of +immolation,--hitogaki, or "human hedge,"--implies a considerable +number of victims in each case. This custom was abolished, by the +Emperor Suinin, about nineteen hundred years ago; and the Nihongi +declares that it was then an ancient custom. Being grieved by the +crying of the victims interred in the funeral mound erected over the +grave of his brother, Yamato-hiko-no-mikoto, the Emperor is recorded +to have said: "It is a very painful thing to force those whom one has +loved in life to follow one in death. Though it be an ancient custom, +why follow it, if it is bad? From this time forward take counsel to +put a stop to the following of the dead." Nomi-no-Sukune, a +court-noble--now apotheosized as the patron of wrestlers--then +suggested the substitution of earthen images of men and horses for +the living victims; and his suggestion was approved. The hitogaki, +was thus abolished; but compulsory as well as voluntary following of +the [39] dead certainly continued for many hundred years after, since +we find the Emperor Kotoku issuing an edict on the subject in the +year 646 A.D.:-- + +"When a man dies, there have been cases of people sacrificing +themselves by strangulation, or of strangling others by way of +sacrifice, or of compelling the dead man's horse to be sacrificed, or +of burying valuables in the grave in honour of the dead, or of +cutting off the hair and stabbing the thighs and [in that condition] +pronouncing a eulogy on the dead. Let all such old customs be +entirely discontinued."--Nihongi; Aston's translation. + +As regarded compulsory sacrifice and popular custom, this edict may +have had the immediate effect desired; but voluntary human sacrifices +were not definitively suppressed. With the rise of the military power +there gradually came into existence another custom of junshi, or +following one's lord in death,--suicide by the sword. It is said to +have begun about 1333, when the last of the Hojo regents, Takatoki, +performed suicide, and a number of his retainers took their own lives +by harakiri, in order to follow their master. It may be doubted +whether this incident really established the practice. But by the +sixteenth century junshi had certainly become an honoured custom +among the samurai. Loyal retainers esteemed it a duty to kill +themselves after the death of their lord, in order to attend upon him +during his ghostly journey. A thousand years [40] of Buddhist +teaching had not therefore sufficed to eradicate all primitive +notions' of sacrificial duty. The practice continued into the time of +the Tokugawa shogunate, when Iyeyasu made laws to check it. These +laws were rigidly applied,--the entire family of the suicide being +held responsible for a case of junshi: yet the custom cannot be said +to have become extinct until considerably after the beginning of the +era of Meiji. Even during my own time there have been +survivals,--some of a very touching kind: suicides performed in hope +of being able to serve or aid the spirit of master or husband or +parent in the invisible world. Perhaps the strangest case was that of +a boy fourteen years old, who killed himself in order to wait upon +the spirit of a child, his master's little son. + +The peculiar character of the early human sacrifices at graves, the +character of the funeral-rites, the abandonment of the house in which +death had occurred.--all prove that the early ancestor-worship was of +a decidedly primitive kind. This is suggested also by the peculiar +Shinto horror of death as pollution: even at this day to attend a +funeral,--unless the funeral be conducted after the Shinto rite,--is +religious defilement. The ancient legend of Izanagi's descent to the +nether world, in search of his lost spouse, illustrates the terrible +beliefs that once existed as to goblin-powers presiding over decay. +[41] Between the horror of death as corruption, and the apotheosis of +the ghost, there is nothing incongruous: we must understand the +apotheosis itself as a propitiation. This earliest Way of the Gods +was a religion of perpetual fear. Not ordinary homes only were +deserted after a death: even the Emperors, during many centuries, +were wont to change their capital after the death of a predecessor. +But, gradually, out of the primal funeral-rites, a higher cult was +evolved. The mourning-house, or moya, became transformed into the +Shinto temple, which still retains the shape of the primitive hut. +Then under Chinese influence, the ancestral cult became established +in the home; and Buddhism at a later day maintained this domestic +cult. By degrees the household religion became a religion of +tenderness as well as of duty, and changed and softened the thoughts +of men about their dead. As early as the eighth century, +ancestor-worship appears to have developed the three principal forms +under which it still exists; and thereafter the family-cult began to +assume a character which offers many resemblances to the domestic +religion of the old European civilizations. + +Let us now glance at the existing forms of this domestic cult,--the +universal religion of Japan. In every home there is a shrine devoted +to it. If the family profess only the Shinto belief, this shrine, +[42] or mitamaya* ("august-spirit-dwelling"),--tiny model of a Shinto +temple,--is placed upon a shelf fixed against the wall of some inner +chamber, at a height of about six feet from the floor. Such a shelf +is called Mitama-San-no-tana, or--"Shelf of the august spirits." [*It +is more popularly termed miya, "august house,"--a name given to the +ordinary Shinto temples.] In the shrine are placed thin tablets of +white wood, inscribed with the names of the household dead. Such +tablets are called by a name signifying "spirit-substitutes" +(mitamashiro), or by a probably older name signifying +"spirit-sticks." ... If the family worships its ancestors according +to the Buddhist rite, the mortuary tablets are placed in the Buddhist +household-shrine, or Butsudan, which usually occupies the upper shelf +of an alcove in one of the inner apartments. Buddhist +mortuary-tablets (with some exceptions) are called ihai,--a term +signifying "soul-commemoration." They are lacquered and gilded, +usually having a carved lotos-flower as pedestal; and they do not, as +a rule, bear the real, but only the religious and posthumous name of +the dead. Now it is important to observe that, in either cult, the +mortuary tablet actually suggests a miniature tombstone--which is a +fact of some evolutional interest, though the evolution itself should +be Chinese rather than Japanese. The plain gravestones in Shinto +cemeteries resemble in form the simple [43] wooden ghost-sticks, or +spirit-sticks; while the Buddhist monuments in the old-fashioned +Buddhist graveyards are shaped like the ihai, of which the form is +slightly varied to indicate sex and age, which is also the case with +the tombstone. + +The number of mortuary tablets in a household shrine does not +generally exceed five or six,--only grandparents and parents and the +recently dead being thus represented; but the name of remoter +ancestors are inscribed upon scrolls, which are kept in the Butsudan +or the mitamaya. + +Whatever be the family rite, prayers are repeated and offerings are +placed before the ancestral tablets every day. The nature of the +offerings and the character of the prayers depend upon the religion +of the household; but the essential duties of the cult are everywhere +the same. These duties are not to be neglected under any +circumstances; their performance in these times is usually intrusted +to the elders, or to the women of the household.* + +[*Not, however, upon any public occasion,--such as a gathering of +relatives at the home for a religious anniversary: at such times the +rites are performed by the head of the household.] + +Speaking of the ancient custom (once prevalent in every Japanese +household, and still observed in Shinto homes) of making offerings to +the deities of the cooking range and of food, Sir Ernest Satow +observes: "The rites in honour of these gods were at first performed +by the head of the household; but in after-times the duty came to he +delegated to the women of the family" (Ancient Japanese Rituals). We +may infer that in regard to the ancestral rites likewise, the same +transfer of duties occurred at an early time, for obvious reasons of +convenience. When the duty devolves upon the elders of the +family--grandfather and grandmother--it is usually the grandmother +who attends to the offerings. In the Greek and Roman household the +performance of the domestic rites appears to have been obligatory +upon the head of the household; but we know that the women took part +in them. + +[44] There is no long ceremony, no imperative rule about prayers, +nothing solemn: the food-offerings are selected out of the family +cooking; the murmured or whispered invocations are short and few. +But, trifling as the rites may seem, their performance must never be +overlooked. Not to make the offerings is a possibility undreamed of: +so long as the family exists they must be made. + +To describe the details of the domestic rite would require much +space,--not because they are complicated in themselves, but because +they are of a sort unfamiliar to Western experience, and vary +according to the sect of the family. But to consider the details will +not be necessary: the important matter is to consider the religion +and its beliefs in relation to conduct and character. It should be +recognized that no religion is more sincere, no faith more touching +than this domestic worship, which regards the dead as continuing to +form a part of the household life, and needing still the affection +and the respect of their children and kindred. Originating in those +dim ages when fear was stronger than love,--when the wish to please +the ghosts of the departed must have been chiefly inspired by dread +of their anger,--the cult at last developed into a religion of +affection; and this it yet remains. The belief that the dead [45] +need affection, that to neglect them is a cruelty, that their +happiness depends upon duty, is a belief that has almost cast out the +primitive fear of their displeasure. They are not thought of as dead: +they are believed to remain among those who loved them. Unseen they +guard the home, and watch over the welfare of its inmates: they hover +nightly in the glow of the shrine-lamp; and the stirring of its flame +is the motion of them. They dwell mostly within their lettered +tablets;--sometimes they can animate a tablet,--change it into the +substance of a human body, and return in that body to active life, in +order to succour and console. From their shrine they observe and hear +what happens in the house; they share the family joys and sorrows; +they delight in the voices and the warmth of the life about them. +They want affection; but the morning and the evening greetings of the +family are enough to make them happy. They require nourishment; but +the vapour of food contents them. They are exacting only as regards +the daily fulfilment of duty. They were the givers of life, the +givers of wealth, the makers and teachers of the present: they +represent the past of the race, and all its sacrifices;--whatever the +living possess is from them. Yet how little do they require in +return! Scarcely more than to be thanked, as the founders and +guardians of the home, in simple words like these:--"For aid +received, by day and by night, accept, August Ones, our reverential +gratitude."... [46] + +To forget or neglect them, to treat them with rude indifference, is +the proof of an evil heart; to cause them shame by ill-conduct, to +disgrace their name by bad actions, is the supreme crime. They +represent the moral experience of the race: whosoever denies that +experience denies them also, and falls to the level of the beast, or +below it. They represent the unwritten law, the traditions of the +commune, the duties of all to all: whosoever offends against these, +sins against the dead. And, finally, they represent the mystery of +the invisible: to Shinto belief, at least, they are gods. + +It is to be remembered, of course, that the Japanese word for gods, +Kami, does not imply, any more than did the old Latin term, +dii-manes, ideas like those which have become associated with the +modern notion of divinity. The Japanese term might be more closely +rendered by some such expression as "the Superiors," "the Higher +Ones"; and it was formerly applied to living rulers as well as to +deities and ghosts. But it implies considerably more than the idea of +a disembodied spirit; for, according to old Shinto teaching the dead +became world-rulers. They were the cause of all natural events,--of +winds, rains, and tides, of buddings and ripenings, of growth and +decay, of everything desirable or dreadful. They formed a kind of +subtler element,--an ancestral aether,--universally extending and +[47] unceasingly operating. Their powers, when united for any +purpose, were resistless; and in time of national peril they were +invoked en masse for aid against the foe .... Thus, to the eyes of +faith, behind each family ghost there extended the measureless +shadowy power of countless Kami; and the sense of duty to the +ancestor was deepened by dim awe of the forces controlling the +world,--the whole invisible Vast. To primitive Shinto conception the +universe was filled with ghosts;--to later Shinto conception the +ghostly condition was not limited by place or time, even in the case +of individual spirits. "Although," wrote Hirata, "the home of the +spirits is in the Spirit-house, they are equally present wherever +they are worshipped,--being gods, and therefore ubiquitous." + +The Buddhist dead are not called gods, but Buddhas (Hotoke),--which +term, of course, expresses a pious hope, rather than a faith. The +belief is that they are only on their way to some higher state of +existence; and they should not be invoked or worshipped after the +manner of the Shinto gods: prayers should be said FOR them, not, as a +rule, TO them.* [*Certain Buddhist rituals prove exceptions to this +teaching.] But the vast majority of Japanese Buddhists are also +followers of Shinto; and the two faiths, though seemingly +incongruous, have long been reconciled in the popular mind. The +Buddhist doctrine has [48] therefore modified the ideas attaching to +the cult much less deeply than might be supposed. + +In all patriarchal societies with a settled civilization, there is +evolved, out of the worship of ancestors, a Religion of Filial Piety. +Filial piety still remains the supreme virtue among civilized peoples +possessing an ancestor-cult.... By filial piety must not be +understood, however, what is commonly signified by the English +term,--the devotion of children to parents. We must understand the +word "piety" rather in its classic meaning, as the pietas of the +early Romans,--that is to say, as the religious sense of household +duty. Reverence for the dead, as well as the sentiment of duty +towards the living; the affection of children to parents, and the +affection of parents to children; the mutual duties of husband and +wife; the duties likewise of sons-in-law and daughters-in-law to the +family as a body; the duties of servant to master, and of master to +dependent,--all these were included under the term. The family itself +was a religion; the ancestral home a temple. And so we find the +family and the home to be in Japan, even at the present day. Filial +piety in Japan does not mean only the duty of children to parents and +grandparents: it means still more, the cult of the ancestors, +reverential service to the dead, the gratitude of the present to the +past, and the conduct of the individual in relation [49] to the +entire household. Hirata therefore declared that all virtues derived +from the worship of ancestors; and his words, as translated by Sir +Ernest Satow, deserve particular attention:-- + +"It is the duty of a subject to be diligent in worshipping his +ancestors, whose minister he should consider himself to be. The +custom of adoption arose from the natural desire of having some one +to perform sacrifices; and this desire ought not to be rendered of no +avail by neglect. Devotion to the memory of ancestors is the +mainspring of all virtues. No one who discharges his duty to them +will ever be disrespectful to the gods or to his living parents. Such +a man also will be faithful to his prince, loyal to his friends, and +kind and gentle to his wife and children. For the essence of this +devotion is indeed filial piety." + +From the sociologist's point of view, Hirata is right: it is +unquestionably true that the whole system of Far-Eastern ethics +derives from the religion of the household. By aid of that cult have +been evolved all ideas of duty to the living as well as to the +dead,--the sentiment of reverence, the sentiment of loyalty, the +spirit of self-sacrifice, and the spirit of patriotism. What filial +piety signifies as a religious force can best be imagined from the +fact that you can buy life in the East--that it has its price in the +market. This religion is the religion of China, and of countries +adjacent; and life is for sale in China. It was the filial piety of +China that rendered [50] possible the completion of the Panama +railroad, where to strike the soil was to liberate death,--where the +land devoured labourers by the thousand, until white and black labour +could no more be procured in quantity sufficient for the work. But +labour could be obtained from China--any amount of labour--at the +cost of life; and the cost was paid; and multitudes of men came from +the East to toil and die, in order that the price of their lives +might be sent to their families.... I have no doubt that, were the +sacrifice imperatively demanded, life could be as readily bought in +Japan,--though not, perhaps, so cheaply. Where this religion +prevails, the individual is ready to give his life, in a majority of +cases, for the family, the home, the ancestors. And the filial piety +impelling such sacrifice becomes, by extension, the loyalty that will +sacrifice even the family itself for the sake of the lord,--or, by +yet further extension, the loyalty that prays, like Kusunoki +Masashige, for seven successive lives to lay down on behalf of the +sovereign. Out of filial piety indeed has been developed the whole +moral power that protects the state,--the power also that has seldom +failed to impose the rightful restraints upon official despotism +whenever that despotism grew dangerous to the common weal. + +Probably the filial piety that centred about the domestic altars of +the ancient West differed in little [51] from that which yet rules +the most eastern East. But we miss in Japan the Aryan hearth, the +family altar with its perpetual fire. The Japanese home-religion +represents, apparently, a much earlier stage of the cult than that +which existed within historic time among the Greeks and Romans. The +homestead in Old Japan was not a stable institution like the Greek or +the Roman home; the custom of burying the family dead upon the family +estate never became general; the dwelling itself never assumed a +substantial and lasting character. It could not be literally said of +the Japanese warrior, as of the Roman, that he fought pro aris et +focis. There was neither altar nor sacred fire: the place of these +was taken by the spirit-shelf or shrine, with its tiny lamp, kindled +afresh each evening; and, in early times, there were no Japanese +images of divinities. For Lares and Penates there were only the +mortuary-tablets of the ancestors, and certain little tablets bearing +names of other gods--tutelar gods .... The presence of these frail +wooden objects still makes the home; and they may be, of course, +transported anywhere. + +To apprehend the full meaning of ancestor-worship as a family +religion, a living faith, is now difficult for the Western mind. We +are able to imagine only in the vaguest way how our Aryan forefathers +felt and thought about their dead. But in the [52] living beliefs of +Japan we find much to suggest the nature of the old Greek piety. Each +member of the family supposes himself, or herself, under perpetual +ghostly surveillance. Spirit-eyes are watching every act; spirit-ears +are listening to every word. Thoughts too, not less than deeds, are +visible to the gaze of the dead: the heart must be pure, the mind +must be under control, within the presence of the spirits. Probably +the influence of such beliefs, uninterruptedly exerted upon conduct +during thousands of years, did much to form the charming side of +Japanese character. Yet there is nothing stern or solemn in this +home-religion to-day,--nothing of that rigid and unvarying discipline +supposed by Fustel de Coulanges to have especially characterized the +Roman cult. It is a religion rather of gratitude and tenderness; the +dead being served by the household as if they were actually present +in the body .... I fancy that if we were able to enter for a moment +into the vanished life of some old Greek city, we should find the +domestic religion there not less cheerful than the Japanese home-cult +remains to-day. I imagine that Greek children, three thousand years +ago, must have watched, like the Japanese children of to-day, for a +chance to steal some of the good things offered to the ghosts of the +ancestors; and I fancy that Greek parents must have chidden quite as +gently as Japanese parents [53] chide in this era of Meiji,--mingling +reproof with instruction, and hinting of weird possibilities.* + +[*Food presented to the dead may afterwards be eaten by the elders of +the household, or given to pilgrims; but it is said that if children +eat of it, they will grow with feeble memories, and incapable of +becoming scholars.] + + + +[54] + +[55] + +THE JAPANESE FAMILY + +The great general idea, the fundamental idea, underlying every +persistent ancestor-worship, is that the welfare of the living +depends upon the welfare of the dead. Under the influence of this +idea, and of the cult based upon it, were developed the early +organization of the family, the laws regarding property and +succession, the whole structure, in short, of ancient +society,--whether in the Western or the Eastern world. + +But before considering how the social structure in old Japan was +shaped by the ancestral cult, let me again remind the reader that +there were at first no other gods than the dead. Even when Japanese +ancestor-worship evolved a mythology, its gods were only transfigured +ghosts,--and this is the history of all mythology. The ideas of +heaven and hell did not exist among the primitive Japanese, nor any +notion of metempsychosis. The Buddhist doctrine of rebirth--a late +borrowing--was totally inconsistent with the archaic Japanese +beliefs, and required an elaborate metaphysical system to support it. +But we may suppose the early ideas of the Japanese about the dead to +have been much [56] like those of the Greeks of the pre-Homeric era. +There was an underground world to which spirits descended; but they +were supposed to haunt by preference their own graves, or their +"ghost-houses." Only by slow degrees did the notion of their power of +ubiquity become evolved. But even then they were thought to be +particularly attached to their tombs, shrines, and homesteads. Hirata +wrote, in the early part of the nineteenth century: "The spirits of +the dead continue to exist in the unseen world which is everywhere +about us; and they all become gods of varying character and degrees +of influence. Some reside in temples built in their honour; others +hover near their tombs; and they continue to render service to their +prince, parents, wives, and children, as when in the body." Evidently +"the unseen world" was thought to be in some sort a duplicate of the +visible world, and dependent upon the help of the living for its +prosperity. The dead and the living were mutually dependent. The +all-important necessity for the ghost was sacrificial worship; the +all-important necessity for the man was to provide for the future +cult of his own spirit; and to die without assurance of a cult was +the supreme calamity .... Remembering these facts we can understand +better the organization of the patriarchal family,--shaped to +maintain and to provide for the cult of its dead, any neglect of +which cult was believed to involve misfortune. + +[57] The reader is doubtless aware that in the old Aryan family the +bond of union was not the bond of affection, but a bond of religion, +to which natural affection was altogether subordinate. This condition +characterizes the patriarchal family wherever ancestor-worship +exists. Now the Japanese family, like the ancient Greek or Roman +family, was a religious society in the strictest sense of the term; +and a religious society it yet remains. Its organization was +primarily shaped in accordance with the requirements of +ancestor-worship; its later imported doctrines of filial piety had +been already developed in China to meet the needs of an older and +similar religion. We might expect to find in the structure, the laws, +and the customs of the Japanese family many points of likeness to the +structure and the traditional laws of the old Aryan +household,--because the law of sociological evolution admits of only +minor exceptions. And many such points of likeness are obvious. The +materials for a serious comparative study have not yet been +collected: very much remains to be learned regarding the past history +of the Japanese family. But, along certain general lines, the +resemblances between domestic institutions in ancient Europe and +domestic institutions in the Far East can be clearly established. + +Alike in the early European and in the old Japanese civilization it +was believed that the prosperity [58] of the family depended upon the +exact fulfilment of the duties of the ancestral cult; and, to a +considerable degree, this belief rules the life of the Japanese +family to-day. It is still thought that the good fortune of the +household depends on the observance of its cult, and that the +greatest possible calamity is to die without leaving a male heir to +perform the rites and to make the offerings. The paramount duty of +filial piety among the early Greeks and Romans was to provide for the +perpetuation of the family cult; and celibacy was therefore generally +forbidden,--the obligation to marry being enforced by opinion where +not enforced by legislation. Among the free classes of Old Japan, +marriage was also, as a general rule, obligatory in the case of a +male heir: otherwise, where celibacy was not condemned by law, it was +condemned by custom. To die without offspring was, in the case of a +younger son, chiefly a personal misfortune; to die without leaving a +male heir, in the case of an elder son and successor, was a crime +against the ancestors,--the cult being thereby threatened with +extinction. No excuse existed for remaining childless: the family law +in Japan, precisely as in ancient Europe, having amply provided +against such a contingency. In case that a wife proved barren, she +might be divorced. In case that there were reasons for not divorcing +her, a concubine might be taken for the purpose of obtaining an heir. +Furthermore, every family representative was privileged [59] to adopt +an heir. An unworthy son, again, might be disinherited, and another +young man adopted in his place. Finally, in case that a man had +daughters but no son, the succession and the continuance of the cult +could be assured by adopting a husband for the eldest daughter. + +But, as in the antique European family, daughters could not inherit: +descent being in the male line, it was necessary to have a male heir. +In old Japanese belief, as in old Greek and Roman belief, the father, +not the mother, was the life-giver; the creative principle was +masculine; the duty of maintaining the cult rested with the man, not +with the woman.* + +[*Wherever, among ancestor-worshipping races, descent is in the male +line, the cult follows the male line. But the reader is doubtless +aware that a still more primitive form of society than the +patriarchal--the matriarchal--is supposed to have had its +ancestor-worship. Mr. Spencer observes: "What has happened when +descent in the female line obtains, is not clear. I have met with no +statement showing that, in societies characterized by this usage, the +duty of administering to the double of the dead man devolved on one +of his children rather than on others,"--Principles of Sociology, +Vol. III, section 601.] + +The woman shared the cult; but she could not maintain it. Besides, +the daughters of the family, being destined, as a general rule, to +marry into other households, could bear only a temporary relation to +the home-cult. It was necessary that the religion of the wife should +be the religion of the husband; and the Japanese, like the Greek +woman, on marrying into another household, necessarily became +attached to the cult of her husband's family. For this reason +especially the females in the patriarchal [60] family are not equal +to the males; the sister cannot rank with the brother. It is true +that the Japanese daughter, like the Greek daughter, could remain +attached to her own family even after marriage, providing that a +husband were adopted for her,--that is to say, taken into the family +as a son. But even in this case, she could only share in the cult, +which it then became the duty of the adopted husband to maintain. + +The constitution of the patriarchal family everywhere derives from +its ancestral cult; and before considering the subjects of marriage +and adoption in Japan, it will be necessary to say something about +the ancient family-organization. The ancient family was called +uji,--a word said to have originally signified the same thing as the +modern term uchi,--"interior," or "household," but certainly used +from very early times in the sense of "name"--clan-name especially. +There were two kinds of uji: the o-uji, or great families, and the +ko-uji, or lesser families,--either term signifying a large body of +persons united by kinship, and by the cult of a common ancestor. The +o-uji corresponded in some degree to the Greek (Greek genos) or the +Roman gens: the ko-uji were its branches, and subordinate to it. The +unit of society was the uji. Each o-uji, with its dependent ko-uji, +represented something like a phratry or curia; and all the larger +groups making [61] up the primitive Japanese society were but +multiplications of the uji,--whether we call them clans, tribes, or +hordes. With the advent of a settled civilization, the greater groups +necessarily divided and subdivided; but the smallest subdivision +still retained its primal organization. Even the modern Japanese +family partly retains that organization. It does not mean only a +household: it means rather what the Greek or Roman family became +after the dissolution of the gens. With ourselves the family has been +disintegrated: when we talk of a man's family, we mean his wife and +children. But the Japanese family is still a large group. As +marriages take place early, it may consist, even as a household, of +great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, and children--sons and +daughters of several generations; but it commonly extends much beyond +the limits of one household. In early times it might constitute the +entire population of a village or town; and there are still in Japan +large communities of persons all bearing the same family name. In +some districts it was formerly the custom to keep all the children, +as far as possible, within the original family group--husbands being +adopted for all the daughters. The group might thus consist of sixty +or more persons, dwelling under the same roof; and the houses were of +course constructed, by successive extension, so as to meet the +requirement. (I am mentioning these curious facts [62] only by way of +illustration.) But the greater uji, after the race had settled down, +rapidly multiplied; and although there are said to be +house-communities still in some remote districts of the country, the +primal patriarchal groups must have been broken up almost everywhere +at some very early period. Thereafter the main cult of the uji did +not cease to be the cult also of its sub-divisions: all members of +the original gens continued to worship the common ancestor, or +uji-no-kami, "the god of the uji." By degrees the ghost-house of the +uji-no-kami became transformed into the modern Shinto parish-temple; +and the ancestral spirit became the local tutelar god, whose modern +appellation, ujigami, is but a shortened form of his ancient title, +uji-no-kami. Meanwhile, after the general establishment of the +domestic cult, each separate household maintained the special cult of +its own dead, in addition to the communal cult. This religious +condition still continues. The family may include several households; +but each household maintains the cult of its dead. And the +family-group, whether large or small, preserves its ancient +constitution and character; it is still a religious society, exacting +obedience, on the part of all its members, to traditional custom. + +So much having been explained, the customs regarding marriage and +adoption, in their relation [63] to the family hierarchy, can be +clearly understood. But a word first regarding this hierarchy, as it +exists to-day. Theoretically the power of the head of the family is +still supreme in the household. All must obey the head. Furthermore +the females must obey the males--the wives, the husbands; and the +younger members of the family are subject to the elder members. The +children must not only obey the parents and grandparents, but must +observe among themselves the domestic law of seniority: thus the +younger brother should obey the elder brother, and the younger sister +the elder sister. The rule of precedence is enforced gently, and is +cheerfully obeyed even in small matters: for example, at meal-time, +the elder boy is served first, the second son next, and so on,--an +exception being made in the case of a very young child, who is not +obliged to wait. This custom accounts for an amusing popular term +often applied in jest to a second son, "Master Cold-Rice" +(Hiameshi-San); as the second son, having to wait until both infants +and elders have been served, is not likely to find his portion +desirably hot when it reaches him .... Legally, the family can have +but one responsible head. It may be the grandfather, the father, or +the eldest son; and it is generally the eldest son, because according +to a custom of Chinese origin, the old folks usually resign their +active authority as soon as the eldest son is able to take charge of +affairs. [64] The subordination of young to old, and of females to +males,--in fact the whole existing constitution of the +family,--suggests a great deal in regard to the probably stricter +organization of the patriarchal family, whose chief was at once ruler +and priest, with almost unlimited powers. The organization was +primarily, and still remains, religious: the marital bond did not +constitute the family; and the relation of the parent to the +household depended upon his or her relation to the family as a +religious body. To-day also, the girl adopted into a household as +wife ranks only as an adopted child: marriage signifies adoption. She +is called "flower-daughter" (hana-yome). In like manner, and for the +same reasons, the young man received into a household as a husband of +one of the daughters, ranks merely as an adopted son. The adopted +bride or bridegroom is necessarily subject to the elders, and may be +dismissed by their decision. As for the adopted husband, his position +is both delicate and difficult,--as an old Japanese proverb bears +witness: Konuka san-go areba, mukoyoshi to naruna ("While you have +even three go* of rice-bran left, do not become a son-in-law"). [*A +go is something more than a pint.] Jacob does not have to wait for +Rachel: he is given to Rachel on demand; and his service then begins. +And after twice seven years of service, Jacob may be sent away. In +that event his children do not any more belong to him. [65] but to +the family. His adoption may have had nothing to do with affection; +and his dismissal may have nothing to do with misconduct. Such +matters, however they may be settled in law, are really decided by +family interests--interests relating to the maintenance of the house +and of its cult.** + +[**Recent legislation has been in favour of the mukoyoshi; but, as a +rule, the law is seldom resorted to except by men dismissed from the +family for misconduct, and anxious to make profit by the dismissal.] + +It should not be forgotten that, although a daughter-in-law or a +son-in-law could in former times be dismissed almost at will, the +question of marriage in the old Japanese family was a matter of +religious importance,--marriage being one of the chief duties of +filial piety. This was also the case in the early Greek and Roman +family; and the marriage ceremony was performed, as it is now +performed in Japan, not at a temple, but in the home. It was a rite +of the family religion,--the rite by which the bride was adopted into +the cult in the supposed presence of the ancestral spirits. Among the +primitive Japanese there was probably no corresponding ceremony; but +after the establishment of the domestic cult, the marriage ceremony +became a religious rite, and this it still remains. Ordinary +marriages are not, however, performed before the household shrine or +in front of the ancestral tablets, except under certain +circumstances. The rule, as regards such ordinary marriages, seems to +be that [66] if the parents of the bridegroom are yet alive, this is +not done; but if they are dead, then the bridegroom leads his bride +before their mortuary tablets, where she makes obeisance. Among the +nobility, in former times at least, the marriage ceremony appears to +have been more distinctly religious,--judging from the following +curious relation in the book Shorei-Hikki, or "Record of +Ceremonies"*: "At the weddings of the great, the bridal-chamber is +composed of three rooms thrown into one [by removal of the +sliding-screens ordinarily separating them], and newly decorated .... +The shrine for the image of the family-god is placed upon a shelf +adjoining the sleeping-place." It is noteworthy also that Imperial +marriages are always officially announced to the ancestors; and that +the marriage of the heir-apparent, or other male offspring of the +Imperial house, is performed before the Kashiko-dokoro, or imperial +temple of the ancestors, which stands within the palace-grounds.** +[**That was the case at the marriage of the present Crown-Prince.] As +a general rule it would appear that the evolution of the +marriage-ceremony in Japan chiefly followed Chinese precedent; and in +the Chinese patriarchal family the ceremony is in its own way quite +as much of a religious rite as the early Greek or Roman marriage. And +though the relation of the Japanese [67] rite to the family cult is +less marked, it becomes sufficiently clear upon investigation. The +alternate drinking of rice-wine, by bridegroom and bride, from the +same vessels, corresponds in a sort to the Roman confarreatio. By the +wedding-rite the bride is adopted into the family religion. She is +adopted not only by the living but by the dead; she must thereafter +revere the ancestors of her husband as her own ancestors; and should +there be no elders in the household, it will become her duty to make +the offerings, as representative of her husband. With the cult of her +own family she has nothing more to do; and the funeral ceremonies +performed upon her departure from the parental roof,--the solemn +sweeping-out of the house-rooms, the lighting of the death-fire +before the gate,--are significant of this religious separation. + +[*The translation is Mr. Mitford's. There are no "images" of the +family-god, and I suppose that the family's Shinto-shrine is meant, +with its ancestral tablets.] + +Speaking of the Greek and Roman marriage, M. de Coulanges +observes:--"Une telle religion ne pouvait pas admettre la polygamie." +As relating to the highly developed domestic cult of those +communities considered by the author of La Cite Antique, his +statement will scarcely be called in question. But as regards +ancestor-worship in general, it would be incorrect; since polygamy or +polygyny, and polyandry may coexist with ruder forms of +ancestor-worship. The Western-Aryan societies, in the epoch studied +by M. de Coulanges, were practically [68] monogamic. The ancient +Japanese society was polygynous; and polygyny persisted, after the +establishment of the domestic cult. In early times, the marital +relation itself would seem to have been indefinite. No distinction +was made between the wife and the concubines: "they were classed +together as 'women.'"* [*Satow: The Revival of Pure Shintau] Probably +under Chinese influence the distinction was afterwards sharply drawn; +and with the progress of civilization, the general tendency was +towards monogamy, although the ruling classes remained polygynous. In +the 54th article of Iyeyasu's legacy, this phase of the social +condition is clearly expressed,--a condition which prevailed down to +the present era:-- + +"The position a wife holds towards a concubine is the same as that of +a lord to his vassal. The Emperor has twelve imperial concubines. The +princes may have eight concubines. Officers of the highest class may +have five mistresses. A Samurai may have two handmaids. All below +this are ordinary married men." + +This would suggest that concubinage had long been (with some possible +exceptions) an exclusive privilege; and that it should have persisted +down to the period of the abolition of the daimiates and of the +military class, is sufficiently explained by the militant character +of the ancient society.* Though [69] it is untrue that domestic +ancestor-worship cannot coexist with polygamy or polygyny (Mr. +Spencer's term is the most inclusive), it is at least true that such +worship is favoured by the monogamic relation, and tends therefore to +establish it,--since monogamy insures to the family succession a +stability that no other relation can offer. We may say that, although +the old Japanese society was not monogamic, the natural tendency was +towards monogamy, as the condition best according with the religion +of the family, and with the moral feeling of the masses. + +[*See especially Herbert Spencer's chapter, "The Family," in Vol. I, +Principles of Sociology, section 315.] + +Once that the domestic ancestor-cult had become universally +established, the question of marriage, as a duty of filial pity, +could not be judiciously left to the will of the young people +themselves. It was a matter to be decided by the family, not by the +children; for mutual inclination could not be suffered to interfere +with the requirements of the household religion. It was not a +question of affection, but of religious duty; and to think otherwise +was impious. Affection might and ought to spring up from the +relation. But any affection powerful enough to endanger the cohesion +of the family would be condemned. A wife might therefore be divorced +because her husband had become too much attached to her; an adopted +husband might be divorced because of his power to exercise, through +affection, too [70] great an influence upon the daughter of the +house. Other causes would probably he found for the divorce in either +case--but they would not be difficult to find. + +For the same reason that connubial affection could be tolerated only +within limits, the natural rights of parenthood (as we understand +them) were necessarily restricted in the old Japanese household. +Marriage being for the purpose of obtaining heirs to perpetuate the +cult, the children were regarded as belonging to the family rather +than to the father and mother. Hence, in case of divorcing the son's +wife, or the adopted son-in-law,--or of disinheriting the married +son,--the children would be retained by the family. For the natural +right of the young parents was considered subordinate to the +religious rights of the house. In opposition to those rights, no +other rights could be tolerated. Practically, of course, according to +more or less fortunate circumstances, the individual might enjoy +freedom under the paternal roof; but theoretically and legally there +was no freedom in the old Japanese family for any member of it,--not +excepting even its acknowledged chief, whose responsibilities were +great. Every person, from the youngest child up to the grandfather, +was subject to somebody else; and every act of domestic life was +regulated by traditional custom. + +Like the Greek or Roman father, the patriarch of the Japanese family +appears to have had in early [71] times powers of life and death over +all the members of the household. In the ruder ages the father might +either kill or sell his children; and afterwards, among the ruling +classes his powers remained almost unlimited until modern times. +Allowing for certain local exceptions, explicable by tradition, or +class-exceptions, explicable by conditions of servitude, it may be +said that originally the Japanese paterfamilias was at once ruler, +priest, and magistrate within the family. He could compel his +children to marry or forbid them to marry; he could disinherit or +repudiate them; he could ordain the profession or calling which they +were to follow; and his power extended to all members of the family, +and to the household dependents. At different epochs limits were +placed to the exercise of this power, in the case of the ordinary +people; but in the military class, the patria potestas was almost +unrestricted. In its extreme form, the paternal power controlled +everything,--the right to life and liberty,--the right to marry, or +to keep the wife or husband already espoused,--the right to one's own +children,--the right to hold property,--the right to hold +office,--the right to choose or follow an occupation. The family was +a despotism. + +It should not be forgotten, however, that the absolutism prevailing +in the patriarchal family has its justification in a religious +belief,--in the conviction that everything should be sacrificed for +the sake [72] of the cult, and every member of the family should be +ready to give up even life, if necessary, to assure the perpetuity of +the succession. Remembering this, it becomes easy to understand why, +even in communities otherwise advanced in civilization, it should +have seemed right that a father could kill or sell his children. The +crime of a son might result in the extinction of a cult through the +ruin of the family,--especially in a militant society like that of +Japan, where the entire family was held responsible for the acts of +each of its members, so that a capital offence would involve the +penalty of death on the whole of the household, including the +children. Again, the sale of a daughter, in time of extreme need, +might save a house from ruin; and filial piety exacted submission to +such sacrifice for the sake of the cult. + +As in the Aryan family,* property descended by right of primogeniture +from father to son; the eldest-born, even in cases where the other +property was to be divided among the children, always inheriting the +homestead. The homestead property was, however, family property; and +it passed to the eldest son as representative, not as individual. +Generally speaking, sons could not hold property, without the +father's consent, during such time as he retained his [73] headship. +As a rule,--to which there were various exceptions,--a daughter could +not inherit; and in the case of an only daughter, for whom a husband +had been adopted, the homestead property would pass to the adopted +husband, because (until within recent times) a woman could not become +the head of a family. This was the case also in the Western Aryan +household, in ancestor-worshipping times. + +[*The laws of succession in Old Japan differed considerably according +to class, place, and era; the entire subject has not yet been fully +treated; and only a few safe general statements can be ventured at +the present time.] + +To modern thinking, the position of woman in the old Japanese family +appears to have been the reverse of happy. As a child she was +subject, not only to the elders, but to all the male adults of the +household. Adopted into another household as wife, she merely passed +into a similar state of subjection, unalleviated by the affection +which parental and fraternal ties assured her in the ancestral home. +Her retention in the family of her husband did not depend upon his +affection, but upon the will of the majority, and especially of the +elders. Divorced, she could not claim her children: they belonged to +the family of the husband. In any event her duties as wife were more +trying than those of a hired servant. Only in old age could she hope +to exercise some authority; but even in old age she was under +tutelage--throughout her entire life she was in tutelage. "A woman +can have no house of her own in the Three Universes," declared an old +Japanese proverb. Neither could she have a cult of her own: there was +no special cult for the women of a family [74]--no ancestral rite +distinct from that of the husband. And the higher the rank of the +family into which she entered by marriage, the more difficult would +be her position. For a woman of the aristocratic class no freedom +existed: she could not even pass beyond her own gate except in a +palanquin (kago) or under escort; and her existence as a wife was +likely to be embittered by the presence of concubines in the house. + +Such was the patriarchal family in old times; yet it is probable that +conditions were really better than the laws and the customs would +suggest. The race is a joyous and kindly one; and it discovered, long +centuries ago, many ways of smoothing the difficulties of life, and +of modifying the harsher exactions of law and custom. The great +powers of the family-head were probably but seldom exercised in cruel +directions. He might have legal rights of the most formidable +character; but these were required by reason of his responsibilities, +and were not likely to be used against communal judgment. It must be +remembered that the individual was not legally considered in former +times: the family only was recognized; and the head of it legally +existed only as representative. If he erred, the whole family was +liable to suffer the penalty of his error. Furthermore, every extreme +exercise of his authority involved proportionate responsibilities. He +could [75] divorce his wife, or compel his son to divorce the adopted +daughter-in-law; but in either case he would have to account for this +action to the family of the divorced; and the divorce-right, +especially in the samurai class, was greatly restrained by the fear +of family resentment; the unjust dismissal of a wife being counted as +an insult to her kindred. He might disinherit an only son; but in +that event he would be obliged to adopt a kinsman. He might kill or +sell either son or daughter; but unless he belonged to some abject +class, he would have to justify his action to the community.* He +might be reckless in his management of the family property; but in +that case an appeal to communal authority was possible, and the +appeal might result in his deposition. So far as we are able to judge +from the remains of old Japanese law which have been studied, it +would seem to have been the general rule that the family-head could +not sell or alienate the estate. Though the family-rule was despotic, +it was the rule of a body rather than of a chief; the family-head +really exercising authority in the name of the rest .... In this +sense, the family still remains a despotism; but the powers of its +legal head are now checked, from within as well as from without, [76] +by later custom. The acts of adoption, disinheritance, marriage, or +divorce, are decided usually by general consent; and the decision of +the household and kindred is required in the taking of any important +step to the disadvantage of the individual. + +[*Samurai fathers might kill a daughter convicted of unchastity, or +kill a son guilty of any action calculated to disgrace the family +name. But they would not sell a child. The sale of daughters was +practised only by the abject classes, or by families of other castes +reduced to desperate extremities. A girl might, however, sell herself +for the sake of her family.] + +Of course the old family-organization had certain advantages which +compensated the individual for his state of subjection. It was a +society of mutual help; and it was not less powerful to give aid, +than to enforce obedience. Every member could do something to assist +another member in case of need: each had a right to the protection of +all. This remains true of the family to-day. In a well-conducted +household, where every act is performed according to the old forms of +courtesy and kindness,--where no harsh word is ever spoken, where the +young look up to the aged with affectionate respect,--where those +whom years have incapacitated for more active duty, take upon +themselves the care of the children, and render priceless service in +teaching and training,--an ideal condition has been realized. The +daily life of such a home,--in which the endeavour of each is to make +existence as pleasant as possible for all.,--in which the bond of +union is really love and gratitude,--represents religion in the best +and purest sense; and the place is holy .... + +It remains to speak of the dependants in the [77] ancient family. +Though the fact has not yet been fully established, it is probable +that the first domestics were slaves or serfs; and the condition of +servants in later times,--especially of those in families of the +ruling classes,--was much like that of slaves in the early Greek and +Roman families. Though necessarily treated as inferiors, they were +regarded as members of the household: they were trusted familiars, +permitted to share in the pleasures of the family, and to be present +at most of its reunions. They could legally be dealt with harshly; +but there is little doubt that, as a rule, they were treated +kindly,--absolute loyalty being expected from them. The best +indication of their status in past times is furnished by yet +surviving customs. Though the power of the family over the servant no +longer exists in law or in fact, the pleasant features of the old +relation continue; and they are of no little interest. The family +takes a sincere interest in the welfare of its domestics,--almost +such interest as would be shown in the case of poorer kindred. +Formerly the family furnishing servants to a household of higher +rank, stood to the latter in the relation of vassal to liege-lord; +and between the two there existed a real bond of loyalty and +kindliness. The occupation of servant was then hereditary; children +were trained for the duty from an early age. After the man-servant or +maidservant had arrived at a certain age, permission to [78] marry +was accorded; and the relation of service then ceased, but not the +bond of loyalty. The children of the married servants would be sent, +when old enough, to work in the house of the master, and would leave +it only when the time also came for them to marry. Relations of this +kind still exist between certain aristocratic families and former +vassal-families, and conserve some charming traditions and customs of +hereditary service, unchanged for hundreds of years. + +In feudal times, of course, the bond between master and servant was +of the most serious kind; the latter being expected, in case of need, +to sacrifice life and all else for the sake of the master or of the +master's household. This also was the loyalty demanded of the Greek +and Roman domestic,--before there had yet come into existence that +inhuman form of servitude which reduced the toiler to the condition +of a beast of burden; and the relation was partly a religious one. +There does not seem to have been in ancient Japan any custom +corresponding to that, described by M. de Coulanges, of adopting the +Greek or Roman servant into the household cult. But as the Japanese +vassal-families furnishing domestics were, as vassals, necessarily +attached to the clan-cult of their lord, the relation of the servant +to the family was to some extent a religious bond. + +[79] The reader will be able to understand, from the facts of this +chapter, to what extent the individual was sacrificed to the family, +as a religious body. From servant to master--up through all degrees +of the household hierarchy--the law of duty was the same: obedience +absolute to custom and tradition. The ancestral cult permitted no +individual freedom: nobody could live according to his or her +pleasure; every one had to live according to rule. The individual did +not even have a legal existence;--the family was the unit of society. +Even its patriarch existed in law as representative only, responsible +both to the living and the dead. His public responsibility, however, +was not determined merely by civil law. It was determined by another +religious bond,--that of the ancestral cult of the clan or tribe; and +this public form of ancestor-worship was even more exacting than the +religion of the home. + + + +[80] + +[81] + +THE COMMUNAL CULT + +As by the religion of the household each individual was ruled in +every action of domestic life, so, by the religion of the village or +district the family was ruled in all its relations to the outer +world. Like the religion of the home, the religion of the commune was +ancestor-worship. What the household shrine represented to the +family, the Shinto parish-temple represented to the community; and +the deity there worshipped as tutelar god was called Ujigami, the god +of the Uji, which term originally signified the patriarchal family or +gens, as well as the family name. + +Some obscurity still attaches to the question of the original +relation of the community to the Uji-god. Hirata declares the god of +the Uji to have been the common ancestor of the clan-family,--the +ghost of the first patriarch; and this opinion (allowing for sundry +exceptions) is almost certainly correct. But it is difficult to +decide whether the Uji-ko, or "children of the family" (as Shinto +parishioners are still termed) at first included only the descendants +of the clan-ancestor, or also the whole of the inhabitants [82] of +the district ruled by the clan. It is certainly not true at the +present time that the tutelar deity of each Japanese district +represents the common ancestor of its inhabitants,--though, to this +general rule, there might be found exception in some of the remoter +provinces. Most probably the god of the Uji was first worshipped by +the people of the district rather as the spirit of a former ruler, or +the patron-god of a ruling family, than as the spirit of a common +ancestor. It has been tolerably well proved that the bulk of the +Japanese people were in a state of servitude from before the +beginning of the historic period, and so remained until within +comparatively recent times. The subject-classes may not have had at +first a cult of their own: their religion would most likely have been +that of their masters. In later times the vassal was certainly +attached to the cult of the lord. But it is difficult as yet to +venture any general statement as to the earliest phase of the +communal cult in Japan; for the history of the Japanese nation is not +that of a single people of one blood, but a history of many +clan-groups, of different origin, gradually brought together to form +one huge patriarchal society. + +However, it is quite safe to assume, with the best native +authorities, that the Ujigami were originally clan-deities, and that +they were usually, though not invariably, worshipped as +clan-ancestors. [83] Some Ujigami belong to the historic period. The +war god Hachiman, for example,--to whom parish-temples are dedicated +in almost every large city,--is the apotheosized spirit of the +Emperor Ojin, patron of the famed Minamoto clan. This is an example +of Ujigami worship in which the clan-god is not an ancestor. But in +many instances the Ujigami is really the ancestor of an Uji; as in +the case of the great deity of Kasuga, from whom the Fujiwara clan +claimed descent. Altogether there were in ancient Japan, after the +beginning of the historic era, 1182 clans, great and small; and these +appear to have established the same number of cults. We find, as +might be expected, that the temples now called Ujigami--which is to +say, Shinto parish-temples in general--are always dedicated to a +particular class of divinities, and never dedicated to certain other +gods. Also, it is significant that in every large town there are +Shinto temples dedicated to the same Uji-gods,--proving the transfer +of communal worship from its place of origin. Thus the Izumo +worshipper of Kasuga-Sama can find in Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, +parish-temples dedicated to his patron: the Kyushu worshipper of +Hachiman-Sama can place himself under the protection of the same +deity in Musashi quite as well as in Higo or Bungo. Another fact +worth observing is that the Ujigami temple is not necessarily the +most important Shinto temple in the parish: it is the parish-temple, +[84] and important to the communal worship; but it may be outranked +and overshadowed by some adjacent temple dedicated to higher Shinto +gods. Thus in Kitzuki of Izumo, for example, the great Izumo temple +is not the Ujigami,--not the parish-temple; the local cult is +maintained at a much smaller temple .... Of the higher cults I shall +speak further on; for the present let us consider only the communal +cult, in its relation to communal life. From the social conditions +represented by the worship of the Ujigami to-day, much can be +inferred as to its influence in past times. + +Almost every Japanese village has its Ujigami; and each district of +every large town or city also has its Ujigami. The worship of the +tutelar deity is maintained by the whole body of parishioners, the +Ujiko, or children of the tutelar god. Every such parish-temple has +its holy days, when all Ujiko are expected to visit the temple, and +when, as a matter of fact, every household sends at least one +representative to the Ujigami. There are great festival-days and +ordinary festival-days; there are processions, music, dancing, and +whatever in the way of popular amusement can serve to make the +occasion attractive. The people of adjacent districts vie with each +other in rendering their respective temple-festivals (matsuri) +enjoyable: every household contributes according to its means. [85] +The Shinto parish-temple has an intimate relation to the life of the +community as a body, and also to the individual existence of every +Ujiko. As a baby he or she is taken to the Ujigami--(at the +expiration of thirty-one days after birth if a boy, or thirty-three +days after birth if a girl)--and placed under the protection of the +god, in whose supposed presence the little one's name is recorded. +Thereafter the child is regularly taken to the temple on holy days, +and of course to all the big festivals, which are made delightful to +young fancy by the display of toys on sale in temporary booths, and +by the amusing spectacles to be witnessed in the temple +grounds,--artists forming pictures on the pavement with coloured +sands,--sweetmeat-sellers moulding animals and monsters out of +sugar-paste,--conjurors and tumblers exhibiting their skill.... +Later, when the child becomes strong enough to run about, the temple +gardens and groves serve for a playground. School-life does not +separate the Ujiko from the Ujigami (unless the family should +permanently leave the district); the visits to the temple are still +continued as a duty. Grown-up and married, the Ujiko regularly visits +the guardian-god, accompanied by wife or husband, and brings the +children to pay obeisance. If obliged to make a long journey, or to +quit the district forever, the Ujiko pays a farewell visit to the +Ujigami, as well as to the tombs of the family ancestors; and on +returning to one's native place after prolonged [86] absence, the +first visit is to the god .... I have more than once been touched by +the spectacle of soldiers at prayer before lonesome little temples in +country places,--soldiers but just returned from Korea, China, or +Formosa: their first thought on reaching home was to utter their +thanks to the god of their childhood, whom they believed to have +guarded them in the hour of battle and the season of pestilence. + +The best authority on the local customs and laws of Old Japan, John +Henry Wigmore, remarks that the Shinto cult had few relations with +local administration. In his opinion the Ujigami were the deified +ancestors of certain noble families of early times; and their temples +continued to be in the patronage of those families. The office of the +Shinto priest, or "god-master" (kannushi) was, and still is, +hereditary; and, as a rule, any kannushi can trace back his descent +from the family of which the Ujigami was originally the patron-god. +But the Shinto priests, with some few exceptions, were neither +magistrates nor administrators; and Professor Wigmore thinks that +this may have been "due to the lack of administrative organization +within the cult itself."* [87] This would be an adequate explanation. +But in spite of the fact that they exercised no civil function, I +believe it can be shown that Shinto priests had, and still have, +powers above the law. Their relation to the community was of an +extremely important kind: their authority was only religious but it +was heavy and irresistible. + +[*The vague character of the Shinto hierarchy is probably best +explained by Mr. Spencer in Chapter VIII of the third volume of +Principles of Sociology: "The establishment of an ecclesiastical +organization separate from the political organization, but akin to it +in its structure, appears to be largely determined by the rise of a +decided distinction in thought between the affairs of this world and +those of a supposed other world. Where the two are conceived as +existing in continuity, or as intimately related, the organizations +appropriate to their respective administrations remain either +identical or imperfectly distinguished .... if the Chinese are +remarkable for the complete absence of a priestly caste, it is +because, along with their universal and active ancestor-worship, they +have preserved that inclusion of the duties of priest in the duties +of ruler, which ancestor-worship in its simple form shows us." Mr. +Spencer remarks in the same paragraph on the fact that in ancient +Japan "religion and government were the same." A distinct Shinto +hierarchy was therefore never evolved.] + +To understand this, we must remember that the Shinto priest +represented the religious sentiment of his district. The social bond +of each community was identical with the religious bond,--the cult of +the local tutelar god. It was to the Ujigami that prayers were made +for success in all communal undertakings, for protection against +sickness, for the triumph of the lord in time of war, for succour in +the season of famine or epidemic. The Ujigami was the giver of all +good things,--the special helper and guardian of the people. That +this belief still prevails may be verified by any one who studies the +peasant-life of Japan. It is not to the Buddhas that the farmer prays +for bountiful harvests, or for rain in time of drought; it is not to +the Buddhas [88] that thanks are rendered for a plentiful +rice-crop--but to the ancient local god. And the cult of the Ujigami +embodies the moral experience of the community,--represents all its +cherished traditions and customs, its unwritten laws of conduct, its +sentiment of duty .... Now just as an offence against the ethics of +the family must, in such a society, be regarded as an impiety towards +the family-ancestor, so any breach of custom in the village or +district must be considered as an act of disrespect to its Ujigami. +The prosperity of the family depends, it is thought, upon the +observance of filial piety, which is identified with obedience to the +traditional rules of household conduct; and, in like manner, the +prosperity of the commune is supposed to depend upon the observance +of ancestral custom,--upon obedience to those unwritten laws of the +district, which are taught to all from the time of their childhood. +Customs are identified with morals. Any offence against the customs +of the settlement is an offence against the gods who protect it, and +therefore a menace to the public weal. The existence of the community +is endangered by the crime of any of its members: every member is +therefore held accountable by the community for his conduct. Every +action must conform to the traditional usages of the Ujiko: +independent exceptional conduct is a public offence. + +What the obligations of the individual to the [89] community +signified in ancient times may therefore be imagined. He had +certainly no more right to himself than had the Greek citizen three +thousand years ago,--probably not so much. To-day, though laws have +been greatly changed, he is practically in much the same condition. +The mere idea of the right to do as one pleases (within such limits +as are imposed on conduct by English and American societies, for +example) could not enter into his mind. Such freedom, if explained to +him, he would probably consider as a condition morally comparable to +that of birds and beasts. Among ourselves, the social regulations for +ordinary people chiefly settle what must not be done. But what one +must not do in Japan--though representing a very wide range of +prohibition means much less than half of the common obligation: what +one must do, is still more necessary to learn .... Let us briefly +consider the restraints which custom places upon the liberty of the +individual. + +First of all, be it observed that the communal will reinforces the +will of the household,--compels the observance of filial piety. Even +the conduct of a boy, who has passed the age of childhood, is +regulated not only by the family, but by the public. He must obey the +household; and he must also obey public opinion in regard to his +domestic relations. Any marked act of disrespect, inconsistent [90] +with filial piety, would be judged and rebuked by, all. When old +enough to begin work or study, a lad's daily conduct is observed and +criticised; and at the age when the household law first tightens +about him, he also commences to feel the pressure of common opinion. +On coming of age, he has to marry; and the idea of permitting him to +choose a wife for himself is quite out of the question: he is +expected to accept the companion selected for him. But should reasons +be found for humouring him in the event of an irresistible aversion, +then he must wait until another choice has been made by the family. +The community would not tolerate insubordination in such matters: one +example of filial revolt would constitute too dangerous a precedent. +When the young man at last becomes the head of a household, and +responsible for the conduct of its members, he is still constrained +by public sentiment to accept advice in his direction of domestic +affairs. He is not free to follow his own judgment, in certain +contingencies. For example, he is bound by custom to furnish help to +relatives; and he is obliged to accept arbitration in the event of +trouble with them. He is not permitted to think of his own wife and +children only,--such conduct would be deemed intolerably selfish: he +must be able to act, to outward seeming at least, as if uninfluenced +by paternal or marital affection in his public conduct. Even +supposing that, later in life, he should be [91] appointed to the +position of village or district headman, his right of action and +judgment would be under just as much restriction as before. Indeed, +the range of his personal freedom actually decreases in proportion to +his ascent in the social scale. Nominally he may rule as headman: +practically his authority is only lent to him by the commune, and it +will remain to him just so long as the commune pleases. For he is +elected to enforce the public will, not to impose his own,--to serve +the common interests, not to serve his own,--to maintain and confirm +custom, not to break with it. Thus, though appointed chief, he is +only the public servant, and the least free man in his native place. +Various documents translated and published by Professor Wigmore, in +his "Notes on Land Tenure and Local Institutions in Old Japan," give +a startling idea of the minute regulation of communal life in +country-districts during the period of the Tokujawa Shoguns. Much of +the regulation was certainly imposed by higher authority; but it is +likely that a considerable portion of the rules represented old local +custom. Such documents were called Kumi-cho or "Kumi*-enactments": +they established the rules of conduct to be observed by all the +members of a village-community, and their social interest is very +great. By personal inquiry I have learned that in various parts of +the country, rules much like those recorded in the Kumi-cho, are +still enforced by village custom. I select a few examples from +Professor Wigmore's translation:-- + +[*Down to the close of the feudal period, the mass of the population +throughout the country, in the great cities as well as in the +villages, was administratively ordered by groups of families, or +rather of households, called Kumi, or "companies." The general number +of households in a Kumi was five; but there were in some provinces +Kumi consisting of six, and of ten, households. The heads of the +households composing a Kumi elected one of their number as +chief,--who became the responsible representative of all the members +of the Kumi. The origin and history of the Kumi-system is obscure: a +similar system exists in China and in Korea. (Professor Wigmore's +reasons for doubting that the Japanese Kumi-system had a military +origin, appear to be cogent.) Certainly the system greatly +facilitated administration. To superior authority the Kumi was +responsible, not the single household.] + +[92] "If there be any of our number who are unkind to parents, or +neglectful or disobedient, we will not conceal it or condone it, but +will report it ...." + +"We shall require children to respect their parents, servants to obey +their masters, husbands and wives and brothers and sisters to live +together in harmony, and the younger people to revere and to cherish +their elders .... Each kumi [group of five households] shall +carefully watch over the conduct of its members, so as to prevent +wrongdoing." + +"If any member of a kumi, whether farmer, merchant, or artizan, is +lazy, and does not attend properly to his business, the ban-gashira +[chief officer] will advise him, warn him, and lead him into better +ways. If the person does not listen to this advice, and becomes angry +and obstinate, he is to be reported to the toshiyori [village elder] +...." + +"When men who are quarrelsome and who like to [93] indulge in late +hours away from home will not listen to admonition, we will report +them. If any other kumi neglects to do this, it will be part of our +duty to do it for them ...." + +"All those who quarrel with their relatives, and refuse to listen to +their good advice, or disobey their parents, or are unkind to their +fellow-villagers, shall be reported [to the village officers] ...." + +"Dancing, wrestling, and other public shows shall be forbidden. +Singing and dancing-girls and prostitutes shall not be allowed to +remain a single night in the mura [village]." + +"Quarrels among the people shall be forbidden. In case of dispute +the matter shall be reported. If this is not done, all parties shall +be indiscriminately punished ...." + +"Speaking disgraceful things of another man, or publicly posting him +as a bad man, even if he is so, is forbidden." + +"Filial piety and faithful service to a master should be a matter of +course; but when there is any one who is especially faithful and +diligent in these things, we promise to report him ... for +recommendation to the government ...." + +"As members of a kumi we will cultivate friendly feeling even more +than with our relatives, and will promote each other's happiness, as +well as share each other's griefs. If there is an unprincipled or +lawless person in a kumi, we will all share the responsibility for +him."* + +[*"Notes on Land Tenure and Local Institutions in Old Japan" +(Transactions Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. XIX, Part I) I have +chosen the quotations from different kumi-cho, and arranged them +illustratively.] + +[94] The above are samples of the moral regulations only: there were +even more minute regulations about other duties.--for instance:-- + +"When a fire occurs, the people shall immediately hasten to the spot, +each bringing a bucketful of water, and shall endeavour, under +direction of the officers, to put the fire out .... Those who absent +themselves shall be deemed culpable. + +"When a stranger comes to reside here, enquiries shall be made as to +the mura whence he came, and a surety shall be furnished by him .... +No traveller shall lodge, even for a single night, in a house other +than a public inn. + +"News of robberies and night attacks shall be given by the ringing of +bells or otherwise; and all who hear shall join in pursuit, until the +offender is taken. Any one wilfully refraining, shall, on +investigation, be punished." + +From these same Kumi-cho, it appears that no one could leave his +village even for a single night, without permission,--or take service +elsewhere, or marry in another province, or settle in another place. +Punishments were severe,--a terrible flogging being the common mode +of chastisement by the higher authority.... To-day, there are no such +punishments; and, legally, a man can go where he pleases. But as a +matter of fact he can nowhere do as he pleases; for individual +liberty is still largely restricted by the survival of communal +sentiment and old-fashioned custom. In any country community it would +be unwise to proclaim such a doctrine as that [95] a man has the +right to employ his leisure and his means as he may think proper. No +man's time or money or effort can be considered exclusively his +own,--nor even the body that his ghost inhabits. His right to live in +the community rests solely upon his willingness to serve the +community; and whoever may need his help or sympathy has the +privilege of demanding it. That "a man's house is his castle" cannot +be asserted in Japan--except in the case of some high potentate. No +ordinary person can shut his door to lock out the rest of the world. +Everybody's house must be open to visitors: to close its gates by day +would be regarded as an insult to the community,--sickness affording +no excuse. Only persons in very great authority have the right of +making themselves inaccessible. And to displease the community in +which one lives,--especially if the community be a rural one,--is a +serious matter. When a community is displeased, if acts as an +individual. It may consist of five hundred, a thousand, or several +thousand persons; but the thinking of all is the thinking of one. By +a single serious mistake a man may find himself suddenly placed in +solitary opposition to the common will,--isolated, and most +effectively ostracized. The silence and the softness of the hostility +only render it all the more alarming. This is the ordinary form of +punishment for a grave offence against custom: violence is rare, and +when resorted to is intended (except in [96] some extraordinary cases +presently to be noticed) as a mere correction, the punishment of a +blunder. In certain rough communities, blunders endangering life are +immediately punished by physical chastisement,--not in anger, but on +traditional principle. Once I witnessed at a fishing-settlement, a +chastisement of this kind. Men were killing tunny in the surf; the +work was bloody and dangerous; and in the midst of the excitement, +one of the fishermen struck his killing-spike into the head of a boy. +Everybody knew that it was a pure accident; but accidents involving +danger to life are rudely dealt with, and this blunderer was +instantly knocked senseless by the men nearest him,--then dragged out +of the surf and flung down on the sand to recover himself as best he +might. No word was said about the matter; and the killing went on as +before. Young fishermen, I am told, are roughly handled by their +fellows on board a ship, in the case of any error involving risk to +the vessel. But, as I have already observed, only stupidity is +punished in this fashion; and ostracism is much more dreaded than +violence. There is, indeed, only one yet heavier punishment than +ostracism--namely, banishment, either for a term of years or for +life. + +Banishment must in old feudal times have been a very serious penalty; +it is a serious penalty even to-day, under the new order of things. +In former years the man expelled from his native place by the [97] +communal will--cast out from his home, his clan, his occupation +--found himself face to face with misery absolute. In another +community there would be no place for him, unless he happened to have +relatives there; and these would be obliged to consult with the local +authorities, and also with the officials of the fugitive's native +place, before venturing to harbour him. No stranger was suffered to +settle in another district than his own without official permission. +Old documents are extant which record the punishments inflicted upon +households for having given shelter to a stranger under pretence of +relationship. A banished man was homeless and friendless. He might be +a skilled craftsman; but the right to exercise his craft depended +upon the consent of the guild representing that craft in the place to +which he might go; and banished men were not received by the guilds. +He might try to become a servant; but the commune in which he sought +refuge would question the right of any master to employ a fugitive +and a stranger. His religious connexions could not serve him in the +least: the code of communal life was decided not by Buddhist, but by +Shinto ethics. Since the gods of his birthplace had cast him out, and +the gods of any other locality had nothing to do with his original +cult, there was no religious help for him. Besides, the mere fact of +his being a refugee was itself proof that he must have offended +against his own cult. [98] In any event no stranger could look for +sympathy among strangers. Even now to take a wife from another +province is condemned by local opinion (it was forbidden in feudal +times): one is still expected to live, work, and marry in the place +where one has been born,--though, in certain cases, and with the +public approval of one's own people, adoption into another community +is tolerated. Under the feudal system there was incomparably less +likelihood of sympathy for the stranger; and banishment signified +hunger, solitude, and privation unspeakable. For be it remembered +that the legal existence of the individual, at that period, ceased +entirely outside of his relation to the family and to the commune. +Everybody lived and worked for some household; every household for +some clan; outside of the household, and the related aggregate of +households, there was no life to be lived--except the life of +criminals, beggars, and pariahs. Save with official permission, one +could not even become a Buddhist monk. The very outcasts--such as the +Eta classes--formed self-governing communities, with traditions of +their own, and would not voluntarily accept strangers. So the +banished man was most often doomed to become a hinin,--one of that +wretched class of wandering pariahs who were officially termed +"not-men," and lived by beggary, or by the exercise of some vulgar +profession, such as that of ambulant musician or [99] mountebank. In +more ancient days a banished man could have sold himself into +slavery; but even this poor privilege seems to have been withdrawn +during the Tokugawa era. + +We can scarcely imagine to-day the conditions of such banishment: to +find a Western parallel we must go back to ancient Greek and Roman +times long preceding the Empire. Banishment then signified religious +excommunication, and practically expulsion from all civilized +society,--since there yet existed no idea of human brotherhood, no +conception of any claim upon kindness except the claim of kinship. +The stranger was everywhere the enemy. Now in Japan, as in the Greek +city of old time, the religion of the tutelar god has always been the +religion of a group only, the cult of a community: it never became +even the religion of a province. The higher cults, on the other hand, +did not concern themselves with the individual: his religion was only +of the household and of the village or district; the cults of other +households and districts were entirely distinct; one could belong to +them only by adoption, and strangers, as a rule, were not adopted. +Without a household or a clan-cult, the individual was morally and +socially dead; for other cults and clans excluded him. When cast out +by the domestic cult that regulated his private life, and by the +local cult that ordered his life in relation to the community, he +simply ceased to exist in relation to human society. + +[100] How small were the chances in past times for personality to +develop and assert itself may be imagined from the foregoing facts. +The individual was completely and pitilessly sacrificed to the +community. Even now the only safe rule of conduct in a Japanese +settlement is to act in all things according to local custom; for the +slightest divergence from rule will be observed with disfavour. +Privacy does not exist; nothing can be hidden; everybody's vices or +virtues are known to everybody else. Unusual behaviour is judged as a +departure from the traditional standard of conduct; all oddities are +condemned as departures from custom; and tradition and custom still +have the force of religious obligations. Indeed, they really are +religious and obligatory, not only by reason of their origin, but by +reason of their relation also to the public cult, which signifies the +worship of the past. + +It is therefore easy to understand why Shinto never had a written +code of morals, and why its greatest scholars have declared that a +moral code is unnecessary. In that stage of religious evolution which +ancestor-worship represents, there can be no distinction between +religion and ethics, nor between ethics and custom. Government and +religion are the same; custom and law are identified. The ethics of +Shinto were all included in conformity to custom. The traditional +rules of the household, the traditional laws of the commune--these +were [101] the morals of Shinto: to obey them was religion; to +disobey them, impiety .... And, after all, the true significance of +any religious code, written or unwritten, lies in its expression of +social duty, its doctrine of the right and wrong of conduct, its +embodiment of a people's moral experience. Really the difference +between any modern ideal of conduct, such as the English, and the +patriarchal ideal, such as that of the early Greeks or of the +Japanese, would be found on examination to consist mainly in the +minute extension of the older conception to all details of individual +life. Assuredly the religion of Shinto needed no written commandment: +it was taught to everybody from childhood by precept and example, and +any person of ordinary intelligence could learn it. When a religion +is capable of rendering it dangerous for anybody to act outside of +rules, the framing of a code would be obviously superfluous. We +ourselves have no written code of conduct as regards the higher +social life, the exclusive circles of civilized existence, which are +not ruled merely by the Ten Commandments. The knowledge of what to do +in those zones, and of how to do it, can come only by training, by +experience, by observation, and by the intuitive recognition of the +reason of things. + +And now to return to the question of the authority of the Shinto +priest as representative of communal [102] sentiment,--an authority +which I believe to have been always very great .... Striking proof +that the punishments inflicted by a community upon its erring members +were originally inflicted in the name of the tutelar god is furnished +by the fact that manifestations of communal displeasure still assume, +in various country districts, a religious character. I have witnessed +such manifestations, and I am assured that they still occur in most +of the provinces. But it is in remote country-towns or isolated +villages, where traditions have remained almost unchanged, that one +can best observe these survivals of antique custom. In such places +the conduct of every resident is closely watched and rigidly judged +by all the rest. Little, however, is said about misdemeanours of a +minor sort until the time of the great local Shinto festival,--the +annual festival of the tutelar god. It is then that the community +gives its warnings or inflicts its penalties: this at least in the +case of conduct offensive to local ethics. The god, on the occasion +of this festival, is supposed to visit the dwellings of his Ujiko; +and his portable shrine,--a weighty structure borne by thirty or +forty men,--is carried through the principal streets. The bearers are +supposed to act according to the will of the god,--to go +whithersoever his divine spirit directs them .... I may describe the +incidents of the procession as I saw it in a seacoast village, not +once, but several times. + +[103] Before the procession a band of young men advance, leaping and +wildly dancing in circles: these young men clear the way; and it is +unsafe to pass near them, for they whirl about as if moved by frenzy +.... When I first saw such a band of dancers, I could imagine myself +watching some old Dionysiac revel;--their furious gyrations certainly +realized Greek accounts of the antique sacred frenzy. There were, +indeed, no Greek heads; but the bronzed lithe figures, naked save for +loin-cloth and sandals, and most sculpturesquely muscled, might well +have inspired some vase-design of dancing fauns. After these +god-possessed dancers--whose passage swept the streets clear, +scattering the crowd to right and left--came the virgin priestess, +white-robed and veiled, riding upon a horse, and followed by several +mounted priests in white garments and high black caps of ceremony. +Behind them advanced the ponderous shrine, swaying above: the heads +of its bearers like a junk in a storm. Scores of brawny arms were +pushing it to the right; other scores were pushing it to the left: +behind and before, also, there was furious pulling and pushing; and +the roar of voices uttering invocations made it impossible to hear +anything else. By immemorial custom the upper stories of all the +dwellings had been tightly closed: woe to the Peeping Tom who should +be detected, on such a day, in the impious act of looking down upon +the god!... + +[104] Now the shrine-bearers, as I have said, are supposed to be +moved by the spirit of the god--(probably by his Rough Spirit; for +the Shinto god is multiple); and all this pushing and pulling and +swaying signifies only the deity's inspection of the dwellings on +either hand. He is looking about to see whether the hearts of his +worshippers are pure, and is deciding whether it will be necessary to +give a warning, or to inflict a penalty. His bearers will carry him +whithersoever he chooses to go--through solid walls if necessary. If +the shrine strikes against any house,--even against an awning +only,--that is a sign that the god is not pleased with the dwellers +in that house. If the shrine breaks part of the house, that is a +serious warning. But it may happen that the god wills to enter a +house,--breaking his way. Then woe to the inmates, unless they flee +at once through the back-door; and the wild procession, thundering +in, will wreck and rend and smash and splinter everything on the +premises before the god consents to proceed upon his round. + +Upon enquiring into the reasons of two wreckings of which I witnessed +the results, I learned enough to assure me that from the communal +point of view, both aggressions were morally justifiable. In one case +a fraud had been practised; in the other, help had been refused to +the family of a drowned resident. Thus one offence had been legal; +the other only moral. A country community [105] will not hand over +its delinquents to the police except in case of incendiarism, murder, +theft, or other serious crime. It has a horror of law, and never +invokes it when the matter can be settled by any other means. This +was the rule also in ancient times, and the feudal government +encouraged its maintenance. But when the tutelar deity has been +displeased, he insists upon the punishment or disgrace of the +offender; and the offender's entire family, as by feudal custom, is +held responsible. The victim can invoke the new law, if he dares, and +bring the wreckers of his home into court, and recover damages, for +the modern police-courts are not ruled by Shinto. But only a very +rash man will invoke the new law against the communal judgment, for +that action in itself would be condemned as a gross breach of custom. +The community is always ready, through its council, to do justice in +cases where innocence can be proved. But if a man really guilty of +the faults charged to his account should try to avenge himself by +appeal to a non-religious law, then it were well for him to remove +himself and his family, as soon as possible thereafter, to some +far-away place. + +We have seen that, in Old Japan, the life of the individual was under +two kinds of religious control. All his acts were regulated according +to the traditions either of the domestic or of the communal [106] +cult; and these conditions probably began with the establishment of a +settled civilization. We have also seen that the communal religion +took upon itself to enforce the observance of the household religion. +The fact will not seem strange if we remember that the underlying +idea in either cult was the same,--the idea that the welfare of the +living depended upon the welfare of the dead. Neglect of the +household rite would provoke, it was believed, the malevolence of the +spirits; and their malevolence might bring about some public +misfortune. The ghosts of the ancestors controlled nature;--fire and +flood, pestilence and famine were at their disposal as means of +vengeance. One act of impiety in a village might, therefore, bring +about misfortune to all. And the community considered itself +responsible to the dead for the maintenance of filial piety in every +home. + + + +[107] + +DEVELOPMENTS OF SHINTO + +The teaching of Herbert Spencer that the greater gods of a +people--those figuring in popular imagination as creators, or as +particularly directing certain elemental forces--represent a later +development of ancestor-worship, is generally accepted to-day. +Ancestral ghosts, considered as more or less alike in the time when +primitive society had not yet developed class distinctions of any +important character, subsequently become differentiated, as the +society itself differentiates, into greater and lesser. Eventually +the worship of some one ancestral spirit, or group of spirits, +overshadows that of all the rest; and a supreme deity, or group of +supreme deities, becomes evolved. But the differentiations of the +ancestor-cult must be understood to proceed in a great variety of +directions. Particular ancestors of families engaged in hereditary +occupations may develop into tutelar deities presiding over those +occupations--patron gods of crafts and guilds. Out of other ancestral +cults, through various processes of mental association, may be +evolved the worship of deities of strength, of health, of long life, +of particular products, of particular localities. [108] When more +light shall have been thrown upon the question of Japanese origins, +it will probably be found that many of the lesser tutelar or patron +gods now worshipped in the country were originally the gods of +Chinese or Korean craftsmen; but I think that Japanese mythology, as +a whole, will prove to offer few important exceptions to the +evolutional law. Indeed, Shinto presents us with a mythological +hierarchy of which the development can be satisfactorily explained by +that law alone. Besides the Ujigami, there are myriads of superior +and of inferior deities. There are the primal deities, of whom only +the names are mentioned,--apparitions of the period of chaos; and +there are the gods of creation, who gave shape to the land. There are +the gods of earth, and, sky, and the gods of the sun and moon. Also +there are gods, beyond counting, supposed to preside over all things +good or evil in human life,--birth and marriage and death, riches and +poverty, strength and disease .... It can scarcely be supposed that +all this mythology was developed out of the old ancestor-cult in +Japan itself: more probably its evolution began on the Asiatic +continent. But the evolution of the national cult--that form of +Shinto which became the state religion--seems to have been Japanese, +in the strict meaning of the word. This cult is the worship of the +gods from whom the emperors claim descent,--the worship of the +"imperial ancestors." [109] It appears that the early emperors of +Japan--the "heavenly sovereigns," as they are called in the old +records--were not emperors at all in the true meaning of the term, +and did not even exercise universal authority. They were only the +chiefs of the most powerful clan, or Uji, and their special +ancestor-cult had probably in that time no dominant influence. But +eventually, when the chiefs of this great clan really became supreme +rulers of the land, their clan-cult spread everywhere, and +overshadowed, without abolishing, all the other cults. Then arose the +national mythology. + +We therefore see that the course of Japanese ancestor-worship, like +that of Aryan ancestor-worship, exhibits those three successive +stages of development before mentioned. It may be assumed that on +coming from the continent to their present island home, the race +brought with them a rude form of ancestor-worship, consisting of +little more than rites and sacrifices performed at the graves of the +dead. When the land had been portioned out among the various clans, +each of which had its own ancestor cult, all the people of the +district belonging to any particular clan would eventually adopt the +religion of the clan ancestor; and thus arose the thousand cults of +the Ujigami. Still later, the special cult of the most powerful clan +developed into a national religion,--the worship of the goddess of +the sun, [110] from whom the supreme ruler claimed descent. Then, +under Chinese influence, the domestic form of ancestor-worship was +established in lieu of the primitive family-cult: thereafter +offerings and prayers were made regularly in the home, where the +ancestral tablets represented the tombs of the family dead. But +offerings were still made, on special occasions, at the graves; and +the three Shinto forms of the cult, together with later forms of +Buddhist introduction, continued to exist; and they rule the life of +the nation to-day. + +It was the cult of the supreme ruler that first gave to the people a +written account of traditional beliefs. The mythology of the reigning +house furnished the scriptures of Shinto, and established ideas +linking together all the existing forms of ancestor-worship. All +Shinto traditions were by these writings blended into one +mythological history,--explained upon the basis of one legend. The +whole mythology is contained in two books, of which English +translations have been made. The oldest is entitled Ko-ji-ki, or +"Records of Ancient Matters"; and it is supposed to have been +compiled in the year 712 A.D. The other and much larger work is +called Nihongi, "Chronicles of Nihon [Japan]," and dates from about +720 A.D. Both works profess to be histories; but a large portion of +them is mythological, and either begins with a story of creation. +[111] They were compiled, mostly, from oral tradition we are told, by +imperial order. It is said that a yet earlier work, dating from the +seventh century, may have been drawn upon; but this has been lost. No +great antiquity can, therefore, be claimed for the texts as they +stand; but they contain traditions which must be very much +older,--possibly thousands of years older. The Ko-ji-ki is said to +have been written from the dictation of an old man of marvellous +memory; and the Shinto theologian Hirata would have us believe that +traditions thus preserved are especially trustworthy. "It is +probable," he wrote, "that those ancient traditions, preserved for us +by exercise of memory, have for that very reason come down to us in +greater detail than if they had been recorded in documents. Besides, +men must have had much stronger memories in the days before they +acquired the habit of trusting to written characters for facts which +they wished to remember,--as is shown at the present time in the case +of the illiterate, who have to depend on memory alone." We must smile +at Hirata's good faith in the changelessness of oral tradition; but I +believe that folk-lorists would discover in the character of the +older myths, intrinsic evidence of immense antiquity.--Chinese +influence is discernible in both works; yet certain parts have a +particular quality not to be found, I imagine, in anything +Chinese,--a primeval artlessness, a weirdness, and a strangeness +[112] having nothing in common with other mythical literature. For +example, we have, in the story of Izanagi, the world-maker, visiting +the shades to recall his dead spouse, a myth that seems to be purely +Japanese. The archaic naivete of the recital must impress anybody who +studies the literal translation. I shall present only the substance +of the legend, which has been recorded in a number of different +versions:*-- + +[*See for these different versions Aston's translation of the +Nihongi, Vol I.] + +When the time came for the Fire-god, Kagu-Tsuchi, to be born, his +mother, Izanami-no-Mikoto, was burnt, and suffered change, and +departed. Then Izanagi-no-Mikoto, was wroth and said, "Oh! that I +should have given my loved younger sister in exchange for a single +child!" He crawled at her head and he crawled at her feet, weeping +and lamenting; and the tears which he shed fell down and became a +deity .... Thereafter Izanagi-no-Mikoto went after Izanami-no-Mikoto +into the Land of Yomi, the world of the dead. Then Izanami-no-Mikoto, +appearing still as she was when alive, lifted the curtain of the +palace (of the dead), and came forth to meet him; and they talked +together. And Izanagi-no-Mikoto said to her: "I have come because I +sorrowed for thee, my lovely younger sister. O my lovely younger +sister, the lands that I and thou were making together are not [113] +yet finished; therefore come back!" Then Izanami-no-Mikoto made +answer, saying, "My august lord and husband, lamentable it is that +thou didst not come sooner,--for now I have eaten of the +cooking-range of Yomi. Nevertheless, as I am thus delightfully +honoured by thine entry here, my lovely elder brother, I wish to +return with thee to the living world. Now I go to discuss the matter +with the gods of Yomi. Wait thou here, and look not upon me." So +having spoken, she went back; and Izanagi waited for her. But she +tarried so long within that he became impatient. Then, taking the +wooden comb that he wore in the left bunch of his hair, he broke off +a tooth from one end of the comb and lighted it, and went in to look +for Izanami-no-Mikoto. But he saw her lying swollen and festering +among worms; and eight kinds of Thunder-Gods sat upon her .... And +Izanagi, being overawed by that sight, would have fled away; but +Izanami rose up, crying: "Thou hast put me to shame! Why didst thou +not observe that which I charged thee?... Thou hast seen my +nakedness; now I will see thine!" And she bade the Ugly Females of +Yomi to follow after him, and slay him; and the eight Thunders also +pursued him, and Izanami herself pursued him .... Then +Izanagi-no-Mikoto drew his sword, and flourished it behind him as he +ran. But they followed close upon him. He took off his black +headdress and flung it down; [114] and it became changed into grapes; +and while the Ugly Ones were eating the grapes, he gained upon them. +But they followed quickly; and he then took his comb and cast it +down, and it became changed into bamboo sprouts; and while the Ugly +Ones were devouring the sprouts, he fled on until he reached the +mouth of Yomi. Then taking a rock which it would have required the +strength of a thousand men to lift, he blocked therewith the entrance +as Izanami came up. And standing behind the rock, he began to +pronounce the words of divorce. Then, from the other side of the +rock, Izanami cried out to him, "My dear lord and master, if thou +dost so, in one day will I strangle to death a thousand of thy +people!" And Izanagi-no-Mikoto answered her, saying, "My beloved +younger sister, if thou dost so, I will cause in one day to be born +fifteen hundred ...." But the deity Kukuri-hime-no-Kami then came, +and spake to Izanami some word which she seemed to approve, and +thereafter she vanished away .... + +The strange mingling of pathos with nightmare-terror in this myth, of +which I have not ventured to present all the startling naiveti, +sufficiently proves its primitive character. It is a dream that some +one really dreamed,--one of those bad dreams in which the figure of a +person beloved becomes horribly transformed; and it has a particular +interest as [115] expressing that fear of death and of the dead +informing all primitive ancestor-worship. The whole pathos and +weirdness of the myth, the vague monstrosity of the fancies, the +formal use of terms of endearment in the moment of uttermost loathing +and fear,--all impress one as unmistakably Japanese. Several other +myths scarcely less remarkable are to be found in the Ko-ji-ki and +Nihongi; but they are mingled with legends of so light and graceful a +kind that it is scarcely possible to believe these latter to have +been imagined by the same race. The story of the magical jewels and +the visit to the sea-god's palace, for example, in the second book of +the Nihongi, sounds oddly like an Indian fairy-tale; and it is not +unlikely that the Ko-ji-ki and Nihongi both contain myths derived +from various alien sources. At all events their mythical chapters +present us with some curious problems which yet remain unsolved. +Otherwise the books are dull reading, in spite of the light which +they shed upon ancient customs and beliefs; and, generally speaking, +Japanese mythology is unattractive. But to dwell here upon the +mythology, at any length, is unnecessary; for its relation to Shinto +can be summed up in the space of a single brief paragraph-- + +In the beginning neither force nor form was manifest; and the world +was a shapeless mass that floated [116] like a jelly-fish upon water. +Then, in some way--we are not told how--earth and heaven became +separated; dim gods appeared and disappeared; and at last there came +into existence a male and a female deity, who gave birth and shape to +things. By this pair, Izanagi and Izanami, were produced the islands +of Japan, and the generations of the gods, and the deities of the Sun +and Moon. The descendants of these creating deities, and of the gods +whom they brought into being, were the eight thousand (or eighty +thousand) myriads of gods worshipped by Shinto. Some went to dwell in +the blue Plain of High Heaven; others remained on earth and became +the ancestors of the Japanese race. + +Such is the mythology of the Ko-ji-ki and the Nihongi, stated in the +briefest possible way. At first it appears that there were two +classes of gods recognized: Celestial and Terrestrial; and the old +Shinto rituals (norito) maintain this distinction. But it is a +curious fact that the celestial gods of this mythology do not +represent celestial forces; and that the gods who are really +identified with celestial phenomena are classed as terrestrial +gods,--having been born or "produced" upon earth. The Sun and Moon, +for example, are said to have been born in Japan,--though afterwards +placed in heaven; the Sun-goddess, Ama-terasu-no-oho-Kami, having +been produced from the left eye of Izanagi, and the [117] Moon-god, +Tsuki-yomi-no-Mikoto, having been produced from the right eye of +Izanagi when, after his visit to the under-world, he washed himself +at the mouth of a river in the island of Tsukushi. The Shinto +scholars of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries established some +order in this chaos of fancies by denying all distinction between the +Celestial and Terrestrial gods, except as regarded the accident of +birth. They also denied the old distinction between the so-called Age +of the Gods (Kami-yo), and the subsequent period of the Emperors. It +was true, they said, that the early rulers of Japan were gods; but so +were also the later rulers. The whole Imperial line, the "Sun's +Succession," represented one unbroken descent from the Goddess of the +Sun. Hirata wrote: "There exists no hard and fast line between the +Age of the Gods and the present age--and there exists no +justification whatever for drawing one, as the Nihongi does." Of +course this position involved the doctrine of a divine descent for +the whole race,--inasmuch as, according to the old mythology, the +first Japanese were all descendants of gods,--and that doctrine +Hirata boldly accepted. All the Japanese, he averred, were of divine +origin, and for that reason superior to the people of all other +countries. He even held that their divine descent could be proved +without difficulty. These are his words: "The descendants of the gods +who accompanied Ninigi-no-Mikoto [grandson of the Sun-goddess, [118] +and supposed founder of the Imperial house,]--as well as the +offspring of the successive Mikados, who entered the ranks of the +subjects of the Mikados, with the names of Taira, Minamoto, and so +forth,--have gradually increased and multiplied. Although numbers of +Japanese cannot state with certainty from what gods they are +descended, all of them have tribal names (kabane), which were +originally bestowed on them by the Mikados; and those who make it +their province to study genealogies can tell from a man's ordinary +surname, who his remotest ancestor must have been." All the Japanese +were gods in this sense; and their country was properly called the +Land of the Gods,--Shinkoku or Kami-no-kuni. Are we to understand +Hirata literally? I think so--but we must remember that there existed +in feudal times large classes of people, outside of the classes +officially recognized as forming the nation, who were not counted as +Japanese, nor even as human beings: these were pariahs, and reckoned +as little better than animals. Hirata probably referred to the four +great classes only--samurai, farmers, artizans, and merchants. But +even in that case what are we to think of his ascription of divinity +to the race, in view of the moral and physical feebleness of human +nature? The moral side of the question is answered by the Shinto +theory of evil deities, "gods of crookedness," who were alleged to +have "originated from the impurities contracted by [119] Izanagi +during his visit to the under-world." As for the physical weakness of +men, that is explained by a legend of Ninigi-no-Mikoto, divine +founder of the imperial house. The Goddess of Long Life, +Iha-naga-hime (Rock-long-princess), was sent to him for wife; but he +rejected her because of her ugliness; and that unwise proceeding +brought about "the present shortness of the lives of men." Most +mythologies ascribe vast duration to the lives of early patriarchs or +rulers: the farther we go back into mythological history, the +longer-lived are the sovereigns. To this general rule Japanese +mythology presents no exception. The son of Ninigi-no-Mikoto is said +to have lived five hundred and eighty years at his palace of +Takachiho; but that, remarks Hirata, "was a short life compared with +the lives of those who lived before him." Thereafter men's bodies +declined in force; life gradually became shorter and shorter; yet in +spite of all degeneration the Japanese still show traces of their +divine origin. After death they enter into a higher divine condition, +without, however, abandoning this world .... Such were Hirata's +views. Accepting the Shinto theory of origins, this ascription of +divinity to human nature proves less inconsistent than it appears at +first sight; and the modern Shintoist may discover a germ of +scientific truth in the doctrine which traces back the beginnings of +life to the Sun. + +[120] More than any other Japanese writer, Hirata has enabled us to +understand the hierarchy of Shinto mythology,--corresponding closely, +as we might have expected, to the ancient ordination of Japanese +society. In the lowermost ranks are the spirits of common people, +worshipped only at the household shrine or at graves. Above these are +the gentile gods or Ujigami,--ghosts of old rulers now worshipped as +tutelar gods. All Ujigami, Hirata tells us, are under the control of +the Great God of Izumo,--Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami,--and, "acting as his +agents, they rule the fortunes of human beings before their birth, +during their life, and after their death." This means that the +ordinary ghosts obey, in the world invisible, the commands of the +clan-gods or tutelar deities; that the conditions of communal worship +during life continue after death. The following extract from Hirata +will be found of interest,--not only as showing the supposed relation +of the individual to the Ujigami, but also as suggesting how the act +of abandoning one's birthplace was formerly judged by common +opinion:-- + +"When a person removes his residence, his original Ujigami has to +make arrangements with the Ujigami of the place whither he transfers +his abode. On such occasions it is proper to take leave of the old +god, and to pay a visit to the temple of the new god as soon as +possible after coming within his jurisdiction. The apparent reasons +which a man imagines to have induced him to change his [121] abode +may be many; but the real reasons cannot be otherwise than that +either he has offended his Ujigami, and is therefore expelled, or +that the Ujigami of another place has negotiated his transfer ...."* +[*Translated by Satow. The italics are mine.] + +It would thus appear that every person was supposed to be the +subject, servant, or retainer of some Ujigami, both during life and +after death. There were, of course, various grades of these +clan-gods, just as there were various grades of living rulers, lords +of the soil. Above ordinary Ujigami ranked the deities worshipped in +the chief Shinto temples of the various provinces, which temples were +termed Ichi-no-miya, or temples of the first grade. These deities +appear to have been in many cases spirits of princes or greater +daimyo, formerly, ruling extensive districts; but all were not of +this category. Among them were deities of elements or elemental +forces,--Wind, Fire, and Sea,--deities also of longevity, of destiny, +and of harvests,--clan-gods, perhaps, originally, though their real +history had been long forgotten. But above all other Shinto +divinities ranked the gods of the Imperial Cult,--the supposed +ancestors of the Mikados. + +Of the higher forms of Shinto worship, that of the imperial ancestors +proper is the most important, being the State cult; but it is not the +oldest. There are two supreme cults: that of the Sun-goddess, [122] +represented by the famous shrines of Ise; and the Izumo cult, +represented by the great temple of Kitzuki. This Izumo temple is the +centre of the more ancient cult. It is dedicated to +Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami, first ruler of the Province of the Gods, and +offspring of the brother of the Sun-goddess. Dispossessed of his +realm in favour of the founder of the imperial dynasty, +Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami became the ruler of the Unseen World,--that is +to say the World of Ghosts. Unto his shadowy dominion the spirits of +all men proceed after death; and he rules over all of the Ujigami. We +may therefore term him the Emperor of the Dead. "You cannot hope," +Hirata says, "to live more than a hundred years, under the most +favourable circumstances; but as you will go to the Unseen Realm of +Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami after death, and be subject to him, learn +betimes to bow down before him." ... That weird fancy expressed in +the wonderful fragment by Coleridge, "The Wanderings of Cain," would +therefore seem to have actually formed an article of ancient Shinto +faith: "The Lord is God of the living only: the dead have another +God." ... + +The God of the Living in Old Japan was, of course, the Mikado,--the +deity incarnate, Arahito-gami,--and his palace was the national +sanctuary, the Holy of Holies. Within the precincts of that [123] +palace was the Kashiko-Dokoro ("Place of Awe"), the private shrine of +the Imperial Ancestors, where only the court could worship,--the +public form of the same cult being maintained at Ise. But the +Imperial House worshipped also by deputy (and still so worships) both +at Kitzuki and Ise, and likewise at various other great sanctuaries. +Formerly a great number of temples were maintained, or partly +maintained, from the imperial revenues. All Shinto temples of +importance used to be classed as greater and lesser shrines. There +were 304 of the first rank, and 2828 of the second rank. But +multitudes of temples were not included in this official +classification, and depended upon local support. The recorded total +of Shinto shrines to-day is upwards of 195,000. + +We have thus--without counting the great Izumo cult of +Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami--four classes of ancestor-worship: the +domestic religion, the religion of the Ujigami, the worship at the +chief shrines [Ichi-no-miya] of the several provinces, and the +national cult at Ise. All these cults are now linked together by +tradition; and the devout Shintoist worships the divinities of all, +collectively, in his daily morning prayer. Occasionally he visits the +chief shrine of his province; and he makes a pilgrimage to Ise if he +can. Every Japanese is expected to visit the shrines of Ise once in +his lifetime, [124] or to send thither a deputy. Inhabitants of +remote districts are not all able, of course, to make the pilgrimage; +but there is no village which does not, at certain intervals, send +pilgrims either to Kitzuki or to Ise on behalf of the community, the +expense of such representation being defrayed by local subscription. +And, furthermore, every Japanese can worship the supreme divinities +of Shinto in his own house, where upon a "god-shelf" (Kamidana) are +tablets inscribed with the assurance of their divine +protection,--holy charms obtained from the priests of Ise or of +Kitzuki. In the case of the Ise cult, such tablets are commonly made +from the wood of the holy shrines themselves, which, according to +primal custom, must be rebuilt every twenty years,--the timber of the +demolished structures being then cut into tablets for distribution +throughout the country. + +Another development of ancestor-worship--the cult of gods presiding +over crafts and callings--deserves special study. Unfortunately we +are as yet little informed upon the subject. Anciently this worship +must have been more definitely ordered and maintained than it is now. +Occupations were hereditary; artizans were grouped into +guilds--perhaps we might even say castes;--and each guild or caste +then probably had in patron-deity. In some cases the craft-gods may +have been ancestors [125] of Japanese craftsmen; in other cases they +were perhaps of Korean or Chinese origin,--ancestral gods of +immigrant artizans, who brought their cults with them to Japan. Not +much is known about them. But it is tolerably safe to assume that +most, if not all of the guilds, were at one time religiously +organized, and that apprentices were adopted not only in a craft, but +into a cult. There were corporations of weavers, potters, carpenters, +arrow-makers, bow-makers, smiths, boat-builders, and other tradesmen; +and the past religious organization of these is suggested by the fact +that certain occupations assume a religious character even to-day. +For example, the carpenter still builds according to Shinto +tradition: he dons a priestly costume at a certain stage of the work, +performs rites, and chants invocations, and places the new house +under the protection of the gods. But the occupation of the +swordsmith was in old days the most sacred of crafts: he worked in +priestly garb, and practised Shinto) rites of purification while +engaged in the making of a good blade. Before his smithy was then +suspended the sacred rope of rice-straw (shime-nawa), which is the +oldest symbol of Shinto: none even of his family might enter there, +or speak to him; and he ate only of food cooked with holy fire. + +The 195,000 shrines of Shinto represent, however, more than +clan-cults or guild-cults or national-cults .... [126] Many are +dedicated to different spirits of the same god; for Shinto holds that +the spirit of either a man or a god may divide itself into several +spirits, each with a different character. Such separated spirits are +called waka-mi-tama ("august-divided-spirits"). Thus the spirit of +the Goddess of Food, Toyo-uke-bime, separated itself into the God of +Trees, Kukunochi-no-Kami, and into the Goddess of Grasses, +Kayanu-hime-no-Kami. Gods and men were supposed to have also a Rough +Spirit and a Gentle Spirit; and Hirata remarks that the Rough Spirit +of Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami was worshipped at one temple, and his +Gentle Spirit at another.*... Also we have to remember that great +numbers of Ujigami temples are dedicated to the same divinity. These +duplications or multiplications are again offset by the fact that in +some of the principal temples a multitude of different deities are +enshrined. Thus the number of Shinto temples in actual existence +affords no indication whatever of the actual number of gods +worshipped, nor of the variety of their cults. Almost every deity +mentioned in the Ko-ji-ki or Nihongi has a shrine somewhere; and +hundreds of others--including many later apotheoses--have their +temples. Numbers of temples have been dedicated, for example, to +[127] historical personages,--to spirits of great ministers, +captains, rulers, scholars, heroes, and statesmen. The famous +minister of the Empress Jingo, Takeno-uji-no-Sukune,--who served +under six successive sovereigns, and lived to the age of three +hundred years,--is now invoked in many a temple as a giver of long +life and great wisdom. The spirit of Sugiwara-no-Michizane, once +minister to the Emperor Daigo, is worshipped as the god of +calligraphy, under the name of Tenjin, or Temmangu: children +everywhere offer to him the first examples of their handwriting, and +deposit in receptacles, placed before his shrine, their worn-out +writing-brushes. The Soga brothers, victims and heroes of a famous +twelfth-century tragedy, have become gods to whom people pray for the +maintenance of fraternal harmony. Kato Kiyomasa, the determined enemy +of Jesuit Christianity, and Hideyoshi's greatest captain, has been +apotheosized both by Buddhism and by Shinto. Iyeyasu is worshipped +under the appellation of Toshogu. In fact most of the great men of +Japanese history have had temples erected to them; and the spirits of +the daimyo were, in former years, regularly worshipped by the +subjects of their descendants and successors. + +[*Even men had the Rough and the Gentle Spirit; but a god had three +distinct spirits,--the Rough, the Gentle, and the +Bestowing,--respectively termed Ara-mi-tama, Nigi-mi-tama, and +Saki-mi-tama.--[See SATOW's Revival of Pure Shintau.] + +Besides temples to deities presiding over industries and +agriculture,--or deities especially invoked by the peasants, such as +the goddess of silkworms, [128] the goddess of rice, the gods of wind +and weather,--there are to be found in almost every part of the +country what I may call propitiatory temples. These latter Shinto +shrines have been erected by way of compensation to spirits of +persons who suffered great injustice or misfortune. In these cases +the worship assumes a very curious character, the worshipper always +appealing for protection against the same kind of calamity or trouble +as that from which the apotheosized person suffered during life. In +Izumo, for example, I found a temple dedicated to the spirit of a +woman, once a prince's favourite. She had been driven to suicide by +the intrigues of jealous rivals. The story is that she had very +beautiful hair; but it was not quite black, and her enemies used to +reproach her with its color. Now mothers having children with +brownish hair pray to her that the brown may be changed to black; and +offerings are made to her of tresses of hair and Tokyo coloured +prints, for it is still remembered that she was fond of such prints. +In the same province there is a shrine erected to the spirit of a +young wife, who pined away for grief at the absence of her lord. She +used to climb a hill to watch for his return, and the shrine was +built upon the place where she waited; and wives pray there to her +for the safe return of absent husbands .... An almost similar kind of +propitiatory worship is practised in cemeteries. Public pity seeks to +apotheosize those [129] urged to suicide by cruelty, or those +executed for offences which, although legally criminal, were inspired +by patriotic or other motives commanding sympathy. Before their +graves offerings are laid and prayers are murmured. Spirits of +unhappy lovers are commonly invoked by young people who suffer from +the same cause .... And, among other forms of propitiatory worship I +must mention the old custom of erecting small shrines to spirits of +animals,--chiefly domestic animals,--either in recognition of dumb +service rendered and ill-rewarded, or as a compensation for pain +unjustly inflicted. + +Yet another class of tutelar divinities remains to be noticed,--those +who dwell within or about the houses of men. Some are mentioned in +the old mythology, and are probably developments of Japanese +ancestor-worship; some are of alien origin; some do not appear to +have any temples; and some represent little more than what is called +Animism. This class of divinities corresponds rather to the Roman dii +genitales than to the Greek (Greek daemones). Suijin-Sarna, the God +of Wells; Kojin, the God of the Cooking-range (in almost every +kitchen there is either a tiny shrine for him, or a written charm +bearing his name); the gods of the Cauldron and Saucepan, +Kudo-no-Kami and Kobe-no-Kami (anciently called Okitsuhiko and +Okitsuhime); the Master of Ponds, Ike-no-Nushi, [130] supposed to +make apparition in the form of a serpent; the Goddess of the +Rice-pot, O-Kama-Sama; the Gods of the Latrina, who first taught men +how to fertilize their fields (these are commonly represented by +little figures of paper, having the forms of a man and a woman, but +faceless); the Gods of Wood and Fire and Metal; the Gods likewise of +Gardens, Fields, Scarecrows, Bridges, Hills, Woods, and Streams; and +also the Spirits of Trees (for Japanese mythology has its dryads): +most of these are undoubtedly of Shinto. On the other hand, we find +the roads under the protection of Buddhist deities chiefly. I have +not been able to learn anything regarding gods of +boundaries,--termes, as the Latins called them; and one sees only +images of the Buddhas at the limits of village territories. But in +almost every garden, on the north side, there is a little Shinto +shrine, facing what is called the Ki-Mon, or "Demon-Gate,"--that is +to say, the direction from which, according to Chinese teaching, all +evils come; and these little shrines, dedicated to various Shinto +deities, are supposed to protect the home from evil spirits. The +belief in the Ki-Mon is obviously a Chinese importation. One may +doubt, however, if Chinese influence alone developed the belief that +every part of a house,--every beam of it,--and every domestic utensil +has its invisible guardian. Considering this belief, it is not +surprising that the building of a [131] house--unless the house be in +foreign style--is still a religious act, and that the functions of a +master-builder include those of a priest. + +This brings us to the subject of Animism. (I doubt whether any +evolutionist of the contemporary school holds to the old-fashioned +notion that animism preceded ancestor-worship,--a theory involving +the assumption that belief in the spirits of inanimate objects was +evolved before the idea of a human ghost had yet been developed.) In +Japan it is now as difficult to draw the line between animistic +beliefs and the lowest forms of Shinto, as to establish a demarcation +between the vegetable and the animal worlds; but the earliest Shinto +literature gives no evidence of such a developed animism as that now +existing. Probably the development was gradual, and largely +influenced by Chinese beliefs. Still, we read in the Ko-ji-ki of +"evil gods who glittered like fireflies or were disorderly as +mayflies," and of "demons who made rocks, and stumps of trees, and +the foam of the green waters to speak,"--showing that animistic or +fetichistic notions were prevalent to some extent before the period +of Chinese influence. And it is significant that where animism is +associated with persistent worship (as in the matter of the reverence +paid to strangely shaped stones or trees), the form of the worship +is, in most cases, Shinto. Before such objects there is usually [132] +to be seen the model of a Shinto gateway,--torii.... With the +development of animism, under Chinese and Korean influence, the man +of Old Japan found himself truly in a world of spirits and demons. +They spoke to him in the sound of tides and of cataracts in the +moaning of wind and the whispers of leafage, in the crying of birds, +and the trilling of insects, in all the voices of nature. For him all +visible motion--whether of waves or grasses or shifting mist or +drifting cloud--was ghostly; and the never moving rocks--nay, the +very stones by the wayside--were informed with viewless and awful +being. + + + +[133] + +WORSHIP AND PURIFICATION + +We have seen that, in Old Japan, the world of the living was +everywhere ruled by the world of the dead,--that the individual, at +every moment of his existence, was under ghostly supervision. In his +home he was watched by the spirits of his fathers; without it, he was +ruled by the god of his district. All about him, and above him, and +beneath him were invisible powers of life and death. In his +conception of nature all things were ordered by the dead,--light and +darkness, weather and season, winds and tides, mist and rain, growth +and decay, sickness and health. The viewless atmosphere was a +phantom-sea, an ocean of ghost; the soil that he tilled was pervaded +by spirit-essence; the trees were haunted and holy; even the rocks +and the stones were infused with conscious life .... How might he +discharge his duty to the infinite concourse of the invisible? + +Few scholars could remember the names of all the greater gods, not to +speak of the lesser; and no mortal could have found time to address +those greater gods by their respective names in his daily [134] +prayer. The later Shinto teachers proposed to simplify the duties of +the faith by prescribing one brief daily prayer to the gods in +general, and special prayers to a few gods in particular; and in thus +doing they were most likely confirming a custom already established +by necessity. Hirata wrote: "As the number of the gods who possess +different functions is very great, it will be convenient to worship +by name the most important only, and to include the rest in a general +petition." He prescribed ten prayers for persons having time to +repeat them, but lightened the duty for busy folk,--observing: +"Persons whose daily affairs are so multitudinous that they have not +time to go through all the prayers, may content themselves with +adoring (1) the residence of the Emperor, (2) the domestic +god-shelf,--kamidana, (3) the spirits of their ancestors, (4) their +local patron-god, Ujigami, (5) the deity of their particular +calling." He advised that the following prayer should be daily +repeated before the "god-shelf":-- + +"Reverently adoring the great god of the two palaces of Ise in the +first, place,--the eight hundred myriads of celestial gods,--the +eight hundred myriads of terrestrial gods,--the fifteen hundred +myriads of gods to whom are consecrated the great and small temples +in all provinces, all islands, and all places of the Great Land of +Eight Islands,--the fifteen hundred myriads of gods whom they cause +to serve them, and the gods of branch-palaces and branch-temples, +[135]--and Sohodo-no-Kami* whom I have invited to the shrine set up +on this divine shelf, and to whom I offer praises day by day,--I pray +with awe that they will deign to correct the unwilling faults which, +heard and seen by them, I have committed; and that, blessing and +favouring me according to the powers which they severally wield, they +will cause me to follow the divine example, and to perform good works +in the Way."** + +[*Sohodo-no-Kami is the god of scarecrows,--protector of the fields.] +[**Translated by Satow.] + +This text is interesting as an example of what Shinto's greatest +expounder thought a Shinto prayer should be; and, excepting the +reference to So-ho-do-no-Kami, the substance of it is that of the +morning prayer still repeated in Japanese households. But the modern +prayer is very much shorter.... In Izumo, the oldest Shinto province, +the customary morning worship offers perhaps the best example of the +ancient rules of devotion. Immediately upon rising, the worshipper +performs his ablutions; and after having washed his face and rinsed +his mouth, he turns to the sun, claps his hands, and with bowed head +reverently utters the simple greeting: "Hail to thee this day, August +One!" In thus adoring the sun he is also fulfilling his duty as a +subject, paying obeisance to the Imperial Ancestor .... The act is +performed out of doors, not kneeling, but standing; and the spectacle +of this simple worship is impressive. I can now see in memory,-- +[136] just as plainly as I saw with my eyes many years ago, off the +wild Oki coast,--the naked figure of a young fisherman erect at the +prow of his boat, clapping his hands in salutation to the rising sun, +whose ruddy glow transformed him into a statue of bronze. Also I +retain a vivid memory of pilgrim-figures poised upon the topmost +crags of the summit of Fuji, clapping their hands in prayer, with +faces to the East .... Perhaps ten thousand--twenty thousand-years +ago all humanity so worshipped the Lord of Day .... + +After having saluted the sun, the worshipper returns to his house, to +pray before the Kamidana and before the tablets of the ancestors. +Kneeling, he invokes the great gods of Ise or of Izumo, the gods of +the chief temples of his province, the god of his parish-temple also +(Ujigami), and finally all the myriads of the deities of Shinto. +These prayers are not said aloud. The ancestors are thanked for the +foundation of the home; the higher deities are invoked for aid and +protection .... As for the custom of bowing in the direction of the +Emperor's palace, I am not able to say to what extent it survives in +the remoter districts; but I have often seen the reverence performed. +Once, too, I saw reverence done immediately in front of the gates of +the palace in Tokyo by country-folk on a visit to the capital. They +knew me, because I had often sojourned in their village; and on +reaching Tokyo [137] they sought me out, and found me, I took them to +the palace; and before the main entrance they removed their hats, and +bowed, and clapped their hands, just as they would have done when +saluting the gods or the rising sun,--and this with a simple and +dignified reverence that touched me not a little. + +The duties of morning worship, which include the placing of offerings +before the tablets, are not the only duties of the domestic cult. In +a Shinto household, where the ancestors and the higher gods are +separately worshipped, the ancestral shrine may be said to correspond +with the Roman lararium; while the "god-shelf," with its taima or +o-nusa (symbols of those higher gods especially revered by the +family), may be compared with the place accorded by Latin custom to +the worship of the Penates. Both Shinto cults have their particular +feast-days; and, in the case of the ancestor-cult, the feast-days are +occasions of religious assembly,--when the relatives of the family +should gather to celebrate the domestic rite .... The Shintoist must +also take part in the celebration of the festivals of the Ujigami, +and must at least aid in the celebration of the nine great national +holidays related to the national cult; these nine, out of a total +eleven, being occasions of imperial ancestor-worship. + +The nature of the public rites varied according to [138] the rank of +the gods. Offerings and prayers were made to all; but the greater +deities were worshipped with exceeding ceremony. To-day the offerings +usually consist of food and rice-wine, together with symbolic +articles representing the costlier gifts of woven stuffs presented by +ancient custom. The ceremonies include processions, music, singing, +and dancing. At the very small shrines there are few +ceremonies,--only offerings of food are presented. But at the great +temples there are hierarchies of priests and priestesses +(miko)--usually daughters of priests; and the ceremonies are +elaborate and solemn. It is particularly at the temples of Ise +(where, down to the fourteenth century the high-priestess was a +daughter of emperors), or at the great temple of Izumo, that the +archaic character of the ceremonial can be studied to most advantage. +There, in spite of the passage of that huge wave of Buddhism, which +for a period almost submerged the more ancient faith, all things +remain as they were a score of centuries ago;--Time, in those haunted +precincts, would seem to have slept, as in the enchanted palaces of +fairy-tale. The mere shapes of the buildings, weird and tall, startle +by their unfamiliarity. Within, all is severely plain and pure: there +are no images, no ornaments, no symbols visible--except those strange +paper-cuttings (gohei), suspended to upright rods, which are symbols +of offerings and also tokens of the [139] viewless. By the number of +them in the sanctuary, you know the number of the deities to whom the +place is consecrate. There is nothing imposing but the space, the +silence, and the suggestion of the past. The innermost shrine is +veiled: it contains, perhaps, a mirror of bronze, an ancient sword, +or other object enclosed in multiple wrappings: that is all. For this +faith, older than icons, needs no images: its gods are ghosts; and +the void stillness of its shrines compels more awe than tangible +representation could inspire. Very strange, to Western eyes at least, +are the rites, the forms of the worship, the shapes of sacred +objects. Not by any modern method must the sacred fire be +lighted,--the fire that cooks the food of the gods: it can be kindled +only in the most ancient of ways, with a wooden fire-drill. The chief +priests are robed in the sacred colour,--white,--and wear headdresses +of a shape no longer seen elsewhere: high caps of the kind formerly +worn by lords and princes. Their assistants wear various colours, +according to grade; and the faces of none are completely +shaven;--some wear full beards, others the mustache only. The actions +and attitudes of these hierophants are dignified, yet archaic, in a +degree difficult to describe. Each movement is regulated by +tradition; and to perform well the functions of a Kannushi, a long +disciplinary preparation is necessary. The office is hereditary; the +training begins in boyhood; and [140] the impassive deportment +eventually acquired is really a wonderful thing. Officiating, the +Kannushi seems rather a statue than a man,--an image moved by +invisible strings;--and, like the gods, he never winks. Not at least +observably.... Once, during a great Shinto procession, several +Japanese friends, and I myself, undertook to watch a young priest on +horseback, in order to see how long he could keep from winking; and +none of us were able to detect the slightest movement of eyes or +eyelids, notwithstanding that the priest's horse became restive +during the time that we were watching. + +The principal incidents of the festival ceremonies within the great +temples are the presentation of the offerings, the repetition of the +ritual, and the dancing of the priestesses. Each of these +performances retains a special character rigidly fixed by tradition. +The food-offerings are served upon archaic vessels of unglazed +pottery (red earthenware mostly): boiled rice pressed into cones of +the form of a sugar-loaf, various preparations of fish and of edible +sea-weed, fruits and fowls, rice-wine presented in jars of immemorial +shape. These offerings are carried into the temple upon white wooden +trays of curious form, and laid upon white wooden tables of equally +curious form;--the faces of the bearers being covered, below the +eyes, with sheets of white paper, in order that their breath may +[141] not contaminate the food of the gods; and the trays, for like +reason, must be borne at arms' length .... In ancient times the +offerings would seem to have included things much more costly than +food,--if we may credit the testimony of what are probably the oldest +documents extant in the Japanese tongue, the Shinto rituals, or +norito.* The following excerpt from Satow's translation of the ritual +prayer to the Wind-gods of Tatsuta is interesting, not only as a fine +example of the language of the norito, but also as indicating the +character of the great ceremonies in early ages, and the nature of +the offerings:-- + +[*Several have been translated by Satow, whose opinion of their +antiquity is here cited; and translations have also been made into +German.] + +"As the great offerings set up for the Youth-god, I set up various +sorts of offerings: for Clothes, bright cloth, glittering cloth, soft +cloth, and coarse cloth,--and the five kinds of things, a mantlet, a +spear, a horse furnished with a saddle;--for the Maiden-god I set up +various sorts of offerings--providing Clothes, a golden thread-box, a +golden tatari, a golden skein-holder, bright cloth, glittering cloth, +soft cloth, and coarse cloth, and the five kinds of things, a horse +furnished with a saddle;--as to Liquor, I raise high the beer-jars, +fill and range-in-a-row the bellies of the beer-jars; soft grain and +coarse grain;--as to things which dwell in the hills, things soft of +hair and things coarse of hair;--as to things which grow in the great +field--plain, sweet herbs and bitter herbs;--as to things which dwell +in the blue sea-plain, things broad of fin and things narrow of +fin--down to the weeds of the offing and weeds of the [142] shore. +And if the sovran gods will take these great offerings which I set +up,--piling them up like a range of hills,--peacefully in their +hearts, as peaceful offerings and satisfactory offerings; and if the +sovran gods, deigning not to visit the things produced by, the great +People of the region under heaven with bad winds and rough waters, +will open and bless them,--I will at the autumn service set up the +first fruits, raising high the beer-jars, filling and ranging-in-rows +the bellies of the beer-jars,--and drawing them hither in juice and +in ear, in many hundred rice-plants and a thousand rice-plants. And +for this purpose the princes and councillors and all the +functionaries, the servants of the six farms of the country of +Yamato--even to the males and females of them--have all come and +assembled in the fourth month of this year, and, plunging down the +root of the neck cormorant-wise in the presence of the sovran gods, +fulfil their praise as the Sun of to-day rises in glory."... + +The offerings are no longer piled up "like a range of hills," nor do +they include all things dwelling in the mountains and in the sea; but +the imposing ritual remains, and the ceremony is always impressive. +Not the least interesting part of it is the sacred dance. While the +gods are supposed to be partaking of the food and wine set out before +their shrines, the girl-priestesses, robed in crimson and white, move +gracefully to the sound of drums and flutes,--waving fans, or shaking +bunches of tiny bells as they circle about the sanctuary. According +to our Western notions. the performance of the [143] miko could +scarcely be called dancing; but it is a graceful spectacle, and very +curious,--for every step and attitude is regulated by traditions of +unknown antiquity. As for the plaintive music, no Western ear can +discern in it anything resembling a real melody; but the gods should +find delight in it, because it is certainly performed for them to-day +exactly as it used to be performed twenty centuries ago. + +I speak of the ceremonies especially as I have witnessed them in +Izumo: they vary somewhat according to cult and province. At the +shrines of Ise, Kasuga, Kompira, and several others which I visited, +the ordinary priestesses are children; and when they have reached the +nubile age, they retire from the service. At Kitzuki the priestesses +are grown-up women: their office is hereditary; and they are +permitted to retain it even after marriage. + +Formerly the Miko was more than a mere officiant: the songs which she +is still obliged to learn indicate that she was originally offered to +the gods as a bride. Even yet her touch is holy; the grain sown by +her hand is blessed. At some time in the past she seems to have been +also a pythoness: the spirits of the gods possessed her and spoke +through her lips. All the poetry of this most ancient of religions +centres in the figure of its little Vestal,--child-bride of +ghosts,--as she flutters, [144] like some wonderful white-and-crimson +butterfly, before the shrine of the Invisible. Even in these years of +change, when she must go to the public school, she continues to +represent all that is delightful in Japanese girlhood; for her +special home-training keeps her reverent, innocent, dainty in all her +little ways, and worthy to remain the pet of the gods. + +The history of the higher forms of ancestor-worship in other +countries would lead us to suppose that the public ceremonies of the +Shinto-cult must include some rite of purification. As a matter of +fact, the most important of all Shinto ceremonies is the ceremony of +purification,--o-harai, as it is called, which term signifies the +casting-out or expulsion of evils .... In ancient Athens a +corresponding ceremony took place every year; in Rome, every four +years. The o-harai is performed twice every year,--in the sixth month +and the twelfth month by the ancient calendar. It used to be not less +obligatory than the Roman lustration; and the idea behind the +obligation was the same as that which inspired the Roman laws on the +subject .... So long as men believe that the welfare of the living +depends upon the will of the dead,--that all happenings in the world +are ordered by spirits of different characters, evil as well as +good,--that every bad action lends additional power to the viewless +[145] forces of destruction, and therefore endangers the public +prosperity,--so long will the necessity of a public purification +remain an article of common faith. The presence in any community of +even one person who has offended the gods, consciously or +unwillingly, is a public misfortune, a public peril. Yet it is not +possible for all men to live so well as never to vex the gods by +thought, word, or deed,--through passion or ignorance or +carelessness. "Every one," declares Hirata, "is certain to commit +accidental offences, however careful he may be... Evil acts and words +are of two kinds: those of which we are conscious, and those of which +we are not conscious .... It is better to assume that we have +committed such unconscious offences." Now it should be remembered +that for the man of Old Japan,--as for the Greek or the Roman citizen +of early times,--religion consisted chiefly in the exact observance +of multitudinous custom; and that it was therefore difficult to know +whether, in performing the duties of the several cults, one had not +inadvertently displeased the Unseen. As a means of maintaining and +assuring the religious purity of the people periodical lustration was +consequently deemed indispensable. + +From the earliest period Shinto exacted scrupulous cleanliness +--indeed, we might say that it regarded physical impurity as +identical with moral impurity, and intolerable to the gods. It has +[146] always been, and still remains, a religion of ablutions. The +Japanese love of cleanliness--indicated by the universal practice of +daily bathing, and by the irreproachable condition of their homes has +been maintained, and was probably initiated, by their religion. +Spotless cleanliness being required by the rites of +ancestor-worship,--in the temple, in the person of the officiant, and +in the home,--this rule of purity was naturally extended by degrees +to all the conditions of existence. And besides the great periodical +ceremonies of purification, a multitude of minor lustrations were +exacted by the cult. This was the case also, it will be remembered in +the early Greek and Roman civilizations--the citizen had to submit +to purification upon almost every important occasion of existence. +There were lustrations indispensable at birth, marriage, and death; +lustrations on the eve of battle; lustrations at regular periods, of +the dwelling, estate, district, or city. And, as in Japan, no one +could approach a temple without a preliminary washing of hands. But +ancient Shinto exacted more than the Greek or the Roman cult: it +required the erection of special houses for birth, +--"parturition-houses"; special houses for the consummation of +marriage,--"nuptial-huts"; and special buildings for the +dead,--"mourning-houses." Formerly women were obliged during the +period of menstruation, as well as during the time of confinement, to +live apart. These harsher archaic customs [147] have almost +disappeared, except in one or two remote districts, and in the case +of certain priestly families; but the general rules as to +purification, and as to the times and circumstances forbidding +approach to holy places, are still everywhere obeyed. Purity of heart +is not less insisted upon than physical purity; and the great rite of +lustration, performed every six months, is of course a moral +purification. It is performed not only at the great temples, and at +all the Ujigami, but likewise in every home + +_________________________________________________________________ + +[*On the kamidana, "or god-shelf," there is usually placed a kind +of oblong paper-box containing fragments of the wands used by the +priests of Ise at the great national purification-ceremony, or +o-harai. This box is commonly called by the name of the +ceremony, o-harai, or "august purification," and is inscribed +with the names of the great gods of Ise. The presence of this +object is supposed to protect the home; but it should be replaced +by a new o-harai at the expiration of six months; for the virtue +of the charm is supposed to last only during the interval between +two official purifications. This distribution to thousands of +homes of fragments of the wands, used to "drive away evils" at +the time of the Ise lustration, represents of course the supposed +extension of the high-priest's protection to those homes until +the time of the next o-harai. + +The modern domestic form of the harai is very simple. Each +Shinto parish-temple furnishes to all its Ujiko, or parishioners, +small paper-cuttings called hitogata ("mankind-shapes"), +representing figures of men, women, and children as in +silhouette,--only that the paper is white, and folded curiously. +Each household receives a number of hitogata corresponding to the +number of its members,--"men-shapes" for the men and boys, +"women-shapes"] +_________________________________________________________________ + +[148] for the women and girls. Each person in the house touches his +head, face, limbs, and body with one of these hitogata; repeating the +while a Shinto invocation, and praying that any misfortune or +sickness incurred by reason of offences involuntarily committed +against the gods (for in Shinto belief sickness and misfortune are +divine punishments) may be mercifully taken away. Upon each hitogata +is then written the age and sex (not the name) of the person for whom +it was furnished; and when this has been done, all are returned to +the parish-temple, and there burnt, with rites of purification. Thus +the community is "lustrated" every six Months. + +In the old Greek and Latin cities lustration was accompanied with +registration. The attendance of every citizen at the ceremony was +held to be so necessary that one who wilfully failed to attend might +be whipped and sold as a slave. Non-attendance involved loss of civic +rights. It would seem that in Old Japan also every member of a +community was obliged to be present at the rite; but I have not been +able to learn whether any registration was made upon such occasions. +Probably it would have been superfluous: the Japanese individual was +not officially recognized; the family-group alone was responsible, +and the attendance of the several members would have been assured by +the responsibility of the group. The use of the hitogata, on which +the name is not written, but only the sex and age [149] of the +worshipper, is probably modern, and of Chinese origin. Official +registration existed, even in early times; but it appears to have had +no particular relation to the o-harai; and the registers were kept, +it seems, not by the Shinto, but by the Buddhist parish-priests .... +In concluding these remarks about the o-harai, I need scarcely add +that special rites were performed in cases of accidental religious +defilement, and that any person judged to have sinned against the +rules of the public cult had to submit to ceremonial purification. + +Closely related by origin to the rites of purification are sundry +ascetic practices of Shinto. It is not an essentially ascetic +religion: it offers flesh and wine to its gods; and it prescribes +only such forms of self-denial as ancient custom and decency require. +Nevertheless, some of its votaries perform extraordinary austerities +on special occasions,--austerities which always include much +cold-water bathing. It is not uncommon for the very fervent +worshipper to invoke the gods as he stands naked under the ice-cold +rush of a cataract in midwinter .... But the most curious phase of +this Shinto asceticism is represented by a custom still prevalent in +remote districts. According to this custom a community yearly +appoints one of its citizens to devote himself wholly to the gods on +behalf of the rest. During the term of his consecration, this +communal representative [150] must separate from his family, must not +approach women, must avoid all places of amusement, must eat only +food cooked with sacred fire, must abstain from wine, must bathe in +fresh cold water several times a day, must repeat particular prayers +at certain hours, and must keep vigil upon certain nights. When he +has performed these duties of abstinence and purification for the +specified time, he becomes religiously free; and another man is then +elected to take his place. The prosperity of the settlement is +supposed to depend upon the exact observance by its representative of +the duties prescribed: should any public misfortune occur, he would +be suspected of having broken his vows. Anciently, in the case of a +common misfortune, the representative was put to death. In the little +town of Mionoseki, where I first learned of this custom, the communal +representative is called ichi-nen-gannushi ("one-year god-master"); +and his full term of vicarious atonement is twelve months. I was told +that elders are usually appointed for this duty,--young men very +seldom. In ancient times such a communal representative was called by +a name signifying "abstainer." References to the custom have been +found in Chinese notices of Japan dating from a time before the +beginning of Japanese authentic history. + +Every persistent form of ancestor-worship has its [151] system or +systems of divination; and Shinto exemplifies the general law. +Whether divination ever obtained in ancient Japan the official +importance which it assumed among the Greeks and the Romans is at +present doubtful. But long before the introduction of Chinese +astrology, magic, and fortune-telling, the Japanese practised various +kinds of divination, as is proved by their ancient poetry, their +records, and their rituals. We find mention also of official +diviners, attached to the great cults. There was divination by bones, +by birds, by rice, by barley-gruel, by footprints, by rods planted in +the ground, and by listening in public ways to the speech of people +passing by. Nearly all--probably all--of these old methods of +divination are still in popular use. But the earliest form of +official divination was performed by scorching the shoulder-blade of +a deer, or other animal, and observing the cracks produced by the +heat.* Tortoise-shells were afterwards used for the same purpose. +Diviners were especially attached, it appears, to the imperial +palace; and Motowori, writing in the latter half of the eighteenth +century, speaks of divination as still being, in that epoch, a part +of the imperial function. "To the end of time," he said, "the Mikado +is the child of the Sun-goddess. His mind is in perfect harmony of +thought and feeling with hers. He does not seek out new inventions; +but he rules in accordance with precedents which date from the Age of +the Gods; and if he is ever in doubt, he has recourse to divination, +which reveals to him the mind of the great goddess." + +[*Concerning this form of divination, Satow remarks that it was +practised by the Mongols in the time of Genghis Khan, and is still +practised by the Khirghiz Tartars,--facts of strong interest in view +of the probable origin of the early Japanese tribes. For instances of +ancient official divination see Aston's translation of the Nihongi, +Vol. I, pp. 157, 189, 227, 299, 237.] + +[152] Within historic times at least, divination would not seem to +have been much used in warfare,--certainly not to the extent that it +was used by the Greek and Roman armies. The greatest Japanese +captains,--such as Hideyoshi and Nobunaga--were decidedly irreverent +as to omens. Probably the Japanese, at an early period of their long +military history, learned by experience that the general who conducts +his campaign according to omens must always be at a hopeless +disadvantage in dealing with a skilful enemy who cares nothing about +omens. + +Among the ancient popular forms of divination which still survive, +the most commonly practised in households is divination by dry rice. +For the public, Chinese divination is still in great favour; but it +is interesting to observe that the Japanese fortune-teller invariably +invokes the Shinto gods before consulting his Chinese books, and +maintains a Shinto shrine in his reception-room. + +[153] We have seen that the developments of ancestor-worship in Japan +present remarkable analogies with the developments of +ancestor-worship in ancient Europe,--especially in regard to the +public cult, with its obligatory rites of purification. + +But Shinto seems nevertheless to represent conditions of +ancestor-worship less developed than those which we are accustomed to +associate with early Greek and Roman life; and the coercion which it +exercised appears to have been proportionally more rigid. The +existence of the individual worshipper was ordered not merely in +relation to the family and the community, but even in relation to +inanimate things. Whatever his occupation might be, some god presided +over it; whatever tools he might use, they had to be used in such +manner as tradition prescribed for all admitted to the craft-cult. It +was necessary that the carpenter should so perform his work as to +honour the deity of carpenters,--that the smith should fulfil his +daily task so as to honour the god of the bellows,--that the farmer +should never fail in respect to the earth-god, and the food-god, and +the scare-crow god, and the spirits of the trees--about his +habitation. Even the domestic utensils were sacred: the servant could +not dare to forget the presence of the deities of the cooking-range, +the hearth, the cauldron, the brazier,--or the supreme necessity of +keeping the fire pure. The professions, not less [154] than the +trades, were under divine patronage: the physician, the teacher, the +artist--each had his religious duties to observe, his special +traditions to obey. The scholar, for example, could not dare to treat +his writing-implements with disrespect, or put written paper to +vulgar uses: such conduct would offend the god of calligraphy. Nor +were women ruled less religiously than men in their various +occupations: the spinners and weaving-maidens were bound to revere +the Weaving-goddess and the Goddess of Silkworms; the sewing-girl was +taught to respect her needles; and in all homes there was observed a +certain holiday upon which offerings were made to the Spirits of +Needles. In Samurai families the warrior was commanded to consider +his armour and his weapons as holy things: to keep them in beautiful +order was an obligation of which the neglect might bring misfortune +in the time of combat; and on certain days offerings were set before +the bows and spears, arrows and swords, and other war-implements, in +the alcove of the family guest-room. Gardens, too, were holy; and +there were rules to be observed in their management, lest offence +should be given to the gods of trees and flowers. Carefulness, +cleanliness, dustlessness, were everywhere enforced as religious +obligations. + +... It has often been remarked in these latter days that the Japanese +do not keep their public offices, their railway stations, their new +factory-buildings, [155] thus scrupulously clean. But edifices built +foreign style, with foreign material, under foreign supervision, and +contrary to every local tradition, must seem to old-fashioned +thinking God-forsaken places; and servants amid such unhallowed +surroundings do not feel the invisible about them, the weight of +pious custom, the silent claim of beautiful and simple things to +human respect. + + + +[156] + +[157] + +THE RULE OF THE DEAD + +It should now be evident to the reader that the ethics of Shinto were +all comprised in the doctrine of unqualified obedience to customs +originating, for the most part, in the family cult. Ethics were not +different from religion; religion was not different from government; +and the very word for government signified "matters-of-religion." All +government ceremonies were preceded by prayer and sacrifice; and from +the highest rank of society to the lowest every person was subject to +the law of tradition. To obey was piety; to disobey was impious; and +the rule of obedience was enforced upon each individual by the will +of the community to which he belonged. Ancient morality consisted in +the minute observance of rules of conduct regarding the household, +the community, and the higher authority. + +But these rules of behaviour mostly represented the outcome of social +experience; and it was scarcely possible to obey them faithfully, and +yet to remain a bad man. They commanded reverence toward the Unseen, +respect for authority, affection to parents, [158] tenderness to wife +and children, kindness to neighbours, kindness to dependants, +diligence and exactitude in labour, thrift and cleanliness in habit. +Though at first morality signified no more than obedience to +tradition, tradition itself gradually became identified with true +morality. To imagine the consequent social condition is, of course, +somewhat difficult for the modern mind. Among ourselves, religious +ethics and social ethics have long been practically dissociated; and +the latter have become, with the gradual weakening of faith, more +imperative and important than the former. Most of us learn, sooner or +later in life, that it is not enough to keep the ten commandments, +and that it is much less dangerous to break most of the commandments +in a quiet way than to violate social custom. But in Old Japan there +was no distinction tolerated between ethics and custom--between moral +requirements and social obligations: convention identified both, and +to conceal a breach of either was impossible,--as privacy did not +exist. Moreover the unwritten commandments were not limited to ten; +they were numbered by hundreds, and the least infringement was +punishable, not merely as a blunder, but as a sin. Neither in his own +home nor anywhere else could the ordinary person do as he pleased; +and the extraordinary person was under the surveillance of zealous +dependants whose constant duty was to reprove any breach of usage. +The religion capable [159] of regulating every act of existence by +the force of common opinion requires no catechism. + +Early moral custom must be coercive custom. But as many habits, at +first painfully formed under compulsion only, become easy through +constant repetition, and at last automatic, so the conduct compelled +through many generations by religious and civil authority, tends +eventually to become almost instinctive. Much depends, no doubt, upon +the degree to which religious compulsion is hindered by exterior +causes,--by long-protracted war, for example,--and in Old Japan there +was interference extraordinary. Nevertheless, the influence of Shinto +accomplished wonderful things,--evolved a national type of character +worthy, in many ways, of earnest admiration. The ethical sentiment +developed in that character differed widely from our own; but it was +exactly adapted to the social requirements. For this national type of +moral character was invented the name Yamato-damashi (or +Yamato-gokoro),--the Soul of Yamato (or Heart of Yamato),--the +appellation of the old province of Yamato, seat of the early +emperors, being figuratively used for the entire country. We might +correctly, though less literally, interpret the expression +Yamato-damashi as "The Soul of Old Japan." + +It was in reference to this "Soul of Old Japan" that the great Shinto +scholars of the eighteenth [160] and nineteenth centuries put forth +their bold assertion that conscience alone was a sufficient ethical +guide. They declared the high quality of the Japanese conscience a +proof of the divine origin of the race. "Human beings," wrote +Motowori, "having been produced by the spirits of the two Creative +Deities, are naturally endowed with the knowledge of what they ought +to do, and of what they ought to refrain from doing. It is +unnecessary for them to trouble their minds with systems of morality. +If a system of morals were necessary, men would be inferior to +animals,--all of whom are endowed with the knowledge of what they +ought to do, only in an inferior degree to men."*... [*All of these +extracts are quoted from Satow's great essay on the Shinto revival.] +Mabuchi, at an earlier day, had made a comparison between Japanese +and Chinese morality, greatly to the disadvantage of the latter. "In +ancient times," said Mabuchi, "when men's dispositions were +straightforward, a complicated system of morals was unnecessary. It +would naturally happen that bad actions might be occasionally +committed; but the straightforwardness of men's dispositions would +prevent the evil from being concealed and so growing in extent. So in +those days it was unnecessary to have a doctrine of right and wrong. +But the Chinese, being bad at heart, in spite of the teaching which +they got, were good [161] only on the outside; so their bad acts +became of such magnitude that society was thrown into disorder. The +Japanese, being straightforward, could do without teaching." Motowori +repeated these ideas in a slightly different way: "It is because the +Japanese were truly moral in their practice, that, they required no +theory of morals; and the fuss made by the Chinese about theoretical +morals is owing to their laxity, in practice.... To have learned that +there is no Way [ethical system] to be learned and practised, is +really to have learned to practise the Way of the Gods." At a later +day Hirata wrote "Learn to stand in awe of the Unseen, and that will +prevent you from doing wrong. Cultivate the conscience implanted in +you then you will never wander from the Way." + +Though the sociologist may smile at these declarations of moral +superiority (especially as based on the assumption that the race had +been better in primeval times, when yet fresh from the hands of the +gods), there was in them a grain of truth. When Mabuchi and Motowori +wrote, the nation had been long subjected to a discipline of almost +incredible minuteness in detail, and of extraordinary rigour in +application. And this discipline had actually brought into existence +a wonderful average of character,--a character of surprising +patience, unselfishness, honesty, kindliness, and docility combined +with high courage. But only the evolutionist [162] can imagine what +the cost of developing that character must have been. + +It is necessary here to observe that the discipline to which the +nation had been subjected up to the age of the great Shinto writers, +seems to have had a curious evolutional history of its own. In +primitive times it had been much less uniform, less complex, less +minutely organized, though not less implacable; and it had continued +to develop and elaborate more and more with the growth and +consolidation of society, until, under the Tokugawa Shogunate the +possible maximum of regulation was reached. In other words, the yoke +had been made heavier and heavier in proportion to the growth of the +national strength,--in proportion to the power of the people to bear +it.... We have seen that, from the beginning of this civilization, +the whole life of the citizen was ordered for him: his occupation, +his marriage, his rights of fatherhood, his rights to hold or to +dispose of property,--all these matters were settled by religious +custom. We have also seen that outside as well as inside of his home, +his actions were under supervision, and that a single grave breach of +usage might cause his social ruin,--in which case he would be given +to understand that he was not merely a social, but also a religious +offender; that the communal god was angry with him; and that to +pardon his fault might [163] provoke the divine vengeance against the +entire settlement. But it yet remains to be seen what rights were +left him by the central authority ruling his district,--which +authority represented a third form of religious despotism from which +there was no appeal in ordinary cases. + +Material for the study of the old laws and customs have not yet been +collected in sufficient quantity to yield us full information as to +the conditions of all classes before Meiji. But a great deal of +precious work has been accomplished in this direction by American +scholars; and the labours of Professor Wigmore and of the late Dr. +Simmons have furnished documentary evidence from which much can be +learned about the legal status of the masses during the Tokugawa +period. This, as I have said, was the period of the most elaborated +regulation. The extent to which the people were controlled can be +best inferred from the nature and number of the sumptuary laws to +which they were subjected. Sumptuary laws in Old Japan probably +exceeded in multitude and minuteness anything of which Western legal +history yields record. Rigidly as the family-cult dictated behaviour +in the home, strictly as the commune enforced its standards of +communal duty,--just so rigidly and strictly did the rulers of the +nation dictate how the individual--man, woman, or child--should +dress, walk, sit, [164] speak, work, eat, drink. Amusements were not +less unmercifully regulated than were labours. + +Every class of Japanese society was under sumptuary regulation,--the +degree of regulation varying in different centuries; and this kind of +legislation appears to have been established at an early period. It +is recorded that, in the year 681 A.D., the Emperor Temmu regulated +the costumes of all classes,--"from the Princes of the Blood down to +the common people,--and the wearing of headdresses and girdles, as +well as of all kinds of coloured stuffs,--according to a scale."* [* +See Nihongi Aston's translation, Vol. II, pp. 343, 349, 350.] The +costumes and the colours to be worn by priests and nuns had been +already fixed, by an edict issued in 679 A.D. Afterwards these +regulations were greatly multiplied and detailed. But it was under +the Tokugawa rulers, a thousand years later, that sumptuary laws +obtained their most remarkable development; and the nature of them is +best: indicated by the regulations applying to the peasantry. Every +detail of the farmer's existence was prescribed for by law,--from the +size, form, and cost of his dwelling, down even to such trifling +matters as the number and the quality of the dishes to be served to +him at meal-times. A farmer with an income of 100 koku of rice--(let +us say 90 to 100 pounds per annum)--might build a house 60 feet long, +but no longer: he was forbidden to construct it with a room +containing an alcove; and he was not [165] allowed--except by special +permission--to roof it with tiles. None of his family were permitted +to wear silk; and in case of the marriage of his daughter to a person +legally entitled to wear silk, the bridegroom was to be requested not +to wear silk at the wedding. Three kinds of viands only were to be +served at the wedding of such a farmer's daughter or son; and the +quality as well as the quantity of the soup, fish, or sweetmeats +offered to the wedding-guests, were legally fixed. So likewise the +number of the wedding-gifts: even the cost of the presents, of +rice-wine and dried fish was prescribed, and the quality of the +single fan which it was permissible to offer the bride. At no time +was a farmer allowed to make any valuable presents to his friends. At +a funeral he might serve the guests with certain kinds of plain food; +but if rice-wine were served it was not to be served in +wine-cups,--only in soup-cups! (The latter regulation probably +referred to Shinto funerals in especial.) On the occasion of a +child's birth, the grandparents were allowed to make only four +presents (according to custom),--including "one cotton baby-dress"; +and the values of the presents were fixed. On the occasion of the +Boy's Festival, the presents to be given to the child by the whole +family, including grandparents, were limited by law to "one +paper-flag," and "two toy-spears." ... A farmer whose, property was +assessed at 50 koku was forbidden to [166] build a house more than 45 +feet long. At the wedding of his daughter the gift-girdle was not to +exceed 50 sen in value; and it was forbidden to serve more than one +kind of soup at the wedding-feast.... A farmer with a property +assessed at 20 koku was not allowed to build a house more than 36 +feet long, or to use in building it such superior qualities of wood +as keyaki or hinoki. The roof of his house was to be made of +bamboo-thatch or straw; and he was strictly forbidden the comfort of +floor-mats. On the occasion of the wedding of his daughter he was +forbidden to have fish or any roasted food served at the +wedding-feast. The women of his family were not allowed to wear +leather sandals: they might wear only straw-sandals or wooden clogs; +and the thongs of the sandals or the clogs were to be made of cotton. +The women were further forbidden to wear hair-bindings of silk, or +hair-ornaments of tortoise-shells; but they might wear wooden combs +and combs of bone--not ivory. The men were forbidden to wear +stockings, and their sandals were to be made of bamboo.* [*There are +sandals or clogs made of bamboo-wood, but the meaning here is +bamboo-grass.] They were also forbidden to use sun-shades +--hi-gasa--or paper-umbrellas.... A farmer assessed at 10 koku was +forbidden to build a house more than 30 feet long. The women of his +family were required to wear sandals with thongs of [167] +bamboo-grass. At the wedding of his son or daughter one present only +was allowed,--a quilt-chest. At the birth of his child one present +only was to be made: namely, one toy-spear, in the case of a boy; or +one paper-doll, or one "mud-doll," in the case of a girl... As for +the more unfortunate class of farmers, having no land of their own, +and officially termed mizunomi, or "water-drinkers," it is scarcely +necessary to remark that these were still more severely restricted in +regard to food, apparel, etc. They were not even allowed, for +example, to have a quilt-chest as a wedding-present. But a fair idea +of the complexity of these humiliating restrictions can only be +obtained by reading the documents published by Professor Wigmore, +which chiefly consist of paragraphs like these:-- + +"The collar and the sleeve-ends of the clothes may be ornamented with +silk, and an obi (soft girdle) of silk or crepe-silk may be worn--but +not in public." ... + +"A family ranking less than 20 koku must use the Takeda-wan (Takeda +rice-bowl), and the Nikko-zen (Nikko tray).".. (These were utensils +of the cheapest kind of lacquer-ware.) + +"Large farmers or chiefs of Kumi may use umbrellas; but small farmers +and farm-labourers must use only mino (straw-raincoats), and broad +straw-hats." ... + +These documents published by Professor Wigmore contain only the +regulations issued for the daimiate of Maizuru; but regulations +equally [168] minute and vexatious appear to have been enforced +throughout the whole country. In Izumo I found that, prior to Meiji, +there were sumptuary laws prescribing not only the material of the +dresses to be worn by the various classes, but even the colours of +them, and the designs of the patterns. The size of rooms, as well as +the size of houses, was fixed there by law,--also the height of +buildings and of fences, the number of windows, the material of +construction.... It is difficult for the Western mind to understand +how human beings could patiently submit to laws that regulated not +only the size of one's dwelling, and the cost of its furniture, but +even the substance and character of clothing,--not only the expense +of a wedding outfit, but the quality of the marriage-feast, and the +quality of the vessels in which the food was to be served,--not only +the kind of ornaments to be worn in a woman's hair, but the material +of the thongs of her sandals,--not only the price of presents to be +made to friends, but the character and the cost of the cheapest toy +to be given to a child. And the peculiar constitution of society made +it possible to enforce this sumptuary legislation by communal will; +the people were obliged to coerce themselves! Each community, as we +have seen, had been organized in groups of five or more households, +called kumi; and the heads of the households forming a kumi elected +one of their number as kumi-gashira, or group-chief, directly [169] +responsible to the higher authority. The kumi was accountable for the +conduct of each and all of its members; and each member was in some +sort responsible for the rest. "Every member of a kumi," declares one +of the documents above mentioned, "must carefully watch the conduct +of his fellow-members. If any one violates these regulations, without +due excuse, he is to be punished; and his kumi will also be held +responsible." Responsible even for the serious offence of giving more +than one paper-doll to a child! ... But we should remember that in +early Greek and Roman societies there was much legislation of a +similar kind. The laws of Sparta regulated the way in which a woman +should dress her hair; the laws of Athens fixed the number of her +robes. At Rome, in early times, women were forbidden to drink wine; +and a similar law existed in the Greek cities of Miletus and +Massilia. In Rhodes and Byzantium the citizen was forbidden to shave; +in Sparta he was forbidden to wear a moustache. (I need scarcely +refer to the later Roman laws regulating the cost of marriage-feasts, +and the number of guests that might be invited to a banquet; for this +legislation was directed chiefly against luxury.) The astonishment +evoked by Japanese sumptuary laws, particularly as inflicted upon the +peasantry, is justified less by their general character than by their +implacable minuteness,--their ferocity of detail.... [170] Where a +man's life was legally ordered even to the least particulars,--even +to the quality of his foot-gear and head-gear, the cost of his wife's +hairpins, and the price of his child's doll,--one could hardly +suppose that freedom of speech would have been tolerated. It did not +exist; and the degree to which speech became regulated can be +imagined only by those who have studied the spoken tongue. The +hierarchical organization of society was faithfully reflected in the +conventional organization of language,--in the ordination of +pronouns, nouns, and verbs,--in the grades conferred upon adjectives +by prefixes or suffixes. With the same merciless exactitude which +prescribed rules for dress, diet, and manner of life, all utterance +was regulated both negatively and positively,--but positively much +more than negatively. There was little insistence upon what was not +to be said; but rules innumerable decided exactly what should be +said,--the word to be chosen, the phrase to be used. Early training +enforced caution in this regard: everybody had to learn that only +certain verbs and nouns and pronouns were lawful when addressing +superiors, and other words permissible only when speaking to equals +or to inferiors. Even the uneducated were obliged to learn something +about this. But education cultivated a system of verbal etiquette so +multiform that only the training of years could enable any one to +master it. Among the [171] higher classes this etiquette developed +almost inconceivable complexity. Grammatical modifications of +language, which, by implication, exalted the person addressed or +humbly depreciated the person addressing, must have come into general +use at some very early period; but under subsequent Chinese influence +these forms of propitiatory speech multiplied exceedingly. From the +Mikado himself--who still makes use of personal pronouns, or at least +pronominal expressions, forbidden to any other mortal--down through +all the grades of society, each class had an "I" peculiarly its own. +Of terms corresponding to "you" or "thou" there are still sixteen in +use; but formerly there were many more. There are yet eight different +forms of the second person singular used only in addressing children, +pupils, or servants.* Honorific or humble forms of nouns indicating +relationship were similarly multiplied and graded: there are still in +use nine terms signifying "father," nine terms signifying "mother," +eleven terms for "wife," eleven terms for "son," nine terms for +"daughter," and seven terms for "husband." The rules of the verb, +above all, were complicated by the exigencies of etiquette to a [172] +degree of which no idea can be given in any brief statement.... At +nineteen or twenty years of age a person carefully trained from +childhood might have learned all the necessary verbal usages of +respectable society; but for a mastery of the etiquette of superior +converse many more years of study and experience were required. With +the unceasing multiplication of ranks and classes there came into +existence a corresponding variety of forms of language: it was +possible to ascertain to what class a man or a woman belonged by +listening to his or to her conversation. The written, like the spoken +tongue, was regulated by strict convention: the forms used by women +were not those used by men; and those differences in verbal etiquette +arising from the different training of the sexes resulted in the +creation of a special epistolary style,--a "woman's language," which +remains in use. And this sex-differentiation of language was not +confined to letter-writing: there was a woman's language also of +converse, varying according to class. Even to-day, in ordinary +conversation, an educated woman makes use of words and phrases not +employed by men. Samurai women especially had their particular forms +of expression in feudal times; and it is still possible to decide, +from the speech of any woman brought up according to the old +home-training, whether she belongs to a Samurai family. + +[*The sociologist will of course understand that these facts are not +by any means inconsistent with that very sparing use of pronouns so +amusingly discussed in Percival Lowell's "Soul of the Far East." In +societies where subjection is extreme "there is an avoidance of the +use of personal pronouns," though, as Herbert Spencer points out in +illustrating this law, it is just among such societies that the most +elaborate distinctions in pronominal forms of address are to be +found.] + +[173] Of course the matter as well as the manner of converse was +restricted; and the nature of the restraints upon free speech can be +inferred from the nature of the restraints upon freedom of demeanour. +Demeanour was most elaborately and mercilessly regulated, not merely +as to obeisances, of which there were countless grades, varying +according to sex as well as class,--but even in regard to facial +expression, the manner of smiling, the conduct of the breath, the way +of sitting, standing, walking, rising. Everybody was trained from +infancy in this etiquette of expression and deportment. At what +period it first became a mark of disrespect to betray, by look or +gesture, any feeling of grief or pain in the presence of a superior, +we cannot know; there is reason to believe that the most perfect +self-control in this regard was enforced from prehistoric times. But +there was gradually developed--partly, perhaps, under Chinese +teaching--a most elaborate code of deportment which exacted very much +more than impassiveness. It required not only that any sense of anger +or pain should be denied all outward expression, but that the +sufferer's face and manner should indicate the contrary feeling. +Sullen submission was an offence; mere impassive obedience +inadequate: the proper degree of submission should manifest itself by +a pleasant smile, and by a soft and happy tone of voice. The smile, +however, was also regulated. [174] One had to be careful about the +quality of the smile: it was a mortal offence, for example, so to +smile in addressing a superior, that the back teeth could be seen. In +the military class especially this code of demeanour was ruthlessly +enforced. Samurai women were required, like the women of Sparta, to +show signs of joy on hearing that their husbands or sons had fallen +in battle: to betray any natural feeling under the circumstances was +a grave breach of decorum. And in all classes demeanour was regulated +so severely that even to-day the manners of the people everywhere +still reveal the nature of the old discipline. The strangest fact is +that the old-fashioned manners appear natural rather than acquired, +instinctive rather than made by training. The bow,--the sibilant in +drawing of the breath which accompanies the prostration, and is +practised also in praying to the gods,--the position of the hands +upon the floor in the moment of greeting or of farewell,--the way of +sitting or rising or walking in presence of a guest,--the manner of +receiving or presenting anything,--all these ordinary actions have a +charm of seeming naturalness that mere teaching seems incapable of +producing. And this is still more true of the higher etiquette,--the +exquisite etiquette of the old-time training in cultivated classes, +--particularly as displayed by women. We must suppose that the +capacity to acquire such manners depends considerably upon +inheritance,--that it could only have [175] been formed by the past +experience of the race under discipline. + +What such discipline, as regards politeness, must have signified for +the mass of the people, may be inferred from the enactment of Iyeyasu +authorizing a Samurai to kill any person of the three inferior +classes guilty of rudeness. Be it observed that Iyeyasu was careful +to qualify the meaning of "rude": he said that the Japanese term for +a rude fellow signified "an other-than-expected person"--so that to +commit an offence worthy of death it was only necessary to act in an +"unexpected manner"; that is to say, contrary to prescribed +etiquette:-- + +"The Samurai are the masters of the four classes. Agriculturists, +artizans, and merchants may not behave in a rude manner towards +Samurai. The term for a rude man is an 'other-than-expected fellow'; +and a Samurai is not to be interfered with in cutting down a fellow +who has behaved to him in a manner other than is expected. The +Samurai are grouped into direct retainers, secondary retainers, and +nobles and retainers of high and low grade; but the same line of +conduct is equally allowable to them all towards an +other-than-expected fellow."--[Art. 45.] + +But there is little reason to suppose that Iyeyasu created any new +privilege of slaughter: he probably did no more than confirm by +enactment certain long established military rights. Stern rules about +the conduct of inferiors to superiors would seem to have been +pitilessly enforced long before the rise of the [176] military power. +We read that the Emperor Yuriaku, in the latter part of the fifth +century, killed a steward for the misdemeanour of remaining silent, +through fear, when spoken to: we also find it recorded that he struck +down a maid-of-honour who had brought him a cup of wine, and that he +would have cut off her head but for the extraordinary presence of +mind which enabled her to improvise a poetical appeal for mercy. Her +only fault had been that, in carrying the wine-cup, she failed to +notice that a leaf had fallen into it,--probably because court-custom +obliged her to carry the cup in such a way as not to breathe upon it; +for emperors and high nobles were served after the manner of gods. It +is true that Yuriaku was in the habit of killing people for little +mistakes; but it is evident that, in the cases cited, such mistakes +were regarded as breaches of long-established decorum. + +Probably before as well as after the introduction of the Chinese +penal codes,--the so-called Ming and Tsing codes, by which the +country was ruled under the Shoguns,--the bulk of the nation was +literally under the rod. Common folk were punished by cruel whippings +for the most trifling offences. For serious offences, death by +torture was an ordinary penalty; and there were extraordinary +penalties as savage, or almost as savage, as those established during +our own medieval period,--[177] burnings and crucifixions and +quarterings and boiling alive in oil. The documents regulating the +life of village-folk do not contain any indication of the severity of +legal discipline: the Kumi-cho declarations that such and such +conduct "shall be punished" suggest nothing terrible to the reader +who has not made himself familiar with the ancient codes. As a matter +of fact the term "punishment" in a Japanese legal document might, +signify anything from a trifling fine up to burning alive.... Some +evidence of the severity used to repress quarrelling even as late as +the time of Iyeyasu, may be found in a curious letter of Captain +Saris, who visited Japan in 1613. "The first of July," wrote the +Captain, "two of our Company happened to quarrell the one with the +other, and were very likely to haue gone into the field [i.e. to have +fought a duel] to the endangering of vs all. For it is a custome here +that whosoever drawes a weapon in anger, although he do noe harme +therewith, hee is presently cut in peeces; and, doing but small hurt, +not only themselues are so executed, but their whole generation." ... +The literal meaning of "cut in peeces" he explains later on, when +recounting in the same letter an execution that came under his +observation:-- + +"The eighth, three Iaponians were executed, viz., two men and one +woman: the cause this,--the woman, none of the honestest (her husband +being trauelled from home) [178] had appointed these two their +several hours to repair vnto her. The latter man, not knowing of the +former, and comming in before the houre appointed, found the first +man, and enraged thereat, he whipped out his cattan [katana] and +wounded both of them very sorely,--hauing very neere hewn the chine +of the mans back in two. But as well as hee might he cleared +himselfe, and recouering his cattan, wounded the other. The street, +taking notice of the fray, forthwith seased vpon them, led them +aside, and acquainted King Foyne therewith, and sent to know his +pleasure, (for according to his will, the partie is executed), who +presently gaue order that they should cut off their heads: which +done, euery man that listed (as very many did) came to try the +sharpness of their cattans vpon the corps, so that, before they left +off, they had hewne them all three into peeces as small as a mans +hand,--and yet notwithstanding, did not then giue over, but, placing +the peeces one vpon another, would try how many of them they could +strike through at a blow; and the peeces are left to the fowles to +deuoure." .... + +Evidently the execution was in this case ordered for cause more +serious than the offence of fighting; but it is true that quarrels +were strictly forbidden and rigorously punished. + +Though privileged to cut down "other-than-expected" people of +inferior rank, the military class itself had to endure a discipline +even more severe than that which it maintained. The penalty for a +word or a look that displeased, or for a trifling mistake in +performance of duty, might be death. In [179] most cases the Samurai +was permitted to be his own executioner; and the right of +self-destruction was deemed a privilege; but the obligation to thrust +a dagger deeply into one's belly on the left side, and then draw the +blade slowly and steadily across to the right side, so as to sever +all the entrails, was certainly not less cruel than the vulgar +punishment of crucifixion, or rather, double-transfixion. + +Just as all matters relating to the manner of the individual's life +were regulated by law, so were all matters relating to his +death,--the quality of his coffin, the expenses of his interment, the +order of his funeral, the form of his tomb. In the seventh century +laws were passed to the effect that no one should be buried with +unseemly expense; and these laws fixed the cost of funerals according +to rank and grade. Subsequent edicts decided the dimensions and +material of coffins, and the size of graves. In the eighth century +every detail of funerals, for all classes of persons from prince to +peasant, was fixed by decree. Other laws, and modifications of laws, +were made upon the subject in later centuries; but there appears to +have always been a general tendency to extravagance in the matter of +funerals,--a tendency so strong that, in spite of centuries of +sumptuary legislation, it remains to-day a social danger. This can +easily be understood if we remember the beliefs regarding duty to the +dead, and the consequent [180] desire to honour and to please the +spirit even at the risk of family impoverishment. + +Most of the legislation to which reference has already been made must +appear to modern minds tyrannical; and some of the regulations seem +to us strangely cruel. There was, moreover, no way of evading or +shirking these obligations of law and custom: whoever failed to +fulfil them was doomed to perish or to become an outcast; implicit +obedience was the condition of survival. The tendency of such +regulation was necessarily to suppress all mental and moral +differentiation, to numb personality, to establish one uniform and +unchanging type of character; and such was the actual result. To this +day every Japanese mind reveals the lines of that antique mould by +which the ancestral mind was compressed and limited. It is impossible +to understand Japanese psychology without knowing something of the +laws that helped to form it,--or, rather, to crystallize it under +pressure. + +Yet, on the other hand, the ethical effects of this iron discipline +were unquestionably excellent. It compelled each succeeding +generation to practise the frugality of the forefathers; and +that--compulsion was partly justified by the great poverty of the +nation. It reduced the cost of living to a figure far below our +Western comprehension of the necessary; it cultivated sobriety, +simplicity, economy; it enforced [181] cleanliness, courtesy, and +hardihood. And--strange as the fact may seem--it did not make the +people miserable: they found the world beautiful in spite of all +their trouble; and the happiness of the old life was reflected in the +old Japanese art, much as the joyousness of Greek life yet laughs to +us from the vase-designs of forgotten painters. + +And the explanation is not difficult. We must remember that the +coercion was not exercised only from without: it was really +maintained from within. The discipline of the race was self-imposed. +The people had gradually created their own social conditions, and +therefore the legislation conserving those conditions; and they +believed that legislation the best possible. They believed it to be +the best possible for the excellent reason that it had been founded +upon their own moral experience; and they could greatly endure +because they had great faith. Only religion could have enabled any +people to bear such discipline without degenerating into mopes and +cowards; and the Japanese never so degenerated: the traditions that +compelled self-denial and obedience, also cultivated courage, and +insisted upon cheerfulness. The power of the ruler was unlimited +because the power of all the dead supported him. "Laws," says Herbert +Spencer, "whether written or unwritten, formulate the rule of the +dead over the living. In addition to that power which past +generations exercise over present generations, by transmitting [182] +their natures,--bodily and mental,--and in addition to the power they +exercise over them by bequeathed habits and modes of life, there is +the power they exercise through their regulations for public conduct, +handed down orally, or in writing.... I emphasize these truths,"--he +adds,--"for the purpose of showing that they imply a tacit +ancestor-worship." ... Of no other laws in the history of human +civilization are these observations more true than of the laws of Old +Japan. Most strikingly did they "formulate the rule of the dead over +the living." And the hand of the dead was heavy: it is heavy upon the +living even to-day. + + + +[183] + +THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM + +The nature of the opposition which the ancient religion of Japan +could offer to the introduction of any hostile alien creed, should +now be obvious. The family being founded upon ancestor-worship, the +commune being regulated by ancestor-worship, the clan-group or tribe +being governed by ancestor-worship, and the Supreme Ruler being at +once the high-priest and deity of an ancestral cult which united all +the other cults in one common tradition, it must be evident that the +promulgation of any religion essentially opposed to Shinto would have +signified nothing less than an attack upon the whole system of +society. Considering these circumstances, it may well seem strange +that Buddhism should have succeeded, after some preliminary struggles +(which included one bloody battle), in getting itself accepted as a +second national faith. But although the original Buddhist doctrine +was essentially in disaccord with Shinto beliefs, Buddhism had +learned in India, in China, in Korea, and in divers adjacent +countries, how to meet the spiritual needs of peoples maintaining a +persistent ancestor-worship. [184] Intolerance of ancestor-worship +would have long, ago resulted in the extinction of Buddhism; for its +vast conquests have all been made among ancestor-worshipping races. +Neither in India nor in China nor in Korea,--neither in Siam nor +Burmah nor Annam,--did it attempt to extinguish ancestor-worship, +Everywhere it made itself accepted as an ally, nowhere as an enemy, +of social custom. In Japan it adopted the same policy which had +secured its progress on the continent; and in order to form any clear +conception of Japanese religious conditions, this fact must be kept +in mind. + +As the oldest extant Japanese texts--with the probable exception of +some Shinto rituals--date from the eighth century, it is only +possible to surmise the social conditions of that earlier epoch in +which there was no form of religion but ancestor-worship. Only by +imagining the absence of all Chinese and Korean influences, can we +form some vague idea of the state of things which existed during the +so-called Age of the Gods,--and it is difficult to decide at what +period these influences began to operate. Confucianism appears to +have preceded Buddhism by a considerable interval; and its progress, +as an organizing power, was much more rapid. Buddhism was first +introduced from Korea, about 552 A.D.; but the mission accomplished +little. By the end of the eighth century [185] the whole fabric of +Japanese administration had been reorganized upon the Chinese plan, +under Confucian influence; but it was not until well into the ninth +century that Buddhism really began to spread throughout the country. +Eventually it over-shadowed the national life, and coloured all the +national thought. Yet the extraordinary conservatism of the ancient +ancestor-cult--its inherent power of resisting fusion--was +exemplified by the readiness with which the two religions fell apart +on the disestablishment of Buddhism in 1871. After having been +literally overlaid by Buddhism for nearly a thousand years, Shinto +immediately reassumed its archaic simplicity, and reestablished the +unaltered forms of its earliest rites. + +But the attempt of Buddhism to absorb Shinto seemed at one period to +have almost succeeded. The method of the absorption is said to have +been devised, about the year 800, by the famous founder of the +Shingon sect, Kukai or "Kobodaishi" (as he is popularly called), who +first declared the higher Shinto gods to be incarnations of various +Buddhas. But in this matter, of course, Kobodaishi was merely +following precedents of Buddhist policy. Under the name of +Ryobu-Shinto,* the new compound of Shinto and Buddhism obtained +imperial approval and support. [*The term "Ryobu" signifies +"two-departments" or "two religions."] Thereafter, in hundreds of +[186] places, the two religions were domiciled within the same +precinct--sometimes even within the same building: they seemed to +have been veritably amalgamated. And nevertheless there was no real +fusion;--after ten centuries of such contact they separated again, as +lightly as if they had never touched. It was only in the domestic +form of the ancestor-cult that Buddhism really affected permanent +modifications; yet even these were neither fundamental nor universal. +In certain provinces they were not made; and almost everywhere a +considerable part of the population preferred to follow the Shinto +form of the ancestor-cult. Yet another large class of persons, +converts to Buddhism, continued to profess the older creed as well; +and, while practising their ancestor-worship according to the +Buddhist rite, maintained separately also the domestic worship of the +elder gods. In most Japanese houses to-day, the "god-shelf" and the +Buddhist shrine can both be found; both cults being maintained under +the same roof.* ... But I am mentioning these facts only as +illustrating the conservative vitality of Shinto, not as indicating +any weakness in the Buddhist propaganda. Unquestionably the influence +which Buddhism exerted upon Japanese [187] civilization was immense, +profound, multiform, incalculable; and the only wonder is that it +should not have been able to stifle Shinto forever. To state, as +various writers have carelessly stated, that Buddhism became the +popular religion, while Shinto remained the official religion, is +altogether misleading. As a matter of fact Buddhism became as much an +official religion as Shinto itself, and influenced the lives of the +highest classes not less than the lives of the poor. It made monks of +Emperors, and nuns of their daughters; it decided the conduct of +rulers, the nature of decrees, and the administration of laws. In +every community the Buddhist parish-priest was a public official as +well as a spiritual teacher: he kept the parish register, and made +report to the authorities upon local matters of importance. + +[*The ancestor-worship and the funeral rites are Buddhist, as a +general rule, if the family be Buddhist; but the Shinto gods are also +worshipped in most Buddhist households, except those attached to the +Shin sect. Many followers of even the Shin sect, however, appear to +follow the ancient religion likewise; and they have their Ujigami.] + +By introducing the love of learning, Confucianism had partly prepared +the way for Buddhism. As early even as the first century there were +some Chinese scholars in Japan; but it was toward the close of the +third century that the study of Chinese literature first really +became fashionable among the ruling classes. Confucianism, however, +did not represent a new religion: it was a system of ethical +teachings founded upon an ancestor-worship much like that of Japan. +What it had to offer was a kind of social philosophy,--an explanation +of the [188] eternal reason of things. It reinforced and expanded the +doctrine of filial piety; it regulated and elaborated preexisting +ceremonial; and it systematized all the ethics of government. In the +education of the ruling classes it became a great power, and has so +remained down to the present day. Its doctrines were humane, in the +best meaning of the word; and striking evidence of its humanizing +effect on government policy may be found in the laws and the maxims +of that wisest of Japanese rulers--Iyeyasu. + +But the religion of the Buddha brought to Japan another and a wider +humanizing influence,--a new gospel of tenderness,--together with a +multitude of new beliefs that were able to accommodate themselves to +the old, in spite of fundamental dissimilarity. In the highest +meaning of the term, it was a civilizing power. Besides teaching new +respect for life, the duty of kindness to animals as well as to all +human beings, the consequence of present acts upon the conditions of +a future existence, the duty of resignation to pain as the inevitable +result of forgotten error, it actually gave to Japan the arts and the +industries of China. Architecture, painting, sculpture, engraving, +printing, gardening--in short, every art and industry that helped to +make life beautiful--developed first in Japan under Buddhist +teaching. + +There are many forms of Buddhism; and in [189] modern Japan there are +twelve principal Buddhist sects; but, for present purposes, it will +be enough to speak, in the most general way, of popular Buddhism +only, as distinguished from philosophical Buddhism, which I shall +touch upon in a subsequent chapter. The higher Buddhism could not, at +any time or in any country, have had a large popular following; and +it is a mistake to suppose that its particular doctrines--such as the +doctrine of Nirvana--were taught to the common people. Only such +forms of doctrine were preached as could be made intelligible and +attractive to very simple minds. There is a Buddhist proverb: "First +observe the person; then preach the Law,"--that is to say, Adapt your +instruction to the capacity of the listener. In Japan, as in China, +Buddhism had to adapt its instruction to the mental capacity of large +classes of people yet unaccustomed to abstract ideas. Even to this +day the masses do not know so much as the meaning of the word +"Nirvana" (Nehan): they have been taught only the simpler forms of +the religion; and in dwelling upon these, it will be needless to +consider differences of sect and dogma. + +To appreciate the direct influence of Buddhist teaching upon the +minds of the common people, we must remember that in Shinto there was +no doctrine of metempsychosis. As I have said before, the spirits of +the dead, according to ancient Japanese thinking, continued to exist +in the world: they [190] mingled somehow with the viewless forces of +nature, and acted through them. Everything happened by the agency of +these spirits--evil or good. Those who had been wicked in life +remained wicked after death; those who had been good in life became +good gods after death; but all were to be propitiated. No idea of +future reward or punishment existed before the coming of Buddhism: +there was no notion of any heaven or hell. The happiness of ghosts +and gods alike was supposed to depend upon the worship and the +offerings of the living. + +With these ancient beliefs Buddhism attempted to interfere only by +expanding and expounding them,--by interpreting them in a totally new +light. Modifications were effected, but no suppressions: we might +even say that Buddhism accepted the whole body of the old beliefs. It +was true, the new teaching declared, that the dead continued to exist +invisibly; and it was not wrong to suppose that they became +divinities, since all of them were destined, sooner or later, to +enter upon the way to Buddhahood--the divine condition. Buddhism +acknowledged likewise the greater gods of Shinto, with all their +attributes and dignities,--declaring them incarnations of Buddhas or +Bodhisattvas: thus the goddess of the sun was identified with +Dai-Nichi-Nyorai (the Tathagata Mahavairokana); the deity Hachiman +was identified with Amida (Amitabha). Nor did Buddhism deny the +existence of goblins [191] and evil gods: these were identified with +the Pretas and the Merakayikas; and the Japanese popular term for +goblin, Ma, to-day reminds us of this identification. As for wicked +ghosts, they were to be thought of as Pretas +only,--Gaki,--self-doomed by the errors of former lives to the Circle +of Perpetual Hunger. The ancient sacrifices to the various gods of +disease and pestilence--gods of fever, small-pox, dysentery, +consumption, coughs, and colds--were continued with Buddhist +approval; but converts were bidden to consider such maleficent beings +as Pretas, and to present them with only such food-offerings as are +bestowed upon Pretas--not for propitiation, but for the purpose of +relieving ghostly pain. In this case, as in the case of the ancestral +spirits, Buddhism prescribed that the prayers to be repeated were to +be said for the sake of the haunters, rather than to them.... The +reader may be reminded of the fact that Roman Catholicism, by making +a similar provision, still practically tolerates a continuance of the +ancient European ancestor-worship. And we cannot consider that +worship extinct in any of those Western countries where the peasants +still feast their dead upon the Night of All Souls. + +Buddhism, however, did more than tolerate the old rites. It +cultivated and elaborated them. Under its teaching a new and +beautiful form of the domestic cult came into existence; and all the +[192] touching poetry of ancestor-worship in modern Japan can be +traced to the teaching of the Buddhist missionaries. Though ceasing +to regard their dead as gods in the ancient sense, the Japanese +converts were encouraged to believe in their presence, and to address +them in terms of reverence and affection. It is worthy of remark that +the doctrine of Pretas gave new force to the ancient fear of +neglecting the domestic rites. Ghosts unloved might not become "evil +gods" in the Shinto meaning of the term; but the malevolent Gaki was +even more to be dreaded than the malevolent Kami,--for Buddhism +defined in appalling ways the nature of the Gaki's power to harm. In +various Buddhist funeral-rites, the dead are actually addressed as +Gaki,--beings to be pitied but also to be feared,--much needing human +sympathy and succour, but able to recompense the food-giver by +ghostly help. + +One particular attraction of Buddhist teaching was its simple and +ingenious interpretation of nature. Countless matters which Shinto +had never attempted to explain, and could not have explained, +Buddhism expounded in detail, with much apparent consistency. Its +explanations of the mysteries of birth, life, and death were at once +consoling to pure minds, and wholesomely discomforting to bad +consciences. It taught that the dead were happy or unhappy not +directly because of the attention or the [193] neglect shown them by +the living, but because of their past conduct while in the body.* It +did not attempt to teach the higher doctrine of successive +rebirths,--which the people could not possibly have understood,--but +the merely symbolic doctrine of transmigration, which everybody could +understand. To die was not to melt back into nature, but to be +reincarnated; and the character of the new body, as well as the +conditions of the new existence, would depend upon the quality of +one's deeds and thoughts in the present body. All states and +conditions of being were the consequence of past actions. Such a man +was now rich and powerful, because in previous lives he had been +generous and kindly; such another man was now sickly and poor, +because in some previous existence he had been sensual and selfish. +This woman was happy in her husband and her children, because in the +time of a former birth she had proved herself a loving daughter and a +faithful spouse; this other was wretched and childless, because in +some anterior existence she had been a jealous wife and a cruel +mother. "To hate your enemy," the Buddhist preacher would proclaim, +"is [194] foolish as well as wrong: he is now your enemy only because +of some treachery that you practised upon him in a previous life, +when he desired to be your friend. Resign yourself to the injury +which he now does you accept it as the expiation of your forgotten +fault... The girl whom you hoped to marry has been refused you by her +parents,--given away to another. But once, in another existence, she +was yours by promise; and you broke the pledge then given.... Painful +indeed the loss of your child; but this loss is the consequence of +having, in some former life, refused affection where affection was +due.... Maimed by mishap, you can no longer earn your living as +before. Yet this mishap is really due to the fact that in some +previous existence you wantonly inflicted bodily injury. Now the evil +of your own act has returned upon you: repent of your crime, and pray +that its Karma may be exhausted by this present suffering." ... All +the sorrows of men were thus explained and consoled. Life was +expounded as representing but one stage of a measureless journey, +whose way stretched back through all the night of the past, and +forward through all the mystery of the future,--out of eternities +forgotten into the eternities to be; and the world itself was to be +thought of only as a traveller's resting-place, an inn by the +roadside. + +[*The reader will doubtless wonder how Buddhism could reconcile its +doctrine of successive rebirths with the ideas of ancestor-worship, +If one died only to be born again, what could be the use of offering +food or addressing any kind of prayer to the reincarnated spirit? +This difficulty was met by the teaching that the dead were not +immediately reborn in most cases, but entered into a particular +condition called Chu-U. They might remain in this disembodied +condition for the time of one hundred years, after which they were +reincarnated. The Buddhist services for the dead are consequently +limited to the time of one hundred years.] + +Instead of preaching to the people about Nirvana, [195] Buddhism +discoursed to them of blisses to be won and pains to be avoided: the +Paradise of Amida, Lord of Immeasurable Light; the eight hot hells +called To-kwatsu, and the eight icy hells called Abuda. On the +subject of future punishment the teaching was very horrible: I should +advise no one of delicate nerves to read the Japanese, or rather the +Chinese accounts of hell. But hell was the penalty for supreme +wickedness only: it was not eternal; and the demons themselves would +at last be saved.... Heaven was to be the reward of good deeds: the +reward might indeed be delayed, through many successive rebirths, by +reason of lingering Karma; but, on the other hand, it might be +attained by virtue of a single holy act in this present life. +Besides, prior to the period of supreme reward, each succeeding +rebirth could be made happier than the preceding one by persistent +effort in the holy Way. Even as regarded conditions in this +transitory world, the results of virtuous conduct were not to be +despised. The beggar of to-day might to-morrow be reborn in the +palace of a daimyo; the blind shampooer might become, in his very +next life, an imperial minister. Always the recompense would be +proportionate to the sum of merit. In this lower world to practise +the highest virtue was difficult; and the great rewards were hard to +win. But for all good deeds a recompense was sure; and there was no +one who could not acquire merit. [196] Even the Shinto doctrine of +conscience--the god-given sense of right and wrong--was not denied by +Buddhism. But this conscience was interpreted as the essential wisdom +of the Buddha dormant in every human creature,--wisdom darkened by +ignorance, clogged by desire, fettered by Karma, but destined sooner +or later to fully awaken, and to flood the mind with light. + +It would seem that the Buddhist teaching of the duty of kindness to +all living creatures, and of pity for all suffering, had a powerful +effect upon national habit and custom, long before the new religion +found general acceptance. As early as the year 675, a decree was +issued by the Emperor Temmu forbidding the people to eat "the flesh +of kine, horses, dogs, monkeys, or barn-door fowls," and prohibiting +the use of traps or the making of pitfalls in catching game.* [*See +Aston's translation of the Nihongi, Vol. II, p. 329.] The fact that +all kinds of flesh-meat were not forbidden is probably explained by +this Emperor's zeal for the maintenance of both creeds;--an absolute +prohibition might have interfered with Shinto usages, and would +certainly have been incompatible with Shinto traditions. But, +although fish never ceased to be an article of food for the laity, we +may say that from about this time the mass of the nation abandoned +its habits of diet, and forswore the eating of meat, in accordance +with [197] Buddhist teaching.... This teaching was based upon the +doctrine of the unity of all sentient existence. Buddhism explained +the whole visible world by its doctrine of Karma,--simplifying that +doctrine so as to adapt it to popular comprehension. The forms of all +creatures,--bird, reptile, or mammal; insect or fish,--represented +only different results of Karma: the ghostly life in each was one and +the same; and, in even the lowest, some spark of the divine existed. +The frog or the serpent, the bird or the bat, the ox or the +horse,--all had had, at some past time, the privilege of human +(perhaps even superhuman) shape: their present conditions represented +only the consequence of ancient faults. Any human being also, by +reason of like faults, might hereafter be reduced to the same dumb +state,--might be reborn as a reptile, a fish, a bird, or a beast of +burden. The consequence of wanton cruelty to any animal might cause +the perpetrator of that cruelty to be reborn as an animal of the same +kind, destined to suffer the same cruel treatment. Who could even be +sure that the goaded ox, the over-driven horse, or the slaughtered +bird, had not formerly been a human being of closest kin,--ancestor, +parent, brother, sister, or child? ... + +Not by words only were all these things taught. It should be +remembered that Shinto had no art: its ghost-houses, silent and void, +were not even [198] decorated. But Buddhism brought in its train all +the arts of carving, painting, and decoration. The images of its +Bodhisattvas, smiling in gold,--the figures of its heavenly guardians +and infernal judges, its feminine angels and monstrous demons,--must +have startled and amazed imaginations yet unaccustomed to any kind of +art. Great paintings hung in the temples, and frescoes limned upon +their walls or ceilings, explained better than words the doctrine of +the Six States of Existence, and the dogma of future rewards and +punishments. In rows of kakemono, suspended side by side, were +displayed the incidents of a Soul's journey to the realm of judgment, +and all the horrors of the various hells. One pictured the ghosts of +faithless wives, for ages doomed to pluck, with bleeding fingers, the +rasping bamboo-grass that grows by the Springs of Death; another +showed the torment of the slanderer, whose tongue was torn by +demon-pincers; in a third appeared the spectres of lustful men, +vainly seeking to flee the embraces of women of fire, or climbing, in +frenzied terror, the slopes of the Mountain of Swords. Pictured also +were the circles of the Preta-world, and the pangs of the Hungry +Ghosts, and likewise the pains of rebirth in the form of reptiles and +of beasts. And the art of these early representations--many of which +have been preserved--was an art of no mean order. We can hardly +conceive the effect upon inexperienced imagination of the crimson +frown of Emma [199] (Yama), Judge of the dead,--or the vision of that +weird Mirror which reflected, to every spirit the misdeeds of its +life in the body,--or the monstrous fancy of that double-faced Head +before the judgment seat, representing the visage of the woman +Mirume, whose eyes behold all secret sin; and the vision of the man +Kaguhana, who smells all odours of evil-doing.... Parental affection +must have been deeply touched by the painted legend of the world of +children's ghosts,--the little ghosts that must toil, under +demon-surveillance, in the Dry Bed of the River of Souls.... But +pictured terrors were offset by pictured consolations,--by the +beautiful figure of Kwannon, white Goddess of Mercy,--by the +compassionate smile of Jizo, the playmate of infant-ghosts,--by the +charm also of celestial nymphs, floating on iridescent wings in light +of azure. The Buddhist painter opened to simple fancy the palaces of +heaven, and guided hope, through gardens of jewel-trees, even to the +shores of that lake where the souls of the blessed are reborn in +lotos-blossoms, and tended by angel-nurses. + +Moreover, for people accustomed only to such simple architecture as +that of the Shinto miya, the new temples erected by the Buddhist +priests must have been astonishments. The colossal Chinese gates, +guarded by giant statues; the lions and lanterns of bronze and stone; +the enormous suspended [200] bells, sounded by swinging-beams; the +swarming of dragon-shapes under the caves of the vast roofs; the +glimmering splendour of the altars; the ceremonial likewise, with its +chanting and its incense-burning and its weird Chinese music,--cannot +have failed to inspire the wonder-loving with delight and awe. It is +a noteworthy fact that the earliest Buddhist temples in Japan still +remain, even to Western eyes, the most impressive. The Temple of the +Four Deva Kings at Osaka--which, though more than once rebuilt, +preserves the original plan--dates from 600 A.D.; the yet more +remarkable temple called Horyuji, near Nara, dates from about the +year 607. + +Of course the famous paintings and the great statues could be seen at +the temples only; but the Buddhist image-makers soon began to people +even the most desolate places with stone images of Buddhas and of +Bodhisattvas. Then first were made those icons of Jizo, which still +smile upon the traveller from every roadside,--and the images of +Koshin, protector of highways, with his three symbolic Apes,--and the +figure of that Bato-Kwannon, who protects the horses of the +peasant,--with other figures in whose rude but impressive art +suggestions of Indian origin are yet recognizable. Gradually the +graveyards became thronged with dreaming Buddhas or +Bodhisattvas,--holy guardians of the dead, throned upon lotos-flowers +of [201] stone, and smiling with closed eyes the smile of the Calm +Supreme. In the cities everywhere Buddhist sculptors opened shops, to +furnish pious households with images of the chief divinities +worshipped by the various Buddhist sects; and the makers of ihai, or +Buddhist mortuary tablets, as well as the makers of household +shrines, multiplied and prospered. + +Meanwhile the people were left free to worship their ancestors +according to either creed; and if a majority eventually gave +preference to the Buddhist rite, this preference was due in large +measure to the peculiar emotional charm which Buddhism had infused +into the cult. Except in minor details, the two rites differed +scarcely at all; and there was no conflict whatever between the old +ideas of filial piety and the Buddhist ideas attaching to the new +ancestor-worship, Buddhism taught that the dead might be helped and +made happier by prayer, and that much ghostly comfort could be given +them by food-offerings. They were not to be offered flesh or wine; +but it was proper to gratify them with fruits and rice and cakes and +flowers and the smoke of incense. Besides, even the simplest +food-offerings might be transmuted, by force of prayer, into +celestial nectar and ambrosia. But what especially helped the new +ancestor-cult to popular favour, was the fact that it included many +beautiful and touching customs not known to the old. Everywhere [202] +the people soon learned to kindle the hundred and eight fires of +welcome for the annual visit of their dead,--to supply the spirits +with little figures made of straw, or made out of vegetables, +to-serve for oxen or horses,*--also to prepare the ghost-ships +(shoryobune), in which the souls of the ancestors were to return, +over the sea, to their under-world. Then too were instituted the +Bon-odori, or Dances of the Festival of the Dead,** and the custom of +suspending white lanterns at graves, and coloured lanterns at +house-gates, to light the coining and the going of the visiting dead. + +[*An eggplant, with four pegs of wood stuck into it, to represent +legs, usually stands for an ox; and a cucumber, with four pegs, +serves for a horse.... One is reminded of the fact that, at some of +the ancient Greek sacrifices, similar substitutes for real animals +were used. In the worship of Apollo, at Thebes, apples with wooden +pegs stuck into them, to represent feet and horns, were offered as +substitutes for sheep. + +**The dances themselves--very curious and very attractive to +witness--are much older than Buddhism; but Buddhism made them a +feature of the festival referred to, which lasts for three days. No +person who has not witnessed a Bon-odori can form the least idea of +what Japanese dancing means: it is something utterly different from +what usually goes by the name,--something indescribably archaic, +weird, and nevertheless fascinating. I have repeatedly sat up all +night to watch the peasants dancing. Japanese dancing girls, be it +observed, do not dance: they pose. The peasants dance.] + +But perhaps the greatest value of Buddhism to the nation was +educational. The Shinto priests were not teachers. In early times +they were mostly aristocrats, religious representatives of the clans; +and the idea of educating the common people could not even have +occurred to them. Buddhism, on [203] the other hand, offered the boon +of education to all,--not merely a religious education, but an +education in the arts and the learning of China. The Buddhist temples +eventually became common schools, or had schools attached to them; +and at each parish temple the children of the community were taught, +at a merely nominal cost, the doctrines of the faith, the wisdom of +the Chinese classics, calligraphy, drawing, and much besides. By +degrees the education of almost the whole nation came under Buddhist +control; and the moral effect was of the best. For the military class +indeed there was another and special system of education; but Samurai +scholars sought to perfect their knowledge under Buddhist teachers of +renown; and the imperial household itself employed Buddhist +instructors. For the common people everywhere the Buddhist priest was +the schoolmaster; and by virtue of his occupation as teacher, not +less than by reason of his religious office, he ranked with the +samurai. Much of what remains most attractive, in Japanese +character--the winning and graceful aspects of it--seems to have been +developed under Buddhist training. + +It was natural enough that to his functions of public instructor, the +Buddhist priest should have added those of a public registrar. Until +the period of disendowment, the Buddhist clergy remained, throughout +the country, public as well as religious officials. They kept the +parish records, and furnished [204] at need certificates of birth, +death, or family descent. + +To give any just conception of the immense civilizing influence which +Buddhism exerted in Japan would require many volumes. Even to +summarize the results of that influence by stating only the most +general facts, is scarcely possible,--for no general statement can +embody the whole truth of the work accomplished. As a moral force, +Buddhism strengthened authority and cultivated submission, by its +capacity to inspire larger hopes and fears than the more ancient +religion could create. As teacher, it educated the race, from the +highest to the humblest, both in ethics and in esthetics. All that +can be classed under the name of art in Japan was either introduced +or developed by Buddhism; and the same may be said regarding nearly +all Japanese literature possessing real literary quality,--excepting +some Shinto rituals, and some fragments of archaic poetry. Buddhism +introduced drama, the higher forms of poetical composition, and +fiction, and history, and philosophy. All the refinements of Japanese +life were of Buddhist introduction, and at least a majority of its +diversions and pleasures. There is even to-day scarcely one +interesting or beautiful thing, produced in the country, for which +the nation is not in some sort indebted to Buddhism. Perhaps the best +and briefest way of [205] stating the range of such indebtedness, is +simply to, say that Buddhism brought the whole of Chinese +civilization into Japan, and thereafter patiently modified and +reshaped it to Japanese requirements. The elder civilization was not +merely superimposed upon the social structure, but fitted carefully +into it, combined with it so perfectly that the marks of the welding, +the lines of the juncture, almost totally disappeared. + + + +[207] + +THE HIGHER BUDDHISM + +Philosphical Buddhism requires some brief consideration in this +place,--for two reasons. The first is that misapprehension or +ignorance of the subject has rendered possible the charge of atheism +against the intellectual classes of Japan. The second reason is that +some persons imagine the Japanese common people--that is to say, the +greater part of the nation--believers in the doctrine of Nirvana as +extinction (though, as a matter of fact, even the meaning of the word +is unknown to the masses), and quite resigned to vanish from the face +of the earth, because of that incapacity for struggle which the +doctrine is supposed to create. A little serious thinking ought to +convince any intelligent man that no such creed could ever have been +the religion of either a savage or a civilized people. But myriads of +Western minds are ready at all times to accept statements of +impossibility without taking the trouble to think about them; and if +I can show some of my readers how far beyond popular comprehension +the doctrines of the higher Buddhism really are, something will have +been accomplished for the cause of truth and [208] common-sense. And +besides the reasons already given for dwelling upon the subject, +there is this third and special reason,--that it is one of +extraordinary interest to the student of modern philosophy. + +Before going further, I must remind you that the metaphysics of +Buddhism can be studied anywhere else quite as well as in Japan, +since the more important sutras have been translated into various +European languages, and most of the untranslated texts edited and +published. The texts of Japanese Buddhism are Chinese; and only +Chinese scholars are competent to throw light upon the minor special +phases of the subject. Even to read the Chinese Buddhist canon of +7000 volumes is commonly regarded as an impossible feat,--though it +has certainly been accomplished in Japan. Then there are the +commentaries, the varied interpretations of different sects, the +multiplications of later doctrine, to heap confusion upon confusion. +The complexities of Japanese Buddhism are incalculable; and those who +try to unravel them soon become, as a general rule, hopelessly lost +in the maze of detail. All this has nothing to do with my present +purpose, I shall have very little to say about Japanese Buddhism as +distinguished from other Buddhism, and nothing at all to say about +sect-differences. I shall keep to general facts as regards the higher +doctrine,--selecting from among such facts only those most suitable +[209] for the illustration of that doctrine. And I shall not take up +the subject of Nirvana, in spite of its great importance,--having +treated it as fully as I was able in my _Gleanings in Buddha-Fields_, +--but confine myself to the topic of certain analogies between the +conclusions of Buddhist metaphysics and the conclusions of +contemporary Western thought. + +In the best single volume yet produced in English on the subject of +Buddhism,* the late Mr. Henry Clarke Warren observed: "A large part +of the pleasure that I have experienced in the study of Buddhism has +arisen from what I may call the strangeness of the intellectual +landscape. [*Buddhism in Translations, by Henry Clarke Warren +(Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1896). Published by Harvard University.] +All the ideas, the modes of argument, even the postulates assumed and +not argued about, have always seemed so strange, so different from +anything to which I have been accustomed, that I felt all the time as +though walking in Fairyland. Much of the charm that the Oriental +thoughts and ideas have for me appears to be because they so seldom +fit into Western categories." ... The serious attraction of Buddhist +philosophy could not be better suggested: it is indeed "the +strangeness of the intellectual landscape," as of a world inside-out +and upside-down, that has chiefly interested Western [210] thinkers +heretofore. Yet after all, there is a class of Buddhist concepts +which can be fitted, or very nearly fitted, into Western categories. +The higher Buddhism is a kind of Monism; and it includes doctrines +that accord, in the most surprising manner, with the scientific +theories of the German and the English monists. To my thinking, the +most curious part of the subject, and its main interest, is +represented just by these accordances,--particularly in view of the +fact that the Buddhist conclusions have been reached through mental +processes unknown to Western thinking, and unaided by any knowledge +of science.... I venture to call myself a student of Herbert Spencer; +and it was because of my acquaintance with the Synthetic Philosophy +that I came to find in Buddhist philosophy a more than romantic +interest. For Buddhism is also a theory of evolution, though the +great central idea of our scientific evolution (the law of progress +from homogeneity to heterogeneity) is not correspondingly implied by +Buddhist doctrine as regards the life of this world. The course of +evolution as we conceive it, according to Professor Huxley, "must +describe a trajectory like that of a ball fired from a mortar; and +the sinking half of that course is as much a part of the general +process of evolution as the rising." The highest point of the +trajectory would represent what Mr. Spencer calls Equilibration,--the +supreme point of development preceding the period [211] of decline; +but, in Buddhist evolution, this supreme point vanishes into Nirvana. +I can best illustrate the Buddhist position by asking you to imagine +the trajectory line upside-down,--a course descending out of the +infinite, touching ground, and ascending again to mystery.... +Nevertheless, some Buddhist ideas do offer the most startling analogy +with the evolutional ideas of our own time; and even those Buddhist +concepts most remote from Western thought can be best interpreted by +the help of illustrations and of language borrowed from modern +science. + +I think that we may consider the most remarkable teachings of the +higher Buddhism,--excluding the doctrine of Nirvana, for the reason +already given,--to be the following:-- + +That there is but one Reality;-- + +That the Consciousness is not the real Self;-- + +That Matter is an aggregate of phenomena created by the force of acts +and thoughts;-- + +That all objective and subjective existence is made by Karma,-- the +present being the creation of the Past, and the actions of the +present and the past, in combination, determining the conditions of +the future.... (Or, in other words, that the universe of Matter, and +the universe of [conditioned] Mind, represent in their evolution a +strictly moral order.) + +It will he worth while now to briefly consider [212] these doctrines +in their relation to modern thought, beginning with the first, which +is Monism:-- + +All things having form or name,--Buddhas, gods, men, and all living +creatures,--suns, worlds, moons, the whole visible cosmos,--are +transitory phenomena.... Assuming, with Herbert Spencer, that the +test of reality is permanence, one can scarcely question this +position; it differs little from the statement with which the closing +chapter of the First Principles concludes:-- + +"Though the relation of subject and object renders necessary to us +these antithetical conceptions of Spirit and Matter, the one is no +less than the other to be regarded as but a sign of the Unknown +Reality which underlies both."--Edition of 1894. + +For Buddhism the sole reality is the Absolute,--Buddha as +unconditioned and Infinite Being. There is no other veritable +existence, whether of Matter or of Mind; there is no real +individuality or personality; the "I" and the "Not-I" are essentially +nowise different. We are reminded of Mr. Spencer's position, that "it +is one and the same Reality which is manifested to us both +subjectively and objectively." Mr. Spencer goes on to say: "Subject +and Object, as actually existing, can never be contained in the +consciousness produced by the cooperation of the two, though they are +necessarily [213] implied by it; and the antithesis of Subject and +Object, never to be transcended while consciousness lasts, renders +impossible all knowledge of that Ultimate Reality in which Subject +and Object are united."... I do not think that a master of the higher +Buddhism would dispute Mr. Spencer's doctrine of Transfigured +Realism. Buddhism does not deny the actuality of phenomena as +phenomena, but denies their permanence, and the truth of the +appearances which they present to our imperfect senses. Being +transitory, and not what they seem, they are to be considered in the +nature of illusions,--impermanent manifestations of the only +permanent Reality. But the Buddhist position is not agnosticism: it +is astonishingly different, as we shall presently see. Mr. Spencer +states that we cannot know the Reality so long as consciousness +lasts,--because while consciousness lasts we cannot transcend the +antithesis of Object and Subject, and it is this very antithesis +which makes consciousness possible. "Very true," the Buddhist +metaphysician would reply; "we cannot know the sole Reality while +consciousness lasts. But destroy consciousness, and the Reality +becomes cognizable. Annihilate the illusion of Mind, and the light +will come." This destruction of consciousness signifies Nirvana,--the +extinction of all that we call Self. Self is blindness: destroy it, +and the Reality will be revealed as infinite vision and infinite +peace. + +[214] We have now to ask what, according to Buddhist philosophy, is +the meaning of the visible universe as phenomenon, and the nature of +the consciousness that perceives. However transitory, the phenomenon +makes an impression upon consciousness; and consciousness itself, +though transitory, has existence; and its perceptions, however +delusive, are perceptions of actual relation. Buddhism answers that +both the universe and the consciousness are merely aggregates of +Karma--complexities incalculable of conditions shaped by acts and +thoughts through some enormous past. All substance and all +conditioned mind (as distinguished from unconditioned mind) are +products of acts and thoughts: by acts and thoughts the atoms of +bodies have been integrated; and the affinities of those atoms--the +polarities of them, as a scientist might say--represent tendencies +shaped in countless vanished lives. I may quote here from a modern +Japanese treatise on the subject:-- + +"The aggregate actions of all sentient beings give birth to the +varieties of mountains, rivers, countries, etc. They are caused by +aggregate actions, and so are called aggregate fruits. Our present +life is the reflection of past actions. Men consider these +reflections as their real selves. Their eyes, noses, ears, tongues, +and bodies--as well as their gardens, woods, farms, residences, +servants, and maids--men imagine to be their own possessions; but, in +fact, they are only results endlessly produced by innumerable [215] +actions. In tracing every thing back to the ultimate limits of the +past, we cannot find a beginning: hence it is said that death and +birth have no beginning. Again, when seeking the ultimate limit of +the future, we cannot find the end."* [*Outlines of the Maheyena +Philosophy, by S. Kuroda.] + +This teaching that all things are formed by Karma--whatever is good +in the universe representing the results of meritorious acts or +thoughts; and what ever is evil, the results of evil acts or +thoughts--has the approval of five of the great sects; and we may +accept it as a leading doctrine of Japanese Buddhism.... The cosmos +is, then, an aggregate of Karma; and the mind of man is an aggregate +of Karma; and the beginnings thereof are unknown, and the end cannot +be imagined. There is a spiritual evolution, of which the goal is +Nirvana; but we have no declaration as to a final state of universal +rest, when the shaping of substance and of mind will have ceased +forever.... Now the Synthetic Philosophy assumes a very similar +position as regards the evolution of Phenomena: there is no beginning +to evolution, nor any conceivable end. I quote from Mr. Spencer's +reply to a critic in the North American Review: + +"That 'absolute commencement of organic life upon the globe,' which +the reviewer says I 'cannot evade the admission of,' I distinctly +deny. The affirmation of [216] universal evolution is in itself the +negation of an absolute commencement of anything. Construed in terms +of evolution, every kind of being is conceived as a product of +modification wrought by insensible gradations upon a preexisting kind +of being; and this holds as fully of the supposed 'commencement of +organic life' as of all subsequent developments of organic life.... +That organic matter was not produced all at once, but was reached +through steps, we are well warranted in believing by the experiences +of chemists."* ... [*Principles of Biology, Vol. I, p. 482.] + +Of course it should be understood that the Buddhist silence, as to a +beginning and an end, concerns only the production of phenomena, not +any particular existence of groups of phenomena. That of which no +beginning or end can be predicated is simply the Eternal Becoming. +And, like the older Indian philosophy from which it sprang, Buddhism +teaches the alternate apparition and disparition of universes. At +certain prodigious periods of time, the whole cosmos of "one hundred +thousand times ten millions of worlds" vanishes away,--consumed by +fire or otherwise destroyed,--but only to be reformed again. These +periods are called "World-Cycles," and each World-Cycle is divided +into four "Immensities,"--but we need not here consider the details +of the doctrine. It is only the fundamental idea of a evolutional +rhythm that is really interesting. I need scarcely remind the reader +that [217] the alternate disintegration and reintegration of the +cosmos is also a scientific conception, and a commonly accepted +article of evolutional belief. I may quote, however, for other +reasons, the paragraph expressing Herbert Spencer's views upon the +subject:-- + +"Apparently the universally coexistent forces of attraction and +repulsion, which, as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor +changes throughout the Universe, also necessitate rhythm in the +totality of changes,--produce now an immeasurable period during which +the attractive forces, predominating, cause universal concentration; +and then an immeasurable period during which the repulsive forces, +predominating, cause diffusion,--alternate eras of Evolution and +Dissolution. And thus there is suggested to us the conception of a +past during which there have been successive Evolutions analogous to +that which is now going on; and a future during which successive +other such Evolutions may go on-ever the same in principle, but never +the same in concrete result."--First Principles, Section 183* + +[*This paragraph, from the fourth edition, has been considerably +qualified in the definitive edition of 1900.] + +Further on, Mr. Spencer has pointed out the vast logical consequence +involved by this hypothesis:-- + +"If, as we saw reason to think, there is an alternation of Evolution +and Dissolution in the totality of things,--if, as we are obliged to +infer from the Persistence of Force, the arrival at either limit of +this vast rhythm brings about the conditions under which a +counter-movement commences, [218]--if we are hence compelled to +entertain the conception of Evolutions that have filled an +immeasurable past, and Evolutions that will fill an immeasurable +future,--we can no longer contemplate the visible creation as having +a definite beginning or end, or as being isolated. It becomes unified +with all existence before and after; and the Force which the Universe +presents falls into the same category with its Space and Time as +admitting of no limitation in thought."*--First Principles, Section +190. + +[*Condensed and somewhat modified in the definitive edition of 1900; +but, for present purposes of illustration, the text of the fourth +edition has been preferred.] + +The foregoing Buddhist positions sufficiently imply that the human +consciousness is but a temporary aggregate,--not an eternal entity. +There is no permanent self: there is but one eternal principle in all +life,--the supreme Buddha. Modern Japanese call this Absolute the +"Essence of Mind." "The fire fed by faggots," writes one of these, +"dies when the faggots have been consumed; but the essence of fire is +never destroyed.... All things in the Universe are Mind." So stated, +the position is unscientific; but as for the conclusion reached, we +may remember that Mr. Wallace has stated almost exactly the same +thing, and that there are not a few modern preachers of the doctrine +of a "universe of mind-stuff." The hypothesis is "unthinkable." But +the most serious thinker will agree with the Buddhist assertion that +the relation of all phenomena to the unknowable is merely that of +waves to sea. "Every [219] feeling and thought being but transitory," +says Mr. Spencer, "an entire life made up of such feelings and +thoughts being but transitory,--nay, the objects amid which life is +passed, though less transitory, being severally in course of losing +their individualities quickly or slowly,--we learn that the one thing +permanent is the Unknown Reality hidden under all these changing +shapes." Here the English and the Buddhist philosophers are in +accord; but thereafter they suddenly part company. For Buddhism is +not agnosticism, but gnosticism, and professes to know the +unknowable. The thinker of Mr. Spencer's school cannot make +assumptions as to the nature of the sole Reality, nor as to the +reason of its manifestations. He must confess himself intellectually +incapable of comprehending the nature of force, matter, or motion. He +feels justified in accepting the hypothesis that all known elements +have been evolved from one primordial undifferentiated +substance,--the chemical evidence for this hypothesis being very +strong. But he certainly would not call that primordial substance a +substance of mind, nor attempt to explain the character of the forces +that effected its integration. Again, though Mr. Spencer would +probably acknowledge that we know of matter only as an aggregate of +forces, and of atoms only as force-centres, or knots of force, he +would not declare that an atom is a force-centre, and nothing +else.... But we find evolutionists [220] of the German school taking +a position very similar to the Buddhist position,--which implies a +universal sentiency, or, more strictly speaking, a universal +potential-sentiency. Haeckel and other German monists assume such a +condition for all substance. They are not agnostics, therefore, but +gnostics; and their gnosticism very much resembles that of the higher +Buddhism. + +According to Buddhism there is no reality save Buddha: all things +else are but Karma. There is but one Life, one Self: human +individuality and personality are but phenomenal conditions of that +Self, Matter is Karma; Mind is Karma--that is to say, mind as we know +it: Karma, as visibility, represents to us mass and quality; Karma, +as mentality, signifies character and tendency. The primordial +substance--corresponding to the "protyle" of our Monists--is composed +of Five Elements, which are mystically identified with Five Buddhas, +all of whom are really but different modes of the One. With this idea +of a primordial substance there is necessarily associated the idea of +a universal sentiency. Matter is alive. + +Now to the German monists also matter is alive. On the phenomena of +cell-physiology, Haeckel claims to base his conviction that "even the +atom is not without rudimentary form of sensation and will,--or, as +it is better expressed, of feeling (aesthesis), and of inclination +(tropesis),--that is to [221] say, a universal soul of the simplest +kind." I may quote also from Haeckel's Riddle of the Universe the +following paragraph expressing the monistic notion of substance as +held by Vogt and others:-- + +"The two fundamental forms of substance, ponderable matter and ether, +are not dead and only moved by extrinsic force; but they are endowed +with sensation and will (though, naturally, of the lowest grade); +they experience an inclination for condensation, a dislike of strain; +they strive after the one, and struggle against the other." + +Less like a revival of the dreams of the Alchemists is the very +probable hypothesis of Schneider, that sentiency begins with the +formation of certain combinations,--that feeling is evolved from the +non-feeling just as organic being has been evolved from inorganic +substance. But all these monist ideas enter into surprising +combination with the Buddhist teaching about matter as integrated +Karma; and for that reason they are well worth citing in this +relation. To Buddhist conception all matter is sentient,--the +sentiency varying according to condition: "even rocks and stones," a +Japanese Buddhist text declares, "can worship Buddha." In the German +monism of Professor Haeckel's school, the particular qualities and +affinities of the atom represent feeling and inclination, "a soul of +the simplest kind"; in Buddhism these qualities are made by [222] +Karma,--that is to say, they represent tendencies formed in previous +states of existence. The hypotheses appear to be very similar. But +there is only immense, all-important difference, between the +Occidental and the Oriental monism. The former would attribute the +qualities of the atom merely to a sort of heredity,--to the +persistency of tendencies developed under chance--influences +operating throughout an incalculable past. The latter declares the +history of the atom to be purely moral! All matter, according to +Buddhism, represents aggregated sentiency, making, by its inherent +tendencies, toward conditions of pain or pleasure, evil or good. +"Pure actions," writes the author of Outlines of the Maheyena +Philosophy, "bring forth the Pure Lands of all the quarters of the +universe; while impure deeds produce the Impure Lands." That is to +say, the matter integrated by the force of moral acts goes to the +making of blissful worlds; and the matter formed by the force of +immoral acts goes to the making of miserable worlds. All substance, +like all mind, has its Karma; planets, like men, are shaped by the +creative power of acts and thoughts; and every atom goes to its +appointed place, sooner or later, according to the moral or immoral +quality of the tendencies that inform it. Your good or bad thought or +deed will not only affect your next rebirth, but will likewise affect +in some sort the nature of worlds yet unevolved, wherein, after +innumerable cycles, [223] you may have to live again. Of course, this +tremendous idea has no counterpart in modern evolutional philosophy. +Mr. Spencer's position is well known; but I must quote him for the +purpose of emphasizing the contrast between Buddhist and scientific +thought:-- + +"...We have no ethics of nebular condensation, or of sidereal +movement, or of planetary evolution; the conception is not relevant +to inorganic matter. Nor, when we turn to organized things, do we +find that it has any relation to the phenomena of plant-life; though +we ascribe to plants superiorities and inferiorities, leading to +successes and failures in the struggle for existence, we do not +associate with them praise or blame. It is only with the rise of +sentiency in the animal world that the subject-matter of ethics +originates."--Principles of Ethics, Vol. II, Section 326. + +On the contrary, it will be seen, Buddhism actually teaches what we +may call, to borrow Mr. Spencer's phrase, "the ethics of nebular +condensation,"--though to Buddhist astronomy, the scientific meaning +of the term "nebular condensation" was never known. Of course the +hypothesis is beyond the power of human intelligence to prove or to +disprove. But it is interesting, for it proclaims a purely moral +order of the cosmos, and attaches almost infinite consequence to the +least of human acts. Had the old Buddhist metaphysicians been +acquainted with the facts of modern chemistry, they [224] might have +applied their doctrine, with appalling success, to the interpretation +of those facts. They might have explained the dance of atoms, the +affinities of molecules, the vibrations of ether, in the most +fascinating and terrifying way by their theory of Karma.... Here is a +universe of suggestion,--most weird suggestion--for anybody able and +willing to dare the experiment of making a new religion, or at least +a new and tremendous system of Alchemy, based upon the notion of a +moral order in the inorganic world! + +But the metaphysics of Karma in the higher Buddhism include much that +is harder to understand than any alchemical hypothesis of +atom-combinations. As taught by popular Buddhism, the doctrine of +rebirth is simple enough,--signifying no more than transmigration: +you have lived millions of times in the past, and you are likely to +live again millions of times in the future,--all the conditions of +each rebirth depending upon past conduct. The common notion is that +after a certain period of bodiless sojourn in this world, the spirit +is guided somehow to the place of its next incarnation. The people, +of course, believe in souls. But there is nothing of all this in the +higher doctrine, which denies transmigration, denies the existence of +the soul, denies personality. There is no Self to be reborn; there is +no transmigration--and yet there [225] is rebirth! There is no real +"I" that suffers or is glad--and yet there is new suffering to be +borne or new happiness to be gained! What we call the Self,--the +personal consciousness,--dissolves at the death of the body; but the +Karma, formed during life, then brings about the integration of a new +body and a new consciousness. You suffer in this existence because of +acts done in a previous existence---yet the author of those acts was +not identical with your present self! Are you, then, responsible for +the faults of another person? + +The Buddhist metaphysician would answer thus: "The form of your +question is wrong, because it assumes the existence of +personality,--and there is no personality. There is really no such +individual as the 'you' of the inquiry. The suffering is indeed the +result of errors committed in some anterior existence or existences; +but there is no responsibility for the acts of another person, since +there is no personality. The 'I' that was and the 'I' that is +represent in the chain of transitory being aggregations momentarily +created by acts and thoughts; and the pain belongs to the aggregates +as condition resulting from quality." All this sounds extremely +obscure: to understand the real theory we must put away the notion of +personality, which is a very difficult thing to do. Successive births +do not mean transmigration in the common sense of that word, but only +the self-propagation of [226] Karma: the perpetual multiplying of +certain conditions by a kind of ghostly gemmation,--if I may borrow a +biological term. The Buddhist illustration, however, is that of flame +communicated from one lamp-wick to another: a hundred lamps may thus +be lighted from one flame, and the hundred flames will all be +different, though the origin of all was the same. Within the hollow +flame of each transitory life is enclosed a part of the only Reality; +but this is not a soul that transmigrates. Nothing passes from birth +to birth but Karma,--character or condition. + +One will naturally ask how can such a doctrine exert any moral +influence whatever? If the future being shaped by my Karma is to be +in nowise identical with my present self,--if the future +consciousness evolved by my Karma is to be essentially another +consciousness,--how can I force myself to feel anxious about the +sufferings of that unborn person? "Again your question is wrong," a +Buddhist would answer: "to understand the doctrine you must get rid +of the notion of individuality, and think, not of persons, but of +successive states of feeling and consciousness, each of which buds +out of the other,--a chain of existences interdependently united." +... I may attempt another illustration. Every individual, as we +understand the term, is continually changing. All the structures of +the body are constantly undergoing waste and repair; and the [227] +body that you have at this hour is not, as to substance, the same +body that you had ten years ago. Physically you are not the same +person: yet you suffer the same pains, and feel the same pleasures, +and find your powers limited by the same conditions. Whatever +disintegrations and reconstructions of tissue have taken place within +you, you have the same physical and mental peculiarities that you had +ten years ago. Doubtless the cells of your brain have been decomposed +and recomposed: yet you experience the same emotions, recall the same +memories, and think the same thoughts. Everywhere the fresh substance +has assumed the qualities and tendencies of the substance replaced. +This persistence of condition is like Karma. The transmission of +tendency remains, though the aggregate is changed.... + +These few glimpses into the fantastic world, of Buddhist metaphysics +will suffice, I trust, to convince any intelligent reader that the +higher Buddhism (to which belongs the much-discussed and +little-comprehended doctrine of Nirvana) could never have been the +religion of millions almost incapable of forming abstract ideas,--the +religion of a population even yet in a comparatively early stage of +religious evolution. It was never understood by the people at all, +nor is it ever taught to them to-day. It is a religion of +metaphysicians, a [228] religion of scholars, a religion so difficult +to be understood, even by persons of some philosophical training, +that it might well be mistaken for a system of universal negation. +Yet the reader should now be able to perceive that, because a man +disbelieves in a personal God, in an immortal soul, and in any +continuation of personality after death, it does not follow that we +are justified in declaring him an irreligious Person,--especially if +he happen to be an Oriental. The Japanese scholar who believes in the +moral order of the universe, the ethical responsibility of the +present to all the future, the immeasurable consequence of every +thought and deed, the ultimate disparition of evil, and the power of +attainment to conditions of infinite memory and infinite +vision,--cannot be termed either an atheist or a materialist, except +by bigotry and ignorance. Profound as may be the difference between +his religion and our own, in respect of symbols and modes of thought, +the moral conclusions reached in either case are very much the same. + + + +[229] + +THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION + +The late Professor Fiske, in his Outline of Cosmic Philosophy, made a +very interesting remark about societies like those of China, ancient +Egypt, and ancient Assyria. "I am expressing," he said, "something +more than an analogy, I am describing a real homology so far as +concerns the process of development,--when I say that these +communities simulated modern European nations, much in the same way +that a tree-fern of the carboniferous period simulated the exogenous +trees of the present time." So far as this is true of China, it is +likewise true of Japan. The constitution of the old Japanese society +was no more than an amplification of the constitution of the +family,--the patriarchal family of primitive times. All modern +Western societies have been developed out of a like patriarchal +condition: the early civilizations of Greece and Rome were similarly +constructed, upon a lesser scale. But the patriarchal family in +Europe was disintegrated thousands of years ago; the gens and the +curia dissolved and disappeared; the originally distinct classes +became fused together; and a total reorganization of society was +gradually [230] effected, everywhere resulting in the substitution of +voluntary for compulsory cooperation. Industrial types of society +developed; and a state-religion overshadowed the ancient and +exclusive local cults. But society in Japan never, till within the +present era, became one coherent body, never developed beyond the +clan-stage. It remained a loose agglomerate of clan-groups, or +tribes, each religiously and administratively independent of the +rest; and this huge agglomerate was kept together, not by voluntary +cooperation, but by strong compulsion. Down to the period of Meiji, +and even for some time afterward, it was liable to split and fall +asunder at any moment that the central coercive power showed signs of +weakness. We may call it a feudalism; but it resembled European +feudalism only as a tree-fern resembles a tree. + +Let us first briefly consider the nature of the ancient Japanese +society. Its original unit was not the household, but the patriarchal +family,--that is to say, the gens or clan, a body of hundreds or +thousands of persons claiming descent from a common ancestor, and so +religiously united by a common ancestor-worship,--the cult of the +Ujigami. As I have said before, there were two classes of these +patriarchal families: the O-uji, or Great Clans; and the Ko-uji, or +Little Clans. The lesser were branches of the greater, and +subordinate to [231] them,--so that the group formed by an O-uji with +its Ko-uji might be loosely compared with the Roman curia or Greek +phratry. Large bodies of serfs or slaves appear to have been attached +to the various great Uji; and the number of these, even at a very +early period, seems to have exceeded that of the members of the clans +proper. The different names given to these subject-classes indicate +different grades and kinds of servitude. One name was tomobe, +signifying bound to a place, or district; another was yakabe, +signifying bound to a family; a third was kakibe, signifying bound to +a close, or estate; yet another and more general term was tami, which +anciently signified "dependants," but is now used in the meaning of +the English word "folk." ... There is little doubt that the bulk of +the people were in a condition of servitude, and that there were many +forms of servitude. Mr. Spencer has pointed out that a general +distinction between slavery and serfdom, in the sense commonly +attached to each of those terms, is by no means easy to establish; +the real state of a subject-class, especially in early forms of +society, depending much more upon the character of the master, and +the actual conditions of social development, than upon matters of +privilege and legislation. In speaking of early Japanese +institutions, the distinction is particularly hard to draw: we are +still but little informed as to the condition of the subject [232] +classes in ancient times. It is safe to assert, however, that there +were then really but two great classes,--a ruling oligarchy, divided +into many grades; and a subject population, also divided into many +grades. Slaves were tattooed, either on the face or some part of the +body, with a mark indicating their ownership. Until within recent +years this system of tattooing appears to have been maintained in the +province of Satsuma,--where the marks were put especially upon the +hands; and in many other provinces the lower classes were generally +marked by a tattoo on the face. Slaves were bought and sold like +cattle in early times, or presented as tribute by their owners,--a +practice constantly referred to in the ancient records. Their unions +were not recognized: a fact which reminds us of the distinction among +the Romans between connubium and contubernium; and the children of a +slave-mother by a free father remained slaves.* In the seventh +century, however, private slaves were declared state-property, and +great numbers were [233] then emancipated,--including nearly +all--probably all--who were artizans or followed useful callings. +Gradually a large class of freedmen came into existence; but until +modern times the great mass of the common people appear to have +remained in a condition analogous to serfdom. The greater number +certainly had no family names,--which is considered evidence of a +former slave-condition. Slaves proper were registered in the names of +their owners: they do not seem to have had a cult of their own,--in +early times, at least. But, prior to Meiji, only the aristocracy, +samurai, doctors, and teachers--with perhaps a few other +exceptions--could use a family name. Another queer bit of evidence +or, the subject, furnished by the late Dr. Simmons, relates to the +mode of wearing the hair among the subject-classes. Up to the time of +the Ashikaga shogunate (1334 A.D.), all classes excepting the +nobility, samurai, Shinto priests, and doctors, shaved the greater +part of the head, and wore queues; and this fashion of wearing the +hair was called yakko-atama or dorei-atama--terms signifying +"slave-head," and indicating that the fashion originated in a period +of servitude. + +[*In the year 645, the Emperor Kotoku issued the following edict on +the subject:-- + +"The law of men and women shall be that the children born of a free +man and a free woman shall belong to the father; if a free man takes +to wife a slave-woman, her children shall belong to the mother; if a +free woman marries a slave-man, the children shall belong to the +father; if they are slaves of two houses, the children shall belong +to the mother. The children of temple-serfs shall follow the rule for +freemen. But in regard to others who become slaves, they shall be +treated according to the rule for slaves.--Aston's translation of the +Nihongi, Vol. II, p. 202.] + +About the origin of Japanese slavery, much remains to be learned. +There are evidences of successive immigrations; and it is possible +that some, at least, of the earlier Japanese settlers were reduced by +later invaders to the status of servitude. Again, [234] there was a +considerable immigration of Koreans and Chinese, some of whom might +have voluntarily sought servitude as a refuge from worse evils. But +the subject remains obscure. We know, however, that degradation to +slavery was a common punishment in early times; also, that debtors +unable to pay became the slaves of their creditors; also, that +thieves were sentenced to become the slaves of those whom they had +robbed.* Evidently there were great differences in the conditions of +servitude. The more unfortunate class of slaves were scarcely better +off than domestic animals; but there were serfs who could not be +bought or sold, nor employed at other than special work; these were +of kin to their lords, and may have entered voluntarily into +servitude for the sake of sustenance and protection. Their relation +to their masters reminds us of that of the Roman client to the Roman +patron. + +[*An edict issued by the Empress Jito, in 690, enacted that a father +could sell his son into real slavery; but that debtors could be sold +only into a kind of serfdom. The edict ran thus: "If a younger +brother of the common people is sold by his elder brother, he should +be classed with freemen; if a child is sold by his parents, he should +be classed with slaves; persons confiscated into slavery, by way of +payment of interest on debts, are to be classed with freemen; and +their children, though born of a union with a slave, are to be all +classed with freemen."--Aston's Nihongi, Vol. II, p, 402.] + +As yet it is difficult to establish any clear distinction between the +freedmen and the freemen of ancient Japanese society; but we know +that the free population, ranking below the ruling class, [235] +consisted of two great divisions: the kunitsuko and the tomonotsuko. +The first were farmers, descendants perhaps of the earliest Mongol +invaders, and were permitted to hold their own lands independently of +the central government: they were lords of their own soil, but not +nobles. The tomonotsuko were artizans,--probably of Korean or +Chinese descent, for the most part,--and numbered no less than 180 +clans. They followed hereditary occupations; and their clans were +attached to the imperial clans, for which they were required to +furnish skilled labour. + +Originally each of the O-uji and Ko-uji had its own territory, +chiefs, dependants, serfs, and slaves. The chieftainships were +hereditary,--descending from father to son in direct succession from +the original patriarch. The chief of a great clan was lord over the +chiefs of the subclans attached to it: his authority was both +religious and military. It must not be forgotten that religion and +government were considered identical. + +All Japanese clan-families were classed under three heads,--Kobetsu, +Shinbetsu, and Bambetsu. The Kobetsu ("Imperial Branch") represented +the so-called imperial families, claiming descent from the +Sun-goddess; the Shinbetsu ("Divine Branch") were clans claiming +descent from other deities, terrestrial or celestial; the Bambetsu +("Foreign Branch") represented the mass of the people. [236] Thus it +would seem that, by the ruling classes, the common people were +originally considered strangers,--Japanese only by adoption. Some +scholars think that the term Bambetsu was at first given to serfs or +freedmen of Chinese or Korean descent. But this has not been proved. +It is only certain that all society was divided into three classes, +according to ancestry; that two of these classes constituted a ruling +oligarchy;* and that the third, or "foreign" class represented the +bulk of the nation,--the plebs. + +[*Dr. Florenz accounts for the distinction between Kobetsu and +Shinbetsu as due to the existence of two military ruling +classes,--resulting from two successive waves of invasion or +immigration. The Kobetsu were the followers of Jimmu Tenno; the +Shinbetsu were earlier conquerors who had settled in Yamato prior to +the advent of Jimmu. These first conquerors, he thinks, were not +dispossessed.] + +There was a division also into castes--kabane or sei. (I use the +term "castes," following Dr. Florenz, a leading authority on ancient +Japanese civilization, who gives the meaning of sei as equivalent to +that of the Sanscrit varna, signifying "caste" or "colour.") Every +family in the three great divisions of Japanese society belonged to +some caste; and each caste represented at first some occupation or +calling. Caste would not seem to have developed any very rigid +structure in Japan; and there were early tendencies to a confusion of +the kabane. In the seventh century the confusion became so great that +the Emperor Temmu thought it necessary to reorganize the sei; and by +him all the clan-families were regrouped into eight new castes. + +[237] Such was the primal constitution of Japanese society; and that +society was, therefore, in no true sense of the term, a fully formed +nation. Nor can the title of Emperor be correctly applied to its +early rulers. The German scholar, Dr. Florenz, was the first to +establish these facts, contrary to the assumption of Japanese +historians. He has shown that the "heavenly sovereign" of the early +ages was the hereditary chief of one Uji only,--which Uji, being the +most powerful of all, exercised influence over many of the others. +The authority of the "heavenly sovereign" did not extend over the +country. But though not even a king,--outside of his own large group +of patriarchal families,--he enjoyed three immense prerogatives. The +first was the right of representing the different Uji before the +common ancestral deity,--which implies the privileges and powers of a +high priest. The second was the right of representing the different +Uji in foreign relations: that is to say, he could make peace or +declare war in the name of all the clans, and therefore exercised the +supreme military authority. His third prerogative included the right +to settle disputes between clans; the right to nominate a +clan-patriarch, in case that the line of direct succession to the +chieftainship of any Uji came to an end; the right to establish new +Uji; and the right to abolish an Uji guilty of so acting as to +endanger the welfare of the rest. He was, therefore, Supreme Pontiff, +Supreme Military Commander, [238] Supreme Arbitrator, and Supreme +Magistrate. But he was not yet supreme king: his powers were +exercised only by consent of the clans. Later he was to become the +Great Khan in very fact, and even much more,--the Priest-Ruler, the +God-King, the Deity-Incarnate. But with the growth of his dominion, +it became more and more difficult for him to exercise all the +functions originally combined in his authority; and, as a consequence +of deputing those functions, his temporal sway was doomed to decline, +even while his religious power continued to augment. + +The earliest Japanese society was not, therefore, even a feudalism in +the meaning which we commonly attach to that word: it was a union of +clans at first combined for defence and offence,--each clan having a +religion of its own. Gradually one clan-group, by power of wealth and +numbers, obtained such domination that it was able to impose its cult +upon all the rest, and to make its hereditary chief Supreme High +Pontiff. The worship of the Sun-goddess so became a race-cult; but +this worship did not diminish the relative importance of the other +clan-cults,--it only furnished them with a common tradition. +Eventually a nation formed; but the clan remained the real unit of +society; and not until the present era of Meiji was its +disintegration effected--at least in so far as legislation could +accomplish. [239] We may call that period during which the clans +became really united under one head, and the national cult was +established, the First Period of Japanese Social Evolution. However, +the social organism did not develop to the limit of its type until +the era of the Tokugawa shoguns,--so that, in order to study it as a +completed structure, we must turn to modern times. Yet it had taken +on the vague outline of its destined form as early as the reign of +the Emperor Temmu, whose accession is generally dated 673 A.D. During +that reign Buddhism appears to have become a powerful influence at +court; for the Emperor practically imposed a vegetarian diet upon the +people--proof positive of supreme power in fact as well as in theory. +Even before this time society had been arranged into ranks and +grades,--each of the upper grades being distinguished by the form and +quality of the official head-dresses worn; but the Emperor Temmu +established many new grades, and reorganized the whole +administration, after the Chinese manner, in one hundred and eight +departments. Japanese society then assumed, as to its upper ranks, +nearly all the hierarchical forms which it presented down to the era +of the Tokugawa shoguns, who consolidated the system without +seriously changing its fundamental structure. We may say that from +the close of the First Period of its social evolution, the nation +remained practically separated into two classes: the [240] governing +class, including all orders of the nobility and military; and the +producing class, comprising all the rest. The chief event of the +Second Period of the social evolution was the rise of the military +power, which left the imperial religious authority intact, but +usurped all the administrative functions (this subject will be +considered in a later chapter). The society eventually crystallized +by this military power was a very complex structure--outwardly +resembling a huge feudalism, as we understand the term, but +intrinsically different from any European feudalism that ever +existed. The difference lay especially in the religious organization +of the Japanese communities, each of which, retaining its particular +cult and patriarchal administration, remained essentially separate +from every other. The national cult was a bond of tradition, not of +cohesion: there was no religious unity. Buddhism, though widely +accepted, brought no real change into this order of things; for, +whatever Buddhist creed a commune might profess, the real social bond +remained the bond of the Ujigami. So that, even as fully developed +under the Tokugawa rule, Japanese society was still but a great +aggregate of clans and subclans, kept together by military coercion. + +At the head of this vast aggregate was the Heavenly Sovereign, the +Living God of the race,--Priest-Emperor and Pontiff Supreme, +--representing the oldest dynasty in the world. [241] Next to him +stood the Kuge, or ancient nobility,--descendants of emperors and of +gods. There were, in the time of the Tokugawa, 155 families of this +high nobility. One of these, the Nakatomi, held, and still holds, the +highest hereditary priesthood: the Nakatomi were, under the Emperor, +the chiefs of the ancestral cult. All the great clans of early +Japanese history--such as the Fujiwara, the Taira, the Minamoto--were +Kuge; and most of the great regents and shoguns of later history were +either Kuge or descendants of Kuge. + +Next to the Kuge ranked the Buke, or military class,--also called +Monofufu, Wasarau, or Samurahi (according to the ancient writing of +these names),--with an extensive hierarchy of its own. But the +difference, in most cases, between the lords and the warriors of the +Buke was a difference of rank based upon income and title: all alike +were samurai, and nearly all were of Kobetsu or Shinbetsu descent. In +early times the head of the military class was appointed by the +Emperor, only as a temporary commander-in-chief: afterwards, these +commanders-in-chief, by usurpation of power, made their office +hereditary, and became veritable imperatores, in the Roman sense. +Their title of shogun is well known to Western readers. The shogun +ruled over between two and three hundred lords of provinces or +districts, whose powers and privileges varied according to income and +grade. Under the Tokugawa [242] shogunate there were 292 of these +lords, or daimyo. Before that time each lord exercised supreme rule +over his own domain; and it is not surprising that the Jesuit +missionaries, as well as the early Dutch and English traders should +have called the daimyo "kings." The despotism of the daimyo was first +checked by the founders of the Tokugawa dynasty, Iyeyasu, who so +restricted their powers that they became, with some exceptions, +liable to lose their estates if proved guilty of oppression and +cruelty. He ranked them all in four great classes: (1) Sanke, or +Go-Sanke, the "Three Exalted Families" (those from whom a successor +to the shogunate might be chosen, in case of need); (2) Kokushu, +"Lords of Provinces"; (3) Tozama, "Outside-Lords"; (4) Fudai, +"Successful Families": a name given to those families promoted to +lordship or otherwise rewarded for fealty to Iyeyasu. Of the Sanke, +there were three clans, or families: of the Kokushu, eighteen; of the +Tozama, eighty-six; and of the Fudai, one hundred and seventy-six. +The income of the least of these daimyo was 10,000 koku of rice (we +may say about 10,000 pounds, though the value of the koku differed +greatly at different periods); and the income of the greatest, the +Lord of Kaga, was estimated at 1,027,000 koku. + +The great daimyo had their greater and lesser vassals; and each of +these, again, had his force of trained samurai, or fighting gentry. +There was [243] also a particular class of soldier-farmers, called +goshi, some of whom possessed privileges and powers exceeding those +of the lesser daimyo. These goshi, who were independent landowners, +for the most part, formed a kind of yeomanry; but there were many +points of difference between the social position of the goshi and +that of the English yeomen. + +Besides reorganizing the military class, Iyeyasu created several new +subclasses. The more important of these were the hatamoto and the +gokenin. The hatamoto, whose appellation signifies +"banner-supporters," numbered about 2000, and the gokenin about 5000. +These two bodies of samurai formed the special military force of the +shogun; the hatamoto being greater vassals, with large incomes; and +the gokenin lesser vassals, with small incomes, who ranked above +other common samurai only because of being directly attached to the +shogun's service.... The total number of samurai of all grades was +about 2,000,000. They were exempted from taxation, and privileged to +wear two swords. + +Such, in brief outline, was the general ordination of those noble and +military classes by whom the nation was ruled with great severity. +The bulk of the common people were divided into three classes (we +might even say castes, but for Indian ideas long associated with the +term): Farmers, Artizans, and Merchants. + +[244] Of these three classes, the farmers (hyakusho) were the +highest; ranking immediately after the samurai. Indeed, it is hard to +draw a line between the samurai class and the farming-class,--because +many samurai were farmers also, and because some farmers held a rank +considerably above that of ordinary samurai. Perhaps we should limit +the term hyakusho (farmers, or peasantry) to those tillers of the +soil who lived only by agriculture, and were neither of Kobetsu nor +Shinbetsu descent.... At all events, the occupation of the peasant +was considered honourable: a farmer's daughter might become a servant +in the imperial household itself--though she could occupy only an +humble position in the service. Certain farmers were privileged to +wear swords. It appears that in the early ages of Japanese society +there was no distinction between farmers and warriors: all +able-bodied farmers were then trained fighting-men, ready for war at +any moment,--a condition paralleled in old Scandinavian society. +After a special military class had been evolved, the distinction +between farmer and samurai still remained vague in certain parts of +the country. In Satsuma and in Tosa, for example, the samurai +continued to farm down to the present era: the best of the Kyushu +samurai were nearly all farmers; and their superior stature and +strength were commonly attributed to their rustic occupations. In +other parts of the country, as in Izumo, farming was forbidden to +samurai: [245] they were not even allowed to hold rice-land, though +they might own forest-land. But in various provinces they were +permitted to farm, even while strictly forbidden to follow any other +occupation,--any trade or craft.... At no time did any degradation +attach to the pursuit of agriculture. Some of the early emperors took +a personal interest in farming; and in the grounds of the Imperial +Palace at Akasaka may even now be seen a little rice-field. By +religious tradition, immemorially old, the first sheaf of rice grown +within the imperial grounds should be reaped and offered by the +imperial hand to the divine ancestors as a harvest offering, on the +occasion of the Ninth Festival,--Shin-Sho-Sai.* + +[*At this festival the first new silk of the year, as well as the +first of the new rice-crop, is still offered to the Sun-goddess by +the Emperor in person.] + +Below the peasantry ranked the artizan-class (Shokunin), including +smiths, carpenters, weavers, potters,--all crafts, in short. Highest +among these were reckoned, as we might expect, the sword-smiths. +Sword-smiths not infrequently rose to dignities far beyond their +class: some had conferred upon them the high title of Kami, written +with the same character used in the title of a daimyo, who was +usually termed the Kami of his province or district. Naturally they +enjoyed the patronage of the highest,--emperors and Kuge. The Emperor +Go-Toba is known to have worked at sword-making in a smithy [246] of +his own. Religious rites were practised during the forging of a blade +down to modern times.... + +All the principal crafts had guilds; and, as a general rule, trades +were hereditary. There are good historical grounds for supposing that +the ancestors of the Shokunin were mostly Koreans and Chinese. + +The commercial class (Akindo), including bankers, merchants, +shopkeepers, and traders of all kinds, was the lowest officially +recognized. The business of money-making was held in contempt by the +superior classes; and all methods of profiting by the purchase and +re-sale of the produce of labour were regarded as dishonourable. A +military aristocracy would naturally look down upon the +trading-classes; and there is generally, in militant societies, small +respect for the common forms of labour. But in Old Japan the +occupations of the farmer and the artizan were not despised: trade +alone appears to have been considered degrading,--and the +discrimination may have been partly a moral one. The relegation of +the mercantile class to the lowest place in the social scale must +have produced some curious results. However rich, for example, a +rice-dealer might be, he ranked below the carpenters or potters or +boat-builders whom he might employ,--unless it happened that his +family originally belonged to another class. In later times [247] the +Akindo included many persons of other than Akindo descent; and the +class thus virtually retrieved itself. + +Of the four great classes of the nation--Samurai, Farmers, Artizans, +and Merchants (the Shi-No-Ko-Sho, as they were briefly called, after +the initial characters of the Chinese terms used to designate +them)--the last three were counted together under the general +appellation of Heimin, "common folk." ll heimin were subject to the +samurai; any samurai being privileged to kill the heimin showing him +disrespect. But the heimin were actually the nation: they alone +created the wealth of the country, produced the revenues, paid the +taxes, supported the nobility and military and clergy. As for the +clergy, the Buddhist (like the Shinto) priests, though forming a +class apart, ranked with the samurai, not with the heimin. + +Outside of the three classes of commoners, and hopelessly below the +lowest of them, large classes of persons existed who were not +reckoned as Japanese, and scarcely accounted human beings. Officially +they were mentioned generically as chori, and were counted with the +peculiar numerals used in counting animals: ippiki, nihiki, sambiki, +etc. Even to-day they are commonly referred to, not as persons +(hito), but as "things" (mono). To English readers (chiefly through +Mr. Mitford's yet unrivalled Tales of Old [248] Japan) they are known +as Eta; but their appellations varied according to their callings. +They were pariah-people: Japanese writers have denied, upon +apparently good grounds, that the chori belong to the Japanese race. +Various tribes of these outcasts followed occupations in the monopoly +of which they were legally confirmed: they were well-diggers, +garden-sweepers, straw-workers, sandal-makers, according to local +privileges. One class was employed officially in the capacity of +torturers and executioners; another was employed as night-watchmen; a +third as grave-makers. But most of the Eta followed the business of +tanners and leather-dressers. They alone had the right to slaughter +and flay animals, to prepare various kinds of leather, and to +manufacture leather sandals, stirrup-straps, and drumheads,--the +making of drumheads being a lucrative occupation in a country where +drums were used in a hundred thousand temples. The Eta had their own +laws, and their own chiefs, who exercised powers of life and death. +They lived always in the suburbs or immediate neighbourhood of towns, +but only in separate settlements of their own. They could enter the +town to sell their wares, or to make purchases; but they could not +enter any shop, except the shop of a dealer in footgear.* [*This is +still the rule in certain parts of the country.] As professional +singers they were tolerated; but they were forbidden to enter any +house--so they could perform their music or sing [249] their songs +only in the street, or in a garden. Any occupations other than their +hereditary callings were strictly forbidden to them. Between the +lowest of the commercial classes and the Eta, the barrier was +impassable as any created by caste-tradition in India; and never was +Ghetto more separated from the rest of a European city by walls and +gates, than an Eta settlement from the rest of a Japanese town by +social prejudice. No Japanese would dream of entering an Eta +settlement unless obliged to do so in some official capacity.... At +the pretty little seaport of Mionoseki, I saw an Eta settlement, +forming one termination of the crescent of streets extending round +the bay. Mionoseki is certainly one of the most ancient towns in +Japan; and the Eta village attached to it must be very old. Even +to-day, no Japanese habitant of Mionoseki would think of walking +through that settlement, though its streets are continuations of the +other streets: children never pass the unmarked boundary; and the +very dogs will not cross the prejudice-line. For all that the +settlement is clean, well built,--with gardens, baths, and temples of +its own. It looks like any well-kept Japanese village. But for +perhaps a thousand years there has been no fellowship between the +people of those contiguous communities.... Nobody can now tell the +history of these outcast folk: the cause of their social +excommunication has long been forgotten. + +[250] Besides the Eta proper, there were pariahs called hinin,--a +name signifying "not-human-beings." Under this appellation were +included professional mendicants, wandering minstrels, actors, +certain classes of prostitutes, and persons outlawed by society. The +hinin had their own chiefs, and their own laws. Any person expelled +from a Japanese community might join the hinin; but that signified +good-by to the rest of humanity. The Government was too shrewd to +persecute the hinin. Their gipsy-existence saved a world of trouble. +It was unnecessary to keep petty offenders in jail, or to provide for +people incapable of earning an honest living, so long as these could +be driven into the hinin class. There the incorrigible, the vagrant, +the beggar, would be kept under discipline of a sort, and would +practically disappear from official cognizance. The killing of a +hinin was not considered murder, and was punished only by a fine. + +The reader should now be able to form an approximately correct idea +of the character of the old Japanese society. But the ordination of +that society was much more complex than I have been able to +indicate,--so complex that volumes would be required to treat the +subject in detail. Once fully evolved, what we may still call Feudal +Japan, for want of a better name, presented most of the features of a +doubly-compound society of the militant type, with [251] certain +marked approaches toward the trebly-compound type. A striking +peculiarity, of course, is the absence of a true ecclesiastical +hierarchy,--due to the fact that Government never became dissociated +from religion. There was at one time a tendency on the part of +Buddhism to establish a religious hierarchy independent of central +authority; but there were two fatal obstacles in the way of such a +development. The first was the condition of Buddhism itself,--divided +into a number of sects, some bitterly opposed to others. The second +obstacle was the implacable hostility of the military clans, jealous +of any religious power capable of interfering, either directly or +indirectly, with their policy. So soon as the foreign religion began +to prove itself formidable in the world of action, ruthless measures +were decided; and the frightful massacres of priests by Nobunaga, in +the sixteenth century, ended the political aspirations of Buddhism in +Japan. + +Otherwise the regimentation of society resembled that of all antique +civilizations of the militant type,--all action being both positively +and negatively regulated. The household ruled the person; the +five-family group; the household; the community, the group; the lord +of the soil, the community; the Shogun, the lord. Over the whole body +of the producing classes, two million samurai had power of life and +death; over these samurai the daimyo held a like power; and the +daimyo were subject to the Shogun. [252] Nominally the Shogun was +subject to the Emperor, but not in fact: military usurpation +disturbed and shifted the natural order of the higher responsibility. +However, from the nobility downwards, the regulative discipline was +much reinforced by this change in government. Among the producing +classes there were countless combinations--guilds of all sorts; but +these were only despotisms within despotisms--despotisms of the +communistic order; each member being governed by the will of the +rest; and enterprise, whether commercial or industrial, being +impossible outside of some corporation.... We have already seen that +the individual was bound to the commune--could not leave it without a +permit, could not marry out of it. We have seen also that the +stranger was a stranger in the old Greek and Roman sense,--that is to +say an enemy, a hostis,--and could enter another community only by +being religiously adopted into it. As regards exclusiveness, +therefore, the social conditions were like those of the early +European communities; but the militant conditions resembled rather +those of the great Asiatic empires. + +Of course such a society had nothing in common with any modern form +of Occidental civilization. It was a huge mass of clan-groups, +loosely united under a duarchy, in which the military head was +omnipotent, and the religious head only an object of [253] +worship,--the living symbol of a cult. However this organization +might outwardly resemble what we are accustomed to call feudalism, +its structure was rather like that of ancient Egyptian or Peruvian +society,--minus the priestly hierarchy. The supreme figure is not an +Emperor in our meaning of the word,--not a king of kings and +viceregent of heaven,--but a God incarnate, a race-divinity, an Inca +descended from the Sun. About his sacred person, we see the tribes +ranged in obeisance,--each tribe, nevertheless, maintaining its own +ancestral cult; and the clans forming these tribes, and the +communities forming these clans, and the households forming these +communities, have all their separate cults; and out of the mass of +these cults have been derived the customs and the laws. Yet +everywhere the customs and the laws differ more or less, because of +the variety of their origins: they have this only in common,--that +they exact the most humble and implicit obedience, and regulate every +detail of private and public life. Personality is wholly suppressed +by coercion; and the coercion is chiefly from within, not from +without,--the life of every individual being so ordered by the will +of the rest as to render free action, free speaking, or free +thinking, out of the question. This means something incomparably +harsher than the socialistic tyranny of early Greek society: it means +religious communism doubled with a military despotism of [254] the +most terrible kind. The individual did not legally exist,--except +for punishment; and from the whole of the producing-classes, whether +serfs or freemen, the most servile submission was ruthlessly exacted. + +It is difficult to believe that any intelligent man of modern times +could endure such conditions and live (except under the protection of +some powerful ruler, as in the case of the English pilot Will Adams, +created a samurai by Iyeyasu): the incessant and multiform constraint +upon mental and moral life would of itself be enough to kill.... +Those who write to-day about the extraordinary capacity of the +Japanese for organization, and about the "democratic spirit" of the +people as natural proof of their fitness for representative +government in the Western sense, mistake appearances for realities. +The truth is that the extraordinary capacity of the Japanese for +communal organization, is the strongest possible evidence of their +unfitness for any modern democratic form of government. Superficially +the difference between Japanese social organization, and local +self-government in the modern American, or the English colonial +meaning of the term, appears slight; and we may justly admire the +perfect self-discipline of a Japanese community. But the real +difference between the two is fundamental, prodigious,--measurable +only by thousands of years. It is the difference between compulsory +and free [255] cooperation,--the difference between the most despotic +form of communism, founded upon the most ancient form of religion, +and the most highly evolved form of industrial union, with unlimited +individual right of competition. + +There exists a popular error to the effect that what we call +communism and socialism in Western civilization are modern growths, +representing aspiration toward some perfect form of democracy. As a +matter of fact these movements represent reversion,--reversion toward +the primitive conditions of human society. Under every form of +ancient despotism we find exactly the same capacity of +self-government among the people: it was manifested by the old +Egyptians and Peruvians as well as by the early Greeks and Romans; it +is exhibited to-day by Hindoo and Chinese communities; it may be +studied in Siamese or Annamese villages quite as well as in Japan. It +means a religious communistic despotism,--a supreme social tyranny +suppressing personality, forbidding enterprise, and making +competition a public offence. Such self-government also has its +advantages: it was perfectly adapted to the requirements of Japanese +life so long as the nation could remain isolated from the rest of the +world. Yet it must be obvious that any society whose ethical +traditions forbid the individual to profit at the cost of his +fellow-men will be placed at an enormous disadvantage when forced +into the [256] industrial struggle for existence against communities +whose self-government permits of the greatest possible personal +freedom, and the widest range of competitive enterprise. + +We might suppose that perpetual and universal coercion, moral and +physical, would have brought about a state of universal sameness,--a +dismal uniformity and monotony in all life's manifestations. But such +monotony existed only as to the life of the commune, not as to that +of the race. The most wonderful variety characterized this quaint +civilization, as it also characterized the old Greek civilization, +and for precisely the same reasons. In every patriarchal civilization +ruled by ancestor-worship, all tendency to absolute sameness, to +general uniformity, is prevented by the character of the aggregate +itself, which never becomes homogeneous and plastic. Every unit of +that aggregate, each one of the multitude of petty despotisms +composing it, most jealously guards its own particular traditions and +customs, and remains self-sufficing. Hence results, sooner or later, +incomparable variety of detail, small detail, artistic, industrial, +architectural, mechanical. In Japan such differentiation and +specialization was thus maintained, that you will hardly find in the +whole country even two villages where the customs, industries, and +methods of production are exactly the same.... The customs [257] of +the fishing-villages will, perhaps, best illustrate what I mean. In +every coast district the various fishing-settlements have their own +traditional ways of constructing nets and boats, and their own +particular methods of handling them. Now, in the time of the great +tidal-wave of 1896, when thirty thousand people perished, and scores +of coast-villages were wrecked, large sums of money were collected in +Kobe and elsewhere for the benefit of the survivors; and well-meaning +foreigners attempted to supply the want of boats and fishing +implements by purchasing quantities of locally made nets and boats, +and sending them to the afflicted districts. But it was found that +these presents were of no use to the men of the northern provinces, +who had been accustomed to boats and nets of a totally different +kind; and it was further discovered that every fishing-hamlet had +special requirements of its own in this regard.... Now the +differentiations of habit and custom, thus exhibited in the life of +the fishing-communities, is paralleled in many crafts and callings. +The way of building houses, and of roofing them, differs in almost +every province, also the methods of agriculture and of horticulture, +the manner of making wells, the methods of weaving and lacquering and +pottery-making and tile-baking. Nearly every town and village of +importance boasts of some special production, bearing the name of the +place, and unlike anything made elsewhere.... [258] No doubt the +ancestral cults helped to conserve and to develop such local +specialization of industries: the craft-ancestors, the patron-gods of +the guild, were supposed to desire that the work of their descendants +and worshippers should maintain a particular character of its own. +Though individual enterprise was checked by communal regulation, the +specialization of local production was encouraged by difference of +cults. Family-conservatism or guild-conservatism would tolerate small +improvements or modifications suggested by local experience, but +would be wary, perhaps superstitious likewise, about accepting the +results of strange experience. + +Still, for the Japanese themselves, not the least pleasure of travel +in Japan is the pleasure of studying the curious variety in local +production,--the pleasure of finding the novel, the unexpected, the +unimagined. Even those arts or industries of Old Japan, primarily +borrowed from Korea or from China, appear to have developed and +conserved innumerable queer forms under the influence of the +numberless local cults. + + + +[259] + +THE RISE OF THE MILITARY POWER + +Almost the whole of authentic Japanese history is comprised in one +vast episode: the rise and fall of the military power.... It has been +customary to speak of Japanese history as beginning with the +accession of Jimmu Tenno, alleged to have reigned from 660 to 585 +B.C., and to have lived for one hundred and twenty-seven years. +Before the time of the Emperor Jimmu was the Age of the Gods,--the +period of mythology. But trustworthy history does not begin for a +thousand years after the accession of Jimmu Tenno; and the chronicles +of those thousand years must be regarded as little better than +fairy-tales. They contain records of fact; but fact and myth are so +interwoven that it is difficult to distinguish the one from the +other. We have legends, for example, of an alleged conquest of Korea +in the year 202 A.D., by the Empress Jingo; and it has been tolerably +well proved that no such conquest took place.* [*See Aston's paper, +Early Japanese History, in the translations of the Asiatic Society of +Japan.] The later records are somewhat less mythical than the +earlier. We have traditions apparently founded on [260] fact, of +Korean immigration in the time of the fifteenth ruler, the Emperor +Ojin; then later traditions, also founded on fact, of early Chinese +studies in Japan; then some vague accounts of a disturbed state of +society, which appears to have continued through the whole of the +fifth century. Buddhism was introduced in the middle of the century +following; and we have record of the fierce opposition offered to the +new creed by a Shinto faction, and of a miraculous victory won by the +help of the Four Deva Kings, at the prayer of Shotoku Taishi,--the +great founder of Buddhism, and regent of the Empress Suiko. With the +firm establishment of Buddhism in the reign of that Empress (593-628 +A.D.), we reach the period of authentic history, and of the +thirty-third Japanese sovereign counting from Jimmu Tenno. + +But although everything prior to the seventh century remains obscured +for us by the mists of fable, much can be inferred, even from the +half-mythical records, concerning social conditions during the reigns +of the first thirty-three Emperors and Empresses. It appears that the +early Mikado lived very simply--scarcely better, indeed, than their +subjects. The Shinto scholar Mabuchi tells us that they dwelt in huts +with mud walls and roofs of shingle; that they wore hempen clothes; +that they carried their swords in simple wooden scabbards, bound +round with the tendrils of a wild [261] vine; that they walked about +freely among the people; that they carried their own bows and arrows +when they went to hunt. But as society developed wealth and power, +this early simplicity disappeared, and the gradual introduction of +Chinese customs and etiquette effected great changes. The Empress +Suiko introduced Chinese court-ceremonies, and first established +among the nobility the Chinese grades of rank. Chinese luxury, as +well as Chinese learning, soon made its appearance at court; and +thereafter the imperial authority appears to have been less and less +directly exerted. The new ceremonialism must have rendered the +personal exercise of the multiform imperial functions more difficult +than before; and it is probable that the temptation to act more or +less by deputy would have been strong even in the case of an +energetic ruler. At all events we find that the real administration +of government began about this time to pass into the hands of +deputies,--all of whom were members of the great Kuge clan of the +Fujiwara. + +This clan, which included the highest hereditary priesthood, +represented a majority of the ancient nobility, claiming divine +descent. Ninety-five out of the total one hundred and fifty-five +families of Kuge belonged to it,--including the five families, +Go-Sekke, from which alone the Emperor was by tradition allowed to +choose his Empress. Its historic name dates only from the reign of +the Emperor [262] Kwammu (782-806 A.D.), who bestowed it as an honour +upon Nakatomi no Kamatari; but the clan had long previously held the +highest positions at Court. By the close of the seventh century most +of the executive power had passed into its hands. Later the office of +Kwambaku, or Regent, was established, and remained hereditary in the +house down to modern times--ages after all real power had been taken +from the descendants of Nakatomi no Kamatari. But during almost five +centuries the Fujiwara remained the veritable regents of the country, +and took every possible advantage of their position. All the civil +offices were in the hands of Fujiwara men; all the wives and +favourites of the Emperors were Fujiwara women. The whole power of +government was thus kept in the hands of the clan; and the political +authority of the Emperor ceased to exist. Moreover the succession was +regulated entirely by the Fujiwara; and even the duration of each +reign was made to depend upon their policy. It was deemed advisable +to compel Emperors to abdicate at an early age, and after abdicating +to become Buddhist monks,--the successor chosen being often a mere +child. There is record of an Emperor ascending the throne at the age +of two, and abdicating at the age of four; another Mikado was +appointed at the age of five; several at the age of ten. Yet the +religious dignity of the throne remained undiminished, or, rather, +continued [263] to grow. The more the Mikado was withdrawn from +public view by policy and by ceremonial, the more did his seclusion +and inaccessibility serve to deepen the awe of the divine legend. +Like the Lama of Thibet the living deity was made invisible to the +multitude; and gradually the belief arose that to look upon his face +was death.... It is said that the Fujiwara were not satisfied even +with these despotic means of assuring their own domination, and that +luxurious forms of corruption were maintained within the palace for +the purpose of weakening the character of young emperors who might +otherwise have found the energy to assert the ancient rights of the +throne. + +Perhaps this usurpation--which prepared the way for the rise of the +military power--has never been rightly interpreted. The history of +all the patriarchal societies of ancient Europe will be found to +illustrate the same phase of social evolution. At a certain period in +the development of each we find the same thing happening,--the +withdrawal of all political authority from the Priest-King, who is +suffered, nevertheless, to retain the religious dignity. It may be a +mistake to judge the policy of the Fujiwara as a policy of mere +ambition and usurpation. The Fujiwara were a religious aristocracy, +claiming divine origin,--clan-chiefs of a society in which religion +and government were identical, and holding to that society much the +same relation as that of the [264] Eupatridae to the ancient Attic +society. The Mikado had originally become supreme magistrate, +military commander, and religious head by consent of a majority of +the clan-chiefs,--each of whom represented to his own following what +the "Heavenly Sovereign" represented to the social aggregate. But as +the power of the ruler extended with the growth of the nation, those +who had formerly united to maintain that power began to find it +dangerous. They decided to deprive the Heavenly Sovereign of all +political and legal authority, without disturbing in any way his +religious supremacy. At Athens, at Sparta, at Rome, and elsewhere in +ancient Europe, the same policy was carried out, for the same +reasons, by religious senates. The history of the early kings of +Rome, as interpreted by M. de Coulanges, best illustrates the nature +of the antagonism developed between the priest-ruler and the +religious aristocracy; but the same thing took place in all the Greek +communities, with about the same result. Everywhere political power +was taken away from the early kings; but they were mostly left in +possession of their religious dignities and privileges: they remained +supreme priests after having ceased to be rulers. This was the case +also in Japan; and I imagine that future Japanese historians will be +able to give us an entirely new interpretation of the Fujiwara +episode, as reviewed in the light of modern sociology. At all events, +there can be little doubt [265] that, in curtailing the powers of the +Heavenly Sovereign, the religious aristocracy must have been actuated +by conservative precaution as well as by ambition. There had been +various Emperors who made changes in the laws and customs--changes +which could scarcely have been viewed with favour by many of the +ancient nobility; there had been an Emperor whose diversions can +to-day be written of only in Latin; there had even been an +Emperor--Kotoku--who, though "God Incarnate," and chief of the +ancient faith, "despised the Way of the Gods," and cut down the holy +grove of the shrine of Iku-kuni-dama. Kotoku, for all his Buddhist +piety (perhaps, indeed, because of it), was one of the wisest and +best of rulers; but the example of a heavenly sovereign "despising +the Way of the Gods," must have given the priestly clan matter for +serious reflection.... Besides, there is another important fact to be +noticed. The Imperial household proper had become, in the course of +centuries, entirely detached from the Uji; and the omnipotence of +this unit, independent of all other units, constituted in itself a +grave danger to aristocratic privileges and established institutions. +Too much might depend upon the personal character and will of an +omnipotent God-King, capable of breaking with all clan-custom, and of +abrogating clan-privileges. On the other hand, there was safety for +all alike under the patriarchal rule of the clan, which [266] could +cheek every tendency on the part of any of its members to exert +predominant influence at the expense of the rest. But for obvious +reasons the Imperial cult--traditional source of all authority and +privilege--could not be touched: it was only by maintaining and +reinforcing it that the religious nobility could expect to keep the +real power in their hands. They actually kept it for nearly five +centuries. + +The history of all the Japanese regencies, however, amply illustrates +the general rule that inherited authority is ever and everywhere +liable to find itself supplanted by deputed authority. The Fujiwara +appear to have eventually become the victims of that luxury which +they had themselves, for reasons of policy, introduced and +maintained. Degenerating into a mere court-nobility, they made little +effort to exert any direct authority in other than civil directions, +entrusting military matters almost wholly to the Buke. In the eighth +century the distinction between military and civil organization had +been made upon the Chinese plan; the great military class then came +into existence, and began to extend its power rapidly. Of the +military clans proper, the most powerful were the Minamoto and the +Taira. By deputing to these clans the conduct of all important +matters relating to war, the Fujiwara eventually lost their high +position and influence. As soon [267] as the Buke found themselves +strong enough to lay hands upon the reins of government,--which +happened about the middle of the eleventh century,--the Fujiwara +supremacy became a thing of the past, although members of the clan +continued for centuries to occupy positions of importance under +various regents. + +But the Buke could not realize their ambition without a bitter +struggle among themselves,--the longest and the fiercest war in +Japanese history. The Minamoto and the Taira were both Kuge; both +claimed imperial descent. In the early part of the contest the Taira +carried all before them; and it seemed that no power could hinder +them from exterminating the rival clan. But fortune turned at last in +favour of the Minamoto; and at the famous sea-fight of Dan-no-ura, in +1185, the Taira were themselves exterminated. + +Then began the reign of the Minamoto regents, or rather shogun. I +have elsewhere said that the title "shogun" originally signified, as +did the Roman military term Imperator, only a commander-in-chief: it +now became the title of the supreme ruler de facto, in his double +capacity of civil and military sovereign,--the King of kings. From +the accession of the Minamoto to power the history of the +shogunate--the long history of the military supremacy--really begins; +Japan thereafter, down to the present era of Meiji, having really two +Emperors: [268] the Heavenly Sovereign, or Deity Incarnate, +representing the religion of the race; and the veritable Imperator, +who wielded all the powers of the administration. No one sought to +occupy by force the throne of the Sun's Succession, whence all +authority was at least supposed to be derived. Regent or shogun bowed +down before it: divinity could not be usurped. + +Yet peace did not follow upon the battle of Dan-no-ura: the clan-wars +initiated by the great struggle of the Minamoto and the Taira, +continued, at irregular intervals, for five centuries more; and the +nation remained disintegrated. Nor did the Minamoto long keep the +supremacy which they had so dearly won. Deputing their powers to the +Hojo family, they were supplanted by the Hojo, just as the Fujiwara +had been supplanted by the Taira. Three only of the Minamoto shogun +really exercised rule. During the whole of the thirteenth century, +and for some time afterwards, the Hojo continued to govern the +country; and it is noteworthy that these regents never assumed the +title of shogun, but professed to be merely shogunal deputies. Thus a +triple-headed government appeared to exist; for the Minamoto kept up +a kind of court at Kamakura. But they faded into mere shadows, and +are yet remembered by the significant appellation of "Shadow-Shogun," +or "Puppet Shogun." There was nothing shadowy, however, about the +administration of the Hojo, [269]--men of immense energy and +ability. By them Emperor or shogun could be deposed and banished +without scruple; and the helplessness of the shogunate can be +inferred from the fact, that the seventh Hojo regent, before deposing +the seventh shogun, sent him home in a palanquin, head downwards and +heels upwards. Nevertheless the Hojo suffered the phantom-shogunate +to linger on, until 1333. Though unscrupulous in their methods, these +regents were capable rulers; and proved themselves able to save the +country in a great emergency,--the famous invasion attempted by +Kublai Khan in 1281. Aided by a fortunate typhoon, which is said to +have destroyed the hostile fleet in answer to prayer offered up at +the national shrines, the Hojo could repel this invasion. They were +less successful in dealing with certain domestic +disorders,--especially those fomented by the turbulent Buddhist +priesthood. During the thirteenth century, Buddhism had developed +into a great military power,--strangely like that church-militant of +the European middle ages: the period of soldier-priests and +fighting-bishops. The Buddhist monasteries had been converted into +fortresses filled with men-at arms; Buddhist menace had more than +once carried terror into the sacred seclusion of the imperial court. +At an early day, Yoritomo, the far-seeing founder of the Minamoto +dynasty, had observed a militant tendency in Buddhism, and had +attempted to check [270] it by forbidding all priests and monks +either to bear arms, or to maintain armed retainers. But his +successors had been careless about enforcing these prohibitions; and +the Buddhist military power developed in consequence so rapidly that +the shrewdest Hojo were doubtful of their ability to cope with it. +Eventually this power proved capable of giving them serious trouble. +The ninety-sixth Mikado, Go-Daigo, found courage to revolt against +the tyranny of the Hojo; and the Buddhist soldiery took part with +him. He was promptly defeated, and banished to the islands of Oki; +but his cause was soon espoused by powerful lords, who had long +chafed under the despotism of the regency. These assembled their +forces, restored the banished Emperor, and combined in a desperate +attack upon the regent's capital, Kamakura. The city was stormed and +burned; and the last of the Hojo rulers, after a brave but vain +defence, performed harakiri. Thus shogunate and regency vanished +together, in 1333. + +For the moment the whole power of administration had been restored to +the Mikado. Unfortunately for himself and for the country, Go-Daigo +was too feeble of character to avail himself of this great +opportunity. He revived the dead shogunate by appointing his own son +shogun; he weakly ignored the services of those whose loyalty and +courage had restored him; and he foolishly strengthened [271] the +hands of those whom he had every reason to fear. As a consequence +there happened the most serious political catastrophe in the history +of Japan, a division of the imperial house against itself. + +The unscrupulous despotism of the Hojo regents had prepared the +possibility of such an event. During the last years of the thirteenth +century, there were living at the same time in Kyoto, besides the +reigning Mikado, no less than three deposed emperors. To bring about +a contest for the succession was, therefore, an easy matter; and this +was soon accomplished by the treacherous general Ashikaga Takeuji, to +whom Go-Daigo had unwisely shown especial favour. Ashikaga had +betrayed the Hojo in order to help the restoration of Go-Daigo: he +subsequently would have betrayed the trust of Go-Daigo, in order to +seize the administrative power. The Emperor discovered this +treasonable purpose when too late, and sent against Ashikaga an army +which was defeated. After some further contest Ashikaga mastered the +capital, drove Go-Daigo a second time into exile, set up a rival +Emperor, and established a new shogunate. Now for the first time, two +branches of the Imperial family, each supported by powerful lords, +contended for the right of succession. That of which Go-Daigo +remained the acting representative, is known in history as the +Southern Branch (Nancho), and by Japanese historians is held to be +the only legitimate branch. [272] + +The other was called the Northern Branch (Hokucho), and was +maintained at Kyoto by the power of the Ashikaga clan; while +Go-Daigo, finding refuge in a Buddhist monastery, retained the +insignia of empire. Thereafter, for a period of fifty-six years Japan +continued to have two Mikado; and the resulting disorder was such as +to imperil the national integrity. It would have been no easy matter +for the people to decide which Emperor possessed the better claim. +Hitherto the imperial presence had represented the national divinity; +and the imperial palace had been regarded as the temple of the +national religion: the division maintained by the Ashikaga usurpers +therefore signified nothing less than the breaking up of the whole +tradition upon which existing society had been built. The confusion +became greater and greater, the danger increased more and more, until +the Ashikaga themselves took alarm. They managed then to end the +trouble by persuading the fifth Mikado of the Southern Dynasty, Go +Kameyama, to surrender his insignia to the reigning Mikado of the +Northern Dynasty, Go-Komatsu. This having been done, in 1392, +Go-Kameyama was honoured with the title of retired Emperor, and +Go-Komatsu was nationally acknowledged as legitimate Emperor. But the +names of the other four Emperors of the Northern Dynasty are still +excluded from the official list. The Ashikaga shogunate thus averted +the supreme [273] peril; but the period of this military domination, +which endured until 1573, was destined to remain the darkest in +Japanese history. The Ashikaga gave the country fifteen rulers, +several of whom were men of great ability: they tried to encourage +industry; they cultivated literature and the arts; but they could not +give peace. Fresh disputes arose; and lords whom the shogunate could +not subdue made war upon each other. To such a condition of terror +was the capital reduced that the court nobility fled from it to take +refuge with daimyo powerful enough to afford them protection. Robbery +became rife throughout the land; and piracy terrorized the seas. The +shogunate itself was reduced to the humiliation of paying tribute to +China. Agriculture and industry at last ceased to exist outside of +the domains of certain powerful lords. Provinces became waste; and +famine, earthquake, and pestilence added their horror to the misery +of ceaseless war. The poverty prevailing may be best imagined from +the fact that when the Emperor known to history as +Go-Tsuchi-mikado--one hundred and second of the Sun's Succession +--died in the year 1500, his corpse had to be kept at the gates of +the palace forty days, because the expenses of the funeral could not +be defrayed. Until 1573 the misery continued; and the shogunate +meanwhile degenerated into insignificance. Then a strong captain +arose and ended the house of Ashikaga, and seized the reins of power. +[274] This usurper was Oda Nobunaga; and the usurpation was amply +provoked. Had it not occurred, Japan might never have entered upon an +era of peace. + +For there had been no peace since the fifth century. No emperor or +regent or shogun had ever been able to impose his rule firmly upon +the whole country. Somewhere or other, there were always wars of clan +with clan. By the time of the sixteenth century personal safety could +be found only under the protection of some military leader, able to +exact his own terms for the favour of such protection. The question +of the imperial succession,--which had almost wrecked the empire +during the fourteenth century,--might be raised again at any time by +some reckless faction, with the probable result of ruining +civilization, and forcing the nation back to its primitive state of +barbarism. Never did the future of Japan appear so dark as at the +moment when Oda Nobunaga suddenly found himself the strongest man in +the empire, and leader of the most formidable Japanese army that had +ever obeyed a single head. This man, a descendant of Shinto priests, +was above all things a patriot. He did not seek the title of shogun, +and never received it. His hope was to save the country; and he saw +that this could be done only by centralizing all feudal power under +one control, and strenuously enforcing law. Looking about him for the +ways and means of effecting [275] this centralization, he perceived +that one of the very first obstacles to be removed was that created +by the power of Buddhism militant,--the feudal Buddhism developed +under the Hojo regency, and especially represented by the great Shin +and Tendai sects. As both had already given aid to his enemies, it +was easy to find a cause for quarrel; and he first proceeded against +the Tendai. The campaign was conducted with ferocious vigour; the +monastery-fortresses of Hiyei-san were stormed and razed, and all the +priests, with all their adherents, put to the sword--no mercy being +shown even to women and children. By nature Nobunaga was not cruel; +but his policy was ruthless, and he knew when and why to strike hard. +The power of the Tendai sect before this massacre may be imagined +from the fact that three thousand monastery buildings were burnt at +Hiyei-san. The Shin sect of the Hongwanji, with headquarters at +Osaka, was scarcely less powerful; and its monastery, occupying the +site of the present Osaka castle, was one of the strongest fortresses +in the country. Nobunaga waited several years, merely to prepare for +the attack. The soldier-priests defended themselves well; upwards of +fifty thousand lives are said to have been lost in the siege; yet +only the personal intervention of the Emperor prevented the storming +of the stronghold, and the slaughter of every being within its walls. +Through respect for the Emperor, Nobunaga agreed [276] to spare the +lives of the Shin priests: they were only dispossessed and scattered, +and their power forever broken. Buddhism having been thus effectually +crippled, Nobunaga was able to turn his attention to the warring +clans. Supported by the greatest generals that the nation ever +produced,--Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu,--he proceeded to enforce +pacification and order; and his grand purpose would probably have +been soon accomplished, but for the revengeful treachery of a +subordinate, who brought about his death in 1583. + +Nobunaga, with Taira blood in his veins, had been essentially an +aristocrat, inheriting all the aptitudes of his great race for +administration, and versed in all the traditions of diplomacy. His +avenger and successor, Hideyoshi, was a totally different type of +soldier: a son of peasants, an untrained genius who had won his way +to high command by shrewdness and courage, natural skill of arms, and +immense inborn capacity for all the chess-play of war. With the great +purpose of Nobunaga he had always been in sympathy; and he actually +carried it out,--subduing the entire country, from north to south, in +the name of the Emperor, by whom he was appointed Regent (Kwambaku). +Thus universal peace was temporarily established. But the vast +military powers which Hideyoshi had collected and disciplined, +threatened to become refractory. He found employment for them by +declaring unprovoked [277] war against Korea, whence he hoped to +effect the conquest of China. The war with Korea opened in 1592, and +dragged on unsatisfactorily until 1598, when Hideyoshi died. He had +proved himself one of the greatest soldiers ever born, but not one of +the best among rulers. Perhaps the issue of the war in Korea would +have been more fortunate, if he could have ventured to conduct it +himself. As a matter of fact, it merely exhausted the force of both +countries; and Japan had little to show for her dearly bought +victories abroad except the Mimidzuka or "Ear-Monument" at +Nara,--marking the spot where thirty thousand pairs of foreign ears, +cut from the pickled heads of slain, were buried in the grounds of +the temple of Daibutsu.... + +Into the vacant place of power then stepped the most remarkable man +that Japan ever produced,--Tokugawa Iyeyasu. Iyeyasu was of Minamoto +descent, and an aristocrat to the marrow of his bones. As a soldier +he was scarcely inferior to Hideyoshi, whom he once defeated,--but he +was much more than a soldier, a far-sighted statesman, an +incomparable diplomat, and something of a scholar. Cool, cautious, +secretive,--distrustful, yet generous,--stern, yet humane,--by the +range and the versatility of his genius he might be not unfavourably +contrasted with Julius Caesar. All that Nobunaga and Hideyoshi had +wished to do, and failed to [278] do, Iyeyasu speedily accomplished. +After fulfilling Hideyoshi's dying injunction, not to leave the +troops in Korea "to become ghosts haunting a foreign land,"--that is +to say, in the condition of spirits without a cult,--Iyeyasu had to +face a formidable league of lords resolved to dispute his claim to +rule. The terrific battle of Sekigahara left him master of the +country; and he at once took measures to consolidate his power, and +to perfect, even to the least detail, all the machinery of military +government. As shogun, he reorganized the daimiates, redistributed a +majority of fiefs; among those whom he could trust, created new +military grades, and ordered and so balanced the powers of the +greater daimyo as to make it next to impossible for them to dare a +revolt. Later on the daimyo were even required to furnish security +for their good behaviour: they were obliged to pass a certain time of +the year* in the shogun's capital, leaving their families as hostages +during the rest of the year. The entire administration was readjusted +upon a simple and sagacious plan; and the Laws of Iyeyasu prove him +to have been an excellent legislator. For the first time in Japanese +history the nation was integrated,--integrated, at least, in so far +as the peculiar nature of the social unit rendered possible. The +counsels [279] of the founder of Yedo were followed by his +successors; and the Tokugawa shogunate, which lasted until 1867, gave +the country fifteen military sovereigns. Under these, Japan enjoyed +both peace and prosperity for the time of two hundred and fifty +years; and her society was thus enabled to evolve to the full limit +of its peculiar type. Industries and arts developed in new and +wonderful ways; literature found august patronage. The national cult +was carefully maintained; and all precautions were taken to prevent +the occurrence of another such contest for the imperial succession as +had nearly ruined the country in the fourteenth century. + +[*The period of obligatory residence in Yedo was not the same for all +daimyo. In some cases the obligation seems to have extended to six +months; in others, the requirement was to pass every alternate year +in the capital.] + +We have seen that the history of military rule in Japan embraces +nearly the whole period of authentic history, down to modern times, +and closes with the second period of national integration. The first +period had been reached when the clans first accepted the leadership +of the chief of the greatest clan,--thereafter revered as the +Heavenly Sovereign, Supreme Pontiff, Supreme Arbiter, Supreme +Commander, and Supreme Magistrate. How long a time was required for +this primal integration, under a patriarchal monarchy, we cannot +know; but we have learned that the later integration, under a +duarchy, occupied considerably more than a thousand years.... Now the +extraordinary fact to note is that, during all those centuries, the +imperial [280] cult was carefully maintained by even the enemies of +the Mikado; the only legitimate ruler being, in national belief, the +Tenshi, "Son of Heaven,"--the Tenno, "Heavenly King." Through every +period of disorder the Offspring of the Sun was the object of +national worship, and his palace the temple of the national faith. +Great captains might coerce the imperial will; but they styled +themselves, none the less, the worshippers and slaves of the +incarnate deity; and they would no more have thought of trying to +occupy his throne, than they would have thought of trying to abolish +all religion by decree. Once only, by the arbitrary folly of the +Ashikaga shogun, the imperial cult had been seriously interfered +with; and the social earthquake consequent upon that division of the +imperial house, apprised the usurpers of the enormity of their +blunder.... Only the integrity of the imperial succession, the +uninterrupted maintenance of the imperial worship, made it possible +even for Iyeyasu to clamp together the indissoluble units of society. + +Herbert Spencer has taught the student of sociology to recognize that +religious dynasties have extraordinary powers of longevity, because +they possess extraordinary power to resist change; whereas military +dynasties, depending for their perpetuity upon the individual +character of their sovereigns, are particularly liable to +disintegration. The immense duration of the Japanese imperial +dynasty, as contrasted [281] with the history of the various +shogunates and regencies representing a merely military domination, +illustrates this teaching in a most remarkable way. Back through +twenty-five hundred years we can follow the line of the imperial +succession, till it vanishes out of sight into the mystery of the +past. Here we have evidence of that extreme power of resisting all +changes which is inherently characteristic of religious conservatism; +on the other hand, the history of shogunates and regencies proves the +tendency to disintegration of institutions having no religious +foundation, and therefore no religious power of cohesion. The +remarkable duration of the Fujiwara rule, as compared with others, +may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that the Fujiwara +represented a religious, rather than a military, aristocracy. Even +the marvellous military structure devised by Iyeyasu had begun to +decay before alien aggression precipitated its inevitable collapse. + + + +[283] + +THE RELIGION OF LOYALTY + +"Militant societies," says the author of the Principles of Sociology, +"must have a patriotism which regards the triumph of their society as +the supreme end of action; they must possess the loyalty whence flows +obedience to authority,--and, that they may be obedient, they must +have abundant faith." The history of the Japanese people strongly +exemplifies these truths. Among no other people has loyalty ever +assumed more impressive and extraordinary forms; and among no other +people has obedience ever been nourished by a more abundant +faith,--that faith derived from the cult of the ancestors. + +The reader will understand how filial piety--the domestic religion of +obedience--widens in range with social evolution, and eventually +differentiates both into that political obedience required by the +community, and that military obedience exacted by the +war-lord,--obedience implying not only submission, but affectionate +submission,--not merely the sense of obligation, but the sentiment of +duty. In its origin such dutiful obedience is essentially religious; +and, as expressed in loyalty, it retains the [284] religious +character,--becomes the constant manifestation of a religion of +self-sacrifice. Loyalty is developed early in the history of a +militant people; and we find touching examples of it in the earliest +Japanese chronicles. We find also terrible ones,--stories of +self-immolation. + +To his divinely descended lord, the retainer owed everything--in +fact, not less than in theory: goods, household, liberty, and life. +Any or all of these he was expected to yield up without a murmur, on +demand, for the sake of the lord. And duty to the lord, like the duty +to the family ancestor, did not cease with death. As the ghosts of +parents were to be supplied with food by their living children, so +the spirit of the lord was to be worshipfully served by those who, +during his lifetime, owed him direct obedience. It could not be +permitted that the spirit of--the ruler should enter unattended into +the world of shadows: some, at least, of those who served him living +were bound to follow him in death. Thus in early societies arose the +custom of human sacrifices,--sacrifices at first obligatory, +afterwards voluntary. In Japan, as stated in a former chapter, they +remained an indispensable feature of great funerals, up to the first +century, when images of baked clay were first substituted for the +official victims. I have already mentioned how, after this abolition +of obligatory [285] junshi, or following of one's lord in death, the +practice of voluntary junshi continued up to the sixteenth century, +when it actually became a military fashion. At the death of a daimyo +it was then common for fifteen or twenty of his retainers to +disembowel themselves. Iyeyasu determined to put an end to this +custom of suicide, which is thus considered in the 76th article of +his celebrated Legacy:-- + +"Although it is undoubtedly the ancient custom for a vassal to follow +his Lord in death, there is not the slightest reason in the practice. +Confucius has ridiculed the making of Yo [effigies buried with the +dead]. These practices are strictly forbidden, more especially to +primary retainers, but to secondary retainers likewise, even of the +lowest rank. He is the reverse of a faithful servant who disregards +this prohibition. His posterity shall be impoverished by the +confiscation of his property, as a warning for those who disobey the +laws." + +Iyeyasu's command ended the practice of junshi among his own vassals; +but it continued, or revived again, after his death. In 1664 the +shogunate issued an edict proclaiming that the family of any person +performing junshi should be punished; and the shogunate was in +earnest. When this edict was disobeyed by one Uyemon no Hyoge, who +disembowelled himself at the death of his lord, Okudaira Tadamasa, +the government promptly confiscated the lands of the family of the +suicide, executed two of [286] his sons, and sent the rest of the +household into exile. Though cases of junshi have occurred even +within this present era of Meiji, the determined attitude of the +Tokugawa government so far checked the practice that even the most +fervid loyalty latterly made its sacrifices through religion, as a +rule. Instead of performing harakiri, the retainer shaved his head at +the death of his lord, and became a Buddhist monk. + +The custom of junshi represents but one aspect of Japanese loyalty: +there were other customs equally, if not even more, significant,--for +example, the custom of military suicide, not as junshi, but as a +self-inflicted penalty exacted by the traditions of samurai +discipline. Against harakiri, as punitive suicide, there was no +legislative enactment, for obvious reasons. It would seem that this +form of self-destruction was not known to the Japanese in early ages; +it may have been introduced from China, with other military customs. +The ancient Japanese usually performed suicide by strangulation, as +the Nihongi bears witness. It was the military class that established +the harakiri as a custom and privilege. Previously, the chiefs of a +routed army, or the defenders of a castle taken by storm, would thus +end themselves to avoid falling into the enemy's hands,--a custom +which continued into the present era. About the close of the +fifteenth century, the [287] military custom of permitting any +samurai to perform harakiri, instead of subjecting him to the shame +of execution, appears to have been generally established. Afterwards +it became the recognized duty of a samurai to kill himself at the +word of command. All samurai were subject to this disciplinary law, +even lords of provinces; and in samurai families, children of both +sexes were trained how to perform suicide whenever personal honour or +the will of a liege-lord, might require it.... Women, I should +observe, did not perform harakiri, but jigai,--that is to say, +piercing the throat with a dagger so as to sever the arteries by a +single thrust-and-cut movement.... The particulars of the harakiri +ceremony have become so well known through Mitford's translation of +Japanese texts on the subject, that I need not touch upon them. The +important fact to remember is that honour and loyalty required the +samurai man or woman to be ready at any moment to perform +self-destruction by the sword. As for the warrior, any breach of +trust (voluntary or involuntary), failure to execute a difficult +mission, a clumsy mistake, and even a look of displeasure from one's +liege, were sufficient reasons for harakiri, or, as the aristocrats +preferred to call it, by the Chinese term, seppuku. Among the highest +class of retainers, it was also a duty to make protest against +misconduct on the part of their lord by performing seppuku, when all +other means of bringing him to reason had [288] failed,--which heroic +custom has been made the subject of several popular dramas founded +upon fact. In the case of married women of the samurai +class,--directly responsible to their husbands, not to the +lord,--jigai was resorted to most often as a means of preserving +honour in time of war, though it was sometimes performed merely as a +sacrifice of loyalty to the spirit of the husband, after his untimely +death.* [*The Japanese moralist Yekken wrote 'A woman has no feudal +lord: she must reverence and obey her husband.'] In the case of girls +it was not uncommon for other reasons,--samurai maidens often +entering into the service of noble households, where the cruelty of +intrigue might easily bring about a suicide, or where loyalty to the +wife of the lord might exact it. For the samurai maiden in service +was bound by loyalty to her mistress not less closely than the +warrior to the lord; and the heroines of Japanese feudalism were +many. + +In the early ages it appears to have been the custom for the wives of +officials condemned to death to kill themselves the ancient +chronicles are full of examples. But this custom is perhaps to be +partly accounted for by the ancient law, which held the household of +the offender equally responsible with him for the offence, +independently of the facts in the case. However, it was certainly +also common enough for a bereaved wife to perform suicide, not +through despair, but through the wish to follow her [289] husband +into the other world, and there to wait upon him as in life. +Instances of female suicide, representing the old ideal of duty to a +dead husband, have occurred in recent times. Such suicides are +usually performed according to the feudal rules,--the woman robing +herself in white for the occasion. At the time of the late war with +China there occurred in Tokyo one remarkable suicide of this kind; +the victim being the wife of Lieutenant Asada, who had fallen in +battle. She was only twenty-one. On hearing of her husband's death, +she at once began to make preparations for her own,--writing letters +of farewell to her relatives, putting her affairs in order, and +carefully cleaning the house, according to old-time rule. Thereafter +she donned her death-robe; laid mattings down opposite to the alcove +in the guest-room; placed her husband's portrait in the alcove, and +set offerings before it. When everything had been arranged, she +seated herself before the portrait, took up her dagger, and with a +single skilful thrust divided the arteries of her throat. + +Besides the duty of suicide for the sake of preserving honour, there +was also, for the samurai woman, the duty of suicide as a moral +protest. I have already said that among the highest class of +retainers it was thought a moral duty to perform harakiri as a +remonstrance against shameless conduct on the part of one's lord, +when all other means of persuasion [290] had been tried in vain. +Among samurai women--taught to consider their husbands as their +lords, in the feudal meaning of the term--it was held a moral +obligation to perform jigai, by way of protest, against disgraceful +behaviour upon the part of a husband who would not listen to advice +or reproof. The ideal of wifely duty which impelled such sacrifice +still survives; and more than one recent example might be cited of a +generous life thus laid down in rebuke of some moral wrong. Perhaps +the most touching instance occurred in 1892, at the time of the +district elections in Nagano prefecture. A rich voter named Ishijima, +after having publicly pledged himself to aid in the election of a +certain candidate, transferred his support to the rival candidate. On +learning of this breach of promise, the wife of Ishijima, robed +herself in white, and performed jigai after the old samurai manner. +The grave of this brave woman is still decorated with flowers by the +people of the district; and incense is burned before her tomb. + +To kill oneself at command--a duty which no loyal samurai would have +dreamed of calling in question--appears to us much less difficult +than another duty, also fully accepted: the sacrifice of children, +wife, and household for the sake of the lord. Much of Japanese +popular tragedy is devoted to incidents of such sacrifice made by +retainers or [291] dependents of daimyo,--men or women who gave their +children to death in order to save the children of their masters.* +[*See, for a good example, the translation of the drama Terakoya, +published, with admirable illustrations, by T. Hasegawa (Tokyo).] Nor +have we any reason to suppose that the facts have been exaggerated in +these dramatic compositions, most of which are based upon feudal +history. The incidents, of course, have been rearranged and expanded +to meet theatrical requirements; but the general pictures thus given +of the ancient society are probably even less grim than the vanished +reality. The people still love these tragedies; and the foreign +critic of their dramatic literature is wont to point out only the +blood-spots, and to comment upon them as evidence of a public taste +for gory spectacles,--as proof of some innate ferocity in the race. +Rather, I think, is this love of the old tragedy proof of what +foreign critics try always to ignore as--much as possible,--the +deeply religious character of the people. These plays continue to +give delight,--not because of their horror, but because of their +moral teaching,--because of their exposition of the duty of sacrifice +and courage, the religion of loyalty. They represent the martyrdoms +of feudal society for its noblest ideals. + +All down through that society, in varying forms, the same spirit--of +loyalty had its manifestations. As the samurai to his liege-lord, so +the apprentice was bound to the patron, and the clerk to the [292] +merchant. Everywhere there was trust, because everywhere there +existed the like sentiment of mutual duty between servant and master. +Each industry and occupation had its religion of loyalty,--requiring, +on the one side, absolute obedience and sacrifice at need; and on the +other, kindliness and aid. And the rule of the dead was over all. + +Not less ancient than the duty of dying for parent or lord was the +social obligation to avenge the killing of either. Even before the +beginnings of settled society, this duty is recognized. The oldest +chronicles of Japan teem with instances of obligatory vengeance. +Confucian ethics more than affirmed the obligation,--forbidding a man +to live "under the same heaven" with the slayer of his lord, or +parent, or brother; and fixing all the degrees of kinship, or other +relationship, within which the duty of vengeance was to be considered +imperative. Confucian ethics, it will be remembered, became at an +early date the ethics of the Japanese ruling-classes, and so remained +down to recent times. The whole Confucian system, as I have remarked +elsewhere, was founded upon ancestor-worship, and represented +scarcely more than an amplification and elaboration of filial piety: +it was therefore in complete accord with Japanese moral experience. +As the military power developed in Japan, the Chinese code of +vengeance became universally accepted; and it was sustained [293] by +law as well as by custom in later ages. Iyeyasu himself maintained +it--exacting only that preliminary notice of an intended vendetta +should be given in writing to the district criminal court. The text +of his article on the subject is interesting:-- + +"In respect to avenging injury done to master or father, it is +acknowledged by the Wise and Virtuous [Confucius] that you and the +injurer cannot live together under the canopy of heaven. A person +harbouring such vengeance shall give notice in writing to the +criminal court; and although no check or hindrance may be offered to +the carrying out of his design within the period allowed for that +purpose, it is forbidden that the chastisement of an enemy be +attended with riot. Fellows who neglect to give notice of their +intended revenge are like wolves of pretext:* their punishment or +pardon should depend upon the circumstances of the case." + +[*Or "hypocritical wolves."--that is to say brutal murderers seeking +to excuse their crime on the pretext justifiable vengeance. (The +translation is by Lowder.)] + +Kindred, as well as parents; teachers, as well as lords, were to be +revenged. A considerable proportion of popular romance and drama is +devoted to the subject of vengeance taken by women; and, as a matter +of fact, women, and even children, sometimes became avengers when +there were no men of a wronged family left to perform the duty. +Apprentices avenged their masters; and even sworn friends were bound +to avenge each other. + +[294] Why the duty of vengeance was not confined to the circle of +natural kinship is explicable, of course, by the peculiar +organization of society. We have seen that the patriarchal family was +a religious corporation; and that the family-bond was not the bond of +natural affection, but the bond of the cult. We have also seen that +the relation of the household to the community, and of the community +to the clan, and of the clan to the tribe, was equally a religious +relation. As a necessary consequence, the earlier customs of +vengeance were regulated by the bond of the family, communal, or +tribal cult, as well as by the bond of blood; and with the +introduction of Chinese ethics, and the development of militant +conditions, the idea of revenge as duty took a wider range. The son +or the brother by adoption was in respect of obligation the same as +the son or brother by blood; and the teacher stood to his pupil in +the relation of father to child. To strike one's natural parent was a +crime punishable by death: to strike one's teacher was, before the +law, an equal offence. This notion of the teacher's claim to filial +reverence was of Chinese importation: an extension of the duty of +filial piety to "the father of the mind." There were other such +extensions; and the origin of all, Chinese or Japanese, may be traced +alike to ancestor-worship. + +Now, what has never been properly insisted upon, in any of the books +treating of ancient [295] Japanese customs, is the originally +religious significance of the kataki-uchi. That a religious origin +can be found for all customs of vendetta established in early +societies is, of course, well known; but a peculiar interest attaches +to the Japanese vendetta in view of the fact that it conserved its +religious character unchanged down to the present era. The +kataki-uchi was essentially an act of propitiation, as is proved by +the rite with which it terminated,--the placing of the enemy's head +upon the tomb of the person avenged, as an offering of atonement. And +one of the most impressive features of this rite, as formerly +practised, was the delivery of an address to the ghost of the person +avenged. Sometimes the address was only spoken; sometimes it was also +written, and the manuscript left upon the tomb. + +There is probably none of my readers unacquainted with Mitford's +ever-delightful Tales of Old Japan, and his translation of the true +story of the "Forty-Seven Ronins." But I doubt whether many persons +have noticed the significance of the washing of Kira +Kotsuke-no-Suke's severed head, or the significance of the address +inscribed to their dead lord by the brave men who had so long waited +and watched for the chance to avenge him. This address, of which I +quote Mitford's translation, was laid upon the tomb of the Lord +Asano. It is still preserved at the temple called Sengakuji:-- + +[296] "The fifteenth year of Genroku [17031, the twelfth month, the +fifteenth day.--We have come this day to do homage here: forty-seven +men in all, from Oishi Kuranosuke down to the foot-soldier Terasaka +Kichiyemon,--all cheerfully about to lay down our lives on your +behalf. We reverently announce this to the honoured spirit of our +dead master. On the fourteenth day of the third month of last year, +our honoured master was pleased to attack Kira Kotsuke-no-Suke, for +what reason we know not. Our honoured master put an end to his own +life; but Kira Kotsuke-no-Suke lived. Although we fear that after the +decree issued by the Government, this plot of ours will be +displeasing to our honoured master, still we, who have eaten of your +food, could not without blushing repeat the verse, "Thou shalt not +live under the same heaven, nor tread the same earth with the enemy +of thy father or lord," nor could we have dared to leave hell [Hades] +and present ourselves before you in Paradise, unless we had carried +out the vengeance which you began. Every day that we waited seemed as +three autumns to us. Verily we have trodden the snow for one day, +nay, for two days, and have tasted food but once. The old and +decrepit, the sick and the ailing, have come forth gladly to lay down +their lives. Men might laugh at us, as at grasshoppers trusting in +the strength of their arms, and thus shame our honoured lord; but we +could not halt in our deed of vengeance. Having taken counsel +together last night, we have escorted my Lord Kotsuke-no-Suke hither +to your tomb. This dirk, by which our honoured lord set great store +last year, and entrusted to our care, we now bring back. If your +noble spirit be now present before this tomb, we pray you, as a [297] +sign, to take the dirk, and, striking the head of your enemy with it +a second time, to dispel your hatred forever. This is the respectful +statement of forty-seven men." + +It will be observed that the Lord Asano is addressed as if he were +present and visible. The head of the enemy has been carefully washed, +according to the rule concerning the presentation of heads to a +living superior. It is laid upon the tomb together with the nine-inch +sword, or dagger, originally used by the Lord Asano in performing +harakiri at Government command, and afterwards used by Oishi +Kuranosuke in cutting off the head of Kira Kotsuke-no-Suke;--and the +spirit of the Lord Asano is requested to take up the weapon and to +strike the head, so that the pain of ghostly anger may be dissipated +forever. Then, having been themselves all sentenced to perform +harakiri, the forty-seven retainers join their lord in death, and are +buried in front of his tomb. Before their graves the smoke of +incense, offered by admiring visitors, has been ascending daily for +two hundred years.* + +[*It has been long the custom also for visitors to leave their cards +upon the tombs of the Forty-seven Ronin. When I last visited +Sengakuji, the ground about the tombs was white with visiting-cards.] + +One must have lived in Japan, and have been able to feel the true +spirit of the old Japanese life, in order to comprehend the whole of +this romance of loyalty; but I think that whoever carefully reads Mr. +Mitford's version of it, and his translation of the [298] authentic +documents relating to it, will confess himself moved. That address +especially touches,--because of the affection and the faith to which +it testifies, and the sense of duty beyond this life. However much +revenge must be condemned by our modern ethics, there is a noble side +to many of the old Japanese stories of loyal vengeance; and these +stories affect us by the expression of what has nothing to do with +vulgar revenge,--by their exposition of gratitude, self-denial, +courage in facing death, and faith in the unseen. And this means, of +course, that we are, consciously or unconsciously, impressed by their +religious quality. Mere individual revenge--the postponed retaliation +for some personal injury--repels our moral feeling: we have learned +to regard the emotion inspiring such revenge as simply brutal +--something shared by man with lower forms of animal life. But in the +story of a homicide exacted by the sentiment of duty or gratitude to +a dead master, there may be circumstances which can make appeal to +our higher moral sympathies,--to our sense of the force and beauty of +unselfishness, unswerving fidelity, unchanging affection. And the +story of the Forty-Seven Ronin is one of this class.... + +Yet it must be borne in mind that the old Japanese religion of +loyalty, which found its supreme manifestation in those three +terrible customs of [299] junshi, harakiri, and kataki-uchi, was +narrow in its range. It was limited by the very constitution of +society. Though the nation was ruled, through all its groups, by +notions of duty everywhere similar in character, the circle of that +duty, for each individual, did not extend beyond the clan-group to +which he belonged. For his own lord the retainer was always ready to +die; but he did not feel equally bound to sacrifice himself for the +military government, unless he happened to belong to the special +military following of the Shogun. His fatherland, his country, his +world, extended only to the boundary of his chief's domain. Outside +of that domain he could be only a wanderer,--a ronin, or "wave-man," +as the masterless samurai was termed. Under such conditions that +larger loyalty which identifies itself with love of king and +country,--which is patriotism in the modern, not in the narrower +antique sense,--could not fully evolve. Some common peril, some +danger to the whole race--such as the attempted Tartar conquest of +Japan--might temporarily arouse the true sentiment of patriotism; but +otherwise that sentiment had little opportunity for development. The +Ise cult represented, indeed, the religion of the nation, as +distinguished from the clan or tribal worship; but each man had been +taught to believe that his first duty was to his lord. One cannot +efficiently serve two masters; and feudal government practically +[300] suppressed any tendencies in that direction. The lordship so +completely owned the individual, body and soul, that the idea of any +duty to the nation, outside of the duty to the chief, had neither +time nor chance to define itself in the mind of the vassal. To the +ordinary samurai, for example, an imperial order would not have been +law: he recognized no law above the law of his daimyo. As for the +daimyo, he might either disobey or obey an imperial command according +to circumstances: his direct superior was the shogun; and he was +obliged to make for himself a politic distinction between the +Heavenly Sovereign as deity, and the Heavenly Sovereign as a human +personality. Before the ultimate centralization of the military +power, there were many instances of lords sacrificing themselves for +their emperor; but there were even more cases of open rebellion by +lords against the imperial will. Under the Tokugawa rule, the +question of obeying or resisting an imperial command would have +depended upon the attitude of the shogun; and no daimyo would have +risked such obedience to the court at Kyoto as might have signified +disobedience to the court at Yedo. Not at least until the shogunate +had fallen into decay. In Iyemitsu's time the daimyo were strictly +forbidden to approach the imperial palace on their way to Yedo,--even +in response to an imperial command; and they were also forbidden to +make any direct appeal to the [301] Mikado. The policy of the +shogunate was to prevent all direct communication between the Kyoto +court and the daimyo. This policy paralyzed intrigue for two hundred +years; but it prevented the development of patriotism. + +And for that very reason, when Japan at last found herself face to +face with the unexpected peril of Western aggression, the abolition +of the dairmates was felt to be a matter of paramount importance. The +supreme danger required that the social units should be fused into +one coherent mass, capable of uniform action,--that the clan and +tribal groupings should be permanently dissolved,--that all authority +should immediately be centred in the representative of the national +religion,--that the duty of obedience to the Heavenly Sovereign +should replace, at once and forever, the feudal duty of obedience to +the territorial lord. The religion of loyalty, evolved by a thousand +years of war, could not be cast away--properly utilized, it would +prove a national heritage of incalculable worth,--a moral power +capable of miracles if directed by one wise will to a single wise +end. Destroyed by reconstruction it could not be; but it could be +diverted and transformed. Diverted, therefore, to nobler ends +--expanded to larger needs,--it became the new national sentiment of +trust and duty: the modern sense of patriotism. What wonders it has +wrought, within the space of thirty years, the world is now obliged +to confess: what [302] more it may be able to accomplish remains to +be seen. One thing at least is certain,---that the future of Japan +must depend upon the maintenance of this new religion of loyalty, +evolved, through the old, from the ancient religion of the dead. + + + +[303] + +THE JESUIT PERIL + +The second half of the sixteenth century is the most interesting +period in Japanese history--for three reasons. First, because it +witnessed the apparition of those mighty captains, Nobunaga, +Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasu,--types of men that a race seems to evolve for +supreme emergencies only,--types requiring for their production not +merely the highest aptitudes of numberless generations, but likewise +an extraordinary combination of circumstances. Secondly, this period +is all-important because it saw the first complete integration of the +ancient social system,--the definitive union of all the +clan-lordships under a central military government. And lastly, the +period is of special interest because the incident of the first +attempt to christianize Japan--the story of the rise and fall of the +Jesuit power--properly belongs to it. + +The sociological significance of this episode is instructive. +Excepting, perhaps, the division of the imperial house against itself +in the twelfth century, the greatest danger that ever threatened +Japanese national integrity was the introduction of Christianity +[304] by the Portuguese Jesuits. The nation saved itself only by +ruthless measures, at the cost of incalculable suffering and of +myriads of lives. + +It was during the period of great disorder preceding Nobunaga's +effort to centralize authority, that this unfamiliar disturbing +factor was introduced by Xavier and his followers. Xavier landed at +Kagoshima in 1549; and by 1581 the Jesuits had upwards of two hundred +churches in the country. This fact alone sufficiently indicates the +rapidity with which the new religion spread; and it seemed destined +to extend over the entire empire. In 1585 a Japanese religious +embassy was received at Rome; and by that date no less than eleven +daimyo,--or "kings," as the Jesuits not inaptly termed them--had +become converted. Among these were several very powerful lords. The +new creed had made rapid way among the common people also: it was +becoming "popular," in the strict meaning of the word. + +When Nobunaga rose to power, he favoured the Jesuits in many +ways--not because of any sympathy with their creed, for he never +dreamed of becoming a Christian, but because he thought that their +influence would be of service to him in his campaign against +Buddhism. Like the Jesuits themselves, Nobunaga had no scruple about +means in his pursuit of ends. More ruthless than William the +Conqueror, he did not hesitate to put to death [305] his own brother +and his own father-in-law, when they dared to oppose his will. The +aid and protection which he extended to the foreign priests, for +merely political reasons, enabled them to develop their power to a +degree which soon gave him cause for repentance. Mr. Gubbins, in his +"Review of the Introduction of Christianity into China and Japan," +quotes from a Japanese work, called Ibuki Mogusa, an interesting +extract on the subject:-- + +"Nobunaga now began to regret his previous policy in permitting the +introduction of Christianity. He accordingly assembled his retainers, +and said to them:--'The conduct of these missionaries in persuading +people to join them by giving money, does not please me. How would it +be, think you, if we were to demolish Nambanji [The "Temple of the +Southern Savages"--so the Portuguese church was called]?' To this +Mayeda Tokuzenin replied. 'It is now too late to demolish the Temple +of the Namban. To endeavour to arrest the power of this religion now +is like trying to arrest the current of the ocean. Nobles, both great +and small, have become adherents of it. If you would exterminate this +religion now, there is fear that disturbance should be created among +your own retainers. I am therefore of opinion that you should abandon +your intention of destroying Nambanji.' Nobunaga in consequence +regretted exceedingly his previous action in regard to the Christian +religion, and set about thinking how he could root it out." + +The assassination of Nobunaga in 1586 may have prolonged the period +of toleration. His successor [306] Hideyoshi, who judged the +influence of the foreign priests dangerous, was for the moment +occupied with the great problem of centralizing the military power, +so as to give peace to the country. But the furious intolerance of +the Jesuits in the southern provinces had already made them many +enemies, eager to avenge the cruelties of the new creed. We read in +the histories of the missions about converted daimyo burning +thousands of Buddhist temples, destroying countless works of art, and +slaughtering Buddhist priests;--and we find the Jesuit writers +praising these crusades as evidence of holy zeal. At first the +foreign faith had been only persuasive; afterwards, gathering power +under Nobunaga's encouragement, it became coercive and ferocious. A +reaction against it set in about a year after Nobunaga's death. In +1587 Hideyoshi destroyed the mission churches in Kyoto, Osaka, and +Sakai, and drove the Jesuits from the capital; and in the following +year he ordered them to assemble at the port of Hirado, and prepare +to leave the country. They felt themselves strong enough to disobey: +instead of leaving Japan, they scattered through the country, placing +themselves under the protection of various Christian daimyo. +Hideyoshi probably thought it impolitic to push matters further: the +priests kept quiet, and ceased to preach publicly; and their +self-effacement served them well until 1591. In that year the advent +of [307] certain Spanish Franciscans changed the state of affairs. +These Franciscans arrived in the train of an embassy from the +Philippines, and obtained leave to stay in the country on condition +that they were not to preach Christianity. They broke their pledge, +abandoned all prudence, and aroused the wrath of Hideyoshi. He +resolved to make an example; and in 1597 he had six Franciscans, +three Jesuits, and several other Christians taken to Nagasaki and +there crucified. The attitude of the great Taiko toward the foreign +creed had the effect of quickening the reaction against it,--a +reaction which had already begun to show itself in various provinces. +But Hideyoshi's death in 1598 enabled the Jesuits to hope for better +fortune. His successor, the cold and cautious Iyeyasu, allowed them +to hope, and even to reestablish themselves in Kyoto, Osaka, and +elsewhere. He was preparing for the great contest which was to be +decided by the battle of Sekigahara;--he knew that the Christian +element was divided,--some of its leaders being on his own side, and +some on the side of his enemies;--and the time would have been ill +chosen for any repressive policy. But in 1606, after having solidly +established his power, Iyeyasu for the first time showed himself +decidedly opposed to Christianity by issuing an edict forbidding +further mission work, and proclaiming that those who had adopted the +foreign religion must abandon it. Nevertheless the propaganda [308] +went on--conducted no longer by Jesuits only, but also by Dominicans +and Franciscans. The number of Christians then in the empire is said, +with gross exaggeration, to have been nearly two millions. But +Iyeyasu neither took, nor caused to be taken, any severe measures of +repression until 1614,--from which date the great persecution may be +said to have begun. Previously there had been local persecutions +only, conducted by independent daimyo,--not by the central +government. The local persecutions in Kyushu, for example, would seem +to have been natural consequences of the intolerance of the Jesuits +in the days of their power, when converted daimyo burned Buddhist +temples and massacred Buddhist priests; and these persecutions were +most pitiless in those very districts such as Bungo, Omura, and Higo +--where the native religion had been most fiercely persecuted at +Jesuit instigation. But from 1614--at which date there remained only +eight, out of the total sixty-four provinces of Japan, into which +Christianity had not been introduced--the suppression of the foreign +creed became a government matter; and the persecution was conducted +systematically and uninterruptedly until every outward trace of +Christianity had disappeared. + +The fate of the missions, therefore, was really settled by Iyeyasu +and his immediate successors; [309] and it is the part taken by +Iyeyasu that especially demands attention. Of the three great +captains, all had, sooner or later, become suspicious of the foreign +propaganda; but only Iyeyasu could find both the time and the ability +to deal with the social problem which it had aroused. Even Hideyoshi +had been afraid to complicate existing political troubles by any +rigorous measures of an extensive character. Iyeyasu long hesitated. +The reasons for his hesitation were doubtless complex, and chiefly +diplomatic. He was the last of men to act hastily, or suffer himself +to be influenced by prejudice of any sort; and to suppose him timid +would be contrary to all that we know of his character. He must have +recognized, of course, that to extirpate a religion which could +claim, even in exaggeration, more than a million of adherents, was no +light undertaking, and would involve an immense amount of suffering. +To cause needless misery was not in his nature: he had always proved +himself humane, and a friend of the common people. But he was first +of all a statesman and patriot; and the main question for him must +have been the probable relation of the foreign creed to political and +social conditions in Japan. This question required long and patient +investigation; and he appears to have given it all possible +attention. At last he decided that Roman Christianity constituted a +grave political danger and that its extirpation would be an +unavoidable necessity. [310] The fact that the severe measures which +he and his successors enforced against Christianity--measures +steadily maintained for upwards of two hundred years--failed to +completely eradicate the creed, proves how deeply the roots had +struck. Superficially, all trace of Christianity vanished to Japanese +eyes; but in 1865 there were discovered near Nagasaki some +communities which had secretly preserved among themselves traditions +of the Roman forms of worship, and still made use of Portuguese and +Latin words relating to religious matters. + +To rightly estimate the decision of Iyeyasu--one of the shrewdest, +and also one of the most humane statesmen that ever lived,--it is +necessary to consider, from a Japanese point of view, the nature of +the evidence upon which he was impelled to act. Of Jesuit intrigues +in Japan he must have had ample knowledge--several of them having +been directed against himself;--but he would have been more likely +to consider the ultimate object and probable result of such +intrigues, than the mere fact of their occurrence. Religious +intrigues were common among the Buddhists, and would scarcely attract +the notice of the military government except when they interfered +with state policy or public order. But religious intrigues having for +their object the overthrow of government, and a sectarian domination +of the country, would be gravely considered. [311] Nobunaga had +taught Buddhism a severe lesson about the danger of such intriguing. +Iyeyasu decided that the Jesuit intrigues had a political object of +the most ambitious kind; but he was more patient than Nobunaga. By +1603 he, had every district of Japan under his yoke; but he did not +issue his final edict until eleven years later. It plainly declared +that the foreign priests were plotting to get control of the +government, and to obtain possession of the country:-- + +"The Kirishitan band have come to Japan, not only sending their +merchant-vessels to exchange commodities, but also longing to +disseminate an evil law, to overthrow right doctrine, so that they +may change the government of the country, and obtain possession of +the land. This is the germ of great disaster, and must be +crushed..... + +"Japan is the country of the gods and of the Buddha: it honours the +gods, and reveres the Buddha.... The faction of the Bateren* +disbelieve in the Way of the Gods, and blaspheme the true Law, +--violate right-doing, and injure the good.... They truly are the +enemies of the gods and of the Buddha.... If this be not speedily +prohibited, the safety of the state will, assuredly hereafter be +imperilled; and if those who are charged with ordering its affairs do +not put a stop to the evil, they will expose themselves to Heaven's +rebuke. + +[*Bateren, a corruption of the Portuguese padre, is still the term +used for Roman Catholic priests, of any denomination.] + +"These [missionaries] must be instantly swept out, so that not an +inch of soil remains to them in Japan on which [312] to plant their +feet; and if they refuse to obey this command, they shall suffer the +penalty.... Let Heaven and the Four Seas hear this. Obey!"* + +[*The entire proclamation, which is of considerable length, has been +translated by Satow, and may be found in Vol. VI, part I, of the +Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.] + +It will be observed that there are two distinct charges made against +the Bateren in this document,--that of political conspiracy under the +guise of religion, with a view to getting possession of the +government; and that of intolerance, towards both the Shinto and the +Buddhist forms of native worship. The intolerance is sufficiently +proved by the writings of the Jesuits themselves. The charge of +conspiracy was less easy to prove; but who could reasonably have +doubted that, were opportunity offered, the Roman Catholic orders +would attempt to control the general government precisely as they had +been able to control local government already in the lordships of +converted daimyo. Besides, we may be sure that by the time at which +the edict was issued, Iyeyasu must have heard of many matters likely +to give him a most evil opinion of Roman Catholicism:--the story of +the Spanish conquests in America, and the extermination of the West +Indian races; the story of the persecutions in the Netherlands, and +of the work of the Inquisition elsewhere; the story of the attempt of +Philip II to conquer England, and of the loss of the two great [313] +Armadas. The edict was issued in 1614, and Iyeyasu had found +opportunity to inform himself about some of these matters as early as +1600. In that year the English pilot Will Adams had arrived at Japan +in charge of a Dutch ship, Adams had started on this eventful voyage +in the year 1598,--that is to say, just ten years after the defeat of +the first Spanish Armada, and one year after the ruin of the second. +He had seen the spacious times of great Elizabeth--who was yet +alive;--he had very probably seen Howard and Seymour and Drake and +Hawkins and Frobisher and Sir Richard Grenville, the hero of 1591. +For this Will Adams was a Kentish man, who had "serued for Master and +Pilott in her Majesties ships ..." The Dutch vessel was seized +immediately upon her arrival at Kyushu; and Adams and his shipmates +were taken into custody by the daimyo of Bungo, who reported the fact +to Iyeyasu. The advent of these Protestant sailors was considered an +important event by the Portuguese Jesuits, who had their own reasons +for dreading the results of an interview between such heretics and +the ruler of Japan. But Iyeyasu also happened to think the event an +important one; and he ordered that Adams should be sent to him at +Osaka. The malevolent anxiety of the Jesuits about the matter had not +escaped Iyeyasu's penetrating observation. They endeavoured again and +again to have the sailors killed, according to the [314] written +statement of Adams himself, who was certainly no liar; and they had +been able--in Bungo to frighten two scoundrels of the ship's company +into giving false testimony.* "The Iesuites and the Portingalls," +wrote Adams, "gaue many euidences against me and the rest to the +Emperour [Iyeyasu], that we were theeues and robbers of all +nations,--and [that] were we suffered to liue,--it should be against +the profit of his Highnes, and the land." But Iyeyasu was perhaps all +the more favourably inclined towards Adams by the eagerness of the +Jesuits to have him killed--"crossed [crucified]," as Adams called +it,--"the custome of iustice in Japan, as hanging is in our land." He +gave them answer, says Adams, "that we had as yet not doen to him nor +to none of his lande any harme or dammage: therefore against Reason +and Iustice to put vs to death." ... And there came to pass precisely +what the Jesuits had most feared,--what they had vainly endeavoured +by intimidation, by slander, by all possible intrigue to prevent,--an +interview between Iyeyasu and the heretic Adams. [315] "Soe that as +soon as I came before him," wrote Adams, "he demanded of me of what +countrey we were: so I answered him in all points; for there was +nothing that he demanded not, both concerning warre and peace between +countrey and countrey: so that the particulars here to wryte would be +too tedious. And for that time I was commanded to prison, being well +vsed, with one of our mariners that cam with me to serue me." From +another letter of Adams it would seem that this interview lasted far +into the night, and that Iyeyasu's questions referred especially to +politics and religion. "He asked," says Adams, "whether our countrey +had warres? I answered him yea, with the Spaniards and +Portugals--beeing in peace with all other nations. Further he asked +me in what I did beleeue? I said, in God, that made heauen and earth. +He asked me diverse other questions of things of religion, and many +other things: As, what way we came to the country? Having a chart of +the whole world, I shewed him through the Straight of Magellan. At +which he wondred, and thought me to lie. Thus, from one thing to +another, I abode with him till midnight." ... The two men liked each +other at sight, it appears. Of Iyeyasu, Adams significantly observes: +"He viewed me well, and seemed to be wonderful favourable." Two days +later Iyeyasu again sent for Adams, and cross-questioned him just +about those matters which the [316] Jesuits wanted to remain in the +dark. "He demaunded also as conserning the warres between the +Spaniard or Portingall and our countrey, and the reasons: the which I +gaue him to vnderstand of all things, which he was glad to heare, as +it seemed to me. In the end I was commaunded to prisson agein, but my +lodging was bettered." Adams did not see Iyeyasu again for nearly six +weeks: then he was sent for, and cross-questioned a third time. The +result was liberty and favour. Thereafter, at intervals, Iyeyasu used +to send for him; and presently we hear of him teaching the great +statesman "some points of jeometry, and understanding of the art of +mathematickes, with other things." ... Iyeyasu gave him many +presents, as well as a good living, and commissioned him to build +some ships for deep-sea sailing. Eventually, the poor pilot was +created a samurai, and given an estate. "Being employed in the +Emperour's seruice," he wrote, "he hath given me a liuing, like vnto +a lordship in England, with eightie or ninetie husbandmen that be as +my slaues or seruents: the which, or the like president [precedent], +was neuer here before geven to any stranger." ... Witness to the +influence of Adams with Iyeyasu is furnished by the correspondence of +Captain Cock, of the English factory, who thus wrote home about him +in 1614: "The truth is the Emperour esteemeth hym much, and he may +goe in and speake with hym at all times, when [317] kynges and +princes are kept ovt."** It was through this influence that the +English were allowed to establish their factory at Hirado. There is +no stranger seventeenth-century romance than that of this plain +English pilot,--with only his simple honesty and common-sense to help +him,--rising to such extraordinary favour with the greatest and +shrewdest of all Japanese rulers. Adams was never allowed, however, +to return to England,--perhaps because his services were deemed too +precious to lose. He says himself in his letters that Iyeyasu never +refused him anything that he asked for,*** except the privilege of +revisiting England: when he asked that, once too often, the "ould +Emperour" remained silent. + +[*"Daily more and more the Portugalls incensed the justices and the +people against vs. And two of our men, as traytors, gaue themselves +in seruice to the king [daimyo], beeing all in all with the +Portugals, hauing by them their liues warranted. The one was called +Gilbert de Conning, whose mother dwelleth at Middleborough, who gaue +himself out to be marchant of all the goods in the shippe. The other +was called Iobn Abelson Van Owater. These traitours sought all manner +of wayes to get the goods into their hands, and made known vnto them +all things that had passed in our voyage. Nine dayes after our +arriuall, the great king of the land [Iyeyasu] sent for me to come +vnto him. "--Letter of Will Adams to his wife.] + +**"It has plessed God to bring things to pass, so as in ye eyes of ye +world [must seem] strange; for the Spaynnard and Portingall hath bin +my bitter enemies to death; and now theay must seek to me, an +unworthy wretch; for the Spaynard as well as the Portingall must haue +all their negosshes [negotiations] go thorough my hand.--" Letter of +Adams dated January 12, 1613. + +***Even favours for the people who had sought to bring about his +death. "I pleased him so," wrote Adams, "that what I said he would +not contrarie. At which my former enemies did wonder; and at this +time must entreat me to do them a friendship, which to both Spaniards +and Portingals have I doen: recompencing them good for euill. So, to +passe my time to get my liuing, it hath cost mee great labour and +trouble at the first, but God hath blessed my labour."] + +The correspondence of Adams proves that Iyeyasu disdained no means of +obtaining direct information about foreign affairs in regard to +religion and politics. As for affairs in Japan, he had at his +disposal the most perfect system of espionage ever [318] established; +and he knew all that was going on. Yet he waited, as we have seen, +fourteen years before he issued his edict. Hideyoshi's edict was, +indeed, renewed by him in 1606; but that referred particularly to the +public preaching of Christianity; and while the missionaries +outwardly conformed to the law, he continued to suffer them within +his own dominions. Persecutions were being carried on elsewhere; but +the secret propaganda was also being carried on, and the missionaries +could still hope. Yet there was menace in the air, like the heaviness +preceding storms. Captain Saris, writing from Japan in 1613, records +a pathetic incident which is very suggestive. "I gaue leaue," he +says, "to divers women of the better sort to come into my Cabbin, +where the picture of Venus, with her sonne Cupid, did hang somewhat +wantonly set out in a large frame. They, thinking it to bee Our Ladie +and her sonne, fell downe and worshipped it, with shewes of great +deuotion, telling me in a whispering manner (that some of their own +companions, which were not so, might not heare), that they were +Christianos: whereby we perceived them to be Christians, conuerted by +the Portugall Iesuits." ... When Iyeyasu first took strong measures, +they were directed, not against the Jesuits, but against a more +imprudent order,--as we know from Adams's correspondence. "In the +yeer 1612," he says, "is put downe all the sects of the +Franciscannes. The Jesouets hau [319] what priuiledge ... theare +beinge in Nangasaki, in which place only may be so manny as will of +all sectes: in other places not so many permitted...." Roman +Catholicism was given two more years' grace after the Franciscan +episode. + +Why Iyeyasu should have termed it a "false and corrupt religion," +both in his Legacy and elsewhere, remains to be considered. From the +Far-Eastern point of view he could scarcely have judged it otherwise, +after an impartial investigation. It was essentially opposed to all +the beliefs and traditions upon which Japanese society had been +founded. The Japanese State was an aggregate of religious +communities, with a God-King at its head;--the customs of all these +communities had the force of religious laws, and ethics were +identified with obedience to custom; filial piety was the basis of +social order, and loyalty itself was derived from filial piety. But +this Western creed, which taught that a husband should leave his +parents and cleave to his wife, held filial piety to be at best an +inferior virtue. It proclaimed that duty to parents, lords, and +rulers remained duty only when obedience involved no action opposed +to Roman teaching, and that the supreme duty of obedience was not to +the Heavenly Sovereign at Kyoto, but to the Pope at Rome. Had not the +Gods and the Buddhas been called devils by these missionaries from +Portugal and Spain? Assuredly such doctrines were subversive, [320] +no matter how astutely they might be interpreted by their apologists. +Besides, the worth of a creed as a social force might be judged from +its fruits. This creed in Europe had been a ceaseless cause of +disorders, wars, persecutions, atrocious cruelties. This creed, in +Japan, had fomented great disturbances, had instigated political +intrigues, had wrought almost immeasurable mischief. In the event of +future political trouble, it would justify the disobedience of +children to parents, of wives to husbands, of subjects to lords, of +lords to shogun. The paramount duty of government was now to compel +social order, and to maintain those conditions of peace and security +without which the nation could never recover from the exhaustion of a +thousand years of strife. But so long as this foreign religion was +suffered to attack and to sap the foundations of order, there never +could be peace.... Convictions like these must have been well +established in the mind of Iyeyasu when he issued his famous edict. +The only wonder is that he should have waited so long. + +Very possibly Iyeyasu, who never did anything by halves, was waiting +until Christianity should find itself without one Japanese leader of +ability. In 1611 he had information of a Christian conspiracy in the +island of Sado (a convict mining-district) whose governor, Okubo, had +been induced to adopt Christianity, and was to be made ruler of the +country if [321] the plot proved successful. But still Iyeyasu +waited. By 1614 Christianity had scarcely even an Okubo to lead the +forlorn hope. The daimyo converted in the sixteenth century were dead +or dispossessed or in banishment; the great Christian generals had +been executed; the few remaining converts of importance had been +placed under surveillance, and were practically helpless. + +The foreign priests and native catechists were not cruelly treated +immediately after the proclamation of 1614. Some three hundred of +them were put into ships and sent out of the country,--together with +various Japanese suspected of religious political intrigues, such as +Takayama, former daimyo of Akashi, who was called "Justo Ucondono" by +the Jesuit writers, and who had been dispossessed and degraded by +Hideyoshi for the same reasons. Iyeyasu set no example of unnecessary +severity. But harsher measures followed upon an event which took +place in 1615,--the very year after the issuing of the edict. +Hideyori, the son of Hideyoshi, had been supplanted--fortunately for +Japan--by Iyeyasu, to whose tutelage the young man had been confided. +Iyeyasu took all care of him, but had no intention of suffering him +to direct the government of the country,--a task scarcely within the +capacity of a lad of twenty-three. In spite of various political +intrigues in which Hideyori was known to have taken part, Iyeyasu had +left him in possession [322] of large revenues, and of the strongest +fortress in Japan,--that mighty castle of Osaka, which Hideyoshi's +genius had rendered almost impregnable. Hideyori, unlike his father, +favoured the Jesuits: and he made the castle a refuge for adherents +of the "false and corrupt sect." Informed by government spies of a +dangerous intrigue there preparing, Iyeyasu resolved to strike; and +he struck hard. In spite of a desperate defence, the great fortress +was stormed and burnt--Hideyori perishing in the conflagration. One +hundred thousand lives are said to have been lost in this siege. +Adams wrote thus quaintly of Hideyori's fate, and the results of his +conspiracy:-- + +"Hee mad warres with the Emperour ... allso by the Jessvits and +Ffriers, which mad belleeue he should be fauord with mirrackles and +wounders; but in fyne it proued the contrari. For the ould Emperour +against him pressentlly maketh his forces reddy by sea and land, and +compasseth his castell that he was in; although with loss of +multitudes on both sides, yet in the end rasseth the castell walles, +setteth it on fyre, and burneth hym in it. Thus ended the warres. Now +the Emperour heering of thees Jessvets and friers being in the +castell with his ennemis, and still from tym to tym agaynst hym, +coumandeth all romische sorte of men to depart ovt of his +countri--thear churches pulld dooun, and burned. This folowed in the +ould Emperour's [323] daies. Now this yeear, 1616, the old Emperour +he died. His son raigneth in his place, and hee is more hot agaynste +the romish relligion then his ffather wass: for he hath forbidden +thorough all his domynions, on paine of deth, none of his subjects to +be romish christiane; which romish seckt to prevent eueri wayes that +he maye, he hath forbidden that no stranger merchant shall abid in +any of the great citties." ... + +The son here referred to was Hidetada, who, in 1617, issued an +ordinance sentencing to death every Roman priest or friar discovered +in Japan,--an ordinance provoked by the fact that many priests +expelled from the country had secretly returned, and that others had +remained to carry on their propaganda under various disguises. +Meanwhile, in every city, town, village, and hamlet throughout the +empire, measures had been taken for the extirpation of Roman +Christianity. Every community was made responsible for the existence +in it of any person belonging to the foreign creed; and special +magistrates, or inquisitors, were appointed, called Kirishitan-bugyo, +to seek out and punish members of the prohibited religion.* +Christians [324] who freely recanted were not punished, but only kept +under surveillance: those who refused to recant, even after torture, +were degraded to the condition of slaves, or else put to death. In +some parts of the country, extraordinary cruelty was practised, and +every form of torture used to compel recantation. But it is tolerably +certain that the more atrocious episodes of the persecution were due +to the individual ferocity of local governors or magistrates--as in +the case of Takenaka Uneme-no-Kami, who was compelled by the +government to perform harakiri for abusing his powers at Nagasaki, +and making persecution a means of extorting money. Be that as it may, +the persecution at last either provoked, or helped to bring about a +Christian rebellion in the daimiate of Arima,--historically +remembered as the Shimabara Revolt. In 1636 a host of peasants, +driven to desperation by the tyranny of their lords--the daimyo of +Arima and the daimyo of Karatsu (convert-districts)--rose in arms, +burnt all the Japanese temples in their vicinity, and proclaimed +religious war. Their banner bore a cross; their leaders were +converted samurai. They were soon [325] joined by Christian refugees +from every part of the country, until their numbers swelled to thirty +or forty thousand. On the coast of the Shimabara peninsula they +seized an abandoned castle, at a place called Hara, and there +fortified themselves. The local authorities could not cope with the +uprising; and the rebels more than held their own until government +forces, aggregating over 160,000 men, were despatched against them. +After a brave defence of one hundred and two days, the castle was +stormed in 1638, and its defenders, together with their women and +children, put to the sword. Officially the occurrence was treated as +a peasant revolt; and the persons considered responsible for it were +severely punished;--the lord of Shimabara (Arima) was further +sentenced to perform harakiri. Japanese historians state that the +rising was first planned and led by Christians, who designed to seize +Nagasaki, subdue Kyushu, invite foreign military help, and compel a +change of government;--the Jesuit writers would have us believe there +was no plot. One thing certain is that a revolutionary appeal was +made to the Christian element, and was largely responded to with +alarming consequences. A strong castle on the Kyushu coast, held by +thirty or forty thousand Christians, constituted a serious danger,--a +point of vantage from which a Spanish invasion of the country might +have been attempted with some [326] chance of success. The government +seems to have recognized this danger, and to have despatched in +consequence an overwhelming force to Shimabara. If foreign help could +have been sent to the rebels, the result might have been a prolonged +civil war. As for the wholesale slaughter, it represented no more +than the enforcement of Japanese law: the punishment of the peasant +revolting against his lord, under any circumstances whatever, being +death. So far as concerns the policy of such massacre, it may be +remembered that, with less provocation, Nobunaga exterminated the +Tendai Buddhists at Hiyei-san. We have every reason to pity the brave +men who perished at Shimabara, and to sympathize with their revolt +against the atrocious cruelty of their rulers. But it is necessary, +as a simple matter of justice, to consider the whole event from the +Japanese political point of view. + +[*It should be borne in mind that none of these edicts were directed +against Protestant Christianity: the Dutch were not considered +Christians in the sense of the ordinances, nor were the English. The +following extract from a typical village, Kumicho, or code of +communal regulations, shows the responsibility imposed upon all +communities regarding the presence in their midst of Roman Catholic +converts or believers:-- + +"Every year, between the first and the third month, we will renew our +Shumon-cho If we know of any person who belongs to a prohibited sect, +we will immediately inform the Daikwan.... Servants and labourers +shall give to their masters a certificate declaring that they are not +Christians. In regard to persons who have been Christians, but have +recanted,--if such persons come to or leave the village, we promise +to report it."--See Professor Wigmore's Notes on Land-Tenure and +Local Institutions in Old Japan.] + +The Dutch have been denounced for helping to crush the rebellion with +ships and cannon: they fired, by their own acknowledgment, 426 shot +into the castle. However, the extant correspondence of the Dutch +factory at Hirado proves beyond question that they were forced, under +menace, to thus act. In any event, it would be difficult to discover +a good reason for the merely religious denunciations of their +conduct,--although that conduct would be open to criticism from the +humane [327] point of view. Dutchmen could not reasonably have +refused to assist the Japanese authorities in suppressing a revolt, +merely because a large proportion of the rebels happened to profess +the religion which had been burning alive as heretics the men and +women of the Netherlands. Very possibly, not a few persons of kin to +those very Dutch had suffered in the days of Alva. What would have +happened to all the English and Dutch in Japan, if the Portuguese and +Spanish clergy could have got full control of government, ought to be +obvious. + +With the massacre of Shimabara ends the real history of the +Portuguese and Spanish missions. After that event, Christianity was +slowly, steadily, implacably stamped out of visible existence. It had +been tolerated, or half-tolerated, for only sixty-five years: the +entire history of its propagation and destruction occupies a period +of scarcely ninety years. People of nearly every rank, from prince to +pauper, suffered for it; thousands endured tortures for its +sake--tortures so frightful that even three of those Jesuits who sent +multitudes to useless martyrdom were forced to deny their faith under +the infliction;* and tender women, sentenced to, the stake, carried +[328] their little ones with them into the fire, rather than utter +the words that would have saved both mother and child. Yet this +religion, for which thousands vainly died, had brought to Japan +nothing but evil disorders, persecutions, revolts, political +troubles, and war. Even those virtues of the people which had been +evolved at unutterable cost for the protection and conservation of +society,--their self-denial, their faith, their loyalty, their +constancy and courage,--were by this black creed distorted, diverted, +and transformed into forces directed to the destruction of that +society. Could that destruction have been accomplished, and a new +Roman Catholic empire have been founded upon the ruins, the forces of +that empire would have been used for the further extension of +priestly tyranny, the spread of the Inquisition, the perpetual Jesuit +warfare against freedom of conscience and human progress. Well may we +pity the victims of this pitiless faith, and justly admire their +useless courage: yet who can regret that their cause was lost? ... +Viewed from another standpoint than that of religious bias, and +simply judged by its results, the Jesuit effort to Christianize Japan +must be regarded as a crime against humanity, a labour of +devastation, a calamity comparable only,--by reason of the misery and +destruction which it wrought,--to an earthquake, a tidal-wave, a +volcanic eruption. + +[*Francisco Cassola, Pedro Marquez, and Giuseppe Chiara. Two of +these--probably under compulsion--married Japanese women. For their +after-history, see a paper by Satow in the Transactions of the +Asiatic Society of Japan, Vol. VI, Part I.] + +[329] The policy of isolation,--of shutting off Japan from the rest +of the world,--as adopted by Hidetada and maintained by his +successors, sufficiently indicates the fear that religious intrigues +had inspired. Not only were all foreigners, excepting the Dutch +traders, expelled from the country; all half-breed children of +Portuguese or Spanish blood were also expatriated, Japanese families +being forbidden to adopt or conceal any of them, under penalties to +be visited upon all the members of the household disobeying. In 1636 +two hundred and eighty-seven half-breed children were shipped to +Macao. It is possible that the capacity of half-breed children to act +as interpreters was particularly dreaded; but there can be little +doubt that, at the time when this ordinance was issued, race-hatred +had been fully aroused by religious antagonism. After the Shimabara +episode all Western foreigners, without exception, were regarded with +unconcealed distrust.* [*The Chinese traders, however, were allowed +much more liberty than the Dutch.] The Portuguese and Spanish traders +were replaced by the Dutch (the English factory having been closed +some years previously); but even in the case of these, extraordinary +precautions were taken. They were compelled to abandon their good +quarters at Hirado, and transfer their factory to Deshima,--a tiny +island only six hundred feet long, by two hundred and forty feet +wide. There they were kept under constant guard, like prisoners; they +were not [330] permitted to go among the people; no man could visit +them without permission, and no woman, except a prostitute, was +allowed to enter their reservation under any circumstances. But they +had a monopoly of the trade of the country; and Dutch patience +endured these conditions, for the profit's sake, during more than two +hundred years. Other commerce with foreign countries than that +maintained by the Dutch factory, and by the Chinese, was entirely +suppressed. For any Japanese to leave Japan was a capital offence; +and any one who might succeed in leaving the country by stealth, was +to be put to death upon his return. The purpose of this law was to +prevent Japanese, sent abroad by the Jesuits for missionary training, +from returning to Japan in the disguise of laymen. It was forbidden +also to construct ships capable of long voyages; and all ships +exceeding a dimension fixed by the government were broken up, +Lookouts were established along the coast to watch for strange +vessels; and any European ships entering a Japanese port, excepting +the ships of the Dutch company, were to be attacked and destroyed. + +The great success at first achieved by the Portuguese missions +remains to be considered. In our present comparative ignorance of +Japanese social history, it is not easy to understand the whole of +the Christian episode. There are plenty of Jesuit-missionary [331] +records; but the Japanese contemporary chronicles yield us scanty +information about the missions--probably for the reason that an edict +was issued in the seventeenth century interdicting, not only all +books on the subject of Christianity, but any book containing the +words Christian or Foreign. What the Jesuit books do not explain, and +what we should rather have expected Japanese historians to explain, +had they been allowed, is how a society founded on ancestor-worship, +and apparently possessing immense capacity for resistance to outward +assault, could have been so quickly penetrated and partly dissolved +by Jesuit energy. The question of all questions that I should like to +see answered, by Japanese evidence, is this: To what extent did the +missionaries interfere with the ancestor-cult? It is an important +question. In China, the Jesuits were quick to perceive that the power +of resistance to proselytism lay in ancestor-worship; and they +shrewdly endeavoured to tolerate it, somewhat as Buddhism before them +had been obliged to do. Had the Papacy supported their policy, the +Jesuits might have changed the history of China; but other religious +orders fiercely opposed the compromise, and the chance was lost. How +far the ancestor-cult was tolerated by the Portuguese missionaries in +Japan is a matter of much sociological interest for investigation. +The supreme cult was, of course, left alone, for obvious reasons. It +is difficult to suppose that the [332] domestic cult was attacked +then as implacably as it is attacked now by Protestant and Roman +Catholic missionaries alike;--is difficult to suppose, for example, +that Converts were compelled to cast away or to destroy their +ancestral tablets. On the other hand, we are yet in doubt as to +whether many of the poorer converts--servants and other common +folk--possessed a domestic ancestor-cult. The outcast classes, among +whom many converts were made, need not be considered, of course, in +this relation. Before the matter can be fairly judged, much remains +to be learned about the religious condition of the heimin during the +sixteenth century. Anyhow, whatever methods were followed, the early +success of the missions was astonishing. Their work, owing to the +particular character of the social organization, necessarily began +from the top: the subject could change his creed only by permission +of his lord. From the outset this permission was freely granted. In +some cases the people were officially notified that they were at +liberty to adopt the new religion; in other cases, converted lords +ordered them to do so. It would seem that the foreign faith was at +first mistaken for a new kind of Buddhism; and in the extant official +grant of land at Yamaguchi to the Portuguese mission, in 1552, the +Japanese text plainly states that the grant (which appears to have +included a temple called Daidoji) was made to the strangers that they +might preach [333] the Law of Buddha "--Buppo shoryo no tame. The +original document is thus translated by Sir Ernest Satow, who +reproduced it in facsimile:-- + +"With respect to Daidoji in Yamaguchi Agata, Yoshiki department, +province of Suwo. This deed witnesses that I have given permission to +the priests who have come to this country from the Western regions, +in accordance with their request and desire, that they may found and +erect a monastery and house in order to develope the Law of Buddha. + +"The 28th day of the 8th month of the 21st year of Tembun. + + "SUWO NO SUKE. + +[August Seal]"* + +[*In the Latin and Portuguese translations, or rather pretended +translations of this document, there is nothing about preaching the +Law of Buddha; and there are many things added which do not exist in +the Japanese text at all. See Transactions of the Asiatic Society of +Japan (Vol. VIII, Part II) for Satow's comment on this document and +the false translation made of it.] + +If this error [or deception?] could have occurred at Yamaguchi, it is +reasonable to suppose that it also occurred in other places. +Exteriorly the Roman rites resembled those of popular Buddhism: the +people would have observed but little that was unfamiliar to them in +the forms of the service, the vestments, the beads, the prostrations, +the images, the bells, and the incense. The virgins and the saints +would have been found to resemble the aureoled Boddhisattvas and +Buddhas; the angels and the demons would have been at once identified +with the Tennin [334] and the Oni. All that pleased popular +imagination in the Buddhist ceremonial could be witnessed, under +slightly different form, in those temples which had been handed over +to the Jesuits, and consecrated by them as churches or chapels. The +fathomless abyss really separating the two faiths could not have been +perceived by the common mind; but the outward resemblances were +immediately observable. There were furthermore some attractive +novelties. It appears, for example, that the Jesuits used to have +miracle-plays performed in their churches for the purpose of +attracting popular attention.... But outward attractions of whatever +sort, or outward resemblances to Buddhism, could only assist the +spread of the new religion; they could not explain the rapid progress +of the propaganda. + +Coercion might partly explain it,--coercion exercised by converted +daimyo upon their subjects. Populations of provinces are known to +have followed, under strong compulsion, the religion of their +converted lords; and hundreds--perhaps thousands--of persons must +have done the same thing through mere habit of loyalty. In these +cases it is worth while to consider what sort of persuasion was used +upon the daimyo. We know that one great help to the missionary work +was found in Portuguese commerce,--especially the trade in firearms +and ammunition. In the disturbed state of the country [335] preceding +the advent to power of Hideyoshi, this trade was a powerful bribe in +religious negotiation with provincial lords. The daimyo able to use +firearms would necessarily possess some advantage over a rival lord +having no such weapons; and those lords able to monopolize the trade +could increase their power at the expense of their neighbours. Now +this trade was actually offered for the privilege of preaching; and +sometimes much more than that privilege was demanded and obtained. In +1572 the Portuguese presumed to ask for the whole town of Nagasaki, +as a gift to their church,--with power of jurisdiction over the same; +threatening, in case of refusal, to establish themselves elsewhere. +The daimyo, Omura, at first demurred, but eventually yielded; and +Nagasaki then became Christian territory, directly governed by the +Church. Very soon the fathers began to prove the character of their +creed by furious attacks upon the local religion. They set fire to +the great Buddhist temple, Jinguji, and attributed the fire to the +"wrath of God,"--after which act, by the zeal of their converts, some +eighty other temples, in or about Nagasaki, were burnt. Within +Nagasaki territory Buddhism was totally suppressed,--its priests +being persecuted and driven away. In the province of Bungo the Jesuit +persecution of Buddhism was far more violent, and conducted upon an +extensive scale. Otomo Sorin Munechika, the reigning daimyo, not +[336] only destroyed all the Buddhist temples in his dominion (to the +number, it is said, of three thousand), but had many of the Buddhist +priests put to death. For the destruction of the great temple of +Hikozan, whose priests were reported to have prayed for the tyrant's +death, he is said to have maliciously chosen the sixth day of the +fifth month (1576),--the festival of the Birthday of the Buddha! + +Coercion, exercised by their lords upon a docile people trained to +implicit obedience, would explain something of the initial success of +the missions; but it would leave many other matters unexplained: the +later success of the secret propaganda, the fervour and courage of +the converts under persecution, the long-continued indifference of +the chiefs of the ancestor-cult to the progress of the hostile +faith.... When Christianity first began to spread through the Roman +empire, the ancestral religion had fallen into decay, the structure +of society had lost its original form, and there was no religious +conservatism really capable of successful resistance. But in the +Japan of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the religion of the +ancestors was very much alive; and society was only entering upon the +second period of its yet imperfect integration. The Jesuit +conversions were not made among a people already losing their ancient +faith, but in one of the most intensely religious and conservative +societies that ever existed. Christianity of any sort could not [337] +have been introduced into such a society without effecting structural +disintegrations,--disintegrations, at least, of a local character. +How far these disintegrations extended and penetrated we do not know; +and we have yet no adequate explanation of the long inertia of the +native religious instinct in the face of danger. + +But there are certain historical facts which appear to throw at least +a side-light upon the subject. The early Jesuit policy in China, as +established by Ricci, had been to leave converts free to practise the +ancestral rites. So long as this policy was followed, the missions +prospered. When, in consequence of this compromise, dissensions +arose, the matter was referred to Rome. Pope Innocent X decided for +intolerance by a bull issued in 1645; and the Jesuit missions were +thereby practically ruined in China. Pope Innocent's decision was +indeed reversed the very next year by a bull of Pope Alexander VIII; +but again and again contests were raised by the religious bodies over +this question of ancestor-worship, until in 1693 Pope Clement XI +definitively prohibited converts from practising the ancestral rites +under any form whatsoever.... All the efforts of all the missions in +the Far East have ever since then failed to advance the cause of +Christianity. The sociological reason is plain. + +We have seen, then, that up to the year 1645 the ancestor-cult had +been tolerated by the Jesuits [338] in China, with promising results; +and it is probable that an identical policy of tolerance was +maintained in Japan during the second half of the sixteenth century. +The Japanese missions began in 1549, and their history ends with the +Shimabara slaughter in 1638,--about seven years before the first +Papal decision against the tolerance of ancestor-worship. The Jesuit +mission-work seems to have prospered steadily, in spite of all +opposition, until it was interfered with by less cautious and more +uncompromising zealots. By a bull issued in 1585 by Gregory XIII, and +confirmed in 1600 by Clement III, the Jesuits alone were authorized +to do missionary-work in Japan; and it was not until after their +privileges had been ignored by Franciscan zeal that trouble with the +government began. We have seen that in 1593 Hideyoshi had six +Franciscans executed. Then the issue of a new Papal bull in 1608, by +Paul V, allowing Roman Catholic missionaries of all orders to work in +Japan, probably ruined the Jesuit interests. It will be remembered +that Iyeyasu suppressed the Franciscans in 1612,--a proof that their +experience with Hideyoshi had profited them little. On the whole, it +appears more than likely that both Dominicans and Franciscans +recklessly meddled with matters which the Jesuits (whom they accused +of timidity) had been wise enough to leave alone, and that this +interference hastened the inevitable ruin of the missions. + +[339] We may reasonably doubt whether there were a million Christians +in Japan at the beginning of the seventeenth century: the more +probable claim of six hundred thousand can be accepted. In this era +of toleration the efforts of all the foreign missionary bodies +combined, and the yearly expenditure of immense sums in support of +their work, have enabled them to achieve barely one-fifth f the +success attributed to their Portuguese predecessors, upon a not +incredible estimate. The sixteenth-century Jesuits were indeed able +to exercise, through various lords, the most forcible sort of +coercion upon whole populations of provinces; but the modern missions +certainly enjoy advantages educational, financial, and legislative, +much outweighing the doubtful value of the power to coerce; and the +smallness of the results which they have achieved seems to require +explanation. The explanation is not difficult. Needless attacks upon +the ancestor-cult are necessarily attacks upon the constitution of +society; and Japanese society instinctively resists these assaults +upon its ethical basis. For it is an error to suppose that this +Japanese society has yet arrived even at such a condition as Roman +society presented in the second or third century of our era. Rather +it remains at a stage resembling that of a Greek or Latin society +many centuries before Christ. The introduction of railroads, +telegraphs, modern arms of precision, modern applied science of all +kinds, has not yet [340] sufficed to change the fundamental order of +things, Superficial disintegrations are rapidly proceeding; new +structures are forming; but the social condition still remains much +like that which, in southern Europe, long preceded the introduction +of Christianity. + +Though every form of religion holds something of undying truth, the +evolutionist must classify religions. He must regard a monotheistic +faith as representing, in the progress of human thought, a very +considerable advance upon any polytheistic creed; monotheism +signifying the fusion and expansion of countless ghostly beliefs into +one vast concept of unseen omnipotent power. And, from the standpoint +of psychological evolution, he must of course consider pantheism as +an advance upon monotheism, and must further regard agnosticism as an +advance upon both. But the value of a creed is necessarily relative, +and the question of its worth is to be decided, not by its +adaptability to the intellectual developments of a single cultured +class, but by its larger emotional relation to the whole society of +which it embodies the moral experience. Its value to any other +society must depend upon its power of self-adaptation to the ethical +experience of that society. We may grant that Roman Catholicism was, +by sole virtue of its monotheistic conception, a stage in advance of +the primitive ancestor-worship. But it was adapted only to a form of +society at [341] which neither Chinese nor Japanese civilization had +arrived,--a form of society in which the ancient family had been +dissolved, and the religion of filial piety forgotten. Unlike that +subtler and incomparably more humane creed of India, which had +learned the secret of missionary-success a thousand years before +Loyola, the religion of the Jesuits could never have adapted itself +to the social conditions of Japan; and by the fact of this incapacity +the fate of the missions was really decided in advance. The +intolerance, the intrigues, the savage persecutions carried on,--all +the treacheries and cruelties of the Jesuits,--may simply be +considered as the manifestations of such incapacity; while the +repressive measures taken by Iyeyasu and his successors signify +sociologically no more than the national perception of supreme +danger. It was recognized that the triumph of the foreign religion +would involve the total disintegration of society, and the subjection +of the empire to foreign domination. + +Neither the artist nor the sociologist, at least, can regret the +failure of the missions. Their extirpation, which enabled Japanese +society to evolve to its type-limit, preserved for modern eyes the +marvellous world of Japanese art, and the yet more marvellous world +of its traditions, beliefs, and customs. Roman Catholicism, +triumphant, would have swept all this out of existence. The natural +antagonism [342] of the artist to the missionary may be found in the +fact that the latter is always, and must be, an unsparing destroyer. +Everywhere the developments of art are associated in some sort with +religion; and by so much as the art of a people reflects their +beliefs, that art will be hateful to the enemies of those beliefs. +Japanese art, of Buddhist origin, is especially an art of religious +suggestion,--not merely as regards painting and sculpture, but +likewise as regards decoration, and almost every product of aesthetic +taste. There is something of religious feeling associated even with +the Japanese delight in trees and flowers, the charm of gardens, the +love of nature and of nature's voices,--with all the poetry of +existence, in short. Most assuredly the Jesuits and their allies +would have ended all this, every detail of it, without the slightest +qualm. Even could they have understood and felt the meaning of that +world of strange beauty,--result of a race-experience never to be +repeated or replaced,--they would not have hesitated a moment in the +work of obliteration and effacement. To-day, indeed, that wonderful +art-world is being surely and irretrievably destroyed by Western +industrialism. But industrial influence, though pitiless, is not +fanatic; and the destruction is not being carried on with such +ferocious rapidity but that the fading story of beauty can be +recorded for the future benefit of human civilization. + + + +[343] + +FEUDAL INTEGRATION + +It was under the later Tokugawa Shogun--during the period immediately +preceding the modern regime--that Japanese civilization reached the +limit of its development. No further evolution was possible, except +through social reconstruction. The conditions of this integration +chiefly represented the reinforcement and definition of conditions +preexisting,--scarcely anything in the way of fundamental change. +More than ever before the old compulsory systems of cooperation were +strengthened; more than ever before all details of ceremonial +convention were insisted upon with merciless exactitude. In preceding +ages there had been more harshness; but at no previous period had +there been less liberty. Nevertheless, the results of this increased +restriction were not without ethical value: the time was yet far off +at which personal liberty could prove a personal advantage; and the +paternal coercion of the Tokugawa rule helped to develop and to +accentuate much of what is most attractive in the national character. +Centuries of warfare had previously allowed small opportunity for the +cultivation of the more delicate qualities of that character: the +refinements, the [344] ingenuous kindliness, the joy in life that +afterward lent so rare a charm to Japanese existence. But during two +hundred years of peace, prosperity, and national isolation, the +graceful and winning side of this human nature found chance to bloom; +and the multiform restraints of law and custom then quickened and +curiously shaped the blossoming,--as the gardener's untiring art +evolves the flowers of the chrysanthemum into a hundred forms of +fantastic beauty.... Though the general social tendency under +pressure was toward rigidity, constraint left room, in special +directions, for moral and aesthetic cultivation. + +In order to understand the social condition, it will be necessary to +consider the nature of the paternal rule in its legal aspects. To +modern imagination the old Japanese laws may well seem intolerable; +but their administration was really less uncompromising than that of +our Western laws. Besides, although weighing heavily upon all +classes, from the highest to the lowest, the legal burden was +proportioned to the respective strength of the bearers; the +application of law being made less and less rigid as the social scale +descended. In theory at least, from the earliest times, the poor and +unfortunate had been considered as entitled to pity; and the duty of +showing them all possible mercy was insisted upon in the oldest +extant moral code of Japan,--the Laws of Shotoku Taishi. [345] But +the most striking example of such discrimination appears in the +Legacy of Iyeyasu, which represents the conception of justice in a +time when society had become much more developed, its institutions +more firmly fixed, and all its bonds tightened. This stern and wise +ruler, who declared that "the people are the foundation of the +Empire," commanded leniency in dealing with the humble. He ordained +that any lord, no matter what his rank, convicted of breaking laws +"to the injury of the people," should be punished by the confiscation +of his estates. Perhaps the humane spirit of the legislator is most +strongly shown in his enactments regarding crime, as, for example, +where he deals with the question of adultery--necessarily a crime of +the first magnitude in any society based on ancestor-worship. By the +50th article of the Legacy, the injured husband is confirmed in his +ancient right to kill,--but with this important provision, that +should he kill but one of the guilty parties, he must himself be held +as guilty as either of them. Should the offenders be brought up for +trial, Iyeyasu advises that, in the case of common people, particular +deliberation be given to the matter: he remarks upon the weakness of +human nature, and suggests that, among the young and simple-minded, +some momentary impulse of passion may lead to folly even when the +parties are not naturally depraved. But in the next article, [346] +No. 51, he orders that no mercy whatever be shown to men and women of +the upper classes when convicted of the same crime. "These," he +declares, "are expected to know better than to occasion disturbance +by violating existing regulations; and such persons, breaking the +laws by lewd trifling or illicit intercourse, shall at once be +punished without deliberation or consultation.* [*That is to say, +immediately put to death.] It is not the same in this case as in the +case of farmers, artizans, and traders." ... Throughout the entire +code, this tendency to tighten the bonds of law in the case of the +military classes, and to loosen them mercifully for the lower +classes, is equally visible. Iyeyasu strongly disapproved of +unnecessary punishments; and held that the frequency of punishments +was proof, not of the ill-conduct of subjects, but of the ill-conduct +of officials. The 91st article of his code puts the matter thus +plainly, even as regarded the Shogunate: "When punishments and +executions abound in the Empire, it is a proof that the military +ruler is without virtue and degenerate." He devised particular +enactments to protect the peasantry and the poor from the cruelty or +the rapacity of powerful lords. The great daimyo were strictly +forbidden, when making their obligatory journeys to Yedo, "to disturb +or harass the people at the post-houses," or suffer themselves "to be +puffed up with military pride." [347] The private, not less than the +public conduct of these great lords, was under Government +surveillance; and they were actually liable to punishment for +immorality! Concerning debauchery among them, the legislator remarked +that "even though this can hardly be pronounced insubordination," it +should be judged and punished according to the degree in which it +constitutes a bad example for the lower classes (Art. 88).* As to +veritable insubordination there was no pardon: the severity of the +law on this subject allowed of no exception or mitigation. The 53rd +section of the Legacy proves this to have been regarded as the +supreme crime: "The guilt of a vassal murdering his suzerain is in +principle the same as that of an arch-traitor to the Emperor. His +immediate companions, his relations,--all even to his most distant +connexions,--shall be cut off, hewn to atoms, root and fibre. The +guilt of a vassal only lifting his hand against his master, even +though he does not assassinate him, is the same." In strong contrast +to this grim ordinance is the spirit of all the regulations touching +the administration of law among the lower classes. Forgery, +incendiarism, and poisoning were indeed crimes justifying the penalty +of burning or crucifixion; but judges were instructed to act with as +much leniency as circumstances permitted in the case of ordinary +offences. "With regard to minute details affecting individuals of the +inferior classes," says the 73d article of the code, "learn the wide +benevolence of Koso of the Han [Chinese] dynasty." It was further +ordered that magistrates of the criminal and civil courts should be +chosen only from "a class of men who are upright and pure, +distinguished for charity and benevolence." All magistrates were kept +under close supervision, and their conduct regularly reported by +government spies. + +[*Though even daimyo were liable to suffer for debauchery, Iyeyasu +did not believe in the expediency of attempting to suppress all vice +by law. There is a strangely modern ring in his remarks upon this +subject, in the 73d section of the Legacy: "Virtuous men have said, +both in poetry and in classic works, that houses of debauch, for +women of pleasure and for street-walkers, are the worm-eaten spots of +cities and towns. But these are necessary evils, and if they be +forcibly abolished, men of unrighteous principles will become like +ravelled thread, and there will be no end to daily punishments and +floggings." In many castle-towns, however, such houses were never +allowed--probably in view of the large military force, assembled in +such towns, which had to be maintained under iron discipline.] + +[348] Another humane aspect of Tokugawa legislation is furnished by +its dictates in regard to the relations of the sexes. Although +concubinage was tolerated in the Samurai class, for reasons relating +to the continuance of the family-cult, Iyeyasu denounces the +indulgence of the privilege for merely selfish reasons: "Silly and +ignorant men neglect their true wives for the sake of a loved +mistress, and thus disturb the most important relation.... Men so far +sunk as this may always be known as Samurai without fidelity or +sincerity." Celibacy, condemned by public [349] opinion,--except in +the case of Buddhist priests,--was equally condemned by the code. +"One should not live alone after sixteen years of age," declares the +legislator; "all mankind recognize marriage as the first law of +nature." The childless man was obliged to adopt a son; and the 47th +article of the Legacy ordained that the family estate of a person +dying without male issue, and without having adopted a son, should be +"forfeited without any regard to his relatives or connexions." This +law, of course, was made in support of the ancestor-cult, the +continuance of which it was deemed the paramount duty of each man to +provide for; but the government regulations concerning adoption +enabled everybody to fulfil the legal requirement, without +difficulty. + +Considering that this code which inculcated humanity, repressed moral +laxity, prohibited celibacy, and rigorously maintained the +family-cult, was drawn up in the time of the extirpation of the +Jesuit missions, the position assumed in regard to religious freedom +appears to us one of singular liberality. "High and low alike," +proclaims the 31st article, "may follow their own inclinations with +respect to religious tenets which have obtained down to the present +time, except as regards the false and corrupt school [Roman +Catholicism]. Religious disputes have ever proved the bane and +misfortune of this Empire, and must be firmly, suppressed." ... But +the seeming liberality of this article must not be misinterpreted: +[350] the legislator who made so rigid an enactment in regard to the +religion of the family was not the man to proclaim that any Japanese +was free to abandon the faith of his race for an alien creed. One +must carefully read the entire Legacy in order to understand +Iyeyasu's real position,--which was simply this: that any man was +free to adopt any religion tolerated by the State, in addition to his +ancestor-cult. Iyeyasu was himself a member of the Jodo sect of +Buddhism, and a friend of Buddhism in general. But he was first of +all a Shintoist; and the third article of his code commands devotion +to the Kami as the first of duties:--"Keep your heart pure; and so +long as your body shall exist, be diligent in paying honour and +veneration to the Gods." That he placed the ancient cult above +Buddhism should be evident from the text of the 52d article of the +Legacy, in which he declares that no one should suffer himself to +neglect the national faith because of a belief in any other form of +religion. This text is of particular interest: + +"My body, and the bodies of others, being born in the Empire of the +Gods, to accept unreservedly the teachings of other countries,--such +as Confucian, Buddhist, or Taoist doctrines,--and to apply one's +whole and undivided attention to them, would be, in short, to desert +one's own master, and transfer one's loyalty to another. Is not this +to forget the origin of one's being?" + +[351] Of course the Shogun, professing to derive his authority from +the descendant of the elder gods, could not with consistency have +proclaimed the right of freedom to doubt those gods: his official +religious duty permitted of no compromise. But the interest attaching +to his opinions, as expressed in the Legacy, rests upon the fact that +the Legacy was not a public, but a strictly private document, +intended for the perusal and guidance of his successors only. +Altogether his religious position was much like that of the liberal +Japanese statesman of to-day,--respect for whatever is good in +Buddhism, qualified by the patriotic conviction that the first +religious duty is to the cult of the ancestors, the ancient creed of +the race.... Iyeyasu had preferences regarding Buddhism; but even in +this he showed no narrowness. Though he wrote in his Legacy, "Let my +posterity ever be of the honoured sect of Jodo," he greatly +reverenced the high-priest of the Tendai temple, Yeizan, who had been +one of his instructors, and obtained for him the highest court-office +possible for a Buddhist priest to obtain, as well as the headship of +the Tendai sect. Moreover the Shogun visited Yeizan to make there +official prayer for the prosperity of the country. + +There is every reason to believe that within the territories of the +Shogunate proper, comprising the greater part of the Empire, the +administration of [352] ordinary criminal law was humane, and that +the infliction of punishment was made, in the case of the common +people, to depend largely upon circumstances. Needless severity was a +crime before the higher military law, which, in such cases, made no +distinctions of rank. Although the ring-leaders of a peasant-revolt, +for example, would be sentenced to death, the lord through whose +oppression the uprising was provoked, would be deprived of a part or +the whole of his estates, or degraded in rank, or perhaps even +sentenced to perform harakiri. Professor Wigmore, whose studies of +Japanese law first shed light upon the subject, has given us an +excellent review of the spirit of the ancient legal methods. He +points out that the administration of law was never made impersonal +in the modern sense; that unbending law did not, for the people at +least, exist in relation to minor offences. The Anglo-Saxon idea of +inflexible law is the idea of a justice impartial and pitiless as +fire: whoever breaks the law must suffer the consequence, just as +surely as the person who puts his hand into fire must experience +pain. But in the administration of the old Japanese law, everything +was taken into consideration: the condition of the offender, his +intelligence, his degree of education, his previous conduct, his +motives, suffering endured, provocation received, and so forth; and +final judgment was decided by moral common sense rather than by legal +enactment [353] or precedent. Friends and relatives were allowed to +make plea for the offender, and to help him in whatever honest way +they could. If a man were falsely accused, and proved innocent upon +trial, he would not only be consoled by kind words, but, would +probably receive substantial compensation; and it appears that judges +were accustomed, at the end of important trials, to reward good +conduct as well as to punish crime.* ... On the other hand, +litigation was officially discouraged. Everything possible was done +to prevent any cases from being taken into court, which could be +settled or compromised by communal arbitration; and the people were +taught to consider the court only as the last possible resort. + +[*The following extracts from a sentence said to have been passed by +the famous judge, Ooka Tadasuke, at the close of a celebrated +criminal trial, are illustrative: "Musashiya Chobei and Goto +Hanshiro, these actions of yours are worthy of the highest praise: as +a remuneration I award ten silver ryo to each of you.... Tami, you, +for maintaining your brother, are to be commended: for this you are +to receive the amount of five kwammon. Ko, daughter of Chohachi, you +are obedient to your parents: in consideration of this, the sum of +five silver ryo is awarded to you."--(See Dening's Japan in Days of +Yore.) The good old custom of rewarding notable cases of filial +piety, courage, generosity, etc., though not now practised in the +courts, is still maintained by the local governments. The rewards are +small; but the public honour which they confer upon the recipient is +very great.] + +The general character of the Tokugawa rule can be to some degree +inferred from the foregoing facts. It was in no sense a reign of +terror that compelled peace and encouraged industry for two hundred +and [354] fifty years. Though the national civilization was +restrained, pruned, clipped in a thousand ways, it was at the same +time cultivated, refined, and strengthened. The long peace +established throughout the Empire what had never before existed,--a +universal feeling of security. The individual was bound more than +ever by law and custom; but he was also protected: he could move +without anxiety to the length of his chains. Though coerced by his +fellows, they helped him to bear the coercion cheerfully: everybody +aided everybody else to fulfil the obligations and to support the +burdens of communal life. Conditions tended, therefore, toward the +general happiness as well as toward the general prosperity. There was +not, in those years, any struggle for existence,--not at least in our +modern meaning of the phrase. The requirements of life were easily +satisfied; every man had a master to provide for him or to protect +him; competition was repressed or discouraged; there was no need for +supreme effort of any sort,--no need for the straining of any +faculty. Moreover, there was little or nothing to strive after: for +the vast majority of the people, there were no prizes to win. Ranks +and incomes were fixed; occupations were hereditary; and the desire +to accumulate wealth must have been checked or numbed by those +regulations which limited the rich man's right to use his money as he +might please. Even a great lord--even the Shogun himself [355] +--could not do what he pleased. As for any common person,--farmer, +craftsman, or shopkeeper,--he could not build a house as he liked, or +furnish it as he liked, or procure for himself such articles of +luxury as his taste might incline him to buy. The richest heimin, who +attempted to indulge himself in any of these ways, would at once have +been forcibly reminded that he must not attempt to imitate the +habits, or to assume the privileges, of his betters. He could not +even order certain kinds of things to be made for him. The artizans +or artists who created objects of luxury, to gratify aesthetic taste, +were little disposed to accept commissions from people of low rank: +they worked for princes, or great lords, and could scarcely afford to +take the risk of displeasing their patrons. Every man's pleasures +were more or less regulated by his place in society, and to pass from +a lower into a higher rank was no easy matter. Extraordinary men were +sometimes able to do this, by attracting the favour of the great. But +many perils attended upon such distinction; and the wisest policy for +the heimin was to remain satisfied with his position, and try to find +as much happiness in life as the law allowed. + +Personal ambition being thus restrained, and the cost of existence +reduced to a minimum much below our Western ideas of the necessary, +there were really established conditions highly favourable to certain +forms of culture, in despite of sumptuary [356] regulations. The +national mind was obliged to seek solace for the monotony of +existence, either in amusement or study. Tokugawa policy had left +imagination partly free in the directions of literature and art--the +cheaper art; and within those two directions repressed personality +found means to utter itself, and fancy became creative. There was a +certain amount of danger attendant upon even such intellectual +indulgences; and much was dared. Aesthetic taste, however, mostly +followed the line of least resistance. Observation concentrated +itself upon the interest of everyday life,--upon incidents which +might be watched from a window, or studied in a garden,--upon +familiar aspects of nature in various seasons,--upon trees, flowers, +birds, fishes, or reptiles,--upon insects and the ways of them, +--upon all kinds of small details, delicate trifles, amusing +curiosities. Then it was that the race-genius produced most of that +queer bric-a-brac which still forms the delight of Western +collectors. The painter, the ivory-carver, the decorator, were left +almost untroubled in their production of fairy-pictures, exquisite +grotesqueries, miracles of liliputian art in metal and enamel and +lacquer-of-gold. In all such small matters they could feel free; and +the results of that freedom are now treasured in the museums of +Europe and America. It is true that most of the arts (nearly all of +Chinese origin) were considerably developed before the Tokugawa era; +but it was then that they [357] began to assume those inexpensive +forms which placed aesthetic gratification within reach of the common +people. Sumptuary legislation or rule might yet apply to the use and +possession of costly production, but not to the enjoyment of form; +and the beautiful, whether shaped in paper or in ivory, in clay or +gold, is always a power for culture. It has been said that in a Greek +city of the fourth century before Christ, every household utensil, +even the most trifling object, was in respect of design an object of +art; and the same fact is true, though in another and a stranger way, +of all things in a Japanese home: even such articles of common use as +a bronze candlestick, a brass lamp, an iron kettle, a paper lantern, +a bamboo curtain, a wooden pillow, a wooden tray, will reveal to +educated eyes a sense of beauty and fitness entirely unknown to +Western cheap production. And it was especially during the Tokugawa +period that this sense of beauty began to inform everything in common +life. Then also was developed the art of illustration; then came into +existence those wonderful colour-prints (the most beautiful made in +any age or country) which are now so eagerly collected by wealthy +dilettanti. Literature also ceased, like art, to be the enjoyment of +the upper classes only: it developed a multitude of popular forms. +This was the age of popular fiction, of cheap books, of popular +drama, of storytelling for young and old.... We may certainly [358] +call the Tokugawa period the happiest in the long life of the nation. +The mere increase of population and of wealth would prove the fact, +irrespective of the general interest awakened in matters literary and +aesthetic. It was an age of popular enjoyment, also of general +culture and social refinement. + +Customs spread downward from the top of society. During the Tokugawa +period, various diversions or accomplishments, formerly fashionable +in upper circles only, became common property. Three of these were of +a sort indicating a high degree of refinement: poetical contests, +tea-ceremonies, and the complex art of flower-arrangement. All were +introduced into Japanese society long before the Tokugawa +regime;--the fashion of poetical competitions must be as old as +Japanese authentic history. But it was under the Tokugawa Shogunate +that such amusements and accomplishments became national. Then the +tea-ceremonies were made a feature of female education throughout the +country. Their elaborate character could be explained only by the +help of many pictures; and it requires years of training and practice +to graduate in the art of them. Yet the whole of this art, as to +detail, signifies no more than the making and serving of a cup of +tea. However, it is a real art--a most exquisite art. The actual +making of the infusion is a matter of no consequence in itself: the +supremely important matter is that the act be performed in the most +perfect, [359] most polite, most graceful, most charming manner +possible. Everything done--from the kindling of the charcoal fire to +the presentation of the tea--must be done according to rules of +supreme etiquette: rules requiring natural grace as well as great +patience to fully master. Therefore a training in the tea-ceremonies +is still held to be a training in politeness, in self-control, in +delicacy,--a discipline in deportment.... Quite as elaborate is the +art of arranging flowers. There are many different schools; but the +object of each system is simply to display sprays of leaves and +flowers in the most beautiful manner possible, and according to the +irregular graces of Nature herself. This art also requires years to +learn; and the teaching of it has a moral as well as an aesthetic +value. + +It was in this period also that etiquette was cultivated to its +uttermost,--that politeness became diffused throughout all ranks, not +merely as a fashion, but as an art. In all civilized societies of the +militant type politeness becomes a national characteristic at an +early period; and it must have been a common obligation among the +Japanese, as their archaic tongue bears witness, before the +historical epoch. Public enactments on the subject were made as early +as the seventh century by the founder of Japanese Buddhism, the +prince-regent, Shotoku Taishi. "Ministers and functionaries," he +proclaimed, [360] "should make decorous behaviour* their leading +principle; for their leading principle of the government of the +people consists in decorous behaviour. If the superiors do not behave +with decorum, the inferiors are disorderly: if inferiors are wanting +in proper behaviour, there must necessarily be offences. Therefore it +is that when lord and vassal behave with propriety, the distinctions +of rank are not confused when the people behave with propriety, the +government of the Commonwealth proceeds of itself." Something of the +same old Chinese teaching we find reechoed, a thousand years later, +in the Legacy of Iyeyasu: "The art of governing a country consists in +the manifestation of due deference on the part of a suzerain to his +vassals. Know that if you turn your back upon this, you will be +assassinated; and the Empire will be lost." We have already seen that +etiquette was rigidly enforced upon all classes by the military rule: +for at least ten centuries before Iyeyasu, the nation had been +disciplined in politeness, under the edge of the sword. But under the +Tokugawa Shogunate politeness became particularly a popular +characteristic,--a rule of conduct maintained by even the lowest +classes in their daily relations. Among the higher classes it became +the art of beauty in life. All the taste, the grace, the [361] nicety +which then informed artistic production in precious material, equally +informed every detail of speech and action. Courtesy was a moral and +aesthetic study, carried to such incomparable perfection that every +trace of the artificial disappeared. Grace and charm seemed to have +become habit,--inherent qualities of the human fibre,--and +doubtless, in the case of one sex at least, did so become. + +[*Or, "ceremony": the Chinese term used signifying everything +relating to gentlemanly and upright conduct. The translation is Mr. +Aston's (see Vol. II, p, 130, of his translation of the Nihongi).] + +For it has well been said that the most wonderful aesthetic products +of Japan are not its ivories, nor its bronzes, nor its porcelains, +nor its swords, nor any of its marvels in metal or lacquer--but its +women. Accepting as partly true the statement that woman everywhere +is what man has made her, we might say that this statement is more +true of the Japanese woman than of any other. Of course it required +thousands and thousands of years to make her; but the period of which +I am speaking beheld the work completed and perfected. Before this +ethical creation, criticism should hold its breath; for there is here +no single fault save the fault of a moral charm unsuited to any world +of selfishness and struggle. It is the moral artist that now commands +our praise,--the realizer of an ideal beyond Occidental reach. How +frequently has it been asserted that, as a moral being, the Japanese +woman does not seem to belong to the same race as the Japanese man! +Considering that heredity is limited by sex, there is reason in the +assertion: the Japanese woman is an ethically different [362] being +from the Japanese man. Perhaps no such type of woman will appear +again in this world for a hundred thousand years: the conditions of +industrial civilization will not admit of her existence. The type +could not have been created in any society shaped on modern lines, +nor in any society where the competitive struggle takes those unmoral +forms with which we have become too familiar. Only a society under +extraordinary regulation and regimentation,--a society in which all +self-assertion was repressed, and self-sacrifice made a universal +obligation,--a society in which personality was clipped like a hedge, +permitted to bud and bloom from within, never from without,--in +short, only a society founded upon ancestor-worship, could have +produced it. It has no more in common with the humanity of this +twentieth century of ours--perhaps very much less--than has the life +depicted upon old Greek vases. Its charm is the charm of a vanished +world--a charm strange, alluring, indescribable as the perfume of +some flower of which the species became extinct in our Occident +before the modern languages were born. Transplanted successfully it +cannot be: under a foreign sun its forms revert to something +altogether different, its colours fade, its perfume passes away. The +Japanese woman can be known only in her own country,--the Japanese +woman as prepared and perfected by the old-time education for that +strange society in which the charm [363] of her moral being,--her +delicacy, her supreme unselfishness, her child-like piety and trust, +her exquisite tactful perception of all ways and means to make +happiness about her,--can be comprehended and valued. + +I have spoken only of her moral charm: it requires time for the +unaccustomed foreign eye to discern the physical charm. Beauty, +according to our Western standards, can scarcely be said to exist in +this race,--or, shall we say that it has never yet been developed? +One seeks in vain for a facial angle satisfying Western aesthetic +canons. It is seldom that one meets even with a fine example of that +physical elegance,--that manifestation of the economy of +force,--which we call grace, in the Greek meaning of the word. Yet +there is charm--great charm--both of face and form: the charm of +childhood--childhood with its every feature yet softly and vaguely +outlined (efface, as a French artist would call it),--childhood +before the limbs have fully lengthened,--slight and, dainty, with +admirable little hands and feet. The eyes at first surprise us, by +the strangeness of their lids, so unlike Aryan eyelids, and folding +upon another plan. Yet they are often very charming; and a Western +artist would not fail to appreciate the graceful terms, invented by +Japanese or Chinese art, to designate particular beauties in the +lines of the eyelids. Even if she cannot be called handsome, +according to Western [364] standards, the Japanese woman must be +confessed pretty,--pretty like a comely child; and if she be seldom +graceful in the Occidental sense, she is at least in all her ways +incomparably graceful: her every motion, gesture, or expression +being, in its own Oriental manner, a perfect thing,--an act +performed, or a look conferred, in the most easy, the most graceful, +the most modest way possible. By ancient custom, she is not permitted +to display her grace in the street: she must walk in a particular +shrinking manner, turning her feet inward as she patters along upon +her wooden sandals. But to watch her at home, where she is free to be +comely,--merely to see her performing any household duty, or waiting +upon guests, or arranging flowers, or playing with her children,--is +an education in Far Eastern aesthetics for whoever has the head and +the heart to learn.... But is she not, then, one may ask, an +artificial product,--a forced growth of Oriental civilization? I +would answer both "Yes" and "No." She is an artificial product in +only the same evolutional sense that all character is an artificial +product; and it required tens of centuries to mould her. She is not, +on the other hand, an artificial type, because she has been +particularly trained to be her true self at all times when +circumstances allow,--or, in other words, to be delightfully natural. +The old-fashioned education of her sex was directed to the +development [365] of every quality essentially feminine, and to the +suppression of the opposite quality. Kindliness, docility, sympathy, +tenderness, daintiness--these and other attributes were cultivated +into incomparable blossoming. "Be good, sweet maid, and let who will +be clever: do noble things, not dream them, all day long"--those +words of Kingsley really embody the central idea in her training. Of +course the being, formed by such training only, must be protected by +society; and by the old Japanese society she was protected. +Exceptions did not affect the rule. What I mean is that she was able +to be purely herself, within certain limits of emotional etiquette, +in all security. Her success in life was made to depend on her power +to win affection by gentleness, obedience, kindliness;--not the +affection merely of a husband, but of the husband's parents and +grandparents, and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law,--in short of +all the members of a strange household. Thus to succeed required +angelic goodness and patience; and the Japanese woman realized at +least the ideal of a Buddhist angel. A being working only for others, +thinking only for others, happy only in making pleasure for +others,--a being incapable of unkindness, incapable of selfishness, +incapable of acting contrary to her own inherited sense of +right,--and in spite of this softness and gentleness ready, at any +moment, to lay down her life, to [366] sacrifice everything at the +call of duty: such was the character of the Japanese woman. Most +strange may seem the combination, in this child-soul, of gentleness +and force, tenderness and courage,--yet the explanation is not far to +seek. Stronger within her than wifely affection or parental affection +or even maternal affection,--stronger than any womanly emotion, was +the moral conviction born of her great faith. This religious quality +of character can be found among ourselves only within the shadow of +cloisters, where it is cultivated at the expense of all else; and the +Japanese woman has been therefore compared to a Sister of Charity. +But she had to be very much more than a Sister of +Charity,--daughter-in-law and wife and mother, and to fulfil without +reproach the multiform duties of her triple part. Rather might she be +compared to the Greek type of noble woman,--to Antigone, to Alcestis. +With the Japanese woman, as formed by the ancient training, each act +of life was an act of faith: her existence was a religion, her home a +temple, her every word and thought ordered by the law of the cult of +the dead.... This wonderful type is not extinct--though surely doomed +to disappear. A human creature so shaped for the service of gods and +men that every beat of her heart is duty, that every drop of her +blood is moral feeling, were not less out of place in the future +world of competitive selfishness, than an angel in hell. + + + +[367] + +THE SHINTO REVIVAL + +The slow weakening of the Tokugawa Shogunate was due to causes not +unlike those which had brought about the decline of previous +regencies: the race degenerated during that long period of peace +which its rule had inaugurated; the strong builders were succeeded by +feebler and feebler men. Nevertheless the machinery of +administration, astutely devised by Iyeyasu, and further perfected by +Iyemitsu, worked so well that the enemies of the Shogunate could find +no opportunity for a successful attack until foreign aggression +unexpectedly came to their aid. The most dangerous enemies of the +government were the great clans of Satsuma and Choshu. Iyeyasu had +not ventured to weaken them beyond a certain point: the risks of the +undertaking would have been great; and, on the other hand, the +alliance of those clans was for the time being a matter of vast +political importance. He only took measures to preserve a safe +balance of power, placing between those formidable allies new +lordships in whose rulers he could put trust,--a trust based first +upon interest, secondly upon kinship. But he always felt that danger +to the Shogunate [368] might come from Satsuma and Choshu; and he +left to his successors careful instructions about the policy to be +followed in dealing with such possible enemies. He felt that his work +was not perfect,--that certain outlying blocks of the structure had +not been properly clamped to the rest. He could not do more in the +direction of consolidation, simply because the material of society +had not yet sufficiently evolved, had not yet become plastic enough, +to permit of perfect and permanent cohesion. In order to effect that, +it would have been necessary to dissolve the clans. But Iyeyasu did +all that human foresight could have safely attempted under the +circumstances; and no one was more keenly conscious than himself of +the weak points in his wonderful organization. + +For more than two hundred years the Satsuma and Choshu clans, and +several others ready to league with them, submitted to the discipline +of the Tokugawa rule. But they chafed under it, and watched for a +chance to break the yoke. All the while this chance was being slowly +created for them--not by any political changes, but by the patient +toil of Japanese men of letters. Three among these--the greatest +scholars that Japan ever produced--especially prepared the way, by +their intellectual labours, for the abolition of the Shogunate. They +were Shinto scholars; and they represented the not unnatural reaction +of native conservatism against the [309] long tyranny of alien ideas +and alien beliefs,--against the literature and philosophy and +bureaucracy of China,--against the preponderant influence upon +education of the foreign religion of Buddhism. To all this they +opposed the old native literature of Japan, the ancient poetry, the +ancient cult, the early traditions and rites of Shinto. The names of +these three remarkable men were Mabuchi (1697-1769), Motowori +(1730-1801), and Hirata (1776-1843). Their efforts actually resulted +in the disestablishment of Buddhism, and in the great Shinto revival +of 1871. + +The intellectual revolution made by these scholars could have been +prepared only during a long era of peace, and by men enjoying the +protection and patronage of members of the ruling class. By a strange +chance, it was the house of Tokugawa itself which first gave to +literature such encouragement and aid as made possible the labours of +the Shinto scholars. Iyeyasu had been a lover of learning; and had +devoted the later years of his life--passed in retirement at +Shidzuoka--to the collection of ancient books and manuscripts. He +bequeathed his Japanese books to his eighth son, the Prince of Owari; +and his Chinese books to another son, the Prince of Kishu. The Prince +of Owari himself composed several works upon Japanese early +literature. Other descendants of Iyeyasu, inherited the great [370] +Shogun's love of letters: one of his grandsons, Mitsukuni, the second +Prince of Mito (1622-1700), compiled, with the aid of various +scholars, the first, important history of Japan,--the Dai-Nihon-Shi, +in 240 books. Also he compiled a work of 500 volumes upon the +ceremonies and the etiquette of the Imperial Court, and set aside +from his revenues a sum equal to about 30,000 pounds per annum, to +cover the cost of publishing the splendid productions.... Under the +patronage of great lords like these--collectors of libraries--there +gradually developed a new school of men-of-letters: men who turned +away from Chinese literature to the study of the Japanese classics. +They reedited the ancient poetry and chronicles; they republished the +sacred records, with ample commentaries. They produced whole +libraries of works upon religious, historical, and philological +subjects; they made grammars and dictionaries; they wrote treatises +on the art of poetry, on popular errors, on the nature of the gods, +on government, on the manners and customs of ancient days.... The +foundations of this new scholarship were laid by two Shinto +priests,--Kada and Mabuchi. + +The high patrons of learning never suspected the possible results of +those researches which they had encouraged and aided. The study of +the ancient records, the study of Japanese literature, the study of +the early political and religious conditions, [371] naturally led men +to consider the history of those foreign literary influences which +had well-nigh stifled native learning, and to consider also the +history of the foreign creed which had overwhelmed the religion of +the ancestral gods. Chinese ethics, Chinese ceremonial, and Chinese +Buddhism had reduced the ancient faith to the state of a minor +belief--almost to the state of a superstition. "The Shinto gods," +exclaimed one of the scholars of the new school, "have become the +servants of the Buddhas!" But those Shinto gods were the ancestors of +the race,--the fathers of its emperors and princes,--and their +degradation could not but involve the degradation of the imperial +tradition. Already, indeed, the emperors had been deprived not only +of their immemorial rights and privileges, but of their revenues: +many had been deposed and banished and insulted. Just as the gods had +been admitted only as inferior personages to the Buddhist pantheon, +so their living descendants were now permitted to reign only as the +dependants of military usurpers. By sacred law the whole soil of the +empire belonged to the Heavenly Sovereign: yet there had been great +poverty at times in the imperial palace; and the revenues, allotted +for the maintenance of the Mikado, had often been insufficient to +relieve his family from want. Assuredly all this was wrong. The +Shogunate had indeed established peace and inaugurated prosperity; +but who could forget that [372] it had originated in a military +usurpation of imperial rights? Only by the restoration of the Son of +Heaven to his ancient position of power, and by the relegation of the +military chiefs to their proper state of subordination, could the +best interests of the nation be really served.... + +All this was thought and felt and strongly suggested; but not all of +it was openly proclaimed. To have publicly preached against the +military government as a usurpation would have been to invite +destruction. The Shinto scholars dared only so much as the politics +and the temper of their time seemed to permit,--though they closely +approached the danger-line. By the end of the eighteenth century, +however, their teaching had created a strong party in favour of the +official revival of the ancient religion, the restoration of the +Mikado to supreme power, and the repression, if not suppression, of +the military power. Yet it was not until the year 1841 that the +Shogunate took alarm, and proclaimed its disquiet by banishing from +the capital the great scholar Hirata, and forbidding him to write +anything more. Not long afterwards he died. But he had been able to +teach for forty years; he had written and published several hundred +volumes; and the school of which he was the last and greatest +theologian already exerted far-reaching influence. The restive lords +of Choshu, Satsuma, Tosa, and Hizen were watching and waiting. They +perceived [373] the worth of the new ideas to their own policy; they +encouraged the new Shintoism; they felt that a time was coming when +they could hope to shake off the domination of the Tokugawa. And +their opportunity came at last with the advent to Japan of Commodore +Perry's fleet. + +The events of that time are well known, and need not here be dwelt +upon at any length. Suffice to say that after the Shogunate had been +terrified into making commercial treaties with the United States and +other powers, and practically compelled to open sundry ports to +foreign trade, great discontent arose and was fomented as much as +possible by the enemies of the military government. Meanwhile the +Shogunate had ascertained for itself the impossibility of resisting +foreign aggression: it was fairly well informed as to the strength of +Western countries. The imperial court was nowise informed; and the +Shogunate naturally dreaded to furnish the information. To +acknowledge incapacity to resist Occidental aggression would be to +invite the ruin of the Tokugawa house; to resist, on the other hand, +would be to invite the destruction of the Empire. The enemies of the +Shogunate then persuaded the imperial court to order the expulsion of +the foreigners; and this order--which, it must be remembered, was +essentially a religious order, emanating from the source of all +acknowledged authority--placed the military government in a serious +dilemma. [374] It tried to effect by diplomacy what it could not +accomplish by force; but while it was negotiating for the withdrawal +of the foreign' settlers, matters were suddenly forced to a crisis by +the Prince of Choshu, who fired upon various ships belonging to the +foreign powers. This action provoked the bombardment of Shimonoseki, +and the demand of an indemnity of three million dollars. The Shogun +Iyemochi attempted to chastise the daimyo of Choshu for this act of +hostility; but the attempt only proved the weakness of the military +government. Iyemochi died soon after this defeat; and his successor +Hitotsubashi had no chance to do anything,--for the now evident +feebleness of the Shogunate gave its enemies courage to strike a +fatal blow. Pressure was brought upon the imperial court to proclaim +the abolition of the Shogunate; and the Shogunate was abolished by +decree. Hitotsubashi submitted; and the Tokugawa regime thus came to +an end,--although its more devoted followers warred for two years +afterwards, against hopeless odds, to reestablish it. In 1867 the +entire administration was reorganized; the supreme power, both +military and civil, being restored to the Mikado. Soon afterward the +Shinto cult, officially revived in its primal simplicity, was +declared the Religion of State; and Buddhism was disendowed. Thus the +Empire was reestablished upon the ancient lines; and all that the +literary party had [375] hoped for seemed to be realized--except one +thing.... + +Be it here observed that the adherents of the literary party wanted +to go much further than the great founders of the new Shintoism had +dreamed of going. These later enthusiasts were not satisfied with the +abolition of the Shogunate, the restoration of imperial power, and +the revival of the ancient cult: they wanted a return of all society +to the simplicity of primitive times; they desired that all foreign +influence should be got rid of, and that the official ceremonies, the +future education, the future literature, the ethics, the laws, should +be purely Japanese. They were not even satisfied with the +disendowment of Buddhism: there was a vigorous proposal made for its +total suppression! And all this would have signified, in more ways +than one, a social retrogression towards barbarism. The great +scholars had never proposed to cast away Buddhism and all Chinese +learning; they had only insisted that the native religion and culture +should have precedence. But the new literary party desired what would +have been equivalent to the destruction of a thousand years' +experience. Happily the clansmen who had broken down the Shogunate +saw both past and future in another light. They understood that the +national existence was in peril, and that resistance to foreign +pressure would be hopeless. Satsuma had witnessed the bombardment of +Kagoshima in [376] 1863; Choshu, the bombardment of Shimonoseki in +1864. Evidently the only chance of being able to face Western power +would be through the patient study of Western science; and the +survival of the Empire depended upon the Europeanization of society. +By 1871 the daimiates were abolished; in 1873 the edicts against +Christianity were withdrawn; in 1876 the wearing of swords was +prohibited. The samurai, as a military body, were suppressed; and all +classes were declared thenceforward equal before the law. New codes +were compiled; a new army and navy organized; a new police system +established; a new system of education introduced at Government +expense; and a new constitution promised. Finally, in 1891, the first +Japanese parliament (strictly speaking) was convoked. By that time +the entire framework of society had been remodelled, so far as laws +could remodel it, upon a European pattern. The nation had fairly +entered upon its third period of integration. The clan had been +legally dissolved; the family was no longer the legal unit of +society: by the new constitution the individual had been recognized. + +When we consider the history of some vast and sudden political change +in its details only,--the factors of the movement, the combinations +of immediate cause and effect, the influences of strong personality, +the conditions impelling individual action, [377]--then the +transformation is apt to appear to us the work and the triumph of a +few superior minds. We forget, perhaps, that those minds themselves +were the product of their epoch, and that every such rapid change +must represent the working of a national or race-instinct quite as +much as the operation of individual intelligence. The events of the +Meiji reconstruction strangely illustrate the action of such instinct +in the face of peril,--the readjustment of internal relations to +sudden changes of environment. The nation had found its old political +system powerless before the new conditions; and it transformed that +system. It had found its military organization incapable of defending +it; and it reconstructed that organization. It had found its +educational system useless in the presence of unforeseen necessities; +and it replaced that system,--simultaneously crippling the power of +Buddhism, which might otherwise have offered serious opposition to +the new developments required. And in that hour of greatest danger +the national instinct turned back at once to the moral experience +upon which it could best rely,--the experience embodied in its +ancient cult, the religion of unquestioning obedience. Relying upon +Shinto tradition, the people rallied about their ruler, descendant of +the ancient gods, and awaited his will with unconquerable zeal of +faith. By strict obedience to his commands the peril might be +averted,--never otherwise: this was [378] the national conviction. +And the imperial order was simply that the nation should strive by +study to make itself, as far as possible, the intellectual equal of +its enemies. How faithfully that command was obeyed,--how well the +old moral discipline of the race served it in the period of that +supreme emergency,--I need scarcely say. Japan, by right of +self-acquired strength, has entered into the circle of the modern +civilized powers,--formidable by her new military organization, +respectable through her achievements in the domain of practical +science. And the force to effect this astonishing self-improvement, +within the time of thirty years, she owes assuredly to the moral +habit derived from her ancient cult,--the religion of the ancestors. +To fairly measure the feat, we should remember that Japan was +evolutionally younger than any modern European nation, by at least +twenty-seven hundred years, when she went to school! ... + +Herbert Spencer has shown that the great value to society of +ecclesiastical institutions lies in their power to give cohesion to +the mass,--to strengthen rule by enforcing obedience to custom, and +by opposing innovations likely to supply any element of +disintegration. In other words, the value of a religion, from the +sociological standpoint, lies in its conservatism. Various writers +have alleged that the [379] Japanese national religion proved itself +weak by incapacity to resist the overwhelming influence of Buddhism. +I cannot help thinking that the entire social history of Japan yields +proof to the contrary. Though Buddhism did for a long period appear +to have almost entirely absorbed Shinto, by the acknowledgment of the +Shinto scholars themselves; though Buddhist emperors reigned who +neglected or despised the cult of their ancestors; though Buddhism +directed, during ten centuries, the education of the nation, Shinto +remained all the while so very much alive that it was able not only +to dispossess its rival at last, but to save the country from foreign +domination. To assert that the Shinto revival signified no more than +a stroke of policy imagined by a group of statesmen, is to ignore all +the antecedents of the event. No such change could have been wrought +by mere decree had not the national sentiment welcomed it.... +Moreover, there are three important facts to be remembered in regard +to the former Buddhist predomination: (1) Buddhism conserved the +family-cult, modifying the forms of the rite; (2) Buddhism never +really supplanted the Ujigami cults, but maintained them; (3) +Buddhism never interfered with the imperial cult. Now these three +forms of ancestor-worship,--the domestic, the communal, and the +national,--constitute all that is vital in Shinto. No single +essential of the ancient faith had ever been weakened, [380] much +less abolished, under the long pressure of Buddhism. + +The Supreme Cult is not now the State Religion by request of the +chiefs of Shinto, it is not even officially classed as a +religion. Obvious reasons of state policy decided this course. +Having fulfilled its grand task, Shinto abdicated. But as +representing all those traditions which appeal to race-feeling, +to the sentiment of duty, to the passion of loyalty, and the love +of country, it yet remains an immense force, a power to which +appeal will not be vainly made in another hour of national peril. + + + +[381] + +SURVIVALS + +In the gardens of certain Buddhist temples there are trees which have +been famous for centuries,--trees trained and clipped into +extraordinary shapes. Some have the form of dragons; others have the +form of pagodas, ships, umbrellas. Supposing that one of these trees +were abandoned to its own natural tendencies, it would eventually +lose the queer shape so long imposed upon it; but the outline would +not be altered for a considerable time, as the new leafage would at +first unfold only in the direction of least resistance: that is to +say, within limits originally established by the shears and the +pruning-knife. By sword and law the old Japanese society had been +pruned and clipped, bent and bound, just like such a tree; and after +the reconstructions of the Meiji period,--after the abolition of the +daimiates, and the suppression of the military class, it still +maintained its former shape, just as the tree would continue to do +when first abandoned by the gardener. Though delivered from the bonds +of feudal law, released from the shears of military rule, the great +bulk of the social structure preserved its ancient [382] aspect; and +the rare spectacle bewildered and delighted and deluded the Western +observer. Here indeed was Elf-land,--the strange, the beautiful, the +grotesque, the very mysterious,--totally unlike aught of strange and +attractive ever beheld elsewhere. It was not a world of the +nineteenth century after Christ, but a world of many centuries before +Christ: yet this fact--the wonder of wonders--remained unrecognized; +and it remains unrecognized by most people even to this day. + +Fortunate indeed were those privileged to enter this astonishing +fairyland thirty odd years ago, before the period of superficial +change, and to observe the unfamiliar aspects of its life: the +universal urbanity, the smiling silence of crowds, the patient +deliberation of toil, the absence of misery and struggle. Even yet, +in those remoter districts where alien influence has wrought but +little change, the charm of the old existence lingers and amazes; and +the ordinary traveller can little understand what it means. That all +are polite, that nobody quarrels, that everybody smiles, that pain +and sorrow remain invisible, that the new police have nothing to do, +would seem to prove a morally superior humanity. But for the trained +sociologist it would prove something different, and suggest something +very terrible. It would prove to him that this society had been +moulded under immense coercion, and that the coercion must have been +exerted uninterruptedly [383] for thousands of years. He would +immediately perceive that ethics and custom had not yet become +dissociated, and that the conduct of each person was regulated by the +will of the rest. He would know that personality could not develop in +such a social medium,--that no individual superiority dare assert +itself, that no competition would be tolerated. He would understand +that the outward charm of this life--its softness, its smiling +silence as of dreams--signified the rule of the dead. He would +recognize that between those minds and the minds of his own epoch no +kinship of thought, no community of sentiment, no sympathy whatever +could exist,--that the separating gulf was not to be measured by +thousands of leagues, but only by thousands of years,--that the +psychological interval was hopeless as the distance from planet to +planet. Yet this knowledge probably would not--certainly should +not--blind him to the intrinsic charm of things. Not to feel the +beauty of this archaic life is to prove oneself insensible to all +beauty. Even that Greek world, for which our scholars and poets +profess such loving admiration, must have been in many ways a world +of the same kind, whose daily mental existence no modern mind could +share. + +Now that the great social tree, so wonderfully clipped and cared for +during many centuries, [384] is losing its fantastic shape, let us +try to see how much of the original design can still be traced. + +Under all the outward aspects of individual activity that modern +Japan presents to the visitor's gaze, the ancient conditions really +persist to an extent that no observation could reveal. Still the +immemorial cult rules all the land. Still the family-law, the +communal law, and (though in a more irregular manner) the clan-law, +control every action of existence. I do not refer to any written law, +but only to the old unwritten religious law, with its host of +obligations deriving from ancestor-worship. It is true that many +changes--and, in the opinion of the wise, too many changes--have been +made in civil legislation; but the ancient proverb, "Government-laws +are only seven-day laws," still represents popular sentiment in +regard to hasty reforms. The old law, the law of the dead, is that by +which the millions prefer to act and think. Though ancient social +groupings have been officially abolished, re-groupings of a +corresponding sort have been formed, instinctively, throughout the +country districts. In theory the individual is free; in practice he +is scarcely more free than were his forefathers. Old penalties for +breach of custom have been abrogated; yet communal opinion is able to +compel the ancient obedience. Legal enactments can nowhere effect +immediate [385] change of sentiment and long-established +usage,--least of all among a people of such fixity of character as +the Japanese. Young persons are no more at liberty now, than were +their fathers and mothers under the Shogunate, to marry at will, to +invest their means and efforts in undertakings not sanctioned by +family approval, to consider themselves in any way enfranchised from +family authority; and it is probably better for the present that they +are not. No man is yet complete master of his activities, his time, +or his means. + +Though the individual is now registered, and made directly +accountable to the law, while the household has been relieved from +its ancient responsibility for the acts of its members, still the +family practically remains the social unit, retaining its patriarchal +organization and its particular cult. Not unwisely, the modern +legislators have protected this domestic religion: to weaken its bond +at this time were to weaken the foundations of the national moral +life,--to introduce disintegrations into the most deeply seated +structures of the social organism. The new codes forbid the man who +becomes by succession the head of a house to abolish that house: he +is not permitted to suppress a cult. No legal presumptive heir to the +headship of a family can enter into another family as adopted son or +husband; nor can he abandon the paternal house to establish an +independent [386] family of his own.* Provision has been made to meet +extraordinary cases; but no individual is allowed, without good and +sufficient reason, to free himself from those traditional obligations +which the family-cult imposes. As regards adoption, the new law +maintains the spirit of the old, with fresh provision for the +conservation of the family religion,--permitting any person of legal +age to adopt a son, on the simple condition that the person adopted +shall be younger than the adopter. The new divorce-laws do not permit +the dismissal of a wife for sterility alone (and divorce for such +cause had long been condemned by Japanese sentiment); but, in view of +the facilities given for adoption, this reform does not endanger the +continuance of the cult. An interesting example of the manner in +which the law still protects ancestor-worship is furnished by the +fact that an aged and childless widow, last representative of her +family, is not permitted to remain without an heir. She must adopt a +son if she can: if she cannot, because of poverty, or for other +reasons, [387] the local authorities will provide a son for +her,--that is to say, a male heir to maintain the family-worship. +Such official interference would seem to us tyrannical: it is simply +paternal, and represents the continuance of an ancient regulation +intended to protect the bereaved against what Eastern faith still +deems the supreme misfortune,--the extinction of the home-cult.... In +other respects the later codes allow of individual liberty unknown in +previous generations. But the ordinary person would not dream of +attempting to claim a legal right opposed to common opinion. Family +and public sentiment are still more potent than law. The Japanese +newspapers frequently record tragedies resulting from the prevention +or dissolution of unions; and these tragedies afford strong proof +that most young people would prefer even suicide to the probable +consequence of a successful appeal to law against family decision. + +[*That is to say, he cannot separate himself from the family in law; +but he is free to live in a separate house. The tendency to further +disintegration of the family is shown by a custom which has been +growing of late years,--especially in Tokyo: the custom of demanding, +as a condition of marriage, that the bride shall not be obliged to +live in the same house with the parents of the bridegroom. This +custom is yet confined to certain classes, and has been adversely +criticised. Many young men, on marrying, leave the parental home to +begin independent housekeeping,--though remaining legally attached +to their parents' families, of course.... It will perhaps be asked, +What becomes of the cult in such cases? The cult remains in the +parental home. When the parents die, then the ancestral tablets are +transferred to the home of the married son.] + +The communal form of coercion is less apparent in the large cities; +but everywhere it endures to some extent, and in the agricultural +districts it remains supreme. Between the new conditions and the old +there is this difference, that the man who finds the yoke of his +district hard to bear can flee from it: he could not do so fifty +years ago. But he can flee from it only to enter into another state +of subordination of nearly the same kind. Full [388] advantage, +nevertheless, has been taken of this modern liberty of movement: +thousands yearly throng to the cities; other thousands travel over +the country, from province to province; working for a year or a +season in one place, then going to another, with little more to hope +for than experience of change. Emigration also has been taking place +upon an extensive scale; but for the common class of emigrants, at +least, the advantage of emigration is chiefly represented by the +chance of earning larger wages. A Japanese emigrant community abroad +organizes itself upon the home-plan;* and the individual emigrant +probably finds himself as much under communal coercion in Canada, +Hawaii, or the Philippine Islands, as he could ever have been in his +native province. Needless to say that in foreign countries such +coercion is more than compensated by the aid and protection which the +communal organization insures. But with the constantly increasing +number of restless spirits at home, and the ever widening experience +of Japanese emigrants abroad, it would seem likely that the power of +the commune for compulsory cooperation must become considerably +weakened in the near future. + +[*Except as regards the communal cult, perhaps. The domestic cult is +transplanted; emigrants who go abroad, accompanied by their families, +take the ancestral tablets with them. To what extent the communal +cult may have been established in emigrant communities, I have not +yet been able to learn. It would appear, however, that the absence of +Ujigami in certain emigrant settlements is to be accounted for solely +by the pecuniary difficulty of constructing such temples and +maintaining competent officials. In Formosa, for example, though the +domestic ancestor-cult is maintained in the homes of the Japanese +settlers, Ujigami have not yet been established. The government, +however, has erected several important Shinto temples; and I am told +that some of these will probably be converted into Ujigami when the +Japanese population has increased enough to justify the measure.] + +[389] As for the tribal or clan law, it survives to the degree of +remaining almost omnipotent in administrative circles, and in all +politics. Voters, officials, legislators, do not follow principles in +our sense of the word: they follow men, and obey commands. In these +spheres of action the penalties of disobedience to orders are endless +as well as serious: by a single such offence one may array against +oneself powers that will continue their hostile operation for years +and years,--unreasoningly, implacably, blindly, with the weight and +persistence of natural forces,--of winds or tides. Any comprehension +of the history of Japanese politics during the last fifteen years is +not possible without some knowledge of clan-history. A political +leader, fully acquainted with the history of clan-parties, and their +offshoots, can accomplish marvellous things; and even foreign +residents, with long experience of Japanese life, have been able, by +pressing upon clan-interests, to exercise a very real power in +government circles. But to the ordinary foreigner, Japanese +contemporary politics must appear a chaos, a disintegration, a +hopeless flux. The truth is that most things remain, under varying +outward forms, "as all were ordered, ages since,"--though the [390] +shiftings have become more rapid, and the results less obvious, in +the haste of an era of steam and electricity. + +The greatest of living Japanese statesmen, the Marquis Ito, long ago +perceived that the tendency of political life to agglomerations, to +clan-groupings, presented the most serious obstacle to the successful +working of constitutional government. He understood that this +tendency could be opposed only by considerations weightier than +clan-interests, considerations worthy of supreme sacrifice. He +therefore formed a party of which every member was pledged to pass +over clan-interests, clique-interests, personal and every other kind +of interests, for the sake of national interests. Brought into +collision with a hostile cabinet in 1903, this party achieved the +feat of controlling its animosities even to the extent of maintaining +its foes in power; but large fragments broke off in the process. So +profoundly is the grouping-tendency, the clan-sentiment, identified +with national character, that the ultimate success of Marquis Ito's +policy must still be considered doubtful. Only a national danger--the +danger of war,--has yet been able to weld all parties together, to +make all wills work as one. + +Not only politics, but nearly all phases of modern life, yield +evidence that the disintegration of the old society has been +superficial rather than fundamental. Structures dissolved have +recrystallized, taking forms [391] dissimilar in aspect to the +original forms, but inwardly built upon the same plan. For the +dissolutions really effected represented only a separation of masses, +not a breaking up of substance into independent units; and these +masses, again cohering, continue to act only as masses. Independence +of personal action, in the Western sense, is still almost +inconceivable. The individual of every class above the lowest must +continue to be at once coercer and coerced. Like an atom within a +solid body, he can vibrate; but the orbit of his vibration is fixed. +He must act and be acted upon in ways differing little from those of +ancient time. + +As for being acted upon, the average man is under three kinds of +pressure: pressure from above, exemplified in the will of his +superiors; pressure about him, represented by the common will of his +fellows and equals; pressure from below, represented by the general +sentiment of his inferiors. And this last sort of coercion is not the +least formidable. + +Individual resistance to the first kind of pressure--that represented +by authority--is not even to be thought of; because the superior +represents a clan, a class, an exceedingly multiple power of some +description; and no solitary individual, in the present order of +things, can strive against a combination. To resist injustice he must +find ample support, in [392] which case his resistance does not +represent individual action. + +Resistance to the second kind of pressure--communal coercion +--signifies ruin, loss of the right to form a part of the social +body. + +Resistance to the third sort of pressure, embodied in the common +sentiment of inferiors, may result in almost anything,--from +momentary annoyance to sudden death,--according to circumstances. + +In all forms of society these three kinds of pressure are exerted to +some degree; but in Japanese society, owing to inherited tendency, +and traditional sentiment, their power is tremendous. + +Thus, in every direction, the individual finds himself confronted by +the despotism of collective opinion: it is impossible for him to act +with safety except as one unit of a combination. The first kind of +pressure deprives him of moral freedom, exacting unlimited obedience +to orders; the second kind of pressure denies him the right to use +his best faculties in the best way for his own advantage (that is to +say, denies him the right of free competition); the third kind of +pressure compels him, in directing the actions of others, to follow +tradition, to forbear innovations, to avoid making any changes, +however beneficial, which do not find willing acceptance on the part +of his inferiors. + +These are the social conditions which, under [393] normal +circumstances, make for stability, for conservation; and they +represent the will of the dead. They are inevitable to a militant +state; they make the strength of that state; they render facile the +creation and maintenance of formidable armies. But they are not +conditions favourable to success in the future international +competition,--in the industrial struggle for existence against +societies incomparably more plastic, and of higher mental energy. + + + +[394] + +[395] + +MODERN RESTRAINTS + +For even a vague understanding of modern Japan, it will be necessary +to consider the effect of the three forms of social coercion, +mentioned in the preceding chapter, as restraints upon individual +energy and capacity. All three represent survivals of the ancient +religious responsibility. I shall treat of them in order inverse, +beginning with the under-pressure. + +It has often been asserted by foreign observers that the real power +in Japan is exercised not from above, but from below. There is some +truth in this assertion, but not all the truth: the conditions are +much too complex to be covered by any general statement. What cannot +be gainsaid is that superior authority has always been more or less +restrained by tendencies to resistance from below.... At no time in +Japanese history, for example, do the peasants appear to have been +left without recourse against excessive oppression,--notwithstanding +all the humiliating regulations imposed on their existence. They were +suffered to frame their own village-laws, to estimate the possible +amount of [396] their tax-payments,--and to make protest--through +official channels--against unmerciful exaction. They were made to pay +as much as they could; but they were not reduced to bankruptcy or +starvation; and their holdings were mostly secured to them by laws +forbidding the sale or alienation of family property. Such was at +least the general rule. There were, however, wicked daimyo, who +treated their farmers with extreme cruelty, and found ways to prevent +complaints or protests from reaching the higher authorities. The +almost invariable result of such tyranny was revolt; and the tyrant +was then made responsible for the disorder, and punished. Though +denied in theory, the right of the peasant to rebel against +oppression was respected in practice; the revolt was punished, but +the oppressor was likewise punished. Daimyo were obliged to reckon +with their farmers in regard to any fresh imposition of taxes or +forced labour. We also find that although heimin were made subject to +the military class, it was possible for artizans and commercial folk +to form, in the great cities, strong associations by which military +tyranny was kept in check. Everywhere the reverential deference of +the common people to authority, as exercised in usual directions, +seems to have been accompanied by an extraordinary readiness to defy +authority exercised in other directions. + +It may seem strange that a society in which religion [397] and +government, ethics and custom, were practically identical, should +furnish striking examples of resistance to authority. But the +religious fact itself supplies the explanation. From the earliest +period there was firmly established, in the popular mind, the +conviction that implicit obedience to authority was the universal +duty under all ordinary circumstances. But with this conviction there +was united another,--that resistance to authority (excepting the +sacred authority of the Supreme Ruler) was equally a duty under +extraordinary circumstances. And these seemingly opposed convictions +were not really inconsistent. So long as rule followed precedent,--so +long as its commands, however harsh, did not conflict with sentiment +and tradition,--that rule was regarded as religious, and there was +absolute submission. But when rulers presumed to break with ethical +usage,--in a spirit of reckless cruelty or greed,--then the people +might feel it a religious obligation to resist with all the zeal of +voluntary martyrdom. The danger-line for every form of local tyranny +was departure from precedent. Even the conduct of regents and princes +was much restrained by the common opinion of their retainers, and by +the knowledge that certain kinds of arbitrary conduct were likely to +provoke assassination. + +Deference to the sentiment of vassals and retainers was from ancient +time a necessary policy with Japanese rulers,--not merely because of +the peril involved [398] by needless oppression, but much more +because of the recognition that duties are well performed only when +subordinates feel assured that their efforts will be fairly +considered, and that sudden needless changes will not be made to +their disadvantage. This old policy still characterizes Japanese +administration; and the deference of high authority to collective +opinion astonishes and puzzles the foreign observer. He perceives +only that the conservative power of sentiment, as exercised by groups +of subordinates, remains successfully opposed to those conditions of +discipline which we think indispensable to social progress. Just as +in Old Japan the ruler of a district was held, responsible for the +behaviour of his subjects, so to-day, in New Japan, every official in +charge of a department is held responsible for the smooth working of +its routine. But this does not mean that he is responsible only for +the efficiency of a service: it means that he is held responsible +likewise for failure to satisfy the wishes of his subordinates, or at +least the majority of his subordinates. If this majority be +displeased with their minister, governor, president, manager, chief, +or director, the fact is considered proof of administrative +incompetency.... Perhaps educational circles afford the most curious +examples of this old idea of responsibility. A student-revolt is +commonly supposed to mean, not that the students are intractable, but +that the superintendent or teacher does not know [399] his business. +Thus the principal of a college, the director of a school, holds his +office only on the condition that his rule gives satisfaction to a +majority of the students. In the higher government institutions, each +professor or lecturer is made responsible for the success of his +lectures. No matter how great may be his ability in other directions, +the official instructor, unable to make himself liked by his pupils, +will be got rid of in short order--unless some powerful protectors +interfere on his behalf. The efforts of the man will never be judged +(officially) by any accepted standard of excellence,--never estimated +by their intrinsic worth; they will be considered only according to +their direct effect upon the average of minds.* Almost everywhere +this antique system of responsibility is maintained. A minister of +state is by public sentiment made responsible not only for the +results of his administration, but likewise for any scandals or +troubles that may occur in his department, independently of the +question whether he could or could not have prevented them. To a +considerable degree, therefore, it is true that the ultimate [400] +power is below. The highest official is not able with impunity to +impose his personal will in certain directions; and, for the time +being, it is probably better that his powers are thus restrained. + +[*Unjust as this policy must appear to the Western reader (a policy +which certainly presupposes ethical conditions very different from +our own), it was probably at one time the best possible under the new +order. Considering the extraordinary changes suddenly made in the +educational system, it will be obvious that a teacher's immediate +value was likely---twenty years ago--to depend on his ability to make +his teaching attractive. If he attempted to teach either above or +below the average capacity of his pupils, or if he made his +instruction unpalatable to minds greedy for new knowledge, but +innocent as to method, his inexperience could be corrected by the +will of his class.] + +From above downwards through all the grades of society, the same +system of responsibility, and the same restraints upon individual +exercise of will, persist under varying forms. The conditions within +the household differ but little in this regard from the conditions in +a government department: no householder, for example, can impose his +will, beyond certain fixed limits, even upon his own servants or +dependents. Neither for love nor money can a good servant be induced +to break with traditional custom; and the old opinion, that the value +of a servant is proved by such inflexibility, has been justified by +the experience of centuries. Popular sentiment remains conservative; +and the apparent zeal for superficial innovation affords no +indication of the real order of existence. Fashions and formalities, +house-interiors and street-vistas, habits and methods, and all the +outer aspects of life are changed; but the old regimentation of +society persists under all these surface-shiftings; and the national +character remains little affected by all the transformations of +Meiji. + +The second kind of coercion to which the individual is subjected +--the communal, or communistic--[401] seems likely to prove +mischievous in the near future, as it signifies practical suppression +of the right to compete.... The everyday life of any Japanese city +offers numberless suggestions of the manner in which the masses +continue to think and to act by groups. But no more familiar and +forcible illustration of the fact can be cited than that which is +furnished by the code of the kurumaya or jinrikisha-men. According to +its terms, one runner must not attempt to pass by another going in +the same direction. Exceptions have been made, grudgingly, in favour +of runners in private employ,--men selected for strength and speed, +who are expected to use their physical powers to the utmost. But +among the tens of thousands of public kurumaya, it is the rule that a +young and active man must not pass by an old and feeble man, nor even +by a needlessly slow and lazy man. To take advantage of one's own +superior energy, so as to force competition, is an offence against +the calling, and certain to be resented. You engage a good runner, +whom you order to make all speed: he springs away splendidly, and +keeps up the pace until he happens to overtake some weak or lazy +puller, who seems to be moving as slowly as the gait permits. +Therewith, instead of bounding by, your man drops immediately behind +the slow-going vehicle, and slackens his pace almost to a walk. For +half an hour, or more, you may be thus delayed by the regulation +which obliges the strong and [402] swift to wait for the weak and +slow. An angry appeal is made to the runner who dares to pass +another; and the idea behind the words might be thus expressed:--"You +know that you are breaking the rule,--that you are acting to the +disadvantage of your comrades! This is a hard calling; and our lives +would be made harder than they are, if there were no rules to prevent +selfish competition!" Of course there is no thought of the +consequences of such rules to business interests at large.... Now it +is not unjust to say that this moral code of the kurumaya exemplifies +an unwritten law which has been always imposed, in varying forms, +upon every class of workers in Japan: "You must not try, without +special authorization, to pass your fellows." ... La carriere est +ouverte aux talents--mais la concurrence est defendue! + +Of course the modern communal restraint upon free competition +represents the survival and extension of that altruistic spirit which +ruled the ancient society,--not the mere continuance of any fixed +custom. In feudal times there were no kurumaya; but all craftsmen and +all labourers formed guilds or companies; and the discipline +maintained by those guilds or companies prohibited competition as +undertaken for merely personal advantage. Similar or nearly similar +forms of organization are maintained by artizans and labourers +to-day; and the relation [403] of any outside employer to skilled +labour is regulated, by the guild or company, in the old communistic +manner.... Let us suppose, for instance, that you wish to have a good +house built. For that undertaking, you will have to deal with a very +intelligent class of skilled labour; for the Japanese house-carpenter +may be ranked with the artist almost as much as with the artizan. You +may apply to a building-company; but, as a general rule, you will do +better by applying to a master-carpenter, who combines in himself the +functions of architect, contractor, and builder. In any event you +cannot select and hire workmen: guild-regulations forbid. You can +only make your contract; and the master-carpenter, when his plans +have been approved, will undertake all the rest,--purchase and +transport of material,--hire of carpenters, plasterers, tilers, +mat-makers, screen-fitters, brass-workers, stone-cutters, locksmiths, +and glaziers. For each master-carpenter represents much more than his +own craft-guild: he has his clients in every trade related to +house-building and house-furnishing; and you must not dream of trying +to interfere with his claims and privileges. He builds your house +according to contract; but that is only the beginning of the +relation. You have really made with him an agreement which you must +not break, without good and sufficient reason, for the rest of your +life. Whatever afterwards may happen to any part [404] of your +house,--walls, floor, ceiling, roof, foundation,--you must arrange +for repairs with him, never with anybody else. Should the roof leak, +for instance, you must not send for the nearest tiler or tinsmith; if +the plaster cracks, you must not send for a plasterer. The man who +built your house holds himself responsible for its condition; and he +is jealous of that responsibility: none but he has the right to send +for the plasterer, the roofer, the tinsmith. If you interfere with +that right, you may have some unpleasant surprises. If you make +appeal to the law against that right, you will find that you can get +no carpenter, tiler, or plasterer to work for you at any terms. +Compromise is always possible; but the guilds will resent a needless +appeal to the law. And after all, these craft-guilds are usually +faithful performers, and well worth conciliating. + +Or take the occupation of landscape-gardening. You want a pretty +garden; and you hire a professional gardener who comes to you well +recommended. He makes the garden; and you pay his price. But your +gardener really represents a company; and by engaging him it is +understood that either he, or some other member of the gardeners' +corporation to which he belongs, will continue to take care of your +garden as long as you own it. At each season he will pay your garden +a visit, and put everything to rights--he will clip the hedges, prune +the fruit trees, [405] repair the fences, train the climbing-plants, +look after the flowers,--putting up paper awnings to protect delicate +shrubs from the sun during the hot season, or making little tents of +straw to shelter them in time of frost;--he will do a hundred useful +and ingenious things for a very small remuneration. You cannot +dismiss him, however, without good reason, and hire another gardener +to take his place. No other gardener would serve you at any price, +unless assured that the original relation had been dissolved by +mutual consent. If you have just cause for complaint, the matter can +be settled through arbitration; and the guild will see that you have +no further trouble. But you cannot dismiss your gardener without +cause, merely to engage another. + +The above examples will suffice to show the character of the old +communistic organization which is yet maintained in a hundred forms. +This communism suppressed competition, except as between groups; but +it insured good work, and secured easy conditions for the workman. It +was the best system possible in those ages of isolation when there +was no such thing as want, and when the population, for yet +undetermined causes, appears to have remained always below the +numerical level at which serious pressure begins.... Another +interesting survival is represented by existing conditions of +apprenticeship [406] and service,--conditions which also originated +in the patriarchal organization, and imposed other kinds of restraint +upon competition. Under the old regime service was, for the most +part, unsalaried. Boys taken into a commercial house to learn the +business, or apprentices bound to a master-workman, were boarded, +lodged, clothed, and even educated by their patron, with whom they +might hope to pass the rest of their lives. But they were not paid +wages until they had learned the business or the trade of their +employer, and were fully capable of managing a business or a workshop +of their own. To a considerable degree these conditions still prevail +in commercial centres,--though the merchant or patron seldom now +finds it necessary to send his clerk or apprentice to school. Many of +the great commercial houses pay salaries only to men of great +experience: other employes are only trained and cared for until their +term of service ends, when the most clever among them will be +reengaged as experts, and the others helped to start in business for +themselves. In like manner the apprentice to a trade, when his term +expires, may be reengaged by his master as a hired journeyman, or +helped to find permanent employ elsewhere. These paternal and filial +relations between employer and employed have helped to make life +pleasant and labour cheerful; and the quality of all industrial +production must suffer much when they disappear. + +[407] Even in private domestic service the patriarchal system still +prevails to a degree that is little imagined; and this subject +deserves more than a passing mention. I refer especially to female +service. The maid-servant, according to the old custom, is not +primarily responsible to her employers, but to her own family; and +the terms of her service must be arranged with her family, who pledge +themselves for their daughter's good behaviour. As a general rule, a +nice girl does not seek domestic service for the sake of the wages +(which it is now the custom to pay), nor for the sake of a living, +but chiefly to prepare herself for marriage; and this preparation is +desired as much in the hope of doing credit to her own family, as in +the hope of better fitting herself for membership in the family of +her future husband. The best servants are country girls; and they are +sometimes put out to service very young. Parents are careful about +choosing the family into which their daughter thus enters: they +particularly desire that the house be one in which a girl can learn +nice ways,--therefore a house in which things are ordered according +to the old etiquette. A good girl expects to be treated rather as a +helper than as a hireling,--to be kindly considered, and trusted, and +liked. In an old-fashioned household the maid is indeed so treated; +and the relation is not a brief one--from three to five years being +the term of service usually agreed upon. But when a girl is [408] +taken into service at the age of eleven or twelve, she will probably +remain for eight or ten years. Besides wages, she is entitled to +receive from her employers the gift of a dress, twice every year, +besides other necessary articles of clothing; and she is entitled +also to a certain number of holidays. Such wages, or presents in +money, as she receives, should enable her to provide herself, by +degrees, with a good wardrobe. Except in the event of some +extraordinary misfortune, her parents will make no claim upon her +wages; but she remains subject to them; and when she is called home +to be married, she must go. During the period of her service, the +services of her family are also at the disposal of her employers. +Even if the mistress or master desire no recognition of the interest +taken in the girl, some recognition will certainly be made. If the +servant be a farmer's daughter, it is probable that gifts of +vegetables, fruits, or fruit trees, garden-plants or other country +products, will be sent to the house at intervals fixed by custom;--if +the parents belong to the artizan-class, it is likely that some +creditable example of handicraft will be presented as a token of +gratitude. The gratitude of the parents is not for the wages or the +dresses given to their daughter, but for the practical education she +receives, and for the moral and material care taken of her, as a +temporarily adopted child of the house. The employers may reciprocate +such attentions [409] on the part of the parents by contributing to +the girl's wedding outfit. The relation, it will be observed, is +entirely between families, not between individuals; and it is a +permanent relation. Such a relation, in feudal ages, might continue +through many generations. + +The patriarchal conditions which these survivals exemplify helped to +make existence easy and happy. Only from a modern point of view is it +possible to criticise them. The worst that can be said about them is +that their moral value was chiefly conservative, and that they tended +to repress effort in new directions. But where they still endure, +Japanese life keeps something of its ancient charm; and where they +have disappeared, that charm has vanished forever. + +There remains to be considered a third form of restraint,--that +exercised upon the individual by official authority. This also +presents us with various survivals, which have their bright as well +as their dark aspects. + +We have seen that the individual has been legally freed from most of +the obligations imposed by the ancient law. He is no longer obliged +to follow a particular occupation; he is able to travel; he is at +liberty to marry into a higher or a lower class than his own; he is +not even forbidden to change his religion; he can do a great many +things--at his own [410] risk. But where the law leaves him free, the +family and the community do not; and the persistence of old sentiment +and custom nullifies many of the rights legally conferred. Precisely +in the same way, his relations to higher authority are still +controlled by traditions which maintain, in despite of constitutional +law, many of the ancient restraints, and not a little of the ancient +coercion. In theory any man of great talent and energy may rise, from +rank to rank, up to the highest positions. But as private life is +still controlled to no small degree by the old communism, so public +life is yet controlled by survivals of class or clan despotism. The +chances for ability to rise without assistance, to win its way to +rank and power, are extraordinarily small; since to contend alone +against an opposition that thinks by groups, and acts by masses, must +be almost hopeless. Only commercial or industrial life now offers +really fair opportunities to capable men. The few talented persons of +humble origin who do succeed in official directions owe their success +chiefly to party-help or clan-patronage: in order to force any +recognition of personal ability, group must be opposed to group. +Alone, no man is likely to accomplish anything by mere force of +competition, outside of trade or commerce.... It is true, of course, +that individual talent must in every country encounter many forms of +opposition. It is likewise true that the malevolence of envy and the +brutalities of class-prejudice [411] have their sociological worth: +they help to make it impossible for any but the most gifted to win +and to keep success. But in Japan the peculiar constitution of +society lends excessive power to social intrigues directed against +obscure ability, and makes them highly injurious to the interests of +the nation;--for at no previous time in her history has Japan needed, +so much as now, the best capacities of her best men, irrespective of +class or condition. + +But all this was inevitable in the period of reconstruction. More +significant is the fact that in no single department of its +multitudinous service does the Government yet offer substantial +reward to rising merit. No matter how well a man may strive to win +Government approbation, he must strive for little more than honour +and the bare means of existence. The costliest efforts are no more +highly paid in proportion to their worth than the cheapest; the most +invaluable services are scarcely better recognized than those most +easily dispensed with or replaced. (There have been some remarkable +exceptions: I am stating only the general rule.) By extraordinary +energy, patience, and cleverness, one may reach, with class-help, +some position which in Europe would assure comfort as well as honour; +but the emoluments of such a position in Japan will scarcely cover +the actual cost of living. Whether in the army or in the navy, in the +departments of justice, of education, of communications, or of [412] +home affairs,--the differences in remuneration nowhere represent the +differences in capacity and responsibility. To rise from grade to +grade signifies pecuniarily almost nothing,--for the expenses of each +higher position augment out of all proportion to the salaries fixed +by law. The general rule has been to exact everywhere the greatest +possible amount of service for the least possible amount of pay.* Any +one unacquainted with the social history [413] of the country might +suppose that the policy of the Government toward its employes +consisted in substituting empty honours for material advantages. But +the truth is that the Government has simply maintained, under modern +forms, the ancient feudal condition of service,--service in exchange +for the means of simple but honourable living. In feudal times the +farmer was expected to pay all that he could pay for the right to +exist; the artist or artizan was expected to content himself with the +good fortune of having a distinguished patron; even the ordinary +samurai were supplied with barely more than the necessary by their +liege-lords. To receive considerably more than the necessary +signified extraordinary favour; and the gift was usually accompanied +by promotion. But although the same policy is yet successfully +maintained by Government, under the modern system of money-payments, +the conditions everywhere, outside of commercial life, are +incomparably harder than in feudal times. Then the poorest samurai +was secured against want, and not liable to be dismissed from his +post without fault. Then the teacher received no salary; but the +respect of the community and the gratitude of his pupils assured him +of the means to live [414] respectably. Then the artizans were +patronized by great lords who vied with each other in the +encouragement of humble genius. They might expect the genius to be +satisfied with merely nominal payment, so far as money was concerned; +but they secured him against want or discomfort, allowed him ample +leisure to perfect his work, made him happy in the certainty that his +best would be prized and praised. But now that the cost of living has +tripled or quadrupled, even the artist and the artizan have small +encouragement to do their best: cheap rapid work is replacing the +beautiful leisurely work of the old days; and the best traditions of +the crafts are doomed to perish. It cannot even be said that the +state of the agricultural classes to-day is happier or better than in +the time when a farmer's land could not legally be taken from him. +And as the cost of life continues always to increase, it is evident +that at no distant time, the present patient order of things will +become impossible. + +[*Salaries of judges range from 70 pounds to 500 pounds per +annum,--the latter figure representing the highest possible +emolument. The highest salary allowed to a Japanese professor in the +imperial universities has been fixed at 120 pounds. The wages of +employees in the postal departments is barely sufficient to meet the +cost of living. The police are paid from 1 pound to 1 pound 10s. per +month, according to locality; and the average pay of school-teachers +is yet lower (being 9 yen 50 sen, or about 19s. per month),--many +receiving less than 7s. a month. + +Readers may be interested in the following table of army-payments +(1904):-- + + MONTHLY PAY ALLOWANCE FOR TOTAL + HOUSE-RENT + yen yen yen + +General 500 (50 pounds) 25:00 525:00 +Lieutenant-General 333 18:75 351:75 +Major-General 263 12:50 275:50 +Colonel 179 10:00 189:00 +Lieutenant-Colonel 146 8:75 154:75 +Major 102 7:50 109:50 +Captain (1st grade) 70 4:75 74:75 + (2nd grade) 60 4:75 64:75 +Lieutenant (1st grade) 45 4:00 49:00 + (2nd grade) 34 4:00 38:00 +Second Lieutenant 30 3:50 33:50 + +When these rates of pay were fixed, about twenty years ago, +house-rent was cheap: a good house could be rented anywhere at 3 Yen +or 4 Yen per month. To-day in Tokyo an officer can scarcely rent even +a very small house at less than 19 yen or 20 yen; and prices of +food-stuffs have tripled. Yet there have been very few complaints. +Officers whose pay will not allow them to rent houses hire rooms +wherever they can. Many suffer hardship; but all are proud of the +privilege of serving, and no one dreams of resigning.] + +To many it would seem that a wise government must recognize the +impracticability of indefinitely maintaining its present demand for +self-sacrifice, must perceive the necessity of encouraging talent, +inviting fair competition, and making the prizes of life large enough +to stimulate healthy egoism. But it is possible that the Government +has been acting more wisely than outward appearances would indicate. +Several years ago a Japanese official made in [415] my presence this +curious observation: "Our Government does not wish to encourage +competition beyond the necessary. The people are not prepared for it; +and if it were strongly encouraged, the worst side of character would +came to the surface." How far this statement really expressed any +policy I do not know. But every one is aware that free competition +can be made as cruel and as pitiless as war,--though we are apt to +forget what experience must have been undergone before Occidental +free competition could become as comparatively merciful, as it is. +Among a people trained for centuries to regard all selfish +competition as criminal, and all profit-seeking despicable, any +sudden stimulation of effort for purely personal advantage might well +be impolitic. Evidence as to how little the nation was prepared, +twelve or thirteen years ago, for Western forms of free government, +has been furnished by the history of the earlier district-elections +and of the first parliamentary sessions. There was really no personal +enmity in those furious election-contests, which cost so many lives; +there was scarcely any personal antagonism in those parliamentary +debates of which the violence astonished strangers. The political +struggles were not really between individuals, but between +clan-interests, or party-interests; and the devoted followers of each +clan or party understood the new politics only as a new kind of +war,--a war of loyalty to be fought for the leader's sake, [416]--a +war not to be interfered with by any abstract notions of right or +justice. Suppose that a people have been always accustomed to think +of loyalty in relation to persons rather than to principles,--loyalty +as involving the duty of self-sacrifice regardless of +consequence,--it is obvious that the first experiments of such a +people with parliamentary government will not reveal any +comprehension of fair play in the Western sense. Eventually that +comprehension may come; but it will not come quickly. And if you can +persuade such a people that in other matters every man has a right to +act according to his own convictions, and for his own advantage, +independently of any group to which he may belong, the immediate +result will not be fortunate,--because the sense of individual moral +responsibility has not yet been sufficiently cultivated outside of +the group-relation. + +The probable truth is that the strength of the government up to the +present time has been chiefly due to the conservation of ancient +methods, and to the survival of the ancient spirit of reverential +submission. Later on, no doubt, great changes will have to be made; +meanwhile, much must be bravely endured. Perhaps the future history +of modern civilization will hold record of nothing more touching than +the patient heroism of those myriads of Japanese patriots, content to +accept, under legal [417] conditions of freedom, the official +servitude of feudal days,--satisfied to give their talent, their +strength, their utmost effort, their lives, for the simple privilege +of obeying a government that still accepts all sacrifices in the +feudal spirit--as a matter of course,--as a national duty. And as a +national duty, indeed, the sacrifices are made. All know that Japan +is in danger, between the terrible friendship of England and the +terrible enmity of Russia,--that she is poor,--that the cost of +maintaining her armaments is straining her resources,--that it is +everybody's duty to be content with as little as possible. So the +complaints are not many.... Nor has the simple obedience of the +nation at large been less touching,--especially, perhaps, as regards +the imperial order to acquire Western knowledge, to learn Western +languages, to imitate Western ways. Only those who have lived in +Japan during or before the early nineties are qualified to speak of +the loyal eagerness that made self-destruction by over-study a common +form of death,--the passionate obedience that impelled even children +to ruin their health in the effort to master tasks too difficult for +their little minds (tasks devised by well-meaning advisers with no +knowledge of Far-Eastern psychology),--and the strange courage of +persistence in periods of earthquake and conflagration, when boys and +girls used the tiles of their ruined homes for school-slates, and +bits of fallen plaster for pencils. What [418] tragedies I might +relate even of the higher educational life of universities!--of fine +brains giving way under pressure of work beyond the capacity of the +average European student,--of triumphs won in the teeth of death,--of +strange farewells from pupils in the time of the dreaded +examinations, as when one said to me: "Sir, I am very much afraid +that my paper is bad, because I came out of the hospital to make +it--there is something the matter with my heart." (His diploma was +placed in his hands scarcely an hour before he died.) ... And all +this striving--striving not only against difficulties of study, but +in most cases against difficulties of poverty, and underfeeding, and +discomfort--has been only for duty, and the means to live. To +estimate the Japanese student by his errors, his failures, his +incapacity to comprehend sentiments and ideas alien to the experience +of his race, is the mistake of the shallow: to judge him rightly one +must have learned to know the silent moral heroism of which he is +capable. + + + +[419] + +OFFICIAL EDUCATION + +The extent to which national character has been fixed by the +discipline of centuries, and the extent or its extraordinary capacity +to resist change, is perhaps most strikingly indicated by certain +results of State education. The whole nation is being educated, with +Government help, upon a European plan; and the full programme +includes the chief subjects of Western study, excepting Greek and +Latin classics. From Kindergarten to University the entire system is +modern in outward seeming; yet the effect of the new education is +much less marked in thought and sentiment than might be supposed. +This fact is not to be explained merely by the large place which old +Chinese study still occupies in the obligatory programme, nor by +differences of belief--it is much more due to the fundamental +difference in the Japanese and the European conceptions of education +as means to an end. In spite of new system and programme the whole of +Japanese education is still conducted upon a traditional plan almost +the exact opposite of the Western plan. With us, the repressive part +of moral training begins in early childhood--the European or American +teacher is strict with the little [420] ones; we think that it is +important to inculcate the duties of behaviour,--the "must" and the +"must not" of individual obligation,--as soon as possible. Later on, +more liberty is allowed. The well-grown boy is made to understand +that his future will depend upon his personal effort and capacity; +and he is thereafter left, in a great measure, to take care of +himself, being occasionally admonished or warned, as seems needful. +Finally, the adult student of promise and character may become the +intimate, or, under happy circumstances, even the friend of his +tutor, to whom he can look for counsel in all difficult situations. +And throughout the whole course of mental and moral training +competition is not only expected, but required. But it is more and +more required as discipline is more and more relaxed, with the +passing of boyhood into manhood. The aim of Western education is the +cultivation of individual ability and personal character,--the +creation of an independent and forceful being. + +Now Japanese education has always been conducted, and, in spite of +superficial appearances, is still being conducted, mostly upon the +reverse plan. Its object never has been to train the individual for +independent action, but to train him for cooperative action,--to fit +him to occupy an exact place in the mechanism of a rigid society. +Constraint among ourselves begins with childhood, and gradually +relaxes; constraint in Far-Eastern training begins later, [421] and +thereafter gradually tightens; and it is not a constraint imposed +directly by parents or teachers--which fact, as we shall presently +see, makes an enormous difference in results. Not merely up to the +age of school-life,--supposed to begin at six years,--but +considerably beyond it, a Japanese child enjoys a degree of liberty +far greater than is allowed to Occidental children. Exceptional cases +are common, of course; but the general rule is that the child be +permitted to do as he pleases, providing that his conduct can cause +no injury to himself or to others. He is guarded, but not +constrained; admonished, but rarely compelled. In short, he is +allowed to be so mischievous that, as a Japanese proverb says, "even +the holes by the roadside hate a boy of seven or eight years old"* +[*By former custom a newly-born child was said to be one year old; +and in this case the words "seven or eight years old" mean "six or +seven years old."] (Nanatsu, yatsu--michibata no ana desaimon +nikumu). Punishment is administered only when absolutely necessary; +and on such occasions, by ancient custom, the entire +household--servants and all--intercede for the offender; the little +brothers and sisters, if any there be, begging in turn to bear the +penalty instead. Whipping is not a common punishment, except among +the roughest classes; the moxa is preferred as a deterrent; and it is +a severe one. To frighten a child by loud harsh words, or angry +looks, is condemned by general opinion: all punishment ought [422] to +be inflicted as quietly as possible, the punisher calmly admonishing +the while. To slap a child about the head, for any reason, is a proof +of vulgarity and ignorance. It is not customary to punish by +restraining from play, or by a change of diet, or by any denial of +accustomed pleasures. To be perfectly patient with children is the +ethical law. At school the discipline begins; but it is at first so +very light that it can hardly be called discipline: the teacher does +not act as a master, but rather as an elder brother; and there is no +punishment beyond a public admonition. Whatever restraint exists is +chiefly exerted on the child by the common opinion of his class; and +a skilful teacher is able to direct that opinion. Also each class is +nominally governed by one or two little captains, selected for +character and intelligence; and when a disagreeable order has to be +given, it is the child-captain, the kyucho, who is commissioned with +the duty of giving it. (These little details are worthy of note: I +cite them only to show how early in school-life begins the discipline +of opinion, the pressure of the common will, and how perfectly this +policy accords with the ethical traditions of the race.) In higher +classes the pressure slightly increases; and in higher schools it is +very much stronger; the ruling power always being class-sentiment, +not the individual will of the teacher. In middle schools the pupils +become serious: class-opinion there attains a force to which the +teacher [423] himself must bend, as it is quite capable of expelling +him for any attempt to override it. Each middle-school class has its +elected officers, who represent and enforce the moral code of the +majority,--the traditional standard of conduct. (This moral standard +is deteriorating; but it survives everywhere to some degree.) +Fighting or bullying are yet unknown in Japanese schools of this +grade for obvious reasons: there can be little indulgence of personal +anger, and no attempt at personal domination, under a discipline +enforcing a uniform manner of behaviour. It is never the domination +of the one over the many that regulates class-life: it is always the +rule of the many over the one,--and the power is formidable. The +student who consciously or unconsciously offends class-sentiment will +suddenly find himself isolated,--condemned to absolute solitude. No +one will speak to him or notice him even outside of the school, until +such time as he decides to make a public apology, when his pardon +will depend upon a majority-vote. + +Such temporary ostracism is not unreasonably feared, because it is +regarded even outside of student-circles as a disgrace; and the +memory of it will cling to the offender during the rest of his +career. However high he may rise in official or professional life in +after years, the fact that he was once condemned by the general +opinion of his schoolmates will not be forgotten,--though +circumstances may occur [424] which will turn the fact to his +credit.... In the great Government schools--to one of which the +student may proceed after graduating from a +middle-school--class-discipline is still more severe. The instructors +are mostly officials looking for promotion: the students are grown +men, preparing for the University, and destined, with few exceptions, +for public office. In this quietly and coldly ordered world there is +little place for the joy of youth, and small opportunity for +sympathetic expansion. There are gatherings and societies; but these +are arranged or established for practical purposes--chiefly in +relation to particular branches of study; there is little time for +merry-making, and less inclination. Under all circumstances, a +certain formal demeanour is exacted by tradition,--a tradition older +by far than any public school. Everybody watches everybody: +eccentricities or singularities are quickly marked and quietly +suppressed. The results of this class-discipline, as maintained in +some institutions, must seem to the foreign observer discomforting. +What most impressed me about these higher official schools was the +sinister silence of them. In one where I taught for several +years--the most conservative school in the country--there were more +than a thousand young men, full of life and energy; yet during the +intervals between classes, or during recreation-hours in the +playground, the garden, and the gymnastic hall, the general hush gave +one a strange sense of [425] oppression. One might watch a game of +foot-ball being played, and hear nothing but the thud of the kicking; +or one might watch wrestling-contests in the jiujutsu-room, and hear +no word spoken for half an hour at a time. (The rules of jiujutsu, it +is true, require not only silence, but the total suppression of all +visible emotional interest on the part of the spectators.) All this +repression at first seemed to me very strange--though I knew that +thirty years previously, the training at samurai-schools compelled +the same impassiveness and reticence. + +At last the University is reached,--the great gate of ceremony to +public office. Here the student finds himself released from the +restraints previously imposed upon his private life,* though the +class-will continues to rule him in certain directions. As a rule, +the student passes into official life after having graduated, +marries, and becomes the head, or the [426] prospective head, of a +household. How sudden the transformation of the man at this epoch of +his career, only those who have observed the transformation can +imagine. It is then that the full significance of Japanese education +reveals itself. + +[*This release is of recent date; and the results, by the +acknowledgment of the students themselves, have not been good. +Twenty-five years ago, University study was so seriously thought +about that a scholar who failed, through his own fault, would have +been considered a criminal. There was then a Chinese poem in vogue, +which used to be sung at the departure of youths for the University +of that time (Daigaku Nanko) by their friends and relations:-- + + Danji kokorozashi wo tatete, kyokwan wo idzu; + Gaku moshi narazunba, shisudomo kaeradzu, + +[The young man, having made a firm resolve, leaves his native home. +If he fail to acquire learning, then, even though he die, he must +never return.] + +In those years also it was obligatory upon students to live and dress +simply, and to abstain from all self-indulgence.] + +Few incidents of Japanese life are more surprising than the +metamorphosis of the gawky student into the dignified, impassive, +easy-mannered official. But a little time ago he was respectfully +asking, cap in hand, the explanation of some text, the meaning of +some foreign idiom; to-day, perhaps, he is judging cases in some +court, or managing diplomatic correspondence under ministerial +supervision, or directing the management of some public school. +Whatever you may have thought of his particular capacity as a +student, you will scarcely doubt his particular fitness for the +position to which he has been called. Success in study was at best a +secondary consideration in the matter of his appointment,--though he +had to succeed. He was put through some special course, under high +protection, after having been selected for certain qualities of +character,--or at least for the promise of such qualities. There may +have been favouritism in his case; but, generally speaking, capable +men are appointed to positions of trust: the Government seldom makes +serious mistakes. This man has value beyond what mere study could +make for him,--some capacity in the direction of management or of +organization, [427]--some natural force or talent which his training +has served to cultivate. According to the quality of his worth, his +position was chosen for him in advance. His long, hard schooling has +taught him more than books can teach, and more than a stupid person +can ever learn: how to read minds and motives,--how to remain +impassive under all circumstances,--how to reach a truth quickly by +simple questioning,--how to live upon his guard (even against the +most intimate of old acquaintances),--how to remain, even when most +amiable, secretive and inscrutable. He has graduated in the art of +worldly wisdom. He is really a wonderful person, a highly developed +type of his race; and no inexperienced Occidental is capable of +judging him, because his visible acquirements count for very little +in the measure of his relative value. His University study--his +English or French or German knowledge--serves him only as so much oil +to make easy the working of certain official machinery: he esteems +this learning only as means to some administrative end; his real +learning, considerably deeper, represents the development of the +Japanese soul of him. Between that mind and any Western mind the +distance has become immeasurable. And now, less than ever before, +does he belong to himself. He belongs to a family, to a party, to a +government: privately he is bound by custom; publicly he must act +according to order only, and never dream of yielding to [428] any +impulses at variance with order, however generous or sensible such +impulses may be. A word might ruin him: he has learned to use no +words unnecessarily. By silent submission and tireless observance of +duty he may rise, and rise quickly: he may become Governor, Chief +justice, Minister of State, Minister Plenipotentiary; but the higher +he rises, the heavier will his bonds become. + +Long training in caution and self-control is indeed an indispensable +preparation for official existence; the ability either to keep a +position won, or to resign it with honour, depending much upon such +training. The most sinister circumstance of official life is the +absence of moral freedom,--the absence of the right to act according +to one's own convictions of justice. The subordinate, who desires +above all things to keep his place, is not supposed to have personal +convictions or sympathies--save by permission. He is not the slave of +a man, but of a system--a system as old as China. Were human nature +perfect, that system would be perfect; but so long as human nature +remains what it is now, the system leaves much to be desired. +Everything may depend upon the personal character of those +temporarily intrusted with higher power; and the only choice left for +the most capable servant under a bad master may be to resign or to do +wrong. The strong man faces the problem bravely and resigns; but for +one strong man there are fifty timid ones. [429] Probably the +prospect of a broken career is much less terrifying than the ancient +idea of crime attaching to any form of insubordination. As the forms +of a religion survive after the faith in doctrine has passed away, so +the power of Government to coerce even conscience still remains, +though religion is no longer identified with Government. The system +of secrecy, implacably enforced, helps to maintain the vague awe that +has always attached to the idea of administrative authority; and such +authority is practically omnipotent within those limits which I have +already indicated. To be favoured by authority means to experience +all the illusive pleasure of a suddenly created popularity: an entire +community, a whole city, is made by a word to turn all the amiable +side of its human nature toward the favourite,--to charm him into the +belief that he is worthy of the best that the world can give him. But +suppose that the moving powers happen, latter on, to find the +favoured man in the way of some policy--lo! at another whispered word +he finds himself, without knowing why, the public enemy. None speak +to him or salute him or smile upon him--save ironically: +long-esteemed friends pass him by without recognition, or, if +pursued, reply to his most earnest questions with all possible +brevity and caution. Most likely they do not know the "why" of the +matter: they only know that orders have been given, and that into the +[430] reason of orders it is not good to enquire. Even the +street-children know this much, and mock the despondent victim of +fortune; even the dogs seem instinctively to divine the change and +bark at him as he passes by.... Such is the power of official +displeasure; and the penalty of a blunder or a breach of discipline +may extend considerably further--but in feudal times the offender +would have been simply told to perform harakiri. Sometimes, when the +wrong men get into power, the force of authority may be used for +malevolent ends; and in such event it requires not a little courage +to disobey an order to act against conscience. What saved Japanese +society in former ages from the worst results of this form of +tyranny, was the moral sentiment of the mass,--the common feeling +that underlay all submission to authority, and remained always +capable, if pressed upon too brutally, of compelling a reaction. +Conditions to-day are more favourable to justice; but it requires +much tact, steadiness, and resolution on the part of a rising +official to steer himself safely among the reefs and the whirlpools +of the new political life. + + * * * * * * + +The reader will now be able to understand the general character, aim, +and results of official education as a system. It will be also worth +while to consider in detail certain phases of student-life, which +equally prove the survival of old conditions and old [431] +traditions. I can speak about these matters from personal experience +as a teacher,--an experience extending over nearly thirteen years. + +Readers of Goethe will remember the trustful docility of the student +received by Doctor Mephistopheles in the First Part of Faust, and the +very different demeanour of the same student when he reappears, in +the Second Part, as Baccalaureus. More than one foreign professor in +Japan must have been reminded of that contrast by personal +experience, and must have wondered whether some one of the early +educational advisers to the Japanese Government did not play, without +malice prepense, the very role of Mephistopheles.... The gentle boy +who, with innocent reverence, makes his visit of courtesy to the +foreign teacher, bringing for gift a cluster of iris-flowers or +odorous spray of plum-blossoms,--the boy who does whatever he is +told, and charms by an earnestness, a trustfulness, a grace of manner +rarely met with among Western lads of the same age,--is destined to +undergo the strangest of transformations long before becoming a +baccalaureus. You may meet with him a few years later, in the uniform +of some Higher School, and find it difficult to recognize your former +pupil,--now graceless, taciturn, secretive, and inclined to demand as +a right what could scarcely, with propriety, be requested as a +favour. You may find [432] him patronizing,--possibly something +worse. Later on, at the University, he becomes more formally correct, +but also more far away,--so very far away from his boyhood that the +remoteness is a pain to one who remembers that boyhood. The Pacific +is less wide and deep than the invisible gulf now extending between +the mind of the stranger and the mind of the student. The foreign +professor is now regarded merely as a teaching-machine; and he is +more than likely to regret any effort made to maintain an intimate +relation with his pupils. Indeed the whole formal system of official +education is opposed to the development of any such relation. I am +speaking of general facts in this connexion, not of merely personal +experiences. No matter what the foreigner may do in the hope of +finding his way into touch with the emotional life of his students, +or in the hope of evoking that interest in certain studies which +renders possible an intellectual tie, he must toil in vain. Perhaps +in two or three cases out of a thousand he may obtain something +precious,--a lasting and kindly esteem, based upon moral +comprehension; but should he wish for more he must remain in the +state of the Antarctic explorer, seeking, month after month, to no +purpose, some inlet through endless cliffs of everlasting ice. Now +the case of the Japanese professor proves the barrier natural, to a +large extent. The Japanese professor can ask for extraordinary +efforts and, [433] obtain them; he can afford to be easily familiar +with his students outside of class; and he can get what no stranger +can obtain,--their devotion. The difference has been attributed to +race-feeling; but it cannot be so easily and vaguely explained. + +Something of race-sentiment there certainly is; it were impossible +that there should not be. No inexperienced foreigner can converse for +one half hour with any Japanese--at least with any Japanese who has +not sojourned abroad---and avoid saying something that jars upon +Japanese good taste or sentiment; and few--perhaps, none--among +untravelled Japanese can maintain a brief conversation in any +European tongue without making some startling impression upon the +foreign listener. Sympathethic understanding, between minds so +differently constructed, is next to impossible. But the foreign +professor who looks for the impossible--who expects from Japanese +students the same quality of intelligent comprehension that he might +reasonably expect from Western students--is naturally disturbed. "Why +must there always, remain the width of a world between us?" is a +question often asked and rarely answered. + +Some of the reasons should by this time be obvious to my reader; but +one among them and the most, curious--will not. Before stating it I +must observe that while the relation between foreign [434] instructor +and the Japanese student is artificial, that between the Japanese +teacher and the student is traditionally one of sacrifice and +obligation. The inertia encountered by the stranger, the indifference +which chills him at all times, are due in great part to the +misapprehension arising from totally opposite conceptions of duty. +Old sentiment lingers long after old forms have passed away; and how +much of feudal Japan survives in modern Japan, no stranger can +readily divine. Probably the bulk of existing sentiment is hereditary +sentiment: the ancient ideals have not yet been replaced by fresh +ones.... In feudal times the teacher taught without salary: he was +expected to devote all his time, thought, and strength to his +profession. High honour was attached to that profession; and the +matter of remuneration was not discussed,--the instructor trusting +wholly to the gratitude of parents and pupils. Public sentiment bound +them to him with a bond that could not be broken. Therefore a +general, upon the eve of an assault, would take care that his former +teacher should have an opportunity to escape from the place +beleaguered. The tie between teacher and pupil was in force second +only to the tie between parent and child. The teacher sacrificed +everything for his pupil: the pupil was ready at all times to die for +his teacher. Now, indeed, the hard and selfish aspects of Japanese +character are coming to the surface. But a [435] single fact will +sufficiently indicate how much of the old ethical sentiment persists +under the new and rougher surface: Nearly all the higher educational +work accomplished in Japan represents, though aided by Government, +the results of personal sacrifice. + +From the summit of society to the base, this sacrificial spirit +rules. That a large part of the private income of their Imperial +Majesties has, for many years, been devoted to public education is +well known; but that every person of rank or wealth or high position +educates students at his private expense, is not generally known. In +the majority of cases this help is entirely gratuitous; in a minority +of cases, the expenses of the student are advanced only, to be repaid +by instalments at some future time. The reader is doubtless aware +that the daimyo in former times used to dispose of the bulk of their +incomes in supporting and helping their retainers; supplying +hundreds, in some cases thousands, and in some few cases, even tens +of thousands, of persons with the necessaries of life; and exacting +in return military service, loyalty, and obedience. Those former +daimyo or their successors--particularly those who are still large +landholders--now vie with each other in assisting education. All who +can afford it are educating sons or grandsons or descendants of +former retainers; the subjects of this patronage being annually +selected from among the students of [436] schools established in the +former daimiates. It is only the rich noble who can now support a +number of students gratuitously, year after year; the poorer men of +rank cannot care for many. But all, or very nearly all, maintain +some,--and this even in cases where the patron's income is so small +that the expense could not be borne unless the student were pledged +to repay it after graduation. In some instances, half of the cost is +borne by the patron; the student being required to repay the rest. + +Now these aristocratic examples are extensively followed through +other grades of society. Merchants, bankers, and manufacturers--all +rich men of the commercial and industrial classes--are educating +students. Military officers, civil service officials, physicians, +lawyers, men of every profession, in short, are doing the same thing. +Persons whose incomes are too small to permit of much generosity are +able to help students by employing them as door-keepers, messengers, +tutors,--giving them board and lodging, and a little pocket-money at +times, in return, for light services. In Tokyo, and in most of the +large cities, almost every large house is guarded by students who are +being thus assisted. As for what the teachers do--that requires +special mention. + +The majority of teachers in the public schools do not receive +salaries enabling them to help students with money; but all teachers +earning more than the [437] bare necessary give aid of some sort. +Among the instructors and professors of the higher educational +establishments, the helping of students seems to be thought of as a +matter of course,--so much a matter of course that we might suspect a +new "tyranny of custom," especially in view of the smallness of +official salaries. But no tyranny of custom would explain the +pleasure of sacrifice and the strange persistence of feudal idealism +which are revealed by some extraordinary facts. For example: A +certain University professor is known to have supported and educated +a large number of students by dividing among them, during many years, +nearly the whole of his salary. He lodged, clothed, boarded, and +educated them, bought their books, and paid their fees,--reserving +for himself only the cost of his living, and reducing even that cost +by living upon hot sweet potatoes. (Fancy a foreign professor in +Japan putting himself upon a diet of bread and water for the purpose +of educating gratuitously a number of poor young men!) I know of two +other cases nearly as remarkable; the helper, in one instance, being +an old man of more than seventy, who still devotes all his means, +time, and knowledge to his ancient ideal of duty. How much obscure +sacrifice of this kind has been performed by those least able to +afford it never will be known: indeed, the publication of the facts +would only give pain. I am guilty of some indiscretion in mentioning +[418] even the cases brought to my attention--though human nature is +honoured by the mention.... Now it should be evident that while +Japanese students are accustomed to witness self-denial of this sort +on the part of native professors, they cannot be much impressed by +any manifestation of interest or sympathy on the part of the foreign +professor, who, though receiving a higher salary than his Japanese +colleagues, has no reason and small inclination to imitate their +example. + +Surely this heroic fact of education sustained by personal +sacrifices, in the face of unimaginable difficulties, is enough to +redeem much humbug and wrong. In spite of the corruption which has +been of late years rife in educational circles,--in spite of official +scandals, intrigues, and shams,--all needed reforms can be hoped for +while the spirit of generous self-denial continues to rule the world +of teachers and students. I can venture also the opinion that most of +the official scandals and failures have resulted from the +interference of politics with modern education, or from attempting to +imitate foreign conventional methods totally at variance with +national moral experience. Where Japan has remained true to her old +moral ideals she has done nobly and well: where she has needlessly +departed from them, sorrow and trouble have been the natural +consequences. + +There are yet other facts in modern education [439] suggesting even +more forcibly how much of the old life remains hidden under the new +conditions, and how rigidly race-character has become fixed in the +higher types of mind. I refer chiefly to the results of Japanese +education abroad,--a higher special training in German, English, +French, or American Universities. In some directions these results, +to foreign observation at least, appear to be almost negative. +Considering the immense psychological differentiation,--the total +oppositeness of mental structure and habit,--it is astonishing that +Japanese students have been able to do what they actually have done +at foreign Universities. To graduate at any European or American +University of mark, with a mind shaped by Japanese culture, filled +with Chinese learning, crammed with ideographs,--is a prodigious +feat: scarcely less of a feat than it would be for an American +student to graduate at a Chinese University. Certainly the men sent +abroad to study are carefully selected for ability; and one +indispensable requisite for the mission is a power of memory +incomparably superior to the average Occidental memory, and different +altogether as to quality,--a memory for details;--nevertheless, the +feat is amazing. But with the return to Japan of these young +scholars, there is commonly an end of effort in the direction of the +speciality studied,--unless it happens to have been a purely +practical subject. Does this signify incapacity for independent work +[440] upon Occidental lines? incapacity for creative thought? lack of +constructive imagination? disinclination or indifference? The history +of that terrible mental and moral discipline to which the race was so +long subjected would certainly suggest such limitations in the modern +Japanese mind. Perhaps these questions cannot yet be +answered,--except, I imagine, as regards the indifference, which is +self-evident and undisguised. But, independently of any question of +capacity or inclination, there is this fact to be considered,--that +proper encouragement has not yet been given to home-scholarship. The +plain truth is that young men are sent to foreign seats of learning +for other ends than to learn how to devote the rest of their lives to +the study of psychology, philology, literature, or modern philosophy. +They are sent abroad to fit them for higher posts in +Government-service; and their foreign study is but one obligatory +episode in their official career. Each has to qualify himself for +special duty by learning how Western people study and think and feel +in certain directions, and by ascertaining the range of educational +progress in those directions; but he is not ordered to think or to +feel like Western people--which would, in any event, be impossible +for him. He has not, and probably could not have, any deep personal +interest in Western learning outside of the domain of applied +science. His business is to learn how to understand such matters from +the [441] Japanese, not from the Occidental, point of view. But he +performs his part well, does exactly what he has been told to do, and +rarely anything more. His value to his Government is doubled or +quadrupled by his allotted experience; but at home--except during a +few years of expected duty as professor or lecturer--he will probably +use that experience only as a psychological costume of ceremony,--a +mental uniform to be donned when official occasion may require. + +It is otherwise in the case of men sent abroad for scientific studies +requiring, not only intelligence and memory, but natural quickness of +hand and eye,--surgery, medicine, military specialities. I doubt +whether the average efficiency of Japanese surgeons can be surpassed. +The study of war, I need hardly say, is one for which the national +mind and character have inherited aptitude. But men sent abroad +merely to win a foreign University-degree, and destined, after a term +of educational duty, to higher official life, appear to set small +value upon their foreign acquirements. However, even if they could +win distinction in Europe by further effort at home, that effort +would have to be made at a serious pecuniary sacrifice, and its +results could not as yet be fairly appreciated by their own +countrymen. + +Some of us have wondered at times what the old Egyptians or the old +Greeks would have done if [442] suddenly brought into dangerous +contact with a civilization like our own,--a civilization of applied +mathematics, with sciences and branch-sciences of which the mere +names would fill a dictionary. I think that the history of modern +Japan suggests very clearly what any wise people, with a civilization +based upon ancestor-worship, would have done. They would have +speedily reconstructed their patriarchal society to meet the sudden +peril; they would have adopted, with astonishing success, all the +scientific machinery that they could use; they would have created a +formidable army and a highly efficient navy; they would have sent +their young aristocrats abroad to study alien convention, and to +qualify for diplomatic duty; they would have established a new system +of education, and obliged all their children to study many new +things;--but toward the higher emotional and intellectual life of +that alien civilization, they would naturally exhibit indifference: +its best literature, its philosophy, its broader forms of tolerant +religion could make no profound appeal to their moral and social +experience. + + + +[443] + +INDUSTRIAL DANGER + +Everywhere the course of human civilization has been shaped by the +same evolutional law; and as the earlier history of the ancient +European communities can help us to understand the social conditions +of Old Japan, so a later period of the same history can help us to +divine something of the probable future of the New Japan. It has been +shown by the author of La Cite Antique that the history of all the +ancient Greek and Latin communities included four revolutionary +periods.* The first revolution had everywhere for its issue the +withdrawal of political power from the priest-king; who was +nevertheless allowed to retain the religious authority. The second +revolutionary period witnessed the breaking up of the gens or (Greek +genos). the enfranchisement of the client from the authority of the +patron, and several important changes in [444] the legal constitution +of the family. The third revolutionary period saw the weakening of +the religious and military aristocracy, the entrance of the common +people into the rights of citizenship, and the rise of a democracy of +wealth,--presently to be opposed by a democracy of poverty. The +fourth revolutionary period witnessed the first bitter struggles +between rich and poor, the final triumph of anarchy, and the +consequent establishment of a new and horrible form of +despotism,--the despotism of the popular Tyrant. + +[*Not excepting Sparta. The Spartan society was evolutionally much +in advance of the Ionian societies; the Dorian patriarchal clan +having been dissolved at some very early period. Sparta kept its +Kings; but affairs of civil justice were regulated by the Senate, and +affairs of criminal justice by the ephors, who also had the power to +declare war and to make treaties of peace. After the first great +revolution of Spartan history the King was deprived of power in civil +matters, in criminal matters, and in military matters: he retained +his sacerdotal office. See for details. La Cite Antique, pp, +285-287.] + +To these four revolutionary periods, the social history of Old Japan +presents but two correspondences. The first Japanese revolutionary +period was represented by the Fujiwara usurpation of the imperial +civil and military authority,--after which event the aristocracy, +religious and military, really governed Japan down to our own time. +All the events of the rise of the military power and the +concentration of authority under the Tokugawa Shogunate properly +belong to the first revolutionary period. At the time of the opening +of Japan, society had not evolutionally advanced beyond a stage +corresponding to that of the antique Western societies in the seventh +or eighth century before Christ. The second revolutionary period +really began only with the reconstruction of society in 1871. But +within the space of a single generation thereafter, Japan entered +upon her third revolutionary [445] period. Already the influence of +the elder aristocracy is threatened by the sudden rise of a new +oligarchy of wealth,--a new industrial power probably destined to +become omnipotent in politics. The disintegration (now proceeding) of +the clan, the changes in the legal constitution of the family, the +entrance of the people into the enjoyment of political rights, must +all tend to hasten the coming transfer of power. There is every +indication that, in the present order of things, the third +revolutionary period will run its course rapidly; and then a fourth +revolutionary period, fraught with serious danger, would be in +immediate prospect. + +Consider the bewildering rapidity of recent changes,--from the +reconstruction of society in 1871 to the opening of the first +national parliament in 1891. Down to the middle of the nineteenth +century the nation had remained in the condition common to European +patriarchal communities twenty-six hundred years ago: society had +indeed entered upon a second period of integration, but had traversed +only one great revolution. And then the country was suddenly hurried +through two more social revolutions of the most extraordinary +kind,--signalized by the abolition of the daimiates, the suppression +of the military class, the substitution of a plebeian for an +aristocratic army, popular enfranchisement, the rapid formalism of a +new commonalty. industrial [446] expansion, the rise of a new +aristocracy of wealth, and popular representation in government! Old +Japan had never developed a wealthy and powerful middle class: she +had not even approached that stage of industrial development which, +in the ancient European societies, naturally brought about the first +political struggles between rich and poor. Her social organization +made industrial oppression impossible: the commercial classes were +kept at the bottom of society,--under the feet even of those who, in +more highly evolved communities, are most at the mercy of +money-power. But now those commercial classes, set free and highly +privileged, are silently and swiftly ousting the aristocratic +ruling-class from power,--are becoming supremely important. And under +the new order of things, forms of social misery, never before known +in the history of the race, are being developed. Some idea of this +misery may be obtained from the fact that the number of poor people +in Tokyo unable to pay their annual resident-tax is upwards of +50,000; yet the amount of the tax is only about 20 sen, or 5 pence +English money. Prior to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a +minority there was never any such want in any part of Japan,--except, +of course, as a temporary consequence of war. + +The early history of European civilization supplies analogies. In the +Greek and Latin communities, up to the time of the dissolution of the +gens, there [447] was no poverty in the modern meaning of that word. +Slavery. with some few exceptions, existed only in the mild domestic +form; there were yet no commercial oligarchies, and no industrial +oppressions; and the various cities and states were ruled, after +political power had been taken from the early kings, by military +aristocracies which also exercised religious functions. There was yet +little trade in the modern signification of the term; and money, as +current coinage, came into circulation only in the seventh century +before Christ. Misery did not exist. Under any patriarchal system, +based upon ancestor-worship, there is no misery, as a consequence of +poverty, except such as may be temporarily created by devastation or +famine. If want thus comes, it comes to all alike. In such a state of +society everybody is in the service of somebody, and receives in +exchange for service all the necessaries of life: there is no need +for any one to trouble himself about the question of living. Also, in +such a patriarchal community, which is self-sufficing, there is +little need of money: barter takes the place of trade.... In all +these respects, the condition of Old Japan offered a close parallel +to the conditions of patriarchal society in ancient Europe. While the +uji or clan existed, there was no misery except as a result of war, +famine, or pestilence. Throughout society--excepting the small +commercial class--the need of money was rare; and such coinage as +existed [448] was little suited to general circulation. Taxes were +paid in rice and other produce. As the lord nourished his retainers, +so the samurai cared for his dependants, the farmer for his +labourers, the artizan for his apprentices and journeymen, the +merchant for his clerks. Everybody was fed; and there was no need, in +ordinary times at least, for any one to go hungry. It was only with +the breaking-up of the clan-system in Japan that the possibilities of +starvation for the worker first came into existence. And as, in +antique Europe, the enfranchised client-class and plebeian-class +developed, under like conditions, into a democracy clamouring for +suffrage and all political rights, so in Japan have the common people +developed the political instinct, in self-protection. + +It will be remembered how, in Greek and Roman society, the +aristocracy founded upon religious tradition and military power had +to give way to an oligarchy of wealth, and how there subsequently +came into existence a democratic form of government,--democratic, not +in the modern, but in the old Greek meaning. At a yet later day the +results of popular suffrage were the breaking-up of this democratic +government, and the initiation of an atrocious struggle between rich +and poor. After that strife had begun there was no more security for +life or property until the Roman conquest enforced order.... Now it +seems not unlikely that there will he witnessed in Japan, at no very +[449] distant day, a strong tendency to repeat the history of the old +Greek anarchies. With the constant increase of poverty and pressure +of population, and the concomitant accumulation of wealth in the +hands of a new industrial class, the peril is obvious. Thus far the +nation has patiently borne all changes. relying upon the experience +of its past, and trusting implicitly to its rulers. But should +wretchedness be so permitted to augment that the question of how to +keep from starving becomes imperative for the millions, the long +patience and the long trust may fail. And then, to repeat a figure +effectively used by Professor Huxley, the Primitive Man, finding that +the Moral Man has landed him in the valley of the shadow of death, +may rise up to take the management of affairs into his own hands, and +fight savagely for the right of existence. As popular instinct is not +too dull to divine the first cause of this misery in the introduction +of Western industrial methods, it is unpleasant to reflect what such +an upheaval might signify. But nothing of moment has yet been done to +ameliorate the condition of the wretched class of operatives, now +estimated to exceed half a million. + +M. de Coulanges has pointed out* that the absence of individual +liberty was the real cause of the disorders and the final ruin of the +Greek societies. + +[*La Cite Antique. pp, 400-401.] + +[450] Rome suffered less, and survived, and dominated,--because +within her boundaries the rights of the individual had been more +respected.... Now the absence of individual freedom in modern Japan +would certainly appear to be nothing less than a national danger. For +those very habits of unquestioning obedience, and loyalty, and +respect for authority, which made feudal society possible, are likely +to render a true democratic regime impossible, and would tend to +bring about a state of anarchy. Only races long accustomed to +personal liberty,--liberty to think about matters of ethics apart +from matters of government,--liberty to consider questions of right +and wrong, justice and injustice, independently of political +authority,--are able to face without risk the peril now menacing +Japan. For should social disintegration take in Japan the same course +which it followed in the old European societies,--unchecked by any +precautionary legislation,--and so bring about another social +revolution, the consequence could scarcely be less than utter ruin. +In the antique world of Europe, the total disintegration of the +patriarchal system occupied centuries: it was slow, and it was +normal--not having been brought about by external forces. In Japan, +on the contrary, this disintegration is taking place under enormous +outside pressure, operating with the rapidity of electricity and +steam. In Greek societies the changes were effected in about three +[451] hundred years; in Japan it is hardly more than thirty years +since the patriarchal system was legally dissolved and the industrial +system reshaped; yet already the danger of anarchy is in sight, and +the population--astonishingly augmented by more than ten +millions--already begins to experience all the forms of misery +developed by want under industrial conditions. + +It was perhaps inevitable that the greatest freedom accorded under +the new order of things should have been given in the direction of +greatest danger. Though the Government cannot be said to have done +much for any form of competition within the sphere of its own direct +control, it has done even more than could have been reasonably +expected on behalf of national industrial competition. Loans have +been lavishly advanced. subsidies generously allowed; and, in spite +of various panics and failures, the results have been prodigious. +Within thirty years the value of articles manufactured for export has +risen from half a million to five hundred million yen. But this +immense development has been effected at serious cost in other +directions. The old methods of family production--and therefore most +of the beautiful industries and arts, for which Japan has been so +long famed--now seem doomed beyond hope; and instead of the ancient +kindly relations between master and workers, there have been brought +into existence--with no legislation to restrain [452] inhumanity--all +the horrors of factory-life at its worst. The new combinations of +capital have actually reestablished servitude, under harsher forms +than ever were imagined under the feudal era; the misery of the women +and children subjected to that servitude is a public scandal, and +proves strange possibilities of cruelty on the part of a people once +renowned for kindness,--kindness even to animals. + +There is now a humane outcry for reform; and earnest efforts have +been made, and will be made, to secure legislation for the protection +of operatives. But, as might be expected, these efforts have been +hitherto strongly opposed by manufacturing companies and syndicates +with the declaration that any Government interference with factory +management will greatly hamper, if not cripple, enterprise, and +hinder competition with foreign industry. Less than twenty years ago +the very same arguments were used in England to oppose the efforts +then being made to improve the condition of the industrial classes; +and that opposition was challenged by Professor Huxley in a noble +address, which every Japanese legislator would do well to read +to-day. Speaking of the reforms in progress during 1888. the +professor said: + +"If it is said that the carrying out of such arrangements as those +indicated must enhance the cost of production, and thus handicap the +producer in the race of competition. I venture, in the first place. +to doubt the fact; but, if it be [453] so, it results that industrial +society has to face a dilemma, either alternative of which threatens +destruction. + +"On the one hand, a population, the labour of which is sufficiently +remunerated, may be physically and morally healthy, and socially +stable, but may fail in industrial competition by reason of the +dearness of its produce. On the other hand, a population, the labour +of which is insufficiently remunerated, must become physically and +morally unhealthy, and socially unstable; and though it may succeed +for a while in competition, by reason of the cheapness of its +produce, it must in the end fall, through hideous misery and +degradation, to utter ruin. + +"Well, if these be the only alternatives, let us for ourselves and +our children choose the former, and, if need be, starve like men. But +I do not believe that a stable society, made up of healthy, vigorous, +instructed, and self-ruling people would ever incur serious risk of +that fate. They are not likely to be troubled with many competitors +of the same character just yet; and they may be safely trusted to +find ways of holding their own."* + +[*The Struggle for Existence in Human Society. "Collected Essays," +Vol. IX. pp, 113--219.] + +If the future of Japan could depend upon her army and her navy, upon +the high courage of her people and their readiness to die by the +hundred thousand for ideals of honour and of duty, there would be +small cause for alarm in the present state of affairs. Unfortunately +her future must depend upon other qualities than courage, other +abilities than those of [454] sacrifice; and her struggle hereafter +must be one in which her social traditions will place her at an +immense disadvantage. The capacity for industrial competition cannot +be made to depend upon the misery of women and children; it must +depend upon the intelligent freedom of the individual; and the +society which suppresses this freedom, or suffers it to be +suppressed, must remain too rigid for competition with societies in +which the liberties of the individual are strictly maintained. While +Japan continues to think and to act by groups, even by groups of +industrial companies, so long she must always continue incapable of +her best. Her ancient social experience is not sufficient to avail +her for the future international struggle,--rather it must sometimes +impede her as so much dead weight. Dead, in the ghostliest sense of +the word,--the viewless pressure upon her life of numberless vanished +generations. She will have not only to strive against colossal odds +in her rivalry with more plastic and more forceful societies; she +will have to strive much more against the power of her phantom past. + +Yet it were a grievous error to imagine that she has nothing further +to gain from her ancestral faith. All her modern successes have been +aided by it; and all her modern failures have been marked by needless +breaking with its ethical custom. She could compel her people, by a +simple fiat, to adopt the [455] civilization of the West, with all +its pain and struggle, only because that people had been trained for +ages in submission and loyalty and sacrifice; and the time has not +yet come in which she can afford to cast away the whole of her moral +past. More freedom indeed she requires,--but freedom restrained by +wisdom; freedom to think and act and strive for self as well as for +others,--not freedom to oppress the weak, or to exploit the simple. +And the new cruelties of her industrial life can find no +justification in the traditions of her ancient faith, which exacted +absolute obedience from the dependant, but equally required the duty +of kindness from the master. In so far as she has permitted her +people to depart from the way of kindness, she herself has surely +departed from the Way of the Gods.... + +And the domestic future appears dark. Born of that darkness, an evil +dream comes oftentimes to those who love Japan: the fear that all her +efforts are being directed, with desperate heroism, only to prepare +the land for the sojourn of peoples older by centuries in commercial +experience; that her thousands of miles of railroads and telegraphs, +her mines and forges, her arsenals and factories, her docks and +fleets, are being put in order for the use of foreign capital; that +her admirable army and her heroic navy may be doomed to make their +last sacrifices in hopeless contest against some combination of +greedy states. provoked or encouraged to aggression [456] by +circumstances beyond the power of Government to control.... But the +statesmanship that has already guided Japan through many storms +should prove able to cope with this gathering peril. + + + +[457] + +REFLECTIONS + +In the preceding pages I have endeavoured to suggest a general idea +of the social history of Japan, and a general idea of the nature of +those forces which shaped and tempered the character of her people. +Certainly this attempt leaves much to be desired: the time is yet far +away at which a satisfactory work upon the subject can be prepared. +But the fact that Japan can be understood only through the study of +her religious and social evolution has been, I trust, sufficiently +indicated. She affords us the amazing spectacle of an Eastern society +maintaining all the outward forms of Western civilization; using, +with unquestionable efficiency, the applied science of the Occident; +accomplishing, by prodigious effort, the work of centuries within the +time of three decades,--yet sociologically remaining at a stage +corresponding to that which, in ancient Europe, preceded the +Christian era by hundreds of years. + +But no suggestion of origins and causes should diminish the pleasure +of contemplating this curious world, psychologically still so far +away from us in the course of human evolution. The wonder and [458] +the beauty of what remains of the Old Japan cannot be lessened by any +knowledge of the conditions that produced them. The old kindliness +and grace of manners need not cease to charm us because we know that +such manners were cultivated, for a thousand years, under the edge of +the sword. The common politeness which appeared, but a few years ago, +to be almost universal, and the rarity of quarrels, should not prove +less agreeable because we have learned that, for generations and +generations, all quarrels among the people were punished with +extraordinary rigour; and that the custom of the vendetta, which +rendered necessary such repression, also made everybody cautious of +word and deed. The popular smile should not seem less winning because +we have been told of a period, in the past of the subject-classes, +when not to smile in the teeth of pain might cost life itself. And +the Japanese woman, as cultivated by the old home-training, is not +less sweet a being because she represents the moral ideal of a +vanishing world, and because we can faintly surmise the cost,--the +incalculable cost in pain,--of producing her. + +No: what remains of this elder civilization is full of charm,--charm +unspeakable,--and to witness its gradual destruction must be a grief +for whomsoever has felt that charm. However intolerable may seem, to +the mind of the artist or poet, those countless restrictions which +once ruled all this fairy-world [459] and shaped the soul of it, he +cannot but admire and love their best results: the simplicity of old +custom,--the amiability of manners,--the daintiness of habits,--the +delicate tact displayed in pleasure-giving,--the strange power of +presenting outwardly, under any circumstances, only the best and +brightest aspects of character. What emotional poetry, for even the +least believing, in the ancient home-religion,--in the lamplet +nightly kindled before the names of the dead, the tiny offerings of +food and drink, the welcome-fires lighted to guide the visiting +ghosts, the little ships prepared to bear--them back to their rest! +And this immemorial doctrine of filial piety,--exacting all that is +noble, not less than all that is terrible, in duty, in gratitude, in +self-denial,--what strange appeal does it make to our lingering +religious instincts; and how close to the divine appear to us the +finer natures forged by it! What queer weird attraction in those +parish-temple festivals, with their happy mingling of merriment and +devotion in the presence of the gods! What a universe of romance in +that Buddhist art which has left its impress upon almost every +product of industry, from the toy of a child to the heirloom of a +prince;--which has peopled the solitudes with statues, and chiselled +the wayside rocks with texts of sutras! Who can forget the soft +enchantment of this Buddhist atmosphere?--the deep music of the great +bells?--the [460] green peace of gardens haunted by fearless things, +doves that flutter down at call, fishes rising to be fed? ... Despite +our incapacity to enter into the soul-life of this ancient East, +--despite the certainty that one might as well hope to remount the +River of Time and share the vanished existence of some old Greek +city, as to share the thoughts and the emotions of Old Japan,--we +find ourselves bewitched forever by the vision, like those wanderers +of folk-tale who rashly visited Elf-land. + +We know that there is illusion,--not as to the reality of the +visible, but as to its meanings,--very much illusion. Yet why should +this illusion attract us, like some glimpse of Paradise?--why should +we feel obliged to confess the ethical glamour of a civilization as +far away from us in thought as the Egypt of Ramses? Are we really +charmed by the results of a social discipline that refused to +recognize the individual?--enamoured of a cult that exacted the +suppression of personality? + +No: the charm is made by the fact that this vision of the past +represents to us much more than past or present,--that it foreshadows +the possibilities of some higher future, in a world of Perfect +sympathy. After many a thousand years there may be developed a +humanity able to achieve, with never a shadow of illusion, those +ethical conditions prefigured by the ideals of Old Japan: instinctive +unselfishness, [461] a common desire to find the joy of life in +making happiness for others, a universal sense of moral beauty. And +whenever men shall have so far gained upon the present as to need no +other code than the teaching of their own hearts, then indeed the +ancient ideal of Shinto will find its supreme realization. + +Moreover, it should be remembered that the social state, whose +results thus attract us, really produced much more than a beautiful +mirage. Simple characters of great charm, though necessarily of great +fixity, were developed by it in multitude. Old Japan came nearer to +the achievement of the highest moral ideal than our far more evolved +societies can hope to do for many a hundred years. And but for those +ten centuries of war which followed upon the rise of the military +power, the ethical end to which all social discipline tended might +have been much more closely approached. Yet if the better side of +this human nature had been further developed at the cost of darker +and sterner qualities, the consequence might have proved unfortunate +for the nation. No people so ruled by altruism as to lose its +capacities for aggression and cunning could hold their own, in the +present state of the world, against races hardened by the discipline +of competition as well as by the discipline of war. The future Japan +must rely upon the least [462] amiable qualities of her character for +success in the universal struggle; and she will need to develop them +strongly. + + + * + * * + +How strongly she has been able to develop them in one direction, the +present war with Russia bears startling witness. But it is certainly +to the long discipline of the past that she owes the moral strength +behind this unexpected display of aggressive power. No superficial +observation could discern the silent energies masked by the +resignation of the people to change,--the unconscious heroism +informing this mass of forty million souls, the compressed force +ready to expand at Imperial bidding either for construction or +destruction. From the leaders of a nation with such a military and +political history, one might expect the manifestation of all those +abilities of supreme importance in diplomacy and war. But such +capacities could prove of little worth were it not for the character +of the masses,--the quality of the material that moves to command +with the power of winds and tides. The veritable strength of Japan +still lies in the moral nature of her common people,--her farmers and +fishers, artizans and labourers,--the patient quiet folk one sees +toiling in the rice-fields, or occupied with the humblest of crafts +and callings in city by-ways. All the unconscious heroism of the race +is in these, and all its splendid courage,--a [463] courage that does +not mean indifference to life, but the desire to sacrifice life at +the bidding of the Imperial Master who raises the rank of the dead. +From the thousands of young men now being summoned to the war, one +hears no expression of hope to return to their homes with glory;--the +common wish uttered is only to win remembrance at the Shokonsha--that +"Spirit-Invoking Temple," where the souls of all who die for Emperor +and fatherland are believed to gather. At no time was the ancient +faith stronger than in this hour of struggle; and Russian power will +have very much more to fear from that faith than from repeating +rifles or Whitehead torpedoes.* Shinto, as a religion of patriotism, +is a force that should suffice, if permitted fair-play, to affect not +only the destinies of the whole Far East, but the future of +civilization. No more irrational assertion was ever made about the +Japanese than the statement of their indifference to religion. +Religion is still, as it has [464] ever been, the very life of the +people,--the motive and the directing power of their every action: a +religion of doing and suffering, a religion without cant and +hypocrisy. And the qualities especially developed by it are just +those qualities which have startled Russia, and may yet cause her +many a painful surprise. She has discovered alarming force where she +imagined childish weakness; she has encountered heroism where she +expected to find timidity and helplessness.** + +[*The following reply, made by Admiral Togo Commander-in-Chief of the +Japanese fleet, to an Imperial message of commendation received after +the second attempt to block the entrance to Port Arthur, is +characteristically Shinto:-- + +"The warm message which Your imperial Majesty condescended to grant +us with regard to the second attempt to seal Port Arthur, has not +only overwhelmed us with gratitude, but may also influence the +patriotic manes of the departed heroes to hover long over the +battle-field and give unseen protection to the Imperial forces."... +[Translated in the JAPAN TIMES of March 31st, 1904.] + +--Such thoughts and hopes about the brave dead might have been +uttered by a Greek warrior before the battle of Salamis. The faith +and courage which helped the Greeks to repel the Persian invasion +were of precisely the same quality as that religious heroism which +now helps the Japanese to challenge the power of Russia.] + +[**The case of the Japanese officers and men on the transport Kinshu +Maru, sank by the Russian warships on the 26th of last April, should +have given the enemy matter for reflection. Although allowed an +hour's time for consideration, the soldiers refused to surrender, and +opened fire with their rifles on the battleships. Then, before the +Kinshu Maru was blown in two by a torpedo, a number of the Japanese +officers and men performed harakiri.... This strong display of the +fierce old feudal spirit suggests how dearly a Russian success would +be bought.] + + * + * * + +For countless reasons this terrible war (of which no man can yet see +the end) is unspeakably to be regretted; and of these reasons not the +least are industrial. War must temporarily check all tendencies +towards the development of that healthy individualism without which +no modern nation can become prosperous and wealthy. Enterprise is +numbed, markets paralyzed, manufactures stopped. Yet, in the +extraordinary case of this extraordinary people, it is possible that +the social effects of the contest will prove to some degree +beneficial. Prior to hostilities, there had been a visible tendency +to [465] the premature dissolution of institutions founded upon +centuries of experience,--a serious likelihood of moral +disintegration. That great changes must hereafter be made,--that the +future well-being of the country requires them,--would seem to admit +of no argument. But it is necessary that such changes be effected by +degrees,--not with such inopportune haste as to imperil the moral +constitution of the nation. A war for independence,--a war that +obliges the race to stake its all upon the issue,--must bring about a +tightening of the old social bonds, a strong quickening of the +ancient sentiments of loyalty and duty, a reinforcement of +conservatism. This will signify retrogression in some directions; but +it will also mean invigoration in others. Before the Russian menace, +the Soul of Yamato revives again. Out of the contest Japan will come, +if successful, morally stronger than before; and a new sense of +self-confidence, a new spirit of independence, might then reveal +itself in the national attitude toward foreign policy and foreign +pressure. + +--There would be, of course, the danger of overconfidence. A people +able to defeat Russian power on land and sea might be tempted to +believe themselves equally able to cope with foreign capital upon +their own territory; and every means would certainly be tried of +persuading or bullying the government [466] into some fatal +compromise on the question of the right of foreigners to hold land. +Efforts in this direction have been carried on persistently and +systematically for years; and these efforts seem to have received +some support from a class of Japanese politicians, apparently +incapable of understanding what enormous tyranny a single privileged +syndicate of foreign capital would be capable of exercising in such a +country. It appears to me that any person comprehending, even in the +vaguest way, the nature of money-power and the average conditions of +life throughout Japan, must recognize the certainty that foreign +capital, with right of land-tenure, would find means to control +legislation, to control government, and to bring about a state of +affairs that would result in the practical domination of the empire +by alien interests. I cannot resist the conviction that when Japan +yields to foreign industry the right to purchase land, she is lost +beyond hope. The self-confidence that might tempt to such yielding, +in view of immediate advantages, would be fatal. Japan has +incomparably more to fear from English or American capital than from +Russian battleships and bayonets. Behind her military capacity is the +disciplined experience of a thousand years; behind her industrial and +commercial power, the experience of half-a-century. But she has been +fully warned; and if she chooses hereafter to invite her own ruin, it +will not have [467] been for lack of counsel,--since she had the +wisest man in the world to advise her.* [*Herbert Spencer.] + +To the reader of these pages, at least, the strength and the weakness +of the new social organization--its great capacities for offensive or +defensive action in military directions, and its comparative +feebleness in other directions--should now be evident. All things +considered, the marvel is that Japan should have been so well able to +hold her own; and it was assuredly no common wisdom that guided her +first unsteady efforts in new and perilous ways. Certainly her power +to accomplish what she has accomplished was derived from her old +religious and social training: she was able to keep strong because, +under the new forms of rule and the new conditions of social +activity, she could still maintain a great deal of the ancient +discipline. But even thus it was only by the firmest and shrewdest +policy that she could avert disaster,--could prevent the disruption +of her whole social structure under the weight of alien pressure. It +was imperative that vast changes should be made, but equally +imperative that they should not be of a character to endanger the +foundations; and it was above all things necessary, while preparing +for immediate necessities, to provide against future perils. Never +before, perhaps, in the history of human civilization, did any rulers +find themselves [468] obliged to cope with problems so tremendous, so +complicated, and so inexorable. And of these problems the most +inexorable remains to be solved. It is furnished by the fact that +although all the successes of Japan have been so far due to unselfish +collective action, sustained by the old Shinto ideals of duty and +obedience, her industrial future must depend upon egoistic individual +action of a totally opposite kind! * * * + +What then will become of the ancient morality?--the ancient cult? + +--In this moment the conditions are abnormal. But it seems certain +that there will be, under normal conditions, a further gradual +loosening of the old family-bonds; and this would bring about a +further disintegration. By the testimony of the Japanese themselves, +such disintegration was spreading rapidly among the upper and middle +classes of the great cities, prior to the present war. Among the +people of the agricultural districts, and even in the country towns, +the old ethical order of things has yet been little affected. And +there are other influences than legislative change or social +necessity which are working for disintegration. Old beliefs have been +rudely shaken by the introduction of larger knowledge: a new +generation is being taught, in twenty-seven thousand primary schools, +the rudiments of science and the modern conception of the universe. +The [460] Buddhist cosmology, with its fantastic pictures of Mount +Meru, has become a nursery-tale; the old Chinese nature-philosophy +finds believers only among the little educated, or the survivors of +the feudal era; and the youngest schoolboy has learned that the +constellations are neither gods nor Buddhas, but far-off groups of +suns. No longer can popular fancy picture the Milky Way as the River +of Heaven; the legend of the Weaving-Maiden, and her waiting lover, +and the Bridge of Birds, is now told only to children; and the young +fisherman, though steering, like his fathers, by the light of stars, +no longer discerns in the northern sky the form of Mioken Bosatsu. + +Yet it were easy to misinterpret the weakening of a certain class of +old beliefs, or the visible tendency to social change. Under any +circumstances a religion decays slowly; and the most conservative +forms of religion are the last to yield to disintegration. It were a +grave mistake to suppose that the ancestor-cult has yet been +appreciably affected by exterior influences of any kind, or to +imagine that it continues to exist merely by force of hallowed +custom, and not because the majority still believe. No religion--and +least of all the religion of the dead--could thus suddenly lose its +hold upon the affections of the race that evolved it. Even in other +directions the new scepticism is superficial: it has not spread +downwards into the core of things. There is indeed [470] a growing +class of young men with whom scepticism of a certain sort is the +fashion, and scorn of the past an affectation,--but even among these +no word of disrespect concerning the religion of the home is ever +heard. Protests against the old obligations of filial piety, +complaints of the growing weight of the family yoke, are sometimes +uttered; but the domestic cult is never spoken of lightly. As for the +communal and other public forms of Shinto, the vigour of the old +religion is sufficiently indicated by the continually increasing +number of temples. In 1897 there were 191,962 Shinto temples; in 1901 +there were 195,256. + +It seems probable that such changes as must occur in the near future +will be social rather than religious; and there is little reason to +believe that these changes--however they may tend to weaken filial +piety in sundry directions--will seriously affect the ancestor-cult +itself. The weight of the family-bond, aggravated by the increasing +difficulty and cost of life, may be more and more lightened for the +individual; but no legislation can abolish the sentiment of duty to +the dead. When that sentiment utterly fails, the heart of a nation +will have ceased to beat. Belief in the old gods, as gods, may slowly +pass; but Shinto may live on as the Religion of the Fatherland, a +religion of heroes and patriots; and the likelihood of such future +modification is indicated by the memorial character of many new +temples. + +[471]--It has been much asserted of late years (chiefly because of +the profound impression made by Mr. Percival Lowell's Soul of the Far +East) that Japan is desperately in need of a Gospel of Individualism; +and many pious persons assume that the conversion of the country to +Christianity would suffice to produce the Individualism. This +assumption has nothing to rest on except the old superstition that +national customs and habits and modes of feeling, slowly shaped in +the course of thousands of years, can be suddenly transformed by a +mere act of faith. Those further dissolutions of the old order which +would render possible, under normal conditions, a higher social +energy, can be safely brought about through industrialism +only,--through the working of necessities that enforce competitive +enterprise and commercial expansion. A long peace will be required +for such healthy transformation; and it is not impossible that an +independent and progressive Japan would then consider questions of +religious change from the standpoint of political expediency. +Observation and study abroad may have unduly impressed Japanese +statesmen with the half-truth so forcibly uttered by Michelet,--that +"money has a religion,"--that "capital is Protestant,"--that the +power and wealth and intellectual energy of the world belong to the +races who cast off the yoke of Rome, and freed themselves from the +creed of the Middle [472] Ages.* A Japanese statesman is said to have +lately declared that his countrymen were "rapidly drifting towards +Christianity"! Newspaper reports of eminent utterances are not often +trustworthy; but the report in this case is probably accurate, and +the utterance intended to suggest possibilities. Since the +declaration of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, there has been a +remarkable softening in the attitude of safe conservatism which the +government formerly maintained toward Western religion.... But as for +the question whether the Japanese nation will ever adopt an alien +creed under official encouragement, I think that the sociological +answer is evident. Any understanding of the fundamental structure of +society should make equally obvious the imprudence of attempting +hasty transformations, and the impossibility of effecting them. For +the present, at least, the religious question in Japan is a question +of social integrity; and any efforts to precipitate the natural +course of change can result only in provoking reaction and disorder. +I believe that the time is far away at which Japan can venture to +abandon the policy of [473] caution that has served her so well. I +believe that the day on which she adopts a Western creed, her +immemorial dynasty is doomed; and I cannot help fearing that whenever +she yields to foreign capital the right to hold so much as one rood +of her soil, she signs away her birthright beyond hope of recovery. + +[*No inferences can be safely drawn from the apparent attitude of the +government towards religious bodies in Japan. Of late years the +seeming policy has been to encourage the less tolerant forms of +Western religion. In curious contrast to this attitude is the +non-toleration of Freemasonry. Strictly speaking, Freemasonry is not +allowed in Japan--although, since the abolition of exterritoriality, +the foreign lodges at the open ports have been permitted (or rather, +suffered) to exist upon certain conditions. A Japanese in Europe or +America is free to become a Mason; but he cannot become a Mason in +Japan, where the proceedings of all societies must remain open to +official surveillance.] + + * + * * + +With a few general remarks upon the religion of the Far East, in its +relation to Occidental aggressions, this attempt at interpretation +may fitly conclude. + +--All the societies of the Far East are founded, like that of Japan, +upon ancestor-worship. This ancient religion, in various forms, +represents their moral experience; and it offers everywhere to the +introduction of Christianity, as now intolerantly preached, obstacles +of the most serious kind. Attacks upon it must seem, to those whose +lives are directed by it, the greatest of outrages and the most +unpardonable of crimes. A religion for which every member of a +community believes it his duty to die at call, is a religion for +which he will fight. His patience with attacks upon it will depend +upon the degree of his intelligence and the nature of his training. +All the races of the Far East have not the intelligence of the +Japanese, nor have they been equally well trained, under ages of +military discipline, to adapt their conduct to circumstances. For +[474] the Chinese peasant, in especial, attacks upon his religion are +intolerable. His cult remains the most precious of his possessions, +and his supreme guide in all matters of social right and wrong. The +East has been tolerant of all creeds which do not assault the +foundations of its societies; and if Western missions had been wise +enough to leave those foundations alone,--to deal with the +ancestor-cult as Buddhism did, and to show the same spirit of +tolerance in other directions,--the introduction of Christianity upon +a very extensive scale should have proved a matter of no difficulty. +That the result would have been a Christianity differing considerably +from Western Christianity is obvious,--the structure of Far-Eastern +society not admitting of sudden transformations;--but the essentials +of doctrine might have been widely propagated, without exciting +social antagonism, much less race-hatred. To-day it is probably +impossible to undo what the sterile labour of intolerance has already +done. The hatred of Western religion in China and adjacent countries +is undoubtedly due to the needless and implacable attacks which have +been made upon the ancestor-cult. To demand of a Chinese or an +Annamese that he cast away or destroy his ancestral tablets is not +less irrational and inhuman than it would be to demand of an +Englishman or a Frenchman that he destroy his mother's tombstone in +proof of his devotion to Christianity. [475] Nay, it is much more +inhuman,--for the European attaches to the funeral monument no such +idea of sacredness as that which attaches, in Eastern belief, to the +simple tablet inscribed with the name of the dead parent. From old +time these attacks upon the domestic faith of docile and peaceful +communities have provoked massacres; and, if persisted in, they will +continue to provoke massacres while the people have strength left to +strike. How foreign religious aggression is answered by native +religious aggression; and how Christian military power avenges the +foreign victims with tenfold slaughter and strong robbery, need not +here be recorded. It has not been in these years only that +ancestor-worshipping peoples have been slaughtered, impoverished, or +subjugated in revenge for the uprisings that missionary intolerance +provokes. But while Western trade and commerce directly gain by these +revenges, Western public opinion will suffer no discussion of the +right of provocation or the justice of retaliation. The less tolerant +religious bodies call it a wickedness even to raise the question of +moral right; and against the impartial observer, who dares to lift +his voice in protest, fanaticism turns as ferociously as if he were +proved an enemy of the human race. + +From the sociological point of view the whole missionary system, +irrespective of sect and creed, represents the skirmishing-force of +Western civilization in its general attack upon all civilizations of +the [476] ancient type,--the first line in the forward movement of +the strongest and most highly evolved societies upon the weaker and +less evolved. The conscious work of these fighters is that of +preachers and teachers; their unconscious work is that of sappers and +destroyers. The subjugation of weak races has been aided by their +work to a degree little imagined; and by no other conceivable means +could it have been accomplished so quickly and so surely. For +destruction they labour unknowingly, like a force of nature. Yet +Christianity does not appreciably expand. They perish; and they +really lay down their lives, with more than the courage of soldiers, +not, as they hope, to assist the spread of that doctrine which the +East must still of necessity refuse, but to help industrial +enterprise and Occidental aggrandizement. The real and avowed object +of missions is defeated by persistent indifference to sociological +truths; and the martyrdoms and sacrifices are utilized by Christian +nations for ends essentially opposed to the spirit of Christianity. + +Needless to say that the aggressions of race upon race are fully in +accord with the universal law of struggle,--that perpetual struggle +in which only the more capable survive. Inferior races must become +subservient to higher races, or disappear before them; and ancient +types of civilization, too rigid for progress, must yield to the +pressure of more efficient and [477] more complex civilizations. The +law is pitiless and plain: its operations may be mercifully modified, +but never prevented, by humane consideration. + +Yet for no generous thinker can the ethical questions involved be +thus easily settled. We are not justified in holding that the +inevitable is morally ordained,--much less that, because the higher +races happen to be on the winning side in the world-struggle, might +can ever constitute right. Human progress has been achieved by +denying the law of the stronger,--by battling against those impulses +to crush the weak, to prey upon the helpless, which rule in the world +of the brute, and are no less in accord with the natural order than +are the courses of the stars. All virtues and restraints making +civilization possible have been developed in the teeth of natural +law. Those races which lead are the races who first learned that the +highest power is acquired by the exercise of forbearance, and that +liberty is best maintained by the protection of the weak, and by the +strong repression of injustice. Unless we be ready to deny the whole +of the moral experience thus gained,--unless we are willing to assert +that the religion in which it has been expressed is only the creed of +a particular civilization, and not a religion of humanity,--it were +difficult to imagine any ethical justification for the aggressions +made upon alien peoples in the name of Christianity and +enlightenment. Certainly the results in China of such aggression +[478] have not been Christianity nor enlightenment, but revolts, +massacres, detestable cruelties,--the destruction of cities, the +devastation of provinces, the loss of tens of thousands of lives, the +extortion of hundreds of millions of money. If all this be right, +then might is might indeed; and our professed religion of humanity +and justice is proved to be as exclusive as any primitive cult, and +intended to regulate conduct only as between members of the same +society. + +But to the evolutionist, at least, the matter appears in a very +different light. The plain teaching of sociology is that the higher +races cannot with impunity cast aside their moral experience in +dealing with feebler races, and that Western civilization will have +to pay, sooner or later, the full penalty of its deeds of oppression. +Nations that, while refusing to endure religious intolerance at home, +steadily maintain religious intolerance abroad, must eventually lose +those rights of intellectual freedom which cost so many centuries of +atrocious struggle to win. Perhaps the period of the penalty is not +very far away. With the return of all Europe to militant conditions, +there has set in a vast ecclesiastical revival of which the menace to +human liberty is unmistakable; the spirit of the Middle Ages +threatens to prevail again; and anti-semitism has actually become a +factor in the politics of three Continental powers.... + +[479]--It has been well said that no man can estimate the force of a +religious conviction until he has tried to oppose it. Probably no man +can imagine the wicked side of convention upon the subject of +missions until the masked batteries of its malevolence have been +trained against him. Yet the question of mission-policy cannot be +answered either by secret slander or by public abuse of the person +raising it. To-day it has become a question that concerns the peace +of the world, the future of commerce, and the interests of +civilization. The integrity of China depends upon it; and the present +war is not foreign to it. Perhaps this book, in spite of many +shortcomings, will not fail to convince some thoughtful persons that +the constitution of Far-Eastern society presents insuperable +obstacles to the propaganda of Western religion, as hitherto +conducted; that these obstacles now demand, more than at any previous +epoch, the most careful and humane consideration; and that the +further needless maintenance of an uncompromising attitude towards +them can result in nothing but evil. Whatever the religion of +ancestors may have been thousands of years ago, to-day throughout the +Far East it is the religion of family affection and duty; and by +inhumanly ignoring this fact, Western zealots can scarcely fail to +provoke a few more "Boxer" uprisings. The real power to force upon +the world a peril from China (now that the chance seems lost for +Russia) should [480] not be suffered to rest with those who demand +religious tolerance for the purpose of preaching intolerance. Never +will the East turn Christian while dogmatism requires the convert to +deny his ancient obligation to the family, the community, and the +government,--and further insists that he prove his zeal for an alien +creed by destroying the tablets of his ancestors, and outraging the +memory of those who gave him life. + + + +[481] + +APPENDIX + +HERBERT SPENCER'S ADVICE TO JAPAN + +Some five years ago I was told by an American professor, then +residing in Tokyo, that after Herbert Spencer's death there would be +published a letter of advice, which the philosopher had addressed to +a Japanese statesman, concerning the policy by which the Empire might +be able to preserve its independence. I was not able to obtain any +further information; but I felt tolerably sure, remembering the +statement regarding Japanese social disintegration in "First +Principles" (section 178), that the advice would prove to have been +of the most conservative kind. As a matter of fact it was even more +conservative than I had imagined. + +Herbert Spencer died on the morning of December 8th, 1903 (while this +book was in course of preparation); and the letter, addressed to +Baron Kaneko Kentaro, under circumstances with which the public have +already been made familiar, was published in the London Times of +January 18th, 1904. + + FAIRFIELD, PEWSEY, WILTS, + Aug. 26, 1892. + +MY DEAR SIR,--Your proposal to send translations of my two +letters* to Count Ito, the newly-appointed Prime Minister, +is quite satisfactory. I very willingly give my assent. + +[*These letters have not as yet been made public.] + +Respecting the further questions you ask, let me, in the first +place, answer generally that the Japanese policy should, I think, +be that of keeping Americans and Europeans as much as possible at +arm's length. In presence of the more powerful races your +position is one of chronic danger, and you should take every +precaution to give as little foothold as possible to foreigners. + +[482] It seems to me that the only forms of intercourse which you may +with advantage permit are those which are indispensable for the +exchange of commodities--importation and exportation of physical and +mental products. No further privileges should be allowed to people of +other races, and especially to people of the more powerful races, +than is absolutely needful for the achievement of these ends. +Apparently you are proposing by revision of the treaty with the +Powers of Europe and America "to open the whole Empire to foreigners +and foreign capital." I regret this as a fatal policy. If you wish to +see what is likely to happen, study the history of India. Once let +one of the more powerful races gain a point d'appui and there will +inevitably in course of time grow up an aggressive policy which will +lead to collisions with the Japanese; these collisions will be +represented as attacks by the Japanese which must be avenged, as the +case may be; a portion of territory will be seized and required to be +made over as a foreign settlement; and from this there will grow +eventually subjugation of the entire Japanese Empire. I believe that +you will have great difficulty in avoiding this fate in any case, but +you will make the process easy if you allow of any privileges to +foreigners beyond those which I have indicated. + +In pursuance of the advice thus generally indicated, I should say, in +answer to your first question, that there should be, not only a +prohibition of foreign persons to hold property in land, but also a +refusal to give them leases, and a permission only to reside as +annual tenants. + +To the second question I should say decidedly prohibit to foreigners +the working of the mines owned or worked by Government. Here there +would be obviously liable to arise grounds of difference between the +Europeans or Americans who worked them and the Government, and these +grounds of quarrel would be followed by invocations to the English or +American Governments or other Powers to send forces to insist on +whatever the European workers claimed, for always the habit here and +elsewhere among the civilized peoples is to believe what their agents +or sellers abroad represent to them. + +In the third place, in pursuance of the policy I have indicated, you +ought also to keep the coasting trade in your own hands and forbid +foreigners to engage in it. This coasting trade is clearly not +included in the requirement I have indicated as the sole one to be +recognized--a requirement to facilitate exportation and importation +[483] of commodities. The distribution of commodities brought to +Japan from other places may be properly left to the Japanese +themselves, and should be denied to foreigners, for the reason that +again the various transactions involved would become so many doors +open to quarrels and resulting aggressions. + +To your remaining question respecting the intermarriage of foreigners +and Japanese, which you say is "now very much agitated among our +scholars and politicians" and which you say is "one of the most +difficult problems," my reply is that, as rationally answered, there +is no difficulty at all. It should be positively forbidden. It is not +at root a question of social philosophy. It is at root a question of +biology. There is abundant proof, alike furnished by the +intermarriages of human races and by the interbreeding of animals, +that when the varieties mingled diverge beyond a certain slight +degree the result is inevitably a bad one in the long run. I have +myself been in the habit of looking at the evidence bearing on this +matter for many years past, and my conviction is based on numerous +facts derived from numerous sources. This conviction I have within +the last half-hour verified, for I happen to be staying in the +country with a gentleman who is well known and has had much +experience respecting the interbreeding of cattle; and he has just, +on inquiry, fully confirmed my belief that when, say of the different +varieties of sheep, there is an interbreeding of those which are +widely unlike, the result, especially in the second generation, is a +bad one--there arise an incalculable mixture of traits, and what may +be called a chaotic constitution. And the same thing happens among +human beings--the Eurasians in India, the half-breeds in America, +show this. The physiological basis of this experience appears to be +that any one variety of creature in course of many generations +acquires a certain constitutional adaptation to its particular form +of life, and every other variety similarly acquires its own special +adaptation. The consequence is that, if you mix the constitution of +two widely divergent varieties which have severally become adapted to +widely divergent modes of life, you get a constitution which is +adapted to the mode of life of neither--a constitution which will not +work properly, because it is not fitted for any set of conditions +whatever. By all means, therefore, peremptorily interdict marriages +of Japanese with foreigners. + +I have for the reasons indicated entirely approved of the regulations +which have been established in America for restraining the Chinese +immigration, and had I the power I would restrict them [484] to the +smallest possible amount, my reasons for this decision being that one +of two things must happen. If the Chinese are allowed to settle +extensively in America, they must either, if they remain unmixed, +form a subject race standing in the position, if not of slaves, yet +of a class approaching to slaves; or if they mix they must form a bad +hybrid. In either case, supposing the immigration to be large, +immense social mischief must arise, and eventually social +disorganization. The same thing will happen if there should be any +considerable mixture of European or American races with the Japanese. + +You see, therefore, that my advice is strongly conservative in all +directions, and I end by saying as I began--keep other races at arm's +length as much as possible. + +I give this advice in confidence. I wish that it should not +transpire publicly, at any rate during my life, for I do not +desire to rouse the animosity of my fellow-countrymen. + + I am sincerely yours, HERBERT SPENCER. + +P.S.--Of course, when I say I wish this advice to be in confidence, +I do not interdict the communication of it to Count Ito, but rather +wish that he should have the opportunity of taking it into +consideration. + +How fairly Herbert Spencer understood the prejudices of his +countrymen has been shown by the comments of the Times upon this +letter,--comments chiefly characterized by that unreasoning quality +of abuse with which the English conventional mind commonly resents +the pain of a new idea opposed to immediate interests. Yet some +knowledge of the real facts in the case should serve to convince even +the Times that if Japan is able in this moment to fight for the cause +of civilization in general, and for English interests in particular, +it is precisely because the Japanese statesmen of a wiser generation +maintained a sound conservative policy upon the very lines indicated +in that letter--so unjustly called a proof of "colossal egotism." + +Whether the advice itself directly served at any time to influence +government policy, I do not know. But that it fully accorded with the +national instinct of self-preservation, is shown by the history [485] +of that fierce opposition which the advocates of the abolition of +extra-territoriality had to encounter, and by the nature of the +precautionary legislation enacted in regard to those very matters +dwelt upon in Herbert Spencer's letter, Though extra-territoriality +has been (unavoidably, perhaps) abolished, foreign capital has not +been left free to exploit the resources of the country; and +foreigners are not allowed to own land. Though marriages between +Japanese and foreigners have never been forbidden,* they have never +been encouraged, and can take place only under special legal +restrictions. If foreigners could have acquired, through marriage, +the right to hold Japanese real estate, a considerable amount of such +estate would soon have passed into alien hands. But the law has +wisely provided that the Japanese woman marrying a foreigner thereby +becomes a foreigner, and that the children by such a marriage remain +foreigners. On the other hand, any foreigner adopted by marriage into +a Japanese family becomes a Japanese; and the children in such event +remain Japanese. But they also remain under certain disabilities: +they are precluded from holding high offices of state; and they +cannot even become officers of the army or navy except by special +permission. (This permission appears to have been accorded in one or +two cases.) Finally, it is to be observed that Japan has kept her +coasting-trade in her own hands. + +[*The number of families in Tokyo representing such unions is said to +be over one hundred.] + +On the whole, then, it may be said that Japanese policy followed, to +a considerable extent, the course suggested in Herbert Spencer's +letter of advice; and it is much to be regretted, in my humble +opinion, that the advice could not have been followed more closely. +Could the philosopher have lived to hear of the recent Japanese +victories,--the defeat of a powerful Russian fleet without the loss +of a single Japanese vessel, and the rout of thirty thousand Russian +troops on the Yalu,--I do not think that he would have changed his +counsel by a hair's-breadth. Perhaps he would have commended, [486] +so far as his humanitarian conscience permitted, the thoroughness of +the Japanese study of the new science of war: he might have praised +the high courage displayed, and the triumph of the ancient +discipline;--his sympathies would have been on the side of the +country compelled to choose between the necessities of inviting a +protectorate or fighting Russia. But had he been questioned again as +to the policy of the future, in case of victory, he would probably +have reminded the questioner that military efficiency is a very +different thing from industrial power, and have vigorously repeated +his warning. Understanding the structure and the history of Japanese +society, he could clearly perceive the dangers of foreign contact, +and the directions from which attempts to take advantage of the +industrial weakness of the country were likely to be made.... In +another generation Japan will be able, without peril, to abandon much +of her conservatism; but, for the time being, her conservatism is her +salvation. + + + +[487] + +BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES + +In the preparation of this essay, I have been much indebted to +the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan", and +especially to the following contributions:-- + + (ON THE SUBJECT OF SHINTO) + +"The Revival of Pure Shinto," by Sir Ernest Satow,--Appendix to +Vol. III. + +"The Shinto Temples of Ise," by Satow,--Vol. II. + +"Ancient Japanese Rituals," by Satow,--Vols. VII and IX. + +"Japanese Funeral Rites," by A. H. Lay,--Vol. XIX. + + (ON THE SUBJECT OF LAW AND CUSTOM) + +"Notes on Land Tenure and Local Institutions in Old Japan," by +Dr. D. B. Simmons. Edited by Professor J. H. Wigmore,--Vol. XIX. + +"Materials for the Study of Private Law in Old Japan," by +Professor J. H. Wigmore,--Vol. XX, Supplements 1, 2, 3, 5. + + + +(ON THE CHRISTIAN EPISODE OF THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH + CENTURIES) + +"The Church at Yamaguchi from 1550 to 1586," by Satow,--Vol. VII. + +"Review of the Introduction of Christianity into China and +Japan," by J. H. Gubbins,--Vol. VI. + +"Historical Notes on Nagasaki," by W. A. Wooley,--Vol. IX. + +"The Arima Rebellion," by Dr. Geertz,--Vol. IX. + + + +[488] + (ON JAPANESE HISTORY AND SOCIOLOGY) + +"Early Japanese History," by W. G. Aston,--Vol. XVI. + +"The Feudal System of Japan under the Tokugawa Shoguns," by J. H. +Gubbins,--Vol. XV. + +--The extracts quoted from "The Legacy of Iyeyasu" have been +taken from the translation made by J. F. Lowder. + +--I regret not having been able, in preparing this essay, to +avail myself of the very remarkable "History of Japan during the +Century of Early Foreign Intercourse (1542-1651),"--by James +Murdoch and Isoh Yamagata,--which was published at Kobe last +winter. This important work contains much documentary material +never before printed, and throws new light upon the religious +history of the period. The authors are inclined to believe that, +allowing for numerous apostasies, the total number of Christians +in Japan at no time much exceeded 300,000; and the reasons given +for this opinion, if not conclusive, are at least very strong. +Perhaps the most interesting chapters are those dealing with the +Machiavellian policy of Hideyoshi in his attitude to the foreign +religion and its preachers, but there are few dull pages in the +book. Help to a correct understanding of the history of the time +is furnished by an excellent set of maps, showing the +distribution of the great fiefs and the political partition of +the country before and after the establishment of the Tokugawa +Shogunate. Not the least merit of the work is its absolute +freedom from religious bias of any sort. + + + +INDEX + +Ability, slight opportunity for, to rise, 410-411. + +Adams, Will, 254, 313; interviewed by Iyeyasu, 314-316, favoured + by the Emperor, 316-317; quoted concerning Hideyori's intrigues + and fate. 322-323. + +Adoption, custom of, in patriarchal family, 59, 64-65; marriage + signified merely, 64; modern practices regarding, 386. + +Adultery, enactments of Iyeyasu regarding, 345-346. + +Affection, limitations placed on, 69 ff. + +Age of the Gods, period called the, 259. + +Agnosticism, Buddhism is not. 213, 220. + +Agriculture, gods of, 126, 153-154; no degradation attached to + pursuit of, 245. + +Akindo, the commercial class, 246-247. See Commerce. + +Alcestis, the Japanese woman might be compared to, 366. + +Ancestors, imperial, worship of the, 108-123, 279-280. + +Ancestor-worship, introduction to religion of, 21-32; the real + religion of Japan, 21; summary of the three forms of, 21-22; + the family-cult of, 21-22, 25-26; characteristics of earliest, + 24 ff.; stability of, in Japan for two thousand years, 32; + summary of beliefs surviving from, 31; three stages of, 33-34; + evolution of permanent form from funeral-rites, 34-51: + characteristics of religion of, to-day, 51-53; bearing of, on + family-organization of, 55 ff. ; marriage under the religion + of, 107 ff. ; four classes of, to-day, 123-124; accommodation + of Buddhism to, 183-184; toleration of ancient European, by + Roman Catholicism, 191; Buddhist theory of rebirths reconciled + to, 195 n.; Confucian system founded on, 177-178, 292; needless + attacks on, account for smallness of result, of modern missions, + 339, 473-475; protection of, by modern laws, 385-388; obstacles + presented to Christianity by, 473-475. + +"Ancient Japanese Rituals", 43 n. See Satow. + +Animals, absence of cruelty to, 12-13; kindness to, taught by + Buddhism, 196-197. + +Animism, development of, 131-132. + +Antigone, comparison of the Japanese woman to, 366. + +Apes, images of Koshin's symbolic, 200. + +Apprentices, obligation of, to avenge masters, 293; past and + present position of, 406. + +Architecture, displayed in Buddhist temples, 199-200. + +Arima, lord of Shimabara, 324, 325. + +Army, birth of modern, 376: pay of officers in, 412. + +Art, knowledge of Japanese religion necessary to understanding + of, 2-3; introduction by Buddhism, 197-198, 204, 459; forms of, + in Buddhist temples, 198-199; expulsion of Jesuits, a fortunate + thing for, 341-342; causes which tended to production of a + multitude of objects of, 356; effect of modern industrial + conditions on, 451. + +Artizans, gods of, 124-125; clans of, 235; position of, under + quasi-feudal system, 245-246; organizations of, see Guilds. + +Arts, developed in Japan under Buddhist teaching, 188; progress + of the, under Iyeyasu, 279. + +Asada, Lieutenant, suicide of widow of, 289. + +Asceticism, Shinto, 149-150. + +Ashikaga shogunate, 271-273. Sec undo Iyeyasu. + +Aston, W.G., translation of the Nihongi by, cited, 38, 39, 112 n., + 151 n., 164 n., 232 n., 234 n.; "Early Japanese History" + by, cited, 259 n. + +Bambetsu, "Foreign Branch", the mass of people, 235-236. + +Banishment, punishment by, 96-99. + +Banner-supporters (hatamoto), 243. + +Bateren, Roman Catholic priests, 311 n. + +Bato-Kwannon, images of, 200. + +Behaviour, sumptuary regulations as to, 173-174; proclamation of + Shotoku Taishi regarding, 359-360. + +Births, regulations as to presents on occasions of, 165; + registration of, by Buddhist priests, 203-204. + +Black, an Englishman, as a Japanese story-teller, 10-11. + +Bon-odori, dances of the festival of the dead, 202. + +Boundaries, gods of, 130. + +Bow, etiquette of the, 174. + +Boys, conduct of, regulated by the community, 89-90; proverb + regarding mischievousness of, 421. + +Buddhism, Japanese name for (Butsudo), 21; mortuary tablets of, + 42-43, 201; the dead according to, and Shinto, 47-48; entry of, + into Japan, 183-184; disestablishment of (1871), 107-109; charm + of, to Western thinkers, 209-210; summary of teachings of, + under Emperor Temmu, 239; obstacles to establishment of + religious hierarchy by, 251; military development of, 269-270; + violent end to militant, 275-276; jesuitism mistaken for a new + kind of, 332-334; no essential of Shinto weakened by, 379-380. + +Buke, the military class, 241. + +Butsudan, household-shrine, 42. + +Butsudo, "The Way of the Buddha", 21. + +Capital, danger to Japan from foreign, 465-466, 473. + +Carpenters, religious rites preformed by, 125; organizations of, + 403-404. + +Castes, division of society into, 236. + +Cauldron and saucepan, god of the, 129. + +Celibacy, forbidden by early religion, 58; condemned by code of + Iyeyasu, 349. + +Charms, to protect houses, 147 n. + +Chastisement, punishment by, 95-96, 421. + +Chiara, Giuseppe, 327 n. + +Chieftainship, hereditary, 235. + +China, date of introduction of spirit-tablet from, 24; religion + of filial piety in, 49-50; belief as to the Demon-Gate imported + from, 130; penal codes imported from, 176; arts and learning + of, taught by Buddhism, 201; civilization of, brought to Japan + by Buddhism, 203; harakiri, perhaps introduced from, 286; + Jesuit policy in, 331; cause for hatred of Western religion in, + 474; integrity of, depends on mission-policy, 479-480. + +Chori, pariahs, 247-250. + +Chosku, clan of, 367, 368, 372, 374. + +"Chronicles of Nihon", see Nihongi. + +Christianity, assumption that individualism would be produced by, + 471; obstacles to, presented by religion of ancestor-worship, + 479-481. See Jesuits and Missions. + +Chi-U, the condition of, 191 n. + +Circle of Perpetual Hunger for wicked ghosts, 191. + +Clan, cult of the, 81-83. + +Clans, number of, in ancient Japan, 83; three great classes of, + 235-236; early society an aggregation of, 236-237, 252-253; + wars between the military, for supremacy, 267 ff.; misery one + result of break-up of, 447-449. + +Cleanliness exacted by Shinto, 145-146. + +Coffins, size regulated by law, 179. + +Colour-prints, production of, 357. + +Commerce, contempt for, 246; Portuguese, a help to Jesuit + missionary work, 334-335; rise to power, 446; dangers resulting + from the rise of, 447-452. + +Communism not a modern growth, 255. + +Competition, undesirability of, 414-416; Government aid to + national industrial, 451-452. + +Concubines, under patriarchal system, 58, 68-69, 74; remarks of + Iyeyasu regarding, 68, 348. + +Confucianism, influence of, in Japan, 187-188, 292 ff. + +Conscience, doctrine of, admitted by Buddhism, 196. + +Coulanges, Fustel de, 52, 264, 449; quoted, 27, 67. + +Courtesy, legal regulation of, 173-176. + +Craft-gods, 124, 153-154. + +Crafts, effect of Buddhism on, 188; guilds connected with, 246, + 252, 402-405. + +Crucifixion of Christians at Nagasaki, 307. + +Cruelty to animals, apparent absence of, 12-13; punishment of, + after death, 197. + +Daimyo, lords of provinces, 242; conversion of, to Jesuitism, + 304; Jesuits work with aid of, 304, 306,308, 339; protection of + peasantry against, 396. + +Dai-Nihon-Shi, compilation of, 370. + +Dances, sacred, 142-143; of the festival of the dead, 202. + +Dancing, Japanese, 202 n. 2. + +Dan-no-ura, sea-fight of, 267. + +Daughter, gradation of terms signifying, 171. + +Daughters, sale of, 72, 75 n. + +Daughters-in-law, custom as to, 64-65. + +Dead, early conceptions of fate of, 25-28; rites in honour of, + 34-46; poems in praise of, 35; Buddhist doctrine of, 47; + effects of Buddhism on worship of, 191-192. + +Death, penalty of, inflicted for slight offences, 178-179; +matters relating to, regulated by law, 179. + +Debtors, reduction of, to slavery, 234. + +Deities, punishments by tutelar, 102-105; lesser Shinto, 108. + See Gods and Ujigami. + +Demeanour, regulation of, 173-176; cultivation of, as an art, + 359-361. + +Demon-Gate, the, 130. + +Dependants, under the patriarchal system, 76-78, 231-234; + conservative attitude of, 400; position of employes in + commercial houses, 406; position of maid-servants, 407-409. + +Deportment, code of, 173. + +Discipline, strength of, in Old Japan, 159-182. + +Divination, systems of, 150-152; not used in warfare, 152. + +Divorce, in ancient family system, 58, 69-70, 73, 75; the new + laws about, 386. + +Dominicans in Japan, 307; reckless zeal of, 338. + +Drama, introduction by Buddhism, 204; the age of popular, 357; +incidents of real tragedy reproduced in, 290-291. + +Dress, restrictions as to, 166-168. + +Dutch, assistance of, in putting down Shimabara Revolt, 326-327; + effect on status of, of Shimabara Revolt, 329-330. + +Ear-Monument, the, 277. + +Education, effect of Buddhism on, 202-203; introduction of modern + system of, 376; of the State, 419-441; the sustaining of, by + personal sacrifices, 435-436; of students abroad, 439-441. + +Emma (Yama), judge of the dead, 199. + +Emperor, application of term, to early rulers, incorrect, 237. + +Enactments of the Kumi, 91-94. + +Eta, people, the, 98, 247-250. + +Etiquette, cultivation of, in Tokugawa period, 359-361. + +Evolution, Buddhism a theory of, 210. + +Execution, account of an early, 177-178. + +Exports, rise in value of, 451. + +Expression, etiquette of, 173. + +Factory-life, horrors of modern, 452. + +Families of the nobility, number of, 241. + +Family, definition of Japanese term, 22; basis of the ancient, + 55-57; obligation to perpetuate the, 58-59; constitution of the + patriarchal, 60-79. + +Farmers, the rank of, 244-245; secured against undue oppression, + 396-397. See Agriculture. + +Father, gradation of terms signifying, 171. + +Feast-days, Shinto, 103, 137: + +Fencing, Japanese, an example of antipodal action, 7-8. + +Festival of the dead, dances of the, 202. + +Festival-processions, Shinto, 103. + +Festivals of the Ujigami, 84, 137, 140-142; laws as to presents + at boys', 165: Shin-Sho-Sai, 245; temple, 84, 459. + +Feudalism, Japanese so-called, 230-238, 253. + +Flower-arrangement, art of, 358-359. + +Flower-daughter, the, 64. + +Food, the use by ghosts of, 29-30; offerings of, to the dead, 29-30, + 45; offerings to the gods, 53 n., 138, 140, 141; for the dead + might not be eaten by children, 51 n.: laws as to, at weddings + and funerals, 165; offerings of, to Pretas, 191; decree + forbidding use of flesh for, 196; Buddhist offerings of, 201; +recent increase in price of, 412 n. + +"Forty-seven Ronin", story of the, 295-296: tombs of the, 297 n. + +Four Deva Kings, the, 260; temple of, 200. + +Franciscans in Japan, 307 ff. + +Freedmen, class of, 233, 234-235. + +Freemasonry in Japan, 472 n. + +Fujiwara clan, rise of the, 260-261; duration of rule of, 260, + 266, 281; final degeneration of, 266-267. + +Funeral-rites, ancient, 34-46. + +Funerals, laws as to food at, 165; laws governing. 179. + +Gardening, first development of, under Buddhism, 188; modern, 404. + +Gardens, holiness of, 154. + +Ghost-house, 36, 56; transformation of, into Shinto temples, 62. + +Ghosts, ancestor-worship coeval with belief in, 24; identified in + early beliefs with gods, 25, 46-48, 55. + +Ghost-ships, Buddhist, 202. + +Girl-priestesses in Shinto temples, 142-143. + +Girls in service, position of, 407-409. + +Go, definition of, 64 n. + +Goblins, admitted to exist by Buddhism, 190-191. + +Go-Daigo, Mikado, revolt of, against Hojo, 270; later + vicissitudes of, 270-271. + +Gods, no early difference between ghosts and, 25, 55; development + of distinction, between greater and lesser, 25-26; early + conceptions of, compared with Greek and Roman, 27-28: the dead + and, 46-48; the minor, 108; all Japanese considered as, in one + sense, 118: of crookedness, 118-119; of crafts and callings, + 118-119; number of Shinto, worshipped, 127-128; of the house, + 130-131; the great number of, 133-134; of industry, 153-154; + identity of Shinto and Buddhist evil, 190-191. + +God-shelves, 124; daily prayers before, 134-136; religious charms + on, 147 n. + +Go-Kameyama, Emperor, 272. + +Go-Komatsu, Emperor, 272. + +Goshi yeomanry, 243. + +Go-Toba, Emperor, works at sword. making, 245. + +Go-Tsuchi-mikado, Emperor, 273. + +Government, identity of, with religion, 90-91. + +Graves, legal dimensions of, 179; white lanterns at, 202. + +Greeks, parallels drawn between Japanese and, 15-16, 27-28, 34, + 36, 57, 59, 65, 67, 70, 78, 89, 99, 148, 169, 202 n., 229, 264, + 443-444, 446. + +Guilds, 246, 252; religious organization of, 124-125; modern +workings of, 402-403. + +Hachiman, the war god, 83; acknowledgment of, in Buddhism, 190. + +Hades, development of belief in, 25. + +Hair, class indicated by method of wearing, 233. + +Harakiri, custom of, 285-286; instance of, in Russian war, 464. + +Harmony, Japanese sense of, in tints and colors. 8. + +Heavenly sovereigns, worship of the, 108-109; maintained through + years of revolt, 279-280. + +Heimin, "common folk", 247. + +Hell, according to Buddhism, 195. + +Hidetada, son of Iyeyasu, 321-322. + +Hideyoshi, career of, 276-277; attitude of, toward Jesuits, + 306-307. + +Hinin, a wandering pariah, 98; "not-human-beings", 250. + +Hirata, great Shinto commentator, 27, 369; quoted, 47, 49, 56, + 111, 116, 117, 119, 120-121, 122, 134-135, 145, 161; banishment + and death of, 372. + +History, scientific knowledge of Japanese, impossible, 1; +legendary, 259-260; beginning of authentic, 260. + +Hitagaki, the "human hedge", 34. + +Hitogata, "mankind-shapes", 147-148. + +Hitotsubashi, Shogun, 374. + +Hiyei-san, monastery buildings burnt at, 275. + +Hizen, clan of, 372. + +Hojo, supremacy of the, 268; defeat of and extinction, 270. + +Home, gods of the, 129-130. + +Honesty, Japanese, 13. + +Hongwanji, Shin sect of, 275. + +Horyfuji, the temple called, 200. + +House, building of, a religious act, 125, 130-131; gods of the, 129. + +Houses, size of, prescribed by law, 164, 165, 166; of prostitution, + enactment of Iyeyasu regarding, 347; operation of labour-unions +when building, 403-404. + +Husband, seven terms for, 171. + +Husbands, position of adopted, 64-65. + +Huxley, T. H., quoted concerning industrial reform, 452-453. + +"I", gradations of the pronoun. 171. + +Ibuku Mogusa, extract from, 305. + +Ihai, "soul-commemoration", Buddhist mortuary tablets, 42, 201. + +Images, Buddhist, 459; setting up of, 200-201. + +Imperial ancestors, worship of the, 108-109; duration of, + 279-280. + +Individual, obligations of the, under patriarchal system, 88-99; + relation of, to the Ujigami, 120-121; freedom of, did not + exist, 158, 253-254; modern recognition of, 376; now free in + theory, in practice like his forefathers, 384-387, 391-392; + Government official authority over the, 409-416. + +Individualism, assumption that Christianity would produce, 471. + +Industry, developed in Japan under Buddhist teachings, 188; + development of, under Iyeyasu, 279. + +Industry, gods of, 124-125, 153-154. + +Irregularity, the aesthetie value of, 8. + +Ise, shrines of, 122.123-124; every Japanese expected to visit, + 123-124; worship at shrines of, 138-139. + +Ishijima, suicide of wife of, 290. + +Isolation, causes for policy of, 329. + +Ito, Marquis, policy of, 390. + +Iyemochi, Shogun, 374. + +Iyeyasu, Tokugawa, apotheosis of, 127; enactment of, concerning + rudeness, 175; powers of daimyo restricted by, 242; Will Adams + created a samurai by, 254; sketch of career of, 277-278; decree + of, concerning suicide, 285; decree concerning code of + vengeance, 293; persecution of Christians by, 307, 308, 320-321; + interviews with Will Adams, 314-315; castle of Osaka + stormed and burnt by, 322; Legacy of, 68, 319, 345-351, 360. + +Izanagi, the legend concerning, 40, 112-117. + +Izumo, farming forbidden to samurai in, 244-245. + +Izumo temple, the, 122; worship at, 138, 139, 142-143. + +Jesuitism, effect of, on Japan, 328: causes of early success of, + 330-337; policy of, in China, 331, 337; inability of, to adapt + itself to Japanese social conditions, 341. + +Jesuits, arrival of, in Japan, 304; favoured by Nobunaga, 304-305; + persecutions of, 304-305, 307-308; partial expulsion of, 321; + revolt of peasantry managed by, 324-325; final crushing of, 327. + +Jigai, method of suicide for women, 287. + +Jimmu, Emperor, 259; offerings at tomb of, 37. + +Jingo, Emperor, legend of Korean conquest by, 259. + +Jinrikisha-men, code of, 401-402. + +Jito, Empress, edict of, concerning slavery, 234 n. + +Jizo, playmate of infant ghosts, 199; first production of icons + of, 200. + +Joyousness of existence, Japanese, 12-13. + +Junshi, voluntary self-sacrifice, 39-40; decree of Iyeyasu puts + stop to, 285-286. + +Kami, "gods", 27; significance of, 46-47; devotion to, the first + of duties according to Iyeyasu, 350. + +Kannushi, office of, 138-140. + +Karma, metaphysics of, 220, 221, 222, 224. + +Kasuga, the deity of, 83. + +Kataki-uchi, custom of, 294-295. + +Kiyomasa, Kato, apotheosis of, 127. + +Kobetsu, imperial families, 235. + +Kobodaishi, 185. + +Ko-ji-ki, "Record of Ancient Matters", 110-111, 126, 131; + extracts from, 112-114. + +Korea, Buddhism brought into Japan from (552 A.D.), 184; + Hideyoshi's war against, 277. + +Koshin, protector of highways, 200. + +Kotoku, Emperor, 39, 265; edict of, concerning slaves, 232 n. + +Ko-uji, "lesser families", 60, 230. + +Kublai Khan, invasion by, 269. + +Kuge, noble families, 241. + +Kukai, founder of Shingon sect, 185. + +Kumi-enactment's of, 91-92. + +Kumi-system, the, 91-94, 168-169. + +Kwambaku, "regent", office of the, established, 262. + +Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy, 199. + +"La Cite Antique", de Coulanges', cited, 27, 34, 67, 443, 449. + +Landscape-gardeners, union of the, 404-405. + +Language, impossibility of mastering, by adult Occidental, 9; + conventional organization of, 170-172; rules governing use of, + 171-172. + +Law, method and manner of administration, 351-353. + +Laws, sumptuary, 164-180. + +Laws of Iyeyasu, the, 278. + +Laws of Shotoku Taishi, 344-345. + +Legacy of Iyeyasu, 68, 319, 345-351, 360. + +Libraries under the Tokugawa regime, 357, 370. + +Literature, qualifications essential for an understanding of + Japanese, 2-3; introduction of Chinese, 187-188; introduction + or development by Buddhism, 204; under the patronage of + Iyeyasu, 279; development of, in Tokugawa period, 357; the + party of, 370-372, 375-376. + +Mabuchi, Shinto commentator, 159-160, 260, 369. + +Maid-servants, position of, 407-409. + +Manners, laws as to, 173-176. + +Marriage, obligatory in ancient Japan, 58; in patriarchal family, + 58-60, 64-67; signified adoption only, 64; a chief duty of + filial piety, 65; ceremony of, 65-67; of servants, 77-78; + modern innovations in, 385-386; service by girls merely a + preparation for, 407-408. + +Masashige, Kusunoki, 50. + +Massacre of Shimabara, 325-327. + +Massacres, of priests by Nobunaga, 251; caused by Christian + attacks on domestic faiths, 475, 479. + +Matsuri-goto, "matters of worship", 32. + +Matsuri, temple-festivals, 84. + +Meat, forbidden for food, 196-197; forbidden as offerings by + Buddhism, 201. + +Merchants, place of, in social ranking, 246; modern rise of, to + power, 446. + +Metempsychosis, no doctrine of, in Shinto, 55 ff., 189-190. + +Mikado, God of the Living, 122-125; usurpation of powers of, 260-266. + +Miko, girl-priestesses, 142-143. + +Mimidzuka, "Ear-monument", 277. + +Minamoto, regency of the, 267-268. + +Mionoseki, Eta settlement at, 249. + +Miracle-plays performed by Jesuits, 334. + +Missions, Christian, causes of small results of modern, 339, 473-476; + consideration of work of foreign 476-478; importance of policy of, + in Far East, 479-480. See Jesuits. + +Mitama-San-no-tana, "shelf of the august spirits", 42. + +Mitama-shiro, "spirit-substitutes", 42. + +Mitamaya, "august-spirit-dwelling." 42. + +Mitsukuni, Prince of Mito, 370. + +Miya, "august house", 36, 42. + +Money, first appearance of, 447. + +Monism, higher Buddhism a species of, 210, 220-222. + +Mother, nine terms signifying, 171. + +Motowori, Shinto commentator, 368. + +Mourning-houses, 36; Shinto temple, evolve from, 41-42. + +Mythology, of the reigning house, 119; summary of the Japanese, + 115-116. + +Nakatomi, noble family of, 241. + +Nature, controlled by ghosts of ancestors, according to Shinto, + 106; Buddhist interpretation of, 192-194. + +Nihongi, "Chronicles of Nihon", 110, 111, 115-116, 126; cited, + 38-39, 112 n., 164 n., 196 n., 232 n., 234 n., 360 n. + +Nirvana, not preached to common Japanese people, 189, 194-195. + +Nobility, origin of the, 241-242. See Daimyo. + +Nobunaga, Oda, massacres of priests by, 251; career of, 274-276; + Jesuits favored by, 304-305. + +Obedience, rules of, 48-49, 63, 157, (see Filial Piety); modern + reversion to law of, 63, 377-378; of individual to the + community, 89-99. + +Offerings, to the dead, 37; meat forbidden as, 201. + +Officers, army pay of, 412. + +O-harai, ceremony of purification, 144-147. + +Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami, 120, 122; Rough and Gentle Spirits of, 126. + +Ojin, Emperor, 83; Korean immigration in reign of, 260. + +Osaka, Temple of the Four Deva Kings at, 200; military headquarters + of the Shin sect at, 275; Iyeyasu storms castle of, 322. + +Ostracism, the punishment by, 95-96; student, 423-424. + +O-uji, "great families", 60-62, 252. + +Outcasts, the class of, 98, 247, 250. + +"Outlines of the Mahayana Philosophy", Kuroda's, 214-215, 222. + +Painting, effect of Buddhism on, 188; examples of, in temples, + 198-199. + +Panama railroad, debt of, to religion of filial piety, 50. + +Papacy, interference of, in Jesuit missionary system, 337-338. + +Parents, rights of, in patriarchal system, 70-72. + +Pariahs, class of, 98, 247-250. + +Parliament, convocation of, first, 377 + +Peasants, revolt of, 324-325; security of, against oppression, + 395-396; in the quasi-feudal system, 244-245. See Farmers. + +Perry, Commodore, advent of, 374. + +Poems in praise of the dead, 35. + +Poetry, contests in, during Tokugawa period, 358. + +Politeness as an art, 359-361. + +Politics, modern Japanese, 389. + +Pollution, death regarded as, 40-41. + +Polygyny, in ancient society, 67-69. + +Population, alien elements in, 16-17. + +Porcelains, Japanese, 9, 356-357. + +Poverty, resulting from modern industrial revolution, 446-451. + +Prayer, prescribed by Hirata. 134; daily, 134-137. + +Presents, sumptuary laws concerning, 165, 168. + +Pretas, wicked ghosts, 191. + +Priests, Shinto, office and powers of, 86-87, 101-105, 139-140; + Buddhist, as teachers, 203-204; ranked with the samurai, 247; + massacres of, in the sixteenth century, 251; Buddhist, as + warriors, 269, 275-276. See Jesuits. + +Privacy, lack of, in Japan ancient and modern, 100. + +Professions, under divine patronage, 153-154. + +Pronouns, rules as to use of, 171. + +Property, laws of succession to, in Old Japan, 72-73. + +Psychology, difference between Eastern and Western, 9. + +Punishment of school-children, 421-422. + +Punishment, severity of, under ancient system, 94-95, 176-177; by + communities, 94-99; by tutelar deities, 102-105; laws as to, + 175-177. + +Purification, ceremonies of, 144-115; by ascetic practices, 148-150. + +Rebirth, doctrine of, inconsistent with early Japanese beliefs, 55; + the Buddhist idea of, and ancestor-worship, 193 n. + +Reform, agitation for industrial. 452-454. + +Regency, growth of the, 262-264; usurpation of power by the, 264-267. + +Registrars, Buddhist priests become public, 203-204. + +Relationship, gradation of nouns indicating, 171. + +Religion, summary of three forms of Shinto, 21-22; of final piety, + 48-51, 57, 65, 188, 459; the basis of organization of patriarchal + family, 57, 64; marriage a rite of, 65-67: identity of government + with, 100, 101; metaphysics of Buddhist, 207-228; origin in, of + customs of the vendetta, 295; tolerance of, by Iyeyasu (except + Roman Catholicism), 349-350; the life of the Japanese people, + 463-464; obstacles to propagation of the Western, in the Far East, + 479. See Ancestor-worship and Missions. + +Responsibility from above downward, 395-400. + +"Review of the Introduction of Christianty into China and Japan", + quoted from, 305. + +Revolution, modern industrial, 445-449; dangers of a social, + 448-451. + +Rice-pot, goddess of the, 130. + +"Riddle of the Universe", Haeckel's cited, 221. + +Roads, under the protection of Buddhist deities, 130. + +Romans, ancient, parallels between Japanese and, 27, 29, 34, 57, + 65, 67, 70, 78, 99, 148, 169, 229, 234, 264, 443, 444, 446. + +Rudeness, Japanese definition of, 175. + +Russia, the war with, 462-463. + +Ryobu-Shinto, establishment of; 185-186. + +Sacrifices, history of all religious, traceable to offerings to + ghosts, 30; ancient funeral, 37-38; origin of human, 284; of + one's family, 290-291. See Junshi. + +Samurai, class of the, 243, 251; obligation of, to perform + harakiri, 287; suppression of, 376. + +Saris, Captain, account by, of an execution, 177-178; quoted, 318. + +Satow, Sir Earnest, quoted, 43 n., 49, 68, 126 n., 141, 142, + 160-161, 312 n., 333. + +Satsuma, clan of the, 367, 372. + +Scarecrows, god of, 130, 135, 153. + +Scholarship, advance of, in Tokugawa period, 369-370. + +School, training of children in, 421-425. + +Schools, connected with Buddhist temples, 203; Government, 424-425. + +Sculpture, developed in Japan under Buddhist teachings, 188; + displayed in roadside images, 200, 459. + +Sekigahara, battle of, 278. + +Self-control, legal enforcement of, 173-174. + +Seppuku, Chinese term for harakiri, 287. + +Servants, in Old Japan, 76-78; conservative attitude of, 400; + position of maid, 407-408. See Apprentices and Dependants. + +"Shadow-Shogun", the, 268; deposition of, 267. + +Shelf of the august spirits, 42. + +Shimabara Revolt, the, 324-325. + +Shimonoseki, Bombardment of, 374. + +Shin, sect of, defeated by Nobunaga, 275-276. + +Shinbetsu, "divine branch" of families, 235. + +Shin-Shir-Sai, the Ninth Festival, 245. + +Shinto, signification, 21; forms of worship, 21-22; the morals + of, 100-101; relation to Japanese mythology to, summarized, + 115-134; origin of gods of the house in, 129-130; greater gods + of, acknowledged by Buddhism, 190; restoration of, 374; no + essential of Buddhism weakened by, 379-380. See Ancestor-worship. + +Shogun, authority of the, 241, 251-252: significance of term, 267; + extension of power of the, 267-268. + +Shogunate, beginning of the history of, 267; abolition of the, 374. + +Shorei-Hikki, "Record of Ceremonies", 66. + +Shoryobune, "ghost-ships;" 202. + +Shrines, worship at, 121, 123, 138-139. + +Sickness, charms against, 147-148. + +Sisters of Charity, comparison of Japanese women to, 366. + +Smile, rules and regulations about the, 173-174. + +Socialism, not a modern growth, 255. + +Societies, secret, 472 n. + +Society, organization of Old Japanese, 229-258. + +Sociology, difficulties in studying Japanese, 1-2. + +Soga brothers, the, apotheosis of, 127. + +Sohodo-no-kami, god of scarecrows. 130, 135, 153. + +Son, eleven graded terms signifying, 171. + +Sons-in-law, significant motto concerning, 64; customs as to, + 64-65. + +Speech, non-existence of freedom of, 170; regulations of forms + of, 171-173. + +Spirits, Rough and Gentle, 126. + +Story-teller, an Englishman who is a professional Japanese, + 10-11. + +Strangulation, suicide by, 286. + +Student-revolts, significance and results of, 398-399. + +Students, private means furnished for education of, 435-436; + education of abroad, 437-438. See Education. + +Subsidies, Government, to industries, 451. + +Succession laws, in Old Japan, 72-73. + +Sugiwara-no-Michizane, spirit of, 127. + +Suicide, by the sword, 39-40; customs as to, 286-290; modern + instances of female, 289; instances of, in Russian war, 464 n. + See Harakiri and Junshi. + +Sulko, Empress, 260, 261. + +Suinin, Emperor, abolishes the "human hedge", 38. + +Sun, daily greeting to the, 135-136. + +Sun-goddess, worship of, 109-110, 116-117; acknowledged by + Buddhism, 190; offerings of first fruits to, by Emperor, 245 n. + +Surgeons, efficiency of Japanese, 441. + +Sword-making, most sacred of crafts, 125, 154, 245-246. + +Swords, wearing of, prohibited, 376. + +Tables, mortuary, 42-43; Buddhist mortuary (ihai), 201. + +Taira, rise and fall of the, 266-267. + +Taishi, Shotoku, proclamation of, regarding politeness, 359-360. + +Takatoki, sacrifical suicide by the sword originated by, 39. + +Takayama, a Japanese Jesuit, 321. + +Take-no-uji-no-Sukune, apotheosis of, 127. + +"Tales of Old Japan", Mitford's, 247, 295. + +Tattooing of slaves, 232. + +Tea-ceremony, in Tokugawa period, 358-359. + +Teachers, Buddhist priests as, 202-203; duties to, same as to + fathers, 294; salaries of, 412; relation of, to pupils, 422; + transformation stages in attitude of, pupils toward, 431-433. + +Temmu, Emperor, decree of, forbidding use of meat, 196; + reorganization of castes by, 236; reign of, 237. + +Temple of the Four Deva Kings at Osaka, 200. + +Temples, Shinto, evolved from mourning-houses, 41; Shinto parish + dedicated to Uji-gods (Ujigami), 82-84; Shinto, of the first + grade, 121; Shinto, classification of, 123; forms of art in + Buddhist, 198-199; notable examples of, 200; schools connected + with, 203; Buddhist, burned by Jesuits, 306, 308; Shinto, in + Formosa, 388; number of Shinto, at present, 470; memorial + character of new, 470. + +Terakoya, drama of, 291. + +Thieves sentenced to slavery, 234. + +Togo, Vice-Admiral, reply of, to Imperial message, 463. + +Tokugawa, shogunate of, Japanese civilization reaches limit of + development under, 343. See Iyeyasu. + +Tokyo, widespread poverty in, resulting from industrial +revolution, 446. + +Tools, surprising shapes of, 7; sacredness of, 153. + +Toshogu, Iyeyasu worshipped under name of, 127. + +Trade, mean rank of those engaged in, 246. See Commerce. + +Tragedy, Japanese, founded on fact, 290-291. + +Ujigami, original relation of community to, 81-82; as clan-deities, + 82-84; offences against, 88; relation of the individual to, + 120-121; cults of, maintained, and not supplanted, by + Buddhism, 379. + +Uneme-no-kami, Takenaka, 324. + +University, students at the, 425-426. + +Utensils, domestic, sacredness of, 153; art displayed in, 357. + +Uyernon no Hyoge, decree concerning junshi disobeyed by, 285. + +Variety to be found in Japanese form of civilization, 256-257. + +Vendetta, religious origin for customs of, 295. + +Vengeance, the duty of, 292-293; Iyeyasu's decree concerning code + of, 293. + +Verb, etiquette governing uses of the, 171-172. + +Vice, Iyeyasu on suppression of, 346-347. + +Village-laws, peasants' 395-396. + +Wages of maid-servants, 408. + +"Wanderings of Cain", Coleridge's, 122. + +War, ten centuries of, following rise of military power, 259-267; + against Korea, 277; with peasantry, 324-325; with Russia, 462-463. + +Warfare, divination in, 152. + +Way of the Buddha, the (Butsudo), 21. + +Way of the Gods, the (Shinto), 21, 41. + +Weddings, customs as to, 65-67; laws as to food at, 73; presents + at, 165-166. + +Whipping, infrequency of now, as punishment, 421. See Punishments. + +Wife, gradation of terms signifying, 171. + +Wine, Buddhist forbids offerings of, 201. + +Woman, tribute paid to the Japanese, 361-362. + +Women, mourning rites intrusted to, 43; position of, in old + Japanese family, 73-74; as priestesses, 143; forms of speech + for use of, 172; methods of suicide for, 287; modern instances + of suicide by, 289, 290; duty of vengeance performed by, 293. + +Worship, three forms of Shinto, 21-22 (See Ancestor-worship); of + Imperial ancestors, 108-109; of Sun-goddess, 109-110; at + shrines, 119; phallic, 132. + +Yama, judge of the dead, 198-199. + +Yamaguchi, land granted to Jesuits at. 332-333. + +Yamato-damashi, "The Soul of Yamato", 159. + +Yedo, obligatory residence of daimyo in, 278; Iyeyasu, the +founder of, 279. + +Yeizan, Buddhist high priest, 351. + +Yuriaku, Emperor, deaths inflicted by, for rudeness, 176. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation +by Lafcadio Hearn + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPAN *** + +This file should be named 5979.txt or 5979.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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