The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji
IN GLAD RECOGNITION OF THEIR SERVICES TO THE WORLD AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY OWN GREAT DEBT TO BOTH I DEDICATE THIS BOOK SO UNWORTHY OF ITS GREAT SUBJECT TO THOSE TWO NOBLE BANDS OF SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH THE FACULTY OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF WHOM CHARLES A. BRIGGS AND GEORGE L. PRENTISS ARE THE HONORED SURVIVORS AND TO THAT TRIO OF ENGLISH STUDENTS ERNEST M. SATOW, WILLIAM G. ASTON AND BASIL H. CHAMBERLAIN WHO LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP IN JAPAN IN UNCONSCIOUS BROTHERHOOD, BINDING THE SELF-SAME SHEAF
This book makes no pretence of furnishing a mirror of contemporary Japanese religion. Since 1868, Japan has been breaking the chains of her intellectual bondage to China and India, and the end is not yet. My purpose has been, not to take a snap-shot photograph, but to paint a picture of the past. Seen in a lightning-flash, even a tempest-shaken tree appears motionless. A study of the same organism from acorn to seed-bearing oak, reveals not a phase but a life. It is something like this— to the era of Meiji (A.D. 1868-1894+) which I have essayed. Hence I am perfectly willing to accept, in advance, the verdict of smart inventors who are all ready to patent a brand-new religion for Japan, that my presentation is antiquated.
The subject has always been fascinating, despite its inherent difficulties and the author's personal limitations. When in 1807, the polite lads from Satsuma and Kiōto came to New Brunswick, N.J., they found at least one eager questioner, a sophomore, who, while valuing books, enjoyed at first hand contemporaneous human testimony.
When in 1869, to Rutgers College, came an application through Rev. Dr. Guido F. Verbeck, of Tōkiō, from Fukui for a young man to organize schools upon the American principle in the province of Echizen (ultra-Buddhistic, yet already so liberally leavened by the ethical teachings of Yokoi Héishiro), the Faculty made choice of the author. Accepting the honor and privilege of being one of the beginners of a better time, I caught sight of peerless Fuji and set foot on Japanese soil December 29, 1870. Amid a cannonade of new sensations and fresh surprises, my first walk was taken in company with the American missionary (once a marine in Perry's squadron, who later invented the jin-riki-sha), to see a hill-temple and to study the wayside shrines around Yokohama. Seven weeks' stay in the city of Yedo—then rising out of the débris of feudalism to become the Imperial capital, Tōkiō, enabled me to see some things now so utterly vanished, that by some persons their previous existence is questioned. One of the most interesting characters I met personally was Fukuzawa, the reformer, and now the intellectual father of half of the young men of ... Japan. On the day of the battle of Uyéno, July 11, 1868, this far-seeing patriot and inquiring spirit deliberately decided to keep out of the strife, and with four companions of like mind, began the study of Wayland's Moral Science. Thus were laid the foundations of his great school, now a university.
William Elliot Griffis
THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY TO THE ERA OF MEIJI
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.
PREFACE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I - PRIMITIVE FAITH: RELIGION BEFORE BOOKS
The Morse Lectureship and the Study of Comparative Religion
The People of Japan.
The Amalgam of Religions.
Shamanism.
Mythical Zoölogy.
Fetichism.
Phallicism.
Tree and Serpent Worship.
CHAPTER II - SHINTŌ: MYTHS AND RITUAL
The Japanese a Young Nation.
The Ancient Documents.
Origins of the Japanese People.
Mikadoism the Heart of Shintō.
Phallic Symbols.
Fire-myths and Ritual.
CHAPTER III - "THE KOJIKI" AND ITS TEACHINGS
"The Kojiki" mid its Myths of Cosmogony.
Izanagi's Visit to Hades and Results.
Life in Japan During the Divine Age.
The Ethics of the God-way.
The Rise of Mikadoism.
Purification of Offences.
Mikadoism Usurps the Primitive God-way.
Ancient Customs and Usages.
Shintō's Emphasis on Cleanliness.
Prayers to Myriads of Gods.
Shintō Left in a State of Arrested Development.
The Modern Revivalists of Kami no Michi.
The Great Purification of 1870.
Summary of Shintō.
CHAPTER IV - THE CHINESE ETHICAL SYSTEM IN JAPAN
Confucius a Historical Character.
Primitive Chinese Faith.
Vicissitudes of Confucianism.
Japanese Confucianism and Feudalism Contemporary.
In Japan, Loyalty Displaces Filial Piety.
The Five Relations.
The Paramount Idea of Loyalty.
Suicide Made Honorable.
The Family Idea.
The Marital Relation.
The Elder and the Younger Brother.
Friendship and Humanity.
CHAPTER V - CONFUCIANISM IN ITS PHILOSOPHICAL FORM
Japan's Millennium of Simple Confucianism.
Survey of the Intellectual History of China.
Contrast between the Chinese and Japanese Intellect.
Philosophical Confucianism the Religion of the Samurai.
A Medley of Pantheism.
The Ideals of a Samurai.
New Japan Makes Revision.
The Ideal of Yamato Damashii Enlarged.
CHAPTER VI - THE BUDDHISM OF NORTHERN ASIA
Pre-Buddhistic India.
Conditions out of which Buddhism Arose.
Buddhism a Logical Product of Hindu Thought.
The Buddhist Millennium in India.
The Development of Northern Buddhism
The Creation of Gods.
The Making of a Pantheon.
Buddhism Already Corrupted when brought to Japan.
The Inviting Field.
The New Faith Becomes Popular.
Survey and Summary.
CHAPTER VII - RIYŌBU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM
Syncretism in Religion.
The Kami and the Buddhas.
The Mission of Art.
Kōbō the Wonder Worker.
Kōbō Irenicon.
The Hindu Yoga Becomes Japanese Riyōbu.
The Happy Family of Riyōbu.
Degradation of the Foreign Deities.
Shintō Buried in Buddhism.
Buddhism Writes New Chapters of Decay.
The Seven Gods of Good Fortune.
The Gon-gen in the Processions.
Kōbō's Work Undone.
CHAPTER VIII - NORTHERN BUDDHISM IN ITS DOCTRINAL EVOLUTIONS
Chronological Outline.
The Standard Doctrinal Work.
Buddhism as a System of Metaphysics.
Japanese Pilgrims to China.
The Middle Path.
The Great Vehicle.
A New Chinese Sect.
The Sect of the True Word.
Truth Made Apparent by One's Own Thought.
CHAPTER IX - THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE
The Western Paradise.
Hō-nen, Founder of the Pure Land Sect.
Characteristics of the Jō-dō Sect.
Salvation Through the Merits of Another.
"Reformed" Buddhism.
The Protestants of Japanese Buddhism.
The Nichiren Sect.
The Ultra-realism of Northern Buddhism.
Doctrinal Culmination.
The New Buddhism.
CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT
Missionary Buddhism the Measure of Japan's Civilization.
Pre-Buddhistic Japan.
The Purveyors of Civilization.
Ministers of Art.
Resemblances between Buddhism and Christianity.
The Temples and Their Symbolism.
The Bell and the Cemetery.
Political and Military Influences.
Literature, and Education.
Things Which Buddhism Left Undone.
The Attitude Toward Woman.
Influence on the Japanese Character.
CHAPTER XI - A CENTURY OF ROMAN CHRISTIANITY
Darkest Japan.
First Coming of Europeans.
Christianity Flourishes.
The Hostility of Hidéyoshi.
The Political Character of Roman Christianity.
The Quarrels of the Christians.
The Anti-Christian Policy of the Tokugawas.
The Books of the Inferno Opened.
Summary of Roman Christianity in Japan.
CHAPTER XII - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE
The Japanese Shut In.
Starving of the Mind.
The Dutchmen at Déshima.
Protests of Inquiring Spirits.
A Handful of Salt in a Stagnant Mass.
Seekers after God.
The Buddhist Inquisitors.
The Shingaku Movement.
Japan Once More Missionary Soil.
The Imperial Embassy Round the World.