JAPAN

This work as originally planned contained a section on Japanese Buddhism consisting of three chapters, but after it had been sent to the publishers I was appointed H.M. Ambassador in Tokyo and I decided to omit this section. Let not any Japanese suppose that it contained disparaging criticism of his country or its religions. It would, I hope, have given no offence to either Buddhists or Shintoists, but an ambassador had better err on the side of discretion and refrain from public comments on the institutions of the country to which he is accredited.

The omission is regrettable in so far as it prevents me from noticing some of the most interesting and beautiful developments of Buddhism, but for historical purposes and the investigation of the past the loss is not great, for Japanese Buddhism throws little light on ancient India or even on ancient China. It has not influenced other countries. Its interest lies not in the relics of antiquity which it has preserved but in the new shape and setting which a race at once assimilative and inventive has given to old ideas.

Though the doctrine of the Buddha reached Japan from China through Korea[1069], Chinese and Japanese Buddhism differ in several respects. Lamaism never gained a footing in Japan, probably because it was the religion of the hated Mongols. There was hardly any direct intercourse with India. Whereas the state religion of China was frequently hostile to Buddhism, in Japan such relations were generally friendly and from the seventh century until the Meiji era an arrangement known as Ryō-bu Shintō or two-fold Shintō was in force, by which Shintō shrines were with few exceptions handed over to the custody of Buddhist priests, native deities and historical personages being declared to be manifestations of various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Again, Buddhism in Japan has had a more intimate connection with social, political and even military matters in various periods than in China. This is one reason for its chief characteristic, namely, the large number and distinct character of its sects. They are not merely schools like the religious divisions of India and China, but real sects with divergent doctrines and sometimes antagonistic to one another.

It became the fashion in Japan to talk of the twelve sects, but the names given are not always the same.

One of the commonest lists is as follows[1070]:

1.Kusha. 5.Hossō. 9.Jōdo.
2.Jo-jitsu. 6.Kegon. 10.Zen.
3.Ritsu-shu or Risshu. 7.Tendai. 11.Shin.
4.Sanron. 8.Shingon. 12.Nichiren.

This list is historically correct, but Nos. 1-4 are almost or quite extinct, and the number twelve is therefore sometimes made up as follows:

1.Hossō. 5.Yūzū Nembutsu. 9.Ōbaku.
2.Kegon. 6.Jōdo. 10.Shin.
3.Tendai. 7.Rinzai. 11.Nichiren.
4.Shingon. 8.Sōdō. 12.Ji.

Here Nos. 7, 8, 9 are subdivisions of the Zen and 5 and 12 are two small sects.

Taking the first list, we may easily distinguish two classes. The first eight, called by the Japanese Hasshū, are all old and all imported from China. They represent the Buddhism of the Nara and Hei-an periods. The other four all arose after 1170 and were all remodelled, if not created, in Japan. Chronologically the sects may be arranged as follows, the dates marking the foundation or introduction of each:

(i) Seventh century: Sanron, 625; Jo-jitsu, 625; Hossō, 657; Kusha, 660.
(ii) Eighth century: Kegon, 735; Ritsu, 745.
(iii) Ninth century: Tendai, 805; Shingon, 806.
(iv) Twelfth and thirteenth centuries: Yūzū Nembutsu,
1123; Jōdo, 1174; Zen, 1202; Shin, 1224; Nichiren,
1253; Ji, 1275.

All Japanese sects of importance are Mahayanist. The Hinayana is represented only by the Kusha, Jo-jitsu and Risshu. The two former are both extinct: the third still numbers a few adherents, but is not anti-Mahayanist. It merely insists on the importance of discipline.

Though the Hossō and Kegon sects are not extinct, their survival is due to their monastic possessions rather than to the vitality of their doctrines, but the great sects of the ninth century, the Tendai and Shingon, are still flourishing. For some seven hundred years, especially in the Fujiwara period, they had great influence not only in art and literature, but in political and even in military matters, for they maintained large bodies of troops consisting of soldier monks or mercenaries and were a considerable menace to the secular authority. So serious was the danger felt to be that in the sixteenth century Nobunaga and Hideyoshi destroyed the great monasteries of Hieizan and Negoro and the pretensions of the Buddhist Church to temporal power were brought to an end.

But apart from this political activity, new sects which appeared in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries suited the popular needs of the time and were a sign of true religious life. Two of these sects, the Jōdo and Shinshū[1071], are Amidist—that is to say they teach that the only or at least the best way of winning salvation is to appeal to the mercy of Amida, who will give his worshippers a place in his paradise after death. The Jōdo is relatively old fashioned, and does not differ much in practice from the worship of Amida as seen in China, but the Shinshū has no exact parallel elsewhere. Though it has not introduced many innovations in theology, its abandonment of monastic discipline, its progressive and popular spirit and its conspicuous success make it a distinct and remarkable type. Its priests marry and eat meat: it has no endowments and relies on voluntary subscription, yet its temples are among the largest and most conspicuous in Japan. But the hierarchical spirit is not absent and since Shinshū priests can marry, there arose the institution of hereditary abbots who were even more like barons than the celibate prelates of the older sects.

The Nichiren sect is a purely Japanese growth, without any prototype in China, and is a protest against Amidism and an attempt to restore Shaka—the historical Buddha—to his proper position from which he has been ousted. Nichiren, the founder, is one of the most picturesque figures of Japanese history. His teaching, which was based on the Lotus Sûtra, was remarkable for its combative spirit and he himself played a considerable part in the politics of his age. His followers form one of the most influential and conspicuous sects at the present day, although not so numerous as the Amidists.

Zen is the Japanese equivalent of Ch'an or Dhyâna and is the name given to the sect founded in China by Bodhidharma. It is said to have been introduced into Japan in the seventh century, but died out. Later, under the Hōjō Regents, and especially during the Ashikaga period, it flourished exceedingly. Zen ecclesiastics managed politics like the French cardinals of the seventeenth century and profoundly influenced art and literature, since they produced a long line of painters and writers. But the most interesting feature in the history of this sect in Japan is that, though it preserves the teaching of Bodhidharma without much change, yet it underwent a curious social metamorphosis, for it became the chosen creed of the military class and contributed not a little to the Bushido or code of chivalry. It is strange that this mystical doctrine should have spread among warriors, but its insistence on simplicity of life, discipline of mind and body, and concentration of thought harmonized with their ideals.

Apart from differences of doctrine such as divide the Shinshu, Nichiren and Zen, Japanese sects show a remarkable tendency to multiply subdivisions, due chiefly to disputes as to the proper succession of abbots. Thus the Jōdo sect has four subsects, and the first and second of these are again subdivided into six and four respectively. And so with many others. Even the little Ji sect, which is credited with only 509 temples in all Japan, includes thirteen subdivisions.