Footnotes
[1.]Sir Edwin Arnold's Seas and Lands, chap. xxvii.[2.]Charles II's queen, it will be remembered, was Katharine of Braganza.[3.]This rendering seems preferable to the more usual “Way of the Gods.” The term Polytheism is not, strictly speaking, applicable to Shinto.[4.]One of the great temples at Shiba, Tokio, was burnt by the Buddhists to prevent its falling into the hands of the Shinto priests. It may be mentioned here, as an instance of the liberal feeling of the present (Shinto) government, that one of this same group of buildings was lent for the Church of England services, before St. Andrew's church was built. It is the old nobility who have been throughout the uncompromising opponents of Christianity, and indeed of all change; and the most zealous supporters of Buddhism.[5.]Eden's Japan, Historical and Descriptive.[6.]Even an approximate total is difficult to calculate. At the lowest estimate we have a number considerably exceeding the whole mass of Christians. But it is important to bear in mind that in China, which supplies more than three-fourths of the total number, both Taouism and Confucianism are professed in conjunction with Buddhism. See Rhys Davids' Buddhism, chap. I (S.P.C.K.).[7.]Thibet.[8.]Light of Asia, i. 142, and vi. 688.[9.]Lectures on Buddhism, pp. 62-3.[10.]Legends and Theories of the Buddhists, p. 187.[11.]Prof. Max Müller, however (Hibbert Lectures, 1878, p. 134 note), gives weighty reasons for regarding 477 b.c. as the year of Buddha's death.[12.]“The Buddhists look upon the Bo-tree as most Christians have looked upon the Cross.”—Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 37 note.[13.]It is, no doubt, owing largely to the influence of Buddhism that the passion of anger is almost unknown in Japan. In the same way, a Japanese, though the heart were well-nigh breaking, would consider it a most unworthy thing to let his grief betray itself.[14.]
Miss Isabella Bird (Mrs. Bishop), authoress of Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, well describes the impression produced on the spectator by the Daibutsus, or colossal images of Buddha, so common in Japan:—“He is not sleeping, he is not waking, he is not acting, he is not thinking, his consciousness is doubtful; he exists,—that is all; his work is done, a hazy beatitude, a negation remain. This is the Nirvana in which the devout Buddhist may aspire to participate.”
The Daibutsu at Kamakura, of which an illustration is given opposite, is one of the largest in Japan. It is fifty feet high, and, as a work of art, is without a rival. The boss protruding from the forehead is supposed to represent a jewel, and to symbolize Illumination.