A brief exhibition of judo, (a modified form of jiujitsu), and of Japanese fencing, which was carried on in the dining-room while the head-master was exchanging his priestly for his military dress, in order to take part in a memorial service to deceased soldiers, at which General Noghi was expected to be present, terminated my entertainment at this Buddhist school for the training of temple boys. As we left the crowd of them who had accompanied us thus far on the way, and stood shouting banzais on the platform of the station, there was no room for doubting the heartiness of their friendly feeling toward the teacher of their teacher; although the two, while sharing many of the most important religious views, were called by names belonging to religions so different as Christianity and Buddhism.
The impressions from these two visits to Ikegami regarding the changes going on in Buddhistic circles in Japan, and in the attitude of Buddhism toward Christianity, were amply confirmed by subsequent experiences. At Kyoto, the ancient capital and religious centre of the empire, I was invited by the Dean of the Theological Seminary connected with the Nishi Honwangi to address some six hundred young priests of various sects on the same topic as that on which the address was given at the Nichiren College near Ikegami. It should be explained that this temple is under the control of the Shin-shu, the most numerous and probably the most wealthy sect in the Empire. The high priest of this sect is an hereditary count and therefore a member of the House of Peers. He is also a man of intelligence and of a wide-spreading interest in religion. At the time of my visit, indeed, the Count was absent on a missionary tour in China. This address also was listened to with the same respectful attention by the several hundred Buddhist priests who had gathered at the temple of Nishi Honwangi. Here again Mrs. Ladd and I were made the recipients of the same courteous and unique hospitality. Before the lecture began, we were entertained in the room which had been distinguished for all time in the estimate of the nation by the fact that His Majesty the Emperor held within its walls the first public reception ever granted to his subjects by the Mikado; and after the lecture we were further honoured by being the first outsiders ever invited to a meal with the temple officers within one of the temple apartments.
Later on at Nagoya, further evidence was afforded of the important fact that the old-time religious barriers are broken down or are being overridden, wherever the enlightenment and moral welfare of the people seem likely to be best served in this way. Now Nagoya has hitherto been considered one of the most conservative and even bigoted Buddhist centres in all Japan. Yet a committee composed of Buddhists and of members of the Young Men’s Christian Association united in arrangements for a course of lectures on education and ethics. This was remarked upon as the first instance of anything of the sort in the history of the city.
When we seek for the causes which have operated to bring about these important and hopeful changes in the temper and practises of the Buddhism which is fast gaining currency and favour in Japan, we are impressed with the belief that the greatest of them is the introduction of Christianity itself. This influence is obvious in the following three essential ways. Christian conceptions and doctrines are modifying the tenets of the leading Buddhistic thinkers in Japan. As I listened for several hours to his exposition of his conception of the Divine Being, the divine manner of self-revelation, and of his thoughts about the relations of God and man, by one of the most notable theologians of the Shin Shu (the sect which I have already spoken of as the most popular in Japan), I could easily imagine that the exponent was one of the Alexandrine Church-Fathers, Origen or Clement, discoursing of God the Unrevealed and of the Logos who was with God and yet who became man. But Buddhism is also giving much more attention than formerly to raising the moral standards of both priests and people. It is sharing in the spirit of ethical quickening and revival which is so important an element of the work of Christian missions abroad, but which is alas! so woefully neglected in the so-called Christian nations at home. Japanese Buddhism is feeling now much more than formerly the obligation of any religion which asks the adherence and support of the people, to help the people, in a genuine and forceful way, to a nobler and better way of living. Hitherto in Japan it has been that peculiar development of Confucian ethics called Bushidō, which has embodied and cultivated the nobler moral ideals. Religion, at least in the form which Buddhism has taken in Japan, has had little to do with inspiring and guiding men in the life which is better and best, here and now. But as its superstitions with regard to the future are falling away and are ceasing practically to influence the body of the people, there are some gratifying signs that its influence upon the spiritual interests of the present is becoming purer and stronger.
That Buddhism is improving its means of educating its followers, and is feeling powerfully the quickening of the national pulse, due to the advancing strides in educational development, is obvious enough to any one able to compare its condition to-day with its condition not more than a score of years ago. There are, of course, in the ranks of all the Buddhist sects leaders who are ready to cry out against heresies and the mischief of changes concealed under the guise of reforms. The multitudes of believers are still far below the desirable standard of either intelligence in religious matters, or of morals as controlled by religious motives. But the old days of stagnation and decay seem to be passing away; and the outlook now is that the foreign religion, instead of speedily destroying the older native religion, will have helped it to assume a new and more vigorous and better form of life.
As the period of more bitter conflict and mutual denunciation gives way to a period of more respectful and friendly, and even co-operative attitude in advancing the welfare of the nation, the future of both Buddhism and Christianity in Japan affords a problem of more complicated and doubtful character. The nation is awakening to its need of morals and religion,—in addition to a modern army and navy, and to an equipment for teaching and putting to practical uses, the physical sciences,—as never before. The awakening is accompanied there, as elsewhere in the modern world, by a thirst for reality. Whatever can satisfy this thirst, however named, will find acceptance and claim the allegiance of both the thoughtful and the multitudes of the common people; for in Japan, as elsewhere in the modern world, men are not easily satisfied or permanently satisfied with mere names.
CHAPTER X
HIKONÉ AND ITS PATRIOT MARTYR
Among the feudal towns of Japan which can boast of a fine castle still standing, and of an illustrious lord as its former occupant, there are few that can rival Hikoné. [Picturesquely seated on a wooded hill] close to the shores of Lake Biwa, with the blue waters and almost equally blue surrounding mountains in full sight, the castle enjoys the advantages of strength combined with beauty; while the lords of the castle are descended from a very ancient family, which was awarded its territory by the great Iyéyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shōgunate, in return for the faithful services of their ancestor, Naomasa, in bringing the whole land under the Tokugawa rule. They therefore belonged to the rank of the Fudai Daimio, or Retainer Barons, from whom alone the Roju, or Senators, and other officers of the first class could be appointed. Of these lords of Hikoné much the most distinguished was Naosuké, who signed the treaty with the United States negotiated in 1857 and 1858. And yet, so strange are the vicissitudes of history, and so influential the merely incidental occurrences in human affairs, that only a chance visit of the Mikado saved this fine feudal castle from the “general ruin of such buildings which accompanied the mania for all things European and the contempt of their national antiquities, whereby the Japanese were actuated during the past two decades of the present régime.” Nor was it until recent years that Baron Ii Naosuké’s memory has been rescued from the charge of being a traitor to his country and a disobedient subject of its Emperor, and elevated to a place of distinction and reverence, almost amounting to worship, as a clear-sighted and far-seeing statesman and patriot.
