Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/609

HISTORY.] JAPAN 581 have proved of great utility. Large numbers of foreign men-of-war and other vessels have there been docked and repaired. Paper-mills have been established in different localities, and manufactories of various descriptions started. The postal system is exceedingly well managed, and extends over the whole empire. Attention is also given to custom house arrangements at the open ports. In the capital there are numerous colleges and Government schools, notably for military, naval, and scientific instruction, conducted in many instances by foreign teachers. The mail service along the coast deserves special mention. The steamers employed belong chiefly to the Japanese steamship com pany known as the Mitsubishi Company ; these ply along the entire length of the coast and also to Shanghai, passing through the " Inland Sea," and smaller boats run to New- chwang in China, and to the Riukiu islands. The com pany is subsidized by the Government. on. Religion. The religious beliefs of the Japanese people may be divided under two heads, the Shinto and the Buddhist. By the former is meant the religious belief of the natives prior to the introduction from abroad of Buddhism and the Confucian philosophy. 0. Shinto means literally "the way of the gods. Though often styled by foreign writers a religion, it really is not one. No concise definition of it appears to exist, but the following are some of its leading points. 1 It contains no moral code, the writer Motoori (a high authority on this subject, born 1730, died 1801) even asserting that in Japan there was no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acted aright if he only consulted his own heart. He also declared that the whole duty of a good Japanese consisted in obeying implicitly and without question the commands of the mikado. In Shinto Japan is held to be the country of the gods, and the mikado to be the direct descendant and actual representative of the Sun goddess. In it there also seems to be mixed up a system of hero worship, many renowned warriors and other personages of ancient days being exalted into what we should term demi-gods ; thus it inculcates a reverential feeling toward the dead. By it, too, spiritual agencies are attributed to the elements or natural phenomena. The Shinto shrines throughout the country are built in very simple style, being generally constructed of white wood, unadorned by brilliant colouring as in Buddhist temples, and roofed with thatch. Before each shrine stand one or more torii, archways formed of two upright posts with a projecting cross bar laid on their summits, beneath which is a smaller horizontal beam, the ends of which do not pro ject. As its name implies, the torii was originally a perch for the fowls offered to the gods, not as food, but to give warning of daybreak. This archway gradually assumed the character of a general symbol of Shinto, and the number which might be erected in honour of a deity became prac tically unlimited. The special peculiarity distinguishing the pure Shinto shrines from the Buddhist temples is the absence of images exposed as objects for the veneration of the worshipper ; but at the same time the former nearly always contain some object in which the spirit of the deity therein enshrined is supposed to reside. The principal Shinto shrines are those in the department of Watarai in the province of Ise, known as Ise Dai-jin-gn ("the great divine palaces of Ise "), and maintained by Government. The first Buddhist images and Sutras were brought to i- Japan from Corea in the year 552, if we can believe the Nihongi ; but it was long before the religion obtained much hold on the people. In the beginning of the 9th century the priest Kukai (now better known as Kobu Daishi) com pounded out of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto a J See also Dr Magel s papers on " Les Religions du Japon," in the Annales de I exMmt Orient, 1878-1879. system of doctrine called liiobu Shinto, the most prominent characteristic of which was the theory that Shinto deities were nothing more than transmigrations of Buddhist divinities. Buddhism, thus fairly introduced, ere long obtained complete ascendency ; it became the religion of the whole nation, and held that position until the Tokugawa dynasty of shogun, when it was supplanted in the intellects of the educated class by the philosophy of Choo He. Its teachings were calculated to awaken man to a sense of his own shortcomings and to cause him to long for perfection ; it encouraged belief in a succession of lives and trans migration of souls ; and the highest reward promised to the true believer was to be absorbed into Buddha and to attain to absolute perfection. Under the Tokugawa family, many grants were made from their treasuries to famous Buddhist temples, notably to that of Zojoji in the district of Shiba, in Yedo, which was endowed by lyeyasu himself in the concluding years of the 16th century. These grants were, however, withdrawn after the restoration of the mikado in 1868, and Buddhism has been virtually disestablished since 1st January 1874. Many temples are still kept up, but these are maintained by voluntary contributions from the people and from former patrons, Since the admission of foreigners into Japan, various Christian missions have been established, principally in Tokio and Yokohama, and a tolerably large number of missionaries reside in different parts of the country. Churches have been built, and schools opened for the instruction of children. Christianity is no longer pro hibited, as of old, by Government edict, and the number of the native converts is said to be increasing. 2 HISTORY. The ancient history of Japan, as recorded in the native annals, is Early so completely enshrouded in mythological legend as to be absolutely legends, untrustworthy. In these legends numerous deities pla} T a conspicu ous part, the country itself being styled the "land of the gods," and the pedigree of the sovereign traced back to Tcnsho Daijin, the "Sun goddess." It is asserted that there first existed seven generations of "heavenly deities," who were followed by five generations of "earthly deities," who in turn were succeeded by the mortal sovereigns, of whom the present mikado or emperor is the 122d. The earliest date accepted amongst the Japanese them selves corresponds to 660 B.C., when the iirst emperor (Jimmu) succeeded to the throne. The present year (1881) is thus the 2541st year of the Japanese era. The long line of sovereigns comprises one hundred and eleven emperors and eleven reigning empresses. A strong ground for disbelieving the accuracy of ancient Japanese chronology, even after 660 B.C., is the extraordinary longevity assigned by it to the early mikados. Of the fifteen emperors from Jimmu onwards, eleven are said to have lived considerably over one hundred years ; one of them, Suinin, reached the age of one hundred and forty-one years, while his successor Keiko attained to one hundred and forty-three. After the year 399 A. P., however, these wonderful assertions are no longer made. From the com mencement of the 10th century the Japanese annals are more to be trusted, and, although many discrepancies no doubt exist, still the events recorded are generally accepted as authentic. 3 The precise origin of the Japanese race is by no means easy to Origin determine, and it would seem probable that it is an amalgama- of the tion of several different races. The present Aino tribes 01 the Japanese, island of Yezo are supposed to be the descendants of the ancient aborigines of the empire. These aborigines, or "savages," as , Japanese historians are wont to style them, were at first spread over by far the greater portion of the country, but were gradually driven towards the north by an opposing race who advanced from the south-west. 4 This latter race, the ancestors of the present true 2 On July 1, 1878, the nine American and six British Protestant missions in Japan had 104 missionaries (77 American), 26 churches, 1 ] 3 chapels, &c., 1617 church members, 3 theological schools, 173 students, 9 ordained preachers, and 93 assistant preachers, besides many largely attended schools for children. The Roman Catholics and the Greek Church claim many converts also. 3 See William Bramsen s Japanese Chronological Tables, from 645 A.D. to 1873. 4 See D. N. Anutschin, " Der Volkerstamm der Ainos," in Russ. Rev., 1877 ; and L. de Rosny, " I^tude sur ks Aiuo," Congr. intern, d. scitnc. yengr., Paris, 1878.