Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-15

pulled back 80 that it will strike the bell
on the rebound. 1t has one audience room
which takes nearly 1000 yards of mating
to cover II, and the brass lanterns which
hang from the great rafters Of this room
are each as l,ig as a hogshead This church
Is one of the most liberal of the Buddhists,
and during O. talk which / had with the
priest 1 found that his views were very
much the same as those of Unitarian
Christianity. He was not in favor of mo-
nopolizing the religions of Japan, and said
there was room enough for both the Chris
tians and Buddhists to work. He spoke
English fuently, and he told me that he
had lived for two years in England. He
was very much depressed as to the relig-
ious state of Japan, and said that the bet
ter classes were largely infdels or agnos-
ties, and many of those who pretended to
be Buddhists had no working faith in
them. 1 found him broadminded in every
respect, and one thing which he said sur
prised me. This was that his sect of Bud
dhists did not believe that Nirvana meant
a state of soul humiliation, but that it
meant only the humiliation of all that
was bad and of the continuance and
growth of all that was good in man. He
told me, however, that only few Bud
dhists were as liberal as he was, and from
what l saw in other parts of the empire
am sure he was correct.
Many Buddhist Sects.
There are almost as many Buddhist sects
in Japan as there are Christian sects in
America. They all believe in Buddha, but
they have different doctrines and differ
ent modes of worship. There is one sect
which sell medicine and charms which will
protect you against coughs, consumption,
the devil or the smallpox. They sell all
kinds of sand, which is supposed to make
the limbs of the dead soft and flexible, so
they can be easily doubled in the box-like
collins which are used by the Japanese
These are known as the Tendi sect and
they have between four and five thousand
temples in Japan. The Monte sect, the
Nichiren and the Jodo sect may be called
the thre, most powerful branches of the
Japanese Buddhists. The Montos worship
Amida Buddha, and they say that earnest
prayer, noble thoughts and good works
are the elements of their faith. 1t is to
this sect, L think, that these two big tenn
pies which l have described belong, and 1t
has also immense temples in Tokyo and
elsewhere. The Nichiren sect are the
shouting Worshipers of the faith. They
are violent and noisy, and they think that
all other sects except themselves go
straight to hell. The Jodo sect do not eat
flesh and they insist that their priests
should not marry. They pray without
ceasing and spend a great part of their
time squatting before bells of wood and
brass, on which they pound in order to
wake uI the gods.
Queer Temples.
1 could fill this paper with the curious
things found about the Buddhist temples.
There are little wooden gods for babies
diseases. around which children's bibs are
tied, and there are other gods which are
supposed to help babies in teething. There
are some which are good for the stomach
ache, and others which will cure sore eyes.
In some of the temples there are sacred
ponies which you may feed with holy