The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-07
THE RELIGION OF JAPAN.

Udpdu, Guc lONClJ AlhSoOhi, viz
sLand of Great Peace" as its natives
POLITICALLY call it, by its short, sharp,
decisive and brilliant victory over the
great Chinese Empire has sprung
suddenly not only into the front rank
of Oriental nations but is recognized
as a country able to care for and
stand for it's own interests among the
great nations OF the world. AS re-
suit everything pertaining to this land
of the rising sun is now undergoing
careful scrutiny by Western nations.
Its control of the Eastern seas by
means of its powerful navy,its wonder
full progress in Western arts and sci
ences, peaceful and warlike, its grow
ing trade and manufactures which
make it great factor in the COM
mercial world, all these are now n UGH
more carefully noted by western ma
tions than they were three years ago.
For one thing it has been discovered
that this country is at once the most
progressive, and yet in some respects
the least changeable of all Oriental
or even Western nations. A single
dynasty spanning twenty-five centur-
les, descending from Jimmu Tenno,
the first of the Mikados, extends to
Mat-suhi- to, the Mikado of today.
Even China, hitherto supposed to be
the most Interchangeable of all Oriental
lands, numbers twenty-four dynasties
to Japan's one.
In religion, however, there has not
been the same uniformity. The relig-
ion of the wild warriors who more
than two thousand years ago overran
the island Kin-Shu and established
their capital near the present site of
Kioto, was called Kami-no- Michi, or
"the way of the gods" and still sur
wives under the name Shintooism, the
only indigenous religion of Japan.
It's principal doctrine was that of the
Mikado's divine descent and the
worship of the spirits of the dead, but
since the fifth and sixth centuries it
has been modified somewhat by the
more advanced religion of Buddha
which came from China. The hold
of these ancient religions upon Japan
is still great, Notwithstanding all its
modern progressiveness, not less than
thirty seven millions of Japanese be-
ing still worshipers of idols. So
numerous are these Japanese gods
that it is said one man could hardly
pray to each of them in turn in the
course of long life, and in fact the
Japanese do not pretend to pray to
all of them individually. The great
sphynx-li like bronze figure of Buddha
lust outside Yokohama, made familiar
to thousands of Americans by Mr..
Stoddard's striking representation of
it in his lectures, is, in reality, rep
resentative of a foreign creed, the
creed of the country Japan has so
recently and completely Inundated.
Whether these changed national re-
lations will have any effect upon the
religion of Japan as regards Budd-
hism remains to be seen.
Christianity has had hard strug-
gle in Japan. During the reign of
the third Tycoon the Portuguese and
their missionaries and the Roman
Catholics were driven out of the coun-
try and "the wicked sect called Chris
tan" was prohibited until some
twenty. five years ago. Since that
time Christianity has made consider
able progress in japan. At Sendai,
the religious center of northern jap
an, there are Catholics, Greeks, Bap-
lists, Congregationalists, Methodists
and Presbyterians, with a united
membership of over one thousand.
Other centers of missionary influence
are Niigata, Macbashi, and Kioto and
Tokyo, the capital, but as yet the
great body of the middle and lower
classes are untouched by Christian
influences and still believers of Shin
tooism and Buddhism.
Mr.. Percival Lowell, in his recent
volume on "Occult Japan" gives some
interesting facts in regard to his OBJ
seryation at Outake or the Honorable
Peak, a sacred mountain in the heart
of Japan, on whose peaks it is af-
firmed a devotee may become pos
sessed by deity and speak with the
gods voice.
Mr.. Lowell confesses himself sur
prised at many of the things he wit