Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-06-01

CHuet by lHtlI hospitality lHe llkhl w
leave them alone,
Never question a japanese about his
religious convictions You would ne
asking him what he has probably new
err asked himself lie never feels the
need Of sharing his piety with those
about him. That pety is curiously re-
served ana silent have many time
visited the popular temples of TOXIC,
but never once have ] received the I'M
preston OF an assembly Of communl-
cants making the same prayer to the
same god. They come In one by one
perform whatever rites they please, I'M
cover sometimes and sometimes nol,
bow or PROSTATE themselves, pause or
pass every man manifesting by his al
ttude his full confidence in the diVihlIy
whom he addresses, or his hai1-eon,l-
dence or his quarter NOM
ing suggests the silent effuslon OF hearts
that are similarly touched or convicted, ,
but, on the other hand, no man ques-
lions the sincerity Of anothers prayers
Their eyes do not peep from under halt-
closed lids in impertinent scrutiny or
the deVotions Of others. The surly
controversies Of the Buddhist sects ar
feet the mass Of the people no more
than the riYalries Of merchants aHect
the ordinary buyer They are the quar-
rels OF monks who so far from follow
ing the quest of truth, are bitterly DIS
putting one with another
Japanese apostles are usually enthu-
slastic recmses, Japanese bigots are
taclturn Missionaries, Japanese doubters
are merely Indifferent. The gods do
not draw human souls together, but
neither do they divide them. Naught
is known here OF damnabIe errors or
burning hcresies or passionate schism5.
Objections are made To their super
stitlons their pitabe superstitions,
Such It Is. no doubt, to attribute to a
fox the mower Of bewitChing a man,
But similar prodlGies teen in the rural
districts Of the whether they be
Inhabited by Catholics, I.utherans or
Orthodox Greeks.
Ever tolerant In temper and distrust-
ful Of exclusive deities, apparently de-
tached, and yet essentially reyerential
toward the mystery In which our life
is involved, the japanese neither push
their faith to the point OF moral certi-
tude, nor their sceptlcism to the point
Of negation. They are able TO rest in
the provisional. and, In religion as in
politics, their inward peace Is founded
upon equlvocatlons. Shlntoism and
Buddhism have divided the conscience
Of Japan between them for fifteen hun
bred years without ever rending II
asunder
When a cultivated japanese talks TO
you about Shlntoism, he Is apt to
speak either vaguely and rather con-
temptuously or with the constrained
air Of a parvenu who has been remind
ed of his humble origin But when you
reflect that the same man feels a sim
liar repugnance to receiving you IN
his house at all, and that pollteness, as
he oonceives It, consists In bellttling all
that belongs to him, and of which he
is especially fond, you begin to suspect
that behind religion, restored ana
made official for purely political pur-
poses, there may Turk no end OF sentl-
ments and traditions which are all the
more precious to your lnterlocutor be-
cause he dissimulates, or affects to de-
spise them. Shintoism Is not merely
the cult OF imperial majesty; It Is the
religion OF Japanese nationalism. II Is
to the Shintoist temples, or mya, that
newborn infants are taken and when
the invisible god passes, delicately
clothed in lace, II Is the Shintolst gohei
who decides what the infant shall be
called. The child may subsequently
adopt the doctrine OF Confucius or the
visions of Amida, he may even yield
to the persuasions OF PROSECUTING Tor
eigners: but he has been baptized
Shintoist, and the ancient gods OF his
country have taken him into their Keep.
ing to such good purpose that the soul
OF him will never lose their simple and
yet stately impress.
An extremely conservative, yet open
minded Japanese one day said to me-
1--WE are all Shintoists, and YOU mon
sieur, to whom | speak, you are one
tool When / travelled In France !
saw everywhere IN your colleges and
town houses busts OF the Republic
We'll. that Is ShintOism!'
have made point Of reading Shin
tolst books and Of consulting those
priests who have a special repute for
wisdom. Honest folk ! found them
one and all-these sacristans and
churchwardens of the imperial cult
good fathers Of families and conscien-
tious in the discharge OF their duties
but as weak in theology as they were
poor In philosophy They welcomed
me 20 their houses which adJoln the
temples and the houses we're an emp
~ and spotessly clean. ! looked IN VAN
Tor the kakemono which the humDlest
peasant unrolls upon the wall OF MS
alcove. for the flower In the bronze
vase which suggests all the flowers that
blow, or the dwarf tree which is the
symbol Of an entire forest. The
tiny tree, so eloquently gnarled
and twisted, the single Hover
the decorative painting--all these
Buddhist ornaments We're absent from
The archaic dwelling where the gentle
spirit Of Japan abandons itself TO
lis dreams.
Nevertheless, my hosts, as they knelt
mon their mats. beside their tea cups,
TO initiate me into their the
,gony. was made 10 perceive by the
senses both OF sight and smell how the
gods were originally brought forth,
which was not very unlike the mythol-
,gy OF the ancient Greeks. Their le-
,ends are no less rich than those
whereby the Aryan genius attained 20
, consciousness of itself and Of the
Universe. We find again, In them, the
subliDe absurdItles which would seem
m the religion Of every people to carry
proof Of primitive revelation. for
strange as 1t may appear. not only have
an races experienced the same need
II faith but the imagination Of all
,as been dominated by the same de-
irlous dreams These legends are like
'rults OF Eden plucked By humanity
rom the ON -shoois Of Us own cradle,
Their philosophers, Instead OF Interpret
NO these legends, have gone into child
sh ccstasIes over their improbabilities.
The ablest OF them have discovered
lnder the heap OF ruin into which their
mythology had fallen certain principles
mported by the Dutch merchants, and
hey have used these 70 turn the Cnl-
,ese errors into rdIcule and 70 gloriiy
themselves at our expense Just look
# these barbarians." they said; what
low and plodding minds theirs must
Ne when Il takes them centuries 10 ma
nj that the earth revolyes! We nave
,nown il ever since our gods bent over
he Chaos on whose surface the eatth
wan In a soft mass, like floating fat,
md began stirring il with their untu-
ng spearsl" No one Of the ancient
heogonles. Il may be admitted. ever
m upon a finer symbol Of the earih's
perpetual motion. Japan Is the country
Il the gods; the japanese people arc