The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-18
JAPAN'S BELIEFS
AND RELIGIONS
Shint0ism the Cornerstone
of Her National
Structure.
advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic ]. Haskin)


TOXIC. May 2.-The national religion
in Japan is the worship of the divin
Emperor and his deified ancestors
This religion is the cornerstone of tht
Japanese national structure. albeit TIT
cult may not be recognized as re
Iigion and although there is perfec
Way of the Gods. is the only purely
japanese religion, and it is a peculiar
ly Japanese notion that Shinto does
not wish TO be regarded as a religion
When Japan adopted the ethics of
Confucius and the religion of Buddhar
both of which came from China by
way of Korea, it revised both codes
to fit it's own needs. Buddhism could
not thrive in Japan until it recognized
the ancestor worship and the million
deities of Shinto, which ii did by the
simple process of considering each one
of these deities an incarnation of Bud
dha. Now the Christian religion is
gaining ground and the whole coun-
try is being cast along the lines of
Christian nations.
Shinto, the central and vital princi-
pie of which is the worship of the
Emperor, was made the established
religion in order to fix the minds of
the people upon the Mikado and re-
store him to the supreme power which
had been usurped by the Shoguns.
Then, when that purpose was accom-
plished. Shinto was disestablished and
religious freedom was granted. Then
the government required all re
iigions" to be registered. 1t was then
that Shinto asserted itself in the
peculiar Japanese fashion. It's leaders
came forward and declared that Shin
to was not a religion but cult and
could not be classed with dogmatic
religions.
1t is the japanese idea that Shinto,
being not a religion, is entirely ac-
ceptable to any other religion. There
fore, according to the Japanese gov
ernmental idea, a Christian or a Bud
dhist or Mohammedan may also ac-
cept the cult of Shinto without incon-
sistency. The reason for this is as
plain as the nose on a mans FACET
the Japanese people accept Christian
ity and desert Shinto they will no
Emperor. When that belief is un-
settled in the minds of the japanese
masses the present hold of the ruling
oligarchy may be loosened, perhaps
overthrown.
The scoffer must remember that it
is only yesterday that all Europe was
ruled by kings who claimed the divine
right and that two European mon
archs of today make the same claim
for their authority. The japanese
masses have believed in the divinity
of their Emperors since time when
Christ was only a prophecy and
hope, six centuries before He appear
ed in Bethlehem. Buddhism came to
Japan and finding Shinto unconquer-
able but hospitable, permitted its
votaries to follow both religions. The
japanese mind, therefore, cannot I'M
derstand the intolerance of the Chris
tians. whose God is a jealous God
and will have no other gods before
Him.
But when the Japanese rulers found
that this intolerance of other religions
was inseparable from Christianity,
and as they had to keep friendly with
the Christian world they thought to
overcome the Christian objections by
declaring that the Christians need not
be alarmed. Shinto is not a religion,
only cult AS Shinto is based on an
cestor worship which still forms the
greater part of it's activity. ii is not
at all uncommon for a Japanese to
defend it as entirely compatible with
the Christian religion.
A Japanese Presbyterian, when ask
ed about Shinto, declared that it was
unthinkable that intelligent men should
regard Shinto as a religion. 1T is
merely an application of the Bibli-
cal commandment to honor thy father
and thy mother he said. and it's
ancestral tablets are no more idols
than are tombstones in Christian
churchyards. The images which you
call gods are no more than statues
of saints or stained-glags window re-
presentations of Biblical scenes" But
this explanation does not do away
with the fact that in whatever way
Shinto may be manifested, the life
giving principle of the cult is the rec
ognition of the divinity of the En-
peror.
After the conclusion of the war with
Russia the Emperor went to the Great
Shrine of Ise. most sacred of the $780,.
0Oo Shinto shrines of Japan, and there
personally conducted the solemn cere-
monies according to the Shinto rite,
proclain1ing to the gods. his ancestors,
the story of the victory over Russia.
This ceremony was performed at a
time when national feeling was run
ming at it's highest, and its direct re-
suit was a great revival of Shinto
activity. There can be no doubt that
the japanese rulers intend to perpet-
uate Shinto, and to permit no other
religion 10 make much Roadway I'M
less IL accepts Shinto and incorporates
it within itself.
surely the educated class in Japan
does not believe the Emperor is a
god" the Occidental mind will query.
Perhaps not. The educated classes in
Europe might not have believed in the
divine right of kings, but they usual
~ kept their scepticism to themselves
if they did not actually aid 10 propa-
gate the faith among the uneducated.
When Charles 1 of England stood for
Divine Right and Cromwell for Human