The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-05-22
JAPAN's BELIEFS
AND RELIGIONS

advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
/ by Frederic ]. Haskin.)
TOXIC, May 2.-The national religion
in Japan is the worship of the divine
Emperor and his deified ancestors.
This religion is the cornerstone of the
japanese national structure, albeit the
cult may not be recognized as re-
ligion and although there is perfect
liberty of religious belief. Shinto, the
Way of the Gods, is the only purely
Japanese religion, and 1t 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 Buddha,
both of which came from China by
way of Korea, it revised both codes
to fit its own needs. Buddhism could
not thrive in Japan until it recognized
the ancestor worship and the million
deities of Shinto, which it 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
ligions" to be registered. 1t was then
that Shinto asserted itself in the
peculiar Japanese fashion. Its 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 Christian or a Bud
dhist or a 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 face-if
the japanese people accept Christian
ity and desert Shinto they will no
longer believe in the divinity of the
Emperor. When that belief is I'M
settled in the minds of the Japanese
masses the present hold of the ruling
oligarchy may be loosened, perhaps
overthrown.
ha ~
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 a |
hope, six centuries before He appear |
ed in Bethlehem. Buddhism came to |
Japan and finding Shinto unconquer-
able but hospitable, permitted it's
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, it is not
at all uncommon for a Japanese to
defend it as entirely compatible with
the Christian religion.
Japanese Presbyterian, when ask
ed about Shinto, declared that it was
unthinkable that intelligent men should |
regard Shinto as a religion. 1T is
merely ain amplification of the Bibli-
cal commandment to honor thy father
and thy mother" he said, land it's
ancestral tablets are no more idols
than are tombstones in Christian
The images which you
call gods are no more than statues
of saints or stained-glass 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 ESQ.,
600 Shinto shrines of Japan, and there
personally conducted the solemn cere-
monies according to the Shinto rite,
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 it's direct re-
suit was a great revival of Shinto
activity. There can be no doubt that
the japanese rulers intend to perpet-
nate Shinto, and to permit no other
religion to make much Roadway I'M
ess it accepts Shinto and incorporates
It within itself.
Surely the educated class in Japan .
ioes not believe the Emperor is a
yod?' the Occidental mind will query.
Perhaps not. The educated classes in
irH%