The Foundations of Japan | Page 8

FOUNDATIONS OF JAPAN
STUDIES IN A SINGLE PREFECTURE (AICHI)[10]

CHAPTER I
THE MERCY OF BUDDHA
The only hard facts, one learns to see as one gets older, are the facts of
feeling. Emotion and sentiment are, after all, incomparably more solid
than any statistics. So that when one wanders back in memory through
the field one has traversed in diligent search of hard facts, one comes
back bearing in one's arms a Sheaf of Feelings.--HAVELOCK ELLIS.
One day as I walked along a narrow path between rice fields in a
remote district in Japan, I saw a Buddhist priest coming my way. He
was rosy-faced and benign, broad-shouldered and a little rotund. He
had with him a string of small children. I stood by to let him pass and
lifted my hat. He bowed and stopped, and we entered into conversation.
He told me that he was taking the children to a festival. I said that I
should like to meet him again. He offered to come to see me in the
evening at my host's house. When he arrived, and I asked him, after a
little polite talk, what was the chief difficulty in the way of improving
the moral condition of his village, he answered, "I am."
We spoke of Buddhism, and he complained that its sects were "too
aristocratic." When his own sect of Buddhism, Shinshu, was started, he
said, it was something "quite democratic for the common people." But
with the lapse of time this democratic sect had also "become
aristocratic." "Though the founder of Shinshu wore flaxen clothing,
Shinshu priests now have glittering costumes. And everyone has heard
of the magnificence of the Kyoto Hongwanji" (the great temple at
Kyoto, the headquarters of the sect).[11] "Contrary to the principles of
religion and democracy," people thought of the priest and the temple

"as something beyond their own lives." All this stood in the way of
improvement.
The fashion in which many landowners "despised exertion and lived
luxuriously" was another hindrance. These men looked down on
education, "thinking themselves clever because they read the
newspapers." Landlords of this sort were fond of curios, and kept their
capital in such things instead of in agriculture. Sellers of curios visited
the village too often. A wise man had called the curio-seller the "Spirit
of Poverty" (_Bimbogami_). He said that the Spirit visited a man when
he became rich--in order to bring curios to him; and again when he
became poor--in order to take them away from him! After he became
poor the Spirit of Poverty never visited him again.
Yet another drawback to rural progress was petty political ambition.
People slandered neighbours who belonged to another party and they
would not associate with them. Such party feeling was one of the bad
influences of civilisation.
Further, "a mercenary spirit and materialism" had to be fought in the
village. There was not, however, much trouble due to drink, and there
was no gambling now. There might still be impropriety between young
people--formerly young men used to visit the factory girls--but it was
rare. Lately there had been land speculation, and some of those who
made money went to tea-houses to see geisha.
There was in the neighbourhood, this Buddhist pastor went on, a
temple belonging to the same sect as his own, and he was on friendly
terms with its priest. It was good discipline, he said, for two priests to
be working near one another if they were of the same sect, for their
work was compared. In answer to my enquiry, the old man said that he
preached four days a month. Each service consisted of reading for an
hour and then preaching for two hours. About 150 or 200 persons
would attend. He had also a service every morning from five to six. In
addition to these gatherings in the temple he conducted services in
farmers' houses. "I feel rather ashamed sometimes," he said, "when I
listen to the good sermons of Christians."

As the priest was taking leave he told me that he was going to a
farmer's house in order to conduct a service. I asked to be allowed to
accompany him. He kindly agreed, and invited me to stay the night in
his temple.
When I reached the farmhouse there were there about two dozen
kneeling people, including members of the family. On the coming of
the priest, who had gone to the temple to put on his robes, the farmer
threw open the doors of the family shrine and lighted the candles in it.
The priest knelt down by the shrine and invited me to kneel near him.
In a few words he told the people why I was in the district. Whereupon
the farmer's aged mother piped, "We heard that a tall man