The Invention of a New Religion | Page 4

a body greatly to be admired. It
includes most of the foremost men of the nation. Like the priesthood in
later Judaea, to some extent like the Egyptian and Indian priesthoods, it
not only governs, but aspires to lead in intellectual matters. It has
before it a complex task. On the one hand, it must make good to the
outer world the new claim that Japan differs in no essential way from
the nations of the West, unless, indeed, it be by way of superiority. On
the other hand, it has to manage restive steeds at home, where ancestral
ideas and habits clash with new dangers arising from an alien material
civilisation hastily absorbed.
Down to the year 1888, the line of cleavage between governors and
governed was obscured by the joyful ardour with which all classes alike
devoted themselves to the acquisition of European, not to say American,
ideas. Everything foreign was then hailed as perfect--everything old
and national was contemned. Sentiment grew democratic, in so far
(perhaps it was not very far) as American democratic ideals were
understood. Love of country seemed likely to yield to a humble bowing
down before foreign models. Officialdom not unnaturally took fright at
this abdication of national individualism. Evidently something must be
done to turn the tide. Accordingly, patriotic sentiment was appealed to
through the throne, whose hoary antiquity had ever been a source of

pride to Japanese literati, who loved to dwell on the contrast between
Japan's unique line of absolute monarchs and the short-lived dynasties
of China. Shinto, a primitive nature cult, which had fallen into discredit,
was taken out of its cupboard and dusted. The common people, it is
true, continued to place their affections on Buddhism, the popular
festivals were Buddhist, Buddhist also the temples where they buried
their dead. The governing class determined to change all this. They
insisted on the Shinto doctrine that the Mikado descends in direct
succession from the native Goddess of the Sun, and that He himself is a
living God on earth who justly claims the absolute fealty of his subjects.
Such things as laws and constitutions are but free gifts on His part, not
in any sense popular rights. Of course, the ministers and officials, high
and low, who carry on His government, are to be regarded not as public
servants, but rather as executants of supreme--one might say
supernatural--authority. Shinto, because connected with the Imperial
Family, is to be alone honoured. Therefore, the important right of burial,
never before possessed by it, was granted to its priests. Later on, the
right of marriage was granted likewise--an entirely novel departure in a
land where marriage had never been more than a civil contract. Thus
the Shinto priesthood was encouraged to penetrate into the intimacy of
family life, while in another direction it encroached on the field of
ethics by borrowing bits here and there from Confucian and even from
Christian sources. Under a regime of ostensible religious toleration, the
attendance of officials at certain Shinto services was required, and the
practice was established in all schools of bowing down several times
yearly before the Emperor's picture. Meanwhile Japanese polities had
prospered; her warriors had gained great victories. Enormous was the
prestige thus accruing to Imperialism and to the rejuvenated Shinto cult.
All military successes were ascribed to the miraculous influence of the
Emperor's virtue, and to the virtues of His Imperial and divine
ancestors--that is, of former Emperors and of Shinto deities. Imperial
envoys were regularly sent after each great victory to carry the good
tidings to the Sun Goddess at her great shrine at Ise. Not there alone,
but at the other principal Shinto shrines throughout the land, the cannon
captured from Chinese or Russian foes were officially installed, with a
view to identifying Imperialism, Shinto, and national glory in the
popular mind. The new legend is enforced wherever feasible--for

instance, by means of a new set of festivals celebrating Imperial official
events.
But the schools are the great strongholds of the new propaganda.
History is so taught to the young as to focus everything upon
Imperialism, and to diminish as far as possible the contrast between
ancient and modern conditions. The same is true of the instruction
given to army and navy recruits. Thus, though Shinto is put in the
forefront, little stress is laid on its mythology, which would be apt to
shock even the Japanese mind at the present day. To this extent, where
a purpose useful to the ruling class is to be served, criticism is practised,
though not avowedly. Far different is the case with so-called "historical
facts," such as the alleged foundation of the Monarchy in 660 B.C. and
similar statements paralleled only for absurdity by what passed for
history in mediaeval Europe, when King Lear,