The Religions of Japan

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The Religions of Japan

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Title: The Religions of Japan From the Dawn of History to the Era of
Méiji
Author: William Elliot Griffis
Release Date: March 31, 2005 [EBook #15516]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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RELIGIONS OF JAPAN ***

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THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN

FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY TO THE ERA OF MEIJI
BY
WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.
FORMERLY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO;
AUTHOR OF "THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE" AND "COREA, THE
HERMIT NATION;" LATE LECTURER ON THE MORSE
FOUNDATION IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN NEW
YORK
"I came not to destroy, but to fulfil."--THE SON OF MAN
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1895
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING
COMPANY NEW YORK
IN GLAD RECOGNITION OF THEIR SERVICES TO THE WORLD
AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MY OWN
GREAT DEBT TO BOTH I DEDICATE THIS BOOK SO
UNWORTHY OF ITS GREAT SUBJECT TO THOSE TWO NOBLE
BANDS OF SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH THE FACULTY OF UNION
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF WHOM CHARLES A. BRIGGS
AND GEORGE L. PRENTISS ARE THE HONORED SURVIVORS
AND TO THAT TRIO OF ENGLISH STUDENTS ERNEST M.
SATOW, WILLIAM G. ASTON AND BASIL H. CHAMBERLAIN
WHO LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP
IN JAPAN
"IN UNCONSCIOUS BROTHERHOOD, BINDING THE
SELF-SAME SHEAF"

PREFACE
This book makes no pretence of furnishing a mirror of contemporary
Japanese religion. Since 1868, Japan has been breaking the chains of
her intellectual bondage to China and India, and the end is not yet. My
purpose has been, not to take a snap-shot photograph, but to paint a
picture of the past. Seen in a lightning-flash, even a tempest-shaken tree
appears motionless. A study of the same organism from acorn to
seed-bearing oak, reveals not a phase but a life. It is something like
this--"to the era of Meiji" (A.D. 1868-1894+) which I have essayed.
Hence I am perfectly willing to accept, in advance, the verdict of smart
inventors who are all ready to patent a brand-new religion for Japan,
that my presentation is "antiquated."
The subject has always been fascinating, despite its inherent difficulties
and the author's personal limitations. When in 1807, the polite lads
from Satsuma and Ki[=o]to came to New Brunswick, N.J., they found
at least one eager questioner, a sophomore, who, while valuing books,
enjoyed at first hand contemporaneous human testimony.
When in 1869, to Rutgers College, came an application through Rev.
Dr. Guido F. Verbeck, of T[=o]ki[=o], from Fukui for a young man to
organize schools upon the American principle in the province of
Echizen (ultra-Buddhistic, yet already so liberally leavened by the
ethical teachings of Yokoi Héishiro), the Faculty made choice of the
author. Accepting the honor and privilege of being one of the
"beginners of a better time," I caught sight of peerless Fuji and set foot
on Japanese soil December 29, 1870. Amid a cannonade of new
sensations and fresh surprises, my first walk was taken in company
with the American missionary (once a marine in Perry's squadron, who
later invented the jin-riki-sha), to see a hill-temple and to study the
wayside shrines around Yokohama. Seven weeks' stay in the city of
Yedo--then rising out of the débris of feudalism to become the Imperial
capital, T[=o]ki[=o], enabled me to see some things now so utterly
vanished, that by some persons their previous existence is questioned.
One of the most interesting characters I met personally was Fukuzawa,

the reformer, and now "the intellectual father of half of the young men
of ... Japan." On the day of the battle of Uyéno, July 11, 1868, this
far-seeing patriot and inquiring spirit deliberately decided to keep out
of the strife, and with four companions of like mind, began the study of
Wayland's Moral Science. Thus were laid the foundations of his great
school, now a university.
Journeying through the interior, I saw many interesting phenomena of
popular religions which are no longer visible. At Fukui in Echizen, one
of the strongholds of Buddhism, I lived nearly a year, engaged in
educational work, having many opportunities of learning both the
scholastic and the popular forms of Shint[=o] and of Buddhism. I was
surrounded by monasteries, temples, shrines, and a landscape richly
embroidered with myth and legend. During my four years' residence
and travel