The Religions of Japan | Page 2

in the Empire, I perceived that in all things the people of
Japan were too religious.
In seeking light upon the meaning of what I saw before me and in
penetrating to the reasons behind the phenomena, I fear I often made
myself troublesome to both priests and lay folk. While at work in
T[=o]ki[=o], though under obligation to teach only physical science, I
voluntarily gave instruction in ethics to classes in the University. I
richly enjoyed this work, which, by questioning and discussion, gave
me much insight into the minds of young men whose homes were in
every province of the Empire. In my own house I felt free to teach to all
comers the religion of Jesus, his revelation of the fatherhood of God
and the ethics based on his life and words. While, therefore, in studying
the subject, I have great indebtedness to acknowledge to foreigners, I
feel that first of all I must thank the natives who taught me so much
both by precept and practice. Among the influences that have helped to
shape my own creed and inspire my own life, have been the beautiful
lives and noble characters of Japanese officers, students and common
people who were around and before me. Though freely confessing
obligation to books, writings, and artistic and scholastic influences, I
hasten first to thank the people of Japan, whether servants, superior
officers, neighbors or friends. He who seeks to learn what religion is
from books only, will learn but half.

Gladly thanking those, who, directly or indirectly, have helped me with
light from the written or printed page, I must first of all gratefully
express my especial obligations to those native scholars who have read
to me, read for me, or read with me their native literature.
The first foreign students of Japanese religions were the Dutch, and the
German physicians who lived with them, at Déshima. Kaempfer makes
frequent references, with test and picture, in his Beschryving van Japan.
Von Siebold, who was an indefatigable collector rather than a critical
student, in Vol. V. of his invaluable Archiv (Pantheon von Nippon),
devoted over forty pages to the religions of Japan. Dr. J.J. Hoffman
translated into Dutch, with notes and explanations, the
Butsu-z[=o]-dzu-i, which, besides its 163 figures of Buddhist holy men,
gives a bibliography of the works mentioned by the native author. In
visiting the Japanese museum on the Rapenburg, Leyden, one of the
oldest, best and most intelligently arranged in Europe, I have been
interested with the great work done by the Dutchmen, during two
centuries, in leavening the old lump for that transformation which in
our day as New Japan, surprises the world. It requires the shock of
battle to awaken the western nations to that appreciation of the racial
and other differences between the Japanese and Chinese, which the
student has already learned.
The first praises, however, are to be awarded to the English scholars,
Messrs. Satow, Aston, Chamberlain, and others, whose profound
researches in Japanese history, language and literature have cleared the
path for others to tread in. I have tried to acknowledge my debt to them
in both text and appendix.
To several American missionaries, who despite their trying labors have
had the time and the taste to study critically the religions of Japan, I
owe thanks and appreciation. With rare acuteness and learning, Rev. Dr.
George Wm. Knox has opened on its philosophical, and Rev. Dr. J.H.
DeForest on its practical side, the subject of Japanese Confucianism.
By his lexicographical work, Dr. J.C. Hepburn has made debtors to him
both the native and the alien. To our knowledge of Buddhism in Japan,
Dr. J.C. Berry and Rev. J.L. Atkinson have made noteworthy

contributions. I have been content to quote as authorities and
illustrations, the names of those who have thus wrought on the soil,
rather than of those, who, even though world-famous, have been but
slightly familiar with the ethnic and the imported faith of Japan. The
profound misunderstandings of Buddhism, which some very eminent
men of Europe have shown in their writings, form one of the literary
curiosities of the world.
In setting forth these Morse lectures, I have purposely robbed my pages
of all appearance of erudition, by using as few uncouth words as
possible, by breaking up the matter into paragraphs of moderate length,
by liberally introducing subject-headings in italics, and by relegating all
notes to the appendix. Since writing the lectures, and even while
reading the final proofs, I have ransacked my library to find as many
references, notes, illustrations and authorities as possible, for the
benefit of the general student. I have purposely avoided recondite and
inaccessible books and have named those easily obtainable from
American or European publishers, or from Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, of
Yokohama, Japan. In using