Part 19 (2/2)
In this connection I may refer to an incident that came under my notice some years ago. A young man applied for members.h.i.+p in the k.u.mamoto Church, who at one time had been a student in one of my Bible cla.s.ses. I had not known that he had received any special help from his study with me, until I heard his statement as to how he had discovered his need of a Saviour, and had found that need satisfied in Christ. In his statement before the examining committee of the church, he said that when he first read the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, he was so impressed with its beauty as a poem that he wrote it out entire on one of the fusuma (light paper doors) of his room, and each morning, as he arose, he read it. This practice continued several weeks. Then, as we continued our study of the Bible, we took up the third chapter of John, and when he came to the sixteenth verse, he was so impressed with its statement that he wrote that beside the poem from Corinthians, and read them together.
Gradually this daily reading, together with the occasional sermons and other Christian addresses which he heard at the Boys' School, led him to desire to secure for himself the love described by Paul, and to know more vitally the love of G.o.d described by John. It occurred to him, that, to secure these ends, he should pray. Upon doing so he said that, for the first time in his life, his unworthiness and his really sinful nature overwhelmed him. This was, of course, but the beginning of his Christian life. He began then to search the Scriptures in earnest, and with increasing delight. It was not long before he wished to make public confession of his faith, and thus identify himself with the Christian community. This brief account of the way in which this young man was brought to Christ ill.u.s.trates a good many points, but that for which I have cited it is the testimony it bears to the fact that under similar circ.u.mstances the human heart undergoes very much the same religious experience, whatever be the race or nationality of the individual.
In regard to the future life, s.h.i.+nto has little specific doctrine. It certainly implies the continued existence of the soul after death, as its ancestral wors.h.i.+p shows, but its conception as to the future state is left vague in the extreme. Confucius purposely declined to teach anything on this point, and, in part, for this reason, it has been maintained that Confucianism cannot properly be called a religion.
Buddhism brought to j.a.pan an elaborate system of eschatological ideas, and so far as the common people of j.a.pan have any conception of the future life, it may be attributed to Buddhistic teachings. Into their nature I need not inquire at any length. According to popular Buddhism, the future world, or more properly speaking, worlds (for there are ten of them, into any one of which a soul may be born either immediately or in the course of its future transmigrations), does not differ in any vital way from the present world. It is a world of material blessings or woes; the successive stages or worlds are graded one above the other in fantastic ways. Salvation consists in pa.s.sing to higher grades of life, the final or perfect stage being paradise, which, once attained, can never be lost. Transmigration is universal, the period of life in each world being determined by the merits and demerits of the individual soul.
Here we must consider two widely used terms ”ingwa” and ”mei.” The first of these is Buddhistic and the other Confucianistic; though differing much in origin and meaning, yet in the end they amount to much the same thing. ”Ingwa” is the law of cause and effect. According to the Buddhistic teaching, however, the ”in,” or cause, is in one world, while the ”gwa,” or effect, is in the other. The suffering, for instance, or any misfortune that overtakes one in this present life, is the ”gwa” or effect of what was done in the previous, and is thus inevitable. The individual is working off in this life the ”gwa” of his last life, and he is also working up the ”in” of the next He is thus in a kind of vise. His present is absolutely determined for him by his past, and in turn is irrevocably fixing his future. Such is the Buddhistic ”wheel of the law.” The common explanation of misfortune, sickness, or disease, or any calamity, is that it is the result of ”ingwa,” and that there is, therefore, no help for it. The paralyzing nature of this conception on the development of character, or on activity of any kind, is apparent not only theoretically but actually.
As an escape from the inexorable fatality of this scheme of thought, the Buddhist faith of the common people has resorted to magic. Magic prayers, consisting of a few mystic syllables of whose meaning the wors.h.i.+per may be quite ignorant, are the means for overcoming the inexorableness of ”ingwa,” both for this life and the next. ”Namu Amida Butsu,” ”Namu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo,” ”Namu Hen Jo Kongo,” are the most common of such magic formulae. These prayers are heard on the lips of tens of thousands of pious pilgrims, not only at the temples, but as they pa.s.s along the highways. It is believed that each repet.i.tion secures its reward. Popular Buddhism's appeal to magic was not only winked at by philosophical Buddhism, but it was encouraged. Magic was justified by religious philosophy, and many a ”hoben,” ”pious device,”
for saving the ignorant was invented by the priesthood. It will be apparent that while Buddhism has in certain respects a vigorous system of punishment for sin, yet its method of relief is such that the common people can gain only the most shallow and superficial views of salvation. Buddhism has not served to deepen the sense of responsibility, nor helped to build up character. That the more serious-minded thinkers of the nation have, as a rule, rejected Buddhism is not strange.
One point of great interest for us is the fact that this eschatological and soteriological system was imported, and is not the spontaneous product of j.a.pan. The wide range of national religious characteristics thus clearly traceable to Buddhistic influence shows beyond doubt how large a part of a nation's character is due to the system of thought that for one reason or another prevails, rather than to the essential race character.
The other term mentioned above, ”mei,” literally means ”command” or ”decree”; but while the English terms definitely imply a real being who decides, decrees, and commands, the term ”mei” is indeterminate on this point. It is frequently joined to the word ”Ten,” or Heaven; ”Ten-mei,” Heaven's decree, seeming to imply a personality in the background of the thought. Yet, as I have already pointed out, it is only implied; in actual usage it means the fate decreed by Heaven; that is, fated fate, or absolute fate. The Chinese and the j.a.panese alike failed to inquire minutely as to the implication of the deepest conceptions of their philosophy. But ”mei” is commonly used entirely unconnected with ”Ten,” and in this case its best translation into English is probably ”fate.” In this sense it is often used. Unlike Buddhism, however, Confucianism provided no way of escape from ”mei”
except moral conduct. One of its important points of superiority was its freedom from appeal to magic in any form, and its reliance on sincerity of heart and correctness of conduct.
Few foreigners have failed to comment on the universal use by the j.a.panese of the phrase ”s.h.i.+kataga nai,” ”it can't be helped.” The ready resignation to ”fate,” as they deem it, even in little things about the home and in the daily life, is astonis.h.i.+ng to Occidentals.
Where we hold ourselves and each other to sharp personal responsibility, the sense of subjection to fate often leads them to condone mistakes with the phrase ”s.h.i.+kataga nai.”
But this characteristic is not peculiar to j.a.pan. China and India are likewise marked by it. During the famines in India, it was frequently remarked how the Hindus would settle down to starve in their huts in submission to fate, where Westerners would have been doing something by force, fighting even the decrees of heaven, if needful. But it is important to note that this characteristic in j.a.pan is undergoing rapid change. The spirit of absolute submission, so characteristic of the common people of Old j.a.pan, is pa.s.sing away and self-a.s.sertion is taking its place. Education and developing intelligence are driving out the fear of fate. Had our estimate of the j.a.panese race character been based wholly on the history of Old j.a.pan, it might have been easy to conclude that the spirit of submission to rulers and to fate was a national characteristic due to racial nature; but every added year of New j.a.pan shows how erroneous that view would have been. Thus we see again that the characteristics of j.a.pan, Old and New, are not due to race nature, but to the prevailing civilization in the broadest sense of the term. The religious characteristics of a people depend primarily on the dominant religious ideas, not on the inherent religious nature.
XXVIII
SOME RELIGIOUS PRACTICES
Among the truly religious sentiments of the j.a.panese are those of loyalty and filial piety. Having already given them considerable attention, we need not delay long upon them here. The point to be emphasized is that these two principles are exalted into powerful religious sentiments, which have permeated and dominated the entire life of the nation. Not only were they at the root of courage, of fidelity, of obedience, and of all the special virtues of Old j.a.pan, but they were also at the root of the larger part of her religion.
These emotions, sentiments, and beliefs have built 190,000 s.h.i.+nto shrines. Loyalty to the daimyo was the vital part of the religion of the past, as loyalty to the Emperor is the vital part of the popular religion of to-day. Next to loyalty came filial piety; it not only built the cemeteries, but also maintained G.o.d-shelves and family ancestral wors.h.i.+p throughout the centuries. One of the first questions which many an inquirer about Christianity has put to me is as to the way we treat our parents living and dead, and the tombs and memories of our ancestors. These two religious sentiments of loyalty and filial piety were essential elements of primitive s.h.i.+nto. The imported religions, particularly Confucianism and Christianity, served to strengthen them. In view of the indubitable religious nature of these two sentiments it is difficult to see how anyone can deny the name of religion to the religions that inculcate them, s.h.i.+nto and Confucianism. It shows how defective is the current conception of the real nature of religion.
Despite the reality of these religious, sentiments, however, many things are done in j.a.pan quite opposed to them. Of course this is so.
These violations spring from irreligion, and irreligion is found in every land. Furthermore, many things done in the name of loyalty and piety seem to us Westerners exceedingly whimsical and illogical. Deeds which to us seem disloyal and unfilial receive no rebuke. Filial piety often seems to us more active toward the dead than toward the living.
Closely connected with loyalty and filial piety, and in part their expression, is one further religious sentiment, namely, grat.i.tude. In his chapter in ”Kokoro” ”About Ancestor-Wors.h.i.+p,” Mr. Hearn makes some pertinent remarks as to the nature of s.h.i.+nto. ”Foremost among the moral sentiments of s.h.i.+nto is that of loving grat.i.tude to the past.”
This he attributes to the fact that ”To j.a.panese thought the dead are not less real than the living. They take part in the daily life of the people, sharing the humblest sorrows and the humblest joys ... and they are universally thought of as finding pleasure in the offerings made to them or the honors conferred upon them.” There is much truth in these statements, though I by no means share the opinion that in connection with the j.a.panese belief in the dead there ”have been evolved moral sentiments wholly unknown to Western civilization,” or that their ”loving grat.i.tude to the past” is ”a sentiment having no real correspondence in our own emotional life.” Mr. Hearn may be presumed to be speaking for himself in these matters; but he certainly does not correctly represent the thought or the feelings of the circle of life known to me. The feeling of grat.i.tude of Western peoples is as real and as strong as that of the j.a.panese, though it does not find expression in the wors.h.i.+p of the dead. That the j.a.panese are profuse in their expressions of grat.i.tude to the past and to the powers that be is beyond dispute. It crops out in sermons and public speeches, as well as in the numberless temples to national heroes.
But it is a matter of surprise to note how often there is apparent ingrat.i.tude toward living benefactors. Some years ago I heard a conversation between some young men who had enjoyed special opportunities of travel and of study abroad by the liberality of American gentlemen.
It appeared that the young men considered that instead of receiving any special favors, they were conferring them on their benefactors by allowing the latter to help such brilliant youth as they, whose subsequent careers in j.a.pan would preserve to posterity the names of their benefactors. I have had some experience in the line of giving a.s.sistance to aspiring students, in certain cases helping them for years; a few have given evidence of real grat.i.tude; but a large proportion have seemed singularly deficient in this grace. It is my impression that relatively few of the scores of students who have received a large proportion of their expenses from the mission, while pursuing their studies, have felt that they were thereby under any special debt of grat.i.tude. An experience that a missionary had with a cla.s.s to which he had been teaching the Bible in English for about a year is ill.u.s.trative. At the close of the school year they invited him to a dinner where they made some very pleasant speeches, and bade each other farewell for the summer. The teacher was much gratified with the result of the year's work, feeling naturally that these boys were his firm friends. But the following September when he returned, not only did the cla.s.s not care to resume their studies with him, but they appeared to desire to have nothing whatever to do with him. On the street many of them would not even recognize him. Other similar cases come to mind, and it should be remembered that missionaries give such instruction freely and always at the request of the recipient. In the case cited the teacher came to the conclusion that the elaborate dinner and fine farewell speeches were considered by the young men as a full discharge of all debts of grat.i.tude and a full compensation for services. This, however, is to be said: the city itself was at that time the seat of a determined antagonism to Christianity and, of course, to the Christian missionary; and this fact may in part, but not wholly, account for the appearance of ingrat.i.tude.
The j.a.panese pride themselves on their grat.i.tude. It is, however, limited in its scope. It is vigorous toward the dead and toward the Emperor, but as a grace of daily life it is not conspicuous.
Few achievements of the j.a.panese have been more remarkable than the suppression of certain religious phenomena. Any complete statement of the religious characteristics of the j.a.panese fifty years ago would have included most revolting and immoral practices under the guise of religion. Until suppressed by the government in the early years of Meiji there were in many parts of j.a.pan phallic shrines of considerable popularity, at which, on festivals at least, s.e.xual immorality seemed to be an essential part of the wors.h.i.+p. At Uji, not far from Kyoto, the capital of the Empire, for a thousand years and more, and the center of Buddhism, there was a shrine of great repute and popularity. Thither resorted the mult.i.tudes for baccha.n.a.lian purposes. Under the auspices of the G.o.ddess Has.h.i.+hime and the G.o.d Sumiyos.h.i.+, free rein was given to l.u.s.t. Since the beginning of the new regime such revels have been forbidden and apparently stopped; the phallic symbols themselves are no longer visible, although it is a.s.serted by the keeper of the shrine that they are still there, concealed in the boxes on the pedestals formerly occupied by the symbols. When I visited the place some years since with a fellow missionary we were told that mult.i.tudes still come there to pray to the deities; those seeking divorce pray to the female deity, while those seeking a favorable marriage pray to the male deity; on asking as to the proportion of the wors.h.i.+pers, we were told that there are about ten of the former to one of the latter, a significant indication of the unhappiness of many a home. Prof. Edmund Buckley has made a special study of the subject of phallic wors.h.i.+p in j.a.pan; in his thesis on the topic he gives a list of thirteen places where these symbols of phallic wors.h.i.+p might be seen a few years since. It is significant that at Uji, not a stone's throw from the phallic shrine, is a temple to the G.o.d Agata, whose special function is the cure of venereal diseases.
But though phallic wors.h.i.+p and its accompanying immorality have been extirpated, immorality in connection with religion is still rampant in certain quarters. Not far from the great temples at Ise, the center of s.h.i.+ntoism and the goal for half a million pilgrims yearly, are large and prosperous brothels patronized by and existing for the sake of the pilgrims. A still more popular resort for pilgrims is that at Kompira, whither, as we have seen, some 900,000 come each year; here the best hotels, and presumably the others also, are provided with prost.i.tutes who also serve as waiting girls; on the arrival of a guest he is customarily asked whether or not the use of a prost.i.tute shall be included in his hotel bill. It seems strange, indeed, that the government should take such pains to suppress phallicism, and allow such immorality to go on under the eaves of the greatest national shrines; for these shrines are not private affairs; the government takes possession of the gifts, and pays the regular salaries of the attending priests. It would appear from its success in the extermination of distinctly phallic wors.h.i.+p that the government could put a stop to all public prost.i.tution in connection with religion if it cared to do so.
One point of interest in connection with the above facts is that the old religions, however much of force, beauty, and truth we may concede to them, have never made warfare against these obscene forms of wors.h.i.+p, nor against the notorious immorality of their devotees.
Whatever may be said of the profound philosophy of life involved in phallic wors.h.i.+p, for many hundreds of years it has been a source of outrageous immorality. Nevertheless, there has never been any continued and effective effort on the part of the higher types of religion to exterminate the lower. But j.a.pan is not peculiar in this respect. India is even now amazingly immoral in certain forms of her wors.h.i.+p.
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