Chapter XIX: Part 19

Meanwhile, beyond the precincts of the capital there were rapidly growing to maturity numerous powerful military magnates who despised every form of learning that did not contribute to martial excellence. An illiterate era ensued which reached its climax with the establishment of feudalism at the close of the 12th century. It is recorded that, about that time, only one man out of a force of five thousand could decipher an Imperial mandate addressed to them. Kamakura, then the seat of feudal government, was at first distinguished for absence of all intellectual training, but subsequently the course of political events brought thither from Kioto a number of court nobles whose erudition and refinement acted as a potent leaven. Buddhism, too, had been from the outset a strong educating influence. Under its auspices the first great public library was established (1270) at the temple Shomyo-ji in Kanazawa. It is said to have contained practically all the Chinese and Japanese books then existing, and they were open for perusal by every class of reader. To Buddhist priests, also, Japan owed during many years all the machinery she possessed for popular education. They organized schools at the temples scattered about in almost every part of the empire, and at these _tera-koya_, as they were called, lessons in ethics, calligraphy, reading and etiquette were given to the sons of samurai and even to youths of the mercantile and manufacturing classes.

Education in the pre-Meiji Era.

When, at the beginning of the 17th century, administrative supremacy fell into the hands of the Tokugawa, the illustrious founder of that dynasty of shoguns, Iyeyasu, showed himself an earnest promoter of erudition. He employed a number of priests to make copies of Chinese and Japanese books; he patronized men of learning and he endowed schools. It does not appear to have occurred to him, however, that the spread of knowledge was hampered by a restriction which, emanating originally from the Imperial court in Kioto, forbade any one outside the ranks of the Buddhist priesthood to become a public teacher. To his fifth successor Tsunayoshi (1680-1709) was reserved the honour of abolishing this veto. Tsunayoshi, whatever his faults, was profoundly attached to literature. By his command a pocket edition of the Chinese classics was prepared, and the example he himself set in reading and expounding rare books to audiences of feudatories and their vassals produced something like a mania for erudition, so that feudal chiefs competed in engaging teachers and founding schools. The eighth shogun, Yoshimune (1716-1749), was an even more enlightened ruler. He caused a geography to be compiled and an astronomical observatory to be constructed; he revoked the veto on the study of foreign books; he conceived and carried out the idea of imparting moral education through the medium of calligraphy by preparing ethical primers whose precepts were embodied in the head-lines of copy-books, and he encouraged private schools. Iyenari (1787-1838), the eleventh shogun, and his immediate successor, Iyeyoshi (1838-1853), patronized learning no less ardently, and it was under the auspices of the latter that Japan acquired her five classics, the primers of _True Words_, of _Great Learning_, of _Lesser Learning_, of _Female Ethics_ and of _Women's Filial Piety_.

Thus it may be said that the system of education progressed steadily throughout the Tokugawa era. From the days of Tsunayoshi the number of fief schools steadily increased, and as students were admitted free of all charges, a duty of grateful fealty as well as the impulse of interfief competition drew thither the sons of all samurai. Ultimately the number of such schools rose to over 240, and being supported entirely at the expense of the feudal chiefs, they did no little honour to the spirit of the era. From 7 to 15 years of age lads attended as day scholars, being thereafter admitted as boarders, and twice a year examinations were held in the presence of high officials of the fief. There were also several private schools where the curriculum consisted chiefly of moral philosophy, and there were many temple schools, where ethics, calligraphy, arithmetic, etiquette and, sometimes, commercial matters were taught. A prominent feature of the system was the bond of reverential affection uniting teacher and student. Before entering school a boy was conducted by his father or elder brother to the home of his future teacher, and there the visitors, kneeling before the teacher, pledged themselves to obey him in all things and to submit unquestioningly to any discipline he might impose. Thus the teacher came to be regarded as a parent, and the veneration paid to him was embodied in a precept: "Let not a pupil tread within three feet of his teacher's shadow." In the case of the temple schools the priestly instructor had full cognisance of each student's domestic circumstances and was guided by that knowledge in shaping the course of instruction. The universally underlying principle was, "serve the country and be diligent in your respective avocations." Sons of samurai were trained in military arts, and on attaining proficiency many of them travelled about the country, inuring their bodies to every kind of hardship and challenging all experts of local fame.

Unfortunately, however, the policy of national seclusion prevented for a long time all access to the stores of European knowledge. Not until the beginning of the 18th century did any authorized account of the great world of the West pass into the hands of the people. A celebrated scholar (Arai Hakuseki) then compiled two works--_Saiyo kibun_ (_Record of Occidental Hearsay_), and _Sairan igen_ (_Renderings of Foreign Languages_)--which embodied much information, obtained from Dutch sources, about Europe, its conditions and its customs. But of course the light thus furnished had very restricted influence. It was not extinguished, however. Thenceforth men's interest centred more and more on the astronomical, geographical and medical sciences of the West, though such subjects were not included in academical studies until the renewal of foreign intercourse in modern times. Then (1857), almost immediately, the nation turned to Western learning, as it had turned to Chinese thirteen centuries earlier. The Tokugawa government established in Yedo an institution called _Bansho-shirabe-dokoro_ (place for studying foreign books), where Occidental languages were learned and Occidental works translated. Simultaneously a school for acquiring foreign medical art (_Seiyo igaku-sho_) was opened, and, a little later (1862), the _Kaisei-jo_ (place of liberal culture), a college for studying European sciences, was added to the list of new institutions. Thus the eve of the Restoration saw the Japanese people already appreciative of the stores of learning rendered accessible to them by contact with the Occident.

Commercial Education in Tokugawa Times.

Commercial education was comparatively neglected in the schools. Sons of merchants occasionally attended the _tera-koya_, but the instruction they received there had seldom any bearing upon the conduct of trade. Mercantile knowledge had to be acquired by a system of apprenticeship. A boy of 9 or 10 was apprenticed for a period of 8 or 9 years to a merchant, who undertook to support him and teach him a trade. Generally this young apprentice could not even read or write. He passed through all the stages of shop menial, errand boy, petty clerk, salesman and senior clerk, and in the evenings he received instruction from a teacher, who used for textbooks the manual of letter-writing (_Shosoku orai_) and the manual of commerce (_Shobai orai_). The latter contained much useful information, and a youth thoroughly versed in its contents was competent to discharge responsible duties. When an apprentice, having attained the position of senior clerk, had given proof of practical ability, he was often assisted by his master to start business independently, but under the same firm-name, for which purpose a sum of capital was given to him or a section of his master's customers were assigned.

Education in Modern Japan.

When the government of the Restoration came into power, the emperor solemnly announced that the administration should be conducted on the principle of employing men of capacity wherever they could be found. This amounted to a declaration that in choosing officials scholastic acquirements would thenceforth take precedence of the claims of birth, and thus unprecedented importance was seen to attach to education. But so long as the feudal system survived, even in part, no general scheme of education could be thoroughly enforced, and thus it was not until the conversion of the fiefs into prefectures in 1871 that the government saw itself in a position to take drastic steps. A commission of investigation was sent to Europe and America, and on its return a very elaborate and extensive plan was drawn up in accordance with French models, which the commissioners had found conspicuously complete and symmetrical. This plan subsequently underwent great modifications. It will be sufficient to say that in consideration of the free education hitherto provided by the feudatories in their various fiefs, the government of the restoration resolved not only that the state should henceforth shoulder the main part of this burden, but also that the benefits of the system should be extended equally to all classes of the population, and that the attendance at primary schools should be compulsory. At the outset the sum to be paid by the treasury was fixed at 2,000,000 _yen_, that having been approximately the expenditure incurred by the feudatories. But the financial arrangements suffered many changes from time to time, and finally, in 1877, the cost of maintaining the schools became a charge on the local taxes, the central treasury granting only sums in aid.

Every child, on attaining the age of six, must attend a common
elementary school, where, during a six-years' course, instruction is
given in morals, reading, arithmetic, the rudiments of technical work,
gymnastics and poetry. Year by year the attendance at these schools
has increased. Thus, whereas in the year 1900, only 81.67% of the
school-age children of both sexes received the prescribed elementary
instruction, the figure in 1905 was 94.93%. The desire for instruction
used to be keener among boys than among girls, as was natural in view
of the difference of inducement; but ultimately this discrepancy
disappeared almost completely. Thus, whereas the percentage of girls
attending school was 75.90 in 1900, it rose to 91.46 in 1905, and the
corresponding figures for boys were 90.55 and 97.10 respectively. The
tuition fee paid at a common elementary school in the rural districts
must not exceed 5s. yearly, and in the urban districts, 10s.; but in
practice it is much smaller, for these elementary schools form part of
the communal system, and such portion of their expenses as is not
covered by tuition fees, income from school property and miscellaneous
sources, must be defrayed out of the proceeds of local taxation. In
1909 there were 18,160 common elementary schools, and also 9105
schools classed as elementary but having sections where, subsequently
to the completion of the regular curriculum, a special supplementary
course of study might be pursued in agriculture, commerce or industry
(needle-work in the case of girls). The time devoted to these special
courses is two, three or four years, according to the degree of
proficiency contemplated, and the maximum fees are 15d. per month in
urban districts and one-half of that amount in rural districts.

There are also 294 kindergartens, with an attendance of 26,000
infants, whose parents pay 3d. per month on the average for each
child. In general the kindergartens are connected with elementary
schools or with normal schools.

If a child, after graduation at a common elementary school, desires to
extend its education, it passes into a common middle school, where
training is given for practical pursuits or for admission to higher
educational institutions. The ordinary curriculum at a common middle
school includes moral philosophy, English language, history,
geography, mathematics, natural history, natural philosophy,
chemistry, drawing and the Japanese language. Five years are required
to graduate, and from the fourth year the student may take up a
special technical course as well as the main course; or, in accordance
with local requirements, technical subjects may be taught conjointly
with the regular curriculum throughout the whole time. The law
provides that there must be at least one common middle school in each
prefecture. The actual number in 1909 was 216.

Great inducements attract attendance at a common middle school. Not
only does the graduation certificate carry considerable weight as a
general qualification, but it also entitles a young man to volunteer
for one year's service with the colours, thus escaping one of the two
years he would have to serve as an ordinary conscript.

The graduate of a common middle school can claim admittance, without
examination, to a high school, where he spends three years preparing
to pass to a university, or four years studying a special subject, as
law, engineering or medicine. By following the course in a high
school, a youth obtains exemption from conscription until the age of
28, when one year as a volunteer will free him from all service with
the colours. A high-school certificate of graduation entitles its
holder to enter a university without examination, and qualifies him
for all public posts.

For girls also high schools are provided, the object being to give a
general education of higher standard. Candidates for admission must be
over 12 years of age, and must have completed the second-year course
of a higher elementary school. The regular course of study requires 4
years, and supplementary courses as well as special art courses may be
taken.

In addition to the schools already enumerated, which may be said to
constitute the machinery of general education, there are special
schools, generally private, and technical schools (including a few
private), where instruction is given in medicine and surgery,
agriculture, commerce, mechanics, applied chemistry, navigation,
electrical engineering, art (pictorial and applied), veterinary
science, sericulture and various other branches of industry. There are
also apprentices' schools, classed under the heading of elementary,
where a course of not less than six months, and not more than four
years, may be taken in dyeing and weaving, embroidery, the making of
artificial flowers, tobacco manufacture, sericulture, reeling silk,
pottery, lacquer, woodwork, metal-work or brewing. There are also
schools--nearly all supported by private enterprise--for the blind and
the dumb.

Normal schools are maintained for the purpose of training teachers, a
class of persons not plentiful in Japan, doubtless because of an
exceptionally low scale of emoluments, the yearly pay not exceeding
£60 and often falling as low as £15.

There are two Imperial universities, one in Tokyo and one in Kioto. In
1909 the former had about 220 professors and instructors and 2880
students. Its colleges number six: law, medicine, engineering,
literature, science and agriculture. It has a university hall where
post-graduate courses are studied, and it publishes a quarterly
journal giving accounts of scientific researches, which indicate not
only large erudition, but also original talent. The university of
Kioto is a comparatively new institution and has not given any signs
of great vitality. In 1909 its colleges numbered four: law, medicine,
literature and science; its faculty consisted of about 60 professors
with 70 assistants, and its students aggregated about 1100.

Except in the cases specially indicated, all the figures given above
are independent of private educational institutions. The system
pursued by the state does not tend to encourage private education, for
unless a private school brings its curriculum into exact accord with
that prescribed for public institutions of corresponding grade, its
students are denied the valuable privilege of partial exemption from
conscription, as well as other advantages attaching to state
recognition. Thus the quality of the instruction being nominally the
same, the rate of fees must also be similar, and no margin offers to
tempt private enterprise.

Public education in Japan is strictly secular: no religious teaching
of any kind is permitted in the schools. There are about 100
libraries. Progress is marked in this branch, the rate of growth
having been from 43 to 100 in the five-year period ended 1905. The
largest library is the Imperial, in Tokyo. It had about half a million
volumes in 1909, and the daily average of visitors was about 430.

Apart from the universities, the public educational institutions in
Japan involve an annual expenditure of 3½ millions sterling, out of
which total a little more than half a million is met by students'
fees; 2¾ millions are paid by the communes, and the remainder is
defrayed from various sources, the central government contributing
only some £28,000. It is estimated that public school property--in
land, buildings, books, furniture, &c., aggregates 11 millions
sterling.

VII.--RELIGION

Shinto.

The primitive religion of Japan is known by the name of Shinto, which signifies "the divine way," but the Japanese maintain that this term is of comparatively modern application. The term Shinto being obviously of Chinese origin, cannot have been used in Japan before she became acquainted with the Chinese language. Now Buddhism did not reach Japan until the 6th century, and a knowledge of the Chinese language had preceded it by only a hundred years. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that the primitive religion of Japan had no name, and that it did not begin to be called Shinto until Buddhism had entered the field. The two creeds remained distinct, though not implacably antagonistic, until the beginning of the 9th century, when they were welded together into a system of doctrine to which the name _Ryobu-Shinto_ (dual Shinto) was given. In this new creed the Shinto deities were regarded as avatars of Buddhist divinities, and thus it may be said that Shinto was absorbed into Buddhism. Probably that would have been the fate of the indigenous creed in any circumstances, for a religion without a theory as to a future state and without any code of moral duties could scarcely hope to survive contact with a faith so well equipped as Buddhism in these respects. But Shinto, though absorbed, was not obliterated. Its beliefs survived; its shrines survived; its festivals survived, and something of its rites survived also.

Shinto, indeed, may be said to be entwined about the roots of Japan's national existence. Its scripture--as the _Kojiki_ must be considered--resembles the Bible in that both begin with the cosmogony. But it represents the gods as peopling the newly created earth with their own offspring instead of with human beings expressly made for the purpose. The actual work of creation was done by a male deity, Izanagi, and a female deity, Izanami. From the right eye of the former was born Amaterasu, who became goddess of the sun; from his left eye, the god of the moon; and from his nose, a species of Lucifer. The grandson of the sun goddess was the first sovereign of Japan, and his descendants have ruled the land in unbroken succession ever since, the 121st being on the throne in 1909. Thus it is to Amaterasu (the heaven-illuminating goddess) that the Japanese pay reverence above all other deities, and it is to her shrine at Ise that pilgrims chiefly flock.

The story of creation, as related in the _Kojiki_, is obviously based on a belief that force is indestructible, and that every exercise of it is productive of some permanent result. Thus by the motions of the creative spirit there spring into existence all the elements that go to make up the universe, and these, being of divine origin, are worshipped and propitiated. Their number becomes immense when we add the deified ghosts of ancestors who were descended from the gods and whose names are associated with great deeds. These ancestors are often regarded as the tutelary deities of districts, where they receive special homage and where shrines are erected to them. The method of worship consists in making offerings and in the recital of rituals (_norito_). Twenty-seven of these rituals were reduced to writing and embodied in a work called _Engishiki_ (927). Couched in antique language, these liturgies are designed for the dedication of shrines, for propitiating evil, for entreating blessings on the harvest, for purification, for obtaining household security, for bespeaking protection during a journey, and so forth. Nowhere is any reference found to a future state of reward or punishment, to deliverance from evil, to assistance in the path of virtue. One ceremonial only is designed to avert the consequences of sin or crime; namely, the rite of purification, which, by washing with water and by the sacrifice of valuables, removes the pollution resulting from all wrong-doing. Originally performed on behalf of individuals, this _o-barai_ ultimately came to be a semi-annual ceremony for sweeping away the sins of all the people.

Shinto is thus a mixture of ancestor-worship and of nature-worship without any explicit code of morals. It regards human beings as virtuous by nature; assumes that each man's conscience is his best guide; and while believing in a continued existence beyond the grave, entertains no theory as to its pleasures or pains. Those that pass away become disembodied spirits, inhabiting the world of darkness (_yomi-no-yo_) and possessing power to bring sorrow or joy into the lives of their survivors, on which account they are worshipped and propitiated. Purity and simplicity being essential characteristics of the cult, its shrines are built of white wood, absolutely without decorative features of any kind, and fashioned as were the original huts of the first Japanese settlers. There are no graven images--a fact attributed by some critics to ignorance of the glyptic art on the part of the original worshippers--but there is an emblem of the deity, which generally takes the form of a sword, a mirror or a so-called jewel, these being the insignia handed by the sun goddess to her grandson, the first ruler of Japan. This emblem is not exposed to public view: it is enveloped in silk and brocade and enclosed in a box at the back of the shrine. The mirror sometimes prominent is a Buddhist innovation and has nothing to do with the true emblem of the creed.

From the 9th century, when Buddhism absorbed Shinto, the two grew together so intimately that their differentiation seemed hopeless. But in the middle of the 17th century a strong revival of the indigenous faith was effected by the efforts of a group of illustrious scholars and politicians, at whose head stood Mabuchi, Motoori and Hirata. These men applied themselves with great diligence and acumen to reproduce the pure Shinto of the _Kojiki_ and to restore it to its old place in the nation's reverence, their political purpose being to educate a spirit of revolt against the feudal system which deprived the emperor of administrative power. The principles thus revived became the basis of the restoration of 1867; Shinto rites and Shinto rituals were readopted, and Buddhism fell for a season into comparative disfavour, Shinto being regarded as the national religion. But Buddhism had twined its roots too deeply around the heart of the people to be thus easily torn up. It gradually recovered its old place, though not its old magnificence, for its disestablishment at the hands of the Meiji government robbed it of a large part of its revenues.

Buddhism.

Buddhism entered China at the beginning of the Christian era, but not until the 4th century did it obtain any strong footing. Thence, two centuries later (522), it reached Japan through Korea. The reception extended to it was not encouraging at first. Its images and its brilliant appurtenances might well deter a nation which had never seen an idol nor ever worshipped in a decorated temple. But the ethical teachings and the positive doctrines of the foreign faith presented an attractive contrast to the colourless Shinto. After a struggle, not without bloodshed, Buddhism won its way. It owed much to the active patronage of Shotoku taishi, prince-regent during the reign of the empress Suiko (593-621). At his command many new temples were built; the country was divided into dioceses under Buddhist prelates; priests were encouraged to teach the arts of road-making and bridge-building, and students were sent to China to investigate the mysteries of the faith at its supposed fountain-head. Between the middle of the 7th century and that of the 8th, six sects were introduced from China, all imperfect and all based on the teachings of the Hinayana system. Up to this time the propagandists of the creed had been chiefly Chinese and Korean teachers. But from the 8th century onwards, when Kioto became the permanent capital of the empire, Japanese priests of lofty intelligence and profound piety began to repair to China and bring thence modified forms of the doctrines current there. It was thus that Dengyo daishi (c. 800) became the founder of the Tendai (heavenly tranquillity) sect and Kobo daishi (774-834) the apostle of the Shingon (true word). Other sects followed, until the country possessed six principal sects in all with thirty-seven sub-sects. It must be remembered that Buddhism offers an almost limitless field for eclecticism. There is not in the world any literary production of such magnitude as the Chinese scriptures of the Mahayana. "The canon is seven hundred times the amount of the New Testament. Hsüan Tsang's translation of the _Prajna paramita_ is twenty-five times as large as the whole Christian Bible."

It is natural that out of such a mass of doctrine different systems should be elaborated. The Buddhism that came to Japan prior to the days of Dengyo daishi was that of the Vaipulya school, which seems to have been accepted in its entirety. But the Tendai doctrines, introduced by Dengyo, Iikaku and other fellow-thinkers, though founded mainly on the _Saddharma pundarika_, were subjected to the process of eclecticism which all foreign institutions undergo at Japanese hands. Dengyo studied it in the monastery of Tientai which "had been founded towards the close of the 6th century of our era on a lofty range of mountains in the province of Chehkiang by the celebrated preacher Chikai" (Lloyd, "Developments of Japanese Buddhism," _Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan_, vol. xxii.), and carrying it to Japan he fitted its disciplinary and meditative methods to the foundations of the sects already existing there.

This eclecticism was even more marked in the case of the Shingon (true word) doctrines, taught by Dengyo's illustrious contemporary, Kobo daishi, who was regarded as the incarnation of Vairocana. He led his countrymen, by a path almost wholly his own, from the comparatively low platform of Hinayana Buddhism, whose sole aim is individual salvation, to the Mahayana doctrine, which teaches its devotee to strive after perfect enlightenment, not for his own sake alone, but also that he may help his fellows and intercede for them. Then followed the Jodo (Pure Land) sect, introduced in 1153 by a priest, Senku, who is remembered by later generations as Honen shonin. He taught salvation by faith ritualistically expressed. The virtue that saves comes, not from imitation of and conformity to the person and character of the saviour Amida, but from blind trust in his efforts and ceaseless repetition of pious formulae. It is really a religion of despair rather than of hope, and in that respect it reflects the profound sympathy awakened in the bosom of its teacher by the sorrows and sufferings of the troublous times in which he lived.

A favourite pupil of Honen shonin was Shinran (1173-1262). He founded the Jodo Shinshu (true sect of jodo), commonly called simply Shinshu and sometimes Monto, which subsequently became the most influential of Japanese sects, with its splendid monasteries, the two Hongwana-ji in Kioto. The differences between the doctrines of this sect and those of its predecessors were that the former "divested itself of all metaphysics"; knew nothing of a philosophy of religion, dispensed with a multiplicity of acts of devotion and the keeping of many commandments; did not impose any vows of celibacy or any renunciation of the world, and simply made faith in Amida the all in all. In modern days the Shinshu sect has been the most progressive of all Buddhist sects and has freely sent forth its promising priests to study in Europe and America. Its devotees make no use of charms or spells, which are common among the followers of other sects.

Anterior by a few years to that introduction of the Shinshu was the Zen sect, which has three main divisions, the Rinzai (1168), the Soto (1223) and the Obaku (1650). This is essentially a contemplative sect. Truth is reached by pure contemplation, and knowledge can be transmitted from heart to heart without the use of words. In that simple form the doctrine was accepted by the Rinzai believers. But the founders of the Soto branch--Shoyo taishi and Butsuji zenshi--added scholarship and research to contemplation, and taught that the "highest wisdom and the most perfect enlightenment are attained when all the elements of phenomenal existence are recognized as empty, vain and unreal." This creed played an important part in the development of Bushido, and its priests have always been distinguished for erudition and indifference to worldly possessions.

Last but not least important among Japanese sects of Buddhism is the Nichiren or Hokke, called after its founder, Nichiren (1222-1282). It was based on the _Saddharma pundarika_, and it taught that there was only one true Buddha--the moon in the heavens--the other Buddhas being like the moon reflected in the waters, transient, shadowy reflections of the Buddha of truth. It is this being who is the source of all phenomenal existence, and in whom all phenomenal existence has its being. The imperfect Buddhism teaches a chain of cause and effect; true Buddhism teaches that the first link in this chain of cause and effect is the Buddha of original enlightenment. When this point has been reached true wisdom has at length been attained. Thus the monotheistic faith of Christianity was virtually reached in one God in whom all creatures "live, move and have their being." It will readily be conceived that these varied doctrines caused dissension and strife among the sects professing them. Sectarian controversies and squabbles were nearly as prominent among Japanese Buddhists as they were among European Christians, but to the credit of Buddhism it has to be recorded that the stake and the rack never found a place among its instruments of self-assertion. On the other hand, during the wars that devastated Japan from the 12th to the end of the 16th century, many of the monasteries became military camps, and the monks, wearing armour and wielding glaives, fought in secular as well as religious causes.

Christianity in Modern Japan.

The story of the first Christian missionaries to Japan is told
elsewhere (see § VIII. FOREIGN INTERCOURSE). Their work suffered an
interruption for more than 200 years until, in 1858, almost
simultaneously with the conclusion of the treaties, a small band of
Catholic fathers entered Japan from the Riukiu islands, where they had
carried on their ministrations since 1846. They found that, in the
neighbourhood of Nagasaki, there were some small communities where
Christian worship was still carried on. It would seem that these
communities had not been subjected to any severe official scrutiny.
But the arrival of the fathers revived the old question, and the
native Christians, or such of them as refused to apostatize, were
removed from their homes and sent into banishment. This was the last
example of religious intolerance in Japan. At the instance of the
foreign representatives in Tokyo the exiles were set at liberty in
1873, and from that time complete freedom of conscience existed in
fact, though it was not declared by law until the promulgation of the
constitution in 1889. In 1905 there were 60,000 Roman Catholic
converts in Japan forming 360 congregations, with 130 missionaries and
215 teachers, including 145 nuns. These were all European. They were
assisted by 32 Japanese priests, 52 Japanese nuns, 280 male catechists
and 265 female catechists and nurses. Three seminaries for native
priests existed, together with 58 schools and orphanages and two
lepers' homes. The whole was presided over by an archbishop and three
bishops.

The Anglican Church was established in Japan in 1859 by two American
clergymen who settled in Nagasaki, and now, in conjunction with the
Episcopal Churches of America and Canada, it has missions collectively
designated Nihon Sei-Kokai. There are 6 bishops--2 American and 4
English--with about 60 foreign and 50 Japanese priests and deacons,
besides many foreign lay workers of both sexes and Japanese catechists
and school teachers. The converts number 11,000. The Protestant
missions include Presbyterian (Nihon Kirisuto Kyokai), Congregational
(Kumi-ai), Methodist, Baptist and the Salvation Army (Kyusei-gun). The
pioneer Protestant mission was founded in 1859 by representatives of
the American Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed Churches. To this mission
belongs the credit of having published, in 1880, the first complete
Japanese version of the New Testament, followed by the Old Testament
in 1887. The Presbyterians, representing 7 religious societies, have
over a hundred missionaries; 12,400 converts; a number of boarding
schools for boys and girls and day schools. The Congregational
churches are associated exclusively with the mission of the American
board of commissioners for foreign missions. They have about 11,400
converts, and the largest Christian educational institution in Japan,
namely, the Doshisha in Kioto. The Methodists represent 6 American
societies and 1 Canadian. They have 130 missionaries and 10,000
converts; boarding schools, day schools, and the most important
Christian college in Tokyo, namely, the Awoyama Gaku-in. The Baptists
represent 4 American societies; have 60 missionaries, a theological
seminary, an academy for boys, boarding schools for girls, day schools
and 3500 converts. The Salvation Army, which did not enter Japan until
1895, has organized 15 corps, and publishes ten thousand copies of a
fortnightly magazine, the _War Cry_ (_Toki no Koe_). Finally, the
Society of Friends, the American and London Religious Tract Societies
and the Young Men's Christian Association have a number of missions.
It will be seen from the above that the missionaries in Japan, in the
space of half a century (1858 to 1908), had won 110,000 converts, in
round numbers. To these must be added the Orthodox Russian Church,
which has a fine cathedral in Tokyo, a staff of about 40 Japanese
priests and deacons and 27,000 converts, the whole presided over by a
bishop. Thus the total number of converts becomes 137,000. In spite
of the numerous sects represented in Japan there has been virtually no
sectarian strife, and it may be said of the Japanese converts that
they concern themselves scarcely at all about the subtleties of dogma
which divide European Christianity. Their tendency is to consider only
the practical aspects of the faith as a moral and ethical guide. They
are disposed, also, to adapt the creed to their own requirements just
as they adapted Buddhism, and this is a disposition which promises to
grow.

VIII.--FOREIGN INTERCOURSE

_Foreign Intercourse in Early and Medieval Times._--There can be no doubt that commerce was carried on by Japan with China and Korea earlier that the 8th century of the Christian era. It would appear that from the very outset over-sea trade was regarded as a government monopoly. Foreigners were allowed to travel freely in the interior of the country provided that they submitted their baggage for official inspection and made no purchases of weapons of war, but all imported goods were bought in the first place by official appraisers who subsequently sold them to the people at arbitrarily fixed prices. Greater importance attached to the trade with China under the Ashikaga shoguns (14th, 15th and 16th centuries), who were in constant need of funds to defray the cost of interminable military operations caused by civil disturbances. In this distress they turned to the neighbouring empire as a source from which money might be obtained. This idea seems to have been suggested to the shogun Takauji by a Buddhist priest, when he undertook the construction of the temple Tenryu-ji. Two ships laden with goods were fitted out, and it was decided that the enterprise should be repeated annually. Within a few years after this development of commercial relations between the two empires, an interruption occurred owing partly to the overthrow of the Yuen Mongols by the Chinese Ming, and partly to the activity of Japanese pirates and adventurers who raided the coasts of China. The shogun Yoshimitsu (1368-1394), however, succeeded in restoring commercial intercourse, though in order to effect his object he consented that goods sent from Japan should bear the character of tribute and that he himself should receive investiture at the hands of the Chinese emperor's ambassador. The Nanking government granted a certain number of commercial passports, and these were given by the shogun to Ouchi, feudal chief of Cho-shu, which had long been the principal port for trade with the neighbouring empire. Tribute goods formed only a small fraction of a vessel's cargo: the bulk consisted of articles which were delivered into the government's stores in China, payment being received in copper cash. It was from this transaction that the shogun derived a considerable part of his profits, for the articles did not cost him anything originally, being either presents from the great temples and provincial governors or compulsory contributions from the house of Ouchi. As for the gifts by the Chinese government and the goods shipped in China, they were arbitrarily distributed among the noble families in Japan at prices fixed by the shogun's assessor. Thus, so far as the shogun was concerned, these enterprises could not fail to be lucrative. They also brought large profits to the Ouchi family, for, in the absence of competition, the products and manufactures of each country found ready sale in the markets of the other. The articles found most suitable in China were swords, fans, screens, lacquer wares, copper and agate, and the goods brought back to Japan were brocade and other silk fabrics, ceramic productions, jade and fragrant woods. The Chinese seem to have had a just appreciation of the wonderful swords of Japan. At first they were willing to pay the equivalent of 12 guineas for a pair of blades, but by degrees, as the Japanese began to increase the supply, the price fell, and at the beginning of the 16th century all the diplomacy of the Japanese envoys was needed to obtain good figures for the large and constantly growing quantity of goods that they took over by way of supplement to the tribute. Buddhist priests generally enjoyed the distinction of being selected as envoys, for experience showed that their subtle reasoning invariably overcame the economical scruples of the Chinese authorities and secured a fine profit for their master, the shogun. In the middle of the 16th century these tribute-bearing missions came to an end with the ruin of the Ouchi family and the overthrow of the Ashikaga shoguns, and they were never renewed.

With Korea.

Japan's medieval commerce with Korea was less ceremonious than that with China. No passports had to be obtained from the Korean government. A trader was sufficiently equipped when he carried a permit from the So family, which held the island of Tsushima in fief. Fifty vessels were allowed to pass yearly from ports in Japan to the three Japanese settlements in Korea. Little is recorded about the nature of this trade, but it was rudely interrupted by the Japanese settlers, who, offended at some arbitrary procedure on the part of the local Korean authorities, took up arms (A.D. 1510) and at first signally routed the Koreans. An army from Seoul turned the tables, and the Japanese were compelled to abandon the three settlements. Subsequently the shogun's government--which had not been concerned in the struggle--approached Korea with amicable proposals, and it was agreed that the ringleaders of the raiders should be decapitated and their heads sent to Seoul, Japan's compliance with this condition affording, perhaps, a measure of the value she attached to neighbourly friendship. Thenceforth the number of vessels was limited to 25 annually and the settlements were abolished. Some years later, the Japanese again resorted to violent acts of self-assertion, and on this occasion, although the offenders were arrested by order of the shogun Yoshiharu, and handed over to Korea for punishment, the Seoul court persisted in declining to restore the system of settlements or to allow the trade to be resumed on its former basis. Fifty years afterwards the taiko's armies invaded Korea, overrunning it for seven years, and leaving, when they retired in 1598, a country so impoverished that it no longer offered any attraction to commercial enterprise from beyond the sea.

With Occidental Nations.

The Portuguese discovered Japan by accident in 1542 or 1543--the exact date is uncertain. On a voyage to Macao from Siam, a junk carrying three Portuguese was blown from her course and fetched Tanegashima, a small island lying south of the province of Satsuma. The Japanese, always hospitable and inquisitive, welcomed the newcomers and showed special curiosity about the arquebuses carried by the Portuguese, fire-arms being then a novelty in Japan and all weapons of war being in great request. Conversation was impossible, of course, but, by tracing ideographs upon the sand, a Chinese member of the crew succeeded in explaining the cause of the junk's arrival. She was then piloted to a more commodious harbour, and the Portuguese sold two arquebuses to the local feudatory, who immediately ordered his armourer to manufacture similar weapons. Very soon the news of the discovery reached all the Portuguese settlements in the East, and at least seven expeditions were fitted out during the next few years to exploit this new market. Their objective points were all in the island of Kiushiu--the principal stage where the drama--ultimately converted into a tragedy--of Christian propagandism and European commercial intercourse was acted in the interval between 1542 and 1637.

Arrival of the Jesuits.

It does not appear that the Jesuits at Macao, Goa or other centres of Portuguese influence in the East took immediate advantage of the discovery of Japan. The pioneer propagandist was Francis Xavier, who landed at Kagoshima on the 15th of August 1549. During the interval of six (or seven) years that separated this event from the drifting of the junk to Tanegashima, the Portuguese had traded freely in the ports of Kiushiu, had visited Kioto, and had reported the Japanese capital to be a city of 96,000 houses, therefore larger than Lisbon. Xavier would certainly have gone to Japan even though he had not been specially encouraged, for the reports of his countrymen depicted the Japanese as "very desirous of being instructed," and he longed to find a field more promising than that inhabited by "all these Indian nations, barbarous, vicious and without inclination to virtue." There were, however, two special determinants. One was a request addressed by a feudatory, supposed to have been the chief of the Bungo fief, to the viceroy of the Indies at Goa; the other, an appeal made in person by a Japanese named Yajiro, whom the fathers spoke of as Anjiro, and who subsequently attained celebrity under his baptismal name, Paul of the holy faith. No credible reason is historically assigned for the action of the Japanese feudatory. Probably his curiosity had been excited by accounts which the Portuguese traders gave of the noble devotion of their country's missionaries, and being entirely without bigotry, as nearly all Japanese were at that epoch, he issued the invitation partly out of curiosity and partly from a sincere desire for progress. Anjiro's case was very different. Labouring under stress of repentant zeal, and fearful that his evil acts might entail murderous consequences, he sought an asylum abroad, and was taken away in 1548 by a Portuguese vessel whose master advised him to repair to Malacca for the purpose of confessing to Xavier. This might well have seemed to the Jesuits a providential dispensation, for Anjiro, already able to speak Portuguese, soon mastered it sufficiently to interpret for Xavier and his fellow-missionaries (without which aid they must have remained long helpless in the face of the immense difficulty of the Japanese language), and to this linguistic skill he added extraordinary gifts of intelligence and memory. Xavier, with two Portuguese companions and Anjiro, were excellently received by the feudal chiefs of Satsuma and obtained permission to preach their doctrine in any part of the fief. This permit is not to be construed as an evidence of official sympathy with the foreign creed. Commercial considerations alone were in question. A Japanese feudal chief in that era had sedulously to foster every source of wealth or strength, and as the newly opened trade with the outer world seemed full of golden promise, each feudatory was not less anxious to secure a monopoly of it in the 16th century than the Ashikaga shoguns had been in the 15th. The Satsuma daimyo was led to believe that the presence of the Jesuits in Kagoshima would certainly prelude the advent of trading vessels. But within a few months one of the expected merchantmen sailed to Hirado without touching at Kagoshima, and her example was followed by two others in the following year, so that the Satsuma chief saw himself flouted for the sake of a petty rival, Matsudaira of Hirado. This fact could not fail to provoke his resentment. But there was another influence at work. Buddhism has always been a tolerant religion, eclectic rather than exclusive. Xavier, however, had all the bigoted intolerance of his time. The Buddhist priests in Kagoshima received him with courtesy and listened respectfully to the doctrines he expounded through the mouth of Anjiro. Xavier rejoined with a display of aggressive intolerance which shocked and alienated the Buddhists. They represented to the Satsuma chief that peace and good order were inconsistent with such a display of militant propagandism, and he, already profoundly chagrined by his commercial disappointment, issued in 1550 an edict making it a capital offence for any of his vassals to embrace Christianity. Xavier, or, more correctly speaking, Anjiro, had won 150 converts, who remained without molestation, but Xavier himself took ship for Hirado. There he was received with salvoes of artillery by the Portuguese merchantmen lying in the harbour and with marks of profound respect by the Portuguese traders, a display which induced the local chief to issue orders that courteous attention should be paid to the teaching of the foreign missionaries. In ten days a hundred baptisms took place; another significant index of the mood of the Japanese in the early era of Occidental intercourse: the men in authority always showed a complaisant attitude towards Christianity where trade could be fostered by so doing, and wherever the men in authority showed such an attitude, considerable numbers of the lower orders embraced the foreign faith. Thus, in considering the commercial history of the era, the element of religion constantly thrusts itself into the foreground.

First Visit of Europeans to Kioto.

Xavier next resolved to visit Kioto. The first town of importance he reached on the way was Yamaguchi, capital of the Choshu fief, situated on the northern shore of the Shimonoseki Strait. There the feudal chief, Ouchi, though sufficiently courteous and inquisitive, showed no special cordiality towards humble missionaries unconnected with commerce, and the work of proselytizing made no progress, so that Xavier and his companion, Fernandez, pushed on to Kioto. The time was mid-winter; the two fathers suffered terrible privations during their journey of two months on foot, and on reaching Kioto they found a city which had been almost wholly reduced to ruins by internecine war. Necessarily they failed to obtain audience of either emperor or shogun, at that time the most inaccessible potentates in the world, the Chinese "son of heaven" excepted, and nothing remained but street preaching, a strange resource, seeing that Xavier, constitutionally a bad linguist, had only a most rudimentary acquaintance with the profoundly difficult tongue in which he attempted to expound the mysteries of a novel creed. A fortnight sufficed to convince him that Kioto was unfruitful soil. He therefore returned to Yamaguchi. But he had now learned a lesson. He saw that propagandism without scrip or staff and without the countenance of those sitting in the seats of power would be futile in Japan. So he obtained from Hirado his canonicals, together with a clock and other novel products of European skill, which, as well as credentials from the viceroy of India, the governor of Malacca and the bishop of Goa, he presented to the Choshu chief. His prayer for permission to preach Christianity was now readily granted, and Ouchi issued a proclamation announcing his approval of the introduction of the new religion and according perfect liberty to embrace it. Xavier and Fernandez now made many converts. They also gained the valuable knowledge that the road to success in Japan lay in associating themselves with over-sea commerce and its directors, and in thus winning the co-operation of the feudal chiefs.

Christian Propagandists.

Nearly ten years had now elapsed since the first Portuguese landed in Kagoshima, and during that time trade had gone on steadily and prosperously. No attempt was made to find markets in the main island: the Portuguese confined themselves to Kiushiu for two reasons: one, that having no knowledge of the coasts, they hesitated to risk their ships and their lives in unsurveyed waters; the other, that whereas the main island, almost from end to end, was seething with internecine war, Kiushiu remained beyond the pale of disturbance and enjoyed comparative tranquillity. At the time of Xavier's second sojourn in Yamaguchi, a Portuguese ship happened to be visiting Bungo, and at its master's suggestion the great missionary proceeded thither, with the intention of returning temporarily to the Indies. At Bungo there was then ruling Otomo, second in power to only the Satsuma chief among the feudatories of Kiushiu. By him the Jesuit father was received with all honour. Xavier did not now neglect the lesson he had learned in Yamaguchi. He repaired to the Bungo chieftain's court, escorted by nearly the whole of the Portuguese crew, gorgeously bedizened, carrying their arms and with banners flying. Otomo, a young and ambitious ruler, was keenly anxious to attract foreign traders with their rich cargoes and puissant weapons of war. Witnessing the reverence paid to Xavier by the Portuguese traders, he appreciated the importance of gaining the goodwill of the Jesuits, and accordingly not only granted them full freedom to teach and preach, but also enjoined upon his younger brother, who, in the sequel of a sudden rebellion, had succeeded to the lordship of Yamaguchi, the advisability of extending protection to Torres and Fernandez, then sojourning there. After some four months' stay in Bungo, Xavier set sail for Goa in February 1552. Death overtook him in the last month of the same year.

Xavier's departure from Japan marked the conclusion of the first epoch of Christian propagandism. His sojourn in Japan extended to 27 months. In that time he and his coadjutors won about 760 converts. In Satsuma more than a year's labour produced 150 believers. There Xavier had the assistance of Anjiro to expound his doctrines. No language lends itself with greater difficulty than Japanese to the discussion of theological questions. The terms necessary for such a purpose are not current among laymen, and only by special study, which, it need scarcely be said, must be preluded by an accurate acquaintance with the tongue itself, can a man hope to become duly equipped for the task of exposition and dissertation. It is open to grave doubt whether any foreigner has ever attained the requisite proficiency. Leaving Anjiro in Kagoshima to care for the converts made there, Xavier pushed on to Hirado, where he baptized a hundred Japanese in a few days. Now we have it on the authority of Xavier himself that in this Hirado campaign "none of us knew Japanese." How then did they proceed? "By reciting a semi-Japanese volume" (a translation made by Anjiro of a treatise from Xavier's pen) "and by delivering sermons, we brought several over to the Christian cult." Sermons preached in Portuguese or Latin to a Japanese audience on the island of Hirado in the year 1550 can scarcely have attracted intelligent interest. On his first visit to Yamaguchi, Xavier's means of access to the understanding of his hearers was confined to the rudimentary knowledge of Japanese which Fernandez had been able to acquire in 14 months, a period of study which, in modern times, with all the aids now procurable, would not suffice to carry a student beyond the margin of the colloquial. No converts were won. The people of Yamaguchi probably admired the splendid faith and devotion of these over-sea philosophers, but as for their doctrine, it was unintelligible. In Kioto the same experience was repeated, with an addition of much physical hardship. But when the Jesuits returned to Yamaguchi in the early autumn of 1551, they baptized 500 persons, including several members of the military class. Still Fernandez with his broken Japanese was the only medium for communicating the profound doctrines of Christianity. It must be concluded that the teachings of the missionaries produced much less effect than the attitude of the local chieftain.

Second Period of Christian Propagandism.