CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN.
A REMARKABLE paper appeared in the last number of the London Quarterly Review entitled " Japan : Old and New,7. by Professor -Takakusu. The first half of the article is headed "The People and Civilisation," the second "Religion." It is with this latter section that we propose chiefly to deal. "Japan," we read, "old and new, as a nation, owes a great -deal to the four systems of religion, which have ntributed, each its own share, to the moulding of the national character. If there is anything admirable in the Japanese character. as it exhibits itself to-day, it is the result of the joint influence of all the four. If Shintoism and. Confucianism cultivated a natural simplicity, a patriotic spirit, and a sense of responsibility to the nation, Buddhism and Christianity taught self-control, sacrifice, and, above all, the responsibility of the nation to the world at large." Two points of great interest strike us in this paragraph. The first is the singular power the Japanese display of fusing . and accepting widely differing schemes of thought; the . second, the fact that Professor Takakusu, an educated Japanese, believes that Christianity has already had a pro- found influence upon the character of his people.
The early religion of Japan—Shintoism—originated, we are told, "at the heart of family Children who bad lost their fathers, and wives who had .lost their husbands, could not believe themselves entirely bereft. They continued to regard the departed spirit as being with them, but in what sense it is difficult for a European to tinderstand, and probably more difficult for a Japanese to explain. Professor Takakusu . simply says that "since ordinary human intercourse is no longer possible they give expression to their affection in worship." They present offerings each day before "the memorial tablet" of their ancestor, and inform him of any , event which concerns the family. This simple religion of the . hearth gradually extended, and "developed a worship of the father of fathers, that is, the great ancestor." Thus whole clans came to worship the ancestor of the clan, and "the ancestor of the Imperial family" was recognised as "the centre of the national • cult, or State religion." This
Imperial worship has now become simply a pious custom, according to Professor Takakusu, and observance of what he considers a mere ceremonial. "does not at all .interfere with one's own belief in another form of religion." It was, however,. truly believed for many hundreds of years, and other systems were superimposed upon. it, without prejudice to the faith of believers.
When the ethical system of Confucius was brought from China in 404 A.D. the Japanese saw nothing in it "antagonistic to their own customs," though, as Professor Takakusu. points out, one "root idea of Confucianism" ran counter to "the central idea of the national ethics." For the Japanese "the relation between ruler and subjects remains fixed and unchangeable from time immemorial," while the "Confucian system of ethics, though it certainly teaches loyalty towards the Sovereign, does so with the proviso that a Sovereign who does not behave as a Sovereign should be dethroned and replaced by another." This difference, however, the Japanese seem completely to have disregarded. They saw no occasion to accept the system whole. They have a natural tendency to eclecticism. "All that they considered wholesome and good in the Chinese ethics they took to heart and practised freely." A century and a half later Buddhism was preached in the country, and "ultimately won the favour of the Throne, the Court, and the populace " ; but it Was "at the cost of a considerable modification of its teaching." The new religion did not oust the old religions; it was accommodated to fit in with them. Ancestor worship has no place in Buddhism, but it was "freely recognised" by the Japanese Buddhists, and "almost all the national deities were acknowledged as incarnate forms of one or other of the B.uddhas." Prayers offered to the dead are impossible in the Buddhist system, but in Japan "they were allowed by the Buddhists, who interpreted them as offered for, or on behalf of, the dead." The point of difference, we are told, was "gradually blended and harmonised in the mixed religious rites." Thus for more than a thousand years the two religions went on side by side, Shintoism "entrusting one half of its religious rites to the Buddhists, for each Shinto Temple had some Buddhist priests attached."
In the middle of the sixteenth century St. Francis Xavier preached Christianity in the central provinces of Japan. The faith was first allowed and then persecuted. It spread even during persecution at an astonishing pace, the converts increasing year by year till, according to Professor Takakusu, "in 1605 they numbered one million eight hundred thousand." The Government became determined to put down the new creed, which meant to them the Westernisation of the country. The victories of the faith were short-lived. By the middle of the seventeenth century, by redoubled efforts of persecution, Christianity was to all appearance stamped out, and "all persons were compelled to join one of the Buddhist sects." Intercourse with the Western world was almost entirely stopped, "the nation began again to live a quiet hermit life, and the peace and tranquillity now obtained led Japan to a development of art and literature." It is curious to note how much the character of the Japanese has always appealed to their Western visitors. St. Francis Xavier said of them : "This people is the delight of my soul." Will Adams, that extraordinary Englishman who in the beginning of the Seventeenth century lived twenty years in Japan and taught the Japanese how to build a European ship, declared them to be "good of nature, courteous above measure, and valiant in war." Again in the seventeenth century Klimpfer wrote : "In the practice of virtue, in purity of life and outward devotion they far outdo the Christians."
During the long period of Japanese seclusion Christianity never became quite extinct. No sooner were her doors re- opened to commerce and the laws against foreigners and foreign religions relaxed than the sparks of faith began to ' show in different parts of the country. In 1865 some French missionary priests were sought out by descendants of Christians who still held the faith of their ancestors of three hundred years before. These men knew Christian prayers, made the sign of the Cross, baptised, and celebrated Holy Communion in a secret hillside hermitage. Such isolated instances of secret Christianity can hardly have had much leavening influence in a country where to preach Christ was to court death. Nevertheless, ideas once so widely accepted cannot have been altogether rendered sterile by persecution. Daring the last few decades Christianity has made, we read, great strides, though there has been at least one serious reaction. At present, in the eyes of our Japanese author, the prospects of the faith are better than they have ever been, and though he refuses to make any guess at a date, he looks forward to the final conversion of the Mikado's Empire. As to the form of christianity which Japan may be expected to adopt, Professor Takakusu makes no definite prophecy. He speaks of Japanese Christian teachers as holding widely different views, and "studying every new book on theology and religion " ; as being some of them orthodox members of the various European sects, some of them swayed by" liberal theology," and emphasising chiefly the brotherhood of men and the Fatherhood of God; and tells us of others who are "very much in favour of what we call Institutional Christianity, not caring greatly about theological questions." He laments that the various missionary societies do not see the necessity for sending men of wider culture and greater intellectual weight to help the Japanese Christians in converting the country.
Professor Takakusu's short account of the religious history of Japan leaves upon the reader an impression of a people but little exercised by dogmatic speculation, with no tendency to treat religion as an exact science, and with a capacity for suiting every religious system they have known to their particular needs. All persecution seems to have been political, and where political interests were not involved new spiritual and moral ideas were permitted to germinate without any interference arising from the delight in polemics which dis- tinguishes the West. They seem able to graft new ideas upon old ones without making a radical change. They are net repelled by antinomies. They can fuse ideals which are at first sight opposite,—witness the marvellous way in which they have brought together the autocratic and democratic ideals, and produced a Japanese national ideal. This capacity perhaps stands to them in the place of what is ordinarily called originality. In view of their peculiar genius, it is impossible not to surmise that the simplest, most primitive, and least doctrinal form of Christianity will finally suit them best. The faith of the Gospels has many ethical points in common with Buddhism and Confucianism, and wise Christian teachers will encourage the Shintoist's, who cannot bear to part with their dead, not to sorrow as those that have no hope. One of the greatest proofs of the truth of Christianity is the way in which the highest minds outside Christendom approach to its conclusions. Hitherto, in spite of its Eastern origin, the triumphs of the Christian religion have been limited to the West. Is it not possible that the falling off of mediaeval dogma, in which so many fearful Christians at home see so much danger to the faith, may be simply the necessary pre- lude to a new revival which will sweep away the Occidental boundaries that have hitherto confined the creed which Christ taught?
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