on the lips of tens of thousands of pious pilgrims, not only at the temples, but as they pass along the highways.  It is believed that each repetition 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 Japan.  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 Japanese 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 Japanese of the phrase “Shikataga 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 astonishing 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 “Shikataga nai.”