What the Japanese made of Buddhism reminds one in many ways of what the Teutonic nations made of Christianity.  Buddhism and Christianity, originally, were very similar in spirit.  They were both religions aiming at the achievement of holiness by renunciation of the world.  They both ignored politics and government and wealth, for which they substituted the future life as what was of real importance.  They were both religions of peace, teaching gentleness and non-resistance.  But both had to undergo great transformations in adapting themselves to the instincts of warlike barbarians.  In Japan, a multitude of sects arose, teaching doctrines which differed in many ways from Mahayana orthodoxy.  Buddhism became national and militaristic; the abbots of great monasteries became important feudal chieftains, whose monks constituted an army which was ready to fight on the slightest provocation.  Sieges of monasteries and battles with monks are of constant occurrence in Japanese history.

The Japanese, as every one knows, decided, after about 100 years’ experience of Western missionaries and merchants, to close their country completely to foreigners, with the exception of a very restricted and closely supervised commerce with the Dutch.  The first arrival of the Portuguese in Japan was in or about the year 1543, and their final expulsion was in the year 1639.  What happened between these two dates is instructive for the understanding of Japan.  The first Portuguese brought with them Christianity and fire-arms, of which the Japanese tolerated the former for the sake of the latter.  At that time there was virtually no Central Government in the country, and the various Daimyo were engaged in constant wars with each other.  The south-western island, Kyushu, was even more independent of such central authority as existed than were the other parts of Japan, and it was in this island (containing the port of Nagasaki) that the Portuguese first landed and were throughout chiefly active.  They traded from Macao, bringing merchandise, match-locks and Jesuits, as well as artillery on their larger vessels.  It was found that they attached importance to the spread of Christianity, and some of the Daimyo, in order to get their trade and their guns, allowed themselves to be baptized by the Jesuits.  The Portuguese of those days seem to have been genuinely more anxious to make converts than to extend their trade; when, later on, the Japanese began to object to missionaries while still desiring trade, neither the Portuguese nor the Spaniards could be induced to refrain from helping the Fathers.  However, all might have gone well if the Portuguese had been able to retain the monopoly which had been granted to them by a Papal Bull.  Their monopoly of trade was associated with a Jesuit monopoly of missionary activity.  But from 1592 onward, the Spaniards from Manila competed with the Portuguese from Macao, and the Dominican and Franciscan missionaries, brought by the Spaniards,