“It (Shint[=o]) was smothered before reaching maturity, but
    Buddhism and Confucianism had to disguise and change in order to
    enter Japan.”

“Life has a limited span and naught may avail to extend it.  This is manifested by the impermanence of human beings.  But yet whenever necessary I will hereafter make my appearance from time to time as a god, a sage, or a Buddha.”—­Last words of Shaka the Buddha, in Japanese biography.

“It is our opinion that Buddhism cannot long hold its ground, and that Christianity must finally prevail throughout all Japan....  Now, when Buddhism and Christianity are in conflict for the ascendency, this indifference of the Japanese people to the difference of sects is a great disadvantage to Buddhism.  That they should worship Jesus Christ with the same mind as they do Inari or Mi[=o]jin is not at all inconsistent in their estimation or contrary to their custom.”—­Fukuzawa, of T[=o]ki[=o].

    “How long halt ye between two opinions?  If the Lord be God,
    follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”—­Elijah.

    “Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?”—­Jesus.

    “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and
    bitter?”—­James.

    “What concord hath Christ with Belial?”—­Paul.

CHAPTER VII — RIY[=O]BU, OR MIXED BUDDHISM

Syncretism in Religion.

Two centuries and a half of Buddhism in Japan, showed the leaders and teachers of the Indian faith that complete victory over the whole nation was yet very far off.  The court had indeed been invaded and won.  Even the Mikado, the ecclesiastical head of Shint[=o], and the incarnation and vicar of the heavenly gods, had not only embraced Buddhism, but in many instances had shorn the hair and taken the vows of the monk.  Yet the people clung tenaciously to their old traditions, customs and worship; for their gods were like themselves and indeed were of themselves, since Shint[=o] is only a transfiguration of Japanese life.  In the Japanese of those days we can trace the same traits which we behold in the modern son of Nippon, especially his intense patriotism and his warlike tendencies.  To convert these people to the peaceful dogmas of Siddartha and to make them good Buddhists, something more than teaching and ritual was necessary.  It was indispensable that there should be complete substitution, all along the ruts and paths of national habit, and especially that the names of the gods and the festivals should be Buddhaized.

Popular customs are nearly immortal and ineradicable.  Though wars may come, dynasties rise and fall, and convulsions in nature take place, yet the people’s manners and amusements are very slow in changing.  If, in the history of Christianity, the European missionaries found it necessary in order to make conquest of our pagan forefathers, to baptize and re-name without radically changing old notions and habits, so did it seem equally indispensable that in Japan there should be some system of reconciliation of the old and the new, some theological revolution, which should either fulfil, absorb, or destroy Shint[=o].