Whether the pilgrimage[16] be of Shint[=o] or of Buddhist origin, or simply a contrivance of human nature to break the monotony of life, we need not discuss.  It is certain that if the custom be indigenous, the imported faith adopted, absorbed and enlarged it.  The peregrinations made to the great temples and to the mountain tops, being meritorious performances, soon filled the roads with more or less devout travellers.  In thus finding vent for their piety, the pilgrims mingled sanctification with recreation, enjoying healthful holidays, and creating trade with varied business, commercial and commissarial activities, while enlarging also their ideas and learning something of geography.  Thus, in the course of time, it has come to pass that Japan is a country of which almost every square mile is known, while it is well threaded with paths, banded with roads, and supplied to a remarkable extent with handy volumes of description and of local history.[17] Her people being well educated in their own lore and local traditions, possessed also a voluminous literature of guidebooks and cyclopedias of information.  The devotees were, withal, well instructed and versed in a code of politeness and courtesy, as pilgrimage and travel became settled habits of a life.  As a further result, the national tongue became remarkably homogeneous.  Broadly speaking, it may be said that the Japanese language, unlike the Chinese in this as it is in almost every other point, has very little dialectic variation.[18] Except in some few remote eddies lying outside the general currents, there is a uniform national speech.  This is largely owing to that annual movement of pilgrims in the summer months especially, habitual during many centuries.

Buddhism coming to Japan by means of the Great Vehicle, or with the features of the Northern development, was the fertile mother of art.  In the exterior equipment of the temple, instead of the Shint[=o] thatch, the tera or Buddhist edifice called for tiles on its sweeping roof, with ornamental terra-cotta at the end of its imposing roof-ridge, or for sheets of copper soon to be made verdant, then sombre and then sable by age and atmosphere.  Outwardly the edifice required the application of paint and lacquer in rich tints, its recurved roof-edges gladly welcoming the crest and monogram of the feudal prince, and its railings and stairways accepting willingly the bronze caps and ornaments.  In front of its main edifice was the imposing gateway with proportions almost as massive as the temple itself, with prodigal wealth of curiously fitted and richly carved, painted and gilded supports and morticings, with all the fancies and adornments of the carpenter’s art, and having as its frontlet and blazon the splendidly gilt name, style or title.  Often these were impressive to eye and mind, to an extent which the terse Chinese or curt monosyllables could scarcely suggest to an alien.[19] The number, forms and positions of the various parts of the temple easily lent themselves to the expression of the elaborate symbolism of the India faith.