,,the ,,japanese ,,spirit    ,,by       
,,okakura-,,yoshisaburo    ,,with ,,an  
,,introduction    ,,by    ,,george      
,,meredith    ,,new ,,york    ,,james   
,,pott  ,,co4    #aije        ,,to ,,my 
,,brother        ,bellario       ,sir1  
if ,i have made      ,a fault in        
ignorance1 instruct my youth3      ,i   
shall be willing1 if not able1 to learn3
      ,age and experience will adorn my 
mind      ,with larger knowledge2 and if
 ,i have done      ,a wilful fault1     
think me not past all hope      ,for    
once4                      ,philaster1  
,act4 ,,ii4 ,sc4 ,i4          ,,preface 
,the following pages owe their existence
 to ,mr4 ,martin ,white1 whose keen     
interest in comparative sociology led to
 the opening of special courses  for its
 investigation in the ,university of    
,london4    ,my thanks are due to ,mr4  
,p4,j4 ,hartog1 ,academic ,registrar of 
the  ,university1 as well as to ,dr4 and
 ,mrs4 ,e4,r4 ,edwards1 who inspired me 
with the courage to take the present    

task on my inexperienced shoulders4     
,but above all ,i render the expression 
of my deepest obligation to  ,professor 
,walter ,rippmann4 ,had it not been for 
his friendly interest and  help1 ,i     
would not have been able thus to come   
before an ,english public4  ,for the    
peculiarities of thought and language1  
which1 if nothing else1  might at least 
make the booklet worthy of a perusal1 ,i
 naturally assume  the full             
responsibility myself4    ,with these   
prefatory words1 ,i venture to submit   
this essay to the  lenient reception of 
my readers4          ,,introduction     
,we have had illuminating books upon    
,japan4 ,those of ,lafcadio ,hearn will 
always be remembered for the poetry he  
brought in them to bear upon the  poetic
 aspects of the country and the people4 
,buddhism had a fascination  for him1 as
 it had for ,mr4 ,fielding in his       
remarkable book on the  practice of this
 religion in ,burma4#a ,there is also   
the work of ,captain  ,brinkley1 to     

which we are largely indebted4    ,these
 ,lectures by a son of the land1        
delivered at the ,university of         
,london1 are compendious and explicit in
 a degree that enables us to form  a    
summary of much that has been otherwise 
partially obscure1 so that we  get      
nearer to the secret of this singular   
race than we have had the  chance of    
doing before4 ,he traces the course of  
,confucianism1 ,laoism1  ,shintoism1 in 
the instruction it has given to his     
countrymen for the  practice of virtue1 
as to which ,lao-tze informs us with a  
piece of  ',chinese metaphysics' that   
can be had without having recourse to   
the  dictionary3 ',superior virtue is   
non-virtue4 ,therefore it has virtue4   
,inferior virtue never loses sight of   
virtue4 ,therefore it has no virtue4    
,superior virtue is non-assertive and   
without pretension4 ,inferior virtue    
asserts and makes pretensions4' ,it is  
childishly subtle and easy to be        
understood of a young people in whose   

minds ,buddhism and ,shintoism  formed a
 part4    ,the ,japanese have had the   
advantage of possessing a native        
,nobility who  were true nobles1 not    
invaders and subjugators4 ,they were1 in
 the  highest sense1 men of honor to    
whom1 before the time of this dreadful  
war1 ,hara-kiri was an imperative       
resource1 under the smallest suspicion  
of disgrace4 ,how rigidly they          
understood and practised ,virtue1 in the
  sense above cited1 is exemplified in  
the way they renounced their  privileges
 for the sake of the commonweal when the
 gates of ,japan were  thrown open to   
the ,west4    ,bushido1 or the 'way of  
the ,samurai1' has become almost an     
,english word1  so greatly has it       
impressed us with the principle of      
renunciation on  behalf of the          
,country's welfare4 ,this splendid      
conception of duty has  been displayed  
again and again at ,port ,arthur and on 
the fields of  ,manchuria1 not only by  
the ,samurai1 but by a glorious         

commonalty imbued  with the spirit of   
their chiefs4    ,all this is shown     
clearly by ,professor ,okakura in this  
valuable book4    ,it proves to general 
comprehension that such a people must be
  unconquerable even if temporarily     
defeated2 and that is not the present   
prospect of things4 ,who could conquer a
 race of forty millions having  the     
contempt of death when their country's  
inviolability is at stake6  ,death1     
moreover1 is despised by them because   
they do not believe in it4  ',the       
departed1 although invisible1 are       
thought to be leading their  ethereal   
life in the same world in much the same 
state as that to which  they had been   
accustomed while on earth4' ,and so1    
'when the father of a  ,japanese family 
begins a journey of any length1 the     
raised part of his  room will be made   
sacred to his memory during his         
temporary absence2 his  family will     
gather in front of it and think of him1 
expressing their  devotion and love in  

words and gifts in kind4 ,in the        
hundreds of  thousands of families that 
have some one or other of their members 
fighting for the nation in this dreadful
 war1 there will not be even one        
solitary house where the mother1 wife1  
or sister is not practising this  simple
 rite of endearment for the beloved and 
absent member of the  family4' ,spartans
 in the fight1 ,stoics in their grief4  
,concerning the foolish talk of the     
,yellow ,peril1 a studious perusal of   
this book will show it to be fatuous4   
,it is at least unlikely in an  extreme 
degree that such a people1 reckless of  
life though they be in  front of danger1
 but ,epicurean in their wholesome love 
of pleasure and  pursuit of beauty1 will
 be inflated to insanity by the success 
of their  arms4 ,those writers who have 
seen something malignant and inimical   
behind their gracious politeness1 have  
been mere visitors on the fringe  of the
 land1 alarmed by their skill in        
manufacturing weapons and               

explosives--for they are inventive as   
well as imitative1 a people not to  be  
trifled with2 but this was because their
 instinct as well as their  emissaries  
warned them of a pressing need for the  
means of war4 ,japan  and ,china have   
had experience of ,western nations1 and 
that is at the  conscience of suspicious
 minds4    ,it may be foreseen that when
 the end has come1 the ,kaiser1 always  
honourably eager for the influence of   
his people1 will draw a glove over  the 
historic ',mailed ,fist' and offer it to
 them frankly4 ,it will surely  be      
accepted1 and that of ,france1 we may   
hope2 ,russia as well4 ,england is  her 
ally--to remain so1 we trust2 ,america  
is her friend4 ,she has1 in  fact1 won  
the admiration of ,friend and ,foe      
alike4                                  
,,george ,,meredith4      #a ,the ,soul 
of a ,people4          ,,the ,,japanese 
,,spirit4      ,since the end of the    
thirteenth century1 when ,marco ,polo1  
on his return  to ,venice1 wrote about  

',cipango1' an island1 as he stated1    
'#aejj miles  off the coast of ,china1  
fabulously rich1 and inhabited by people
 of  agreeable manners1' many a ,western
 pen has been wielded to tell all  kinds
 of tales concerning the ,land of the   
,rising ,sun4 ,her long  seclusion2 her 
anxious care to guard inviolate the     
simple faith which  had been gravely    
threatened by the ,roman ,church2 her   
hearty welcome of  the honoured guests  
from the ,west1 after centuries of      
independent  growth2 the sudden1 almost 
pathetic1 changes she has gone through  
in the  past forty years in order to    
equip herself for a place on the world's
  stage where powers play their game of 
balance2 the lessons she lately  taught 
the still slumbering ,china through the 
mouths of thundering  cannon3 all this  
has called into existence the expression
 of opinions  and comments of very      
varying merit and tone2 and especially  
since the  out-break of the present war1
 when the daily news from the scenes of 

action1 where my brethren are fighting  
for the cause of wronged justice  and   
menaced liberty1 is showing the world   
page after page of patriotism  and      
loyalty1 written unmistakably in the    
crimson letters of heroes'  blood1--all 
this has given occasion to ,europe and  
,america to think the  matter over      
afresh4 ,here you have at least a nation
 different in her  development from any 
existing people in the ,occident4       
,governed from time  immemorial by the  
immediate descendants of the            
,sun-,goddess1 whose  merciful rule     
early taught us to offer them our       
voluntary tribute of  devotion and love1
 we have based our social system on     
filial piety1 that  necessary outcome of
 ancestor-worship which presupposes     
altruism on the  one hand1 and on the   
other loyalty and love of the           
fatherland4 ,different  doctrines of    
religion and morality have found their  
way from their  continental homes to the
 silvery shores of the ,land of the     

,gods1 only to  render their several    
services towards consolidating and      
widening the  so-called ',divine ,path1'
 that national cult whose unwritten     
tenets have  lurked for thousands of    
years hidden in the most sacred corner  
of our  hearts1 whose pulse is ever     
beating its rhythm of patriotism and    
loyalty4 ,buddhist metaphysics1         
,confucian and ,taoist philosophy1 have 
been fused together in the furnace of   
,shintoism for fifteen centuries  and a 
half1 and that apart from the outer     
world1 in the island home of  ,japan1   
where the blue sky looks down on gay    
blossoms and gracefully  sloping        
mountains4 ,the final amalgamation of   
these forces produces1  among other     
results1 the works of art and the feats 
of bravery now  before you1 each bearing
 the ineffaceable hall-marks of ,japan's
 past  history4 ,surely here you are    
face to face with a people worthy of    
serious investigation1 not only from the
 disinterested point of view of  a      

folk-psychologist4 ,it is a study which 
will open to any impartial  observer a  
new horizon1 more so than would be the  
case if he attempted  the sociological  
interpretation of a nation the history  
of whose  development was almost        
identical with that of his own4 ,here he
 meets  totally different sets of things
 with totally different ways of looking 
at them2 and this gives him ample       
occasion to realise the fact that  human
 thought and action may evolve in       
several forms and through several       
channels before they reach their        
respective culmination where they all1  
regardless of their original            
differences1 melt into the common sea of
  truth4    ,but this simple fact that  
',god fulfills ,himself in many ways1'  
as your  ,tennyson has it1 so necessary 
to ensure freedom from national bigotry 
and conventional ignorance1 so necessary
 too for a proper understanding  of     
oneself as the cumulative product of a  
nation's history1 has not  always been  

kept in mind1 even by those otherwise   
well-meaning authors1  whose works have 
some charm as descriptive writing1 but  
give only a  superficial and often      
misleading account of the inner life of 
the  nation4 ,true1 a great deal of     
excellent work has been achieved by a   
number of scholars of lasting merit1    
from ,kaempfe's memorable work first    
published in its ,english translation as
 early as #agbg1 down to the  admirable 
,interpretation written last year by the
 late ,mr4 ,lafcadio  ,hearn1 in whose  
death ,japan lost one of her most       
precious friends1  possessing as he did 
the scholar's insight and the poet's    
pen1 two  heavenly gifts seldom found   
united in a single man4 ,it is mainly   
through  the remarkable labour of two   
learned bodies1 the ,asiatic ,society of
  ,japan1 and the ,deutsche             
,gesellschaft fr ,natur- und ,vlkerkunde
  ,ostasiens1 both with their           
headquarters in ,tky--in whose          
indefatigable researches the ',japan    

,society' in this city has ably  joined 
since #ahib--that most valuable data    
have been constantly brought  to light1 
furnishing for future students sure     
bases for wider  generalizations4 ,but  
owing to the numerous hindrances--some  
of which  look almost insurmountable to 
the ,western investigator--a fair       
synthetic  interpretation of ,japan as a
 nation1 explaining all the important   
forces  that underlie the psychic and   
physical phenomena1 still remains to be 
written4 ,the most formidable of the    
difficulties which meet a ,european  or 
,american student at the very threshold 
of his researches is the  totally       
different construction of ,japanese     
society1 a difficulty which  makes it   
impossible to understand properly any   
set of the phenomena  belonging to it   
apart from the others which surround    
them4 ,one could as  well cut a single  
mesh from a net without prejudice to the
 neighbouring  ones6 ,the proper        
understanding of things ,japanese       

therefore presupposes  freedom from your
 conventional philosophy of life1 and   
the power of  viewing things through    
other people's eyes4    ,besides this   
obstacle1 there are many others2 for    
example1 that of the  language4 ,like   
most other nations in the ,east1 we have
 been accustomed1  up to this very day1 
to use a written language1 divided      
within itself  into several styles1     
which is considerably different from the
  vernacular4 ,to make this state of    
things still more complicated1 ,chinese 
characters are profusely resorted to in 
the native writings1 and are  used not  
only as so many ideographs for words of 
,chinese origin1 but  also to represent 
native words4 ,to make confusion worse  
confounded1 they  are not infrequently  
used as pure phonetic symbols without   
any further  meaning attaching to them4 
,so one and the same sign may be read in
 half  a dozen different ways1 according
 to the hints1 more or less sure1 given 
by the context4 ,all this makes the     

study of ,japanese immensely  difficult4
 ,it is difficult even for a ,japanese  
with the best  opportunities2 a hundred 
times more so1 then1 for a ,western     
scholar who1  if he cares to study the  
subject at first hand at all1 begins    
this  study1 comparatively speaking1    
late in life1 when his memory has       
well-nigh lost the capacity of bearing  
such an enormous burden6    ,still1     
there have been many ,western scholars  
who1 nothing daunted by the             
above-mentioned hindrances1 have done   
much valuable work4 ,english names  like
 those of ,sir ,e4 ,satow1 ,g4,w4       
,aston1 ,b4,h4 ,chamberlain1 ,lafcadio  
,hearn  are to be gratefully remembered 
by all future students in this field of 
inquiry1 as well as such ,german        
scholars as ,dr4 ,baelz and ,dr4        
,florenz4  ,leaving the enumeration of  
general works on ,japan1 whose name is  
legion1  for some other time1 let me    
mention one or two of those works of    
reference which a would-be ,english     

scholar of ,japanese matters might  find
 very useful4 ,first of all ,mr4 ,b4,h4 
,chamberlain's ,things  ,japanese--a    
book which gave birth to ,mr4 ,j4,d4    
,hall's equally  indispensable ,things  
,chinese--containing in cyclopdic form a
 mine of  information about ,japan4 ,dr4
 ,wenckstern's painstaking ,japanese    
,bibliography1 with ,m4 de ,losny's     
earlier attempt as a supplement1 gives  
you the list of all writings on ,japan  
in ,european tongues that have  appeared
 up to #ahie4 ,for those who want good  
books on the ,japanese  language1 ,mr4  
,aston's ,grammar of the ,japanese      
,written ,language1 ,mr4  ,chamberlain's
 ,handbook of ,colloquial ,japanese1 as 
well as the same  author's              
,monzi-no-,shirubi1 a ,practical        
,introduction to the ,study of the      
,japanese ,writing1 are the best4 ,as   
for books on the subject from the  pen  
of the ,japanese themselves1 ,dr4       
,nitobe's ,bushido1 ,explanations of    
the ,japanese ,thought1 and my brother  

,k4 ,okakura's ,ideals of the ,east1    
besides a volume by several well-known  
,japanese1 entitled ,japan by the       
,japanese1 are to be specially          
mentioned4#a      #a ,professor ,t4     
,inouye's little pamphlet1 published    
first in ,french1  entitled ,sur le     
,dveloppement des ,ides ,philosophiques 
au ,japon avant  l',introduction de la  
,civilisation ,europenne1 will give you 
some idea  of our philosophic systems4  
,for a serious perusal1 its ,german     
translation1 annotated and amplified1 by
 ,dr4 ,a4 ,gramatzky 7,kurze  bersicht  
ber die ,entwicklung der philosophischen
 ,ideen in ,japan1  ,berlin1 #ahig71 is 
to be preferred4    ,what ,i myself     
propose to do in this essay is to give  
to the best of my  ability1 and so far  
as is possible with the scanty knowledge
 and the  limited space at my disposal1 
a simple statement in plain language of 
what ,i think to be the fundamental     
truths necessary for the proper         
understanding of my fatherland4 ,i am   

not vain enough to attempt any  original
 solution of the old difficulty2 knowing
 as ,i do my own  deficiencies1 ,i      
should be well satisfied if ,i could    
manage to give you  some kind of general
 introduction to the ,japanese views of 
life4    ,so much for the preliminary   
remarks4 ,let us now take a step further
 and  see what factors are to be        
considered as the bases of modern       
,japan4    ',to which race do the       
,japanese belong8' is the first question
 asked by  any one who wants to approach
 our subject from the historical point  
of  view4 ,unfortunately not much is    
known as yet about our place in racial  
science4 ,if we do not take into account
 the inhabitants of the newly  annexed  
island of ,formosa1 we have1 roughly    
speaking1 two very different  races in  
our whole archipelago--the hairy ,aino  
and the ruling ,yamato  race1 the former
 being the supposed aborigines1         
physically sturdy and  well developed1  
with their characteristic abundant      

growth of hair1 who  are at present to  
be found only in the ,yezo island in the
 northern  extremity of ,japan1 and     
whose number1 notwithstanding all the   
care of  our government1 is fast        
dwindling1 the sum total being not much 
more  than #ae1jjj4 ,the ,aino have a   
tradition that the land had been        
occupied  before them by another race of
 dwarfish stature called ,koropokguru1  
who  are identified by some scholars    
with those primitive pit-dwellers known 
in our history as ,tuchigumo1#b whose   
traces1 although scanty1 are still  to  
be met with in various parts of ,yezo4  
,anyhow1 we see at the first  dawn of   
history the aborigines gradually        
receding before the conquering  ,yamato 
race1 who are found steadily pushing on 
towards the northeast1  and who finally 
established themselves as a ruling body 
under the divine  banner of the first   
emperor ,jimmu1 from whose accession we 
reckon our  era1 the present year being 
the #befeth1 according to our recognised

 way  of counting dates4      #b        
,professor ,milne1 ,transactions of the 
,asiatic ,society of ,japan1  vol4 viii4
 p4 #hb4    ,suggestions1 audacious     
rather than strictly scientific1 have   
been put  forward as to the original    
home both of the ,aino and the          
,japanese4 ,the  ,rev4 ,i4 ,dooman1 for 
instance1 proposed in his paper read    
before the  meeting of the ,asiatic     
,society of ,japan in #ahig to derive   
both from the  people who had been      
living1 according to him1 on both sides 
of the great  ,himalayan range4 ',the   
,aino1' he says1 'the first inhabitants 
of these  7,japanese7 islands1 belong to
 the ,south ,himalayan ,centre2 while   
the  ,japanese1 the second comers1      
belong to the ,north ,himalayan1        
commonly  called ,altaic races4'#c ,but 
in face of the scanty knowledge at our  
command about the respective sets of    
people in question1 such wholesale      
conjecture had better be postponed until
 some later time1 when further  research

 shall have supplied surer data for our 
speculations4 ,as regards  the ,aino1 we
 must for the present say1 on the       
authority of ,mr4  ,chamberlain1 that1  
remembering how the ,aino race is       
isolated from all  other living races by
 its hairiness and by the extraordinary 
flattening  of the tibia and humerus1 it
 is not strange to find the language    
isolated too4#d      #c ,transactions of
 the ,asiatic ,society of ,japan1 vol4  
xxv4    ,with respect to the ,japanese  
proper1 the only thing known about their
  racial affinity is the theory proposed
 by the ,german scholar ,dr4 ,baelz1  as
 the result of his elaborate            
measurements both of living specimens   
and  skeletons4#e ,he considers the     
,yamato race to belong to the ,mongolian
  stock of the ,asiatic continent1 from 
where they proceeded to ,japan by  way  
of the ,corean peninsula4 ,there are two
 distinct types noticeable  among them  
at present1 one characterised by a      
delicate1 refined  appearance1 with oval

 face1 rather oblique eyes1 slightly    
,roman nose1  and a frame not vigorous  
yet well proportioned2 the other marked 
out by  broader face1 projecting cheek  
bones1 flat nose1 and horizontal eyes1  
while the body is more robust and       
muscular1 though not so well            
proportioned and regular4 ,the former is
 to be met with among the better        
classes and in the southern parts of    
,japan1 while the specimens of the      
latter are found rather among the       
labouring population1 and are more      
abundant in the northern provinces4     
,this difference of types1  aristocratic
 and plebeian1 which is still more      
conspicuous among the  fair sex1 is with
 good reason attributed to the two-fold 
wave of  ,mongolian emigration which    
reached our island in prehistoric times4
 ,the  first emigrants1 consisting of   
coarser tribes of the ,mongolian race1  
landed most probably on the northern    
coast of the main island somewhere  in  
the present ,idzumo province1 and       

settled down there1 while the second    
wave broke on the shores of ,kysh4      
,these emigrants seem to have  belonged 
to the more refined branch of the great 
,mongolian stock4 ,this  hypothesis is  
borne out by our mythology1 which       
divides itself into two  cycles1 one    
centring at ,idzumo and the other at    
,kysh1 and which tell  us how the       
great-grandfather of the first great    
emperor ,jimmu descended  from heaven on
 to the peak of the mountain ,takachiho 
in ,hyga in ,kysh4  ,accompanied by his 
brother1 he started from this spot on   
his march of  conquering migration to   
,yamato1 fighting and subduing on his   
way tribes  who on the continent were   
once his kith and kin4      #d ,memoirs 
of the ,literary ,department of the     
,university of ,tky1  vol4 i4    #e ,die
 krperlichen ,eigenschaften der         
,japaner1 vols4 xxviii4 and  xxxii4 of  
,mittheilungen der ,gesellschaft fr die 
,natur- und ,vlkerkunde  ,ostasiens4    
,it might perhaps interest you to know  

something of our prevailing idea  of    
personal beauty1 especially as1 in such 
a homogeneous nation as the  ,japanese1 
ruled from time immemorial by one and   
the same line of  dynasty1 it may help  
us to make some vague conjectures as to 
the  physical appearances of at least   
one of those continental tribes out of  
which our nation has been formed4 ,the  
standard of beauty naturally  fluctuates
 a little according to sex and locality4
 ,in a lady1 for  example1 mildness and 
grace are1 generally speaking1 preferred
 to that  strength or manliness of      
expression which would be thought more  
becoming  in her brother4 ,tky again    
does not put so much stress on the      
fleshiness of limbs and face as does    
,kyto4 ,but1 as a whole1 there is  only 
one ideal throughout the ,empire4 ,so   
let me try to enumerate all the         
qualities usually considered necessary  
to make a beautiful woman4 ,she is  to  
possess a body not much exceeding five  
feet in height1 with  comparatively fair

 skin and proportionately well-developed
 limbs2 a head  covered with long1      
thick1 and jet-black hair2 an oval face 
with a  straight nose1 high and narrow2 
rather large eyes1 with large deep-brown
  pupils and thick eyelashes2 a small   
mouth1 hiding behind its red1 but  not  
thin1 lips1 even rows of small white    
teeth2 ears not altogether  small2 and  
long and thick eyebrows forming two     
horizontal but slightly  curved lines1  
with a space left between them and the  
eyes4 ,of the four  ways in which hair  
can grow round the upper edge of the    
forehead1 viz41  horned1 square1 round1 
and ,fuji-shaped1 one of the last two is
  preferred1 a very high as well as a   
very low forehead being considered  not 
attractive4    ,such are1 roughly       
speaking1 the elements of ,japanese     
female beauty4 ,eyes  and eyebrows with 
the outer ends turning considerably     
upwards1 with  which your artists depict
 us1 are due to those ,japanese colour  
prints  which strongly accentuate our   

dislike of the reverse1 for straight    
eyes  and eyebrows make a very bad      
impression on us1 suggesting weakness1  
lasciviousness1 and so on4 ,it must also
 be understood that in ,japan no  such  
variety of types of beauty is to be met 
with as is noticed here in  ,europe4    
,blue eyes and blond hair1 the charms of
 which we first learn to  feel after a  
protracted stay among you1 are regarded 
in a ,japanese as  something            
extraordinary in no favourable sense of 
the term6 ,a girl with  even a slight   
tendency to grey eyes or frizzly hair is
 looked upon as an  unwelcome deviation 
from the national type4    ,if we now   
consider our mythology1 with a view to  
tracing the continental  home of the    
,yamato race1 we find1 to our           
disappointment1 that our  present       
knowledge is too scanty to allow us to  
arrive at a conclusion4  ,indeed1 so    
long as the general science of mythology
 itself remains in  that unsettled      
condition in which its youth obliges it 

to linger1 and  especially so long as   
the ,indian and ,chinese bodies of      
myths--by which  our mythology is so    
unmistakably influenced--do not receive 
more serious  systematic treatment1 the 
recorded stories of the ,japanese       
deities  cannot be expected to supply us
 with much indication as to our         
continental home4 ,one thing is certain 
about them1 that they were not  free    
from influences exerted by the different
 myths prevalent among the  ,chinese and
 the ,indians at the time when they were
 written down in our  earliest history1 
the ,ko-ji-ki or ,records of ,ancient   
,matter1  completed in ,a4,d4 #gab4     
,there is an excellent ,english         
translation of the  book1 with an       
admirable introduction and notes1 by    
,mr4 ,b4,h4 ,chamberlain4  ,according to
 this book1 the original ethereal chaos 
with which the world  began gradually   
congealed1 and was finally divided into 
heaven and  earth4 ,the male and female 
principles now at work gave birth to    

several  deities1 until a pair of       
deities named ,izanagi and ,izanami1 or 
the  ',male-who-invites' and the        
',female-who-invites1' were produced4   
,they  married1 and produced first of   
all the islands of ,japan big and small1
  and then different deities1 until the 
birth of the ,fire-,god cost the  divine
 mother her life4 ,she subsequently     
retired to the ,land of ,darkness  or   
,hades1 where her sorrowful consort     
descended1 ,orpheus-like1 in quest  of  
his spouse4 ,he failed to bring her back
 to the outer world1 for1 like  the     
,greek musician1 he broke his promise   
not to look at her in her more  profound
 retirement4 ,the result was disastrous4
 ,izanagi barely escaped  from his now  
furious wife1 and on coming back to     
daylight he washed  himself in a stream1
 in order to purify himself from the    
hideous sights  and the pollution of the
 nether-world4 ,this custom of          
lustration is1 by  the way1 kept up to  
this day in the symbolic sprinkling of  

salt over  persons returning from a     
funeral--salt representing pure water1  
as our  name for it1 'the flower of the 
waves1' well indicates4 ,our love of    
cleanliness and of bathing might be also
 recognised in this early  custom4      
,impurity1 whether mental or corporal1  
has always been regarded  as a great    
evil1 and even as a sin4    ,now one of 
the most important results of the       
purification of the god  ,izanagi was   
the birth of three important deities    
through the washing of  his eyes and    
nose4 ,the ,moon-,god and the           
,sun-,goddess emerged from his  washing 
his right and left eyes1 while          
,susanowo1 their youngest brother1  owed
 his existence to the washing of his    
nose2 three illustrious  children to    
whom the divine father trusted the      
dominion of night1 day1  and the seas4  
,the last-mentioned deity1 whose name   
would mean in ,english ',prince         
,impetuous1' lost his father's favour by
 his obstinate longing to see  ,izanami1

 the divine mother1 in ,hades1 and was  
expelled from the father's  presence4   
,he eventually went up to heaven to pay 
a visit to his sister1  the             
,sun-,goddess1 whom he gravely offended 
by his monstrous outrages on  her       
person1 and who was consequently so     
angry that she shut herself up  in a    
rocky chamber1 thus causing darkness in 
the world outside4 ,in  accordance with 
the deliberate plans worked out by an   
assembly of a  myriad gods1 she was at  
last allured from her cavern by the     
sounds of  wild merriment caused by the 
burlesque dancing of a female deity1 and
  day reigned once more4    ,the now    
repenting offender was driven down from 
heaven1 and he wandered  about the      
earth4 ,it was during this wandering    
that in ,idzumo he1 like  ,perseus1     
rescued a beautiful young maid from an  
eight-headed serpent4 ,he  won her hand 
and lived very happily with her ever    
after4    ,in the meantime the state of 
things in the ',high ,plain of ,heaven' 

ripened to the point that the           
,sun-,goddess began to think of sending 
her  august child to govern the         
',luxuriant-,reed-,plain-,land-of-,fresh
-,rice-,ears1' that is to say1 ,japan4  
,messages were previously sent to pacify
 the land for the reception of  the     
divine ruler4 ,this took much time1     
during which a grandson was born  to the
 ,sun-,goddess1 and in the end it was   
this grandson who was  designated to    
come down to earth instead of his       
father4 ,on his departure  a formal     
command to descend and rule the land now
 placed under his care  was accompanied 
by the present of a mirror1 a sword1 and
 a string of  crescent-shaped jewels4   
,these treasures1 still preserved in our
 imperial  household as regalia1 are    
generally interpreted to mean the three 
virtues of wisdom1 courage1 and         
mercy--necessary qualities for a perfect
  ruler4 ,it was on the high peak of    
,mount ,takachiho that the divine ruler 
descended to earth4 ,he settled down in 

the country until his  great-grandson1  
known in history as ,emperor ,jimmu1    
founded the empire  and began that      
unique line of rulers who have governed 
the ',land of the  ,gods' for more than 
two thousand years1 the present emperor 
being the  hundred and twenty-first link
 in the eternal chain4    ,such is1 in  
brief1 the story about my country before
 it was brought  under the rule of one  
central governing body4 ,subjected to   
scientific  scrutiny the whole tale     
presents many gaps in logical sequence4 
,it  betrays1 besides1 traces of an     
intermingling of the early beliefs of   
other nations4 ,still1 it must be said  
that the divine origin of our  emperors 
has invested their throne with the      
double halo of temporal and  of         
spiritual power from the earliest days  
of their ascendancy2 and the  people1   
themselves the descendants of those     
patriarchs who served under  the banners
 of ,emperor ,jimmu1 or else of those   
who early learned to bow  themselves    

down before the divine conqueror1 have  
looked up to this  throne with an       
ever-growing reverence and pride4    ,in
 primitive ,japan1 as in every other    
primitive human society1                
ancestor-worship was the first form of  
belief4 ,each family had its own        
departed spirits of forefathers to whom 
was dedicated a daily homage of  simple 
words and offerings in kind4 ,the       
guardian ghosts demanded of  their      
living descendants that they should be  
good and brave in their own  way4 ,as   
these families of the same race and     
language gathered themselves  around the
 strongest of them all1 imbued with a   
firm belief in its  divine origin1 they 
contributed in their turn their own     
myths to the  imperial ones1 thus       
eventually forming and consolidating a  
national  cult2 and it was but natural  
that the people's heart should come in  
course of time to re-echo in harmony    
with the keynote struck by the one      
through whom the gods breathe eternal   

life4 ,the whole nation is bound by     
that sacred tie of common belief and    
common thought4 ,here lies the great    
gap that separates1 for example1 the    
,chinese cult of fatalism from our      
,path of ,gods as a moral force4 ,the   
,chinese have believed from the         
earliest times in one supreme god whom  
they called the ,divine ,presider       
7,shang-ti7 or the ,august ,heaven      
7,hwang-t'ien or simply ,t'ien71  who1  
according to their notion1 carefully    
selects a fit person from  among        
swarming mankind to be the temporary    
ruler of his  fellow-countrymen1 but    
only for so long as it pleases the god  
to let him  occupy the throne4 ,at the  
expiration of a certain period1 the     
heavenly  mission 7,t'ien-ming7 is      
transferred through bloodshed and       
national  disaster to another mortal1   
who exercises the earthly rule until he 
or  his descendants incur the disfavour 
of the ',heaven above4' ,to this day    
the ,chinese word for revolution means  

the 'renovation of missions'            
7kweh-ming74 ,this fatalistic idea1     
which is but a natural outcome of  the  
almost too democratic nature of the     
people of the ,celestial ,empire  and of
 the frequent changes of dynasties it   
has had to go through1 is  almost       
unknown in our island home in its       
gravest aspects2 more than  that1 ever  
since its introduction into ,japan1 this
 idea1 along with the  ,indian doctrine 
of pitiless fate1 has gradually taught  
us to offer a  more resigned and        
determined service to our respective    
superiors who  culminate in the divine  
person of the ,emperor himself4 ,this is
 well  illustrated by the fact that no  
attempt at the formal occupation of the 
throne has ever been made1 even on the  
part of those powerful ,shoguns  who    
were the real rulers of our country2    
they knew full well how  dangerous and  
fatal for themselves it would be to     
tamper with that hinge  on which the    
nation's religious life turns4 ,only    

once in our long  history is there an   
example of an unsuccessful attempt 7and 
it is the  highest treason a ,japanese  
subject can think of71 when a ,buddhist 
monk  named ,dky1 encouraged by the     
undue devotion of the ruling empress1   
tried to ascend the throne by means of  
the recognition of the higher  temporal 
rank of the ,buddhist priesthood over   
the imperial ministry of  the native    
cult4 ,this imminent danger was averted 
by the bold and  resolute patriotism of 
a ,shinto priest1 ,wake-no-,kiyomaro1   
who1 in  ,luther-like defiance of all   
peril and personal risks1 declared      
fearlessly1 in the very presence of the 
haughty and menacing head of the        
,buddhist ,church1 the divine will1     
',japan is to know no emperor except in 
the person of the divine descendants of 
the ,sun-,goddess6'    ,turning now to  
the question of language1 we must       
confess that the  linguistic affinities 
of ,japanese are as little cleared up as
 the other  problems we have been       

considering4 ,the only thing we know    
about the  ,japanese language amounts to
 this3 it belongs1 morphologically      
speaking1  to the so-called             
agglutinative languages1 e4g41 those    
which express  their grammatical        
functions by the addition of            
etymologically  independent             
elements--prefixes and suffixes--to the 
unchangeable roots  or base forms4      
,genealogically1 to follow the          
classification expounded by  ,friedrich 
,mller in his ,grundriss der            
,sprachwissenschaft1 who based  his     
system on ,haeckel's division of the    
human race by the nature and            
particularly the section of the hair1   
,japanese is one of the languages  or   
groups of languages spoken by the       
,mongolian race4    ,but this           
characterisation of our tongue does not 
help us much4 ,one could  as well point 
to the ,east at large to show where     
,japan lies6  ,notwithstanding the      
general uncertainty as regards the exact

 position of  our language1 this much is
 sure1 that ,japanese has1 in spite of  
the  immense number of loan-words of    
,chinese origin1 no fundamental         
connection with the monosyllabic        
language of ,china1 whose different     
syntactical nature and want of common   
roots baffles the attempts on the  part 
of some speculative ,europeans to       
connect it with our own tongue4 ,at  the
 same time1 it is well known among      
competent scholars that ,japanese1  with
 its most distant dialect ,luchuan1     
bears great kinship to the  ,corean1    
,manchurian1 and ,mongolian languages4  
,it shares with them1  besides the      
dislike of commencing a word with a     
trilled sound or with a  sonant1 almost 
the same rules for the arrangement of   
the component  elements of a sentence4  
,according to the ,japanese syntax1 the 
following  rules can1 for instance1 be  
applied to ,corean without alteration3--
    #a4 ,all the qualifying words and   
phrases are put before those they       

qualify4 ,attributive adjectives and    
adverbs1 and their equivalents1 are     
placed before nouns and verbs they      
modify4    #b4 ,the grammatical subject 
stands at the beginning of the sentence4
    #c4 ,predicative elements are at the
 end of a sentence4    #d4 ,direct and  
indirect objects follow the subject4    
#e4 ,subordinate sentences precede the  
principal ones4    ,one thing worthy of 
notice is the fact that1 notwithstanding
 the most  convincing structural        
similarity that exists between these    
affiliated  languages1 they contain1    
comparatively speaking1 few words in    
common1  even among the numerals and    
personal pronouns1 which have played    
such an  important part in              
,indo-,european philology4 ,we must     
still wait a long  time before a better 
knowledge of linguistic affinity reveals
 such  decisive links of connection as  
will enable us to trace our ,japanese   
home on the continent4    ,let us now   
consider what were the effects of the   

continental  civilisation on the mental 
development of the ,japanese within     
their  insular home4    ,before entering
 into details about the various         
continental doctrines  implanted in our 
country from ,china and ,india1 it may  
be well to tell  you something of the   
mental attitude of the ,japanese in     
facing a new  form of culture1 in many  
senses far superior to their own4       
,nothing  definite can perhaps be said  
about it2 but when we grope along the   
main  cord of historical phenomena we   
think we find that the ,japanese as a   
whole are not a people with much        
aptitude for deep metaphysical ways of  
thinking4 ,they are not of the calibre  
from which you expect a ,kant or a      
,schopenhauer4 ,warlike by nature more  
than anything else1 they have been      
known from the very beginning to have   
had the soldier-like simplicity  and the
 easy contentment of men of             
action--qualities which the practical   
nature of ,confucian ethics had ample   

chance to develop4 ,the abstruse        
conceptions of ,chinese or ,indian      
origin have been received into the      
,japanese mind just as they were        
preached1 and usually we have not       
troubled ourselves to think them out    
again2 but in accordance with our       
peculiarly quick habit of perceiving the
 inner meaning of things1 we  have      
generalised them straight away and      
turned them immediately into so  many   
working principles4 ,there are any      
number of instances of slight  hints    
given by some people on the continent   
and worked out to suit our  own purposes
 into maxims of immediate and practical 
value4 ,ideals in  their original home  
are ideals no longer in our island home4
 ,they are  interpreted into so many    
realities with a direct bearing on our  
daily  life4 ,we have been and are1 even
 to this day1 always in need of some new
  hints and suggestions to work up into 
so many dynamic forces for  practical   
use4 ,upon ,europe and ,america the full

 power of our mental  searchlight is now
 playing1 in quest of those new ideas   
for future  development for which we    
have been accustomed to draw mainly on  
,china  and ,india4 ,even such a        
commonplace thing as the drinking of a  
cup of tea  becomes in our hands        
something more3 it becomes a training in
 stoic  serenity1 in the capacity of    
smiling at life's troubles and          
disturbances4 ,some day you might learn 
from us a new philosophy based on  the  
use of motor cars and telephones as     
applied to life and conduct6    ,this1  
as you will see1 explains why we have   
failed to produce any  original         
thinkers2 this is why we have to        
recognise our indebtedness  for almost  
all the important ideas which have      
brought about social  innovation either 
to ,china or to ,india1 or else to the  
modern ,western  nations2 and this      
notwithstanding so many national        
idiosyncrasies and  characteristics     
which are to be found in the productions

 of our art and  in our life and ways1  
and which are even as handfuls of grain 
gathered  in foreign fields and brewed  
into a national drink of utterly        
,japanese  flavour4 ,we are1 ,i think1 a
 people of the ,present and the         
,tangible1 of  the broad ,daylight and  
the plainly ,visible4 ,the undeniable   
proclivity of  our mind in favour of    
determination and action1 as contrasted 
with  deliberation and calm1 makes it an
 uncongenial ground for the sublimity   
and grandeur of that 'loathed           
melancholy1 of ,cerberus and blackest   
midnight born1' to take deep root in it4
 ,pure reasoning as such has had  for us
 little value beyond the help it affords
 us in harbouring our  drifting thought 
in some nearest port1 where we can      
follow any peaceful  occupation rather  
than be fighting what we should call a  
useless fight  with troubled billows and
 unfathomable depths4 ,such1 according  
to my  personal view1 are the facts     
about our mentality considered          

generally4  ,and now it is necessary to 
speak of the main waves of cult and     
culture  that successively washed our   
shores4    ,the first mention in our    
history of the introduction of the      
,chinese  learning into the imperial    
household places it in the reign of the 
fifteenth emperor -jin1 in the year #bhd
 after ,christ according to the         
earliest native records1 but according  
to more trustworthy recent              
computation#f considerably later than   
that date4 ,we are told that a  certain 
prince was put under the tutorship of a 
learned ,corean scholar  of ,chinese1   
who1 at the request of the emperor1 came
 over to ,japan with  the ,confucian    
,analects 7,iun-y7 and some other       
,chinese classics as a  tribute from the
 ,king of ,kudara4 ,but long before the 
learning of the  ,celestial ,empire     
found its way through ,corea into our   
imperial court1 it  had in all          
probability been making its silent      
influence felt here and  there among the

 ,japanese people4 ,great swarms of     
immigrants had sought a  final place of 
rest in our sea-girt country from many  
parts of ,china1  where raging tyranny  
and menacing despotism made life        
intolerable even  for ,chinese meekness2
 these1 and the bands of daring invaders
 which  ,japan sent out from time to    
time to the ,corean and ,chinese coasts1
 had  given us many opportunities of    
coming into contact with the learning   
prevalent among our continental         
neighbours4 ,in this manner ,chinese    
literature1 with its groundwork of      
,confucian ethics1 surrounded by the    
strange lore derived from ,taoism1 and  
perhaps also from ,hindu sources1  had  
been gradually but surely attracting the
 ever-increasing attention  of our      
warlike forefathers1 who were to become 
in course of time its  devoted admirers4
      #f ,cp4 ,bramsen's ,japanese      
,chronological ,tables4    ,now1        
,confucianism pure and simple1 as taught
 by the sage ,kung-foo-tsze  7#eea-dgh  

,b4,c471 from whom the doctrine derived 
its name1 was1  notwithstanding the     
contention of the famous ,english       
sinologue ,dr4  ,legge1 nothing more and
 nothing less than an aggregate of      
ethical ideas  considered in their      
application to the conduct and duties of
 our  everyday life4 ',the great teacher
 never allowed himself to be considered 
an expounder of any new system of either
 religious or metaphysical  ideas4 ,he  
was content to call himself 'a          
transmitter and not a maker1  believing 
in and loving the ancients4' ,true to   
the spirit of these  words1 and most    
probably having no other course open to 
him on account  of his extremely        
utilitarian turn of mind1 he devoted his
 whole life to  the elucidation of the  
,true ,path of human life1 as           
exemplified by those  half-mythical     
rulers of old ,china1 ,ya1 ,shun1 etc41 
from whom he derived  his ideals and his
 images of perfect man in flesh and     
blood4 ,these early  kings were of      

course no creation of ,confucius        
himself2 the only thing he  did was to  
place the forms1 which popular tradition
 had handed down  surrounded by         
legendary halos1 in high relief before  
the people1 as  perfect models to       
regulate the earthly conduct of the     
individuals as  members of a society4   
,his attitude towards the ancient       
classics which he  compiled and         
perpetuated was that of one transmitting
 faithfully4 ,he  studied them1 and     
exhorted and helped his disciples to do 
the same1 but  he did not alter them1   
nor even digest them into their present 
form4'#g  ,in order to find concrete    
examples to show his ethical views more 
positively1 he wrote a history of his   
native state ,lo from #gbb to #dhd      
,b4,c41 in which1 while faithfully      
recording events1 he took every         
opportunity to jot down his moral       
judgment upon them in the terse words   
and phrases he knew so well how to      
wield4 ,as abstract reasoning had       

little charm for his practical mind1 he 
systematically avoided indulging  in    
discussions of a metaphysical nature4   
',how can we know anything of an        
,after-life1 when we are so ignorant    
even of the ,living1' was his answer    
when asked by one of his disciples about
 ,death4 ,ancestor-worship he           
sanctioned1 as might naturally be       
expected from his enthusiastic  advocacy
 of things ancient1 and also from the   
importance he attached to  filial piety1
 which strikes the keynote of his       
ethical ideas4 ,but here  too his       
indifference to the spiritual side of   
the question is very  remarkable4       
,perhaps he found the holy altar of his 
day so much  encumbered by the presence 
of innumerable fetishes and demons1 that
 he  felt little inclination to approach
 and sweep them away4 ',to give         
oneself1' he said on one occasion1 'to  
the duties due to men1 and while        
respecting spiritual things to keep     
aloof from them1 may be called  wisdom4'

      #g ,legge's ,the ,religion of     
,china1 p4 #acg4    ,the main features  
which he advocated are found well       
reflected in the  first twelve out of   
sixteen articles of the so-called sacred
 ,edict1  published by the famous ,k'ang
 ,hsi 7#afed-agbb71 the second emperor  
of the  present ,manchu dynasty1 in     
#afgj ,a4,d41 which embody the essential
 points  of ,confucianism1 as adapted to
 the requirements of modern everyday    
,chinese life4    #a4 ,esteem most      
highly filial piety and brotherly       
submission1 in order to  give due       
prominence to the social relations4     
#b4 ,behave with generosity to the      
branches of your kindred1 in order to   
illustrate harmony and benignity4    #c4
 ,cultivate peace and concord in your   
neighbourhood1 in order to  prevent     
quarrels and litigation4    #d4         
,recognise the importance of husbandry  
and the culture of the  mulberry-tree1  
in order to ensure sufficiency of food  
and clothing4    #e4 ,show that you     

prize moderation and economy1 in order  
to prevent the  lavish waste of your    
means4    #f4 ,make much of the colleges
 and seminaries1 in order to make       
correct  the practice of the scholars4  
#g4 ,discountenance and banish strange  
doctrines1 in order to exalt  correct   
doctrines4    #h4 ,describe and explain 
the laws1 in order to warn the ignorant 
and  obstinate4    #i4 ,exhibit clearly 
propriety and gentle courtesy1 in order 
to improve  manners and customs4    #aj4
 ,labour diligently at your proper      
callings1 in order to give  well-defined
 aims to the people4    #aa4 ,instruct  
sons and younger brothers1 in order to  
prevent them doing  what is wrong4      
#ab4 ,put a stop to false accusations1  
in order to protect the honest and  the 
good4    ,here too you see what an      
important place filial piety occupies1  
which  ,confucius himself prized so     
highly4 ,the ,hsiao ,king1 or the       
',sacred ,book  of ,filial ,piety1'     
which is supposed to record             

conversations held between  ,confucius  
and his disciple ,tsang ,ts'an on that  
weighty subject1 has the  following     
passage3 ',he who 7properly7 serves his 
parents in a high  situation will be    
free from haughtiness2 in a low         
situation he will be  free from         
insubordination2 whilst among his equals
 he will not be  quarrelsome4 ,in a high
 position haughtiness leads to ruin2    
among the  lowly insubordination means  
punishment2 among equals quarrelsomeness
  tends to the wielding of weapons4'    
,these words1 nave as they are1  express
 the exalted position filial affection  
occupies in the eyes of  ,confucianism4 
',dutiful subjects are to be found in   
the persons of filial  sons1' and again1
 ',filial piety is the source whence all
 other good  actions take their rise1'  
are other sayings expressing its        
importance4    ,along with this virtue1 
other forms of moral force1 such as     
mercy1  uprightness1 courage1           
politeness1 fidelity1 and loyalty1 have 

been duly  considered and commended by  
the great teacher himself and his       
disciples4  ,among these1 ,mencius      
7#cgc-bhi ,b4,c47 is most enterprising  
and attractive1  digesting and          
systematising with a great deal of      
philosophic talent the  rather          
fragmentary ideas of his great master4  
,it is he who1 among other  things1     
informs us1 on the assumed authority of 
a passage in the  ,shu-,king1 how the   
sage ,shun made it a subject of his     
anxious solicitude  to teach the five   
constituent relationships of society1   
viz41 affection  between father and son2
 relations of righteousness between     
ruler and  subject2 the assigning of    
their proper spheres to husband and     
wife2  distinction of precedence between
 old and young2 and fidelity between    
friend and friend--an idea which has    
played such an important part in  the   
history of the development of the       
,oriental mind4    ,such were the main  
features of ,confucianism when it first 

reached ,japan1  some centuries after   
the ,christian era4 ,but it was not     
until some time  after the introduction 
of ,buddhism from ,corea during the     
reign of the  ,emperor ,kimmei1 in #eeb 
,a4,d41 that ,confucianism and ,chinese 
learning  began to take firm root and   
make their influence felt among us4     
,paradoxical as it looks1 it is         
,buddhism that so greatly helped the    
teaching of the ,chinese sage to        
establish itself as a ruling factor in  
,japanese society4 ,this curious state  
of things came about in this way4  ,the 
gospel of ,shkya-muni has1 ever since   
its introduction into our  country1 been
 made accessible only through the       
,chinese translation1  which demanded a 
considerable knowledge of the written   
language of the  ,middle ,kingdom4 ,the 
keen and far-reaching spiritual interest
 aroused by  ,buddhism gave a fresh and 
vigorous impulse to the study of        
,chinese  literature1 already           
increasingly cultivated for some        

centuries4 ,now1 the  knowledge of      
,chinese in its written form has1 until 
quite recently1  always been imparted by
 a painful perusal of the ,chinese      
classics and  ,chinese books deeply     
imbued with ,confucianism4 ,it was only 
after a  considerable amount of         
knowledge of this difficult language had
 been  obtained in this unnatural way1  
that one came in contact with the works 
of authors not strictly orthodox4 ,this 
way of teaching ,chinese through        
,confucian texts1 which we adopted from 
,china's faithful agent1 ,corea1        
necessarily led from the very beginning 
to an intimate acquaintance with  the   
main aspects of the ,confucian morals in
 our upper classes1 among  whom alone   
the study was at first pursued with any 
seriousness4 ,although  skilled in      
warlike arts1 gentle and loyal in       
domestic life1 our  forefathers were    
simple in manners and thought in those  
olden days when  book-learned reasons of
 duty had not yet superseded the nave   

observance  of the dictates of the heart
 and of responsibility to the ancestral 
spirits4 ,they possessed no letters of  
their own1 and consequently no          
literature1 except in unwritten songs   
and legendary lore sung from mouth  to  
mouth1 telling of the gods and men who  
formed the glorious past of  the ,yamato
 race4 ,so it is not difficult to       
imagine the dazzling effect  which the  
,chinese learning1 with its richness and
 its pedantry1 with its  elaborate      
system of civil government and its      
philosophy1 produced upon  our untrained
 eyes4 ,gradually but steadfastly it had
 been gaining  ground1 and making its   
slow way from the topmost rung to the   
bottom of  the social ladder1 when the  
introduction of ,buddhism quickened the 
now  resistless progress4 ,the would-be 
priests and advocates of the ,indian    
creed felt a fresh impulse and spiritual
 need to learn the ,chinese  language1  
for which they had long entertained a   
high estimation4 ,owing  to the         

extremely secular character of the      
,confucian ethics on the one  hand1 and 
on the other1 to the fact that          
,buddhists deny the existence of  a     
personal god1 and are eager to minister 
salvation through any adequate  means so
 long as it does not contradict the ,law
 of the ,universe upon  which the whole 
doctrine is based1 ,buddhism found in   
the teaching of the  ,chinese sage and  
his followers not only no enemy1 but1 on
 the contrary1  a helpful friend4 ,it   
found that the sacred books of          
,confucian doctrine  contained only in a
 slightly different form the five       
commandments laid  down by ,shkya-muni  
himself for the regulation of the       
conduct of a  layman1 viz43--    #a4    
,not to destroy life nor to cause its   
destruction4    #b4 ,not to steal4      
#c4 ,not to commit adultery4    #d4 ,not
 to tell lies4    #e4 ,not to indulge in
 intoxicating drinks2 or the ,buddhist  
warning  against the ten sins2 three of 
the body--taking life1 theft1 adultery2 

four of speech--lying1 slander1 abuse1  
and vain conversation2 three of  the    
mind--covetousness1 malice1 and         
scepticism4    ,it saw also that        
,confucian writings embraced its fifty  
precepts#h  detailed under the five     
different secular relationships of      
#a4 ,parents and children4    #b4       
,pupils and teachers4    #c4 ,husbands  
and wives4    #d4 ,friends and          
companions4    #e4 ,masters and         
servants4    ,our early ,buddhists      
therefore did not see why they should   
try to  suppress the existing ,confucian
 moral code and supplant it with their  
own which breathed the same spirit1 only
 because it had not grown on  ,indian   
soil4      #h ,cp4 ,rhys ,davids'       
,buddhism1 p4 #add4    ,thus encouraged 
by the now influential advocates of the 
teaching of  ,buddha1 themselves        
admirers of the ,chinese learning1      
,confucianism began  with renewed vigour
 to exercise a great influence on the   
future of the  ,japanese4 ,this took    

place during the seventh century1 when  
the  reorganisation of the ,japanese    
government after the model of that of   
the  ,celestial ,empire made our        
educational system quite ,chinese4 ,in  
addition  to a university1 there were   
many provincial schools where candidates
 for  the government service were       
instructed4 ,medicine1 mathematics1     
including  astronomy and law1 taught    
through ,chinese books1 along with the  
all-important teaching in the ,confucian
 ethics and in ,chinese literature      
generally1 were the branches of study   
cultivated under the guidance of        
professors whose calling had become     
hereditary among a certain number of    
learned families4 ,in the course of the 
next two centuries we see several       
private institutions founded by great   
nobles of the court1 with an  endowment 
in land for their support4 ,the native  
system of writing which  had gradually  
emerged out of the phonetic use of      
,chinese ideographs made  it possible   

for ,japanese thought1 hitherto         
expressed only in an  uncongenial       
foreign garb1 to appear in purely       
,japanese attire4 ,thus we  find the    
dawn of ,japanese civilisation appearing
 at the beginning of the  tenth century 
after ,christ4 ,the air was replete with
 the ,buddhist  thought of after-life   
and the ,confucian ideas of broad-day   
morality4 ,the  sonorous reading of the 
,book of ,filial ,piety was heard all   
over the  country1 echoing with the loud
 recital of the ,myh-renge-ky 7or       
,saddharma ,pundarika ,stra74    ,during
 the dark and dreary ,middle ,ages which
 followed this golden  period1 and which
 were brought about by the degeneration 
of the ruling  nobles and by the        
gradually rising power of the military  
class1 ,chinese  learning fled to the   
protecting hands of ,buddhist priests2  
and in its  quiet refuge within the     
monastery walls it continued to breathe 
its  humble existence1 until it found at
 the beginning of the sixteenth  century

 a powerful patron in the great founder 
of the ,tokugawa  ,shogunate4 ,the      
education of the common people1 too1    
seems to have been  kept up by the      
monks--a fact still preserved in the    
word tera-koya1  'church seminary1' a   
term used1 until forty years ago1 to    
express the  tiny private schools for   
children4 ,it must be remembered that   
the  education thus given was always of 
an exclusively secular character1       
basing itself on the ,confucian morals4 
,before passing on to the consideration 
of ,laoism1 let me say something  about 
the so-called orthodox form of the      
teaching of ,confucius1 which is  one of
 the latest developments of that        
doctrine4 ,orthodox ,confucianism1  as  
represented by the famous ,chinese      
philosopher and commentator of the      
,confucian canon1 ,chu-,hsi             
7#aacj-abjj71 found its admirer in a    
,japanese  scholar1 ,fujiwara-no-,seigwa
 7#aefj-afai71 who in his youth had     
joined the  priesthood1 which however he

 afterwards renounced4 ,he gave lectures
 on  the ,chinese classics at ,kyto4 ,he
 was held in great esteem by ,tokugawa  
,iyeyasu1 the founder of the ,tokugawa  
line of ,shoguns1 who embraced the      
,chinese system of ethics as preached by
 ,chu-,hsi4 ,during the two hundred  and
 fifty years of the ,tokugawa rule1 this
 system1 under the hereditary  direction
 of the descendants of ,hayashi ,razan  
7#aehc-afeg71 one of the  most          
distinguished disciples of ,seigwa1 was 
recognised as the  established doctrine4
    ,according to the somewhat hazy     
ideas of ,chu-,hsi's philosophy1 which  
,i  ask your permission to sketch here  
on account of the high public esteem  in
 which we have held them for the last   
three centuries1 the ultimate  basis of 
the universe is ,infinity1 or ,tai      
,kieh1 which1 though  containing within 
itself all the germs of all forms of    
existence and  excellence1 is utterly   
void of form or sensible qualities4 ,it 
consists  of two qualities1 li and chi1 

which may be roughly rendered into      
'force-element' and 'matter-element4'   
,these are self-existences1 are  present
 in all things1 and are found in their  
formation4 ,the  'force-element1' or li1
 we are told1 is the perfection of      
heavenly  virtue4 ,it is in inanimate   
things as well as in man and other      
animate  beings1 and pervades all space4
 ,the 'matter-element1' or chi1 is      
endowed with the male and the female    
principles1 or positive and  negative   
polarities1 as we might call them4 ,it  
is1 moreover1  characterised by the five
 constituent qualities of wood1 fire1   
earth1 metal1 and water4 ,hence its     
other name1 ,wu-hsieng1 or  ',five      
,qualities4'    ,things and animals1    
except human beings1 get only portions  
of the  force-element1 but man receives 
it in full1 and this becomes in his     
person sing1 or real human nature4 ,he  
has thus within him the perfect  mirror 
of the heavenly virtue and complete     
power of understanding4 ,there  is no   

difference in this respect between a    
sage and an ordinary man4 ,to  both the 
force-element is uniformly given4 ,but  
the matter-element1 from  which is      
derived his form and material existence1
 and which constitutes  the basis of his
 mental disposition1 is different in    
quality in  different men4    ,man's    
real nature1 or sing1 although          
originally perfect1 becomes  affected on
 entering into him1 or is modified by   
his mental disposition1  which differs  
according to the different state of the 
matter-element4  ,thus a second nature  
is formed out of the original4 ,it is   
through this  second and tainted human  
nature that man acts well or ill4 ,when 
a man  does evil1 that is the result of 
his mental disposition covering or      
interfering with his original perfect   
nature4 ,wipe this vapour of  corrupted 
thought from the surface of your mental 
mirror and it will  shine out as        
brightly as if it had never been covered
 by a temporary  mist4#i      #i ,cp4   

,t4 ,haga's ,note on ,japanese ,schools 
of ,philosophy4 ,t4,a4,s4,j41  vol4 xx4 
pt4 i4 p4 #acd4    ,synoptically        
expressed and applied to the microcosm  
,chu-,hsi's system  will be as          
follows3--                              
,,man           ,force-,element,original
 ,nature of ,man4                       
,different ,human ,characters4          
,infinity                               
,male-,principle  ,wood-quality4        
,fire-            ,matter-,element      
,earth-                                 
,metal-                                 
,female-,principle,water-               
,dispositions latent in ,matter4        
,such is1 in its outline1 ,chu-,hsi's   
view1 which received the sanction of    
the ruling ,tokugawa family4 ,but it was
 not without its opponents in  ,japan as
 well as in ,china4 ,already in his own 
time1 ,lu-,shang-,shan 7b4  #aadj       
,a4,d47 maintained1 in opposition to the
 high-sounding erudition of  ,chu-,hsi1 
that the purification of the heart was  

the first and main point  of study4#aj  
,the same protest was more              
systematically urged against it  by his 
great follower1 ,wang ,yang-ming        
7#adgb-aebh ,a4,d471 who found warm  and
 able admirers in ,japan in such        
scholars as ,nakae ,tju 7#afjc-afgh71   
,kumazawa ,hanzan 7#afai-afia71 and     
,oshio ,chsai 7#agid-ahcg74 ,among other
  great opponents of the orthodox       
philosophy1 such names as ,it ,jinsai   
7#afbe-agjf7 and his son ,tgai          
7#afgj-agcf71 ,kaibara ,ekken           
7#afcj-agad71  ,ogy ,sorai 7#afff-agbh71
 are to be mentioned4 ,these scholars1  
getting  their fundamental ideas from   
other ,chinese thinkers1 and eager to   
remain  faithful to the true spirit of  
,confucianism itself1 pointed out many  
inconsistencies in ,chu-,hsi's theory1  
and were of the opinion that more  real 
good was to be achieved in proceeding   
straight to action under the  guidance  
of conscience which was heaven and all1 
than in indulging in  idle talk about   

the subtlety of human nature4      #aj  
,faber's ,doctrines of ,confucius1 p4   
#cc4    ,the philosophy of ,chu-,hsi1   
although he calls himself the true      
exponent  of ,confucianism1 is not at   
all ,confucian4 ,it is greatly indebted 
to  ,buddhism and ,taoism1 or better1   
,laoism1 that is to say1 to the         
philosophy originated by ,lao-tze 7b4   
#fjd ,b4,c471 one of the greatest       
thinkers that ,china has ever produced4 
,since ,laoism1 through the  wonderful  
,tao-teh-king1 a small book by ,lao-tze 
himself1 but  especially through        
,chwang-tze1 a work in ten books by his 
famous  follower ,chwang-chow1 has      
exercised considerable influence on our 
thought for twelve centuries1 a word    
about it may not be out of place  before
 we go on to consider the doctrine of   
,shkya-muni4    ,in ,lao-tze we find the
 perfect opposite of ,confucius1 both in
 the turn  of his mind and in his views 
and methods of saving the world4        
,lao-tze  endeavoured to reform humanity

 by warning them to cast off all human  
artifice and to return to nature4 ,this 
may be taken as the whole tenor  of his 
doctrine3 ,do not try to do anything    
with your petty will1 because  it is the
 way to hinder and spoil the spontaneous
 growth of the true  virtue that        
permeates the universe4 ,to follow      
,nature's dictates1 while  helping it to
 develop itself1 is the very course     
sanctioned and followed  by all the     
sages worthy of the name4 ,make away    
with your ',ego' and learn  to value    
simplicity and humiliation2 for in total
 'altruism' exists the  completion of   
self1 and in humble contentment and     
yielding pliancy are  to be found real  
grandeur and true strength4 ,under the  
title ',dimming  ,radiance' he          
says3#aa--         ',heaven endures and 
earth is lasting4 ,and why can heaven   
and earth       endure and be lasting8  
,because they do not live for           
themselves4 ,on       that account can  
they endure4         ',therefore the    

,true ,man puts his person behind and   
his person comes       to the front4 ,he
 surrenders his person and his person is
 preserved4       ,is it not because he 
seeks not his own8 ,for that reason he  
accomplishes his own4'    ,again we hear
 him ',discoursing on ,virtue'3--       
',superior virtue is non-virtue4        
,therefore it has ,virtue4 ,inferior    
virtue never loses sight of virtue4     
,therefore it has no virtue4            
,superior virtue is non-assertive and   
without pretension4 ,inferior           
virtue asserts and makes pretensions4'  
#aa ,cp4 ,dr4 ,p4 ,carus's ,lao-tze     
,tao-teh-king4    ,he talks about       
',returning to ,simplicity'3            
',quit the so-called saintliness2 leave 
the so-called wisdom alone2       and   
the people's gain will be increased by a
 hundredfold4         ,abandon the      
so-called mercy2 put away the so-called 
righteousness2       and the people will
 return to filial devotion and paternal 
love4         ,abandon your scheming2   

put away your devices2 and thieves and  
robbers will no longer exist4'    ,such 
is the general purport of the doctrine  
expounded by ,lao-tze4 ,it is  well to  
remember that this doctrine1 which we   
may call for distinction's  sake        
,laoism1 has intrinsically very little  
to do with that form of  belief now so  
prevalent among the ,chinese1 and which 
is known under the  name of ,taoism4    
,although this name itself is derived   
from ,lao-tze's own  word ,tao1 meaning 
,reason or ,true ,path1 and although the
 followers of  ,taoism see in the great 
philosopher its first revealer1 it is in
 all  probability nothing more than a   
new aspect and new appellation assumed  
by that aboriginal ,chinese cult which  
was based on nature- and                
ancestor-worship4 ,ever since their     
appearance in history the ,chinese  have
 had their belief in ,shang-ti1 in      
spirits1 and in natural agencies4  ,this
 cult found1 at an early date1 in the   
mystic interpretation and  solution of  

life as expressed by ,lao-tze and his   
followers1 the means of  fresh          
development4 ,the philosophical ideas of
 these thinkers were not  properly      
understood1 and words and phrases mostly
 metaphorical were  construed in such a 
manner that they came to mean something 
quite  different from what the original 
writers wished to suggest4 ,such an     
idea1 for instance1 as the deathlessness
 of a ,true ,man by virtue of his       
incorporation with the grand ,truth ,tao
 that pervades ,heaven and ,earth1      
breathing in the eternity of the        
universe1 was easily misinterpreted in  
a very matter-of-fact manner1 e4g41     
anybody who realised ,tao could  then   
enjoy the much-wished-for freedom from  
actual death4 ,you see how  easy it is  
for an ordinary mind to pass from one to
 the other when it  hears ,chwang-tze   
say3--         ',fire cannot burn him   
who is perfect in virtue1 nor water     
drown       him2 neither cold nor heat  
can affect him injuriously2 neither bird

       nor beast can hurt him4'#ab      
,or again3--         ',though heaven and
 earth were to be overturned and fall1  
they would       occasion him no loss4  
,his judgment is fixed on that in which 
there       is no element of falsehood1 
and while other things change1 he       
changes not4'#ac      #ab ,cp4 ,sacred  
,books of the ,east1 vol4 xxix4    #ac  
,cp4 ,sacred ,books of the ,east1 vol4  
xxix4    ,we want no great flight of    
imagination therefore to follow the     
traces of  development of the present   
form of ,taoism with its occult aspects4
 ,the  eternity attributed to a ,true   
,man in its ,laoist sense begot the idea
 of  a deathless man in flesh and blood 
endowed with all kinds of  supernatural 
powers4 ,this in turn produced the      
notion that these  superhuman beings    
knew some secret means to preserve their
 life and  could work other wonders4    
,herbalism1 alchemy1 geomancy1 and other
 magic  arts owe their origin to this   
fountain-head of primitive superstition4

    ,there is little room for reasonable
 doubt that in this way ,taoism1        
although the name itself was of later   
development1 has been in its main       
features the religion of ,china par     
excellence from the very dawn of  its   
history4 ,it has from the beginning     
found a congenial soil in the  heart of 
the ,chinese people1 who still continue 
to embrace the cult with  great         
enthusiasm1 and in whose helpless       
credulity the ,taoist priests of        
to-day1 borrowing much help from the    
occult sides of ,buddhism and           
,hinduism1 still find an easy prey for  
their necromantic arts4    ,not so with 
,laoism4 ,one may well wonder how such  
an uncongenial doctrine  ever came to   
spring from the soil of materialistic   
,china4 ,some suggest  that ,lao-tze was
 a ,brahman1 and not a ,chinese at all4 
,another  explanation of this anomaly is
 to be found in the attempted division  
of  the whole ,chinese civilisation into
 two geographically distinct groups1    

the rigid ,northern and the more        
romantic ,southern types3 ,laoism       
belonging to the latter1 while          
,confucianism belongs to the former4 ,in
  any case1 the resemblance in many     
respects between the doctrine           
introduced by ,lao-tze and the higher   
form of ,buddhism is very striking4     
,let me take this opportunity of saying 
something about the religion of         
,shkya-muni1 which has occupied our mind
 and heart for the past fifteen         
centuries4    ,but1 first of all1 let me
 say that ,i am not unaware of the      
absurdity of  trying to give you        
anything like a fair idea of a          
many-sided and  extremely complicated   
system of human belief such as ,buddhism
 in the  short space which is at my     
disposal4 ,very far from it4 ,even a    
brief  summary of its main features     
would take an able speaker at least a   
couple of hours4 ,so ,i humbly confine  
myself to giving you some hints on  the 
belief1 about which most of you1 ,i     

presume1 have already had  occasion to  
hear something1 the religion which took 
its origin among the  people who claim  
their descent from the same ,aryan stock
 to which you  yourselves belong4 ,those
 who would care to read about it will   
find an  excellent supply of knowledge  
in two little books called ,buddhism and
  ,buddhism in ,china1 written          
respectively by ,dr4 ,rhys ,davids and  
the  late ,rev4 ,s4 ,beal1 not to       
mention the late ,sir ,monier ,williams'
 standard  work4 ,a perusal of the ,rev4
 ,a4 ,lloyd's paper read before the     
,asiatic  ,society of ,japan in #ahid1  
entitled ',developments of ,japanese    
,buddhism1'  is very desirable4 ,there  
are also two chapters devoted to this   
doctrine  in ,lafcadio ,hearn's last    
work1 ,japan4 ,this enumeration might   
almost  exempt me from making any       
attempt to describe it myself4          
,buddhism has1 to begin with1 two       
distinct forms1 philosophical and       
popular1 which may practically be taken 

as two different religions4             
,philosophical ,buddhism--or at least   
the truest form of it--is a system      
based upon the recognition of the utter 
impermanency of the phenomenal  world in
 all its forms and states4 ,it believes 
in no ,god or gods  whatever as a       
personal motive power4 ,the only thing  
eternal is matter1  or essence of       
matter1 with the ,karma1 or ,law of     
cause and effect1  dwelling incorporated
 in it4 ,through the never-ceasing      
working of this  law innumerable forms  
of existence develop1 which1            
notwithstanding the  appearance of      
stability they temporarily assume1 are1 
in consequence of  the action and       
reaction of the very law to which they  
owe their  existence1 constantly subject
 to everlasting changes4 ,constancy is  
nowhere to be found in this universe of 
phenomena4 ,it is therefore an  act of  
unspeakable ignorance on the part of    
human beings1 themselves a  product of  
the immutable ,karma1 to attach a       

constant value to this  dreamy world and
 allow themselves to lose their mental  
harmony in the  quest of shadowy desires
 and of their shadowy satisfaction1 thus
  plunging themselves into the boundless
 sea of misery4 ,true salvation is  to  
be sought in the complete negation of   
egoism and in the unconditional         
absorption of ourselves in the          
fundamental law of the universe4        
,shkya-muni was no more than one of a   
series of teachers whose mission  it is 
to show us how to get rid of our fatal  
ignorance of this grand  truth1 an      
ignorance which is at the root of all   
the discontent and  misery of our       
selfish existence4    ,very different   
from this is the aspect assumed by the  
popular form of  ,buddhism4 ,this is a  
system built up on the blind worship of 
personified  psychic phenomena1         
originally meant merely as convenient   
symbols for  their better contemplation1
 and in the transformation of the human 
teachers of truth into so many personal 

gods4 ,this is the reason why           
,buddhism1 so essentially atheistic1 has
 come to be regarded by the  ordinary   
,christian mind as polytheism1 or as a  
degraded form of  idolatry4    ,now1 in 
all the many sects of ,buddhism which   
have been planted in the  soil of ,japan
 since the middle of the seventh        
century1 some of which  soon withered1  
while others took deep root and grew new
 branches1 these  two phases have always
 been recognised and utilised in their  
proper  sphere as means of salvation4   
,for the populace there was the lower   
,buddhism1 while the more elevated      
classes found satisfaction in the       
higher form and in an explanation of    
that ,true ,path which lies hidden      
beneath the complicated symbolic system4
    ,of the sects which have exercised  
great influence on ,japanese mentality1 
the following are specially to be       
mentioned3 the ,tendai1 the ,shingon1   
the ,zen1 the ,hokke1 and the ,jodo1    
with its offspring the ,ikk sect4 ,each 

of these chose its own means of reaching
 enlightenment from among those         
indicated by ,shkya-muni1 but did not on
 that account entirely reject  the means
 of salvation preferred by the others4  
,some give long lists of  categories and
 antitheses1 and seek to define the     
truth with a more than  ,aristotelian   
precision of detail1 while others think 
it advisable to  realise it by dint of  
faith alone4 ,but among these means of  
salvation  the practice advocated by the
 ,zen sect is worthy of special         
consideration in this place1 as it has  
exercised great influence in the        
formation of the ,japanese spirit4 ,zen 
means 'abstraction1' standing  for the  
,sanskrit ,dhyna4 ,it is one of the six 
means of arriving at  ,nirvna1 namely1  
7#a7 charity2 7#b7 morality2 7#c7       
patience2 7#d7 energy2  7#e7            
contemplation2 and 7#f7 wisdom4 ,this   
practice1 which dates from a  time      
anterior to ,shkya himself1 consists of 
an 'abstract  contemplation1' intended  

to destroy all attachment to existence  
in  thought and wish4 ,from the earliest
 time ,buddhists taught four different  
degrees of abstract contemplation by    
which the mind frees itself from  all   
subjective and objective trammels1 until
 it reaches a state of  absolute        
indifference or self-annihilation of    
thought1 perception1 and  will4#ad      
#ad ,e4 ,j4 ,eitel's ,handbook of       
,chinese ,buddhism1 p4 #di4    ,you     
might perhaps wonder how a method so    
utterly unpractical and  speculative as 
that of trying to arrive at final       
enlightenment by pure  contemplation    
could ever have taken root in ,japan1   
among a people who1  generally speaking1
 have never troubled themselves much    
about things  apart from their actual   
and immediate use4 ,an explanation of   
this is not  far to seek4 ,eisai1 the   
founder of the ,rinzai school1 the      
branch of the  ,contemplative sect first
 established on our soil1 came back to  
,japan  from his second visit to ,china 

in #aaib ,a4,d4#ae ,this was the time   
when  the short-lived rule of the       
,minamoto clan 7#aahf-abai7 was nearing 
the  end of its real supremacy4 ,only   
fifteen years before that the world had 
seen the downfall of another mighty     
clan4 ,the battle of ,dannoura put an   
end to the ,heike ascendancy after an   
incessant series of desperate  battles  
extending over a century1 giving our    
soldier-like qualities  enough occasion 
for an excellent schooling4 ,the whole  
country during  this period had been    
under the raging sway of ,mars1 who     
swept with his  fiery breath the        
blossoms of human prosperity1 and the   
people high and  low were obliged to    
recognise the folly of clinging to      
shadowy desires  and to learn the urgent
 necessity for facing every emergency   
with  something akin to indifference4   
,to pass from glowing life into the cold
  grasp of death with a smile1 to meet  
the hardest decrees of fate with  the   
resolute calm of stoic fortitude1 was   

the quality demanded of every  man and  
woman in that stormy age4 ,in the       
meanwhile1 different military  clans had
 been forming themselves in different   
parts of ,japan and  preparing to wage  
an endless series of furious battles    
against one  another4 ,in half a century
 too came the one solitary invasion of  
our  whole history when a foreign power 
dared to threaten us with  destruction4 
,the mighty ,kublei1 grandson of the    
great ,genghis ,khan1  haughty with his 
resistless army1 whose devastating      
intrepidity taught  even ,europe to     
tremble at the mention of his name1     
despatched an embassy  to the ,japanese 
court to demand the subjection of the   
country4 ,the  message was referred to  
,kamakura1 then the seat of the ,hj     
regency1 and  was of course indignantly 
dismissed4 ,enraged at this1 ,kublei    
equipped a  large number of vessels with
 the choicest soldiers ,china could     
furnish4  ,the invading force was       
successful at first1 and committed      

massacres in  ,iki and ,tsushima1       
islands lying between ,corea and ,japan4
 ,the position  was menacing2 even the  
steel nerves of the trained ,samurai    
felt that  strange thrill a patriot     
knows4 ,shinto priests and ,buddhist    
monks were  equally busy at their       
prayers4 ,a new embassy came from the   
threatening  ,mongol leader4 ,the       
imperious ambassadors were taken to     
,kamakura1 to be  put to death as an    
unmistakable sign of contemptuous       
refusal4 ,a  tremendous ,chinese fleet  
gathered in the boisterous bay of       
,genkai in the  summer of #abha4 ,at    
last the evening came with the ominous  
glow on the  horizon that foretells an  
approaching storm4 ,it was the plan of  
the  conquering army victoriously to    
land the next morning on the holy soil  
of ,kysh4 ,but during this critical     
night a fearful typhoon1 known to  this 
day as the ',divine ,storm1' arose1     
breaking the jet-black sky with  its    
tremendous roar of thunder and bathing  

the glittering armour of our  soldiers  
guarding the coastline in white flashes 
of dazzling light4 ,the  very heaven and
 earth shook before the mighty anger of 
nature4 ,the  result was that the dawn  
of the next morning saw the whole fleet 
of the  proud ,yuan1 that had darkened  
the water for miles1 swept completely   
away  into the bottomless sea of        
,genkai1 to the great relief of the     
horror-stricken populace1 and to the    
unspeakable disappointment of our       
determined soldiers4 ,out of the hundred
 thousand warriors who manned the       
invading ships1 only three are recorded 
to have survived the destruction  to    
tell the dismal tale to their           
crestfallen great ,khan6      #ae ,four 
years later the first temple of this    
school was opened in  ,hakata under the 
patronship of the ,emperor ,gotoba4     
,then after a short interval of a score 
of peaceful years1 ,japan was  plunged  
again into another series of internal   
disturbances1 from which  she can hardly

 be said to have emerged until the      
beginning of the  seventeenth century1  
when order and rest were brought back by
 the able  hand of ,tokugawa ,iyeyasu4  
,during all these troublous days1 the   
original  ,contemplative sect1          
paralleled soon after its establishment 
in ,japan by  a new school called ,st1  
as it was again supplemented by another1
 the  baku school1 five centuries       
afterwards1 found ample material to     
propagate its special method of         
enlightenment4 ,this sect1 which drew   
its  patrons from the ruling classes of 
,japan1 was unanimously looked up to  as
 best calculated to impart the secret   
power of perfect self-control  and      
undisturbable peace of mind4 ,it must be
 remembered that the ultimate  riddance 
in the ,buddhist sense1 the entrance    
into cold ,nirvna1 was not  what our    
practical mind wanted to realise4 ,it   
was the stoic  indifference1 enabling   
man to meet after a moment's thought1 or
 almost  instinctively1 any hardships   

that human life might impose1 that had  
brought about its otherwise strange     
popularity4    ,another charm it offered
 to the people of the illiterate ,middle
 ,ages1  when they had to attend to     
other things than a leisurely pursuit of
  literature1 was its systematic neglect
 of book-learning4 ,truth was to be     
directly read from heart to heart4 ,the 
intervention of words and writing  was  
regarded as a hindrance to its true     
understanding4 ,a rudimentary  symbolism
 expressed by gestures was all that a   
,zen priest really relied  upon for the 
communication of the doctrine4          
,everybody with a heart to  feel and a  
mind to understand needed nothing       
further to begin and finish  his quest  
of the desired freedom from life's      
everlasting torments4    ,the           
self-control that enables us not to     
betray our inner feeling through  a     
change in our expression1 the measured  
steps with which we are taught  to walk 
into the hideous jaws of death--in      

short1 all those qualities  which make a
 present ,japanese of truly ,japanese   
type look strange1 if  not queer1 to    
your eyes1 are in a most marked degree a
 product of that  direct or indirect    
influence on our past mentality which   
was exercised  by the ,buddhist doctrine
 of ,dhyna taught by the ,zen priests4  
,another benefit which the ,zen sect    
conferred on us is the healthy          
influence it exercised on our taste4    
,the love of nature and the desire  of  
purity that we had shown from the       
earliest days of our history1 took1     
under the leading idea of the           
,contemplative sect1 a new development1 
and  began to show that serene dislike  
of loudness of form and colour4 ,that   
apparent simplicity with a fulness of   
meaning behind it1 like a ,dhyna  symbol
 itself1 which we find so pervadingly   
manifested in our works of  art1        
especially in those of the ,ashikaga    
period 7#adjj-afjj ,a4,d471 is          
certainly to be counted among the most  

valuable results which the ,zen         
doctrine quickened us to produce4    ,in
 short1 so far-reaching is the influence
 of the ,contemplative sect on  the     
formation of the ,japanese spirit as you
 find it at present1 that an  adequate  
interpretation of its manifestations    
would be out of the  question unless    
based on a careful study of this branch 
of ,buddhism4 ,so  long as the ,zen sect
 is not duly considered1 the whole set  
of phenomena  peculiar to ,japan--from  
the all-pervading laconism to the       
hara-kiri--will remain a sealed book4   
,this fact is my excuse for having      
detained you for so long on the         
subject4    ,i now pass on to the       
consideration of our own native cult4   
,shinto1 or the ',path of the ,gods1' is
 the name by which we distinguish  the  
body of our national belief from        
,buddhism1 ,christianity1 or any  other 
form of religion4 ,it is remarkable that
 this appellation1 like  ,nippon 7which 
corresponds to your word ,japan71 is no 

purely ,japanese  term4 ,buddhism is    
called ,bupp 7from ,butsu1 ,buddha1 and 
h1  doctrine7 or ,bukky 7ky1 teaching72 
,confucianism is known as ,juky  7,ju1  
literati72 and both terms are taken from
 the ,chinese4 ,in keeping  with these  
we have ,shinto 7,shin1 deity1 and to1  
way74 ,this state of  things in some    
measure explains the rather unstable    
condition in which  ,buddhism on its    
first arrival found our national cult4  
,it has ever since  remained in its main
 aspects nothing more than a form of    
ancestor-worship based on the central   
belief in the divine origin of the      
imperial line4 ,a systematised creed it 
never was and has never become1  even if
 we take into consideration the attempts
 at its consolidation  made by such     
scholars as ,yamazaki-,ansai            
7#afah-afhb71 who in the middle  of the 
seventeenth century tried to formalise  
it in accordance with  ,chu-,hsi's      
philosophy1 or1 later still1 by such    
eager revivalists as  ,hirata-,atsutane 

7#aggf-ahdc71 etc4 ,at the time when    
,shintoism had to meet  its mighty foe  
from ,india1 its whole mechanism was    
very simple4 ,it  consisted in a number 
of primitive rites1 such as the recital 
of the  liturgy1 the offering of        
eatables to the departed spirits of     
deified  ancestors1 patriarchal1 tribal1
 or national4 ,this nave cult was as    
innocent of the cunning ideas and subtle
 formalisms of the rival creed  as its  
shrines were free from the decorations  
and equipments of an  ,indian temple4   
,so1 although at the start ,buddhism met
 with some  obstinate resistance at the 
hand of the ,shintoists1 who attributed 
the  visitations of pestilence that     
followed the introduction of the foreign
  belief to the anger of the native     
gods1 its superiority in organisation   
soon overcame these difficulties2       
especially from the time when the  great
 ,buddhist priest ,kkai 7#ggd-hce       
,a4,d47 hit upon the ingenious but      
mischievous idea of solving the dilemma 

by the establishment of what is         
generally known in our history as       
,rybu-,shinto1 or double-faced ,shinto4 
,according to this doctrine1 a ,shinto  
god was to be regarded as an            
incarnation of a corresponding ,indian  
deity1 who made his appearance in       
,japan through metamorphosis for        
,japan's better salvation--a doctrine   
which is no more than a clever          
application of the notion known in      
,india  as ,nirmanakya4 ,this           
incarnation theory opened a new era in  
the history  of the expansion of        
,buddhism in ,japan1 extending over a   
period of eleven  centuries1 during     
which ,shintoism was placed in a very   
awkward position4  ,it was at last      
restored to its original purity at the  
beginning of the  present ,meiji period1
 and that only after a century of       
determined  endeavour on the part of    
native ,shintoist scholars4    ,from    
these words you might perhaps conclude  
that ,buddhism succeeded in  supplanting

 the native cult1 at least for more than
 a thousand years4  ,but1 strange to    
say1 if we judge the case not by outward
 appearances1  but by the religious     
conviction that lurks in the depth of   
the heart1 we  cannot but recognise the 
undeniable fact that no real conversion 
has  ever been achieved during the past 
eleven centuries by the doctrine of     
,buddha4 ,our actual self1              
notwithstanding the different clothes we
 have  put on has ever remained true in 
its spirit to our native cult4 ,speaking
  generally1 we are still ,shintoists to
 this day--,buddhists1 ,christians1  and
 all--so long as we are born ,japanese4 
,this might sound to you  somewhat      
paradoxical4 ,here is the explanation3--
    ,for an average ,japanese mind in   
present ,japan1 thanks to the           
ancestor-worship practised consciously  
or unconsciously from time  immemorial1 
it is not altogether easy to imagine the
 spirit of the  deceased1 if it believes
 in one at all1 to be something         

different and  distant from our actual  
living self4 ,the departed1 although    
invisible1  are thought to be leading   
their ethereal life in the same world in
 much  the same state as that to which  
they had been accustomed while on earth4
  ,like the little child so touchingly  
described by ,wordsworth1 we cannot  see
 why we should not count the so-called  
dead still among the existing4  ,the    
difference between the two is that of   
tangibility or visibility1 but  nothing 
more4    ,the raison d'tre of this      
illusive notion is1 of course1 not far  
to  seek4 ,any book on anthropology or  
ethnology would tell you how sleep1     
trance1 dream1 hallucination1 reflection
 in still water1 etc41 help to  build up
 the spirit-world in the untaught mind  
of primitive man4 ,yet it  must be      
remembered that these origins have led  
to something far higher1  to something  
of real value to our nation1 and to     
something which is a  moral force in our
 daily lives that may well be compared  

to what is  efficacious in other creeds4
 ,notice the fact that ,buddhism from   
the  moment of its introduction in the  
sixth century after ,christ to this     
very day has on the whole remained the  
religion1 so to say1 of night and       
gloomy death1 while ,shintoism has      
always retained its firm hold on the    
popular mind as the cult1 if ,i might so
 express it1 of daylight and the  living
 dead4 ,from the very dawn of our       
history we read of patriarchs1          
chieftains1 and national heroes deified 
and worshipped as so many  guardian     
spirits of families1 of clans1 or of the
 country4 ,nor has this  process of     
deification come to an end yet1 even in 
this age of airship  and submarine boat4
 ,we continue to erect shrines to men of
 merit4 ,this  may look very strange to 
you1 but is not your poet ,swinburne    
right when  he sings--        ',whoso   
takes the world's life on him and his   
own           lays down1      ,he1 dying
 so1 lives4'    ,might not these lines  

explain1 when duly extended1 the subtle 
feeling  that lurks behind our          
apparently incomprehensible custom of   
speaking  with the departed over the    
altar8 ,the present deification1 is1    
like your  custom of erecting monuments 
to men of merit1 a way of making the    
best  part of a man's career legible to 
the coming generations4 ,the numberless 
shrines you now find scattered all over 
,japan are only so many chapters        
written in unmistakable characters of   
the lessons our beloved and  revered    
heroes and good men have left us for our
 edification and  amelioration4 ,it is  
in the sunny space within the simple    
railing of  these ,shinto shrines1 where
 the smiling presence of the patron     
spirit of  a deified forefather or a    
great man is so clearly felt1 that our  
childhood has played for tens of        
centuries its games of innocent joy4    
,monthly and yearly festivals are       
observed within the divine enclosure of 
a guardian god1 when a whole community  

under his protection let  themselves go 
in good-natured laughter and gleeful    
mirth before the  favouring eyes of     
their divine patron4 ,how different is  
this jovial  feeling from that gloomy   
sensation with which we approach a      
,buddhist  temple1 recalling death and  
the misery of life from every corner of 
its  mysterious interior4 ,such         
seriousness has never been congenial to 
the  gay ,japanese mind with its strong 
love of openness and light4 ,until      
death stares us right in the face1 we do
 not care to be religious in the        
ordinary sense of the term4 ,true1 we   
say and think that we believe in  death1
 but all the while this so-called death 
is nothing else than a new  life in this
 present world of ours led in a         
supernatural way4 ,for  instance1 when  
the father of a ,japanese family begins 
a journey of any  length1 the raised    
part of his room will be made sacred to 
his memory  during his temporary        
absence2 his family will gather in front

 of it and  think of him1 expressing    
their devotion and love in words and    
gifts in  kind4 ,in the hundreds of     
thousands of families that have some one
 or  other of their members fighting for
 the nation in this dreadful war with   
,russia1 there will not be even one     
solitary house where the mother1  wife1 
or sister is not practising this simple 
rite of endearment for the  beloved and 
absent member of the family4 ,and if he 
die on the field1 the  mental attitude  
of the poor bereaved towards the        
never-returning does  not show any      
substantial difference4 ,the temporarily
 departed will now  be regarded as the  
forever departed1 but not as lost or    
passed away4 ,his  essential self is    
ever present1 only not visible4 ,daily  
offerings and  salutations continue in  
exactly the same way as when he was     
absent for a  time4 ,even in the mind of
 the modern ,japanese with its extremely
  agnostic tendencies1 there is still   
one corner sacred to this inherited     

feeling4 ,you could sooner convince an  
ordinary ,european of the  non-existence
 of a personal ,god4 ,when it gets dusk 
every bird knows  whither to wing its   
way home4 ,even so with us all when the 
night of  ,death spreads its dark folds 
over our mortal mind6    ,but ask a     
modern ,japanese of ordinary education  
in the broad daylight of  life1 if he   
believes in a ,god in the ,christian    
sense2 or in ,buddha as  the creator2 or
 in the ,shinto deities2 or else in any 
other personal  agency or agencies1 as  
originating and presiding over the      
universe2 and  you would immediately get
 an answer in the negative in           
ninety-nine cases  out of a hundred4 ,do
 you ask why8 ,first1 because our school
 education  throughout its whole course 
has1 ever since its re-establishment    
thirty-five years ago1 been altogether  
free from any teaching of a             
denominational nature4 ,the ethical     
foundations necessary for the  building 
up of character are imparted through an 

adequate commentary on  the moral       
sayings and maxims derived mostly from  
,chinese classics4  ,secondly1 because  
the little knowledge about natural      
science which we  obtain at school seems
 to make it impossible to anchor our    
rational  selves on anything other than 
an impersonal law4 ,thirdly1 because we 
do  not see any convincing reason why   
morals should be based on the teaching  
of a special denomination1 in face of   
the fact that we can be upright  and    
brave without the help of a creed with a
 ,god or deities at its other  end4 ,so1
 for the average mind of the educated   
,japanese something like  modern        
scientific agnosticism1 with a strong   
tendency towards the  materialistic     
monism of recent times1 is just what    
pleases and satisfies  it most4    ,if  
not so definitely thought out1 and if   
expressed with much less  learned       
terminology1 the thought among our      
educated classes as regards             
supernatural agencies has during the    

past three centuries been much the      
same4 ,the ,confucian warning against   
meddling with things supernatural1  the 
atheistic views and hermit-like conduct 
of the adherents of ,laoism1  and the   
higher ,buddhism1 all contributed       
towards the consolidation of  this      
mental attitude with a conscious or     
unconscious belief in the  existing     
spirit-world4 ,except for the philosophy
 which they knew how to  utilise for    
their practical purposes1 the educated  
felt no charm in  religion4 ,the lower  
form of ,buddhism with its pantheon has 
been held as  something only for the    
aged and the weak4 ,for the execution of
 the  religious rites1 at funerals or on
 other occasions 7except in the rare    
instances when some families for a      
special reason of their own preferred   
the ,shintoist form71 we have           
unanimously drawn on the ,buddhist      
priesthood1 just in the same way as you 
go to your family doctor or  attorney in
 case of a bodily or legal complication1

 knowing well that  religion as we have 
understood it is something as much      
outside the pale  of the layman as      
medicine and law4    ,for the proper    
conduct of our daily life as members of 
society1 the body  of ,confucian        
morality resting on the tripod of       
loyalty1 filial piety1  and honesty1 has
 been the only standard which high and  
low have alike  recognised4 ,these      
ethical ideals1 when embraced by that   
formidable  warrior caste who played    
such an important part in feudal ,japan1
 form  the code of unwritten morality   
known among us as ,bushido1 which means 
the ,path of the ,samurai4 ,this last   
word1 which has found its way into  your
 language1 is the substantival          
derivative from the verb samurau  7to   
serve71 and1 like its ,english          
counterpart 'knight' 7,old ,english     
cniht71 has raised itself from its      
original sense of a retainer 7cp4       
,german ,knecht7 to the meaning in which
 it is now used4 ,to be a ,samurai  in  

the true sense of the word has been the 
highest aspiration of a  ,japanese4     
,your term 'gentleman1' when understood 
in its best sense1  would convey to you 
an approximate idea if you added a dash 
of soldier  blood to it4 ,rectitude1    
courage1 benevolence1 politeness1       
veracity1  loyalty1 and a predominating 
sense of honour--these are the chief    
colours with which a novelist in the    
days of yore used to paint an ideal     
,samurai2 and his list of desirable     
qualities was not considered complete   
without a well-developed body and an    
expression of the face that was  manly  
but in no way brutal4 ,no special stress
 was at first laid on the  cultivation  
of thinking power and book-learning1    
though they were not  altogether        
discouraged2 it was thought that these  
accomplishments might  develop other    
qualities detrimental to the principal  
character1 such as  sophistry or        
pedantry4 ,to have good sense enough to 
keep his name  honourable1 and to act   

instead of talking cleverly1 was the    
chief  ambition of a ,samurai4    ,but  
this view gradually became obscured4 ,it
 lost its fearful rigidity in  course of
 time1 as the world became more and more
 sure of a lasting  peace4 ,literature  
and music have gradually added softening
 touches to  its somewhat brusque       
features4    ,it must1 however1 be      
always remembered that the keynote of   
,bushido was  from the very beginning an
 indomitable sense of honour4 ,this was 
all in  all to the mind of the ,samurai1
 whose sword at his side reminded him at
  every movement of the importance of   
his good name4 ,the care with which  he 
preserved it reached in some cases to a 
pathetic extreme2 he  preferred1 for    
example1 an instant suicide to a        
reputation on which  doubt had been     
cast1 however falsely4 ,the very custom 
of seppuku 7better  known as hara-kiri71
 a form of suicide not known in early   
,japan1#af is  an outcome of this love  
of an unstained name1 originating1 in my

  opinion1 in the metaphorical use of   
the word hara 7abdomen71 which was  the 
supposed organ for the begetting of     
ideas4 ,in consequence of this  curious 
localisation of the thinking faculty1   
the word hara came to  denote at the    
same time intention or idea4 ,therefore1
 in cutting open  7kiru7 his abdomen1 a 
person whose motives had come to be     
suspected  meant to show that his inside
 was free from any trace of ideas not   
worthy of a ,samurai4 ,this explanation 
is1 ,i think1 amply sustained by  the   
constant use to this very day of the    
word hara in the sense of  one's ideas4 
#af ,the first mention in books of a    
similar mode of death dates from  the   
latter part of the twelfth century4 ,but
 it does not seem that the  custom      
became universal until a considerably   
later period4    ,so ,bushido1 as you   
will now see1 was itself but a          
manifestation of those  same forces     
already at work in the formation of     
,japanese thought1 like  ,buddhism1     

,confucianism1 etc4 ,but as it has      
played a most important part  in the    
development of modern ,japan1 ,i thought
 it more proper to consider  it as an   
independent factor in the history of our
 civilisation4 ,had it  not been for    
this all-daring spirit of ,bushido1     
,japan would never have  been able to   
make the gigantic progress which she has
 been achieving in  these last forty    
years4 ,as soon as our ports were flung 
open to the  reception of ,western      
culture1 ,samurai1 now deeply conscious 
of their new  mission1 took leave of    
those stern but faithful friends1 their 
beloved  swords1 not without much       
reluctance1 even as did ,sir ,bedivere1 
in order  to take up the more peaceful  
pen1 which they were determined to wield
  with the same knightly spirit4 ,it is1
 in short1 ,bushido that has urged  our 
,japan on for the last three centuries1 
and will continue to urge her  on1 on   
forever1 onward to her ideals of the    
true1 the good1 and the  beautiful4     

,look to the spot where every ,japanese 
sabre and every  ,japanese bayonet is at
 present pointing with its icy edge of  
determined  patriotism in the dreary    
fields of ,manchuria1 or think of the   
intrepid  heroes on our men-of-war and  
our torpedo-boats amid blinding         
snowstorms  and the glare of hostile    
searchlights1 and your eyes will        
invariably end  at the magic ,path of   
the ,samurai4    ,having thus far       
followed my enumeration of the various  
factors in the  formation of the present
 thought in ,japan1 some of you might   
perhaps be  curious to know what        
,christianity has contributed towards   
the general  stock of modern ,japanese  
mentality4    ,it must surely have      
exercised a very healthy influence on   
our mind since  its re-introduction at  
the beginning of the present ,meiji     
period4 ,some  have indeed gone so far  
as to say that we owe the whole success 
we have  up to now achieved in this     
remarkable war to the holy inspiration  

we  drew from the teaching of ,jesus    
,christ4    ,i indorse this opinion to  
its full extent1 but only if we are to  
understand by ,his teaching that whole  
body of truth and love which are  of the
 essence of ,christianity1 and which we 
used in former days to call  by other   
names1 such as ,bushido1 ,confucianism1 
etc4 ,but if you insist on  having it   
understood in a narrow sectarian sense1 
with a personal ,god  and rigid         
formalities as its main features1 then  
,i should say that ,i  cannot agree with
 you1 for this ,christianity occupies   
rather an awkward  place in our         
,japanese mind1 finding itself somewhere
 between the  national worship of the   
living dead1 and modern agnosticism1 or 
scientific monism4 ,in our earlier      
fishery for new knowledge in the        
,western seas1 fish other than those fit
 for our table were caught and  dressed 
along with some really nourishing2 the  
result was disastrous1  and we gradually
 came to learn more caution than at     

first4 ,the ,roman  ,catholics1 more    
enthusiastic than discreet1 committed   
wholesale outrages  on our harmless ways
 of faith in the early days of the      
seventeenth  century1 which did much to 
leave in bad repute the creed of ,jesus 
,christ4 ,and since the prohibition     
against ,christianity was removed1 many 
a missionary has been so particular     
about the plate in which the truth  is  
served as to make us doubt1 with reason1
 if that be the spirit of the  immortal 
,teacher4 ,the truth and poetry that    
breathe in your ,gospels have  been too 
often paraphrased in the senseless prose
 of mere formalism4  ,otherwise         
,christianity would have rendered us    
better help in our eternal  march       
towards the ideal emancipation4         
,there remains still one highly         
important thing to be considered as a   
formative element of the ,japanese      
spirit4 ,i mean the landscape and the   
physical aspects of ,japan in general4  
,it is well known that an intimate      

connection exists between the mind and  
the nature which surrounds it4 ,a       
moment's consideration of the           
development of ,hellenic sculpture and  
of the ,greek climate1 or of the        
,teutonic mythology and the physical    
condition of ,northern ,europe1 will    
bring conviction on that point4 ,is not 
the effect of the blue sky on  ,italian 
painting1 and the influence of the dusky
 heaven on the1  pictorial art of the   
,netherlands1 clearly traceable in the  
productions  of the old masters8 ,a     
study of ,london psychology at the      
present moment  will never be complete  
without special chapters on your open   
spaces and  your fogs4    ,in order to  
convey anything like an adequate idea of
 the physical  aspects of ,japan from   
the geographical and meteorological     
points of  view1 it would be necessary  
to furnish a detailed account of the    
country1 with a long list of statistical
 tables and the ample help of  lantern  
slides4 ,but on this occasion ,i must be

 content with naming some  of the       
typical features of our surroundings4   
,japan1 as you know1 is a long and      
narrow series of islands1 stretching    
from frigid ,kamchatka in the north to  
half-tropical ,formosa in the  south4   
,the whole country is mountainous1 with 
comparatively little flat  land1 and is 
perforated with a great number of       
volcanoes1 the active  ones alone       
numbering above fifty at present4 ,with 
this is connected the  annoying         
frequency of earthquakes1 and the       
agreeable abundance of  thermal         
springs--two phenomena that cannot      
remain without effect on the  people's  
character4    ,there are two other      
natural agencies to be mentioned in this
 connection4  ,one is the ,kuro-shio1 or
 ,black ,stream1 so called on account of
 the deep  black colour which the ocean 
current displays in cloudy weather4     
,this  warm ocean river1 having a       
temperature of #bg centigrade in summer1
  begins its course in the tropical     

regions near the ,philippine ,islands1  
and on reaching the southern isles is   
divided by them into two unequal  parts4
 ,the greater portion of it skirts the  
,japanese islands on their  eastern     
coast1 imparting to them that warm and  
moist atmosphere which is  one source of
 the fertility of the soil and the      
beauty of the  vegetation4 ,the effect  
of the ,kuro-shio upon the climate and  
productions  of the lands along which it
 flows may be fairly compared with that 
of  the ,gulf ,stream in the ,atlantic  
,ocean1 which in situation1 direction1  
and volume it resembles4 ,to this most  
noticeable cause of the climatic        
condition of the ,japanese islands must 
be added another agency closely  related
 to it in its effect4 ,our archipelago  
lies in the region of the  northeast    
monsoon1 which affects in a marked      
degree the climate of all  those parts  
over which the winds blow4 ,although the
 same monsoon blows  over the eastern   
countries of the ,asiatic continent1 the

 insular  character of ,japan1 and the  
proximity of the above-mentioned warm   
current on both sides of the islands1   
give to the winds which prevail a       
character they do not possess on the    
continent4    ,although the effect of   
the chill and frost of the northern part
 of  ,japan1 with its heavy snowfall and
 covered sky1 cannot be without its     
depressing influence on human nature in 
that part of the island1 this  has not  
played any serious role in the formation
 of the ,japanese  character as a whole4
 ,it is only at a rather recent date    
that the  northern provinces began to   
contribute their share to the general   
progress of the country4 ,this can very 
easily be explained by the  gradual     
advance of ,japanese civilisation from  
the southwest to the  northeast4 ,until 
comparatively lately the colder region  
of ,japan north  of the #cgth degree of 
latitude has remained very nearly       
inactive in our  history4 ,it is almost 
exclusively in the more sunny south1    

extending  down to the #cast degree1    
that the main activity of the ,japanese 
mind and  hand has been shown4 ,and the 
effect is the sunniness of character and
  rather hot temperament which we1 as a 
whole1 share in a marked degree  with   
the southern ,europeans1 as contrasted  
with the somewhat gloomy calm  and      
deliberation noticed both among oriental
 and occidental northerners4            
,notwithstanding the comparatively high 
amount of rainfall1 the fact  remains   
that as a nation we have spent most of  
our life under the serene  canopy of    
blue sky characteristic of a volcanic   
country4 ,mountains1  graceful rather   
than sublime1 and fertile plains with   
rich verdure1 its  beauties changing    
slowly from the white blossoms of spring
 to the  crimson leaves of autumn1 have 
afforded us many welcome sights to rest 
our eyes upon2 while the azure stretch  
of water1 broken agreeably by  scattered
 isles1 washes to-day as it did in the  
days of the gods the  white shore1      

rendered conspicuous by the everlasting 
green of the pine  trees1 which skirts  
the ,land of the ,rising ,sun4    ,the  
winter1 though it begins its dreary     
course with a short period of  warm days
 known as the ,little ,spring1 is of    
course not without its bleak  mornings  
with cutting winds and icy wreaths4 ,but
 the fact that even as  far north as    
,tky no elaborate system of warming     
rooms is at all  developed1 and that the
 occasional falling of snow is hailed   
even by  aged men of letters1 and still 
more by the numerous poetasters1 as a   
fit  occasion for a pedestrian excursion
 to some neighboring localities for a   
better appreciation of the silvery      
world1 serves to show how mild the  cold
 is in south ,japan4    ,a people on    
whom the surrounding nature always      
smiles so indulgently can  be little    
expected to be driven to turn their     
thoughts in the direction  of their own 
self1 and thus to develop such a strong 
sense of  individuality as characterises

 the rigid northerners2 nor are the     
nations panting under a scorching sun   
likely to share our friendly  feelings  
towards nature1 for with them ,father   
,sun is too rigorous to  allow a        
peaceful enjoyment of his works4    ,all
 through the four seasons1 which are    
almost too varied even for a  ,thomson's
 pen1 eventful with the constant calls  
of one after another of  our flowery    
visitors--beginning with the noble plum 
that peeps with its  tiny               
yellowish-white eyes from under the     
spotless repose of fleecy snow1  and    
ending in the gay variety of the        
chrysanthemum--we have too many         
allurements from outside not to leap    
into the widespread arms of ,mother     
,nature and dream away our simple1 our  
contented life in her lap4 ,true1  there
 also are in ,japan many instances of   
broken hearts seeking their  final rest 
under the green turf of an untimely     
grave1 or else in the  grey mantle of   
the ,buddhist monkhood4 ,but in them1   

again1 we see the  characteristic       
determination and action of a ,japanese 
at work4 ,to  indulge in ,hamlet-like   
musing1 deep in the grand doubt and     
sublime  melancholy of the              
never-slumbering question ',to be1 or   
not to be8' is  something1 so to say1   
too damp to occur in the sunny thought  
of our  open-air life4    ,if asked to  
name the most conspicuous of those      
physical phenomena which  have exercised
 so great an influence on our mind1 no  
,japanese will  hesitate to mention our 
most beloved ,fuji-no-yama4 ,this is the
 highest  and the most beautiful of all 
the great mountains in the main group of
  the ,japanese islands4 ,gracefully    
conical in shape1 lifting its snowclad  
head against a serene background #ab1cfe
 feet above the sea1 it has from  the   
earliest time been the object of        
unceasing admiration for the            
surrounding thirteen provinces1 and     
where it stands out of the reach of  the
 naked eye1 winged words from the poet's

 lyre1 and flying leaves from  the      
artist's brush1 have carried its        
never-tiring praise to all the  nooks   
and corners of the ,land of the ,gods4  
,here is one of the earliest odes to    
,fujiyama1 contained in a collection  of
 lyrical poems called ,man-y-sh1 or     
',myriad ,leaves1' by ,prince ,moroe    
7died ,a4,d4 #geg71 somewhere in the    
first half of the eighth century3--     
,there on the border1 where the land of 
,kahi      ,doth touch the frontier of  
,suruga's land1      ,a beauteous       
province stretched on either hand1      
,see ,fujiyama rear his head on high6   
,the clouds of heav'n in rev'rent wonder
 pause1      ,nor may the birds those   
giddy heights essay1      ,where melt   
thy snows amid thy fires away1      ,or 
thy fierce fires lie quench'd beneath   
thy snows4        ,what name might fitly
 tell1 what accents sing1      ,thy     
awful1 godlike grandeur8 ',tis thy      
breast      ,that holdeth ,narusaha's   
flood at rest1      ,thy side whence    

,fujikaha's waters spring4        ,great
 ,fujiyama1 tow'ring to the sky6      ,a
 treasure art thou giv'n to mortal man1 
,a god-protector1 watching o'er ,japan3 
,on thee for ever let me feast mine eye6
    ,this now extinct volcano1 besides  
inspiring poetical efforts1 has been  an
 inexhaustible subject for our pictorial
 art2 it is enough to mention  the      
famous sets of colour prints1           
representing the thirty-six or the      
hundred aspects of the favourite        
mountain1 by ,hiroshige1 ,hokusai1 etc4 
,the groups of rural pilgrims that      
annually swarm from all parts of ,japan 
during the two hottest months of the    
year to pay their pious visit to  the   
,holy ,mount ,fuji1 return to their     
respective villages deeply inspired     
with a feeling of reverence and of love 
for the wonders and beauty of  the      
remarkable dawn they witnessed from its 
summit4    ,there is many another       
towering mountain with its set of       
pilgrims1 but  none can vie with        

,fujiyama for majestic grace4 ,more     
beautiful than  sublime1 more serene    
than imposing1 it has been from time    
immemorial a  silent influence on the   
,japanese character4 ,who would deny    
that it has  reflected in its serenity  
and grace as seen on a bright day all   
the  ideals of the ,japanese mind8      
,another favourite emblem of our spirit 
is the cherry blossom4 ,the cherry      
tree1 which we cultivate1 not for its   
fruit1 but for the annual tribute  of a 
branchful of its flowers1 has done much1
 especially in the  development of the  
gay side of our character4 ,its blossoms
 are void of  that sweet depth of scent 
your rose possesses1 or the calm repose 
that  characterizes ,china's emblematic 
peony4 ,a sunny gaiety and a readiness  
to scatter their heart-shaped petals    
with a ,samurai's indifference to  death
 are what make them so dear to our      
simple and determined view of  life4    
,there is an ode known to every         
,japanese by the great ,motoori         

,norinaga 7#agcj-ahja ,a4,d47 which runs
 as follows3--        ,shikishima no    
,yamata-gokoro wo      ,hito toha ba1   
,asahi ni nihofu                        
,jamazakura-bana4    7,should any one   
ask me what the spirit of ,japan is     
like1 ,i would point  to the blossoms of
 the wild cherry tree bathing in the    
beams of the  morning sun47    ,these   
words1 laconic as they are1 represent1  
in my opinion1 the  fundamental truth   
about the ,japanese mentality--its weak 
places as well  as its strength4 ,they  
give an incomparable key to the proper  
understanding of the whole people1 whose
 ideal it has ever been to live  and to 
die like the cherry blossoms1 beneath   
which they have these tens  of centuries
 spent their happiest hours every       
spring4    ,the mention of a ,japanese  
poem gives me an opportunity to say     
something  about ,japanese poetry4 ,like
 other early people1 our forefathers in 
archaic time liked to express their     
thoughts in a measured form of          

language4 ,the whole structure of the   
tongue being naturally melodious1  on   
account of its consisting of open       
syllables with clear and sonorous       
vowels and little of the harsh          
consonantal elements in them1 the number
  of syllables in a line has been almost
 the only feature that  distinguished   
our poetry from ordinary prose          
composition4 ,the taste for  a          
lengthened form of poems had lost ground
 early1 and already at the end  of the  
ninth century after ,christ the         
epigrammatic form exemplified  above1   
consisting of thirty-one syllables1     
established itself as the  ordinary type
 of the ,japanese odes4    ,this form   
subdivides itself into two parts1 viz41 
the upper half  containing three lines  
of five1 seven1 and again five          
syllables1 and the  lower half          
consisting of two lines of seven        
syllables each4 ,this  simplicity has   
made it impossible to express in it     
anything more than a  pithy appeal to   

our lyrical nature2 epic poetry in the  
strict sense of  the word has never been
 developed by us4    ,but it must be    
noticed that it is this simplicity of   
form of our  poetical expression that   
has put it within the reach of almost   
everybody4 ,to all of us without        
distinction of class and sex has been   
accorded the sacred pleasure of         
satisfying and thus developing our      
poetical nature1 so long as we had a    
subject to sing and could count         
syllables up to thirty-one4 ,the        
language resorted to in such a          
composition was at first the same as    
that in use in everyday life4 ,but      
afterwards as succeeding forms of the   
vernacular gradually deviated from  the 
classical type1 a special grammar along 
with a special vocabulary  had to be    
studied by the would-be poet4 ,this was 
avoided1 however1 by  the development in
 the sixteenth century of a popular and 
still shorter  form of ode called       
,hokku1 with much less strict           

regulations about  syntax and           
phraseology4 ,this ultra-short variety  
of ,japanese poetry1  consisting only of
 seventeen syllables1 is in form the    
upper half of the  regular poem4 ,here  
is an example3--        ,asagaho ni     
,tsurube torarete      ,morai-midzu4    
,sketchy as it is1 this tells us that   
the composer ,chiyo1 'having gone to    
her well one morning to draw water1     
found that some tendrils of the         
convolvulus had twined themselves around
 the rope4 ,as a poetess and a  woman of
 taste1 she could not bring herself to  
disturb the dainty  blossoms4 ,so1      
leaving her own well to the convolvuli1 
she went and  begged water of a         
neighbor'--a pretty little vignette1    
surely1 and  expressed in five words4   
,this new movement1 which owes its real 
development to a remarkable man  called 
,bash 7#afdd-afdi71 a mystic of the ,zen
 sect to the tip of his  fingers1 had an
 aim that was strictly practical4 ',he  
wished to turn  men's lives and thoughts

 in a better and a higher direction1 and
 he  employed one branch of art1 namely 
poetry1 as the vehicle for the  ethical 
influence to whose exercise he devoted  
his life4 ,the very word  poetry 7or    
haikai7 came in his mouth to stand for  
morality4 ,did any of  his followers    
transgress the code of poverty1         
simplicity1 humility1  long-suffering1  
he would rebuke the offender with a     
,this is not  poetry1 meaning ,this is  
not right4 ,his knowledge of nature and 
his  sympathy with nature were at least 
as intimate as ,wordsworth's1 and his   
sympathy with all sorts and conditions  
of men was far more intimate2 for  he   
never isolated himself from his kind1   
but lived cheerfully in the  world4'#ag 
,now1 this form of popular literature by
 virtue of its accessibility even  to   
the poorest amateurs from the lowest    
ranks of the people1 was  markedly      
instrumental1 as the now classical form 
of poetry had been  during the ,middle  
,ages1 in the cultivation of taste and  

good manners  among all classes of the  
,japanese nation4 ,even among the       
ricksha men of  to-day you find many    
such humble poets1 taking snapshots as  
they run  along the stony path of their 
miserable life4 ,i wonder if your hansom
  drivers are equally aspiring in this  
respect4      #ag ,b4,h4 ,chamberlain's 
,bash and the ,japanese ,epigram1       
,t4,a4,s4,j41 vol4  xxx4 pt4 ii4    ,in 
all these phases of the development of  
our poetry1 we notice1 as one  of its   
peculiarities1 a strong inclination to  
the exercise of the witty  side of our  
nature4 ,even if we leave out of        
consideration the so-called  'pillow    
word' 7makura-kotoba71 so profusely     
resorted to in our ancient  poems1 part 
of which were nothing but a nave sort of
 jeu de mots1 and  the abundant use of  
other plays on words of later           
development1 known as  kakekotoba1 jo1  
shku1 etc4 7haikai-no-uta71 it is       
noteworthy  that poems of a comic nature
 found a special place in the earliest  

imperial collection of ,japanese odes   
named ,kokinshifu1' which was  compiled 
in the year ,a4,d4 #ijh4 ,this species  
has flourished ever since  under the    
name of ,kyka1 and also gave rise to a  
shortened form in  seventeen syllables1 
called haikai-no-hokku4 ,when in the    
hand of ,bash  this latter form         
developed itself into something higher  
and more  serious1 the witty and        
satirical ,senry1 also in seventeen     
syllables1  came to take its place4     
,one thing to be specially noted in this
 connection is the introduction  from   
,china of the idea of poetic            
tournaments1 the beauty of which        
consisted in the offhand and quick      
composition of one long series of  odes 
by several persons sitting together1    
each supplying in turn either  the upper
 half or the lower half as the case     
might be1 the two in  combination giving
 a poetical sense4 ,this usage of       
capping verses known  as renga came to  
be very popular1 from the ,court        

downward1 as early as  the thirteenth   
century4 ,after a while the same        
practice was applied to  comic poetry1  
thus producing the so-called            
haikai-no-renga1 or comic  linked       
verses4 ,this coupling of verses gave   
plenty of occasion for  sharpening one's
 wit as well as one's skill in          
extemporising4 ,it is to a  later       
attempt to express all these subtleties 
in the upper half of the  poem composed 
by one person that the present kokku    
owed its origin4  ,you can easily       
imagine the effect such an exercise     
produced on the  popular mind4 ,besides 
the moral good which this literary      
pursuit has  brought to the populace1 it
 has given a fresh opportunity for the  
cultivation of our habit of attaching   
sense to apparently meaningless  groups 
of phenomena1 and our fondness of       
laconic utterance and symbolic          
representation1 not to say anything     
about our love of nature and            
simplicity4    ,all this tends in my    

view to show that we ,japanese have a   
strong liking  for wit in the wider     
sense of the word4 ,we try to solve a   
question1 not  by that slower but surer 
way of calm deliberation and untiring   
labour  like the cool-headed ,germans1  
but by an incandescent flash of         
inspiration like the hot-blooded        
,frenchmen4 ,this fact is singularly    
preserved in the earlier sense of the   
now sacred word ,yamato-damash1  which  
had not its present meaning1 viz41 'the 
spirit of ,japan' in the  most elevated 
sense of that term1 but signified 'the  
wit of the  ,japanese' as contrasted    
with the 'learning of the ,chinese'     
7wakon as  opposed to kansai74 ,the word
 tamash1 which now expresses the idea   
of 'spirit1' corresponds in the compound
 in question to the ,french  esprit in  
such combinations as homme d'esprit or  
jeu d'esprit4    ,turning now to the    
consideration of other sets of          
phenomena1 as an  illustration of the   
,japanese character1 let me tell you    

something about  the tea-ceremony and   
kindred rites4    ,to begin with the    
,cha-no-e 7or ,cha-no-yu71 or           
tea-meeting1 this  much-spoken-of art   
originated among the ,buddhist priests1 
who learned to  appreciate the beverage 
from the ,chinese4 ,indeed1 the         
tea-plant itself  was first introduced  
into ,japan along with the name ,cha    
7,chinese  ,ch'a7 from the ,celestial   
,empire1 in the tenth century after     
,christ4  ,during the following         
centuries its cultivation and the       
preparation of  the drink was           
monopolised by the priesthood1 if we    
except the cases of a  few well-to-do   
men of letters4 ,this fact is gathered  
from the frequent  mention of tea-cups  
offered to the emperor on the occasion  
of an  imperial visit to a ,buddhist    
monastery4 ,during all this time a sense
 of  something precious and aristocratic
 was attached to this aromatic          
beverage1 which had been regarded as a  
kind of rare drug of strange  virtue in 

raising depressed spirits1 and even of  
curing certain  diseases4    ,this high 
appreciation of the drink1 as well as   
the need of ceremony in  offering it to 
exalted personages1 gradually developed 
in the hands of  monks with plenty of   
leisure and a good knowledge of the high
 praise  accorded to its virtues by the 
,chinese savants1 into a very           
complicated  rite as to the way of      
serving1 and of being served with1 a cup
 of tea4 ,a  print representing a man   
clad as a ,buddhist priest in the act of
 selling  the beverage in the street at 
a penny a cup is preserved from a date  
as  early as the fourteenth century1    
showing that the drink had then come to 
find customers even among the common    
people4 ,but the ceremony of  ,cha-no-e1
 as such1 never made its way among them 
until many centuries  after4 ,it was at 
first fostered and elaborated only among
 the  aristocracy4 ,already in the      
fifteenth century1 when the luxury and  
extravagance of the ,ashikaga ,shogunate

 reached its zenith in the person  of   
,yoshimasa 7#adce-adij71 the            
tea-ceremony was one of the favourite   
pastimes of the highest classes4        
,yoshimasa himself was a great patron   
and connoisseur of the complicated rite1
 as well as of other branches of  art1  
such as landscape gardening and the     
arrangement of flowers4    ,there are   
two different phases of the             
tea-ceremony1 the regular course  and   
the simplified course1 known among us as
 the ',great ,tea' and the  ',small     
,tea4' ,in either case1 it might be     
defined in its present form as  a system
 of cultivating good manners as applied 
to daily life1 with the  serving and    
drinking of a cup of tea at its centre4 
,the main stress is  laid on ensuring   
outwardly a graceful carriage1 and      
inwardly presence of  mind4 ,as with the
 national form of wrestling known as    
ju-jitsu1 with  its careful analysis of 
every push and pull down to the minutest
  details1 so with the ,cha-no-e1 every 

move of body and limb in walking  and   
sitting during the whole ceremony has   
been fully studied and worked  out so as
 to give it the most graceful form      
conceivable4 ,at the same  time the calm
 and self-control shown by the partaker 
in the rite is  regarded as an essential
 element in the performance1 without    
which  ultimate success in it will be   
quite impossible4 ,so it is more a      
physical and moral training than a mere 
amusement or a simple quenching  of     
thirst4 ,but this original sense has not
 always been kept in view even  by the  
so-called masters of the tea-ceremony1  
who1 like your  dancing-masters1 are    
generally considered to be the men to   
teach us  social etiquette4 ,thus1      
diverted from its original idea1 the    
,cha-no-e is  generally found to        
degenerate into a body of conventional  
and  meaningless formalities1 which1    
even in its most abbreviated form as the
  ',small ,tea1' is something very      
tiresome1 if not worse4 ,to sit  la     

japonaise 7not  la turque1 which is not 
considered polite7 for an  hour1 if not 
for hours together1 on the matted floor 
to see the  celebration of the          
monotonous rite1 daring to talk only    
little1 and even  then not above a      
whisper1 in the smallest imaginable     
tea-room1 is not  what even a born      
,japanese of the present day can much   
appreciate1 much  less so ,europeans1   
who would prefer being put in the       
stocks1 unless they  be themselves      
,cha-jin or tea-ceremonialists1 that is 
to say1 eccentrics4  ,how to open the   
sliding-door2 how to shut it each time2 
how to bring and  arrange the several   
utensils1 with their several prescribed 
ways of  being handled1 into the        
tea-room2 how to sit down noiselessly in
 front  of the boiling kettle which     
hangs over a brasier2 how to open the   
lid of  the kettle2 how to put          
tea-powder in the cup2 how to pour hot  
water over  it2 how to stir the now     
green water with a bamboo brush2 how to 

give the  mixture a head of foam2 how   
and where to place the cup ready for the
  expecting drinker--this on the part of
 the person playing the host or         
hostess2 and now on the part of the     
guest--how to take a sweet from the     
dish before him in preparation for the  
coming aromatic drink2 how to  take up  
the cup now given him2 how to hold it   
with both hands2 how to  give it a      
gentle stir2 how to drink it up in three
 sips and a half2 how  to wipe off the  
trace of the sipping left on the edge of
 the cup2 how to  turn the cup          
horizontally round2 how to put it down  
within the reach of  his host or        
hostess1 etc41 etc41 ad infinitum--these
 are some of the  essential items to be 
learned and practised4 ,and for every   
one of them  there is a prescribed form 
even to the slightest move and curve in 
which  a finger should be bent or       
stretched1 always in strict accordance  
with  the attitude of other bodies in   
direct connection with it4 ,the whole   

ceremony in its degenerated form is an  
aggregate of an immense number of  comme
 il faut's1 with practically no margin  
for personal taste4 ,but  even behind   
its present frigidity we cannot fail to 
discern the true  idea and the good it  
has worked in past centuries4 ,it has   
done a great  deal of good1 especially  
in those rough days at the end of the   
sixteenth  century1 when great warriors 
returning blood-stained from the field  
of  battle learned how to bow their     
haughty necks in admiration of the      
curves of beauty1 and how to listen to  
the silvery note of a boiling           
tea-kettle4 ,they could not help their  
stern faces melting into a nave  smile  
in the serene simplicity of the         
tea-room1 whose arrangement1 true  to   
the ,zen taste to the very last detail  
of its structure1 showed a  studied     
avoidance of ostentation in form and    
colour4 ,to this day it is  always this 
,zen taste that rules supreme in the    
decoration of a ,japanese  house4       

,visit a ,japanese gentleman whose taste
 is not yet badly influenced by  the    
,western love of show and symmetry in   
his dwelling3 you will find the  room   
and the whole arrangement free from     
anything of an ostentatious  nature4    
,the colour of the walls and            
sliding-doors will be very subdued1  but
 not on that account gloomy4 ,in the    
niche you will see one or a  single set 
of kakemono1 or pictures1 at the foot of
 which1 just in the  middle of the      
slightly raised floor of the niche1 we  
put some object of  decoration--a       
sculpture1 a vase with flowers1 etc4    
,these are both  carefully changed in   
accordance with the season1 or else in  
harmony with  the ruling idea of the    
day1 when the room is decorated in      
celebration of  some event or guest4    
,this rule applies to the other objects 
connected  with the room--utensils1     
cushions1 screens1 etc4    ,the         
,european way of arranging a room is1   
generally speaking1 rather  revolting to

 our taste4 ,we take care not to show   
anything but what is  absolutely        
necessary to make a room look agreeable1
 keeping all other  things behind the   
scenes4 ,thus we secure to every object 
of art that we  allow in our presence a 
fair opportunity of being appreciated4  
,this is  not usually the case in a     
,european dwelling4 ,i have very often  
felt less  crowded in a museum or in a  
bazaar than in your drawing-rooms4 ',you
 know  so well how to expose to view    
what you have1' ,i have frequently had  
occasion to say to myself1 'but you have
 still much to learn from us how  to    
hide1 for exposition is1 after all1 a   
very poor means of showing4'    ,to     
return to the main point1 we owe to the 
,cha-no-e much of the present  standard 
of our taste1 which is1 in its turn1    
nothing more than the ,zen  ways of     
looking at things as applied to everyday
 life4 ,this is no  wonder1 when we     
remember that it was in the tasteful    
hands of the ,zen  priests that the     

whole ceremony reached its perfection4  
,indeed1 the word  cha is a term which  
conveys to this day the main features of
 the  ,contemplative sect to our mind4  
,in connection with the tea-ceremony1   
there are some sister arts which  have  
been equally effective in the proper    
cultivation of our taste4  ,landscape   
gardening1 in which our object is to    
make an idealised copy of  some natural 
scene1 is an art that has been loved and
 practised among us  for more than a    
thousand years1 although it was not     
indigenous like most  things ,japanese4 
,this practice of painting with tree and
 stone soon gave  rise to another art1  
the miniature reproduction of a         
favourite natural  scene on a piece of  
board1 and this is the forerunner of the
 later  bonkei1 or the tray-landscape1  
and its sister bonsai1 or the art of    
symbolising an abstract idea1 such as   
courage1 majesty1 etc41 by means  of the
 growth of a dwarf tree4    ,the same   
love that we feel for a symbolic        

representation is also to be  traced in 
the arrangement of flowers4 ,the        
practice of preserving cut  branches1   
generally of flowering trees1 in a vase 
filled with water is  often mentioned in
 our classical literature4 ,but it was  
first in the  sixteenth century that it 
assumed its present aspect1 when1 in    
conjunction with the ,cha-no-e1 it found
 a great patron in that most            
influential dilettante ,shogun          
,yoshimasa4 ,already in his time there  
were  a great many principles to be     
learned concerning the way to give the  
longest life and the most graceful form 
to the branches put in a vase1  besides 
investing the whole composition with a  
symbolic meaning4 ,up to  this day we   
look upon this art as very helpful for  
the cultivation of  taste among the fair
 sex1 who receive long courses of       
instruction by the  generally aged      
masters of floral arrangement1 who1     
along with their  teaching in the       
treatment of plants1 know how to instil 

ethics in their  young pupils1 taking   
the finished vase of flowers as the     
subject of  conversation4 ,the masters  
of the tea-ceremony are also well versed
 in  arranging flowers in that simple   
manner which is yet full of meaning     
called cha-bana1 or the ',zen type of   
floral art4'    ,you see how much all   
these arts have contributed to the      
production of  our taste1 whose ideals  
are the dislike of loudness and love of 
symbolic  representation1 with a        
delicate feeling for the beauty of line 
as seen  in things moving or at rest4   
,this last quality must have been       
immensely  augmented by the linear      
character of our drawing1 and also by   
the great  importance we are accustomed 
to attach to the shape and the strokes  
of  the characters when we are learning 
to write4    ,all these qualities you   
will see exemplified in any ,japanese   
work of  art--from a large picture down 
to a tiny wooden carving4 ,take up a    
girl's silk dress and examine it        

carefully1 and note how the lining is   
dyed and embroidered with as great1 if  
not greater care1 in order to  make it  
harmonise in colour and design with the 
visible surface and add  some exquisite 
meaning4 ,do not forget to look at the  
back when you come  across a lacquered  
box1 for it is not only the surface that
 receives our  careful attention4 ,and  
above all1 you must always keep in mind 
that our  artists think it a duty to be 
suggestive rather than explicit1 and to 
leave something of their meaning to be  
divined by those who contemplate  their 
works4           99       99       99   
99       99    ,the time is now come to 
conclude my essay at an exposition of   
the  ,japanese spirit4 ,i think ,i have 
given you occasion to see something of  
both the strong and the weak sides of my
 countrymen2 for it is just  where our  
favourable qualities lie that you will  
also find the  corresponding weaknesses4
 ,the usual charges brought against us1 
that we  are precocious1 unpractical1   

frivolous1 fickle1 etc41 are not worthy 
of  serious attention1 because they are 
all of them easily explained as but  the
 attendant phenomena of the transitory  
age from which we are just  emerging4   
,even the more sound accusation of our  
want of originality must  be            
reconsidered in face of so many facts to
 the contrary1 facts which  show us to  
be at least in small things very        
original1 almost in the  ,french sense  
of that word4 ,that we have always been 
ready to borrow  hints from other       
countries is in a great measure to be   
explained by the  consideration that we 
had from the very beginning the         
disadvantage and  the advantage of      
having as neighbours nations with a     
great start in the  race-course of      
civilisation4 ,the cause of our being   
small in great  things1 while great in  
small things1 can be partly found in the
  financial conditions of the country   
and in the non-individual nature of  the
 culture we have received4 ,these       

delicate questions will have to be      
raised again some centuries hence1 when 
a healthy admixture of the  ,european   
civilisation has been tried--a          
civilisation the effect of which  has   
been1 on the whole1 so beneficial to our
 development1 that we feel  it a most   
agreeable duty gratefully to acknowledge
 our immense  obligation to the nations 
of the ,west4