Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/173

 unknown sins, by which the devotee is kept entangled in the cycle of life and death; there is prayer to the gods of the country, the Shintō deities; and there is worship of ancestors, in a modified form indeed, but still worship.

With this development of Buddhism the Japanese may be said to have remained content for three hundred and sixty years. Then, in the presence of perpetual wars, spoliations, and miseries, the creed took another shape, a shape that reflected the conditions of the time. Salvation by faith was preached. The world had fallen upon such evil days that a cry of despair went up to Amida, the Buddha of endless life and light. Men were taught that works could not avail, and that in blind trust, aided by the repetition of ceaseless formula, lay the only hope of salvation. Such was the doctrine of the Sect of the Pure Land (Jodo), founded by Honen Shonin (1174 A.D.). It attracted numerous disciples. The comforting tenet that by simple trust in Amida during life admittance to his paradise might be secured after death perfectly suited the dejected mood of the age, and would, indeed, suit the mood of men in all ages antecedent to the millennium.

Fifty years later, another sect was born, a child of the "Pure Land," namely, the Spirit Sect. The latter did not supplant the former, but rather supplemented it. In this new system love was