Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 5.djvu/194

 himself busied with ministrations. But it is an interval of only four days, and the work is lightened by its large reward, for during that brief space the major part of the year's income is collected.

The advent of Christianity has galvanised Buddhism into new life. The Western missionary came to uproot the lotus plant. His attack has resulted in making the sap circulate once more through its withered limbs. There is a sort of Buddhist revival. Schools have been established by each sect for the education of its priests; propagandists are sent out; periodicals are published. Buddhism is not dead. It is not even moribund. In the spring of 1895 the disciples of the Monto Sect assembled in Kyōtō to open a temple on the construction of which eight million yen had been spent, and in the transport of whose huge timbers cables made of women's hair had been used. Hundreds of thousands of believers had contributed money and material for the building; hundreds of thousands of women and girls had shorn off their tresses to weave these ropes. There is abundant life in the faith still.

With regard to the relations between religion and the State in Japan, it may be said that, up to the beginning of the ninth century, Shintō was the only officially recognised religion, though Buddhism enjoyed so much favour. A special department (Shingi-kan) of Shintō ceremonies