Page:The Awakening of Japan, by Okakura Kakuzō; 1905.djvu/74

 receiving the message of the Restoration. Yet, when we come to examine into the nature of the instruction so freely given to the people by the Tokugawas, we shall find that perhaps Iyeyasu and his immediate successors were not so far amiss in their calculations, after all.

All branches of knowledge are interesting, but some courses of study tend to encourage ignorance, and such were the courses in Buddhism and Confucianism which formed the sole curriculum in the Tokugawa academies. To those who have seen our landscapes studded with pagodas, and heard our temple bells calling from every hill, or to those who remember the great halls of learning in the various daimiates, and the chant of reciting voices in every Tokugawa village, it must seem