Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/126

Rh bronze statue of Daibutsu or Buddha at Nara, and this statue was erected in 752 A. D., after fourteen years in casting and construction. No doubt some of you who have visited Japan have seen the statue, but no foreigner has so far ever examined into its history and in- vestigated why it was erected at the ancient capital of Nara. Thus Emperor Shomu succeeded in reconciling the two conflicting religions of Shintoism and Buddhism. This period might be called the era of adaptation of the Indian re- ligion in Japan. Henceforth Buddhism swept from one end of the country to the other, converting a large number of people by the theory that ' ' Shintoism is for the living and Buddhism for the dead," or, in other words, that while we are living on this earth the Shinto gods protect us, but when we die our soul returns to the last repose, where Buddha reigns.

In the beginning of the thirteenth cen- tury there was one priest by the name of Shinran, who is considered in our re- ligious history as a Japanese Martin Luther. He revolutionized the funda- mental principle of Buddhism by a new doctrine, for up to that time Buddhism strenuously upheld a monastic life, and the priests were compelled to live in celi- bacy and abstain from eating any animal food. But this famous priest, seeing the popular mind already turned toward Buddhism, started anew doctrine that a priest, being human, is just as much susceptible as laymen, and abstinence from human wants is against the laws of nature ; moreover, a priest must live among the people so as to understand the real nature and feeling of man and woman; therefore a monastic life should be given up and priests should eat ani- mal food and get married, if they de- sire so to do. From this period the progress of Buddhism with this new doctrine was wonderful and took com- plete hold of the popular mind. Even at the present time this Shinran sect of Buddhism has the largest number of believers in Japan. Thus the Japa- nese have gone through three stages — of imitation, of adaptation, and of origina- tion — and in the last stage Shinran was the originator of the new form of Buddhism just as much as Martin L,u- ther was of the Protestantism of the Christian religion of the West. Next in the sphere of government and law we find the same three stages of evolution. After the introduction of Chinese civilization our governmental organization was moulded after the fash- ion of the governmental system of the To dynasty of China. In the year 701 A. D. we reorganized the departments of our government in accordance with the principles and forms of the Chinese system, and adopted the Chinese law in every branch of our national affairs. At the palace the Emperor as well as the petty officials wore the Chinese headgear and gown. We blindly imitated every- thing Chinese. This new regime for the organization of the Japanese Em- pire was embodied in the laws of the Taiho era (701 A. D) ; but this wholesale change in the political institution was too much for Japan to carry out at that time. Therefore those laws were only exe- cuted around the capitol of Kioto and were not carried out in the remote parts of the country.

But the Hojo dynasty, the second military Shogunate of Japan's feudal- ism, discovered the weakness and de- fects in the laws of Taiho, because the laws of a foreign country could never be executed in toto, for the simple rea- son that every nation has traditional laws of its own which every law-giver must not disregard. Therefore Taka- toki Hojo, a great statesman, investi- gated the old customs and traditions of Japan and modified the Chinese-imita- tion laws of the Taiho era so as to meet the requirements of the country.