Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 329

1841.

Notices of Japan, No. X.

315

orders are Budhists; the higher orders, especially the wisest amongst them, secretly Sintooists, professing and respecting Sinsyu, avowedly despising Bud- hism; and all, Sintooists and Budhists alike, professed Sintoo.

Such is said to be the present state of religion in Japan. But the subject must not be closed without mentioning a story told by president Meylan, of a fourth religion, co-existing with these three, prior to the arrival of the first Chris- tian missionaries. He says that about a. D. 50, a Brahminical sect was introduc- ed into Japan, the doctrines of which were, the redemption of the world by the son of a virgin, who died to expiate the sins of men, thus insuring to them a joyful resurrection; and a trinity of immaterial persons, constituting one eternal, omnipotent God, the creator of all, to be adored as the source of all good and goodness.

The name of a Brahminical sect given to this faith cannot exclude the idea, as we read its tenets, that Christianity had even thus early reached Japan; and this is certainly possible through India. But it is to be observed, that neither Dr. Von Siebold, nor any other writer, names this religion; that Fischer, in his account of Japanese Budhism, states that the qualities of a beneficent crea- tor are ascribed to Amida, and relates much as recorded of the life of Syaka, strangely resembling the gospel history of our Saviour, whilst the date assigned to the introduction of this supposed Brahminical sect pretty accurately coincides with that of the first unsuccessful attempt to introduce Budhism. Further, and lastly, whoever has read anything of Hindoo mythology must be well aware that the legends of the Brahmins afford much which may easily be turned into seemingly Christian doctrine. But whatever it were, this faith was too like Christianity to survive its fall, and has long since completely vanished.*

* [For a few additional particulars concerning the religious sects and creeds found among the Japanese, the reader is referred to an article in the second volume of the Repository, page 318. The statements there made correspond very well to those in this abstract of Siebold's notices. We add a few explana- tions of some of the terms used in both that article and this. Sinsyu is, according to Siebold's explanation, meaning the faith in gods or spirits; sintoo (shin tuon in China) or kumi no michi as it is when translated into Japanese, and a mere synonime with it, strictly means not the way of the gods,' but the doctrine of the gods. Ama-terusu-nho-kami are the native words for the four characters Ten-sio-dai-zin, (as they are written for us,)

天清 大神

4

which mean the great god of the pure heavens.' The gohei are long strips of white paper, standing, we are told, instead of the spirit worshiped, just as the ancestral tablet stands for the ancestor whose name it bears.'

The Budhistic sects appear to be much more numerous than the Sintoo, and

the priests are employed by all classes on occasions of burial and mourning.

from which no doubt their influence is also great. Buddoo or Budtoo is (

the doctrine of Budha or Amida. The yama-busi ||

伏 are a class or sect,

who, as their name is explained in a Japanese work, and as the Chinese charac-

ters also signifiy, hide themselves in the mountains. They are also called, (or

tenets,)修驗

perhaps more properly their tenets,) syu-gen-dou, practicing and investigating doctrine. The account goes on to state regarding the yama-busi, that "they keep their bodies in subjection and practice austerities, ascending high and dangerous mountains. They study heavenly principles, the doctrine of the eight diagrams (hakke), chiromancy, the determination of good and bad luck, the