The Communal Cult : THE COMMUNAL CULT AS by the religion of the household each individual was ruled in every action of domestic life, so, by the religion of the village or district the family was ruled in all its relations to the outer world. Like the religion of the home, the religion of the commune w...
The Ancient Cult : THE ANCIENT CULT THE real religion of Japan, the religion still professed in one form or other, by the entire nation, is that cult which has been the foundation of all civilized religion, and of all civilized society,--Ancestor-worship. In the course of thousands of years this original cult h...
The Religion Of Loyalty : THE RELIGION OF LOYALTY "MILITANT societies," says the author of the Principles of Sociology, "must have a patriotism which regards the triumph of their society as the supreme end of action; they must possess the loyalty whence flows obedience to authority,--and, that they may be obedient, they...
Untitled : JAPAN, AN ATTEMPT AT INTERPRETATION BY LAFCADIO HEARN The Macmillan Company, New York [1904] Title Page Contents Difficulties Strangeness and Charm The Ancient Cult The Religion of the Home The Japanese Family The Communal Cult Developments of Shint Worship and Purification The Rule of the Dead...
The Rule Of The Dead : THE RULE OF THE DEAD IT should now be evident to the reader that the ethics of Shint were all comprised in the doctrine of unqualified obedience to customs originating, for the most part, in the family cult. Ethics were not different from religion; religion was not different from government;...
Reflections : REFLECTIONS IN the preceding pages I have endeavoured to suggest a general idea of the social history of Japan, and a general idea of the nature of those forces which shaped and tempered the character of her people. Certainly this attempt leaves much to be desired: the time is yet far away at which...
Modern Restraints : MODERN RESTRAINTS FOR even a vague understanding of modern Japan, it will be necessary to consider the effect of the three forms of social coercion, mentioned in the preceding chapter, as restraints upon individual energy and capacity. All three represent survivals of the ancient religious...
The Jesuit Peril : THE JESUIT PERIL THE second half of the sixteenth century is the most interesting period in Japanese history--for three reasons. First, because it witnessed the apparition of those mighty captains, Nobunaga, Hidyoshi, and Iyyasu,--types of men that a race seems to evolve for supreme emergencies...
The Rise Of The Military Power : THE RISE OF THE MILITARY POWER ALMOST the whole of authentic Japanese history is comprised in one vast episode: the rise and fall of the military power.... It has been customary to speak of Japanese history as beginning with the accession of Jimmu Tenn, alleged to have reigned from 660 to 585 B.C...
Title Page : JAPAN AN ATTEMPT AT INTERPRETATION BY LAFCADIO HEARN The Macmillan Company, New York [1904] {scanned , February, 2002} {Transcription note: in this text, long Japanese vowels are indicated by the circumflex rather than the macron as in the original typography, due to the limitations of the standard...
Developments Of Shinto : DEVELOPMENTS OF SHINT THE teaching of Herbert Spencer that the greater gods of a people--those figuring in popular imagination as creators, or as particularly directing certain elemental forces--represent a later development of ancestor-worship, is generally accepted to-day. Ancestral ghosts...
Feudal Integration : FEUDAL INTEGRATION IT was under the later Tokugawa Shgun--during the period immediately preceding the modern rgime--that Japanese civilization reached the limit of its development. No further evolution was possible, except through social reconstruction. The conditions of this integration chiefly...
Worship And Purification : WORSHIP AND PURIFICATION WE have seen that, in Old Japan, the world of the living was everywhere ruled by the world of the dead,--that the individual, at every moment of his existence, was under ghostly supervision. In his home he was watched by the spirits of his fathers; without it, he was ruled...
Survivals : SURVIVALS IN the gardens of certain Buddhist temples there are trees which have been famous for centuries,--trees trained and clipped into extraordinary shapes. Some have the form of dragons; others have the form of pagodas, ships, umbrellas. Supposing that one of these trees were abandoned to its...
The Shinto Revival : THE SHINT REVIVAL THE slow weakening of the Tokugawa Shgunate was due to causes not unlike those which had brought about the decline of previous regencies: the race degenerated during that long period of peace which its rule had inaugurated; the strong builders were succeeded by feebler and feebler...
Official Education : OFFICIAL EDUCATION THE extent to which national character has been fixed by the discipline of centuries, and the extent or its extraordinary capacity to resist change, is perhaps most strikingly indicated by certain results of State education. The whole nation is being educated, with Government...
The Introduction Of Buddhism : THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM THE nature of the opposition which the ancient religion of Japan could offer to the introduction of any hostile alien creed, should now be obvious. The family being founded upon ancestor-worship, the commune being regulated by ancestor-worship, the clan-group or tribe...
The Social Organization : THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION THE late Professor Fiske, in his "Outline of Cosmic Philosophy", made a very interesting remark about societies like those of China, ancient Egypt, and ancient Assyria. "I am expressing," he said, "something more than an analogy, I am describing a real homology so far...
The Religion Of The Home : THE RELIGION OF THE HOME THREE stages of ancestor-worship are to be distinguished in the general course of religious and social evolution; and each of these finds illustration in the history of Japanese society. The first stage is that which exists before the establishment of a settled civilizati...
The Higher Buddhism : THE HIGHER BUDDHISM PHILOSOPHICAL Buddhism requires some brief consideration in this place,--for two reasons. The first is that misapprehension or ignorance of the subject has rendered possible the charge of atheism against the intellectual classes of Japan. The second reason is that some persons...
Difficulties : DIFFICULTIES A THOUSAND books have been written about Japan; but among these,--setting aside artistic publications and works of a purely special character,--the really precious volumes will be found to number scarcely a score. This fact is due to the immense difficulty of perceiving...
The Japanese Family : THE JAPANESE FAMILY THE great general idea, the fundamental idea, underlying every persistent ancestor-worship, is that the welfare of the living depends upon the welfare of the dead. Under the influence of this idea, and of the cult based upon it, were developed the early organizati...
Strangeness And Charm : STRANGENESS AND CHARM THE majority of the first impressions of Japan recorded by travellers are pleasurable impressions. Indeed, there must be something lacking, or something very harsh, in the nature to which Japan can make no emotional appeal. The appeal itself is the clue to a problem; and th...
Appendix : APPENDIX HERBERT SPENCER'S ADVICE TO JAPAN SOME five years ago I was told by an American professor, then residing in Tky, that after Herbert Spencer's death there would be published a letter of advice, which the philosopher had addressed to a Japanese statesman, concerning the policy by which...
Bibliographical Notes : BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES --IN the preparation of this essay, I have been much indebted to the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan", and especially to the following contributions:-- (ON THE SUBJECT OF SHINT) "The Revival of Pure Shint," by Sir Ernest Satow,--Appendix to Vol. III. "The Shint...
Industrial Danger : INDUSTRIAL DANGER EVERYWHERE the course of human civilization has been shaped by the same evolutional law; and as the earlier history of the ancient European communities can help us to understand the social conditions of Old Japan, so a later period of the same history can help us to divine...
