Using the technical language of Christian theologians,
Shint[=o] furnishes theology, Confucianism anthropology and Buddhism
soteriology. The average Japanese learns about the gods and draws
inspiration for his patriotism from Shint[=o], maxims for his ethical
and social life from Confucius, and his hope of what he regards as
salvation from Buddhism. Or, as a native scholar, Nobuta Kishimoto,[11]
expresses it,
In Japan these three different systems of religion and morality
are not only living together on friendly terms with one another,
but, in fact, they are blended together in the minds of the
people, who draw necessary nourishment from all of these
sources. One and the same Japanese is both a Shint[=o]ist, a
Confucianist, and a Buddhist. He plays a triple part, so to
speak ... Our religion may be likened to a triangle....
Shint[=o]ism furnishes the object, Confucianism offers the rules
of life, while Buddhism supplies the way of salvation; so you
see we Japanese are eclectic in everything, even in religion.
These three religious systems as at present constituted, are "book
religions." They rest, respectively, upon the Kojiki and other ancient
Japanese literature and the modern commentators; upon the Chinese
classics edited and commented on by Confucius and upon Chu Hi and other
mediaeval scholastics who commented upon Confucius; and upon the
shastras and sutras with which Gautama, the Buddha, had something to do.
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