At first in many edifices, the rites of
Shint[=o] and Buddhism were alternately performed. The Buddhist symbols
might be in the front, and the Shint[=o]ist in the rear of the sacred
hall, or _vice versa_, with a bamboo curtain between; but gradually the
two blended. Instead of austere simplicity, the Shint[=o] interior
contained a museum of idols.
Image carvers had now plenty to do in making, out of camphor or _hinoki_
wood, effigies of such of the eight million or so of kamis as were given
places in the new and enlarged pantheon. The multiplication was always
on the side of Buddhism. Soon, also, the architecture was altered from
the type of the primitive hut, to that of the low Chinese temple with
great sweeping roof, re-curved eaves, many-columned auditorium and
imposing gateway, with lacquer, paint, gilding and ceilings, on which,
in blazing gold and color, were depicted the emblems of the Buddhist
paradise. Many of these still remain even after the national purgation
of 1870, just as the Christian inscriptions survive in the marble
palimpsests of Mahometan mosques, converted from basilicas, at Damascus
or Constantinople. The torii was no longer raised in plain hinoki wood,
but was now constructed of hewn stone, rounded or polished.
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