Many students have asked what is the peculiar, the characteristic
difference between the Buddhism of Japan and the other Buddhisms of the
Asian continent. If there be one cause, leading all others, we incline
to believe it is because Japanese Buddhism is not the Buddhism of
Gautama, but is so largely Riy[=o]bu or Mixed. Yet in the alloy, which
ingredient has preserved most of its qualities? Is Japanese Buddhism
really Shint[=o]ized Buddhism, or Buddhaized Shint[=o]? Which is the
parasite and which the parasitized? Is the hermit crab Shint[=o], and
the shell Buddhism, or _vice versa_? About as many corrupt elements from
Shint[=o] entered into the various Buddhist sects as Buddhism gave to
Shint[=o].
This process of Shint[=o]izing Buddhism or of Buddhaizing
Shint[=o]--that is, of combining Shint[=o] or purely Japanese ideas and
practices with the systems imported from India, went on for five
centuries. The old native habits and mental characteristics were not
eradicated or profoundly modified; they were rather safely preserved in
so-called Buddhism, not indeed as dead flies in amber but as live
creatures, fattening on a body, which, every year, while keeping outward
form and name, was being emptied of its normal and typical life.
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