Before Buddhism came, Japan was
pre-historic. We know the country and people through very scanty notices
in the Chinese annals, by pale reflections cast by myths, legends and
poems, and from the relics cast up by the spade and plough. Chinese
civilization had filtered in, though how much or how little we cannot
tell definitely; but since the coming of the Buddhist missionaries in
the sixth century, the landscape and the drama of human life lie before
us in clear detail. Speaking broadly again, it may be said that almost
from the time of its arrival, Buddhism became on its active side the
real religion of Japan--at least, if the word "religion" be used in a
higher sense than that connoted by either Shint[=o] or Confucianism.
Though as a nation the Japanese of the Meiji era are grossly forgetful
of this fact, yet, as Professor Chamberlain says,[1] "All education was
for centuries in Buddhist hands. Buddhism introduced art; introduced
medicine; created the folk-lore of the country; created its dramatic
poetry; deeply influenced politics, and every sphere of social and
intellectual activity; in a word, Buddhism was the teacher under whose
instruction the Japanese nation grew up."
For many centuries all Japanese, except here and there a stern
Shint[=o]ist, or an exceptionally dogmatic Confucian, have acknowledged
these patent facts, and from the emperor to the eta, glorified in them.
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