To Buddhism our thanks are due, for the innumerable miniature
continents, ranges of mountains, geographical outlines and other
horticultural allusions to their holy lands and spiritual history, seen
beside so many houses, temples and monasteries in Japan. In their floral
art, no people excels the Japanese in making leaf and bloom teach
history, religion, philosophy, aesthetics and patriotism.
Not only around the human habitation,[10] but within it, the new
religion brought a marvellous change. Instead of the hut, the
dwelling-house grew to spacious and comfortable proportions, every part
of the Japanese house to-day showing to the cultured student, especially
to one familiar with the ancient poetry, the lines of its origin and
development, and in the larger dwellings expressing a wealth of
suggestion and meaning. The oratory and the kami-dana or shelf holding
the gods, became features in the humblest dwelling. Among the well-to-do
there were of course the gilded ancestral tablets and the worship of
progenitors, in special rooms, with imposing ritual and equipment, with
which Buddhism did not interfere; but on the shelf over the door of
nearly every house in the land, along with the emblems of the kami,
stood images representing the avatars of Buddha.
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