LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS. 181 The year 1700 ha.d seen a literary revival of pure Shintoism. This movement was purely patriotic and political in its nature, and in its condemnation of Bud­dhism, Confucianism, and all foreign influences gener­ally, fostered in the public mind the desire for the fall of the shogunate and a return to the golden age lying ba.ck of feudalism. The disestablishment of Bud­dhism, therefore, and the installation of Shintoism as the state religion at the time of the Mikado's restora­tion, were natural result~ of causes long in action; but with the accomplishment of this its political mission Shintoism itself as a religion practically expired. The opposition to Christianity made by Buddhism was, however, far more energetic. Received from China in the sixth century, it offered to the religious nature of the people all of which Shintoism was destitute, -mo­tives, penalties, functions, a profound philosophy, an ethical code, and an imposing ritual. Diplomatically admitting the Shinto gods into its Pantheou, in con­junction with Confucianism, whose practical rules for the guidance of conduct in the social relations of life were so eminently adapted to a feudal society, it grad­ually formed the basis of educ~tion and recast the po­litical constitution of the empire. I£ the resistance of this aggres~ive faith has proved less stubborn than ex­pected, it is because of the eminently practical char­acter of the Japanese mind. It cares little for specu­lative inquiry and lacks interest in questions apart from their practical bearings. Buddhistic philosophy made no deep impression upon the Japanese mind and failed to rouse the national sympathies, and such op­position as Christianity has encountered has been that of the priesthood rather than that of the people. On his arrival at Yokohama, Mr. Neesima's first

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