INTRODUCTION. 19 



We Have already alluded to the well known, yet remarkable feature of Japanese polity, wliicli 

 lias for so long a time induced the government rigorously to interdict all communication between 

 its subjects and foreigners, with the single exception of the Dutch and Chinese. This exclusive 

 system did not always prevail. We shall have occasion, presently, to give the history of its 

 origin, and to place before the reader a statement of the means whereby the Dutch succeeded iu 

 the establishment of their commercial factory at Dezima, in the port of Nagasaki. It is only 

 necessary now to remark that, prior to the visit of the United States' expedition, no other port 

 but Nagasaki was open to a European ship, and, except at that spot, no Japanese was permitted 

 to buy from or sell to a western stranger. The Chinese had some few privileges of trade, but 

 these were hedged around with jealous restrictions that hampered their commercial relations and 

 intercourse quite as much as those of the Europeans. With this general, and necessarily brief 

 view of the leading features of the Japanese government and policy, we pass on to another topic. 



SECTION IV. 



RELIGION. 



StJCH are the contradictions among the several writers on Japan upon the subject of the religion 

 of the country that it is not easy to discover what is the precise truth. Nor is this discrepancy 

 much to be wondered at, for, since the extirpation of Christianity from the Kingdom, there is, 

 probably, no topic on which a Christian would find it more difficult to obtain from a Japanese 

 accurate information than on the subject of religion. There are, however, certain particulars in 

 which all agree, and which are doubtless correct. 



The original national religion of Japan is called Sin-syu, (from sin, the gods, and syu, faith,) 

 and its followers are called Sintoos. Such, at least, is the statement made by some writers ; but 

 Siebold says the proper Japanese name is Kami-no-mitsi , which means " the way of the Kami," 

 or gods ; this the Chinese have translated into Sliin-tao ; and the Japanese have modified the 

 Chinese into Sinfoo. 



It is said that the only object ot worship among the Sintoos is the sun-goddess, Ten-sio-dai-zin, 

 who is deemed the patron divinity of Japan. But there are thousands of inferior deities, called 

 Kami, of whom the greater number are canonized or deified men. It is through these and the 

 Mikado, as mediators, that prayers are made to the sun-goddess, who is too great and holy to 

 allow of an independent approach to her in prayer. The Mikado is supposed to be her lineal 

 descendant. But with all these divinities the Sintoos are not idolaters. They have no idols in 

 their temples ; there are images indeed of their Kami, but, as it is alleged, not for purposes of 

 worship. This statement, however, is very questionable. The only decorations of the old temples 

 were a mirror, the emblem of purity of soul, and many strips of white paper formed into what 

 is called a goJiei, also an emblem of purity. Siebold thinks the image of the Kami, introduced 

 into the temples, is a foreign innovation, and never existed before the introduction of Buddhism. 

 The numerous Kami he considers as analogous to the saints of the Komanist. MacFarlane 

 looks on the Sintoo worship at this day as thoroughly permeated with Buddhism. Meylan 



