558 



The Review of Reviews. 



give more particulars — in religious schools : 

 pupils, 21,592; teachers, 1553 Corean and ten 

 Japanese; expenditure, £^4,779- In other 

 schools : pupils, 84,362 ; teachers, 5,500 Corean 

 and 147 Japanese; expenditure, ;^79,5i8. Pro- 

 vision is also made, in 191 1, for ;^867,7o8 for 

 railways, ;^i86,i49 for harbours, ;^204,i67 for 

 roads, and ;^i79,38b for land census. The 

 expenditure sanctioned up to 1916 for Corean 

 railways is ^^6, 500, 000, of which over 

 ;^2,500,ooo was spent by the end of 1911. That 

 for roads is ;^i,ooo,ooo for five years, customs 

 houses _;^844,ooo in six years, water-works at 

 Chinnampo and improvements on the river 

 Akada ;^65,ooo. ;^299,ooo has already been 

 spent in acquiring the Seoul waterworks from a 

 British concern. 



In October, 1904, the Japanese felt hopeful 

 enough about the prospects of the war with 

 Russia to take the finances of Corea in hand. 

 So-called budgets had been appearing since 

 1895, when the financial administration was 

 supposed to have been put upon a sane footing. 

 It was found that the officials had ignored the 

 new regulations ; that no materials for a budget 

 yet existed ; and that the chief source of revenue, 

 the land tax, was raised without the superero- 

 gatory toil of keeping account books of the 

 same. The estimated revenues of 1899 and 

 1900 were ;^472,928 and ;^520,ooo respectively. 

 Down to 1896 the revenue had been collected in 

 kind. By introducing method and honesty and 

 a certain amount of personnel, the Japanese 

 raised, in 1905, a revenue of ^^^748, 028. The 

 estimated revenue for the year ending March, 

 1912, was ;^2,5i9,ooo. The Governor-General 

 has, however, announced a surplus of ;^30o,ooo. 



nation can go on worshipping itself. Japan 

 may succeed in playing at make-believes longer 

 than most countries, but unless salvation comes 

 from above its relapse must be to a disillusioned 

 materialism. Carlyle's French Revolution 

 sketch of the Feast of Pikes in the Champs de 

 Mars, with its altar and rock (of deal and 

 plaster), its incense burning to no one knows 

 what, its high priest of Federation with his two 

 hundred attendants in pure white albs of calico 

 and tricolour sashes — would-be lightning con- 

 ductors of spiritual virtue from the sky for the 

 life of the nation — is a picture of democracy left 

 without a God, and trying, by the help of senti- 

 ment and idealisation, to sublimate one out of 

 itself. But, alas ! inspirations do not come 

 from below ; ideals are not potent to save unless 

 they are believed first to exist as a reality. Such 

 an ideal cannot be made or conjured up to 

 order. It may be very desirable to possess a 

 faith and a God, but the only way is to be 

 possessed by one. 



HUMANISM 

 VERSUS CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN. 



The Bishop of South Tokio discusses in The 

 East and West the surprising official step re- 

 cently taken in Japan by the Vice-Minister of 

 Home Affairs to encourage the recognition and 

 co-operation of Christianity with Buddhism and 

 Shinto, for promoting the general good and 

 progress of the nation. The Bishop asks if any- 

 one can doubt that eventually the social move- 

 ment will spread to Japan, where there is 

 already a highly co-operative people? And what 

 when it does come? If Japan has a religion to- 

 day it is neither Buddhism nor old Shinto, but 

 the worship of the State In the person of the 

 Emperor. If Japan follows the history of other 

 monarchies that have not disappeared, it will 

 come to a day when it discovers that the State 

 is itself; and what is Japan to do for a religion 

 then?— for, as Mr. Petrle Watson says, no 



JAPANESE ARCHITECTURE. 



Writing in the Architectural Review for 

 October, Mr. H. H. Statham discources on 

 Japanese Architecture. 



It is claimed by Mr. Cram that Japanese 

 architecture is the most logical and the most 

 completely developed wooden style that the 

 world has known. Mr. Statham begs leave to 

 differ from this view. According to him it is 

 anything but logical as an architectural treat- 

 ment of timber, since it runs into curved lines, 

 and it is not the natural structural use of timber 

 to treat it in curves. To appreciate this 

 Japanese architecture of curves and super- 

 imposed roofs it is necessary for the moment to 

 get rid of Western ideas and endeavour to get 

 Into the Oriental atmosphere. Western archi- 

 tecture appeals mainly to the intellect and 

 Oriental architecture to the fancy. 



The origin of the Japanese stvle is stated to 

 be Chmese. Mr. Cram describes It as a system 

 of concentrated loads, the entire structure being 

 supported on a number of columns tied together 

 with massive girders and mortised in such a 

 way that neither pins nor nails are necessary. 

 In the structural sense Mr. Statham thinks this 

 the best point about It, for it is the form sug- 

 gested by the material. Every building, he 

 says should be put together so as to have 

 stability in its very manner of putting together, 

 and in this sense the timber of Japan Is erected 

 on sound principles. But in the Japanese struc 

 ture there IS considerable waste of material. 

 After the sloping rafters of each roof are placed 

 and tied in, another, shorter, rafter is planted 



