152 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Plioto by Mew*. Kitjunti A tiitwo. 



A VILLAGE SCENE IN JAPAN. 



delicacy of touch is everywhere seen. The 

 artist specially excels in conveying an idea 

 of motion in the swift flight of birds and 

 the gliding movement of fishes, and that is 

 one of the most difficult triumphs of art. 

 The Japanese may be styled the Raphaels 

 of fishes, and insects, and flowers, and bamboo 

 stems swaying in the wind; but they have 

 never succeeded in adequately transferring 

 to canvas "the human form divine"; they 

 have never, like the early Italian masters, 

 drawn away men's hearts from earth to 

 heaven in an ecstasy of adoration. As has 

 been tersely said by Mr. Alfred East, in a 

 lecture on the subject, "Japanese art is great 

 in small things, but small in great things." 

 No people display greater indifference 

 to religion and religious teaching than the 

 Japanese. The accepted religions are two 

 a much corrupted form of Buddhism and 

 Shintoism. The latter belief was professed 

 by the Japanese long before Buddhism and 



Confucianism were introduced from Korea about the year 552 of our era. It has emerged 

 from an eclipse which it, suffered when the newer doctrines were taught, its votaries again 

 number many millions, and it is practically the national religion, if that epithet can be applied 

 to any of the several doctrines at present freely taught and professed in the country. Shinto 

 means literally "the way of the gods." Though called a religion, it is really no more 

 than a system of moral philosophy. Motoori, a high Japanese authority on Shinto, points out 

 that it does not contain any strictly formulated moral precepts, which are unnecessary, as the 

 Japanese must act aright if he consults his own heart. He asserts that the whole duty of a 

 good Japanese consists in obeying implicitly and without question the commands of the Mikado. 

 According to Shinto doctrine, Japan is the country of the gods, and the Mikado the direct 

 descendant and representative of the Sun-goddess. It teaches a species of hero-worship, and it 

 strongly inculcates reverence for the dead. By it, too, spiritual agencies are attributed to the 

 elements or natural phenomena. The Shinto shrines throughout the country are built in very 

 simple style, and before each shrine stand one or more torii archways formed of two upright 

 posts with a projecting cross-bar laid on their tops, and beneath that a smaller horizontal beam, 

 the ends of which do not project. The most marked distinction between pure Shinto shrines 

 and Buddhist temples is the absence from the former of images exposed for the veneration 

 of the worshipper; but at the same time the Shinto shrine always contains some object in 

 which the spirit of the deity therein enshrined is supposed to reside. The principal Shinto 

 shrines are maintained by Government. Buddhism, once everywhere prevalent in Japan, has 

 been virtually disestablished since 187-4. Since the country was opened to foreigners, various 

 Christian missions have been established. Their principal seats are Tokio and Yokohama. 

 Churches have been built, and schools opened for the children. The number of native converts 

 is constantly but slowly increasing, for the Japanese mind has not yet been thoroughly aroused 

 from its materialism and the apathy or dislike with which it regards things spiritual. 



THE HAIRY AINU. 



THE wild hairy aborigines of Japan referred to on page 147 have attracted a good deal of attention. 

 They have been fully described by Mr. A. II. Savage Landor and other travellers who use the 



