INTRODUCTION, 



deserted their strongholds, many of which, in this transition period, 

 fell a prey to destruction, so that their ruins, like many with us, 

 stand gazing out upon the world, the speechless memorials of 

 a differently constituted age. A similar fate threatens the Bud- 

 dhist temples and cloisters. For with the reorganized adminis- 

 tration there entered a new spirit, a breath of that Christian 

 civilization, whose results have already been briefly hinted at. 

 The religious freedom recently proclaimed is one more natural 

 stride in this direction in which that Asiatic land and people, 

 farthest from us in space, have drawn nearer to us in spirit than any 

 other has ever been. In view of all these phenomena, Schiller's 

 words are here appropriate : — 



" Das Alte stiirzt, es andert sich die Zeit, 

 Und neues Leben bliiht aus den Ruinen." 



Old Japan found its ideal in China, in Chinese contributions to 

 political, industrial, and intellectual affairs ; new Japan seeks its 

 ideal in the Christian countries of the West. It has been shown, 

 or at least indicated, in the first volume of this work,^ that the 

 Japanese are a peculiar branch of the great Mongolian family, in 

 physical appearance, language, and characteristic traits of mind ; 

 and that they belonged to the Chinese system of civilization, and 

 received the impulses to all their social, agricultural, and industrial 

 development from China, principally by way of Corea. 



The introduction of Buddhism and of Chinese philosophy, par- 

 ticularly the teachings of Confucius, were therein also considered, 

 as mediums of this peculiar civilization. While this philosophy 

 fostered caste-spirit, feudalism, and ancestor-worship, Buddhism 

 especially influenced the industrial population, exerted a softening 

 effect upon manners, and trained up peaceable, quiet labourers in 

 field and workshop. The noteworthy performances of the Japanese 

 in these two departments of labour, and the increasing influence of 

 their productions upon our own affairs, will be fully brought to 

 view in the following chapters. For the history and ethnography 

 of the Japanese people, as well as for the natural history of the 

 land, and its geographical relations, the reader is again referred 

 to the first volume of this work, which, at the time of its publi- 

 cation, I designated as a preliminary study towards the better 

 understanding of the various phenomena of industrial life. 



* Title of Vol. i., as published in English : " Rein's Japan : Travels and 

 Researches." London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1884. 



