998 
forms part of the mountain, may be seen 
one of the best examples of earlier Japa- 
nese carving, a representation of the 
compassionate god, Jizo (see page 967). 
‘The city of Kioto has the unusual dis- 
tinction of having been a capital city for 
1,100 years. It is finely located on the 
side of a hill in a region of great natural 
beauty. Nine hundred temples are within 
its borders, and probably no Japanese 
city can boast of a larger number of 
curio shops with such interesting con- 
tents. 
The native bamboo box-shaped affair 
shown on page 989, which bears its suf- 
fering occupant through the streets of 
Kioto, in no way suggests the up-to- 
date automobile ambulance which rushes 
through our streets on its life-saving 
mission, although both are used for the 
same purpose. The two bearers of the 
litter handled their burden with extreme 
care to avoid jarring the sufferer, and, 
as the load taxed their strength, frequent 
stops were made to rest and shift the 
burden to the other shoulder. On these 
occasions the short pole carried by each 
man is placed upright under the long 
one, to support the weight and avoid 
resting the car on the uneven ground. 
A considerable portion of the people 
of the Island Empire belongs to the class 
who “go down to the sea in ships,” which 
probably accounts for the unique form in 
which the old pine in the center of the 
court of one of the temples in Kioto 
has been trimmed (see page 1000). 
It is not uncommon to hear the remark 
that Japan has become a Christian nation. 
The belief that her Christian progress 
must have kept pace with her wonderful 
strides in other directions is probably 
responsible for this. However, facts will 
not bear out the statement. In its efforts 
to evangelize Japan, or even to bring her 
to that state of christianization where as 
a people she could be classified among 
Christian nations, the church is con- 
fronted by conditions which will require 
Herculean efforts to overcome. Bud- 
dhism, which for centuries has held such 
a powerful grasp on the Japanese, has 
awakened from its lethargy and is 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
now making aggressive advances. Also 
Shintoism, the religion of the state since 
a very early period, though with abso- 
lutely no moral teaching—the only re- 
quirements from followers being em- 
bodied in the two rules, “Follow your 
natural impulses and obey the Emperor’s 
decrees” and “Worship and make offer- 
ing once each year at a temple’—has a 
strong hold on the people, as evidenced 
by their numerous visible gods, thou- 
sands of magnificent temple buildings, 
schools, priests, festivals, and proces- 
sions, with all their attending pomp and 
display, which so strongly appeal to this 
people born and bred in the faith. 
In the city of Kioto alone, with a 
population of about 450,000, there are 
three times as many Buddhist priests as 
the Presbyterian Church has ordained 
men in the mission field of the entire 
world. When we consider these condi- 
tions in comparison with the few mis- 
sionaries, the small number of church 
and school buildings, with their limited 
equipment, and the unobtrusive, unspec- 
tacular methods which characterize the 
followers of the Man of Calvary, is it 
to be wondered that progress is slow and 
discouraging to the devoted people who 
have given their lives to His work? On 
the other hand, it is quite remarkable 
that in the face of so many obstacles, 
after 50 years of work in Japan, self- 
supporting and self-propagating native 
Christian churches have been launched 
in all of the larger cities, and that many 
educational institutions are scattered 
throughout the realm, such as the Doshi- 
sha College in Kioto and the Aoyama 
Gakuin in Tokio, and all of these as the 
direct result of missionary effort. 
We are frequently asked, “Is the Japa- 
nese distrust of the honesty of their own 
people so great that positions of trust 
are given to Chinamen?” Our attention 
having been called to this subject previ- 
ous to sailing to Japan, we were through- 
out our stay interested observers of the 
situation, with the result that we were 
unable to discover the slightest founda- 
tion for the insinuation and were in- 
formed that no Chinamen are employed 
