Characteristics of the Japanese People 95 



After passing through the stage of 

 adaptation, we soon entered into the 

 stage of origination. In the year 757 

 A. D. a collection of old Japanese poems 

 was compiled in the newly invented 

 phonetic language. Again, in 798 A. D. 

 the history of Japan was for the first 

 time written in the new language — not 

 in Chinese hieroglyphics as formerly. 



THE PART PLAYED BY WOMEN IN 

 JAPANESE LITERATURE 



In the early part of the eleventh cen- 

 tury ' ' The Tale of Prince Gengie ' ' was 

 compiled by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady- 

 in-waiting to the Empress, and about 

 the same time another book, "The 

 Scrap book Under the Pillow," was 

 written by another lady-in-waiting by 

 the name of Seisho Nagon. This lady, 

 while on duty, observed everything 

 going on in the political as well as social 

 circle of the imperial court, and at night 

 when she retired she used to write what- 

 ever she saw during the day in a scrap- 

 book which she kept under her pillow. 

 This custom she kept up during her life- 

 time, and afterward the scrap-books were 

 compiled and published in book form. 

 These two books, ' ' The Tale of Prince 

 Gengie " and " The Scrap-book Under 

 the Pillow," are considered even now as 

 our Japanese classics, and are studied in 

 our colleges and universities as much as 

 Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" and 

 Spencer's " Fairy Queen " in your col- 

 leges. So you see that our women took 

 a first rank in Japanese literature, and 

 men (unfortunately for them) must be 

 contented to occupy a second position, 

 for men did not prove themselves capa- 

 ble of such a literary work, and those 

 ladies fully mastered the new language 

 and wrote in a most beautiful style, 

 which had never yet been excelled by 

 any man or woman. This period is 

 called the era of origination in our liter- 

 ature. 



Next we come to the subject of re- 

 ligion. We have passed through three 



stages in our religion just as much as 

 in our literature. 



Buddhism was first introduced into 

 Japan through Korea in the year 552 

 A. D. — that is, 1,353 years ago. At 

 first Buddhism was embraced by the 

 higher classes, particulary among schol- 

 arly circles, but the lower classes or 

 common people still clung to their old 

 faith of Shintoism. Those who believed 

 in Buddhism went so far as to copy the 

 ceremonies and ritualisms. The doc- 

 trine of Buddhism was written in the 

 Chinese language, and the believers 

 offered their prayers in that tongue. 

 At one time Buddhism made such a 

 stride as to become almost a state re- 

 ligion, but the common people still op- 

 posed it, with a determination to uphold 

 their own Shintoism. Consequently a 

 most terrible struggle began between the 

 two religions — Buddhism in the hands 

 of the upper classes and Shintoism in the 

 hearts of the common people. Such a 

 contest as this blocked every step in 

 Japan's progress, but finally the states- 

 men and priests began to understand 

 that they no longer could force upon the 

 people a blind imitation of Buddhism, 

 and they changed their policy and tried 

 to find out some means to meet the re- 

 quirements of the time. Here again we 

 reach the stage of adaptation. 



THE GREAT DAIBUTSU 



They invented an ingenious theory of 

 explaining and interpreting the religious 

 principle of Buddhism. They adapted 

 the theory of Monotheism as well as 

 Polytheism by saying that there is only 

 one Supreme Power, which is personified 

 in the form of various gods and god- 

 desses, according to the different coun- 

 tries and different institutions. Thus 

 they reconcile the principle of the one 

 Supreme Power in Buddhism with the 

 Polytheistic theory of Shintoism. 



In order to convince the popular mind 

 with this theory, Emperor Shorn u pa- 

 tronized a movement to erect a large 



