Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Open Court, Vol. 39: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Science of Religion, the Religion of Science, and the Extension of the Religious Parliament Idea; July, 1925
In the mid sixth century a.d.. There ruled over the little realm, Kudara, in Korea, a monarch who was an ardent Buddhist, and they called his name Myong. It vexed him to think of the heathen con dition, as he counted it, of his neighbors the Japanese; he was eager, that the people that sat in darkness should see great light. But being well aware, that proselytising is apt to give Offence, Myong took a crafty step. He sent the reigning Japanese Emperor, Kimmei, a present of umbrellas, a Buddhist sculpture being included in the parcel. This was in the year 552. Osaka being then capital of Nippon. And Kimmel was deeply interested in the letter extolling Buddhism, which the good Myong had written. To enclose with his gifts. The Japanese potentate feared. However, that if he sanctioned the preaching of the alien cult, he would incense the deities of the_pristine Japanese religion. Shinto. Therefore. He summoned a council at Osaka.
The Kojikl', or Records of ancient Matters, by O no Yasumaro, was completed in 712. Commonly described as the Oldest history of Japan, it would be more aptly defined as the Bible of Shinto. And it need hardly be doubted that this creed, as it was in the remote days Of Kimmei, was little different from what it was, when Yasu maro wrote. For it is a religion, characteristic of a simple, primi tive people, which is laid bare in his pages. The Kojiki relates that the Mikados are divine, being themselves descendants of the gods, and having been appointed by them to rule. Several of the Shinto deities are associated with forces in nature, for instance Amaterasu the sun-goddess. The faith embodies no moral code, calls neither for good deeds, nor for mental development. And since it teaches men to pray for aid, to their own dead ancestors, also to the illustri ous departed in general, in pre-buddhist eras great care was taken, to minister to the deceased. Weapons and utensils were put in the graves, and they were frequently encircled by sculptures, to act as guardians. But these sculptures were little more than gropings at representation of the human form, and even the best of the Shinto temples were mere cottages. In short, the art of the period, like its religion, tells of a nation still essentially primitive.
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