Japanese.--Popular customs nearly ineradicable.--Analogy from European
history.--Syncretism in Christian history.--In the Arabian Nights.--How
far is the process of Syncretism honest?--Examples not to be recommended
for imitation.--The problem of reconciling the Kami and the
Buddhas.--Northern Buddhism ready for the task.--The Tantra or
Yoga-chara system.--Art and its influence on the imagination.--The
sketch replaced by the illumination and monochrome by colors.--Japanese
art.--Mixed Buddhism rather than mixed Shint[=o].--K[=o]b[=o] the
wonder-worker who made all Japanese history a transfiguration of
Buddhism.--Legends about his extraordinary abilities and industry.--His
life, and studies in China.--The kata-kana syllabary.--K[=o]b[=o]o's
revelation from the Shint[=o] goddess Toyo-Uké-Bimé.--The gods of Japan
were avatars of Buddha.--K[=o]b[=o]'s plan of propaganda.--Details of
the scheme.--A clearing-house of gods and Buddhas.--Relative rise and
fall of the native and the foreign deities.--Legend of Daruma.
"Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o]."--Impulse to art and art industry.--The Kami no
Michi falls into shadow.--Which religion suffered most?--Phenomenally
the victory belonged to Buddhism.--The leavening power was that of
Shint[=o].--Buddhism's fresh chapter of decay.--Influence of Riy[=o]bu
upon the Chinese ethical system in Japan.--Influence on the
Mikado.--Abdication all along the lines of Japanese life.--Ultimate
paralysis of the national intellect.--Comparison with Chinese
Buddhism.--Miracle-mongering.--No self-reforming power in Buddhism.--The
Seven Happy Gods of Fortune.--Pantheism's destruction of
boundaries.--The author's study of the popular processions in
Japan.--Masaka Do.--Swamping of history in legend.--The jewel in the
lotus.


CHAPTER VIII