the thought of the demolition of cherished notions of vast antiquity is
very painful. Critical study of ancient traditions is still dangerous,
even in parliamentary Nippon. Hence the unbiassed student must depend on
his own reading of and judgment upon the ancient records, assisted by
the thorough work done by the English scholars Aston, Satow,
Chamberlain, Bramsen and others.

It was the coming of Buddhism in the sixth century, and the implanting
on the soil of Japan of a system of religion in which were temples with
all that was attractive to the eye, gorgeous ritual, scriptures,
priesthood, codes of morals, rigid discipline, a system of dogmatics in
which all was made positive and clear, that made the variant myths and
legends somewhat uniform. The faith of Shaka, by winning adherents both
at the court and among the leading men of intelligence, reacted upon the
national traditions so as to compel their collection and arrangemeut
into definite formulas. In due time the mythology, poetry and ritual
was, as we have seen, committed to writing and the whole system called
Shint[=o], in distinction from Butsud[=o], the Way of the Gods from the
Way of the Buddhas. Thus we can see more clearly the outward and visible
manifestations of Shint[=o]. In forming our judgment, however, we must
put aside those descriptions which are found in the works of European
writers, from Marco Polo and Mendez Pinto down to the year 1870. Though
these were good observers, they were often necessarily mistaken in their
deductions. For, as we shall see in our lecture on Riy[=o]bu or Mixed
Buddhism, Shint[=o] was, from the ninth century until late into the
nineteenth century, absorbed in Buddhism so as to be next to invisible.


Origins of the Japanese People.