Chapter 47

THE BUDDHISM OF THE JAPANESE

[Footnote 1: Tathagata is one of the titles of the Buddha, meaning "thus come," i.e., He comes bringing human nature as it truly is, with perfect knowledge and high intelligence, and thus manifests himself. Amitabha is the Sanskrit of Amida, or the deification of boundless light.]

[Footnote 2: B.N., p. 104.]

[Footnote 3: Literally, I yield to, or I adore the Boundless or the Immeasurable Buddha.]

[Footnote 4: A Chinese or Japanese volume is much smaller than the average printed volume in Europe.]

[Footnote 5: Legacy of Iyéyasŭ, Section xxviii. Doctrinally, this famous document, written probably long after Iyéyasŭ's death and canonization as a _gongen_, is a mixture or _Riyōbu_ of Confucianism and Buddhism.]

[Footnote 6: At first glance a forcible illustration, since the Japanese proverb declares that "A sea-voyage is an inch of hell." And yet the original saying of Ryū-ju, now proverbial in Buddhadom, referred to the ease of sailing over the water, compared with the difficulty of surmounting the obstacles of land travel in countries not yet famous for good roads. See B.N., p. 111.]

[Footnote 7: Fuso Mimi Bukuro, p. 108; Descriptive Notes on the Rosaries as used by the different Sects of Buddhists in Japan, T.A.S.J., Vol. IX., pp. 173-182.]

[Footnote 8: B.N., p. 122.]

[Footnote 9: S. and H., p. 361.]

[Footnote 10: S. and H., pp. 90-92; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., pp. 242-253.]

[Footnote 11: These three sutras are those most in favor with the Jō-dō sect also, they are described, B.N., 104-106, and their tenets are referred to on pp. 260, 261.]

[Footnote 12: For modern statements of Shin tenets and practices, see E.J. Reed's Japan, Vol. I., pp. 84-86; The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, pp. 109-115; Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, Vol. II., 242-246; B.N., 122-131. Edkins's Religion in China, p. 153. The Chrysanthemum, April, 1881, p. 115.]

[Footnote 13: S. and H., p. 361; B.N., pp. 105, 106. Toward the end of the Amitayus-dhyana sutra, Buddha says: "Let not one's voice cease, but ten times complete the thought, and repeat Namo'mitābhāya Buddhāya (Namu Amida Butsu) or adoration to Amitbāha Buddha."]

[Footnote 14: M.E., pp. 164-166.]

[Footnote 15: Schaff's Encyclopaedia, Article, Buddhism.]

[Footnote 16: On the Tenets of the Shin Shiu, or "True Sect" of Buddhists, T.A.S.J., Vol. XIV., p. 1.]

[Footnote 17: The Gobunsho, or Ofumi, of Rennyō Shōnin, T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. 101-143.]

[Footnote 18: At the gorgeous services in honor of the founder of the great Higashi Hongwanji Western Temple of the Original Vow at Asakusa, Tōkiō, November 21 to 28, annually, the women attend wearing a head-dress called "horn-hider," which seems to have been named in allusion to a Buddhist text which says: "A woman's exterior is that of a saint, but her heart is that of a demon."--Chamberlain's Hand-book for Japan, p. 82; T.A.S.J., Vol. XVII., pp. 106, 141; Sacred Books of the East, Vol. XXI., pp. 251-254.]

[Footnote 19: Review of Buddhist Texts from Japan, The Nation, No. 875, April 6, 1882. "The _Mahāyāna_ or Great Vehicle (we might fairly render it 'highfalutin') school.... Filled as these countries (Tibet, China, Japan) are with Buddhist monasteries, and priests, and nominal adherents, and abounding in voluminous translations of the Sanskrit Buddhistic literature, little understood and wellnigh unintelligible (for neither country has had the independence and mental force to produce a literature of its own, or to add anything but a chapter of decay to the history of this religion)...."]

[Footnote 20: M.E., pp. 164, 165; B.N., pp. 132-147; Mitford's Tales of Old Japan, Vol. II., pp. 125-134.]