may attain Buddha-hood at death, and enter the Pure Land, is shown in
the fact that their ordinary expression for the dead saint is Hotoké--a
general term for all the gods that were once human. Some popular
proverbs indicate this in a form that easily lends itself to irreverence
and merriment.

The whole tendency of Japanese Buddhism and its full momentum were now
toward the development of doctrine even to startling proportions.
Instead of the ancient path of asceticism and virtue with agnosticism
and atheism, we see the means of salvation put now, and perhaps too
easily, within the control of all. The pathway to Paradise was made not
only exceedingly plain, but also extremely easy, perhaps even
ridiculously so; while the door was open for an outburst of new and
local doctrines unknown to India, or even to China. The rampant vigor
with which Japanese Buddhism began to absorb everything in heaven, earth
and sea, which it could make a worshipable object or cause to stand as a
Kami or deity to the mind, will be seen as we proceed. The native
proverb, instead of being an irreverent joke, stands for an actual
truth--"Even a sardine's head may become an object of worship."


"Reformed" Buddhism.


We now look at what foreigners call "Reformed" Buddhism, which some even
imagine has been borrowed from Protestant Christianity--notwithstanding
that it is centuries older than the Reformation in Europe.

The Shin Shu or True Sect, though really founded on the J[=o]-d[=o]
doctrines, is separate from the sect of the Pure Land. Yet, besides