CHAPTER X - JAPANESE BUDDHISM IN ITS MISSIONARY DEVELOPMENT


"The heart of my country, the power of my country, the Light of
my country, is Buddhism."--Yatsubuchi, of Japan.

"Buddhism was the teacher under whose instruction the Japanese
nation grew up."--Chamberlain.

"Buddhism was the civilizer. It came with the freshness of
religious zeal, and religious zeal was a novelty. It come as the
bearer of civilization and enlightenment."

"Buddhism has had a fair field in Japan, and its outcome has not
been elevating. Its influence has been aesthetic and not
ethical. It added culture and art to Japan, as it brought with
itself the civilization of continental Asia. It gave the arts,
and more, it added the artistic atmosphere.... Reality
disappears. 'This fleeting borrowed world' is all mysterious, a
dream; moonlight is in place of the clear hot sun.... It has so
fitted itself to its surroundings that it seems
indigenous."--George William Knox.

"The Japanese ... are indebted to Buddhism for their present
civilization and culture, their great susceptibility to the
beauties of nature, and the high perfection of several branches
of artistic industry."--Rein.

"We speak of _God_, and the Japanese mind is filled with idols.