features of art, industry, erudition and civilization which have been
lost to the historic memory, and that the research of scholars may
hereafter discover many things now in oblivion; yet, on the other hand,
it is certain that much of what has long been supposed to be of
primitive Japanese origin, and existent before the eighth century, has
been more or less infused or enriched with Chinese elements, or has been
imported directly from India, or Persia,[5] or has crystallized into
shape from the mixture of things Buddhistic and primitive Japanese.

Apart from all speculation, we know that in the train of the first
missionaries came artisans, and instructors in every line of human
industry and achievement, and that the importation of the inventions and
appliances of "the West"--the West then being Korea and China, and the
"Far West," India--was proportionately as general, as far-reaching, as
sensational, as electric in its effects upon the Japanese minds, as, in
our day, has been the introduction of the modern civilization of Europe
and the United States.[6]


The Purveyors of Civilization.


The Buddhist missionaries, in their first "enthusiasm of humanity," were
not satisfied to bring in their train, art, medicine, science and
improvements of all sorts, but they themselves, being often learned and
practical men, became personal leaders in the work of civilizing the
country. In travelling up and down the empire to propagate their tenets,
they found out the necessity of better roads, and accordingly, they were
largely instrumental in having them made. They dug wells, established
ferries and built bridges.[7] They opened lines of communication; they