is a country of which almost every square mile is known, while it is
well threaded with paths, banded with roads, and supplied to a
remarkable extent with handy volumes of description and of local
history.[17] Her people being well educated in their own lore and local
traditions, possessed also a voluminous literature of guidebooks and
cyclopedias of information. The devotees were, withal, well instructed
and versed in a code of politeness and courtesy, as pilgrimage and
travel became settled habits of a life. As a further result, the
national tongue became remarkably homogeneous. Broadly speaking, it may
be said that the Japanese language, unlike the Chinese in this as it is
in almost every other point, has very little dialectic variation.[18]
Except in some few remote eddies lying outside the general currents,
there is a uniform national speech. This is largely owing to that annual
movement of pilgrims in the summer months especially, habitual during
many centuries.

Buddhism coming to Japan by means of the Great Vehicle, or with the
features of the Northern development, was the fertile mother of art. In
the exterior equipment of the temple, instead of the Shint[=o] thatch,
the tera or Buddhist edifice called for tiles on its sweeping roof, with
ornamental terra-cotta at the end of its imposing roof-ridge, or for
sheets of copper soon to be made verdant, then sombre and then sable by
age and atmosphere. Outwardly the edifice required the application of
paint and lacquer in rich tints, its recurved roof-edges gladly
welcoming the crest and monogram of the feudal prince, and its railings
and stairways accepting willingly the bronze caps and ornaments. In
front of its main edifice was the imposing gateway with proportions
almost as massive as the temple itself, with prodigal wealth of
curiously fitted and richly carved, painted and gilded supports and
morticings, with all the fancies and adornments of the carpenter's art,