by men with Christian ideas, and was certainly led by Oshio, the bitter
opponent of Buddhism, of Tokugawa, and of the prevalent Confucianism.
Possibly, the uprising was aided by refugees from Korea. Those
implicated were, after speedy trial, crucified or beheaded. In the
southern part of the country the ceremony of Ebumi or trampling on the
cross,[21] was long performed. Thousands of people were made to pass
through a wicket, beneath which and on the ground lay a copper plate
engraved with the image of the Christ and the cross. In this way it was
hoped to utterly eradicate the very memory of Christianity, which, to
the common people, had become the synonym for sorcery.

But besides the seeking after God by earnest souls and the protest of
philosophers, there was, amid the prevailing immorality and the
agnosticism and scepticism bred by decayed Buddhism and the
materialistic philosophy based on Confucius, some earnest struggles for
the purification of morals and the spiritual improvement of the people.


The Shingaku Movement.


One of the most remarkable of the movements to this end was that of the
Shingaku or New Learning. A class of practical moralists, to offset the
prevailing tendency of the age to much speculation and because Buddhism
did so little for the people, tried to make the doctrines of Confucius a
living force among the great mass of people. This movement, though
Confucian in its chief tone and color, was eclectic and intended to
combine all that was best in the Chinese system with what could be
utilized from Shint[=o] and Buddhism. With the preaching was combined a
good deal of active benevolence. Especially in the time of famine, was