JAPAN

[s. 361] : The archipelago and empire of Dai Nippon (great dayspring), called “Japan” by foreigners, consists of a chain of islands bordering the Continent of Asia between Ru ia at Kamchatka and the Chinese coast opposite Formosa and the Pescadores. It is set in a quad wide and 2,000 miles The most northern island is Araito (lati long. tude 50° 56’), the most southern Formosa (latitude 21° 42’), the most eastern Shimushiu (longitude east 156° 32’), the most western Yonaku (longitude east 122° 45’). Of the great quadrilateral thus drawn about Japan’s extremities, the total rilateral nearly 9,000 miles land area is but 150,000 square miles; the remaining 17,840,000 square miles being ocean water which surrounds nearly 4,000 islands having 43,000 miles of coast line. The largest island is Hondo or Hon-shiu, that is, main island, or main country, and on unre vised maps is called Niphon, which is the Dutch spelling of the name of the whole empire, the native common name being Nippon, or Nihon. Hondo, Kiu-shiu, Shikoku and Yezo, or Hokkaido, are the four largest islands. The le er groups of islands, besides Riu Kiu and Chishima, are Awaji, Tsu-shim a, Goto, Iki, Oki, Sado, Shichijima, Ogasawara (Bonin), etc. All the outlying islands from Tsu-shim a to Sado are on the western side of Hondo, which is, in general, destitute of harbors; while the eastern front is well indented and contains numerous places suitable for anchorage and commerce. The general shape of the main group of islands is that of an archer’s bow recurved at each end, the cord or string bisecting the Sea of Japan, the arrow rest being at Tokio, the capital, which is thus almost exactly at the center of the empire. Physical Features: Geologically, Japan is part of the chain of volcanoes stretching from Kamchatka into China, the islands being the tops of otherwise submerged mountain plateaus of granite and old schists and clay slates on which late and active volcanoes have superimposed their peaks, and the islets being the fragments of the great lines of upheaval, once long causeways but now broken into fragments and fantastic shapes by ages of wave-action. The geographical division of the empire into nine do (circuits or roads) is made in general accordance with the physical features of the country, especially the great lines of mountains and islands. The whole surface of the country consists of mountains and valleys, large plains and great rivers being nearly unknown, while lakes, except Biwa and Inawashiro, are few and small. The scenery is rarely wild and imposing, tho in general beautiful, and in many places exceedingly lovely. Most of the mountains are rounded and forest-covered. Jalalpnr Japan Only about ten per cent, of the total area is cultivated, which, however, is nearly all that is available, since the arable land is almost wholly in the valleys and river plains. Surrounded on every side by the ocean, fish food is cheap, abundant and nourishing. In the tertiary age the Japanese islands were united to the continents of Asia and America, after which began the great upheavals which have both separated and made mountainous this island-chain. Not only is the climate of Japan quite similar to that of the United States between the lower Mi i ippi and the Atlantic Ocean in the amount and distribution of rain and the variations of temperature, but the flora of these two portions of the world are closely related both in general character and the large number of plants common to each. Extending through twenty-seven degrees of latitude, there is great difference in climate in various places and at different altitudes. The monsoon winds and the Kuro Shiwo (black stream) are the chief regulating factors. The western coasts, under the influence of the cold water currents from the north, have lower temperatures, more fog, rain, snow and ice than the eastern sides of the country, which, being nearer the gulf stream, are warmer and more free from snow and ice. The average temperature from April to October is 68° F., from June to September 74°. In many parts of Yezo the winter lasts from November to May, but the cold rarely drops to 28°. The rainy time of the year is between March and November, the wettest month being September and the driest January. The rainfall, tho in some years reaching 145 inches, in Tokio had an average during 1876-1888 of 58.33 inches. Taken all in all, it may be said that there are as many working days in the year as in the Carol in as of the United States. The greatest plagues of Japan are typhoons and earthquakes (to which one writer adds rats), and the phenomena of these are studied, as well as those of wind, temperature and moisture. Ve els are warned of coming typhoons from nearly fifty stations. From a study of the climatology of Japan it is evident that the conditions of the air, wind, temperature and moisture are very much like those of adjacent countries, except that the extremes of summer heat and winter cold and dryne reached on the neighboring continent are hardly known in Japan. The frequency of earthquakes seems to be compensated for in the comparative rarity of thunderstorms and danger from lightning. Japan may be safely called one of the healthful countries of the north temperate zone, and ordinary precautions as to choice of building-sites and habits of life will secure the same po ibilities of health as in the same latitude in Europe or America. The months liable to the dreaded typhoons are, in a decreasing order of severity, September, August, October, and July. Four or five typhoons pa over Japan annually, of which Occasionally a Tokio receives about one. typhoon comes as early as April. The native houses, admirable for summer use, are not usually habitable by Europe ans in winter. The numerous mountain resorts, and the easy acce ibility of Yezo, where the climate is cooler, furnish Japan with sanitariums for rest, recuperation, or prolonged vacation. ‘The peculiarities of the climate of Japan are During eight months reflected in its vegetation. Japan of the year plant life is active, during four almost at a standstill, the herbage in early summer and autumn being at its best. Evergreens are the Nearly characteristic features of the landscape. all types of vegetation, temperate, arctic a,nd tropical, prevail, and the Mediterranean, Pacific and north European coasts will be recalled by These types meet, especially in cent ravelers. tral Japan, where, at the higher elevations, the birch and the beech are still common, while the bamboo and the camphor-laurel flourish in the milder lowlands. Japan is the land of the monkey and the giant salamander. Except the a , sheep and goat, most of the common domestic animals exist The chief mammals are the monkey, bat, here. bear, badger, marten, dog, wolf, fox, squirrel, About 400 rat, hare, wild boar, stag, antelope. species of fish have been catalogd, with 1,200 species of moUusca, the seas being amazingly rich in life of every form able to exist in salt water. Population: In round numbers, the population of Dai Nippon in 1899 was 44,000,000. Except the Ainus, in Yezo, the people are now a homogeneous race, made up of several stocks. The chief peculiarities in physical appearance, language and customs are found in Lu Chu and other outlying islands. The language spoken in the capital, Tokio, is now the standard, and using this a good speaker can be understood easily all over the empire, as the variations in dialect, tho numerous, are comparatively slight, and are In comparison with vastly le than in China. China, India, Siam or indeed with any Asian country, Japan is politically more of a unit, and her people the most homogeneous of any Asiatic nation. The Kuazoku, or nobility, includes the members of the imperial family, those persons of the old-landed nobility formerly called daimio (great name) and others who for talent or illustrious services have been ennobled by patent. The Shizoku or gentry include the former samurai (servants of the emperor) whose ancestors served the feudal lords as retainers, or who have in various ways risen to social rank, and who, altogether, under the old order constituted the military and literati of the empire. The Heimin, or common people, were formerly divided into several distinct cla es, beneath which were the eta, outcasts, and hi-nin (not human); but all the people farmers, artisans, merchants, etc. are now equal before the law, and subject to the same political and social forces and liabilities. The agricultural people comprise one-half of the population, after which in order come traders and artisans. In physical stature the Japanese are an undersized people, the average height of the men being 5.5 feet, and that of the women 4.5 feet. Further, the native is not proportionately developed. The inveterate habit, continued for ages, of sitting on their knees without chairs, the hams resting on the heels or ankles, has resulted in a curious malformation, or, rather, lack of growth, by which the upper part of the body is disproportionately longer than the lower. The Japanese do not smoke opium or bind the feet of their women, but the use of tobacco in the form of smoke is almost universal; and the custom of “drinking” or filling the lungs with the volatilized tobacco-vapor may be one of the causes of the common lung diseases and flat breasts of — 344 the men. The most common fatal diseases of the Japanese are, in their order, those of the nervous, digestive and respiratory organs, tho skin disorders are frightfully common, and epidemics are not rare. In mental traits the Japanese are bright, quick, perceptive and in general clever, maturing in intellect probably earlier than the European, and from fifteen to forty years of age being peer, probably, to any people in the world, tho it appears that arrested mental development and decay come earlier than with the Germanic races. In universal courtesy and politene , the Japanese people have probably no peers, the kindly greetings and gentle manners being common to all grades of society, even the language (between equals, only) being infused with the eminently Christian idea of each esteeming the other better than himself. Government: The government is that of a monarchy, the chief ruler, the Mikado, being hereditary emperor, who is a isted by a senate, a privy council, and a cabinet of ministers, each of whom has charge of a department. For administrative purposes the empire is divided into 46 ken or prefectures, the three large municipalities, Tokio, Osaka, and Kioto, being organized as /m or imperial cities. These ken consist, as a rule, of two of the old geographical divisions of kuni or provinces united, there oeing in the empire 85 provinces, 805 kor i or districts, 12,185 cities and towns, and The sub-prefectures number 58,456 villages. 566, and the towns and cities having mayors number 11,377. The smaller villages are under the care of a nanushi or head-man, and the entire populace is arranged into responsible groups of five households a system which enables the government to keep the most minute oversight of all subjects of the Mikado. For further details of the government, the reader is referred to the constitution of Japan, proclaimed February 11, This being the culminating point of Jap1889. anese history, since it has led to the suppre ion, by consent of the Western nations, of the extraterritoriality clauses of the treaties, we now turn to a survey of the origin of the people and to the condensed story of the religious and political development of the nation, which, by adopting such a constitution, solemnly declared its purpose — to change its political system from an Asiatic despotism to a modern representative government. Political History: The true history of Japan is now in proce of construction out of the materials obtained by a critical study of geology and cognate physical sciences, languages, the native legends, poetry and mythology, and a comparison of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese historical records. The most ancient literature extant is not older than the 8th century, and the early writers draw no clear line of demarcation between myth and history. Hence there is little to be depended on until the 4th century. At the dawn of history, the archipelago is found populated. The conquerors from the Asian highlands, who, by way of Korea, landed in Kiushiu and by gradual conquest northward established themselves in central Hondo near Lake Riwa, at Nara and Kioto, found on their arrival inhabitants who were hunters and fishermen. To these the conquerors were a superior race of men, and they parceled out the land among themselves, compelling the aborigines to be their serfs. To this day, at least two types of countenance are easily distinguishable, and the 346 characteristics of a mixed race appear in the The round, flat, “pudding face” of the people. lower cla es and the more oval countenance of the aristocrats, with its more delicate features and profile, are in noticeable contrast, being, according to some writers, types of the Ainu and Yamatu, respectively. Others the invading argue that Japan was peopled by two different streams of immigration from Korea, which supplied these types; and that, as neither recorded history, nor tradition, nor mythology shows any traces of migration from the southward, we are to look upon the Koreans as the nearest congeners Tho historically the Ainus of the Japanese. occupied the soil of Hondo, it is claimed by some able writers that the Japanese and Ainus are as distinct in race as the whites and Indians in North America. From about the year 400, when calendars, writing, and Chinese appliances of civilization were introduced, Japanese history becomes clear. Ancestor-worship was the religion of the invaders, and out of their method of deifying their famous patriarchs and heroes grew up the Kami-no-Michi, later or, in Chinese phrase, way or doctrine of the gods, which is a compound of the worship of Shinto (theos-logos), the This is a nature and of deified human beings. The cardinal feature of the Japanese system. Mikado rules over Japan by divine right from all eternity, and the divine origin and right of the ruler is the central doctrine of Shinto as the national religion. Upon this religion the fabric What a blended religmight have developed into we have no means of knowing, but immediately upon the importation of foreign influences from China, the germs were planted for mighty growths in politics, social, religious, and intellectual life, which were profoundly to affect and notably modify the nation and its development. of government was built. ious and political system From the 6th to the 12th century the history of Japan includes on its political side the abolition rude feudalism of the conquerors, and the gradual centralization of the government in Kioto, with the adoption of codes of law, boards or ministries, the division of the empire into provinces, governed by officers sent out by, and directly responsible to, the central government, and the gradual unification of the whole body of tribes and outlying portions of the population into one homogeneous people. Such a result was not of the without much military energy, and many bloody vic toiles of the disciplined imperial troops over the brave but poorly armed mountaineers and distant tribes. A far-reaching effect on society was the gradual separation of accomplished the military from the agricultural cla , the physically strong and intellectually gifted becoming permanent soldiers, continually in camp and clothed constantly in armor and helmet. Such a body or bodies of men on the distant frontiers were far more likely to know, respect, believe in, obey, and follow their favorite commander than to heed the mandates of the distant and shadowy court at Kioto. The foundations of a new feudal system were thus laid. Out of the military cla , or (mfce, has been evolved the samurai, the sold i err scholar, the most picturesque and interesting figure in the national history. From this cla , which now constitutes over one-twentieth of the populace, have arisen nearly all the great warriors, statesmen, scholars, reformers, Christian thinkers, and philanthropists of modern Japan times, while the man of the agricultural cla is The buhe the typical ultra-conservative. or Samurai were the military, the huge or civil still court nobles and officers were the civil, servants Mikado, who was in theory the owner of all the land. The further growth of government in Japan can best be viewed from the standpoint of the of the We relation of religion to its development. therefore turn to the subject of the religions of the Empire. Religions: In religion the Ainus are fetish-worshipers, and the superstitions of fetishism, shamanism, the worship of the reproductive powers of nature, and the veneration of ancestors are ingrained in the people of the Nippon archipelago. These primitive beliefs underlie the other national religions, Shinto and Buddhism; the former being the po ibly indigenous cult based on ancestor worship and the deification of heroes, and the latter having been imported from India by way of China and Korea, with remarkable development and variations on Japanese soil. Shinto is the state religion, as has been noted already. Buddhism: In the formation of the total product of evolution in Japan Buddhism has been a most potent factor. Introduced in 552 a.d. from Korea, with its elaborate systems of ethics, ritual, dogma, and scriptures, it soon completely overshadowed the bald and impoverished cult of Shinto. Its complete victory was heralded when Kobo, the reputed inventor of the Japanese syllabary, the profound scholar of mighty intellect, who had visited China and mastered the Sanskrit, proclaimed in the beginning of the 9th century his scheme of reconstruction and of reconciliation, by which the older and indigenous faith was swallowed by the foreign religion. This man, the Philo and Euhemerus of Japan, declared, after revelation from the gods, that all the Shinto deities were avatars or incarnations of Buddha. He therefore baptized them with Buddhist names, and in place of the Shinto festivals appointed others to be celebrated accord Having already ing to the Buddhist liturgies. obtained a foothold in the palace, and by its influence turned the emperors into cloistered monks and empre es into nuns thus dealing a blow at Shinto in its vitals, and by weakening government prepared the way for the decay of the imperial authority and the supremacy of the military cla es the victory of K5b6’s system was easy. Further, the Buddhist monks were explorers, road-makers, bridge-builders, improvers of diet and living, chaplains of the army, almost the only scholars and learned men apart from the court, the benefactors of the people, the exponents of civilization, and the foster fathers of art, of literature, and of material development. From the 6th to the 12th century Japanese Buddhism, is the mi ionary era of after which for two centuries the development of doctrine followed, in which emerged those new and startling forms of the faith of Sakamuni which have made Japan the land of dreadful heresies to the coreligionists of Siam and China. In Shin-shiu, or “reformed” Buddhism, we see the circle of development complete, and the beginning and the end meeting in what seems a Of the six great sects caricature of Christianity. in Japan, one originated in India, one in China, and four in Japan, viz., the Shin-gon, Jo-do, Shin, and Nichiren. These sects of purely native origin are mainly developments of the pantheistic prin- — — Japan ciple initiated by Kobo and reenforced by local The common considerations. patriotic not ignorant of the Confucian people, tho wholly in almost ethics, have been instructed Buddhism; while the gentry, or samurai, hostile or indifferent to Buddhism, have been nursed in the virtues as well as in the vices of feudalism, the Chinese system fitting admirably into the needs of a society framed on the feudal basis. and Now that the feudal system has been abolished, the samurai, in a sense not so true of the comnion people, is left without a religion, -^a sect which may explain why most of the Christian converts thus far made, as well as the agnostics, skeptics, and indifferents, are samurai, while the ma of the people are still Buddhist. Roman Christianity: It will thus be seen that the religion of Japan is Buddhism, and that when in 1549, ten years after its first sight by a European, Roman Christianity reached Japan in the person of its pioneer and then ablest exponent, Francis Xavier, the only serious obstacle to propaganda and conversion was the cultus imported Shinto was out of sight, originally from India. and buried in mythology, and the first mi ionary were aided rather than hindered by the contemporary political condition of Japan, which was that of civil war, during which Novunaga humbled the pride and mightily diminished the power of the Buddhists by his military At Kagos him a, in Satsuma, persecution of them. Xavier made one hunderd converts in a year, and labored for short periods at Hirado, and Yamaguchi, in Nagato, having also fruitle ly visited Leaving Torres and Fernandez, his felKioto. low-mi ionaries, Xavier left for China, dying on efforts his way thither, at Sancian. In 1553 reen for cements arrived, and tho driven out of Yamaguchi by civil outbreaks, the Portuguese friars a embled at Bungo, Vilela, visiting also Kioto and Sakai and gaining converts. Some years of prosperity followed, and in 158.3 a mi ion was dispatched to the Papal See, headed by three Japanese noblemen. The Pagan Reaction: When, however, in 1587 the Taiko Hid^yoshi succeeded to power and subdued the southern daimios and provinces, in which were most of the Christian converts of rank, including the famous generals Kuroda and Konhe i ued an edict ordering the foreign mi ionaries to Hirado, in order to send them out of He hoped they would depart the country. is hi, peacefully, and not compel him to deport them by force. They, however, finding that the edict was not pushed by force, scattered again, and finding asylum in the provinces of the daimios profe ing Christianity, began propagating the faith more vigorously than ever, even in Kioto, Further, all the mis despite the official ban. sionaries thus far engaged in Japan were Jesuits; but in 1590, in the train of the Spanish envoy from the Philippine Islands, four Francis cans arrived, who, despite the protests of the Jesuits, who laid before them the Papal bulls excluding all but Jesuits from Japan, and, still more, despite their solemn promise to Hid^yoshi not to preach their doctrines, went vigorously to work at the propaganda. Hid^yoshi, now at leisure, thoroughly alarmed at what he considered the treacherous disobedience of the Portuguese friars, and at the growing Christian party, which threatened not only his own future but that of the empire, determined to root up the foreign faith, and to do this he laid two plans. 348 In the first place, he declared war against Korea, of invasion thither, in which were many Christian officers and soldiers, among them Generals Konishi and Kuroda. No sooner were the leaders of the Christians immersed in war duties in a foreign land than Hid^yoshi, the next year, 1.593, seized nine mi ionaries, six Francis cans and three Jesuits, in Osaka and Kioto, and sent them to Nagasaki, where they were publicly burned to death. For the next few years the open propaganda was le active, tho work was secretly carried on and conand sent armies verts inultiplied. The Jesuit friars established a printing pre , and, using type from Europe, published a number of interesting works, some of which had already circulated in manuscript. After Hid^yoshi’s death the whole country was excited by civil troubles between the adherents of ly^yasu and of Hid^yori, the son of Hid^yoshi, but mi ionary work went on until the Christians numbered over a million and a half. While ly^yasu was busy in subduing his enemies, he ignored Christianity, an example which the le er political lights followed; but on gaining the victory over the southern army, in which were many of the Christian leaders, at the battle of S^kigahara in October, 1600, he, like Hid^yoshi, threw off the mask and i ued a decree of expulsion of the foreigners. Busy, however, with reorganizing the empire from his seat of government in the distant east at Yedo and Fuchiu (Shidzuoka), ly^yasu could not, or did not, pre his policy of expulsion, and large numbers of Spanish and Portuguese priests continued to secure entrance into Japan. In 1608, by the Papal bull, priests of all orders were allowed to reside in Japan. In 1610 the Dutch, and in 1613 the English, secured a foothold at Hirado. At this time there were two hundred mi ionaries, with “two million converts;” but the strength was apparently in numbers only, for without leaders or men of influence in the state its weakne was made apparent when in Kiushiu, between 1600 and 1614, the daimios changed, adopted, or annihilated popular Christianity at their pleasure, using it simply as the Whatever may have tool of their ambition. been the motive, in 1614, of the sudden and fiercely energetic action of ly^yasu in i uing that decree, which was at once executed with blood and iron, the inherent Japanese jealousy of foreign influence, the pre ure of the Buddhist priesthood, the intrigues of the Protestant, Dutch and English, or his own despotic purpose to secure peace, and even national independence, by isolatit is certain that ing Japan from all the world, From Sendai to Satsuma his purpose succeeded. the Christians were compelled to renounce their faith, and, failing to do so, were imprisoned, exiled, tortured, or beheaded, while the foreign You sands of natives reliqieux were deported. — — fled i to China and Formosa, or, outwardly recanting, kept alive their faith even until their teachers from Europe returned in 1858. By compelling the owners of seaworthy ve els to burn them and pronouncing the death sentence alike upon and the returned Japanese the Christian castaway, the ruling powers in Japan now kept The their country insulated from the world. Dutch merchants on their little island in front of Nagasaki were the sole exceptions to these rigid laws of exclusion. During two and one-half centuries the Dutch and the Japanese lived in har- 847 mony. Moreover, the intercourse of the Japan with the little Dutch colony was a fertile source of intellectual stimulus and culture to the Japanese mind, and prepared the way for that easy acceptance of foreign ideas which has so surprised the world since the diplomatic victory ese of Commodore Perry. Indeed, it will be found on examination of the antecedents of nearly every reformer and leader in the modern progre of Japan, that his first enlightenment, or motive to renovation of mind, came from his own or his father’s contact with the Dutch or Dutch learning. Further, abundant facts coming to the light in these days, when New Japan is so busily engaged in building the monuments of the martyrs she once imprisoned and beheaded, show beyond doubt that the beginnings of modern Protestant, tho unorganized, Christianity in Japan were prior to the coming of the mi ionaries, and sprang from the Dutch. Some of the sons and grandsons of these inquirers or martyrs are now pastors of Christian churches, and this wide area of propedeutics for modern civilization and Christianity gives strongest hope of its reality and permanence in the hearts of the Other disconnected events belong to the people. story of the revival of ideas of progre in Japan. With the opening of the Pacific to American commerce and the development of the fur trade and whale-fishery, the number of rescues of Japanese waifs became every year increasingly numerous. To return these involuntary exiles to the land they loved was dictated by humanity. One notable attempt of this cla was that made by the owners of the ship “Morrison,” who, in 1837, shipped by their ve el to Japan seven Japanese, with Dr. S. Wells Williams and Dr. Gutzlaff as interpreters. The ship was fired on at Uraga, July 30, in Yedo Bay, and also repulsed at Kagos him a, in Satsuma. From these waifs Me rs. Gutzlaff and Williams in China learned the language, and translated into it portions of the Bible. In the gradual evolution of a complete version of the Holy Scriptures in Japanese, this work of Gutzlaff and Williams, and that of the natives who translated from Dutch Bibles obtained at D a, with that of Bettelheim, a mi ionary supported in the Lu Chu Islands by a British Naval Society from 1846 to 1854, may be considered historical links. The settlement of California and the discovery of gold there again called the attention of the American Government to Japan. By a coincidence that suggests the hand of Providence, the present Emperor of Japan was born November 3, 1852, on the very day that Perry was ready to sail into Yedo Bay. The succe of this naval diplomatist is matter of history, but the treaties signed by the Shogun, or military commander-in-chief, offended the nation. A condition of anarchy followed which was full of hostility to foreigners. This was regarded by the Western nations as wanton disregard of treaties, which was chastised by the combined fleets. Shortly after the Japanese had thus felt the power of the West a reaction took place in favor of learning the secret of this power. The popular ferment was accompanied by a determination to suppre the military form of government which had opened the doors to the West. A short civil war, in the winter of 1867-68, disposed of the Shogun and his adherents, and the Mikado or actual Emperor was restored to his rightful supremacy. Several Japan serious revolts tested the stability of the new political order. The most serious of these began early in 1877 and continued during seven months. Since that time the progre of Japan has been rapid and, one may say, marvelous. With this revival of national feeling and patriotism, the importance became enhanced of relations between Japan and Korea, over which country China and Japan exercised a joint-protectorate. The wide difference between Japanese and Chinese theories, as to progre and as to the reforms which Korea needed to adopt for its own best interests, led to friction and finally to war in 1894-95. After the Chinese troops had been expelled from Korea, and her naval arm broken, a peace was signed by which the fortre of Port Arthur and its immediate territory were ceded to Japan. At that moment, however, Ru ia unexpectedly came forward with a “recommendation” that Japan restore Port Arthur to China. The reason alleged was that the occupation of that fortre by a foreign power would be a menace to the independence of both China and Korea. Germany and France supported Ru ia in this view, and Japan was forced to yield the fortre which had been taken by hard fighting. Such forcible interference was enough,..•,, m itself to cause immediate attention by Japan to the problem of increasing her military and naval equipment. When, three years later, Ru ia, by arrangement with China, occupied the fortre which she had forced Japan to evacuate, it became certain that sooner or later the Mikado would cro swords with the great Czar. The clash of policies came in the autumn of 1903, and the cause of di ension was the question of securing the independence of China and Korea, threatened by the somewhat equivocal attitude of the Ru ian authorities in Manchuria. Not having received what she considered satisfactory pledges on this point, Japan, on the 6th of February, 1904, broke off diplomatic relations with Ru ia, and resorted to arms as the champion of the rights of China and Korea, but with a zest which showed that the Port Arthur episode of 1895 had One feature of the case not been forgotten. which should be born in mind is that in 1902 the British Government entered into an engagement with Japan to support her at any time when the integrity of either China or Korea might be about This to be destroyed by any hostile coalition. agreement between the Asiatic and the Euro danger to pean island empires contains as much of the peace of Europe as it does of consolation to Ru. ia, against Japan in undertaking war Mi ions in Japan since the Reforms: The Roman Catholics. On the opening of Japan, mi ionaries of Greek, Roman, and Reformed Christianity at once entered the empire, the Roman Catholics to discover their brethren and continue the old methods of propaganda, and the Ru ians or Greek (Orthodox) and the Protestant mi ionaries to break new ground. As early as 1846 the Pope had nominated a bishop and several mi ionaries, who in the Lu Chu islands awaited the opening of the country. At Urakami and other places near Nagasaki there were found, in 1865, you sands of people who po e ed some prayers and books, with many of the old sacramental words of Latin origin, and practised some of the minor rites of the faith, besides abstaining from acts significant to Buddhist, and especially Japan Java Until toleration became Shinto worshipers. the fact, which was even before it became the law, in 1872, many of these people were imprisoned, exiled, and otherwise persecuted, as indeed were occasionally even the converts of Protestant Many interesting relics and sur mi ionaries. Roman Christianity of the 17th of vivals century have been discovered by the priests, and here and there small bodies of descendants of former believers have been more easily converted because of the sentiment of historic continuity. In the thirty-one years of their revived work, making diligent use of the methods peculiar to Roman Catholic mi ionary operations, they have again established themselves widely over The misthe empire, but especially in Kiushiu. sionaries are mostly French, and their zeal and consecration are worthy of praise. The Oreek Church: The mi ionaries of the Church of Ru ia began operations at Hakodate in 1870, and have steadily continued their labors. A large native ministry has been trained, the Bible has been read, used, and taught, and in the freedom allowed their converts the Ru ian Among priests are much like the Protestants. the most magnificent buildings in the capital of Japan are those of the Ru ian Church, the indefatigable head being the archimandrite Nicolai, who is a isted by three other Ru ian clergy, and having about 1,700 baptized converts and 25,000 adherents. In a recent informal conference of native Christian workers without reference to the branches of the Church universal, the Greek Church was well represented. In some parts of Japan where these churches have been planted they have not held their own, the weak converts lapsing into heathenism and the earnest Bible readers pa ing into Protestant churches. Protestant Mi ions: The gates of Japan were first opened to the world through the influence of Americans, and the first Protestant mi ionaries to enter the country were Americans. The Protestant Episcopal, the Presbyterian, and the (Dutch) Reformed Churches in the United States sent out mi ionaries Williams, Hepburn, and Verbeck who settled in 1859 at Nagasaki and Yokohama. These mi ionaries at first obtained the right of residence only as teachers of English in Japanese schools; and when Goble, of the — — American Baptists, came to Japan in 1860, and Ensor, of the CMS, in 1869, and Greene, Gulick, and Davis, of the American Board, in 1871, they were allowed at first to work as teachers rather than as preachers of the Gospel. This “silent sowing” continued until 1873, when the old edict against Christianity was repealed; and after this date many mi ionary societies, from America, England, Scotland, and Germany, entered the promising field. The revolution in 1868 left Japan in a state of unrest; and during the next fifteen years, as a witne of the events narrates, the condition of aifairs is almost without parallel. “Mi ionary schools were crowded with the sons and daughters of high and low. A mi ionary was called to lay the foundation of a national university, and to be a general adviser of the government. Statesmen, men of wealth, governors, and lower officials became the patrons of Christian schools and sometimes opened their houses for religious services. From all quarters came requests to hold meetings in school-houses and theaters; audiences numbering several hundreds, sometimes 1,000 or 1,500, were readily 34S got together, and they would listen to a succe ion of speakers through four or five hours, or even longer. We have seen the power of God to-day was a frequent ejaculation. Witne es of those scenes will never forget them. In every three years the Church was doubled. These years of the appropriation and more or le thorough a imilation of the best of Western thought and life were the most momentous in the nation’s history. This period more than all others was creative of the New Japan.” Indeed, until 188& Japanese mi ions grew steadily in power; but from that time until now the work has been marked by le ening progre , pause, and even retrogre ion. From 1884 until 1889 the number of adult evangelical Christians rose from 5,000 to 29,000; but in 1899 it was only about In 1888 the number of adult baptisms 41,800. for the year reached 7,700; but in 1892 it was only 3,700, and now it scarcely keeps up to this number. As Warneck says: “The rapid advance was occasioned far le by a universal hunger and thirst after righteousne , than by the cooperation of a number of factors unconnected with religion, which wrought a change of mind in favor of Christianity as an educational and cultural force, particularly among wide circles of the educated cla es. The disestablishment of the native religions of the state, the new legislature, which paved the way for Christianity, and the recommendation of it on grounds of politics and culture produced an atmosphere favorable for mi ions, in which the plenteously scattered seed of the Gospel was shone on as by the sun.” The reaction that followed lasted until nearly the close of the last century; but the period of opposition seems to have reached its culmination. Since the revision of the treaties, in 1899, and the attitude of Japan in the Chinese Boxer uprising of 1900, a change for the better is apparent, and the forces that make for righteousne are moving The latest statistics available give the forward. following data for 1900: Mi ionaries 757, stations 157 (including many where more than one society labor, so that the number is too large by about fifty); organized churches 443, of which 95 are self-supporting; church members 42,451, native ministers 321, unordained preachers and helpers There are 16 boys’ 558, Bible women 224. boarding schools, with 2,270 pupils, 45 girls’ boarding schools with 3,361 pupils, 85 day schools with 6,086 pupils, 949 Sunday schools, with 36,310 pupils, 16 theological schools with 120 students, 13 schools for Bible women with 175 students, 6 hospitals and 8 dispensaries, at which 2,121 patients had been treated during the year. Of the societies at work in Japan, there are thirty one from America and Canada, seven from Great Britain, one from the Continent, and these are enforced by the work of the Salvation Army, the Hephzibah Faith Mi ion and four local societies. Christian literature in the vernacular is one of the most powerful forces in the evangelization of Japan. From 1895 to 1899 the Tract Society i ued 2,460,000 tracts, and the religious pre has been busy in this line of work. The Bible in Japanese: A veteran mi ionary ascribes one-half of all the results of Christian mi ions in Japan to the work of the Bible societies. Of these, the American, the British and Foreign, and the National Bible Society of Scotland have agencies in Japan, and have diligently S4g prosecuted the work of publication and distribution, besides making generous contributions for The work of giving tiie expenses of translation. the Bible to this nation was begun, as said above, by Rev. Karl Gutzlaff and Dr. S. Wells Williams, and vigorously pre ed forward by Rev. J. Goble, S. R. Brown, D.D., and Dr. J. C. Hepburn on the opening of the country by treaty. In 1872 all the Protestant mi ionaries were invited to meet in Yokohama to form a Translation Committee, which in June, 1874, began its sittings, and on the 3d of November, 1879, finished its work of translation and revision of the New Testament. In April, 1880, the complete New Testament was A few in the hands of the native Christians. months previously Rev. Nathan Brown, D.D., published a version of the New Testament in which the words relating to baptism were translated, and not, as in the union version, trans lit Plans for translating erated, from the- Greek. the Old Testament were not made until 1876, nor perfected until 1882. On the 3d of February, 1888, at a large meeting held in Tokio, the completion of the entire Bible in Japanese was celeBesides many mi ionaries there were brated. in hearty and able cooperation with the committee the native scholars, Matsuyama, Takahashi, ly^mura, Ibuka, and others. These brethren have enabled their foreign teachers to present to the Japanese people a version at once scholarly, idiomatic, readable, rhythmic, and destined in all probability to be the standard for generations In the language of this union version to come. of the Holy Scriptures special prominence is given to the native element, as against the Chinese-Japanese so fashionable during the last half- ’. Japan Java century or more. Since January, 1890, the total sales and gifts of Bibles have been 29,156; New Testaments 116,371 and portions 749,455, making a total of 944,000. One Bible seller sold (largely portions) during the last four months of 1899, 22,298 volumes. While in 1883 there were only four religious journals, in 1894 there were forty, and in 1900 there were ninety-five reported, of which four were weekly newspapers and seventy were monthly. Tokio, the capital, is largely the distributing center of the Gospel in Japan; and here twenty per cent, of all the workers are located, and institutional Christianity has a plant established at this commercial emporium valued at 1,200,000 yen, or about $600,000. A notable meeting of the Evangelical Alliance of Japan was held at Osaka in April, 1900, and it was decided to enter upon special evangelistic work throughout the Empire at the beginning of the new century. The General Conference of Mi ionaries, which met at Tokio in October, 1900, appointed a committee of ten to cooperate with the Committee of the Alliance in furthering this special work for Japan’s evangelization. These efforts have been attended by ble ed results. From May 12 to June 30, 1901, meetings were held in fifty-two churches in Tokio alone, attended by more than 100,000, and resulting in 5,307 converts or inquirers. Japanese students have been deeply affected by this evangelistic movement; and in October, 1901, during the meetings held by Mr. John R. Mott, over four hundred, within three days, decided to become disciples of Jesus Christ. Many are praying, working and hoping for the redemption Japan during the first generation of the 20th century; and this ble ed result depends upon the faith and works of the people of God. of (W. E.), Japan in History, Folklore, and Art, New York, 1892; The Mikado’s Empire, New York, 1896; Verbeck of Japan, New York, 1899; Guliok (S, L.). Evolution of the Japanese, New York, 190.3; The Ainu of Japan, London, 1892; Bi.shop (Isabella Bird), Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, 3d ed., New York, 1883; Gordon (M.L.i. American Mi ionary in Japan, Boston, 1892; Thorpe (P), History of Japan, London, 1885; Peery (R. B.), The Gist of Japan, New York, 1901. Griffis See Y ark and. 367