IRLF 
 
 EflS 740 
 
 JAMES A. B.SCHERER. 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
WHAT IS JAPANESE 
 MORALITY ? 
 
h 
 J 
 
 W K 
 
 Cfl B 
 
 ' 
 
 fcu 'C 
 
 O r 
 
 at 
 
 
What Is Japanese 
 Morality ? 
 
 By James A. B. Scherer 
 
 President of Newberry College. Author of 
 
 "Young Japan" "Japan To-Day" 
 
 "Four Princes" etc. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES Co. 
 1906 
 
Copyright, 1906, by 
 THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES COMPANY 
 
63V/ 7 
 S3 
 
 TO 
 
 EDWARD TRAILL HORN 
 
 For auld lang syne 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I 
 
 THE FORTY-SEVEN RONIN 
 
 Modern Japanese Progress. Previous 
 Educational Training. -Ancient Military 
 Discipline. The Chief Shrine of Japa- 
 nese Morality 3 
 
 II 
 A JAPANESE CRUCIFIXION 
 
 Bushido and Loyalty. Japanese Chiv- 
 alry. Loyalty and Parental Affection. 
 An Exceptional Example of Al- 
 truism 23 
 
 III 
 BUSHIDO 
 
 Suicide and Patriotism. The Benefits 
 of Bushido. Its Defective Harshness. 
 Truthfulness and Honesty. The 
 
 Treatment of Women 37 
 
 vii 
 
 M310218 
 
viii Contents 
 
 IV 
 
 A BOODDHIST SERMON 
 Religion in Japan. Booddhism, Theo- 
 retical and Practical. The Booddhist 
 and the Bushi. Frivolity. ... 59 
 
 V 
 
 CHRISTIANITY 
 
 A Modern Theocracy. Externalized 
 Ethics. Bushi do and Christianity. 
 Points of Preparation for the Gospel. . 73 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Shrines of Japanese Morality . . . Frontispiece 
 A Knight of BushidO facing page 62 
 
THE FORTY-SEVEN RONIN 
 
"Shall a nation be born in a day?" 
 The ancient Hebrew prophet asked this 
 question with a strong inflection of doubt, 
 but the marvel of modern Japan has 
 seemed to answer, Yes! Contrast Japan 
 with Russia. Two centuries ago, when 
 the Colossus of the North began that 
 determined southward advance to find an 
 outlet for vast Siberian possessions in un- 
 frozen southern seas, Japan lay in the 
 limbo of oblivion. Russian diplomacy 
 concerned itself with obstacles that were 
 really worth while. China was hood- 
 winked and muzzled; Europe was held 
 in sullen silence by a terrifying show of 
 power; but Japan was ignored so com- 
 pletely as to argue itself unknown. Was 
 
 3 
 
4 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 it not only a miniature empire, one-fiftieth 
 the size of Russia, inhabited by a race 
 of "monkey-faced dwarfs"? And these 
 dwarfs were the sworn enemies of prog- 
 ress. A hundred and fifty years after 
 Peter the Great had commanded his stal- 
 wart subjects to put on the garments of 
 modern civilization, the stupid little Japa- 
 nese were wearing cumbersome medieval 
 armor into their innumerable internecine 
 feuds, under the leadership of generals 
 who waved fans in the air instead of 
 swords, while the island gates were 
 boldly shut to modern progress. Then, 
 a half century ago the gates were 
 opened, but Russia took no heed. The 
 great southward advance continued, with 
 unswerving and apparently resistless per- 
 sistence. 
 
 Forty years of Japanese progress passed 
 by. Ten years ago, the pygmies forced 
 the giant to take notice of them, as they 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 5 
 
 seized the Regent's Sword 1 from befud- 
 dled China, and flung it athwart Russia's 
 pathway. But Russia deigned to take 
 notice only long enough to grasp the 
 Regent's Sword and possess it; Japan's 
 interference with China had but hastened 
 the southward advance, which now went 
 forward with unabashed seven-league 
 strides. All Europe wondered and waited, 
 afraid to intervene in the plans of "the 
 greatest of world-powers ; " only the Eng- 
 lish, Russia's traditional foes, were wise 
 enough to pay some slight attention to 
 Japan. These wrought a nominal alli- 
 ance with the little people who had 
 brandished for a day the Regent's Sword 
 in Russia's face. Meanwhile, the Japa- 
 nese were politely asking the Russians to 
 define the bounds of the southward ad- 
 
 1 A name often applied to the Liaotung Peninsula, ceded 
 to Japan after the war with China, but given back under 
 the coercion of Russia, who then " leased " it. 
 
6 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 vance, seeing that their own national ex- 
 istence was involved; but the Russians 
 delayed answering upon pretexts incredi- 
 bly contemptuous and exasperating, 1 while 
 constantly augmenting their armament; 
 when at last, after six months of vain 
 parleying, the pygmies struck swiftly and 
 hard. That was on the eighth of Feb- 
 ruary, 1904. Since that day the world has 
 been wonder-struck. The dwarfs who but 
 
 1 Japan attempted to open negotiations July 28, 1903, 
 and persisted continuously in the attempt. On November 
 27, the Japanese representative in St. Petersburg tele- 
 graphed to his government that the emperor still delayed 
 attention to the matter, " on account of the sickness of the 
 empress. Interior inflammation of her right ear." On 
 December 4, he telegraphed that Count Lamsdorff, in reply 
 to his urgent request that the Count should confer imme- 
 diately with the emperor, made answer that " Saturday is 
 the fete of Crown Prince, no business is transacted on 
 Sunday, and he will be occupied with other affairs on 
 Monday." These are examples of the Russian excuses, 
 quoted from " Correspondence Regarding the Negotia- 
 tions between Japan and Russia, Presented to the Imperial 
 (Japanese) Diet, March, 1904." 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 7 
 
 yesterday were shut up in medieval bar- 
 barism have used unaccustomed Western 
 weapons to such tremendous effect that the 
 mightiest of world-powers is humbled in 
 dust and blood, while Japan, dictator of 
 imperial destinies, is changing the map of 
 the world. It is the marvel of modern 
 history. 
 
 It is marvelous, but after all it is not 
 magical ; it is in reality the result of a pro- 
 longed and peculiar process of national 
 education. The Japanese secluded them- 
 selves so perfectly for two and a quarter 
 centuries that the world had no oppor- 
 tunity of finding out what use they were 
 making of their time. In reality, they 
 were educating themselves. lyeyasu, the 
 de facto ruler of Japan for many years 
 (born 1542, died 1616), and the greatest 
 figure in Japanese history, accomplished 
 his most important work when he set the 
 whole nation to studying, after having first 
 
8 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 shut out all disturbing foreign influences. 
 He became the father of a revival of letters 
 comparable in its way with that which had 
 begun in Europe a hundred years earlier. 
 In this case, the Chinese or Confucian 
 classics were revived, but, as in Europe, 
 classical studies prepared the way for the 
 development of a vigorous native litera- 
 ture. Schools were established broadcast 
 for the warrior-class, or samurai, where 
 literature was diligently taught, together 
 with caligraphy, history, and geography. 
 So well did this system eventually accom- 
 plish its object that Commodore Perry was 
 vastly astonished in 1853 when he found that 
 this nation of hermits, after more than two 
 centuries of insulation, was familiar with 
 the geography and importance of New York 
 City and Washington, even inquiring about 
 the construction of the Panama Canal! 
 We learn from the Perry Narrative that 
 " they seemed to acquire rapidly some in- 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 9 
 
 sight into the nature of steam, and the 
 mode with which it was applied to put into 
 action the great engine, and move by its 
 power the wheels of the steamers. Their 
 questions were of the most intelligent 
 character." 
 
 But the principal branches of the old- 
 time samurai system of education were not 
 so much intellectual as martial; being of 
 a distinctly military nature, such as tactics, 
 fencing, archery, horsemanship, the use of 
 the spear, and jiu-jutsu (incorrectly spelled 
 jiu-jitsu), that unique physical science which 
 teaches the weak to cope successfully with 
 the strong. Above all, we must not forget 
 that in all of the teaching, supreme em- 
 phasis was laid on the virtue of loyalty, 
 which has been called the chief feature of 
 Japanese feudalism, as it remains the secret 
 spring of the country's military strength to 
 this day. It is impossible to exaggerate 
 the importance of loyalty in the develop- 
 
io What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 ment of Japanese ethics. Every ray of 
 education has been focused upon this as 
 its object. Even religion has been made a 
 mere tool for the development of patriot- 
 ism, through the doctrine that the emperor 
 is God. Morality has not been treated 
 after the Western conception, as including 
 a variety of virtues, but as finding its 
 absolute expression in devotion to the 
 prince, who is above wife, above children, 
 above father and mother, above right, be- 
 cause he is no other than the literal " son 
 of heaven/' The folk-lore of the people, 
 the religious fables taught to the children, 
 and the parables of the always patriotic 
 preachers, have all converged in the one 
 conclusion that to fear the emperor and 
 to keep his commandments constitutes the 
 whole duty of man. In consequence, there 
 sprang up that strangest of human institu- 
 tions, the fatal drill known as hara-kiri, 
 which added practise to precept through 
 
What Is Japanese Morality f 1 1 
 
 the proof of loyalty by the test of the 
 supreme surrender. That is to say, the 
 young men in the ancient schools were 
 daily instructed in all of the tragic details 
 of suicide, having it "impressed on their 
 youthful imaginations with such force and 
 vividness that, when the time for its actual 
 enactment came, they were able to meet 
 the bloody reality without a tremor and 
 with perfect composure." Readiness to 
 surrender the life to one's lord was thus 
 drilled into the very marrow of the na- 
 tion, for jigai y or throat-cutting, among the 
 women corresponded to the hara-kiri, or 
 bowel-piercing, of the men. 
 
 The most classic and popular illustration 
 of Japanese ethical standards is the true 
 story of the Forty-seven Ronin, whose 
 sacred tomb in Tokyo is the ever fre- 
 quented Mecca of Japanese patriotism. 
 The word ronin means "wave-men," being 
 anciently applied to such warriors as had, 
 
12 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 for some reason or other, become detached 
 from their rightful lord, to be tossed by 
 the winds of adventure like turbulent bil- 
 lows about the face of the earth. This 
 group of forty-seven men had become 
 ronin in consequence of the self-inflicted 
 death of their master, Lord Takumi, which 
 is the pivot around which the tragic tale 
 revolves. 
 
 At the beginning of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, Takumi, by command of the highest 
 authorities, was in service at the court of 
 Tokyo, then called Yedo, learning the arts 
 of the courtier under a rude and greedy 
 master of ceremonies named Kotsuke, 
 whose disfavor he incurred because his 
 gifts to this majordomo were not sufficient 
 to appease his greed. Kotsuke, who was 
 of a mean and spiteful disposition, lost no 
 opportunity to affront Takumi, whose long- 
 suffering self-control he foolishly mistook 
 for cowardice. One day, however, he over- 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 13 
 
 stepped the mark. Having ordered Takumi 
 to perform one of the most menial of orien- 
 tal services to fasten the latchet of his 
 shoe he then showed his contempt for the 
 abasement of his proud disciple by a sneer. 
 "Why," he exclaimed, "this country bump- 
 kin cannot even tie a sandal!" With this, 
 the pent-up wrath of Takumi finally gave 
 way, and he flung himself with murderous 
 dirk upon his insolent instructor, who, 
 however, escaped. Takumi, realizing that 
 he had been disloyal to his temporary mas- 
 ter, and had also violated the rules of deco- 
 rum, calmly repaired his fault as best he 
 might by the immediate commission of 
 hara-kiri. 
 
 To avenge their master's self-inflicted 
 death now became the prime obligation of 
 his forty-seven retainers, according to the 
 fundamental Confucian axiom, " Thou shalt 
 not live under the same heaven nor tread 
 the same earth with the enemy of thy 
 
14 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 father or lord." Accepting the leadership 
 of the chief retainer, Kuranosuke, they 
 bided their time as wave-men, secretly 
 planning revenge. 
 
 Kuranosuke is the leading hero of the 
 drama. In order to throw the enemy off 
 his guard, this astute strategist removed to 
 a distant city and surrendered to a life of 
 dissipation. Kotsuke, well knowing that 
 loyalty would prompt revenge, spied upon 
 his foes with secret emissaries, who, how- 
 ever, reported finally that nothing need be 
 feared, since the leader Kuranosuke had so 
 utterly abandoned himself to a life of dis- 
 soluteness as to become the most notorious 
 figure in the city. One day a southern 
 warrior saw him lying drunken in the gut- 
 ter, and spat upon his face with the scorn- 
 ful words: "Is not this the sometime 
 counsellor of Lord Takumi, who, not hav- 
 ing the spirit to avenge his master, gives 
 himself up to women and wine? See how 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 15 
 
 he lies drunk in the public streets! Faith- 
 less beast! Fool and coward! Unworthy 
 the name of samurai f" His wife venturing 
 to reproach him for his shame, he savagely 
 abused and then divorced her, sending her 
 away with their two younger children, and 
 taking into his home a harlot in her stead. 
 "Admirable and faithful man ! " exclaims * 
 the Japanese moralist who records the 
 story; for whenever loyalty is involved, all 
 other considerations must be sacrificed. 
 Meanwhile, others of the ronin had dis- 
 guised themselves as artisans or servants, 
 and so found access to the castle of their 
 common enemy in Tokyo. All were banded 
 together in the solemn oath of revenge, 
 and all were directed by the cunning lead- 
 ership of Kuranosuke. 
 
 Finally, the object of their hatred having 
 been lulled into a complete sense of false 
 security, Kuranosuke secretly joined his 
 companions in Tokyo, and made ready to 
 
1 6 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 * 
 
 strike the fatal blow. On a snowy mid- 
 night in December, 1703, the loyal con- 
 spirators forced their way into their enemy's 
 home, in two bands, under the direction of 
 Kuranosuke and his sixteen-year-old son, 
 Chikara. Every detail had been carefully 
 planned, and after a severe struggle the de- 
 fenders of Kotsuke were overpowered. He 
 himseli eluded search for a time, but at 
 length was discovered in his hiding-place 
 a dignified patrician figure, some sixty 
 years of age, clad in a white satin sleeping- 
 robe. Kuranosuke, mindful of the etiquette 
 of the occasion, prostrated himself before 
 the ensnared insulter of his departed lord, 
 and in a polite address offered him the 
 opportunity of suicide. "I myself will 
 /_ have the honor to act as your second, and 
 when, with all humility, I shall have re- 
 ceived your lordship's head, it is my inten- 
 tion to lay it as an offering upon the grave 
 of Lord Takumi." 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 17 
 
 But the aged Kotsuke was much too 
 terrified to accept the proffered courtesy, 
 so the chief of the ronin beheaded him 
 with the selfsame dagger wherewith Takumi 
 had died, and, placing the head in a pail, 
 departed with his companions in virtuous 
 joy. 
 
 After having feasted on the way in cele- 
 bration of the consummation of their plan, 
 the forty-seven ronin reached the temple 
 cemetery where their lord lay buried. Here, 
 when they had washed the head in a con- 
 venient well, they laid it ceremoniously 
 as an offering upon their master's grave, 
 Kuranosuke and his son Chikara and then 
 each of the others in turn burning incense, 
 while the priests of the temple chanted 
 prayers. They also laid upon the tomb a 
 memorial paper which concluded with the 
 words, "This dirk, by which our honored 
 lord set great store last year, and entrusted 
 to our care, we now bring back. If your 
 
1 8 What Is Japanese Morality ? 
 
 noble spirit be now present before this 
 tomb, we pray you, as a sign, to take the 
 dirk, and, striking the head of your enemy 
 with it a second time, to dispel your hatred 
 forever. This is the respectful statement 
 of forty-seven men." 
 
 In due time the Tokyo authorities, while 
 secretly admiring the loyalty of the ronin, 
 yet for the sake of law and order con- 
 demned them for their crime. This, indeed, 
 the ronin had foreseen, and had paid the 
 priests beforehand for burial with their 
 master, and for masses in behalf of their 
 souls. With one mind, therefore, all of the 
 devoted band committed hara-kiri y and were 
 laid to rest beside their martyred master. 
 
 The fame of the loyal deed spread rapidly 
 throughout the land, and the tomb at once 
 became a holy place. Among the thou- 
 sands who came as pilgrims to the scene, 
 was the same southern warrior who in 
 ignorance had once spat upon the drunken 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 19 
 
 form of Kuranosuke. Kneeling before the 
 tomb he addressed to the departed spirit a 
 prayer for pardon, and then offered atone- 
 ment for his fault by committing suicide. 
 He, too, is buried with the ronin; nor has 
 he been the last to follow their fatal ex- 
 ample upon that consecrated spot. The 
 writer has often visited the humble little 
 enclosure in Tokyo which marks the last 
 resting-place of these turbulent wave-men, 
 but never without finding the soil beaten 
 hard by the feet of countless pilgrims, 
 whose white votive offerings always cover 
 the shrine, which is the chief shrine of / 
 Japanese morality. 1 
 
 It may thus be perceived how Japan had 
 been prepared for the coming of Commo- 
 dore Perry, through intellectual education 
 of the most assiduous character, and how 
 
 *A detailed account of the Forty-Seven Ronin, together 
 with a full treatment of hara-kiri and much other inter- 
 esting matter may be found in A. B. Mitford's " Tales of 
 Old Japan." 
 
2O What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 in particular her peculiar military training 
 enabled her to seize our modern Western 
 weapons and work wonders. Nor must it 
 be forgot that one of the most striking 
 traits of the people is their readiness in- 
 stantly to discard old things for better ones. 
 This unique flexibility of temperament, 
 coupled with the remarkable discipline that 
 resulted from their prolonged period of in- 
 dustrious hermitage, accounts for the Japa- 
 nese of to-day. 
 
A JAPANESE CRUCIFIXION 
 
II 
 
 The ethical and intellectual ideals of the 
 Japanese people have been chiefly derived 
 from two foreign systems of thought, 
 Booddhism and Confucianism. These have 
 intermingled with the native mythology 
 known as Shinto, "the way of the gods." 
 All have agreed in teaching the supreme 
 importance of loyalty: Booddhism by its 
 doctrine of self-repression, Confucianism 
 through the great law of filialism, extended 
 to the State, the obligation becoming the 
 more intense as it extends upward from 
 the family to the father of his people; and 
 Shinto, essentially ancestor-worship, with 
 its superadded belief that the father of his 
 people is divine. In a nation which makes 
 everything of loyalty, the samurai, or 
 
 23 
 
24 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 warrior-class, naturally became pre-eminent, 
 and the ethical system of Japan has finally 
 become known as Bushido, " the way of the 
 warrior." Bushidd is not an original system 
 of morals, but a handy name to denote the 
 samurai code, which has been builded of 
 complex elements around the lodestone 
 of loyalty. 
 
 Striking illustrations of the strong sur- 
 vival of this spirit are of almost daily occur- 
 rence, especially among the soldier and 
 student classes, who worship it frequently 
 under the name of Yamato-damashii, or 
 "Japanese soul." A somewhat amusing 
 instance comes to mind as I write. In a 
 government school in southern Japan we 
 had a native teacher who was notoriously 
 of a dilatory habit. On ordinary occasions 
 this gave but little concern, as the people 
 at large are celebrated for a contemptuous 
 disregard of the value of time. But on 
 stated occasions the Imperial Educational 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 25 
 
 Rescript is read, which, since it emanates 
 from Tenshi Sama, the " son of heaven," is 
 deemed both holy and inspired. And once 
 Professor Darezo (let us call him) dared to 
 be late for the Rescript. Immediately the 
 loyalistic students took the teacher in hand. 
 Darezo was the teacher of Ethics. It did 
 not matter that he had habitually violated 
 most of the chief moralities embraced in 
 the Western conception, but to them it did 
 matter profoundly that he should show 
 disrespect for the emperor's essay. In 
 their youthful fervor the students felt that 
 His Imperial Majesty had been grossly in- 
 sulted through this neglectful attitude, 
 and in a formal petition they consequently 
 commanded Professor Darezo to commit 
 hara-kiri that he might expiate his crime. 
 Darezo declined to kill himself literally, 
 but he was dead from that time forward so 
 far as his influence was concerned, because 
 he had infringed the sole and single law of 
 
26 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 duty, the morality of loyalty. Many of 
 those same students are now in the army 
 and navy. It is easy to infer that they 
 make magnificent soldiers, seeing that all 
 of their ideals center in loyalty, and they 
 have no higher aspiration than to lay down 
 their lives for deity incarnate on the throne. 
 / Bushido is the chief secret of the marvelous 
 military strength of Japan. 
 
 An attempt is now being made by subtle 
 Japanese writers to set this word in our 
 dictionaries as a synonym for chivalry, but 
 it may reasonably be contended that loyalty 
 unmixed with other equal virtues hardly 
 constitutes a title to knighthood as we now 
 interpret the term. In "Japan To-day" I 
 have told how a class of students once 
 chose the suicide of Admiral Ting to illus- 
 trate the noblest deed of which they had 
 ever heard with the exception, indeed, of 
 one precocious scholar, who eulogized a 
 peasant that had slain his wife in order to 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 27 
 
 feed her liver to his aged mother, and so 
 restore failing vision! The end in each 
 case was loyalty, for Ting had felt that it 
 would disgrace the Chinese emperor for 
 such an exalted official as himself to sur- 
 render to the Japanese foe; and as for the 
 peasant, his parent was to him in place of 
 prince, filial piety being a lower branch 
 of loyalty, but the means employed 
 seemed to my Western mind to be hideous. 
 A London journal, reviewing the book, 
 flung back at me the glass-house proverb, 
 with certain pointed remarks about Ameri- 
 can lynchings. But the British paper 
 utterly missed the issue. It is hardly con- 
 ceivable that an American boy could write 
 of lynching as a noble thing; we univer- 
 sally deprecate and deplore it. On the 
 other hand, the Japanese students exalted 
 suicide and wife-murder into the noblest 
 deeds of which they had ever heard, be- 
 cause of the end in view. And now comes 
 
28 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 Professor Nitobe's little book on Buskido, 
 whose ideals he seems to glorify, and it 
 contains the following typical example of 
 Bushido ethics : 
 
 Michizane, now worshiped with divine 
 honors as the patron saint of education, 
 was sent into exile by a cruel ruler during 
 his lifetime in the ninth century and a 
 price set on the heads of all his household. 
 Genzo, a schoolmaster disciple of Michi- 
 zane's, succeeded in secreting his master's 
 son for a little season, but the hiding-place 
 was discovered by zealous spies, and the 
 child was condemned to death. The loyal 
 Genzo now sought a substitute with whom 
 to deceive the executioner, and with suc- 
 cess. At the critical moment a mother 
 appeared leading her little boy, who bore 
 such striking resemblance to Michizane's 
 son that the official who came to identify 
 the trunkless head declared himself to be 
 satisfied. But this official was none other 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 29 
 
 than Genzo himself, father of the murdered 
 child, who had wormed his way into this 
 position in order to save his master's son. 
 The mother, as loyal as her husband, was 
 of course party to the sacrifice, upon which 
 both parents had agreed as the only re- 
 course of loyalty. This is the story de- 
 liberately set forth as an illustration of 
 Japanese ethical ideals, the author suggest- 
 ing its analogy with the story of Abraham 
 and Isaac. Instilled into the plastic minds 
 of generations of Japanese children, such 
 stories venerated as we reverence our 
 Bible have begotten unquestioning cour- 
 age, and a loyalty that hesitates at nothing ; 
 but courage does not spell the whole of 
 character, nor is such loyalty synonymous 
 with chivalry. 
 
 There is one incident in Japanese history 
 that rises very high as an example of pure 
 altruism attained in spite of the obligations 
 of "loyalty/ 1 but for this very reason, 
 
30 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 perhaps it is not greatly exalted by the 
 Japanese moralists themselves. For people 
 of Christian training it possesses peculiar 
 interest as indicating the latent possibilities 
 of this most interesting race towards an 
 acceptance and practical application of the 
 gospel. 
 
 When the great lyemitsu was generalis- 
 simo (shdguri) of the empire, a greedy but 
 powerful nobleman bearing the same name 
 as the villain in the story of the Forty- 
 seven Ronin so oppressed the peasants who 
 tilled his lands that they underwent "the 
 tortures of hell upon earth." Lord Kot- 
 suke resided at the court of lyemitsu in 
 Tokyo. The peasants having frequently 
 appealed in vain to their lord's local stew- 
 ards for relief, at length hit upon the 
 desperate expedient of addressing him per- 
 sonally in Tokyo. Under the old ceremo- 
 nial dispensation this plan was attended 
 with grave dangers, being regarded as an 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 31 
 
 outrage upon rank ; while the shogun him- 
 self and his private affairs were deemed so 
 inviolate that the extreme degradation of 
 crucifixion was reserved not only for parri- 
 cide (including the killing or striking of 
 parents, uncles, aunts, elder brothers, mas- 
 ters, or teachers) and the coining of coun- 
 terfeit money, but also for passing the 
 barriers of the shogun 's territory without a 
 permit. The headsmen of the oppressed 
 villages, however, one hundred and thirty- 
 six in number, persistently journeyed to 
 Tokyo, where they met with disheartening 
 rebuffs. The wisest of their number, 
 Sogoro, clearly foreseeing that nothing 
 short of an appeal to lyemitsu himself 
 could relieve them, and that this as surely 
 meant death, had failed to join his com- 
 panions in their journey, and had in conse- 
 quence incurred their displeasure. But 
 when they had exhausted all their re- 
 sources they sent messengers invoking his 
 
 
32 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 assistance; and he, completely foreseeing 
 the issue, departed from his family with 
 the words : " Let us drink a cup of wine 
 together, for it may be that you shall see 
 my face no more. I give my life to allay 
 the misery of the people of this estate. 
 If I die, mourn not over my fate; weep not 
 for me." 
 
 Arrived in Tokyo, Sogoro first tried the 
 expedient of an appeal to a member of the 
 cabinet, with the only result that he and 
 his associates were repelled in bitter dis- 
 grace. He then took the last desperate 
 step. One day in December, as lyemitsu 
 traveled in state to the tomb of his princely 
 ancestors, Sogoro, who had concealed him- 
 self under a bridge, assaulted the sacrosanct 
 palanquin and thrust his petition forcibly 
 into the hands of the shogun. He was 
 arrested, but the shogun relieved the poor 
 peasants. 
 
 Kotsuke's rapacity having been exposed 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 33 
 
 to his peers, he was outraged beyond all 
 endurance; and, being absolute master of 
 his territory, he condemned not only the 
 offender to death, but also his wife and 
 three children. Being implored to spare 
 the lives of the mother and children he 
 answered, " Where the sin of the father is 
 great, the wife and the children must 
 suffer." 
 
 In February, 1644, Sogoro and his family 
 were crucified. It is reported that the wife 
 called from her cross to the husband, " Let 
 us cheerfully lay down our single lives for 
 the good of the many. Man lives for but 
 one generation; his name, for many. A 
 good name is rather to be prized than life." 
 
 So she spoke ; and Sogoro on the cross, 
 laughing gaily, answered : 
 
 "Well said, wife. What though we are 
 punished for the many? Our petition was 
 successful, and there is nothing left to wish 
 for. Now I am happy, for I have attained 
 
34 What Is Japanese Morality ? 
 
 my heart's desire. The changes and chances 
 of life are manifold. But if I had five hun- 
 dred lives, and could five hundred times 
 assume this shape of mine, I would die 
 five hundred times to avenge this iniquity. 
 For myself I care not; but that my wife 
 and children should be punished also, is 
 too much. Pitiless and cruel! Let my 
 lord fence himself in with iron walls, yet 
 shall my spirit burst through them and 
 crush his bones, as a return for this evil 
 deed." 
 
 The moral sublimity of the story is 
 marred by the vengeful spirit of the victim, 
 who is said to have tormented the tyrant 
 afterwards as a ghost; "but," adds the 
 Japanese chronicler, " in the history of the 
 world, from the dark ages down to the 
 present time, there are few instances of one 
 man laying down his life for the many, as 
 SogorO did; noble and peasant praise him." 
 
BUSHIDO 
 
Ill 
 
 Although the incident caused great in- 
 ternational excitement at the time, it now 
 seems to have passed from the public mind 
 that Nicholas of Russia (then Czarevitch) 
 was almost assassinated while traveling 
 through Japan in 1891. To me it has 
 seemed possible that this peculiar monarch 
 mistook the noble shame into which the 
 Japanese people were plunged by this inci- 
 dent for an ignoble cowardice, they made 
 the 'most abject apologies, and that this 
 accounts to a large degree for the con- 
 tempt in which for so long he seemed to 
 hold them. But the incident has signifi- 
 cance in the present inquiry as going to 
 prove that the strange ideals of Bnshido 
 are still the dominant impulses of the peo- 
 
 37 
 
38 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 pie. The samurai policeman who struck 
 that blow, and the samurai youth who shot 
 Li Hung Chang four years afterward, were 
 led by a feeling of mistaken loyalty to rid 
 their country of visitors whose very pres- 
 ence seemed to them to be an insult to 
 the sacred soil. Not only so, but the at- 
 tempted assassination of the Czarevitch was 
 promptly followed by the suicide of a 
 samurai woman who left a dying declara- 
 tion that she would thus with her blood 
 expiate the outrage that had been wrought 
 by the policeman upon the national hospi- 
 tality. 
 
 Within a few months after this an inci- 
 dent even more remarkable occurred. An 
 American missionary had been mysteri- 
 ously murdered, and the government had 
 vainly set its excellent police to find the 
 criminal. Two years having passed, a 
 man now came forward and confessed the 
 crime. He was about to be executed, 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 39 
 
 when his friends succeeded in proving be- 
 yond all doubt that he had no connection 
 whatsoever with the murder. Questioned 
 as to what strange motive could have led 
 him to confess to a capital crime of which 
 he was absolutely innocent, the man calmly 
 replied that Japan had been disgraced in 
 the eyes of the nations through the failure 
 of the police to find the criminal, and he 
 desired to wipe out the blot by the sacrifice 
 of his own innocent life. 
 
 Similar examples were of frequent oc- 
 currence during the Russo-Japanese war. 
 I cite these because they came under 
 my own personal observation, and be- 
 cause they seem to be extremely typical. 
 Loyalty prompted alike the blow at the 
 Czarevitch and the atoning suicide, the 
 murder of the missionary for subverting 
 national customs, and the self-surrender 
 of the innocent man to mitigate inter- 
 national contempt. It only remains to be 
 
4O What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 added that each actor in these tragedies 
 assumed heroic proportions in the eyes of 
 the people, although indeed they deemed 
 the would-be assassins mistaken in their 
 manner of expressing loyalty, for the 
 spirit of loyalty, in one form or another, 
 is the sole controlling ideal of Japanese 
 morals, j In the case of the policeman that 
 struck the Russian prince and the fervid 
 youth who shot the distinguished Chinese 
 statesman, the people disowned the deed, 
 but condoned the spirit that prompted it; 
 for it was the spirit of Bushido, " the way 
 of the warrior," and this is the way of 
 salvation. 
 
 Bushido carries with it some most ad- 
 mirable traits. Loyalty is itself a noble 
 spiritual fruitage, and its prerequisite is un- 
 faltering courage. Not only so, but the 
 loyalty of vassals elicits reciprocal benevo- 
 lence on the part of the lord who is served. 
 Noblesse oblige. The obligation of rank is 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 41 
 
 a principle of wide application in Japan 
 to-day, underlying even the commonplace 
 giving of tea-money. Stinginess was de- 
 spised among samurai as unworthy of men 
 who traffic in spiritual entities. Two 
 favorite moral maxims answer to each 
 other as follows: "Above all things, men 
 must practise charity, for it is by almsgiv- 
 ing that wisdom is fed." " Less than all 
 things men must grudge money, for it is 
 by riches that wisdom is hindered." More- 
 over, the mutual relationships between lord 
 and vassal in the various grades of society 
 gave rise in a naturally esthetic people to 
 an elaborate ceremonial of politeness, 
 and politeness has been defined as "mo- 
 rality in trifles." But the finest trait of the 
 samurai was his splendid self-control, born 
 of the teachings of Booddhism, and nour- 
 ished by elaborate system, a quality which, 
 superimposed on a naturally hot and im- 
 petuous temperament, gives him to-day his 
 
42 What Is Japanese Morality f 
 
 final paradoxical strength as a soldier, link- 
 ing a more than Teutonic coolness with the 
 irresistible passion of the Celt. If the sole 
 aim of character is the development of 
 splendid fighting machines, then Bushido is 
 the finest moral system in the world. And 
 with all of our boasted moral progress, the 
 truth still remains that we dearly love a 
 fighter, so that we seem half likely to be 
 dazzled by the militant patriotism of Japan 
 into a belief that the people are demigods. 
 But even such qualities as loyalty and 
 self-control are liable to be overwrought. 
 Indeed it may be set forth as an axiom that 
 every virtue can be exaggerated into a 
 vice which is its counterfeit, and works for 
 its eventual undoing. Thus bravery may 
 degenerate into bravado, and modesty to 
 prudery, humility to servility, and love into 
 lust. So also in "The Mikado's Empire" 
 we come upon the startling declaration 
 that "the annals of no other country are 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 43 
 
 richer in the recitals of results gained by 
 treachery " than the annals of loyalist Japan. 
 But is it not really inevitable that, if loyalty 
 to one's lord be the sole goal of conduct, 
 unchecked by a sense of obligation toward 
 one's fellows, treachery to the whole world 
 besides must be its price? And is not the 
 duty of treachery distinctly implied by the 
 very story which Professor Nitobe selects 
 as the quintessence of Bushidot Little did 
 it concern Michizane's vassal that he should 
 play the part of traitor to his employer and 
 to his own paternal affection in order to be 
 loyal to his lord. And likewise if other 
 typical instances of Japanese loyalty be 
 closely searched, it will be found that a 
 noble self-sacrifice is not the only principle 
 involved, but the ignoble sacrifice of things 
 sacred. 
 
 After the same fashion their Booddhistic 
 stoicism has seemed to rob them of sym- 
 pathy, a quality which one of their great- 
 
44 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 est educators has declared to be among 
 their sorest needs. I speak of ethical sym- 
 pathy, not of the esthetic. The latter they 
 have in plenty, so that a native writer may 
 beautifully say: "Though they come steal- 
 ing to your bedside in the silent watches of 
 the night, drive not away, but rather cherish 
 these, the fragrance of flowers, the sound 
 of distant bells, the insect hummings of a 
 frosty night." A marvelous sympathy with 
 nature has made them her chosen artistic 
 interpreters in modern times, but a stoical 
 coldness of heart precludes the sweetness 
 of friendship, and fills the beautiful land 
 with the blemishes of cruelty on every 
 hand, from the chained and lacerated ani- 
 mals in the Ueno Museum to the inhumanly 
 neglected insane. A cataclysm in which 
 a score of thousand people lose their lives, 
 as in the earthquake of 1891 or the tidal 
 wave of 1896, does not awaken one tithe 
 of the sentiment elicited by the incon- 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 45 
 
 veniences of a single traveler in his efforts 
 to spy upon Russia. 1 Loyalty must some- 
 where be present if agony is to be redeemed 
 from vulgarity. 
 
 The doctrine that the supreme end of 
 loyalty justifies any means that may be 
 found useful, is doubtless to a large degree 
 responsible for the Japanese attitude towards 
 truth. Despite the labored explanations of 
 apologists, it is a literal fact that if you ask 
 an ordinary Japanese which is better, to 
 tell a falsehood or be impolite, he will not 
 hesitate to answer, "To tell a falsehood." 
 The passing of the lie is a sort of jocular 
 compliment, a tribute to the liar's smooth 
 shrewdness. An amusing illustration of 
 the relation between veracity and polite- 
 ness comes to my mind as I write. In 
 order to make the point clear, one must 
 know that blonde hair in Japan is called 
 
 1 Major Fukushima, who rode horseback through Asiatic 
 Russia ten years ago. 
 
46 What Is Japanese Morality ? 
 
 red, that blue eyes are called green, and 
 that red hair and green eyes are the pecu- 
 liar and hideous attributes of the Japanese 
 devil. Noting one day as I stood on one 
 end of the school-room platform that the 
 lads at the other end were visibly agitated 
 by English words which a somewhat mis- 
 chievous boy in the front row had written 
 on his tablet, I moved softly to his side 
 before he was aware of my presence. The 
 words he had written were these: "The 
 foreigner has green eyes and red hair." At 
 this juncture a companion nudged him, and 
 he realized the situation. Without the 
 tremor of a muscle or the flutter of his 
 lowered almond eyelids, he calmly pro- 
 ceeded to complete the sentence "and he 
 is very beautiful." I was so amused by 
 this incongruous conclusion that I wrote 
 the words on the blackboard, expecting the 
 class to join me in mirth over the glaring 
 absurdity. To my astonishment, not a soul 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 47 
 
 cracked a smile; the whole class upheld 
 the solemn-faced lad in his assertion that 
 he intended a compliment, since to do 
 otherwise would have been openly impolite 
 to their teacher; and I had to fortify my 
 recollection of Japanese demonology by a 
 subsequent appeal to the native teachers, 
 who heartily enjoyed the incident. 
 
 Honesty is veracity in business affairs. 
 One would therefore expect to find Bushido 
 insufficient at this point, and indeed the 
 chief defenders of Japanese "chivalry" are 
 compelled to confess, "A loose business 
 morality has been the worst blot on our 
 national reputation," although they explain 
 this away through the samurai indifference 
 to money matters. Japanese commercial 
 dishonesty, in striking contrast with the 
 solid trustworthiness of the stolid Chinese, 
 has passed into an international byword, 
 so that the most strenuous of apologists is 
 compelled to apologize for it. 
 
48 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 But those who would have us receive 
 this new " chivalry" almost as one of our 
 numerous new religions, and make of it a 
 cult for our own emulation, are less frank 
 on the subject of the treatment of Japanese 
 women. " I have noticed a rather super- 
 ficial notion prevailing among half-informed 
 foreigners," says a certain subtle writer, 
 "that because the common Japanese ex- 
 pression for one's wife is 'my rustic wife/ 
 and the like, she is despised and held in 
 little esteem. When it is told that such 
 phrases as ' my foolish father,' ' my swinish 
 son,' 'my awkward self,' etc., are in current 
 use, is not the answer clear enough?" Un- 
 fortunately for the illustrative efficacy of 
 this carefully worded interrogation, such 
 phrases as those mentioned are not in 
 " current use," with the exception of the 
 insulting epithet constantly applied to 
 one's wife, to which justice is hardly done 
 by the mild translation of our very ingen- 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 49 
 
 ious apologist. It is a matter of common 
 knowledge that the writings of Japanese 
 moralists abound in such maxims as this: 
 " Other kinsfolk [than the parents] may be 
 likened unto the rushes, while husbands 
 and wives are but as useless stones." Pro- 
 fessor Chamberlain, the highest living au- 
 thority on things Japanese, comments on 
 this maxim as follows: " According to the 
 Confucian ethical code, which the Japanese 
 adopted, a man's parents, his teacher, and 
 his lord, claim his lifelong service, his wife 
 standing on an immeasurably lower plane." 
 The most eloquent and truthful study of 
 Japan that has been presented to the Eng- 
 lish-reading public by a native writer is 
 4< The Awakening of Japan," by Professor 
 Okakura Kakuzo. His treatment of the 
 subject of womanhood, in spite of certain 
 defects, seems so exceptionally fine that I 
 venture to present it here at length. "The 
 Western attitude of profound respect toward 
 
5o What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 the gentler sex," declares the essayist, " ex- 
 hibits a beautiful phase of refinement which 
 we are anxious to emulate. It is one of 
 the noblest messages that Christianity has 
 given us. Christianity originated in the 
 East, and, except as regards womanhood, 
 its modes of thought are not new to East- 
 ern minds. As the new religion spread 
 westward through Europe, it naturally be- 
 came influenced by the idiosyncrasies of 
 the various converted nations, so that the 
 poetry of the German forest, the adoration 
 of the Virgin in the middle centuries, the 
 age of chivalry, the songs of the trouba- 
 dours, the delicacy of the Latin nature, 
 and, above all, the clean manhood of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race, probably all contributed 
 their share toward the idealization of 
 woman." It may be remarked that the 
 writer hardly does justice to the all-im- 
 portant fact that faith in the Incarnation 
 has done more for the exaltation of woman 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 51 
 
 hood than all other influences combined. 
 He then goes on : " In Japan, woman has 
 always commanded a respect and freedom 
 not to be found elsewhere in the East We 
 have never had a Salic law, and it is from a 
 female divinity, the Sun-goddess, that our 
 Mikado traces his lineage. During many 
 of the most brilliant epochs in our ancient 
 history we were under the rule of a female 
 sovereign. Our Empress Jingo personally 
 led a victorious army into Korea, and 
 it was Empress Suiko who inaugurated 
 the refined culture of the Nara period. 
 Female sovereigns ascended the throne in 
 their own right even when there were 
 male candidates, for we considered woman 
 in all respects as the equal of man. 1 In 
 our classic literature we find the names of 
 more great authoresses than authors, while 
 in feudal days some of our amazons 
 charged with the bravest of the Kamakura 
 
 1 This statement may be very gravely questioned. 
 
52 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 knights. As time advanced and Confucian 
 theories became more potent in molding 
 our social customs, woman was relegated 
 from public life and confined to what was 
 considered by the Chinese sage as her 
 proper sphere, the household. Our in- 
 herent respect for the rights of womanhood, 
 
 , however, remained the same, and as late as 
 the year 1630 a female mikado, Meisho 
 Tenno, ascended the throne of her fathers. 
 Until after the Restoration, a knowledge of 
 such martial exercises as fencing and jiu- 
 jutsu was considered part of the education 
 of a samurai's daughter, and is, indeed, 
 still so considered among many old fami- 
 lies. . . . We have never hitherto, however, 
 learned to offer any special privileges to 
 
 1 woman. Love has never occupied an im- 
 portant place in Chinese literature; and in 
 the tales of Japanese chivalry, the samurai, 
 although ever at the service of the weak 
 and oppressed, gave his help quite irre- 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 53 
 
 spective of sex. To-day we are convinced 
 that the elevation of woman is the eleva- 
 tion of the race. She is the epitome of the 
 past and the reservoir of the future, so that 
 the responsibilities of the new social life 
 which is dawning on the ancient realms of 
 the Sun-goddess may be safely intrusted to 
 her care." 
 
 Excellent as this eloquent passage is, it 
 colors the condition of Japanese woman- 
 hood with a hue too roseate for the sober 
 truth ; especially when the fervid defender 
 of Bushido ideals declares that in his native 
 land the wife is not less adored than with 
 us, while maternity is holier. Filial piety 
 does indeed secure peace for the declining 
 days of a mother, but this decline is liable 
 to begin very early in life on account of 
 the sad lot of the wife. She is the literal 
 servant not only of her husband but also 
 of his parents; is subject to divorce for his 
 least caprice or whim, and the victim of an 
 
54 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 unabashed concubinage. A distinguished 
 writer truthfully remarks that the Japanese, 
 whose customs are antipodal to ours in so 
 many ways, even contradict us in their 
 fashion of sowing wild oats : a man's career 
 of dissipation, instead of tending to end 
 with his marriage, only begins then. Within 
 my own experience, the general attitude of 
 young Japan towards womankind was once 
 ludicrously indicated by a student who, 
 anxious at the same time to air his knowl- 
 edge of the alien language and his con- 
 tempt for the alien chivalry, declared, 
 " When I do see the foreigner kiss his wife, 
 I do always catch a sick." Another student 
 was mortally offended because his Ameri- 
 can teacher attempted to tease him about a 
 pretty girl, thus placing him on the same 
 low plane with the despised feminine. 
 
 It is in connection with the general ques- 
 tion of woman that Japanese morality shows 
 at its worst, and their boasted "chivalry" 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 55 
 
 is divested of its charm. The history of 
 Bushido abounds in belauded stories of 
 women whose virtue was pandered to 
 loyalty, while many a samurai sold his wife 
 or his daughter into a life of shame in 
 order to fill his lord's coffers or his own 
 with the wealth that makes war. While I 
 was living in Tokyo, one of the principal 
 theaters was the scene of an* unusually 
 popular play, the plot running somewhat as 
 follows: An ancient lord needed money, 
 and asked one of his most faithful retainers 
 to obtain it. The loyal servant hit upon 
 an ingenious plan. Having defiled the 
 daughter of a princely neighbor, he threat- 
 ened to expose the fact of her intimacy 
 with a social inferior unless much money 
 should be given him; that is, he levied 
 blackmail. And this was not the villain, 
 but the hero of the play, because he was 
 loyal to his lord ! He was greeted with 
 rounds of applause. We do well to ponder 
 
56 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 such typical instances as these before wor- 
 shiping Japanese morality, or concluding 
 that the people have no need of the gospel. 
 
A BOODDHIST SERMON 
 
IV 
 
 The present is a season of serious relig- 
 ious degeneration in Japan. This is the 
 case whether we examine Shinto, Confu- 
 cianism, or Booddhism. True it is that 
 many temples are erected and maintained, 
 but the moral influence of the three so- 
 called religions is slight in the extreme. 
 Shinto, indeed, has never stood for any 
 moral principle except loyalty. It is a cult 
 of combined naturism and ancestor-worship, 
 fostered by the present government because 
 it teaches the divinity of royalty, and is 
 therefore an important tool of statecraft. 
 Confucianism is the moral system pro- 
 fessed by the majority of the educated 
 classes until recently, but it has now been 
 widely discarded either for the derivative 
 
 59 
 
60 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 code of Bushido or for an ill-digested hash 
 of Herbert Spencer and Positivism. 
 
 Lafcadio Hearn, an ardent admirer both 
 of Spencer and of Booddhism, has drawn a 
 striking parallel between his two favorite 
 philosophies. 1 The esoteric teaching of 
 Booddhism, as may be well gathered from 
 Mr. Hearn's attractive presentation, is both 
 profound and in many respects admirable. 
 But its very nature shuts it off from the 
 common people as a wide-spread moral in- 
 fluence, except in its one most obvious 
 aspect as a religion of self-repression. 
 For the priceless lesson of self-control, 
 which they have learned so well and 
 against so many inborn obstacles, the 
 Japanese owe a boundless debt to Bood- 
 dhism. It is also the source of their an- 
 cient rich education, in letters, arts, and 
 crafts. But to-day it has fallen from its 
 
 1 See " The Higher Buddhism," in Japan ; an Interpre- 
 tation, 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 6 1 
 
 high estate, and exists as a husk without 
 seeds. 
 
 As a popular system of religion, Bood- 
 dhism in Japan has long seemed to lack 
 moral earnestness. The sermons of the 
 priests remind us of the monkish quirks of 
 the European Middle Ages ; they have the 
 flavor of the Gesta Romanorum. The clergy 
 itself has sunk into notorious sloth and im- 
 morality, so that the recent rebuke from the 
 government was well deserved. 
 
 There is a famous and popular book 
 called " Talks About the Way of Heavenly 
 Learning " 1 which contains some choice 
 specimens of Booddhist homilies. One 
 chapter has an account of an encounter be- 
 between a priest and a samurai or bushi 
 that seems especially appropriate when dis- 
 cussing Bushido. It is given here because 
 it presents a fair idea of the methods of 
 popular Japanese religion at its best. In 
 
 1 Shingaku Michi no Hanashi. 
 
62 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 the translation I acknowledge much in- 
 debtedness to the faithful labor of Dr. 
 William Imbrie in his work on Japanese 
 Etymology. The piece is properly enti- 
 tled, Heaven and Hell. 
 
 Once upon a time there came a bushi 
 from a certain province to see Ikkyu the 
 famous priest, and said to him : 
 
 " I myself have always been something 
 of a student, and feel as if I had settled 
 pretty much everything in the universe. 
 But there is one thing I don't understand ; 
 and that is, the Booddhist doctrine of heaven 
 and hell. I know very well that there are 
 certain scriptural passages which teach that 
 they really exist, but then there are other 
 passages that seem to deny their existence. 
 On the whole, now, which of these views is 
 to be accepted as correct ? Do they really 
 exist, or not ? " 
 
 Priest Ikkyu looked the bushi straight in 
 the face. 
 
A KNIGHT OF BUSHIDO 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 63 
 
 " What ! " said he, " Is there a hell ? Is 
 there a heaven ? Are you trotting around 
 asking that sort of thing? What sort of 
 fellow are you, anyhow ? " 
 
 The bushi flushed and answered : 
 
 " I am a bushi, to be sure, and I want to 
 find out whether there is a heaven and hell 
 or not. What's the matter with that ? " 
 
 But the priest laughed contemptuously 
 and said : 
 
 " What ! you call yourself a bushi ? You 
 belong to the bushi family ? Indeed ! Sup- 
 posing that you are a bushi, are you a 
 bushwhacker or a bush-beggar ? Are you a 
 land-bush or a water-bush ? * If you are a 
 real true-true bushi, you ought at least to 
 know the meaning of Bushido ; but it 
 seems that you don't yet know even the 
 meaning of Biishido. See here ! A bushi, 
 from the crown of his head to the tips 
 
 1 Like most puns, these are well nigh untranslatable. I 
 have done my best with them. 
 
64 What Is Japanese Morality f 
 
 of his toes no, even to life itself, be- 
 longs to his master; in no sense what- 
 ever is he his own. Since that is the case, 
 each one, firstly in times of peace, gives 
 strict attention night and day to his own 
 business, and thus sees to it that his mas- 
 ter's affairs don't suffer. And then, when 
 the danger-alarm is sounded, he must stand 
 in front of his master's horse, make his own 
 life a target, rush into the very midst of the 
 enemy, and by all means behead as many of 
 them as he can. But you, although you hold 
 an important post like that, have idly come 
 here with your foolish questions, ' Tell me, is 
 there a hell ? Tell me, is there a heaven ? ' 
 Bah ! what a piece of foolishness ! Sup- 
 pose they do exist, what are you going to 
 do about it ? People call a fellow like you 
 a 6usAi-stick t or *uA*~trash, or ^/zz-scatter- 
 grain ! Yah ! Ugh ! You bushi not worth 
 your own fodder ! " and, rap ! he struck 
 him with a fan upon the head ! 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 65 
 
 With this the bus hi flared up and shouted : 
 
 " You miserable chatterbox of a monk, 
 you ! I have let you chatter straight along 
 and you have abused me to your heart's 
 desire! Even if you do wear the cloth, 
 you are not to get off scot-free! Come, 
 now, and say your prayers ! " 
 
 Whereupon, seizing the sword that hung 
 at his side he drew it from its sheath with 
 a single smooth swish, and Ikkyu the 
 priest stood aghast. 
 
 " Look out ! " he cried. " He has drawn ! 
 Now let me run ! " and, jumping down into 
 the yard, he fled. 
 
 Close behind him chased the panting 
 bushiy brandishing his icy sword and yell- 
 ing, 
 
 " You think you can get away by run- 
 ning, eh ? " 
 
 But suddenly Priest Ikkyu coolly wheeled 
 about and faced him, pointing at him in his 
 rage, and crying, 
 
66 What Is Japanese Morality ? 
 
 "Oh, horrible! Why, that is hell!" 
 whereupon a startled exclamation burst 
 from the buski, and he flung his sword 
 clattering on the ground with the words, 
 
 " Right you are ! This indeed is hell ! 
 And so your honorable raillery just now 
 was only a noble device with which you 
 condescended to teach me this ? The hell 
 that had no existence until a moment ago 
 came into existence the instant I heard 
 your Reverence's passing raillery! So, 
 then, it is not fixed as to its existence, and 
 it is not fixed as to its non-existence ; and 
 for this very reason I now perceive that it is 
 a thing to be truly dreaded ! Wonderful ! 
 Wonderful ! I thank you a thousand times ! " 
 
 And with tears streaming down his face 
 he made his obeisance, while Ikkyu the 
 priest smiled blandly and said : 
 
 " Oh, you have quickly understood ; and 
 so I, too, am satisfied ! Glory ! Glory ! Oh, 
 this is heaven ! This indeed is heaven ! " 
 
What Is Japanese Morality ? 67 
 
 " So runs the story. And was not that a 
 very happy way of putting it ? " 
 
 Without doubt this is more than a hu- 
 morous story, suggestive of more morals 
 than one. But the levity that pervades it 
 is typical, and helps to account for the fact 
 that the people are frequently charged with 
 frivolity in matters affecting religion. Says 
 one of their critics : " ' Frivolous ' is a 
 hard word for people who have been so 
 thorough in their reforms, and are so 
 simple in their lives, but it is the only word 
 which seems to fit a people who have so 
 little sense of awe and so little friendship 
 with sorrow. They live over a volcano, 
 but their talk is of flowers, and their inter- 
 est is in the last foreign importation. 
 There is an absence in their art and their 
 history of the grand. The terrible is inter- 
 rupted by the grotesque, and the wish to 
 provoke a laugh seems almost irresistible. 
 There is no Fifty-first Psalm in their 
 
68 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 language, and no Puritan in their his- 
 tory. 
 
 " It is as a consequence of this frivolity 
 that principle is weak and originality rare. 
 They have not been awed into seriousness 
 by a vision of the ' I am/ or of the ' One 
 high and lifted up ; ' they have not learned 
 that anything is fixed, and they do not 
 know ' The Eternal/ " 
 
 This author, 1 in a remarkably discerning 
 essay that appeared in The Contemporary 
 Review more than a dozen years ago, de- 
 clares that before the Japanese can receive 
 and appreciate the gospel, they must first 
 have the preaching of the Law. "They 
 need Moses and the prophets lest they 
 become Christian atheists, followers indeed 
 of Christ as a man and a teacher, but with- 
 out the knowledge of the God whose image 
 Christ is. Moses, we are told, aspired to 
 see the face of God, the author of the law 
 
 1 The Rev. S. A. Barnett. 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 69 
 
 he preached to the people. That was im- 
 possible, but as he hid in the cleft of the 
 rock he was allowed to see the hinder part 
 he learned, that is to say, of God in 
 history. The Japanese have need to be 
 brought where, looking back on the past, 
 they will see traces that the righteous God 
 has passed by. A Moses must startle 
 them by revealing the Almighty who is 
 not far from any one, and is terrible in his 
 righteousness; a prophet must convince 
 them of sin, and force from their hearts the 
 words, 'Woe is me, for I am undone/ 
 The Christianity they are taught must be 
 that which made Felix tremble : the Christ 
 who is preached must be the Christ whose 
 eyes are as* fire; and the demand made 
 must not be the acceptance of a form or a 
 creed, or even of a code of morals, but of a 
 new life. The Japanese need to be awed, 
 to be smitten into seriousness, by the 
 revelation of the God who is above the 
 
70 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 world, and of the hell which is underneath 
 civilization. 
 
 " Up to now they have delighted to paint 
 Fuji-yama, their sacred mount, surrounded 
 by birds and flowers, and they have re- 
 garded the happy man as the highest man. 
 They have need to learn of Moses and the 
 prophets that fire is the fitting garment of 
 the holy mountain, and that the Man of 
 Sorrows is the highest man. When they 
 know the Eternal, they will make friends 
 with sorrow, and the Christian message 
 will be comfort and joy and peace." 
 
CHRISTIANITY 
 
V 
 
 Lafcadio Hearn, in the most valuable of 
 his many books on Japan, declares that 
 "the history of Japan is really the history 
 of her religion." In the interpretation of 
 this statement, it must be borne in mind 
 that religion here really means Bushido, 
 which is nothing more nor less than a re- 
 markable implement of government. In 
 other words, the moral and religious in- 
 stincts of the people have all been utilized 
 directly for the support of the throne. A 
 god sits upon that throne, and loyalty is 
 therefore the whole of morality. Booddhism 
 and Confucianism have been adapted to 
 this theory, which lies at the foundation of 
 Shinto. The religion of the Japanese is 
 patriotism, and their government is a 
 
 73 
 
74 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 pseudo-theocracy. For the government, 
 from the earliest times to the present, has 
 been that group of strong men who could 
 control the incarnate deity, the Mikado, 
 and through his divine voice control the 
 people. 
 
 So it has come to pass that the Japanese 
 is morally impersonal, and his ethical mo- 
 tives are not impulsions, but the result of 
 compulsion exercised upon him from with- 
 out. His master's word has come to be 
 his moral law, and ages of feudalism have 
 elaborated this law into a complex system, 
 rigid against individualism, inflexible in 
 behalf of the state. Booddhism, with its 
 doctrine of individual repression, has vastly 
 assisted in this process. And Booddhism 
 has assisted no less with its impersonal 
 teaching about God. A great writer on 
 theism has declared : " Belief in the person- 
 ality of man, and belief in the personality 
 of God, stand or fall together. Where 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 75 
 
 faith in the personality of God is weak, 
 or is altogether wanting, as in the case 
 of the pantheistic religions of the East, 
 the perception which men have of their 
 own personality is found to be in an equal 
 degree indistinct. The feeling of individu- 
 ality is dormant. The soul indolently 
 ascribes to itself a merely phenomenal 
 existence. It conceives of itself as appear- 
 ing for a moment, like a wavelet on the 
 ocean, to vanish again in the all-engulfing 
 essence whence it emerged." 
 
 These several co-operative influences 
 have so wrought upon the naturally indi- 
 vidualist temperament of the Japanese in 
 the course of the last fifteen centuries as to 
 make it possible for an acute observer to 
 argue successfully that the Japanese mind 
 is become impersonal (Mr. Percival Lowell, 
 in " The Soul of the Far East "). And it is 
 in the substitution of the external letter of 
 the moral law for informing spirit that one 
 
76 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 finds the whole explanation of the defec- 
 tive Japanese morality. The distortion 
 glares horribly in the picture of the father 
 fingering the bloody head of his child in 
 order to protect his princeling, the spirit of 
 natural affection being stifled in behalf of a 
 superimposed artificial loyalty. 1 It accounts 
 for the experience which distressed Mr. 
 Hearn, and which every foreign teacher in 
 Japan must have noted. Your pupil, who 
 is docile and polite in his senior year, a 
 model of application and decorum and 
 deference, will return to see you next year, 
 transformed into an insolent, arrogant prig. 
 The ethical system had taught him, and 
 long generations before him, the duty of 
 deference to teachers, but the spirit of 
 deference is lacking; and so when the ex- 
 ternal relationship of teacher and pupil is 
 gone, pagan morality lapses into barbar- 
 ism. Needless to say, Bushido has proved 
 fatal to friendship, as to conjugal felicity; 
 
 1 See page 28. 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 77 
 
 for friendship implies equality, and Bushido 
 was a system of relationships between 
 higher and lower. Its loyalty was a tool 
 of government. 
 
 The peculiar externalism of Japanese 
 ideals is nowhere seen more clearly than in 
 that most interior of motives known as the 
 personal honor. The language lacks an 
 equivalent for this word, because it is so 
 intensely personal; just as it lacks a word 
 for sin, while it has one for crime. But in 
 the exploitation of Japanese chivalry the 
 apologists have naturally treated of" honor,'* 
 and it is exceedingly interesting to note the 
 definition unconsciously employed. Writ- 
 ing of the ancient warriors, Professor Ni- 
 tobe says: "The sense of honor which 
 cannot bear being looked down upon as an 
 inferior power, that was the strongest of 
 motives." 
 
 We are also told that in ancient mercan- 
 tile notes it was a usual thing to insert the 
 
78 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 clause: "In default of the repayment of 
 the sum lent to me, I shall say nothing 
 against being ridiculed in public." A 
 prominent modern teacher has called ridi- 
 cule the gravest of evils. And notwith- 
 standing the beautiful maxims of Chinese 
 sages concerning honor, it is to be feared 
 that Japan as a nation to-day is still con- 
 trolled, even in the making of its peace 
 terms, by that " sense of honor which can- 
 not bear being looked down upon as an 
 inferior power." In other words, even the 
 sense of honor is objective. 
 
 Christianity is exactly opposed to the 
 ancient Japanese system of government. 
 It destroys the belief in a God-emperor at 
 a blow. Not only so, but it is essentially 
 and intensely individual. "The kingdom 
 of God is within you," that is its main 
 moral tenet. Christ came to break down 
 the piety of formalism, the religion that 
 laid burdens on men from without, and to 
 
What Is Japanese Morality ? 79 
 
 teach responsibility to the inner shrine of 
 the spirit. " Ye are the temple of God " is 
 its watchword. It is little wonder that the 
 statecraft of lyeyasu and lyemitsu opposed 
 itself to this religion, just as the worldly- 
 wise Trajan outlawed it in Rome. Chris- 
 tianity works toward freedom, and Bushido 
 was spiritual bondage. 
 
 But it must always be kept clearly in 
 mind that the Japanese are by nature of a 
 powerfully individualist temperament, im- 
 petuous, restive, headlong, Tartar to the 
 very bone. They owe a great debt to Bood- 
 dhism for its age-long lessons in self-mas- 
 tery, for without this priceless schooling 
 they would long ago have wrought their 
 own destruction. They now leap eagerly, 
 and, as it were, by instinct, toward the flood- 
 gates of the liberating West. With what 
 amazing rapidity did their intrepid spirits 
 cast off the shackles of the tyrannical Sho- 
 gunate system, the natural crystallization 
 
So What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 of Bushido, and clothe themselves on with 
 the freedom of constitutional government! 
 Only a nature of the most intense indi- 
 vidualism could have accomplished such an 
 astonishing turning about, and only a nation 
 that had somehow learned the most rigid 
 self-control could have accomplished this 
 feat without destruction. Is it too much 
 to believe that these are God's chosen chil- 
 dren of the East, schooled in mysterious 
 fashion for the reception of the truth that 
 maketh free, and panoplied to be the evan- 
 gelists of Asia? 
 
 I will not dwell upon the fact that the 
 Japanese are familiar, through ages of their 
 own peculiar history, with the doctrine of 
 substitutionary sacrifice, and even with the 
 theory of incarnation. I have already 
 selected from their own annals a luminous 
 illustration of the crucifixion. 1 I desire to 
 suggest a more profound preparation that 
 they have had, beyond all peoples in his- 
 
 1 See page 30. 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 8 1 
 
 tory, for one of the fundamental truths of 
 our religion. 
 
 Of course I mean the fatherhood of 
 God. Hitherto they have deified the forces 
 of nature in their effort to feel after him, if 
 haply they might find him, but nature is 
 sullen-tempered in Japan, with frequent 
 bursts of typhoon-wrath and passionate 
 earthquake trembling. Therefore their 
 visual representations of deity have chiefly 
 been great, angry beings, crying out to be 
 appeased. These pantheistic conceptions 
 have also weakened the notion of de^ty by 
 breaking the divine power into millions of 
 pieces, the Japanese pantheon containing 
 800,000,000 gods. Yet the numerous im- 
 ages of Jizo the Merciful tell us that after 
 all the worshipers yearn toward a revela- 
 tion of the love of a personal God, and the 
 last vestige of doubt is removed when we 
 gaze into the compassionate face of the 
 Deity of Boundless Light, the Dai-Butsu 
 
82 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 at Kamakura. The noblest ideals of the 
 race have embodied themselves in that vast 
 image, before whom troops of adoring 
 devotees pass in a perennial stream. Con- 
 ceive their thoughts as being led up to be- 
 lieve, not that this great father-image is 
 half emblem and half tombstone of a 
 former golden age, but that it is the vis- 
 ualized cry of the universal human soul, 
 " Oh, that I knew where I might find Him ! " 
 and that it is also the faint human fore- 
 shadowing of One eternally compassionate, 
 the Father of us all, in whom, indeed, we 
 live and move and have our daily being. 
 Conceive of their wonderful filial love as 
 being led up to its logical fulfilment, from 
 father through teacher to prince, and 
 finally to rest in him who is King of kings 
 and Lord of lords. Then their loyalty will 
 bind them in a religious devotion, warmed 
 by their innate power to perceive the beau- 
 tiful, and vitalized by their energy to do as 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 83 
 
 well as to be, such as will rank them in the 
 forefront of the religious peoples of history. 
 Conversely, the clarified vision of the per- 
 son of God will inevitably quicken their 
 own dormant sense of personality, so that 
 a richer spiritual soil will enlarge and ripen 
 the now dwarfed fruitage of moral imper- 
 sonality, and as they grow into a sense of 
 sonship to God they will also perceive in 
 every man their brother, and their sympa- 
 thies will widen to include the world. 
 Once really teach the divine Fatherhood, 
 and the brotherhood of man is a fact 
 accomplished. Of course, God should be 
 revealed in his completeness, as a God of 
 " infinite pity, yet also infinite rigor of law ; " 
 and it must be clearly shown to them that 
 the love of Christ is made perfect because 
 his love is the fulfilling of the law. 
 
 The Japanese are not slow to believe, 
 when proper opportunity is given, that 
 Jesus Christ is the revelation of the Father. 
 
84 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 The fact that most securely seals them in 
 this faith is his perfect morality, as morality 
 is understood by them. They see that he 
 was absolutely loyal to his Father. So he 
 fulfilled the law. 
 
 They are also quick to recognize the 
 roundness and crystal clearness of his 
 character with an appreciation that sur- 
 prises us, in view of their own defective 
 morality. I well remember how, when 
 teaching the life of Christ to a class of 
 brilliant teachers, they showed increasing 
 interest week by week, until at length, 
 when he entered and cleansed the temple, 
 one of them cried, " Now we see that he is 
 perfect! His gentleness has seemed su- 
 preme, as with Booddha, but now this one 
 touch of masculine fire, unselfish but flam- 
 ing, reveals that he lacked not one iota of 
 perfection." The story of the cross, when 
 finally we reached it, unveiled him in a 
 blaze of blended glory, love, and strength 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 85 
 
 to' eyes that were filled with sympathetic 
 tears. 
 
 The Japanese are in many ways predis- 
 posed and prepared for Christianity. By 
 nature they are of a noble, generous spirit, 
 keenly alive to the beautiful, and with a 
 courtesy that defies comparison. What I 
 have wVitten by way of criticism has been 
 set down reluctantly, for in my heart I love 
 them, as all must who really know them. 
 I have written it because it is the truth, 
 and because I believe it to be the outcome 
 of a faith in itself defective, yet serving very 
 well as a schoolmaster to lead them to 
 Christ. If we had shown one tithe of the 
 energy in supplying them with our ideals 
 that we have evinced in developing our 
 commerce, Japan, with her marvelous alert- 
 ness and power of adaptation, would be 
 nominally Christian to-day. I say " nomi- 
 nally/* because the development of a real 
 spiritual growth is always slow. But the 
 
86 What Is Japanese Morality? 
 
 nominal must precede the actual, and so 
 the evangelization of Japan is the supreme 
 duty of the Christian church at this hour. 
 The number of properly qualified missiona- 
 ries ought to be multiplied a hundredfold ; 
 men of large mold, with patience and 
 dignity and, if you please, with the saving 
 grace of humor, which is always the ac- 
 companiment of common sense; men, 
 above all, of character, that strange, sweet 
 product of Christ's spirit living in a human 
 shrine ; and they will approach these fore- 
 ordained leaders of the East with sympathy 
 and persuasion, linking the revealed truth 
 of God to the law already written in their 
 hearts, and leading their precious human 
 loyalty up into the loyalty that is love for 
 God and all men. These ardent ener- 
 gizers of the East, once their spirits are 
 quickened by Christ's flame, will bear 
 his light inevitably to their fellows in 
 Asia, and thus the "land of the rising 
 
What Is Japanese Morality? 87 
 
 sun " * shall fulfil the glorious destiny of 
 her name. 2/fc \\e 
 
 ***** 
 Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and 
 the glory of the Lord is risen iipon thee. For, 
 behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, 
 and gross darkness the people : but the Lord 
 shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be 
 seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come 
 to thy light, and kings to the brightness of 
 thy rising. The sun shall be no more thy 
 light by day ; neither for brightness shall the 
 moon give light unto thee: but the Lord 
 shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and 
 thy God thy glory. Thy people also shall be 
 all righteous : they shall inherit the land for- 
 ever, the branch of my planting, the work of 
 my hands, that I may be glorified. A little 
 one shall become a thousand, and a small one 
 a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in 
 his time. 
 
 1 This is the literal meaning of the word Japan. 
 
NOTE ON PRONUNCIATION 
 
 Reprinted from the author's " Young Japan " by permission of 
 The J. B. Lippincott Co. 
 
 A word may be easily divided into its com- 
 ponent syllables by simply applying the rule that 
 wherever a vowel or the diphthong ai occurs, 
 there is the end of a syllable ; for every syllable 
 in the Japanese language ends either in one of 
 these or with the consonant n. Wherever this 
 letter occurs, it is attached to the preceding vowel 
 before the syllable is formed. Double consonants 
 simply denote emphasis ; thus : Nip-pon, each p 
 being sounded. 
 
 Marks above o and u indicate that the vowel 
 sounds are prolonged, having the value of o in 
 "whole" and of u in "rude." When the 
 vowels are not so marked, they have the follow- 
 ing approximate values : 
 
 a as in ah 
 
 o 
 
 u 
 
 men 
 
 machine 
 
 so 
 
 bush 
 
 a=I 
 
 Roughly speaking, there is no accent, all of the 
 syllables receiving equal emphasis, except when 
 otherwise indicated by the double consonants or 
 the marks above the protracted vowels. 
 
 JAMES A. B. SCHERER. 
 Newberry College, S. C. 
 

 
 10W!ar'56PT 
 
 *n 
 
 FEC'D 
 
 HOV 13 19S7 
 
 ^f^^BRAR, 
 
 BERKELEY 
 
 JAN l 5 2006 
 
 s!6)476 
 
22730 
 
 M3I0218