EMPEROR-WORSHIP

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2141, 6 May 1914, Page 11

EMPEROR-WORSHIP

AND JAPANESE HISTORY

MANUFACTURED RELIGION

AS TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS

There have been several instances of a religion being manufactured within recent times (says tho Yokohama correspondent of the ''Manchester Guardian"). In the New World the most successful of the kind is Movmonism; in the Old World the palm must ho accorded to tho Emperor-worship of Japan, which is essentially not much older than the- cult of Joe Smith, though it claims to be of immemorial antiquity. The most remarkable thing about it is i the extent to which it has imposed upon people abroad, and the readiness of tier* • tain writers and public speakers to accept the statements about the unparalleled loyalty of the Japanese and tho "dynasty which has held the throne in : unbroken succession from father to son' for 2500 years." Loyal Japanese are, of course, expected to believe much more, and have it drilled into them that tho Emperor is tho direct descendant of the Sun goddess Amatcrasu, the chief deity of the Shinto- ..pantheon, through a number ef minor divinities, .the link between the mortals and the immortals being Jimnm Temio. the "first- Emperor," who is claimed to have founded the Empire in 660 n.c. All this in the faco of the fact that the very earliest date in Japanese "history" for which there is the slightest external evidence—that is, any evidence outside of their ewu obviously incredible annals—is 461 a.v. This kind of history is sedulously taught in all the schools, and any teacher or even university professor who ventured to express incredibility would socm lose his job. .

\ It would take too bug to describe the rise of tin's manufactured religion, which in its-beginnings goes back to the,early eighteenth ceHtu*.v ? but which has been most active since the middle of last century, when the Japanese found it necessary, in face of foreign 'intrusion, to abandon their feudal system and rally round the Imperial idea as a eentralsuig and unifying force. What is of more practical importance is to point out that the agitation, which served the self-in-terest of so many, and, in fact, was a necessity if tho iiidependen-ce of'the nation was to bo preserved, has been highly successful, and has produced m the mass of tho people a sort of stolid fanaticism, based upon' early school training and the- careful elimination of apposing- ideas, and which is now in most eases quite tmaffeeted bv rational argument, ft is useless to point out oven to an educated Japanese- that his history completely'refutes the idea of tlio unparelfoJed loyalty of the Ja-oan-cse, being tall of revolts and insurrections, emperors deposed and even jntsr(terod, ivlji.le.its most striking and pecn». l.i-av feature is the- way in which the emperors wore for centuries kept in powerless sertusMSm under tho thumb, of military despots, tho.Shaguns of tlieAshlknp, lokugawa, and other families. Hero are a few itvsta-sces, serious and trivial, of the practical working of Ja-poii-s now rel'aiou. About three years ago, shortly, before tho death of the late lunpteor Jlritsuhito, a train in which lie ras travelling was delayed for a. short time by an accident involving no <JainMf to himself. . A stationmaster who ivas in nowtso- responsible ft* the 'accident thought it .incumbent upon him to commit suicide. This ••loyal' 8 action was enthusiastically praised all am- tho country, and the de-ad man's family received a permniary solatium from" the a.utlwj-itteSj.yipugh.no.tatego one. One University prefesso-t who .ventured to publish his opinion that the action was a- toolish one and regrettable in its tendency raised such a storm of ose.orat.ion ■and petty persecution that ho Was torn-pel-led to resign. The dramatic suicide of General Nogi and Ins wife at the moment when the" funeral cortego of the late Em-pew started from-the Palace at Tokio on its way to Kyoto raised an outburst of hysteria enthusiasm throughout the country, and it is still the custom, es-' pecKilly with military and naval -men, to worship him as a demi-gafl at his residence- or his tomb. . If /fine of the boodlmg vice-admirals or other naval <>tticer3 whoso names are now so prominent in the naval -bribery scandals Were tn commit hara-kiri his sins would bo forgiven him by the jrt-iblie, and he w<iiiH soar to a similar height in. their estimation.

When the Emperor passes thrminh the streets oh his way to some function school children are lined up along tho route and- math) to Wait, quite unnecessarily, far hours before tlw procession arrives. Instances of sunstroke aivd other illnesses from this eaUse arc not uncommon. In ail countries a man's rank and dignity may be roughly mea-sured-by tho length of time which people niiiy bo made to waft for Km; but in Japan the Emperor is immeasurably abovo all his subjects, ergo the length of time which people are mads to wait for him -must- be restricted only by tho limits of human endurance, This -scorns to hn the theory, at any rate: of. course, it is not always adhered to,

An Imperial poetry competition is held every year, to which thousand-S of Japanese _ sand their effusions, which m«2t be_ in. t-ho usual form of ail uta— i.e., a single stanza of five short lines. ■ Out of all this mass of epigrams, which arc laboriously gone over by special officials, three or four are selected- which are read in' tho presence ' of tho Empwor. This >s all the reward .which is offered, and it. is considered sufficient. At a recent meating of this kind the epigram which was adjudged the best was one which expressed the feßbwinet ido-a: "I see tho su.n standing oyer an immemorial pine-tree. The pine-tree is a. thousand years old, jtnd still growing," The. Sim,, of course, Was ■ tho Emperor, and the pins the Japanese people. A Western sovereign would hardly care publicly to accept such, a fulsome little, piece- of flattery. One.-advantage of this attitude towards tho Emperor is that it enables him to be oeneflftOMt at little esnenso to himself. . The Imperial family* is very wealthy, from its' landed estates and its investments in gilt*edgod securities ; and tho Emperor's donations in cases of public calamity are sometimes unite lar.ee.' Bat the vast_ majority of his gifts 'to deserving subjects arc of very littl-o intrinsic value, as the luu'iour is everything. The usual form they take is that.of snkasmki—'i.o, a sake-cup, or a set of th»e, decorated with the Imperial crest. A local paper of February 2S contains a whole column concerning one of these little presents, saying that "most impressive ceremonies wwe held at the gozoji Temnlo in Shiba Park, Tokio, yesterday, which received from' the Court a tablet bearin;:; two Chinese characters written by the Emperor with his own hand. The tablet was first taken to the Ko7.«ji in a procession yesterday, and will he similarly carried to-diiv in .Kyoto. Itis a rare thiiijj: th;»t His Majesty- writes with his own baud on a tablet for any person's sake, and it is )io wonder that the priests ami adherents of the Jndo sect regard this rtift as a great honour to their templo." To receive this (jrpat hut. economical honour thousands of ijHionlbovs and pirla were made to I'iiv the streets, a«d hundreds of Buddhist priests in nil their silken paraulurnalia wa.lW in procession, How lon.i* will this manufactured religion last? At nrcsent, it is a. liviii£ power and a political force to he reck* oned with. f