Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/334

The eclecticism of the Japanese in intellectual matters may be explained by calling attention to one phase of their attitude toward the three cults of Old Japan. There was in general a feeling of "with malice toward none, with charity for all"; for the three, to a greater or less degree, overlapped or supplemented each other.^[1] Shintō, as we have seen, was only a national cult; Confucianism was a philosophy of the relations between man and man; while Buddhism was a true religion, with ideas about sin and salvation. As another has summed up the scope of these three "ways," "Shintōism furnishes the object of worship, Confucianism offers the rules of life, and Buddhism supplies the way of future salvation." It was, therefore, possible for a person to be a disciple of two, or even all, of these "doctrines" at one and the same time. He "had constantly before his eyes the emblems of each of these religions. In nearly every Samurai's house were the moral books of Confucius, the black lacquered wooden tablets, inscribed in gold with the Buddhist names of his ancestors, while on the god-shelf stood the idols and symbols of Shintō."

Therefore there are to-day probably thousands of Japanese who would readily accept Christianity by simply adding the image of Jesus to their present collection, and giving it equal honor with those of Buddha and their ancestors. They might easily incorporate Jehovah in their pantheon; but they find