ier of Japan, shines as a star of the first magnitude in the heavens
of the Riy[=o]bu system, under the mime of T[=o]-sh[=o]-g[=u], or Great
Light of the East. The common people speak of him as Gon-gen Sama, the
latter word being an honorary form of address for all beings from a baby
to a Bosatsu.

In this way, K[=o]b[=o] arranged a sort of clearing-house or joint-stock
company in which the Bodhisattvas, kami and other miscellaneous beings,
in either the native or foreign religion, were mutually interchangeable.
In a large sense, this feat of priestly dexterity was but the repetition
in history, of that of Asanga with the Brahmanism and Buddhism of India
three centuries before. It was this Asanga who wrote the Yoga-chara
Bhumi. The succession of syncretists in India, China and Japan is
Asanga, Hiuki[=o] and K[=o]b[=o].

The Happy Family of Riy[=o]bu.

Nevertheless this attempt at making a happy family and ploughing with an
ox and ass in the same yoke, has not been an unqualified success. It
will sometimes happen that one god escapes the classification made by
the Buddhists and slips into the fold of Shint[=o], or _vice versa_;
while again the label-makers and pasters--as numerous in scholastic
Buddhism as in sectarian Christendom--have hard work to make the labels
stick. A popular Gon-gen or Dai-Mi[=o]-jin, whose name and renown has
for centuries attracted crowds of pilgrims, and yielded fat revenues as
regularly as the autumn harvests, is not readily surrendered by the old
Buddhist proprietors, however cleverly or craftily the bonzes may yield
outward conformity to governmental edicts. On the other hand, the
efforts, both archaeological and practical, which have been made in
recent years by fiercely zealous Shint[=o]ists, savor of the smartness
of New Japan more than they suggest either sincerity or edification. It
often requires the finest tact on the part of both the strenuous
Buddhists and the stalwart purists of Shint[=o], to extricate the
various gods out of the mixture and mess of Riy[=o]bu Shint[=o], and to
keep them from jostling each other.

This reclaiming and kidnapping of gods and transferring them from one
camp to another, has been especially active since 1870, when, under
government auspices, the Riy[=o]bu temples were purged of all Buddhist
idols, furniture and influences. The term Dai Mi[=o] Jin, or Great
Illustrious Spirit, is no longer officially permitted to be used of the
old kami or gods of