higher mental faculties, have prepared us not to expect any
particularly brilliant history of Japanese philosophy. Such is indeed
the case. Primitive Japanese cosmology does not differ in any
important respect from the primitive cosmology of other races. The
number of those in Old Japan who took a living interest in distinctly
metaphysical problems is indisputably small. While we admit them to
have manifested some independence and even originality, as Professor
Inouye urges,[AN] yet it can hardly be maintained that they struck out
any conspicuously original philosophical systems. There is no
distinctively Japanese philosophy.

These facts, however, should not blind us to the distinction between
latent ability in philosophical thought and the manifestation of that
ability. The old social order, with its defective education, its habit
of servile intellectual dependence on ancestors, and its social and
legal condemnation of independent originality, particularly in the
realm of thought, was a mighty incubus on speculative philosophy.
Furthermore, crude science and distorted history could not provide the
requisite material from which to construct a philosophical
interpretation of the universe that would appeal to the modern
Occidental.

In spite, however, of social and educational hindrances, the Japanese
have given ample evidence of interest in metaphysical problems and of
more or less ability in their solution. Religious constructions of the
future life, conceptions as to the relations of gods and men and the
universe, are in fact results of the metaphysical operations of the
mind. Primitive Japan was not without these. As she developed in
civilization and came in contact with Chinese and Hindu metaphysical
thought, she acquired their characteristic systems. Buddhist first,
and later Confucian, metaphysics dominated the thought of her educated
men. In view of the highly metaphysical character of Buddhist
doctrines and the interest they have produced at least among the
better trained priests, the assertion that the Japanese have no
ability in metaphysics cannot be maintained.

At one period in the history of Buddhism in Japan, prolonged public
discussions were all the fashion. Priests traveled from temple to
temple to engage in public debate. The ablest debater was the abbot,
and he had to be ready to face any opponent who might appear. If a
stranger won, the abbot yielded his place and his living to the
victor. Man