the conviction of
the paramount importance of such subordination lingers on, an element
of stability, in spite of the recent social cataclysm which has
involved Japanese Confucianism, properly so-called, in the ruin of all
other Japanese institutions."[CD]

_Christianity_ was first brought to Japan by Francis Xavier, who
landed in Kagoshima in 1549. His zeal knew no bounds and his results
were amazing. "The converts were drawn from all classes alike.
Noblemen, Buddhist priests, men of learning, embraced the faith with
the same alacrity as did the poor and ignorant.... One hundred and
thirty-eight European missionaries" were then on the field. "Until the
breaking out of the persecution of 1596 the work of evangelization
proceeded apace. The converts numbered ten thousand yearly, though all
were fully aware of the risk to which they exposed themselves by
embracing the Catholic faith." "At the beginning of the seventeenth
century, the Japanese Christians numbered about one million, the fruit
of half a century of apostolic labor accomplished in the midst of
comparative peace. Another half-century of persecution was about to
ruin this flourishing church, to cut off its pastors, more than two
hundred of whom suffered martyrdom, and to leave its laity without the
offices of religion.... The edicts ordering these measures remained in
force for over two centuries." Tens of thousands of Christians
preferred death to perjury. It was supposed that Christianity was
entirely exterminated by the fearful and prolonged persecutions. Yet
in the vicinity of Nagasaki over four thousand Christians were
discovered in 1867, who were again subject to persecution until the
pressure of foreign lands secured religious toleration in Japan.

Protestant Christianity came to Japan with the beginning of the new
era, and has been preached with much zeal and moderate success. For a
time it seemed destined to sweep the land even more astonishingly than
did Romanism in the sixteenth century. But in 1888 an anti-foreign
reaction began in every department of Japanese life and thought which
has put a decided check on the progress of Christian missions.

This must suffice for our historical review of the religious life of
the Japanese. Were we to forget Japan's long and repeated isolations,
and also to ignore fluctuations of belief and of other religious
phenomena in other lands, we might say, as many do, that the Japanese
have inherently shallow and chan