Japan and the Japanese

TOMB OF TAIKO-SAMA. 15\
night. At the end of this passage was the
peristyle of the
temple,
ascended by several steps, and having on the
right
a
monastery of
priests. The principal gate was encrusted with jasper and overlaid
with gold and silver ornaments skilfully wrought. The nave of the
temple was supported by lofty columns. There was a choir, as in
European cathedrals, with seats and a grating all round. Male and
female choristers chanted the prayers, much as in Catholic churches,
and the surplices put Rodrigo in mind of the prebends of Toledo.
The church was filled with silent devotees. Four of the priests
accosted him, and seem to have put him to great uneasiness by con-
ducting him to the altar of their " infamous relics," surrounded
with an infinite number of lamps. After raising five or six cur-
tains, covering as many gratings, first of iron, then of silver, and
the last one of gold, a kind of chest was exposed, in which were con-
tained the ashes of Taiko-Sama. Within this enclosure none but
the chief priests could enter. All the Japanese present prostrated
themselves.
Hastening to quit " this accursed spot," Rodrigo was accompanied
by the priests to their gardens, exceeding, he says, those of
Aranjuez.
Of the religion of Japan he makes the following observations :
" The Japanese, like us, use holy, or rather unholy, water, and
chaplets consecrated to their false gods, Xaka and Nido [Amida],
which are not the only ones that they worship, for there are no less
than thirty-five different sects or religions in Japan. Some deny
the immortality of the soul, others adore divers gods, and others
yet the elements. All are tolerated. The bonzes of all the sects
having concurred in a request to the emperor, that he would expel
our monks, the prince,
troubled with their importunities, inquired
how many different
religions
there were in Japan.
'
Thirty-five,'
was the reply.
'
Well,' said he, ' where thirty-five
sects can be
tolerated, we can easily bear with thirty-six ; leave the strangers
in peace.'" He estimates the Christians at three hundred thousand
a much more probable number than the eighteen hundred thou-
sand, at which they were reckoned by the missionaries,* whose
reckoning was the same now that it had been ten years before.
* The total number of baptisms in Japan, in 1606, according to the annual