Japan and the Japanese

66 JAPAN. A. D. 1550.
being at lil>erty, so far as the civil law was concerned, to enter 01
leave the monasteries at pleasure. It was also another result of
this separation of state and church as here in the United States
that there was only needed a Jo Smith, a man hardy or self-deceived
enough to pretend to inspiration, to set up a new observance ; an
occurrence by which the theology of Japan had become from time
to time more and more diversified.
There were also, besides the more regular clergy, enthusiasts, or
impostors, religious vagabonds who lived by beggary, and by pre-
tending to drive away evil spirits, to find things lost, to discover rob-
bers, to determine guilt or innocence of accused parties, to interpret
dreams, to predict the future, to cure desperate maladies, and other
similar feats, which they performed chiefly through the medium, not
of a table, but of a child, into whom they pretended to make a spirit
enter, able to answer all their questions. Such, in particular, were
the Jannnabos, or mountain priests, an order of the religion of Sinto.
Yet, exceedingly superstitious as the Japanese were, there was not
wanting among them a sect of Rationalists, the natural result of
freedom of opinion, who regarded all these practices and doctrines,
and all the various creeds of the country, with secret incredulity,
and even contempt. These Rationalists, known as Siudosiu, and
their doctrine as Sinto, and found chiefly among the upper classes,
looked up to the Chinese Confucius as their master and teacher.
They treated the system of Buddha with open hostility, as mere im-
posture and falsehood ; but, in order to avoid the odium of being
destitute of all religion, conformed, at lea'st so far as extcruaJLob-
Bervanccs were concerned, to the old national system of Siuto.