The Ancient Buddhist Temple at Nikko, Japan

Collection: Asia

Title

The Ancient Buddhist Temple at Nikko, Japan

Subject

Buddhist temples

Nikkō Region (Japan)

Description

On verso:
No. 224. THE ANCIENT BUDDHIST TEMPLE AT NIKKO, JAPAN.
The original religion of Japan is “Shintoism”, a mixture of spirit worship and reverence for ancestors. The sun and the other heavenly bodies are the principal deities; the heavens, as the seat of the godhead in the abstract, are identified with the supreme god. All the elements and forces of nature are objects of worship, and after them the “Kami”, the souls of those who have served the country well, or have distinguished themselves by great virtues. The shinto temples, called “Miza”, are small, plain, wooden, straw-thatched buildings without any interior or exterior decoration. Within a bright metal mirror and a bundle of strips of white paper are the principal objects. They represent purity of soul and cleanliness of body., the highest laws of shinto. There is no idolatry in the ceremonies of shinto, which in 1868 was made the state religion.
Equal to shinto in importance is the religion of Buddha, introduced from Korea, A. D. 552. Butsudo, as Buddhism is called in Japanese, means “the way of Buddha.” As in China, Buddhism does not appear here in its pristine simplicity and ethical purity, but has been mingled with ancestor worship and idolatry. There are about 70,000 temples of Buddha in Japan. One of the most gorgeous of these is found in Nikko. It was built in 1617.
A8523

Creator

[Ingersoll, T. W. (Truman Ward)]

Source

Canton Township Carnegie Library, Canton KS, USA

Publisher

Canton Township Carnegie Library, Canton KS, USA

Date

ca. 1900

Rights

No Copyright – United States

Format

image/jpeg

Language

English

Type

Stereographs

Identifier

224