alous innovation.

Shint[=o] Buried in Buddhism.

So complete was the victory of Riy[=o]buism, that for nearly a thousand
years Shint[=o] as a religion, except in a few isolated spots, ceased
from sight and sank to a mere mythology or to the shadow of a mythology.
The very knowledge even of the ancient traditions was lost in the
Buddhaized forms in which the old stories[33] were cast, or in the
omnipresent ritual of the Buddhist tera.

Yet, after all, it is a question as to which suffered most, Buddhism or
Shint[=o]. Who can tell which was the base and which was the true metal
in the alloy that was formed? The San Kai Ri shows how superstitious
manifold became imbedded in Buddhism. It was not alone through the
Shingon sect, which K[=o]b[=o] introduced, that this Yoga or union came.
In the other great sect called the Tendai, and in the later sects, more
especially in that of Nichiren, the same principle of absorption was
followed. These sects also adopted many elements derived from the
god-way and thus became Shint[=o]ized. Indeed, it seems certain that
that vast development of Japanese Buddhism, peculiar to Japan and
unknown to the rest of the Buddhist world, scouted by the Southern
Buddhists as dreadful heresy, and rousing the indignation of students of
early Buddhism, like Max Mueller and Professor Whitney, is largely owing
to this attempted digestion of Japanese mythology. The anaconda may
indeed be able, by reason of its marvellously flexible jaws and its
abundant activity of salivary glands, to swallow the calf, and even the
ox; but sometimes the serpent is killed by its own voracity, or at least
made helpless before the destroying hunter. When sweet potatoes and
pumpkins are planted in the same hill, and the cooked product comes on
the table, it is hard to tell whether it is tuber or hollow fruit,
subterranean or superficial growth, that we are eating. So in Riy[=o]bu,
whether it be most _imo_ or _kabocha_ is a fair question. If the
Buddhism in Japan did but add a chapter of decay and degradation to the
religion of the Light of Asia, is not this owing to the act of
K[=o]b[=o]--justified indeed by those who imitated his example, yet
hardly to be called honest? A stroke of ecclesiastical dexterity, it may
have been, but scarcely a lawful example or an illustrious and
commendable specimen of syncretism in religion.

Many students have asked what is the peculiar, the characteristic
difference between the Buddh