The great _Hondo_ or hall of the _Hongwanji_ temples in Kyōto is a thing of exquisite beauty. How different are these great altars, these exquisite paintings, this cave of splendour, with its dim lights and its fragrant incense, from the simple rock-hewn shrines of Ceylon and their barbaric frescoes, and from the sunny courtyards and massed images of a Burmese pagoda! Very different, too, is the worship of this devout crowd of Japanese men and women, prostrating themselves before the high altar or joining in antiphonal praises of Amitābha (_Amida Nyorai_), the lord of the Western Paradise. The influence of the solemn chanting, the deep notes of gongs, the incense rising in clouds, the dim lights, the burnished gold and lacquer work of screen and altar--all this is almost hypnotic, and the congregation is borne along on a tide of sombre feeling shot through with gleams of joy and otherworldly enthusiasm. The student who has steeped himself in the simple pithy sayings of the _Dhammapada_, or of the Amitābha Books, and then passes on to study the elaborate apocalypses of the Lotus Scripture, will understand what has taken place in this transition from the simple ethical reform movement of early Buddhism to the elaborate pietism and cultus of the _Mahāyāna_. The historical Sākyamuni has almost disappeared, and in his place there are the eternal or semi-eternal Buddhas, and the great Bodhisattvas. Let us study the figures in this great Kyōto temple. The central position is given to the Japanese monk Shinran, a Luther or Wesley who in the twelfth century popularised in Japan the Way of Salvation by Faith; to the left of him are the figures of Amida Nyorai, the chief object of worship in this sect, Honen, the predecessor of Shinran and his teacher in the way of mystic faith, and Shōtoku, the great layman who as Regent of Japan espoused Buddhism in the seventh century A.D., and laid the foundations of Japanese civilisation. He is the patron saint of the arts and crafts of Japan and is given a prominent place in _Shin Shu_ Buddhism (to which three-quarters of Japanese Buddhists belong) because it claims to be a religion for lay-people and not only for monks. There is a delightful story of Shinran and of the lady who led him to realise this truth. Going up to his monastery on the Hiei San Shinran met a charming princess, who took from her long silken sleeve a burning glass; "See how this little crystal gathers to a point the scattered rays of the sun," she cried. "Cannot you do this for our religion?" He replied that it took twenty years to train a monk in the old _Tendai_ sect to which he belonged, and she reminded him that women were not allowed to go up to its temples. He went away and meditating upon the essential teachings of Buddhism came to the conclusion that the real heart of the matter was this, that it is faith in the eternal Buddha and gratitude to him which are to be the motives of true living, that as the Lotus Scripture teaches, all may