The Daibutsu at Kamakura, of which an illustration is given opposite, is one of the largest in Japan. It is fifty feet high, and, as a work of art, is without a rival. The boss protruding from the forehead is supposed to represent a jewel, and to symbolize Illumination. _ 15 History of the Jewish Church_, Vol. iii, Lecture xlv. 16 This is scarcely less true of Christianity; and it _must_ be true, in some measure, of every religious system which attempts to minister to the needs of beings, so differently constituted, and so dissimilarly circumstanced, as are the members of the human race. As we proceed in this chapter to refer to the various schools of Buddhism and their characteristics, we can hardly fail to have suggested to us, more than once, those different aspects of Christianity, which have been the occasion of all our “schools of thought,” and, alas, of how many of our divisions! 17 Those who would investigate the subject further are referred to Alabaster’s _The Modern Buddhist_ (Trübner, 1870). 18 For it is men only who inhabit this Celestial Region: women, worthy of attaining to it, have changed their sex. _ 19 Jodo_ means the “Pure Land.” 20 Avalokitesvara=“The Lord who looks down from heaven.” The female form taking the place of the male is, no doubt, due to the idea of the woman’s being supposed to be the more compassionate nature; just as, too often in the Christian Church, the Blessed Mother has, for a like reason, been made to encroach upon the prerogatives of her Divine Son. Instances are recorded of the Chinese, when conversing with Europeans, giving the name of _Kwanyin_ to the statues of the Blessed Virgin in the Roman Churches. (Davis’ _The Chinese_, chap, xiv.) 21 I have not thought it necessary in this little volume to introduce the subject of Confucianism. Even in China it is less a religion than a system of philosophy—political, social, moral. It may, however, be remarked that the writings of Confucius are highly esteemed in Japan, and that, in the past at any rate, they have had a considerable influence in forming the thought and character of its people. The ethics of Confucius being materialistic, i.e. concerned with the things of this present life, and the Buddhist ethics being mainly spiritualistic, the two mutually supplement each other. The great Confucian Temple at Yeddo was until 1868 the chief University of Japan. Now,—so entirely have the Western systems of education supplanted the teaching of the Chinese sage,—the building has been converted into a Museum. 22 Charcoal-brazier.