Before the introduction of Buddhism, the Shinto doctrine was the prevalent system of faith and worship in Japan. This religion held sacred, beside a small number of domestic gods, a long series of celebrated historical personages, who were worshipped after their decease. It taught that the mikado (emperor) descended from the gods, and he was its clerical superior. This doctrine, of course, was not favorable to cremation; and that accounts for the absence of the latter prior to the introduction of Buddhism. Beginning with the year of our Lord 552, attempts were made, with varying success, to establish Buddhism in Japan. In 624, Buddhism was officially recognized; the court bestowing the title of high-priest upon two priests who had come from Hakusai. The new doctrine spread through the medium of the Chinese literature that circulated in the country; and soon temples had to be built to accommodate the converts. In 700 A.D., Dôsho, a high-priest of a temple at Nara, in the province Yamato, ordered his pupils to burn his body after death, and it was done. This was the first cremation in Japan. Three years later, the corpse of the empress Jito was incinerated; her example was followed by 41 emperors and empresses, who occupied the throne from that period till the beginning of the seventeenth century. The last mikado whose body was burned, was Goyozei, who reigned from 1587 till 1610 A.D. At this time much attention was paid to the doctrines of Confucius, which are as unfavorable to cineration as the Shinto doctrine. In the ninth century Buddhism made considerable headway through the efforts of Kobo, a priest. Up to the fourteenth century, however, Buddhism remained the religion of the military and the aristocracy; the common people knew nothing of it. It owes its adoption among all classes of Japan, to the arduous labors of two missionaries, Shinran and Nichiren, who became the founders of great sects, and who had their corpses burned as an example for their pupils. Cremation is fast becoming general in Japan, burial more and more obsolete. At the present time the number of bodies disposed of by incineration is very great. The greatest number of believers in cremation are found among the Shin and Yoto sects, likewise among the Zen, Tendai, and Nichiren sects; the fewest, among the Shingon sect. Incineration is, however, not compulsory among these religious denominations. In 1868, when the shogun (commander-in-chief) was deposed by the revolutionists, when the mikado re-obtained his former authority and the power of the almost independent princes of the provinces was destroyed, the government attempted to re-establish the Shinto religion. Among other measures they prohibited incineration (July 23, 1873), claiming that it was contrary to the Shinto doctrine. They soon discovered that it was impossible to carry out the interdiction, and, therefore, revoked it (May 23, 1875), granting thereby, as it were, religious freedom to Japan.