Daily National Democrat

Religion of the Japanese.—The following

is from the Bulletin's report of a lecture delivered

in San Francisco by the Rev. J. R.

Gobal, now on his way to Japan as a missionary:

The Japanese have among them many religions,

but no government religion. In this

respect, the Government is very liberal, and

some thirty different sects exist, each having

its own peculiar form of worship. One sect,

the lecturer remarked, had many characteristics

of the Christian's belief and of Bible

teachings. They are called Sinchoos, (worshippers)

and, while believing in a Triune

God, have many superstitions. They believe

in transmigration—that all existence

commences in inanimate matter, rising into

conscious, intellectual and spiritual existence

towards death, and their creed, altogether,

embraces a sort of Universalism, by which

every one will finally reach heaven; but the

wicked have to pass through many transmigrations

before they are fitted for the blessed

abode, and before they can reach supreme

happiness. They have also a means of salvation

by self sacrifices—by impaling themselves,

in atonement for their sins. The lecturer

had witnessed a portion of this ceremony,

when some twenty Japanese, dressed

in white, and uttering their penitence, proceeded

to the top of a mountain and cast

themselves headlong over a precipice, up the

face of which they had climbed by means of

iron pins fastened to the solid rock in such

manner as to enable them to make the ascent.

There is also another mode by which, in

their belief, they will attain eternal life, and

that is by assembling on board a junk, and

after getting out to sea, while engaged in

their devotions, the vessel is scuttled, and

they go down uttering cries of joy. These

sacrifices are regarded as necessary to relieve

both the victims and their friends from the

disgrace attached to whatever crimes the

penitents were guilty of, or for which they

may have been condemned by the laws; and

are always immediately preceded by bathing

in the sea. They have a superstition, too,

that a demon dwells in the storm cloud, and

upon the approach of a storm, they go out

with arms and make every hostile demonstration

possible in order to drive it away. Their

supposed victories over this storm fiend are

commemorated by paintings of the monster,

filled with arrows and darts, fleeing before

the hostile array. Yet another of their beliefs

is, that they are descendants of God;

that at one time they inhabited the sun, and

by reason of this they consider themselves

superior to the human race, being themselves

gods.