^249:1 This was evidently the formal inauguration of the Ryobu Shinto. The Emperor, Saga Tenno, and Kobo were baptized (Kwanjo) into the Shinto community by the chief ritualist of that faith. And the Shintoists in their turn were baptized into Buddhism by Kobo. The bargain was struck on the assumption that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were essentially the same beings as the Shinto gods, and that the two religions meant the same thing, though they said it in different language. It does not matter, says the Shingon commentator, in praising the Scripture of the Lotus of the Good Law, whether one says in Sanskrit, Saddharmapundarika sutram, or in Chinese, Myo Ho Renge Kyo, or in Japanese, Tayenaru nori no hachisu no hana no minori. The meaning and the effect are identical in each case.

Of the Emperor Saga, Murdoch says ("History of Japan," vol. i. p. 227) that he was "undoubtedly a highly accomplished man of brilliant parts ... deeply versed in Chinese literature; that he did everything to encourage its study, and exerted himself to complete the Sinicization of the country." It was, however, more the splendour and magnificence of the Chinese Court than its solid virtues that appealed to him. Luxury and ostentation crept in, the nobles found it hard to meet the expenses of the Court life, and relief had to be granted them by exempting their domains from Imperial taxes. This impoverished the Court, created great semi-independent baronies, and brought about precisely that state of affairs which Kwammu had been at such pains to avert when he tried to break the power of the great Nara monasteries.

^250:1 The Fujiwara family were coming into prominence at this time. For many years the head of this family was the practical director of the Emperor's councils; and the custom subsists to this day that the Empress of Japan is always a Fujiwara. The god of Kasuga, Ama no Koyane, is the deified progenitor of the Fujiwaras.

^250:2 Kenjaku Son is a name given to the Bodhisattva Amoghapasa, often identified with Kwannon.

^250:3 The eight pagodas are the eight stupas in India built over the relics of S'akyamuni, whose ashes were divided amongst eight tribes.

^250:4 Kobo Daishi knew better than to forbid hunting. The experiment had been tried during the Nara period, with the result that the nobles and warriors, after a brave attempt to comply with the Buddhist law, had given up in despair and gone back to their hunting ways. My friend, Mr. Yanagita, of Ushigome, Tokyo, was kind enough to send me a few weeks ago a little pamphlet about some peculiar hunting customs in a little village on the slopes of the volcano of Mount Aso. Amongst other practices, it is customary in that village to hold a funeral service over the dead body of the wild boar. The form of service, which is called indo, and is very ancient, was drawn up for the villages by Kobo Daishi.