A well compiled booklet on "What Shinto?" has been received from the Board of Tourist Industry, the JJapanese Government Railways. It has been written by Dr. Genchi Kato, an authority on the religion of the Japanese nation, and is designed supply a need in the literature available to tourists in that country. Hitherto tourists have had at their disposal brief summaries of the scenic beauties of the country, of the habits Jof the people, of their art and industries, and the spectacles of ancient monuments, bridges, and temples, But they have not been' able to grasp the essentials of the Japanese religion without frst dipping into tomes too ponderous for the migratory visitor. In his introductory remarks Dr. Kate says: "Shinto isa religion which originated in the peculiar religious temperament of the Japanese people, jand it has followed ts own natural course of growth, in company with the long development of Japanese life, more than two milleniums, though variously influenced by the two foreign-imported teachings, Buddhism fand Confucianism." The booklet re-
[views the history of the religion the present day, and quotes a number of the commentaries of early devotees, The way in which the religion is an epitome of the Japanese character is well brought out towards the end. Here the author says: "The vital essence of Shinto manifests itself 1n fan expression of that unique spirit of the national service of the Japanese people, which comprehends not only their morality but their religion culminating in centrapetal Mikadoism jor their own peculiar form of loyalty Jor patriotism towards the Divine Ruler, the united head, both political jand religious, in a goverament {theocratico-patriarchal as well as constitutional." This summary should assist more persons than casual tourists to an appreciation of the Japanese veneration for their ruler, and their extreme susceptibility to anything that may hold him up to ridicule.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.