はじめのひとこと
この浅草寺の本堂に入ったイギリス公使オールコックは、ローマの教会と同じだ、という思いを抱きました。
そのことを、自分の本に書き残しています。
When the British Minister, Rutherford Alcock, entered the main hall of this temple, Sensoji, he felt it was the same as in the Roman Church.
He wrote as much in his own book.
本堂に入ると、祭壇と像、造花やシャンデリアなどの飾りが目に付いた、とオールコックは書いています。
祈りが唱えられ、ときには「アミダ、アミダ、アミダ」と、一時間も休みなく繰り返されていた、と。
そして、仏教の寺に入るたびに、これは同じものだという思いを抱いた、と書いています。
のちの仏教徒がローマの教会から借りたのか、初期のローマの教会が仏教徒から借りたのか、そのどちらかだろう、と。
けれども、どちらが元でどちらが写しかは問わない、とも書いています。
この一致は旅人の目を引くもので、フランシスコ・ザビエルに同行した最初の宣教師たちの目も引いた、と。
On entering, he writes, the altar and image, and decorations such as artificial flowers and chandeliers, caught the eye.
Prayers were chanted, and at times "Amida! Amida! Amida!" was repeated without stopping for an hour.
"I never entered one of these Buddhist temples," he writes, "without a mental conviction of identity."
Either the Buddhists of a later day had borrowed from the Roman Church, he thought, or the Roman Church of an early date had borrowed from them.
"Which is the original, and which is the copy, I will not stop to inquire," he adds.
The coincidence, he writes, strikes a traveller, as it struck the first missionaries who accompanied Francis Xavier.
記録の言葉
この話のもとになった記録の言葉です。ページは、その本に刷られたものです。
The Capital of the Tycoon, Vol. II（London: Longman, 1863）一次史料
The British Minister and the rest of Her Majesty's Legation were alive : this was manifestly due to a merciful dispensation of Providence, under which a band of ruffians failed to reach my apartment
On entering the temple, the same stereotyped altar, image, and trumpery decorations of artificial flowers, chandeliers, &c., strike the eye as leading features in all.／the same reiteration and mumbling of prayers and rituals in an unknown tongue, unknown even to the priest who gabbles them; at other times consisting of three words, incessantly reiterated for an hour without ceasing, ‘Amida! Amida! Amida!’ the name of the god.
Which is the original, and which is the copy, I will not stop to inquire.／I only note the coincidence as it strikes a traveller — indeed, as it struck the first missionaries who accompanied Francis Xavier—and leave the explanation to other and abler hands.
I never entered one of these Buddhist temples, without a mental conviction of identity, and the reflection that either the Buddhists of a later day have borrowed from the Roman Church, or the Roman／Church of an early date borrowed from them.