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Indigenous and Imported Traditions in Japan

Jeffrey L. Richey, Ph.D.

REL 232

Religions of China and Japan

Berea College

Fall 2004

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EARLY JAPAN (4500 BCE-550 CE)

Origins of Japanese people: unknown, probably multiple, perhaps related to Koreans and Manchurians

Centralized authority and stratified society developed much later in Japan, perhaps due to easy access to water

Earliest records of Japanese religion describe female shaman-rulers, oracle bone divination, and concern with ritual purification

No early Japanese text free of Chinese influence

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SHINTÔ 神道 Shintô = term borrowed from

Chinese In both Chinese and early

Japanese texts, Shintô = 1. Popular religion2. Buddhism3. Daoism4. Generic “religion”

Until late medieval period (c. 1500s), Shintô = Buddhism

After 1500s, Shintô gradually acquires modern meaning: independent, indigenous Japanese religion

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PRE-MODERN JAPANESE RELIGIOUS HISTORY

300s-600s: Yamato period – Chinese art, language, politics, religion (especially Buddhism), and technology imported from Korea

710-794: Nara period – unified imperial rule established; Buddhism endorsed by Nara court; earliest Shintô texts (Kojiki 古事記 [Record of Ancient Matters], Nihongi 日本記 [Chronicles of Japan] composed

794-1192: Heian period – imperial capital moved to Kyoto; Pure Land and Chan (Zen) Buddhism introduced

1192-1338: Kamakura period – imperial power eclipsed by rule of shogun 將軍 (military dictator); dramatic growth for Buddhism

1338-1571: Muromachi (Ashikaga) period – declining stability of shogun rule; endemic civil war; Portuguese bring Christianity

1571-1868: Tokugawa (Edo) period – feudal society under shogun; persecution of Christianity; popularity of neo-Confucianism; Shintô develops independent religious identity

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SHINTÔ: KEY CONCEPTS

Kami 神 : non- anthropomorphic spirits of natural sites that embody purity as well as Japan itself

Jinja 神社 : shrines at which kami are present

Matsuri 祭 : festivals involving music, dance, prayer, food offerings, and feasting; closely tied to agricultural seasons

Harae 祓 : ritual purification, usually as preparation for participation in shrine ceremony

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SHINTÔ VIEWS OF NATURE

Japan = pure, good, beautiful, and divine land brought into being by kami

Imperial family = descendants of Amaterasu 天照大 (sun kami)

Japanese people = “children of the kami”

Thus, all things are good insofar as they arise from kami, but liable to pollution insofar as they stray from kami

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SHINTÔ VIEWS OF HUMANITY

Human nature = originally pure (“bright, red heart”)

Human life = process of gradual accumulation of pollution (“dirty, black heart”)

Human goal = purity:1. outward purification of

body and community2. inner purification of heart

(kokoro 心 ) Both goals facilitated by

contact with kami at shrines, in nature, etc.

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THE SHINTÔ RITUAL YEAR

New Year Festival (January 1-15): family purification through shrine visits and house-cleaning

Spring and Autumn Festivals: seasonal rituals of purification

Great Purification (June 30): national ritual of purification performed at each local shrine

Harvest Festival (November 23-24): offering of first fruits by emperor at Ise shrine

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SHINTÔ VIEWS OF BUDDHISM

No Shintô text predates Buddhism in Japan

Nara thinkers develop theory of honji suijaku 本地重跡 (original reality, manifest traces), whereby bodhisattvas are honji, kami are suijaku

By Kamakura period, Shintôists invert theory -- kami as honji, bodhisattvas as suijaku

Buddhism and Shintô remain completely intertwined until Muromachi period

By Meiji period (1868-1912), Shintô and Buddhism separate

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SHINTÔ VIEWS OF CONFUCIANISM

No Shintô texts predate the introduction of Confucianism to Japan

Early rulers such as Prince Shotoku (573-621) based the Japanese imperial state on Chinese and Korean Confucian models

By Tokugawa period, Neo-Confucian thought was very attractive to the ruling and intellectual classes

Shintô-Confucian synthesis complete by late 1800s

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