Appendix A: Origins of the Japanese
Appendix C: The Multilayered Model of Japanese Culture
Appendix E: Shinto Shrines Illustrated
Appendix F: The Spread of Buddhism
Appendix G: Yin/Yang and the 64 Hexagrams
Appendix I: Japanese Aesthetics
PREFACE
The genesis of Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations evolved out of many years of classroom instruction designed for international business students in an MBA program at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan. The lectures, entitled “A Brief Journey Through Japanese Cultural History,” attempted to guide the students through the multiple layers of religious and philosphical belief that underlie life in modern-day Japan. Topics included the importance of such historical elements in the development of the Japanese aesthetic and martial arts, the Japanese style of learning, and the traditional values of contemporary Japanese people. The goal was to paint a picture of Japanese culture in “broad strokes” so that participants could better understand the historical complexities of what they were seeing during their stay in Japan. These lectures were then further field tested with both undergraduate and postgraduate Japanese students studying English at an advanced level at The University of Tokyo and Waseda University (earlier unfinished drafts had also been developed at Ehime University in Matsuyama, Japan). The result of all of these efforts is the present volume.
Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations begins with two introductory chapters, one investigating the origins of the Japanese, and the other exploring the most important approaches to Japanese cultural history found in current scholarship. A conceptual framework developed by cultural anthropologists to explain Japan’s diverse religious and philosophical traditions, known as the multilayered model, is then introduced. Subsequent chapters examine each of these layers in a timeline stretching from Japan’s ancient past to modern times in the following sequence: Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Confucianism, and Western influences of the modern era.
Each chapter in this volume concludes with extensive endnotes and thought-provoking discussion activities, many of which were created by the students with whom this book was field tested. The chapters are also twinned with illustrated appendices, which provide perspective and depth to the selected themes. A detailed bibliography is included for readers who wish to further explore the book’s topics.
Finally, the author wishes to express his thanks and gratitude to the hundreds of students, both Japanese and non-Japanese, who participated in this project over many years. This book is dedicated to you.
Roger J. Davies, PhD, MBA
Tokyo, Japan
JAPANESE CHRONOLOGY
Note: There continue to be disagreements concerning the exact dates of the periods listed below. However, the following timeline seems to be widely accepted.
ANCIENT (Kodai)
| Jōmon Period | 8,000–300 BC |
| Yayoi Period | 300 BC–250 AD |
| Kofun [Tomb] Period | 250–646 AD |
| Nara Period | 646–794 AD |
| Heian Period | 794–1185 AD |
MEDIEVAL (Chūsei)
| Kamakura Period | 1185–1392 AD |
| Nanbokuchō Period | 1336–1392 AD |
| Muromachi Period | 1392–1603 AD |
EARLY MODERN (Kinsei)
| Edo Period (Tokugawa Shogunate) | 1603–1868 AD |
MODERN (Kin-Gendai)
| Meiji Period | 1868–1912 AD |
| Taishō Period | 1912–1926 AD |
| Shōwa Period | 1926–1989 AD |
| Heisei Period | 1989–present |
JAPANESE
CULTURE
The Origins of the Japanese
The origins of the Japanese people and their culture date back to a time of remote antiquity of which we have almost no knowledge. As a result, there are still many unanswered questions and numerous areas of dispute and contention. Evidence of the origins of the Japanese comes from three main sources: archeological remains, written Han Chinese documents and early Japanese records,1 and as the results of studies in comparative linguistics2 (Sansom, 1976; Reischauer, 1988).
No traces of paleolithic (early Stone Age) culture have been distinguished in Japan, but two types of neolithic (late Stone Age) culture have been identified: Jōmon (named after a characteristic “rope-pattern” type of pottery) and Yayoi (named for a kind of pottery found at a place of that name). Technically, Jōmon pottery is considered to be inferior to Yayoi, but artistically, it is more advanced (Sansom, 1976, p. 2). Both kinds of pottery have been discovered throughout the Japanese archipelago, but the Jōmon type is more predominant in the north and east while Yayoi pottery is found more extensively in the south and west. The culture of the Yayoi period (300 BC–250 AD) is thus thought to have originated in Kyushu between the third and second centuries BC, and is characterized by the wet cultivation of rice and the introduction of metals such as bronze and iron. The neolithic culture of Japan is felt to have reached high levels of development and it is, therefore, thought to have been of very long duration (ibid., p. 4). It came to an end with the introduction of metal culture from China, but lasted until the first century BC in the west, the second century AD in central Japan, and in the far north until c. 1000 AD. Bronze Age culture had reached its height in China during the Chou dynasty (1122–221 BC), and spread slowly to southern Manchuria, Korea, and then to Japan; with the Han dynasty (202 BC–220 AD) China entered the Iron Age. No sooner did the Bronze Age begin in Japan, however, than it was eclipsed by the Iron Age culture of a rapidly expanding Han civilization from China.3 As a result, Japan is said to have had no true Bronze Age culture of its own.
Jōmon pottery
Jōmon Clay Figurine
Jōmon Architecture
Yayoi Village
Japan is thought to have endured numerous