The essence of contemporary Japanese religious and philosophical thought results from the interaction of two main kinds of belief system: a set of indigenous, animistic practices that originated with Shinto, and the great East Asian traditions introduced from outside Japan—Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism (though Taoism has had a more indirect effect through its impact on Zen). To this may be added the more recent influences of Western culture, which underlie many of the technological and scientific advances of Japan in the 20th century. Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and modern Western influences can thus be viewed as formative elements in the Japanese religious and philosophical belief system, constituting a dynamic and multilayered complex in which newer traditions are superimposed on older ones and the whole blended and modified to fit native Japanese tastes, preferences, and attitudes.6
NOTES
1. According to Enkvist (1987, pp. 27–28), a model is a simplified representation of reality. It is simplified because it aims at reproducing a selection of relevant elements of reality rather than all of reality at once. A theory, on the other hand, is a set of principles on which the model is built (though in actual practice, the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably).
2. Nation, language, race, and culture are distinct categories for most people, but according to Reischauer (1988, p. 398), for the Japanese they are almost synonymous. Race, in particular, plays a large part in the self-image of the Japanese, who pride themselves on their “racial purity,” despite the obvious mixture that settled the Japanese archipelago (ibid.). Because they have merged their feelings about race, culture, and nation together, the sense of racial difference runs deep, and as a result, racial prejudice is a particular problem in modern Japan. It is very difficult for non-Japanese living in Japan to cross over the imaginary “racial line” and actual “culture line” into full membership in Japanese society (ibid., p. 399). The Japanese generally regard foreigners of any type as irrevocably on the other side of the dividing line between “us and them” (ibid.).
3. To study East Asian cultural history, “one must be prepared to study religions, for the Far East, especially Japan, never produced a strong branch of rationalist and secular philosophy such as flourished in the Occidental world from Greco-Roman times on” (Hall & Beardsley, 1965, p. 310). In addition, most Japanese follow more than one religion at once and place equal value on religions that are vastly different in terms of their philosophical elaboration. Moreover, the Japanese “do not particularly look on any of these religions as a main source of ethics” (ibid.):
Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and shamanism and various other folk religions have been the religions of Japan. Shintoism, the only religion of indigenous origin, and Buddhism have traditionally been regarded as the most important. It has often been pointed out that these religions have permeated the daily lives of the Japanese; they have become part of their customs without requiring any psychological commitment on the part of the individual. Most Japanese subscribe to more than one religion, often without consciously realizing it. (Ohnuki-Tierney, 1984, p. 145)
4. It should also be noted that one of the most vexing problems in understanding Japanese culture is to determine from which particular layer certain religious practices are derived (Sansom, 1976, p. ix). Perhaps the most contentious of these issues involves the custom of ancestor worship. Most mainstream scholars maintain that ancestor worship was an importation from China:
During the most vigorous period of the T’ang Dynasty, the impact of Chinese civilization upon Japan reached such a climax that it marks the turning point in the evolution of Japanese institutions. . . . China under the early T’ang rulers was one of the most highly civilized states in the world, as well as the most powerful, and in the Far East had no rivals for such a distinction. Throughout the seventh and eighth centuries the government in Yamato sent a succession of official embassies to the T’ang court [and] the result was a wholesale copying of Chinese techniques and ideas affecting almost every aspect of Japanese life and society. . . . The Chinese classics, especially the Confucian writings, were studied intently, since every well-bred person was expected to be familiar with them. . . . A new emphasis was placed upon family solidarity and filial devotion, including the duty of sacrificing to ancestral spirits [italics added]. (Burns & Ralph, 1964, p. 337)
On the other hand, as Burns and Ralph (ibid.) note, “[s]ome Japanese scholars deny that the custom of ancestor worship was an importation; but in any case it was intensified by contacts with the Chinese.”
5. For example, many Japanese homes contain both a miniature Shinto shrine and a Buddhist altar in their inner sanctums, and (Shintoist) ancestral mortuary tablets are placed beside the Buddhist altar during memorial observances. Most Japanese also choose Shinto ceremonies for their weddings, while Buddhist rites are reserved for funerals.
6. Only Shinto and some of the “New Religions” are indigenous to Japan; “the others have wider communities, and their origin, as well as their center of gravity is outside the country. Because of the prominence of religions of foreign origin and certain admixtures of doctrine and practice at the national level, the Japanese attitude toward religion is often described as eclectic and syncretic” (Hall & Beardsley, 1965, p. 312). However, these are highly complex issues and much depends on one’s viewpoint. Religions that have coexisted for centuries in Japan remain separate and distinct systems organizationally and ideologically (e.g., Shinto and Buddhism), but in the way ordinary people practice them, they exist as a single, “fused” cultural system. Furthermore, whatever religions have been imported from abroad have certainly been “reworked to suit the Japanese cultural context rather than remaining foreign bodies attached to Japanese life” (ibid., p. 313).
DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES
1. Do you agree with Northrop’s argument that modern Japan is “a bridge between East and West?”
2. Why is Japan’s cultural history so complex and difficult to understand?
3. What do you think of the viewpoint expressed in Kokutai no hongi that Japan has a “unique national structure?” Do you agree with the opinions of Ohnuki-Tierney and Matsumoto that “it is unnecessary to constantly call attention to Japan’s uniqueness as some Japanese intellectuals do?” Why, or why not?
4. Discuss the problem of racial prejudice and discrimination in modern Japan.
5. Comment on the statement by Matsumoto that “Japanese culture does not end with the tea ceremony, flower arranging or poetry. It is the product of a diverse ethnic and cultural amalgam.”
6. Discuss the role of ancestor worship in modern Japan. In your opinion, what are the origins of ancestor worship in Japanese culture?
7. Comment on the viewpoint that contemporary Japanese religious and philosophical thought can be characterized as “multilayered, eclectic, and syncretic.”
Shinto
INTRODUCTION
Prince Shotoku,1 the first Japanese envoy to China during the Sui Dynasty and the man credited with introducing Buddhism to Japan, coined the following famous analogy to describe Japanese religious practices (see Appendix D):
• Shinto: the roots of a tree; imbedded in the very heart of the Japanese people
• Confucianism: the trunk and branches; politics, morality, and education
• Buddhism: the flowers; religious feelings bloom as flowers
Shinto thus forms the bedrock layer of the multilayered, syncretic religious and philosophical belief system of Japan. Its origins are obscure and lie in the nation’s prehistory—when the Japanese first became aware of themselves as a people, it was already there. The term Shinto (“The Way of the Gods”)