n  Japan encompasses diverse climates and terrains; such extremes embody immense natural beauty but also great uncertainty (e.g., climatic changes, seismic activity)

n  The ancient human inclination is to attach supernatural forces to such diverse and unpredictable conditions

Five characteristics of Japanese Religious Consciousness

n  The intimacy of human beings, gods, and nature

n  The spiritual character of the family

n  The ritual dichotomy of defilement and purity

n  The prominence of local/popular religiosity

n  The bond between religion and nation

Five Strands of Japanese Religious Tradition

n  Indigenous Folk Religion

n  Shinto

n  Buddhism

n  Religious Daoism

n  Confucianism/Neo Confucianism

Pre-Historic/Early Historic Japan

n  Jomon Period (ca. 3000-400 BCE)

n  Paleolithic (hunting and gathering)

n  Ceramic “cord pattern” motifs

n  Ancestors of Ainu culture in Hokkaido

n  Yayoi Period (ca. 400 BCE-250 CE)

n  Neolithic (planting and raising)

n  Emigration (from Korea?) to Kyushu, moved eastward to Honshu

n  Iron/bronze tools and weapons

n  Introduction of widespread rice cultivation

n  Kofun Period (ca. 250-710 CE)

n  The emergence and ascension of the Yamato uji (“clan”) as the dominant power base (cf. the Kojiki, below)

n  The Wei Chih chronicles of China: 240 CE

n  The shaman-queen Himiko (a matriarchal leadership of a pre-Yamato culture?)

n  Today, a miko 巫女 is a female shaman who serves as a ritual channel to the kami

n  Funeral rituals

n  Burial mounds (Kofun)

n  Haniwa figures

Asuka Period (552-710)

n  Introduction of Buddhism (552) under Emperor Kimmei (531-571)

n  Initially, Japanese interest in Buddhism is purely practical, a kind of “useful magic” for the good of the state (cf. contemporary Japanese pragmatism)

n  Emperor Yomei formally converts in 586

n  Emperor Shotoku (573-621) “goes Chinese”

n  Religious/cultural exchange with Tang Dynasty China

n  Chinese language and writing as favored medium

n  Horyu-ji Buddhist Temple at Nara, founded in 607

Political Developments and Reforms

n  Constitution of 17 Articles (early 7^th c.)

n  Confucian in spirit and intent

n  Article XII: “In a country there are not two lords… the sovereign is the master of the people of the whole country”

n  The Taika Reform (645 CE)

n  Land and tax reform based on centralized government and bureaucratic structure of China’s Tang Dynasty

n  The Taiho Code (702 CE)

n  A formal code of law and administrative structure

n  Dept of Worship over Dept of State

n  Matsurigoto: “religious affairs” and “government”

Nara Period (710-794)

n  Emperor Shomyu (724-749)

n  Continued adoption of all things Chinese

n  Todai-ji Temple at Nara (728)

n  Largest wooden structure in the world

n  Dainichi (“Sun Buddha”) at Todai-ji, whose presence was seen as having the “approval” of Amaterasu

n  Reflective of Mahayana Buddhism’s historic capacity to adapt itself congenially to host culture

n  Decline of Nara Buddhism

n  Buddhist dependence on state patronage

n  Elitism and favoritism led to corruption

n  Buddhist clergy exercised excessive influence over emperors and overall national policy

Indigenous Response to Buddhism

n  “The countenance of this Buddha… is of a severe dignity such as we have never at all seen before.  Ought it to be worshipped or not?” (from the Kojiki, 712)

n  Shinto 神道 (“the way of the gods”): formally acknowledged in order to lift up and distinguish indigenous Japanese gods and practices from “foreign” ones

Characteristics of Shinto

n  Kami 神 : any one of thousands of divine energies or powers that infuse a natural place or thing (mountains, caves, forests, etc.)

n  Jinja 神社 (“shrines”) built at holy sites throughout Japan

n  Vast array of national/localized matsuri 祭り(“festivals”) to honor the kami

n  Veneration of ancestors

n  Respect for the land/nation of Japan

n  The attainment of ritual purity, both inwardly and outwardly: makoto no kokoro 誠の心 (“the heart of truth”)

The Mythological Construct

n  The Kojiki, 712 (“Chronicle of Ancient Matters”) and the Nihongi, 720 (“Chronicle of Japan”)

n  A constructed mythos serves as a divine legitimization for those who wrote it

n  Izanagi and Izanami: the divine creators of Japan and the subsequent kami

n  Amaterasu: the Sun Goddess

n  Susano-o: the Storm God

n  A mythological metaphor for an actual political rivalry between the Yamato and the Idzumo?

n  Ironically, the Kojiki and Nihongi are written in Chinese (the language of the Japanese elite)

n  “History written backwards:” mythos as:

n  A “record” of the rise and establishment of the Yamato uji

n  A divine sanction of the Yamato authority

n  Jimmu, of the Yamato uji - the first emperor of Japan

n  “Great-grandson” of Amaterasu

n  Arrives in Kyushu from Silla (a Korean kingdom); conquest moves eastward to Honshu, into competition with the Idzumo (Izuma) uji

n  The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy

n  Recall shaman/queen Himiko of the Kofun Period

The Heian Period (794-1185)

n  Basic characteristics

n  Court from Nara (via Nagaoka) to Heian (Kyoto)

n  A “Japanized” Japan finds its own identity, apart from Chinese importation

n  The Fujiwara family: the power of the “in-law” (p.38-39)

n  The development of the Japanese syllabary or kana (phonetic Japanese “alphabet”)

n  Court culture: closed, refined, and highly ritualized

n  “The Tale of Genji” (ca. 1008)

n  Religion: Confucianism, Buddhism, Shinto

n  Confucian ethos of sociopolitical protocol

n  Shinto applied to day-to-day practical concerns

n  Buddhism dealt with concerns of the afterlife

n  “Shinto marries, Buddhism buries”

n  New Japanese sects of Buddhism develop

New Heian Sects of Buddhism (most important for our purposes is simply to understand that these sects were rather esoteric and remotely located so as to be isolated from the secular and corrupting world of politics and government)

n  Tendai Buddhism (Tendai, “heavenly platform”)

n  Importance of secluded mountain retreat (i.e., Mount Hiei, NE of Heian) and proper meditation technique

n  More practical than speculative in content (e.g., reward and punishment vs. abstraction of “nirvana”)

n  Gave reverence to Shinto kami of Mount Hiei

n  Shingon (“True Word”) Buddhism

n  Centered on Mount Koya (SE of Heian)

n  Esoteric mantras, rituals, and symbol systems and meditation techniques

n  Mandalas: Womb (female) and Diamond (male) as the duality of the universe

n  A “gnostic” Buddhism with a secret “knowledge-within-knowledge”?

n  Rivalries grew between the two sects (cf. quote of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, p.38)

Kamakura Period (1185-1336)

n  Basic Characteristics

n  Late Heian Period marked by:

n  The insei (“cloistered rule”) emperors (p. 49-50)

n  The rising power of external warrior families and clans

n  Civil war between two clans vying for control, culminating in the Gempei Wars (1180-85)

n  With the ensuing victory of Minamoto clan at Kamakura, power shifts from the imperial court to a feudal military-based bakufu (“tent government”), or a shogunate

n  Emperor essentially reduced to nominal figurehead

n  The age of the elite warrior class known as the samurai 侍 (“one who serves”) or 武士 (“warrior”)

n  Closer in spirit to Homeric hero than European medieval knight

n  As means of escape from the instability of this world, new forms of Buddhism developed that furthered the Mahayana tenets of emptiness and personal salvation (i.e., Pure Land and Zazen-- we covered Pure Land in China)

The Formation of Medieval Shinto

n  Despite Buddhism’s dominance among the elite, Shinto still prevailed in the population at-large

n  The developments of both Buddhism and Shinto were quite hybrid in nature (they borrowed from each other)

n  Many Shinto shrines existed side-by-side with Buddhist temples; priests often shared duties with one another

n  Honji-suijaku (“original substance is manifest in traces”), i.e., Shinto is revealed in later forms:

n  A Buddhist bodhisattva is a Shinto kami

n  Dainichi (the Sun Buddha) is a form of Amaterasu

n  The Shingon dual mandala (diamond and womb) correspond to Izanagi and Izanami, whose duality transcends itself in the creation of Japan

n  Kami no kaze or kamikaze 神の風 (“the divine wind”)

n  The Mongol ruler Kublai Khan of China attempted to conquer Japan through two separate invasions of Kyushu (the southernmost island), in 1274 and in 1281

n  On both occasions, his forces were repelled by a combination of military wherewithal, luck, and, most significantly, violent tropical typhoons, thereafter referred to as the kamikaze

n  These events added credence to the assertion that divine kami were indeed protecting the Japanese land

n  This served as the inspiration, tragic as it was, behind the kamikaze pilots who flew to their deaths during the final months of the Pacific War in 1945

Initial Contacts with the West: Pre-Tokugawa / Tokugawa Periods

n  1542: a Portuguese shipwreck in Kyushu

n  1549: Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrives in Kyushu, makes his way to Kyoto

n  Japanese impressed with Jesuit order: modern, academic, scientific, disciplined (reminiscent of the best Zen monks)

n  Many Japanese converts; Jesuit success alarms the Buddhist authorities

n  Over the next 50 years, trade relations (and rivalries) develop with Portugal, Spain, Holland, and England

n  1597: first major persecution of Christians in Japan (both missions and converts)

n  1614: official edict to suppress Christianity

n  Basic characteristics of Pre-Tokugawa and Tokugawa Japan

n  Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu: the three-tiered foundation of a unified Japan (1534-1615)

n  Western firearms and resulting changes in war tactics

n  Hideyoshi’s sword confiscation: the clear distinction of the samurai class

n  In 1615, Japan ultimately unified under one powerful military shogunate (Tokugawa clan)

n  Samurai pledged themselves to the service of a daimyo 大名 (lit., “great name”), a feudal lord who governed a district under the ruling shogun

n  Under Ieyasu, capital moved from Kyoto to Edo (modern Tokyo)

n  Figurehead emperor remained in Kyoto

n  Sankin-kotai: “alternate attendance” of the daimyo and the “hostage system”

n  Sought to isolate Japan from ever-increasing foreign influences (both Asian and Western), including sometimes violent suppression of Christian mission

n  Early 17^th century religious persecution: the Fumi-e

n  The exceptional affinity for the Dutch, who are allowed to maintain limited trading privileges in the southern port of Nagasaki

n  Science, technology, and illustration

n  Edo painting and the development of Ukiyo-e

Religion in Tokugawa Japan

n  Buddhism institutionalized into state-sanctioned tool of social control

n  Every family must register with local temple

n  Evolves into consciousness of religion as family tradition, not personal faith

n  As a mere political tool, Buddhism’s influence declines

n  Neo-Confucianism provides a rationale for the existence of the political order (recall li as “natural order”)

n  But in regard to the samurai, changes in the Confucian notion of “self-cultivation” as a basis for discipline

n  The samurai class becomes one of name only, as their responsibilities become more bureaucratic and less martial in a time of relative peace and political stability

n  “Martial skills” become “martial arts” (the “art” of the sword)

n  Many samurai are without occupation, and become wandering masterless warriors, or ronin  濾人 cf. Kurusawa’s “The Seven Samurai” (1954) or Kobayashi’s “Seppuku” (1962)

November 16-20  

Tokugawa Restoration Shinto

n  Due to its political institutionalization, Buddhism falls into relative disfavor

n  Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801)

n  Edited both the Kojiki and The Tale of Genji, in order to strip away the layers of Buddhist and Confucian socio-ethical ideas that had been artificially imposed on them (also, the Kojiki is written in the Japanese kana syllabary so that it is much more accessible)

n  The Kojiki accounts for both good and evil kami, for all of life is a composite of good and evil, right and wrong

n  The ethical inconsistencies of Genji demonstrate that human emotions do not follow the dictates of reason

n  Better to accept the inconsistencies than to follow the deceptive Buddhist and Confucian views that attempt to hide the truth