Ise Jingu Shinto’s most sacred shrine
SHINTO - THE SOUL OF JAPAN
Religion does not play a dominant role in Japanese policy making
It seems that Japan is becoming a more and more influential country. I am not referring to its enormous economy only but also to Japan’s apparent desire to participate in the affairs of the international community, especially of late.
Almost all countries have some kind of religion behind them. There seems to be a deep-rooted human need to have a divine or other supernatural force behind oneself to give guidance and meaning for one’s actions.
There seems to be two levels at which this can be looked at to me. The first is the sociological definition of religion as the organised worship of society masquerading as a deity. The second is the view of the religious person who believes that there is indeed a source of all things which transcends humanity and which exists beyond the reach of human authority.
To that extent, I suppose, it can be said that religion for the general population belongs mostly to the first and sociological category. In other words religion is, for most people, a social ordering system and the religious leaders, priests, monks and so on, are primarily social guides and authority figures.
That certainly would go, if true, a long way towards explaining why there are religious wars. If the differences of opinion were otherwise, why get so upset that you want to kill anybody else over them? If there was no social aspect what is there to get uptight about if the man sitting next to you on the ‘bus happens to think that the universe had been created by a giant crocodile?
Whatever the truth of the matter and whatever the validity of my above statements there can be no doubt that humanity seems to have an instinctive need for religion and where no religion is extant then one has to be invented by whoever happens to be the most gifted myth-maker around at the time.
I am straying away from the focal point which is Japan and its religions and should not get bogged down in a theological discussion for too long about religions in general.
Japan is almost in a class of its own insofar that there are two religions, almost state religions, coexisting side-by-side and subscribed to by, apparently, the majority of the population, without conflict. They are: Shintoism and Buddhism.
That takes the Japanese people away from most other categories of humanity for whom even a slight deviance from the approved “line” is cause enough for a quarrel.
With Christianity consider the centuries old wars between Roman Catholicism and the Protestant sects exemplified by the Thirty Years War of the 17th century during which there was so much bloodletting that the resulting genetic damage to Europe was huge.
In the case of Islam one only has to think of the sectarian taunts recorded by the unofficial mobile ‘phone footage of former President Saddam Hussein as he stood upon the scaffold just before the drop to realise the hatred between peoples with only minor doctrinal differences.
The coexistence of Buddhism (essentially Mahayana I think) and Shintoism in Japan is, I submit, a small part of the key to understanding the spirit of Japan and the way it will exercise its increased influence in the affairs of the international community.
It seems to be the case that Japanese Buddhism is the state religion which dominates everything to do with death and that Shintoism is concerned with life. Buddhist monks usually perform Japanese funerals while the celebrations for the birth of a child are Shinto and are performed by Shinto priests.
One thinks of the kamikaze (“divine wind”) pilots of the second world war who sacrificed their lives for the sake of a god in the form of their Emperor Hirohito who was forced to renounce his divine status after the war as part of the peace negotiations with the Americans.
One is also brought in mind of the many Japanese martial arts such as karate, judo, jujitsu, kendo and so on which are influenced heavily by Zen Buddhism.
Shinto shares one characteristic with Judaism and Zoroastrianism which is that it is not a proselytising religion. It is primarily for Japanese people.
One thing which needs to be established is that the Japanese population is thought to be an end product of racial mixture between all sorts of Far Eastern peoples such as Russians, Chinese, Philippinos, Pacific islanders and perhaps others. Strangely enough, after all that, the mongrel resultant race frowns on intermarriage and race mixing to the extent that a Japanese woman who marries “out” is firmly asked to leave Japan with her husband and not to return except for vacation purposes.
Nevertheless, neither Shintoism nor Buddhism are overtly racist religions.
The second oddity is that Shinto has no founder. Like Topsy “it just growed.” Almost all other major and semi-major religions have founders. For example, Islam has the Prophet Mohammed, Christianity has Jesus and Zoroastrianism has Zoroaster. Judaism, the other major non-proselytising religion can arguably be said to have been founded by Moses.
To that extent Shinto is a bit like the indigenous local religions of primitive tribes which have existed from times immemorial from no known origins. Many nature-worshipping faiths are like that.
However, Shintoism is similar to most human religions insofar that it possesses a creation myth, has gods and goddesses (lots of them) and lays down codes of conduct.
Where it is a bit thin in on the awful subject of what happens after death. There seems to be a “plane of Heaven” which is good and a “place of Death” which is not. It does not, like Roman Catholicism and Islam, have detailed descriptions of what life after death is like with accounts of the pleasures of the blessed and the torments of the damned. See Dante’s Inferno for a close up of that if you like.
The actual word Shinto is apparently derived from the Chinese “shin tao” (“The Way of the Gods”) amongst whom are included all the emperors bar the present one and his predecessor of second world war infamy.
Shinto creation stories tell of the history and lives of the "Kami" (deities). Among them was a divine couple, Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto, who gave birth to the Japanese islands. Their children became the deities of the various Japanese clans. Amaterasu Omikami (Sun Goddess) was one of their daughters. She is the ancestress of the Imperial Family and is regarded as the chief deity. Her shrine is at Ise. Her descendants unified the country. Her brother, Susano came down from heaven and roamed throughout the earth. He is famous for killing a great evil serpent.
The Kami are the Shinto deities. The word "Kami" is generally translated "god" or "gods." However, the Kami bear little resemblance to the gods of monotheistic religions. There are no concepts which compare to the Christian beliefs in the wrath of God, his omnipotence and omni-presence or the separation of God from humanity due to sin. There are numerous other deities who are conceptualised in many forms.
Concerning the Japanese martial arts which are a popular pathway by which non-Japanese encounter Japanese culture I ‘phoned up Gerald Lafone 6th dan judo, the chief coach of the United States Judo Association.
Concerning the possible role of Shinto in judo he said: “Well, I know that we have had an issue in the USA with a coach who suggested that bowing was a religious act. He actually took legal steps to eliminate bowing.
“I do not think that there is any religious influence in judo. That is the perception in the USA. We have a fair number of Japanese students and we talk about Bushido (“the way of the warrior”) in terms of character and ethics. It is the fighting spirit. Not second world war fighting but the way the athlete fights.
“I know that in the history of the Kodokan (judo’s international headquarters) during the time of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 the Japanese military tried to militarise the Kodokan but Dr Jigoro Kano (judo’s founder) refused to go along with that.
“During world war two the Emperor was a god but with judo although there was the pressure to militarise that was not pervasive.
“However, there are very few people who know about the connection between judo and religion referring to the pre-WW2 time.
“Between 1900 and 1950 there was very little connection between judo and religion.
“Dr Kano was not interested in making a religious vocation of judo. The founder of aikido was different in that regard, though.
“Mokuso (meditation) does exist in judo in certain clubs but I think it is more of a bureaucratic thing you do. There is no spirituality and it is no different from visualisation in other athletic practices.”
My conclusion is that when contacting the Japanese it is wise not to bring up the subject of their religion in regard to purely secular matters.
Almost all countries have some kind of religion behind them. There seems to be a deep-rooted human need to have a divine or other supernatural force behind oneself to give guidance and meaning for one’s actions.
There seems to be two levels at which this can be looked at to me. The first is the sociological definition of religion as the organised worship of society masquerading as a deity. The second is the view of the religious person who believes that there is indeed a source of all things which transcends humanity and which exists beyond the reach of human authority.
To that extent, I suppose, it can be said that religion for the general population belongs mostly to the first and sociological category. In other words religion is, for most people, a social ordering system and the religious leaders, priests, monks and so on, are primarily social guides and authority figures.
That certainly would go, if true, a long way towards explaining why there are religious wars. If the differences of opinion were otherwise, why get so upset that you want to kill anybody else over them? If there was no social aspect what is there to get uptight about if the man sitting next to you on the ‘bus happens to think that the universe had been created by a giant crocodile?
Whatever the truth of the matter and whatever the validity of my above statements there can be no doubt that humanity seems to have an instinctive need for religion and where no religion is extant then one has to be invented by whoever happens to be the most gifted myth-maker around at the time.
I am straying away from the focal point which is Japan and its religions and should not get bogged down in a theological discussion for too long about religions in general.
Japan is almost in a class of its own insofar that there are two religions, almost state religions, coexisting side-by-side and subscribed to by, apparently, the majority of the population, without conflict. They are: Shintoism and Buddhism.
That takes the Japanese people away from most other categories of humanity for whom even a slight deviance from the approved “line” is cause enough for a quarrel.
With Christianity consider the centuries old wars between Roman Catholicism and the Protestant sects exemplified by the Thirty Years War of the 17th century during which there was so much bloodletting that the resulting genetic damage to Europe was huge.
In the case of Islam one only has to think of the sectarian taunts recorded by the unofficial mobile ‘phone footage of former President Saddam Hussein as he stood upon the scaffold just before the drop to realise the hatred between peoples with only minor doctrinal differences.
The coexistence of Buddhism (essentially Mahayana I think) and Shintoism in Japan is, I submit, a small part of the key to understanding the spirit of Japan and the way it will exercise its increased influence in the affairs of the international community.
It seems to be the case that Japanese Buddhism is the state religion which dominates everything to do with death and that Shintoism is concerned with life. Buddhist monks usually perform Japanese funerals while the celebrations for the birth of a child are Shinto and are performed by Shinto priests.
One thinks of the kamikaze (“divine wind”) pilots of the second world war who sacrificed their lives for the sake of a god in the form of their Emperor Hirohito who was forced to renounce his divine status after the war as part of the peace negotiations with the Americans.
One is also brought in mind of the many Japanese martial arts such as karate, judo, jujitsu, kendo and so on which are influenced heavily by Zen Buddhism.
Shinto shares one characteristic with Judaism and Zoroastrianism which is that it is not a proselytising religion. It is primarily for Japanese people.
One thing which needs to be established is that the Japanese population is thought to be an end product of racial mixture between all sorts of Far Eastern peoples such as Russians, Chinese, Philippinos, Pacific islanders and perhaps others. Strangely enough, after all that, the mongrel resultant race frowns on intermarriage and race mixing to the extent that a Japanese woman who marries “out” is firmly asked to leave Japan with her husband and not to return except for vacation purposes.
Nevertheless, neither Shintoism nor Buddhism are overtly racist religions.
The second oddity is that Shinto has no founder. Like Topsy “it just growed.” Almost all other major and semi-major religions have founders. For example, Islam has the Prophet Mohammed, Christianity has Jesus and Zoroastrianism has Zoroaster. Judaism, the other major non-proselytising religion can arguably be said to have been founded by Moses.
To that extent Shinto is a bit like the indigenous local religions of primitive tribes which have existed from times immemorial from no known origins. Many nature-worshipping faiths are like that.
However, Shintoism is similar to most human religions insofar that it possesses a creation myth, has gods and goddesses (lots of them) and lays down codes of conduct.
Where it is a bit thin in on the awful subject of what happens after death. There seems to be a “plane of Heaven” which is good and a “place of Death” which is not. It does not, like Roman Catholicism and Islam, have detailed descriptions of what life after death is like with accounts of the pleasures of the blessed and the torments of the damned. See Dante’s Inferno for a close up of that if you like.
The actual word Shinto is apparently derived from the Chinese “shin tao” (“The Way of the Gods”) amongst whom are included all the emperors bar the present one and his predecessor of second world war infamy.
Shinto creation stories tell of the history and lives of the "Kami" (deities). Among them was a divine couple, Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto, who gave birth to the Japanese islands. Their children became the deities of the various Japanese clans. Amaterasu Omikami (Sun Goddess) was one of their daughters. She is the ancestress of the Imperial Family and is regarded as the chief deity. Her shrine is at Ise. Her descendants unified the country. Her brother, Susano came down from heaven and roamed throughout the earth. He is famous for killing a great evil serpent.
The Kami are the Shinto deities. The word "Kami" is generally translated "god" or "gods." However, the Kami bear little resemblance to the gods of monotheistic religions. There are no concepts which compare to the Christian beliefs in the wrath of God, his omnipotence and omni-presence or the separation of God from humanity due to sin. There are numerous other deities who are conceptualised in many forms.
Concerning the Japanese martial arts which are a popular pathway by which non-Japanese encounter Japanese culture I ‘phoned up Gerald Lafone 6th dan judo, the chief coach of the United States Judo Association.
Concerning the possible role of Shinto in judo he said: “Well, I know that we have had an issue in the USA with a coach who suggested that bowing was a religious act. He actually took legal steps to eliminate bowing.
“I do not think that there is any religious influence in judo. That is the perception in the USA. We have a fair number of Japanese students and we talk about Bushido (“the way of the warrior”) in terms of character and ethics. It is the fighting spirit. Not second world war fighting but the way the athlete fights.
“I know that in the history of the Kodokan (judo’s international headquarters) during the time of the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 the Japanese military tried to militarise the Kodokan but Dr Jigoro Kano (judo’s founder) refused to go along with that.
“During world war two the Emperor was a god but with judo although there was the pressure to militarise that was not pervasive.
“However, there are very few people who know about the connection between judo and religion referring to the pre-WW2 time.
“Between 1900 and 1950 there was very little connection between judo and religion.
“Dr Kano was not interested in making a religious vocation of judo. The founder of aikido was different in that regard, though.
“Mokuso (meditation) does exist in judo in certain clubs but I think it is more of a bureaucratic thing you do. There is no spirituality and it is no different from visualisation in other athletic practices.”
My conclusion is that when contacting the Japanese it is wise not to bring up the subject of their religion in regard to purely secular matters.
THE END
This article was published in the 11th January 2007 issue of the Bangla Mirror newspaper, read everywhere from the Arctic circle to the sub-Antarctic.
