Kojiki (part three)

Academic post #9

Kojiki (part three): No matter how bad your brother is, he could actually be worse

So where we left off last time, Izanagi got sick of Susanoo's temper tantrums and told him to get lost.  Susanoo was going to visit his sister, Amaterasu, to say bye.

Susanoo, however, couldn't just go visit his sister normally, so instead, when he ascended to heaven, he made a huge amount of noise and shook the entire Earth.
Amaterasu heard him coming and said, "Oh, great, now my brother is coming to usurp my lands!"  She then tied her hair up and put on her gear to get ready to go to war with her brother the usurper.
When Susanoo finally showed up, he swore that he had only come to say goodbye to his sister, but Amaterasu didn't believe him.  Finally, Susanoo said he would show his pure intentions...by bearing children.
Yup.
So they stood on opposite sides of a river,* and Amaterasu took Susanoo's sword, broke it into pieces, washed the pieces in the heavenly well,** and then chewed them up and spat them out.  They turned into a bunch of female kami.  Then Susanoo took the beads wrapping up Amaterasu's hair and arms and did the same. They turned into a bunch of male kami.  Then Amaterasu said, "The kami born from my possessions are my children and the kami born from your possessions are your children," and then there's a long section no one cares about where they talk about where each of the kami is now enshrined.
Then Susanoo said, "Clearly I had girls because my intentions were pure so HA."  And then he "raged with victory," beginning the section I like to call "Oh Geez, And You Thought Your Little Brother Was a Pain."
First Susanoo destroyed Amaterasu's rice paddies.
Amaterasu, apparently afraid to misjudge her brother again, made all kinds of excuses for him.  "He probably doesn't understand agriculture!" she said.  "He probably thought we were using the land wastefully and was trying to help!"
Then Susanoo pooped in her festival hall and threw the poop around.
"He's probably drunk!" Amaterasu argued.  "We probably just think he's flinging around poop.  He's probably actually projectile vomiting everywhere."***
But then Susanoo skinned the heavenly dappled pony backward**** and dropped it through Amaterasu's weaving hall roof.  The weaving maiden inside was so surprised that she struck her shuttle against her genitals and died.
Amaterasu suddenly realized that Susanoo actually was being a horrible brother and ran away and hid in a cave, which was a problem, because she was the sun goddess.
DUN DUN DUN.

Suddenly, it was night all the time!  Calamities were happening all over the place!  All the kami had a meeting to figure out what they should do.  Then there's a long section where they talk about all the preparations they went through, which include divination with the shoulder bone of a male deer, gathering a bunch of roosters, and making a mirror and some beads.
Then Ame-no-uzume did a dance, stamped on a bucket, and then "became divinely possessed, exposed her breasts, and pushed her skirt-band down to her genitals" (page 84).
And all the kami laughed.

Just to break some of the weirdness of this whole scene, there is a good pretty explanation for everything going on!  Ame-no-uzume's dance is a kind of spirit possession, and in spirit possession, exposing the genitals is a way to ward off evil spirits.  It's also a way to show that you're actually possessed, since you wouldn't normally flash everyone if you weren't.*****  Also, laughter was used in ceremonies to increase the power of the kami.  So it's not just Ame-no-uzume flashing everyone!  It's Ame-no-uzume flashing everyone FOR A REASON.

Anyway, Amaterasu was (understandably) very confused.  She thought that everyone would be miserable with her gone, but instead Ame-no-uzume was dancing around and everyone was having fun!  Geez, the nerve of them!  So she said, "Geez, I thought you guys would be miserable!  What is your deal?"
Ame-no-uzume replied, "We're having a party because we found someone better than you!"
Amaterasu peeked out of the cave and saw herself reflected in the mirror.  She edged out of the cave to get a better look at her reflection (which she believed to be the other sun-deity) and one of the kami, who was hidden just outside of the cave, grabbed her and dragged her away from the door while the other kami put a rope over the cave door so she couldn't go back inside.
And thus light was restored to the world!
Susanoo was then fined for being a jerk and his beard was cut off and his fingernails and toenails were cut off****** and he was thrown out because nobody liked him any more.
In the Nihon Shoki, and in the children's version of the Kojiki that I've been reading, the story then continues that because it was pouring rain, Susanoo made himself a straw hat and straw coat and went around begging shelter from the various kami, who refused to let him in because he had been thrown out for being a jerk.
Anyway, the chapter ends there!  There's a lot more of Susanoo's story, but we'll get to that next time!

*When Confucianists were horrified by this story and said that Amaterasu and Susanoo were committing incest, the Shintoists pointed out that they were on opposite sides of the river and so obviously they weren't committing incest.  Obviously.

**What well?  Weren't they at a river???

***From page 78:

"That which appears to be faeces must be what my brother has vomited and strewn about while drunk."

How is this preferable???

****Skinning animals alive and skinning them backward are both super taboo, so Susanoo is being ULTRA TABOO.

*****If you think that seems crazy and dangerous, some forms of Taiwanese spirit possession involve self-mutilation.  For an interesting book on the subject, I recommend David Jordan's Gods, Ghosts, & Ancestors: Folk Religion in a Taiwanese Village, which is available for free (and legally!) online in its entirety.

******Some manuscripts say his fingernails and toenails were actually yanked out.  Yay.

Kojiki (part two)

Academic post #8

Kojiki (part two): This is basically why you should always keep peaches on hand

Previously on the Kojiki, Izanami died after giving birth to the fire kami.

Izanagi decided to follow his wife to the land of the dead, which was called Yomi.  Izanami came out to greet him, whereupon he said to her, and I quote, "O, my beloved spouse, the lands which you and I were making have not yet been completed; you must come back!"
...well, so much for love.
Unfortunately, Izanami had already eaten food from Yomi so she could not return to the land of the living.*  However, moved by her husband's bravery, she decided to go plead with the gods of Yomi,** but before she left she told her husband not to look at her.
You know how this is going to end.
Anyway, Izanagi waited and waited and waited and eventually he couldn't wait any more so he broke off the tooth of the comb in his hair bunch and lit it on fire and turned around to look at Izanami.  What did he see?  Well, the maggot-infested corpse*** of his beloved, of course.  Izanagi, being somewhat understandably super grossed out, turned and fled.
Unfortunately, fleeing from your spouse's grossness after she explicitly told you NOT to look at her is not the greatest idea, and Izanami was royally ticked.  She sent the hags of Yomi after her husband, beginning perhaps the greatest chase scene ever written.
(You might want to put on some exciting music at this point.)
Izanagi ran from the hags!  He undid his hair tie and threw it on the ground and it turned into grapes!  The hags stopped to eat the grapes!  He fled!  But the hags finished eating the grapes and started chasing him again!  So Izanagi grabbed a comb from his hair and threw it on the ground!  It turned into bamboo!  The hags stopped to eat the bamboo!  Izanagi got away!
But he wasn't safe yet!  Izanami sent the hordes of Yomi after him!  (She was really, really ticked.)  Izanagi unsheathed his sword and fled while waving it behind him!  It...did absolutely nothing, actually, as far as I can tell.
Suddenly, Izanagi arrived at the pass back to the world of the living!  He grabbed three peaches and lay in wait for his pursuers!  THEN
(dramatic pause)
HE ATTACKED THEM WITH THE PEACHES AND THEY ALL TURNED AND FLED!

...man, all that excitement wore me out.
Have I mentioned that I love reading this book?
To be fair, the peach thing isn't as totally random as it seems, because peaches were believed to ward off demons and evil spirits in China, so presumably the idea was imported and integrated into the story.
Still, it gives you a new appreciation for peaches--they can save you from the hordes of Yomi AND make a tasty snack!

So anyway, then Izanagi grabbed a giant boulder and rolled it in front of the entrance to Yomi.
Izanami was ticked and said, "If you don't move this boulder I will strangle a thousand people to death every day."
And Izanagi said, "Fine, then every day I will build one thousand FIVE HUNDRED birthing huts."
(This scene was used to explain the rapid population growth which occurred with the beginning of agricultural practices in Japan)
And then Izanami became the main kami of Yomi.

Izanagi decided that because he had visited Yomi, which was full of decay and death and roaring maggots, he had to purify himself.  So he went to the river and stripped off his clothes (thereby creating a whole slew of kami) and waded into the water to purify himself.  As he bathed, a whole bunch more kami were born, but the important ones were born when he washed his face.  When he washed his left eye, Amaterasu (the sun kami) was born; when he washed his right eye, Tsukiyomi (the moon kami) was born; and when he washed his nose, Susanoo (most commonly identified as the kami of storms or wind) was born.
Izanagi rejoiced to see these three children, because apparently the other eleven he had just given birth to weren't as interesting.  He proceeded to command Amaterasu to rule the high heavens, Tsukiyomi to rule the realms of night, and Susanoo to rule the ocean.
Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi, being fairly obedient children, went to rule their realms, but Susanoo wept and cried and howled.  Susanoo's tantrum was so bad that it caused all the rivers and seas to dry up and the plants to wither and natural disasters to occur all over the place.
Finally, Izanagi asked his son, "What is your deal?"****
Susanoo said that he missed his mom and wanted to go visit her in Yomi.
Izanagi was so disgusted that he said, "Fine, go visit her!  You're not allowed to live here any more!" and threw him out.

Before Susanoo left, he decided to say goodbye to his sister...but that is a story for next time.

*YES, the same as the Persephone myth.  NO, there is no connection between them.  The same sort of myth also exists among the Maori, Chinese, and Ryukyu Islanders, among others.

**Who are they?  Dunno.  And neither did whoever was writing the Kojiki apparently, because later Izanami is referred to as the head kami of Yomi.

***From page 62:

At this time, maggots were squirming and roaring [in the corpse of Izanami-no-mikoto].

I'm trying to figure out what a roaring maggot would sound like.  Ideas?

****Okay, so he actually said, "Why is it you do not rule the land entrusted to you, but [instead] weep and howl?"  But he was probably thinking, What is your deal?

Kojiki (part one)

Did you wake up this morning thinking to yourself, Man, I really want to read about the Kojiki?  Well, if so, today is your lucky day!  If not...DEAL WITH IT.

Academic Post #8 (aw, geez, I am so slow at this)

Kojiki (part one): Oh boy I guess this is what happens when you pay attention to anatomical differences

So in case you've forgotten, the Kojiki is one of the oldest extant Japanese documents.  It's a sort of creation-story-history-genealogy thing written in 712. It was intended to clarify the history of the imperial family (as well as the aristocratic families) and give an explanation for their ruling Japan.  It also recorded a bunch of native myths/songs/stories.  So an important document all around!  The stories continue to be fairly well-known in Japan today, a little bit like Greek myths in the US (although kids don't study them in school).

So, with that out of the way, let's dive into the story!

The Kojiki opens with a bunch of chapters* that nobody really cares about or bothers to remember.  Basically, at the beginning of the universe, suddenly three kami came into existence and then, while the land was floating around like a jellyfish, there were suddenly reeds and two more kami sprouted from the reeds.  They were called the '"separate heavenly deities."  Suddenly, a bunch more kami, called the "seven generations of kami" appeared!  Where did they come from?  Not important.  You'll never hear about most of them again.  Let's move on.
If you haven't already guessed, a great deal of the Kojiki just has things happening for no real discernible reason, and nobody really bothers to offer an explanation (or if there's an explanation, it just makes the reader more confused).

The only two kami who are actually important out of this bunch are Izanagi (male) and Izanami (female), the last of the seven generations of kami.  The separate heavenly kami said, "Hey, you guys, go solidify the land!" so they grabbed a special jeweled spear and dipped it into the brine and stirred a bunch.  When they lifted the spear out of the water, the brine that dripped from the spear formed an island.  They descended to the island, erected a pillar, and then the following EXCESSIVELY EROTIC scene occurred:

At this time [Izanagi-no-mikoto] asked his spouse IZANAMI-NO-MIKOTO, saying:
"How is your body formed?"
She replied, saying:
"My body, formed though it be formed, has one place which is formed insufficiently."
Then IZANAGI-NO-MIKOTO said:
"My body, formed though it be formed, has one place which is formed to excess.  Therefore, I would like to take that place in my body which is formed to excess and insert it into that place in your body which is formed insufficiently, and [thus] give birth to the land.  How would this be?"
IZANAMI-NO-MIKOTO replied, saying:
"That will be good."
Then IZANAGI-NO-MIKOTO said:
"Then let us, you and me, walk in a circle around this heavenly pillar and meet and have conjugal intercourse."**

Ancient Japanese erotica, ladies and gentlemen!***
One of the really interesting things about Shinto is that most religions have Strong Opinions about Sex (and they are usually sex-negative).  Sex is bad!  Sex is evil!  Sex is dirty!  Sex is okay but only if you're doing it with your spouse in order to have children!  Shinto on the other hand is kind of like, "I dunno, do whatever you want.  It's cool.  Sex makes babies sometimes I guess."

Anyway, after that incredibly erotic discussion, they walked around the pillar, Izanami greeted**** Izanagi and then Izanagi greeted Izanami and they did the deed.  But their baby was born a leech child and their second baby was apparently a failure of an island.  After setting the leech child adrift in a reed boat (whoo, infanticide!), they go ask for advice (from the heavenly separate kami) on how to actually make babies correctly.  As it turns out, the reason that their babies were fail babies was because Izanami spoke first, and when women speak before men, they have fail babies.

Interestingly enough, the male supremacy bit seems to be imported from China, as there are some records of the story without the entire leech child chunk.  There are a couple of other sexist chunks of the story that appear to be later additions influenced by Chinese schools of thought/Buddhism.

Anyway, Izanami and Izanagi did their whole walking around the pillar thing again, except Izanagi spoke first this time so they had moderately acceptable babies.  Anyway, they proceeded to have SO MANY BABIES, which is to say that they gave birth to all the islands of Japan and then a whole slew of kami.  Just as the reader is falling asleep from the excessive listing of all their children, Izanami gives birth to a fire kami who burns her genitals and she falls sick.  She vomits and kami are born from her vomit and she defecates and kami are born from her faeces***** and she urinates and kami are born from her urine and then she passes away.
Izanagi, understandably, was not so thrilled by this turn of events, and wept bitterly (giving birth to a kami from his tears).  He then buried his wife and cut off the fire kami's head with a sword.  The blood on the sword and the dead kami's body all turned into a bunch of other kami, which are then all listed.

And then Izanagi goes to the underworld to try to win his wife back, but that will be a story for next time.

If you want to read ahead, the best translation (that I know of) of the Kojiki into English is this one.

I leave you with this incredibly dumb comic Ellie made me draw.

(Click on it to make it bigger.)

*Each chapter being about a page long.

**From page 50 of Kojiki.

***I made Louki read this passage.  The look on her face was brilliant. I wish I had a camera.

****The actual dialogue from the scene goes something along the lines of:
"Whoa, this guy is hot!"
"Whoa, this girl is hot!"
Not even kidding.

*****The classiest word for poop!

Inari

So people have been asking me why there are Inari shrines everywhere I go, which is a pretty valid question.  I gave some of them kind of lame and spastic answers, but now I have decided to...

Academic Post #7

Inari, or Seriously Why Are There So Many of These Shrines

Let's start with the basics.  Inari is a kami of rice.  There's a fair amount of dispute over whether Inari is a man, a woman, a fox, a man who can turn into a fox, a woman who can turn into a fox, a man who rides a fox, a woman who rides a fox, a man with a fox familiar, a woman with a fox familiar, etc.  What basically everyone can agree on is that Inari is probably associated with foxes.  So far so good.

Inari worship is centered around Fushimi Inari on Inari Mountain in Kyoto, which I visited a couple of weeks ago, if you recall.  Fushimi Inari was founded in 711, although scholars believe that people were worshiping at that site centuries beforehand.

One of the really interesting things about Inari is that he/she/it can undergo a process called kanjō (勧請) in which a portion of the kami's spirit is separated from the main shrine and enshrined in a new location for a specific benefit.*  This little piece of the kami's spirit is sometimes called the bunrei (分霊) or "divided spirit" of the kami.  Priests often compare the process “to lighting a new candle from a burning one: the light of the first is in no way diminished as it becomes two” (Smyers 156).

"But what does this meeeeeeeean, Dana?" you cry.  Well, let me illustrate with a mildly dorky (okay, really dorky) example.

So I'm mildly obsessed** with a nerdy card game called Dominion.  All you really need to know for this hypothetical example is that I'm currently involved in the 2011 Dominionstrategy.com Championships.  I'm a pretty okay player, but in the next round I have to go up against the second best player in the entire tournament.

So maybe I decide that I need some divine intervention, so I head over to Fushimi Inari and ask for a divided spirit of Inari to enshrine in my room.  And let's say I get the divided spirit, name it Dominion Inari***, and decide that it grants success in Dominion.  And then let's say that, somehow, I win the Dominion tournament.  Suddenly, everyone's saying, "Dang, how the heck did she win?  She always underestimates Fool's Gold!"  And then they realize that it's because I prayed to Dominion Inari, so they start to visit Dominion Inari as well, to pray for success in Dominion because, hey, if it worked for me, maybe it'll work for them.  Next thing you know, word of Dominion Inari's success has been transmitted back to Fushimi Inari, where "success in Dominion" is added to the list of benefits that Inari offers.

This probably seems overwhelmingly ridiculous to you, but that's basically how the re-enshrinement process works.  The re-enshrined spirit is worshiped for a specific benefit, and if it's successful, that benefit is associated with the Inari back on Fushimi Inari.  That's why Inari is associated with benefits such as:

- agricultural prosperity

- victory in sumo wrestling (and you thought my Dominion example was silly!)

- faithful husbands

- wealthy patrons for geisha

- protection from small pox

- business prosperity

- cures for colds

- cures for coughs

- protection of mulberry and silk worms

Inari is also the patron of:

- blacksmiths

- prostitutes

- rice farmers

- the fishing industry

Keep in mind that Fushimi Inari is in Kyoto, which is in central Japan and thus has no fishing industry!

Also, as technology changes, some benefits become more important while others fade into the background.  For example, granting business prosperity has overshadowed Inari’s original role as a rice deity, and protection of mulberry and silk worms, which are no longer associated with major industries in Japan, has pretty much faded off of the lists of benefits.

Okay, so this is all very cool, but, as many of my professors would write in bright red pen across the top of the paper, “SO WHAT?”

So what does this tell us about the Japanese concept of deity? 

Well, for one thing, kami aren’t static.  Just because Inari was originally a rice deity doesn’t mean he/she/it can’t also be the patron of prostitutes or start granting success in sumo or faithful husbands.  Inari’s power is shaped by the needs of the worshipers.

Also, efficacy (or perceived efficacy) shapes kami.  Let's say I enshrine Dominion Inari and then lose the tournament spectacularly.  Will anyone worship Dominion Inari?  No, because it's not efficacious.  Here's a big difference between Western and Eastern religion.  In general, in Western religion you worship god(s) because it/they are higher than you and more powerful.  The relationship is vertical.  In Eastern religion, in general, the relationship may be slightly vertical, but it's a mutual relationship.  If Dominion Inari doesn't help you win at Dominion, most people won't worship Dominion Inari, and those that do come pray at Dominion Inari will probably not be expecting success in Dominion.  (See my post about genze riyaku for other reasons they could be visiting.)  Plus, if Dominion Inari isn't successful, the benefit won't be transmitted back to Fushimi Inari's Inari, and Dominion Inari will fade into obscurity forever...

And thus ends me quick introduction to Inari and general obsession over Dominion.

Disclaimer: Re-enshrining Inari is a serious business and should not be done lightly, no matter how desperate you are to win at Dominion.  Please consult a priest before attempting to re-enshrine a divided spirit of Inari.

On a completely unrelated note, if you already know of a Dominion Inari shrine, please tell me where it is, so I can go.  You know, for research.

Further Reading

The Fox and the Jewel by Karen Smyers

Pretty much THE book on Inari.

Dominion Strategy Blog by theory

Because everyone should know how to play a silk roads strategy.

*Technically other kami can undergo this process, but it most commonly occurs with Inari.  If you want an example of kami being re-enshrined for "worship from afar" in the Meiji period, check out Helen Hardacre's Shinto and the State, 1868-1988.

**It's not an addiction; I can stop whenever I want!

***Divided spirits are often renamed.  Some names for re-enshrined Inari include "White Jewel Inari," "Toyomitsu Inari," and "White Beard Inari."  So Dominion Inari is actually a pretty reasonable name

Genze Riyaku

Academic Post #6

Genze Riyaku: Buy Two Benefits, Get One Free

So today I'm going to do something a little bit different and talk about an important concept in Shinto studies (and, in fact, Japanese religious studies as a whole): genze riyaku.

Genze riyaku (現世利益) literally means "this-worldly benefits."  The term can be used to refer to good luck as a whole, but is most commonly used to refer to material benefits such as success in studies, protection from traffic accidents, and safe childbirth, as well as less tangible benefits such as familial harmony and marital happiness.  Generally you can split genze riyaku into two categories: kaiun (開運) and yakuyoke (厄除け).  Kaiun (literally “opening luck”) refers to any benefit which beckons in good fortune, such as the aforementioned success in studies and familiar harmony benefits.  Yakuyoke (normally translated as either “warding off evil” or “prevention of danger”) refers to benefits which prevent bad or evil forces from influencing one’s life—for example, protection from traffic accidents.

Why is all this important?  Well, pretty much every shrine you will visit will offer some sort of genze riyaku.  Benefits can be gained in a variety of different ways:

-          Praying to the kami

-          Asking the priest to pray to the kami and/or perform special services for you

-          Buying an omamori

-          Writing on an ema

-          Buying an omikuji (a fortune) and tying it up

Okay, you say, but why is this important?  The short answer is that it’s important because People Have Strong Opinions about it.  Many religious scholars—and the National Learning scholars, for that matter—are of the opinion that genze riyaku “cheapens” Shinto.  People visit shrines, they argue, solely for the purpose of receiving benefits.  They only pray to the kami when they need something, and so they don’t really believe in Shinto.  They’re just going through the motions to get what they want and then they don’t come back.  Genze riyaku, they argue, is turning Shinto into a commercial enterprise, not a religion.*

Even when people aren’t arguing that genze riyaku cheapens Shinto, they are arguing that all practices that people perform at shrines—buying omamori, praying, writing on ema—are intended to induce genze riyaku.  One of the main scholars in this camp is Ian Reader, who, in response to scholars and even Japanese people who deny that their behavior is religious and, in fact, it falls more solidly under custom, responds that all practices that take place at religious centers are inherently religious, whether the practitioner sees them as religious or not.

There are, of course, a whole lot of problems with both of these arguments.  Let’s look at some of them:

1. These scholars are making a value judgment.  “Genze riyaku is worse than no genze riyaku!” they cry.  “Commercialized Shinto is worse than commercialized Shinto!”  Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.  Maybe they’re just different.  But if from the outset you’ve decided that one is worse than the other, you’re not going to be giving a very objective view.

2. Not everybody wants genze riyaku.  Sure, there are people who visit shrines to receive genze riyaku.  But there are people who may be visiting shrines and engaging in what Reader calls “benefit-seeking behaviors” without expecting to receive anything in return.  These people have a relationship with the local kami, and they are dropping in to say hello, in a sense.  For example, Kasulis gives the example of businessmen stopping at a shrine on their morning rush to the train station.  Despite their obvious haste to reach the trains, they “not only slow down but walk up to the shrine building, stop at the trough to wash their hands and mouth, then go up to the shrine, clap their hands, bow formally with hands held together in prayerlike form, clap again, and then leave the shrine grounds.  As soon as they leave the precincts, they again break into a run.”[1]  When these men were questioned about their motives for their visits to the shrine, the discussion often followed this form:

“Why did you stop at the shrine?”

“I almost always stop on the way to work.”

“Yes, but why?  Was it to give thanks, to ask a favor, to repent, to pay homage, to avoid something bad from happening?  What was your purpose?”

“I don’t really know.  It was nothing in particular.”

“Well, then, when you stood in front of the shrine with your palms together, what did you say, either aloud or silently to yourself?”

“I didn’t say anything.”[2]

Are they performing “benefit-seeking behaviors”?  Yes, they’re praying.  Are they actually seeking benefits?  No.  You can “visit” the kami of the shrine and pay your respects before work in the hope that someday, if disaster strikes and you need something from the kami, the fact that you already have a relationship will prompt a more efficacious response.  Or you can just drop in to say “hello” or “thank you” or “it’s a really nice day” without expecting anything in return.

3. The kami will not magically fix everything for you.  If you buy an omamori for success in examinations, you still have to study for the examination or else you will fail.  Nobody believes buying an omamori gives you a free pass.  In fact, shrines often emphasize the effort needed to achieve your goals; Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine’s ema for education success include a picture of Thomas Edison and his famous saying, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”  If you don’t study your brains out to pass that test, you might as well not buy the ema at all.

4. Some people don’t wish for anything at all.  Somewhat related to the last point, but a surprising number of people use the act of writing on an ema or buying an omamori to reinforce their commitment to studying (or creating harmony in their household or being a safe driver).  For example, while many ema wishes are written in the form “may____” (“may I enter XYZ high school,” “may I find a good boyfriend,” “may I be protected from traffic accidents), others are written in the form “I will____” (“I WILL enter XYZ high school,” “I WILL find a good boyfriend,” “I WILL be a safe driver”).  Are these requests?  No, they’re public statements of intention.  By displaying such a message, these people are expressing their desire to enter a high school or find a boyfriend or be a safe driver in front of the kami as well as everyone who comes to the shrine to read the ema.  Similarly, by buying an omamori for success in examinations, a student may be expressing his or her commitment to do well in the examination.

5. The majority of omamori are bought for other people.  Let’s say your mom gives you a success in studies omamori.  What’s she saying to you?  “I am giving you a divine object to help you pass your exams”?  “You better do well in those exams or else; here’s a handy reminder of how important these exams are”?  “I know you’re working hard to pass your exams; here’s a present to remind you I’m behind you one hundred percent”?  Maybe it’s all of the above.  Or maybe you go out with your soccer team and write on ema at Shirahime Shrine (oh man, you remember those pictures I took?).  You could say that you’re looking for help from the kami, but you could also say that you’re reaffirming your commitment to achieving your common goal while stressing the importance of teamwork.  Therefore, you can’t say buying an omamori or writing on an ema is a solely religious (or materialistic) practice—there’s also a lot of social communication going on, reinforcing the bonds that tie people together and reminding people of their obligations to their family/team/friends.

And thus concludes my (very) brief introduction to genze riyaku.

Further Reading

Books:

Enduring Identities: The Guise of Shinto in Contemporary Japan by John K. Nelson

Although not specifically about genze riyaku, he does talk about alternate interpretations of "religious" practices in modern Shinto.

Religion in Contemporary Japan by Ian Reader

A general overview of religion in Japan...in 1991.  Needless to say, it's slightly out of date.

Practically Religious by Ian Reader and George J. Tanabe

As can be surmised from the title, this is THE genze riyaku book.  Lots of interesting information on contemporary practices, even if you disagree with the interpretation.

Kurozumikyo and the New Religions of Japan by Helen Hardacre

Has a section specifically about genze riyaku in the New Religions and why the purely materialistic interpretations fail.  With some tweaking, the argument can be expanded to the established religions as well.

Articles (all of these can be accessed through JSTOR):

Reader, Ian.  “Letters to the Gods: The Form and Meaning of Ema.”  Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18.1 (1991): 24-50.

Exactly what it sounds like.  Reader wrote an article about ema and genze riyaku.

Anderson, Richard W.  “What Constitutes Religious Activity? (I).”  Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18.4 (1991): 369-372.

Then Anderson wrote a response to Reader's article saying Reader was wrong.

Reader, Ian.  “What Constitutes Religious Activity? (II)”  Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18.4 (1991): 373-376.

Then Reader wrote a response to Anderson's response saying Anderson was wrong.

Swanger, Eugene R. and K. Peter Takayama.  “A Preliminary Examination of the ‘Omamori’ Phenomenon.”  Asian Folklore Studies 40.2 (1981): 237-252.

Specifically about omamori.  Talks about omamori use to strengthen social ties.

Zeng, Kanming.  “Prayer, Luck, and Spiritual Strength: The Desecularization of Entrance Examination Systems in East Asia.”  Comparative Education Review 40.3 (1996): 264-279. 

Specifically about practices to ensure success in examination.

*It’s worth noting that the same argument is made about the New Religions.  I.e. the New Religions are focused solely on attaining material benefits and thus aren’t religions at all but more like elaborate cons.  It’s also worth noting that a lot of these arguments come from priests in the established religions (i.e. Shinto and Buddhism).  Definitely no bias there.

---

[1] Kasulis, Shinto, 27.

[2] Ibid., 27-28.

A Brief History of Shinto (part 5)

I didn't realize that yesterday was post #50 until just now.  Yay?

Also, a lot of today's post is modified from my thesis.  'cause sometimes you really want to include a quote from General Douglas MacArthur.

ANYWAY.

Academic Post #5

A Brief History of Shinto (part 5): Actually, We Changed Our Minds; Shinto's a Religion Again, and Everyone Is Super Confused

When World War II ended and the Occupation was faced with the task of “rehabilitating” Japan, their first major hurdle was State Shinto.  The leaders of the Occupation saw State Shinto as the source of the Japanese xenophobic ultranationalism.  Of course, some people saw the situation in a different light than others; General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of the allied powers and a generally REALLY INTERESTING GUY, declared, “Japan is a spiritual vacuum.  If you do not fill it with Christianity, it will be filled with Communism.  Send me 1,000 missionaries.”[1]  Although Shinto leaders feared that MacArthur planned to Christianize Japan by force, most of the Allied Occupation leaders were significantly more reasonable and mostly wanted to make sure that Shinto would never again be used for nationalistic or militaristic purposes.

This is where the Shinto Directive comes in.

The Shinto Directive (which, ironically, I have to read for class this week in the original Japanese) basically said:

1. The Japanese people have religious freedom.
2. Shinto is the same legally as any other religion in Japan.
3. Religion and the state must be separate.
4. All references to and instruction on Shinto must be removed from public school curriculum.

Ironically, the part of the Shinto Directive which sparked the most outcry from the public was the last bit; people argued that shrines, aside from being religious instituions, were places of immense historical and cultural value, and so children who were deprived of field trips to shrines would grow up lacking a proper appreciation and understanding of their culture and history.  The Occupation government wasn’t convinced, but after the end of the Occupation, field trips resumed.*

The other major change which occurred under the Occupation was that the emperor was required to renounce his divinity in a radio broadcast to the nation.  It was the first time the emperor had ever done a radio broadcast, and everyone I have talked to from that generation has vivid memories of the event.  It’s sort of like how in my generation we ask, “Where were you when you heard about 9/11?” except that it’s “Where were you when you heard the emperor was human?”

And now I get to talk about all the weird fallout created by classifying Shinto as a religion.

This is definitely one of the things I find most fascinating about Shinto, so excuse me as I wax poetic.

The problem boils down to this: nobody’s really sure what the heck Shinto is.

Historically, there was no concept of a religious sphere that was separate from the secular sphere in Japan.  The old word for government (政; matsurigoto) literally meant “the business of ritual worship.”  To say that government and religion were heavily intertwined would be to imply that they were two different things, which they weren’t.

Thus, when Japan came into contact with the West, and, perhaps more importantly, Christianity in the nineteenth century, it had no equivalent concept or term for the word “religion,” nor any concept of “religion” as a distinct sphere of daily life.  However, the Japanese needed a word for “religion” if only for translation purposes, and so after trying a variety of different words, they settled on shūkyō (宗教), a Buddhist technical term.

Additionally, the lack of resemblance between Japanese religions and Western ones was what led to the discussion among scholars of the early Meiji period concerning whether the word shūkyō could be used to describe Shinto.  In the end, as you already know, it was decided that Shinto was not a religion, because the Shinto priesthood, for the most part, associated shūkyō with doctrine, funerals, and rites intended to induce this-worldly benefits, NOT with the rites of state which State Shinto was supposed to perform.

However, at the end of the war, suddenly Shinto was a religion, and everyone was really, really confused.  Everyone is still really, really confused, as illustrated in a survey conducted by the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture.  29% of the respondents said that they belonged to a religious group, and 19% described themselves as atheists.  Despite what Western audiences might see as a very low level of religious affiliation, 50% of the respondents professed belief in the existence of deities, and almost two-thirds said they believed in an “unseen higher power.”  Most interestingly, 25% of those who described themselves as atheists said that they believed in a God or gods.[2]  So what exactly Shinto is, what religion is, and how the two are related is still kind of an amorphous blob of confusion, for most people.

Further reading

Sources of Japanese Tradition volume 2

Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religion

Shinto and the State, 1868-1988

Also, the BBC has a brief history of Shinto, which you may find helpful (and more coherent than mine).

And thus concludes this brief history of Shinto series!  I hope it has been somewhat informative/not confusing.

I have some ideas for new academic topics starting next week, but if you have suggestions, I would love to hear them!  You can leave a comment below or you can email me or you can send me a letter by carrier pigeon or you can yell really, really loudly.  Unfortunately, I do not know everything in the world, so if you suggest a topic I know absolutely nothing about (like, I dunno, Buddhist influences in Basho’s poetry), I probably won’t be able to write anything about it.  BUT if you want to hear about a supremely nerdy topic (like internet shrines or the Lucky Star shrine or mail-order amulets) I can probably talk/write your ears off.

*Nakano-san said that 2^nd graders visit Gosha Shrine twice a year for fieldtrips.

---

[1] Helen Hardacre, Shintō and the State, 1868-1988, 135.

[2] Robert Kisala, “Japanese Religions,” 5-6.

A Brief History of Shinto (part 4)

Academic Post #4

A Brief History of Shinto (part 4): If You Overthrow the Shogunate and Establish a New Government, You Can Say Anything About Shinto That You Like (Although People Might Not Listen)

Where we left off last time, National Learning dudes were convinced that Shinto should be used by the emperor to rule over all people.

Suddenly, the Meiji Restoration happened!*  Basically, a bunch of disgruntled people overthrew the shogunate and put the emperor back into power.  But then someone said, “Hold on a second!  This is actually not that great of an idea!  Look at China.  They have an emperor, but they’re getting crushed by Westerners and all sorts of crazy rebellions!**”  So after studying Western forms of government, they decided to set up the Diet and a cabinet of ministers…so it became an oligarchy, basically.

In addition to governmental changes, there was a huge push in Japan to modernize and Westernize.  At the same time, the new state-builders were worried that unless the Japanese people were united as a whole, the West would be able to just swoop in and crush them.  What Japan needed was a “national consciousness,” something that bound all Japanese people together.  What it needed was…State Shinto.

The problem was that Western powers were pushing for Japan to guarantee freedom of religion, which meant that if the Meiji government made observances of State Shinto mandatory, the Western powers would get ticked off and beat them up.  On the other hand, if they didn’t make State Shinto mandatory, it wouldn’t be very effective.

The solution?

Shinto isn’t a religion.  It’s a SUPRARELIGIOUS ENTITY.***

There’s a whole lot that can be said (and has been said) about State Shinto, but since this is a brief history, I’ll stick to the basic outline:

What was State Shinto supposed to do?

1. Make the people feel loyal toward the government (especially the emperor).  As a consequence of their loyalty, they would do pretty much whatever the government asked them to do.

2. Unite the people by making them feel as though they all had something in common which made them Japanese.  Remember, Shinto stretches back to ANCIENT ANTIQUITY and hasn't changed AT ALL NOT A BIT.

3. Remember all that about Japan being the source of everything ever?  Well, imagine that times one thousand.  A sizable chunk of the propaganda from WWII features poor, unenlightened Koreans/Chinese/Taiwanese people on their knees as they are dazzled by the Japanese army, who have conveniently brought Amaterasu with them to spread her heavenly light over the poor, oppressed, unenlightened foreigners.***

How was State Shinto supposed to do that?

1. Shinbutsu bunri, also known as the separation of Shinto from Buddhism.  Shrines were ordered to be moved out of temple complexes and vice versa.  Any Buddhist paraphernalia in shrines had to be thrown out.

2. Setting up national holidays and certain rites which the whole populace was supposed to participate in.  Also included mandatory fieldtrips to shrines for kids in elementary school.

3. Ordering the priesthood to stop performing rituals that could be associated with “religious” activity.

4. Worshiping the emperor as a “living kami.”  While the imperial family was always believed to be descended from Amaterasu, their connection to the sun goddess was particularly stressed during the State Shinto period.

How well did this work?

1. Shinbutsu bunri.  Not all that well.  Shinto didn’t really exist separate from Buddhism, so separating the two of them was…hard, to say the least.  It would be like if I handed you The New Testament and asked you to take all the silly stuff about Jesus out.

2. National holidays worked equally badly, mostly because a lot of people ignored them.  Many of the new holidays and rituals had no grounding in local beliefs or traditions, so nobody really had an incentive to follow them.

3. Trying to cut the religion out of Shinto failed pretty spectacularly as well.  The main problem was that the government couldn’t afford to support shrines, and the main way shrines normally got their revenue was from the local populace.  If the local populace came to the shrine and asked for prayers for health/good luck/plentiful crops to be performed and the priest refused, the shrine had no money and the priest starved.  If the priest accepted, he was violating Shinto’s suprareligious nature.

4. It’s…not really clear how well the propaganda concerning the emperor worked.  People certainly knew about it, but whether they believed it is another matter entirely…

But now you’re saying, “Waaaaait a second!  If State Shinto failed so spectacularly, what’s the deal with WWII?”

Well, there are a couple of things going on here.

First of all, State Shinto didn’t cause WWII.  State Shinto was the result of a mindset which contributed to the start of WWII.  Think of it as a symptom of the underlying problem, not the problem itself.

Second of all, State Shinto was pretty horribly ineffective at the beginning, but as the war progressed (and the situation in Japan got generally scarier) some bits of it became more effective.  If it’s a question between going to the festival that is meaningless to you or working, you’re going to work.  But if it’s a question of going to the festival that is meaningless to you or getting shot in the face, you’re probably going to go to the festival.  Also, there were some bits of it which were relatively effective from the beginning, such as the observances performed at schools.

Third of all, the situation was a lot more complicated than I have room to describe here, so you should really go read more about it if you are interested.

Further reading

Sources of Japanese Tradition volume 2

Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religion

Shinto and the State, 1868-1988
Japan's Modern Myths by Carol Gluck
Although this book doesn't focus specifically on Shinto, it does talk about ideology in the Meiji period, of which State Shinto was a small part.

*Note: This is not actually how history happens.  Some people had to get killed in nasty ways before anything got restored.

**Taiping Rebellion.  Best rebellion ever, not even kidding.  Basically a guy claiming to be Jesus’s younger brother (yes, that Jesus) gathers together a bunch of followers, runs away from the army with his followers and in the process somehow manages to capture the southern half of China, holds onto the southern half of China for ten years as the Qing army fails hilariously at defeating him, manages to tick off/weird out the Western powers who are actually interested in helping him, rewrites the Bible, orders the death of his right-hand man (the Holy Ghost) and the resulting slaughter takes out about twenty thousand of his followers, and is finally killed, becoming one of the twenty to thirty MILLION deaths caused by the rebellion.  If you’re interested in reading about this (bizarre and fascinating and bloody) rebellion, I highly recommend God’s Chinese Son by Jonathan D. Spence.

***You have my permission to headdesk, if you so desire.  If you do not have a desk, you may headtable.

A Brief History of Shinto (part 3)

Academic Post #3

A Brief History of Shinto (part 3): Shinto Is the Greatest but Jesus Was Bad at Learning It

Where we last left off, there were a whole bunch of conflicting theories of Shinto, but one of the last ones to emerge was that Shinto had been “polluted” by foreign ideas.

So now we reach 国学 (Kokugaku).  There are actually a lot of names for this school of thought, both in English and Japanese.  Some Japanese names I’ve seen include 国学、古道、and 復古神道, and some English ones include National Learning, National Studies, and Ancient Studies.  I’m going to use 国学 and National Learning, because a) that’s what I used in my thesis and b) that’s what I’ve seen used most commonly in English-language literature.  (More conservative studies in Japanese seem to favor 復古神道, though.)

But first, a little bit of background on what was happening at this point in time.  Japan was in its era of isolation; with very few exceptions, there were no foreigners or foreign goods coming to Japan.  Leaving Japan (and then coming back) was also strictly prohibited, so there really wasn’t much exchange of ideas going on.  Meanwhile, the Tokugawa shogunate had basically seized control of the government, completely cutting the emperor out of any decision-making.  The imperial court and the shogunate even had different capitals; the imperial court was in Kyoto while the shogun was in Tokyo.  The shogunate was becoming more and more corrupt/complacent/generally bad at handling things, and increased pressure was coming from the West for Japan to reopen its ports to trade.  Many people saw The Really Bad Stuff Happening in China (like the Opium War) when the Chinese government refused to cooperate with Western trade-related demands, and were afraid that Japan, which at this point was severely militarily behind the West, would be the next target.  So at this point in history you have an intense fear of Western conquest, general discontentment with the government, and an intense urge to discover where China went so horribly wrong.

National Learning sprang out of this miasma of fear and discontentment, which explains a lot about some of its more…ah…interesting ideas.  The general concept behind most National Learning writings is that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong in Japan; ancient Japan had been a place of peace, where the emperor ruled over the whole land and no one dared question him.  But what could have gone wrong, and how could whatever it was be fixed?  What the National Learning scholars did was go back to the oldest written works in Japanese—the Nihon Shoki (a “history” of Japan, stretching from the beginning of time to about the 8^th century), the Manyoushuu (a book of ancient poetry), and, of course, the Kojiki.  These scholars proposed that the main issue with Japan was that the “ancient way of the gods” (also known as Shinto) had been horribly polluted by “foreign doctrines,” namely those from China.  They insisted that if the government were to “reclaim the ancient way,” and separate “pure” Shinto from the foreign pollutants, the land would once again be in a state of harmony.

With me so far?  Here’s where it gets interesting.

First off, the National Learning guys (yes, they were all guys) believed that Shinto was was “enacted by the ruler” and so “subjects should not privately interpret and carry it out.”  Shinto was described by Motoori Norinaga, one of the main National Learning guys, as “the just and public Way with which the emperor governs the world.”  He thought funerals, festivals, memorial services, and, in fact, most of the major rites that were commonly performed at shrines by priests as well as the general populace as “unorthodox rites.”  Rather than being “ceremonies of the Way of the Gods,” they were imitations of Confucian and Buddhist rites merely disguised to appear as Shinto, and “by no means the genuine ancient practices of our imperial land.”[1]  Basically, he thought that Shinto was a way of governance, not a religion.  He, and many other National Learning thinkers, wanted to see Shinto used practically.

But wait, there’s more!  The following are some of the other arguments National Learning scholars came up with:

Japan is the source of all the everythings ever.  Remember how before Japan was the trunk of the tree while China was the branches and India was the fruit?  Well, the National Learning guys took it a step farther to say that Japan was the source of all life and all religion ever.  Yes, even Christianity.  Jesus came to Japan to study, you know.  So did the Buddha.  However, since Jesus and the Buddha were apparently pretty bad at learning Shinto correctly, they transmitted a messed up version of it to their followers.  Therefore, Shinto should be spread to all peoples so that they will be able to partake in the correct way of the gods!

…I hope you are all noticing the foreshadowing going on here.

China sucks.  A lot.  If you ever want to read some astoundingly racist stuff, go check out a lot of later National Learning works.  My personal favorite “oh geez you have got to be kidding me” moment is when one of them argues that the reason China has so many fantastic schools of thought is because the Chinese people are, by nature, lazy and horrible human beings, so they need Confucianism and Daoism to lead them toward being actually productive members of society.  Japanese people, on the other hand, are naturally perfect, which is why they only have Shinto.

When you die, you are dead.  Motoori Norinaga, after his wife’s death, became so depressed by the prospect of her going to Yomi* that he spent a good deal of the rest of his life arguing that Yomi didn’t actually exist.  What happens after you die?  Well, you’re dead.  There is NOTHING.  (If he admitted that the Buddhist paradises or reincarnation existed, he would have kind of negated all his previous arguments.)

If you haven’t noticed the foreshadowing, lemme make it a teensy bit clearer:

IT’S FORESHADOWING STATE SHINTO AND THE START OF THE PACIFIC WAR.

…which we’ll save for next time.

Further reading

Sources of Japanese Tradition volume 2

Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religion

Shinto and the State, 1868-1988

*The Shinto underworld.  It’s a pretty depressing place, to be honest.  As far as anyone can really tell, all that happens is that it’s pretty dark, your body rots, and you’re surrounded by impurity.  YAY.

---

[1] Motoori Norinaga, “First Steps into the Mountains (Uiyamabumi),” 413.  P.S. I totally copy and pasted part of this section from my thesis. 

A Brief History of Shinto (part 2)

And now it's time for...

Academic Post #2

A Brief History of Shinto (part 2): Buddhas Are Leveled-Up Kami, Kami Are Leveled-Up Buddhas, All of Them are Confucian, STOP SCREWING UP MY SHINTO

Where we left off last time, the Imperial Line had been linked to the Sun Goddess by way of the Kojiki and nobody outside of the court really knew.

Then Buddhism showed up.  

Well, actually Buddhism showed up before that—the “official” account of Buddhism’s arrival in Japan dates it to the mid-6^th century.  I mostly left it out of the equation beforehand to keep things from getting needlessly complicated.  

In any case, suddenly there was Buddhism!  Bam!  Buddhism, unlike the kami-worship Japan was used to, had a body of sacred texts and temples and a priesthood and rituals and doctrine.  Buddhism was shiny and awesome and famous throughout East Asia by this point, and kami worship was kind of amorphous and not particularly flashy.  Needless to say, Buddhism was embraced almost universally.  The imperial court adopted a Buddhist ritual calendar...and performed rituals to the kami as well, but these rituals were almost always subordinate to the Buddhist ones.

This is a perfect illustration of one of the interesting qualities of East Asian religions: they tend not to be exclusive.  While you can’t be both Muslim and Christian, there was (and still is) no problem with worshiping both Buddhas and kami.  In fact, Buddhism pretty much integrated kami-worship into it.  Many Buddhist temples had shrines for kami on their precincts, and some kami were even integrated into the Buddhist pantheon.  People worshiped kami and Buddha side by side, and almost all of the time they didn’t (or couldn't) differentiate them from each other.

Of course, there had to be an explanation for why the kami and Buddhas could be worshiped together, and the prevailing theory for a very long time was called honji suijaku (本地垂迹), which is generally translated as “original essence, manifest traces.”  The basic idea of this theory was that the kami were incarnations or manifestations of the Buddha, whereas the Buddha and bodhisattvas* were the “original” or “pure” essence of divinity.  Other prevailing theories included that the kami were also stuck in the cycle of death and rebirth,** and they needed people to pray to them (and Buddhist priests to perform ceremonies for them) so they could “level-up” to being Buddhas and escape the cycle.

Of course, there were a lot of people who came up with different theories. Some of these people even started calling kami worship Shinto, so I can finally start using that word a little.  Instead of being boring, like the boring book I have to read for class, and listing all of the different schools of thought without telling you anything important about them, I’ll give some general trends that occurred.

Reverse honji suijaku!  It’s not that kami are lame versions of Buddhas, it’s actually that Buddhas are lame versions of kami!  Buddhas have to become enlightened, but kami are born divine.  Clearly the kami are better!

Japan is the source of all the everythings!  Sort of like reverse honji suijaku on steroids.  Not only are kami the true essence while the Buddhas are the manifest traces, Japan is the trunk of the tree while China is the branches and India is the flowers.  Using this analogy, clearly all religion came from Japan!***

Shinto is Neo-Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism is Shinto.  Due to a lot of complicated stuff that I don’t have time to get into, Neo-Confucianism**** rose in popularity starting in the 17^th century.  The Neo-Confucians recognized a potential ally against Buddhism (which was pretty clearly crazily powerful; I might talk about this at some point, but you should all go read about it either way) in the Shinto theorists, and so there was a lot of reimagining Shinto in a Confucian light (and reimagining Confucianism in a Shinto light).  A lot of theorists would pick single qualities (like “honestly” or “sincerity”) which they felt exemplified “traditional” Japanese values and write extensively about those.  Ironically, given the intense amount of mixing with Confucianism going on, this focus on “traditional” Japanese values in Shinto helped to reinforce the idea (later emphasized by the National Learning scholars) that it had existed unchanged since time immemorial.

Ew, there's all this other stuff my Shinto!  Once people began to gain an awareness of Shinto as a separate entity from Buddhism (although exactly what that entity was comprised of…nobody was quite sure), there were, of course, people who were horrified at how polluted Shinto had become.  They wanted to cut the Buddhist and Confucian influences out…but, of course, what exactly these influences were, nobody could agree on.  But everyone knew they were bad and they should be gotten rid of.

And then National Learning showed up, but I'll save them for next time.

…meanwhile, the common people had very little idea of the debates going on, and continued to worship the kami and Buddhas as they always had.

Further Reading

Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions by a whole slew of people

Shinto in History by a whole slew of people

Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One edited by William Theodore de Bary
Sources of Japanese Tradition Volume Two edited by William Theodore de Bary
Because everything is better in two volumes.
Pretty much anything by Kuroda Toshio, but especially "Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion," which can be found in Religion and Society in Modern Japan, among other books

Seriously, the first thing my advisor gave me to read when I was writing my thesis was one of Kuroda's papers.  His work has so much controversy surrounding it (more in Japan than in the US) and upsets some people terribly, which is a good reason to read it in and of itself.

Shinto and the State, 1868-1988 by Helen Hardacre

Although the focus of the book is the Meiji, War, and Post-War periods, the introduction has some information on kami worship in the Tokugawa period. 

Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture, especially the chapter entitled “Masuho Zankō (1655-1742): A Shinto Popularizer Between Nativism and National Learning.” 

...yes, half of those titles are in italics while the other half are underlined.  Blogger is being dumb at me.  Thus the sudden font change.  Grr, Blogger, grr.

*For anyone unfamiliar with Buddhism, a bodhisattva is someone who gains enlightenment but decides to stay on Earth to help other people gain enlightenment instead of moving on and becoming a Buddha.

**Super fast Buddhism explanation 101!  Everybody’s stuck in the cycle of death and rebirth. You die, and then you’re reborn as something different. If you were a good person, you’re reborn at a higher level, like as an emperor if you were previously a peasant. If you were a bad person, you’re reborn at a lower level, like as a worm or a fly.  Being trapped in the cycle is bad because you keep dying and being reborn and it’s all so very pointless.  However, if you gain enlightenment, you can escape the cycle forever!

***If you think this sounds crazy, wait ‘til I get to National Learning and how Jesus came to Japan to study.

****A branch of Confucianism inspired mostly by the writings of Zhu Xi.  You should read about it.

A Brief History of Shinto (Part One)

It’s time for…

An Actually Marginally Academic Post

After reading a whole lot of books for my thesis and a whole lot of books for class and a whole lot of books in general, I have come to a realization—a lot of scholarship on Shinto is really, really boring.  I have trouble keeping my eyes open when reading some of it.*  And that’s too bad, because it’s a fascinating subject that not many people know about!  So my goal for these posts is to present information about Shinto (or Shinto-related topics) in a non-snore-inducing manner.  Plus, I figure that this is good practice for when I have to teach people about this stuff (or just explain it to people on the street).

So, here we go!

Academic Post #1

A Brief History of Shinto (part 1): If You Stab a Lot of Powerful People, You Should Probably Come Up with a Good Explanation for Your Behavior

For as far back as the archaeological record stretches back in Japan (and that’s a pretty long time), people have worshipped spirits.  These spirits, called kami,** are believed to inhabit everything: the water, the air, the trees, the rocks, the plants, the mountains, everything.  They’re invisible***, and they act a lot like humans.  They can get angry (and cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and floods and famines) or they can be pleased (and grant good weather and bountiful harvests and good health).  If nobody worships them, though, they lose their kami powers and become disgruntled spirit-animal-monsters called youkai, which pretty much just wreak havoc everywhere.

In ancient Japan, the basic societal unit was the uji—the family or the clan.  Most uji had an ujigami, that is a kami specific to that uji.  If it was an uji of farmers, the ujigami was often associated with farming; an uji of fishermen might have an ujigami of the seas; an uji that lived in bear-infested mountains might worship an ujigami that took the shape of a bear.  The ujigami varied as widely as the uji, as did people's ways of worshiping them, and most people didn’t know about kami outside of their local area.

Fast forward in time to 645 CE!  Naka no Oe, the head of a prominent uji, somehow got a bunch of prominent families in a room; sources vary on what he actually did to get these people together  (I’ve seen it told as his being present at a ceremony or as his throwing a feast for the other clans and then locking the doors so no one could escape), but, to make a long story short, he, with the help of some friends, assassinated several powerful political figures (by stabbing them to death with spears), and then claimed the throne.

Of course, once his family had taken the throne, they realized that there was nothing stopping anyone else from following their lead and stabbing them to death, so Naka no Oe’s daughter told a writer at the court to compile a history of the family, linking them to their ujigami, Amaterasu (the Sun Goddess), and explaining why they were chosen as the imperial line.  The writer (and his assistant who may or may not have been female) went above and beyond the call of duty, however, and integrated the kami and creation myths of other powerful families into the narrative.****  Of course, the politics behind this move are clear—by presenting the kami of other powerful families as working alongside Amaterasu, the imperial family honored these families and (very subtly) suggested that they should work together, just as their kami did.  Interestingly enough, one of the kami who gets the most page time actually belonged to a region that did not want Naka no Oe ruling over them; eventually, however, the region was successfully integrated into the kingdom, just as its kami was integrated into the story.  The finished book of stories is called the Kojiki (『古事記』; usually translated as “The Record of Ancient Matters”), and is generally accepted as the oldest extant piece of Japanese writing.*****

…meanwhile, everyone outside of the court didn’t know about all this political intrigue and pretty much kept worshiping their kami the way they always had.

"But wait!" you cry.  "Where's the Shinto?  You haven't used that word at all in this entire post!"

Well, dear reader, that's because it wasn't called Shinto yet.  Remember how I said that no one really knew about kami outside of their local area?  In fact, there was no conception that any of the kami worship occurring was connected in any way whatsoever to any of the other kami worship.  If you had picked a random person and plopped them down 200 miles from their birthplace, they probably wouldn't have been able to recognize the local kami as a kami, or been able to make any sense out of the local customs and festivals.

So at this point, we can't really say that Shinto existed.  Yes, people worshiped kami, and, yes, people worship kami in Shinto, but at this point the kami worship was almost entirely localized and unconnected to any larger organization.

And what happened next?  Well, Buddhism showed up, and things just got more complicated.

Further Reading

Kojiki translated by Donald L. Phillipi

There are a variety of translations of the Kojiki, but this one is generally accepted as the best.  Of course, it's also out of print, so have fun getting your hands on a copy of it...  I'm probably going to eventually give up and pay an arm and a leg for my own copy.

Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions by a whole slew of people

A good introduction to Japanese religions.  It's more useful as a bibliography than as an in-depth text, though.

Shinto in History by a whole slew of people

Do not read unless you have an incredibly strong stomach for academic writing.

Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One edited by William Theodore de Bary

This is pretty much the Bible of East Asian Studies.  It's also an amazing book full of translated historical documents.  Also also, my advisor at Brown's advisor is the editor!  So, basically, I need a copy of this too.  SO MANY BOOKS TO BUY.

*Although the only book I have ever literally fallen asleep while reading was about Zen Buddhism.

**Or mi or nushi or chami or a variety of other things depending upon the time period.  I’m simplifying here.  I'm actually simplifying a lot, which is why it's a brief history.

***Although that can be confusing in the case of, for example, Mt. Fuji.  Mt. Fuji is worshipped as a kami, but (theoretically) it’s not the actual mountain that’s being worshiped; it’s the invisible kami of the mountain. Of course, if you ask worshipers, some of them will inevitably tell you that the kami is the mountain, making academics very disgruntled.

****This also had the interesting side effect of creating gaping plot holes, such as when the world is created at the beginning of the story—only to be created again a hundred chapters later by a different kami.

*****It’s also one of the hardest books you could possibly read, since it’s written using a writing system that was used only for that book.  It uses Chinese characters phonetically…sometimes…and for their meaning…sometimes…and sometimes it just has a bunch of characters on the page and you have no idea what’s going on.  After a while, people just gave up on trying to read it...until the National Learning movement, but we'll get to that later.