? Do you know what the Japanese worship
Whenever the word "religion" or religions is mentioned to any Japanese person, the concept of "kamisama" or "hotokesama" immediately comes to mind, especially since "kami" means a place of servitude before Buddhism entered Japan. Thus, how do the Japanese see “kami” deities from ancient times to the present day in the modern era.
Many words for "God"
“God” translates from English to “神” which is pronounced “Kami” in Japanese and that could be a mistake. The distinction between them should be clearer and more precise according to Japanese culture. Especially since the word “God” refers to the name of His Majesty “God” in monotheistic religions or the heavenly religions as it is called. He is the only God in the world according to these religions. Therefore, the word is written by writing a capital “G” in English.
If written in small letters, then it would mean a reference to any deity in the polytheistic religions. As for the Chinese syllable word “神”, it is included in other combinations, such as the word “soul” or “spirit”, which expresses in one of its meanings the word “god”, but there are other words that express the word of a higher degree of gods. We can say that the gods since ancient times in Japan were embodied in natural phenomena.
And the deities that appeared in my books “Kojiki” and “Nihon Shiki” were of course the sun, moon, wind, rain, sea, large trees, rocks, or in a more correct sense that any unusual human, animal or plant becomes a god. And the scientist “Motoori Norinaga” defines the Japanese deity as follows: “Everything that gives a feeling of sympathy and stirs feelings is a god.” From this point of view, for the Japanese, the land of Japan has abundant nature and gods are everywhere, and therefore Japan is a country of gods. This expression may be a strict patriotic phrase, but it does not originally mean that.
Shinto mixes many elements
The Shinto religion itself is a belief that deify the Japanese deities since ancient times, and since there are no records showing us how ancient Shintoism was, we cannot know in detail about it from what it was at the time. We also cannot be certain that there is something that we can call “Shintoism.” Perhaps this is due to the combination and mingling of many elements, for example:
The Japanese in the Jomon era lived a life of hunting and hunting and had a tradition of worshiping nature.
In the Yayoi era, after the Japanese knew rice cultivation, they turned to worshiping small idols made of clay, which symbolized the good of the land, and shamanism entered from the Korean Peninsula.
Bronze implements, weapons, and mirrors that arrived in Japan via China became instruments used in religious rites by rulers.
In one way or another, the science of the astrological calendar, fortune telling, and the thought of Chinese monasticism were manifested in the ceremonies and funerals of rulers.
Each influential group or cooperative body believed in a deity of its own and built temples to that deity.
All these elements were mixed to form after that the realization of Shintoism, and the Japanese really realized this difference after Buddhism entered Japan.
The concept of “God” is derived from a comparison with “Buddha.”
Buddhism is a religion founded in India by Gautama Buddha (who was born in the 5th or 6th century AD) and has a large body of written texts in addition to its precise theories. The Buddhism that arrived in Japan is Chinese Buddhism because it came through China. Therefore, the religious texts are written in kanji, that is, the Chinese characters, as well as the religious organization and the way it is managed, which in turn was also in the Chinese style. Thus, the Japanese have a concept towards “God” compared to “Buddha”, but we can highlight the points of difference between “Buddha” and God, as follows. The first is that Buddha was originally a spiritually enlightened person and upon his death he got rid of the cycle of recurring birth known as “Samsara”. As for the god in Shinto, he is different from humans, but they are the ancestors of humans, so some of them are alive and some of them are dead. The second is that Buddha was male and lived his life single, while there are male and female deities and there are intermarriage between them as well.
Buddhist statues are made and placed in temples, but this does not mean that Buddha is there. In Shinto, there is no form of deity, and there is a so-called “yorishiro” (which is the place where the deity is believed to come), but this does not mean that the deity is present in the temples. Perhaps the high-level culture that came from China—such as Buddhism, the legislative system, ephemeris systems, pharmaceuticals, and construction—was a tool that enabled the ruling class to ensure prestige and power. How did Buddhism coexist
? with Shintoism
The conversion of the nobles to Buddhism and the policy of the Yamato government towards the gods
The books “Nihon Shoki” and “Kojiki” were written in the eighth century. According to the two books, “Amaterasu” is the main deity among the gods and the emperor who is her descendant. The emperor inherited the right to establish religious rites and rule. As a result, any other authority was excluded from the rights to perform religious rites and exercise the powers of authority. By comparing Shintoism with other monotheistic religions, Shintoism was characterized by giving the gods a rank subordinate to the goddess “Amaterasu”, while any other deity was excluded and in a manner different from that of the Children of Israel. The coexistence of the gods here means the coexistence of powerful groups.
Buddha is also distinguished by being independent of the gods and does not follow the goddess “Amaterasu.” Thus, the emperor monopolized the right to practice religious rites and restructured Shinto and took it as a basis for power and government, as other influential groups of Buddhism took similar measures in this regard. It soon became the nobility that took over land (fiefdoms) and government positions. In general, nobles converted to Buddhism and built Buddhist temples, wishing them to enjoy eternal life in Heaven or Paradise. In order for every person who dies to turn into a Buddha after his death, perhaps this is the point of difference from Shintoism. On the other hand, Shinto thought, in turn, was closer to the farmers who worked in the fiefs of the nobility and the temple fiefs. of another thought.
The difference between the concepts of life and death between Shinto and Buddhism
? How did the Japanese see the world after death
There were several trends, including those who thought that man after death would return to the mountain, and others believed that he would go to the abyss, the lower part of the earth. There was also a widespread belief that he might go beyond the sea. There was a vague idea that death was a defilement and that the dead should go far away from the village. Therefore, there was no room for belief in the idea of reincarnation found in Buddhism.
In addition, a concept gradually spread from China via Taoist and Buddhist concepts that the dead become ghouls living in Hell. The emperor established the religious rites for “Amaterasu” and other deities and ancestors. During the performance of these rites, Japan imitated Chinese rites, and here Japan was unique in the point of establishing religious rites or worshiping ancestors as deities. It was believed that the dead, after they had gone away, would leave filth and be cleansed and become gods. Buddhism made the idea of reincarnation the main subject. After his death, a person moves to another life and lives again in this world and so on. That is, there is no realm of the dead and there are no spirits. Here, Buddhism is completely different from Shinto. But what is the main reason for the
? spread of Buddhism
From the Kamakura era to the Edo era, where there is no distinction between Buddha and Shinto deities
There is a theory that emerged in the Heian era that says that the gods of Japan are originally Indian gods who changed their form and came to Japan. That is, it is the word "kami" and this has become a custom since the era of "Kamakura", which means that the worship of Buddha is the same as the worship of gods and that there is no difference between a Shinto temple and a Buddhist temple. There is no reason to differentiate or distinguish between Shintoism and Buddhism. From that time until the Edo period, this thought prevailed. Since a person with his death becomes a god, it is better to become a Buddha. Gudo Buddhism freed itself from the idea of reincarnation.
He devised a stage before man became like Buddha, which is to go to the garden of the god Amida, a stage that precedes the last stage by a step. Thus, the concept of life and death was formed for the Japanese, which still prevails in their ideas until now. After his death, a person becomes a spirit that wanders and wanders around for a while, then crosses the Sanzu River (something similar to a path or an isthmus) and goes to the other world and becomes a Buddha or a god. As for the one who dies and is still attached to this world, or has a grudge against this world, he will not become like Buddha and will become a ghost. And whoever does evil, he will enter Hellfire, and the keeper of Hell will take charge of his punishment. Souls return to our world from their world during the “Bun” period, and whoever dies is given a name and is written on a small witness placed in front of the Pot Sudan and incense is offered to him. Perhaps all of these things indicate that if we think carefully we will find that they are not from Shinto or Buddhism in anything and that their content is contradictory.
Towards a nationalism that sanctifies the emperor
Christianity was banned in the Edo period, and all Japanese were forced to convert to Buddhism, to the point where a system emerged in which the religious orientation of each house was recorded and the name of the temple they attended. But the activities of Buddhist monks were restricted to funeral ceremonies only. On the other hand, the samurai class encouraged the followers of the neo-Confucian teachings, as these new teachings were spread among the upper class of farmers and merchants. Here, the “Bakfu” government did not pay attention to this matter because it had taken a contradictory policy by forcing the Japanese on Buddhism and encouraging the neo-Confucian teachings at the same time, as the latter, i.e. the Confucian teachings, is anti-Buddhist and denies the existence of souls and the idea of reincarnation as well as it denies the idea of a hierarchy and the division of society into warriors and farmers And workers and merchants, which was prevalent during the era - Edo - especially since Neo-Confucianism says that everyone who possesses knowledge has the right to be from the ruling class.
It also focuses on the point of loyalty to the government, which prompted the emergence of a thought that sanctifies the emperor as the de facto ruler of the country. That is, it contained in the subconscious the possibility of demolishing the system of government in the Edo period. Please refer to “Creators of Gods and Modern Man” by Yamamoto Nanahi. From here, a fundamentalist thought emerged that was advocated by - Itoo Jinsai - and called for a return to the teachings of Confucianism, adding to it his fundamentalist thought, as he wrote - Motoori Norinaga - who is considered the father of this fundamentalist thought, the book "Kojiki Den" in which he restructured Japanese society and stated that in that era it was There is a government and the people were subject to the emperor. This submission came from the teachings of Neo-Confucianism and is a natural feeling that results from them. Thus began the thought of sanctifying the emperor and its transformation into a national idea.
Think Shintō Hirata, which opened the way to national Shinto
Hirata Atsutani is considered the person who changed the Japanese view of deities between the late Bakfu era and the Meiji Reformation era. Hirata, who called himself a disciple of Motoori, said that when a person dies, he does not become a Buddha and does not go to a distant place, but becomes a special spirit, so whoever dies for the sake of the country becomes an immaculate spirit, a supreme spirit that protects the generations that come after him. It was said that this creative idea came to him through reading a translation of the Bible, which was forbidden to possess at that time.
Since every person who dies becomes a spirit, there will be no conflict with Buddhist rituals or whatever, it has also become possible for anyone to pray for the souls of the dead in the Shinto way and it has become possible to perform rituals for the souls of those who died in war. The military government in the Meiji-Fikr era adopted Hirata-Shinto and established rituals and prayers for the souls of all those who died for the country. In the second year of the Meiji era, a temple was established to console the souls of all those who died in the war, which was later known as the Yasukuni Shrine . It is an institution to revive religious rites for the souls of everyone who died for the country, died in war, or died a death of honor for the sake of the homeland in the Meiji era. It is a shrine for the common people who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the homeland and became gods after that. Yasukuni Shrine is called a “war shrine” in Western media, but this is wrong. It is an institution equivalent to any monument to a revolution or the monument to the Unknown Soldier.
Both Hirata's Shinto thought and the Yasukuni Shrine were very effective in creating a modern people dedicated to their homeland, so there was a need to separate Shintoism from Buddhism. This is what actually happened in the late Bakfu era until the Meiji era reforms. Buddhist temples were also separated from Shinto temples by order of the government and nothing shrouded in confusion was dismissed. With the Meiji reforms, government-sponsored nationalist Shintoism emerged. The Japanese Ministry of Education and Science expressed the position that Shintoism is fused into the daily life of the Japanese, and therefore it is not a religion, and it obliged all Japanese to adhere to the national Shintoism.
Several other temples were also established after the Meiji era. For example, there is the Meiji Temple, which was established for Emperor Meiji, the “Noki” temple, which was established for Noki Marisuke, who was a commander in the land forces, and the “Tojo” temple, which was established for Tojo Heihachiro, who was Commander in the Navy. And other temples were built to deify these personalities to protect the country everywhere. The image of the emperor was placed in schools for students to salute, and the greeting was imposed by bowing in front of the imperial palace. This is the imperial education that deified the emperor.
The occupation forces abolished national Shinto after the war
After the end of World War II, the leadership of the occupying forces banned national Shinto. Yasukuni Shrine remained as a civil religious institution. Among the Japanese, both the idea of transcendent spirits and the idea that man after his death becomes a god as he is, and perhaps the Japanese themselves have no doubt about how they think about the gods, or even the ability to describe it to a third party, remains prevalent among the Japanese. The dilemma remains as to what the Japanese think and what they believe, and this question is still unanswered.
(Original article in Japanese)
Source: websites