For one, as I, very interested in the traditional ways of my Celtic ancestors, this rhythmic, sensitive, perceptive account of a people travelling Shinto (The Way of the Gods) in deep respect of their ancestors is very absorbing.
The real religion of Japan, the religion still professed in one form or other, by the entire nation, is that cult which has been the foundation of all civilized religion, and of all civilized society, -- Ancestor worship...The three forms of the Shinto worship of ancestors are the Domestic Cult, the Communal Cult, and the State Cult, -- or, in other words, the worship of family ancestors, the worship of clan or tribal ancestors, and the worship of imperial ancestors. pp. 21-22The domestic cult proper may not have been established until about the eighth century, when the spirit-tablet is supposed to have been introduced from China. p. 24
Originally, there was concept neither of heaven, nor of hell. We understand the ancestors are present, here and now.
By death they have acquired mysterious force; -- they have become "superior ones," Kami, gods. p. 27
They rely on us for regular reverence; they bestow favours. This reciprocal relationship is vital.
The history of Japan is really the history of her religion. No single fact in this connection is more significant than the fact that the ancient Japanese term for government -- matsuri-goto -- signifies liberally "matters of worship." p. 32Every spring an imperial messenger presents at the tomb of the Emperor Jimmu, the same offerings of birds and fish and seaweed, rice and rice-wine, which were made to the spirit of the Founder of the Empire twenty-five hundred years ago. p. 37
In a shrine (mitamaya, august spirit dwelling), in an inner room, on a shelf (Mitama-San-no-tana, Shelf of the august spirits) reside five or six spirit tablets.
Only grandparents and parents and the recently dead being thus represented; but the name of remoter ancestors are inscribed upon scrolls, which are kept in the Butsudan or the mitamaya. p. 43
The Butsudan is the mitamaya of the Buddhist.
To the Life Givers each morn and eve is given sincerest thanks and a little food.
Unseen they guard the home, and watch over the welfare of its inmates: they hover nightly in the glow of the shrine lamp; and the stirring of its flame is the motion of them. p. 45
Reincarnation is a Buddhist contribution to Japanese belief. The ancestral cult continues in the male line. One could divorce a barren wife or add to her a concubine. One could pass over an unworthy heir. One could adopt, even a husband for a brotherless daughter. One could not remain celibate.
Though time splits households, all continue to worship the common ancestor of the family, the uji-no-kami or ujigami. As time cycles, the aged relinquish authority to the eldest son, and daughters-in-law are welcomed into their new families.
The funeral ceremonies performed upon her departure from the parental roof, -- the solemn sweeping out of the house-rooms, the lighting of the death-fire before the gate, -- are significant of this religious separation. p. 67
She comes to the parents of the groom, to their spirit-tablets, if they are already ancestors. Although in theory the paterfamilias had enormous power, in practise this was generally used reasonably, in the interests of the family. Servants were treated as family dependants in relationships extending through generations.
The ujigami, the god of the patriarchal family, of the gens, is the god of the community, "Clan-deities" "Worshipped as clan-ancestors." This word "Ujigami" is also used of, "Shinto parish temples." p.83 The parishiner, "Ujiko," is brought to the Ujigami, "Thirty-one days after birth if a boy, or thirty-three days after birth if a girl." p.85 He or she is, "Placed under the protection of the god," p. 85 and the baby's name is recorded. Thereafter, this place attractive to children is the joyous scene of feast days and festivals, games, candies and toys. If one must leave the district one comes here to say good-bye.
On returning to one's native place after prolonged absence, the first visit is to the god...I have more than once been touched by the spectacle of soldiers at prayer before lonesome little temples in country places -- soldiers but just returned from Korea, China, or Formosa: their first thought on reaching home was to utter their thanks to the god of their childhood, whom they believed to have guarded them in the hour of battle and the season of pestilence." pp. 85-86
The office of the Shinto priest, or 'god-master' (kannushi) was, and still is hereditary. p. 86
Prayers at important times are to the ujigami and communal custom is very important. Violations may cause very severe consequences, including banishment in a nation where one required permission to become a Buddhist monk or even to spend a night away from home. One means of control, of guaranteeing communal co-operation, was the annual religious procession, during which should the portable shrine of the Ujigami,
A weighty structure borne by thirty or forty men...whithersoever his divine spirit directs them...strike against any home, -- even against an awning only, -- that is a sign that the god is not pleased with the dwellers of that house. pp. 102-104
It may happen that the god decides to really teach them a lesson. He will then be carried in through the walls and the place trashed, because the residents offended against the community.
Many, innumerable are the traditional gods. The imperial cult,
The worship of the goddess of the sun, from whom the supreme ruler claimed descent...first gave to the people a written language of traditional beliefs...The oldest is entitled KO-JI-KI, or "Records of Ancient Matters"; and it is supposed to have been compiled in the year 712 A.D. The other and much larger work is called NIHONGI, "Chronicle of Nihon [Japan]," and dates from about 720 A.D. pp. 109-110
Among the legends is the poignant story of Izanagi seeking his beloved in the realm of the dead. His right eye is the moon; the sun is his left eye. All Japanese, at least all, "Samurai, farmers, artisans and merchants" are descended from gods. The son-in-law of the Sun Goddess is the lord of the Dead, "And he rules over all of the Ujigami." p. 122 While there are more than 195,000 Shinto shrines, ideally there is a pilgrimmage once in a lifetime to Ise, noted for being,
Rebuilt every twenty years, -- the timber of the demolished structures being then cut into tablets ["Charms"] for distribution throughout the country. p. 124
There are gods of guilds and work is worship.
For example, the carpenter still builds according to Shinto tradition: dons a priestly costume at a certain stage of the work, performs rites, and chants invocations, and places the new house under the protection of the gods. p. 125
There are temples dedicated to more than one god, to, "Different spirits of the same god," p. 126 to great historical personages.
The spirit of Sugiwara-no-Michizane, once minister to the Emperor Daigo, is worshipped as the god of calligraphy, under the name of Tenjin or Temmagu: children everywhere offer to him the first examples of their handwriting, and deposit in recepticles, placed before his shrine, their worn-out writing brushes. p. 127
Despite the multitude of Shinto gods of nature, of home, of craft, of historical figures and ancestors,
We find the roads under the protection of Buddhist deities chiefly. p. 130
Also, responding to Chinese concept is, "The Ki-Mon or Demon-Gate," p. 130 protecting gardens on the north side, whence all evil is deemed to come.
Cyclical ritual cleanliness included daily prayers and ablutions,
Nine great national holidays...the universal practise of daily bathing ...the o-harai...performed twice every year, -- in the sixth month and the twelfth month by the ancient calendar...the erection of special houses for birth...the consummation of marriage...the dead. pp. 137-146
Also,
Women were obliged during the period of menstration, as well as during the time of confinement, to live apart. p. 146
While various methods of divination were employed:
By bones, by birds, by rice, by barley-gruel, by footprints, by rods planted in the ground, and by listening in public ways to the speech of people passing by, p. 151The earliest form of official divination was performed by scorching the shoulder-blade of a deer, or other animal, and observing the cracks produced by the heat. Tortoise-shells were afterwards used for the same purpose. p. 151
The most minute details of life and expense were regulated, according to caste and financial level.
When a man's life was legally ordered, -- even to the quality of his foot-gear and head-gear, the cost of his wife's hairpins, and the price of his child's doll, -- one could hardly suppose that freedom of speech would have been tolerated. p. 170
Very intricate grew speech and even gesture in response to compulsion that rudeness be avoided.
Of terms corresponding to 'you' or 'thou' there are still sixteen in use; but formerly there were many more...the rules of the verb, above all, were complicated by the exigencies of etiquette to a degree of which no idea can be given in any brief statement. pp. 171-172
Buddhism entered the land and became established because it accepted the traditional ancestor-worship, which it had already encountered in all the countries where Buddhism existed.
Intolerance of ancestor-worship would have long ago resulted in the extinction of Buddhism. pp. 183-184
Buddhism enhanced traditional beliefs, identifying the gods with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, depicting artistically the consequences of gaining merit, extending broadly education. Buddhist philosophy, above the consideration of common folk, by quite different premises, reached some conclusions not so remote from some modern Western thinking.
At the apex of Japanese society shone the Mikado.
The Kobetsu ("Imperial Branch") represented the so-called imperial families, claiming descent from the Sun-goddess; the Shinbetsu ("Divine Branch") were clans claiming descent from other deities, territorial or celestial; the Bambetsu ("Foreign Branch") represented the mass of the people. p. 235
In addition there were castes (sei), eight of them from the time of the Emperor Temmu. Many were those, "Bound to a place...family...or estate." p. 231
Slaves were tatooed...had no family names...shaved the greater part of the head, and wore queues. pp. 232-233
There were also various outcasts, eta and hinin.
Lafcadio Hearn thinks accounts about times from Emperor Jimmu (r. 660-585 B.C.E.) until Empress Suiko (593-628 C.E.) highly unreliable. She fostered influences from China. Soon the Fujiwara clan produced regents, ruling for emperors, encouraged to become monks at a young age, their successors being even younger. After a great naval victory, the Minamoto clan assumed the regency, or shogunate. They were replaced by the Hojo whose prayers raised the typhoon which destroyed the invading Mongol fleet. The Hojo fell in 1333. Now rose the Ashikaga.
The Ashikaga gave the country fifteen rulers, several of whom were men of great ability: they tried to encourage industry; they cultivated literature and the arts; but they could not give peace. p. 273
In 1573, Oda Nobunaga seized power without the title of shogun. He moved against militant Buddhist monks, attacking monastery fortresses. He attempted to quell the incessant conflict of warring clans, a goal temporarily achieved by his successor Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi turned his eyes outward and his dying wish was to bring the troops home from Korea. Next, in 1508, came the great Tokugawa who ended the war in Korea, crushed opposition at home and forged a relatively high degree of internal cohesion. One issue he handled was his declaring illegal junshi, suicide on the death of one's lord. Hearn relates the tale of the 47 Ronins, who in 1703 presented their dead lord with the head of his enemy and then joined him in death.
Another issue Tokugawa handled was Christianity. Many Westerners may have heard of Japanese converts to Christianity and of their persecution. This author augments awareness of this historical episode:
But the furious intolerance of the Jesuits in the southern provinces had already made them many enemies, eager to avenge the cruelties of the new creed. We read in the histories of the missions about converted daimyo burning thousands of Buddhist temples, destroying countless works of art, and slaughtering Buddhist priests; -- and we find the Jesuit writers praising these crusades as evidence of holy zeal. p. 306
Tokugawa Iyeyasu, humane and politic, investigated, including by conversations with the English born samurai, Will Adams, the consequences of Catholicism in other lands.
Iyeyasu must have heard...the story of the Spanish conquest in America, and the extermination of the West Indian races; the story of the persecutions in the Netherlands, and of the work of the Inquisition elsewhere; the story of the attempt of Philip II to conquer England... p. 312
The impact of this religion on Japan he realized.
Yet this religion, for which thousands vainly died, had brought to Japan nothing but evil: disorders, persecutions, revolts, political troubles, and war. p. 328
He ordered it extirpated.
The Tokugawa Shogunate lasted until 1867. Life was regulated in detail, and there was unprecedented peace and security. It was a time of art, even popular art, and of study.
This was the age of popular fiction, of cheap books, of popular drama, of storytelling for young and old. p. 357
And it was an age of scholarship. Mitsukuni, a grandson of Iyeyasu,
Compiled, with the aid of various scholars, the first important history of Japan, -- the DAI-NIHON-SHI, in 240 books. p. 370There gradually developed a new school of men-of-letters: men who turned away from Chinese literature to the study of the Japanese classics. They reedited the ancient poetry and chronicles; they republished the sacred records, with ample commentaries. They produced whole libraries of works upon religious, historical, and philological subjects; they made grammars and dictionaries; they wrote treatises on the art of poetry, on popular errors, on the nature of the gods, on government, on the manners and customs of ancient days..."
This scholarship led to an increased awareness of the position of the Emperor. During the upheaval created by Perry, the shogunate was abolished. Drawing on traditional strengths, Japan, in an amazingly brief time became the equal of the modern powers.
Modernization continues through support of traditional ways, especially ancestor worship, officially supported even to the extent that the state will provide an heir to an aged heirless one unable to adopt. Traditional communal pressures remain, though time may weaken them.
Any comprehension of the history of Japanese politics during the last fifteen years is not possible without some knowledge of clan-history. p. 389
Communal spirit continues to supersede Western notions of the advantages of competition. Education encourages co-operation among pupils, eager to meet their obligation to study.
And the strange courage of persistence in periods of earthquake and conflagration, when boys and girls used the tiles of their ruined homes for school-slates, and bits of fallen plaster for pencils. p. 417That a large part of the private income of their Imperial Majesties has, for many years, been devoted to public education is well known; but that every person of rank or wealth or high position educates students at his private expense, is not generally known. p. 435
This includes teachers, at all levels, who sacrificially see to the education of their pupils and students.
There are further pages on the accomplishments and the prospects of the Japan of 1904. The underlying theme is the vital strength of ancestor worship. As a whole, this book has been a fascinating read for one, as I, so interested in honouring my ancestors, in seeking a path of religious tolerance, in seeking to understand and to feel the common humanity of people everywhere.
The author of this still valuable consideration of traditional Shinto was born in 1850 in Greece of Irish and Greek parents. He studied in France and England, travelled to America at the age of nineteen, where he wrote for newspapers. At the age of forty he moved to Japan, where he married. He died in 1904, the year this book was written.