Centre for Japanese Studies University of Marburg

OCCASIONAL PAPERS

No. 30 The Structure of Religious Systems in Contemporary : Shintô variations on Buddhist pilgrimage

Prof. Dr. Michael Pye Centre for Japanese Studies, University of Marburg

Marburg 2004

Edited by Centre for Japanese Studies University of Marburg Biegenstr. 9 35032 Marburg Germany Tel.: +49 (0)6421 28 24627 Fax: +49 (0)6421 28 28914 Email: [email protected]

Author Michael Pye Centre for Japanese Studies Religion and History of Ideas University of Marburg Biegenstr. 9 35032 Marburg Germany Tel.: +49 (0)6421 28 23662 Fax: +49 (0)6421 28 28914 Email: [email protected]

Copyeditor Petra Kienle Centre for Japanese Studies University of Marburg Biegenstr. 9 35032 Marburg Germany Tel.: +49 (0)6421 28 24908 Fax: +49 (0)6421 28 28914 Email: [email protected]

ISBN 3-8185-0393-1

The Structure of Religious Systems in Contemporary Japan: Shintō variations on Buddhist pilgrimage

Michael Pye

Fig. 1: Pilgrims on Gassan (about 1900 metres), (Photo by author, August 2003)

The Structure of Religious Systems in Contemporary Japan: Shintō variations on Buddhist pilgrimage

Religious systems in contemporary Japan: the analytical task 3

Shintō, primal religion and civil religion 10

The key features of contemporary Japanese primal religion 12

Rites of transaction as analytical key 16

Buddhist circulatory pilgrimage as transaction and more 22

The Seven Gods of Fortune between and Shintō 25

Shintō variations on Buddhist pilgrimage 32

Conclusions 42

References cited 45

Religious systems in contemporary Japan: the analytical task

There are very few systematic accounts of Japanese religion. This is not surprising, since the subject matter is both varied and elusive. No less than elsewhere, people in Japan fail to agree about what "religion" is or how to talk about it. There is therefore no ready-made framework of interpretation which the observer can simply take over from within the field. Japanese specialists have written voluminously on many different aspects of Japanese religions, yet there seems to be no general consensus among them about how the field as a whole hangs together.1 Various non-Japanese specialists have also highlighted particular aspects, but popular introductory accounts fall short of theoretical precision. In view of this deficit, the opening sections of this paper present the main features of contemporary Japanese religion, very briefly, in a systematic perspective. The field is too rich to be covered in detail here, but in so far as the overall analysis is correct any observer in Japan itself will find that further details fall into place accordingly.2 To illustrate how the leading analytical concepts provide a framework for more differentiated studies, attention will be drawn to the connections with previous work on "circulatory" Buddhist pilgrimage (o-meguri).3 Finally the more recent phenomenon of "Shintō variations on Buddhist pilgrimage" 4 will be introduced to show how even more precise differentation can be achieved in particular cases while keeping the main analytical pattern in mind.

It is well known that there is a wide variety of distinguishable religions in Japan. These include Shintō in its various historical stages and significant vestiges of the Chinese traditions of Confucianism and Daoism. Buddhism is present in what may seem to be a bewildering range of forms such as the older Nara schools, , Shingon, Rinzai , Sōtō Zen and Ōbaku Zen.

1 This is particularly evident in multi-authored works in which terms such as "indigenous religion", "folk religion" and others jostle for attention. This is no doubt inevitable, even in authoritative and insightful volumes such as N. Tamaru and D. Reid (eds.) Religion in Japanese Culture. Where Living Traditions Meet a Changing World, /New York/London 1996. 2 A more substantial account is on preparation, of which the provisional title is: The Religious Systems of Modern Japan. 3 Documented for example in O-meguri. Pilgerfahrt in Japan (Schriften der Universitätsbibliothek Mar- burg 31) Marburg 1987. 4 This more specialised theme was the subject of a lecture given in April 2004 at the Deutsches Institut für Japanstudien in Tokyo; I am grateful to its director Prof. Dr. Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit and to Dr. Monika Schrimpf for providing this very helpful stimulus.

3 Other Buddhist denominations of great popular appeal include , True Pure Land Buddhism and Buddhism, based on the -like utterances Namu Amida Butsu or Namu Myōhō Rengekyō respectively. For all of these there are various subdivisions usually referred to as "sects", corresponding to the Japanese term -ha, meaning a subdivision.5 Much attention is attracted by new religions with richly suggestive names such as the Teaching of Heavenly Wisdom (Tenrikyō), the Teaching of the Great Source (Ōmoto)6, the Perfectly Adapted Teaching (Ennōkyō) and many more recent foundations such as The White Light Association (Byakkō Shinkōkai) or Science of Happiness (Kōfuku no Kagaku). This phenomenon is part of a wider field which can be documented across the whole of East , conditioned as it is by the Chinese script-based conceptual system.7 Religious freedom has been enshrined in the constitution for many years and in this sense the multiform presence of religion is officially recognised.8 Indeed the various legally incorporated religious bodies are listed in a statistical yearbook of religions (Shūkyō nenkan) published by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Education. At the same time there is a vague awareness among most of the population that all of these religions are in some way part of Japanese religion. Christianity by contrast, is generally regarded as a western religion which has settled in Japan. Islam, only tenuously present in the country, is regarded simply as a foreign religion. What can be said, then, about the general features of Japanese religion?

It has indeed frequently been noted that there are many common characteristics shared by the various religions mentioned above, and others, in the Japanese context. The question therefore arises as to whether there is some kind of general field of Japanese religion, and if so what it looks like. What is its shape? The answer given here is that there is indeed such a general field, and that this field has its own resilience independent of the specific religions mentioned above. Generally speaking, do not perceive this general field as such. This is because

5 It is extremely unfortunate that the word "sect" has completely lost its older meaning of "subdivision" in the minds of those who produce and consume the western media, but it is difficult to avoid using it in the context of Japanese religions. The original meaning is intended here. 6 This name is often romanised as Oomoto, following the kunreishiki system. However, the official rec- ommendation in Japan is that the Hepburn system should be used in international communications and in this internationally accepted system the vowels are lengthened by a superscript line rather than by redupli- cation. 7 C.f. my article "New religions in " (2004). 8 The relation between religious freedom and the arrangements for managing religious plurality are treated in an article by Katja Triplett entitled "Das Pluralismusmodell 'Religionsfreiheit' und die religiöse Vielfalt " which is due to appear shortly. In the meantime c.f. Pye "Religion und Recht in Japan: Pluralismus, Toleranz und Konkurrenz", Marburg Journal of Religion 6,1 (2001).

4 in ordinary life they do not need to. At the same time they are familiar with what I have referred to metaphorically as "the common language of Japanese religion",9 that is, a pattern of symbols and actions which are widely understood and may be found in various forms within the various denominations. For example, everybody knows that a votive tablet () is used for giving expression to prayers and aspirations both at Shintō shrines and at Buddhist temples. Indeed every year millions of them are bought, inscribed with a felt-tip pen and left behind in the shrine or temple grounds for the various divinities (and other visitors) to peruse.10

It should not be thought however that there is just one single system of . Rather, there are overlapping systems. It is certainly possible to differentiate between the various organised religious groups, which amount to systems in their own right. At the same time there are more general systems in which they participate in various ways. These are not just a miscellaneous collection of bits and pieces. Rather, they have their own coherence. For various reasons which will become apparent it will be convenient to designate the main general systems as primal religion and civil religion respectively. Both of these have a considerable claim on the loyalty of the population. The main difference between them is that primal religion allows for rituals relating to this-worldly soteriology, whereas civil religion does not. However, because of the overlapping of many symbolic elements, they support each other. Thus, together with the specific religious teachings there are often at least three levels of interpretation to consider. For example, a Buddha statue such as a famous Yakushi Nyorai is not only considered to be important as one of the great, inspiring, traditional Buddhas. He is also believed to provide assistance to those whose eyesight is failing, an example of proximate soteriology for those who have the faith to pay for this service. Beyond that he may be an "important cultural property" (jūyōbunkazai) or even a "national treasure" (kokuhō) and thus part of the symbolic network of Japan's civil religion, worthy of mention in apparently "non-religious" school textbooks or cultural guides.

The great majority of Japanese people are not normally interested in thinking about these matters in a sustained way. Indeed the population in general participates in religious behaviour without reflection, which is a quite natural state of affairs. Japanese writers and intellectuals, on the other

9 Since 1980 at Leeds University, England and in November 1981 at the University of Marburg, Ger- many. Being a reflective, "etic" expression, it can easily be translated between various languages as for example with "die gemeinsame Sprache der japanischen Religion". Of course, the vast majority of Japa- nese persons who make use of this "language" have no need to refer to it with any particular designation at all. 10 As illustrated in the Frontispiece of Occasional Paper No. 29 in this series: Rationality, ritual and life- shaping decisions in modern Japan (Marburg 2003).

5 hand, whose job it is to reflect on society and culture, frequently refer to "popular religion" (shōmin shūkyō) without further analysis. Journalists and social critics (hyōronka) have usually seized on relatively sensational topics such as the activities of certain founders or leaders of new religions. After all, who cared about Aum Shinrikyō until it turned violent? Another dominant theme has been the "Yasukuni problem", and indeed there has been considerable justification for attention to this in view of its significance for the understanding of the relation between politics and religion, the interpretation of the constitution, and so on. Japanese specialists in the study of religions, who are of course only a tiny proportion of the total number of intellectuals who feel free to write on religion, have usually engaged in the study of specific features such as "festivals" (matsuri), mountain asceticism (shugendō), or indeed of particular religious groups. The new religions have attracted a certain amount of thematic or typological study centering on "founders" (kyōso), or their frequently impressive architecture. There is a tendency to focus on the field of "religion", usually translated as shūkyō, while avoiding the term itself. Well-liked alternatives to "religion" are "mysticism" (shinpi) and "spirituality" (seirei). It must be said however that such expressions, while very suggestive in certain directions, tend to deflect attention from other aspects of religion (e.g. funeral arrangements and care of the ancestors) and hence from the question about how the various elements are related in overlapping systems.

There have been various approaches to the general field of Japanese religion by foreign observers over the years. The most well known is probably Byron H. Earhart's long-standing and, in its time, extremely constructive attempt to characterise it in terms of six recurrent themes11. The closest presentation to that which is offered here is probably that of anthropologist Massimo Raveri in his work Itinerari del Sacro (Venice 1984). He pursues the themes of space, time, death and power as overarching categories, and these are indeed akin, though not identical, to the pattern worked out here. Others have preferred to follow the wide-spread, but only partially helpful idea of a kind of division of labour between the various religions.12 On this view, Shintō is concerned with positive aspects of life, such as weddings, Buddhism with the darker aspects, such as funerals, and new religions with questions of personal well-being and fulfilment. Thus easy shifts of allegiance between the various religious organizations are possible, depending on the needs of the people at

11 Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity 1969 (third edition 1982), c.f. my discussion in "Religion: shape and shadow" (1992, 1993), relating these themes to Ninian Smart's equally influential presentations of six (later seven) "dimensions" of religion. 12 As expressed in the two chapter headings "Born Shinto…" and "…die Buddhist" in Ian Reader's useful introduction Religion in Contemporary Japan (1991). The continuation points are in the original and sug- gest the progress of the individual from one religion to the other in the course of life.

6 any one time. There is some truth in this conventional picture, repeated regularly in the English language media in Japan, yet it fails to do justice to the way in which the whole pattern is integrated. This is because so many features are mentioned in a fragmentary or superficial fashion without any attempt being made to provide a systematic analysis or theory.

Still others have documented, correctly enough, that simply to be Japanese, and to participate in the common pattern of symbolic actions which that entails, has itself the force of a religious orientation. In itself this view is a common-place among foreign observers and reflective Japanese alike. This participation, or orientation, has even been termed, by analogy with the names of a number of new religions, Nihonkyō, literally "Japan Teaching". This idea in turn is related to the discussion of the Nihonjinron, a term also much used in recent decades and which, unpacked, means something like "theory of what it means to be a Japanese". 13 The perception of the importance of this cultural stratum is in itself valid. On the other hand the terminology is culture- specific and thus sub-theoretical. That is, the terms Nihonkyō and Nihonjinron do not include the possibility of comparison with other cultures. They are in themselves rather like the term suomalaisuus (Finnishness): it is not possible to discuss the "Finnishness" of Japanese culture.14

This shows the particular usefulness of special terms such as "civil religion", which can be widely applied in the study of religion in various regions of the world. When analysed carefully, civil religion shares many of the important features of "primal religion" and in some ways is continuous with it. For example, civil religion includes significant life-rites such as the coming of age ceremonies held in January for people who became twenty. These may be carried out in secular buildings such as a city hall. On the other hand, as mentioned already, civil religion almost entirely lacks the rites of proximate salvation, e.g. rites intended to solve particular incidental problems in this life such as illness or bad luck. The exception, logical enough, is that it may include rites of assurance for the welfare of society in general, e.g. prayers for the protection of building sites and the buildings to be erected on them (jichinsai). To use a geometrical simile, the relation between civil religion and primal religion may be compared to that between the first and second storey of a building which have similar if not quite identical floor plans and whose maximum delimiting parameters are identical.

13 This has been presented very well recently by Harumi Befu in his book Hegemony of Homogeneity (2001) which also contains a chapter on "civil religion". However civil religion includes many more ele- ments than are mentioned there, such as the system of "national treasures" already referred to. 14 But c.f. the fine work by Juha Pentikäinen and others comparing sauna, o- and sweat-lodges (Pen- tikäinen 2003).

7 As mentioned above there undoubtedly is, metaphorically speaking, a "common language" of Japanese religion. This "common language" is well understood by those who participate in religious activities of all kinds in Japan, while at the same time it is scarcely reflected upon. The "language" metaphor is quite in tune with the details which will be developed in the following pages. However the term "common" by itself, and in particular the formulation "common religion", are rather confusing. By a "common language" of religion I have always intended to refer to a set of conceptual and ritual elements which is widely shared and understood. The aspect of being "shared" is related to the situation, as found in Japan, in which there is a variety of specific religions between which the "language" is widely understood. At its simplest, for example, there are many words for amulets, votive tablets, building structures, social religious forms, various religious conceptions and ritual acts which are widely used beyond the context of any one religious association or teaching. In some studies of religion however, the term "common religion" has been used to refer to the religion of "ordinary" persons as opposed to that of influential elites or dominant systems. On account of this potential and apparently unavoidable confusion therefore, unlike some authors, I prefer not to use the term "common" as a general designation in the analysis of Japanese religious systems.15 In any case the analysis of the shared field or "common language" of Japanese religion still needs to be pressed through to its conclusion. That there is a "common language" is an initial perception. The main thesis set out here goes further in that it asserts that there is a coherent system of "primal" religion which runs through almost all of Japanese life with greater or less intensity and clarity. This is closely associated with the civil religion of Japan, a related system, which has broadly overlapping features.

From the primal religion the various specific religions in turn derive their strength and their resources. Without being grounded in this underlying pattern of primal religion, no organized

15 Ian Reader and George Tanabe adopted it in Practically Religious. Worldly Benefits and the Common Religon of Japan (1998), presumably following interactions at the University of Leeds with sociologist of religion Robert Towler. Towler's usage is clarified in his book Homo religiosus: Sociological Problems in the Study of Religion (London 1974), especially in Chapter 8, and in the early 1980's he headed a "Com- Religion Project" in the Sociology Department of the University of Leeds. Unfortunately, the ambi- guity of the term "common" simply cannot be avoided, which is why it is not used here except in the phrase "the common language…", where it means "shared". Towler states that he prefers the expression "common religion" to "popular religion" (op. cit. p. 149). In a lecture sponsored by the project (1982) I alerted to the problems in any attempt to transfer the term "common religion" to cultures such as Japan. Above all Towler was seeking to distinguish a field which is radically separate from institutionalized "of- ficial religion", and this was at the time, in Britain, an important perception. However in the Japanese case much of the interest arises precisely because of the fluid interactions between the institutionalised, legally constituted religious bodies and the wider field of primal religion.

8 religion in Japan can spread its teaching or function effectively, whatever the differing nuances which they seek to emphasize. The specialised forms of religion, such as the various forms of Buddhism, new religions, and Shintō, between which the people choose from time to time as circumstances require, depend for their prosperity on the choices which the people make. The teachers teach and the preachers preach; yet the people decide. How do they decide? They decide "with their feet", as the English saying goes, and they also decide with their purses. Daily and yearly decisions play a major role in determining the widely current forms of religious practice in Japan. This applies not least to the primal religious system.

There is diversity between the overlapping systems, and at the same time there are continuities, overlaps and indeed coherence. The clue lies in the well-known concept of "family resemblances". It is better to think in this way, rather than speaking of "unity" as in some older publications. Only so can one evade a tendency towards essentialism, or indeed even towards the racialism inherent in the Nihonkyō line of thought. In any case many of the articulate proponents of specific religious groups are themselves clearly aware of significant divergences as well as overlaps. For example, the denominations of Shin Buddhism may have their yearly events (nenjūgyōji) like everybody else, and they certainly do not fail when it comes to the care of the ancestors (senzokuyō). Yet they firmly reject the idea that religious practices can bring about this-worldly benefits (genzeriyaku), an idea which is otherwise so wide-spread and popular.

The primal religion of Japan has no name. It is not in itself taught by any authoritative bodies. The same is true for the civil religion of Japan. Of course some of the elements of civil religion are taught by authoritative bodies, for example via the education process, during which children learn about "national treasures" and other relevant symbols, but it is not consciously admitted that this contributes to any kind of religious education. The contours of primal and civil religion can therefore only be set out through the systematic interpretative effort of an observer. The great majority of the people involved in primal and civil religion in Japan are not reflectively aware of it. This means that, for all the simplicity of the terminology, we are thinking here of a theoretical grasp which does not coincide with the self-perceptions of the actors in the situation, although it does not contradict them. The theoretical view arises reflectively from a position of independence, rather than on the basis of a normative standpoint which is itself somewhere within the system. On the other hand it is a perception which, in its details, has emerged from within the field, observation interacting with reflection.

9 Shintō, primal religion and civil religion

It is important to realise that the primal religion of contemporary Japan is not simply the same as Shintō, however constitutive of Japanese experience Shintō undoubtedly has been and for many people still is. Rather, the primal religion is simply the religion of the people in general. Civil religion, functioning at a more formal level, is supported by publicly visible, or even publicly financed organs of various kinds, and it reinforces the primal religion.

The idea that "the primal religion" of Japan is not the same as Shintō needs a little explanation. Shintō is commonly presumed, especially by the exponents of Shintō itself, to be the indigenous or autochtonous religion of Japan, having existed before the reception of Chinese culture and religion from the continent. There is some truth in this. As commentators have also noted however, it is not at all easy to be clear about that stage in the history of Japanese religions which predates continental influence, for the simple reason that it also predates the use of writing in Japan. The archaeological evidence, especially for temporary structures and transitory events, which are a common feature of Shintō, is very limited. Since the very word "Shintō" is formed of two Chinese characters meaning "god" (or "spirit") and "way" respectively, it is obvious that the very idea of "Shintō" was a construction from the beginning (though a Japanese one and not an alien one). In fact one may regard the history of "Shintō" as a series of constructions, the most substantial and influential of which took place at the time of the Restoration (1868). This perception is based on a dynamic understanding of "tradition" which includes both the act of adaptive transmission and retrospective "invention".16

Admittedly Shintō, or some of its constituent elements at any one time, had in fact quite frequently performed most, if not all of the functions of primal religion in managing life and death for a given society. However the modern politicisation of Shintō in the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa Periods had very serious effects on the fortunes of Shintō. It led ultimately, via the catastrophe of military defeat in 1945, to the final dislocation of Shintō as such from the underlying, still resilient pattern of primal religion in contemporary Japan. Looking back over this historical development we can now see that as a result of a series of governmental policy decisions with which Shintō leaders

16 The phrase "invention of tradition" has been made famous by the work under that title co-edited by E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (1983). The basic idea that the act of retrospectively seeking to perceive (the "es- sence" of) a tradition itself creates it was stated considerably earlier by Ernst Troeltsch in his striking phrase "Wesensbestimmung ist Wesensgestaltung" (Ges. Werke II, Tübingen 1922, p. 421). For Shintō, see Brian Bocking's "The meanings of Shintō" (2004).

10 themselves concurred, the Shintō religion itself abandoned to some degree the shared ground of Japanese religion.

This is not to say that Shintō is no longer influential. On the contrary, it remains extremely influential in Japanese society and this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. The characteristics and practices of Shintō are extremely interesting in their own right. Shintō has survived for many centuries through changing social and intellectual circumstances, not least by making adjustments which matched the various pressures of modernization. For this reason it may still be regarded as an "adjusted primal religion", competing as it does with other named religions for the affection and allegiance of the people. But it is no longer in itself the primal religion of the population as a whole. Such primal religion has no formal name. Primal religion is not reflective or self-critical, nor is it critical of its own society or culture. Rather, it simply presupposes and reaffirms these. Shintō, in the meantime, stands in a complex relation to Japanese society in general.

Let us now redirect our attention to the primal religion of Japan, as it may nowadays be observed. Japan's primal religion is not controlled by the state, although the state participates in it in various ways. Nor is it determined by any specific religious authorities. On the contrary, it is determined by the mass of the people themselves. The various organized religions participate in it to a greater or lesser extent. In terms of their teachings they may not agree with all of its characteristics. As already stated, the teaching of the Jōdo Shinshū school of Buddhism does not admit the common idea of saying prayers for "this-worldly benefits" (genzeriyaku). The teaching of Tenrikyō does not see any place for paying visits to the very popular Seven Gods of Fortune (shichifukujin). Yet, in the main, the various specific religions have to express themselves within the main parameters of the primal religion of Japan. Their special teachings have to be articulated, for better or for worse, in terms of the common language of Japanese religion. This is even true for organized Shintō, which stands in its own relation to the wider context of primal religion, largely supporting it and yet articulating a specific stance of its own, with which not all Japanese people agree.

This state of affairs is by no means characteristic of Japan alone. Other cultures, such as the Chinese, the Indonesian, the Indian, have their own broad outlines of religious life in terms of which specific religions thrive in their own way. There have been various attempts to capture these matrices of religious culture as a single integrated picture. In such cases it is often difficult to decide whether it is a "religious" system as such which is being presented, or the total symbolic system of a whole people. The position taken here is that there is value in regarding the patterns of Japanese primal religion as indeed constituting "religion" in the sense in which it emerges in the following characterization. The judgment, that is, the value-judgment, of others on this primal religion is

11 neither here nor there. Sometimes Japanese people themselves deprecate it or just giggle about it. But the great majority nevertheless perform it. In any case major features of it are quite serious. For example, "ancestor veneration"17 is important, while it is badly neglected in many other cultures. To put it at its simplest, there is in fact a coherent system of primal religion generally current in Japan which can be differentiated from other functioning systems such as the educational system, the financial system and the political system, even though there are of course many points of contact between all of these.

The key features of contemporary Japanese primal religion

The main outlines of contemporary primal religion are taken more or less for granted by the great majority of Japanese people. These outlines are no more and no less than generally agreed arrangements, with endless variations, for dealing with sacralised space and time, with the social rituals of corporate life and with generational rituals including the management of death. It is not really possible, except for eccentric, marginal people, to escape from such arrangements. At the same time it is not necessary for the participants to think about them very much. The main thing for the individual is to play one's part in the appropriate way so that the world around will respond accordingly. The appropriate ritual activity may be summed up in the phrase rites of transaction. Thus by considering the religious articulation of space and time and of life and death, together with the transactional procedures for their management, the 's primal religion may be discerned. These features may be summed up approximately, if not exhaustively, by some extremely widely used Japanese terms which are not the property of any one religion and which will be briefly explained below.

As for space, the key-word is o-mairi, which means proceeding to a holy place. This is one of the basic forms of religious action in Japanese primal religion. It is widely assumed that the whole country is provided with innumerable foci for transactional rituals to which it is appropriate to proceed on various occasions. "Proceed" here reflects the humble word for "to go": mairu, from which the verbal noun o-mairi is formed. These foci do not belong to one single religious organisation. They include Shintō shrines, Buddhist temples and other special spots such as

17 On care needed over the use of this term see further below.

12 mausolea or natural phenomena. While the performance of o-mairi is usually an individual or a family act, it often takes place in the context of broadly-based social festivals (matsuri).

The convention commonly followed in the Japanese context of referring to Shintō places of worship as "shrines" and Buddhist ones as "temples" is followed here. However, as far as o-mairi is concerned this distinction is largely irrelevant! One can perform o-mairi at either. This is also evident when the buildings of the many new religions are considered. Some of these might fairly be regarded as "temples", in that the teaching is presented as being Buddhist. Yet they usually have special names such as Great Sacred Hall (Daiseidō), the name of the central building of the lay Buddhist movement Risshō Kōsei-kai. Others are called kyōkai, the word otherwise used for Christian churches, which literally means "teaching assembly". All of these details fade into insignificance beside the simple fact that going to a place where reverence is due recognises a focus of sacred space. The whole population knows that there are many of these, and that there is indeed hardly anywhere in Japan which is without its appropriate sacred focus.

The specific religious institutions are therefore a part, whether their representatives wish to recognise this or not, of a nation-wide pattern of sacred space. This in turn is related to the immensely strong sense of locality enjoyed by most Japanese people, which is usually geared in some way to the immediate neighbourhood, to the wider region and to the country as a whole. This holds good even though the traditional Shintō relationship between a "clan god" (ujigami) and the "clan children" (ujiko) has lost much of its force and such local identity may therefore not be linked explicitly to a local Shintō shrine. By contrast the question of identity vis-à-vis the wider world outside Japan is regarded as being relatively problematic, though one with which people have been coping in recent years quite well in various ways. The strongest sense of spatial coherence reinforced by Japan's primal religion is that of the Japanese themselves. The recent, fashionable use of the term The (nihon rettō or, more forcefully, nippon rettō) is but another, secularized way of emphasising this, current at the level of civil religion.

As regards time, an evident key word is nenjūgyōji, which is conventionally translated as "annual events" or "annual customs". The fuller meaning would be brought out better in the phrase "practices performed in the course of the year". The term nenjūgyōji18 or sometimes nenkangyōji, implies a conceptual and ritual structuring of the year. These regular events are listed in endless variation, for each religious organization provides its own version of them, accentuating its own interests. Yet the people know that any one such list is simply a version of something which is

18 The same characters are sometimes read, but untypically, as nenchūgyōji.

13 much more fundamental and generally shared by all, in fact generic. The variants may share various events such as or , higan or o-bon. New Year, above all, is an obligatory common denominator. The consciousness which is shaped in this way may be called "calendricity"19 or perhaps even better "recurrent calendricity".

It should not be overlooked that remembered time, that is, linear time beyond the cyclical range of any one year, is also important in Japan's primal religion, especially in connection with the succession of the generations and the perception of roots and origins. Time is not only cyclical. But this is part of the complexity. As far as apparently distant mythical time is concerned, though it is often interlocked with an unreflective historical consciousness, remembered time as a form of linear time takes on importance particularly when it is drawn into the current cycle through ritual. This is why many festivals celebrate particular events in the past which are considered to be somehow constitutive of the local or regional society of the present.

Taken together, the idea of sacred foci spread throughout Japan and the idea of a natural sequence of time, the year, which is repeated in due order again and again, add up to an integrated network of associations which the great majority of Japanese people take for granted. Participation in ritual activity within this network is generally regarded as non-controversial and unavoidable. Such participation is not usually regarded, specifically, as "religious" (shūkyōteki). Being religious, or doing something religious, would be something more specific and more individualistically intentional, it is commonly thought. But this attitude in itself is typical of primal religion; primal religion is coterminous with the ordinary life experience in which all participate as a matter of normality.

For social rituals, the evident key-word is matsuri, usually and not inappropriately translated as "festival". The origins of the idea of matsuri, which is a verbal noun from matsuru, are lost in the oldest period of indigenous Japanese religion. It is therefore especially widely current in Shintō contexts. At the same time the term has achieved a wide and is often used without reference to any specific religion at all. While a Shintō shrine has its "summer festival" (natsu- matsuri) for example, a good number of Buddhist temples put on a "flower festival" (hana-matsuri) on or around April 8th. This is a celebration of the birthday of Buddha, which happens to coincide quite nicely with the appearance of the cherry blossoms in Japan. In general matsuri implies a celebration of life. It assumes that the power of life can be renewed, usually from year to year. The

19 A phrase first introduced in this connection in a short research report in the Bulletin of the British As- sociation for the Study of Religions (1980).

14 idea of matsuri therefore links the ritual activities of one year with its previous year, or with the previous event in a longer cycle of years. The festival of the great shrine Suwa Taisha, for example, is performed once every seven years. Life is maintained through renewal, brought about by repetition. It is also widely assumed, and here the contribution of Shintō to Japan's primal religion is strongly evident, that responsibility for the performance of matsuri and the receipt of the consequent benefits are social. Participation is inclusive, as far as natural social extension requires. In a relaxed sense therefore, participation is also effectively obligatory.

Ritual activity focused on the individual in a generational perspective is the fourth major feature to be considered. This follows the "life rites" which typically occur in any one individual life, from the "first shrine visit" (o-miya-mairi), through adolescent rites and marriage to death. But death is not the end, for the individual then joins the ancestors, who continue to be at the centre of ritual action. The Japanese term for this is senzokuyō which (rather than "veneration" and certainly not "worship" as in some older literature), means something like "caring for the ancestors". In other words the ancestors continue to be members of the family who need to be cared for, even if this care can now only be carried out ritually.

Finally we come to the rites of transaction which are carried out in the perspective of all of the above-mentioned coordinates. These will be discussed in more detail below, but note that they form part of the shared language of Japanese primal religion. To give a simple illustration, it is customary at New Year to return amulets and other religious paraphernalia to the shrines and temples at which they were bought. They are then burned and new ones are acquired to give protection and ensure welfare in business, in the home, etc., for the coming year. Millions of people perform this practice which, as is well known, is found both in Shintō and most forms of Buddhism. Strikingly, when these millions of people throng to particular shrines or temples they pay scant attention to the origin of the returned items. A wooden tablet bought at a Shintō shrine in the previous year may be casually returned to a large . Attendants at just such a large Buddhist temple (Heikenji, near Tokyo, popularly known as Kawasaki Daishi) have even complained to me about the extra work which the disposal involves! This shows that the practice is independent of any specific religious teaching, Shintō or Buddhist, and that there is indeed a general field of Japanese religion which is lived out by the people regardless of more specific religious affiliations. It is this general field which is here designated "primal religion".

15 Rites of transaction as an analytical key

The term "transaction" is used to focus the connecting feature of Japan's primal religion because through messages and gifts a pattern of obligation and benefit is considered to be established which links both parties, just as in the case of transactions in ordinary life.20 Indeed, it is the principle of reciprocity which underlies the central feature of primal religion. Needless to say, the general principle is widely observable throughout the world and has been the subject of various studies. The expression rites of transaction echoes van Gennep's famous phrase "rites of transition" (in his original French rites de passage). The major life rites in Japan's primary religion are indeed rites of transition from one set of social interactions to another, which was van Gennep's main point of interest. Yet an understanding of rites in primal religion as rites of transaction is the more comprehensive, since in principle it includes all of its ritual activities, for example those which occur in the context of socially significant festivals (matsuri) which have no particular import in an individual's life-cycle.

The most common intention underlying ritual activities or performances in the primal religious system of Japan is to effect a transaction between oneself or oneselves and the relevant spiritual agents: , buddhas, , charismatic religious personalities or ancestors. The person performing the action does not presume that the gods can be compelled, but he or she does have some confidence or hope, based on an understanding of the system, that a mutually satisfactory arrangement can be reached. The action is "performative" in the sense that it is intended to carry through the desired effect. However this does not necessarily imply a simplistic automatism, as it might appear to a merely casual observer. Rather, the favourable or compassionate intention of the spiritual agent is sought and requested. Naturally, as in daily life, one should not come empty-handed with one's requests and requirements, it is felt. Moreover, when prayers are granted, as in the healthy course of daily life they often may seem to be, then gratitude is also appropriate. Indeed, as various religious teachers and older people are often at pains to explain to the young, one is obliged to be grateful. For this reason the idea of a symbol of gratitude for past benefits is one of the regular themes at New Year. This may be expressed in the simple phrase "thank you for last year" (kyonen arigatō gozaimashita) on a votive tablet (ema). Such a votive tablet can be left behind at a shrine for perusal by a divinity, even if some uncertainty is felt about the precise name of the adressee!

20 The "rationality" of these arrangements was discussed in a recent joint article by Katja Triplett and the present writer entitled "Religiöse Transaktionen: rational oder irrational?" (2004).

16 With this in mind, it is not surprising that at the level of the primal religion of Japan there is a range of ritual actions which are not only widely and easily understood but which may be carried out in a more or less analogous manner in various religious situations. However the manner of the transaction can vary enormously. Often enough it is a formal affair carried out by religious specialists and attended by senior representatives of a family, a business or some other organization. Shintō shrines and Buddhist temples arrange such religious services in their own distinctive ways, the prayers and recitations varying accordingly. Yet the assumption is shared that the performance will create and maintain a desired pattern of relations and effects in social and personal life.

In millions of other cases the transaction is a more personal affair carried out in a small family group, sometimes by friends, and very frequently by individuals. This has already been remarked in connection with the simplest performance of "humbly visiting" or o-mairi. When a shrine or temple is visited, it is usual in some way to indicate to the spiritual beings that one has come to visit them. This is commonly done by banging the gong with a rope which hangs down to the front of the prayer hall. Then a symbolic offering is made by throwing a coin (of low but symbolic value) into the offerings box. Of course, there are also distinctive features as between Shintō and Buddhism. The standard form of prayerful address at the front of a Shintō shrine is two bows, two claps and one bow. The hand-claps are supposed to be clear and audible. Prayers before Buddhist temples on the other hand should be made without claps of the hands, which are simply placed together in a pointing position. This “folding” of the hands (to use the traditional English phrase) is known as gasshō. It so happens that this was approximately illustrated, unknowingly, in the famous etching by Albrecht Dürer.

Nevertheless there is a general assumption, with or without the hand-claps, that ritual action will ensure, or might possibly ensure, the right and desired running of things in this life. The strength of this general assumption is shown by the fact that quite frequently people fail to clap their hands properly in front of the Shintō shrines or clap them, perhaps a bit faintly (!), before Buddhist temples. This shows that they think it is a similar or related action. The religious institutions do their best to differentiate. Buddhist leaflets like to emphasise the idea of gasshō as a prayerful posture of respect, while Shintō leaflets and notice-boards tell people what the correct order of prayer with the hand-claps should be (see page 42 below).

Having attracted the attention of the spiritual agents, the visitor stands for a few moments in the appropriate attitude of prayer, silently communicating a request for assistance, a personal resolve, or a message of gratitude. On departing, with a concluding courteous bow, it is common to effect a record of the visit by way of purchasing an amulet or some small gift, for

17 example a pair of chopsticks in a very clean envelope showing where they were bought. Commemorative telephone cards sold for this purpose, with a corresponding motif, carry a significant surcharge above the value of the telephone units. Since this is, indirectly, an offering to the shrine or temple it has the effect of subtly drawing the recipient of the gift into the range of the religious transaction.

In spite of the variations, the procedure can be summed up generically in three steps as follows:

address – inner communication – record

If the ritual procedure is observed in a wider frame, then other actions might be included such as the preliminary, symbolic washing of one's hands on the way in to the place of worship (which is not universally practised) and the subsequent return home, telling other family members that one has performed o-mairi, giving the gift which proves it, and in some cases placing a talisman on the house-altar. In this wider perspective the sequence may be stated in the following abstract terms:

preparation – action before prayer hall – report

In this case, the central term "action before prayer hall" should be unpacked to include the sequence: address – inner communication – record, as already set out above. Thus the internal dynamics are repeated.

While much ritual action is rooted in the general assumption that some kind of transaction is involved, there may be cases in which the transactional level of primal religion is superseded or, as some might say, transcended. Thus, going beyond the daily practice of "humbly visiting", there are many specific forms of ritual behaviour such as the practice of seated meditation () in Zen Buddhism, or the use of a special healing gesture in the new religion known as Mahikari, which lead into the specificity of diverse Japanese religions. Some actions operate at both levels. For example, the recitation of a short text such as the Heart may be expected to assist in bringing about this-worldly benefits (genzeriyaku). Yet going beyond this, the repeated chanting of the same sutra may contribute to an individual maturation process and an appropriation of a Buddhist perspective in which this-worldy benefits are no longer sought. However in the underlying patterns in ritual activity which are typical of the primal religious system the interest in this-worldly transactions is paramount. Even here, there may be a slight tendency for Buddhist and Shintō institutions to seek an independent identity, as when Buddhist temples refer to "this-worldly benefits" (genzeriyaku) and Shintō shrines refer to "divine merits" (shintoku).

18 Another frequently noted point is that many general aspects of Japanese life are highly ritualised whether they pertain to religion or not. This observation is true enough, although such a perception is relative. After all, the daily rituals in the home cultures of non-Japanese observers may themselves often go more or less unremarked, although transgressions would be noticed. Thus, in so far as there is an obligatory aspect, various rather general ritual transactions may be regarded as an element in primal religion. An example of this is seasonal gift-giving at New Year or at chūgen in mid-summer. The fact that this would not usually be regarded as "religious" by most of the people concerned, but rather just as normal behaviour, is not an objection to the present analysis. Indeed, it supports the main thesis. The observance of gift- giving at chūgen is an example of how primal religion crosses over into civil religion, for it is largely secularized in the sense of riding free from any religious institutions.

All of this means that the setting up and maintaining of a pattern of obligation with the divinities is really quite similar to the arrangements made in ordinary life between living persons. Indeed it is largely continuous with these arrangements. The transaction usually has implications for others as well as oneself. Moreover, real money almost always plays some part in modulating this arrangement, sometimes in small, symbolic amounts (the coins thrown into offerings boxes), sometimes in larger payments made in suitably discreet envelopes to the shrine or temple authorities. This real money, incidentally, has for many decades not been subject to tax. Nobody can know the total scale of the amounts involved nationwide, but there is no doubt that they are very large indeed. These sums ensure the continuity of the institutions which provide a religious service and the welfare of those who are employed in this sector. While on the subject of money it may be mentioned in passing that the widely remarked Chinese practice of offering imitation paper money to ancestors, and burning it to ensure that they receive it, is not current in Japan. Religious money in Japan is real money.

Yet even though a lot of money changes hands, it might still be regarded as relatively little, in any one case, compared with the total economic value of the concerns which are the subject of the transactions with deities. A ritual act ensuring success in a qualificatory examination of some kind, or ensuring that a suitable marriage takes place, could itself have far-reaching economic implications for the individuals or the family who invest money in this way. 21 Similarly both the prosperity of a small business (shōbai hanjō), or safety in traffic (kōtsū

21 For a fascinating discussion based on a very different example see Margit Warburg's article "Economic rituals: The structure and meaning of donations in the Baha'i religion", Social Compass 40,1 (1993) pp. 25-31.

19 anzen), have a considerable value in real money in the course of a whole year, if they are effectively provided. The gods and buddhas (shinbutsu, see further below) who are competent in these areas of activity must surely be worthy of a reasonable sign of appreciation, it is thought. Moreover a financial gift is at one and the same time a token of gratitude for past favours and a premium for their continuation. Almost all areas of life, including heavy industry, are accompanied by such transactions with the sacred powers at appropriate shrines or temples.22

In the language of Japan's primal religion, transactions provide a connecting focus which links the spatial and the calendrical aspects. Transactions are carried out at a determined place and a determined time. Since these can be variable it is important to determine which time and which place, i.e. which shrine or temple, is the right place or the best place. The time is determined via the current almanac, or by key information from the almanac set up on notice boards in the shrine or temple grounds. The right place to go to may be identifid with the help of one of the guide books which tell their readers for which benefits particular kami or bodhisattvas and buddhas are especially competent and hence which religious institutions should be visited. Conversely it is because of the importance of the transactions that the places and times for their part become significant. When nobody is carrying out a transaction, they sometimes seem curiously quiet and irrelevant. However by "transaction" we are not referring only to individual shrine visits. Religious transaction also links the major themes already introduced, namely festivals and life cycle rites. This is because the festivals are concerned with securing and maintaining life in its socio-geographic extension, while the life cycle rites secure the chronological coherence of the generations. It is only in terms of this pattern, including the essential element of transaction, that the business of caring for the ancestors can be understood. Otherwise why should we care about them? For all of these reasons "rites of transaction" may be regarded as a key feature in the primal religious system of contemporary Japan.

The idea of putting something in and getting something out has important analogies in the wider range of religious practice. Much of what has been discussed above involves little more than going somewhere, doing and/or saying something, paying some money and expecting a result. However this stands in continuity with the idea that if one disciplines oneself in some way, various merits and even special abilities might accrue. Thus the idea of transaction helps us to understand some further forms of religious practice which may be summed up in the term

22 C.f. the previously mentioned Rationality, ritual and life-shaping decisions in modern Japan (Marburg 2003).

20 shugyō. The two characters making up this term mean "discipline" and "practice". In general, shugyō may be regarded as a collective, Buddhist-derived concept for a wide range of practices which require an effort such as pilgrimage, fasting and purifications, long recitations and meditations, or more dramatic activities such as standing under a cold waterfall or hanging over cliffs while reciting a sutra or various . The merits which thereby develop may be of assistance in one's own life or they may be turned over to others. In the latter event, a course of disciplined practice, such as a costly pilgrimage, might be undertaken for the benefit of another person's health, safety overseas or success in completing important endeavours such as medical examinations.

This approach to religious practice is widespread in the context of so-called "esoteric" Buddhism, whether of the Tendai or Shingon variety, in the tradition of the mountain ascetics known as yamabushi which are only partly Buddhistic in orientation, among various other groups devoted to mountain climbing for religious reasons, and among the followers of various new religions whose founders and leaders encourage particular forms of practice. What all of these orientations have in common is that the effort invested is thought somehow to be rewarded with worthwhile results which may benefit oneself or others. The idea stands in the tradition of the acquisition of supernormal powers by the great bodhisattvas of Buddhist legend but also undoubtedly draws upon ancient shamanic traditions which have been overlaid, assimilated and transposed, for example in the yamabushi tradition organised under the more institutional name of Shugendō. This term itself provides the clue, in that, including the element shu which was already mentioned, it literally means "the way of training through trials". In more specialised cases therefore the investment of extra effort in religious practice may also lead to higher status and religious leadership, and an expectation on the part of others that one might be in a position to provide, for example, a healing. Most of the founders of new religions in Japan have some personal history of special endeavours of this kind. In fact shugyō may be regarded as one of the main power-houses of religious innovation. Another way in which a person may feel compelled to start a new religious movement is by being unexpectedly gripped by a divinity, an event known as kamigakari. But one has no control over this and it is therefore not a transaction.

It is interesting to reflect on how far it is necessary for some persons, specialists in religious practice, to carry out shugyō in order to keep the wider system going. Admittedly it is not explicitly relevant in all the religious institutions of Japan, for example in Shin Buddhism it is rejected as an expression of reliance on "self-power" (jiriki) instead of on the "other-power" (tariki) of Amida Buddha. But in many cases it is assumed that there has to be an investment of self-discipline in the training of the specialists who operate the ritual systems. This explains, in a very general manner, why Buddhist "monks" in Japan are also Buddhist "priests". The

21 monastic training may have been slight, and the subsequent ritual duties of the temple priest may be heavy, yet it is a question of a competence which is perceived to have been achieved, symbolised (usually) by the regular reshaving of the hair. For the same reason the tombstones of temple priests in the cemetery are not rectangular, but rounded over at the top. They were the ritually competent ones in previous generations. In the case of Shintō priests, it is their special, indeed perfect clothing and their practised, measured deportment which sets them apart. The term shugyō is not normally current in Shintō contexts, although one can meet with the term o- gyō, which is reminiscent of it (used by pilgrims on Gassan, c.f. frontispiece). In any case the situation is rather analogous. For certain rituals such as purificatory washings (o-), which people are not ordinarily required to do, the priests may have to get up very early indeed. In many cases a severe routine of abstinence is prescribed. It is therefore no surprise that once the ritual task has been performed they may return to their normal pattern of daily life. These preparatory efforts are regarded as a prerequisite to the effective carrying out of the ritual in question. Without the discipline the rite could not be performed. Thus in general shugyō may be regarded as part of a super-transaction, one for which most people do not have time and which is therefore done on their behalf by others who, of course, have to be supported economically. This point is generally understood and accepted at the level of the primal religious system, regardless of the variations which may be important to particular ritualists in the various religious traditions of Japan.

This discussion is going to be be concluded below with examples from recent research into Japanese pilgrimages. The concept of transaction helps to provide a structured analysis of Buddhist circulatory pilgrimage. This in turn provides a conceptual springboard for the correlation of primal religious culture with the specific interests and meanings preferred in other religions, in this case Shintō.

Buddhist circulatory pilgrimage as transaction and more

The analysis and interpretation of circulatory Buddhist pilgrimages in Japan can be carried out quite appropriately under three headings: route, transaction and meaning.23 The significance of this for the present argument is that, via the concept of "transaction" a clear alignment may be

23 C.f. Pye 1987, 2000.

22 viewed with the primal religion of Japan, while via the concept of "meaning" it is possible to explore the distinctive Buddhist perspective which in many cases can be documented. When we come to consider "Shintō variations on Buddhist pilgrimage" below, the same model will apply, but the question will be to what extent Buddhist meanings are replaced with Shintō meanings. Thus an analytical orientation can be achieved by correlating this three-step approach to the study of pilgrimages with the complementary theoretical orientation in the wider study of contemporary Japanese religions presented earlier. It will be recalled that in this orientation a range of widespread religious activity is presupposed, within which particular religious groups or orientations have to find their place and present their own particular messages, if any.

At this point therefore let us consider the pilgrimage model with the addition of more specific details. First of all the route or routes must of course be studied in their variety and detail, including the choices between various modes of transport, the options for speeding up or abbreviating the total journey, and the way in which the pilgrims identify themselves as being en route, especially through their clothing. Second, the religious observances repeated at each individual temple site are important. These fall mainly into the category of "transactional" rites, in that something is given or paid, in return for which a benefit, whether material or spiritual, is expected. Third, there is the question of the Buddhist "meaning" of all this activity, whether indeed it has any meaning, and if so whether this meaning somehow transcends ordinary daily concerns in a Buddhist sense. This threefold sequence of analysis and interpretation is one which arises rather naturally in the process of observation and description or report, as has already been explored. The question which arises here is what happens in the process of interpretation when it is no longer Buddhist meanings which play a central role. To what extent do the phenomena of pilgrimage follow the same basic patterns, or related ones, and at what point must a line of interpretation begin to take a different direction?

The reason why the two models are interesting here is that they overlap with regard to "transaction". This feature is a truly central key to any understanding of the primal religion of Japan. It is also the central term of the three main terms used in the interpretation of Japanese Buddhist pilgrimage. It is not at all surprising that the activities of pilgrims at the various temples or shrines which they visit are transactional. What is of interest here is that the meaning which goes beyond the range of give-and-take transaction is often Buddhist, but may not necessarily be so. At the transactional level the various kinds of pilgrimage share in a primal mode of religious behaviour, whereas beyond that the meanings which may be discerned become diverse. Pilgrimage may lead into a Buddhist perspective of meaning – or it may not.

23 The Buddhist pilgrimages are themselves very distinctive in being circulatory. This means that they combine a sequence of temples often referred to as "spiritual sites" (reijō), all of which must be visited in order to complete the pilgrimage. A standard number is thirty-three, corresponding to the thirty-three forms in which, according to the Lotus Sutra, the Kanzeon (or popularly Kannon-sama) appeared, while in the pilgrimage route contains no less than eighty-eight temples in all, at each of which there is a special hall dedicated to Kōbō Daishi (Kūkai, the famous founding patriarch of ). Since these routes cover a huge area, it is not surprising that alternative versions and miniature versions may be found in many places all over the country, fully in accordance with the principle of abbreviation which can be so widely observed in Japanese religious culture. There is no space here to set out further details of these pilgrimages which have already been described in various places, by the present writer and others. The main point to note here is that, while these pilgrimages deliver a great deal of interest as part of the travel and tourism industry ("route"), they also provide very numerous places indeed for the performance of simple rites at the level of primal religion ("transaction"), and at the same time each temple is a potential location for increasing the consciousness of a Buddhist perspective on life, for example by reciting the verses of the Kannon Sutra, the whole of the admittedly short but extremely content-laden Heart Sutra, and so on. The figures of buddhas and bodhisattvas, in so far as they are visible, also play a role as the central objects of devotion in whose presence the ritual transactions are performed.

The task of interpretation becomes more complex when other pilgrimages are considered which are conceived on this well-known pattern, but apparently without any opening to a further perspective of Buddhist meaning. In particular, shorter circuits of linked temples can be found in many places which are devoted to the well-known "Seven Gods of Fortune" (shichifukujin). These are of interest here in that the connection with Buddhism is relatively weak, though not always absent. However shrines are sometimes included in these circuits of the Seven Gods of Fortune. Even further afield, in interpretation, is the little known phenomenon of pilgrimage circuits in which a number of shrines are linked, without any Buddhist temples being included at all. The very existence of these Shintō circuits makes the overall task of interpretation more complex. The complications arise not only because of the interactions between Buddhism and Shintō, and the differentation between the meanings which are ascribed to religious activity in these traditions, but also because both Buddhism and Shintō are related, not least in our own times, with the more general range of religious behaviour – Japan's primal religion – in the context of which their divergent meanings are located and expressed. As will be seen however, the matter is transparent enough if the analytical models are consistently applied.

24 The Seven Gods of Fortune between Buddhism and Shintō

Some details of the less well-known Shintō circuits will be given in the last part of this paper, but first a few indications must be provided about the system of connected visits to the Seven Gods of Fortune. The reason is that these circuits, sometimes linking Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines, are thought to have provided a bridge for the development of the more recently developed, purely Shintō circuits.

The Seven Gods of Fortune (shichifukujin) must be among the most accessible of all the gods in Japan. Their name arises from the following elements: shichi meaning seven, fuku meaning fortune and -jin standing for shin (otherwise read as kami, the term widely used for Shintō divinities). Taken together, the Seven Gods of Fortune all offer a positive contribution to a happy life of well-being. They are remarkably diverse in origin and characteristics, and it is notable that they are frequently depicted and sculpted in their readily recognisable, individual forms. The common characteristic is that they all look very cheerful indeed. Often they are shown standing together as a group in a ship of wealth (takarabune), depicted like those carved in wood for a celebratory serving of o-. This is not the place to go into the origins, identities and functions of the Seven Gods of Fortune in detail.24 A few brief notes must suffice.

Daikokuten. Daikoku is of Indian origin, as can be seen from the ending -ten translating (via Chinese). The Indian prototype, Mahākāla, was originally a god of death, but in the context of Buddhism took on the care of virtue and of happiness. In Japan Daikoku is conflated through a word-play with Ōkuninushi, because the characters used to write Ōkuni can also be read as Daikoku. For this reason Daikoku carries the heavy wooden hammer associated with Ōkuninushi, who in Shintō legend played an important role in the construction of the country. As one of the seven gods of fortune 's particular function is to give wealth, for which reason he also carries a sack of fortune. He may also carry or sit on top of a bale of rice. One should remember in this connection that during the lengthy serious wealth was counted in terms of koku of rice (even though coinage was in use), rather as in other cultures one might count wealth in heads of cattle or barrels of oil. Daikoku is usually shown as a rather plump and jolly figure, like with whom he is often linked and who will be considered next.

24 For a basic introduction in Japanese see Satō and Kaneko 1989.

25 Ebisuten. Ebisu, a kami of mysterious derivation, is the only one of the Seven Gods of Fortune who is originally Japanese. While the ending -ten hints at an Indian derivation, as in the names of other gods containing this element, no specific identification can be made. Even so, it is said that the name Ebisu may have meant "foreigner", so that as a divinity, Ebisu may have originated as a stranger who brings good fortune. Traditionally responsible for success in fishing, Ebisu's functions have been extended to provide safety at sea and prosperity in business. In this connection he came to be an extremely popular figure in the commercial art of the Meiji Period, being shown on advertising handbills (hikifuda) with a giant carp or lobster. This tradition continues today, though less prominently due to the sheer proliferation of other symbols in contemporary commercial art. A recent marketing campaign by the Chiyoda Fire and Ebisu Life Insurance Company (Chiyoda Kasai Ebisu Seimei Hoken Kabushiki Kaisha) uses a poster showing the ship of riches (takarabune) sailed by the Seven Gods of Fortune with Ebisu to the fore. Since all Japanese ships bear names in the form xxx-maru the ship of riches may bear the name Ebisu-maru.

Bishamonten. Bishamonten, also known as Tamonten, is a divinity of Indian derivation who was carried along with Buddhism into East Asia as a protector god. For this reason he is shown wearing armour. The spear in his right hand shows that he can destroy demons. This is helpful in clearing the way for the advance of Buddhism. At the same time the of endless riches carried in the left hand shows that he is also helpful in bringing wealth.

Benzaiten. is the Indian goddess Sarasvatī, introduced to East Asia in the context of Buddhism as a goddess of music, eloquence and wisdom. She is the only female divinity among the Seven Gods of Fortune (except when Kichijōten is added, see below). Through a play on the characters used to write her name she is thought to add a financial advantage as well. Benzaiten is the centre of considerable cultic activity on particular islands, e.g. the offshore of Enoshima near Kamakura, the island Chikubushima in Lake Biwa, and Itsukushima. Indeed Benzaiten is frequently identified with islands, that is, any small islands recognisable as such to the viewer. In the grounds of Ryōanji, for example, the Zen temple in Kyōto which boasts what is probably the most famous stone garden of all, there is also a large artificial lake with an island on which there is a Shintō-style shrine to Benzaiten. Another well known lake with a small island for Benzaiten is to be found in Ueno Park in Tokyo, not far from Ueno Station and a popular place for people going out for a stroll. Benzaiten is also known in brief as Benten-sama.

Fukurokuju. A god of Chinese origin who is regarded as the northern personification of the south pole star. He offers three blessings: happiness, material good fortune and long life. It may be noted that is sometimes absent because his function of giving long life is

26 adequately covered by Jurōjin. In such cases there is room among the seven for Kichijōten, a goddess of Indian origin who is the companion of Bishamonten.

Jurōjin. Jurōjin, the old man of long life, is usually regarded as deriving from . At the same time, with his elongated forehead he is remarkably similar to the "white old man" of Mongolia.25

Hoteison. Hoteison, or The Venerable Hotei, is a monk in the Chinese Zen (Chan) tradition who existed historically. While reputed to have achieved detachment from this world, he carries a cloth sack which is generally assumed to have good things in it.

The circuits around the Seven Gods of Fortune share in the principle of circulatory pilgrimage, linking several places at which o-mairi can be performed and including a simple devotional act which is considered likely to bring benefit. There are literally dozens of circuits for the Seven Gods of Fortune. Every visitor or resident in Japan comes across his or her own local version. A recent book lists no less than 62 different ones with details of the participating temples and shrines (Satō and Kaneko 1989, 1996), and even then fails to include others known to the present writer. In other words, practically every area where there are active temples and shrines in relative proximity to each other comes up with a local version. It is a matter of course that it should be possible to do the rounds in one day. Since these divinities are considered to be so beneficial from a practical point of view, it is in everybody's interest that the route should not be particularly arduous.

One of the most well-known examples of a pilgrimage round the seven gods of fortune is that in , which dates from the Edo Period. Another with roots from that time is the Yamate Shichifukujin, though it was constituted in its present form in the twentieth century. Indeed it is conceivable that the linkage of the Seven Gods of Fortune with each other was initially a contribution of the Kantō region of Japan. At any rate the casual claim of Kyōto’s "Miyako Shichifukujin Mairi" to be "Japan’s oldest" does not seem to be well founded. Tanaka Yasuhiko says that it was launched in 197926, though it may have older roots. A different version in Kyōto known as "Kyōto Shichifukujin Meguri" was launched in Taisho 11 (1922). It may be supposed,

25 Heissig (The Religions of Mongolia, p.76) indicates various central and east Asian parallels to "white old man", who rules "the length and shortness of men's lives" (p.79), and the illustration on page 81 shows a strong similarity to the Japanese Jurōjin. There seems to be a complex problem here, for some- times Fukurokuju (also good for long life) is identified with Jurōjin, bringing in the connection with the stars which is prominent among the Mongolian "seven old men". In such cases Fukurokuju is replaced by Kichijōten. 26 Miyako no fukujin meguri, Kyōto 1990, p.22.

27 in view of the overlapping between the various Kyōto routes, that there have been other variations in the past, and that various changes in institutional arrangements and relationships have given rise to the combinations which happpen to be promoted nowadays.

The Seven Gods of Fortune promise above all success and well-being, and are therefore particularly popular at the New Year period, when hopes are high. It is commonly said therefore that they should be visited during the first seven days of January, a custom which many find easy to fit in additionally to making their first shrine (or temple) visit of the year (hatsumōde). In Kyōto it is possible to go round the Miyako Shichifukujin Mairi in special buses during the whole month of January. The organisers clearly do not wish to lose visitors by restricting the time to just the first few days. Moreover, as a pamphlet points out, the seventh of every month is a good day for the Seven Gods of Fortune. Indeed the commemorative booklet can be stamped on any day of the year between nine o’clock in the morning and four o’clock in the afternoon.

The seven gods of fortune are sometimes to be found in Buddhist temples and sometimes in Shintō shrines, and there seems to be no strongly defined pattern in this regard. In the case of the Asakusa group, three are in temples and the rest are in shrines. In fact this amounts to six shrines, because two of the gods appear twice in different shrines which are all listed as valuable to visit.27 In the sequence, also in Tokyo, the seven are housed in six places only, three temples, two shrines, and a flower-park belonging to the City of Tokyo which otherwise boasts the flowers of "the four seasons", itself an auspicious concept. The recommended starting point is Mii Shrine, where both Ebisu and Daikoku can be venerated. The total route is 3250 metres.28 In the city of Miura there is a sequence in which seven of eight named places are Buddhist temples, and of these only one is a Shintō shrine. In Kyōto the already mentioned "Miyako Shichi Fukujin Mairi" links one Shintō shrine with six Buddhist temples. A pamphlet issued from an office in Ebisu Jinja calls the seventh of each month the ennichi (affinity day) of the Seven Gods of Fortune. A Shintō shrine is thereby aligning itself with a concept of Buddhist origin.

27 This amounts to nine in all, justified in a pamphlet on various grounds, namely that nine is "the highest number", that the character for one can easily be converted into that for seven, which in turn can easily be converted into that for nine, and that the character for nine is used with that for bird to write "dove" which symbolises atsumaru meaning to collect together and hence completion. The pamphlet also says that one should appreciate the culture of Edo, with Kannon-sama (housed at Sensōji) at its centre. 28 Commemorative leaflet available at the sites and also used for collecting the commemorative imprints which are proof of the journey (Pye, O-meguri 1987, p 47). In a circumstantial reference to what may be the same route Ian Reader describes it as "about five miles long" (Reader 1991, p. 165).

28 Sometimes all are to be found in Buddhist temples. This holds good in the city of Chichibu in , for example, where all seven gods can be visited in one day. According to a local pamphlet they offer the following benefits: unlocking of fortune, bringing good luck, long life, healing of disease, success in business, wealth and wisdom. With this in mind it is beneficial, according to the pamphlet, to visit them in each of the four seasons of the year.29 In the city of Kawagoe, also in Saitama Prefecture, the Seven Gods of Fortune are also to be found exclusively in Buddhist temples.

If the number of places to visit for the Seven Gods of Fortune is not always stable this is no doubt because a particular shrine or temple also wished to be part of the circuit, to attract visitors, and managed to achieve a compromise with the rest. However it is not possible to see at once which are the "extra" ones, for they are not designated as bangai ("outside the numeration") as they would be in a route of 33 Kannon-sama temples. The reduplication can be seen clearly enough in that there are no extra gods. When one of them features twice there is simply an extra shrine or temple. However the visitor has no way of knowing which one has been added in later, and indeed this could only be established, if at all, by turning over buried or half-buried local rivalries. Nor is it just that a Buddhist temple and a Shintō shrine both claim to revere one and the same divinity. In the case of the Asakusa Shichifukujin circuit, the two reduplicated divinities are Jurōjin and Fukurokuju. Each of these is venerated in two quite separate Shintō shrines lying rather far apart from each other as may be seen on the map (Fig. 2). In another case, a route in Kamakura and Enoshima, it is the goddess Benzaiten who figures twice. As a result there are eight places to visit, five Buddhist temples and three Shintō shrines.30 These can all be visited on a day trip from Tokyo. Of course Benzaiten is very important on the island of Enoshima, but perhaps not everybody visiting Kamakura has time to visit Enoshima as well, all in the same day.

There is usually no standard order in which the gods themselves are to be visited. It is largely a matter of geography and convenience. Though the temples and shrines are sometimes numbered in sequence, as in the case of Kawagoe City, the model of the Buddhist pilgrimages is often not followed in this regard.

29 This information has been publicised since 1976 in a leaflet from the Chichibu Tourism Association, which of course also publicises the 34 Kannon-sama sites (C.f. O-meguri, p. 47). 30 Information sheet published by the Enoden Ensen Shinbunsha, an information service publicising leisure activities along the Enoshima railway line (C.f. O-meguri, p. 44 - 47).

29

30

Fig. 2: Pilgrimage route around the Seven Gods of Fortune in Kamakura and Enoshima. (reduced) A curiously ambivalent example is the Asakusa Shichifukujin. In this case a leaflet giving information first lists the sites with addresses and bus stops, and then shows them as sectors in a circle, in the same order. The circle shows the distance which it takes to walk between them on foot. The first in the list is the temple Sensōji, but this does not appear as the uppermost sector in the circle. The implication is that one can begin anywhere in the circle and the sequence will give a total walking time of two hours and twenty-two minutes "not counting time needed for devotions".31 If the direction taken through the circle follows the sequence shown in the vertically ordered list, starting with the temple Sensōji (at Asakusa) and then going to , and so on, the visits would take place in an anti-clockwise direction. If travelling on foot, this would also occur in reality, though it would be a rather approximate circle. In practice however, the features of urban landscape prevent any consciousness of circularity arising. Moreover nothing is encircled.

Thus both the sequence and the direction may be regarded as largely incidental, with some emphasis being given to a dominant temple, such as Sensōji in the example just considered. The important number is the number of the gods, namely seven, not the number or the sequence of the sites at which they are housed. By contrast the numbered Buddhist pilgrimages number the sites, and the forms of the celestial beings, Kannon-sama or other, display a random distribution through the numbered temples. Notwithstanding this difference the Shichifukujin devotions certainly belong to the class of circulatory pilgrimage for various reasons. In particular the idea of completing the linked route of several stations is itself quite firm. In the Japanese consciousness therefore, visiting the Seven Gods of Fortune is considered to be a particular type of o-meguri (circulation). The routes are usually so designated in tourist guides, on local leaflets and when signposted on the spot. Moreover the forms of religious transaction have the same general character as those of the Buddhist circulatory pilgrimages, but the option of going beyond the level of transactional religion, in a Buddhist mode, only arises when other facilities of the temple are used. Presenting the Seven Gods of Fortune in Buddhist temples may be regarded as a kind of skilful means (Japanese hōben) to attract people's attention and lead them into the path of Buddhism, for example by directing them towards a great Buddha such as Yakushi Nyorai or Shaka Nyorai.

31 Devotions, here sankei, a synonym for o-mairi.

31 Shintō variations on Buddhist pilgrimage

While Japan is well known for its Buddhist pilgrimages in Shikoku, in the , and indeed all over the country, the more recent phenomenon of Shintō variations on this theme seems to have escaped notice so far. Making a journey to a single, specific Shintō shrine is a basic, recognizable and even important feature of Shintō. Such a journey is known as o-mairi, the term used above to refer to any religious movement directed towards a sacred focus at the level of primal religion. O-mairi may be very long and arduous or it may be extremely short. Historically speaking, the most dramatic example of o-mairi in Shintō, which certainly qualifies to be considered in the general context of pilgrimage, is the journey to the great Ise Shrine, a journey known in its heyday in the early part of the nineteenth century as o-Ise-mairi (c.f. Nishigaki Seiji 1983). However we are concerned here with the more specific phenomenon of circulatory pilgrimage (o-meguri) in Shintō. This may be regarded as a most interesting secondary phenomenon, both for Shintō and as concerns the wider theme of circulatory pilgrimage. It is evidently modelled on the Buddhist pilgrimages, which are older, and perhaps more directly on the Seven Gods of Fortune circuits.

At the time of writing, it appears that the idea of visiting a number of Shintō shrines and collecting the "seal" or "stamp" () of each one is becoming more and more widespread. Since the older Buddhist meaning of paying for the "seal" is in such cases completely lost, one might compare this practice rather with stamping a souvenir book with the rubber stamp of historic or remote railway stations. Such rubber stamps with inkpads are usually available somewhere in the waiting room or entrance hall of the station, and their use costs nothing. At Buddhist temples by contrast, the "seal" has the rather complicated older significance, admittedly no longer evident to all, of being a receipt for a donation intended to enable a monk to copy a sutra on one's behalf (not that this is in fact done as a direct result). On the other hand the visit to a Shintō shrine will usually be linked to a request for supernatural assistance in some matter or other. Thus the use of the stamp must be understood as part of the transaction, however lighthearted the mental connections may be. It will therefore cost something.

A straightforward example of pilgrimage round linked Shintō shrines is known as Hassha Fukumairi or, literally, Good Fortune Visit to Eight Shrines. A fuller name is Good Fortune Visit to Eight Shrines in Downtown Tokyo.32

32 Tokyo Shitamachi Hassha Fukumairi.

32 Significantly, another variation is Shitamachi Hachifukujin Meguri. In this designation hachifukujin means "eight gods of good fortune", so that an association with the traditional Seven Gods of Fortune is created, although none of them are identical with these. Various leaflet-sized maps are provided for this circuit, showing convenient underground railway stations and in one case linking the shrines with an arrowed route. There is no numeration or any obligatory order for visiting, but the eight shrines, with their specified benefits, are usually listed as follows:

Ōtori Jinja shōbaihanjō (prosperity in business)

Imado Jinja enmusubi (knotting a partnership)

Dairokuten Sakaki Jinja kenkō chōju (health and long life)

Shitaya Jinja enman wagō (wealth and harmony)

Onoterusaki Jinja gakumon geinō (scholarship and arts)

Suitengū anzan kouke (safe delivery and conception)33

Koami Jinja kyōun yakuyoke (strengthening destiny and averting bad luck)

Sumiyoshi Jinja kōtsū anzen (safety in traffic)

There is no evidence for any antiquity in the linkage of these shrines, although some of the individual shrines themselves go back to mediaeval times. Rather it would seem to be a recent arrangement promoted by the "Downtown Tokyo Shrines Association". This is the only reference to a specifically Shintō interest. The materials available do not seem to lead into any particular area of interpretation which would go beyond the level of rites of transaction as well known elsewhere.

33 The order may not seem logical, but "safe delivery" is for every birth, whereas "conception" only arises in cases where it appears to be difficult and is therefore statistically less important. Prayer for "safe deliv- ery" is often found standing alone.

33

Fig. 3: Brochure for the Downtown Eight Gods of Good Fortune, Tokyo. (reduced)

This impression is reinforced by observations of a promotion by the Takashimaya Department Store, which in the New Year season of 1991 set aside an exhibition area for this purpose. The area was entered through a temporary symbolic shrine gate () and there was a focal point at the far end with an offerings box. Thus it was possible to perform o-mairi on the spot, in the department store. It was also possible to have a commemorative card stamped as an indication that the pilgrimage had been performed. This was part of the "service" of the Department Store, saabisu in Japanese meaning a free gift in the context of a commercial transaction. The card bore the names of the eight shrines, with figurative symbols and the benefits which accrue, at the bottom the name of the department store, and in the centre a variant on the name of the journey round the shrines, namely Tokyo Downtown Eight Shrines First Visit of the Year.34 Also given out was a cost-free fortune-telling slip (o-mikuji).35 Of course it is also possible to visit the shrines themselves, and for this purpose a map is provided showing the sponsorship (Fig. 4).

34 First Visit of the Year, i.e. hatsumōde, hatsu- meaning first and mōde being a synonym for o-mairi com- monly used during the New Year season. 35 The fortune is told, in part, under specific headings. The slip which I drew informed me under the heading "learning" that danger threatened and that my fullest efforts were required.

34 Fig. 4: Plan of the Downtown Eight Gods of Good Fortune, sponsored by Takashimaya. (reducerd)

Similar linkages of shrines are known in Kyōto. Indeed it is possible to see here a different starting part for the encouragement of sequential acts of o-mairi. The major shrine known as Imamiya Jinja has within its grounds a whole series of sub-shrines which are listed (with the ending -sha) as follows: Eyamisha Orihimesha Hassha Hachimansha Taishōgunsha Hiyoshisha Inarisha Wakamiyasha Jishusha Tsukiyomisha Munakatasha

35 Visitors are encouraged to stop and pray before all of them. In commemoration they may purchase a large sheet of paper bearing the names of these shrines with a different seal for each (Fig. 6, at end). In the centre is a kind of takarabune, here called a takara no fune, reminiscent of those in which the Shichifukujin are sitting, but in this case with the name of Imamiya written on the sail. This is surrounded by an elevating text, which runs as follows: "By having a sincere heart, bright and pure thanks to the light of the very first day at the beginning of the year, you will find happiness at the eleven shrines in these grounds both now and throughout the year. Whosoever prays whole-heartedly will receive this wealth bestowing ship as the august token of the high, most revered great kami."36

The "eleven" shrines (of which the third listed itself consists of eight minor shrines) have complex associations in Kyōto and in some cases were removed here altogether from elsewhere. As a result it became possible to perform a "visit" (o-mairi) to several shrines in one place. The conceptualisation and marketing of this remarkable assembly of divinities was initiated, according to a shrine attendant, "about ten years ago", that is, in the early 1990's.

A circuit which takes people around much of the city is known as "Kyōto Fourteen Shrines Seal Pilgrimage", or "Kyōto Sixteen Shrines Seal Pilgrimage". For this pilgrimage, or round tour, a large horizontally arranged paper is provided on which the seals of the various shrines can be stamped, thus encouraging visits to all of the shrines. Starting with New Year 1997 ( 9), two shrines were added, making sixteen in all. The shrines added in 1997 are Goryō Jinja (Kami Goryō Jinja) and Imamiya Jinja. A reason for adding these two was cited at Imamiya Jinja as being that one was to the east and one to the west of a major road in Kyōto known as Horikawa, which runs from south to north. This gives a feeling of comprehensiveness or inclusiveness. Evidently, with similar reasoning, almost any shrines could be added to any pilgrimage series. An underlying motive is presumably that these two shrines also would like to participate in the business, especially at New Year. We see here therefore a combination of competition and cooperation between the shrines. In the main, an appeal is made to the idea that one can somehow maximise benefit by visiting more than one shrine, indeed several. At the same time, there are only Shintō shrines in these groups, and this leads to a gentle emphasis on the Shintō view of the world. By contrast the Shichifukujin remain entirely in the realm of the transactions of primal religion. The Shintō linkages seem to lead into a slightly more specialised consciousness.

36 Thanks are gratefully recorded to Katja Triplett for assistance in clarifying this text, both calligraphi- cally and in terms of its meaning.

36 The paper on which the seals are to be stamped is provided in a large envelope (Fig. 5), which bears the following text: "Kyōto Sixteen Shrines Seal Pilgrimage New Year Shrine Visit Opening of Fortune In the refreshing spirit with which we meet the New Year, taking this paper for the seals with us as we go round to worship at the sixteen shrines, we pray that we may receive the virtues of each one of the great kami for body and soul alike. When this paper for the seals of the pilgrimage to the sixteen shrines is completed it will serve as a protection for everybody for the whole year, so please pay reverence to it carefully."

The implication of this is that the completed paper should be kept in a respected place at home, e.g. on the house-altar (), so that prayers may be said before it throughout the year.

Fig. 5: Envelope of commemoration sheet for visits to "Kyōto Sixteen Shrines" (front and reverse, reduced) Returning to Tokyo, we find here a Shintō pilgrimage with a slight, if constructed claim to a certain pedigree. This circuit is known in Japanese as Tōkyō jussha meguri, that is, Tokyo Ten

37 Shrines Pilgrimage. 37 This pilgrimage (meguri), though not particularly well known, is interesting not only in that it parallels Buddhist circulatory pilgrimages, but also because it accentuates a certain form of Shintō interpretation. The following information is based on a combination of visits and interviews at the shrines and information from leaflets issued there.

The pilgrimage was founded in 1975 (Showa 50) as an act of conscious construction, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the commencement of the reign of the Emperor Hirohito. The principle linking these particular ten shrines is that on November 8th 1868 the Emperor Meiji, having relocated the imperial residence in the eastern capital, Tokyo (renamed from Edo), sent messengers to selected shrines to pray for the pacification of the city and the safety of its people. This was of course an act of demonstrative rule to emphasise the power of the "Restoration" which had overthrown the Tokugawa shogunate. Promoting a pilgrimage to each of these same ten shrines in 1975 was no doubt in part due to a recognition of the general popularity of circulatory pilgrimage. Shrine priests will certainly have noted the popularity of the Seven Gods of Fortune and the effectiveness of linkage in attracting visitors. At the same time the circuit clearly celebrates not only the nineteenth century Restoration of imperial power but also its twentieth century endurance. It also celebrates "our Tokyo" as "the political, economic and cultural centre of the nation's life"38 Prayers are meant to be offered both for the "brilliance" of the state and for the flourishing of family fortune, thus combining nationalism with self-interest.

The participating shrines include some which are very well known for other reasons, for example Kanda Shrine, commonly known as Kanda Myōjin. The complete list, with the city ward in which the shrines are to be found, is as follows:

Nezu Jinja Bunkyō-ku ccccccccccccc Shiba Daijingū Minato-ku Kanda Jinja Chiyoda-ku Hie Jinja Chiyoda-ku Kameido Tenjinja Etō-ku Shinagawa Jinja Shinagawa-ku Hakusan Jinja Bunkyō-ku Tomioka Hachimangū Etō-ku Ōji Jinja Kita-ku Hikawa Jinja Minato-ku

37 The name may also be read Tōkyōjissha meguri. 38 Pamphlet dating from 1988.

38 The above order is that given on the leaflets, but the shrines are not specifically numbered. The sequence in which they are visited is said by shrine officials to be unimportant. However there is currently no information about the way in which visitors to the shrines themselves regard this, or indeed about the degree of interest in performing the pilgrimage. One leaflet, from Hakusan Jinja, says that special days for these visits are between the 1st and 10th October, but no reason is given for this. During observations at Kanda Shrine on an ordinary day39 a couple requested calligraphy for an undefined pilgrimage book, but proved to be unaware of the Tokyo Ten Shrines Pilgrimage. They were simply visiting shrines of their choice, but still expected the shrine office to provide calligraphy, which was duly delivered by a female attendant. Thus it appears that lay people simply make up their own pilgrimages!

Although this shrine circuit was constituted as a meguri in 1975, on the initiative of the head priest of one of the shrines, Shinagawa Shrine, the promotional leaflet reprints a map which has all the appearance of being considerably older, given the impression that it might date from the Meiji Period. The whereabouts of the original is unfortunately unknown, even at Shinagawa Shrine, so there is no way of assessing its real age or its authenticity. However the map is extremely interesting in various respects. In the centre is a circle symbolizing the Imperial Palace, containing the characters kin ri, meaning that it is a tabu area for the common people. next to the circle are indicated the four cardinal points of the compass, and further out, in their approximate, asymmetrical geographical locations, are shown the ten shrines. These are joined with lines which suggest at once both a route and a protective enclosure around the centre. The order in which they here appear geographically, wherever one were to start, is not the order in which they are otherwise listed. However distances are shown, in the traditional measurements of ri and chō.40 Since the map is said to date from the Meiji Period (according to the priest serving Shinagawa Shrine in 1988) it implies that the practice of going from one shrine to the next, presumably following the route of the imperial messenger, was not unknown at that time. A short text on the map suggests this and also lists the kami which are revered at each of the ten shrines. According to a priest serving at one of the other shrines however, Shiba Daijingū, the idea of ordinary people going round to visit these shrines is recent, simply picking up the Meiji connection in retrospect.

39 March 21st, 1988. 40 There are 36 chō in one ri, and one ri equals 3.9 kilometres. Visits today, however, would be made by local railway or by car, so that a calculation of these distances is much less relevant than a knowledge of the traffic system.

39 As with the Buddhist circulatory pilgrimages and the Shichifukujin routes, there is an expectation that one will record one's visits to these shrines in some way. One possibility is for the leaflet giving information about each of the shrines to be covered with their commemorative red seals. Alternatively a blank book for collecting these stamps or seals, such as is used when visiting Buddhist temples, may be carried. A distinctive form of record is to make a collection of one miniature votive tablet (ema) from each shrine, and to mount these jointly on a larger piece of wood cut in the same general style. A leaflet from Kanda Shrine illustrates these miniatures and calls them "commemorative ema". Normally the function of an ema is to symbolize the offering of a specific prayer, and for this reason it is usually left behind at the shrine or temple. Simply to take them home, as in this case, is less common but also not unknown.

In spite of notice boards set up to advertise this linkage of ten shrines, it does not seem to have become particularly popular. Starting from New Year 2004 therefore a new initiative was taken at Shinagawa Jinja to encourage visits to shrines in Shinagawa Ward, listing sixteen shrines as “Shinagawa-ku o-Miya-Meguri”. A map of the area is provided for stamping, on which a further fifteen smaller shrines are marked which have no resident priest. The priest at Shinagawa Jinja explains that the idea is to encourage worship of one’s local kami (ujigami) and indeed this message is prominently displayed on a notice board at the entrance. Gratitude should be shown to the ujigami at least once a month. There might seem to be an illogicality in emphasizing the local kami while urging people to visit sixteen different shrines, however it seems that they are all regarded as belonging to the same local area. And of course the priests are aware that the people visit different shrines in accordance with what they want. It is too early to say whether this linkage of sixteen shrines in Shinagawa Ward will become popular, but it seems in any case to be addressed to local people rather than a wider public.

In there is a shrines which may be visited in sequence, the practice being known as Shimozuke Hassha Mairi. Shimozuke is the traditional province name of the area in which the shrines are situated. Four of the shrines are in Utsunomiya City and the others are in the surrounding region, all in the modern Tochigi Prefecture. The starting point is a shrine named Yakushi Hachimangū, which may be reached from Jichiidai station. The name of this shrine combines those of the Buddhist figure Yakushi Nyorai and the Shintō divinity . Yakushi Nyorai is a Buddha thought to be particularly competent in medicinal matters, while Hachiman has traditionally been a god of war. The combination of a Buddhist and a Shintō divinity in the name of one single shrine is very unusual and reflects the fact that this area was of great importance in the early in eastern Japan, although now there are few temples left here. The trip around the eight shrines was set up in the year Heisei 10 (1998) with the formation of Shimozuke Hassha Mairi Association. According to

40 local tradition41 the sequence is older, having been known during the Meiji Period as Hachiman Hassha Mairi. However there is no documentary evidence available to support this assertion. Each shrine is advertised as bringing a particular benefit or benefits, and visiting all eight shrines is said to multiply the benefit for one's family by eight times and is therefore particularly meritorious. This principle of expanding benefit is known as suehirogari, meaning literally "broadening out towards the end". Visitors are encouraged to collect the calligraphy and seal at each shrine office for a fee of three hundred yen at each shrine (in 2003), and to assemble these on a special paper or a hanging scroll as a proof (shirushi) for the visits. In the same area there is apparently a sequence known as Yumefukujin Meguri, the name meaning "Going round the dream gods of happiness", but about this, apart from the evident association with the Shichifukujin, no further details are immediately available.

The names of the Shimozuke eight shrines and their benefits are as follows: Yakushiji Hachimangū seichō kenzen (growth and health) byōki heiyu (recovery from sickness) Shirasagi Jinja kōtsū anzen (safety in traffic) kanai anzen (safety for the home) Utsunomiya Futaarayama Jinja kanai anzen (safety for the home) shōbai hanjō (prosperity in business) Tochigiken Gokoku Jinja gōkaku tassei (success in obtaining qualifications) hisshō kigan (prayer for certain victory) Imaizumi Yasaka Jinja kanai anzen (safety for the home) yakuyoke (averting bad luck) katatagaeyoke (averting a threatening direction42) Hiraide Raiden Jinja kaminariyoke (averting lightning) sainanyoke (averting disaster) Yasuzumi Jinja kouke (conception) anzan (safe delivery) Ōsaki Jinja kaiun chōfuku (opening destiny and inviting fortune) enmusubi (knotting a partnership)43

41 This information was offered by the chief priest (gūji) of Yakushi Hachimangū in 2003. 42 I.e. averting a potentially harmful influence from a quarter such as the North-East, when the fūsui (Chi- nese fengshui) cannot be avoided naturally because of economic weakness or urban congestion. 43 I.e. usually with a view to eventual marriage.

41 The leaflet containing all this information also has a short statement on "how to visit shrines", and this gives some indication of the meaning which is considered to underly the practice. It goes a little way beyond the statements sometimes seen. "Here is a simple explanation of how to do o-mairi. 44 First purify your hands and mouth at the water stand (temizusha) and proceed to the front of the main shrine (). 45 Offer a coin and ring the bell. The bell has the meaning of attracting the attention of the kami-sama and of cleanly purifying oneself. Making your petition within your breast, do two bows, two claps and one bow. In bowing deeply twice, clapping the hands twice, and at the end making one more bow and then withdrawing, it is most important, above all, to do o-mairi with a grateful heart."

Clearly a dominant level of meaning is to be seen in the wish to receive, and ensure this-worldly benefits. These are all set out in detail, as shown above. However the opportunity is also taken to instruct visitors in the correct manner of visiting a Shintō shrine. Not only that, it is emphasized that, above all, the visit should be carried out with a sense of gratitude. That is to say, even while the mood of the visitor may be one of expectation, the complementary attitude of gratitude for favours received is presented as being even more important. Note however that "gratitude" is a value which is generally current in civil religion in Japan. The specifically Shintō note is added by the emphasis on ritual and inner purity.

Conclusions

First, the eight "downtown shrines" in Tokyo, like the Seven Gods of Fortune, seem to remain firmly in the area of primal religion, inserting few explicitly Shintō themes. The only special point about them is that there is a clear emphasis on Shintō shrines, and this may be contrasted with the Shichifukujin circuits which are mixed with Buddhism. This aspect is even clearer in the examples from Kyōto.

In the Tokyo Ten Shrines Pilgrimage however we find an emphasis on patriotism, with a certain nostalgia for the Meiji Period. This could be taken as civil religion, but the connection is made

44 That is, here, to perform a visit to a Shintō shrine, although the word is also used more widely in vari- ous religious contexts. 45 Usually the building before which individual prayers are offered is known as the , behind which a smaller honden is situated. In some larger shrines it is also possible to walk round and stand in front of the honden, where the kami is presumed to reside.

42 steadily to the shrines and to the kami. Of course benefits may also be received, but this does not seem to be the only point of this network at the level of meaning.

Thirdly, those responsible for the Shimozuke shrines in Tochigi Prefecture seem to be interested in educating their public into a Shintō perspective. This-worldly benefits are offered. However at the same time, the importance is emphasized not only of gratitude but also of a pure heart. This is a specific religious teaching, if rather generally phrased. The same is true for the linkage of sixteen shrines in Shinagawa Ward (in Tokyo), where there is a strong focus on locality and the local kami.

In sum therefore, though rather tentatively, we can see that quite a few Shintō shrines are ready to play the game of pilgrimage circuits, which is borrowed from Buddhism. These circuits are brought on to the scene at the shared transactional level of primal religion. However they do not provide any support for Buddhist interpretations of life. It is expected that people will pray in the Shintō fashion, with the hand-claps, and themes are emphasised such as the traditional patriotism of Shintō related to the Emperor (the Emperor Meiji standing in some sense for the whole Imperial Household), the idea that ritual and inner purity are the key to happiness, and the importance of the divinities in one’s own neighbourhood. The Shintō circuits contribute to the sacralisation of space at the local level, rather more strongly, it may be posited, than some other pilgrimages which are far more widely based and more widely known.

From these examples we can see that many of the transactional routines of Japanese religions are firmly located within the system of the primal religion of the country. Through participation in this system, Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines, each in their own ways, are at pains to articulate their own particular systems of meaning which in certain ways, especially in terms of personal self-knowledge and development, transcend the primal system. By maintaining a clear view of the structures of the shared primal religion, it is possible to see precisely at what points the representatives of specific religions seek to assert their own meaning systems, and to what extent they are successful in doing this.

43 44

Fig. 6: Commemorative paper from for Eleven Shrines Visit. (reduced) References cited

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46

Japan-Zentrum Philipps-Universität Marburg OCCASIONAL PAPERS

Occasional Papers No. 1 Ulrike Schaede The Introduction of Commercial Paper (CP): A Case Study in the Liberalization of the Japanese Financial Market. Marburg, 1988.

Occasional Papers No. 2 Ulrike Schaede Forwards and Futures in Tokugawa-period Japan: A New Perspective on the Dōjima Rice Market. Marburg, 1988.

Occasional Papers No. 3 Erich Pauer The Years Economic Historians Lost: Japan 1850-1890. Marburg, 1988.

Occasional Papers No. 4 Ulrike Schaede Liberalization of Money Markets: A Comparison of Japan and West Germany. Marburg, 1989.

Occasional Papers No. 5 J. A. A. Stockwin (Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies, Oxford) Politics, Power and Parties in Japan. Marburg, 1990.

Occasional Papers No. 6 David M. Morris (Oxford University) The Miki/Kōmoto Faction: A Case Study of a Faction of the LDP. Marburg, 1990.

Occasional Papers No. 7 David Williams (Oxford University) The Revolutionary 1980s. Towards a New Era in the Euro-American Science of Japanese Government. Marburg, 1991.

Occasional Papers No. 8 Lee W. Farnsworth (Brigham Young University) The Japanese Zoku-Giin: A Comparison to Policy Roles of U. S. Congressmen and State Legislators. Marburg, 1991.

Occasional Papers No. 9 Janet Hunter (London School of Economics) Women in the Japanese Economy: A Historical Perspective. Marburg, 1992.

Occasional Papers No. 10 Peter Wetzler (Fachhochschule Rheinland-Pfalz) The Information Epoch and the New Consensus in Japan. Culture Revised and Reinterpreted for the Future. Marburg, 1992.

Occasional Papers No. 11 Yoshio Sugimoto (La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia) Towards a Multicultural Analysis of Japanese Society. Marburg, 1993.

Occasional Papers No. 12 James Lincoln (Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley) Arne L. Kalleberg (Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Commitment, Quits, and Work Organization in Japanese and U. S. Plants. Marburg, 1993.

Occasional Papers No. 13 James Lincoln (Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley) Work Organization in Japan and the . Marburg, 1993.

Occasional Papers No. 14 Ulrike Schaede (Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley) The „Old Boy“ Network and Government-Business Relationship in Japan: A Case Study of „Consultative Capitalism“. Marburg, 1994.

Occasional Papers No. 15 Kathleen Sue Uno (Temple University Philadelphia) ‚Good Wife, Wise Mother‘ in Early Twentieth Century Japan. Marburg, 1994.

Occasional Papers No. 16 Tetsuji Okazaki / Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara (Faculty of Economics, University of Tōkyō) Historical Origins of the Contemporary Japanese Economic System. Marburg, 1994.

Occasional Papers No. 17 Osamu Itō (Department of Economics, Kanagawa University) The Second World War and the Transformation of the Japanese Economic System. Marburg, 1994.

Occasional Papers No. 18 James R. Lincoln (Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley) Nakata Yoshifumi (Department of International Relations, Dōshisha University) The Transformation of the Japanese Employment System: Nature, Depth, and Origins. Marburg, 1996.

Occasional Papers No. 19 James R. Lincoln / Michael L. Gerlach (Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley) and Christina Ahmadjian (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York) Keiretsu Networks and Corporate Performance in Japan. Marburg, 1996.

Occasional Papers No. 20 Erich Pauer (Philipps-Universität Marburg, Center for Japanese Studies) Rules, Goals, Information - A Key to the Question of Continuity and Change in Japan. Marburg, 1996. . Occasional Papers No. 21 Aiuchi Takatomo, Kitagawa Ryuta, Masumura Noriko, Shichino Yoshihiko and Yamaji Toshiyuki (Kōbe University, Graduate School of Business Administration) Impact of the International Accounting Standards on Japanese Financial Statements Applying to the IAS to the Financial Statements prepared under Japanese Accounting Standard. Marburg, 1997.

Occasional Papers No. 22 Abe Kenya, Higashine Minoru and Kamada Kazuhiro (Kōbe University, Graduate School of Business Administration) Foreign Exchange Risk Management. Practices of Japanese Export Firms. Marburg, 1997.

Occasional Papers No. 23 Hashimoto Tomoko, Maeda Kensaku, Sumida Kazuhiro and Uematsu Kenji (Kōbe University, Graduate School of Business Administration): Employer‘s Accounting for Pensions of Japanese Firms. Marburg, 1997.

Occasional Papers No. 24 Ōhata Takashi, Kura Mitsuyoshi, Sumida Yutaka and Yamaguchi Tomoyuki (Kōbe University, Graduate School of Business Administration) A Financial Analysis of Some Rapidly Growing Venture Businesses in Japan. Marburg, 1997.

Occasional Papers No. 25 Ulrike Schaede (Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego) Industry Rules: The Replacement of Government Rules by Self-Regulation. Marburg, 2001.

Occasional Papers No. 26 Hendrik Meyer-Ohle (Department of Japanese Studies, National University of Singapore) The Crisis of Japanese Retailing at the Turn of the Millennium: A Crisis of Corporate Governance and Finance. Marburg, 2001.

Occasional Papers No. 27 Kobayashi Tatsuya (Chūkyō University, Japan) Strengthening the Bridge Between Japan and Africa - Technological Choice in Development Aid. Marburg, 2001.

Occasional Papers No. 28 Cornelia Storz (Japan-Zentrum, Philipps-Universität Marburg) Wandel durch Diskontinuität oder Stabilität? Zum Wechsel institutioneller Verfahren in japanischen Unternehmen. Marburg, 2002.

Occasional Papers No. 29 Michael Pye (Japan-Zentrum, Philipps-Universität Marburg) Rationality, ritual and life-shaping decisions in modern Japan. Marburg, 2003.

Occasional Papers No. 30 Michael Pye (Japan-Zentrum, Philipps-Universität Marburg) The Structure of Religious Systems in Contemporary Japan: Shintō variations on Buddhist pilgrimage Marburg, 2004.