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00006 Hori Folk Religion in Japan.Pdf HASKELL FOLK LECTURES RELIGION ON IN HISTORY JAPAN OF Continuity md Clwnge RELIGIONS NEW SERIES ICHIRO HORI No. 1 EDITED BY Joseph M. Kitagawa and Alan L. Miller z-a THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS JOSEPH M. KITAGAWA, General Editor Chicago and London The woodcuts in this book are from: Thomas W. Knox, ome time ago, H. I. H. Prince Takahito Mi- Adventures of Two Youths in a Iourney to lapan and China f4cEcEG S kasa characterized Japan as a “living laboratory and a liv- (Harper and Brothers), 1880. ing museum to those who are interested in the study of history of religions.” Visitors to Japan will find the countryside dotted with Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. In the big cities, too, one finds various kinds of The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 Shinto, Buddhist, and Christian establishments, as well The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London as those of the so-called new religions, which have mush- 0 1968 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved Published 1968. Third Impression 1974 roomed since the end of World War II. Indeed, even in Printed in the United States of America the modem industrialized Japan, colorful religious festi- ISBN: O-226-35333-8 (clothbound) ; O-226-35334-6 (paperbound) vals and pilgrimages play important parts in the life of Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-30128 the people. Historically, the Japanese archipelago, being situated off the Asiatic continent, was destined to be influenced by a number of religious and semi-religious traditions from abroad, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Yin-yang school, Neo-Confucianism, various forms of Buddhism and Christianity, as well as all kinds of magical beliefs and practices. This does not imply, however, that these traditions have been preserved intact in juxtaposition. In this respect, James B. Pratt once stated that the Japanese people have accepted Buddhism “simply, humbly, in sin- cere and almost childlike fashion, and they have laid the stamp of their transforming genius upon it.” Similarly, V Foreword Foreword they have interpreted and appropriated other religious talented Western scholars. Some of them-for example, and semi-religious systems in terms of their particular Basil Hall Chamberlain, Karl Florenz, and Ernest FenoL religious outlooks and experiences. losa-were academicians by profession, while others were The complexity of the religious heritage of Japan is what George B. Sansom called “scholarly amateurs”-for such that it can be viewed, as indeed it has been, from example, William G. Aston, Ernest M. Satow, Charles different perspectives and with different assessments. Eliot, John Batchelor, and Sansom himself. These men, Thus, some hold that Shinto is the Japanese religion par undaunted by linguistic jungles, worked out the chronol- excellence, while others would argue that Buddhism is at ogy of Japanese history, translated texts, and analyzed least the “half-creed of Japan.” Those who are impressed unfamiliar concepts, beliefs, and practices of the Japanese by Zen would stress the decisive, though nebulous, influ- according to the canon of Western humanistic disci- ence exerted by Zen on all aspects of Japanese culture. plines. Meanwhile, many able Japanese scholars studied Still others would assert that Confucian tradition, despite abroad and were trained in modern scholarly disciplines its reluctance to be classified as a religious system in the and methodologies. For instance, as early as 1873, Bunyii usual sense of the term, has nevertheless provided the Nanjd studied Sanskrit under Friedrich Max Miiller at most enduring framework for the Japanese world view. Oxford, and published in 1883 A Catalogue of the Chi- These opinions have been advocated and affirmed by nese Translations of the Buddhist Tripitaka. Following many both Western and Japanese scholars, and be it him, other Japanese scholars studied Indology, Buddhol- noted that each one has a great deal of truth. On the ogy, Sinology, philology, philosophy, ethnology, and his- other hand, few attempts have been made thus far by tory of religions in Europe, England, and America. In a scholars, Japanese or Western, to delineate the nature of real sense, it was the combined effects of the dedicated the total pattern of religious development in Japan. In labors of the Western Japanologists and of the Westem- this sense, the present volume by Professor Hori is an im- trained Japanese scholars which establish.ed in Japan dur- portant contribution to the study of Japanese religion be- ing the first three decades of the present century the cause of his serious endeavor to portray significant char- various scholarly disciplines dealing with Japanese reli- acteristics which have been shared by different religious gion and culture, as exemplified by the works of Masa- traditions on the folk level throughout the history of Ja- haru Anesaki in the science (history) of religions, Ka- pan. For this task, the author is enviably equipped by his kuzii Okakura in Japanese art, Junjirii Takakusu in training in Buddhology, history of religions, and folklore Buddhology, D. T. Suzuki in Zen study, Genchi Kat6 studies-all of which are essential for the understanding and Tsunetsugu Muraoka in Shinto study, and Kunio of Japanese religion. Yanagita in folklore study, to name only the most obvi- We may recall in this connection that scholarly in- ous. Thanks to the research of these men and their disci- quiry into Japanese religion and culture was pioneered in ples, the study of Japanese art and culture, philosophy the latter part of the nineteenth century by a number of and religion attained a high standard before World War Vi Vii Foreword Foreword II. Owing largely to historic factors, however, Japanese sity, including J. J. M. DeGroot of Berlin, Franz Cumont scholars of different disciplines tended to work more or of Brussels, Carl Bezold of Heidelberg, Christian Snouck less independently of each other without much cross- Hurgronie of Leiden, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of India, fertilization. Also, most of their works were almost un- A. R. Gibb of Oxford, Louis Massignon and Mircea available to Western scholars, except a small number of Eliade of Paris, and Friedrich Heiler of Marburg, as well specialists, because of the barriers of language and as Masaharu Anesaki and Hideo Kishimoto of Tokyo. thought pattern. Hori’s manuscript was gone over initially by H. Byron Happily, the picture has changed considerably since Earhart, who was then engaged in research under Hori at the end of World War II. Not only have scholars of vari- Sendai, and Robert S. Ellwood, who later spent a year in ous disciplines in Japan begun to develop methods of Tokyo to work with Hori. After delivering the Haskell cooperative inquiries, but also Western and Japanese Lectures, Hori entrusted his manuscript to me and to scholars have begun to be engaged in meaningful dia- Alan L. Miller, and we took the responsibility of prepar- logue and collaboration on various levels. In this atmos- ing it for publication. We are grateful to the Committee phere, the culture and religion of Japan, for example, on Far Eastern Civilizations at the University of Chicago have come to be reexamined and reassessed from broader for its financial assistance toward the preparation of the perspectives. While experts in specialized areas continue manuscript. In our editorial work, we have shifted, with their researches, they too are aware of the necessity of re- the consent of the author, some of the texts into the notes lating their findings to those of others, including those of and changed some of the phrases and expressions. We Western scholars. I might add that this sentiment is sincerely hope that our efforts did not unduly distort the warmly reciprocated by many Western scholars who are original intent of the author. concerned with the significance of Japanese culture and JOSEPH M. KITAGAWA religion. For the Committee on Haskell Lectures It is therefore most appropriate and timely that the present volume be published by the University of Chi- cago Press at this time. Hori was Visiting Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago, 1957- 58. At that time we explored the possibility of his retum- ing to Chicago at a later date. In the fall of 1965, he was invited to deliver the six lectures sponsored by the Has- kell Lectureship on Comparative Religions. It is through this lectureship, which was established in 1895, that many distinguished scholars on the history of religions have been invited from abroad to the campus of the Univer- . VZZZ !4 f& 1’ lhe present book is based on the Haskell Lec- tures given in 1965 at the University of Chicago. While I have added notes, glossaries, and bibliographic refer- ences, I have attempted to retain the oral style of the lec- tures as much as possible. The aim of this book is to de- lineate the main features and characteristics of Japanese folk religion, which has been transmitted from the early phase of Japanese history. Folk religion in Japan, like its counterparts in other parts of the world, has many simi- larities with archaic and primitive religions. It is signif- icant to note, however, that Japanese folk religion has greatly conditioned the political, economic, and cultural developments historically. To be sure, we are aware of the important roles played by more self-conscious religions and semi-religious systems such as Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Christianity in the religious history of Japan. But on the folk level, various features of these religious and semi-religious systems were blended to meet the spiritual needs of the common people, who had to find religious meaning in the midst of their worka- day life. Thus, throughout this book no attempt is made to portray Shinto and Buddhism, for example.
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