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Spiritual Business? A Critical Analysis of the Spiritual Therapy Phenomenon in Contemporary Japan Ioannis Gaitanidis Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of PhD The University of Leeds School of Modern Languages and Cultures East Asian Studies September 2010 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. i Preface and Acknowldegements My earliest memories of practising the Greek Orthodox religion into which I was born are those of fear. I still clearly remember standing behind the large door at the entrance of my grand-mother‘s house and crying as I refused to accompany my family to the church. The reason was neither some kind of demonic possession such as in the stories I encountered during my fieldwork in Japan, nor the deep aversion towards religious gatherings that I developed later in my life. The cause of my discontent was my fear of the fireworks thrown outside every Greek church just as the clock turns 12 on the night of the Great and Holy Saturday when Jesus‘s resurrection is welcomed with shouts of joy and congratulations among the Christians attending the service. My six-year old mind associated the deafening sound of the fireworks with church-going since, like most Greek families, we had been practising our religion only during the festive days of the Christmas and Easter holidays. This ―traumatic‖ image transformed as I grew up to a complete aversion to all things religious and to a subsequent conviction that science and reason hold the only truth. From my estrangement from my Orthodox culture since the age of eight, to the priest who, some years later, offered to help me sue my father for smoking cigarettes in front of me, and finally to a stormy relationship with a girl from another cultural background who taught me the meaning of religious fundamentalism, I was certain that, by the time I considered applying for a doctoral degree, my research focus could be anything but spiritual therapy. Yet, thinking now retrospectively, I can see how my complete disconnection with transcendental beliefs of any kind later led to my astonishment when I rediscovered through my postgraduate studies the therapeutic ii claims of, in that instance, South-East Asian shamanistic rituals. At that point, faith-based practices felt so foreign that my old obsession with renouncing them transformed into pure curiosity when the possibility of crossing swords with a past ―enemy‖ promised to bring, not only an end to a personal feud, but also to contribute to research on the growing popularity of alternative therapies around the globe. The cultural psychologist Miyaji Naoko, reflecting on her fieldwork activities among the shamans of Miyako Island (south-west of Okinawa), suggests that the only prerequisite to writing an ethnography consists of saving the memory of the ‗curiosity [and] astonishment‘ first felt at the ‗entrance to the field.‘ And she adds that ethnography is ‗a performance showing the relation between the researcher in his field and the researcher back home, a narrative of the process of formation (change?) [sic] of his identity‘ (Miyaji, 1998, 232). In my subject of research, as I hope to demonstrate in this thesis, it is almost impossible to lose this astonishment, considering the richness and inventiveness of techniques and theories used by the Japanese practitioners whom I propose to discuss. Most significantly, however, I realized that eventually there was no winner or loser in this, dare I say, classic battle between reason and faith, science and religion. It was just me finally coming to terms with and accepting the natural coexistence of the two. This research would never have been completed without the assistance of my supervisors in Leeds, Professor Victor T. King and Professor Mark B. Williams. I am grateful to them for believing in me from the very start of this endeavour and for always commenting on every piece of writing I sent to them despite the numerous language mistakes that they often contained. I would also like to express my gratitude to iii Professor James H. Grayson from the University of Sheffield, and to Professor Ikegami Yoshimasa at Komazawa University for introducing me to Japan‘s academic world and for teaching me the value of time spent in fieldwork rather than in theoretical discussions which could hardly ever describe the plurality and richness of the spiritual therapy phenomenon. Several researchers contributed through their advice and support to this study: Professor Choe Kilsong at Tōa University, Professor Shimoji Akitomo at Kumamoto Gakuin University, Dr Eguchi Shigeyuki at Musashino Hospital, Professors Noda Fumitaka and Yumiyama Tatsuya at Taishō University, Assistant Professor Horie Norichika at the University of the Sacred Heart, Professor Inoue Nobutaka and Dr Hirafuji Kikuko at Kokugakuin University, Professor Suzuki Masataka at Keio University, Professor Shimazono Susumu at Tokyo University, Professor Paul Heelas at Lancaster University and many others who often informally informed my understanding of spiritual therapy in Japan. I remain deeply indebted to the people who accepted, in very short spans of time, to share with me what frequently were life-changing experiences and business practices that were rarely divulged to their clients. This thesis really belongs to them. And finally, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Mike Parnwell, Terry King, Jane Caple, Alberto Camarena, Jenni Rauch, Martin and Ning Seeger who created the warm and psychologically supportive environment that made these last three years an exciting adventure. This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Katerina Kouli-Gaitanidi, who never doubted me, and to Miyuki Hahakabe, who silently supported me in my most anxious moments. iv Abstract In the last fifteen years and particularly since the rise to media stardom of self-proclaimed ―spiritual counsellor‖ Ehara Hiroyuki, ―the spiritual‖ (supirichuaru) has become a buzzword in Japanese popular culture. A look at the shelves of every bookstore reveals that by now, in Japan, almost anything can be ―spiritual‖ (for example, spiritual spot, spiritual money, spiritual motherhood or spiritual cuisine). This ―spiritual boom‖ has stemmed from the popularisation of what this study calls spiritual therapies, which correspond to the group of alternative therapeutic techniques that, in the West, are characteristic of the New Age Movement. Examples of spiritual therapy include past-life regression therapy, reiki, channelling and re-connective healing. The increase in demand and consumption of such techniques has recently attracted criticism from local researchers who warn against the pitfalls of the ―spiritual business‖; yet, so far, everyone has failed to take into account the voices of those who are supposed to gain from these transactions: the spiritual therapists. Using information collected during interviews with 68 practitioners and participant observation of spiritual therapy sessions and promotional fairs, this study argues that the popularity of the spiritual therapy phenomenon epitomises deeper changes in contemporary Japanese society. A critical analysis shows that, in order to avoid biased support for, or criticism against spiritual therapy, the phenomenon should be seen through its point de capiton, where the interaction of its four aspects, the business, the therapeutic, the ideological and the social, gives us a full and meaningful view. Consequently it becomes clear that spiritual therapy has developed according to the fundamental features of a globalising v new spirituality culture and expresses the morality of the fundamental this-worldly-benefit-seeking character of Japanese religious culture, which is adapted to express the physiomorphic, ideological and socio-economic changes in contemporary Japanese society. vi Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgements……………………………………………………...i Abstract………………………………………………………………………………iv Chapter 1: The Mainstreaming of a Japanese Occulture ..................................... 1 1.1. Prime minister or para-minister? ................................................................. 5 1.2. The setting: occulture or new spirituality culture ..................................... 14 1.3. The mainstreaming of the new spirituality culture in Japanese society .... 23 1.4. ―The spiritual‖ in Japan today and Japanese studies of shamanism ......... 30 1.5. Objective and structure of the thesis ......................................................... 39 Chapter 2: On Spiritual Trails............................................................................... 41 2.1. From shamans to reinōsha. ....................................................................... 43 2.2. Finding and contacting spiritual therapists ............................................... 49 2.3. The benefits of being a ―sympathetically detached foreigner‖. ................ 58 2.4. Interviewing spiritual therapists: never too cautious. ............................... 66 Chapter 3: The Spiritual Therapists: Facts and Figures .................................... 73 3.1. A life choice? ............................................................................................ 76 3.2. A ―spiritual‖ business? .............................................................................

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