Christopher Harding, Iwata Fumiaki, Yoshinaga Shin'ichi, eds.. Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan. Routledge Contemporary Japan Series. New York: Routledge, 2014. xviii + 300 pp. $155.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-138-77516-9.

Reviewed by Adam Valerio

Published on H- (August, 2015)

Commissioned by Erez Joskovich (Department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

Carolyn A. F. Rhys Davids’s Buddhist Psychol‐ concernedly tending to center the conversation in ogy: An Inquiry into the Analysis and Theory of modern Euro-American rather than Asian con‐ Mind in Pali Literature was published in 1914, texts. Exceptions to this propensity are largely with her suggestion of a connection between Bud‐ constrained to portions of edited volumes, such as dhism and psychology dating back to at least Mark Unno’s Buddhism and Psychotherapy 1900.[1] Hara Tanzan, a Japanese Sōtō monk Across Cultures: Essays on Theories and Practices and the frst lecturer on Buddhism at the Univer‐ (2006), Polly Young-Eisendrath and Muramoto sity of Tokyo, began publishing his psycho-physio‐ Shoji’s Awakening and Insight: Zen Buddhism and logical interpretations of Japanese Buddhism as Psychotherapy (2002), and Wen-Shing Tseng, Suk early as 1860 with Shinshiki-ron (On Mind-Con‐ Choo Chang, and Nishizono Masahisa’s Asian Cul‐ sciousness). While the frst extant Japanese term ture and Psychotherapy: Implications for East for psychotherapy (seishin ryōhō)—today refer‐ and West (2005). Japanese scholars have made ring specifcally to institutionalized psychothera‐ original contributions to the relatively small body py—would not become common currency among of Asia-centric English-language literature on therapists until the early twentieth century, the Ja‐ Buddhism and psychology, usually as articles or panese dialogue on the relationship between reli‐ book chapters rather than full manuscripts, with gion and psychology, especially in reference to Chikako Ozawa-de Silva’s Psychotherapy and Reli‐ Buddhism, had long been underway. Conversely, gion in Japan: The Japanese Introspection Prac‐ Rhys Davids’s conversation partners would unfor‐ tice of Naikan (2006) prominently resisting that tunately arrive after her time. Nevertheless, the mold. Most works not ftting the typologies above past several decades have produced a litany of are textual-philosophical in nature and appear English-language works exploring the relation‐ generally uninterested in modern Asia-specifc in‐ ship between Buddhism and the psy disciplines, quiries. This category seems to more commonly H-Net Reviews apply to works by scholars of Buddhism than his‐ we interpret our personal and collective well-be‐ torians and anthropologists of Japan more broad‐ ing. This counter to universalizing tendencies is ly. There is room, of course, for all of these ap‐ undervalued in the broader Buddhism-psycholo‐ proaches, and Buddhism specialists are currently gy dialogue, and certainly in what we might re‐ underrepresented in the Buddhism-psychology lit‐ gard as “pop literature” on the subject. erature, which for some time has been dominated The emphasis of this volume diverges from by psy discipline specialists both in Japan and the the two most prominent English-language ap‐ West. proaches to dialogue between Buddhism and the In Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern psy disciplines: 1) identifying and critiquing par‐ Japan, Christopher Harding, Iwata Fumiaki, and allels between Buddhist and psy thought (some‐ Yoshinaga Shin’ichi present a welcome addition to times explicitly addressing questions of compati‐ this unfolding discourse. The ffty-fourth volume bility) and 2) exploring ways in which Buddhist in the Routledge Contemporary Japan series, thought and/or practices can aid the psy disci‐ seemingly the frst in the series to take religion as plines. While several exceptions to this trend ex‐ its focus, is overwhelmingly constituted of Japa‐ ist, such as Chikako Ozawa-de Silva’s feldwork- nese scholarship, with the exception of the intro‐ centered illumination of Naikan therapy and duction, conclusion, and frst chapter, all au‐ Michael Radich’s textual-historical How Ajātaśa‐ thored by Harding, its lead editor. Six chapters tru was Reformed: The Domestication of “Ajase” previously published in Japanese as well as sever‐ and Stories in Buddhist History (2011), this vol‐ al original contributions are complemented by il‐ ume by Harding, Iwata, and Yoshinaga is signif‐ luminating new chapters by both Yoshinaga and cant in the alternative emphasis which it pro‐ Iwata, making for an edited volume that adds vides, the many key areas it excavates, and the much to the relative dearth of Japanese voices in quality with which it executes these features. Its English-language literature on Buddhism and psy‐ chronological presentation is intended to portray chology. Japanese psychotherapeutic and psycho-religious Taking a historical approach as its emphasis, developments as innovations rooted in Japanese Harding maintains in the introduction that “we traditions and changing sociohistorical circum‐ need to highlight the historical contingency of the stance, rather than as “cultural variants” derived religion-psy dialogue to avoid totalizing claims” from Western advancements, a productive goal (p. 3). This focus on situating the religion-psychol‐ which they largely achieve. ogy dialogue within historical contexts—Japan In chapter 1, Harding provides us with his from the late nineteenth century to the present— four-phase view of the general historical trends in allows for many of the chapters to engage with the religion-psychology dialogue in Japan, all of broader discussions within Japanese history and which he sees as having contributed to Japanese anthropology. As Harding notes, Japanese mod‐ views and approaches to mental health today. The ernization was commonly associated with a period 1868-1912 is, not surprisingly, character‐ threat to essential Japanese qualities, thus produc‐ ized by modernization, state-building, and new in‐ ing increased inner turmoil and deviant behav‐ stitutional and intellectual activity, but also cul‐ iors. Such a phenomenon not only ties the devel‐ tural concerns over interpersonal dynamics and opment of the Japanese psy disciplines to the ni‐ religious attention to physical and spiritual heal‐ honjinron—“theories about the Japanese peo‐ ing. Shortly after the end of this period, a shift oc‐ ple”—enterprise, but also demonstrates how polit‐ curred regarding legal responsibility for the men‐ ical, legal, and commercial changes infuence how tally ill, moving from the family to medical insti‐

2 H-Net Reviews tutions. Yet, from 1910 to 1945, mental therapies of the volume, is a substantial contribution in its inspired by new scientifc ideas strategically pre‐ own right, especially considering the shortage of sented themselves in language rooted in tradition‐ “big-picture” resources on the topic. al Japanese religious and cultural forms. This in‐ Chapter 2 revisits Harding’s frst period, with cluded the popular psycho-religious composite Hashimoto Akira examining temple and shrine method, Morita therapy. In the context of rising is‐ care for the mentally ill. With the infux of West‐ sues concerning qualifcations, legitimacy, and ef‐ ern medical and psychological ideas, religious in‐ fcacy, Harding asserts that religion and psy‐ stitutions looked to the successes of Japanese psy‐ chotherapy were bonded together through the im‐ chiatric researchers. Interestingly, so too did the portance of practitioner personality, practitioner- new psy disciplines look to traditional Japanese client relationships, and a shared culture. After therapies, not only due to widespread cultural the war and through the 1960s, the relationship suspicion toward Western-inspired institutions between religion and psychotherapy in Japan and ideas, but also because some believed that el‐ came to be distinguished by the rejection of much ements of European therapies already existed in of what was associated with its prewar past, cou‐ the practical wisdom of Japanese tradition. pled with a renewed impact of the West. This in‐ Chapter 3 addresses the emergence of an ex‐ cluded a strong infuence of American develop‐ plicit religion-psychology dialogue through Yoshi‐ mental psychology, a view of complementarity be‐ naga Shin’ichi’s exploration of the new “mind tween Asian religion and Western psychotherapy cure” methods in the Meiji era. In particular, among both Japanese and Americans (e.g., Karen Yoshinaga connects the formulation of the frst ex‐ Horney, Alan Watts), increased translation of tant Japanese term for psychotherapy (seishin works between Japanese, English, and other Euro‐ ryōhō) to the history of Japanese importation and pean languages, an interest in cultural psychology integration of hypnotism, especially in the writ‐ that coincided with a new willingness to think in ings of hypnotist Kuwabara Toshiro, and the infu‐ terms of universals (e.g., Kawai Hayao, Doi ence of the Zen practices of Hara Tanzan and his Takeo), and a strong push to keep religion out of most famous student, Inoue Enryō. In the contro‐ public life (leading to a highly medicalized psy versial but popular writings of Kuwabara, who community). Not surprisingly, then, despite signif‐ combined Shin Buddhism with Christianity, Yoshi‐ icant Pure Land Buddhist infuence, the frst naga sees an infuential voice that helped to “re- Naikan center presented itself as secular when it create ‘religion’ using psychological terms” (p. 93). opened in 1953. Harding, drawing considerably This chapter clearly illustrates how perceptions of from Ozawa-de Silva’s work on Naikan, situates religion and the psy disciplines grew and trans‐ the period from the early 1970s to the present as formed together in Japan. Of particular interest to centered around (often this-worldly) healing some will be Yoshinaga’s discussion of philosophi‐ (iyashi). Looking forward from rationalist and cal diferences between several Japanese terms materialist pressures of past modernization, and for “mind” (seishin, shinri, kokoro) in the context drawing from the rise of Jungianism and commu‐ of a “Buddhist materialist dilemma.” nity psychiatry, the Spiritual World (seishin sekai) movement was born. As others have noted, this Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the role of personal was boosted in 1995 by an increased aversion to life stories in the success of Morita therapy and organized religions associated with the Aum Shin‐ Kosawa Heisaku’s psychoanalysis. Morita therapy rikyō gassing and Kobe earthquake response. This practitioners Kondo Kyoichi and Kitanishi Kenji four-phase view, intended to provide useful back‐ argue that it was in Morita Shoma’s (a.k.a. Morita ground information and a framework for the rest Masatake’s) personal struggles and the solutions

3 H-Net Reviews he found in Buddhist religiosity that his psycho- psychoanalytic theories, however, stand in stark religious composite method took form. Similarly, contrast to the explicitly Catholic version of Iwata understands Kosawa’s psychoanalysis as Naikan therapy created by the Catholic priest Fuji‐ strongly infuenced by how the voices and life his‐ wara Naosato, as discussed by Terao Kazuyoshi in tories of both Sigmund Freud and Shinran re‐ chapter 8. Fujiwara’s “re-religionized” Naikan sounded with his own. Kosawa, seeing Shin Bud‐ variant—a potentially misleading term used by dhism and Freudian psychoanalysis as two articu‐ Terao, as this review will discuss—appears to me lations of the same worldview—an observation as diferent from most contemporary Naikan in also put forth in Harding’s “Japanese Psychoanal‐ two ways: 1) it embraces the “religious” label ysis and Buddhism: The Making of a Relationship” (while clients and practitioners associated with (2014)—nevertheless Japanized psychoanalysis, other Naikan centers often identify this therapy as rarely mentioning religion explicitly in his writ‐ “spiritual,” medical,” or “educational,” but gener‐ ings (although it was there, nonetheless) while ally not “religious”) and 2) it is substantially dif‐ discussing it freely with his trainees and informal‐ ferent from early Naikan, not just in branding, ly with clients. Okonogi Keigo, a disciple of Ko‐ but in substance.[2] Although Yoshimoto Ishin sawa’s, furthered his work, countering Buddhi‐ quickly presented his Shin Buddhism-inspired cized elements—such as one’s mother becoming therapy as secular, his decision later in life to be‐ one with the idealized mother fgure through oth‐ come a monastic and ofer Naikan out of his er-power (tariki) salvation—more than Japanized house-turned-temple demonstrates that, despite ones. Iwata appears to agree with the disciple, labels, a movement from traditional to modern, Okonogi, that Kosawa’s approach was a refection religious to secular, and other-worldly salvation of Japanese societal anxieties surrounding the en‐ to this-worldly healing was neither seamless nor counter of Japanese and Western worldviews, wholly linear. This more refned narrative is of‐ nevertheless pointing out that Okonogi incorrect‐ fered explicitly in chapter 7 by Shimazono ly situates Kosawa’s construction of the Ajase Susumu, whom Harding refers to as “perhaps the complex wholly within his Japanese mentality single most infuential contributor to the study of rather than his Buddhist worldview. Although the religion-psy dialogue in the Japanese context” Iwata demonstrates enough familiarity with the (p. 16). Shimazono’s tracing of an ostensible move‐ Ajase narrative within traditional and modern ment from religion to psychotherapy and the Buddhist contexts to highlight Okonogi’s error in many elements associated with such a shift—es‐ assessing Kosawa’s formulation, further engage‐ pecially his concept of the “psycho-religious com‐ ment with Radich’s work on the subject could posite movement”—ofers several fruitful direc‐ have intensifed this critical point. tions for future research in regards to healing, Departing from the desire of earlier thera‐ spirituality, and the relationship between science pists to protect Japanese culture and religion from and religion. Western psychology, the heavily criticized but Chapter 9 centers around the signifcance of greatly infuential Doi Takeo showed at least transnationalism—in this case, the presence and equal concern for protecting psychoanalysis from desired reconciliation between one’s Western and Japanization. While interested in Japanese corre‐ Japanese selves—in the groundbreaking analytic lates to Freudian psychoanalytic theory, Doi’s psychologist Kawai Hayao’s relationship with Jun‐ Amae theory, argues Ando Yasunori in chapter 6, gian thought. As this review will discuss, chapter was as much a product of his desire to ensure the‐ author Tarutani Shigehiro, like several others in oretical coherence with his Catholic identity as his this volume, draws our attention to theories that Japanese identity. Doi’s secular presentation of his may provide a valuable lens for exploring such

4 H-Net Reviews topics as Buddhism and globalization, Buddhism chotherapists often developed their theories and and colonialism, and Buddhist typologization. practices within the context of their own personal Chapters 10-12 depart from the dominant ap‐ and interpersonal experiences, viewing both reli‐ proach of the volume. Horie Norichika’s chapter gious and psychotherapeutic theories as works in discusses insights from his Web-based research of progress that ought to be shaped by the experien‐ past-life therapy clients in Japan. Uncovering tial. Afnities with fgures such as Shinran, Myoē, shifts in popular Japanese understandings of rein‐ Freud, and Carl Jung were often based more on carnation, responsibility, interpersonal relation‐ shared personal experience than being of the ships, and self-development, this research has the same mind. Yet, these innovators were also in potential to enhance future investigations of the some ways “conduits for the ills of their ages” (p. spirituality and New Age movements as well as to 272). Figures such as Kosawa and Doi were refec‐ be put into dialogue with the past-life research tive regarding this tension, with which Harding coming out of the University of Virginia School of draws parallels to that of the Medicine’s Division of Perceptual Studies. Shiotsu‐ thinkers Miki Kiyoshi and Tanabe Hajime. A sec‐ ki Ryoko’s chapter provides further problematiz‐ ond tension, says Harding, lies in the question of ing of a simple transition from traditional to mod‐ whether Japanese psychotherapists discovered or ern and religious to secular, utilizing her case created Japanese psychological typologies. This study of contemporary Okinawan shamanism tension is tied up in that of humanism versus Ja‐ (yuta) as an illustration of how the psy disciplines panese particularism/essentialism. Both Taru‐ are not an inherently secularizing force. While tani’s discussion of Kawai’s identity struggles and healing has largely become the new context of Ok‐ the periodic engagement throughout the volume inawan shamanism, the emergence of positive with nihonjinron discourse illustrate this tension. views toward spirit possession in some areas of Lastly, Harding sees a tension between instrumen‐ contemporary Japanese psychiatry (i.e., a de‐ talism and engrossment—that is, “in how people pathologization), coupled with the unique legal interact with the world and conceptual represen‐ and political history of the region within broader tations of it” (p. 283). This tension can manifest in postwar Japan, has helped maintain and even conficting priorities regarding addressing reinvigorate Okinawan religiosity. In contrast, present-life problems (often brought on by con‐ Taniyama Yōzō’s chapter on the impact of the frontations with modernity) versus understand‐ March 2011 Triple Disaster on the religion-psy‐ ing reality as it is. Within an instrumentalist focus chology dialogue is somewhat prescriptive. A Bud‐ on purposefulness, the shift from salvation to dhist monk, professor, and disaster chaplain, healing becoming prominent, as does the map‐ Taniyama explores diferences between spiritual ping of competing epistemologies and worldviews and religious disaster care, urging a more refec‐ onto each other. A process of engrossment has of‐ tive support and relief system that bucks the ten been at play, too, with the promotion of ex‐ pre-3/11 trend toward secularizing relief care. His tralinguistic self-cultivation, a nonrational Tohoku University-based training program for rewiring resulting in embodied knowledge, stand‐ “interfaith chaplains” aims to account for reli‐ ing as one example. According to Harding, the re‐ gious and regional diversity while allowing space ligion-psychology dialogue has been shaped for self-aware, non-proselytizing religious care. chiefy through attempts to manage and capitalize on these tensions in response to the challenges of Concluding the volume, Harding asserts three modernity.Given this picture, Harding calls atten‐ tensions as central to the religion-psychology en‐ tion to a path for religious organizations’ contin‐ counter in Japan. Firstly, pioneering Japanese psy‐ ued engagement with the psy disciplines and Ja‐

5 H-Net Reviews panese civil society more broadly: care and peace. ty to the overgeneralizing tendency of Tseng, Building on Taniyama’s advocacy for interfaith Chang, and Nishizono’s volume, particularly in disaster care, Harding sees a possible “supra-mod‐ their discussion of Asian conceptions of self ern” relationship between religion and Japanese (which echoes Morita’s own belief that healing modernity, incorporating rationality and secular necessarily emerges from a self that exists in so‐ and professional values “into a broad, transhistor‐ ciocultural harmony), many of the other chapters ical and trans-sectarian vision of the human per‐ present more nuanced discussions of Asian identi‐ son” (p. 270). As the 3/11 Triple Disaster may not ties. We see this in Kawai’s transnationalism, Doi have yet released its full impact on Japanese cul‐ and Fujiwara’s Catholic Japaneseness, Kosawa tural views toward religion, spirituality, and men‐ and Morita’s secular-labeled but Buddhist-in‐ tal health, he asserts that it is too early to know spired therapies, and of course, the inner and out‐ the likelihood of this vision coming to fruition. er tensions that pervade the volume: modern ver‐ This volume by Harding, Iwata, and Yoshina‐ sus traditional, therapist versus struggling human ga is an indispensable addition for those interest‐ being. Moreover, what does it mean when we la‐ ed in English-language literature on the relation‐ bel a phenomenon “religionized,” “re-religion‐ ship between religion and psychology in modern ized,” “psychologized,” “Japanized,” or “Buddhi‐ Japan, ofering translations of several papers pre‐ cized?” What are the sufcient and necessary con‐ viously published in Japanese, voices from an as‐ ditions for such a label? It is not inaccurate for sortment of scholarly backgrounds, exposure to a Terao to refer to Fujiwara’s Catholic Naikan as range of sources perhaps not in the purview of “re-religionized,” since Yoshimoto’s original scholars based outside of Japan, and an abun‐ Naikan was based on the Shin Buddhist practice dance of fne historical analysis hitherto lacking of mishirabe, explicitly marketed by him as secu‐ from the discourse. Of course, coherence can be lar, and repackaged in the 1990s by Fujiwara as a an issue in any edited volume, particularly when Catholic meditation. However, Yoshimoto frmly joining voices across cultures. Young-Eisendrath eschewed the label of “religious.” From his per‐ and Muramoto acknowledge this difculty in spective, then, Fujiwara “religionized” rather than their own volume, which emerged in part from “re-religionized” Naikan. How about “psycholo‐ the experimental nature of the conference out of gized Buddhism” and “Buddhicized psychology?” which their volume emerged. Unno’s volume Several of the pioneering fgures explored in this abates this issue through appropriate sectioning volume saw no distinction between specifc reli‐ of material. In the case of Religion and Psy‐ gions and psychologies, a far stronger claim than chotherapy in Modern Japan, Harding, Iwata, and that of compatibility or complementarity. Who de‐ Yoshinaga have created a high-coherence volume termines the labeling of these phenomena? by way of efective structuring, contributor Should the academic study of Buddhism and sci‐ choice, methodological emphasis, and thematic ence, in discussing appropriation, utilize discours‐ focus. es surrounding the insider-outsider problem, emic versus etic? Questions along these lines ap‐ Of the many areas of the religion-psychology pear relevant to the lavish attention awarded to dialogue in Japan, a promising area of further re‐ mindfulness in recent years, and may also inter‐ search that I see opened up through this volume sect with current Buddhism-related conversations concerns conficting identities and the challenge regarding globalization, colonialism, and typolo‐ in fnding appropriate labels for their manifesta‐ gization. Jørn Borup’s “Easternization of the East? tions in the world. While Kondo and Kitanishi’s Zen and Spirituality as Distinct Cultural Narra‐ chapter on Morita therapy at times bears similari‐ tives in Japan” (2015) and Wakoh Shannon Hick‐

6 H-Net Reviews ey’s “Two Buddhisms, Three Buddhisms, and among the most willing), can be underdeveloped Racism” (2010) both come to mind. An academi‐ and are not uncommonly relegated to footnotes. cally rigorous address of these questions goes be‐ Even so, while a single volume cannot cover ev‐ yond the scope of this volume, but answers enact‐ erything, this one supplies a lot. Those working on ed by several instrumental fgures are there for Yogācāra and/or of mind the taking. may fnd this work of less use than those interest‐ Any assessment of a work’s value to an indi‐ ed in other areas (e.g., Buddhist modernisms, vidual should occur within the context of that in‐ lived manifestations of Shin and Zen, popular Ja‐ dividual’s goals. Methodologically, Religion and panese perspectives on religion, spirituality, and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan has its limita‐ healing), but the already weighty tilt of the litera‐ tions. Difering from many historical approaches ture toward textual-philosophical orientations to other topics, the editors acknowledge that their can proft from the contextualization and new volume heavily prioritizes pioneering individuals, voices provided by this excellent volume. institutions, and ideas over everyday people— Notes clients, religious practitioners, and those other‐ [1]. Teresina Rowell Havens, “Mrs. Rhys wise contributing to the dialogue in perhaps less Davids’ Dialogue with Psychology (1893-1924),” perceptible ways. Challenges exist in accessing Philosophy East and West 14 (1964): 51-58. and divulging client information, especially in the [2]. Chikako Ozawa-de Silva, Psychotherapy case of university and hospital records (karute). and Religion in Japan: The Japanese Introspection Yet, Horie Norichika’s chapter on past-life therapy Practice of Naikan (London: Routledge, 2006). case studies, much like Ozawa-de Silva’s work elsewhere, demonstrates that avenues of research along these lines are possible, a point acknowl‐ edged and encouraged by the editors. Data acces‐ sibility aside, the editors present a volume partial toward historical methods. Harding maintains that interviews and self-ascriptions are “likely to be compromised by various forms of self-editing in which we all habitually engage—people in this case perhaps talking about shūkan (custom or habit) rather than shūkyō when explaining their behaviour out of a desire not to be thought super‐ stitious or otherwise socially/psychologically sus‐ pect, especially after the Aum Afair” (p. 10). His point is well taken, particularly in the context of Japan, though I suspect that the value of such feldwork would nonetheless go far in doing the boundary work that he admits is necessary. Still, neither historical nor anthropological methods may do much for those primarily interested in textual and philosophical explorations of the rela‐ tionship between Buddhism and psychology. These orientations, infrequently engaged with in this volume (though Yoshinaga and Harding are

7 H-Net Reviews

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Citation: Adam Valerio. Review of Harding, Christopher; Iwata Fumiaki; Shin'ichi, Yoshinaga, eds. Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan. H-Buddhism, H-Net Reviews. August, 2015.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=43963

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