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Home , Religion in Japan

RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY in Contemporary Japan

lan Reader Lecturer in Contemporary Japanese Studies Scottish Centre Jor Japanese Studies Universiry oJ Stirling

palgrave © Ian Reader 1991 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WCIE 7DP.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution <.i civil claims for damages.

First published 1991

Published by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

Transferred to digital printing 2001

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Reader, Ian Religion in contemporary Japan. 1. Japan. Religion. Sociological perspectives 306.60952 ISBN 978-0-333-52321-6 (he) ISBN 978-0-333-52322-3 ISBN 978-0-230-37584-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230375840 For Rosemary Contents

Acknowledgements viii

Conventions x

Introduction xi 1 Turning to the in Times of Trouble: The Place, Time and Structure of Japanese Religion 2 Unifying Traditions, Cosmological Perspectives and the Vitalistic Universe 23 3 'Born .. .': Community, Festivals, Production and Change 55 4 ' ... Die Buddhist': , Death and the Ancestors 77 5 Individuals, Ascetics and the Expression of Power 107 6 Sites and Sights: Temples and Shrines as Centres of Power and Entertainment 134 7 Actions, Amulets and the Expression of Meaning: Reflections of Need and Statements of Desire 168 8 Spirits, Satellites and a User-Friendly Religion: Agonshü and the New 194 Conclusion: Mystery, Nostalgia and the Shifting Sands of Continuity 234 Notes 244 References Cited 260 Index 268

vii Acknowledgements

I did the research for this book while living and teaching in Japan during April 1981-April 1982, and September 1983-January 1989. I would like to thank my colleagues, friends and students at the two universities where I worked, Köbe University of Commerce and Kansai University of Foreign Studies, for making my stay enjoyable and for contributing in various ways to this book. Over the years I have also benefited immensely from countless conversations with friends, colleagues, acquaintances and people met casually in temple court yards: I owe a large debt of gratitude to all of them. Special mention must be made of the Revd Oda Baisen of Töganji in Nagoya for his friendship and constant support throughout these years and for making the temple a second horne to both myself and my wife. Many academic colleagues have added something, directly or indirectly, to this book as weil. In particular I would like to thank Beth Harrison for many long conversations about all aspecls of contemporary religion in Japan. I am grateful to the Japanese Journal 0/ and its editor Dr Paul Swanson of Nanzan University for allowing me permission to reproduce, in slightly different form, the information on Agonshü in Chapter 8, which first appeared in the journal in 1988. My Japanese academic colleagues in the Shükyö Shakaigaku no Kai in Osaka, especially Professors Shiobara Tsutomu of Osaka and Iida Takafumi of Toyama University, are also thanked for their contributions to my growing understanding of the overall subject. I can do no more than extend a general thank-you to them, and to a11 the anonymous members of new religions, pilgrims, temple-goers and priests who spared the time to talk to me, and say that I hope this book is worthy of their help. Needless to say, wh at mistakes there are herein are mine alone. There are three people to whom I have a special debt of gratitude. Professor lan Gow, Director of the Scottish Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of Stirling, has actively supported the writing of this book by a110wing me the time off other duties to work on and complete the manuscript: suffice it to say that without this generosity it would not have seen the light of day so readily. My

viii Acknowledgements IX wife Dorothy has given indispensable support throughout: she was an unftagging companion in forays to festivals and walks along pilgrimage routes and up to mountain temples, and a perceptive observer who helped in gathering information at temples and shrines and in interviewing priests. More than that she has con• stantly encouraged me and kept me going when I thought I would never finish the book, and deserves my deepest thanks. The final thanks go to our daughter Rosemary who was born just about the time I started to put preliminary pen to paper on the topic, and was crawling enthusiastically as it came to completion. It is to her this book is dedicated, in the hope that she will grow to love and enjoy Japan as much as we have, and that she may enjoy one of the ideals central to the Japanese religious world - a happy, fruitful and productive life. Conventions

Japanese names are given throughout this book in Japanese order, that is, family name followed by given name. Long vowel sounds in Japanese words and names have been indicated with a macron as, for example, in Sötö Zen Buddhist . Following normal conven• tions I have omitted the macron-' in widely known words and geographical names (for example, ,Shinto, , Osaka). When Japanese words are us~d in the text they are printed in italics, with a general explanatiori of their meaning in English given the first time they occur. In a few instances I have continued to use the Japanese term throughout rather than use an English equiv• alent, because the potential equivalents are liable to convey nuances that are not quite applicable. Two words that appear consistently throughout this book are 'shrine' and 'temple': the former is the standard word used in English to signify a Shinto institution, and the latter a Buddhist one. Thus when I speak of shrines I am referring to Shinto, and when temples to Buddhist institutions. I have reaffirmed this point in the first chapter, where I also suggest that in many ways there are not all that many differences between them anyway. I have also used the word 'sect' as a translation for shü, the suffix used for Buddhist organisations in Japan. This again is fairly standard: some people prefer 'school' but this gives, to my mind, too philosophical a slant that does not fit in with Japanese realities. All translations from Japanese sources are mine, and where they are from written sources I have given the reference in the notes.

x Introduction

The major purpose of this book is to give the reader an overview of the eontemporary nature of religion in Japan, in partieular looking at and the ways in which religious themes are found in the lives of . My foeus is eoneerned with religion at ground level, in the aetions people perform in religious eontexts and with the extent to whieh social, eultural and personal behaviour manifests religious traits. In short, I am more interested in studying religiosity than the theoretical structures and philosophi• cal frameworks of religion or, indeed, of religions. This is doubtless an approach eonditioned 'by my own experienees and ways of working, for mueh of my study on religion has not only been from sociological and anthropological perspectives. starting with and then moving, via , to the Far East and specifieally to Japan, but has very mueh been involved with participant observation. Before I first went to Japan I studied Zen Buddhist thought, but it did not take long living in and visiting Zen temples, talking to the people at them and watehing what went on there, for me to realise that there was a profound difference between the ideals and theories espoused by and wh at actually went on at Zen (and other) Buddhist temples. The year I spent at Zen temples helped me in my understanding of the problems facing religions as they attempt to deal with social situations and to work at ground level, trying to transmit religious ideas in a manner that ean be understood by the ordinary Japanese looking through the lens of his or her socio-cultural experienees. Much of my earlier aeademie writing has looked from various angles at this problem, and it will surfaee periodically throughout this book, especially where lexamine the social position and workings of eontemporary Buddhism (Chapter 4). After that initial period I returned to Japan and lived there for just over five years. during whieh time I taught courses about religion in Japan to both Japanese and Western students. Besides teaehing and researehing, I have talked extensively about religion to innumerable Japanese friends, eolleagues and acquaintanees, aea• demic and non-aeademic, some reJigious and others avowing cyn-

xi xii Introduction

icism and lack of any religious feeling. I have interviewed religious officiants, worshippers, practitioners and other less devout partici• pants in the religious process in many different situations - Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, the centres of new religious movements, at pilgrimage sites and centres, or at some of the innumer• able little wayside shrines that dot the Japanese landscape. It has been, wherever possible, a participatory, or at least an active, period of research. I love travel, and one of the delights of living in Japan was the abilityto combine this love with my academic research. Sundays and other 'days off' were generally days to visit religious centres, while Jonger holidays were times to go off on one of the pilgrimages that make up Japan's rich pilgrimage tradition. All of this has, I feel, done far more than just back up the research I have done in libraries: it has conditioned much of my overall approach, may weil have taught me more and certainJy has given me more enjoyment! It has proved to be a most rewarding and entertaining, if at times exhausting and, occasionally, frustrat• ing, experience wh ich has shown me the immense energies, variety and richness inherent in the Japanese religious tapestry. If one major aim of this book is to demonstrate the workings and major themes of religion in Japan, another is to share some of the excitement and pleasure that I have derived from my studies. Words like 'excitement' and 'entertaining' might not seem, at first gJance, to be all that closely associated with common images of religion, but I use them here with emphasis. The immense varieties and constant developments within the Japanese religious world make it highly entertaining and stimulating to study and no one who is motivated to engage in study and research on religion in Japan is going to be bored or at a loose end. The ways that religious activities are carried out further heightens this sense of entertain• ment, as anyone who visits a crowded Buddhist temple or on a Sunday, festival day or public holiday, when the religious centre might become a noisy marketplace of stalls, ringing beils and muttered , will rapidly find out. The descriptions in Chapters 6 and 7, which are designed to highlight wh at may be seen at such places, will demonstrate just how the religious process in Japan is so often experienced not with any type of fear and trembling, but with friendliness and relaxed joy. This is a theme encountered throughout the Japanese religious spectrum. 1 have travelled on buses with pilgrims visiting holy sites and with members of new religious movements journeying to the Introduction xiii

holy centres of their religions for a specially revered religious festival; invariably the atmosphere has been one of and laughter. The manner in which 'religion is done' is infective, or at least it has been to this observer. Visually, too, Japanese religion is colourful and active, which makes it beguiling for participants and observers alike. It is also, to a great extent, celebratory, as subsequent discussions of festivals and will try to demon• strate: there is, in the Japanese religious world in general, a major focus on, and commitment to, this world and the achievement and celebration of joy within it. This is not to say, of course, that religion should only be viewed through the lens of entertainment. There are, naturally, times when a more sombre and serious face appears, as with the rituals that occur after death, with the rigours of the Zen meditation hall described in Chapter 4, with the austere and at times death-defying practices of ascetics described in Chapter 5, or with the problem• solving and exorcistic mechanisms of the new religious groups dealt with in Chapter 8. Throughout, though, there remains a powerful focus on pragmatic action, on and expressive, externalised behaviour through which religious themes are given Iife and me an• ing: the focus that I have placed on praxis and action remains constant even where the themes that are expressed may vary. In Chapters 1 and 2 I present a general overview of wh at I consider to be the major themes and frameworks of religion in Japan. Chapter 1 in particular discusses attitudes to and notions of religion in Japan by looking at some areas in which religious behaviour and belonging occur, and provides so me contemporary perspectives and statistics concerning religious action, and belonging and the meanings and lessons that can be drawn from them. The second chapter follows on from this by discussing the major underlying and unifying themes and basic concepts as weil as the cosmological orientations of the Japanese religious world. Chapters 3 and 4 look primarily at the social setting of religion in Japan, especially at the roles played by the two major established traditions of Shinto and Buddhism in social terms, the ways that they combine to provide Japanese people with a sense of social identity in the contexts of family, community, company and nation, and the changes that are occurring within them in the present day. Chapter 4 deals at the same time with the position of Buddhism in perhaps its best known Japanese form, by examining contemporary Zen temple life and how this relates to Buddhism's social position in Japan. xiv lntroduction

Chapter 5 looks at the position of the individual as a religious figure, and examines how the religious world has constantly been an arena for self-expression. It looks especially at the rich Japanese tradition of asceticism and the ways in which austere religious disciplines continue to exist and attract attention in contemporary Japan. The theme of self-expression is never far from the surface in Chapters 6 and 7 either, when I discuss why certain places become major religious sites that in turn frequently become tourist centres; what the visitor to such pi aces may see; and wh at meanings can be read into wh at goes on at them. In Chapter 8 I look at the new religions of Japan, one of the most striking and commented-upon phenomena in recent religious history: my examination largely concentrates on Agonshü, one of a number of new religious movements that have sprung to prominence since the mid-1970s and that incorporate an interesting admixture of old cosmological themes and ultra-modern presentational techniques. Throughout these eight chapters attention will be paid to contem• porary changes and to the ways in wh ich the rapidly changing face of Japanese society is inftuencing developments in religious terms in each of the areas under discussion. Issues such as Japan's economie wealth, the demographic shifts that have resulted from the country's transformation from an agricultural to an industrial society, and the overall processes of modernisation and internationalisation and the effects these are having on Japanese religiosity will also come under discussion. At the same time, the data introduced demonstrate that, whilst there is immense ftux and change within the Japanese religious environment, there is equally a powerful tide of continuity, with many themes being constantly restated and reiterated in new and contemporary contexts. The conclusion attempts to sum up some of these themes and makes some overall comments on contemporary elements, changes and continuities in the Japanese religious picture at the beginning of the last decade of the century. Ultimately, then, this book sets out to provide a comprehensive picture of the place, workings and perspectives of religion in contemporary Japanese society and in the lives of Japanese people, and also gives so me indications of contemporary activities and developments within the Japanese religious world. Because it seeks to examine the contemporary situation, and because it takes, for the most part, an eye-Ievel view, looking at religion through the ways it is carried out in daily life, there is minimal focus on historie al and philosophie al perspectives. Much literature exists in English and Introduction xv

Japanese to enable the reader to gain a background in these. I There is far less that deals with the overall contemporary situation, and it is this situation that this book attempts to rectify. I shall say no more for now, but will instead turn to the task of presenting the evidence on which I build my overall picture, in the ho pe that this will provoke further thought, discussions and enthusiasms on what is a fascinating and absorbing subject.