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Three Types of Redemption in Japanese Folk Religion

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Three Types of Redemption in Japanese Folk Religion THREE TYPES OF REDEMPTION IN JAPANESE FOLK RELIGION BY ICHIRO HORI University of Tokyo I. PREFACE I would like, on this occasion, to discuss three major types of re­ demptive ideas and practices as they appear in Japanese myths, legends, and rituals. Before taking up this subject, however, I should first like to explain the sense in which the term "redemption" is used in this paper. Need­ less to say, the term "redemption", together with that of "atonement", has acquired numerous and specific meanings and usages in the long history of Christian theology. In order to avoid misunderstanding, it seems to me necessary to emphasize that the concept of "redemption" will be used here in the context of a non-Christian folk religion. I shall use the term "redemption" in a broad and non-theological sense that might be considered identical with the import of such terms as sal­ vation, atonement, and reconciliation. In this comprehensive sense, I will discuss in the following pages some examples of: ( 1) rituals of transfers and exorcism of sins as they appear in purification ceremonies; (2) myths and legends of self­ sacrifice and of the so-called "human pillar"; and lastly ( 3) saving examples of suffering love, comparable to the voluntary and loving character of Christ's sacrificial act. II. RITUALS OF TRANSFERS OF SINS AND SATISFACTION According to the Kojiki and Nihongi, the ancient Japanese believed that there were two classes of sins or crimes, namely, Heavenly Sins or pollutions (Ama-tsu-tsumi) and Earthly Sins or pollutions (Kuni­ tsu-tsumi). Heavenly sins or pollutions referred to social sins, and Earthly Sins to unconscious faults and impurities. Annually or as occa­ sion demanded, a purification ceremony ( harae in Japanese) was performed, either as a national or as a personal rite, to exorcise these sins. The number of such crimes is different in the Kojiki from that 106 ICHIRO HORI given in the Engi-shiki 1 ). However, all these sources agree on classi­ fication of Heavenly and Earthly sins. The annual official purification ceremony is called 6-harae ( Great Purification). It was and is now held at the imperial court and at numerous local Shinto shrines on New Year's Eve and on the last day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar ( now the thirteenth of June). respectively. According to the Norito (Ritual Prayer) of the Engi-shiki, this ceremony is described as follows: "As a result of the exorcism and the purification, there will be no sins left. They will be taken into the great ocean by the goddess called Se­ ori-tsu-hime, who dwells in the rapids of the rapid-running rivers which fall surging perpendicular from the summits of the high mountains and of low mountains. When she thus takes them, they will be swallowed with a gulp by the goddess called Haya-aki-tsu-hime who dwells in the wild brine, the myriad currents of the brine, in the myriad meeting­ place of the brine of the many briny currents. When she thus swallows them with a gulp, the deity called Ibuki-do-nushi who dwells in the Ibuki-do (lit., Breath-blowing-entrance) will blow them away with his breath to the land of Hades, the underworld. When she thus blows them away, the deity called Haya-sasura-hime who dwells in the land of Hades, the underworld, will wander off with them and lose them. When she thus loses them, beginning with the many officials in the Emperor's court, in the four quarters under the Heavens, beginning from today, each and every sin will be gone ... " 2) 1) The Engi-shiki (meaning the shiki of the Engi era) is a voluminous compilation of minute regulations and customary usages; like previous compilations, it was meant to complement and amplify the basic laws contained in the Ritsu-ryo (the fundamental laws of the land). The Engi-shiki was completed in 927 A.D. after 20 years of com­ pilation under the auspices of the Emperor Daigo. According to the Engi-shiki, the number of the Heavenly Sins or Pollutions is as follows: Backing down the ridges, covering up the ditches, releasing the irrigation sluices, double planting, setting up stakes, skinning alive, skinning backwards, defe­ cation; the Earthly Sins or Pollutions include: cutting living flesh, cutting dead flesh, white leprosy, skin excrescences, the sin of violating one·s own mother, the sin of violating one· s own child, the sin of violating a mother and her child, the sin of violating a child and her mother, the sin of transgression with animals, woes from creeping insects, woes from the deities of on high (Thunder-god), woes from the birds of on high, killing animals, the sin of witchcraft. On the other hand, the number of the sins or pollutions in the Kojiki is smaller than those of the Engi-shiki, but each item is applicable. See also the Kotai-jingu Gishiki-cho (Ritual Regulations of the Ise Grand Shrine) compiled approximately in the years of Enryaku (782- 805 A.D.). 2) Slightly adapted from Donald L. Philippi's translation of the Norito of the Engi-shiki (Tokyo: Kokugakuin Univ., 1959.) .
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