DOCSLIB.ORG

Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Asia Center, 2007

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Asia Center, 2007 Book Reviews / JESHO 53 (2010) 661-677 671 Nam-Lin HUR, Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Asia Center, 2007. 550 pp., 1 map, hardback. ISBN 0 674 02503 2. This ambitious social history analyzes Japanese Buddhist institutions dur- ing the Edo period (1600-1868; a.k.a. the “Tokugawa” period, from the name of the ruling house of its bakufu, or military government). For most of the period, only Buddhist temples were licensed to manage the rituals concerning death, forming a comprehensive, government-imposed order known in historiography as the danka, or “patron household,” system. In this system, a given household would ideally affiliate with one Buddhist temple, which it would support financially. In return, the temple would provide the required yearly certification of the absence of Christians from the household, as it asserted exclusive control over funerary and regular memorial rites for that household’s members. Building on the author’s expertise in Edo socio-religious history, the study uses a breathtaking range of primary and secondary documents to chart the ascendancy, character, and tenacity of this system of compulsory patronage within the Edo-era social order. The study’s novelty lies not only in its temporal and documen- tary breadth, but also in its comprehensive framing under the rubric of “anti-Christianity.” In the sixteenth century, Jesuit missionaries introduced Catholicism into Japan, where it rapidly spread before its dramatic sup- pression, as was the fate in the case of certain other intransigent minority religious movements, in the seventeenth century. The imposition of the danka system is generally understood as a result of the bakufu’s animosity toward Christianity; this study revises and expands this conventional inter- pretation, arguing that, in fact, “anti-Christianity was the cornerstone of Tokugawa Japan’s statehood,” thus assigning that animus a far weightier role (p. 364). The analysis in the study proceeds in four parts. The first traces the for- mation of the danka system over the seventeenth century, emphasizing edicts and directives from the bakufu and the lords of the various subordi- nate domains. Starting in 1598, priests from overseas were banned from Japan, though for some decades they defied this stipulation; in 1612, the bakufu forbade the practice of Christianity altogether, but it found the ban difficult to implement. A peasant uprising in 1637-8, though not origi- nally caused by religious conflict, attracted Catholic believers and took on a messianic flavor, and as late as the 1660s, significant groups of hidden © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2010 DOI: 10.1163/156852010X506137 672 Book Reviews / JESHO 53 (2010) 661-677 Catholics were still being discovered. To enforce the ban, local govern- ments began the practices of strictly and regularly monitoring for Catho- lics, the forced apostasy of any such Catholics, and the certification of such apostasy. These practices spread, culminating in the bakufu’s demand for their implementation throughout its suzerainty—everywhere in “Japan.” According to the explanation in this study, Buddhist clerics assumed this surveillance function opportunistically, in part because some were quick to endorse the Shinto notion that Japan was “the country of the gods” (pp. 43-6) and in part because neither competing system—Shinto or Confu- cianism—was as robust as Buddhism (p. 93). Their weakness therefore opened up a “religious vacuum . [which] offered Buddhism a golden opportunity to come to the fore” (p. 23). As the invocation of Mary Douglas (1921-2007) on p. 148 suggests, the second part of the book takes a loosely structuralist approach. It is con- cerned with deciphering and classifying the underlying elements of Bud- dhist death and memorial ritual, and with decoding the meanings behind those elements. Historical change and regional variation are recognized but de-emphasized in favor of a largely synchronous account of the pat- terns of practice in the mature danka system. Each chapter in this part maps out a model stage in the processes of death and extended mourning. Chapter four treats the issue of danka temple affiliation; chapter five, ritu- als surrounding death and internment; chapter six, memorial rituals for recently deceased individuals; chapter seven, extended memorial rituals for more distant ancestors; and chapter eight, the relationship between these rituals and the ie (“household”) system. Citing (among others) the founder of Japanese folklore studies, Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962), the study iden- tifies continuities between Edo-era Buddhist memorial practices and older, autochthonous patterns. Here, memorial tablets (ihai; pp. 168-9), the notion of an intermediate stage between death and rebirth (Jpn. chūu/ chūin; Skt. antarābhava; p. 173), the annual Bon festivities for the ancestral spirits (p. 193), and the segaki ritual for succoring hungry ghosts (pp. 194- 5) are all analyzed as new Buddhist interpretations of old Japanese cus- toms. In this treatment, the shepherding of the dangerous/endangered spirits of the dead into the secure realm of the beneficent ancestors—com- monly regarded as the goal of Japanese Buddhist memorial ritual—is also revealed as an expression of indigenous ideals: “In the final analysis, ances- tors were neither buddhas nor Buddhist deities: they were [Shinto] kami” (p. 182)..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 139 Bryan Cuevas's Article Deals with Death in Tibetan Buddhist Popular
    BOOK REVIEWS 139 Bryan Cuevas’s article deals with death in Tibetan Buddhist popular literature by working from the biography of an ordinary seventeenth-century laywoman, Karma Wangzin, who journeyed to hell and back again. John Holt’s article “The Dead Among the Living in Contemporary Buddhist Sri Lanka” discusses the activities of a village lay priestess who helps the living communicate with the recently deceased; he argues this type of Sinhala lay religiosity is not new but has ancient roots. Matthew Kapstein’s study of Mulian and Gesar examines how the Chinese tale of the Buddha’s disciple Mulian (Maudgalyåyana), who descended to hell to save his mother, was rendered into a Tibetan context and associated with the culture hero Gesar. Although no Chinese-style “ghost festival” was ever practiced in Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism still contained a great deal of filial piety which influenced the mythos of Gesar. A final cluster of articles deals with the biological end of life. Since the dead and their disposal are a physical process in a society, Buddhism has been greatly concerned with the practical matters of funerary and mortuary rites. Hank Glassman’s article on “Chinese Buddhist Death Ritual and the Transformation of Japanese Kinship” argues that Heian Buddhist funerary and mortuary practices evidence a shift to the patriarchially-oriented family grave and memorial system which dominated later Japanese society. Mark Rowe’s article on “Scattering Ashes in Contemporary Japan” surveys the current movement away from the traditional Buddhist monopoly on family-oriented death ritual which is being expressed in innovative practices of scattering ashes or creating voluntary burial societies.
    [Show full text]
  • Shintō and Buddhism: the Japanese Homogeneous Blend
    SHINTŌ AND BUDDHISM: THE JAPANESE HOMOGENEOUS BLEND BIB 590 Guided Research Project Stephen Oliver Canter Dr. Clayton Lindstam Adam Christmas Course Instructors A course paper presented to the Master of Ministry Program In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Ministry Trinity Baptist College February 2011 Copyright © 2011 by Stephen O. Canter All rights reserved Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served −Joshua TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements........................................................................................................... vii Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: The History of Japanese Religion..................................................................3 The History of Shintō...............................................................................................5 The Mythical Background of Shintō The Early History of Shintō The History of Buddhism.......................................................................................21 The Founder −− Siddhartha Gautama Buddhism in China Buddhism in Korea and Japan The History of the Blending ..................................................................................32 The Sects That Were Founded after the Blend ......................................................36 Pre-War History (WWII) .......................................................................................39
    [Show full text]
  • CSJR Newsletter
    Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions CSJR Newsletter Autumn 2009 Issue 18-19 CSJR Newsletter • Autumn 2009 • Issue 18-19 In this issue 2 From the Centre Chair Centre Activities FROM THE CHAIR 3 CSJR Seminar and Fora Schedule 4 Film Screening: A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki 5 Spring International Workshop: Minakata Another academic year has just concluded and while we look forward to the summer Kumagusu and London break we reflect back on the past months. As I write, the field of Japanese religion is saddened by the news that Carmen Blacker has passed away, on the morning of her Centre Activities Reports 85th birthday. Perhaps the most influential British scholar of Japanese religions, Carmen Blacker’s work opened up a new understanding of religious practices in Japan. She was 6 CSJR Spring International Workshop very supportive of the Centre, as she was of young scholars and of new initiatives, and I 8 Numata Lecture Series (2007-2008) have fond memories of her visits in the early years of the Centre. We will be remember- 9 Portraiture: Power & Ritual ing her and honouring her scholarly contributions in coming events. Research Notes Last year several people were away from the CSJR. After Brian Boching took up a post 10 O-take Dainichi Nyorai, a Shugendō Icon at the University of Cork, John Breen also left London to take up a three-year assignment 13 Motoori Norinaga’s Thoughts at Nichibunken in Kyoto. A few of our PhD students spent periods in Japan conducting on Astronomy fieldwork, and I myself was on sabbatical for the first two terms of 2008-2009.
    [Show full text]
  • Soto Zen in a Japanese Town Field Notes on a Once-Every-Thirty-Three-Years Kannon Festival
    Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1994 21/1 Soto Zen in a Japanese Town Field Notes on a Once-Every-Thirty-Three-Years Kannon Festival William M. Bodiford This article reports on a thirty-three-day celebration of the bodhisattva Kannon, which occurred in July and August of 1993 as the latest enact­ ment of a thirty-three-year cycle of such celebrations, at a Soto Zen temple in Niigata Japan known as Jingu-ji. Its three parts describe the geographi­ cal and historical context of Jingu-ji and its tradition of Kannon worship; the planning, fund raising, sequence of events, and social significance of the thirty-three-day festival last year; and the significance of Jingu-ji，s Kannon festival as a contemporary example of Soto Zen in a Japanese town. It analyzes how the Kannon celebration functions on a local level as a medium for the preservation and reconstitution of local community iden­ tity. It concludes by questioning the validity of widespread scholarly catego­ rizations that separate the study of Buddhist traditions, such as Zen, from their common cultural manifestations in popular religious practices, such as Kannon worship. Every thirty-three years Jineu-ii 神宮寺 ，a small Soto Zen temple in the Snow Country region of central Japan, stages thirty-three days of ceremonies commemorating the temple’s main image of the bodni- sattva Kannon 観 音 (Skt. Avalokitesvara). Thirty-three is a sacred num­ ber for devotees of Kannon because this Buddhist deity of compassion is said to work miracles of salvation in this world while appearing in some thirty-three different stereotypical guises, ranging from a mili­ tary general or king to a wife, child, or local eod.
    [Show full text]
  • EARLY MODERN JAPAN SPRING, 2002 Tokugawa Intellectual History
    EARLY MODERN JAPAN SPRING, 2002 others see man as the bearer of values Tokugawa Intellectual History: largely determined by or responsive to State of the Field economic, social and political influences; others, as a being in quest of spiritual goals; yet others, as the decentered ©James McMullen, Oxford University participant in a linguistically constructed world with which their own relationship is I at best problematic. This diversity means that scholars have tended not infrequently Tokugawa intellectual history has been either to talk past each other, or to write called “one of the liveliest and most virulently partisan, indeed sectarian, interesting” branches of the study of Japan reviews of each others’ work. in America. 1 The claim was made by The strength of Yamashita’s survey lies Samuel Yamashita in a spirited and precisely in his attempt to encompass a accessible article, “Reading the New very heterogeneous body of work within a Tokugawa Intellectual Histories”. broad overview. He set his subject, Yamashita’s essay surveyed publications moreover, in the wider context of recent between 1979 and 1992. In this sense, European and American thinking on much of the ground for the present essay intellectual history. He has, one might say, has already been covered. Yet even a attempted an intellectual history of modest attempt to update a survey of Tokugawa intellectual history. Yamashita Tokugawa intellectual history remains a found that the field was indeed burgeoning, challenge. Of all fields, intellectual history for reasons that apply a fortiori to the seems to exhibit the broadest range of present. He noted the revival of interest methods and approaches.
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of the Temple-Parishioner System
    Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 36/1: 11–26 © 2009 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture Tamamuro Fumio 圭室文雄 The Development of the Temple-Parishioner System This essay examines the historical conditions for the establishment of the temple- parishioner or danka system. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact beginnings of this system. While there are medieval precedents, the broad development of the relationship between a temple and its parishioners as established through funerary rituals is primarily a phenomenon of the early modern period. I argue that there are roughly five distinct phases to the development of the temple- parishioner system: the proto-temple-parishioner system during the medieval period, the beginnings of the temple-parishioner system in the first half of the seventeenth century, the establishment of the temple-parishioner system in the second half of the seventeenth century, the establishment of the registration of religious affiliation, and the emergence of fully developed funerary Buddhism after 1700. keywords: danka—temple-parishioner system—terauke seido—anti-Christian campaign—shūmon aratame—funerary Buddhism Tamamuro Fumio is Professor Emeritus at Meiji University, and is the leading authority on early modern Japanese Buddhism. 11 ntil the late medieval period, commoners did not hold funerals at temples; such rituals were limited to emperors, aristocrats, and upper- class warriors. For example, Sennyūji 泉涌寺 in Kyoto was in charge of Uperforming funerals for successive emperors until Emperor Kōmei’s 孝明 reign. During the Heian period, Kōfukuji 興福寺 in Nara and Byōdō’in 平等院 in Uji were established as clan temples through the donations of the Fujiwara 藤原 to pray for the repose of its family members, as was Jufukuji 寿福寺 in Kama- kura (founded by Hōjō Masako 北条政子 as the clan temple for the Minamoto 源).
    [Show full text]
  • O Powstaniu I Upadku Sekty Fuke W Japonii
    O powstaniu i upadku sekty Fuke w Japonii H¯ojun(Łukasz Szpunar) Rysunek 1: Komus¯oze świątyni Ichigetsuji (zdjęcie sprzed 1870 r.; za Gutzwiller 1984: 56). Dla Maekawy K¯ogetsu Spis treści Wstęp.........................................2 1 Dźwięk pustego dzwonka na niebie — konstruowanie tradycji sekty Fuke8 1.1 Historia sekty Fuke według Biografii kyotaku ................. 11 1.2 Zhenzhou Puhua................................ 16 1.3 Krytyczna analiza Biografii kyotaku ...................... 20 2 Żebracy, kaznodzieje i rozbójnicy — konstruowanie rodowodu komus¯o 27 2.1 Boro ....................................... 27 2.2 Komos¯o..................................... 34 3 R¯oninina łasce sh¯oguna— komus¯ow okresie Edo 42 3.1 Samurajskie korzenie komus¯o......................... 42 3.2 Polityka bakufu i kontrola instytucji religijnych w okresie Edo....... 45 3.3 Formowanie się sekty Fuke — Dekret ery Keich¯o i Rozporządzenie 5. roku ery Enp¯o ..................................... 49 4 Upadek i rozwiązanie sekty Fuke 59 4.1 Precz z buddami i Ś¯akyamunim........................ 59 4.2 Wewnętrzne rozprężenie w sekcie Fuke.................... 60 4.3 Fuki awase sho — popularyzacja fuke shakuhachi .............. 63 4.4 Delegalizacja sekty Fuke............................ 65 Zakończenie...................................... 69 Bibliografia...................................... 70 1 Wstęp Celem niniejszej pracy jest przedstawienie polskiemu czytelnikowi historii japońskiej sekty Fuke (jap. Fuke sh¯u, n化Æ) istniejącej w okresie Edo (1600–1868) i jej członków, komus¯o(\k)1 praktykujących grę na bambusowym flecie shakuhachi (£八). Praca jest wynikiem szczegółowej analizy istniejących tekstów źródłowych i stanowi, w oparciu o nie, (pierwszą w języku polskim) próbę udowodnienia, że cała tradycja sekty Fuke jest niczym innym jak wymyśloną tradycją, świadomie skonstruowaną w okresie Edo przez przedsta- wicieli ruchu komus¯o. Shakuhachi, podobnie jak biwa2, koto3 czy shamisen4, nie jest rdzennie japońskim instrumentem.
    [Show full text]
  • A Guide to Japanese Buddhism
    AA GuideGuide toto JapaneseJapanese BuddhismBuddhism Japan Buddhist Federation HAN DD ET U 'S B B O RY eOK LIBRA E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.buddhanet.net Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc. A Guide to Japanese Buddhism Japan Buddhist Federation A Guide to Japanese Buddhism First edition published: October 2004 Published by: Japan Buddhist Federation Meisho Kaikan Hall 2F, 4–7–4, Shiba-koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0011, Japan Phone: +81–3–3437–9275 Fax: +81–3–3437–3260 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.jbf.ne.jp Edited by: Rev. Kōdō Matsunami Designed and printed by: JABICS (Japanese Buddhism International Communications Service) Department, Omega-Com, Inc. Mita Keio Busidence 2F, 2–14–4, Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108–0073, Japan © 2004 by Japan Buddhist Federation. All rights reserved. Contents PREFACE.......................................................................................................................ii Part I A Brief History of Buddhism in Japan 1.. BUDDHISM INTRODUCED.TO.JAPAN....................................................................... 1 2. THE NARA.PERIOD.(A.D..710–784).....................................................................3 3. THE HEIAN.PERIOD.(A.D..794–1185)..................................................................7 4. THE.KAMAKURA.PERIOD.(A.D..1192–1333)......................................................10 5. THE MUROMACHI.PERIOD.(A.D..1336–1573)...................................................15 6. THE MOMOYAMA.PERIOD.(A.D..1573–1603)...................................................16
    [Show full text]
  • Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion
    Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism BORUP_f1_i-xii.indd i 12/20/2007 6:19:39 PM Numen Book Series Studies in the History of Religions Series Editors Steven Engler (Mount Royal College, Canada) Richard King (Vanderbilt University, U.S.A.) Kocku von Stuckrad (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Gerard Wiegers (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands) VOLUME 119 BORUP_f1_i-xii.indd ii 12/20/2007 6:19:40 PM Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism Myōshinji, a living religion By Jørn Borup LEIDEN • BOSTON 2008 BORUP_f1_i-xii.indd iii 12/20/2007 6:19:40 PM On the cover: Myōshinji honzan in Kyoto. Photograph by Jørn Borup. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISSN 0169-8834 ISBN 978 90 04 16557 1 Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands BORUP_f1_i-xii.indd iv 12/20/2007 6:19:40 PM For Marianne, Mads, and Sara BORUP_f1_i-xii.indd v 12/20/2007 6:19:40 PM BORUP_f1_i-xii.indd vi 12/20/2007 6:19:40 PM CONTENTS Acknowledgements ....................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 2001 28/3-4
    Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 2001 28/3-4 Local Society and the Temple-Parishioner Relationship within the Bakufu’s Governance Structure T a m a m u r o Fumio 圭室文雄 The danka (temple parishioner) system was originally established as a component of the bakufu，s policy of suppressing Christianity, but by 1700 it had become a government-instituted and temple-run system to monitor and control the populace as a whole. Through the issuance of certijicates of temple registration, Buddhist temples participated in this system and benefited from having a stable parish membership and financial base. Once parishioners had become affiliated and registered through a particu­ lar temple, neither they nor their descendants were able to change sectarian affiliations, except through marriage. Ideally, for the clergy, this hereditary temple^parishioner relationship required both ritual and fiduciary respon­ sibilities on the part of the danka. Danka were obligated to participate in and pay for funeral and memorial rites that became a standardized funer­ ary ritual system during the Edo period. The danka were also required to financially contribute to temple fundraising- campaigns for new construc­ tion or sectarian anniversaries. This essay examines the process of how the danka system developed within the bakufu governance structure, the role of the Buddhist temples and priests in maintaining this structure, and how the danka system actually took form in local society. Using newly dis­ covered local temple documents, this essay will also deal with cases in which parishioners tried to break their customary ties to their family temple. Keywords: danka system — Shumon ninbetsu aratamecho — kaimyd — death registries (kakocho) 一 ridan In the Edo period temples drew up certificates of temple registration for danka 擅 豕 (households that support a temple) and undertook the * This article was originally published in T a m a m u r o 1999, pp 178-223.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion in Japanese History
    Religion in Japanese History 552 C.E. Introduction of Buddhism from Korea 574-621 Prince Shôtoku C “Seventeen-Article ‘Constitution’” (Confucian and Buddhist principles) C Patron of Buddhism C Shinto as root, Confucianism as trunk, Buddhism as branch of Japanese culture 710-784 NARA PERIOD Prince Shôtoku C Capital: Nara (south of Kyôtô) C Emperor Shômu: built Tôdaiji (Great Eastern Temple) in 728; all ordinations took place here; center of network of temples in each province C Six schools of Buddhism (1-3 Mahayana, 4-6 Theravada): 1 . Kegon (Skt. Avatamsaka; declared authoritative by Emperor Shômu in 749) 2 . H o s s ô (Skt. Yogacara) 3. Sanron (Skt. Madhyamika) 4. Ritsu (Skt. Vinaya) 5 . J ô jitsu (Skt. Satyasiddhi) 6. Kusha (Skt. Kosha) Tôdaiji 794-1185 HEIAN PERIOD C Capital: Heian-kyô (Kyôtô) 762-822 Saichô (Dengyô Daishi): Tendai Buddhism (includes some esoteric practices) C Traveled to China in 804 C Established Enryakuji temple on Mt. Hiei (Hieizan), just outside Kyôtô 774-835 Kûkai (Kôbô Daishi): Shingon Buddhism (esoteric, tantric) C Traveled to China in 805 C Established monastery on Mt. Kôya (Kôyasan), far south of Kyôtô C Later given Tôji (Eastern Temple) in Kyôtô C Invented kana, founded school open to all classes, patron saint of pilgrims 978-1026 (Lady) Murasaki Shikibu: author of Tale of Genji, world’s first novel 2 1185-1333 KAMAKURA PERIOD C Military government (bakufu) separate from Imperial (civil) government C Military capital established at Kamakura 1147-1199 C Minamoto Yoritomo given title “Sei-i tai shôgun” (Great Barbarian-quelling General) C New Buddhist schools/sects: Pure Land (see separate handouts) Nichiren Zen 1333-1573 ASHIKAGA PERIOD C Ashikaga Shogunate never ruled over a unified Japan C Development of Daimyô system: Shôgun (general, military ruler) Daimyô (feudal lord) Samurai (retainers, knights) 1534-1582 Oda Nobunaga C ended Ashikaga shogunate C destroyed Enryakuji (Mt.
    [Show full text]
  • Early Modern Japan 2010
    EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2010 Nam-lin Hur. Death and Social Order in largely the Buddhist temples that actually provided Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, Anti-Christi- the rituals and services to create those ancestors. anity, and the Danka System The danka system really rose to prominence in Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, society with the Tokugawa policy of temple certification. This policy forced every family to 2007 obtain a certification from a Buddhist temple stating ©Michael Laver, Rochester Institute of Technology that they were not Christian. This was part of the severe persecution of Christianity that began in the Nam-lin Hur’s Death and Social Order in Toku- first half of the seventeenth century and continued, gawa Japan: Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the at least rhetorically, throughout the Tokugawa Danka System is full of interesting ironies and para- regime. Hur notes that even in the eighteenth and doxes concerning the Tokugawa state and its rela- nineteenth centuries, long after Christianity ceased tionship to Buddhism. Just as an introductory to be a real issue in Tokugawa society, these temple example, he notes that Buddhism was not a state certifications were required in order for individuals religion in the Edo period; indeed, the state took to be free from suspicion of being a Christian. It several measures to curb the influence of Buddhism was this requirement, in conjunction with the in society. At the same time, however, the state, funerary rites that were so important to Japanese through its anti-Christian policy, was eminently families, that allowed the danka system to flourish responsible for allowing Buddhist temples to and allowed Buddhist temples in the Edo period to flourish and even went so far as to make it be financially viable, even without explicit state extremely difficult for a family to remove itself support.
    [Show full text]