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Conceptions of State and Kingship in Early Japan

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Conceptions of State and Kingship in Early Japan Conceptions of State and Kingship in Early Japan MANABU WAIDA The purpose of our study is to clarify and delineate the religious or ideological foundations of state and kingship in early Japan, from the end of the fourth century A. D. to the early eighth century. The importance of this theme can hardly be exaggerated in view of the fact that it has pro­ vided the basis for the essential phenomena in Japanese history and religion: (1) the hierophanic nature of the emperor, known, as tenshi ("son of hea­ ven") and akitsu·mi·kami ("manifest kami"), and (2) the sacred na­ tional community of Japan centering around this sacred and divine being. We intend to study this theme in the context of the so-called sacred king­ ship motif in the general history of religions. More particularly, our study will focus on the total structure of sacred kingship in early Japan rather than the process of its historic formation. 1 In approaching our subject, therefore, we shall concentrate on an analysis and understanding of the myths, symbols, rituals, and social order pertaining to the Enthronement Festival. It would be a thankless task to review here the history of studies in the problem of sacred kingship in the general history of religions since the time of Sir James G. Frazer.2 As far as sacred kingship in early Japan is con­ cerned, this specific motif has attracted the attention of many scholars, especially since the end of the Second World War. But in many instances, this subject has been treated indirectly, usually only in its relation to the problem of the ethnogenesis of the Japanese people and the origin of the Japanese state.3 In order to deal with this ethno-historic problem, many 1 In an article we have examined the emergence and development of the concep­ tions of state and kingship in early Japan from the historical perspective tracing them chronologically in the fifth, the sixth, and the $eventh century respectively. Cf. my •sacred Kingship in Early Japan: A Historical Introduction", History of Religions XV. No. 4 (1976). 2 On this subject cf. C.-M. Edsman: Zum sakralen Konigtum in der For­ schung der letzten hundert ]ahre, La Regalita Sacra/The Sacral Kingship (•Supp. to Numen: Studies in the History of Religions," IV; Leiden E. J. Brill, 1959 pp. 3-17; S. G. F. Brandon: •The Myth and Ritual Position Critically Con­ sidered,• in S. H. Hooke, ed., Myth, Ritual and Kingship, London 1958, pp. 261- 91. On a recent attempt at the phenomenologica study of sacred kingship, see Geo Widengren: Religionsphanomenologie, Berlin 1969, pp. 360-93. 3 There are, of course, notable exceptions which are more or less directly concerned with the problem of sacred kingship in early Japan. For example, in addition to Shinobu Orikuchi's still important pioneering work, • Daijo-sai no 98 MANABU WAIDA scholars of different fields have worked together and made a number of significant contributions. The contributions have been so illuminating and remarkable that we must confess with pleasure and gratitude our profound debt to them in our study of sacred kingship in early Japan. In dealing with Japanese sacred kingship, however, we must always keep in mind Joseph M. Kitagawa's following methodological remarks: "We should view it (sacred kingship) not simply as an interesting by-product of the process of culture-complex formation but as a genuine religious phenome­ non with its own inner logic and structure, expressed in myths, symbols, rituals, and interhuman relations, however mixed they may have been in their origin." 1 This does not mean, of course, that we may overlook a critical analysis of the dynamic historical process involved in the formation of Japanese sacred kingship. Far from it. It is our intention, however, to study the "inner logic and structure," not the chronological history as such In other words, the historical modifications will be of secondary importance since our primary concern is to delineate the structure of the sacred king­ ship ideology or conceptions of state and kingship as expressed in the En­ thronement Festival of early Japan, which has provided some constant mean­ ings to the historical development of the imperial system in the subsequent centuries. In this connection, some preliminary remarks might be made to indicate our general perspectives pertaining to (1) the nature of the Kojiki2 and the Nihongi (also known as the Nihonshoki),3 primary sources for our study, (2) the nature of myth, and (3) the dialectical relationship that exists between myth and ritual. In the first place, we would maintain that the Kojiki and the Nihongi, hongi,» Zenshii, III, Tokyo 1955, pp. 174-240, we should also mention the following: Takeshi Matsumaye: Nihon shinwa no shin·kenkyu, Tokyo 1960, pp. 133-98, and his Nihon shinwa no keisei, Tokyo 1970, pp. 70-85; Seishi Okada: Kodai oken no saishi to shinwa, Tokyo 1970. Expecially noteworthy is Nobutsuna Saigo's persistent interest in the problem of the Enthronement Festival, as shown in his "K odai oken no shinwa to saishiki," Shi no hassei, Tokyo 1960, pp. 73-123; "Nihon kodai oken no kenkyu," Bungaku, XXXIII (1965), 1285 bis 1300; XXXIV (1966), 60-76, 129-44, 317-29; Kojiki no sekai ("Iwanami Shinsho"; Tokyo 1967). Ichiro Hori has recently shown his positive interest in our theme in his "Densho no ken'i," Bungaku, XXXIX (November 1971), 1296 bis 1304. 1 J. M. Kitagawa: Prehistoric Background of Japanese Religion, History of Religions, II, No. 2 (1963), 323-24. 2 The best English translation is available in Kojiki, trans., Donald L. Philippi (Princeton, N. J. 1969). Abbreviated: Kojiki (Philippi). 3 English translation is available in Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697 (2 vols, in 1), trans., William G. Aston, London 1956. First published in 2 vols. in 1896 as supp. to The Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society. Abbreviated: Nihongi (Aston). .
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