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Women and Sexism in Shinto

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Women and Sexism in Shinto Women and Sexism in Shinto Okano Haruko THE TASK OF THIS article is twofold. The ³rst accepted, while those who go with the is to trace the change in the position, mean- stream are welcomed. ing, and role of women in Shinto, and the sec- ond is to consider critically how Shinto par- WOMEN IN THE HISTORY OF SHINTO ticipated in the formation of women’s Shinto, the “Way of the Gods,” so-called to image and arrived at a sexist stance. I shall distinguish it from Butsudõ the “Way of show this by reconsidering the meaning Buddha,” is a collective term for several dif- and role of women in Japanese society as ferent forms of religion. Besides primitive developed by Shinto. My ³rst aim is to Shinto, there are Shrine Shinto, the orthodox delineate Shinto’s progressive disownment form which includes Imperial Household of women’s spiritual power which had been Shinto; popular Shinto, the religion of the acknowledged by the ancient Japanese, of people; and ³nally Sect Shinto, a set of women’s exclusion from the center of reli- independent systems. I will not include gious life, and of the gradual deprivation of Sect Shinto here, which I consider to be women’s autonomy. My second is to show akin to the New Religions, because its con- how the issue of feminism in an undiffer- tent differs qualitatively from the primary entiated, unitary society is different from form of Shinto. Thus, excluding Sect Western societies where a person is estab- Shinto, Shinto can be classi³ed historically lished as an individual. into three periods: In modern Japanese society, Shinto coex- ists with an advanced technological econo- 1. Primitive Shinto, from early history to my. This is a peculiar phenomenon as the organization of Shinto, from the Shinto, which is very alive, still maintains end of the 2nd to 7th century CE. its archaic animistic beliefs and ancestor 2. Organized Shinto, from the Taika worship. Shinto’s perdurance demonstrates Reform to the Meiji Restoration, 645- the persistence of the spirit of the Japanese 1867. who locate themselves in the original life- 3. Shinto after the Meiji Restoration, community which developed naturally. 1868 to the present day. The ancient Japanese were convinced that It is not quite certain whether in Japan’s their communal well-being was guaranteed early history, the existence of priestesses by the gods. Within ethnically grouped preceded that of the priests or not. We can- communities, individual members do not dif- not say whether a golden age of women ever ferentiate between themselves or between existed or not. The actual state of Shinto in themselves and the world around them. its early period has not been suf³ciently Consequently, those who display individu- clari³ed. A much more important problem ality in Japanese society are not easily is the relationship between men and 27 JAPAN CHRISTIAN REVIEW 59 1993 women in that period where this can be his- lords fell to the emperor. This meant that the torically substantiated. In the earliest stages, individual cults of the local gods of the rulership implied priesthood, and as the clans (ujigami) had to be organized into one social structures included both men and central system. Thus such local deities, women, so too power in the ruling classes originally worshipped only by certain was distributed between men and women in clans, took on an of³cial and national char- rather interesting ways. The woman was acter. The Department of Shinto Affairs the medium of direct contact with the deity (Jingikan) was set up to organize religious life and announced the divine will to human- and to see to the administration of the kind. The realization of this will on earth was shrines. In this sense the religious cult had entrusted to the man. Thus priesthood was now become the rationalized concern of the embodied in a male plus female relation- bureaucrats instead of being the sponta- ship, usually brother and sister. This system neous act of a naturally religious person. In is found ³rst in the clan systems (uji), then former times individuals endowed with in territorial administrations of the charism had summoned the gods and these provinces (kuni), and in the centralized had taken possession of certain chosen per- government of the Yamato Empire. sons. But in State Shinto, ful³lling the rite However, in time this man plus woman correctly meant that the gods could only system underwent changes. The more appear at a certain time and in a certain dependent everyday life was on the mysti- place. For this reason, the rites had to be cal, magical elements in religion, the more performed by of³cial priests, and the important was the woman’s role. Proof of this bureaucrats of the Jingikan, sometimes is that many of the miko (female shamans) assisted by other court dignitaries, male or were dei³ed and the ancient chronicles female, of³ciated at ceremonies in the speak of female rulers such as Himiko and shrines at the Imperial court and at other priestesses such as Tamayori-hime. How- shrines of major importance, while the rites ever, as the rights and privileges of the var- at local shrines were the responsibility of the ious petty rulers were gradually absorbed by the Imperial family and a centralized provincial governors (the kokushi) and empire formed, politics assumed an in- priests such as the kannushi, negi and hafu- creasingly rational character, although it ri. These of³cial priests were as a rule men, was supposed to be determined ultimately but in many old shrines the tradition of hav- by divine will. Thus began the formal and ing a priestess persisted until the tenth cen- conceptual rift between politics and reli- tury CE. After this time priestesses were very gion, as a result of which women retired rare, but at Ise, the Imperial ancestral more and more from this form of society, for shrine, the body of priests was led by a example, in the case of cult princess Saio. At priestess up until the Middle Ages. this stage the woman was only the emperor’s Three factors are responsible for the representative in the religious sphere, and the decline in the number of priestesses at most same process could be observed in the inde- shrines: 1) since the descent of the divinity pendent provinces. could now be calculated “mechanically”, as The second period of Shinto history it were, women were no longer really nec- began with the Taika Reform which brought essary in the priesthood; 2) the Chinese about a change from the old form of gov- legal system, recently introduced to Japan ernment to a centralized absolute monar- and on which the priesthood was based, chy. In order to achieve political unity in the was strictly male-oriented; and, 3) Bud- state, the power of the earlier provincial dhism strengthened the notion of the 28 OKANO: Women and Sexism in Shinto uncleanness of woman, due to her biologi- 1. The participation of women is limited cal and psychological make-up. at the higher ranking shrines, such as The newly created bureaucratic state Ise and Atsuta, which had preroga- took over the religious rites and the priest- tives during the period of National hood and organized them, thus rendering Shinto. them static; but charismatic ³gures, mostly 2. Shinto is still sensitive to contamina- women, continued to be active among the tion by “impure blood,” so that priest- people, outside the system of organized esses have to take precautions so as Shinto. We may ³nd them in secularized not to de³le the cult during menstru- types such as dancers, puppeteers or cour- ation. Their menstrual periods are tesans, or even as pillars of popular Shinto, controlled and regulated through the the belief of the people. use of medications. Each new step in the modernization of the While the traditional functions of cultural, political or economic ³elds ousted women within organized religion may have women further from signi³cant positions in all but vanished, the miko, female sorcerers, the priesthood, because their religious are once again active among the people. authority, often inherited, was based on the They will tell fortunes and prophesy, for a supposedly superstitious religious notions consideration, and also function as medi- among the people. cine women. The great number of female The third period, beginning with the founders of sects should also be mentioned. Meiji Restoration, also considerably affect- Their new teachings on religion and values ed the position of women. The newly and their faith healing claims appeal to the restored Imperial dynasty, with its new mass of the people. Religious communities national awareness, strove to establish pure founded by such women existed even Shinto as the national religion, and abol- before the Meiji dynasty. This particular ished such mystical elements of Shinto as the type of charismatic women see themselves concept of inherited charism and also the as mediators between gods and people, and practice of magical rites. Women could no ³lled with prophetic awareness, as found- longer be a member of the of³cial priest- resses of universal religious communities. hood. This is a new phenomenon in Japanese reli- Since the Second World War, however, gious history, but it is interesting to note women have once again been accepted into that such “new” religions show in their the priesthood. No distinction is made community life old elements of primitive between them and their male colleagues magic and base their authority on the tradi- and both men and women ful³ll the same tion of the “classical” religions.1 functions.
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