Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change PDF
Preview Folk Religion in Japan: Continuity and Change
FOLK RE L I GI ON I N J A P A N Continuity and Change HASKELL LECTURES ON HISTORY OF RELIGIONS NEW SERIES No. 1 G^G^ JOSEPH M. KITAGAWA, General Editor FOLK R E L I G I O N I N J A P A N Continuity and Change I C H I R O H O R I EDITED BY Joseph M. Kitagawa and Alan L. Miller G ^ G ^ |- | THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago and London The woodcuts in this book are from: Thomas W. Knox, Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan and China (Harper and Brothers), 1880. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 67-30128 The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London W.C. 1 © 1968 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved Published 1968. Printed in the United States of America foreword t&VHß k. Jome time ago, H. I. H. Prince Takahito Mi- kasa characterized Japan as a “living laboratory and a liv ing museum to those who are interested in the study of history of religions/' Visitors to Japan will find the countryside dotted with Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. In the big cities, too, one finds various kinds of Shinto, Buddhist, and Christian establishments, as well as those of the so-called new religions, which have mush roomed since the end of World War II. Indeed, even in the modem industrialized Japan, colorful religious festi vals and pilgrimages play important parts in the life of the people. Historically, the Japanese archipelago, being situated off the Asiatic continent, was destined to be influenced by a number of religious and semi-religious traditions from abroad, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Yin-yang school, Neo-Confucianism, various forms of Buddhism and Christianity, as well as all kinds of magical beliefs and practices. This does not imply, however, that these traditions have been preserved intact in juxtaposition. In this respect, James B. Pratt once stated that the Japanese people have accepted Buddhism “simply, humbly, in sin cere and almost childlike fashion, and they have laid the stamp of their transforming genius upon it." Similarly, v Foreword they have interpreted and appropriated other religious and semi-religious systems in terms of their particular religious outlooks and experiences. The complexity of the religious heritage of Japan is such that it can be viewed, as indeed it has been, from different perspectives and with different assessments. Thus, some hold that Shinto is the Japanese religion par excellence, while others would argue that Buddhism is at least the 'half-creed of Japan." Those who are impressed by Zen woûld stress the decisive, though nebulous, influ ence exerted by Zen on all aspects of Japanese culture. Still others would assert that Confucian tradition, despite its reluctance to be classified as a religious system in the usual sense of the term, has nevertheless provided the most enduring framework for the Japanese world view. These opinions have been advocated and affirmed by many both Western and Japanese scholars, and be it noted that each one has a great deal of truth. On the other hand, few attempts have been made thus far by scholars, Japanese or Western, to delineate the nature of the total pattern of religious development in Japan. In this sense, the present volume by Professor Hori is an im portant contribution to the study of Japanese religion be cause of his serious endeavor to portray significant char acteristics which have been shared by different religious traditions on the folk level throughout the history of Ja pan. For this task, the author is enviably equipped by his training in Buddhology, history of religions, and folklore studies—all of which are essential for the understanding of Japanese religion. We may recall in this connection that scholarly in quiry into Japanese religion and culture was pioneered in the latter part of the nineteenth century by a number of vi Foreword talented Western scholars. Some of them—for example, Basil Hall Chamberlain, Karl Florenz, and Ernest Fenol- losa—were academicians by profession, while others were what George B. Sansom called “scholarly amateurs'—for example, William G. Aston, Ernest M. Satow, Charles Eliot, John Batchelor, and Sansom himself. These men, undaunted by linguistic jungles, worked out the chronol- ogy of Japanese history, translated texts, and analyzed unfamiliar concepts, beliefs, and practices of the Japanese according to the canon of Western humanistic disci plines. Meanwhile, many able Japanese scholars studied abroad and were trained in modem scholarly disciplines and methodologies. For instance, as early as 1873, Bunyü Nanjö studied Sanskrit under Friedrich Max Müller at Oxford, and published in 1883 A Catalogue of the Chi nese Translations of the Buddhist Tripitaka. Following him, other Japanese scholars studied Indology, Buddhol- ogy, Sinology, philology, philosophy, ethnology, and his tory of religions in Europe, England, and America. In a real sense, it was the combined effects of the dedicated labors of the Western Japanologists and of the Western- trained Japanese scholars which established in Japan dur ing the first three decades of the present century the various scholarly disciplines dealing with Japanese reli gion and culture, as exemplified by the works of Masa- haru Anesaki in the science (history) of religions, Ka- kuzö Okakura in Japanese art, Junjirö Takakusu in Buddhology, D. T. Suzuki in Zen study, Genchi Katö and Tsunetsugu Muraoka in Shinto study, and Kunio Yanagita in folklore study, to name only the most obvi ous. Thanks to the research of these men and their disci ples, the study of Japanese art and culture, philosophy and religion attained a high standard before World War vit Foreword II. Owing largely to historic factors, however, Japanese scholars of different disciplines tended to work more or less independently of each other without much cross- fertilization. Also, most of their works were almost un available to Western scholars, except a small number of specialists, because of the barriers of language and thought pattem. Happily, the picture has changed considerably since the end of World War II. Not only have scholars of vari ous disciplines in Japan begun to develop methods of cooperative inquiries, but also Western and Japanese scholars have begun to be engaged in meaningful dia logue and collaboration on various levels. In this atmos phere, the culture and religion of Japan, for example, have come to be reexamined and reassessed from broader perspectives. While experts in specialized areas continue their researches, they too are aware of the necessity of re lating their findings to those of others, including those of Western scholars. I might add that this sentiment is warmly reciprocated by many Western scholars who are concerned with the significance of Japanese culture and religion. It is therefore most appropriate and timely that the present volume be published by the University of Chi cago Press at this time. Hori was Visiting Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago, 1957- 58. At that time we explored the possibility of his return ing to Chicago at a later date. In the fall of 1965, he was invited to deliver the six lectures sponsored by the Has kell Lectureship on Comparative Religions. It is through this lectureship, which was established in 1895, that many distinguished scholars on the history of religions have been invited from abroad to the campus of the Univer- vm Foreword sity, including J. J. M. DeGroot of Berlin, Franz Cumont of Brussels, Carl Bezold of Heidelberg, Christian Snouck Hurgronie of Leiden, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of India, A. R. Gibb of Oxford, Louis Massignon and Mircea Eliade of Paris, and Friedrich Heiler of Marburg, as well as Masaharu Anesaki and Hideo Kishimoto of Tokyo. Hori’s manuscript was gone over initially by H. Byron Earhart, who was then engaged in research under Hori at Sendai, and Robert S. Ellwood, who later spent a year in Tokyo to work with Hori. After delivering the Haskell Lectures, Hori entrusted his manuscript to me and to Alan L. Miller, and we took the responsibility of prepar ing it for publication. We are grateful to the Committee on Far Eastern Civilizations at the University of Chicago for its financial assistance toward the preparation of the manuscript. In our editorial work, we have shifted, with the consent of the author, some of the texts into the notes and changed some of the phrases and expressions. We sincerely hope that our efforts did not unduly distort the original intent of the author. Joseph M. Kitagawa For the Committee on Haskell Lectures
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