“Fearful Respect”

Recently, I’ve read some discussions about the inappropriate depiction (in art or speech) of the kami in Shinto. Westerners tend to want to have a very close, friendly connection to Shinto kami, but this is rather odd–borderline disrespectful–from a Japanese point of view. I read an article in the Jinja Shinpou (3 June 2019) about this, so I thought I would translate it here for you.

Fearful Respect
by Suzue (Vocalist, and a shrine ritualist at Kono Hachimangu

When did it start, I wonder. Recently I can’t help but feel that the word “kami” has started to be used all over the place. You probably aren’t familiar with these expressions, but  “kami response”, “soon a kami!”, “kami level”, “to kami (something)”, “k4m1” are all phrases used to supposedly express the highest praise. However, something about them feels a bit cheap to me. The last phrase “k4m1” (ネ申す), by the way, uses net language to express the character “kami” (神) written side-wise, thus emphasising the meaning.

Thinking charitably, this is not the worst trend in the world. I want to consider this positive as a felt everyday connection to the kami as expressed in our contemporary language. But, including the feeling expressed in these phrases, I wonder if we modern people haven’t unconsciously started losing our sense of respect for those above us, started becoming slightly arrogant.

Fearful Respect. Is this not an innately human feeling? When faced with a deserving object, this sense of respect naturally bubbles up from within ourselves. Kami (神) is pronounced the same way as up (上, also read “kami”). When we focus on an existence higher than ourselves, it also clearly raises our own selves up. By understanding the self we have yet to accomplish, we enter into a position to learn.

The feeling of fearful respect is not something we learn from a teacher. It comes naturally from within: a sense of the awe-ful fostered within our hearts. Since I was raised at a shrine, perhaps I may have been able to naturally experience this feeling more easily. When my father placed his hands together before the shrine… when my mother offered her carefully steamed rice before the kamidana… when sunlight gently bathed me while I was lost in through by the window… every time when I gazed up at the trees of the shrine forest: These everyday things taught me a sense of fearful respect.

This is just my personal experience, but when I was in intermediate school, I had a chance to talk to an American, who was a Christian. He nonchalantly said, “God (kami-sama) is my friend.” I was really struck by this pronouncement. I felt it was quite novel, but at the same time it felt quite presumptuous. I was also surprised when I was in high school and one of my classmates said, “My mama and I get along so well, it is like we are best friends!”. I had never once felt like my mother was my best friend, and just couldn’t imagine it.

Also, a friend of mine who is a catholic priest told me this: “God (kami-sama) exists up in Heaven so high above us that we cannot reach Him. Thus it was for that reason that he sent Jesus down to this world for us.”

I imagine that people vary in the distance they feel to the kami. Near or far, only you yourself can truly know.

“I fearfully intrude…” (NB: a polite way of saying “excuse me” in Japanese). I love this phrase. I feel like people in Japan originally approached another person by pulling back a step, keeping a feeling of slight distance.

Faith is not an expression of rank or height. But actions like looking up or bowing down your head express a 3D sense along a vertical axis. A feeling of equality with everyone on the same step is also important, but I want to remember the importance of humility and respect too.

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How to “choose” a kami

Standard kamidana, in an archery dojo

Recently, I saw a question about “how do you decide who to set up your kamidana for?” The poster mentioned there was not a lot of information on line, so I thought I would give a detailed answer here.

The standard kamidana has spots for three ofuda.

1. Center = the Jingu Taima
2. Right (facing the kamidana) = Local shrine’s ofuda
3. Left (facing the kamidana) = Another shrine’s ofuda to which you feel connected

1) The Jingu Taima
The Jingu Taima, also called the Ohtaima, is the Ofuda of the Ise Jingu. The kami enshrined at Ise Jingu are Amaterasu Ohmikami and Toyouke-no-kami, who are associated with the sun and with foodstuff. Since everybody needs the sun and foodstuff, everybody should have a Jingu Taima, or so the thinking goes. By the way, almost all shrines distribute the Jingu Taima, so you don’t need to visit the Ise Jingu in person to get this ofuda. That said, the Ise Jingu is a beautiful place, so I would recommend a visit if you are able.

2) Your Local Shrine’s Ofuda
In Japan, each locality has a shrine that serves to protect that area. This shrine is called the areas chinju-sha. Usually, the name of the shrine is merely “Town’s-name Jinja”. Thus This shrine’s ofuda should go in the number two spot, because this is the kami watching over your everyday life and keeping the community safe. However, this is a bit difficult for most people living outside of Japan, since there are very few shrines overseas. Thus in that case, I would recommend an ofuda from one of the overseas shrines in Hawaii, the American mainland, Brazil, or Taiwan.

3) An ofuda from another shrine
Sometimes, people feel a special connection to a certain shrine/kami. Perhaps they are a student devotedly studying to get into their dream university, and thus pray to Tenmangu for academic success. Or perhaps they run a small restaurant, and rely on Inari-san to help keep the business in the black. Or maybe they had a moving experience while at an Ishizuchi shrine, and thus want to venerate Ishizuchi at home. In these sorts of cases, that ofuda would be placed in the third spot. By the way, this sort of shrine is called a Sukei-sha, which means it is a shrine that gathers reverence not only from its local area, but from people across the world.

Finally, if your kamidana does not have three spots for ofuda, or if you are using an ofuda stand, you can still have more than one ofuda in your kamidana. What you can do is simply layer the ofuda on top of one another, with the Jingu Taima on top. This is perfectly acceptable and a good idea for people who don’t have a lot of room in their house.

 

 

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Hierarchy of Kami

A life-size float figure of Amaterasu, crowned with a sundisk and carrying a mirror and a sun wand.

The other day I was asked why different shrines venerate different kami-sama, and why they aren’t ranked in the same hierarchy of importance.

Most Sect Shinto (Kyoha Shinto) have a single or group of kami that they venerate above all others, but in shrine Shinto (Jinja Shinto), the kami-sama are not ranked in any hierarchy of importance. Objectively, all kami-sama are equally important, but depending on your own position, you might personally revere some kami-sama more than others.

Let me give an analogy. On Mother’s Day, I sent a present to my mother, but not to my Auntie, nor to my sister. However, my cousin gave a present to my Auntie, and my nephew to my sister. And neither of them gave a present to my mother. Why? My mother, Auntie, and sister are all equally mothers, so why don’t we all give all of them presents? The reason, of course, is because while they are all mothers, only my mother is MY mother. I revere my mother more than my auntie and sister, not because they aren’t equal, but because of my specific connection to her.

It is the same with kami-sama. I might have particular reverence for my local kami-sama, but that doesn’t make it objectively more important than other kami-sama. Only more important to me and my community.

So, the reason shrines venerate different kami-sama is because local situations different. For example, many shrines near the ocean venerate Kotohira, because Kotohira is a fishing/ocean kami. But a mountain shrine wouldn’t venerate Kotohira, because it doesn’t have anything to do with the ocean. Likewise, there are many Shinto shrines dedicated to Kato Kiyomasa in Kyushu, because he was a great daimyo who historically lived there. But there are very few shrines to Kato in Honshu, because that place has no strong connection to him.

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Shinto Iconography 1: Amaterasu Ohmikami

 

Amaterasu takes center surrounded by a halo of sunrays

 

In this modern era of instant photography, we rarely give any true thought to the composition and symbols of our portraits. We consider photographs and paints as a source at most a small record of a memory. But through most history, the objects and composition of a portait (depicted or photographic) served the very important purpose of not only identifying the figure in the portrait, but telling us the most vital information about that figure. This use of objects and composition in portraits in called iconography.

While Shinto is not iconoclastic, neither does Shinto really produce much art. Shinto was largely associated with simple folkways and the provinces while Buddhism was the inspiration for the “fine art” of the sophisticated culture of the elites. However, portraits of the various kami of the Kojiki and Nihongi were painted from a historical point of view (since kami are generally historical/legendary figures) and especially became popular in the Meiji period.

In this Shinto Iconography series, I am going to point out of some iconographic elements often scene in various portraits of kami. And who better to begin with than the beloved ancestress of the Imperial House, Amaterasu Ohmikami.

Name: Amaterasu Omikami
Main Shrine: Ise Jingu
Dominion: Sun, Japan, All Life
Iconography: A sundisk crown, a sundisk halo, a large mirror, the three Sacred Treasures, female

Note the sundisk crowning Amaterasu in this 1960s film

In this painting from 1899, Amaterasu carrys a large mirror and is surrounded with a halo of sun rays.

A life-size float figure of Amaterasu, crowned with a sundish and carrying a mirror and a sun wand.

 

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What is Shinto? 2

By my definition, this too is Shinto

Last time, we discussed some of the problems with defining Shinto as ‘the indigenous religion of Japan’. If we must reject this common definition, how can we then define Shinto?

After clearly rejecting the idea of Shinto as Japan’s indigenous religion, KURODA Toshio radically suggests that Shinto as an independent religion is an entirely modern invention and that premodern Shinto should be considered merely as a part of Buddhism. (Inoue et al. 19) Breen and Teeuwen in their A New History of Shinto also reject the idea of Shinto as an indigenous religion, and suggest that Shinto could only be considered to have a form as a “independent religious organization” (222) with the advent of Yoshida Shinto in the medieval period. Despite this, they recognize what they call “pre-Shinto” (222), that is the earlier “building blocks from which Shinto has been constructed”. (227) It only after these pre-Shinto elements undergo a process of “Shintoization” (21) and are incorporated into an independent Shinto religious organization that they truly become Shinto. In explaining this process of Shintoization, Breen and Teeuwen seperate the concept of Shinto from shrines from shrines themselves. (See also Breen’s introduction in Inoue et al., x) But after examining this process of Shintoization, Breen and Teeuwen conclude that “it is not up to us to determine what [Shinto] means.” (223)

On the other hand, INOUE Nobutaka et al. in the introduction to Shinto: A History suggests the concept of a “religious system” (3) as a tool for exploring Shinto’s relation to society without being forced to give a strict definition, but chooses “kami worship as the characteristic that distinguishes Shinto from other religious traditions and gives it continuity through the ages.” (5) A religious system consists of three elements: constituents, network, and substance. When all three of these elements came together it can be said an independent Shinto movement was formed, although he also lists incomplete systems in which only one or two of these elements existed. In this way, the way different elements related to kami worshiped evolved from the early ages when an independent Shinto movement could not be said to exist to the more explicitly defined Shinto of today is traced. Altogether, Inoue et al. describe eight overlapping but separate Shinto religious systems.

In A Year in the Life of a Shinto Shrine, John Nelson describes Shinto as a “mixture of rituals, institutions, magical practices, charms, and so forth”. (3) Thomas Kasulis in his philosophical work on Shinto spiritualism, Shinto: the Way Home, writes that while “Shinto can be considered merely part of Japanese cultural custom” (1), it also has an aspect of nationalism cannot be ignored.

As this variety of definitions and descriptions suggests, the definition of Shinto and its connection to shrines has historically been and remains vague. For that reason, a comprehensive definition of Shinto is not offered here. However, here I will utilize the term ‘Shinto’ broadly to include any activities related to Shinto shrines or kami. Any activity is included in this definition because–whether or not the activity is ‘originally’ Shinto–if it takes place at a shrine, it gains a sort of aura of Shinto. This can be true whether it is harvest prayer of thanks, a social wedding ceremony, an athletic archery contest, a lecture by an Imperial navy officer or merely a hanami outing. Similarly, activities relating to shrines or kami are included because the significance of a shrine comes from its kami. Shrines are generally thought of as physical buildings constructed, but the most basic purpose of a shrine–to provide a place for the kami to alight–is not exclusive to man-made structures and can include anything within nature. Thus, it would be a mistake to exclude activities that took place where the kami is believed to reside if it were not physically demarcated as a shrine. This is especially true when discussing immigrant communities with limited resources.

Addendum. I wrote this essay last year when thinking about how to define Shinto for my Master’s thesis. My thinking hasn’t changed all that much, the final definition for Shinto I ended up using was any praxis related to Shinto shrines or kami.

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Condensed History of Shinto 1

Writing a history of Shinto is surprising hard. There are so many complications and ambiguities that it seems impossible to say anything that is true and accurate. But then I remembered that that is the nature of life. So here is my probably inaccurate version of a condensed Shinto history.

Back in ancient times, like before written history, there were some people living in Japan. We call them the Jomon from the rope pattern found on their pottery vessels. Yeah, Jomon means ‘rope’ or something like that. They had a bunch of ritual beliefs, but now the Jomon are all dead and they didn’t leave any writing behind so we don’t know about what those rituals were. It is possible they were related to kami (and kami are the heart of ‘Shinto’; Shinto being ‘the way of the kami’), but we just don’t know. Yet. Anyway, the Jomon were living all happy and stuff when some pale skins came over from the mainland to Japan. We call them the Yayoi. I forget why. Anyway, they had different rituals and beliefs and they fought and mixed with the Jomon. Depending on the village, Jomon and Yayoi customs were mixed in varying percentages. There is evidence that the south and west parts of Japan adapted more Yayoi customs while the north and east parts retained more Jomon style customs and that this division of culture is still reflected in modern times. It’s rather shocking to think that that might be true. But that’s not so important to this condensed history of Shinto, so I’ll leave it at that.

Anyway, all the villages began to form small countries and do some fighting between themselves. The country of the Yamato in Western Japan emerged as the strongest of these and went about ‘pacifying’ all the other countries. Of course, the kami native to Yamato helped out the Yamato kings (and queens!) and in return, the Yamato kings built shrines to them and worshiped them. One of these kami was Amaterasu. Originally Amaterasu lived in the palace with the Yamato kings, but one day she took a vacation to Ise with one of the imperial princess (the princess Yamato-hime) and liked it so much there she decided to stay there permanently. And the Yamato kings had been pretty intimidated by having Amaterasu always around the house, so they were pretty happy with that arrangement too. That said, they didn’t neglect Amaterasu just because she was far away in Ise. Particularly Emperor Temmu was so fond of Amaterasu that he ordered her shrine rebuilt a new every few years and always sent her lots of presents.

Amaterasu was not such a jealous kami, perhaps because she was a women and we all know women are nicer than men, and she didn’t have a problem when the Yamato kings gave presents to the kami of other tribes when they pledged allegiance to the Yamato kings. In this way, Amaterasu went from being just a local Yamato kami to being the other of the whole land of Japan, with all the other local kami subservient to her. This system of shrines and gift giving got so complicated the Yamato court dedicated a whole government office to managing it called the Jingikan. So for a time things went on like this and books were compiled of the myths and rituals that told the story and movements of the Yamato court’s divine legitimacy.

But as time progresses, the mighty rise and fall as foam upon a river’s curl. The days of ruthless heroes like Yamato Takeru of the Yamato court passed and the court’s strength was gradually sapped by the courtiers of the House of Fujiwara. With this, the elaborate system of shrine offerings overseen by the Jingikan became unsupportable. The court turned inward, taming what were once high public rituals into private court affairs and limited regular shrine offerings to just twenty-two close shrines. Thus began the Twenty-Two Shrine system. With this withdrawal of the court’s strength, provincial shrines began to promote themselves and ichi-no-miya, or First Shrines, were designated for each of the provinces. At the same time, the syncretism of the buddhas and kami became popular. Shrines and temples increasingly became indistinguishable and the kami and buddhas took on each other’s characteristics. The kami were thought the protectors of the buddhas, or the buddhas were thought the saviors of the kami. Or the kami were merely the mask the buddhas wore to more easily bring the light of Buddhism to Japan. Or perhaps it was the opposite; the buddhas were merely the form the kami took when visiting the barbarian populated lands. No one really knows.

It was in this climate, that pilgrimages became popular and the common people urged on by wandering monks called oshi flocked to famed temples and shrines. And as epidemics and disasters struck the lands, people crowded the streets of the capital in a frenzied effort to alleviate the angry spirits (called goryou) of wronged courtiers. Some of the most popular Shinto festivals in modern times such as the elegant Gion festival have their origins in these ceremonies to pacify vengeful spirits. But out of this chaos, from the halls of buddhist temples, lineages based on secret transmissions about the kami were formed and passed down from teacher to disciple. These Shinto lineages remain a part and dependent upon the Buddhism from which they were born, but they were a hint of the independent Yoshida Shinto that would later be established. Thus ended the medieval period.

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The Shinto Culture Test 31・32・33・34

Chapter 31: On Katori-sama and Kashima-sama
The main shrine of Katori shrines is Katori Jingu and the enshrined deity is Futsunushi-no-ookami. The main shrine of Kashima shrines is Kashima Jingu and the enshrined deity is Takeminadzuchi-no-ookami. Since ancient times, they have gathered worshipers as the martial guardian deities of the nation. They are also revered as gods of fishing and navigation.

Keywords:
香取神社・かとりじんじゃ
香取神宮・かとりじんぐう
経津主大神・ふつぬしのおおかみ
鹿島神社・かしまじんじゃ
鹿島神宮・かしまじんぐう
武甕槌大神・たけみかづちのおおかみ
軍神・ぐんしん
境の神・さかいのかみ

Chapter 32: On Kasuga-sama
The main shrine of Kasuga shrines is Kasuga Taisha. The four deities enshrines are ancestral protector gods of the House of Fujiwara. As the protector of the Nara capital, it gathered followers from both the imperial court and the people and was spread throughout the country. Kasuga Festival is one of the Three Imperial Festivals (Choku-sai). The Kasuga Wakamiya Onsai is also famous.

Keywords:
春日神社・かすがじんじゃ
春日大社・かすがたいしゃ
春日山・かすがさん
御蓋山・みかさやま
武甕槌命・たけみかづちのみこと
経津主命・ふつぬしのみこと
天児屋根命・あめのこやねのみこと
比売神・ひめがみ
祖神・おやがみ
春日祭・かすがさい
賀茂祭・がもさい
石清水祭・いわしみずさい
三勅祭・さんちょくさい
若宮神社・わかみやじんじゃ
春日若宮おん祭・かすがわかみやおんまつり
大原野神社・おおはらのじんじゃ
吉田神社・よしだじんじゃ

Chapter 33: On Atago-san and Akiba-san
Atago shrines and Akiba shrines are both dedicated to gods who prevent fires. The head shrine of Atago shrines is the Atago Jinja in Kyoto and the hread shrine of Akiba shrines is Akiba-san Honguu Akiba Jinja in Shizuoka prefecture.

Keywords:
愛宕神社・あたごじんじゃ
秋葉神社・あきばじんじゃ
秋葉山本宮秋葉神社・あきはさんほんぐうあきはじんじゃ
火之迦具土神・ひのかぐつちのおおかみ

Chapter 34: On Konpira-san
The head shrine of Konpira shrines (Konpira Jinja, Kotohira Jinja) is Kotohira-guu in Kagawa prefecture. It developed as a protector of maritime travel to being worshiped across the whole country. The main deity is Oomononushi-no-kami.

Keywords:
こんぴらさん
金刀比羅神社・ことじらじんじゃ
金毘羅神社・こんぴらじんじゃ
琴平神社・ことひらじんじゃ
金刀比羅宮・ことひらぐう
大物主神・おおものぬしのかみ
和魂・にぎみたま
荒魂・あらみたま

31．香取さま、鹿島さまについて教えてください
香取神社の総本社は香取神宮で、ご祭神は経津主大神、鹿島神社の総本社は鹿島神宮で、ご祭神は武甕槌大神。古来国家鎮護の軍神として崇敬されてきた。漁業、航海の神様でもある。

32．春日さまについて教えてください
春日神社の総本社は春日大社。4柱のご祭神は藤原氏の氏神や祖神で守護神。平城京の守護神となり、朝野の崇敬を集めて全国に信仰が広まった。春日祭は三勅祭の一つで、春日若宮おん祭も有名。

33．愛宕さん、秋葉さんについて教えてください
愛宕神社、秋葉神社はともに火伏せの神様として信仰されている。愛宕神社の総本社は京都の愛宕神社で、秋葉神社の総本社は静岡県の秋葉山本宮秋葉神社。

34．こんぴらさんについて教えてください
こんぴらさんと呼ばれる神社は金刀比羅神社、金毘羅神社、琴平神社などのことで、総本宮は香川県の金刀比羅宮。海上交通の発展により全国な信仰へと発展した。主祭神は大物主神。

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ヒロ大神宮 Hilo Daijingu

This is a translation of this Hawaii Travel blog post.

ヒロ大神宮　Hilo Daijingu

Hilo Daijingu is a shrine in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. As the most historic shrine on the Hawaiian archipelago  it was made in 1898, older than the famous Izumo Shrine on Oahu shown on television. (Kannushi-san Interview . It was built due to many requests of first generation Japanese in Hilo, which has many nikkei. Since it was damaged in the 1963 tsunami, it was moved to its present location.

When I went to visit the shrine, it was unfortunately cloudy, but after it suddenly cleared up. Where you wash your hands, there were paper towels placed there, very overseas-like. Because water is precious, there was a tap to turn off the water when not using it. The offertory box is inside the honden, so when I went inside to pay my respects, the kannushi-san came out to meet us and we could chat.

It wasn’t serious religious talk, but rather amusing chat while exchanging laughter, “We’re different from kannushi in Honolulu, in that we can’t do TV, since it spits up poison”. There were so many interesting things:

• Kami-sama, especially the ujigami-sama of your neighborhood, is like your parent, so they want to see the smiling happy face of their children. So its good to smile when before the kami-sama. For that reason, the kannushi-san should go around sharing laughter. When the kami-sama sees your happy self, the kami-sama too is happy. When you return to Japan, please go visit your local ujigami-sama.
• As long as your don’t forget to be grateful for things, you will be happy. (You don’t need expensive vases or expensive offerings. <–I could experience part of his characteristic personality in this.)
• Japanese people have a common custom of saying “itadakimasu” and “gochisou-sama”. These words are a form of gratitude to the kami-sama and your ancestors. So a daily habit just putting your hands together and offering this simple prayer of gratitude before the kamidana morning and night is enough. (Where and when you pray is not important)
• Greatness and Respect are different. In this modern world, you can become great through social status or money, but not have respect. If you remember in your heart that great people may be great, but not have respect, your stress will decrease.
• Happiness, even if you give it to others, does not decrease. Only money decreases. Also, if you give happiness to others it will return to you.
• Kami-sama are shy. There was an episode when Amaterasu-oomikami hide away inside a cave. Kami-sama are shy, so it is natural that humans are shy as well. There is no need to worry about it.
• If you tell others what is said today, 200 years later, kannushi-san might become the founder of a religion. So tell others what is said.
• When you let TV stations interview you, they largely cut everything you say. So they aren’t truly interviewing you.

We chatted on like this about useful and interesting things for close to an hour. This kannushi-san has acquired American citizenship, but he will return to Japan next year, so don’t wait if you would like to meet him.

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