Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture

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144 Morris Low

South Korea, China and Singapore where Japanese technological exper-

tise, especially in semiconductors, is highly prized.

This brain drain is

contributing to a greater awareness among Japanese that their futures are

tied to Asia. But the outﬂow of skilled workers is raising concerns about

whether Japan will be able to maintain its lead in areas like electronics.

Today, the technological sophistication that we had previously associ-

ated with the Japanese has become more widespread elsewhere, and ﬁrms in

many countries attempt to exploit opportunities as they arise. Rather than

use the words ‘Made in Japan’, it might be more appropriate to label many

products as having been ‘Designed in Japan’ or even ‘Inspired by Japan’.

By adopting a more transnational approach to understanding technological

culture, we can paint a more accurate picture of how products are designed,

manufactured and consumed, and how Japan has contributed to the tech-

nological lifestyle that many of us now enjoy. Wakon y

osai has provided

a useful way of understanding how the Japanese have deﬁned themselves

with respect to technology and to the West. When they are conﬁdent about

themselves, they point to the importance of cultural traditions; when they

are despondent, they point to inadequacies and deﬁciencies in Japanese

culture. But the world is an increasingly complicated place and our sense

of identity is more ﬂuid. It is in this context of ﬂuid identities that Japan

must situate itself, its people and its products for as we saw with the iPod,

products are often no longer identiﬁably their own.

Notes

1. Ken Nakamura (1989).

2. Inkster (2000).

3. von Baelz (1974: 150).

4. Van Sant (2004).

5. Tetsuro in Cox (2007); Koizumi (2002).

6. Morishima (1982).

7. Morishima (1982: viii).

8. Morishima (1982: 52).

9. Chalmers Johnson (1982).

10. Okimoto (1989).

11. Callon (1995).

12. Takatoshi Ito (1992).

13. Bartholomew (1978: 269).

14. Tatsuno (1990: 15–16).

15. Parry (2007); Hani (2007).

16. Takehiko Hashimoto (2002).

17. Kamata (1982); Sachiko Kaneko (2006: 236).

Technological culture 145

18. Yoshimi (2003: 474).

19. See Katsuno and Yano (2002); Hjorth (2005).

20. Iwabuchi (2002b: 122, 131).

21. Caruana (2000).

22. Castells, Fern

andez-Ard

evol, Qui and Sey (2007: 71).

23. Stevenson (2000).

24. Internet World Stats (2007).

25. Katsuno and Yano (2002: 206).

26. Onosaka (2003: 95).

27. Mowery and Rosenberg (1989: 219).

28. Elliott (2007).

29. Dethlefs and Martin (2006).

30. Geraci (2006).

31. ‘Caregiver, receptionist robots to start working’, The Japan Times (27 January 2006)

online at: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20060127b7.html.

32. Foulk (2007).

33. Dethlefs and Martin (2006).

34. Castells et al. (2007: 40–

41).

35. Zielenziger

(2006: 126).

36. ‘Japan rated tops for innovation’, The Japan Times (17 May 2007), online at:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/nb20070517a1.html.

37. Morishima (1982: 90).

38. Morishima (1982: 91).

39. Watts (2002); Hattori (2006).

40. Jones (2006).

41. Lenz (2001).

42. Cornell (2001).

43. Fackler (2007b).

44. Yoshimi (2003: 470).

45. Kuwahara (2001).

46. ‘Women with a bullet’, The Weekend Australian (19–20 August 2000: 15).

47. Jacob Smith (2004).

48. Howe (2007).

49. Pawasarat (2002); DigitalEve Japan (2007).

50. Kunii (2000).

51. Sender (2000); Gilley, Dawson and Biers (2000).

52. Kuwahara

(2001).

53. Matsui (1987).

54. Batson (2004).

55. Fackler (2007c and 2007d).

56. Partner (1999).

57. Yoshimi (2003).

58. Yoshimi (1999).

59. Mowery and Rosenberg (1989: 220).

60. Skelton (1996).

61. McGray (2002: 48).

62. Iwabuchi (1998).

63. Belson (2007).

146 Morris Low

64. Varian (2007).

65. Spencer (2007).

66. Consalvo (2006).

67. Consalvo (2006: 125).

68. Fackler (2007a).

Further reading

Inkster, Ian and Fumihiko Satofuka (eds) (2000), Culture and Technology in Modern Japan,

London: IB Tauris.

Iwabuchi, Koichi (2002), Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese

Transnationalism, Durham: Duke University Press.

Partner, Simon (1999), Assembled in Japan: Electrical Goods and the Making of theJapanese

Consumer, Berkeley: University of California Press.

stephen covell

Religious culture

Perhaps it is only because we can witness life in contemporary Japan

unfolding before our eyes or because the beginning of modern Japan is so

recent, but the modern period has arguably been one of the most exciting

and transformative in the long and rich history of Japanese religious culture.

Modernity has not brought about the secularisation of Japan as was often

predicted, but instead has seen the ﬂowering of new religions, shifts in the

practice of long-held traditions and extended debates among practitioners,

government leaders and scholars as to what role religion has, can, does and

should play in Japanese society. Moreover, the last few decades have seen

the growth of a subﬁeld within the study of Japanese religion that focuses

on the modern period. Works by Shimazono, Inoue, Reader, Tanabe and

others have all sought to explore the varied and fascinating religious life

of modern Japan.

The aim of this chapter is not to neatly summarise a

‘modern Japanese religious culture’, rather it is to present the religious life

of modern Japan from myriad viewpoints and to introduce the reader to

approaches taken in the study of Japanese religious culture. This chapter

attempts, thereby, to express the complexity of both the religious life of

modern Japan and the study of Japanese religion.

Anyone who has been lucky enough to travel to Japan has surely been

struck by the multifaceted religious life of the Japanese. There seems to

be a shrine or temple wherever one looks, festivals pepper the calendar,

the shelves of bookstores are ﬁlled with works on everything from Nos-

tradamus to pilgrimage guides. Moreover, the visitor to Japan is often struck

by the syncretic nature of religious practice. Attending a Buddhist temple in

Tokyo around Christmas, for example, one can ﬁnd people writing wishes

on wooden tablets (ema, a practice that has its origins in Shinto) to Santa

Claus. Studies on modern Japanese religions frequently note that in surveys

148 Stephen Covell

of Japanese religion the number of believers of the various religions is gen-

erally twice the actual population of Japan. This statistic is used to show that

Japanese do not hold exclusively to one religion but instead practice numer-

ous religions depending upon their particular ritual need. This is where we

get the famous phrase: ‘Born Shinto, die Buddhist’. Most Japanese celebrate

the birth of a child with a trip to their neighbourhood Shinto shrine to

introduce the newborn to the local deity and seek blessings for the health of

the child, just as most Japanese call on Buddhist priests to perform funeral

rites and hold regular memorial services for the dead.

The study of modern Japanese religious culture is no less complicated

and rich than the religious life of modern Japan. It entails the study of

modern Japanese history, of ritual and doctrine, of ethnographic research

and of law, to name but a few key areas. For example, there is a debate

within Japanese Buddhism today led by Buddhist scholar-practitioners as

to whether or not Japanese Buddhism is ‘real’ Buddhism. To understand this

debate the student of Japanese religions needs to know the history of state-

religion relations in Japan, the role modern Western studies of Buddhism

have played in shaping Buddhist self-interpretation, and the history of

east-west interactions in modern Japan. This chapter will introduce these

and other issues as a way to better understand modern Japanese religious

culture.

Background: The religions of Japan

It is impossible in the space of a paragraph or two to do justice to the

complicated and rich history, teachings and practices of the many Japanese

religions. This chapter provides a brief overview of some of the highlights

of this fascinating set of traditions.

Shinto is the indigenous religion of Japan. That said, it was not until

the introduction of Buddhism to Japan in the 6th century that Shinto took

on its own identity and came to be known as Shinto. The Shinto we know

today has been inﬂuenced over time by Buddhist teachings to such an extent

that it is really very difﬁcult to understand the history of Shinto without

knowing the history of Buddhism in Japan. The core teachings of modern

Shinto are sincerity and purity, and the practices of most Shinto shrines are

for seeking the blessings of the kami. Kami can be roughly translated as

‘deity’, or more accurately, as anything that is awesome in nature. Practices

include weddings, ground-breaking rituals, harvest and fertility rituals, and

puriﬁcation rituals.

Religious culture 149

Buddhism ofﬁcially arrived in Japan in the 6th century. Its arrival tells

us something about how Buddhism was viewed at the time and about

how it continues to be viewed today: it was a gift from the kingdom of

Paekche on the Korean peninsula, in other words, it was part of a diplomatic

relationship between two kingdoms. Moreover, it was viewed as a wish-

granting jewel, a powerful technology that could protect the nation and

secure wealth. This is not to say that Buddhist teachings such as compassion

and the conditioned nature of existence were unknown. But the interest in

Buddhism stemmed from the perceived power inherent in its rituals to affect

change, whether that be to heal the sick or defend the nation. A great number

of forms of Buddhism were introduced to Japan or created within Japan.

These schools focused on everything from understanding the teachings of

emptiness to practising the moral code of conduct of the priesthood (the

precepts), and from realising Buddhahood in this lifetime through esoteric

rituals to achieving salvation through rebirth in a Pure Land.

Like Buddhism, Confucianism had a long history before penetrating

Japanese society and going on to become the national ideology. In a nut-

shell, Confucianism seeks to bring about a harmonious society. The basic

teachings centre on how people relate to each other. For example, the ﬁve

relationships – ruler and ruled, husband and wife, parent and child, elder

brother and younger brother, friend and friend serve as the model for soci-

ety. Of these, the parent-child relationship is the key; all relationships should

be modelled on it. There is also an emphasis on self-perfection, which can be

accomplished through self-cultivation. The legacy of this has been a strong

value on education in Confucian societies.

Christianity ﬁrst ofﬁcially arrived in Japan in 1549 with Francis Xavier

and met with initial success. There were stumbling blocks, though. Ini-

tially Christianity was seen as a new Buddhist teaching. Among other

things, translation played a part in these early difﬁculties. For example,

the word chosen to translate ‘God’ was Dainichi, the universal Buddha.

By 1583 there were 200 churches and 150 000 Christians reported. Chris-

tianity’s success ended sharply when the leadership of Japan changed and

Christianity was deemed dangerous, in large part because it was believed to

represent the beginnings of Western encroachment. By the late 1600s Chris-

tianity was all but eliminated. A remnant church, however, survived under-

ground, creating a type of Christianity unique to Japan. With the arrival

of the West again in the mid-1800s, Christianity once again made inroads

into Japan. In particular, many leading Japanese intellectuals and bureau-

crats saw in Christianity the power of the modern Western states. Today,

150 Stephen Covell

Christianity remains in Japan with 1 to 3 per cent of Japanese claiming to be

Christian.

In addition to Shinto, Buddhism and Confucianism, Daoism, Onmy

o, Shugend

o, and a wide array of ‘new religions’ played roles in Japanese

religious culture over time. Some of these will be touched on in more detail

below.

Debate and controversy

There are many debates concerning the study of modern Japanese religious

life, including those over how to deﬁne religion, the methods used to analyse

religion, and the related clashes over how we understand the relationship

between such things as doctrine and ritual. Before addressing these debates

one must begin by ﬁrst questioning the term ‘modern’. Stephen Vlastos

and others argue that much of what we have come to know as ‘traditional’

Japanese culture is ‘invented’.

Borrowing from Hobsbawm, Vlastos notes:

tradition i s not the sum of actual past practices that have perdured into

the present; rather, tradition is a modern trope, a prescriptive

representation of socially desirable (or sometimes undesirable)

institutions and ideas thought to have been handed down from

generation to generation.

Japanese religious ‘traditions’ are no exception. State Shinto is perhaps the

primary example of this, though modern Japanese Buddhism is no less an

invented tradition.

It is also necessary here to question the term ‘religion’. Within the

broader ﬁeld of religious studies there remains debate over the very term

that deﬁnes the ﬁeld. The word ‘religion’ has changed meaning over the

centuries in the West. Regarding its use, Jonathan Z Smith writes, ‘Religion

is not a native category . . . It is a category imposed from the outside on

some aspect of the native culture.’

Religion, Smith continues, ‘is a term

created by scholars for their intellectual purposes and is therefore theirs to

deﬁne.’

As an imposed category, the very use of the term can be problem-

atic. But it is widely agreed that the term, as a means of demarcating a ﬁeld

of study and drawing attention to facets of culture, politics and history that

have otherwise often been ignored by scholars, can be useful. Smith further

states that ‘[T]here is an implicit universality. Religion is thought to be a

ubiquitous human phenomenon.’

This sense of universality often masks

difference and has been used to imply hierarchies of sameness, ranking

Religious culture 151

varieties of religious experience from primitive/local religion to world reli-

gions and within that category prioritising the dominant religion of the

observer (generally Christianity in Western studies of religion).

Especially when considering as broad a subject as ‘religious culture’, it

can be useful to turn to terms such as ‘worldview’, which can incorporate

a variety of deﬁnitions of religion. Helen Hardacre’s work on the Japanese

new religious movement, Kurozumiky

o, provides an excellent example of

this. ‘To delineate a worldview is to specify how a group of people under-

stands itself to be related to the physical body, to the social order, and to

the universe, and to show how its members think, feel, and act based on

that understanding.’ It is to understand ‘how people appropriate’ ideas and

‘how they use them’.

Even if one accepts the general category of religion, there remains con-

troversy over how best to deﬁne the term as it applies to Japan.

Much of

the debate centres on its translation into Japanese in the 19th century and

the importation thereby of modern Western notions of what constitutes

religion into Japanese cultural debates. Surveys of religion in Japan, for

example, have been problematic because of their uncritical use of the term.

Many surveys continue to ask questions about the respondent’s ‘religion’

using the translation ‘sh

uky

o’. However, this word has come to be associ-

ated in Japan with organised religion and survey results are often skewed

because they do not take this into account.

Japanese religious culture is no less created by ideologues or the mass

media within Japan than by scholars. The very methods chosen to observe

religious culture inevitably colour how we come to view or construct that

culture. Within the ﬁeld of Japanese religious studies, work on religious

traditions has often been divided between anthropologists and sociologists

on the one hand, and Buddhist studies or religious studies scholars on the

other. This rift is especially prominent in the study of modern Japanese

Buddhism where, until very recently, scholars applying the methodologies

of anthropology and sociology tended to focus on new religious movements

or the rituals of Buddhism whereas scholars trained as Buddhologists gen-

erally ignored the modern period outright. As Rowe and Covell point out

elsewhere, both the reasons for this split and the results of it are manifold.

On the one hand, anthropologists have not traditionally been trained in

Buddhist discourse so when they approached Buddhism in modern Japan

they tended to focus on ritual studies. Yet, in so doing, they ‘contributed

to the idea that Buddhist ritual and practice are better understood as exam-

ples of Japanese folk tradition’.

This further exacerbated the view that

152 Stephen Covell

modern Buddhism was somehow moribund and therefore not a worthy

object of study for Buddhologists. For their part, Buddhologists gener-

ally viewed modern Japanese Buddhism as degenerate or in decline. They

tended to prefer the study of ‘text and tradition’ – focusing on philology

and biographies of major ﬁgures – over socio-historical or ethnographic

analysis. This was true for Japanese as well as Western scholars. In the

case of Japanese scholars of Buddhism, most have been Buddhist priests.

These scholar-priests inherited an earlier tradition of sectarian studies with

its emphasis on founders and texts, and also expressed a certain uneasiness

about analysing their own modern history, in part because they bought into

the degeneration view (daraku setsu) and in part because of inter and intra-

Buddhist political sensitivities. Put bluntly, as several scholar-priests have

told me, they felt studies of their modern history would air dirty laundry

far too soon.

The study of Shinto has been hampered by many of the same prob-

lems as the study of Buddhism. The concept of degeneration, for example,

though rooted in a different ﬁeld of study (folklore studies) has played a

powerful role in the study of Shinto practices. Unlike Buddhism, which

Buddhologists tended to approach as an ahistorical world religion, scholars

often approached Shinto as a folk religion.

Folklore studies in Japan tend toward what Marilyn Ivy has described as

“discourses of the vanishing” in that they are characterized by a focus

on the loss of tradition and thinning of ritual under the onslaught of

urbanization and modernization. This degeneration model is premised

on ideas of a pure Japanese essence that existed in communal practices

(either in a mythic past or as recently as the turn of the century), but

became gradually rationalized and simpliﬁed as local communities

dissipated and traditional ritual knowledge was lost.

Much as the degeneration view hampered the study of modern Japanese

Buddhism, studies of Shinto have been hobbled by this idealised view of

rural Japan and the ‘essence’ of Japanese culture.

Changes over time

The Meiji Restoration and the years that followed it brought about major

changes within Japanese religious life. In 1984, Allan Grappard called the

disassociation of Shinto and Buddhism that occurred in the mid-19th cen-

tury ‘Japan’s ignored cultural revolution’.

In the intervening years this

Religious culture 153

‘cultural revolution’ became the topic of extensive study. James Ketelaar’s

thorough examination of the impact of Meiji period developments on

Buddhism, Helen Hardacre’s

research on State Shinto, and Shimazono

Susumu’s

work on new religions will serve as our guides here.

The newly empowered Meiji government issued a series of ‘separation

edicts’ beginning in 1868. These edicts furthered a process already begun

in the Mito domain. The net result was the cataloguing and later removal

of ‘Buddhist’ ritual implements from buildings designated Shinto and the

removal of ‘Shinto’ implements from Buddhist temples. Priests of Temple

Buddhism (also called ‘established Buddhism’, meaning the sects of Bud-

dhism founded by the 17th century) were forced to choose to become

Shinto or Buddhist priests; some were defrocked, lands were conﬁscated,

and Shinto, for a brief time, enjoyed privileged status within the govern-

ment. For decades, Temple Buddhism was faced with a reversal of fortune.

Buddhist institutions, once closely allied with and generously supported by

the state, fell out of favour with the new government. The disassociation of

Shinto and Buddhism, once integral parts of a greater whole, created for the

ﬁrst time two clearly demarcated, separate religions. The effect this had on

Buddhism and Shinto in the modern period on the institutional, doctrinal

and ritual levels was incalculable.

Attacks on Temple Buddhism were launched from various quarters.

The critiques were not new to the Meiji period. Critiques of Buddhist

corruption and waste as well as those of Buddhism as a foreign religion had

roots in pre-Meiji Japan. It was in the Meiji period though that they found

resonance with the ruling powers and led to policy decisions detrimental to

the Buddhist institutional status quo.

Buddhist leaders not only faced separation from Shinto, loss of land

and funding, and attacks on the integrity of Japanese Buddhism, but were

also forced to deal with a completely new place within Japanese law. Order

number 133 by the Ministry of State, for instance, radically altered the

relationship between the state and Buddhist institutions.

Under this so-

called ‘eat meat and marry’ (nikujiki saitai) order, enforcement of Buddhist

precepts was no longer a concern of the state. Centuries of teachings about

the importance of Buddhism and the state working in close cooperation

were suddenly and radically challenged. Buddhist leadership recognised

the dramatic change in the state-Buddhism relationship and vigorously

fought to bring the state back into enforcing precepts. Their efforts failed,

yet they did serve to create new understandings of the precepts that have

had a lasting impact on Buddhist practice in Japan today. Practices such