【Shinto and Christianity】「神道とキリスト教」

2019/05/26 14:53

"Christianity" is said that probably the most documented and studied minority religion in Japan". The Japanese history behind this Western movement is ripe with controversy. In time, it has been looked upon with varying degrees of fascination and
even antagonism through nationalistic eyes.

In order to understand how this religion came about in Japan, it is imperative to take a look back into history. Christianity in Japan dates back as far as 1549, when Christian missionaries from Europe arrived. This “Christian century in Japan” was successful by the hands of Jesuit missionaries during the expansion period of Portugal and Spain in Asia. It is said that the numbers of Christian converts in Japan might have rivaled the numbers that are present in Japan today. However, this success was eventually quelled early under the Tokugawa regime (1603-1867) when Christianity was outlawed and Christian missionaries were expelled from the country. Nationalism was a major factor in determining the Japanese government’s apparent loathing for Christianity. It was believed that this nationalism stemmed from Japan’s pride in showing the West what it was capable of.

the Tokugawa regime

Despite this shunning of Christianity for the next two centuries, many “hidden Christians” (kakure kirishitan) continued to pursue their faith in secret. In the 17th century, many people were forced to step on fumie to deny their Christian faith . Of course, many hidden Christians did this to avoid persecution.

kakure kirishitan

After the Tokugawa period ended, in 1867 foreign missionaries were allowed to enter the country again, and Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox missionaries arrived in Japan after the country decided to open its doors to the West. After the government lifted the prohibition on Christianity in 1873, a period of time persisted during which the West was viewed as the region to emulate. Christian missionaries were very successful, and some even thought that Japan should adopt Christianity as the state religion in order to become a recognized member of the international community. However, this did not last long, and as the Meiji government developed, State Shinto and the emperor system created a sense of nationalism, and the plan shifted to gaining Western knowledge without adopting Christianity.

Meiji government

Christianity was not looked well upon in Japan during World War II. While it was declared as an official religion not too long prior to the war, many were suspicious of Christianity due to its foreign nature and connection to the country’s enemies.
“One-third of the 1,500 churches, as compared to but 10 percent of all Buddhist buildings, were said to have been partially or wholly destroyed." After the war, Japan’s new constitutionalreligious freedom and separation of religion and state tore down State Shinto and established a free-market religious economy. Recently, Christianity has continue to struggle with shedding its “foreign” image, causing it to remain a minority religion.

Shinto and Christianity
Historically, Christianity can be broadly classified into Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions. Roman Catholicism was introduced to Japan during the mid-sixteenth century. In the beginning it was referred to by such names as the Nanbanshū ("sect of the southern barbarians"), Batarenshū (the "padre sect") or Tenjikushū (the "sect from India") but subsequently either Kirishitan or Tenshukyō ("religion of the lord of heaven") were the appellations most generally used. After Christianity was reintroduced in the Meiji period it became referred to as kirisutokyō.

Nanban culture

Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI promulgated the Bateren-tsuiho-rei (the Purge Directive Order to the Jesuits) in 1587.

The initial introduction of Christianity to Japan was a new experience for the Japanese, and resulted in a strong impact and influence on Japanese culture in general, and particularly on the established religions of Shinto, Confucianism and Buddhism.

Francis Xavier and Alvares' Report on Japan
The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier decided to propagate Christianity in Japan as the result of meeting the Japanese known as Angelo in Malacca (in present-day Malaysia). As part of his preliminary preparation he requested Jorge Alvares, a Portuguese trader who had been to Japan, to write a report about the situation there. Due to its being specifically requested by Xavier, Alvares' Report on Japan (1547) devotes considerable space to religious matters. Alvares notes that two types of religious facilities existed in Japan, indicating his clear awareness of a distinction between jinja (神社, kami shrines) and jiin (寺院, Buddhist temples) Alvares describes shrines as being managed by yamabushi (山伏,mountain ascetics) as village tutelaries, and he provides detailed accounts of rites performed, incantatory spells for healing, and sacred dances performed by miko (shrine priestesses), among other things. Alvares' report thus indicates that Xavier possessed some level of information about Shinto even prior to his arrival in Japan in 1549. From
that point, a continuing stream of Christian missionaries arrived in Japan, marking the beginning of the spread of the religion through Japan.

Francis Xavier

Jorge Alvares

Yamabushi (山伏)
one who prostrates himself on the mountain are Japanese mountain ascetic hermits. According to a traditional Japanese mysticism, Yamabushi are believed to be endowed with supernatural powers.

miko (巫女)
In Shinto, a miko (巫女) is a shrine (jinja) maiden or a supplementary priestess. Miko were once likely seen as a shaman but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily shrine life, trained to perform tasks, ranging from sacred cleansing to performing the sacred Kagura dance.

Shinto as Seen in the Reports of Missionaries
In a letter sent from Kagoshima on the 5th day of the 10th month of 1549, Xavier stated that most Japanese worshipped the sun and moon. Fr. Cosme de Torres who continued in Xavier's place likewise reported that the Japanese worshipped the sun, moon and all other things, but that they also worshipped the devil.
The first appearance of the term Shintō in Japanese Christian documents is in 1560 within a letter of the Japanese Lourenço, a former biwahôshi (a blind lute-playing minstrel "priest"), where reference is made to the "sect of Shinto" .

Kagoshima

Biwahôshi

The first historical document of the Christian genre to present a substantive report on the content of Shinto is the Sumario de los errores de Japão de varias seitas ("Summary of the errors of various sects of Japan") thought to have been written by Fr. Balthazar Gago in 1557. As the title indicates, this document points out the errors of the various sects of Japan, namely Shinto, Buddhism and Shugendō (mountain asceticism).
A condensation of those sections dealing with Shinto reveals Gago's understanding of Shinto in the following words:

The Japanese worship twenty idols that they call kamisu or deities. Kamisu are all human beings, and because the kami who were the first humans pioneered this land, they say that Japan is the land of the kamisu (神国,shinkoku). The Japanese have absolutely no conception of the Creator. They think that the sun and moon are living things. Among the kamisu the sun is preeminent. The sun is the first king. The sect of the kamisu has five laws (taboos). The people who worship the kamisu seek nothing in the next world. They seek only rewards in this world. The kamisu are devils. These devil kamisu enter into people's bodies and rail aloud. Out of fear people worship these devil kamisu, and devil kamisu can even appear in the form of animals.

the land of the kamisu (shinkoku)：Japan

Japanese Founding Myths and the Concept of a Creator
Even before his arrival in Japan Francis Xavier knew that the Japanese did not possess the concept of a creator deity. He thus said that "One must begin with the doctrine of world creation before anything else," and the missionaries who followed Xavier likewise began their missions with careful investigation into Shinto's foundation myths. In other words, by examining the Japanese foundation myths and pointing out their errors, the missionaries attempted to plant the doctrine of creation among the Japanese people.

Vilela's Interest in Shinto
Of the various missionaries, Vilela showed the greatest interest in Shinto. Beginning in 1559, he centered his activities in Sakai and Kyoto, with the cooperation of the Japanese Lorenzo. He listened to and recorded the myths of the founding of Japan, the seven generations of heavenly kami and Izanagi and Izanami. He also observed and made a detailed account of Kyoto's Gion Matsuri (Gion Festival) and visited such shrines as Atago, Kitano Tenmangū, and Iwashimizu Hachimangū.

Vilela traveled to Nara and authored detailed reports and occasional criticisms of the Kasuga Shrine and Temukeyama Hachiman Shrine. Of special note among his activities was his baptism of Kiyowara Shigekata in 1563. Shigekata was the grandson of Kiyowara Nobukata and second to Nobukata as a famed Confucian scholar. In addition Nobukata was the third son of Yoshida Shintō's founder Yoshida Kanetomo, and although he was adopted by the Kiyowara family, it is said that he propounded Kanetomo's version of Shinto. It is certain that Shigekata inherited Yoshida Shintō from Nobukata, and it is not difficult to imagine that an exchange of ideas took place between Shigekata and Vilela and Lorenzo.

Kasuga Shrine

Temukeyama Hachiman Shrine

The Destruction of Shrines and Temples, and Missionary Expulsion Edict
As noted above, foreign Christians considered kamisu (kami) and hotokesu (buddhas) to be demons, and Shinto and Buddhism to be demonic thought to be extirpated. This kind of intolerance took concrete form in the destruction of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. In short, missionaries taught that there was no salvation through the Shinto-Buddhist traditions, and Christians who accepted this position razed shrines and temples, building churches in their place. Records of this destruction can be found in both Japanese and foreign sources, as witnessed by the expression "the destruction of shrines and temples" given as rationale in the second article of the Missionary Expulsion Edict issued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1587.

The Missionary Expulsion Edict
The Edict expelling Jesuit missionaries was a prohibition document concerning the mission of Christianity and trade with Spain and Portugal issued by Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI in Chikuzen Hakozaki, in July 24, 1587.

The Tokugawa Shogunate continued Hideyoshi's policy of prohibiting Christianity, issuing a prohibition of Christian activities (Kirishitan kinsei) in 1612 followed by a subsequent prohibition of the religion (Kinkyōrei) the next year. Prohibition policies were progressively strengthened and the persecution of Christians continued until the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the mid-nineteenth century.

The concept of Japan as a "land of the kami (shinkoku)" was officially raised as support for the policy of prohibition. Beginning with the title of the first article of the aforementioned Missionary Expulsion Edict, "The acceptance of pagan Christian teachings in Japan as land of the kami" and continuing four years later in Hideyoshi's letter to the vice-governor of India that stated "Our nation is the land of the kami," and again six years later in a similar letter to the governor of Luzon (Philippines) that stated "Shinto is the main (tradition)," and finally with in the Prohibition Edict of 1613, the argument is repeatedly asserted that Japan is the land of the kami, thus strongly propounding the theory of Japan's divine origins.

Early Modern National Learning Scholars and Christianity
Despite the above, the main energy directed toward denouncing Christians and Christianity throughout the Edo period was expended by Buddhists. It is noteworthy that among the early modern students of Kokugaku ("National Learning") were some who are thought to have actually been influenced by Christian thought. Representative of these was Hirata Atsutane. It is clear from his Honkyō gaihen that Hirata was informed about Christian literature published in China. The successor to Hirata's thought was Watanabe Ikarimaru, who published a series of noteworthy writings beginning with "Thoughts on Amenominakanushi." In short, these men identified the Japanese deity Amenominakanushi no kami as the universal sovereign lord of Christianity, and that the divine child Christ was the "heavenly grandchild" of Japanese myth, and that therefore Japan's Shinto was none other than the true religion of the Lord of Heaven (Tenshukyō = Christianity).

Kokugaku ("National Learning")

Hirata Atsutane

Amenominakanushi

Christianity and Shinto as State Religion
With the lifting of prohibition and official recognition of Christianity in the Meiji period, a new period of development ensued in the relationship between it and Shinto. Although Christian proselytization faced stark difficulties very early in the period due to the short-lived policy of promotion of Shinto as a state religion, once placards prohibiting Christianity were removed in 1873, Christian missionary activity increased. Some groups of sectarian Shinto (kyōha Shintō) possessed the explicit aim of checking the growth of Christianity, but gradually such aims became meaningless.
On the other hand, the clash between Christianity and State Shinto (Kokka Shintō) became an issue from the middle of the Meiji era.
Under the new postwar legal system the circumstances for Christian propagation have become more favorable, and occasions of friction between Shinto and Christianity have been lessened. Many in the Christian world, however, particularly Protestants, have continued to oppose the Yasukuni Shrine practice of "combined enshrinement," whereby all war dead are jointly enshrined as the main object of worship (saijin) of the shrine.

State Shinto (Kokka Shintō)

Yasukuni Shrine