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Interpreting Religion In Japan's Rich History And Culture

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Japan is a country filled with rich history and culture, and it has a completely different sense of history than any other country that we have seen so far. Archaeologists where surprised to find out that the world’s first property was in Japan dating 10,000 B.C.E which is before other cultures developed their ceramic traditions. Japan was known for following Chinese traditions, which is why that discovery was hard to believe. For a big time of Japan’s history, it was called as Nippon or Nihon (日本), which is the origin of the name Japan. Moreover, Japan’s culture mostly revolves around religion and most of their traditions involve religious rituals. Therefore, this paper will be covering religion in Japan.
Buddhism is the most common religion …show more content…

Shinto started from the 8th century and it is a very unique religion, because it does not have a founder, or specific rules. Shinto is simply very traditional with the Japanese people. It includes the worship of nature (rain, wind, lightening, fertility…etc) which they believe that Shinto gods, that are called Kami, take these forms. However, the sun goddess is seen as the most important god in Shintoism. Shintoism is considered a very optimistic religion, because there is no believe in absolute right and wrong, and they believe that no human is perfect. They believe that evil is caused by evil spirits and they do rituals to keep evil spirits away any purify themselves. Moreover, Shinto priests are the ones that perform the rituals in Shinto shrines, and they live in the shrines. A priest could be a man or a woman, and they are allowed to marry and reproduce unlike Christian priests …show more content…

Most misconceptions are that samurais are basically swordsmen but they were well equipped with spears and bows and arrow; although, their main weapon is the sword which was also their symbol as a samurai. The samurai were brought up to be loyal warriors by Confucian ethics where they would live their lives by the ethic code of bushido. ‘Bushi’ translates to ‘swordsman’ and ‘do’, meaning ‘the way of’. Other than Confucianism, they also took practices and teachings of Zen Buddhism to better their flow of chakra or life-flow during battle. Samurais were probably the most loyal warriors in military history; giving their life to their bushido, they would more than eagerly give their life for their master, have respect for common people. They would not rob anyone postwar even if they were starving to death but would rather work for food

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Samurai were warrior class who lived by an unwritten code called “Bushido.” They fought for the large landowners called Daimyo, they worked for the Daimyo’s protection and against other powerful landowners. The Samurai was taught the values and traditions, and had to be educated in literature and writing. Therefor samurai were also trained in meditation and fighting techniques such as archery, swordsmanship, and martial arts.

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Two major religions make up Japan, Shinto and Buddhism. The Shinto religion arose first, whereas Buddhism was a result of radiating popular culture in the mainland around 600 CE. The two religions had a rough as the most powerful rival clans fought wars amongst each other defending their religious positions. When the Fujiwara clan accepted Buddhism, it proved that the Shinto and Buddhists had started influencing each other. The government capital was moved to Kyoto in 794 in order to distance the court from religious influence.

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Many Buddhist Temples were constructed inside Nara giving them lots of advantage to be very influential. A huge temple was constructed on the eastern edge of Nara in the middle of the eighth century. Its name, Todaiji (Great Eastern Temple), reflects its location in the capital but perhaps also Japan’s status as a Buddhist country on the edge of the civilized world, out in the ocean to the east of China and India. At this time, China was among one of the biggest influences in Japan from politics to the arts. Japan effectively became modeled after China.

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Before Buddhism was even introduced to Japan, Shinto had risen out of many ancient Japanese beliefs and traditions that all ended up being sort of compiled into the Shinto religion. Because Shinto was so deeply rooted in Japanese tradition and culture, it was in a way inseparable from these things, making it highly important to the Japanese people. Shinto may not have any any prominent religious figures/founders, or any kind of specific teachings or religious books, but it was so entwined with many of the ceremonies and traditions that were so important to the Japanese people that Shinto was not a religion that could just be replaced. Which is exactly why when Buddhism came along that it was unable to completely overtake Shinto. By the time Buddhism made its way to Japan in the 6th century it had already had quite the history and developments from other countries such as China and India.

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The learnings of Bushido focused mainly on the combination of frugality, loyalty, martial arts & honour till death. These teaching were heavily implemented during a soldier’s training in the Imperial Japanese Army. While thr teachings of Shinto encouraged total emperor worship, racism & military aggression. “various games and exercises were set up by the Japanese military to numb its men to the human instinct against killing people who are not attacking.” During the Sino - Japanese war, soldiers were expected to perform brutalities in order to keep their (people above) happy.

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I. Who is their God? Like many eastern religions Shintoism does not have one God, rather they are a polytheistic sect that believe in many gods and spirits. The term “god” in the world of Shinto really means separation of the divine and humanity (Hartz). While there are some gods, most of the deities are spirits manifested natural world know as kami (Deal).

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Today we can still see the values of Bushido in some parts of modern Japan. The Japanese have the tons of respect and loyalty to their country and families. They would do nothing to shame or dishonor them. In World War 2 kamikaze suicide pilots look to the samurai and Bushido as inspiration. Today the two largest religions in Japan are Buddhism and Shintoism, and both influenced Bushido dramatically.

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Even though one religion is Shinto while the other is Islam, both places provides a safe location where the two can be practiced without any disturbance. Another similarity both possesses is that just by looking at the structure, we can differentiate what kind of religion is being practiced at said places. The Shinto shrine has that triangular roof with raised verandas all around the building. That particular form of building lets us know that this structure is from Japan, and their main religion is Shinto. For the Mosque, one or more dome shaped structure on a large building is mainly for Islamic place of worship.

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