Salvation in Shinto

To worshippers who give offerings at Shinto shrines, members of Shinto sects and students of Shinto the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki are bibles and in these two great ancient scripts they search for the fountain of their belief. If one looks on these two books as bibles then they must contain a divine teaching and must contain absolute salvation and relief. With this idea in mind reading these two scripts leaves one somehow disatisfied, especially in the tales of the deities, the myths. The deities who should be saving people [by their example] commit the sins that are committed in the human world, suffer the same punishments and are even finally killed. How did the ancient Japanese understand the concept of "sin"? In the chapter "Oharai"

(exorcism or purification) of the Engishiki Norito there is a list giving all kinds of sins.

Roughly classified they fall into the following groups, disturbances of agriculture by man, Natural catastrophies, murder, sickness, inter-marriage (incest), sexual intercourse with domestic animals, and sorcery, etc.. Among these, sins committed by the deities such as destroying ridges between paddies and conduits, cutting off water leading to paddies, uprooting sown seeds or usurping someone else's rice paddies and causing natural calamities such as storms were viewed by the agricultural Japanese as the greatest of sins, in particular the damage done by heavy storms to the harvest. In Takama ga Hara, the world of the deities, Susanoo no Mikoto, the brother of Amaterasu Omikami, committed all these sins. The brother and sister, Izanagi and Izanami, the first male and female born into the world, married and gave birth to many countries and deities. Amaterasu and her brother Susanoo married, which means they all inter-married and committed incest.

The hardships of the Deities.

Deities committing grave sins which humans ought not to commit - that is the world described in the bibles of the Japan ese people, the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, a holy world with a bright, sparkling side combined with a dark, crooked side. Izanagi married his sister Izanami and produced many lands and deities. This form of inter-marriage is not a peculiarly Japan ese phomenon. Mythology-science has given us many other examples. Many different peoples and races trace their progenitor back to mythological tales of inter-marriage. At the beginning of the world, or at a turning point there are floods which leave only two people alive, a father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister or other close relatives who marry and produce descen dants. Izanagi and Izanami follow this form. In Japanese myth ology there is no big flood but before the island produced by the marriage of the two deities is produced the world is descrbed as being a vast, empty ocean. Big floods signify chaos in the world. In Japanese mythology this chaos is symbolized by the ocean. Izanagi and Izanami commit the sin of incest and bear a leech child. This child, "Hiruko" has no arms or legs but the form of a leech, or a child with no bones. Anyhow it is deform ed, the punishment of the two deities for committing incest. To the dismay of the two deities Hiruko was not counted among their children but was immediately put into a reed boat and cast into the ocean. As soon as it is born it is made to bear the sins of its parents and and suffer the hardships of floating aimlessly in the sea. Thus from the beginning Japanese mythology vividly describes the hardships and sadness of the deities. The tale continues with the two deities producing land and at the end the fire deity, and through the burning she suffered at that time Izanami flees to the Land of the Dead, "Yomi no Kuni". It is no exaggeration to say that the life of Izanami started with the hardship of birth and ended with the pain of death, in other words was nothing but pain and hardship. So a deity which should save the people commits sins, suffers hardship and finally dies. What is the tale of hardship that occurs at the beginning of Japanese mythology supposed to teach the Japanese? Actually it is a myth that conveys the feelings of our ancestors. The deities take the burden of all the sins that man can commit on their own shoulders and die for the people. In this way we do not have to commit these sins. Izanagia and Izanami are compensating for the sins of us, the people. Redemption and hardship of the deities is a basic concept common to many of the world's religions.

Redemption

In Japan, twice a year the Emperor becomes the supreme preist and exorcses the sins and impurities of the people in a big purification ceremony. It is the belief of the Japanese that sins and impurities cling to the body like clothes and leaving them there will cause illness and finally death. So twice a year the sins and impurities are removed in an "Oharai" (Purification) ceremony. But these sins and impurities can't be removed so easily. Someone must take the burden of these sins and impuri ties on his own shoulders and bear this hardship and pain for man. This someone is the deities. The fact that they have the magical power to absolve man of his sins and impurities makes them absolute and therein lies the basic concept of salvation in Shinto. As the Emperor is the only person in the human world of Ashihara no akatsukuni that has the magical power necessary for purification he is a living, human deity. In the "Oharai", every six months, the Emperor takes upon himself all the sins and impurities of the people and with his magical power hands them over to the River Deity and the deities of the sea.

Apart from the redemptioon and compensation of Izanagi and Izanami this concept is represented among the Japanese dieties by Susanoo no Mikoto. Susanoo marries his elder sister Amaterasu who bears him a child, as a result Amaterasu hides in a cave (Ama no Iwayado) and darkness (chaos) rules in Takama ga Hara. In scientific mythology this is an analogical tale of the "death of the Sun Goddess". Ama no Iwayado is the grave of the deity of the sun. The deity of the sun dies every day for the sin of inter-marriage, sinks into the sea, is purified and rises (is born) again to the east of the ocean.

As described in the chapter on Oharai Susanoo committed heavenly crimes and was expelled from Takama ga Hara. He descended to the nether world where he suffered in the rain wearing only a straw hat and a straw raincoat (minokasa). The minokasa is a straw raincoat but in Japan sybolizes sin and dirt. Susanoo dared to commit the sins than man would have committed and in due course suffers from expulsion and being forced to wear the minokasa. In Japanese mythology the deities commit so many crimes and are punished so often it sounds just like a tale of crime and punishment, but we must realize that all this is for the sake of man. Here we see the teaching of the deities and salvation. However, in Japanese mythology the deities never tell man what to do or give him orders. They just suffer with their own bodies. In Japanese mythology only the suffering of the deities is described but by their suffering we are saved. As long as the deities suffer man doesn't have to. In ancient times mythological tales were told by selected people at certain times and in certain places, called "matsuri" (festivals). The reason for matsuri was that in mythology time and space could be re created in the past and sin and dirt could be expunged. People can regain vital power by giving their sins and impurities to the deities, when they hear stories of the deities at these fetivals. The theme of the suffering and compnsation of the deities has had a great influence on the religion, literature and culture of Japan. The hero of the Tale of Genji, Hikaru Genji committed incest with his stepmother Fujitsubo and a child was born in sin. The tradition of the incest of the imperial family compensated for the inter-marriage of the common people. In medeival times when Buddhism ombined with Shinto there appear many cases in which deities and buddhas live for a certain time in this world in human form before being killed brutally in the end. It was believed that when the deities and buddhas return to their own world they were able save man by taking on his sufferings in his stead. In the Edo Period "joruri" puppet shows and the kabuki, which originated in the medeival shrine and temple, had their replacement or standin figures. For instance the faithful vassal who gives the life of his own child for the life of the child of his lord cannot be explained simply in terms of "bushi do" (the way of the warrior). The loyalty of the warrior in bushido has its origin in the compensation of the deities of ancient times., and this theme comes from the mythology of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, from which it becomes a stream and flows into the literature and theatre of Japan.