Japanese Culture and Shinto

In Shinto there is a saying to the effect that one should not say too much but sense and understand from the atmosphere without verbal explanation, when one tries to explain it is no longer Shinto. The belief is that the more one tries to explain some thing the further one gets from its essence, too much explanation dulls the intuition. Eloquent people give one the feeling they can not be trusted, which is the reason that commercials such as, "A real man would do it quietly," are so well received. At the same time in general the Japanese don't think very much about Shinto and so when asked by foreigners about it they are at a loss for an answer. It is when people look deeply into the characteristics of the Japanese shrine that arguments arise as to what the Japanese are as people. Shinto is the spiritual conduct blooming in the earth of Japanese society. Ever since the publi cation of Ruth Benedict's amazing Chrysanthemum and the Sword, there has been a continuous discussion among foreigners of what the Japanese are, fueled in more recent times by authors such as Robert Gilan, Hermann Kahn and in particular Ezra Vogel with his book, Japan as number one, in all of which Japan is highly praised.

After the war, as children, we looked up at the glorious American soldiers marching along confidently in their neat uni forms, squinting our eyes at their dazzling appearance, and learnt how to express ourselves in the American way rather than the humble Japanese ways of old. We came to understand that the winner is always right, and found it difficult to see how the same adults that had despised the English and American people and described them as animals could now change their concepts and values so easily. This rapid change in Japanese adults hurt our childrens' hearts in the same way that our textbooks, many with parts erased with black ink, hurt our feelings. Thus we came to doubt whether there was any absolute value in the world. The only thing that didn't change during the war was the affection of parents for their children, the strong feeling of kinship among brothers, sisters and the closest relatives, and the fact that mothers became that much stronger. Except in rare cases where parents kill their children or children kill their parents it is only natural for them to look after each other and if necessary sacrifice their lives for each other. At the same time it is natural for people to want spiritual ties with their parents and to mourn them deeply when they die. However, ancestor worship in Japan goes back no further than respect or concern for the grandparents.

Ruth Benedict described Japanses culture as a "shame" culture, and western culture as a "sin" culture. Death, as portrayed in the novels of Mishima Yukio and Kawabata Yasunari, most vividly shows this characteristic of shame. But Benedict, observing the Japanese in wartime, saw only one aspect of the Japanese, and this was not necessarily the correct one. It was a time when the Japanese were under extreme pressure and seem to have been poss essed. The Japanese as described in the poetry of the Manyoshu were a much more magnanimus people.

Since the Meiji Restoration of 1868 we have been so busy gobbling up western culture with the idea of catching up or surpassing the west that we have got a bad case of indigestion. We were absorbed with the idea that everything western was good and everything Japanese bad. In our schools and education every thing western was taught and western ideas implanted in the minds of our children. But education alone does not change the nature of man. The yearning for the new and nostalgia for the old are interwoven in the minds of the Japanese. No matter how weste rnised we become we are still naturally and subconsciously attracted by things Japanese. We feel more settled with things not western. This is because although one can import ideas one cannot change ones surroundings and the climate. Judaism and Islam originated in the desert where the climate and conditions were severe and man had to fight so as not to be destroyed. There was no survival without a straight rational way of think ing. By comparison, in Japan one never doubts that the worst storm will soon be followed by clear, blue skies. Thinking becomes more intuitive. People are thankful for the blessings of nature and, regarding the forests as the home of the deities, give a divine nature to the cedar trees which seem to reach as far as heaven. They also see some significance in such things as cherry-blossoms, rice plants, bamboo, wisteria, fountains and rocks. The Japanese appreciation of art is very different from its western counterpart, for example the wabi (a special kind of calm), and sabi(elegant simplicity) in "haiku" (Japanese poetry), have a meaning, and unlike westen painting where the whole surface has to be a mass of colour the blanks between tones in Japanese music have much more significance.

According to western, Christian standards of value man is born into the world with original sin. He is free to have any kind of view of mankind or of life, but no matter how great we think this to be it is nothing compared with the majesty of nature. Since the holy scriptures of Shinto centre on nature there is no possbility of them drying up like a fountain. Origi nally there was no good or bad, merely existence. This existence is not necessarily visible. In the beginning of the Kojiki one reads that, "When heaven and earth first came to exist the name of the deity that appeared first in Takama ga Hara was Ameno Minakanushi no Kami, next Takami Musubi no Kami and then Kami Musubi no Kami. The three deities became ashamed and hid themselves."

Japanese people who are not good with words think they understand by using vague expressions. They don't want to be specific and decide one way or the other so they leave everything in a state of ambiguity. This is because in their daily lives they rely too much on other people. This lack of distinction in the boundaries of human relationships is described by Itagaki Gen as "miren" (attachment), and by Doi Takeo as "amae" (dependancy). However when we compare cultures we think that anything that is different in our culture must be Japanese. Itagaki says in his book Expression in Japanese, "We should reconsider what we think the characteristics of Japanese culture to be." In his discussion on Japanese aesthetics in world culture the writer Tada Michitaro puts forward the hypothesis that what supports the human rela tionships and morals of the Japanese is not theology or philo sophy but may be the consciousness of beauty. Remaining clean morally is connected with the consciousness of beauty, something craftsmen and the general populace find in aesthetics. In his book Iki no Kozo (The Structure of Ikifashionability), Kuki Shuzo speaks of the consciousness of beauty or "iki" as "having good taste, a zest for life and sex appeal". Here the conscious ness of beauty is not necessarily connected with morality. Concerning morality we have the "analects" of Confucius, often quoted by old retired, people who may often read and quote them but could well not understand them. In general people have simple ideas. They think that parents, children, brother and sisters and married couples should get along well with each other and live humbly because they might be seen by other people or the deities, and they want to die nice and humbly because after they are dead they might be seen by other people or the deities. That is how the consciousness of beauty and morality are related. One puts more value on beauty than on truth but what is most highly evaluated in Japan and in other countries is holiness. In the case of knowledge and emotion the latter takes precedence.

The loose character of the Japanese described above is the result of nature and their having belonged to an agricultural society. In the hunting and gathering period before this they must have had a severer character because conditions were more severe. There are many other books on the character of the Japanese such as "Culture in a Vertical Society" by Nakane Chie, the "The Culture of the Hand" by Shimizu Chohachiro, and "The Prying Culture" by Tsurumi Kazuko. It was once believed that the Japanese were not very punctual with regards appointments. It was common sense to be late if being late enhanced the impor tance of the offender. So being late really was a characteristic of the Japanese. But since everyone has become so much busier it is only natural that they have also become more punctual. Thus it is difficult to say what is the true character of the Japan ese. The same thing applies to their former curiosity towards things foreign during "sakoku" (the period of national isolat ion.) Over four million people a year now go abroad, for plea sure not out of curiosity. As far as the 'Vertical Society' is concerned the tendency now is towards a horizontal society, which means that the superficial phenomena of the Japanese character can easily change.

Japan has always learnt from abroad, first from Korea which had already been forgotten by the time Kyoto was built on the model of T'ang China, then with Sugita Gempaku from Holland, and later England, France and Germany and finally from America. As the sun always moves from east to west so we have arrived at our last teacher and are about to surpass him. We change our teach ers in the same way that a hermit crab changes its shells. Once we are taken by something we cling to it even at the cost of our lives. How is it possible for the Japanese to change so quickly? Japan is located next to the Chinese mainland, a quiet Buddhist country, but a safe distance from it, and is a large enough collection of islands to be reasonably safe. When Buddhism was brought over to Japan, and then Christianity, and at the time of the Meiji Restoration and immediately after World War ll, the upper classes in Japan accepted the new culture and in order not to " miss the bus" the general public immediately followed suit. But after a while everone reflects on their absurd appearance and partly aboandons the new fashion. This fast changing character of the Japanese is actually just superficial, their attitude to Shinto, the nucleus of Japanese culture never changes. Ishida Kazuyshi summarized it as follows, "It is as though Shinto were the doll and Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity the costumes which can be changed according to the period". In a discussion between Shiba Ryotaro and Donald Keene under the title The Culture of the Japanese Shiba said,"Buddhism and Confucianism are dishes on the plate of Shinto". In my own discussion with Gregory Clark he said, "The Japanese keep their own culture in their right hand and foreign cultures in their left". In other words Shinto can be compared with the right side of the brain, from which instinct and intuition are controlled and the entity of things is perceived, whereas foreign culture belongs to the left side of the brain, where logic and rationalism reside. Shinto can also take in foreign cultures selectively.

The originality in Shinto is that it has no originality, inside it is a void. From the outside it thus looks weak but is actually very strong. Shinto is like the air that supports a mother and her family. The children can play outside safely while the mother is at home.