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The Social Function of Shinto in Modern Japan

Shrine Shinto has its origins in the belief of the people of a community living in an agricultural age and growing rice. Therefore it is only natural that agricultural ceremonies should remain in Shinto festivals even in the urban society of today. But people's beliefs have naturally changed.

Dividing Japan's long history on the basis of industry we have first the hunting and gathering period (Later Stone Age), the wetfield agricultural period (Iron Age) and the Industrial Machine Age. In each period we have three kinds of Shinto, Ancient Shinto, Shrine Shinto and Urban Shinto. We could have included an Information Period as claimed by Toffler, but since there has been no drastic change in religious form a fourth period was not added. In the hunting and gathering period people had to confront nature. Might was right but in trying to aquire what they wanted many people lost their lives. The religious practice of that time must have been mainly in the form of magic. But when, in the agricultural age, people began to settle down and remain in one place they needed a permanent place to pray and to which they could relate their feelings and so built themselves shrines. They cooperated with each other in carrying out irri gation and construction work. Naturally they had one common wish, and that was for an abundant harvest. In the Industrial Machine Age the majority of people in our urban society are salaried workers with a variety of wishes. The three periods mentioned above and the Shinto that was practiced at that time can be shown in the following diagram.

Energy being provided by society:

Shinto in a narrow sense = Shrine Shinto

Shinto in a wide sense (1) Religion originating in Japan - Nature & Climate

Shinto in a wide sense (2) Japan Religion - Folk

The latter half of the Newer Stone Age was the Jomon Period (Straw Rope Pattern Period), the Iron Age was the age of agriculture when people began using sickles and ploughs made of iron, we are now in a kind of new Stone Age in which IC's and New Ceramics have been introduced. Of course one can easily imagine magical elements in religious belief in the hunting and gathering period. Even today there are Shamanistic elements in the towns and Shamanistic believers and priests at some shrines. In the agricultural period such tendencioes must have overlapped. In the industrial machine age of today Shrine Shinto, in which agricultural ceremonies still play a vivid part, is the mainstream of Shinto. However unlike the agricultural ceremonies which are the main events of the older shrines such as Ise, ceremonies like the "Niinamesai" ( ), it is becoming difficult to find these at shrines in the cities. The Inari belief was originally a belief in the spirits that live in rice and from the mystery of one grain growing into several hundred came the expectation that businesses will prosper. That is to say, it is only logical that agricultural beliefs should be tailored to suit the needs of the townspeople. Since most people nowadays live in a town or city their Shnto must be Urban Shinto with some remnants of Shrine Shinto in the form of old Shinto and agricultural ceremonies.

Shrine Shinto is Shinto in the Narrow sense. Add to that Ancient and Urban Shinto and we have Shinto in the wider sense, or Shinto as it originated in Japan. In this case Shinto came about as a result of the nature of Japan and the climate. It was not thought up by people but came about spontaneously of its own accord. This is Shinto in the wide sense, no. 1, in our chart. There is also the Japanese religion mentioned in Aizaya Bendasans book, "The Japanese and the Jews.", ie. Shinto influenced by foreign relations. Japanese Buddhism is nothing but Shinto with a "kesa" (sacred scarf worn by Buddhist priests) draped over it. No matter how hard Japanese try when eating Western food they can never become Westerners, and religion in Japan is nothing but Shinto in a wide sense, or Japanese beliefs with a little foreign ideology in it.

There are many problems in modern Japan. People's egoism and the importance attached to the individual have led to the breakdown of the family system. The stress imposed on serious people trying to live in modern times has caused many to become depressed. The purpose of life is not as clear as it was before the war and this is unbearable for people of serious minds. In our administrative society problems of human relations have be come more compliated, too complicated to solve within the small, weak nuclear family. The divorce rate is increasing and although it is not yet as high as it is in the Soviet Union or the U.S.A. it has become as high as France or West Germany. If the number of separations are also taken into account the total number of broken homes is enormous and must have an extraordinary effect on society. Men and women hesitate to bind themselves in marr iage, or easily separate without trying to put up with small inconveniences because it is easy nowadays for women to earn a living. In the past older unmarried women were called 'Old Miss' with a feeling of pity or prejudice but single career women are now regarded with envyous eyes. In the past divorcees were called 'demodori' (women who have gone out and come back), and could never remarry, but now they can marry a second or third time. The number of people living singly is three times greater than it was in 1955. This is a result of people not marrying or living alone after having been divorced.

Sexual mores and ideas about sex have changed vastly, too. A high school girl once told a reporter that questioned her that sex was pleasure. It is disgusting to think of sex without love, the attitude of prostitutes. The infection AIDS that seems to particularly inflict homosexuals is a symbol of the abnormality of modern man. In the past women never married twice, hence the saying, "A woman never has two men!" But this is changing of course. The same phenomena can be seen in men who are now less inclined to devote their whole lives to one company, but change jobs and companies in order to become more successful. There are companies that hunt out people with talent and are accordingly called "Head-hunters." If you are talented it is all right but there are cases of people losing their jobs because they were inefficient, unable to work properly or a danger to the company. It might be proper to say that we have reached the age where conditions of selection both for employment in a company and for getting married are equally severe.

One can well imagine the picture of a poor middle-aged man, divorced and left with the children, having a hard time doing both the company's work and looking after the children, envying the free, single, career-women in spite of the fact that his job is much more responsible. Recently many depressive, divorced or middle-aged men have become alchoholics or have even committed suicide. Although one speaks of the importance of the spiritual life over the prosperous, materialistic one it is not clear what this spiritual life is. Originally there was no difference in life between science, religion or philosophy. In the countries where the ancient civilizations originated science, ie. logical thinking came first and philosophy later and the religion which came last did not develop. In medieval Europe religion took priority. In Japan, too, the foreign religions of Buddhism and Confucianism controlled the life of the people. They did their best to teach peace of mind through the repression of materialistic desires. Through modernisation people have been released from the restrictions of religion, and many new things have been devised thanks to the technical development which sprang from the study of natural science. Especiallly in Japan which is saturated with goods people are no longer impressed with the presents they receive. But this is a recent trend. From the Meiji Period to the pre-war times people were restrained by Confucianistic morals and education, and had to live a simple life, which had in fact already existed in the Edo Period. The foreigners that visited Japan in the Edo Period were amazed to find proud, poor Japanese. Until very recently we were all poor but noone was ashamed since all were poor. However nowadays your status is considered to be much greater if you are rich and have a responsible roll in a company. And for some unknown reason people feel ashamed to be poor. This shows how all of us are preoccuied with material things. Since the rapid westernization of the Meiji Era people have hankered after western things and the western thought that supported them. In contrast western philosophers came to long for the mysticism of Oriental philosophy and were struck by its rationalism. One of these philosophers is Fritjof Capra, a physicist, who wrote on Tao naturalism. He proclaims that the concept of modern physics resembles the philosophies of the East to an amazing degree, and gives the names other great physicists that have noticed this, namely Oppenheimer, Nils Bor and Werner Heisenberg. When spirit ual values took priority there was the same lack of balance that existed when materialism took priority. Isn't is possible to say that the natural concepts in Shinto have achieved this balance? It is stated in "Tao-Naturalism" that the origin of physics can be found in the first period of Greek philosophy in the 6th century BC, as it was with all other western sciences. The view of the school of Miletos, which is monistic and organic, was very close to the pilosophy of ancient India and China. More resem blance can be found in the philosophy of Heraklitos of Ephesos. Heraklitos believed that the earth changes ceaselessly and is eternal. Parmenides of the Elea School took the opposite stand and made a great leap forward. He stated the principle of 'exis tence', and thought the earth was one and unchanging. The Greek philosophers of the 5th century BC tried to unite these two contrasting ideas. By combining the unchanging 'existence' of Parmenides and the eternal 'change' of Heraklitos existence can be found in certain unchanging material and change is brought about in the world by combination and separation. This 'exist ence' and 'change' are the key words in Shintoism. Everything that exists does so for a purpose, things which are unnecessary would just not exist in this world. Changing and developing are also necessary and one must believe in the prosperity of eternal change. This changing and unchanging can also be seen in living things. The unchanging is the process of the protein synthesis of living things, changing can be seen in the fact that life only continues through different generations.

Shinto has never stated what its social function is and as a result has had many functions. The shrine has always been the centre of politics, the economy and culture of the regional community, a fact that hasn't changed up to the present. Shrines play a big roll not only in the regional community but also when there are problems between the people of large organizations. Everyone is equal before the deities and all become one in the end by performing the ceremonies of the festival together, no matter what the process may be. All the strenuous festivals including the Onbashira Festival of Suwa are a joining together of regional peoples and regardless of the risk of injury surpass political ideology.

Propogating religions that try to save the individual are like fishing with a fishing rod. Shinto uses a net and catches the group. The objects of the religions that propogate are the sick, the old and the dying, the theme that they were made to suffer, but Shinto tries to make all people happy and suffering is removed by purification ceremonies. Shinto wishes to make everybody happy by making them content. As the Japanese climate is for the most part bright this was originally a bright and optimistic belief. The scenes at shrines at the New Year show that people want to face another new year without saying things in too complicated a manner.