Spirituality
The introduction of Buddhism to Japan was very
much a ‘top-down’ affair. It was an imported religion
of immigrant technocrats, officially adopted by the
emperor, who was aided and abetted by powerful
factions in the governing elites.
The first wave of Buddhism reached its zenith in
752 with the building of a giant Buddha statue at
Tōdai-ji (東大寺), in the then capital city of Nara
(奈良). It is made of bronze, measures around 16m
in height, and weighs in at a whopping 250 tons.
Emperor Shōmu (聖武天皇701–756) was a fervent
believer, and ordered the construction of the giant
Buddha as an act of appeasement in the hope of
alleviating a smallpox epidemic and halting the
natural disasters which blighted Japan during his
reign. He also ordered the construction of a
Buddhist temple in each of the provinces
throughout his realm. However, this had more to do
with efficient taxation for a massive construction
project in the capital city than evangelism.
Buddhism had more to do with filling the
government coffers than saving souls at that time.
To fill the spiritual void, the Japanese had to wait
for Kūkai (空海 774–835). The son of a minor
nobleman of the aristocratic Saeki family, in
Buddhism he sought spiritual fulfilment, rather than
just knowledge. Kūkai managed to squeeze himself
into the government’s diplomatic mission to Tang
China in 804 as an official student. There, he
studied Vajrayāna, also known as Tantric Buddhism,
which was the latest trend in Buddhist teaching. He
was instructed by Huiguo (恵果746–805), a Chinese
monk who was the foremost authority on the
subject.
Kūkai returned to Japan in 806, and the country
soon went crazy for the Good News of Tantric
Buddhism. It required faith to study and believe in
the Buddhist Tantras, and to recite exotic-sounding
utterances (mantras) in Sanskrit as the way to attain
Nirvana. Faith had been missing from Japanese
Buddhism until this point.
Faith is a great leveller. It is not the privilege of
the elites; ordinary people can have faith in the same
way as aristocrats, even emperors. Thus, Buddhism
started on the path to popularisation in Japan.
As Buddhism broke class barriers, a strange
phenomenon started to happen in Japan’s spiritual
landscape: the people started to merge Shinto gods
into Buddhism’s theological context. They basically
promoted all their various local gods into the new
popular religion. The Shinto gods became, if not
‘The Enlightened One’, then at least sidekicks of The
Enlightened One, with varying classifications in
accordance with the Buddhist hierarchy attached to
them. People started to worship Shinto gods
alongside Buddha. Temples and shrines merged,
and deities coexisted alongside each other in a
weirdly comfortable way within Japanese spirituality.
This trend continued until the Meiji Reformation. As
the emperors were deemed the descendants of the
sun goddess, the promiscuous mixing of Shinto
gods with Indian deities became a bit of a
theological embarrassment at a time when the role
of emperor as the head of state came under the
spotlight.
Zen Buddhism was another import from China,
and centred on the teaching of meditation as the way
to attain Nirvana. It became the religion for the new
Samurai elites during the 12th century, at a time
when the popularisation of Buddhism was steadily
advancing. The life of ordinary people improved
during the Kamakura period (12th–14th century),
with advancement in agricultural methods and
increased commerce aided by the adoption of
currency. The ordinary people, unlike the stoic
samurai, sought a little more from their religion than
sitting down and as a result, forms of Buddhism
gained popularity. These included Jodo Buddhism
(浄土仏教), or Pure Land Buddhism, which
promises salvation in return for devotion from
chanting matras, and Nichiren Buddhism (日蓮宗),
started by a monk called Nichiren (日蓮1222–1282),
which teaches salvation through devotion to the
Lotus Sutra.
In the Age of Warring States (c.1467–c.1603),
certain temples and religious groups gained
considerable political and military power, and
became forces to be reckoned with. Into this
crucible of religious beliefs, the Jesuits made landfall
with Christianity in the 1540s. They soon found
devout followers among both the poor and the rich
and powerful. Their religion taught equality before
God. The subversive doctrine of equality was always
powerful and had been a common theme in all the
religious beliefs which had come before, but this
time it was stronger. The Jesuits’ message of
salvation was front and centre. When the
persecution of Christians happened in the late 16th
and early 17th centuries, they did not lack for
martyrs.
When Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康1543–1616)
became the first shōgun of Tokugawa in 1603, he
was keenly aware of the need to contain religious
zealots if peace was to be maintained. He ordered
that everybody register with a temple of their choice
by way of registering their citizenship – in effect,
delegating civil administration powers to religious
establishments. As an arm of governmental
authority, the temples gained a steady source of
income and lost their zeal for converting people.
Two hundred and fifty years of peace ensued.
Nothing saps religious fervour like apathy nurtured
in peaceful prosperity.
This irreligiosity continues to this day. Visitors to
Japan today are often confused by the apparent lack
of scruples in our religious practices. We claim to be
Buddhists, but marry in Christian churches,
celebrate Christmas, and welcome in the New Year
at Shinto shrines. They may conclude that we are not
religious, and they may have a point. It has not
always been thus. People believed, and they did so
deeply. If I could hazard a guess, our apparent
nonchalance is only skin-deep, disguised by our
tendency to subscribe to an ‘every little helps’
attitude when it comes to seeking supernatural
intervention, and a preference of practical solutions
over dogmatic inconveniences in the matter of faith.
This can be seen from our merging of Buddhism
and Shinto in the early days.
When Emperor Meiji died, there was a surge in
the number of Catholics in Japan. He had been the
symbol of modernising Japan and presided over
unprecedented societal changes. When he was gone,
people felt insecure and sought spiritual support.
Everybody has a reason to believe. Even the
Japanese.
