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COMMENTARY Shinto's popularity is increasing By Richard Halloran |
TOKYO — With an assist from the Internet, the ancient religion of Japan, Shinto, is experiencing a mild upturn in fervor among the Japanese.
"We see more people coming here," said a priest at the Meiji Shrine in the middle of Tokyo. "We see more weddings, more people bringing their babies for blessings, more requests for prayers to be rid of a curse or to prosper in business, more people taking part in festivals such as shichi-go-san," in which children of age 5, 7 or 3 are feted.
On a sunny Saturday, 15 nuptial processions, the brides covered in white silk from head to toe, were led to the wedding hall through crowds in the courtyard. Troupes of dancers from a nearby neighborhood and from Kagoshima, in the south of Japan, performed in the same courtyard.
On a rainy midweek day came a steady stream of visitors, some to pray, others to sightsee and some to do both. They were old and young, "salarymen" office workers and chattering students, families and tour groups that included a sprinkling of foreigners.
No Japanese could point to a neat explanation for the increased interest in Shinto — which means "The way of the gods" — but several offered reasons that, taken together, appeared to add up:
Another, perhaps less noble, reason for the Meiji Shrine's appeal is its freedom from political controversy like that surrounding the Yasukuni Shrine, where the spirits of Japan's war dead, including several convicted war criminals, are enshrined. Japanese leftists as well as legions of Koreans and Chinese have criticized Japanese politicians for visiting Yasukuni.
In contrast, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Meiji Shrine in January, saying: "This is a venerable shrine. Since this place is close to my house, I often come here." Foreign leaders come to the Meiji Shrine without raising eyebrows; President Bush was taken to the shrine when he was in Tokyo in 2002.
At this shrine, Japanese revere the spirits of the Emperor Meiji, who was among those who led Japan into the modern world and reigned from 1868 to 1912, and the Empress Shoken. It is one of a dozen jingu, or imperial shrines that are roughly as prominent as cathedrals in Christianity. Altogether, there are 80,000 Shinto shrines in Japan ranging from jingu to simple shrines in rural neighborhoods.
Shinto, like Japan itself, originated in the mists of mythology. Two ancient texts record those myths but Shinto has no sacred scripture, no Judeo-Christian Bible or Muslim Quran. Shinto's gods number 8 million, led by Amaterasu-o-mi-kami, the Sun Goddess. The lakes, rivers, mountains and rice fields each have gods to watch over them.
None, however, are ascribed the power of God or Yahweh or Allah. Moreover, Shinto and Buddhism co-existed after Buddhism was imported from China as Japanese, unlike Westerners who belong to only one denomination, see no conflict in following both faiths.
Shinto was co-opted in the 1930s and 1940s by the militarists who ran Japan and turned the religion into a force for ultra-nationalism. After World War II, the Allied occupation decreed a constitutional separation of church and state, with Shinto reverting to the private domain.
Even so, the emperor remained the chief priest of Shinto, somewhat the way the queen of England is head of the Church of England. That tradition seems widely accepted by the Japanese, who applauded in November last year when Prince Hisahito, third in line for the throne, was taken shortly after his birth to be blessed at one of three Shinto shrines within the palace grounds.
Richard Halloran is a Honolulu-based journalist and former New York Times correspondent in Asia. His column appears weekly in Sunday's Focus section.
