Nerima

In Nerima 練馬 I encountered some interesting expressions of folk religion. First, I discovered a temple of Ji-sect (Ji-shū ji 時宗) called Ji-shū Amida-ji時宗阿弥陀寺. Even though the temple itself is quite interesting, my attention was drawn by a small shrine on the temple grounds. I had a hard time identifying the deity that was enshrined in it, for it was adorned with red bibs and the like, making it difficult to see what was underneath. Since the temple is called the Ji-shū Amida-ji, Amida 阿弥陀(Amitābha अमिताभ) would be a fair guess, but as the statue is not in the main temple it is more likely to depict Jizō-bosatsu　(地蔵菩薩 (क्षितिगर्भ Kṣitigarbha) who is often dressed up with red clothing by parents who have lost a child. There are, however, other instances of votive statues being dressed up in a similar fashion and since I could neither detect the monk’s staff nor the shaved head so typical of Jizō-bosatsu I cannot identify the statue with certainty.

What I can say is that the statue seems to have quite some visitors, probably inhabitants of the residential area in which the temple is located. The flowers seem rather fresh and the red hat, the bib and the doll that is being offered to the statue seem relatively clean. All in all, this shrine looks very Japanese. To my knowledge Buddhist deities are not adorned in this way on the continent.

I continued my search and just across the street I found a Shintō 神道shrine. On the shrine grounds there were two remarkably large shinboku 神木 (sacred trees) and a few medium size buildings. For the second time that day my attention was soon diverted to something else: a small shrine that was separated from the main shrine ground by a narrow street, but still appeared to be a part of it. This time I discovered something that was clearly an example of syncretism. In the shrine stood a small statue of Fudō myōō 不動明王 (Skt: Acalanātha अचलनाथ) , one of the Five Wisdom Kings in Esoteric Buddhism. As Esoteric Buddhism in South Asia was already heavily influenced by Hinduism and passed on to Japan only after being reinterpreted by Chinese and Korean monks it is unlikely that the worship of this deity would be approved by the first disciples of the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama सिद्धार्थ गौतम. As can be noted on the pictures below this Buddhist deity is enshrined in a way that combines several religious traditions. To the left and the right of the statue flowers are offered, which is Buddhist custom (in Shintō shrines branches of the sakaki 榊 tree are often preferred). However, displaying a porcelain vessel on this kind of offering stand (sanbō 三方) is a Shintoist custom. Much more obvious than that even are the pieces of paper (shide 紙垂) that are attached to a sacred rope (注連縄 shimenawa). These items refer to an ancient myth about the sun goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami 天照大神 in which she is drawn out of a cave and prevented from re-entering by means of a boulder and a rope in order to end the darkness on earth.

In short, this Buddhist deity is enshrined in a rather Shinoist manner. On the other hand, we must note that analysing the shrine thus would possibly seem farfetched to the people who maintain this shrine as their “religious reflexes” seem to consist of two parts they consider to be one.  

Finally, in the upper left corner of the building there is a picture, presumably of a deceased family member of the people who visit this shrine. This particular element of the shrine cannot be defined as being either Buddist or Shintoist as it is common to enshrine the ancestors in the Buddhist butsudan as wel as in the Shintoist soreisha 祖霊舎.