Fujii Masao

I finished a book by Fujii Masao about the tendency in Japanese religion to pray for worldly benefits. Fujii presents and analyses a lot of interesting graphs and other data concerning Japanese religion, like the percentage of followers per Buddhist sect, the percentage of people who call themselves believers, the percentage of people praying in front of a kamidana or butsudan etc. Unfortunately, the most recent data are from more than twenty years ago so it is likely that a thing or two has changed by now, but the data do offer an insight on the post-war period.

He remarks that there is a group of people who state that they do not believe, but on the other hand feel religious feelings are important (「宗教心は大切である」) . Fujii claims that this phenomenon should be called “alienation from religious organisations” (教団離れ kyōdan-banare) rather than “alienation from religion” (宗教離れ shūkyō-banare).

One would be inclined to explain the a higher percentage of believers among senior citizens by saying that people used to be more religious in the past and that the only ones left from that period are the elderly. Fujii however uses data from 1973 and 1983 to show that people become more religious over the years. In other words: a substantial number of unreligious people who were about 50 years old in 1973 claimed to be religious ten years later. This could be explained by people’s tendency to think more about death and the afterlife as they grow older. Oddly, the evolution of the belief in fortune-telling is exactly the opposite.

Fujii also pays a lot of attention to the difference between incantation (呪術 jujutsu) and religion (宗教 shūkyō). The former, he claims, is a way to “use” deities as a means to achieve a worldly goal, while the latter is not. I personally think it is somewhat farfetched the make one the opposite of the other. Incantations are directed to deities, so I see no reason why this would not qualify as religion. Later on, he insinuates that someone who does not believe, but visits a shintō shrine can hardly be called “religious”. I also have to disagree here. He seems to narrow “religion” down to “faith” in this particular instance.

Within Buddhism Fujii sees two major attitudes towards the praying for worldly benefits:

1. If people are tied down by ropes, then becoming enlightened is to be freed from these ropes. Praying for worldly benefits would only make the ropes thicker.

2. To show people the truth, it may be necessary to show people worldly benefits as a means to convince them (方便 hōben).

Fujii ends somewhat pessimistically claiming that people have lost the connection with nature and therefore religion. Both religion and science promise happiness to their followers and the latter one seems to be winning. Some people however find their happiness with new religions (this was particularly true for the time when this book was written) and others in sex or alcohol as a substitute for the traditional religion.

Sources:

Fujii, Masao (藤井正雄). Nihon-jin to Gense Riyaku Shinkō (日本人と現世利益信仰). Tokyo: Kōdansha (講談社), 1986.