Yushima Seido

(Neo-)Confucian philosophy had a strong influence on Japanese education and society in general during the Edo period (filial piety, bushido 武士道 e.d.). However, the purely religious elements of Confucianism as seen in numerous temples in mainland China and Taiwan are very rare in Japan. The first Confucianist temple in Edo, the Sensei-den 先聖殿, was built in the present Ueno Park in 1632. In 1690, a bigger temple was built in Yushima, hence its name Yushima Seidō 湯島聖堂. It burned down several times and was reconstructed in 1799, but the building did not survive the 1923 Earthquake. It was rebuilt in the following decades, which explains the rather modern overall look.

According to the temple’s leaflet, this enormous statue, measuring almost 460 cm, is the biggest statue of Confucius (孔子Chinese: Kǒngzǐ, Japanese: Kōshi) in the world. It was a gift from the Taiwanese Lion’s Club in 1975.

Students come to the mail hall to pray for good results and lucky charms are sold at a very high price. In spite of the building being used for actual religious purposes to a certain extent I could not shake the feeling I was visiting a museum, rather than a temple. One has to pay an entrance fee (chains prevent visitors from entering without passing by the reception) and everything inside the main hall has a sign describing the item in a museum-like fashion. This is also the case for the offerings that look rather artificial, like a reconstruction by museum staff as it were, rather than genuine offers by believers (I even suspect the fruit offerings were made out of plastic).

A statue of a seated Confucius.

On this shelf two ihai (commemorative tablets) are enshrined. The left one is dedicated to Mencius (孟子Chinese: Mèngzǐ, Japanse: Mōshi) and the right one to Zēngzǐ (曾子 Japanese: Sōshi). In Japan ihai are most commonly found in butsudan to remember (worship?) the ancestors as a whole, but also individually. One can hardly call ancestor worship the essence of the teachings of the historical Buddha, but it is a very important part of the teachings of Confucius. Therefore, this practice has to be seen as a Chinese religious layer on top of the Buddhist teachings when they were introduced to the Japanese archipelago.  

Ebisu

A statue of Ebisu 恵比寿 with a small offertory box (賽銭箱 saisen-bako) in front of it near Ebisu station.

Kasuga-jinja 春日神社 in Ebisu with Ame no ko yane no Mikoto 天児屋根命 being the enshrined deity.

As one might have expected, there is also a shrine called Ebisu-jinja 恵比寿神社 in Ebisu.

An April day in Zōshigaya

Kodomo no hi 子供の日 (Children's Day) is celebrated on the fifth of May, but the carp-shaped windsocks (鯉幟 koinobori) were already hanging in the wind in April.

A Buddha statue with a hishaku 柄杓 (ladle) and some flower offerings near the Hōmyō-ji 法明寺. I am not sure what the purpose of the hishaku is in this particular instance, but I have seen other similar statues were visitors were expected to poor some water on the statue before praying.

A small hokora 祠 in a residential area.

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.