The World of Shinto: Reflections of a Shinto Priest by Sonoda Minoru
Published by the International Shinto Foundation, 2002 (36 pages)
This booklet is published by the well-funded International Shinto Foundation, an independent organisation with a mission to explain Shinto to the outside world. Here the thinking of the faith is revealed through the personal musings of an influential figure who is not only the chief priest at Chichibu Shrine but a professor emeritus at Kyoto University.
The book has four short chapters. That on The Shrine covers the notion of kami, the function of matsuri (festivals), and the interconnectedness of life. There follows discussion of the word ‘Shinto’ arising out of its earliest use in the Nihon shoki (720), while the chapter on The Continuity of Life deals mainly with the afterlife. Curiously given the title of the book, this is almost entirely dominated by Buddhism as we learn of the comfort given by the Pure Land and Amida. One can’t help feeling that anyone unfamiliar with the syncretic history of Shinto would be pretty confused by this, though the writing does help illumine Japanese attitudes.
The final chapter, ‘A Misleading Image’, is given over to a robust defense of Japan’s treatment of the ‘heroes’ who died fighting for their country in World War Two. This is clearly about Yasukuni, though the word is left unmentioned as if it were taboo. Despite the care taken to arouse sympathy for Japanese war dead by stressing the purity of motive of such fighters as the kamikaze, there’s not a single word – let alone a paragraph or two – about the victims of Japan’s war record. The one-sidedness is irksome.
Personally I had warmed to the author in the opening chapters, where he writes of the ties of nature and the community. Yet by the end the author leaves one with a sense of insularity and nationalism. What is it about Shinto that makes it so concerned with Self? Where is the universalism? The paradigm Sonoda lays out extends from family to village to nation, but stops short of embracing the world at large.
‘Shinto contains an ultimate humanism and the principles for the active mutualisation of man and nature,’ writes Umeda Yoshiimi, Director General of the International Shinto Foundation, in the Foreword to the book. The opening chapters certainly demonstrate this. The last chapter doesn’t. Rather than a tool of patriotism, Shinto has within it the possibilities of universalism, in keeping with the demands of a global age. The author rightly calls for a change of thinking in terms of the environment. He might consider a change of thinking too in terms of embracing the Other.
Etymologically a nation is an enlarged family. And the world is composed of a whole spectrum of nations. That what makes the beauty of the world. Why would you force Shinto to pretend to universalism. Shinto is a national religion and the expression of a race. Other races may hold their own animist traditions. I am thinking about ancient Greece. Especially pre-Socratic. Or African animism though not as developped and refined as european and asians traditions. Shinto sharing elements with foreign traditions such as vedic scriptures do not change the fact that it beholds a unique character of japaneseness.
It’s interesting that your examples are very backward looking. On the other hand, I’m looking forward to a time when the whole concept of nation and separation will be seen as childish and primitive. Clinging on to what differentiates us from others is not going to be of much help in the coming environmental and global crisis.
It is frequent to hear nowadays about how old-fashioned are nation states and how universalism is so progressive. Yet universalist ideologies are nothing new and caused a lot of harm through history. It is because white settlers were driven by ideas of universality (christianism, human rights, socialism) that Africa is in such a catastrophic state today. By copy pasting western ideologies to african people, creating artificial States and imposing western political structure to people who were complete strangers to it, they created the basis of that ever lasting chaos. We’re still paying the price of this in 2016.
Ethno-differentialists like Marechal Lyautey were opposed to this foolish methods and tried to rectify the western mess. Unfortunately they were too few to invert the process.
In nations lies true diversity. Nations are part of the natural organisation of the world. Nations are bio-diversity. They are organic structures. Just like there is Lions and Pandas there is Celts and Hans. Cherokees and japanese. Nigerians and semites. There is no such a thing as “Human”. There are “Humans”. Humanity are large family composed of different people which aren’t commutable pieces. Asians aren’t europeans. Europeans aren’t blacks. To negate the differences between ethnic groups can only lead to more misconception, failure and disorder.
We can learn from each other but always in respect of each people’s right to keep their identity and national sovereignty.
You would be amazed to see how close were ancient greeks to Shinto in their idea of the Cosmos and the relation between man and nature. In their aesthetics. In it’s most archaic forms you will find equivalents to Tamagaki and Shinden. You’ll find that doric pillars were originally trees. Japan never broke with it’s antiquity and modern Japan is the very manifestation of this. We Europeans lost our antique treasures which are now studied in universities by people who see it as ruins and don’t understand them.
Far right groups in Japan are much more logical and coherent in understanding Shinto than you may think. How are you personally dealing with the fact that the very core of Shinto is ancestor, soil, and emperor worship ? It is not your ancestors, not your soil, not your emperor. So the Shinto you like is a version of shinto you created. But definitely not the authentic form of it. If you want to innovate and reform then youd better create your own religion.
Everything westerners like in Japan : their sense of harmony. Order. Cohesion. Is the product of a conservative society. They respect their tradition. They respect their ancestor. They respect their flag. They respect hierarchy which is the trait of all traditional societies. So why in the world would you force them to change and suits your view ?
You want to reform Shinto and innovate ? But who the hell are you ?
Let the japanese alone and decide. If they feel it is better for them to not open their borders, it’s their right.
White people stay apart.
It’s interesting that white racialists and right-wing fanatics tend to support Shinto with die-hard support because it embodies the very values that they themselves support. They are also quick to stoop to gratuitous rudeness too to cover the paucity of their arguments and their desperation at the way history is flowing against them. It’s indicative of the bully-boy tactics of the extreme right (Donald Trump being a case in point, who doubtless would use very similar arguments to those above). By way of a riposte, please read the thoughtful and considered essay by Megan Manson in her posting for the neo-pagan collective at the following link: https://themirrorbook.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/is-shinto-truly-a-religion-for-all/#respond
“He might consider a change of thinking too in terms of embracing the Other.”
The japanese and asians in general are pragmatic people. Their cultural foundations making them genuinely insensitive to the western “melting-pot propaganda”. They want to keep their identity and you refuse to respect that. It is not about “refusing to embrace” but being able to distinguish apples from oranges.
What you preach for is not love. It is political propaganda. Shinto cultivates the sense of harmony. So is japanese social order. And the roots of it lies in japaneseness. This is absolutely obvious to anyone having some sense of observation.
The question is not to know if Shinto have the power to embrace foreign people. Like the european priest said “Toriis are open to everyone”. The question is if it should. And it shouldn’t. Free to you and me to inspire ourselves from Shinto elements. But this religion as a whole is obviously ethnic-centered. Having at its very core Their soil and Their divine emperor.