Tag: Xu Fu

Japan by Train 29: Kagoshima

April 10, 2023 / John D. / 0 Comments

This is part of an ongoing series about travelling the length of Japan by train, and consists of passages with a Shinto or spiritual flavour. They are extracted from a longer book version due to be published by Stone Bridge in January 2024.

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Amaterasu statue in Ise Museum
(All photos by J. Dougill)

For those so inclined, Japanese mythology is fascinating. The stories are the stuff of fantasy, yet the myths continue to sustain the ruling class by fostering mystique about heavenly origins. Emperor Hirohito may have renounced divinity at the end of WW2, but the coronation of the present emperor included a rite symbolising descent from the sun goddess (Amaterasu). The country’s premier shrine, Ise Jingu, still honours her as ancestor of the imperial family.

The myth of heavenly descent is known as Tenson Korin. It tells of how the sun goddess instructed her grandson to descend to earth, and how he touched down on a mountain peak called Mt Takachiho in southern Kyushu. This has long puzzled me. It is generally assumed that the early rulers of Japan, the Yamato clan, emigrated from the Korean peninsula. If that is the case, then surely they would ‘descend’ onto a mountain in northern Kyushu. Why should Mt Takachiho be singled out for this momentous event?

Faced with this puzzle, I concocted my own theory. It was sparked by the arrival of the first Europeans to Japan, for three Portuguese traders were caught in a storm while travelling along the coast of China, and their badly damaged ship was swept along by the Kuroshio Current to the Japanese island of Tanegashima. The same current flows towards Kinko Bay, in which Kagoshima is situated, and at the end of the bay Mt Takachiho is visible.

Because of the current, there are many links between coastal China and southern Kyushu. Japan’s earliest rice cultivation, imported from China, is found here, and archeologists have unearthed skeletons from around this time resembling those of Jiangsu Province. In addition, early myths about Amaterasu and silk weaving are similar to those of the Yangtze River delta.

At this point enter Xu Fu, a Chinese alchemist. According to accounts, he was sent by China’s first emperor in search of an elixir for immortality. The first mission ended in failure, following which around 210 BC he was granted sixty large boats, together with soldiers, crew and 3000 boys and girls equipped with various skills, This time he never returned, and in later years it was assumed that he had reached Japan. How intriguing, I thought. Could the Kuroshio Current have taken Xu Fu’s armada to the foot of Mt Takachiho? Could he be the inspiration for the heavenly descent?

Not far from Mt Takachiho lies the town of Miyazaki and access to the Inland Sea. This prompts thought of the route of conquest taken by the Yamato clan, who migrated from Kyushu to the Nara basin. The mythology related in Japan’s earliest written works tell how Emperor Jimmu, Japan’s legendary first emperor, led the expedition.

Kashihara Shrine picture book story of Jimmu: here he sets out on his expedition

Now here is a very odd ‘coincidence’. If you travel to the small town of Shingu on the Kii Peninsula, there are sites associated with the arrivals by sea of both Jimmu and Xu Fu. Just south of the town is a beach where Emperor Jimmu supposedly landed. And in the town itself is a creek where Xu Fu is said to have arrived. In Japanese Xu Fu is known as Jofuku, and in Jofuku Park is a grave where the Chinese alchemist is allegedly buried.

Chinese style gate at the entrance to Jofuku Park in which is supposedly the grave of Xu Fu, aka Jofuku

The legends of Xu Fu and Jimmu both date from early Yayoi times, when Japan underwent great cultural change. Could it be in fact that the two legendary figures were modelled on the same person? It would mean that Japan’s imperial ancestors came from China in search of immortality, landed beneath Mt Takachiho, made their way across the Inland Sea to Shingu, then proceeded overland to Yamato in the Nara Basin.

The more I thought about my idea, the more convincing it seemed. But when I tried it out on specialists in mythology, I found little support. Alas and alack, there Is nothing new under the sun, and I discovered one day that a Japanese professor by the name of Ino Okifu had come up with the very same theory. Wikipedia claims the idea has been discredited, though it offers no explanation why, and as far as I am concerned the theory remains a tantalising possibility. To the world at large Kagoshima may be a volcanic city where the Last Samurai died, but to me it is a gateway to the mythological past.

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For more on the same subject, see postings for the China connection (Parts 1-3) by starting here.

The China connection (3)

April 8, 2020 / John D. / 0 Comments

Ino Okifu
It was after speculating about Jofuku and Jimmu that I was startled to find, courtesy of Wikipedia, that I was by no means the first to think that their stories may have overlapped. It turns out that a scholar named Ino Okifu had come to a similar conclusion, though the Wikipedia page goes on to say that his theory of Jimmu being based on Xu Fu (Jofuku) has been rebutted.

Xu Fu statue in Weihai, Shandong (Wikicommons)

It seems Ino Okifu was a Waseda University student, who spent much of his life abroad and as a historian was concerned about the atrocities committed by the Japanese in WW2. It fuelled a desire to disprove the notion of divinity surrounding the imperial line. His theory presumed that Xu Fu was a powerful figure with medical expertise, who fell out with Emperor Qin and was sent on a fool’s errand in quest of mythical Panglai (an island paradise known as Horai in Japan). Fearing that he would be executed on his return, Xu Fu chose to settle in Japan instead, and amongst the advanced knowledge that he introduced were elements of Taoism, which shaped the formation of early Shinto.

Artist’s impression of the invading warrior who became Japan’s first emperor known as Jimmu

If Ino Okifu had a vested interest in presenting his theory, then so did his detractors in refuting it. They included conservatives who wished to maintain the notion of Japanese uniqueness, as well as nationalists eager to preserve the mystery surrounding the emperor’s origins. (Even today imperial graves remain off-limits to archaeologists.)

While it is clear there were close ties between Kyushu and Korea in ancient times, it is less clear how much direct influence China had on Japan, particularly in the development of rice culture. The Kokugakuin Encyclopedia of Shinto gives an indication of the complexity…

It is not clear to what extent immigrants from China contributed to the development of rice cultivation culture, or even before that whether that foundation we could call the East Asian cultural sphere had extended as far as Japan. However, as concerns customs related to rice cultivation, it can be assumed that was a certain degree of commonality from the start throughout East Asia in general. Rather than saying that agricultural rituals or ancestor veneration practices (sosen sūhai) related to cultivation were influenced by imported cultural elements, it is better to think of them as a common denominator throughout the East Asian cultural sphere. It is extremely difficult to discuss questions of influence in the earliest periods.

East China showing coastal links with Kyushu
(courtesy Australian National University)

Cross currents
Given the above, the situation is evidently unclear. Nonetheless there are links with China which give pause for thought. DNA testing of Japanese rice from 2200 years ago, just when Xu Fu came to Japan, show the origin to be China’s Yangtze Delta (see here). It should be noted too that rice arrived in Miyazaki relatively early compared to the rest of Japan.

Yayoi skeletons from the BC period in Kyushu resemble those of China’s Jiangsu Province and differ from the Kumaso of south-east Kyushu and the Korean type of northern Kyushu. Though Japanese language origins are a controversial area, linguists such as Christopher Beckwith (2004) maintain that the ‘the original homeland of the speakers of the Japanese-Koguryo language may have been close to South China.’

Model of a Yayoi woman at National History of Science

It is widely acknowledged that the rituals of purification and cleansing with which Shinto is concerned originated in Taoism. What’s more, such aspects as turtle shell divination, which involved roasting and ‘reading’ the cracks, was an imported court custom, and the Qin emperors had a jade royal seal to go along with their bronze mirrors and swords as a show of authority. (Japan’s regalia, along with a mirror and sword, includes a magatama jewel made of jade, which in China signified inner beauty and immortality.)

A charmed sword discovered in the mausoleum of the Qin Dynasty, which has a history of 2200 years without accumulating rust.

Much of Japanese mythology, such as the weaving princess, shows clear links with southern Chinese agricultural myths, and Chinese historical records mention expeditions to Japan. Folk memory too suggested ties, and as late as the 16th century the missionary scholar Joao Rodriques in This Island of Japon claimed that Hyuga (modern Miyazaki) was the first part of Japan to be settled, notably by people from Fukien and Chekiang Provinces (modern Fujian and Zhejiang). ‘The people were cast up there by a storm, as still happens even now,’ he wrote, bringing the Kuroshio current to mind once again.

Model of a Yayoi ritual at Yoshinogari in northern Kyushu

Mythology by its very nature is what you make of it, and the intermingling of early Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures cannot be easily unpicked. Even the very identity of the Yayoi people is uncertain. Let us end then with a quotation from Wikipedia, which states with references that, “The most popular theory is that they [the Yayoi] were the people who brought wet rice cultivation to Japan from the Korean peninsula and Jiangnan near the Yangtze River Delta in ancient China. This is supported by archeological researches and bones found in modern southeastern China.”

So was Jofuku a prototype for Jimmu? It seems not implausible that some folk memory of him was interwoven with later myths of invading forces. Perhaps it’s not so far-fetched as it might at first seem. After all, how else would one explain divine descent onto Mt Takachiho?

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For Part One of this series click here, and for Part Two here.

Model of clan leader and retinue at Yoshinogari in northern Kyushu, indicative of the advance in civilisation that Yayoi Japan represented. Did folk memory conflate the arrival of Xu Fu with the conquest of Jimmu to explain the cultural advance?

World Heritage (China connection 1)

March 16, 2020 / John D. / 2 Comments

Entrance to Asuka Jinja, with Mt Horai behind

Shingu Town in the Kumano region is well worth visiting, not the least because it is home to the splendid Hayatama Shrine, one of the three Kumano Great Shrines. Even more impressive is the striking Kamikura Shrine, squeezed beneath a boulder on top of a hill. Both are part of the Kii Peninsula World Heritage Site.

Green Shinto has previously covered the Shingu shrines as part of the research for the (recently reissued) Tuttle book, Japan’s World Heritage Sites. It was with some astonishment therefore that on a recent visit to Shingu I found a leaflet promoting the World Heritage Site of Asuka Shrine. Eh? How could this be? I knew I had visited all the sites mentioned in the Unesco registration, and I also knew I had done the rounds of Shingu before.

A visit to the shrine, some ten minutes walk from the JR station, soon solved the mystery. After the initial registration of the World Heritage Site in 2004, the shrine lobbied to be included because of its ancient roots and historical significance. Four years ago the request was granted and the shrine was added to the Unesco listing. (It has now also been added to the Green Shinto listing of World Heritage shrines.)

Asuka Shrine’s recognition had much to do with its spiritual importance for the syncretic Kumano faith of medieval times. As Asuka-oji, it had been the first stop for pilgrims to pray on the route from Hayatama Shrine to Nachi, for it was said the kami that had first descended on the Kamikura rock had next descended here.

Items of interest around the shrine included a memorial stone saying the legendary Emperor Jimmu had passed by on his way to Yamato during his journey of conquest . Whether or not the putative founding emperor ever existed is open to doubt, but more about that in a subsequent post.

Jofuku Shrine at Asuka Jinja, next to the Worship Hall and close to the river estuary where the Chinese expedititon supposed landed

Jofuku (Chinese Xu Fu)
The shrine also has a close connection with another legendary figure – the Chinese Xu Fu, known in Japan as Jofuku. According to tradition, Jofuku was the first Chinese to visit Japan, sometime in the early centuries BC, and thereby hangs an interesting story…

The legend of Xu Fu was first recorded in a Chinese document written in the Han Era around 2000 years ago. The events took place some 200 years or more before that, during the reign of the first Qin emperor. He wanted to live forever, and the scholarly Xu Fu told him there was an elixir on the easterly Isles of the Immortals (Horai san in Japanese) which could make him free from illness and death. He asked for permission to sail there, and was granted three thousand boys and girls to accompany him, together with a hundred workmen.

After that, according to the Chinese history text, Xu Fu arrived at an island with a wide plain and marsh, where he stayed and became king of the area. Where it was exactly was not specified, but in Japan there are several places with claims to being his final destination. Shingu is prominent among them.

The shrine literature suggests that having landed in Kumano, Xu Fu was satisfied he’d found his paradise in the warm Kumano climate and decided to stay rather than return to a strife-torn China. He even found an elixir in the form of the Tendai Uyaku plant (a member of the camphor family). After settling down in Kumano for the rest of his life, Xu Fu was transformed into Jofuku.

The hill behind the shrine is known as Mt Horai in honour of the Isles of the Immortals, and Buddhist images of kami have been found there, indicative of the strongly syncretic nature of Kumano spirituality. Next to the hill is the estuary of the Kumano River, and a stone monument can be found there marking the alleged spot where Jofuku’s expedition landed. Asuka also holds a small shrine dedicated to the Chinese adventurer (pic above).

Jofuku Park
A few minutes walk away, Shingu City have set up a Jofuku Park in the middle of which is the supposed site of his grave. The earliest record of this is in an early 18th century painting. (It’s reminiscent of the grave of King Arthur in Glastonbury, ‘discovered’ by medieval monks in the hopes of increased fame and pilgrimage.)

Jofuku Park was set up in 1994, ostensibly to promote closer friendship with China while cashing in on Chinese tourism. Since Jofuku was a Daoist, the number plays a special role. Around Jofuku’s burial place are the graves of seven of his followers. In the pond are seven carp, the walkway across the pond has seven markers, one for each of the Seven Virtues, and along the walled sides are seven bushy plants – the Tendai Uyaku which Jofuku took to be the elixir for which he had been in quest.

Tendai Uyaku plants, said by modern science to have medicinal qualities

According to tradition, Jofuku was a Culture Hero who introduced all kinds of skills to the area, ranging from farming and paper-making to boat-building and whaling. Interestingly, this came at a crucial moment for Japan, when it was moving from the Jomon to the Yayoi Era with significant changes to its culture and racial heritage. This has caused speculation as to whether Jofuku was a contributory figure, or simply a myth. (In fact evidence for Xu Fu being a real person came to light in 1982 when a village with his name was discovered in China, and there are several Xu Fu study groups there.)