Shinbutsu bunri

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A Buddhist pagoda (a Yakushi-dō (薬師堂) at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū shrine in Kamakura before the shinbutsu bunri

The term shinbutsu bunri (神仏分離?) in Japanese indicates the forbidding by law of the amalgamation of kami and buddhas made during the Meiji Restoration. It also indicates the effort made by the Japanese government to create a clear division between native kami beliefs and Buddhism on one side, and Buddhist temples and shrines on the other. Until the end of Edo period, local kami beliefs and Buddhism were intimately connected in what was called shinbutsu shūgō (神仏習合), up to the point that even the same buildings were used as both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples.

The tendency to oppose Buddhism can be seen already during the early modern era as a nationalistic reaction to its spreading[1] but the term usually indicates the anti-Buddhist movement that, from the middle of the Edo period onwards, accompanied Confucianism, the study of ancient Japanese literature and culture (kokugaku), and Shinto nationalism,[2] all movements with reasons to oppose Buddhism. In a narrower sense, shinbutsu bunri is the policy of separation of Shinto and Buddhism pursued by the new Meiji government with the Kami and Buddhas Separation Order (神仏判然令 Shinbutsu Hanzenrei?). This last event is of particular historical importance, partly because it triggered the haibutsu kishaku, a violent anti-Buddhist movement which in the final years of the Tokugawa shogunate and during the Meiji Restoration caused the forcible closure of thousands of temples, the confiscation of their land, the forced return to lay life of monks, and the destruction of books, statues and other Buddhist property.[2][3] Even Buddhist bronze bells were melted to make cannons.[2] After a short period in which it enjoyed popular favor, the process of separation of Buddhas and kami however stalled and is still only partially completed: even today any major Buddhist temple has a small shrine dedicated to its Shinto tutelary kami, and vice-versa Buddhist figures (e.g. goddess Kannon) are revered in Shinto shrines.[4] If the policy failed in its short-term aims and was ultimately abandoned, it was successful in the long term in creating a new religious status quo in which Shinto and Buddhism were perceived as different, independent and equal in standing.

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[edit] Shinbutsu bunri in the early modern age

The shinbutsu bunri, and the haibutsu kishaku it tended to cause, in the early modern age were a phenomenon encountered mostly in domains where anti-Buddhist Confucianism was strong, as the Okayama, Mito, and Yodo Domains. For example, in the 1660s Tokugawa Mitsukuni in Mito forcibly closed a thousand temples and ordered the building of one shrine per village.[5]

[edit] Meiji era's Shinbutsu bunri and its causes

Anti-Buddhist feelings had been building up during the last two centuries of the Tokugawa period, and several groups had reasons to oppose Buddhism. The shinbutsu bunri was seen by the new government as a way to permanently weaken Buddhism and lessen its immense economic and social power. At the same time, it was supposed to give Shinto and its cult of the Emperor time to grow, while prodding the Japanese's national pride. The anti-Buddhist movement was led by Confucian, Neo-Confucian, Shinto, and Kokugaku scholars like Toju Nakae, Kumazawa Banzan, Yamaga Sokō, Itō Jinsai, Ogyū Sorai, Norinaga Motoori, and Hirata Atsutane.[6] Because motives were different and often in contrast, there was no political unity among them. In fact, while there were modernizers, criticism often stemmed from a feudalistic mentality or from an emotional and simplistic nationalism.[6]

[edit] The Tokugawa and the danka system

The relationship between Buddhism and the Tokugawa state had been complex. Although the shogunate's official philosophy was lay Neo-Confucianism,[7] Buddhism had become an integral part of the state as a consequence of the Tokugawas' anti-Christian policy. To stop the propagation of Christianity, they had introduced the danka system, which obliged families to affiliate themselves with a Buddhist temple.[8] In return, this would certify with a so-called terauke that they were not Christian. Without a terauke, leading a normal life in Tokugawa Japan was impossible.[8] Families had by law several obligations towards Buddhist institutions, among them monetary donations to their temple of affiliation.[8] Because there were some 100,000 temples in a country of 30 million people, on average 300 persons had to support a temple, so the burden was considerable.[9] This caused widespread discontent and ultimately led to a backlash. The fact that Buddhism was so deeply involved with the shoguns also meant that it had become one of its symbols and an enemy of all those who wanted the shogunate's fall. All these parties wanted to see Buddhism cut down to size, and the strengthening of Shinto was considered a good way to achieve the goal.

[edit] Neo-Confucianism

Neo-Confucian thought in Japan emphasized the use of reason and was essentially humanistic; it therefore rejected Buddhism as superstition.[7] It also emphasized loyalty to the emperor and was fiercely xenophobic[7]. Confucian anti-Buddhism was the cause for example of haibutsu kishaku episodes in the Aizu, Okayama and Mito domains during the early modern era.[3] Some of the leaders of the Neo-Confucian movement were former Buddhist priests. Fujiwara Seika, Hayashi Razan, and Yamazaki Ansai were all former Rinzai priests.[6]

[edit] Kokugaku

Kokugaku was a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period. Kokugaku scholars tended to relativize the study of Chinese and Buddhist texts and favored philological research into the early Japanese classics. Kokugaku scholars criticized the repressive moralizing of Confucian thinkers, and tried to re-establish Japanese culture before the influx of foreign modes of thought and behavior. One of its most influential exponents was scholar Norinaga Motoori.

In the mid-nineteenth century, kokugaku students became involved in the fight against the shogunate and in favor of the emperor.[10] They claimed that ancient Japanese documents said the emperor alone was divinely authorized to rule Japan.[10]

[edit] Modernizers

Modernizers stressed the unscientific character of Buddhism and the drain it was for the national economy.[2]

[edit] The separation

The Restoration government tried to make a clear distinction between Buddhism and Shinto with a series of edicts. This was done in several stages. A first order issued by the Jingijimuka on April 1868 ordered the defrocking of shasō and bettō (shrine monks performing Buddhist rites at Shinto shrines).[1][11]

A few days later, the Daijōkan banned the application of Buddhist terminology such as gongen to Japanese kami and the veneration of Buddhist statues in shrines.[1]

The third stage consisted of the prohibition against applying the Buddhist term Daibosatsu (Great Bodhisattva) to the syncretic kami Hachiman at the Iwashimizu Hachiman-gū and Usa Hachiman-gū shrines.[1]

In the fourth and final stage, all the defrocked bettō and shasō were told to become "shrine priests" (kannushi) and return to their shrines.[1] Also, monks of the Nichiren sect were told not to refer to some deities as kami.[1]

[edit] Consequences of the Separation Policy

The campaign ultimately failed to destroy Buddhism's influence on the Japanese, who still needed funerals, graves and ancestral rites,[12] all services traditionally provided by Buddhism. The state's first attempt to influence religious life therefore resulted in failure.[13] In 1873 the government admitted that the effort to elevate Shinto above Buddhism had failed.[11]　

The Meiji government's policies however caused the diffusion of the idea that Shinto was the true religion of the Japanese, finally revealed after remaining for a long time hidden behind Buddhism.[4] In recent years, however, many historians have come to believe that the syncretism of kami and buddhas was just as authentically Japanese.[4]

The Japanese government was also successful in creating the impression that Shinto and Buddhism in Japan are completely independent religions. Most Japanese today are unaware that some of their customary religious practices cannot be understood outside the context of the syncretism of kami and Buddhas.[14] In discussing some Japanese Buddhist temples dedicated to the cult of kami Inari, Shinto scholar Karen Smyers comments:

Recent scholarship has shown the term [Shinto] to be highly problematic – its current content is largely a political construction of the Meiji period. [...] The surprise of many of my informants regarding the existence of Buddhist Inari temples shows the success of the government's attempt to create separate conceptual categories regarding sites and certain identities, although practice remains multiple and nonexclusive.[15]

In any case, in less than two decades Buddhism had not only had recovered, but had modernized itself, becoming once more a significant force.[2] This led to the coexistence of Shinto and Buddhism as we see it today.[8]

[edit] Haibutsu kishaku

Main article: Haibutsu kishaku

Although the government's edicts didn't explicitly order the closing of temples, the destruction of Buddhist property and the defrocking of Buddhist priests and nuns, they were often interpreted as implying it, and the haibutsu kishaku movement soon spread to the entire country with tragic consequences.[1] A substantial part of the population that had felt financially exploited by the danka system (檀家制度 danka seido?) participated in the movement. This system, made mandatory by the Tokugawa in order to halt the spread of Christianity, obliged all families to be affiliated to and support a Buddhist temple.[8]

The shinbutsu bunri policy was itself the direct cause of serious damage to important cultural properties. Because mixing the two religions was now forbidden, shrines and temples had to give away some of their treasures, thus damaging the integrity of their cultural heritage and decreasing the historical and economic value of their properties.[16] For example, Kamakura's Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's giant Niō (仁王?) (the two wooden wardens usually found at the sides of a temple's entrance), being objects of Buddhist worship and therefore illegal where they were, were sold to Jufuku-ji, where they still are.[17] The shrine also had to destroy Buddhism-related buildings, for example its tahōtō tower, its midō (御堂?), and its shichidō garan (伽藍?).[16] Many Buddhist temples were simply closed, like Zenkō-ji, to which the now-independent Meigetsu-in used to belong.

Another consequence of the policy was the creation of so-called "invented traditions".[18] To avoid the destruction of material illegal under the new rules, Shinto and Buddhist priests invented traditions, genealogies and other information that justified its presence.[18] Later, awareness of their origin was often lost, causing considerable confusion among historians.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Shinbutsu Bunri .
  2. ^ a b c d e Stone, Review of Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan .
  3. ^ a b Haibutsukishaku .
  4. ^ a b c Scheid, Grundbegriffe, Shinto .
  5. ^ Bocking, "Shinbutsu Bunri"
  6. ^ a b c Tamura, The Birth of the Japanese nation, pp. 131–32 .
  7. ^ a b c Loftus, Confucianism in the Edo (Tokugawa) Period .
  8. ^ a b c d e Watt, Review of Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan .
  9. ^ Hur, The Rise of Funerary Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan .
  10. ^ a b The Kokugaku (Native Studies) School.
  11. ^ a b Burkman, The Urakami Incidents and the Struggle for Religious Toleration in Early Meiji Japan, p. 175 .
  12. ^ Hardacre (1986), p. 42 .
  13. ^ Hardacre (1986), p. 43 .
  14. ^ Grapard (1984), p. 246 .
  15. ^ Smyers, p. 219 .
  16. ^ a b Kamakura Official Textbook for Culture and Tourism (「鎌倉観光文化検定公式テキストブック」?). (Japanese)
  17. ^ Iso, Kamakura. Fact and Legend, p. 172 .
  18. ^ a b Smyers (1999), pp. 26–27 .

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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