Weaving and Binding: Immigrant Gods and Female Immortals in Ancient Japan

Conclusion

193 Conclusion IN THIS BOOK we have examined several key moments in the formation of the Japanese Buddhist tradition, the Japanese royal cult, and popular worship of kami in the Japanese islands. We have seen that from at least the time of the Yamato ruler Wakateru down to the Heian period, both the royal cult and popular cultic life were characterized by tremendous ferment, as changes in the technological and material culture of the Japanese islands helped spur dramatic changes in political and cultic orientation both at the Yamato court and in the countryside. As continental cults and deities were inscribed into the landscape of the Japanese islands, they played a major role in the formation of even purportedly native religious practices. I have sought to provide a framework for explaining not only the presence of such continental cults and practices, but also the mechanisms of their transmission and their evolving role in the cultic life of the Japanese islands. In so doing, I have focused on a series of lineages and cultic centers that to a large degree shaped the cultic and political context in which the royal cult and the Buddhist tradition emerged. Most prominent in this regard have been immigrant lineages such as the Hata and Kawachi no Aya, whose ancestral deities were by definition karakami. Given their cultural and cultic prominence not just at court but across the Japanese islands, the cultic practices and deities of the Hata and other such immigrant groups represent perhaps the most immediate means for the transmission of continental cults to the Japanese islands. Crucially, however, we have also seen that even such supposedly xenophobic lineages as the Mononobe and Òtomo aggressively sought out technological and cultic forms from the Korean peninsula even as sacerdotal and service lineages such as the Kusakabe, Chiisakobe, Kamo, Wani, and Miwa incorporated continental rites and narrative tropes into their own ancestral cults. It is perhaps not surprising that the Nara period drew to a close just a few years before the court settled into a Hata stronghold in Yamashiro province and thereafter sought the protection of Hata-affiliated deities at the Kamo, Matsuno’o, Hiyoshi, and Fushimi Inari shrines. 194 Conclusion Location, Location, Location Because the kami were as often as not ancestors in premodern Japan, they frequently migrated along with their descendants. As immigrant lineages such as the Hata, which had a strong presence in the coastal regions along the Inland and Japan/Eastern seas, rose higher and higher at court, and as ancestral karakami grew in importance in the royal cult, the court increasingly absorbed continental rites and practices from local cultic centers throughout the domain. By tracking the movements of both lineages and cults—that is, paying attention to where cultic practice took place—we have been able to identify and trace the flow of both cults and technologies from the Korean peninsula to Japan’s coastal regions and into Yamato. When seen in this light, the influx of technologies, diseases, and deities from Kyûshû to Yamato becomes not only explicable, but also a significant indicator of the appeal that continental practices had for the insecure rulers and courtiers of the age. One further theme that has become readily apparent is the degree to which fear of disease and vengeful kami helped drive the development of both the royal and popular cults. Because both rulers and commoners during the period were frequently overawed by forces beyond their control, they frequently sought new methods to propitiate the spirits that were thought to visit their wrath upon the human realm. All of this suggests several conclusions not only about the nature of religion in the Japanese islands, but also about the means by which we approach the study of the Nara and Heian periods. I have throughout this book sought to highlight the importance of an integrated approach to the religion of this era that takes into account not only political maneuverings at the court, but also the important developments in the material culture and technological capabilities of the age. This approach stems from a belief that in many ways the expansion of road networks or the diffusion of sericulture may have had a greater impact upon the way spirits were worshipped than the edicts promulgated by the court. In a similar vein, once we see the royal cult as being in constant interaction with local cults across the Japanese islands, the importance of understanding the cults, deities, and lineages in such remote...