Christianity Made in Japan: A Study of Indigenous Movements

Chapter 7. Japanese Christians and the World of the Dead

129 CHAPTER SEVEN Japanese Christians and the World of the Dead T HE TRANSPLANTATION OF Western Christianity to Japan over the past century has involved a fundamental clash between the missionary message and the religious consciousness and values of most Japanese. This is particularly apparent in relation to the indigenous beliefs and practices related to ancestors and the spirits of the dead. This area of dif³culty is not unique to the missionary experience in Japan, but something missionaries have struggled with repeatedly throughout Asia and Africa. Some familiarity with these traditional beliefs and practices is required in order to appreciate the nature of the clash that has occurred in the Protestant missionary encounter with Japan. Following a brief introduction to this native tradition and the dominant Protestant missionary response, this chapter will examine how Japanese CHRISTIANITY MADE IN JAPAN 130 Christians, particularly those belonging to the independent and indigenous movements, have reinterpreted the Bible in a manner that more effectively addresses Japanese religious and cultural concerns. THE PLACE OF ANCESTORS AND SPIRIT BELIEF IN JAPANESE CULTURE In the context of Japan, the constellation of beliefs and practices associated with ancestors and the world of the dead is commonly referred to as folk religion. The somewhat ill-de³ned folk religious tradition represents the undercurrent of Japanese consciousness that continually reappears and reshapes other religious traditions. In fact, Hori Ichirõ refers to folk religion as the comparatively stable “substructure” of Japanese religion.1 Miyake Hitoshi elaborates on the point: It is within the frame of reference provided by folk religion that the organized religions have made their way into Japanese society. Only as they accommodated themselves to folk religion and its implicit norms did the institutional religions ³nd acceptance and begin to exercise inµuence on people in their daily life.2 While the term “accommodation” here seems less than adequate to capture the complexity of the indigenization process, at the very least it must be recognized that a transplanted religious tradition that fails to address the concerns represented by this religious “substructure” will have serious dif³culties in Japan. This is one of the serious dilemmas facing most transplanted Protestant mission churches. It has long been recognized that the ancestral cult is a central feature of Japanese folk religion. In its classical or traditional form, the ancestral cult refers to the “belief in the superhuman power of the dead who are recognized as ancestors , and the rituals based on this belief.”3 Ancestors were originally understood to be founders of households (ie) and successive household heads. Thus ancestor veneration was essentially a patrilineal phenomenon. The interpretative framework for the ancestral cult is a cosmology that recognizes the interdependence between two spheres: the world of the living and the spirit world of the dead. The world of the dead, traditionally associated with mountains, is populated by various kami (gods), animal spirits, spirits of dead ancestors, and protective spirits. According to the worldview of Japanese folk religion, one’s situation in this life is causally inµuenced by the spirit world. Health problems, business failures, and personal problems are frequently attributed to the failure of descendants to properly care for their ancestors. If the appropriate rituals are JAPANESE CHRISTIANS AND THE WORLD OF THE DEAD 131 not performed, the ancestor suffers and cannot achieve lasting peace. Often wandering spirits “are said to be suffering from the emotional state of urami— bitterness, ill will, enmity, spite or malice.”4 Individuals suffering misfortune in this life often see the cause in the urami of some unpaci³ed spirit. In order to pacify such spirits, individuals must perform memorial services and make special offerings; until the needs of the ancestors are met through rituals, they will more than likely function as malevolent spirits exacting retribution (tatari) upon the descendants. Many observers predicted that these spirit beliefs and ancestral rites would disappear as a result of modernization and democratization. Two specialists in this ³eld, Hoshino Eiki and Takeda Dõshõ, however, maintain that “even today there is no sign that the Japanese concern for their ancestral spirits has diminished .”5 Although studies indicate that modernization and urbanization have signi³cantly modi³ed the family structure and the conception of ancestors,6 the concern with ancestral rites and appropriate care for the deceased is still a dominant feature of contemporary Japanese religion and culture. Survey research, as well as studies of new religious movements...