Shinbutsu-Shugo
Shinbutsu-Shūgō ( Japanese 神 仏 習 合 ) or Shinbutsu-Konkō ( 神 仏 混交 ) is the Japanese name for Shintō - or Kami - Buddhist syncretism , i.e. the interaction of Buddhism in Japan with a wide variety of indigenous religious beliefs and their gods.
For centuries, this principle ensured that there was almost no strict or practical distinction or separation between the native religion of Japan or Shinto and Buddhism, which was imported from China and Korea in the middle of the 6th century. As a consequence, Shinbutsu-Shūgō became an essential factor for the u. a. by the historian Kuroda Toshio (1926-93) asked difficult and not yet decided question, when exactly Shinto appeared as an independent religion in history and what part Buddhism played in this process.
history
Before the introduction of Buddhism (before 552)
Since the entry of Buddhism into Japanese culture occurred at the same time as the adoption of Chinese script , the first script used in Japan, there is hardly any historical evidence of Japanese religious rites before Japan's encounter with Buddhism. The few indications from this period can only be derived from individual passages in works of Chinese historiography such as Weizhi from the year 297.
Asuka period (552-710)
During the Asuka period , the political relations of rule in Japan changed from a rather loosely organized association of competing clans to a centralized form of government based on the model of the Sui or Tang empire of China , with a capital as the seat of a central administration and an individual Rulers at the top (the Tennō ). Correspondingly, the religions and philosophies that are common in China and that support the state were also included in the process of founding the state. B. also include Confucianism .
The successive integration of Buddhism into the new Japanese state was also promoted by the secular rulers in Japan. B. the construction of jingūji ( 神宮 寺 ; "shrine temple") was financially supported. However, these measures were ambivalent from the start. B. during the reign of Temmu -tennō, who promoted Buddhism and at the same time determined Ise-jingū to the central site of the imperial ancestor cult, where Buddhism was strongly taboo. There were also rulers who categorically rejected Buddhism, which still happened until the reign of the Shōmu- tennō in the Nara period . So let z. B. the Bidatsu -tennō Buddhist temples and statues burned and Buddhist nuns flogged.
At the same time, Buddhist and secular offices were strictly separated. Members of the nobility and the Tennō themselves had to forego their offices and privileges ( insei ) if they wanted to become a monk.
In order to spread the new teaching in Japan, Buddhism quickly adapted itself to the existing beliefs and subsumed them into its own. Terms like deva were used with both the Japanese ten ( Chinese 天 , Pinyin tiān - "heaven, heavenly, beings with superhuman powers") and kami ( Chinese 神 , Pinyin shén - "God, deity, spirit, supernatural being or supernatural powers ") And jingi ( 神祇 " gods ") equated. On the other hand, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were interpreted by the priests of the local religion as "foreign kami".
Buddhism was able to close a religious gap, particularly in the cult of the dead. In Japanese indigenous customs, death and everything related to it had been an impure and therefore avoidable affair for many centuries. With its complex system of theories and rites related to the hereafter, Buddhism offered a welcome addition to the ancestral cult of the individual clans ( uji ) . A very popular cult in this regard was to worship dead relatives as kami as well as Buddhas, since the death of a person was equated with his entry into nirvana .
Nara period (710-794)
During the Nara period, two general views regarding the relationship between Buddhism and the Kami were most widespread, one more adoring and one more converting:
- Kami are indigenous Dharma protectors in Japan , with which they could retain their divine status even in the Buddhist understanding without contradictions and yet at the same time be worshiped with sutras .
- Kami are suffering beings who are still caught in samsara (according to the idea of the devas in the six realms ) who strive for salvation through the Buddhist concept of enlightenment , i.e. who had to be converted through the Buddha's teachings.
Depending on the local manifestation of religious beliefs, especially in connection with the secular structures of rule (cf. ujigami ), one of the two aspects was emphasized. Although both included the indigenous traditions in the Buddhist world of faith in an affirmative way, the Buddhist principles were nevertheless given priority. Since the spread of Buddhism in the Asuka and Nara times was mostly limited to the aristocratic circles of Japanese society (the best known exception was the work of the Hossō monk Gyōgi (668-749; 行 基 )), existed with the, in this subordination implicitly contradicts other popular piety , not a practical problem.
The deity Hachiman in particular was at the center of a wide variety of theological assessments and was to play a key role in the relationship between Buddhism and Shinto on the one hand and state and religion on the other until the time of the Buddhist reformer Nichiren .
Heian period (794–1185)
In the Heian period , the seat of government was finally moved from Heijō-kyō ( Nara ) to Heian-kyō ( Kyōto ), whereby the worldly powers separated spatially from the influential monasteries of Naras. The existence of Buddhist temples in Heian-kyō was initially only allowed outside the city limits.
A few years later, two new Mahayanist and large Buddhist schools based on the teachings of Tantric Buddhism emerged : the Tendai-shū , founded by Saichō around 806 on the basis of the Tiantai zong and particularly promoted by the Kammu -tennō; and the Shingon-shū , founded by Kūkai around 807 and particularly encouraged by the Saga -tennō. In contrast to the schools of the Asuka and Nara period, both schools were very interested in spreading their teachings among the masses, albeit only second after the nobility as the primary target group. There is a clear tendency to be observed at this time to distribute Buddhist textbooks mostly of a mythological-fairytale character ( 説話 , setsuwa ) not only in Chinese, the previously undisputed scholarly language, but also in Japanese.
This conception of propagation required a new theoretical examination of general religious traditions in order to integrate them more consistently than before in one's own Buddhist conceptions, which amounted to putting kami and Buddhas or Bodhisattvas on the same level.
This was also promoted by the expanded possibilities of religious forms of representation. The iconic Buddhist art of Mikkyō Buddhism , represented by Tendai and Shingon-shū, was a popular means of giving faces and shapes to the so far mostly invisible kami for the first time (mostly also anthropomorphic), but only came during the Heian period Kamakura time to full bloom.
Kami as manifest Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
The equation of kami with Buddhas or Bodhisattvas was realized in the honji-suijaku setsu ( 本地 垂 迹 説 ; roughly: theory of the original forms and the manifest traces ) ( which is complex in comparison with the theoretical state of the art ). This theory, first developed in the Tendai-shū, stated that some kami were in fact Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, who were manifested in their manifest form ( suijaku ; Chinese 垂 迹 , pinyin chuíjī - "manifestos" for the purpose of converting and redeeming people on earth) Form ”(of a Buddha or Bodhisattva as kami in contrast to its only temporary manifestations, 權 現 )) as kami.
Originally, the theoretical distinction in Buddhism came from hon ( Chinese 本 , Pinyin běn - "original root, Buddha or his teaching and his manifestations") and ji or Japanese shaku ( Chinese 迹 , pinyin jī - "image, trace or tradition [from Buddha's teaching] ”) the attempt of the Chinese Buddhist Sengzhao (374–414; 僧肇 ) through the term běnjī ( Chinese 本 迹 , Pinyin běnjī -“ [unity of] original and image ”; Japanese honjaku ) neo-Daoist views to translate the strict distinction between the world and the forms of truth into an absolute and superior domain and a relative and inferior domain in Buddhism. Sengzhao considered this distinction to be factual, but in the strict sense it was self-contradicting.
This terminology was adopted by the founder of the Tiantai zong , Zhiyi (538–597; 智 顗 ) and became an integral part of the theory of his school (e.g. also to distinguish between or identify the metaphysical nature of Buddha and the historical personality Siddhartha Gautama as well as the absolute Dharma and the teachings of the historical Buddha; see Trikaya and Upaya ). This also made it part of that of the Tendai-shu. Apparently, the meaning of the term honshaku changed to honji ( Chinese 本地 , pinyin běndì - "Fundamental or original embodiment [of a Buddha or Bodhisattva as a kami in contrast to its only temporary manifestations]").
The Shingon-shū and many Shintō shrines (which hoped that this would improve the position of the kami they worshiped) finally adopted these terms and in many cases also propagated the honji-suijaku ( 本地 垂 迹 ), which, to put it simply, was interpreted as that a particular kami is only apparently different from a Buddha or Bodhisattva and is in fact identical to them. If one imagined this identification to be too extreme in individual cases, one could still give the kami in question the title gongen ( 権 現 "Temporary manifestation"). B. for the kami at the Kumano shrines in the Kii mountains .
Another, also popular term, was the metaphor of wakō dōjin ( Chinese 和 光 同 塵 , Pinyin héguāngtóngchén - "light, subdued and mingling with the dust"), a figure of speech originally from the fourth chapter of Daodejing , which was used even before the Heian- Time was widespread in East Asian Buddhism and basically meant the same concept as outlined above: Since the light of the Buddhas or Bodhisattva is too bright for the beings arrested in samsara, they have adapted it to the dusty structure of the world of the suffering in order to accommodate them to be able to come to the rescue. One of the first authors to operate explicitly with this concept was the politician and scholar Ōno Masafusa (approx. 1041–1111; 大江 匡 房 ).
The various forms of identification in honji-suijaku , however, are not limited to the kami. So the legendary Prince Shōtoku was first at the end of the Nara period as gushin ( Chinese 後身 , Pinyin hòushēn - "next body in the series of rebirths") of the second patriarch of the Tiantai zong, Eshi (also: Yeshi; 515-577; Chinese 慧思 , Pinyin Huìsī ). During the Heian period, he was declared suijaku by Dainichi Nyorai and Kannon . Most recently he was even held for the simultaneous honji of the Shōmu -tennō, Kūkais and the Shugendō leader Shōbō (832-909).
The honji-suijaku setsu also corresponded to the tendency of decisions of the imperial family to revalue the Shinto shrines more and more in the sense of the imperial cult (as happened e.g. in the system of the 22 shrines to which imperial offerings were regularly made).
In many cases, written lists were made on which different people, Kami, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were identified with one another. However, these were highly inconsistent and differed in content not only from temple to temple or shrine to shrine, but also with time intervals within a single place of worship.
Kamakura period (1185-1333)
The erosion of the ritsuryō system, which was based on the central, imperial granting of fiefs, had already begun in the late Heian period . At the same time, especially in the Kamakura period , it was continuously replaced by the system of shōen , tax-free lands, the owners of which initially belonged almost exclusively to the aristocracy and these lands mostly managed from the imperial court via local temples and later also larger shrines on site. In connection with the necessity of having to take greater account of local beliefs, the honji-suijaku lists were solidified in canonical writings of larger shrines. This found its corresponding expression especially in the flourishing, iconic Buddhist art (e.g. in the mandalas of the Kasuga Taisha or the Kumano shrines).
The Shōen competed fiercely with each other for land and at the same time had to be able to maintain internal order. For this purpose, private armies and thus the new, secular warrior class ( bushi ) emerged , which was ultimately to receive de facto power over Japan in the form of the daimyo and the shogunate . The Buddhist schools and their temples also had their own armies to defend Shōen: the warrior monks ( sōhei ) , who could be dangerous for the secular rulers. In the political chaos of that time, the conception of the age of the degeneration of Dharma ( mappō shisō) ( known since the Nara period in Japan ) became popular.
In Japan during the Kamakura period, new, powerful Buddhist schools emerged which, instead of the old nobility (who had largely lost actual power), turned to the broader strata of the population in an unprecedented degree to propagate their teachings: the amidist schools ( Jōdo- shū and Jōdo-Shinshū ), the various sects of Japanese Zen (mainly Rinzai-shū and Sōtō-shū ) and the lotus fundamentalism of Nichiren and his students.
All of these schools largely accepted the kami, even if the amidists tended not to make any identifications (due to the notion of the infinite grace of Amida , however, there was also no fundamental antagonism between kami and buddhas for them). The Kami gained special importance during this time through the two Mongol invasions, the failure of which by typhoons was retrospectively attributed to the Kami or gods wind . As a result, the conception of Japan as the land of gods ( 神 国 , shinkoku ) was given a huge boost . With the term shinkoku , especially through Nichiren Buddhism, political conditions and decisions were repeatedly criticized that were associated with the local deities, which were due to the disregard of the "true" religious teachings by the secular rulers in the wake of Japan had turned away, which would also correspond to the degeneration of the Dharma.
The Shinbutsu-Shūgō experienced extensive systematization in the Kamakura period, initially through the Tendai and Shingon-shū. Their teachings in this regard (retrospectively and collectively also called Bukka-Shintō or Bukke-Shintō) became known over time under the names Tendai- or Sannō-Shintō and Shingon- or Ryōbu-Shintō.
Muromachi period (1333–1568) and Azuchi Momoyama period (1568–1603)
The Muromachi period was even more marked than the Kamakura period by internal Japanese wars. Finally, the Ashikaga shogunate lost its power through the Ōnin War (1467–1477) and the old feudal order was completely destroyed. This marks the beginning of the Warring States Period . This showed in an extreme way the social explosive power of the religious groups, so in the as Ikkō-ikki (approx. 1487-1580) designated uprisings a conglomerate of peasants, amidists of the Jōdo-Shinshū and local samurai took control of the province of Kaga Similar conflicts against the daimyo broke out in the provinces of Echizen , Etchū and Noto . In response to Ikko-ikki formed up in Kyoto of Nichiren Buddhism Lotus rebellions (armed supporters together with the militias of local merchants in the so-called Hokke-ikki , from 1532 to 1536). Both movements were eventually brutally suppressed. The arrival of Christianity in Japan also fell during this period, initially tolerated because of the good contacts with the Portuguese and Spanish (from whom the daimyō bought firearms for their armies in the era of the Nanban trade ), but finally since their belief was banned was subjected to ever stronger repression by Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the time of the three unions .
In the Muromachi period, the first attempts to reinterpret Shinbutsu-Shūgō from the Kami side and to equate kami and Buddhas fundamentally ( Watarai-Shintō ), or to conceive Shintō as a system that is independent of Buddhism ( Yoshida-Shintō ).
Edo period (1603–1868)
The Tokugawa shogunate secured after a long time longer-term peace in Japan and led the Edo period one. In response to the experiences in Kamakura and Muromachi, particular emphasis was placed on strict political control of religious activities in order to prevent any religiously motivated uprisings from the outset. Christians were brutally persecuted and executed after the Shimabara uprising (a fate that also befell radical Amidists and Nichiren supporters). A few years after the Shimabara Uprising, Japan was completely isolated from the outside world .
At the same time the majority of existing, moderate Buddhist schools about their temple in the so-called temple confirmation system ( 寺請制度 , terauke seido included): families had at state-approved temples in their neighborhood in writing to register, and also with the means of Fumie right Faith of the population was checked. The certificates issued in this way ultimately played the role of proof of identity (similar to an identity card , but for the whole family). Buddhism thus experienced its almost complete institutionalization and integration into the municipal administration in the heavily bureaucratized Tokugawa Japan and brought about only a few innovations (e.g. in Zen in the form of the Ōbaku-shū and the Fuke-shū ).
This internal stagnation should also have an impact on the development of Shinbutsu-Shūgō. Rare and consequently not historically successful new approaches to Shinbutsu-Shūgō of the Edo period were z. B. the Reisō-Shintō (late 17th / early 18th century by the Ōbaku monk Chōon Dōkai (1628–1695) and the Tendai monk Jōin (1683–1739)) and the Unden Shintō ( 18th century ) . Century, see above).
Neoconfucianism
The intellectual history of Japan in the Edo period was primarily determined by an extra-Buddhist innovation: the importation of Neo-Confucianism from China by Zen monks. The revitalized occupation with Confucianism resulted in several schools of a Confucian Shinto, the so-called Juka-Shinto ( 儒家 神道 ). A distinction must be made between two main currents: Shinto, which is only interpreted in Confucian terms , on the one hand (these included e.g. Yamaga Soko , Nakae Tōju , Kumazawa Banzan , Kaibara Ekiken , Miwa Shissai and the representatives of the historiographical Mito school ) and, on the other hand, teachings that are fundamental Represented the unity or identity of Shinto and Confucianism and also developed their own teaching traditions (this included e.g. Hayashi Razan , who developed the Ritō-Shinchi-Shintō ; Watarai Nobuyoshi ( Deguchi Nobuyoshi ), a representative of the Watarai-Shintō; Yoshikawa Koretari , the founder of Yoshikawa Shinto ; and Yamazaki Ansai , founder of Suika Shinto ).
Both currents had the position of judging and condemning Buddhism extremely critically, especially on the basis of the Confucian categories “public” ( 公 , kō ) and “private” ( 私 , shi ). In the ethics of the philosophy of the state of Confucianism, only that which serves the common good has a positive value. As a consequence, this tended to mean an endorsement of public institutions and at the same time a disregard or rejection of private interests and thus potentially detrimental to the common good. Buddhism, so the criticism in general, mixes these two categories inadmissibly and is basically an esoteric secret doctrine, the principles of which are only imparted from master to student (and thus actually a private matter). Others, like Yamazaki Ansai, formulated their criticism of Buddhism in a much more theological way: The denial of a solid self in Buddhism also leads to a denial of the core of the Japanese religion; Shintō is the ultimate harmonious principle of heaven-and-earth and yin-and-yang , which is endangered by the Buddhist Dharma.
The Shushigaku ( 朱子学 ), based on the teachings of Zhu Xi , and the Yōmeigaku ( 陽明 学 ), based on the teachings of Wang Yangming , finally joined the major neo-Confucian schools that developed in the 15th and 16th centuries a new school was added, the Kogaku ( 古 学 ; something like: "Doctrine of the Old"). With the aim of developing new social and state philosophies, it carried out extensive source studies of the old classics of Confucianism. From her and some Shinto priests, the Kokugaku ("school of the country") developed. This was devoted to the Japanese classics (mainly Kojiki and Nihonshoki ) and postulated a "pure" Shinto based on such philological studies, which - following the ideal of Yoshida-Shinto - nothing more with Buddhism but also nothing with other teachings (such as Confucianism and Daoism) should have to do. The concept of the imperial cult ( Tennoism ) moved into the center of this newly formulated, ostensibly original Shinto .
Although the Shinto neo-Confucians under the Tokugawa Shogunate were unable to assert themselves as the bearers of an official state ideology, they received a few strong support from secular rulers. B. by Hoshina Masayuki (1611–1672), daimyo of Aizu and regent of the Shogun Ietsuna ; and Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1700), daimyo of Mito and patron of the Mito school . The feudal support of Shinto was also expressed in the fact that in individual daimyats even the authority of the temple confirmation system was transferred to local Shinto shrines.
Meiji period (1868-1912)
The opening of the Japanese ports to the Western powers by the black ships in 1853 marked the gradual end of the shogunate . The socio-political conditions in Japan at this time were determined by the insight that the existing feudal order could not compete with the United States and Europe; there was a threat of occupation of Japan by the colonial powers , as was already the case in neighboring East Asian countries (China, India etc.) had happened. For the “expulsion of the barbarians”, as demanded by the nationalist-minded supporters of the Sonnō jōi , a radical modernization of Japan had become absolutely necessary. The overwhelming majority of its representatives, however, always acknowledged the traditional Japanese values and the worship of Tennō, which were seen as essential.
With the Boshin War (1868-1869) the shogunate was bloody brought down, the Meiji Restoration began and so the Meiji period was established with the reinstatement of the Tenno at the head of the Japanese state . At the same time, the so-called Restoration Shintō (Fukko-Shintō), which was based on the theoretical basis of the Kokugaku, was implemented politically: Within the framework of the decrees and laws of the Shinbutsu-Bunri , the complete separation of the indigenous beliefs and beliefs, which had been firmly established until then, was implemented throughout Japan operated by Buddhism. The "pure" Shinto thus put into practice should ultimately become the concrete State Shinto as a unity of cult and state, religion and government.
Although there was no complete suppression of Buddhism in Japan until the end of the Second World War and it was even temporarily reintegrated into the state Shinto (to propagate the Great Teaching (Taikyō) among the people), as well as active promotion of the state ideology by some representatives of the Japanese Buddhism (especially from the Zen and Nichiren schools) was practiced, the separation of Shinto and Buddhism resulting from this time was so blatant that its consequences have persisted into the present and continue to shape the idea of Shinto as the national religion of Japan.
Syncretistic Shinto directions
Shingon Shinto
The Shingon-Shintō ( 真言 神道 ), also Ryōbu-Shintō ( 両 部 神道 ; dt. About "Shintō of the two parts [of Ise-jingū]", this name goes back to Yoshida Kanetomo, the founder of Yoshida-Shintō, see below ) was much more successful than the Tendai Shinto. Nevertheless, the essentials of its contents, especially in its early phase from the late Heian period to the middle of the Kamakura period, go back more to Tendai than to Shingon teachings, and there were interactions with Watarai Shinto.
He was characterized by a radical willingness to identify almost every kami with Amaterasu and Dainichi.
At the center of his theology were the inner and outer shrines of Ise-jingū, which were equated with the two worlds in Shingon Buddhism: the womb world ( 胎 蔵 界 , taizōkai ) with the inner shrine ( 内 宮 , Naikū ) and the vajra -World ( 金剛 界 , kongōkai ) with the Outer Shrine ( 外 宮 , Gekū ). The deities in the inner and outer shrine were identified accordingly with the Dainichis of the two worlds: Amaterasu, who is entrusted in the inner shrine, with the Dainichi Nyorai of the womb world and Toyouke , who is entrusted in the outer shrine, with the Dainichi of the vajra- World. Both parts related to each other as in the “mandala of the two worlds” ( 両 界 曼荼羅 , Ryōkai mandara ) or “mandala of the two parts” ( 両 部 曼荼羅 , Ryōbu mandara ). The main written basis for this was the Tenchi Reiki-ki .
Within the Ryōbu-Shintō, two outstanding schools emerged in its late phase (late Kamukura period to the South and North Courtyard Period), which also developed their teachings independently of Ise-jingū, which in turn even entered the visual and performing arts medieval Japan took:
- the Miwa-Shintō (or the Shintō of the Miwa-ryū) had its centers at the two jingūji of the Ōmiwa shrine, the Ōmiwa-dera (also Ōgorin-ji ; named after the mountain Miwa in the province of Yamato , which is the divine body of the Ōmiwa-dera was) and the Byōdō-ji, whose builder Kyōen (1140-1223; also Keien ) is considered the founder of the school, while some researchers ascribe the true foundation of Eison (1203-1290). Most of the details about the activities of this school remain in the dark, however, as most of the sources available about it date from the Edo period.
- the Goryū-Shintō (also Ninnaji, after the temple where it had its headquarters, the Ninna-ji in Kyoto). This school referred particularly to the imperial cult and the founder of the Shingon-shū, Kūkai .
The Ryōbu-Shintō remained very popular until the Edo period and learned z. B. by the Unden-Shintō ( 雲 伝 神道 ) of the Shingon monk Jiun Onkō (1718-1804; 慈雲 飲 光 ) a renaissance, but also came under heavy criticism from Confucians and the so-called Fukko-Shintō of the Kokugaku . Finally, with the political decisions taken in the context of the Shinbutsu-Bunri, the foundations were removed from him.
Tendai Shinto
The Tendai Shintō ( 天台 神道 ; also Sannō-Ichijitsu-Shintō ( 山 王 一 実 神道 ; dt. About "Shintō des Sannō and the only reality"), in relation to the mountain deity Sannō des Hieizan, who was also identified with Amaterasu; or Hie-Shintō ( 日 吉 神道 ), Hie ( 日 吉 ) were usually the names of the shrines for Sannō) had the Enryaku-ji and its chinjusha , the Hie-Taisha , as the center of its development . It originated at the end of the Kamakura period or during the southern and northern court period around the mountain cult (originally from several kami) of the Hiei-zan and the surrounding shōen of the Tendai-shū, whose farmers mostly still adhered to the old beliefs.
Watarai Shinto
The Watarai-Shintō ( 度 会 神道 ) or Ise-Shintō ( 伊 勢 神道 ) or Gekū-Shintō ( 外 宮 神道 ) was created by the Watarai priestly family, responsible for the outer shrine of Ise-jingū at the end of the Kamakura or beginning of the Muromachi period developed in order to upgrade the deity of the outer shrine, previously called saijin , compared to the deity of the inner shrine, Amaterasu ( regarded for centuries as the ancestor of the imperial family), or in the formula of the two shrines as one light ( nikū ikkō) equate.
However, many Buddhist monks, especially from the Shingon-shū, joined this project in the early phase. Later, in the Edo period, Confucian elements (such as purity and truthfulness) and cosmogonic aspects from the yin-yang element theory were added.
Yoshida Shinto
Main article: Yoshida Shinto
The Yoshida-Shintō or Urabe-Shintō was developed on the basis of the Watarai-Shintō at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century by Yoshida Kanetomo (1435-1511). Although praised by this as pure and not mixed with the three doctrines , the Yoshida-Shintō had however significant borrowings from the Mikkyō, the Ryōbu-Shintō, as well as Onmyōdō and Daoism . Nevertheless, the Yoshida Shinto was the earliest elaboration of a religious system that explicitly identified itself with the term "Shinto" and in contrast to all other doctrines, which paved the way for the later radicalized conception of the emancipation of Shinto as a completely independent religion posed.
The Yoshida-Shintō spread until the dawn of modernity, strongly favored by the imperial family and the neglect of rural areas by the established Buddhist schools. With the emergence of new schools of Shinto and the Japanese renaissance of Confucianism in the 17th and 18th centuries, however, he lost more and more ground and was significantly more exposed to the accusation of syncretism. His control over the (smaller) shrines in the country was eventually legally stripped from him during the Meiji period.
Hokke Shinto
The central doctrine of Hokke Shintō ( 法 華 神道 ) was the concept of sanjūbanshin ( 三十 番 神 ), borrowed from the Sanmon branch of Tendai Shintō : 30 kami, who were understood as protective deities of the Lotus Sutra , and Japan according to the right honoring them and either protected or abandoned from the true Dharma. One of the first representatives of this teaching is likely to have been the Nichiren student Nichizo (1269-1342).
Although Nichiren with his school as well as many of his students and their schools (in particular Nakayamamon-ryū and Nichizōmon-ryū) tried hard from the beginning to include the Kami as the gods of Japan in their teachings, the underlying syncretism of Hokke-Shintō became systematized only at the end of the Muromachi or beginning of the Edo period, where he was strongly influenced by the Yoshida Shinto. Both because of the early onset of internal fragmentation of Nichiren Buddhism and the power of other teaching traditions of Shinto, however, the Hokke Shinto was never as popular as its predecessors and competitors.
literature
- Daigan Lee Matsunaga, Alicia Orloff Matsunaga: Foundation of Japanese Buddhism; Vol. I; The aristocratic age . Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles and Tokyo 1974, ISBN 0-914910-25-6 .
- Daigan Lee Matsunaga, Alicia Orloff Matsunaga: Foundation of Japanese Buddhism; Vol. II; The mass movement (Kamakura & Muromachi periods) . Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles and Tokyo 1976, ISBN 0-914910-27-2 .
- Alicia Matsunaga: The Buddhist Philosophy of Assimilation . Sophia University and Tuttle Co., Tokyo 1969.
- Mark Teeuwen, Fabio Rambelli (Eds.): Buddhas and Kami in Japan: Honji Suijaku as a Combinatory Paradigm . Routledge Shorton, London and New York 2003.
Web links
- Encyclopedia of Shinto on the Kokugakuin website - English
- Bernhard Scheid: Religion in Japan.
- Mark Teeuwen: From Jindõ to Shinto; A concept takes shape. In: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 2002 29 / 3-4. - English
- Kuroda Toshio: The Discourse on the “Land of Kami” (Shinkoku) in Medieval Japan; National Consciousness and International Awareness. In: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1996 23 / 3–4. - English
