REVIEWS

Joseph M. KITAGAWA,011UnderstandingJapanese Religion. Princeton, New

Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987. xxxi t 344 pp., with a glossary and
index. Cloth, $54.50; paper, $17.25.
On Understanding Japanese Religion is a collection of nineteen essays which
until this time had been scattered in various scholarly journals. Taken as a
whole this volume covers the full range of religious currents in Japan, including Shinto, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and folk religion. The essays
are conveniently divided into five sections on Prehistory, Historic Development of Japanese Religion, Shinto Tradition, Buddhist Tradition, and The
Modern Phase of the Japanese Religious Tradition. There is also an appendix on "Buddhism in America" and an extensive glossary of Japanese terms.
In the preface to this work Kitagawa emphasizes that he is by training and
profession a historian of religions and an Orientalist. He considers Religionswissenscltajl, or the "history of religions," to be a rigorous discipline with its
own coherent methodology and objectives. Indeed, the major significance of
this volume lies in its distinctive contribution to the area of methodology,
namely, the application of Religionswissatscltaft to the field of Japanese religion. More specifically, Kitagawa undertakes a dual project which endeavors
to deepen our understanding of Religionswissensclat through the study of
Japanese religion while at the same time attempting to enrich our understanding of Japanese religion through the methodology of Religionswissenscltaft. H e writes:
i have thus studied Japanese religion and Buddhism for what the richness of these traditions might contribute to my understanding of the
history of religions; but conversely, I have also tried to bring the
perspective and methodology of the history of religions to bear on my
studies of Japanese religion and Buddhism (p. ix).
Since the present volume is in fact a collection of separate articles, as opposed to a book-length monograph, it is sometimes of uneven quality. Also,
there is too much repetition as the same topics are discussed in similar terms
in a number of essays. I will highlight just a few of the essays, focussing on
topics which reflect some of the recurrent ideas and themes in Kitagawa's
volume as a whole.
In Chapter 2 entitled " 'A past of things present': Notes on major motifs
of early Japanese religions," Kitagawa develops his fundamental theme concerning the participatory or nonsymbolic understanding of symbolism in
primitive Japanese religion. If, as Mircea Eliade states, man is a homo symbolicus and all his activities involve symbolism, it follows that all religious
facts have a symbolic character. These religious symbols define the nature of
reality as the meaning of space, time, and history. Early Japanese understood
symbols in terms of "direct participation" (p. 45). This motif of "participation" or nonsymbolic understanding of symbols is evident from the time of

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Japanese Jountal of Religious Studies 15/1

the Many5shU (Collection of myriad leaves). To the Many5 poets, mountains

were not only the dwelling place of kami or sacred nature; mountains were
the kami themselves. They also sang about the sacred kanti nature of rivers,
oceans, animals, birds, insects, and flowers. The poems of the ManyMtii convey how the being of mountains and other phenomena directly participated in
kami or sacred nature. A mountain was regarded as the divine reality in itself
and did not point beyond itself to another reality, the kami (p. 47).
Chapter 3 entitled "Remarks on the study of sacred texts" is a fascinating
essay on the oral tradition of the Ainu epics calledyukar in relation to ancient
Japanese classics. Since there is still very Little work in English on the Ainu,
this an important essay which takes a step toward filling a wide gap in current
scholarship. As for methodological procedure in the study of Ainu religion,
Kitagawa argues for the necessity of a "holistic approach," conceived as an
effort to understand the total context of a culture, society, and religion in order to comprehend the meaning of its particular symbols, myths, and rituals
(p. 61). In accord with the theme of "participation" or the nonsymbolic understanding of symbols in early Japanese religions, Kitagawa points out that
the Ainu word yukar (sacred epics) literally means "to imitate" (i-ukar), in
the sense that the reciter imitates either the animals which are hunted or personal adventures of the kamuy (gods and spirits). Moreover, the Ainu verb
"to speak" (ru-cha-no-ye) means to "utter words with rhythm." By rhythmical
chanting of the yukar or sacred epics, the true potency of their words are actualized. Recitation of theyukar is therefore a sacramental act in the Ainu religion. Kitagawa next describes the difficulties in the study of Ainu epics
(yukar) because they are represented in an oral tradition, while in turn relating these to problems arising in the study of ancient Japanese classics because they were originally based on oral traditions and were compiled to
uphold certain religio-political policies. For example, the compilation of the
Kojiki (The records of ancient matters) and Nihongi (The chronicles of
Japan) was ordered in A.D. 673 by Emperor Tenmu in part to justify his
accession to the throne after he usurped it from another emperor (p. 63).
Accordingly, the central theme of both the Kojiki and Nihongi is that the
Imperial family had the divine mission to rule the Japanese nation by virtue
of their solar ancestry (p. 66). This became the basis of the immanental
theocratic state, ideally a soteriological nation community with the emperor
functioning simultaneously as the chief priest, sacred king, and living kami.
An emperor could now be regarded as the manifest karni whose divine will
was communicated by a series of imperial rescripts. The point here is that the
Kojiki and Nihong both incorporated vast amounts of indigenous materials
such as ancient Japanese myths, legends, and folklore which had been handed
down through "oral tradition." However, the compilers of these eighth
century classics were in fact appointed government officials who utilized this
oral tradition in order to depict a chronological succession of creation myths,
legendary emperors, and historical rulers which altogether would support the
emperor's claim to divine authority as a descendent of Amaterasu the Sun
Goddess. Kitagawa asserts that the complex relationship between oral tradition and written texts is a major problem for the historian of religions.

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Chapter 8 on "Three types of pilgrimage in Japan" analyzes a number of

recurrent motifs in Japanese religion as manifested in the important theme of
pilgrimage. Here Kitagawa describes the three major forms of pilgrimage in
Japanese religion as (i) pilgrimage to sacred mountains such as Mt. Ontake
and Mt. Fuji which are regarded as living kaini, (ii) pilgrimage to temples and
shrines based on faith in the divinities enshrined in those sanctuaries such as
various Shinto gods or Buddhist deities like Kannon, Amida, Jiz6, Yakushi,
and Miroku, and (iii) pilgrimage to sacred places based on faith in certain
charismatic holy men who are believed to have hallowed those places by their
visits, such as the eighty-eight sanctuaries in Shikoku associated with Kbbb
Daishi (p. 128). More than any doctrinal system, the pilgrimage theme lays
bare the essential beliefs of traditional Japanese religion.
Chapter 11entitled "Master and Saviour" is an interesting essay on the
life and teachings of Ktikai or Kbbb Daishi (774-835), founder of the
Shingon sect of Mikkyb (Esoteric) Buddhism in Japan. Kitagawa asserts that
the deification of saintly figures, a common phenomenon in many religious
traditions, is an important problem for the student of Religionswissenschaft.
In Japan he takes Kiikai as the paradigm of a saintly figure who has been
deified in the popular imagination of the people. Even today the memory of
Kiikai lives all over Japan, not only as a saint, but as a preacher, scholar,
poet, sculptor, painter, inventor, explorer, and great calligrapher. According
to Kitagawa, the deified figure of Kakai was a composite of many stereotypes
regarding charismatic persons and saviour images that had been sanctioned
and preserved in the communal reservoir of Japanese folk piety. He further
argues that Ktikai has become a paradigmatic figure in the history of Japanese religion in part because his life and teachings reflect the very essence of
traditional Japanese piety. His teachings on the attainability of Buddhahood
in this life, his beliefs in the magical potency of mantra and dlicira!ii as well as
in miracles and divine oracles given in dreams, always had a wide appeal for
the Japanese people. Moreover, he discusses Kiikai's claim that the Esoteric
doctrine of Shingon Mikky6 Buddhism can only be understood with the aid of
painting, citing directly the words of Kiikai: "Art is what reveals to us the
state of perfection." Kitagawa then goes on to assert that Ktikai's aestheticism, which underscores the fundamental unity of art and religion, is characteristic of Japanese religion in general. He thus writes: "Knkai in presenting
religion as art represented the central core of Japanese piety, and in this he
may be rightly regarded as a paradigmatic figure of Japanese religious history" (p. 200).
Chapter 15 on "Paradigm Change in Japanese Buddhism" is one of the
finest essays in this volume. Kitagawa argues that the most significant paradigm change in India took place during the third century B.C. under the influence of the newly converted king, ASoka (r. 274-232 B.c.). Through ASoka
the classical formula of the Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Samgha) and a
second triple schema of kingship, the state, and Buddhist-inspired morality,
were combined into a new paradigm based on the ideal of sacred kingship.
This enabled Buddhism to locate religious meaning in the social-political
order. The emphasis on leaving the world to enter Nirvana now shifted

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toward reentering the world for the benefit of all beings, giving new positive
missionary meaning to Buddhism (pp. 252-253). Mahayana Buddhist expansion followed the overland trade route, the "Silk Road," and eventually
reached China, which subsequently became a secondary center for the diffusion of MahayLna Buddhism. In general, Chinese Buddhism contributed to
the paradigm s h i t from other-worldliness to this-worldliness (p. 258). Finally,
Kitagawa endeavors to outline the basic features of the Japanese Buddhist
paradigm, which he argues is distinguished by the following characteristic
traits: (i) nationalism, (ii) syncretism, (iii) inclination toward magical beliefs
and practices, (iv) dependence on charismatic leaders, (v) aestheticism, and
(vi) affirmation of the sacrality of nature (pp. 267-268).
Chapter 18 on "Buddhism and modern Japanese thought" is of great significance in that it underscores developments in recent Japanese Buddhist
philosophy, a subject all too often neglected by scholars of Japanese religion.
In the final section of this chapter entitled "Buddhist philosophy and philosophy informed by Buddhism in modern Japan," Kitagawa discusses the
thought of Nishida Kitarb (1870-1945) as well as Tanabe Hajime (18851962), Nishitani Keiji (1900- ), Takeuchi Yoshinori (1913- ) and other
thinkers associated with the so-called "Kyoto School" of Japanese philosophy. As Kitagawa is quick to point out: "the tradition of %tar6 Nishida. . .
shows a marked contrast to the tradition of Buddhist philosophy in the usual
sense of the term" (p. 307). Nishida and other scholars usually identified with
the Kyoto School are primarily philosophers who attempt to formulate their
own systems through the synthesis of Japanese Buddhism and Western philosophy. In his analysis of Nishida's philosophy, Kitagawa elaborates such key
notions as "action-intuition," the "eternal now" and "absolute nothingness."
These ideas are in turn described as resting on what Nishida terms his "logic
of place" (topos), which emphasizes the contradictory aspects of reality as absolute nothingness. H e further elaborates Nishida's concept of religion based
on the view of "disjunction-conjunction" between God (Absolute) and man
(relative). Kitagawa then goes on to discuss Tanabe Hajime, who together
with Nishida Kitarb is regarded as the "cofounder" of the Kyoto School. In
this context he points out several areas of difference and agreement between
Nishida-tetsugaku and Tanabe's philosophy of metanoetics. Kitagawa's discussion of Nishida Kitarb and the Kyoto School of modern Japanese philosophy
makes an appropriate finale to this excellent volume.
In conclusion, it can be pointed out that Kitagawa's On U~lderstanding
Japanese Religion is probably not suitable as a general introduction to Japanese religions for the beginner. But for scholars or more advanced students it
stands as a valuable collection of essays written by one of the great historians
of Japanese religion and pioneers in the field of Religionswissenschaft.
Steve ODIN
University of Hawaii-Manoa