In the middle of bloom
Fujiyama ascended into the sky -
Spring is in Japan!
(Shou)
The two previous materials, which talked about the religious beliefs of Japanese samurai warriors, aroused the obvious interest of the VO reading audience, although one strange visitor asked in his comment who pays me for denigrating Russia's neighbors. Curious, isn't it? In my opinion, none of them had even a hint of "denigration", but the man was able to see it. Today, in continuation of the topic, we will talk about some of the purely specific beliefs of the Japanese. For example, what is the fate of the sacred sword mentioned in the second material? Well, the sacred sword in Shinto was found by a mythical character - the god of thunder Susanoo, who got it from the tail of a snake with eight heads and gave it to his sister, the beautiful Amaterasu, the sun goddess. In turn, she handed this sword, as well as eight pieces of jade and another mirror to her grandson Ninigi no Mikoto, when she sent him to the earth to rule. Well, gradually the sword became a symbol of the entire samurai class and the "soul" of a warrior - bushi.
Today we will not refer to Japanese painting, but simply … "let's take a train around Japan", as my volunteer students did, who had their internship there before writing their theses on modern advertising and PR in Japan. And we will understand that this is a very beautiful country, which allows us to live in one day, without the past and without the future. For example, how do you like this mesmerizing photo taken from the hotel window at 5 o'clock in the morning? So it asks for a canvas, isn't it? And if you draw it, no one will believe that such a thing happens!
Both a sword, a mirror, and a jewel are considered by Shintoists as a "body" or "appearance" of a god (Shintai), which is located in the closed and most important part of any Shinto temple - honshia. Swords not only could serve as shintai, but were also often deified. Moreover, the Susanoo sword played another important role in the history of Japan. According to legend, this sword, received from Amaterasu by the earthly rulers of Japan, helped to escape the imperial prince, who set out to conquer the northern territories of the country. The prince mowed the grass around him with this sword and set it on fire. Here is a fire blazing in the grass, kindled by his enemies, and could not harm him. After that, he received a new name - Kusanagi, (Kusanagi - literally "mowing the grass").
Before you go somewhere you need to eat. Here's a typical breakfast for two in a country inn: rice, mussels, and a bowl of green onions. And also tea, without green tea anywhere!
In addition to the sword, Shinto also sanctified such samurai weapons as the spear. In his honor, various holidays were held in one of the districts of the capital of Edo, Oji. Since this city was the capital of the shogunate, there were always many feudal princes in it, and, therefore, also their vassals - samurai. And for them, on August 13, the ancient festival of warriors "yarimatsuri" was organized. It was obligatory to have two samurai in black armor, armed with spears and swords (and each of them had to have seven swords more than four shaku in length on his belt, and each shaku was equal to 30.3 cm). The warriors “guarded”, and eight boys-dancers danced and threw their hats into the crowd after the dances (“saibara” and “dengaku”), which were considered by the participants of the festival as a talisman of happiness. On the same day, Shinto priests laid out small toy spears in the temples. It is interesting that the believers could take them with them, but only on the condition that next year they would bring not one, but two equally miniature spears. Moreover, they served as amulets, for some reason protecting their owner from theft and … from fire!
The hotel's signature dish can be ordered at an additional cost. For example, this is fresh jellyfish in soy sauce!
In Shinto, samurai must certainly honor the spirits of their dead ancestors and worship the souls of warriors who died in battles, military leaders, and, of course, heroes and emperors, who were declared gods. That is, not only among the Egyptians, the dead pharaohs became gods, by no means. The Japanese do too! These people, quite real, were built tombs during their lifetime, temples next to them, and divine services were performed there. At the same time, it was believed that these deceased ancestors and rulers after death were endowed with supernatural power, and at the same time … they also remained in the world among the living, and could actively influence the events taking place in this world. Well, and already quite ordinary patron spirits (ujigami) had such power that, according to the Japanese, they could change a person's fate, influence the success of his undertakings or arrange a lot of troubles in his life, as well as influence the outcome of a battle, etc. etc. All samurai believed in this sacredly and did not dare to oppose their will to the "will of the gods" even in trifles. On the eve of each military undertaking, they turned to the Udzigami and begged them not to take revenge on them, well, say, for non-observance of piety. The positive aspect of this faith was … a special reverence for the homeland - "a sacred place where gods and ancestral souls dwell." Shinto did not just teach love for the homeland, it demanded it, and demanded it also because Japan was the “birthplace” of the goddess Amaterasu, and only her emperor was truly “divine”. After all, the family of emperors was never interrupted - this is what for the Japanese is the confirmation of the chosenness of his people. What other people can boast of this? No! So … this is a manifestation of "divine will."
If you came to the hot springs, then the "kami" told you to start the day and end it by immersing in their healing waters. Bathrobe at the expense of the hotel, even the cheapest.
Hence the developed cult of national Japanese gods and the emperor himself (tenno - "messenger of heaven", "source of the entire nation"). So, the current emperor Hirohito is considered the 124th representative of an uninterrupted dynasty that began in 660 BC. NS. the rule of the mythical Tenno Jimmu, who was just a descendant of the goddess Amaterasu. From here, by the way, the legs of all those unjust wars waged by the samurai or their descendants under the banner of the national exclusivity of the great "Japanese race" are growing.
The beauty of such hotels is that you will have to sleep on this …
An important object of veneration for samurai, in addition to the souls of ancestors, warriors, heroes, etc., was the Shinto god of war Hachiman, whose prototype is again the legendary Japanese emperor Ojin, deified according to the Shinto tradition. He was first mentioned as a "divine helper" of the Japanese in 720, when, according to legend, he helped them repel the invasions from Korea. From that time on, he became the patron saint of warriors! Before the outbreak of hostilities, they turned to Hachiman with a prayer, and asked to support them in the upcoming battle, "to strengthen the hands" and "the strength of the sword", "to bring arrows straight to the target" and "not to let the horse stumble." At the same time, one should have said: "Yumiya-Hachiman" ("May Hachiman see our bows and arrows" - in Japanese it is short, in Russian it is very long, or simply - "I swear by Hachiman" - and that said it all!). In general, the Japanese language - let us make a small excursion into linguistics here - is very … "not direct", it is the language of idioms. How would you say that you are calm? "I'm calm" - isn't it? An Englishman would say: "I am calm", which is equivalent, but literally translated as "I am calm." But the Japanese would say in the most exhaustive way: "Watakusi wa" - "I am in harmony!" - "Vaptakusi" - I, "va" - harmony, which literally sounds "I am harmony". Here is such a simple - difficult language for them!
View from the window of a room in a rural hotel. That's how they live there!
And this is also a peeped-out view of Japanese life. The old men have nothing to do, so they play "balls"!
In addition to Hachiman, the samurai also considered the mythical tenno Jimmu, the founder of the imperial dynasty, the founder of the imperial dynasty, and then the woman-empress Jingu and her advisor Takechi-no Sakune, as the gods of war, and Prince Yamato-dake (Yamato-Takeru), who became famous for conquering the Ainu lands in the east of Japan.
And this house is all overgrown with forest and wild moss. From the point of view of the Japanese - there is nothing more beautiful!
In honor of these gods of war, lavish festivities were organized on certain days. For example - "gunshinmatsuri", which was celebrated on October 7 on the territory of a large Shinto temple in the city of Hitachi. At night, men came to the temple with swords (daito), and women came with halberds (naginata). Paper lanterns were hung on the trees, which were burned after the holiday.
This is not a residential building, this is … a village school!
Most interestingly, although Shinto is the original religion of the Japanese, it was rarely present in the religious life of the samurai, so to speak, in its pure form. Buddhism, which came to Japan in the middle of the 6th century, turned out to be a more "advanced" religion in comparison with primitive Shintoism. That is why he was immediately accepted by the ruling elite of the country and began to be actively used in their interests. But the Shinto priests did not want to give up their privileges at all and, moreover, relied on the support of the masses, who continued to profess their more familiar religion. And this forced both the Buddhist clergy and the rulers of ancient Japan to take the path of compromise and establish cooperation between the two religions instead of starting fratricidal religious wars, which ultimately led to such a seemingly strange symbiosis of the two beliefs, as to the syncretism of Shintoism and Buddhism. …
Tea is grown in the mountains where it is impossible to grow rice.
What specific cases did this result in? But what … Now the Japanese warriors, before the decisive battle or even just before the campaign, simultaneously turned to the Shinto spirits and to the Buddhist deities! As a result of such a merger, many of the Shinto gods began to be endowed with the properties of Buddhist bodhisattvas, and the Buddhist pantheon was replenished with Shinto deities accepted into it. For example, the cult of Hachimana, which was originally a Shinto god, was saturated with the ideas of Buddhism, as evidenced by many of its sayings, which are clearly Buddhist in nature. In them, he calls himself Bosatsu - that is, a bodhisattva - a Buddhist term, but not Shinto!
There is a Buddha statue in all Buddhist temples.
Well, further on, the Buddhist clergy simply recognized Hachiman as a bodhisattva and gave him the name Daidzidzaitet. With the Shinto goddess Amaterasu, the “progenitor” of the sacred imperial family, they did the same: the adherents of the Buddhist sect “Shingon” declared the incarnation … of just the supreme cosmic Buddha Vairochana (Dainichi).
And lanterns, in which the fire is lit in honor of the spirits of the dead. Their whole alleys, because there are a lot of ancestors!
Moreover, in Japan, along with Buddhism, the spread of Confucianism of the Zhuxian persuasion began. The doctrine of Confucius, which Zhu Xi somewhat revised, seemed to be a conservative, dogmatic trend of ideological rather than religious content, since it focused primarily on ethical issues. And then it simply merged with Buddhism and Shinto, adapting some of their provisions. Confucianism also spoke of "fidelity to duty", obedience and obedience to the lord and the emperor raised to the rank of the highest virtue, required a person to "work on himself", that is, to improve morally through strict observance of all the rules and laws of the family, as well as society and, of course, state. Confucianism, similar to Shinto, required a man to honor his ancestors and worship ancestors without fail; discipline, obedience, respect for elders. Naturally, thus Confucianism was supported by the feudal rulers of Japan and they would have been fools if they had not supported such a beneficial philosophy for them. Therefore, it is not surprising that Confucianism became the basis for education among representatives of the Japanese ruling class, and, above all, samurai.
You can find such a flashlight even in the middle of the wildest forest. Who put it here, who kindles the fire in it? Unclear…
Well, the main thing in Confucianism was the principle of patriarchy, which placed filial piety above everything else in the world. The fact is that according to this teaching, there is one world family in the world, which consists of Heaven-father, Earth-mother and man - their child. Accordingly, there is a second large family - this is the state headed by the emperor. The emperor in this family is both Heaven and Earth (that is, both mother and father in one person, and how can you not listen to this ?!), the ministers are his older children, and the people, respectively, are the younger ones. And the last family is a “healthy unit of society”. Naturally, the interests of the individual are completely ignored in this case. Rather, they are ignored until this male personality itself grows old and - this is important, she herself will not be able to actively act. But he will be able to actively push around his children! Hence the dogma of loyalty of the younger to the elders and the unquestioning obedience to the head of the family, no matter how tyrant and idiot he is. The feudal prince from this point of view was the same father, and, of course, the head of all samurai - the shogun. We can say, fortunately, people always remain people, and the rules are mainly obliged to follow the younger and the weak. The strong (younger) could neglect and neglect them. Although society condemned this behavior. The highest representatives of the samurai clan did what they wanted, and no one could even say a bad word to them! For example, in the decisive battle at Sekigahara, such famous princes as Hideaki Kobayakawa (received a land plot on the island of Honshu with an income of 550,000 koku), Wakizaka Yasuharu (received an allotment of 50,000 koku of rice for this!) And Hiroe Kikkawa, who also without there was no reward left. And none of their samurai told them to their face that, they say, sir, you have committed a dishonorable act, and I condemn you. But since I cannot condemn the master, then I choose death to shame to serve him! Do you think at least one did so? No one! Although, they say that Kobayakawa himself suffered from remorse until his death, which, by the way, came to him quite soon after that.
These are bodhisattvas - in Buddhism, beings (or people) who have bodhicitta, that is, they decided to become a Buddha for the benefit of all beings. I came, bought it and put it in my garden.
Confucianism pointed out that five virtues (or constancies) distinguish man from animal. The first is humanity, the essence of which, as in Christianity, is love and its manifestation is kindness. Then comes justice - you need to do everything so as not to pay attention to your own benefit. The third virtue is kindness and respect for people, but a particularly respectful attitude towards those "who are higher than us" and at the same time - a disdainful attitude towards those who are lower. That is, in other words, in the Japanese understanding, good behavior can be called modesty. Then comes wisdom. This is the fourth virtue. To be wise means to correctly distinguish between good and evil, truth and untruth, and understand everything. Finally, the last, Confucian and fifth virtue is truthfulness.
Well, what a temple in Japan can be without a "rock garden", but perhaps the most useless!
If a person has all these virtues in himself and knows how to resist the pernicious burden of passions, then in his life he meets five correct human relationships: the relationship between parents and their children; between the master and his servant; between a husband and his wife; between older and, accordingly, younger brothers; well, between those whom he considers his friends. These five main types of relationship are called gorin.
The sacred torii gate. Passed under them - cleared the karma, the more the gate, the purer the karma! Pay attention to the komaini standing in front of the entrance - a pair of guardian statues of dogs or lions, which can often be found installed on both sides of the entrance to the sanctuary. However, if we are talking about the sanctuaries of Inari, then instead of dogs, and even more so lions, foxes act.
For the samurai, the main, of course, was the relationship between him and his master. For the servant, his service to the master is his primary duty and his main duty. They gratefully receive handouts from their master in money or, say, land, while they are encouraged by the thought that it is his duty and vital duty to give his life for him. “This is the main moral duty of a servant,” says the Confucian teaching. To follow it is an honor, to violate it means to leave the path of virtue and be subject to universal condemnation!
In our church the bell is ringing. In Japan, the bell has no "tongue". Therefore, they beat him!
In bushido, this idea of service was highlighted, and all other requirements were declared secondary and did not play a big role. A vassal in Japan, following the commandments of bushido, showed his loyalty by the fact that together with his master (or after him) he “went into the Void”, that is, he committed “suicide after”, which by the XIV century had become a widespread form of servant duty to lord. But on the other hand, one should not exaggerate the significance of this phenomenon in Japan. Otherwise, where did, for example, come from at least 100,000 ronin, that is, samurai who “lost their master”, hired to garrison the rebellious Osaka in 1613? After all, in theory, all of them, observing this custom, should have been dead.
And in a Shinto shrine, they beat the drums!
So, the religious worldview of the samurai is an alloy of the dogmas of Buddhism, Confucianism that came to Japan from China, and also elements of the national religion - Shinto, which managed to enter into close symbiosis with them. Over time, the scattered elements of all these three religions were closely intertwined and turned into one single whole. But other world religions and numerous religious movements did not have a noticeable influence on the class of Japanese warriors.
Omikuji are pieces of paper on which the predictions you received are written. They can be found in many shrines and temples. It can be daikichi ("great luck") and daikyo ("great misfortune") - what you pulled from the soothsayer. By tying such a leaf around a branch of a sacred tree or a special rice rope, you can make a "good" prediction come true and prevent the fulfillment of a "bad" one.
However, Christianity, which spread to Japan after the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century, had a noticeable success. The activities of Christian missionaries on her land, and first of all the Jesuits, very soon bore fruit. For example, almost half of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army in his campaign against Korea in 1598 consisted of Christians. But it should be noted that Christianity in Japan was not Christianity in the full sense of the word. It was also quite peculiar, and likewise included a number of elements of Buddhism and even Shinto. The syncretic nature of Christianity on the land of Japan manifested itself, for example, in the identification of the Mother of God with … Amida-butsu or Kannon-bosatsu, which, from the point of view of orthodox Christians, was heresy and a terrible sin.
At the temple, cleansing water is a must. The bucket is disinfected with infrared radiation, so drink to your health!
In addition, immediately after the unexpected rise of Christianity in the country, followed by an equally, if not faster, eradication, due to the fact that the shoguns feared the religion of foreigners and feared the growth of their influence, which concealed a mortal danger to their extremely limited state system.
A sacred rope, the thicker it is, the more “sacred”!
And this is it for a cut!
