Religion and Religious Customs of the Japanese
From Recollections of Japan by Vasiliĭ Mikhaĭlovich Golovnin, 1819.
From: 1811 C.E. To: 1819 C.E.
Location: Hokkaido, Japan
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Recollections of Japan by Vasiliĭ Mikhaĭlovich Golovnin, 1819.
I have mentioned that the prevailing religion of Japan is derived from India, as the Japanese themselves attest, and is a branch of the religion of the Bramins; but millions, perhaps the greater part of the people, follow other religious doctrines, which cannot properly be called sects, as they are not branches of the prevailing religion, and have quite another origin.
The Japanese, with whom we conversed on the articles of their belief, are not agreed in the number of the kinds of religion among them. Some said there were seven, and others only four: the latter affirmed, that three of the seven were only sects which superstition had formed from the four principal religions: these are the following—
I. The most ancient religion in Japan, which is followed by the aboriginal inhabitants of this kingdom; at present, indeed, disfigured in many particulars, and no longer the prevailing religion of the people; but deserving the first place on account of its antiquity.
The adherents of this religion believe that they have a preference before the others, because they adore the ancient peculiar divinities called Kami; that is, the immortal spirits, or children of the highest being, who are very numerous. They also adore and pray to saints, who have distinguished themselves by a life agreeable to heaven, uncommon piety and zeal for religion.
They build temples to them, and call them Chadotschi. It is probable that they have not all obtained this honour by their way of life, and their piety: there are saints among them, as the Japanese themselves assured us, who obtained the reputation of sanctity by the intrigues of the clergy for their own advantage.
The spiritual Emperor is the head, and high priest of this religion: he is the judge of the life of men upon earth, and determines those who are to be received among the number of the saints.
Cleanliness of body is one of the chief and indispensible rules of this religion. The adherents of it are not permitted to kill or to eat animals used in labour, or in domestic services, that they may not defile themselves. Thus, they may not eat beef, but they eat poultry, deer, hares, and even bears: they are also permitted to feed upon fish, and upon all kinds of sea animals. They must avoid staining themselves with blood, as this may defile them for a certain time. Touching a corpse, nay entering a house in which one is lying, defiles them for a number of days more or less, according to circumstances ; they therefore take all possible pains to avoid defiling themselves.
This religion has a sect who eat no land animal, but only sea animals and fish: some of our guards belonged to this sect. Some often ate deer and bears' flesh with us; others, on the contrary upon the days when meat was set before us, would not even light their pipes at the same fire with us: at other times they smoked out of our pipes, gave us theirs, nay, even drank their tea out of the cups which we had used. At first, I believed that they were adherents of different religions, but learned afterwards that the difference merely consisted in some particular rules adopted by the sect, the principal of which is, prohibition to eat the flesh of any land animal.
II. The religion derived from the Bramins, transplanted from India to Japan.—In Japan it also teaches the transmigration of souls, or that the souls of men and animals are beings of the same kind, which inhabit sometimes the bodies of men and sometimes those of animals. It therefore forbids them to kill any thing that has life. Besides, this religion very strictly forbids theft, adultery, lies, and drunkenness.
These commandments are truly good and wholesome, but all the other rules in respect to abstinence and way of life, which the adherents of this faith must observe, are so absurd, burdensome, and difficult to be followed, that there are probably few people who are pious, and at the same time strong enough to perform even the half of what this religion commands.
On this account there are more bad people, as well among the clergy as among the laymen in this religion, than in any other in Japan.
III. The religion of the Chinese, as it is called in Japan, or the doctrine of Confucius, which is highly esteemed by the Japanese.—The greater part of the Japanese men of learning and philosophers follow this doctrine.
IV. The adoration of the heavenly bodies.—They consider the sun as the highest divinity, then follow the moon and stars. Almost every constellation forms a separate divinity: these divinities contend with each other, and make peace; form alliances by marriage; seek to outwit and to injure each other; in short, according to the belief of the Japanese, they have all human weaknesses, and live like men, only with the difference that they are immortal, and assume any shape they please. This religion gave origin to a sect who adore fire, and consider it as a divinity derived from the sun.
These are the four principal religions in Japan, with which the Japanese themselves made us acquainted. I must, however, observe, that when our conversation turned on religious subjects, the Japanese answered our questions very unwillingly, and often pretended not to understand us, or gave quite unsatisfactory and unintelligible answers. They sometimes did not answer us at all, and questioned us respecting our faith.
As the Japanese would not permit us to learn to read and write, we were destitute of every means to penetrate more deeply into the knowledge of their religious concerns, which present such a vast field of sensible and absurd rules, of false and ridiculous traditions, religious ceremonies, &c. that the two years of our imprisonment would scarcely have sufficed to learn and to describe all, if we had been well versed in the language, and could have profited by the acquaintance and frankness of the inhabitants.
There are free-thinkers among the Japanese as among us, and perhaps they are as numerous. I have not heard that there were deists among them, but atheists and sceptics. These deny the existence of a Supreme Being, ascribe the creation and government of the world all to chance, and doubt of every thing.
Our friend Teske was of this latter class: he frequently conversed with us respecting his opinions. According to his notion, man knows only what has happened to him, the past and the present: the future, both in this world, and after death, is eternally hidden from him; therefore the doctrine of all religions on this subject is liable to the greatest doubts, and deserves no credit.
Arguing on this ground, he affirmed, that man must not omit any opportunity in his life of enjoying whatever can afford him enjoyment; for it is highly probable that death puts an end to every thing, and that man lives but once. Besides, in the enjoyment of all possible pleasures, we must endeavour to procure them to others, not out of fear of punishment after death, but that others may also endeavour to make our lives agreeable. In this manner, continued he, men must endeavour to afford each other every pleasure suitable to the taste and inclinations of each, of whatever kind they may be.
But as it is not to be expected, that a whole nation should become philosophers, and comprehend this truth, and as the majority would probably make use of this doctrine only to the injury of others, it is absolutely necessary to deceive the common people, and, convince them that there is a superior power which sees our most secret actions, and to which we must one day give a strict account of all the evil done to our fellow-creatures, and severely atone for it. In a word, he considered every religion as a fraud, necessary for the good of the people. We made our objections to such principles, but as he understood very little Russian, and we as little Japanese, our arguments entirely failed of producing any effect.
Curiosity induced me to ask whether it was allowed in Japan to speak freely and unreservedly on such subjects? "There is no law to forbid it," said Teske; ''but the hatred of the ecclesiastics falls upon him, who rejects or ridicules their absurd doctrines. Besides, they may accuse any one, who seeks to turn people from the faith which they profess. If the accused is convicted, the government condemns him to imprisonment for a certain time. But if any body preaches the Christian or any other foreign religion, he must die a cruel death."
Teske and many other Japanese spoke very unfavorably of their priests. "The servants of our temples," said they, "are, for the most part, licentious men, and though the laws command them to live temperately, to eat neither meat nor fish, to drink no wine, and have no wives: yet, in spite of this prohibition, they live very intemperately, seduce both women and girls, and commit other shameful enormities.”
The laws do not subject any one to punishment for the non-observance and violation of the precepts of religion, even the priests do not concern themselves about it. We knew several Japanese who made it a boast that they never visited a temple, and ridiculed their religious customs.
Many of them publicly eat meat, in defiance of their religious laws. One of the officers who liked the custom of the Kuriles of Matsmai, to eat dogs' flesh, prepared it in so barbarous a manner, that even the Kuriles shuddered at it. He usually put young dogs alive into boiling water, took them out pulled off the hair and devoured them.
The number of unprejudiced Japanese is very small, in proportion to the whole nation. They are, in general, not only extremely bigotted, but superstitious. They believe in sorcery, and love to converse on miraculous stories. They ascribe to the fox all the properties and mischievous tricks, which the common people in Europe attribute to the devil or unclean spirit.
Among us, the thunder kills, with a stone arrow; in Japan it is a cat which is hurled down by the lightning. In Russia, when you praise any one, you must spit three times that he may not become sick; if you give any one salt at table, you must laugh, in order not to quarrel afterwards, &c. In Japan, nobody goes over a new bridge, for fear of dying, till the oldest man in the country, in which the bridge is situated, has been led over it.
Among us, the ends of wax-tapers, which are left at the morning mass, on Sunday, are a protection against lightning; among the Japanese, peas, roasted in a pan, which they eat at a great winter festival, and of which they preserve a part for the summer, possess the same virtue. They affirmed that, if, during a thunderstorm, some of these wonder-working peas ars thrown against the walls of a house, the lightning cannot enter, and consequently every thing in that house shall be perfectly safe.
On their high roads, every mountain, every hill, every cliff, is consecrated to some divinity; at all these places, therefore, travellers have to repeat prayers, and frequently, several times over. But, as the fulfilment of this duty would detain pious travellers too long on the road, the Japanese have invented the following means to prevent this inconvenience. Upon these spots, consecrated to divinities, they set up posts, in case there are none already there, to mark the distances. In these posts a long vertical cut is made about an arsheen and a half, above the ground; on which a flat round iron plate turns like a sheave in a block.
Upon this plate the prayer is engraved, which is dedicated to the divinity of the place; to turn it round, is equivalent to repeating the prayer, and the prayer is supposed to be repeated as many times as it turns round. In this manner the traveller is able, without stopping, and merely by turning the plate with his fingers, to send up even more prayers to the divinity than he is obliged to do.
I am not able to say any thing of the religious ceremonies of the Japanese, because they never could be induced to allow us to enter their temples, during divine service: nor did they even speak of it. All that I know of it is limited to what here follows. The prayers are repeated three times in the day; at day-break; two hours before noon; and before sun-set: as the matin, noon, and vesper mass, are performed with us.
The people are informed of the hours of prayer by the ringing of a bell. Their method of ringing is as follows: after the first stroke of the bell, half a minute elapses; then comes the second stroke; the third succeeds rather quicker, the fourth quicker still: then come some strokes in quick succession; after a lapse of two minutes, all is repeated in the same order; in two minutes more, for the third time, and then it ends. Before the temples, there stand basins of water, made of stone or metal, in which the Japanese wash their hands before they enter. Before the images of the saint, lights are kept burning, made of train oil, and the bituminous juice of a tree, which grows in the southern and middle parts of Niphon.
The Japanese offer to the Gods natural, or artificial, flowers. They make the latter of coloured ribbands, or of paper, accordingly as the property, or the zeal of the supplicant is greater or less. These flowers are hung before the images of the saints, on the walls of the temples, or on the images themselves, as rings, &c. are with us. Those who are very zealous in their devotions offer also money, fruits, rice, and other provisions, which are very welcome to the servants of the temples. But the latter are not satisfied with these voluntary gifts. They wander about the towns and villages, and in the high ways, and demand offerings for their Gods. They therefore carry sacks upon their shoulders, to contain the gifts made them.
They also sing hymns, make discourses, or ring a little bell, which every one has fastened to his girdle. In our walks about Matsmai, we often met with them. During divine service the Japanese sit, as usual, on their knees, but with their heads bowed down, and their hands folded. When they repeat their prayers, they press their hands together, raise them so to their forehead, bow themselves several times, and pray half aloud.
The difference of religions and sects in Japan, does not cause the smallest embarrassment to the government, or in ordinary life. Every citizen has a right to profess what faith he pleases, and to change it as often as he thinks fit. Nobody concerns himself whether he does so out of conviction, or regard to his interest. It frequently happens that the members of one family follow different sects; yet, this difference of belief never occasions ill-will or disputes. Only the making of proselytes is prohibited by the laws.
The spiritual Emperor or Kin-Rey, is the head of the ancient Japanese religion; but all the other sects have a pious adoration for him. He not only confers the highest ecclesiastical dignities, but also bestows, on the superior officers of state, the dignity, or spiritual title of Kami, which the greatest men in the empire think it the highest honor to obtain. I have already had occasion to mention this dignity.
The Kin-Rey is invisible to all classes of the people, except his own household, and the officers of the temporal emperor, who are often sent to him. Once a year only, upon a great festival, he walks in a gallery, which is open below, so that every body can approach and see his feet. He always wears silk clothes, which, from the very first preparation of the silk, are manufactured by the hands of pure virgins.
His meals are brought to him each time, in new vessels, which are then broken. This, say the Japanese, is done, because nobody is worthy to eat out of the same vessel after him: if any one ventured it, or did it by mistake, he would immediately die.
The Japanese priesthood is divided into several classes; and they have high priests. One of these lived in Matsmai; he had a large house and buildings, with a garden which was surrounded by a rampart of earth, so that it had the appearance of a little fortress: this proves that the dignity is held in high honour. The Japanese told us, that his power over the priests extends only to religious affairs.
If a priest commits a criminal offence, or is entangled in temporal affairs, he is tried, and sentenced according to the laws, without any reference to the religions authority. During our residence at Matsmai, the governor caused a priest to be imprisoned for theft and flight: he was condemned by the temporal judges, and executed. When we told the Japanese that this was not the way in which we proceeded with our clergy, but that it was necessary first to degrade them from the ecclesiastical rank to which the church had consecrated them, and then deliver them to the temporal judge; the Japanese laughed, and said, that the priest in question was a scoundrel, who was not worthy to have his head upon his shoulders: the tribunals and the laws of his country had therefore condemned him, and so he lost his rank and his head at the same time, whether the religious government approved of it or not.
The high priest of Matsmai never waited on the governor, but was obliged to receive him once a year, in spring, in a little island near Matsmai, in a temple, which is dedicated to seven holy virgins.
There are also monks and nuns in Japan; but we could not learn on what foundation the convents rest, or what are the rules of the orders. We heard only that the monks and nuns should lead a very austere life; but that they did not much regard this, and preferred the certain enjoyments of this life to the uncertain promises of the future.—In this they much resemble ours.
Golovnin, Vasiliĭ Mikhaĭlovich. Recollections of Japan. Printed for H. Colburn, 1819.
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