There are two major religions in Japan. One of them are “Shinto”,which is traditional Japanese religion. The other is Buddhism. Almost all Japanese belong to both Shinto and Buddhism “statistically”. However, the majority of Japanese people does not recognize a sense of belonging to religions,and they also consider themselves to have ‘No religion’. Although we respect many religious ideas and rituals,they think these are mere culture. But the thing that it does not really matter in Japanese society is also true.
Japanese belong to.
Most Japanese answer “Almost all Japanese have no religion.”
Of course there are a few people who have no religion. But I doubt the answer as an explanation of Japanese religion.
When I’m asked about Japanese religion,I answer as follows.
There are two major religions in Japan. One of them is “Shinto”,which is traditional Japanese religion. The other is Buddhism. Almost all Japanese belong to both Shinto and Buddhism “statistically”. However, the majority of Japanese people does not recognize a sense of belonging to religions,and they also consider themselves to have ‘No religion’. Although we respect many religious ideas and rituals,they think these are mere culture. But it does not really matter in Japanese society is also true.
According to religious statistical survey(2012) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the number of adherents of each religions is as follows
Shinto : 100,770,882 (approx.100 million)
Buddhists : 84,708,309 (approx.80 million)
Christian : 1,920,892 (approx.2 million)
The others : 9,490,446 (approx.10 million)
The sum of all these totals is196,890,529,approximately 200 million.
It means the number is more than 120 million of total Japanese population.
This is the reason why “statistically” almost all Japanese belong to both Shinto and Buddhism.
Not only the thing that Japanese does not recognise their religion, but also they belong to 2 religions simultaneously are quite surprised.
Why??
Note:The following description includes personal opinions.
We(Japanese) more often respect many religious ideas and rituals than we realise. For example,most of the funeral ceremonies in Japan are observed as Buddhist ritual. We visit a shrine or a temple on new year’s day.
We rely on the deities when we are in trouble. Moreover, if a person who had got away with doing bad meets with a misfortune,we say it is curses. It’s exactly religious idea.
Japanese people do not have a strong sense of religion as a whole is also true.
However,even if Japanese has no religion,they should not be called atheists because many kinds of religious ideas and rituals have taken root in Japan as mentioned above.
To begin with,Shinto is polytheism. Shinto preaches that there are Yaoyorozu deities.
Yaoyorozu(八百万) means 8 million literally, and is also a metaphor of “countless”.
Therefore Shinto could tolerate many “gods”.
In this sense,we might be able to say that Japanese are devout adherents of Shinto in such society that customers can be god.
(‘The customer is always right’ is well-known slogan in Japanese service industry.)
Spirituality is a lie.
Japanese religion is an interesting concept, my mother is Okinawan and I have a mainland Japanese sister-in-law and neither of them would say that they belong to any official religion. However, they and their families follow many traditions and practices that clearly come from Shinto and Buddhist beliefs. The conclusion we came to was just that Japanese people have a tendency to assimilate from others in just about everything. It's just a weird cultural thing that's really hard to explain to westerners, part of why I never understood people who cry about cultural appropriation.
>>783187
>>783189
Japanese religions aren't mutually exclusive. Technically you could consider each shrine it's own tiny religion, without a lot of interconnection with other shrines besides folk traditions.
If you look at the polytheistic times in history, most people didn't subscribe to a specific religion, few people joined the priesthood or a cult, but they did worship and believe in various gods.
Even if you look at early Christian missionaries, locals would worship both their pagan gods and christ during conversion.
Mutually exclusive religion is one of those abrahamic religion things that they ripped off from zoro.
>>783850
>However, they and their families follow many traditions and practices that clearly come from Shinto and Buddhist beliefs.
And you probably practice some form of Yule, harvest festival, and spring equinox.
Tenra Bansho Zero is a tabletop role-playing game made in Japan.
The game's fictional setting both Shinto and Buddhism are present and practiced.
However, Buddhism is the only official religion there. That means Shinto isn't even considered a religion.
The people believe that the Shinto gods, beliefs and practices are part of the natural order. They just exist.
People would believe in Amaterasu for the same reason they believe in the existence of the sun; and most of the Shinto Priesthood believes in Buddhism too.
Buddhism is the organized religion of revealed, enlightened truth whereas Shinto is an ordered system of knowledge and traditions about how nature and the heavens work.
This was an eye opener for me, because of this game I was able to understand, in simple terms, why and how would a Japanese believe in both.
>>783923
Got a link for the PDF?
We don't believe in Gods.
We are with them.
>>783933
It's in the Mega archive in the top post:
http://archive.4plebs.org/tg/thread/45649035/#45649035
Once you get in the folder, click on Translated, then download the .rar file.
![496px-Inari-Jogyo-ji[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/nyVBlKv.jpg "496px-Inari-Jogyo-ji[1].jpg")
If you are in Japan, you will able to worship to Buddha and Kitsune at the same time.
Buddhism has been integrated in many religions.Even Chinese and Hindus copy some aspects of Buddhism.Buddha being a deity in many Asian religions. That makes me wonder why did many in the theistic past find this agnostic religion attractive?
>>784679
I have a theory that Sufi Islam is also influenced by Buddhism in some historical way.
>>784679
Buddhism doesn't mind about god exists or not.
Even the god of omniscient and omnipotent can be a defender of Buddhist doctrines.
>>784694
Its historically known Sufi Islam was influenced by Shankaracharya Hinduism(Not sure about the name) which itself was influenced Buddhism.
I love this kind of attitude towards religion because it means traditions and religious culture are kept alive without them really coming into conflict with modern secularism. It's not an identity, a moral compass, or a belief in conflict with other beliefs. It's not something you 'belong to'. It's just a part of every day life. The secular West has things like Christmas or Easter, but usually these are stripped of most religious traditions. A Westerner would rarely enter a church if they weren't actually religious, while in Japan it would be fairly normal to visit a shrine on special occasions regardless of belief. At least that's the impression I have, tell me if I'm being overly idealistic.
I was wondering are there many other cultures with an attitude to religion like this? Are China and Vietnam like that, or did Communism create too much conflict with religion? What about Korea and Taiwan?
What about Southeast Asia? I know a lot of Theravada countries tend to have a mix of Buddhism, Hinduism, and animism, but I'm not sure what attitudes towards religion are like there, especially now with all the shit happening in Burma.
>>784805
I don't know about your questions regarding Asia in general, but you're clearly right about the West.
Religion is much more about the inner life of the individual in the West, so clearly a person who isn't religious wouldn't go to a church if there wasn't some other reason to do so.
I would imagine that the reason East and South-East Asians have this relationship with religion in general is because they are very collectivist societies, traditionally speaking.
>>784805
>Are China and Vietnam like that, or did Communism create too much conflict with religion?
Syncretism is fuck common in East Asia.
However China did have to deal with nutjobs like Muslims and Christians. And did shit on these groups for their religions.
Not to mention that unlike Japan, China had a notion of barbarous religions. Buddhism got only accepted after undergoing a major overhaul as Chan Buddhism.
You know, the Buddhism all East Asia follows.
>>784869
>Not to mention that unlike Japan, China had a notion of barbarous religions
I'm pretty sure the Japanese persecuted Christians exceptionally hard before the Meiji Restoration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakure_Kirishitan
>>784877
Japan accepted Buddhism pretty quick.
But when Buddhism first entered China they had lingering fucking doubts on what seemed to be a bunch of loons worshipping a famine victim (horror #1) and encouraging social irresponsibility with their middle path (horror #2).
Hence Buddhism was sprayed with a Confucian/Taoist hose before being accepted by the Chinks.
I can kind of relate as a Chinese person, for a personal anecdote my family isn't religious but we do perform religious rituals or follow principles that could be classified as part of ancestor worship or Buddhism or Taoism. While we don't observe religious practices regularly, we will if it's for a holiday just for tradition's sake. It's interesting how instead of segregating religions like the Europeans did, quite a few Asian cultures just sort of blended them together.
But I don't know what the hell happened to the Koreans to make them so Christian.
>>784897
>But I don't know what the hell happened to the Koreans to make them so Christian.
Probably because of American influence during and after the Korean War.
>>784889
The same could be said of Shinto, as a state religion.
>>784903
It's also helpful to point out the creedal vacuum left by communist aggression; the communists delivered the deathblow to Buddhism as state religion, and Buddhism's been slowly decaying since. After the communists fell, Buddhism remained the majority religious group, but the christians received financial assistance from Murrica, and they've been breeding like rabbits since. I don't think Christianity will last in East Asia. It's more likely that Islam or Sikhism will spread from the SW.
>>784942
>It's more likely that Islam or Sikhism will spread from the SW.
Please no.
Suddenly those Chinese intellectuals' dreams of Confucianism as an official State religion of China sound a little bit more agreeable.
>Japanese topic on /his
>China gets brought up
>Chinese topic on /his
>Japan gets brought up
I want Eurocentrists and ignoramuses to leave.
>>785058
>I am offended by the interraltion of two entities with shitloads of cultural interaction between them
>>784694
That's a really unoriginal theory, you shouldn't claim it as your own.
>>785071
Yeah yeah Ahmed, we know, the Koran is the perfect word of God and can't be influenced by anything.
But we normal people are having a discussion and you can leave if it's hard for you.
>>785058
No u
>>785058
>Roman topic on /his
>Greece gets brought up
>Greek topic on /his
>Rome gets brought up
I want weeaboos to leave.
>>785082
Did you even read the post you responded too?
>>784877
>I'm pretty sure the Japanese persecuted Christians exceptionally hard before the Meiji Restoration.
As well they should have.
Christianity is a plague, and back then, it was little more than a way for the papacy to further enrich itself and gain power. For every convert they created, they created another individual they could try to shame, intimidate, or coerce into "tithing"....in the name of the "lord", of course.
They should have slaughtered every single Christian that dare set foot on their lands, as should have everybody else.
>>785189
As opposed to Japanese ideology, which crams most of its population in square boxes, while bureaucrats skim the profits (but thankfully innovate)?
>>785206
>modern Japanese society is representative of values held before the Meiji Restoration
This is /his/, not /int/ or /pol/. Who cares about what modern Japanese people do?
>>783189
It's not too common. Some buddhist sects adhere to traditional Asian gods.
>>785206
>As opposed to Japanese ideology...
Absolutely.
>>785189
> Christianity is a plague.
> Jesuits did a lot of good for Japan especially with trade and management of local lords land, a big diamyo event converted because they saw how it was greater than the customs they grew up with.
Some butthurt Pagan you are sir.
>>783187
I like japanese way regarding religion
I wish it was the same in my country too
Shinto is animism, one of the only examples of such in a complex, modern society. Animism isn't exactly a type of religion, it's more comparable to a false science. It gave explanations for things that at the time did not have an explanation. As technology and science caught up, instead of evolving into a set of beliefs and moral codes, Shinto evolved into a set of superstitions and cultural traditions, which is exactly what animistic beliefs tend to do.
It's not a religion at all, it's simply what they developed to answer questions like "where does thunder come from?" "there's a big man in the sky banging a drum!". When you explain to them where thunder actually comes from, they nod their head and accept that explanation, their previous explanation discarded in favor of one that makes even more sense. That's not how religious people respond when they are told that they're wrong.
The way they practice Buddhism is pretty much a cultural flavor, and the furthest extent of actual beliefs they are likely to have associated with it are some sort of loose belief in a karmatic system that doesn't even necessarily apply to Buddhism. Japanese people simply aren't a religious people.
>>785254
>surely the uneducated impoverished Japanese peasants targeted by the Catholic Church were better off by being coerced into paying a tithing along with the normal taxes owed to the Daimu...
>>785332
> impoverished
>implying people take Shintoism seriously
>>785324
Your understanding of animism is very superficial and naive. Animism has a deep spiritual side that has nothing to do with false science and giving explanations for mysterious things. It could be briefly described as the belief that spirits are everywhere, that everything is in some way alive and full of personality, without that having any kind of necessary material consequence. It's not about the behavior of things or phenomena, it's just about the feel coloration of natural symbols. You could compare it to some kind of jungian phenomenology. It's just deeply meaningful poetry. It has no pragmatic aspect.
>>785401
>t. christfag
>>785058
>eternal anglo topic on his
> wow evil continentals brought up
I want anglos to leave
Shinto is very comfy. Seems to be a very aesthetic way of looking at the world
Historically Buddhism has been very inclusive. I'm Thai and we Thais are Buddhist but worship local Hindu and Folk deities
