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Grayson JH - Shinto & Japanese Popular Religion, Case Studies From Kyushu & Okinawa (JF 05)
Grayson JH - Shinto & Japanese Popular Religion, Case Studies From Kyushu & Okinawa (JF 05)
Abstract: The concept of multi-variant practices and beliefs as being characteristic of the shrines associated with Japanese popular religion is explored through
an examination of four shrines in Kyushu and Okinawa. None of these shrines,
even those which are formally associated with the Association of Shinto Shrines,
evinces the characteristics of Shinto practice which the Association claims is
typical of Shinto. How are we to account for these differences? Insight is provided through an examination of the original function and subsequent history
of these four non-mainstream shrines. Comparison of the history and practice
of these shrines with similar shrines in Korea illustrates the importance of researching both locally and comparatively to draw out the unique features of each
shrine. Before scholars can accept broad generalizations about popular Japanese
religious practice, or about Shinto, anthropological research in addition to historical and textual research should be carried out on the practices and traditions
of individual, local shrines. Examination of empirical data drawn from numerous
case studies will enable scholars to have a clearer idea of actual religious practice in Japan, regional variations, and similarities and differences with practices
in neighbouring nations.
Keywords: Shinto, popular religion, Mikato Shrine, Hiki Shrine, Tamayama
Shrine, Tsukishiro-no-miya Shrine
Introduction
In the spring of 1999, I received a grant from the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee to conduct field research in Japan on certain shrines in Shimane
Prefecture which, from their formal names, appeared to be dedicated to Korean
spirits. I also had the opportunity to examine a range of different shrines in three
other regions of Japan. As an anthropological researcher of Korean religions, this
field work confirmed an impression which I had had for several years, namely,
Japan Forum 17(3) 2005: 347367
C 2005 BAJS
Copyright
348
that Shinto was a socio-political construction and not the coherent and distinct
tradition which has often been presented in standard works on world religions.
From my field work, it seemed apparent that during the nineteenth century a high
degree of rationalization of local traditions had taken place to create a uniform tradition which had not actually been there before. In my previous article (Grayson
2002), I was able to show that, contrary to the received image of Susa-no-o in
the Kojiki, Nihon shoki and scholarly work in general, historic and current myths
told about this figure in Shimane depict him not as an unruly, violent character
but as a benevolent culture bearer, the bringer of civilization (the knowledge of
metallurgy and afforestation techniques) to western Japan. Subsequent examination of shrines in Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa Prefectures convinced me
that there was a significant disjuncture between the presentation of the uniformity of Shinto practice and actual local practice. It further convinced me of the
methodological importance of researching local traditions before drawing broad
generalizations about the state of national practices. The conclusions drawn from
my research were broadly in line with current research about Japanese shrines.
In their introduction to a collection of essays Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami
(2000), the editors John Breen and Mark Teeuwen demonstrate on the one hand
how Shinto superficially appears to be and to have been a homogeneous entity
both in contemporary Japan and throughout Japanese history. To illustrate this
first point, they refer to the ubiquity of Shinto shrines, the striking character of
the costumes of the Shinto priests, the existence of a large organization, the Jinja
Honcho (Association of Shinto Shrines), which regulates and co-ordinates the
majority of Japanese shrines, the commonality and ubiquity of individual religious practices, and the wide-spread presence of local, national and calendrical
ceremonies. They cite all of these features as indications of an apparent coherent
and distinct religious tradition (Breen and Teeuwen 2000: 12).
However, in spite of all of these signs of unity and uniformity, they also point
out that there are anomalies. Referring to the apparently seamless connection
between the symbols of imperial and local rituals, the editors of the volume comment that, in spite of superficial appearances, there is little awareness on the part
of the majority of Japanese about the nature of the rites that are focused on the
imperial house. Breen and Teeuwen state that there is an anomaly between a
self-consciously Shinto establishment and the national, not to say nationalistic, agenda professed by the majority of its members on the one hand, and local
shrines and the practices and beliefs of ordinary Japanese who venerate there, on
the other (Breen and Teeuwen 2000: 3). In other words, there is not the coherent
and distinct religious tradition which seems apparent upon first examination.
Breen and Teeuwen also cite another anomaly, namely, that between the statistics quoted for adherence to Shinto and the actual sense of belonging to such
a religious entity on the part of individual Japanese. Research has shown consistently that, in spite of the fact that many Japanese participate in a large number of
Shinto rituals and festivals, they have no awareness that their practice constitutes
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something called Shinto, or that they themselves are Shintoist. They certainly
do not, themselves, profess affiliation to the Shinto religion. They go on to argue,
however, that Shinto as a religious construction is not a recent creation, but can
be shown to have long historic roots (Breen and Teeuwen 2000: 13).
Nonetheless, there still remains in both foreign and Japanese popular conception
a homogeneous religious practice called Shinto
which the Jinja Honcho in a
pamphlet styled simply Shinto, written to explain the essence of Shinto to nonJapanese, describes in the following way:
Shinto is a general term for the activities of the Japanese people to worship all
the deities of heaven and earth, and its origin is as old as the history of the
Japanese. It was towards the end of the 6th century when the Japanese were
conscious of these activities and called them Way of [the] Kami (the deity or
the deities). It coincides [with] the time when the 31st Emperor Yomei prayed
before an image of Buddha [for] the first time as an emperor for [the] recovery
of his illness. Thus accepting Buddhism, a foreign religion, the Japanese realized
[the] existence of a tradition of their own faith.
(Ueda n.d.: 2)
This statement may be taken to be the official view on the subject by the principal organization which co-ordinates the activities of the vast majority of Shinto
shrines in Japan. In this document, the Shrine Association makes three claims
about Shinto. First, the Association claims that those religious activities which
it classifies as Shinto have existed since time immemorial, that is since the beginning of the Japanese nation. Second, the Association claims that Shinto is a
set of religious acts focused on the propitiation of the deities of the heavens and
the national land. Third, the Association claims that Shinto became a formalized
entity, that is a set of distinct and different religious practices, when the Emperor
Yomei (traditional dates, r. 5857) is said to have prayed to the Buddha for the
first time in his role as sovereign. This third claim implies a close relationship
between the sovereign and Shinto, and that Shinto had existed as a homogeneous
entity up until that time. These three claims taken together imply that Shinto was
a monolithic set of practices throughout the nation from time immemorial and
that it was the introduction of Buddhism which created a situation of religious
diversity. However, the field research which I conducted on shrines in Kyushu
and Okinawa indicated to me that the conceptions of local people and their ritual
practices do not conform to the official view espoused by the Shrine Association
to which their shrines belong. In this essay, I will reflect on observations drawn
from my field work and compare them with observations of shrines in Korea in
order to clarify both our conceptions about popular Japanese religious practices
and the methodological approaches which we utilize in order to achieve this epistemological goal.
350
(
), the furthest west of the two villages is the centre of the ritual complex
and contains a number of sites associated with the legendary cycle. The central
shrine for the area, the Mikato Shrine (
), is located in the village of
the same name. To the south and east of Nango-son
while the son came ashore at Kamegahama. When Teika-o arrived in Nango-son,
the leaders of the seven clans in the existing village accepted him as their chief.
Likewise, when Hukuchi-o arrived in Kijo-ch
o he was accepted by the villagers
as their village chief. At some point after this, warriors who had been sent out by
the court discovered the places where the Paekche nobles were hiding and there
was a great battle outside Nango-son
treasure house in Nara. Some twenty years ago, a large number of bronze mirrors and other artefacts had been excavated from the site, and it was decided in
351
1986 to develop the village as a tourist destination to bring in income and to prevent too many of the younger generation from leaving to go to urban areas such
as Miyazaki. To support the tourist industry a large village hall, a replica of the
Shos
oin
in Nara called the Nishi Shos
oin
(Western Shos
oin)
History, the
exotic and natural resources are used to give an attractive ambience to what is a
very remote village. According to local government officials, the movement has
been relatively successful in keeping and drawing back younger villagers, and has
attracted a large number of Korean tourists and other nationalities.
The large shrine itself is accessible via a series of steps lined with torii leading up
from a lower plaza. The honden, or shrine proper, was encased some forty years
ago in an outer wooden structure to protect the small building from the elements.
Unremarkable in layout, the Mikato Shrine has three features of particular interest
a special miniature shrine on the lower level for the handicapped who cannot
make it up to the shrine precinct itself, a monument next to it commemorating
villagers who died in the Sino-Japanese War of 189495 and, to the right of the
honden, a stele marking the alleged grave site of the seven clan elders who submitted
to Teika-o when he came to Nango-son.
were
ridiculed for worshipping a Korean spirit. In turn, in contemporary times this
352
Korean connection has become a source of pride and was used to develop the
areas economy.
the shrine lacks any of the ancillary items which distinguish the Mikato Shrine
such as the stele commemorating the original clan ancestors. However, as with the
Mikato Shrine, the Hiki Shrine is said to be dedicated principally to two spirits,
the Paekche prince and Susa-no-o (Nihon chimei daijiten 1967, 1: 147).3 Thus,
this shrine, like the Mikato Shrine, is essentially a village tutelary shrine which
had its character and status re-assigned during the early Meiji period to fit the
ideas of a centralized concept of Shinto, in this case by the addition of another
spirit, Susa-no-o. These alterations changed the nature of the shrine from being
a local shrine celebrating a local rite into a nationally approved type of Shinto
shrine.
Traditionally, the two communities of Nango-son
and Kijo-ch
o have participated in the Shiwasu matsuri, but, aside from that ritual connection, the two
areas have had little active contact with each other. Kijo-ch
o has not developed
its tourist industry by using the myth and perceived continental connections as
has Nango-son.
and Kijo-ch
o shrines raises a fundamental question.
What makes a Shinto shrine Shinto? If, as the Jinja Honcho implies in its pamphlet it is the worship of the gods of the Japanese land and sky, how can shrines
dedicated to two princes of a continental royal family be in any sense Shinto?
Clearly these royal spirits have no connection with the Japanese imperial cult nor
are they indigenous spirits of the land. They are unmistakably foreign. In terms
of their original function, the cult practised at these shrines is both tutelary and
ancestral, that is, local. The location of the two shrines dedicated to these two
foreign princes is close to key ritual areas associated with the very foundation of
the Japanese state and its imperial house. The Miyazaki jinja in Miyazaki City
is dedicated to the mythical first emperor Jimmu; the place where Teika-o came
ashore is very close to the spot where Jimmu is said to have set sail with his
forces to conquer the main Japanese island; to the north and east of Nango-son
353
mikami, primal ancestress of the imperial house. Thus, these Korean shrines
are located in the very heart of the territory of Japanese imperial or Shinto
mythology.
and Kijo-ch
o,
the well-kept streets of the village
give a strong air of prosperity. The villagers are descendants of Korean potters
who were brought to Kyushu
and Kijo-ch
o,
this is an area which makes much of its Korean
connections.
354
Shinto and Japanese popular religion
Plate 1 Tamayama Shrine, Ichikicho,
Kagoshima Prefecture: panels located beneath the veranda of the honden block the view of the sacred
rock located within the shrine (photo: author).
355
356
Before entering the wooded path leading up to the shrine precinct, there is a
small area marked off with a concrete railing and a small concrete torii which
is oriented away from the shrine itself in the direction of the Kirishima Shrine
on Mt Takachihomine. Constructed in 1941, this spot was created so that the
worshippers to the shrine could worship Ninigi-no mikoto who is enshrined
at the Kirishima Shrine. This is also the same general location of the cave in
357
Kuni
nu nushi
(
, Ruler of the World, Ruler of the Nation).
deities into the Shinto pantheon. In 1909, the government tried to establish a central shrine for Okinawan Shinto at Nami-no-ue by the harbour in Naha. There
was a notable lack of local interest in this project, which did not come to fruition
until 1923. At this shrine, the first Ryuky
uan
king, King Shuten (purported dates
r. 1181237), and his alleged Japanese father Minamoto Tametomo were venerated along with kings Sho En (r. 14706), Sho Nei (15891621) and Sho Tai
(r. 184879) of the Second Sho dynasty (14691879). Sho En was the founder
of the dynasty. Sho Nei surrendered to the Shimazu clan, lords of Satsuma, and
entered into a quasi-vassal relationship with them. Sho Tai was the last King of the
Ryuky
us
and was sent into exile by the Japanese when they annexed the islands.
358
Plate 2 Tsukishiro-no-miya Shrine, Okinawa: the honden as seen from the haiden. Note the three
small altars in front of the shrine door, the rock on the ground to the left side of the shrine with an
engraved inscription and the general atmosphere of neglect (photo: author).
The connection with King Shuten and Tametomo was particularly important to
the Shintoization project because Tametomo was a seventh-generation member
of the Minamoto clan through the lineage of the Emperor Seiwa (r. 85876).
Using this link, it could be alleged that the Okinawan royal family was in fact a
Plate 3 Tsukishiro-no-miya Shrine, Okinawa: rude, Okinawan shrine located to the left rear of the honden (photo: author).
359
360
branch of the Japanese imperial house, thus justifying the Shintoization of religious practices and, more broadly, the Japanese annexation of Okinawa. After
1931, as an extension of this policy, Shinto shrines were erected in front of local
shrines throughout the Ryuky
us
(Kerr 1958: 4512; Summers 1994: 70, 7882).
The shrine at the Tsukishiro-no-miya site is an excellent example of the use
which was made of local shrines to conform to the centralistic policies of State
Shinto. Here, a local shrine was linked into the broader practices of Shinto for
the purposes of assimilating Okinawans into the general Japanese population of the
empire. Moreover, this shrine, because of its links with the Ryuky
uan
royal myth,
could be made to fit in neatly with the Japanese imperial myth, thus providing a
mytho-ideological basis for the annexation of the kingdom.9
However, the subtle rejection by the Okinawans of this project is quite plain.
The length of time which it took actually to construct the central shrine is one
historical indication of this fact. What has happened at the Tsukishiro-no-miya
is even more striking. The Shinto parts of this shrine (the formal structures)
in effect have been completely abandoned. What could be more telling than the
use of the temizuya as a litter bin. Even more striking, however, is the way in
which local practice has reclaimed the site. At the time of my visit, there were five
separate altars, three of which were in front of the honden itself, as if reclaiming
that building. There is also a dedicatory stone to a spirit which is venerated locally.
and
Kijo-ch
o were ridiculed for worshipping Korean spirits that is, a non-Japanese
spirit was seen to be a non-Shinto spirit. In the Meiji period, the Tamayama
Shrine, because it venerated a non-native spirit, was re-organized so that proper
Japanese spirits were enshrined there. Although the local people rejected this
intervention in their local practices, it is clear that officials of the reforming Meiji
government saw that their shrine was not a proper Shinto shrine. The shrine at
the Tsukishiro-no-miya site was never a Shinto shrine in any sense because it was
a shrine in another national tradition, yet it was Shintoized, a process which
361
has been visibly rejected in modern times. Local people in their own way have
reclaimed this shrine for themselves.
The history of these four shrines over the past century and a half has been a
struggle to accommodate to a process of standardization driven by the nationalistic
needs of the Meiji regime as it strove to create a modern state. These shrines
clearly were seen not to be Shinto, and had to be made Shinto. Yet for the local
people, these shrines never lost their initial character as local shrines dedicated to
locally important figures.
In its pamphlet Shinto, the Shrine Association makes the point that at the core
of the Shinto tradition are the practices of imperial Shinto and shrine Shinto.
Although recognizing variation in specific practice among the 80,000 or so shrines
registered with it, the Shrine Association asserts that a life lived in reverence to
the kami is characterized by three features gratitude for blessings, helpfulness to
others and a harmonious acknowledgement of the will of the emperor (Ueda n.d.:
910). A statement such as this represents an attempt to create a unified entity out
of some very disparate elements. The actual unity of shrine practices and beliefs is
arguably less uniform than the practice and theology of loosely organized Christian
bodies such as the Congregational churches where local practice and theology
are supposed to predominate. More importantly, as Breen and Teeuwen have
suggested, it is highly unlikely that the average participant in local shrine rituals
has any sense of consciously promoting the imperial system, or of being part of
some greater religious entity, as suggested by the Shrine Associations pamphlet.
A comparison at this point with the religious scene in Korea would be instructive. The first striking thing about Korean folk religion in comparison with
Shinto is that it has no name. It is commonly called shamanism, but it is erroneous to refer to Korean folk religious practices by this term, because not only do
the activities of the shaman not incorporate all of the folk religious practices of
Korea, but also they do not even constitute the predominant form of folk religious
practice. Specialized terms created by scholars are not any more satisfying than
shamanism. Korean folk religion is known variously as musok (
), musokkyo (
), mingan sinang (
) and other terms, but all are descriptive
terms and none is completely satisfactory. This should not be surprising. A diagnostic characteristic of a folk religion is that it is nameless because it represents
the accumulation of local practice over a long period of time. Beliefs, values and
practices which may be similar from place to place in a region or within a nation
may be taken to be similarities within a broad cultural tradition. These similarities by themselves, however, do not constitute a formal, institutionalized religious
organization.10
The reason why Korean folk religion, or elements of it, was not moulded by
the e lite into a formalized nativistic religious tradition was that, following the
official adoption of Buddhism and Confucianism in the early sixth century, the
Korean e lite saw themselves as creating and maintaining a thoroughly continental
civilization which was similar in character, practice and standards to China. Folk
362
traditions, particularly the shamanistic elements which were seen to be superstitious, were suppressed. For example, the first king to adopt Buddhism in Silla
took as his reign name Poph
ung
(
, r.513539), which translates the Sanskrit term Cakravart raja, The King Who Turns the Wheel of the Law. Such
a reign style indicated the thorough acceptance of continental (Chinese) civilization including Buddhism. All subsequent Korean e lites took the same view
towards nativistic traditions and looked on native religious traditions in particular as being u msa (
, immoral rites).11 Japanese e lites clearly took a different
view. The encounter with Buddhism and continental civilization in ancient Japan
led to the creation of a parallel, nativistic religious tradition, promoted by histories such as the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, which confirmed the distinctiveness
of Japanese religious and political traditions. It is too lengthy a story to discuss
here, but suffice it to say that this different approach to the encounter with continental civilization created a concept of nativism which could be used at appropriate times to support the imperial institution, national distinctiveness and the
state. Thus, it is no surprise that State Shinto emerged (re-emerged?) at the
end of the nineteenth century during Japans encounter with European industrial
civilization.
The second observation to make in comparing Shinto and Korean folk religion is
the character of shrines and shrine practice. Korean popular religion consists very
broadly of two main strands local shrine practices and the activities of individual
shamans. The majority of non-shamanic ritual practice in Korea centres on village
or clan shrines. That is, folk religious practice is focused on the veneration and
propitiation of spirits who are the founders of a particular clan or village, or both.
The spirits venerated in these shrines are tutelary spirits who are worshipped for
local reasons. The shrines in Miyazaki and Kagoshima Prefectures thus are very
similar in origin and local practice to these Korean shrines. Not that the Japanese
shrines are Korean, but rather that both sets of shrines have a similar origin
and function within the local society. In the case of the shrines in both Miyazaki
and Kagoshima, similarities in the architecture of shrine buildings and in ritual
practice where not attributable to deliberate government re-shaping may be
attributed simply to local, regional or national culture. Korean shrines represent a
wide range of local practice displaying certain broad cultural similarities. One may
speculate that the religious scene in the Japanese archipelago may have had this
same diversity of practice and lack of uniformity before the process of Shintoization
began in ancient Japan.
One of the chief features of Shintoization in the Meiji period was the need
to impose a uniformity of practice on all shrines in Japan. We have noted, for
example, how government officials attempted to alter the spirits worshipped at
the Tamayama Shrine so that it became a proper Shinto shrine, how a local shrine was made to conform to a centrally determined pattern. There are
shrines in Korea, however, which are clearly not Korean, such as the Tong-myo
(
) and the Waryong-myo (
) in Seoul. The Tong-myo was erected on a
363
(
, 1902) were erected in Seoul, and similar shrines
dedicated to Kuan Yu were erected in other parts of the country (Chungbo
Sae kuksa sajon 1983: 137, 286, 382, 547, 618; Clark and Grayson 1986:
100, 277).
On the slopes of Nam-san mountain in the southern part of old Seoul is the
Waryong-myo. Built at an uncertain date in the Choson
period (13921910), it is
dedicated to an associate of Kuan Yu.
It also is a Chinese-style shrine, originally
practising a cult of a martial spirit. Unlike the shrines dedicated to Kuan Yu which
have a quasi-governmental status, this shrine is a private foundation. There are
four principal sub-shrines here, one of which is dedicated to Tangun, founder
of the Korean nation (Clark and Grayson 1986: 1424). Thus, the Waryongmyo incorporates Chinese cults as well as a Korean cult and represents a natural
development in local shrine practice through the addition of other spirits to be
venerated there. These Chinese shrines in Korea indicate that in the absence of a
state-supported nativistic religion, and, in spite of centuries of official denigration
of the native traditions, foreign cults such as the ones mentioned above have
flourished in Korea. This is different from the experience of non-standard shrines
in Japan.
A third point of comparison between Shinto and Korean religious experience
is the process of imposing Shinto on nations where it is not an indigenous tradition. We have seen how it was the official policy of the central government
in the Meiji period to harmonise Ryuky
uan
jingu.
Created for the purpose of imposing
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was destroyed that night (Vos 1977: 2234). The author Richard H. Kim, in his
autobiographical novel Lost Names, provides a vivid account of how hated these
shrines were, and the frenetic way in which the shrine in his village was destroyed
(Kim 1988 [1970]: 16070). There is a further parallel between Okinawa and
Korea. The Chosen
The building has been so thoroughly obliterated that there are no traces of it left.
However, on the site of the shrine a memorial and museum have been erected to
An Chunggun
(18791910), the nationalist who assassinated the former ResidentGeneral in Korea, Ito Hirobumi (18381909). In this way, Korean nationalism
reclaimed space which had been claimed by Japanese nationalism in a Shinto
guise.
The rejection of Shintoization in Okinawa and Korea in a curious way demonstrates a central point made by the Shrine Association in its pamphlet that Shinto
is the worship and veneration by the Japanese of the spirits of the Japanese land.
Shinto is a local religion, a religion local to Japan and not capable of genuine
export or transmission to another nation. A created, nativitistic tradition such
as Shinto thus becomes closely associated with the ideology of the political establishment, as the Shrine Associations pamphlet makes quite clear, and when
imposed in an occupied country is perceived to be a symbol of oppression and the
loss of nationhood.
Conclusion
What can we conclude from these field-work observations about popular Japanese
religious practice, and what implications do these conclusions have for our research methodology about the beliefs and practices associated with shrines in
Japan? Breen and Teeuwen state that they:
propose a [concept of the] multiplicity of Ways of the Kami, each grown out
of different historical and social circumstances, and each with its own ritual and
theological agenda. Such an approach promises not only to open our eyes to
aspects of kami cults and Shinto traditions that have previously been ignored,
but also to throw new light on the rituals, beliefs and ideas of such cults and
traditions that have been studied only through the lens of the . . . notion that
they, ultimately, formed part of a single Way of the Kami.
(Breen and Teeuwen 2000: 8)
The view propounded by Breen and Teeuwen above takes into account the fact
that ultimately all religious traditions start locally, and that, in order to study the
365
indigenous religious traditions of Japan, one has to move beyond the artificial
construct of a single, unvarying, overarching tradition. The case studies which I
have presented of research conducted in Kyushu are not Japanese or Shinto in
the definition given by the Shrine Association to which they belong. They are local
shrines, and must be examined from that point of view at least initially. In no
other way could we understand the curious role which these shrines have played in
the sense of local belongingness, of local identity. As Breen and Teeuwen pointed
out earlier, people who offer veneration at these shrines do not have a sense of
belonging to some greater tradition, such as Shinto. These shrines are Japanese
because they are part of the fabric of religious life in the Japanese archipelago.
They are Shinto only in the sense that they were made to belong to a larger
entity in the past, and currently belong to an association which propounds a
doctrine of national religious uniformity. Indeed, local people have rejected this
Shinto identity when it was imposed on them. This is most clearly seen in the
cases of Okinawa and Korea where the attempt to impose an alien system was
rejected in clear but different ways. Shinto as a tradition local to Japan could
not be transmitted or imposed on another nation because of its associations with
Japans empire and political establishment.
Consideration of the situation of shrine worship in Korea emphasizes the importance of researching beyond the local level, and also comparatively. The lack
of an artificially created, state-sponsored nativistic tradition and a modern national shrine association means that shrines in Korea must be studied locally and
comparatively to discover the regional and national patterns in practice and belief. The fact that foreign cultic traditions could be left relatively unaltered not
Koreanized offers an interesting comparison with the Shintoization of the
Meiji era. Consequently, it would seem to me that the approach of understanding
local traditions without utilizing the baggage of a unifying national tradition is a
conceptually and methodologically excellent way forward to conduct research on
shrines in Japan. However, one important aspect of a later stage in such research,
unnecessary in Korea, must be the consideration of how the concept of Shinto
has influenced the practice of shrine worship in local communities. We may want
to research locally, and comparatively, but we cannot ignore the influence of the
concept of Shinto over the centuries. Shinto may not be a homogeneous religious tradition, but it is an interesting case example of the relationship between
religious practice and the state.
University of Sheffield
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Graham Healey and Nicholas Tranter of the Centre for Japanese Studies of the
School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield for help in translating and interpreting
Japanese terms, as well as Ms Hokama Komako, a post-graduate research student in the same
department for help with Okinawan terms. Any errors are my responsibility.
366
Notes
1. Unless otherwise stated, all information in this section on the shrines in Miyazaki-ken is drawn
from my field notes taken on 7 April 1999. I was assisted by Professor Choe Intaek, a Korean
national and anthropologist who was teaching at that time at Miyazaki Metropolitan University
in Miyazaki City, who both translated for me and provided me with supplementary information.
Professor Choe has made a special study of these shrines.
2. The general term for traditional Korean clothing. Womens clothes, consisting of a separate
bodice and skirt, are called chima chogori.
3. I have shown elsewhere that, at least in the case of south-western Japan, Susa-no-o must be
considered to be a culture bearer who came from Korea. See Grayson (2002).
4. South of Miyazaki City is the town of Tano (
) which also has a foundation myth involving
a Paekche prince. The town tried unsuccessfully to utilize this connection for its tourist and
commercial development.
5. All information in this section, unless otherwise noted, is based upon my field notes taken
on 8 April 1999. My informant was a woman aged over 60, Ms Araki Sumi, a descendant of
the original settlers of the village and a member of a committee responsible for the upkeep of
the Tamayama shrine. Translation was provided by Ms Chae Sugyong,
at a meeting of the
Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, on 4 March 1911, argued that Koreans and Japanese were
the same race of people and that the annexation was nothing more than the rejoining of these
two long-separated branches of a common stock (Komatsu 1912: 112).
10. There is an umbrella organization of shamans in the Republic of Korea called the Korean Federation of Associations for Victory over Communism and Respect for Beliefs (Tae Han sunggong
kyongsin
yonhap-hoe
Japanese, and Tibetans have their own writings. But this is a matter which involves the barbarians
and is unworthy of our concern (see Lee 1993, 1: 51920). The Korean alphabet is now a prime
symbol of Korean nationalism. For a discussion of the attitudes of Confucian officials towards
Buddhism and local traditions, see Deuchler (1992: 1756).
367
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