Author: John D. (Page 92 of 202)

Bears in Distress

November 8, 2014 / John D.

One of the distressed bears at the Ainu Museum in Hokkaido

The following piece comes from Green Shinto reader, Jann Williams. As a professor of Ecology, she has expertise in environmental matters and a concern with the welfare of animals. Given the deep spirituality of the Ainu, it’s highly unfortunate to say the least that bears should be mistreated in their name. Green Shinto has no hesitation in giving its backing to this campaign and has written to the museum in question to ask them to improve the conditions of the animals.

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The Bear Goddess beckons

In May 2014 my husband and I visited Hokkaido, starting our visit in Daisetsuzan National Park and finishing in Hakodate. As experienced ecologists with a keen interest in Indigenous cultures, the Ainu Museum in Shiraoi was high on our list of places to visit. We were impressed that a Museum of Indigenous Culture had been built in Japan, and we were attracted by the opportunity to learn more about the intimate connections between Ainu and their environment.

The Museum has some interesting and informative exhibits describing and demonstrating the Ainu religion and associated way of life. We were both very surprised however by the way the Hokkaido bears and dogs at the Museum were treated. It ruined what would have been an enjoyable and educative experience. The Great Bear Goddess is the highest of the gods worshipped by the Ainu, so it was distressing to see these majestic animals being kept in very small cages with a concrete base.

The conditions the bears are kept in at the Museum are inimical to their mental and physical health. The bears had gone ‘stir crazy’, having no energy and demonstrating disturbing repetitive actions. Technically this is known as ‘stereotypic behaviour’ and is a common occurrence in animals kept in captivity in inadequate conditions.

In August I posted a comment, along similar lines, on Green Shinto, in response to an article about the Ainu. Since posting the comment, I have written to the Ainu Museum about my concern over the treatment of these majestic animals. As a Professor of Ecology, and past President of the Ecological Society of Australia, I am hoping that that my voice may carry some weight.

Other international visitors have expressed concern about the condition of the bears. Of the reviews of the Museum on TripAdvisor, over 70% of visitors from western countries refer to the unacceptable treatment of these animals. Using their words, the reviewers call attention to “distasteful animal abuse”, “unnecessary animal torture” and “cruelty towards the bears”.

Since my earlier post on Green Shinto, the Japanese Animal Welfare Society was also approached to conduct an inspection of the facilities at the Museum and of the treatment of the bears. To my disappointment they reported that the conditions the bears are kept in are considered ‘legitimate’ according to Japanese law.

So what to do next? Changing the laws to meet international standards is required, that is clear. Even if these sub-standard conditions currently meet the letter of the law, it saddened me that Ainu consider this a respectful way to treat the bears. This was unexpected for an Indigenous people with strong spiritual connections with nature. Judging from some of the posts and comments on Green Shinto, it may reflect a broader Japanese attitude towards animals. Changing these attitudes and associated behaviour will take time and require cultural understanding.

I wasn’t sure what more could be achieved as an outsider looking in, but then a friend of mine leant me The Romance of the Bear God – a book of Ainu Folktales by Shigeru Kayano. To me this was a sign that the Great Bear Goddess wanted to reach a wider audience, to let people know about the conditions under which the bears are forced to live, and to find a way to improve them. That spurred me on to write this piece.

It’s been suggested that other readers of Green Shinto might consider sending letters to the Ainu Museum, for the more pressure they receive the more likely they are to improve the conditions of the bears. For those interested, the email address is museum@ainu-museum.or.jp:

Ainu Museum
2-3-4, Shiraoi-cho
Shiraoi-gun, Hokkaido
Japan 059-0902

P: 0144-82-3914. Fax: 0144 82-3685.

Any suggestions for other ideas to help rectify the situation would be appreciated.

Professor Jann Williams
Tasmania, Australia

The caged bears which have caused outrage amongst visitors to the museum on Trip Advisor

A noticeboard on the cages to explain that the Bear was not only the at the top of the ecosystem in Hokkaido but was the most worshipped Kamuy (deity) of the Ainu. Each spring a captured bear cub was bred with care as 'God's child' in preparation for a grand ceremony known as Iyomante, held to send the spirit of the bear back to The Bear Goddess.

Dogs kept in concrete cages – symptomatic of a special relationship with nature?

Vibrations

November 8, 2014 / John D.

In 1955 the head of Yamakage Shinto, Yamakage Motohisa, met with a Shinto researcher called Jean Herbert. Together the pair visited something like 1000 shrines, and the research was eventually used in Herbert’s massive book on Shinto; at the fountain-head of Japan (1967).

In the following piece, Yamakage Motohisa describes part of their trip together and how Herbert related to the animistic ‘power spots’ of Shinto. I once had a similar kind of experience when accompanying a priest sensitive to the spirit of place on a trip to various sacred sites.

“Different places on the face of the earth have different vital effluence, different vibration, different chemical exhalation, different polarity with different stars: call it what you like. But the spirit of place is a great reality,’ wrote D.H. Lawrence. One aspect of Shinto is the celebration of that.

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To show that Shinto is so closely related with Nature, I thought it vital to take him to some natural sacred place, somewhere deep in the mountain as the archetype of Shinto shrine, where there were but some rocks.

He was sensitive enough to feel the natural vibrating energy; when he sensed the incredible energy coming out of such a ‘purified’ place for the first time, he looked greatly surprised, just asking “why …. why … why…”

“Because this is a Natural-Spirit Zone.” I said.
“We didn’t feel such a strong vibration in the shrines we visited.” he said.
“Because their buildings are what man made. They are not natural or pure.”
Then he asked: “Why, man should be Child of Kami according to Shinto.”
“In its radical sense, Yes, however, man has a lot of Kegare, spiritual pollutions. And who do you imagine comes and prays here, far away from the town? They come and pray for thanks…”
“Thanks for what?
“Thanks for — that I am fine, happy today. Their prayer is never for selfish desires. But most people visiting big shrines in the town will often give bad vibration with their egoistic praying. So I admit not all shrines in Japan are purified.”
“Hindu is also ‘natural’, isn’t it the same as Shinto in this sense?” he said.
“No.” I answered.
“Why?”
“Because some deities of Hindu are ‘hand-made’(artificial).”
Dr. Herbert smiled, then.

But in fact it is not only in Nature but also somewhere in the city that Natural Shinto is still breathing, secretly. We went to a very small shrine called Karasumori-Inari, situated in a back street surrounded by taverns in the middle of Tokyo. It was so small that no priest took care of it. But, once he entered its space, he could feel that ‘purifying’ vibration, which created a sacred place, different from the surroundings. He was amazed to find that ‘Natural Shinto’ is alive still in the middle of Japan.

Since he learned to feel the Natural-Spirit vibration, he tried by himself to examine every shrine we visited. When we reached the area of a shrine, he as a rule stood for a moment to feel its vibration, good or bad. and then asked me if his sense was right or not, to make sure. Such practical, deep experiences made a great contribution to his penetrating the core of Shinto. the natural power of purification.

Yasukuni war criminals

November 7, 2014 / John D.

Apologists for prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni like to pretend it’s a purely religious matter or a purely Japanese matter. I guess German rightists used similar arguments about Catholicism’s compliance with the Nazis.

One of the most vocal groups in support of prime ministers visiting Yasukuni, not surprisingly, has been the War-Bereaved Families Association. In this respect it’s of interest to note the article below which highlights that: 1) even some Japanese Shintoists are opposed to the secret enshrinement of the war criminals; 2) both the previous and the present emperor have shown their disapproval; 3) the enshrinement of the war criminals is viewed as a symbol of Japan’s lack of atonement for the shocking war crimes committed in East Asia.

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Group tells Yasukuni Shrine to ditch convicted war criminals
AFP-JIJI, KYODO Japan Times OCT 29, 2014

Visitors take in some of the 30,000 paper lanterns illuminated during a festival at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on July 13. A chapter of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association is asking Yasukuni officials to remove the names of war criminals enshrined there. | REUTERS

An influential group that represents families of the war dead is urging Yasukuni Shrine to remove the names of the convicted war criminals currently enshrined there, an official said Wednesday.

A chapter of the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association passed a resolution at its annual meeting Monday, calling on the shrine’s governors to delist the names from the 2½ million Japanese souls honored there.

The change would enable “the Emperor and the Empress, the prime minister and all Japanese people to visit Yasukuni Shrine without discomfort,” an official from the group’s chapter in Fukuoka told reporters. Similar calls have been heard over the years, both inside Japan and overseas.

The names include that of army Gen. and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who ordered the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Nationalists, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, argue that the Tokyo shrine is no different from war memorials in other countries, such as Arlington National Cemetery in the United States.

The Yasukuni Shrine. A group representing families of soldiers has asked that the names of 14 war criminals be removed. Credit Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

But the secret addition of World War II leaders to the Yasukuni list in 1978 caused Emperor Hirohito, known posthumously as Emperor Showa, to cancel a planned visit, according to a memo by one of his aides. His son, Emperor Akihito, has never visited the shrine.

Japanese politicians stoke anger in China and South Korea whenever they visit the shrine. Those nations suffered at the hands of Japanese aggression in the first half of the 20th century and regard visits by political leaders as insensitive triumphalism.

A small [but alarmingly powerful and influential] section of the political right believes Japan is unfairly criticized for its wartime past, saying the international military tribunal that convicted the leaders was practicing the justice of the victors and that Japan’s empire-building was no different from that of the European powers.

The issue has soured ties with Japan’s neighbors and even prompted a scolding from the United States when Abe visited the shrine last year. Japan’s leader has not held formal talks with either China’s President Xi Jinping or South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye since they came to office.

Abe’s visit to the controversial shrine came amid a near-crisis in relations with Beijing, strained by sparring over the sovereignty of an island chain in the East China Sea.

Miyazaki honorary Oscar

November 6, 2014 / John D.

Miyazaki Hayao (source unknown)

One of Green Shinto’s favourite Japanese, Miyazaki Hayao, is to be given an honorary award next year, according to an article in the Japan Times.

The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Thursday it has picked anime director Hayao Miyazaki as one of three recipients of its Honorary Award this year.

The only other Japanese to receive the award was Akira Kurosawa, in 1990 at the 62nd Academy Awards.

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Film specialist Michael J. Anderson writes…

In 2005 New York’s Museum of Modern Art presented Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata: Masters of Animation. The retrospective’s centerpiece was the North American premiere of Howl’s Moving Castle (2004).

Spirited Away publicity poster

As no great fan of animation, let alone anime, I will admit that I think of Miyazaki as something of an exception. His best films manifest many of the same qualities as the very best of the classical Hollywood system: that is, they succeed in addressing multiple audiences at once, both as organic works of art and as entertainments in their own right. Spirited Away (2001), for instance, is targeted at ten year-old girls, seeking to remedy their principle anxieties, while operating as a parable for the economic crisis for older viewers. Then again, those not within the former demographic are likewise given a glimpse into the young female’s psychoses. It is in other words an art that operates on numerous levels, separately addressing different viewers.

Another instance of dual and even multiple address in Miyazaki’s work is in its salience for culturally Japanese and non-Japanese audiences. In any context, Spirited Away is a fantasy. However, for the Japanese viewers, it is a fantasy mitigated by Shinto metaphysics. Spirits are everywhere in the work, as kami are everywhere in nature.

When a creature enters the spa with a horrendous odor, it is the product of a spirit. Chihiro, the ten year-old protagonist, judiciously cleans the monster, ridding the spa of this terrible spirit. In this way, not only does Spirited Away manifest a Shinto causality, but further upholds one of the religion’s four affirmations: the importance of physical cleanliness. To bath in Shinto is to participate in an important purifying ritual.

Totoro publicity poster

Another of these affirmations is the sacredness of nature, which is a concern that the filmmaker often returns to throughout his corpus. In films like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984) and Princess Mononoke (1997), this Shinto belief is fused with an ecological allegory that condemns reckless industrial civilization, and particularly its employment of nuclear weaponry. That Shinto has so easily coopted environmentalism surely accounts for the latter’s prevalence in recent Japanese cinema — beyond Miyazaki, major works include the Shinto-titled Himatsuri (Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1985), Rhapsody in August (Akira Kurosawa, 1990), and Charisma (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1999), among others.

Beyond Japanese cinema, where ecological concerns flow from Shintoist thought, environmentalism has become, arguably, the chief religious art of the modern world. The cathedrals of the medieval world have been since replaced by public spaces that call attention to a transgressive industrial past. Another recent MoMA exhibit perfectly articulated the religious intimations of environmentalist art. Groundswell: Constructing the Contemporary Landscape offers a view of contemporary urban landscapes reappropriated after their industrial dereliction.

Princess Mononoke publicity poster

As the program notes, “nearly every significant landscape designed in recent years occupies a site that has been reinvented and reclaimed from obsolescence or degradation as cities in the postindustrial remake their outdoor spaces.” In other words, these new designs represent a sort of contrition toward a misused Mother Earth, often maintaining the scars of their industrial abuse as if a continual reminder for generations ahead of the industrial era’s grave sins.

But more on that later: in a film review of mine to be published next month, I further articulate the reasons for evaluating environmentalism as a religion. If you are unable to wait that long, I would recommend Michael Crichton’s speech to the Commonweath Club.

As for the current film program at the MoMA, or for Miyazaki’s art more generally, it almost goes without saying that it is essential, whether or not its respective religious intimations are of any interest to you. I mention these only out of what is otherwise critical slight: to understand Miyazaki’s work in particular, I would argue, it is necessary to understand it within its Shintoist rubric.

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Autumn (Halloween)

November 3, 2014 / John D.

In this article Mark Booth (aka Jonathan Black), author of the bestselling The Secret History of the World and The Sacred History, explores the significance of autumn to spiritual life.

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Stories of the Fall By Jonathan Black

The arrival of autumn affects the human spirit. As the nights draw in we are driven indoors and also driven in upon ourselves. Our place in the world feels different. But does spirit really change? Do spiritual realms have their own season? Do spirits behave differently in autumn?

All the world’s great religions have roots in astronomy. In the great monotheistic religions these roots have of course been covered over and the influence of the gods or spirits of the stars and planets is played down.

In public Christianity denounces astrology, but many ancient churches from Canterbury to Chartres are full of astrological symbols, and most are built according to an astronomical orientation which is as exact as that of an Egyptian temple. Christian archangels are routinely represented as the great spirits of the heavenly bodies – St Michael being the Archangel of the Sun, for instance, and Gabriel the Archangel of the Moon.

In The Secret History of the World I show how at the time the Fourth Gospel was written ‘the Word’ was a traditional title of the Sun god who, it was said, would come to lighten the darkness. There is much more going on in Christianity than meets the eye – and these hidden elements are described in secret or ‘esoteric’ teachings.

In these teachings the stars and planets have not only had the role in helping to form human life that modern science allows, they also have had a role in the forming of human consciousness and continue to do so. The revolutions of the planet Venus affect the tides of our sexual desire, for example, and we are enabled to reflect or think because the Moon reflects the light of the Sun.

In the astrological account life on earth moves according to a series of cycles determined by the movements of the heavenly bodies – a daily cycle, a seasonal cycle, a yearly cycle, the cycle formed by the precession of the equinoxes and so on. As the Sun withdraws and the natural world begins to die, the spiritual world comes alive, becoming more active. Autumn may be thought of as a great door in the cosmos – and spirits come pouring through.

As the mid-point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, Halloween traditionally marks the beginning of winter. The spirits that flow first and more easily through the opening of the great cosmic door at this time are the spirits of the dead. Goblins, ghosts and the spirits of the dead are the lowest denizens of the spirit worlds.

It was traditionally thought that the beginning of winter was a propitious time to interact positively and helpfully with the spirits of the dead. The feasting traditionally associated with the harvest and Halloween is intended to draw the dead to us, to make them salivate and encourage them to be nostalgic for the pleasures of the material world. It’s a way of attracting the dead and working with them that is described by both Homer and Virgil, and it is still kept alive in cultures – for example Thailand – where offerings of food are sometimes placed in cemeteries.

None of this is necessarily done in a doleful way. Think of the Day of the Dead in Mexico and the fun in all that imagery. Likewise in English tradition ‘mumming’ – from which we get ‘mummers’ as in actors – began when people dressed up like the dead to make them feel at home, to greet them in a playful sort of way. The word ‘mummer’ comes from the mum-mum sound these mummers used to make imitating the walking dead’s attempts to speak.

Halloween has always been a time when you might commune with your ancestors, when you might ask their advice on your future dealings, a time when the spirit of prophecy was particularly strong. Halloween parties today still sometimes include the old game of apple-bobbing, for example. Girls used to bob for apples in search of love. Traditionally the apple is the fruit of Venus; the 5 point pattern pips make in a slice of apple mimics the patterns that Venus makes in the sky over a 40 year period. If you bobbed successfully, you’d put the apple you pulled out of the bucket under your pillow that night and hope to dream of the man you’d marry.

Autumn then is a time to explore the great mysteries of life, death and destiny, to get to grips with what it means to die, even to taste death. In the bleak midwinter, on the 25th December, the sun-god will be born and the death forces will be driven back, but in the meantime the world grows darker and colder. The Fall is then the fall into matter.

Priestess singer

November 1, 2014 / John D.

courtesy Suzue

This year’s Ted Talks x Kyoto featured an opening session with Suzue, a Shinto priestess at Ono Hachiman shrine. Rather unconventionally (she was born in Brazil), she also has a career as a singer-songwriter with Studio Kotodama, in which guise she adds a New Age spirituality to her music.

Her performance at the Ted Talks is now available on the internet here.

From her website is this self-description…

“Rev. Suzue was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1978, and raised in Tokyo, Aomori and Kobe, Japan. In 2002, she released her first album,”Umashiashikabi”, which received critical acclaim in the press. In January 2006, she moved to New York as a goodwill ambassador priestess to propagate Japanese Shinto culture. In the same year, she performed at the opening ceremony in front of former Prime Minister Koizumi at the World Conference of Religions for Peace 8th World Assembly Kyoto and received a roar of applause.

In 2007, she held the recital in Carnegie Hall (NYC), and received standing ovation. it proved that there is no border in her musicality. Her concert was successful also in Brazil, Russia, China and Thailand.

She collaborated as a singer on the new album of the Grammy-nominated world-music group 1 Giant Leap, entitled ” What About Me? “, which released worldwide in the summer of 2008. She released her 2nd album,”Konohanasakuya”, in 2009.

Inspired by her poetic interaction with mountains, rivers, flowers and trees, she sings about the relationship between nature and humans, as well as the inner dimensions of human nature, so as to kindle in the people of Japan and around the world a sense of awe and appreciation for life. She is a descendant of Inazo Nitobe, the internationally renowned author of Bushido.”

Official website: http://suzue.asia/
Official blog: http://suzue-blog.iza.ne.jp/blog/

Halloween and Obon

October 31, 2014 / John D.

Day of the dead

Today being Halloween is a timely moment to think of the connections between the western tradition and that of Obon in Japan, which takes place in midsummer. Both centre around the spirits of the dead, but whereas Obon is seen as a friendly reunion with family ancestors, the Halloween custom focusses on eerie ghosts and spooky phantoms. However, its origins may well lie in pagan customs as suggested by the wiki entry for the festival of Samhain which follows below…

Samhain customs
The Samhain celebration marked the end of the harvest, it was considered to be a good time to slaughter animals because there was no longer any long grass for them to eat. The word “Samhain” appears in Irish literature from the 10th century onwards as an important date in the calendar, the time when fighting and trading were to stop and a good date for tribal leaders to gather their people together. The goings-on at those gatherings became a popular theme for Irish folktales.

Not a Halloween costume, but an eerie lion dance put on at Obon

The name Samhain means “summer’s end”. It marked the end of the “lighter half” of the year and the coming of the “darker half”. It is believed to have been the Celtic New Year, which would mean that many people would be thinking about their future and might have tried to find out what the coming year would have in store for them by means of magic.

Bonfires played a large part in the celebration of Samhain, as they still do in the celebration of Halloween in the Republic of Ireland and in the celebration of Guy Fawkes Night in the United Kingdom today. On the night of Samhain people and their animals would pass between bonfires as part of a cleansing ritual and the bones of slaughtered animals would be thrown onto the flames.

There does not appear to be any truth in the persistent modern rumor that Samhain was the name of ancient Celtic death deity, however, Samhain appears to have been a festival of the dead on which people believed that ghosts returned to their old homes. It has been suggested that the modern Halloween practice of dressing up in costumes originated in a Samhain custom. People are said to have disguised themselves either to frighten away evil spirits or to fool ghosts into thinking that the costume wearers were ghosts too, so that they would be left alone.

Samhain and All Saints’ Day
It is commonly held that Gregory III, who was pope between the years 731 and 741, fixed the date of All Saints’ Day on November 1 to Christianize the Samhain festival of the dead. However, the Christian All Saints’ Day appears to have been observed on November 1 in Britain since the 7th century and was officially celebrated on May 13 in the rest of Western Europe until the year 835.

Samhain celebrations today
For many Wiccans and neopagans today Samhain is an important religious festival. There are many different neopagan religions and the way these different groups celebrate Samhain can vary greatly. It is not unusual for neopagans to hold Samhain parties on October 31 which are largely identical to other Halloween parties.

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Here is Wikipedia’s take on Obon as opposed to Halloween….

Descent into the underworld (Kyoto at Obon)

Obon (also known as Bon or Bon Festival) is a Japanese Buddhist festival that has some similarities to Halloween. It is said that spirits of the departed return to Earth from the land of the dead during Obon and visit their old homes. The holiday probably has its origins in the Chinese Ghost Festival, although the manner in which the Japanese celebrate Obon is now quite different to the way in which the Chinese mark Ghost Festival.

The holiday has been celebrated in Japan for at least five hundred years. It is a summer festival which lasts for three days. The date on which it starts differs in different regions of Japan. Different municipalities adopted different dates for its start when the Western calendar was introduced to Japan in the 19th century. In most parts of Japan, Obon begins on August 15, in other areas, including Tokyo and Yokohama, it begins on July 15 and in some regions it begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the date of which varies in the Western calendar.

Obon is a time of year when people are supposed to honor their ancestors. Many families mark the occasion by visiting and cleaning their ancestors’ graves, as some people do on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day in other parts of the world. As a result, Obon has also become a time of year for family reunions.

The last day of Obon is [often] marked by a ceremony in which illuminated paper lanterns are placed in a river and left to float downstream. The lanterns symbolically tell the spirits of the departed that it is time to leave the land of the living and return to the afterlife. The ceremony usually ends with a public fireworks display.

Although it is said that spirits of the departed return to Earth at Obon, it is not normally associated with evil spirits returning from the land of the dead. However, new horror movies are always released in Japan before Obon. Watching horror movies is a popular pastime around the time of Obon, largely because they give viewers a chill that helps to relieve them from the summer heat.

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To read about the growing popularity of Halloween in Japan, click here. For ancestor worship and Obon, see here or here. For the Japanese way of coping with death, see here.

The fearsome Enma, lord and judge of the afterlife