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Ties of Blood and Earth in Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Laurence Caillet
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Inhabitants of a land that their ancient myths proclaimed to be the creation of divinities, the Japanese have peopled their archipelago with numerous earth gods: giants trees, simple pebbles concealed either in an oratory, a corner of a garden or deep inside a thicket; crossroads stoneposts, steles in the middle of a plot or next to a rice field, tombstones, and rocks that are worshipped on home altars. The imposing presence of these divine proprietors of the provinces and of sites that were once urban settlements, villages, or private residences is still visible in the tall buildings of Tokyo and Osaka. These protean spirits, found on roof tops in the form of stone foxes or redwood porticos, bear witness, even in the heart of the city, to a latent belief: the forces of the earth are still at work in the world, keeping watch over human activities. Although there are very few people left who believe, as the ancients stories tell, that the citizens of Japan are descendants of the gods of the earth and sky, there nevertheless remain many who accept the notion that a single telluric energy inhabits the world of the living, the dead, things, and the gods.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 44 , Issue 174 , January 1996 , pp. 83 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. We are referring here to Kojiki or The Tale of Ancient Facts of A.D. 712; Nihon shoki or The Japanese Annals of A.D. 720; and Fudoki or The Collection of Morals and Customs, compiled between the eighth and twelfth centuries, especially the Fudoki Yamashiro and Hitachi. Our interpretation of dogma is based on the Shinti Daijiten (The Great Dictionary of Shinto), 3 vols., Tokyo, 1974.

2. See on the subject, M. Abe, Nihon no kami-sama o shiru (To Know the Gods of Japan), Tokyo, 1989. This book is something of a catechism, describing the ori gins and virtues of the seventy most representative Japanese divinities.

3. Zeami, Kadensho (XVth Century).

4. F. Hérail, Fonctions et fonctionnaires japonais au début du Xle siècle, 2 vols., Paris, 1977, Vol. 2, p. 739.

5. K. Yanagita, Minzoku-gaku jiten (A Dictionary of Folklore), Tokyo, 1973, pp. 634-36.

6. The Fujiwara clan, which reached the zenith of its power in the tenth and eleventh centuries, offered several of their daughters to the imperial line. They also provided the Court with numerous ministers and high-ranking offi cials. For a time, they appeared to be the true rulers of the country.

7. K. Yanagita (note 5 above), pp. 357-60.

8. The best source of ethnographic information on this subject remains H. Naoe, Yashiki-gami no kenkyu (Studies of the House God), Tokyo, 1972.

9. S. Mauclaire, "The sacrifice du serpent," in: Cahiers de Littérature Orale, Vol. 26 (1989), pp. 83-115.