Lessons from Nikko Toshogu Shrine | Ikuyo Kaneko (Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance)

2008.09.11

Summer is drawing to a close, but as for me, I returned from my undergraduate seminar's training camp last weekend, finished the manuscript for a book I've been working on for two years yesterday, and it looks like I can take a bit of a break this week.

The seminar retreat was designed to enjoy the hot springs in Kinugawa, but a casual tourist visit to Toshogu Shrine brought an unexpected discovery. On the same grounds, Futarasan Shrine and Rinnoji Temple are collectively known as "two shrines and one temple." A monk guiding tourists explained, "Here, please clap your hands and bow your head. Over here, this is a Buddha, so please do not clap." Listening to this, no one felt it was out of place. We were all reminded of how quintessentially Japanese this is.

We often speak of "yaoyorozu no kami" (eight million gods). This is also known as "shinbutsu-shugo" (the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism). Between the latter half of the seventh century and the ninth century, many temples such as Sumiyoshi Jingu-ji, Ise Daijingu-ji, and Atsuta Jingu-ji were built on the grounds of Japan's most prominent shrines. The fact that Japan is a country of polytheism and multiple Buddhas is a normal part of daily life. As a child, I attended a Catholic kindergarten and recited the Lord's Prayer every day, yet for Shichi-Go-San, I went to Kanda Myojin Shrine, and at the beginning of the year, I would visit the shrine near my home.

For most Japanese people, both the "quietness" of Noh, Nihonbuyo, Zen gardens, and sukiya-zukuri architecture, and the "liveliness" of Kabuki, Nikko Toshogu Shrine, mikoshi portable shrines, and dashi floats are likely considered Japanese. Amaterasu and Susanoo, Ginkaku-ji and Kinkaku-ji. Even within the grounds of Toshogu Shrine, "quiet" parts coexisted. Unlike the Western approach of making a binary choice or seeking an "Aufheben" (sublation), the editorial creativity of Japanese culture is, to put it nicely, flexible, or to put it less kindly, unprincipled.

At the seminar retreat, the students had just been studying Yoshihiko Amino's "Two Japans," so they experienced it firsthand. For me, as I was finishing a manuscript about the editing of Japan's education system and the diversity of Japanese culture, the experience at Toshogu Shrine was an unexpected bonus. This may be a bit of a plug, but the title of the book is "The 'Best' School in Japan: Innovation in Community Collaboration," and it is scheduled to be published by Iwanami Shoten later this year.

(Date of publication: 2008/09/11)