Storyboard / Culture
The second half of the sixteenth century is the most interesting period in Japanese history for three reasons. First, because it witnessed the apparition of those mighty captains, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasu.
The history of the Japanese people strongly exemplifies these truths. Among no other people has loyalty ever assumed more impressive and extraordinary forms. Among no other people has obedience ever been nourished by a more abundant faith, that faith derived from the cult of the ancestors.
Although everything prior to the seventh century remains obscured for us by the mists of fable, much can be inferred concerning social conditions during the reigns of the first thirty-three Emperors and Empresses. Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), completed in 712 CE, and the Nihon Shoki contain records of fact, but fact and myth are so interwoven, it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other.
Its original unit was not the household (Domestic), but the patriarchal family, that is to say, the clans. These clans consisted of a body of hundreds or thousands of persons claiming descendant from a common ancestor, and so religiously united by a common ancestor worship; the cult of the Ujigami.
Intolerance of ancestor worship would have long ago resulted in the extinction of Buddhism; for its vast conquest have all been made among ancestor worshipping races. Everywhere it made itself accepted as an ally, nowhere as an enemy, of social custom.
Ethics were not different from religion, religion was not different from government, and the very word for government signified “matters-of-religion.” To obey was piety, to disobey was impious, and the rule of obedience was enforced upon each individual by the will of the community to which he belonged.
Ancestral ghosts, considered more or less alike when primitive society had not yet developed class distinctions of any important characteristic. Subsequently these ancestral ghosts became differentiated, as a society itself differentiates into greater and lesser.
Like the “religion” of the home, Domestic, the religion of the community, Communal is also based upon ancestor worship. What the household shrine (kamidana 神棚) represents to the immediately Japanese family, the Shinto parish-shrine represents to the greater community.
Three stages of ancestor worship are to be distinguished in the general course of religious and social evolution, and each of these can be found in the history of Japanese society.
Ask any Japanese what their “religion” is, and they will say, “We don’t have one." For the Japanese do not have a “religion”, and never have. The Japanese have an indigenous way of life, which has continued for millennia until this day, and has been labeled a “religion” by others.
One of Yakumo’s dearest friends said to him: “When you find, in four or five years more, that you cannot understand the Japanese at all, then you will begin to know something about them.”
Lafcadio Hearn is a historic figure of Meiji-era Japan, he introduced Japanese culture to the West with intriguing observations about Japan.
Stories from the annals of the Japanese are replete with incidents where the fate of individuals, groups, and even the entire nation hung in the balance, and these critical decisions were based upon intuition, rather than reason.
The core principal which can be considered the Japanese way of thinking can be though of as fuzzy thinking, or better still, holistic thinking. If this concept has not became apparent yet, this “way of thinking” contrasts sharply with the linear way of thinking in which most of the rest of the world operates.
The core principal which can be considered the Japanese way of thinking can be though of as fuzzy thinking, or better still, holistic thinking.
According to the research of Dr. Tadanobu Tsunoda in the 1970s, there is a fundamental difference in the hemisphere dominance of the brains in the Japanese and non-Japanese. His research also demonstrated the difference in dominant side...
Remember, Lafayette De Mente was the first writers to introduce the Japanese terms wa, nemawashi, kaizen, tatemae-honne, shibui, and wabi-sabi to the Western world.
One particular carpenters was having significant issues adjusting to Japanese food, and was longing for some good old Canadian comfort food, peanut butter!
In the beginning there was a beautiful star, which shines her life-giving rays of hope upon all living creatures of Mother Earth.
Being raised in the occidental tradition, including sporadically attending a variety of churches, did not prepare one for the experience in Japan when fully understanding why the Japanese venerate their ancestors.
Recently there has been somewhat of a kerfuffle in the house of Windsor. Serious allegation have been made by a new member of the house of Windsor against the royal family.
One really got an in-depth look at a specific kind of American mind-set; the mind-set of selfishness, narcissism, and greed.
One’s friend jokingly (or not), asked whether one is Jomon or Yayoi. Somewhat taken aback, one had to look into this question more deeply.
There is a significant contrast in the way the Japanese think about love as compared to the Occidental mindset.
