The Japanese have long been notorious for their racial, ethnic and social discrimination. They have traditionally been incapable of accepting other races and ethnic groups into their inner circle and treating them the way they treat other Japanese; even the Japanese who look or act a little different are not accepted.
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.
Most Westerners prize practical knowledge and hands-on experience above all other kinds of learning. They are also condition to approach work and other challenge is directly, aiming for the “the shortest distance between two points”.
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.
The concept of byodo, or “equality“, among people is a western invention that apparently evolved from the Christian theological beliefs that all human beings are created equal in god’s eyes.
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.
When Westerners first encounter the Japanese writing system, which is an application of the much more ancient and complex Chinese system, they look at it from several different perspectives. Still many others look upon Japanese with a degree of arrogant superiority for the Japanese to have adopted such a difficult way of writing, certainly in these peoples own mind they think the Japanese writing system is a clearly a handicap that is impossible to overcome.
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.
One can say that to the Westerner eyes that Japan is the land of contradictions, everything good or positive about Japan always seems to have a flipside that is negative or unfavourable. Indeed you could say this about all societies, but here this contrast may appear to be much more pronounced.
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.
There are two very important words in Japanese with deep meaning but no equivalent sentiment in the English concept of language. Itadakimasu and gochiso sama are very important parts of the dining etiquette in Japan. Itadakimasu is said just before eating, it literally means “to receive” or “accept ” but in this context more like a DNA infused Japanese Way in a ritualistic connotation, you could almost say it’s like a prayer.
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.
With only a few exceptions, virtually every interaction with the Japanese of any kind begins with, and is based on, a personal obligation as opposed to what some would regards as higher principles. The Japanese have traditionally been known for their generous hospitality that they typically bestow upon visitors and on people with whom they want to develop a professional or business relations.
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.
Fundamentally, the Japanese are weary of people who are good talkers, equating this habit and demonstrations of such ability with unprincipled, untrustworthy behaviour. While we can say there is also a similar attitude towards overly talkative people in the West as well, here in Japan, the negative response to people who talk way too much has a much more deeply rooted culture connotation, and far more important in the overall scheme of things even up until this very day.
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.
Japan has traditionally been noted for the extraordinary exclusivity of its culture and this has been recognized as one of the more serious handicaps when the Japanese deal with the outside world. To make things even more complicated Japan's exclusivity complex is based upon group membership.
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.
In Japanese as in other Asian cultures, the stomach has traditionally been considered the centre of one's being or life, and in that sense this area of the body is fundamentally the equivalent of the mind or heart in a western context.
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.”
If you are interested in Japan and the Way of Japanese and would like to really get some excellent insight into the minds of the Japanese, look no further that the incredible work of Master Boye Lafayette De Mente and Emeritus professor R. Taggart Murphy.
Lafcadio Hearn is a historic figure of Meiji-era Japan, he introduced Japanese culture to the West with intriguing observations about Japan.
