Secularities in Japan: Introduction (original) (raw)
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Introduction: Formations of the Secular in Japan
Aike P. Rots and Mark teeuwen early modern power configurations, and their "universalization" was embedded in imperialist projects even if the categories were appropriated and transformed by non-Western actors. 4 Thus, Asad and like-minded postcolonial scholars have contributed significantly to the re-historicization of these concepts and, accordingly, to the overcoming of universalistic, sui generis understandings of religion. 5 The title of this special issue, Formations of the Secular in Japan, is a direct reference to the work of Asad, whose genealogical approach and conceptual criticism constitute an important source of inspiration for us. At the same time, however, some of the articles in this volume depart from Asad, notably in problematizing his assertion that "the secular" was a uniquely Western product, developed in a Christian context and forcibly imposed upon non-Western Others. They show that the religioussecular dichotomy played a central part in modern state formation in Japan, in spite of the fact that Japan was one of a handful of non-Western countries that escaped colonization. 6 The categories of religion and the secular were not simply imposed by "the West": they were also shaped by Japanese (state and religious) actors, who drew on preexisting notions and practices as much as on newly imported ones.
Critical Reflections on the Religious-Secular Dichotomy in Japan
Making Religion: Theory and Practice in the Discursive Study of Religion
For at least the last two decades, the concept of ‘religion’ has been examined critically by a number of scholars. In the light of this scrutiny, this chapter takes the concept in Japan as a subject for investigation. The Japanese concept for ‘religion’ shūkyō was invented in the nineteenth century. The term was a key constituent element in the technology of statecraft. The term’s nineteenth century construction has been extensively studied by many, but the same critical thread has not been reached to the post-1945 era. This is the main area of the inquiry for this chapter. First of all, this chapter reviews how the term ‘religion’ was imported to and appropriated as shūkyō in Japan in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. This is followed by the examination of how the concept was reformulated after the Second World War under the influence of American-style liberal democratic values. To the present day, the boundary between religion (shūkyō) and the non-religious secular is ambiguous and often contentious. Importantly, this exploration leaves us with the under-researched area of shūkyō in the colloquial discourse. Thus, this chapter concludes with implications for further research.
The first gathering of the year of the neighborhood association in downtown Kyoto (where I live) took place in January 2014. About twenty members of the association (chōnaikai) were present and participated in the Atagokō ritual, which was held at the association's assembly house (chōya). Here, we received religious-related objects including sacred sake (miki) and rice and an amulet (mamori fuda) from the Atago Shrine.¹ It was as if we had paid a ritual visit (sanpai) to the shrine without ever leaving the neighborhood. The ritual was followed by the customary shinnenkai, or New Year's party, in a restaurant in the vicinity. Such a mixture of secular and religious elements in the activities of neighborhood associations seems to be at odds with the common self-description of Japanese people as "non religious" (mushūkyō). As a matter of fact, there is a high degree of participation in Japan in certain rituals and religious events, such as visiting temples and shrines at New Year's, ancestor veneration, taking care of the neighborhood's street votive shrine, and organizing festivals.² In this chapter, I analyze how the borders between the secular and the religious are perceived and blurred at the community level in Kyoto. What emerges from the fieldwork I conducted in the city from 2004 to 2010, and more recently, since September 2013, is the ambiguous attitude of Japanese people towards the articulation of the secular at the local level, despite, or perhaps also because of, their self-description as "non-religious."
Recent scholarly contributions fostered a redefinition of secularization as a historically and culturally bound negotiation embedded in relationships of power. Similar themes were discussed also in relation to Japanese religions, as several authors recently tackled the process through which the category of religion (shūkyō) was constructed in Japan, highlighting the " boundary-making exercise " that formally separated it from other social spheres. This process, far from resulting in a univocal understanding of 'religion', produced a multi-layered fragmentation of the conceptual field of shūkyō, as shown by the contested ways in which religion is presently experienced in secularised contexts. The panel aims to unpack the multivocality of this boundary-making process, discussing how " making religion " unfolds as a multidirectional negotiation involving a variety of actors, animated by diverse interests and goals. Drawing from ethnographic research and textual sources, the papers will investigate how political actors, religious institutions and practitioners contribute to the discussion of what constitutes 'religion', by actively engaging with institutional and perceived boundaries that separate religion from contiguous semantic domains such as culture, ethics, education. In particular, the papers will examine strategies through which religious practices and notions are narrated and redefined to pursue missionary, organisational or political aims.
Imagining Religion in Japan: Transformations of the Category of ‘Religion’ in the Japanese Context
The paper deals with the notion of "religion" in the context of Japan. The social sciences need general terms and concepts and the term "religion" is a generic term applied in the study of culture and in the academic study of religion under severe theoretical and methodological precautions. Without a doubt, the emic perspective constitutes an important element in studying a foreign culture, but it would be incorrect to consider it the very basis of the scholarly approach to a foreign culture. It is obvious that the perspective of the academic study of religions, of sociology or anthropology comes from the "Western" environment, but it is adopted in and it interacts with the non-Western environment. From this point of view, the general concept of "religion" should be maintained for the purpose of studying Japanese culture. It helps us to delimitate the field of our interest in order to better understand the phenomena we are about to encounter.