Hum 5c 2006 World Religions III Gender and Religion “The Afterlife in Medieval Japan”
Week 4a Intro to Shamanism
What is shamanism? Who or what is a shaman?
• Spirits are conjured into or out of human beings by someone who is him/herself spirit-possessed.
When and where did shamanism originate?
• • • • Around 10,000 BCE in Siberia Spread to Americas China, Korea, Japan South Asia
Shamanistic World View
• Familiar human (material) world • Spiritual world
What can shamans do?
• Act as a bridge or mediator • Pacify, exorcise • Prophecy/fortune telling
How do they do it?
• • • • Achieve a trance state by: Rhythmical sounds Stamping dance torimono
Two forms of trance
• Dream vision travel • Possession by spirits
Two kinds of Japanese shamans
• Passive medium: channels possessing spirit • Active ascetic: speaks with and controls spirit through spiritual discipline (ascetic practice) • Pre-Buddhism (pre 6-7th centuries) often combined in one person, usually female (miko)
Development of Buddhist male shamans (9-11th centuries)
• Yamabushi (mountain ascetics)
– Shamanism and Esoteric Buddhism – Take over active ascetic role – Practice discipline in mountains – Active trance, dream vision
Decline of female shamans (miko)
• Female shamans become passive mediums • "She can enter a state of trance in which the spiritual apparition may possess her, penetrate inside her body and use her voice to name itself and to make its utterance. She is therefore primarily a transmitter, a vessel through whom the spiritual beings can make their communications to us in a comprehensible way." (Catalpa Bow, p. 22)
Optional reading
• More on miko: Catalpa Bow, chapters 6, 7, 8 • More on mountain ascetics: Catalpa Bow, chapters 5, 9-12 • See also the glossary at the back of the book
Deities and Spirits in Japan
• Native deities (Kami) • Take on a wide variety of forms and characteristics (Catalpa Bow pp.35-38) • Hierophanies • Natural phenomena
– Ekijin – Raijin
• Personified eventually
What all forms of kami share:
• Free movement • Why do they appear in this world?
– benefits – natural disasters
When did they take on human form?
• "The belief that the kami have any permanent or true form which they can manifest to human senses is late, and derivative from Buddhist iconography." (Catalpa Bow, p.38) • From the 9th c.
Invisible to ordinary people
• Communicated only through the shaman • Why?
What is “tama”?
• “soul”? • Catalpa Bow, p. 43: "an entity which resides in some host, to which it imparts life and vitality..." • round, glowing ball (tama means “round jewel”)
Tama as living spirit
• Ikiryô • What happens if tama leaves body?
– Temporarily? – Permanently?
Tama as dead spirit
• Shiryô
What happens to the tama after it leaves the body permanently?
• • • • • • SHINTO: tama joins communal tama of ancestors 33 years, sometimes 49 Gradually loses its individuality Name removed from altar Why?
Clan or communal kami: Ujigami
• • • • the communal tama ancestor of a clan (uji) Relation to family how ujigami become national kami Eg. Amaterasu Omikami as ujigami of the Yamato clan (ancestors of Imperial family)
Review: How Kami become Personified
TAMA (life force)
UJIGAMI (clan life force/clan kami)
KAMI (awe-inspiring sacred power becomes personified by association with ujigami and Buddhist deities)
When Buddhism is added
• Tama becomes a buddha (hotoke) after death • When tama is fully joined with ancestral kami, released from attachments • Detachment essential for enlightenment.
Question
• How does a tama turn into an angry, vengeful ghost (or even an angry, vengeful kami)? • Need to think about ghosts in general, and historical development of Japan in particular
In general, how do you become a a ghost?
• A. • B. • C.
Most important reason in premodern Japan:
• D.
Result
• The tama as shiryô does not proceed as it should (kami or buddha) • Remains tied to this world
Terms for what Shiryô can become:
• onryô (lit. "honored spirit"; angry spirit or ghost) • muenbotoke (a spirit with no "link" [ en ] to the living) • ekijin, raijin (disaster deities)
Power in life = power in death
• Women and lower-ranking men
– Onryô cause possession illness
• High ranking men
– Ekijin cause epidemics
Angry supernatural beings who were powerful in life
• Blurred line between tama and kami • Extraordinary measures to pacify, including deification
Ghosts as expression of cultural anxieties
• So one thing we think about when we see a ghost is: what is going wrong in society?
• e.g. How do ghosts relate to contemporary anxieties and fears?
Questions for Analysis
• 1) Who is the author/creator? Male or female? Socio-economic class? Religious beliefs?Patron? • 2) Who is the intended audience? Male or female? Socio-economic class?
• 3) What is the religious belief system and historical context framing it? • For example:
– Christian attitude toward ghosts – Japanese religion’s attitude toward ghosts
• 4) How is the story or image supposed to affect that audience; i.e. what is the goal of the story? • 5) Are there any political and economic issues at stake? Who benefits from this version? • 6) Genre: History? Fiction? Play? Image? Anime? Movie?
Contemporary Examples
• Alien Abduction • Slasher/horror movies
Function of Angry Ghosts in 9th11th c. Japan
• • • • Explanatory (rational, “scientific”) Issues of gender oppression Political issues/class oppression Religious issues
Explanatory Function
• Natural disasters • Epidemic and individual disease
Gender Oppression
• Abandoned wives and lovers • Women who died in childbirth
– Why? – Political issues as well
• Revenge is personal rather than national
Political Function of Angry Ghosts
• How did angry ghosts and disease deities become tied to social protest/unrest? • Underlying belief in harmony between virtuous ruler and state of nature • "Disasters of all kinds were a barometer of social injustices" (Neil McMullin)
Political Situation in Japan (Heian period)
th 9-11
c.
• How does political situation contribute to development of belief in angry ghosts? • Heian aristocratic politics • Northern branch of the Fujiwara clan killing off their rivals
– What are political rivals likely to become?
Social Situation of
• Urbanization • Social problems
– Overcrowding – Bad water (cholera) – Malnutrition – Increase in crime
th 9-11
c. Japan
Angry ghosts become rallying points for protest
• Peasant rebellions
– Peasant martyrs as angry ghosts
• Exiled/murdered aristocrats
– Used by opposition aristocratic families
Examples of Exiled Aristocrats
• Catalpa Bow pp. 48-49 • Prince Sawara (died 785) • Sugawara no Michizane (died 901)
– First raijin (thunder deity) – After pacification: Tenman Tenjin
Conclusion
• In 9-12th century Japan, angry ghosts function in a number of useful ways to deal with social and political issues • Next class: look at Buddhist approach to ghosts and hell (compare to Christianity and Islam) • Next week: look at the function of female ghosts in premodern Japanese society