Spiritual Heritage and Sacred Places (2021年11月9日)

Copies of two Jōmon dōgu figures.

© Asha Bardon 2021

This week’s lecture was one I’d been particularly looking forward to as it looked as spiritual or sacred heritage. This was an introduction to the overall state of Japanese religious life, with no official religion the main players are Shinto and Buddhism, with a smaller slice focusing on imported religions like Christianity, the adoption of Confucianism or native, new religious movements like Tenrikyo and modern cults like Happy Science or Aum Shinrikyo.

Simon once again brought fascinating objet d’art for us to look at: two Jōmon dōgu figurines. Like the skull, they were 1:1 replicas but still utterly amazing to see. I quite like this academic Show and Tell, especially as these betray Simon’s own archeological fascinations and areas of academic interest.

The bulk of the seminar focused on Okinoshima, a sacred island in Fukuoka, which is intrinsically tied to the Japanese creation myth. It is also, along with Mount Athos in Greece (also a UNESCO World Heritage Site) one of a select number of religious sites which refuse to allow women on or in the vicinity.

Of course, this immediately piqued my interest, especially given the current global discussion and redefinition of gender and biological sex (I’m non-binary myself). Simon explained that realistically, in the past, it’s actually been really easy for women to dress up as men and gain access to such places. The point is currently moot as Okinoshima doesn’t allow any visitors but it’s a fascinating topic for discussion on many levels, from mythological and religious to cultural and societal.

We also had a visiting speaker, Tsuji Hirohito-san, a licensed Shinto priest and ph.D student at the UEA (his blog is here). He introduced the process of becoming a priest and discussed the rudiments of Shinto, as well as the balance between Shinto and Buddhism, as well as the Japanese attitude to religion.

As well as our continuing jaunt around Japanese prefectures, we also got some time to talk about our assessment, a five thousand word essay on a heritage-related subject of our decision (basically a dissertation dry-run) due at the end of January. I intend to do mine on religious and sacred heritage so this was a timely point for the discussion.

Next week:  Industrial heritage and cultural landscapes.