The Reawakening of Japanese Culture

Lecturer: Kenji Nanasawa, Representative Director of General Incorporated Association Shirakawa Gakkan
Editor: Parole Editorial Section, Yasushi Ohno, supervisor

Q:
A variety of religions and cultures have been introduced to Japan from abroad. Chinese culture and Buddhism arrived during the period of Prince Shotoku. In the sixteenth century, Francisco Xavier brought Western culture and Christianity to Japan. Ancient Japanese teachings were overshadowed by these newer cultures and religions.
However, “Shinrei”, ancient literature describing a law that connects gods and humans, has remained intact in our country. The historical description of the Imperial Family skipped from the first Emperor Jinmu to the tenth Emperor Sujin, with scarce information on the intervening eight emperors. I think that during this period, which has seldom been referred to, there exist important teachings, or the truth, that Japan should preserve. Today, I would like to ask about these eight emperors, who have been referenced in history books only on a very limited basis.

A:
Emperor Jinmu was the first emperor and Emperor Sujin was the tenth emperor. The eight emperors between them are mostly missing from historical descriptions. The reigns of those eight emperors are called the “history of the lost eight emperors”. There are actually few descriptions in the national records such as “Kojiki” (Records of Ancient Matters) and “Nihon Shoki” (Chronicles of Japan). This has caused one of the major misunderstandings in the interpretation of our history.

In fact, during the reign of the eight emperors, there was a clan called the Kasuga clan, which had a great influence on the Imperial family. Ohno Yasumaro, a key person involved in the compilation of Kojiki, was a descendant of the Kasuga clan. Although there are various interpretations about this, Ohno Yasumaro did not write about the eight emperors because he was proud but humble, feeling that it was better to conceal what was considered truly important.

In Japan, since the compilation of “Kojiki” or even before, there was a technique that made it possible to pass truly important things down to future generations without telling them in words or writing them down.

What is important here is the culture of rice and its cultivation. As mentioned yesterday, rice cultivation began in Japan 12,000 years ago. And by likening rice to a noble god, the Japanese cherished it as their own culture and handed it down to future generations.

Japanese people have expressed the state of being united with a god with shapes. Among them are earthen figurines, many of which remain national treasures. In short, from the Jomon period, the image of united gods and humans was inherited through the culture of rice cultivation, and by entrusting the image to the future as a form or pattern symbolizing it.

Buddhism was introduced into Japan at the time of Prince Shotoku, and monotheistic religions, including Christianity, were introduced at the time of Francisco Xavier. The “descriptive knowledge” of these religions, which represented the concept of God, was highly elaborate and philosophical methods to spread the concept. These religions were propagated in ways totally opposite that found in Japanese culture, or Shinto, where the significance and key tenets were preserved without verbalization.

However, even if there are myths and historical facts that have not been written or spoken, the truth never fades away. That’s exactly why “Shinrei” was preserved for us. Among those who protect Japanese culture, very few are theoretical. Perhaps they treasured “Shinrei” for future generations because they wanted to reserve the invisible world of gods as explanatory knowledge.

Currently, there are various arguments regarding the historical view of Japan. However, the culture of “inheritance” that has continued since the Jomon period is now attracting attention around the world. Modern people should acknowledge its importance. The latest research has continued to reveal new historical facts. We will soon reach the day when this hidden truth will be revealed.

Japanese Version

・・・・・・・・・・

Kenji Nanasawa
Born in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture in 1947. After graduating from Waseda University, he completed a Doctoral Program in the Graduate School of Letters at Taisho University. He developed an information processing system based on knowledge modeling of traditional medicine and philosophies and is a researcher of religious studies. He is involved in developing a next-generation system for digitizing language energies. Mr. Nanasawa re-established the Shirakawa Gakkan as a research institute for the study of the court rituals and ceremonies carried out by the Shirakawa family of Kyoto, a noble family that oversaw the Jingi, an office for religious rituals, for 800 years from the mid- Heian period to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. He currently serves as the representative director of Shirakawa Gakkan and CEO of the Nanasawa Institute, among other positions.

He has written and served as the editorial supervisor for a number of books, among them Why Do Things Go Well with Japanese? Knowledge Modeling Inherent in Japanese Language and Culture (Naze nihonjin wa umakuikunoka? Nihongo to nihon bunka ni naizai sareta chishiki moshikika gijutsu) (Bungeisha). Also, he is the supervising editor of Three Works on the Study of Hebrew from a Shinto Perspective (Shinto kara mita heburai kenkyu sanbusho) (by Koji Ogasawara), and co-author with Koji Ogasawara of Princess Otohime of the Dragon Palace and Urashima Taro (Ryugu no Otohime to Urashima Taro).