Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, survives even to this day and lies at the basis of Japanese society. Shinto played and continues to play not only an enormous role in general Japanese society, but also regarding the roles of women both in general society and the society within traditional Shintoism.
Japanese consider that everything important is built on relationships. This is underlined by Confucian moral theology which advocates human relationships and fundamental virtues. Within these relationships, everyone, man and woman, superior and inferior, is expected to sacrifice oneself (Kasulis 111). Consequently, this has resulted in creating a general feeling of victimization.
In spite of Shinto’s maternal principle which operated within Japanese society, the formation of society was and still remains a patriarchal hierarchy. It could be argued that the want for patriarchalization of Japanese society came from the political power of the imperial family who promoted this ideal. The source of power of the imperial family is the divine authority derived from the ancestral deity, Amaterasu, as the Kojiki and Nihongi describe (Kasulis 75). Since Amaterasu is the ancestral goddess of the Imperial family, the Sun Goddess who governs the universe and who occupies the highest position in Shintoism, she serves to show historic attitudes regarding women and modern attitudes regarding women. This can be highlighted through the ancient Shinto texts, the Kojiki and Nihongi.
The Kojiki and Nihongi are the two original Japanese written records that illuminate the first documented Japanese attitude towards women (Lu 3-4). These documents facilitated the discovery of a feminine presence that is renowned and worshipped. The Nihongi holds i...
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...from legislation to mythology. However, one of the most powerful approaches appears to be that of the ideological seed planted by the Kojiki. Despite over a thousand years of overriding history, many of the same ideas are still playing themselves out in modern Shinto society: women are still regarded on some level as impure and they are still treated as visual objects rather than genuine contributors to the religion like their male counterparts. From the bustling streets of Tokyo to the villages of Chugoku Prefecture, women are seen as dependent on male authority and they must maintain the social and political cues that Shinto and general society has arranged for them. Perhaps as time passes women will be welcomed into and celebrated in all aspects of Shinto as active contributors as they were in ancient times rather than visual spectacles or vessels of male power.
Analysis: Shinto: The Way Home’s organization is quite useful because it moves in chronological order and it leads the reader in a way that allows for understanding the most unrelatable Ideas of Shintoism. The book uses many Japanese terms and names that may lead confusion for the audience as they have to learn the vocabulary to understand many of the statement Kasulis uses. Kasulis also lack an argument through most of this work and he seems to focus on supplying information as accurately as possible. The author discusses a variety information pertaining to Shintoism making it useful
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In Yoshie's work, “Gender in Early Classical Japan: Marriage, Leadership, and Political Status in Village and Palace (2005),” she takes the example of Toji, women known to have played a m...
Known for her work as a historian and rather outspoken political activist, Yamakawa Kikue was also the author of her book titled Women of the Mito Domain (p. xix). At the time she was writing this work, Yamakawa was under the surveillance of the Japanese government as the result of her and her husband’s work for the socialist and feminist movements in Japan (p. xx-xxi). But despite the restrictions she was undoubtedly required to abide by in order to produce this book, her work contains an air of commentary on the past and present political, social, and economic issues that had been plaguing the nation (p. xxi). This work is a piece that comments on the significance of women’s roles in history through the example of Yamakawa’s own family and
Shinto is the traditional religion of Japan. It means “the way of the kami”. Shintoism is mainly focused on beliefs in, and worships of Kami. Kami are spiritual or divine beings. They are sometimes referred to as the ‘gods’ in Shinto. But rather than the powerful and supernatural beings seen in Western religion, Kami is more like a mystical and sacred spirit that exist in the creative forces of nature. Shintoism follows the belief of animism, which is the belief that natural, material objects possess souls. These sacred spirits, called Kami are able to take the form of different things in nature. Kami not only exists as spiritual beings, but also takes the form of plants and animals, mountains and seas, and all natural phenomena.
"Shinto in History."Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami. Ed. John Breween and Mark Teeuwen.
Being a student interested in the field of biology, one knows that studying life in the past plays an important role in the history of organisms that lived on this earth. Similarly, being Japanese, studying the past of how Japanese were plays an important role in Japanese history. Despite all the general aspects of life that have changed from the Heian period, the one idea that has definitely not changed is the romantic relationships between a man and woman. Though the general concept is the same, from reading The Tale of Genji, it is what was considered the ideal woman and ideal man that were both surprising and thus worth discussing.
...o geisha take on the capacity of sisters to one another, but they call the women who run the teahouses "mother". Geisha are by no means the only Japanese who live and work in social groups defined by kin terms, but this phenomenon does appear most explicitly in the traditional occupations: carpenters, miners, sumo wrestlers, and gangsters, for example. 13
In the primordial times of the Heian period, Japan procured and practiced matrilineal systems within their isolated society for over 2,000 years. During the Heian period, situated in 12th century A.D., women were given the privileged of inheriting, managing, and retaining property of their own (Kumar, 2011). It was not until Japanese culture adopted the Confucian ideas of China that the society began to integrate a patriarchal system. Confucian ideals had a prominently drastic impact and influence in Japanese society. The Confucian ethical system stressed the utopian idea of a society in which a hierarchal structure is maintained. The hierarchal structure’s foundation is based upon the subservient and submissive idea of subordinates’ obedi...
The Heian period was a peaceful era that is highly regarded in Japan’s history. At this time Japan was beginning to break away from Chinese influence, thus the culture of Japan was morphing into something unique and independent from that of China. An example of resulting change was Japan’s further development of their writing system known as kana, which allowed authors to express their feelings in a more Japanese way. The Japanese court also progressed independently from China and created unique concepts and values such as miyabi “courtliness,” makoto “sincerity,” and aware “sadness of impermanence” (Hooker). The expectations put on men and women in the court during the Heian period must have been concurrent with such values.
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In order to analyze how gender ideals in the Heian society were formulated and how they were expressed in the Genji Monogatari, it is necessary to have an understanding of the Chinese society from which they were derived. The Chinese works often alluded to in the Genji Monogatari are primarily from the Tang dynasty period of China(618-907AD), which formed the basis of the flourishing of Japanese culture during the Heian period.3 Therefore an analysis of Heian gender ideals must begin from the Tang dynasty court-life culture.
Shimazono, Susumu. 2005. "State Shinto and the Religious Structure of Modern Japan." Journal Of The American Academy Of Religion 73, no. 4: 1077-1098. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 23, 2012).