Extinct practices

2

u/JapanCoach 3d ago

Intersting Question! Honestly I'm not exactly sure how to think about it. What sort of thing is in scope - as in, what have you found in the other areas that you study, to give us a feel for what you are looking for?

3

u/notIngen 2d ago edited 2d ago

Hi, I am the original poster. I have been researching Korean folk religion and noticed how it has been somewhat marginalized by modernity.

There are still village shrines that are attended and visited by the locals during festivals. However, the number of these have declined over the years and there is a real fear they will disappear at some point.

Edit: also generally small village festivals.

There is a practice of enshrining various house gods in baskets, straw bundles, jars, paper figures. But this practice has all but disappeared.

3

u/Admirable_Stand8598 2d ago edited 2d ago

In this sense, I can point to syncretic practice of 庚申待 Koshin-Matchi. It has its root in Taoism. People believed that in the nights of Metal Monkey in Chinese zodiac, imaginary worms slips out of your body and report one’s sins to the Heavenly Emperor, thus shortening one’s lifespan. To avoid it, people gathered and prayed overnight together. Their worships were quite syncretic. Some prayed to kami Sarutahiko,; others pray to 青面金剛 Shomen-Kongo (a guardian god of Buddhism). After the Meiji Restoration, governmental attacks on ”premodern superstitions”, along with Haibutsu-Kishaku movement and introduction of modern medicine and hygiene lead to the fall of these practices. The monuments for the Koshin-Machi practices still exist everywhere and are often kept as local heritages. There are some local festivities originating from Koshin-Machi gatherings. But, religious meanings are now mostly lost.

3

u/JapanCoach 2d ago

This is a great example. This is definitely a 'lost' practice. It's so evocative to come across withered and grown over 庚申塔 here and there.

1

u/notIngen 2d ago

Oh thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for

1

u/Altair-Sophia 3d ago edited 3d ago

I cannot answer for OP but when I crossposted this it was while I was bewildered over how much has happened during the Meiji Restoration. I am aware that there are a few practices which were discouraged/banned at the time, and I myself am curious how much of those were unsuccessful, revived, or no longer practiced at all.

1

u/JapanCoach 3d ago

Can you share a specific example or two?

1

u/Altair-Sophia 3d ago

IIRC Shugendo and Onmyodo were banned until WWII, and Shinbutsu bunri happened, the result of which were shrines like Fushimi Inari Taisha no longer doing some of the more Buddhist Inari prayers like Inari Shingyo (I am unsure if these were later revived or are still no longer practiced, since some shrines like the one at Enoshima did re-enshrine the Benzaiten statues)

1

u/JapanCoach 3d ago

Aha. interesting. I appreciate your reply.

Shugendo 修験道 is alive and well so that is not 'vanished'. Onmyodo was indeed banned and you could say lost an official status so that could count as 'vanished' depending on how you define it.

Splitting Shinto and Buddhist shires does not 'vanish' either one of them in particular, so I wouldn't really count that.

Look forward to learning more about this!

2

u/TachiNoFubito 3d ago

Not Meiji, but my mind immediately went to Tachikawa Ryū, a tantric sect of Buddhism accused of heterodoxy and formally abolished in the 13th century, with claims of being practiced in secret until at least the 17th century. Unfortunately, most of what we know comes from its opponents.

2

u/Admirable_Stand8598 2d ago

（Repost of my comment to the original post)

As u/Altair-Sophia commented, traditional Japanese religions before Meiji were syncretisms of Shinto (Kami/deities/purity and impurity) and Buddhism (Buddha/karma). In most cases, power of the priests and Buddhism elements were strong. There were many Buddhist-style prayers for Shinto kamis considered as avatars of various Buddhas and /or Bodhisattvas. There were Buddhist temples in Shinto shrines called 神宮寺 Jingu-ji or Kami shrine in Buddhist temples like Hachiman shrine. Such Buddhist style prayers and elements in Shinto shrines was removed (struck down tbh) to “purify Shinto” or “revive Shinto that was before coming of Buddhism” during and soon after Meiji Restoration as a part of establishing Shinto as the official religion of the nation. The movement is called 廃仏毀釈 Haibutsu-Kishaku (Abolish Buddha and Destroy Shaka).

FYI, such an ancient pure Japanese “religion” never existed. Proto-Shinto was rather primitive nature and ancester worships, practiced only by the local nobles deemed descendants of the Kamis (joined by commoners under their rule) . Only after coming of Buddhism and through syncretisms, Shinto developed doctrines, dogmas, rituals and worships that can be practiced and jjoined by wider variety of people.

To be short, most of the Shito rituals and prayers are late-medieval to modern inventions by Shinto priests (who insisted the fundamental values of their faith) and scholars of Kokugaku (国学 schools to investigate ancient texts to recover Japanese values and beliefs before Buddhism and Confucianism).

One notable example of Buddhist elements in older Shinto is the prayer for Hachiman seen in ancient/medieval texts, like Nasu-no Yoichi shooting the fan target in Tale of Heike 平家物語. Yoichi chanted the prayer “南無八幡大菩薩 (namu Hachiman-Daibosatsu = namu (I devote myself to) Bodhisattva Hachiman)” for protection in a military deed. Hachiman is a Japanese kami of war, identified with Emperor Ojin deified. As early as in 8C, he delivered oracles proclaiming himself as a guardian of Buddhism and the Emperor awarded the title of Bodhisattva. Therefore, just like other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, they offered Hachiman with Buddhism style prayer starting with “namu.”

Prewar Japan adopted Shinto-based nationalism, including the worships of the Emperor(s) and Ise Shrine as their ancestral Kami, as its official religion and belief. The GHQ of the Occupation Forces deemed this as the spiritual basis of Japanese fascism and in Dec. 1945 ordered to disband the ties between government and the religion. The rituals of distant worship (遥拝 Yohai) of Ise Shrine (Imperial ancestor) and Meiji Shrine (deified Emperor Meiji) at public facilities such as schools was abolished. 神棚 (kamidana = Shinto indoor alters) in government offices and official visit and worship of Shinto shrines by government officials was abolished. Then The Constitution stipulates the separation of politics and religion, which means the ban on such practices that national/local government backs up or promotes any particular religion, effectively put an end to such prewar Shinto practices.

You are about to leave Redlib