Confucianism and Taoism, alongside Shinto and Buddhism, are two of the major traditions of Japanese religion. These traditions, as well as the tradition of folk religion, are important to understand when attempting to gain an understanding of Japanese religion as a whole.
Chinese Imports: Confucianism and Taoism
Confucianism and Taoism each developed in China and arrived in Japan as Chinese imports by the fifth or sixth century C.E. While both traditions are based on the idea of following “the way” (the inherent order of the world that humans should conform to), Confucianism stresses the idea in terms of social action and social and political order, supporting the responsibility of developing personal virtue and the practice of ancestral rites. Taoism stresses the idea of “the way” more metaphysically, advocating mystical practices and natural order through the “non-action” of meditation and rituals such as divination.
Initially Confucianism came to Japan as a model of political and social organization, its teachings (including the value of harmony) helping to provide a moral basis for the government and assisting the Japanese people in unifying themselves within a centralized state. Social attitudes were also affected by Confucian thought, as Confucianism supported the compliance to an order of a hierarchically-based class system. The idea of harmony only worked if the rulers were good to the people and the people were obedient to the rulers.
Loyalty was also solidified among adherents to Confucian thought, and filial piety, as well as absolute loyalty to the emperor and the willingness to sacrifice one’s self for his or her country, took on a more internalized form as Confucian ideas permeated Japanese culture. In more modern times, as increasing generations have grown up in an environment influenced by Confucian ideals, these notions of loyalty have become ingrained in the individual more as a way of life than as being explicitly linked to Confucianism.
Taoism entered Japan along with other Chinese traditions, including Buddhism, and while traditions like Buddhism and even Confucianism took root in a way that can be seen as maybe more substantial than Taoism, Taoist thought (such as the ideas of the yin and yang, and the five phases) and practice (such as divination, seen most conspicuously through the government’s founding of a Bureau of Divination in the seventh century; and the Koshin cult) has had an unmistakable influence on Japanese life and government. While Taoism never really existed in Japan as its own separate, organized religion, Taoist influences such as these led to customs and practices that eventually became rooted in the lives and customs of the people (such as the adoption and regulation of the Chinese calendar, fortune telling and so on).
Taoist elements later influenced the religious traditions of Shinto and Buddhism by means of various formulas and charms, while some Taoist divinities even became accepted into Shinto and Buddhist practice. Yet, like Confucianism, in more modern times Taoist thought has been so ingrained in Japanese culture that many of the customs associated with Taoism are no longer necessarily acknowledged by the general populace as being of explicit Taoist or Chinese influence.
Local Flavor: Folk Religion
Japanese folk religion is another important tradition to consider when attempting to gain an understanding of Japanese religion, because folk practices and customs handed down outside of formal institutions or organized religious traditions have been common throughout Japanese history. At the very least, three aspects must be considered when discussing Japanese folk religion, namely native or indigenous folk religion, popular religion and local customs.
Native or indigenous folk religion is the sum of all ancient Japanese religious beliefs and practices performed outside of any formal organization. Often, the later organized religions would structure themselves over the base of these unorganized practices, which existed before their own formation or importation from places like China.
Popular religion in the Japanese folk tradition refers to the unofficial expression of organized religious practice among the common populace. This is what happens in most any culture when the formal orthodoxy of an organized religion filters down to the general public. A loose example from Western culture could be the formation of an at-home Bible study group, which meets on a certain night and interprets scripture without the aid of a formal priest and remains outside the walls of a formal institution such as a church.
Local customs are the manifestations of the other forms of folk religion in terms of distinctive regional and communal practices. Again, as in many other cultures, the dominant legends, folktales, occurrences and experiences of a certain area heavily influence the religious practices of that particular locale.
These various aspects of folk religion, like the various major organized religious traditions in Japan, cannot be neatly separated from each other or even from the more highly organized religious traditions. The mutual influence of each is to such an extent that everyday life in Japan would be incomplete with the exclusion of one particular practice. This is an important concept and is crucial in understanding the role of religion in Japan: that Japanese religion is multifaceted and nonexclusive. The religious traditions of Japan compliment each other more often than they do conflict in the lives of the common Japanese.
Sources:
Earhart, H. Byron. Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2004.
Earhart, H. Byron. Religion in the Japanese Experience: Sources and Interpretations. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1997.
