Are Japanese people religious?
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
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Dogen / Dōgen / Japanese / 日本語 / Religion in Japan / Are Japanese people religious? / Christianity in Japan
It's cool that you can have a conversation about religion during your game of DDR
🤣
The Zen of silent-mode DDR.
That would certainly explain the jogging motion Dogen is doing lol
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Green, black, and blue make the colors in the sky. @@Dogen
You could still be an atheist and go to festivals, appreciate the culture, and follow the tradition. Practically nobody in Japan believes god will do something or anything would change after praying at a shrine, except for those who does, in which case they would spend considerable amount of money to make their wish happen. I, being Japanese, have never spent more than 5-yen a year for Shinto and even so it’s not like I believe there is a slight chance that gods can make anything happen, it’s more like for the tradition and culture.
I do it in India! Mostly cause it's fun but also for a sense of community. Plus it's cool to see all the mythology.
Or The Eucharist😂 Gosh And its Grape Juice this is funny
Also, let's buy some omikuji and an amulet on our way out... by the way, lately I feel my shoulders stiff, do you think some bad spirit may be following me? maybe I'll ask the kannushi to perform a harai on me...
笑
I am not religious
The same person 😂
My Japanese religion professor in college was a total rockstar. He was telling our class one day how someone asked one of his head monks (he was training as a monk) what religion they were and they answered “non religious” but when the question was changed to “what house of Buddhism does your family follow” they were able to give a more in depth answer. Really a cool story and how Japanese people think religion and Buddhism are different
@@SpacePopeIIII don't think Japan told Christianity to go away if I remember correctly until a British guy came there and convinced them to kill the Christians Japan actually had a non-insignificant population of Christians but this could be just a fairy tale of history.
@@SpacePopeIII they are essentially pagans. The japanese practice shintioism regularly, marry in churches and attend funerals the buddhist way. In other countries that kind of mixed practice would be considered blasphemy.
@cunnylicious Christians celebrate Christmas by going to church and also decorating a tree in their house
Religion is simply when people believe a myth to be true and are steadfast about that view.
Buddhism is more of a discipline than a religion. It cares less about having belief in myths (and adherence to it) and focuses on self growth.
Weirdly enough, despite having a ton of deities (or maybe because of it), Shintoism has a ton or interesting stories behind it but does not force people to blindly believe. At the very least, doesn't vilify non-believers.
@@xaphon89 And?
I’ve always heard that in Japan religion is something you “do,” not something you “believe.”
it's just traditions, for getting good luck, avoiding bad luck ya know. nothing you need believe on it right?
@@MaxIronsThird Same reason non-Christians will nonetheless celebrate Christmas -- cause it's fun, cause it's social, cause it's nostalgic, cause it's habitual, etc.
Some people classify religion as “what you do” and faith “what you believe”.
Meanwhile Protestantism has "sola fide" (Latin for "only faith")
@@TheOvy or why atheists say "oh my God".
I came across a comment years ago that said that Japan's real religion is its culture. The higher power isn't some deity, rather it's society's expectations.
That’s some hardcore religion.
Very perceptive of the commenter
20+ years living in Japan as a foreign-resident, and I totally agree with that statement!
as a japanese, It's true.
クリスマスを祝った一週間後、寺にお参りし、その翌日に神社に行くことに違和感を持たない国にっぽん
Japan: The country where one week after celebrating christmas you go to the buddhist temple, and the day after that you go to the shinto shrine without it feeling weird.
@@yeehaw693
俺が小さい頃にクリスマスにKFCは無かったが、、、これも神道なんか？
@@poniso9142あのチキンの美味しさは神レベルだよ
よって神道
I feel like the point of this video is how Japanese society tends to gravitate more towards the ritualistic side of religion rather than the dogmatic side, because rituals tend to give you a sense of structure and order.
Dogenmatic side.
Some religions are more about orthodoxy (right belief) while other are more about orthopraxy (right action).
It's not really about what side, it's that both are traditional practices that different people from different places have been used to and still carries out today out of habit.
Ironically, religious or spiritual rituals are dogma.
I think one aspect is the influence of Confucianism that lies a strong focus on rituals
私は通りすがりの日本人です。私は無宗教ですが、初詣には毎年欠かさず行きます。そして「初詣」は、単語自体には日本語でも英語でも「初めて訪れる」という意味しかありません。しかし、何故か初詣といえば1月の前半くらいに初めて神社に行きます。不思議ですね。
I am a Japanese passerby. Although I am not religious, I never miss visiting a shrine for the first visit of the year. And the term '初詣 (Hatsu-moude)' itself only means 'the first visit' in both Japanese and English. However, for some reason, when we talk about Hatsu-moude, it refers to visiting a shrine for the first time in the early half of January. It's quite curious.
Translated by ChatGPT.
日本人は年末にその年のことを鐘の音とともに忘れなければならないし
来年のことを考えると悪魔に呪われると洗脳されているはず
だから１月は毎回初めての年になるのでは
そして、どうげんさんは日本語がきっと読めるはず
That's so interesting! Thank you for sharing that. Is it still common for young adults to visit a shrine in January?
それはとても興味深いですね！教えてくれてありがとう。1月に若い大人が神社を訪れることはまだ一般的ですか？ (ChatGPT)
@@jergarmar
かなり一般的だと思います😊
This reminds me of a time I was under the Umeda Sky Building in Osaka around Christmas time. They had a bunch of Christmas stalls set up, including a nativity scene with baby Jesus in a manger. However what I noticed BLEW MY MIND. Baby Jesus was COVERED in coins. People had been hurling these small metal discs at this baby, presumably, out of respect. My non-Japanese brain could only imagine that perhaps the folks there were mimicking the customs at temples/shrines where you throw coins into the little pit before praying?
And so it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do I guess given that it's a religious symbol and the customs already established in Japan, but as an Australian who was raised Christian it was very bizarre at first glance. I had never seen anyone throw coins at a baby before (Jesus or otherwise) so that was new. A very cherished memory 😂
Were they 5¥ coins? That would kind of make sense.
Hey, one of the gifts given to baby Jesus by the 3 magic kings (idk how anglophones refer to them) was gold, so it's kinda lore-accurate
@@kokorochacarero8003 true. and i believe we refer to them as the "3 wise men". I prefer magic kings though xD
お賽銭だね。
祈願成就で神社やお寺に納める事だけど、お賽銭の賽の字の意味は、神さまから与えられた福を感謝して祭り上げる意味だけど、ある意味、日本的。
神様への感謝と敬意だけど、過去に、映画、２００１年、宇宙の旅でモノリスが展示されていたら、モノリスにお賽銭が供えられて、神社やお寺でのお供え物や飾り付けがされて、祭壇化したそうです。
Closet wannabe Christians? 😂
“I don’t what to switch over, but I’ll still try to gain KIRISUTO’s favor. “ 😅
In America 65% of Americans identify as Christians, 41% attend church regularly. In Australia those numbers are 44% and 8% respectively. So America definitely does have a high rate of church attendance, although not universal.
41% attend regularly? I'm from Italy and like, what the hell.
EDIT: I looked it up and, for reference, in Italy the people who attend a place of worship on a weekly basis are the 18% (ISTAT), with 80% of the population being christian (read: baptised. Reminder to self: formally reject faith already).
is there difference between Christian church and Catholic?
@@soffio2000 i have to imagine that there's either a really loose definition of "regularly," or perhaps some older and/or regional (i.e. Southern/bible belt) groups that are really lifting those numbers. Almost nobody I know goes to church at ALL, let alone enough to consider themselves "regulars"
41% "regularly" ?
wtf? and what does that mean? One time per month?
I'm not american (thanks god!) but these numbers seem a bit exagerated, don't you think?
@@hoangdung7494 catholic is one of the many branches of christianity, too many of them to list.
Hey Japanese here.
I recently found out that me and my people are religious than I originally thought, however, most people (including me) wouldn't say that they believe in a specific religion.
To my understanding, this is because we are animists and not shintoist nor buddhist etc....
This is probably because shintoism(which many japanese believe in in some way) is a polytheistic religion, meaning there are many gods in one religion, and also because shintoism doesn't have rules/scriptures like the bible or the koran.
Because of the 1st one, every single religion can theoretically be included in shintoism. Like if Amaterasu (the sun god) is God No.1 , budda could just be God No.2 , and so on.
And because of the 2nd one, any "religion" is understood as a part of a culture rather than a belief or a rule that you follow.
I personally go to my local shrine for new years, celebrate christmas, go to a buddhist funeral and wish for the dead during the Bon festival.
I don't even know if the last one is a religious thing or not, but you get the point.
I think praying for the spirits of the dead is definitely religious.
Animism isn't inherently religious, but it is supernatural and not based on scientific evidence.
Yes it is. Religion ≠ Abrahamism@@ActionGamerAaron
@@Astavyastataa Japan must be the only OECD country which doesn't have widespread Abrahamism.
But what do you think that happen to the dead? Do you believe that there exist something supernatural (souls, life after death, gods and spiritual beings, destiny,etc)? Sorry to bother, I'm just curious, because this is a spirituality a bit hard to understand for a westerner like me.
Maybe I should learn Japanese...
do it, learn anime language and finaly become a true gigachad alphamale attractive to all females, and weebs on the planet
Jozu desu ni 😂
You already our dear waifu.
YEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! お願い!!!!!!
You have to learn Japanese. There is no better language to use to insult weebs with.
I live near Ise Jingu in Mie Prefecture, and people come from all over Japan to pray here… or even just ‘feel the presence of God’ (aka the Sun Goddess Amaterasu-Sama). I always found it really interesting, because people here seem totally non-religious most of the time. But not in Ise, apparently.
Can I go?
To be fair, another big point to draw people there are power spots and the touristic "edo-mura" aka souvenir paradise.
Japanese is totally religious, just "the religion" has no name or a book. Some consider it barbaric superstitions, I don't know, but there lies the joke.
From the Christian perspective it could be generalised paganism
Well, to be fair, it is the holiest shrine in Shintoism, so it makes sense.
私の場合、お参りのこういう2礼2拍手1礼や手水などの儀式・決まりごとは宗教的に厳しく遂行せねば！というより、それ込みで1つのエンタメみたいになってるかな。実際にお祈り？する時も別に本気で神だか仏がいるなんて思ってないけど、もう一度自分自身に語りかけて気持ちを新たにするみたいな感じかも。
Dogen's ability to make me believe he's two different people never cease to amaze me
There’s a line in the film Silence where the Japanese lord is telling the priest, “We don’t need your foreign religion, we have Buddhism.” and I thought, “um, that’s from India.”
Shintoism isn't a 100% indigenous belief system either, since there was definitely influence from a variety of mainland practices over the centuries.
@@digitaljanus there's even a lot of connections to be drawn with Indo-European religions (think Norse, Hindu, Roman, and Greek mythology).
Well it isn't "from India". Chinese immigrants and returning Japanese personnel brought it home. As far as they're concerned that's not foreign, that's just neighborhood religion. Imagine if some aliens from Andromeda came to introduce new numeric glyphs to Americans and when refused they say "um your numbers come from India, this is also foreign"
And got to Japan through China, with a weird mix with local folk religions.
@@yaygya "Indo-european"? What-??
For many Japanese people, religion is a medium for rituals(such as funerals, weddings etc.) or customs(New Year’s Day’s visit, Visit before an important day such as entrance exams etc.), but it’s not something to be practiced.
They don’t know “why” they do it, but they do know “how” they do it, because they’ve accompanied their parents and grandparents visiting shrines, buddhist temples, churches, on certain occasions.
Religion is not a moral pillar for them either. People do good deeds and refrain from doing bad not because “God is watching” or “I will go to Hell if I do bad things” but because they think good deeds are the right things to do and bad deeds are wrong.
You confused yourself. What you are describing is literally practice. The good/bad thing comes from millenia of several schools of thought including buddhism... Wether they realize or not. In rural areas of Japan people may be more conscious about these things.
Yes, they are usually casually religious in a mix of Shinto and Buddhism and there are also significant minorities who take their religion seriously (mainly some Buddhist sects). The casual religiousity is largely ritual focused and religious dogma doesn't play much of a role for most.
聖餐ってセイサンって読むのか。初めて知った。
もともと神道は教義がなくて儀礼だけがある。仏教は教義があるけど、日本の仏教は戒律よりも儀礼が重視されていて、在家信者は仏教の教えをほとんど知らずに儀礼をやることだけを重視している人が多い。多くの人はお寺に行っても法話を聞くことはほとんどなくて、仏像を見たりおみくじを引いたり、願いごとをして帰る。仏教と神道は明らかに違う宗教だけれど、日本の仏教は時に神道と一緒に儀式を行うこともある。日本人にとっては儀式やイベントだけが重要なのかも。クリスマスもバレンタインデーもハロウィンも、イベントとして日本に取り入れられてる。そういうイベント教が日本の宗教なのかも。
Religion "Japanese"
Main sect: Shintoism/Japanese Buddhism/Japanese Christianity
Founder: Every single Japanese citizen
Faith: Japan
Dogma: Respect Japanese Culture
Script: public opinion
Who give you your right?: All existence that make Japan Japan
Who judge your sin: All existence that make Japan Japan
What is the goal: To maintain a stable society
Japan
Japan
Nippon
完璧
So, a shame based religion?
This is definitely one of the biggest bruh moments of the century.
It's so funny: recently I talked with a japanese girl (around 30 I would say), told her I was interested by religious and history of japan, she's straight up told me japanese people weren't really into religious stuff 😅
She was probably a woman if she was that old
that's because the word for religion in japanese is a word made up to translate english or dutch "religion" which fits religions such as christianism, so by definition they're right in a sense, because shintoism or boudhism don't have the same system as abrahamic religions do. however, that's where it gets tricky : how to define religion as a concept rather than a single restrictive word ? and this is where most japanese people would agree, that they're indeed religious.
It seems to be treated more as culture than religion.
@@bookofkittehs english ain't my main language :/
Yeah, because foreigners in Japan that start the conversation with “I’m interested in religion” are usually Mormons and Jehovah’s witnesses.
An old guy with pretty good english was talking to me on the Shinkansen (for two hours straight) and was only recommending me Shinto sites in Kyoto, until I clarified I'd be interested in Buddhist sites as well, and he said Oh you'd be interested in religious sites too?
So based on that I'm pretty sure yes
I've wondered about this a lot and it's surprisingly hard to find a straight answer online. I think when Americans ask "are you religious?" what we really mean is "do you believe that spiritual beings exist or are you a materialist?" so the question of whether the Japanese are atheists as we use the term or if something is lost in translation persists.
Love the fact that you emmulated the two walking towards the shrine, that's some next level immersion
I just saw weird bouncing and thought it was very odd, did not catch on until i read this comment.
Kinda made me nervous.
Someone in the comment said they were saying DDR 😂
Japanese say they are not religious because their concept and definition of "religion" is different. By religion (宗教) they think about organized religions with a leader, members, strict teachings, rules they have to follow, etc. Shinto and buddhism doesnt really have these things. There is no holy book, founder or rules of shinto. Also there is no God in Buddhism, its more like a spiritual philosophy. They are not religious by their definiton of "religious", but are very traditional and spiritual. Also I dont think the japanese ritualistic mindset is concious... it is heavily engraved in their collective conciousness, thats why an individual doesnt even know he is following spiritual traditions.
In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
There is no god but God, He is One, He has no partner; His is the dominion, and His is the praise; He alone grants life, and deals death, and He is living and dies not; all good is in His hand, He is powerful over all things, and with Him all things have their end.
Dogen, I assumed you named yourself after the founder of Soto Zen Buddhism? Is there a story behind that?
神道は日本人そのもの。
あとから宗教という名前が付いただけだと思っている。
I love how "Un, genki genki" translates into "Not much" 💀
日本にはマナーっていう一大宗派があるんだよなぁ
日本は宗教というより伝統や習慣から祈る場所に行く事、祈るという行動がとる事を目的としてるだけで神というより先祖のやってきた事を引き継いでるにすぎないと思う。
その時の感情や状況で神が存在しなかったり助けを求めたり感謝したり侮辱したりするから神を持ち出したら問題は自分自身にあると理解したうえで心の中で感情をだしてるようなもの。
ああ、確かに。
信仰は日本文化な伝統で宗教無所属でも"神様"に祈るのには場所は要るわな。
When St Francis Xavier first came to Japan, he thought the language was wonderful and was very optimistic. A bit later he concluded that Japanese must be the devil's language if there ever was one, since it was devoid of the vocabulary necessary for him to adequately explain theological concepts.
This is one of the dumbest shit I've ever heard. He simply didn't come up with the good translation so he put the blame on the Japanese language. He must be stupid to think European languages had adequate words for theological concepts in pre-Christian era. Most of the theological terms were loaned or translated from Greek philosophy or Semitic languages.
It's hard to explain nonsense through sensible language.
@@TheMahayanist Which is why it's hard getting them to understand English and English grammar in general. But that's probably cuz English is a bastard language with Greek, Latin, German, and French all mixed in.
@@TheMahayanist Rich coming from Buddhism.
@@azurepulse1870No more so than Japanese is one with multiple waves of Chinese, Portuguese, German, English, and more all mixed in.
日本人の自分としては、日本人の大半は無宗教(not religious)と言ってもいいと思うな。確かに神社やお寺には行くけど、別に仏教の経典や古事記を知ってるわけでもない。究極的には単なる「神頼み」をしているだけ。別にその神はアッラーでもブッダでもアマテラスでもない。ただただ自分の運を天に祈っている、ある意味自己中心的な行いなんだと思う。
熱烈な無神論者じゃなければ、どんな世俗的な人でも神頼みすることはあるからね
このコメントが一番腑に落ちる
Fun fact
Back in 2019, Japan's religion affiliation are divided into 70% Shintoism, 60% Buddhism, and
Syncretism though much for show rather than religion I'd bet, like atheists celebrating Christmas (itself stolen from pagan roots) it's just a fun event.
I took a class on Japanese religion. The japanese teacher said "youre born shinto, married Christian, and die buddhist."
I am one of those people that can be considered an atheists and religion is one of the things I hate the most in the world. But even I followed rules and rituals in Japanese shrines. It has nothing to do with being religious.
Most Japanese are more superstitious than religious. They do traditional rituals for luck and good fortune, but they don't really believe in those rituals and they do not really believe in any god existing at least not as any religion would claim.
Hello! I am Japanese. I think we are probably animistic. We believe that there are many kinds of gods in nature and the earth. We call them "eight million gods." And I think we treat nature as gods because we are moved by its transcendent power and feel awe for it. However, sometimes we do not only make gods of nature, but also make real people gods. For example, we worship the vengeful spirit of a defeated general in a war as a god. This also comes from "fear." I think there is a lot of "fear" in our Shinto. This is because the gods we believe in do not only bring us happiness, but also bring us misfortune. I think we respect the power of the gods, fear them, and have the idea of coexisting with them. I think this feeling was probably born because Japan is a country with many natural disasters.
I think Japanese are borderline religious. Many believe in spirits or even God but don't quite pursue it further. My girlfriend's family was like this.
Japan is doing religion exactly the way it should be done.
They keep the cool traditions, they think it would be cool if it was real but they don't actually believe it's real, they don't expect others to believe it's real.
Japanese people aren't really irreligious. They just swapped religious deities with the companies they work for. And, in a more abstract way, the social order.
Don't get me started on Japanese people claiming they're non-religious while literally PRAYING at the shrine and doing all the superstitious traditions and habits, meanwhile people in Czechia (atheists): 👁👄👁
There' differences between non-religious and atheist.
The main problem with "are Japanese religious" is the translation.
The answer, in English, is yes, most of them are religious or at least superstition to a point.
In Japanese though, they aren't. Because the meaning of the word in Japanese isn't "are you a believer in something" but "are you part of a religious group" so those who don't actively attend a church or temple paying dues don't consider themselves Japanese religious. Hence the confusion.
If you explain the term first, then ask, you get more varied answers.
It's really a "Japan doesn't have the concept of religion as a standalone thing outside of a social group" issue more than Japanese actually think they aren't religious issue 😅
Amazake nonde kaeru ka... xD
I guess Japanese culture would have more Christian inherited habits if it wasn't for the persecution back in the 17th century and earlier. Not sure how much it would have influenced though given that other religious inheritances went over a millennia far back...
There is some distinction to be made though, a bit nitpicky. A whole lot of the habits and customs inherited from Buddhism and Shinto in Japan have become part of the culture, and practiced by anyone independent of them being part of any faith or not. Not as a religious thing, but more like a cultural thing.
Western nations also have those, markedly through all the Christian related holidays and whatnot. But also, lots of different types of celebration, food culture, pilgrimage, down to small gestures and habits that relates to Christianity somehow.
But I guess there are a few things that are still reserved mostly for the followers of the faith, even though in Japan there are way fewer people left that actually believe and have faith on specific sects. So, stuff like cleansing rituals, meditation, shrine maidens, dances... well, there are some that are more reserved for practitioners, and others that already fell into general Japanese culture. Festivals, amulets and divination, kamidana...
As a Japanese I can't agree with you because I didn't know the both "Two bows, two claps, and then one bow" and "甘酒 is made from rice".😢
its interesting that not knowing that kind of thing is considered 非常識 or 世間知らず while its normal to not know the difference of temples and shrines.
@@VV-xl6sr Yes, and it sounds very reasonable lol
Now i'm getting to feel like Japanese people are religious in a way.
@@VV-xl6sr And yet, despite not knowing the difference, they instinctively know not to clap at temples.
@@VV-xl6sridk if it's normal to to not know amazake is made of rice, but the temple shrine confusion kinda makes sense because lots of shrines (like those to inari) were built inside temples and smaller devotional buddhist altars , especially jinzo and fudo myo-o, were often built in temple-shrine complexes.
Like in the west, the houses of worship are explicit to that religious group in terms of use, which is easier to enforce because, the objects central to worship (e.g.: reliquaries, crucifixes, copies of the torah) are all portable, but in Japan, sacred places historically act as kind of religious centers that prior to buddhism were the site of a village's local gods due to special geologic formations/springs/other natural features that acted as an object of worship to communicate with kami (you've probably seen pictures of these sacred trees or boulders with paper streamers on them), but then after buddhism arrived they specifically built temples next to the shrines so the priests could "help the kami with their karma", basically co-opting shinto cosmology into japanese buddhism. So the official title of "shrine" or "temple" basically comes down to which religion happened to be more in power politically when the local government registered the name in regional maps; while in reality most of the time it's just both.
Japanese is extremely religious, what they don't know is that their religion is their country traditions, culture and manners
I've always found it weird how in Japanese, certain words that used to be polite in "the ancient times" like 野郎 or 女郎 are rude in modern times. (The example words used to mean "young man" and "young lady" respectively, but are now "bad words.") I don't think we have any words like this in English. Swear words that are repurposed from polite words from way back when.
We kind of have that. It's called a euphemism treadmill or perjoration, where neutral or positive terms gain negative connotations. An example is that "moron," "idiot", and "imbecile" were neutral medical terms for varying levels of intellectual disability. Eventually they became generic insults we throw at people and were completely divorced from any medical meaning. These aren't quite swear words today, but the idea is the same, just less extreme.
@@WD2du Another good example I just thought of is "bitch." It means "female dog," but no one uses it that way anymore. Now it's a slur for women.
@@Trainfan1055Janathan It's still the official term of the AKC. You will hear many who style themselves dog experts call female dogs bitches in the US.
@@Trainfan1055Janathan It seems to me that people who raise and breed dogs do still use the term bitch in its original denotation without any problems, to this day. And it's no longer just a slur on women, lately people just throw it on anyone of any gender who is behaving contrary to how they want them to, or has an unpleasant attitude in general.
Try calling a woman Miss
Alcohol is totally fine for Catholics. Forbidding alcohol is more a Protestant thing.
Really only a Puritan thing. European protestants still do the wine thing and have no prohibitions against alcohol, since we drove all the puritans out to go live in america
@@Candlemancer Good on ya.
Poor Mormons everyone always leaves them out
@@Candlemancer Well it's their fault they even banned Christmas at one point for god sake. Real uptight a oles, quite unfortunate even current America has to deal with the historical consequences of their migration.
日本人も日本人の宗教について分かっていません。形のない空気のようなものです。何かです。
ほとんどの人は自分の宗教について考えたこともありません。習慣として初詣に行き、クリスマスを祝います。大企業が宣伝すればヒンドゥー教でもゾロアスター教でも祝うでしょう。
日本にとって、宗教行事とはどの宗教であれ縁起のいいことです。
Sorry Dogen, the thumbnail is in English. I can't understand it.
Japanese culture is Japanese religion and vice versa. The two are so intertwined, we could no longer tell the difference. And it shows in everyday customs, vocabulary, poetry, gardens, architecture, cuisine, clothing, social interaction, tourism, or aesthetics. Practices such as 御屠蘇, 盛り塩, 地鎮祭, or 初詣, gardens such as 枯山水, or concepts such as Wabi-Sabi and 断捨離 are so embedded and integral to Japanese life, nobody really thinks they are religious in nature.
In 7th century, Japanese diplomats visited 住吉大社 and prayed for a safe sea voyage when they had to make the life-threatening trip to Sui and Tang Dynasties. Nowadays, we pay visits to shrines to purchase お守りfor protection from car accidents, pass entrance exams, or wishing for 安産. Many Japanese festivals (お祭り) are originally related to Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples, which is why 祀る and 祭り have the same cognate. As such, Japanese religion is Japanese culture, and Japanese culture is Japanese religion.
This is true for the west too specifically catholics, which is the point of the video. People say “oh my god” and “bless you” in every day life so much the original meaning is lost. “Jesus” is used as an interjection when you are surprised instead of having actual meaning. People go to church like they do shrines and dont even know what the bread and the wine represent anymore. They go because they are pressured to. Most of europe is atheist but their entire architecture, culture, and rituals are extremely christian with some pagan. My family had traditions in new year that were definitely religious at some point (not eating meat) but now are just “traditional”.
Rituals are an interesting thing, at one point they had a meaning and were used to remind us of spiritual connections, now they are just husks of their former selves, acting as something that makes us just relate to other people of our culture, but not carry any spiritual meaning. It’s normal in the modern world to say you’re not spiritual, even though you pray for bad things not to happen, do rituals which had connotations but now dont, and use words that have spiritual meanings but now dont either. We live in a strange world
I'll pretend that I learned something amid all that Kanji and Chinese.
I wish wabisabi was ingrained in japanese culture. The japanese would greatly benefit from rediscovering it and learning how to appreciate imperfection, how to find perfection in Imperfection and be less obsessed with manipulation (of even the atmosphere) and outward appearances.
Now there’s a perceptive and well-researched comment! I’ve lived in Japan for 20 years now, and that concept wasn’t something I really understood until recently. But yeah, absolutely. 👍
@@Jordan-inJapan Thank you for noticing. I spent my elementary school years outside of Japan due to my dad's work, and when my family returned to Japan I was fascinated by Japanese customs. I often wondered why many people in Japan identify as 無宗教 (or no religion), yet have no issue with Christian/Church-style weddings, Buddhist-style funerals, celebrating Christmas, and visiting Shinto Shrines for New Years. It didn't make sense to me until I took a class in college on Japanese Cultural History, and only then I realized that Japanese culture/customs and religion are so intertwined, most Japanese people don't or can't differentiate the two.
This aspect is what makes Japan unique, but it also explains the enormous cultural difficulty when Japanese nationals move abroad or when foreign-nationals live in Japan. (The barrier is not simply grammar/vocab, it is cultural which spans from how people interact and how society is organized.) I think Japanese society is one that puts enormous amount of pressure on foreigners to adapt and assimilate to Japanese language, culture, and mannerism. Some foreigners struggle with it, others absorb and integrate with Japan. As you must have realized over the years, the latter group are the ones who are deeply appreciated, valued, and trusted by Japanese society.
Im guessing youre trying to mimic the characters walking, but the movement is REALLY NEEDLESSLY DISTRACTING.
The Japanese employing a double standard? Who ever heard of such a thing.
A better word would be cognitive dissonance, but it can sound rude
That's not what it is. Japanese people follow religious traditions but they aren't religious. It's more like a cultural thing now. The same way atheists in the west celebrate christmas.
@@notuxnobux but 二礼二拍手一礼 is certainly Shintoism… the point is practising religious ritual within the confines of a religious construction
Xmas is a heathen/catholic festival - not for Christians. John 14:6.
Religion is simply any worldview that seeks to answer the questions of origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. There are apparently more, but that's the gist. Even if the worldview is not necessarily "standard" to other structured religions, it is still a worldview nonetheless of which you are religious towards.
I love this topic haha, this is something I've always found so funny about Japanese people. Where literally 90% of them go 'pray' in shrines during special holidays but also 90% of them say that they're atheist
It's kind of like Hinduism. Like in my own family, my father never prays but does celebrate certain holidays and performs yearly ritual rites for the ancestors. My mom prays (when she has the time) but isn't strict about blasphemy or looking at religious texts as just mythology. And for me I'll participate here and there for the community feeling but inside I don't believe in Gods.
When I look at Japanese behaviour towards rituals and superstition I'm reminded of my father's stories about how their village didn't really worship idols or go to temples when he was young. It was seen as a way of life rather than something you needed to perform.
A lot of people have actually become more dogmatic about Hinduism now compared to before.
This is common in many European countries also, particularly in Northern Europe. People go to church for Christmas and Easter, get married and baptise their children in the church, but if you ask them if they actually belive they will say they are atheist or agnostic. They do the church thing because it is tradition and because it gives important life events a framework, and because they don't want to offend that one aunt that is an actual believer. Very few, even if staunchly atheist, will take themselves of the member list of the local church.
The call is coming from inside the house!
日本人の大部分の人が日常で議論していない事に関わらず、海外の人がこんなにも熱く議論していることに驚いています。
日本人の宗教観についてそのように海外からは捉えられているのかと思うと大変興味深いです。
日本人はどの宗教も尊重しますが、宗教を巡る争いは嫌いです。
okay that was actually pretty good XD
isn't Dogen Buddhist?
I was kind of expecting Ken to say セイサン？
These routines with religious origins.
This makes me realize that an equivalent of Japanese people saying "I'm not religious" is when white American people say "I have no culture"--all while they carve pumpkins for Halloween, get turkey for Thanksgiving, put up Christmas trees for Christmas, go see fireworks at the 4th of July, and so on.
I'm really glad that Japan doesn't have a religion that makes people unhappy or kills each other.
For me, religion is something that makes people happy and enriches their lives.
Just say ``Itadakimasu'' and ``Gochisousama deshita'' before and after your meal to enjoy delicious food.
Dont forget about the left hand being slightly above the right in clapping to signify the gods being above man... :D
At least Japanese don't pretend it is blood and body... The whole cannibalism aspect is really weird when you really think about it.
That's always been a melodramatic interpretation. No Christian sees it that way. The Eucharist is supposed to be like partaking in the Last Supper, which, as we know, Jesus was not eaten at. The terms "blood and body of Christ" are purely metaphorical.
Actually, Catholics believe it is truly the body and blood of Christ.
@@holydrummer Then I suppose, like in all things, there's a bigger divergence of opinions than I realized.
@@CrizzyEyes Yeah I bet the protestants were real surprised when they translated the roman catholic bible against religious orders. Probably preferred to forego the whole cannibalism aspect in the split. Catholicism itself probably rid quite a lot from the old Judaist testaments too, though suppose since they added the Jesus Christ focused worship maybe they invented the cannibalism aspect themselves?
The notion of religion and theism itself is very much Judeo-Christian in nature in the first place. Through that lens there obviously will be many oddities and idiosyncrasies to how the Japanese people approach their beliefs and rituals. It has to be evaluated in its own right. I guess it's also worth noting "religion" has a pretty bad reputation in Japan (including Christianity), so much so it's often seen as synonymous with cult. So when they say I'm not religious what they usually mean is they don't wanna be associated with cults or paedophilic fathers in Vatican or things of that sort. That's why when they dismiss "religion" they quite often talk about brainwashing and supposed absolutistic attitudes towards their beliefs and teachings. Many (including some elders) can have scientistic tendencies as well, often staunchly believing science is _the_ means to uncovering the truth of this world. Antisemitism has also been on the rise as well, though far from being quite as widespread, on the basis of Jews' supposed evil beliefs. I guess this is not that different from what it's like in the Anglosphere nowadays but things like these definitely add to the general narrative regarding religion, especially when most people try to take some distance away from "religion".
Approaching this as a language geek- even in the west, Atheism is used as "not Christian," the discourse on Atheism in the west is 99% taking down Christianity, 1% taking down any other religion, especially the ones that are not madlibs of Christianity (i.e. have few parallels in structure). This all makes perfect sense since it is the dominant religion in the US and Europe, but when the word and texts cross borders, in a non-Christian-dominant country, using the word Atheism to mean non-Christian would be using it just like the Americans are using it.
Atheism isn't taking down Christianity that's so untrue and dumb. It's like me saying Christianity is 99% touching kids and disrespecting other religions. See how messed up that is.
Spiritual syncretism, else like atheists celebrating Christmas (itself from pagan origins) just for the fun of traditional events.
I do think japanese have a strong belief in money tho
I’m from Spain, traditionally a catholic country. I lived 12 years in Tokyo and I see more people going to temples & shrines than people go to churches in Barcelona, for instance. It could be more of a tradition than a religious thing, but there’s also the belief in the supernatural. From purely personal experience I would say 99% of Japanese believe in ghosts, so I’d say they can’t be atheists if they believe in the supernatural. In Spain perhaps it’s more like 50%.
I got many Japanese people trying to convince me I’ve seen ghosts when I’ve had sleep paralysis (金縛り), and zero of that in Spain.
However, religious people in Spain are quite fanatical… I haven’t seen much of that in Japan.
Interesting topic 👍
This was genius😁 Perfectly demonstrated how ritual religiousness works in the US too.
"Yeah we Japanese are totally not religious. Anyway, I'm going to a shrine to pray, see ya."
gotta get an amulet for the test, and also some pork cutlets because can't spell victory without cutlet.
Don't forget the incense....
that's our thing ☦️
0:42
Japanese:HooOoOoOoOOo
Translation: So interesting
this is very funny ironic. even if they aren't "religious" as we know it, the cultural practice of it which teaches respect is still something that atheists wouldn't not do at all and why people of that category would not fit in japan well because the japanese still perform a religious action. (modern atheists are offended just at saying merry christmas so thats a big tell of people that shouldn't live in japan)
Being able to use "I'm a christian" as an excuse to take a day off for Christmas is pretty dope tho
Wait isn't Christmas a state-wide day off anyway? Oh, only in the West.
0:05 元気元気！
"Not much"
As someone who is just at the beginning stages of learning Japanese, learning 元気 has basically tripled my vocabulary.
As someone who is newbie to Japanese Language, that definitely caught me off guard, cuz I would imagine that a double genki = I'm great
Just think of it like in English: "Everything going well?" "Yeah yeah(in that same tone)"
Double "yeah" doesn't mean the yeah is stronger. If anything it's a completely dismissal of the question. It's also the same in German (ja ja) and in French (ça va ça va), probably many other languages that I don't know well enough to speak about them too, where the doubling of the answer does not correspond to a strengthening of the answer.
i guess he just doesnt translate it literally, i noticed his subtitle always try to adjust it with how american usually speak english, if that makes sense.
@@JuanTabaresit’s kinda like if someone said “how’s it going” and you said “fine, fine”. Doubling it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s doubled in intensity
You're confusing Japanese Catholics and Christians for something you clearly have yet to understand, which is ok.
The only natural conclusion to this conversation is for both of them to attend a Japanese-language Catholic Mass, which is a great experience for the record, especially in Nagasaki. 天には神に栄光！
日本人の行動が理解できない人は千と千尋の神隠しを思い出してください。
そういうことです🎉
At most churches I believe it's just grape juice these days, but I would totally just affirm that they drink wine because that tells a better story, Life of Pi logic and all that.
Every religion is weird in some aspect.
I visited Japan for the first time this year and went on a pilgrimage visiting a bunch of Catholic churches in Japan. There are some incredibly gorgeous ones all over the country, especially in Nagasaki, and I loved that there was a beautiful added layer of reverence to worship (since you even have to take your shoes off before you go into the church!). I met a couple of priests and Catholic laypeople while I was there who were super nice and we talked a lot about Christianity in the East vs. the West. Someone told me there's a little bit of hesitation from Japanese about Christianity because there's been a lot of groups like Jehovah's Witness giving it a bad name... but yeah, it's interesting to see how a lot of Japanese say they aren't religious, yet still follow these kinds of rituals, plus how some of them kind of sort of reflect ones in Christianity (not that they're exactly the same, but still). So interesting!
Oh, I didn't know you had to take your shoes of when going to church in Japan. That's interesting.
I found a wonderful Catholic community in Hakodate. Very welcoming.
That's great ! How's the Japanese rite look like ? :)
@@Herghun not much different from the European traditions. I found very compelling the fact that the eucharist veneration can be done sitting on the ground.
Also Jesus apparently died in Japan as well so he got around
There are temples and shrines literally everywhere.
Ah yes the non religious Japanese where they go to shrines and ask for blessings from the Kami of the shrine. I think the reason for this weird dichotomy is that the Japanese word for religion is used to refer foreign religions like Christianity so when you asked them if they are religious they equate it as being Christians. But the Japanese are definitely religious because many have shrines in their homes to their family Kami or ancestors which is a form of religion and believe that Kamis are everywhere even in inanimate objects.
Genki?
Genki Genki!
Translation:
All good?
All good!
Dogen (aka native/real translation) :
What's up?
Not much!
Perfection.
It's funny. I've been studying Japanese off and on for about a year in a way that's not serious or formal but when this played on my speaker (I was listening to another RUclipsr before this played next) I could understand it almost entirely without subtitles or context.
Neat!
exactly my experience in Japan
日本の結婚式のカオスっぷりはヤバい
Casual religion is probably pretty similar across the world but in America you have group religion where you listen to the priest talk about life and morality etc and you have group events so it’s like you’re part of a community but for Japanese people they don’t get that. The religion is brief and individual between them, their thoughts, and whichever deity’s shrine they’re visiting.
Which is kinda like what pagan Europe/middle east was like before monotheistic religions took over
Aren't there also festivals in Japan? And days where you might visit a temple or shrine may be during big holidays, so there will be a lot of people attending.
@@m.m.1301Maybe for the common people, we don't actually, but those that could afford it did grand and lavish ceremonies with sacrifices and all that
America isn't the only country that practices mass, you know...
@@Laticia1990 There are but it's more like a state fair you don't listen to a priest talk at those.
0:48 wild Bulbasaur appeared!
It does sound like its original Japanese name!
Japanese people: We’re not really superstitious.
Also Japanese people: don’t cut your nails after midnight or spiders will come
ahahahaha
there are many surprising parallels that dogen has just discovered and realized.
somewhat Confucianism: making the secular like sacred
but also religion is historically really just a set of practices, not so much a belief system