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Japan - An Attempt At Interpretation Review

Lafcadio Hearn says that Japanese culture is like a Bonsai tree, meticulously sculpted and trimmed and controlled for thousands of years. Even during his time (1890-1904) the rules were changing and the gardner was putting away his shears, and chaos was beginning to reclaim the tree.

However, to understand this strange plant, with the roots and bends and twists of Bonsai sculpting, one must look at its past, and the methods of shaping. From Hearn's point of view, this shaping is religion, specifically Ancestor worship and the "rule of the dead." Without insight into Japanese religious history and practices, Hearn says, you cannot understand Japan, its history or its people.

"Japan: An attempt at interpretation" is incredibly insightful and thorough, offering a history of the various forms of Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism and other folk-practices that shaped the national character. I am currently working on my MA in Japanese Religion, and I can verify that his research is correct, and his conclusions still hold. It is the longest of Hearn's books, and obviously a great deal of work went into it.

All though time has passed him by, "Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation" is still a valid, interesting book, both well-written and accurate. It DOES help explain Japanese interactions and culture. Most interesting are his speculations of Japanese culture, and where it would go in his pre-WWII era. Unfortunately, some of his worst fears were realized.

Japan - An Attempt At Interpretation Overview

JAPAN AN ATTEMPT AT INTERPRETATION BY LAFCADIO HEARN Honorary Member of the Japan Society London formerly Lecturer in the Imperial University of Tokyo iSgd-rgo , and Fourteen Years a. Resident of Japan tim of riid and n ITeto f0rfe THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON MACMILLAN CO,, LID. 1907 v4 rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Pubhshed September, 1904. Reprinted November, twice, 1904 , December twice, 1904 January, April, August, October, 1905 February, 1906, Apul, July, 1907 J. 9. Crushing Co, - Berwick Smith Go, Contents CHAPTBR PAGE I. DIFFICULTIES .... i II. STRANGENESS AND CHARM , 7 III. THE ANCIENT CULT 25 IV. THE RELIGION OF THE HOME 39 V. THE JAPANESE FAMILY 63 VI. THE COMMUNAL CULT 91 VII. DEVELOPMENTS OF SHINTO 119 VIII. WORSHIP AND PURIFICATION 147 IX. THE RULE OF THE DEAD 173 X. THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM . . . 201 XL THE HIGHER BUDDHISM ....... 227 XII. THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 251 XIII, THE RISE OF THE MILITARY POWER . , . 283 XIV. THE RELIGION OF LOYALTY 309 XV. THE JESUIT PERIL 331 XVI. FEUDAL INTEGRATION ....... 373 XVII. THE SHINTO REVIVAL 399 XVIII. SURVIVALS 415 XIX MODERN RESTRAINTS 431 XX. OFFICIAL EDUCATION 457 XXL INDUSTRIAL DANGER 483 XXII. REFLECTIONS ,. 499 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES . 527 INDEX ... 529 Difficulties Difficulties A THOUSAND books have been written about Japan but among these, setting aside artistic publications and works of a purely special character, the really precious vol umes will be found to number scarcely a score. This fact is due to the immense difficulty of per ceiving and comprehending what underlies the surface of Japanese life. No work fully inter preting that life, no work picturing Japan within and without, historically and socially, psychologi cally and ethically, can be written for at least another fifty years. So vast and intricate the subject that the united labour of a generation of scholars could not exhaust it, and so difficult that the number of scholars willing to devote their time to it must always be small. Even among the Japanese themselves, no scientific knowledge of their own history is yet possible because the means of obtaining that knowledge have not yet been prepared, though mountains of material have been collected. The want of any good his tory upon a modern plan is but one of many discouraging wants. Data for the study of sociol 4 DIFFICULTIES ogy are still inaccessible to the Western investi gator. The early state of the family and the clan the history of the differentiation of classes the history of the differentiation of political from religious law the history of restraints, and of their influence upon custom the history of regu lative and cooperative conditions in the develop ment of industry the history of ethics and aesthetics, all these and many other matters remain obscure. This essay of mine can serve in one direction only as a contribution to the Western knowledge of Japan. But this direction is not one of the least important. Hitherto the subject of Japanese re ligion has been written of chiefly by the sworn enemies of that religion by others it has been almost entirely ignored. Yet while it continues to be ignored and misrepresented, no real knowledge of Japan is possible. Any true comprehension of social conditions requires more than a superficial acquaintance with religious conditions. Even the industrial history of a people cannot be understood without some knowledge of those religious tradi tions and customs which regulate industrial life during the earlier stages of its development. . . . Or take the subject of art. Art in Japan is so intimately associated with religion that any attempt to study it without extensive knowledge of the DIFFICULTIES 5 beliefs which it reflects, were mere waste of time...

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Great on many levels - Meaty Fly -
In a nutshell, he shows how ancient Japanese society grew out of a vast network of family cults based on ancestor worship. Each family had a duty to keep the dead ancestors satisfied (or at least not unhappy), and, for the most part, this meant keeping family behavior in line with custom. There was a very fine line between custom and morality, and the immoral individual was one who broke with custom. No individual was free to break custom because, in doing so, he endangered the prosperity of the family.

Later incursions of Buddhism and Confucianism did little to alter the core family-cult structure underlying the society. In my opinion, it is still largely in tact today, though some would likely disagree.






Somewhat Dated, But Still Interesting - -
The author's premise is that "Japan can be understood only through study of her religious and social evolution." Toward that end, he gives a good and interesting account of the history and development of the Shinto faith.

This book describes in detail not only Shinto's history, but also how the religion effected and influenced Japanese society and culture for well over 2000 years. There are chapters on Shinto's/Japan's response to the introduction of new religious ideas --- namely Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity --- and on its reaction to the rise of the shoguns, and to the sudden introduction of Western ways in the mid-nineteenth century.

All-in-all, this is an informative, educational book.

One word of caution is in order, however: Hearn wrote this book in 1904. It is therefore somewhat dated; and the author's flowery Victorian-era prose might put some readers off. Same can be said for his use of nineteenth century anthropological terms and references --- words such as "Aryan," for example. Still, if the reader can look past Hearn's personal prejudices, this book is a fine history of Shinto up until the year 1904.

To complete a study of Shinto, of course, it would be necessary to learn of the religion's development through the Second World War and beyond. I am not aware of any book bringing the history of Shinto into the present, but perhaps they exist ... in English.




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