Global Journal of Human Social Science, D: History, Archaeology and Anthroplogy, Volume 23 Issue 3

© 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 33 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 D “The Pen is Mightier than the Sword”: Popular Ethics in Edo Period Japan so their Ways are offshoots of the comprehensive Way of the Gods,’ an d ‘things that cannot be regulated except by Confucianism should be regulated by Confucianism.’”) 55 c) Fruit: Popular Ethics and Hirata Shinto and Christianity Nosco suggests that “if we credit Motoori Norinaga with having…given the reconstituted Shinto ‘tradition’ the authority of a sacred canon, it remained for Hirata Atsutane (1776–184 3) to popularize Shinto nativism by asserting the singular supremacy of Japan, its culture, Way, and people.” 56 Atsutane’s program, known as Hirata Shintoism, took particular aim at the vestiges of Christian influence still left in Japan after Christianity’s proscription in the early 1600’s. He formulated a Shinto theology with a biblical interpretation. For example, Atsutane identified the first mentioned deity in the Records of Ancient Matters (Ame- no-minaka-nushi; “Master of the August Center of Heaven”) with the Christian God, the Creator. He also used biblical terminology for po pular ethics: good souls would ascend into heaven and bad souls would descend into eternal torment. 57 But his interest was not in affirming the superiority of Christianity, but rather of Shintoism. Atsutane demonstrated correlations between biblical and Shinto theology as a way of pr oviding further substantiation, and thus, pride of place, to the earlier, and thus, purer, Japanese spirituality. 58 d) Fruit: Popular Ethics about Women In some ways, one might argue, this preemptive theological strike helped to prepare Japan for the Meiji period when eco- diplomatic contact with foreign powers, especially Christian European countries, resumed after its 250 year hiatus. Japan could now enter the world scene confidently with a robust national identity intact. Women, however, did not fare as well as men in the religious foment of the Edo period. By the 17 th century, and especially into the 18 th century, the social and spiritual gains made for women through Kamakura 55 Maruyama, Studies in the Intellectual History , 176. 56 Peter Nosco, “The National Learning Schools” in Sources of Japanese Tradition: 1600 –2000 , Vol. 2 (2 nd ed.; Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, eds.; New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 481–519, esp. 509. 57 Yusa, Japanese Religious Traditions , 89. 58 Atsutane reaffirmed the centrality of Japan as the birthplace of all the gods known in the world: “People all over the world refer to Japan as the Land of the Gods and call us the descendants of the gods…Japanese differ completely from and are superior to the peoples of China, India, Russia, Holland, Siam, Cambodia and all other countries of the world, and for us to have called our country the Land of the Gods was not mere vanity. It was the gods who formed all the lands of the world at the Creation, and these gods were, without exception, born in Japan. Japan is the homeland of the gods, and that is why we call it the Land of the Gods.” Quoted from K ō d ō taii , in Hirata Atsutane zenshu , vol. 1, pp. 22-23; RT. Cited in Nosco, “The National Learning Schools,” 512. Buddhism, especially with respect to ge nd er equality regarding salvation, had all but receded. 59 It was the publication of the classic, “The Great Learning for Women” (1733, also called Onna Daigaku ), that solidified the inferior status of women. Although generally its authorship is attributed to Kaibara Ekken (1630–1 71 4), this has been questioned by some scholars 60 since its teaching contrasts with Ekken’s Yamato zokkun in which the concepts of self-cultivation and self-development are affirmed for women. Nakae Toju (1608-48), though, was a dissenting voice with respect to the philosophical consensus on the inferiority of women. He believed his teaching would benefit women if they applied his principles of honesty, sympathy, obedience to their family settings. Toju prioritized the subjective and passionate element of Confucian teaching as being applicable to all human beings—men, women and children. As such, he argued that all humans possess a faculty akin to conscience (the “divine light of heaven”), which allows each to determine their own conduct. He taught that the highest virtue was filial piety. This teaching particularly appeal ed to the rising class of independent cultivators in Aizu. 63 But his political appeal was limited since he withdrew from feudal s oc iety to live what he taught by taking care of his mother. 64 VI. C onclusion It was my purpose in this essay to trace the rise of, and motivation behind, the popular ethics movement 59 Yusa, Japanese Religious Traditions , 88.Yusa writes that “a salient example of this [i.e., a revival of misogynistic ideas in Buddhist practice] is the adoption of a Chinese apocryphal sutra , Ketsubon-kyo (“Blood Pond Hell Sutra), which was used by some Buddhist temples to advocate the view that women contaminated the soil and the water by the blood of childbirth and menstruation, and therefore they were destined to hell, unless proper rituals were performed by Buddhist priests.” 60 Tucker, “Kaibura Ekken,” 261. 61 Tucker, “Kaibura Ekken,” 262. 62 Yusa, Japanese Religious Traditions , 87. 63 Barry Steben, “The Spread of Neo-Confucianism in Japan” in Sources of Japanese Tradition: 1600 –2000 , Vol. 2 (2 nd ed.; Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann, eds.; New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 83–142, esp. 137. 64 Steben, “The Spread of Neo-Confucianism,” 123. In the Onna Daigaku “women are seen as having no life o f t heir own, no individual character or personhood.” 61 Japanese womanhood became identified with total self-subordination, both philosophically (the “dark” female yin principle is inferior to the manly yang ) and socially (the needs of her husband and his family are tantamount). Yusa notes that a woman could be “returned” to the home of her parents if she was found guilty of any one of seven reasons that allowed for divorce by her husband’s side of the family: disobedience to her in-la ws , barrenness, lewdness, jealousy, and diseases such as leprosy. 62