Japanese Temples, Sontaku and Venison Sukiyaki 忖度に関する考察 No.3 興福寺と鹿のすき焼き

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Five-storied pagoda of Kofukuji temple

Auctioned in the 19th century

This is part 3 of a series of posts about "sontaku," a unique habit of Japanese, i.e., preemptive acts to ingratiate themselves to their superiors, to explore it from a religious perspective.

The above photos are of the five-storied pagoda of Kofukuji temple in Nara prefecture. I definitely recommend visiting it if you come to Japan. I love this old temple, but one fact.... It once auctioned this pagoda for 25 yen then or 100,000 yen (930 US dollars) currently.

There was a reason, of course. The temple wanted to survive "haibutsu kishaku" or abolition or destruction of Buddhism, triggered by the government's order issued at the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912).

The order was intended to make Shinto the state religion to make Japan more united and stronger by separating from Buddhism. In Japan, Shinto and Buddhism had been "merged" with each other, but in reality, Buddhist temples had long controlled Shinto shrines. This new policy gave Shinto shrines an excellent excuse to revenge on their long-term oppressors. Let's take a look at this more specifically with a focus on Enryakuji and Kofukuji, two most influential Buddhist temples in Japan.

The anti-Buddhist persecution started effectively at Enryakuji temple. Its monks were expelled and statues destroyed by a Shinto shrine under the temple's control. However, things got interesting from here. What happened to Enryakuji temple terrified Kofukuji temple, just 65 km away from the origin of this anti-Buddhism movement, to the point of voluntarily writing a letter in two weeks notifying the government of their conversion to Shinto and asking the permission to work as Shinto priests for Kasuga Taisha shrine next to the temple. What an incredibly quick and "sontaku" decision!!

They might have just thought that their swift reaction would make the government happy and protect the temple. But their sontaku went too far, burning the temple's statues and artifacts as firewood and selling them for money. Some of these assets even went overseas and are now at the Boston Museum and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. This pagoda barely escaped from being sold to someone who planned to demolish it to get metal. 

Japanese usually don't realize that they do "sontaku" or even if they do, they don't think about its consequences because, for them, not "they," but "someone else" should be responsible for protecting their lives. "Someone else" was the government, Shinto priests and emperors before the war and has been the government and the US since the end of the war...

The anti-Buddhist movement caused another tragedy for deer in Kasuga Taisha shrine premises. The deer, messengers of god, nearly extinguished at that time because they were eaten in sukiyaki in place of beef.

Another tidbit. Without this persecution, Yasaka Jinja shrine and Kitano Tenmangu shrine, two Kyoto shrines on the top ten list, would still be both Buddhist temples...

If you are interested in sontaku behavior, read "A Case Study of Sontaku" and "Prime Minister Wife's Accountability and Sontaku."

If the anti-Buddhist persecution interests you, read my another post, "Encounter of Hindu Ganesh and Buddhism Mask in Japan"! 

Reference: Annihilation of Buddhism - Why did the Meiji government destroy Buddhist temples?  by Hidetoku Ukai (仏教抹殺　なぜ明治政府は寺院を破壊したのか　鵜飼秀徳)

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「忖度」について、今日は奈良の興福寺を題材にお話しします。（「忖度に関する考察」と「忖度に関する考察 No.2 - 昭恵夫人」もご覧ください！）

廃仏毀釈については以前も触れましたが、その過激化は何と「忖度」が原因だったようです。明治政府は単に神仏分離を目的としていたのに、長年寺院に虐げられてきた神社がそれを理由（口実？）に反撃を開始したとのこと。延暦寺がその発端だそうです。

でも面白いのは興福寺。延暦寺で起きたことを聞き、自ら還俗して春日大社の神官として働くことを願い出たそうです。はあ｡｡。そして多くの仏像が焼却、売却されました｡｡。私も大好きなこの写真の五重塔も当時の25円（今の10万円）で売りに出されたそうです。

第2次大戦のせいで、「神道が悪者で仏教が善玉」みたいな印象がありますが（私だけでしょうか？）、江戸期以降、仏教は相当堕落していたようで、廃仏毀釈と結びついた神道側の復讐を恐れた寺側が「忖度」して神社にすり寄り過激化した、というのが真相のよう。

日本人って忖度が習い性になっていて、自分が忖度していること自体に気付いてない人が多いような気がします。忖度しても、結局付けは自分に回ってくる気がするのですが｡｡｡

でもそのとばっちりで一番可哀そうだったのは春日大社の鹿！ すき焼きで食べられてしまったそうです。ちなみに京都の八坂神社と北野天満宮はもともとお寺だったそうです。その名残を探しに、今度ゆっくり見てきます！

参考文献：「仏教抹殺　なぜ明治政府は寺院を破壊したのか」鵜飼秀徳著

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