After reading - a short history of religion in Japan

There are 8 million gods in Japan long long ago. For example, there is a god in the river, forest, and

mountain. The ancient people believed those natural gods in Japan.

The middle of six century, the buddhism came from Korea. The religion war happened with Mononobe and the Imperial Court. It was the first religion war of the Japanese history.

Mononobe supported traditional Japanese gods, the Imperial Court supported the Buddhism. At the end the Imperial Court won. But Japanese traditional gods never died out. The Imperial Court supported Buddhism and Japanese gods.

After that, Buddhism had many religion. They never had big troble with each Buddhism religion.

But 19 century, revolution happened in Japan, new government commanded Buddhism change to godist. After that, Japanese emperor is living god till the world II war finished.

Now, Japanese family have a 'Kamidana' and a 'Butsudan'. Kamidana is godist, Butsudan is Buddhism.

Both religion have been staying in Japanese people now. It is very rare case all over the world. Japanese love ambiguity. I think that both religion suit Japanese.

Posted for Misuzu

After reading Daeth at Hadrian's Wall...

Write about an historic structure or building in your country, that you have visited. Include photographs.

 There is a Zenko-ji temple in Nagano city, Nagano prefecture. It was built in seven century.
The main temple was designated a national treasure in 1953. It is the 3rd biggest wooden building in which was designated a national treasure.

Its honzon (the principal image of Buddha) is Amida Sanzon-zo (the image of the Amida Triad). But we can’t see the honzon. We can see the copy instead of honzon once in seven years. The period is called Gokai-cho. The copy is an important cultural property built in Kamakura period, made of bronze.

Zenkoji in Nagano, Nagano prefecture, Japan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A pillar called Eko-chu is built in front of main temple when Gokai-cho. If you touch the Eko-chu, you will happy in your next world. When I went to Zenko-ji in Gokai-cho, there are a lot of people. So I got in the line to touch the Eko-chu over one hour.

There are some idioms including “Zenko-ji”. For example, “Ushi ni hikarete Zenko-ji mairi” = Never see me as just a cow, the mind of mine let you to go to Buddhism. It mean you are unexpectedly brought to somewhere with others. And an invitation from someone or unexpectedly chance will lead you good or lucky.

I think Zenko-ji temple look very beautiful. I like it.

Posted for Yuri

Blue Hood - story from Ugetsu-monogatari

 Dracula is a famous European folk/horror story. Is there a similar kind of story from your culture? Compare and contrast it to the story you read.

We don’t have same story of the Dracula in Japanese culture, but I found similar story. It is one of the stories in Ugetsu-monogatari called Blue hood.

English: Buddhist monk Genshin (Japan) Русский: Буддийский монах Гэнсин (Япония). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There was a Buddhist monk who is a person of virtue. One day, he visited a small village and heard that the people in the village were afraid of devil lived in the temple of the mountain. The devil was a virtues Buddhist monk before, but he changed because of his servant who was very beautiful boy. The servant got ill and died soon after he lived with the monk. The monk refused to let go of the boy’s body and got crazy, then ate his body finally.

After changed to devil, he went down to the village and dug up the graves. A Buddhist monk was trying to get him stop dug the graves. He visited the temple and stayed there one night. The devil was trying to eat him but couldn’t because of his power was strong. Finally, he was dead while chanting a Buddhist sutra which gave from the Buddhist monk.

I thought the devil didn’t drink someone’s blood, but some points were similar as the story of Dracula such like dug the graves.

Posted for Reiko