> Mm. While I have great respect for Sinologists, I find that their information when they apply it to Japan seems to be... lacking. I say this because I was taught by a Russian Sinologist and also by Japanese nationals, and the differences were interesting, to say the least.
> I don't necessarily believe that Shinto is 'syncretic by nature'. I believe that the Japanese are syncretic in their religious practices as a whole. If Shinto were inherently syncretic, why did the Nakatomi clan (whose purview was the Shinto system at the time of the Buddhist importation) fight tooth and nail to keep Buddhism out of Japan instead of incorporating it? They even assassinated entire wings of the fledgling Japanese state to do it. In part this was to ensure their own power base, but if Shinto were syncretic, then this battle would not have been necessary.
Most syncretistic religions reflect society and might be very syncretistic during one period and less so later on. Generally I would say that shintoists are more inclined to incorporate worship of buddhist spirits than the other way around.
The conflict between religious beliefs are rarely a matter of faith, but rather of politics, so I don't think syncretistic tendencies in shinto would have mattered in a conflict with a newly arrived culture.
> The Rome analog does not work, either. I do not argue that Japanese religious practice is very syncretic. I argue that it is impossible to know what purely Shinto (as opposed to amalgamated Shinto/Buddhist) beliefs existed at any point in Japanese history because by the time that we have written records on the matter, the religions are already side-by-side and some syncretism is taking place. This is not the case with Rome. We have written records for a far earlier period than in the case of the Japanese state, and I can only believe that the pagan Roman religion was syncretic.
> However, one can also point to the syncretism in Rome's religion as a practical matter, as a byproduct of its expansion. Rome co-opted foreign deities to, in a sense, better assimilate its conquered peoples. An interesting point is that there is evidence in the Man'yoosyu that the Yamato state did the same _with the Shinto religion_ in its attempt to unify the different Japanese peoples. That is, Amaterasu was the 'clan god', if you will, of the Yamato clan, and so she is preeminent. Onnotengu, Susano-o, and the other Shinto kami were given important but subordinate positions to co-opt them into the state.
Interesting.
> Again, though, the records we have seem to be after the activities in question finished. They postdate the actual effort, and seem to be an attempt to use the new technology of the written word to make the cooption permanent.
> As for your sources, you yourself admit that most of them are operating somewhat out of their bailiwick. While I do not doubt that their insights can be quite useful, especially in a comparative sense between China and Japan, I have found that there is a temptation to view Japan through China's lens, which most Japanese historians deny is a valid approach in the general case. I do not believe that Japan is quite the 'unique snowflake' that some nationalistic Japanese historians make of it, but it is clearly not a mere knock-off of China that such an appropriation of methods can fully explain.
> I wonder if KO has any insights into this, as it really falls under his area of expertise.
It was a while since I studied shinto, but I have more experience with shinto than japanese buddhism. In my view most of the buddhist spirits are more or less adaptations of chinese versions of hindu gods. The myo-o are great examples of many armed buddhist spirits with a hindu legacy. Only their chief Fudo is mostly depicted as two-armed.
Other buddhist spirits of hindu origin are the tenbu, celestial beings, devas. They appear as statues, art and in mandalas. Dragons, yakshas (seems to be called yasha in japan) and other mythological beings might be included among the tenbu.
Early buddhism was formed in a hindu context and especially the later northern branches of buddhism are quite heavily influenced by hindu mythology. Tibetan buddhism not the least. Since buddhism came to Japan from China and Korea it was inevitable that the hindu traces were brought along. To my knowledge theravada buddhism is less populated by godlike spirits of hindu origin.
I'm not sure how much impact these celestial beings have on day to day religious lives of japanese buddhists, but they certainly appear in temples and sutras. I believe they are more important in esoteric buddhism.
This summer I have been playing with the idea of giving Jomon some attention and add some celestial summons like the myo-o and other buddhist spirits. There is still plenty of unused material in the east
