Early Japan and animistic ideals: Creating a culture of conservation and appreciation.

By Whitney Nekoba
Swarthmore College ‘08
Spring 2007

Culture can be seen as a human creation, a succession of nature.  Notably, human beings elicit behavior that separates them from animals, specializing innate actions to create new types of learned conduct that increases their own quality of life (Repp 2003).  In many human societies, nature and the physical environment has played a large part in the development of cultural practices and beliefs (Forbes 2005).  The early Japanese perception of life and nature as one has shaped this culture’s values, ethics, and beauty that are still apparent today (Hayashi 2002).  The biocentric or animistic characteristic in the culture proved successful in early Japan and in the beginnings of the agriculture-dependent and sedentary society.  Today, Japanese society is much different with the consequential Westernization and population expansion.  Yet, the island nation still retains ideals from their Jomon and Yayoi ancestors that began a culture of conservation in technological advances, which preserved Japan’s natural resources for thousands of years.

Ancient Japan is divided into two time periods.  The older period, the Jomon era, can be classified as the gatherer-hunter time when subsistence included plant-origin materials such as nuts, acorns, and root crops, as well as gathered shellfish during the warmer months.  In this 12000 BC to 300 BC time frame, early food processing and storage techniques were implemented and allowed time for the cultivation of early tradition and spirituality.  The Jomon era sparked the movement of culture in Japan (Ogawa 1998).  In 300 BC through 300 AD, the transition and success of the Yayoi era occurred. In light of the Agricultural Revolution around the world, the beginning of organized rice cultivation and the dependence of agriculture as the main food supply distinguished this newer period (Cipolla 1978).  However, populations still continued to supplement their agriculture supply with gathering and hunting activity when production was low or unstable (Ehrlich 2000a; Ogawa 1998).  Different from rice gathering or simple food supplement, agriculture also entertained early culture by creating community and the ideals of civilization (Repp 2003).  Spiritual thought matured during the Jomon period and was emphasized through the Yayoi era.  Early Japanese spirituality is categorized as animistic, as life during the Jomon period was dependent upon the natural environment.  People identified calm weather with the “merciful mother”, whereas harsh climates like floods, typhoons, snow, droughts, and earthquakes personified the “stern father” (Ogawa 1998).  Much respect and attention from farmers was commanded by nature.  The personified anger of nature had a direct effect on the farmer and agriculture (Oyadomari 1989).  By developing spiritual associations with natural occurrences, the Japanese people assumed a cohesive relationship with nature and developed effective ways of living within the boundaries of the natural world rather than managing it (Hayashi 2002).  This spiritual thought is carried over to contemporary religion and lifestyle in Japan.  The Jomon and Yayoi cultures thus created a cultural base for the country inasmuch to guide respectful thought of natural environments and its budding interrelationships with humans.

Religion is a significant part of any society, encouraging and enforcing rituals and behavior.  These rituals keep the symbolic connection to the past strong, and provide a generalized perception of the ideal societal life (Ehrlich 2000b; Hudson & Kaner 1992).  In Japanese religions, importance is heavily placed on the natural world.  Worship in the Japanese tradition spawned from the disturbance of humans by nature’s events and living creatures and the idea that praying would decrease or eliminate its effects.  These conditions warranted a fear or reverence of, rather than a control over, nature (Oyadomari 1989; Hayashi 2002).  Early Shinto thought, Japan’s only indigenous religion, necessitates a relationship between the living and gods (kami) that supports religious ceremonies and habits (Howard 1999).  These rites call upon the spirits of kami to serve earthly affairs, and appeal to humanistic ethos to foster the relationship between the gods and the living (Koizumi 1979; Senda 1992).  Kami lived everywhere, especially in pristine nature, and humans accepted blessings from nature and their ancestors in the Shinto faith (Kurokawa 2006; Hayashi 2002).  Symbolic relationships are seen through the material culture as well as animals and landscape that are interdependent with people and their lifestyles (Hudson & Kaner 1992).  When nature is the center of worship, it is unlikely that the civilizations would exploit their resources, and the beliefs would promote conservation instead (Oyadomari 1989).  In addition, individual exploitation was forbidden and violation of communal parameters of sustenance living was grounds were expulsion from the village (Oyadomari 1989).  Japanese religion readily evolved into a culture-based religion, bound by respect and gratitude for the gifts of the natural world through kami and other deities.

Animistic views of nature were created in many early societies, but geographic, climatic, and historical features shape the individual societies’ relationships (Hayashi 2002).  The intertwinement of culture and religion in early Japan produced folk tales of the civilization’s heroes, embodied as deities.  For instance Ukemochi no Kami, the food deity, has an elaborate story to how she provided food for her people post-mortem by transforming her body parts into crop foods and desired meat (see disc. in Repp 2003, p. 6).  The Kesaki legend, where a giant kicked the bank of a lake to create arable land, describes how agriculture’s physical foundations were made (see disc. in Kurokawa 2002, p. 2).  This folklore has roots in the agricultural history of early Japan’s Yayoi era, as well as the animistic thought of a common soul in all living organisms.  Communities respected indigenous trees in the early Japanese woodlands through Shinto ideals that would award prosperity and luck from the tree kami (Omura 2004).   Japan’s people also had a vital sense of life’s seasons and cycles.  The old calendar used until Westernization during the Meiji government (1868-1911) was considered a “farmer’s calendar”, because it considered the astronomical cycles of time, but also the agricultural cycles that were so crucial to farming societies (Noguchi 2004).  This life-centered calendar appreciated the New Year when spring arrived with plum blossoms and bird songs.  Time was kept constant with the activities and admiration of nature rather than the rigid time of astronomical constants (Noguchi 2004).

Japan’s societal intertwinement with nature transcended their spiritual occasions to everyday practice and technologies.  Wooden creations housed civilizations and played an important role in religious exercises.  The utilization and regeneration of forest trees in Japan’s geographic climate entertained strong conservation measures and prosperity of a natural resource.  Craftsmen understood the life of the medium that they worked with.  Carpenters weathered timber in harsh conditions for ten years before its use in shrines and temples to ensure its sturdiness and environmental plasticity, enabling these wooden creations to remain vibrant for thousands of years later, seen today (Noguchi 2004).  For any building, carpenters were aware of their fibrous medium and could distinguish sawn wood’s top and bottom.  The direction of the tree’s growth in sunlight and the face toward the mountains were of utmost importance, determining the conditions in which the tree developed and the environment in which it existed (Senda 1992).  Woodsmen believed that trees inhabited a second life when a structure’s strength was appropriated in the proper direction (Noguchi 2004).  Conservation for useless timber, named “Tree of Heaven”, was enacted by Shinto beliefs and the appreciation for meditation under large and shady foliage (Omura 2004).  Sensitivity to art and utility was also observed in clothes making.  To the Japanese people, colors were used to enhance the raw textile rather than changing its essence.  The slightest color difference between fabrics and dye was alive to the artist and thus appreciated and never overlooked (Noguchi 2004).  Potters also viewed their clay as alive.  Although designated as folk crafts today, Yanagi Soetsu rejuvenated the Mingei type of pottery and craft, highlighting early Japan’s appreciation of practical and utilitarian value in each piece of art (Yanagi 1972).  Self-sufficiency governed Japanese lifestyle in practice and worship.  The human body was viewed as a tool for daily work and was equal with all other living things.  Offerings to kami were from the shrine’s own garden and the individual’s hands.  As mentioned above, wooden shrines were built and reconstructed from regenerated trees that were planted for the purpose of worship in the shrine’s forest.  These practices and technologies never resulted in lack or need for hundreds of years (Noguchi 2004).

The activities of early Japan translate into similar practices of today, signifying the communal aspect of the sedentary civilizations of the Jomon and Yayoi eras, and more specifically that of agricultural and sustenance communities (Koizumi 1979).  Japanese architecture since the Edo period create buildings with Western influence but remain characteristic to their origins rooted in nature and the subsequent harmony of design (Kurokawa 2006).  However, the development of animistic culture was essential for the prosperous continuation of Japan’s society as the country’s population and living demands expanded exponentially.  Today, there is strong argument that Japan’s resources are decreasing at an alarming rate (see disc. in Howard 1999), with the Westernization process of the Meiji Period and the rapid post-war economic growth (Oyadomari 1989).  Yet without the cultural and spiritual agreement in technology and lifestyle toward the preservation of the land and resources, the exploitation of regenerative material with slow restoring processes would have been lost long ago. 

Literature Cited

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Howard, T. E. 1999. Japan’s green resources: Forest conservation and social values. Agriculture and Human Values 16, 421-430.

Hudson, M. J., & Kaner, S. 1992. Editors’ introduction: Towards an archeology of Japanese ritual and religion. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 19, 113-128.

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Ogawa, M. 1998. A cultural history of science education in Japan: An epic description. In W. W. Cobern (Ed.), Socio-Cultural Perspectives on Science Education: An international dialogue (pp. 139-161). Dordrecht: The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

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Oyadomari, M. 1989. The rise and fall of the nature conservation movement in Japan in relation to some cultural values. Environmental Management 13, 23-33.

Repp, M. 2003. Religion, culture, and popular culture in Japan – A historical study of their interaction. Inter-Religio 43, 3-21.

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Yanagi, M. 1972. The unknown craftsman: A Japanese insight into beauty. New York: Kodansha International.

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