Tokyo in Depth - Tokyo - page 18

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heroes, as well as of all natural things, both
animate and inanimate. These natural
things are thought to embody gods and
can be anyone or anything—mountains,
trees, the moon, stars, rivers, seas, fires,
animals, rocks, even vegetables. Shintoism
also embraces much of Confucianism,
which entered Japan in the 5th century
and stressed the importance of family and
loyalty. There are no scriptures in Shinto-
ism, nor any ordained code of morals or
ethics.
The place of worship in Shintoism is
called a jinja, or shrine. The most obvious
sign of a shrine is its torii, an entrance gate,
usually of wood, consisting of two tall
poles topped with either one or two cross-
beams. Another feature common to
shrines is a water trough with communal
cups, where the Japanese will wash their
hands and sometimes rinse out their
mouths. Purification and cleanliness are
important in Shintoism because they show
respect to the gods. At the shrine, worship-
pers will throw a few coins into a money
box, clap their hands twice to get the gods'
attention, and then bow their heads and
pray for whatever they wish—good health,
protection, the safe delivery of a child, or
a prosperous year. The most famous shrine
in Tokyo is Meiji Shrine.

Founded in India in the 5th century,
Buddhism came to Japan in the 6th cen-
tury via China and Korea, bringing with it
the concept of eternal life, and, by the end
of the 6th century, it had gained such
popularity that it was declared the state
religion. Of the various Buddhist sects in
Japan today, Zen Buddhism is probably
the most well known in the West. Consid-
ered the most Japanese form of Buddhism,
Zen is the practice of meditation and a
strictly disciplined lifestyle to rid yourself
of desire so that you can achieve enlighten-
ment. There are no rites in Zen Bud-
dhism, no dogmas, no theological
conceptions of divinity. You do not ana-
lyze rationally, but rather know things
intuitively. The strict and simple lifestyle
of Zen appealed greatly to Japan's samurai
warrior class, and many of Japan's arts,
including the tea ceremony, arose from the
practice of Zen.
Whereas Shintoists have shrines, Bud-
dhists have temples, called otera. Instead of
torii, temples will often have an entrance
gate with a raised doorsill and heavy doors.
Temples may also have a cemetery on their
grounds (which Shinto shrines never have)
as well as a pagoda. Tokyo's most famous
temple is Sensoji Temple in Asakusa.

2

4 TOKYO IN POPULAR CULTURE:
BOOKS & FILM

BOOKS
Kodansha International (www.kodansha-
intl.com), a Japanese publisher, has prob-
ably published more books on Japan in
English—including Japanese-language
textbooks—than any other company.
Available at major bookstores in Japan,
they can also be ordered online at www.
amazon.com.
HISTORY The definitive work of Japan's
history through the ages is Japan: The Story
of a Nation (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), by

Edwin O. Reischauer, a former U.S.
ambassador to Japan. For more recent
coverage, there's A Modern History of
Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present,
by Andrew Gordon (Oxford University
Press, 2003).
For an overview of Tokyo's history, refer
to Edward G. Seidensticker's Low City,
High City (Harvard University Press,
1991), which covers the period from 1867
to 1923, when the city rapidly grew from
an isolated and ancient shogun's capital