A country in isolation - Everyday Life in Traditional Japan - page 4

One important sector of shintō is concerned with food-production and fertility, rice-
wine and jollity. Shintō is also very preoccupied with cleanliness and the avoidance of de-
filement, and prefers not to have anything to do with death. On the other hand Buddhism,
which came to Japan from China through Korea some 1,500 years ago, brought with it,
along with glamorous elements of Chinese civilization and artistic achievement, a new in-
trospection and withdrawal from the world, a concern with the afterlife and an acceptance
of death ( 8 ) .
(6) Forest of sugi, a large tree, like the cedar, near Kyoto, the old capital.
For many centuries these two religions had been complementary: the gods of shintō
were incorporated into the Buddhist system, even though the two priesthoods and the cen-
ters of worship, Buddhist temples and shintō shrines, usually retained their independence.
Between them the two religions provided, and to a large extent still provide, a background
for almost all human activity in Japan, but only a background, not a morality. Morality,
the rules of conduct within society, was defined in secular principles, largely derived from
Confucianism. These principles included a system of loyalties, in which one's lord came
beforeone'sfamily,andparentsbeforespouseandchildren,togetherwithanunquestioning
acceptance of authority. Sobriety and frugality were required of superior men, while extra-
vagance, whether in dress, emotion, or expenditure, was to be deplored, although no more
than could be expected from the lower classes, especially from those whose aim was the
amassing of money, rather than service to one's lord or one's country. Although the money
motive is less reprehensible today, these attitudes are still to be found among the Japanese,
and are demonstrated in loyalty to their employers and to their country.