Ever since its introduction into Japan some sixteen centuries ago Confucianism in one form of interpretation or another has supplied the girders wherewith Japanese loyalists have attempted to strengthen their structures of nationalistic ethics. This was true of the Shintō revivalists of the Tokugawa era. For, with all the anti-foreign sentiment that some of these scholars revealed, it was nevertheless in Confucianism that they found the mine from which they drew their iron. In the midst of the uncertainties of the early Meiji reconstruction period, Confucianism was again an anchor in the storm. The Imperial Rescript on Education which today furnishes the moral shelter within which the youth of the land is being nurtured stands on a foundation of almost pure Confucianism. It is with ample justification that a Japanese Confucian scholar has recently said that the national educational system, the social order and the political institutions of Japan are all based upon the doctrines of Confucius.1
The Confucian revival of modern Japan is directly connected with two of the Shintō sects, Shūsei Ha and Taisei Kyō. In certain other of the sects Confucian influence, while obvious, is more or less unrecognized. In these two, however, it is frankly admitted and fostered.
The recourse to Confucianism on the part of religious organizations is easily understood when we bear in mind the confidence which it had inspired by virtue of its long history as a stabilizing agency in the national life. This is particularly true of the modern period. The confusion and apprehension of the mid-ninteenth century political turmoil served as a stimulus to the conservatism of many of the supporters of the Meiji Restoration and gave birth to numerous so-called kinnōka, or Imperial loyalists, whose creed had been stiffened by Confucianism. It was a time when thoughtful men grew anxious over unrest within the nation and when patriots were fearful lest the flood of Western thought which was flowing in with the new stream of Christian missionary propaganda should submerge all the landmarks of traditional culture. Serious minded men pondered deeply the means that should be taken for securing a measure of unity in the life of the people, and as a means of self-protection some of them fell back on the revival of the national religion supported by Confucian ethics. Among such was Nitta Kuniteru, the man who established Shūsei Ha.
Like numerous others among the Shintō founders, Nitta Kuniteru had a perplexing diversity of names. At one time he was called Takezawa Kansaburō. He also sometimes signed himself Tōyō. He was born December 30, 1829 (Bunsei 12. 12. 5) at Ebara Mura of the country of Awa on the island of Shikoku. Even as a young man he was conspicuous for his patriotism and when the crisis came at the close of the Tokugawa régime he cast in his lot with the Imperial cause. He early came to the conviction that mere loyalism, devoid of a religious faith, was an insecure basis for a strong state. Dominated by the purpose of reestablishing Shintō as a genuine religion, he journeyed about the land proclaiming as an antidote for his country’s ills his compound of Shintō doctrine and Confucian ethics. He even boldly entered the strongholds of Tokugawa authority prior to the Restoration and preached surrender to the Emperor. He was imprisoned for his pains but was later released and permitted to live in Yedo. Attracted by his teaching of a practical nationalism that offered prospect of successful resistance to the inflow of foreign religions, numerous stalwarts entered his discipleship. The fellowship grew until on August 31, 1873, his followers were sufficiently numerous to form the so-called Shūsei Association. This became an independent Shintō sect with the name of Shūsei Ha on October 23, 1876. Nitta became the first superintendent priest in 1884. He died on November 25, 1902, at the ripe old age of seventy-four. Prior to his death he was honoured with court rank by the Emperor.2
The Shūsei Ha takes its name from the words shūri, “repairing,” “improving,” or “strengthening” and kosei, “consolidating” or “making secure.” The ideograms for the expression shūri kosei appear in the mythological sections of the Kojiki in the account of the creative activities of Izanagi and Izanami which relates how they “improved” and “consolidated” the islands of the Japanese archipelago. The first and last syllables of these two words are employed to form the title of the sect, Shūsei Ha (ha, “sect”, “society”, or “band”). In the discipline of the church shūsei is interpreted as involving, on the subjective side, the correction of one’s faults through personal initiative and the fostering of an upright spirit and, on the objective side, a faithfulness to social and political proprieties. At the same time, it is understood to include the principle of biological and social evolution resident in nature itself.3
Essential doctrines are set forth in the following three articles.
“1. The myriad forms and manifold network of the universe, including man and the moral world and all things whatsoever, have come into being through the spiritual activity of the triune deity of creation and the soul of man is of one substance with this heavenly deity. The principles of this sect consist in the protecting and the careful fostering of this superlatively good soul.
“2. The two deities, Izanagi and Izanami, at the command of the deities of heaven, improved and consolidated this country, including peoples, creatures, grasses, trees and all things whatsoever. Accordingly, in shūri kosei lies the fundamental law of the evolution of the universe and, in truth, the progress of mankind and the advancement of society are due to the operation of this one principle.
“3. Shūri kosei is also the process whereby man faithfully observes the moral law and the means by which the affairs of family and society are administered. This purpose is brought to realization through the glorious and radiant virtue of Ama-terasu-Ōmikami.”4
In the original text the term translated “glorious and radiant,” as it appears in article three above, is written kō-ka mei-sai. Each of these four elements bears the meaning of “the brightness of light,” “brilliant,” or “radiant.” The eight syllables, shū-ri ko-sei kōka mei-sai (“strengthening, consolidating, glorious, radiant”) are repeated over and over again by the believers in their worship as a kind of ritualistic chant for the purpose of gaining inner tranquillity and as an expression of the essential philosophy of the church.
It was the belief of the founder of Shūsei that Confucianism had its origin in Japan. Confucianism is as old as creation and throughout all their history the Japanese people have revealed an innate adaptability to its teachings. Nitta taught that the triune creation deity of the Kojiki was identical with the Jōtei, or Almighty God, of Confucianism, and that the virtues of the five cardinal relationships subsisting between sovereign and subject, father and child, husband and wife, senior and junior children and between friends all had their ultimate source in the principle of shūri-kosei, that is, in the principle of personal and social improvement.
The god-world of Shūsei Ha is exceedingly comprehensive, as may be judged from the fact that it provides for the worship of all the “eight hundred myriads of deities” of Old Shintō. The primal divine essence of the universe appears in a trinity of manifestations in the Kojiki creation deities—Ame-no-Minaka-no-Kami, Taka-Musubi-no-Kami and kami-Musubi-no-Kami. With this central group should be included the Sky Father, Izanagi-no-Kami and the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu-Ōmikami. A long list of lesser gods and goddesses are honoured. The list includes the earth mother, Izanami-no-Kami, certain deities of purification called Haraido-no-Kami (“Purification-place Deities”), the wind god (Kaze-no-Kami), a deity of roads who was once also a phallic god (Sae-no-Kami), a god of water (Midzu-no-Kami), the god of fire (Hi-no-Kami), the god of trees (Ki-no-Kami), the deity of metals (Kane-no-Kami), the deity of earth (Tsuchi-no-Kami), the great food goddess (Uke-mochi-no-Kami), the great god of Izumo (Ōna-Muchi-no-Kami), the god of medicine (Sukuna-Hikona-no-Kami) and an ancient phallic goddess called Iwanaga-Hime-no-Kami.
This multiform god-world is interpreted against a pantheistic background. Nitta Kunimitsu said,
“The divine spirit of creation has but one source. It fills the universe. Thus heaven and earth attain harmony and all existence has development. The four seasons come and go and all things are transformed eternally.”
This of course is conventional Confucianism. The tri-form creation spirit which Nitta thought he had discovered in Japanese mythology is not only the Jōtei, or Almighty God, of Confucianism, as just pointed out, but, also, under the Japanese name of Takama-ga-Hara, is the same as the Heaven, or Tien, of the great Chinese sage. In Nitta’s Confucianism, at least, this latter conception is not understood impersonally, nor is it regarded as a mere locality. It is rather the Supreme Being whose spiritual presence is everywhere and whose creative will is back of all change. Temporal manifestations of this great Being appear in the various divinities of Shintō worship and, in a limited measure, in the souls of men. Man possesses, by virtue of an original endowment of the pure spiritual essence of the universe, a perfect divine nature, but this becomes contaminated and perverted by the evils of the body and by bad habits. Man can enter into re-possession of this innate divine personality by practising the virtues of the church. These virtues are tranquillity of spirit, impartial unselfishness, justice, an obedience to the laws of the state as the first requirement of good citizenship, loyalty and filial piety, sincerity, reverence, temperance, faithfulness, studiousness, industry, frugality, propriety and the proper worship of the gods. It is not difficult to see a strong Confucian influence back of this kind of teaching.
The members of the Shūsei church are taught to prize trustworthiness and to exclude luxury and looseness from their living. They study to protect and increase family property and to hand on improved estates to their children. The cultivation of health of body and of mind and the attainment of a liberal social altruism are likewise upheld as important objectives of the discipline. The founder said:
“To live uprightly as an individual in the things near at hand—this is the way to serve parents, rulers and gods.
“There is no other way of serving the gods than by spending one’s self for man.”
Confucian influence appears again in the doctrine that it is the duty of man to accept and perpetuate the aristocratic class system which is manifested in such strength and beauty in Japanese history and, likewise, in the further tenet that a well centralized government is indispensable to human happiness and moral reform. Teachers of the church pride themselves on the fact that their faith and practice begin and end with nationalism. Believers are taught “that the peace of the world will be strengthened and consolidated if this Shintō sect is accepted by the peoples of other countries.”
Shūsei Ha claims a membership roll of four hundred eight thousand names. The national headquarters are situated at Yono Machi of Adachi Gun in Saitama Prefecture, immediately north of Tōkyō.
The tide of Taisei Kyō which is adopted by the second of the Confucian sects incorporates the root of the verb, taisei suru, meaning “to bring to a successful conclusion.” Accordingly, the name of this society may not improperly be rendered “Great Accomplishment Teaching” (tai or dai, “great”; set, “accomplishment”; kyō, “teaching”). The believers of the church maintain that they foster a discipline which gathers together the total impulse of Shintō and brings it to a successful issue in the thought and practice of the nation, hence the name, “Great Accomplishment.” It is a Shintō, nevertheless, that has been considerably influenced by Confucianism.
The founder was Hirayama Shōsai (b. 1815), a samurai who served the Tokugawa Shogunate with loyalty and distinction. He showed particular ability in negotiating with foreign powers during the dangerous times of the mid-nineteenth century readjustments and, when the affairs of state were urgent, he was frequently employed in such service, journeying at times as far north as Saghalien and as far west as Nagasaki to arrange trade relations with the Westerners. At one time he ranked as assistant minister of foreign affairs and, again, as a member of the Council of the Shōgun. In the opening years of the Meiji era he was punished by the new Imperial government for his rebel leanings and was compelled to live in retirement for two years at Shizuoka. Early in 1870 he was permitted to return to Tōkyō and forthwith abandoned governmental ambitions to devote his entire attention to the training of future leaders.
Hirayama, while keenly appreciative of the need of accommodating traditional institutions to the currents of world culture, was above all things else motivated by a sincerely patriotic determination to protect his native land against an over-rapid inrush of foreign religions. It was with this object of promoting a secure national life, rather than that of stimulating assurance of salvation into another world, that he founded his new association. He received no small influence from Misogi Kyō, one of the thirteen Shintō sects that stresses the importance of purification ceremonies. At one time he served as head priest of the Higa Shrine situated at Ichi no Miya of Musashi. He died in the month of May, 1890, at the age of seventy six. The Taisei sect was first organized in 1879 and granted a charter as an independent sect in 1882.5
The Taisei church is frankly syncretistic. It attempts to interweave Confucian ethics and occidental scientific culture with a faith in the verities of Shintō interpreted mainly as reverence for ancestors and love of country. The underlying motives are accordingly those of a practical nationalism which exalts patriotism to the status of a religion. As a result the teachings of the sect are rather free and fluid and the church has been criticized as comparatively lacking in the intense religious colour found in certain of the other societies of modern Shintō.
“There are no better doctrines or truths than the Shintō of our Imperial Land and the holy teachings of Confucius. These make clear the truth of Heaven and the Way of human ethics and teach us how to discipline ourselves, how to govern others and how to carry into effect the very essence of human obligations.”6
Again he said:
“Conforming to the desires of the reigning Emperor and in cooperation with those who sympathize with us, we devise the following program—to lead the people of our land to revere our incomparable national organization, to investigate western science and the teachings of Confucius and to give heed to means for promoting the welfare of the nation. Hereby we preserve the Way of our Imperial Ancestors and of our Heavenly Deities in a manner comparable with the religious teachings of other countries.”7
In attempting to make these general principles more definite seven specific articles are enjoined upon believers:
“1. To observe the worship of the kami of heaven and earth and the distant worship of the spirits of successive generations of Emperors and of the deities of the Imperial sanctuaries.
“2. To observe the divine commandments which are as imperishable as heaven and earth and to strengthen the national organization.
“3. To make clear the Way of human conduct as revealed by Heaven.
“4. To train ourselves in devotion to the true law and to strengthen the foundations of inner tranquillity.
“5. To unite the temporal and the spiritual worlds with a clear understanding of the meaning of life and death.
“6. To study science and technique and to encourage business enterprise.
“7. To carry on religious rites and ceremonies after the manner of successive generations of royal courts.”8
The primary deities are the three creation kami of the Kojiki, the sun goddess, the sky father, the storm god and the great deity of Izumo. In addition to these seven, the spirits of the founder and of various other teachers and believers are enshrined. As in the case of the Shūsei sect, the three creation kami are interpreted as the revelation of the Great Life of the Universe and this Being is, in turn, equated with the Tien or Jōtei of Confucianism. The ethical emphases are similar to those of Shūsei Ha and also to those of other Shintō sects into which Confucian influences have penetrated. The individual is a member of a divinely ordained state and society. Class distinctions and in particular the vast separation of ruler and subject are fixed by divine fiat and are part of the preordained order of nature. The sovereign governs by right of descent from the kami of the Age of the Gods who founded the state and decreed its institutions. The Emperor loves his people as the manifestation of the benevolence of Heaven and people and Throne are bound together into one great family under the headship of the Emperor so that loyalty and filial piety have become one and the same virtue. It is here that Japanese scholars sometimes point with satisfaction to an alleged difference between their own Imperial institutions and those that have been tolerated with Confucian sanction in China. Chinese Confucianism teaches that if a ruler neglects to love his people and deliberately oppresses them, Heaven will punish him and deprive him of his sovereignty and establish a more virtuous person in his stead. In Chinese practice a ruler may be chosen by common consent of the people. Over against this, the Japanese loyalists insist that their emperor is so revered because of his unbroken descent from the gods that no subject has ever succeeded in setting himself up as ruler. This has protected the nation against the changes of dynasty and revolutions that have confused and retarded the political development of other peoples.
A considerable list of traditional practices for ascertaining the will of the gods are to be found in various purification ceremonies, in horoscopy, divination, fortune telling, and in rites of meditation and control of breathing that induce mystical states of consciousness in which the limitations of selfhood are believed to be transcended and the secrets of the invisible world laid bare.
The national headquarters of Taisei Kyō are situated in Koishikawa Ku of Tōkyō. Social welfare activities are maintained in schools for ex-convicts and the children of the poor. A church membership of seven hundred twenty-eight thousand is reported.
1. See above, p. 29.
2. Cf. Kōno, op. cit., pp. 80 ff.
3. Cf. Shintō Shūseiha Kyōrì (“Regulations of the Shūsei Sect of Shintō”), Tōkyō, 1928, p. 1.
4. Kōno, op. cit., p. 83.
5. Cf. Kōno, op. cit., pp. 72 ff.; Uchū, Jan., 1930, p. 26.
6. Kōno, op. cit., p. 75.
7. Kōno, op. cit., p. 72.
8. Kōno, op. at., p. 74.