Yanagita Kunio, known as the "founder of Japanese folklore studies" and the "father of Japanese ethnography," popularized the idea that the ancestors of the Japanese migrated from the South Seas to Okinawa and then to Japan using the Kuroshio Current.
Reportedly he was inspired when he found a palm nut washed ashore by the Kuroshio while walking on Iragomisaki beach in Aichi Prefecture.
Studying the movement of cowrie shells from the South northward, he linked the shell trade with rice cultivation in his books Takaragai no Koto (The Cowrie) and Kaijo no michi (Ocean Road).
The South Seas were divided into two parts, Uchi Nan'yo (Inner South Seas) consisting mainly of Micronesia, and Soto Nan'yo (Outer South Seas) referring to Southeast Asia and especially the Philippines and Indonesia. Interestingly, the Southeast Asian countries were seen as an expansion of the Pacific island ones, rather than vice a versa.
Cultural anthropologist Shinji Yamashita wrote concerning Japanese conquests in the 20th century that "colonization of the Nan'yo differed from European colonization in that it entailed the return of the ancestors to their homeland" in Japanese minds of that period.
Earlier in this blog, I have written of how the Japanese prized aged earthenware jars from Southeast Asia, and particularly Luzon, since about Sung Dynasty times. This near obsession with old, earthenware jars may stem from ancient beliefs in ancestral homelands like Takamagahara and Tokoyonokuni overseas to the South in Japanese legendary history. It was from the earth of Takamagahara that earthenware, handmade (ta-kujiri) "Heavenly Jars" were fashioned and sacrificed by the first Emperor Jimmu.
The hidden Christians of Japan came to regard Luzon (Roson) in the Philippines as a sacred land apparently conflating Christian and Shinto beliefs after the government crackdown on foreign missionaries. The fabled Southeast Asian Namban jar trade dissipated probably due to the response of Christian colonial governments in Southeast Asia.
When Japan took over Taiwan in the latter part of the 1800s, interest in Nan'yo began to blossom anew. Writers like Suzuki Tsunenori and Shiga Shigetaka ventured into the Pacific islands and their journals captured the public imagination. The new interest in the Pacific and Southeast Asia went against the grain of the Meiji Era idea of datsua nyuo or disassociation with Asia in favor of Westernization.
One researcher rebelling against these new ideas was Kimura Takatora who fiercely rejected any association with South Sea Islanders, Koreans, Chinese, etc., but instead argued that the Japanese were a "Graeco-Latin" race whose homeland Takamagahara was in Armenia.
However, these ideas did not catch on much not only because of the difficulty in distance and culture, but in the near complete lack of evidence mustered by proponents of a Japanese Caucasian race theory.
In comparison, the Nan'yo theory was logical and quite a bit of convincing evidence could be mustered up to support the idea. Nan'yo was more harmonious with the descriptions given in Japanese traditional origin texts. And the cultural milieu, especially with reference to rice culture was quite similar in a number of ways.
Rice was a key element in beliefs found in Japan and Okinawa concerning the 'divine visitor' as seen in the folklore of the Marebito and "Miroku's boat" (Maitreya's boat).
Especially in coastal regions of eastern Japan, special dances and songs were performed to drive away evil and welcome the cult-like cargo of Miroku's boat that was prophesied to bring enough rice to initiate the millenarian Miroku no yo "Age of Miroku." These beliefs appear linked with celebrations of the divine ancestors who first brought rice agriculture to Japanese shores from the South.
Just before and during the outbreak of World War II, the Japanese government began a huge campaign aimed at promoting Southeast Asia as the Japanese ancestral homeland. Attention was also focused on Micronesia, and the sentiments of Takano Rokuro, a Ministry of Welfare bureau chief, 'We are Nan'yojin (South Sea Islanders)," carried much weight among nationalists.
More than 7,000 books and articles were published on the subject of a Southeast Asian homeland in 1942 alone, and between 1942 and 1943 a series of government sponsored lectures brought the new ideas directly to the Japanese public.
Japanese capitalists were enthusiastic about promoting such ideology. Nan'yo Boeki (South Seas Trading Company) which dated back to early trade with the Spanish colony in the Philippines, and Nan'yo Kohatsu (South Seas Development Company) founded in 1921 were deeply involved in Japanese imperialistic ventures.
In 1943, under the guidance of Masao Oka, the Institute of Ethnology was opened dedicated to studying the cultures of Southeast Asia. Important researchers were sent into the field, for example, Tadao Kano became head of museums in the Philippines were he played an important role in saving historical artifacts from destruction during the war.
Reading the works of Yanagita Kunio and some of his followers, it is not difficult to believe that at least some Japanese did in fact believe that the expansion and development of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," was nothing less than the liberation of the original Japanese homeland.
Interestingly, the formation of the first Kamikaze Group was at East Mabalacat Airfield, between Mt. Arayat and Mt. Pinatubo. "Kamikaze" or "shin-pu" both represented by the same characters refer to the "Divine Wind," the typhoons that saved Japan from Mongol invasions. The Kamikaze storms helped develop the idea of Japan as Shinkoku "Divine Land," and it might be taken that the Kamikaze pilots of World War II believed they were also defending another divine land in addition to Japan -- the Nan'yo homeland of the South.
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Clarke, Peter Bernard. Japanese New Religions, Routledge, 2000, p. 134.
Nakasone, Ronald Y. Okinawan Diaspora, University of Hawaii Press, 2002, 48-50, 57-60.
Oguma, Eji and David Askew. A genealogy of 'Japanese' self-images, Trans Pacific Press, 2002.
Yamashita, Shinji, Joseph Bosco and Jeremy Seymour Eades. The Making of Anthropology in East and Southeast Asia , Berghahn Books, 2004. See especially "Southeast Asia as Japan's Homeland" by Yamashita starting on pg. 104.
Showing posts with label marebito. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marebito. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Nan'yo and the Search for the Japanese Homeland
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Labels:
cargo cult,
folklore,
Japanese fairy lands,
Japanese homeland,
Kuroshio Current,
marebito,
Miroku,
Nan'yo,
rice culture,
South Seas
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Japanese Fairy Lands (Article)
I have agreed in this blog for the most part with Wilhelm Solheim's theory that the Yayoi rice culture and people came to Japan following Nusantao trade and exploration routes.
Japanese linguists have for decades uncovered significant Austronesian influence, mostly interpreted as specifically Malayo-Polynesian influence, in the Japanese language. If we accept Solheim's views that the transfer of Yayoi culture to Japan was a gradual process that took several thousands of years, we must wonder if Japanese mythology and legendary history conveys any information on the Nusantao past.
The "other worlds" of Japanese mythology often double as foreign countries in Japanese literature. The most important were known as Takamagahara "Plain of the High Heaven," Nenokuni (also Yominokuni) "Root Country (or 'Motherland') and Tokoyonokuni "Eternal Land."
Since the Meiji Era, Japanese scholars have attempted to connect these fairylands with known foreign geography.
All these locations are associated with the ocean and long sea voyages in the direction of the South. Furthermore in Okinawa and the Ryukyus, these lands are known by names like Niraikanai, Nirai, Nira, Niza, etc. depending on the location. Again, the semi-mythical locations are said placed in the ocean requiring a long journey and tend to be located toward the South.
In Japan, the southernmost tip of Kyushu, the lands associated with the ancient Kumaso and Hayato tribes were the traditional departure point and port of entry for journeys to and from the "other worlds."
Japanese scholars have sought locations for these lands from Melanesia to South China, Taiwan, Tibet and Korea.
Plain of High Heaven
Takamagahara is the sacred land from where Ninigi, the ancestor of Emperor Jimmu, came to land in southern Kyushu.
Ninigi is connected with the southern Kumaso and Hayato peoples, despite the fact that the Yamato Dynasty later has trouble pacifying their southern lands. One of Ninigi's sons is described as the ancestor of the Hayato people of southern Kyushu.
The Kumaso tribe was closely related to the Hayato or "Falcon People" and appear to have preceded Ninigi in Kyushu. Legend states that the Kumaso came to Kyushu on the Kuroshio or "Black Current" (Japan Current). They are described as having tattoed bodies, shields decorated with hair and bamboo hats.
Ninigi, like the visitors or Marebito from Niraikanai to the Ryukyus, was associated closely with rice agriculture, believed from the archaeological standpoint to have been brought by the Yayoi people. According to Japanese tradition at least, it was not until the day of the Empress Jingo and her expedition to Korea in 200 CE, that imperial influences begin to flow from that country and also from China, either directly to Japan or through Korea.
One might connect the earliest indigenous state culture in Japan with the Kofun burial mounds, the earliest ones generally showing little sign of Chinese or Korean imperial influence. Most of the art at these mounds belong to the animistic Shinto or proto-Shinto tradition.
The three sacred imperial regalia -- the mirror, sword and curved jade jewel (magatama) -- all date back to the Yayoi or Jomon periods. Authentic magatama jewels have been found at Jomon sites. The sword has been linked to Jomon phallic stones and the earliest bronze swords in Japan are probably of Korean origin and date back to the end of the early Yayoi period. However, ritual swords of Japanese origin appear also in the Yayoi era. Mirrors of Chinese and Korean origin date from the Middle Yayoi and probably were soon manufactured locally.
The Ise Shrine housing the sacred imperial mirror relic shows signs of Austronesian-like architecture.
The Atsuta Shrine where the sacred imperial sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is kept.
Yayoi culture dates at least to about 500-400 BCE, although some of the latest AMS datings suggest it could go back as far as 900 BCE. The latter date would correspond to the traditional dating of Ninigi's voyage to Kyushu, while tradition gives a date of 660 BCE for Jimmu Tenno, the first emperor.
In northern Kyushu, Yayoi burials consist of internment in large jars and stone cist graves, a practice probably derived directly from Korea, but indirectly related to Nusantao movements from further south according to Solheim.
Although there is little archaeological evidence of the existence of a state in the Yayoi period, Chinese texts tell of kingdoms in Wa, the early Chinese name for Japan, dating back to Yayoi times.
Eternal Land and Motherland
Japanese scholar Yanagita Kunio suggested that Nenokuni was a type of Japanese "Motherland" from which early Japanese migrated to Japan. The ne in Nenokuni means "root" and Yanagita has suggested that this refers to the starting-place of these early migrations. He has proposed that the same root is present in the Ryukyu word nirai as in Nirai-kanai and related terms.
Yanagita equated Nenokuni with another placename in early literature, Tokoyonokuni "Eternal Land" and both often are often portrayed as submarine or subterranean underworlds in addition as well as foreign countries. In the Nihonshoki, the word for Tokoyonokuni is rendered with the characters used for Mount Horaisan, the Japanese equivalent of China's eternal Penglai island, with the literal spelling placed in translineal kana.
Yominokuni is another name for Nenokuni, and it corresponds to the Chinese Huangquan "Yellow Springs," the underground river that rises to the surface at the foot of the Fusang Tree.
In the reign of Emperor Suinin, Tajima Mori ventures to Tokoyonokuni and upon returning in the first year of Emperor Keiko he brings back the Tachibana or mandarin orange tree. These lands are also the home of the palace of the Dragon King of the Sea who is visited by the Empress Jingo, Urashima and others according to tradition.
Marebito
The Marebito were "Sacred Visitors" connected with the festivities of the new year. They appear to preserve memories of ancient ancestors who came to the isles long ago.
In the Ryukyus and other parts of Japan, actors play the part of the Marebito visitors from across the sea. Like the ancient Kumaso, the Marebito and their equivalents in other regions were known as good dancers. Bands of singers, minstrels and dancers go from house to house during new year celebrations to bring good luck, especially for the rice harvest.
Some Japanese scholars have suggested that both the emperor and the outcaste class can be seen as descendents of the Marebito as types of "Sacred Visitors." In Japan, the actors who play the role of Marebito traditionally belong to the outcaste group.
Also, rice culture in Japan is connected with Ninigi, the imperial ancestor, who comes as a stranger from Takamagahara, and in the Ryukyus rice-growing comes with sacred visitors from Niraikanai or its equivalents.
Sacred Jars of Heavenly Mount Kagu
Mount Kagu in Yamato is said to have a heavenly equivalent in Takamagahara known as Amenokaguyama. The Nihongi states that Jimmu Tenno was instructed to take earth from Amenokaguyama to make sacred jars and dishes for a sacrifice to the gods.
Jimmu is said to have instituted the Jar Festivals including the Jar Making Festival in honor of the fire, water, mountain, firewood, moor and of course jar deities.
It is tempting to link the valued Rusun jars of the tea ceremonies of both the emperor and shogun, with the sacred jars made from Amenokaguyama earth/clay in Takamagahara to the south of Japan across the sea. Like many early Japanese pots, the Rusun jars were decorated only with cord markings -- the Nawasudare (cord curtain) and Yokonawa (cross cord).
Like early Yayoi jars, the Rusun wares were unglazed, coarse and of a "rusty iron" color.
Rusun jars were also used for yearly festivals and as imports from across the sea they fulfilled the aspect of the "Sacred Visitor."
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Blacker, Carmen. The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan, Routledge, 1999.
Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. Culture in Contemporary Japan: an anthropological view, Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 44.
Tsunoda, Ryu-saku , Donald Keene, Wm. Theodore de Bary, William Theodore De Bary. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Columbia University Press, 1964.
Japanese linguists have for decades uncovered significant Austronesian influence, mostly interpreted as specifically Malayo-Polynesian influence, in the Japanese language. If we accept Solheim's views that the transfer of Yayoi culture to Japan was a gradual process that took several thousands of years, we must wonder if Japanese mythology and legendary history conveys any information on the Nusantao past.
The "other worlds" of Japanese mythology often double as foreign countries in Japanese literature. The most important were known as Takamagahara "Plain of the High Heaven," Nenokuni (also Yominokuni) "Root Country (or 'Motherland') and Tokoyonokuni "Eternal Land."
Since the Meiji Era, Japanese scholars have attempted to connect these fairylands with known foreign geography.
All these locations are associated with the ocean and long sea voyages in the direction of the South. Furthermore in Okinawa and the Ryukyus, these lands are known by names like Niraikanai, Nirai, Nira, Niza, etc. depending on the location. Again, the semi-mythical locations are said placed in the ocean requiring a long journey and tend to be located toward the South.
In Japan, the southernmost tip of Kyushu, the lands associated with the ancient Kumaso and Hayato tribes were the traditional departure point and port of entry for journeys to and from the "other worlds."
Japanese scholars have sought locations for these lands from Melanesia to South China, Taiwan, Tibet and Korea.
Plain of High Heaven
Takamagahara is the sacred land from where Ninigi, the ancestor of Emperor Jimmu, came to land in southern Kyushu.
Ninigi is connected with the southern Kumaso and Hayato peoples, despite the fact that the Yamato Dynasty later has trouble pacifying their southern lands. One of Ninigi's sons is described as the ancestor of the Hayato people of southern Kyushu.
The Kumaso tribe was closely related to the Hayato or "Falcon People" and appear to have preceded Ninigi in Kyushu. Legend states that the Kumaso came to Kyushu on the Kuroshio or "Black Current" (Japan Current). They are described as having tattoed bodies, shields decorated with hair and bamboo hats.
Ninigi, like the visitors or Marebito from Niraikanai to the Ryukyus, was associated closely with rice agriculture, believed from the archaeological standpoint to have been brought by the Yayoi people. According to Japanese tradition at least, it was not until the day of the Empress Jingo and her expedition to Korea in 200 CE, that imperial influences begin to flow from that country and also from China, either directly to Japan or through Korea.
One might connect the earliest indigenous state culture in Japan with the Kofun burial mounds, the earliest ones generally showing little sign of Chinese or Korean imperial influence. Most of the art at these mounds belong to the animistic Shinto or proto-Shinto tradition.
The three sacred imperial regalia -- the mirror, sword and curved jade jewel (magatama) -- all date back to the Yayoi or Jomon periods. Authentic magatama jewels have been found at Jomon sites. The sword has been linked to Jomon phallic stones and the earliest bronze swords in Japan are probably of Korean origin and date back to the end of the early Yayoi period. However, ritual swords of Japanese origin appear also in the Yayoi era. Mirrors of Chinese and Korean origin date from the Middle Yayoi and probably were soon manufactured locally.
The Ise Shrine housing the sacred imperial mirror relic shows signs of Austronesian-like architecture.
The Atsuta Shrine where the sacred imperial sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is kept.
Yayoi culture dates at least to about 500-400 BCE, although some of the latest AMS datings suggest it could go back as far as 900 BCE. The latter date would correspond to the traditional dating of Ninigi's voyage to Kyushu, while tradition gives a date of 660 BCE for Jimmu Tenno, the first emperor.
In northern Kyushu, Yayoi burials consist of internment in large jars and stone cist graves, a practice probably derived directly from Korea, but indirectly related to Nusantao movements from further south according to Solheim.
Although there is little archaeological evidence of the existence of a state in the Yayoi period, Chinese texts tell of kingdoms in Wa, the early Chinese name for Japan, dating back to Yayoi times.
Eternal Land and Motherland
Japanese scholar Yanagita Kunio suggested that Nenokuni was a type of Japanese "Motherland" from which early Japanese migrated to Japan. The ne in Nenokuni means "root" and Yanagita has suggested that this refers to the starting-place of these early migrations. He has proposed that the same root is present in the Ryukyu word nirai as in Nirai-kanai and related terms.
Yanagita equated Nenokuni with another placename in early literature, Tokoyonokuni "Eternal Land" and both often are often portrayed as submarine or subterranean underworlds in addition as well as foreign countries. In the Nihonshoki, the word for Tokoyonokuni is rendered with the characters used for Mount Horaisan, the Japanese equivalent of China's eternal Penglai island, with the literal spelling placed in translineal kana.
Yominokuni is another name for Nenokuni, and it corresponds to the Chinese Huangquan "Yellow Springs," the underground river that rises to the surface at the foot of the Fusang Tree.
In the reign of Emperor Suinin, Tajima Mori ventures to Tokoyonokuni and upon returning in the first year of Emperor Keiko he brings back the Tachibana or mandarin orange tree. These lands are also the home of the palace of the Dragon King of the Sea who is visited by the Empress Jingo, Urashima and others according to tradition.
Marebito
The Marebito were "Sacred Visitors" connected with the festivities of the new year. They appear to preserve memories of ancient ancestors who came to the isles long ago.
In the Ryukyus and other parts of Japan, actors play the part of the Marebito visitors from across the sea. Like the ancient Kumaso, the Marebito and their equivalents in other regions were known as good dancers. Bands of singers, minstrels and dancers go from house to house during new year celebrations to bring good luck, especially for the rice harvest.
Some Japanese scholars have suggested that both the emperor and the outcaste class can be seen as descendents of the Marebito as types of "Sacred Visitors." In Japan, the actors who play the role of Marebito traditionally belong to the outcaste group.
Also, rice culture in Japan is connected with Ninigi, the imperial ancestor, who comes as a stranger from Takamagahara, and in the Ryukyus rice-growing comes with sacred visitors from Niraikanai or its equivalents.
Sacred Jars of Heavenly Mount Kagu
Mount Kagu in Yamato is said to have a heavenly equivalent in Takamagahara known as Amenokaguyama. The Nihongi states that Jimmu Tenno was instructed to take earth from Amenokaguyama to make sacred jars and dishes for a sacrifice to the gods.
Jimmu is said to have instituted the Jar Festivals including the Jar Making Festival in honor of the fire, water, mountain, firewood, moor and of course jar deities.
It is tempting to link the valued Rusun jars of the tea ceremonies of both the emperor and shogun, with the sacred jars made from Amenokaguyama earth/clay in Takamagahara to the south of Japan across the sea. Like many early Japanese pots, the Rusun jars were decorated only with cord markings -- the Nawasudare (cord curtain) and Yokonawa (cross cord).
Like early Yayoi jars, the Rusun wares were unglazed, coarse and of a "rusty iron" color.
Rusun jars were also used for yearly festivals and as imports from across the sea they fulfilled the aspect of the "Sacred Visitor."
Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento
References
Blacker, Carmen. The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan, Routledge, 1999.
Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. Culture in Contemporary Japan: an anthropological view, Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 44.
Tsunoda, Ryu-saku , Donald Keene, Wm. Theodore de Bary, William Theodore De Bary. Sources of Japanese Tradition, Columbia University Press, 1964.
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