History of Japanese Religion

USSH respectfully introduces the book "History of Japanese Religion" by author Sueki Fumihiko, translated by Pham Thi Thu Giang (PhD, lecturer of the Department of Japanese Studies - Faculty of Oriental Studies). Vietnam and Japan are considered two countries located in the Han cultural area and are strongly influenced by China. And the religion of the two countries is no exception. Both Vietnam and Japan have absorbed Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism... mainly from the cradle of Chinese civilization. Therefore, people often easily assume that there are many similarities between these two cultures and that they can use their own culture as a standard when looking at the other country's culture. This happens in both Vietnam and Japan, where cultural exchange mostly takes place on the surface and there are still few real research works on society, history, and culture introduced. The book that you, dear readers, are holding in your hands is translated from the work published 5 years ago by researcher Sueki Fumihiko, who can be said to be Japan's leading expert in the field of research on the history of thought, especially religious thought. He taught at the University of Tokyo for a long time, then moved to work at the International Center for Japanese Cultural Studies (Nichibunken), which gathers many of Japan's leading experts in the fields of social sciences and humanities. In Japan, it is common for each expert to specialize in a narrow area. For example, in the History of Japanese Buddhism, it is divided into Ancient, Medieval, Modern Buddhist History, etc., but within that it is further divided into areas such as the economic foundation of monasteries, the organizational structure of religious congregations, the ideology of a sect, the school of a temple, or even the ideology of an unknown monk... Each expert delves deeply into his own field of research without encroaching on the territory of other experts. This is possible because meticulousness is the character of most Japanese people and, moreover, the research conditions, that is, a large number of ancient documents and books are preserved in the best possible environment. This is both the strength and weakness of Japanese researchers, especially in the field of social sciences and humanities. Because it is too specialized, only one or a few other experts can understand it, which means that the research lacks social and practical aspects and cannot provide a comprehensive view to solve the difficult problems of Japanese society today. Professor Sueki's book History of Japanese Religion has overcome the above weakness of Japanese researchers. He is not only profound in the thoughts of Japanese Buddhism from ancient times to modern times, but also has in-depth research on Shinto, Taoist, Confucian, Nationalist, and Classical thinkers... Moreover, he regularly exchanges academic knowledge with international experts, so he has a comprehensive and objective view, surpassing the typical thinking of researchers in an introverted island nation. This was demonstrated in his bold assessments of the role of each religion in each period. These assessments went beyond the existing “authoritative scientific interpretations”, provided new perspectives based on rigorous arguments and inspired many young researchers. Unlike Maruyama Masao, a giant in Japanese ideological research, here Sueki Fumihiko restructured the concept of ancient strata and established that this was something formed and accumulated throughout history, not an immutable identity factor. With profound knowledge and rigorous arguments, he acted like a magician and used this concept to peel away the cultural layers built up by religions to find the ancient strata, the factor that governs the entire thinking and religious ideology of Japan. Interestingly, he discovered two types of ancient strata to explain the issues of Japanese ideology and religion in modern society. One is the real ancient layer hidden under the cultural underground and the other is the ancient layer “discovered” by Motoori Norinaga, that is, the fictional ancient layer. Up to now, there have been many research works from different aspects dissecting the causes that led Japan to World War II, which ended in a disastrous defeat that left serious consequences in the spirit of modern Japanese people. But it was not until this work by Sueki Fumihiko that people could have a comprehensive view of the stream of thought that led to Japan's participation in the war, which he summarized in the concept of fictional ancient layer and forced Japan to acknowledge that Japan had to pay a heavy price for those thoughts. Through this, we can see the important role of ideology in the development process of a nation and the responsibility of thinkers as well as ideological researchers towards the times. However, it must be said that although the ancient stratum has been like a universal key that helped researcher Sueki Fumihiko explore the world of Japanese thinking, he has not yet surpassed Maruyama Masao because he has not been able to define and specifically name what the ancient stratum is. Furthermore, for those who have understood the high level of development of ancient Japanese culture compared to other East Asian countries except China, they will find the argument that the ancient stratum could only have been born around the 7th and 8th centuries, after the adoption of Buddhism, which is unreasonable, because without a cultural foundation, without the financial resources and intelligence accumulated before, since 630, the Court could not have sent the Khien Duong Envoys to the Tang Dynasty to absorb science, technology, and progressive ideas, and could not have left today's descendants architectural works and pinnacle cultural achievements. However, this is still a rare book that has logically synthesized the entire history of Japanese religion, which is difficult for anyone to write, if they are not knowledgeable about the multidimensional relationships of all religions in the history of this country. For Vietnamese readers, we hope that you will temporarily put aside your previous thoughts and perceptions about religions in general when entering this house of Sueki Fumihiko. Only then can you explain and discover interesting things, because the connotations such as religion, Buddhism, Christianity, the way of building doctrines, organizing congregations... of Japan have followed a completely different logic from Vietnam. It can be said that the quintessence of the book lies in the last chapter, because it shows the conclusions as well as new experiments in the thoughts of a profound scholar. The incompleteness of this chapter is also a suggestion for the readers' thinking. This is a precious gift, dedicated to the readers who have accompanied and “traveled” with the author on the difficult journey of finding ancient stories. There is nothing more honorable for us than that after closing the book, each reader will find a bright pearl for their own perception. We respectfully introduce it to you!