Thread: Shintoism
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Old 02-16-2006, 10:19 AM   #23
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Re: Shintoism

Hi All,


I would not disagree with anything that has been mentioned thus far, but I would like to add that underneath all of this is the fact that "Shinto," as both a word and a concept, is far from complete in its own process of origination. That is to say, "Shinto" has not yet been defined in any "once and for all" kind of fashion. It is because it is being pulled this way and that way, by this person or that person, in line with this trend or that trend, for the sake of this institution or that institution, etc., that "Shinto" appears both concrete and abstract, both particular and ambiguous, both extremely local and universal, etc. For better or for worse, scholars are often a huge part of this overall process.

If we understand things in this way, it is very possible for one person to say something like, "You have to be Japanese to practice Shinto," (which could come from the idea that the founding myths deal with the birth of Japan and the Japanese state, etc.) and another person to say, "No you don't" (which could come from the idea that Shinto deals with Nature -- with a capital "N"). It is possible for one person to say, "Shinto is about a specificity of place and of one's relationship to that place," (which could come from the ideas of ancestor worship and sacred space, etc.) and another to say, "Shinto is about the dance" (which could come from how different ancestors and space are treated from each other almost everywhere you go). Etc.

With this in mind, in my opinion, scholars should restrict themselves to a given place and time when they wish to study shinto-related phenomena. They should leave the question of "What is Shinto?" to the theologians and practitioners. Not only will this leave the manufacturing of the word's meaning to folks that actually have a stake in such things, it will greatly increase one's overall interpretative accuracy because they will tend not to fall victim to the propaganda of any side. Additionally, for one interested in the birth of the concept "shinto," a scholar, to avoid entering into the debate as a player, should not ask "What is the concept Shinto?," nor should they ask, "How was Shinto conceptualized?" Rather, they should be studying the process by which social and/or cultural possibilities produced themselves via a given conceptualization of "shinto." This will again increase one's overall interpretative accuracy, and it will prevent one from having to make huge assumptions in order to support one's conclusions (e.g. "My own view is different. First of all, the Japanese of this period were too sophisticated in the ways of diplomacy to believe that a rhetoric of imperial power based on the emperor's descent from and control over indigenous deities would impress the Chinese. Obviously, this kind of rhetoric was designed to have a domestic impact, rather than an international one.")

Thus, for Mal, if you want to study something of Shinto that aims at being more universal in terms of time and space, culture and humanity, etc., you might want to look at the website for Koichi Barrish's Shrine -- following the various links, etc. However, if you do, you might want to be aware that this type of shinto is fairly new to the historical landscape (regardless of what its practitioners might say). In other words, the putting forth of Shinto as a candidate for world religion status (i.e. as something that can speak to all people, all places, and all times) is not only a modern effort, it is a mid to late 20th century modern effort.

I think much of what was said here can be said of Aikido itself. There are many battles over both the word "Aikido" and the concept of Aikido -- as there are battles being fought over understanding Aikido as either a word or a concept. Much is at stake here and much is left to be settled once and for all. Additionally, scholars, scholars like Stanley Pranin, are definitely playing a role in these battles. For some Aikido is a word and so one can point to Ikkyo, Nikyo, Sankyo, etc., test for these things, write books about these things, produce videos on these things, give seminars on these things. Etc. Others have an interest in understanding Aikido as a concept. Etc.

thanks,
dmv

David M. Valadez
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