RELATING TO UNKNOWN DEAD THROUGH RITUAL: ABOUT PUBLICNESS IN JAPANESE FOLK RELIGION
RELATING TO UNKNOWN DEAD THROUGH RITUAL: ABOUT PUBLICNESS IN JAPANESE FOLK RELIGION

Summary/Abstract: In the third panel of our conference, we focus on the relation between “Religion and Public Life”. The title of the whole conference does have the determiner phrase, “In Europe”. Hence it may be “out of order” or “out of reason” that I will mention an issue outside the zone of Europe, “folk religion in Japan”. However, if we consider the aim of the organizer’s project to invite me to this international conference “as a fish out of water”, we would be able to find some sort of meaning. One and a half centuries ago, the Japanese tried to see early success in modernizing by modeling themselves after western European countries, both in spite and directly because of feelings of resistance toward “Europe”. Therefore, they have eagerly absorbed various things such as science, technology and culture. In fact, as I mention below, the concept of “religion” was imported then. So the cases which I deal with in this paper will come within the scope of this conference if we understand the phrase “in Europe” not only as “in the geographical region of Europe” but also as “with the (modern) experience of Europe in a region outside of it”. Moreover, underlining its positive significance, we could say that introducing foreignness offer a hint of liberation from our contemporary, ill-at-ease lives. It will also offer a significant hint to me, as I live my public life in the region of Asia. Hence we could say that we all must think together about the problem of “Religion and Public Life” while assembling around a table in this globalizing situation that allows for strong interaction and reflection. In this context, I would like to try to consider publicness in Japanese folk religion, focusing on the attitudes of the living towards unknown kinless dead caused by wars or disasters.

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