The Great Japan-India Connection

The Great Japan-India Connection

 

Yasukuni Enoki, Ambassador of Japan to India (2004 to 2007) said: “It is very important for the Japanese to know that in the bottom of Japanese culture, Indian culture is very firmly imprinted”

He further said: ” There are hundreds of shrines to Goddess Saraswati and innumerable representations of Lakshmi, Indra, Shiva, Brahma, Mahakala, Ganesha, Agni, Bhudevi, Garuda, Kamadeva, Yama, and other deities. In a sense Japan is a time capsule of Hindu culture that disappeared in India. In fact, deities that have practically been forgotten in India, such as Vayuand Varuna, are still worshipped in Japan. The most ancient temple to Lord Ganesha, which has been in use for more than a thousand years, is located in Tokyo. The Hindu ritual of a “homa” or “havan” (Goma in Japanese) is performed with the same regularity in Japan as in India. A havan is a ritual conducted during the worship of the Fire/Agni, and it is performed with the same mantras and with the utterance of the word “Swa-ha” – which should make an Indian feel right at home in a Japanese Temple”!

(The prayers and mantras recited are in Sanskrit in the Siddha script, which was prevalent around the 5th Century. The Siddha script has long been replaced in India with the ‘Devanagari’ script but continues to be used in Japan).

 

Goddess of Laxmi town.

A town near Tokyo, Japan — Kichijōji — has been named after Hindu Goddess Lakshmi. According to Takayuki Kitagawa, Consul General of Japan in India (2018):  “You will be surprised to know that the town near Tokyo has its origin from Lakshmi temple.  Kichijōji means Lakshmi temple in Japanese”. Commenting upon the influence India had on the Japanese culture and society, Kitagawa said ‘many might think Japan and India are different, though they are not’.

The following is the article written by Professor Nakamura (1912-1999) for Japan Times, Tokyo on 26 January 1992. The sentences in brackets are my additions.

Although Japan is far from India geographically, the two countries have close cultural relations and contacts in other areas. Cultural relations between the two can be traced back to very early times. Without Indian influence, Japanese culture would not be what it is today. As most Japanese profess the Buddhist faith, they have generally been influenced by Indian ideas.

Prior to the introduction of Western civilization, Buddhism was the basis for Japanese culture. Buddhism has infiltrated many aspects of daily life of the Japanese. Although Buddhism is but one of many things that originated in India, we should not overlook the fact that Indian philosophy and culture have been introduced along with the Buddhist faith into these four islands of Japan.

It is indeed amazing how Buddhism has gradually been introduced to these distant islands, thousands of miles away. Crossing so many deserts, valleys, fields and seas in various countries, the Buddhist faith finally reached the easternmost lands of Asia.

Buddhism came to Japan through Korea in the latter half of the 6th century. In 552, through the agency of the King of Paekche (Kudara), in southern Korea, the royal gifts of a statue of Buddha, the Sutras (Scriptures) and banners were presented to the Japanese Emperor, with a message to the effect that the Buddhist Dharma (doctrine), the most excellent of all doctrines which would bring immeasurable benefits to its believers in Japan, had been accepted in all countries lying between India and Korea.

The new religion began to be widely professed, partly due to the arrival in Japan of missionaries, magicians, the scriptures, and various accessories for rituals, etc. Buddhism received its first imperial patronage from Prince Shotoku (574-621), who became regent to the Lady Emperor Suiko in 593.  He drew up Japan’s first Constitution, proclaiming the ‘Three Treasures’ (triratna), i.e. The Buddha, The Dharma (doctrine) and The Sangha (the Order), to be the ultimate objects of faith, and single-minded devotion to them to be the fundamental factor of an upright life.

At government expense, he built Buddhist temples, pagodas, seminaries, hospitals, dispensaries and asylums for the aged and the destitute. Horyuji Temple, built by him near the city of Nara, the then capital of Japan, is the oldest wooden building in the world.

Under his reign (593-621) the Japanese came into direct contact with Chinese Buddhism. He sent students to China to study Buddhist doctrines. From his time onwards, the influence of Buddhism continued to be conspicuous almost without interruption to the close of the Tokugawa regime (1868).

Over the past 1,200 years, Indians have visited Japan from time to time. Probably the first Indian to come to our land was Bodhisena, a Buddhist monk. He was born of a Brahmin family in India. His clan (gotra) was Bharadvaja. (He was from Tamil Nadu either from the city of Madurai or Kanchipuram).

Receiving a mystic inspiration from Manjushri Bodhisattva, he went to China and lived in the Wu t’ai shan Mountain.  (Bodhisattva means one who is Buddha to be and has supreme knowledge. Manjushri means gentle or sweet glory. There was a Manjushri Pala dynasty in India in 9th Century CE. Bodhisattva also known as Bodhisena and Bodhidharma started the Chen Buddhism in China which is known in Japan as Zen Buddhism).

At the request of several Japanese who were in China for diplomatic negotiations and to study, Bodhisena came to Japan along with other Buddhist monks from China and Indo-China in 736.

He was cordially received by the Imperial family, and was appointed archbishop. People informally called him Baramon (Brahmana) archbishop. (He is also known in Japan as Daruma from the sanskrit word Dharma).  He always recited the Buddha Avatamsaka-sutra, and was versed in magical formulae.

Avatamsaka-sutra, in full Mahavaipulya-buddhavatamsaka-sutra means, “The Great and Vast Buddha Garland Sutra”, also called Garland Sutra, is a voluminous Mahayana Buddhist text that some consider the most sublime revelation of the Buddha’s teachings. Scholars value the text for its revelations about the evolution of thought from early Buddhism to fully developed Mahayana Sutra in Mahayana Buddhism. Referred to by Buddhist scholars as “the King of Kings of Buddhist scripture” and the “epitome of Buddhist Thought, Buddhist sentiment, and Buddhist experience,” the Flower Adornment Sutra is 81 rolls (bamboo scrolls) long and contains more than 700,000 Chinese characters.)

(The Huayan or Flower Garland school of Buddhism is a tradition of Mahayana Buddhist philosophy that first flourished in China during the Tang dynasty. The Huayan worldview is based primarily on the Avatamsaka Sutra. The name Flower Garland is meant to suggest the crowning glory of a Buddha’s profound understanding of ultimate reality.)

The Huayan School is known as Hwaeom in Korea, Kegon in Japan and Hoa Nghiêm in Vietnam. (This tradition also had a strong influence on Chan Buddhism.)

When the famous statue of Buddha (Daibutsu), the biggest in the world, representing Vairochana Buddha, was cast and installed in the city of Nara, then the capital of Japan, Bodhisena officiated at the consecration ceremony as the head of the monks. He passed away in 760.

Although people in Japan do not know Sanskrit, they are familiar with the Indian siddham letters. One finds wooden tablets written in siddham letters. In Japanese temples, there are images of Buddha, Bodhisattvas and other godlike beings with siddham inscriptions beneath them. These siddham letters are called ‘seeds’ (Bija), each identifying a single divine being. In feudal times some Japanese warriors went to battle, clad in helmets which had inside certain Sanskrit characters symbolizing benediction (mangala) for victory.  The Sanskrit lore has been kept in Japan for nearly 1,400 years in the colleges attached to the great Buddhist temples. It was Kukai, posthumously called St. Kobo (774-835), who started the study of Sanskrit letters, known as Shittan, a Japanese equivalent of the Sanskrit word siddham, with which ancient Indian inscriptions and works often begin. Some Sanskrit texts in the Chinese script have also been brought to Japan. In some Japanese temples, very ancient manuscripts in Sanskrit are preserved intact. They must have been brought from India or Central Asia to China, and then to Japan. (The script Siddham has been forgotten in India where it originated but is still used in Japan to write sanskrit texts. The Japanese consider sanskrit written in siddham as holy and siddham texts can still be seen in many Japanese homes).

In China siddham exists only in the Taisho version of Chinese buddhist texts. Japanese letters were no doubt constructed on the basis of Chinese characters. Yet there is a great difference between the two; the Chinese characters are ideographic, whereas the Japanese letters are phonetic like Indian letters. In a sentence Japanese letters are arranged in the same order as in Sanskrit and Hindi. (Japanese pronunciation ,’ Kana’ are the syllabaries that form part of Japanese writing system. Katakana the Japanese language uses the word order of Sanskrit. Its order of consonants and vowels and the grid layout origin in Sanskrit Shikha and Brahmi script.)

(According to Jain legends 18 writing scripts were taught by their first Tirthankara Rishabhanatha to his daughter Brahmi. She chose Brahmi as the main script and therefore the name Brahmi for the script comes after her name) 

According to a legend, the Japanese letters were invented by St. Kobo, who also introduced Vajrayana into Japan. (Vajrayana is a form of Tantric Buddhism still practiced by one of the biggest Buddhist schools in Japan known as Shingon Buddhism.  The word Shingon is the Japanese reading of the Chinese word Zhenyaan. It comes from the Sanskrit word Mantra.)

Strange to say, those manuscripts found in Japan are much older than those preserved in India. The first materials on which the Indians wrote letters were palm leaves and strips of birch bark: both materials are very fragile and easily perish in the Indian climate. Thus, it happens that the majority of manuscripts which India now possesses date back only a few centuries (or, at the earliest, 1,000 years or so). A few manuscripts found in India, however, date back to the 11th or the 12th century. Except for those recently found in eastern Turkestan on the silk route of Central Asia, the oldest Indian manuscripts are to be found in Japan, and belong to the first half of the 6th century.

Except for India, there are few countries in the world where as many students are learning Sanskrit as in Japan. Thousands have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the Sanskrit and Pali languages. There are many universities teaching these languages. A large number of books in these languages have recently been published, some of which are in no way inferior to those published in India, Europe or the United States. A famous Japanese song, ‘iroha-uta’, which is made up of all 47 Japanese letters, is nothing but a free translation of a Buddhist poem written in ancient India. The Sanskrit original of the poem runs as follows:

‘Sarve Samskarah anityah Utpadavyayadharminah,
Tesam vyupasamah sukham, avadad mahasramanah’

It means: ‘All Sanskaras are impermanent and their nature is to appear and disappear. Cessation from these temptations is happiness. Thus said Mahashramana’ . 

(Sanskaras are subtle impressions of our past actions. They are mental impressions or psychological imprints. They manifest as tendencies or karmic impulses)

As Buddhism originated in India, most of the Japanese regard India as, so to speak, their spiritual motherland and they feel a fraternal love for the Asiatic peoples with whom they share a common spiritual civilisation. They are deeply interested in Indian culture and wish to know about the background of Buddhism. Probably that is why so many Japanese students are engaged in the study of Sanskrit and Indian culture.

Even Indian legends were introduced into Japanese literature. One of them is the legend of Rishyasringa, the rishi or saint who had never seen a woman. This legend, which is very famous in the Mahabharata and other literary works, was incorporated into the Buddhist scriptures, and conveyed to Japan. The Japanese preserved the figure of this saint of Indian origin under the name Ikkaku Sennin, i.e., Ekasrnga (Unicorn).

 (The magical and enchanting unicorn appears to only a rare few and has the ability to bestow magic, miracles and wisdom to those who are pure of heart and virtuous in their deeds. This is a very interesting story. The Rishi eventually marries Shanta, daughter of Dashratha and elder sister of Rama. She had been adopted by King Lompada who had no children. King Lomapada and King Dashratha were childhood friends. Dashratha had promised to give his first born child to childless Lompada.)

The well-known Japanese kabuki drama Narukami, was derived from this legend.

Along with Buddhism, the worship of other Indian gods was introduced into Japan. These gods began to be worshipped later in Buddhist ritual. Indra, originally the god of thunder and then the most popular of all gods to be found in the Rg-veda, is adored by people here under the name of Taishakuten literally, Emperor of Gods or Shakra.

Ganesha, the Indian god of wisdom, who has a head of an elephant and the trunk of a human being, is worshipped under the name of Sho-den literally, Holy God in many Buddhist temples, as one who confers happiness upon his votaries, especially in love affairs. In Japan we very often find figures of two Ganeshas, male and female, embracing each other (Mithuna). A sea serpent, worshiped by sailors, is called Ryujin, a Chinese equivalent of the Indian naga. Hariti and Dakini, Indian female demons, are also worshipped; the former under the name Kishimojin, and the latter retaining its original name. Bishamon is a Japanese equivalent of the Indian Vaishravana (Kubera), the god of fortune. Bishamon was worshipped by warriors in the feudal times for victory.

Not only Japanese Buddhism, but Shintoism also, has been considerably influenced by Indian thought. Although syncretism with Buddhism was denounced by the state in the days of the Meiji restoration, we find a strong Indian influence still remaining in present-day Shintoism. The following are some interesting examples.

Suiten (water god) is a Shintoist name. But the god, widely worshipped by people in downtown Tokyo, was originally Varuna (water god in India) and was introduced into the Buddhist pantheon by esoteric Buddhism, and then adopted by Shintoists, though Shintoists may hesitate to agree with this explanation.

Kompira, a god of sailors, is worshiped at Kotohira shrine, in Kagawa prefecture which is on the island of Shikoku. Kompira is a corrupt form of Kumbhira, a Sanskrit word for a mythological crocodile in the Ganges.

Benten (literally, goddess of speech) is the Chinese and Japanese equivalent of Sarasvati. Along the sea coast and around ponds and lakes, one often finds shrines of Benten where her image is installed. Some of these images look very erotic and coquettish.

Daikoku, a god of fortune (literally, god of great darkness or blackness) is a favourite god with the common people. The name is the Chinese and Japanese equivalent of Mahakala, another name for Shiva, the mightiest god in the Hindu pantheon, though Daikoku is clad in Japanese robes and has a benign and smiling countenance.

Visvakarman, maker of the world in the Rg-veda, was also esteemed as the god of carpenters in the royal court in ancient times under the name of Bishukatsuma as is mentioned in the historical work ‘Eiga monogatari’. (Eiga monogatari is a Japanese monogatari, or epic, which relates to events in the life of courtier Fujiwara no Michinaga. It is believed to have been written by a number of authors, over the course of roughly a century, from 1028 to 1107.)

Sanskrit characters are observed even in Shinto rites. The traditionally dressed climbers of Mount Ontake, which has been worshipped as a divine being, and the climbing of which has been practiced as a kind of religious observance, put on traditional white robes. Sometimes Sanskrit characters (siddham) of an ancient type are written on these robes. They sometimes wear white Japanese scarfs (tenugui) on which the Sanskrit character ‘Om’, the sacred syllable of the Hindus, is written, although the climbers themselves cannot read it.

The Buddha altar of a Buddhist temple is called Shumidan (viz. Sumeru throne). The name has been derived from the highest mountain in ancient Indian history. (Known as Mt. Meru and also by the name Sumeru, Sineru or Majameru, it is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. According to Hindu legend it is a golden mountain and is the axis of the world. It is the abode of lords Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu and the Devas (Hindu demi-gods). At its foothills are the Himalayas, to the south of which extends Bhāratavarṣa the ancient name for India. There is no physical presence of this mountain that we know of.  One speculation is that it could be in the North Pole.  Many famous Buddhist, Jain as well as Hindu temples have been built as symbolic representations of this mountain.)

The court dance and music (called Bugaku or Gagaku) introduced into Japan 1,200 years ago from India, directly by Bodhisena, the Indian monk and Fu Ch’e, a Vietnamese, are preserved in their original form to this very day. The original form is not preserved in present-day India, nor in other Asiatic countries. It is a unique cultural asset found only in Japan and is one of the wonders of the world. The Japanese are justly proud of this art which they have preserved through the centuries. From the time it was first introduced into this country, the court dance and music was given careful attention and protection by the Imperial Household. This art has been preserved through centuries as a ceremonial dance which is performed on various national celebrations and for visiting foreign diplomats. The formal stage for this art is found in the Imperial Palace.

The custom of cremation was also introduced to this country from India. The rituals of our ancestor worship have been tremendously influenced by Indian customs.

Even with regard to the ideas and ideals that inspire and guide the Japanese in their daily lives, Indian influence is quite noteworthy. One of the virtues conspicuous among the Indian is forbearance. A humanitarian tendency which marks the Japanese national character can be traced to the Buddhist conception of maîtri (compassion).  Indian influence can be traced even in the tastes and pleasures of the people. The kinds of incense favoured by the people of China and Japan, were in part supplied by India, Indochina, China, Malay, Arabia and other western countries. Some specimens of them have been preserved in the Imperial Shosoin repository as national treasures. The enjoyment of good incense with a calm mind has come to be a sort of accomplishment for educated Japanese.

The sugoroku (backgammon) game was played in the Imperial court in the Nara period. While playing, players shook two dice from the box on to the board, to move their pieces in the game. This game is very popular among common people even now, especially on the days of the New Year festival. No one knows when and where the backgammon game was invented. According to Wei-shu, sugoroku was a Hu game imported into China quite long ago. Hu at that time meant a country somewhere near India. It perhaps entered China in the late Wei period (presumably in the 5th century). The dice used in sugoroku is a six faced cube numbered 1 to 6. It is extremely interesting to note that the dice is marked similarly throughout the world from ancient times. Among the findings of the ancient Indus civilization one will find dice of exactly the same form as are used nowadays in Japan.

When such instances mentioned above are considered, it cannot be denied that India in her unique way has exercised a great influence on Japanese thought and culture. 

 

Further observations

According to Pallai Aiya , the Indian monk Boshisena, founder of the Kegon school of Buddhism died in 760 AD and is buried in Ryusenji-temple on the slopes of Mt. Omine. Unlike some historical Buddhist sects, the Kegon continues to flourish today, with its headquarters at Nara’s Tōdai-ji temple, a Unesco World Heritage site. Founded in 738 AD and officially opened in 752 AD, Tōdai-ji is best known for its 500-tonne, 15-metre-high Buddha — the largest bronze statue in the world.

The gargantuan sculpture, known as the Daibutsu, was commissioned by the Emperor Shomu in the 743 in the hope of gaining divine favour and thereby reversing the effects of a devastating drought, compounded by an outbreak of smallpox that had ravaged the area in 737AD.

The hall that houses the Daibutsu is one of the world’s largest wooden structures. It is Nara’s most popular tourist draw and is thronged with visitors from around the world. After gawping at the Daibutsu, they usually head to a hole in one of the pillars that holds up the edifice. According to legend, the hole is the exact size of one of the Buddha statue’s nostrils and anyone who crawls through it will gain enlightenment, albeit in their next life. No one seems to know the exact dimensions of the hole/ nostril, but it is large enough for a child to tunnel through with relative ease.

It was Bodhisena, of all the eminent Buddhist scholars in Nara at the time, who was chosen to perform the statue’s “eye opening” ceremony. In front of a huge, cosmopolitan gathering that included ambassadors from Persia, Korea, Vietnam, China and Central Asia, Bodhisena painted the pupils on the eyes of the Buddha statue, inviting the spirit in to animate the sculpture.

 

 Vegetarianism in Japan

The national religions, Buddhism and Shintoism, both promoted plant-based eating.  In 676 AD, the then Japanese emperor Tenmu proclaimed an ordinance prohibiting the eating of fish and shellfish as well as animal flesh and fowl. Subsequently, in the year 737 of the Nara period, the emperor Shomu approved the eating of fish and shellfish. During the twelve hundred years from the Nara period to the Meiji restoration in the latter half of the 19th century Japan was practically vegetarian. In 7th century Japan, the Empress Jito encouraged “hojoe,” or the releasing of captive animals, and established wildlife preserves, where animals could not be hunted. Hojoe is a religious ritual in which captive animals are released into the wild to admonish against the taking of life. Buddhism is based on the precept ‘forbidding the taking of life,’ and this was adopted by the Shinto faith as a result of the overlap of Shinto and Buddhism in Japan. The ritual encompasses harvest festivals and thanksgiving festivals, and is conducted in spring and autumn in Buddhist temples and Hachiman Shin temples throughout Japan. (Hachiman is the ancient Shinto god or kami of war, divination, and culture).

Apart from Japan the following Buddhist countries have also also been deeply influenced by India: China, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Laos, Vietnam, Macau and Taiwan.

Here is what Prince Norodom Sihanouk who was the king of Cambodia between 1941 and 1955 said: ‘The culture of India has been one of the world’s most powerful civilizing forces.  Countries of the Far East, including China, Korea, Japan, Tibet and Mongolia owe much of what is best in their own cultures to the inspiration of ideas imported from India. The West, too, has its own debts. But the members of that circle of civilisations beyond Burma (Myanmar) scattered around the Gulf of Siamand the Java Sea virtually owe their existence to the creative influence of Indian ideas….No conquest or invasion, no forced conversion. They were adopted because the people saw they were good and they could use them…their code of living, their conceptions of law and kingship, their rich literature and highly evolved philosophy of life’.

Hu Shih (1891-1962) was one of the most significant philosophers and intellectuals of China during the early twentieth century. As a professor of philosophy at Peking University as well as Chinese ambassador to the United States. He said: ‘India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a soldier across the border’.

 

This article follows, The Great Celtic-India Connection, The Great Maya-India Connection, The Great Greek- India Connection, The Great Russia-India Connection and The Great German-India Connection.