Covering the period from before the emergence of the first political units through to the formation of the Japanese ritsuryo state in the 8th century, this book offers a ground-breaking scholarly diachronic analysis of tsumi (offence and retribution) from a politico-historical perspective. Taking as its starting point the native forms of tsumi in the realms of myth and prayer, the study traces their development through the periods of the formation of the state and the centralization of the governing structure, to the introduction of a written-law system of governing. Through detailed and logical analysis this study illuminates early Japanese political thought, written and unwritten law and the essentially political notion of tsumi.
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in Japanese. The Japanologist George Sansom commented on the notion of tsumi in early Japan in the following terms:1
The conception of sin, as distinct from uncleanness, is wanting, or rudimentary, and throughout their history the Japanese seem to have retained in some measure this incapacity to discern, or this reluctance to grapple with a problem of Evil. Such a statement, once committed to writing, forthwith challenges contradiction in the writer's own mind, but it represents, if imperfectly, a truth; and much that is baffling in the study of their history, from ancient to modern times, becomes clearer when one remembers that they have never been tortured by the sense of sin.
Sansom's remark on what he perceived to be a lack of a notion of sin in Japan reflects how sin was viewed in the West. Sin has traditionally been understood in the West in terms of acts, thoughts, or states, that infringe God's will for communion between Himself and mankind.2 It refers to a condition where the intimate covenantal relationship between the Creator and man has been upset, or severed, as a result of man's deliberate, wrongful behaviour against God, or state of being in relation to Him, or as a result of wrongful behaviour against his fellow man, in disobedience of his expressed will, thus causing God's plan to fail and the world to become a different place from that envisaged by Him. The effect of sin is the estrangement or separation of man from God. Sin brings with it man's unhappiness and his tortured sense of guilt.
Sansom's comments provoked response and criticism from such Japanese academics and critics as Fukuda Tsuneari3 and Kamei Katsuichirō.4 Now that the dust has settled, tsumi in early Japan deserves a more careful and objective analysis.
In this present study, an attempt is made to trace from a politico-historical perspective the development of tsumi from its roots in the earliest communal societies in Japan, through the politically turbulent fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, to the period of the early ritsuryō state in the eighth century. This latter period marked the end of tsumi in its public guise for, with the aristocratization of the ruling class in the Heian period (794–1191), tsumi became transformed into a more private concern.
Before we start our examination of tsumi, we need, first of all, to mention how tsumi has been approached by the various scholars working in this field, and how the present study will approach the subject. This is followed by an examination of the authenticity of the two primary historical texts used for the study – the Kojiki5 (Records of ancient matters) and the Nihon shoki6 (Chronicles of Japan) – as well as the norito7 (purification rituals) section of the Engishiki (Procedures for ceremonies of the Engi period) text. In the next chapter, we present an overview of the history of the period under discussion which formed the backdrop to our subject of enquiry.
Approaches to the study of tsumi
Six main approaches, or perspectives, may be observed in the history of the literature relating to the study of tsumi in early Japan.
The first is exemplified by classicists such as Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801),8 who examined the rituals and myths relating to tsumi from the perspective of kokugaku (national learning) of the Tokugawa period (1600–1868), which aimed to discredit the foreign teachings which had appeared in the study of the Japanese classics.
The second reflects the attempts by such pioneering Western Japanologists as George Sansom9 and Karl Florenz,10 who compared the Japanese notions of tsumi with the Western ideas of sin. Karl Florenz, possessing an extensive knowledge of Eastern religions and languages, undertook a penetrating analysis of early Japanese law and ritual (which included a discussion of tsumi), a work which remains valid and suggestive to this day.
The third approach is the legal approach. Japanese legal scholars such as Takikawa Masajirō,11 Ishio Yoshihisa,12 and Ishimoda Shō13 discuss tsumi within the framework of developments in the legal system and politico-legal institutions. In the course of their deliberations, contentious issues arose, and these have become the subject of much debate. One such issue, which will be examined more fully later in this book, involves the question of punishment in early Japanese law.14 Examining the early Japanese primary source material, several authors have raised the question as to whether banishment can be understood as punishment in legal terms or as part of the purification ritual, and whether tsumi was used to mean both ‘sin’ and punishment in the earliest period covered by the present study.
The fourth approach is social anthropological. Whilst early twentieth-century academics such as the ethical thinker Origuchi Shinobu15 approached tsumi through an examination of the purification rituals based on intuition, not analysis, contemporary authors, exemplified by Ōbayashi Taryō,16 have – employing a comparative approach to the study of myth – tended to categorize tsumi found in the myth recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki in the light of mythology found in other parts of the world. Ōbayashi himself, for example, compares the Japanese legends and myths with their European and Asian counterparts and derives an understanding of Japanese tsumi from such comparative analyses.
The fifth approach is exemplified by Tsuda Sōkichi,17 Watsuji Tetsurō18 and Kamei Katsuichirō,19 who viewed tsumi within the context of the flow of Japanese spiritual and religious thought. The emphasis is placed on the author's sensibilities, in addition to analytical discussion.
The sixth approach is the comparative historical approach. The historian Inoue Mitsusada20 has attempted, as part of his general thesis on early Japan, a study of tsumi within institutions such as the monastic order in specific historical periods, and brings into his discussion the results of studies in other disciplines on both early Japanese and other cultures.
Both general and specific criticisms may be levelled against the existing body of scholarly literature on the study of tsumi in early Japan. A major deficiency observed in the present body of academic literature on the subject is the complete lack of any comprehensive or concentrated treatment of the topic, either in Japanese or Western languages. Discussions on tsumi almost always arise only as part of more general works devoted to the study of Japanese myths, politico-legal or spiritual history.
As to specific criticisms, we can make the following comments on the works of scholars whose approaches fall into one or more of the categories noted above. Of the authors belonging to the kokugaku school, their approach to the classics was philological in nature. Motoori's work, in particular, demonstrates a profound knowledge of classical Japanese. Their understanding and analyses of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, however, were biased in favour of what they perceived to be superior traditional Japanese thought, and refused to admit the value of Chinese-inspired influences in these texts. This reduced the validity of their work, particularly in relation to the Nihon shoki. These authors played down the usefulness of this text as source material in favour of the more ‘Japanese’ Kojiki.
Of the second approach, Western scholarship in Japanese studies has advanced since the days of Sansom. If his study of Japanese history can be criticized for its one-sided understanding of early Japanese society, so too can we find fault with his observations on tsumi: that tsumi had connection with morality, and his denial of tsumi possessing the element of the infringement of the sanctity of the deities. Recent scholarship, whilst having made advances in the study of early Japan, has not focused attention on tsumi per se or (with the exception of Nelly Naumann's work)21 components of tsumi, except for brief mention in passing in works principally devoted to other subjects.
In the context of Japanese scholarship, much attention has been paid to tsumi in early Japan by legal scholars working in the field of early law. Classical legal scholars from the Heian period onwards concentrated their attentions on interpreting such legal texts as the Engishiki from a traditional point of view, one which merely involved the presentation of commentaries on the texts. Recent scholarship, however, has made significant strides in the understanding of early politico-legal institutions generally, as well as in the comprehension of tsumi. Of tsumi, legal scholars have revolutionized the traditional debate with their detailed analyses of the early politico-legal system.
Of the fourth approach – the socio-anthropological – a common tendency in the works of Japanese scholars who study early Japan from this perspective is their isolationism: they work in isolation from other disciplines – particularly the discipline of history – and they have refrained from connecting, or interrelating, their analysis to historical facts. Tsumi as it appears in the primary texts needs to be understood not merely horizontally through comparative study, but also vertically through the introduction and employment of the historical viewpoint.
Of the fifth approach, such authors as the historian Tsuda Sōkichi have brought analytical methodology to the study of early Japan, and have attempted to analyse spiritual developments in the context of the flow of history. Tsuda's w...
