#Christianity in Japan

[kaurwreck]

oooh I’m curious about your bsd religion hcs. I keep seeing you mention it but I don’t understand it well

Oh! Oh!! I love this topic, but I'm not totally prepared to infodump yet— my copy of The Dilemma of Faith in Modern Japanese Literature: Metaphors of Christianity doesn't arrive until tomorrow, I've bookmarked but not yet read Ryuunosuke Akutagawa's The Man From the West and it's sequel, and I'm still in the thick of a 400-page dissertation on Doppo Kunikida. In other words, I have several resources I want to dig into before I try to articulate anything substantial.

That said, and to further clarify the above, my headcanons for their religious inklings come from (1) the irl authors' relationships with religion and (2) Kunikida's expressed spirituality in Osamu Dazai's Entrance Exam.

I've been jotting notes on which authors (or characters, re: Gin) were Christian or engaged with Christianity more than others, which I've summarized for my personal reference into a rough/informal/irreverent/snarky outline. I've copied and pasted the outline below, although it's mostly editorializing and the supporting documentation is scattered among my separate posts/research materials/group chats.

I'll follow up once I have a more substantive response ft. examples and citations for you!

Catholic (disrespectfully/either literally or incidentally satirizing it)

Verlaine

Gin

Catholic (by proxy/childhood exposure)

Chuuya

Rimbaud

Christian (by conversion)

Kunikida (Protestant, Calvinistic)

Verlaine (Roman Catholic)

Very Eastern Orthodox

Fyodor

Nikolai

Not Christian but Suicidally Depressed Enough to Be Obsessed with Concepts like Hell and Original Sin

Dazai

Akutagawa

Christian but Loves Blasphemy and Hates Organized Religion

Rimbaud

Kunikida

Harbors Disdain for Christianity as Expressed by Others/Generally Irreverent

Dazai

Akutagawa

Rimbaud

[janamonji]

'The Colors Within' and the Colors Without ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Animation Is Film 2024

From the beginning of the Japanese animated feature film, “The Colors Within,” we’re entering a strange world and that’s not because the dialogue is in Japanese, but because it starts with a child praying to God. A young girl prays that she will learn to accept the things she cannot change. “The Colors Within” about the formation of a band seen through the eyes of Totsuko Higurashi (Sayu…

[kensatou]

j… jesus oppa ;____;

[bfoux]

The Church of Light in Japan. Designed by Tadao Ando, the same architect that designed the Modern in Ft. Worth. Beautiful.

[worldhistoryfacts]

Early contacts between Japan and the West were commemorated by Japanese artists in screen paintings. In this example, Kano Naizen depicted scenes associated with the “southern barbarians” arriving in Japan:

Zooming in, we can see the carrack that carried the Portuguese to Japan:

The mingling of Japanese and Portuguese merchants, with a focus on the animals that the merchants brought to Japan:

And, in the upper right corner, a temple where worshippers bow before an image of Jesus:

{Buy me a coffee} {WHF} {Medium} {Looking Through the Past}

[ammonitetestpatterns]

十字紋黒織部茶碗, cross kuro oribe chawan

[elitehanitje]

"The Bastard's back!" - PAC

[sergle]

lollll stevens insta post is so tone def too like uhh u can smell the privilege coming off this 🧍

ohhhh... I think I'm going to hurt him

[itmlyljlaaid]

[umseb]

"We wonder how our bee friends are doing at Buzzin' Corner… 🐝 🇯🇵" - march 31, 2024 📷 @.f1 / instagram

[doctorbunny]

Amane's birthday flower tweet

(tweet links here)

Happy Birthday to everyone born today. Today is also Amane Momose from #MILGRAM's birthday. Her birth flower is Passiflora caerulea (tokeisou/Blue Passion Flower). The name "Passion flower" [tl note: passion as in "the passion/suffering of Christ, not enthusiasm] was used by Christian missionaries, it comes from the stamen's resemblence to the Crucifixion of Christ, with the 10 petals representing 10 Apostles. The passion flower's hanakotoba are "Faith", "Sacred Love" as well as "Religious fervour". Just so you know, this is simply an annecdote about the flower, it's not directly related to Amane's origins. Hanatokoba is purely allegorical. Simply put, just because the blue passion flower has this kind of backstory and hanakotoba, it doesn't mean Amane's religion is the same. Just added this supplement in case this is the first time you've had a run in with the Hanakotoba Guy and found it hard to understand. [Note: 花言葉おじさん Hanakotoba ojisan aka Hanakotoba Guy/Old Man Hanakotoba/Mr Hanakotoba is Yamanaka's nickname for himself when he does these things, he also used the term in Mikoto's birthday tweet]

本日お誕生日の方おめでとうございます。 #ミルグラム では桃瀬遍の誕生日でもあります。 誕生花はトケイソウ���十字架にかけられたキリストに似た雄しべと10人の使徒に見える花弁から別名「受難の花」と呼ばれ、キリスト教の布教に利用されました。花言葉は『信仰』『聖なる愛』そして『宗教的熱情』。 ちなみにこの花に関してのエピソードなだけで、本人の出自とは直接関係ありません。花言葉はあくまで寓意です。 噛み砕いてわかりやすく言うと、トケイソウってお花にそういうエピソードと花言葉があるってだけでアマネの信教がそうだって話じゃないよってことね。花言葉おじさんと邂逅するのが初めてだとわかりづらいだろうなと思って補足。

[eddis-not-eeddis]

I keep seeing this thing where guys swear up and down that they want a good Christian girl, but then balk if that means she wants to be anything more than a wife and mother. Like, my guy, you do realize that there's a lot more to Christian women than being married or having babies? Yeah? What about a woman who works among the homeless, or runs a bible study, or volunteers to teach refugees a new language, or who takes part in the prison ministry, or who spends a lot of her spare time in another city street preaching? I see a lot of guys who claim they want "a girl who loves Jesus" but don't want anything to do with a woman who does more than just go to church and lives a life of active ministry outside of her home.

[black-is-no-colour]

Vogue Japan January 2023. All, Christian Dior Haute Couture by John Galliano, Spring 2007 collection. Photographer Hugo Comte, styled by Ally Macrae

[kozisama992]

Welcome, to my castle!

Hello, my name is Moony (She/her), I'm 18 years old, I love vampires, horror, I am heavily alternatvie (mostly into visual kei and gothic music), and I love Malice Mizer!

Sometimes, I can never decide who is my favorite, Mana-Sama, or Kozi? They both have amazing music, but I listen to Kozi's more XD

I love Christian Death, Malice Mizer, Luna Sea, X japan, 45 Grave, Specimen, Insane Clown Posse

I enjoy a lot of Deathrock, Visual Kei, Punk, and metal XD

Sometimes I may post fan art or something because I feel like it or maybe gush about what I like here because it's fun, but all I really want to do it is meet people and make friends that have the same interests as me >u<

[worldhistoryfacts]

Even though Christianity was officially illegal, some Japanese Christians continued to practice their faith in hiding. They even created images for worship, cleverly disguised as non-Christian images. People especially liked to use the Buddhist bodhisattva of compassion, Kannon, who often appeared with an infant. She could stand in for Mary and the baby Jesus:

{Buy me a coffee} {WHF} {Medium} {Looking Through the Past}

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

could you elaborate your thoughts more on "but should we believe Wynne-Jones' Calcifer or the youkai/ayakashi of animanga are meant to be that kind of demon?" and "It's the same cultural disconnect that led so many Christian parents in the 90s to condemn Pokemon as satanic". Specially about Calcifer? Please?

I wish that when translating asian media, particularly anime, they would keep their non-translated nomenclature, it always translates to "demon" or whatever alternative we have.

Well part of the issue is that our word "demon" comes from the Greek word δαίμων or daimōn, which is the word used in the New Testament, but it is not a word invented by the New Testament writers. Here is an excerpt from the Oxford Reference about it:

Etymologically daimōn means ‘divider’ or ‘allotter’; from Homer onwards it is used mainly in the sense of performer of more or less unexpected, and intrusive, events in human life. In early authors, gods, even Olympians, could be referred to as daimŏnĕs. Rather than referring to personal anthropomorphic aspects, however, daimōn appears to correspond to supernatural power in its unpredictable, anonymous, and often frightful manifestations. So, the adjective daimonios means ‘strange’, ‘incomprehensible’, ‘uncanny’. Hence daimōn soon acquired connotations of Fate. Hesiod introduced a new meaning: the deceased of the golden age were to him ‘wealth‐giving daimones’ functioning as guardians or protectors. This resulted in the meaning ‘personal protecting spirits’, who accompany each human's life and bring either luck or harm. A lucky, fortunate person was eudaimōn (‘with a good daimon’: already in Hesiod), an unlucky one was kakodaimōn (‘with a bad daimon’: from the 5th cent. bc). Centuries later, Christian theologians, concentrating on their negative aspects, saw in daimones the true nature of the pagan gods: they were the embodiment and source of evil and sin.

With this in mind, it makes sense that for translators, the most sophisticated translation for any kind of supernatural weird little creature would be "demon" or "daemon." Especially in a modernist, materialist society that views Judeo-Christian demons as merely one mythology out of many.

Calcifer is a very interesting case, because while he is called a demon in the Japanese Studio Ghibli adaptation, he is also called a demon in the original book by Welsh author Diana Wynne Jones. What many people don't realize is that Mrs. Jones was highly educated, having studied at Oxford under the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Her husband was also a scholar of Chaucer. Unfortunately, I think because she was writing children's fantasy in the 70s and 80s, people don't think her work warrants much deeper analysis.

As with all her stories, I think she brought a special kind of cleverness to the table when writing Calcifer that is first exemplified by his name.

"Calcifer" is a common noun, referring to sea creatures like anemones which construct their own shells from Calcium Carbonate, much like how Calcifer constructs the moving castle.

"Calcifer" resembles the Latin model of "Lucifer" which means "bringing light" or "light bringer," but rather than "light" she's substituted the Latin root for "limestone" (calcis), which is also made of Calcium Carbonate.

You know what's neat about Calcium Carbonate? It doesn't burn.

Following this thread through to Calcifer's backstory:

Calcifer was a falling star that Howl intercepted, which slightly resembles Satan's origin story as a fallen angel of light. However, Diana Wynne Jones knew perfectly well that Christian demons are not really falling stars, so we can know she did not intend to write Calcifer as a Judeo-Christian demon. More likely, I think she was paying homage to classics such as Paradise Lost.

Calcifer strikes a bargain with Howl for his heart, which I consider an homage to Faust by Goethe, in which the titular character can be said to have devoured beautiful young women.

As a character, Calcifer is very morally grey and often seems in a league above the other characters as far as stakes and decision-making. This is very characteristic of the mythical creatures of Celtic legend, which are still a very present background element of Welsh culture today, much like the trolls and elves of Scandinavian culture. Many of these mythical creatures are referred to as demons, even though they do not align with the Judeo-Christian definition of a demon. Yes, they can be evil or tricky, but they can also be helpful, lucky, or funny. Mostly, they are volatile. Faeries, boggarts, goblins, elves, sea monsters, and more have all been called demons in Welsh folklore.

This could be due to the early interaction between the Welsh and the Romans (compared to, say, the Irish who kept up their Druidism for much longer), and consequently Christians. I know from Scandinavian folklore that the meshing of Pagan culture with Christian newcomers usually becomes very weird very quickly, with the resulting mythology resembling neither party.

Tl;dr Calcifer is the product of a Welsh upbringing and a classical education, and is explicitly not a demon in the Judeo-Christian sense.

As for Pokemon in the U.S., it's mainly a translation issue. Word got around that lots of Pokemon are based on youkai, which gets translated to "demon" in English, even though they are not Judeo-Christian demons and are much closer to the above cited faeries and goblins. Voila, Satanic Panic 2.0.