Japanese Imperial Household Agency holds Shinto rituals based on Shinto tradition. One of the reasons why I write about the Imperial Household Agency is that one of the researchers, the late Dr. Junichi Kamata, one of the high ranking officials in the Imperial Household Agency, strongly denied Origuchi’s doctrine and called it nothing but a “joke.” And, there was another prominent researcher in the field of Shinto, named the late Dr. Katsuyoshi Watanabe who knew the late Dr. Junichi Kamata very well. The Japanese Imperial Household Agency provides only limited information for anyone because the late Dr. Junichi Kamata abided by the confidential regulation of the agency.
However, he admitted that in terms of the interpretation of one of the most important rituals, “Daijo-sai,” which is a part of the enthronement ceremony of Tenno, the late Dr. Katsuyoshi Watanabe had the only correct understanding of Daijo-sai so far. The late Dr. Watanabe received his PhD at Kyushu University with his Doctorate thesis, “Chikon-Sai no Kenkyu: Study on Chinkon-Sai, the soul appeasing ceremony held on the previous day of Daijo-sai.” Daijo-sai is the indispensable ceremony of the newly enthroned Tenno in which after the last emperor’s death, Tenno has new holy rice with Amaterasu-Oh-Mikami, the head of deities in the Firmament first, and then Tenno has the new sacred rice with the deity in Hades. After the ceremony, only Tenno has the right to serve these deities, which means Tenno is able to become the authentic successor of the former Tenno.
Dr. Origuchi ignored these processes of enthronement ceremony, and insisted, “Daijo-sai is the ceremony, in which the soul of ex-Tenno, “Great Tama,” is implanted into the flesh of the new Tenno. As a result, the new Tenno himself will become a deity.” Origuchi’s naïve theory was welcomed by the Showa Militaristic Regime, which looked for the pretext to force the general public to directly worship Tenno as a god. Thanks to Origuchi, the Showa Militaristic Regime could invent this fabrication.
Fabrication of Theories and the Current Academic World
The late Dr. Katuyosi Watanabe lamented this fabrication from the bottom of his heart. In his book, “Study on Chinkon-Sai,” he pointed out the crucial mistake that Origuchi made. Dr. Origuchi theorized, “Tama is a soul of the deity and belongs to the body of the Emperor.” In terms of Tama, I will discuss in detail in the later chapter, but the late Dr. Watanabe said that Origuchi misunderstood what Tama was, and the late Dr. Kamata agrees with the late Dr. Watanabe in this regards.
I would not totally deny the effort of Dr. Shinobu Origuchi as a researcher, and, at the same time, he himself admitted that his theory might be wrong because he suffered from a lot of contradictions that he could not describe at all in his theory regarding Shinto. That was why he asked his disciples to correct his Tama theory. Contrary to his remark, no disciples followed what he asked, only to worship Dr. Shinobu Origuchi. I do understand his effort to some extent. The lamentable fact was Dr. Shinobu Origuch did not understand how science works to analyze cultural phenomena clearly. This is true of a lot of Japanese historians. Dr. Shouji Kawazoe, a prominent historian on Kamakura Period, used to lament, “We can only collect historical data but I have no idea how to analyze the data scientifically.”
These days, Japanese media and academic researchers blame students for low motivation to study but I would like to question who is responsible for educating students at not only universities but also students in every level of schools. Though students pay high tuition to attend university courses, the level of knowledge that most of the students at PhD courses gain is lower than that of those who study something as a hobby.
The controversial researcher whose thesis was published in the famous scientific magazine, “Nature,” only to be deprived of PhD degree was a typical example. She did not even know that researchers should not copy other researchers’ works.
My grandmother, who loved literature, could read Chinese literature without Janapese-style-punctuated expressions. She enjoyed reading literatures both in classical Japanese and original classical Chinese. Without my grandmother’s love for reading anything about the world at hand, I cannot nurture my curiosity toward cultural phenomena. Without her it would have been impossible to write this book.
Shinobu Origuchi’s Huge Contradition in “Tama Theory”
Here, I would like to go back to the brief explanation about Dr. Origuchi’s theory, which is related to one of the main topics of this book, Shinto. He defined a Japanese term, “Tama,” as the soul as if Tama were inside the flesh of Tenno. Then, he fell into the huge fallacy. You will understand what a terrible theory he made up, ignoring Shinto’s fundamental classics: both “Nihon- Sho-Ki” and “Koji-Ki,”
Tama never existed inside of any Tenno’s body in Nihon-Sho-Ki and Koji-Ki. For example, in the story of Ohnamuchi-No-Mikoto, one of the ancestors of Tenno, in Mythology Chapter in “Nihon-Sho-Ki,” Ohnamuchi-No-Mikoto, the conqueror of Japanese islands, met his own “Tama” right after the lands that he had conquered suddenly fell into chaos.
When he had wondered why this miserable state occurred, a bright light appeared from far away over the horizon of the sea. Ohnamichi-No-Mikoto asked the light, “Who are you?” It answered, “I am your Tama. The cause of this disastrous state of this world resulted from the fact that I was wandering around the surface of the earth. You have to return me to the place where I should belong to.”
Ohnamuchi-No-Mikoto asked it, “Where on earth do you belong to?” It answered, “I want to go back to the Hades through Mt. Mimuro in Nara, which is thought to have been the gate of the Hades, one of the sacred places for the people of ancient Japan. It is important pay attention to the story in Nihon-Sho-Ki. Tama was not inside Ohnamuchi’s flesh, but Tama wanted to go back to the Hades. This is the decisive point to understand the character of “Tama.”
I will prove in the later chapter the true essence of “Tama.” Dr. Origuchi completely overlooked the important lines of this story in “Nihon-Sho-Ki,” even though he alluded to this story in his theory. The theory he came up with was, “Tama, the soul, is in Tenno’s flesh and Tama has been inherited since the first Tenno, Jinmu, by only authentic successors, who have been, Tenno.” Dr. Origuchi defined the divinity of Tenno in this fallacious context mixed up with his contradictory theory. The reason why “Tama” should not be defined as the soul but as “sacred” will be briefly explained later.
Origuch defined “Tama” as the soul, which was a terrible mistake and this was the very beginning of the fallacious theory. Most of the Shinto researchers started to believe his theory. And, the misinterpretation of Tama has led to huge misunderstanding of the meaning of the enthronement ceremony of Tenno. You could clearly understand that Dr. Origuchi made up his own cult. Origuchi-style interpretation has become a kind of common sense among most of Shinto researchers as well as Shinto priests ever since. I cannot help doubting if Shinto researchers have ability to read the important historical data.
This is the very part that the late Dr. Katsuyoshi Watanabe pointed out in his book, “Chinkon-Sai no Kenkyu, the Study of the Ceremony for the Repose of the Soul,” which was officially presented to the Present Tenno. This was actually the very first book that the Imperial Household Agency accepted the book of Shinto as correct, which depicted the interesting history of Shinto in a true way.
The Changes in the Roles of the Emperors
As I mentioned before, the role of the Emperor had become like that of Qing Emperors after the Meiji Restoration (1868). The role of the Emperor Meiji became different from that of former Tenno before him. After the Emperor Meiji passed away, the Emperor Taisho succeeded to the throne. The Emperor Taisho (1879-1926) experienced serious brain disease when he was very young. In fact, he could not carry out his role as a ruler. As a result, his son, Hirohito, became the Prince Regent when he was 20 years old (1921). However, the military came to seize the actual political power.
Seemingly, the role of the Emperor Taisho (1912-1926) and the Emperor Showa (1926-1989) until the end of the Pacific War (1941-1945) had the same power