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An aesthetic interpretation
Central to the Shinto tradition is the concept of purity. Further,
the primary means of purification is said to be ritual practice.
These two features of Shinto - purity and its ritual production -
invite the questions: can rituals purify, and if so, how? The
limited aim in this essay is to offer an interpretation of the
Shinto ritual tradition that explains how and in what sense ritual
practices can mirror, or provide images of, the Shinto ideal of
purity.
The answer lies, in the aesthetic dimension of Shinto rites and
festivals. The first task will be to sketch the Shinto tradition's
world-view and clarify its concept of purity. Then a brief
discussion of Shinto ritual will be illustrated by segments from a
video documenting a daily purification ceremony at a Shinto
shrine. Lastly, an analysis of the role of artful performance in
Shinto ceremonies will be given.
Shinto World-View
The scholar, Tsunetsugu Muraoka, states that, in general,
"... the ancient outlook on life and
the world was essentially one of unsophisticated optimism. Nature,
as a manifestation of life-giving-power, was undisguisedly good.
There could be no better world than this world. There were powers
that obstructed and destroyed life-giving power, but in the end
they would be overcome - "straightening" (naobi) action would be
directed against these misfortunes ... As a result of such
"straightening" action, life-giving power was perpetually winning.
This was because good fortune was dominant. Possibly creativity (musubi),
because of this, was a fundamental world principle." [Studies in
Shinto Thought. Trans. by D.M. Brown and J.T. Araki. NY: Greenwood
Press, 1988. pp.11, 29.]
Three essential Shinto insights are
contained in this statement. First, in the human encounter with
the world, nature is understood as creative and life-giving (musubi),
a "generative...vital force" that connotes the sense of
harmoniously creating and connecting. This vital power is directly
associated with kami, the Japanese term given to those "unusual"
and "superior" aspects of both nature and humanity that are
experienced as possessing an awesome presence and potency, such as
natural objects in heaven and earth (heavenly bodies, mountains,
rivers, fields, seas, rain, and wind), and great persons, heroes,
or leaders. This "myriad of kami" are not metaphysically different
in kind from either nature or humanity, but rather are "superior"
and "unusual" manifestations of that potency inherent in all life.
The second Shinto insight indicates that although we are grounded
in the vital process of musubi and kami, we can also be disrupted
and disjoined from it. In the tradition the more prevalent
expression of this sense of obstruction is the term "pollution."
"Purity," in turn, characterizes the state of creativity.
The third insight concerns the "straightening" action taken by
humans to overcome those powers that obstruct or pollute the
life-giving power of musubi and kami. There are a variety of means
for achieving this, but it is principally through ritual actions
ranging from formal liturgies conducted by priests in shrine
precincts, to ascetic practices (misogi) and major public
festivals. All these varied activities are conceived of in terms
of ridding people and things of "pollution" (tsumi) in order to
reinstate "purity."
There is an immediate and concrete nature to the Shinto sense of
pollution. Tsumi is a dirty something that can be washed away by
ablution and lustration (misogi harai) [cf. Muraoka 1988:59].
Wiping clean - lustration - restores the natural process, which is
bright (akashi) and clean and beautiful. This also applies to the
interior realities of human thought and intention: "the bad heart
is a "dirty heart" which is malicious, and the pure heart is one
which is not dirty - a bright heart that hides nothing. So the way
of "straightening" or purification (harai) is basically the action
of lustration, physically and mentally, which results in a
condition of purity and beauty - wiping away the dust from the
mirror. This aesthetic condition of beauty, in other words, is
inseparable from a restored condition of purity. As Kishimoto
Hideo states: "... religious values and aesthetic values are not
two different things. Ultimately, they are one for the Japanese."
["Some Japanese Cultural Traits and Religions." Philosophy and
Culture East and West, ed. Charles A. Moore. 1962: p. 251.] "The
goal of life and art are one." [Uyeda, Isao. "Rites of Passage and
Purification in Japanese Society," unpublished dissertation, 1991,
p. 134.]
An aesthetically "pure and cheerful heart" (akaki kiyoki kokoro)
is, consequently, the basis of communion with the kami, i.e., with
the particular and "unusual potencies" of the creative process
itself (musubi). In this state of purity, one is connected to the
order and harmony of Great Nature, the "sacrality of the total
cosmos." These, in brief, are some of the key insights that
comprise the Shinto world-view and their idea of purity.
Shinto Ritual Practice
1. Mystical mist in the forest <Video>;
2. Tsubaki Grand Shrine at Mt. Suzuka; 3. Giant torii in the
forest leading you to the main shrine
Because Shinto shrines are considered
places of superior potency (kami) of the forces of life (musubi),
it is in these locations that worship services are most regularly
held. Our primary example here is the daily morning service (the
Choo Hai) conducted at Tsubaki Grand Shrine located in Mie
Prefecture at the base of one of seven mountains of Suzuka. The
entire shrine complex is situated within a forest of 500 year old
cypress trees. A large torii gate and an ablution pavilion mark
the beginning of a path through the forest to the main shrine.
The basic structure of this service includes:
(a) cleansing, preparations: from sweeping to washing,
(b) invocation of the kami through beautiful, sonorous words and
sincere communication,
(c) offerings, and
(d) ritual purification.
<Video>
From beginning to end, the priests endeavor to courteously call
upon and take leave of the kami through proper demeanor and formal
bows and claps.
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