Religion in Japan

The focus for this weeks post is about religion in Japan. I won't go into deep about religion in Japan because I don't consider myself as a ethnographic authority enough. Instead of trying to explain how the religion works in Japan and so on, I will tell how the impression I got from how religious people are here. Even though I have spend more than half my semester here in Japan already, I still keep getting surprised how religion is part of the daily life in Japan.

The first picture I have chosen is of a shrine just outside of Kansai Gaidai University. The first time I saw this shrine I was quite surprised because it was on a crowded street. Soon I realised during my stay here in Japan that religion is part of the daily life. It's hard to talk a walk without seeing something connected to religion. I think this shrine shows how big religion is in Japan. Even though Japan is one of the busiest and crowdiest countries in the world, people still take time to pay their respect to a shrine, even in the most unexpected places.


My second picture is taken in Uji, just outside of Kyoto. This is a picture of the famous temple, Byôdô-in which is famous for its big golden Buddhastatue and its two golden phoenixes on its rooftop. This is also the picture of the back of the 10 yen coin. When we enter temple to see the big golden Buddha (pictures were not allowed) The guide told us about the story of why the Buddha was placed right there and explaned why there were a lot of other small Bodhisattvas on clouds. After the guide was over, people stayed a little bit after and clapped their hands twice and then closed their eyes while they were bowing.


So what kind of impression do I have of religion in Japan? If I make comparison between Sweden and Japan, the difference are a lot more. In Sweden we do have a lot less religion in public, even though you can easily spot churches everywhere. But it's not as part of your daily life if your not a religious person. In Japan, religion is part of the culture, and you can see buddhas in stores, shrines everywhere and it's not uncommon to see ads where you can see temples.

So to make a short summary, do these two examples explain the religion in Japan? These examples might be a small part of Japanese culture, I am saying culture because the impression I got from Japan is that their lives are not affected by religion so much, but instead of how religion have affected the culture. Things are implied in the culture today, and even if they aren't religious that still don't necessarily means that they don't have faith. On every temple I have been too there are always different things you can do that are said to give you good luck or viceversa. Even though I got the impression I have from Japanese people being very busy and stressed, they still take their time to go to a shrine and pray. Perhaps to get strength to continue their day.