Sketch of early Japanese history

NOW THEN, before moving on with the introduction to Japanese history, I should preface this section with the statement that the basic objective is to provide minimal but adequate context demonstrating that Japan had developed the basic societal traits that lent it to being open to receiving both Confucianism and Buddhism in succession. Though there were numerous conflicts with reactionary elements, such as the Mononobe and Nakatomi, after Buddhism gained favor with the Imperial Court, such conflict gave impetus to Kukai to employ Expedient Means on a grand scale to create the foundational esoteric schema of what would later be called Shinbutsu Shugo (syncretization of the Buddhas and Kami).

The schema and the diverse hermeneutics that it spawned served to energized the Japanese religious milieu, and provided a degree of resilience in times of crisis. The system was there for people to fall back for guidance in trying to recuperate lost equilibrium. In effect, it represents a sort of matrix that is capable of supporting varied modes of pluralism.

The Japanese had put in place a form of social infrastructure that facilitated their being open to giving the Christian teaching a hearing, to see what they could learn from it, how it might further contribute to the development of their pluralistic religious culture.

JAPAN

Japan, which, due in part to its remoteness and natural island defenses, was one of the last countries in the world to develop advanced cultural attributes, such as a writing system. So, though there are no written records from the Japanese themselves until the 8^th century, a fair amount about the early history of Japan can be gleaned through archeological remains, as well fragmentary records from Chinese sources.

Like the Sumerians, Egyptians, Chinese, Ancient Greeks, Celts, and so on, the Japanese emerge from the obscurity of pre-history demonstrating the distinctive modes of culture that had sustained their budding civilization.

To begin with, we know from archeological evidence that the pre-historical (i.e., before records were kept) Japanese of the Jomon period had developed substantial primitive cultural resources by no later than 6,000 years ago (maybe as far back as 14,000BCE). Chinese records include a physiological description which distinguishes the Japanese people as a genotype of sorts, and provide important historical information, particularly with respect to a female ruler named Himiko (the Chinese referred to the country of Japan as “Wa”, and to Himiko’s domain as “Yamataikoku”).

The archeological evidence supports the Chinese observations of the existence of a distinctive set of physical features, such as facial features, and also marks the transition to the same physiological features with respect to modern Japanese, which one would assume to have come about as a result of the intermingling of the genetic pool of the people of Jomon derivation and the people who brought wet-rice agriculture to Japan. 

A hundred years or so before Chinese writing was to be introduced into Japan, along with the Confucian classics, a Chinese source recount a request from Himiko of Yamataikoku for assistance in suppressing some form of internal strife that threatened her rule and the social order of her domain. Her request was granted by the Chinese, and aside from putting down the revolt, the Chinese presented her with some of the ubiquitous bronze mirrors dispersed throughout East Asia that are indicative of the strength of Chinese cultural influence.

The bronze mirrors of Ancient China were formed in a shape resembling the ancient Chinese character for the sun, and were regarded as a symbol of wisdom and represented high social status.

The first government organ established in Ancient Japan after the introduction of written language via the Confucian Classics was a Bureau of Divination, which probably served to predict the dates for sowing and harvesting, etc. and other dates related to the social practices of a sedentary wet-rice farming society.

Chinese historical records bear accounts of tribute being paid by the people of Wa at the Chinese Court of the Han Dynasty, etc. Japan’s suzerainty to China continued up until the manner of address used in a letter to the Chinese Court by Shotoku Taishi which effectively ended that status at the outset of the 7^th century. Japan had come of age at that point, so to speak, and Prince Shotoku had implemented a seventeen point constitution based on Confucianism and Buddhism that was advanced for its time.

Japan had ongoing relations with the Kingdoms of the Korean peninsula over the centuries. Alliance was mainly with Packche, but ties with the others also existed, and cultural influences from Goguryeo are also prominent.

Suffice it to say that a fair amount of the continental culture reaching Japan from the Qin through early Tang dynasties was introduced to Japan via Korea. Japan began to surpass the fractious Kingdoms on the Korean peninsula however, by assimilating culture directly from the Chinese, and developing that culture to the extent that a good deal of what remains to us today of East Asian culture from that period is preserved in Japan. I’ve heard that Chinese students come to Japan today to learn about aspects of Tang Dynasty architecture and the like.

A prominent example of a Japanese individual that excelled to an extent that his achievements stand out among the greatest of East Asian luminaries is Kukai.

Kukai (774-835) was a figure whose career straddled the Nara (710-794) and Heian (794-1185) periods. At that time in history, Nara was the easternmost terminal of the Silk Road, and the treasury of the Shosoin has fine examples of silk textiles preserved from that period made outside of Japan. The dedication of the Great Buddha at Todaiji Temple brought Buddhist luminaries from as far off as Persia. Japan had emerged as a bastion of civilization during the halcyon years of Buddhist influence across Asia.

Upon Kukai’s arrival at the temple in Tang China (805) where he was to undergo training in Buddhism in China, the head monk (Hui-ko) was immediately impressed with his presence, and Kukai eventually was made the leader of the sect, which effectively was transferred to Japan, where it flourished and was further developed by Kukai.

With respect to cultural achievements, though I haven’t heard anyone else articulate this insight before—maybe a first here—it has occurred to me that the development of the phonetic alphabet of Japan, the kana syllabary, in the 7^th century or so was a direct precursor to the development of the Korean syllabary in the 15^th century, nearly 800 years later. I haven’t ever heard anyone characterize that as a case of Japan exporting culture to Korea, but in the final analysis, that is basically what happened, in my estimation, though in an indirect fashion.

The Japanese kana syllabary was developed by reducing phonemes of Chinese characters in a manner such as to use them to represent only the sounds, not the meanings. The Korean syllabary was developed to be graphical representations of the anatomical sound production mechanism of each sound, theoretically speaking. The mechanisms for combining the syllables to make works, however, are very similar. In Japan, one theory holds that the syllabary was developed to enable Buddhist monks to read the Sutras. It was a very time consuming workload to become literate in Chinese at that point, and very few enjoyed the burdensome privilege. The development of the kana syllabary proved an effective vehicle to bring literacy to a wide swath of the Japanese population; in fact, they were one of the most literate populations in the world, the most literate during the Edo period, I believe. The Koreans were of course aware of the situation, and it may have been a catch up effort to develop a similar system for their own population.

Whereas I have been exposed, on the one hand, to a grating cacophony of voices megaphoning bigoted accusations asserting that Japan owes its cultural heritage to Korea, even through long-established English language print media here such as the Japan Times, this is one monumental example that demonstrates that cultural exchange was mutual, and dynamic. Moreover, it demonstrates that, with respect to literacy, Japan has been one of the most advanced, nay, a pioneering country from very early on.

Aside from that basic fact, the efforts of Kukai and others to facilitate co-existence of pluralistic religious culture shows that the Japanese developed a depth of cultural resources for coping with just the sort of monocular and unilateral distortions being leveled by people like Eric Johnston and John Dougill. Japan has produced a number of great scholars and religious figures whose works still inspire to this day. I, for one, have benefited enormously from those works, which represent contributions to the cultural heritage of mankind at large, and I intend to demonstrate that here, at the expense of those who prefer to dwell in the shadows of their secret societies, like Mr. Dougill and Mr. Johnston, as opposed to the light of day.

Due to time limitations, I am going to simply throw out some blocks of text from Wikipedia that demonstrate the degree of ignorance, deliberate deception, and multidimensional bigotry found in the article by Mr. Johnston. 

Emperor Kammu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kammu_of_Japan

Kammu's personal name (imina) was Yamabe (山部^?).^[5] He was the eldest son of Prince Shirakabe (later known as Emperor Kōnin), and was born prior to Shirakabe's ascension to the throne.^[6]According to the Shoku Nihongi (続日本紀^?), Yamabe's mother, Yamato no Niigasa (later called Takano no Niigasa), was a descendant of King Muryeong of Baekje.^[7]

Takano no Niigasa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takano_no_Niigasa

Takano no Niigasa (高野新笠) (ca.720 – 790) …

…was a daughter of Yamato no Ototsugu…

Yamato no Ototsugu, Niigasa's father, was a noble of Baekje origin/ The Title of Yamato clan had been Yamato no Fubito (和史, lit. "Scribe of Yamato") and later given a new title, Takano no Asomi (高野朝臣). Shoku Nihongi describes the Yamato clan as a distant descendant of an exiled prince of Baekje, son of King Muryeong of Baekje. Nihon Shoki mentions that the prince died in Japan in 513. The Yamato clan had persisted for 200 years by the time of Niigasa's birth, longer than many other aristocratic clans of foreign origin, such as the Kudara no Konikishi clan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofun_period

Toraijin

渡来人 (hiragana とらいじん, romaji toraijin)

1.     a foreigner who crossed the sea into another country; typically into Japan

Chinese and Korean immigrants who were naturalized in ancient Japan were called toraijin. They introduced many aspects of Chinese culture to Japan. Valuing their knowledge and culture, the Yamato government gave preferential treatment to toraijin. The elements of Chinese culture introduced to the Yamato Imperial Court are very important.^[5] According to the book Shinsen Shōjiroku compiled in 815, a total 154 out of 1,182 noble families in the Kinai are on Honshū Island were regarded as people with foreign genealogy. The book specifically mentions 163 were from China, 104 such families from Baekje, 41 from Goguryeo, 6 from Silla, and 3 from Gaya.^[6] They might be families that moved to Japan between the years A.D.356-645.

Chinese migration

Many important figures were also immigrants from China. Chinese immigrants also had considerable influence according to the Shinsen Shōjiroku,^[6] which was used as a directory of aristocrats. Yamato Imperial Court had officially edited the directory in 815, and 163 Chinese clans were registered.

According to Nihon Shoki, the Hata clan, which was composed of descendants of Qin Shi Huang,^[7]arrived at Yamato in 403 (the fourteenth year of Ōjin) leading the people of 120 provinces. According to the Shinsen Shōjiroku, the Hata clan were dispersed in various provinces during the reign of Emperor Nintoku and were made to undertake sericulture and the manufacturing of silk for the court. When the finance ministry was set up in Yamato Court, Hata Ōtsuchichi (秦大津父) was in charge of accounts as a minister of it.

In 409 (the twentieth year of Ōjin), Achi-no-Omi, the ancestor of the Yamato-Aya clan, which was also composed of Chinese immigrants, arrived with people from 17 districts. According to the Shinsen Shōjiroku, Achi obtained the permission to establish the Province of Imaki. The Kawachi-no-Fumi clan, descendants of Gaozu of Han, introduced aspects of Chinese writing to the Yamato court.

The Takamuko clan is a descendant of Cao Cao. Takamuko no Kuromaro was a center member of Taika Reform.^[8]

Korean migration

Among the many Korean immigrants who settled in Japan beginning in the 4th century, some came to be the progenitors of Japanese clans. According to Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, the oldest record of a Silla immigrant is Amenohiboko, a legendary prince of Silla who settled to Japan at the era of Emperor Suinin, perhaps around the 3rd or 4th century.

Korean immigrants also include the Baekje royal family. King Muryeong of Baekje was born in 462, and left a son in Japan who settled there. According to the historical documents in the Nihon Shoki, his father was sent to Japan as a hostage.^[9]

Language

Chinese, Korean and Japanese wrote accounts of history mostly in Chinese characters, making original pronunciations difficult to trace.

While writing was largely unknown to the indigenous Japanese of this period, the literary skills of foreigners seem to have become increasingly appreciated by the Japanese elite in many regions. The Inariyama sword, tentatively dated 471 or 531, contains Chinese-character inscriptions in styles used in China at the time, leading to speculation that the owner, though claiming to be a Japanese aristocrat, possibly could have been an immigrant.^[10]According to the book of John Cater Covell published by the Korean company, "Inariyama sword, as well as some other swords discovered in Japan, utilized the Korean 'Idu' system of writing." The swords "originated in Paekche and that the kings named in their inscriptions represent Paekche kings rather than Japanese kings." The techniques for making these swords were the same styles from Korea.^[11]

Haniwa

The cavalry wore armour, carried swords and other weapons, and used advanced military methods like those of north-east Asia. Evidence of these advances is seen in Haniwa(埴輪), the "clay ring" placed on and around the tomb mounds of the ruling elite. The most important of these haniwa were found in southern Honshū—especially the Kinai region around Nara prefecture—and northern Kyūshū. Haniwa grave offerings were made in numerous forms, such as horses, chickens, birds, fans, fish, houses, weapons, shields, sunshades, pillows, and male and female humans. Another funerary piece, the magatama, became one of the symbols of the power of the imperial house.

Introduction of material culture to Japan

Much of the material culture of the Kofun period is barely distinguishable from that of the contemporaneous southern Korean peninsula, demonstrating that at this time Japan was in close political and economic contact with continental Asia (especially with the southern dynasties of China) through Korea. Indeed, bronze mirrors cast from the same mould have been found on both sides of the Tsushima Strait. Irrigation, sericulture, and weaving were also brought to Japan by Chinese and Korean immigrants who are mentioned in the ancient Japanese histories. For instance, the Hata clan, of Chinese origin, introduced sericulture.

Qin Dynasty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Dynasty

Religion

Floating on high in every direction,
Music fills the hall and court.
The incense sticks are a forest of feathers,
The cloudy scene an obscure darkness.
Metal stalks with elegant blossoms,
A host of flags and kingfisher banners.
The music of the "Seven Origins" and "Blossoming Origins"
Are intoned as harmonious sounds.
Thus one can almost hear
The spirits coming to feast and frolic.
The spirits are seen off to the zhu zhu of the musics,
Which purifies and refines human feelings.
Suddenly the spirits ride off on the darkness,
And the brilliant event finishes.
Purified thoughts grow hidden and still,
And the warp and weft of the world fall dark.

Han shu, p. 1046

The dominant religious belief in China during the reign of the Qin, and, in fact, during much of early imperial China, was focused on the shen (roughly translating to "spirits"), yin ("shadows"), and the realm they were said to live in. The Chinese offered sacrifices^{[note 15]} in an attempt to contact this other world, which they believed to be parallel to the earthly one. The dead were said to simply have moved from one world to the other. The rituals mentioned, as well as others, served two purposes: to ensure that the dead journeyed and stayed in the other realm, and to receive blessings from the spirit realm.^{[note 16][40][41]}

Religious practices were usually held in local shrines and sacred areas, which contained sacrificial altars. During a sacrifice or other ritual, the senses of all participants and witnesses would be dulled and blurred with smoke, incense, and music. The lead sacrificer would fast and meditate before a sacrifice to further blur his senses and increase the likelihood of perceiving otherworldly phenomena. Other participants were similarly prepared, though not as rigorously.

Such blurring of the senses was also a factor in the practice of spirit intermediaries, or mediumship. Practitioners of the art would fall into trances or dance to perform supernatural tasks. These people would often rise to power as a result of their art—Luan Da, a Han Dynasty medium, was granted rule over 2,000 households. Noted Han historian Sima Qian was scornful of such practices, dismissing them as foolish trickery.^[42]

Divination—to predict and/or influence the future—was yet another form of religious practice. An ancient practice that was common during the Qin Dynasty was cracking bones or turtle shells to gain knowledge of the future. The forms of divination which sprang up during early imperial China were diverse, though observing natural phenomena was a common method. Comets, eclipses, and droughts were considered omens of things to come.^[43]

Who is Eric Johnston?

Before I present a brief synopsis of the historical development of Japan as a backdrop against which to examine the Christian missionary and related issues, it seems necessary to give further background to some of the factors that have motivated this project.

Having worked on the thematic topics of Modernity and Identity as an undergraduate, focusing on the concrete manifestations I could find in the relations between East Asia and the West, it was natural to again take up those themes after moving to Japan. First, of course, I had to get the language down, but eventually I did find myself drawn back into the fold of related research.

During the course of the ensuing years I read some of the works that have been produced by a succession of eminent Buddhists that have contributed in manifold ways to the development of Japanese society since the time of Kukai, a couple of Japanese classics, such as the Tale of the Heike and the Tale of Genji. I started to look at studies written in English for some context, background information and the like, such as histories, literary treatises, and so on. I found excellent works by Marius Jansen, George Sansom, Robert Borgen, Gary Ebersole, among others, all accomplished Western scholars of Japan.

On the one hand, there was a wide range of well researched and well-written works on a range of topics in which I was interested, in fact, it required some deliberation just to decide where to start. On the other hand, while I was making my way through some of the above-described substantial body of viable scholarship on Japan available in English, I came across some astonishing and absolutely ludicrous writings on serious topics in the local and national print media by foreigners trying to pass themselves off as one sort of “expert” or another on Japan, though it was readily apparent from the teleology of their writings that they had not been motivated as a result of individual scholarship, and that fact was reinforced by the glaring bias evident in the writings, belying an ulterior agenda.

I suppose it just goes to show that there is some value in reading the newspapers and the like, as occasionally you come across a real gem of a story, even if not of the sort you were expecting to find.

In any case, the writings of these individuals were so blatantly propagandistic that I was incredulous, flabbergasted at seeing them published in the local and even national print media; it was incomprehensible. That raised several disturbing questions; namely, who was interested in putting out such disinformation, and what ends did it serve. That in turn resulted in my looking into the secret societies angle, the Freemasons, etc. The first thing I noticed was that all of the “authors”, and I use the term loosely, were based here in the Kansai area.

The writer under scrutiny in this post is a staff writer for the Japan Times, a long-standing and generally reputable English language newspaper. In fact Eric Johnson’s bigoted assertion that “…Nara was, in essence, a Korean colony” smacks of the type of the pattern of deception found in the so-called “British Israelism” fabrication disseminated by the Freemasons, or the parallel Freemason fabrication that the Japanese are descended from a “Lost Tribe of Israel”.

Such pseudo-religious fabrications are would appear to be disseminated solely for the purpose of deceiving people, undermining their cultural identities, diverting their energies from productive activity, perhaps even inculcating a sort of entitlement mentality. Such an entitlement mentality can produced a type of hypostacized subjectivity that can be harnessed as reactionary angst by an apt demagogue, for example. That is a tangential discussion for another post, maybe on the so-called “Tea Party”.

At any rate, one glaring common theme in some of the writings of Dougill and the article by Johnston was an inordinate and exaggerated attribution of the degree to which Koreans have contribution to the development of Japanese culture, religion, and history.

I have come to suspect that most individuals producing writings laden with religious subterfuge are Freemasons (or members of some other secret society); therefore, a question arises with regard to the existence of a connection between the Koreans and the Freemasons.

It just so happens that the most successful efforts of the Christian missionaries in Asia have been in South Korea, all occurring in the brief period since the end of the Korean War, as far as I know. I don’t know much about the spread of Christianity in Korea, except for the fact that Yi Sung Man, the Korean with rubber stamped degrees from Harvard and Princeton Universities who was ensconced as the first President of South Korea by his grooms in the American administration of Bible Belt Freemason Harry Truman, was want to spout bigoted evangelical dogma in an attempt to display some sort of charisma.  

In all fairness to the Freemasons, in the case, for example, that my grandfather was a Freemason, I’m sure that he would only have joined such a group because he thought he was becoming more pro-actively involved in bringing open society to places where there was little or none of the defining characteristics thereof. In his case, embarking to a remote destination like Russia to labor among the people, establish camaraderie, engage in cultural exchange, and extend the breadth and scope of international society in recognition of a type of species being among humans sharing the same universe.

On the other hand, even the Freemasons weren’t exclusionary enough of a secret society to serve as the vehicle for achieving the goals of some types of secret society cretins. I’m thinking of people like Cecil Rhodes, Yale’s Skull and Bones, etc. Mr. Rhodes started his own secret society, and one of the express aims of that secret society was to bring the United States back into the fold of the British Empire.

As England can be seen to be sort of a bipolar country with respect to its political system, being both a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy with a hereditary legislative chamber, perhaps one cannot find fault with that country for trying to cultivate relations and create conditions in other countries perceived to serve the interests of the British polity that would not be in accord with American values. One could point to the efforts exerted by the UK toward fostering the creation of the Islamic theocracies in the Middle East after WWI; that is to say, they didn’t promote the establishment of parliamentary, let alone popular democracies. Top down systems enable those at the top to conduct all national business, and facilitate the perpetuation of their status at the expense of a social dynamic based on meritocracy and social mobility in a free-market economy.

But for Americans to be actively pursuing such an agenda would seem prima facie unconscionable, if not simply illegal under American law.

This brings us back to Harry Truman, a farm boy from the Bible Belt that attained the highest rank of 33-degrees in Freemasonry. Mr. Truman’s friendship with one of the purported authors of Britain’s Balfour declaration, Chaim Wiezmann, and his subsequent unilateral recognition of the “Jewish state of Israel” over and against official US policy, betraying his Secretary of State, George Marshall, and pulling the rug out from under the UN process to establish an unbiased policy to guide the course of social development for the people in the former British administered Palestine, would seem to be contradictory to American values, in the above-described sense.

It would seem that any state named by including a religious denomination in its name would by definition be somewhat theocratic in nature, and therefore, somewhat un-democratic. Could that amount to direct US support for a connection between religion and the state in another country?

I am of the opinion that it could be argued that Truman’s act in and of itself violates the First Amendment, but that is an extremely complicated issue beyond the scope of this post. In any case, the parallel between the establishment of the Islamic theocracies by the UK and that of the act by Truman establishing a quasi-theocracy should be pointed out. It is indisputable that the burden placed on the citizens of the United States by Harry Truman’s impetuous act has taxed participatory democracy both home and abroad at an unsustainable rate that could prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back--to borrow a saying from the region--unless effect corrective measures can be devised and implemented in the very near future.

Moreover, it should also be pointed out that according to the information available on the Internet, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, perhaps America’s two foremost intellects at the time of its founding, and the respective authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, were not Freemasons, though the freely associated with Freemasons in the course of securing their mutual liberty and building an open society.

So what are these people—the Freemasons and the like—trying to do here in Kyoto, Japan?

It was simply inconceivable to me how people like Dougill and Johnston, who, obviously knowing next to nothing about Japan, not only had the gall to write such blatantly biased and bigoted diatribes, but were also able to have such utterly offensive nonsense published, let alone in what I generally consider to be a reputable newspaper—the Japan Times.

The following link is to Japan Times article by Eric Johnston from July 6, 2003, and entitled:

Buried treasure: the mysteries and majesty of Nara
The Japan Times moved the link from:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20030706a1.html

to here:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2003/07/06/general/buried-treasure-the-mysteries-and-majesty-of-nara/
And this time I archived it:
http://web.archive.org/save/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2003/07/06/general/buried-treasure-the-mysteries-and-majesty-of-nara/

Note that Eric Johnston also had “work” published in the Kansai Time Out, like Mr. Dougill.

Kansai, it should be notes, is where the largest criminal organization in Japan is based. It should also be noted that the criminal organization in question is purported to have a large percentage of Korean members, as well as a large number of burakumin (a former outcaste class) members. The current governor of Osaka, Hashimoto, is of burakumin decent. I will be addressing some of the recent political machinations of Hashimoto, such as the “Ishinkai” a title which has been inadequately translated or discussed in the English language newspapers that I’ve seen, and is laden with meaning related to the theocratic pseudo constitutional monarchy established through the Meiji Ishin (the restoration of the emperor as sovereign) and exploited to create an essentially fascist state based on so-called State Shinto. Yes, you might say that I’ve become hypersensitized to anyone trying to inject religion into politics.

Mr. Johnston uses the term Korean “imperial family”. The Packche prince who was apparently exiled to Japan, and from among whose descendants a female apparently several generations later married into the royal family and became the mother of Emperor Kammu were from an era when the Korean peninsula was divided into three separate kingdoms, which were frequently in conflict, as well as a small “confederacy”, etc. I can’t imagine that the term “imperial family” was used with reference to Korean royalty prior to the Unified Silla period (7-10^th centuries), which basically unified the southern half of the peninsula. This is just one such conflation mechanism at work in the rhetoric employed by Mr. Johnson. In this case, it is a juxtaposition of historical periods and categories that attempts to place Korea on an equal footing with Japan. It is a minor point, perhaps, but it demonstrates that Mr. Johnston knew very little about the history of Korea when he penned this passage.

Although the overall thrust of the article is to promote the quaint character of Nara as a tourist destination, Mr. Johnston intersperses passages including astonishingly offensive statements in decidedly strong language about sensitive topics. It’s as if he is trying to dazzle the reader with revelatory pronouncements. It is charlatanism, plain and simple. Maybe some would prefer the term skullduggery.

The article evinces a startling lack of historical knowledge on the part of the writer, though he refers to “scholarly debate” and such more than once, as if he were well informed. There is an inexcusable lack of fact checking by the editorial staff at the Japan Times, and apparent disregard for the sensitivity of the matter and the potentially adverse effects that could be generated by the dissemination of such atrocious disinformation to the public through the country’s oldest, and perhaps most trusted English language newspaper. It must mark a low point in journalistic credibility for the Japan Times.

More specifically, in the article he writes (bolded emphasis mine):

More conclusive is the evidence that Nara was, in essence, a Korean colony. Excavation of burial mounds found throughout the prefecture has revealed earthenware artifacts virtually identical to those found in similar burial mounds on the Korean Peninsula. And nobody challenges the notion that Buddhism first entered Nara from there. The word "nara" itself means "motherland" in Korean.

Imperial mysteries abound here and are most visibly represented by the above-mentioned kofun, which can be found at various locations throughout the prefecture but are concentrated in the northern part. Some mounds date back to nearly 200 A.D., but just who the occupants of the earliest kofun were is still the subject of scholarly debate.

For example, the Hashihaka burial mound, which sits at the foot of Mount Miwa, is nearly 280 meters long. Who, exactly, was buried here? While many archaeologists say it was an ancient princess born in Japan, legend holds that it was Queen Himiko, who ruled the ancient kingdom of Yamatai Koku -- which may have been less of a kingdom and more of a colony established by settlers from the Korean Peninsula.

Much of the pottery, stonework and other artifacts found in the mounds excavated so far is virtually identical to that in similar burial mounds on the Korean Peninsula, leading to the obvious conclusion that Nara got its start as a Korean colony.

These mystifyingly obscurantist statements contain assertions that are so ludicrous and utterly lacking in scholarly support, that suffice it to say much of the spurious nature will become readily apparent to the readers of this blog simply upon reading the following section and perusing the few extracts from Wikipedia that I’ve appended at the end of this post. It is equally baffling that he makes some of these pronouncements projecting an air of authority, and that the editors let that go to press.

Parallel Processing in a Zero Sum Game

Christian Missionaries in Asia, and Christianity in Japan

In examining the religious culture of a country, one can learn much from the manner in which the country has interacted with religious belief systems not indigenous to their country. In essence, if a country had been open to the introduction of a new teaching, it may be the case that the intellectual culture within the country was vibrant and forward looking, actively engaged in the cultivation of knowledge and wisdom. In more modern parlance, we could characterize such a society as an open society, or at least one which had aspects that parallel the current societal norms relating to the freedom of conscience, the freedom of speech, the freedom of association, all of which serve to underpin what we refer to as “civil society”.

In the case of Japan, there was a syncretic religious system in place for over a thousand years before Western intervention upset the social equilibrium. And monotheistic dogma and orthodoxy is easy to counterpose to syncretism and pluralism. In particular, the doctrine of Accommodation prevalent in Mahayana Buddhism, which fostered the development of the syncretic system of Japan, is woefully understudied and practically unheard of in Western academia.   

One of the reasons that I am writing about Leibniz and the Jesuits is to preempt the sentimentalist drivel that a pseudo-intellectual, most likely Freemason, almost certainly an officer of the British MI6, aka John Dougill, is going to have disseminated about the “Hidden Christians” through the gray media propaganda machine operated by front companies of the MI6.

There is interesting material about the Hidden Christians, but it is not as important, in my estimation, as the question as to why the Christian missionaries were banished and Christianity banned in the first place.

In considering the characteristics of the Judeo-Christian tradition, one would likely cite the most obvious feature of a one-and-only God (i.e., monotheism) as the defining common trait of the Jewish and Christian religions. I have recently come to view another characteristic of the two religions, which are commonly referred to as forming a single tradition, that may take precedence in some respects: the shared notion of victimhood.

In other words, both Judaism and Christianity share a common feature that can be characterized as a persecution complex. In the case of the Jews, the Old Testament recounts a tale of enslavement of Jews by the Egyptians, and that a prophet named Moses, guided by their one and only god, led them out of slavery and toward the Promised Land. Slavery is indeed a most extreme form of persecution. In the case of Christianity, the New Testament can be seen to portray Jesus, a Jew, as being persecuted by religious figures among his own people, such as the Pharisees priest class and the fundamentalist zealots, as well as the Romans, yielding more targets upon which to seek to lay blame.

Although the missionaries seeking to propagate Christianity would appear to have developed a highly sophisticated methodology for inculcating and exploiting a persecution complex in one form or another, it should be noted that there are very few Christians in Japan, especially in comparison to the neighboring country, South Korea. There could be a little social psychology involved there, especially in relation to the contradiction of a work ethic versus a persecution complex/entitlement mentality.

In any case, what needs to be examined first, albeit in a somewhat speculative fashion, is why the Christian missionaries were banished from Japan in the first place. How is it, you may ask, that Christian missionaries on a good will mission could represent a subversive force? I will sketch a cursory background here to be revisited and filled out later…

The schema looks something like this. The missionaries enter a country on the pretext of spreading a moral/ethical teaching, hoping to do nothing more than to thereby benefit mankind. However, in the case of the Judeo-Christian tradition, this involves telling stories of epic proportions that seek to cultivate certain dispositions in those receiving the teaching. Those dispositions include sympathy and empathy toward victims. In the case of the Old Testament, the victims are the entirety of the homeless Jews, and in the New Testament, the persecuted figure of Jesus. Eventually, if the missionaries are successful, some of the people to whom they have been proselytizing will come to identify the plight of the persecuted as covalent with their own existence. And that can lead them to finding a plight in their life where in fact there isn’t one.

As mentioned above, the plight of Jesus was two-fold: against the religious authority of a would-be Jewish priest class and fundamentalists with revanchist aims of restoring a theocratic rule and monopolizing political power; and against the state, that is to say Rome.

That in turn can be turned into a politically subversive movement—as opposed to a religious movement—if the people being proselytized come to view the political authority of their country as oppressing them. That in turn could lead a scenario in which the missionaries come to be viewed as personages revered for having brought a teaching that might liberate the people from a hitherto unforeseen insidious form of persecution. The missionaries may thereby ascend to positions of worldly authority, assuming that they lead the people to overthrow their leaders.

The only Christian missionary movement in East Asia that wasn’t undertaken on the premise of converting the entire population of a country to Christianity occurred in China, by the Jesuits. The Jesuits recognized an ethical teaching in the form of Confucianism that was a peer of that of the Judeo-Christian tradition. They therefore sought to accommodate that teaching in terms of “natural theology”, adopting a dualistic approach to traditions that was unitary in terms of content, so to speak. That approach shares a good deal with the Mahayana Buddhist doctrine of “Hoben” (“Expedient Means”, “Accommodation”, etc.).

Leibniz was engaged with the Jesuits, and supported their efforts at Accommodation. He was also seeking to learn as much as possible about the culture and history of China, which he then correlated, in a sense, with his extensive learning with respect to the Ancient Greeks. He was the first Western intellectual to engage with the intellectual, political, and religious tradition of China, and the results were somewhat astounding.

At any rate, the point here is simply to focus on the fact that there was one brief gleaming moment in the history of Christian missionary work in East Asia that evinces values of openness and mutual respect, not bigoted exclusionism.

The commonality between the Accommodationist position of the Jesuits and the long running Accommodationist approach found in Buddhism can be seen to lie in the trait that both share a characteristic openness toward the truth value of their respective teachings. That is to say, they felt that the truth would shine through, even if the teaching was presented in a manner that might not be deemed to be in accord with some doctrinal issue. This value also holds that the truth is basically accessible to anyone who pursues it with dedication, and the mode of presentation would not detract from the truth at which one has arrived after such a sustained effort. The truth would become self-evident, so to speak, and capable of being represented in another mode, if necessary.

Although Mr. Dougill has changed the tone and tried to shift directions in his blog posts of late, in his past writings for that nebulous (i.e., “gray media”) publication the Kansai Time Out, and the guide book he had published by a publishing company called Signal Books that releases titles with the status of a subcontractor under the American division of Oxford University Press. It was a rather convoluted process to figure out all of that, but that is the purpose of using such gray media outlets, of which Kansai Time Out most definitely was.

As to Signal books, I received no response from the person in charge of fact-checking and editing Dougill’s book, though I did receive a fair amount of cooperation from the person in charge at UOP America. It could very well be that Signal Books is a front company, one which publishes only books in specialized niche—primarily travel related literature targeting an educated audience—and that in this case, is a company that appropriates the reputation of a famed academic publisher, Oxford University Press, using some sort of insider connections. Mr. Dougill has told me that he has a PhD in Slavic Studies, which makes it curious that he is here in the first place. At any rate, publishing under the umbrella of an Academic name with the stature of Oxford University gives credibility to the deceptive and propagandistic content being written by intelligence operatives like Dougill, which contains a good deal of religion-themed subterfuge, and has obviously been crafted with an ulterior motive and subversive agenda—in this case, to cultivate certain types of dispositions among the educated travelling public. 

Note that I have complained to the US Consulate about Dougill and other gray media propagandists here in Japan, but have been forced to escalate the complaint due to inadequate remedial measures. 

It has therefore also become necessary to take this issue public, with the aim of providing a little enlightened intellectual guidance to those responsible for conducting the foreign policy of the United States, as well as having the so-called Intelligence Identities Protection Act amended by the United States Congress. Those are a couple of the objectives that I will be returning to here in the near future.

I would imagine that some of the people at the State Department and the like might regard me as a pretentious upstart, but the United States of America has lost touch with the role played in open society by the intellectual.