The July 28th issue of Jinja Shinpō had an article about prayers for peace in Shimanë Prefecture, on the Japan Sea coast of western Japan. These were organised by a group bringing together twenty Shinto jinja and Buddhist temples in the historic Izumo Province (出雲国), which forms the eastern part of the contemporary prefecture. About 150 people gathered at Izumo Ōyashiro (出雲大社) on 22nd June.
The group was set up to bring people together across the lines of religion and denomination, to show the world the importance of a “wa” (和) heart, emphasising connections. “Wa” is untranslatable here, because while it means “peace” and “harmony” (and is half of the standard Japanese word for “peace” — “heiwa”), it also means “Japan” or “Japanese”. This year’s gathering was the twentieth.
The attendees at the ceremony included the prefectural governor and the mayor of Izumo City, and the presiding priest offered a Shinto prayer asking for a society based on the principle of cheerful concern for others, with friendship and peaceful happiness. Everyone present then recited a prayer for peace.
Most of the article, however, was about one of the participating priests, Revd Umebayashi. I have mentioned her before — she was born in Ukraine, met and married a Shinto priest, and now serves as a priest at the family jinja in Saitama prefecture, north of Tokyo. According to the article, she has created goshuin (御朱印) at the jinja saying “Stand with Ukraine” and “Glory to Ukraine” in English and Ukrainian, and local people have started folding origami cranes in yellow and blue paper, the colours of the Ukrainian flag, as a prayer for peace. (The association of origami cranes with peace is a standard one in contemporary Japan.) In the precincts of Izumo Ōyashiro, they set up a space for people to fold these cranes, and hung up a thousand of them along with a nobori (幟—a vertical flag) in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, to pray for world peace.
Izumo Ōyashiro issued a statement saying that they hoped that the “wa” hearts bound together at the ceremony would form countless “links” (also “wa” — 環, this time) and spread out, bringing peace as quickly as possible to Ukraine and the rest of the world.
Shinto-Buddhist ceremonies are, of course, a standard thing in Japan, although I think they are becoming more common over time, and the ones that are reported are normally praying for peace. Indeed, the Shinto establishment is very committed to peace, perhaps precisely because they put so much effort into remembering the war.
The more remarkable thing here is the emphasis put on Revd Umebayashi. One notable point is that, as I did here, it describes her as “Ukrainian-born”, not “Ukrainian”. I did a web search on her, partly to decide whether to include her name, and there was a cluster of articles about three years ago, immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, which were about 50/50 in their choice of description. A government PR article was written about her last year, in which the Japanese describes her as “Ukrainian-born”, but the English as “Ukrainian native”, which is not quite the same…
Why does this matter? Because a Ukrainian is not Japanese, but a Ukrainian-born person might well be. It matters that the article chose the inclusive language — at least to me.
Isn’t it sadly ironic how “glory” (in a conflic) and “stand with” (= supplying weapons) is the opposite of peace? That’s fueling war.
The fundamental sad irony is that an absolute commitment to peace gives a free hand to those willing to resort to violence.