In connection to my two most recent posts, I want to loop back to the 23rd February issue of Jinja Shinpō, in which two articles caught my attention for their treatment of foreigners.
One was the latest instalment of Revd Kanzaki’s regular column. He is a priest and “minzokugakusha” (民俗学者), which my dictionary translates as “folklorist”. That’s wrong, and I think “cultural anthropologist” would be closer — but also wrong, because the implication of the Japanese is a focus on one’s own culture. In any case, he studies Japanese culture with an emphasis on Shinto practice, across the whole country.
This column was entitled “Aonishiki’s Bow”. Aonishiki (安青錦) is a young Ukrainian sumo wrestler who won the opening tournament of this year as part of one of the fastest climbs through the ranks in history. If he wins the next tournament, he will likely become a yokozuna (横綱), or grand champion. He is, apparently, popular (I don’t really follow sumo, but it is reported on NHK a lot so I know almost as much about it as I do about baseball), and Revd Kanzaki admits that he is also something of a fan.
The column is focused on Aonishiki’s bow before entering the sumo ring. Sumo has deep historical connections with Shinto. It is often found as part of matsuri, and when it was reconstituted in the late nineteenth century the Shinto elements were strongly emphasised. The ring itself is a sacred space, and kami are called into it at the beginning of the tournament, and released at the end. Thus, wrestlers are supposed to bow to the ring in respect before entering it.
Revd Kanzaki comments that Aonishiki does it properly, looking forward before bowing. While watching the new year tournament, Revd Kanzaki paid attention to how well the wrestlers performed the bow, and reckoned that no more than half did it properly. He did no more than wonder why this might be in the column, before making a bit of a leap to overtourism.
He said that it was natural for people visiting a country to abide by that country’s cultural norms. Even more so in a religious context. And, he went on to say, in his area he sees a lot of foreign tourists who do exactly that, particularly Westerners. (Quick methodological speculation: if Chinese, Korean, or Taiwanese tourists do it well enough, they don’t get logged as foreign tourists. Whereas I might.)
His conclusion was that Japanese should look at Aonishiki and the well-behaved tourists, and reconsider their own behaviour.
The timing of this article, and the change in context at the end, makes me wonder whether he is responding to the same article I was.
The other point was more subtle. This issue had articles about events to celebrate National Foundation Day, which is an important event for the Shinto establishment. This included the central ceremony, where an editor and commentator for Sankei Shinbun gave a speech. Sankei Shinbun is the most right-wing of the mainstream newspapers in Japan, and is probably at the edge of the mainstream — but still just within it. The article gives a summary of his speech, saying that he raised the foreigner problem, anti-spy laws, energy problems, falling birthrate and ageing population, and national defence and security, in that order. Jinja Shinpō’s editorial also discusses his speech, listing some of the important problems that he raises that that “we” want to see the government address. The foreigner problem is not mentioned in the editorial.
That could be entirely coincidental, but maybe not.