Читать книгу Trust and Deception - Hannah K - Страница 19

Going back to Dr. Shinobu Origuchi’s theory, now everybody could understand apparently that Dr. Shinobu Origuchi confused Tama with Tama-shi-Hi, a soul. One main clue, which led Dr. Origuchi to his theory, was the famous Study, “Golden Bough,” based on the data of the Shilluk tribal kingdom, written by Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941), a famous British anthropologist. The Shilluk Kingdom was located in the southern Sudan area called Nuer Land. In the “Golden Bough,” Frazer introduced the custom of execution of the king in the tribe as part of the customs of Shilluk Kingdom.

According to Frazer, every king was killed when he became sick or weak and was unable to maintain his sexual life with his wives, who were offered by the tribes who were interested in becoming the relatives of the king, because the king’s weakness led to the collapse of the kingdom. In this context, after the former king was killed, his successor could be a king.

Origuchi’s problem was that he adopted Frazer’s idea of the succession to the throne in the Shilluk Kingdom to the Tenno system. Origuchi clearly mentioned, “A new Emperor succeeds to his throne after the former Emperor died.” However, the custom of succeeding to throne after the death of proceding Tenno was adopted after the Meiji Restoration, imitating the system of the Tokugawa Shogunate Regime.

Looking into the Japanese History, the position of Tenno was succeeded to regardless of Tenno being alive or dead. You could assume that Dr. Origuchi might have made up the story that Tenno’s own soul was gotten rid of by Tama, referring to Sir James George Frazer’s murder of Shilluk Kingdom.

By the way, the theory written by Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941) was later completely denied by Sir Edward Evans Prichard (1902-1973), who was also a British anthropologist and the professor of Oxford University (Please refer to “Social Anthropology and Other Essays”-1965 Oxford Press). He criticized Sir Frazer’s theory of the Shilluk Kingdom as completely imaginary and not scientific. Sir Edward Evans Prichard scientifically analyzed the structure of the society of the Shilluk Kingdom and the procedure of the Kingdom’s succession. He found the fact that Sir. Frazer’s theory on “king-killing custom” was completely wrong. However, in the Shilluk Kingdom, the king’s throne was succeeded to by the next king after the former king died. During the throne succession ceremony, the to-be king was possessed by the soul of the first king “Niikan,” whose soul had descended from the Firmament.

This soul, “Niikan” had been succeeded to by all kings since the first king Niikan. The to-be king was taken to the shrine which enshrined the wooden statue of the first king, Niikan. According to Sir Prichard, the to-be king sat on a chair prepared for him next to the chair, where the Niikan’s statue was sitting. After this, the to-be king fell into a strong spasm because he began to be taken over by the soul of Niikan. At the last stage he lost consciousness in front of the court members. Through this process, he was recognized as a king by all of his Kingdom’s subjects.

This means that the pattern of the succession to the throne of the Shilluk Kingdom was quite different from that of Tenno’s. Before the Meiji Restoration, the succession to Tenno’s throne had been carried out while the former Tenno was still alive. Tenno never experienced the state of spasm like Shilluk kings.

The main Daijo-Sai has been performed twice in the whole process of Daijo-Sai ceremony, which takes at least eight months. If Daijo-Sai had similar characteristics as the case of Shilluk Kingdom, it would be sufficient to conduct the Daijo-Sai once. The Daijo-Sai has nothing to do with the Shilluk Kingdom.

The Imperial Household Agency has not disclosed all the information that they have had regarding the Tenno’s ceremony. It does not disclose all the information especially regarding the rituals and every detail of the Imperial Household. However, the late Dr. Junichi Kamata, who was responsible for the enthronement rituals of the Present Tenno, published a book named “Sokuirei, Daijo-Sai Heisei Tairei Youwa (2003).” The direct meaning of the title of this book is “Essential Procedures of Daijo-Sai Ceremony in the Case of Current Tenno, which was held in the first year of Japanese Calendar Heisei (1989).” The content of the book requires the deep understanding of Shinto. The late Dr. Kamata wrote about the details of the ceremonies of the enthronement of the Present Tenno for the first time in Japanese history as the advisor to the Imperial Household Agency.

The late Dr. Junichi Kamata does not directly name the researchers, who made mistakes, and particular research works but insinuated “how cultic Origuchi doctrine is” in the book. He also referred to the late Dr. Katsuyoshi Watanabe as one of the researchers who understood the theoretical foundation of Shinto as a religion.