:: WEEK FIVE | JAPANESE LANGUAGE COURSE FOR BEGINNERS in London - with Guest Speaker: "Religions in Japan"
Week Five Japanese
Language Element:
On successful completion of the class, students will be able
to:
Ask a series of customer purchasing
questions, (how much, what size is it etc?)
Understand basic grammar: kore, sore,
are
Say every 'major' Hiragana character with
correct pronounctiation
Be able to count from one to 50 without
hesitation but also larger divisions upto 10,000
Understand the different measurements used
in Japan
Understand the Hiragana N-Line
To enrol for just this class or the entire course please click here:
Week Five Japanese
Cultural Element > Religions in Japan <
There are many religions in Japan but most Japanese follow Shinto
and Buddhism. The vast majority of Japanese people do not identify
as exclusively belonging to just one religion, but incorporate
features of both religions into their daily lives in a process
known as syncretism. Japan grants religious freedom to all sects
and there is a rich diversity of religions, including Christianity,
Islam and Sikhism. According to the CIA World Fact Book 84 percent
to 96 percent adhere to Shinto and Buddhism while only four percent
to 16 percent of the demographic population adhere to other
religions or non-religious, atheist groups.
Shintoism is one of Japan's largest religions and is the native religion. It originated in and is almost exclusive to Japan. Shinto originated in prehistoric times, as a religion with respect for nature and in particular certain sacred sites. These sites may have originally been used to worship the sun, rock formations, trees and even sounds. Since each of these things was associated with a deity this resulted in a complex polytheistic religion. The act of purification before visiting shrines in Shintoism is very important.
Shinto does not have a holy book or founder. Shinto began to fall out of fashion after the arrival of Buddhism, but soon, Shinto and Buddhism began to be practiced as one religion. On sites of Shinto shrines, Buddhist temples were built, and people began to adhere to both. However, after the Meiji Revolution in 1868, Shinto and Buddhism were forcefully separated. The Emperor Meiji made Shinto the official religion and over time the Emperor was in turn regarded as being divine.
Buddhism first arrived to Japan in the sixth century, from the Southern part of Korean peninsula. Buddhism is divided into three forms, the more orthodox and impersonal Theravada Buddhism, which is prevalent in India and Southeast Asia, and the more personal Mahayana Buddhism, which spread to North India, China, Tibet, and from there went to Korea, where it came to Japan. The third is Vajrayana Buddhism. From the beginning, the largest form of Buddhism in Japan was the Mahayana school and according to the Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs, 91 million Japanese identify themselves as Buddhist.
Christianity, in the form of Roman Catholicism, arrived with St Francis Xavier, and was spread by missionaries. However, it was soon persecuted and banned until the Meiji era. Sustained Protestant missionary work began in the late 19th century and there are now believed to be approximately three million Japanese Christians
Hinduism is a small minority religion in Japan. Hinduism and other Indian related beliefs (including Buddhism) spread to Japan from China and Korea during the 6th century. In the 19th century Hindu numbers increased with immigrants seeking to participate in the textile importing and exporting industry.
There is only one mosque in Japan, built in the city of Kobe and is known throughout Japan as Kobe Mosque. There are 50,000 muslims in Japan, with half of those probably being native Japanese.
