The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (25 page)

Water drawn from wells or cisterns in sixteenth-century Europe often was contaminated (the “sewer system” is many towns and cities often amounted to throwing human waste and garbage into the street at night). Beer, ale, and wine were for sixteenth-century Europeans what bottled water is for people today.
Although as Frois suggests, priests and religious ideally were supposed to avoid over-consumption of alcohol, many apparently were not successful in doing so. In his fourteenth-century
Libro de buen amor
, the archbishop of Hita, Juan Ruiz, implied that quite a few clerics were intemperate.
²⁷
Marques cites records from one monastery in Portugal where the daily ration of wine was at least a quart and a half per person.
²⁸

In Japan, Frois may well have encountered a good number of “fake” bonzes, in part because superficially speaking, being a
bonze
(essentially wearing a robe, carrying a string of beads, and shaving one's head) was a good way for professional poets (e.g. Matsuo Basho
²⁹
) to move about the countryside and more easily get through fief checkpoints. We cannot know how many of the drunk
bonzes
seen by Frois were the “real” thing (and not that it matters). The prohibition in Japanese Buddhism on drinking had more to do with sartorial restrictions than morality. Taking rice out of circulation to make
sake
was, on the whole, at odds with feeding a large population. Like meat, alcoholic beverages are a relatively inefficient food source. The Japanese saw, and still see nothing wrong with being drunk
per se
, particularly as there never have been as many mean and violent drunks in Japan as in the West.

22. Our religious do not usually sing, nor do they perform in profane plays or farces; the bonzes consider these a delight and take regular recreation in them
.

Most bonzes
were no more performers than they were warriors (as per
#10
above), but part of the Pure Land (
Jodo
) school, called the
Ji-shu
, was particularly noted for its rousing performances of the
Nembutsu
or Buddhist prayer acknowledging Amida Buddha and his saving grace. The founder of
Ji-Shu
, Ippen (1239–1289), pioneered the use of dancing while preaching. Not only were the Jesuits in Japan opposed to performing themselves, but worse, they could be “wet blankets” for those who embraced dramatic dance. In a letter written in 1565, the Spanish doctor turned Jesuit, Luis de Almeida, recounted how a group of Japanese Christians who had been visited by some dancing gentiles returned the favor, creatively making up a dance lauding the Virgin Mary. On their way home, the Christians dropped by the church to show off the dance to Father Cosme de Torres. Torres was dismayed and laid into his neophytes for disgraceful behavior. A Japanese nobleman took full responsibility for the dance, disciplining himself so strongly “that he was left bathed in blood.” This sense of personal responsibility greatly impressed Almeida, although he said nothing about whether Cosme de Torres may have overreacted.
³⁰

23. We take on faith
[
the existence of a
]
future heaven and hell and the immortality of the soul; the Jenxu
³¹
bonzes deny all this and believe there is nothing more than being born and dying
.

Frois in his
Historia
³²
described a debate between a Father Lourenço and a Zen
bonze
named Shozaemon that began with Lourenço describing the “great differences” between the Japanese kami (gods) and
hotoke
(Buddhas) and the Christian
Deus
(God). Shozaemon smiled and then commented that “… all that is a laughable illusion, which wise and knowledgeable men value not a whit.” That was a fair representation of the Zen position. The idea that “getting born means you die, and that is it” was standard Zen teaching.

Zen or Ch'an Buddhism bears a resemblance to Christian asceticism in its rigorous discipline of meditation and silence, its aim of unity with the
all
and
nothing
, and in the free behavior of the enlightened. Frois, of course, acknowledged none of this, but not so his fellow Jesuit João Rodrigues:

Their vocation is not to philosophize with the help of books and sermons written by illustrious masters and philosophers…. Instead, they give themselves up to contemplating the things of nature … Thus, from what they see in things themselves, they attain by their own efforts to a knowledge of the first cause, and putting aside what is evil and imperfect in the mind and reasoning, they reach the natural perfection and being of the first cause…. the monks of this sect are of a resolute and determined character, without any indolence, laxity or effeminacy…. they do without a great number of things which they consider superfluous and unnecessary. They maintain that a hermitage should first of all be frugal and moderate, with much quietness, peace of soul and exterior modesty.
³³

24. We profess only one God, one faith, one baptism and one Catholic Church; in Japan there are thirteen sects and almost all of them disagree on worship and veneration
.

During Frois' lifetime (1532–1597) the Catholic Church was torn apart by disagreements over what Frois casts as “one faith.” Catholics and former Catholics, now known as Protestants, were killing each other in the streets over grace,
predestination, baptism, the Eucharist, and a host of other Christian beliefs and practices.
³⁴

Buddhists certainly disagreed, sometimes violently. Thus, there were numerous Buddhist sects offering different approaches to the divine.
³⁵
Members of the same family might belong to different sects, and in one sense, they all embraced more than one religion (if Shinto is included).

25. Above all things we abhor and abominate the devil; the bonzes venerate and worship him, building temples and making great sacrifices to him
.

As noted, Frois and other Jesuits believed that the devil was the architect of Shinto and Buddhism. In Buddhist temples from India to Japan one does often find the closest thing the Buddhists have to the devil, known as Jemma O, Yama, or Emma. This devil, however, is quite unlike the Christian version, who actively pursues souls and makes trouble. Kaempfer,
³⁶
writing in 1690, aptly described Jemma O as a severe judge and sovereign commander of a place of horror and heinousness who observed all through a large looking-glass, placed before him and called
Sofarino Kagami
, or the looking-glass of knowledge. Kaempfer went on to explain that unhappy souls in hell may receive great relief (lighter punishment, early release, etc.) by the virtuous life and good deeds of family, friends, and relatives, and through prayers and offerings to the great and good Amida. (Amitabha Buddha was as central to the Pure Land faith as the Virgin Mary was/is to Catholicism.) It was also possible to appeal for mercy directly to the Judge, and doing so had none of the nefarious connotations of making a deal with the devil. In a long letter from 1565, Frois himself described a temple dedicated to the god and judge of hell where people sought mercy:

On the walls are painted the many kinds of torments in hell, with many figures of men and women suffering these pains, and of the demons inflicting them. Many people visit this temple to pray and give alms, and they usually repair there to beg the king of hell to deliver them from these torments.
³⁷

Note that the reason the Japanese could pray to Emma is simple: Emma was not evil. He did not pursue people and try to lure them into sin. He did not delight in bad behavior nor seek to increase it. He only judged people for their sins.
³⁸
Thus, if the Japanese Buddhist hell was equally full of demons, fire, poking and cutting,
and so forth, how you got there and how long you stayed was another matter. With Christianity, anyone who is not saved ends up in hell forever. (As Xavier noted in his letter of 1552, this did not go over well with the Japanese, who were told by the Jesuits that their pagan relatives and ancestors would burn forever.)

26. Among us, the temples and the facilities of a monastery belong to the universal Religion; in Japan, if a bonze becomes tired
[
of a religious life
],
he sells off the temple and its facilities and
[
everything else?
].

When Buddhist temples lost their backing, or the prelate retired, it was declared a
haidera
, or derelict temple, and might even be bought for use by a different sect. This is apparently what Frois is alluding to.
³⁹

27. Our priests wear a stole to administer the sacraments; the bonzes wear one as a refinement when they go out to make their visits
.

Catholic priests wear a stole or scarf-like garment whenever they are fulfilling their priestly duties; the stole is a symbol of the priest's authority.
Bonzes
generally wore a surplice over their robe when they went out on official religious duties such as conferencing with other
bonzes
. Frois, rather unfairly, seems to be saying, “We adorn ourselves to do God's work; they do so to impress people.”

28. Our priests wear the stole draped across the nape of the neck; the bonzes wear theirs crosswise, over one shoulder and under the other, and it is broader and sewn in a different manner
.

The fact that priests and bonzes wore something similar enough to warrant Frois using the same term is perhaps more remarkable than any difference or similarity in the stoles themselves. The Buddhist equivalent of a stole is called a
kesa
.

29. Our religious, if they know how, administer medical treatment for free, out of a love for God; most physicians in Japan are bonzes who live off their fees
.

The Jesuits did indeed distinguish themselves as tireless caretakers of the sick; Jesuit novices often were required to spend time each week working in hospitals.
⁴⁰
Okada
⁴¹
writes that while there were bonzes who attended to medical matters in the large temples in Kyoto and Nara, most doctors in Japan shaved their heads and otherwise looked like bonzes. Frois perhaps assumed (wrongly) that many doctors were also priests.

30. If our religious were to go about carrying a gilded fan in their hand, they would be considered mad; the bonzes, as a refinement, must carry a golden fan in their hand whenever they preach or go out
.

These fans belong to a class of fans called
suebiro
or “end-wide/open” and were called
chukei
(“mid-open”), with the Chinese character for “open” not the usual one, but one that means “enlightened.” But even without this apparent symbolism, the elegant appearance of these fans in the closed position (unique in the way that the ends remain partially spread open) more than justifies their being carried as a symbol of authority. These gilded fans were only carried by elders and
by Buddhist clergy with that authority, not by those whom the Japanese would call
bonzo
. The fans often were used to emphasize points in conversation.

31. We preach standing up, and we gesture by moving our hands; the bonzes preach sitting down gesturing with their heads, without moving their hands
.

The Japanese move their heads a lot more than their hands, in comparison to Southern Europeans, who might be said to talk with their hands. Professional storytellers in Japan whack their closed fans smartly upon their thighs to emphasize points, but this was apparently beneath the dignity of
bonzes
.

It is interesting that the Japanese should be more liable to sit, given that Westerners use chairs. Frois never does contrast our respective positions for meditation (kneeling versus cross-legged).

32. In Europe we preach wearing a white surplice and no stole; the bonzes preach wearing a black koromo
⁴²
and a stole, with a gilded fan in their hand
.

A surplice is a loose-fitting, full-sleeved white vestment worn by Christian clergy over their cassocks (the latter is a black vestment that has the appearance of a combination of a shirt and skirt, extending as it does to the top of the shoes). The bonze's stole is a short surplice; the Chinese characters for stole (“shoulder” and “added + clothing”) make the meaning transparent to those unfamiliar with the item. The
koromo
is a black robe of fine hemp with wide sleeves that almost reaches to the ground. It was worn over a very clean white robe. Until recently,
koromo
was the traditional generic term in Japanese for clothing; today
yofuku
or “Western-dress” is the generic term.

The religious use of white in Japan was pretty much reserved by Shinto. Not only priests and shrine maidens, but also people on pilgrimages stick to white. It is part of their orientation toward purity and provides a powerful visual contrast, not so much with Buddhists, but with all the corporate soldiers in dark suits.

33. We preach from pulpits; the bonzes do so from chairs, like our lecturers
.

It is somewhat surprising, given that the Japanese are generally a chair-less culture, to learn that Frois is correct in noting the
bonzes
' use of a chair for preaching. The chair, called a
kyokuroku
, apparently was a Chinese design. It was tall, with a finish of vermillion or black lacquer and X-shaped legs, suggesting that the chair could be folded. The chair also had parallel runners extending between the front and rear legs, as well as a foot rest.

34. Free of charge, we give others rosaries that have been blessed as well as relics from saints; the bonzes sell for a very good sum of money a great number and variety of amulets in the form of a written piece of paper
.

It is true that the Jesuits never charged their neophytes for relics, medals, and rosaries. Still, relics and indulgences were big business in Europe and a major point of contention between Catholics and Protestants (Luther and other Church critics railed against the “magical thinking” and profiteering behind the sale of relics and indulgences). When Phillip II lay mortally ill, he asked for and received the entire knee of Saint Sebastian (skin as well as bone) in addition to the rib
of Saint Alban and the arm of Saint Vincent Ferrer.
⁴³
Today visitors to Lourdes, Fatima, Tours, and many other shrines purchase rosaries, ashes, holy water, and similar items that are thought to facilitate recovery from illness and other of life's setbacks.