HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Yayoi Period, 300 BC: Agricultural development.

Nara Period, 700 BC: First strong central state.
Heian Period, 784 CE: Indigenous Japanese culture developed, noted for
art, poetry, and literature.
Era of warring feudal states, 1180: Samurai culture emerges.
Tokugawa (Edo) Period, 1600: Japan is unified and Samurais are divested
of some power. Japan flourishes, and becomes isolationist, only trading
with Dutch and Chinese from Nagasaki.
Meiji Period, 1868: Japan is forced open by Commodore Perrys US
Naval threats. Samurai culture is abolished, and Japan begins to modernize
and industrialize.
Era of Japanese Imperialism, 1910: To establish itself as a world power,
Japan begins invading and occupying Korea, China, and other regions of
Asia. Japan declares war in the Pacific with the attack at Pearl Harbor in
1941.
Post WWII Era: Japan has developed into one of the worlds economic
powers.

Samurai were the military nobility

of feudal Japan who served
overlord Shoguns.
Samurais were expected to be
educated, and were influenced by
the religious philosophies of
Buddhism, Zen, Shinto, and
Confucianism.
The Samurais were disbanded in
the late 1800s during the Meiji
Period.
However, Samurai culture was at
the base of the Japanese national
identity as a martial nation.

SHINTO
Shinto is animistic and polytheistic,
and devotees worship the Kami deities
and spirits, and ancestors.
Japans indigenous and largest religion.
It is syncretic with Buddhism.
During the Meiji Period, Shinto was
declared Japans official state religion,
and the religion of the Emperor.
There are three main types:
SHRINE SHINTO
SECT SHINTO
FOLK SHINTO

SHINTOSHRINEONMOUNTHAKONE

SHINTO
KAMIGODS

BUDDHISM
Buddhism is comprised of a variety of teachings, but a common characteristic is
learning a way of life to bring personal peace and spiritual enlightenment.
THREE MAIN BRANCHES: Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana.
The Mahayana schools strongly encourage the idea that all people can be
enlightened and that the ultimate goal is to help all beings find freedom from
suffering--enlightenment. Even the monks chant and make vows to help all
sentient beings when they are not in meditation. In comparison, Theravada
Buddhists mostly believe that lay people have a limited potential to achieve
enlightenment, so Theravada monks are more personal in the sense that they are
primarily striving for their own enlightenment. In Theravada, the goal is to be an
"arhat", a self-enlightened one. In Mahayana, the goal is to be a "bodhisattva,
someone near enlightenment who comes back to Earth, teaching others until all
beings are enlightened. Mahayana is very other focused, though you acquire
your ability to help others by perfecting yourself. As for Vajrayana, one thing
that makes them unique is that they believe their practice is effective enough to
make one a Buddha in only one lifetime. (Thanks to J. Hennessee for these
clarifications.)
Mahayana came to Japan in the 6th century.

ZEN
A particular type of Mahayana
Buddhism.
Emerged in Japan around 1100,
and was particularly favored by
the Samurai culture.
Zen teaches meditation in order
to awaken, and live in the
immediate present, be
spontaneous, and liberated from
self conscious and judgmental
thoughts.

CONFUCIANISM
An overall philosophy of life and
society.
Neo-Confucianism was introduced
to Japan in the 12th century and
impacted Japanese politics and
social structure.
It emphasizes harmony, nature,
and humanism.
Neo-Confucianism supports a
social hierarchy in which each
individual fulfills the obligations
of their place to the fullest for the
benefit of the entire society.

JAPANESE
SOCIAL STRUCTURE
ON: A Japanese, hierarchical social system
that operates on the concepts of honor,
responsibility, and obligation.
Individuals are born into their social place,
and must conform and fulfill the obligations
of that place.
Conformity to on will foster material progress
for all.
Japanese society has long been intolerant of
individualistic views and behaviors, but
younger generations are instigating social
transformation in Japan.
With modern industrialization, a capitalist
class system has emerged in Japan, and been
integrated with the on system.

TAOISM
Pronounced Daoism, and means
the path.
A synthesis of interrelated
philosophies and religious beliefs.
The three foundational jewels of
Taoism are compassion,
moderation, and humility.
Taoist philosophy emphasizes
union of self and nature, and non
action: spontaneity,
transformation, and omnipotence
through emptiness.
Taoists worship nature and ancestor
spirits.

SHUGYO
ASCETIC DISCIPLINE
This Shinto, Mountain sect was established in 1920 by
local women, and is supervised by many women spirit
mediums.
During the spring and summer, devotees ritualistically
climb the mountain.
Although shugyo may be profoundly transformative
for the soul of the ascetic and the well-being of her
family, it is also dangerous. Ascetics may be possessed
by the numerous mountain demons (oni).
Schattschneider analyzes the sect as emerging to deal
with local upheavals wrought by modernization and
economic hardships. Through the rigors of ritual
climbing, ascetics incorporate their selves and personal
biographies with the landscape, opening up intimacy
with the spirits and ancestors. For the ascetic, this can
result in both resolution, or exacerbation of personal ,
family, and community issues.

SHUGYORITUALONMOUNTAKAKURA

Shugyo ascetics believe

Mount Akakura is
inhabited by dangerous
oni who can possess them
and cause harm.
Throughout Japan, oni
are considered to be once
but no longer venerated
indigenous divinities that,
because they are not
subjugated, have become
angry and dangerous.

JAPANESE GHOSTS
Japanese culture is steeped in
ghosts, hauntings, and dynamics
of the uncanny.
OBAKE or BAKEMONO:
Anything that is weird, grotesque,
or uncanny.
YOKAI: Ghouls, goblins, and
monsters--some dangerous, others
amusing--that appear at dawn or
dusk.
YURIE: Spirits of dead people
who remain among the living for a
specific reason, often vengeance.

THEGHOSTOFOKIKU

THE UNCANNY

Freud's general thesis: The uncanny is anything we experience in adulthood

that reminds us of earlier psychic stages, of aspects of our unconscious life,
or of the past experiences of the human life deemed to be primitive.
Fear of castration.
A double of ones self or another.
Involuntary repetition; the compulsion to repeat as a structure of the unconscious, for
example dj vu.
Animistic conceptions of the universe that involve the power of the psyche. It sees
itself as stronger than reality; such as telepathy, or mind over matter.
When an inanimate object, such as a chair, suddenly springs to life.
When something otherworldly materializes.

The uncanny arises as the recurrence of something long forgotten

and repressed, something superceded in our psychic life -- a reminder
of our psychic past. But it can also apply to the communal psychic
life of an entire culture.

JAPANESE GHOSTS
GONE GLOBAL

THERING2

Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi,

a socialist feminist, in 1953, it
is often included in top ten
lists of the worlds greatest
cinematic works.
It is a ghost story set in
medieval Japan that is
politically situated as a critique
of martial culture, materialism,
and the status of Japanese
women.

Study Guide for UGETSU MONOGATARI

The film takes place during the era in Japan of warring states
and the dominance of Samurai culture. Samurais practiced a
combination of Shinto, Buddhism, Zen, and Confucianism.
What characteristics of these religions do you see in the film?
In what scenes do you see Mizoguchis criticisms of Japanese
martial culture, materialism, and the treatment of women?
Japanese culture has a spiritual and philosophical relationship to
the landscape. In which scenes is this emphasized?
Demons and ghosts haunt Japanese culture and the landscape.
Identify the ghosts, hauntings, and uncanny occurrences in the
film. What points and issues about Japanese culture might
Mizoguchi be making with these scenes?