Thread by @bryandaniellowe

Time for the latest and final installment of my transnational Shinto tweet threads. This time let’s look at what you could call the patron god of learning in Japan: Tenjin, the deified form of Sugawara no Michizane. 1/

Before diving in, let me say what I mean by calling Shinto transnational, since this has created some confusion (some sincere and understandable, some intentionally ignorant). I basically mean three things. 2/

1) Key elements that became central to Shinto came to Japan from abroad through immigration, trade, and other networks. This is true for the 8th-c. myths (Kojiki and Nihon shoki) of Amaterasu and others 3/ (

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1415278248200712193

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and for most recent developments such as the worship of Mazu in Japan. 4/ (

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/141512824368707584

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2) Japanese gods were often conceived of as crossing borders. They were imagined as local manifestations of buddhas and bodhisattvas and seen to travel to other lands (we'll see this today). 5/

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1415278249329020932

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1414553342924185600

3) Japanese gods have been exported to other cultures. This happened through imperialism, immigration, and cultural flows. Especially in the modern period, shrines have existed abroad. 6/

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1415278255800832000

To say Shinto is transnational is not to deny that Japan has lots of shrines or to deny that it is a part of Japanese culture. But it is to say that Shinto did not originate out of thin air, nor was it bound by the seas and oceans that surround the Japanese archipelago. 7/

It’s simply to say that Shinto is a religion that crossed borders. If I were to say it in Japanese, I’d say something like 国境を越える神道. Can’t see how anyone would find this idea offensive. 8/

This shouldn’t be particularly controversial. It would be hard to find a serious scholar that disputed any of those claims. But the precise ways Shinto was transnational are interesting and refute simplistic claims for “indigeneity.” 9/

OK, enough of a preamble. Let's turn to Tenjin. He started off as a real and well-documented historical figure, Sugawara no Michizane. The main work in English on him is the classic study by Robert Borgen. 10/
doi.org/10.1163/978168…

We can nicely see his life story (or more specifically, the legends of him) in this famous illustrated scroll from The Met. Give it a click and explore. It's gorgeous. 11/
metmuseum.org/art/collection…

Michizane was a famous scholar, skilled in literary Chinese and rose to political prominence in the Heian period. Unfortuantely, due to the schemes of his rivals, he was exiled and died in Kyūshū. But because of this injustice, he was pissed and took vengeance as a spirit. 12/

One of Michizane’s rivals died in the prime of his career. This was followed by the death of a crown prince and lightning striking the palace. Rumors began to circulate that Michizane had caused these deaths as a vengeful spirit. 13/

In response, he was pardoned and a shrine was constructed in his honor to pacify him. This is how he became a deity. He's now revered as a god of learning. The deification of a powerful political figure who was wronged is by no means unique to Japanese culture. 14/

We can see it as at the very least as part of a broader East Asian discourse on gods and ghosts, and perhaps one that expands globally. This is the first way Tenjin is transnational. He's part of a broader East Asian cosmological and ritual context. 15/

More specifically, his name predates Sugawara no Michizane and appears in Chinese sources for "heavenly deities." Older associations with thunder deities remained in his worship. 16/ d-museum.kokugakuin.ac.jp/eos/detail/?id…

But what is perhaps more interesting and unique about Tenjin is that in later periods he was conceived of as a god who crossed seas to the Tang. This is best seen in a well known and very popular genre of images called Pictures of Tenjin Crossing to Tang 渡唐天神図. 17/

Here's an early one from The Met. You can see him holding plum blossoms, which he was said to love and which now are a major tourist attraction at his shrine. 18/

The idea of Tenjin crossing to China came from the Zen tradition well after his death. Supposedly, a Zen monk claimed he dreamed of Tenjin coming to him saying he wanted to study Zen. The monk instructed Tenjin to go to China to study. That's the legend of the images. 19/

These images are stylistically diverse. While some of the above were rather realistic portraits, others were simple ink drawings, famous in Zen #buddhistart. Take this one from The Met, which as you can see has a great collection. 20/

I especially like this 19th-c. one also from The Met, where he is depicted as rather plump. 21/

What's perhaps more surprising is that some images in this genre were produced in China, especially in the Ningbo region, where they were made to be sold to Japanese merchants and monks! 22/ core.ac.uk/download/pdf/2…

I've yet to acquire this volume yet. But it also appears that there may be evidence of his story reaching Mount Wutai, although there seem to be debates about authenticity. I look forward to reading this once the library can process my request. 23/ bensei.jp/index.php?main…

In addition to images of Tenjin crossing to China, he also appears in other Zen genres. Here he is in an image from the Freer with an ox, drawing on the famous Zen ox-herding images that represent the spiritual journey. 24/

In the Edo-period, he was revered by Confucian scholars for his Chinese learning. Borgen also reports that the Dutch learning specialist, Maeno Ryōtaku, prayed to Tenjin before beginning his translation of a Western medical treatise into Japanese! 25/

Tenjin really only became a “purely’ Shinto deity in the Meiji period with the forced separation of Buddhism and Shinto by government order. 26/

As we saw with Amaterasu, however, Tenjin worship continued to spread abroad in the modern period through imperialism and immigration. In Korea, there seems to have been a Tenmangu Shrine by 1911. 27/ jstor.org/stable/23943381

He’s also enshrined at Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu. Hawaii is home to many shrines, including ones to Amaterasu (who also has a major shrine in California). 28/ e-shrine.org

Moreover, even in Japan, his shrines are a popular site for foreign tourists. The Kitano Tenmangū web page has English, Chinese, and Korean, suggesting that they are certainly interested in a Shinto that crosses borders through tourism. 29/ kitanotenmangu.or.jp/index.php?mode…

The Dazaifu Tenmangū, in Kyūshū where Michizane died, has even more languages listed and welcomes 10,000,000 visitors a year. As they stress, they are “an inclusive shrine, welcoming all visitors.” 30/ dazaifutenmangu.or.jp/en/plan/first-…

To sum up these various threads, we have seen transnational examples of most of the major deities and sites in the pantheon of Japan: figures such as Amaterasu, Hachiman, and Tenjin, and sites like Itsukushima and Kasuga Shrine. 31/

We’ve also seen transnational aspects of Shinto in every historical time period beginning with the eighth-century myths of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki and continuing without pause to contemporary times. 32/

What makes Shinto interesting and distinctive is the precise ways these transnational formulations have developed in different ways. Shinto is not static, but we can also say that in its origins, conceptualization, and modernization, it has always crossed borders. 33/33.

The link way up in Tweet 4 about Mazu and other Chinese gods incorporated into Shinto seems to have not worked. Here it is:

https://twitter.com/bryandaniellowe/status/1415128243687075842

No! I linked the wrong volume when I quickly googled "アジア遊学　天神" to pull up the link. This is the link I intended. My fault for being careless. bensei.jp/index.php?main…

And tweet 23 also had the wrong link. Not my best work this morning...Here's the right one: bensei.jp/index.php?main…

I had them all queued up and then encountered an error that led me to scramble with some links at the last minute....As always, really wish Twitter had an edit button...