Nature, Ghibli and Animistic Sensibilities: A Dialogue with Aogu Fujihashi
Musings on animistic sensibilities and Christian worldviews
I recently visited Japan where I spent a few days in Yatsugatake, Yamanashi with Aogu Fujihashi, a dear friend whom I’ve known for 20 years. Born in Tokyo to a Japanese father and an American mother, Aogu is currently based there as an indigenous missionary. He was the one ten years ago who’d provoked me to first question why Christian gathering places in Japan were typically western-designed, and why Christians didn’t have matsuris for Jesus (see previous post) – and I didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to pick the brains of a deeply intelligent and compassionate thinker.
JUSTIN: We’ve come to rural Yatsugatake, and what’s striking is all the nature. We grew up in Tokyo, you live in Tokyo, so it’s really nice to retreat to the countryside. What do you think should be Christians’ relationship to nature? Japan very much emphasises respect for nature, oneness with nature; it’s an animistic culture, there’s a god in every tree and rock. Even though we’re Christian, we might have sensibilities that are more typically animistic than monotheistic. How do you think growing up in Japan shaped our sensibilities and our view of the world around us?
AOGU: Within an animistic culture, nature is given a higher status than in a culture where nature is a resource to be exploited for our gain. Sure, there’s still a sense in which you’re using nature – you’ve got to kill an animal in order to eat it –
J: – that’s where ‘itadakimasu’ [‘I humbly receive’] and ‘gochisōsama’ [‘It was a great feast’] comes from –
[Note: One explanation behind why Japanese people say those phrases before and after a meal is to express our reverence to the animals/plants – the source – which gave themselves up for our sustenance.]
A: – yeah, that’s exactly where I was going – so you receive nature as though nature were sacrificing itself for us. There should be a sense of gratitude when you receive the blessings of nature. I think the relationship between Christians and nature should be one of gratitude, recognising that this comes from the Lord. But so often that’s not the case.
J: You’re talking within a western worldview.
A: Yeah, a western worldview typically sees nature as a thing to be exploited, and I think the Platonic eschatology so much of the church subscribes to devalues nature because it views its destiny as being burnt up in the end, superseded by a non-material, spiritual reality. So it’s like, ‘We need to use things up now, there’s a limited time.’
J: Going back to animistic sensibilities – just now we were walking through the forest and… obviously it’s alive, the trees and grass. But we were weaned on Ghibli, so we can’t help but think, ‘Totoro must surely be lurking somewhere!’ (laugh) Sen to Chihiro (aka Spirited Away) and Mononoke-hime (aka Princess Mononoke) are a bit more like entering a different world, whereas Totoro is grounded in reality – it’s like the tree behind your house. I even grew up in Tokorozawa where there’s the actual Totoro no Mori [Totoro’s Forest].
A: I didn’t feel Mononoke-hime was a different world…
J: But big demon boar gods!
A: I feel like it could have happened a long time ago (laugh).
J: When I recently watched Mononoke-hime, I spotted some coincidental parallels with Christianity: ‘you give and take away’ where you’re not sure if the Shishigami is going to give life or take it, plus all the themes of (self-)sacrifice and rebirth – but is that just native to animistic culture?
A: Kokka Shintō (State Shintō) was developed in conscious rivalry to Christianity because they felt a need to have a monolithic religion that people of the nation subscribed to – it’s historically documented. Mutsu Munemitsu actually proposed that all of Japan become Christian so that Japan could have a unifying myth, because they saw that as a strength that the western powers had – but they ultimately rejected that thinking in favour of a national Shintō that put the emperor at the centre.
J: Fascinating, I didn’t know that.
A: But prior to that, the foundation of Shintō’s relationship with authority (which is nature) was one of fear, rather than shame or guilt. Nature, at an instinctive level, we recognise as amoral; so in the myths in the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki, the gods are sometimes ill-behaved, and sometimes well-behaved, but we don’t impose our moral judgement –
J: – same as Greco-Roman myths?
A: I don’t know how the Greeks regarded their gods.
J: Japan is an earthquake country and a tsunami country –
A: – the ocean gives, but it also takes away. I think that’s fundamentally recognised in Shintō. You honour and respect the ocean because you fear it.
J: How syncretistic might these animistic sensibilities be, versus a healthy and more holistic way of viewing nature as Christians?
A: I wonder if the closest analogue in Christianity is St Francis of Assisi. Brother Sun –
J/A: – Sister Moon.
A: There’s a recognition even with animals that we were created on the same day, at least in the Genesis Creation accounts. It doesn’t say animals have ‘ruach’... but do they have ‘nephesh’? Are they called ‘nephesh’? I think they are.
J: And what would ‘nephesh’ be…
A: ‘Creature’? ‘Soul’?
[Note: ‘ruach’ is the Hebrew word for ‘spirit’, ‘breath’, ‘wind’; ‘nephesh’ is the Hebrew word for ‘breath of life’, ‘sentient being’, ‘soul’.]
J: The more trivial version is: ‘Do dogs go to heaven?’ (laugh)
A: But that’s clearly one of the most difficult theological questions to answer because people still debate it. I don’t think it’s actually trivial.
J: Is it not? I’ve never had a dog before.
A: I think it’s more questionable whether cats go to heaven, because as much as I love them, they’re pretty sinful. They do things out of spite. They’ll look at you as they drop things off the table.
J/A: (laugh)
A: (hears birdsong) Our sister is singing!
J: You know in the Bible it anthropomorphises –
A: It does! Absolutely does! The hills clap their hands –
J: I was going to sing ‘the hills are alive’ (laugh). But yes, the hills sing, the trees clap their hands, the rocks cry out in praise – and the point is, if they’re doing it, why aren’t we? It’s this conviction… My friend was sharing about how when she was out on a walk, she felt intensely moved by the trees – recalling to mind creation groaning for the manifestation of the children of God (Romans 8.19) – and actually preached(!) to the trees: ‘I want you to see Jesus in me! I want you to be encouraged, that you are going to be liberated from bondage! I am here, a daughter of God is here!’ That really struck me – treating and talking to nature as a fellow creature of the Creator, a fellow worshipper.
A: I was interpreting for a Nepali missionary, and he was asking me, ‘What’s the religious climate of Japan?’ And I said, ‘We have 8 million gods’ – Yaoyorozu no Kami. But the reality is that most Japanese people at a practical level live areligious lives –
J: Areligious? Irreligious?
A: Both? But I do think that animistic sensibilities have remained. In the same way that you can also talk about Christian sensibilities remaining in a post-Christian West. Even if you do all the surgery – dividing what is really Christian, what is western – there’s a case to be made that a lot of European culture currently, and specifically the liberal tradition that emphasises the dignity of each human being, is actually a product of Christian assumptions.
J: Well, you do have someone like Tom Holland with Dominion, which I haven’t read, but I think he makes a similar case.
A: A sensibility is something in the heart, but a worldview is something more in the mind. So something can change in your mind, but that change takes longer to filter into the heart.
J: You’re saying, basically, people who come from animistic cultures might adopt a Christian worldview, but heart sensibilities sometimes still remain animistic?
A: It seems that way. A lot of times in charismatic worship, we talk about ‘joining the angels’ and that’s absolutely true. But there is another layer that people from a culture with an animistic sensibility or worldview can contribute. In worship, we’re not just joining the realities we can’t see; we’re joining the realities we can see – we’re joining nature’s liturgy.
J: I know people who’ve been influenced by western Christianity who demonise non-western cultures – I’ve even heard some people claim Spirited Away and Mononoke-hime are demonic, which seems to me extreme. Is there a way to have those animistic sensibilities be in harmony with the Christian faith?
A: For a lot of evangelicals, one of the most uncomfortable things about C. S. Lewis is the presence of Greco-Roman gods in his stories – for example, you have Bacchus showing up in Prince Caspian. People like Justin Martyr – who was in dialogue with cultures that believed in stories of dying and resurrecting pagan gods – accused them of being demonic counterfeits of the gospel.
J: Right.
A: But C. S. Lewis says, actually, God was speaking through these stories – these meaning-imbuing stories/myths are vessels of common grace (apart from extraordinary revelation). Historically, it seems like western Christendom has been fairly lenient when it comes to these stories. Greco-Roman stories (like Odysseus) have had an impact on the western social imaginary; it doesn’t mean you think they’re true, but rather they reflect something true. I wonder if that posture couldn’t be extended to the stories that imbue life with meaning in the East.
J: You’ve talked to me before about the act of violence against the social imaginaries of Christians in the East.
A: It’s true! People come and say, ‘Totoro is idolatrous, Spirited Away is idolatrous.’
J: That’s undermining our whole childhood.
A: It’s a posture that says those joys in our childhood don’t hold any value, that they’re actually bad. But it doesn’t necessarily present us with any alternative. Take matsuris, for example. They might have brought us joy in our childhood. But Christians from the outside often just tell us Asian believers that those experiences were invalid, that we shouldn’t go to matsuris.
J: Oof, yes.
A: Now I do want to hold a place for legitimate critique. There’s room for saying, ‘Actually, that aspect of my childhood wasn’t in line with the truth of what I now believe’ – but when doing that, do you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater? Fundamentally, is culture a vessel for God’s revelation? I think there are some very pessimistic views about that in the West, specifically about other people’s cultures. I think a lot of American Christians would be willing to say American culture has a lot of God’s truth in it. But as Christians, we have to reserve the right at any point for the Lord to challenge our customs.
J: That’s a really good point.
A: And if you feel you have a right to maintain certain customs without them being interrogated by the Lord, that shows that your ultimate authority is not the Lord – those customs are above the Lord.
J: What’s hard about doing this newsletter is, people might think I’m simply painting the West in a negative light, and painting East Asian culture in a positive light. But I’m not seeking to denigrate or dismiss the West, nor uncritically accept everything East Asian. I’m just trying to disentangle the unhelpful western frameworks, and redeem and reclaim parts of my East Asian culture which have been diminished wholesale.
A: I think you might be giving your critics too much credit, I don’t feel like you’ve painted the West in a negative light. If you’ve said anything, you’ve said, this same sort of scrutiny that western culture places on eastern culture in the church ought to be applied to western culture. I don’t feel you’ve gone beyond that.
J: That’s encouraging to hear, and that is my heart. (spots wild deer) Speaking of nature…
I enjoyed this article, thanks!
I know of a church in Sapporo that has a Christian matsuri, a bit like some Western churches have a 'light party' as an alternative to Halloween parties. It's great fun, it is a great way to include the local community and raise the profile of the church in the neighbourhood. :)
I also think that Christians of all people should value creation - our Father made it! He cares for it! Surely we should too!
Thanks for sharing! :)
Thank you for your most fascinating dialogue about animism. I must admit there is an allure to Ghibli's productions that sensitizes people to an animistic world though to describe them as demonic would mean negating a huge part of the Japanese culture instead of building bridges to connect with their worldview. I also agree that the Christian worldview is not necessarily incongruent with one's animistic sensibilities since as rightly pointed out, anthropomorphism exists in the Bible - the hills, trees, rocks, and not forgetting a talking donkey!