Guidebook to the Land of the Gods: Exploring Ancient Japan

Report by KYOPRO Staff

On Tuesday, November 19, 2019, the extracurricular education program "Guidebook to the Land of the Gods: Let's Explore Ancient Japan" was held. This program was designed to provide students with the opportunity to learn about Shinto, including the gods of Japan, traditional Japanese religion, and the history of Shinto shrines, in order to gain insight into the "way of seeing things" of the good old Japanese people through not only the gods but also the local climate in which the gods were worshipped and their unique religious views, which differ from those of monotheistic religions overseas. The purpose of this program was to broaden one's own insight by learning about the regional climate in which these deities were worshipped.

The program featured a guest lecturer, Professor Masaru Sakamoto of Hosei University's Faculty of Letters. He has published a book of commentaries on Kojiki for light users and supervises the "Illustrated" series of books by Seishun Publishing Co. He explained about famous deities and gave a lecture on the mythology of Izumo.

On the day of the program, the participants were first asked to answer a quiz about Japanese gods prepared by the student staff as part of their work, and then listened to the professor's lecture. The lecture began with the professor's in-depth explanation of the quiz and explanations prepared by the student staff. In the short time of about 60 minutes, he briefly told us the story of the birth of Japan, from Izanagi and Izanami to the formation of the nation of Japan by Okuninushi no Mikoto. The participants were deeply impressed by the professor's unique way of spinning the somewhat stiff image of Japanese mythology into a mild tone for the students, who listened attentively.
We hope that this program provided participants with an opportunity to deepen their understanding of Japan.

Report by KYOPRO staff member] Minegishi, Tatsuru (2nd year, Department of EconomicsFaculty of Economics )