Editors' Introduction: Japanese Religions in Brazil

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) THE DATE of the publication of this special issue on Religions in coincides with the centenary festivities of Japanese immigration to Brazil. On a number of occasions throughout the year, including 18 June-the day of the arrival of the vessel Kasato Maru in 1908 in the port of Santos (Federal State of Sao Paulo) with the first seven hundred and eight-one immigrants on board-the Japanese-Brazilian community will be celebrating the successful integration of its members into Brazilian society. They have contributed to virtually every aspect of life in a country that, at the beginning, was considered only a temporary location, but after World War II became the permanent home for the majority of the immigrants and their descendents. The centenary is a welcome opportunity for the Japanese religious establishment in Brazil to reflect upon their past and present status. In many cases the retrospective transcends the institutional existence of the groups, but also reflects the appreciation of their pioneers who, under precarious material and socio-political circumstances, prepared the ground for the establishment of their respective religious organizations in Brazil. In this sense, adequate light has been shed on the time before World War II, a significance that is often neglected in the face of the wave of the institutionalization of Japanese religions in the 1950s. This is true even for Shinto, although the heterogeneous composition of the did not foster rituals associated with a local shrine. Instead, collective religiosity was principally expressed by the organizationally diffuse veneration of the Japanese emperor. Only two shrines were constructed before World War II, both in the Federal State of Sao Paulo, one in 1920 by inhabitants of Bugre, the other in 1938 by members of the immigrant of Bastos (Mori 1992, 568-69). The situation changed slightly only in the 1950s, partly due to the arrival of post-war immigrants who founded a number of small sanctuaries in forested settings in the States of Para, Amazonas, and Mato Grosso. Nonetheless, even today Shinto activities and organizations are not very common in Brazil (Maeyama 1983c, 185) and due to the lack of research, little data is available in terms of the statistical relevance of Shinto in Brazil. As far as the pre-war history of Buddhism is concerned, all activities were directed to Japanese colonies located in the Federal State of Sao Paulo. The first group that comes to mind is Honmon Butsuryu-shu whose pioneer, Tomojiro Ibaragi, was among the immigrants that arrived on the Kasato Maru. Ibaragi also became responsible for the first official institution of his order, the Taisseji temple in the city of Lins. The temple was founded in 1936 as the outcome of a nucleus of Honmon Butsuryu-shu practitioners initiated by the layman Yoneji Matsubara in 1932. In the same year, the first Shin Buddhist institution was inaugurated in the city of Cafelândia (Goncalves 2004). Other activities related to Shin Buddhism were undertaken in the Iguape colony to which Masumo Ikoma had been sent by the Honpa Honganji headquarters in 1928. Six years later, Reverend Shinba introduced Shingon to Brazil (Shoji 2006, 43). The years following World War II witnessed an intensified effort by virtually all the traditional Buddhist branches. In the first half of the 1950s, Tendai-shu and the Otani branch of Jodo Shinshu had already inaugurated their first temples, the Honpa branch of Jodo Shinshu had founded its national headquarters, and the Jodo, Zen, Nichiren, and Shingon sects announced the official start of their missions in Brazil. Stimulated by the beginning of the internationalization of its then lay-organization Soka Gakkai and the visit of its president, Ikeda Daisaku, to Brazil, Nichiren Shoshu began to publicly articulate itself in 1960. After the split from Nichiren Shoshu, Soka Gakkai has become the only group in the Buddhist spectrum with a considerable growth rate in terms of members. …