Folk religion among the Koreans in Japan: The shamanism of the “Korean Temples

Abstract

tainment of human rights in contemporary Japanese society, while the Koreans in Japan, as marginal figures, continue to face the problem of their identity. These issues have been studied from political and historical perspectives, but with an insufficient religious and cultural understanding. The group of in the suburbs of Osaka, where the largest number of Koreans inJapan reside, is a religious phenomenon consisting of a syncretism of Korean Shamanism, Korean Buddhism, and Japanese mountain religion. In this paper I will outline the present situation of these Korean temples in Japan and reflect on the significance they hold for the Koreans inJapan andJapanese society. The resentment (han 'tR ) of the spirits of the dead, which is to be purified through shamanistic rituals, is a religious expression of the collective misfortune of the Koreans inJapan which is continually reproduced by the structural discrimination ofJapanese society. Also, this Shamanism has served as a magical way for Korean women in Japan to adjust to their difficult social situation. It also contains, as the basic ethnic culture of Koreans in Japan, the potential to serve as a womb for the formation of their culture and identity.