The First European Description of Japan, 1585 (24 page)

10. Our religious always desire peace and war causes them great sorrow; the Nengoros
¹²
profess warfare and are hired by lords to go and fight in battles
.

While Jesuits did not fight or carry weapons, clerics who brandished knives or swords apparently were a significant problem in Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century.
¹³
Moreover, in places like Mexico or Brazil, the Jesuits and other religious (i.e. Franciscans, Dominicans) often accompanied and lent moral support to Spanish and Portuguese forces. In the 1580s, Frois' superior, Valignano, actually contributed gunpowder and other logistical help to Japanese
daimyo
who favored the Jesuits. After Hideyoshi's crackdown on Christians in Nagasaki (1587), Valignano realized that providing material support to particular
daimyo
was a losing game. In his
obediencias
of 1592, Valignano “laid down that on no account were the Jesuits to encourage or foment any fighting among the Japanese even if it was in support of a Christian
daimyo
against a heathen, or Christian vassals oppressed by a heathen overlord.…”
¹⁴

Martial arts were introduced to Japan from China along with Buddhism beginning in the sixth century. It was not uncommon for Buddhist monks to know and use martial arts. When Nobunaga razed the Enryakuji temple in 1571, he wiped out a tradition that had lasted for almost eight centuries. Founded on Mt. Hiei in 807, Enryaku-ji was one of a number of temples of the Tendai sect whose fighting
bonzes
(
sohei
) opposed the excesses of the powerful warrior clans.
¹⁵

The
bonzes
of the True Word (Shingon) sect on Mount Negoro, who were actually called
Negoro-houshi
or
Negoroshu
, had a tradition of fighting that predated the Sengoku or “warring states era” (ca. 1350–1650). At their peak, the
Negoro-houshi
had a coalition of two thousand temples. Quick to adopt and make firearms, they played an important role in the major battles of the warring era.

11. Among us, an effort is made to fully keep whatever promises are made to God; the bonzes publicly profess not to eat meat or fish, but almost all of them do so in secret, unless they fear being seen or are unable to
.

About thirty years earlier, in 1552, Xavier wrote that “formerly the bonzes or bonzesses who had broken one of their five precepts [sex, theft or lying, homicide, killing any creature or eating the same, or drinking wine] were punished with death by the princes and nobles of the place where they lived.… But at present, this discipline is entirely relaxed and corrupted; the greater number drink wine, eat meat secretly. …”
¹⁶
So even when bonzes observed their vows the Jesuits attributed it to fear of physical punishment rather than piety.

12. Our religious never serve as diplomats for princes or lords; feudal lords
¹⁷
in Japan use the bonzes as diplomats as well as military strategists
.
¹⁸

Valignano's order to his fellow Jesuits forbidding them to act as intelligence agents, even if it was in the interests of a Christian daimyo,
¹⁹
clearly suggests that the Jesuits were not entirely outside the intelligence business. In fact, the Jesuits undertook numerous diplomatic missions on behalf of the Crown of Portugal.
²⁰
Perhaps what Frois meant to say was that some bonzes essentially were employed as envoys, whereas the Jesuits mostly dabbled in the information business (for instance, conveying information or correspondence from a secular ruler while travelling on religious “business”). Okada
²¹
points out that each Shogun had a respected bonze-envoy or diplomat (
shizo
, meaning messenger bonze).

13. Among us, a religious who gets married becomes an apostate; when the bonzes get tired of religion, they either marry or become soldiers
.

For the Jesuits and other Catholic religious and clerics the decision to embrace a religious life essentially was irrevocable. To quit the order or Church was to go back on your word; as Frois phrased it, to apostatize. While celibacy was a serious vow, it was not uncommon for secular priests, bishops, cardinals, or even the Pope to have a mistress and children.
²²
Indeed, Martin Luther, who quit the priesthood and married a former nun in 1525, argued that enforced celibacy was one reason why so many Catholic clerics had hidden concubines and tolerated prostitution.

A few Buddhist sects did permit marriage, but the majority did not. During the disordered or dynamic period when Frois wrote, one suspects that even
bonzes
who were not supposed to marry, sometimes did. In fact, Frois and his Jesuit mentor, Organtino, devoted almost a year to studying The Lotus Sutra of the Tendai and Nichiren sects under the tutelage of an erudite and highly cultured former
bonze
who was married. Whatever “slack” existed in Frois' day would tighten up in the
Tokugawa era, when new national sartorial regulations forced Buddhist religious to comply with their own rules.

14. Among our religious, there is no succession by means of inheritance, only by vote and virtue; among the bonzes, succession is inherited by the disciple whom the superior chooses as a child and rears
.

When an individual enters the Jesuit order he undergoes a two-year novitiate, during which time superiors make a decision about the novice's potential as a religious, particularly whether the individual should receive advanced training in theology, which would enable that Jesuit later to be admitted to the rank of the “professed.” Only professed Jesuits can fill the highest positions within the Society of Jesus and participate in convocations to amend the constitution and set policy. Lesser Jesuits, spiritual coadjutors (educated priests) and temporal coadjutors (non-ordained “brothers” who serve as cooks, artisans, nurses, etc.) follow, rather than make the rules. During the century following the founding of the Jesuit order (1540–1640), the ranks of the professed were dominated by Spaniards and Italians from aristocratic families who discriminated against Jesuits born elsewhere. Frois is disingenuous when he implies that succession within the Jesuit order was strictly a matter of virtue and common assent. Frois' own superior, Valignano, came from a respected Italian family with close ties not only to the Jesuit Father General but also the Pope, and despite having once done jail time for purportedly slashing a woman's face,
²³
Valignano shot up like a rocket within the Jesuit order, becoming at age thirty-seven
Visitador
in charge of all the East Indies (churches from India eastward). Granted, Valignano was brilliant, but his brilliance became more apparent after, rather than before his appointment as a Jesuit superior. Frois, by contrast, despite many years of experience and unparalleled knowledge of Japan, never was promoted to the rank of Professed.

In Japan, as Okada notes, a disciple might be chosen from a large number of young bonzes (or bonzes-to-be) on the basis of intelligence and ability. He was indeed groomed for succession, but it was hardly so arbitrary a process as this contrast implies. This is not to deny that some Zen monasteries accepted the younger brothers of samurai families who gave up their inheritance and expected, in exchange, promising opportunities. In this case, Frois may be correct.

15. Among us, one becomes a religious out of devotion and an inner calling to virtue; the bonzes do so to inherit one another's wealth and gain worldly glory
.

This contrast essentially is a repeat of
#1
above. To reiterate our own caution—individuals in both Europe and Japan became religious for various reasons, including an “inner calling to virtue.”

16. Our religious focus their principal efforts on interior purity and cleanliness; the bonzes keep their dwellings, gardens and temples extremely clean, but keep their souls abominable
.

Christianity has a long tradition of ascetics who sacrificed their bodies and cleanliness to get close to God. Indeed, lice were said to be the inseparable companions of monks and soldiers. In Japan, the Jesuit superior, Valignano,
restricted all novices and ordained Jesuits (except the sick or aged) to no more than one bath every eight days.

In drafting this contrast on cleanliness, Frois again alludes to sodomy (“keep their souls abominable”), suggesting that it was central to the lives of Buddhist monks. As noted, sodomy was indeed common and widely accepted, but it is unfair to suggest that it was central to the religious lives of many bonzes (just as it would be unfair to dismiss the religious lives of Catholic monks because of the prevalence of sodomy in European monasteries).

In Japan, cleanliness and godliness were inseparable. Frois could not accept that cleansing and (self) reflection were one and the same and that Japanese Buddhism and Shinto aimed for “inward purity of heart.” The mirror is one of Shinto's main symbols, and keeping it clean was identified with keeping a pure soul. When Buddhism was introduced to Japan it had no choice but to emphasize cleanliness, both material and metaphorical, to take root in the land of Shinto. The Buddhists cherished the moon, which was identified with the “wheel of the Law” (the teachings of the Buddha), likening it unto a mirror that had to be kept free of dust. In Japanese,
kirei
means “clean,” “pretty,” and “right,” as in “doing it right” (
kirei-ni-shite
).

17. Among us, we are keen to avoid deceit, hypocrisy and adulation; the bonzes of Japan live off these and consider them an extremely powerful means of making a livelihood
.

The Jesuits clearly saw Buddhism as a sham, inspired by the devil, but profitable to the
bonzes
. In his letter of January, 1552, Francis Xavier was quite explicit:

… our greatest enemies are the bonzes, because we expose their false hoods.… they used to make the people believe that it is impossible for persons in general to keep those five commandments … and that, therefore, they would observe them for the people, on the condition of the people giving them maintenance and honour. They give their word that if anyone goes down into hell he will be delivered by their intervention and labour. We, on the contrary, proved to the people that in hell there is no redemption, and that no one can be rescued from it by the bonzes and bonzesses.
²⁴

Xavier's argument against the bonzes is like the kettle calling the pot black. Throughout the history of Christianity, religious have functioned much like the bonzes described by Xavier, observing vows and commandments that ordinary people struggle with in order to draw close to God, in part to present petitions from ordinary folk concerned with their own souls and the souls of the departed. Like the bonzes, priests and nuns are quick to point out that they have no power to rescue a soul from purgatory or hell, yet they rely on money from masses, rosaries, and prayers offered to God in the hopes of winning his mercy.

In one sense, Frois and Xavier were correct. Most Japanese, including the bonzes, were not supremely confident and absolutely sure of their faith and the existence of God and Heaven. This seems to be a Christian luxury. Arguably, many
bonzes were emotionally and intellectually mature and humble enough to know they did not know everything. And yet clearly they knew quite a bit, as on numerous occasions the Jesuits themselves admitted to being bowled over by the bonzes' philosophical disputations.

18. Our religious wear no beard and have tonsured heads; the bonzes shave their heads and beard every four days
.
²⁵

The Jesuits did not tonsure, presumably to emphasize that they were neither monks nor secular priests, attached to a monastery or parish, respectively. While tonsure is uncommon today, in Frois' time members of monastic orders and many secular clergy shaved all or part of the head to signal their religious calling. Apparently not all clergy were as attentive to their hair as Frois suggests, for Marques notes that the Archbishop of Lisbon found it necessary in the early fifteenth century to mandate regular hair cuts for priests and monks.
²⁶

The
bonze
turned his whole head into a round object, which, in Japan was a similitude for the soul itself (as noted,
tama
means “soul,” “gem” or any round smooth object;
atama
means “head”).

19. Among us, religious wear cowls or caps; most of the time the bonzes do not wear anything. When it is cold they wear sack-like caps, orvataboxis, and some of them wear a cowl-like article that looks like the neck and head of a horse with ears
.

When outdoors or traveling,
bonzes
usually wore large umbrella-like hats, which provided relief from the sun. These hats were never worn indoors. Here Frois appears to be referring to
wataboshi
, a cotton hat of sorts, which sometimes had a neck-piece that protected the neck and presumably suggested to Frois the horse simile. One can imagine “ears” appearing if the weight of the neck piece caused the top of the cap to become slightly concave, leaving the corners sticking up a bit. Frankly, Frois seems to be trying too hard for a contrast that hardly exists.

20. Our religious place great value on decency and setting a good example; the bonzes always walk around with their legs exposed, and during the summer they wear robes that are so thin that they show everything, which they do not find the least bit embarrassing or shameful
.

In Japan and China, where bodies were less likely to be mortified, or alternatively, celebrated as in Renaissance art, no one was bothered by thin clothing in hot muggy weather. And when the penis itself was involved, the Japanese were not the least bit offended by God's handiwork. Even today, Shinto parades feature large straw or wooden phalluses.

21. Our religious show great sobriety and temperance in what they drink, especially wine; despite its being prohibited, the bonzes often are encountered on the road drunk
.