Last month, I visited Kagoshima. This month, I visited Nara and saw the Great Buddha.
I came across an unexpected insight.
Kagoshima was where Christianity first arrived in Japan. It came to Japan through the global maritime networks of the Age of Discovery. Missionaries and merchants arrived from overseas, and the new faith spread for a time before eventually being banned by the shogunate.
Buddhism, however, arrived differently. It was something Japan actively sought out. Japan sent missions to China to learn and brought back knowledge and religious traditions.
Perhaps the way each religion came to Japan shaped how it became part of Japanese society.
Today, Buddhism is so deeply woven into everyday life that many people no longer think of it as a religion.
Christianity, on the other hand, still feels like something that came from outside. Christmas is celebrated. Church weddings are popular.
Yet for many Japanese people, these remain something special rather than part of daily life. After visiting both places, I realized something my middle-school self could never have understood.
Traveling did not change history. But standing there changed the way I saw it.
先月は鹿児島へ、今月は奈良へ行きました。
鹿児島はキリスト教が最初に日本へ伝わった場所。奈良は、日本が中国へ遣唐使を送り、学びながら仏教文化を取り入れ、大きな仏像を造った場所です。
同じ「外国から伝わった宗教」でも、一方は自ら学びに行って持ち帰り、もう一方は海を越えて日本へやって来た。その「伝わり方」の違いが、日本での受け入れられ方にも影響したのかもしれません。
仏教は、今では宗教というより生活文化の一部になっています。一方で、クリスマスや教会での結婚式は親しまれていても、キリスト教はどこか「特別なもの」という印象が残っています。
鹿児島と奈良を大人になって訪れたことで、教科書では気づかなかったことが一つにつながりました。中学生の頃の私には、見えなかった大発見、笑、です。