Buddhism had arrived into Japan in the Heian period as it was taken from China along with a lot of other things that they modelled their society on. I've read works from the period and they sometimes made pilgrimage to various Buddhist temples.
I know that one belief from Japanese Buddhism of that period is that if you have earthly desires or regrets then it's harder for you when you die and your soul will linger. I have no idea about any short of afterlife but the idea of your soul lingering because of the earthly desires is in a lot of literature from the Heian period.
You have to remember that they took Buddhism from the Chinese and then would have changed it to suit themselves. I'm not sure or anything but I wouldn't be surprised if the Buddhism practised in the Heian period isn't the same as Buddhism in Japan now in which case what were those original beliefs that Sai would have practiced?
On top of that, you must remember that the Japanese, then and now, are very different from westerners. And while we use some of the same words, like 'god', 'heaven' & 'soul', they mean something fundamentally different in the east then the west.
I'm very cautious of asking this kind of question. And I generally avoid religion as a topic on internet. Tonight is an exception:)
Another thing. There are bits of the English scantilation where Sai addresses himself to God or mentions God. In the same pages in the French translation the text uses the plural (dieux). Now, is this becuase the original Japanese word was ambiguous or has one of these versions been 'localised'? Otherwise why should 'French' Sai be polythsist and 'English' Sai monotheist.
Japan has 800 million 'gods'. Yes, just as my Japanese friend laughed at the notion of a single god, we westerners laugh at 800 million gods. Neither of our cultures allow us to to anything else.
After our discussion, my friend decided to refer to the Japanese gods as 'kami' and not translate the word in her lectures.
Interesting that in french it would be plural. Maybe the translator thinks of the Japanese gods as being part of a pantheon religion, like the Greek or the Norse gods.
Not only does this come down to language differences (Japanese to English vs Japanese to French) but also it comes down to individual translators. Did they completely understand what was meant? Is that how they felt the meaning was best implied? When I looked at the first 'official' manga translations of Naruto and Iruka-sensei is called 'Master Iruka' I wonder what the hell that translator was thinking! 'Master Iruka' indeed!!! To completely understand you'd have to go to the original texts, translations can only explain so much unless you want to slog through a lot of footnotes or the whole thing becomes unwieldy! ^_^
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: The End
I know that one belief from Japanese Buddhism of that period is that if you have earthly desires or regrets then it's harder for you when you die and your soul will linger. I have no idea about any short of afterlife but the idea of your soul lingering because of the earthly desires is in a lot of literature from the Heian period.
You have to remember that they took Buddhism from the Chinese and then would have changed it to suit themselves. I'm not sure or anything but I wouldn't be surprised if the Buddhism practised in the Heian period isn't the same as Buddhism in Japan now in which case what were those original beliefs that Sai would have practiced?
Re: The End
Really, my weekend was very inlightning!
Re: The End
Another thing. There are bits of the English scantilation where Sai addresses himself to God or mentions God. In the same pages in the French translation the text uses the plural (dieux). Now, is this becuase the original Japanese word was ambiguous or has one of these versions been 'localised'? Otherwise why should 'French' Sai be polythsist and 'English' Sai monotheist.
Re: The End
Yes, just as my Japanese friend laughed at the notion of a single god, we westerners laugh at 800 million gods.
Neither of our cultures allow us to to anything else.
After our discussion, my friend decided to refer to the Japanese gods as 'kami' and not translate the word in her lectures.
Interesting that in french it would be plural. Maybe the translator thinks of the Japanese gods as being part of a pantheon religion, like the Greek or the Norse gods.
Re: The End