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Danka system

The danka system , also known as jidan system , is a system of voluntary and long-term affiliation between Buddhist temples and households in use in Japan since the Heian period. In it, households financially support a Buddhist temple which, in exchange, provides for their spiritual needs. Although its existence long predates the Edo period (1603–1868), the system is best known for its repressive use made at that time by the Tokugawa, who made the affiliation with a Buddhist temple compulsory to all citizens.

The terauke
The danka system changed drastically in 1638 when, in reaction to the Shimabara Rebellion (1637–38), the bakufu decided to stamp out the Christian religion using it as a tool. == The appearance of the Gojōmoku ==
The appearance of the Gojōmoku
The life of the dankas were later made even more difficult by a document that greatly expanded a temple's powers over those affiliated to it. Purporting to be a bakufu law regulating in great detail the certification of religious affiliation process, it appeared around 1735 and had thereafter large circulation all over Japan. Dated 1613 and called , usually abbreviated to just ), it is demonstrably a forgery, probably created by the temples themselves, whose interests it serves. That the document is a fake is proven beyond doubt by the fact that it lists among the forbidden religions not only Christianity, but also the and subschools of the Nichiren sect. Since the two schools were outlawed respectively in 1669 and 1691, the date of issue must have been deliberately misstated. The likely reason this particular date was chosen is that it is the year in which Tokugawa Ieyasu's was issued, and because the following year temples were ordered to start issuing terauke. The document is often found in temples and collections all over the country and it appears to have been believed genuine even by most Meiji period historians. The Gojōmoku, which gives temples additional power over parishioners, is mentioned occasionally by temple registries and, when a danka did not meet its conditions, the temple certification was not issued. Its provisions caused considerable problems between danka and temples. The document first defined four duties of the danka. • Duty to visit the temple on several yearly occasion. Failure to make the visits could cause the removal of the danka's name from the registry. • Duty to perform two services on the day of the ancestor memorial service. Failure to provide adequate entertainment for the priest meant being branded as a Christian. • Duty to make the family temple perform all memorial and funerary services. • Duty of anyone capable of walking to be present at memorial services for ancestors. It then gave five rights to its temple. • A danka had to perform certain acts in favor of the temple, including making offerings and providing free labor. Failure to do so meant being branded as a Fuju-fuse sect member. • A danka had to obey its temple and give money to its priests. • Regardless of how long a danka group had been faithful, it was always to be subject to religious investigation to determine the possible emergence of heresy. • After someone's death, just looking at the corpse the priest could determine what the defunct's true religion had been. • The danka was always to follow his temple's orders. == Consequences of the danka system==
Consequences of the danka system
The consequences of two centuries and a half of terauke use and of the bureaucratization of Buddhism were numerous and profound, first of all for Buddhism itself. Structural distortions The chasm between allowed and forbidden sects became much deeper than it had been. The so-called or Funerary Buddhism of today, lampooned for example in Juzo Itami's film The Funeral, where Japanese Buddhism's essential function has become confined to the performance of funerals and memorial services, is a direct consequence of the danka system, as is the sale of posthumous names (or ). This cash flow is what paid for the majority of the temples in Japan and guaranteed their proliferation, and is inseparable from the danka system. In spite of its history, Buddhism had however decisive advantages over both Shinto and Confucianism that during the Meiji era made it impossible to replace it with either. With its many rituals (the , or thirteen Buddhist rituals), Buddhism could better help people cope with death. Moreover, Shinto associates death with pollution, so it is intrinsically less suitable to funerary ceremonies, while Confucianism in Japan did not concern itself much with funerals. Lastly, Buddhism had a country-wide infrastructure that neither Shinto nor Confucianism could match. ==See also==
Literature
• • Nam-Lin Hur, Death and social order in Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, anti-Christianity, and the danka system, Harvard University Asia Center, 2007; pp. 1-30 (The Rise of Funerary Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan). Internet archive • Bernhard Scheid, Inquisition unter buddhistischen Vorzeichen retrieved on March 20, 2008 • Paul B. Watt, Review of "Nam-Lin Hur, Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System" retrieved on March 20, 2008 • • Review of "Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, anti-Christianity and the Danka System" by Nam-Lin Hur By Steven Heine, retrieved on October 20, 2008 == Bibliography ==
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