This study is devoted to the problem of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism in modern Japan. Although there have been no major conflicts between Buddhism and Shinto, the autochthonous religion of the Japanese, in their long history of co - existence, relations between them have been quite complex in some historical periods. In the Heian period (794-1185), Shinto-Buddhist syncretism took shape in the form of the shimbutsu-shugo doctrine, which proclaimed the Shinto kami gods to be the incarnation of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the new government decided to separate the Buddhist church from the state and proclaimed Shinto as the official state ideology. Although, as some researchers note, the Meiji government was never able to definitively separate the two religions, its policies have led to a number of problems left over from Japan's militaristic past, which modern society is trying to solve.

Key words: Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, shimbutsu-shugo, Meiji restoration.

The emergence of a new religion inevitably entails its conflict with existing traditional beliefs. Regardless of whether this conflict is a consequence of the resistance of an autochthonous religion to a new creed (most often the religion of foreign invaders) or, on the contrary, the result of the widespread introduction of a new denomination (usually at the instigation of the supreme authority), none of the religious traditions ever wins over the other, destroying it completely. Both the "alien" and autochthonous traditions perceive the most active and persistent elements of each other, which makes it possible for them to continue to exist, but in a new form.

Relations between Buddhism and local religious cults in the countries of South, Central Asia and the Far East have repeatedly become the object of research by the international community of Buddhologists. And the fact that these studies are still ongoing indicates that there is no single well-established point of view on this issue. Japan deserves special attention in this regard, as there is a growing interest in Buddhism there. This is due to the problems of self-identification and decline that traditional Japanese Buddhism is currently experiencing. After World War II, during the Showa era, due to the popularity of Buddhism in the West in the Japanese scientific world, there was a tendency to study Indian Buddhism (indogaku). Special attention was paid to early Hinayana Buddhism as the original," pure " Buddhism. This led to the emergence of a new philosophical-

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a religious movement that proclaimed that true Buddhism is a philosophy, a special worldview. Supporters of this trend strongly criticized traditional Buddhism, accusing it of conservatism and moral corruption (daraku bukke). They claimed that traditional Buddhism in Japan is now in decline, that the preaching of the Buddha's teachings has degenerated into the formal conduct of Buddhist funeral rituals and services, and that Buddhist priests themselves have become so-called funeral businessmen. Since after the abolition of celibacy during the Meiji reforms in the mid-19th century, Buddhist priests were granted the right to marry and start families, their way of life also caused criticism among supporters of"pure Buddhism". In their opinion, a married priest is not consistent with the traditional image of a Buddhist monk renouncing the world. The terms "temple Buddhism" and "traditional Buddhism" came to be identified with "ritual Buddhism" as symbols of formalism and decadence.

Tsuji Zennosuke and Anesaki Masaharu are considered the founders of this line of scientific criticism of Buddhism, which emerged in the 30s of the XX century. Later, this scientific trend was continued in the studies of Watanabe Shoko, Tamamuro Taijo, and Tamuro Yoshiro. In turn, the leaders of Buddhist sects do not agree with the claims made to them, primarily with underestimating the role of Buddhist ritual. They insist that ritual and its sacred significance have played a crucial role in the history of Japanese Buddhism and are now part of a unique Japanese culture, with priests as their main executors acting as guardians of traditions.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that new religious movements emerged in post-war Japan (Risse Koseikai, Reiyukai, Tenrikyo, Aum Shinrikyo, etc.), many of which incorporated elements of Buddhism, Christianity, and Shintoism. In this regard, research on the early history of Buddhism in Japan has become relevant in order to determine whether it was a ritual or a philosophy. Many Western and Japanese researchers also try to take into account the interaction of Japanese Buddhism with the local spiritual and cultural tradition of Shintoism.

In my opinion, one such example of mixing religious cults in different cultures can be the Shimbutsu shugo paradigm - the unification of Buddhism and Shintoism [Karelova, 1998, p.245].

Some Russian researchers (L. B. Karelova, A. N. Ignatovich) attribute the interaction of Buddhism and Shintoism to the beginning of the Nara period (710-794). The ruling elite of Japanese society was interested both in establishing Buddhism as a means of strengthening state power, and in supporting Shinto, which contains the myth of the divine origin of the imperial family. The relatively peaceful coexistence of Buddhism and Shintoism was due to the functional separation of the two religions. It was believed that Shinto deities controlled mainly the forces of nature and certain territories, while Buddhas protected the state and appealed to the inner world of man [Buddhism in Japan, 1993, pp. 27-31].

During this period, the Shinto kami deities were viewed from the Buddhist point of view as one of the types of living beings that were to be saved through Buddhist teachings. For this purpose, special Shinto-Buddhist jinguji temples were built, the first of which were built in 698 on the instructions of Emperor Mombu in Ise Province (Karelova, 1998, p. 244). During the Heian period (794-1185), Buddhist priests recited sutras and offered prayers in front of the altars of Shinto temples, and the custom of copying sutras and copying images of Buddhas was introduced to save the Kami. Shinto deities were given the title of bodhisattvas as having reached a certain level on the path of salvation. The next step was to declare Shinto Kami patrons of every Buddhist temple. For example, the Shinto shrine of Inari jinja was considered the patron saint of the temple

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Toji. The temples of the Shingon and Tendai schools also had their own patron deities from Mount Koyasan and from the Hie area [ibid.].

At the same time, according to many researchers, the concept of shimbutsu shugo was born as a designation for a combination of Buddhism and Shintoism in the most general form. The aforementioned Tsuji Zennosuke drew up the following outline for the development of shimbutsu shugo:

1. The Kami revere the law of the Buddha.

2. The Kami protect the law of the Buddha.

3. Kami are freed from suffering by the Buddha's law.

4. The Kami can become bodhisattvas and eventually attain Buddhahood.

5. The Kami are the incarnation of the Buddha (Tsuji, 1969, pp. 478-479).

Later, in the teachings of Buddhist schools, the shugo shimbutsu formula gradually faded into the background, replaced by the doctrines of honji suijaku and Sokushin jebutsu. However, in Modern times, it again began to arouse interest among researchers of Japanese Buddhism. This is primarily due to the significant changes that Japanese Buddhism and Shintoism have undergone in the last 200 years.

After the so-called Meiji Restoration in 1868, the new government decided to separate the Buddhist church from the state and, first of all, secularized the land belonging to Buddhist temples. The second step of the government, which also led to significant changes in the environment of Buddhist clergy, was the abolition of celibacy, which equated Buddhist priests with representatives of the secular classes, depriving them of their former special status [Covell, 2005, p. 64].

As for Shinto, during the Meiji period, it was transformed into the main state ideology and became a kind of spiritual tool for reviving the emperor's power, and later turned into a source of militaristic and aggressive policies. The new ideology was based on the ancient principle of unity of religious ritual and government (saisei itti), which was restored immediately after the Meiji Restoration. It continued to operate despite the fact that the Constitution adopted in 1889 guaranteed the independence of religion from the state [Molodyakova, 2007, p. 49].

According to E. V. Molodyakova, the transformation of Shinto into an instrument of state policy went against the adaptive religious consciousness of the Japanese. Singling out one religion disturbed the balance between Shinto and Buddhism, as the Japanese perceived both religions on a par, so to speak. Because of the state Shinto, which, as already mentioned, was closely connected with the militaristic ideology, in the post-war years, the national religion was directly associated with the totalitarian regime that existed in the pre-war and war years and its policies. In many ways, this associative connection, together with other factors, negatively affected the position of Shinto in the context of religious life in post - war Japan [Molodyakova, 2007, pp. 52-53].

Despite the fact that after the occupation of Japan by American troops in 1945, Shinto was separated from the state and began to be considered as a traditional religious practice, a number of problems left over from the militaristic past (Yasukuni Shrine, where lists of all dead soldiers, including war criminals, are kept) Until now, they continue to put a negative context in the attitude towards Shinto both in Japan itself and in neighboring countries (primarily in China). In this regard, many researchers of Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan have a question: how will these two religions develop and interact in the future, given the break in their long-standing connection with the state and the ambiguous attitude towards them in society?

Against this background, we should consider the views on the Shimbutsu shugo doctrine of the contemporary Japanese religious scholar Yamaori Tetsuo, author of such books on Japanese Buddhism as Nihonjin no Shuke Kankaku ("The Religious feeling of the Japanese"), " Kami

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to Hotoke" ("Kami and the Buddha"), "Kindai Nihonjin no shuke igi" ("The Meaning of Religion for Modern Japanese"), etc. In 2007 He has published a book, Maei to kakushin: Daijo bukke kara Teravada bukke e (Delusion and Conviction: From Mahayana Buddhism to Theravada Buddhism). It should be noted that the co-author of this book is the famous religious figure A. Sumanasara, a Theravada Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka and the author of numerous books on the psychology of Buddhism.

The main content of the book "Maei to Kakushin" is the situation of modern Japanese Buddhism, its problems and prospects for further development. Among them, special attention is paid to the issue of reviving shimbutsu shugo.

According to Yamaori Tetsuo, despite the state policy of separating Buddhism and Shinto during the Meiji period, they were never completely separated, since the traditional symbol of shimbutsu shugo was strengthened in the religious consciousness of the Japanese [Yamaori and Sumanasara, 2007, pp. 235-236]. One of the main measures to revive Shimbutsu shugo, he believes, is the creation of the Saigoku Shinbutsu Reijo society ("Places of Shinto-Buddhist pilgrimage in Western Japan"). The meeting of this society, held in early 2007, was attended by representatives of Shinto and Buddhist clergy from Osaka and Kyoto. In the course of their joint work, they put forward the program "Kokoro no Michi "("Path of the Heart"), which was supposed to develop the fastest and most convenient route for believers to visit the main Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines [ibid.].

Yamaori Tetsuo notes in this regard that the practice of joint cooperation between Shinto and Buddhist representatives within this society could solve many problems, including the situation with the Yasukuni Shrine. In his opinion, modern Shintoism is not able to cope with this problem on its own [Yamaori and Sumanasara, 2007, p. 238]. He is supported by A. Sumanasara, who cites the history of the city of Kataragama in Sri Lanka as an example. For several hundred years, this city has been an object of pilgrimage for Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and local Catholics. In the city itself, Buddhist and Hindu temples, Muslim mosques and Christian churches coexist peacefully. According to A. Sumanasara, the joint participation of Shinto and Buddhist priests in religious rites would also contribute to the revival of Shimbutsu shugo [ibid., pp. 238-242].

As for the actual meaning of the term shugo, both co-authors consider it incorrect to translate it as "syncretism". According to A. Sumanasara, it would be more correct to use the term co-existence ("co-existence"), which expresses the joint peaceful coexistence of various religions while preserving their traditional forms.

Yamaori Tetsuo, as an example of such interfaith interaction, talks about the multi-religious temple complex in Singapore, which he visited in 2006.On the territory of this complex there are temples of various religious denominations: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, as well as new religious movements. In his opinion, the situation of multireligious coexistence in Singapore is a concrete example of how to conduct interreligious dialogue in the modern world [Yamaori and Sumanasara, 2007, p.244-245].

The authors of the book did not ignore the problem of the decline of traditional Japanese Buddhism, which was already mentioned at the beginning of the article. Thus, A. Sumanasara, as a way out of this situation, suggests introducing Theravada Buddhism (Hinayana) in Japan, which has never been formed in this country as an independent movement. The introduction of Theravada Buddhism, Sumanasara believes, will contribute to the spiritual renewal of Japanese Buddhism and turn it into a philosophical teaching in the eyes of the public. At the same time, he believes that it is possible for the three main branches of Buddhism-Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana-to co-exist peacefully, based on their functional separation. Thus, Buddhist priests belonging to the

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Mahayans and Vajrayans can continue to engage in ritual worship and temple rites, as well as serve as the main custodians of Buddhist temples. As for Theravada Buddhist monks, they will be engaged in reading Buddhist sutras and explaining their meaning to parishioners (Yamaori and Sumanasara, 2007).

To summarize, although the authors of the book, in my opinion, in some cases do not quite specifically identify ways to solve the problem of the revival of Shimbutsu Shugo in modern Japan, they nevertheless expressed a general trend in relation to the problems of Buddhism and Shintoism in modern Japan. Further development of these two religious systems is impossible without joint cooperation and interaction, and the appeal of their representatives to the experience of interreligious dialogue and interfaith coexistence in other countries of the Asia-Pacific region, perhaps, would contribute to solving many problems of a religious nature in modern Japan.

list of literature

Buddhism in Japan / Ed. by T. P. Grigoriev, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1993.

Karelova L. B. Shinto-Buddhist syncretism of the XIII-XV centuries / / Buddhist Philosophy in medieval Japan, Moscow: Yanus-K, 1998.

Molodyakova E. V. Multi-aspect problems of the Yasukuni Shrine / / Japan 2007. Yearbook, Moscow, 2007.

Tsuji Zennosuke. Nihon bukke si (History of Japanese Buddhism), Vol. 1. Tokyo: Iwanami seten, 1969.

Yamaori Tetsuo, Sumanasara A. Maei to kakushin: daijo bukke kara teravada bukke e (Delusion and Conviction: from Mahayana Buddhism to Theravada Buddhism). Tokyo: Sanga Publ., 2007.

Covell S.G. Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation. Honolulu: University of Hawaii press, 2005.

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