この「ごんぎつね」の話の中で、何カ所か日本の宗教が出てきますね。
そこから、私たちはふつうの日本人の「宗教観」 を知ることができると思います。
たとえば、お葬式（§２）や念仏講(§４）は仏教の儀式・習慣です。
§５では、加助が兵十に「神様」のことを話しています。
このような日本の「宗教観」について、どう思いますか。あなたの国の「宗教観」とどう違いますか。
In this story, there are some descriptions about Japanese religions, so we
can know religious beliefs of Japanese people from them.
For example, the funeral of section 2 and NENBUTSU KOU of section4 are
Buddhist customs.
In section 5, Kasuke told about Kami-sama (Japanese God) with Hyoju
How do you think about these beliefs of Japanese people?
Are they strange or odd for you?
How different are they from religious beliefs of your country?
I think that religion is very present in everyday’s life in Japan. Many people go to temples and shrine to pray. But wonder if it has become part a simple custom, one of the many superstitions, or if it is a real belief that makes people come.
返信削除Those religious practices are very different from what I could see in Europe, however they do not sound strange to me. Since I was a teenager, Buddhism has become “fashionable” in Europe. Also, we have as part of our history class, a lecture on the world’s religions.
The two things that could strike me the most are dressing in white for a funeral, which I heard about for the first time in Gongitsune (because white is the colour of innocence and hope). However, I have also been told that in some parts of South America, funerals are a moment of big celebration and enjoyment. They don’t see death as negative.
In Europe, there is a paradox between how people react and what religion said. The after-death in the catholic religion is supposed to be a better life, however people express a lot of grief. They only use the idea of after-life to reassure themselves that the person has stop suffering and is better now.
Also, since the middle of the XXth century, in France religion is a very unimportant matter. Very few people believe in God, and even less go to church. Most people only go to church for baptism of children, weddings and funerals. Those three ceremonies are still carried out even if the persons concerned are not believers, they are just the remains of the past, without any real religious consideration.
In Spain, it is very different. Spain is officially a catholic country (France is laic). Most people go to church on Sunday and on special holidays. There are also lots of important religious holidays and ceremonies that bring together the whole village.
In France, on the contrary, they try to eliminate those religious holidays as much as possible, first because France is not a catholic country, and second because there are other religions more practiced than Catholicism in France (Islam, Judaism).
The second thing that could strike me, is the belief of the men that God takes interest in their individual life and manifest itself through presents.
Catholicism is a religion of miracles and apparitions, however those are seen as exceptional, and most of the so call miracles and apparitions are even sometimes denied by the religious authorities (the Vatican). I know that in America, miracles are considered are something more usual and individual.
I just remembered something my host mother said that seems to me quite characteristic of the Japanese people relationship to religion. We had a talk about religious beliefs on the first days I was in Japan (she wanted to know how I stand on religion), then she told me that religions were not real. But the first week end, they took me to pray at the jinja next to our house. This is very paradoxical to me. Does that mean that those gestures are done because they have seen them done by their parents, but are without any meaning?
返信削除However, in Japan the original etymological meaning of religion “religere”, to unify, to link is very strong. In Europe, it is seen as a link both between god and believers, and between people themselves. In Japan, the link between people is very strong. Families go together to the temple and shrine, people celebrate matsuri together. It is a social link.
日本に来てから、宗教のことをちょっと分かるようになりました。
返信削除アメリカでは、いろいろな宗教をしている人がいますので、違う宗教があることに慣れています。
「ごん狐」のお葬式はアメリカのに似いていると思います。
高野山へ言った時に、仏教のことについてのことも体験できましたので、お経のことも知っています。
黄金律を守ろうとしているから、他の宗教は珍しいところがあっても嫌いなわけじゃないです。
私はクリスチャンですけれども、私にとっては神道の中で一番珍しいところは人が死んだ後の習慣です。「死というのは汚いことだから、神社へ行ってはいけません」と言われています。
しかし、キリスト教は逆に、家族、友達、知り合いが死んでしまったら、教会へ行くことが多いです。死んだ人はクリスチャンであればお葬式は時々教会で行われています。
クリスチャンとしては、特に、神道のこういうルールは珍しいなぁと思っている理由は、大切な人が死んだときって一番神様が要るときなのです。その大事な人はこれからもずっと神様と一緒に天国に住んでいるから、「○○さんをよろしくお願いします」とか、「お幸せに」と祈りたいです。
教会に入らせられなければ、すごく困ります。「神様に捨てられた」という感じがしますかね・・・
ごんぎつねの話のなかでは、、一番違うところは多分神様と人間の関係でしょう。§５で加助が兵十に神様のことを話しているときに、
「俺は、あれからずっと考えていたが、どうも、そりゃ、人間じゃない、神様だ、神様だ、お前がたった一人になったのを哀れに思われて、いろんなものを恵んでくださるんだよ」
と言っていました。
しかし、それは間違っていると思います。
私のイメージでは、「神様」というのは、人間で奇跡を行います。なので、ごんは神様の弟子として兵十のためににいろいろなことをしていました。
ごんは、「その俺にはお礼を言わないで、神様にお礼をいうんじゃア、俺は引き合わないなあ」という必要はないんですね。
@Nachan
返信削除そう、この台詞、面白いですよね。
「その俺にはお礼を言わないで、神様にお礼をいうんじゃァ、俺は引き合わないよなぁ」
狐という動物は、神道では神様の「使い」（a bearer)、キリスト教の「天使」のような役割をする動物ですよね。有名なのは「稲荷（いなり）」という名前のついた神社です。
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inari_%C5%8Ckami
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inari_%28divinit%C3%A9_japonaise%29
ところが「ごん狐」のごんは、自分のしていることを感謝されないので、「俺は損（そん）をしている」と言って怒っています。まるで普通の人間のようですね。いえ、「～のよう」ではなく、まさに普通の人間、そのものですね。
そこがごんの魅力なのか、かわいさなのか、親近感の持てるところなのか……
このポイントについての“日本人の理解の仕方”を受容する(to accept; to receive)ことができるかどうか、そこが外国人読者にとっての分水嶺（ぶんすいれい watershed）になるかもしれません。
If the presents are for Hyoju and the other person a god’s doing, then is the story saying that Gon is a God (foxes have a special status in Japanese beliefs), or is the tale is more based on Buddhism, then it can mean that he has reached this status by showing compassion. A third interpretation can be that God in this story is useless, compassion and help comes from earth and each other helping.
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