Suiga shinto

   Or suika shinto. 'Conferment of benefits Shinto' or 'Descent of divine blessing Shinto'. A Neo-Confucian, anti-Buddhist school of thought and Shinto lineage founded by Yamazaki, Ansai (1616—1682). Suiga shinto combined two main influences. First were the teachings of Chu Hsi (Shushi) as interpreted by Fujiwara, Seiki (1561—1619) and Hayashi, Razan (1583—1657) which gave the ruler-subject relationship precedence over father-son filial piety. Yamazaki identified the ruler as the emperor and emphasised the divinity of the land of Japan, thereby adapting Confucianism to serve Japanese social and political values in the Tokugawa period. Second, in later life Yamazaki was drawn to religious devotion to the kami, particularly Amaterasu worshipped under the name of Ohirumemuchi, from whom flowed all divine blessings (suiga). Special emphasis was given to the Nihongi as a source of authority and the principle of tsutsushimi, scrupulous propriety in the execution of service to kami or superiors. Yamazaki's complex system of metaphysical thought tried to assimilate Chinese cosmology with Japanese mythology, sacralising the structure of Tokugawa society. His own summary of his teachings was 'devotion within, righteousness without'. Followers regarded Yamazaki as a kami. As a form of Shinto, suiga shinto was distinctive for its attempt to combine reverence for the Japanese emperor with veneration of the kami. It is therefore one of the sources for kokugaku and fukko shinto, though Motoori, Norinaga rejected Yamazaki's thought as being too close to Neo-Confucianism.

   See Shinto.