Stories: Japan and Israel: A Comparative Study
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| Based on the Work of Rabbi Marvin Tokayer by Mark Riddle
The purpose of this essay is to highlight contributions made by Rabbi Marvin Tokayer
to the study of the relationship between ancient Israel and Japan.
+From: Tokayer, Marvin Yudaya to Nihon: Nazo no Kodaishi, trans. Hakozaki Souichi
(Tokyo: Sangyou-nouritsu College Press, 1975)
I. Following the Pioneer, McLeod
Tokayer begins by citing the work of 19th century Scottish merchant N. McLeod, his Ancient History of Japan (Yokohama, 1875) and an accompanying volume of illustrations. McLeod believed that he had found in Japan remnants of the dispersed tribes of ancient Israel. His work, though now obscure, is important to Tokayer because it alerted Jewish scholars in Europe and America to the existence of points of similarity between Japan and ancient Israel, and McLeod’s work is cited in both the 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia and the subsequent Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (NY: 1939-1943).
Tokayer endorses many parallels identified by McLeod, but we have presented some of them previously, when focusing on the work of Oyabe Zen’ichirou, and here we will only mention them in passing: viz., temple structure (the division between outer worship area and inner sanctuary), priestly garments (except that Tokayer does specify the white hakama worn by Shinto priests), first-fruits, purification with the hyssop branch, the temple offerings box, the facilities for washing hands and mouth at the worship hall entrances of both traditions, and the festive dancing which accompanies the carrying of the Ark and of the mikoshi (Tokayer, Yudaya to Nihon pp.12ff).
Other parallels identified by McLeod and endorsed by Tokayer include the following.
1. The Eternal Flame
Required of Israel (see Leviticus 6:13) by the Lord, it is also seen in the toushin custom of Shinto shrines (Tokayer, op.cit., p.18).
2. Koto
A musical instrument important in Japan since ancient times, the koto, is “exactly” the same as one of the instruments played in the temple of Solomon (ibid. p.19)
3. Kyoto’s Gion Festival
McLeod, like many subsequent observers, focused on aspects of Kyoto’s Gion Matsuri as showing evidence of a connection with ancient Israel. Noteworthy to Tokayer are McLeod’s account of the parade of participants carrying tree branches, which Tokayer compares to Sukkot, a fall harvest festival.
Other Gion Festival evidence both McLeod and Tokayer find persuasive includes:
*the appearance in the Gion parade of a seven-branched object reminiscent of the Jewish menorah;
*the twelve masakari (an ancient ax-like weapon; K, 2074) carried in the parade (the significance lying
in their number, Tokayer, op.cit., pp.19-20); and
*the festival’s original theme, a petition to the deity of the Yasaka Shrine to spare Kyoto from an
epidemic in 869 AD, which Tokayer compares (op.cit., p.74) to the same theme in the prayer offered
by Solomon at the dedication of Israel’s temple (for which see I Kings 8:37).
4. Mochi
Tokayer (p.21) also follows McLeod in finding significance in the comparison between Japanese mochi, cakes made of pounded rice offered to the kami (gods) and the Jewish shewbread offerings required to be constantly on the offering table in the presence of Yahweh (Exodus 25:30).
II. Salt and Other Compelling Evidence
After citing McLeod on a number of similarities between Japan and ancient Israel, Tokayer proceeds to elaborate on a number of other important parallels. Some of these points of resemblance were also identified by Oyabe, but Tokayer adds significantly to the comparison on a number of points, as follows.
5. Salt
Japanese sumo wrestlers scatter salt around the ring before a match to purify it, and small piles of salt are found at the door of a Japanese restaurant, placed there to purify the entrance. Japanese persons who attend a funeral afterwards sprinkle salt on their bodies as a way of removing ritual pollution.
In ancient Israel, salt was used to purify the tabernacle and the temple, and the animals offered as sacrifices there; Tokayer refers to “the salt covenant” of Numbers 18:19. Even today, Tokayer says, Jewish mothers purify their homes with salt (pp.29ff.).
6. Amulets
Tokayer explicitly equates Japanese mamori-fuda amulets with the Jewish mezuzah (pp.34ff.).
7. Temple
Tokayer identifies (pp.38-41) the following points which Shinto shrines have in common with Israel’s tabernacle and temple:
*the importance of the colors red and purple;
*use of mortise joints instead of nails;
*sloped ramps instead of stairways in internal areas; specifically, Tokayer compares the sloped ramps of the Grand Shrines of Ise and Izumo to the similar design of the access to the inner sanctuary of Israel’s tabernacle and temple.
*Tokayer compares (pp.41-44) the use of mirrors as shintai, locus of divine presence, by Shinto shrines to an Israelite custom of hanging copper mirrors at the tabernacle and the temple as a memorial to the women of Israel.
8. Fusa and Tzitzith
Tokayer draws our attention to the long strings (fusa) attached to the sleeves of Shinto priestly garments (pp.45-8; photo on p.27), and makes the obvious comparison with the strings on the fringe of the prayer shawl received by every Jewish boy at his bar mitzvah (Deut 22:12). Tokayer asserts that in ancient Israel these fringes, the tzitzith, were worn on ritual garments, as well.
More generally, Tokayer claims (p.68) the ceremonial costume of the Shinto priest is “exactly the same” as that of the ancient Israelite priest, and makes mention of four points in particular: the hakama pants, the robe, the white linen cloth covering the front of the body, and the special cloth covering the breast.
9. Ubusuna-mairi and Pidyon ha-ben
Tokayer also mentions (p.49) the similarity between the Japanese custom ubusuna-mairi and the Jewish ritual called Pidyon ha-ben, ‘Redemption of the Son,’ whereby a firstborn son is redeemed by a kohen (a direct male descendant of Aaron) on the 29th day after his birth in order to release the child from his obligation to serve in the temple (see Numbers 3:11-15, 44-51; 8:16-18). The comparable Shinto custom of ubusuna-mairi takes place, for newborn boys, on the 31st day after birth (K, 205).
10. Tefillin (Phylacteries) and Tokin
Tokayer (pp.51ff.) approves the identification of the tokin worn by Japanese yamabushi (mountaineering religious ascetics), who build altars on mountaintops in Japan and light sacred fires thereon, with the tefillin worn on the forehead by the Jews (see Ex 13:9, 16; Deut 6:8, 11:18; New Testament “phylactery,” Matthew 23:5; photograph of Japanese tokin in Tokayer, op.cit., p.52).
Tokayer’s translator, Hakozaki, points out in this context that Japanese historian Tsuji Zennosuke, in his authoritative and award-winning ten-volume History of Japanese Buddhism, declared the origin of the yamabushi to be unknown. In other words, although the yamabushi are today considered to be a Buddhist sect, their origin cannot be linked with Korean, Chinese or other forms of Buddhism in Asia. That having been noted, we point out two more links between ancient Israel and the yamabushi.
11. Horagai, Shofar and More
In addition to the tokin, other aspects of yamabushi practice with obvious parallels in Jewish practice include (1) the blowing of the conch shell (horagai), the equivalent of the shofar (ram’s horn) blown at the New Year (op.cit., pp. 64-6); and (2) the way the yamabushi hang a scroll from the neck, in just the way the rabbi does with the Torah scroll in the synagogue today (ibid., p.69).
12. Tabi and the Cloven Hoof
To these points of similarity, Tokayer adds another (pp.67ff.)—the tabi , a sock with a split toe, worn by the Japanese which, he asserts, symbolizes the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic law, specifically the cloven hoof of the edible animal!
III. Early Inquiries and Investigations
With the number of proposed parallels having reached twelve, we will pause to consider Tokayer’s account of some of the early scholarly inquiries and official governmental investigations into the idea that the Jews and the Japanese are somehow related. Tokayer (op.cit., p.75) mentions a 1929 series, “The Japanese as Relatives of the Jews” in American Hebrew, a Hebrew-language publication in the U.S. He also cites the early 20th-century work of comparative religionist Mrs. E.A.Gordon on this topic.
Tokayer claims (ibid., p.56) that about 1920 a Cultural Affairs officer of the Japanese Foreign Ministry investigated reports of a connection between Japan and the Jews. Tokayer says that the investigation concluded that contact between ancient Israel and ancient Japan could be inferred from the evidence, and that the contact came through immigrants to Japan; but, the report was not published due to the ultra-nationalism of the day. Tokayer also claimed (ibid.) to actually have in his possession a report done for the Japanese Ministry of Education about 1930 by a Japanese academic who also pointed out “Jewish” elements of Japanese culture.
IV. And a Japanese Prince
A member of the Japanese imperial family, Prince Mikasa-no-miya (b.1915), younger brother of the previous Emperor Shouwa (Hirohito) and uncle of the current Emperor Heisei (Akihito), is a long-time
student of Semitic languages and Near Eastern Studies lecturer; Tokayer extols (pp.115ff.) the Prince’s expert knowledge of Hebrew and of Jewish history. Tokayer says that the first time he met the Prince he was shown the Prince’s autograph book, which Tokayer was told contained the signatures of rabbis he’d previously met. Tokayer was surprised to see the book contained the signature of “every Jewish rabbi who had ever visited Japan” (Tokayer, op.cit., p.116).
Tokayer also tells a story (pp.118-20ff.) of the Prince’s visit to a Passover seder held at the Tokyo Jewish Community Center; the Prince took a turn in reading from the Hebrew Bible, Tokayer says, with perfect pronunciation. And Tokayer speaks of conversing in Hebrew with the Prince at meetings of the Japan Society for Orientology; the Prince also directed the Japan Society for Middle East Studies. According to Tokayer, the Prince advocates much more scholarly research into the many allegations of an historical connection between Japan and Israel. These unusual interests of a member of the Imperial Family have fueled popular interest in Japan in this topic, but insufficient attention from serious scholars.
V. Another Parallel: Rosette and Kiku-no-mon
Archaeological evidence indicates that the rosette symbol came into common use in the Kingdom of Judah during the last decades of the Judean monarchy. Tokayer (pp.76-9) speaks of this archaeological evidence, and points out the existence of a Judean rosette still extant in Jerusalem, on the
Western (‘Wailing’) Wall of the ancient temple (photo, p.77).
The use of the 16-petal chrysanthemum rosette, the kiku-no-go-mon, as an official symbol of Japan’s imperial institutions was long considered to have begun comparatively late. But a rosette found on the wooden coffin of the Takamatsuzuka Tomb in Nara Prefecture (a kofun, or burial mound, dating from about 700 AD and not discovered until March of 1972) is now recognized as the earliest use of this motif still extant. Of five historical figures considered possible occupants of the tomb, three were sons of Emperor Temmu (r.672-686), who, together with his wife, Empress Jitou (r.686-697) is considered the actual founder of the Japanese imperial (Tennou) ideology.
VI. Jews on the Silk Road to China
Tokayer introduces the Radhanites, Jewish merchants who traveled four main routes between the Rhone Valley (of Carolingian France) and China, keeping the ancient ‘Silk Road’ open in the time between the fall of Rome and the fall of the Chinese Tang Empire and the destruction of the Jewish Khazar Khaganate in the 10th century. Their activities are known to us through the account of Abu’l Qasim Ubaid’Allah ibn Khordadbeh (c.820-912), a geographer and civil servant of the Abbasid Caliphate, whose Book of Roads and Kingdoms (c.870) is the primary source of information on the early medieval Silk Road.
Ibn Khordadbeh’s account describes the Radhanites as sophisticated, multilingual caravan merchants. Scholars today credit them with being the earliest modern bankers, carrying letters of credit as a way to transport large sums of money across national boundaries and over great distances without risk of theft. Tokayer says these Jewish merchants monopolized long-distance trade on the Silk Road in this era, and emphasizes the religious and psychological factors which enabled their success. The Jews believed in a God who is everywhere present, who in effect traveled with them across great distances, giving them confidence in facing the unknown. The religion they held in common provided them with reliable fellows whose customs they understood, in far-away places. Their common language facilitated communication, and their law, the Talmud, provided uniformity of commercial practices and a method of judicial enforcement of contracts and settlement of disputes across political boundaries—a kind of portable citizenship under an international law. When dealing with his fellow Jews, the Jewish merchant never had to fear loss due to injustice, even in foreign lands. And settled Jewish communities were often able to use the prestige, goods and wealth of the entire international network to obtain fair treatment from local regimes.
Tokayer (p.152) claims that early medieval Jewish merchants monopolized production and trade in silk and cotton, and weaving, dyeing and embroidery techniques; along with glassware and gems, all these items were easily portable across long distances. Medieval Jewish merchants have been credited with introducing Chinese paper-making techniques and ‘Arabic’ numerals (actually from India) to the West. The first metal astrolabe is said to have been made by a Jewish rabbi of Lisbon.
Tokayer cites some of the many Arabic-language accounts of medieval Muslim travelers such as Sulaiman al-Mahiri who mention the presence of Jewish communities along the Silk Road. Tokayer cites (p.162) the well-documented example of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, discovered in the 16th Century by Matteo Ricci and other Jesuit missionaries, which continued unassimilated well into the 19th Century, and asserts that it was just one of as many as twenty such enclaves of Judaism in medieval China mentioned by Arab voyagers and geographers.
Tokayer tells a story (p.163ff.) of meeting and corresponding with a Chinese Jew of Taibei, Taiwan. Raised in China in family which had maintained a Jewish identity, he says his family identified other such Jews in China by means of secret signals. He traveled as far as Palestine while still a young man, and escaped to Taiwan at the time of the Revolution. He told Tokayer that many Chinese Jews still live in China among the millions of Chinese Muslims, whose similar dietary customs facilitate the observance of their own Jewish family traditions.
VII. Conclusion
Rabbi Marvin Tokayer has made important contributions to the study of the connection between ancient Israel and Japan, including: his account of his relationship with Prince Mikasa-no-miya, a principal figure in this area of study; his citation of, and use of, McLeod’s early effort; his perspective on points of similarity—parallels—between the Bible and Japan, Shinto and the yamabushi; and his credible account of how it could have been possible for entire communities of Israelites to find their way to Japan, long ago.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Notes
Rabbi Marvin Tokayer of Long Island, New York graduated from Yeshiva U. and, beginning in 1968, served for eight years as rabbi to the Tokyo Jewish community. He authored four entries in the 1971 Encyclopedia Judaica. His biography may be viewed on-line at www.rabbitokayer.com .
Apparently there were multiple editions of McLeod’s works; the author has seen the following: Illustrations to the Epitome of the Ancient History of Japan, 2nd ed. (Kyoto, 1878) and Epitome of the Ancient History of Japan (Nagasaki, 1879).
published by Funk & Wagnalls, 1901-1906 and still considered to be a resource for scholars; see under “Japan” in entry for “Tribes, Ten Lost.” View on-line at: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com
in my “24 Parallels between Old Japan and Ancient Israel: Based on the Work of Oyabe Zen’ichirou” (2009), available from the author
Here we have the complication of a possible borrowing from Zoroastrianism. For example, the eternal flame of a small temple on the summit of Mt. Misen, of Itsukushima, near Hiroshima (K, 2117), said to be the source of the Eternal Flame of the Hiroshima Peace Park, is said to have burned continuously since being lit by Kuukai (774-835), founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan, who undoubtedly encountered Zoroastrianism in Tang China. The adar, sacred fire of the Parsees, was an important cultural element in Achaemenid Persia (550-330 BC), and Zoroastrianism was known in China as the “fire-worshipping” religion (bai-huo-jiao). Even if the existence of the eternal flame is documented for Shinto shrines before Kuukai, a direct connection with Zoroastrian religion remains a possibility.
These are just a few of many unusual features of this festival which seem to beg for explanation in terms of the Jews-on-the-Silk-Road-to-Japan paradigm advocated by Tokayer, but any such interpretation will necessarily be complex and speculative.
A comparison of Shinto and Jewish regulations pertaining to the creation and display of these offerings on their offerings tables would require a full-length study.
Tokayer does not mention some of the parallels introduced by McLeod, including: (1) the tripartite shrine structure—“all the pure Shinto temples have three torii” (McLeod, 1879, pp.66-7); and (2) that some of the “lions” at shrine entrances are really unicorns (ibid., pp.66, 88, 116). The lion-unicorn pair is one of the symbols of British royalty.
In addition to mirrors, other objects used as shrine shintai include swords, jewels (tama), and halbreds (a weapon, the hoko; Koujien, 1156).
Tokayer mentions the mirrors acquired by Israelite women during the Egyptian captivity. McLeod says (1879, p.87) “the Israelite women wore metal mirrors which Moses took from them,” referring no doubt to Exodus 38:8, and compares the ongami he observed worn as an amulet by Japanese women (p.88). The author has been unable to independently verify this custom for Meiji-era Japan (when McLeod was there), but compare the much earlier female haniwa figures wearing mirrors at the waist in Miki, Haniwa (1958) plate 27.
For tzitzith, see www.betemunah.org/tzitzith.html . Compare Numbers 15:38.
Tokayer does not identify a specific source of information for the costume of the ancient Israelite priest.
Prominent Japanese novelist Kita Morio popularized the theory that the tengu of Japan—semi-historical, semi-mythological figures represented today by a popular red-faced mask with a long nose—were actually ‘Jews’ who migrated to Japan long ago. Kita endorsed the theory of local Japanese historian Kikuchi Banka, whose analysis of a document, “The Tengu’s Apology,” preserved at the Butsugen Temple, on Japan’s Izu Peninsula, points out that the tengu also wear the tokin. See Goodman and Miyazawa, Jews in the Japanese Mind, 2000, p.7. For a more conventional explanation, and to view tengu masks, see: http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/tengu.shtml
Tokayer (pp.58ff.) associates the yamabushi with the earliest, “primitive” elements of Judaism, including and especially the importance of mountains in worship. Evidence of the author’s belief that the yamabushi of Japan are a vestige of the early Hebrew religious practices of those described as a “band (KJV company) of prophets” associated with “the hill of God” (I Samuel 10:5-6, 10; 19:20-24) will be the subject of a future essay.
Elizabeth Anna Gordon (1851-1925), wife of a British MP. In her Lotus Gospel (Tokyo, 1911), she advocated the Japan-Israel connection, evidently influenced by Saeki Yoshiro. A member of the Japan Society of London from 1892, she had studied comparative religion at Oxford, under Max Muller. She lived in Japan for ten years from 1908, and again from 1920 until her death, in Kyoto. See Koyama Noboru, “Cultural Exchanges at the Time of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance,” pp.199ff. in Phillips Payson O’Brien, ed., The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902-1922 (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), pp.203ff.
Edward Lipinski, On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age (Peeters, 2006), p.80
For a photo of the Takamatsuzuka rosette, see Shinohara Hisanori, Tennouke to Yudayajin (Tokyo: Koufuusha, 1982) p.17; for Temmu see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Temmu ; for Takamatsuzuka Tomb, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takamatsuzuka_Tomb
Unfortunately, Tokayer and/or his translator (1975 pp.150ff.) did not get names and dates correct; for a better account, see http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Radhanites . The Rhadanites flourished after the rise of Islam separated the Arab world from Christian Europe; the Jews were intermediaries acceptable in both worlds.
For a history of the waxing and waning of Jewish success as traders over the centuries, see under “Commerce” in www.jewishencyclopedia.com . The Crusades ended the Radhanite period of Jewish commercial success.
Tokayer cites the importance of the colors red, blue, purple and indigo in the tabernacle of ancient Israel as evidence of early Israelite skill in dyeing; for ‘red’ see Ex 25:5, etc. The KJV phrase “gold, blue, purple and scarlet” occurs many times in the description of the tabernacle; see Exodus 28:5, |
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