I was at a kendo competition in Japan recently and the winning team walked off with a giant roman style banner. Even something as Japanese as kendo is still affected by Rome.
Fun Fact: The Manga (and Anine) series Thermae Romae is about Lucius Modestus an Architect living during Hadrian's reign, who finds a portal to a modern Japanese Bath house. He uses the innovations he find there to build his own titualr bathhouse.
Yep, the Roman Empire, Parthia, and Han Empire were the big three traders of the silk road. Ancient Roman glass and coins were found in ancient China, while ancient Chinese swords & scabbards and silk were found in ancient Rome (the Han Dynasty swords & scabbards were found in Roman Bulgaria).
Many reached Japan via the Silk Road. They can be found in the Gion Festival, one of Japan's three traditional festivals. Try a Google image search for the following Persian carpet Gion Festival.
I remember seeing a synopsis of a Japanese movie where a modern japanese hottub salesman accidentally timetravels to ancient Rome... the general theme being they had very similar bathing culture. .
Thermae Romae is a manga/anime series about a Roman bathhouse architect time traveling to Japan, not a movie about a Japanese hot tub salesman time traveling to Rome.
When I first visited Japan, I was struck at the abundance of shrines, reminding me of the Catholic areas of my country, where mountaintops are marked with crosses and tiny shrines are found in seemingly random places, a continuation trough catholic syncretism of honoring the Genius Loci. Also in the religious sphere, there is the continuing wide use of amulets and ex-voto, which in Europe we can see from pagan shrines to catholic pilgrimages sites. Understandingly for a honeymoon, you might have missed the practice of communal bathing (Sento and Onsen). For me it was a major highlight. If you haven't already, check the Mangas Thermae Romae (a comedy) and Plinius (a drama).
And there is, of course, the manga series Thermae Romae in which Lucius, an architect in ancient Rome, is somehow transported to modern Japan, where he visits, among other things, a Japanese bathhouse, and brings the ideas he gets exposed to back to his time in ancient Rome. It was an animated series, then a live-action film with a sequel and then a mini series, so they got a lot of mileage out of the concept. Hiroshi Abe as Lucius in the live action film looks convincingly Roman.
It is not uncommon to come across surprising insights in fields we are less familiar with, but this video offers a fresh perspective even to those who, like me, love the classical world and are well-acquainted with it through their academic and university studies. I find truly remarkable your intuition (and persuasive argument) about the similarity between Shintoist and classical spirit and places, particularly for their analogous approach to the feeling of natural sacredness and the use and shaping of spaces. It is an original and very valuable perspective. Congratulations and thank you so much!
I hope you and the Mrs. enjoyed your visit to Japan. Your photo examples of the temples were beautiful. In imagining the temples of the ancients using these as an analogous examples is a good exercise.
Allow me just one small correction: the emperor has always been a central figure in Shinto. He has always performed rituals for appeasing the gods on behalf of the Japanese people since the Yayoi period. It's just that after the Meiji Restoration he gained lots of political power.
🥰❤Congratulations and all happiness to you two. We are honoured that you invited us to a bit of your honeymoon. Warmest wishes from Copenhagen, Denmark.
Catholicism in Latin America is also like this. They put sanctuaries and Saints in natural places, near beautiful natural places and features. I guess it came from the Roman tradition too. Maybe Catholicism in Europe was like that at some point but I don't think it is as much as in Latin America right now.
I don't know if you visited the National Museum in Tokyo, but it has an absolutely unique collection of Greaco-Bactrian Buddha statues. In some of them the similarity to and influence from Greek sculpture is obvious, and some even believe this is where we find the roots of Buddhist East-Asian sculpture. If so it would mean the most ancient Buddhist sculptures of Buddha, Bodhisattvas, Four Heavenly Kings etc. can all be traced back to the Hellenic world and would perhaps never have existed if not for the conquests of Alexander the Great. Now that's something to think about.
I've often said that China and Japan is what Rome would look like, had it not fall. These are two sets of different cultures, but they also share a lot of similarities in term of political philosophy and governance styles. What they have in common is a strong central government, where the political class holds most of the power, and the religious and merchant class play only supporting roles. This is different from what we see Europe after Rome fell, where the religious and merchant class often had as much power as the political class, and sometimes even more.
I'm a Japanese from Japan who also studies Roman Empire. In my opinion we Japanese are the modern society with similarity to Romans, even big difference of time and locations. Our Japanese similar to Roman is the public bath and polytheistic beliefs. We Japanese love to go regularly to public bath called Sento, or hotsprings called Onsen. It is a social event to go with family or friends. We also eat food and drink at restaurants inside, detox, and relax our mind.. Our Shinto gods beliefs are similar to Roman gods beliefs. We also mix and doing Buddhism with Shintoism. We can do any religion if only it will work and really improve our life. We don't like gods or buddhas that don't do their job, so we have many polytheistic options of gods and buddhas. We choose the best god or buddha who makes our prayer come true. I think Japanese mentality is the only modern society like ancient Rome, more than modern Europeans today. This is interesting irony.
Not really. There is a lot in Japan that has nothing to do with Rome, as the Roman Empire is the core culture of most of the west and Christianity heavily takes from Roman culture as well (at least the Catholic and Orthodox Churches). Surely japanese mentality is not the only modern society like Ancient Rome as they look nothing alike aside from Polytheism and Baths.
@ I am not talking about Christian Romans and after. Even if they were influenced to some degree by their past, on the whole they abandoned and betrayed their own culture when they forcibly committed atrocities of cultural genocide on temples, their own traditional beliefs, and henceforth gave "Paganism" a negative connotation. Today most Europeans are no longer polytheist, not interested in it, and permanently stuck with Christianity. Even the few polytheistic Europeans today who want to revive their old beliefs acknowledge the line was totally erased for centuries and can never be completely restored exactly.
Buddhism in Japan was for a long period of time closer to Christianity in Europe. Not exactly the same, but that's a good way to look at the differences between Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan.
Also... I always thought Shinto was by far the closest religion to ancient Rome, not just the similarities in temple culture and natural veneration, but also veneration of ancestors and prominence of family loyalty, martial culture, etc...
I find also for example interesting role of shrine miko that is quite in their function similar to sibyl, that are trances convey the words of the gods. Shinto has sometimes similar functions as in the greco-roman religion, which is very cool.
Little trivia: Takeda Shingen used a tactical movement for his troops where the tired spearmen retreated to the rearguard to be replaced by fresh spearmen, similar to how the roman legionaries did the same....
A lot of societies seem to have independently converged on a model for temples where there is an inner portion containing a physical image of the god to which access is limited. I think even Aztec temples were like this and they obviously had zero contact with Egypt or Japan or other places which had similar setups.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small kernel of this in neolithic humanity. A recent dig in Israel from c. 50kya found a skull with human/neanderthal traits placed in such a holy area. Of course, this is not to say that such practices all definitively originate in the deep deep past, I'm sure some examples were originated more recently.
Buddhism came to Japan from Korea in the mid-6th century, a thing some Japanese don't like to acknowledge, because of widespread prejudice against Koreans in Japan. For the same reason, the Imperial Household Agency has exerted strict control over archaeology of the ancient imperial tombs (kofun)--because when they have opened them in the past, they were found full of Korean items. There is extreme reluctance to acknowledge any Korean connection with the Japanese imperial line.
I believe things have been changing. Currently it seems the archeologists (and curators) around the kofun of Asuka are quite open about speculating on Korean and Chinese influences (as of last spring, when I last visited). As per the Akuka-Fujiwara UNESCO site: "Thus, this site, comprised of a cluster of archaeological sites and historic features that originate from close exchange with mainland China and the Korea peninsula, offers physical evidence for the process of the formation of the ancient Japanese state and also constitutes an extraordinarily valuable cultural landscape." Otherwise, back in December of 2001 Akihito talked of Korean ancestry of his dynasty: ""I, on my part, feel a certain kinship with Korea, given the fact that it is recorded in the Chronicles of Japan that the mother of Emperor Kammu was of the line of King Muryong of Paekche," he told reporters."
Traditionally, before the Meiji period Korean culture and it's products were respected almost as much as Chinese. The value placed on Korean ceramics is an example.
The early Japonics themselves migrated to the Japanese island from the Korean peninsula, that time was a place were early Koreanics started to spread on the peninsula. And it was pre-Joseonic period. Japanese culture is thought to be a continuum of Baekje culture. But determining on how "Korean" Baekje is, is up for debate.
@@Matt_The_Hugenot Between the Imjin Wars of 1598, and games of the Meiji government in Korea following 1873 (say the run up to the 1876 treaty) was more than 275 years, almost three centuries. And given the contacts via Tsushima Island with the likes of the So clan during the Tokugawa era, would not be surprising if Korean arts and crafts and products were valued.
About 1700 years ago a new religion came to the shores of Japan and integrated peacefully with their native beliefs. It did work out so well for the ancient Romans, the new religion that developed there only sowed strife and disunity.
Congrats on the nuptials! The two of you look lovely on the picture from Miyajima (although the missus is of course much too pretty for you, but you knew that already...). I suspect you have already seen the movie, but if you haven't, please check out Thermae Romae, a Japanese movie (based on a manga) about a Roman architect (Lucius Modestus) who specializes in baths "time-slipping" into a Japanese bath house (sento). Antics ensue. There is a sequel as well. You might get a kick out of it, judging from this video. Drop me a line next time you are in Tokyo, we'll have a beer and a stick or two of yakitori!
I like how you mention Japan's politeness compared to Americans basically being casual all the time. It's actually something many bilingual Japanese get commented on. In Japanese, we speak all polite and like a stereotypical Japanese person because that's the culture. As soon as the English comes out, that tends to go right out the window.
I've also always found it a bit interesting that the most well-known monotheistic religions all fit into the same category as well: Abrahamic Religions. I'm sure there are some that don't fall into that category, but "monotheistic" and "Abrahamic" are damn near synonymous in laymen's colloquial usage.
@@urphakeandgey6308 You're absolutely correct. While it is a fact that many modern academicians don't like for various reasons, all spiritual traditions of the past are offshoots of one true view of reality as expressed in the literature of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal natural way. This includes pre-Christian European religions, pre-Islamic Middle Eastern religions, practically all of the eastern traditions, Buddhism included, the traditions of the native Americans, and so on. The entire world was filled with the localized and unique expressions of this system as laid out in the Vedas, many at differing stages of complexity, and in many cases, featuring local accretions that may or may not have been genuine or true (though the reality as laid out in the Vedas does allow for a tremendous variety of local deities, spirits, demons etc., so many likely are true.) This way of things continued for many many years (much longer than the mainstream view of history would suggest) until the advent of Abrahamism, which represented something of a ground zero for this tear in the spiritual fabric of this world. Abraham made his pact with a localized desert spirit (which was not, sadly, a God, Deva, Aesir or any other related benificent but limited being) and from there came Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Baha'iism, the four Abrahamic faiths, whose convert and conquer ethos caused them to spread out across the world, overturning the previous view of things. (It is worth noting that some of these new faiths did take in greater or lesser amounts of pre-Abrahamic philosophy prior to their formal organization, and the ones that took the most tend to offer the more positive outlook for their followers. Christianity seems to have taken on the most, and of the highest quality too, taking on a large amount of Hellenistic/Neo-Platonic thought in its initial formation. Islam took on a lot of Aristotelian philosophy, which is of a lower quality, but still better than nothing. But at base, regardless of what positives they show on the surface, they all share the fact that they twist the natural way and turn it on its head for short term gain but long term suffering)
I clicked on this because I got a gachapon tortoise who is Roman themed. He has a centurion helmet on and in his shell is the Coliseum, but it’s like the view of Rome from Japan because there is also what looks like the Great Wall and a Japanese torii. So I clicked this wondering if there was some connection I didn’t know about, I guess there almost is with the Silk Road rock, maybe my tortoise carried it ;]
I always told my students that for people born in the Western world visiting some 'pagan' countries will be good or even necessary for understanding ancient religions. I think I understand better the role and coexistence of philosophy in Greek & Roman world after seeing shinto & buddhism in Japan ;)
I argue that the US has historically based parallels with Japan but it is of course expressed differently. Harping back to a constitution set up two centuries ago in the days of horse and ox-drawn vehicles seems to be an American national trait. An un-contentious example of this is that after the election of a new head of state the transfer of power still requires more than a month to take effect because in the past much time was required for the new President to get to the seat of power from one of the thirteen original colonies. Seemingly - more contentiously - the lack of nationwide standards for voting procedures in Federal elections is an expression of the same anachronistic urges. ps Whilst traveling in Japan for a month recently, I was doing lots of 'compare & contrast'!
One could see the proto Roman religion as analogous of pre-statist shinto. (Truthfully the distinction between animism & polytheism is far less clear cut than some would make it.) They are also very syncretic systems with nonetheless a strong suspicion of the outside, imagining a religious past that never was
In the last two videos of your’s that I’ve watched, I’ve noticed that you pronounce ‘worship’ like ‘warship’. This is very unique, as the vast majority, indeed, everyone I’ve ever heard say it in my life, pronounces it ‘were-ship’. Dare to be different, I say.
Dato curioso los japoneses de echo tienen 2 dioses de la mitología griega/romana el nioo que acompaña a buda son en realidad el dios griego herakles o Hércules. En cuanto fujin es el dios griego boreas
Muito interessante saber que teve uma moeda romana encontrada no Japão!!! Que coisa, não acha? Eu não digo que devido a certas crenças monumentos outras coisas serem parecidas garantido isso devido a algum contato direto ou leve. Mas eu acho que tudo têm "um ancestral em comum" no modo de falar. Uma origem em comum. Isso talvez vem lá do começo da humanidade antes de se espalhar. E só se espalharem, levaram consigo isso consigo e por isso a semelhança! É por aí é muito mais!!!
the tube'y'all unsubscribed me. interesting. that aside, i think the late imperium and the shogunate bear a certain resemblance. warlords in the late imperium though, tended to become emperor, whereas the shoguns never overtly aspired to dethrone the emperor. they just exercised the power of the emperor for him.
My family ancestry dates back to Rome. I feel a deep connection to my heritage there. Western tradition, which is based on Judeo-Christian values along with Greco-Roman tradition dictates that’s we also look to the past. We as a Society have been moving away from who we truly are. America in its current state is not the nation that our ancestors and founding fathers intended it to be. We must move away from this “progressive” ideology and embrace our true selves. A people based in tradition and moral values predicated upon by our for fathers dating back to those days in Rome and the early Church.
7-11 is an entirely owned Japanese corporation right now. Based in Tokyo I believe. And the entire convenience store in town concept / bodega is moving toward large destination travel plazas. I wonder if the Romans had an equivalent form of a Buckees?
so...did you discover garum in japan? it seems like everywhere discovers it despite every fiber of normal people's beings to avoid it...i guess some brave soul tastes it and converts others...
What a coincidence. Just this afternoon I was thinking about the precise scenario of a Roman woman walking along thie Silk Road until she just happened to meet up with an outcast early Yamato society, with the two having a talk about their worlds.
Please please please don't use IA dubbing: 1) Google still doesn't understand bilingual people exist and insists on translating (like shit) when not necessary; 2) I almost blocked your channel thinking it was a cheap click bait.
Curiously Buddhism arrived in the Mediterranean through missionaries sent by Greco Buddhist convert Menander from the Seleucid kingdom centuries before it had ever arrived in Tibet, China Korea or Japan.
I also went to Japan-3 months ago. Wish I didn't spend so much time out of the 2 weeks in Tokyo (4 days iirc). It's mostly just shopping. There are some interesting museums and the metropolis is innately interesting on its own, but the majority of the landmass is occupied by storefronts. And I'm from NYC so it wasn't new to me. Kyoto was definitely the highlight. Loved climbing the mountain. It looks like you guys traversed more than me and my wife did. Pics came out great
Your comparison of the religious beliefs and practices could be attributed to pretty much every culture and religion around the world, there’s nothing special about this connection.
Aside from the fact that it's almost obligatory for me to say I'm against tourism and that Japan needs more nationalism and less foreigners, this was a very nice and interesting video.
@@ezrafriesner8370 Your baseline and perception of what level of nationalism a country should have is broken. Because of your assumption that what you have lived through is normal. It is not. Throughout the west there is a crippling lack of nationalism, and it's crumbling many a nation. The state of Japan is slightly better than most of the west, but it's still pretty bad. Globalism is evil, and Nationalism is it's antidote.
@@ezrafriesner8370 Your baseline and perception of what level of nationalism a country should have is broken. Because of your assumption that what you have lived through is normal. It is not. Throughout the west there is a crippling lack of nationalism, and it's crumbling many a nation. The state of Japan is slightly better than most of the west, but it's still pretty bad.
@@GustafUNL Japan is so nationalistic they don’t even entertain the historical facts of their WW2 atrocities, not even that they say they were a necessary war act, but that they didn’t happen entirely. Japans’ dedication to its national work culture is why it will die out in a few decades as they end up with more elderly people then young people to take care of them.
This "comparison" is desperately grasping at straws. If you had mentioned the ONLY obvious similarity between the two polarisng cultures, the hot baths.... you may have actually succeeded in something ! But you didn't. This video is a complete failure !
Bro wrote and posted a comment before even getting 17 seconds in (or he's just a bad listener). The point of the video is the parallels between a society that still has natural pre-abrahamic spirituality and social ethics and the pre-christian Romans.
Man goes to Japan, still can't stop thinking about ancient Rome.
Cause Rome's the opposite of Japan. China came from 5000 y.o. Egypt. Both Japan and Rome then grew by themselves
I was at a kendo competition in Japan recently and the winning team walked off with a giant roman style banner.
Even something as Japanese as kendo is still affected by Rome.
Once one understands the glory of Rome, one cannot stop thinking about it lol. SPQR forever ❤
Surprised you didn't mention the biggest similarity between the two: total love for bath houses!
There’s even a manga series and anime about the shared love of baths, Thermae Romae.
@@radish6691first thing I thought
@@radish6691 great series, loved it
Fun Fact: The Manga (and Anine) series Thermae Romae is about Lucius Modestus an Architect living during Hadrian's reign, who finds a portal to a modern Japanese Bath house. He uses the innovations he find there to build his own titualr bathhouse.
“The older Romans used temples as their banks, as we use banks as our temples;.”- Will Durant, Caesar and Christ
Roman glass was found in the Shōsōin, the temple treasury in Nara, with lots of other items that had traveled the Silk Road.
I wasn't aware of that - fascinating!
Yep, the Roman Empire, Parthia, and Han Empire were the big three traders of the silk road. Ancient Roman glass and coins were found in ancient China, while ancient Chinese swords & scabbards and silk were found in ancient Rome (the Han Dynasty swords & scabbards were found in Roman Bulgaria).
Many reached Japan via the Silk Road. They can be found in the Gion Festival, one of Japan's three traditional festivals. Try a Google image search for the following Persian carpet Gion Festival.
It taught me you can write nearly anything off as a work-related tax deduction! Bravo and congrats!
ROME 👑
I remember seeing a synopsis of a Japanese movie where a modern japanese hottub salesman accidentally timetravels to ancient Rome... the general theme being they had very similar bathing culture. .
It's called Thermæ Romæ, originally a manga (Japanese comic).
Thermae Romae is a manga/anime series about a Roman bathhouse architect time traveling to Japan, not a movie about a Japanese hot tub salesman time traveling to Rome.
@daveweiss5647 do you remember the name of the movie?
@@sacktheargonianthere was a film before the anime I’m pretty sure
@@sacktheargonian That both of these works of fiction exist is absolutely wild to me lol
I’m in Thailand now, and I’m noticing that the “spirit houses” strongly resemble the shrines to the Lares and Penates.
Try going to some of those sketchy markets in Thailand. They sell these small pagan penis shaped talismans that look remarkably like Roman ones.
When I first visited Japan, I was struck at the abundance of shrines, reminding me of the Catholic areas of my country, where mountaintops are marked with crosses and tiny shrines are found in seemingly random places, a continuation trough catholic syncretism of honoring the Genius Loci.
Also in the religious sphere, there is the continuing wide use of amulets and ex-voto, which in Europe we can see from pagan shrines to catholic pilgrimages sites.
Understandingly for a honeymoon, you might have missed the practice of communal bathing (Sento and Onsen). For me it was a major highlight.
If you haven't already, check the Mangas Thermae Romae (a comedy) and Plinius (a drama).
I love all the shrines in Japan, Even the tiny little ones all over the place.
People leave money on them and no one seems to steal it.
Congratulations Dr. Ryan and may you both have many years of health and happiness together. I hope your wife likes history :)
Incredibly well said ⛩️🤜🤛🏛️ Glad you enjoyed Japan with your Wife ❤️
And there is, of course, the manga series Thermae Romae in which Lucius, an architect in ancient Rome, is somehow transported to modern Japan, where he visits, among other things, a Japanese bathhouse, and brings the ideas he gets exposed to back to his time in ancient Rome. It was an animated series, then a live-action film with a sequel and then a mini series, so they got a lot of mileage out of the concept. Hiroshi Abe as Lucius in the live action film looks convincingly Roman.
Not a fan of manga but DAMN I NEED TO WATCH THIS
Seeing this video, the FIRST thing that comes to mind is the movie/anime/manga *Thermae Romae*
It is not uncommon to come across surprising insights in fields we are less familiar with, but this video offers a fresh perspective even to those who, like me, love the classical world and are well-acquainted with it through their academic and university studies.
I find truly remarkable your intuition (and persuasive argument) about the similarity between Shintoist and classical spirit and places, particularly for their analogous approach to the feeling of natural sacredness and the use and shaping of spaces.
It is an original and very valuable perspective.
Congratulations and thank you so much!
I hope you and the Mrs. enjoyed your visit to Japan. Your photo examples of the temples were beautiful. In imagining the temples of the ancients using these as an analogous examples is a good exercise.
Allow me just one small correction: the emperor has always been a central figure in Shinto. He has always performed rituals for appeasing the gods on behalf of the Japanese people since the Yayoi period. It's just that after the Meiji Restoration he gained lots of political power.
Try Bali sometime to see the unique intersection of animism, ancestor worship and Hinduism.
Very insightful, thanks!
You're right man. I always feel Japan has kept the feel of the ancient world.
This little video essay ticked few of my boxes :) thanks!
The Japanese also made two of the best video games on Ancient Rome: Colosseum Road to Freedom and Shadow of Rome.
🥰❤Congratulations and all happiness to you two. We are honoured that you invited us to a bit of your honeymoon. Warmest wishes from Copenhagen, Denmark.
Catholicism in Latin America is also like this. They put sanctuaries and Saints in natural places, near beautiful natural places and features. I guess it came from the Roman tradition too. Maybe Catholicism in Europe was like that at some point but I don't think it is as much as in Latin America right now.
I wonder if those ancient roadside eateries also sold trinkets and packaged snacks like convenience stores do today?
haha in latin: "thank you come again" oh wait that's kwiki-mart 🙂
I recognize some of the photos from Miyajima. One of our most memorable trips back in the day when we lived in China was our time in Japan.
Japan has always seemed a place apart. Thanks for your interesting comparison with ancient Roman culture.
Congratulations Mrs and Mr Ryan
Congratulations on the nuptuals! Interesting subject, thank you.
I don't know if you visited the National Museum in Tokyo, but it has an absolutely unique collection of Greaco-Bactrian Buddha statues. In some of them the similarity to and influence from Greek sculpture is obvious, and some even believe this is where we find the roots of Buddhist East-Asian sculpture. If so it would mean the most ancient Buddhist sculptures of Buddha, Bodhisattvas, Four Heavenly Kings etc. can all be traced back to the Hellenic world and would perhaps never have existed if not for the conquests of Alexander the Great. Now that's something to think about.
I've often said that China and Japan is what Rome would look like, had it not fall. These are two sets of different cultures, but they also share a lot of similarities in term of political philosophy and governance styles. What they have in common is a strong central government, where the political class holds most of the power, and the religious and merchant class play only supporting roles. This is different from what we see Europe after Rome fell, where the religious and merchant class often had as much power as the political class, and sometimes even more.
Congratulations and best wishes!
Congratulations!
Congrats!!
I wish Toldinstone do more about Japan
Congratulations on your marriage and thank you for the nice summary of the similarities between cultures.
I'm a Japanese from Japan who also studies Roman Empire. In my opinion we Japanese are the modern society with similarity to Romans, even big difference of time and locations. Our Japanese similar to Roman is the public bath and polytheistic beliefs. We Japanese love to go regularly to public bath called Sento, or hotsprings called Onsen. It is a social event to go with family or friends. We also eat food and drink at restaurants inside, detox, and relax our mind.. Our Shinto gods beliefs are similar to Roman gods beliefs. We also mix and doing Buddhism with Shintoism. We can do any religion if only it will work and really improve our life. We don't like gods or buddhas that don't do their job, so we have many polytheistic options of gods and buddhas. We choose the best god or buddha who makes our prayer come true. I think Japanese mentality is the only modern society like ancient Rome, more than modern Europeans today. This is interesting irony.
Not really. There is a lot in Japan that has nothing to do with Rome, as the Roman Empire is the core culture of most of the west and Christianity heavily takes from Roman culture as well (at least the Catholic and Orthodox Churches). Surely japanese mentality is not the only modern society like Ancient Rome as they look nothing alike aside from Polytheism and Baths.
@ I am not talking about Christian Romans and after. Even if they were influenced to some degree by their past, on the whole they abandoned and betrayed their own culture when they forcibly committed atrocities of cultural genocide on temples, their own traditional beliefs, and henceforth gave "Paganism" a negative connotation. Today most Europeans are no longer polytheist, not interested in it, and permanently stuck with Christianity. Even the few polytheistic Europeans today who want to revive their old beliefs acknowledge the line was totally erased for centuries and can never be completely restored exactly.
@@Alejojojo6you are racist
Buddhism in Japan was for a long period of time closer to Christianity in Europe. Not exactly the same, but that's a good way to look at the differences between Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan.
Also... I always thought Shinto was by far the closest religion to ancient Rome, not just the similarities in temple culture and natural veneration, but also veneration of ancestors and prominence of family loyalty, martial culture, etc...
Hindu temples are closer analogy
I find also for example interesting role of shrine miko that is quite in their function similar to sibyl, that are trances convey the words of the gods. Shinto has sometimes similar functions as in the greco-roman religion, which is very cool.
Little trivia: Takeda Shingen used a tactical movement for his troops where the tired spearmen retreated to the rearguard to be replaced by fresh spearmen, similar to how the roman legionaries did the same....
A lot of societies seem to have independently converged on a model for temples where there is an inner portion containing a physical image of the god to which access is limited. I think even Aztec temples were like this and they obviously had zero contact with Egypt or Japan or other places which had similar setups.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a small kernel of this in neolithic humanity. A recent dig in Israel from c. 50kya found a skull with human/neanderthal traits placed in such a holy area. Of course, this is not to say that such practices all definitively originate in the deep deep past, I'm sure some examples were originated more recently.
Buddhism came to Japan from Korea in the mid-6th century, a thing some Japanese don't like to acknowledge, because of widespread prejudice against Koreans in Japan. For the same reason, the Imperial Household Agency has exerted strict control over archaeology of the ancient imperial tombs (kofun)--because when they have opened them in the past, they were found full of Korean items. There is extreme reluctance to acknowledge any Korean connection with the Japanese imperial line.
I believe things have been changing. Currently it seems the archeologists (and curators) around the kofun of Asuka are quite open about speculating on Korean and Chinese influences (as of last spring, when I last visited). As per the Akuka-Fujiwara UNESCO site: "Thus, this site, comprised of a cluster of archaeological sites and historic features that originate from close exchange with mainland China and the Korea peninsula, offers physical evidence for the process of the formation of the ancient Japanese state and also constitutes an extraordinarily valuable cultural landscape."
Otherwise, back in December of 2001 Akihito talked of Korean ancestry of his dynasty: ""I, on my part, feel a certain kinship with Korea, given the fact that it is recorded in the Chronicles of Japan that the mother of Emperor Kammu was of the line of King Muryong of Paekche," he told reporters."
Traditionally, before the Meiji period Korean culture and it's products were respected almost as much as Chinese. The value placed on Korean ceramics is an example.
The early Japonics themselves migrated to the Japanese island from the Korean peninsula, that time was a place were early Koreanics started to spread on the peninsula. And it was pre-Joseonic period. Japanese culture is thought to be a continuum of Baekje culture. But determining on how "Korean" Baekje is, is up for debate.
I thought the Japanese were descended from animae...😅
@@Matt_The_Hugenot Between the Imjin Wars of 1598, and games of the Meiji government in Korea following 1873 (say the run up to the 1876 treaty) was more than 275 years, almost three centuries. And given the contacts via Tsushima Island with the likes of the So clan during the Tokugawa era, would not be surprising if Korean arts and crafts and products were valued.
Congratulations!!
Congrats on your marriage 🎉
They seem to have a patron-client system
About 1700 years ago a new religion came to the shores of Japan and integrated peacefully with their native beliefs. It did work out so well for the ancient Romans, the new religion that developed there only sowed strife and disunity.
Good thoughts!
Congrats on the nuptials! The two of you look lovely on the picture from Miyajima (although the missus is of course much too pretty for you, but you knew that already...).
I suspect you have already seen the movie, but if you haven't, please check out Thermae Romae, a Japanese movie (based on a manga) about a Roman architect (Lucius Modestus) who specializes in baths "time-slipping" into a Japanese bath house (sento). Antics ensue. There is a sequel as well. You might get a kick out of it, judging from this video.
Drop me a line next time you are in Tokyo, we'll have a beer and a stick or two of yakitori!
I like how you mention Japan's politeness compared to Americans basically being casual all the time. It's actually something many bilingual Japanese get commented on. In Japanese, we speak all polite and like a stereotypical Japanese person because that's the culture. As soon as the English comes out, that tends to go right out the window.
In terms of religion, monotheist practices are the oddballs.
I've also always found it a bit interesting that the most well-known monotheistic religions all fit into the same category as well: Abrahamic Religions.
I'm sure there are some that don't fall into that category, but "monotheistic" and "Abrahamic" are damn near synonymous in laymen's colloquial usage.
@@urphakeandgey6308 You're absolutely correct.
While it is a fact that many modern academicians don't like for various reasons, all spiritual traditions of the past are offshoots of one true view of reality as expressed in the literature of Sanatana Dharma, the eternal natural way. This includes pre-Christian European religions, pre-Islamic Middle Eastern religions, practically all of the eastern traditions, Buddhism included, the traditions of the native Americans, and so on.
The entire world was filled with the localized and unique expressions of this system as laid out in the Vedas, many at differing stages of complexity, and in many cases, featuring local accretions that may or may not have been genuine or true (though the reality as laid out in the Vedas does allow for a tremendous variety of local deities, spirits, demons etc., so many likely are true.)
This way of things continued for many many years (much longer than the mainstream view of history would suggest) until the advent of Abrahamism, which represented something of a ground zero for this tear in the spiritual fabric of this world. Abraham made his pact with a localized desert spirit (which was not, sadly, a God, Deva, Aesir or any other related benificent but limited being) and from there came Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Baha'iism, the four Abrahamic faiths, whose convert and conquer ethos caused them to spread out across the world, overturning the previous view of things.
(It is worth noting that some of these new faiths did take in greater or lesser amounts of pre-Abrahamic philosophy prior to their formal organization, and the ones that took the most tend to offer the more positive outlook for their followers. Christianity seems to have taken on the most, and of the highest quality too, taking on a large amount of Hellenistic/Neo-Platonic thought in its initial formation. Islam took on a lot of Aristotelian philosophy, which is of a lower quality, but still better than nothing. But at base, regardless of what positives they show on the surface, they all share the fact that they twist the natural way and turn it on its head for short term gain but long term suffering)
Romans would have loved the ancient Japanese theater
I clicked on this because I got a gachapon tortoise who is Roman themed. He has a centurion helmet on and in his shell is the Coliseum, but it’s like the view of Rome from Japan because there is also what looks like the Great Wall and a Japanese torii. So I clicked this wondering if there was some connection I didn’t know about, I guess there almost is with the Silk Road rock, maybe my tortoise carried it ;]
I always told my students that for people born in the Western world visiting some 'pagan' countries will be good or even necessary for understanding ancient religions. I think I understand better the role and coexistence of philosophy in Greek & Roman world after seeing shinto & buddhism in Japan ;)
I argue that the US has historically based parallels with Japan but it is of course expressed differently. Harping back to a constitution set up two centuries ago in the days of horse and ox-drawn vehicles seems to be an American national trait. An un-contentious example of this is that after the election of a new head of state the transfer of power still requires more than a month to take effect because in the past much time was required for the new President to get to the seat of power from one of the thirteen original colonies. Seemingly - more contentiously - the lack of nationwide standards for voting procedures in Federal elections is an expression of the same anachronistic urges. ps Whilst traveling in Japan for a month recently, I was doing lots of 'compare & contrast'!
When looking at Shinto shrines their locations, and kami I couldn't help but be reminded of Roman beliefs about _genius loci_
One could see the proto Roman religion as analogous of pre-statist shinto. (Truthfully the distinction between animism & polytheism is far less clear cut than some would make it.)
They are also very syncretic systems with nonetheless a strong suspicion of the outside, imagining a religious past that never was
In the last two videos of your’s that I’ve watched, I’ve noticed that you pronounce ‘worship’ like ‘warship’. This is very unique, as the vast majority, indeed, everyone I’ve ever heard say it in my life, pronounces it ‘were-ship’. Dare to be different, I say.
Interesting. I pronounce "were" and "war" the same way...
Congrats on the marriage!
hygiene is #1.
japan and ancient rome love public bath
Dato curioso los japoneses de echo tienen 2 dioses de la mitología griega/romana el nioo que acompaña a buda son en realidad el dios griego herakles o Hércules. En cuanto fujin es el dios griego boreas
I just clocked that
7-11 has fantastic food in Japan.
Muito interessante saber que teve uma moeda romana encontrada no Japão!!!
Que coisa, não acha?
Eu não digo que devido a certas crenças monumentos outras coisas serem parecidas garantido isso devido a algum contato direto ou leve. Mas eu acho que tudo têm "um ancestral em comum" no modo de falar. Uma origem em comum.
Isso talvez vem lá do começo da humanidade antes de se espalhar. E só se espalharem, levaram consigo isso consigo e por isso a semelhança!
É por aí é muito mais!!!
あなたの視点を共有していただいてありがとうございます。末永く奥様とお幸せに＼(^o^)／
個人的な見解ですが、日本的なものの一つの特徴は、一種の乱雑さ「ｍessyness」だと思います。日本の文化的な特異さである整然としているもの、または都会での喧噪、そして別々のものが同居する奇妙さ、それらは一種の乱雑さの果ての形だと僕は思います。要は整理されたり、系統立てたり、順序があるように見えて、実は成り行きの形に収まっているだけなのです。ポイントはそれが他のものと軋轢を生まないという点なのだと思います。
災害が多く100年周期で巨大地震が起こる国土で、自然信仰と大乗仏教の国では、全てのものに関して、コントロールできないことを知っています。我々は寄り添うことしかできない、そのような一種のマインドセットが培われたのでしょう。文化・社会の発展とは、その維持とどれだけ違うのでしょうか？維持や保存こそ人々の理解と努力が必要であり、発展はいつも主観的な見込み成果の実現のことで、それは台風、火山、地震、地滑り、川の氾濫で無に帰ることがあります。
Congratulations on getting married. You are significantly braver than I am.
the tube'y'all unsubscribed me. interesting.
that aside, i think the late imperium and the shogunate bear a certain resemblance.
warlords in the late imperium though, tended to become emperor,
whereas the shoguns never overtly aspired to dethrone the emperor.
they just exercised the power of the emperor for him.
What Ancient Rome told me about B2B sales...
My family ancestry dates back to Rome. I feel a deep connection to my heritage there. Western tradition, which is based on Judeo-Christian values along with Greco-Roman tradition dictates that’s we also look to the past. We as a Society have been moving away from who we truly are. America in its current state is not the nation that our ancestors and founding fathers intended it to be. We must move away from this “progressive” ideology and embrace our true selves. A people based in tradition and moral values predicated upon by our for fathers dating back to those days in Rome and the early Church.
You can take the Historian out of Rome, but ... 😁
Congratulations on your marriage.
Ii desu ne!!! omedetou.
I love tax write offs 😂
Not a knock either - another great video! Love the content
Congratulations on your nuptials, Garrett!
It’s a pity Christianity couldn’t learn to coexist with native European religions like Buddhism did with Shinto in Japan.
7-11 is an entirely owned Japanese corporation right now. Based in Tokyo I believe.
And the entire convenience store in town concept / bodega is moving toward large destination travel plazas.
I wonder if the Romans had an equivalent form of a Buckees?
7-11 is still based in the US, but is Japanese-owned. A bizarre situation.
concrats on the holly moon
One could surely do a thorough compare/contrast of a samurai vs the centurion! Shogun vs Emperor, Daimayo vs Governor etc.
The sound is a really horrible ai translation
Wife??!!?
so...did you discover garum in japan? it seems like everywhere discovers it despite every fiber of normal people's beings to avoid it...i guess some brave soul tastes it and converts others...
Fish sauce is a thing in Japan! Everyone discovers garum in their own way eventually 😂
What a coincidence. Just this afternoon I was thinking about the precise scenario of a Roman woman walking along thie Silk Road until she just happened to meet up with an outcast early Yamato society, with the two having a talk about their worlds.
Please please please don't use IA dubbing:
1) Google still doesn't understand bilingual people exist and insists on translating (like shit) when not necessary;
2) I almost blocked your channel thinking it was a cheap click bait.
Who was stronger: a Roman legionnaire or a Japanese samurai?
Curiously Buddhism arrived in the Mediterranean through missionaries sent by Greco Buddhist convert Menander from the Seleucid kingdom centuries before it had ever arrived in Tibet, China Korea or Japan.
I also went to Japan-3 months ago. Wish I didn't spend so much time out of the 2 weeks in Tokyo (4 days iirc). It's mostly just shopping. There are some interesting museums and the metropolis is innately interesting on its own, but the majority of the landmass is occupied by storefronts. And I'm from NYC so it wasn't new to me.
Kyoto was definitely the highlight. Loved climbing the mountain. It looks like you guys traversed more than me and my wife did. Pics came out great
Your comparison of the religious beliefs and practices could be attributed to pretty much every culture and religion around the world, there’s nothing special about this connection.
Aside from the fact that it's almost obligatory for me to say I'm against tourism and that Japan needs more nationalism and less foreigners, this was a very nice and interesting video.
Japan already has more then enough nationalism, what in the lords name are you on about 💀
@@ezrafriesner8370 Your baseline and perception of what level of nationalism a country should have is broken. Because of your assumption that what you have lived through is normal. It is not. Throughout the west there is a crippling lack of nationalism, and it's crumbling many a nation. The state of Japan is slightly better than most of the west, but it's still pretty bad.
Globalism is evil, and Nationalism is it's antidote.
@@ezrafriesner8370 Your baseline and perception of what level of nationalism a country should have is broken. Because of your assumption that what you have lived through is normal. It is not. Throughout the west there is a crippling lack of nationalism, and it's crumbling many a nation. The state of Japan is slightly better than most of the west, but it's still pretty bad.
@@ezrafriesner8370 Globalism is evil, nationalism is the main antidote. And the world has been being rotted by globalism for a while now.
@@GustafUNL Japan is so nationalistic they don’t even entertain the historical facts of their WW2 atrocities, not even that they say they were a necessary war act, but that they didn’t happen entirely. Japans’ dedication to its national work culture is why it will die out in a few decades as they end up with more elderly people then young people to take care of them.
This "comparison" is desperately grasping at straws. If you had mentioned the ONLY obvious similarity between the two polarisng cultures, the hot baths.... you may have actually succeeded in something ! But you didn't. This video is a complete failure !
But Romans have never been to Japan?
... no dude.
To China, maybe, through India, for embassy, but they had little contact with China and knew not about Japan
Bro wrote and posted a comment before even getting 17 seconds in (or he's just a bad listener).
The point of the video is the parallels between a society that still has natural pre-abrahamic spirituality and social ethics and the pre-christian Romans.