The Jews in Japan
Background Information on the Jews of Japan
There have been rumors for years that one of the 10 Lost Tribes migrated the land of the rising sun. While this claim is often dismissed as being fanciful, there are nevertheless a number of interesting articles worth reading.
The most extensive articles on the Jews of Japan are here and here (both written by Arimas Kubo).
Here are some of the main claims in the articles:
Japanese Tefillin?
A festival called “Ontohsai” is held on April 15 every year and illustrates the story of the sacrifice of Isaac in Chapter 22 of Genesis. At the festival, a boy is tied up by a rope to a wooden pillar, and placed on a bamboo carpet. A Shinto priest comes to him preparing a knife, and he cuts a part of the top of the wooden pillar, but then a messenger (another priest) comes, and the boy is released. Animal sacrifices are then offered (75 deer with their ear split – the author speculates that this has a connection with the ram that God prepared and was sacrificed after Isaac was released. Since the ram was caught in the thicket by the horns, the ear might have been split).
The custom of the boy was maintained until the beginning of Meiji era. Masumi Sugae, who was a Japanese scholar and a travel writer in the Edo era (about 200 years ago), wrote a record of his travels and noted what he saw at Suwa. The record shows the details of “Ontohsai.” His records are kept at the museum near Suwa-Taisha.
At the back of the shrine “Suwa-Taisha,” there is a mountain called Mt. Moriya (“Moriya-san” in Japanese). The people from the Suwa area call the god of Mt. Moriya “Moriya no kami,” which means, the “god of Moriya.” This shrine is built to worship the “god of Moriya.” It is said that the God of Moriya has existed among the people for 78 generations. Moriah in ancient Israel is the location where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac.
A “Yamabushi” – a certain type of religious man in Japan – ties a black small box called a “tokin” with a black cord to his forehead. This is similar to the Jewish tefillin (phylacteries). However, the “tokin” is round and flower-like.
Here’s a video that tries to show the connection between the Jews and the Japanese. Note at about 3:25 in the video you can see Japanese men wearing “tefillin.”
The yamabushi also used a large seashell as a horn, which the article claims is reminiscent of a shofar. There is also a legend where a yamabushi-like character receives a “tora-no-maki” – derived from “Torah?” (No real Torah scrolls have ever been found in Japan.)
The Japanese carry an ark called “omikoshi” during festivals. There is some resemblance to the Israelites’ ark of the covenant. The Japanese sing and dance in front of it with song to the sounds of musical instruments. The Japanese carry the “omikoshi” on their shoulders with poles – usually two poles, which also has similarities to the Israelites carrying the ark.
The similarities continue: the Israelite ark had two statues of gold kruvim (a type of angel) on its top. Japanese “omikoshi” also have on its top a gold bird (called a “Ho-oh”). The “omikoshi” are often overlaid partly and sometimes entirely with gold. At the Shinto shrine festival of “Gion-jinja” in Kyoto, men carry “omikoshi,” then enter a river, and cross it – a connection with the Israelites exodus from Egypt? (Although the ark was not fashioned until after the crossing of the Red Sea.)
Similarity to the fringes of the Jewish tallit?
The Japanese Shinto priest robe has cords of 20-30 centimeters long (about 10 inches) hung from the corners of the robe. These fringes are similar to those of the ancient Israelites and on today’s tallit.
Shinto priests also wear a rectangle of cloth on their robes that the author says have similarities to the ephod of the Jewish priest (the Kohen).
A bit more of a tenuous connection: Japanese priests often wave a tree branch, which could be similar to the waving of the lulav during the Jewish festival of Sukkot.
The structure of the Japanese temple has certain similarities to the Jewish Holy of Holies. Both are divided into two parts. Ordinary Japanese can only pray in front of the holy place and cannot enter inside. The Shinto priest enters his Holy of Holies only at special times during the year.
The “temizuya” at the entrance to a Japanese shrine allows worshippers to wash their hands and feet, a custom also practiced in ancient Israelite times.
Moving past the shrine, there is a custom in Japan to eat a porridge with bitter herbs on January 15th. Jews eat bitter herbs for Passover, also on the 15th of the month (although in this case, it is the 15th of the Jewish month of Nisan).
It has been a custom in Japan since ancient times that a woman during menstruation cannot attend holy events at shrine. She cannot have sex with her husband and had to shut herself up in a shed (called “Gekkei-goya” in Japanese) until about 7 days after menstruation has ended. These customs were in effect until about 100 years ago.
Although the custom of women needing to move to a separate dwelling during menstruation is seen in other cultures (Thailand, certain parts of Africa), there are certainly a number of similarities to the Jewish rules of the mikveh, including a law in Japanese tradition that when the woman has passed the 7 day period, she needs to purify herself in a natural body of water such as a river, spring, or the sea.
In addition to the article cited above, Rabbi Marvin Tokayer spent many years living in Japan where he served as rabbi following his discharge from the army. He has written extensively on the subject. An article about Rabbi Tokayer can be found here.
His website is rabbitokayer.com.
As long as we are on the subject of Japan, here is an article about the Jews of Kobe – not an ancient community at all but rather one that was founded in the late 1800s by Jewish traders shortly after Japan was opened to Western commerce.