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Baika beginnings
The story of baika sheds some additional light on the development of Sotoshu as a denomination. Baika as a coherent effort is not an ancient part of the Soto Zen tradition; it was only official in 1952, 74 years ago. Today it’s practiced by both clergy and laity in temple groups called baikako. In the late 1980s there were 170-thousand members around the world; since then, numbers are down and today there are maybe 100-thousand. As we've seen elsewhere, that’s not surprising given Japan’s declining birth rate, aging population and increased population mobility. It ’s another example of external forces at work on Sotoshu. Various karmic circumstances have influenced the development of baika practice: things going on within the denomination, in society as a whole, and in the lives of the practitioners within temples. Baika falls under the umbrella of goeika, literally songs of praise, within Japanese Buddhism as a whole. Baika is the particularly Soto Zen form, but it’s a relative latecomer to the goeika world. The Shingon sect practiced goeika beginning in 1921, Rinzai Zen in 1936, Jodo or Pure Land in 1945, and finally Soto Zen in 1952. There are subsets under Shingon, Jodo and Rinzai goeika, smaller branch traditions of goeika. We can see that some of these were established before WWII and some came after. Some of the smaller branches sort of disappeared during the war and restarted afterward, partly because it then became more possible to get together and put time into the practice, and partly because folks wanted to commemorate those who died in the war. One reason for goeika’s increasing visibility after the war was that a number of large-scale chanting competitions and services were happening. Some were war memorials, some were prayers for world peace, and there was the completion of a main hall at Eiheiji, which was broadcast nationwide. There was also a national poetry competition to commemorate Shakyamuni’s enlightenment, with 3,000 participants. All of these things attracted public attention and there was a resurgence of interest in goeika. Of course, all this was happening as the country continued to recover from postwar chaos and upheaval. Big social change was happening: liberalization of speech, increased participation of women, and the resumption of creative and cultural activities in all areas. Buddhist music is not left out of this flourishing; the Japan Religious Music Association founded 1948 with the purpose of promoting Buddhist music by publishing songs and participating in concerts. However, this was just the latest in a longer history of using music to spread Buddhism that goes back to Meiji era (at the end of the 1800s). There was a Buddhist Music Association within the Ministry of Education, so promoting Buddhist music as a way of promoting Buddhist faith was national policy. This is an interesting intersection of spreading Japan’s traditional faith using Western musical forms as a counter to an influx of Christian hymns. During WWII all of this was suspended, but after the war people turned to Buddhism to help them recover and there was increased interest in Buddhist music. Various sects were holding ceremonies and concerts, and for its part, in 1946 Sotoshu’s Social Affairs Department released a peace song as part of its public education efforts. The music and lyrics were written by famous people and there was a children’s dance associated with it. Sojiji hosted a performance for the first postwar Obon festival, and a lot of celebrities, broadcasters and the general public were there. The song spread widely and peace dance festivals started to spring up all over country in the following years. Sotoshu released another piece in 1949 with lyrics by the same person who wrote the Shushogi. We can see that baika and Shushogi are connected as means of reaching out to people with approachable ways to practice. Singing is fun and not difficult, everyone can participate, and when you do you’re surrounded by dharma words, singing them and hearing them. You’re also building relationships with the temple and the other people there. All of that sits within Sotoshu’s larger initiatives related to missionary work and religious education. On New Year’s Day 1946 the Emperor issued the “Imperial Rescript Concerning the Construction of a New Japan.” This document is important because it declares that the Emperor is human, rather than a divine being, and that’s a massive change in the positioning of the imperial court. Up to this point, the belief had been that the emperors are direct descendents of the gods who created Japan. In the rescript, the Emperor says: We must abandon the old ways , listen to the will of the people, and work together as a government and the people to fully embrace pacifism, cultivate a rich culture, and thereby improve the lives of the people and build a new Japan. The national effort turns to reversing wartime policies and moving toward peace and democracy. Building a new Japan becomes the project at all levels, and we see the same thing happening in Buddhism. There were myriad articles and discussions about how Buddhism should approach building a new Japan. Every Buddhist sect aligned its educational policies with this overarching theme of building a new Japan, and we can see the objective for Sotoshu publishing peace songs and spreading them around, for instance. Today there are those who would say that Buddhism and Soto Zen were just trying to get in good with the government; others would say that they were simply trying to do their bit and participate cooperatively in national rebuilding. You can decide what you think. Under this broader Buddhist umbrella, Sotoshu developed its own particular initiative, a social education campaign called “construction of a Japan of true Dharma” policy, announced in 1952. What the chief administrator said about it is: “Construction of a Japan of True Dharma” means the establishment of an ideal society based on the Buddhist teachings that have been directly and authentically inherited from the founder Shakyamuni Buddha, that is, the Soto Zen doctrine, and the manifestation of a land of true Dharma on this earth. In other words, it is the realization of an ideal society based on the teachings of the Soto Zen sect. There were three slogans that went with campaign: “A bright Japan, correct faith, and harmonious living.” Construction of a Japan of true dharma was centralized within Sotoshu for some time, and it’s no coincidence that the baika vows reflects these three slogans, because the campaign and the organization of baika as a practice both began in 1952. The baika vows are:
Sometimes we chant them before a baika class or at a baika conference. The first issue of “Baika” magazine in May 1960 says: All concerned should practice the Baika chanting method with consistency between words and actions, practice the ancestral way for the sake of the ancestral way, help all people attain ‘"correct faith," enter into "harmonious living," dedicate themselves to building a "bright society," and fulfill their true role as masters in the "construction of a true Dharma Japan." We can really see the relationship here and how baika practice was aimed at helping to build a healthy society based on Soto Zen teachings. Practitioners were encouraged to make themselves, their families and the world better. So why call this thing baika? Baika means plum blossom. You may recall that Dogen wrote a Shobogenzo fascicle called baika, and the word "baika" also appears in Keizan’s Denkoroku, so it reflects both founders. A teacher at Eiheiji wrote in 1947: The plum blossom is added to the orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo to form the Four Gentlemen. The plum blossom is diverse in variety, yet it maintains its beauty, and in its ability to grow in mountainous areas and emit a pure fragrance after enduring the harsh cold, it should truly be called the foremost of the Four Gentlemen. Those who study Zen together should consider this plum blossom in the snow as a good friend in their studies. The Four Gentlemen are considered the best subjects for painting, and here the plum blossom is listed first. The point usually made about the plum blossom is that it represents endurance and perseverance. It blooms very early in the year, before the worst of the winter cold has passed, and yet it emits a pure fragrance. Just like the plum blossom and also like our ancestors who undertook various challenging practices, we should learn from that spirit. Put this into the context of a society recovering from pretty devastating postwar conditions, and we can understand why baika was both a comforting practice to individuals and one that would have a positive and meaningful result in the world. “Hang on, prosperity is coming” was the message for years while reconstruction was happening, and Soto Zen was positioning itself as a symbol of the transition from hardship and postwar chaos to a blossoming new society, and baika practice was one way to do that. Things really came together for baika as an organized practice in the late 1940s as Sotoshu looked ahead to the Dogen’s 700th anniversary in 1952. Niwa Butsuan was the head of Eiheiji from 1945 to 1948, and he was already thinking about the anniversary seven years away. He thought the plan they had was outdated and not very interesting, since there was nothing new and it was all just formalities. Sotoshu didn’t have own goeika form or branch yet, and he wanted to create a song and biography for Dogen for the anniversary. He was still advocating for this even after he stepped back as the head of Eiheiji in 1950. Ultimately indeed baika came about and we do have several songs of praise for Dogen, as well as for Keizan and for the head temples. Butsuan was also instrumental in getting people engaged in baika singing. He would visit temples whose clergy he knew and invite them to hold events and study groups. There were two-day lectures and workshops once a month. Some of the most important baika singers and teachers have been the nuns, and this is in the midst of historically lower status for women in Soto Zen. Their ability to participate in decisionmaking or be appointed as missionaries or heads of temples had been limited. Around the time of the war, there was a nuns’ movement to improve what they called their miserable situation. A nuns' association was formed and in 1950 the head nun (Kojima Kendo) was appointed to Sotoshu’s council. She was a strong advocate for the rights of nuns, and as baika developed, three nuns were sent to a Shingon temple to study Buddhist hymns. These three nuns had no music background and didn’t know the scales, so it was a real challenge, but they persevered, and now nuns had way to be active in spreading the dharma. In 1952, the first baika record was released, and it featured singing by these three; two of them went on to become major teachers and they established training for other nuns. There was a three-day program that included not only training in singing the songs, but also lectures on what we today would call priestcraft, like methods of preaching or how to talk about the dharma. This was huge opportunity for 10 - 20 nuns at a time. In 1951, Sotoshu started establishing an external Buddhist hymn-writing association. It began by investigating existing schools, formulating lyrics for Soto Zen Buddhist hymns, and considering a name for the school; this would ultimately be the framework for organized baika. By the end of the year it had a set of initial songs with lyrics. These were about Shakyamuni, Dogen, Keizan, Eiheiji, Sojiji, and the themes of the Shushogi, and the canon has continued to expand since then. If we look at the initial canon, we can see emphasis on one Buddha two founders (ichibutsu ryoso) and on the head temples. The songs related to Dogen come from his waka poems, and the one about Shushogi came from a poem by the person who wrote that text. Others were written by Sotoshu leaders of the time . Lyrics weren’t much of a problem, but what to do about the music? Since this was all completely new for Sotoshu, at first it re-used melodies from other Buddhist sects -- mostly Shingon, which seemed to be the best fit. Sotoshu also commissioned the head of a particular Shingon goeika branch to write music for its lyrics and train an initial group of teachers. Now we have Soto Zen lyrics with Shingon music, and also the Shingon musical notation. It doesn’t look like a Western music staff; it’s a series of symbols and lines that indicate pitch, duration and the next interval. With lyrics and music, in hand, the next need was for instruments (bells). These too come from the Shingon tradition. We treat these the way we treat our oryoki sets or sutra books or robes, as ritual items or relics of Buddha and not just musical instruments. Overall, these things represent Buddha’s compassion in saving beings, so they’re handled carefully. That’s part of the larger element of deportment that goes with baika singing. Just like we take a posture for zazen and practice carefully with that and the forms, there are a lot of forms for baika. From an early baika manual from 1954: 1. The Baika-ryu school adheres to the doctrines of the Soto Zen sect, relies on the true Dharma, and aims to praise the virtues of the Buddha and patriarchs and to promote the true Dharma through the singing of hymns. 2. Therefore, when singing, one must adhere to the doctrine that “dignified deportment is the Buddhadharma, and etiquette is the principle of our school” [igi soku buppo, saho kore shushi] so that every action and gesture becomes a physical act of preaching, every word or phrase becomes a verbal act of preaching, and the expression of the pure mind before the mouth is even opened becomes a silent mental act of preaching. Here we’re talking about body, speech and mind, the three things that create karma. In the Shingon tradition, these are the three mysteries. We inherit the reference to body, speech and mind from the Shingon origins of baika, but it means something different to us. 3. Therefore, when you sing the hymns, you become the Bodhisattva of Wonderful Sound, singing on behalf of the Buddha and the patriarchs. Thus, when you recite, you must understand that your form is a manifestation of the revered Buddha on the lotus pedestal, and you must maintain the most reverent attitude. The bodhisattva of wonderful sound is Myo-on Bosatsu. In Chapter 24 of the Lotus Sutra, Myo-on travels here to the world of samsara to pay homage to Shakyamuni Buddha and the sutra, and demonstrates the ability to manifest in 34 different forms to teach the dharma. In some texts, Myo-on Bosatsu is another name for Manjusri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. 4. Therefore, all sitting, movement, and actions from entering to leaving the hall must conform to the Zen state of “both walking and sitting are Zen,” and should inspire a feeling of reverence in those who observe. This is a reference to the four postures of Zen: walking, sitting, standing and lying down, a reminder that there is no time when we’re not practicing and watching our deportment. We can see that baika sits at the intersection of our own practice to deepen our insight and understanding and the outward manifestation of awakening as a guide and inspiration to others. Even if we don’t take up singing as a practice, there’s plenty here we can apply to the way we sit zazen and move through the world. In these challenging times, it can be interesting to see how Sotoshu aimed to participate in creating a particular kind of postwar society. It was willing to ask, “How can we realize an ideal society based on the teachings of Buddha and Soto Zen?” |
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