The Filial Piety Mountain : Kanno Hachirō and The Three Teachings

Abstract

This article examines the writings of Kanno Hachirō (1813–1888), a midscale farmer from Fukushima, and argues that the binary between “religion” (shūkyō) and “morality” (dōtoku) is of limited usefulness in comprehending his worldview. Hachirō wrote extensively on the virtue of filial piety (kō) and claimed that it represented the highest ideal of Confucianism, Shinto, and Buddhism. He expressed this through a diagram of what he called the Filial Piety Mountain (kōkōzan), in which he depicted Confucianism, Shinto, and Buddhism as three paths leading toward the summit. Utilizing recent scholarship that has illuminated the modern origin of the category of “religion,” this article highlights the absence of the dichotomy between “religion” and “morality” in Hachirō’s writings and his conception of the Filial Piety Mountain. Just as an uncritical imposition of the category of “religion” on premodern sources can result in distortions, approaching Hachirō’s writings through the modern lens of “morality” or “conventional morality” (tsūzoku dōtoku) that is apart from “religion” can lead to an overly compartmentalized view of his thought. The article suggests an alternative approach through Ann Swidler’s model of “cultural repertoire.”