Reiligion?

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Jun 30, 2006
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Spellman Household, Massachusetts
#1
Inspired by Minako-Fan's TA thread, I thought I should bring up something rarely touched on.

Rei attends a catholic school despite being a Shinto priestess. Seeing as in the anime she says the church is "against her family business" do you think attending such a school is difficult for her?

Lets compare the continuities too. In PGSM, she sings about there being no such thing as a god, and yet she is entrenched in two religions... There's something very interesting going on here.
 

Rhett Butler

Lumen Cinererum
Nov 4, 2012
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elsa-ss-shewolf.tumblr.com
#2
I know nothing about Japanese religions so you are going to have to hold my hand through this one, but couldn't she be a Buddhist or Confucianist (not sure if that's the right term)?

I had Jewish and Atheists friends go to catholic school since they were private and they never seemed to have much of a problem with it, but considering Rei has a song in PGSM about it I would say it's pretty safe to assume it bugs her.

I doubt there is much internal turmoil over it though.
 
Jun 30, 2006
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Spellman Household, Massachusetts
#3
I'm no expert either, but I'm thinking Confucianism is more of a Chinese thing? Rei is to my knowledge definitely Shinto, but her religion may also be influenced by Buddhism as well, as that had a way of mixing with other religions...

(I've had atheist friends who definitely had a problem with attending, bit that's neither here nor there...)

But I didn't think so much about the details of the religions when I posted this, asking as the isolation, the wearing of masks, and everyday having to walk along a path you don't believe.. Ouch...
 

teabot

Luna Crescens
Jul 6, 2012
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#4
i went to Catholic school, and while most of the students (and probably all of the teachers, as far as i know) were Catholic, some students were not. so it's entirely possible that Rei is attending the school just for prestige. afterall, if her father is a politician, makes sense that he would want his daughter in a private high-prestige school for image reasons.

Rei's shrine is most definitely Shinto, not Buddhist, and certainly not Confucianist. Confucianism is not entirely a religion, but it's definitely something that is Chinese. Shinto and Buddhism are the two prevalent organized religions in Japan, but Buddhist temples don't have torii gates. ("temples"--Buddhist--and "shrines"--Shinto--are not the same, so please be careful about the words you use!) the in front of the altar, Shinto shrines often have a rope attached to a bell, whereas Buddhist temples have a rope attached to a gong. in both cases you ring the bell/gong before praying/making your offering.

that being said, most people in Japan, while they follow a combination of Buddhist and Shinto traditions and conventions, don't consider themselves particularly religious. it's more an obligation/tradition thing than legitimate belief. so, it's quite possible that Rei, despite attending a Catholic school and working at a Shinto shrine is actually an atheist. it's not uncommon for children of temple/shrine families here to continue in the family business merely as business rather than as religious belief.

i would say that if Rei is religious, she is probably Shinto. she uses parts of Shintoism in her attacks (akuryotaisan) and we see her many times meditating and doing fire readings, so those do seem to indicate interest/belief. however, in the manga particularly, she seems to have ESP/super natural powers regardless of her religious affiliation. it's possible that she could be using religion as a way to deal with and attempt to understand these powers that other people shun her for.
 

Rhett Butler

Lumen Cinererum
Nov 4, 2012
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#5
^ That was incredibly informative.

I have yet to take a religious course in college, but that's certainly more than I ever learned in grade school.
I won't say they cheated us out of an education on eastern culture since our general ed is so thorough,but it was pretty superficial.
Thanks for the clarification.
 
Feb 12, 2012
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#6
Salem Saberhagen said:
Inspired by Minako-Fan's TA thread, I thought I should bring up something rarely touched on.

Rei attends a catholic school despite being a Shinto priestess. Seeing as in the anime she says the church is "against her family business" do you think attending such a school is difficult for her?

Lets compare the continuities too. In PGSM, she sings about there being no such thing as a god, and yet she is entrenched in two religions... There's something very interesting going on here.
IIRC Shinto are allowed too believe in other religions, so for Rei to go to a Catholic school wouldn't have to be against her beliefs. She goes to the school because it is a top tier education that shows off her families wealth.

Anime and Manga wise, Rei is shown to be extremely popular at her school, but she still doesn't have any close friends because of her psychic powers (not because of her religion). PGSM wise, she is bullied pretty badly because of her psychic powers.

In the Anime she comes off as pretty happy, and inspite of her anger issues, she seems to be easy going. She has no problems managing the talent show or the Juuban festival for her school. She made a comment about how a Christain Church is against her family business, but checking the episode it comes off as being just that, business. Nothing personal. She treats the Temple as a business more so than a religous service most of the time. So Anime wise it doesn't seem to be an issue.

In the Manga, she is shown to be very popular at school as well. We see her at school for an extended period of time during the school girl battle with Minako and nothing seems to trouble her about it.

I think that PGSM is the only version of the story where she has issues with it, and she's as angsty as it gets in PGSM and seems to have a lot of issues.
 

Rika-Chicchi

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May 7, 2009
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#7
Minako fan said:
She made a comment about how a Christain Church is against her family business, but checking the episode it comes off as being just that, business. Nothing personal. She treats the Temple as a business more so than a religous service most of the time.
Most, if not all, organized religions are businesses, & they even participate in various conventional business activities of the secular world as well. lol
 
Apr 1, 2017
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D-Point
#11
And Youma Boxsy is King of Kings! He said so, so it must be true.

Naru is shown praying in episode 87 as Usagi runs off. They don't say who to, though, and I'm not sure if that type of hand clasped maneuver is common to other religions. She approaches the christian priest in episode 26 who became Youma Boxsy, but that could just be because it was the first person she saw in the first graveyard she saw while she was out that day, in light of the grieving she was going through.

The Chronos thing is particularly interesting, because it's part of the invocation Chibi-Usa uses when activating the Key of Space-Time. That suggests Chronos is literally real to some extent in the Sailor Moon setting, and is involved in the time travel technology of Silver Millennium/Crystal Tokyo somehow... then again, Serenity (/Selene) and Endymion are also from Greek Mythology, though a lot of liberties are taken with regards to their societies and personal capabilities and such, so Sailor Moon's Chronos is probably a bit different from Greek Mythology's Chronos, too.

There's also Sailor Lethe in the manga. (Not to mention all these planet names are also Roman god names.)

And another thing many people miss if they aren't familiar with buddhism is that the Shitennou are mythological buddhist figures, the Four Heavenly Kings associated with the wind and the four cardinal directions. That's the basis for the territories they occupy in the Manga- Nephrite is West, Zoisite is North, Jadeite is East, Kunzite is South. The mineral association, though, is a Sailor Moon invention as far as I know, and obviously the personalities and specialties are up for debate. (Not like the God Jupiter is really known for shooting flowers, or the Moon or Selene associated with clumsiness, etc.) On top of that, Nephrite references a lot of astrological lore in the anime, so that's a whole other set of religious associations.

Anyway, these previous interpretations of Rei's attitudes sound about right to me (though I still haven't seen the live action series yet). Shinto and Buddhism are, as far as I understand it, very often practiced in tandem because the bulk of their content addresses different concerns (with Shinto focusing more on rituals for cleanliness and maintaining crops and practical orderly stuff like that, while Buddhism focuses more on deeper existential questions and ethical abstractions. At least, as far as I know, I'm no expert either).

But in particular, monotheism is not widely practiced in Japan, so from what I can tell Christianity gets casually lumped into life to various extents (depending on personal interest and social factors and stuff), but not to the exclusion of other practices, contrasted with the United States where exclusive monotheism is much more common.

Christian symbols are also used very casually as a stylish or almost slightly magical thing in japan, particularly crosses. Naru Narusegawa in Love Hina routinely wears a cross necklace (at least in the manga), but there are no other signs of her practicing that religion and she instead attends various shinto rituals during the story (to say nothing of the random weird magic in that setting). And then you've got things where it's playing off it more deliberately, but still treating it in a bit of a fantastical way, like Castlevania, where crosses are a magic weapon good against the undead and most often act like boomerangs.

So basically, Rei probably puts more personal investment into Shinto than Christianity, but she can still attend a Christian school due to various cultural reasons, and be friendly with it without that really violating her own religious convictions. But that attitude might or might not be fully appreciated by the people running the school, though they are also probably pretty used to that sort of thing. I assume there's some sort of longstanding set of rules about how people working for such institutions even approach bringing up the monotheism issue, and that it amounts to 'very carefully'.
 
Sep 6, 2014
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#14
Rhett Butler said:
I know nothing about Japanese religions so you are going to have to hold my hand through this one, but couldn't she be a Buddhist or Confucianist (not sure if that's the right term)?
.
Well she’s a shinto priestess so I’ll give you a hint of what her religion is.


Hint: It’s Shinto
 

lord Martiya

Aurorae Lunares
Dec 11, 2015
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#15
I don't it matters at all, as we're not dealing with a westerner here, but a Japanese going to a Japanese school, and last I checked they don't care much about religion as long as it's not mixed-up with politics.
 
Jan 16, 2017
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Italy
#16
I read somewhere that in Japan Catholic schools are nothing more than prestigious private schools so it does make sense for her to attend one. Anyway I attended myself a catholic school and I deeply regret it, I wish I attended a public school.
 

Clow

Quasar
Jul 29, 2012
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#17
That PGSM song makes no sense, imo. They use English sentences without taking into account semantic connotations.
 

Rika-Chicchi

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#18
SignorinaTsukino said:
I read somewhere that in Japan Catholic schools are nothing more than prestigious private schools so it does make sense for her to attend one.
One isn't required to be a Catholic to attend a Catholic school - in fact, non-Catholic students are welcome in such schools since there's the possibility that they may eventually be converted. The teaching staff may be required to be, tho. :)
 
Dec 2, 2006
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#19
I think that Rei and Minako weren t catholic...but why Minako was praying at the church?? ^_^'
and why Rei and Minako helped the dog of the church?? :keke:
(I remember that Minako chan had a lot more dog food that Rei chan!!) =^_^=

I think that japanese people have respect for christians!! =^_^=
(in Saint Seiya s anime, for example, Seiya s friend was praying at the church while Seiya was fighting!! =^_^= )
 

Rika-Chicchi

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May 7, 2009
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#20
sakuraxchan said:
I think that Rei and Minako weren t catholic...but why Minako was praying at the church?? ^_^'
and why Rei and Minako helped the dog of the church?? :keke:
Because it just feels cool to them to add the church/Catholic elements into the plot, especially visual-wise, I guess. :)