iias newsletter 47
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- T H E M E N e w R e l i g i o u s M o v e m e n t s I I A S N E W S L E T T E R 4 7 S p r i n g 0 0 8
- New religions as multinationals
- Prof. Hideaki Matsuoka
- Ethnic Breakdown among Japanese New Religions in Brazil in 1967 Religious ethnic other %)
- History of China
- ‘Guarapiranga’. Messianity’s sacred place. Courtesy of Messianity.
T H E M E N e w R e l i g i o u s M o v e m e n t s I I A S N E W S L E T T E R # 4 7 S p r i n g 0 0 8 religions in Brazil in 1967 is shown in Table 1. According to this research, Messianity had the highest percentage of non-ethnic Japanese among the six groups (although since 1967 this percentage has increased in Seicho-No-Ie and PL also). We can con- clude that, from the outset, Messianity has propagated itself among non-ethnic Japa- nese Brazilians more eagerly than other groups, and has been very successful in the project. There are indications that the leaders of Messianity at its Japanese head- quarters, were, at that time, experiencing ambivalent feelings towards this remark- able achievement. On the one hand, they were pleased to be realising Okada’s slo- gan “Messianity should be international”, but at the same time they were afraid that Messianity would become ‘Brazilianised.’ Faced with the increase of non-ethnic Japanese Brazilians followers, the Brazil- ian leaders started considering certain procedures which might help maintain the church’s identity. One of the main pil- lars of this identity maintenance project was a seminarist system started in Brazil in 1971. In the beginning, the number of seminarists was around five, but in the last 20 years, five to ten seminarists have been sent to Japan for a year or two after being trained at the headquarters in São Paulo, to study Japanese language and culture and even proselytise in Japan. Messian- ity branches in Korea, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Angola, and Portugal have adopted the seminarist system, but the Brazilian one has been the most organised. These seminarists, including both eth- nic and non-ethnic Japanese Brazilians, become the elite of Messianity in Brazil and globally. After completing their train- ing in Japan, their main duty will be pros- elytisation and some of them are most definitely destined to become leaders of Messianity both in Brazil and worldwide. In terms of its organisational ties with Japan, it is highly significant that Messian- ity sends seminarists to Japan to experi- ence the culture of the country from which the group emerged.
multinationals? I return to the comparison of Japanese new religions with Japanese multinational corporations. In general, when Japanese companies start business abroad they establish affiliated overseas companies as subsidiaries. Kono suggests there are three types of management in these subsidiaries (Kono 1984). The first type is a subsidiary whose president and departmental or sec- tion managers are all expatriate Japanese, posted to the venture from Japan. A newly established overseas company or a com- pany that is eager to raise productivity tends to adopt this pattern. The second type is a company in which only the engi- neering and finance departments are con- trolled by Japanese managers. This type of company is typical of those with a strong focus on engineering and thus it employs many Japanese engineers. The last type is a company that employs many local execu- tives and the role of expatriate Japanese is as consultants, Only the president, the manager of the finance department, and staff who support these local line manager executives are Japanese. This type is seen among companies that have a long his- tory of doing business overseas. Based on Kono’s argument, it is possible that a com- pany with the first type of management style would adopt the third type in the long run. It was in 1955 when two young Mes- sianity followers started its proselytisation without financial support from the Japa- nese headquarters. But in the 1960s, the headquarters sent young Japanese mis- sionaries to Brazil and started dominating Brazilian Messianity. Thus, Messianity has fallen into the the first category since the 1960s. But ‘Brazilianisation’ has been pro- gressing steadily in this new religion. As previously mentioned, in 1992 there were 14 Reverends; 13 were ethnic Japanese who came from Japan and one was an ethnic Japanese Brazilian. In 2008, by contrast, there exist 37 Reverends; 13 ethnic Japa- nese from Japan, five ethnic Japanese Brazilians, and 19 non-ethnic Japanese Brazilians. So far in Brazil, there has not been a Japa- nese new religion that resembles the third type of Kono’s classification, in which Jap- anese act as consultants. But in the near future, it seems likely that Messianity will adopt the third type of management style and the organisation has been preparing for it.
Prof. Hideaki Matsuoka National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), Japan Lecturer, University of Tokyo, Japan nakahiro@idc.minpaku.ac.jp
Hulbert, James M. and William K. Brandt. 1980. Managing the Multinational Subsidiary. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Kono, Toyohiro. 1984 Strategy and Structure
Sharpe.
Maeyama, Takashi. 1983. “Japanese Religions in Southern Brazil: Change and Syncretism.” Latin American Studies (University of Tsukuba) No. 6: 181-238. Matsuoka, Hideaki. 2007. Japanese Prayer
ington.
Matsuoka, Hideaki and Ronan Alves Pereira. 2007. “Japanese Religions in Brazil: Their Development in and out of the Diaspora Soci- ety.” In Pereira, Ronan Alves and Matsuoka Hideaki, eds., Japanese Religions In and beyond
Studies. University of California at Berkeley. Nakamaki, Hirochika. 1986. Shin Sekai no
Table 1
Ethnic Breakdown among Japanese New Religions in Brazil in 1967 Religious ethnic other %) Group Japanese Brazilians (%) O¯moto 50 50 Tenri Kym 100 0 Seicho-No-Ie 99–100 0–1 Messianity 40 60 PL 80–90 10–20 Smka Gakkai 100 0 Kunsthal, Rotterdam 14 June to 7 September 2008 In anticipation of the Olympic Games Kunsthal Rotterdam presents a broad selection of Chinese posters, originating from the two largest and interna- tionally authoritative collections in the world.‘China in Posters’ provides the audience with an historical survey of seven decennia of Chinese poster art, in which both the periods before, during and after Mao are covered. Some of the posters on display are extremely rare and no longer available in China. This exhibition belongs to a successful series of exhibitions on Asian Art — in 2004 for instance, the Kunsthal presented a large collection of North Korean Propaganda Art. History of China The posters visualize the modern history of China from the thirties up to the Olympic Games in 2008. Workers, farmers and soldiers set an example to the public during The Great Leap Forward (1958-1960) by working firmly on creating the China as Mao had envisioned it: an industrial nation with an enormous steel production. During the Cultural Revolution the posters showed wildly enthusiastic men and women waving their red books fana- tically. In the course of time the tone of the political message and the way people were portrayed changed. Although propaganda and symbolism re- mained present in the posters that were produced after the death of Mao in 1976, the militant and political messages were more and more pushed aside to make way for posters stimulating and canalizing consumptive behaviour. Western influence had evidently reached China.
+ 31 (0) 10 4400301, www.kunsthal.nl
Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 5pm, Sundays and public holidays 11am - 5pm China in Posters: The Dreamt Reality [ a d v e r t i s e m e n t ] ‘Guarapiranga’. Messianity’s sacred place. Courtesy of Messianity. Yüklə 7,41 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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