Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 51, Am Shinrikyo.

This week, we'll be discussing the background of the worst terrorist attack in Japanese

history. Where did the cult known as Am Shinrikyo come from, and why did it do what it did?

To understand this story, we have to go back to the 19th century with the first arrival of Western ideas in Asia.

Very often, when two different intellectual traditions meet, the result is a blending.

Very often each of these traditions has something to them.

After all, if they did not, it would be pretty strange if they sustained themselves for long

at all.

So the natural human thing to do is to try and find the best of both.

You see this, for example, in the Middle Ages in Europe, with the blending of Norse and Christian

religion.

For example, early medieval depictions of Jesus have a surprising amount in common

with depictions of the Azir of Norse myth, especially Thor. In one example, an early medieval

version of the crucifixion has Jesus jumping onto the cross in order to battle death himself

in single combat. Not something would associate with our modern image of

Jesus. If you want to look this up, it's from a poem called The Dream of the Rood.

In the Islamic world, Islam was blended rather seamlessly with the thought of the ancient Greek

philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle. Actually, much of what we know about the ancient Greeks

comes to us via the

Arab world. In Asia, the arrival of Buddhism in China touched off movements to adopt some of

its ideas and practices into native traditions like Taoism and Confucianism.

And of course, we've already talked about the blending of Shinto and Buddhism in Japan,

...