Hōji

Hōji is a Japanese word meaning “(Buddhist) memorial services.” I put “Buddhist” in parentheses because nowadays many of the so-called “New Religions” in Japan also observe rites of the same origin and impetus. And in the history of the rites, the tradition now known as Shinto also played a role. The rites, then, can be understood as a good example or artifact of the syncretic process that shapes all religions.

The word hōji is comprised of two compound Chinese characters, one, hō, meaning “law, rule, principle; legislation, regulation; code; method, way, model, manner, system, process, art, technique; rites, religion, doctrine; reason; mood (of verbs);” and another, ji, meaning “thing” or “matter”. Taken together, hoji might literally be rendered “a matter of method” or “a thing of process,” or “a matter of principle.” In this latter meaning, I find some resonance with the Christian concept of “logos” which, from the Greek, means “reason, principle, logic” and other associated concepts, even “concept” itself! So hōji is, in my estimation, a model or manner of ritual observance that has as its effect a regulatory or artful result.

Definitions taken from The Modern Reader‘s Japanese-English Character Dictionary (Second Revised Edition) by Andrew Nathaniel Nelson, published by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Rutland, VT, 1962. pp. 539 and 105.