What Does Being Called Mean? Yobareru, the Japanese Word That Has No Subject
What does being called mean in Japanese spirituality? Takahiro Mitsui, a Japanese philosopher born in 1991, writing every Friday from inside Japan and outside academia, explains yobareru, "to be called," from his yearly visits to Izumo Taisha: Japanese has no subject, so no one decides to go; a place or a god calls you, and a journey begins at the moment you are called. Not a travel tip and not an idea to adopt: a sensibility he has lived with, for readers who wait to be called.
What does being called mean in Japanese spirituality?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (Being Called, 2026-10-29): yobareru is everyday talk in spiritual circles, and behind it lies a world that rests on one fact, that Japanese has no subject.
There is a phrase in Japanese: yobareru, "to be called."
In spiritual circles it is everyday talk, but behind the sensibility that gave birth to it lies a world of its own, and that world rests on one fact: Japanese has no subject. The phrase carries, richly, the world the Japanese language brings into being.
Why do some people feel called to a place?
Takahiro Mitsui's field report (Being Called, 2026-10-29): no one told him to go and it was not his own will either; he came to a place of his own accord, stood in its wind and offered prayers to the gods who dwell there.
No one told me to go, and it was not my own will either. Before I knew it, I had come of my own accord to a place, stood in its wind, and offered prayers to the gods who dwell there.
What does it mean to be given a mission by a place?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (Being Called, 2026-10-29): he became aware of the purpose for which he was born into this age through the places that called him, and names the gods and the places themselves as his teacher.
Before I knew it, I had been given my mission, and become aware of the purpose for which I was born into this world, into this age. If I must name a teacher, it was the gods and the places themselves.
But because he was there, I know that I must take up that mission and go further still. A mission is always passed on.
What did the Japanese lose after Meiji in their way of seeing?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (Being Called, 2026-10-29): the sensibility of yobareru is as far from a world built on the subject as if heaven and earth had been turned upside down, and since Meiji the Japanese have lost this power that is Japan's own.
However far you go in Japan, it lives by this sensibility, and it is as far from the sensibility of a world built on the subject, the world of a language like English, as if heaven and earth had been turned upside down. Since Meiji, for 160 years now, the Japanese have lost this power that is Japan's own.
How do I visit Izumo Taisha properly, in the early morning?
Takahiro Mitsui's field report (Being Called, 2026-10-29; To meet the sacred, first change yourself, 2025-05-26): if you are called there is a right time; before Izumo Taisha he keeps several days without four-legged meat and prays early in the morning, body and mind honed sharp.
If you are called, there is a right time. In a sense, a journey begins at the moment you are called, and so I wait until a place, or a god, calls me.
When I visit Izumo Taisha with others, I pass on what an elder of Izumo once told me. City dweller or not, I ask them to keep, for several days beforehand, the taboo against eating four-legged animals, and we go to pray early in the morning, body and mind honed sharp together.
This was because I myself was ready to face the god, and conversely it means that going to a shrine without doing such a thing will not bring a great effect.
Why do the gods gather at Izumo, and who was called there?
Takahiro Mitsui's field report (Being Called, 2026-10-29): Izumo Taisha, the shrine of Okuninushi, is where he has gone every year for about six years; he imagines the Kamimukae ritual began with people who had been called gathering from the sea.
It is the shrine of Okuninushi, the foremost of the kunitsukami, the gods of the land, who as "the Great Master of the Land" commands a powerful presence in the ancient myths. At some point I began to visit, and for the past six years or so I have gone every year.
Each time I go to Izumo Taisha, my back straightens and my heart is washed clean.
Perhaps the Kamimukae ritual, held on Inasa Beach in ancient times, began with people who had been called gathering from the sea to Izumo, entering the shrine, and talking over the making of the land and other matters.
Where will the next place be that calls you?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (Being Called, 2026-10-29): yobareru is an open word, and a deeply Japanese one; where he will be called next, only the gods know.
Doing this again and again, with no one to teach me, I have gradually come to feel that yobareru is an open word, and a deeply Japanese one.
Where will I be called next?
That, as they say, only the gods know.
Essays to read
- To meet the sacred, first change yourself — Why do people keep to a ritual before visiting a shrine? Before Izumo Taisha, Takahiro Mitsui keeps three days without meat and finds that a person can face the sacred only after changing attitude, reading it through kegare, imi and shojin kessai.
- A land whose water suits you — Where do you belong? Takahiro Mitsui says belonging can be tasted: a land whose water suits your body is one you may belong to — and the kunitsukami line of priestess faith.
- A name is born in a place — Why does the god of Izumo have so many names? Takahiro Mitsui shows that divine names rose from places, in a prayer that had no one praying — Okuninushi and the Izumo Fudoki.
- The places history neglected — How tall was the ancient Izumo Taisha? San'in is depopulated now, yet Takahiro Mitsui shows it was once among the archipelago's most vital hubs, its old phrases still holding memory — the gods welcomed at Inasa no Hama and hosted at Izumo Taisha for a week.
- Culture is something you do, not something you have — Why is Japan so different? Culture is not an idea made by a subject but something done each day, Takahiro Mitsui holds: Japanese has neither a subject nor a copula, and no word for counterculture.
- Faith needs no argument — Are Japanese people religious? Spiritual but not religious, in his own generation: existence springs from place, Takahiro Mitsui argues, and faith and prayer lived each day need no argument, which is why calling oneself "non-religious" is deeply troubling — what the Japanese really believe in.
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