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The Founding of the Baikaryū: Goeika Hymn Chanting in the Postwar Sōtō School Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2024-06-11 Michaela Mross
This article explores the founding of the Baikaryū, the Sōtō school’s lineage of goeika hymn chanting. In the 1920s, Buddhist reformers in other schools developed lineages of singing goeika and in this process standardized the performance practice. Seeing the great popularity of goeika hymn chanting, Sōtō clerics created their goeika lineage in the 1950s, strongly influenced by the Shingon goeika lineages
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Amabiko: The Oceanic Ape and Its Rhizomatic Body Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Andrea Castiglioni
The amabiko アマビコ is a chimerical aquatic hybrid similar to an oceanic ape with oracular and thaumaturgic powers, which inspired ludic and religious micro-practices in the late Edo (1603–1868) and early Meiji periods (1868–1912). The present study investigates the genealogy of the amabiko and the pivotal role played by itinerant sellers known as news criers (yomiuri) in the diffusion of images and stories
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From Hucksters to Holy Men Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Caleb Carter
Men who roamed Japan’s mountains, conducting austerities for the benefit of themselves and others, have been historically viewed along an opposing set of extremes, ranging from wonderworkers, immortals, and other Buddhist ideal types to charlatans, social deviants, and subhumans. The ascetic’s ritual space—the mountains—functioned as a geographical other that could either arouse Buddhist awakening
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A Magnificent Empress, A Brilliant Old Man, and an Ugly Navigator Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Emily B. Simpson
Although the legend of Empress Jingū and her divinely mandated conquest of the Korean peninsula first appeared in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, narratives of Empress Jingū proliferated in the fourteenth century. Following the Mongol Invasions, shifts in worldview, particularly regarding Japan’s relationship with the Asian continent, contributed to changes in how kami were conceptualized. In late medieval
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Stomping on Sacred Grounds Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2024-01-18 Christoph Reichenbaecher
This paper investigates the changes in the uncanny expressed in historical examples of sumo wrestling. Various pre-modern instances show sumo as a wild and relentless combat, often resulting in the injury or death of one of the wrestlers. However, due to sociopolitical changes in the early Edo period (1600–1868), a new mode of conduct emerged at shrines and temples that complied with regulations in
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Establishing Shintō Funerals in Edo Japan: Negotiating with Confucian and Buddhist Rituals Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2023-11-21 Tiantian Tan
In early modern Japan, the Buddhist monopoly on death-related rituals eventually triggered a movement for the development of Shintō funerals. Based on an analysis of ritual texts produced by several Shintō groups—Yoshida Shintō, Yoshikawa Shintō, Suika Shintō, and Kokugaku Shintō—this study delineates how each group adopted and localized Confucian discourses to establish Shintō funerals during the
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Reframing the Human-Fish in the Edo and Meiji Periods Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2023-06-02 Andrea Castiglioni
This article explores the history of a marine zoo-anthropomorphic hybrid, the human-fish (ningyo), within the socioreligious mindscape of Japan from the second half of the seventeenth to the end of the nineteenth century. Because of the interspecific anatomy attributed to them, ningyo have always been addressed from heterogeneous perspectives (religious, literary, political, erotic, scientific) and
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Refining a Shugenja Elite Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2022-08-30 Frank W. Clements
In this article I investigate the reform of Haguro Shugendō undertaken by the bettō (Chief Administrator) Kakujun in concert with the elite shugenja households of Tōge during the Kasei (1804–1829) era. I argue that this collaboration demonstrates the centrality of the household to early modern Shugendō and the importance of relationships between those households and powerful institutions such the bettō
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The Oppressor’s Dilemma Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2022-07-28 Jesse R. LeFebvre
For the last thirty-five years, the majority of Japanese wedding ceremonies have involved Christianity, but scholars have struggled with Christianity’s increasingly prominent place within the Japanese religious landscape. The tendency has been to refute the religiosity of Christian weddings and embrace the rhetoric of Japanese essentialism. However, following its prohibition in 1612, the ongoing “eradication”
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The Transformation of the Meaning and Concept of Zoku 俗 Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2022-06-30 Mariko Baba
This paper clarifies why the characters sei 聖 and zoku 俗 were adopted as the Japanese translations for the terms “sacred” and “profane,” respectively, as well as the circumstances in which these characters took on a diversity of meanings that go beyond those terms in contemporary society at large. While the character zoku has acquired various meanings over its long history, its fundamental nuance is
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Tracing Karma in Meiji Japan Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2022-06-01 Mitsuhiro Kameyama
Despite its doctrinal importance, the concept of karma or karmic causality has come to occupy a complicated place in contemporary Japanese Buddhism, due to its historical connection with discrimination against outcast groups and disabled people. Furthermore, among post-war Japanese intellectuals, the idea of karma has often invoked criticism in the context of modern values such as free will and human
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The Rise of Wedding Churches: The Nonreligious Transformation of Japanese Christianity Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2022-05-31 Jesse R. LeFebvre
The popularity of Christian weddings represents the new widespread acceptance and popularity of a religious ceremony that sits at the intersection the familial, social, commercial, political, and religious. These rites challenge established preconceptions concerning both Christianity and Japanese identity. The postwar history of Christian wedding ceremonies is best understood in light of the efforts
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“Toward a Shamanic Daily Life”: The Response of a Japanese Spiritual Therapist to COVID-19 Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-08-03 Silvia Rivadossi
This article contributes to the discussion on reactions and responses to the coronavirus pandemic in Japan, with specific reference to the field of “new spirituality” and, within this broad category, of shamanic spirituality. The case of the dance therapist, or “dance movement shaman,” Ms. Hiroda demonstrates how she managed to keep in contact with her practitioners and to design new ways to help them
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Between Tradition and Revolution: Political Appropriations of Japanese Buddhism in Italy Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Paride Stortini
Recent research on the intellectual history of modern Japan has shown how Buddhism provides a variety of ideas that inspire both conservative and progressive views of society. The aim of this paper is to consider how similar ambiguities and multiplicities can be found in the appropriation of Japanese Buddhism in Italy. In particular, it focuses on two cases: Traditionalist philosopher Julius Evola’s
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D.T. Suzuki at the World Congress of Faiths in 1936: An Analysis of His Presentation at the Interfaith Conference Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Tomoe Moriya
This paper examines the speeches that D.T. Suzuki presented at the World Congress of Faiths in London in 1936 and analyzes his interactions with Buddhists, sympathizers, and critics in the West during the interwar period. It will uncover how various reactions and historical contexts constructed Suzuki’s discourses, which prepared Suzuki for popularizing Zen in postwar Western countries. Compared to
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Hans Haas, the Songs of Buddha, and Their Sounds of Truth: A German Missionary’s Interpretation of Pure Land Buddhism Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Esben Petersen
The writings of German missionary Hans Haas (1868–1934) were seminal texts which greatly influenced how many Europeans came to understand Japanese Buddhism. Haas became a significant actor in this early reception of Japanese Buddhism after he began working as an editor for the journal Zeitschrift für Missionskunde und Religionswissenschaft while stationed in Japan from 1898–1909. Haas covered all areas
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The History and Current State of Japanese Zen Buddhism in Europe Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Shūhei Fujii
This paper will shed light upon the history and current state of Japanese Zen Buddhism in Europe. Japanese Zen has mainly been transmitted in two ways among European countries: via the group founded by Deshimaru Taisen, and through Christian Zen. Deshimaru went to Europe and taught Zen. His teaching represented Zen as a wholistic, scientific, and peaceful Eastern religion. Though his group initially
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Japanese Buddhism in Austria Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Lukas Pokorny
Drawing on archival research and interview data, this paper discusses the historical development as well as the present configuration of the Japanese Buddhist panorama in Austria, which includes Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren Buddhism. It traces the early beginnings, highlights the key stages and activities in the expansion process, and sheds light on both denominational complexity and international
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A “Nihilist Philosophy?”: Christian Orthodox Heretical Discourse and Japanese Buddhism in Greece Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Ioannis Gaitanidis
Contrary to other European countries, where Buddhism has been studied since at least the 19th century, this paper shows that there are no known direct channels of transmission of Japanese Buddhism between Japan and Greece. Connections have, however, been made through other European countries, where, for example, Italy continues to play a major role. Moreover, these transmissions have taken a very long
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EKŌ-JI: Numata Ehan’s Ideas and Their Realization in a Japanese Buddhist Temple in Germany Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Marc Nottelmann-Feil
The EKŌ temple in Düsseldorf was built thanks to the initiative and financial support of the Japanese entrepreneur Numata Ehan as one part of a German-Japanese cultural center. Following the vision of its founder, the EKŌ temple is dedicated to all schools of Japanese Buddhism, even though its basic layout is that of a Shin Buddhist temple. This article explores Numata’s founding vision, which is based
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Japanese Buddhism and Ireland Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Laurence Cox, John Ó Laoidh
This article argues that there is no single relationship between Japanese Buddhism and Ireland. Rather, there is a series of changing relationships mediated by different world-system contexts between one island and another (peripheral and post-colonial) one: as ethnographic information, as cultural influence and as religious practice. The process of building such relationships has a long history, stretching
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Jōdo Shinshū in the UK: Impermanence, Precarity, and Change Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-07-14 Louella Matsunaga
This article outlines the history of Jōdo Shinshū in the UK, and asks why it has remained little known there despite being one of the largest schools of Buddhism in Japan, with sizable overseas branches in the Americas. I argue that this is due, at least in part, to the absence of a settled Japanese migrant population in Europe, in contrast to the Americas, where Jōdo Shinshū has been sustained historically
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The Oppressor’s Dilemma: How Japanese State Policy toward Religion Paved the Way for Christian Weddings Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-03-22 Jesse R. LeFebvre
For the last thirty-five years, the majority of Japanese wedding ceremonies have involved Christianity, but scholars have struggled with Christianity’s increasingly prominent place within the Japanese religious landscape. The tendency has been to refute the religiosity of Christian weddings and embrace the rhetoric of Japanese essentialism. However, following its prohibition in 1612, the ongoing “eradication”
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Hara Tanzan and the Japanese Buddhist Discovery of “Experience” Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-03-03 Stephan Kigensan Licha
This paper explores the role of Hara Tanzan 原坦山 (1819–1892) in the transformation of Buddhism into an “experiential religion” during the Meiji period. Scholars such as Sharf have argued that this transformation is due to Western influence on figures such as DT Suzuki. Japanese language scholarship has instead shown that in the early 1900s, the notion of Buddhism as experiential religion was already
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Living in Pilgrimage: An Ethnographic Study of Permanent Pilgrims in Shikoku, Japan Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-03-03 Mariko Hamaya
This article aims to explore how people make pilgrimages not as a temporary journey but as a persistent way of life, using case studies I collected from fieldwork in Shikoku Island, Japan. The Shikoku pilgrimage is one of the most popular Buddhist pilgrimages, involving a 1,400-kilometre journey, where pilgrims visit 88 temples spread across the island. While previous studies have argued that the tradition
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Religious Institutions in Japan Responding to Covid-19-Induced Risk and Uncertainty: Some Preliminary Considerations Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2021-03-03 Paola Cavaliere
This paper discusses adaptations and alternatives that religious institutions in Japan have formulated to help communities develop the capacity to cope with the crisis and perceived risk generated by Covid-19. Qualitative data and observations of online information were collected between February and June 2020. Guided by a crisis approach, the study explores inward and outward responses that some Japanese
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Gendai Shugendō no shūkyō shakaigaku: Sangaku shinkō no seichi Yoshino Kumano no kankōka to bunka shigenka 現代修験道の宗教社会学—山岳信仰の聖地「吉野・熊野」の観光化と文化資源化 (The religious social study of contemporary Shugendō: Tourist development and cultural consumption of mountain worship at the sacred sites of Yoshino and Kumano), by Amada Akinori 天田顕徳 Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-11-12 Caleb Carter
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Dynamism and the Ageing of a Japanese ‘New’ Religion: Transformations and the Founder, by Erica Baffelli and Ian Reader Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-10-21 Masato Kato
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The Origin of Modern Shinto in Japan: The Vanquished Gods of Izumo, by Yujiang Zhong Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-10-13 David W. Kim
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Shinra Myōjin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean.”, by Sujung Kim Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-10-13 Robert F. Rhodes
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Demographic Change in Contemporary Rural Japan and Its Impact on Ritual Practices Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Susanne Klien
Contemporary rural Japan is characterized by depopulation, reflected by the large number of aging residents, abandoned houses and shops (akiya 空家) and an increased number of “hamlets at the margin” (Ono 2005), i.e. hamlets with more than 50 % of residents over 65 years old. As a result, many ritual festivities including matsuri 祭 (festivals) of various kinds face challenges in securing practitioners
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Displaying Mythological Characters: Changes in the Meanings of Decorations in the Sawara Grand Festival in Chiba, Japan Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Shinji Tsukahara
The large figures displayed atop the floats in the Sawara Grand Festival portray characters drawn from mythology and history that have been strongly associated with Japanese nationalism and imperialism. In order to investigate the meanings that these float figures hold for the participants and audience of the festival, this article acknowledges the close relations between folklore and politics and
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Eloquent Plasticity: Vernacular Religion, Change, and Namahage Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Michael Dylan Foster
This paper explores Namahage of Akita Prefecture as it assumes three different instantiations: 1) enactment as a private ritual within individual households on New Year’s Eve; 2) performance as a public festival at a shrine in mid-February; and 3) celebration as an “element” inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. I argue that in the first instance
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Encounters with the Past: Fractals and Atmospheres at Kasuga Wakamiya Onmatsuri Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Andrea Giolai
Kasuga Wakamiya Onmatsuri is an important local festival celebrated every winter in Nara. While the festival has been analyzed from the point of view of its relations with religious institutions such as Kasuga Taisha and Kōfukuji, to date less attention has been paid to its historical transformations. Countering linear narratives that tend to portray it as largely unchanged since its inception, this
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Fire, Prayer, and Purification: Early Winter Events and Folk Beliefs in Kyoto Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Tōru Yagi
Kyoto is home to a number of unique year-end festivals. This article focuses on traditions that occur during Shimotsuki and Shiwasu (the eleventh and twelfth months of the old Japanese lunisolar calendar), including the fire festivals of O-hitaki, Niinamesai, and Daikondaki; events that celebrate visiting deities, such as Daishikō; and purification rites of Shintō, Buddhist, and folk tradition, such
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Gion Matsuri in Kyoto: A Multilayered Religious Phenomenon Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Elisabetta Porcu
In this paper, I analyze Gion Matsuri in Kyoto as a multilayered phenomenon, and explore its religious aspects in context, with particular attention to interactions between actors, such as its organizing bodies, residents of the neighborhoods that sponsor the yama and hoko floats, the local government, and Yasaka Shrine (Yasaka Jinja 八坂神社). Based on my extended fieldwork, I focus on the festival’s
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Kuma Matsuri: Bear Hunters as Intermediaries between Humans and Nature Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Scott Schnell
The matagi are traditional hunters in the mountainous beech forests of northeastern Japan. They are distinguishable from recreational hunters in their veneration of the yama no kami, a female spirit or god who dwells in the mountains. This article will focus on their kuma matsuri, a set of rituals associated with bear hunting. It will argue that the rituals reinforce a sense of connectedness and interdependence
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Sannō Matsuri: Fabricating Festivals in Modern Japan Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 John Breen
This study of the Sannō Festival at Hiyoshi Taisha in Shiga Prefecture starts from the premise that all festivals reproduce and reinvent themselves over time, obfuscating their origins, typically claiming specious roots in the ancient or mythical past. Firstly, I analyze the Sannō Festival as performed today, drawing on my own festival fieldwork. I then adopt a historical approach, deploying historical
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Secret Eroticism and Lived Religion: The Art of Matsuri Photography Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2020-09-22 Michael Dylan Foster, Minoru Ogano
Through interviews and personal observation, this essay introduces the photographer Ogano Minoru, exploring his particular take on the practice of matsuri photography. In his photos, Ogano tries to visually capture the affective aspects of matsuri as experienced by participants. He suggests that even when matsuri are not organized through religious institutions, they emerge from deeply held beliefs
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Shintō, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests, by Aike P. Rots Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Thomas Gimbel
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The Sea and the Sacred in Japan: Aspects of Maritime Religion, by Fabio Rambelli ed. Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Aike P. Rots
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Shichigosan: Change and Continuity of a Family Ritual in Contemporary Urban Japan, by Melinda Papp Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Ferenc Takó
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Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution: The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan, by Levi McLaughlin Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Tsuyoshi Nakano
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Seeking Śākyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism, by Richard M. Jaffe Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Micah L. Auerback
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Argumente des Heiligen: Rhetorische Mittel und narrative Strukturen in Hagiographien am Beispeile des japanischen Mönchs Shinran, by Markus Rüsch Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Galen Amstutz
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Otaku bunka to shūkyō no rinkai: Jōhō, shōhi, basho o meguru shūkyō shakaigakuteki kenkyū オタク文化と宗教の臨界—情報・消費・場所をめぐる宗教社会学的研究, by Imai Nobuharu 今井 信治 Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Dale K. Andrews
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“Even Three-Year-Old Children Know That the Source of Enlightenment is not Religion but Science”: Modern Japanese Buddhism between ‘Religion’ and ‘Science,’ 1860s–1910s Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Hans Martin Krämer
When Japanese Buddhists faced the challenge of materialistic natural sciences in the last decades of the nineteenth century, their responses were not uniform. Some advocated a unity of science and religion in the sense that Buddhism was thought to be substantially compatible with the findings of modern natural science, while others argued for a separation of domains, salvaging for religion a sphere
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Formations of Secularity in Ancient Japan?: On Cultural Encounters, Critical Junctures, and Path-Dependent Processes Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Christoph Kleine
Starting from the premise that the diversity of forms for distinguishing between ‘the religious’ and ‘the secular’ (i.e., multiple secularities) in global modernity is the result of different cultural preconditions in the appropriation of Western normative concepts of secularism, I would like to offer a modest contribution to the understanding of the corresponding cultural preconditions in Japan. I
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Practicing Belonging?: Non-religiousness in Twenty-First Century Japan Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Satoko Fujiwara
This article suggests a way for scholars of Japanese religion to contribute to the international discussion on “nones” or the “non-religious,” who have been characterized as “believing without belonging,” “belonging without believing,” “believing in belonging,” etc. by integrating three different discursive arenas: one on multiple secularities as a context-conscious reexamination of functional differentiation;
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Religion, Medicine and the Notion of Charity in Early Jesuit Missionary Pursuits in Buddhist Japan Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Katja Triplett
Searching for conceptual distinctions between religion and medicine is a promising avenue from which to reconstruct trajectories towards the appropriation of hegemonic Western concepts of secularism in Japan, such as the Meiji-period separation of religious and medical practice. Buddhism and medicine had already established a complex relationship for centuries when the Jesuits arrived in Japan. Mahāyāna
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Secularization and the Jōruri Plays: The Decline of Religious Belief and the Search for Secular Salvation in Early Modern Japan Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Koh Kawata
This paper aims to show, primarily through analysis of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century jōruri 浄瑠璃 plays, the radical changes in the vision of salvation shared among ordinary people, focusing especially on Jōruri monogatari 浄瑠璃物語, Sonezaki shinjū 曽根崎心中 and Kinpira jōruri 金平浄瑠璃, and highlights how such changes are related to contemporary social processes of secularization. José Casanova famously
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World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New “Public Sacred” in East Asia Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-12-17 Aike P. Rots
The category “heritage” is quickly gaining importance for the study of religion, not least in East Asia. Since the 1990s, Japanese governments, entrepreneurs, and NGO s have invested heavily in heritage preservation, production, and promotion, and other East Asian countries have followed suit. UNESCO recognition is sought after by various state and private actors, who see it as a useful tool for validating
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Fusha no iru nichijō: Tsugaru no kamisama kara toshin no supirichuaru serapisuto made 巫者のいる日常 津軽のカミサマから都心のスピリチュアルセラピストまで, by Murakami Aki 村上晶 Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-06-14 Marianna Zanetta
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Ryōjutsu kara shūkyō e: Sekai kyūseikyō no kyōdan soshikironteki kenkyū 療術から宗教へ: 世界救世教の教団組織論的研究, by Kumamoto Masaki 隈元正樹 Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-06-14 Franziska Steffen
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A Social History of the Ise Shrines: Divine Capital, by Mark Teeuwen and John Breen Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-06-14 Tze M. Loo
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The Ee ja nai ka and the Meiji Restoration: A View from Nagoya through Hosono Yōsai’s Kankyō manpitsu Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-06-14 Takashi Miura
Hosono Yōsai 細 野 要 斎 (1811–1878), an Owari domain official, left a voluminous diary titled Kankyō manpitsu 感興漫筆 (Random Jottings Composed at Leisure), containing accounts from 1836 to 1878. Entries addressing the late months of 1867 describe the ee ja nai ka ええじゃないか phenomenon that developed in Nagoya. Yōsai’s portrayals of the ee ja nai ka contradict its received image as a rowdy pandemonium in which
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Honda Chikaatsu’s Spiritual Learning as a Means of Bringing Blessings and Guiding the Nation Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-06-14 Eiko Namiki
This article discusses the purpose, content and reception of the healing and spirit-possession methods of Honda Chikaatsu 本田親徳 (1822–1890) and his followers. It investigates what the methods were intended for, how they were practiced, and how they were received by the government, the common people and the elite. These methods were for all intents and purposes meant to benefit and glorify the new Imperial
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Kiyozawa Manshi and the Spirit of the Meiji Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-06-14 Melissa Anne-Marie Curley
Seishinshugi 精神主義, a term associated with the work of Meiji Buddhist reformer Kiyozawa Manshi 清沢満之 (1863–1903), is often read as exemplifying a spiritual turn in mid-Meiji Japan, centering an inner realm of private experience in a reaction against the rationalization of the early Meiji period. This paper considers the use of the term seishin in Kiyozawa’s early work. It finds him treating seishin in
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Meiji Prison Religion: Benevolent Punishments and the National Creed Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2019-06-14 Adam Lyons
This article examines the origins of prison proselytization in Japan in the 1870s and 1880s by exploring the relationship between the Great Promulgation Campaign (daikyō senpu undō 大教宣布運動) and the development of a modern carceral system. It argues that prison chaplaincy (kyōkai 教誨) developed as the “spiritual successor” to the Great Promulgation Campaign’s national instructor (kyōdōshoku 教導職) system
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Handbook of East Asian New Religious Movements, by Lukas Pokorny and Franz Winter (eds.) Journal of Religion in Japan (IF 0.6) Pub Date : 2018-12-12 Lehel Balogh