Author: Ian Reader
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350418854
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
In this study, Ian Reader presents new insights into the relationship between religion and tourism more generally and into the contemporary religious situation in Japan. He counteracts scholarship that claims tourism increases religious activity, shows that tourism is a factor in increasing secularization in Japan and draws attention to the role of the state in such contexts. Although the Japanese constitution prohibits the state from promoting religion, this book shows how state agencies nonetheless encourage people to visit religious sites, by presenting them as manifestations of a shared heritage, in ways that distance them from 'religion'. Reader examines theoretical understandings of religion and tourism and presents case studies of famed pilgrimage routes and temples. He shows how Zen monasteries are now 'tourist brands' and pilgrimages are the focus of TV entertainment programmes, portrayed as opportunities to eat sweets. Examining the nationalistic rhetoric of nostalgia and unique heritage that underpins the promotion of religious sites, Reader also considers why priests acquiesce in such matters.
Religion and Tourism in Japan
Author: Ian Reader
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350418854
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
In this study, Ian Reader presents new insights into the relationship between religion and tourism more generally and into the contemporary religious situation in Japan. He counteracts scholarship that claims tourism increases religious activity, shows that tourism is a factor in increasing secularization in Japan and draws attention to the role of the state in such contexts. Although the Japanese constitution prohibits the state from promoting religion, this book shows how state agencies nonetheless encourage people to visit religious sites, by presenting them as manifestations of a shared heritage, in ways that distance them from 'religion'. Reader examines theoretical understandings of religion and tourism and presents case studies of famed pilgrimage routes and temples. He shows how Zen monasteries are now 'tourist brands' and pilgrimages are the focus of TV entertainment programmes, portrayed as opportunities to eat sweets. Examining the nationalistic rhetoric of nostalgia and unique heritage that underpins the promotion of religious sites, Reader also considers why priests acquiesce in such matters.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350418854
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
In this study, Ian Reader presents new insights into the relationship between religion and tourism more generally and into the contemporary religious situation in Japan. He counteracts scholarship that claims tourism increases religious activity, shows that tourism is a factor in increasing secularization in Japan and draws attention to the role of the state in such contexts. Although the Japanese constitution prohibits the state from promoting religion, this book shows how state agencies nonetheless encourage people to visit religious sites, by presenting them as manifestations of a shared heritage, in ways that distance them from 'religion'. Reader examines theoretical understandings of religion and tourism and presents case studies of famed pilgrimage routes and temples. He shows how Zen monasteries are now 'tourist brands' and pilgrimages are the focus of TV entertainment programmes, portrayed as opportunities to eat sweets. Examining the nationalistic rhetoric of nostalgia and unique heritage that underpins the promotion of religious sites, Reader also considers why priests acquiesce in such matters.
The Book of Yokai, Expanded Second Edition
Author: Michael Dylan Foster
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520403886
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479
Book Description
"Revised and expanded, this second edition of The Book of Yōkai features an all new yōkai picture gallery-with dozens of stunning color images-tracing the visual history of yōkai across centuries. With additional entries and fifty new illustrations, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the history and cultural context of an even larger cast of yōkai, interpreting their varied meanings and introducing people who have pursued them through the ages. Monsters, spirits, fantastic beings, and supernatural creatures haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yōkai, they appear in many forms, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water sprites, to shape-shifting kitsune foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Popular today in anime, manga, film, and video games, many yōkai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. The Book of Yōkai invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them"--
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520403886
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 479
Book Description
"Revised and expanded, this second edition of The Book of Yōkai features an all new yōkai picture gallery-with dozens of stunning color images-tracing the visual history of yōkai across centuries. With additional entries and fifty new illustrations, Michael Dylan Foster unpacks the history and cultural context of an even larger cast of yōkai, interpreting their varied meanings and introducing people who have pursued them through the ages. Monsters, spirits, fantastic beings, and supernatural creatures haunt the folklore and popular culture of Japan. Broadly labeled yōkai, they appear in many forms, from tengu mountain goblins and kappa water sprites, to shape-shifting kitsune foxes and long-tongued ceiling-lickers. Popular today in anime, manga, film, and video games, many yōkai originated in local legends, folktales, and regional ghost stories. The Book of Yōkai invites readers to examine how people create, transmit, and collect folklore, and how they make sense of the mysteries in the world around them"--
Premodern Monsters: A Varied Compilation of Pre-modern Judeo-Christian and Japanese Buddhist Monstrous Discourses
Author: Allan Wright
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221
Book Description
Monster Studies is a rising academic topic. Despite hesitancy at first, the subject is now examined by scholars of various academic interests and backgrounds. However, the dominant monster investigations are from the post-1900s. This volume focuses on Premodern monsters. The purpose of this volume is to examine various monsters from diverse cultures in order to indicate how each monstrous discourse derives from their mythology’s socio-cultural context. The volume examines several Monsters within their socio-cultural matrix. This includes a variety of monstrosities from diverse cultures and periods. Namely, the examined creatures, or perceived creatures, stem from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament (Pauline epistles), Reformation England, the Japanese Noh play Dōjōji, Yamauba Myths, and Yōkai Relics from early modern Japanese Buddhism.
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 221
Book Description
Monster Studies is a rising academic topic. Despite hesitancy at first, the subject is now examined by scholars of various academic interests and backgrounds. However, the dominant monster investigations are from the post-1900s. This volume focuses on Premodern monsters. The purpose of this volume is to examine various monsters from diverse cultures in order to indicate how each monstrous discourse derives from their mythology’s socio-cultural context. The volume examines several Monsters within their socio-cultural matrix. This includes a variety of monstrosities from diverse cultures and periods. Namely, the examined creatures, or perceived creatures, stem from the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament (Pauline epistles), Reformation England, the Japanese Noh play Dōjōji, Yamauba Myths, and Yōkai Relics from early modern Japanese Buddhism.
Exploring Shinto
Author: Michael Pye
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781799611
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
""Shinto" is explored in a wide and illuminating perspective by an international team of scholars, providing a guide to students and general readers through many aspects, both today and in its history"--
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781799611
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
""Shinto" is explored in a wide and illuminating perspective by an international team of scholars, providing a guide to students and general readers through many aspects, both today and in its history"--
Stranger in the Shogun's City
Author: Amy Stanley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501188542
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography* *Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award* *Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography* A “captivating” (The Washington Post) work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo—the city that would become Tokyo—and a portrait of a city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West. The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces—and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval—she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno’s life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture—and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions. “A compelling story, traced with meticulous detail and told with exquisite sympathy” (The Wall Street Journal), Stranger in the Shogun’s City is “a vivid, polyphonic portrait of life in 19th-century Japan [that] evokes the Shogun era with panache and insight” (National Review of Books).
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501188542
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
*Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography* *Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award* *Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography* A “captivating” (The Washington Post) work of history that explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo—the city that would become Tokyo—and a portrait of a city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West. The daughter of a Buddhist priest, Tsuneno was born in a rural Japanese village and was expected to live a traditional life much like her mother’s. But after three divorces—and a temperament much too strong-willed for her family’s approval—she ran away to make a life for herself in one of the largest cities in the world: Edo, a bustling metropolis at its peak. With Tsuneno as our guide, we experience the drama and excitement of Edo just prior to the arrival of American Commodore Perry’s fleet, which transformed Japan. During this pivotal moment in Japanese history, Tsuneno bounces from tenement to tenement, marries a masterless samurai, and eventually enters the service of a famous city magistrate. Tsuneno’s life provides a window into 19th-century Japanese culture—and a rare view of an extraordinary woman who sacrificed her family and her reputation to make a new life for herself, in defiance of social conventions. “A compelling story, traced with meticulous detail and told with exquisite sympathy” (The Wall Street Journal), Stranger in the Shogun’s City is “a vivid, polyphonic portrait of life in 19th-century Japan [that] evokes the Shogun era with panache and insight” (National Review of Books).
Occult Hunting and Supernatural Play in Japan
Author: Laura Miller
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824898311
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
In Japan today, women are the primary drivers of religious re-enchantment, and they are exerting pressure on shrines, temples, and the media industries to accommodate their interests and aesthetic tastes. Employing a semantically broad meaning of “occult” to include the mysterious or supernatural, Laura Miller examines how it manifests to offer avenues of self-exploration and spiritual capital that fundamentally appeal to women. Female seekers have had a major impact on the fashioning and marketing of spiritual sites, texts, and objects, often through encoding the kawaii, or cute, aesthetic. Miller makes the case that the gendered nature of occult hunting has been neglected in research and that greater attention to gendered perspectives reveals significant facets of sociality and recreation. Written from an interdisciplinary cultural studies perspective, Occult Hunting and Supernatural Play in Japan interlaces history, art, literature, religion, media studies, and anthropology to explore ubiquitous yet understudied activities such as having one’s fortune told; visiting “powerspots,” locations thought to hold exceptional supernatural energy; and playing with new types of tarot decks. Book chapters also focus on material religion, including objects like good luck amulets and votive plaques, Taoist paper talismans, pilgrim stamps, and ancient curved beads called magatama. Tracing their histories and transformations, Miller insists that these forms of visual and material religion and their related activities are neither trivial nor simply commercial gambits. Rather, they provide insights into the realms of creative exploration, pleasure, and spiritual development in the lives of girls and young women.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824898311
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
In Japan today, women are the primary drivers of religious re-enchantment, and they are exerting pressure on shrines, temples, and the media industries to accommodate their interests and aesthetic tastes. Employing a semantically broad meaning of “occult” to include the mysterious or supernatural, Laura Miller examines how it manifests to offer avenues of self-exploration and spiritual capital that fundamentally appeal to women. Female seekers have had a major impact on the fashioning and marketing of spiritual sites, texts, and objects, often through encoding the kawaii, or cute, aesthetic. Miller makes the case that the gendered nature of occult hunting has been neglected in research and that greater attention to gendered perspectives reveals significant facets of sociality and recreation. Written from an interdisciplinary cultural studies perspective, Occult Hunting and Supernatural Play in Japan interlaces history, art, literature, religion, media studies, and anthropology to explore ubiquitous yet understudied activities such as having one’s fortune told; visiting “powerspots,” locations thought to hold exceptional supernatural energy; and playing with new types of tarot decks. Book chapters also focus on material religion, including objects like good luck amulets and votive plaques, Taoist paper talismans, pilgrim stamps, and ancient curved beads called magatama. Tracing their histories and transformations, Miller insists that these forms of visual and material religion and their related activities are neither trivial nor simply commercial gambits. Rather, they provide insights into the realms of creative exploration, pleasure, and spiritual development in the lives of girls and young women.
Rethinking Island Methodologies
Author: Elaine Stratford
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538165201
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
Rounding off the “Rethinking the Island” series, this book shares critical and creative insights on the methodologies and associated practices, protocols, and techniques used by those in island studies and allied fields. It explores why and how islands serve powerful analytical ends. Authored by three scholars who work in and across geography, sociology, and literary studies and incorporating conversations with colleagues from around the world, the work considers significant, interdisciplinary questions shaping the field, including on belonging, boundedness, decolonization, governance, indigeneity, migration, sustainability, and the consequences of climate change. In the process, the authors model what it means to think about and rethink island and archipelagic methodologies and point to emergent innovations in the field.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538165201
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204
Book Description
Rounding off the “Rethinking the Island” series, this book shares critical and creative insights on the methodologies and associated practices, protocols, and techniques used by those in island studies and allied fields. It explores why and how islands serve powerful analytical ends. Authored by three scholars who work in and across geography, sociology, and literary studies and incorporating conversations with colleagues from around the world, the work considers significant, interdisciplinary questions shaping the field, including on belonging, boundedness, decolonization, governance, indigeneity, migration, sustainability, and the consequences of climate change. In the process, the authors model what it means to think about and rethink island and archipelagic methodologies and point to emergent innovations in the field.
Memory, Music, Manuscripts
Author: Michaela Mross
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824892879
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393
Book Description
Kōshiki (Buddhist ceremonials) belong to a shared ritual repertoire of Japanese Buddhism that began with Tendai Pure Land belief in the late tenth century and spread to all Buddhist schools, including Sōtō Zen in the thirteenth century. In Memory, Music, Manuscripts, Michaela Mross elegantly combines the study of premodern manuscripts and woodblock prints with ethnographic fieldwork to illuminate the historical development of the highly musical kōshiki rituals performed by Sōtō Zen clerics. She demonstrates how ritual change is often shaped by factors outside the ritual context per se—by, for example, institutional interests, evolving biographic images of eminent monks, or changes in the cultural memory of a particular lineage. Her close study of the fascinating world of kōshiki in Sōtō Zen sheds light on Buddhism as a lived religion and the interplay of ritual, doctrine, literature, collective memory, material culture, and music. Mross highlights in particular the sonic dimension in rituals. Scholars of Buddhist and ritual studies have largely overlooked the soundscapes of rituals despite the importance of music for many ritual specialists and the close connection between the acquisition of ritual expertise and learning to vocalize sacred texts or play musical instruments. Indeed, Sōtō clerics strive to perfect their vocal skills and view kōshiki and the singing of liturgical texts as vital Zen practices and an expression of buddhahood—similar to seated meditation. Innovative and groundbreaking, Memory, Music, Manuscripts is the first in-depth study of kōshiki in Zen Buddhism and the first monograph in English on this influential liturgical genre. A companion website featuring video recordings of selected kōshiki performances is available at https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/dq109wp7548.
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824892879
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 393
Book Description
Kōshiki (Buddhist ceremonials) belong to a shared ritual repertoire of Japanese Buddhism that began with Tendai Pure Land belief in the late tenth century and spread to all Buddhist schools, including Sōtō Zen in the thirteenth century. In Memory, Music, Manuscripts, Michaela Mross elegantly combines the study of premodern manuscripts and woodblock prints with ethnographic fieldwork to illuminate the historical development of the highly musical kōshiki rituals performed by Sōtō Zen clerics. She demonstrates how ritual change is often shaped by factors outside the ritual context per se—by, for example, institutional interests, evolving biographic images of eminent monks, or changes in the cultural memory of a particular lineage. Her close study of the fascinating world of kōshiki in Sōtō Zen sheds light on Buddhism as a lived religion and the interplay of ritual, doctrine, literature, collective memory, material culture, and music. Mross highlights in particular the sonic dimension in rituals. Scholars of Buddhist and ritual studies have largely overlooked the soundscapes of rituals despite the importance of music for many ritual specialists and the close connection between the acquisition of ritual expertise and learning to vocalize sacred texts or play musical instruments. Indeed, Sōtō clerics strive to perfect their vocal skills and view kōshiki and the singing of liturgical texts as vital Zen practices and an expression of buddhahood—similar to seated meditation. Innovative and groundbreaking, Memory, Music, Manuscripts is the first in-depth study of kōshiki in Zen Buddhism and the first monograph in English on this influential liturgical genre. A companion website featuring video recordings of selected kōshiki performances is available at https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/dq109wp7548.
Zen Terror in Prewar Japan
Author: Brian Daizen Victoria
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538131676
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 389
Book Description
Written by a Zen priest, this book explodes the myth of Zen Buddhism as a peaceful religion. Can Buddhism, widely regarded as a religion of peace, also contribute to acts of terrorism? Through an insider’s view of right-wing ultranationalism in prewar Japan, this powerful book follows a band of Zen Buddhist–trained adherents who ardently believed so. Brian Victoria, himself a Zen priest, tells the story of a group of terrorists who were responsible for the assassination of three leading political and economic figures in 1932. Victoria provides a detailed introduction to the religious as well as political significance of the group’s terrorist beliefs and acts, focusing especially on the life and times of the band’s leader, Inoue Nisshō. A deeply troubled youth, Inoue became a spy in Manchuria for the Japanese Army in 1909, where he encountered Zen for the first time. When he returned to Japan in 1921, he determined to resolve his deep spiritual discontent through meditation practice, which culminated in an enlightenment experience that resolved his long-term doubts.After engaging in “post-enlightenment training” under the guidance of Rinzai Zen master Yamamoto Gempō, Inoue began a program of training the “patriotic youth” who formed the nucleus of his terrorist band. After the assassinations, Inoue and his band were sentenced to life imprisonment, only to be released just a few years later in 1940. Almost unbelievably, Inoue then became the live-in confidant of Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, a position he held through the end of WWII. In the postwar era, Inoue reinvented himself again as the founder and head of yet another band of ultranationalists known as the “National Protection Corps.” His eventful life came to an end in 1967. Victoria concludes with an assessment of the profound impact of the assassinations, which culminated in Japan’s transformation into a totalitarian state and set the stage for Pearl Harbor. The author also examines the connection of Buddhism to terrorism more broadly, considering the implications for today’s Islamic-related terrorism.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538131676
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 389
Book Description
Written by a Zen priest, this book explodes the myth of Zen Buddhism as a peaceful religion. Can Buddhism, widely regarded as a religion of peace, also contribute to acts of terrorism? Through an insider’s view of right-wing ultranationalism in prewar Japan, this powerful book follows a band of Zen Buddhist–trained adherents who ardently believed so. Brian Victoria, himself a Zen priest, tells the story of a group of terrorists who were responsible for the assassination of three leading political and economic figures in 1932. Victoria provides a detailed introduction to the religious as well as political significance of the group’s terrorist beliefs and acts, focusing especially on the life and times of the band’s leader, Inoue Nisshō. A deeply troubled youth, Inoue became a spy in Manchuria for the Japanese Army in 1909, where he encountered Zen for the first time. When he returned to Japan in 1921, he determined to resolve his deep spiritual discontent through meditation practice, which culminated in an enlightenment experience that resolved his long-term doubts.After engaging in “post-enlightenment training” under the guidance of Rinzai Zen master Yamamoto Gempō, Inoue began a program of training the “patriotic youth” who formed the nucleus of his terrorist band. After the assassinations, Inoue and his band were sentenced to life imprisonment, only to be released just a few years later in 1940. Almost unbelievably, Inoue then became the live-in confidant of Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, a position he held through the end of WWII. In the postwar era, Inoue reinvented himself again as the founder and head of yet another band of ultranationalists known as the “National Protection Corps.” His eventful life came to an end in 1967. Victoria concludes with an assessment of the profound impact of the assassinations, which culminated in Japan’s transformation into a totalitarian state and set the stage for Pearl Harbor. The author also examines the connection of Buddhism to terrorism more broadly, considering the implications for today’s Islamic-related terrorism.
Decolonising the Study of Religion
Author: Jørn Borup
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003817629
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 205
Book Description
Decolonising the Study of Religion analyses historical and contemporary discussions in the study of religion and Buddhism and critically investigates representations, possibilities, and challenges of a decolonial approach, addressing the important question: who owns Buddhism? The monograph offers a case-based perspective with which to examine the general study of religion, where new challenges require reflection and prospects for new directions. It focuses on Buddhism, one religion which has been studied in the West for centuries. Building on postcolonial theories and supplemented with a critical analysis of identity and postsecular engagement, the book offers new possibilities and challenges to the study of religion. It critically investigates decolonisation in the study of religion, subscribing to a third way between ‘objectivist’ and ‘subjectivist’ positions. Analysing the postcolonial and decolonial critique of the study of religion, with a particular focus on Buddhist studies in the West and in Japan, this book will be of interest to researchers in the field of Religious Studies, Buddhism, Japanese religions, anthropology, Asian Studies and those interested in religion and decolonisation.
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003817629
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 205
Book Description
Decolonising the Study of Religion analyses historical and contemporary discussions in the study of religion and Buddhism and critically investigates representations, possibilities, and challenges of a decolonial approach, addressing the important question: who owns Buddhism? The monograph offers a case-based perspective with which to examine the general study of religion, where new challenges require reflection and prospects for new directions. It focuses on Buddhism, one religion which has been studied in the West for centuries. Building on postcolonial theories and supplemented with a critical analysis of identity and postsecular engagement, the book offers new possibilities and challenges to the study of religion. It critically investigates decolonisation in the study of religion, subscribing to a third way between ‘objectivist’ and ‘subjectivist’ positions. Analysing the postcolonial and decolonial critique of the study of religion, with a particular focus on Buddhist studies in the West and in Japan, this book will be of interest to researchers in the field of Religious Studies, Buddhism, Japanese religions, anthropology, Asian Studies and those interested in religion and decolonisation.