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This volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to the combinatory
tradition that dominated premodern and early modern Japanese
religion, known as honji suijaku (originals and their traces). It
questions received, simplified accounts of the interactions between
Shinto and Japanese Buddhism, and presents a more dynamic and
variegated religious world, one in which the deities' Buddhist
originals and local traces did not constitute one-to-one
associations, but complex combinations of multiple deities based on
semiotic operations, doctrines, myths, and legends. The book's
essays, all based on specific case studies, discuss the honji
suijaku paradigm from a number of different perspectives, always
integrating historical and doctrinal analysis with interpretive
insights.
This volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to the combinatory tradition that dominated premodern and early modern Japanese religion, known as honji suijaku (originals and their traces). It questions received, simplified accounts of the interactions between Shinto and Japanese Buddhism, and presents a more dynamic and variegated religious world, one in which the deities' Buddhist originals and local traces did not constitute one-to-one associations, but complex combinations of multiple deities based on semiotic operations, doctrines, myths, and legends. The book's essays, all based on specific case studies, discuss the honji suijaku paradigm from a number of different perspectives, always integrating historical and doctrinal analysis with interpretive insights. eBook available with sample pages: 0203220250
In premodern Japan, legitimization of power and knowledge in
various contexts was sanctioned by consecration rituals (kanjo) of
Buddhist origin. This is the first book to address in a
comprehensive way the multiple forms and aspects of these rituals
also in relation to other Asian contexts. The multidisciplinary
chapters in the book address the origins of these rituals in
ancient Persia and India and their developments in China and Tibet,
before discussing in depth their transformations in medieval Japan.
In particular, kanjo rituals are examined from various
perspectives: imperial ceremonies, Buddhist monastic rituals,
vernacular religious forms (Shugendo mountain cults, Shinto
lineages), rituals of bodily transformation involving sexual
practice, and the performing arts: a history of these developments,
descriptions of actual rituals, and reference to religious and
intellectual arguments based on under-examined primary sources. No
other book presents so many cases of kanjo in such depth and
breadth. This book is relevant to readers interested in Buddhist
studies, Japanese religions, the history of Japanese culture, and
in the intersections between religious doctrines, rituals,
legitimization, and performance.
This book argues that Buddhism has spread due to globalized
capitalism, and explores how capitalism is also impacting Buddhists
and Buddhism today. Edited by two leading scholars in Buddhist
studies, the book examines how capitalism and neo-liberalism have
shaped global perceptions of Buddhism, as well as specific local
practices and attitudes. It examines the institutional practices
that sustained the spread of Buddhism for two and a half millennia,
and the adaptation of Buddhist institutions in contemporary, global
economic systems-particularly in Europe and the United States over
the last century and half. These innovative essays on the
interfaces between Buddhism and capitalism will prompt readers to
rethink the connection between Buddhism and secular society. Case
studies include digital capitalism, tourism, and monasticism, and
are drawn from the USA, Tibet, China, Japan, and Thailand.
Throughout its history, Buddhism has developed a sophisticated
philosophy of materiality, addressing the status of material
objects and their role in the quest for salvation. This is an
innovative book that addresses the ways in which Buddhism has
conceived of, and dealt with, material objects ranging from the
environment to everyday tools, ritual implements, icons, and sacred
texts. Contrary to received assumptions, careful reading of
original sources and study of ritual practices show that in
Buddhism the realm of materiality is not simply an obstacle for
spiritual pursuits but also a space for interplay in which human
beings can give shape and expression to their deepest religious and
spiritual ideas.
Providing an overview of current cutting-edge research in the field
of Japanese religions, this Handbook is the most up-to-date guide
to contemporary scholarship in the field. As well as charting
innovative research taking place, this book also points to new
directions for future research, covering both the modern and
pre-modern periods. Edited by Erica Baffelli, Andrea Castiglioni,
and Fabio Rambelli, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions
includes essays by international scholars from the USA, Europe,
Japan, and New Zealand. Topics and themes include gender, politics,
the arts, economy, media, globalization, and colonialism. The
Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions is an essential reference
point for upper-level students and scholars of Japanese religions
as well as Japanese Studies more broadly.
This book explores the relationship between global capitalism and
Buddhism-both how this economic system has facilitated the spread
of Buddhism, and how it impacts Buddhists and Buddhism today.
Edited by two leading scholars in Buddhist studies, the book
examines how capitalism and neo-liberalism have shaped global
perceptions of Buddhism, as well as specific local practices and
attitudes. It analyzes the institutional practices that sustained
the spread of Buddhism for two-and-a half millennia, and the
adaptation of Buddhist institutions in contemporary, global
economic systems-particularly in Europe and the United States over
the last century. Innovative chapters on the interfaces between
Buddhism and capitalism will prompt readers to rethink the
connection between Buddhism and secular society. Case studies
include digital capitalism, tourism, and monasticism, and are drawn
from the USA, Tibet, China, Japan, and Thailand.
This book draws attention to a striking aspect of contemporary
Japanese culture: the prevalence of discussions and representations
of "spirits" (tama or tamashii). Ancestor cults have played a
central role in Japanese culture and religion for many centuries;
in recent decades, however, other phenomena have expanded and
diversified the realm of Japanese animism. For example, many manga,
anime, TV shows, literature, and art works deal with spirits,
ghosts, or with an invisible dimension of reality. International
contributors ask to what extent these are cultural forms created by
the media for consumption, rather than manifestations of
"traditional" ancestral spirituality in their adaptations to
contemporary society. Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan
considers the modes of representations and the possible cultural
meanings of spirits, as well as the metaphysical implications of
contemporary Japanese ideas about spirits. The chapters offer
analyses of specific cases of "animistic attitudes" in which the
presence of spirits and spiritual forces is alleged, and attempt to
trace cultural genealogies of those attitudes. In particular, they
present various modes of representation of spirits (in contemporary
art, architecture, visual culture, cinema, literature, diffuse
spirituality) while at the same time addressing their underlying
intellectual and religious assumptions.
Winner of the 2022 Association for the Study of Japanese Mountain
Religion Book Prize Defining Shugendo brings together leading
international experts on Japanese mountain asceticism to discuss
what has been an essential component of Japanese religions for more
than a thousand years. Contributors explore how mountains have been
abodes of deities, a resting place for the dead, sources of natural
bounty and calamities, places of religious activities, and a vast
repository of symbols. The book shows that many peoples have chosen
them as sites for ascetic practices, claiming the potential to
attain supernatural powers there. This book discusses the history
of scholarship on Shugendo, the development process of mountain
worship, and the religious and philosophical features of devotion
at specific sacred mountains. Moreover, it reveals the rich
material and visual culture associated with Shugendo, from statues
and steles, to talismans and written oaths.
The Sea and the Sacred in Japan is the first book to focus on the
role of the sea in Japanese religions. While many leading Shinto
deities tend to be understood today as unrelated to the sea, and
mountains are considered the privileged sites of sacredness, this
book provides new ways to understand Japanese religious culture and
history. Scholars from North America, Japan and Europe explore the
sea and the sacred in relation to history, culture, politics,
geography, worldviews and cosmology, space and borders, and ritual
practices and doctrines. Examples include Japanese indigenous
conceptualizations of the sea from the Middle Ages to the 20th
century; ancient sea myths and rituals; sea deities and sea cults;
the role of the sea in Buddhist cosmology; and the international
dimension of Japanese Buddhism and its maritime imaginary.
This is a cross-cultural study of the multifaceted relations
between Buddhism, its materiality, and instances of religious
violence and destruction in East Asia, which remains a vast and
still largely unexplored field of inquiry. Material objects are
extremely important not just for Buddhist practice, but also for
the conceptualization of Buddhist doctrines; yet, Buddhism
developed ambivalent attitudes towards such need for objects, and
an awareness that even the most sacred objects could be destroyed.
After outlining Buddhist attitudes towards materiality and its
vulnerability, the authors propose a different and more inclusive
definition of iconoclasm-a notion that is normally not employed in
discussions of East Asian religions. Case studies of religious
destruction in East Asia are presented, together with a new
theoretical framework drawn from semiotics and cultural studies, to
address more general issues related to cultural value, sacredness,
and destruction, in an attempt to understand instances in which the
status and the meaning of the sacred in any given culture is
questioned, contested, and ultimately denied, and how religious
institutions react to those challenges.
One of the first attempts ever to present in a systematic way a
non-western semiotic system. This book looks at Japanese esoteric
Buddhism and is based around original texts, informed by explicit
and rigorous semiotic categories. It is a unique introduction to
important aspects of the thought and rituals of the Japanese
Shingon tradition. Semiotic concerns are deeply ingrained in the
Buddhist intellectual and religious discourse, beginning with the
idea that the world is not what it appears to be, which calls for a
more accurate understanding of the self and reality. This in turn
results in sustained discussions on the status of language and
representations, and on the possibility and methods to know reality
beyond delusion; such peculiar knowledge is explicitly defined as
enlightenment. Thus, for Buddhism, semiotics is directly relevant
to salvation; this is a key point that is often ignored even by
Buddhologists. This book discusses in depth the main elements of
Buddhist semiotics as based primarily on original Japanese
pre-modern sources. It is a crucial publication in the fields of
semiotics and religious studies.
One of the first attempts ever to present in a systematic way a
non-western semiotic system. This book looks at Japanese esoteric
Buddhism and is based around original texts, informed by explicit
and rigorous semiotic categories. It is a unique introduction to
important aspects of the thought and rituals of the Japanese
Shingon tradition. Semiotic concerns are deeply ingrained in the
Buddhist intellectual and religious discourse, beginning with the
idea that the world is not what it appears to be, which calls for a
more accurate understanding of the self and reality. This in turn
results in sustained discussions on the status of language and
representations, and on the possibility and methods to know reality
beyond delusion; such peculiar knowledge is explicitly defined as
enlightenment. Thus, for Buddhism, semiotics is directly relevant
to salvation; this is a key point that is often ignored even by
Buddhologists. This book discusses in depth the main elements of
Buddhist semiotics as based primarily on original Japanese
pre-modern sources. It is a crucial publication in the fields of
semiotics and religious studies.
This book draws attention to a striking aspect of contemporary
Japanese culture: the prevalence of discussions and representations
of "spirits" (tama or tamashii). Ancestor cults have played a
central role in Japanese culture and religion for many centuries;
in recent decades, however, other phenomena have expanded and
diversified the realm of Japanese animism. For example, many manga,
anime, TV shows, literature, and art works deal with spirits,
ghosts, or with an invisible dimension of reality. International
contributors ask to what extent these are cultural forms created by
the media for consumption, rather than manifestations of
"traditional" ancestral spirituality in their adaptations to
contemporary society. Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan
considers the modes of representations and the possible cultural
meanings of spirits, as well as the metaphysical implications of
contemporary Japanese ideas about spirits. The chapters offer
analyses of specific cases of "animistic attitudes" in which the
presence of spirits and spiritual forces is alleged, and attempt to
trace cultural genealogies of those attitudes. In particular, they
present various modes of representation of spirits (in contemporary
art, architecture, visual culture, cinema, literature, diffuse
spirituality) while at the same time addressing their underlying
intellectual and religious assumptions.
This diverse anthology of original Buddhist texts in translation
provides a historical and conceptual framework that will transform
contemporary scholarship on Pure Land Buddhism and instigate its
recognition as an essential field of Buddhist studies. Traditional
and contemporary primary sources carefully selected from Buddhist
cultures across historical, geopolitical, and literary boundaries
are organized by genre rather than chronologically, geographically,
or by religious lineage-a novel juxtaposition that reveals their
wider importance in fresh contexts. Together these fundamental
texts from different Asian traditions, expertly translated by
eminent and up-and-coming scholars, illustrate that the Buddhism of
pure lands is not just an East Asian cult or a marginal type of
Buddhism, but a pan-Asian and deeply entrenched religious
phenomenon. The volume is organized into six parts: Ritual
Practices, Contemplative Visualizations, Doctrinal Expositions,
Life Writing and Poetry, Ethical and Aesthetic Explications, and
Worlds beyond Sukhavati. Each part is introduced and summarized,
and each translated piece is prefaced by its translator to supply
historical and sectarian context as well as insight into the
significance of the work. Common and less-common issues of
practice, doctrine, and intra-religious transfer are explored, and
deeper understandings of the meaning of "pure lands" are gained
through the study of the celestial, cosmological, internal, and
earthly pure lands associated with various buddhas, bodhisattvas,
and devotional figures. The introduction by the volume editors ties
the diverse themes of the book together and provides a historical
background to Pure Land Buddhist studies. Scholars of Buddhism and
Asian religion, including graduate and post-graduate students, as
well as Buddhist practitioners, will appreciate the range of
translated materials and accompanied discussions made accessible in
one essential collection, the first of its kind to center on the
formerly-neglected topic of Buddhist pure lands.
This diverse anthology of original Buddhist texts in translation
provides a historical and conceptual framework that will transform
contemporary scholarship on Pure Land Buddhism and instigate its
recognition as an essential field of Buddhist studies. Traditional
and contemporary primary sources carefully selected from Buddhist
cultures across historical, geopolitical, and literary boundaries
are organized by genre rather than chronologically, geographically,
or by religious lineage—a novel juxtaposition that reveals their
wider importance in fresh contexts. Together these fundamental
texts from different Asian traditions, expertly translated by
eminent and up-and-coming scholars, illustrate that the Buddhism of
pure lands is not just an East Asian cult or a marginal type of
Buddhism, but a pan-Asian and deeply entrenched religious
phenomenon. The volume is organized into six parts: Ritual
Practices, Contemplative Visualizations, Doctrinal Expositions,
Life Writing and Poetry, Ethical and Aesthetic Explications, and
Worlds beyond Sukhāvatī. Each part is introduced and summarized,
and each translated piece is prefaced by its translator to supply
historical and sectarian context as well as insight into the
significance of the work. Common and less-common issues of
practice, doctrine, and intra-religious transfer are explored, and
deeper understandings of the meaning of "pure lands" are gained
through the study of the celestial, cosmological, internal, and
earthly pure lands associated with various buddhas, bodhisattvas,
and devotional figures. The introduction by the volume editors ties
the diverse themes of the book together and provides a historical
background to Pure Land Buddhist studies. Scholars of Buddhism and
Asian religion, including graduate and post-graduate students, as
well as Buddhist practitioners, will appreciate the range of
translated materials and accompanied discussions made accessible in
one essential collection, the first of its kind to center on the
formerly-neglected topic of Buddhist pure lands.
Providing an overview of current cutting-edge research in the field
of Japanese religions, this Handbook is the most up-to-date guide
to contemporary scholarship in the field. As well as charting
innovative research taking place, this book also points to new
directions for future research, covering both the modern and
pre-modern periods. Edited by Erica Baffelli, Andrea Castiglioni,
and Fabio Rambelli, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions
includes essays by international scholars from the USA, Europe,
Japan, and New Zealand. Topics and themes include gender, politics,
the arts, economy, media, globalization, and colonialism. The
Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions is an essential reference
point for upper-level students and scholars of Japanese religions
as well as Japanese Studies more broadly.
The Sea and the Sacred in Japan is the first book to focus on the
role of the sea in Japanese religions. While many leading Shinto
deities tend to be understood today as unrelated to the sea, and
mountains are considered the privileged sites of sacredness, this
book provides new ways to understand Japanese religious culture and
history. Scholars from North America, Japan and Europe explore the
sea and the sacred in relation to history, culture, politics,
geography, worldviews and cosmology, space and borders, and ritual
practices and doctrines. Examples include Japanese indigenous
conceptualizations of the sea from the Middle Ages to the 20th
century; ancient sea myths and rituals; sea deities and sea cults;
the role of the sea in Buddhist cosmology; and the international
dimension of Japanese Buddhism and its maritime imaginary.
This is a cross-cultural study of the multifaceted relations
between Buddhism, its materiality, and instances of religious
violence and destruction in East Asia, which remains a vast and
still largely unexplored field of inquiry. Material objects are
extremely important not just for Buddhist practice, but also for
the conceptualization of Buddhist doctrines; yet, Buddhism
developed ambivalent attitudes towards such need for objects, and
an awareness that even the most sacred objects could be destroyed.
After outlining Buddhist attitudes towards materiality and its
vulnerability, the authors propose a different and more inclusive
definition of iconoclasm-a notion that is normally not employed in
discussions of East Asian religions. Case studies of religious
destruction in East Asia are presented, together with a new
theoretical framework drawn from semiotics and cultural studies, to
address more general issues related to cultural value, sacredness,
and destruction, in an attempt to understand instances in which the
status and the meaning of the sacred in any given culture is
questioned, contested, and ultimately denied, and how religious
institutions react to those challenges.
Winner of the 2022 Association for the Study of Japanese Mountain
Religion Book Prize Defining Shugendo brings together leading
international experts on Japanese mountain asceticism to discuss
what has been an essential component of Japanese religions for more
than a thousand years. Contributors explore how mountains have been
abodes of deities, a resting place for the dead, sources of natural
bounty and calamities, places of religious activities, and a vast
repository of symbols. The book shows that many peoples have chosen
them as sites for ascetic practices, claiming the potential to
attain supernatural powers there. This book discusses the history
of scholarship on Shugendo, the development process of mountain
worship, and the religious and philosophical features of devotion
at specific sacred mountains. Moreover, it reveals the rich
material and visual culture associated with Shugendo, from statues
and steles, to talismans and written oaths.
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