The Science Of Religion Japanese

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The Invention of Religion in Japan

Author : Jason Ānanda Josephson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226412342
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis The Invention of Religion in Japan by : Jason Ānanda Josephson

Download or read book The Invention of Religion in Japan written by Jason Ānanda Josephson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-10-03 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of what we call “religion.” There was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning. But when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. In this book, Jason Ananda Josephson reveals how Japanese officials invented religion in Japan and traces the sweeping intellectual, legal, and cultural changes that followed. More than a tale of oppression or hegemony, Josephson’s account demonstrates that the process of articulating religion offered the Japanese state a valuable opportunity. In addition to carving out space for belief in Christianity and certain forms of Buddhism, Japanese officials excluded Shinto from the category. Instead, they enshrined it as a national ideology while relegating the popular practices of indigenous shamans and female mediums to the category of “superstitions”—and thus beyond the sphere of tolerance. Josephson argues that the invention of religion in Japan was a politically charged, boundary-drawing exercise that not only extensively reclassified the inherited materials of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto to lasting effect, but also reshaped, in subtle but significant ways, our own formulation of the concept of religion today. This ambitious and wide-ranging book contributes an important perspective to broader debates on the nature of religion, the secular, science, and superstition.

The Invention of Religion in Japan

Author : Jason Ananda Josephson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226412350
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (264 download)

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Book Synopsis The Invention of Religion in Japan by : Jason Ananda Josephson

Download or read book The Invention of Religion in Japan written by Jason Ananda Josephson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-10-03 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of how Japan once had no concept of “religion,” and what happened when officials were confronted by American Commodore Perry in 1853. Throughout its long history, Japan had no concept of what we call “religion.” There was no corresponding Japanese word, nor anything close to its meaning. But when American warships appeared off the coast of Japan in 1853 and forced the Japanese government to sign treaties demanding, among other things, freedom of religion, the country had to contend with this Western idea. In this book, Jason Ananda Josephson reveals how Japanese officials invented religion in Japan and traces the sweeping intellectual, legal, and cultural changes that followed. More than a tale of oppression or hegemony, Josephson’s account demonstrates that the process of articulating religion offered the Japanese state a valuable opportunity. In addition to carving out space for belief in Christianity and certain forms of Buddhism, Japanese officials excluded Shinto from the category. Instead, they enshrined it as a national ideology while relegating the popular practices of indigenous shamans and female mediums to the category of “superstitions” —and thus beyond the sphere of tolerance. Josephson argues that the invention of religion in Japan was a politically charged, boundary-drawing exercise that not only extensively reclassified the inherited materials of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto to lasting effect, but also reshaped, in subtle but significant ways, our own formulation of the concept of religion today. This ambitious and wide-ranging book contributes an important perspective to broader debates on the nature of religion, the secular, science, and superstition. Praise for The Invention of Religion in Japan “The Invention of Religion in Japan is truly revolutionary. Original, well researched, and engrossing, it overturns basic assumptions in the study of Japanese thought, religion, science, and history. . . . This book will absolutely reshape the field.” —Sarah Thal, University of Wisconsin-Madison “Written with remarkable clarity, this book makes an excellent contribution to the study of the interface of traditional Japanese religions and politics. Highly recommended.” —Choice “The range of Japanese primary sources consulted in his book is prodigious, as is his familiarity and usage of multidisciplinary theoretical works. . . . Josephson’s book is erudite, informative, and interesting. It should be a worthwhile read for Japan scholars as well as scholars and students interested in religious studies theory and history.” —H-Shukyo

On Understanding Japanese Religion

Author : Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780691102290
Total Pages : 380 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (22 download)

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Book Synopsis On Understanding Japanese Religion by : Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa

Download or read book On Understanding Japanese Religion written by Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1987-10-21 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joseph Kitagawa, one of the founders of the field of history of religions and an eminent scholar of the religions of Japan, published his classic book Religion in Japanese History in 1966. Since then, he has written a number of extremely influential essays that illustrate approaches to the study of Japanese religious phenomena. To date, these essays have remained scattered in various scholarly journals. This book makes available nineteen of these articles, important contributions to our understanding of Japan's intricate combination of indigenous Shinto, Confucianism, Taoism, the Yin-Yang School, Buddhism, and folk religion. In sections on prehistory, the historic development of Japanese religion, the Shinto tradition, the Buddhist tradition, and the modem phase of the Japanese religious tradition, the author develops a number of valuable methodological approaches. The volume also includes an appendix on Buddhism in America. Asserting that the study of Japanese religion is more than an umbrella term covering investigations of separate traditions, Professor Kitagawa approaches the subject from an interdisciplinary standpoint. Skillfully combining political, cultural, and social history, he depicts a Japan that seems a microcosm of the religious experience of humankind.

Religions of Japan in Practice

Author : George J. Tanabe Jr.
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691214743
Total Pages : 583 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Religions of Japan in Practice by : George J. Tanabe Jr.

Download or read book Religions of Japan in Practice written by George J. Tanabe Jr. and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anthology reflects a range of Japanese religions in their complex, sometimes conflicting, diversity. In the tradition of the Princeton Readings in Religions series, the collection presents documents (legends and miracle tales, hagiographies, ritual prayers and ceremonies, sermons, reform treatises, doctrinal tracts, historical and ethnographic writings), most of which have been translated for the first time here, that serve to illuminate the mosaic of Japanese religions in practice. George Tanabe provides a lucid introduction to the "patterned confusion" of Japan's religious practices. He has ordered the anthology's forty-five readings under the categories of "Ethical Practices," "Ritual Practices," and "Institutional Practices," moving beyond the traditional classifications of chronology, religious traditions (Shinto, Confucianism, Buddhism, etc.), and sects, and illuminating the actual orientation of people who engage in religious practices. Within the anthology's three broad categories, subdivisions address the topics of social values, clerical and lay precepts, gods, spirits, rituals of realization, faith, court and emperor, sectarian founders, wizards, and heroes, orthopraxis and orthodoxy, and special places. Dating from the eighth through the twentieth centuries, the documents are revealed to be open to various and evolving interpretations, their meanings dependent not only on how they are placed in context but also on how individual researchers read them. Each text is preceded by an introductory explanation of the text's essence, written by its translator. Instructors and students will find these explications useful starting points for their encounters with the varied worlds of practice within which the texts interact with readers and changing contexts. Religions of Japan in Practice is a compendium of relationships between great minds and ordinary people, abstruse theories and mundane acts, natural and supernatural powers, altruism and self-interest, disappointment and hope, quiescence and war. It is an indispensable sourcebook for scholars, students, and general readers seeking engagement with the fertile "ordered disorder" of religious practice in Japan.

The Science of Religion (Japanese)

Author : Paramahansa Yogananda
Publisher : Self-Realization Fellowship
ISBN 13 : 9780876121924
Total Pages : 156 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (219 download)

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Book Synopsis The Science of Religion (Japanese) by : Paramahansa Yogananda

Download or read book The Science of Religion (Japanese) written by Paramahansa Yogananda and published by Self-Realization Fellowship. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Albert Einstein once declared: "Science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind." In The Science of Religion Paramahansa Yogananda (author of the acclaimed spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi) reveals why the answers to the ultimate questions of both science and religion do not lie in scholarly research or blind belief, but in direct personal experience of a higher Reality that underlies and sustains all life. With compelling logic, he explores the relative effectiveness of various approaches to this goal - from traditional intellectual and religious disciplines to metaphysical practices that lead beyond the conscious and subconscious mind to a superconscious awareness. Stripping away the cloaks of dogma and doctrine, he redefines religion on a basis at once universal and intensely personal.

Asian Religions, Technology and Science

Author : István Keul
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317674480
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis Asian Religions, Technology and Science by : István Keul

Download or read book Asian Religions, Technology and Science written by István Keul and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-27 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past five decades, the field of religion-and-science scholarship has experienced a considerable expansion. This volume explores the historical and contemporary perspectives of the relationship between religion, technology and science with a focus on South and East Asia. These three areas are not seen as monolithic entities, but as discursive fields embedded in dynamic processes of cultural exchange and transformation. Bridging these arenas of knowledge and practice traditionally seen as distinct and disconnected, the book reflects on the ways of exploring the various dimensions of their interconnection. Through its various chapters, the collection provides an examination of the use of modern scientific concepts in the theologies of new religious organizations, and challenges the traditional notions of space by Western scientific conceptions in the 19th century. It looks at the synthesis of ritual elements and medical treatment in China and India, and at new funeral practices in Japan. It discusses the intersections between contemporary Western Buddhism, modern technology, and global culture, and goes on to look at women’s rights in contemporary Pakistani media. Using case studies grounded in carefully delineated temporal and regional frameworks, chapters are grouped in two sections; one on religion and science, and another on religion and technology. Illustrating the manifold perspectives and the potential for further research and discussion, this book is an important contribution to the studies of Asian Religion, Science and Technology, and Religion and Philosophy.

Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine

Author : G. Clinton Godart
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824876830
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine by : G. Clinton Godart

Download or read book Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine written by G. Clinton Godart and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2018-03-31 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine is the first book in English on the history of evolutionary theory in Japan. Bringing to life more than a century of ideas, G. Clinton Godart examines how and why Japanese intellectuals, religious thinkers of different faiths, philosophers, biologists, journalists, activists, and ideologues engaged with evolutionary theory and religion. How did Japanese religiously think about evolution? What were their main concerns? Did they reject evolution on religious grounds, or—as was more often the case—how did they combine evolutionary theory with their religious beliefs? Evolutionary theory was controversial and never passively accepted in Japan: It took a hundred years of appropriating, translating, thinking, and debating to reconsider the natural world and the relation between nature, science, and the sacred in light of evolutionary theory. Since its introduction in the nineteenth century, Japanese intellectuals—including Buddhist, Shinto, Confucian, and Christian thinkers—in their own ways and often with opposing agendas, struggled to formulate a meaningful worldview after Darwin. In the decades that followed, as the Japanese redefined their relation to nature and built a modern nation-state, the debates on evolutionary theory intensified and state ideologues grew increasingly hostile toward its principles. Throughout the religious reception of evolution was dominated by a long-held fear of the idea of nature and society as cold and materialist, governed by the mindless “struggle for survival.” This aversion endeavored many religious thinkers, philosophers, and biologists to find goodness and the divine within nature and evolution. It was this drive, argues Godart, that shaped much of Japan’s modern intellectual history and changed Japanese understandings of nature, society, and the sacred. Darwin, Dharma, and the Divine will contribute significantly to two of the most debated topics in the history of evolutionary theory: religion and the political legacy of evolution. It will, therefore, appeal to the broad audience interested in Darwin studies as well as students and scholars of Japanese intellectual history, religion, and philosophy.

Folk Religion in Japan

Author : Ichiro Hori
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226353346
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (263 download)

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Book Synopsis Folk Religion in Japan by : Ichiro Hori

Download or read book Folk Religion in Japan written by Ichiro Hori and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1974 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ichiro Hori's is the first book in Western literature to portray how Shinto, Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist elements, as well as all manner of archaic magical beliefs and practices, are fused on the folk level. Folk religion, transmitted by the common people from generation to generation, has greatly conditioned the political, economic, and cultural development of Japan and continues to satisfy the emotional and religious needs of the people. Hori examines the organic relationship between the Japanese social structure—the family kinship system, village and community organizations—and folk religion. A glossary with Japanese characters is included in the index.

Religion, Power, and the Rise of Shinto in Early Modern Japan

Author : Stefan Köck
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350181080
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion, Power, and the Rise of Shinto in Early Modern Japan by : Stefan Köck

Download or read book Religion, Power, and the Rise of Shinto in Early Modern Japan written by Stefan Köck and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-04-08 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sheds new light on the relationship between religion and state in early modern Japan, and demonstrates the growing awareness of Shinto in both the political and the intellectual elite of Tokugawa Japan, even though Buddhism remained the privileged means of stately religious control. The first part analyses how the Tokugawa government aimed to control the populace via Buddhism and at the same time submitted Buddhism to the sacralization of the Tokugawa dynasty. The second part focuses on the religious protests throughout the entire period, with chapters on the suppression of Christians, heterodox Buddhist sects, and unwanted folk practitioners. The third part tackles the question of why early Tokugawa Confucianism was particularly interested in “Shinto” as an alternative to Buddhism and what “Shinto” actually meant from a Confucian stance. The final part of the book explores attempts to curtail the institutional power of Buddhism by reforming Shinto shrines, an important step in the so called “Shintoization of shrines” including the development of a self-contained Shinto clergy.

Psychotherapy and Religion in Japan

Author : Chikako Ozawa-de Silva
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134305311
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (343 download)

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Book Synopsis Psychotherapy and Religion in Japan by : Chikako Ozawa-de Silva

Download or read book Psychotherapy and Religion in Japan written by Chikako Ozawa-de Silva and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-09-27 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, based on original anthropological fieldwork, provides a detailed ethnography of Naikan in practice.

Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan

Author : Christopher Harding
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317683005
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan by : Christopher Harding

Download or read book Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan written by Christopher Harding and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late nineteenth century, religious ideas and practices in Japan have become increasingly intertwined with those associated with mental health and healing. This relationship developed against the backdrop of a far broader, and deeply consequential meeting: between Japan’s long-standing, Chinese-influenced intellectual and institutional forms, and the politics, science, philosophy, and religion of the post-Enlightenment West. In striving to craft a modern society and culture that could exist on terms with – rather than be subsumed by – western power and influence, Japan became home to a religion--psy dialogue informed by pressing political priorities and rapidly shifting cultural concerns. This book provides a historically contextualized introduction to the dialogue between religion and psychotherapy in modern Japan. In doing so, it draws out connections between developments in medicine, government policy, Japanese religion and spirituality, social and cultural criticism, regional dynamics, and gender relations. The chapters all focus on the meeting and intermingling of religious with psychotherapeutic ideas and draw on a wide range of case studies including: how temple and shrine ‘cures’ of early modern Japan fared in the light of German neuropsychiatry; how Japanese Buddhist theories of mind, body, and self-cultivation negotiated with the findings of western medicine; how Buddhists, Christians, and other organizations and groups drew and redrew the lines between religious praxis and psychological healing; how major European therapies such as Freud’s fed into self-consciously Japanese analyses of and treatments for the ills of the age; and how distress, suffering, and individuality came to be reinterpreted across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, from the southern islands of Okinawa to the devastated northern neighbourhoods of the Tohoku region after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters of March 2011. Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan will be welcomed by students and scholars working across a broad range of subjects, including Japanese culture and society, religious studies, psychology and psychotherapy, mental health, and international history.

Religion in Japanese History

Author : Joseph M. Kitagawa
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780231515092
Total Pages : 506 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion in Japanese History by : Joseph M. Kitagawa

Download or read book Religion in Japanese History written by Joseph M. Kitagawa and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1990-11-21 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing Japan's religions from the Hein Period through the middle ages and into modernity, this book explores the unique establishment of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Japan, as well as the later influence of Roman Catholicism, and the problem of Restoration--both spiritual and material--following World War II.

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions

Author : Erica Baffelli
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1350043745
Total Pages : 343 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions by : Erica Baffelli

Download or read book The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions written by Erica Baffelli and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Religious Discourse in Modern Japan

Author : Jun'ichi Isomae
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004272682
Total Pages : 500 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Religious Discourse in Modern Japan by : Jun'ichi Isomae

Download or read book Religious Discourse in Modern Japan written by Jun'ichi Isomae and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious Discourse in Modern Japan explores the introduction of the Western concept of “religion” to Japan in the modern era, and the emergence of discourse on Shinto, philosophy, and Buddhism. Taking Anesaki’s founding of religious studies (shukyogaku) at Tokyo Imperial University as a pivot, Isomae examines the evolution of this academic discipline in the changing context of social conditions from the Meiji era through the present. Special attention is given to the development of Shinto studies/history of Shinto, and the problems of State Shinto and the emperor system are described in relation to the nature of the concept of religion. Isomae also explains how the discourse of religious studies developed in connection with secular discourses on literature and history, including Marxism.

Becoming One

Author : Chika Watanabe
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824877543
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis Becoming One by : Chika Watanabe

Download or read book Becoming One written by Chika Watanabe and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-01-31 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International development programs strive not only to alleviate poverty but to transform people, aid workers and recipients alike. Becoming One grapples with this process by exploring the work of OISCA*, a prominent Japanese NGO in central Myanmar. OISCA’s postwar origins at the intersection of Shinto, secularism, and rightwing politics, and its vision of inter-Asian solidarity and a sustainable future helped shape the organization’s ideology and activities. By delving into the world of its aid workers—their everyday practices, discourses, and aspirations—author Chika Watanabe seeks to understand the NGO’s political, social, and ethical effects. At OISCA training centers, Japanese and local staff teach sustainable agricultural skills and organic farming methods to rural youth. Much of the teaching involves laboring in the fields, harvesting produce, and caring for livestock: what they can’t use themselves is sold at nearby markets. Watanabe’s detailed and multi-sited ethnography shows how Japanese and Burmese actors mobilize around the idea of “becoming one” with Mother Earth and their human counterparts within a shared communal lifestyle. By exploring the tension between intentions and political effects—spanning environmentalism, cultural-nationalist ideologies of “Japaneseness,” and aspirations to make the world a better place—Watanabe highlights fascinating questions and both positive and negative outcomes. Becoming One weaves together vivid descriptions of the intensive, intimate, and “muddy labor” of “making persons” (hitozukuri) with the wider historical resonances of these efforts, decentering common understandings of development, NGOs, and their moral and political promises. This engaging and thought-provoking book combines insights from anthropology, development studies, and religious studies to add to our understanding of modern Japan. *Organization for Industrial, Spiritual and Cultural Advancement

Modern Societies and the Science of Religions

Author : Lammert Leertouwer
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9789004116658
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (166 download)

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Book Synopsis Modern Societies and the Science of Religions by : Lammert Leertouwer

Download or read book Modern Societies and the Science of Religions written by Lammert Leertouwer and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume gathers essays written by seventeen specialists in the science of religions. It focuses on the social, cultural, institutional, and political contexts of the Study of Religions in resp. modern France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the USA, Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Indonesia, Japan, and China.

Women in Japanese Religions

Author : Barbara Ambros
Publisher : NYU Press
ISBN 13 : 1479827622
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (798 download)

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Book Synopsis Women in Japanese Religions by : Barbara Ambros

Download or read book Women in Japanese Religions written by Barbara Ambros and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-05-29 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive history of women in Japanese religious traditions Scholars have widely acknowledged the persistent ambivalence with which the Japanese religious traditions treat women. Much existing scholarship depicts Japan’s religious traditions as mere means of oppression. But this view raises a question: How have ambivalent and even misogynistic religious discourses on gender still come to inspire devotion and emulation among women? In Women in Japanese Religions, Barbara R. Ambros examines the roles that women have played in the religions of Japan. An important corrective to more common male-centered narratives of Japanese religious history, this text presents a synthetic long view of Japanese religions from a distinct angle that has typically been discounted in standard survey accounts of Japanese religions. Drawing on a diverse collection of writings by and about women, Ambros argues that ambivalent religious discourses in Japan have not simply subordinated women but also given them religious resources to pursue their own interests and agendas. Comprising nine chapters organized chronologically, the book begins with the archeological evidence of fertility cults and the early shamanic ruler Himiko in prehistoric Japan and ends with an examination of the influence of feminism and demographic changes on religious practices during the “lost decades” of the post-1990 era. By viewing Japanese religious history through the eyes of women, Women in Japanese Religions presents a new narrative that offers strikingly different vistas of Japan’s pluralistic traditions than the received accounts that foreground male religious figures and male-dominated institutions.