Japanese new religions - Wikipedia

Japanese new religions - Wikipedia

Japanese new religions

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The Dai Heiwa Kinen Tō, Peace Tower built by Perfect Liberty Kyōdan

Japanese new religions are new religious movements established in Japan. In Japanese, they are called shinshūkyō (新宗教) or shinkō shūkyō (新興宗教). Japanese scholars classify all religious organizations founded since the middle of the 19th century as "new religions"; thus, the term refers to a great diversity and number of organizations. Most came into being in the mid-to-late twentieth century and are influenced by much older traditional religions including Buddhism and Shinto. Foreign influences include Christianity, the Bible and the writings of Nostradamus.^[1][2]

Before World War II[edit]

In the 1860s Japan began to experience great social turmoil and rapid modernization. As social conflicts emerged in this last decade of the Edo period, known as the Bakumatsu period, some new religious movements appeared. Among them were Tenrikyo, Kurozumikyo and Oomoto, sometimes called Nihon Sandai Shinkōshūkyō ("Japan's three large new religions"), which were directly influenced by Shinto (the state religion) and shamanism.

The social tension continued to grow during the Meiji period, affecting religious practices and institutions. Conversion from traditional faith was no longer legally forbidden, officials lifted the 250-year ban on Christianity, and missionaries of established Christian churches reentered Japan. The traditional syncreticism between Shinto and Buddhism ended and Shinto became the national religion. Losing the protection of the Japanese government which Buddhism had enjoyed for centuries, Buddhist monks faced radical difficulties in sustaining their institutions, but their activities also became less restrained by governmental policies and restrictions.

The Japanese government was very suspicious towards these religious movements and periodically made attempts to suppress them. Government suppression was especially severe during the early 20th century, particularly from the 1930s until the early 1940s, when the growth of Japanese nationalism and State Shinto were closely linked. Under the Meiji regime lèse majesté prohibited insults against the Emperor and his Imperial House, and also against some major Shinto shrines which were believed to be tied strongly to the Emperor. The government strengthened its control over religious institutions that were considered to undermine State Shinto or nationalism, arresting some members and leaders of Shinshukyo, including Onisaburo Deguchi of Oomoto and Tsunesaburō Makiguchi of Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (now Soka Gakkai), who typically were charged with violation of lèse majesté and the Peace Preservation Law.

After World War II[edit]

Background[edit]

After Japan lost World War II, its government and policy changed radically during occupation by Allied troops. The official status of State Shinto was abolished, and Shinto shrines became religious organizations, losing government protection and financial support. Although the Occupation Army (GHQ) practiced censorship of all types of organizations, specific suppression of Shinshūkyō ended.

GHQ invited many Christian missionaries from the United States to Japan, through Douglas MacArthur's famous call for 1,000 missionaries. Missionaries arrived not only from traditional churches, but also from some modern denominations, such as Jehovah's Witnesses. The Jehovah's Witnesses missionaries were so successful that they have become the second largest Christian denomination in Japan, with over 210,000 members (the largest is Catholicism with about 500,000 members). In Japan, Jehovah's Witnesses tend to be considered a Christianity-based Shinshūkyō, not only because they were founded in the 19th century (as were other major Shinshūkyō), but also because of their missionary practices, which involve door-to-door visiting and frequent meetings.

Despite the influx of Christian missionaries, the majority of Shinshūkyō are Buddhist- or Shinto-related sects. Major sects include Risshō Kōsei Kai and Shinnyo-en. Major goals of Shinshūkyō include spiritual healing, individual prosperity, and social harmony. Many also hold a belief in Apocalypticism, that is in the imminent end of the world or at least its radical transformation.^[1] Most of those who joined Shinshūkyō in this period were women from lower-middle-class backgrounds.^[2]

Soka Gakkai has a particular influence to politics since 1964, thanks to their affiliated party Komeito, later New Komeito. In 1999, it was estimated that 10 to 20 per cent of the Japanese population were members of a Shinshūkyō.^[2]

Influence[edit]

After World War II, the structure of the state was changed radically. Prior to WWII, the National Diet was restricted and the real power lay with the executive branch, in which the prime minister was appointed by the emperor. Under the new Constitution of Japan, the Diet had the supreme authority for decision making in state affairs and all its members were elected by the people. Especially in the House of Councillors, one third of whose members were elected through nationwide vote, nationwide organizations found they could influence national policy by supporting certain candidates. Major Shinshūkyō became one of the so-called "vote-gathering machines" in Japan, especially for the conservative parties which merged into the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955.

Other nations[edit]

In the 1950s, Japanese wives of American servicemen introduced the Soka Gakkai to the United States, which in the 1970s developed into the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). The SGI has steadily gained members while avoiding much of the controversy encountered by some other new religious movements in the US.^{[original research?]} Well-known American SGI converts include musician Herbie Hancock and singer Tina Turner.^[3]

In Brazil Shinshūkyō, like Honmon Butsuryū-shū, were first introduced in the 1920s among the Japanese immigrant population. In the 1950s and 1960s some started to become popular among the non-Japanese population as well. Seicho-no-Ie now has the largest membership in the country. In the 1960s it adopted Portuguese, rather than Japanese, as its language of instruction and communication. It also began to advertise itself as philosophy rather than religion in order to avoid conflict with the Roman Catholic Church and other socially conservative elements in society. By 1988 it had more than 2.4 million members in Brazil, 85% of them not of Japanese ethnicity.^[1]

Statistics[edit]

Edifices and emblems of various Japanese new religions

Emblem of Tenri-kyo

Head office of Oomoto at Kameoka, Japan

Headquarters of Reiyū-kai

Emblem of Konko-kyō

Rissho Kosei-kai’s Great Sacred Hall

Emblem of Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō)

Name	Founder	Founded	1954	1974	1990	2012
Nyorai-kyō (如来教)	Isson-nyorai Kino (1756–1826)	1802	75,480	33,674	27,131	7,477
Kurozumi-kyō (黒住教)	Munetada Kurozumi (1780–1850)	1814	715,650	407,558	295,225	297,767
Tenri-kyō (天理教)	Nakayama Miki (1798–1887)	1838	1,912,208	2,298,420	1,839,009	1,199,652
Honmon Butsuryū-shū (本門佛立宗)	Nagamatsu Nissen (1817–1890)	1857	339,800	515,911	526,337	345,288
Konko-kyō (金光教)	Konkō Daijin (1814–1883)	1859	646,206	500,868	442,584	430,021
Maruyama-kyō (丸山教)	Rokurōbei Itō (1829–1894)	1870	92,011	3,200	10,725	11,057
Oomoto (大本)	Nao Deguchi (1837–1918) Onisaburō Deguchi (1871–1948)	1899	73,604	153,397	172,460	169,525
Nakayama-Shingoshō-shū (中山身語正宗)	Matsutarō Kihara (1870–1942)	1912	282,650	467,910	382,040	295,275
Honmichi (ほんみち)	Ōnishi Aijirō (1881–1958)	1913	225,386	288,700	316,825	318,974
En'ō-kyō (円応教)	Chiyoko Fukada (1887–1925)	1919	71,654	266,782	419,452	457,346
Reiyū-kai (霊友会)	Kakutarō Kubo (1892–1944)	1924	2,284,172	2,477,907	3,202,172	1,412,975
Nenpō-shinkyō (念法眞教)	Ogura Reigen (1886–1982)	1925	153,846	751,214	807,486	408,755
Perfect Liberty Kyōdan (パーフェクト リバティー教団)	Miki Tokuharu (1871–1938) Miki Tokuchika (1900–1983)	(1925)[4] 1946	500,950	2,520,430	1,259,064	942,967
Seichō-no-Ie (生長の家)	Masaharu Taniguchi (1893–1985)	1930	1,461,604	2,375,705	838,496	618,629
Sōka Gakkai (創価学会)	Tsunesaburō Makiguchi (1871–1944) Jōsei Toda (1900–1958)	1930	341,146	16,111,375	17,736,757[5]	20,000,000
Sekai Kyūsei-kyō (世界救世教)	Mokichi Okada (1882–1955)	1935	373,173	661,263	835,756	835,756
Shinnyo-en (真如苑)	Shinjō Itō (1906–1956)	1936	155,500	296,514	679,414	902,254
Kōdō Kyōdan (孝道教団)	Shōdō Okano (1900–1978)	1936	172,671	417,638	400,720	184,859
Risshō Kōsei-kai (立正佼成会)	Myōkō Naganuma (1889–1957) Nikkyō Niwano (1906–1999)	1938	1,041,124	4,562,304	6,348,120	3,232,411
Tenshō Kōtai Jingū-kyō (天照皇大神宮教)	Sayo Kitamura 1900–1967)	1945	89,374	386,062	439,011	479,707
Zenrin-kyō (善隣教)	Tatsusai Rikihisa (1906–1977)	1947	404,157	483,239	513,321	132,286
Ōyama Nezunomikoto Shinji Kyōkai (大山ねずの命神示教会)	Sadao Inaii (1906–1988)	1948		59,493	826,022
Bussho Gonenkai Kyōdan (佛所護念会教団)	Kaichi Sekiguchi (1897–1961) Sekiguchi Tomino (1905–1990)	1950	352,170	1,210,227	2,196,813	1,277,424
Myōchikai Kyōdan (妙智会教団)	Mitsu Miyamoto (1900–1984)	1950	515,122	673,913	962,611	709,849
Byakkō Shinkō-kai (白光真宏会)	Masahisa Goi (1916–1980)	1951			500,000
Agon-shū (阿含宗)	Seiyū Kiriyama (1921–)	1954		500	206,606	353,890
Reiha-no-Hikari Kyōkai (霊波之光)	Hase Yoshio (1915–1984)	1954			761,175
Jōdoshinshū Shinran-kai (浄土真宗親鸞会)	Kentetsu Takamori (1934–)	1958			100,000[6]
Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kyōdan (世界真光文明教団)	Kōtama Okada(Yoshikazu Okada) (1901–1974)	1959			97,838
Honbushin (ほんぶしん)	Ōnishi Tama (1916–1969)	1961			900,000[6]
God Light Association Sōgō Honbu (GLA総合本部)	Shinji Takahashi (1927–1976)	1969			12,981
Shinji Shūmei-kai (神慈秀明会)	Mihoko Koyama (1910–2003)	1970			1988: 440,000[6]
Nihon Seidō Kyōdan (日本聖道教団)	Shōkō Iwasaki (1934–)	1974			69,450
Extra-Sensory-Perception Kagaku Kenkyūjo (ESP科学研究所)	Katao Ishii (1918–)	1975			16,000[6]
Sūkyō Mahikari (崇教真光)	Yoshikazu Okada (1901–1974)	1978			501,328
Ho No Hana (法の華三法行)	Hōgen Fukunaga (1945–)	1980			70,000[6]
Yamato-no-Miya (大和之宮)	Tenkei Ajiki (1952–)	1981			5,000[6]
World Mate (ワールドメイト)	Seizan Fukami (1951–)	1984			30,000[6]	72,000
Happy Science (幸福の科学)	Ryūhō Ōkawa (1956–2023)	1986			1989: 13,300 1991: 1,527,278[6]	1,100,000
Aum Shinrikyo (オウム真理教)	Shōkō Asahara (1955–2018)	1987 (−2000)			2005: 1,650	2018: 1,950[7]

Data for 2012 is from the Agency for Cultural Affairs.^[8]

See also[edit]

• Buddhism in Japan
• Buddhist modernism
• Religion in Japan
• Shinto sects and schools (only some on the list count as Shinshukyo)

References[edit]

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Peter B. Clarke, 1999, "Japanese New Religious Movements in Brazil: from ethnic to 'universal' religions", New Religious Movements: challenge and response, Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell editors, Routledge ISBN 0415200504
2. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Eileen Barker, 1999, "New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance", New Religious Movements: challenge and response, Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell editors, Routledge ISBN 0415200504
3. ^ Eugene V. Gallagher, 2004, The New Religious Movement Experience in America, Greenwood Press, ISBN 0313328072, pages 120–124
4. ^ The (1925) date refers to the Hito-no-Michi Kyōdan, the mother organization of Perfect Liberty Kyōdan
5. ^ Sōka Gakkai has not released figures for 1989 and 1990, so this figure is the membership number for 1988,
6. ^ Jump up to:^{a b c d e f g h} Most of the statistics in these charts are from the 1991 edition of the Shūkyō Nenkan (Religion Yearbook, Tokyo: Gyōsei). Numbers marked with this footnote are from other sources^{[citation needed]} reporting the organizations‘ own membership statistics around 1990.
7. ^ "オウム真理教対策（警察庁）". 25 July 2011. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
8. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.bunka.go.jp. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 August 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2022.

Bibliography[edit]

• Clarke, Peter B. (1999) A Bibliography of Japanese New Religious Movements: With Annotations. Richmond : Curzon. ISBN 9781873410806; OCLC 246578574
• Clarke, Peter B. (2000). Japanese New Religions: In Global Perspective. Richmond : Curzon. ISBN 9780700711857; OCLC 442441364
• Clarke, Peter B., Somers, Jeffrey, editors (1994). Japanese New Religions in the West, Japan Library/Curzon Press, Kent, UK. ISBN 1-873410-24-7
• Dormann, Benjamin (2012). Celebrity Gods: New Religions, Media, and Authority in Occupied Japan, University of Hawaiʻi Press. ISBN 0824836219
• Dormann, Benjamin (2005). “New Religions through the Eyes of Ōya Sōichi, 'Emperor' of the Mass Media”, in: Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture, 29, pp. 54–67
• Dormann, Benjamin (2004). “SCAP's Scapegoat? The Authorities, New Religions, and a Postwar Taboo”, in: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 31/1: pp. 105–140
• Hardacre, Helen. (1988). Kurozumikyo and the New Religions of Japan. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02048-5
• Kisala, Robert (2001). “Images of God in Japanese New Religions”, in: Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture, 25, pp. 19–32
• Wilson, Bryan R. and Karel Dobbelaere. (1994). A Time to Chant. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-827915-9
• Staemmler, Birgit, Dehn, Ulrich (ed.): Establishing the Revolutionary: An Introduction to New Religions in Japan. LIT, Münster, 2011. ISBN 978-3-643-90152-1

Christianity and Politics in Japan in: Handbook of Christianity in Japan

Christianity and Politics in Japan in: Handbook of Christianity in Japan

CHRISTIANITY AND POLITICS IN JAPAN

M. William STEELE

Beginning with Fukuzawa Tukichi in late nineteenth century Japan, there has

been a sustained, although often muted, call for responsible individualism.

Pre-1868 Japan was dominated by ideologies

of

sacrifice. In the pursuit

of

the

greater good, private initiative was discouraged. The individual was expected

to comply with the wishes

of

the family, the village, and the

state-with

no

questions asked. Fukuzawa rejected this Confucian legacy and, through edu-

cation, sought to create a citizenry that "would be a stimulus to the

government, and not its plaything" (Fukuzawa 1969, 26). Later, in the imme-

diate postwar period, thinkers such as Maruyama Masao and Otsuka Hisao

renewed attempts to re-structure Japanese society (Maruyama 1986). Their

watchword was "subjectivity" (shutaisei), a quality they felt essential in the

functioning

of

a democratic society (Koschmann 1996). At the outset

of

the

twenty-first century, the extent to which Japan has been able to transcend

groupism and values attached to subservience and dependence is open to

question.

Since post-Reformation Christianity has played a strong role in the devel-

opment

of

political democracy and responsible individualism in Europe and

the Americas, one might expect Christianity, once introduced into Japan, to

be similarly involved in modem Japanese political development. Indeed there

were thinkers such as Kozaki Hiromichi who sought to replace Confucianism

with Christianity as the foundation

of

Japanese culture (Kozaki 1892; 1889).

The case

of

Uchimura Kanzo is often held up as an example

of

Christian

resistance to the imperial ideology

of

the Meiji state. In 1891 he refused to

bow low before the Imperial Rescript on Education; later, during the Russo-

Japanese War, he was one

of

the few people who dared to speak against the

war.' Other Christians paved the way for the introduction

of

socialism and

communism in Japan (Scheiner 1970; Copeland 1954). However, Japanese

Christians who advocated individualism, pacifism, and humanism, and who

resisted the family state ideology and imperial mythmaking, were few and far

between. As Basil Hall Chamberlain noted in his 1912 essay "Shinto, the

Religions of Japan in Practice: Tanabe Jr., George J.

Religions of Japan in Practice: Tanabe Jr., George J.: 9780691057897: Amazon.com: Books

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Religions of Japan in Practice Paperback – March 8, 1999
by George J. Tanabe Jr. (Editor)
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Part of: Princeton Readings in Religions (15 books)
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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.
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George J. Tanabe. Jr., is Professor and Chair in the Department of Religion at the University of Hawaii. Having research interests covering doctrinal and practical issues in medieval and modern Japan, he is the author of My&e the Dreamkeeper, coeditor of The Lotus Satra in Japanese Culture, and coauthor of Practically Religious: Woridly Bienefits and the Cammon Religion of Japan
"Religions of Japan in Practice demonstrates the wide variety of topicsand source materials heing studied by current scholars of Japan. More important, its very diversity demands that we rethink scholarly categories and boundaries within the field of Japanese religious studies, Both teachers and students will find much that is new and fascinating."-Willians M. Bodtford, University of California, Los Angeles
PRINCETON READINGS IN RELIGIONS

Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Editor
Adopting a fresh approach to sourcebooks on the religions of the world, Princeton Readings in Religions moves away from an emphasis on philesophy and the religious expressions of elite groups to represent instead a wide range of cartent and historical religious practices. The series provides a new configuration of texts by making available for the first time works that have never been translated before, including ritual texts, hagiographical and autebiographical works, folkiales, and ethnographic material. Although the books are designed for students, specialists will discover in them a wealth of unfamiliar and valuable material, Furthermore, the selections. appealing in themselves, are placed in an understandable context to attract a wide audience of general readers. The contributors include experts from around the world, each of whom provides a substantial introduction for his or her plece, placing the texs in time and genre, discussing the history and influtnce of the work, and identifying points of particular difficulty or interest. Each volume also contains a s
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of the traditions is outlined and the sign








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From Publishers Weekly
The latest offering in the Princeton Readings in Religions series rises to the same high standards as previous volumes on India and China. Editor Tanabe (Practically Religious) has gathered 45 documentsAranging from legends and prayer rituals to sermons and theological treatisesAto illustrate the dynamic, living character of Japanese religion. Rather than classifying the documents according to religious traditions (Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism), Tanabe has divided them into sections that reflect the ways that people use certain texts in religious practices. In the first section, "Ethical Practices," Mary Evelyn Tucker provides a translation of Confucian scholar Kaibara Ekken's (1630-1714) "Precepts on Family," in which the teacher offers advice on raising children, serving parents and things to do in the morning ("Every day we should get up early, wash our hands and face, and first inquire about the health of our parents."). Other writings in the section deal with such matters as syncretism, monastic discipline, celibacy and nationalism. A second section, "Ritual Practices," contains documents related to the gods and spirits and to faith. For instance, William E. Deal offers a translation of "Tales of Birth in the Pure Land," legends that accompany birth rituals in Amida, or Pure Land, Buddhism. A final section collects documents concerned with "Institutional Practices," including excerpts from imperial histories and tales of great heroes. Perhaps the most fascinating offering in this section is H. Byron Earhart and Etsuko Mita's translation from Our Master Teshima Ikuro, a record of Ikuro's (1910-1973) call to the Christian ministry and the subsequent development of his preaching style combining the elements of his Japanese heritage with his Christian religion. Tanabe's collection is one of the finest anthologies available of primary documents illustrating the diversity and liveliness of Japanese religions.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The fifth in a distinguished series of anthologies on world religion from Princeton, this volume brings together a variety of documents representing the diverse and complex religious traditions of Japan. Each of the 45 chapters is introduced by a scholar in the field. The book as a whole is arranged thematically (e.g. "Social Values," "Faith," and "Spirits"), with each section containing articles that illuminate the theme as it manifests itself in different areas of Japanese religious thought and practice. Rather than canonical literature, the volume presents more obscure texts, including pamphlets, folktales, and ritual manuals in an attempt to depict the influence of religion in the daily life and culture of Japan over the centuries. An enormous undertaking, this is a book to be admired rather than enjoyed, and its value to those in the field of comparative religions is undeniable. Neither an introductory text nor for the casual reader, it is indispensable for academic collections supporting religious studies programs.AMark Woodhouse, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product details
ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0691057893
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press; First Edition (March 8, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 584 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780691057897
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691057897
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 1.32 x 9.21 inchesBest Sellers Rank: #809,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)#227 in Christian Monasticism & Asceticism (Books)
#501 in Christian Poetry (Books)
#1,384 in History of ReligionsCustomer Reviews:
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George J. Tanabe


George (J.) Tanabe (Jr.) is an academic specialist in Japanese religions (esp. Buddhism) and taught in the Department of Religion at the University of Hawaii. His authored, co-authored and edited books include MYOE THE DREAMKEEPER: FANTASY AND KNOWLEDGE IN EARLY KAMAKURA BUDDHISM (Harvard), RELIGIONS OF JAPAN IN PRACTICE (Princeton), SOURCES OF JAPANESE TRADITION (Columbia), PRACTICALLY RELIGIOUS: WORLDLY BENEFITS AND THE COMMON RELIGION OF JAPAN (Hawaii), and JAPANESE BUDDHIST TEMPLES IN HAWAII: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE (Hawaii). In 2007, he was awarded the Japanese Foreign Minister's Award for promoting mutual cultural understanding between Japan and the United States. Since his retirement in 2006, he has written three novels, all of which remain unpublished. For more about his nonfiction and fiction, go to his website: tanabebooks.com.



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KC
4.0 out of 5 stars Four StarsReviewed in the United States on February 15, 2017
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Very good on the part concerning the practice of suchness!



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Cate
3.0 out of 5 stars Not much help.Reviewed in the United States on March 27, 2013
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I basically bought this book for a class and did not take the class after all. I didn't get to read the book, but it comes highly recommended from a professor if you like this kind of culture.



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Crazy Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars "There is not just one method for entering the Way, the causes and conditions for enlightenment being many."Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2009

It seems to be almost a required rhetorical given nowadays for books published by academic presses to claim usefulness to students, specialists, and general readers alike. Few live up to this admittedly implausible promise, but "Religions of Japan in Practice" comes pretty darn close. Clearly it's principally intended as a source book of primary readings for college students, and in that capacity provides an extremely good grasp of the incredibly rich array and variety of Japanese religiosity. Each of the forty-five selections is carefully translated and accessibly introduced by an expert in the field specializing in that subject, so that overall the work makes for a trustworthy and reliable textbook. Speaking as someone who has avidly studied Japanese religions for many years now, though, I can vouch that specialists and other old hands at this topic will or at least should themselves find the selections herein immensely interesting and, yes, even informative as well.

Though surely there must have been heartbreaking omissions the editors had to insist upon so that the book didn't grow to unwieldy proportions (it's a hefty volume as it is), the range of selections is pretty comprehensive, with at least something representing most Japanese religious traditions and subdivisions thereof present and accounted for from the earliest records to contemporary articles--with the sole exception of 20th-century "New Religions" which seem conspicuously absent. More to the point of this book, each selection is in its own way uncommonly vital, a living breathing sample of vibrant religiosity actually known and practiced by real people--no dusty doctrinal tracts long forgotten in monastic libraries here (though I sometimes enjoy these, too). Indeed, this is a refreshingly down-to-earth anthology. A majority of the translations appear only here, while some have been adapted from relatively obscure sources available only in major university libraries; only a small handful can be found in other readily available publications, and their absence in this source book would've been regrettable in any case.

Obviously with such an embarrassment of riches, different folks will find different aspects of the book appealing for different reasons. Personally I found the texts included from Japan's Zen (Rinzai and Soto) traditions here especially intriguing and noteworthy for the manner in which they--by the way, as it were--happen to deconstruct and undercut certain all-too-common idealized and essentialized stereotypes, and the quantity of Pure Land tracts does justice to the pervasive nature of this form of Buddhism in Japan while not submerging the equally important (and, to me I must say, more engaging) types of Buddhism such as Shingon and Tendai. The example of an actual Shugendo apocryphal sutra is a particular standout for me since translations of these are so unimaginably rare despite their ubiquity in certain regions of Japan such as (for example) the one where I lived for several years, while the child's guide to Yasukuni Jinja offers an unsettling but preciously unprecedented glimpse into the self-presentation of this controversial shrine that still tends to make the news from time to time. In general too the many hagiographies and miracle tales, in addition to their value as religious documents and the way in which they tend to muddle our cut & dry sectarian categories, give a certain level of homely literary enjoyment or else movingly testify to deeply human concerns entrusted to the divine. Well, I could go on and on, but in short, there's a lot going on in this book, and, for once, pretty much something for everyone.

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Zack Davisson
HALL OF FAME
5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable guide to the religions of JapanReviewed in the United States on April 10, 2004

Anyone seeking greater insight into the many and varied religions of Japan, and how they are practiced in actual daily life could not do better than "Religions of Japan in Practice." This book differs from most other texts on the subject by presenting translations of various religious documents, pamphlets, advertisements and religious stories rather than interpretations.
While the religious stories translated can be found in many sources, specifically the many Buddhist doctrines and such, nowhere else have I discovered a translation of the tourist's pamphlet of Yasukuni Shrine, the controversial Shinto shrine celebrating the honored "war heroes" of World War II, or the children's pamphlet describing the "Miraculous Tales of the Hasedera Kannon." It is these small touches that make this book so incredible.
The organization of "Religions in Japan in Practice" is also wonderful, focusing on the various aspects of religion in daily life rather than the differences between shinto and Buddhism's various sects. However, there are cross indexes of organization by chronology and religious tradition if needed.
The book is scholarly in nature, and would not be a valuable book for anyone seeking insights into their spirituality or to open their third eye. However, anyone with an interest in or making a serious study of the religions of Japan needs "Religions of Japan in Practice."

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