The Culture Of Secrecy In Japanese Religion

Author : Bernhard Scheid,Mark Teeuwen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 398 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2015-04-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781134168736

Get Book

The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion by Bernhard Scheid,Mark Teeuwen Pdf

The Japanese Middle Ages were a period when forms of secrecy dominated religious practice. This fascinating collection traces out the secret characteristics and practices in Japanese religion, as well as analyzing the decline of religious esotericism in Japan. The essays in this impressive work refer to Esoteric Buddhism as the core of Japan’s "culture of secrecy". Esoteric Buddhism developed in almost all Buddhist countries of Asia, but it was of particular importance in Japan where its impact went far beyond the borders of Buddhism, also affecting Shinto as well as non-religious forms of discourse. The contributors focus on the impact of Esoteric Buddhism on Japanese culture, and also include comparative chapters on India and China. Whilst concentrating on the Japanese medieval period, this book will give readers familiar with present day Japan, many explanations for the still visible remnants of Japan’s medieval culture of secrecy.

Author : Bernhard Scheid,Mark Teeuwen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 412 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2015-04-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781134168743

Get Book

The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion by Bernhard Scheid,Mark Teeuwen Pdf

The Japanese Middle Ages were a period when forms of secrecy dominated religious practice. This fascinating collection traces out the secret characteristics and practices in Japanese religion, as well as analyzing the decline of religious esotericism in Japan. The essays in this impressive work refer to Esoteric Buddhism as the core of Japan’s "culture of secrecy". Esoteric Buddhism developed in almost all Buddhist countries of Asia, but it was of particular importance in Japan where its impact went far beyond the borders of Buddhism, also affecting Shinto as well as non-religious forms of discourse. The contributors focus on the impact of Esoteric Buddhism on Japanese culture, and also include comparative chapters on India and China. Whilst concentrating on the Japanese medieval period, this book will give readers familiar with present day Japan, many explanations for the still visible remnants of Japan’s medieval culture of secrecy.

Author : William E. Deal,Brian Ruppert
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2015-06-15
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781405167017

Get Book

A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism by William E. Deal,Brian Ruppert Pdf

A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism offers a comprehensive, nuanced, and chronological account of the evolution of Buddhist religion in Japan from the sixth century to the present day. Traces each period of Japanese history to reveal the complex and often controversial histories of Japanese Buddhists and their unfolding narratives Examines relevant social, political, and transcultural contexts, and places an emphasis on Japanese Buddhist discourses and material culture Addresses the increasing competition between Buddhist, Shinto, and Neo-Confucian world-views through to the mid-nineteenth century Informed by the most recent research, including the latest Japanese and Western scholarship Illustrates the richness and complexity of Japanese Buddhism as a lived religion, offering readers a glimpse into the development of this complex and often misunderstood tradition

Author : John Dougill
Publisher : SPCK
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2016-09-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780281075539

Get Book

In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians by John Dougill Pdf

In Search of Japan's Hidden Christians is a remarkable story of suppression, secrecy and survival in the face of human cruelty and God’s apparent silence. Part history, part travelogue, it explores and seeks to explain a clash of civilizations—of East and West—that resonates to this day. For seven generations, Japan’s ‘Hidden Christians’ preserved a faith that was forbidden on pain of death. Just as remarkably, descendants of the Hidden Christians continue to practise their beliefs today, refusing to rejoin the Catholic Church. Why? And what is it about Japanese culture that makes it so resistant to Western Christianity?

Author : Christine M. E. Guth
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2021-11-09
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780520382497

Get Book

Craft Culture in Early Modern Japan by Christine M. E. Guth Pdf

Articles crafted from lacquer, silk, cotton, paper, ceramics, and iron were central to daily life in early modern Japan. They were powerful carriers of knowledge, sociality, and identity, and their facture was a matter of serious concern among makers and consumers alike. In this innovative study, Christine M. E. Guth offers a holistic framework for appreciating the crafts produced in the city and countryside, by celebrity and unknown makers, between the late sixteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. Her study throws into relief the confluence of often overlooked forces that contributed to Japan’s diverse, dynamic, and aesthetically sophisticated artifactual culture. By bringing into dialogue key issues such as natural resources and their management, media representations, gender and workshop organization, embodied knowledge, and innovation, she invites readers to think about Japanese crafts as emerging from cooperative yet competitive expressive environments involving both human and nonhuman forces. A focus on the material, sociological, physiological, and technical aspects of making practices adds to our understanding of early modern crafts by revealing underlying patterns of thought and action within the wider culture of the times.

Author : Hugh B. Urban
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2021-01-12
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780226746784

Get Book

Secrecy by Hugh B. Urban Pdf

The powers of political secrecy and social spectacle have been taken to surreal extremes recently. Witness the twin terrors of a president who refuses to disclose dealings with foreign powers while the private data of ordinary citizens is stolen and marketed in order to manipulate consumer preferences and voting outcomes. We have become accustomed to thinking about secrecy in political terms and personal privacy terms. In this bracing, new work, Hugh Urban wants us to focus these same powers of observation on the role of secrecy in religion. With Secrecy, Urban investigates several revealing instances of the power of secrecy in religion, including nineteenth-century Scottish Rite Freemasonry, the sexual magic of a Russian-born Parisian mystic; the white supremacist BrüderSchweigen or “Silent Brotherhood” movement of the 1980s, the Five Percenters, and the Church of Scientology. An electrifying read, Secrecy is the culmination of decades of Urban’s reflections on a vexed, ever-present subject.

Author : Clark Chilson
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2014-07-31
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780824851347

Get Book

Secrecy’s Power by Clark Chilson Pdf

Shin has long been one of the most popular forms of Buddhism in Japan. As a devotional tradition that emphasizes gratitude and trust in Amida Buddha, it is thought to have little to do with secrecy. Yet for centuries, Shin Buddhists met on secluded mountains, in homes, and in the backrooms of stores to teach their hidden doctrines and hold clandestine rites. Among their adherents was D. T. Suzuki’s mother, who took her son to covert Shin meetings when he was a boy. Even among Shin experts, covert followers were relatively unknown; historians who studied them claimed they had disappeared more than a century ago. A serendipitous encounter, however, led to author Clark Chilson’s introduction to the leader of a covert Shin Buddhist group—one of several that to this day conceal the very existence of their beliefs and practices. In Secrecy’s Power Chilson explains how and why they have remained hidden. Drawing on historical and ethnographic sources, as well as fieldwork among covert Shin Buddhists in central Japan, Secrecy’s Power introduces the histories, doctrines, and practices of different covert Shin Buddhists. It shows how, despite assumptions to the contrary, secrecy has been a significant part of Shin’s history since the thirteenth century, when Shinran disowned his eldest son for claiming secret knowledge. The work also demonstrates how secrecy in Shin has long been both a source of conflict and a response to it. Some covert Shin Buddhists were persecuted because of their secrecy, while others used it to protect themselves from persecution under rulers hostile to Shin. Secrecy’s Power is a groundbreaking work that makes an important contribution to our knowledge on secrecy and Shin Buddhism. Organized around the various consequences concealment has had for covert Shin Buddhists, it provides new insights into the power of secrecy to produce multiple effects—even polar opposite ones. It also sheds light on ignored corners of Shin Buddhism to reveal a much richer, more diverse, and more contested tradition than commonly is understood.

Author : Erica Baffelli,Andrea Castiglioni,Fabio Rambelli
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 343 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2021-03-25
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781350043749

Get Book

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions by Erica Baffelli,Andrea Castiglioni,Fabio Rambelli Pdf

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.

Author : Fabio Rambelli,Or Porath
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 613 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2022-01-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783110720266

Get Book

Rituals of Initiation and Consecration in Premodern Japan by Fabio Rambelli,Or Porath Pdf

In premodern Japan, legitimization of power and knowledge in various contexts was sanctioned by consecration rituals (kanjō) 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, kanjō rituals are examined from various perspectives: imperial ceremonies, Buddhist monastic rituals, vernacular religious forms (Shugendō 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 kanjō 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.

Author : William Puck Brecher
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2021-03-29
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9789004450158

Get Book

Japan’s Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 by William Puck Brecher Pdf

Japan's Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 explores the genesis and historical development of autonomy and its evolving relationship with public authority in early modern and modern Japan.

Author : Clark Chilson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Secrecy
ISBN : 0824868420

Get Book

Secrecy's Power by Clark Chilson Pdf

Author : Yijiang Zhong
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2016-10-06
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781474271097

Get Book

The Origin of Modern Shinto in Japan by Yijiang Zhong Pdf

Yijiang Zhong analyses the formation of Shinto as a complex and diverse religious tradition in early modern and Meiji Japan, 1600-1868. Highlighting the role of the god Okuninushi and the mythology centered on the Izumo Shrine in western Japan as part of this process, he shows how and why this god came to be ignored in State Shinto in the modern period. In doing so, Zhong moves away from the traditional understanding of Shinto history as something completely internal to the nation of Japan, and instead situates the formation of Shinto within a larger geopolitical context involving intellectual and political developments in the East Asian region and the role of western colonial expansion. The Origin of Modern Shinto in Japan draws extensively on primary source materials in Japan, many of which were only made available to the public less than a decade ago and have not yet been studied. Source materials analysed include shrine records and object materials, contemporary written texts, official materials from the national and provincial levels, and a broad range of visual sources based on contemporary prints, drawings, photographs and material culture.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 674 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2012-09-03
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004234369

Get Book

Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions by Anonim Pdf

Representing work by some of the leading scholars in the field, the chapters of this handbook survey the transformation and innovation of religious traditions and practices in contemporary Japan. Readers will find lively scholarly studies about changes in the traditional institutions of Buddhism and Shinto, vivid examples of social activism as well as the so-called “new religions,” examination of the relationship between religion and the state, and analysis of the religiosity of individuals encompassed by “spirituality,” pilgrimage and tourism, and the marketing of religions. This groundbreaking collection of scholarly papers helps to map out the fascinating complexity and dynamism of religion in contemporary Japanese society and culture.

Author : Rebekah Clements
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2015-03-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781107079823

Get Book

A Cultural History of Translation in Early Modern Japan by Rebekah Clements Pdf

"Translation, in one form or another, has been present in all major exchanges between cultures in history. Japan is no exception, and it is part of the standard narrative of Japanese history that translation has played a formative role in the developmentof indigenous legal and religious systems as well as literature, from early contact with China to the present-day impact of world literatures in Japanese translation. Yet translation is by no means a mainstream area of study for historians of Japan and there are no monograph-length overviews of the history of pre-modern Japanese translation available in any language"--

Author : Dori-Michelle Beeler,Jojan Jonker
Publisher : LIT Verlag Münster
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2021-01-25
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783643912701

Get Book

Reiki Practice and Surrender by Dori-Michelle Beeler,Jojan Jonker Pdf

The authors discuss the religious spiritual healing practice Reiki, revealing components of it that help transform the message held by the alleged life-force called reiki energy into meaning expressed in efficacy for the recipient's body, mind and spirit. Components that are analyzed include but are not limited to, touch, symbols, initiation, and precepts. The practitioner's surrender to a combination of internal and external authority - with reiki energy being part of that - is a crux in Reiki practice and one means with which practitioners speak of beneficial effect. This work contributes to academic knowledge about how practicing a religious or spiritual practice may contribute to one's well-being and flourishing life. Moreover, it explores the question of the nature of Reiki in academic definitions of religion.