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This book focuses on the long history of what is arguably the most prestigious and influential festival in Japan – Kyoto's Gion festival. It explores this history from the festival's origins in the late 10th century to its post-war revival, drawing on Japanese historical studies and archival materials as well as the author's participant observation fieldwork. Exploring the social and political networks that have kept this festival alive for over a millennium, this book reveals how it has endured multiple reinventions. In particular, it identifies how at each historical juncture, different groups have found new purposes for the festival and adapted this costly enterprise to suit their own ends. The history of this festival not only sheds light on the development of Japanese festival culture as a whole, but also offers a window on Kyoto's history and provides a testing ground for recent festival theory.

Occult Japan is an esoteric study of Japanese personality and possession based on Japan's indigenous religion, Shinto, and other aspects of Japanese culture, history and heritage. Shinto, also known as'The Way of the Gods,'revolves around the kami ('gods'or'spirits'), supernatural entities believed to inhabit all things. The kami are worshiped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and public shrines. The study offers exhaustive observations and academic discussions of various aspects of Japanese life, including language, religious practices, economics, travels in Japan, and the development of personality.

Two classic texts essential to understanding Zen Buddhism—its ideas, history, and profound cultural legacy. In Zen Dictionary, theosophist Ernest Wood offers a comprehensive guide to the most important Zen ideas, along with a general history of the growth of Zen in China and Japan. Presenting names and terms in alphabetical order, Zen Dictionary is an ideal reference text for any student of Zen. More than just a survey of Zen and Shinto, Dr. Chikao Fujisawa's Zen and Shinto is an impassioned plea to restore Shinto as the cornerstone of Japanese life and thought. Fujisawa offers new insight into the depth and vitality of Japanese culture, demonstrating its remarkable capacity to assimilate foreign thought and ideas, and thus contribute to the world's hope for permanent peace.

Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations takes readers on a thoroughly researched and extremely readable journey through Japan's cultural history. This much-anticipated sequel to Roger Davies's best-selling The Japanese Mind provides a comprehensive overview of the religion and philosophy of Japan. This cultural history of Japan explains the diverse cultural traditions that underlie modern Japan and offers readers deep insights into Japanese manners and etiquette. Davies begins with an investigation of the origins of the Japanese, followed by an analysis of the most important approaches used by scholars to describe the essential elements of Japanese culture. From there, each chapter focuses on one of the formative elements: Shintoism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen, Confucianism, and Western influences in the modern era. Each chapter is concluded with extensive endnotes along with thought-provoking discussion activities, making this volume ideal for individual readers and for classroom instruction. Anyone interested in pursuing a deeper understanding of this complex and fascinating nation will find Davies's work an invaluable resource.

How do the Japanese talk about their native philosophy, Shinto, a decade and a half after the Western Allies abolished it as a state religion? What is its relationship to Buddhism, and particularly to Zen? How modern can this very ancient creed ever be? These are some of the questions considered in this study by Dr. Chikao Fujisawa, who specialized in the study of traditional Japanese philosophy and its effect on modern society. Zen and Shinto is a strong plea to rectify the steps taken to eradicate Shinto, the very substance of Japanese life and thought. At the same time, it offers new insight into the amazing adaptability of the Japanese psyche—its depth, vitality and universality—and its remarkable capacity to assimilate foreign thought and ideas, and thus contribute to the world's hope for permanent peace.

The Myōtei Dialogues is the first complete English translation one of the most important works of early Japanese Christianity. Fukansai Habian's Myōtei mondō (1605) presents a sharp critique of the three main Japanese traditions, Buddhism, Shintō, and Confucianism, followed by an explanation of the main tenets of Christianity specifically aimed at a Japanese audience. Written by a convert, it is of importance not merely because it shows us how the Christian message was presented by a Japanese to other Japanese, but also for what it reveals about the state of the three native traditions at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Japan's oldest surviving narrative, the eighth-century Kojiki, chronicles the mythical origins of its islands and their ruling dynasty through a diverse array of genealogies, tales, and songs that have helped to shape the modern nation's views of its ancient past. Gustav Heldt's engaging new translation of this revered classic aims to make the Kojiki accessible to contemporary readers while staying true to the distinctively dramatic and evocative appeal of the original's language. It conveys the rhythms that structure the Kojiki's animated style of storytelling and translates the names of its many people and places to clarify their significance within the narrative. An introduction, glossaries, maps, and bibliographies offer a wealth of additional information about Japan's earliest extant record of its history, literature, and religion.

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Sentence Chapter 2 - Simple, Compound & Complex Sentences Chapter 3 - Clause Chapter 4 - Dependent Clause & Independent Clause Chapter 5 - Relative Clause Chapter 6 - Syntax Chapter 7 - Grammatical Mood Chapter 8 - English Grammar

Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, often called the Nihonshoki, is one of Japan's great classics of literature. Regarded as one of the seminal original authorities on the mythology and ancient history of Japan, it remains as fresh today as when it was written in the eighth century. It provides a vivid picture of a nation in formation. In the Nihongi, we see the growth of national awareness following the assimilation of Buddhism and the general Chinese and Indian influence on Japanese culture. Before its history stretch the mysterious archaeological ages of Jomon and Yayoi. From the first chapter, “The Age of the Gods,” the fantastic world of ancient Japan is laid before us. Ritual myth and superstition meet with bare feet and folk custom. Strong emotions and conflict are seen surging in Japan's antiquity. Few historical documents are as “human” as the Nihongi. For a thousand years, emperors, scholars, courtiers, and imperial historians have found in the Nihongi knowledge and guidance. It remains a key to early Japan, a gateway to the actual old Japan.The translator of the Nihongi, William George Aston, pioneered the translation of Japanese into English.

'An excellently rounded introduction by an eminent Shinto scholar.'--Library JournalShinto, the indigenous faith of the Japanese people, continues to fascinate and mystify both the casual visitor to Japan and the long-time resident. Relatively unknown among the religions of the world, Shinto: The Kami Way provides an enlightening window into this Japanese faith.In its general aspects, Shinto is more than a religious faith. It is an amalgam of attitudes, ideas, and ways of doing things that through two millennia and more have become an integral part of the way of the Japanese people. Shinto is both a personal faith in the kami--objects of worship in Shinto and an honorific for noble, sacred spirits--and a communal way of life according to the mind of the kami. This introduction unveils Shinto's spiritual characteristics and discusses the architecture and function of Shinto shrines. Further examination of Shinto's lively festivals, worship, music, and sacred regalia illustrates Shinto's influence on all levels of Japanese life.Fifteen photographs, numerous drawings and Dr. Ono's text introduce the reader to two millennia of indigenous Japanese belief in the kami and in communal life.Chapters include:The Kami WayShrinesWorship and FestivalsPolitical and Social CharacteristicsSome Spiritual Characteristics

Description based on print version record.

The first book that deals with the territorial cults of early Japan by focusing on how such cults were founded in ownerless regions. Numerous ancient Japanese myths and legends are discussed to show that the typical founding ritual was a two-phase ritual that turned the territory into a horizontal microcosm, complete with its own ‘terrestrial heaven’ inhabited by local deities. Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky.

Shinto is a remarkably complex and elusive phenomenon to which Western categories of religion do not readily apply. A knowledge of Shinto can only proceed from a basic understanding of Japanese shrines and civilization, for it is closely intermingled with the Japanese way of life and continues to be a vital natural religion. This companion to Picken's first volume, Essentials of Shinto: An Analytical Guide to Principal Teachings, provides a selection of important and pivotal documents in the history of the Shinto tradition.This volume contains a collection of texts and materials related to the Shinto tradition from the classical age of Japan to modern times. Selections from the Japanese classics are followed by liturgical texts and relevant historical documents from the Nara and Heian periods. Next, documents relating to the period of State Shinto are followed by laws regulating Imperial Household Shinto both pre- and post- World War II. This is followed by a brief selection of writings related to Shinto and the New Religions. The remainder of the book is occupied by selections of texts firstly on Shinto Thought from the 13th century to the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The four closing chapters document early and recent western views of Shinto, and a selection of Japanese writings covering the same period. Finally, the appendixes include the official list of Emperors and the nation's oldest shrines.

Nine out of ten Japanese claim some affiliation with Shinto, but in the West the religion remains the least studied of the major Asian spiritual traditions. It is so interlaced with Japanese cultural values and practices that scholarly studies usually focus on only one of its dimensions: Shinto as a'nature religion,'an'imperial state religion,'a'primal religion,'or a'folk amalgam of practices and beliefs.'Thomas Kasulis'fresh approach to Shinto explains with clarity and economy how these different aspects interrelate.As a philosopher of religion, he first analyzes the experiential aspect of Shinto spirituality underlying its various ideas and practices. Second, as a historian of Japanese thought, he sketches several major developments in Shinto doctrines and institutions from prehistory to the present, showing how its interactions with Buddhism, Confucianism, and nationalism influenced its expression in different times and contexts. In Shinto's idiosyncratic history, Kasulis finds the explicit interplay between two forms of spirituality: the'existential'and the'essentialist.'Although the dynamic between the two is particularly striking and accessible in the study of Shinto, he concludes that a similar dynamic may be found in the history of other religions as well. Two decades ago, Kasulis'Zen Action/Zen Person brought an innovative understanding to the ideas and practices of Zen Buddhism, an understanding influential in the ensuing decades of philosophical Zen studies. Shinto: The Way Home promises to do the same for future Shinto studies.

Enduring Identities is an attempt to understand the continuing relevance of Shinto to the cultural identity of contemporary Japanese. The enduring significance of this ancient yet innovative religion is evidenced each year by the millions of Japanese who visit its shrines. They might come merely seeking a park-like setting or to make a request of the shrine's deities, asking for a marriage partner, a baby, or success at school or work; or they might come to give thanks for benefits received through the intercession of deities or to legitimate and sacralize civic and political activities. Through an investigation of one of Japan's most important and venerated Shinto shrines, Kamo Wake Ikazuchi Jinja (more commonly Kamigamo Jinja), the book addresses what appears through Western and some Asian eyes to be an exotic and incongruous blend of superstition and reason as well as a photogenic juxtaposition of present and past. Combining theoretical sophistication with extensive fieldwork and a deep knowledge of Japan, John Nelson documents and interprets the ancient Kyoto shrine's yearly cycle of rituals and festivals, its sanctified landscapes, and the people who make it viable. At local and regional levels, Kamigamo Shrine's ritual traditions (such as the famous Hollyhock Festival) and the strategies for their perpetuation and implementation provide points of departure for issues that anthropologists, historians, and scholars of religion will recognize as central to their disciplines. These include the formation of social memory, the role of individual agency within institutional politics, religious practice and performance, the shaping of sacred space and place, ethnic versus cultural identity, and the politics of historical representation and cultural nationalism. Nelson links these themes through a detailed ethnography about a significant place and institution, which until now has been largely closed to both Japanese and foreign scholars. In contrast to conventional notions of ideology and institutions, he shows how a religious tradition's lack of centralized dogma, charismatic leaders, and sacred texts promotes rather than hinders a broad-based public participation with a variety of institutional agendas, most of which have very little to do with belief. He concludes that it is this structural flexibility, coupled with ample economic, human, and cultural resources, that nurtures a reworking of multiple identities--all of which resonate with the past, fully engage the present, and, with care, will endure well into the future.

Editor of series: 楠正弘.

An early Japanese classic, possibly dating as far back as A.D. 712, Kojiki is an invaluable sourcebook for students of Japanese history, religion, anthropology, and literature. Completed under the auspices of the Japanese imperial court, it is the oldest extant book in Japan, and its title (literally,'Record of Ancient Things') suggests an account of a still earlier era. It is the court's statement about the origins of the imperial clan and the leading families, and the beginnings of Japan as a nation; at the same time it is a compilation of myths, historical and pseudo-historical narratives and legends, songs, anecdotes, folk etymologies, and genealogies. An earlier translation by Basil Hall Chamberlain published in 1882 is now out of print. This translation relates the translated text to modern scholarship and includes the most recent commentaries.Originally published in 1969.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Shinto is finally receiving the attention it deserves as a fundamental component of Japanese culture. Nevertheless, it remains a remarkably complex and elusive phenomenon to which Western categories of religion do not readily apply. A knowledge of Shinto can only proceed from a basic understanding of Japanese shrines and civilization, for it is closely intermingled with the Japanese way of life and continues to be a vital natural religion. This book is a convenient guide to Shinto thought.As a reference work, the volume does not offer a detailed critical study of all aspects of Shinto. Instead, it overviews the essential teachings of Shinto and provides the necessary cultural and historical context for understanding Shinto as a dynamic force in Japanese civilization. The book begins with an historical overview of Shinto, followed by a discussion of Japanese myths. The volume then discusses the role of shrines, which are central to Shinto rituals. Other portions of the book discuss the various Shinto sects and the evolution of Shinto from the Heian period to the present. Because Japanese terms are central to Shinto, the work includes a glossary.