{"title":"Reframing the Human-Fish in the Edo and Meiji Periods","authors":"A. Castiglioni","doi":"10.1163/22118349-01201003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-01201003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article explores the history of a marine zoo-anthropomorphic hybrid, the human-fish (ningyo), within the socioreligious mindscape of Japan from the second half of the seventeenth to the end of the nineteenth century. Because of the interspecific anatomy attributed to them, ningyo have always been addressed from heterogeneous perspectives (religious, literary, political, erotic, scientific) and have thus been subject to continuous hermeneutic oscillations between the fringes and the centers of human/nonhuman networks. Focusing on this bidirectional process, the present study aims to shed light on the phenomenon of the ningyo, taking into account the material culture (taxidermic items, printed talismans), practices (sideshows, public exhibitions), and social actors (itinerant ritualists, scientists, politicians) that conceptually informed and anatomically reified this liminal marine creature.","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41890404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Japanese Buddhist World Map: Religious Vision and the Cartographic Imagination , by D. Max Moerman","authors":"B. Ruppert","doi":"10.1163/22118349-01201002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-01201002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42373106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Yasukuni Fundamentalism: Japanese Religions and the Politics of Restoration , by Mark R. Mullins","authors":"F. Rambelli","doi":"10.1163/22118349-01201001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-01201001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2023-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47990610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War , by Duncan Ryūken Williams","authors":"J. Stein","doi":"10.1163/22118349-01103001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-01103001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47949330","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Refining a Shugenja Elite","authors":"Fran Clements","doi":"10.1163/22118349-tat00004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-tat00004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this article I investigate the reform of Haguro Shugendō undertaken by the bettō (Chief Administrator) Kakujun in concert with the elite shugenja households of Tōge during the Kasei (1804–1829) era. I argue that this collaboration demonstrates the centrality of the household to early modern Shugendō and the importance of relationships between those households and powerful institutions such the bettō. Household, status, and both bureaucratized and document-based patron-client relationships—institutions that permeated early modern Japanese society—are crucial for understanding Shugendō. In this light, shugenja communities such as Tōge simultaneously displayed the characteristics of both a warrior retainer corps and a socially stratified, self-governing rural village. Kakujun reorganized Haguro’s administrative and social structures, clarifying and documenting its social hierarchy to an unprecedented degree. In the process, established households had their traditional privileges guaranteed or even expanded, resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship between the bettō and local elites.","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44379894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"La foi des ancêtres. Chrétiens cachés et catholiques dans la société villageoise japonaise XVIIe–XIXe siècles , by Ramos, Martin Nogueira","authors":"Roger Vanzila Munsi","doi":"10.1163/22118349-tat00005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-tat00005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41816890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tracing Karma in Meiji Japan","authors":"Mitsuhiro Kameyama","doi":"10.1163/22118349-20221002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-20221002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Despite its doctrinal importance, the concept of karma or karmic causality has come to occupy a complicated place in contemporary Japanese Buddhism, due to its historical connection with discrimination against outcast groups and disabled people. Furthermore, among post-war Japanese intellectuals, the idea of karma has often invoked criticism in the context of modern values such as free will and human potential. Against this conventional framework, this paper demonstrates how the concept of karma was the focus of intense interest among Meiji Japanese intellectuals and a center concern in the developing global network of modern Buddhists. At the intersection of the multifaceted problems facing the Buddhist world at that time—namely, the Buddhist search for scientific religion, civil morality in the nation-building process, reformulating Buddhism for non-Japanese audiences, and the confrontation with competing forms of Western thought—lies the relatively unexamined story of karma in Meiji Japan (1868–1912).","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46624029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Rise of Wedding Churches","authors":"J. LeFebvre","doi":"10.1163/22118349-20221001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-20221001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The popularity of Christian weddings represents the new widespread acceptance and popularity of a religious ceremony that sits at the intersection the familial, social, commercial, political, and religious. These rites challenge established preconceptions concerning both Christianity and Japanese identity. The postwar history of Christian wedding ceremonies is best understood in light of the efforts made by traditional Christian churches and the bridal industry to meet the religious demands of Japan’s largely “nonreligious” constituency. In responding to the needs and desires of nonreligious Japanese, commercial and religious institutions not only cooperate to produce and provide Christian weddings, but also compete to satisfy expectations for religious authenticity. There are no better examples of this than the efforts made by Christian churches to open their doors to individuals with no espoused Christian faith and the production of the bridal industry’s fleet of “wedding churches.” As such, Japan’s massive nonreligious constituency has contributed to the creation of a unique form of Christianity particular to Japan.","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41982646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Transformation of the Meaning and Concept of Zoku 俗","authors":"Mariko Baba","doi":"10.1163/22118349-01102001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-01102001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper clarifies why the characters sei 聖 and zoku 俗 were adopted as the Japanese translations for the terms “sacred” and “profane,” respectively, as well as the circumstances in which these characters took on a diversity of meanings that go beyond those terms in contemporary society at large. While the character zoku has acquired various meanings over its long history, its fundamental nuance is the “general,” in contrast to the particular; accordingly, it only acquires a concrete meaning when contrasted with something else. This ambiguity led to its adoption as the translation of “profane,” as well as the continued expansion of the sei-zoku set’s meaning, resulting in a paired set that can refer to “something mysterious and something not mysterious.” When discussing the above, I also engage with international scholarship on how the cultural background of non-Western societies influenced the meanings and interpretations of imported modern Western concepts.","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43920727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ninshin, shussan o meguru supirichuaritī 妊娠・出産をめぐるスピリチュアリティ [The Spirituality of Pregnancy and Childbirth] , by Hashisako Mizuho 橋迫瑞穂","authors":"A. Morrow","doi":"10.1163/22118349-01102002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-01102002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43591124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}