Why Are The Japanese Non Religious

Author : Toshimaro Ama
Publisher : University Press of America
ISBN 13 : 9780761830566
Total Pages : 110 pages
Book Rating : 4.61/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Why are the Japanese Non-religious? written by Toshimaro Ama and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2005 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why Are the Japanese Non-Religious?: Japanese Spirituality: Being Non-Religious in a Religious Culture, translated here for the first time in English, was first published in Japan in 1996. It has also been translated into Korean and German. Author Toshimaro Ama examines the concept of mushukyo, or lack of specific religious beliefs. According to Ama, the Japanese generally lack an understanding of or desire to commit to a particular organized religion, oftentimes fusing Shinto, Christianity, and Buddhism into a hybrid form of spirituality. The book, which has sold more than 100,000 copies, is widely popular among students of Japanese culture and ethnicity as well as lay readers desiring to learn more about Japanese religious identity.

Author : Hans Martin Krämer
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824857216
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.19/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Shimaji Mokurai and the Reconception of Religion and the Secular in Modern Japan written by Hans Martin Krämer and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion is at the heart of such ongoing political debates in Japan as the constitutionality of official government visits to Yasukuni Shrine, yet the very categories that frame these debates, namely religion and the secular, entered the Japanese language less than 150 years ago. To think of religion as a Western imposition, as something alien to Japanese reality, however, would be simplistic. As this in-depth study shows for the first time, religion and the secular were critically reconceived in Japan by Japanese who had their own interests and traditions as well as those received in their encounters with the West. It argues convincingly that by the mid-nineteenth century developments outside of Europe and North America were already part of a global process of rethinking religion. The Buddhist priest Shimaji Mokurai (1838–1911) was the first Japanese to discuss the modern concept of religion in some depth in the early 1870s. In his person, indigenous tradition, politics, and Western influence came together to set the course the reconception of religion would take in Japan. The volume begins by tracing the history of the modern Japanese term for religion, shūkyō, and its components and exploring the significance of Shimaji’s sectarian background as a True Pure Land Buddhist. Shimaji went on to shape the early Meiji government’s religious policy and was essential in redefining the locus of Buddhism in modernity and indirectly that of Shinto, which led to its definition as nonreligious and in time to the creation of State Shinto. Finally, the work offers an extensive account of Shimaji’s intellectual dealings with the West (he was one of the first Buddhists to travel to Europe) as well as clarifying the ramifications of these encounters for Shimaji’s own thinking. Concluding chapters historicize Japanese appropriations of secularization from medieval times to the twentieth century and discuss the meaning of the reconception of religion in modern Japan. Highly original and informed, Shimaji Mokurai and the Reconception of Religion and the Secular in Modern Japan not only emphasizes the agency of Asian actors in colonial and semicolonial situations, but also hints at the function of the concept of religion in modern society: a secularist conception of religion was the only way to ensure the survival of religion as we know it today. In this respect, the Japanese reconception of religion and the secular closely parallels similar developments in the West.

Author : David C. Lewis
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317194373
Total Pages : 346 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Religion in Japanese Daily Life written by David C. Lewis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-22 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are Japanese people religious – and, if so, in what ways? David Lewis addresses this question from the perspective of ordinary Japanese people in the context of their life cycles, and explores why they engage in religious activities. He not only discusses how Japanese people engage in different religious practices as they encounter new events in their lives but also analyses the attitudes and motivations behind their behaviour. Activities such as fortune-telling, religious rites in the workplace, ancestral rites and visits to shrines and temples are actually engaged in by many people who view themselves as ‘non- religious’ but express their motivations in terms other than the conventional ‘religious’ ones. This book outlines the religious options available, and assesses why people choose particular religious activities at various times in their lives or in specific circumstances. The author challenges some widespread assumptions about religion in urban and industrial contexts and also shows how some of the underlying motivations behind Japanese behaviour are expressed both in religious and non-religious forms.

Author : 笠原一男
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 660 pages
Book Rating : 4.70/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A History of Japanese Religion written by 笠原一男 and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventeen distinguished experts on Japanese religion provide a fascinating overview of its history and development. Beginning with the origins of religion in primitive Japanese society, they chart the growth of each of Japan's major religious organizations and doctrinal systems. They follow Buddhism, Shintoism, Christianity, and popular religious belief through major periods of change to show how history and religion affected each-and discuss the interactions between the different religious traditions.

Author : Bernhard Scheid
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113416873X
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion written by Bernhard Scheid and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-04-22 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 : Jason Ānanda Josephson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226412342
Total Pages : 402 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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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.

Author : Inken Prohl
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004234357
Total Pages : 675 pages
Book Rating : 4.52/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions written by Inken Prohl and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-09-03 with total page 675 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Representing work by some of the leading scholars in the field, the chapters in this handbook survey the transformation and innovation of religious traditions and practices in contemporary Japan.

Author : Ian Reader
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 082486400X
Total Pages : 318 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Practically Religious written by Ian Reader and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1998-10-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praying for practical benefits (genze riyaku) is a common religious activity in Japan. Despite its widespread nature and the vast numbers of people who pray and purchase amulets and talismans for everything from traffic safety and education success to business prosperity and protection from disease, the practice has been virtually ignored in academic studies or relegated to the margins as a uh_product of superstition or an aberration from the true dynamics of religion. Basing their work on a fusion of textual, ethnographic, historical, and contemporary studies, the authors of this volume demonstrate the fallacy of such views, showing that, far from being marginal, the concepts and practices surrounding genze riyaku lie at the very heart of the Japanese religious world. They thrive not only as popular religious expression but are supported by the doctrinal structures of most Buddhist sects, are ordained in religious scriptures, and are promoted by monastic training centers, shrines, and temples. Benefits are both sought and bought, and the authors discuss the economic and commercial aspects of how and why institutions promote practical benefits. They draw attention to the dynamism and flexibility in the religious marketplace, where new products are offered in response to changing needs. Intertwined in these economic activities and motivations are the truth claims that underpin and justify the promotion and practice of benefits. The authors also examine the business of guidebooks, which combine travel information with religious advice, including humorous and distinctive forms of prayer for the protection against embarrassing physical problems and sexual diseases. Written in a direct and engaging style, Practically Religious will appeal to a wide range of readers and will be especially valuable to those interested in religion, anthropology, Buddhist studies, sociology, and Japanese studies.

Author : Ted Gerard Jelen
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316582744
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.49/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective written by Ted Gerard Jelen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002-04-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion is resurgent across the globe. In many countries religion is a powerful source of political mobilization, and in some a potent social cleavage. In some religion reinforces the state, in others it provides the space for resistance. This book contains a series of detailed studies examining religion and politics in specific countries or regions. The cases include countries with one dominant religious tradition, and others with two or more competing traditions. They include Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, Shinto and Buddhism. They include states where religion and politics are closely linked, and others with at least a low wall of separation between church and state. The cases are organized by the type of religious marketplace, but allow many other comparisons as well. We develop some generalizations from the cases, and hope that they will be a fertile source of theorizing for others.

Author : Mark Mullins
Publisher : Jain Publishing Company
ISBN 13 : 0895819368
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Religion and Society in Modern Japan written by Mark Mullins and published by Jain Publishing Company. This book was released on 1993 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed for classroom study, this anthology provides the students with interpretations and perspectives on the significance of religion in modern Japan. Emphasis is placed on the sociocultural expressions of religion in everyday life, rather than on religious texts or traditions. A particular strength of this collection is the combination of current Japanese and Western scholarship.