Geography Of Religion In Japan

This book discusses modern aspects of Japanese religion in terms of cultural geography. To understand the function of religion, it is essential to examine it in the context of local societies. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Japanese religion is its diversity; indeed, it is often remarked that “Japan is a museum of religions.” In this work, the author clarifies some geographical aspects of the complex situation of Japanese religion. Chapter 1 discusses the trend of geographical studies of religion in Japan, of which four types can be identified. Chapter 2 focuses on certain characteristics of Japanese religious traditions by discussing tree worship and the landscape of sacred places. Chapter 3 clarifies regional divisions in the catchment areas of Japanese Shintoism by analyzing the distribution of certain types of believers. The author discusses two case studies: the Kasama Inari Shrine and the Kanamura Shrine. Chapter 4 discusses some modern aspects of sacred places and tourism through two case studies. The first part of the chapter focuses on changes in the types of businesses at the Omotesando of the Naritasan Shinshoji-Monzenmachi, and the following sections examine the revitalization of the local community through the promotion of religious tourism.

Ichiro Hori's is the first book in Western literature to portray how Shinto, Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist elements, as well as all manner of archaic magical beliefs and practices, are fused on the folk level. Folk religion, transmitted by the common people from generation to generation, has greatly conditioned the political, economic, and cultural development of Japan and continues to satisfy the emotional and religious needs of the people. Hori examines the organic relationship between the Japanese social structure—the family kinship system, village and community organizations—and folk religion. A glossary with Japanese characters is included in the index.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... GEOGRAPHICAL. /'in the study of a nation's life men bring with them different motives. The merchant has a commercial, the soldier a military, the naturalist a scientific and the politician a political interest in each country. Thus the attitude of each one toward another land is determined by the standpoint from which it is regarded.. The Christian considers every country from the point of view of Christ's command to evangelize the world.. /The discovery of Japan was no exception to this rule. The great Venitian traveler, Marco Polo, in thethirteenth century, at the Co-urt of Kublai Khan, in. China, heard for the first time of Chi-pan-gu (Japan). His graphic description of its beauty, its wealth and its people, awakened a deep interest in Europe. This interest was reawakened by Pinto who came to Japan in 1542. The Portugese fitted out commercial ships to take advantage of the discovery. Columbus sailed on a voyage of exploration and supposed that in the island of Cuba, now of such living interest to us, he had found the far away land of gilt and gold. It even awakened the pen of the poet and prompted one to sing of it: "But what of earth is still from thee concealed, Until that period of futurity, When all the globe contains shall be revealed; Pass not unmarked the islands in the sea, Where nature claims the most celebrity. Half-hidden, stretching in a lengthened line In front of China, which its guide shall be, Japan abounds in mines of silver fine And shall enlightened be by holy faith divine." The Spanish took a deep religious interest in the islands and were alert to their conversion to the Koman Catholic faith. Our interest in the land is likewise a religious one. It is important on this account also to consider it from its physical...

Introduces the geography, history, religious beliefs, government, and people of Japan.

Tracing Japan's religions from the Hein Period through the middle ages and into modernity, this book explores the unique establishment of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism in Japan, as well as the later influence of Roman Catholicism, and the problem of Restoration--both spiritual and material--following World War II.

From the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries Japanese monks created hundreds of maps to construct and locate their place in a Buddhist world. This expansively illustrated volume is the first to explore the largely unknown archive of Japanese Buddhist world maps and analyze their production, reproduction, and reception. In examining these fascinating sources of visual and material culture, author D. Max Moerman argues for an alternative history of Japanese Buddhism—one that compels us to recognize the role of the Buddhist geographic imaginary in a culture that encompassed multiple cartographic and cosmological world views. The contents and contexts of Japanese Buddhist world maps reveal the ambivalent and shifting position of Japan in the Buddhist world, its encounter and negotiation with foreign ideas and technologies, and the possibilities for a global history of Buddhism and science. Moerman’s visual and intellectual history traces the multiple trajectories of Japanese Buddhist world maps, beginning with the earliest extant Japanese map of the world: a painting by a fourteenth-century Japanese monk charting the cosmology and geography of India and Central Asia based on an account written by a seventh-century Chinese pilgrim-monk. He goes on to discuss the cartographic inclusion and marginal position of Japan, the culture of the copy and the power of replication in Japanese Buddhism, and the transcultural processes of engagement and response to new visions of the world produced by Iberian Christians, Chinese Buddhists, and the Japanese maritime trade. Later chapters explore the transformations in the media and messages of Buddhist cartography in the age of print culture and in intellectual debates during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries over cosmology and epistemology and the polemics of Buddhist science. The Japanese Buddhist World Map offers a wholly innovative picture of Japanese Buddhism that acknowledges the possibility of multiple and heterogeneous modernities and alternative visions of Japan and the world.