Bonds of the dead : temples, burial, and the transformation of contemporary Japanese Buddhism / Mark Michael Rowe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rowe, Mark (Mark Michael)

Series:

Buddhism and modernity.

Buddhism and modernity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Buddhist funeral rites and ceremonies--Japan.

Buddhist funeral rites and ceremonies.

Buddhism--Japan.

Buddhism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (275 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Despite popular images of priests seeking enlightenment in snow-covered mountain temples, the central concern of Japanese Buddhism is death. For that reason, Japanese Buddhism's social and economic base has long been in mortuary services-a base now threatened by public debate over the status, treatment, and location of the dead. Bonds of the Dead explores the crisis brought on by this debate and investigates what changing burial forms reveal about the ways temple Buddhism is perceived and propagated in contemporary Japan. Mark Rowe offers a crucial account of how religious, political, social, and economic forces in the twentieth century led to the emergence of new funerary practices in Japan and how, as a result, the care of the dead has become the most fundamental challenge to the continued existence of Japanese temple Buddhism. Far from marking the death of Buddhism in Japan, Rowe argues, funerary Buddhism reveals the tradition at its most vibrant. Combining ethnographic research with doctrinal considerations, this is a fascinating book for anyone interested in Japanese society and religion.

Contents:

The "death" of Japanese Buddhism

Avoiding abandonment

Challenging the status quo myokoji

Limitless connections tochoji

Scattering ashes

Sectarian researchers and the funeral problem

Appendix: Jodo sect survey of funerary Buddhism.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786613265135

9781283265133

1283265133

9780226730165

0226730166

OCLC:

754216997