Religions of Japan in Practice George J. Tanabe, Jr., ed.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Tanabe, George J., Jr., 1943-

Series:

Princeton readings in religions.

Princeton readings in religions

Language:

English

Genre:

Quellenmaterial.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (586 pages).

Edition:

2nd print.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2021

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J : Princeton University Press, [2008?]

Summary:

This anthology reflects a range of Japanese religions in their complex, sometimes conflicting, diversity. In the tradition of the Princeton Readings in Religions series, the collection presents documents (legends and miracle tales, hagiographies, ritual prayers and ceremonies, sermons, reform treatises, doctrinal tracts, historical and ethnographic writings), most of which have been translated for the first time here, that serve to illuminate the mosaic of Japanese religions in practice. George Tanabe provides a lucid introduction to the "patterned confusion" of Japan's religious practices. He has ordered the anthology's forty-five readings under the categories of "Ethical Practices," "Ritual Practices," and "Institutional Practices," moving beyond the traditional classifications of chronology, religious traditions (Shinto, Confucianism, Buddhism, etc.), and sects, and illuminating the actual orientation of people who engage in religious practices. Within the anthology's three broad categories, subdivisions address the topics of social values, clerical and lay precepts, gods, spirits, rituals of realization, faith, court and emperor, sectarian founders, wizards, and heroes, orthopraxis and orthodoxy, and special places. Dating from the eighth through the twentieth centuries, the documents are revealed to be open to various and evolving interpretations, their meanings dependent not only on how they are placed in context but also on how individual researchers read them. Each text is preceded by an introductory explanation of the text's essence, written by its translator. Instructors and students will find these explications useful starting points for their encounters with the varied worlds of practice within which the texts interact with readers and changing contexts. Religions of Japan in Practice is a compendium of relationships between great minds and ordinary people, abstruse theories and mundane acts, natural and supernatural powers, altruism and self-interest, disappointment and hope, quiescence and war. It is an indispensable sourcebook for scholars, students, and general readers seeking engagement with the fertile "ordered disorder" of religious practice in Japan.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Princeton Readings in Religions

Note on Transliteration, Names, and Abbreviations

CONTENTS

Contents by Chronology

Contents by Tradition

Contributors

Introduction

Ethical Practices

SOCIAL VALUES

1. Selected Anecdotes to Illustrate Ten Maxims

2. Kaibara Ekken's Precepts on the Family

3. The Shingaku of Nakazawa Dōni

CLERICAL PRECEPTS

4. Eisai's Promotion of Zen for the Protection of the Country

5. Shingon's Jiun Sonja and His "Vinaya of the True Dharma" Movement

6. A Refutation of Clerical Marriage

LAY PRECEPTS

7. Eison and the Shingon Vinaya Sect

8. Kokan Shiren's Zen Precept Procedures

Ritual Practices

GODS

9. Records of the Customs and Land of Izumo

10. Miraculous Tales of the Hasedera Kannon

11. Japanese Puppetry: From Ritual Performance to Stage Entertainment

12. The Shinto Wedding Ceremony: A Modern Norito

SPIRITS

13. Tama Belief and Practice in Ancient Japan

14. Japan's First Shingon Ceremony

15. Shingon Services for the Dead

16. Genshin's Deathbed Nembutsu Ritual in Pure Land Buddhism

17. Women and Japanese Buddhism: Tales of Birth in the Pure Land

18. Epic and Religious Propaganda from the Ippen School of Pure Land Buddhism

19. Buddhism and Abortion: "The Way to Memorialize One's Mizuko"

RITUALS OF REALIZATION

20. The Contemplation of Suchness

21. The Purification Formula of the Nakatomi

22. Dōgen's Lancet of Seated Meditation

23. Chidō's Dreams of Buddhism

24. A Japanese Shugendō Apocryphal Text

FAITH

25. On Attaining the Settled Mind: The Condition of the Nembutsu Practitioner

26. Plain Words on the Pure Land Way

27. Shinran's Faith as Immediate Fulfillment in Pure Land Buddhism

Institutional Practices

COURT AND EMPEROR

28. The Confucian Monarchy of Nara Japan

29. The Founding of the Monastery Gangōji and a List of Its Treasures

30. Hagiography and History: The Image of Prince Shōtoku

31. Nationalistic Shinto: A Child's Guide to Yasukuni Shrine

SECTARIAN FOUNDERS, WIZARDS, AND HEROES

32. En the Ascetic

33. The Founding of Mount Kōya and Kūkai's Eternal Meditation

34. Legends, Miracles, and Faith in Kōbō Daishi and the Shikoku Pilgrimage

35. A Personal Account of the Life of the Venerable Genkū

36. Priest Nisshin's Ordeals

37. Makuya: Prayer, Receiving the Holy Spirit, and Bible Study

ORTHOPRAXIS AND ORTHODOXY

38. Mujū Ichien's Shintō-Buddhist Syncretism

39. Contested Orthodoxies in Five Mountains Zen Buddhism

40. Motoori Norinaga on the Two Shrines at Ise

41. Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion: An Essay by Kuroda Toshio

42. Sasaki Shōten: Toward a Postmodern Shinshū Theology

43. Contemporary Zen Buddhist Tracts for the Laity: Grassroots Buddhism in Japan

SPECIAL PLACES

44. Keizan's Dream History

45. Tōkeiji: Kamakura's "Divorce Temple" in Edo Popular Verse

Appendix: Chinese Romanization Conversion Tables

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780691057897

0691057893

9780691214740

0691214743

OCLC:

1227051729