Practical Pursuits : Religion, Politics, and Personal Cultivation in Nineteenth-Century Japan / Janine T. Anderson Sawada.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sawada, Janine T. Anderson, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion and politics--Japan--History--19th century.

Religion and politics.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (401 p.)

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, [2004]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The idea that personal cultivation leads to social and material well-being became widespread in late Tokugawa Japan (1600-1868). Practical Pursuits explores theories of personal development that were diffused in the early nineteenth century by a network of religious groups in the Edo (Tokyo) area, and explains how, after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the leading members of these communities went on to create ideological coalitions inspired by the pursuit of a modern form of cultivation. Variously engaged in divination, Shinto purification rituals, and Zen practice, these individuals ultimately used informal political associations to promote the Confucian-style assumption that personal improvement is the basis for national prosperity.This wide-ranging yet painstakingly researched study represents a new direction in historical analysis. Where previous scholarship has used large conceptual units like Confucianism and Buddhism as its main actors and has emphasized the discontinuities in Edo and Meiji religious life, Sawada addresses the history of religion in nineteenth-century Japan at the level of individuals and small groups. She employs personal cultivation as an interpretive system, crossing familiar boundaries to consider complex linguistic, philosophical, and social interconnections.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CONVENTIONS

Introduction

Chapter 1. The Fertility of Dead Words

Chapter 2. Divination as Cultivation

Chapter 3. Breathing as Purification

Chapter 4. The Parameters of Learning

Chapter 5. Practical Learning in the Meditation Hall

Chapter 6. Koji Zen

Chapter 7. Shifting Boundaries in the Sangha

Chapter 8. The Great Synthesis

Chapter 9. Enlightened Conservatives

Chapter 10. The Enemy Within

AFTERWORD

NOTES

GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-368) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Aug 2019)

ISBN:

9780824863999

0824863992

OCLC:

878137519