Table Of ContentRELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN
Religion in
Contemporary Japan
Ian Reader
Lecturer in Contemporary Japanese Studies
Scottish Centre for Japanese Studies
University of Stirling
M
MACMILLAN
© Ian Reader 1991
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First published 1991
Published by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by LBJ Enterprises Ltd.
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Printed in Great Britain by
Billing & Sons Ltd, Worcester
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Reader, Ian
Religion in contemporary Japan.
1. Japan. Religion. Sociological perspectives
306.60952
ISBN 0-333-52321-0 (he)
ISBN 0-333-52322-9 (pbk)
For Rosemary
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Conventions x
Introduction xi
1 Turning to the Gods in Times of Trouble:
The Place, Time and Structure of Japanese
Religion 1
2 Unifying Traditions, Cosmological
Perspectives and the Vitalistic Universe 23
3 'Born Shinto . . .': Community, Festivals,
Production and Change 55
4 '. . . Die Buddhist': Zen, Death and the
Ancestors 77
5 Individuals, Ascetics and the Expression of
Power 107
6 Sites and Sights: Temples and Shrines as
Centres of Power and Entertainment 134
7 Actions, Amulets and the Expression of
Meaning: Reflections of Need and
Statements of Desire 168
8 Spirits, Satellites and a User-Friendly
Religion: Agonshu and the New Religions 194
Conclusion: Mystery, Nostalgia and the
Shifting Sands of Continuity 234
Notes 244
References Cited 260
Index 268
vn
Acknowledgements
I did the research for this book while living and teaching in Japan
during April 1981-April 1982, and September 1983-January 1989. I
would like to thank my colleagues, friends and students at the two
universities where I worked, Kobe University of Commerce and
Kansai University of Foreign Studies, for making my stay enjoyable
and for contributing in various ways to this book. Over the years I
have also benefited immensely from countless conversations with
friends, colleagues, acquaintances and people met casually in temple
courtyards: I owe a large debt of gratitude to all of them. Special
mention must be made of the Revd Oda Baisen of Toganji in
Nagoya for his friendship and constant support throughout these
years and for making the temple a second home to both myself and
my wife.
Many academic colleagues have added something, directly or
indirectly, to this book as well. In particular I would like to thank
Beth Harrison for many long conversations about all aspects of
contemporary religion in Japan. I am grateful to the Japanese
Journal of Religious Studies and its editor Dr Paul Swanson of
Nanzan University for allowing me permission to reproduce, in
slightly different form, the information on Agonshu in Chapter 8,
which first appeared in the journal in 1988. My Japanese academic
colleagues in the Shukyo Shakaigaku no Kai in Osaka, especially
Professors Shiobara Tsutomu of Osaka and Iida Takafumi of
Toyama University, are also thanked for their contributions to my
growing understanding of the overall subject.
I can do no more than extend a general thank-you to them, and to
all the anonymous members of new religions, pilgrims, temple-goers
and priests who spared the time to talk to me, and say that I hope
this book is worthy of their help. Needless to say, what mistakes
there are herein are mine alone.
There are three people to whom I have a special debt of
gratitude. Professor Ian Gow, Director of the Scottish Centre for
Japanese Studies at the University of Stirling, has actively supported
the writing of this book by allowing me the time off other duties to
work on and complete the manuscript: suffice it to say that without
this generosity it would not have seen the light of day so readily. My
Vlll
Acknowledgements ix
wife Dorothy has given indispensable support throughout: she was
an unflagging companion in forays to festivals and walks along
pilgrimage routes and up to mountain temples, and a perceptive
observer who helped in gathering information at temples and
shrines and in interviewing priests. More than that she has con-
stantly encouraged me and kept me going when I thought I would
never finish the book, and deserves my deepest thanks.
The final thanks go to our daughter Rosemary who was born just
about the time I started to put preliminary pen to paper on the
topic, and was crawling enthusiastically as it came to completion. It
is to her this book is dedicated, in the hope that she will grow to
love and enjoy Japan as much as we have, and that she may enjoy
one of the ideals central to the Japanese religious world - a happy,
fruitful and productive life.
