Defining Shugendo
Critical Studies on Japanese Mountain Religion
Published on 12. November 2020
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-350-17939-4 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the 2022 Association for the Study of Japanese Mountain Religion Book Prize
Defining Shugendo brings together leading international experts on Japanese mountain asceticism to discuss what has been an essential component of Japanese religions for more than a thousand years.
Contributors explore how mountains have been abodes of deities, a resting place for the dead, sources of natural bounty and calamities, places of religious activities, and a vast repository of symbols. The book shows that many peoples have chosen them as sites for ascetic practices, claiming the potential to attain supernatural powers there.
This book discusses the history of scholarship on Shugendo, the development process of mountain worship, and the religious and philosophical features of devotion at specific sacred mountains. Moreover, it reveals the rich material and visual culture associated with Shugendo, from statues and steles, to talismans and written oaths.
Defining Shugendo brings together leading international experts on Japanese mountain asceticism to discuss what has been an essential component of Japanese religions for more than a thousand years.
Contributors explore how mountains have been abodes of deities, a resting place for the dead, sources of natural bounty and calamities, places of religious activities, and a vast repository of symbols. The book shows that many peoples have chosen them as sites for ascetic practices, claiming the potential to attain supernatural powers there.
This book discusses the history of scholarship on Shugendo, the development process of mountain worship, and the religious and philosophical features of devotion at specific sacred mountains. Moreover, it reveals the rich material and visual culture associated with Shugendo, from statues and steles, to talismans and written oaths.
Reviews / Votes
Defining Shugendo: Critical Studies on Japanese Mountain Religion [is] an essential and overdue contribution ... Each of [its] chapters is a doorway to new perspectives on this ancient religion. * Japan Review * [T]he contributions mark and outline the wide and complex area of Shugendo and its intersections with other (religious, political, cultural) domains. The destination is definitely worth the journey. * Religious Studies Review * This book is a crucial contribution to our understanding of the intellectual, historical, and lived dimensions of Shugendo. Covering an impressive range of topics, the volume succeeds in foregrounding the site-specific, local nature of mountain practices without ever losing sight of their interactions with trans-local discourses and movements. For this reason, Defining Shugendo is a must-read for anyone interested in this tradition and in Japanese Religions more broadly." * Benedetta Lomi, Lecturer in East Asian Religions, University of Bristol, UK * Defining Shugendo covers a wide swath of religious and cultural modes and activities in Japan. This fine collection may finally succeed in convincing readers that Shugendo-at least as an expression of the amalgamation of various religious figures and practices-is truly a central part of Japanese culture that cannot be ignored, and indeed should be recognized as one of the major religious traditions in Japan. * Paul L. Swanson, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Japan *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
24 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
599 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-17939-4 (9781350179394)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Fabio Rambelli is Professor of Japanese Religions and Cultural History and ISF Endowed Chair in Shinto Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.
Carina Roth is a Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Andrea Castiglioni is Senior lecturer in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagoya City University, Japan.
Carina Roth is a Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.
Andrea Castiglioni is Senior lecturer in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagoya City University, Japan.
Content
1. Introduction
Part 1: Intellectual History of Shugendo Studies
2. A Critical History of the Study of Shugendo and Mountain Beliefs in Japan, Suzuki Masataka (Keio University, Japan)
Part 2: Constructed Topologies and Invented Chronologies
3. Shugendo within Japanese Buddhism, Hasegawa Kenji (Prefectural Museum of Tokushima, Japan)
4. Imagining an Ancient Tradition: Eighteenth-Century Narratives of Shugendo at Mount Togakushi, Caleb Carter (Kyushu University, Japan)
5. Otake Dainichi Nyorai and Haguro Shugendo: Unearthing a Lost History, Gaynor Sekimori (SOAS, University of London, UK)
6. Shugendo and Modernity Face to Face: The Daigoji Case, Hayashi Makoto (Aichi Gakuin University, Japan)
Part 3: Imagining the Founder, En no Gyoja, and Fictionalizing Shugendo
7. Between Companionship and Worship: A Reflection on En no Gyoja Statuary Past and Present, Carina Roth (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
8. En no Gyoja's Legitimization in the Context of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, Kawasaki Tsuyoshi (Shujitsu University, Japan
9. The Description of Mountains in Minoodera engi, Niki Natsumi (National Institute of Technology, Akashi College, Japan)
10. Images of the Shugenja in Edo Popular Fiction, William Fleming (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
Part 4: Materiality and Visual Culture of Shugendo
11. The Cult and Statuary of Zao Gongen, Fujioka Yutaka (Osaka University, Japan)
12. Religious Culture in Transition: Mt. Fuji, Janine Sawada (Brown University, USA)
13. The Shape of Devotion: Mounds, Stelae, and Empowering Ritual Fasting, Andrea Castiglioni (Nagoya City University, Japan
14. Shugendo as Social Practice: Kumano Talismans and Inscribed Oaths in Premodern Japan, (Max Moerman (Barnard College, USA)
Bibliography
Index
Part 1: Intellectual History of Shugendo Studies
2. A Critical History of the Study of Shugendo and Mountain Beliefs in Japan, Suzuki Masataka (Keio University, Japan)
Part 2: Constructed Topologies and Invented Chronologies
3. Shugendo within Japanese Buddhism, Hasegawa Kenji (Prefectural Museum of Tokushima, Japan)
4. Imagining an Ancient Tradition: Eighteenth-Century Narratives of Shugendo at Mount Togakushi, Caleb Carter (Kyushu University, Japan)
5. Otake Dainichi Nyorai and Haguro Shugendo: Unearthing a Lost History, Gaynor Sekimori (SOAS, University of London, UK)
6. Shugendo and Modernity Face to Face: The Daigoji Case, Hayashi Makoto (Aichi Gakuin University, Japan)
Part 3: Imagining the Founder, En no Gyoja, and Fictionalizing Shugendo
7. Between Companionship and Worship: A Reflection on En no Gyoja Statuary Past and Present, Carina Roth (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
8. En no Gyoja's Legitimization in the Context of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism, Kawasaki Tsuyoshi (Shujitsu University, Japan
9. The Description of Mountains in Minoodera engi, Niki Natsumi (National Institute of Technology, Akashi College, Japan)
10. Images of the Shugenja in Edo Popular Fiction, William Fleming (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
Part 4: Materiality and Visual Culture of Shugendo
11. The Cult and Statuary of Zao Gongen, Fujioka Yutaka (Osaka University, Japan)
12. Religious Culture in Transition: Mt. Fuji, Janine Sawada (Brown University, USA)
13. The Shape of Devotion: Mounds, Stelae, and Empowering Ritual Fasting, Andrea Castiglioni (Nagoya City University, Japan
14. Shugendo as Social Practice: Kumano Talismans and Inscribed Oaths in Premodern Japan, (Max Moerman (Barnard College, USA)
Bibliography
Index