Overview

The Sea and the Sacred in Japan is the first book to focus on the role of the sea in Japanese religions. While many leading Shinto deities tend to be understood today as unrelated to the sea, and mountains are considered the privileged sites of sacredness, this book provides new ways to understand Japanese religious culture and history. Scholars from North America, Japan and Europe explore the sea and the sacred in relation to history, culture, politics, geography, worldviews and cosmology, space and borders, and ritual practices and doctrines. Examples include Japanese indigenous conceptualizations of the sea from the Middle Ages to the 20th century; ancient sea myths and rituals; sea deities and sea cults; the role of the sea in Buddhist cosmology; and the international dimension of Japanese Buddhism and its maritime imaginary.

Full Product Details

Author:   Professor Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
Weight:   0.413kg
ISBN:  

9781350147645

ISBN 10:   1350147648
Pages:   296
Publication Date:   23 January 2020
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Notes for the Reader List of Contributors List of Illustrations General Introduction: The Sea in the History of Japanese Religions, Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) Foreword: Cults and Culture of the Sea: Historical and Geographical Perspectives, Allan G. Grapard (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) Part One: Ancient Sea Myths and Rituals and Their Reinterpretations 1. Imperial Sea Magic? The Sea Kami and the Great Tasting (daijosai) at the Early Yamato Court, Mark Teeuwen (Oslo University, Norway) 2. The Sea and Food Offerings for the Kami (shinsen), Sato Masato (University of Kitakyushu, Japan) 3. Taming the Plague Demons: Border Islanders and the Ritual Defense of Japan, Jane Alaszewska (SOAS, UK) 4. Island of Many Names, Island of No Name: Taboo and the Mysteries of Okinoshima, Lindsey E. DeWitt (Kyushu University, Japan) Part Two: Sea Deities and Sea Cults 5. Musical Instruments for the Sea-God Ebisu: The Mythological System of Miho Shrine and Its Performative Power, Ouchi Fumi (Miyagi Gakuin Women's University, Japan) 6. An Empress at Sea: Sea Deities and Divine Union in the Legends of Empress Jingu, Emily B. Simpson (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) 7. Frogs Looking Beyond a Pond: Shinra Myojin in the East Asian Mediterranean Network, Sujung Kim (DePauw University, USA) 8. Hachiman Worship Among Japanese Pirates (wako) of the Medieval Period: A Preliminary Survey, Bernhard Scheid (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria) 9. Shugendo and the Sea, Gaynor Sekimori (SOAS, UK) Part Three: Buddhism and Japan in the Global Ocean 10. Buddhas from Across the Sea: The Transmission of Buddhism in Ancient and Medieval Temple Narratives (engi), Abe Yasuro (Nagoya University, Japan) 11. Lands and People Drifting Ashore: Distorted Conceptions of Japan's Place in the World According to Medieval and Early Modern Japanese Myths, Ito Satoshi (Ibaraki University, Japan) 12. Buddhist Japan and the Global Ocean, D. Max Moerman (Columbia University, USA) Part Four: Interpretive Constructs 13. The World Was Born from the Sea: Reading the Origin of Heaven and Earth in the Ruiju jingi hongen, Kanazawa Hideyuki (Hokkaido University, Japan) 14. Origuchi Shinobu and the Sea as Religious Topos: Marebito and Musubi no kami, Saito Hideki (Bukkyo University, Japan) 15. Sea Theologies: Elements for a Conceptualization of Maritime Religiosity in Japan, Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA) Bibliography Index

Reviews

Fabio Rambelli and the authors of the essays in this volume ask how our understanding of Japanese religions would change if we set aside our presumptions of the centrality of rice agriculture and instead thought of Japan in its other guise, as a seafaring society. This book offers a host of fresh approaches to familiar topics and brings new and exciting material to subjects that have not been extensively explored before now. This book will become essential reading for everyone interested in Japanese religions, culture, and society. * Helen Hardacre, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Harvard University, USA * This book constitutes a landmark in the study of maritime factors in Japanese religion It comprises of a sparkling set of essays on a remarkable range of topics related to its main theme and points the way to much future research to be done. * T. H. Barrett, Professor Emeritus of East Asian History, SOAS, UK * This is a long-awaited, excellent volume that illuminates a central, though hitherto neglected, theme in the study of Japanese religions. Its thoughtful editor balanced a wide range of topics and research angles, considering sea myths, legends, rituals, deities and cults; locating Japan's sea religion in the ocean of Asian Buddhism; and offering interpretive conceptualizations of maritime religiosity in Japan. This inspiring, path-breaking book opens new directions in the study of Japanese religions and belongs in any academic library and on any Japanese religions' scholar's shelf. * Irit Averbuch, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies, Tel-Aviv University, Israel * Scholars have for some time argued about the importance of sea routes for East Asian trade and politics, but no one until now had examined their impact on religion and culture. Fabio Rambelli must be credited for bringing together eminent scholars from across the globe to produce a unique and important project in Japanese religious studies. Examples are used expertly to reflect the significance of the sea in Japanese religion. This will be essential reading for all those studying Japanese religion, culture, and history. * Bernard Faure, Professor of Japanese Religions, Columbia University, USA *

Fabio Rambelli and the authors of the essays in this volume ask how our understanding of Japanese religions would change if we set aside our presumptions of the centrality of rice agriculture and instead thought of Japan in its other guise, as a seafaring society. This book offers a host of fresh approaches to familiar topics and brings new and exciting material to subjects that have not been extensively explored before now. This book will become essential reading for everyone interested in Japanese religions, culture, and society. * Helen Hardacre, Edwin O. Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Harvard University, USA * This book constitutes a landmark in the study of maritime factors in Japanese religion It comprises of a sparkling set of essays on a remarkable range of topics related to its main theme and points the way to much future research to be done. * T. H. Barrett, Professor Emeritus of East Asian History, SOAS, UK * This is a long-awaited, excellent volume that illuminates a central, though hitherto neglected, theme in the study of Japanese religions. Its thoughtful editor balanced a wide range of topics and research angles, considering sea myths, legends, rituals, deities and cults; locating Japan's sea religion in the ocean of Asian Buddhism; and offering interpretive conceptualizations of maritime religiosity in Japan. This inspiring, path-breaking book opens new directions in the study of Japanese religions and belongs in any academic library and on any Japanese religions' scholar's shelf. * Irit Averbuch, Associate Professor of Japanese Studies, Tel-Aviv University, Israel * Scholars have for some time argued about the importance of sea routes for East Asian trade and politics, but no one until now had examined their impact on religion and culture. Fabio Rambelli must be credited for bringing together eminent scholars from across the globe to produce a unique and important project in Japanese religious studies. Examples are used expertly to reflect the significance of the sea in Japanese religion. This will be essential reading for all those studying Japanese religion, culture, and history. * Bernard Faure, Professor of Japanese Religions, Columbia University, USA *

Author Information

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.

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