Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions (Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture) [Hardcover]

Paul L. Swanson (Editor), Clark Chilson (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture | Publication Date: November 2005

The Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions has been prepared as an aid for students and scholars engaged in research on Japanese religions. It is the first resource guide to encompass the entire field of Japanese religions and provide tools for navigating it.

In the nearly forty years that have elapsed since the appearance of Joseph Kitagawa’s Religion in Japanese History (1966), there has been a large amount of new scholarship on the role of religion in Japanese history. What general summaries there are of Japanese Buddhism and Shinto have tended to rely on scholarship from the 1960s and 1970s. In the intervening years the field has seen considerable development and given rise to a host of new questions, leaving a great deal of earlier work outdated and out of focus. The Nanzan Guide offers the latest scholarship on a wide range of issues.

It is neither simply a comprehensive introduction to Japanese religions nor a mere collection of research sources. It aims rather to combine (1) a broad outline of Japanese religious traditions, (2) a closer look at scholarly views on a number of subfields, time periods, and selected themes, and (3) practical techniques for accessing and evaluating relevant data.

As such, the book should prove useful as a supplement to texts introducing undergraduates to Japanese religions and as a reference for graduate students undertaking specific research projects For scholars specializing in one or another aspect of Japanese religions, the book offers a generous inventory of the current state of the field by representative authors. Finally, historians and social scientists whose work brings them into contact with Japanese religions will find that the clear design, incisive overviews, selective bibliographies, and detailed index make this volume an invaluable reference work.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This volume represents a new genre of academic publication, packed with important materials and delivered in clear language by experts." -- Paula Arai, Carleton College

About the Author

Paul L. Swanson is director of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, where he has been a permanent research fellow since 1990. Clark Chilson is assistant professor of religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 466 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Hawaii Pr (November 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824830024
• ISBN-13: 978-0824830021
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #956,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Handy Hands-on Guide will Give Scholars Young and Old a Hand Up, March 15, 2006

By 

Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions (Nanzan Library of Asian Religion and Culture) (Hardcover)

This is quite a useful guide overall, a great introduction for the beginning student and a helpful overview for the seasoned scholar. There's something for everyone here. In my case, many of the interpretive orientations that I had gradually come to sort of intuitively recognize over the years were explicitly clarified for me along with their chief proponents, foundational texts, and history in the academy (I found myself often saying to myself "oh, so this is where that comes from!"). Any graduate student preparing for their qualifying oral exams should find this book a life saver.

The book is divided into four main sections:
1. Traditions, a sort of summary of Japanese Religions in general, then Shinto, Buddhism, Folk Religion, New Religions, and Christianity (with due attention paid to the permeability of these divisions).
2. History, which takes up the story chronologically from Ancient Japan through the Classical Period, the Medieval Period, Early Modern Japan, the Modern Period, up to Contemporary Japanese religions.
3. Themes, different approaches and areas of focus within the subject, including Ritual Culture, Literature, Politics, Geography (especially pilgrimage), History of Thought, and Gender.
4. Research, an aspiring scholar's guide to reference works & libraries, using archives in Japan, and conducting fieldwork there.
A handy timeline is also included.

The different articles are all pretty much interesting, helpful, and reliable, but with so many different contributors some uneven spots are bound to crop up, and they do. Nothing major, but it is a bit disconcerting to have, for example, one scholar tell us that the old explanation for Emperor Kanmu's moving the capital from Nara to Kyoto (that is, that he did it to get away from the political influence of the major Nara temples) has been discredited (turns out he did it to relocate the capital next to his own family line's power base), and then have another scholar later on give us the older discredited explanation with a straight face (compare page 150 and page 278). But things such as this are minor glitches in an excellent guide put together with generous effort by experts in the field. I for one will be using this thing for years to come.