Editors’ Introduction: Modest Materialities: The Social Lives and Afterlives of Sacred Things in Japan

Abstract

Caroline Hirasawa is Associate Professor of Japanese Art History at Waseda University, and Benedetta Lomi is Lecturer in East Asian Religions at the University of Bristol. A grain of rice is venerated as a Buddha relic during rainmaking rites. An ox gallstone, made into ointment, is given by a Buddhist monk to a midwife who spreads it on the genitals of a birthing empress. A used toy flute made of bamboo is dedicated to the deities of Miho Shrine in order to protect its former user. This special issue examines the relationship between materiality and the sacred by focusing on unassuming, familiar, unformed, or affordable objects—such as scraps of wood, grains of rice, and pieces of paper— that were invested with powerful meanings or cumulative effects. The articles assembled here explore the introduction and circulation of such objects through Japanese religious practice and imagination. Research on religious themes constantly refers to objects and materials. Iconography, implements, and ephemera play important parts in ritual and preaching, and objects serve as markers of faith and as protectors of the faithful. Birgit Meyer’s clarification is helpful here: