Pub Date : 2018-11-08DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00701001
M. Hayes
The genre of kōshiki 講式 (ceremonial lectures) has, over the last decade, gained significant traction in the fields of Buddhist studies and Japanese religions, but its commentarial sub-genre remains largely unexplored. While kōshiki offer fertile ground for understanding devotional practices across nearly all Buddhist schools in Japan, commentaries reveal how Buddhists understood their liturgical content and, more narrowly, how this content was consumed and re-purposed through intellectual endeavor. This article contributes to this understudied area in two ways. First, it demonstrates how the medieval Shingon cleric Gahō 我寶 (1239–1317) wielded the Shari kuyō shiki 舎利供養式, a ceremonial lecture written by Kakuban 覺鑁 (1095–1143), as a textual and performative embodiment of faith and devotion. Second, it suggests that his commentary gave shape to expressions of these very themes in various intellectual, performative, and editorial forums in later periods at the Kyoto temple Chishakuin 智積院.
{"title":"Faith, Devotion, and Doctrinal Knowledge","authors":"M. Hayes","doi":"10.1163/22118349-00701001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-00701001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The genre of kōshiki 講式 (ceremonial lectures) has, over the last decade, gained significant traction in the fields of Buddhist studies and Japanese religions, but its commentarial sub-genre remains largely unexplored. While kōshiki offer fertile ground for understanding devotional practices across nearly all Buddhist schools in Japan, commentaries reveal how Buddhists understood their liturgical content and, more narrowly, how this content was consumed and re-purposed through intellectual endeavor. This article contributes to this understudied area in two ways. First, it demonstrates how the medieval Shingon cleric Gahō 我寶 (1239–1317) wielded the Shari kuyō shiki 舎利供養式, a ceremonial lecture written by Kakuban 覺鑁 (1095–1143), as a textual and performative embodiment of faith and devotion. Second, it suggests that his commentary gave shape to expressions of these very themes in various intellectual, performative, and editorial forums in later periods at the Kyoto temple Chishakuin 智積院.","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2018-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22118349-00701001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49319763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-06-17DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00603003
Klaus Antoni
{"title":"The Politics of Religion in the Meiji Era","authors":"Klaus Antoni","doi":"10.1163/22118349-00603003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-00603003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2018-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22118349-00603003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41859553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-06-17DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00603006
K. Obuse, 恵子 小布施祈
The present article discusses the possibility of regarding the Japan Islamic Congress (JIC), a religious organization that claimed a membership of over 50,000 in the 1980s, as a new religion. It examines major factors in the expansion of the JIC through highlighting five characteristics it shares with new religions, namely, 1) it had a charismatic leader, attributed with the power to ‘heal’; 2) it attracted members through the curing of illnesses, with many joining as nominal members; 3) it focused on making practice easy and organizing large-scale events where the group’s identity is emphasized; 4) its teachings display a syncretic nature, combining Islamic and Buddhist ideas; and 5) it was actively engaged with society, especially the fields of medicine and politics. Critiquing the view taken by existing scholarship that attributes the JIC’s decline to its teachings not representing “genuine Islam,” the article further argues that, in addition to the lack of a capable successor, three other factors can be highlighted as possible reasons for the JIC’s inability to survive: 1) its primary channel of contact with potential members was limited to medical service; 2) apart from this medical service, it did not develop teachings or practices that would lead directly to the improvement of life; and 3) it did not meet the needs of contemporary Japanese society, where the interest in more personal spirituality had started to grow.
{"title":"The Japan Islamic Congress","authors":"K. Obuse, 恵子 小布施祈","doi":"10.1163/22118349-00603006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-00603006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The present article discusses the possibility of regarding the Japan Islamic Congress (JIC), a religious organization that claimed a membership of over 50,000 in the 1980s, as a new religion. It examines major factors in the expansion of the JIC through highlighting five characteristics it shares with new religions, namely, 1) it had a charismatic leader, attributed with the power to ‘heal’; 2) it attracted members through the curing of illnesses, with many joining as nominal members; 3) it focused on making practice easy and organizing large-scale events where the group’s identity is emphasized; 4) its teachings display a syncretic nature, combining Islamic and Buddhist ideas; and 5) it was actively engaged with society, especially the fields of medicine and politics. Critiquing the view taken by existing scholarship that attributes the JIC’s decline to its teachings not representing “genuine Islam,” the article further argues that, in addition to the lack of a capable successor, three other factors can be highlighted as possible reasons for the JIC’s inability to survive: 1) its primary channel of contact with potential members was limited to medical service; 2) apart from this medical service, it did not develop teachings or practices that would lead directly to the improvement of life; and 3) it did not meet the needs of contemporary Japanese society, where the interest in more personal spirituality had started to grow.","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2018-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22118349-00603006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47844134","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-06-17DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00603004
Y. Sakurai
A case of sexual abuse by the supervisor of the Central Church of Holy God (Seishin Chūō Kyōkai 聖神中央教会) in 2005 has led many in the Japanese Christian community and the media to question the “cultification” of the Christian church. This paper will consider the incident and its background, one negative aspect of “church growth” in Japan, in which Korean evangelical and Pentecostal churches competed vigorously to attract devotees. The pastor who founded this church was a Korean resident in Japan who had studied theology and the propagation methodology in South Korea, allowing him to realize church growth in notoriously non-Christian Japan. Yet, his top-down authoritative management suppressed believers’ spiritual and physical freedom of religion. In the following case study, I consider how the asymmetrical relations among church members contributed to this religious abuse. After taking into account issues of missionary training, proselytization methodology, and social strata, I suggest that a dysfunction within the “comprehensive religious community” forces members’ total dependence on pastors in their belief as well as their lives.
{"title":"Sexual Abuse in a Korean Evangelical Church in Japan","authors":"Y. Sakurai","doi":"10.1163/22118349-00603004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-00603004","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 A case of sexual abuse by the supervisor of the Central Church of Holy God (Seishin Chūō Kyōkai 聖神中央教会) in 2005 has led many in the Japanese Christian community and the media to question the “cultification” of the Christian church. This paper will consider the incident and its background, one negative aspect of “church growth” in Japan, in which Korean evangelical and Pentecostal churches competed vigorously to attract devotees. The pastor who founded this church was a Korean resident in Japan who had studied theology and the propagation methodology in South Korea, allowing him to realize church growth in notoriously non-Christian Japan. Yet, his top-down authoritative management suppressed believers’ spiritual and physical freedom of religion. In the following case study, I consider how the asymmetrical relations among church members contributed to this religious abuse. After taking into account issues of missionary training, proselytization methodology, and social strata, I suggest that a dysfunction within the “comprehensive religious community” forces members’ total dependence on pastors in their belief as well as their lives.","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2018-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22118349-00603004","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42396493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-06-17DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00603002
Eisho Nasu
{"title":"Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan, by Robert F. Rhodes","authors":"Eisho Nasu","doi":"10.1163/22118349-00603002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-00603002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2018-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22118349-00603002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45913997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-06-17DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00603005
M. Macwilliams
How is Shintō presented in Anglo-American world religions textbooks? While not included in the earliest of such survey courses, it regularly appears in such texts from the early 20th century to the present. Why is Shintō included as one of “great” or “world” religions given how greatly it differs from the likes of Christianity and Islam? Textbook authors include Shintō by constructing an image of it that reflects their own model of world religions, an image that is also based on the “Shintō” that Meiji Japanese officials and scholars invented for their own political-ideological purposes. The standard portrayal of Shintō in Western textbooks has remained more or less the same for a century: It is described as (1) an archaic religion; (2) centered on Japanese imperial mythology; (3) nature worship; (4) apolitical, emphasizing personal piety at shrines. While the most recent editions have tried to incorporate new scholarship in their portrayal, they still rely a world religions model of Shintō that is seriously misleading, failing to adequately present Shintō’s complexities as a tradition.
{"title":"Manufacturing Shintō as a “World Religion”","authors":"M. Macwilliams","doi":"10.1163/22118349-00603005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-00603005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 How is Shintō presented in Anglo-American world religions textbooks? While not included in the earliest of such survey courses, it regularly appears in such texts from the early 20th century to the present. Why is Shintō included as one of “great” or “world” religions given how greatly it differs from the likes of Christianity and Islam? Textbook authors include Shintō by constructing an image of it that reflects their own model of world religions, an image that is also based on the “Shintō” that Meiji Japanese officials and scholars invented for their own political-ideological purposes. The standard portrayal of Shintō in Western textbooks has remained more or less the same for a century: It is described as (1) an archaic religion; (2) centered on Japanese imperial mythology; (3) nature worship; (4) apolitical, emphasizing personal piety at shrines. While the most recent editions have tried to incorporate new scholarship in their portrayal, they still rely a world religions model of Shintō that is seriously misleading, failing to adequately present Shintō’s complexities as a tradition.","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2018-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22118349-00603005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44959395","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-06-17DOI: 10.1163/22118349-00602001
M. Curley
{"title":"Demythologizing Pure Land Buddhism: Yasuda Rijin and the Shin Buddhist Tradition, by Paul B. Watt (trans.)","authors":"M. Curley","doi":"10.1163/22118349-00602001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22118349-00602001","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41418,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Japan","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2018-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/22118349-00602001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43038480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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