The Sea and the Sacred in Japan: Aspects of Maritime Religion

Description

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. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Notes for the Reader List of Contributors List of Figures General Introduction: The Sea in the History of Japanese Religions Preface: Cults and Culture of the Sea: Historical and Geographical Perspectives 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 2. The Sea and Food Offerings for the Kami (shinsen) Sato Masato 3. Taming the Plague Demons: Border Islanders and the Ritual Defense of Japan 4. Island of Many Names, Island of No Name: Taboo and the Mysteries of Okinoshima 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 6. An Empress at Sea: Sea Deities and Divine Union in the Legends of Empress Jingu 7. Frogs Looking Beyond a Pond: Shinra Myojin in the “East Asian Mediterranean” Network 8. Hachiman Worship Among Japanese Pirates (wako) of the Medieval Period: A Preliminary Survey 9. Shugendo and the Sea 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) 11. Lands and People Drifting Ashore: Distorted Conceptions of Japan’s Place in the World According to Medieval and Early Modern Japanese 12. Buddhist Japan and the Global Ocean Part Four: Interpretive Constructs 13. The World Was Born from the Sea: Reading the Origin of Heaven and Earth in the Ruiju jingi hongen 14. Orikuchi Shinobu and the Sea as Religious Topos: Marebito and 15. Sea Theologies: Elements for a Conceptualization of Maritime Religiosity in Japan Notes Bibliography Index