The Religious Traditions of Japan 500–1600
The Religious Traditions of Japan 500–1600
$53.00
USDRichard Bowring traces the development of Japanese religious thought and practice from the introduction of writing to the point at which medieval attitudes gave way to a distinctive pre-modern culture, a change that brought an end to the dominance of religious institutions. A wide range of approaches using the resources of art, history, social and intellectual history, as well as doctrine is brought to bear on the subject in order to give as full a picture as possible of the richness of the Japanese tradition and an overview of how Buddhism and Shintõ interacted in Japanese culture.
- The first Western language book to give an overview of the interaction between Buddhism and Shintō in Japanese culture
- Takes account of the latest scholarship on Japan's religious traditions
- A comprehensive guide to this long and formative period in Japan's religious history
Reviews & endorsements
By incorporating recent scholarship into this book, Bowring has filled a significant gap in the study of Japanese religion in general. Written with nonspecialists in mind, this book, with its historical detail, Japanese terminology, and kanji, will also interest those with a more specialized background in things Japanese.
Choice
"...it is an engrossing, fascinating, and exhaustive study. The author has succeeded in almost mimetically reproducing the ongoing and dynamic quality of the history of Japanase religion: topoi such as kami veneration appear and reappear as historical actors appropriate such themes--from their discursive toolbox--in a series of different contexts in the premodern Japanese isles." - Brian O. Ruppert, University of Illinois,
Product details
April 2008Paperback
9780521720274
502 pages
228 × 152 × 30 mm
0.8kg
34 b/w illus. 11 maps
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part I. The Arrival of Buddhism and Its Effects (c.538–800):
- 1. The introduction of Buddhism
- 2. Creating a dynasty
- 3. Buddhism and the early state
- 4. Monuments at Nara
- Part II. From Saichō to the Destruction of Tōdaiji (800–1180):
- 5. The beginnings of a 'Japanese' Buddhism: Tendai
- 6. The beginnings of a 'Japanese' Buddhism: Shingon
- 7. Buddhism and the state in Heian Japan
- 8. Shrine and state in Heian Japan
- 9. The rise of devotionalism
- 10. A time for strife
- Part III. From the Destruction of Tōdaiji to the Fall of Godaigo (1180–1330):
- 11. For and against exclusive practice of the nenbutsu
- 12. Religious culture of the early 'middle ages'
- 13. Chan Buddhism
- 14. Zen Buddhism
- 15. Reform from within and without
- 16. The emergence of Shintō
- 17. Taking stock
- Part IV. From the Fall of Godaigo to the Death of Nobunaga (1330–1582):
- 18. Two rival courts
- 19. Muromachi Zen
- 20. The end of the medieval
- 21. Appendix: reading Shingon's two mandala.
