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Japanese Religion: The eBook
by Robert Ellwood

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1:
Encountering the Japanese Religious World:
Introduction

Why Study Japanese Religion?
Japanese Language
Observing Religion in Japan
What Is Religion?
How Religious Is Japan?
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 2:
The Past in the Present:
Vignettes of Japanese Spiritual Life

The Daijosai
A Typical Shinto Shrine
The Great Buddha of Nara
Toji Shingon Temple
The Enryakuji
Chionin
Higashi Honganji
Daitokuji
Nichiren Buddhism
The Martyrs Monument in Nagasaki
Tenri City
Postscript: Jizo
Key Points You Need To Know

Chapter 3:
The Way of the Kami:
Shinto Then and Now

The Grand Shrine of Ise
What Is a Kami?
The Inari and Miwa Shrines
The Meiji, Togo, and Nogi Shrines
The Yasukuni and Tenjin Shrines
The Shinto Year
General Features of Shinto
The Meaning of Shinto
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Interlude:
Introduction to Buddhism

The Enlightened One
Mahayana Buddhism
Yogacara
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 4:
Early Times:
Pre-Buddhist Japan and How Buddhism Arrived

Japan Before Buddhism
The Nara Period (710-794)
Elite and Popular Buddhism
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 5:
Magic Mountains and the Old Court:
Heian Buddhism and its Culture

The World Above the Clouds
Heian Buddhist Schools
Shingon
Tendai
Heian Shinto
Heian Popular Religion
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 6:
Warrior Culture, Simple Faith:
The Kamakura Buddhist Reformation

The End of an Age
The New Men
The World of the Samurai
Motifs of Kamakura Religion
Pure Land
Honen and Jodo-Shu
Shinran and Jodo Shinshu
Nichiren
Six Places of Rebirth
The Letter of Hojo Shigetoki
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 7:
Swords and Satori:
Zen and its Culture

A Zen Experience
Basic Zen
Eisai and Rinzai Zen
Muromachi Zen Culture
Bushido
Later Zen
Overseas Zen
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 8:
Christ and Confucius:
The West Arrives, and then Japan Turns Inward

The Country at War
The Warlords and the Coming of Christianity
The Tokugawa Peace
A Neo-Confucian Society
Peasant Philosophers
The Renewal of Shinto
Pilgrimage to Ise
Religion and Popular Culture
Town and Country
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 9:
The Rising Sun and the Dark Valley:
From the Meiji Restoration until 1945

Behind the The Meiji Restoration
Between Two Worlds
The Old and the New
The Emperor as Religion
Meiji Buddhism
Christianity Returns to Japan
The Dark Valley
National Foundations
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 10:
Chanting and Dancing:
Shugendo and the “New Religions” of Japan

Tenrikyo
Konkokyo
The Omoto Group
The Nichiren Group
The “New” New Religions
Common Characteristics of the New Religions
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Chapter 11:
Pilgrimages:
Religion in Japan 1945 to Now

Religion Under the Occupation
New Thinking About Buddhism
New Roles for Buddhist Women
Tradition Continues
Homelands of the Heart
Spiritual Achievement
Symbols and Forms
The Sacred in the Ordinary
Japan a New World Center of Popular Culture
Key Points You Need To Know
Further Reading

Appendix I:
Membership figures for Japanese Religions

Appendix II:
Japanese Religion Timeline