Shinto in History

This is the only book to date offering a critical overview of Shinto from early times to the modern era, and evaluating Shinto's place in Japanese religious culture. In recent years, a few books on medieval Shinto have appeared, but none has attempted to depict the broader picture, to examine critically Shinto's origins and its subsequent development through the medieval, pre-modern and modern periods. The essays in this book address such key topics as Shinto and Daoism in early Japan, Shinto and the natural environment, Shinto and state ritual in early Japan, Shinto and Buddhism in medieval Japan, and Shinto and the state in the modern period. All of the essays highlight the dynamic nature of Shinto and shrine history by focusing on the three-way relationship, often fraught, between local shrine cults, Shinto agendas and Buddhism. Preface, Acknowledgements, Contributors, Map of Japan, Chapter One. Introduction: Shinto past and present, Chapter Two. Shinto and Taoism in early Japan, Chapter Three. Shinto and the natural environment, Chapter Four. The state cult of the Nara and early Heian periods, Chapter Five. The economics of ritual power, Chapter Six. The kami in esoteric Buddhist thought and practice, Chapter Seven. Reading the Yuiitsu Shinto myobo yoshil: A modern exegesis of an esoteric Shinto text, Chapter Eight. The death of a shogun: deification in early modern Japan, Chapter Nine. Changing images of Shinto: Sanja takusen or the three oracles, Chapter Ten. Mapping the Sacred Body: Shinto versus popular beliefs at Mt. Iwaki in Tsugaru, Chapter Eleven. Nativism as a social movement: Katagiri Harukazu and the Hongaku reisha, Chapter Twelve. Ideologues, bureaucrats and priests: on 'Shinto' and 'Buddhism' in early Meiji Japan, Chapter Thirteen. Shinto as a 'non-religion': the origins and development of an idea, Chapter Fourteen. The structure of state Shinto: its creation, development and demise, Chapter Fifteen. The disfiguring of nativism: Hirata Atsutane and Orikuchi Shinobu, Chapter Sixteen. Tanaka Yoshito and the beginnings of Shintogaku, Bibliography, Index