Title: Religions of Japan in practice /
Authors: Tanabe, George J., 1943-; Tanabe, George J., 1943-
Publisher: Princeton University Press,
Year: 1999
Subjects: Japan Religion.
Abstract: This anthology reflects a range of Japanese religions in their complex, sometimes conflicting, diversity. In the tradition of the Princeton Readings in Religions series, the collection presents documents (legends and miracle tales, hagiographies, ritual prayers and ceremonies, sermons, reform treatises, doctrinal tracts, historical and ethnographic writings), most of which have been translated for the first time here, that serve to illuminate the mosaic of Japanese religions in practice. George Tanabe provides a lucid introduction to the "patterned confusion" of Japan's religious practices. He has ordered the anthology's forty-five readings under the categories of "Ethical Practices," "Ritual Practices," and "Institutional Practices," moving beyond the traditional classifications of chronology, religious traditions (Shinto, Confucianism, Buddhism, etc.), and sects, and illuminating the actual orientation of people who engage in religious practices.
Contents: Introduction / George J. Tanabe, Jr. -- Selected anecdotes to illustrate ten maxims / Ward Geddes -- Kaibara Ekken's precepts on the family / Mary Evelyn Tucker -- The shingaku of Nakazawa Doni / Janine Anderson Sawada -- Eisai's promotion of Zen for the protection of the country / Albert Welter -- Shingon's Jiun Sonja and his "vinaya of the true dharma" movement / Paul B. Watt -- A refutation of clerical marriage / Richard Jaffe -- Eison and the Shingon vinaya sect / Paul B. Watt -- Kokan Shiren's Zen Precept Procedures / William M. Bodiford -- Records of the customs and land of Izumo / Michiko Y. Aoki -- Miraculous tales of the Hasedera Kannon / Yoshiko K. Dykstra -- Japanese puppetry : from ritual performance to stage entertainment / Jane Marie Law -- The Shinto wedding ceremony : a modern Norito / Cherish Pratt -- Tama belief and practice in ancient Japan / Gary L. Ebersole -- Japan's first Shingon ceremony / David L. Gardiner -- Singon services for the dead / Richard Karl Payne -- Genshim's deathbed nembutsu ritual in pure land buddhism / James C. Dobbins -- Women and Japanese buddhism : tales of birth in the pure land / William E. Deal -- Epic and religious propaganda from the Ippen school of pure land buddhism / Sybil Thornton -- Buddhism and abortion : "the way to memorialize one's mizuko" / William R. LaFleur -- The contemplation of suchness / Jacqueline I. Stone -- The purification formula of the Nakatomi / Mark Tecuwne and Hendrik van der Veere --