Spirit tree
Subtitle: origins of cosmology in Shintô ritual at Hakozaki
By: E. Leslie Williams.
Publisher: University Press of America
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Lanham, MD
Language: eng
Number of pages: 227
ISBN-13: 9780761834168
Subjects: Hakozaki Shrine (Fukuoka-shi, Japan); Shinto -- Doctrines; Shinto -- Rituals; Femininity -- Religious aspects -- Shinto
Description: "Despite what some scholarship has suggested, Shinto does exhibit a unifying cognitive integrity. Spirit Tree offers a unique social psychological interpretation of Shinto ritual at the Hakozaki Hachiman Shrine in Fukuoka, Japan, and situates the cosmological organization of this practice within the larger context of ritual in East Asia. Employing a comparative approach, this study blends two theoretical orientations: cultural anthropology and Jungian psychology." "Hakozaki's rituals are a combination of a Yayoi period female medium tradition with a complex set of Chinese Yin-Yang Five Phase principles. Both systems are based on the feminine archetype, a fundamental conceptual foundation of Shinto ritual practice, which cognitively links woman and the earth. While the female shaman tradition is female-affirming in outlook, the later Chinese system is much less so. This monograph is a new acknowledgement of the conceptual continuity of Shinto ritual as an outgrowth of social cognition."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-213) and index.