Download or read book An Introduction to Japanese Folk Performing Arts written by Terence A. Lancashire and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese folk performing arts incorporate a body of entertainments that range from the ritual to the secular. They may be the ritual dances at Shinto shrines performed to summon and entertain deities; group dances to drive away disease-bearing spirits; or theatrical mime to portray the tenets of Buddhist teachings. These ritual entertainments can have histories of a thousand years or more and, with such histories, some have served as the inspiration for the urban entertainments of no, kabuki and bunraku puppetry. The flow of that inspiration, however, has not always been one way. Elements taken from these urban forms could also be used to enhance the appeal of ritual dance and drama. And, in time, these urban entertainments too came to be performed in rural or regional settings and today are similarly considered folk performing arts. Professor Terence Lancashire provides a valuable introductory guide to the major performance types as understood by Japanese scholars.

Download or read book Buddhism written by Paul Williams and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eight-volume set brings together seminal papers in Buddhist studies from a vast range of academic disciplines published over the last forty years. With a new introduction by the editor, this collection is a unique and unrivalled research resource for both student and scholar. Coverage includes: - Buddhist origins; early history of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia - early Buddhist Schools and Doctrinal History; Theravada Doctrine - the Origins and nature of Mahayana Buddhism; some Mahayana religious topics - Abhidharma and Madhyamaka - Yogacara, the Epistemological tradition, and Tathagatagarbha - Tantric Buddhism (Including China and Japan); Buddhism in Nepal and Tibet - Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia, and - Buddhism in China, East Asia, and Japan.

Download or read book Explaining Pictures written by Ikumi Kaminishi and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with the claim that the popularization of Buddhism in the medieval period was a phenomenon of visual culture, Explaining Pictures reexamines the history (and historiography) of medieval Japanese Buddhism. With theoretical sophistication and a full appreciation of the power of imagery to convey and control religious meaning, it investigates a range of aspects of etoki, including the particularly active role of itinerant nuns, whose performances were especially edifying to female audiences, as well as the visual hagiography of the reputed founder of Japanese Buddhism, the pictorial projections of Buddhist paradise and hell, and the explanation, through visual imagery, of sacred mountains. Explaining Pictures is the first book-length study in English devoted to the phenomenon of Buddhist art as religious propaganda and pictorial storytelling as a form of popular culture in medieval Japan. A truly interdisciplinary study, it suggests fruitful avenues of discussion between art historians and historians of Japanese Buddhism. Scholars and students with an interest in Japanese Buddhism, art, and social and cultural history will find its examination of significant issues fresh and stimulating. It will also find an appreciative audience among those concerned with the relationship between art and religion, the mechanics of proselytization, and Asian visual culture.

Download or read book Cultivating Spirituality written by Mark L. Blum and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2013-03-02 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Four Shin Buddhist thinkers reflect on their tradition’s encounter with modernity. Cultivating Spirituality is a seminal anthology of Shin Buddhist thought, one that reflects this tradition’s encounter with modernity. Shin (or Jod? Shinsh?) is a popular form of Pure Land Buddhism, the most widely practiced form of Buddhism in Japan, but is only now becoming well known in the West. The lives of the four thinkers included in the book spanned the years 1863–1982, from the Meiji opening to the West to Japan’s establishment as an industrialized democracy and world economic power. Kiyozawa Manshi, Soga Ry?jin, Kaneko Daiei, and Yasuda Rijin, all associated with Kyoto’s ?tani University, dealt with the spiritual concerns of a society undergoing great change. Their philosophical orientation known as “Seishinshugi” (“cultivating spirituality”) provides a set of principles that prioritized personal, subjective experience as the basis for religious understanding. In addition to providing access to work generally unavailable in English, this volume also includes both a contextualizing introduction and introductions to each figure included. “Buddhism, whether in Asia or the West, reveals itself to be a rich tapestry of diverse strands in which pioneers risked their standing and even their very lives to establish new pathways appropriate for their times and places. The editors invite the reader to explore developments in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism as emblematic of this tradition of innovation.” — Buddhadharma

Download or read book Japan s Name Culture written by Herbert E. Plutschow and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive study in English of Japanese names - their history and evolution, and ontological implications. Its main purpose is to understand the development of the nomenclature in its religious (animistic) and socio-political contexts. We learn, for example, how belief in the animistic-symbolic property of names developed into extensive taboos and, in connection with these taboos, into the custom of revealing names in case of marriage or territorial surrender. Whereas private (religious) use of surnames was tolerated, commoners without public functions were prohibited from public use of surnames. In the Meiji period (1868-1912), on the other hand, the government enforced the universal registry of surnames to conform with its policy of universal conscription, education, taxation and the postal service. The book will be of particular interest to students of Japan and Japanese nomenclature. It will also appeal to the general reader drawn to learning more about Japan by looking at its history, religion and culture through the names of its people.

Download or read book Critical Readings on Pure Land Buddhism in Japan written by Galen Amstutz and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-06-08 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pure Land was one of the main fields of mythopoesis and discourse among the Asian Buddhist traditions, and in Japan of central cultural importance from the Heian period right up to the present. However, its range, inconsistency, variability, and complexity have tended to be misevaluated. The pieces reproduced in this set, organized both chronologically and thematically, have been chosen as linchpin works accentuating the diversity of what evolved under this heading of Buddhism. Special attention is given to the traps into which Western observers may fall, the role of the large True Pure Land (Jōdoshinshū) school, and the richness of Tokugawa and twentieth-century developments. These selections of previously published articles will serve as an essential starting point for anyone interested in this perhaps underestimated area of Buddhist studies.

Download or read book Understanding Shinran written by Hee-Sung Keel and published by Jain Publishing Company. This book was released on 2002-04 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding Shinran offers a sensitive and balanced examination of the life and teachings of the founder of Pure Land Buddhism. The author shows how the ongoing drama of salvation through the grace of Amida -- a mutual engagement of form and the formless, of ignorant humans and the awakened Buddha -- can be read as a message of hope by Buddhists and Christians alike.

Download or read book Engaging Japanese Philosophy written by Thomas P. Kasulis and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-12-31 with total page 785 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy challenges our assumptions—especially when it comes to us from another culture. In exploring Japanese philosophy, a dependable guide is essential. The present volume, written by a renowned authority on the subject, offers readers a historical survey of Japanese thought that is both comprehensive and comprehensible. Adhering to the Japanese philosophical tradition of highlighting engagement over detachment, Thomas Kasulis invites us to think with, as well as about, the Japanese masters by offering ample examples, innovative analogies, thought experiments, and jargon-free explanations. He assumes little previous knowledge and addresses themes—aesthetics, ethics, the samurai code, politics, among others—not in a vacuum but within the conditions of Japan’s cultural and intellectual history. For readers new to Japanese studies, he provides a simplified guide to pronouncing Japanese and a separate discussion of the language and how its syntax, orthography, and linguistic layers can serve the philosophical purposes of a skilled writer and subtle thinker. For those familiar with the Japanese cultural tradition but less so with philosophy, Kasulis clarifies philosophical expressions and problems, Western as well as Japanese, as they arise. Half of the book’s chapters are devoted to seven major thinkers who collectively represent the full range of Japan’s historical epochs and philosophical traditions: Kūkai, Shinran, Dōgen, Ogyū Sorai, Motoori Norinaga, Nishida Kitarō, and Watsuji Tetsurō. Nuanced details and analyses enable an engaged understanding of Japanese Buddhism, Confucianism, Shintō, and modern academic philosophy. Other chapters supply social and cultural background, including brief discussions of nearly a hundred other philosophical writers. (For additional information, cross references to material in the companion volume Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook are included.) In his closing chapter Kasulis reflects on lessons from Japanese philosophy that enhance our understanding of philosophy itself. He reminds us that philosophy in its original sense means loving wisdom, not studying ideas. In that regard, a renewed appreciation of engaged knowing can play a critical role in the revitalization of philosophy in the West as well as the East.

Download or read book In Pursuit of Composite Beauty written by Mari Nakami and published by Apollo Books. This book was released on 2011 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Pursuit of Composite Beauty is a study of the life and thought of Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961), known primarily as the founder of Japan's mingei (folk crafts) movement. Mr. Yanagi was a thinker who believed that world peace could not be achieved by 'painting the world in one single color.' Before and during World War II, when Japan was invading Asia and enforcing its cultural assimilation policy in its colonies and occupied territories, Yanagi aspired to realize a world in which multiple races and cultures could coexist. His pacifist thought rests on the idea of 'composite beauty, ' an ideal of creating a world in which heterogeneous entities can accept their differences and learn from each other. Tracing Yanagi's intellectual development, this insightful and comprehensive book presents a positive reevaluation of the contemporary significance of his thought from the viewpoint of international relations, shedding light on the ways to achieve interdependence and mutual respect

Download or read book The Classification of Buddhism written by Bruno Petzold and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 1995 with total page 1060 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Rennyo and the Roots of Modern Japanese Buddhism written by Mark L. Blum and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rennyo Shonin (1415-1499) is considered the 'second founder' of Shin Buddhism. This book deals with the major questions surrounding the phenomenal growth of Hongaji under Rennyo's leadership, such as the source of charisma, the soteriological implications of his thought against the background of other movements in Pure Land Buddhism, and more.

Download or read book Approaching the Land of Bliss written by Richard Karl Payne and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The discourse of Buddhist studies has traditionally been structured around texts and nations (the transmission of Buddhism from India to China to Japan). And yet, it is doubtful that these categories reflect in any significant way the organizing themes familiar to most Buddhists. It could be argued that cultic practices associated with particular buddhas and bodhisattvas are more representative of the way Buddhists conceive of their relation to tradition. This volume aims to explore this aspect of Buddhism by focusing on one of its most important cults, that of the Buddha Amitabha. Approaching the Land of Bliss is a rich collection of studies of texts and ritual practices devoted to Amitabha, ranging from Tibet to Japan and from early medieval times to the present.

Download or read book Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition written by Shin'ichi Hisamatsu and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2002-11-30 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together two giants of the history of Zen: Linji (Japanese, Rinzai) and Hisamatsu Shin'ichi. Linji is looked upon as the founder of the Rinzai sect in Japan. Hisamatsu was a leading twentieth century master/thinker who lived in Kyoto and was a tremendous influence on the development of the Kyoto school of Japanese philosophy. The translators and editors have translated and annotated twenty-two of Hisamatsu's Zen teisho (Dharma talks, in effect, sermons for Zen practitioners) of a classical Zen text, the Record of Linji, the recorded sayings of the Chinese founder of Rinzai Zen.

Download or read book Genshin s j y sh and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan written by Robert F. Rhodes and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2017-06-30 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Ōjōyōshū, written by the monk Genshin (942–1017), is one of the most important texts in the history of Japanese religions. It is the first comprehensive guide to the doctrine and practice of Pure Land Buddhism written in Japan and so played a pivotal role in establishing this form of Buddhism in the country. In Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū and the Construction of Pure Land Discourse in Heian Japan, the first book in English on the Ōjōyōshū in more than forty years, Robert F. Rhodes draws on the latest scholarship to shed new light on the text, its author, and the tumultuous age in which it was written. Rhodes begins by providing substantial discussion on the development of Pure Land Buddhism before the Ōjōyōshū’s appearance and a thorough account of Genshin’s life, the full details of which have never before been available in English. Japan in the tenth century was marked by far-reaching political, social, and economic change, all of which had a significant effect on religion, including the emergence of numerous new religious movements in Kyoto. Pure Land was the most popular of these, and the faith embraced by the Tendai scholar Genshin when he became disaffected with the growing factionalism at Enrakuji, Tendai’s central temple. A significant portion of Rhodes’ study is a wide-ranging examination of the Ōjōyōshū’s Pure Land teachings in which he describes and analyzes Genshin’s interpretations of Pure Land cosmology and nenbutsu practice. For Genshin the latter encompassed an extensive range of practices for focusing the mind on Amida Buddha—from the simple recitation of Namu Amidabutsu (“recitative nenbutsu”) to the advanced meditative practice of visualizing the buddha (“meditative nenbutsu”). According to the Ōjōyōshū, all of these are effective means for ensuring birth in Amida’s Pure Land. This impressively researched and updated treatment of the formative text in the Japanese Pure Land tradition will be welcomed by all scholars and students of Japanese religions. It also offers a fascinating window into Heian (794–1185) religious life, which will be of interest to anyone concerned with medieval Japan.

Download or read book Matsuri The Festivals of Japan written by Herbert Plutschow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contribution to Western understanding of the nature and manifestations of Shinto through the vast galaxy of historic festivals (matsuri) that are here categorized and analysed.

Download or read book Audience and Actors written by Jacob Raz and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-14 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book J kei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan written by James L. Ford and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-08-24 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book-length study in any language of Jō kei (1155-1213), a prominent Buddhist cleric of the Hossō (Yog=ac=ara) school, whose life bridged the momentous transition from Heian (794-1185) to Kamakura (1185-1333) Japan. "Kamakura Buddhism" has drawn notable scholarly attention, largely because it marks the emergence of new schools-Pure Land, Nichiren, and Zen-that came to dominate the Buddhist landscape of Japan. Although Jōkei is invariably cited as one of the leading representatives of established Buddhism during the Kamakura period, he has been seriously neglected by Western scholars. In this book, James L. Ford aims to shed light on this pivotal and long-overlooked figure. Ford argues convincingly that Jōkei is an ideal personage through which to peer anew into the socio-religious dynamics of early medieval Japan. Indeed, Jōkei is uniquely linked to a number of decisive trends and issues of dispute including: the conflict between the established schools and Hōnen's exclusive nenbutsu movement; the precept-revival movement; doctrinal reform efforts; the proliferation of prominent "reclusive monks" (tonseisō); the escalation of fundraising (kanjin) campaigns and popular propagation; and the conspicuous revival of devotion toward 'Sákyamuni and Maitreya. Jōkei represents a paradigm within established Buddhism that recognized the necessity of accessing other powers through esoteric practices, ritual performances, and objects of devotion. While Jōkei is best known as a leading critic of Hōnen's exclusive nenbutsu movement and a conservative defender of normative Buddhist principles, he was also a progressive reformer in his own right. Far from defending the status quo, Jōkei envisioned a more accessible, harmonious, and monastically upright form of Buddhism. Through a detailed examination of Jōkei's extensive writings and activities, Ford challenges many received interpretations of Jōkei's legacy and the transformation of Buddhism in early medieval Japan. This book fills a significant lacuna in Buddhist scholarship