The book presents an in-depth analysis of Reiyukai, a religion established in 1919, focusing on its practices of ancestor worship and reverence for the Lotus Sutra. Through extensive fieldwork, including interviews with members and a survey of 2,000 participants, the author explores the reasons behind the religion's lasting appeal and its ability to maintain core beliefs despite various schisms. The study offers valuable insights into the dynamics of faith and community within Reiyukai.
This volume of twelve essays with useful bibliographies, in the fields of history, art, religion, literature, anthropology, political science, and law, documents the history of United States scholarship on Japan since 1945.
This volume of proceedings from the Conference on Meiji Studies presents a rare multinational interchange among professors, researchers, and graduate students investigating Japan. The essays reflect both an appreciation of past scholarship and a determination to destabilize existing paradigms about Meiji Japan in favor of a multiplicity of perspectives that privilege subjectivity and non-elite groups. Attention to relations of power challenges the notions of modernization as the master narrative in Japan's recent history and of consensus as the primary characteristic of social interaction in Japan. The authors present an array of intellectual perspective on topics in the social sciences, humanities, and arts, employing a variety of theories and methodologies. The book will be welcomed by readers interested in the Meiji era, contemporary Japan, and postmodern theories of power.