The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi

The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi PDF Author: John Bentley
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047418190
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
This reexamination of Sendai kuji hongi (Kujiki) convincingly leads the reader to new conclusions on its place within the history and historiography of early Japan. While the Sendai kuji hongi is generally considered as simply derivative, drawing on Kojiki, Nihon shoki, and Kogo shūi, John Bentley's careful textual analysis demonstrates that the work has actually drawn from drafts of Kojiki and Nihon shoki, but not Kogo shūi, which has quoted from Kujiki. Thus the work can not be seen as a product of the early Heian era, but must date from the early Nara era. It therewith offers a new look not only into Japanese early Japanese historiography, but also provides a window to a variant view of the Japanese imperial lineage. The first three chapters consist of an analysis of the text from a textual analytical and linguistic viewpoint. Sections only found in Kujiki are then examined and analyzed. With full translation of the ten books of Kujiki, and amply annotated text.

The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi

The Authenticity of Sendai Kuji Hongi PDF Author: John Bentley
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047418190
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
This reexamination of Sendai kuji hongi (Kujiki) convincingly leads the reader to new conclusions on its place within the history and historiography of early Japan. While the Sendai kuji hongi is generally considered as simply derivative, drawing on Kojiki, Nihon shoki, and Kogo shūi, John Bentley's careful textual analysis demonstrates that the work has actually drawn from drafts of Kojiki and Nihon shoki, but not Kogo shūi, which has quoted from Kujiki. Thus the work can not be seen as a product of the early Heian era, but must date from the early Nara era. It therewith offers a new look not only into Japanese early Japanese historiography, but also provides a window to a variant view of the Japanese imperial lineage. The first three chapters consist of an analysis of the text from a textual analytical and linguistic viewpoint. Sections only found in Kujiki are then examined and analyzed. With full translation of the ten books of Kujiki, and amply annotated text.

Daoism in Japan

Daoism in Japan PDF Author: Jeffrey L. Richey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317662857
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
Like an ancient river, Daoist traditions introduced from China once flowed powerfully through the Japanese religious landscape, forever altering its topography and ecology. Daoism’s presence in Japan still may be discerned in its abiding influence on astrology, divination, festivals, literature, politics, and popular culture, not to mention Buddhism and Shintō. Despite this legacy, few English-language studies of Daoism’s influence on Japanese religious culture have been published. Daoism in Japan provides an exploration of the particular pathways by which Daoist traditions entered Japan from continental East Asia. After addressing basic issues in both Daoist Studies and the study of Japanese religions, including the problems of defining ‘Daoism’ and ‘Japanese,’ the book looks at the influence of Daoism on ancient, medieval and modern Japan in turn. To do so, the volume is arranged both chronologically and topically, according to the following three broad divisions: "Arrivals" (c. 5th-8th centuries CE), "Assimilations" (794-1868), and "Apparitions" (1600s-present). The book demonstrates how Chinese influence on Japanese religious culture ironically proved to be crucial in establishing traditions that usually are seen as authentically, even quintessentially, Japanese. Touching on multiple facets of Japanese cultural history and religious traditions, this book is a fascinating contribution for students and scholars of Japanese Culture, History and Religions, as well as Daoist Studies.

Founding Territorial Cults in Early Japan

Founding Territorial Cults in Early Japan PDF Author: G. Domenig
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004686452
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
The first book that deals with the territorial cults of early Japan by focusing on how such cults were founded in ownerless regions. Numerous ancient Japanese myths and legends are discussed to show that the typical founding ritual was a two-phase ritual that turned the territory into a horizontal microcosm, complete with its own ‘terrestrial heaven’ inhabited by local deities. Reversing Mircea Eliade’s popular thesis, the author concludes that the concept of the human-made horizontal microcosm is not a reflection but the source of the religious concept of the macrocosm with gods dwelling high up in the sky. The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

A New History of Shinto

A New History of Shinto PDF Author: John Breen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1444357689
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
This accessible guide to the development of Japan’s indigenous religion from ancient times to the present day offers an illuminating introduction to the myths, sites and rituals of kami worship, and their role in Shinto’s enduring religious identity. Offers a unique new approach to Shinto history that combines critical analysis with original research Examines key evolutionary moments in the long history of Shinto, including the Meiji Revolution of 1868, and provides the first critical history in English or Japanese of the Hie shrine, one of the most important in all Japan Traces the development of various shrines, myths, and rituals through history as uniquely diverse phenomena, exploring how and when they merged into the modern notion of Shinto that exists in Japan today Challenges the historic stereotype of Shinto as the unchanging, all-defining core of Japanese culture

Religion, Power, and the Rise of Shinto in Early Modern Japan

Religion, Power, and the Rise of Shinto in Early Modern Japan PDF Author: Stefan Köck
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350181080
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
This book sheds new light on the relationship between religion and state in early modern Japan, and demonstrates the growing awareness of Shinto in both the political and the intellectual elite of Tokugawa Japan, even though Buddhism remained the privileged means of stately religious control. The first part analyses how the Tokugawa government aimed to control the populace via Buddhism and at the same time submitted Buddhism to the sacralization of the Tokugawa dynasty. The second part focuses on the religious protests throughout the entire period, with chapters on the suppression of Christians, heterodox Buddhist sects, and unwanted folk practitioners. The third part tackles the question of why early Tokugawa Confucianism was particularly interested in “Shinto” as an alternative to Buddhism and what “Shinto” actually meant from a Confucian stance. The final part of the book explores attempts to curtail the institutional power of Buddhism by reforming Shinto shrines, an important step in the so called “Shintoization of shrines” including the development of a self-contained Shinto clergy.

Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan

Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan PDF Author: Herman Ooms
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824862953
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan is an ambitious and ground-breaking study that offers a new understanding of a formative stage in the development of the Japanese state. The late seventh and eighth centuries were a time of momentous change in Japan, much of it brought about by the short-lived Tenmu dynasty. Two new capital cities, a bureaucratic state led by an imperial ruler, and Chinese-style law codes were just a few of the innovations instituted by the new regime. Herman Ooms presents both a wide-ranging and fine-grained examination of the power struggles, symbolic manipulations, new mythological constructs, and historical revisions that both defined and propelled these changes. In addition to a vast amount of research in Japanese sources, the author draws on a wealth of sinological scholarship in English, German, and French to illuminate the politics and symbolics of the time. An important feature of the book is the way it opens up early Japanese history to considerations of continental influences. Rulers and ritual specialists drew on several religious and ritual idioms, including Daoism, Buddhism, yin-yang hermeneutics, and kami worship, to articulate and justify their innovations. In looking at the religious symbols that were deployed in support of the state, Ooms gives special attention to the Daoist dimensions of the new political symbolics as well as to the crucial contributions made by successive generations of "immigrants" from the Korean peninsula. From the beginning, a "liturgical state" sought to co-opt factions and clans (uji) as participants in the new polity with the emperor acting as both a symbolic mediator and a silent partner. In contrast to the traditional interpretation of the Kojiki mythology as providing a vertical legitimation of a Sun lineage of rulers, an argument is presented for the importance of a lateral dimension of interdependency as a key structural element in the mythological narrative. An enlightening line of interpretation woven into the author’s analysis centers on purity. This eminently politico-ritual value central to Chinese Daoism and Buddhism was used by Tenmu as the emblematic expression of his regime and new political power. The concept of purity was most fully realized in the world of the Saiô princess in Ise and was later used by Ise ritualists to defend themselves against Buddhist rivals. At the end of the Tenmu dynasty, it was widely believed that avenging spirits were the principal source of danger and pollution, notions understood here as statements about the bloody political battles that were waged in Tenmu court circles. The Tenmu dynasty began and ended in bloodshed and was marked throughout by instability and upheaval. Constant succession struggles between two branches of the royal line and a few outside lineages generated a host of plots, uprisings, murders, and accusations of black magic. This aspect of the period gets full treatment in fascinatingly detailed narratives, which the author skillfully alternates with his trademark structural analysis. Imperial Politics and Symbolics in Ancient Japan is a boldly imaginative, carefully and extensively researched, and richly textured history that will reward reading by Japan specialists and students in several disciplines as well as by scholars with an interest in the role of religious symbolism in state formation.

The Birth of Japanese Historiography

The Birth of Japanese Historiography PDF Author: John R. Bentley
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000295699
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
As the first book in English on the origins of Japanese historiography, using both archaeological and textual data, this book examines the connection between ancient Japan and the Korean kingdom of Paekche and how tutors from the kingdom of Paekche helped to lay the foundation for a literate culture in Japan. Illustrating how tutors from the kingdom of Paekche taught Chinese writing to the Japanese court through the prism of this highly civilized culture, the book goes on to argue that Paekche tutors guided the early Japanese court through writing, recording family history, and ultimately an early history of the ruling family. As the Japanese began to create their own history, they relied on Paekche histories as a model. Triangulating textual data from Kojiki, Nihon shoki, and Sendai kuji hongi, the author here demonstrates that various aspects of early king genealogies and later events were manipulated. Offering new theories about the Japanese ruling family, it is posited that Emperor Jitō had her committee put Jingū in power, and Suiko on the throne in place of original male rulers to enhance images of strong, female rulers, as she envisioned herself. The Birth of Japanese Historiography will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Japanese history, historiography, and linguistics.

Traversing the Frontier

Traversing the Frontier PDF Author: H. Mack Horton
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1684175038
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 661

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Book Description
"In the sixth month of 736, a Japanese diplomatic mission set out for the kingdom of Silla, on the Korean peninsula. The envoys undertook the mission during a period of strained relations with the country of their destination, met with adverse winds and disease during the voyage, and returned empty-handed. The futile journey proved fruitful in one respect: its literary representation—a collection of 145 Japanese poems and their Sino-Japanese (kanbun) headnotes and footnotes—made its way into the eighth-century poetic anthology Man’yōshū, becoming the longest poetic sequence in the collection and one of the earliest Japanese literary travel narratives. Featuring deft translations and incisive analysis, this study investigates the poetics and thematics of the Silla sequence, uncovering what is known about the actual historical event and the assumptions and concerns that guided its re-creation as a literary artifact and then helped shape its reception among contemporary readers. H. Mack Horton provides an opportunity for literary archaeology of some of the most exciting dialectics in early Japanese literary history."

From Sovereign to Symbol

From Sovereign to Symbol PDF Author: Thomas Donald Conlan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199778116
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
Fourteenth-century Japan witnessed a conflict about the nature of power that was expressed through the rituals and institutions of two rival courts. Ultimately, political authority came to be asserted through the language of esoteric Buddhist rituals, which determined the parameters of political possibility in Japan.

Nagaoka

Nagaoka PDF Author: Ellen Van Goethem
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004166009
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
This comprehensive account of the Nagaoka capital discusses the capital's construction and layout, and investigates the motivations behind the establishment and abrupt abandonment of Nagaoka within the context of Kanmu's reign and personal convictions.