Religion in Japanese Culture: Where Living Traditions Meet a Changing World

Tokyo / New York: Kodansha International, 1996. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 6x1x9. First edition. Price redacted on front jacket flap, top edge lightly foxed. 1996 Hard Cover. 238 pp. Illustrated with black-and-white plates. Over two decades ago, the Agency for Cultural Affairs compiled a volume entitled Japanese Religion: A Survey. Now in its eleventh printing, its value as a source of information on religion in Japanese society has been amply proved. But in the years since then Japan has rocketed to economic dominance, and urbanization and industrialization have altered the cultural landscape. The picturesque serenity of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines is a nostalgic vision; the shocking crimes of Aum Shinrikyo a new reality. Religion in Japanese Culture is a response to the relentless change of the last twenty-five years. Retaining but revising the earlier volume's comprehensive survey of Japan's major religions, this book also presents six new essays exploring religion and the state, religion and education, urbanizing and depopulation, the rebirth of religion, religious organizations and Japanese law.