DOCSLIB.ORG

Early Modern Japan Spring, 2002

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Early Modern Japan Spring, 2002 EARLY MODERN JAPAN SPRING, 2002 Tokugawa Religious History: Studies the majority of less-privileged people. in Western Languages∗ Biographical material is extant, but consists mostly of official hagiographies and legendary anecdotes; personal testimonies by ordinary ©Janine Tasca Sawada, University of practitioners, particularly women and less- Iowa educated groups, are rarer. Second, Western scholars of religion, particularly students of the The study of religious history in secular mainstream Buddhist and Confucian systems of academic institutions in the West is this period, have only recently begun to shake off interdisciplinary--depending on the scholar or a long-standing preference for doctrinal and topic, it takes the form of intellectual, social, classical textual studies, a tendency that allegedly literary, or art history, and draws on the methods dates to the nineteenth-century Christian or insights of philology, anthropology, sociology, theological milieu in which European and cultural studies, among others. European and investigation of Asian religions originated.1 American scholarship on the religious These two factors may not be completely phenomena of Tokugawa Japan in particular unrelated. After the Meiji period began, new represents an increasingly wide range of concepts of “religion” (shūkyō) and “doctrine” approaches and themes. However, various factors (kyōhō) emerged, partly in response to perceived have worked against balance within that diversity. Western assumptions that systematic belief was a First, accessible historical evidence of religious defining element of religion; in the ensuing life during this period has been limited to genres decades, curators of certain Japanese religious produced by certain social groups. The most institutions invested more in the preservation (in readily available material is documents written by some cases, reconstruction) of Edo-period educated elites--particularly records of formal doctrinal statements than in the archiving of doctrines and institutions--rather than first-hand manuals of practice, oral lore, or informal first- accounts of the everyday practices and rituals of person accounts.2 On the other hand, a close ∗ Many people have assisted me during the various stages of completing this essay and the 1 accompany-ing bibliography. The participants in See esp. Gregory Schopen, “Archaeology the “Early Modern Japanese Studies: The State of and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of the Field” symposium held at Ohio State Indian Buddhism,” History of Religions 31 University in April 21-23, 2000, offered (1991): 1-23, rept. in Schopen’s Bones, Stones, stimulating responses to the first draft of this and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the work; I am particularly grateful to the editor, Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Philip Brown, and to my colleague, James Buddhism in India (Honolulu: University of McMullen, for their comments, suggestions, and Hawai’i Press, 1997), 1-22; and Bernard Faure, affirmation throughout this project. Stephen Chan Insights and Oversights: An Vlastos’ and Jacqueline Stone’s comments on an Epistemological Critique o the Chan Tradition early draft of the essay helped me make it more (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), lucid and accurate. Michel Mohr, Paul B. Watt, 35. and Samuel Hideo Yamashita have also extended 2 Several new religions were compelled to their support and assistance. Numerous scholars create “Shinto”-based doctrinal identities under in the field helped me identify and/or correct the auspices of the nativist/Shinto ideological references in the bibliography and notes. I am campaign of the early Meiji; later, in the postwar especially indebted in this regard to W. J. Boot, period, some attempted to recreate their purported Antony Boussemart, Herman Ooms, and Duncan preMeiji systems of belief. Re the Western R. Williams. Needless to say, I am fully origins of the notion that religion requires belief, responsible for all remaining errors and see W.C. Smith, The Meaning and End of omissions from the bibliography. Religion (New York: Mentor, 1964), e.g., 164; or 39 EARLY MODERN JAPAN SPRING, 2002 look at the primary records of many Tokugawa Japanese scholars. The latter in turn may religious groups reveals a keen interest in represent sectarian or other interests that are not intellectual formulation that well predates the necessarily conducive to broad-based studies of nineteenth-century encounter with Western Tokugawa religious history. philosophies of religion. Not only the established In any event, the Western study of Edo- Buddhist and Confucian schools, but lesser- period religions during the last twenty years has known, heterodox groups carefully preserved remained dominated by an infatuation with ideas, written statements of belief from long before the and consequently has overlapped considerably Restoration--not necessarily systematic doctrinal with the study of Tokugawa intellectual history. treatises, but sermons, dialogues between masters The latter, as Yamashita notes, has become an and disciples, popular tracts, and not infrequently, invigorating and even controversial field during didactic letters. recent years.4 He posits a rather evolutionary The dimension of religious life about which scheme according to which authors of books even these documents often remain silent, published between 1979 and 1992 advanced however, is religious praxis, especially personal, through a series of preoccupations with individual practices (as opposed to official “modernization,” “tradition,” the “new ceremonies and rites). Documentation of the intellectual history,” and “postmodern” theory, practices of ordinary people as well as of the and depicts each of these interpretive waves as broader social functions of religion in this period arising partly in reaction to its predecessors.5 In is extant. However, in addition to the reasons the final analysis, however, Tokugawa intellectual cited above, scholars tend to neglect these history as a field is not really being redefined by documents because they are mostly manuscripts these disputes. Works produced during the last written in cursive style (komonjo) that require two decades are still concerned with discrete 3 significant training in order to read. Western “schools of thought” and articulate individual scholars who do not use these manuscripts must thinkers, even though this scholarship adopts a limit their research to works that have already growing number of novel configurations been selected, edited, and published by modern 5 I will not rehearse Yamashita’s his Faith and Belief (Princeton: Princeton fascinating discussion and the subsequent debate University Press), 13-14. See also the 1980-90s over it here, but recommend to the reader his series of debates about the definition and relative succinct synopses and historiographical importance of doctrine in the study of Japanese interpretations of the major monographs in the religions, published in the Japanese Journal of field, on the one hand, and the critical responses Religious Studies: Neil McMullin, “Historical and it provoked, on the other: see Yamashita, Historiographical Issues in the Study of Pre- “Reading Tokugawa;” The Neo-Confucian Modern Japanese Religion,” 16, no.1 (1989): 3- Seminar, Columbia University, “Minutes of the 40; Jamie Hubbard, “Premodern, Modern, and Meeting of 1 November 1996;” John Allen Postmodern: Doctrine and the Study of Japanese Tucker, “A Response to Sam Yamashita’s Religion,” 19, no.1 (1992): 3-27; and Neil ‘Reading the New Tokugawa Intellectual McMullin, “Which Doctrine? Whose Histories,’” Journal of Japanese Studies 23, no. 2 ‘Religion?--A Rejoinder,’” 19, no.1 (1992): 29-39. (1997): 525-536; Samuel Hideo Yamashita, Here I use “doctrine” to refer in the narrower “Response to John Tucker's Response,” Journal sense to systematic theoretical representation of of Japanese Studies 23, no. 2 (1997): 536-541; religious belief; but I view this as only one and Harold Bolitho, “Tokugawa Japan: The among many possible expressions of “thought.” 3 Return of the Other?,” in Helen Hardacre, ed., On this point, see Barbara Ambros and The Postwar Developments of Japanese Studies Duncan Williams, “Local Religion in Tokugawa in the United States, Brill’s Japanese Studies History: Editors’ Introduction,” Japanese Journal Library no. 8 (Leiden, Boston, and Koln: Brill, of Religious Studies 28, nos. 3-4 (2001): 217. 1998), 85-114. 40 EARLY MODERN JAPAN SPRING, 2002 informed by recent theoretical trends. Many resources to learn how to read difficult Chinese writers enjoy elucidating ideas in terms of and/or arcane Japanese texts. These thinkers and diachronic “developments” or “traditions,” while teachers in fact spoke for elites, mostly rural others explicitly argue against the coherence of notables and well-endowed merchants, who such a project. The degree of attention to wielded their own kind of power. Koschmann “context” (intellectual, social, or other) is also comes closer to treating a broad range of the presented as a conscious decision, even a matter populace, though the Tengu insurrection about of principle, and differs radically depending on which he writes was also dominated by agrarian the author’s predilections. elites.7 Bolitho comments that Tokugawa The efforts of the so-called new intellectual intellectual history “since the mid-1980s has been historians to broaden the scope and methodology in the process of splitting into two separate and of Tokugawa studies
Load more

Recommended publications
  • AFTD News Spring 2011
    Volume VIII, Issue 1 Spring 2011 AFTD Adopts New Name, Renews Mission esponding to feedback from pa- varied constituent groups that AFTD the word “dementia” when diagnos- tients, families, and many medi- serves: patients, caregivers, researchers ing a person with an FTD language or R cal experts, AFTD has changed and clinicians. Work led by an ad hoc movement disorder. In the literature, its name to e Association for Fron- committee of AFTD’s Board of Di- researchers use a variety of terms to re- totemporal Degeneration. e change rectors also included an extensive lit- fer to the broad group of diseases: some was adopted in recognition of a recent erature search and engaged discussions use “frontotemporal dementias” some shift in medical terminology, as well as use FTLD, or frontotemporal lobar a strong desire that AFTD be a place With a new name, degeneration (which is a broad term where patients and caregivers living comes a new web address. for the underlying disease pathology) with the wide variety of diagnoses the and at least one journal has already organization supports will feel welcome. Visit us at used “frontotemporal degeneration.” “e AFTD Board of Directors unani- www.theaftd.org. “All of our experts agree that this mously supported this decision,” says array of clinical disorders include dif- AFTD Board Chair Beth Walter. “We with the organization’s Medical Advi- ferent types of abnormal protein ag- have so much important work to do, sory Council and peer organizations. gregation in the frontal and/or temporal we invite everyone affected by any of While results were not unanimous, lobes of the brain,” says Emily Levy, these diseases to join us to spread aware- some facts did emerge.
    [Show full text]
  • Asahi Falls —Mendicant Shakuhachi Monks and the Izu Pennisula— Christopher Yohmei Blasdel
    Asahi Falls —Mendicant Shakuhachi Monks and the Izu Pennisula— Christopher Yohmei Blasdel Asahi Falls, Ōdaira, Izu. Photograph by the author. 1 The anfractuous road from Shūzen-ji to the Amagi Pass winds through the middle of the mountainous Izu Peninsula. It cuts across small villages, traverses deep rivers filled with fresh, running waters and traces hairpin curves that straddle exquisitely terraced rice paddies. Every turn offers a stunning vista of towering mountains and verdant slopes. These views are juxtaposed with glimpses of local daily life as village residents make their way back and forth from school, shopping or their work in the fields and forests. One of the small communities the road passes along the way is Ōdaira. From the center of this settlement, a small lane leaves the road and makes its way up westward to the edge of the mountain, where is situated the remains of an old temple, a shrine and a magnificent waterfall that cascades from on high out of the forested hillside. This eastward-facing waterfall is named Asahi Daki (“Morning-sun waterfall”), and the name of temple—or the empty space where it once stood—is Rōgen-ji (literally, “origin of the waterfall”). A sign at the entrance to the area tells the visitor that Rōgen-ji was a ko- musō temple. Komusō, the sign informs us, were a band of itinerant monks who covered their heads with deep basket hats, called tengai, and wandered the Japanese countryside playing the shakuhachi bamboo flute and begging for alms. These monks belonged to the Fuke Sect, which was loosely connected to the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism, and Rōgen-ji was an affiliate temple of Rei- hō-ji Temple in Ōme, now a municipality of Tokyo in western mountainous re- gion.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Studies in Japan
    Religious Studies in Japan volume 5, 2020 contents 1 Foreword Hoshino Seiji 3 Those Who Sell the Sacred Sites: The Economic Development of Contemporary Tibet and Popular Religious Spaces Bessho Yūsuke 29 Kumazawa Banzan’s Ideas Regarding the “Great Way” and “Shinto” Iseki Daisuke 53 The Successors of Hirata Theology Mitsumatsu Makoto reviews 81 Takahashi Norihito 高橋典史, Shirahase Tatsuya 白波瀬達也, and Hoshino Sō 星野壮, eds., Gendai Nihon no shūkyō to tabunka kyōsei: Imin to chiiki shakai no kankeisei o saguru『現代日本 の宗教と多文化共生―移民と地域社会の関係性を探る』 Kato Masato 87 Nagaoka Takashi 永岡崇, Shinshūkyō to sōryoku sen: Kyōso igo o ikiru 新宗教と総力戦―教祖以後を生きる Adam Lyons Religious Studies in Japan volume 5: 1–2 Hoshino Seiji Editor’s Foreword We are proud to present the fifth volume ofReligious Studies in Japan (RSJ). RSJ was established in 2012 as the English-language journal of the Japanese Associa- tion for Religious Studies (JARS). We have finally reached our fifth outing with this issue, and over time there have been slight changes in the character of the periodical. Accordingly, I want to take this occasion to explain a little bit about what that character is at present as well as our basic orientation. First, the journal was founded to serve as a medium through which the mem- bers of JARS could present the fruits of their research in English. For that reason, from the very start it has accepted article submissions from the membership. The articles that appear in the journal have been peer reviewed and deemed to be of sufficient value to be published. Unfortunately, not many articles that go through this process reach publication, but in any case, I still wish to reempha- size that this journal is positioned to serve as a venue through which JARS mem- bers can put their research findings before the public eye.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of Modern Japan
    The Making of Modern Japan The MAKING of MODERN JAPAN Marius B. Jansen the belknap press of harvard university press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England Copyright © 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Third printing, 2002 First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2002 Book design by Marianne Perlak Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jansen, Marius B. The making of modern Japan / Marius B. Jansen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-674-00334-9 (cloth) isbn 0-674-00991-6 (pbk.) 1. Japan—History—Tokugawa period, 1600–1868. 2. Japan—History—Meiji period, 1868– I. Title. ds871.j35 2000 952′.025—dc21 00-041352 CONTENTS Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii Note on Names and Romanization xviii 1. SEKIGAHARA 1 1. The Sengoku Background 2 2. The New Sengoku Daimyo 8 3. The Unifiers: Oda Nobunaga 11 4. Toyotomi Hideyoshi 17 5. Azuchi-Momoyama Culture 24 6. The Spoils of Sekigahara: Tokugawa Ieyasu 29 2. THE TOKUGAWA STATE 32 1. Taking Control 33 2. Ranking the Daimyo 37 3. The Structure of the Tokugawa Bakufu 43 4. The Domains (han) 49 5. Center and Periphery: Bakufu-Han Relations 54 6. The Tokugawa “State” 60 3. FOREIGN RELATIONS 63 1. The Setting 64 2. Relations with Korea 68 3. The Countries of the West 72 4. To the Seclusion Decrees 75 5. The Dutch at Nagasaki 80 6. Relations with China 85 7. The Question of the “Closed Country” 91 vi Contents 4. STATUS GROUPS 96 1. The Imperial Court 97 2.
    [Show full text]
  • 139 Bryan Cuevas's Article Deals with Death in Tibetan Buddhist Popular
    BOOK REVIEWS 139 Bryan Cuevas’s article deals with death in Tibetan Buddhist popular literature by working from the biography of an ordinary seventeenth-century laywoman, Karma Wangzin, who journeyed to hell and back again. John Holt’s article “The Dead Among the Living in Contemporary Buddhist Sri Lanka” discusses the activities of a village lay priestess who helps the living communicate with the recently deceased; he argues this type of Sinhala lay religiosity is not new but has ancient roots. Matthew Kapstein’s study of Mulian and Gesar examines how the Chinese tale of the Buddha’s disciple Mulian (Maudgalyåyana), who descended to hell to save his mother, was rendered into a Tibetan context and associated with the culture hero Gesar. Although no Chinese-style “ghost festival” was ever practiced in Tibet, Tibetan Buddhism still contained a great deal of filial piety which influenced the mythos of Gesar. A final cluster of articles deals with the biological end of life. Since the dead and their disposal are a physical process in a society, Buddhism has been greatly concerned with the practical matters of funerary and mortuary rites. Hank Glassman’s article on “Chinese Buddhist Death Ritual and the Transformation of Japanese Kinship” argues that Heian Buddhist funerary and mortuary practices evidence a shift to the patriarchially-oriented family grave and memorial system which dominated later Japanese society. Mark Rowe’s article on “Scattering Ashes in Contemporary Japan” surveys the current movement away from the traditional Buddhist monopoly on family-oriented death ritual which is being expressed in innovative practices of scattering ashes or creating voluntary burial societies.
    [Show full text]
  • The Significance of the Atypical Samurai Image: A
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UC Research Repository THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ATYPICAL SAMURAI IMAGE: A STUDY OF THREE NOVELLAS BY FUJISAWA SHŪHEI AND THE FILM TASOGARE SEIBEI BY YAMADA YŌJI A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Japanese at the University of Canterbury by S. J. Albrow University of Canterbury 2007 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ........................................................................... …..……..…2 Abstract ........................................................................................................... …3 Author's Notes ................................................................................................ …4 Introduction ........................................................................... ….…….…….…..5 I Historical Background to the Samurai and their Ideals ......................... ..11 1.1. Emergence of the Samurai... ...................................................... ……..11 1.2. Samurai Ethics during the Tokugawa Period ........................... ……..20 1.3. Anxiety and Change .......................................................... …..…..…...29 1.4. Modern Adaptation of Samurai Ideals ............................................... ..42 1.5. Re-examining Samurai Traditions ............................................ ….…..46 II The Atypical Samurai Image ........................................................... ….…..51 2.1. Corporate Society .....................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • A POPULAR DICTIONARY of Shinto
    A POPULAR DICTIONARY OF Shinto A POPULAR DICTIONARY OF Shinto BRIAN BOCKING Curzon First published by Curzon Press 15 The Quadrant, Richmond Surrey, TW9 1BP This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/.” Copyright © 1995 by Brian Bocking Revised edition 1997 Cover photograph by Sharon Hoogstraten Cover design by Kim Bartko All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0-203-98627-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-7007-1051-5 (Print Edition) To Shelagh INTRODUCTION How to use this dictionary A Popular Dictionary of Shintō lists in alphabetical order more than a thousand terms relating to Shintō. Almost all are Japanese terms. The dictionary can be used in the ordinary way if the Shintō term you want to look up is already in Japanese (e.g. kami rather than ‘deity’) and has a main entry in the dictionary. If, as is very likely, the concept or word you want is in English such as ‘pollution’, ‘children’, ‘shrine’, etc., or perhaps a place-name like ‘Kyōto’ or ‘Akita’ which does not have a main entry, then consult the comprehensive Thematic Index of English and Japanese terms at the end of the Dictionary first.
    [Show full text]
  • Shintō and Buddhism: the Japanese Homogeneous Blend
    SHINTŌ AND BUDDHISM: THE JAPANESE HOMOGENEOUS BLEND BIB 590 Guided Research Project Stephen Oliver Canter Dr. Clayton Lindstam Adam Christmas Course Instructors A course paper presented to the Master of Ministry Program In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Ministry Trinity Baptist College February 2011 Copyright © 2011 by Stephen O. Canter All rights reserved Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served −Joshua TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements........................................................................................................... vii Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: The History of Japanese Religion..................................................................3 The History of Shintō...............................................................................................5 The Mythical Background of Shintō The Early History of Shintō The History of Buddhism.......................................................................................21 The Founder −− Siddhartha Gautama Buddhism in China Buddhism in Korea and Japan The History of the Blending ..................................................................................32 The Sects That Were Founded after the Blend ......................................................36 Pre-War History (WWII) .......................................................................................39
    [Show full text]
  • CHING, Julia 1976 to Acquire Wisdom： the Way of Wang Yang-Ming
    The Idea of God in Nakae T5ju Julia Ching INTRODUCTION Nakae T5ju (1608-48) is acknowledged to be the founder of the Wang Yang-ming (Oy5m ei) school of philosophy in Japan—a school which produced such great men as Kuma- za w a Banzan (1619-91), an immediate disciple and chief minister to Ikeda Mitsumasa, feudal lord of Okayama, and Yoshida Shoin (1830-59), a fiery young reformer who paid with his life for his determination to learn from Western science in order to "modernize" Japan. In contrast to these men, Toju led a retiring life, distinguishing himself chiefly as a village teacher, and extending the doctrine and prac­ tice of filial piety beyond the family, to the belief in and worship of a supreme deity. In this study, I should like to focus on Toju's idea of God, and compare it to the Chris­ tian idea. The various influences on the formation and evolution of this idea, whether Confucian, Taoist, Shinto, Buddhist, or even possibly Christian, will also be discussed, in order that we might better understand this idea of God and perceive its uniqueness. LIFE AND THOUGHT Nakae Toju was born in the village of O g aw a, in the pro­ vince of O m i，on the west bank of Lake Biwa, in a quiet and beautiful place which would become known mainly because of his own later fame. From the age of six on, the child lived, not with his parents in O g aw a, but with his grandparents in Shikoku. His sensitivity was probably enhanced by the successive tragic losses, during Toju!s early youth, of his grandmother (1621), grandfather (1622), and father (1625)，which effectively left his mother alone and his only close adult kin by the time Toju was age seventeen.
    [Show full text]
  • Politics, Classicism, and Medicine During the Eighteenth Century 十八世紀在德川日本 "頌華者" 和 "貶華者" 的 問題 – 以中醫及漢方為主
    East Asian Science, Technology and Society: an International Journal DOI 10.1007/s12280-008-9042-9 Sinophiles and Sinophobes in Tokugawa Japan: Politics, Classicism, and Medicine During the Eighteenth Century 十八世紀在德川日本 "頌華者" 和 "貶華者" 的 問題 – 以中醫及漢方為主 Benjamin A. Elman Received: 12 May 2008 /Accepted: 12 May 2008 # National Science Council, Taiwan 2008 Abstract This article first reviews the political, economic, and cultural context within which Japanese during the Tokugawa era (1600–1866) mastered Kanbun 漢 文 as their elite lingua franca. Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges were based on prestigious classical Chinese texts imported from Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) China via the controlled Ningbo-Nagasaki trade and Kanbun texts sent in the other direction, from Japan back to China. The role of Japanese Kanbun teachers in presenting language textbooks for instruction and the larger Japanese adaptation of Chinese studies in the eighteenth century is then contextualized within a new, socio-cultural framework to understand the local, regional, and urban role of the Confucian teacher–scholar in a rapidly changing Tokugawa society. The concluding part of the article is based on new research using rare Kanbun medical materials in the Fujikawa Bunko 富士川文庫 at Kyoto University, which show how some increasingly iconoclastic Japanese scholar–physicians (known as the Goiha 古醫派) appropriated the late Ming and early Qing revival of interest in ancient This article is dedicated to Nathan Sivin for his contributions to the History of Science and Medicine in China. Unfortunately, I was unable to present it at the Johns Hopkins University sessions in July 2008 honoring Professor Sivin or include it in the forthcoming Asia Major festschrift in his honor.
    [Show full text]
  • CSJR Newsletter
    Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions CSJR Newsletter Autumn 2009 Issue 18-19 CSJR Newsletter • Autumn 2009 • Issue 18-19 In this issue 2 From the Centre Chair Centre Activities FROM THE CHAIR 3 CSJR Seminar and Fora Schedule 4 Film Screening: A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki 5 Spring International Workshop: Minakata Another academic year has just concluded and while we look forward to the summer Kumagusu and London break we reflect back on the past months. As I write, the field of Japanese religion is saddened by the news that Carmen Blacker has passed away, on the morning of her Centre Activities Reports 85th birthday. Perhaps the most influential British scholar of Japanese religions, Carmen Blacker’s work opened up a new understanding of religious practices in Japan. She was 6 CSJR Spring International Workshop very supportive of the Centre, as she was of young scholars and of new initiatives, and I 8 Numata Lecture Series (2007-2008) have fond memories of her visits in the early years of the Centre. We will be remember- 9 Portraiture: Power & Ritual ing her and honouring her scholarly contributions in coming events. Research Notes Last year several people were away from the CSJR. After Brian Boching took up a post 10 O-take Dainichi Nyorai, a Shugendō Icon at the University of Cork, John Breen also left London to take up a three-year assignment 13 Motoori Norinaga’s Thoughts at Nichibunken in Kyoto. A few of our PhD students spent periods in Japan conducting on Astronomy fieldwork, and I myself was on sabbatical for the first two terms of 2008-2009.
    [Show full text]
  • Full Volume 22
    Ethnomusicology Review 22(1) From the Editors Samuel Lamontagne and Tyler Yamin Welcome to Volume 22, issue 1 of Ethnomusicology Review! This issue features an invited essay along with three peer-reviewed articles that cover a wide range of topics, geographical areas, methodological and theoretical approaches. As it seems to be a characteristic of ethnomusicology at large, this variety, even if it has become an object of critical inquiry itself (Rice, 1987, 2007; Laborde, 1997), has allowed the discipline, by grounding itself in reference to the context of study, to not take “music” for granted. It is in this perspective that we’d like to present this volume, and the variety of its contributions. In his invited essay, Jim Sykes asks what ramifications of the Anthropocece, understood as a socio-ecological crisis, hold for the field of music studies and the politics of its internal disciplinary divisions. Drawing upon scholars who assert that the Anthropocene demands not only concern about our planet’s future but also critical attention towards the particular, historically situated ontological commitments that engendered this crisis, Sykes argues that music studies both depends on and reproduces a normative model of the world in which music itself occupies an unproblematized metaphysical status—one that, furthermore, occludes the possibility of “reframe[ing] music history as a tale about the maintenance of the Earth system” (14, this issue) urgently necessary as anthropogenic climate change threatens the continuation of life as usual. By taking seriously the material and discursive aspects of musical practice often encountered ethnographically, yet either explained away by “the worldview embedded in our disciplinary divisions or .
    [Show full text]