Religion and Modern Japan
Tohoku University G. Clinton GODART Spring Semester, 2019 Email: [email protected]
Course description:
This seminar explores the roles of religion in modern Japanese history. We will look at critical problems and themes in the history of religion, such as, how did the Japanese religious landscape change through modernization? What are the relations and tensions between religion and the modern state, nationalism, and war? What is secularization? We will explore religion in modern Japan through two aenues: first, gaining a broad overview of religious change in Japanese history, and second, by exploring the case of Nichirenism, a modern variant of Nichiren Buddhism. Also, students will have room to explore a topic of their own and present this in class.
Course Goals:
1. Acquire some basic “religious literacy” of religion in Japan: be able to explain what “religion” is in Japan and how it works to a non-expert. 2. Understand how religion has influenced and shaped modern Japanese history & how religion in Japan today has been formed by historical changes & be able to connect these with global phenomena of religious change. 3. Acquire skills by learning how to conduct a small research project, including fact finding, organization, interpretation, writing, and oral presentation of your findings.