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COX-DISSERTATION-2018.Pdf (5.765Mb) Copyright Copyright by Benjamin Davis Cox 2018 Signature Page The Dissertation Committee for Benjamin Davis Cox certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Gods Without Faces Childhood, Religion, and Imagination in Contemporary Japan Committee: ____________________________________ John W. Traphagan, Supervisor ____________________________________ A. Azfar Moin ____________________________________ Oliver Freiberger ____________________________________ Kirsten Cather Title Page Gods Without Faces Childhood, Religion, and Imagination in Contemporary Japan by Benjamin Davis Cox Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2018 Dedication For my mother, who tirelessly read all of my blasphemies, but corrected only my grammar. BB&tt. Acknowledgments Fulbright, CHLA This research was made possible by the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, a Hannah Beiter Graduate Student Research Grant from the Children’s Literature Association, and a grant from the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Endowment in the College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin. I would additionally like to thank Waseda University for sponsoring my research visa, and in particular Glenda Roberts for helping secure my affiliation. Thank you to the members of my committee—John Traphagan, Azfar Moin, Oliver Freiberger, and Kirsten Cather—for their years of support and intellectual engagement, and to my ‘grand-advisor’ Keith Brown, whose lifetime of work in Mizusawa opened many doors to me that would otherwise have remained firmly but politely shut. I am deeply indebted to the people of Mizusawa for their warmth, kindness, and forbearance. In particular, I wish to thank Mayor Ozawa for granting me permission to conduct my research; the chairman of the board of education, as well as the enchō sensei, shuji sensei, teachers and staff of all the schools and preschools I studied; the staff at ASUPIA, and in particular Chiharu and Arisa, whose efforts on my behalf are truly without number; Daigo and Jun, for their clerical perspectives and the pleasure of their company; the priests of Komagata Shrine for their generous gifts of time and access; Shinkō, for his daily provision of shelter, caffeine, and access to WiFi; and finally, my host family, particularly my parents Mitsuhiro and Shigeko, for caring for me like a son and for their countless kindnesses and lessons. Jinsei iroiro… Special thanks are due as well to Tomoko Hetherington for her heroic transcription of audio files I had deemed undecipherable; Aubrey Hooser and Cyndi Goodson for their unsung bureaucratic genius; Susan Ackerman, for inspiring and nurturing my passion for religious studies; and Helen Hardacre for enabling and guiding my reinvention as a scholar of Japanese religion. v Abstract Gods Without Faces Childhood, Religion, and Imagination in Contemporary Japan by Benjamin Davis Cox, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 SUPERVISOR: John W. Traphagan In societies where religion is largely not dogmatic, Pierre Bourdieu observed that religion “goes without saying because it comes without saying.” But in what manner does it come? Japan presents a particularly interesting case study in religious transmission not only due to the lack of dogmatism in the Japanese approach to religion, but also because there is demonstrably little overt attempt to indoctrinate children into the belief systems of Buddhism and Shinto. The texts from which the Japanese learn the most about the content of their religion are not the holy texts of the institutional religions, but rather picture books from the secular market. Ideas and attitudes about the kami and Buddhas are not communicated to the child explicitly, moreover, but rather come tacitly as part of learning the traditional cultural apparatus of which these beings are a constituent part. Because direct explanatory statements about the kami and Buddhas tend to be avoided, the child comes to make assumptions about supernatural beings based on the ways they are taught to interact with them: to greet these beings much as they would greet other humans, and to think of them as members of a social network of loving care that sustains them even when vi they are not aware of its actions. Furthermore, children are taught that showing ritualized social deference to a significant object is functionally equivalent to showing deference to the entire social network that that object represents. The kami, then, is the symbolic spokesperson for this collective: the face applied to a null operator through which feelings of concern are transacted. Through this process, the kami and Buddhas come to be understood simultaneously as both members of the community and symbolic representations of the community—and in particular, the community in its role as a network dedicated to the collective nurturance of the child and performing concern for his wellbeing. The concern of the community for the child and the gratitude of the child for the community are both directed—not to their ultimate recipients—but toward inanimate objects that serve as loci for the transaction of these feelings. vii Table of Contents Copyright ......................................................................................................................................... i Signature Page ................................................................................................................................ ii Title Page ....................................................................................................................................... iii Dedication ...................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... v Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. x List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ xi List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................................ xii Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Research Objectives .................................................................................................................... 6 Background and Significance ...................................................................................................... 7 Chapter Outlines ........................................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 1 – Scenes and Settings ................................................................................................ 17 Mizusawa Town ........................................................................................................................ 20 Preschool in Japan ..................................................................................................................... 23 The Japanese Religious Economy ............................................................................................. 25 Talking about ‘Religion’ in Shrine and Temple Preschools ..................................................... 30 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 44 Chapter 2 – Words and Pictures ............................................................................................... 46 Shinto Books ............................................................................................................................. 49 Buddhist Books ......................................................................................................................... 61 Gyōji Literature and the Secular Market ................................................................................... 70 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 86 Chapter 3 – Hopes and Dreams ................................................................................................. 89 Ema in Performative Context .................................................................................................... 90 Language Use and the Issue of Audience ............................................................................... 102 Children’s Wishes and their Social Ramifications .................................................................. 105 Children’s Ema, Vows, and Indirect Communication ............................................................ 123 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................
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