Women in Japanese Religions (eBook)

Barbara R. Ambros (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2015
Nyu Press (Verlag)
978-1-4798-3651-2 (ISBN)

Infos

A comprehensive history of women in Japanese religious traditionsScholars have widely acknowledged the persistent ambivalence with which the Japanese religious traditions treat women. Much existing scholarship depicts Japan s religious traditions as mere means of oppression. But this view raises a question: How have ambivalent and even misogynistic religious discourses on gender still come to inspire devotion and emulation among women?In Women in Japanese Religions, Barbara R. Ambros examines the roles that women have played in the religions of Japan. An important corrective to more common male-centered narratives of Japanese religious history, this text presents a synthetic long view of Japanese religions from a distinct angle that has typically been discounted in standard survey accounts of Japanese religions.Drawing on a diverse collection of writings by and about women, Ambros argues that ambivalent religious discourses in Japan have not simply subordinated women but also given them religious resources to pursue their own interests and agendas. Comprising nine chapters organized chronologically, the book begins with the archeological evidence of fertility cults and the early shamanic ruler Himiko in prehistoric Japan and ends with an examination of the influence of feminism and demographic changes on religious practices during the lost decades of the post-1990 era. By viewing Japanese religious history through the eyes of women, Women in Japanese Religions presents a new narrative that offers strikingly different vistas of Japan s pluralistic traditions than the received accounts that foreground male religious figures and male-dominated institutions.

Inhalt

ContentsAcknowledgments ixIntroduction: Why Study Women in Japanese Religions? 11. The Prehistorical Japanese Archipelago:Fertility Cults and Shaman Queens 52. Ancient Japanese Mythology: Female Divinitiesand Immortals 223. The Introduction of Buddhism: Nuns, Lay Patrons,and Popular Devotion 404. The Heian Period: Women in Buddhism and Court Ritual 565. The Medieval Period: Buddhist Reform Movementsand the Demonization of Femininity 766. The Edo Period: Confucianism, Nativism, andPopular Religion 977. Imperial Japan: Good Wives and Wise Mothers 1158. The Postwar Period: Nostalgia, Religion, and theReinvention of Femininity 1349. The Lost Decades: Gender and Religion in Flux 154Conclusion 172Questions for Discussion 177Notes 181Works Cited 205For Further Reading 221Index 227About the Author 237

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.5.2015
• Reihe/Serie: Women in Religions
• Reihe/Serie: Women in Religions
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie ► Volkskunde
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• ISBN-10: 1-4798-3651-6 / 1479836516
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4798-3651-2 / 9781479836512