Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan
During the late twelfth to fourteenth centuries, several precursors of what is now commonly known as Shinto came together for the first time. By focusing on Mt. Miwa in present-day Nara Prefecture and examining the worship of indigenous deities (kami) that emerged in its proximity, this book serves as a case study of the key stages of “assemblage” through which this formative process took shape. Previously unknown rituals, texts, and icons featuring kami, all of which were invented in medieval Japan under the strong influence of esoteric Buddhism, are evaluated using evidence from local and translocal ritual and pilgrimage networks, changing land ownership patterns, and a range of religious ideas and practices. These stages illuminate the medieval pedigree of Ryōbu Shintō (kami ritual worship based loosely on esoteric Buddhism’s Two Mandalas), a major precursor to modern Shinto.

In analyzing the key mechanisms for “assembling” medieval forms of kami worship, Andreeva challenges the twentieth-century master narrative of Shinto as an unbroken, monolithic tradition. By studying how and why groups of religious practitioners affiliated with different cultic sites and religious institutions responded to esoteric Buddhism’s teachings, this book demonstrates that kami worship in medieval Japan was a result of complex negotiations.

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Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan
During the late twelfth to fourteenth centuries, several precursors of what is now commonly known as Shinto came together for the first time. By focusing on Mt. Miwa in present-day Nara Prefecture and examining the worship of indigenous deities (kami) that emerged in its proximity, this book serves as a case study of the key stages of “assemblage” through which this formative process took shape. Previously unknown rituals, texts, and icons featuring kami, all of which were invented in medieval Japan under the strong influence of esoteric Buddhism, are evaluated using evidence from local and translocal ritual and pilgrimage networks, changing land ownership patterns, and a range of religious ideas and practices. These stages illuminate the medieval pedigree of Ryōbu Shintō (kami ritual worship based loosely on esoteric Buddhism’s Two Mandalas), a major precursor to modern Shinto.

In analyzing the key mechanisms for “assembling” medieval forms of kami worship, Andreeva challenges the twentieth-century master narrative of Shinto as an unbroken, monolithic tradition. By studying how and why groups of religious practitioners affiliated with different cultic sites and religious institutions responded to esoteric Buddhism’s teachings, this book demonstrates that kami worship in medieval Japan was a result of complex negotiations.

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Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan

Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan

by Anna Andreeva
Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan

Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan

by Anna Andreeva

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Overview

During the late twelfth to fourteenth centuries, several precursors of what is now commonly known as Shinto came together for the first time. By focusing on Mt. Miwa in present-day Nara Prefecture and examining the worship of indigenous deities (kami) that emerged in its proximity, this book serves as a case study of the key stages of “assemblage” through which this formative process took shape. Previously unknown rituals, texts, and icons featuring kami, all of which were invented in medieval Japan under the strong influence of esoteric Buddhism, are evaluated using evidence from local and translocal ritual and pilgrimage networks, changing land ownership patterns, and a range of religious ideas and practices. These stages illuminate the medieval pedigree of Ryōbu Shintō (kami ritual worship based loosely on esoteric Buddhism’s Two Mandalas), a major precursor to modern Shinto.

In analyzing the key mechanisms for “assembling” medieval forms of kami worship, Andreeva challenges the twentieth-century master narrative of Shinto as an unbroken, monolithic tradition. By studying how and why groups of religious practitioners affiliated with different cultic sites and religious institutions responded to esoteric Buddhism’s teachings, this book demonstrates that kami worship in medieval Japan was a result of complex negotiations.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674970571
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 04/10/2017
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs , #396
Pages: 420
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Anna Andreeva is a Research Fellow at the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context,” Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Plates, and Figures ix

Acknowledgments xi

Note to the Reader xvii

Abbreviations xix

Introduction 1

Part I Mt. Miwa and the Yamato Landscape

1 The Ancient Cultic Site 39

2 Temple Networks in Southern Yamato 72

Part II Holy Men and Buddhist Monks at Miwa

3 Miwa Bessho 105

4 Saidaiji 141

5 From Ise to Miwa and Beyond 175

Part III Assembling Shinto

6 Enlightenment for the "Country Bumpkins" 217

7 Miwa-ryu Shinto 256

Conclusion 303

Chinese and Japanese Names and Terms 311

Bibliography 327

Index 367

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