The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan

by Carmen Blacker

Overview

This classic work describes shamanic figures surviving in Japan today, their initiatory dreams, ascetic practices, the supernatural beings with whom they communicate, and the geography of the other world in myth and legend.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135318727
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/02/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Carmen Blacker

Table of Contents

1. The Bridge  2. The Sacred Beings  3. Witch Animals  4. The Other World  5. Ascesis  6. The Ancient Sibyl  7. The Living Goddess  8. The Blind Medium  9. The Ascetic’s Initiation  10. The Visionary Journey  11. The Symbolic Journey 12. The Ascetic’s Power  13. Village Oracles  14. Mountain Oracles  15. Exorcism  16. Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

'One of the absolute 'must read' books on Japanese religious practice. It is also essential reading for those interested in asceticism, shamanism and spirit possession in general.' - Ian Reader, Culture and Religion

'one suspects that the time may be not far off when it will come to be recognized as the best book on East Asian religion as a whole to emerge from Britain in the twentieth century.' - T. H. Barrett, Bulletin of SOAS

From the Publisher