Schedule of Readings
I. Introduction: The Religious Landscape of Contemporary Japan
Monday, September 10
Introduction and overview of the course; course goals
and requirements
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Wednesday,
September 12 The new, new-new, and not-so-new in Japanese religionsReadings: Jan Swyngedouw,
"Religion in Contemporary Japanese Society" from Religion and Society in Modern Japan. Film: The Yamaguchi Story: Buddhism in Contemporary Japan |
Monday, September 17Paradigms
of Japanese religiosity Readings: Religion in Contemporary Japan, Chs. 1-2; Coursepack: Graham Parkes, "Ways of Japanese Thinking."
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Wednesday,
September 19
Shinto
and Buddhism in context
Readings: Religion in Contemporary Japan, Chs. 3-4; Kuroda Toshio, "Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion” from Religion and Society in Modern Japan.
Links:
II. Buddhist Responses to the Challenge of Modernity
Monday, September 24
Religion
in Meiji Japan; religion and nationalism; State Shinto.
Readings: “Meiji Constitution” and "Imperial Rescript on Education" from Religion and Society in Modern Japan;
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Coursepack:
Links:
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Wednesday,
September 26
The
encounter with the West and the construction of religious culture
Readings (Coursepack):
Jackie Stone “Buddhism During the War Years;”
D. T. Suzuki, “The Role of Nature in Zen Buddhism;”
Robert Sharf, “The Zen of Japanese Nationalism.”
Monday,
October 1
The
construction of religious culture and the dubiously beautiful Japan
Readings (Coursepack):
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Links:
Kawabata: biography and other information
Jamie's notes on the readings
Wednesday,
October 3
Nationalism
and internationalism in Japanese religious sentiment
Readings:
Shimazono Susumu, "The Expansion of Japan's New Religions into Foreign Cultures" in Religion and Society in Modern Japan;
Coursepack:
Christina Naylor, “Nichiren, Imperialism, and the Peace Movement;"
Catherine Cornille, "Nationalism in the Japanese New Religions."
Video: Sōka Gakkai in America
Links:
Soka Gakkai International-USA Home Page
"Soka Gakkai: The Next Ten Years" by Richard Seager
Institute for Research in Human Happiness (Kofuku no Kagaku) Home Page
Jamie's notes on the readings
Wednesday,
October 10
Fracture
and Renewal: Nichiren Shōshū, Kōmeitō, and the Sōka
Gakkai
Readings:
“Sōka Gakkai and the Slippery Slope from Militancy to Accommodation” from Religion and Society in Modern Japan;
Coursepack:
Soka Gakkai International-USA (Joanne)
Nichiren Buddhist site from San Jose (Joanne)
Revisiting Nichiren: articles from the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (Joanne)
Monday,
October 15
Institutional
Reform: Shin Buddhism and the Brotherhood of Faith Movement
Readings (Coursepack):
Gerald Cooke, “The Struggle for Reform in Ōtani Shin Buddhism;”
Jan Van Bragt, “Sasaki Shoten: Toward a Postmodern Shinshu Theology.”
The Works of Shinran (Olivia)
Wednesday,
October 17
Zen
Nuns in the Modern Age
Readings: “Sōtō Zen Nuns in
Modern Japan” from Religion and Society
in Modern Japan; Coursepack: Uchino
Kumiko, "The Status Elevation Process of Sōtō Sect Nuns in Modern
Japan."
Links
General info on Buddhist nuns
Bibliography on women and Buddhism w/ a substantial section on Japan
Images of the Aichi Senmon Niso-do (the convent discussed in your reading).
NEW SECTION: Pilgrimage in Japan
by Olivia Nix and Adrienne Thompson
Saturday, October 20
Field trip to the Northampton Shin Sangha. We will leave from the parking lot next to the CDO at 7:00 sharp, so please gather around 6:45 pm. Here are some readings and links:
Taitetsu Unno, "The Pure Land in the New World;"
Taitetsu Unno, "Shin Buddhism in the West: The Question of Authenticity."
Links:
The Tannisho, A Shin Buddhist Classic translated by Prof. Taitetsu Unno
Monday,
October 22
Postmodern
Zen? Zen is not Buddhism? Buddhist Criticism of the Buddhist Tradition
Readings (Coursepack): Akizuki Ryomin, New Mahayana: Buddhism for a Postmodern World; Matsumoto Shirō, "The Meaning of Zen;" Matsumoto Shiro, "Buddhism and the Kami;" Matsumoto Shirō, "The Lotus Sutra and Japanese Culture." (go to the last page of this file to find the reading)
Links:
Zen Resources (Olivia)
Article
Review by Olivia: Fundamental Zen: An Interview with Joshu Sasaki Roshi"
The Common Ground for Buddhism and Christianity: a Basis for World Peace by Akizuki Ryomin (JBH)
Wednesday,
October 24
Guest Speaker: Issho Fujita, Chief priest of
Valley Zendo: “Zen in
Contemporary Japan.”
Valley Zendo in Charlemont, MA (JBH)
Links:
Zen Documents and Writings (Joanne)
Links not directly related but interesting nonetheless:
The Secularization of Japanese Buddhism: The Priest as Profane Practitioner of the Sacred by Rev. Yoshiharu Tomatsu (Joanne)
Journal of Buddhist Ethics: this site is beautifully designed. Click Scholarly issues and go to Buddha Mind - Rainbow Body ...on this page you can access student project pages. This might be helpful to us in writing our own reviews. (Joanne)
Mahayana Buddhism versus Materialism (and everything else)-- Olivia
NEW SECTION:
JAPANESE PSYCHOTHERAPY: Health and Healing Rooted in Japanese Buddhism
by Joanne Lucia and Morgan Bernal
IV. Japanese Religion and
World War II
Monday,
October 29
Zen
and the war
Readings (Coursepack): “Religion as Ideology: the Kokutai no hongi;” Christopher Ives, "Ethical Pitfalls in Imperial Zen and Nishida Philosophy;" Hirata Seikō, "Zen Buddhist Attitudes to War."
Links:
Review of Zen at War by Brian A. Victoria. (Joanne)
Debate
on Zen at War including replies by Victoria and comments on Kodo
Sawaki , ineage founder of the Valley Zendo (Laura & Olivia)
Wednesday,
October 31
The
war and its aftermath: religion and the state
Readings: “Memorandum on State
Shinto,” “Directive for the Disestablishment of State Shinto,” “Emperor's
Imperial Rescript Denying his Divinity,” and “Constitution of Japan, Articles
20 and 89 from Religion and Society in
Modern Japan.
Shinto
links: http://www.ox.compsoc.net/~gemini/simons/historyweb/shinto.html :
(Laura):
Emperor and Shinto: http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/shinto/state.html
(Laura):
Separation of Religion and Politics in the Japanese Constitution (Joanne)
Separation of Church and State: (Jamie)
Start with a Quiz: http://www.berkshire.net/~ifas/fw/9509/quiz.html
The Constitutional Principle: Separation of Church and State: http://members.tripod.com/~candst/
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE HOME PAGE: http://members.tripod.com/~candst/tnppage/tnpidx.htm
Primary
source documents on church and state: http://www.baylor.edu/Church_State/Church-tate_Resources_Onl.html
NEW SECTION: HALLOWEEN or O-BON
O-BON, the Japanese Festival of the Spirits
A Japanese Virtual Graveyard
More on O-bon
Monday,
November 5
Religious
rites and remembering the war dead: Hiroshima
Readings (Coursepack): James Foard,
"The Universal and the Particular in the Rites of Hiroshima."
Film: Hellfire
On Japanese Funerals (Joanne)
Japanese Buddhist Funeral Customs (Joanne)
Ground Breaking Ceremony for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission Permanent Laboratory-Clinic (Joanne)
Tour around the Hiroshima Peace Park (the clickable map doesn't work, but the links below do) (Joanne)
Peace Park, Atomic Bomb Dome (Joanne)
This is the museum site. It can also be viewed/read in Japanese! All of the war
panels are here and you can enlarge them. The quality is very good! http://www.aya.or.jp/%7Emarukimsn/indexE.htm
(Morgan)
Another
site with much more color photos and commentary on each: http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Atomic/atomic.htm
(Morgan)
Wednesday,
November 7
Religious
rites and remembering the war dead: Yasukuni
Readings: K. Peter Takayama, “The Revitalization of Japanese Civil Religion”
and Klaus Antoni, “Yasukuni Jinja and Folk Religion,” from Religion and Society in Modern Japan; Coursepack: Richard Gardner, “Nationalistic Shinto: A Child’s Guide
to Yasukuni Shrine.” “Japanese Shintoism: The Implicit Resurgence of National
Religion,” by the National Council of Churches
Film: Remembering by John Nelson
Re-emergence of Japanese nationalism: various sites (Joanne)
The official yasukuni site (Adrienne)
Some more good pics &
info (Adrienne)
One person's trip to the
shrine (Adrienne)
Op-ed piece on Koizumi's trip to the Yasukani shrine
(Olivia)
Monday,
November 12
The
Kyoto School
Readings (Coursepack): James Heisig, “The Religious Philosophy of the Kyoto School;” Nishitani Keiji, “The I-Thou Relation in Zen Buddhism."
http://home.debitel.net/user/RMittelstaedt/Media/jikaku-e.htm-- Connotations of Self-consciousness in the Japanese word jikaku (Joanne)
http://www.xrefer.com./entry/552951 -- Nishida/Nishitani - absolute nothingness (Joanne)
Wednesday,
November 14
Ascetic
Buddhism
Readings: Religion in Contemporary Japan, Chs. 5-6;
Coursepack: John Stevens, Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei.
Film:
Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei
http://www.pref.nara.jp/nara/kaido/eg/syugen/main_sy.htm--
Traveling down the Path of The Mountain Ascetics 
(Joanne)
http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.1287.hmtl-- Koya-San, Japan's Holy Mountain (Joanne)
http://millennium-tv.com/monks.html-- I suspect this link is referring to the movie we will watch in class. Some good pictures (Olivia)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/funny_old_game/newsid_1610000/1610431.stm Even the BBC gets in on the marathon monks! (Olivia)
http://www.tendai-lotus.org/visit/visit.htm--tours of mt. hiei (Adrienne)
http://www.geocities.com/selinunte.geo/japan/finder1.html--pictures of fudo and kannon (& other gods)
sculptures (Adrienne)
Monday,
November 26
What's
new about new religious movements?
Readings: Mark R. Mullins, “Christianity as a New Religion” from Religion and Society in Modern Japan; Coursepack: Jamie Hubbard, “New
Religions, Embarrassing Superstition, and the Academic Study of Religion.”
Dichotomy of old new-religion (old doctrine / new interpretation) Academic research and concept of new religion: www.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cpjr/newreligions/inoue.html (Joanne)
Integrity and Suspicion in NRM Research-- an interesting presentation from the Christian anti-cult point of view: http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/c59.html (Joanne)
A variety of info on Shinnyo-en, and the home page has lots of information on NRMs generally; http://hss.fullerton.edu/comparative/shin-en.files.htm (Morgan)
Includes a video of Shinnyo-en ceremony in Hawaii: http://starbulletin.com/2001/05/29/news/story8.html (Morgan)
This link will lead you to an online version of a major paper written on new religions for the
series, "Contemporary Papers on Japanese Religion." Several sects are discussed by different
authors. http://www.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cpjr/newreligions/index.html
(Olivia)
Excellent
background article w/ section on Japan: New
Religions from the Encyclopedia of Religion.
Wednesday,
November 28
Religious
Technology
Readings: Religion in Contemporary Japan, Chs. 7-8; “Magic and Morality in Modern Japanese Exorcistic Technologies” from Religion and Society in Modern Japan.
http://jin.jcic.or.jp/nipponia/nipponia13/spot01.html: Good Luck Charms ~ Everybody Wants to be Happy-- Images of Charms Common in Japan (Joanne)
http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~geisha/japan_22.htm : O-Mamori Good Luck Charm (Joanne)
Here are some of the myriad online images of the seven gods of good fortune. As Ian Reader mentions in chapter 7, these deities are certainly popular in contemporary Japan, judging by the numerous visual interpretations of them.
http://jin.jcic.or.jp/kidsweb/calendar/january/shichifukujin.html This one's cute! (Olivia)
And a different version ... http://perso.worldonline.fr/japan/Th-Index/E-Th-Shichifukujin.htm (Olivia)
Mahikari information site (check out the faq's): http://home.earthlink.net/~delogan/ (Adrienne)
Mahikari
Exposed (anti-mahikari site - mind control!): http://members.ozemail.com.au/~skyaxe/index.html
(Adrienne)
Monday,
December 3
Buddhism
and the family
Readings: Ian Reader, "Buddhism as a Religion of the Family" and Fleur
Woss, “Pokkuri-Temples and Aging”
from Religion and Society in Modern Japan.
Video: A Good Tokyo Wife
http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~keuper/sbcc/supp_sheets/japan_nursing.htm Japan's Aging Population Creates a 'Nursing Hell' for Many Women (Joanne)
http://www.aasianst.org/absts/1998abst/japan/j192.htm Age, Gender, and Family in Japanese Religious Preactices (Joanne)
http://www.jinjapan.org/insight/html/focus04/caring_for_the_sick/caring_for_the_sick.html (Olivia)
http://kenko.human.waseda.ac.jp/rihito/licht_adv8.html An essay about Dying in Japanese society and the legal aspects of euthanasia, Living Wills/DNR orders and the Death With Dignity Society. Its kinda interesting, in that morbid ethics sort of way. (Laura)
This is the Appendix of the article and has a draft of the proposed
bill:
http://kenko.human.waseda.ac.jp/rihito/licht_apref8.html#1st
(Laura)
Wednesday,
December 5
Ritual
in Contemporary Japanese Religion 
Readings: David C. Lewis, “Religious
Rites in a Japanese Factory” and Hoshino Eiki and Takeda Dōshō,
"Mizuko Kuyō and Abortion
in Contemporary Japan” from Religion and
Society in Modern Japan; Coursepack:
Tanabe, George, “Review
of William R. LaFleur, Liquid Life:
Abortion and Buddhism in Japan” and responses.
http://bama.ua.edu/~emartin/publications/mkarticl.htm:An article on Mizuko Kuyo by Dr. Elaine Martin. She interviews practioners of the ritual,and gives Mizuko Kuyo's background and some of her observations. (Laura)
http://www.prochoiceconnection.com/psc05.html: A Pro-Choise site that gives an overview of Mizuko Kuyo and has some images of the jizo.(Laura)
http://wg524.human.waseda.ac.jp/project1999/Theme3/Default.html : This site is a part of Waseda University. It's part of a Project done for a Religion class. There are three articles on Religion and Abortion in Japan, Japanese Law and Abortion ad Contraception in Japan. (Laura)
http://ethics.acusd.edu/abortion.html:
Ethics Updates is a site that has access to just about everything you might want to know
about abortion. It
has a mailing list, discussion forum and a search engine;
has pretty interesting infomation in general for further reading. (Laura)
http://jbe.la.psu.edu/5/Lafleur.htm Abortion,Ambiguity, and Exorcism-- A review essay based on Helen Hardacre's Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan by William LaFleur (author of the review response in today's readings). (Joanne)
http://sass.home.texas.net/research/japanabort.htm Mizuko Kuyo: Another Marketing Campaign (Joanne)
From the point of view of a Catholic priest living in Japan: http://www.pregnantpause.org/aborted/japview.htm (Olivia)
Apologizing to the Babies (Olivia)
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NEW SECTION: Yoga in Japan by Morgan Bernal |
Shin-shin toitsu: Mind-Body Unity |
NEW SECTION: New Religious Movements and Cults by Laura Simpson
Monday,
December 10
Aum
Shinrikyō: religion and the state revisited
Readings (Coursepack): Robert Kisala, “The AUM Spiritual Truth Church in Japan;” Shainberg and Lifton, “From Mysticism to Murder;” “The Religious Situation of the `Aum Generation’: Two NCC Seminars;” Robert Kisala, "Aum Alone in Japan: Religious Responses to the 'Aum Affair;".
How the Millennium Comes Violently (Joanne)
The Anti-Semitism of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo: A Dangerous Revival (Joanne)
Weapons of Mass Destruction: A Case Study on the Aum Shinrikyo (US government) (Joanne)
A thorough academic study of Aum Shinrikyo's history, development, beliefs, as well as links. (Olivia)
A detailed description of the events of the subway attack, from the perspective of the Centers for Disease Control: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no4/olson.htm (Olivia)
PR dept. of Aleph--the new & improved aum group: (Adrienne)
"God of poison" news updates on Aum to June 2000 (Adrienne)
Do
the Japanese police act like a cult? Amnesty
International on "cruel punishment."
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NEW SECTION:
by Joanne Lucia
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VII. Sardines, Sparrows,
Mini-skirts, and Zen Wednesday,
December 12 Dada
in Zen Skirts? A Modern Zen Poet Readings (Coursepack): Poetry of Takahashi Shinkichi |
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Links:
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