Shinto is an ancient faith of forests and snow-capped mountains. It sees the divine in rocks and streams, communing with spirit worlds through bamboo twigs and the evergreen sakaki tree. Yet it is also the manicured suburban garden and the blades of grass between cracks in city paving stones. Structured around ritual cleansing, Shinto contains no concept of sin. It reveres ancestors, but thinks little about the afterlife, asking us to live in, and improve, the present. Central to Shinto is Kannagara: intuitive acceptance of the divine power contained in all living things. Dai Shizen (Great Nature) is the life force with which we ally ourselves through spiritual practice and living simply. This is not asceticism, but an affirmation of all aspects of life. Musubi (organic growth) provides a model for reconciling ancient intuition with modern science, modern society with primal human needs. Shinto is an unbroken indigenous path that now reaches beyond its native Japan. It has special relevance to us a

Most books about Japan will tell you how to use chopsticks and say "konnichiwa!" Few honestly tackle the existential angst of living in a radically foreign culture. The author, a three-year resident and researcher of Japan, tackles the thousand tiny uncertainties of living abroad. -- Adapted from back cover

Following ancient footsteps, today's pilgrims travel, not as tourists, but as spiritual seekers with a sense that their destination has sacred meaning far beyond its literal surroundings. Pilgrimage traces twenty great, age-old journeys to sites all over the world. It evokes the aspirations of pilgrims past and present and describes the beauty and strangeness of the roads they travel. Some journeys are arduous---the long trek to Mount Khailasa in Tibet, for instance, or the one to Mecca every devout Muslim dreams of making. Others are poignant, such as the one the dwindling number of Native American Zuni people make to Corn Mountain, New Mexico, in the tradition of their once flourishing civilization. But all such journeys---whether to Jewish/Muslim/Christian Jerusalem or to Hindu Pandharpur; whether to the Black Madonna in Czestochowa, Poland, or to the Buddhist shrines in Kyoto, Japan; whether to the healing waters of Lourdes, France, or to the Mormon Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah--are enacted in dramatic affirmation to achieve transformation. Illustrated in full color, this book is a stunning celebration of those journeys.

Shinto is finally receiving the attention it deserves as a fundamental component of Japanese culture. Nevertheless, it remains a remarkably complex and elusive phenomenon to which Western categories of religion do not readily apply. A knowledge of Shinto can only proceed from a basic understanding of Japanese shrines and civilization, for it is closely intermingled with the Japanese way of life and continues to be a vital natural religion. This book is a convenient guide to Shinto thought. As a reference work, the volume does not offer a detailed critical study of all aspects of Shinto. Instead, it overviews the essential teachings of Shinto and provides the necessary cultural and historical context for understanding Shinto as a dynamic force in Japanese civilization. The book begins with an historical overview of Shinto, followed by a discussion of Japanese myths. The volume then discusses the role of shrines, which are central to Shinto rituals. Other portions of the book discuss the various Shinto sects and the evolution of Shinto from the Heian period to the present. Because Japanese terms are central to Shinto, the work includes a glossary.

"An excellently rounded introduction by an eminent Shinto scholar."--Library Journal Shinto, the indigenous faith of the Japanese people, continues to fascinate and mystify both the casual visitor to Japan and the long-time resident. Relatively unknown among the religions of the world, Shinto: The Kami Way provides an enlightening window into this Japanese faith. In its general aspects, Shinto is more than a religious faith. It is an amalgam of attitudes, ideas, and ways of doing things that through two millennia and more have become an integral part of the way of the Japanese people. Shinto is both a personal faith in the kami--objects of worship in Shinto and an honorific for noble, sacred spirits--and a communal way of life according to the mind of the kami. This introduction unveils Shinto's spiritual characteristics and discusses the architecture and function of Shinto shrines. Further examination of Shinto's lively festivals, worship, music, and sacred regalia illustrates Shinto's influence on all levels of Japanese life. Fifteen photographs, numerous drawings and Dr. Ono's text introduce the reader to two millennia of indigenous Japanese belief in the kami and in communal life. Chapters include: The Kami Way Shrines Worship and Festivals Political and Social Characteristics Some Spiritual Characteristics

The Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia provides a contemporary and comprehensive overview of religion in contemporary Asia. Compiled and introduced by Bryan S. Turner and Oscar Salemink, the Handbook contains specially written chapters by experts in their respective fields. The wide-ranging introduction discusses issues surrounding Orientalism and the historical development of the discipline of Religious Studies. It conveys how there have been many centuries of interaction between different religious traditions in Asia and discusses the problem of world religions and the range of concepts, such as high and low traditions, folk and formal religions, popular and orthodox developments. Individual chapters are presented in the following five sections: Asian Origins: religious formations Missions, States and Religious Competition Reform Movements and Modernity Popular Religions Religion and Globalization: social dimensions Striking a balance between offering basic information about religious cultures in Asia and addressing the complexity of employing a western terminology in societies with radically different traditions, this advanced level reference work will be essential reading for students, researchers and scholars of Asian Religions, Sociology, Anthropology, Asian Studies and Religious Studies.

Drawing on a term used originally in social anthropology, the contributors to this volume take a different world religion as the starting point of their analysis of various themes, seeking to explore and illuminate the parallels and differences throughout. It is only in so doing that we can gain a real awareness of what it means to belong to any one religion. Rites of Passage is the new title in this series which addresses important issues of the day, and examines how each of the eight major religions approaches a particular theme. Constructed to be comparative, the books are both authoritative and accessible.