Defining Shugendo

Fabio Rambelli

ISBN 10: 1350191582 / ISBN 13: 9781350191587

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, GB, 2022

About this Item

Winner of the 2022 Association for the Study of Japanese Mountain Religion Book Prize Defining Shugendo brings together leading international experts on Japanese mountain asceticism to discuss what has been an essential component of Japanese religions for more than a thousand years. Contributors explore how mountains have been abodes of deities, a resting place for the dead, sources of natural bounty and calamities, places of religious activities, and a vast repository of symbols. The book shows that many peoples have chosen them as sites for ascetic practices, claiming the potential to attain supernatural powers there. This book discusses the history of scholarship on Shugendo, the development process of mountain worship, and the religious and philosophical features of devotion at specific sacred mountains. Moreover, it reveals the rich material and visual culture associated with Shugendo, from statues and steles, to talismans and written oaths.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781350191587

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Defining Shugendo
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, GB
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350191582
• ISBN 13: 9781350191587
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 460 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Winner of the 2022 Association for the Study of Japanese Mountain Religion Book Prize

Defining Shugendo brings together leading international experts on Japanese mountain asceticism to discuss what has been an essential component of Japanese religions for more than a thousand years.

Contributors explore how mountains have been abodes of deities, a resting place for the dead, sources of natural bounty and calamities, places of religious activities, and a vast repository of symbols. The book shows that many peoples have chosen them as sites for ascetic practices, claiming the potential to attain supernatural powers there.

This book discusses the history of scholarship on Shugendo, the development process of mountain worship, and the religious and philosophical features of devotion at specific sacred mountains. Moreover, it reveals the rich material and visual culture associated with Shugendo, from statues and steles, to talismans and written oaths.

About the Authors

Andrea Castiglioni is Senior lecturer in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagoya City University, Japan.

Fabio Rambelli is Distinguished Professor of Japanese religions and holder of the International Shinto Foundation chair in Shinto Studies in the departments of Religious Studies and East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Carina Roth is a Teaching and Research Fellow at the University of Geneva, Switzerland.