Description: 1905. This work comprises an outline theory of the origin and earlier stages of the development of religion, prepared with special reference to the Shinto evidence. Contents: Materials for the Study of Shinto; General Features-Personification; General Features-Deification of Men; General Features-Functions of Gods, etc.; Myth; The Mythical Narrative; The Pantheon-Nature-Deities; The Pantheon-Man-Deities; The Priesthood; Worship; Morals, Law and Purity; Ceremonial; Magic, Divination, Inspiration; and Decay of Shinto. Modern Sects.
Description: A fascinating study of the rituals and beliefs surrounding ancestor worship and the development of linked households called dozoku in Japan, this volume is informed by Yanagita Kunio's controversial theory that the core of Japanese religious experience is the veneration of ancestors. Unlike many other theorists, Kunio argued that even generally worshipped gods like the god of the New Year and field and mountain gods were all originally ancestral spirits. His book is a comprehensive look at the origins and meaning of ancestor worship in modern Japan.
Description: A masterful study of Japan's most important religion, this volume presents a comprehensive history of Shinto thought. The author begins with a general overview of Shinto as an advanced naturalistic religion and then devotes separate in-depth chapters to the pure polytheistic manifestation of Shinto, to theanthropic tendencies in Shinto, and to Shinto as the national religion of Japan. The final chapter is a detailed outline of Shinto rites that includes information about the rites themselves, offerings at rites and ceremonies, the origin of Shinto shrines, the Shinto priesthood, external purity and the concept of sin, offerings as compensation and exorcism, and divination and spell, oath, and ordeal in Shintoism.
