Pure Land Buddhism in modern Japanese culture / by Elisabetta Porcu.

• Superior document: Numen book series, v. 121
• Author: Porcu, Elisabetta.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the history of religions ; 121.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (275 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Despite being one of the most influential forms of Japanese Buddhism, the Pure Land tradition, and notably its impact on the development of Japanese cultural history, has often been overlooked outside Japan. Taking into account recent scholarship on orientalism and occidentalism, this book, written from the perspective of the Study of Religions, provides an analysis of the impact that the Pure Land tradition, in particular Shin Buddhism, has exerted on mainstream forms of artistic expression (especially creative arts, literature and the tea ceremony) in modern and contemporary Japan.

Table of Contents

Creating images of Japanese Buddhism and culture -- Japanese Buddhism and culture at the World's Parliament of Religions -- Okakura Kakuzo's English writings and cultural nationalism -- Representations of Japan and Japanese Buddhism during World War II -- Suzuki Daisetsu and his legacy -- Suzuki Daisetsu in the Shin Buddhist context -- Shin Buddhism from the viewpoint of the Kyoto school -- Jodo Shinshu and literature -- Everyday life in a Jodo Shinshu temple: Niwa Fumio's the Buddha tree -- Jodo Shinshu in the narrative writing of Natsume Soseki -- A young poetess and Jodo Shinshu: Kaneko Misuzu -- Itsuki Hiroyuki: a best-selling writer and Jodo Shinshu -- Literary reflections on personal experiences within Jodo Shinshu -- Harold H. Stewart's By the old walls of Kyoto -- The theme of death from the perspective of Jodo Shinshu: Aoki Shinmon's Coffinman: the journal of a Buddhist mortician -- Pure Land Buddhism and creative arts -- Aesthetics and religion in Yanagi Muneyoshi -- Yanagi and cultural nationalism -- The woodblock artist Munakata Shiko and tariki -- Representations of the Pure Land in contemporary visual arts -- Recent trends in contemporary Japanese visual arts: Mori Mariko's Pure land -- Pure Land Buddhism and the tea ceremony -- Images of chanoyu -- Pure Land Buddhism in the tradition of chanoyu -- A connection between the Honganji-ha and chanoyu: the Yabunouchi school of tea -- Traditional culture in a Jodo Shinshu temple: chanoyu at an Otani-ha temple.