Matsuri and Religion

Elisabetta Porcu, Ph.D. (2006), is Associate Professor of Asian Religions at the University of Cape Town. She is the author of Pure Land Buddhism in Modern Japanese Culture (Brill, 2008) and the founding editor of the Journal of Religion in Japan (Brill). Michael Dylan Foster, Ph.D. (2003; Stanford University), is Professor of Japanese and Chair of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Davis. His most recent monograph is The Book of Yōkai (UC Press, 2015). Contributors are: John Breen, Michael Dylan Foster, Andrea Giolai, Susanne Klien, Ogano Minoru, Elisabetta Porcu, Scott Schnell, Tsukahara Shinji, Yagi Tōru.

Preface

Notes on Contributors

List of Figures



1 Introduction

Matsuri and Religion in Japan

 Michael Dylan Foster (, , ) and Elisabetta Porcu (, , )






2 Displaying Mythological Characters

Changes in the Meanings of Decorations in the Sawara Grand Festival in Chiba, Japan

 Tsukahara Shinji 塚原伸治 (, , )Jude Pultz





3 Gion Matsuri in Kyoto

A Multilayered Religious Phenomenon

 Elisabetta Porcu (, , )





4 Sannō Matsuri

Fabricating Festivals in Modern Japan

 John Breen (, , )





5 Eloquent Plasticity

Vernacular Religion, Change, and Namahage

 Michael Dylan Foster (, , )





6 Kuma Matsuri

Bear Hunters as Intermediaries between Humans and Nature

 Scott Schnell (, , )





7 Fire, Prayer, and Purification

Early Winter Events and Folk Beliefs in Kyoto

 Yagi Tōru 八木透 (, , )





8 Encounters with the Past

Fractals and Atmospheres at Kasuga Wakamiya Onmatsuri

 Andrea Giolai (, , )





9 Demographic Change in Contemporary Rural Japan and Its Impact on Ritual Practices

 Susanne Klien (, , )





10 Photographic Essay: Secret Eroticism and Lived Religion

The Art of Matsuri Photography

 Michael Dylan Foster (, , ) and Ogano Minoru 小賀野実 (Photographer, Saitama City, Japan)





Index