Bibliographical Reports to the Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies from Shinto Scholars

This section will grow as we receive more reports.


 

REPORT #1: Bernhard Scheid (Vienna, Austria)

Selected works on Shinto in the German-speaking realm

I first mentioned Nelly Naumann, the grande dame of German Shinto studies, who nevertheless prefers the term "Japan's indigenous religion":
 
 

1988 Die einheimische Religion Japans, Teil I. Bis zum Ende der Heian-Zeit.
Leiden: Brill.
1994 Die einheimische Religion Japans, Teil 2. Synkretistische Lehren und religisse Entwicklungen von der Kamakura bis zum Beginn der Edo-Zeit.
Leiden: Brill.

There are also some articles available in English which show her basically anthropological, comparativistic approach:
 
 

1974 "Whale and Fish Cult in Japan: A Basic Feature of Ebisu Worship." In Asian Folklore Studies 33: 1-15.
1982 "Sakahagi: The 'Reverse Flying' of the Heavenly Piebald Horse." In Asian Folklore Studies 41: 7-38.

Also, Josef Kreiner, Bonn, has done some anthropological research on Shinto in connection with his studies of rural communities:
 
 

1969 Die Kultorganisation des japanischen Dorfes. Wilhelm Braumueller Universitaets-Verlagsbuchhandlung.

In recent years he has edited numerous books on Japanese society and culture, for instance:
 
 

1996 The Impact of Traditional Thought on Present-Day Japan. Muenchen: iudicium.

One of Naumann's students, Klaus Antoni, Universitaet Trier, has continues her approach in his famous monograph of sake:
 
 

1988 Miwa, der heilige Trank. Zur Geschichte und religioesen Bedeutung des alkoholischen Getraenkes (Sake) in Japan. Stuttgart: F. Steiner.

But eventually turned to Shinto in the context of modern ideology:
 
 

1991 Der himmlische Herrscher und sein Staat. Essays zur Stellung des Tennoim modernen Japan. Muenchen: iudicium.

Recently, he has edited a book which contains a number of relevant articles concerning the history of Shinto:
 
 

1996 Rituale und ihre Urheber. Invented Traditions in der japanischen Religionsgeschichte. Hamburg: Lit.

He is also writing the third volume of Naumann's Einheimische Religion which is to be published soon. Among his works in English there are:
 
 

1993 "Yasukuni-Jinja and Folk Religion." In Religion and Society in Modern Japan. Ed. by M. R. Mullins, e.a., Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, pp. 121-134.
1995 "The 'Separation of Gods and Buddhas' at Omiwa Jinja in Meiji Japan." In Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 22/1-2: 139-159.

The issue of "State Shinto" has been researched quite thoroughly by Ernst Lokowandt, Sophia University, Tokyo:
 
 

1978 Die rechtliche Entwicklung des Staats-Shinto in der ersten Haelfteder Meiji-Zeit (1868-1890). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1978.
1981 Zum Verhaeltnisvon Staat und Shinto im heutigen Japan: Eine Materialsammlung, ausgewaehlt, uebersetztund eingeleitet von Ernst Lokowandt. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (Studies in Oriental Religions, v. 6).

Among Buddhologists this issue has been raised by Peter Fischer:
 
 

1979 Buddhismus und Nationalismus im modernen Japan. Bochum: Brockmeyer.

I also mentioned a range of German experts of Japanese history and religion who dealt with Shinto before World War II, but turned away afterward. This is, of course, not to say that their early studies are without scientific value. Most prominent is perhaps Horst Hammitzsch who wrote a dissertation on:
 
 

1937 Yamato-hime no mikoto seiki. Bericht Ueberden Erdenwandel ihrer Hoheit der Prinzessin Yamato. Eine Quelle zur Fruehgeschichte der Shinto-Religion. (Translation and commentary. Doct. diss.) Leipzig.

and also dealt with Mito School:
 
 

1939 Die Mito-Schule und ihre programmatischen Schriften, Bairi Sensei Hiin, Kodokanki, Kodokangakusoku, Seiki no Uta in Uebersetzung: Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte der Tokugawa-Zeit. Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Natur- und Vslkerkunde Ostasiens (MOAG 31/B), 1939.

After the war he turned to literature, tea and Japanese culture in general. He is most famous as the editor of the Japan-Handbuch.

 Also, the Zen expert Heinrich Dumoulin started with a study on kokugaku:
 
 

1943 Kamo Mabuchi (1697-1769): Ein Beitrag zur japanischen Religions- und Geistesgeschichte. Tokyo: Sophia University (MN monographs 8).

Finally, I found a very fine investigation on Yoshida Shinto architecture by Dietrich Seckel who became known as an expert of Buddhist temples after the war:
 
 

1943 "Taigenkyu, das Heiligtum des Yuiitsu-Shinto. Eine Studie zur Symbolik und Geschichte der japanischen Architektur." In Monumenta Nipponica 6: 53-85.

Today, national ideology is of course not the only topic which is researched in connection with Shinto in the German-speaking realm. One might mention, for instance, Johannes Laube, Muenchen, who is an expert of Tenri-kyo:
 
 

1978 Oyagami: Die heutige Gottesvorstellung der Tenrikyo. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

or the theologian Thomas Immoos, Tokyo, who represents a more traditional concept of Shinto:
 
 

1990 Japan, archaische Moderne. Kindt Verlag.

Concerning myself, I am engaged in a research project on Yoshida Shinto at the Austrian Academy of Sciences which formally started in March 1997. The first results on one of the main texts of Yoshida Shinto are to be published in a forthcoming volume, Shinto in historical perspective, edited by John Breen and Mark Teeuwen:

Bernhard Scheid: "Reading the Yuiitsu shinto myobo yoshu: A modern exegesis of an esoteric Shinto text."

REPORT #2: Fabio Rambelli (Massachusetts, USA)

Italian Scholarly Work Relevant to Shinto

REPORT #3: Ian Reader (Scotland)

Josef. A. Kyburz, CNRS, Paris.

Main Publication:

Cultes et croyances au Japon: Kaida, une commune dans les montagnes du Japon central (1987, Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris).

REPORT #4: Leslie Williams (Utah, USA)
 

Amano Fumio. 1995. Okina sarugaku kenkyuu (Research on Okina and Sarugaku).  Oosaka: Izumi Shoin.

Blacker, Carmen. 1975. The Catalpa Bow: A Study of Shamanistic Practices in Japan.  London: Allen and Unwin.

Douglas, Mary. 1966. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London and New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books.

Guthrie, Stewart. 1988. A New Japanese Religion: Risshoo Koosei-kai in a Mountain Hamlet. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Michigan.

Smith, Robert. 1974. Ancestor Worship in Contemporary Japan. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

Turner, Victor:

1974. Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors. Ithaca, New York: Cornell
University Press.

1979. Process, Performance, and Pilgrimage. New Delhi: Concept Publishing.

1979. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. New York: Aldine de
Gruyter.
 

REPORT #5: John Nelson (University of Texas, Austin, USA)
 

United States Scholars on Shinto:
 

Karen Smyers, Department of Religion, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Scott Schnell, Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa
Rosemarie Bernard, Reischauer Center, Harvard
Ed Gilday, Department of Religion, Grinnell College, Iowa
Jane Marie Law, Department of Asian Studies, Cornell
Delmer Brown, (emeritus), Department of History, UC Berkeley
Inoue Nobutaka, Institute of Japanese Culture and Classics, Kokugakuin
   University, Tokyo
Yoshiya Abe, Institute of Japanese Culture and Classics, Kokugakuin University,
   Tokyo
Norman Havens, Institute of Japanese Culture and Classics, Kokugakuin
   University, Tokyo

REPORT#6: Alfonso J. Falero (Salamanca University, Spain)  


Traditionally, there has been some interest in Shinto from the side of Catholic theologians.  Professor Kitagawa pointed out in a speech at Kokugakuin University in 1983, that there must be early information on Shinto in the Jesuits archives, contained in letters and reports.  Mission archives require then a sort of research that is still to be done.  In our days, a few missionaries took part in intereligious dialogue, as is the case of A. MATAIS, professor at Sophia University and co-editor of Shukyo no Taiwa (1973), Sobunsha.  Besides this, unfortunately intereligious dialogue has not helped much in academic achievements up to the present.  References to Shinto are scattered in encyclopedias (some of them of religion), but even then contributors are not specialists.  From the side of anthropological research on festivals I only know the book-article "Yama matsuri to geino" (1984) written by M. RODRIGUEZ, and edited by MIYAKE Hitoshi (Hirakawa).  Thirdly, a group of lay women from the Teresian Institute have produced a few essays on Shinto, that I have collected and will be published in Spanish/English under the title Shinto, An Introduction next year as vol. 1 in a new collection on Japanese Culture handbooks.  To mention my own case, I was granted a Ph.D.. from Kokugakuin University, with a dissertation "A Comparative Study of the Problem of tsumi in the Shinto and Catholic Traditions" (in Japanese) from which I published the book-article "Tsumi rikai no kikaku kenkyu", in Asia no Shukyo to Seishin Bunka (1997), edited by Tamaru Noriyoshi et. al., Shinyosha.  Finally, another book-article, "Tsumi: A Comparative Approach to the Shinto View of Man" will be released in El Japon Contemporaneo, to be published within this year, by Salamanca University Editions.
 






The result is still very poor, but there is room for hope, especially if we consider the Academic Exchange Agreement to be signed between Kokugakuin University and Salamanca University on July 29, which will certainly produce a pool of future researchers.

REPORT#7: William Bodiford (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)

William Bodiford primarily works on medieval kami worship, but teaches also a course on Japanese that deals extensively with Meiji to post-war creation and disestablishment of state Shinto. He firmly believes that one cannot understand Japanese Buddhism without examining worship of local gods and that one cannot understand Japanese Shinto without examining Buddhist cosmological structures and ritual theories.

Recently, he published a review article on Mark Teeuwen's "Watarai Shinto: An intellectual history of the Outer Shrine in Ise".

  Last Updated August 26,1999.