temples, burial, and the transformation of contemporary Japanese Buddhism /
First Statement of Responsibility
Mark Michael Rowe.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Chicago :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
University of Chicago Press,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2011.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
xv, 258 pages :
Other Physical Details
illustrations ;
Dimensions
24 cm.
SERIES
Series Title
Buddhism and modernity
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
The "death" of Japanese Buddhism -- Avoiding abandonment -- Challenging the status quo -- myōkōji -- Limitless connections -- tōchōji -- Scattering ashes -- Sectarian researchers and the funeral problem -- Appendix: Jōdo sect survey of funerary Buddhism (1994).
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Despite popular images of priests seeking enlightenment in snow-covered mountain temples, the central concern of Japanese Buddhism is death. For that reason, Japanese Buddhism's social and economic base has long been in mortuary services - a base now threatened by public debate over the status, treatment, and location of the dead. "Bonds of the Dead" explores the crisis brought on by this debate and investigates what changing burial forms reveal about the ways temple Buddhism is perceived and propagated in contemporary Japan. Mark Michael Rowe offers a crucial account of how religious, political, social, and economic forces in the twentieth century led to the emergence of new funerary practices in Japan and how, as a result, the care of the dead has become the most fundamental challenge to the continued existence of Japanese temple Buddhism.