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Rearranging the Landscape of the Gods: The Politics of a Pilgrimage Site in Japan, 1573-1912
Contributor(s): Thal, Sarah (Author)

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ISBN: 0226794202     ISBN-13: 9780226794204
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
OUR PRICE: $103.95  

Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: February 2005
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Annotation: When people create new societies, economies, and nations--both now and in the past--they create gods, rituals, and miracles to support them. Even what seem to be some of the most timeless and sacred sites in the world have been shaped, reshaped, and reinterpreted by countless people to produce oases of peace and nature today.
Using miracle tales, votive plaques, diaries, and newspapers, Sarah Thal traces such changes at one of the most popular Japanese pilgrimage sites of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the shrine of Konpira on the island of Shikoku. This rich and fascinating history explores how people from all walks of life gave shape to the gods, shrines, and rituals so often attributed to ancient, indigenous Japan. Thal shows how worshippers and priests, rulers and entrepreneurs, repeatedly rebuilt and reinterpreted Konpira to reflect their needs and aspirations in a changing world--and how, in doing so, they helped shape the structures of the modern state, economy, and society in turn.
"Rearranging the Landscape of the Gods" will be welcomed by all scholars of Japanese history and by students of religion interested in the construction of modernity.

Click for more in this series: Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Shintoism
- History
Dewey: 299.561
LCCN: 2004009967
Series: Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Physical Information: 1.08" H x 6.54" W x 9.26" L (1.47 lbs) 344 pages
Features: Bibliography, Glossary, Illustrated, Index, Maps
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
When people create new societies, economies, and nations--both now and in the past--they create gods, rituals, and miracles to support them. Even what seem to be some of the most timeless and sacred sites in the world have been shaped, reshaped, and reinterpreted by countless people to produce oases of peace and nature today.

Using miracle tales, votive plaques, diaries, and newspapers, Sarah Thal traces such changes at one of the most popular Japanese pilgrimage sites of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the shrine of Konpira on the island of Shikoku. This rich and fascinating history explores how people from all walks of life gave shape to the gods, shrines, and rituals so often attributed to ancient, indigenous Japan. Thal shows how worshippers and priests, rulers and entrepreneurs, repeatedly rebuilt and reinterpreted Konpira to reflect their needs and aspirations in a changing world--and how, in doing so, they helped shape the structures of the modern state, economy, and society in turn.

Rearranging the Landscape of the Gods will be welcomed by all scholars of Japanese history and by students of religion interested in the construction of modernity.

 
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