The description for this book, Kurozumikyo and the New Religions of Japan, will be forthcoming.

The description for this book, Kurozumikyo and the New Religions of Japan, will be forthcoming.

Since the 1960s virtually every part of the world has seen the arrival and establishment of Japanese new religious movements, a process that has followed quickly on the heels of the most active period of Japanese economic expansion overseas. This book examines the nature and extent of this religious expansion outside Japan.

An excellent and very timely update on an area seeing many recent developments.

These stories about Kurozumi Munetada (1780-1850) show us a spirituality for everyday living. He was a Japanese priest, poet and healer who looked to the needs of all humankind. We see in them Shinto affirmation of life, for he was a healer of both spirit and body. He was a teacher, showing people of all walks of life the Confucian emphasis on sincerity as the principle of true life. The key to both sincerity and health is overcoming egoistic attachment, a basic teaching of the Buddhist side of Japanese culture. Making it all possible is devotion to Amaterasu the Kami of the sun, who entered his life in a moment of ecstatic unity and who may be realized in each moment of anyone's life as the source of happiness and vigor. His ability to show how that is so drew thousands to his side in his lifetime, sparking a movement that continues to this day in the Kurozumikyo Shinto denomination.

This volume provides a complete guide to the global impact and cultural significance of new religious movements.

Abortion has been practiced throughout Japanese history and, since its postwar legalization, has come to be widely accepted. Its legal status is not under attack. Contemporary religious groups do not mobilize against it, nor do political parties compose their platforms around the issue. Yet in the 1970s religious entrepreneurs across all doctrinal boundaries mounted a surprisingly successful tabloid campaign to popularize a religious ritual for aborted fetuses called mizuko kuyo. Using images derived from fetal photography, they published frightening accounts of fetal wrath and spiritual attacks, prompting many women to seek ritual atonement for abortions performed even decades earlier.

“This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. This book examines the trajectory and development of the Japanese religious movement Agonshu and its charismatic founder Kiriyama Seiyu. Based on field research spanning 30 years, it examines Agonshu from when it first captured attention in the 1980s with its spectacular rituals and use of media technologies, through its period of stagnation to its response to the death of its founder in 2016. The authors discuss the significance of charismatic leadership, the 'democratisation' of practice and the demands made by movements such as Agonshu on members, while examining how the movement became increasingly focused on revisionist nationalism and issues of Japanese identity. In examining the dilemma that religions commonly face on the deaths of charismatic founders, Erica Baffelli and Ian Reader look at Agonshu's response to Kiriyama's death, looking at how and why it has transformed a human founder into a figure of worship. By examining Agonshu in the wider context, the authors critically examine the concept of 'new religions'. They draw attention to the importance of understanding the trajectories of 'new' religions and how they can become 'old' even within their first generation.

The description for this book, Kurozumikyo and the New Religions of Japan, will be forthcoming.

Presenting a study of politics at grassroots level among young Japanese, this book examines the alliance between the religious movement Soka Gakkai (the 'Value-creation Society') and Komeito (the 'Clean Government Party'), which shared power with the Liberal Democratic Party from 1999 to 2009. Drawing on primary research carried out among Komeito supporters, the book focuses on the lives of supporters and voters in order to better understand the processes of democracy. It goes on to discuss what the political behaviour of young Komeito supporters tell us about the role of religious organizations, such as Soka Gakkai, in Japanese politics. Unlike most other books on politics in Japan which tend to concentrate on political elites, this book provides extremely valuable insights into political culture at the grassroots level.