My friends, I am looking for an introductory book on Shinto that covers basic history/development, beliefs, and practice.Please provide me with any recommendations you may have. Thank you.
>>25216835Shinto is a basic 'elevated folklore' pseudo-religion that's more a bunch of traditions relating to doing elaborate cultural rituals for the sake of superstition that conveniently looks super cool for tourists.
>>25217263great thanks for the explanation but im looking for a book on the topic
yes
>>25217789Tuttle or Kodansha are into that, unless you are after a more academic book.
>>25217826Shinto: the Kami Way, also by Ono.These are books about Shinto but you won't get too much out of them. It isn't a riveting religion. Everything had Kami, some rituals, and long sutralike readings you have to be an initiate to learn. Shinto monks when not at work drink and watch tv, just normal lives with wives and kids.If you dig it then good for you. Just don't expect some rich philosophy or in depth narratives.
>>25217826this was the first book I was looking at but every one of the reviews i read about it was complaining that is out dated, not in depth, and doesn't talk at all about the relation of shinto with imperial japan
>>25217899>doesn't talk at all about the relation of shinto with imperial japanI think you will need several books. Most books on Shinto won't touch heavily political topics such as shinbutsu bunri and haibutsu kishaku.
>>25217899>out dated, not in depth, and doesn't talk at all about the relation of shinto with imperial japanThat is every book on Shinto in EnglishLearn Japanese or move on
>>25217263So it‘s a rare example of an actual religion.
>>25216835Anime is worse than brain cancer.
>>25217263This, it seems to not be much more than an African tribal animism but gets a lot of attention cause thing: Japan.
>>25216835A dive into Shinto would be incomplete without reading the Tao Te Ching, qi gong, and especially the taoist bed chamber arts because those are all Chinese but translated into Japanese, then back into Chinese after modern China destroyed its entire old cultureYa know, the contemporaries and what precursed ir
>>25217939I'd prefer you had brain cancer to anime, but here we are.
>>25217885This gets worse when you look at how commodified Shintoism is in Japan, from the trinkets to the festival dishes to the clothing and shrines. Shintoism has been synthesized almost entirely with some kind of panpsychist materialism, and every single part of that religion has been milked for $$$.
>>25217263I wish the west had an equivalent that wasn't just under the umbrella of paganism which doesn't even make sense as something to call yourself and is cringe as hell in all its iterations
Shinto: A History by Helen Hardacre
>>25218394>I wish the west had an equivalent that wasn't just under the umbrella of paganismFolk Christianity seems close enough.
I ended up ordering this. Thread concluded.
>>25219196I think he means an alternative name for 'paganism'. But both religion and names for religions is a modernist concept and an inaccurate one at that.
>>25218390There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so
The Sacred Science of Ancient Japan: Lost Chronicles of the Age of the Gods by Avery Morrow
>>25219196Maybe yeah>>25219477No I don't mean an alternative name for paganism I just made an aside
>>25217263>>25217930People don't really believe in it the same way now but I've never understood why folk religions with local gods and based on "superstition" are viewed as less real to people like this >>25217957 than overly philosophized religions that are crafted and reworked over centuries to be more logo-centric.
>>25220213You need to understand that, despite my description, I don't remotely disrespect this. It's fucking cool how the Japanese have taken a set of almost vestigial practices and carried them on and continued them into an era of high tech, it just *feels right* that they should build these structures that give of the mythical vibe they do and continue to respect them and all the tradition they engender, when most other places would refuse to treat something so essentially primitive in such elaborate and dutiful ways. Refusing to discard things like this because "we know better now" is a significant part of the cultural charm of Japan and why it fascinates so many people.
>>25220213There's no metaphysical speculation to dampen the hit of pure belief in the supernatural, moreover they don't address the concerns of a literate modern, at least not directly, which does make them seem lesser.
>>25220385But the metaphysical speculation is largely always an addendum after the hit to pure belief occurs, at which point you're trying to come up with reasons to believe what you know cannot be beleived. It's like that line about once you're trying to be traditional, you've already abandoned tradition and cannot get back to it. The need for metaphysical 'explanation' and elaborate philosophizing is already a sign of lack of belief. Sure it's 'leser' from an intellectual standpoint, but purer form a 'religious' standpoint, is what I'm saying.>>25220278Fair, I apologize for imputing a disrepsectful outlook to your pov.
