Description
Book SynopsisThis book attempts to elucidate Japanese religious experiences by presenting an innovative interpretation of the oldest existing text of Japanese myth, the Kojiki. Iwasawa offers new insights into Japanese mythology regarding the relationship between the human and the divine.
Trade ReviewTomoko Iwasawa's fascinating and, in many ways, revolutionary study of the Kojiki … makes a convincing case for the fundamentality of tama within the overall structure of Japanese myth…. Fully conversant with Western philosophy and the leading experts in the analysis and criticism of classical Japanese texts, Tomoko Iwasawa's [book] should be considered required reading in Japanese studies, religious studies, and the comparative philosophy of religion. -- Alan M. Olson, Boston University
Unusually lucid and intelligent…. This thoroughly hermeneutic analysis looks to the thought of Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer and then goes beyond them. Her argument is startling in its originality, thorough in its documentation, and deeply persuasive. -- Michael Palencia-Roth, Trowbridge Scholar in Literary Studies, Emeritus professor of comparative and world literature, University of Illinois
Few scholars have yet approached the kind of exegesis that lwasawa accomplishes … Grounded in ancient Shinto texts and modern scholarship, this original and even courageous work critiques and advances Ricoeurian understanding of myth … and perhaps ultimately of the human condition. -- Carl Becker Ph.D., Litt., professor of comparative religions, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University
I heartily applaud Iwasawa for the boldness of her project. I especially agree with her call for more remythologizing in the scholarly study of Shinto myth, that narrative corpus that was mythologized by State Shinto and then has been so thoroughly demythologized in postwar scholarship. * Japan Review *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction PART I TAMA IN JAPANESE MYTH — HISTORICAL INVESTIGATIONS Chapter 1 In Pursuit of Tama in the Japanese Language: Motoori Norinaga’s Interpretation of Tama Chapter 2 In Search of the Salvation of Embodied Tama: Hirata Atsutane’s Interpretation of Tama Chapter 3 The Dialectic of Mythologizing, Demythologizing, and Remythologizing PART II TAMA IN JAPANESE MYTH — CONCRETE MANIFESTATIONS Part II Introduction Chapter 4 The Problem of Defilement: The Myth of Izanagi and Izanami Chapter 5 The Problem of Sin: The Myth of Amaterasu and Susanowo Conclusion Bibliography Index
