Women in Japanese Religions

Scholars have widely acknowledged thepersistent ambivalence with which the Japanese religious traditions treatwomen. Much existing scholarship depicts Japan’s religious traditions as meremeans of oppression. But this view raises a question: How have ambivalent andeven misogynistic religious discourses on gender still come to inspire devotionand emulation among women?

In Women in Japanese Religions, Barbara R. Ambrosexamines the roles that women have played in the religions of Japan. An importantcorrective to more common male-centered narratives of Japanese religioushistory, this text presents a synthetic long view of Japanese religions from adistinct angle that has typically been discounted in standard survey accountsof Japanese religions.

Drawing on a diverse collection ofwritings by and about women, Ambros argues that ambivalent religious discoursesin Japan have not simply subordinated women but also given them religiousresources to pursue their own interests and agendas. Comprising nine chaptersorganized chronologically, the book begins with the archeological evidence offertility cults and the early shamanic ruler Himiko in prehistoric Japan andends with an examination of the influence of feminism and demographic changeson religious practices during the “lost decades” of the post-1990 era. Byviewing Japanese religious history through the eyes of women,Women in Japanese Religions presents anew narrative that offers strikingly different vistas of Japan’s pluralistictraditions than the received accounts that foreground male religious figuresand male-dominated institutions.