By Dr. George M. Williams
California State University, Chico
Tsubaki America board member
As I was sitting at my computer outlining this article on studying Shinto, an e-mail arrived from Prof. John Nelson of the University of Texas, Austin, with a simple survey:
He was seeking to find institutions where Shinto is studied more than one week in any of the semester courses. With so few universities and colleges offering even a section on Shinto in their general survey course on World Religions or on Asian Religions, I will focus on studying Shinto with relatively few resources.
Shrine Shinto is but a portion of a more complex religious expression called Shinto. In its religious expression it is more centered in the actional area of religious and human experience.
This means that Shrine Shinto is expressed more in physical and moral action &emdash; doing, participating in ceremonies and festivals &emdash; than in philosophizing about religion or professing belief in creeds or dogmas. It does (or acts) and wants to avoid long discussions or fixed expressions of truth. Truths are found by acting humanly in community.
So an adequate set of resources about this example of actional religion has been slow in evolving. There is no standard list of the ten "must read" books on Shinto. Seeing and understanding Shrine Shinto's acts of religious practice are far more valuable than knowing all the term, concepts, and history.
I will weave together a study of the resources for students at my university as an example of what is available out there now. This list is growing rapidly.
If one could only read two books on Shinto, I would recommend Rev. Yukitaka Yamamoto's Kami no Michi, a unique biographical presentation of Shinto, and Prof. John Nelson's A year in the life of a Shinto shrine. Rev. Yamamoto's book is available through Tsubaki America. (There are also videos available including on one Misogi.)
But let me turn to an example of the "average" library resources on Shinto of a relatively small university (14,000 students) with no emphasis on Japan or Japanese religions. I will list the non-book and book resources (which will serve as a beginning bibliography for Shinto Studies).
Here is a list of resources in the Chico State University's main library, Merniam Library. (The Department of Religious Studies has an independent video collection which has several more holdings on Shinto.)
VIDEO/AUDIO
Harich-Schneider, Eta.
Japan (V); Shinto music
Barenreiter Musicaphon 1960
M1812H272 (audio cassette)
Hirai, Naofusa
Modern Shinto 1966
BL2220 H562 (audio cassette)
Kanda, Rev. Shigeo
Shinto Multimedia Dictionary
America Academy of Religion
Japan Society Films 1970:
Shinto &emdash; nature, gods, and man in Japan
BL2220 S553 [20049] (16 mm)
Tokugawa, Muneyoshi
The Divine renewal of Ise Shine, the 60th shikinen sengu, periodic ceremony of the moving of the shrine, October 1973
Geiken Productions:Art Park Japan (distributor) 1980
BL2220 S55 (video cassette)
Ono, Motonori
Shinto
BL2220 S55 1970 (slide tape)
Shinomia
Misogi
Tsubaki Grand Shrine, Japan (video)
BOOKS
Ashkenazi, Michael
Matsuri: festivals of a Japanese town
University of Hawaii Press 1993
Aston, William
Nihongi; chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697
George, Allen & Unwin 1956
DS851 A2N53 1896a (main collection)
also, Shinto (the way of the gods)
Logos 1968
BL2220 A8 1905a (main coll.)
Ballou, Robert Oleson
Shinto, the unconquered enemy; Japan's doctrine of racial superiority and world conquest
The Viking Press 1945
BL2220 B3 (main collection)
Bremen, Jan van
Ceremony and ritual in Japan; religious practices in an industrialized society
Routledge 1995
BL 2211 R5 C47 1995
Brooker, Paul
The faces of fraternalism; Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and imperial Japan
Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press 1991
JC481 B72 1991 (main collection)
Finegan, Jack
The archeology of world religions; the background of primitivism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shinto, Islam and Sikhism
Princeton University Press 1952
BL80 F5 (main collection)
Fridell, Wilbur M.
Japanese shrine mergers, 1906-12; State Shinto moves to the grassroots
Sophia University 1973
BL2225 AI F74 1973 (main col.) Fujisawa, Chikao
Zen and Shinto; the story of Japanese philosophy
Greenwood Press 1971
B136 Ff83 1959a (main col.)
Grapard, Allan G.
The protocol of the gods; a study of the Kasuga cult in Japanese history
University of California Press 1992
BL2225 N32 K423 1992 (main collection)
Guth, Christine
The arts of Shinto
Weatherhill 1973
N8194 G8713 1973 (main col.) Hardacre, Helen
Shinto and the state, 1868-1988
Princeton University Press 1989
BL2223 S8 H36 1989 (main col.)
Holtom, Daniel Clarence
The national faith of Japan; a study in modern Shinto
Paragon Book Reprint Corp. 1965
BL220 H58 1938a (main col.)
Kanda, Christine Guth
Shinzo; Hachiman imagery and its development
Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University
Distributed by Harvard University Press, 1985
NB1912 H33 K 36 1985 (folio)
Kato, Genchi
A study of Shinto; the religion of the Japanese Nation
Curzon Press 1971
BL2220 K35 1971 (main col.)
also, What is Shinto?
Board of tourist industry 1935
BL2220 K385
Kiyota, Minoru
Gedatsukai, its theory and practice; a study of a Shinto-Buddhist syncretic school in contemporary Japan
Buddhist Books International 1982
BQ9800 G432 K 59 1981 (main collection)
Mason, Joseph Warren
The meaning of Shinto; the primeval foundation of creative spirit in modern Japan
Kennikat Press Inc. 1967
BL2220 M3 1935a (main col.) Matsunaga, Alica
The Buddhist philosophy of assimilation; the historical development of the Honji-Suijaku theory
Sophia University: C.E.Tuttle Co. 1969
BL1440 M37 (main collection)
Nelson, John K.
A year in the life of a Shinto shrine
University of Washington Press
BL2225 N2552 S883 1996 (main collection)
Ono, Motonori
Shinto, the Kami Way
Bridgeway Press 1961
BL2220 O5 1962a
also, Shinto, the Kami Way
C.E. Tuttle 1962
BL2220 O5 1962a (both in main collection)
Philippi, Donald L.
Kojiki
University of Tokyo Press 1968
DS581 A2 K643 1968 (main collection)
Picken, Stuart D. B.
Shinto, Japan's spiritual roots
Kodansha International Ltd; distributed in the U.S. through Harper & Row, 1980
BL2220 P5 (folio)
Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon
Studies in Shinto and shrines, papers selected from the works of the late R.A.B. Ponsonby-Fane
Ponsonby Memorial Society 1962
BL2220 P6 1953 (main collection)
Sharma, Arvind
Religion and women
State University of New York Press 1994
BL458 R45 1994 (main collect.)
Spae, Joseph John
Shinto man
Oriens Institute for Religious Research 1972
BL2220.6 S62 (main collection)
Stiskin, Menahum Nahum
The looking-glass god ... Shinto, Yin-yang and a cosmology for today
Autumn Press (distributed by Weatherhill), New York 1972
BL604 Y5 S74 1972 (main collection)
Stoesz, Willis
Kurozumi Shinto; an American dialogue
Anima Books 1989
BL2222 K884 K 87 1989 (main collection)
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers
Religions in Japan: Buddhism, Shinto, Christianity
C.E. Tuttle Co. 1955
BL2201 S82 (main collection)
Tyler, Royall
The miracles of the Kasuga deity
Columbia University Press 1990
PL790 K35 T95 1990 (main col.)
Underwood, Alfred Clair
Shintoism; the indigenous religion of Japan
The Epworth Press 1934
BL2220 U6 1934a (main col.)
Watanabe, Yasutada
Shinto art: Ise and Izumo shrines
Weatherhill/Heibonsha 1974
NA6057 I79 W3713 (main col.)
Young, A.Morgan
The rise of a pagan state; Japan's religious background
William Morrow & Co. 1939
BL2201 Y6 1939a (main col.)
Yamamoto, Rev. Yukitaka
Way of the Kami, Kami no Michi
Chico:Tsubaki America, 1987
OTHER MATERIALS
Nelson, John
Body according to shinto
Merniam Library - Limited Loan Reserve Folders
Barnette R3-XF (Xeroxed reading)
Lehman, Carol S. & Miley, Lois M.
Shinto: The Traditional Religion of Japan
ERIC Issue RIEOCT86
Midwest program for Teaching about Japan.
ED270382 ERIC SO017226 (database)
Mircea Eliade (editor)
Encyclopedia of Religion
Available on CD ROM, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan
The World Wide Web also offers sources for information about Shinto; more about that next time.