Women in Japanese Religions

n nScholars have widely acknowledged the npersistent ambivalence with which the Japanese religious traditions treat nwomen. Much existing scholarship depicts Japan's religious traditions as mere nmeans of oppression. But this view raises a question: How have ambivalent and neven misogynistic religious discourses on gender still come to inspire devotion nand emulation among women? n nIn Women in Japanese Religions, Barbara R. Ambros nexamines the roles that women have played in the religions of Japan. An important ncorrective to more common male-centered narratives of Japanese religious nhistory, this text presents a synthetic long view of Japanese religions from a ndistinct angle that has typically been discounted in standard survey accounts nof Japanese religions. n nDrawing on a diverse collection of nwritings by and about women, Ambros argues that ambivalent religious discourses nin Japan have not simply subordinated women but also given them religious nresources to pursue their own interests and agendas. Comprising nine chapters norganized chronologically, the book begins with the archeological evidence of nfertility cults and the early shamanic ruler Himiko in prehistoric Japan and nends with an examination of the influence of feminism and demographic changes non religious practices during the lost decades of the post-1990 era. By nviewing Japanese religious history through the eyes of women, Women in Japanese Religions presents a nnew narrative that offers strikingly different vistas of Japan's pluralistic ntraditions than the received accounts that foreground male religious figures nand male-dominated institutions. n nAdditional Resourcesn