Agents of World Renewal

Agents of World Renewal
Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages : 249
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780824880422
ISBN-13 : 0824880420
Rating : 4/5 (420 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Agents of World Renewal by : Takashi Miura

Download or read book Agents of World Renewal written by Takashi Miura and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-08-31 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines a category of Japanese divinities that centered on the concept of “world renewal” (yonaoshi). In the latter half of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867), a number of entities, both natural and supernatural, came to be worshipped as “gods of world renewal.” These included disgruntled peasants who demanded their local governments repeal unfair taxation, government bureaucrats who implemented special fiscal measures to help the poor, and a giant subterranean catfish believed to cause earthquakes to punish the hoarding rich. In the modern period, yonaoshi gods took on more explicitly anti-authoritarian characteristics. During a major uprising in Saitama Prefecture in 1884, a yonaoshi god was invoked to deny the legitimacy of the Meiji regime, and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the new religion Ōmoto predicted an apocalyptic end of the world presided over by a messianic yonaoshi god. Using a variety of local documents to analyze the veneration of yonaoshi gods, Takashi Miura looks beyond the traditional modality of research focused on religious professionals, their institutions, and their texts to illuminate the complexity of a lived religion as practiced in communities. He also problematizes the association frequently drawn between the concept of yonaoshi and millenarianism, demonstrating that yonaoshi gods served as divine rectifiers of specific economic injustices and only later, in the modern period and within the context of new religions such as Ōmoto, were fully millenarian interpretations developed. The scope of world renewal, in other words, changed over time. Agents of World Renewal approaches Japanese religion through the new analytical lens of yonaoshi gods and highlights the necessity of looking beyond the boundary often posited between the early modern and modern periods when researching religious discourses and concepts.


Agents of World Renewal Related Books

Agents of World Renewal
Language: en
Pages: 249
Authors: Takashi Miura
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-08-31 - Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

GET EBOOK

This volume examines a category of Japanese divinities that centered on the concept of “world renewal” (yonaoshi). In the latter half of the Tokugawa period
Global Renewal Christianity
Language: en
Pages: 546
Authors: Vinson Synan
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016 - Publisher: Charisma Media

GET EBOOK

This book gives an overview of one-hundred years of Pentecostal history in Latin America and addresses the move of the Holy Spirit in nations such as Brazil, Co
Global Renewal Christianity
Language: en
Pages: 547
Authors: Amos Yong
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016 - Publisher: Charisma Media

GET EBOOK

The growth of Spirit-empowered Christianity has been nothing short of phenomenal. From a handful of believers in the early twentieth century to a global movemen
From Country to Nation
Language: en
Pages: 383
Authors: Gideon Fujiwara
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-05-15 - Publisher: Cornell University Press

GET EBOOK

From Country to Nation tracks the emergence of the modern Japanese nation in the nineteenth century through the history of some of its local aspirants. It explo
Spirituality and Alternativity in Contemporary Japan
Language: en
Pages: 265
Authors: Ioannis Gaitanidis
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-10-20 - Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

GET EBOOK

This book critically analyses the creation and effects of spirituality as both discourse and practice in Japan. It shows how the value of spirituality has been