Japan has some of the harshest punishments for cannabis use in the world. One might presume this stems from the country’s dedication to hard work and efficiency, but it’s rather the legacy of the US occupation after WW2. In fact, … Read the rest
Category: Social values (Page 3 of 5)
In Brazil, I once talked to the elderly priest at the Brasil Daijingu, named Tamotsu Sato. He’d gone to Brazil on May 22, 1934, and only been back briefly to Japan after the war to get his license to … Read the rest
Green Shinto is an enthusiastic supporter of animal rights, though surprisingly this sometimes proves controversial. One aspect that surely defies controversy is animal testing for cosmetics, which has been shown to be totally unnecessary. That innocent creatures should be … Read the rest
There was an interesting item on a television variety show last night involving Yamamoto Masahiro, a professional baseball pitcher with Chunichi Dragons. The programme centred on admirable people who were doing things remarkable for their age. Yamamoto is 48!
Yamamoto … Read the rest
Shinto and the State 1868-1988
Helen Hardacre Princeton University Press, 1989
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… Read the rest‘Nowhere else in modern history do we find so pronounced an example of state sponsorship of a religion – in some respects the state can be said to
Britain’s Independent newspaper carries an article today about the fashion for ‘kawaii’ which has arrived from Japan (click here.)
I’ve written before of how the phenomenon of ‘kawaii’ might link to notions in Shinto (click here). There … Read the rest
“The number of Shinto shrines in Japan has changed over centuries due to various political and social changes. There were about 190,000 shrines during the early Meiji Era (1867-1912), before a drastic change came about … Read the rest