Books by Mitsutoshi Horii
The Category of ‘Religion’ in Contemporary Japan: Shūkyō and Temple Buddhism
This book critically examines the term ‘religion’ (shūkyō) as a social category within the sociol... more This book critically examines the term ‘religion’ (shūkyō) as a social category within the sociological context of contemporary Japan. Whereas the nineteenth-century construction of shūkyō has been critically studied by many, the same critical approach has not been extended to the contemporary context of the Japanese-language discourse on shūkyō and Temple Buddhism. This work aims to unveil the norms and imperatives which govern the utilization of the term shūkyō in the specific context of modern day Japan, with a particular focus upon Temple Buddhism. The author draws on a number of popular publications in Japanese, many of which have been written by Buddhist priests. In addition, the book offers rich interview material from conversations with Buddhist priests.
Readers will gain insights into the critical deconstruction, the historicization, and the study of social classification system of ‘religion’, in terms of its cross-cultural application to the contemporary Japanese context. The book will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including Japanese Studies, Buddhology, Religious Studies, Social Anthropology, and Sociology.
This is a historical exploration of the mask-wearing in Japan. It highlights the discursive trans... more This is a historical exploration of the mask-wearing in Japan. It highlights the discursive transformation surrounding mask-wearing. The practice was originated in the 1920s, but it became highly generalised and diversified during the 1990’s and 2000’s along the neoliberalisation of Japan, represented by the notion of ‘self-responsibility’ over one’s health.
This is a critical analysis of the public discourse which problematizes the low fertility rate in... more This is a critical analysis of the public discourse which problematizes the low fertility rate in Japan. The general consensus seems to be that greater gender equality in Japan would raise the fertility rate. What underlines this apparent liberal feminist political discourse is a disguised form of the neoliberal capitalist ideology.
This book traces the emergence and institutionalisation of women-only train carriages in Japan. I... more This book traces the emergence and institutionalisation of women-only train carriages in Japan. It argues that this phenomenon was driven by the changing gender politics in Japan during the post-1990 era, especially, represented by the collapse of the ‘salary-men’ masculinity.
Articles / Book Chapters by Mitsutoshi Horii
Problems of 'Religion' in Japan: Part 2
Religion Compass, 2020
This article problematizes the utilisation of the category ‘religion’ as an analytical concept in... more This article problematizes the utilisation of the category ‘religion’ as an analytical concept in the Japanese context. For some decades, in Religious Studies, the idea of religion has been interrogated and the ideological function of the category ‘religion’ has become a subject of critical investigation. This kind of critical approach to ‘religion’ has been applied to many different contexts including Japan. Although there has been a significant development in the critical study of ‘religion’ in Japan, this article argues that the discourse of sui generis religion is still dominant in the academic subject area currently called ‘Japanese religion(s)’. This article critically examines the category of religion in recent works of scholars who claim to study ‘Japanese religion(s)’ and suggests abandoning the term as a category of analysis. This will help scholars to re‐imagine what they use to call ‘religion’, by enabling them to see what the idea of ‘religion’ formerly prevent them from seeing.
Problems of 'Religion' in Japan: Part 1
Religion Compass, 2020
This article problematizes the utilisation of the category ‘religion’ as an analytical concept in... more This article problematizes the utilisation of the category ‘religion’ as an analytical concept in the Japanese context. For some decades, in Religious Studies, the idea of religion has been interrogated and the ideological function of the category ‘religion’ has become a subject of critical investigation. This kind of critical approach to ‘religion’ has been applied to many different contexts including Japan. Although there has been a significant development in the critical study of ‘religion’ in Japan, this article argues that the discourse of sui generis religion is still dominant in the academic subject area currently called ‘Japanese religion(s)’. This article critically examines the category of religion in recent works of scholars who claim to study ‘Japanese religion(s)’ and suggests abandoning the term as a category of analysis. This will help scholars to re‐imagine what they use to call ‘religion’, by enabling them to see what the idea of ‘religion’ formerly prevent them from seeing.
Comparing ‘Religion’ and ‘Nonreligion’: towards a Critique of Modernity
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 2020
This essay starts with reference to “grapefruits” in Oliver Freiberger’s (2019) Considering Compa... more This essay starts with reference to “grapefruits” in Oliver Freiberger’s (2019) Considering Comparison and to “apples” and “oranges” in Bruce Lincoln’s (2018) Apples and Oranges: Explorations In, On and With Comparison . It disagrees with Freiberger when he compares “grapefruits” with some generic categories in Religious Studies including “shrine.” The category of “shrine” resembles more “fruits,” for example, because two shrines could have completely different genealogies, just like apples and oranges, but still belong to the same generic category. Then, the essay compares the categories of “religion” and “tree.” The boundary between “religion” and “nonreligion” is as arbitrary as that of “tree” and “non-tree.” At the same time, “religion” and “nonreligion” share common characteristics just like “tree” and “non-tree” do. Given this, it concludes with the suggestion that, when the “religiousness” of ostensibly “nonreligious” modernity is articulated, the category “religion” functions as a useful rhetorical tool to subvert modernity’s claim of universality and factual reality.
"Religion" and "Politics": A Japanese Case
IMPLICIT RELIGION
Timothy Fitzgerald’s The Ideology of Religious Studies should not be read as something just about... more Timothy Fitzgerald’s The Ideology of Religious Studies should not be read as something just about “religion,” but about the modern Euro- American “secularity,” which functions to mystify the colonial matrix of power of Euro-American modernity. Fitzgerald’s later work focuses on two mutually parasitic categories of “religion” and “politics.” As a case study of the Fitzgeraldian perspective, this article examines the construction of the religion-politics distinction in Japan since the late nineteenth century. In the latter half of the nineteenth century the aggression of Euro-American colonial power motivated Japan’s elites to institutionalize the nation based upon the Euro-American concepts of “politics” and “religion.” After Japan’s defeat in the Second World War in 1945, the US-led Allied Occupation redefined prewar Japanese state orthodoxy and institutions as “religion,” in order to eliminate them from the post-war Japanese statecraft.
Critical Research on Religion, 2019
The generic notion of " religion " and its conceptual demarcation from " the secular " have been ... more The generic notion of " religion " and its conceptual demarcation from " the secular " have been critically examined by a number of scholars from the " critical religion " perspective. The interrogation of the term " religion, " and other related terms, questions modern formations of knowledge and power in general. This paper constitutes part of the project which examines norms and imperatives which govern sociological discourse on religion. Max Weber and Emile Durkheim are particularly significant figures in sociology of religion. The aim of this paper is to historicize the category " religion " (and its opposition " the secular ") employed by Weber and Durkheim, in the specific social context of Germany and France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It hopes to contribute to a greater understanding of the ideological foundation of sociological theories of religion. This article is a preliminary but critical examination of the idea of " religion " in sociological theories, and of the classificatory practice that employs the term " religion " (as opposed to " the secular ") in sociological discourse. In other words, it applies the " critical religion " approach to highlight the ideological function of the religion–secular distinction. In this
Like any other social category, the meaning and conceptual boundary of “religion” is ambiguous an... more Like any other social category, the meaning and conceptual boundary of “religion” is ambiguous and contentious. Historically speaking, its semantics have been transformed in highly complex ways. What is meant by “religion” reflects the specific norms and imperatives of the classifier. This article critically reflects upon the idea of “religion” employed by Karl Marx in the early 1840s. Marx reimagined the encompassing notion of “religion,” which was predominant in his time, by privatizing it in his attempt to critique the theological foundation of the Prussian state. In this process, young Marx’s discourse siphons what is claimed to be “religious” out of the categories of “philosophy,” “science,” and “politics.” In this way, Marx constructs the realm of nonreligion where he associates his own discourse with natural reason, against the reified notion of “religion” as fantastic illusions.
It was during the years of intense American-Japanese treaty negotiations from 1853 when the Japan... more It was during the years of intense American-Japanese treaty negotiations from 1853 when the Japanese first encountered the generic concept ‘religion’. The generic meaning of ‘religion’ was initially lost in the linguistically multi-layered process of translations during the earliest stage of the negotiations. When the term ‘religion’ was subsequently encountered more directly by Japanese translators, the formulation of new Japanese terms was required. For the Japanese in the 1850s, ‘religion’ was a diplomatic category, and no single word in Japanese could capture the contours of this Euro-American category. It was not until the 1870s that the generic concept of religion was popularised in Japan.
This article examines the ways in which the Japanese elite engaged with the generic term ‘religion’ before the Japanese equivalent was developed. It focuses on Japanese interactions with the discourse on ‘religion’ conveyed by Commodore Perry’s expedition to Japan (1852-1854) and by Townsend Harris (1804-1878) who represented the United States in the subsequent negotiations. This resulted in the signing of the American-Japanese treaty in 1858, which guaranteed ‘religious freedom’ for American citizens in Japan. The notion of ‘religion’ in this treaty was not easily articulated by the Japanese. Japanese translators had to employ a variety of terms and phrases to accommodate the idea of ‘religion’.
This article also highlights the American projection of ‘religion’ upon Japan. The articulation of ‘religion’ as a generic category, essentially distinct from the ‘secular’ realms of ‘state’, ‘politics’, ‘economy’, and the like, first appeared in the late seventeenth century. It was most powerfully institutionalised in late eighteenth-century North America. The nineteenth-century notion of religion in the United States constructed two types of discourse: ‘One discourse has been on Religion as Christian Truth and civility in opposition to superstitions as barbarous irrationalities; the other has been on “religion” in relation to the secular state and civil society conceived as neutral or indifferent towards religion’ (Fitzgerald 2007: 311). These were clearly observed in the American negotiations with Japan in the 1850s. Importantly, these discourses had ideological functions. ‘Both of these discourses, often mixed together, have at least facilitated a rationale for Western imperialism and a justification for colonial rule’ (Fitzgerald 2007: 311). American narratives on ‘religion’ in the nineteenth century appear to be closely related to the norms and imperatives of imperialism. This article assesses the validity of such a claim in the context of the American-Japanese negotiations between 1853 and 1858.
Reference:
Fitzgerald, T. 2007. Discourse on Civility and Barbarity. Oxford University Press.
Making Religion: Theory and Practice in the Discursive Study of Religion
For at least the last two decades, the concept of ‘religion’ has been examined critically by a nu... more For at least the last two decades, the concept of ‘religion’ has been examined critically by a number of scholars. In the light of this scrutiny, this chapter takes the concept in Japan as a subject for investigation. The Japanese concept for ‘religion’ shūkyō was invented in the nineteenth century. The term was a key constituent element in the technology of statecraft. The term’s nineteenth century construction has been extensively studied by many, but the same critical thread has not been reached to the post-1945 era. This is the main area of the inquiry for this chapter. First of all, this chapter reviews how the term ‘religion’ was imported to and appropriated as shūkyō in Japan in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. This is followed by the examination of how the concept was reformulated after the Second World War under the influence of American-style liberal democratic values. To the present day, the boundary between religion (shūkyō) and the non-religious secular is ambiguous and often contentious. Importantly, this exploration leaves us with the under-researched area of shūkyō in the colloquial discourse. Thus, this chapter concludes with implications for further research.
Nordic Journal of Religion and Society (2015), 28 (1): 21–36, Apr 2015
For some decades, the academic concept of religion has been examined critically by a number of sc... more For some decades, the academic concept of religion has been examined critically by a number of scholars. There have been some sociological responses to these criticisms against ‘religion’. This article argues that these sociological responses have missed important implications of these criticisms, which can be constructively incorporated into sociological discourse about religion. What can be meaningfully studied is the practice of classification carried out with the term ‘religion’ and norms and imperatives which govern and naturalise a specific discursive configuration of the religious-secular dichotomy. This approach indicates the vacuum in the sociological discourse of religion, which needs to be filled with empirical research, in order to map and theorize the ways in which people utilize the term ‘religion’ in a specific social context.
The Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, Volume 14, Issue 2 (Article 8 in 2014)
For one reason or another, surgical face masks are worn by a considerable number of people in Jap... more For one reason or another, surgical face masks are worn by a considerable number of people in Japan, in their daily lives in public spaces. The practice of mask wearing may be observed in other countries, especially in East Asia, but the Japanese case is probably best known internationally. This article traces the origin and historical development of mask wearing in Japan up to recent years. The driving force of this social practice has been the collective sense of disempowerment. Mask wearing has provided people with a sense of control over a situation which is otherwise experienced beyond their control.
This article begins to develop an understanding of surgical mask-wearing in Japan, now a routine ... more This article begins to develop an understanding of surgical mask-wearing in Japan, now a routine practice against a range of health threats. Their usage and associated meanings are explored through surveys conducted in Tokyo with both mask wearers and non-mask wearers. It contests commonly held cultural views of the practice as a fixed and distinctively Japanese collective courtesy to others. A historical analysis suggests that an originally collective, targeted and science-based response to public health threats has dispersed into a generalised practice lacking a clear end or purpose. Developed as part of the biomedical response to the Spanish flu of 1919, the practice resonated with folk assumptions as making a barrier between purity and pollution. But mask-wearing became socially embedded as a general protective practice only from the 1990s through a combination of commercial, corporate and political pressures that responsibilised individual health protection. These developments are usefully understood amidst the uncertainty created by Japan’s ‘second modernity’ and the fracturing of her post-war order. Mask-wearing is only one form of a wider culture of risk; a self-protective risk ritual rather than a selfless collective practice.
Women-only train carriages have been introduced in Japan as a response to widespread groping (chi... more Women-only train carriages have been introduced in Japan as a response to widespread groping (chikan) by men. In August 2007, 155 young women completed a survey at a variety of locations in central Tokyo, mainly at the popular meeting places, Shinjuku and Shibuya. The survey involved face-to-face interviews conducted mainly by young female interviewers. The numbers involved are insufficient for rigorous statistical analysis and in this pilot study we were principally interested in further refining ideas and hypotheses for further investigation by considering results in the context of significant contemporary social trends. This article starts by considering a particular cultural context in which the issue of groping resulted in the introduction of women-only train carriages and this official antigroping measure which has been widely accepted. The article then examines women's responses to the availability of women-only train carriages, using surveys carried out in Tokyo. It concludes by considering the specific and anomalous targeting of primarily middle aged ‘salarymen’, a focus understood in the context of the collapse of the ideological power of the patriarchal corporate figure associated with the end of the Japanese economic miracle. Women's use and support for women-only train carriages is not solely dominated by anxiety over the risk of chikan. Our survey indicated that it was a symbolic rejection of a particular type of masculinity, rather than the physical separation from a risk of being groped.
CHAPTER 9, pp.215-240. Timothy Iles and Peter Matanle eds. Researching Twenty-first Century Japan: New Directions and Approaches for the Electronic Age. Lexington Books, 2012
Buddhist priests had existed as a distinctive group since the 6th century in Japanese society. Ho... more Buddhist priests had existed as a distinctive group since the 6th century in Japanese society. However, since the mid-19th century, especially during the post-1945 era, Buddhist priests as an occupational group have been deprofessionalised. First of all, there is no independent occupational category called “Buddhist priests” in the current Japanese socio-economic discourse. In addition, occupational activities of Buddhist priests have been invaded by so-called lay Buddhists, as well as increasingly subordinated by other professions. Furthermore, within the contemporary legal discourse, various occupational activities currently performed by Buddhist priests and their temples may deviate from ones defined by the law. In this way the occupational category of Buddhist priests as a “religious profession” has become difficult to justify. This is the context in which Japanese Buddhist priests have been deprofessionalised.
Deprofessionalisation of Buddhist Priests in Comptemporary Japan: A Socio-Industrial Study of a Religious Profession
electronic journal of contemporary japanese …, Jan 1, 2005
Since the 5th century, Buddhist priests had existed as a distinctive group in Japanese society. H... more Since the 5th century, Buddhist priests had existed as a distinctive group in Japanese society. However, since the mid-19th century, especially during the post-1945 era, Buddhist priests as an occupational group have been deprofessionalised within the rapid reorganisation of the Japanese social system. There is no independent occupational category called 'Buddhist priests' in the current Japanese socio-economic statistics. The professional jurisdiction of Buddhism has been increasingly invaded by so-called lay Buddhist organisations. In addition, occupational activities of Buddhist priests are increasingly subordinated by other professions. Further, various occupational activities currently performed by Buddhist priests and their temples may be deviated from ones defined by the law. This is the context in which Japanese Buddhist priests have been deprofessionalised.
Critical Religion Blog by Mitsutoshi Horii
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Books by Mitsutoshi Horii
Readers will gain insights into the critical deconstruction, the historicization, and the study of social classification system of ‘religion’, in terms of its cross-cultural application to the contemporary Japanese context. The book will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including Japanese Studies, Buddhology, Religious Studies, Social Anthropology, and Sociology.
Articles / Book Chapters by Mitsutoshi Horii
This article examines the ways in which the Japanese elite engaged with the generic term ‘religion’ before the Japanese equivalent was developed. It focuses on Japanese interactions with the discourse on ‘religion’ conveyed by Commodore Perry’s expedition to Japan (1852-1854) and by Townsend Harris (1804-1878) who represented the United States in the subsequent negotiations. This resulted in the signing of the American-Japanese treaty in 1858, which guaranteed ‘religious freedom’ for American citizens in Japan. The notion of ‘religion’ in this treaty was not easily articulated by the Japanese. Japanese translators had to employ a variety of terms and phrases to accommodate the idea of ‘religion’.
This article also highlights the American projection of ‘religion’ upon Japan. The articulation of ‘religion’ as a generic category, essentially distinct from the ‘secular’ realms of ‘state’, ‘politics’, ‘economy’, and the like, first appeared in the late seventeenth century. It was most powerfully institutionalised in late eighteenth-century North America. The nineteenth-century notion of religion in the United States constructed two types of discourse: ‘One discourse has been on Religion as Christian Truth and civility in opposition to superstitions as barbarous irrationalities; the other has been on “religion” in relation to the secular state and civil society conceived as neutral or indifferent towards religion’ (Fitzgerald 2007: 311). These were clearly observed in the American negotiations with Japan in the 1850s. Importantly, these discourses had ideological functions. ‘Both of these discourses, often mixed together, have at least facilitated a rationale for Western imperialism and a justification for colonial rule’ (Fitzgerald 2007: 311). American narratives on ‘religion’ in the nineteenth century appear to be closely related to the norms and imperatives of imperialism. This article assesses the validity of such a claim in the context of the American-Japanese negotiations between 1853 and 1858.
Reference:
Fitzgerald, T. 2007. Discourse on Civility and Barbarity. Oxford University Press.
Critical Religion Blog by Mitsutoshi Horii