Religious Studies: A Global View

Meanwhile, the first comprehensive dictionary with a focus on theories and

technical terms of religious studies, Shkyÿgakujiten(Dictionary of Religious

Studies), was published in 1973, whose chief editors were Iichi Oguchi

(1910–1986) and IchirÿHori. Oguchi was another leading sociologist of

religion at Tokyo University.

The scholars listed above are, however, not known much outside Japan.

Scholars who are famous abroad often worked outside the mainstream of

Japanese scholarship, partly because their works were free from over-

specialization and partly because they were steeped in Oriental spirituality.

Among such scholars are Hajime Nakamura (1912–1999), a Buddhist scholar

of comparative philosophy, Toshihiko Izutsu (1914–1993), a scholar of

Muslim^23 and Asian religious thought, and Yasuo Yuasa (b. 1925), the author

of The Body: Toward an Eastern Mind–Body Theory (1987). Susumu

Shimazono has called Yuasa, along with Shinichi Nakazawa and other scholars,

a ‘spiritual intellectual’ (reiseiteki chisikijin), meaning that he has attracted

public attention via the New Age and postmodern movements.

The feminist or gender-based study of religion was pioneered by Kyÿko

Nakamura (1932–2001), followed by Aiko Øgoshi (b. 1946), Midori Igeta (b.

1946), Fumiko Nomura (b. 1945), Junko Minamoto (b. 1947), and more

recently by Noriko Kawahashi (b. 1960) and others. Their accomplishments

are introduced in English in Kawahashi and Kuroki 2003.

Institutionalization

The most noteworthy organization founded in the post-war period is perhaps

the Society for the Sociology of Religion (Shkyÿshakaigaku kenkykai), which

lasted from 1975 to 1990. It consisted of a number of sociologists and

anthropologists of religion, many of whom are specialists in new religious

movements, including scholars mentioned above. By working together, they

became the most outstanding and active figures in religious studies in Japan

since the 1970s. They subsequently played a central role in establishing a new,

larger organization, The Japanese Association for the Study of Religion and

Society (JASRS), in 1993. In addition, the International Institute for the Study

of Religion (IISR), originally set up in 1953, was reorganized in 1993, along

with the Religious Information Research Center (RIRC), in order to study the

ongoing interactions between contemporary societies and religions more

thoroughly.

Meanwhile, the members of new religious groups, particularly their second

and third generations, started participating in religious studies instead of merely

being its objects. Above all, Tenri University and its library, sponsored by

Tenrikyÿ, a new group categorized as Sect (kyÿha) Shinto that emerged in the

mid nineteenth century, have significantly contributed to the academy.

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

2

3111

4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1

2

3

4

35

6

7

8

9

40111

42222

3

411

JAPAN

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