Womens Gender Roles In Japanese Religious Traditions

ing much more intriguing. Several other researchers also seem to felt the same admiration for these women as I do because of the vast number of books and articles I came across during the course of my own study. Many of these I found to be fascinating however, for use in my paper I could only chose a few to help me explain the roles of women in Japanese religious traditions. The first book I choose was an article written in the book Ceremony and Ritual in Japan by D.P. Martinez. The book deals with the rituals in Japan and specifically the roles of women in both Shinto and Buddhist practices. Martinez main focus in the articles is on that of the outsider feeling women have in both society and religion in Japan. The second work I looked at was Unspoken Words by Nancy Falk and Rita Gross. The article in their book dealt with one of the new religions traditions in Japan that was founded by a woman. It took an in-depth look at the ideals of the new tradition and how gender was considered. The issue of past female influences in Japan was answered by the third work I considered in my research, Religion and Women by Arvind Sharma and Katherine K. Young. These two authors I came across numerous times in my research and was fascinated by the generous amount of history I learned about Japan’s former rulers. The final two books I chose to work with, Women, Religion and Sexuality by Jeanne Becher and Women and World Religions by Denise Lardner both dealt with the sexuality and religious roles that women played in the Shinto and Buddhist traditions respectively. These books helped me form several ideas about the factor that the traditions of Japan play in the lives of the women who live in the country. My intrigue with the land of the sun begun many years ago and so I have always been well versed in its traditions and cultural mores. However, I had never before realized what a pivotal role women played in the traditions, even though they are often seen as part of the back burner in most of the traditions. Without the women of Japan many of the rituals and traditions that are currently practiced would surely cease to occur.

The gender roles that Japanese women experience in the country’s religious traditions can best be understood through the evaluation and discussion of the roles women play in the Shinto and Buddhist traditions along with the new religious traditions founded by women in Japan.

The Shinto tradition is the oldest tradition in Japan. First brought to Japan by the Koreans many of centuries ago it is the only religion that most Japanese consider to be a fully native tradition. The tradition definitely has roots in what E.B. Tylor and James Frazer would call animism. That becomes completely understandable when one looks at the surrounding isles of Japan and their immense beauty. Denise Lardner describes the way this natural settings beauty has overflowed into the religious tradition in her description of the Shinto tradition when she writes: “Shinto has been the aboriginal native tradition responsible for the Japanese tendency to locate divinity in a nature populated with 800,000 kami and to equate ethics with acting so as to honor one’s family (Lardner 125).” The Shinto tradition has a story of creation that states two kami (the Japanese equivalent to gods) descended from the heavens and stirred the ocean and created the land and the kami of the sun, Amaterasu, who later gives birth to the first emperor (117). It is from this first emperor that all later emperors descend. The most amazing part of the tradition’s creation story is that it is so engrained in the people of Japan that to the current day the imperial line has not changed and the people trace their imperial family directly to the kami. Shinto is also mainly seen in the country as something anyone, even a person who is not from Japan, can understand and participate in. This may explain why women have always played a larger role

Some topics in this essay:
Shinto Buddhist, Denise Lardner, Shinto Buddhism, Shinto Women, DP Martinez, Tenrikyo Miki, Folk Traditions, Princess Yamato, Japanese Buddhist, Goeika Goeika, religious traditions, gender roles, roles women, women japan, shinto tradition, shinto buddhist, traditions japan, tokugawa period, traditions religious traditions, dp martinez, enter shrine, shinto buddhist traditions, discuss gender roles, japan religious traditions, religious traditions founded,