... the importance of another major tradition in Japan, Buddhism. Buddhism is, unlike Shinto, a religion that requires an insider to perform the rituals. This requirement means that the gender roles for Buddhism are more specific than that Shinto. Like Shinto, Buddhist rituals have men performing the main rituals and the tradition also gives the responsibility of rites performed in the household to the women in the society. One of these rites is the ... charge of the festival ancestor rites during Bon (85-6). As the women of Japan get older they look forward to joining the Goeika because it ...

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