Religion and the Good Life: Motivation, Myth, and Metaphor in a Tokugawa Female Lifestyle Guide
This article examines the uses of religion in a popular female lifestyle guide, the Onna chōhōki, which was originally published in 1692 and geared toward daughters of rising commoner families. The text's author employs religion to intensify the sense of ultimate importance at which his project...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Nanzan Institute
[2005]
|
| In: |
Japanese journal of religious studies
Year: 2005, Volume: 32, Issue: 1, Pages: 35-52 |
| Further subjects: | B
Daughters
B Women B Religious Practices B Good Life B Morality B Husbands B Myths B Parents B Lifestyle B Marriage |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article examines the uses of religion in a popular female lifestyle guide, the Onna chōhōki, which was originally published in 1692 and geared toward daughters of rising commoner families. The text's author employs religion to intensify the sense of ultimate importance at which his project aims: namely that the good life to be found in adopting his guide's recommendations of idealized behaviors and elite customs is one that is transformative and resonates with the divine actions of Izanami and Amaterasu. I argue that the author employs religion through the three modalities of motive, myth, and metaphor, and further that by being attentive to such uses of religion in popular texts we are able to appreciate the active construction of religious sensibilities, stories, and symbols in Edo period culture outside of organized religious groups. |
|---|---|
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Japanese journal of religious studies
|