Buddhism--study; culture and religion--Japan; Buddhism--Japan
摘要
Recently Japanese scholars have stopped using the term minkan shinko 民間信仰 (folk beliefs) in favor of the term minzoku shukyo 民俗宗教(folk/popular religion). This modification signifies not merely a change in terminology, but also a major shift in the boundaries of what anthropologists and scholars of religion perceive as religious phenomena, i.e., in what is, or could be, the object of the study of folklore or folk religion. In this essay I wish to discuss the reasons for this change and its significance for the study of religion in Japan. What is the realm of religion {shukyo sekai) that we are attempting to comprehend through our study of “folk/popular religion” (minzoku shukyo)? I hope to consider this question from the broader perspective provided by minzokugaku, the field of folklore or folk studies.
