Hosoki Kazuko, a popular fortune-teller, is one of the most prominent figures in the Japanese media, including television, books, and magazines. She is a prodigious author whose enormous sales of divination books (uranari hon) are the basis of her success. In some of these books, Hosoki discusses ancestor worship and associated rituals in connection with her form of divination, rokusei senjutsu (six-star astrology). Despite the widespread belief that such rituals have some connection to religion, Hosoki explicitly states that ancestor worship is “non-religious.” I argue that Hosoki’s representations draw on shared meanings about ancestor worship in combination with other Confucianbased notions in order to present her form of divination as common sense that should come naturally to all Japanese. Hosoki’s statements can be viewed in the context of historical factors behind the idea many Japanese hold that they lack religious belief (mushûkyô) in addition to the deteriorating image of religion in general in the post-Aum era.
目次
ABSTRACT 32 CULTURE AND SHARED MEANINGS 35 JAPAN'S DIVINATION INDUSTRY 35 HOSOKI'S DIVINATION 36 A DEEPENING OF DIVINATION 38 MUSHÛKYÔ AND FUNERAL BUDDHISM 43 SPIRITUALITY AFTER THE AUM SHINRIKYÔ AFFAIR 45 CONCLUSION 46 ENDNOTES 47
