People often associate Shinto with reverence of rice. The yearly cycle rotates around the planting and harvesting of the crop, and rice is seen as central to the Japanese identity. In addition, rice wine in the form of saké … Read the rest
Category: Japanese culture (Page 19 of 19)
Here’s an interesting quote:
“Japanese matsuri (festivals) resemble so much Balinese ones that one could wonder if one was not copied from the other. During cremations in Bali, the dead body is carried on a portable shrine, very much in … Read the rest
An article in the Huffington Post below has some interesting things to say about the response to the tsunami and earthquake on 3/11 last year. The paradox of Japanese declaring themselves to be not religious yet behaving in a religious
Extract from my book In Search of Japan’s Hidden Christians, published today in the US, the UK and Japan…. (For Part One of this article, see here.)
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As my journey was nearing its end, I happened … Read the rest
A British observer in the early 1860s recorded an interesting encounter in his diary. He and some other foreigners were traveling though the streets of Edo (Tôkyô). As they neared a public bath, someone inside the bath noticed that exotic … Read the rest