A Social History of the Ise Shrines

In this engaging social history of the Ise Shrines, Mark Teeuwen and John Breen challenge cherished notions holding that Ise is the primal locus of Shinto, unifying and providing the standard for all other Shinto shrines since ancient times. By contrast, the authors show that Ise only acquired an unambiguously Shinto identity quite late in its history. They also show that the relations between Ise and the imperial house have changed greatly over time, and that the shrines' present-day austere appearance was achieved only by removing much of the carnival atmosphere that had made it so popular in the Edo period. In these and many other ways, this study corrects a host of mistaken ideas about the Ise Shrines. But though Teeuwen and Breen write against the grain of the cultural essentialism and religious nationalism that has colored so many previous writings on Ise, their work is not a polemic. Instead, their book is a balanced and authoritative study of a central subject in the history of Japanese religions that will be warmly welcomed and widely appreciated. -- Helen Hardacre, Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Harvard University, USA This book takes us on a journey into the multilayered history of the Ise Shrines. As John Breen and Mark Teeuwen brilliantly demonstrate, this is not an everlasting history, but one of continuous reshaping, spatial reconfigurations, shifting power struggles, and economic influences, which acquire meaning in relation to their social contexts. The book is very well documented and sharp and is a must read study for scholars and students interested in Shinto, religion, and Japan. -- Elisabetta Porcu, Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions, University of Cape Town, South Africa