Richard Bowring traces the development of Japanese religious thought and practice from the introduction of writing to the point at which medieval attitudes gave way to a distinctive pre-modern culture, a change that brought an end to the dominance of religious institutions. A wide range of approaches using the resources of art, history, social and intellectual history, as well as doctrine is brought to bear on the subject in order to give as full a picture as possible of the richness of the Japanese tradition and an overview of how Buddhism and Shintõ interacted in Japanese culture. By incorporating recent scholarship into this book, Bowring has filled a significant gap in the study of Japanese religion in general. Written with nonspecialists in mind, this book, with its historical detail, Japanese terminology, and kanji, will also interest those with a more specialized background in things Japanese. Choice "...it is an engrossing, fascinating, and exhaustive study. The author has succeeded in almost mimetically reproducing the ongoing and dynamic quality of the history of Japanase religion: topoi such as kami veneration appear and reappear as historical actors appropriate such themes--from their discursive toolbox--in a series of different contexts in the premodern Japanese isles." - Brian O. Ruppert, University of Illinois, The first English-language overview of the interaction of Buddhism and Shintō in Japanese culture. Richard Bowring is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge and Master of Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is co-author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan (1993) and has written a number of Japanese Language textbooks. Used Book in Good Condition