For the first time, Rikyu's tea is considered as a profoundly important political as well as a socio-religious ritual in response to the dramatic changes taking place in the country at large: the hundred-year civil war (Sengoku) period was finally coming to an end and the process of political unification under the strong military leadership of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi had begun. An important focus in the book is the author's research into why Rikyu's tragic suicide, enforced by Hideyoshi, was a necessary outcome of the emerging conflict between ritual, art and politics. In...
For the first time, Rikyu's tea is considered as a profoundly important political as well as a socio-religious ritual in response to the dramatic chan...
This work offers an understanding of the nature and manifestations of Shinto through the many historic festivals (matsuri). It approaches the classification of matsuri through discussions on Shinto, Buddhism, the Shinto-Buddhist synthesis, shrines and temples, deities, Buddhas and Deity-Buddhas, with the intention of enhancing an understanding of the nature of Japanese religion, and therefore Western conceptual undestanding of Japanese society itself. Photographs provide a pictoral data base of both contemporary life and times past.
This work offers an understanding of the nature and manifestations of Shinto through the many historic festivals (matsuri). It approaches the classifi...
