This study of shamanistic practices in contemporary Japan examines the shamanic figures surviving in Japan today, their initiatory dreams, ascetic practices, the supernatural beings with whom they communicate, and the geography of the other world in myth and legend.

Special areas: religion, myth and folklore; and biographies. This volume forms part of the major new series, published by Curzon Press under the Japan Library imprint, featuring the collected writings of many of the most outstanding western scholars who have been actively writing about Japan and connected subjects over the last half century. Developed in close collaboration with Carmen Blacker, this book contains a wide and substantial cross-section of their writings, thematically structured around essays, including published and unpublished conference and symposium papers, contributions to...

This set of volumes is part of the major new series, published by Curzon Press under the Japan Library imprint, features the collected writings of many of the most outstanding western scholars who have been actively writing about Japan and connected subjects over the last half century. Developed in close collaboration with the participating scholars, each volume contains a wide and substantial cross-section of their writings, thematically structured around essays, including published and unpublished conference and symposium papers, contributions to refereed journals, chapters from...

This volume of the Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan brings together the work of Carmen Blacker, who wrote extensively on religion, myth and folklore.