@article{mclaughlin_sawada_2024, title={Faith in Mount Fuji: The Rise of Independent Religion in Early Modern Japan}, volume={2}, ISSN={["1477-4585"]}, DOI={10.1093/jaarel/lfae003}, abstractNote={Journal Article Faith in Mount Fuji: The Rise of Independent Religion in Early Modern Japan, By Janine Anderson Sawada Get access Faith in Mount Fuji: The Rise of Independent Religion in Early Modern Japan By Janine Anderson Sawada University of Hawai`i Press, 2022. 294 pages. $68.00 (hardcover), $28.00 (paperback), $24.99 (e-book). Levi McLaughlin Levi McLaughlin North Carolina State University lmclaug2@ncsu.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, lfae003, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfae003 Published: 02 February 2024}, journal={JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION}, author={Mclaughlin, Levi and Sawada, Janine Anderson}, year={2024}, month={Feb} } @article{with the liberal democratic party struggling, komeito's more vital to japan's ruling coalition than ever before_2024, url={https://spfusa.org/publications/with-the-liberal-democratic-party-struggling-komeitos-more-vital-to-japans-ruling-coalition-than-ever-before/?fbclid=IwAR0ic4ym3xazkt2oMkM_8bLqwD2LjHMntWgeCjB3x9zyTo1LDvaVciOlgxo}, journal={Sasakawa USA Japan Political Pulse}, year={2024}, month={Jan} } @book{創価学会ー現代日本の模倣国家_2024, url={https://bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/product?item=0000361486}, journal={Kodansha}, year={2024}, month={Jul} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2023, place={Cambridge}, title={Constitutional Buddhism: Japanese Buddhists and Constitutional Law}, booktitle={Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law}, publisher={Cambridge University Press}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Ginsburg, Tom and Schonthal, BenjaminEditors}, year={2023}, pages={241–271} } @article{mclaughlin_2023, title={The Abe Assassination and Japan’s Nexus of Religion and Politics}, volume={122}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/curh.2023.122.845.209}, DOI={10.1525/curh.2023.122.845.209}, abstractNote={The shocking murder of Japan’s former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe by a gunman motivated by anger at the politician’s ties to the controversial Unification Church sparked a massive outcry that amplified long-standing anxieties about religion in Japan. This article surveys reasons for persistent tensions between a Japanese public that tends to reject self-identifying as religious and the influence of religion-affiliated organizations on Japanese politics. It also identifies Abe’s assassination in July 2022 and local-level elections in April 2023 as potential beginning and end points of the latest moral panic about religion in Japan’s public sphere.}, number={845}, journal={Current History}, publisher={University of California Press}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2023}, month={Sep}, pages={209–216} } @book{mclaughlin_2022, title={A Grudge Against the Unification Church Motivated the Murder of Japan’s Most Prominent Politician}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.52698/ruvm3596}, DOI={10.52698/ruvm3596}, institution={Critical Asian Studies}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2022}, month={Jul} } @inbook{constitutional buddhism_2022, url={https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/buddhism-and-comparative-constitutional-law/constitutional-buddhism/6F72BFE8DA4AB41969D2AA065562DA43}, booktitle={Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law}, year={2022}, month={Nov} } @inbook{klein_mclaughlin_2022, place={Basingstoke}, title={Komeito in 2021: Strategizing Between the LDP and Soka Gakkai}, booktitle={Japan Decides 2021: The Japanese Lower House Election}, publisher={Palgrave Macmillan}, author={Klein, Axel and McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Pekkanen, Robert J. and Reed, Steven R. and Smith, Daniel M.Editors}, year={2022} } @inbook{klein_mclaughlin_2022, title={Kōmeitō in 2021: Strategizing Between the LDP and Sōka Gakkai}, ISBN={9783031113239 9783031113246}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11324-6_6}, DOI={10.1007/978-3-031-11324-6_6}, booktitle={Japan Decides 2021}, publisher={Springer International Publishing}, author={Klein, Axel and McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Pekkanen, Robert J. and Reed, Steven R. and Smith, Daniel M.Editors}, year={2022}, month={Dec}, pages={71–85} } @article{mclaughlin_2021, title={Beethoven and Buddhism in a Japanese Religion: Culture as Cultivation in Soka Gakkai}, volume={68}, ISSN={["1568-5276"]}, url={https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341641}, DOI={10.1163/15685276-12341641}, abstractNote={Abstract Why is the museum at the headquarters of the lay Japanese Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai full of pianos? How did Gakkai members in Japan come to revere the compositions and ethos of Ludwig van Beethoven as means of defending Buddhist orthodoxy? And how did this Buddhist organization come to rely on classical music as a key form of self-cultivation and institution building? This article draws on ethnographic engagements with musicians in Soka Gakkai, along with study of the Gakkai’s development in 20th-century Japan, to detail how practitioners’ Buddho-cultural pursuits demonstrate ways cultural practices can create religion. Attention to Soka Gakkai’s fusions of European high culture with lay Buddhist teachings and practices troubles static definitions of “Buddhism” and signals the need for broader inquiry into the nature of religious belonging through investigations of aesthetic forms.}, number={5-6}, journal={NUMEN-INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS}, publisher={Brill}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2021}, month={Sep}, pages={593–618} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2021, place={New York}, title={Disasters}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350043763.ch-004}, DOI={10.5040/9781350043763.ch-004}, booktitle={The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions}, publisher={Bloomsbury Academic}, author={Mclaughlin, Levi}, editor={Baffelli, Erica and Castiglioni, Andrea and Rambelli, FabioEditors}, year={2021}, pages={27–33} } @book{mclaughlin_rots_thomas_watanabe_2021, title={Investigating the Corporate Form in Practice: Heterarchy, hitozukuri, Hello Kitty, and the Public Good}, url={http://tif.ssrc.org/2021/04/02/investigating-the-corporate-formin-practice/?source=relatedposts&fbclid=IwAR1J2KUaqP7wZ8O5ntEepaxxWxESV_14i1iIsqAFf_JMki6ANfSLZW1XrE.}, journal={The Immanent Frame: The Corporate Form}, institution={Social Science Research Council}, author={McLaughlin, Levi and Rots, Aike P. and Thomas, Jolyon Baraka and Watanabe, Chika}, year={2021}, month={Apr} } @inbook{klein_mclaughlin_2021, title={Kōmeitō}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190050993.013.5}, DOI={10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190050993.013.5}, abstractNote={Abstract This chapter surveys the history, operation in coalition, support base, and key policies of Kōmeitō (the Clean Government Party). It begins with an overview of party typologies and argues that Kōmeitō is not easily placed in any comparative political science category. The chapter then delves into the party’s history, detailing its origins in 1964 as an outgrowth from Sōka Gakkai, an influential Japanese lay Buddhist organization. It discusses Kōmeitō’s increasing institutional disaggregation from Sōka Gakkai after its formal separation in 1970, its role in changing Japan’s political system in the 1990s, and its entrée into governmental coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 1999. The analysis extends to the present and draws on elections data, party publications, interviews with Kōmeitō politicians, ethnography within Sōka Gakkai, and other sources to track ways the party has relied on Gakkai vote-gatherers to secure a pivotal position within Japanese politics, even as its adherent supporters have become increasingly diverse and liable to critique the party their religion founded. It concludes by considering challenges Kōmeitō faces from within Sōka Gakkai, from the LDP, and from Japan’s demographic, political, and societal shifts.}, booktitle={The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Politics}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, author={Klein, Axel and McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2021}, month={Feb}, pages={201–222} } @book{mclaughlin_moodie_2021, title={Making Persons, Cultures, and Nations}, url={https://tif.ssrc.org/2021/05/07/making-persons-cultures-and-nations/.}, journal={The Immanent Frame: The Corporate Form}, author={McLaughlin, Levi and Moodie, Deonnie}, year={2021}, month={May} } @article{mclaughlin_2021, title={Prayer as Action: Buddhist Priests During COVID-19 in Japan}, number={Spring}, journal={Dharma World}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2021}, pages={22–25} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2021, place={Lanham, MD}, title={Soka Gakkai's Impact on Constitutional Revision Attempts}, ISBN={9781793609052 9781793609045}, booktitle={Japanese Constitutional Revisionism and Civic Activism}, publisher={Lexington Books}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Hardacre, Helen and George, Timothy S. and Komamura, Keigo and Seraphim, FranziskaEditors}, year={2021}, pages={161–174} } @article{onaga_schieder_buhrman_jacoby_juraku_slater_wiemann_dekant_winter_herzum_et al._2021, title={Sources of Disaster: A Roundtable Discussion on New Epistemic Perspectives in Post-3.11 Japan}, volume={15}, ISSN={["1875-2152"]}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85136350302&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.1080/18752160.2021.1997015}, abstractNote={Abstract On 16 March 2021, the Teach311 + COVID-19 Collective (www.teach311.org) hosted a virtual roundtable discussion entitled “Sources of Disaster: New Epistemic Perspectives in Post-3.11 Japan.” The event brought together scholars and students researching the history and anthropology of Japan to explore how the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant disaster of 11 March 2011 (3.11) changed our ways of knowing the world. The roundtable focused on the idea of the “source” to get at these epistemic shifts in lived experience and practical knowledge as well as historiography, and to investigate ideas that range from what we can know about acceptable risk and safety to notions of home and belonging. “Source” is a way to think about origins, but also the materials—texts, media, or testimony—that we collect and analyze to give rise to new or better knowledge. Building upon previous Teach311 activities that explored the roots of 3.11 and genba, participants in this roundtable expanded upon the significance and meanings of the notion of a “source” relative to the politics of epistemology in their research and studies in order to examine what reconstruction means in history when it is conducted alongside recovery.}, number={4}, journal={EAST ASIAN SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL}, author={Onaga, Lisa and Schieder, Chelsea Szendi and Buhrman, Kristina and Jacoby, Julia Mariko and Juraku, Kohta and Slater, David H. and Wiemann, Anna and Dekant, Alexander and Winter, Stella and Herzum, Jacob and et al.}, year={2021}, month={Oct}, pages={482–496} } @article{baffelli_caple_mclaughlin_schröer_2021, title={The Aesthetics and Emotions of Religious Belonging: Examples from the Buddhist World}, volume={68}, ISSN={0029-5973 1568-5276}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341634}, DOI={10.1163/15685276-12341634}, abstractNote={Abstract The articles in this special issue illuminate the importance of aesthetics, affect, and emotion in the formation of religious communities through examples from the Buddhist world. This introduction reads across the contributors’ findings from different regions (China, India, Japan, and Tibet) and eras (from the 17th to the 21st centuries) to highlight common themes. It discusses how Buddhist communities can take shape around feelings of togetherness, distance, and absence, how bonds are forged and broken through spectacular and quotidian aesthetic forms, and how aesthetic and emotional practices intersect with doctrinal interpretations, gender, ethnicity, and social distinction to shape the moral politics of religious belonging. We reflect on how this special issue complicates the idea of Buddhist belonging through its focus on oft-overlooked practices and practitioners. We also discuss the insights that our studies of Asian Buddhist communities offer to the broader study of religious belonging.}, number={5-6}, journal={Numen}, publisher={Brill}, author={Baffelli, Erica and Caple, Jane and McLaughlin, Levi and Schröer, Frederik}, year={2021}, month={Sep}, pages={421–435} } @article{harris_mclaughlin_2021, title={The Small Pacifist Party That Could Shape Japan’s Future}, url={https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/04/komeito-ldp-japan-elections-defense-policy-china/}, journal={Foreign Policy}, author={Harris, Tobias and McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2021}, month={Apr} } @misc{mclaughlin_2021, title={The impact of COVID-19 on religion in Japan}, ISBN={9781315207964}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315207964-43}, DOI={10.4324/9781315207964-43}, abstractNote={On 3 June 2020, the Regional Planning Research Center at Taisho University, an institution of Buddhist higher learning in Tokyo, publicized results of a survey that canvassed temple priests across the country about their experience with Japan’s pandemic shutdown. Overall, Japan’s experience with COVID-19 appeared less dire than many had predicted would be the case in the pandemic’s early phases. In-person attendance at ceremonies is the social and economic lifeblood of Buddhist temples in Japan, as it is for Shinto shrines, Christian churches, and other religious organizations. Approval of certain ritual responses and public opprobrium for others sharpened divides between socially sanctioned Buddhist and Shinto traditions and so-called New Religions. Religious aid providers afford an alternative history of Japan’s experience with COVID-19, one told from the perspective of the country’s most precarious residents. COVID-19 has contributed directly to marginalizing Buddhist voices in the government and increasing opportunities for nationalists who promote a vision of a remilitarized Japan. © 2022 selection and editorial matter, Dorothea Lüddeckens, Philipp Hetmanczyk, Pamela E. Klassen, and Justin B. Stein;individual chapters, the contributors.}, journal={The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health}, publisher={Routledge}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2021}, month={Sep}, pages={515–520} } @article{mclaughlin_2020, title={Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan.}, volume={79}, ISSN={["1752-0401"]}, DOI={10.1017/S0021911820000510}, abstractNote={pp. 113-116 © The Japan Foundation, Sydney and Hamish Clark, 2020. J olyon Baraka Thomas’s Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in AmericanOccupied Japan is a thought-provoking case study of the uses and abuses of secularism and religious liberty during the post-war American Occupation of Japan, from 1945 to 1952.1 He interrogates the Occupation authorities’ claims that former Japanese governments had corrupted the separation of religion and the state. Thomas demonstrates that these claims did not represent the realities of the relationship between religion and state in Japan, and shows that the Occupation government used this deliberate misrepresentation as a foil to advance its self-proclaimed position as a religious liberator. Thomas, an assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, traces how this false narrative continues to shape contemporary understandings of religious freedom internationally. The result is an original study of a watershed period in Japanese history.}, number={2}, journal={JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2020}, month={May}, pages={514–517} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2020, place={Baden Baden}, title={How to do fieldwork: Studying Japan in and outside of Japan}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/9783845292878-157}, DOI={10.5771/9783845292878-157}, booktitle={Studying Japan: Research Designs, Fieldwork and Methods}, publisher={Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Kottmann, Nora and Reiher, CorneliaEditors}, year={2020}, pages={157–168} } @article{mclaughlin_2020, title={Japanese Religious Responses to COVID-19: A Preliminary Report}, volume={18}, url={https://apjjf.org/2020/9/McLaughlin.html}, number={9}, journal={The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2020}, month={May}, pages={5394} } @article{mclaughlin_2020, title={Naviguer entre deux eaux: plongée au coeur des groups LGBTQ+ du Soka Gakkai = Navigating Between Two Waters: A Plunge into the Heart of the LGBTQ+ Groups of Soka Gakkai}, number={Winter}, journal={Tempura}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2020}, pages={60–63} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2020, place={Honolulu, HI}, title={The Soka Gakkai Economy. Measuring Cycles of Exchange That Power Japan’s Largest Buddhist Lay Organization}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780824884161-007}, DOI={10.1515/9780824884161-007}, booktitle={Buddhism and Business: Merit, Material Wealth, and Morality in the Global Market Economy}, publisher={University of Hawaii Press}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Brox, Trine and Williams-Oerberg, ElizabethEditors}, year={2020}, month={Aug}, pages={76–92} } @article{mclaughlin_rots_thomas_watanabe_2020, title={Why Scholars of Religion Must Investigate the Corporate Form}, volume={88}, ISSN={0002-7189 1477-4585}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfaa041}, DOI={10.1093/jaarel/lfaa041}, abstractNote={AbstractA growing body of research describes connections between religion and economic activity through the language of commodification and marketization. Although this scholarship rightly challenges the assumption that religion is or should be divorced from worldly concerns, it still relies on distinctions between religion and the economy as isolable, reified entities. Rejecting this binary approach as untenable, we argue that studying the corporate form enriches the academic study of religion by providing concrete examples of how people create institutions and how organizations turn human bodies into resources while also fostering individuals’ devotion to collective agendas. Attention to the corporate form enables us to keep money and power in view as we trace historical formations and current manifestations of religious organizations. We investigate Japanese genealogies of the corporate form to elucidate some generalizable principles for how nonprofit religions and for-profit companies alike generate missions, families, individuals, and publics.}, number={3}, journal={Journal of the American Academy of Religion}, publisher={Oxford University Press (OUP)}, author={McLaughlin, Levi and Rots, Aike P and Thomas, Jolyon Baraka and Watanabe, Chika}, year={2020}, month={Aug}, pages={693–725} } @book{mclaughlin_2019, title={Soka Gakkai’s Human Revolution}, ISBN={9780824877897}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780824877897}, DOI={10.1515/9780824877897}, publisher={University of Hawaii Press}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2019}, month={Mar} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2019, place={New York}, title={Using Buddhist Resources in Post-disaster Japan: Taniyama Yōzō’s “Vihāra Priests and Interfaith Chaplains” (2014)}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.7312/salg18936-021}, DOI={10.7312/salg18936-021}, booktitle={Buddhism and Medicine}, publisher={Columbia University Press}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Salguero, PierceEditor}, year={2019}, month={Dec}, pages={164–176} } @misc{klein_mclaughlin_2018, title={Kōmeitō 2017: New Complications}, ISBN={9783319764740 9783319764757}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76475-7_4}, DOI={10.1007/978-3-319-76475-7_4}, journal={Japan Decides 2017}, publisher={Springer International Publishing}, author={Klein, Axel and McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2018}, pages={53–76} } @book{soka gakkai's human revolution_2018, url={https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/soka-gakkais-human-revolution-the-rise-of-a-mimetic-nation-in-modern-japan/}, journal={University of Hawaii Press}, year={2018}, month={Dec} } @misc{mclaughlin_2018, title={Women in Japanese Religions by Barbara R. Ambros}, volume={44}, ISSN={1549-4721}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jjs.2018.0014}, DOI={10.1353/jjs.2018.0014}, abstractNote={does not become a site of impurity but rather of sorrow, and the primary theme is the transience of the phenomenal world. Fujō, in other words, is transformed into mujō. Finally, in a somewhat disjointed but still intriguing epilogue, Pandey argues for the fl uid nature of the body within the Buddhist worldview. Tales in Konjaku monogatarishū that relate how a urinating woman was penetrated by a snake, or how a sleeping monk inadvertently used a snake’s open mouth as a vagina, are interpreted as indications that people and animals inhabited the same conceptual world. Pandey also mentions the famous story of the man who had intercourse with a turnip but stops short of incorporating vegetables in that world. She concludes that despite all efforts, we are still entangled in our own assumptions, which are dominated by modern, and in most cases Western, modes of thinking. Nonetheless, her valiant and often successful effort in overcoming those assumptions provides us with an intriguing volume. While I enjoyed and appreciated the book overall, I have a couple of complaints. There are too many long footnotes, many of which could have been incorporated into the text. In one case, Pandey uses romanized Japanese phrases to compare the work of two poets, relegating English translations of the poems to the notes. Such a treatment is not only irritating but probably discouraging to the nonspecialist readers who, I hope, might read this book. And while the illustrations are for the most part well chosen, Figure 2, from Ban Dainagon emaki, is not clear enough in its present form to display the “exaggerated facial expressions” that Pandey claims it does. Perhaps it should have been larger, or in color. These are minor problems that should not detract from the value of the book as a whole but refl ect issues that both authors and publishers should consider.}, number={1}, journal={The Journal of Japanese Studies}, publisher={Project Muse}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2018}, pages={160–165} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2017, place={Honolulu, HI}, title={The Rise of the "Clinical Religionist"}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780824858582-021}, DOI={10.1515/9780824858582-021}, booktitle={Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia}, publisher={University of Hawaii Press}, author={McLaughlin, L.}, editor={Samuels, Jeffrey and McDaniel, Justin Thomas and Rowe, Mark MichaelEditors}, year={2017}, month={Dec}, pages={65–67} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2017, place={Honolulu, HI}, title={Two Self-Sacrificing Bureaucrats}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780824858582-034}, DOI={10.1515/9780824858582-034}, booktitle={Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia}, publisher={University of Hawaii Press}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Samuels, Jeffrey and McDaniel, Justin Thomas and Rowe, Mark MichaelEditors}, year={2017}, month={Dec}, pages={99–102} } @article{mclaughlin_2016, title={Hard lessons learned: Tracking changes in media presentations of religion and religious aid mobilization after the 1995 and 2011 disasters in Japan}, volume={75}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84977529548&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.18874/ae.75.1.05}, number={1}, journal={Asian Ethnology}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2016}, pages={105–137} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2016, place={Washington, D.C}, title={Japan’s Ruling Coalition Gets Religion}, booktitle={New Perspectives on Japan from the U.S.- Japan Network for the Future}, publisher={The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2016}, month={Jun}, pages={29–34} } @book{mclaughlin_2016, title={Religious Responses to the 2011 Tsunami in Japan}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.013.29}, DOI={10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935420.013.29}, journal={Oxford Handbooks Online}, publisher={Oxford University Press}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2016}, month={Apr} } @article{fountain_mclaughlin_2016, title={Salvage and salvation: Guest editors’ introduction}, volume={75}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84977590873&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.18874/ae.75.1.01}, number={1}, journal={Asian Ethnology}, author={Fountain, P. and McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2016}, pages={1–28} } @article{mclaughlin_2015, title={Beyond the Mushroom Cloud: Commemoration, Religion, and Responsibility after Hiroshima.}, volume={41}, ISSN={["1549-4721"]}, DOI={10.1353/jjs.2015.0009}, abstractNote={Reviewed by: Beyond the Mushroom Cloud: Commemoration, Religion, and Responsibility after Hiroshima by Yuki Miyamoto Levi McLaughlin (bio) Beyond the Mushroom Cloud: Commemoration, Religion, and Responsibility after Hiroshima. By Yuki Miyamoto. Fordham University Press, Bronx, 2012. xvi, 233 pages. $85.00, cloth; $30.00, paper. Yuki Miyamoto’s thought-provoking book analyzes a wide array of philosophical, religious, popular media, museum, and governmental efforts that give voice to the lives of hibakusha: survivors of the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Beyond the Mushroom Cloud compellingly mixes [End Page 153] the analytical and the prescriptive as it proceeds from ethical interpretations of the atrocities at Hiroshima and Nagasaki toward a demand for universal responsibility to join what Miyamoto refers to as an “inclusive community of memory.” This community enjoins everyone, not only hibakusha, to promote Hiroshima’s challenging postwar moral imperative of “not retaliation, but reconciliation.” Scholars have already addressed some of the issues Miyamoto engages, such as the nature of atomic bomb site remembrance,1 controversy that surrounds commemoration of the war dead,2 and dilemmas occasioned by relying on Japan’s religious traditions as resources for peace.3 Beyond the Mushroom Cloud casts a wider net than almost all of these studies: it draws inventively on a broad range of Japanese texts and ideas from ethicists inside and outside Japan to suggest possibilities inherent within hibakusha narratives to erase distinctions between victim and victimizer, and even between the living and the dead. Miyamoto splits her book into three sections. “Commemoration,” the first and strongest section, opens with chapter 1, “Toward a Community of Memory,” which Miyamoto begins with a discussion of outrage triggered by the 1995 Smithsonian exhibition that displayed both the Enola Gay (the aircraft that dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima) and Japanese testimonials of the atomic bombing. She turns to Avishai Margalit’s work on memory and community, acknowledging the difficult task of moving beyond “thick” relations of natural communities (one’s own family, nation, and/or ethnicity) to apply the Good Samaritan’s principle of selfless love of fellow human beings in order to foster universal ethical relations. Miyamoto asserts that the dangers of nuclear weapons pose such an overwhelming existential threat to humankind that the community-specific experiences of Japanese hibakusha translate across divides, and that the nation-state—which Margalit proposes as a natural forum—is demonstrably not the most desirable location for a community of memory. She suggests that municipally generated efforts to establish Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park and Museum serve as an inspiring example of how a community of memory may transcend nation-centered [End Page 154] politics. Self-reflection evident in the museum presentations and in advocacy by Hiroshima’s municipal politicians acknowledges ambiguous identities of hibakusha as victims and perpetrators, and their identity as survivors who are not necessarily Japanese. These efforts have enabled Hiroshima to present itself outside national frameworks as a model for transcending ideological, class, and religious differences. “Commemoration” continues with chapter 2 in which Miyamoto lays out a persuasive critique of Sueki Fumihiko’s comparative analysis of Yasukuni Shrine to the war dead and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park with her own comparison of the two sites. She deftly dismantles Sueki’s positive assessment of Yasukuni as she extends some of his ideas, notably the principle of “transethics” and the importance of fostering a dialogue with the dead in order to cultivate ethics in the living. Sueki, in his 2006 book Bukkyō vs. rinri (Buddhism versus ethics), castigates what he perceives as Buddhism’s failure to take death seriously in its progressively modernizing, rationalizing forms. By positing stark differentiation between the living and spirits of the dead, modern Buddhism limits ethical discourse to the human relations of the living, thereby blocking a Buberian I / Thou relationship with the dead that appreciates forces beyond man-made comprehension—a transcendence Sueki calls “transethics” (chōrinri). Sueki praises Yasukuni for what he sees as the transethical manner in which the shrine communes with spirits, and he criticizes the Hiroshima memorial’s nonreligious cenotaph as arrogant mistreatment of the dead that leaves them sitting in silence rather than engaging them through religious ritual. Miyamoto strongly resists Sueki’s claims...}, number={1}, journal={JOURNAL OF JAPANESE STUDIES}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2015}, pages={153–158} } @article{mclaughlin_2015, title={Komeito’s Soka Gakkai Protestors and Supporters: Religious Motivations for Political Activism in Contemporary Japan}, volume={13}, url={http://japanfocus.org/-Levi-McLaughlin/4386/article.html}, number={41}, journal={The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2015}, month={Oct}, pages={4386} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2014, place={Berkeley, CA}, series={Japan Research Monograph}, title={Electioneering as Religious Practice: A History of Sōka Gakkai’s Political Activities to 1970}, ISBN={9781557291110}, booktitle={Kōmeitō: Politics and Religion in Japan}, publisher={Institute of East Asian Studies}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Ehrhardt, G. and Klein, A. and McLaughlin, L. and Reed, S.R.Editors}, year={2014}, pages={51–82}, collection={Japan Research Monograph} } @inbook{ehrhardt_klein_mclaughlin_reed_2014, place={Berkeley}, series={Japan Research Monograph}, title={Komeito: Politics and Religion in Japan}, ISBN={9781557291110}, booktitle={Komeito: Politics and Religion in Japan}, publisher={Institute of East Asian Studies}, author={Ehrhardt, George and Klein, Axel and McLaughlin, Levi and Reed, Steven}, editor={Ehrhardt, G. and Klein, A. and McLaughlin, L. and Reed, S.R.Editors}, year={2014}, pages={269–275}, collection={Japan Research Monograph} } @book{ehrhardt_klein_mclaughlin_reed_2014, title={Kōmeitō: Religion and Politics in Japan}, publisher={Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley}, year={2014} } @inbook{ehrhardt_klein_mclaughlin_reed_2014, place={Berkeley, CA}, series={Japanese Research Monograph}, title={Kōmeitō: The Most Understudied Party of Japanese Politics}, booktitle={Kōmeitō: Politics and Religion in Japan}, publisher={Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California}, author={Ehrhardt, George and Klein, Axel and McLaughlin, Levi and Reed, Steven}, editor={Ehrhardt, G. and Klein, A. and McLaughlin, L. and Reed, S.R.Editors}, year={2014}, pages={3–22}, collection={Japanese Research Monograph} } @article{mclaughlin_2013, title={Reconnecting with Everyday Life: Buddhism through Simple Gestures in the Café de Monk}, volume={40}, journal={Dharma World}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2013}, month={Jul}, pages={22–25} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2013, title={Sōka Gakkai}, url={https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/soka-gakkai/}, booktitle={World Religions & Spirituality Project}, publisher={Virginia Commonwealth University}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Bromley, DavidEditor}, year={2013} } @article{mclaughlin_2013, title={What Have Religious Groups Done After 3.11? Part 1: A Brief Survey of Religious Mobilization after the Great East Japan Earthquake Disasters}, volume={7}, ISSN={1749-8171}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12057}, DOI={10.1111/rec3.12057}, abstractNote={AbstractThis article serves two principal purposes: 1) to survey the many rescue, relief, and reconstruction initiatives undertaken by Buddhist, Shinto, Christian, and New Religious organizations in the two years since the March 2011 disasters that devastated northeast Japan, and 2) to introduce electronic and print resources to readers interested in learning more about specific religious disaster response campaigns. The pragmatic aid efforts carried out by religions contrast with moralistic interpretations offered by public figures, and they indicate that many religious groups regard their disaster aid not as temporary relief but instead as opportunities to begin positive new engagements with the Japanese public.}, number={8}, journal={Religion Compass}, publisher={Wiley}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2013}, month={Aug}, pages={294–308} } @article{mclaughlin_2013, title={What Have Religious Groups Done After 3.11? Part 2: From Religious Mobilization to “Spiritual Care”}, volume={7}, ISSN={1749-8171}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12056}, DOI={10.1111/rec3.12056}, abstractNote={Buddhist, Christian, Shinto, and other religious responses to devastation in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters in northeast Japan have included a great deal more than providing material aid and seeing to the ritual needs of the dead and the bereaved. This article considers ways in which burgeoning collaborations of religious professionals, clinical care workers, and academics are crafting a public persona of religion as “spiritual care,” a new formulation designed to meet the needs of a Japanese public that welcomes therapeutic interventions for disaster victims yet remains leery of religion. While the move from the religious to the spiritual presents novel opportunities to rehabilitate Japanese religion's public image, it appears as if some post‐disaster religious initiatives challenge definitions of what “religion” may include. These initiatives also pose open questions about how Japanese religious institutions and practices may change as they adapt to the priorities of a public in need of help but ill‐disposed toward religion.}, number={8}, journal={Religion Compass}, publisher={Wiley}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2013}, month={Aug}, pages={309–325} } @article{mclaughlin_2012, title={Did Aum change everything? What Soka Gakkai before, during, and after the Aum Shinrikyō affair tells us about the persistent "otherness" of new religions in Japan}, volume={39}, url={http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84863541917&partnerID=MN8TOARS}, DOI={10.18874/jjrs.39.1.2012.51-75}, abstractNote={Scholars share a broad consensus that the Aum Shinrikyō subway attacks in March 1995 fundamentally shifted prevailing attitudes against “religion” in Japan. However, comparison with the case of Soka Gakkai, Japan’s largest active “new religion,” complicates this view. In this article, I provide a counter-narrative to the argument that “Aum changed everything” by showing that public officials’ strategies against Aum Shinrikyō from 1995 emerged in large part from a sustained anti-Soka Gakkai campaign that intensified immediately before the Aum attacks. Tracking interactions among politicians, the media, and Soka Gakkai before and during the Aum Shinrikyō incident, I outline ways in which Soka Gakkai and Aum Shinrikyō form part of a historical continuity of high-profile “new religions” that public moralists have consistently scapegoated for political gain throughout the modern era. At the same time, I also confirm that Aum Shinrikyō did, in a way, change everything: Aum may have marked the end of religious mass movements in contemporary Japan.}, number={1}, journal={Japanese Journal of Religious Studies}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2012}, pages={51–75} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2012, title={Sōka Gakkai in Japan}, volume={6}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004234369_013}, DOI={10.1163/9789004234369_013}, abstractNote={This chapter discusses the contemporary characteristics and historical development of Sōka Gakkai, or the 'Value Creation Study Association', a group that began in 1930s Japan as a society of educators and grew into a postwar religious mass movement. Though Sōka Gakkai is commonly characterized as a lay movement within the Nichiren Shōshū Buddhist tradition, it is much more than a Buddhist organization and is instead heir to what the author characterize as 'twin legacies'. These are (i) a tradition of self-cultivation through the practice of Nichiren Shōshū Buddhism, and (ii) intellectual currents that flourished in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries in Japan valorizing education, pedagogy, and humanism. Instead of being an organization dedicated to promulgating Nichiren Buddhism, Sōka Gakkai has increasingly become an end in itself, and Nichiren Buddhism is subordinated to the group's 'culture' mission and centralization on Ikeda Daisaku. Keywords:Buddhist organization; Ikeda Daisaku; Japan; Nichiren Shōshū Buddhism; Sōka Gakkai; twin legacies}, booktitle={Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions}, publisher={BRILL}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, editor={Prohl, Inken and Nelson, JohnEditors}, year={2012}, month={Jan}, pages={269–307} } @article{mclaughlin_2011, title={In the Wake of the Tsunami: Religious Responses to the Great East Japan Earthquake*}, volume={61}, ISSN={0011-1953}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-3881.2011.00184.x}, DOI={10.1111/j.1939-3881.2011.00184.x}, abstractNote={A t 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, the T ohoku region of Japan was struck by what is now known officially in English as the Great East Japan Earthquake. Measuring 9.0 on the Rector scale, the catastrophic quake just off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture produced a massive tsunami that damaged or wiped out dozens of communities in eighteen prefectures along the northeast coastline of Honsh u, the largest of the Japanese islands. It also triggered nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant, located approximately 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo. The official death toll of the Great East Japan Earthquake exceeds 15,000; more than 8,000 remain missing; hundreds of thousands were rendered homeless or displaced; and more will inevitably die in the years to come from injury and radiation sickness. Scenes of destruction and human suffering in the wake of the quake and tsunami elicited worldwide support, both material and spiritual. But amid global calls for prayer and other religious responses, the most widely publicized religious response to the nation’s worst disaster since the Second World War came from within Japan itself—a series of comments made by 78-year-old Tokyo Governor, Shintar o Ishihara. Ishihara, a prize-winning novelist, stage and screen actor, and a populist hero of the Japanese right, has gained notoriety for his willingness to court controversy, but his take on the tragedy in northeastern Japan}, number={3}, journal={CrossCurrents}, publisher={Project Muse}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2011}, month={Sep}, pages={290–297} } @misc{mclaughlin_2011, title={Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism}, volume={84}, number={4}, journal={Pacific Affairs}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2011}, month={Dec}, pages={765–766} } @inbook{mclaughlin_2011, place={Tokyo}, title={SGI-USA no kokujin myūjishantachi = African-American Musicians in SGI-USA}, booktitle={Shūkyō to gendai ga wakaru hon 2011}, publisher={Heibonsha}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2011}, pages={168–173} } @article{mclaughlin_2011, title={Tokyo Governor Says Tsunami is Divine Punishment – Religious Groups Ignore Him}, url={http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/4399/tokyo_governor_says_tsunami_is_divine_punishment%E2%80%94religious_groups_ignore_him}, journal={Religion Dispatches}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2011}, month={Mar} } @article{mclaughlin_2010, title={All Research is Fieldwork: A Practical Introduction to Studying in Japan as a Foreign Researcher}, volume={8}, url={http://japanfocus.org/-Levi-McLaughlin/3388/article.html}, number={30}, journal={The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2010}, month={Jul}, pages={3388} } @misc{mclaughlin_2010, title={Prophet Motive: Deguchi Onisaburō, Oomoto, and the Rise of New Religions in Imperial Japan - By Nancy K. Stalker}, volume={36}, ISSN={0319-485X}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-0922.2010.01455_9.x}, DOI={10.1111/j.1748-0922.2010.01455_9.x}, abstractNote={Religious Studies ReviewVolume 36, Issue 3 p. 247-247 Prophet Motive: Deguchi Onisaburō, Oomoto, and the Rise of New Religions in Imperial Japan – By Nancy K. Stalker Levi McLaughlin, Levi McLaughlin Wofford CollegeSearch for more papers by this author Levi McLaughlin, Levi McLaughlin Wofford CollegeSearch for more papers by this author First published: 22 September 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-0922.2010.01455_9.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume36, Issue3September 2010Pages 247-247 RelatedInformation}, number={3}, journal={Religious Studies Review}, publisher={Wiley}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2010}, month={Sep}, pages={247–247} } @misc{mclaughlin_2010, title={When Tengu Talk: Hirata Atsutane's Ethnography of the Other World - By Wilburn Hansen}, volume={36}, ISSN={0319-485X}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-0922.2010.01455_3.x}, DOI={10.1111/j.1748-0922.2010.01455_3.x}, abstractNote={WHEN TENGU TALK: HIRATA ATSUTANE'S ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE OTHER WORLD . By Wilburn Hansen . Honolulu : University of Press , 2008 . Pp. vii + 268 . Cloth, $54.00 . Hansen addresses an undervalued aspect of early modern Japanese intellectual history, namely inquiries into the supernatural by Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843). Atsutane was a seminal scholar of kokugaku, or Nativism, who promoted the reestablishment of Japan's “ancient ways” as he denigrated “foreign” traditions such as Buddhism and Chinese teachings. In When Tengu Talk, Hansen introduces us to Atsutane's 1822 treatise Senkyō ibun (Strange Tales of the Land of Immortals), which consists primarily of Atsutane's interviews with Torakichi, a young boy from the Edo slums who claimed to have been raised in the mountains by supernatural beings called tengu. Hansen counters dominant interpretations in kokugaku studies that marginalize Senkyō ibun as a “superstitious” curiosity in Atsutane's oeuvre. Instead, he treats this work as a serious attempt by the Nativist scholar to compose a thick description of the “other world” and discover native Japanese religious virtuosi (called sanjin) who are superior to Buddhist bodhisattvas and Daoist immortals. The author argues thereby that Senkyō ibun not only serves as an important source of religious justifications for Japanese nationalism, but as a legitimate example of anthropological inquiry by an early modern thinker. Hansen is perhaps overly enthusiastic in making his case, as his descriptions of Atsutane's “ethnography” at times create the impression that the Tokugawa-era scholar thought of himself in terms created by late twentieth-century anthropologists. Also, the book would have benefited from the inclusion of at least a partial critical translation of Senkyō ibun in lieu of some redundant exposition on theoretical concerns. However, the six chapters and conclusion include long translated passages supplemented by interpretation that will prove useful to students of intellectual history, anthropology, religion, and cultural studies, and Hansen's reinterpretation of Atsutane as ethnographer promises to inspire new conversations among scholars of early modern Japan.}, number={3}, journal={Religious Studies Review}, publisher={Wiley}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2010}, month={Sep}, pages={244–245} } @article{mclaughlin_2004, title={Shinkō to ongaku no yūwa o mitomete: watashi no deatta sōka gakkai ōkesutora = Toward a Harmonization of Religious Practice and Music: My Encounter with a Soka Gakkai Orchestra}, journal={Sekai}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2004}, month={Jun}, pages={182–189} } @article{mclaughlin_2004, title={Sōka gakkai no bunka katsudō: Nihon bukkyōkei shinshūkyō ni okeru bunkateki rinen no jun’ō to hensen = Sōka Gakkai’s Cultural Activities: The Adaptation and Transformation of Culture in a Buddhist-based Japanese New Religion}, journal={Kokugakuin Daigaku Nihon Bunka Kenkyūshohō}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2004}, month={Jun}, pages={10–11} } @article{mclaughlin_2003, title={Faith and Practice: Bringing Religion, Music and Beethoven to Life in Soka Gakkai}, volume={6}, ISSN={1369-1465 1468-2680}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/6.2.161}, DOI={10.1093/ssjj/6.2.161}, abstractNote={This paper presents research on the activities of a symphony orchestra organized by Soka Gakkai, Japan's largest new religious movement. Examples drawn from the author's experience as a musician and researcher within the group illustrate that the members' activities are a fusion of Buddhist practice, value inculcation and musical expression.The latter informs their religious experience, manifest on the one hand as Western musical elements infused into Buddhist chant, and on the other as a deep reverence for one particular composerLudwig van Beethoven. Historical evidence and ethnographic case studies provide an explanation for this dynamic combination, and point to avenues of inquiry that can be undertaken by scholars researching Japanese new religious movements at the grass-roots level. Material drawn from fieldwork is in part analysed using typologies of new religions proposed by Japanese scholars.These models prove useful in describing general tendencies, but long-term participant observation reveals complexities of personal religious experience that do not necessarily conform to macro-level theory.}, number={2}, journal={Social Science Japan Journal}, publisher={Oxford University Press (OUP)}, author={McLaughlin, L.}, year={2003}, month={Oct}, pages={161–179} } @article{mclaughlin_2003, title={Ibunkakan komyunikēshon no arikata = Means of Intercultural Communication}, journal={Kokugakuin Daigaku Nihon Bunka Kenkyūshohō}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={2003}, month={Mar}, pages={12} } @article{mclaughlin_takemura_2002, title={Zen and Pure Land: An Important Aspect of D.T. Suzuki’s Interpretation of Buddhism}, volume={XXXIV}, number={2}, journal={The Eastern Buddhist}, author={McLaughlin, Levi and Takemura, Makio}, year={2002}, pages={117–140} } @book{mclaughlin_2001, place={Tokyo, Japan}, title={Long Journey to Japan}, publisher={NHK Promotions}, author={McLaughlin, L.}, year={2001}, month={Sep} } @book{mclaughlin_1994, place={Tokyo}, edition={English}, title={Encyclopedia of Shinto}, publisher={Kobundo. Kokugakuin University, Institute for Japanese Culture and Classics}, author={McLaughlin, Levi}, year={1994} }