This anthology explores the intersection of humor and laughter with various faith, religious, and mythic traditions.Each chapter covers a unique case where humor and laughter have intersected with some part of a religious, cultural, or mythic tradition and explores how and why laughter and humor are important in those stories. The contributors also explore how the role of humor and laughter shaped and influenced the various religions, cultures, or myths and what th...

The Japanese Middle Ages were a period when forms of secrecy dominated religious practice. This fascinating collection traces out the secret characteristics and practices in Japanese religion, as well as analyzing the decline of religious esotericism in Japan.The essays in this impressive work refer to Esoteric Buddhism as the core of Japan’s "culture of secrecy". Esoteric Buddhism developed in almost all Buddhist countries of Asia, but it was of particular importance in Japan wher...

This book sheds new light on the relationship between religion and state in early modern Japan, and demonstrates the growing awareness of Shinto in both the political and the intellectual elite of Tokugawa Japan, even though Buddhism remained the privileged means of stately religious control.The first part analyses how the Tokugawa government aimed to control the populace via Buddhism and at the same time submitted Buddhism to the sacralization of the Tokugawa dynasty. The second p...