Shintō Research and the Humanities in Japan　By　Toji Kamata
Abstract
Three approaches to scholarship are “scholarship as a way,” which aims at perfection of character, “scholarship as a method,” which clearly limits objects and methods in order to achieve precise perception and new knowledge, and “scholarship as an expression,” which takes various approaches to questions and inquiry. The “humanities” participate deeply and broadly in all three of these approaches. In relation to this view of the humanities, Japanese Shintō is a field of study that yields rich results. As a religion of awe, shrine groves, community, arts, and entertainment, it is a research field that joins together the study of human beings, nature, society, and expression. While elucidating the characteristics of Shintō and its differences with Buddhism, we draw attention to the seven dimensions of “place, way, beauty, festival, technique, poetry, and ecological wisdom,” then finally take up “research on techniques of body and mind transformation” as a comprehensive and creative development in the “humanities.”