Book Publication Announcement: Transforming Japanese Gods: Ancient and Medieval Literature by Professor HAN Chong-mi

Professor HAN Chong-mi (Dankook University), a visiting scholar at Tokyo College, has published her book, Transforming Japanese Gods: Ancient and Medieval Literature (Musashinoshoin) on December 21.

<Abstract>

In classical Japanese literary texts, belief in gods and Buddha is depicted in various forms. Although studies of the gods in various literary texts have been conducted, few have addressed the issue of the transformation of the gods in literary texts, focusing on the time frame from ancient times to the medieval period. This book, "Transforming Japanese Gods: Ancient and Medieval Literature" is an interdisciplinary study of Japanese classical literature and Japanese religions that examines how the character of the gods and the meaning of the belief in deities in the society of the time are depicted in literary texts from ancient times to the Middle Ages. It also examines the role of the belief in gods in classical literature, and how this belief changed over time. Therefore, the significance of this study lies in its focus on the transformation of literary texts anddeities, which has rarely been addressed in previous studies, and in its consideration of how belief in deities is incorporated into the structure and techniques of literature, and specifically in clarifying how it is transformed.

The specific research method will focus on elucidating the aspects of the godspersistence and transformation from ancient times to the Middle Ages as they appeared in literary texts from a holistic and diachronic perspective, while collecting, assembling, and organizing materials that can confirm these aspects of transformation, and reviewing research results to date. Based on this, the study is divided into six parts: The Transformation of Sumiyoshi-god, The Transformation of Kamo-god, The Transformation of Ise-god,The Transformation of Hachiman-god, The Transformation of Kasuga-god, and The Transformation of Tenjin.