Ritual Poetry and the Politics of Death in Early Japan

(Paperback)

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This examination of death rituals in early Japan finds in the practice of double burial a key to understanding the Taika Era, or the "Era of Great Change" (645-710 C.H.). Drawing on narratives and poems from the earliest Japanese texts -- the Kojiki, a mythology, the Nihonshoki, a historical chronicle, and the Man' yoshu, an anthology of poetry -- Ebersole argues that double burial was the center of a manipulation of myth and ritual for specific ideological and factional purposes.

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"So convincing is the historical and religious thought displayed here, it is impossible to imagine how anyone can ever again read these documents in the old way."--The Journal of Religion