Narratives of sorrow and dignity : Japanese women, pregnancy loss, and modern rituals of grieving / Bardwell L. Smith.

  • Smith, Bardwell L., 1925-2022.
Date:
2013
  • Books

About this work

Description

"Bardwell L. Smith offers a fresh perspective on mizuko kuyō, the Japanese ceremony performed to bring solace to those who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion. Showing how old and new forms of myth, symbol, doctrine, praxis, and organization combine and overlap in contemporary mizuko kuȳō, Smith provides critical insight from many angles: the sociology of the family, the power of the medical profession, the economics of temples, the import of ancestral connections, the need for healing in both private and communal ways and, perhaps above all, the place of women in modern Japanese religion. At the heart of Smith's research is the issue of how human beings experience the death of a life that has been and remains precious to them. While universal, these losses are also personal and unique. The role of society in helping people to heal from these experiences varies widely and has changed enormously in recent decades. In examples of grieving for these kinds of losses one finds narratives not only of deep sorrow but of remarkable dignity."--Publisher's website.

Publication/Creation

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Physical description

xvii, 410 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Series

Contributors

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 359-397) and index.

Contents

Part 1: Approaching the Worlds of Mizuko. Mizuko Kuyo: Memorial Services for Child Loss in Japan ; Architectural, Iconographic, Doctrinal Features of Mizuko Kuyo ; Situating the Rites of Mourning: Two Temples and a Variety of Visitors ; The Phenomena of Mizuko Kuyo: Responses to Pregnancy Loss. -- Part 2: Deciphering the Worlds of Pregnancy Loss: Women, Men, and the Unborn. Japanese Woman as Housewife, Mother, and Worker: Patterns of Change and Continuity (1868-2010) ; Ancestors, Angry Spirits, and the Unborn: Caring for the Dead on the Path to Ancestorhood ; Mothers, Society, and Pregnancy Loss: Rethinking the Meaning of Nurture. -- Part 3: Relating Mizuko Rei to the Larger Worlds of Profound Loss ; The Revival of Death, the Rebirth of Grieving, and Ways of Mourning ; Rituals of Affliction; An Invitation to Sobriety. -- Appendices. Adashino Nenbutsuji, English language text of Mizuko kuyo service ; Yvonne Rand, Jizo: Protector of Travelers into and out of Life ; Sai-no-kawara text, tr. of Manabe Kosai. Jizo-bosatsu no kenkyu [Research on Jizo Bodhisattva]. Kyoto: Sanmitsudo shoten, 1960 ; Yasuo Sakakibara, Economic Development and Temple Economics in Japan.

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Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    USE.26
    		Open shelves

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Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9780199942138
  • 0199942137
  • 9780199942152
  • 0199942153