This study seeks to explore how Swedish textbooks in religion for upper secondary school presents East Asian teachings. The main focus will be on Confucianism, Daoism and Shinto. The aim is to explore how textbook authors relate to the Western concept of reli-gion when they describe the three East Asian teachings. Where do the authors choose to put the most emphasis when the coverage of the textbooks is limited? The study is done by qualitative text analysis as method. The theoretical perspective used is primarily critical religion theory. Five textbooks of religion for upper secondary school were studied and show in the results the different themes found in the texts regarding East Asian teachings. The analysis shows that Confucianism, Daoism and Shinto are presented in the textbooks as something different compared to the world religions. Occasionally the three teachings are portrayed as obsolete. By using a critical religion theory, it seems that the textbook authors were occasionally trying to fit in the teachings as sui generis religion. The authors seem to be aware that religious practice can be different in East Asia than it is generally done in the west. This study should be of help to Swedish religion studies teachers when educating in the subject. It is easy to fall into the trap of explaining foreign teachings through sui generis religion. By being critical before deciding to make use of Swedish textbooks in religion we can avoid reproducing unfair notations of East Asian teachings.

This study presents a comparative approach between the time of the Belgic Confession and of the Korean Church under Japanese rule. Both the early Low Countries and Korea received Protestantism through martyrdom and persecution. During the sixteen century the Low Countries were under the Spanish rule. The Low Countries were deeply influenced by the Reformation. Many historians have noted that the people in the Low Countries suffered persecutions on the basis of their nationality and religious beliefs by the Roman Catholic Church and the Spanish government. The heroes of the Low Countries were William of Orange, the political leader of his native country, and Guido de Bres a religious leader. William of Orange, and his son, Maurice of Orange, accomplished their country’s political independence with outstanding leadership. Guido de Bres was a travelling preacher who preached the gospel in the Low Countries. He drafted the Belgic Confession. It is authorized as one of the most wonderful Reformed confessions. Korea received the gospel through the Western missionary R. J. Thmoas. Korea was under Japanese rule since the end of the nineteen century. Korean Christianity helped the Korean people when the Koreans were oppressed. From the late 1920s, the Japanese forced Koreans in Shinto Shrine Worship. Shinto Shrine Worship was the worship of the King of Japan. The Korean people could not accept Shinto Shrine Worship. Korean Christians judged Shinto Shrine Worship to be idol worship and opposed it. However, Korean Protestants abandoned their faith, due to the Japanese’ threat of military power. Some pastors resisted Shinto Shrine Worship. Pastor Joo Ki-Chul was a leader of the resistance and died for his faith. There are similarities and differences between the struggle of the Low Countries and Korea. Both the early Low Countries and early Korean Church produced spiritual martyrs like Guido de Bres and Joo Ki-Chul. They were martyrs, patriots and preachers. In both countries Christians faced horrible persecutions by the ruling tyrants. But while the Low Countries struggled for their independence to the end, most Korean Christians had to desert their faith in the face of continued pressure from the Japanese. In spite of this some Korean Christians remained strong till the bitter end. The Low Countries’ religious persecution came to an end, but North Korea’s Christians are still suffering under the communist regime. In spite of terrible persecution by the communist government, there are many Christians in underground churches who long for religious and political freedom. / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Church History and Church Policy / unrestricted

År 1945 den amerikanska ockupationsstyrkan pressade fram Japans sekularisering. Mejidynastin, vid makten fram till 1945, hade främjat en framställning av shinto med nationalistiska drag som kallas för shintonationalism. Efter sekulariseringen betraktades religionerna i Japan med misstänksamhet, eller till och med fientlighet, i Japan. Sedan 80-talet har dock nationalistiska rörelser som strävar efter en återgång till den gamla shintonationalismen börjat att ta plats i den politiska scenarion igen. Nationalistiska rörelser har fått stöd av Jinja Honcho, förbundet av de shintoistiska templen. Den här studien har som syfte att analysera shintonationalismens påverkan på det japanska samhället och på den japanska skolan i synnerhet. Studien använder diskursanalys som metod och granskar å ena sidan skolans styrdokument med fokus på moralundervisningsämnen, grundskolsämnet som behandlar ämnet moral och samlevnad. Å andra sidan granskas Jinja Honchos publikationer på förbundets hemsida. Texterna jämförs och resultatet visar att Jinja Honchos framställning av shinto har påverkat diskursen i den japanska skolans styrdokument och främjat en bild av japanerna som överlägsna andra kulturer i deras förhållande till naturen, känslighet, moral och styrka. / In 1945 the US occupation forces pushed for the country's secularization. The Meji-dynasty, in power until 1945, had promoted a representation of Shinto with nationalist features known as Shinto nationalism. After secularization, religions in Japan have been viewed with suspicion if not with hostility. From the 1980s, however, nationalist movements striving for a return to the old Shinto nationalism began to take place in the political scenario again with the support of Jinja Honcho, the Association of Shinto temples. The purpose of this study is to analyse the impact of Shinto nationalism on Japanese society and especially on Japanese schools. The study uses discourse analysis as a method and examines from one side the school's governing documents with a focus on moral education, from the other side Jinja Honcho's brochures in the association's website. The texts are compared and the results show that Jinja Honcho's representation of Shinto has influenced the discourse in the Japanese school's governing documents and promoted an image of the Japanese as superior to other cultures in their relationship with nature, sensitivity, morality and strength.

Работа посвящена анализу роли синтоистских сект в современном японском обществе. Автор рассматривает феномен новых религиозных движений в мире и в Японии, анализирует особенности вероучений групп сектантского синто, и показывает их место в обществе и отношение к ним населения. / The paper is devoted to the analysis of role of Shinto sects in contemporary Japanese society. Author explores phenomenon of new religious movements in world and Japan, analysis characteristics of sectarian Shinto believes, and investigates place of Shinto sects in society and people’s attitude toward them.

日本於明治時期，由於維新政府所奉行的神道國教化政策，而引發大規模的的佛教排斥破壞運動，史稱廢佛毀釋運動。事件的開端，起源於慶應四年(明治元年、一八六八)政府所頒布的「神佛分離令」。而政府之所以採用神佛分離政策，是因為在明治維新這個動盪的時期，政府的核心領導人物為了樹立以天皇為首之中央集權國家的政治體系，便採用有力的國學者、神道家之理論，來作為強調天皇其神聖的宗教威信、鞏固天皇的正統性及權威性之根據。 然而，當時如此雷厲風行的廢佛毀釋運動，使其衰退的是真宗信仰地區強烈的抵抗運動。而淨土真宗界的僧侶集結信徒發起護法一揆，起身反抗的原因，是出自於對廢佛行為的抗議、僧侶守護自身的生活權、農民對新政策的不了解，或是排擊基督教等因素。 本論文的第一、二章，將針對神佛分離‧廢佛毀釋運動之生成背景做探討。並說明從織豐政權到江戶幕府，權力者是如何打壓宗教勢力，以及論述相關宗教政策制定的意圖及內涵。此外，江戶時代排佛論興起，在此將試舉幾位代表性的排佛論者的論點加以闡述。再者，早在江戶時代，就有部份尊儒排佛的地方大名，積極的整頓領內的寺院神社，尤其以水戶、岡山、會津、長州最為興盛，因此將透過上述四個例子，來瞭解維新以前廢佛毀釋的實際狀況。在經過幕末的動盪時代，甫成立的維新政府在宗教方面，積極推動一連串神道國教化的政策。第三章將探討當時的各項政策，來說明各項政策所蘊含的意圖以及其帶來的影響。第四章的部份，將以真宗信仰繁盛的三個地區，在面對明治政府所施行的新政策時，所發起的護法一揆為例，來一窺其中所蘊含的群眾運動以及宗教運動的性格。 / In the Meiji era, because the Meiji government made Shinto a state religion, opposition and destruction of Buddhism occurred on a large scale in Japan, the so-called Anti-Buddhist Movement (Haibutsu Kishaku). It began in Keiō 4 (Meiji 1, 1868), the time the government announced the Ordinance Distinguishing Shinto and Buddhism. The government applied the separation of Shinto and Buddhism because in the chaotic period of the Meiji Restoration, to build a political system, a centralized government in which the emperor was the top, core leaders adopted authoritative Japanese classical (Kokugaku) scholars and Shinto scholars’ doctrines to enhance the emperor’s religious prestige, legitimacy and authority. As the fierce Anti-Buddhist Movement occurred, it was the strong opposition held by the Shin-Buddhists that weakened the Anti-Buddhist Movement. The Shin-Buddhist monks and followers staged religious revolts for protests against anti-Buddhism, monks’ claims on rights of living, peasants’ unfamiliarity with the new policy, strikes against Christians, etc. Chapter 1 and chapter 2 in this thesis are concerned with the background of the separation of Shinto and Buddhism and the Anti-Buddhist Movement, the illustrations of authorities’ oppression of religion from the Oda-Toyotomi period to the Edo period, and the demonstration of the purpose and the meaning of these religious policies. Besides, anti-Buddhism developed in the Edo period. Some representative anti-Buddhist scholars’ doctrines are examined here. In addition, in the Edo period, some chiho-daimyo who praised Confucianism and opposed Buddhism reorganized Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in their domains actively, and this occurred very often in the Mito Domain, the Okayama Domain, the Aizu Domain and the Chōshū Domain. The above four cases are examined here to understand the real situation of the anti-Buddhism before the Meiji Restoration. After the chaotic last days of the Edo period (Bakumatsu), the new Meiji government adopted lots of policies to make Shinto a state religion. Chapter 3 is concerned with the analysis of each policy to demonstrate the purpose and the effect of each policy. Chapter 4 is concerned with the examination of religious revolts staged by people who lived in three places where the Shin-Buddhism was popular and faced new policies adopted by the Meiji government to analyze characteristics, mass movement and religious movement, of those religious revolts.

The thesis consists of the novel The Fox and the Mirror and an accompanying exegesis. The novel is an historical fantasy set in a world based on early medieval (12-13th century) Japan. The main characters are a young female shaman, Hatsu, and a young warrior’s assistant, Sada, who is a Buddhist believer. When Hatsu’s village and shrine are destroyed by warriors and her summoning mirror is stolen, she is abandoned by her kami . To experience the kami’s presence again, she must follow the thief and retrieve the mirror before it can be used to resurrect an ancient evil. Sada must capture Hatsu and bring her back to his lord, or his family will suffer. Yet he is entranced by Hatsu and feels guilt at the destruction of her village. He must choose whether to abandon his former life and stay with Hatsu, or betray her. In the novel I have tried to invoke the feel of a place and time where the supernatural is as real as the physical world; I also try to imagine how a religion as alien to Japanese native beliefs as Buddhism became a part of that country’s spiritual culture. In the exegesis I reflect upon how I used various kinds of history, both written and unwritten, to build the world, characters and narratives of The Fox and the Mirror, and thereby explore some ways in which historical fantasy, as a sub-genre of historical fiction, is capable of presenting an ‘authentic’ view of the past, in spite of its non-realistic nature. I identify three main ways historical fantasy writers can provide an authentic view of the past: by using telling details from an historical era; by incorporating documented events and persons into the story; and by portraying the world as people in the past believed it to be. Historical fantasy is different from realistic historical fiction in that it can more easily incorporate elements belonging to shared cultural heritage, such as beliefs regarding the dead and the supernatural. This characteristic involves writers in research using material that involves other ways of knowing the past—in particular the expressions of belief such as religion, popular customs, folk tales, and oral history. With the broadening of our historiological perspectives in the postmodern climate, historical fantasy based on non-documentary forms of history may come to be seen as another way of knowing the past.

This thesis aims to contextualize gender politics, nationalism, and animism as interconnected cultural patterns reflecting 19th century acculturation and post-WWII national reconstruction of Japan. In particular, state-nationalism, hegemonic femininity, commodity animism, uniform fetishsm, and power structure are analyzed through the symbolisms and discourse of the Japanese indigenous faith: Shinto, female practitioners, and followers. There are two points of ideological and linguistic rupture in modern Japan: late-19th century and mid-20th century, in which a large part of this thesis is dedicated to for a holistic contextualization in accordance to historical narrative and events. Materials for this thesis were collected through three separate occasions of field research: winter of 2016 to 2017, summer of 2017, and the spring of 2018 where participant- observation, semi-structured interviews across different platforms, internet ethnography, and archival data analysis were combined. The thesis is separated into three parts: super state- nationalism, gender politics, and commodity animism, and each chapter has its own thematic focus for analysis while the ideological shifts are explained largely based on Ideological State Apparatus and subjectivity. The development of the several thousand year old faith is the preoccupation of this thesis in an attempt to interpret the collective identities, tendencies, and patterns of Japanese modernity.

This final qualification work is devoted to a comparative analysis of Russian and Japanese fairy tales (tales of magic), the purpose of which is to identify the similarities and differences that exist between them.Comparative analysis is based on the methodology of the Russian folklorist V. Ya. Propp, which allows to make a comprehensive research of the inner structure of fairy tales. In the course of the comparative analysis, the main attention is paid to studying the influence of archaic social and ritual institutions on the origin and formation of the main plots and motifs of Russian and Japanese fairy tales, as well as to identify the causes of similarities and differences between fairy tales of Japan and Russia. Comparative analysis is carried out with the involvement of a wide range of research literature on the Slavic and Japanese cultures, which allows to give a scientific justification for the presence of similarities and differences between Russian and Japanese fairy tales. / В работе проводится сравнительный анализ русских и японских волшебных сказок, целью которого являетсявыявление существующих между ними сходств и различий. Сравнительный анализ основывается на методологии русского фольклориста В.Я. Проппа, которая позволяет комплексно исследовать внутреннее строение волшебных сказок. В ходе сравнительного анализа основное внимание уделяется изучению влияния архаических социальных и обрядовых институтов на происхождение и формирование основных сюжетов и мотивов русских и японских волшебных сказок, а также выявлениюпричин возникновения сходств и различий между волшебными сказками Японии и России. Сравнительный анализ проводится с привлечением широкого круга исследовательской литературы, посвященной славянской и японской культурам,что позволяет дать научное обоснование наличию сходств и различий между русскими и японскими волшебными сказками.