Abstract

A widely active scholar of religion deciphers the Japanese view of life and death. The movie "OKURIBITO: The Departed" has aroused interest in confronting death among many people today, but how have we viewed death in the first place? Reading and reinterpreting the Meiji era's Bushido, Kenji Miyazawa's fairy tales, the folklore of Kunio Yanagida and Nobuo Orikuchi, Mitsuru Yoshida's "The Last Days of the Battleship Yamato" and Jun Takami's poetry, etc., the author presents a new way of facing death and life for those of us living after Tohoku earthquake (March 11, 2011), while reinterpreting them from a broad perspective.

Author’s Information

Susumu Shimazono is a Japanese scholar of religion. He is a visiting professor at the Institute for Regional Planning, Taisho University. He is also a visiting fellow at the Grief Care Research Institute. Professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. Specially Appointed Professor, Faculty of Theology, Sophia University. Former Director of the Grief Care Institute. Member of the Committee of Seven for the World Appeal for Peace.