Abstract
RECENTLY JAPANESE SCHOLARS have stopped using the term minkan shinko WD=ý (folk beliefs) in favor of the term minzoku shðkyo Ws ;i(folk/popular religion).1 This modi3cation signi3es not merely a change in terminology, but also a major shift in the boundaries of what anthropologists and scholars of religion perceive as religious phenomena, i.e., in what is, or could be, the object of the study of folklore or folk religion. In this essay I wish to discuss the reasons for this change and its signi3cance for the study of religion in Japan. What is the realm of religion (shðkyo sekai) that we are attempting to comprehend through our study of “folk/popular religion” (minzoku shðkyo)? I hope to consider this question from the broader perspective provided by minzokugaku, the 3eld of folklore or folk studies.
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