Religious concepts in the Japanese folk tale

Abstract

The Japanese folk tale contains oral tradition which reflects a variety of religious concepts. Some of them can be identified with faiths which have already received considerable attention from scholars. While some of the concepts undoubtedly have been brought into Japan from mainland Asia, other beliefs shown in the Japanese folk tale are still held among islanders to the south and still others have analogies in beliefs found among people across the far northern rim of the world. Students of Japanese religions are apt to pass by these latter two types of tradition or to employ Taoism as a catch-all for sources of miscellaneous concepts concerning nature and magic that are not readily recognizable in Buddhist or Confucian traditions. While Shinto itself is usually regarded as the native faith of Japan, its origins remain obscure and its teachings cannot be regarded as an entirely integrated body of doctrine. Several theories concerning the racial origins of the Japanese are proposed, but they rely on evidence dating subsequent to