Ritual Poetry and the Politics of Death in Early Japan

by Gary L. Ebersole

Book Overview

This examination of death rituals in early Japan finds in the practice of double burial a key to understanding the Taika Era (645-710 A.D.). Drawing on narratives and poems from the earliest Japanese texts--the Kojiki, the Nihonshoki, and the Man'yoshu, an anthology of poetry--it argues that double burial was the center of a manipulation of myth and ritual for specific ideological and factional purposes. "This volume has significantly raised the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691019290
• ISBN13: 9780691019291
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"