Book review: Occult Hunting and Supernatural Play in Japan

 Miller, Laura

Occult Hunting and Supernatural Play in Japan

Honolulu: University Of Hawai'i Press, 2024

 

This readable and very scholarly book should appeal to those interested in folklore, Japanese religion, anime, manga, and Japanese pop culture in general. The topic is one that has little scholarship even in Japanese as the activities described are mainly done by girls and women. Hopefully this book stimulates more research on this and similar topics. The book covers several specific topics including divination, tarot cards, pilgrim stamps (goshuin) , Taoist talismans (reifu), amulets (omamori), votive tablets (ema), power spots, and curved beads (magatama). Many of these topic are also linked to religious pilgrimage, tourism, and commercial activities. The three are not separate in Japan having long had overlaps going back to the earliest records of Japan and becoming a significant group of interrelated activities for man in the Edo Period.

 

All in all this is a book I highly recommend.

Monthly Report for December 2024

 Monthly Report for December 2024

I'm continuing to add entries without descriptions to the Tokyo Stroll web supplement pages. Instead there will be a notice that says "Description to be added soon." This is to allow me to speed up adding minimal information on locations of possible interest to visitors to Tokyo. These new entries will include links to official web pages when they exist as well as the names of the nearest train or subway station(s). I have a large amount of locations to add entries to and wanted to do something of immediate use. 

This month I have done updates to all the pages in the 23 ku area, including all of the pages for related specific neighborhoods/areas.

All the bookmark files have been updated. Be sure to remove the old bookmark files with the new ones on your phone / tablet before downloading the new ones.

Monthly Report for November 2024

I'm continuing to add entries without descriptions to the Tokyo Stroll web supplement pages. Instead there will be a notice that says "Description to be added soon." This is to allow me to speed up adding minimal information on locations of possible interest to visitors to Tokyo. These new entries will include links to official web pages when they exist as well as the names of the nearest train or subway station(s). I have a large amount of locations to add entries to and wanted to do something of immediate use. 

This month I have done pages in the 23 ku area from Kita Ku through Sumida Ku and all of the pages for related specific neighborhoods/areas.

All the bookmark files have been updated. Be sure to remove the old bookmark files with the new ones on your phone / tablet before downloading the new ones.

Monthly Report for October 2024

 Monthly Report for October 2024

Added local government page links to each of the 23 ku main pages. In time I'll also do this for the Tama Area and islands. The government pages are useful for visitors as they include tourism, cultural location, and event information.

I've also started adding entries to the pages which shall for the time being not have descriptions. Instead there will be a notice that says "Description to be added soon." This is to allow me to speed up adding information of possible use to visitors to Tokyo. These entries will include links to web pages when they exist as well as the nearest train or subway station(s). I have a large amount of locations to add entries to and wanted to do something of use for now. 

So far I have done Adachi ku, Arakawa ku, Bunkyō Ku, Chūō Ku, Chiyoda Ku, Edogawa Ku, Itabashi Ku, Katsushika Ku, and Minato Ku.

NOTE: For the next few months I will be also devoting more time to adding events to the Regular Events and Festivals page.

All the bookmark files have been updated. Be sure to regularly replace the old bookmark files with the new ones on your phone / tablet.

Monthly Report for September 2024

NOTE: For the next few months I will be devoting more time to adding events to the Regular Events and Festivals page.

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/Events.html

I will also add more individual items to the 23 ku pages. I plan to resume creating new pages for the Tama region and island administrations in 2025.

I added a new pages for: 

Tama city

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/TSTama.html

Asakusa Shichifukujin Meguri / Asakusa Seven Lucky Gods Pilgrimage

I am also creating separate pages for each of the 23 ku in Tokyo which shall include all new items for those areas and all the items in Tokyo Stroll. The neighborhood/area pages shall continue to exist and have links to new entires in the relevant ku page.

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/TSAsakusa7LuckyGodsPilgrimage.html

I also added the following to the Asakusa page:

Asakusa Yokochō

Fujigoromo

Onigiri Asakusa Yadoroku

Yasaki Inari Jinja

I also added the following to the Yoshiwara and Sanya page

Hashiba Fudōson

There has also been a major restructuring for the 23 ku pages. Each ku now has a main page that lists everything including what is in the pages for specific neighborhoods/areas, The pages for the pages for specific neighborhoods/areas will continue to exist and items will be added to both as the supplement gains additions.

More additions were made to the Regular Events and Festivals page.

All the bookmark files have been updated. Be sure to regularly replace the old bookmark files with the new ones on your phone / tablet.

Monthly Report for August 2024

Monthly Report for August 2024

I added new pages for: 

1. Ōme. This one took a big part of the month. I planned to put a just few items on the page and then move on to the next one. Ōme has so much in a small area that I ended up including 24 items.

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/TSOme.html

2. Hinohara Mura. The only village in the mainland part of Tokyo, the others are on islands.

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/TSHinohara.html

3. Ōme Shichifukujin Meguri / Ōme Seven Lucky Gods Pilgrimage

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/TSOme7LuckyGodsPilgrimage.html

Monthly Report for July 2024

I added new pages for: 

Fuchū

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/TSFuchu.html

Inagi

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/TSInagi.html

More additions were made to the Regular Events and Festivals page.

http://www.koyagi.com/TokyoStroll/Events.html

All the bookmark files have been updated.