• Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Transcendence and Spirituality in Japanese Cinema: Framing Sacred Spaces

Transcendence and Spirituality in Japanese Cinema: Framing Sacred Spaces

Hardcover

Series: Routledge Studies in Religion and Film

Religion General Film & Video ArtFilm Studies

ISBN10: 0367226286
ISBN13: 9780367226282
Publisher: Routledge
Published: Nov 14 2022
Pages: 250
Weight: 1.21
Height: 0.63 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

This book explores significant representations of Shinto and Buddhist sacred space, spiritual symbols, and religious concepts that are embedded in the secular framework of Japanese films aimed at general audiences in Japan and globally. These cinematic masterpieces by directors Akira Kurosawa, Hayao Miyazaki, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Makoto Shinkai operate as expressions of and, potentially, catalysts for transcendence of various kinds, particularly during the Heisei era (1989-2019), when Japan experienced severe economic hardship and devastating natural disasters. The book's approach to aesthetics and religion employs the multifaceted concepts of ma (structuring intervals, liminal space-time), kū (emptiness, sky), mono no aware (compassionate sensibility, resigned sadness), and musubi (generative interconnection), examining the dynamic, evolving nature of these ancient principles that are at once spiritual, aesthetic, and philosophical. Scholars and enthusiasts of Japanese cinema (live action and anime), religion and film, cinematic aesthetics, and the relationship between East Asian religions and the arts will find fresh perspectives on these in this book, which moves beyond conventional notions of transcendental style and essentialized approaches to the multivalent richness of Japanese aesthetics.

Also in

Religion General