Fabio Rambelli is Professor of Japanese Religions and Cultural History and ISF Endowed Chair in Shinto Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

• AcknowledgementsNotes for the ReaderList of ContributorsList of IllustrationsGeneral Introduction: The Sea in the History of Japanese Religions, Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)Foreword: Cults and Culture of the Sea: Historical and Geographical Perspectives, Allan G. Grapard (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)Part One: Ancient Sea Myths and Rituals and Their Reinterpretations1. Imperial Sea Magic? The Sea Kami and the Great Tasting (daijosai) at the Early Yamato Court, Mark Teeuwen (Oslo University, Norway)2. The Sea and Food Offerings for the Kami (shinsen), Sato Masato (University of Kitakyushu, Japan)3. Taming the Plague Demons: Border Islanders and the Ritual Defense of Japan, Jane Alaszewska (SOAS, UK)4. Island of Many Names, Island of No Name: Taboo and the Mysteries of Okinoshima, Lindsey E. DeWitt (Kyushu University, Japan)Part Two: Sea Deities and Sea Cults5. Musical Instruments for the Sea-God Ebisu: The Mythological System of Miho Shrine and Its Performative Power, Ouchi Fumi (Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University, Japan)6. An Empress at Sea: Sea Deities and Divine Union in the Legends of Empress Jingu, Emily B. Simpson (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)7. Frogs Looking Beyond a Pond: Shinra Myojin in the “East Asian Mediterranean” Network, Sujung Kim (DePauw University, USA)8. Hachiman Worship Among Japanese Pirates (wako) of the Medieval Period: A Preliminary Survey, Bernhard Scheid (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria)9. Shugendo and the Sea, Gaynor Sekimori (SOAS, UK)Part Three: Buddhism and Japan in the Global Ocean10. Buddhas from Across the Sea: The Transmission of Buddhism in Ancient and Medieval Temple Narratives (engi), Abe Yasuro (Nagoya University, Japan)11. Lands and People Drifting Ashore: Distorted Conceptions of Japan’s Place in the World According to Medieval and Early Modern Japanese Myths, Ito Satoshi (Ibaraki University, Japan)12. Buddhist Japan and the Global Ocean, D. Max Moerman (Columbia University, USA)Part Four: Interpretive Constructs13. The World Was Born from the Sea: Reading the Origin of Heaven and Earth in the Ruiju jingi hongen, Kanazawa Hideyuki (Hokkaido University, Japan)14. Origuchi Shinobu and the Sea as Religious Topos: Marebito and Musubi no kami, Saito Hideki (Bukkyo University, Japan)15. Sea Theologies: Elements for a Conceptualization of Maritime Religiosity in Japan, Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)BibliographyIndex

The Sea and the Sacred in Japan makes a valuable contribution to the field of Japanese maritime religion that will grant important insights to scholars and graduate students of Japanese religion, history, and literature.