Short Abstract:

In 2020 the Olympics will be held in Tokyo drawing our attention to sport in Japan. Sport has long played a role in Japanese religion. These essays address aspects of religion and sport in Japan including identity, ritual, and sacred space through examinations of Judo, Aikido, Sumo and Baseball.

Long Abstract:

In 2020 the Summer Olympics and Paralympics will be held in Tokyo. For a brief moment the world's attention to sport will be intensely focused on Japan. Given this unique situation, there is perhaps no better time to delve into an often overlooked, but critical aspect of sport in Japan—namely religion. Sport has long played a central role in Japanese religion, from the ritualized sumo bouts of Shugendo practitioners as an offering to the gods to soccer players praying for success at Shinto shrines, from meditation and ritual practices as a means to gain focus or superhuman powers to religious organizations sponsoring sporting events, teams, and school sport clubs.

This panel brings together scholars teaching and studying at a variety of institutions in the US, Japan, and Europe who specialize in Japanese history, sport history, and religion. The essays draw our attention to the pivotal role religion and sport can play in the construction of corporate identity such as in the case of the Seibu Lions baseball team. They apply theories from the field of religious studies to martial arts such Judo and they explore the blended nature of religious, martial and national identity in Aikido. In addition to these papers primarily focused on the modern period, one contribution will explore the world of Edo Period Sumo and the roles religion played during this critical period in the development of modern Sumo. The essays address various aspects of religion and sport in Japan including corporate and national identity, religious ritual, and sacred space. Major themes include spiritual geographies of sport, sport as invented tradition, technologies of self, material culture, and civil religion.