Table of Contents

1. The Bridge 2. The Sacred Beings 3. Witch Animals 4. The Other World 5. Ascesis 6. The Ancient Sibyl 7. The Living Goddess 8. The Blind Medium 9. The Ascetic’s Initiation 10. The Visionary Journey 11. The Symbolic Journey 12. The Ascetic’s Power 13. Village Oracles 14. Mountain Oracles 15. Exorcism 16. Conclusion

About the Author

Carmen Blacker

Reviews

'One of the absolute 'must read' books on Japanese religious practice. It is also essential reading for those interested in asceticism, shamanism and spirit possession in general.' - Ian Reader, Culture and Religion

'one suspects that the time may be not far off when it will come to be recognized as the best book on East Asian religion as a whole to emerge from Britain in the twentieth century.' - T. H. Barrett, Bulletin of SOAS