It seems to me that essentially they are all the same, the vector for the sacred symbols of Shinto: the offerings which start out as simply pieces of paper become sacred as a result of their use as symbols. When they are in their zig-zag form, the form which is usually given to shri...
In fact,many Japanese rulers had banned the rearing of cattle and consumption of meat, because they couldn’t afford to lose more forest areas to practice animal agriculture. I laterread that in January 1872, an emperor called Meiji ate meat publicly for the first time, encouraging the rest ...
Confucianist concepts still serve as an important focus of calligraphic practice in China and Japan. Even today, numerous artists in both nations pursue calligraphy as their main profession. Their art is often focused on the key terms appearing in the Confucian classics (see slideshow above). Calli...
The traditional practice for the Chinese New Year is to light firecrackers and fireworks and burn bamboo sticks to scare away evil spirits. Red lanterns are displayed on the door frames and along the roads to light up the atmosphere. Windows and doors of the houses are decorated with red pape...
In Japan, the earliest unambiguous reference to a paper model is in a short poem by Ihara Saikaku in 1680 which describes paper butterflies in a dream. Origami butterflies were used during the celebration of Shinto weddings to represent the bride and groom, so paperfolding had already become ...
In Japan Buddhism was and is used to support male dominance. Their native animistic, goddess-oriented spirituality, Shinto, was used to justify World War II aggression against Korea and China (maybe Thailand, too). The horrors equaled some of those perpetrated in the name of Christ. ...
The topic of South and East Asian religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shinto, etc., henceforth only “Asian religions”) presents a challenging and seemingly contradictory character: on the one hand, these are religious phenomena that resist Eurocentric paradigms of religion, such as that of th...