• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.149-180
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• 2023

This article explores religious responses to significant cultural and social change in a northern Vietnamese delta village from 1996 to 2008-the second decade after de-collectivization. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in both the village and surrounding religious networks, the article teases out the meanings of the new religious movements for northern rural people in the new era of market economy; the symbols, language, and metaphoric resources people used in response to their uncertainty and mistrust of the new social landscape; and the unintended consequences of rapid societal development such as marginalization, tensions, and social disintegration. The article argues that as in milleniarism elsewhere, new religious movements in northern rural Vietnam embody unorthodox syncretism between world religious and local traditions, thus linking past, present, and future. However, when drawing upon a common reservoir of memories and experiences to cope with risks and challenges of the new market world, local people not only drew on the power and imperial metaphor of deities in their traditional religion and belief, but became more creative to recuperate meanings, standards, and symbols from revolutionary discourse to reorient themselves, and overcome alienation and marginalization.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.17
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• pp.173-196
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• 2004

Miroku belief observed in Japanese folklore and popular religions is originated from the faith in a bodhisattva called Miroku (Maitreya) who, depending on Buddhist account, is supposed to appear in this world to save all mankind. This faith, together with the millenarianism inherent in it, was disseminated into many areas of East and Southeast Asia. It developed in various ways, being associated with the religious tradition of each area where it was accepted. In Japanese folklore and popular religions the aspiration for the "World of Miroku", the ideal world expected to be realized in the future, has been its most notable feature. This paper examines the notion of the "World of Miroku" developed in the cult of Mount Fuji in early modern Japan. In particular this paper focuses on the "World of Miroku" appearing in the teachings of Fuji-ko and Fujido, which were the organizations of lay believers. Through the examination this paper made the following facts clear. (1) The notion of the "World of Miroku" developed by Fuji-ko and Fujido had its bases in Miroku belief of Japanese folklore. (2) However the notion of the "World of Miroku" in the teachings of Fuji-ko and Fujido was quite different from that of the folklore. While the "World of Miroku" appearing in the folklore is characterized by good harvest and abundant gold and silver, Fuji-ko and Fujido leaders thought that all people, including the emperor and the shogun, would earnestly carry out their house business, do their best to promote the happiness of the others, and pray for the salvation of all mankind in the "World of Miroku". (3) The notion about the changes of the world, which was particular to Fuji-ko and Fujido, accounts for such development in the concept of the "World of Miroku". According to the notion the current world was recognized as the second stage, between the original world in the past and the "World of Miroku" in the future, in the history of human beings. This idea helped the leaders of Fuji-ko and Fujido to develop the theories of world renewal, in which the wrong doings of the rulers and poor morality of the people were to be corrected in the "World of Miroku". (4) One of the most important features of the "World of Miroku" was the equality between men and women according to the teachings of Fujido. Both Fuji-ko and Fujido had opposed to the prevailing view of women, in which women were regarded as being sinful and polluted. Fujido further tried to improve the status of women in their families and the society. (5) In accordance with such an innovatory view, Fujido challenged the custom of excluding women from sacred places, Mount Fuji in particular. Through clarifying these facts this paper shows that Miroku belief could function as a basis for developing the ideas concerning the world renewal in early modern Jap