Cognitive Resonance

Bibliographic Data: Smyers, Karen A. The Fox and the Jewel: Shared and Private Meanings in Contemporary Japanese Inari Worship. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1999.

Main Argument: "Contradictory notions are held, not just by believers at different sacred centers, but by priests at the same shrine or temple. No central authority has managed to standardize the mythology or traditions; no scriptures provide guidance for orthodox belief and practices. Most people are not aware that their understanding of Inari is different (sometimes radically so) from that of other people. […] Inari practices and beliefs work as a 'nonmonologic unity:' they do form some kind of unity, but they are not systematized or free of contradiction." (10-11) Inari beliefs symbolize and instantiate change amidst the continuity presumed in most Japanese religious traditions.

( The fox knows many things; )

Critical assessment: This is an excellent, beautifully written book that lays out in clear and engaging prose a wealth of polysemic meanings, traditions and practices relating to contemporary Inari worship in Japan, most of which is unknown even to Japanese people, and nearly all of which was mostly new to me, despite the fact that I lived in the same city as Fushimi Inari and made multiple visits to the shrine and the mountain (which I climbed several times) in the year that I lived there. In particular, Smyers' emphasis on the need not to take ideologies of culture at face value is hugely salutary, and her discussions with shamans, priests, and religious specialists are fascinating, as is her conceptualization of honne, tatemae, and diversity within harmony. All in all, a wonderful book.

Meta notes: In research, imitate the fox.