Skip to content

Bloomsbury Shinto Studies

Bloomsbury Shinto Studies is a series of books, in English, about Shinto, published by Bloomsbury (and thus probably subsidised by the profits from Harry Potter). The series is still active, and although the initial hardcover publications are very expensive, the paperback versions are more reasonable. You can also get ebooks direct from Bloomsbury, although I am sure that they are available on Amazon as well.

These are serious academic books, and thus rather heavier going than most of the things I write for Mimusubi, but they are all interesting, and worth a look if you have a serious interest in Shinto.

My favourite of the ones I have read (which is all the ones that are under £30 at this time) is Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan, by Aike Rots, which is about the role of nature, sacred forests, and environmentalism in contemporary Shinto. I think this one is likely to be of interest to readers of this blog, and certainly to readers of my Patreon essays, and I felt that it was a bit more accessible than some of the others in the series.

If you like that one, I would recommend A Social History of the Ise Shrines next, although this is less about contemporary Shinto and might be a bit dry if you are not really interested in the history. It is a good insight into parts of the history of Jingū that Jinja Honchō and Jingū do not put much emphasis on.

The links in this post are not affiliate links, because Bloomsbury does not have an affiliate program. However, the publisher, and possibly even the authors, will get more money if you buy directly from them, rather than through Amazon. I can buy the ebooks from Japan, so I suspect that they are available worldwide.

I have a Patreon, where people join as paid members to receive an in-depth essay on some aspect of Shinto every month, or as free members to receive notifications of updates to this blog. If that sounds interesting to you, please take a look.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.