ガイタニディス ヤニス

Contrary to other European countries, where Buddhism has been studied since at least the 19th century, this paper shows that there are no known direct channels of transmission of Japanese Buddhism between Japan and Greece. Connections have, however, been made through other European countries, where, for example, Italy continues to play a major role. Moreover, these transmissions have taken a very long time to spread beyond the immediate circle of one or two key figures, because such traditions have been met with suspicion by the larger population, which remains influenced by a Christian Orthodox outlook. The establishment of Zen meditation centers in today’s urban centers, however, shows that the legal and official protections from which the Greek Church continues to benefit are not a reflection of devout sentiment among the population. This paper illustrates that under Greece’s conservative Orthodox climate, Japanese Buddhism has become simultaneously “Japanese culture” <italic>and</italic> a philosophy open to “all religions.”

As with the relationships between shūkyō and “religion” and supirichuariti and “spirituality,” the Japanese term okaruto is embedded in a global network of practice and discourse around “occultism,” but is also informed by the politics of local practitioners and the media, and by scholarly narratives that try to make sense of them. In this introduction, we present: 1) an overview of the varied relationships between Japanese religions and “the global occult,” 2) an analysis of the Japanese-language scholarship on occult phenomena from sociological, cultural studies, and intellectual historical perspectives, and 3) a brief chronology of modern Japanese occultism. We conclude with some theoretical considerations about how to conceive of the Japanese occult vis-à-vis a transnational community of practice, including the roles of media, translation, and affect.