Beethoven and Buddhism in a Japanese Religion: Culture as Cultivation in Soka Gakkai.

Why is the museum at the headquarters of the lay Japanese Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai full of pianos? How did Gakkai members in Japan come to revere the compositions and ethos of Ludwig van Beethoven as means of defending Buddhist orthodoxy? And how did this Buddhist organization come to rely on classical music as a key form of self-cultivation and institution building? This article draws on ethnographic engagements with musicians in Soka Gakkai, along with study of the Gakkai's development in 20th-century Japan, to detail how practitioners' Buddho-cultural pursuits demonstrate ways cultural practices can create religion. Attention to Soka Gakkai's fusions of European high culture with lay Buddhist teachings and practices troubles static definitions of "Buddhism" and signals the need for broader inquiry into the nature of religious belonging through investigations of aesthetic forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Numen: International Review for the History of Religions is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)