Janemil Kolstø

Rethinking Yasukuni: from Secular Politics to Religious Sacrifice Janemil Kolstø

Yasukuni is a Shintoist shrine where imperial Japan?swar dead are enshrined. It has become an increasingly notoriouslocation over the last five decades because it houses, among its 2.5million deities, the spirits of a dozen Class-A war criminals. Despitethis fact, regardless of constitutional bans, and in the face ofa reproachful national and international audience, a number ofJapanese prime ministers have insisted on presenting offeringsthere. "Rethinking Yasukuni ? From Secular Politics to ReligiousSacrifice" is the first English-written monograph that examines the shrine as a predominantly religious location. This publication isalso based on one of the few anthropological fieldworks that hasbeen carried out at Yasukuni, and thus offers novel ethnographicinsights. Moreover, because it attempts to approach the shrine from anevolutionary and cognitive point of view, "Rethinking Yasukuni"touches on key issues in the current history of religions.