TY - JOUR AU1 - Maxey, Trent E. AB - Review Section 283 Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests. By Aike P. Rots. Bloomsbury, London, 2017. xii, 260 pages. $114.00, cloth; $39.95, paper; $35.95, E-book. Reviewed by Trent E. Maxey Amherst College The view that Shinto ¯ is historically constructed, its contours variable across the long history of the Japanese archipelago, commands broad assent in the fi eld. Forcefully articulated by John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, among others, the historical constructivist approach challenges scholars to grapple with the contingent character of Shint¯ o by attending to contextual specifi c- ity. Aike Rots rises to that challenge in this ambitious study and provides an insightful approach to understanding Shint¯’ o s discursive profi le in con- temporary Japan. Shinto ¯ has acquired over the past two decades a level of public and political prominence unseen since the end of World War II. Rots points to the 2016 G7 Summit, during which Prime Minister Abe Shinzo ¯ guided world leaders on a visit to the Grand Shrine of Ise, as a clear example of the increasingly sanitized image of Shinto ¯ being produced domestically and on the international stage. Effectively combining discourse analysis with ethnographic fi eld TI - Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests by Aike P. Rots (review) JF - The Journal of Japanese Studies DA - 2020-01-28 UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/society-for-japanese-studies/shinto-nature-and-ideology-in-contemporary-japan-making-sacred-forests-g6TbI94hnQ SP - 283 EP - 286 VL - 46 IS - 1 DP - DeepDyve ER -