Footnote:
In English
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web
Description:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- PART ONE: ORIGINAL CONCEPTS -- CHAPTER 1 Behind the Great Buddha -- CHAPTER 2 A World of Water and Words -- CHAPTER 3 Social Death, Social Birth -- CHAPTER 4 Jizo at the Crossroads -- PART TWO: HISTORICAL PROCESSES -- CHAPTER 5 Edo: An Era in View -- CHAPTER 6 Edo: Population -- CHAPTER 7 Edo: Polemics -- CHAPTER 8 Sex, War, and Peace -- PART THREE: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES -- CHAPTER 9 Apology -- CHAPTER 10 Moral Swamps -- CHAPTER 11 A Rational, National Family -- CHAPTER 12 Crossovers -- Conclusion -- APPENDIX "The Way to Memorialize One's Mizuko -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX
Why would a country strongly influenced by Buddhism's reverence for life allow legalized, widely used abortion? Equally puzzling to many Westerners is the Japanese practice of mizuko rites, in which the parents of aborted fetuses pray for the well-being of these rejected "lives." In this provocative investigation, William LaFleur examines abortion as a window on the culture and ethics of Japan. At the same time he contributes to the Western debate on abortion, exploring how the Japanese resolve their conflicting emotions privately and avoid the pro-life/pro-choice politics that sharply divide Americans on the issue