The religious landscape of modern Japan is filled with surprises around every corner. There are now Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples where new cars can be blessed, expired credit cards can be offered a proper burial, and students (or more likely their parents) can pray for success on school entrance exams. While these practices are clearly related to social and economic changes brought by modernity, they should not be dismissed as aberrant "commercialized" practices that depart from ostensibly "pure" religious movements like Buddhism and Shinto. Popular practices have long been intertwined with Buddhism and Shinto and have been actively supported and propagated in modern Japanese religious institutions. This course will trace the historical development of Japanese religions (including their doctrinal positions) in relationship to popular movements from early shamanistic practices and folk religion, through the recent flourishing of "New" religious movements. Some of the main themes that will be covered in this course include: beliefs in ghosts and fantastic demons, mountain pilgrimages, religion and healing, the effects of modernity on new religious movements, religion and the modern Japanese state, Aum Shinrikyo and religious violence, community festivals, and religious themes in anime and manga. Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: full and active participation, weekly responses, one 5-page essay and one 10-page final paper. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 30 (expected: 15).