The Shinto tradition is an essential component of Japanese religious culture. In addition to indigenous elements, it contains aspects mediated from Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and, in more recent times, Western religious culture as well--plus, various forms of hybridization among all of these different traditions. Despite its cultural and historical importance, Shinto Studies have failed to attract wide attention partly due to the lingering effects of Japanese ultranationalist propaganda during World War II that made use of aspects of Shinto. The Series makes available to a broad audience a number of important academic works that help dispel widespread misconceptions, according to which Shinto is intrinsically related to Japanese nationalism and constitutes the essence of Japanese culture. By putting such stereotypes into perspective, the series promotes further research and understanding of what is still an underdeveloped field. Editorial Board Irit Averbuch, Associate Professor of Japanese Culture, Tel Aviv University, Israel Erica Baffelli, Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Manchester, UK Heather Blair, Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA John Breen, Professor of Japanese History, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan Bernard Faure, Professor of Japanese Religions, Columbia University, New York, USA Allan Grapard, Professor of Japanese Religions Emeritus, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA Helen Hardacre, Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Harvard University, USA Sato Hiroo, Professor of Japanese Intellectual History, Tohoku University, Japan Max Moerman, Associate Professor of Japanese Religions, Barnard College at Columbia University, USA Bernhard Scheid, Senior Researcher, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria Mark Teeuwen, Professor of Japanese Cultural history, Oslo University, Norway Sarah Thal, Associate Professor of Japanese History, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.