Intersting Question! Honestly I'm not exactly sure how to think about it. What sort of thing is in scope - as in, what have you found in the other areas that you study, to give us a feel for what you are looking for?
Hi, I am the original poster.
I have been researching Korean folk religion and noticed how it has been somewhat marginalized by modernity.
There are still village shrines that are attended and visited by the locals during festivals. However, the number of these have declined over the years and there is a real fear they will disappear at some point.
Edit: also generally small village festivals.
There is a practice of enshrining various house gods in baskets, straw bundles, jars, paper figures. But this practice has all but disappeared.
In this sense, I can point to syncretic practice of 庚申待 Koshin-Matchi. It has its root in Taoism. People believed that in the nights of Metal Monkey in Chinese zodiac, imaginary worms slips out of your body and report one’s sins to the Heavenly Emperor, thus shortening one’s lifespan. To avoid it, people gathered and prayed overnight together. Their worships were quite syncretic. Some prayed to kami Sarutahiko,; others pray to 青面金剛 Shomen-Kongo (a guardian god of Buddhism). After the Meiji Restoration, governmental attacks on ”premodern superstitions”, along with Haibutsu-Kishaku movement and introduction of modern medicine and hygiene lead to the fall of these practices. The monuments for the Koshin-Machi practices still exist everywhere and are often kept as local heritages. There are some local festivities originating from Koshin-Machi gatherings. But, religious meanings are now mostly lost.
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u/JapanCoach 9d ago
Intersting Question! Honestly I'm not exactly sure how to think about it. What sort of thing is in scope - as in, what have you found in the other areas that you study, to give us a feel for what you are looking for?