ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter begins by reviewing the ways in which an examination of ritual transformations in Jōdo Shinshū Honganji-ha casts light on the processes of globalisation. It then asks: how can a study of global transformations illuminate our understanding of ritual, viewed as an embodied performance? Spatial and temporal perspectives are important here, as ritual is considered as something that varies across space and time, but which draws on notions of time in complex ways. On the one hand “adapting to the times” has been a powerful justification for change and innovation since the late nineteenth century in Japan, while on the other, past precedent, tradition, and a rhetoric of lamentation for that which has been lost, have underpinned claims for authority and authenticity.
