Tomoko Iwasawa is associate professor of comparative religions at Reitaku University, Japan. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy of religion from Boston University. Her publications include Jaspers' "Schuldfrage" and Hiroshima: Does the Concept of Guilt Exist for Japanese Religious Consciousness? (2008)and On the Concept of Defilement: A Comparative Study of Paul Ricoeur's "Symbolism of Evil" and Japanese Myth (2009). She is an executive board member of International Shinto Foundation.

Tomoko Iwasawa's fascinating and, in many ways, revolutionary study of the Kojiki … makes a convincing case for the fundamentality of tama within the overall structure of Japanese myth…. Fully conversant with Western philosophy and the leading experts in the analysis and criticism of classical Japanese texts, Tomoko Iwasawa's [book] should be considered required reading in Japanese studies, religious studies, and the comparative philosophy of religion.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPART I TAMA IN JAPANESE MYTH — HISTORICAL INVESTIGATIONSChapter 1 In Pursuit of Tama in the Japanese Language: Motoori Norinaga’s Interpretation of Tama Chapter 2 In Search of the Salvation of Embodied Tama: Hirata Atsutane’s Interpretation of TamaChapter 3 The Dialectic of Mythologizing, Demythologizing, and RemythologizingPART II TAMA IN JAPANESE MYTH — CONCRETE MANIFESTATIONSPart II Introduction Chapter 4 The Problem of Defilement: The Myth of Izanagi and IzanamiChapter 5 The Problem of Sin: The Myth of Amaterasu and SusanowoConclusionBibliographyIndex