Localities of symbolic expression and meaning : temples and shrines of Kyoto, Japan
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Cultural practices are maintained by passing knowledge down throughout the generations, yet they also are simultaneously in a process of transition. Influenced by societal requirements, specific aspects of culture are taught and learned. Over time, some qualities are altered, adapted, dismissed, or are auxiliary to the creation of new practices. A prime example of this process is Japanese culture and its symbolic meanings in relation to Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples; milieus which are sacred spaces that contain polysemic modes of symbolic expression. In this thesis, I examine a variety of customs where localities of temples and shrines act as multifaceted outlets of symbolic expression and meaning for the people who visit them. In particular, I am interested in exploring how people use objects and view actions that occur within the context of shrines and temples. Objects are physical, material artifacts that are representative of something, some examples of objects being architecture, artwork, statues and monuments, or a talisman. Actions take place as a physical means of representation, acted out in order to initiate a desired effect; such actions include ritual behaviors, ceremony, dance and offerings. By analyzing objects and actions, this thesis shows how people’s interactions within shrines and temples not only mark these locations as meaningful places, but reveal how people’s understandings of the meanings of symbolic forms within these sites are changing in contemporary times. This thesis is shaped from data collected using participant observation, open-ended interviews, questionnaires, and photo journaling during a four month period of fieldwork (Mid-September 2011 until early January 2012) in the city of Kyoto, Japan. My research suggests that, as Japanese society continues to change, contemporary Japanese youth are losing some traditional knowledge of symbolic representations found at shrine and temple sites, signifying a general gap in traditional knowledge between generations. This indicates that symbolic forms are either changing, or possibly that the youth of today are not learning about current or past symbolic meanings in the first place. Moreover, the reasons for visiting temple and shrines are increasingly due to specifically non-religious purposes such as tourism or entertainment.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.009 | 0.007 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".