[{"_id":"project:2969","_type":"project","abstract":{"en":"The project is the first full-scale study of spirituality in Japanese martial arts (Budo) in the West. The project argues that budo should be understood as part of the international new age milieu. Whereas new age is traditionally seen as dominated by women, 74% of budo practitioners are male. By including budo under the new age heading, the project reframes the claimed gender imbalance of the new age milieu. Ideals of spiritual masculinity in budo contain a critique of hegemonic, secular-Western masculinity, which will be analyzed. This study is the first major attempt to investigate masculinity in alternative spirituality, thus opening up important new venues of research for this field. It will demonstrate that this spirituality is the product of multidirectional cultural transfers between “East” and “West”, involving, e.g., esoteric teachings like Theosophy as a bridge, thus problematizing the established idea of an ongoing “Easternization”. Analyzing Swedish budo practitioners’ negotiations of the tension between secularity and spirituality, the project deepens the understanding of the secular condition in today’s Sweden. The project involves a discourse analysis of Swedish texts from ca. 1900–2020, a survey, participant observation in two clubs, and ca. 20 interviews. Among the interviewees are individuals who were present in the 1960s and 70s, resulting in an oral history of how notions of “Eastern” spirituality and masculinity in the budo milieu developed over time."},"project_id":"2022-02594_VR","identifier_short":"2022-02594","dates":{"start_date":"2023-01-01","end_date":"2025-12-31"},"organizations":[{"funding":[{"_id":2,"id":"202100-5208","sv":"Vetenskapsrådet","en":"Swedish Research Council"}]},{"coordinating":[{"_id":481,"id":"202100-4896","sv":"Södertörns högskola","en":"Södertörn University"}]}],"people":[{"project_leaders":[{"_id":"authority-person:54137","orcid":"0000-0001-9264-0395","name":"Faxneld, Per","role":"principal_investigator","affiliation":[{"_id":11808,"sv":"Religionsvetenskap","en":"Study of Religions","parent":[{"_id":11802,"sv":"Institutionen för historia och samtidsstudier","en":"School of Historical and Contemporary Studies","parent":[{"_id":481,"id":"202100-4896","sv":"Södertörns högskola","en":"Södertörn University"}]}]}]}]},{"other_personnel":[]}],"tags":[{"_id":11785,"id":"60303","sv":"Religionsvetenskap","en":"Religious Studies"},{"_id":11786,"id":"60304","sv":"Religionshistoria","en":"History of Religions"}],"titles":{"sv":"Den förbisedda maskulina sidan av new age: \"Österländsk\" kampsportsandlighet","en":"The neglected masculine side of new age: \"Eastern\" spirituality in martial arts"},"type_of_awards":{"sv":"Projektbidrag","en":"Project grant"},"publications":[{"id":"diva2:1993734","type":"article-journal","status":"Published","issued":{"date-parts":[[2025]]},"title":"\"A Link with the Subtle Worlds\" : Negotiating Spirituality in Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu (Ninjutsu)","language":"eng","author":[{"family":"Faxneld","given":"Per","ORCID":"0000-0001-9264-0395","localId":"shprfd16","affiliation":[{"id":"11808","name":"Södertörns högskola, Religionsvetenskap"}]}],"abstract":"The Japanese martial art bujinkan budō taijutsu (ninjutsu) was disseminated globally in the 1970s, becoming popularised in the early 1980s in conjunction with a surge of ninja films. The article uses the evolution of bujinkan in Sweden over the last fifty years as a case study of how spirituality, a key feature in the books by the art’s grandmaster Hatsumi Masaaki and some of his western disciples, is negotiated among practitioners. It draws on interviews with instructors and participant observation in several dōjō, as well as bujinkan books, magazines, and websites. The analysis focuses on nine themes: broad conceptions of spirituality and religion; dōjō paraphernalia and ceremonies; the use of kuji (mudras); notions of subtle energy and vibrations; extrasensory perception; views of the grandmaster’s abilities; photography as a means of cultivating the mysterious; bujinkan as a holistic body-mind practice; and understandings of secrecy and transmission. It is further argued that the early Euro-American reception of bujinkan was coloured by concerns in the contemporary holistic milieu, but that this dimension has gradually faded in importance, at least in Sweden.","DOI":"10.30965/25217038-12345006","ScopusId":"2-s2.0-105014087430","NBN":"urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-58001","issue":"1","volume":"16","page":"142-193","container-title":"Vienna Journal of East Asian Studies","ISSN":"2521-7038","keyword":"Bujinkan Budō Taijutsu; Martial Arts; Ninjutsu; Religion; Secularity; Spirituality","publisher":"Walter de Gruyter","published":[{"raw":"2025-09-01T11:01:00.000+02:00"}],"created":[{"raw":"2025-09-01T11:01:20.665+02:00"}],"updated":[{"raw":"2025-10-07T15:47:33.961+02:00"}],"URL":"https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-58001"},{"id":"diva2:2022848","type":"chapter","issued":{"date-parts":[[2025]]},"title":"Budo Spirituality in the Context of Swedish Secularity","language":"eng","author":[{"family":"Faxneld","given":"Per","ORCID":"0000-0001-9264-0395","localId":"shprfd16","affiliation":[{"id":"11808","name":"Södertörns högskola, Religionsvetenskap"}]}],"ISBN":"9789188717443","NBN":"urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-58683","edition":"1","page":"65-70","container-title":"Reflections on the Sacred","publisher-place":"Stockholm","publisher":"Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation","note":"[ed] Louise Belfrage","published":[{"raw":"2025-12-17T16:24:01.457+01:00"}],"created":[{"raw":"2025-12-17T16:24:01.530+01:00"}],"updated":[{"raw":"2025-12-19T14:29:57.392+01:00"}],"URL":"https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-58683"},{"id":"diva2:1925724","type":"chapter","issued":{"date-parts":[[2024]]},"title":"Crouching Secularity, Hidden Religion : Some Reflections on Studying East Asian Martial Arts in the EU","language":"eng","author":[{"family":"Faxneld","given":"Per","ORCID":"0000-0001-9264-0395","localId":"shprfd16","affiliation":[{"id":"11808","name":"Södertörns högskola, Religionsvetenskap"}]}],"abstract":"Rhetoric about cultivating the self, mystical inner energy, and meditation permeates European discourse on East Asian martial arts. They have often functioned as a contact point with Buddhism, and contributed to a broader sacralisation of bodily exercises. However, few studies of them have been produced by scholars of religion. To analyse martial arts spirituality as a form of lived religion, participant observation, and interviews are necessary. Mapping the milieu through large-scale surveys is also important, as is analysing books, leaflets, and websites produced by participants. The broader popular culture that martial arts are embedded in constitutes a significant context, as does the discourse on martial arts in newspapers. Martial arts spirituality can be analysed as a sub-field of the new age/holistic/alternative spirituality milieu and need to be related to local processes of secularisation. As martial arts are products of dynamic borrowing between “East” and “West”, global history provides a further useful lens.","ISBN":"978-3-657-79466-9","DOI":"10.30965/9783657794669_025","NBN":"urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-56077","page":"395-414","container-title":"Exploring East Asian Religions in the EU","keyword":"Martial arts; budo; Japan; spirituality; religion; kampsport; budo; Japan; andlighet; religion","publisher-place":"Leiden","publisher":"Brill Academic Publishers","note":"[ed] Lukas Pokorny, Laurence Cox, Lionel Obadia, Ugo Dessì","published":[{"raw":"2025-01-09T11:26:00.000+01:00"}],"created":[{"raw":"2025-01-09T11:26:18.509+01:00"}],"updated":[{"raw":"2025-10-07T16:18:54.191+02:00"}],"URL":"https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-56077"}],"links":[{"type":"pid","link":"https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/api/project/swecris/project:2969"}]}]