Aike Peter Rots

Monograph

• Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests. London: Bloomsbury, 2017.

Edited volumes

• (With Florence Durney, Lindsey DeWitt Prat, and Sonja Åman:) Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific. University of Hawai'i Press, 2026.
• (With Moumita Sen and Mark Teeuwen:) Festivals in Asia: Patronage, Play, and Piety. Special issue of Religion, vol. 53, no. 3, 2023.
• (With Mark Teeuwen:) Sacred Heritage in Japan. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020.
• (With Mark Teeuwen:) Formations of the Secular in Japan. Special issue of Japan Review, no. 30, 2017.

Journal articles (selection)

• 'Crossing Boundaries: Rethinking "Japanese Religion" in the Anthropocene.' Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 51 (2), 2025, pp. 253-283. https://doi.org/10.18874/jjrs.51.2.2024.253-283
• 'Whales of Hope: Whaling Heritage, Tourism, and Community Belonging in Twenty-First-Century Japan.' Contemporary Japan, 2025, pp. 1-27. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/18692729.2025.2485617
• 'Utopia, Theodicy, and Ritual: East Asian Perspectives.' Religion 54 (3), 2024, pp. 569-579. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2024.2362069.
• (With Nhung Lu Rots:) 'When Gods Drown in Plastic: Vietnamese Whale Worship, Environmental Crises, and the Problem of Animism.' Environmental Humanities 15 (3), 2023, pp. 8-29. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-10745957
• 'Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Three Directions for Japanese Studies.' The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies 41 (1), 2023, pp. 9-35. https://doi.org/10.22439/cjas.v41i1.6883
• (With Ellen Haugan:) 'Whaling on Stage: A Comparison of Contemporary Japanese Whale Festivals.' Religion 53 (3), 2023, pp. 528-553. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2023.2211393
• (With Moumita Sen and Mark Teeuwen:) 'Festivals in Asia: Patronage, Play, and Piety.' Religion 53 (3), 2023, pp. 387-405. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2023.2211395
• (With Levi McLaughlin, Jolyon Baraka Thomas, and Chika Watanabe:) 'Why Scholars of Religion Must Investigate the Corporate Form.' Journal of the American Academy of Religion 88 (3), 2020, pp. 693-725. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfaa041.
• 'Trees of Tension: Re-Making Nature in Post-Tsunami Tohoku.' Japan Forum 33 (1), 2021, pp. 1–24 (published online 2019); https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2019.1628087.
• 'World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New "Public Sacred" in East Asia.' Journal of Religion in Japan 8 (1-3), 2019, pp. 151-178.
• '"This Is Not a Powerspot": Heritage Tourism, Sacred Space, and Conflicts of Authority at Sēfa Utaki.' Asian Ethnology 78 (1), 2019, pp. 155-180.
• 'Strangers in the Sacred Grove: The Changing Meanings of Okinawan Utaki.' Religions 10 (5), 298, 2019; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel10050298.
• 'Public Shrine Forests? Shinto, Immanence, and Discursive Secularization.' Japan Review 30, 2017, pp. 179-205.
• (With Mark Teeuwen:) 'Introduction: Formations of the Secular in Japan.' Japan Review 30, 2017, pp. 3-20.
• 'Sacred Forests, Sacred Nation: The Shinto Environmentalist Paradigm and the Rediscovery of Chinju no Mori.' Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 42 (2), 2015, pp. 205-233.
• 'Worldwide Kami, Global Shinto: The Invention and Spread of a "Nature Religion".' Czech and Slovak Journal of Humanities 3, 2015, pp. 31-48.

Book chapters (selection)

• 'Rituals, environments and more-than-human relations', in Marit Ruge Bjærke, Brita Brenna, Anders Ekström, and John Ødemark (eds), Cultural History and the Anthropocene: Old Turns, New Encounters. London: Bloomsbury, 2025.
• 'Space and Environment', in Matthew D. McMullen and Jolyon Baraka Thomas (eds.), The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2024.
• 'The Village Church as Intangible Cultural Heritage: European Ritual Innovation Seen from a Japanese Perspective', in Todd Weir and Lieke Wijnia (eds.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023, pp. 295-307.
• 'Environmentalism', in Erica Baffelli, Andrea Castiglioni, and Fabio Rambelli (eds), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021, pp. 65-72.
• 'Whose Sacred Site? Contesting World Heritage at Sēfa Utaki', in Aike P. Rots and Mark Teeuwen, eds., Sacred Heritage in Japan, Abingdon: Routledge, 2020, pp. 87-112.
• (With Mark Teeuwen:) 'Heritage-Making and the Transformation of Religion in Modern Japan', in Aike P. Rots and Mark Teeuwen, eds., Sacred Heritage in Japan, Abingdon: Routledge, 2020, pp. 1-17.
• 'Re-enchantment Restricted: Popular Buddhism and Politics in Vietnam Today', in Hanna Havnevik, Ute Hüsken, Mark Teeuwen, Vladimir Tikhonov and Koen Wellens, eds., Buddhist Modernities: Re-Inventing Tradition in the Globalizing Modern World, Abingdon: Routledge, 2017, pp. 183-203.
• 'The Sacralization of Space', in Sîan Melvill Hawthone, ed., Gender: God, Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, Farmington Hills: Macmillan Reference USA, 2017, pp. 315-332.
• 'Shinto's Modern Transformations: From Imperial Cult to Nature Worship', in Bryan S. Turner and Oscar Salemink, eds., Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia. Abingdon: Routledge, 2015, pp. 125-143.
• 'Nature's Blessing, Nature's Wrath: Shinto Responses to the Disasters of 2011', in Roy Starrs, ed., When the Tsunami Came to Shore: Culture and Disaster in Japan. Leiden: Brill, 2014, pp. 23-49.
• 'Ambigious Identities: Negotiating Christianity and "Japaneseness" ', in John K. Nelson and Inken Prohl, eds., Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions, Leiden: Brill, 2012, pp. 309-343.

• Durney, Florence & Rots, Aike Peter (2026). Epilogue. I Rots, Aike Peter; Durney, Florence; Åman, Sonja Irene & Prat, Lindsey DeWitt (Red.), Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific. University of Hawai'i Press. ISSN 9798880702084. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Water Powers is an interdisciplinary collection that presents timely, original research on sacred aquatic animals—from dragons and nagas to crocodiles, eels, dugongs, and whales—and environmental change. Contributors examine the past and present significance of these creatures in Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Okinawa, Indonesia, and Aotearoa-New Zealand to explore the diverse relationships between animals, deities, humans, and bodies of water. In so doing, they challenge narratives about disenchantment as a core aspect of modernization, seeking to give the sacred creatures and the rituals associated with them a more central place in debates about environmental degradation and conservation initiatives. Their work converges around three core themes: (1) divine embodiment and materiality (how sacred beings manifest themselves and act in the world); (2) making and crossing boundaries (how aquatic animals are constrained by but also challenge physical, ontological, and conceptual boundaries); and (3) crises and relationality (how more-than-human relationships change in response to environmental and other crises). Water Powers will appeal to scholars and students across multiple fields, including anthropology, religious studies, environmental humanities, geography, development studies, history, and archaeology. The book will also interest development experts, conservationists, museum curators, and readers engaged with culture, religion, and environmental change in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Nguyen, Tuan Anh & Rots, Aike Peter (2026). How the Whale God Became Heritage: The Transformation of Whale Festivals in Da Nang, Vietnam. I Rots, Aike Peter; Durney, Florence; Åman, Sonja Irene & Prat, Lindsey DeWitt (Red.), Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific. University of Hawai'i Press. ISSN 9798880702084. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Water Powers is an interdisciplinary collection that presents timely, original research on sacred aquatic animals—from dragons and nagas to crocodiles, eels, dugongs, and whales—and environmental change. Contributors examine the past and present significance of these creatures in Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Okinawa, Indonesia, and Aotearoa-New Zealand to explore the diverse relationships between animals, deities, humans, and bodies of water. In so doing, they challenge narratives about disenchantment as a core aspect of modernization, seeking to give the sacred creatures and the rituals associated with them a more central place in debates about environmental degradation and conservation initiatives. Their work converges around three core themes: (1) divine embodiment and materiality (how sacred beings manifest themselves and act in the world); (2) making and crossing boundaries (how aquatic animals are constrained by but also challenge physical, ontological, and conceptual boundaries); and (3) crises and relationality (how more-than-human relationships change in response to environmental and other crises). Water Powers will appeal to scholars and students across multiple fields, including anthropology, religious studies, environmental humanities, geography, development studies, history, and archaeology. The book will also interest development experts, conservationists, museum curators, and readers engaged with culture, religion, and environmental change in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Rots, Aike Peter; Durney, Florence & Åman, Sonja Irene (2026). Introduction: Bridging Troubled Waters. I Rots, Aike Peter; Durney, Florence; Åman, Sonja Irene & Prat, Lindsey DeWitt (Red.), Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific. University of Hawai'i Press. ISSN 9798880702084. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Water Powers is an interdisciplinary collection that presents timely, original research on sacred aquatic animals—from dragons and nagas to crocodiles, eels, dugongs, and whales—and environmental change. Contributors examine the past and present significance of these creatures in Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Okinawa, Indonesia, and Aotearoa-New Zealand to explore the diverse relationships between animals, deities, humans, and bodies of water. In so doing, they challenge narratives about disenchantment as a core aspect of modernization, seeking to give the sacred creatures and the rituals associated with them a more central place in debates about environmental degradation and conservation initiatives. Their work converges around three core themes: (1) divine embodiment and materiality (how sacred beings manifest themselves and act in the world); (2) making and crossing boundaries (how aquatic animals are constrained by but also challenge physical, ontological, and conceptual boundaries); and (3) crises and relationality (how more-than-human relationships change in response to environmental and other crises). Water Powers will appeal to scholars and students across multiple fields, including anthropology, religious studies, environmental humanities, geography, development studies, history, and archaeology. The book will also interest development experts, conservationists, museum curators, and readers engaged with culture, religion, and environmental change in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2025). Rituals, environments and more-than-human relations. I Bjærke, Marit Ruge; Brenna, Brita; Ekström, Anders & Ødemark, John (Red.), Cultural History and the Anthropocene: Old turns, new encounters. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9781350532632. s. 67–82. doi: 10.5040/9781350532632.ch-004. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This chapter discusses the changing meanings of rituals in the Anthropocene. Its overarching argument is threefold. First, it argues that rituals matter as they provide people with meaning and help them mediate relationships with other humans, non-humans and environments. Second, the chapter argues for a move away from an instrumentalist understanding of religion, which characterizes much existing literature on religion and ecology, to one that acknowledges its multifaceted and ambivalent nature. Third, the chapter suggests that approaching ritual and the Anthropocene in conjunction, as topics that are intimately related, sheds new light on both. It introduces three possible approaches to the study of ritual: (1) Ritual as a type of domestication; (2) Environmental action as ritual action; and (3) Ritual as a coping strategy and art of living. Ritual can be a way of expressing care and establishing a connection with a place, which is arguably needed more than ever.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2025). Crossing Boundaries: Rethinking “Japanese Religion” in the Anthropocene. Japanese journal of religious studies. ISSN 0304-1042. 51(2), s. 253–283. doi: 10.18874/jjrs.51.2.2024.253-283. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article uses the fiftieth anniversary of the <em>JJRS</em> as an occasion to reexamine the field, consider challenges and opportunities, and offer suggestions for how to bring Japanese religious studies more in tune with developments in adjacent academic fields and wider societal concerns. I argue that scholars of Japanese religion must engage more with the most pressing issues of our time and that they can do so by applying insights from the environmental humanities to their studies. This project should involve reflection upon the adjective “Japanese” and a critical awareness of processes of Japan-making in academia, with greater attention to diversity within the Japanese isles, focusing on migrants, Indigenous communities, and other minoritized groups, and with a transnational comparative approach that moves beyond nation-states as analytical units and acknowledges cross-border flows and commonalities. These conceptual and methodological interventions directly align with the core concerns and objectives of the environmental humanities.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2025). Space and Environment. I McMullen, Matthew D. & Thomas, Jolyon Baraka (Red.), The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions. University of Hawai'i Press. ISSN 9798880701322. s. 185–197. doi: 10.1515/9798880701346-016. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2025). Whales of hope: Whaling heritage, tourism, and community belonging in twenty-first-century Japan. Contemporary Japan. ISSN 1869-2729. doi: 10.1080/18692729.2025.2485617. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2024). Utopia, theodicy, and ritual: East Asian perspectives. Religion. ISSN 0048-721X. 54(3), s. 569–579. doi: 10.1080/0048721X.2024.2362069. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This response argues that ‘utopia' and ‘utopianism' are useful conceptual tools for analysing and comparing social practices in different historical and geographical contexts. It also suggests that the theoretical interventions put forward in this special issue can be developed further by bringing them in dialogue with cases and theories from East Asia. The response introduces the example of Tenri City in Japan, conceived in the early postwar period as a physical realisation of the Tenrikyō Church’s utopian vision, which today comes across as an outdated urban planning project. It asks how groups such as Tenrikyō reconcile their utopian promises with the inherent imperfections that characterise any real-world social project, focusing on two key themes: theodicy and ritual action. The insights from this approach contribute to broader discussions in the study of religion\s, underscoring the interplay between temporal imagination, materiality, and everyday ritual practices in sustaining community life and social identity.

• Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus; Sen, Moumita & Rots, Aike Peter (2023). Festivals in Asia: patronage, play, and piety. Religion. ISSN 0048-721X. 53(3), s. 387–405. doi: 10.1080/0048721X.2023.2211395. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2023). Beyond Methodological Nationalism: Three Directions for Japanese Studies. The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies (the CJAS). ISSN 1395-4199. 41(1), s. 9–35. doi: 10.22439/cjas.v41i1.6883. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article discusses the problem of lingering methodological nationalism within Japanese studies. It argues that methodological nationalism remains widespread not only in research but also in university teaching and public dissemination, which legitimises popular conceptions of Japan as a singular, unified entity that is essentially different from both the West and continental Asia. This methodological nationalism is a consequence of the ways in which disciplinary structures contribute to the reification, demarcation and naturalisation of ‘Japan’ and ‘things Japanese’ as distinct objects of study in need of their own guild of specialised interpreters. The article argues that to overcome methodological nationalism, scholars of Japan need to reconsider their choice of subject matter and reflect more upon their use of the adjective ‘Japanese’. It proposes three research agendas for the academic study of Japan. First, we should study discursive and institutional processes of Japan-making instead of being complicit in them. Second, we need to rethink ‘Japan’ as our main spatio-cultural unit by focusing on diversity within the Japanese isles and beyond (including migrant and Indigenous perspectives). Third, we should conduct and contribute to comparative research that focuses on both local particulars and transnational connections, rather than using the nation-state as our main unit of analysis.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2023). The Village Church as Intangible Cultural Heritage: European Ritual Innovation Seen from a Japanese Perspective. I Weir, Todd & Wijnia, Lieke (Red.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9781350251380. s. 295–307. doi: 10.5040/9781350251410.ch-032. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter & Lu, Nhung (2023). When Gods Drown in Plastic: Vietnamese Whale Worship, Environmental Crises, and the Problem of Animism. Environmental Humanities. 15(3), s. 8–29. doi: 10.1215/22011919-10745957. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Abstract Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the category animism has seen a remarkable resurgence in Western scholarship, capturing the interest of many anthropologists, scholars of religion, and philosophers. Some authors have argued that animism can provide a model for a new environmental ethics that acknowledges more-than-human agencies and interdependencies. However, the question remains as to how so-called animist ontologies can transform not only individual moralities, but also the extractivist economic-political structures underlying the current crisis. In this article, we assess some of these claims by examining an Asian ritual tradition that is arguably animistic, while also containing elements of Buddhism, Daoism, and ancestor worship: the worship of whales, widespread along the coast of South and Central Vietnam. Fishing communities here believe that whales are divine beings, incarnations of the maritime god Ông Nam Hải (Lord of the South Sea)—also known as Cá Ông (Lord Fish)—who rescue people in distress at sea. When fishers find beached whales, they offer them elaborate funeral ceremonies and enshrine their bones in local temples. Whale worship constitutes a way of relating to the physical environment, and rituals help people respond to problems such as coastal erosion and overfishing. However, there is no evidence suggesting that this particular animistic belief system has given way to environmentalist action, let alone induced systemic change. Animistic ontologies certainly have ethical dimensions, and they may provide ways for people to make sense of and cope with Anthropocenic crises, but that does not mean they teach people how to act sustainably. At the very least, that would require an active process of translation and adaptation.

• Rots, Aike Peter & Haugan, Ellen (2023). Whaling on stage: a comparison of contemporary Japanese whale festivals. Religion. ISSN 0048-721X. doi: 10.1080/0048721X.2023.2211393. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Conservative Japanese politicians, academics, and journalists regularly state that whaling is an essential part of their national heritage, expressed in material culture, folk songs, ritual practices, and festivals. Japan has several whale festivals (kujira matsuri): playful events at which participants re-enact Edo-period (1600–1868) coastal whaling practices and perform whaling-related songs and dances. This article compares the festivals of Taiji (Wakayama), Kayoi (Yamaguchi), Shinkami-gotō (Nagasaki), and Ayukawa (Miyagi). It argues that these festivals not only have economic and social significance for the communities in question; they also support the notion of Japan as a traditional whaling nation. By organising and participating in these festivals, local priests, volunteers, and audiences enact this imagined whaling heritage, thus supporting the agenda of the present-day whaling industry. However, local actors have their own motivations and interests, and in fact the celebration of whaling heritage is not contingent upon the continuation of whaling today.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2021). Environmentalism. I Baffelli, Erica; Castiglioni, Andrea & Rambelli, Fabio (Red.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions. Bloomsbury Academic. ISSN 9781350043732. s. 65–72. doi: 10.5040/9781350043763.ch-008. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Aike P. ROTS In recent decades, religious traditions worldwide have been reinterpreted in light of environmental concerns. Various scholars and religious actors have described Asian worship traditions such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Hinduism as vestiges of “holistic ecological wisdom” and “ancient sustainability,” in contrast to Abrahamic religions, which are often said to legitimize or even encourage exploitation of the natural environment (see White 1967) . They have suggested that Asian traditions contain important resources — philosophical, practical, and physical — for overcoming today’s global environmental crisis (e. g. , Smith 1972; Tucker and Williams 1997; Tucker and Berthrong 1998; Duara 2015) . As some critics have pointed out, such interpretations are often anachronistic and orientalist, and may be employed to support nationalist or other ideological agendas (Pedersen 1995; Kalland 2002) . Although this critique is justified, there is no denying the fact that environmental concerns have contributed to the actual transformation...

• Rots, Aike Peter (2020). Whose Sacred Site? Contesting World Heritage at Sēfa Utaki. I Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus & Rots, Aike Peter (Red.), Sacred Heritage in Japan. Routledge. ISSN 9780367217709. s. 87–112. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus & Rots, Aike Peter (2020). Heritage-Making and the Transformation of Religion in Modern Japan. I Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus & Rots, Aike Peter (Red.), Sacred Heritage in Japan. Routledge. ISSN 9780367217709. s. 1–17. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter; McLaughlin, Levi; Thomas, Jolyon Baraka & Watanabe, Chika (2020). Why Scholars of Religion Must Investigate the Corporate Form. Journal of the American Academy of Religion. ISSN 0002-7189. 88(3), s. 693–725. doi: 10.1093/jaarel/lfaa041. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Abstract A growing body of research describes connections between religion and economic activity through the language of commodification and marketization. Although this scholarship rightly challenges the assumption that religion is or should be divorced from worldly concerns, it still relies on distinctions between religion and the economy as isolable, reified entities. Rejecting this binary approach as untenable, we argue that studying the corporate form enriches the academic study of religion by providing concrete examples of how people create institutions and how organizations turn human bodies into resources while also fostering individuals’ devotion to collective agendas. Attention to the corporate form enables us to keep money and power in view as we trace historical formations and current manifestations of religious organizations. We investigate Japanese genealogies of the corporate form to elucidate some generalizable principles for how nonprofit religions and for-profit companies alike generate missions, families, individuals, and publics.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2019). Strangers in the Sacred Grove: The Changing Meanings of Okinawan Utaki. Religions. 10(5). doi: 10.3390/rel10050298. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article discusses the changing significance of sacred groves (utaki) in contemporary Okinawa. Until recently, utaki were the domain of female ritual practitioners (kaminchu or noro), and men were not allowed to set foot in them. In many places, such taboos have faded away, if not disappeared altogether, and utaki have acquired new meanings in the context of mass tourism, heritage conservation, and environmental degradation. Although there are several studies of the ritual system of the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429–1879), little research has been conducted on the postwar and contemporary significance of utaki. This article begins by describing the current situation, using examples from the southeastern part of the island. It then identifies three main issues for the study of sacred groves in Okinawa today: the claim, made by leading Japanese scholars, that these are sites of primordial “nature worship”, supposedly similar to ancient Shinto; the recent popularization of utaki as sites of spiritual power, so-called “powerspots”, among tourists; and, finally, the emerging realization of their potential significance for biodiversity conservation.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2019). Trees of tension: re-making nature in post-disaster Tohoku. Japan forum. ISSN 0955-5803. s. 1–24. doi: 10.1080/09555803.2019.1628087. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The 2011 tsunami caused widespread deforestation in the coastal areas of Tohoku. In response, secular authorities, religious institutions and civil society organisations have set up a number of projects for replanting coastal forests, and arranged local tree-planting events (shokujusai). This article discusses and compares a number of these initiatives. Tree-planting carries profound symbolic capital in modern Japan, and these projects draw on pre-existing notions and practices. However, there has been significant disagreement concerning the shape these new forests should take, not least when it comes to their species composition. The notion of Japan as a ‘forest civilisation’ is a recurring theme in post-war nationalist scholarship, but such discourse conceals the conflicts that actual forest-making policies have caused. This article argues that in contemporary Japan, individual trees and tree species have come to embody different ideological positions and agendas. An examination of reforestation projects in Tohoku sheds light on some of the complexities of post-disaster ‘reconstruction’, and shows that the symbolic practice of tree-planting is closely connected to contentious political issues such as land use, livelihoods, the power of the construction industry, and the role of religious organisations in public space.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2019). Reclaiming Public Space: Shinto and Politics in Japan Today. I Dessein, Bart & Sturtewagen, Christian (Red.), Traditional Wisdom and Political Expression. Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. ISSN 9789075652611. s. 23–45. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2019). "This Is Not a Powerspot": Heritage Tourism, Sacred Space, and Conflicts of Authority at Sēfa Utaki. Asian Ethnology. ISSN 1882-6865. 78(1), s. 155–180. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The sacred grove Sēfa Utaki was one of the most important worship sites of the Ryukyu Kingdom (1429–1879). In 2000 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and in recent years it has seen a dramatic increase in the number of visitors. The emergence of large-scale heritage tourism at Sēfa Utaki has caused tensions between various actors, including Okinawan pilgrims, spirit mediums, mainland Japanese tourists, and local authorities. The site is subject to competing claims, not least with regard to its spiritual significance and the question of proper ritual behavior. Contrary to most other UNESCO-listed sacred sites in Japan, Sēfa Utaki is not a religious institution, legally speaking, and therefore does not have its own clerical authority. This has led to different actors attempting to assert authority in various ways, as this article demonstrates. To some of them, the capacity to “feel” the spiritual power of the place becomes a marker of identity, distinguishing supposedly “authentic” Okinawan worship practices from such mainland inventions as “powerspot tourism.” Sēfa Utaki is promoted widely as a “sacred site” (seichi), but there appears to be little consensus on what this “sacredness” entails. Some Okinawan tour guides and worshippers assert that the grove is a place of worship (ogamu basho) where rituals are conducted for the well-being of Okinawan society as a whole; according to them, overseas visitors and powerspot tourists fail to understand this crucial aspect of Okinawan tradition.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2019). World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New “Public Sacred” in East Asia. Journal of Religion in Japan. ISSN 2211-8330. 8(1-3), s. 151–178. doi: 10.1163/22118349-00801011. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The category “heritage” is quickly gaining importance for the study of religion, not least in East Asia. Since the 1990s, Japanese governments, entrepreneurs, and NGO s have invested heavily in heritage preservation, production, and promotion, and other East Asian countries have followed suit. UNESCO recognition is sought after by various state and private actors, who see it as a useful tool for validating and popularising select historical narratives and for acquiring national and international legitimacy. These developments have led to far-reaching transformations in worship sites and ritual practices. Drawing on recent Japanese examples, and comparing these to cases elsewhere in the region, this article constitutes a first step towards a theory of the heritagisation of religion in East Asia. It argues that the heritagisation of worship sites often entails a process of deprivatisation, turning them into public properties that are simultaneously secular and sacred. The article distinguishes between three patterns, which many worship sites and ritual practices that have been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage or Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, in Japan and beyond, follow: 1) heritage-making constitutes a type of secularisation, 2) it gives rise to new processes of sacralisation, and 3) this enables mass tourism that can lead to far-reaching transformations. Focusing on the first two patterns, the article shows how heritage-making leads to the reconfiguration of sites and practices as national, public, and secular sacred properties.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2017). Re-Enchantment Restricted: Popular Buddhism and Politics in Vietnam Today. I Havnevik, Hanna; Hüsken, Ute; Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus; Tikhonov, Vladimir & Wellens, Koen (Red.), Buddhist Modernities: Re-inventing Tradition in the Globalizing Modern World. Routledge. ISSN 9781138687844. s. 183–203. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  The transformations Buddhism has been undergoing in the modern age have inspired much research over the last decade. The main focus of attention has been the phenomenon known as Buddhist modernism, which is defined as a conscious attempt to adjust Buddhist teachings and practices in conformity with the modern norms of rationality, science, or gender equality. This book advances research on Buddhist modernism by attempting to clarify the highly diverse ways in which Buddhist faith, thought, and practice have developed in the modern age, both in Buddhist heartlands in Asia and in the West. It presents a collection of case studies that, taken together, demonstrate how Buddhist traditions interact with modern phenomena such as colonialism and militarism, the market economy, global interconnectedness, the institutionalization of gender equality, and recent historical events such as de-industrialization and the socio-cultural crisis in post-Soviet Buddhist areas. This volume shows how the (re)invention of traditions constitutes an important pathway in the development of Buddhist modernities and emphasizes the pluralistic diversity of these forms in different settings.

• Rots, Aike Peter (2017). Public Shrine Forests? Shinto, Immanence, and Discursive Secularization. Japan Review. ISSN 0915-0986. s. 179–205. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  This article analyzes contemporary Shinto ideology in the light of recent theories on the formation of the category “secular” and on secularization. Drawing on Charles Taylor’s discussion of the original meaning of the categories “religious” and “secular,” as well as the work of Kuroda Toshio and others, it suggests that premodern shrine worship may have been perceived as the “immanent,” “this-worldly” counterpart of a more transcendentally oriented monastic Buddhism. In the Meiji period, Shinto developed into a modern Japanese “immanent frame” (or “Shinto secular,” as Josephson has called it)—a public, collective, non-optional frame of reference— while Buddhism, Christianity, and “new religions” were configured as “religious,” that is, private and optional. Contemporary Shinto leaders such as Tanaka Tsunekiyo and Sonoda Minoru draw upon such Meiji-period understandings of Shinto as the immanent, foundational framework by which Japanese culture and society are shaped and conditioned. According to them, Shinto should not be subject to the same legal restrictions as other religions, as it is an essentially public tradition uniting communities (kyōdōtai) around their shared sacred center, the shrine grove (chinju no mori). As this article demonstrates, these authors actively contribute to Shinto’s discursive secularization: they seek to dissociate Shinto from “religion,” instead framing it as Japan’s underlying “traditional culture” (dentō bunka). Rather than challenging the postwar legal state apparatus and separation of religion and state, therefore, they seek to renegotiate Shinto’s position within this apparatus, asserting its role as a “secular” worship tradition concerned with the common good of the nation as a whole. © 2017 International Research Center for Japanese Studies

• Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus & Rots, Aike Peter (2017). Introduction: Formations of the secular in Japan. Japan Review. ISSN 0915-0986. 30, s. 3–20. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2017). The Sacralization of Space. I Hawthorne, Sîan Melvill (Red.), Gender: God. Macmillan Publishers Ltd.. ISSN 9780028663258. s. 315–332. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2015). Review of: Sébastien Penmellen Boret, 'Japanese Tree Burial: Ecology, Kinship and the Culture of Death'. Japanese journal of religious studies. ISSN 0304-1042. 42(2), s. 392–395. doi: 10.18874/jjrs.42.2.2015.392-395. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2015). Sacred Forests, Sacred Nation: The Shinto Environmentalist Paradigm and the Rediscovery of Chinju no Mori. Japanese journal of religious studies. ISSN 0304-1042. 42(2), s. 205–233. doi: 10.18874/jjrs.42.2.2015.205-233. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2015). Shinto's Modern Transformations: From Imperial Cult to Nature Worship. I Turner, Bryan S. & Salemink, Oscar (Red.), Routledge Handbook of Religions in Asia. Routledge. ISSN 9780415635035. s. 125–143. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2015). Worldwide Kami, Global Shinto: The Invention and Spread of a 'Nature Religion'. Czech and Slovak Journal of Humanities. ISSN 1805-3742. s. 31–48. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2014). Nature's Blessing, Nature's Wrath: Shinto Responses to the Disasters of 2011. I Starrs, Roy (Red.), When the Tsunami Came to Shore: Culture and Disaster in Japan. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004268296. s. 23–49. doi: 10.1163/9789004268319_003. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2012). Ambiguous Identities: Negotiating Christianity and 'Japaneseness'. I Nelson, John & Prohl, Inken (Red.), Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions. De Gruyter Brill. ISSN 9789004234352. s. 309–344. doi: 10.1163/9789004234369_014. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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• Rots, Aike Peter; Durney, Florence; Åman, Sonja Irene & Prat, Lindsey DeWitt (2026). Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific. University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 9798880702084. 346 s. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv Vis sammendrag

  Water Powers is an interdisciplinary collection that presents timely, original research on sacred aquatic animals—from dragons and nagas to crocodiles, eels, dugongs, and whales—and environmental change. Contributors examine the past and present significance of these creatures in Nepal, India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, Okinawa, Indonesia, and Aotearoa-New Zealand to explore the diverse relationships between animals, deities, humans, and bodies of water. In so doing, they challenge narratives about disenchantment as a core aspect of modernization, seeking to give the sacred creatures and the rituals associated with them a more central place in debates about environmental degradation and conservation initiatives. Their work converges around three core themes: (1) divine embodiment and materiality (how sacred beings manifest themselves and act in the world); (2) making and crossing boundaries (how aquatic animals are constrained by but also challenge physical, ontological, and conceptual boundaries); and (3) crises and relationality (how more-than-human relationships change in response to environmental and other crises). Water Powers will appeal to scholars and students across multiple fields, including anthropology, religious studies, environmental humanities, geography, development studies, history, and archaeology. The book will also interest development experts, conservationists, museum curators, and readers engaged with culture, religion, and environmental change in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Teeuwen, Marcus Jacobus & Rots, Aike Peter (2020). Sacred Heritage in Japan. Routledge. ISBN 9780367217709. 210 s. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2017). Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781474289931. 260 s. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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• Rots, Aike Peter (2025). Åpen publisering og nye tidsskriftmodeller. doi: https:/akademietforyngreforskere.no/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Jubileumsbok-digital.pdf. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Frøystad, Kathinka; Rots, Aike Peter; Baffeli, Erica; Longkumer, Arkotong; Caple, Jane & Stroup, David (2025). Recentring Fear in the Study of Religion: Theorising from Asia. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Jacobsen, Ragnhild Irene; Rots, Aike Peter & Fløgstad, Guro Nore (2023). Hva sier forskningen om kjærlighet og romantikk? Morgenbladet. ISSN 0805-3847. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Fløgstad, Guro Nore; Suliman, Salwa; Ellingsen, Simen Andreas Ådnøy; Rots, Aike Peter; Danbolt, Bjørn Kristian & Korsvoll, Nils Hallvard [Vis alle 7 forfattere av denne artikkelen] (2023). Studieavgift er korttenkt kunnskapspolitikk. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter; Korne, Haley De; Solheim, Marte Cecilie Wilhelmsen & Korsvoll, Nils Hallvard (2022). Skolepengene må stoppes. s. 6–6. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Elken, Mari; Rots, Aike Peter & Tjønndal, Anne (2022). Hvor internasjonal er egentlig norsk forskning? Morgenbladet. ISSN 0805-3847. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Lison, Pierre; Rots, Aike Peter & Korne, Haley De (2022). Hvilket fremmedspråk bør man lære seg i Google-oversettelsenes tidsalder? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter; Korne, Haley De; Solheim, Marte Cecilie Wilhelmsen & Korsvoll, Nils Hallvard (2022). Research-Norway needs international students. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Olsen, Torjer Andreas; Dale, Ragnhild Freng & Rots, Aike Peter (2022). Panelsamtale: Hvorfor og hvordan drive forskning på og med urfolk og minoriteter? Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter; Endresen, Cecilie; Gubrium, Erika; Tolgensbakk, Ida; Bell, Justyna & Tanyi, Attila [Vis alle 8 forfattere av denne artikkelen] (2021). Et «fremmed» virus? – Covid-19, nasjonalisme og stengte grenser. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2019). Review of "The Sea and the Sacred in Japan: Aspects of Maritime Religion", by Fabio Rambelli (ed.). Journal of Religion in Japan. ISSN 2211-8330. 8(1-3), s. 207–213. doi: 10.1163/22118349-00703007. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2016). Review of: "Sacred Space in the Modern City: The Fractured Pasts of Meiji Shrine, 1912-1958", by Yoshiko Imaizumi. Monumenta Nipponica. ISSN 0027-0741. 71(2), s. 438–442. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2014). Chinju no mori : la forêt sacrée. I Bonnin, Philippe; Nishida, Masatsugu & Inaga, Shigemi (Red.), Vocabulaire de la spatialité japonaise. CNRS Editions. ISSN 9782271080592. s. 80–82. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2014). Shizen : la nature. I Bonnin, Philippe; Nishida, Masatsugu & Inaga, Shigemi (Red.), Vocabulaire de la spatialité japonaise. CNRS Editions. ISSN 9782271080592. s. 444–447. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv
• Rots, Aike Peter (2012). Review of 'Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook', edited by James W. Heisig, Thomas P. Kasulis and John C. Maraldo. Japan Review. ISSN 0915-0986. s. 213–215. Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

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