Book Description
Abortion has been practiced throughout Japanese history and, since its postwar legalization, has come to be widely accepted. Its legal status is not under attack. Contemporary religious groups do not mobilize against it, nor do political parties compose their platforms around the issue. Yet in the 1970s religious entrepreneurs across all doctrinal boundaries mounted a surprisingly successful tabloid campaign to popularize a religious ritual for aborted fetuses called mizuko kuyo. Using images derived from fetal photography, they published frightening accounts of fetal wrath and spiritual attacks, prompting many women to seek ritual atonement for abortions performed even decades earlier.
