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Examines Bōzu days (2007–2011) and movies Fancy Dance (1989) and Abraxas matsuri (2010), showing how Zen’s everyday, down-to-earth character is foregrounded while zazen meditation plays a comparatively minor role. Interprets how mainstream entertainment products adapt and represent Zen for broad international audiences, often emphasizing dissemination-oriented portrayals rather than traditional devotional practice.",{"@graph":69,"@context":126},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/down-to-earth-zen-zen-buddhism-in-japanese-manga-and-movies/143363/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/down-to-earth-zen-zen-buddhism-in-japanese-manga-and-movies/143363.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Terk","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-24","2026-08-25",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118,122],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Which manga and movies are analyzed to study Zen Buddhism in popular culture?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The paper examines the manga Bōzu days (2007–2011) and two movies: Fancy Dance (1989) and Abraxas matsuri (2010).","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How is Zen Buddhism portrayed differently in these works?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Zen’s everyday, down-to-earth character is emphasized, while zazen meditation occupies a relatively small place.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the paper compare manga and movies in its discussion?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Although the cases use different media and originate in different historical contexts, they illustrate how Zen Buddhism can be presented in fictional form for varied audiences.",{"name":123,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":124},"What does the author aim to clarify through this analysis?",{"text":125,"@type":113},"The analysis focuses on how popular culture products employ Zen Buddhist features to reach a wide audience, and how Zen Buddhism is represented in those products.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":128,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":130,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":132,"site_id":62},143363,1787694694,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":135},{"doc_id":132,"user_id":136,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":137,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":138,"file_id":139,"file_url":140,"file_type":141,"file_size":142,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":143,"language":144,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":145,"faqs":146,"seo_title":147,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":133,"read_time":148},1099525198933,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d","R e s e a r c h A r t i c l e  \nDown-to-Earth Zen: Zen Buddhism in Japanese Manga and Movies  \nElisabetta Porcu, University of Cape Town  \nThis paper analyzes some examples of the interconnections between Zen Buddhism and popular culture, notably manga and movies. In particular, it explores the recent manga Bōzu days (2007–2011) and the movies Fancy Dance (1989) and Abraxas matsuri (2010) . In these works, Zen’s everyday and down-to-earth character comes to the fore, while zazen meditation occupies a relatively small place. As amply explored by scholarly works over the last few decades, the former aspect is usually overlooked in Zen presentations in the West while the latter is in line with a view of this religious tradition that has been adapted for its dissemination outside of Japan. My analysis aims to shed light on how aspects of popular culture employ Zen Buddhist features to create commercial products that are meant to reach a wide audience, and how Zen Buddhism is represented in these products.  \nKeywords: Zen Buddhism; manga; movies; Japan; popular culture  \nA visitor to Japan will be struck by the large number of manga (Japanese comics)  \nand anime (animation movies) available on the market, as well as their related objects and businesses, such as souvenir items, resin and PVC figurines, and manga cafes.1 These constitute a relevant part of Japan’s cultural industry, as is also evident from the establishment of museums exclusively dedicated to manga. The Kyoto International Manga Museum and the recent Kitakyushu Manga Museum are good examples of the relevance of this genre in Japan. Manga and anime have been exported on a global scale: translations of manga are to be found in different languages, anime have gained high cultural recognition outside of Japan (see, for example, Miyazaki Hayao’s works), and the cosplay2 phenomenon is growing worldwide, just to cite a few instances. Moreover, based on my teaching experience in Germany and feedback from various colleagues worldwide, it has apparently become more common for university students to  \n1 The manga and anime industry occupies a prominent position in the Japanese media market (domestic Japanese manga sales amounted to 481 billion yen in 2006 and the anime market was worth over 27 billion dollars. In 2009, the overall sales for manga were 418.7 billion yen, which was equivalent to over 21.6% of book and magazine sales. See MacWilliams, 2008: 13; 2012: 597) .  \n2 Costume play consists of dressing like one’s own favorite character taken from manga, anime and computer games.  \nCorresponding author: Elisabetta Porcu, University of Cape Town, Department of Religious Studies, [elisabetta.porcu@uct.ac.za](elisabetta.porcu@uct.ac.za)  \n This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ISSN 1527-6457](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ISSN 1527-6457) (online).  \napproach Japanese studies because of their interest in Japanese popular culture rather than in Zen/spirituality-related topics. As previous research has illustrated, religious elements are found among the countless products created by mainstream cultural industries and independent/self-financed groups related to such pop culture. At the same time, these forms of popular culture have been used by Japanese religious institutions to motivate followers and attract potential adherents (see for example, Ishii, 2010; Porcu, 2010; Inoue, 2012) .  \nThe film industry has been another vehicle for the global transmission of things Japanese. In this context, scholars of film studies have highlighted two crucial events in the postwar period: the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival won by Akira Kurosawa’s movie Rashomon in 1951, which also marked “Japan’s return to the international community after the war,” and the acquisition by Sony of Columbia Pictures in 1989 (Tezuka, 2012: 3–4) . These two events brought “the i","cbCaiosG4iwCB5WN","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiosG4iwCB5WN","pdf",1291859,14,"English","# Introduction\n## Manga, anime, and Japan’s cultural industry\n## Film as a vehicle for international transmission\n## Case studies: Bōzu days and Zen-focused movies","[{\"question\":\"Which manga and movies are analyzed to study Zen Buddhism in popular culture?\",\"answer\":\"The paper examines the manga Bōzu days (2007–2011) and two movies: Fancy Dance (1989) and Abraxas matsuri (2010).\"},{\"question\":\"How is Zen Buddhism portrayed differently in these works?\",\"answer\":\"Zen’s everyday, down-to-earth character is emphasized, while zazen meditation occupies a relatively small place.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the paper compare manga and movies in its discussion?\",\"answer\":\"Although the cases use different media and originate in different historical contexts, they illustrate how Zen Buddhism can be presented in fictional form for varied audiences.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the author aim to clarify through this analysis?\",\"answer\":\"The analysis focuses on how popular culture products employ Zen Buddhist features to reach a wide audience, and how Zen Buddhism is represented in those products.\"}]","Down-to-Earth Zen: Zen Buddhism in Japanese Manga and Movies | PDF",35]