JAPANESE RELIGION BELIEFS THROUGH PERCEPTION OF RUSSIAN COSMOGRAPHY AUTHORS OF THE 17TH CENTURY

Abstract

Literature about missionaries’ activities in the Far East during the “Christian century” starts to appear since the XVII century due to active contacts of Japan with European countries. But the idea of the Japanese’ religious beliefs before the period of first Christian missionaries has not been studied up till now. Russian literature of those times does not reflect any interest to Japan due to differences in social environment. The article is based on the analysis of some fragments of cosmographies by the Russian authors of the XVII century regarding Japan and Japanese religion. This article deals with the issues of the Japanese religion perception by the authors of cosmographies.