Marketing the Menacing Fetus in Japan (book review)

HARDACRE, HELEN. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. xx + 310 pages. Plans, maps, figures, tables, bibliography, character list, index. Cloth US$35.00; ISBN 0-520-20553-7.

Mizuko kuyo - ritual services for those that die in the womb - is a controversial Japanese phenomenon that impinges on such issues as abortion, reproduction, sexual relations, gender issues, ritual performance, religious entrepreneurship, exploitation, and moral ambiguities. Helen Hardacre provides much information on the practice, showing that it has appeared across much of the religious spectrum in ...

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