A Japanese cultural historian shares a path to joyful living drawn from her nation’s unique
approach to spirituality and nature offering a “fascinating” ( Wintering author Katherine May)
blend of memoir cultural reporting and practical guidance for anyone struggling to find
balance in our turbulent modern world. Everyone’s in the pursuit of happiness but few know
how to attain it. Millions around the world have turned to Japan for advice on finding their
Ikigai or summoning The Courage to Be Disliked . Japan’s spiritual traditions hide in plain
sight forming the basis of so much of what we love about the country’s culture. Without
Japan’s spiritual sustenance Jiro wouldn’t dream of sushi Hayao Miyazaki’s films wouldn’t
spirit us away and Marie Kondo wouldn’t spark joy. In her book Eight Million Ways to
Happiness Hiroko Yoda offers the culmination of her decade-long odyssey into the spiritual
heart of her homeland. Readers follow Hiroko as she trains as a Shinto shrine-dancer partakes
in Buddhist funeral rituals ascends holy mountains with Shugendo ascetics and meets one of
Japan’s last living itako a traditional mystic. Her stories—personal cultural and
historical—offer life lessons for readers of any background. Hiroko awakens readers to the
idea of a traditional spiritual flexibility that seamlessly coexists with the modern secular
world fortifying us through life’s inevitable ups and downs. We are all subject to forces
beyond our control but we are also part of a bigger natural system that can strengthen us—if
we learn how to reconnect with it.
