Merōfu Kannon and Her Veneration in Zen and Imperial Circles in Seventeenth-Century Japan

Abstract

Merofu Kannon (Ch. Malangfu Guanyin) had a significant following and was the inspiration for numerous poems and religious pictures in China and Japan. This article (1) explores the historical background and origins of Merofu (the wife of Master Ma)-a potent symbol of female lay piety who became regarded as a manifestation of Kannon; (2) provides translations and analyses of some poems by Chan and Zen priests referring to her; (3) focuses on the worship of Merofu Kannon in the circle of Emperor Gomizuno-o and Empress Tofukumon'in. The impetus for this article were the delicately crafted oshie images of this deity made by Tofukumon'in and her step-daughter Shozan Gen'yo (founder of Rinkyuji Imperial Convent) which I discovered at temples in Kyoto and Shiga prefecture. All seem to be based on the same Chinese prototype. The second half of the article provides descriptions of the five oshie Merofu Kannon known to me and documentation concerning the circumstances of their creation and donation. Through these images, I try to illuminate the meaning of Merofu Kannon in imperial circles in seventeenth-century Japan. KEYWORDS: Merofu Kannon - oshie - Isshi Bunshu - Tofukumon'in - Lotus Sutra (ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) ALTHOUGH most Buddhist practitioners and scholars today are unfamiliar with Merofu Kannon ... (Ch. Malangfu Guanyin), in earlier centuries she had a significant following and was the inspiration for numerous poems and religious paintings in China and Japan. Chun-fang Yu examines Buddhist chronicles and does a thorough analysis of Malangfu Guanyin and the related form Yulan Guanyin ... (Jp. Gyoran Kannon) in China in her publications dealing with feminine images of Guanyin (Yu 1990, 66-71; 1994, 166-67; and 2001, 186-7, 419-21.). In contrast, there is virtually nothing written in English about Merofu (the wife of Master Ma). I began to investigate the history and iconography of this deity after seeing the depictions of Merofu Kannon made by Empress Tofukumon'in ... (1607-1678) and Princess- Abbess Mitsuko Naishinno ... (1634-1727, better known by her Buddhist name, Shozan Gen'yo ...). This article will explore the origins of Merofu Kannon, and then focus specifically on the delicately crafted oshie ... images of this deity made by two imperial women in Japan's early modern era.1 Oshie are images made of a combination of painting and pieces of woven fabric, paper, and thread glued onto paper, silk, or wood backgrounds. The origins of this craft are not fully documented, but in Japan the practice of making pictures from cutting and pasting paper and cloth is thought to date back at least to the Muromachi period (Kuwahara 1996, 2).2 Originally the term oshie was used to describe paintings or prints pasted onto folding screens or fusuma, and what we now consider oshie were called ishoe (... or ...; clothing picture) or sensaizo ... (cut-out image).3 The technique involves first cutting out forms in stiff paper and covering them with cloth, carefully folding over the edges so stray threads do not show. The cloth-covered cut-outs were then arranged and glued onto a paper or silk background to form images. It is believed that this craft began among the women of Kyoto's aristocratic classes, and gradually spread to daimyo households and eventually throughout the populace. Sometimes oshie pictures-usually secular subjects-were glued onto wooden plaques and donated to shrines and temples with prayers for good fortune, and so forth. Called oshie ema ..., these votive pictures form a special genre in Japanese religious art. The Merofu Kannon oshie images by Tofukumon'in and Shozan Gen'yo differ from oshie ema in that they were actually objects of worship and housed in lacquered wooden zushi ... (portable shrines). The images are not three-dimensional, that is, padded with cotton like the battledores and other oshie pictures seen today, but rather the fabric-covered forms were pasted flat onto a background so that they resemble paintings. …