The Body as Place in Time(s): Concepts of the Female Body in Medieval Japan

Abstract

Abstract The body reflects the various timescales of human existence, such as physical processes and cosmological patterns. This paper seeks to demonstrate conceptualizations of the female body in medieval Japan, using source texts specifically concerned with menstruation. Its investigative use of medical, religious and literary sources serves to address a variety of the dimensions of human existence. Medical writings such as the 14th century Man‘anpō and the Toni‘shō, both compiled by the monk physician Kajiwara Shōzen, deal with the female cycle as a physical phenomenon in correlation with natural cyclical patterns. The female cycle is not only connected to questions of reproduction and sexuality, but also to larger scale cosmological time frames, such as the cycle of the moon or the tides. Instructions given for the treatment of irregularities, along with preventive measures, take into consideration the large-scale time frame in resonance with the micro-level of the body. Medical knowledge is complemented by religious texts, such as the Blood Bowl Sutra (Ketsubonkyō), that contextualize the perception of the female body within a religious dimension. The Buddhist worldview that permeates medical and literary texts of this era is also reflected in ideas about the female body. The varying physical, cosmological and religious chronomorphologies of the body reflect a multiplicity of time frames in medieval Japan.