Heian Japan Research Articles

Shrines Registered in Ancient Japanese Law: Shinto or Not?

The Procedures of the Engi Era (Eogi shiki) contain registers of 2,862 shrines to which the imperial government made offerings during the Nara and Heian periods. An analysis of these shrines is conducted on the basis of three working hypotheses. First, the possibility that the location of these shrines may have hero of strategic importance in the political and military campaigns of Yamalo, Nara, and Heian Japan. Second, the possibility that these shrines may be related to social and economic competition between the leading sacerdotal houses at the time. And third, the possibility that Buddhism may have been part of the equation. None of these possibilities alone explain the shrines' unequal geographic distribution, or the nature of the cults that were given therein. But the linkage of the three hypotheses reveals the fact that the central government took control of these shrines and their culls in a strategy of territorial and social control, and suggests that the court's appropriation of these shrines and cults must have profoundly transformed pre-existing practices and notions. The shrine registers then are not representative and block our perspective on the nature of kami cults. Whether this imperial cultic system should he called Shinlo or not is debatable, and this important issue is treated in the context of a brief discussion of Kuroda Toshio's views.

Writing Margins: The Textual Construction of Gender in Heian and Kamakura Japan

Writing Margins: The Textual Construction of Gender in Heian and Kamakura Japan

Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation and Inscription

The poetry of the Heian court of Japan has typically been linked with the emergence of a distinct Japanese language and culture. This concept of a linguistically homogeneous and ethnically pure Japaneseness has been integral to the construction of a modern Japanese nation, especially during periods of western colonial expansion and cultural encroachment. But Thomas LaMarre argues in Uncovering Heian Japan that this need for a cultural unity - a singular Japanese identity - has resulted in an overemphasis of a relatively minor aspect of Heian poetry, obscuring not only its other significant elements but also the porousness of Heian society and the politics of poetic expression. Combining a pathbreaking visual analysis of the calligraphy with which this poetry was transcribed, a more traditional textual analysis, and a review of the politics of the period, LaMarre presents a dramatically new view of Heian poetry and culture. He challenges the assumption of a cohesive national imagination, seeing instead an early Japan that is ethnically diverse, territorially porous, and indifferent to linguistic boundaries. Working through the problems posed by institutionalized notions of nationalism, nativism, and modernism, LaMarre rethinks the theories of scholars such as Suzuki Hideo, Yoshimoto Takaaki, and Komatsu Shigemi, in conjunction with theorists such as Derrida, Karatani, Foucault, and Deleuze. Contesting the notion that speech is central to the formation of community, Uncovering Heian Japan focuses instead on the potential centrality of the more figural operations of poetic practice. Specialists in Japanese history and culture as well as scholars working in other areas of cultural criticism will find that this book enriches their understanding of an early Japan that has exerted so much influence on later concepts of what it means to be Japanese.

The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 2, Heian Japan. Edited by Donald H. Shively and William H. McCullough. pp. xv, 754. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

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Songs to make the dust dance: the Ryojin hisho of twelfth-century Japan

Breaking through the long-established image of Heian Japan (794-1185) as a culture dominated by ritualized aristocratic values, Yung-Hee Kim presents the picture of a country in transition, filled with a wide variety of common people responding to very ordinary situations. In popular songs called imayo, they expressed their concerns about religion, love, aging, and even current affairs. In 1179 Emperor Go-Shirakawa compiled Ryojin hisho, a twenty-volume collection of this song genre that juxtaposes the sacred with the profane, the high with the low, the male with the female, the old with the new. Kim makes these songs the core of her book, in translations that faithfully reflect the sounds and images of the originals and bring them to life within their own literary and cultural context.

Writing Doubled Over, Broken: Provisional Names, Acrostic Poems, and the Perpetual Contest of Doubles in Heian Japan

Research Article| May 01 1994 Writing Doubled Over, Broken: Provisional Names, Acrostic Poems, and the Perpetual Contest of Doubles in Heian Japan Thomas LaMarre Thomas LaMarre Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google positions (1994) 2 (2): 250–273. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-2-2-250 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Thomas LaMarre; Writing Doubled Over, Broken: Provisional Names, Acrostic Poems, and the Perpetual Contest of Doubles in Heian Japan. positions 1 May 1994; 2 (2): 250–273. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-2-2-250 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll Journalspositions Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 1994 by Duke University Press1994 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: ARTICLE You do not currently have access to this content.

Jōchō's Statue of Amida at the Byōdo-in and Cultural Legitimization in Late Heian Japan

Previous articleNext article No AccessJōchō's Statue of Amida at the Byōdo-in and Cultural Legitimization in Late Heian JapanSamuel C. MorseSamuel C. Morse Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Res Volume 23Spring 1993 Published in association with the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/RESv23n1ms20166869 Views: 31Total views on this site Copyright 1993 J. Paul Getty Trust and the President and Fellows of Harvard CollegePDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Robert L. Backus: (ed. and tr.): The Riverside Counselor's stories: vernacular fiction of late Heian Japan. xxxiv, 234 pp. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985. $35.

Robert L. Backus: (ed. and tr.): The Riverside Counselor's stories: vernacular fiction of late Heian Japan. xxxiv, 234 pp. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985. $35.

Japanese Harlequin Romances as Transcultural Woman's Fiction

My country “is now wholly given over to a d—d mob of scribbling women,” goes one of the most frequently quoted gender-related adages. Japanologists might be tempted to attribute this uncourtly utterance to a learned nobleman of Heian Japan (794–1185) embittered by the outpouring of vernacular narratives from women's writing brushes that were eclipsing male endeavors to emulate Chinese classics, or to an exasperated modern Japanese novelist in reference to the neo-Heian phenomenon, namely, the renaissance of women's literature in postwar Japan. Actually it was Nathaniel Hawthorne (1855:141) who made the now infamous sexist remark in chagrin at American women who were churning out best-sellers in force. Thereafter, this phenomenon abated for a full century, but since the 1960s, Western women writers have made a glorious resurgence, marked by unprecedented degrees of output and worldwide market domination in a genre known as the romance fiction. The title of the first romance series and the name of its publisher, Harlequin, has become something like a generic term with multiple signification.

Institution, Ritual, and Ideology: The Twenty-Two Shrine-Temple Multiplexes of Heian Japan

Previous articleNext article No AccessInstitution, Ritual, and Ideology: The Twenty-Two Shrine-Temple Multiplexes of Heian JapanAllan G. GrapardAllan G. Grapard Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 27, Number 3Feb., 1988Shintō as Religion and as Ideology: Perspectives from the History of Religions Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/463122 Views: 51Total views on this site Citations: 8Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1988 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:George A. Keyworth Following medieval Chinese Buddhist precedents with ritual practices using exoteric Buddhist scriptures ( kengyō 顕経) from Amanosan Kongōji 天野山金剛寺 and Shinpukuji 真福寺in medieval Japan, Studies in Chinese Religions 7, no.2-32-3 (Dec 2021): 173–202.https://doi.org/10.1080/23729988.2021.1996973Fabio Rambelli Semiotics as Soteriology: A Different Look at Mediaeval Japanese Buddhism, (Nov 2017): 55–80.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67413-1_4George A. Keyworth Apocryphal Chinese books in the Buddhist canon at Matsuo Shintō shrine, Studies in Chinese Religions 2, no.33 (Oct 2016): 281–314.https://doi.org/10.1080/23729988.2016.1235662Heather Blair Religion and Politics in Heian-Period Japan, Religion Compass 7, no.88 (Aug 2013): 284–293.https://doi.org/10.1111/rec3.12054Jonathan Stockdale Origin Myths: Susano-o, Orikuchi Shinobu, and the Imagination of Exile in Early Japan, History of Religions 52, no.33 (Jul 2015): 236–266.https://doi.org/10.1086/668660 Lori Meeks The Disappearing Medium: Reassessing the Place of Miko in the Religious Landscape of Premodern Japan, History of Religions 50, no.33 (Jul 2015): 208–260.https://doi.org/10.1086/656611Anna Andreeva Medieval Shinto: New Discoveries and Perspectives1, Religion Compass 4, no.1111 (Nov 2010): 679–693.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2010.00243.x Brian O. Ruppert Buddhist Rainmaking in Early Japan: The Dragon King and the Ritual Careers of Esoteric Monks, History of Religions 42, no.22 (Oct 2015): 143–174.https://doi.org/10.1086/463701

The Poetics of Nikki Bungaku: A Comparison of the Traditions, Conventions, and Structure of Heian Japan's Literary Diaries with Western Autobiographical Writings. By Marilyn Jeanne Miller. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1985. (Garland Publications in Comparative Literature.) x, 412 pp. Notes, Bibliography, Index. $55.00.

The Poetics of Nikki Bungaku: A Comparison of the Traditions, Conventions, and Structure of Heian Japan's Literary Diaries with Western Autobiographical Writings. By Marilyn Jeanne Miller. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1985. (Garland Publications in Comparative Literature.) x, 412 pp. Notes, Bibliography, Index. $55.00. - Volume 46 Issue 2

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan

The Poetics of Nikki Bungaku: A Comparison of the Traditions, Conventions, and Structure of Heian Japan's Literary Diaries with Western Autobiographical Writings

The Poetics of Nikki Bungaku: A Comparison of the Traditions, Conventions, and Structure of Heian Japan's Literary Diaries with Western Autobiographical Writings

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan

The riverside counselor's stories: vernacular fiction of late Heian Japan. Translated with an introduction and notes by Robert L. Backus. pp. xxxii, 234. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press. 1985. US $35.00.

The riverside counselor's stories: vernacular fiction of late Heian Japan. Translated with an introduction and notes by Robert L. Backus. pp. xxxii, 234. Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press. 1985. US $35.00. - Volume 119 Issue 1

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by Robert L. Backus. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985. xxxiv, 234 pp. Introduction, Notes, Bibliography. $35.

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by Robert L. Backus. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1985. xxxiv, 234 pp. Introduction, Notes, Bibliography. $35. - Volume 45 Issue 3

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan.

The Riverside Counselor's Stories: Vernacular Fiction of Late Heian Japan.

The Struggle for Lordship in Late Heian Japan: The Case of Aki

The Struggle for Lordship in Late Heian Japan: The Case of Aki

Patterns of Provincial Inheritance in Late Heian Japan

Patterns of Provincial Inheritance in Late Heian Japan