Japanese Buddhism Research Articles

Buddhism and commerce in ninth-century Chang’an: a study of Ennin’s Nittō Guhō Junrei Kōki 入唐求法巡禮行記

ABSTRACTChang’an was a religious center of Buddhism in seventh- and eighth-century East Asia. More than 50,000 Buddhist monks, nuns and priests lived in the city. Buddhist monasteries spread all over in the city, centers of social, economic and cultural activity. Yet while a large number of research studies have explored Chang’an Buddhism in the mid-Tang, the relationship between the social economic history and the religious activities of Buddhist monasteries in this center remains little studied. This article aims to improve our understanding of this topic through a close reading of ninth-century Japanese Buddhist cleric Ennin’s (圓仁 794–864) Nittō Guhō Junrei Kōki 入唐求法巡禮行記 (The Record of a Pilgrimage to the Tang in Search of the Buddhist Law). After reviewing previous work in this field and putting Chang’an Buddhism in its historical context, this paper examines interconnections between commerce and Buddhism in the ninth-century capital as seen through the eyes of this well-known religious figure.

Akegarasu Haya’s Reading of the <i>Huayan Sūtra</i>

During the Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa eras, Japanese Buddhists faced the task of reestablishing Buddhism as a modern religion. Their efforts in meeting the challenge included reading major sūtras from new viewpoints, as exemplified by the study of the Huayan Sūtra by Inoue Enryō, Sasaki Gesshō, and D. T. Suzuki, among others. This paper examines Akegarasu Haya’s reading of the Huayan Sūtra, focusing on his booklet “The Purport of the Huayan Sūtra” (華厳経の帰趣). Akegarasu saw the idea of ‘turning’ (転, parivarta) found in the Asaṅkhyeya Chapter (阿僧祇品) as the gist of the sūtra, arguing that it signifies the impermanence of all phenomena (諸行無常). He went on to claim that an authentic way of life is to adhere to the Huayan teaching of ‘non-basis’ and ‘non-dwelling’ (無所依, 無所住) and to embrace the truth of impermanence and flux, both of all phenomena and the very self, concluding that one must live each moment as an independent being (独立者) making constant efforts (精進) to be true (正直) to oneself. Although his interpretation may easily become a pretext for indulgence and self-righteousness, his singular reading of the Huayan Sūtra provides us with insights into its essence often forgotten in traditional, doctrinal hermeneutics.

The Beginning of Japanese Buddhist Journals in Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Period: The Background of the Newsletter <i>Taiwan Kyō-hō</i>

This paper examines the publication history of the newsletter Taiwan Kyō-hō. At the start of Japanese rule in Taiwan, which began in 1895, monks from various schools—including the Sōtō, Jōdo, Jōdo Shinshū Honganji-ha, and Shingon sects—accompanied the Japanese military to Taiwan and competed for local followers. One of the most active monks was Chinryu Sasaki of the Sōtō school. Sasaki not only established the Dainippon Taiwan Library and Dainippon Taiwan Buddhism Association, he also founded a school to teach local children Japanese to contend against the Taiwan Buddhist Association formed by the other three schools.

한일 구법승 기행문의 문학성 고찰 : 『왕오천축국전』과 『입당구법순례행기』를 중심으로

한일 구법승 기행문의 문학성 고찰 : 『왕오천축국전』과 『입당구법순례행기』를 중심으로

Key Tenets of Classical Buddhist Dharma Leave Space for the Practice of Abortion and are Upheld byContemporary Japanese Buddhist Mizuko Kuyo Remembrance Rituals.

Core Buddhist principles of continuity, karmic assignment, and emphasis on separation of mind from body, permit, though do not expressly advocate for, the practice of abortion. Further,in certain contemporary contexts, Buddhist practices exist to mitigate the suffering experienced by women who have lost an unborn child, whether through abortion or miscarriage. In modern-day Japan for example, manyBuddhists practice mizuko kuyō, a set of formal remembrance rituals, which provides structured support to families in their efforts to mourn, to remember the departed, and to celebrate the redirection of human potential. This contemporary practice is consistent with aforementioned tenets of early Buddhist thought.Although seemingly oxymoronic, the Buddhist view of abortion and the mizuko kuyō rituals are human-centric, not only for the families but also for the redirected. Other societies, cultures, and theological perspectives have and may further benefit from reframing anyinterpretation of abortion,not as an inherently moralor immoralact (i.e., a binary), but rather as an act overwhelmingly characterized by the complexity ofhuman emotion in the face of unimaginable loss. Thishumanistic conceptualizationof abortion is manifested by the modern Buddhistpracticeofmizuko kuyō.

Образ Рахулы в японских ритуальных текстах косики

The main field of this study is the image of Rahula (Jp. Raun or Ragora), the son and disciple of Buddha Shakyamuni in the Japanese ritual Buddhist text “Raun koshiki” (XIII century), compiled by the Buddhist priest Yuixin. The main purpose of the koshiki texts was to strengthen the karmic connection between the adepts and the object of worship to whom this koshiki was dedicated – Buddha, bodhisattva, arhat or Buddhist patriarch. Therefore, the main content of the koshiki was: the history of the main character, the significance of his role to the Buddhist devotees, praise to his virtues and merit, and, most importantly, mention of those benefits which would gain the believers, taking part in the koshiki ritual. In this context, the creation of “Raun koshiki” and its identification as a special ritual text, which has the same sacred potential, shows the new movement in medieval Japanese Buddhism. It is characterized by the desire to return to the precepts of the original Indian Buddhism, formed in the circles of Nara Buddhism. This movement was a kind of response to the formation of the Japanese Amidaism and the spreading of Chinese Chan Buddhism in Japan

Zen and Material Culture ed. by Pamela D. Winfield and Steven Heine

Reviewed by: Zen and Material Culture ed. by Pamela D. Winfield and Steven Heine Bruce Coats (bio) Zen and Material Culture. Edited by Pamela D. Winfield and Steven Heine. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017. xxxiv, 316 pages. $99.00, cloth; $34.95, paper. Zen and Material Culture provides a variety of perspectives on how Zen traditions in Japan can be understood. Several essays would be appropriate for undergraduates, while others are clearly intended for specialists more familiar with the history of Chan/Zen in China/Japan. An analysis of artworks by two Buddhist nuns, a survey of the history and arts of the Obaku Zen temple of Manpukuji, interpretations of rags in the Soto Zen tradition, a critical examination of Rinzai Zen retail businesses in the United States, and an essay that challenges the reported relationships of Zen to the Japanese tea ceremony would all have appeal to college students studying the history, arts, and literatures of Zen. Of interest to Buddhist scholars would be the history and symbolism of a monk's walking stick or fly whisk, the changing uses and meanings of prayer beads, historical interpretations of the Buddhist robes, and Dogen's theoretical approaches to temple building. The authors include four art historians and five from Buddhist studies; all are interested in deciphering the material cultures associated with Japanese Zen and dispelling long-held stereotypes in the West that Zen transcends worldly "things." By using interdisciplinary methods, they bring valuable insights on how familiar objects of Zen practice "materialize abstract idea(l)s into concrete form," making this volume an important contribution to cultural studies and Buddhist studies (p. xvi). Patricia Fister provides excellent biographical studies of two nuns who became abbesses of imperial convents, in "Visual Culture in Japan's Imperial Rinzai Zen Convents: The Making of Objects as Expressions of Religious Devotion and Practice." Daitsu Bunchi (1619–97), an imperial princess, was well educated but not trained as an artist. In 1656, she founded the convent Enshō-ji outside Nara and established a rigorous spiritual training program. There she created rather crude clay figurines in memory of her teachers and her father Emperor Go-Mizunoo (1596–1680), and arranged hair and nail clippings from her father into Chinese characters as an act of devotion. She also copied sutras using drops of her own blood mixed with the ink to demonstrate her spiritual sincerity. In contrast, Tokugan Rihō (1672–1745) studied Kano School painting and produced accomplished portraits of famous priests and nuns past and present, as well as images of Sakyamuni, Kannon, and Bodhidharma, for use in the imperial convent Hōkyō-ji, where she became abbess in 1689. For more than a decade, Fister has been carefully documenting the lives of Japanese Buddhist nuns, as [End Page 213] artists, collectors, and spiritual leaders, and her writings have greatly advanced understanding of an important segment of Asian art history. In this article, she provides extensive endnotes that link to photographs of these various artworks, but only three illustrations are published with this essay. Other authors in this volume were similarly limited; for a book on material culture, more illustrations would be appropriate. Patricia Graham's essay "The Importance of Imports: Ingen's Chinese Material Culture at Manpukuji" also only has three illustrations. She too provides endnotes to find images, but most of these refer to Japanese-language publications and limited circulation exhibition catalogues, so this rich field of research is still not well known in the West. Graham has written about Manpukuji in other books, but here she offers a capsule history of an important temple, its founder Yinyuan Longqi (aka Ingen Ryūki 1592–1684) who introduced Huangpo/Obaku sect Zen from China, the Chinese artists he brought with him, and the various objects he imported that have given Manpukuji a distinctive look and importance in later Japanese arts. Because Manpukuji is located close to Kyoto, it has attracted Japanese who are interested in Ming Dynasty culture and has directly affected many generations of visitors who were inspired by the exotic architecture, realistic portrait paintings, and humanistic sculpted figures. At a time when much of Japan was closed to foreign influence, Manpukuji played a...

Бодхисаттва во плоти: запись о поминовении принцессы Сонси

The article describes one of the examples of the ganmon genre in Japanese Buddhist literature: the text of Yoshishige-no Yasutane (933–1002), compiled in 985 for the commemoration rite of Princess Sonshi (addressee of Sanbō ekotoba) and included into the Honchō Monzui collection. In this ganmon, a noble woman appears as the incarnation of bodhisattva: although in childhood and youth the princess was a priestess of Kamo shrine, then became the sovereign's wife and only became a nun shortly before her death, her life choice is described as moving along the path of the Buddha to the rebirth in Pure Land. Like other compilers of gammon texts, Yasutane combines references to Buddhist scriptures with motifs from Chinese secular poetry. The rite of commemoration, of which he speaks, is indicative from point of view of the selection of Buddhist sutras presented to the temple – those that were most popular in Japan and were considered especially useful for women. Among the Japanese texts about Kannon (Avalokiteśvara), this gammon is interesting by the sense in which the fate of a woman, in her life and after death, can be considered the realization of the Bodhisattva's merciful practice. The article is accompanied by translation of the Yasutane’s ganmon

Samantabhadra : Iconographical Transformations and Ritual Identities

Together with Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra is often depicted as flanking Śākyamuni Buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. As one of the four great bodhisattvas in the East Asian Buddhist tradition, Samantabhadra pales in comparison to the other three bodhisattvas — Avalokiteśvara, Mañjuśrī, and Kṣitigarbha — in the amount of scholarly treatment he received. Often identified by his mount, a sixtusked white elephant, little else is known about his rise to eminence and his later esoteric manifestations and identities. Addressing the paucity of scholarly work on Samantabhadra, this paper explores his origin, appearance in China and Japan, and subsequent iconographical transformations. Contrary to common understanding, Samantabhadra’s mount is not an important identifier of the bodhisattva in the esoteric Buddhist tradition, where he takes on different identities and iconographical forms according to his place in the maṇḍalas. Informed by Indo-Chinese precedents, the iconography of the bodhisattva continues to evolve in relation to different ritual methods in Japanese Buddhism.

Early Japanese Philosophers in <i>Konjaku monogatari shū</i>

The paper deals with the tales on the origins of Japanese Buddhism from the 11th scroll of the Konjaku monogatari shū (early 12th century). Particular attention is paid to the stories about Saichō (767–822) and Kūkai (774–835), the founders of the Tendai and Shingon schools, thinkers, whose writings have built two versions of the doctrine of the Buddhist ritual aimed at “state protection” and “benefits in this world.” From the elements familiar to the Western reader – “lives, opinions and sayings,” according to Laertius, – in these stories the first one dominates. Brief information about the doctrines of the famous teachers in Konjaku is embedded in the narrative about their practical activities. The objectives of this activity are, firstly, to adopt in China and root in Japan the Chinese traditions of Buddhist practice, which go back to the Indian models; secondly, to arrange monasteries and monastic orders best suited to serve the country and its inhabitants. The legends about Saichō and Kūkai in Konjaku are placed in context of the narratives about the builders of temples and about the monks who visited the mainland in search of Buddha’s Teaching. This context helps to understand the principle of selecting (pseudo)biographical details for each of the sages in Konjaku. The themes of a wonderful birth and early learning successes are common in these stories; the theme of appeasement of kami deities or the treaty with them also sounds in many of these stories. In the legends about Kukai and Saichō, the themes of the arts in its Buddhist meaning (calligraphy, sculpture) and the separation of the school within the Buddhist community are also important: according to the plan of their founders, the “secret” schools, preaching enlightenment for all, follow their own special path of practice.

근대 일본불교의 한반도 유입의 초기 전개 양상 - 통감부통치 시기를 중심으로 -

근대 일본불교의 한반도 유입의 초기 전개 양상 - 통감부통치 시기를 중심으로 -

The Criticism of Christianity in The First Chapter of Sin-ri-kin-sin written by Japanese Buddhist Inoue Enryo in Modern Times

The Criticism of Christianity in The First Chapter of Sin-ri-kin-sin written by Japanese Buddhist Inoue Enryo in Modern Times

Relic-Texts and Temples: The Shōtoku Cult, Silla and the Roots of Japanese Buddhism

Relic-Texts and Temples: The Shōtoku Cult, Silla and the Roots of Japanese Buddhism

Japanese Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic: Mikkyō and Sukuyōdō

Japanese Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic: Mikkyō and Sukuyōdō

The Case of Hirose Akira: The Ethical Predicament of a Japanese Buddhist Youth during World War II

The Japanese Buddhist clergy’s collaboration with the Japanese war machine during the Fifteen Year War (1931–1945) is notorious. Yet the struggles of ordinary lay Buddhist youths during World War II remain less publicized. This article examines the case of a young Shinshū Buddhist soldier, Hirose Akira, 廣瀬明 (1919–1947), and scrutinizes the diary he kept between 1939 and 1946. Mobilized between February 1942 and January 1945, Hirose became increasingly disillusioned, especially when he witnessed injustices and the officers’ thoughtlessness in ordering junior soldiers to make sacrifices while enjoying their privileges. His diary reveals an early skepticism toward the Japanese embrace of expansionism and the hypocrisy of its justifications for the war of aggression waged against China and Asia as a whole. Independently from the battle’s fate, by 1944 Hirose considered that Japan was already defeated because of what he saw as “her own people’s ego and selfishness.”

Episodic ethnicity: a case study of a Japanese Buddhist temple

ABSTRACTA prominent thread of current scholarship suggests that ethnicity becomes detached from religion in immigrant religious organisations over time. According to scholars, the decoupling occurs in three associated ways: structurally assimilating to mirror Christian churches, returning to ‘theological’ roots, and becoming a multi-ethnic congregation. Based on historical archival research and 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork at a Japanese-Buddhist temple, this article shows how the nexus between religion and ethnicity is remarkably durable. Ethnicity may never fully disappear but can be episodic: it crystallises and becomes a grouping mechanism during important events and can dissipate during mundane everyday events. This article demonstrates how ethnicity fluctuates across time and place and is not something that simply dissipates in the process of immigrant assimilation. Implications include being more critical in studying ethnicity across various subfields, including the sociology of religion and immigration, by asking what a constructivist approach to studying ethnicity entails.

Prosperous Buddhism, Prosperity Buddhism, and Religious Capital

Abstract In the West, Buddhism as a “world rejecting” religion based on ascetic renunciation and non-economic spirituality is often invoked as a default narrative, and in many Buddhist cultures, immateriality is indeed promoted as a symbolic ideal of authenticity. Economy and materiality, however, are inherently part of Buddhism. This is notably the case in Japan, where monasteries, temples, and associations throughout history have been wealthy organizations. Contemporary temple Buddhism, however, faces economic threats from secularization, non-Buddhist ritual business, and new religious movements (nrms). This article analyzes the economy in and of contemporary Japanese Buddhism and systems of value transactions. The concept of “prosperity Buddhism” and religious capital is explored by comparing temple Buddhism with two new religious movements: Soka Gakkai and Happy Science. It is argued that the transaction models of these two groups are different from those of temple Buddhism by being differently adjusted to the market through teachings, practices, and organizational structures legitimating more openly this worldliness and materiality. It is also argued that especially Soka Gakkai has transformed its value-exchange model by converting ideals of economic transactions into other kinds of non-material forms of capital. Finally, it is suggested that a capital perspective on (Japanese) Buddhism reveals both structural differences within kinds of Buddhism, and that “Prosperity Buddhism” can be a useful analytical concept with which to illustrate one such type.

Dharma Devices, Non-Hermeneutical Libraries, and Robot-Monks : Prayer Machines in Japanese Buddhism

Dharma Devices, Non-Hermeneutical Libraries, and Robot-Monks : Prayer Machines in Japanese Buddhism

Japanese Zen Buddhism and the Impossible Painting, by Lippit, Yukio

Japanese Zen Buddhism and the Impossible Painting, by Lippit, Yukio

‘Religion’ and the Concept of the Buddha Way: Semantics of the Religious in Dōgen

Abstract In recent decades, the concept of religion, and specifically its application to non-Western historic cultural formations has come unter critical scrutiny. This paper proposes the study of semantic fields as a method to explore the self-understanding of historic formations of what, in modern parlance, counts as religion, and thus, as a testing strategy for the concept of religion that is employed in scholarly analysis. It uses the said method to analyse three works by the medieval Japanese Buddhist monk Dōgen (1200–1253), who came to be revered as founder of the still extant Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism. By putting his notion of the ‘Buddha Way’ (butsudō) into strong relief, it provides a basis for comparison with modern concepts of religion. The conclusion is that Dōgen’s ideas conform to a surprisingly large extent with modern ideas. This may be one reason for his popularity in modern times. But Dōgen should not be taken to represent the general world-view of medieval Japan. Further comparative analyses of other corpora remain necessary to gauge the applicability of ‘religion’ as a category for the analysis of medieval Japanese culture.