Nara Era Research Articles

Women in Japanese Religions by Barbara R. Ambros

Reviewed by: Women in Japanese Religions by Barbara R. Ambros Levi McLaughlin (bio) Women in Japanese Religions. By Barbara R. Ambros. New York University Press, New York, 2015. x, 237 pages. $89.00, cloth; $17.00, paper. Those of us who teach courses on religion in Japan share a constant frustration: depressingly few of the English-language readings we can assign to undergraduates discuss women. In fact, given the primary sources in translation and accessible secondary scholarship that make up most course syllabi, it is possible for a student to proceed through the entirety of Japan’s religious history and barely notice women at all. A course may mention [End Page 160] a few female deities and monarchs recorded in the Nara period (710–94), brush past women courtiers in the Heian era (794–1185), and then miss out on women altogether until it reaches the Meiji era (1868–1912) and beyond. And, until recently, even treatments of modern Japanese religion have often resorted to what I have come to think of sacrilegiously as the “parade of bald guys” approach, namely the pernicious scholarly tendency to equate religious history with sectarian history and to then reduce sectarian history to the writings and biographies of male institutional founders. It is therefore likely that a student may leave a course with the impression that Japanese religion has always centered on male leaders and that women have contributed very little to it. Thanks to Barbara Ambros, this pedagogical approach is no longer excusable. Novice students and experienced researchers alike will benefit from Women in Japanese Religions. Through economical yet compelling prose, Ambros guides the reader through the entirety of Japan’s religious history, from the earliest antiquity to the present. In lieu of rehearsing well-known overviews of Japanese history, she relays detailed accounts of the lives of women religious practitioners—clerical and lay, elite and nonelite—who constructed religious communities. Ambros troubles established narratives and easy readings by resisting a common understanding that, in Japan’s prehistory, women reigned only to be dethroned by centuries of patriarchy that have seen partial redress in the last century. This narrative, Ambros cautions, fails to take into account ways women have succeeded in realizing themselves as agents who effect sociopolitical change through religious engagement—even as they participate in, and even promote, misogynistic practices. Complexities abound as Ambros moves beyond sect- and founder-oriented perspectives to reveal Japan as a land defined by women who have contested Japan’s persistent gender gap into the present. Chapter 1 begins with the earliest evidence of prehistoric human habitation of the Japanese archipelago, which includes female stone and clay figurines that suggest reverence for fecundity at the core of fertility rituals. However, the earliest textual evidence about Japan recorded in Chinese chronicles runs counter to biological determinism, Ambros notes, as these sources indicate that both women and men were understood to possess spiritual and political power. Chapter 2 takes us into the Kojiki (712) and Nihon shoki (720), government-sponsored chronicles that relay origin myths which challenge nativist understandings, as ideal images of women in these stories were clearly influenced by continental concepts of yin-yang cosmology, immortality cults, sericulture, and Confucian morality. Here and throughout the rest of the book, Ambros explores the extent to which the Confucian ideal of female deferral to men shaped, and at times ran counter to, Japanese social mores. Women in ancient Japan appear to have held property and exercised political authority on a routine basis; the practice of moving the [End Page 161] imperial capital until the Nara era (710–94), for example, was motivated as much by seeking proximity to the emperor’s maternal line as it was driven by fear of a deceased sovereign’s angry spirit. Chapter 3 covers the introduction of Buddhism to Japan in the sixth century, a familiar tale that Ambros reframes through accounts of nuns and female lay devotion. Women were central to the transfer of Buddhism from Paekche, as the first monastics ordained in Japan were women—an initiative that reflects important positions held by female shamans. There were six female monarchs within the first two hundred years of Japanese Buddhism, and three...

Tripod Scheme in Flood Disaster Management in Japan

Japan has suffered from natural disasters but sustained economic activity on not so commodious islands. This social resiliency is based on a time-honored risk management scheme that, like a tripod, consists of self-help, mutual help, and public help. This study analyzes the social infrastructure from Japan’s disaster-fighting history. Japan’s first political documents tell how the ancient Japanese people broke ground on floodplains to develop rice-paddy agriculture and underwent repeated water-related disasters after the Nara era (710-794). People had to deal with flooding and commence risk management to survive in flood-prone areas. During the Edo era (1603-1868), people expanded paddy agriculture to all arable land in the islands and tried to protect rice production from endless flood disasters in the same places. An effective flood-fighting scheme was then invented and expanded to nationwide. Its essence was coalition among people, a primary community and a local government. In Japan’s modernization since 1868, traditional social rules have been enshrined into laws. The indigenous scheme for anti-flood measures has been translated into 3 major acts: the Disaster Management Basic Act, the Flood Fighting Act, and the River Act. These acts have been working and evolving, during qualitative transforming of Japanese society due to industrial restructuring, rapid urbanization, population fluidity, etc. Under such a legal infrastructure, the MLIT Himeji Office conducted a pilot program in an inundated community just after a downpour disaster in 2009 to improve local anti-flood measures. Output has indicated the importance of independency and interdependency of self-/mutual/public help. The “tripod” scheme provides recommendations for living with disaster not only in Japan but also in other countries in Asia.

The Formation and Development of Mount Fuji's Imagery Through JapaneseClassic Literature from the Nara Era Until Muromachi Era

The Formation and Development of Mount Fuji's Imagery Through JapaneseClassic Literature from the Nara Era Until Muromachi Era

A Study on the Current Trend and Implications of NARA's ERA

It is an important issue in Korea archive field to prepare for systemic management of electronic records and transferring of electronic records in 2015. The purpose of this research is to come up with implication for Korea through the analysis of ERA of NARA. First of all, this study analyzed that the current status and history of electronic records management of NARA, the requirements document for electronic records, and use procedure of ERA. This paper suggests on the basis of these analyses that major considerations such as organization, gradual progression, and improvement of operation system are important and necessary to make a solution for electronic records management.

Exchange of information in rheumatology between east and west: FromMan'yo-shu to the future

The most ancient record of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Japan is found in the Man’yo-shu, the oldest of the imperial anthologies of Japanese poetry published in the 8th century (AD 759), the Nara era of Japan’s history. Man’yo-shu is composed of 20 volumes, including 4,500 poems. One of the authors, Yamonoueno Okura (Figure 1), who died in AD 733, had progressive destructive polyarthropathy. He wrote many elegant and beautiful poems in the Man’yo-shu and also one article, entitled “Lament for my life with the disease” in the fifth volume. In the article, he expressed the thought that none of the treatments could release his pain and he would not mind turning into a mouse from a human being if somebody could remove the symptoms from his body. Those descriptions lead us to think that he was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. If only at that time he had the possibility to receive some of the current treatments for RA, now, 1,300 years later, we could enjoy much more his beautiful poems. Several years ago, one of the authors of this article traveled to Tours in France and found in a tiny bookshop an ancient edition of a medical book titled Traite des principaux objets de Medecine, printed in 1762 (Figure 2A). Only one chapter of this book is dedicated to arthritis, chapter V, in the second volume entitled “De la Goutte” (Figure 2B). There is no description of RA, as all arthritis was classified as gout. The first paragraph in chapter V reads, “Is Moxa effective for arthritis?” The author writes “Moxa is used in Japan.” Moxa is a Japanese dried leaf of mugwort used for cautery. Therefore, ancient oriental treatment was performed in France before the French Revolution, showing that there was exchange of rheumatology knowledge between the East and the West before the 18th century. How the exchange of clinical information occurred at that time is not known, but it is likely that knowledge circulated using the ancient trade route called The Silk Road that linked East with West and carried active trade of goods and ideas between two great civilizations. Nowadays, communication and exchange of information between East and West is much easier. In the field of rheumatology, the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and international journals, in particular Arthritis & Rheumatism (AR Tsuneyo Mimori MD, PhD: Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. Address correspondence to Tatsuya Atsumi, MD, PhD, Department of Medicine II, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, N15 W7, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-8638, Japan. E-mail: at3tat@med.hokudai.ac.jp. Submitted for publication September 12, 2007; accepted September 12, 2007.

The Kudaranokokisisi's community and cultural characteristic of the Nara era

The Kudaranokokisisi's community and cultural characteristic of the Nara era

糸魚川‐静岡構造線活断層系・松本盆地東縁断層南部に沿う左横ずれ変位地形

The East Matsumoto Basin faults (EMBF) consist of the northern segment of the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Tectonic Line active fault system (ISTL), central Japan, and extend for ca. 30 km along the eastern margin of the Matsumoto Basin. The faults have been considered to be eastdipping reverse faults, which were re-activated sometime after the tectonic inversion event during the middle Miocene in central Japan. However, we found geomorphic evidence of strikeslip movement on the EMBF, such as systematic left-lateral offsets of abandoned channels and scissoring vertical offsets on the fan surface, which were probably formed during the Nara era. These offsets were measured as left-lateral displacements of 6 to 7 m with a slight vertical component, and were probably formed in association with the most recent faulting event of EMBF. In this case, the style and the amount of slip per event are comparable with those of the neighboring Gofukuji fault, which has one of the highest probabilities of seismic risk calculated among active faults on land in Japan. These refined geomorphic features indicate that the principal slip component on the southern portion of EMBF is not merely dip-slip but left-lateral slip, taking account of the cumulative vertical displacement inferred from uplifted hills since Miocene to Plio-Pleistocene at the eastern side of the fault traces. These facts and presumptions are consistent with the deformation pattern around the ISTL revealed by recent continuous GPS observations. In addition, these new findings allow us to understand that the subsidence in the Matsumoto urban district can be explained as a pull-apart basin related to a 1.5-km-wide left-step between the EMBF and Gofukuji faults. Su8rface geometry, style, and amount of faulting of both faults suggest that this left-step does not seem to be a significant enough segment boundary of the ISTL to arrest rupture propagation. Thus, the portion between the southern EMBF and Gofukuji fault is appropriately a single fault segment.

The Pañca-dharma and the Dharma-kaya associated with Ri (_??_) and Chi (_??_)

Gyoshin, who belonged to the Hosso-shu in the Nara era, had a peculiar view of hosshin (_??__??_, dharma-kaya) that was associated with ri (_??_) and chi (_??_). In the Ninnokyosho, he postulated that ri-hosshin (_??__??__??_) had the nature of shinnyo (_??__??_, tathata) and chi-hosshin (_??__??__??_) had the nature of shichi (_??__??_, catvarijnanani). However, it has never been reported that Gyoshin possesses a view such as the one indicated above. A background of his thinking can be found in Huizhao's Jinguangming zuishengwang jingshu. Huizhao described the Dharmakaya of the Jinguangming zuishengwang jing through the words ri and chi, and equated it with the Dharmakaya in the broader perspective of Chengweishi lun whose nature was explained to be like that of the five elements (_??__??_, panca-dharma).

The Representation of the Mountains in the Kusooki-mura Map and Its Characteristics

According to previous studies, the main characteristic of the ancient manorial maps made in the Nara era is that two contexts coexist. One context is based on the combination of letters, of which the jori indication system (jori kosho) is constructed, and the mesh (hokakusen). The other is based on pictures. Previous studies have paid attention to the letters and to the mesh, but not to the pictorial representation. Consequently, the pictorial representation was not seriously taken into account when the landscape or the jori plan is reconstructed.The purpose of this study is to explain the characteristic of the pictorial representation, especially of the mountains, since this can be compared with the present landscape. Therefore, to appreciate the characteristic of the pictorial representation, it is necessary to understand the relations of two contexts. Therefore, the author examines the map of Kusooki-mura, Echizen Province (Fukui Prefecture in central Japan), which previous studies have examined in order to understand the characteristics of the pictorial representation of the mountains.There are two sheets of the Kusooki-mura map. One was made in 759 (referred to as Map A in the paper) and the other was made in 766 (Map B). Each map depicts the mountains surrounding Kusooki-mura. The landscape and jori plan can be reconstructed on the bases of the representation of the mountain, mountain ridge lines depicted on Map B. However, the representation of the mountain on two sheets of the maps was depicted by different modes of representation. Although previous studies had concluded that the jori plan represented in Map A differed from that in Map B, the author understands that the reconstructed landscape and jori plan of Map B correspond to the contents, the depicted landscape and jori plan of Map A.When Map B is compared with Map A, it is clear that there is a difference in the methods of depicting the mountain. The author examined points from which the mountain was drawn in each map. Consequently, the mountain on Map A is represented from one view point, while more than one view point was used in Map B. By using more than one view point, Map B was able to represent the area with great precision. On the other hand, Map A represents the area by depicting the foot of a mountain line.As a result, the representation of the mountain in ancient manorial maps partly represented the geographical features of the depicted area and helped to clarify locations that were shown by the letters and the mesh. Therefore, the pictorial representation of the mountain occupied an important part in the ancient manorial maps.

The Discovery of a Great Sculptor: Kimimaro of the Nara Period (710-793)

The Nara era (710-794) with its sculptures may be considered as one of the best flourishing period, not only in Japanese art history, but also that of the world art. Among these art works we can single out for example the statue of Fuku-Kenjaku Kannon [Fig. 1] and those of the Nikko and Gakko Bosatsu [Figs. 2, 30] in Sangatu-do in Todai-ji temple, executed in dry lacquer or in day, which combine sublimity and the human aspects in one art work. Shitsukongo-shin [Fig. 18], which is stylistically close to the four statues of the warrior, Shitenno [Fig. 16], in Kaidan-in at the same temple, expresses a profound feeling of anger. Also in Shin-Yakusi-ji there are twelve statues of 12 Shinsb and their attitudes are uniquely expressive. Similarly Ganjin, the famous portrait of a blind bonze [Fig. 35] in meditation at Toshodai-ji temple, seems to us to be touched with the deepest humanity, while Gyosin-sozu, portrait of a bonze, at Horyu-ji tempie [Fig. 36] gives us an impression of firm will in a realistic figure. Each statue is considered a masterpiece for its universal artistic, not simply its religious, value, and we can compare this with sculptors from classical Greece or the Italian Renaissance period. Despite such artistic values, the historians of Japanese art have not paid much attention to the particular artists, because, according to them, we don't have primary sources, which would identify the sculptors. However, we already know from many other documents, which mention the names of sculptors who worked for the large temples. For Todai-ji temple, Kuninaka-nomuraji Kimimaro is well known as the head of the studio (Zo Todai-ji-shi). We must try to attribute the artists' names to the concrete works. However historians do not offer satisfactory analyses of the styles of each artist, but they insist on co-production in the studio under one's direction. They do not consider that the sculptures were as personally executed in that period. From their point of view we can not appreciate a personal style in any single piece. Naturally we accept the collaboration of the studio, but in the case of the creation of the main work, it is extremely likely that somebody personally created a figure in a particular and very personal style. In this article we try to propose attributions to Kimimaro, based on studies of style of the various sculptures considered here.

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅺ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅺ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅹ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅹ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅻ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅻ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅶ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅶ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅸ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅸ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅷ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅷ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provincers in the Nara Era (Ⅵ)

Variation of Forest Condition in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provincers in the Nara Era (Ⅵ)

Variation of Forest Conditions in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅴ)

Variation of Forest Conditions in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅴ)

A Study of Food and Culture on Norito Prayer in the Nara Era

A Study of Food and Culture on <i>Norito</i> Prayer in the Nara Era

Variation of Forest Conditions in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅳ)

Variation of Forest Conditions in the Nara Basin and Its Surrounding Provinces in the Nara Era (Ⅳ)