published_or_final_version / Fine Arts / Master / Master of Philosophy

Japanese Devoutness and Religious Care Embodied in the Yokyoku Texts This Master's thesis deals with the religious issues within the texts of the medieval Noh plays, which are well known as the yokyoku. The thesis begins with an introduction with the main religious notions and the way of thinking in the period of japanese Middle Ages, in the time when the most of the Noh playwrights wrote their plays. Further more, the thesis provides the very first translation of the Noh play called Kinuta into the Czech language, so that it could be possible to thoroughly analyze its text in terms of religious issues' presence. The thesis also submits the similar analysis of other four plays, which deal almost the same topics. That research allows to arrange the list of religious links and references appearing in those texts. The list proves the presence of the religious issues within the particular artistic genre. Another part of the thesis provides a comparison of yokyoku texts with so called setsuwa legends of the Shasekishu collection, which represents a deeply moralizing work from the Middle Ages, just to identify exactly the degree of the religious devoutness within yokyoku texts. The thesis draws on information and knowledge upon the field of the japanese history, the japanese religious, as well as the...

published_or_final_version / Humanities / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation is the first monographic study of the monk-calligrapher Yishan Yining (1247-1317), who was sent to Japan in 1299 as an imperial envoy by Emperor Chengzong (Temur, 1265-1307. r. 1294-1307), and achieved unprecedented success there. Through careful visual analysis of his extant oeuvre, this study situates Yishan’s calligraphy synchronically in the context of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy at the turn of the 14th century and diachronically in the history of the relationship between calligraphy and Buddhism. This study also examines Yishan’s prolific inscriptional practice, in particular the relationship between text and image, and its connection to the rise of ink monochrome landscape painting genre in 14th century Japan. This study fills a gap in the history of Chinese calligraphy, from which monk-calligraphers and their practices have received little attention. It also contributes to existing Japanese scholarship on bokuseki by relating Zen calligraphy to religious and political currents in Kamakura Japan. Furthermore, this study questions the validity of the “China influences Japan” model in the history of calligraphy and proposes a more fluid and nuanced model of synthesis between the wa and the kan (Japanese and Chinese) in examining cultural practices in East Asian culture.

Within recent Japanese Buddhist scholarship there is a debate over the interpretation of Karmic causality evidenced in the 75 and 12 fascicle editions of Dogen's Shobogenzo, one salient example being that found in the daishugyo and shinjin inga fascicles on the fox koan from the mumonkon. At issue is whether a Buddhist of great cultivation transcends karmic causality, with the earlier daishugyo promoting a balanced perspective of both "not falling into" and "not obscuring" causality, while shinjin inga instead strongly favors the latter over the former. Traditionalists interpret the apparent reversal in shinjin inga as an introductory simplification to aid novices, while some Critical Buddhists see Dogen as instead returning to the orthodox truth of universal causality. I argue that Dogen philosophically favored the view found in daishugyo, but moved away from it in his later teachings due to misinterpretations made by both senior and novice monks alike. / Religion

A pair of eight-fold screens entitled "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" represents a colorful world map with the figures of peoples of the world on one screen. The painting is punctuated by numerous city markers, with the largest indicating the city of Rome. On the other screen, twenty-eight cities of the world and Christian and Muslim kings in ceremonial attire on horseback are depicted. This pair of screens was probably produced in the early seventeenth century. It was most likely painted by Jesuit-trained Japanese painters who had learned western themes and painting techniques: perspective and chiaroscuro. Until the sixteenth century, Japanese experience with and knowledge of the world was limited to its neighbouring lands, such as China, Korea, and India. Beyond the realm of Japan lay worlds formed through fascination and the imagination. In 1543, however, this changed with the appearance of the Portuguese, who journeyed to Japan in the pursuit of new lands to develop trade and to spread Christianity. The Portuguese and their culture had a strong impact on Japanese thoughts and activities, including the creation of many screens with European motifs and new views of the world at large. This pair of screens was drawn upon Dutch prototype made by Petrus Kaerius (1571-1646) in 1609. In my thesis I will examine how "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens performed a two-fold function. I will first examine how the screens marked Jesuit propagation of Christianity in Japan, and second I will examine how the screens articulated what might be called an emergent sense of Japanese collective identity. By this I do not mean identity based on nationalism, which emerged in Japan only in the nineteenth century. Rather, I mean an increasing awareness of the Self in relation to Other, and not only in relation to those outside the geographic confines of Japan but also within. What I intend to explore is how definitions of geography and culture in world map screens, and specifically "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens, prompted viewers to acknowledge a more distinctive Self. The end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries was a transitional moment for both the Jesuits and Portugal. Religiously, the Jesuits were in conflict with the Japanese government and, as well their authority was undermined by Mendicants from the Philippines. These conflicts were compounded further by the spread of Protestantism in Europe. Similarly, after a short prosperous trade in Asia, rising economic and political power of the Netherlands and England gradually pushed Portuguese trade out of Asia. By comparing "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens with "In-and-Around- Kyoto" screens, I argued that the Jesuit's hidden agenda of glorifying Christendom and God's order on earth emerged. Moreover, by comparing this pair with "Four-Continent-and- Forty-Eight-People" screens, I detect the emergence of sense of a Japanese Self, that was forged in relation to the Europeans. Although the screens give the impression of the orderly and peaceful world, they mask the unstable situation which the Jesuits and Portugal were experiencing at the time. In the end, I propose that "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens transformed and reworked the Dutch prototype from a geographical mode to one that is highly decorative. Rather than articulating a Japanese view of the world, the screens maintained the notion of a powerful Catholic world.

A pair of eight-fold screens entitled "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" represents a colorful world map with the figures of peoples of the world on one screen. The painting is punctuated by numerous city markers, with the largest indicating the city of Rome. On the other screen, twenty-eight cities of the world and Christian and Muslim kings in ceremonial attire on horseback are depicted. This pair of screens was probably produced in the early seventeenth century. It was most likely painted by Jesuit-trained Japanese painters who had learned western themes and painting techniques: perspective and chiaroscuro. Until the sixteenth century, Japanese experience with and knowledge of the world was limited to its neighbouring lands, such as China, Korea, and India. Beyond the realm of Japan lay worlds formed through fascination and the imagination. In 1543, however, this changed with the appearance of the Portuguese, who journeyed to Japan in the pursuit of new lands to develop trade and to spread Christianity. The Portuguese and their culture had a strong impact on Japanese thoughts and activities, including the creation of many screens with European motifs and new views of the world at large. This pair of screens was drawn upon Dutch prototype made by Petrus Kaerius (1571-1646) in 1609. In my thesis I will examine how "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens performed a two-fold function. I will first examine how the screens marked Jesuit propagation of Christianity in Japan, and second I will examine how the screens articulated what might be called an emergent sense of Japanese collective identity. By this I do not mean identity based on nationalism, which emerged in Japan only in the nineteenth century. Rather, I mean an increasing awareness of the Self in relation to Other, and not only in relation to those outside the geographic confines of Japan but also within. What I intend to explore is how definitions of geography and culture in world map screens, and specifically "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens, prompted viewers to acknowledge a more distinctive Self. The end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries was a transitional moment for both the Jesuits and Portugal. Religiously, the Jesuits were in conflict with the Japanese government and, as well their authority was undermined by Mendicants from the Philippines. These conflicts were compounded further by the spread of Protestantism in Europe. Similarly, after a short prosperous trade in Asia, rising economic and political power of the Netherlands and England gradually pushed Portuguese trade out of Asia. By comparing "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens with "In-and-Around- Kyoto" screens, I argued that the Jesuit's hidden agenda of glorifying Christendom and God's order on earth emerged. Moreover, by comparing this pair with "Four-Continent-and- Forty-Eight-People" screens, I detect the emergence of sense of a Japanese Self, that was forged in relation to the Europeans. Although the screens give the impression of the orderly and peaceful world, they mask the unstable situation which the Jesuits and Portugal were experiencing at the time. In the end, I propose that "World-Map-and-Twenty-Eight-City" screens transformed and reworked the Dutch prototype from a geographical mode to one that is highly decorative. Rather than articulating a Japanese view of the world, the screens maintained the notion of a powerful Catholic world. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate