Medieval Japan was a fluid society in which many wanderers, including religious preachers, traveled the roads. One popular band of itinerant proselytizers was the jishū from the Yugyō school, a gender inclusive Amida Pure Land Buddhist group. This dissertation details the particular circumstances of the jishū nuns through the evolving history of the Yugyō school. The aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the gender relations and the changing roles women played in this itinerant religious order. Based on the dominant Buddhist view of the status of women in terms of enlightenment, one would have expected the Buddhist schools to have provided only minimal opportunities for women. While the large institutionalized monasteries of the time do reflect this perspective, schools founded by hijiri practitioners, such as the early Yugyō school, contradict these expectations. This study has revealed that during the formation of the Yugyō school in the fourteenth century, jishū nuns held multiple and strong roles, including leadership of mix-gendered practice halls. Over time, as the Yugyō school became increasingly institutionalized, both in their itinerant practices and in their practice halls, there was a corresponding marginalization of the nuns. This thesis attempts to identify the causes of this change and argues that the conversion to a fixed lifestyle and the adoption of mainstream Buddhist doctrine discouraged the co-participation of women in their order.

Medieval Japan was a fluid society in which many wanderers, including religious preachers, traveled the roads. One popular band of itinerant proselytizers was the jishū from the Yugyō school, a gender inclusive Amida Pure Land Buddhist group. This dissertation details the particular circumstances of the jishū nuns through the evolving history of the Yugyō school. The aim is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the gender relations and the changing roles women played in this itinerant religious order. Based on the dominant Buddhist view of the status of women in terms of enlightenment, one would have expected the Buddhist schools to have provided only minimal opportunities for women. While the large institutionalized monasteries of the time do reflect this perspective, schools founded by hijiri practitioners, such as the early Yugyō school, contradict these expectations. This study has revealed that during the formation of the Yugyō school in the fourteenth century, jishū nuns held multiple and strong roles, including leadership of mix-gendered practice halls. Over time, as the Yugyō school became increasingly institutionalized, both in their itinerant practices and in their practice halls, there was a corresponding marginalization of the nuns. This thesis attempts to identify the causes of this change and argues that the conversion to a fixed lifestyle and the adoption of mainstream Buddhist doctrine discouraged the co-participation of women in their order.

This dissertation investigates the praxis of kechien, forming a karmic connection, evidenced in various religious picture scrolls produced during the Golden Era of their production in Japan, the late thirteenth through the early fourteenth century. This study is inspired by two goals: (1) to define the concept and practice of kechien, and (2) to challenge the widely accepted idea that picture scrolls, emaki, were used solely as a didactic and proselytizing tool. This absence of scholarly work focusing on kechien is rather astonishing considering that a variety of kechien practices are still omnipresent today and were especially so in medieval Japan. Inspired by Miya Tsugio's suggestion that some emaki were created for the purpose of kechien, I examine text and painting within picture scrolls as well as Buddhist scriptures and contemporary literary works in order to understand the role they played in the formation of kechien. I propose that emaki scrolls served as both a means and a site of kechien in medieval Japanese religious praxis.The dissertation starts with the concept of kechien seen through various modern dictionaries and the writings of Zhiyi and Genshin, two early monks whose works are often cited as the locus classicus for the term. As my study aims to explore praxis, I then turn to various practices of kechien performed by two types of people: producer and audience. I argue that production and consumption of religious picture scrolls were both regarded as valid and legitimate religious practices, especially near the perceived beginning of the age of mappo, the Final Age of the Dharma. People believed that once they had formed a kechien link with the subject of emaki scrolls through its production and viewing, they would be reborn into a Pure Land and ultimately achieve enlightenment sometime in the future. They also performed meritorious acts utilizing emaki scrolls in order to strengthen their karmic affinity and improve their conditions for enlightenment.

Este trabalho apresenta o quadro da época da chegada dos portugueses no Japão e da sua ação por quase um século em terras nipônicas. A Europa dos séculos XV e XVI era o centro da civilização ocidental, e os portugueses, espanhóis e italianos ocupavam a posição de destaque de controladores e donos do comércio com o oriente médio e a China, via Mar Mediterrâneo e por terra. Os portugueses e os espanhóis, grandes navegadores, ao se aventurarem pelo mar, foram descobrindo e conquistando novas terras e obtendo com isso grandes vantagens de comércio e de divisas. Por outro lado, o Japão, arquipélago isolado e imerso em guerras civis, com muitos conflitos, não tinha a integração de suas unidades, e o desfecho da unificação dos reinos acabou ocorrendo com a ação dos grandes senhores suseranos, os daimyō Oda Nobunaga e Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Os primeiros portugueses - mercadores e missionários - que aportaram no Japão nessa época, por muitos chamada de \"Grandes Navegações\", encontraram o Japão sob o domínio de Nobunaga e Hideyoshi. O primeiro era receptivo, tolerante e pragmático, não se envolvia com a crença, mas servia-se da religião como instrumento para auferir resultados vantajosos desta relação com os portugueses. À primeira vista, o catolicismo foi bem aceito pelas autoridades, por sacerdotes xintoístas e budistas e, consequentemente, também pela comunidade em geral, pois os preceitos do budismo eram julgados coerentes com os \"Dez Mandamentos\" pregados pela Igreja cristã. Posteriormente, com o passar do tempo, os monges budistas e xintoístas sentiram seu espaço ameaçado pela expansão do catolicismo e muitos atritos ocorreram envolvendo adeptos das facções religiosas. As autoridades, sentindo a inconveniência das ações dos católicos e ajudadas pela interferência dos holandeses - que haviam ganho a simpatia dos japoneses -, conseguiram tirar os comerciantes portugueses do caminho, assegurando a exclusividade do comércio juntamente com os chineses, alegando que os ibéricos estariam tramando a tomada do país por meio da disseminação da religião católica. Com isso o governo japonês vetou qualquer atividade religiosa católica no país, promovendo a expulsão de todos os portugueses, espanhóis e italianos, envolvidos ou não com a religião. Apesar de a estada dos portugueses ter sido limitada a 96 anos, este trabalho ressalta o mérito das ações realizadas pelos mercadores e pelos missionários que deixaram um legado importante para os japoneses de então, bem como para as gerações seguintes, servindo de base para outras contribuições que viriam dos holandeses e chineses, que ocuparam o espaço dos retirantes latinos. De todas as contribuições efetuadas pelos portugueses e que influenciaram a cultura japonesa, a que mais impactou na política e na sociedade japonesa foi realmente a introdução das armas de fogo, as espingardas, cujo desdobramento deu outro rumo para a história do Japão. / This thesis presents a state when Portuguese arrived in Japan, and their actions for almost a century in Japanese land. At that time, Europe was the center of occidental civilization and Portuguese, Spanish and Italians were leaders as market controllers and masters of Middle East and China zones, by Mediterranean Ocean and by land. Portuguese and Spanish, great navigators explored the oceans, discovering and conquering new lands obtaining huge benefits in trade and money. At the other hand, Japan, an isolated archipelago and under civil wars with many conflicts, with no integration of their unities, the unification only were be able to be achieved by actions of great lords as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. When the first Portuguese, merchants and missionaries, ashored Japan, the country was under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi domain, the first one, who welcomed them but not concerning with religion affairs, only shown interests in beneficial gains relating with them. In a first moment, the catholicism was accepted by Government officials and shinto and buddhist priests , consequently also by the people, because it was thought that catholic precepts were coherent with buddhist ones. Lately, buddhist and shinto priests felt a fear with the expansion of catholicism, and troubles started to occur within religion groups. Government officials also feeling the inconvenience of actions of catholic priests and aided by Dutchmen interference, interested in keeping away the Portuguese merchants, gained confidence of Japanese Government officials, alleging that they were attempting to subjugate the people by dissemination of catholicism. Due to that, any catholic religion activity was banned, ending with the expulsion of all Portuguese, Spanish and Italians, missionaries or not. In spite the stay of Portuguese in Japan was limited to 96 years, its showed the merit of works developed by merchants and missionaries, who left an important heritage to Japanese people, as well as for following generations as base for other foreign contributions, as Dutchmen or Chinese. For all contributions made by Portuguese, that so influenced Japanese culture and the most impact caused was really the introduction of firearms that promoted another course of the Japanese History.

Este trabalho apresenta o quadro da época da chegada dos portugueses no Japão e da sua ação por quase um século em terras nipônicas. A Europa dos séculos XV e XVI era o centro da civilização ocidental, e os portugueses, espanhóis e italianos ocupavam a posição de destaque de controladores e donos do comércio com o oriente médio e a China, via Mar Mediterrâneo e por terra. Os portugueses e os espanhóis, grandes navegadores, ao se aventurarem pelo mar, foram descobrindo e conquistando novas terras e obtendo com isso grandes vantagens de comércio e de divisas. Por outro lado, o Japão, arquipélago isolado e imerso em guerras civis, com muitos conflitos, não tinha a integração de suas unidades, e o desfecho da unificação dos reinos acabou ocorrendo com a ação dos grandes senhores suseranos, os daimyō Oda Nobunaga e Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Os primeiros portugueses - mercadores e missionários - que aportaram no Japão nessa época, por muitos chamada de \"Grandes Navegações\", encontraram o Japão sob o domínio de Nobunaga e Hideyoshi. O primeiro era receptivo, tolerante e pragmático, não se envolvia com a crença, mas servia-se da religião como instrumento para auferir resultados vantajosos desta relação com os portugueses. À primeira vista, o catolicismo foi bem aceito pelas autoridades, por sacerdotes xintoístas e budistas e, consequentemente, também pela comunidade em geral, pois os preceitos do budismo eram julgados coerentes com os \"Dez Mandamentos\" pregados pela Igreja cristã. Posteriormente, com o passar do tempo, os monges budistas e xintoístas sentiram seu espaço ameaçado pela expansão do catolicismo e muitos atritos ocorreram envolvendo adeptos das facções religiosas. As autoridades, sentindo a inconveniência das ações dos católicos e ajudadas pela interferência dos holandeses - que haviam ganho a simpatia dos japoneses -, conseguiram tirar os comerciantes portugueses do caminho, assegurando a exclusividade do comércio juntamente com os chineses, alegando que os ibéricos estariam tramando a tomada do país por meio da disseminação da religião católica. Com isso o governo japonês vetou qualquer atividade religiosa católica no país, promovendo a expulsão de todos os portugueses, espanhóis e italianos, envolvidos ou não com a religião. Apesar de a estada dos portugueses ter sido limitada a 96 anos, este trabalho ressalta o mérito das ações realizadas pelos mercadores e pelos missionários que deixaram um legado importante para os japoneses de então, bem como para as gerações seguintes, servindo de base para outras contribuições que viriam dos holandeses e chineses, que ocuparam o espaço dos retirantes latinos. De todas as contribuições efetuadas pelos portugueses e que influenciaram a cultura japonesa, a que mais impactou na política e na sociedade japonesa foi realmente a introdução das armas de fogo, as espingardas, cujo desdobramento deu outro rumo para a história do Japão. / This thesis presents a state when Portuguese arrived in Japan, and their actions for almost a century in Japanese land. At that time, Europe was the center of occidental civilization and Portuguese, Spanish and Italians were leaders as market controllers and masters of Middle East and China zones, by Mediterranean Ocean and by land. Portuguese and Spanish, great navigators explored the oceans, discovering and conquering new lands obtaining huge benefits in trade and money. At the other hand, Japan, an isolated archipelago and under civil wars with many conflicts, with no integration of their unities, the unification only were be able to be achieved by actions of great lords as Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. When the first Portuguese, merchants and missionaries, ashored Japan, the country was under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi domain, the first one, who welcomed them but not concerning with religion affairs, only shown interests in beneficial gains relating with them. In a first moment, the catholicism was accepted by Government officials and shinto and buddhist priests , consequently also by the people, because it was thought that catholic precepts were coherent with buddhist ones. Lately, buddhist and shinto priests felt a fear with the expansion of catholicism, and troubles started to occur within religion groups. Government officials also feeling the inconvenience of actions of catholic priests and aided by Dutchmen interference, interested in keeping away the Portuguese merchants, gained confidence of Japanese Government officials, alleging that they were attempting to subjugate the people by dissemination of catholicism. Due to that, any catholic religion activity was banned, ending with the expulsion of all Portuguese, Spanish and Italians, missionaries or not. In spite the stay of Portuguese in Japan was limited to 96 years, its showed the merit of works developed by merchants and missionaries, who left an important heritage to Japanese people, as well as for following generations as base for other foreign contributions, as Dutchmen or Chinese. For all contributions made by Portuguese, that so influenced Japanese culture and the most impact caused was really the introduction of firearms that promoted another course of the Japanese History.

No description available.

Kumano bikuni (the Buddhist nuns of Kumano) are itinerant female religious performers who were particularly active between the 16th and 18th centuries in Japan. Travelling across the country, they promoted the syncretic belief of the Kumano mountains, popular pilgrimage sites that have attracted a variety of people regardless of class, gender, and religious affiliation. To raise funds for temples and shrines there, they performed etoki (literally, picture deciphering) that addressed the everyday concerns of the masses, and especially women. Conceptualizing Kumano bikuni as mediators who bridged the religious world and the masses, this thesis examines how Kumano bikuni reflected perspectives of the audience at etoki performance and responded to diverse interests of different groups. / Graduate / 0320 / 0332 / 0453 / chihiro_620@hotmail.com

This thesis develops a Theoretical framework to be applied to future research concerning medieval Japanese Buddhist nuns and their involvements with Buddhist material culture. My efforts at theory production serve as a preliminary attempt at laying a comprehensive Theoretical foundation for a fresh area of inquiry, namely merging the respective studies of Japanese Buddhist nuns with Buddhist material culture. This marks a promising area of study as a corrective to the enduring focus placed upon men by Religious Studies (RS) scholars. Indeed, RS has historically been, and largely continues to be, a field dominated by men. As such, RS research has concentrated upon the male population, both lay and monastic, and has only recently started shifting toward the question of where women were and what they were doing. Additionally, the study of Buddhist material culture is itself a relatively new field. Consequently, there are currently very few English publications exploring women’s involvement with this important aspect of Buddhism. As a means of contextualizing the Theoretical framework ultimately proposed, I first examine the states of the Buddhist Studies subfields of Buddhist nuns and of Buddhist material culture. I subsequently explore the states of theory production within RS and Medieval Japanese Buddhist Studies (MJBS), contending that a distinctive mode of theory (macro ‘capital-T’ Theoretical frameworks and micro ‘lowercase-t’ theoretical models, respectively) is found within each discipline. While I propose only a RS style macro Theoretical framework, I suggest that an ideal foundation for the study of nuns through the lens of material culture will take the form of a Theoretical complex comprised of both a Theoretical framework and a MJBS style theoretical model. Ultimately, I wish to begin the process of laying the groundwork for future research focusing on women and gender within the context of Buddhism and material culture. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This thesis develops a Theoretical framework to be used in future research about medieval Japanese Buddhist nuns and their involvements with Buddhist material culture (paintings, statues, relics, and so on). This is a preliminary attempt at laying a Theoretical foundation for this fresh area of inquiry. In this endeavour, I am trying to respond to the enduring focus placed upon men by Religious Studies (RS) scholars, as the field has been and largely continues to be dominated by men. Consequently, there are very few English publications exploring Buddhist nuns and material culture, an important aspect of Buddhism. I examine the states of the studies of these topics, and explore two types of theory production distinct to RS and Medieval Japanese Buddhist Studies respectively. Ultimately, I wish to begin the process of laying the groundwork for future research on women and gender within the context of Buddhism and material culture.