Session 10 - Religion in Japan, 4/22 afternoon

[cgao]

Please download and read the documents below.

From Religions of Japan in Practice, edited by George Tanabe, Jr. (Princeton UP, 1999):

• William E. Deal, “Women and Japanese Buddhism: Tales of Birth in the Pure Land,” pp. 176-184
• Richard Jaffe, “A Refutation of Clerical Marriage,” pp. 78-88.

From Religions of Asia, 3rd ed., Fenton, Hein, Reynolds, Miller, Nielsen, Buford, and Forman, eds. (New York: Bedford/St Martins, 1993):

• Chapter 13, “Japan’s Religions: From Prehistory to Modern Times,” pp. 197-216 + glossary, pp. 217-222.

edited by cgao on 4/22/2017

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[Anonymous]

The first reading is about Buddhist Japanese women and the ability to attain birth into the Pure Land. The original idea was that women could not obtain birth into the Pure Land because as women, they did not have clean bodies. In fact, there were five obstacles that the article does not explicitly state, but says that there is strong evidence that women of the time were aware of the five obstacles as they could be found in some prominent pieces of literature. What I find particularly interesting is that there is a chapter in one of these pieces of literature, the Lotus Sutra, that if a woman was to hear it and accept it, she will "put an end to her female body, and shall never again receive one". This implies that she will obtain birth into the Pure Land, but as a man. There is also a tale of a dragon girl who obtained enlightenment and then immediately turns into a man. Interesting how enlightenment is not completely out of reach for a woman, but once it happens they have to be a man.

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