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- Convenor:
-
Gaynor Sekimori
(SOAS)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Lindsey DeWitt
(Ghent University)
- Stream:
- Religion and Religious Thought
- Location:
- Torre A, Piso 0, Sala 03
- Sessions:
- Friday 1 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
Meiji religious policy to "clarify" the institutional relationship between kami and buddhas has generally been studied as a political process. This panel takes a concentrated look at its effects at one site, through liturgical and iconographic changes and alternative cults that emerged.
Long Abstract:
Shinbutsu bunri at Hagurosan and Yudonosan has been studied in terms of its political, economic, and to a lesser extent, social effects. This panel will take this further by discussing changes and continuities in iconography, liturgy and cult following the imposition of the changes there in September 1873. The changes were only reluctantly accepted by the upper hierarchies of the former Shugendo shrine-temple complex of Jakkoji, so there was a continuing tension between the old and the new. A two-tiered system emerged between Ideha Shrine and the temple of Shozen'in, which inherited the traditions of Jakkoji, which meant the past remained continually in view. At Yudonosan too, the Buddhist presence remained but it was denied access to the sites associated with its cult and praxis. The papers in the panel will demonstrate how the presence of the other was accommodated and negotiated, so that shinbutsu bunri at Dewa Sanzan remained a compromise, which was not the case at most other former Shugendo sites. The first paper discusses the reconfiguration of deity at Hagurosan and Yudonosan, through topographical study and through a comparison of popular prints from before and after the Meiji changes. It will highlight how old identities were obscured and new identities constructed and how the site's history of opposition and compromise to the new order is reflected in its popular iconographic material. The second paper investigates how the performativity of liturgies and aural sensibility were involved in the process of the socio-religious upheaval brought on by kami-buddha separation, through a musical and historical analysis of the modification of the liturgy in a religio-political context. Changes to the liturgical text and its musical characteristics reveal a device for engineering a compromise between the Shugen tradition and the new religious movement to establish Shinto as a national religion through the senses. The third paper looks at the effects of the shinbutsu bunri policies and the 1880 penal code on the funerary procedures for mummifying corpses of Mount Yudono ascetics and on the devotional practices associated with the worship of these mummies.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 1 September, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
Unlike the effect of shinbutsu bunri on tangible properties, that on aural traditions has attracted almost no academic concern. A study of changes to the liturgy Sanyama Haishi reveals a device to engineer a compromise between the old tradition and the new order through the physical senses.
Paper long abstract:
Dewa Sanzan Shrine maintains the liturgy known as Sanyama Haishi, whose words and melody belong to a distinctive local tradition, as an essential element in the rituals performed there. Its simple and easily remembered musical features allowed it to be widely accepted by believers. This liturgy was produced in the process of the kami-buddha separation movement by modifying another liturgy that had been performed by the Shugendō practitioners affiliated to the Haguro sect. Unlike the destruction of tangible properties such as Buddhist statues and paintings, buildings, altars and ritual instruments, that of aural traditions like liturgical chanting and ritual sounds has attracted almost no academic concern. Yet, looking at how the text and musical characteristics of the liturgy were altered from the original in the religio-political context of the time, we can see here a device to engineer a compromise between the Shugen tradition and the new religious movement to establish Shinto as a national religion through the physical senses.
This paper investigates in what way the performativity of liturgies and our aural sensibility were involved in the process of socio-religious upheaval brought about by bami-Buddha separation, through a musical and historical analysis of the modification of the liturgy in a religio-political context. It first traces how the Sanyama Haishi was set up and then examines the musical characteristics of the liturgy, comparing those of the original form that have been maintained by the Haguro Shugen Honshū and the Shingon temples at Mt. Yudono. This analysis of how the liturgy was produced enables us to discuss what the musical features of the liturgy signify and how aural sensibilities were involved in the kami-buddha separation movement.
Paper short abstract:
The re-identification of deity and accompanying iconographic changes reflect the impact of shinbutsu bunri at Dewa Sanzan. An examination of popular prints from the area reveals the extent of compromise permitted, while a topographical study castes doubt on the wanton destruction of fabric.
Paper long abstract:
The shinbutsu bunri legislation had an almost immediate impact on the visual culture of Japanese religion, and this can be seen particularly well in the printed images of deities (osugata, mie; "ofuda") that were issued by shrines before and after the early years of the Meiji period. At Dewa Sanzan, an area with a checkered history of opposition and compromise to the new order, the reconfiguration of deity was set in motion following the appointment of a nativist bureaucrat as head of the new Haguro Shrine in 1873. Buddhist images were removed from its principal hall, and all the subsidiary halls on the three mountains were renamed in a consistent way as shrines of orthodox Shinto kami.
The iconographic changes are well illustrated by a comparison between popular pre- and post-Meiji prints of the buddhas (honjibutsu) and kami (suijaku). Post-Meiji prints also illustrate changes in depiction over time, revealing the development of an orthodox "Shinto" style. The prints show too a reconfiguration of the location of the prime sacred site, from Yudonosan to Gassan, which reflects both a Meiji kami hierarchy (Gassan was identified as Tsukiyomi no mikoto) and the political reality of Hagurosan domination in the new order.
Prints of popular deities such as Daikoku, Shōmen Kongō and Gozu Tennō show varying degrees of iconographic compromise and change. Whereas Daikoku's image continued unchanged except for name (Ōkuninushi no mikoto), the change was more obvious between Shōmen Kongō and Sarutahiko, while Gozu Tennō became completely obscured as the deity of Yasaka Shrine.
A further aspect of changing deity at Hagurosan is topographical. The topography today bears little resemblance to what is shown in Edo period and early Meiji maps. It is generally held that this was due to intentional destruction of small shrines by Shintoists. However an examination of the religio-political sitation of the late Meiji period suggests the loss of fabric was due rather to the breakdown of the traditional system of caretakers (dōmori) on the one hand and the government policy of shrine mergers on the other.
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on the cult of the mummified corpses (sokushin-butsu) of Mount Yudono ascetics in the Meiji period.
Paper long abstract:
This paper reveals the effects of shinbutsu bunri policies and the 1880 penal code on the funerary procedures for mummifying corpses of Mount Yudono 湯殿 ascetics (issei gyōnin 一世行人) and on the devotional practices associated with the worship of these mummies.
Focusing on the case of the eminent issei gyōnin Bukkai Shōnin 仏海上人, buried in a special sepulchral cell (ishi no karōto 石の匱) in 1903 and exhumed in 1978, I examine how Bukkai's devotees dealt with the fact that their pious handling and manipulation of the ascetic's corpse might now be classified as the illegal acts of destroying a cadaver (shitai sonkai 死体損壊) and desecrating a sepulcher (funbo hakkutsu 墳墓発掘). This study is also based on a hitherto unknown source—the Kaikōji dai jūshi sei Jisen Rinkai dai jimu nikki 海向寺第十四世持泉隣海代寺務日記 (1882-1883), compiled by the issei gyōnin Rinkai 隣海 (1830-1894)—which records public exhibitions (dekaichō 出開帳) of the sokushinbutsu cult, such as fund-raising (kanjin勧進) campaigns and rituals in which wood statues of eminent issei gyōjin (such as Tetsumonkai Shōnin 鐡門海上人) are given new sets of clothing (okoromogae 御衣替え).
The paper sheds light on the influence of Meiji-period legislation on local funerary procedures for creating sokushinbutsu, on the survival of prior devotional practices within the new sokushinbutsu cult that emerged following epistemological rupture brought about by shinbutsu bunri policies, and on the pivotal role play by the sokushinbutsu in guaranteeing the economic and religious survival of ascetic temples (gyōnin-dera 行人寺) after the Meiji restoration.