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- Convenors:
-
G. Clinton Godart
(Tohoku University)
Yulia Burenina (Osaka University)
Send message to Convenors
- Chair:
-
Jacqueline Stone
(Princeton University)
- Section:
- Religion and Religious Thought
- Sessions:
- Thursday 26 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
This panel examines the role of women and gender in Nichirenism in early twentieth century Japan. This panel juxtaposes the critical study of perceptions of women among important male Nichirenist leaders with the ideas and social activism of influential individual Nichirenist women leaders.
Long Abstract:
The study of pre-war "modern Buddhism" (kindai bukkyō) in Japan has undergone drastic changes in the past two decades, undergoing a paradigm shift involving a critical self-reflection on the construction of its object of study. However, the roles of women and gender in modern Buddhism in Japan has remained almost completely unexamined. This panel examines the role of women and gender perceptions in Nichirenism, the modern variant of Nichiren Buddhism that promoted the Lotus Sutra and which rose to popularity in the first decades of twentieth century Japan.
While mostly known for its nationalism, Nichirenism also showed a remarkable variety and flexibility in ideas, orientation as well as membership. It is little known that, perhaps more than in other modern Buddhist currents, a remarkable number of women were active as thinkers, activists, and leaders in Nichirenist movements. Also, key male Nichirenist thinkers commented on the role of women in Buddhism and in Japanese society. As a predominantly lay Buddhist movement, Nichirenist Buddhist leaders such as Tanaka Chigaku (1861-1939) were keenly interested in issues of marriage and the family, as social and legal changes enveloped Japanese society in the Meiji period. As such, Nichirenism can perhaps be said to be a strongly gendered movement.
This panel juxtaposes on the one hand, a critical study of perceptions of women among important male Nichirenist leaders such as Honda Nisshō（1867-1931), and on the other the ideas and social activism of influential individual Nichirenist women leaders, such as the aristocrat and social activist Matsudaira Toshiko (1890-1985) and the Pan-Asianist and feminist Koizumi Kikue (1904-1992). Both Matsudaira and Koizumi formulated their own interpretations of Nichiren Buddhism and promoted improvements for the position of women in Japan.
This panel is part of an ongoing kaken research project that, in contrast to its accepted image of nationalist ideology, re-examines Nichirenism for its more open and transgressing dimensions, including spiritualism, transnationalism, and gender.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 26 August, 2021, -Yulia Burenina (Osaka University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper brings into focus the case of a noblewoman Matsudaira Toshiko (1890-1985) to examine her religious life and social activities and show how they were related to Nichirenism.
Paper long abstract:
This paper is an attempt to illuminate the gender dimension of Nichirenism through the analysis of faith and practice of Matsudaira Toshiko (1890-1985), probably the most high-profile figure in the Nichirenist women movement. Born as the sixth daughter of Nabeshima Naohiro (1846-1921), the last feudal lord of Saga Domain and later a marquis, Toshiko was raised as a princess. She married Matsudaira Yutaka (1879-1945), a navy captain and the younger brother of Count Matsudaira Yorinaga. It is apparent that at the beginning of her religious life, her devotion to the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren was influenced by her husband, who had converted to Nichiren after his "mystical" experience in the Russo-Japanese War. Toshiko actively lectured and wrote on her religious beliefs. She published several books on her faith, for example, Nichiren Shōnin no Kotoba no Mama ni (In the Words of Saint Nichiren, 1921), Hokekyō Raisan (In Praise of the Lotus Sutra, 1928), Nichirenshugi to Jyosei (Nichirenism and Women, 1931). She also was a leader of a women religious group the Risshō Fujinkai founded in 1927. Toshiko's case is remarkable because she also made efforts to improve the status of women in Japan through a vast array of social and political activities, most especially after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, including the adoption of western clothing, the juvenile protection, female migration and education. This paper discusses how such activities relate to her religious beliefs and thus argues that Nichirenism inspired women social activism in prewar Japan.
Eiichi Otani (Bukkyo University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines Nichirenist views of women in modern Japan. Since Nichirenist narratives about women followed that of Nichiren (1222-1982), I will examine how Nichiren's writings about women were reframed and retold in the context of modern Japan.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines Nichirenist views of women in modern Japan. Nichirenism particularly affected young people at the time, but it affected women as well as men. Therefore, Nichirenism discourse also has a message for women. Since Nichirenist's narrative about women followed that of Nichiren, I need to analyze how Nichiren's writings about women have been re-telled in the context of modern Japan by Nichirenists.
This paper focuses on the narrative of two Nichirenist thinkers, Honda Nissho（1867-1931） and Matsumori Reiun（1875-1920）. Honda was the chief priest of the Kenpon Hokke-sect and a well-known Nichirenist at the time. On the other hand, Matsumori was a Nichiren-sect priest and served the chief priest of Nichiren-sect. In addition, Matsumori was involved in the activities of the Murakumo Women's Association（Buddhist Women's association, which was founded in 1906 by Murakumo Nichiei (1855-1920), a nun from the Imperial family.
The narratives about women by these two Nichirenists had something in common. They both referred to Nichiren's writings, 'Women follow others and thereby cause others to follow them.'(Kyodai sho ) and'An arrow cannot fly without a bow. A cloud cannot move without a dragon. A man cannot work without a woman.' (Toki-ama gozen gosho) Both Honda and Matsumori quoted these writings and preached patriarchal views on marriage. However, Nichiren was a rare priest who preached women become a Buddha by the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren did not confirm to the feudal view of married couples and even argued that women would lead men to belief in the Lotus Sutra. I argue that modern Nichirenists neglected these radical aspects of Nichiren's view on women. Hence this paper critically re-examines modern Nichirenist views of women.
G. Clinton Godart (Tohoku University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the life and thought of the Nichirenist Buddhist, pan-Asianist, and feminist Koizumi Kikue (1904-1992), a central figure in the East-Asia League, and the implications for Nichirenism in modern Japan.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the life, thought and social activism of the Nichirenist Buddhist, pan-Asianist, and feminist Koizumi Kikue (1904-1992). After joining the Pillar of the Nation Society (Kokuchūkai) in 1932 and feeling dissatisfied with the role of women in the movement, she started her own women's Nichirenist study group. She was greatly inspired by the story of the daughter of the Dragon King in the Lotus Sutra, who attained Buddhahood, as well as Nichiren's endorsement of the potential for the enlightenment of women. She rose to fame for her bestselling A Manchurian Girl (Manshūjin no shōjo) of 1936-1938, a colonial story in which Koizumi related her struggles with the worldviews of a local Chinese girl employed in her household. After returning to Japan, she became a key organizer, activist, and thinker in the Pan-Asianist and Nichirenist movement of the East-Asia League Movement (Tōarenmei kyōkai). The figurehead of the East-Asia League was the military thinker and Nichirenist Ishiwara Kanji. Her activism spurred in turn other women's branches in the movement, in both urban and rural settings, and she remained active after war's end in 1945. Koizumi Kikue also developed her own original Nichirenist ideas, including a religious and feminist history of Japan, The Revelation of Women's History (Josei shi kaiken) of 1941. While gaining a key role in the East-Asian League Movement, she was also criticized by other members and surveilled by the Higher Special Police. Koizumi's thought combined feminist ideas with Nichirenist millenarianism, science and technology, Pan-Asianism, anti-communism, and an unshakeable belief in the divine mission of the Japanese nation. Koizumi's life and ideas therefore straddle dichotomies of empowerment and suppression, nature and modernity, and center and periphery in the wartime Japanese empire.