Paper short abstract:

How could women actualize their wish for Buddhahood in medieval Japan? Using vernacular medieval literature as primary source, this paper will show that, despite the perceived necessity to be first reborn as a man, women had distinct possibilities to become enlightened.

Paper long abstract:

Buddhist scriptures, for example, the Lotus Sutra, state that, to become a buddha, a woman must first be reborn as a man. The ideas privileging the male body were transmitted to Japan, making an impact on literature and theories proselytized by religious school founders. How could women living in such environment actualize their wish for Buddhahood? This paper will rethink this question from three key viewpoints.

First is a transformation of the female body after death. Medieval Japanese paintings depicting the “nine stages of decay” (kusōzu 九相図) featured women as an example of a polluted, physical human body. These images, evoking sadness and terror of death were supposed to activate a state of enlightenment in people viewing them. The second point is a burial, which involved burning and collection of a deceased woman’s bones and ashes and depositing them into a grave. Bifukumon’in 美福門院 (1117–1170), emperor Toba’s consort, refused to have her corpse buried in a grave prepared before her death, ordering instead to be cremated and having her bones deposited at Mt. Kōya, a religious site otherwise prohibited for access by women. Last point is women’s sudden enlightenment. Chiyono monogatari 千代野物語, a medieval tale depicting women’s enlightenment, presents a case in which a woman of humble origins, starting from a state most distant from that of a buddha, instantaneously transforms her body into a physical boddhisattva (nikushin no bosatsu 肉身の菩薩). This story, too, was supposed to elicit the state of enlightenment from a male audience.

Using vernacular medieval literature as primary source, I will show that in medieval Japanese society, despite the ideas of not being suitable to act as the “Buddha’s vessel” and necessity to be first reborn as a man, women had distinct possibilities to become enlightened and transcend from the state of physical female body into divine existence. It appears that female bodies, while remaining so, had inherent possibilities and power to transform their environment and lead the surrounding world to its purer state.