Volume 3 (2018)
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VOLUME 3, SPRING 2018 Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University VOLUME 3, SPRING 2018 Te Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University (JAH-Q) is a peer-reviewed journal published by Kyushu University, School of Letters, Graduate School of Humanities, Faculty of Humanities 九州大学文学部 大学院人文科学府 大学院人文科学研究院. COPYRIGHT © 2018 KYUSHU UNIVERSITY Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University Editorial Board Information about the journal and submissions EDITOR Cynthea J. Bogel (Kyushu University) The Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University (JAH-Q) is a non-subscription publication available MANAGING EDITOR online and in print: as PDFs indexed by article on the Tomoyuki Kubo (Kyushu University) Kyushu University Library website at https://www.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/publications_kyushu/jahq; CONSULTING EDITORS as a single-volume PDF at Ellen Van Goethem (Kyushu University) http://www2.lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/impjh/jahq/; and Ashton Lazarus (Kyushu University) as a free printed volume for contributors, libraries, and individuals (based on availability). ADVISORY MEMBERS Karl Friday (Saitama University) We consider for publication research articles, state- Seinosuke Ide (Kyushu University) of-the-field essays, and short reports on conferences Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara) and other events related to Asian humanities subjects James Robson (Harvard University) (broadly defined). We also seek articles or reports for Yasutoshi Sakaue (Kyushu University) the themed section, “Kyushu and Asia,” and reviews Tansen Sen (NYU Shanghai) (book, exhibition, film) for the “Reviews” section. Takeshi Shizunaga (Kyushu University) Melanie Trede (Heidelberg University) If you would like your book to be reviewed or have [email protected] Catherine Vance Yeh (Boston University) questions, contact . Potential contributors should send an e-mail to the editor after referring to the Submission Guidelines: http://www2.lit.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/impjh/ Contents VOLUME 3, SPRING 2018 DAVID WEISS CHARI PRADEL Slaying the Serpent: Comparative Mythological Illuminating the Sacred Presence of Hasedera’s Eleven- Perspectives on Susanoo’s Dragon Fight . 1 Headed Avalokiteśvara . 87 TOSHIFUMI KAWAHIRA D. MAX MOERMAN Chinese Poetry in Hiragana: Kana-shi in Thought and Underground Buddhism: The Subterranean Landscape Practice . 21 of the Ise Shrines . 115 YAN YANG Review Yamato-e: Illuminating a Concept through Historio- graphical Analysis . 39 BOOK REVIEW BY JAMES ROBSON Tansen Sen. India, China, and the World: A Connected FABIO RAMBELLI History. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. 129 Dharma Devices, Non-Hermeneutical Libraries, and Robot-Monks: Prayer Machines in Japanese Kyushu and Asia Buddhism . 57 LINDSEY E. DEWITT SATOMI YAMAMOTO Report on the 2017 Inscription of “Sacred Island of Futanari, Between and Beyond: From Male Shamans Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata to Hermaphrodites in Te Illustrated Scroll Region” as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . 135 of Illnesses . 77 Article Contributors and Summaries Slaying the Serpent: Comparative written versions of the early eighth century. Mythological Perspectives on Susanoo’s Dragon Fight DAVID WEISS Chinese Poetry in Hiragana: Kana-shi in Thought and Practice THE UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN RESEARCH FELLOW, DEPARTMENT OF JAPANESE TOSHIFUMI KAWAHIRA STUDIES KYUSHU UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF JAPANESE LITERATURE In the “Slaying of the Great Eight-Headed Serpent,” one of the most iconographic episodes in Japanese In the Edo period there was a type of poetry called myth, the god Susanoo rescues a maiden from a dragon kana-shi. In terms of form and style it was modeled on and marries her. Comparing the Japanese narrative Chinese poetry (kanshi) yet written with a mixture of with international dragon-slayer tales, this essay draws hiragana and kanji. It can be thought of as a literary attention to the dragon’s close connection to water and form that occupied the space in between haikai and iron. It argues that myths have to be adapted to new Chinese poetry. Kana-shi was frequently composed circumstances in order to remain relevant to the group in the early eighteenth century by Morikawa Kyoriku, that transmits them. In the myth of Susanoo’s dragon Kagami Shikō, and other disciples and associates fight, as related in the ancient chronicles Kojiki and of Matsuo Bashō, and it took shape amid rising Nihon shoki, these repeated adaptations are still visible nationalist sentiment and an accompanying decline as various layers of meaning. The essay illuminates in the status of Chinese poetry and prose. Influenced some of these layers and connects them to cultural by the mood of this intellectual environment, kana- techniques such as wet-rice cultivation or metallurgy. shi seems to have emerged as an ambitious literary This approach makes it possible to trace the evolution form that, while modeled on Chinese poetry, sought to of the myth, which found its culmination in the reconstruct it as Japanese. This essay considers these iv and related issues through analyses of specific poems. periods and ritual contexts (the shakuhachi flute as It also introduces several related poetic styles that performed by adepts of the Fuke Zen sect, prayer developed in the same time period, arguing that kana- wheels and rotating sutra repositories, Tokugawa shi was a precursor of famous works like Yosa Buson’s period automata, and, more recently, robot-monks and “Mourning the Old Sage Hokuju” as well as the new- virtual [online] ritual services), the article discusses form poetry (shintaishi) of the Meiji period. the status of those devices within the Buddhist cultural system and the conceptual challenge that they pose to issues of individual agency, religious practice, and, Yamato-e: Illuminating a Concept through ultimately, soteriology. Historiographical Analysis YAN YANG Futanari, Between and Beyond: From BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN COMMUNITY COL- Male Shamans to Hermaphrodites in The LEGE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK Illustrated Scroll of Illnesses ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY SATOMI YAMAMOTO Yamato-e is a familiar but confounding concept KYŌRITSU WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY in Japanese art history. Meaning simply “Japanese PROFESSOR OF JAPANESE ART HISTORY pictures,” the term is widely understood as much more. Scholars use it to refer to an alleged genre that In ancient and medieval Japan, female shamans had includes pictorial artworks featuring Japanese subject the task of divining messages from the gods. Yet there matter and a distinct style most often characterized were also male shamans (otoko miko) who donned as soft, colorful, and independent from outside female clothing. The “Futanari” section of Yamai influences (especially Chinese). This paper analyzes no sōshi (The Illustrated Scroll of Illnesses) depicts the twentieth-century historiography of yamato-e in one such figure: an intersex (futanari) soothsayer. terms of semantics, parameters, and narrative histories The scroll is thought to have been completed in the as established by various Japanese scholars, explains late twelfth century, around the zenith of Emperor why our current definition of yamato-e is problematic, Goshirakawa’s cultural influence. It was Goshirakawa and examines how the concept of yamato-e reveals who compiled the collection of imayō (popular songs) more about scholarly concerns of the early twentieth entitled Ryōjin hishō (Songs to Make the Dust Dance century than a specific painting style or type. on the Beams), which includes songs that ridicule male shamans for belonging to the marginal cultures of the eastern hinterlands and the emerging warrior Dharma Devices, Non-Hermeneutical class. This same mocking gaze is cast upon the intersex Libraries, and Robot-Monks: Prayer soothsayer by the figures in the scene and potentially Machines in Japanese Buddhism by the contemporaneous reader/viewer for “Futanari.” By focusing on representations of male shamans, as FABIO RAMBELLI well as Buddhist teachings that informed the treatment UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA of intersex figures, this essay explores the basis of the PROFESSOR OF JAPANESE RELIGIONS AND ISF multiple meanings of “Futanari” and futanari. ENDOWED CHAIR IN SHINTO STUDIES This article explores the little-known subject of the presence, in the Japanese Buddhist tradition, of machines (understood here as special tools, instruments, and various mechanical devices) used for the production and proliferation of prayers and prayer-related activities. Following a description of representative examples from various historical SPRiNG 2018 JOURNAL OF ASiAN HUMANiTiES AT KYUSHU UNivERSiTY v Illuminating the Sacred Presence of material culture produced by and for the priestly Hasedera’s Eleven-Headed Avalokiteśvara lineages of the Ise Shrines established a sustaining relationship between the gods and the buddhas and CHARI PRADEL lay the necessary substructure for later Buddhist CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY, developments at the Ise Shrines. POMONA PROFESSOR OF ART HISTORY REVIEW The Buddhist mountain-temple of Hasedera (Nara Tansen Sen. India, China, and the World: A Prefecture) is famous for its miraculous icon, Connected History. New York: Rowman & Hase Kannon, a monumental image of Jūichimen Littlefeld, 2017. Kannon (Sk. Ekādaśamukha, the Eleven-Headed Avalokiteśvara). This essay focuses on the origins BOOK REVIEW BY JAMES ROBSON of the Hase Kannon statue as narrated in Hasedera HARVARD UNIVERSITY