VARIETIES of CONTROL and RELEASE in TOKUGAWA RELIGION by MATTHEW R. HAYES a THESIS Presented to the Interdisciplinary Studies Pr
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VARIETIES OF CONTROL AND RELEASE IN TOKUGAWA RELIGION by MATTHEW R. HAYES A THESIS Presented to the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Asian Studies and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts June 2012 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Matthew R. Hayes Title: Varieties of Control and Release in Tokugawa Religion This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Asian Studies by: Mark Unno Chair Ina Asim Member Glynne Walley Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research & Innovation/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2012 ii © 2012 Matthew R. Hayes iii THESIS ABSTRACT Matthew R. Hayes Master of Arts Interdisciplinary Studies Program: Asian Studies June 2012 Title: Varieties of Control and Release in Tokugawa Religion The Tokugawa period (1600-1868) brought significant social, legislative, and institutional change to Japan, including peace and stability that pervaded much of early modern society. Life in these new social conditions was experienced under the authoritative and ideological influence of the shogunal regime, which sought to order society in a way reflective of administrative ideals. However, while control over Tokugawa inhabitants existed to a certain degree, there were also instances of geographical and social release from such control through engagement in religious pilgrimage and ritual. Practices such as these allowed some citizens to move around, through, and perhaps beyond the modes of confinement established by authorities. This release, which is illuminated by considerations of social and ritual theory, leaves us with a nuanced picture of Tokugawa life and indicates that relatively fluid portions of society may have maneuvered within the boundaries of the hegemonic structure. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Matthew R. Hayes GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene DEGREES AWARDED: Master of Arts, Asian Studies, 2012, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, Religious Studies, 2006, University of Oregon AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Japanese Religious and Social History Buddhist Ritual Practice PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Teaching Assistant, Religious Studies Department, University of Oregon, Fall 2010 Undergraduate Adviser, Asian Studies Program, University of Oregon, 2010-2012 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) Graduate Teaching Fellowship Todd-Wengert Scholarship Award v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge Professor Mark Unno, whose introductory course on Asian religions sparked my initial interest in Japanese Buddhism almost ten years ago. I would also like to acknowledge his mentorship during my undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Oregon. Under his guidance, I was able to grow in ways that will serve me both inside and outside of academia. vi This work is dedicated to my family for their loving encouragement, and to my wife for her support in all things. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 1 II. A NEW SOCIAL ORDER Buddhism in a New Tokugawa Society ............................................................................... 11 Trade Relations and Growing Concerns ............................................................................... 14 Religious Surveillance, Terauke, and a System of Control .................................................. 17 Ritual Practice and Social Participation ............................................................................... 21 III. RELEASE THROUGH GEOGRAPHICAL AND SOCIAL MOBILITY Economic Concerns and Social Pressures ............................................................................ 25 The Tokugawa Travel Experience ........................................................................................ 28 Instances of Geographical Mobility ..................................................................................... 31 Varieties of Meaning in Geographical Mobility .................................................................. 40 Instances of Social Mobility ................................................................................................. 45 A Comparative Understanding of Geographical and Social Mobility ................................. 51 IV. RITUAL, CAPITAL, AND THE HABITUS Practice as a Social Process: the habitus and doxa ............................................................... 55 Material and Symbolic Capital ............................................................................................. 62 Ancestral Veneration, Mortuary Ritual, and Social Participation ........................................ 68 viii The Gannin and Segaki Ritual .............................................................................................. 75 Interconvertibility of Material Capital and the Gannin ........................................................ 78 Chapter Page V. CONCLUSION: POSSIBILITIES OF A SACRED RELEASE .................................................. 86 REFERENCES CITED ...................................................................................................................... 92 ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Many historians consider the battle at Sekigahara in the year 1600 to be a turning point in Japan’s history, one that marked a movement away from warfare and instability toward relative peace and security. The social climate in which the Japanese found themselves demanded a new outlook on daily life as citizens in established cities and burgeoning towns, but also brought with it a new leader. The battle’s victor, Tokugawa Ieyasu, would help to establish this new era of social stability that stood in stark contrast to the patrilineal power struggles and provincial warfare that had pervaded Japan in prior centuries. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the previously militant samurai class had suffered a major collapse and was newly repurposed as relatively sedentary peacekeepers. Sprawling castle towns had begun to develop in cities like Edo to accommodate not only the shogunate elite but also the growing citizenry. Commerce had begun to gain momentum as a means to a sustainable economy, giving rise to lucrative businesses in performing arts, literature, and cuisine. Even prostitution received a certain legitimation via government regulation. By the seventeenth century, cities like Edo appeared as hubs of progress and accomplishment, benchmarks for cultural and social change nationwide. Taking into account the degree to which the Tokugawa shogunate so deeply affected life and society for nearly two hundred fifty years, it is necessary to consider the ideological goals of the shogunate in conducting a study of social change during this time. The legislative decisions carried out by the shogunal government, their effects on its citizens, and the varied reactions to those changes are all necessary components when examining the reach of Ieyasu and his subsequent legacy as a military ruler. By tracing these legislative efforts and their effects, we are offered direct access to the foundational ideology through which they were administered, as well as conceptual understandings of what comprised an ordered society. Indeed, ideological considerations are key to understanding the motivations of any governmental institution, and this 1 is especially true when examining Tokugawa hegemony. How exactly was Ieyasu able to conduct such a drastic reordering of society as a ruler, and what was the ideological platform through which this was carried out? At a fundamental level beyond legislation, we find that political legitimacy became the means by which change was enacted during this period, giving rise to an ideological and institutional framework that supported an ordered society. Political legitimacy contained within it the basis for power that began and maintained social change in Japan during the onset of the seventeenth century. This ideological power held a different sway over its citizens than the legislative power of edicts passed during the period, and a power different still from the physical might exhibited by the patrolling samurai class. While the presence of these latter forms of power upheld decisions made by the shogunate, lending some degree of tangible sustainability to Tokugawa social order, it was the delicately crafted ideology out of which grew the great potential to legitimize the drastic political measures for a streamlined society. This ideology, described by Herman Ooms as one that is realized by some “other means [than warfare] and, indeed, only achieves its aims if relegated to the background of public consciousness,” became the most direct and effective route for conditioned social reordering.1 Measuring social change by looking at the ideological framework behind the legislative efforts of the Tokugawa shogunate is certainly telling, but a study of its historical origins may only be partially revealing in this way. For the sake of a more robust representation of Tokugawa social order, it is also important to examine the society upon which these drastic changes were made, and the way in which social customs and traditions