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1064 CSJR 10 Done by SOAS#D2391 research in Japanese religions includes a In this issue From the report by Yoshiko Imaizumi, PhD candidate Centre chair at SOAS. Last year was a very hectic one for the 2 From the Centre Chair Summer is lingering on for a little bit in Centre, with a tight schedule of seminars. Centre Activities London, after a quite rainy August, giving a Speakers from Britain, Europe and Japan talked about a variety of topics such as 3 CSJR Seminar Schedule warm welcome to the new students. As I write, the Centre is doing the last the origins of Shinto. the worship of 3 Japanese Religions Forum preparations for our yearly symposium. Confucius, samurai spirituality, shinbutsu art, and Buddhist learning, politics and 3 Symposium: The Worship of This years’ theme is on the worship of stars. The programme is included with this language, all of which gave us the chance Stars in Japanese Religious to learn more about aspects of Japanese Practice issue, and we will have a report on the contributions in the winter issue. religions throughout history. The Forum, 4 Film: The Ascetic Training of too, witnessed exciting papers from young Japanese Religious With the beginning of the new academic scholars at SOAS and beyond. This term Practitioners of Hagurô year we have the usual comings and we look forward to an array of international Shugendô goings of members and associates to the speakers at the seminar series and SOAS Centre. Brian Bocking is on a well students at the Forum. Among the 5 Introducing New Members deserved sabbatical, and will be spending activities scheduled for this term I would 6 From Past Fellows the academic year 2004-5 bringing to like to highlight the screening of a completion, with DrYouxuan Wang, documentary film on the mountain retreat 7 Postgraduate Research Fellow in the Department of the of the Hagurô Shugendô group. The film 8 Fieldwork Reports Study of Religions at SOAS, a Leverhulme will be a rare occasion to learn in depth Trust-funded research project on about this fascinating aspect of Japanese 9 Research Project: Meiji Jingu Madhyamika and Yogacara thought in religion, and to discuss it with two 11 PhD Research at SOAS China. Yukiko Nishimura has come back specialists in the field who are also from her fieldwork, and will update us on practitioners. 12 Members’ Publications her findings in the postgraduate Forum. From our information section dedicated to Information on Japanese Carla Tronu Montane has come back from events related to Japanese religions I Religions a short fieldwork trip in Italy and Spain, and is preparing to leave for a longer would also like to draw your attention to 14 Vienna Symposium: Culture of period of study in Japan. We bid farewell the announcement of the forthcoming Secrecy to Meri Arichi, 2003-4 postdoctoral fellow, Toshiba lectures organized by the Sainsbury Institute, where Prof. J. 15 A Shinto Workshop in Venice thanking her for her contribution to the Centre activities, and knowing that she will Rosenfield will present his research on the 16 The Toshiba Lectures still be in London and able, from time to monk Chôgen. In this section of the newsletter you may also read the reports Japanese Religions and time, to be involved in SOAS activities. In of related academic activities that have Popular Culture this newsletter Meri introduces some of the fieldwork she conducted this year in taken place in Europe, an international 16 Japan’s Enduring Religious Japan, and will be telling us about her symposium in Vienna and a Shinto ritual Festivals impressions of the year at SOAS in a later and workshop in Venice. I am grateful to the students who have contributed these 19 MA Japanese Religions issue. reports. Finally, I am happy to announce We welcome the new postdoctoral fellow, that our website is being revamped, and Dr Katja Tripplett, from Marburg University, by the end of the month will be online with and Tullio Lobetti, a new PhD candidate, more information about our activities and who is the recipient of the 2003 CSJR on Japanese religions in general. studentship. Details of their research projects are included in this issue. I wish I wish you all a good beginning of the them a very productive time at SOAS, and academic year and I look forward to look forward to an exciting collaboration. seeing you at the activities organized by Other PhD students have started this year the Centre! and we hope to read about their research Lucia Dolce projects soon. In this issue the dedicated section to introduce postgraduate Front Cover: During the autumn retreat (akinomine) practitioners of Hagurô Shugendô at Midagahara prepare to climb to the summit of Mt Gassan (Yamagata prefecture). The mountain in the background is Chôkaisan. (Photo by Gaynor Sekimori). Shugendô is a religious tradition unique to Japan, which combines different beliefs, such as esoteric Buddhism and Daoism, with native traditions regarding the mountains and kami, and incorporates practices like the saitô goma (fire ritual), seen in the photo on the left. The image is a still from the film "Death and Rebirth in the Mountains: The Ascetic Training of Shugenja Practitioners in Japan" which will be screened at SOAS on 9 December. For more information, please refer to the article about it in this newsletter. 2 CSJR Newsletter • September 2004 • Issue 10 Centre Activities CSJR Seminars SOAS, Thornhaugh Street Russell Square, Japanese Religions Forum WC1H OXG The Forum, convened once a month in term time, brings 5.00pm-6:30pm Room G3 together postgraduate students, MA and PhD, working on 7 October Japanese religions from all academic departments at SOAS. Human Sacrifice in Japanese Legends The Forum aims to encourage a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Japanese religions. Katja Triplett (SOAS) SOAS, Thornhaugh Street Russell Square, WC1H 0XG 21 October Time: 5:00 -6:30 pm Exploring Reasons for Dogen’sMid- Place: Room G3 Career Move to Echizen 14 October Yukiko Nishimura, SOAS Steven Heine (Florida International University) Revisiting the Study of the Cult of 25 November Avalokitesvara in Japan. Religion on Mountains 11 November Anna Shegoleva, SOAS Michael Pye (University of Marburg) Place for Imagination: Ikai Portrayed in the Ghost Stories of Japanese Youth 9 December Film: Death and Rebirth in the Mountain: The Ascetic Training of Shugenja Japanese Practitioners Fumi Ouchi (Miyagi Gakuin/SOAS) Gaynor Sekimori (Tokyo University) Venue: Khalili Theatre, 6pm ALL WELCOME For further information please contact the convenor Lucia Dolce ([email protected]) (020) 7898-4217 The Worship of Stars in Japanese Religious Practice Day 1: Day 2: Star Rituals in Context Thursday 16 September Friday 17 September Chair Brian Bocking 2pm Introduction Personification of Stars 2pm Seven Stars of Heaven and Seven Shrines on Earth: Hokuto 2.30pm Keynote Speech The Tokugawa Chair Tim Barrett Shoguns and Onmyodo Shichisei and the Hie-Sanno Cult 10am Stars and Planets in Chinese Hayashi Makoto and Central Asian Buddhist Art Meri Arichi (SOAS) (Aichi Gakuin University) in the Ninth to Fifteenth 2.45pm Nikko Shugendo and Star Rituals Centuries 3.15pm Tea break Gaynor Sekimori Lilla Russell-Smith (Tokyo University) (Independent Scholar) Worship of Stars through History 3.30pm Discussion and Questions Chair Lucia Dolce 10.45am Coffee break 4pm Tea break 3.45pm Classical and Early Medieval 11.15am Images of Stars and Their 4.30pm Manipulating the Heavens: Ise: A Star Cult? Significance in Japanese The Artificial Skies of the Edo Esoteric Buddhist Art of the Mark Teeuwen (Oslo University) Period Heian Period 4.30pm The Stars of Tokugawa Japan Tsuda Tetsuei (Tokyo Bunkazai Timon Screech (SOAS) John Breen (SOAS) Kenkyujo) 5.15pm Discussion and Questions 5.15pm Discussion and Questions 12.00pm Discussion and Questions Final remarks 12.30pm Lunch 3 CSJR Newsletter • September 2004 • Issue 10 CSJR Seminars: Film Screening When in 2003 the Reverend Shimazu Kôkai, the head of Hagurosan shugenhonshû, decided to allow the whole 9th December 2004 process of the Akinomine to be filmed, it was Mr Kitamura Khalili Theatre, SOAS, 6pm Minao, a documentary film director and film anthropologist, who made this worthwhile endeavor possible. Although he Death and Rebirth in the Mountains: The Ascetic took part in the Akinomine in 2002 and realized the value Training of Shugenja Practitioners in Japan of it, he never thought of making a film about it because he Fumi Ouchi respected its nature as an ascetic practice. However, when Reverend Shimazu decided that the Akinomine should be Shugendô is a folk religious tradition unique to Japan. It is recorded on film in order to preserve it correctly, Mr based on an ancient faith in mountains, which later came Kitamura was entrusted with this important task. He and under the influence of Taoism and Buddhism, especially the his team from Visual Folklore recorded the overall esoteric Buddhism of the Heian Period. Therefore Shugendô Akinomine, whilst acting as participants in the ritual, and is a combination of different beliefs and, in this sense, doing their utmost not to disturb it in any way during the typical of the complex and syncretic Japanese religious filming. culture. After the first showing in January 2004 in Tokyo, the film was shown in many parts of Japan and earned much Shugendô practices include a variety of activities, from acclaim. A shortened version of it was prepared for praying for various worldly benefits, to the performing arts, broadcasting on NHK, and it is this adaptation which we will and ascetic training in the mountains. see at SOAS. This is the first, and might be the only, Ascetic training was organized in the medieval period. Its occasion that this film will be shown outside of Japan.
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