Copyright 2016 Dunja Jelesijevic RITUALS OF THE ENCHANTED WORLD: NOH THEATER AND RELIGION IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN BY DUNJA JELESIJEVIC DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Cultures in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Elizabeth Oyler, Chair Associate Professor Brian Ruppert, Director of Research Associate Professor Alexander Mayer Professor Emeritus Ronald Toby Abstract This study explores of the religious underpinnings of medieval Noh theater and its operating as a form of ritual. As a multifaceted performance art and genre of literature, Noh is understood as having rich and diverse religious influences, but is often studied as a predominantly artistic and literary form that moved away from its religious/ritual origin. This study aims to recapture some of the Noh’s religious aura and reclaim its religious efficacy, by exploring the ways in which the art and performance of Noh contributed to broader religious contexts of medieval Japan. Chapter One, the Introduction, provides the background necessary to establish the context for analyzing a selection of Noh plays which serve as case studies of Noh’s religious and ritual functioning. Historical and cultural context of Noh for this study is set up as a medieval Japanese world view, which is an enchanted world with blurred boundaries between the visible and invisible world, human and non-human, sentient and non-sentient, enlightened and conditioned. The introduction traces the religious and ritual origins of Noh theater, and establishes the characteristics of the genre that make it possible for Noh to be offered up as an alternative to the mainstream ritual, and proposes an analysis of this ritual through dynamic and evolving schemes of ritualization and mythmaking, rather than ritual as a superimposed structure. Chapters Two through Five are analyses of four Noh plays, Kanawa, Dōjōji, Yamamba, and Hyakuman. This selection reflects my argument that a particularly efficacious form of Noh ritual is one that best responds to the liminal quality of the medieval worldview, and this is expressed through a specific way in which the main protagonist of each play is constructed as a ritualist and an object of ritual, and symbolically embodied in various incarnations of the character of demon - oni. ii Acknowledgements I would like to offer my endless gratitude to the following persons, without whom this project would have never been possible: To Professor Brian Ruppert, for his guidance and mentorship in this dissertation and throughout the course of my doctoral studies. For his constant encouragement, intellectual stimulation and punctual advice, which were invaluable to me over the years he has taught and advised me on all aspects of Japanese religion and culture. For his endless patience, kindness, and understanding. To Professor Elizabeth Oyler, Chair of this Committee, for helping me build my knowledge on literature, performance, and Noh. For teaching me how to read and analyze literary texts, which questions to ask, and how to seek answers to them. For her unwavering support and faith in my work, even in the moments when my own faith would falter. To Professor Ronald Toby for sharing from the bottomless well of his knowledge on all things Japanese, and beyond. For stimulating discussions in his reading classes and meetings, for kind advice, support, and encouragement. To Professor Alexander Mayer for helping me better understand the intricacies of Buddhist text and Buddhist doctrine, and helping me place them within the perspective of larger scholarship. To Japan Foundation for supporting my research in Japan, at the Nagoya University. To Professor Abe Yasuro of Nagoya University, my adviser and mentor during my research year as a Japan Foundation Fellow, for helping me build my strength in archival study and field work, for the amazing opportunities to attend an impressive number of festivals, rituals, and performances while imparting on me the knowledge and understanding about them which prompted my research in the direction it has assumed. To Professor Abe Mika, for her kind iii advice and help in matters both academic and otherwise during my year in Nagoya. To the fellow- graduate students from Professor Abe’s research seminar for their help and camaraderie. At UIUC, apart from my Committee with whom I had worked the closest, I would like to mention those whose courses I was fortunate to take and which had provided me with the knowledge and the tools to be the researcher I am. I owe particular gratitude to Professor Robert Alun Jones from Department of Religion, and Professor Joyce Tolliver from Department of Spanish and Portuguese. To my friends and family, without whom I could not have made it. To Professor David Goodman, with excruciating pain in my heart that he is not here today. Words fail me to say anything else. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………..…………......1 Framing the “Medieval”…………………………………………………………………………..4 Kami-buddha Discourse – The Shinbutsu Paradigm……………………………………………...6 From Ritual to Noh: Religious and Ritual Origins of Noh………………………………………10 Ritual and Ritualization………………………………………………………………………….21 Oni – Embodiment of the Enchanted World…………………………………………………….27 Performer – Ritualist of the Enchanted World…………………………………………………..32 Overview of Chapters……………………………………………………………………………35 CHAPTER 2: KANAWA…………………………………..………………………….…...……39 Kurui, Jealousy, and Aberrant Disposition………………………………………………………40 Origins of Kanawa: Hashihime Legend, Generic Conventions and Ritual Concerns…………...47 Counterpoint: Abe no Seimei, Demons and Exorcism…………………………………………..52 Kanawa: Demonic Wife………………………………………………………………………….55 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….74 CHAPTER 3: DOJOJI………………………………………………..…………..…..………….77 Origins of Dōjōji: The Kiyohime Legend and Its Rebirths……………………………………...79 Religious Implications Of the Serpent motif……………………………………………..……...89 The Ritualist Snake – Shirabyōshi………………………………………………………..……...94 Competing Rituals; Ritualization and Ritual Dialectic; Subject/Object Dichotomy…….……..100 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...109 CHAPTER 4: YAMANBA……………………………………….……………………….…...111 Yamanba-as-oni……………………………………………………………………..…………113 Yamanba: Dragging Feet on Buddha’s Path...............................................................................125 Yamanba’s Religious Framework………………….…………………………………………..136 Good and Evil – The “Way” of the Actor………………………………………………………146 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...…………………152 CHAPTER 5: HYAKUMAN…………………………………………………………………..154 Liminality of Womanhood and Female Performers……………………………………………155 Demon Hiding in Plain Sight – Monogurui…………………………………………………….160 Hyakuman – Origins and Inspirations………………………………………………...………..163 Hyakuman – Saving Mother, Possessed Mother……………………………………………….166 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...…………172 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION………………...……………………………………………….173 CHAPTER 7: FIGURES……………………………………………………………………….176 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………183 v Chapter 1: Introduction In the past three decades, scholarship on medieval Noh theater has been steadily calling into question the presumed unchanging character of Noh by placing it within historically- and culturally-specific frames of reference. Among others, Janet Goff, Michele Marra, Arthur Thornhill, and more recently Steven Brown, Susan Blakely Klein, Shelley Fenno Quinn, Eric Rath, Paul Atkins, and Thomas Looser have interpreted Noh theater through analyzing its performative aspects, its interaction with literary and religious sources, and the ways it reflected or responded to its political and social contexts.1 Within this trend, much valuable research has been done on the relationship between Noh theater and religion. Klein has drawn attention to the relationship between the Kamakura esoteric literary commentaries, waka poetry, and the Noh. Thornhill and Noel Pinnington examined the religious and philosophical underpinnings of Komparu Zenchiku’s (1405 – c. 1470) treatises,2 and how Zenchiku’s aesthetics was informed by the religious ideologies of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Kami-worship traditions.3 Atkins does the same in analyzing 1 See Goff 1992, Mara 1993, Thornhill 1993, Brown 2002, Klein 2003, Quinn 2005, Rath 2006, Atkins 2006, Looser 2008. 2 Noel Pinnington, Traces in the Way: Michi and the Writings of Komparu Zenchiku (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Series, 2005) 3 Throughout this study I will use term “kami-worship,” due to the problematic nature of the term Shinto with its long-held association with an indigenous Japanese religion. Scholarship has recognized that, rather than being indigenous religion of Japan with continuity throughout history, “Shinto” as institutionalized monolithic religion is a purely modern construct, and the term kami, likewise, does not designate a specific native Japanese deity or deities, but can be applicable to a host of varied “moot” entities. For more detailed discussion on this issue see Kuroda 1981: 1–21, and Teeuwen and Rambelli 2006: 1-2. 1 Zenchiku’s plays. Thomas Hare in a similar vein explores the treatises and performance notes of Zeami (c. 1363 – c. 1443).4 Most of these studies, broadly speaking, have looked at how diverse religious elements were appropriated and employed by Noh. Building on this foundation, my dissertation examines the relationship between