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Lobetti, Tullio Federico (2011) Faith in the Flesh: Body and Ascetic Practices in a Contemporary Japanese Religious Context

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Lobetti, Tullio Federico (2011) Faith in the Flesh: Body and Ascetic Practices in a Contemporary Japanese Religious Context Lobetti, Tullio Federico (2011) Faith in the flesh: body and ascetic practices in a contemporary Japanese religious context. Mphil Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/18465 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Faith in the Flesh Body and Ascetic Practices in a Contemporary Japanese Religious Context Tullio Federico LOBETTI Student No. 145319 Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of the Study of Religions School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London June 2011 1 I hereby confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own and the work of other persons is appropriately acknowledged. Date Signed 2 Abstract The religious practices that may be labelled “ascetic” are still alive and well in contemporary Japan, from the strict hardships undertaken by practitioners of various religious denominations to the “fire-walking” by lay people on harmless half- extinguished sacred fires at local celebrations. Despite the various manifestations of asceticism in Japan, few scholarly works on the subject exist, and of those that do, almost all focus on the practices of a single sect, or mention asceticism only as part of a wider discourse. This study suggests the presence, in Japanese asceticism, of threads in modes, circumstances and purposes which can be systematised in order to individuate themes underlying ascetic practice in a more general sense. In-depth qualitative fieldwork involving selected contemporary ascetic phenomena has been undertaken in order to penetrate the reality of the individuals and religious institutions involved. It emerges that the same ascetic feats can be part of the activities of a variety of religious groups, regardless of their doctrinal differences. Moreover, the process through which practitioners build their identity as ascetics, and justify their purposes, is widely subjective. This fluidity appears to be the result of a two-layered hermeneutical interpretation of the ascetic effort: an initial level of cognitive interpretation, which in some cases may correspond to doctrinal positions, and a second level of a ‘bodily hermeneutic’ enacted through performance. This study argues that this second level existed before doctrinal interpretations, thus allowing the circulation of the same ascetic activities within different religious traditions. My direct participation in many ascetic practices as a part of my fieldwork methodology was aimed at accessing ‘bodily data’ which in this work is employed in reconsidering the role of the human body as the main tool and text of ascetic practice, and in understanding asceticism as an ‘embodied tradition’. 3 Table of contents Introduction 10 Chapter 1 - Translating Fundamental Categories:The Human Body and Asceticism 22 1.1 Terminological problems in the definition of ‘asceticism’ 25 1.2 Asceticism and the human body: an intralinguistic translation 30 1.3 The body and its contemporary meaning 30 1.3.1 Judeo-Christian dualism 33 1.3.2 Modern dualism 42 1.4 Asceticism and the body: Interlinguistic translation issues 44 1.4.1 Theravāda themes 45 1.4.2 Mahāyāna themes 48 1.5 Body and Society: meanings in context 53 1.5.1Ascetics and societies - Ascetic societies 56 1.6 Conclusions 66 Chapter 2 - Modes of Ascetic Practice 68 2.1 Occasional borrowing of ascetic acts in various religious practices 70 2.1.1 Ascetic acts in festivals and sacred dances 71 2.1.2 Paths of embers and ladders of swords 75 2.2 Practices taking place outside an institutional religious body 86 2.2.1 Samugyō: The cold practice 87 2.2.2 Nanao-san shugyō 93 2.3 Practices taking place within an institutional religious body 95 2.3.1 Haguro akinomine 96 2.3.2 Rōhatsu sesshin 103 2.4 Conclusions 108 Chapter 3 - The Ascetic Practitioner: Identity and Motivation 113 3.1 Who? The people involved 114 4 3.1.1 Laypeople asceticism 114 3.1.2 Practices for religious professionals 129 3.2 Why? Motivation 138 3.2.1 The choice of the ascetic practitioner 138 3.2.2 Practices for oneself and for others 141 3.3 Conclusions 154 Chapter 4 - Ascetic Practices in Context 156 4.1 The spatial and social context 157 4.1.1 The ascetic in society and space 161 4.1.2Socio-spatial dimensions and extra-ascetic society 167 4.1.3Socio-spatial dimensions and intra-ascetic society 175 4.2 The religious context 188 4.2.1 Bodily hermeneutic 192 4.2.2 Akinomine: Buddhist and Shinto 196 4.3 Conclusions 212 Chapter 5 - Corporis Ascensus 214 5.1 Constants in ascetic practice 215 5.1.1Asceticism as an ‘ontological progression’ 217 5.2 The non-ascetic body: moral themes 220 5.2.1 Non-ascetic bodies and impurity 224 5.3 The ascetic body: Sacred pain and effort 227 5.3.1 An analogical theory of ascetic performance and its limitations 228 5.4 The body empowered: Powers produced during the ascetic practice 234 5.4.1 Power-yield as an inherent property of the ascetic body 236 5.5 The body as Perfect Body: Self-mummification 240 5.5.1 Sokushinbutsu in Japan 241 5.5.2 Self mummified buddhas as perfect bodies 246 5.6 Conclusions 249 Conclusion 250 Bibliography 256 Appendix 274 5 Figure 1: DeCerteau’s scheme of the body 172 Figure 2: The Sacred space 174 Figure 3: Intra-ascetic relations 179 6 List of Illustrations Picture 1: Iwaguni kagura, Iwakuni, Yamaguchi prefecture. (7– 9 April 2007) Picture 2: Iwaguni kagura gyōja (8 April 2007) Picture 3: Iwaguni kagura gyō (8 April 2007) Picture 4: Iwaguni kagura gyō (8 April 2007) Picture 5: Hiwatari (fire-walking) practice at Ontake-san shrine in Saitama (10 October 2006) Picture 6: Hiwatari (fire-walking) practice at Ontake-san shrine in Saitama (10 October 2006) Picture 7: Hiwatari (fire-walking) practice at Ontake-san shrine in Saitama (10 October 2006) Picture 8: Hiwatari (fire-walking) practice at Ontake-san shrine in Saitama (10 October 2006 - picture courtesy of Andrea Castiglioni) Picture 9: Hiwatari (fire-walking) practice at Ontake-san shrine in Saitama (10 October 2006 - picture courtesy of Andrea Castiglioni) Picture 10: Spring Festival, Ontake-san shrine, Saitama. Preparation of the hawatari (ladder of swords) (10 April 2007) Picture 11: Spring Festival, Ontake-san shrine, Saitama. Preparation of the hawatari (ladder of swords) (10 April 2007) Picture 12: Spring Festival, Ontake-san shrine, Saitama. Preparation of the ladder of swords (hawatari) (10 April 2007) Picture 13: Spring Festival, Ontake-san shrine, Saitama. Climbing the hawatari (ladder of swords) (10 April 2007 - picture courtesy of Erica Baffelli) Picture 14: Spring Festival, Ontake-san shrine, Saitama. Climbing the hawatari (ladder of swords) (10 April 2007 - picture courtesy of Erica Baffelli) Picture 15: Samugyō (cold practice) Mt. Ontake (22-24 January 2007) Picture 16: Takigyō (waterfall practice) during the samugyō on Mt. Ontake (22 January 2007) Picture 17: Climbing Mt. Ontake during the samugyō on (22 January 2007) Picture 18: Climbing Mt. Ontake during the samugyō on (23 January 2007) Picture 19: Worship at Kyotaki-Fudōson shrine during the samugyō (23 January 2007) 7 Picture 20: Nanano-san lower shrine entrance. Dorogawa, Nara prefecture (picture courtesy of Gaynor Sekimori) Picture 21: Sign at Nanao-san lower shrine entrance. Dorogawa, Nara prefecture (picture courtesy of Gaynor Sekimori) Picture 22: ‘Buddhist’ Akinomine. Gathering of the participants at Shōzen-in. Tōge, Dewa Sanzan, Yamagata prefecture (24 August 2005) Picture 23: ‘Buddhist’ Akinomine. Ritual of conception at Kogane-do. Tōge (25 August 2005) Picture 24: ‘Buddhist’ Akinomine. Shugenja leaving Shōzen-in temple. Tōge (25 August 2005) Picture 25: ‘Buddhist’ Akinomine. Shugenja on the slopes of Gassan (27 August 2005) Picture 26: Commemorative photo of the Spring Sesshin held at Tōshōji temple in Tokyo (27 March- 1 April 2007) Picture 27: ‘Shinto’ akinomineiri. Dewa Sanzan, Yamagata prefecture (25 August - 1 September 2006) Picture 28: Higashi Fudaraku. ‘Shinto’ akinomine. Dewa Sanzan (27 August 2006) Picture 29: ‘Shinto’ akinomineiri. Offerings at Higashi Fudaraku. Dewa Sanzan (27 August 2006) Picture 30: ‘Shinto’ akinomineiri. Group of participants at Higashi Fudaraku. Dewa Sanzan (27 August 2006) Picture 31: Dewa Sanzan-jinja ō-fuda Picture 32: Honmyōkai Picture 33: Shinnyōkai, preserved in Dainichibo temple (Yamagata prefecture) Picture 34: Tetsumonkai, preserved in Churen-ji temple (Oami Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture - picture courtesy of Gaynor Sekimori) Picture 35: Senninzawa, the Swamp of the Wizards (Dewa Sanzan, Yamagata prefecture) 8 Acknowledgments First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Lucia Dolce, for her constant support and her patience in helping me to transform my twisted theories into more legitimate arguments. None of this would have ever happened without her continuous encouragement and advice. In Japan, I benefited from the help and supervision of Suzuki Masataka, who allowed me to attend his seminars and introduced me to the leaders of many of the ascetic practices in which I participated. Without his support, much of my fieldwork would have been impossible. I also want to express my gratitude to Gaynor Sekimori, who first introduced me to Shugendō and who helped me in settling in Japan.
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