DOCSLIB.ORG

A Forest for a Thousand Years: Cultivating Life and Disciplining Death at Daihonzan Sōjiji, a Japanese Sōtō Zen Temple

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Forest for a Thousand Years: Cultivating Life and Disciplining Death at Daihonzan Sōjiji, a Japanese Sōtō Zen Temple A Forest for a Thousand Years: Cultivating Life and Disciplining Death at Daihonzan Sōjiji, a Japanese Sōtō Zen Temple by Joshua Aaron Irizarry A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in The University of Michigan 2011 Doctoral Committee: Professor Jennifer E. Robertson, Chair Professor Gillian Feeley-Harnik Professor Erik A. Mueggler Assistant Professor Micah L. Auerback © Joshua Aaron Irizarry 2011 For Ita Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula non est in te. ii Acknowledgements No work of ethnography can be accomplished without the help of a great many people who were generous of their time, patience, and trust. However, the need to protect the identities and privacy of my informants must trump all feelings of gratitude and indebtedness that I might feel. As is convention in ethnography, all individuals named in this work are pseudonyms; and all individually identifying information has been altered. Since I cannot thank individuals by name, I can only express a deep and lasting appreciation for the generosity and patience of both the clerical and lay communities of Daihonzan Sōjiji. In particular, my thanks go to the members of Sōjiji’s Baikakō and Nichiyō Sanzenkai who welcomed me into their number with friendship and a willingness to tolerate my never-ending series of questions. I am indebted to the entire clerical community at Sōjiji for their understanding, patience and willingness to help me see and understand the inner workings of a large Sōtō Zen monastery. I am especially grateful to those priests and unsui who candidly shared with me their experiences and memories of Sōjiji. All of this would have been impossible without the introduction of the late Saitō Shingi, who facilitated my initial entrée into the Sōjiji community. I was terribly saddened to hear of his passing, and will be forever thankful for the kindnesses he showed me. My field research from 2006 through 2008 was conducted under the auspices of a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship, endowed by the Mitsubishi Corporation. I am grateful to David Satterwhite and Jinko Brinkman of the Japan-U.S. Educational Commission for their priceless support and assistance throughout my fieldwork in Japan. I am thankful to all of my Japanese language instructors at the University of Michigan, the FALCON Program at Cornell University, Middlebury College’s Summer Language Institute, and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies. I wish to especially thank Kōno Tamaki from the IUC for her infinite patience and continuing support in helping to deepen my understanding of Japanese language and culture. Samuel Meyrowitz and Joseph Joffe provided steady reminders that there is life outside of graduate school and a world beyond the dissertation. David Offenbach-Abbott was instrumental in preserving my sanity and helping me keep perspective at times when I seemed to be lacking in either. iii Thank you to Satō Seiko, Yamamoto Shin’ichi, Erik Schicketanz, and Jolyon Thomas for giving me encouragement, support and friendship throughout my time in Japan. The Anthropology Department at the University of Colorado Denver provided a safe haven (and office space) to facilitate my transition from graduate student to professional scholar. I am particularly grateful to Steve Koester, David Tracer, Charles Musiba, Sarah Horton and Julien Riel-Salvatore for their guidance, encouragement, and friendship throughout the writing process. Getting through graduate school is in many ways a team effort, and I was fortunate to find a wonderful cohort of friends and colleagues at the University of Michigan. Thank you to John Thiels, Karen Smid, Cat Bolten, Ann-Elise Lewallen, Chris Ames, and Eva- Marie Dubuisson for always being there for me when I needed them to be. Of special note is Laurie Marx who has been a peerless navigator of the dangerous seas of institutional bureaucracy throughout my entire graduate career. This research took me far from my home and family, but I am grateful to Dad and Pam, Mom and Gregg, Cody and Alyssa for never being too far away, and for being always willing to meet me more than halfway. My love and gratitude go to Akiyama Taka’aki, Chiyōko, Kentarō, Nobuyuki and Ichi for making me and my wife a part of their family. Since my very first trip to Japan in the summer of 2001, Shimazono Susumu at the University of Tokyo has been a source of wisdom, guidance, and support for my research. I am extremely fortunate to count myself among the family of scholars of religion in whose careers Shimazono-sensei has played a vital and defining role. Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Erik Mueggler, and Micah Auerback challenged me when I needed to be challenged, encouraged me when I needed encouragement, and inspired me when I needed inspiration. I am very fortunate to have had worked with such a stellar dissertation committee. My humblest gratitude goes to my advisor and mentor, Jennifer Robertson, for taking a chance on a brash and overconfident graduate student who knew close to nothing about Japan. It is due to her painstaking cultivation, her tireless advocacy, and unwavering confidence in my abilities that I was able to become the scholar I am today. Lastly, to my beloved wife, Ita, belongs the true triumph of this dissertation. At every step of the way, she has been the strength behind my efforts and the inspiration behind my words. I hope only that this work is worthy of her, and deserving of the years love and support she so selflessly gave to me in order to bring this project to fruition. To all of the people named above and to all those who cannot be named, my gratitude is boundless. The responsibility for any mistakes, omissions, or inaccuracies in this work is borne solely on my shoulders. iv Table of Contents Dedication………………………………………………………………………………..ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………...iii List of Appendices………………………………………………………………………vi Chapter I. Honzan……………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter II. Unsui……………………………………………………………………….61 Chapter III. Sōryo……………………………………………………………………..127 Chapter IV. Sanzen……………………………………………………………………188 Chapter V. Baika……………………………………………………………...………246 Chapter VI. Kuyō…………………………………………………………………......295 Chapter VII. Conclusion……………………………………………………………...355 Appendices………..……………………………………………………………………366 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….…..375 v List of Appendices Appendix A. Photographs…………………………………………………….………366 Appendix B. Character Glossary……………………………………….…….………371 vi Chapter I Honzan “People Tilling Upon the Dharma Hall” Japanese summers are known for their intense heat and oppressive humidity, and today is no different. As I walk through the streets of Tsurumi towards Sōjiji, I take every opportunity to hide in the shade of storefront awnings, but it does little good. The heat is inescapable, and there is virtually no breeze to provide relief. I will be participating in a ceremony in the Daisodō today, and I am wearing a respectable long-sleeved shirt and slacks. Making matters worse is my over-the-shoulder bag, heavy with notebooks, a camera and my recording gear. In the twenty minutes it takes to cover the mile or so from my front door, through the busy streets of Tsurumi, and to the entrance of Sōjiji’s reception hall, my face and shirt are drenched with sweat. I begin to regret my decision not to take a taxi. At first glance, Tsurumi is an unlikely place to find a venerable Zen temple. The municipal ward of Tsurumi sits in the northeastern corner of Yokohama, immediately adjacent to the industrial city of Kawasaki to the north and Tokyo Bay to the east. Tsurumi is a testament to the rapid industrialization of Japan throughout the twentieth century, a landscape of concrete and metal dotted with pockets of greenery that are more 1 the product of urban planning than nature. As a place name, Tsurumi means “to see cranes,” after the rare and majestic birds which used to frequent the shores of the village. Today, however, the only cranes visible are the massive metal monoliths that service the factories and warehouses situated along the coastline of Tokyo Bay, itself recreated to fit the needs of industry. The town’s location between Tokyo and central Yokohama places the town along the main rail artery and roadways which links the two metropolises. For twenty hours a day, trains thunder along the railway that runs through Japan Railways’ (JR) Tsurumi station, the commercial center of the town. One either side of the station, wide avenues allow for high volumes of motor traffic throughout the day. At major intersections, the chirping of pedestrian crossing signals is a constant accent to the hum of automated traffic. At railway crossings, such as the one in front of Sōjiji, the sound is amplified nearly ten-fold by bells warning pedestrians and drivers of the oncoming rail traffic. Trains run almost constantly through the Tsurumi artery and as a consequence, the crossings bells ring for nine minutes out of every ten. Visitors with experience of other large Japanese Buddhists temples are quick to note that the area surrounding Sōjiji proper differs greatly from other temple approaches (sandō). In contrast to temples like Asakusa Kannon-dō and Kawasaki Daishi, the storefronts and booths hawking food or tourist goods are nowhere to be found, nor are the crowds of tourists that push along the sidewalk. A five-story department store sits on one side of the rotary used as a bus terminus and taxi stand, while restaurants, convenience stores, a pharmacy and a McDonalds line the road toward the temple proper. Closer to the temple, the approach to Sōjiji would be indistinguishable from any other commercial 2 street in Tsurumi save for the quiet but visible presence of florist shops, stores selling stone monuments, and immediately across from the temple entrance, the branch office of a funeral company. Neither the temple precincts nor architecture are visible from the street.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Analytical Study of the Way of the Practice of Truc Lam Zen School in Vietnam
    AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE WAY OF THE PRACTICE OF TRUC LAM ZEN SCHOOL IN VIETNAM Bhikkhuni Bui Thi Thu Thuy (TN. Huệ Từ) A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (Buddhist Studies) Graduate School Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University C.E. 2017 ii An Analytical Study of The Way of The Practice of Truc Lam Zen School in Vietnam Bhikkhuni Bui Thi Thu Thuy (TN. Huệ Từ) A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (Buddhist Studies) Graduate School Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University C.E. 2017 (Copyright of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University) iii iv Thesis Title : An Analytical Study of the Way of The Practice of Truc Lam Zen School in Vietnam Researcher : Bhikkhuni Bui Thi Thu Thuy Degree : Master of Arts (Buddhist Studies) Thesis Supervisory Committee : Phramaha Somphong Khunakaro, Dr., Pāli IX, B.A. (Educational Administration), M.A. (Philosophy), Ph.D. (Philosophy) : Asst. Prof. Dr. Sanu Mahatthanadull, B.A. (Advertising), M.A. (Buddhist Studies), Ph.D. (Buddhist Studies) Date of Graduation: March 10, 2018 Abstract This thesis is qualitative research with three objectives: l) to study the origin and development of the Way of the Practice of TLZS, 2) to analyze the content of the way of practice of TLZS and 3) to study the influences of the way of the practice of TLZS in Vietnam. The research methodology used is primarily documentary; data were collected from Vietnamese Zen texts; Taisho Tipiṭaka sources. The need for the current study is significant and provides a comprehensive, emphasize the meaning and value of the way of practice TLZS in the history of Vietnam.
    [Show full text]
  • 21St Century Edition of Fukuzawa Yukichi's Geography Textbook
    Volume 18 | Issue 20 | Number 5 | Article ID 5500 | Oct 15, 2020 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Recycled Images: 21st Century Edition of Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Geography Textbook Elena Baibikov hierarchy-based discussions of race and civilization (Baxter 2007, Uchiyama 2009, Abstract: This essay takes a constructionist Takezawa 2015). However, these researchers approach to Representation Studies, examining pay little attention to how Japan’s past social Fukuzawa Yukichi’s elementary geography and geopolitical positions correspond to the textbook Sekai kunizukushi (1869) and its contemporary Japanese palette of varying hierarchical images of the West, juxtaposed ideological states-of-mind, in the 21st century. against representations of Japan as framed by concepts of race and civilization. Furthermore, One of the most influential Meiji textbooks was it compares these images to their “recycled” an elementary geography book Sekai versions as constructed in the vast extra-textual kunizukushi (世界国盡, All the Countries of apparatus of Fukuzawa Yukichi no Sekai the World), which was composed by Fukuzawa kunizukushi de sekai wo manabu(2017), a Yukichi and published in 1869, the second year recent translation of Fukuzawa’s textbook into of the Meiji period. In 2017, some 150 years modern Japanese. The move to reintroduce after Sekai kunizukushi's initial publication, a older textbooks is here examined as an “image- new edition was published under the title building” strategy, one that allows the (re-) Fukuzawa Yukichi no Sekai kunizukushi de construction of influential images in support of sekai wo manabu(『世界国尽 』で世界を学 an ideological agenda. ぶ, Learning about the World through Fukuzawa Yukichi’s Sekai kunizukushi).
    [Show full text]
  • Just This Is It: Dongshan and the Practice of Suchness / Taigen Dan Leighton
    “What a delight to have this thorough, wise, and deep work on the teaching of Zen Master Dongshan from the pen of Taigen Dan Leighton! As always, he relates his discussion of traditional Zen materials to contemporary social, ecological, and political issues, bringing up, among many others, Jack London, Lewis Carroll, echinoderms, and, of course, his beloved Bob Dylan. This is a must-have book for all serious students of Zen. It is an education in itself.” —Norman Fischer, author of Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the Practice of Lojong “A masterful exposition of the life and teachings of Chinese Chan master Dongshan, the ninth century founder of the Caodong school, later transmitted by Dōgen to Japan as the Sōtō sect. Leighton carefully examines in ways that are true to the traditional sources yet have a distinctively contemporary flavor a variety of material attributed to Dongshan. Leighton is masterful in weaving together specific approaches evoked through stories about and sayings by Dongshan to create a powerful and inspiring religious vision that is useful for students and researchers as well as practitioners of Zen. Through his thoughtful reflections, Leighton brings to light the panoramic approach to kōans characteristic of this lineage, including the works of Dōgen. This book also serves as a significant contribution to Dōgen studies, brilliantly explicating his views throughout.” —Steven Heine, author of Did Dōgen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It “In his wonderful new book, Just This Is It, Buddhist scholar and teacher Taigen Dan Leighton launches a fresh inquiry into the Zen teachings of Dongshan, drawing new relevance from these ancient tales.
    [Show full text]
  • Commitment Form
    January 30 – February 27, 2021 WINTER PRACTICE PERIOD – COMMITMENT FORM I will participate in the Practice Period at home, my workplace and online at the Zen Center in the following ways: (fill & sign in Adobe Acrobat or check/circle and scan) ZAZEN COMMITMENT ______ I will sit at home _____ days per week for _____ minutes per day. ______ I will sit online at Sonoma Mountain Zen Center _____ mornings (M T W Thu F Sat). _____ evenings (T W Thu F Sat). ______ I will sit online at Natthagi Zen Center in Iceland. ______ I will sit online at Kannon Zen Center in Poland. ______ I will sit online at Windsor Zen Group in California. ______ I will sit online at South Sound Zen in Washington. ______ I will sit online at Del Ray Zen Sitting Group in Virginia. ANGO PRACTICE ______ I will attend (all / part) of Winter Practice Period January 30 – February 27. ______ I will attend Saturday practice: Jan 30 ____ / Feb 6 ____ / Feb 13 _____ / Feb 20 ____ / Feb 27 ____. ______ I will join SMZC for volunteer work practice outdoor or remotely ([email protected] to arrange day/time). ______ I will recite the Recite Verse of The Kesa (M T W Thu F Sat) every morning. ______ I will recite the Four Bodhisattva Vows (T W Thu F Sat) every evening. ANGO CEREMONY & SHUSO SATURDAY TALKS ______ I will attend the Opening Theme Ceremony on January 30th at 11:00 am. ______ I will attend the Shuso’s talk on February 6th at 11:00 am.
    [Show full text]
  • Inland Sea of Ja An
    Ancient traditions of the Inland Sea of Ja an Kyoto ◆ Hiroshima ◆ Miyajima ◆ Matsue ◆ Himeji ◆ Osaka A voyage aboard the Exclusively Chartered Small Ship Five-Star M.S. L’AUSTRAL April 30 to May 10, 2017 Dear Bryn Mawr Alumnae/i and Friends, Konnichiwa! Experience the timeless splendor of Japan and South Korea by sea and on land, the best way to see the richness of this beautiful region. During this custom-designed nine-night itinerary enjoy two nights on land and seven nights cruising while you explore enthralling ports steeped in the traditions of ancient Buddhist shoguns and Samurai warriors, and admire landscapes dotted with Shinto shrines, imperial castles and meticulous Japanese gardens. Spend two nights in the enchanting city of Kyoto, its serene landscape brimming with fragrant cherry blossom trees. It was the imperial capital of Japan from A.D. 794 until the mid-19th century and has been the cultural capital of this island nation for more than 1000 years. See its historic UNESCO World Heritage-designated monuments, visit the opulent temples of Ry ¯oan-ji and Kinkaku-ji, the imperial Nij ¯o Castle and stroll through the iconic red-orange torii gates and temple grounds of the Fushimi Inari Shrine. On board the exclusively chartered, Five-Star small ship M.S. L’AUSTRAL, featuring only 110 ocean-view Suites and Staterooms, cruise for seven nights from Himeji, Japan, along the coast of the tranquil Inland Sea and South Korea, and visit captivating port calls that showcase fi ve UNESCO World Heritage sites. See the impressive 14th-century Himeji Castle complex, the oldest surviving feudal structure of medieval Japan; walk through the poignant Peace Memorial Park and Museum in Hiroshima following President Obama’s recent historic visit; and tour picturesque Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima with its awe-inspiring Great Torii Gate.
    [Show full text]
  • Masayoshi Amamiya: Should the Bank of Japan Issue a Digital Currency?
    July 5, 2019 Bank of Japan Should the Bank of Japan Issue a Digital Currency? Speech at a Reuters Newsmaker Event in Tokyo Masayoshi Amamiya Deputy Governor of the Bank of Japan (English translation based on the Japanese original) I. Introduction It is a great honor and pleasure for me to be able to speak to you today. In recent years, the environment surrounding Japan's payment and settlement systems has gone through various changes. On the demand side, consumers seek more convenient payment services, such as those available during the nighttime and on holidays or low-cost international remittance services. Diversified lifestyles and the spread of e-commerce businesses have contributed to this. On the supply side, new devices -- such as smartphones and IC cards -- enabling the public to access payment services have continued to expand. In addition to traditional financial institutions, non-bank firms with strong capabilities in information technologies, or so-called FinTech firms, have started to provide cashless payments services. As central banks have a responsibility to improve the safety and efficiency of payment and settlement systems, their future landscape in the digital age is an extremely important topic for us. In fact, whether central banks should issue digital currencies as a payment instrument substituting for cash (banknotes and coins) has become an important issue. Digital currencies issued by central banks are called "central bank digital currencies" (CBDCs). The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) conducted an interesting survey on central bank initiatives for CBDC (Figure 1). Among the 63 respondent central banks, about 70 percent are engaged in CBDC work, most of which is in the form of research/study or experiments/proof-of-concept.
    [Show full text]
  • Representations of Pleasure and Worship in Sankei Mandara Talia J
    Mapping Sacred Spaces: Representations of Pleasure and Worship in Sankei mandara Talia J. Andrei Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Columbia University 2016 © 2016 Talia J.Andrei All rights reserved Abstract Mapping Sacred Spaces: Representations of Pleasure and Worship in Sankei Mandara Talia J. Andrei This dissertation examines the historical and artistic circumstances behind the emergence in late medieval Japan of a short-lived genre of painting referred to as sankei mandara (pilgrimage mandalas). The paintings are large-scale topographical depictions of sacred sites and served as promotional material for temples and shrines in need of financial support to encourage pilgrimage, offering travelers worldly and spiritual benefits while inspiring them to donate liberally. Itinerant monks and nuns used the mandara in recitation performances (etoki) to lead audiences on virtual pilgrimages, decoding the pictorial clues and touting the benefits of the site shown. Addressing themselves to the newly risen commoner class following the collapse of the aristocratic order, sankei mandara depict commoners in the role of patron and pilgrim, the first instance of them being portrayed this way, alongside warriors and aristocrats as they make their way to the sites, enjoying the local delights, and worship on the sacred grounds. Together with the novel subject material, a new artistic language was created— schematic, colorful and bold. We begin by locating sankei mandara’s artistic roots and influences and then proceed to investigate the individual mandara devoted to three sacred sites: Mt. Fuji, Kiyomizudera and Ise Shrine (a sacred mountain, temple and shrine, respectively).
    [Show full text]
  • The Selected Poems of Yosa Buson, a Translation Allan Persinger University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
    University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2013 Foxfire: the Selected Poems of Yosa Buson, a Translation Allan Persinger University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons, and the Asian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Persinger, Allan, "Foxfire: the Selected Poems of Yosa Buson, a Translation" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 748. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/748 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FOXFIRE: THE SELECTED POEMS OF YOSA BUSON A TRANSLATION By Allan Persinger A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2013 ABSTRACT FOXFIRE: THE SELECTED POEMS OF YOSA BUSON A TRANSLATION By Allan Persinger The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2013 Under the Supervision of Professor Kimberly M. Blaeser My dissertation is a creative translation from Japanese into English of the poetry of Yosa Buson, an 18th century (1716 – 1783) poet. Buson is considered to be one of the most important of the Edo Era poets and is still influential in modern Japanese literature. By taking account of Japanese culture, identity and aesthetics the dissertation project bridges the gap between American and Japanese poetics, while at the same time revealing the complexity of thought in Buson's poetry and bringing the target audience closer to the text of a powerful and mov- ing writer.
    [Show full text]
  • Illustration and the Visual Imagination in Modern Japanese Literature By
    Eyes of the Heart: Illustration and the Visual Imagination in Modern Japanese Literature By Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Japanese Literature in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Daniel O’Neill, Chair Professor Alan Tansman Professor Beate Fricke Summer 2018 © 2018 Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe All Rights Reserved Abstract Eyes of the Heart: Illustration and the Visual Imagination in Modern Japanese Literature by Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Literature University of California, Berkeley Professor Daniel O’Neill, Chair My dissertation investigates the role of images in shaping literary production in Japan from the 1880’s to the 1930’s as writers negotiated shifting relationships of text and image in the literary and visual arts. Throughout the Edo period (1603-1868), works of fiction were liberally illustrated with woodblock printed images, which, especially towards the mid-19th century, had become an essential component of most popular literature in Japan. With the opening of Japan’s borders in the Meiji period (1868-1912), writers who had grown up reading illustrated fiction were exposed to foreign works of literature that largely eschewed the use of illustration as a medium for storytelling, in turn leading them to reevaluate the role of image in their own literary tradition. As authors endeavored to produce a purely text-based form of fiction, modeled in part on the European novel, they began to reject the inclusion of images in their own work.
    [Show full text]
  • The Purple Robe Incident and the Formation of the Early Modern Sōtō Zen Institution
    Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 36/1: 27–43 © 2009 Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture Duncan Williams The Purple Robe Incident and the Formation of the Early Modern Sōtō Zen Institution The transition from the medieval to the early modern Buddhist order was directed in large measure by a new regulatory regime instituted by the Toku- gawa bakufu. These new directives issued from Edo increasingly regulated every aspect of both political and religious life during the first half of the seventeenth century. As the bakufu extended its control over domains through a pyramidal hierarchy of order towards the center, similar formations of regulation govern- ing Buddhist sectarian order emerged in an increasingly formalized fashion. At the same time, power did not operate in a unilateral direction as Buddhist insti- tutions attempted to shape regulation, move toward a self-regulatory model of governance, and otherwise evade control by the center through local interpre- tations and implementations of law. This essay takes up how state regulation of religion was managed by Sōtō Zen Buddhism, with particular attention given to rules governing the clerical ranks and the robes worn by clerics of high rank. The 1627 “purple robe incident” is examined as an emblematic case of the new power relationship between the new bakufu’s concern about subversive elements that could challenge its hold on power; the imperial household’s cus- tomary authority to award the highest-ranking, imperially-sanctioned “purple robe”; and Buddhist institutions that laid claim on the authority to recognize spiritual advancement. keywords: Sōtō Zen Buddhism—Tokugawa bakufu and religion—hatto—“purple robe incident” Duncan Williams is Associate Professor of Japanese Buddhism and Chair of the Center for Japanese Studies at UC Berkeley.
    [Show full text]
  • Spring 2018 Ango Training Commitment Training Retreats
    Mountains and Rivers Order – Spring 2018 Ango Training Commitment Name: ______________________________________ Ango is a wonderful time to work toward making our lives more unified with practice. In addition to practicing moment-to-moment awareness in your daily activities, what other ways can you bring yourself into contact with the dharma during the day? Let this question guide you as you formulate your commitments for the ango. Ideally, your ango will include deliberate periods of practice in which you set aside time for one or two of the Eight Gates, as well as an ongoing effort to bring elements of the Eight Gates into the midst of your regular routines. Return this sheet to the Monastery Training Office by 2/27/18. Consider joining the sangha for the ​ Ango Opening Ceremony on Sunday, March 4 ​ at ZMM or Sunday, March 11th at the Temple. Please ​ call the Training Office if you have questions. Training Retreats Training within the sangha is an essential aspect of Ango. Indicate the two retreats, at least one of them at the Monastery, that you commit to attending. 1. An Intensive Meditation Retreat at Zen Mountain Monastery: Note: The Peaceful Dwelling Intensive, Sesshin, and the Ango Intensive all fulfill this requirement. 2. A Second Retreat at ZMM, ZCNYC, or an MRO Affiliate*: Any retreat, zazenkai or a second sesshin fulfills this requirement; so does a short period of residency at the Monastery (we especially encourage this for MRO students). Please note that for the first time, we are offering a zazenkai at the Monastery this ango, in addition to those regularly offered at the Temple.
    [Show full text]
  • Watanabe, Tokyo, E
    Edition Axel Menges GmbH Esslinger Straße 24 D-70736 Stuttgart-Fellbach tel. +49-711-574759 fax +49-711-574784 Hiroshi Watanabe The Architecture of Tokyo 348 pp. with 330 ill., 161,5 x 222 mm, soft-cover, English ISBN 3-930698-93-5 Euro 36.00, sfr 62.00, £ 24.00, US $ 42.00, $A 68.00 The Tokyo region is the most populous metropolitan area in the world and a place of extraordinary vitality. The political, economic and cultural centre of Japan, Tokyo also exerts an enormous inter- national influence. In fact the region has been pivotal to the nation’s affairs for centuries. Its sheer size, its concentration of resources and institutions and its long history have produced buildings of many different types from many different eras. Distributors This is the first guide to introduce in one volume the architec- ture of the Tokyo region, encompassing Tokyo proper and adja- Brockhaus Commission cent prefectures, in all its remarkable variety. The buildings are pre- Kreidlerstraße 9 sented chronologically and grouped into six periods: the medieval D-70806 Kornwestheim period (1185–1600), the Edo period (1600–1868), the Meiji period Germany (1868–1912), the Taisho and early Showa period (1912–1945), the tel. +49-7154-1327-33 postwar reconstruction period (1945–1970) and the contemporary fax +49-7154-1327-13 period (1970 until today). This comprehensive coverage permits [email protected] those interested in Japanese architecture or culture to focus on a particular era or to examine buildings within a larger temporal Buchzentrum AG framework. A concise discussion of the history of the region and Industriestraße Ost 10 the architecture of Japan develops a context within which the indi- CH-4614 Hägendorf vidual works may be viewed.
    [Show full text]