RELIGION, COMMERCE, AND COMMODITY IN JAPAN’S MATERNITY INDUSTRY A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Lisa Kuly May 2009 © 2009 Lisa Kuly RELIGION, COMMERCE, AND COMMODITY IN JAPAN’S MATERNITY INDUSTRY Lisa Kuly, Ph. D. Cornell University 2009 Contemporary services for safe childbirth offered by Buddhist temples and Shintô shrines attract large numbers of pregnant women and their families. These institutions generate much income from their services and also work closely with various maternity-related enterprises, such as obstetricians, retail outlets, printing houses, and manufacturers of infant formula. They have also created narratives where issues related to women and reproduction take center stage in their material culture and menu of ritual services, even though Japanese society, in general, held the attitude throughout history that menstrual blood and lochia defiled the Buddhas and the kami and considered women by extension impure. This dissertation offers a challenging, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the various facets of Japan’s maternity industry. Through participant-observation, field research, and investigation of documents and archives, I illustrate how rituals for safe childbirth have become integral services for select Buddhist temples and Shintô shrines and demonstrate how the concerns of commodification, secularization, and the reconstitution of customs and folkways are activated. Religious rituals of safe childbirth cannot be researched without consideration of the current social crisis of Japan’s low birthrate. This study examines authoritative measures and government policy to manage the reproductive lives of the Japanese that have been in place since the Tokugawa period. Also, the history of gendered devotional practices in Japanese religions concerning life cycle issues must also be included in such a study. In particular, the issues that draw women to appeal to the religious world of miracle and succor and the culturally specific practices that have developed in Japan’s folkways and religious organizations are examined. Interestingly, Both topics, although divergent in theme, methodology, and scope, reveal similar issues concerning ideologies of reproduction, gender, and sexuality. This study considers how these ideologies are implicated in contemporary rituals for safe childbirth. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Lisa Kuly was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 16, 1964. In 1989, soon after she graduated from University of Toronto with a Specialist in English and Drama, she traveled to Japan. Based in Tokyo, she studied the Japanese language, performed in a theater group that specialized in Kyôgen and a Japanese drumming ( wadaiko ) group, and practiced the martial art Aikidô. She returned to North America and completed her Master’s thesis entitled Port Towns, Station Stops, Rice Fields, and Temples: The Journey of Nô at the University of Toronto’s Department of East Asian Studies in 1999. A Monbusho (Monbukagusho) Fellowship brought her back to Japan as a Visiting Scholar. In that capacity, she researched ritual performance under the guidance of Hashimoto Hiroyuki at Chiba University’s Department of Culture from 1999-2001. Concurrently, she trained intensively at Hombu Dôjô, the Aikidô world headquarters in Tokyo. She returned to North America to study Japanese Religions and Ritual Studies with Jane Marie Law at Cornell University’s Department of Asian Studies. A Fulbright Graduate Fellowship brought her back to Japan, where she researched customs and religious rituals related to pregnancy and childbirth under the guidance of Yagi Tôru in Bukkyo University’s Department of Letters from 2006 to 2007. iii For my parents, Elsie and Paul Kuly iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation topic was germinated on a research trip to Japan in the summer of 2004 while pregnant with our first daughter. A cleaner at Nara’s JR station noticed my five-month pregnant belly and recommended a hara-obi , a band women in Japan wrap around their midsections during pregnancy . The helpful information assistants at the station’s Japan Travel Bureau kiosk directed me to Obitoke-dera, a Nara temple famous for its obi, where I did just that. Serendipitously, the world of religious rituals of safe childbirth in Japan opened its gate to me on that day. I never did catch the names of the staff at the train station, but I am grateful for their assistance! The project continued in Kyoto from June 2006 to June 2007 with the pregnancy and birth of our second daughter. I completed this dissertation during the first few months of our third daughter’s life, born in December 2008. Sleep deprivation, computer crashes, revisions, and intense joy mark this stage of my professional and personal life. I am deeply indebted to my advisor Jane Marie Law, who has tirelessly endeavored to help me realize my academic potential. A mentor of the highest degree, she has guided me through the intricacies of academia, helped me strike a balance between intellectual pursuit and work-life concerns, and persistently reminded me to keep an eye out for the issues at stake. I won the committee lottery. Daniel Gold is a scholar’s scholar whose succinct comments and sage advice spurred me on. Kaja McGowan helped me see beyond surfaces and penetrate the depths of structures, acts, and ideas. Compassion forms the v core of my committee and its unwavering support and kindness buoyed me throughout this process. I was able to conduct pre-dissertation research during the auspicious summer of 2004 with a Japan Research Travel Grant from Cornell’s East Asia Program, Gender and Global Change. Thank you to my colleague Matsubara Masaki who invited me to stay at his family’s temple in Tokyo. The kitchen table conversation with Matsubara Masako, Masaki’s mother, and Tomari-san put my research goals into focus. I am grateful for receiving a Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship that supported my family and my research in Kyoto. David H. Satterwhite, Executive Director of the Japan-United States Education Commission introduced me to the topic of Japan’s demographic crisis that frames my discussion of rituals of safe childbirth. Twenty-four hours after landing in Narita to begin my project, Dr. Satterwhite invited me to a press conference with Inoguchi Kuniko, the then Minister of State for Gender Equality and Social Affairs held at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondent’s Club. I learned an important lesson that day: the political and economic are intertwined with the religious and the cultural and religious phenomena can certainly not be treated in a vacuum. To the competent and caring staff of JUSEC: thank you! Institutional affiliation with Bukkyô University’s Department of Literature under the guidance of Yagi Tôru anchored my dissertation research. I cannot thank Yagi Sensei enough for his support that continues to this day. His generosity with his extensive library, his field research, and his profound knowledge of life cycle rituals in Japan knows no bounds. Takezoe Yuko, Yagi Sensei’s energetic wife, kindly gathered together a spirited bunch of mothers to discuss their experiences for another kitchen table encounter. I am grateful to Daniel Boucher and Mark Blum for vi introducing me to their network of scholars that opened the doors to Bukkyô University. Consultations with Adachi Toshihide, Fukita Takamichi, and Ishida Chiko greatly enriched my understanding of Buddhist rituals concerning life cycle issues and Bodhisattva devotion and helped me gain access into sites. Discussions and snail mail and email exchanges with Emiko Ohunki-Tierney, Ama Toshimaru, Jessey J.C. Choo, Stephen Covell, Duncan William Ryuken and Anna Andreva contributed to the development of many ideas presented in this dissertation and helped fill out ethnographical details. Yoshimura Noriko Sensei warmly made available her home, her experiences, and her library when I travelled to Wakayama City in April 2007. Thank you to Jan Zeserson for introducing us! Kuramoto Gyôkei, head priest of Obitoke-dera, explained to me how a temple operates. His kind invitations to visit his temple keep coming. Imai Jôen of Nakayama-dera found time in his busy schedule as scholar and priest to correct my misconceptions and preconceptions about Japanese religions. Hayashi Shûjûn, head priest of Ôbara shrine, was an exceptional host and I thank him for engaging in a fascinating discussion of theological issues that appears in this dissertation. Hasui Ikuji, head priest of Waraten-jin, kindly took time to introduce me to his shrine. Takemi Kuniko, a sharp, warm-hearted instructor at The Kyoto Center for Japanese Linguistic Studies not only polished my keigo but also offered insightful commentary on my experiences in the field. Yoshihiro Kiyohara, Secretary of Kyoto West Lions Club, invited me to present my research at a club’s monthly meeting at the end of my year of research. The comments and reactions of those in attendance helped me synthesize the events that occurred throughout the year. Thank you to Kawakami Takafumi for arranging this. vii The prodigious crew at the German Institute for Japanese Studies included me on a panel to discuss the social ramifications of Japan’s demographic time-bomb at the Association for Asian Studies annual meeting in Atlanta in April 2008. Thanks to Barbara Holthus and Axel Klein. Ito Peng’s comments helped me hone in on the important issues in my chapter on policy and governance. Glenda S. Roberts kindly discussed her fascinating research with female company workers in Tokyo. Comments I received when I presented topics from my chapter on Ôbara’s parturition hut at a Japan Studies Association of Canada conference at University of Waterloo in October 2008 and at the American Academy’s annual meeting in Chicago in November 2008 further consolidated my ideas about practices of confinement. Thank you to Paula Arai and the Japanese Religions Group for accepting my proposal.