csjr 11 140205 2/14/05 3:16 PM Page 1 Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions CSJR Newsletter January 2005 Issue 11 csjr 11 140205 2/14/05 3:17 PM Page 2 After a quite intense first term of seminars, From the in which were discussed topics as varied as human sacrifice, the Izumo shrine, Dôgen’s Centre Chair life, Shinto pilgrimages and Shugendô In this issue activities, our CSJR lecture series continues 2 From the Centre Chair The beginning of 2005 marks the fifth year of on Thursday evenings with another promising the Centre’s active life and of the existence list of speakers. Please note the increasing of the CSJR Newsletter. Looking back at the Centre Activities number of contributions to the postgraduate past lustrum, we are delighted to report a Forum, where PhD students from different 3 CSJR Seminar Schedule growing scholarly interest in Japanese departments at SOAS, and other academic religions in the UK, and to acknowledge the institutions, discuss the preliminary results Japanese Religions Forum appreciation that the Centre has received for of their research. 4 Symposium: Foundation Myths its role in making Japanese religious culture in Japan known to the broader public. After its inaugural conference in December 1999, the I would like to draw your attention to the 5 Film Screening: Death and CSJR has functioned as a platform of dedicated section on postgraduate studies in Rebirth in the Mountains: The discussion for scholars of Japanese religion this Newsletter, which this time includes an Ascetic Training of Shugenja in Europe and beyond, hosting researchers outline of the research project of Anna Practitioners in Japan from different regions of the world to speak Andreeva, PhD candidate at Cambridge at our weekly seminars, and organizing three 6 Worship of Stars in Japanese University, and the research notes of Naoko successful international symposia. It has Religious Practice Kobayashi, who was a graduate of the MA been overwhelming to see a large audience Japanese religions at SOAS (in fact a student participating in all our events, and to have an in the very first year of existence of the Postgraduate increasing number of students from SOAS programme) and is now completing her PhD and other British institutions actively involved at Nagoya University. It is rewarding to be 7 From Past Fellows in our activities. The Centre has also reminded that many alumni of the MA 9 Medieval Kami Worship: The supported yearly post-doctoral fellows, who programme in Japanese Religions, which is Illusion of Medieval Miwa have enriched our academic life at SOAS and sponsored by the Centre, have continued on Shinto? made it possible to teach Japanese religions to doctoral programmes, at SOAS and in a more diversified way. We cannot express elsewhere. We are happy to offer space in 11 Role of Reijin Worship in enough our gratitude to our Japanese this newsletter to postgraduate students, so Ontake Belief sponsors, who have generously supported that it may serve as an opportunity for young the range of the Centre’s activities for five 13 MA Japanese Religions scholars to make their research known to years, and to everyone at SOAS who, in one other specialists in the field. way or the other, has helped out with the Information on functioning of the Centre and the production of the Newsletter. I am, as ever, grateful to all the students who Japanese Religions have contributed reports on several events 15 Renaissance of Japanese related to Japanese religion. Their Buddhist Art and the Excellent To celebrate this lustrum, we have chosen a enthusiasm and appreciation has been very Deeds of Monk Chôgen theme for the current Newsletter issue, which supportive in our efforts to stage several the cover already indicates: Japanese 16 Report on the Discussion of the events. In this issue of the Newsletter you Mythological Narratives. This is also the topic Reikiki at the Symposium of will find reports on the CSJR international of the 2005 CSJR symposium, organized by Japanese Intellectual History symposium The Worship of Stars in Japanese our current post-doctoral fellow, Katja Triplett. Religious Practice, the Toshiba lectures on We are looking forward to welcoming in Chôgen, and the screening of a film on Japanese Religions London an impressive array of panellists from Shugendô. and Popular Culture Europe, US and Japan, who will discuss Japanese foundation myths, and their use in 17 Honkawa Kagura the past and present, from different We look forward to an exciting year, which is 18 The Year of the Rooster disciplinary approaches. The symposium is the Year of the Rooster, as the article by open to the public and we shall be happy to Janet Foster reminds us. Happy New Year to hear from anyone interested in attending it. All! Lucia Dolce Front Cover: Illustration of a scene in the honjimono Sayohime. The maiden, Sayohime is riding on the giant serpent after she has saved them both from suffering by reciting the chapter Devadatta from the Lotus sutra. Both, maiden and serpent, manifest as deities of sanctuaries connected with music and healing of eye diseases. (Nara ehon, late 17th c., courtesy of the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), Frankfurt/Main.) The small image to the left shows pilgrims visiting Sayohime-Benzaiten on the island of Chikubushima at Lake Biwa (Nara ehon, ca 17th c., courtesy of the Kyoto University School of Letters Library). For more information please see the announcement on page 4 for the upcoming CSJR symposium: 2 Foundation Myths in Japan. csjr 11 140205 2/14/05 3:17 PM Page 3 CSJR Newsletter • January 2005 • Issue 11 Centre Activities CSJR Seminars SOAS, Thornhaugh Street Russell Square, WC1H OXG 5.00pm-6:30pm Room G3 13 January 10 March Hell in Heian Japan Rain-making Rituals and Esoteric Ineke Van Put (Catholic University of Leuven) Buddhism in Medieval Japan Matsumoto Ikuyo (Ritsumeikan University) 3 February Susa-no-o: A Culture Hero from Korea? 21 April James Grayson (University of Sheffield) Cartographic Piety: India in the Japanese Buddhist Imagination 24 February Max Moerman (Barnard College) Buddhisms in Japan’s First Colony James Ketelaar (University of Chicago) ALL WELCOME For further information please contact the convenor Dr Lucia Dolce ([email protected]) (020) 7898-4217 Japanese Religions Forum The Forum, convened once a month in term time, brings together post-graduate students, MA and PhD, working on Japanese religions from all academic departments at SOAS. The Forum aims to encourage a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Japanese religions. Time: 5:00 -6:30 pm Place: Room G3 28 April Mitsu Horii, University of Kent 27 January Anne Mette Fisker Nielsen, SOAS Deprofessionalisation of Buddhist Priests Religious Idealism and Political Reality: in Contemporary Japan Young Soka Gakkai Members and the Komei Party 5 May Anna Andreeva, Cambridge Mount Miwa: At the Crossroads of 10 February Katsuji Iwahashi, SOAS Medieval Kami Workship? The Realities Surrounding Shinto Priests 3 March Fumi Ouchi, Miyagi Gakuin/SOAS The Human Body in Japanese Medieval Tendai: Studying Buddhist Vocal Arts and Original Enlightenment 3 csjr 11 140205 2/14/05 3:17 PM Page 4 CSJR Newsletter • January 2005 • Issue 11 Centre Activities Foundation Myths in Japan CSJR Workshop 2005 9-10 June 2005 Venue: SOAS, University of London Foundation Myths in Japan is an interdisciplinary symposium on foundation narratives that link existing religious traditions to events in the past such as ‘origins of a shrine or temple’ (shaji engi) or ‘tales of the origin of deities’ (honjimono). These narratives describe supernatural events (miracles), cosmic realms (heavens, pure lands) and superhuman characters (deities, saints). In addition, they comprise a rich corpus of hagiographies of eminent Illustration of a scene in the honjimono Sayohime. (Nara ehon, ca 17th c., courtesy of Museum of Applied Arts religious figures, often credited with having founded the (MAK), Frankfurt/Main.) religious group that employs the narrative. List of Speakers: Shaji engi and other foundation stories serve not only to localize religious groups in space and time, but also Prof. Abe Yasuro (Nagoya University) function as living archives of cultural remembrance. While Dr. John Breen (SOAS) comparative studies of myths have classically engaged with psychological factors, the latest research refigures myths Prof. Bernard Faure (Stanford University) as “memory stores” for groups such as families or nation- Prof. Hayashi Kumiko (Tachibana-joshi University, Kyoto) states, and also as sites of cultural remembrance. The sites, in which a group saves the data of its past and so Dr. Matsumoto Ikuyo (Ritsumeikan University Art Research stores its cultural memory, can take the form of Center, Kyoto) monuments, works of art, or narratives. Prof. Barbara Ruch (emeritus Columbia University) To date, the study and interpretation of Japanese myths has Prof. Tokuda Kazuo (Gakushuin-joshi University) been typically presented under the psychology of religion rubric. It is anticipated that the application of the “memory” Prof. Melanie Trede (Heidelberg University) research model will open a new and exciting field of Dr. Katja Triplett (SOAS) exploration. To this end the CSJR symposium will assemble an international team of scholars to present new readings on well-known foundation myths, such as those found in the Kojiki and Nihongi, as well as in medieval engi. Participants will explore early modern treatments of myths and examine the self-projections of new religions and their foundation narratives. The key topics which will be addressed in the symposium are as follows: • Are there recurrent patterns found in the formation and use of Japanese foundation myths? • How do foundation myths function in the Pilgrims visiting Sayohime-Benzaiten on the island of Chikubushima at Lake Biwa. maintenance of Japanese tradition, e.g.