Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions CSJR Newsletter 2012-2013 Issue 24-25 In thisCS JRi sNeswsuletteer • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 2 From the Editors From the Guest Editors of this Issue: Centre Activities This issue of the CSJR Newsletter comes after a year of intense activity and remarkable 3 Buddhist Medicine and Asian Medical Systems achievements for many of the Centre’s members. It is indeed rather rewarding to see our 4 CSJR Programme Overview field of interest still passionately developing even under the strains of the current unfa- 6 Where Art Meets Ritual vourable economic climate. The constant participation of a broad range of public in the 7 Cinematic Religion: Japanese Religion variety of events we were able to organise certainly evinces not only a lasting interest for in Film Japanese Religions, but also a fertile curiosity towards other ways of thinking and living, which is proof of an unabated cultural openness so needed in these difficult times. Centre Activities Reports A rich series of talks and seminars in 2011-12 concluded with the exciting workshop and 8 Report: O-Fuda: The Material Culture of exhibition O-fuda: The Material Culture of Japanese Religious Practice. This year’s Japanese Religious Practice activities started with the CSJR-Ritsumeikan International Joint Workshop Where Art 11 Representing Religion in Japanese Films Meets Ritual: Aesthetic and Religious Practices in Japan. The workshop examined as- pects of the Japanese religious and artistic experience through the analysis of texts, im- ages and performance. This stimulating event marked the beginning of a lively academic Postgraduate year, and once again confirmed the fruitful relationship with Ritsumeikan University. 12 Faith in the Flesh: Body and Ascetic Practices Following last year’s success, Term 1 featured the seven-week series Cinematic Religion: in a Contemporary Japanese Religious Context 15 Christianity in Pre-modern Japan Japanese Religion in Film, comprised of a selection of masterpieces dealing with various 17 Expressing Emotions: Practices of Caring for aspects of Japanese religious history and practices. The series offered students enrolled the Dead in Contemporary Japanese in our BA course Representing Religion in Japanese Films as well as those interested in Christianity the subject, a chance to explore, appreciate and discuss the complexity of the Japanese 19 The Precious Steed of the Buddhist Pantheon: religious landscape through featured films and documentaries. Dr Lucia Dolce then took Ritual, Faith and Images of Bato Kannon in a well-deserved research leave in Term 2, the fruits of which we are all looking forward Japan to enjoying in the near future. 21 The Somatic Nature of Enlightenment: Vocal Arts in the Japanese Tendai Tradition The CSJR Seminar Series continued throughout the academic year with a very lively pro- 23 Postgraduate Research on Japanese Religions at SOAS gramme. We were pleased to host international guest speakers from Europe, the US and 23 CSJR Bursary Japan, who presented their research on a wealth of topics ranging from Schopenhauer 24 MA Japanese Religions and Buddhism, daoist visuality, Buddhist astronomy, as well as religion and politics. In 24 Members’ Activities June we will hold a summer workshop Buddhist Medicine and Asian Medical Systems, which has been organised with the support of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The Information on Japanese workshop will conclude a busy but exciting academic year, and we hope you will all be Religions able to attend. In the past two years many CSJR members successfully achieved their doctoral degrees, 26 The Centenary of the Birth of Fosco Maraini: Ethnologist, Photographer and Writer and we have invited them to offer a report of their experience in the Newsletter. We hope 29 Scholars’ Day: Storytelling in Japanese Art that this may also be inspirational to those who will walk the same path in the future. In the pages that follow Benedetta Lomi, Fumi Ouchi, Carla Tronu Montanè, Satomi Oriu- Research Notes on Japanese chi and Tullio Lobetti will tell us how important was this experience for their academic Religions development and personal lives. It is with mixed feelings of nostalgia and excitement that we must now remove their names from the ‘PhD Research’ column, making room for a 30 A Growing Interest in the Life and the Works of new generation of doctoral students to come. But we know that they will always remain Alessandro Valignano S.I. (1539-1606) close to the CSJR, and certainly more updates on their activities will appear in future is- sues of the Newsletter. For the time being please join us in bidding them a well-deserved Publications omedetō gozaimasu! 33 Girei to kenryoku: Tennō no Meiji ishin Tullio Lobetti and Benedetta Lomi 34 The Concept of Danzō 35 Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan Front Cover and Left (Detail) Batō Kannon on Horseback Shōwa Period Hanging Scroll, Ink and colour and gold on paper, mounted on silk Gift of Gaynor Sekimori 2 CSJR Newsletter • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 Forthcoming Workshop 3 CSJR Newsletter • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 Center for the Study of Japanese Religions Programme 2012-2013 Term 1 October 5, 2-7:00pm, V122 International Workshop: Where Art Meets Ritual Speakers: Mikael Bauer (Leeds), Takashi Kirimura (Ritsumeikan) Benedetta Lomi (SOAS), Taka Oshiriki (SOAS), Nobushiro Takahashi (Ritsumeikan), Li Zengxian (Ritsumeikan) October 18 - December 5-7:00pm, G2 CSJR Film Series: Cinematic Religion (For further details, please see the programme on page 7.) November 23, 5-6:30pm, G2 Gil Raz (Dartmouth) The Great Image Has No Form: Towards a Daoist Visual Theory November 23, 5-6:30pm, G2 Urs App Schopenhauer: Europe's First Buddhist? Term 2 January 10, 5-6:30pm, G2 Wendi L. Adamek (University of Sydney) Making Buddhist Ancestors: Portrait-Statues at Baoshan January 23, 5-6:30pm, G2 Masahiko Okada (Tenri University) A Forgotten Buddhist Astronomy: History of Bonreki Movement in 19th Century Japan January 24, 5-6:30pm, G2 Masahiko Okada (Tenri University) Historical Documents and Cultural Materials in the Study of Modern Japanese Buddhism: Varieties of Materials in Bonreki Movement January 31, 5-6:30pm, G2 Michiya Murata Evil’s Threats, Pain’s Problems and Life’s Limits : Natural, Social and Faith Perspectives February 28 Book Launch: Anne Mette Fisker-Nielsen (SOAS) Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan: Soka Gakkai Youth and Komeito 4 CSJR Newsletter • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 Center for the Study of Japanese Religions Programme 2012-2013 March 7, 5-6:30pm, G2 Claudio Caniglia The Fire Ritual of Japanese Mountain Ascetics March 14, 5-6:30pm, G2 Steven Trenson (Kyōto University) Centre for the Interpretations and Transformations of the ‘Mother of All Buddhas’ Study of in Medieval Shingon Buddhism Japanese March 31, 5-6:30pm, G2 Religions Christian Boehm Portable Sandalwood Shrines (Dangan): Miniature Representations of Buddhist Worlds Programme Term 3 2012-2013 April 19, 5-6:30pm, Khalili Lecture Theatre Hideo Yamanaka (Tenri University) Wakosho: An Overview of Early Japanese books from the Tenri Central Library May 9, 5-7:00pm, Khalili Lecture Theatre Brian Victoria (Antioch University) A Tale of Two Buddhisms – Will the 'Real' Buddhism Please Stand Up? May 22, 5-6:30pm, B104 Carla Tronu (University of Madrid) Christian Religious Practices in Early Modern Japan May 23, 5-6:30pm, Khalili Lecture Theatre Ikuo Higashibaba (Tenri University) ALL WELCOME The Jesuit Mission Press in Early Modern Japan June 20, 9:30am-6:30pm, Room 4421 (morning) and B104 (afternoon) Workshop: Workshop: Buddhist Medicine and Asian Medical Systems For more information and updates on the schedule please visit our website: www.soas.ac.uk/csjr/ or contact: [email protected] 5 CSJR Newsletter • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 Centre Activity The Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions, SOAS and The Art Research Centre, Ritsumeikan University, KyŌto Where Art Meets Ritual Friday, 5 October 2012 2.00-7.00 SOAS Vernon Square V122 Programme 2:00 - 2:15 Welcome by the CSJR Chair, Lucia Dolce Section 1 2:15 - 2:45 Nobushiro Takahashi (Ritsumeikan) Picture of Bishamon by Hanabusa Ikkei at the British Museum 2:45 - 3:15 Benedetta Lomi (SOAS) The Iconography and Rituals of Rokujiten 3:15 - 3:45 Mikael Bauer (Leeds) Kofukuji's Ritual Space through a Comparative Analysis of the Yuima-e and Jion-e shidai 3:45 - 4:00 Q&A 4:00 - 4:15 Tea Break Section 2 4:15 - 4:45 Takashi Kirimura (Ritsumeikan), Masao Takagi (Ritsumeikan) Geographical Patterns of the Jodo Shinshu's Honganji-ha and Otani-ha Followers in Present-day Japan 4:45 - 5:15 Li Zengxian (Ritsumeikan) A Comparative Research Regarding Rituals and Literature: a Case Study about Kyokusui-en 5:15 - 5:45 Taka Oshiriki (SOAS) The Shogun's Tea Jar 5:45 - 6:00. Q&A 6:00 - 6:15 Concluding Remarks by Gaynor Sekimori 6:30 - 7:00 Reception Sponsored by: Global On-site Training Program for Young Researchers on the Protection of Cultural Heritage and Artworks, JSPS International Training Program (ITP)  CSJR Newsletter • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 Centre Activity  CSJR Newsletter • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 Centre Activity Report O-Fuda:The Material Culture of Japanese Religious Practice Gaynor Sekimori An exhibition of o-fuda and related printed material was held under the joint auspices of the CSJR and the Royal Asiatic Society, at the premises of the latter in Euston, between May 16-18, 2012. A workshop on May 17 was the highlight of the event, consisting of a guided tour of the exhibition for participants and presentations by Mat- thias Hayek, of Paris Diderot University and CRCAO, Fusa McLynn, Associate Researcher at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, and myself. My own interest in o-fuda was sparked by my acqui- sition in August 2011 of a woven lacquered box of 37 items of o-fuda and related material dating, from internal evidence, from around 1845-1885. I reported on this col- lection in the CSJR Newsletter, Issue 22-23, 2011-2012, pp. 22-27. The exhibition was based on this material, supplemented with related visual material in my col- lection dating from the seventeenth century down to the present, in order to demonstrate the wide range of deities and buddhas that have been staples of popular religious life in Japan. O-fuda are rectangular slips of wood, card or paper containing a printed calligraphic or iconographic as a measure of one’s piety, usually with the intention representation. They include gikitō-fuda and gomafuda, of inserting them inside Buddhist statues. The image of written confirmations of the performance of magico- a deity or some material symbol such as a pagoda was religious prayer rituals and the goma fire ritual, to ward carved on a small wooden seal and then stamped onto against illness or to ensure business prosperity, good paper or cloth using ink or cinnabar. The oldest ones crops and family harmony and suchlike; mie (omiei, extant, such as sheets of seated Amida figures from in- osugata, goshin’ei) bearing representations of the deity side the Amida Nyorai statue at Jōruriji, date from the associated with a particular religious site and often having twelfth century. People would stamp a certain number of a specific function, such as Kosodate Jizo or Yakuyoke images each day, sign the same sheet of paper, and the Yakushi; and goō hōin bearing the names of certain stamped images would eventually be deposited inside a temples and shrines, often written with stylized letters in statue. Today stamped images are still found, particularly the shape, for example, of snakes or birds. The oblong in the form of shuinchō, books for collecting the stamps shape, particularly of calligraphic forms such as gikitō- and seals of temples and shrines visited, and on pilgrim fuda and gomafuda, suggest they derive from mokkan, clothing. rectangular pieces of wood used principally for record The expansion of woodblock printing and the wider keeping and labeling in the seventh and eighth centuries. availability of paper allowed a cheaper alternative for Onmyōji used them to write down magical formulae people wishing to donate images to temples; paper was (jufu mokkan), and Buddhist priests used then to record pressed over inked blocks in a technique called shubutsu the numbers of prayers recited or services performed. and the image was inserted into a hanging scroll (kake- Strictly speaking, the term o-fuda applies to these alone, jiku). Large numbers of such printed images survive from but the use has been extended to pictorial forms as the Muromachi period and beyond. Woodblock printing well, whose dimensions are wider; Togawa Anshō, for was also the basis upon which images of the deities were example, uses the term e-fuda (pictorial fuda) to refer to mass produced in later centuries by temples for sale to pil- the other categories mentioned above, and this seems to grims and for distribution among believers. Though most have been accepted by Japanese scholars. A miniaturised pictorial fuda (mie) were printed in black ink, sometimes, version of both calligraphic and pictorial forms is used as in the case of the Ōtsu-e, produced below Mt Hiei, for o-mamori (protective charms). The question of the ink outline was painted over in colour, a technique definition for such printed material remains imprecise; in use down to the end of the nineteenth century before Matthias Hayek addressed this issue in his presentation, modern colour printing techniques were introduced. The ‘Talismans? Amulets? Holy cards? European collections use of colour seems to have been confined to kakejiku- of Japanese ofuda and how to define them’. sized sheets. Printed images of deities first appeared as a result of Though reasonably large numbers of inbutsu images the custom of making multiple stamped images (inbutsu) have survived because they were deposited inside stat-  CSJR Newsletter • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 ues, what we associate today with ofuda, that is images used as protective charms, gofu, have not survived to anywhere near the same degree because of the custom of renewing them each year and burning the old ones. As W. L. Hildburgh, who wrote extensively on the use of amulets and charms in Japan and around the world in the early years of the twentieth century, noted, ‘People prefer to renew their amulets yearly, if possible; and when they have replaced the old amulets by new ones, they destroy the former in a “clean” manner, by throwing them into running water or burning them in a fire of clean materi- als’. However, larger-size versions of mie tend to survive better because often they were mounted to hang in the butsudan and served as souvenirs of pilgrimage. Non- contemporary calligraphic and pictorial o-fuda of more standard dimensions (typically 14-18 cm x 8-10 cm) are much more difficult to find, though they continue to turn up when storehouses and old dwelling are cleared out. Sadly, though, non-specialist dealers tend to regard them as unsaleable rubbish and dispose of them, as I myself experienced last summer in Tsuruoka. Many survive too because people pasted them together onto scrolls as sou- venirs of pilgrimage. One of the richest sources of information about how such o-fuda were used in the seventeenth century comes from the travel descriptions of Kaempfer (1692). He spe- cifically mentions that printed images of ‘hotoke and other gods’ were ‘printed on half sheets of paper’, and ‘pasted on the gates of cities and villages, on wooden posts near bridges, … and other places along the highway’. This suggests the custom of placing deities at the entrances to villages; today such protection is usually provided by small stone statues of Dōsojin and the like, but we can still find wooden o-fuda serving the same function in the countryside. The custom of pasting o-fuda over the doors of houses was widespread. Luis Frois observed late in the sixeenth century that ‘the Japanese nail their images and nominas (gofu) outside their doors to face the street’, and Kaempfer mentions that the common people always pasted an image of some guardian deity to the doors and posts of their houses. He stated that the most common was ‘the blackhorned Gion, also called Gozu Tennō’ who was believed to protect from illness. Actually, as an illus- tration makes clear, this ‘black-horned’ figure is Ganzan Daishi, or Tsuno Daishi. Ganzan Daishi refers to Ryōgen, or Jie Daishi, the tenth century Tendai prelate Ryōgen, who has been the subject of a thriving posthumous cult down to present as a protector against demonic forces. His image continues to guard the home today. Kaempfer attests to the multiplicity of o-fuda that were in existence. People received ‘long pieces of paper’ with ‘writing and ritual prayers’ on them, in return for making donations to the clergy. These too they pasted to their doors to keep misfortune out. They might also paste on their doors ‘amulets directed against the plague, misfor- tune and poverty’, such as Shōki, the demon queller, who Kaempfer described as ‘being hairy all over his body, and carrying a large sword with both hands’, to protect the house from ‘all sorts of distempers and misfortunes’. Fudo Myōō o-fuda. From Fudō-reijō n°7 Kongō-san Kinjô-in Heigen- In similar vein, Isabella Bird wrote that people pasted ji Kawasaki-daishi Fudō-dō Kanagawa-ken, Kawasaki-shi Kantō. Gaynor Sekimori Collection. All Rights Reserved.  CSJR Newsletter • 2012-2013 • Issue 24-25 are designed to be swallowed or stuck to the skin over the affected area. William Griffis, who was in Japan in the early 1870s, wrote, ‘Rare is the Japanese farmer, laborer, mechanic, ward-man, or heimin of any trade who does not wear amulet, charm or other object which he regards with more or less of reverence as having relation to the pow- ers that help or harm. In most of the Buddhist temples these amulets are sold for the benefit of the priests or of the shrine or monastery. Not a few even of the gentry consider it best to be on the safe side and wear in pouch or purse their protectors against evil’. He noted that the proprietor of a paper mill in Massachusetts, who had bought a cargo of rags, consisting mostly of farmers’ cast off clothes, had brought him a bundle of scraps of paper among which there were numerous temple amulets and priests’ certificates. Many of the surviving o-fuda today are to be found outside Japan. There are three well-known collections O-fuda from the Collection of Gaynor Sekimori. in Europe of such printed religious material: the pictures of the Niō over their doors to deter thieves, and Chamberlain Collection at the Pitt Rivers Museum Chamberlain mentions a long strip of paper inscribed in Oxford, around 800 items, mainly Shinto, dating with the ‘sacred dog of Mitsumine, a powerful protector from between around 1890 and 1910 (introduced in a against robbers’. In modern times, Ian Reader has writ- presentation by Fusa McLynn); the collection of Andre ten that he was given a paper o-fuda depicting Fudo by a Leroi-Gourhan, consisting of around 900 Shinto and priest in Shodoshima and told to place it in the hallway Buddhist iconographic items, centring on pictorial o- of his house facing the door to keep the house safe from fuda and dating from between 1937 and 1939, kept in burglars and other miscreants. the Musee d’Ethnologie de Geneve; and the collection From medieval times down to the present, the o-fuda of Bernard Frank, gathered over forty years from called goō hōin has been central to talismanic life. It 1954, consisting of over 1,000 items, and today in the may have derived from the Goō kaji, a rite at times of possession of the Collège de France in Paris. The latter pestilence as a tokens to protect against it. Most famous two collections may be viewed digitally. Recently, religious centres had their own versions, with the best- however, a further collection had been identified at the known coming from the three Kumano shrines, which British Library, around 350 items stuck into five folding Kaempfer described. ‘Goo is a letter with characters on albums. Internal evidence strongly suggests that the items it and decorated with some black birds such as ravens, date predominantly from before the Meiji Restoration. which has been certified by the seal of a yamabushi. It is Nothing is known about the collector; the books were stuck to the pillar of the house to ward off evil spirits’. bought by the British Museum in 1894 from the Egyptian He also mentioned that accused criminals were made to Exploration Fund. Another is the private Price-Zimmer drink pills made of the Kumano goō, in order to confess collection (USA) of 73 mainly pre-Meiji iconographic o- their guilt. The Kumano goō were famously used down fuda, also pasted in albums (also available digitally). In to modern times for written oaths, and are still found addition there are also a small number of o-fuda, mainly today pasted to doors and stuck in seed beds to protect pasted onto kakejiku, belonging to the Spinner Collection against insects. in Zurich. In Japan, the Machida hakubutsukan has When protective o-fuda are miniaturized in order to be a considerable collection as part of its deposit of carried on the body, they are called o-mamori. Kaempfer woodblock-printed material, and there are also a nunber described how a sheet of paper was folded into four and of private collectors in Japan. My own collection stamped on the outside face with characters and a red seal. consists of about 500 items, both individual o-fuda and Inside was contained small sticks, a piece of paper with kakejiku. The majority of the collection is pre-war, with a writing, or printed seals. An o-mamori in Chamberlain’s considerable number of pre-Meiji items. collection from Suitengu in Tokyo contains two sheets with five debased Sanskrit characters on. Today it Bernard Frank collection. http://ofuda.crcao.fr/ comes as part of a set of talismans for safe childbirth, but Hildburgh recorded that it served several purposes: Andre Leroi-Gourhan collection. http://www.ville-ge.ch/ it was ‘carried for general protection, but, a character at meg/musinfo_ofuda_ALG.php a time, it may be eaten or drunk as a remedial agent, or used in a domestic form of divination’. In Akita today, Price-Spinner collection. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ small charms called ogifu continue to be given out at cosmorochester2/sets/72157626583335521/ New Year; they are cut into strips and eaten. At Togenuki Jizo (Koganji, Tokyo), too, small paper images of Jizo The content of this article is based on the paper I gave at the workshop. 10