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Sacred Mountains and Women in Japan: Fighting a Romanticized Image of Female Ascetic Practitioners |
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| Author |
小林奈央子 (著)=Kobayashi, Naoko (au.)
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| Source |
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
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| Volume | v.44 n.1 |
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| Date | 2017 |
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| Pages | 103 - 122 |
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| Publisher | Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture=南山宗教文化研究所 |
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| Publisher Url |
http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/en/
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| Location | 名古屋, 日本 [Nagoya, Japan] |
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| Content type | 期刊論文=Journal Article |
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| Language | 英文=English |
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| Note | Kobayashi Naoko is Associate Professor of Religion at Aichi Gakuin University. |
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| Keyword | sacred mountains; female ascetics; romanticized image; absence of gender perspectives; nyonin kinsei; Mt. Ōmine; Kiso Ontake; Honzan Shugen |
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| Abstract | Previous scholarship on sacred mountains and women discussed restrictions
on women’s access to sacred places primarily in terms of the impurity of blood
(chi no kegare) from menstruation and childbirth, as well as Buddhist precepts.
Historians took the initiative in examining these restrictions, and religious
studies scholars and folklorists further advanced our knowledge. However,
this body of work often produces a romanticized, stereotypical image of
women heroically practicing asceticism on sacred mountains in the face of
many restrictions. It also fails to sufficiently include the perspective of gender,
and often displays a mistaken notion that gender studies is the niche study
of women, and as such, should be left to women. In this article I assert that
including the perspective of gender means not only clarifying the existence of
gender disparities, but also shining a light on the activities of people who have
been marginalized. Applying the perspective of gender in the study of sacred
mountain cults uncovers the existence and activities of women that have been
rendered invisible by the persistence of deeply rooted androcentric traditions.
This article asks what kind of difficulties face contemporary women who perform
ascetic training at sacred mountains because they are women, and how
they have acquired and maintain their access to their places of practice. |
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| Table of contents | The Stereotypical Image of the Female Ascetic Practitioner 104
Women and the State of Sacred Mountain Studies: The Missing Perspective of Gender 106
Modern Female Ascetic Practitioners 111
Changes at Ascetic Practice Sites Brought About by Women Themselves 115
Conclusion 119
References 119 |
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| ISSN | 03041042 (P) |
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| DOI | 10.18874/jjrs.44.1.2017.103-122 |
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| Hits | 299 |
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| Created date | 2017.07.06 |
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| Modified date | 2017.07.06 |
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