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.
目次
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
