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Reading the Miraculous Powers of Japanese Poetry: Spells, Truth Acts, and a Medieval Buddhist Poetics of the Supernatural |
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| Author |
Kimbrough, Keller R.
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| Source |
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
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| Volume | v.32 n.1 |
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| Date | 2005 |
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| Pages | 1 - 33 |
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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 | R. Keller Kimbrough is an Assistant Professor of Japanese at Colby College. In the 2005–2006 academic year, he will be a Visiting Research Fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture. |
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| Keyword | waka; dharani; kotodama; katoku setsuwa; rainmaking; Truth Act; saccakiriya, satyakriya |
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| Abstract | The supernatural powers of Japanese poetry are widely documented in the literature of Heian and medieval Japan. Twentieth-century scholars have tended to follow Orikuchi Shinobu in interpreting and discussing miraculous verses in terms of ancient (arguably pre-Buddhist and pre-historical) beliefs in kotodama 言霊, “the magic spirit power of special words.” In this paper, I argue for the application of a more contemporaneous hermeneutical approach to the miraculous poem-stories of late-Heian and medieval Japan: thirteenth-century Japanese “dharani theory,” according to which Japanese poetry is capable of supernatural effects because, as the dharani of Japan, it contains “reason” or “truth” (kotowari) in a semantic superabundance. In the first section of this article I discuss “dharani theory” as it is articulated in a number of
Kamakura- and Muromachi-period sources; in the second, I apply that theory to several Heian and medieval rainmaking poem-tales; and in the third, I argue for a possible connection between the magico-religious technology of Indian “Truth Acts” (saccakiriyā, satyakriyā), imported to Japan in various sutras and sutra commentaries, and some of the miraculous poems of the late-Heian and medieval periods. |
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| ISSN | 03041042 (P) |
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| Hits | 801 |
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| Created date | 2013.01.11 |
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| Modified date | 2017.08.29 |
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