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Charting Known Territory: Female Buddhist Priests |
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| Author |
Rowe, Mark
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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 | 75 - 101 |
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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 | Mark Rowe is Associate Professor of Japanese Religions at McMaster University. |
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| Keyword | female Buddhist priests; gender; non-eminent monks; discourses of decline; seshū; temple succession; Nichiren; Shinshū; Jōdo; temple Buddhism |
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| Abstract | This article explores issues of temple succession (seshū), soteriology, and
priestly identity through the experiences of three Buddhist women to demonstrate
that female priests’ experience eludes either/or contrasts between submission
to male authority or feminist resistance to patriarchy and to argue for
an assessment of women priests’ agency on its own terms. Two of these women
serve as abbots of temples, while one works as a deputy abbot (fuku jūshoku).
They represent temple- and non-temple born (zaike), urban and rural temples,
and different regions of the country. They have also each taken different
paths to their current roles: one through marriage, and the other two through
an unexpected death in the family. Relying on the voices of these priests, this
article considers ways in which women navigate the basic pathways of priesthood:
how they “choose” to be priests, how they are trained, and how they
situate themselves in regard to institutional, doctrinal, and societal expectations.
As such, this article also engages the ongoing concern of scholars and
activists with politicized, normative approaches to agency in gender studies
in non-Western contexts. Eschewing an assessment of what each of these
priests offers in the way of resistance, this article instead considers how women
priests’ experiences allow us to redefine contemporary temple Buddhism. |
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| Table of contents | Theoretical Context 77
Methodological Considerations 79
Part One: The Obligations of Succession 80
“I couldn’t marry someone I loved.” 81
“It was that shit priest from Kyoto.” 83
“Women have to be abbots and wives. Husbands only have to be abbots.” 86
Part Two: Gender, Identity, and Temple Life 89
“It’s such a crazy world.” 90
“I really wonder if Shakyamuni thought like that.” 91
“I can’t say these half-awake things.” 93
Conclusion 97
References 99
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| ISSN | 03041042 (P) |
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| DOI | 10.18874/jjrs.44.1.2017.75-101 |
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| Hits | 251 |
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| Created date | 2017.07.06 |
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| Modified date | 2017.07.06 |
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