Part II turns to Japan, the other major East Asian region where beliefs and practices related to blood hells became commonplace, especially in the early modern period. This article traces Japanese reception of cults to the Blood Bowl Sutra, examining the particular ways in which blood hell cults developed there. As was the case in China, Japanese cults to the Blood Bowl Sutra often emphasized postmortem care for women and were disseminated largely through entertaining storytelling traditions. The cult also came to be associated, as it had been in China, with rites for safe childbirth. After examining the cults' historical development in Japan, this article will consider some of the larger insights made possible through a broadly conceived comparison of Chinese and Japanese cults to the blood hells.
目次
Abstract 1 1. Early Reception in Japan: The Blood Bowl Sutra as a Text Promising the Salvation of Women 1 2. Blood Bowl Cults and Preexisting Discourses on Pollution 2 3. Images of the Blood Bowl Hell in Late Medieval Popular Culture 4 4. Embedding Blood Bowl Hells in the Japanese Landscape 7 5. Nyoirin Kannon and Prayers for Physical Protection 10 6. How Women Used Discourses on the Blood Hells: Some Final Thoughts 12 Acknowledgements 13 Works Cited 14
