Charting Known Territory: Female Buddhist Priests
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 arg...
| Published in: | Japanese journal of religious studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Nanzan Institute
2017
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| In: |
Japanese journal of religious studies
|
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Japan
/ Buddhism
/ Temple
/ Priestess
/ Succession
/ Sexism
|
| IxTheo Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BL Buddhism KBM Asia NBE Anthropology RB Church office; congregation |
| Further subjects: | B
Women
B Abbots B Buddhism B Religious Studies B Priests B Sons B Men B Nuns B Wives B Temples |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | 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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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Japanese journal of religious studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.18874/jjrs.44.1.2017.75-101 |