RT Article
T1 In Her Likeness: Female Divinity and Leadership at Medieval Chūgūji
JF Japanese journal of religious studies
VO 34
IS 2
SP 351
OP 392
A1 Meeks, Lori Rachelle 1976-
LA English
PB Nanzan Institute
YR 2007
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1698754094
AB This study takes as its focus the medieval deification of Prince Shōtoku's mother, Anahobe no Hashihito. Long associated with the Nara nunnery Chūgūji, Empress Hashihito was resurrected as patron goddess of the nunnery in the medieval period, when Chūgūji was restored and expanded by the nun Shinnyo (1211-?). Images of Empress Hashihito and the Nun Shinnyo take center stage in the literature and art associated with Chūgūji. This article argues that medieval Chūgūji narratives effectively ignore androcentric Buddhist teachings in favor of popular legends that present Empress Hashihito as a female deity and Shinnyo as a female Buddhist exemplar. That Chūgūji materials offer these seemingly positive images of Buddhist women challenges the commonly held scholarly assumption that medieval Japanese women fully internalized the disparaging views of the female body disseminated in Buddhist doctrinal texts.
K1 Buddhism
K1 Convents
K1 Divinity
K1 Empresses
K1 Mandalas
K1 Narratives
K1 Nuns
K1 Ordinations
K1 Priests
K1 Women