The Joy of the Dharma: Esoteric Buddhism and the Early Medieval Transformation of Japanese Literature

This dissertation explores the nexus between Buddhism and literature in Japan’s early medieval period. Specifically, it elucidates the process by which forms of court literature such as Chinese-language verse (kanshi), Japanese poetry (waka), and romance tales (monogatari) were incorporated into Buddhist rites and liturgies from the tenth through twelfth centuries and attempts to show how this process supported and was supported by Esoteric Buddhist discourse. I call special attention to a discourse on ritual performance that understands the chanting of a mantra, hymn, or poem as an act of giving the joy of the Dharma (hōraku) to the kami and buddhas. By attending to this discourse and the rituals through which it was articulated, this dissertation sheds light on the doctrinal reasons why and the practical paths by which even literary genres that were considered to be “worldly” such as nature poetry, love poetry, and romance tales were reconceived as vehicles for offering the joy of the Buddha’s teachings. The three body chapters examine a variety of rites and liturgies intended for a lay audience—often called “Dharma assemblies” (hōe) in Japanese-language scholarship—and endeavor to demonstrate how they contributed to key transformations in Japanese literature. Chapter 1 investigates the liturgy of the lecture assembly (kō-e) at Shinto shrines and elucidates how it shaped the formation of a key genre of medieval Japanese poetry called “Dharma joy” waka (hōraku waka). Chapter 2 analyzes repentance rites dedicated to Fugen (Sk. Samantabhadra) bodhisattva and considers their impact on the invention of Buddhist love poetry. Finally, Chapter 3 looks at sutra-offering ceremonies and clarifies their role in the consecration of the exemplary Heian-period romance tale, The Tale of Genji, and the imagination of its author, Murasaki Shikibu. In addition to situating a particular transformation of court literature in its ritual context, each chapter also locates a given example of ritual in its discursive locus. I show that at the center of this locus lies a system of Esoteric Buddhist doctrine and ritual concerned with demonstrating the identity of the esoteric teachings (mikkyō) with those of the Lotus Sūtra. Terming this system “Lotus-Esoteric discourse,” I show how it provided the epistemic framework for the practice of using a mantra, hymn, or poem as a medium for giving the joy of the Dharma to others, rather than receiving it for oneself (jiju hōraku), as was stressed in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism of the late ancient period. In short, through its attention to Lotus-Esoteric discourse on Dharma joy, this study offers a corrective to an over-emphasis on the liturgical formula of “wild words and fanciful phrases” (kyōgen kigo), which has been the focus of many previous studies on the relationship between Buddhism and medieval Japanese literature, and clarifies the concrete discursive strategies and ritual practices by which Buddhism in early medieval Japan consecrated new liturgical uses for three representative genres of court literature—kanshi verse, waka poetry, and monogatari tales. In this way, it endeavors to show how Buddhist discourse on Dharma joy—in both its doctrinal and ritual dimensions—may constitute a new paradigm for understanding the early medieval transformation of Japanese literature.East Asian Languages and Civilization

Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2014

This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems Engineering and Management, Operational Sciences, Mathematics, Statistics and Engineering Physics

Sensô Sakusen Kirokuga (War Campaign Documentary Painting): Japan's National Imagery of the "Holy War," 1937-1945

This dissertation is the first monographic study in any language of Japan's official war painting produced during the second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 through the Pacific War in 1945. This genre is known as sensô sakusen kirokuga (war campaign documentary painting). Japan's army and navy commissioned noted Japanese painters to record war campaigns on a monumental scale. Military officials favored yôga (Western-style painting) for its strength in depicting scenes in realistic detail over nihonga (Japanese-style painting). The military gave unprecedented commissions to yôga painters despite the fact that Japan was fighting the "materialist" West. Large military exhibitions exposed these paintings to civilians. Officials attached national importance to war documentary paintings by publicizing that the Emperor had inspected them in the Imperial Palace.This study attempts to analyze postwar Japanese reluctance to tackle war documentary painting by examining its controversial and unsettling nature. The art community has been hesitant to reflect on its alignment with the regime by relegating responsibility for wartime collaboration to individual artists. That hesitance has resulted in a critical gap in the history of modern Japanese art. This study attempts to fill the void by examining artistic and political circumstances surrounding war documentary painting from three perspectives as follows.(1) Art historical significance: Yôga war documentary paintings offer a record of yôga's development since the Meiji period. Critics say that yôga's expression during the war was exceptional, but I show it was consistent with yôga's history.(2) Nationalistic pragmatism toward art: Modern Japanese leaders were often motivated by nationalism. This study illustrates that the alliance forged between the wartime regime and the art community was a continuation of Meiji governing tradition.(3) Ideological and propaganda aspects: By analyzing documentary paintings of what officials called the "Holy War" (Seisen) of 1937-1945, this study demonstrates central propaganda mechanisms in the images. Without a single portrayal of the Emperor, Japanese war documentary painting expressed the absolute importance of the imperial order over the individual

Engulfed in Darkness: Mourning Poetics in Classical Japanese Literature

Since the fifteenth century scholars have been drawn to “The Seer” chapter of The Tale of Genji (c. 1000 C.E.), analyzing how the chapter’s unique structure of time depicts Genji’s grief after the death of Lady Murasaki, pacifies her spirit, and recapitulates their relationship. This study introduces the concept of “mourning poetics,” or the way Murasaki Shikibu layers mourning ritual outlined in the Yōrō code (718 C.E.) with structures of time and poetic lament to further shape Genji’s expressions of grief, clarify relationships, and negotiate the divide inherent in death. The key to the year-long structure of “The Seer” is to view it not only as Genji’s abnormally long mourning of Lady Murasaki, but also as a wife’s prescribed year of mourning for a husband. Murasaki Shikibu creates a “Lady Murasaki of Memory” who mourns and pacifies Genji prior to his death, ensuring his eventual Buddhist enlightenment. The result pacifies the spirit of the reader, who may be left unquieted by the upcoming divide in the tale and abrupt disappearance of Genji. Authors of the “Crane Grove” chapter of The Tale of Flowering Fortunes (1034 C.E.) and the Initiate’s Chapter of The Tale of the Heike (1371 C.E.) translated the mourning poetics based upon “The Seer” to eulogize and pacify the historical heroes and heroines in their own tales. All three chapters revolve around the main character in a year of mourning for a loved one, which summarizes the life of the mourner and concludes with promises of Buddhist salvation for both mourner and mourned. The mourning poetics in “The Seer” are present in modern Genji manga such as Asaki yume mishi and Ōzukami Genji monogatari maro, n?. These full-length treatments of the Genji retain, in altered form, the chronology and mourning ritual crucial to the spirit pacification function of “The Seer.” Since the Heian period, Murasaki Shikibu’s mourning poetics has been translated and replaced over time. Weaving together references to time, lament, and mourning ritual eulogizes and pacifies characters, as well as negotiates existential and literary divides

Esoteric Moxibustion for Demonic Disease: Efficacy and Ritual Healing in Medieval Japanese Buddhism

This dissertation explores ritual healing and the issue of efficacy in early medieval Japanese Buddhism through a study of The Ritual of Shōmen Kongō for Expelling Demons and Māras. Designed by monks of the Jimon branch of the Tendai school in the 1170’s and transmitted over the thirteenth century, this ritual stood out in the field of esoteric ritual healing at the time for two significant reasons. First, its therapeutic program was centered on moxibustion (kyū), a Chinese medical modality in which the healer burns dried mugwort on multiple locations on the patient’s body. Second, it was the earliest esoteric rite created in Japan to target a single, named affliction. That affliction was “corpse-vector disease” (denshibyō), a contagious wasting disorder known to Japan through transmitted classical Chinese medical texts as well as Buddhist scriptures. Until this time, esoteric ritual healing in Japan had never before featured direct engagement with the patient’s body so prominently. What was it about corpse-vector disease, an affliction that only became known in the late twelfth century, that spurred monks to reorient esoteric ritual healing around a technology for burning the body of the sick? Why, moreover, had Jimon monks made the unprecedented move of looking beyond the tried-and-true techniques of the esoteric ritual repertoire to instead adopt a non-Buddhist medical modality? Through an examination of the extant textual sources for the rite as well as medical texts, courtier diaries, tale literature, and other ritual sources, this dissertation investigates these questions in order to reconsider the issue of efficacy in the context of Buddhist ritual healing. Challenging the longstanding notion that esoteric ritual efficacy was the object of unquestioning belief throughout the early medieval period, I define efficacy as a site of uncertainty for both healers and patients, a nexus for the convergence of vexing questions and anxieties pertaining to disease, technology, and the body. Responding to new problems posed by the emergence of corpse-vector disease, Jimon monks—the most prominent therapeutic exorcists at court in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—offered an unheard of solution that would thereafter transform healing culture in Japan for centuries. I examine how Jimon monks drew upon liturgical, doctrinal, and medical texts to reimagine the disease as well as moxibustion and the patient’s body, and consider the transformations the enactment of the rite’s prescriptions would have brought to performances of ritual healing. In so doing, I argue that efficacy cannot be understood solely through universal ascriptions of ritual power, common as those ascriptions may be throughout esoteric liturgical literature. Rather, the Jimon ritual demonstrates above all that esoteric healers had to negotiate efficacy through a specific constellation of images and material practices that engaged issues of affliction, technology, and body in compelling ways

Ascesis and Devotion: The Mount Yudono Cult in Early Modern Japan

This dissertation concerns the cult of Mount Yudono (located in present-day Yamagata Prefecture) during the Edo period (1603–1868). In the first chapter, I take into account the historical background and religious dynamics that led to the formation of the sacred territory of the Three Dewa Mountains (Dewa Sanzan), namely Mount Haguro, Mount Gassan, and Mount Chōkai, of which Mount Yudono was considered to be the shared sancta sanctorum. The second chapter analyzes the particularities of the religious institutions that administered the territory of Mount Yudono. Specifically, I focus on the pivotal role played by a special group of ascetics that were called “permanent ascetics” (issei gyōnin) in shaping the religious identity and tradition of this mountain. In the third chapter, I study the structures and meanings of the funerary rituals, which were performed in order to mummify the corpses of eminent issei gyōnin. This section underlines the symbiotic relationship between issei gyōnin and lay devotees, the latter of whom continued venerating the mummified remains of the ascetics and transmitting legends about them to consolidate and expand their religious charisma even after the ascetic’s demise. The fourth chapter focuses on the foundation stories (engi) about Mount Yudono and the rituals that characterized the pilgrimage toward this mountain. I show how the engi were fundamental tools for instilling devotional discourses and mythical memories about Yudono into large groups of social actors, many of whom visited this sacred territory as pilgrims. The fifth chapter explores the rich material and visual culture that characterized the cult of Mount Yudono. I underlined the importance of semiotic strategies that played a pivotal role in the ritual transfer of Mount Yudono to other numinous sites. These included the process of “intervisuality” (mitate) and the creation of stelae and sacred mounds (tsuka) in order to expand the devotional discourses associated with this mountain

The Making of the Humanities, Volume III. The Modern Humanities

This comprehensive history of the humanities focuses on the modern period (1850-2000). The contributors, including Floris Cohen, Lorraine Daston and Ingrid Rowland, survey the rise of the humanities in interaction with the natural and social sciences, offering new perspectives on the interaction between disciplines in Europe and Asia and new insights generated by digital humanities