Organizer: Van C. Gessel, Brigham Young University
Chair: Michael C. Brownstein, University of Notre Dame
Art in the Process of Deification
Karen M. Gerhart, Northern Arizona University
The transfiguration of a mere mortal into a deity is a complex and fascinating process. Upon his death, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), founder of the long-lived Tokugawa dynasty, was transformed by his religious advisors into the Great Avatar Shining in the East (Tosho daigongen) on the strength of his political achievements. An important project recreating the events of Ieyasu's life in conformance with his newly aggrandized title was initiated. In 1642, Toshogu diagongen engi emaki (Illustrated Handscrolls of the Origination of the Great Avatar of Toshogu), five handscrolls that visually memorialize Ieyasu's miraculous life and enshrinement, was completed. Every decision regarding these scrolls was minutely planned to promote religious and political acceptance of the deification.
Ieyasu's spiritual advisor, priest Nankobo Tenkai (1536-1643), created the narrative for the handscrolls, while retired emperor Gomizunoo and other officials calligraphed the elegant script. Finally, the premier shogunal painter Kano Tan'yu (1602-1674) illustrated the biographical and enshrinement scenes. In my presentation, I will develop a hagiographic case study based on Toshogu daigongen engi emaki, first examining which elements are critical to the creation of a deity, then ascertaining how these divine indicators were woven into Ieyasu's life through the joint efforts of priest and artist-Tenkai and Tan'yu. Toshogu daigongen engi emaki was utilized as a medium for presenting Ieyasu as a deified spirit. I will discuss how Tenkai and Tan'yu combined their efforts to construct an avatar and examine important political implications that resulted from their artistry.
Metaphor, Embodied Words, and Dance: Use of Language in Hijikata Tatsumi's Butoh
Dance
Nanako Kurihara, New York University
Hijikata Tatsumi, one of the founders of butoh dance, pointed out a symbiotic relationship between the body and language. He shrugged off the notion of the "innocent body" as naive and romantic, insisting that the body was already inhabited by words, and he attempted to excavate the body's essence by paradoxically using words to transcend language.
Hijikata created an elaborate method which used language to train dancers and choreograph dances. He created numerous movement modes, which he gave names like "Peacock," "Cow," "Muffler," and "Moon," and which he would shout at his dancers during rehearsals. Each mode employed metaphors to articulate a specific condition and inner sensation of the body so that it could be performed. The notation of his dance, "butoh-fu" (butoh notation), now jealously guarded by his disciples, consists of words and phrases that read like surrealist poetry.
This paper will explore the notion of the body and language in Hijikata, through the examination of his writings, training, and choreographic method. Employing theories on metaphor by Amagasaki Akira, Gemma Corradi Fiumara, Mark Johnson, George Lakoff, and Ludwig Wittggenstein, and making connections between ideas and practices in the traditional Japanese performing arts and butoh, I will discuss the logic behind Hijikata's apparently mysterious use of language and conception of the body, as well as their implications to the Japanese culture and language.
Revisions and Reinterpretations of the Rishukyo Mandara Said to Have Been
Introduced by Shuei
Harriet J. Hunter, Leiden University, The Netherlands
The number of Japanese commentaries on the Dairaku kongo fuku shinjitsu sanmayakyo (hereafter the Rishukyo) and the inclusion of this text and its ritual in the numerous Japanese iconographic and ritual compilations testifies to the importance of the teachings of the Rishukyo in the Shingon school from the early Heian period onwards. Nevertheless, the Rishukyo Mandara does not form a single unbroken tradition. Instead, the Rishukyo Mandara underwent a series of revisions and reinterpretations.
The Rishukyo Mandara whose iconography served as an authoritative reference source for later versions is represented by a copy dated to 1228 in the possession of the Daigoji. According to a Heian historical source, the early Heian Shingon pilgrim-monk Shuei (809-884) brought back the original of this set from his journey to China in 862-865. The Shingon school claims, moreover, that the iconography of the Rishukyo Mandara in the Daigoji is based on Amoghavajra's (705-775) commentary on his translation of the Rishukyo, the Dairaku kongo fuku shinjitsu sanmayakyo hannyaharamitta rishushaku (hereafter, the Rishushaku). However, an analysis of the iconography of the Daigoji set (hereafter Type A Mandala) reveals that the Mandalas do not in fact comply with the Rishushaku's prescriptions.
The study of the revised and reinterpreted sets of the Rishukyo Mandara is also beset with problems. Firstly, there has not yet been a systematic study of these revisions and reinterpretations. Secondly, Buddhist scholars have not explored the significant changes that have occurred in the historical transmission of these works within the Shingon school. This is what I propose to do in this paper. I will examine late Heian, Kamakura and Edo period versions of the Rishukyo Mandara, as well as specific treatises on the Rishukyo Mandara. An investigation of these materials that date from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries attests, on the one hand, to the significance given to the transmission of the iconography of the Type A Mandala and, on the other hand, to the freedom with which the esoteric masters changed the iconography of the Rishukyo Mandara to accord with their own iconological interpretation of the Rishukyo teachings.
Poets of the Dark, Filters of the West: Meiji Era Benshi and their Setsumei
Jeffrey A. Dym, University of Hawaii
During the early decades of motion pictures, film exhibitors tried to add a verbal component to cinema by positioning entertainers next to the screen and having them provide commentary and dialogue for the moving images. In the West, this commingling of narrators and film never caught on and quickly disappeared. In Japan, however, narrators called benshi were not only an integral part of motion picture entertainment from the first exhibition in 1896, but they also survived, prospered, influenced the cinematic tradition of the nation, and, most importantly, created the unique narrative art of setsumei.
For Meiji Japanese eager to learn about the West, imported motion pictures were a readily accessible and invaluable source. Since audiences were looking at things they had never seen before-not only the Western culture contained within the films but also the motion picture paraphernalia-they relied on the benshi to teach them about what they were watching. Through their setsumei, benshi enlightened audiences as best they could; but since their knowledge of the West was imperfect, they occasionally misinformed rather than informed. Nevertheless, by acting as authorities on Western culture, Meiji era benshi influenced the movie-going public's perception of the West. In later years, the primary function of benshi and their setsumei was to entertain rather than to educate. This paper-part of a larger study on the history of benshi, their place within the cultural milieu of early twentieth century Japan, and their setsumei will focus on the founding benshi of the Meiji period.
Gender Insubordination in Japanese Comics (Manga) for Girls
Fusami Ogi, State University of New York, Stony Brook
My purpose is to examine gender in manga with a view to determining whether representations are subversive or preserve the gender status quo. I will see if, and how, women writers of manga challenge the existing notion of gender, or if they reinscribe prevailing images including Western icons.
Manga are categorized according to readers' gender and age. There are manga for boys, for girls, for ladies, young men, and so on. Around the 1970s, when the feminist movement in Japan began in reaction to the second wave of Western feminism, ambiguous representations of gender appeared in manga for girls.
Women writers introduced various forms of gender, by representing a homogeneous world, using an animal's point of view, taking juvenile love themes, introducing non-human beings, or presenting an alternative future world. They have continued to offer such antidotes to gender roles. Their images, which do not use the conventional heterosexual relationships, seem to open a new dimension of gender and lie outside the conventional category of manga for girls.
Manga have a huge market in Japan. Even the old manga of the 1970s and earlier have been republished. However, manga have been little examined at the academic level in Japan. Visually and literally, this imaginary world provides us with a mirror of the ideological desire of the Japanese. It is crucial to examine these texts which involve traditions of imaging gender in Japan, as challenges to traditional categories of gender.