Organizer and Chair: Haruko Wakabayashi, University of Alabama
Discussant: Hiroyuki Hashimoto, National Museum of Japanese History
Images of demons and hells are found in great abundance in Heian and medieval Japan. This panel will examine them in two settings, past and present, and analyze the social and cultural context in which the images were created.
First, we examine the demons and hells of the early period, not only as a product of people's imaginations, but as reflections of their views of the real world. For instance, Genshin's description of hell and the kinds of people who fall into it may be read as a social critique (McMullin). Demons in noh dramas may be interpreted as an expression of madness which lies hidden in human nature (Machida). Demons in literature and scroll paintings, dwelling in distant lands and portrayed in Chinese-style costumes, reveal the perceptions of "other" and the growth of nationalism in medieval Japan (Wakabayashi).
Second, the panel will examine how the above images have been inherited in the modern times, in turn shaping people's perceptions of the world. The notion of "others" as demons were used to create the demonic image of the enemy during World War II (Wakabayashi). The image of hells existed in the minds of the victims of the atomic bomb, as they saw their experience as a literalization of the medieval hells (LaFleur).
Finally, we encourage discussion on issues such as how the world of imagination can tell us about the society in which those images were created, the diversity of the images, and the continuity of those images into the modern age.
Essentials of Rebirth in Hell
Neil Francis McMullin, University of Toronto
In 945 the Tendai monk Genshin wrote his famous Ojoyoshu, a large portion of which depicts the various realms of the nether-world that sinners will be reborn in. The text links certain sins with certain nether-realms, although not always consistently. Sinners are ranked in descending order according to the increasingly terrifying conditions in which they will find themselves in the next life. Genshin drew largely on earlier Buddhist literature for his depictions of the nether-realms, but there are some innovative tones to the portrait he presents. This paper attempts to identify a relation between the Ojoyoshu's ranking of sins and its assignment of sinners to specific hellish realms, and the struggle that Genshin was involved in at the Enryakuji during his day. For instance, one sin that receives a conspicuously large amount of attention in the Ojoyoshu is the coveting of wealth; it was largely over the unequal distribution of the wealth that the Enryakuji was beginning to accumulate from the end of the tenth century that there was increasing strife in the monastery. On reading the Ojoyoshu one sometimes has the impression that Genshin had specific individuals in mind when he was assigning sinners to specific realms of the nether-world.
The Soteriology of the Noh Theater
Soho K. Machida, Princeton University
In a Noh play, the han'nya mask depicts the intense anger, shame, or jealousy of its wearer. In only three plays in the entire Noh repertoire does the shite-the main character-wear this mask: Dojoji, Adachigahara, and Aoinoue. It is the most horrific, demonic face, complete with horns and fangs; yet there is more to the mask than simply horror.
Extreme emotion can often transform a human being into a demonic entity. However, in the above Noh plays, we witness the reverse: the demonic beings are pacified, saved, and eventually shown the way to Buddhahood, by the saving grace of a priest's prayer. Most remarkable about this transformation is the fact that the shite manages to embody the transition from negativity to positivity in the portrayal of human emotion without ever taking off the han'nya mask. The agonized person ultimately finds a path to salvation only during the peak of agony-as visualized by the mask-and at no other moment.
The Japanese word han'nya derives from the Sanskrit term prajna, meaning wisdom. While vijnana is a consciousness directed toward the analysis of phenomena, prajna refers to a more intuitive element, employed by a practitioner to achieve Buddhahood. Why, then, would such a doctrinally propitious term be applied to the most demonic of Noh masks? Getting beyond yugen, we need to rethink the nature of the non-dichotomous soteriology of certain Noh plays, in which sanity and insanity, salvation and despair are inextricably intertwined, and can be expressed in the same facial expression.
The Demonization of "Other" in Medieval and Modern Japan
Haruko Wakabayashi, University of Alabama
During World War II, the Allies were often portrayed in Japanese cartoons and propaganda as oni, one of the many types of demons. The tradition of depicting foreigners as oni has actually been a long one in Japanese history, beginning in the late Heian Period. In the Konjaku monogatarishu, for example, Ryukyu (Okinawa) was described as the island on which man-eating oni dwell. In various narrative scrolls, oni were portrayed in Chinese-style costumes, living in Chinese-style palaces. However, it was really after the Mongol invasion and the growth of foreign threat in the late thirteenth century, that there emerged a sudden awareness of "other" which could bring chaos to the nation. At the same time, the successful defense against the invasion led to a sense of national superiority. Such perception of "other" and the foreign are revealed in numerous stories composed in the late Kamakura and Muromachi Periods which depict heroes who set out to the land of the demons, defeat the oni, and bring back treasures or sacred texts to their country.
In the first part of this paper, I will examine the Japanese changing perception of "other" and the growth of nationalism through the images of demons in medieval sources. I will then move on to discuss how such images were revived during World War II in forms of propaganda to help create the demonic image of the enemies in the minds of the Japanese people.
Hiroshima as Hell: The Bomb and Japan's Temporal Dislocation
William R. LaFleur, University of Pennsylvania
Discussions of Japan's postmodernity have ignored the impact, one of extreme cognitive dislocation, of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Many of the persons who experienced the bomb as "hibakusha" could find no reference point for what happened other than in what they knew of Buddhist hell screens-that is, in medieval materials. This experience of temporal aporia had a subtle and ongoing impact upon subsequent Japanese intellectual, religious, and artistic life, making modernity's (even modern Buddhism's) dismissal of hell seem problematic, even dangerous. Through some direct comparisons with medieval materials I will reinforce what others, through studies of hibakusha literature, have shown-and then suggest some likely implications, including a fascination with the apocalyptic.