Organizer and Chair: William Londo, Florida Atlantic University

Discussant: Samuel C. Morse, Amherst College

The concept of mappô, or the end of the dharma (the teaching of the Buddha), typically has been most prominently associated with the late Heian and early Kamakura eras by scholars of Japanese history and religion. In particular, mappô and mappô consciousness often is pointed to as a central factor in the rise of Pure Land Buddhism, as well as leading to a sense of foreboding and dread among the populace as a whole, and traditional Buddhist rituals were increasingly seen as failing in their apotropaic and world-renewing functions. The members of this panel feel that this view of the place of mappô in Japan’s history and religion is too narrow. It both misstates the impact of mappô consciousness in the broader society in its early stage, and fails to account for how conceptualizations of mappô played out in the religion, history, and art of medieval Japan into the Muromachi era. This panel, therefore, is aimed at offering a reassessment of the place of mappô in medieval Japan, including considerations of the place of mappô consciousness in late Heian and early Kamakura society, the mature Jôdo Shinshu school of the late Kamakura and early Muromachi era, and the art of that later time.

William Londo, Florida Atlantic University

It is a widely held belief among scholars of Japan’s medieval religion and history that the late Heian and early Kamakura eras witnessed the rise to dominance of mappô consciousness in Japanese society, or at least elite society. This view holds that this mappô consciousness was fed by a variety of natural and human-caused calamities culminating in the outbreak of the Gempei War of 1180-1185, the civil war that brought the Heian era to an end. This in turn is to have led to a decline in confidence in established Buddhist institutions and a general despair about the present and future state of Japanese society. By way of an examination calendars of annual ritual observances from Shingon and other temples, and ritual observances conducted by the court and leading regents, especially Fujiwara no Michinaga (of the late tenth and early eleventh century) this paper will show that mappô consciousness was by no means universal. It will demonstrate that the extant Buddhist institutions of the time developed particular theological and ritual responses to the problem that ranged from assertions that their extant rituals were in fact effective in overcoming the problem of mappô, to outright rejection of the historical model that features the concept of mappô and led to mappô consciousness. The goal of this paper, therefore, is to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the complex mentalité of that age.

The Legacy of Mappo: Honen and His Disciples

Mark Blum, SUNY Albany

The doctrine of mappô, or the Last Historical Period of the Dharma for this kalpa, has been part of Buddhism since its arrival in Japan. It is well known that belief in this doctrine became much more widespread, at least among the educated classes, from the middle to late Heian period, and the Tendai monk Hônen relied on it in the early Kamakura period to justify his founding of the Pure Land (Jôdo) school.

But what is not commonly discussed is how this theory declines in importance in the course of the late Kamakura and Muromachi periods. This paper will examine the peculiar way in which Hônen and those in his lineage use and do not use the mappô doctrine, and trace its increasing irrelevance among Japanese Pure Land thinkers. I will look at how the term in used by three of Hônen’s representative disciples (Shinran, Kôsai, and Benchô), and compare their views with the Muromachi period Shinshu thinker and leader Rennyo. My thesis is that the typical historian’s view of mappô as a critique is not sustained by the extant texts written by these religious leaders. In short, there is no critique of institutional Buddhism in any of these religious thinkers. Rather, beginning with Hônen we witness a gradual replacement of the mappô theme, and the historical interpretive framework from which it arises, with a kind of existential universalism that tends to be ahistorical.

Kevin G. Carr, University of Michigan

What happens at the end of the world? This paper examines ways that the notion of the decline of the Buddhism gained new polemical force in fourteenth century Japan, long after the "latter days" were thought to have arrived. It argues that mappô was not only a temporal notion, but also a geographical concept; thus, the religious problems it posed were often worked out in spatio-temporal terms.

To better understand the historical and social context of mappô at the time, the first section of this paper surveys the uses of the concept in key works such as Jinnô shôtôki and Gukanshô, as well as in lesser-known diaries and ritual manuals. The second half analyzes several sets of visual materials from medieval Japan, particularly illustrated biographies and depictions of sacred sites. Together, these works help us to understand the central role of new histories and geographies for those religious groups which sought to establish distinct institutional identities in the fourteenth century, especially the Shin Buddhist groups and their direct competitors.

The paper concludes by arguing that mappô, with its concomitant notions of decline and distance, formed both an underlying predicament and a fundamental support for many later medieval notions of spiritual authority and legitimacy. Thus, mappô serves as a lens through which we can better understand the significance of various re-imaginings of the world by way of new conceptual maps of Buddhist space and time.