Women’s Image and Place in Japanese Buddhism, by Haruko Okano

A History of Women in Japanese Buddhism, by Toshie Kurihara

Many Japanese today see Buddhism not as a source of enlightenment, but as a conservative institution of discrimination.  Women especially have reason to reject Japanese Buddhism because of a long history of misogynic beliefs, practices, and participation in the oppression of women for the last thousand-plus years.  Some Buddhist women, like Noriko Kawahashi, believe that Japanese Buddhism is at heart a religion of equality and can be saved through feminist reinterpretation of doctrine and banning of discriminatory practices; others say it is inherently misogynic in nature and therefore beyond salvation.

What I think neither of these groups of women have considered is this: how much of the misogynic beliefs and practices in Japanese Buddhism are Buddhist, and how much are Japanese? If there is one thing we have learned this semester, it’s that the Buddhism practiced in Japan is highly unique from all other brands of Buddhism in many different ways, just as Japanese culture is unique not just in the world, but in Asia.  So it stands to reason that the discrimination evident in Japanese Buddhism does not just come from Buddhist doctrine, but may also originate in Japanese society.  The purpose of my paper is to examine how much of four chosen areas of discrimination come from Buddhist doctrine and how much from pre-existing Japanese culture.

The first topic I will discuss is the disenfranchisement of nuns, whom began as the leaders of Buddhism in Japan but were slowly marginalized thanks to government policies.  The second is an investigation into the idea of blood impurity which, though already inherent in Japanese culture, was exploited by Buddhist doctrine to subjugate women to a variety of discriminatory practices.  Another topic is how Buddhism robbed women of their agency through doctrine about women’s place in society and their salvation.  Closely related to these is the subject of women’s inability to attain buddhahood due to their inherent sinfulness and to doctrine which contradicts the policy of Mahayana Buddhism that all people are salvable.

The Disenfranchisement of Nuns

It didn’t always suck to be a Buddhist nun in Japan.  In fact, in the early years, nuns were the equals of monks (Kurihara, 94).  This isn’t surprising when taking into account the fact that the first three people in Japan to devote their lives to Buddhism were women, or that the first Japanese monastery was built twenty years after the first convent was built in Nara in the late sixth century (Okano, 18).

But in 624, the Emperor and government took control over the all the nuns and monks in Japan.  At first, nuns and monks remained equal practitioners of Buddhism, but this did not last.  Scholars disagree on the exact period, but sometime in the 8^th century, the balance shifted.  Monasteries and convents began to be erected in pairs, like sibling organizations, which facilitated the monastery’s financial control over the nunnery (Okano, 19).  During this time, nuns were also banned from chanting in court and were excluded from official Buddhist ceremonies.  Okano also asserts that during the ninth century, women were restricted from joining convents.  Kurihara blames this on a controversy of the period over the “perceived lack of specific platforms to ordain them” (95).  Whatever the case, since the early Heian period, nuns have remained in a relatively weak position compared to their male counterparts.

I was surprised to learn that the first people in Japan to renounce the world in favor of buddhahood were women, but even more so that the first nunnery was built twenty years before the first monastery.  For a religion that is now seen as a force of female suppression in Japan, the idea that it was at first a women’s movement is heartening.  As Kawahashi, the Buddhist reformist asserts, the misogyny in Japanese Buddhism lies in its wrongful interpretation, not its core teachings, and this history supports her claim.

Kurihara and Okano imply that only when the government took control over Buddhist organizations did discrimination begin to appear.  Okano points out that the gradual alteration of the relationship between nuns and monks to that of subordinate and superior mirrors that of secular women and men in Japanese society (19).  Her comparison leads one to believe that the lay social structure somehow infected the ecclesiastical social structure, altering it from its originally equal arrangement to one in which nuns were in a position of subservience to the monks of their brother-monastery.  If this is the case, then the current and longstanding condition of Buddhist convents in Japan can be blamed on the local social structure, not Buddhist doctrine.

Nuns may have been the first torchbearers of Buddhism in Japan, but through government action and social constructs, they were gradually marginalized and excluded from official practices and thereby lost much of their agency.  Now they are accorded the status of “branch temples” and it is rare that they have parishioners (Kawahashi, 307).

Blood as an Excuse to Discriminate

The idea that menstrual and labor blood is impure may have already existed in Japanese minds before the arrival of Buddhism, but priests exploited this association as an excuse to discriminate against women.

The idea of blood impurity likely originated in Shinto, the native religion of Japan.  Shinto is one of the many faiths which embrace a dichotomy between light and dark, good and bad, life and death.  As blood is associated with death, it is considered impure.  Interestingly, Kurihara asserts that aversion to impurity first surfaced “within the Imperial Palace and its circle of courtiers,” eventually spreading to the warrior class and then the peasantry (105).  This detail supports the claim that blood impurity was already an entrenched idea in Japanese society before the influence of Buddhism.

Whatever its origin, belief in blood impurity was well established in the collective Japanese psyche in the Middle Ages.  Knowing this, it is not difficult to see how the Japanese came to think of menstrual and childbirth blood as unclean and a cause of ritual impurity.  There is evidence that in early Japanese history, women were forced to withdraw into tsukigoya, “monthly huts”, and “parturition huts” during menstruation and childbirth because of these beliefs (Okano, 19).  Some scholars argue that this practice may have been due to an awe of the sacred power of blood, but the prohibition of menstruating women to take part in Shinto ceremonies supports the assumption that blood has long been held in Japanese culture as a source of defilement.

However, Okano states that in Shinto, women were only seen as impure during menstruation and were never considered to be innately impure themselves, so they were only banned from practice during that time and at childbirth.  This is an important distinction: native Japanese beliefs said that blood was impure, but women were not.  Buddhism, on the other hand, took the idea of blood impurity and expanded upon it, and priests used this indigenous Japanese belief to make women innately impure.

According to Bodiford, Japanese Buddhism merged blood impurity with “karmic notions to justify a wide variety of misogynic Zen rituals” (15).  Buddhist priests erased the line between blood impurity and women so that the uncleanliness of menstrual blood was itself a sin from which women could not escape, thereby merging the ideas until women were seen as innately impure.  Whereas Shinto said that women were only impure during menstruation and birth, Japanese Buddhism changed the rules so that women were sinful by nature, thanks to physiology.

In this way, Buddhist priests were able to use blood as an excuse for a multitude of discriminatory practices.  One of the most debilitating of these for women was exclusion from sacred mountains and temples.  In the Heian period, the Tendai and Shingon schools began to require their clerics to “undergo a harsh regimen of ascetic practices over extended durations in mountain retreats” (Kurihara, 95).  But because of their innate impurity, women, including nuns, were forbidden from entering these retreats, a law that eventually led to the disappearance of female clerics from these schools.  This practice excluded women from furthering their knowledge of Buddhism, leaving them more and more at the mercy of male clerics.

Over time, Japanese women internalized this idea of innate sinfulness until it became part of their psyche.  This has allowed priests to take advantage of them.  The Bloodbowl Sutra, which came to Japan from Chine but is supposedly Buddhist in origin, says that because of women’s defilement of nature through blood, they are doomed to fall into a “Bloodbowl Pond” after death (Kurihara, 105).  Soto Zen monks used this scripture to convince women that the only way to save themselves from this Buddhist Blood Hell was to receive salvation from a monk (Bodiford, 15).  Likewise, Buddhist temples began the practice of performing mizuko kuyo services for aborted fetuses.  They preached that the souls of the dead fetuses would come back to torment the mothers, playing on women’s guilty conscience.  The only way to avoid it was undergo mizuko kuyo services performed by a Buddhist priest (Bodiford, 16).

These misogynic practices kept Japanese women humble and subservient in the belief that they were fundamentally evil and could only atone for their sinfulness with the help of Buddhist monks or priests.  This oppression was so thorough that it was eventually internalized by the women whom it oppressed.  In this case, though the seed of discrimination was already planted in Japanese culture in the form of blood impurity, Buddhism exploited the belief and altered it so that the ritual impurity was transferred to women themselves, citing karma as the cause of the impurity.  Through this transference, Buddhist priests and monks gained more power over women and were able to exclude them from Buddhist ritual, learning, and their own salvation.

Robbing Women of Their Agency

Blood impurity was not the only way in which Japanese Buddhist priests robbed women of their agency.  Priests and monks used Buddhist doctrines and discriminatory teachings to reinforce the status quo of Japanese society that placed women in the control of the men around them.

We have already discussed how nuns lost much of their religious agency as monasteries grew in power, but there is another group of women whom have the ability to be active practitioners of Buddhism but are also robbed of that possibility: temple wives.  Schools like the Soto Zen sect forbid their priests to marry, called priestly renunciation of secular life, but most of them do anyway, as they have been legally allowed since the Meiji Era.  Kawahashi says that this is a problem because the “invisible” temple wives are left without a clear role or supporting doctrine, rendering them little more than servants for their husbands.

These women, who are often the daughters of priests themselves, are in a position to help their husbands with the temple’s affairs.  But because most Japanese Buddhist sects do not officially recognize their existence, they are given no agency and are therefore robbed of the opportunity to be active participants in religion.

Furthermore, Kawashi argues that bomori, wives who are officially recognized by a few lay sects such as the Shin school, are even more oppressed (305).  Instead of living in ambiguity, these visible temple wives are assigned roles in the temple that mirror the discriminatory division of labor in lay society.  Whereas unrecognized wives are powerless by omission, recognized wives are powerless by decree.  Only when Japanese Buddhist sects recognize the existence of temple wives and their potential to participate in the religious workings of their temples will they achieve some degree of agency.

These minority groups aside, there are numerous examples of Buddhist doctrine that are embraced in Japan and are used to discriminate against women in general.  Contained in the Mahayana sutras, the idea of the “three obediences” came to Japan: obedience to their father when young, obedience to their husband when married, and obedience to their son when widowed (Okano, 18).  Denying a woman personal freedom at any stage of her life, the “three obediences” greatly influenced the education of women in Japan and was used by men to support a social hierarchy that placed women beneath them at all times.  Similarly, the manual Jushokudo, which is given to all new temple heads in the Jodo Shin school, states, “The husband is the lord and the wife is the servant” (Okano, 16).  Thus religious text was used to justify the subservience of Japanese women.

Women were not only robbed of agency in their daily lives, but also in the case of spiritual salvation.  Kawashi complains that Japanese Buddhist traditions preach that “women are recipients of edification by men and therefore cannot be potent actors in religious practice” (293).  This idea denies women, like nuns and temple wives, the right to effectively practice their faith because it says that they cannot save themselves, but are merely “religious subjects needing to be saved” (Kurihara, 96).  If women cannot save themselves through practicing Buddhism, they cannot save others.  Women do not have the agency in Buddhism; it is man’s job, the prerogative of the priests, to save them.

Kurihara offers another facet of this problem: in the third hymn on Shandao Dashi of the Hymns of the Pure Land Masters, it says that women are so sinful that they must completely rely on the mercy of Amida Buddha to be reborn into the Pure Land (103-104).  Not only does this hymn deny women their agency, but it distinguishes them from men in that they are especially sinful, rendering helpless before the Buddha’s mercy, a belief that demonizes women as well as disenfranchising them.  Whether through men or Buddha, women must allow themselves to be saved, being unable to save themselves.

Women Denied Buddhahood

As if it were not enough that women are powerless to save themselves, some Buddhist doctrines say that women cannot be saved, period, due to their innately evil nature.

Apparently, the Buddha himself preached of the wicked nature of women in The Nirvana Sutra, his last teaching, in saying that “all women are invariably fawning and crooked” and if all the sins of every man in the world were combined, “they would be no greater than the karmic impediment of one single woman” (Kurihara, 98).  The first line damns women as being naturally wicked, and the second line links their natural wickedness with karma.  Together, they imply that a woman’s wickedness is related to their bad karma.  As described by Kurihara, this relation is made clear by Nichiren, who says that for the cardinal crime of slandering the Lotus Sutra, a person if born as a woman to “suffer the social and cultural burdens that entails” (102).  This statement postulates that being born a woman is karmic punishment for previous crimes, an assertion that can be wielded as a formidable weapon against women: it justifies misogynic practices by saying that all women are born such because of previous offenses, so it is right to punish them.

This belief that women are inherently evil was so strong that it gave rise to the conviction that women cannot be saved.  Honen, the founder of the Pure Land sect, said saw women as “being too sinful and having too many obstacles to acceptance by any of the Buddhist paradises” (Okano, 20).  This idea is embodied in the deification of the Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism, which assigned thirty-two characteristics to the Buddha, including a hidden penis where the entity was originally sexless (Okano, 17).  This characteristic essentially denied women the ability to become a buddha.  This same principle is more explicitly stated in the “five hindrances” of the Lotus Sutra, which describe the five existences that women can never achieve, one of which being a budda.  Yet the denial of buddhahood to women contradicts the message of Mahayana Buddhism that everyone can be saved.  So to “overcome” this contradiction, the idea of the “metamorphosed male” was introduced, meaning that a woman could attain buddhahood only after becoming male (Okano, 18).  According to Kurihara, this could be achieved “either literally, before a public gathering, as proof of her transformation, or symbolically, by becoming a nun and renouncing the secular world” (96).  Kurihara does not make clear how a woman could literally transform herself into a male (unless they had sex-change operations in the Japanese Middle Ages), but the principle is clear: women must give up that which makes them female in order to attain salvation.  The blatantly misogynic belief that women could no become a buddha was so strong that Shingon teachers of the Kamakura period attempted rituals to change the gender of unborn fetuses so that the baby would be born male (Kurihara, 97).

The combination of women’s inherent sinfulness and their inability to achieve enlightenment damned the gender to “justified” discrimination at the hands of men.  By claiming that they became female because of past sins, and that as women they are unsalvable save for metamorphosis, Buddhism placed Japanese women in an impossible situation which, because of their lack of agency, they could not escape.

Conclusion

The combination of inherent Japanese beliefs and misogynic Buddhist doctrine is a volatile mixture which resulted in widespread, highly effective discrimination against women from the Heian period all the way to the present.  Certain sections of sutras, hymns, and Buddhist teachings were emphasized and used to exploit pre-existing sexist social structures in Japan to further the subjugation of women and their disenfranchisement to the benefit of men.  What began as a division of labor between the genders and fear of blood impurity became a rigid hierarchy which placed men above women at all stages of their lives, robbed them of personal agency, and demonized them until they internalized the idea of innate sinfulness.

As I have shown, discrimination against women in Japanese Buddhism cannot simply be blamed on Japanese culture or Buddhism, an originally foreign religion; rather, through the prejudices inherent in each system combined and melded over time, one arrives at the uniquely oppressive brand of Buddhism found in Japan.  As a Buddhist reformer, Kawahashi says that by reinterpreting Buddhist doctrine from a feminist perspective, Japanese Buddhism can be altered and liberated of misogyny.  Yet my research indicates that this is not enough.  The longstanding divisive social structure of Japan, now intensified and deepened by Buddhism, must also be addressed if real change is to happen, a far more difficult task since there are no writings to be examined, no tangible source of discrimination.  But perhaps if Kawahashi and other reformers like her work on changing Buddhist practices, over time the social change that must happen in order for women to free themselves of discrimination in Japan will occur organically via Western influence and increased education.

Gautama, the Enlightened One

There are four stages to enlightenment, collectively called the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. There is suffering, suffering has an origin, suffering can cease, and there is a path out of suffering. This essay will use Buddhism’s fundamental doctrine to review the suffering of the Burakumin, Japan’s largest marginalized social group.

The Four Noble Truths: Japan’s “Untouchables”

Introduction

As a westerner and American, issues of social discrimination do not come as a surprise since the United States is a melting pot of races and cultures, men and women, hetero and homo sexual, etc, and social issues regarding racism, misogyny, homophobia, etc, is a common daily occurrence. However, the author had this naïve notion that Japan was free from such issues unlike the issues that plague American news and social life. However, I once realized that Japan is also a country filled with its own set of problems, from its high suicidal rate amongst Japanese middle age salary men, hikikikomori, and Japan’s “invisible race”. Coming from the west, the discrimination of an “invisible race” is extraordinary and phenomenal. The “invisible race”, or to be politically correct, the Burakumin, is a marginalized group of Japanese people who have been historically discriminated against and they remain to this day a socially and economically disenfranchised group. There is no common trait to distinguish Burakumin from Japanese people, but historically, ancestors of Burakumin worked in animal butchery, leather, death, etc, that collided negatively with Shinto and Buddhist beliefs. With the Buraku’s negative historical view, the current Burakumin, direct descendants of these “tainted” workers suffer social discrimination in all aspects of daily Japanese life. This essay will loosely use Buddhism’s fundamental doctrine of the Four Noble Truths to review the suffering of Japan’s largest marginalized minority, the Burakumin.

The Suffering: Life of the Burakumin People in the 21^st Century Japan

“Life is suffering” is the first noble truth of Buddhism which is generally understood as the physical and psychological suffering that is experienced everyday by the people. To understand this suffering, the author would like to recognize the current suffering of the Burakumin in Japan’s modern era.

The reality of the Burakumin problem remains prevalent in Japanese society. Like the minorities in the United States, the Burakumin’s actual income, employment, and education remain relatively lower compared to the average Japanese household. The number of Burakumin compared to the average Japanese household is significantly higher in regards to low economic status. According to a survey conducted in 1992 by the Statistics Bureau of the Management and Coordination Agency, the annual income of a Buraku worker makes less than the national average. For example, 8.3% of Buraku workers make about 4 to 4.99 million yen (U.S. $36,000 to 45,000) compared to the national average (Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute).

Another survey conducted by the same agency and year also details the percentage of salaried Buraku workers compared to the majority Japanese. While the percentage of Burakumin and Japanese workers hired to a company average about 73%, 65% of Japanese workers are hired regularly compared to the 58.5% of Buraku employees (Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute). Even though the employment of Burakumin has approved over the years in modern day Japan, there is still a significant gap between the two groups in income and employment.

In education, there remains a significant gap between the average Japanese household and the Burakumin. According to the National Census, the percentage of Buraku who never enrolled in school has risen from 1.5% in 1985 to 3.8% in 1993 while the national average is only 0.2% in 1990 (Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute). Another survey conducted by the Ministry of Education through a 30 year span details the closing gap between high school Burakumin and Japanese high school students. While there still remains a 4.5% disparity in 1997 between Japanese high school students and Burakumin students, this data proves the general incline of high school attendance of Burakumin students (Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute). However, regarding the higher education sector, there is a extreme gap in the data. In the same survey, between the years 1990-1997, the gap averages about 12% between the number of Burakumin children attending university or junior college compared to the national average (Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute).

According to Nobuo Shimahara’s essay titled “Toward the Equality of a Japanese Minority: the case of Burakumin”, Shimahara paints the Burakumin’s condition as an advanced step towards liberation. He proves, through statistics and in depth research, the Burakumin has “dramatically improved its social mobility and educational attainment” (Shimahara). Through legislation and the creation of the Buraku Liberation League founded in 1922, Burakumin’s socioeconomic conditions have steadily increased. However, the situation still remains that Burakumin in modern day Japan continue to suffer social and economical discrimination amongst their countrymen and women. From marriage to workplace, employment to daily life, Burakumin face discrimination amongst various aspects of daily life and while their situation has become better over the years, discrimination remains prevalent. In order to understand how the Burakumin existence began and to understand their current suffering, we need to be aware of where the discrimination began.

Derivation of Suffering: Origins of Buraku Discrimination

The second noble truth is the “origins of suffering” where knowing where the suffering comes from can lead to its removal, the third noble truth. In the case of the Burakumin, the origins of this Japanese minorities suffering stems from the Japans outcaste system which was officially recognized in the beginnings of the Tokugawa Regime (1603-1868). However, the realized caste system is not the only reason for the long-lasting discrimination the Burakumin have suffered from. Japanese Buddhism has had a major influence in the prolonged discrimination of the Buraku people from discriminatory necrologies to unfair ritual practice. However, more than ritual practice of Japanese Buddhist priests and monks, there is basic underlying message in Japanese Buddhist doctrine that allows for such social discrimination to exist.

The most basic doctrine in Buddhism and especially Japanese Buddhism is the idea of “original enlightenment”. In Japanese Buddhism, everything, including humans, animals, trees, etc, is enlightened, and it is up to the individual to awaken by following doctrine, praying, meditation, etc. Everything is enlightened and in harmony with the Buddha nature, but anything outside the realm of the Buddha nature is inharmonious. In accordance with “original enlightenment”, the Burakumin do not belong in the circle of Buddha nature because of their inharmonious attributes and “uncleanliness”. This deceptive logic in Buddhist doctrine treats minorities, including women, unfairly in Japanese Buddhism. Because of the idea of “original enlightenment” is inherently prejudicial, it assigns a negative value to beings that do not fit in with Buddha nature.

Another Buddhist idea is “karma”, the endless circular path in all Buddha nature that chains beings to the world, but once a being attains enlightenment, the chains are broken and nirvana is reached. However, the idea of “karma” is also biased and allows social discrimination to exist in Japanese Buddhism. In Shuhō No. 390, published by the Sotō Zen at the beginning of the Taisho era, a passage in this sermon reads as follows:

Likewise with our physical bodies and minds, our sufferings and joys – nothing exists that is not according to this law. Actions in the past become the root cause that invites the fruits of the present; manifold causes and manifold effects flow continuously and without pause, without beginning or end. However, there are various differences in the fruits because there are myriad disparities in the root causes; hence those who do evil fall and those who cultivate virtue ascend. The environment of those who give rise to an evil mind and practice evil gradually degenerates, their position falls, and the nation becomes defiled; in contrast the position of those who give rise to a virtuous mind and cultivate virtue ascends and the world becomes pure. Thus we must resign ourselves to the fact that the reason we are born into this world and experience various and myriad punishments and rewards is entirely due to the causes and conditions of past lives (Hakamaya 345).

In this passage, it becomes clear how the root cause of unhappiness is directly linked to one’s past lives. Since the rewards of the individual are linked to a past life that cannot be altered and must be accepted without question, if the individual is poor, it was because of his/her past life. If the individual’s ancestors were Burakumin, current Burakumin are trapped in this endless cycle of “uncleanliness”, thus disbarring them from reaching enlightenment and religious and social emancipation. By proof in this biased passage, Japanese Buddhism is a direct link to Burakumin’s suffering, and directly influences the Burakumin’s status in society, historically and in the present day.

Outside of scripture, Japanese Buddhist priests have a well documented history of practiced prejudiced rituals towards Burakumin and other minorities. One example of discriminatory practice performed by Japanese Buddhist priests is the use of “special” talismans to protect others from deceased outcastes. Unlike usual talismans that directed the dead towards salvation, these talismans were used to “sever all karmic connections between the deceased and local people” so disturbed outcastes cannot return as ghosts to haunt those who wronged them (Bodiford 14).  Even more, the outcastes who were warded off will not receive their full spiritual rituals until they have “attained true human status” (Bodiford 14).

Necrologies are an important historical item in Japanese life because they were historically used as a census, and many Japanese can trace their family tree by looking up their family name in necrologies. However, research concludes that discriminatory names like “sen” and “eta” were inserted for people of outcaste status (for detailed lists of examples, see BODIFORD 1996, pp. 9).

The origins of religious and social discrimination of the Burakumin have been practiced prior and during the Tokugawa era, and even though the Burakumin and other outcastes were legally emancipated of their status during the Meiji era, society continued to treat the Burakumin harshly. To rectify the Burakumin’s situation, steps have been taken to correct the wrongs of the past and remove the suffering of the Burakumin.

Remove the Cause of Suffering: Actions to Eliminate Buraku Discrimination

The third noble truth is the “cessation of suffering” or the discontinuance of suffering. By understanding the second noble truth, we stated a few causes of social discrimination of the Burakumin by Japanese Buddhist doctrine and religious practice and the legal creation of a class system during the Tokugawa era. While the Burakumin were legally emancipated, as mentioned previously, discriminatory necrologies continued to exists in local Buddhist temples for companies and families to research people of Burakumin status, mostly in regards to employment and marriage. However, the initial cause of suffering can be held liable by Japanese Buddhist doctrine regarding “original enlightenment” and karma which contain biased scriptures.

It wasn’t until the Machida affair in 1984 that the whole world was drawn to Japanese Sotō priest’s denial of Japan’s outcaste group, the Burakumin. In response to the outrage of the Buraku Liberation League members, members of the Sotō Zen school had to have a serious review of their discriminatory religious practice and doctrine. The pioneers to review the Japanese Buddhist doctrine are Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shirō who questioned the basic foundation of Japanese Buddhism, original enlightenment. While the doctrine of original enlightenment “represents the mainstream and quintessence of the Buddhist tradition” (Hakamaya 339), it remains a “dominant force behind the perpetuation of social discrimination” (Hakamaya 344). In reevaluating the Japanese Buddhist doctrine of the Sotō Zen sect, Hakamaya reveals the disparity in the idea of “original enlightenment” and karma, etc, but unfortunately provides no solution to the problem. Should Buddhism change its scripture to reflect the modern day world and remove the biased passages? Instead of erasing the discriminatory passages, in the Sotō sect, they reissued “new editions of recalled texts with the original discriminatory passages left in place”, but an introduction was written in the texts formally apologizing “for the pain caused by such doctrines” (Bodiford 16).  Frankly, just apologizing does not rectify the wrongs of the past; action must be done. In this author’s personal opinion, biased Buddhist doctrine should be removed and/or rewritten to reflect on the today’s era. However, this raises complications for preservation. For examples, while the looking up of necrologies is illegal in Japan, the names of past outcaste groups remain on the necrologies because they are considered historical documents and have historical value. However, the Soto Human Rights Division, created after the Machida affair, performed investigations on problematic necrologies and “had offered to find acceptable replacement ordination names and titles that are free of discriminatory connotations” to families named in the necrologies (Bodiford 10). The author believes that the preservation of these documents is mandatory since these registry entries are historical items, even though they may contain discriminatory names that reveal Burakumin status.

While there has been government intervention to better the socioeconomic and education situation of the Burakumin, Buddhism is still a long ways of eradicating the Buraku problem. However, this is not to say that Japanese Buddhism is totally to blame. In modern day Japan, Buddhism’s relationship to the average Japanese family is in funeral rites of the deceased and not so much involvement outside that sector. While the removal of Burakumin suffering has not been accomplished since discrimination occurs in all sectors of life for the Burakumin, the last noble truth can help start the process of equality amongst neighbors. Also, there has been an emergence of “new religions” in Japan that allow Burakumin to worship without discrimination, and maybe, these new religions can help end the suffering of the Burakumin.

Path to the End of Suffering: Burakumin Emancipation

The final noble truth of Buddhism is the path to the cessation, the path to end the suffering of the Burakumin. In Buddhism, the last noble truth is realized by the Eightfold Path, eight steps to tread on in the journey to end suffering. The Eightfold path steps include: 1) Correct Thought, 2) Correct Speech, 3) Correct Actions, 4) Correct livelihood, 5) Correct Understanding, 6) Correct Effort, 7) Correct Mindfulness, and Correct Concentration.

Correct thought is simple enough: do not cause harm to others or better yet, “love your neighbors as yourself” (The New Jerusalem Bible, James 2:8). Changing the way we think about other people, especially Japanese attitudes towards Burakumin is a positive route to end the suffering of someone other than you. The superstitious attitude towards Burakumin is almost a childish scare tactic and it remains silly that it still exists in modern day Japan even though it still remains to be a serious social issue in Japan.

Correct speech is inherently important because through speech humans can either hurt or heal. A Japanese Buddhist priest or monks mission is to pass the word of Buddha and help others attain enlightenment. It is counterproductive for priests and monks to practice discriminatory rituals since it goes against their ordained mission.

Actions speak louder than words, so the correct action can help rectify the Burakumin and other marginalized groups. Japanese Buddhist sects have a history of continued apologies without action and this does not help remedy the Burakumin problem. Through action, like removing biased necrologies and reissuing corrected Buddhist scripture is a large step to fixing the Burakumin problem.

While working in butchery goes against the correct livelihood rules according to the fifth step in the Eightfold Path, so does Buddhist monks and priests who violate the 3^rd and 4^th step in the Eightfold path, right speech and right action.  Buddhist monks who treat their work to further their discriminatory agenda need to reevaluate themselves as true Buddhist followers and believers.

The last three steps in the Eightfold path mainly relate to meditation, but their ethical message is quite clear. Through the right effort, Japanese Buddhist monks and priests can internally change their discriminatory ways through understanding the Burakumin’s predicament and feeling empathetic to their cause.

While in the past there Burakumin involved themselves with “impure objects”, the current Burakumin are not scarred by that past and should not be punished for the actions done by their ancestors. Japanese priests should understand the reality of the situation and adjust their actions accordingly. Lastly, having the correct concentration can help a Buddhist monk have a clear mind to understand and evaluate their actions that allowed the spread of social discrimination.

While following the correct paths in the Eightfold path remain simple enough, it is reasonable to say that Japanese Buddhism has legitimized social prejudices than helping the weak and disadvantaged. However, while Japanese Buddhism has had a large role in solidifying lasting stereotypes of Burakumin, new incoming religions in Japan like the Tenrikyou may be the religious freedom that the Burakumin are searching for.

A new religion that has been active since the 19^th century is Tenrikyo, a monotheistic religion where all humans have a common parent, God the Parent (Oyasama). This religion includes many teachings like Tanno (Joyous Acceptance) which is a constructive attitude towards suffering without placing judgment on the past (Wikipedia). Unlike Japanese Buddhism that believes all human’s karma (which is linked to a past life) may affect them negatively, Tenrikyo does not look at the past life to determine happiness and unhappiness. This religion and other new religions emerged from Japan and around the world attract the Burakumin because new religions “do not have a history of [discriminatory] practices” (Alldritt).

However, it is noted that while Japanese Buddhism has negatively affected the lives of Burakumin today in Japan’s, the Burakumin believe that religion “was unrelated to their lowly position in society” (Donoghue). Despite that some Burakumin may believe their low status in society is unrelated to Japanese Buddhism, it is evident in Japanese Buddhist doctrine and practice that Buddhism has had a large part in prolonging the discrimination and suffering of the Burakumin.

Conclusion

“Life is like a box of chocolates”, fully loaded with agreeable, tasty morsels or downright bitter and disagreeable scraps of calories (Hanks). As humans, we have no choice in the pickings but we do have the choice in how to react to the good and the bad. Our actions in regards to life remain our choice because we are individuals, born with a clean slate. However, the Buddhist idea of karma does not allow this freedom of evolution. According to the laws of karma, we are born either good or bad. We are not shaped by our daily lives, but by the past life. We are under this endless waltz of birth, death, and re-birth and in order to break this cycle we need to gain enlightenment. The Burakumin “were taught that it was their karma that placed them in this unsavory life and that forbearance was necessary if the next life was to be favorable” (Alldritt). This interpretation of karma is unfair to marginalized groups because it intentionally pushes them away from reaching nirvana and being in harmony with Buddha nature.

By using the four noble truths, we have covered a large portion of the Burakumin problem, from its historical discrimination in government and Buddhism, to the current situation Burakumin face in their daily lives. Buddhism moral obligation is to help Burakumin since they helped create and spread the social discrimination, but it is worrisome in how Japanese Buddhist sects react to such social pressure and radical change. Only time can tell when the Buraku people are truly free from the chains of his past and Japanese society can generally accept the Buraku people into their Buddha circle.

Works Cited

Alldritt, Leslie D. The Burakumin: The Complicity of Japanese Buddhism in Oppression and an Opportunity for Liberation. 26 January 2007. 7 July 2009 <http://www.buddhistethics.org/7/alldritt001.html#fortyseven>.

Bodiford, William. “Zen and the Art of Religious Prejudice: Efforts to Reform a Tradition of Social Discrimination.” Japanese Journal of Religous Studies (1996): 1-27.

Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute. Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute. 22 April 2009. 10 July 2009 <http://blhrri.org/blhrri_e/Buraku_Reality/index.htm>.

Donoghue, John. Pariah Persistence in Changing Japan. Washington, D.C: University Press of America, 1978.

Forest Gump. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Tom Hanks. 1994.

Hakamaya, Noriaki. “Thoughts on the Ideological Background of Social Discrimination.” Joint Conference of the Speical Section of the Soto Sect’s Docrtinal Advisory Committee. 1985. 339-55.

Jones, Susan. The New Jerusalem Bible. New York: Doubleday, 1985.

Shimahara, Nobuo. “Toward the Equality of a Japanese Minority: the case of Burakumin.” Comparative Education (1984): 339-351.

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Tenrikyo . 6 June 2009. 10 July 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tenrikyo&oldid=294850482>.

Soto Zen Buddhist nun

Burakumin family

Abstract:

Burakumin and women in Buddhism are both seen as inferior, invisible groups burdened by history’s social discrimination and patriarchal attitude.  They share similar causes of discrimination and both seek reform to change their distorted or unrecognized identities.  However, the two groups differ in approaches to reform.  I challenge that understanding and interpreting the original teachings of traditional Buddhism is essential but also harmful in reforms to restore an egalitarian Buddhism and reclaim the identities of the socially discriminated.  The key to ending discrimination is not necessarily the approach or justification that teachings are misinterpreted, but those factors are significant in promoting the goals of the Burakumin and women in Buddhism.

pop culture?

References

pictures-
nun: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1075/702818064_4c2ea80899_o.jpg
Burakumin: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/319571765_2bbc7fe718_m.jpg
t-shirt: http://rlv.zcache.com/burakumin_sky_tshirt-p235206605387894984t58s_125.jpg

Alldritt, Leslie D. “The Burakumin: The Complicity of Japanese Buddhism in Oppression and an Opportunity for Liberation.” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 7 (2000). Journal of Buddhist Ethics. <http://www.buddhistethics.org/7/alldritt001.html>.

Arai, Paula Kane Robinson. Women Living Zen: Japanese Soto Buddhist Nuns. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.

Bodiford, William. “Zen and the Art of Religious Prejudice: Efforts to Reform a Tradition of Social Discrimination.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 23 (1996): 1-27.

Gordon, June A. Japan’s Outcaste Youth: Education for Liberation. Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2008.

Kawahashi, Noriko. “Feminist Buddhism as Praxis: Women in Traditional Buddhism.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 30 (2003): 291-313.

McLauchlan, Alastair. Prejudice and Discrimination in Japan – The Buraku Issue. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen P, 2003.

Stone, Jacqueline I. “Gender.” Ed. Paul L. Swanson and Clark Chilson. Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions. Honolulu: University of Hawaii P, 2006. 47-50.

Williams, Duncan Ryuken. The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Soto Zen Buddhism
in Tokugawa Japan. Ed. Stephen F. Teiser. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005.

First Japanese nun called Zenshin-ni (善信尼) in 624 CE.

        Mahayana Buddhism spread and became dominant in China, Korea and Japan. Mahayana Buddhism was introduced in Japan in the 6th century, and Buddhism nuns first made their appearance in this period, too. The nuns were regarded as priestesses or conductor of religious ceremonies.There was no concrete evidence to show discrimination between monks and nuns until Heian era (Okana, 1995).

        In Heian era, women were seen sinful and colud not obtain salvation. Nuns were excluded from public positions held at state ceremonies. Women could not enter mountain or temple to keep monks free from sexual distractions (Kurihara, 2003). However, this exclusion situation changed in Kamakura period. Shinran believed that women were too defiled to be enlightened. He considered all women as “Buddhas-to-be” equal to any man (Rev. Patti Nakai, 2004,). Moreover, another leader, Nichiren, he also believed women constituted a significant proportion of his female followers, and many of his letters were addressed to them. Nichiren respected female followers as individuals embracing faith (Kurihara, 2003). Dogen also clearlycriticized the exclusion of women by ancient Buddhism. The history of monastic women in Japan has seen many ups and downs (Dash, 2008).

2.  Womens’s Obstacles in Buddhism

       Three major sutras emphasized Japanese Buddhism.

        Why Buddhism has such argument about women’s enlightenment. In Mahayana Buddhism, there were three major sutras emphasized Japanese Buddhism which were Lotus Sutra, Vimalakirti and Sutra and the Queen Srimala Sutra. In Lotus Sutra, Princess Naga was told she cannot attain enlightenment because her defiled female body. In Vimalakirti Sutra, a woman created the illusion of changing bodies (Rev. Patti Nakai, 2004). The most famous example was the miracle of Princess Naga (dragon girl) who did transform herself into a male attained Buddhahood. Therefore, this started the argument of getting enlightenment when being male body. But Nichiren said this is not an issue of biological disposition, Nichiren believed female, child or animal lived at the same time as the Buddha through chanting (Kurihara, 2003). In short, people argued dragon girl attained enlightenment because she transformed herself into a male which brings this question: what is wrong with women’s body?

Buddha accepted first women (hist aunt) to become nun.

(1)  Impurity body

        The idea that women might not be able to gain enlightenment came from many reasons. One of reasons is women’s bodies are forever unclean. Because women have frequent menstrual period, and their bodies are result of physiological functions such as childbirth and menstruation. For that sin, women had to suffer the retribution of falling into a “Bloodbowl Pond“ (Kurihara, 2003). This also extend women’s ‘sins’ to explain women lack of spiritual aspiration, jealousy and evil nature are the volitional characteristics that result in negative karmic effects. For Japanese religion, both Buddhist and Shinto, they believes since women were at all times unclean, it was not possible for them to enter the holiest parts of monastery (Jnanavira, 2004)

 (2)  Womens’s Obstacles

        Furthermore, Mahayana Buddhism believes women have five obstacles. Buddhist scriptures also teach women three obediences, which are: when a woman is young, she must obey her parents. When she reaches maturity, she must obey her husband. And when she is old, she must obey her sons. Kurihara (2003) said this made women can never do as she pleases at any stage of her life. Women means she cannot, while in female guise, attain the very highest or most powerful forms of existence, and rebirth as a woman was not a morally neutral state but resulted from bad karma (Jnanavira, 2004).

         However, to compared the negative image about women’s body. Buddha himself pointed directly to a way by which human beings would acknowledge one another as equals. What gives strength to today’s women is the truth (Kawahashi, 2003). Women should claim loudly Buddha did not discriminate among human beings by their birth. They must have some misunderstanding. So feminism Buddhist request to re read the Buddhist scriptures to reform the patriarchal Buddhist community.

3. Women’s roles in Japanese Buddhism

11th Sakyadhita- the international association of Buddhist women.

        From popular Western image of the subservient Japanese woman is only an image in private family role, which is Japanese women quite often dominate the male members of the household. The women of Japan are unusually dedicated to their families (Friedman, 1992). Women were believed less self-confident than man, and were expected to see themselves ‘mirrored’. This is hard to find examples from the Japanese tradition where women speak about themselves in their own voice (Jnanavira, 2004). However, in this patriarchy environment of Japan society, there were still some women tried to amplify their voices in Japanese Buddhism. I separated women who involved in Japanese Buddhism into two groups. One is nun and another is laywomen.

       This is quite unique in Japan to see Buddhist nuns or laywomen married to Buddhist monks. In Kawahashi’s article, she called married monk a’ priest’. In this paper, I would like to call someone nuns when women take principle of celibacy, and others will be called by priest’s wife, female priest or laywomen.

(1)  Nuns

         In Buddhism hisotry, there were many argument about being nuns have to follow the eight rules of reverence (Nagata), which required nuns’ obedience to the monks. “A nun, even if a hundred years have passed since she received the precepts, shall greet a monk that very day with deference, rise up from her seat, salute him with joined hands, and show him respect.” (Nossiter, 2008). To re read the eight rules of reverence has become an important gender issue for nuns in many countries.       

        In the beginning time Mahayana Buddhism coming to Japan, a woman can become a nun and can also be the head priest of a temple. Nuns take the same examinations as monks and theoretically can obtain equal recognition (Shobha Rani Dash, 2008). But since Heian era, women were restricted from entering religious life. Nun was excluded from ceremonies. The nunneries were seen as ‘the laundry room of monasteries’ to do household for monks (Okana, 1995). Paula Arai (1990) researched the education of Zen nuns. These nuns got good training such as Zen, language and tea classes. They also hold ceremony to enter the Dharma like other nuns in Mahayana Buddhism countries did. Since 1940, Japanese nuns were allowed to care for the lowest-ranking temples, and in 1950, the were offically permitted to become head priests (Paula Aari, 1990). However, in Kawahashi’s article (2003), she thinks Japanese nuns have no parishioner as male priests and they are on the situation of economically disadvantaged often. Wacker (2005) also said she did not suspect nuns of earlier times to have had as a great impact on Japanese Buddhism. She thought the nuns were invisible in modern Japanese society.

(2)  Laywomen

           According to group interview with Mika Edaki in June, 2009. We knew there are several types of women in Japanese Buddhism. Except for the nuns wroten above, there are priest’s wives, female priest, and other female followers. Here, I would like to call them laywomen who involve in Buddhism but not live as nuns who have to commitment to take full ordination to shave hair, keep celibate and other principles. However, this is pity I can not get much information to know the situation of female priests, and I will skip this part in this paper.

        In Kawahashi’s article (2003), as a priest’s wife, she expalined a lot of problems in wive’s situation. She defined priest’s wives as “fictitious celibacy” who are assigned as mothers to rear male children, do household and support teaching in temple. But they are invisible and can not get offical identification in Japanese Buddhism. Temple wives as actors in their own right will never listen to the voices of the temple wives themselves. And there is no sign today that the councils of any of the Buddhism schools will open the matter to discussion about priests’ wives (Kawahashi, 2003).

        Aari (2004) studied the practices of laywomen who are involved in the Buddhism community. She interviewed 12 laywomen’s in Zen Buddhism and joined their life and activities such as doing zen, offering incense, flower and tea to a picutre of dead family. Aria found various dimensions and dynamics of these laywomen’s healing process. In her personal experience, she thought one’s vulnerabilities is a key to developing power and strength. She also found these women live with an awareness with all-encopmpassion network and compassionate support to each other, which she thinks this healing process related to the Four Noble Truths.

4. Feminist Approach in Buddhism

         Now we can see many researches started to re-read the Buddhist scriptures. For example ,in Taiwan, Chao-hwei Shin (2001) started the movement to cancel the eight rules of reverence to rebuild gender equity environment in Buddhism. She also explained the context of background of gender discrimination in India and the environment of monk-dominated when recording Buddha’s saying thousands years ago. Gradually, there are many nuns started to use feminist viewpoints to challenge their patriarchal Buddhist community.

         李玉珍 (1996) researched many studies of Feminist and Buddhism, and she found the future oreination connecting feminist and Buddhism will develop in two ways. One is approach of curriculum intergraion, and another is female experience in Buddhism. We can also see Kawahashi (2003) organized a network in Japan from diverty groups including different religious groups, feminist sholars and NGO. The purpose of the network is to link women into connected lines along which they can learn from each other’s efforts, speak out, and take action together.

         In another approach of female experience, Nancy A. Falk thought there will be more Buddhism researchers tend to combine their personal experience with their academic work (李玉珍，1996). Particularly female experiences from female scholars share life experiences with other women as nuns, laywomen or female followers. To write about stories how women involve in Buddhism is the same as Kawahashi’s concept of network, which can help to develop an community to amplify women’s voices in Japan.

Reference

Dharmacari Jnanavira (2004). A Mirror for Women? Reflections of the Feminine in Japanese Buddhism. Western Buddhist Review, v4.

Haruko Okana (1995). Women’s Image and Place in Japanese Buddhism. in Kumiko. Fujimura-Fanselow and Atsuko Kameda, eds., Japanese Women: New Feminist Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future (New York: The Feminist Press, pp. 15-28.

Jess Nossiter (2008). Gender Touble in Early Buddhism. in LABTC Conference.

Noriko Kawahashi (2003). Feminist Buddhism as Praxis. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, v30, pp. 291–313.

Monika Wacker (2005). Research on Buddhist Nuns in Japan, Past and Present. Asian Folklore Studies, v64, pp. 289–300.

Paula K. Arai (1990). Soto Zen Nuns in Modern Japan: Keeping and Creating Tradition, at Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, v14, pp. 38-51.

Paula K. Arai (2004). Healing Buddhist Women. at Sakyadhita International Buddhist Women’s Conference, Seoul, Korea.

Rev. Patti Nakai (2004). Women in Buddhism Part III. Shinran and the 35th Vow Shobha Rani Dash. The Future of Buddhist Monastic Women in Japan.

Seth Friedman (1992). Women in Japanese Society: Their Changing Roles. From http://www2.gol.com/users/friedman/writings/p1.html

Shobha Rani Dash (2008). The Future of Buddhist Monastic Women in Japan. From http://www.sakyadhita.org/10th/dash.html

李玉珍 (1996)。佛學之女性研究──近二十年英文著作簡介。V7:4,p199-222，台北。

宣方 (2008)。當代南傳佛教國家佛門女性解放運動之考察。弘誓雙月刊v91，桃園。

釋昭慧 (Chao-hwei Shin) (2001)。解構佛門男性沙文主義。弘誓雙月刊v50，桃園。

 Picture Link

1.First Japanese nun http://bell.jp/pancho/kasihara_diary/images/h19a/0113-30.jpg

2.Three Surta

http://images.exoticindiaart.com/books/the_lions_roar_of_queen_srimala_idc233.jpg

http://www.libroscentral.com/cgi-vel/homero/_visd_0001JPG00DTV.jpg

http://www.acep-vpc.com/wit-icons/Images/SutraduLotus.jpg

3.Buddha accepted first women (hist aunt) to become nun. And also set up the eight rules of reverence which become a great argument in modern society..

http://img.blog.163.com/photo/XP1Ic_4vfyIiw1MdFroKSA==/5104830177624781790.jpg

4.Buddhist women  http://www.sakyadhita.org/

 Women and Buddhism Link

Buddhanet.net http://www.buddhanet.net

Nun’s robes of various Buddhist tradition http://www2.hawaii.edu/~tsomo/robes.html

Buddhist Web Links-Women in Buddhism http://www.buddhanet.net/l_women.htm

Suggested Readings on Women and Buddhism http://www.buddhanet.net/r_women.htm

sakyadhita http://www.sakyadhita.org/

Resources on Women’s Ordination http://lhamo.tripod.com/4ordin.htm

有關「比丘尼」的英文書籍簡介http://www.gaya.org.tw/journal/m23/23-book3.htm

- Michelle