It is with a great deal of joy and great gratitude that I welcome all of you here today to pay tribute to Abbess Mugai Nyodai. I have been a student and then a teacher of pre-modern Japanese culture for more than 40 years now. It still seems incomprehensible to me that during that lifetime, it took almost 30 years of study before I encountered Abbess Mugai Nyodai -- and even then it was wholly by accident. She had been shut out of written history. When I realized that, it changed my scholarly life.
        As we will explore in our Symposium beginning this afternoon and extending over this weekend, Mugai Nyodai and many other religious leaders who were women, were shut out of written histories. Just as eminent religious women of medieval Europe such as Hildegard von Bingen, Elizabeth of Shonau, Julian of Norwick and many others are now at last being resurrected in recent decades by scholars of the (Catholic) West -- so it is now long past time that the same should occur in the cultural and religious history of Japan. To that goal, the Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies has pledged its resources and devoted its activities over these past few years.
        All of us have too few heroines in our lives -- too few heroes too -- there are so few of them. But heroines are almost unknown these days. It is, therefore, all the more important that we not lose those few heroines from the past who can inspire us.
        One such heroine is the woman we know today as the Zen Abbess Mugai Nyodai -- Japan's first female Zen Master. Mugai Nyodai may appear to be just a small, elderly, woman. Her absolutely astoundingly life-like 13th century portrait statue sits here before us today almost as if she had just walked in here herself and then seated herself there in meditation.
        At the end of the service, you are all invited to come up and meet her, look at her wonderful, severe, yet gentle face, and offer her the incense of your respect.
        To look at her directly, face to face, is to feel at once as if you have known her for a long time, and that she, too, knows you, and has for a long time. I promise you, you will never forget her. She has the ability to empower you. I urge you (invite you) to let her empower you. One on one. That is what medieval Zen Masters' portrait statues known as chinso chokoku were intended to do: to be a proxy, a palpable stand-in, after death, so that those who knew her and even those like ourselves in later generations could still feel her power, still feel the presence of this spiritual master.
        We have found a poem at the Daishoji convent that is in her own hand. Even from one poem we learn a lot about her. For her, the human heart was like the moon -- often clouded by unpredictable atmospheric forces, over which we have no control. But such forces, such clouds, can be transcended and become irrelevant if one does as she did -- and polishes the heart.
        She had the power to make people want to polish their own hearts. She had the power to create convents where women gathered together to do just that.
        Men honored her.
        Her Chinese master placed the future of his teachings in her hands.
        It does not matter whether we are Japanese or not.
        It does not matter whether we are Buddhist or not.
        It does not matter whether we are women, or whether we are men. She is one of our strongest spiritual ancestors here on this small planet that we all share, and she belongs to all of us.
        Our ceremonies today are designed to bring East and West closer, and to allow each of us, both East and West, to venerate her through spiritual expressions unique to each, yet universal at the core.
        We need the moon of her inspiration to shine on us and bring us together. There is no doubt that we will each take a little bit of her home with us.
        In closing, I can hardly find adequate words to express my gratitude to all the Abbesses and nuns who have traveled so far here to New York for the very first time from Daishoji, Domyoji, Hokyoji, Donke'in, Chuguji, Rinkyuji, Tokujo myoin, and Sankoin to make this a truly authentic occasion. Their enormous generosity, each and every one of them in different important ways, and their warm support can never adequately be repaid. They are led today by one of the highest ranking persons in Japan's Buddhist world today, male or female, the head of Domyoji convent, Abbess Rokujo Shozui. And for the record, it is essential on behalf of all of us here today, that I express my deep gratitude to two Abbesses who, because of great age, were unable to travel to be with us today.
        First, I am deeply indebted to Abbess Kasanoin Jikun of Daishoji monzeki, the highest ranking of the Imperial Buddhist Convents, who first allowed me to enter her convent five years ago in my search for the traces of Abbess Mugai Nyodai's legacy. With her wonderful spiritual energy and profound cultural knowledge she has been a true mentor to me and has opened a myriad of doors. Without her nothing that is happening this weekend would have been possible. I know she is with us in spirit now.
        Likewise, Abbess Sawada Esai of Hokyoji monzeki Imperial Convent has been an irreplaceable ally. She met my admiration for Abbess Mugai Nyodai with her own deep devotion to Nyodai-sama. From the very beginning five years ago, she opened her convent to our small team of research scholars, and she endured all manner of intrusion with astonishing good will, patience, and good humor. Her simple modesty and great generosity of heart have been an inspiration to us all, and this memorial service is filled with her spirit, even though she is not present.
        And my profound gratitude goes to Chief Abbott Fukushima Keido of Tofukuji monastery who has been the strongest supporter of our work from the very start. Every year, for many years, Abbott Fukushima has visited Columbia, lectured to our students about Japanese Zen, and allowed many of our students to go to Tofukuji and experience life at his monastery. The bond between our institutions is greatly to be treasured. Kyoto has many famous monasteries today, but you may not realize that most of the famous ones did not even exist in Abbess Mugai Nyodai's day. Tofukuji did, however, and is one of the oldest Rinzai Zen monasteries in Kyoto. It is a monastery that she knew. And so today's tribute to her from the Abbott of this great and ancient monastery too is especially meaningful.
        There are so many other eminent people from Japan, the People's Republic of China, Europe, and the United States here today to offer their words, and prayers, and music and rituals of veneration. I wish I could mention them all. But you will meet some of them here this morning on this program, and this evening at the 6:30 reception. I will not interrupt the service with individual introductions, but will allow the printed program in your hands to speak for itself. Please follow it, as East and West we offer tribute to this memorable woman, Abbess Mugai Nyodai.
        Although you will now witness the rarest of rituals in Buddhism and a once-in-700-years event, please remember that flash cameras are not to be used to interrupt the spiritual nature of the rituals.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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