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Vol. 24, No. 9 November 13, 1998

Medieval Japanese History Is Examined

Rare Buddhist Memorial Service and Conference Take Place on Sat., Nov. 21

By Suzanne Trimel

Nuns from Imperial Buddhist Convents will perform a memorial service for the first time outside Japan in honor of their 13th-century spiritual founder, Japan's first female Zen master, on Saturday, Nov. 21, at Columbia.

The Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies at Columbia is hosting the nuns in celebration of its 30th anniversary and groundbreaking research on medieval Japanese cultural history. The 700th Anniversary Memorial for Abbess Mugai Nyodai, who died in November, 1298, is part of a weekend-long commemoration of the Institute's 30th anniversary.

The ceremony in St. Paul's Chapel will be the first time the ritual has been performed outside Japan and the first visit of Imperial Buddhist nuns to the United States. Highlights of the anniversary events include a three-day international conference on the history of nuns and convents in Japan and two art exhibitions, also on the Columbia campus. The public is welcome at all events.

Professor Barbara Ruch, Institute director and professor of Japanese literature and culture in Columbia's department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, is the first scholar to have gained access to the tightly closed Japanese Imperial Buddhist Convents, 13 of which remain today. Nuns and abbesses from eight of them will come to New York to participate in the service at Columbia.

Over the last decade the Institute's work has focused on one of the most neglected areas of Japanese religious and cultural history: the vital role of Japanese religious women and nuns in the establishment and spread of Buddhism in Japan, their contributions as institution builders and patrons, and, specifically, the legacy of Abbess Mugai Nyodai as founder of a major network of convent-temples to which present-day Imperial Buddhist Convents trace back their roots.

"To date the history of Japanese Buddhism has been written based exclusively on the writings of Japanese monks and the study of the archives of male monastic institutions," Ruch said. "The whole other half of religious history-that of ecclesiastical women-has been our challenge."

The 700th anniversary service will include special rituals by Abbess Shozni Rokujo of Domyoji convent; offerings of flowers, incense, and arrowroot and green teas; the chanting of the Kannon Sutra, and the scattering of flower petals. Chief Abbott Keido Fukushima of Tofukuji Monastery will offer a geju, or song of veneration to a spiritual master, composed for the occasion, and a special incense burning of precious fragrant wood. Also participating will be Peter Haskel of The First Zendo of America, who will chant the Heart Sutra, one of the most fundamental texts of Buddhism.

The composer Yuriko Hase Kojima, a doctoral candidate in musical composition at Columbia, has composed a score, "Mind Mirror: Nyodai's Dream," expressly for the service, which will be performed on traditional Japanese and Chinese instruments, the shakuhachi, pipa and bass koto.

Ruch established an international research team that since 1993 has been studying convent archives in Kyoto that date back to the 13th century and are rich in historical significance. During the conference November 21-23, scholars from Europe and the United States associated with the Imperial Buddhist Convent Survey will discuss materials now emerging from their work.

The Institute's work on Buddhist convents began in December 1989 with a small conference in New York, "Workshop for Women and Buddhism in Pre-Modern Japan: Research Strategies for a Newly Developing Field." "It was a small beginning," Ruch said, "but the great breakthrough came when, due to our research efforts concerning Abbess Mugai Nyodai, the Imperial Convents in Kyoto, who consider her their spiritual founder, opened their doors to us."

Abbess Mugai Nyodai (1223-1298) was a disciple and spiritual heir of the Chinese monk Wu-hsueh Tsu-yuan, who had been invited to Japan to teach Rinzai Zen, then considered by the Japanese shogunal elite to be the most advanced form of Buddhism. She became founding Abbess of Keiaiji, the highest ranking Zen convent in Kyoto. Imperial Convents (monzeki amadera) existed under the supervision of Imperial Princesses, and therefore, house materials rich in historical significance.

The discovery of a life-size 13th century portrait statue of Abbess Mugai Nyodai, now designated an "Important Cultural Treasure by the Government of Japan," was one of the initial revelatory events that drew scholarly attention to the female institutions of Buddhism and, more broadly, to the role of women in Japanese religious history. "In many ways, she has been the inspiration, or 'patron saint,' to the Institute's research," Ruch said.

A replica of the statue from the collection of the Kanazawa Bunko Museum will be on display on the altar during the service and will remain in the Starr Library through December.