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- Convenors:
-
Paulina Kolata
(University of Copenhagen)
Daniel Friedrich (Sendai Shirayuri Women's College)
Mark Rowe (McMaster University)
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- Stream:
- Religion and Religious Thought
- Location:
- Torre A, Piso 0, Sala 02
- Sessions:
- Friday 1 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel aims to investigate multiple meanings and narratives of Buddhism in the lives of Buddhists themselves, and to contextualise them in the broader socio-economic and political frameworks that shape the contemporary realities of Buddhist communities and individuals.
Long Abstract:
In the past two decades, ethnographic studies have emerged as an important method of investigating contemporary Japanese Buddhism (Reader 2005; Covell 2005, Rowe 2007; Nelson 2013, Starling forthcoming). Recent panels at conferences (American Academy of Religion 2011; International Association of Buddhist Studies 2014) and workshops (University of Toronto - Numata Programme Conference "Anthropology of Buddhism" 2015; University of Vermont Conference "Buddhism, Humanities and Ethnographic Method") have begun to recognise a shift within scholarly approaches to Buddhism in the Japanese context and beyond. Ethnographically based studies, by enabling access to different kinds of knowledge, both challenge and complement the textual, historical and organisational frameworks, which still dominate the research into Japanese Buddhism. Whilst drawing on historical and textual studies, ethnographic approaches relocate the focus towards the contemporary and local realities of Buddhism as lived, experienced and produced by Buddhist actors. Ethnographic and local studies have also presented a new picture of Buddhism in contemporary Japanese context, drawing attention to issues of temple closures, declining membership and secularisation, that are rarely included in traditional studies of Buddhism.
We propose to investigate multiple meanings and narratives of Buddhism in the lives of Buddhists themselves, and to contextualise them in the broader socio-economic and political frameworks that shape the contemporary realities of Buddhist communities and individuals. Therefore, this panel aims to explore the ways in which the ethnographic modes of enquiry enrich the knowledge produced by textual and historical approaches to studying Buddhism. By focusing on the qualitative and quantitative micro data stemming from ethnographic fieldwork and on individual case studies and life histories, the panel contributes to the emerging trend within the anthropology of Buddhism focusing on unpacking the local from the point of view of individuals. Thus, the panel aims to both broaden a discussion on the local narratives on Buddhism; and to explore how the ethnographic encounter shapes the researcher's understanding of knowledge it produces. The papers are concerned with exploring issues of gendered experiences of Buddhism, sustainability networks of Buddhist temples in rural communities, and the responses of religious practitioners to the changes brought in by depopulation.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 1 September, 2017, -Paulina Kolata (University of Copenhagen)
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores the concept of ご縁 as a lens into understanding how Buddhist temple priests view and face the realities of survival and community erosion in relation to their religious and social situation, in the context of "Japan's shrinking regions" (Matanle 2011).
Paper long abstract:
The paper explores the concept of ご縁 as a lens into understanding how Buddhist temple priests view and face the realities of survival and community erosion in relation to their religious and social situation, in the context of "Japan's shrinking regions" (Matanle 2011). In recent years, research into regional decline in Japan has focused on issues of depopulation and its economic consequences and changes in social and family structures, that provide the background for this paper's analysis of rural problems through a prism of Buddhist temples. Researchers have long been aware of the demographic and regional decline challenges facing traditional Buddhist temples (Ishii 1996, Covell 2005; Rowe 2007, Reader 2011); however, ethnographic explorations of local narratives and connections are an infrequently treated topic in scholarly debates. Such a perspective can offer a window into local experiences of Buddhism 'on the ground' by showing how different actors develop their individual and collective understandings of Buddhism as a living entity in their communities.
This paper expands the discussion on the current state of Japanese Buddhism by presenting a case study of a Jodo Shinshu bodaiji temple located in Hiroshima Prefecture. Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork of living at the temple, and data collected there, it examines the currents of change influencing notions of belonging and socio-economic existence within the temple and its broader communal, regional, and organisational frameworks. Through an analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, I aim to explore the local networks of sustainability and trust between a temple and its community. The notions of trust, dependency, responsibility, duty and gratitude embedded in the concept of goen (a term used repeatedly by those - from priests to parishioners - associated with the temple to describe their connections with the temple and community) will be evaluated as both a Buddhist and a social narrative of cause and effect, which generate connections among the living and the dead. Finally, stemming from the ethnographic method, this paper aims to contextualise the meaning of the macro narratives of Buddhism's future survival within the intricacies of the micro data economics of this case study.
Daniel Friedrich (Sendai Shirayuri Women's College)
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses how religious practitioners at temples and shrines in Hokkaido understand and respond to the changes wrought by depopulation.
Paper long abstract:
This paper discusses how religious practitioners at temples and shrines in Hokkaido understand and respond to the changes wrought by depopulation. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research, this paper frames the issue of depopulation in concrete terms and provides a precise understanding of the impacts and plurality of factors that shape religious institutions in depopulating regions. I begin by exploring discussions of Ganjōji's (a temple in rural Hokkaido) viability that occurred as the community celebrated the temple's centennial throughout 2013. Starting with this case study and situating the temple in broader religious and secular networks demonstrates how issues of day-to-day temple operations and religious rites are being reconfigured as a result of regional demographic changes. Supplementing my case study with interviews conducted at shrines and temples throughout Japan, I show how attention to ground level engagements with religious practitioners provides insight into the place of shrines and temples within the region and the tensions and continuities between members, priests, and institutional hierarchies. I conclude by arguing that rather than using the language of religious decline (e.g., Reader 2011, Nelson 2013, Ukai 2015) to describe religion in Japan's rural regions, utilizing Rittel and Webber's concept of "wicked problems" (1973) allows for a broader and more nuanced conversation of the numerous precarities temples and shrines in Japan's shrinking regions confront on a daily basis.
Mark Rowe (McMaster University)
Paper short abstract:
An ethnographic account of female Buddhist priests in localized contexts in contemporary Japan.
Paper long abstract:
This talk represents a small segment of a larger project collecting "Biographies of Non-eminent monks." In response to the general trend in Buddhist studies to date to focus on exemplars of the tradition, I am concerned with uncovering stories of "ordinary" priests, both male and female. It is my contention that these lives are, in fact, both extraordinary and significant in what they can teach us about how temple Buddhism is lived. By focusing here on female priests, I argue that their experiences are illustrative of and inseparable from the broader context of institutional Buddhism. This point seems obvious, but it carries significant implications. Female priests experience temple Buddhism in ways that are both distinctive from and continuous with those of male priests. I thus avoid isolating their stories solely in terms of female experience. Simply replacing extraordinary men with extraordinary women gets us no closer to how the vast majority of priests experience their traditions. When we look at female priests not simply for insights into how their experiences differ from men's, but rather take their stories on their own merits, we discover a Buddhist world that is both familiar and unknown, one with new landmarks, coastlines, and boundaries.