Intersections of Interdisciplinarity in Heian Religion

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

Four authors of recent books examining the role of religion in Heian society and culture—joined by a leading specialist in Heian religion—will highlight innovative theoretical approaches that have helped them shed new light on the Heian past. Combining gender and institutional diversity with a range of disciplinary backgrounds (including literary studies, Buddhist studies, and cultural history), the panel aims to present a model for the interdisciplinary study of Heian religiosity.

The first panelist examines the Hōmon hyakushu (One Hundred Poems of the Dharma Gate), and demonstrates how this collection, through its skillful use of Buddhist sources, waka poetics, and genre variation, demonstrates the full achievement of the religio-literary aesthetic in the late Heian period. The second panelist scrutinizes the intimate connection between religion and politics by examining the cases of unsuccessful ritual performance caused by the complex power relation between the emperor, the retired emperor, and the Fujiwara regent. The third panelist draws connections between legal, literary, and religious discourses of exile; exile was not a mere political tool but was an important trope through which members of court society imagined the banishment of gods, of legendary and literary characters, and of historical figures. The fourth panelist focuses on a crucial methodological issue in scholars’ use of kanbun nikki (courtiers’ diaries). While today these texts have become important sources for political, religious and literary history, she advocates for a syntagmatic reading of nikki, which allows more nuanced understandings of the everyday life of Heian courtiers.

Area of Study

• Japan

Session Organizer

• Stephen Douglas Miller, University of Massaschusetts Amherst

Chair

• Stephen Douglas Miller, University of Massaschusetts Amherst

Individual Presentations

• Translating Heian Buddhism into Courtly Waka—and Back Again - Stephen Douglas Miller, University of Massaschusetts Amherst

• When Rites Go Wrong: Ritual and Political Conflict in the Late Heian Period - Asuka Sango, Carleton College

• Spirits in Exile: Re-Examining the Vengeful Spirit Cults of Heian Japan - Jonathan Stockdale, University of Puget Sound

• The Importance of the Everyday: Using Courtiers’ Journals to Understand Religious Lifestyles - Heather Blair, University of Indiana

Discussant

• Paul Groner, University of Virginia