Singing and Enacting the Dharma: Koshiki as Preaching Literature in Medieval Japan

• In Event: Between Performance and the Page: Buddhist Preaching in East Asia

Abstract

This paper will examine koshiki (Buddhist ceremonials) as a form of preaching literature vocalized in a ritual context. I will especially analyze the performative strategies used by the performing clerics for connecting with diverse audiences. The liturgical genre of koshiki developed in the late tenth century in the context of Pure Land belief within the Tendai tradition and in the following centuries spread throughout all Buddhist schools. The composition of koshiki reached a high point in the Kamakura period with the Hosso monk Jokei (1155-1213) and the Kegon-Shingon monk Myoe (1173-1232) as the most productive authors of koshiki. Over the centuries, more than four hundred koshiki were composed; many of these served pedagogical functions and helped to instruct ritual participants about Buddhist doctrines and ideas. In this paper, I will focus on the koshiki composed and performed by Myoe and his disciples. On the one hand, I will analyze how the written texts were vocalized during the ritual and thereby demonstrate that the style of vocalizing empowered the semantics of the text. On the other hand, I will study how the ritual participants expressed their veneration through bodily movements, such as prostrations. Remarkably, lay devotees and clerics re-enacted scenes laid out in the koshiki text itself during certain koshiki performances. I argue that these performative aspects made koshiki a highly effective form for preaching to a wide audience and that the vocal and bodily techniques used contributed to bring the written text to life during the performance of the ceremony.

Author

• Michaela Mross, University of California, Berkeley