Edward R. Drott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824851507
- eISBN:
- 9780824868833
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824851507.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This book examines the shifting sets of meanings ascribed to the aged body in early and medieval Japan and the symbolic uses to which the aged body was put in the service of religious and ...
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This book examines the shifting sets of meanings ascribed to the aged body in early and medieval Japan and the symbolic uses to which the aged body was put in the service of religious and religio-political ideologies. In the Nara through mid-Heian periods, old age was used as a symbol of weakness, ugliness or pollution to contrast with the glories of the sovereign and his or her efflorescent court. Concurrently, governmental and Buddhist retirement practices called for elders to remove themselves from social, political and cultural centers. From the late-Heian period forward, however, various marginalized individuals and groups took up the aged male body as a symbol of their collective identity and crafted narratives depicting its empowerment. Although in early Japan the terms okina and ōna had been reserved for strange or foolish underclass old men and women, in the medieval period, Buddhist authors presented a great number of gods (kami), Buddhist divinities, saints and immortals (sennin) as okina, or in rare cases, as ōna. In these years literati came to enthusiastically employ the persona of the aged Buddhist recluse and early Noh theorists and playwrights sought to enhance the prestige of their art by linking it to performance traditions featuring mysterious but powerful okina. Although many of the divinized okina of medieval myth are today seen to inhabit a “Shintō” pantheon, they were, in fact, the product of Buddhist texts and arose within a Buddhist cultural milieu.Less
This book examines the shifting sets of meanings ascribed to the aged body in early and medieval Japan and the symbolic uses to which the aged body was put in the service of religious and religio-political ideologies. In the Nara through mid-Heian periods, old age was used as a symbol of weakness, ugliness or pollution to contrast with the glories of the sovereign and his or her efflorescent court. Concurrently, governmental and Buddhist retirement practices called for elders to remove themselves from social, political and cultural centers. From the late-Heian period forward, however, various marginalized individuals and groups took up the aged male body as a symbol of their collective identity and crafted narratives depicting its empowerment. Although in early Japan the terms okina and ōna had been reserved for strange or foolish underclass old men and women, in the medieval period, Buddhist authors presented a great number of gods (kami), Buddhist divinities, saints and immortals (sennin) as okina, or in rare cases, as ōna. In these years literati came to enthusiastically employ the persona of the aged Buddhist recluse and early Noh theorists and playwrights sought to enhance the prestige of their art by linking it to performance traditions featuring mysterious but powerful okina. Although many of the divinized okina of medieval myth are today seen to inhabit a “Shintō” pantheon, they were, in fact, the product of Buddhist texts and arose within a Buddhist cultural milieu.
Edward R. Drott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824851507
- eISBN:
- 9780824868833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824851507.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This study has traced the transformation of the meanings ascribed to the figure of the okina and to old age in general through various successive acts of meaning-making. In each case, individuals and ...
More
This study has traced the transformation of the meanings ascribed to the figure of the okina and to old age in general through various successive acts of meaning-making. In each case, individuals and groups used the aged body to advance their own particular agendas, but in no case—whether writing about elders or as elders—were they primarily interested in transforming the image of the elderly per se. Those who played the most significant role in the most radical refigurings of the okina seem to have shared a sense of their marginality relative to their sectarian, poetic, or political rivals. Many of these were also literati who inhabited the lower to mid-echelons of the court hierarchy and hoped to translate their knowledge of secret traditions concerning mysterious otherworldly okina into other forms of capital.Less
This study has traced the transformation of the meanings ascribed to the figure of the okina and to old age in general through various successive acts of meaning-making. In each case, individuals and groups used the aged body to advance their own particular agendas, but in no case—whether writing about elders or as elders—were they primarily interested in transforming the image of the elderly per se. Those who played the most significant role in the most radical refigurings of the okina seem to have shared a sense of their marginality relative to their sectarian, poetic, or political rivals. Many of these were also literati who inhabited the lower to mid-echelons of the court hierarchy and hoped to translate their knowledge of secret traditions concerning mysterious otherworldly okina into other forms of capital.
Edward R. Drott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824851507
- eISBN:
- 9780824868833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824851507.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Chapter Four examines how late-Heian groups utilized the aged body as a symbolic medium through which to challenge the categories of center/margin and purity/pollution. It focuses on didactic tales ...
More
Chapter Four examines how late-Heian groups utilized the aged body as a symbolic medium through which to challenge the categories of center/margin and purity/pollution. It focuses on didactic tales (setsuwa) that used immanentist Buddhist logic to confront mappō—the “evil age of five defilements (gojoku)—depicting aged saints (shōnin) able to achieve salvation not by abandoning their polluted bodies, but through them. Legends depicting Okina oshō, Zōga shōnin, and the outcast okina preacher purported to have delivered the inaugural sermon at the Tokujōju-in, presented the aged body as a locus of miraculous inversions in which defiled effluvia were transformed into Buddhist relics or provide an opportunity for a saint to distance himself from the world of elite Buddhist institutions or the court, now coded as morally corrupt. These legends were not derived from the Buddhist canon or “official” sources, but from the experiences of people long marginalized, including lower-ranking nobles of the provincial governor class or unofficial beggar priests.Less
Chapter Four examines how late-Heian groups utilized the aged body as a symbolic medium through which to challenge the categories of center/margin and purity/pollution. It focuses on didactic tales (setsuwa) that used immanentist Buddhist logic to confront mappō—the “evil age of five defilements (gojoku)—depicting aged saints (shōnin) able to achieve salvation not by abandoning their polluted bodies, but through them. Legends depicting Okina oshō, Zōga shōnin, and the outcast okina preacher purported to have delivered the inaugural sermon at the Tokujōju-in, presented the aged body as a locus of miraculous inversions in which defiled effluvia were transformed into Buddhist relics or provide an opportunity for a saint to distance himself from the world of elite Buddhist institutions or the court, now coded as morally corrupt. These legends were not derived from the Buddhist canon or “official” sources, but from the experiences of people long marginalized, including lower-ranking nobles of the provincial governor class or unofficial beggar priests.
Edward R. Drott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824851507
- eISBN:
- 9780824868833
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824851507.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Chapter Seven examines how Zeami and his artistic heir Konparu Zenchiku sought to harness the otherworldly charisma of the aged body in Noh. This chapter traces Zeami’s uses of the aged form in his ...
More
Chapter Seven examines how Zeami and his artistic heir Konparu Zenchiku sought to harness the otherworldly charisma of the aged body in Noh. This chapter traces Zeami’s uses of the aged form in his attempts to transform Noh from a low-status performance tradition into an aristocratized art. Zeami (and later Zenchiku) argued that Noh had its origins in okina sarugaku or the Shikisanban—a set of three ceremonial dances featuring actors performing as old men, including the smiling Okina. They described the Shikisanban as an ancient ritual with the power to ensure peace and prosperity in the realm. In developing the genre of Waki Noh—plays in which gods appear (usually as elders) to bless the realm—Zeami once again promoted the aged body as a locus of sacred power. And, in many of his dramatic works, Zeami used the aged body to generate pathos. Relying on Buddhist logic, Zeami suggested in his theoretical works and libretti that audiences moved by the pathos of the aged body would also reap worldly and spiritual benefits.Less
Chapter Seven examines how Zeami and his artistic heir Konparu Zenchiku sought to harness the otherworldly charisma of the aged body in Noh. This chapter traces Zeami’s uses of the aged form in his attempts to transform Noh from a low-status performance tradition into an aristocratized art. Zeami (and later Zenchiku) argued that Noh had its origins in okina sarugaku or the Shikisanban—a set of three ceremonial dances featuring actors performing as old men, including the smiling Okina. They described the Shikisanban as an ancient ritual with the power to ensure peace and prosperity in the realm. In developing the genre of Waki Noh—plays in which gods appear (usually as elders) to bless the realm—Zeami once again promoted the aged body as a locus of sacred power. And, in many of his dramatic works, Zeami used the aged body to generate pathos. Relying on Buddhist logic, Zeami suggested in his theoretical works and libretti that audiences moved by the pathos of the aged body would also reap worldly and spiritual benefits.
