Event

One of the major scholarly arguments in Japanese studies has been the idea that many late medieval and early modern Japanese performance genres were deeply influenced by forms of Buddhist oratory. A potential point of conflict with this intertwined genealogy is that the performers of these later art forms were often also associated with erotic exchange. One way of explaining this scandalous combination of piety and eros is to point to the performers’ gender and social position -- a mode of explanation which suggests that the sensual and erotic elements of late medieval and early modern verbal arts came entirely from outside of Buddhism.  In this talk, I take a new approach, proposing that erotic elements were already present in Buddhist oratorical practice and that they stem from doctrinal perceptions of the nature of the relationship between buddha and devotee, as suggested in the teaching of kannō (感応 sympathetic response).  

* CEAS Humanities Colloquium Series