Site visits in Japan

Vicky Baker Discussion

Dear list members, 

Scholars from the project “From the Ground Up: Buddhism and East Asian Religions” (frogbear.org) will visit several sites in East Asia this summer and welcome participation from colleagues, especially undergraduate and graduate students. A limited number of seats are available for the visits below, and participation is free, however participants are expected to cover their own travel costs (including meals and accommodation). Instruction will be mainly in English, with support for Japanese speakers.

To apply to register for the visits below, please send a note specifying which visit you are applying to, or both, along with your CV to frogbear.project@ubc.ca by March 10, 2017.

1. Kyoto area, Japan

Cluster Leader: George Keyworth, University of Saskatchewan

Dates: May 29 – June 9, 2017

Site Visit:  (1) Myōrenji 妙蓮寺, Matsuo Taisha 松尾大社, Furitsu sōgō shiryōkan 京都府立総合資料館; (2) Eizan bunko 叡山文庫, Miidera 三井寺 [園城寺], Ishiyamadera 石山寺; and (3) possibly Amanosan Kongōji 天野山金剛寺 or Daigoji 醍醐寺.

Summary: During field visits to several religious sites, museums, archives, and libraries in and around Kyoto—and possibly Nagoya—Japan, researchers and students will participate in a workshop on old Buddhist manuscript canons once held by Matsuo shrine 松尾大社, Nanatsu-dera 七寺, and Kongōji 金剛寺. Approximately half of the time will be spent visiting religious sites and collecting data on the history and preservation of these materials on site; the other half of the time will be spent ascertaining the provenance of these scriptures to determine who copied them for what reasons, and where. These three canons were copied during the twelfth-century from now mostly lost eighth-century editions of the Buddhist canon in China. Advanced students and researchers will collaborate to identify, catalog, and examine—as precisely as possible—where these examples of “secondary” production took place (scriptoriums and shrines) and which individuals (donors and monastics), groups (Buddhists, aristocrats, and Shintō priests), and institutions (primarily Tendaishū 天台宗 or Shingonshū 真言宗) re-shaped these canons. Faculty will lead students through the material culture associated with these manuscript canons with the goal of rethinking how to envision and interpret the boundaries of religion in premodern and contemporary Japan. We expect to be able to reproduce some of this material in digital format for further investigation, but certainly not the materials held by archives and libraries.

This cluster is tasked with investigating two questions: what roles did editors, scribes, translators, and readers play in canon-making of Buddhist literature in Chinese, and how did non-religious factors shape this process? Because we will be investigating the Matsuo shrine canon, part of which is currently held by Myōrenji and Furitsu sōgō shiryōkan, and where it was produced and by whom, we will visit Tendaishū sites in Shiga prefecture where the Matsuo scriptures were copied from (Miidera 三井寺, Eizan bunko 叡山文庫). For the Kongōji canon, we may visit Amanosan Kongōji, in southern Osaka prefecture. The cluster leader will obtain comparative examples of scriptures from the Nanatsu-dera and Kongōji canons for the group to analyze in terms of some textual analysis of content and colophons when we visit archives, libraries, and museum to investigate the Matsuo shrine scriptures. 

After the workshop participants will be able (1) navigate archives in Japan and utilize old Japanese manuscript Buddhist canons, (2) compare and contrast these sources with material evidence from China (e.g., Dunhuang manuscripts and artefacts), (3) ascertain who was responsible for “secondary” production in medieval Japan, and (4) to integrate this perspective and new skills into their teaching.

Research Goals and Training: This field visit will train experienced researchers as well as graduate and undergraduate students to utilize old Japanese manuscript canons to identify where “secondary” production of East Asian Buddhist literature took place in Japan and why. Participants will not only learn how to access rare manuscripts and to interpret them for many research purposes, but they will also learn why the study of the production and transmission of canonical literature may be as important as the content of the scriptures or commentaries. Special consideration will be awarded to religious literature widely circulated by the Tendai tradition(s) in Japan. These manuscript canons are not only invaluable resources that complement manuscripts from the continent (Dunhuang) in terms of philological research. They are also first-hand testimony of medieval Japanese Buddhist monastics, shrine priests, aristocrats, and scribes who (re-) shaped the content of the East Asian Buddhist canon for specific, local purposes. By visiting specific sites where (re-) production took place and these materials are preserved today, the group will obtain first-hand experience with physical manuscripts, how to handle them, and how to read and interpret colophons. The data collected on the ground will be compared with easily accessible, digital datasets, reminding us how provisional and incomplete our interpretation of the Chinese Buddhist canon(s) is because, especially in our digital age, it is on the ground where we must endeavor to learn much more about what actual people did with these precious rolls.

2. Japan

Cluster Leader: Toshinori Ochiai, International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies

Site Visits: 1) Nanatsu-dera 七寺, Kongōji 金剛寺, and Kōshōji 興聖寺; 2) Iwayaji 岩屋寺

Dates: July 27 – August 2, 2017

Summary: This cluster intends to establish digital editions and textual searching system of many texts from the Japanese manuscript collections of Chinese Buddhist texts, especially focusing on monastic biographies and scriptural catalogues. To achieve this aim and assist our cluster members to investigate their targeted Buddhist texts in different versions that we have access to, during the summer of 2017, this cluster plans to organize fieldtrips to visit the following Japanese monasteries in which hand-copied manuscript and printed canons are preserved. The targeted collections include: 1) Manuscript canons preserved in Nanatsu-dera 七寺, Kongōji 金剛寺, and Kōshōji 興聖寺; 2) Woodblock printed canon that was produced in Song dynasty (960-1276) and is currently preserved in Iwayaji 岩屋寺.

The goals of this cluster are designed to exploit the huge potential of Japanese manuscript resources to have Duanhuang and Japanese manuscripts complement and complete each other, and finally to advance the further and long-term development of critical, textual analysis within the study of East Asian Buddhism. To serve such a purpose, visiting those traditional Buddhist sites where manuscript and printed canons are preserved, conducting on-the-spot investigations and collecting firsthand information are the factors essential to the success of this project.