Abstract
The analysis of the reciprocal relations of the discipline of philosophy and other cultural phenomena requires a few disclaimers. First of all, the characterization of philosophy as a cultural phenomenon along with literature, music and theater, or culinary arts, fashions and sports, rejects claims that philosophy somehow relates to absolute truths which transcend the limits of any particular cultural context and mean the same things for anyone who manages to reach the heights and/or depths necessary for that purpose. This also entails that any pursuit of philosophy, including Buddhist philosophy in Japan, is only possible within the network of textualities and cultural practices that surround it, and the people engaged in it relate to the cultural codes and institutions of their environment just as they relate to the internal rules of their philosophy and its received heritage. Secondly, we have to acknowledge two major aspects in approaching any cultural phenomenon, namely, its texts and its practice. The texts produced by the people engaged in, say, philosophy (treatises) or literature (stories and poems) or cooking (recipes) are distinct from, yet always related to, the practical aspects of that phenomenon, which determine who produces these texts, how and why they are produced, and how they are used and disseminated. Alternatively, seen from the aspect of practice, texts are a sort of by-product of what people do; for example, reciting Buddhist sutras does not imply a deep understanding (or even any understanding) of their semantic, textual, and philosophical content. Both of these aspects are equally relevant to the phenomenon as a whole, and neither can be sufficiently analyzed without the knowledge of the other. In this article, I will focus on some key categories and issues mainly as they have been reflected in the domain of literature, especially since it can be argued that literature is the filter through which Buddhist influence, and its philosophical aspect, in particular, has been mediated to other spheres of culture.
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Notes
- 1.
For example, Bernard Faure argues that “By placing Buddhist thought within a philosophical context, we are making a choice which – however justifiable – has various consequences. For one thing, it implies an exclusion of the non-philosophical – which is judged to be less relevant in terms of understanding another culture or at least in evoking Western sympathy towards other cultures” (Faure 2009: 33). I can understand Faure’s argument, but the opposite move has similar consequences for those who want to deny the philosophical nature of Buddhist thought.
- 2.
- 3.
Poems from anthologies and personal collections will be referred to according to the accustomed practice of literary scholarship, indicating the collection, scroll (where applicable), and number in the critical text. The abbreviations for the collections and the editions used are listed in the references section.
- 4.
Here, I would like to remind the reader that twilight has been pointed out to be the poetic “essence” of autumn already by SEI Shōnagon.
- 5.
According to the Senjūshō 撰集抄, a thirteenth-century collection of Buddhist tales popularly attributed to Saigyō, the prostitute actually let him in, and he spent the night there in conversation, as a result of which the woman became a nun (Moore 1986: 169).
- 6.
Peter Thornton has noted that in this play, too, the question of gender is foregrounded both by the text and the acting techniques: the female Komachi being possessed by the male Fukakusa brings about a situation where gender distinctions are dissolved in a space of madness (Thornton 2003: 224), which is indeed analogous to the transformation of the female courtesan into the male bodhisattva of wisdom in Eguchi.
- 7.
See Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition: The Nihon Ryōiki of the Monk Kyōkai (Nakamura 1997: 110).
- 8.
The title of YOSANO Akiko’s 与謝野晶子 (1878–1942) first tanka collection “Tangled hair” (Midaregami みだれ髪) distinctly alludes to one of Izumi’s most famous poems.
- 9.
A possibly more exact translation of the phrase would use a colloquialism: if you meet the Buddha, erase him. The idea, of course, is not to cause anyone physical harm but to remove preconceived images from one’s mind because they inevitably block one’s direct perception of reality. As SUZUKI Shunryu has paraphrased the statement: kill the Buddha if the Buddha exists somewhere else (Suzuki 1995: 27).
Works Cited
Abbreviations
BHS: Bashō haikushū 『芭蕉俳句集』. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1970.
GSIS: Goshūiwakashū 『後拾遺和歌集』. Shinpen kokka taikan 『新編国歌大観』 [New edition of “Great Compilation of Japanese Poetry”]. CD-ROM/ Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2003.
KKS: Kokinwakashū 『古今和歌集』. Shinpen kokka taikan 『新編国歌大観』 [New edition of “Great Compilation of Japanese Poetry”]. CD-ROM. Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2003.
MYS: Man’yōshū 『万葉集』. Shinpen kokka taikan『 新編国歌大観』 [New edition of “Great Compilation of Japanese Poetry”]. CD-ROM. Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2003.
SanKS: Sankashū 『山家集』. Shinpen kokka taikan 『新編国歌大観』 [New edition of “Great Compilation of Japanese Poetry”]. CD-ROM. Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2003.
SIS: Shūiwakashū 『拾遺和歌集』. Shinpen kokka taikan 『新編国歌大観』 [New edition of “Great Compilation of Japanese Poetry”]. CD-ROM. Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2003.
SKKS: Shinkokinwakashū 『新古今和歌集』. Shinpen kokka taikan 『新編国歌大観』 [New edition of “Great Compilation of Japanese Poetry”]. CD-ROM. Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2003.
SKS: Shikawakashū 『詞花和歌集』. Shinpen kokka taikan 『新編国歌大観』 [New edition of “Great Compilation of Japanese Poetry”]. CD-ROM. Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2003.
SZS: Senzaiwakashū 『千載和歌集』. Shinpen kokka taikan 『新編国歌大観』 [New edition of “Great Compilation of Japanese Poetry”]. CD-ROM. Tokyo: Kadokawa Group Publishing, 2003.
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Raud, R. (2019). Buddhist Philosophy and the Japanese Cultural System. In: Kopf, G. (eds) The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy. Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2924-9_5
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