The University of Illinois will host an international symposium, “Religious
Performance, City and Country in East Asia,” October 9-10, 2013, at Levis Center
of the Urbana-Champaign Campus. For details concerning the event, including
registration and schedule, see below.
Brian Ruppert
University of
Illinois
This conference brings together leading scholars in the field
from North America and Japan for a two-day symposium, October 9-10, 2013 (Levis
Center), to examine the relationship between metropole and rural religious
performance by drawing a set of clear lines of liturgical practice in the East
Asia case, with special reference to Japan. The keynote speakers will be
Professors Matsuo Kōichi, National Museum of Japanese History, and Haruo
Shirane, Columbia University. First, we pay attention to the position of
medieval Japanese religious performance vis-à-vis continental East Asia. What
were the ritual and cultural flows that informed the development of medieval
Japanese Buddhist and other religious performance (Kami worship, Shugendō
[mountain asceticism])? Second, we consider the character and movement of a
series of religious performances in the Japanese isles. What were the producers
and audiences of these performances? How, moreover, were these performative
modes translated between groups in the metrapole and countryside? Third, how
did performance genres such as divine dance (kagura), visual didactic
performance (etoki), and biwa lute playing influence religious performance and
reception through their mixture of multiple media? Finally, how did the
mobility of performers and media influence the development of religious
performance? That is, how did the travel of the monk Ennin to China influence
his production of shōmyō chanting in Japan? What does archeological study tell
us about the movement of Pure Land Buddhist performative practices? How did
performances of Kumano believers and Shugendō practitioners transmit or
otherwise transform their practices in currents between metropole and
mountainside? Furthermore, how were textual-performative practices related to
temple arts and ritual transmission in the city and country?
Registration
is free but required (contact ruppertshogyo@gmail.com) since there
is limited seating. Booklets with the full lectures by participants, including
translations into Japanese and English, will be provided to all registrants at
the event; discussants, with the exception of Professor Matsuo, will comment in
English, and discussion will be in both English and Japanese. Japanese
participants will present in Japanese.
Religious Performance, City
and Country in East Asia
Schedule
Wednesday, October 9,
2013
9:00-11:45 AM Public Screening and Discussion of the Documentary “Divine
Dancing (Kagura) to The Chaotic Deities of Hiba”
Public Screening and
Discussion (Levis): “Divine Dancing (Kagura) to The Chaotic Deities of Hiba:
Faith and Countryside” (2012).
Discussants: Matsuo Kōichi, Director, Ronald
Toby (University of Illinois), and David Plath (University of
Illinois)
10:35 Intermission
10:50-Noon
Biwa and Etoki:
Performance and Lecture
Biwa Lute and Visual-Didactic Preaching
Performance:
Bakawa Tooru, Buddhist monk
Hisano Toshihiko:
“Visual-Didactic Preaching: Its History and Social Milieux”
Discussant:
Elizabeth Oyler (UI, EALC), Megan McLaughlin (UI, History)
1:30 PM-3:15
PM: Keynote Addresses (Levis):
Matsuo Kōichi (N. Museum of J. History):
“Japanese Buddhist Rites and Performance: Transmission and History”
Haruo
Shirane (Columbia U.): “ Japanese Performing Arts, Demons, and The Pacification
of Angry Spirits”
3:30-5:30 PM: Session 1 (Levis): “Japanese Buddhism in
East Asia: Research History and Contemporary Issues”
Arami Hiroshi (Hiroshima
U.) “Religious Ritual and Literature in 9th-10th century East Asia”
Uejima
Susumu (Kyoto Prefectural University) “Re-visioning ‘Japanese Buddhism’ in East
Asian Buddhist History”
David Quinter (U. Alberta) “Eison’s (1201-1290)
Prince Shōtoku (ca. 574-ca. 622) Images: Visually Performative
Prayer, East
Asian Kingship, and the Construction of Japanese Precepts
Tradition”
Discussant: Alexander Mayer (UI, Religion), Robert Tierney
(UI, EALC, CWL), Anne Burkus-Chasson (UI, Art History)
Thursday, October
10, 2013
9:30 – 11:50 AM: Session 2 (Levis): “Early and Medieval Religious
Ritual and Performance: Between City and Country”
Abe Yasuro (Nagoya U.):
“Medieval Religious Ritual, Text, and the Performance of the Senses”
Muraki
Jirō (N. Museum of J. History) “Archaeological Study of Pure Land Buddhism in
City and Countryside”
Elizabeth Oyler (UI) : “The Phantom Capital in the Noh
Plays Nue and Yorimasa”
Chikamoto Kensuke (Tsukuba U.) “Religious Policies
and Temple Arts in the Late Ancient Period”
Discussant: Brian Ruppert and
Rodney Wilson (UI)
1:15-3:15 PM: Session 3 (Levis): “Combinatory
Religious Performance”
Furukawa Motoya (Kanagawa Prefectural Museum): “Kumano
Belief in Eastern Japan”
Kawasaki Takeshi (Shūjitsu U.) “Shugendō and Local
Culture”
Ikumi Kaminishi (Tufts U.) “The Butsumyō-e ceremony: a means for
pacifying hell in Kitano Tenjin emaki”
Daitō Takaaki (Kokugakuin U.) “The
‘Shintō’ Nakatomi Purification Performance in Medieval Buddhist
Temples”
Discussant: Heather Blair (U. Indiana)
3: 30-5:30 PM:
Session 4 (Levis): “Medieval Religion and Culture”
Brian Ruppert (UI) “
Sacred works (Shōgyō) and Religious Performance in Late Medieval Japan: The Monk
Chō’is Networks and Ninnaji Liturgical Practice”
Michael Jamentz (Kyoto U.)
“Sōshō’s copy of the ‘Bodhisattva Fugen Liturgy’ and the Medieval Buddhist
Audience”
Abe Mika (Wako U.) “The Cleveland/Chicago Yūzū Nenbutsu Engi
scrolls and Pure Land Buddhist Textual Performance”
Discussant: Elizabeth
Oyler (UI)
This symposium is part of “Exchanges and Regional Activities
of East Asian Religions” (「東アジアの宗教をめぐる交流と地域的展開」) and “Changes and Exchange in
East Asian Religions” (「東アジアの宗教をめぐる交流と変容」), collaborative research groups which
have been funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology. The event is also prominently sponsored by the University of
Illinois School of Language, Culture, and Linguistics, the National Museum of
Japanese History, Nagoya University, the University of Illinois College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures,
Department of Religion, Program in Medieval Studies, and Center for East Asian
and Pacific Studies.
