Harvard East Asian
Monographs 366
The Princess Nun
Bunchi, Buddhist Reform, and Gender in Early Edo Japan
Gina Cogan
The Princess Nun tells the story of Bunchi (1619–1697), daughter of Emperor
Go-Mizunoo and founder of Enshōji. Bunchi advocated strict adherence to
monastic precepts while devoting herself to the posthumous welfare of her
family. As the first full-length biographical study of a premodern Japanese
nun, this book incorporates issues of gender and social status into its
discussion of Bunchi’s ascetic practice and religious reforms to rewrite the
history of Buddhist reform and Tokugawa religion.
Gina Cogan’s approach moves beyond the dichotomy of oppression and liberation
that dogs the study of non-Western and premodern women to show how Bunchi’s
aristocratic status enabled her to carry out reforms despite her gender, while
simultaneously acknowledging how that same status contributed to their
conservative nature. Cogan’s analysis of how Bunchi used her prestigious
position to further her goals places the book in conversation with other works
on powerful religious women, like Hildegard of Bingen and Teresa of Avila.
Through its illumination of the relationship between the court and the
shogunate and its analysis of the practice of courtly Buddhism from a female
perspective, this study brings historical depth and fresh theoretical insight
into the role of gender and class in early Edo Buddhism.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674491977
