Articles
Women in Modern Nichiren Buddhism
In the Dragon Girl’s Footsteps : Women in Nichiren Buddhism and Modern Nichirenist Gender Ideology
Abstract
In the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, the movement known as Nichirenism sought to realize an ideal Japan based on the Lotus Sutra and the teachings of the medieval Buddhist figure Nichiren (1222–1282). In pursuing this goal, leaders within the movement sought to mobilize the efforts of women. They formulated a female gender ideology that drew both on Nichiren’s egalitarian reading of the dragon girl episode in the Lotus Sutra and on the contemporary discourse of “good wives, wise mothers” as exemplifying women’s proper social roles.This article has two major aims. One is to provide a preliminary overview of women in Nichiren Buddhist history, considering women in Nichiren’s early community and introducing examples of women practitioners from later medieval and early modern times. The second aim is to analyze how modern Nichirenist advocates crafted and legitimated female gender norms, focusing on writings by the lay leader Tanaka Chigaku (1861–1939) and the elite nun Murakumo Nichijō (1896–1962). The ongoing influence of Nichirenist gender ideology is also addressed. Finally, the article touches on the possibility of alternative readings of Nichiren’s teaching with regard to women.