PAPERS by Ross Bender
Brill's Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume II: Lives , 2019
While the kami Hachiman is one of the most popular Shinto deities in Japan today, in its historic... more While the kami Hachiman is one of the most popular Shinto deities in Japan today, in its historical incarnation as Great Bodhisattva the god has been a combinatory Shinto/Buddhist deity par excellence. The cult, whose history can be traced back to the eighth century AD, comprises a broad multiplicity of theological ideas that has continued to develop over the centuries, characterized by oracular, tutelary and martial themes; today its most famous rite is the Hōjōe, in which birds, fish and insects are released at the shrines, symbolizing the Buddha's compassion. Tōdaiji in Nara houses the most famous sculpture of the deity in the form of a Buddhist priest.
Western audiences have become familiar with the great gems of classical and medieval Japanese lit... more Western audiences have become familiar with the great gems of classical and medieval Japanese literature. Four translations into English have been made of Genji Monogatari and at least three of Heike Monogatari and renditions of these classics exist in almost all European languages. By contrast the ancient Japanese classics have been neglected. Only recently has there been a new blossoming of studies and translations of Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, Man’yōshū, and Shoku Nihongi.
Western audiences have become familiar with the great gems of classical and medieval Japanese lit... more Western audiences have become familiar with the great gems of classical and medieval Japanese literature. Four translations into English have been made of Genji Monogatari and at least three of Heike Monogatari and renditions of these classics exist in almost all European languages. By contrast the ancient Japanese classics have been neglected. Only recently has there been a new blossoming of studies and translations of Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, Man’yōshū, and Shoku Nihongi.
This PowerPoint presentation is to accompany the article.
The Shoku Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan, Continued) is the official court history of eighth-centur... more The Shoku Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan, Continued) is the official court history of eighth-century Japan. Presented to the court of Emperor Kanmu in two recensions, 794 and 797, it comprises the annals of the Japanese imperial court from 697 to 791. This voluminous chronicle, five volumes in the standard edition, contains an enormous amount of information on the imperial institution, economic and demographic history, and also a great amount of detail on the system of court ranks instituted in the Taihō Ritsuryō, promulgated in 701 and 702. In this study I present briefly data on the total numbers of court ranks appearing in Shoku Nihongi, as well as information on the growth of the system over the forty volumes, or maki, of the chronicle. The raw data appears in a matrix developed in an MS Excel spreadsheet and available here: https://hcommons.org/docs/court-rank-in-shoku-nihongi-rank-matrix/. Below are a number of preliminary charts and graphs based on this data. These are merely suggestions, and those students with an interest in the subject are welcome to make use of the data in any way they might see fit. Note that the old system of court ranks instituted by Emperor Tenmu gives way almost immediately to the new Ritsuryō system. The data were compiled by searching for each occurrence of the 112 ranks appearing in Shoku Nihongi in each of the forty maki. This produced a gross count of 9,929 instances. The largest single court rank, that of Jr Fifth Lower, appeared 2,555 times. The next largest was Jr Fifth Upper, with a total frequency of 1,020. This demonstrates that the bulk of the court aristocracy held these ranks. Obviously there is much repetition, since individuals with the same rank are counted repeatedly, so that a putative net count of individual courtiers would be much smaller. However, one possible avenue of research might be to identify particular courtiers and to trace their ascent through the bureaucracy over the eighth century. Fujiwara no Asomi Nakamaro would be an excellent test case for such an approach. The first graph shows the frequency of each type of court rank, with the obvious peak at 2,555, while the second shows the growth over time, with a trendline. Note that the table on page 3 gives a breakdown of the forty maki by date. Some maki cover only a single year in the western calendar, while others extend over as many as six years. The final two graphs show the growth over time of the Jr Fifth rank and the top six ranks.
PMJS Papers, Jun 18, 2012
The year Tenpyō Shōhō 1 as narrated in the court chronicle Shoku Nihongi was one of the most mome... more The year Tenpyō Shōhō 1 as narrated in the court chronicle Shoku Nihongi was one of the most momentous years in the eighth century, an era teeming with dramatic political intrigue, rebellions and succession disputes. Corresponding roughly to the year 749 in the Julian calendar, it saw the abdication of the Emperor Shōmu and the accession of his daughter Abe no Naishinnō, the first female Crown Princess, as the Empress Kōken. Shōmu declared himself the slave of the Three Treasures at Tōdaiji, and the mysterious and mighty kami Hachiman entered the Nara capital. The year was the occasion for two changes of nengō, or era name, first from Tenpyō 21 to Tenpyō Kanpō 1, then to Tenpyō Shōhō 1. The following complete translation, the first into English or any other Western language, provides a direct window into the mid-eighth century and highlights crucial events of the Nara period in a way which has not been provided before.
Hōjōgawa is a god play by Zeami which is in the currently performed repertoire. It describes the ... more Hōjōgawa is a god play by Zeami which is in the currently performed repertoire. It describes the autumn festival (Hōjōe) of Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine at which birds and fish are released. Like its counterpart, Yumi Yawata ["The Bow of Hachiman"], which describes the spring festival at Iwashimizu, Hōjōgawa portrays a god who protects the emperor and brings peace to the realm. Like the spring festival, the Hōjōe connects the present time with the Age of the Gods, the divine time of origins with the temporal cycle. Although Hachiman in Yumi Yawata is depicted as a Bodhisattva, Hōjōgawa more explicitly stresses the religious mission of the Bodhisattva. The Hōjōe is a Buddhist rite that makes tangible the vow of the Bodhisattva to release all living beings. The action of releasing birds and fish in the shrine precincts is a salvific gesture that mimes the cosmic deliverance.
"I was greatly impressed by Dr. Ross Bender's valuable article, 'The Hachiman Cult and the Dokyo ... more "I was greatly impressed by Dr. Ross Bender's valuable article, 'The Hachiman Cult and the Dokyo Incident', in Monumenta Nipponica, XXXIV:2, but I would like to discuss one major issue which is of much significance as regards the cultural and political history of eighth-century Japan.
We can sum up one of the most important conclusions of this article by quoting Dr. Bender's own words:'...during the Nara period there was a crisis in the emperor's relations with the gods; since the gods were appealed to as an ultimate sanction for human reign, this meant a crisis of legitimacy' (p.146).
Nobody can deny the growing power of Buddhism in the Nara period and its influence over political issues in Japan was quite significant. But at the same time, one should not overestimate this power, and this may be proved by a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Nihon Shoki and Shoku Nihongi."
"THE POLITICAL MEANING OF THE HACHIMAN CULT
IN ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL JAPAN
ROSS LY... more "THE POLITICAL MEANING OF THE HACHIMAN CULT
IN ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL JAPAN
ROSS LYNN BENDER
This is a study of the state cult of the Shinto deity Hachiman from the eighth century through early medieval times. During this period there flourished three major state shrines to Hachiman: Usa, an ancient shrine in Kyushu of uncertain origin which gained the patronage of the Nara court; Iwashimizu, founded near Kyoto in the ninth century, and supported by the Heian emperors; and Tsurugaoka, sponsored by the military government at Kamakura. The entries in official historical chronicles describing the worship of Hachiman at these shrines form the basic source material for this study. My purpose in analyzing these fragmentary accounts of the body of beliefs which I term the state cult of Hachiman is to identify political ideas embodied in the Hachiman faith.
The first chapter describes the rise of the Usa Shrine from obscurity to national prominence, and emphasizes that the Hachiman oracles given through a medium at Usa were an important reason for that development. The role of the Hachiman belief in the crisis of 769, when the Buddhist priest Dokyo attempted to usurp the throne by claiming Hachiman's support, is the subject of Chapter Two. In this crisis of legitimacy, the deity Hachiman was looked to as an arbiter to decide who should rule Japan.
Chapter Three is a study of the new identities, those of Great Bodhisattva and Imperial Ancestor, which Hachiman acquired in the early Heian period, and of the imperial tutelary cult which developed at Iwashimizu on the basis of these identities. Hachiman, bot in his role as imperial ancestor and as bodhisattva, was viewed as a divine guardian of the state and of the emperor.
The development of the association of the warrior clan of the Minamoto with Hachiman at Tsurugaoka Shrine is analyzed in Chapter Four. This chapter emphasizes that the Minamoto worshipped Hachiman as a tutelary deity and as a source of legitimacy for their new military government, and not just as a god of war.
The fifth chapter examines the images of Hachiman in selected medieval literary works. Three historical aspects, or stages, of the cult described in the previous chapters -- the oracular, tutelary, and martial -- are used as classifications of the Hachiman material in those works.
In the conclusion I argue that the political meaning of the Hachiman cult throughout the five and a half centuries studied was that the body of beliefs about Hachiman comprised ideas concerning legitimacy -- the right to exercise political power. This body of beliefs was a consistent and coherent system of thought, even though it was not fully articulated as political philosophy."
From the beginning, ours has been a land
Where the gods protect the emperor.
The vow of this god ... more From the beginning, ours has been a land
Where the gods protect the emperor.
The vow of this god in particular
Illumines the night
Like the light of the moon.
The waters of Iwashimizu flow ceaselessly,
And as long as the stream runs on
Living beings are released.
How glorious is the god's compassion!
Truly this is an auspicious time.
These lines express the true theme of the play. The work presents an image of Hachiman in his tutelary aspect; this is the Heian conception of the god, and that most closely associated with the Iwashimizu shrine and the protection of the emperor. Near the end of the play Hachiman is revealed as a Bodhisattva, the symbol of profound and eternal compassion. But the Bodhisattva is seen as having a political function: not only does he release living beings, but he protects the emperor as well.
BOOK CHAPTERS by Ross Bender
The Era of Female Sovereigns
From 592 when the first female sovereign, Suiko, took the throne, un... more The Era of Female Sovereigns
From 592 when the first female sovereign, Suiko, took the throne, until the death of Shōtoku in 770, six women reigned as supreme rulers of Japan, interspersed among male rulers. In the official histories they were all named “tennō.” Although this term, which literally means “heavenly sovereign,” is usually translated as “emperor,” the Japanese word does not make a distinction between male or female. One of the difficulties in writing about ancient Japanese history in English is the ambiguity of the term “empress,” which is used for both reigning female monarchs and the consorts of reigning monarchs. We speak, for example, of the “Empress Jitō,” who was both the spouse of the Emperor Tenmu but also tennō in her own right after his death. But the female tennō Genmei, Genshō, and Kōken were never the consorts of male rulers, and the latter two never married. One solution would be to simply call the female tennō “emperor,” but at present the convention is either to term them all “Empress” or to use some circumlocution such as “female sovereign.”
Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850 Edited by Karl F. Friday Westview Press, 2012, 2012
THE NARA SYNTHESIS
“In retrospect, we can see that by the close of the eighth century, several... more THE NARA SYNTHESIS
“In retrospect, we can see that by the close of the eighth century, several key patterns of institutional structure and political thought had been established in Japan. These include (1) the establishment of a major capital city on the Chinese model; (2) an imperial institution at the apex of a ranked bureaucracy; (3) an aristocracy grounded in law and based on wealth in landholding; and (4) an emerging syncretic royal political ideology. This political ideology incorporated elements of Buddhist protection of the emperor, Chinese philosophical and practical ideas about the conduct of an ideal state, and native ideas concerning the divine ancestry of the nation and its leaders.”
p. 119
PHOTOS by Ross Bender
BOOKS by Ross Bender
Virgin Queen: Female Emperor Genshō: 715-724: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi, 2023
Female Emperor Genshō's accession to the throne was particularly unusual, even in a period of Jap... more Female Emperor Genshō's accession to the throne was particularly unusual, even in a period of Japanese history when there was no usual pattern of imperial succession. To begin with, it was the first and only time a mother passed the throne to her daughter; Female Emperor Genmei had abdicated in 715. Second, Genshō was the first of the ancient female sovereigns to never marry. Third, her accession edict was inscribed in Shoku Nihongi in classical Chinese, rather than as a senmyō in Old Japanese, like those of the other eighth century emperors.
Mother of Nara: Female Emperor Genmei, 707-715 - A Translation from Shoku Nihongi, 2023
Female Emperor Genshō who took the throne in 715 after Genmei's abdication. Several poems in the ... more Female Emperor Genshō who took the throne in 715 after Genmei's abdication. Several poems in the Man'yōshū are attributed to her, including a well-known lament upon moving to the new capital. Shoku Nihongi records that she ordered the compilation of the provincial gazetteers that became known as the Fudoki. However, the chronicle does not record the presentation of the Kojiki to her court, although its preface gives the precise date in 712. Her grandson Prince Obito, the later Shōmu Tennō, came of age during her reign. Copper was discovered in 708, leading to the minting of the first official Japanese coins, and the period of her rule is distinguished by the ongoing attempts to introduce the currency into the economy, as well as the rollout of many features of the Ritsuryō law codes.
The Brief Reign of Emperor Monmu, 697-707: A Translation from Shoku Nihongi, 2023
Emperor Monmu's brief reign was sandwiched between those of two women sovereigns. He was preceded... more Emperor Monmu's brief reign was sandwiched between those of two women sovereigns. He was preceded by his grandmother, female Emperor Jitō, and succeeded by his mother (and great-aunt), female Emperor Genmei. Monmu ascended to the throne in 697 at the tender age of 14, the youngest Tennō thus far. He died about ten years later. The most significant incident of his reign was the promulgation of the Ritsuryō, the civil and penal codes, in 701.
The last female emperor of Nara Japan was Kōken/Shōtoku Tennō, who ruled from 749 to 770, with an... more The last female emperor of Nara Japan was Kōken/Shōtoku Tennō, who ruled from 749 to 770, with an interregnum from 758 to 764. She was the last in a series of six ancient empresses regnant in Japan, who ruled, interspersed with male royals, from 592 to 770. This revised edition includes maps, biographic details, and a kanji reference index.
This collection of essays comprises both previously unpublished material and revisions of publish... more This collection of essays comprises both previously unpublished material and revisions of published articles and book chapters. The present volume begins with the third century and concludes at the end of the ninth. The majority of the pieces center on the Nara and early Heian periods, when the imperial capitals were established at Heijōkyō and Heiankyō. Aside from the first chapter, the source of the material is the Six National Histories, or Rikkokushi. My emphasis here is on imperial rule, the Japanese court's self-identification as an empire and the political ideology that legitimized the reign of male and female emperors. Emperors viewed themselves as manifest gods, whose subjects were not only all persons in the Japanese realm, but also the kingdoms of Silla and Palhae on the Korean peninsula. Emperors issued edicts addressed in the eighth century to the high court nobility and then increasingly in the ninth century to Shinto deities at particular shrines as well as the spirits of previous emperors at their tombs. Ancient Japan is an area which is understudied by Western scholars, and this volume is intended to help correct that situation.
Senmyō: Old Japanese Imperial Edicts in the National Histories 697-887, 2021
The Old Japanese edicts in Shoku Nihongi have been intensively if not exhaustively studied. Remar... more The Old Japanese edicts in Shoku Nihongi have been intensively if not exhaustively studied. Remarkably, the readings that Motoori Norinaga assigned to them in the eighteenth century are essentially in place still today. Senmyō, due to Norinaga’s prescribing of the canon, has come to be the categorization for these sixty-two imperial rescripts. However, little to no attention has been paid either in Japan or the West to a larger number of Old Japanese edicts in senmyōtai appearing in the later National Histories. In addition, the four ninth-century official court histories inscribed in classical Chinese -- Nihon Kōki, Shoku Nihon Kōki, Nihon Montoku Tennō Jitsuroku, and Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku -- have received nothing like the interest that has been devoted over the years to Nihon Shoki and Shoku Nihongi. Stylistically these later senmyō are very much like those in Shoku Nihongi, inscribed in Old Japanese with large and small characters.
Uploads
PAPERS by Ross Bender
This PowerPoint presentation is to accompany the article.
We can sum up one of the most important conclusions of this article by quoting Dr. Bender's own words:'...during the Nara period there was a crisis in the emperor's relations with the gods; since the gods were appealed to as an ultimate sanction for human reign, this meant a crisis of legitimacy' (p.146).
Nobody can deny the growing power of Buddhism in the Nara period and its influence over political issues in Japan was quite significant. But at the same time, one should not overestimate this power, and this may be proved by a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Nihon Shoki and Shoku Nihongi."
IN ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL JAPAN
ROSS LYNN BENDER
This is a study of the state cult of the Shinto deity Hachiman from the eighth century through early medieval times. During this period there flourished three major state shrines to Hachiman: Usa, an ancient shrine in Kyushu of uncertain origin which gained the patronage of the Nara court; Iwashimizu, founded near Kyoto in the ninth century, and supported by the Heian emperors; and Tsurugaoka, sponsored by the military government at Kamakura. The entries in official historical chronicles describing the worship of Hachiman at these shrines form the basic source material for this study. My purpose in analyzing these fragmentary accounts of the body of beliefs which I term the state cult of Hachiman is to identify political ideas embodied in the Hachiman faith.
The first chapter describes the rise of the Usa Shrine from obscurity to national prominence, and emphasizes that the Hachiman oracles given through a medium at Usa were an important reason for that development. The role of the Hachiman belief in the crisis of 769, when the Buddhist priest Dokyo attempted to usurp the throne by claiming Hachiman's support, is the subject of Chapter Two. In this crisis of legitimacy, the deity Hachiman was looked to as an arbiter to decide who should rule Japan.
Chapter Three is a study of the new identities, those of Great Bodhisattva and Imperial Ancestor, which Hachiman acquired in the early Heian period, and of the imperial tutelary cult which developed at Iwashimizu on the basis of these identities. Hachiman, bot in his role as imperial ancestor and as bodhisattva, was viewed as a divine guardian of the state and of the emperor.
The development of the association of the warrior clan of the Minamoto with Hachiman at Tsurugaoka Shrine is analyzed in Chapter Four. This chapter emphasizes that the Minamoto worshipped Hachiman as a tutelary deity and as a source of legitimacy for their new military government, and not just as a god of war.
The fifth chapter examines the images of Hachiman in selected medieval literary works. Three historical aspects, or stages, of the cult described in the previous chapters -- the oracular, tutelary, and martial -- are used as classifications of the Hachiman material in those works.
In the conclusion I argue that the political meaning of the Hachiman cult throughout the five and a half centuries studied was that the body of beliefs about Hachiman comprised ideas concerning legitimacy -- the right to exercise political power. This body of beliefs was a consistent and coherent system of thought, even though it was not fully articulated as political philosophy."
Where the gods protect the emperor.
The vow of this god in particular
Illumines the night
Like the light of the moon.
The waters of Iwashimizu flow ceaselessly,
And as long as the stream runs on
Living beings are released.
How glorious is the god's compassion!
Truly this is an auspicious time.
These lines express the true theme of the play. The work presents an image of Hachiman in his tutelary aspect; this is the Heian conception of the god, and that most closely associated with the Iwashimizu shrine and the protection of the emperor. Near the end of the play Hachiman is revealed as a Bodhisattva, the symbol of profound and eternal compassion. But the Bodhisattva is seen as having a political function: not only does he release living beings, but he protects the emperor as well.
BOOK CHAPTERS by Ross Bender
From 592 when the first female sovereign, Suiko, took the throne, until the death of Shōtoku in 770, six women reigned as supreme rulers of Japan, interspersed among male rulers. In the official histories they were all named “tennō.” Although this term, which literally means “heavenly sovereign,” is usually translated as “emperor,” the Japanese word does not make a distinction between male or female. One of the difficulties in writing about ancient Japanese history in English is the ambiguity of the term “empress,” which is used for both reigning female monarchs and the consorts of reigning monarchs. We speak, for example, of the “Empress Jitō,” who was both the spouse of the Emperor Tenmu but also tennō in her own right after his death. But the female tennō Genmei, Genshō, and Kōken were never the consorts of male rulers, and the latter two never married. One solution would be to simply call the female tennō “emperor,” but at present the convention is either to term them all “Empress” or to use some circumlocution such as “female sovereign.”
“In retrospect, we can see that by the close of the eighth century, several key patterns of institutional structure and political thought had been established in Japan. These include (1) the establishment of a major capital city on the Chinese model; (2) an imperial institution at the apex of a ranked bureaucracy; (3) an aristocracy grounded in law and based on wealth in landholding; and (4) an emerging syncretic royal political ideology. This political ideology incorporated elements of Buddhist protection of the emperor, Chinese philosophical and practical ideas about the conduct of an ideal state, and native ideas concerning the divine ancestry of the nation and its leaders.”
p. 119
PHOTOS by Ross Bender
BOOKS by Ross Bender
This PowerPoint presentation is to accompany the article.
We can sum up one of the most important conclusions of this article by quoting Dr. Bender's own words:'...during the Nara period there was a crisis in the emperor's relations with the gods; since the gods were appealed to as an ultimate sanction for human reign, this meant a crisis of legitimacy' (p.146).
Nobody can deny the growing power of Buddhism in the Nara period and its influence over political issues in Japan was quite significant. But at the same time, one should not overestimate this power, and this may be proved by a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Nihon Shoki and Shoku Nihongi."
IN ANCIENT AND EARLY MEDIEVAL JAPAN
ROSS LYNN BENDER
This is a study of the state cult of the Shinto deity Hachiman from the eighth century through early medieval times. During this period there flourished three major state shrines to Hachiman: Usa, an ancient shrine in Kyushu of uncertain origin which gained the patronage of the Nara court; Iwashimizu, founded near Kyoto in the ninth century, and supported by the Heian emperors; and Tsurugaoka, sponsored by the military government at Kamakura. The entries in official historical chronicles describing the worship of Hachiman at these shrines form the basic source material for this study. My purpose in analyzing these fragmentary accounts of the body of beliefs which I term the state cult of Hachiman is to identify political ideas embodied in the Hachiman faith.
The first chapter describes the rise of the Usa Shrine from obscurity to national prominence, and emphasizes that the Hachiman oracles given through a medium at Usa were an important reason for that development. The role of the Hachiman belief in the crisis of 769, when the Buddhist priest Dokyo attempted to usurp the throne by claiming Hachiman's support, is the subject of Chapter Two. In this crisis of legitimacy, the deity Hachiman was looked to as an arbiter to decide who should rule Japan.
Chapter Three is a study of the new identities, those of Great Bodhisattva and Imperial Ancestor, which Hachiman acquired in the early Heian period, and of the imperial tutelary cult which developed at Iwashimizu on the basis of these identities. Hachiman, bot in his role as imperial ancestor and as bodhisattva, was viewed as a divine guardian of the state and of the emperor.
The development of the association of the warrior clan of the Minamoto with Hachiman at Tsurugaoka Shrine is analyzed in Chapter Four. This chapter emphasizes that the Minamoto worshipped Hachiman as a tutelary deity and as a source of legitimacy for their new military government, and not just as a god of war.
The fifth chapter examines the images of Hachiman in selected medieval literary works. Three historical aspects, or stages, of the cult described in the previous chapters -- the oracular, tutelary, and martial -- are used as classifications of the Hachiman material in those works.
In the conclusion I argue that the political meaning of the Hachiman cult throughout the five and a half centuries studied was that the body of beliefs about Hachiman comprised ideas concerning legitimacy -- the right to exercise political power. This body of beliefs was a consistent and coherent system of thought, even though it was not fully articulated as political philosophy."
Where the gods protect the emperor.
The vow of this god in particular
Illumines the night
Like the light of the moon.
The waters of Iwashimizu flow ceaselessly,
And as long as the stream runs on
Living beings are released.
How glorious is the god's compassion!
Truly this is an auspicious time.
These lines express the true theme of the play. The work presents an image of Hachiman in his tutelary aspect; this is the Heian conception of the god, and that most closely associated with the Iwashimizu shrine and the protection of the emperor. Near the end of the play Hachiman is revealed as a Bodhisattva, the symbol of profound and eternal compassion. But the Bodhisattva is seen as having a political function: not only does he release living beings, but he protects the emperor as well.
From 592 when the first female sovereign, Suiko, took the throne, until the death of Shōtoku in 770, six women reigned as supreme rulers of Japan, interspersed among male rulers. In the official histories they were all named “tennō.” Although this term, which literally means “heavenly sovereign,” is usually translated as “emperor,” the Japanese word does not make a distinction between male or female. One of the difficulties in writing about ancient Japanese history in English is the ambiguity of the term “empress,” which is used for both reigning female monarchs and the consorts of reigning monarchs. We speak, for example, of the “Empress Jitō,” who was both the spouse of the Emperor Tenmu but also tennō in her own right after his death. But the female tennō Genmei, Genshō, and Kōken were never the consorts of male rulers, and the latter two never married. One solution would be to simply call the female tennō “emperor,” but at present the convention is either to term them all “Empress” or to use some circumlocution such as “female sovereign.”
“In retrospect, we can see that by the close of the eighth century, several key patterns of institutional structure and political thought had been established in Japan. These include (1) the establishment of a major capital city on the Chinese model; (2) an imperial institution at the apex of a ranked bureaucracy; (3) an aristocracy grounded in law and based on wealth in landholding; and (4) an emerging syncretic royal political ideology. This political ideology incorporated elements of Buddhist protection of the emperor, Chinese philosophical and practical ideas about the conduct of an ideal state, and native ideas concerning the divine ancestry of the nation and its leaders.”
p. 119
Available as a paperback at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1983595454
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Ebook - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XDQKZXB
Table of Contents
The Dōkyō Supremacy
Imperial Legitimacy and the Hachiman Oracle
Death of the Empress and Kōnin’s Accession
Appendix: Kanji Reference List and Glossary
Book:
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Kindle edition:
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Nakamaro’s Revolt and the Exile of Junnin
Imperial Restoration
The Rise of Dōkyō
Syncretic Political Theology and the Imperial Institution
Appendix: Kanji Reference List and Glossary
Book:
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The Junnin Interregnum and the Nakamaro Supremacy
Foreign Relations: Parhae, Tang, and Silla
Coinage, Inflation, and Natural Disasters
Political Theology: A Dialog Between Throne and Officialdom
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Kindle edition:
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Paperback available at https://www.amazon.com/Edicts-Last-Empress-749-770-Translation/dp/1500896020/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Kindle edition available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XDQKZXB
The Global Eighth Century: A Comparative Assessment of Socio-Economic and Political Developments in the Eighth Century CE Across Eurasia
Organized by Eric Hermans
Sun Mar 30 2014, 8:00 to 10:00am
Approaching Ancient Japan: New Methods and Sources for an Interdisciplinary Study of the Nara Period (710-784)
Session Organizer: Bryan Lowe (Vanderbilt University)
Political Theology in the Reign of Nara’s Last Empress: Edicts and Memorials in the Shoku Nihongi
*Ross Bender (Independent Scholar)
Spell, Song, or Salutation? The Naniwazu Poem on Inscribed Objects
*Joshua Frydman (Yale University)
Upholding the Buddha with a Century of Study: The Pedestal of Yakushiji’s Main Icon
*Cynthea Bogel (Kyushu University)
Networks of Practice: Early Japanese Buddhism through the Lens of the Shosoin Corpus
*Bryan Lowe (Vanderbilt University)
Chair: Bryan Lowe (Vanderbilt University)
Discussant: Samuel Morse (Amherst College)
Abstract
Objects and texts produced in the Nara period (710-784) played a foundational role in shaping the political, literary, artistic, and religious history of Japan. In the eighth century, individuals from diverse social backgrounds cooperated to build bureaucratic institutions centered on a sovereign claiming divine descent, develop novel ritual and artistic technologies that altered pre-existing practices and beliefs, and rapidly disseminate writing through economic and poetic exchanges. Despite the centrality of this period to the emergence of Japan as a cultural and political entity, Western research remains limited, a shortcoming that has precluded conversations across disciplines and with researchers working on later eras. This panel, composed of scholars at various stages in their careers, reassesses early Japan by introducing a range of materials that demonstrate the benefits of interdisciplinary research. First, a historian examines imperial edicts and memorials to the throne to highlight the diverse ideological resources employed in the court of Nara’s last female sovereign. Next, a scholar of literature turns to excavated tablets inscribed with poems to evaluate their ritual, political, and material meanings. Third, an art historian considers the motivations that led artists to deploy a unique configuration of trans-cultural motifs on a pedestal under a Buddhist statue. Lastly, a Buddhologist uses ledgers and memos from a state sanctioned scriptorium to explore the religious lives of mid-level administrators and laborers otherwise absent from the historical record. Taken together, these papers show the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach to a period in which the sources transcend modern departmental divisions.
The period 600-900 CE witnessed important historical developments, such as the establishment of a Southeast Asian thalassocracy by the Shailendra dynasty and the expansion of the Frankish polity under Charlemagne on the far ends of Eurasia and the consolidation of the Abbasid and Tang empires in between. A Companion to the Global Early Middle Ages integrates these contemporaneous processes and presents new insights into a neglected phase of world history