Handbook of Women in Japanese Buddhism

Monika Schrimpf is Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Her research interests are in the field of modern and contemporary Buddhism in Japan, with a particular interest in gendered Buddhism and the entanglement of medicine and religion in contemporary Japan.Emily B. Simpson is currently Assistant Professor in the Department for the Study of Religions at Wake Forest University, USA. Her areas of interest include the conceptualization of Shinto and Buddhist deities as well as the construction of womanhood and gender in religious narratives, especially origin stories.

• Introduction Part I: Women, Gender, and Buddhism: Three Key Periods of Japanese History 1. Women, Gender, and Buddhism in Japanese History: Ancient and Medieval Periods 2. Female Practitioners in the Edo and Early Meiji Periods 3. Women in Japanese Buddhism from 1900 to 2025 Part II: Gendered Space, Gendering Spaces 4. Gendered Practice Halls: Jishū in the 14th and 15th Centuries 5. Working through Gender in Buddhist Spaces Part III: Music, Sound, and Performative Practice 6. Visions of Lumbinī: Music, Buddhism, and Women’s Organizations in Early 20th-Century Japan 7. Women in Hongwanji Shin-Buddhism in Prewar Hawai‘i: Dorothy Hunt’s English Buddhist Hymns 8. Women’s Voices in Ritual Vocalization: Moving Beyond Biological Boundaries Part IV: Gendered Sexuality and Embodiment 9. The Depraved Empress: Sexuality and Womanhood in the Demonization of Empress Shōtōku 10. Questioning the Shaven Head: Hair, Commitment, and Gendered Presentation among Ordained Women in Contemporary Nichiren Buddhism Part V: Medicine, Healthcare, and Longevity Rituals 11. Beyond Obstructions and Pollution: Women, Buddhism, and Healing in Pre-Modern Japan 12. Inside the Womb: Buddhism and the Female Body in the Edo Period 13. Health and Well-Being as Ordained Women’s Buddhist Practice Part VI: Material and Visual Culture 14. Hair-Related Practices and Female Religiosity in Japanese Buddhism 15. Lavish Materiality: Visual Ornamentation as Skillful Means in Japan’s Heian and Kamakura Periods 16. Women and Buddhism through Material Culture: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Motherhood from Early Modern to Contemporary Japan Part VII: Reflections on the Field 17. Dōgen’s Message and Early Modern Sōtō Nuns in Japan 18. The Household System and Gender Inequality in Japanese Buddhism