Fine Arts 91.2
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Spring 1996
Object as Insight:
Japanese Buddhist Art and Ritual
The Course
From the time of their first encounter with Buddhism in the sixth century, the Japanese
were frequently more fascinated with the visual splendor of the material adornments
that accompanied the Indian religion tahn with philosophical speculations on its central
doctrines. Indeed, the efficacy of the most inportant rituals held at temples in Japan
was most frequently tied to aesthetic experience involving all the senses. This seminar
will examine the nature of Japanese Buddhist ritual and the essential role played by the
material adornments of the faith--the works of art that were and remain an integral part
of Buddhist practice in Japan.
This course is being presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Object as Insight-Japanese Buddhist Art and Ritual held at the Katonah Museum of Art, January 14-March 17 and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, April 19--June 30. There will also be
an international symposium at Amherst College on March 1--2. The exhibition and the
symposium will provide us with a rare opportunity to study the topic of religious ritual in
much greater depth than would be possible in a normal semester.
The seminar is not a survey of Japanese art. It will begin with a discussion of the
relationship between religious ritual and art from a variety of methodological
perspectives. Through comparative analysis it will then attempt to define the character
of that relationship in Japan in the context of images, texts and implements. An
additional goal of the class is to make you conscious of the language of art history and
the type of problems faced by the historian of Japanese art. To achieve that end some
readings in Western art history will be assigned to clarify methodological approaches.
The class will meet Tuesday afternoons from 2:00--4:00 in Fayerweather 202-3. There
will three be field trips: a visit to the exhibition in Katonah, a visit to a private collection in
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the Boston area, and a visit to the exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts during which
there will be a demonstration of the Mury j ky sah , a J do Shin sect ritual by a
group of six monks from Nishi Hongan-ji in Kyoto.
Books
The following texts have been ordered from the Jeffery Amherst College Store on South
Pleasant Street. All other readings can be found on reserve in Frost Library.
Bell, Catherine. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1992.
Matsunaga, Alicia and Daigan Matsunaga. Foundations of Japanese Buddhism.
2 vols. Los Angeles: Buddhist Books International, 1974, 1976.
Morse, Anne Nishimura and Samuel C. Morse. Object as Insight: Japanese
Buddhist Art and Ritual. Katonah, N.Y.: Katonah Museum of Art, 1996.
Williams, Paul. Mah y na Buddhism. London: Routledge, 1989.
REQUIREMENTS
There will be four writing assignments and an in-class presentation modeled after a
College Art Association panel. The first two assignments are to begin to make you
familiar with the language of Japanese art history. The last two assignments will allow
you to focus on a topic of your choice. You will be responsible for critiquing each others
papers as well as responding to the class presentations. All assignments must be
typewritten.
1)
A definition of "ritual," two pages, due February 6.
2)
A formal comparison of two works in the exhibition, four to five pages, due
February 13.
3)
An analysis of one of the papers presented at the symposium, four to five
pages, due March 12.
4)
A final paper and in-class presentation. The draft of the presentation, due
April 23; a fifteen-minute presentation, on May 7 or May 8; and a twelve to
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fifteen page research paper based on the in-class presentation, due the
first day of exam period.
Primary Bibliography
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Astley, Ian, ed. Esoteric Buddhism in Japan. Copenhagen: Seminar for Buddhist
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Belting, Hans. Likeness and Presence--A History of the Image Before the Era of Art.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Birnbaum, Raoul. The Healing Buddha. Boston: Shambala, 1978.
Bodiford, William M. S t
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Zen in Medieval Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Brinker, Helmut. Zen in the Art of Painting. London: Arkana, 1987.
Brinker, Helmut, et al, eds. Zen in China, Japan and East Asian Art. Berne: Peter
Lang, 1985.
Buswell, Robert E. The Zen Monastic Experience. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1992.
Ch'en, Kenneth. Buddhism in China--A Historical Survey. Princeton:Princeton
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Cleary, T., trans. The Flower Ornament Sutra, 2 vols. Boston:Shambala, 1984, 1986.
Clifford, James. The Predicament of Cultures. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1988.
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De Bary, Wm. Theodore, et al., eds. Sources of Japanese Tradition. vol. 1. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1964.
Danto, Arthur. "Artifact and Art." In The Center for African Art, ed. ART/Artifact. New
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XEROX
Fisher, Philip. Making and Effacing Art: Modern American Art in a Culture of Museums.
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XEROX
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Foulk, T. Griffith. "The Zen Institution in Modern Japan." InKenneth Kraft, ed., Zen:
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Freedberg, David. The Power of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
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Garfias, Robert. Music of a Thousand Autumns: The Togaku Style of Japanese Court
Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.
Geary, Patrick J. Furta Sacra--Theft of Relics in the Central Middle Ages. Rev. ed.
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Geertz, Clifford. "Art as a Cultural System." In Local Knowledge. New York: Basic
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Geertz, Clifford. "Religion as a Cultural System." In The Interpretation of Cultures.
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Goepper, Roger. Aizen-My
Zurich: Artibus Asiae, 1993.
--The Esoteric King of Lust an Iconological Study.
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Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst der Stadt Köln, 1988.
Gombrich, Richard. "The Consecration of a Buddhist Image." The Journal of Asian
Studies. Vol. 26 (1965), pp. 23-36. XEROX
Grapard, Allan. "Flying Mountains and Walkers of Emptiness: Toward a Definition of
Sacred Space in Japanese Religions." History of Religions, vol. 21, no 3 (Feb., 1982),
pp. 195-221. XEROX
Grapard, Allan. "Institution, Ritual and Ideology: The Twenty-two Shrine-Temple
Multiplexes of Heian Japan." History of Religions, vol. 27, no. 2 (Nov., 1987), pp. 246269.
Hakeda, Yoshito. K kai: Major Works. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.
Harich-Schneider, Eta. A History of Japanese Music. London: Oxford University
Press, 1973.
Hill, Jackson. "Ritual Music in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism: Shingon Sh my ."
Ethnomusicology, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 27-39. XEROX
Hurvitz, Leon. Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1976.
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Ishida, Hisatoyo. Esoteric Buddhist Painting. Tokyo: Kodansha
International, 1987.
Kamens, Edward. The Three Jewels--A Study and Translation of Minamoto Tamenori's
Sanb e. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, 1988.
Kaneko Hiroaki. "The Priest Shinran's View of Religion and his Portraits." Aesthetics.
No. 4 (March, 1990), pp. 47-63. XEROX
Karp, Ivan and Steven D. Lavine, ed. Exhibiting Cultures. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institition, 1991.
Kashiwahara, Y sen and K y
K sei Publishing, 1994.
Sonoda. Shapers of Japanese Buddhism. Tokyo:
Kaufmann, Walter. "The Mudras in Samavedic Chant and Their Probable Relationship
to the Go-on Hakase of the Sh my in Japan." Ethnomusicology, vol. 11 , no. 2
(1967), pp. 161-169. XEROX
Kennedy, Alan. Manteau de nuages--kesa japonais XVIIe-XIXe siècles. Paris:
Réunion des musées nationaux, 1991.
Kitagawa, Joseph. On Understanding Japanese Religion.
University Press, 1986.
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Kurata, Bunsaku. H ry -ji: Temple of the Exalted Law. New
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Kurata, Bunsaku and Yoshir Tamura. Art of the Lotus Sutra--Japanese
Masterpieces. Tokyo: K sei Publishing, 1987.
LaFleur, William. The Karma of Words. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Lancaster, Lewis. "An Early Mah y na Sermon about the Body of the Buddha and the
Making of Images." Artibus Asiae, 36 (1974), pp. 286-291. XEROX
Lopez, Donald S., Jr., ed. Buddhism in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1995.
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Mah -Parinibb na Suttanta. T. W. Rhys Davids, trans. In F. Max Muller, ed. The
Sacred Books of the East. vol. 11. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881. pp. 1-136.
Malm, William. Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle,
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McCullough, William H. and Helen Craig McCullough, trans. A Tale of Flowering
Fortunes. 2 vols. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980.
McCullough, Helen Craig, trans. The Tale of Heike. Stanford: Stanford University
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Miles, Margaret. Image as Insight. Boston: Beacon Press, 1985.
Miyake Hisao. "Kaikei and the Early Pure Land Community." Paper delivered at the
CAA Convention, San Francisco, Feb. 1989. XEROX
Mizuno K gen. Buddhist Sutras. Tokyo: K seisha, 1982.
Monhart, Michael. "The Use of Sh my in Shingon Ritual." Studies in Central and
East Asian Religions,, vol. 5/6 (1992-3), pp. 139-144.
Monhart, Michael. "A Fusion of Horizons: Sh my in Kogi Shingon Ritual." Studies in
Central and East Asian Religions, vol. 7 (1994), pp. 1-26. XEROX
Morris, Ivan, trans. The Pillow Book of Sei Sh nagon. 2 vols. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1967.
Morse, Samuel C. "Dressed for Salvation--the Hadaka Statues of the Twelfth and
Thirteenth Centuries." Human Figure in the Visual Art of East Asia. Proceedings of the
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Morse, Samuel C. "Jocho's Amida at the Byodo-in and Cultural Legitimization in Late
Heian Japan." RES, no. 23 (Spring, 1993), pp. 96-113. XEROX
Morse, Samuel C. "The Standing Image of Yakushi at Jingo-ji and the Formation of the
Plain-wood Style." Archives of Asian Art, vol. 40 (1987), pp. 36-55.
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Murase, Miyeko. Jewel Rivers--Japanese Art from the Burke Collection. Richmond:
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1993.
Murase, Miyeko. Tales of Japan--Scrolls and Prints from the New York Public Library.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Nagao, Gadjin. "On the Theory of Buddha Body (Buddha-k ya)," in M dhyamika and
Yog c ra. Albany: State University of New York, 1991, pp. 103-122.
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Payne, Richard Karl. The Tantric Ritual of Japan. Delhi: Aditya
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Rambelli, Fabio. "Re-inscribing Mandala: Semiotic Operations on a Word and its
Object." Studies in Central and East Asian Religions, vol. 4 (1991), pp. 1-24.
Ray, Benjamin. "The Koyukon Bear Party and the 'Bare Facts' of Ritual." Numen, vol.
38, no. 2 (?), pp. 151-176.
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Reischaeuer, A.K. "Genshin's Ojo yoshu: Collected Essays on Birth into Paradise."
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XEROX
Rogers, Minor and Ann T. Rogers. Rennyo. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991.
Rosenfield, John M. and Fumiko E. Cranston, Edwin A. Cranston. The Courtly Tradition
in Japanese Art and Literature. Cambridge: Fogg Art Museum, 1973.
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Rosenfield, John M. "The Sedgwick Statue of the Infant Sh toku Taishi." Archives of
Asian Art, no. XXII (1968-1969), pp. 56-79. XEROX
Sanford, James, et al, eds. Flowing Traces. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
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1992.
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Saunders, E. Dale. Mudr --A Study of Symbolic Gestures in Japanese Buddhist
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Scharf, Robert H. and T. Griffith Foulk, "On the Ritual Use of Ch'an Portraiture in
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Scharf, Robert H. "The Idolization of Enlightenment: On the Mummification of Ch'an
Masters in Medieval China." History of Religions, vol. 32, no. 1 (1992) , pp. 1-31.
XEROX
Shimizu, Yoshiaki and John M. Rosenfield. Masters of Japanese Calligraphy 8th--19th
Century. New York: The Asia Society Galleries, 1984.
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Lecture Schedule
Jan. 31
Feb. 6
Introduction--Object as Insight--Japanese Buddhist Art and Practice
Trip to view the exhibition. Meet at the Physical Plant Garage at 1:00 pm.
First written exercise due
Feb. 13
The Nature of Ritual
Second written assignment due
Feb. 20
The Image Hall and Sacred Space
Feb. 27
The Role of the Celebrant
Feb. 29 (Th) "Directly Pointing at the Mind of Man--Compelling Ideas Words and
Images of Zen in the Arts of Brush and Ink."
Lecture by Professor Helmut Brinker, University of Zurich
Mar. 1-2
Mar. 6
Mar. 12
Symposium--Japanese Buddhist Art and Ritual
Stirn Auditorium
Image--Commemorative
Field trip to Harvard University and Private Collection, Cambridge
MA.
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Third written assignment due
Mar. 26
Image--Celestial
Apr. 2
Text--The Word of the Buddha
Apr. 9
Implement
Apr. 16
Art and the Practice of Buddhism in Japan--The Esoteric Tradition
Apr. 21 (Su) Field trip to view a performance of the Mury j ky
Fine Arts, Boston
sah , Museum of
Apr. 23
Art and the Practice of Buddhism in Japan--The Pure Land
Tradition
Apr. 30
The Exhibition of Religious Art--The Question of Context
May 7
May 8 (W)
Presentations
Presentations
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