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Handbook of Women in Japanese Buddhism book cover

1st Edition

Handbook of Women in Japanese Buddhism

Edited By Monika Schrimpf, Emily B. Simpson Copyright 2027
326 Pages 13 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This handbook explores Buddhist women’s lives and agency from ancient times to the present in Japan. The book examines lives and representations of Buddhist women by utilizing a thematic approach, with each theme representing a network of interrelated gender roles, norms and hierarchies that determine the conditions under which women “lived” and “live” Buddhism. The contributions highlight what... Read more

Introduction

Monika Schrimpf and Emily B. Simpson

Part 1: Women, Gender and Buddhism: Three Key Periods of Japanese History

1. Women, Gender, and Buddhism in Japanese History: The Ancient and Medieval Periods

Lori Meeks

2. Female Practitioners in the Edo and Early Meiji Periods

Brigitte Pickl-Kolaczia

3. Women in Japanese Buddhism from 1900 to 2025

Gwendolyn Gillson

Part 2: Gendered Space, Gendering Spaces

4. Gendered Practice Halls: Jishū in the 14th and 15th Centuries

Caitilin J. Griffiths

5. Working through Gender in Buddhist Spaces

Paulina Kolata and Jessica Starling

Part 3: Music, Sound and Performative Practice

6. Visions of Lumbini: Music, Buddhism and Women’s Organizations in Early 20th-Century Japan

Matt Gillan

7. Women in Hongwanji Shin-Buddhism in Prewar Hawai’i: Dorothy Hunt's English Buddhist Hymns

Endō Mina

8. Women’s Voices in Ritual Vocalization: Moving Beyond Biological Boundaries

Ōuchi Fumi

Part 4: Gendered Sexuality and Embodiment

9. The Depraved Empress: Sexuality and Womanhood in the Demonization of Empress Shōtōku

Emily B. Simpson

10. Questioning the Shaven Head: Hair, Commitment, and Gender Presentation Among Ordained Women in Contemporary Nichiren Buddhism

Niwa Nobuko

Part 5: Medicine, Healthcare and Longevity Rituals

11. Beyond Obstructions and Pollution: Women, Buddhism, and Healing in Premodern Japan

Benedetta Lomi

12. Inside the Womb: Buddhism and the Female Body in the Edo Period

Marta Sanvido

13. Health and Well Being as Ordained Women’s Buddhist Practice

Monika Schrimpf

Part 6: Material and Visual Culture

14. Hair-Related Practices and Female Religiosity in Japanese Buddhism

Simona Lazzerini

15. Lavish Materiality: Visual Ornamentation as Skillful Means in Japan’s Heian and Kamakura Periods

Ikumi Kaminishi

16. Women and Buddhism through Material Culture: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Motherhood from Early Modern to Contemporary Japan

Yasui Manami

Part 7: Reflections on the Field

17. Dōgen’s Message and Early Modern Sōtō Nuns in Japan

Sugawara Ikuko

18. The Household System and Gender Inequality in Japanese Buddhism

Minamoto Junko

Biography

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. 

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