Title: Ocean of Suffering, Boat of Compassion: A Study of the Fudaraku Tokai and Urashima in Anecdotal (Setsuwa) Literature
Abstract:I begin with an examination of a medieval (circa tenth–sixteenth century) Japanese religious practice called fudaraku tokai. A monk undertaking this practice would set out to sea in a small, single-sa...I begin with an examination of a medieval (circa tenth–sixteenth century) Japanese religious practice called fudaraku tokai. A monk undertaking this practice would set out to sea in a small, single-sailed (but oar-less and rudderless) boat in the hope of arriving at the southern paradise of the Bodhisattva of Compassion (Avalokiteśvara; Guanyin; Kannon). According to accounts of this phenomenon scattered throughout Japanese historical documents, the fudaraku tokai was carried out over twenty times between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries. Next, I closely analyze these textual accounts, focusing in particular on a sixteenth-century Japanese Buddhist narrative entitled Kinpusen Fudarakuin Kannonji Engi 金峰山補陀落院観音寺縁起 (The Origins of Fudaraku Cloister of Kannon temple of Mt. Kinpu; hereafter Fudaraku engi). I argue that fudaraku tokai, while nominally a Japanese Buddhist practice, is in fact the product of a fascinating amalgamation of Daoist, Buddhist, and Japanese cultural elements. This article, besides introducing hitherto unexamined accounts of fudaraku tokai, aims to further reveal and emphasize the diversity of doctrinal, intellectual, and ritual sources upon which medieval Japanese Buddhists drew.Read More
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-10-24
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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