抄録
In the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, the movement
known as Nichirenism sought to realize an ideal Japan based on the Lotus
Sutra and the teachings of the medieval Buddhist figure Nichiren (1222–
1282). In pursuing this goal, leaders within the movement sought to mobilize
the efforts of women. They formulated a female gender ideology that drew
both on Nichiren’s egalitarian reading of the dragon girl episode in the Lotus
Sutra and on the contemporary discourse of “good wives, wise mothers” as
exemplifying women’s proper social roles.
This article has two major aims. One is to provide a preliminary overview
of women in Nichiren Buddhist history, considering women in Nichiren’s
early community and introducing examples of women practitioners from later
medieval and early modern times. The second aim is to analyze how modern
Nichirenist advocates crafted and legitimated female gender norms, focusing
on writings by the lay leader Tanaka Chigaku (1861–1939) and the elite nun
Murakumo Nichijō (1896–1962). The ongoing influence of Nichirenist gender
ideology is also addressed. Finally, the article touches on the possibility of
alternative readings of Nichiren’s teaching with regard to women.
