His decision to become a monk remains the great mystery of his life, and a central focus of both popular imagination and scholarly inquiry over the last eight centuries. Though it is still impossible to know the exact reasons why the samurai and poet Saigyō西行 (1118-1190) became a Buddhist monk in the winter of 1140, there is value in asking the question one more time-not in an effort to find a definitive answer, but to see what answers have been offered and what those answers tell us about the reception of his poetry and persona. By ‘illustrating’ various doctrines (be it karma or Amida’s paradise) rather than discussing theories, the celebrated Tale of Genji might thus have participated in the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan, reinforcing any appropriation of its doctrines as simple “common sense”. It also highlights some rituals, practices and views from the Heian period, which might have influenced Japanese culture for many centuries onwards (even if they didn’t necessarily capture a mature understanding of the doctrines), in part due to the popularity of this Tale itself. This report shows how Buddhist doctrine plays a fundamental rôle in the Tale, as a religion which had social ramifications -notably when one’s nearing the end of one’s life. In particular, tales which are not about Buddhism, and don’t particularly thrive on preserving any clan’s reputation, might offer a window into historical realities without the distortions caused by a doctrinal or political agenda. Tales might prove among the most reliable sources we have about actual Buddhist practice. It remained central to the Japanese cultural life (directly or by derivatives) until today. Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) is a work of literature, attributed to MURASAKI Shikibu, written around the year 1000, which counts of a young imperial prince, Genji. The presence of a strong literary discourse of the Heian that runs against some Japanese elites’ aims renders the Heian period an unappealing choice as a “golden age”, despite its achievements. The second discourse endeavors to rehabilitate the Heian era as another “respectable” piece of the master Japanese historical narrative. The first is far more prevalent, but it depicts certain facets of the Heian period, like differing gender norms, that apparently challenge the nationalist narrative of public history venues. The study concludes that there seem to be two major discourses of the Heian era in contemporary Japan: a literary discourse celebrating the epoch’s aesthetics and a historical discourse that is less enthusiastic. The Heian era has a mixed legacy, making it an interesting case study of nationalist uses of history. Using discourse analysis, it examines how two types of popular historical venues, museums and textbooks, present Japan’s Heian period (794-1185) and explores what this reveals about Japanese national identity formation. This paper investigates the relationship between history and national identity, specifically how “golden ages” in a nation’s past are used for nationalist ends. Essentially I argue all throughout the text that the most relevant feature of the Genji vis-à-vis women is the aesthetics of suffering, a phenomenon that permeated the lives of the women depicted in the tale, thus influencing significantly its female readership. Parallelly, a more concrete analysis of the relevant characters and themes shall be undertaken in order to illustrate with examples the implications of the chosen themes on the general reading of the tale. By highlighting the implications of gender in Heian Buddhist perspective, an attempt will be made to identify the dynamics of the relationship between the two, and the effect that they had on the way the Genji was interpreted and imagined. In the beginning of the essay there will be a short description of the general socio-cultural and historical context in which the Genji was written and read, paying particular attention to the prevalent Buddhist ideas that permeated the court. By doing so an attempt will be made to trace the origin of specific readings of the Genji that have proliferated throughout centuries of literary analysis, thus shaping and canonizing the literary views and aesthetic perceptions of the tale. In this context, this essay investigates the Tale of Genji through the prism of Buddhism and gender, focusing particularly on the circumstances surrounding court women in Heian Japan. In this fictionalized depiction of Heian court society, women were central figures, and the tale goes to great lengths to analyse their feelings and dissect their psychological states. From mono no aware to mujō, from Buddhist propriety to Confucian piety, the Tale of Genji has been a source of literary and philosophical debate for centuries in Japan.
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