Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture Lecture Series 2016

Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan

Edward Drott

October 17, 2016
>From 18:00-19:30
Room 301, 3F, Building 10, Sophia University

Scholars have long remarked on the frequency with which local and Buddhist deities were represented
in premodern Japanese myths and legends taking the appearance of elderly men or, more rarely,
elderly women. Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan (University of Hawai`i
Press) charts the shifting sets of meanings ascribed to old age in early and medieval Japan,
examining how the aged body was used to conceptualize forms of difference and to convey religious
meanings. More specifically, it traces the cultural, political, and religious circumstances that
facilitated the transformation of the aged body from a symbol of alienation and despair into a
symbol of otherworldly power in the late Heian period. Contributing to a burgeoning literature on
religion and the body, Buddhism and the Transformation of Old Age in Medieval Japan applies
approaches developed in gender studies to denaturalize old age, treating it as a matter of
representation, identity, and performance. By tracking the ideological uses of old age in premodern
Japan, this work reveals the role of religion in the construction of generational categories and the
ways in which religious ideas and practices can serve not only to naturalize, but also challenge “
common sense” about the body.

Edward Drott is Associate Professor of Japanese Religions at Sophia University. His recent
publications include “‘Care Must be Taken’: Defilement, Disgust and the Aged Body in Early Japan
” (Journal of Religion in Japan), and “‘To Tread on High Clouds’: Dreams of Eternal Youth in
Early Japan” (Japanese Journal of Religious Studies). He has also published on the nexus of
Buddhist and East Asian medical knowledge in early and medieval Japan. This was the topic of his
article “Gods, Buddhas and Organs: Buddhist Physicians and Theories of Longevity in Early Medieval
Japan,” (Japanese Journal of Religious Studies) and his chapter “Bukkyō igaku to jukyō igaku no
kiro de: Manase Dōsan no Rōjinmon” (“At the Crossroad of “Buddhist medicine” and “Confucian
medicine”: Manase Dōsan’s Rōjinmon”) in Manase Dōsan to Kinsei nihon iryō shakai (Ōsaka: Takeda
kagaku shinkō zaidan, 2015). Most recently, he has completed a translation of the Byōgiron, a
medieval Buddhist medical treatise, for inclusion in the forthcoming Sourcebook of Buddhism &
Healing (Columbia University Press).

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JAPAN
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