Ritual and Reality: Contemporary Japanese Buddhism’s female voices and lived practices

What do the lives of contemporary female priests tell us about Buddhism in Japan today? While these women undergo the same training and sectarian education as their male counterparts, their experiences allow us to see Japanese Buddhism in a different light. Just as they chant the same sutras as men, but in a higher octave, their experiences often occur in a different register. Women frequently have to take over temples when certain situations occur: such as when the abbot, whether an older brother, parent, or husband, dies unexpectedly and there’s no other choice. What is it like to succeed a temple like this, often later in life and without due preparation? What is it like to be fast tracked through the training and thrown into what for many is a totally alien world and an institution that is not designed for you? How do you make it your own?

Using interviews from dozens of priests across Japan, this talk will outline the upbringing, training, and daily lives of female monastics to discuss the gendered realities of contemporary Buddhism in Japan.  

The Speaker

Dr. Mark Rowe is an Associate Professor of Japanese Religions at McMaster University. He is also a recent Japanese Studies Fellow with the Japan Foundation. During his fellowship in 2023/2024, Dr. Rowe stayed in Japan and pursued his research on Female Buddhist Priests in Contemporary Japan. He has an MA from Kyoto University and a PhD from Princeton University. He is primarily an ethnographer of Japanese Buddhism concerned with the lives and activities of “ordinary” priests. His first monograph, Bonds of the Dead: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism, explored changing burial practices as a way to understand contemporary Buddhist institutions and shifting societal norms. He co-edited Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia with Jeffrey Samuels and Justin Thomas McDaniel. His current manuscript Muddy Amida is built on extensive fieldwork and interviews with over 225 priests from across Japan. He is also a die hard Hanshin Tigers fan.

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