John K. Nelson. Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2013. xxiv + 292 pp. $60.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8248-3833-1; $32.00 (paper), ISBN 978-0-8248-3898-0.
Reviewed by Elisabetta Porcu (University of Cape Town)
Published on H-Shukyo (March, 2015)
Commissioned by Jolyon B. Thomas (University of Pennsylvania)
Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Japanese Buddhism
John K. Nelson’s Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan explores ways religious institutions and individual priests in Japan are trying to cope with the challenges posed by a “market-driven, hybrid society” (p. xvi). A common denominator that links the stories and cases analyzed in this book is the need felt by religious leaders and actors to make Buddhism relevant for today’s society through “innovative” strategies, programs, enterprises, and activism, as well as the entrepreneurial character of local temples’ administrators, who usually are not motivated or supported by the headquarters. The case studies discussed here emphasize individual agency and the fundamental role of society in reshaping religious institutions and traditions, and show the ways activism and experimentation begin at the local level (individual temples) and not at the top level (headquarters). While building upon other studies on “temple Buddhism,” Nelson’s analysis aims at a new level of priests’ engagement and local temples dynamics that are “under siege by domestic and global forces specific to the conditions of late modernity” (p. 18).[1]
Experimental Buddhism is interdisciplinary in scope and based on Nelson’s extended ethnographic fieldwork, which makes the book well rooted within a living Japanese religious landscape. As Nelson himself is well aware, his results are limited to a small section of this landscape—it could not be otherwise—and therefore the book is not meant to provide an overall view of Japanese Buddhism. Needless to say, not all temple priests in Japan can be included in what the author refers to as “experimental” Buddhism. Many religious leaders are interested in pursuing their business through less innovative strategies. Despite, or probably because of, the “niche” nature of the cases analyzed here, Nelson’s exploration offers a fine and fascinating account of the state of local Japanese Buddhism today. Local does not mean here that temples and institutions are considered as limited to their own environment and standing apart from a much broader view. On the contrary, the local is rightly seen as a product informed by global forces and causes which Buddhist denominations in Japan need to cope with and accommodate accordingly. This reality is inextricably linked to the definition of “experimental Buddhism,” for which Nelson gives five basic characteristics (chapter 1). These include historical developments and socioeconomic changes (what he calls “positioning”), “agency” of individuals in shaping their (religious or spiritual) lives, “negotiation” that leads priests to commit and try to reshape and adapt their own tradition, the relevance of contemporary society seen as the “testing ground” for Buddhist practice, and finally a constant “reinvention” of religious traditions (pp. 22–24). Religion is thus deeply embedded in a social fabric that continuously reshapes it by urging religious institutions and individual actors to take measures and countermeasures in a trial-and-error pattern.
In order to guide readers who are not familiar with its history, chapter 2 offers an “executive summary” (p. 28) of Japanese Buddhism, from its origins in Japan in the sixth century up to the present day. This cursory summary reveals also the well-known issue of a tradition dedicated almost exclusively to funerals and rites for the ancestors and the concerns of religious leaders (and temple members) of Buddhism being inadequate to meet the needs of individuals living in the twenty-first century. The chapter provides the ground to explain the urge felt by some temple administrators to go “experimental.” Different from the rest of the book, where the main actors are temple head priests, three views of religious leaders belonging to the Tendai, Sōtō Zen, and Jōdoshū (Pure Land) denominations, are presented here, and the importance of memorials for founders, in particular Hōnen’s 800th memorial, as an occasion for restructuring religious institutions and making them more visible is highlighted here as well.[2]
Despite a declared disjunction between institutions and local actors, Nelson manages to make a smooth transition between chapter 2 and chapter 3, which is focused on “Buddhist-inspired activism.” Nelson prefers this term to the more common “socially engaged Buddhism” and considers it an “experimental approach” with an emphasis on individual agency. Among the various examples offered by the author, we can find temples that collaborate with NGOs and NPOs in the care for the elderly; offer shelter for victims of domestic violence; providecounseling services; and engage in suicide prevention activities—in a word, temples that have decided to be relevant at the community level, whether within or outside of Japan. The chapter closes with two sections dedicated to the role of temple Buddhism after the “triple disaster” that hit northeastern Japan on March 2011 and its terrible consequences. The author shows some instances of activities carried out by Buddhist priests and headquarters, such as donations to relief organizations, temporary housing for the victims, and counseling. Also, the thorny issue of nuclear power industry in Japan and the stance of Buddhist institutions are briefly analyzed here. The tone of Experimental Buddhism is sympathetic throughout, but to conclude this chapter the author (intentionally) adopts a normative attitude to the matter by listing possible ways Buddhist leaders could play a relevant role in this debate.
While anecdotes and examples are numerous in this book, its core cases are presented in chapter 4. Four “innovative endeavors” (p. 112) are taken from Jōdoshū (Ōtenin in Osaka), Rinzai Zen (Jingūji in Matsumoto), Shingon (Everyone’s Temple in Nara), and Jōdoshinshū (Zuikōji in Osaka) denominations. The stories of four temple priests who have become aware of the necessity to start programs for revitalizing their own temples and making them relevant to their community are detailed here. Nelson offers a sympathetic account of their personal histories, motivations, experiences, and difficulties encountered during their path. Be it a Buddhist bar (Vows Bar), or a temple built in a shopping arcade (Everyone’s Temple), the idea is to create a place where people can meet and discuss freely, without the barriers and (for some) discomfort linked to a more overtly “religious” or “Buddhist” site, such as in the case of a traditional temple. The temple is seen as a “living” place where individuals can find solace from their problems and anxieties; a creative place that “capture[s] the imagination of people” and at the same time “help[s] transform it into a ‘living organization’ rather than a religious facility” (p. 120). The importance of local temples for the surrounding community is advocated and highlighted by the temple head priests portrayed here (for example, on p. 124).
Chapter 5, “Alternatives and Innovations in Buddhist Religious Practice,” focuses on different aspects of funerary rites as well as various activities carried out by head priests to enhance the visibility of their temple, such as opening a cafe within its grounds. Here, Nelson provides examples of funerary rites performed by nonreligious institutions and the “intrusion” into this industry of overtly secular business companies, such as Aeon, which constitute a threat to the main income source of Buddhist temples. He also describes transnational dynamics at work in the case of the well-known butsudan company Yagiken, which had subcontractors in Italy and Denmark for the production of stylish butsudan, and opened a salesroom in Manhattan. In the field of entertainment and music, he reports various concerts and other performances held at different temples, such as Tsukiji Honganji in Tokyo and Tōdaiji in Nara. Another section in this chapter presents a brief view on temple wives—in particular within Zen and Shin Buddhism—and the issue of gender discrimination. It is a pity, however, that an attentive reader such as Nelson overlooked Simone Heidegger’s seminal work on bōmori and gender discrimination in Shin Buddhism.[3] Probably this section would have been a better fit in the following and last chapter, “The Future of Buddhism in Japan,” where the author details the story of Rev. Miura, a young and “experimental” Shin Buddhist female head priest of a temple in rural Nara, who uses music to convey Buddhist teachings and serve her community. Another example provided in chapter 6 is a Rinzai Zen head priest with an international profile (he lived and studied in the United States) who, through his experience in the West, came to appreciate meditation and now offers in his temple zazen practices also combined with yoga.
Nelson has succeeded in guiding the reader through a fascinating series of cases that show how priests’ creativity and entrepreneurial skills can work within some sections of the Japanese religious landscape. Experimental Buddhism is certainly a welcome addition to the study of Buddhism in its relation to contemporary society and a valuable resource for scholars and students interested in religion in Japan.
Notes
[1]. See, for example, Steve Covell, Japanese Temple Buddhism: Worldliness in a Religion of Renunciation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005); Richard Jaffe, Neither Monk nor Layman: Clerical Marriage in Modern Japanese Buddhism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002); and Jørn Borup, Japanese Rinzai Zen Buddhism: Myōshinji, a Living Religion (Leiden: Brill, 2008).
[2]. In this regard, see Elisabetta Porcu, “On- and Off-line Representations of Japanese Buddhism: Reflections on a Multifaceted Religious Tradition,” Pacific World 32, no. 1 (2010): 91-107, http://www.shin-ibs.edu/documents/pwj3-12/03Porcu.pdf, where some denomination’s strategies on the occasion of Hōnen’s 800th memorial are analyzed.
[3]. Simone Heidegger, Buddhismus, Geschlechterverhältnis und Diskriminierung: Die gegenwärtige Diskussion im Shin-Buddhismus Japans (Berlin: LIT-Verlag, 2006), and “Shin Buddhism and Gender: The Discourse on Gender Discrimination and Related Reforms,” in The Social Dimension of Shin Buddhism, ed. Ugo Dessì (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2010), 165-208.
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Citation:
Elisabetta Porcu. Review of Nelson, John K., Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan.
H-Shukyo, H-Net Reviews.
March, 2015.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=41742
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