Summary by Heather Reynolds. Edited by Mark Unno 2/3/2002

"The Other Side of Culture in Medieval Japan" by Barbara Rush

Rush begins her article on women in Buddhism in medieval Japan by discussing the problems of history and of the historians writing it. She says that historians are like novelists in that "...neither history nor novel copies human experience but, rather, selects, focuses, and retells and thereby inevitably reshapes" (500). Historians, she argues, favor certain topics and ignore others--especially those of daily life. Japanese culture began to unify during the middle ages. Culture not only includes stories, songs, and paintings but other forms of art as well such as statues. A "proxy statue" of a thirteenth-century female Zen master has been found amongst other similar, almost uniform statues. Rush argues that the statue itself is being studied but not the woman behind it. Women in this time period were only written about (if at all) in connection to famous men. Too much time has been spent on trying to figure out which important man is behind Mugai, the female Zen master immortalized for her disciples in the form of a wooden statue.

Mugai was the first known woman in Japan to be a Zen priest. She founded and led the Keiaiji temple (which continued to expand during her life and after). During her life Japan was beginning to open its doors to women in religion (before quickly closing them once again). Rush notes that "Buddhism, like Christianity, has had a dismal history of discrimination against women" (505). Women were allowed to become nuns (and even encouraged in many cases because of the abundance of war and lack of men) so that their families would not be burdened.

Female monastic culture is rarely represented in history. Choosing to become a nun (that is choosing the "tonsure") was liberating for women. Nunhood "could simply be an opportunity to escape from the unwelcome pressures of life--to become independent, to get away, and to take up appealing avvocations" (509)--becoming a nun offered a freedom otherwise unavailable to many women.

Rush concludes her article by reminding the reader that once again because Mugai was not a woman the circumstances behind her entering the nunhood are unknown. Her impact on society was felt in political and economic realms. Mugai serves as a reminder that "the other side of gender has for so long gone unheeded and unstudied" (511).