shin buddhist women in america

Shin Buddhist Women in America

Michihiro Ama*University of Alaska Anchorage

Abstract

This article introduces the position of Shin Buddhist women in the United States. It exploreshow they have negotiated within and without their organizations on local, regional, national andtransnational levels.

More than a hundred years have passed since Shin Buddhism, a form of Pure Land Bud-dhism known as J�odo Shinsh�u in Japan, was first introduced to North America. ShinBuddhism is one of the oldest Buddhist organizations in the United States and an Asianethnic religion characterized by changes over three generations. Scholars have studied theinstitutional history of Shin Buddhism, represented by the Nishi Honganji denomination– whose propagation began in Hawaii in 1898 and California in 1899 – and tried to situ-ate it in the emerging field of so-called ‘American Buddhism’. At the same time, Bud-dhist Studies have diversified. Among them, ‘Gender and Buddhism’ has turned out tobe an almost independent subject of inquiry and many specialists have written on thistheme. It is one of the vibrant topics in the study of American Buddhism; research ongender equality among ethnic Buddhist groups has also been accelerating.

This article introduces the position of Shin Buddhist women in the United States. Itexplores how they have negotiated within and without their organizations on local,regional, national and transnational levels. By focusing on the prewar period of AmericanShin Buddhist history (up to 1941), this paper aims to provide a new perspective on thestudy of early American Buddhism through a transnational approach, i.e., an extension ofJapanese Buddhism in modern times by examining the attitudes and achievements of Issei– the first generation of Japanese immigrants – and Nisei – the second generation – ShinBuddhist women. It also brings in the recent studies of contemporary American ShinBuddhism and highlights changes in the attitudes of further generations. Before contin-uing, a brief review of Shin Buddhist development in Japan in connection with issuesinvolved with women is necessary.

Background

Shinran (1173–1263) is considered to be the posthumous founder of Shin Buddhism. Hewas a disciple of H�onen (1133–1212), who promoted the sole practice of reciting thename of Amida Buddha (known as the nenbutsu) and ignored other established Buddhisttraditions. Shinran put more emphasis on the faith aspect of Pure Land Buddhism; hence,his teaching can be summarized as: ‘… one who entrusts oneself to the Primal Vow andsays the nenbutsu attains Buddhahood’ (Tannish�o, chapter 12; Hirota et al. 1997, vol. 1,p. 668). At the stage of Bodhisattva Dharmakara, Amida Buddha made vows to bring allsentient beings to the Buddha Land – known as Pure Land – if they call upon Amida’sname. While for previous Pure Land masters recitation had been essential and a means to

Religion Compass 5/5 (2011): 180–191, 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00272.x

ª 2011 The AuthorReligion Compass ª 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

achieve buddhahood, for Shinran arising of faith or entrusting mind (shinjin) was the enditself. By developing T’an-luan’s (476–542) hermeneutics, he differentiated the meritgained through self-serving recitation, known as the practice of ‘self-power’ (jiriki), fromthe efficacy of the nenbutsu and shinjin, known as ‘other-power’ (tariki), which AmidaBuddh directs to all sentient beings.

Shinran considered himself neither a monk nor a layman and was not celibate. Whenthe established Buddhist organizations’ long-standing hostility toward H�onen’s sangha ledthe government to persecute it in 1206, Shinran was stripped of his clerical status andexiled to Echigo province (present-day Niigata prefecture). There, he is said to have mar-ried Eshinni (1182–1268?), the daughter of a landed and military steward. They had sixchildren (Hirota & Ueda 1989, p. 32). Some of her letters to their youngest daughterKakushinni (1224–1283), known as the Letters of Eshinni, exist today and testify to the lifeof a medieval Japanese Buddhist woman as well as her relationship with Shinran. Fromthem, it appears that she venerated him as a bodhisattva but there are differences betweenhis teaching and her practice. While Shinran emphasized the importance of spiritual liber-ation attained in this life (as ‘having immediately entered the stage of the truly settled’ orsh�oj�oju), Eshinni seemed more concerned about the afterlife of birth in the Pure Land.Unlike Shinran, who according to the legend said ‘after my eyes have closed for the lasttime, place my body into the Kamo river and let the fish feed on it’ (quoted in Aoki(2004, p. 95)), she was eager to build a stupa (sotoba) as preparation for her death and wasconcerned about the robes she could wear on her deathbed. In her letters, she assuredKakushinni that on his death Shinran achieved birth in the Pure Land (Nishiguchi 2006,pp. 153–4).1

Without Kakushinni, the major Shin Buddhist tradition known as Honganji would nothave been established. Not only was she at Shinran’s side when he passed away but withthe help of his followers she also built his mausoleum. She later consigned the mausoleumand the land on which it was built to them while remaining as its custodian. This posi-tion became hereditary and developed into the title of abbot when the mausoleum wastransformed into the Honganji temple compound. Despite the strong presence of awoman at the beginning of its history, only males have been installed as Honganjiabbots.2

Honganji became a dominant Buddhist organization during the time of the eighthabbot, Rennyo (1415–1499). He unified the Shin followers throughout Japan by institu-tionalizing Shinran’s teaching and standardizing Shin Buddhist rituals. Rennyo explainedShinran’s doctrine to the laity in a comprehensive way but he also diverged from it. Inhis colloquial letters (Ofumi or Gobunsh�o) addressed to his regional followers, Rennyooften employed the rhetoric of the condemnation and salvation of women, such as the‘five hindrances’ and the ‘three forms of obedience’, which had become popular in Bud-dhist discourse by then, and promoted the nenbutsu as a way to overcome them. The rec-itation of Amida’s name would supposedly liberate women from their karmic shacklesand allow them to be born in the land of bliss.3

Rennyo’s stance toward women was not new. Among the 48 vows of BodhisattvaDharmakara, the 35th is exclusively designed for women. In Japan, this was named thevow of ‘becoming a male for achieving buddhahood (henj�o nanshi)’. A Chinese version ofThe Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life (Skt: Sukh�avat�ıvy�uhas�utra, Jpn: Mury�ojuky�o) gives the35th vow as:

May I not gain possession of perfect awakening if, once I have attained buddhahood, anywoman in the measureless, inconceivable world systems of all the buddhas in the ten regions of

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the universe, hears my name in this life and single-mindedly, with joy, with confidence andgladness resolves to attain awakening, and despises her female body, and still, when her presentlife comes to an end, she is again reborn as a woman. (Gomez 1996, p. 170)4

This passage alone may seem misogynistic to us today, but the development of 35th vow– when Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese versions are compared and studied – reflects notonly the social perceptions of women at that time but also the ambivalent Buddhist atti-tudes toward woman.5 Further, it suggests how the scriptures might have been read bythe Buddhist authorities without taking into account a wider range of popular lay prac-tices and women’s reaction to the 35th vow. For instance, it is difficult to imagine thatEshinni actually believed in this vow and desired to become a male. Although Shinranhad written a hymn concerning women’s spiritual hindrances and limited attainability,she did not mention it in her letters and seemed to consider birth in the Pure Land as acontinuation of this world (Dobbins 1995, pp. 118–19; Nishiguchi 2005, p. 30).6

Honganji was divided into two branches at the beginning of the Tokugawa era (1603–1867). After the time of Rennyo, Shin associations, among other groups, resisted localwarlords. This was when the Ashikaga shogunate failed to manage provincial affairs,allowing the low-ranking warriors to grow quickly and overthrow their superiors(gekokuj�o). Because of their large membership, Honganji gradually became a strong militaryforce and the 11th abbot, Kennyo (1543–1592), were engaged in a full-scale war with OdaNobunaga (1534–1582), the first national unifier. His successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi(1536–1598), however, took a conciliatory stance toward the Honganji, and laterTokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616) conspired to split the Honganji when an internal disputeloosened its solidarity. As a result, there have been two Honganji denominations – Nishi(west) Honganji and Higashi (east) Honganji – ever since in Kyoto. Today, there are tenShin Buddhist denominations in Japan, though the two Honganji orders are the largest.

American Shin Buddhist Women During the Prewar Period

Nishi Honganji initiated its propagation in North America at the turn of the 20th centuryby following Japanese immigrants. Laborers from Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures,where many Nishi Honganji parishioners had lived for centuries, made their way toHawaii and California. The Nishi Honganji headquarters seized the opportunity to initi-ate eastward propagation and sent ministers to these regions. By the mid-1920s, the Hon-pa Honganji Mission of Hawaii (spelled ‘Hongwanji’) had established its headquarters inHonolulu and built more than 30 Shin missions throughout the major sugar plantationson the Hawaiian Islands. It kept the name of ‘Honganji’ largely because of the presenceof other Japanese Buddhist sects whose propagation began about the same time inHawaii. On the mainland, the Buddhist Mission of North America founded its headquar-ters in San Francisco and built Buddhist churches in Californian cities with large numbersof Japanese immigrants, and then expanded its operations to the state of Washington.During the thirties, propagation reached Arizona and New York. Unlike its counterpartin Hawaii, the Buddhist Mission of North America avoided the title of ‘Honganji’because of a much greater need to propagate the basic doctrine of Shakyamuni to Euro-Americans and the lack of sectarian Buddhist competition. It added the word ‘church’ tothe suffix of each local group.

Shin Buddhist women played a crucial role in the development of local churches ⁄mis-sions since inception of the Honganji history in the United States. In Hawaii, Shin clergyorganized the Buddhist Women’s Association (BWA, fujinkai) in 1898. In California, San

182 Michihiro Ama


Francisco Buddhist Church, which housed the headquarters of the Buddhist Mission ofNorth America, organized the BWA in 1901. Fresno Buddhist Church followed suit in1904 and Seattle Buddhist Church in 1908 (Hokubei kaiky�o enkakushi, pp. 44, 78, 94,160). Both religious and social activities were held by the BWA, such as serving refresh-ments after Buddhist services, making arrangements for those unable to attend the churchon a regular basis, visiting church members at home to celebrate marriages and the birthof babies as well as paying calls on those who were hospitalized, and setting up culturalclasses to teach culinary and sewing skills to their fellow women (Honda 2004, pp. 6–7).

The monthly journal of the Buddhist Mission of Los Angeles records other types ofservices provided by the BWA. In 1907 it initiated three programs: a day-care center asmany couples had to work full-time; a boarding service for single Japanese women whowere alone and unprotected in Los Angeles and reluctant to stay at regular inns accom-modating single males; and a boarding service for pregnant Japanese women, includingvisits and care by an obstetrician or midwife before and after delivery (Ama 2009,p. 125). In this way, Shin Buddhist women’s activities went beyond religious work andbecame philanthropic in nature, though these services were oriented to their own ethnicgroups.

Reflecting Japanese custom, local BWA was usually organized by the wife of the resi-dent Shin minister. Based on Shinran’s relationship with Eshinni, Honganji has had along-standing practice of temple management by a married couple with the son usuallysucceeding the father. A resident Buddhist priest in Japan is commonly called j�ushoku orj�ujishoku (the head of a temple), while his wife is called b�omori (the custodian of a temple)and expected to support her husband (Kawahashi 1999, pp. 16–17).7

In the United States, the role of the b�omori increased. Ministers’ wives were extremelybusy, taking care of the church’s domestic chores, receiving visitors at all hours, teachingthe Japanese language school, educating young girls, and writing and translating, whileraising their own children. They also came to relate the churches to other ethnic organi-zations and even Euro-American communities, considering the needs of church membersand the Japanese immigrants as a whole (Pierce 2006, pp. 634–5; for Isssei Shin Woman’sautobiographical accounts, see, for instance, Imamura 1998; Kikuchi 1991).

Although ministers’ wives became role models for fellow immigrant women, the Shinclergy idealized the virtue of lay Buddhist women. Imamura Emy�o, the second bishop ofthe Honpa Honganji Mission of Hawaii whose tenure lasted for more than 30 years,instructed ministers from Japan to encourage virtues in wives.

To foster the virtue of wives, the importance of pious obedience to her elders, single-mindeddevotion to her husband and love and self-sacrifice for her children’s sake, must be dwelt uponin your sermons. These are the three cardinal virtues of a good wife in every good home.(Hawai kaiky�o shiy�o, pp. 25–8)

Buddhist women in Hawaii were obliged to comply with the patriarchal structure of theimmigrant’s household, but this idea reflected cultural practices of the time in Japan. Forinstance, Ministry of Education promoted the notion of ‘Good Wife, Wise Mother’ andencouraged women to serve the nation state through ‘their hard work, their frugality,their efficient management, their care of the old, young, and ill, and their responsibleupbringing of children’ (Nolte and Hastings 1991, p. 152).

With the establishment of Buddhist churches on the mainland, activities of the BWAgradually expanded. During the thirties, the Seattle Buddhist Church’s BWA emerged asone of its decision-making groups. Buddhist women designed the kitchen when newchurch buildings were constructed and their representatives delivered congratulatory



messages to the congregation at major services. Their ability to raise funds was reflectedin their contribution to donate 6,000 dollars for new construction. The BWA skillfullycoordinated gatherings of the congregation and hosted various cultural festivals. Withoutits involvement, bon festival (the festival honoring the dead), for instance, could not havetaken place. Further, the Seattle Church’s BWA initiated the Northwest BuddhistWomen’s Federation in 1938 and integrated the activities of local Buddhist women inYakima, White River, and Tacoma, as well as in Portland (Honda, pp. 3, 9).

Buddhist women in North America were closely linked to their counterparts in Japan.The Nishi Honganji headquarters in Kyoto had organized the precursor of the BWA in1888 and formed the Federation of Buddhist Women’s Associations in 1908, encompass-ing 121 local groups throughout the country (Kumata 1983, p. 220; Watanabe 1999,p. 110). Buddhist women in the United States assisted the Japanese Federation by, forinstance, purchasing its monthly journal, Buddhist Women (bukky�o fujin), and donatingmoney to their counterparts in Japan. During the 1930s when the Nish Honganji head-quarters supported imperial expansion in Asia, they even sent comfort bags (travel kit) toJapanese soldiers stationed in Manchuria (Azuma 2005, p. 165; Ogura 1932, pp. 22–3,79).8

In addition to the BWA, Nisei Buddhist women began to form their own associations.When a relative of the Nishi Honganji abbot visited Hawaii in 1925, he made a donationof 50 dollars to establish the Young Women’s Buddhist Association (YWBA), although agrass-roots movement to form such a group had already sprung up among the Niseimembers (Moriya 2005, p. 129; Yoo 2000, p. 46). The YWBA was initially separatedfrom the Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA), but these two groups later mergedas the Young Buddhist Association (YBA, Bussei). On the mainland too, the YBA devel-oped nationally, both in the United States and Canada. The Nisei Buddhists held confer-ences in which they discussed Buddhism, conducted speech contests, and organizedrecreational activities. Further, they organized the First Canada-Hawaii-American Confer-ence in San Francisco in 1932.

During the thirties the role of women in the ministry gained more attention becauseof the YWBA’s rapid growth and the strong presence of the BWA. In 1933, leaders ofthe Buddhist Mission of North America discussed the possibility of setting up a femaleministerial training program. Because of budget restrictions and other priorities, however,adoption of the proposal was postponed.9 Prior to this plan, the Buddhist Mission ofNorth America had developed assistant female clerics and recognized a handful of suchwomen in January 1925.10 This practice followed the Japanese system. In 1909, NishiHonganji officials in Kyoto established an order of clerical assistants consisting of bothgenders. Assistant clerics were those who had taken only the confirmation rites and theywere not in a position to officiate at Buddhist services, although the headquarters allowedthem to deliver daily sermons.11 On the mainland, assistant female clerics served asSunday school teachers.

In Hawaii, Imamura’s investment in Nisei Buddhist women gradually bore fruit. Heawarded scholarship to five individuals, who then traveled to Japan to study at WarikoKai’s Higher Girls’ School (present-day Kyoto Women’s University) and the BuddhistCentral Institute (Ch�u�o Bukky�o Gakuin) in Kyoto (A Grateful Past, A Promising Future,pp. 62–3, 69). After the Nishi Honganji headquarters recognized the female clergy forthe first time in 1931, almost all of the Hawaiian students received ordination (tokudo)and the status of Dharma teacher (ky�oshi). The impetus birth of female clergy in Japanwas the 650th-year commemorative service of Kakushinni, whom the headquartersconsidered the founder of Shinran’s mausoleum and the precursor of liberating women

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in religious terms. The Buddhist Central Institute set up a curriculum for trainingfemale candidates and the headquarters established regulations concerning female clergy.Two more candidates from Hawaii received ordination during the late thirties(Biographical History of Hawaii Hongwanji Ministers, 1991, pp. 40–8; Watanabe, pp.,118–19).12

Although further research is needed, it is clear that some of these female clerics keptthe Honpa Honganji Mission of Hawaii open when the War Relocation Authorityremoved male clergy from Shin Buddhist missions after the bombing of Pearl Harbor(Biographical History of Hawaii Hongwanji Ministers, pp. 40–8). Prior to the Pacific War,U.S. intelligence agencies had gathered information and prepared to arrest persons ofJapanese ancestry whom they considered a threat to national security. Because Buddhistclergy ranked at the top of the list, the U.S. government immediately rounded them upand sent them to camps on the mainland. As a following event, President FranklinRoosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 in 1942, forcing more than 100,000 Japanese ⁄Japanese Americans in the West Coast to relocate in internment. In Hawaii, however,this was not the case, because they constituted the large portion of Hawaiian population,which was needed for labor, and it was impossible to transport all of them to the main-land (Okihiro 1991, pp. 256–60). Therefore, in the presence of their fellow Amidists,the aforementioned female clergy took over the Honganji missions’ administrative andceremonial duties.

In addition to female Nisei clergy, several Euro-American women had helped to orga-nize the Honpa Honganji Mission of Hawaii. Dorothy Hunt was admitted to the orderduring the twenties when her husband, Ernest Hunt received ordination. While Ernestwas placed in charge of English propagation, Dorothy composed many Buddhist hymns,known as gathas. Almost all of these songs were based on the theme of Theravada Bud-dhism and not related to the teaching of Shin Buddhism. Some even emphasized the tri-umphant attitude of Protestant Christianity. Prior to the Hunts, other Euro-Americansympathizers, such as Mrs L. S. Mesick and Mrs Barber, had helped Bishop Imamuraorganize night schools for Japanese immigrants to learn English.

On the mainland, one Caucasian woman entered and served in the ministry of theBuddhist Mission of North America. Gladys Sunya Pratt was written up in West Coastmedia as the ‘First White Buddhist Priestess’ in America when she received ordination inTacoma, Washington, in April 1936. While her husband ran a family business there, shebegan to assist Japanese Shin ministers assigned to the Tacoma Buddhist Church, whoneeded the help of a native speaker in educating the young Nisei through English lessonsand Buddhist discussions. In particular, she supervised the church’s Sunday school. Prattwas one of the Caucasian postulants whom the Buddhist Mission of North America officeadmitted during the thirties in order to promote Buddhism beyond the ethnic Japanesecommunity.

Pratt is unique among Caucasian Buddhist ministers in the Buddhist Mission of NorthAmerica. Although the others left the order before or after World War II, Pratt contin-ued to serve the Tacoma Buddhist Church. She remained a clerical member of the Bud-dhist Mission of North America for the rest of her life. Part of her uniqueness was herlack of mobility that the other Caucasian ministers had. They journeyed to Japan andparticipated in further ordination ceremonies at the Nishi Honganji head temple inKyoto. Pratt, however, never did because her husband was operating a local family busi-ness with her help and she also felt responsible for their children’s education. At the sametime, Tacoma Buddhist Church was the only place she could find a role in educating theNisei youth and assisting the Buddhist Mission of North America. She was on good



terms with Japanese ministers in need of a native speaker’s assistance. Her service to theethnic Japanese community, however, suggests that she must have experienced a certaindegree of ostracism from fellow Anglo-Saxon American citizens (Ama 2010). (For Pratt’sintra-racial conflict, further research is needed.)

Despite her great contribution to Shin Buddhism in the United States, Pratt representsCaucasian Buddhist ministers’ ambivalence toward Shin Buddhism. They were not reallyinterested in Shinran’s teaching but in Shakyamuni’s doctrine. When asked why theybecame Buddhist, all agreed that Shakyamuni’s philosophy, which rejected blind faith,was much more rational than Christianity. They found the notions of enlightenment, nir-vana, compassion, and wisdom most appealing, but not Shinran or Honganji (WhyI Became a Buddhist, n.d., pp. 3–16).13 The gap between their lack of interest in ShinBuddhist doctrine and their affiliation to the Shin Buddhist order implies that the Bud-dhist Mission of North America was one of the very few ethnic Buddhist institutions thatwere accessible to them. At the same time, Shin Buddhism was not very attractive tothem because of the Orientalists’ and Theosophists’ strong influence in Buddhist Studiesand because of few Shin texts available in English. It is however not clear how much ofan effort that Japanese Shin clergy made to introduce their religion to them. The Japaneseclergy may have felt that a basic knowledge of Shakyamuni’s philosophy was necessaryfirst, in order for them to understand Shinran’s teaching.

The Buddhist Mission of North America also diverged from traditional Shin ritualpractice. Pratt’s ordination ceremony and the rituals involved other Euro-Americans tes-tify to this phenomenon. Records from the year 1933 show that the Buddhist Mission ofNorth America modeled its ordination procedures for Euro-American novices after theSri Lankan (Ceylonese) Theravada ritual.14 Novices usually wear black robes for the ordi-nation in Japan, but Bishop Masuyama, who acted as Pratt’s teacher, gave her yellowrobes. Pratt probably took Five or Ten Precepts in front of a statue of the crossed-leggedsitting Buddha, although for Japanese Shin Buddhists the main object of worship is astanding statue of Amida Buddha or a scroll containing the Name and it is unnecessary totake precepts. Still tradition justified the form of her ordination. Pratt became a novicewithout divorcing or abandoning her children, because celibacy is not required for Shinclergy. Even her head remained unshaved.15 In other words, her ordination demonstratesthe eclectic nature of ordination rituals with which the Buddhist Mission of North Amer-ica catered to the demands of Caucasian ministerial candidates.

To sum up the lives of Nikkei Shin Buddhist women during the prewar period, theyacted in a transnational setting, reflecting the interstitial characteristics of Japanese immi-grants to the United States. They were active mainly in their ethnic enclave and practicedJapanese customs – domestic role of women defined in Japan – but at the same time cor-responded to the modernization of Japanese Buddhism, such as the formation of the Bud-dhist Women’s Association, ordination of women, and the singing of gathas, as well astaking part in secular activities, i.e., providing socio-economic services, recreation, andeducation.

The BWA and YWBA were such driving forces, while groups of Euro-Americanwomen also helped them facilitate in their negotiation with the host society. Three tiersof Buddhist women that emerged in the Honpa Honganji Mission of Hawaii and theBuddhist Mission of North America were b�omori, the Issei minister’s wife; the clergy,including the ordained Nisei and Sunya Pratt; and the laity, consisting of the members ofJapanese ancestry and Caucasians, who were more interested in Shakyamuni’s philosophythan Shin Buddhism. Generation gaps and the differences in their attitudes towardBuddhism separated their group activities.

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The number of Issei immigrants gradually declined after the war and the configurationof American Shin Buddhist organizations began changing. On the mainland, the BuddhistMission of North American changed its name to the Buddhist Churches of America(hereafter, BCA) during the internment period and chose to assimilate into the dominantreligious climate of the United States. In the postwar period, they also simplified someaspects of the liturgy in response to the demands of Nisei congregations, which did notunderstand Japanese recitations and the value of lengthy rituals. The presence of youngSansei, the third generation of Japanese ancestry during the sixties and seventies, trans-formed the BCA into a more ‘pro-American’ religious institution. To put it differently,the language barrier and different cultural practices have deprived the BCA of its previousJapanese characteristics.

Shin Buddhism and Women Today

In recent years, academic interest in the study of Buddhist women in America hasincreased rapidly. Unlike study of the prewar period, their status and attitudes in an eth-nic order as well as their practice have been analyzed, often based on interviews. Theinvestigation of Shin Buddhist women is no exception. As a case in point, a contempo-rary development of American Shin women at the BCA, studied by Patricia Usuki, isintroduced here.

The standing of female clergy and laity has changed recently because of the Sansei,who comprise a large portion of BCA adult membership and the Yonsei and Gosei, fourthand fifth generations of Japanese ancestry, who participate in its youth programs. First therole of b�omori is disappearing at local churches. Some of the ministers’ wives, particularlythose born and raised in the United States, have their own careers, which prevents themfrom dedicating all their time to church activities. Although responses to a b�omori’sexpected roles vary, members do not necessarily assume she will always be at the church.Still, a female presence within the BCA has been growing ever since the nineties.According to its 2004–2005 directory, there are about 45 female presidents and vice-pres-idents who served on the board of approximately 60 affiliated churches. Second, thenumber of female Shin clergy and their duties has also increased. During the fifties andsixties, three Nikkei females were ordained. In addition, one Caucasian woman wasadmitted in 1973, followed by two other women during the eighties. Some serve as resi-dent ministers, while others engage in hospital and military chaplaincy. During the mid-nineties, a case of sexual harassment led a female minister to sue the BCA. Although thecase was not taken to court because of a lack of sufficient evidence, this incident encour-aged the BCA to institute a sexual harassment policy. As this instance suggests, the influ-ence of female Shin clergy is playing an increasingly large role in the organization(Kashima 2007, p. 333; Usuki 2007, pp. 58, 77, 101, 104, 115).16

Sansei female lay members also have opinions concerning gender equality in the activi-ties and duties of a church. Some are uncomfortable with the division of labor – womencooking and cleaning and men working in the garden and doing repairs. Others refuse toparticipate in kitchen work dominated by the older Nisei female members, who hold onto the tradition, and oppose the socio-cultural values brought by new ministers fromJapan. Some of the younger parishioners even want to change the designation of fujinkai,because for them it represents only domestic work. At the same time, some of the Sanseiparents wish to send their children to a Buddhist church in order to have them discovertheir ethnic roots. For them, gender equality is given; hence, domestication of women isno longer an issue (Usuki, pp. 68–9, 75–6, 98).



Such an attitude is clearly reflected in their understanding of Shin Buddhist doctrine,in particular the interpretation of the 35th vow. According to Usuki’s survey, female Shinparishioners who appear to be bothered by the scriptural discrimination against womenare in the minority. Traditional and orthodox images of women do not correspond tothe ways in which American Shin women practice their religion, even though the clergyand laity continue using the masculine pronoun when referring to Amida Buddha (Usuki,pp. 66–7).

Today’s growing status of women in the BCA demonstrates the upward mobility thatwomen generally have gained in American society. It reflects the democratization of reli-gious institutions originating in Asia, which are characterized by their paternalistic struc-tures, multiculturalism, feminism, egalitarianism, etc. As Usuki observes: ‘Over the courseof a century, women have done what was socially and culturally appropriate to keep thetemple going, in accordance with the times. It appears to be no different for American Shin-sh�u women today’ [emphasis added] (Usuki, p. 100). The more Shin Buddhism becomesAmericanized, the more it diverges from Japanese practice. As a result, Shin Buddhistwomen in the United States continue to develop distinctive roles, different from those oftheir counterparts in Japan.

The Americanization of Shin Buddhism does not, however, necessarily encourage itsmembers to become engaged with the problems of globalization. A present world is alltoo rapidly becoming borderless, while the United States is shaping, and is being shapedby, the forces of globalization. From a broader point of view, American Shin Buddhistwomen and for that matter, the Buddhist Churches of America are losing the transna-tional characteristics that their predecessors once held at the beginning of the 20th cen-tury. During the prewar period, interaction of Shin Buddhists between the two countriesdefined the characteristics of early Shin Buddhist women in the United States. Throughretaining imperial connections with their home country, however, they also supportedthe colonial expansion of Japan. Although the narrative of ‘in accordance with the times’justifies their action, it also obscures its problem. If American Shin Buddhist women aregoing to act ‘in accordance with the times’ today, their distinctive religious characteristicsneed to include an ability to engage in dynamic cross-cultural dialogs and provide apossible perspective to the international society, rather than isolating or separating them-selves from the rest of the Shin Buddhist community throughout the world.17

Conclusion

The study of American Shin Buddhism has become complex. In the past, assimilation ofShin Buddhists to host society was considered to be linear, adapting to Protestant Chris-tian practice. Contemporary scholars have critiqued this position and redefined the assimi-lation as a two-way process, paying attention to the persistence of Japanese culturalpractices that the Shin Buddhist immigrants brought with them. More recently, severalscholars, including the author of this article, have started using the term ‘Japanization’,juxtaposing it with the process of ‘Americanization’. The Japanization suggests that ethnicBuddhism during the prewar period needs to be studied in relation to the modern devel-opment of Japanese Buddhism and how that process affected the formation of boundariesdrawn by ethnic Buddhists in host society, such as through socio-economic services,recreation, education, legal settlements, and political operations.18

In the hybrid practice of Japanization and Americanization, regional differencesbetween Hawaii and the continental United States generated further variants. The popu-lation of ethnic Japanese, geopolitics, and strategy of the Honpa Honganji Mission of

188 Michihiro Ama


Hawaii and that of the Buddhist Mission of North America are major factors to be con-sidered. In Hawaii, for instance, Bishop Imamura had several young Nisei womenordained in Japan. Some of them returned and served as caretakers of missions in theabsence of the male clergy during the Pacific War. In Tacoma, Washington, the need topromote Shakyamuni’s basic teachings to Euro-Americans prompted Bishop Masuyamato ordain Sunya Pratt, who became involved with the Nisei Buddhist education as well.By integrating local specific and translocal perspectives, diversity of early lives of ShinBuddhist women in the Untied States will become more clarified.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to express thanks to Masumi Kikuchi and Jessica Starling for informinghim of Noriko Watanabe’s article.

Short Biography

Michihiro Ama received his MA in Buddhist Studies from Otani University, Kyoto,Japan, and his PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures from the University of Cali-fornia, Irvine. After teaching at UC Berkeley and Irvine, he was appointed to the posi-tion of assistant professor of Japanese at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where hecurrently teaches. His scholarship focuses on modern Japanese Buddhism and he has pub-lished several articles on Shin Buddhism. His forthcoming book is entitled Immigrants tothe Pure Land: The Modernization, Acculturation, and Globalization of Shin Buddhism, 1898–1941 (University of Hawai’i Press, 2011). He is at present conducting research on litera-ture and Buddhism in modern Japan after guest-editing the featured articles on NatsumeSoseki and Buddhism in The Eastern Buddhist (n.s.) 38 (2007), nos 1 ⁄2.

Notes

* Correspondence address: Michihiro Ama, ADM284A, 3211 Providence Drive, Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska99508, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

1 For Eshinni’s sayings, see Letters of the Nun Eshinni numbers seven, eight, nine, and ten, translated by James Dob-bins (2004, pp. 34, 35, 37, 39, 40). Dobbins points out that Eshinni’s attitude toward Pure Land was dualistic andthat modern Shin scholars have a tendency to overemphasize Shinran’s nondualistic hermeneutics, although Shinransomewhat recognized birth in the Pure Land as an existential experience (p. 69).2 Except when Ky�ojunni temporarily acted twice as the Abbess Regent when her son, Sh�onyo (1516–1554), laterto become the tenth abbot, and her grandson Kennyo (1543–1592), the eleventh abbot, were still children (Usuki2007, p. 28).3 For the study of Rennyo, for instance, see Mark L. Blum and Shin’ya Yasutomi (2006).4 The Sanskrit version, which Gomez translates, states: ‘Blessed One, may I not awaken to unsurpassable, perfect,full awakening if, after I attain awakening it is the case that women in measureless, countless, inconceivable, incom-parable, and limitless buddha-fields in all regions of universe upon hearing my name have serene thoughts of faith,generate in their mind the aspiration to attain awakening, feel disgust at their female nature, and yet are rebornagain as women when they leave their present birth’ (p. 74).5 For the comparison and analysis of these texts, see Paul Harrison (1998).6 Shinran wrote:

If women did not entrust themselves to Amida’s Name and Vow,They would never become free of the five obstructions,Even though they passed through myriads of kalpas;How, then, would their existence as women be transformed? (The Collected Works of Shinran, vol. 1, p. 377).Scholars and Buddhist activists have recently criticized the ways in which Shin clergy as an institutiondisseminated the teaching to women and promoted the unequal relationship between men and women. But the



Shin clergy often condemned male followers as much as they deprecated women because the subjects ofpropagation were bonbu, who are unable to rid themselves of blind passions, including both sexes. To put itdifferently, for the sake of J�odo Shinsh�u propagation and as a married couple, men were considered morallycorrupt (akunin) while women were characterized as having the ‘five hindrances’ and the ‘three forms ofobedience’ (Nishiguchi, p. 38).

7 Note that the designation b�omori has been problematized recently as derogatory.8 Buddhist women in Hawaii and Canada also contributed in similar ways. For their activities, see Hompa hongwanjihawai kaiky�o sanj�u gonen kiy�o (p. 22) and Shinj�o Ikuta (1981, p. 80).9 Report from the 1933 Meeting of Ministers’ and Representatives of Lay Members (BCA Archives, Subject Files,Box No. 1.03.01, Folders 1927–1928, 1930–1938).10 ‘Concerning the examination for female teachers’ (BCA Archives, Correspondence Files, Box No. 1.02.01,Folder 1925 Outgoing and Correspondence Files, Box No. 1.02.02, Folders 1926–1927 2B). Those who took theexamination were Aida Chiharu, Shirota (or Shiroda) Asako, and Yoshida Tome (BCA Archives, ChronologicalFiles, Box No. 1.01.01, Folders 1925–1926).11 ‘Nishi Honganji no ky�oshi seido’, Sh�uh�o 97 (October 1909), pp. 17–18. Reprint, Sh�uh�o, 5, pp. 353–4.12 The headquarters’ regulations did, however, discriminate against female clergy. It did not allow ordained womento become resident temple ministers, denied their voting rights in its assembly, and limited their clothing(Watanabe).13 These priests include Richard Prosser, Julius Goldwater, Pratt, Frank Udale, and Alex White. Robert Cliftonwas admitted to the Buddhist Mission of North America slightly earlier and was in charge of its English program in1933.14 ‘Ordination Ceremony’, BCA Archives, Correspondence Files, Box No. 1.02.07, Folder 1933.15 For female Shin Buddhist novice candidates in Japan, the tonsure is not required, though compulsory for males.16 At present, there are five active female ministers in BCA, while a few individuals resigned from it and workedas independent ministers.17 Note that the Nishi Honganji headquarters in Japan has taken initiative to organize the World BuddhistWomen’s Convention since 1961. It is held every four years, consisting of all Nishi Honganji’s BWA chaptersincluding ones affiliated in Japan, South America, the Honpa Honganji Mission of Hawaii, the Buddhist Churchesof America, and the Buddhist Churches of Canada (http://www.hawaiibwa.org/conventions.htm).18 For a discussion of the Asian immigrant boundary formation, see Tony Carnes and Fenggang Yang (2004,pp. 8–16).

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