Guest Editors’ Introduction

Materiality in the Buddhism of Pre-modern Japan

Abstract

Inasmuch as Buddhism’s professed goal is the elimination of all attachment to the material world, a pre-occupation with that materiality would immediately strike the disinterested observer as strange, if not improper. Indeed, the monastic tradition eschews engagement with what we colloquially refer to as artistic endeavour, as it detracts from the discipline required to attain the ultimate goal of “snuffing out” the flame that perpetuates suffering (LaFleur 2003, Introduction). Yet, the path to liberation is trodden in the material world, and its manifestations, perceived and processed through the physical senses, are necessary instruments and tools to that end. Cognition of the nature of actions and their fruits can only be achieved by engaging with their manifestations and permutations, using the techniques and disciplines that have been developed in the course of Buddhism’s history. However, the monastic tradition forms but a small part of the Buddhist tradition and the contributions to this volume are concerned in the main with artefacts that circulated outside the cloisters. They present a fascinating purview of how Buddhist ideas and practices circulated in pre-modern Japanese society, showing core beliefs about the Buddhist cosmos and how people from non-monastic walks of life (mainly in the spheres of politics and the aristocracy) availed themselves of that understanding of the world they lived in.