Gods, Buddhas, and Organs: Buddhist Physicians and Theories of Longevity in Early Medieval Japan

Drott, Edward R.

doi:10.18874/jjrs.37.2.2010.247-273

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 4 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…In the early and medieval eras, a range of therapeutic techniques associated with classical Chinese medicine ( kanpō ) were introduced to Japan simultaneously alongside Buddhism. Monks and other practitioners frequently combined these strands of knowledge, both with each other and with indigenous Japanese notions about health and disease (Triplett ; Drott ; Goble ). Japanese medical texts that we often associate principally with secular physicians, such as the ninth‐century Ishinpō , are in fact replete with quotations from Buddhist sources (Triplett ).…”

Section: History Of Buddhism and Medicine In Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buddhism & Medicine in East Asian History

Salguero

2014

Religion Compass

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Section: History Of Buddhism and Medicine In Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buddhism & Medicine in East Asian History

Salguero

2014

Religion Compass

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“…17 17 Rōben is listed by name as one of Emperor Shōmu’s 126 healing mediation masters ( kanbyō zenji ) tasked with praying for his recovery in 756 (Drott, 250). Genbō cured the Empress Dowager Fujiwara Miyako of depression c. 737 (Matsunaga, 124).…”

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Religion and Healing in Pre‐Modern Japan

Winfield

2012

Religion Compass

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Throughout the pre-modern history of Japan, successive waves of foreign religious and medical influence provided distinct models for healing the mind-breath-body complex. Proto-Shint o divination and healing were supplemented by Daoist traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that theorized and restored the flow of ki (qi) energy throughout the body. Buddhist medicine and healing rituals mitigated karmic disease (goby o ), also empowered patients with a hands-on healing technique called kaji, and offered the medicinal and meditative benefits of Zen tea. Islamic medicinal recipes made their way into Japan at the farthest reach of the Silk Road, and Neo-Confucian moral physicians as well as Jesuit surgeons carried competing models for health into Japan. In terms of visual culture, moreover, the healing Yakushi ''Medicine'' Buddha, esoteric mandalas, attributes of the thousand-armed Kannon bodhisattva of compassion and even paintings of healing herbs on the coffered ceilings of Buddhist temples indicate the central role that religion played in the medical arts of pre-modern Japan. Chronicling Japan's religio-medical history in this way is important for several reasons. First, its interdisciplinary approach integrates the latest scholarship in religious studies, the history of science, and art history. Second, it offers much-needed historical perspective that can help to inform the contemporary interest in alternative medicine, the power of prayer in healing, and the health of the mind-breath-body complex. Finally, it speaks to the cultural flows and effects of pre-modern globalization, which facilitated the dissemination of knowledge far afield from its origins.

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Explaining Conception to Women?

Andreeva

2017

ASME

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Recent findings by Japanese and Western scholars specializing in Buddhism have cast light on a variety of theories of conception and gestation that were known within the religious and cultural milieu of medieval Japan. In the early fourteenth century, these ideas about the origins of life and the human body were incorporated not only into the esoteric Buddhist rituals and theological treatises that shaped the religious landscape of medieval Japan, but also into medico-religious writings focusing on women’s health. This article discusses the theories of conception and gestation seen in the Encyclopedia of Childbirth (Sanshō ruijūshō 産生類聚抄, ca. 1318), a hand-written manuscript preserved at Kanazawa Bunko, one of Japan’s surviving medieval temple archives. This manuscript is a rare source on women’s health from medieval Japan, which describes the issues of conception, infertility, and childbirth from the Buddhist and medical perspective. It explains conception through the ideas found in certain Chinese translations of Indian Buddhist treatises such as the Daodijing 道地経 (one of the extant translations of the Yogācārabhūmi) and Jushe lun 俱舎論 (Skt. Abhidharmakośa bhāṣya, Jpn. Kusharon), Buddhist scriptures, as well as Japanese Buddhist and medical treatises, including a collection attributed to the Tendai monk Annen 安然 (841–889?) and Tanba Yasuyori’s 丹波康頼 (912–995) Essentials of Medicine (Ishinpō 醫心方, ca. 984).

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Gods, Buddhas, and Organs: Buddhist Physicians and Theories of Longevity in Early Medieval Japan

Cited by 4 publications

References 4 publications

Buddhism & Medicine in East Asian History

Buddhism & Medicine in East Asian History

Religion and Healing in Pre‐Modern Japan

Explaining Conception to Women?

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