The institutions of Japanese Buddhism have often expressed ambivalence toward women. Many sacred mountains---important sites for monastic austerities---were prohibited to women until the modern period. Nonetheless, scholars in recent decades have worked to reconstruct a robust history of the religious lives and institutional contributions of women in Japanese Buddhism. In this talk Jessica Starling, assistant professor of religious studies at Lewis & Clark College, explores that history, beginning with the first full Buddhist clerics in Japan and spanning the political and cultural changes that took place before, during, and after the Pacific War.



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