The Princess Nun: Bunchi, Buddhist Reform, and Gender in Early Edo Japan by Gina Cogan (review)

This is a biographical work about the life and the achievements of the seventeenth-century nun Bunchi Daitsū (1619–97), the oldest daughter of Emperor Gomizunoo (1596–1680). To give a little background, her birth was inopportune for the emperor and the Tokugawa shogun, because the second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada had just arranged a marriage of his youngest daughter, Masako, to the emperor. It was the ambition of Hidetada’s father, the first shogun Ieyasu, to have one of his granddaughters marry an emperor, in order to ennoble his lineage and legitimize the Tokugawa shogunal line as the ruler of Japan. Hidetada discovered that Gomizunoo’s mistress Oyotsu, a lady-in-waiting from a middle-class aristocracy, had borne a son, Prince Kamo, in 1618, and a daughter, Princess Ume (Bunchi), in 1619. Hidetada was incensed and postponed the marriage plan, but after exiling Oyotsu and some courtiers, he did consummate the wedding in 1620 in order to achieve Ieyasu’s goal. The exiled were exonerated after the wedding.

Bunchi and Prince Kamo, who died at age four, were unfortunately mistreated by the court and the bakufu (shogunate government). For example, Prince Kamo and Princess Ume were never given the imperial titles of shinnō and naishinnō. Their appelations remained ō and nyoō, a royal son and a royal daughter but not of the direct imperial line. This must have made a great difference for Bunchi and for the respect of others around her. When her father Gomizunoo retired without a male heir, Bunchi, as the oldest surviving child, could have succeeded her father. But it was Okiko, the daughter of Tokugawa Masako, the empress, who became the first female emperor in more than 800 years.

According to Cogan, however, Bunchi grew up happily enough in court, loved by her father and surrounded by many aunts, cousins, and younger half-siblings. As is well known, it was an exciting time when the perpetual wars of the Sengoku period (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) had ended and peace was established by the bakufu. It was a culturally vibrant time because of Gomizunoo’s interest in all aspects of arts and culture. Cogan tells us that Bunchi, as a child, observed many ordained princes and princesses administering Buddhist rites at the imperial court and learned the importance of these rituals in court life and in the diplomacy with the bakufu.

Studying Buddhism with the Zen master Isshi, whom Gomizunoo patronized, Bunchi gradually became interested in Buddhism, but Gomizunoo wanted her to marry for her happiness. The 13-year-old Bunchi was married to Takatsukasa Norihira. The marriage lasted for only six years; two years later she was ordained and became a nun.

Cogan’s approach to the subject is scholarly and meticulous. It is of great interest to us in view of the scarcity of information about Bunchi and the relatively new scholarship (since 1980) on women under Buddhist discipline in Japan. It is also interesting to me because Cogan’s thorough and careful method of exposition reminds me of a pyramidal construction. On the first page of the introduction, she states very clearly the pivotal achievement of Bunchi, which lays the cornerstones of her book: Bunchi made regulations the foundation of communal life at Enshōji and built a precept platform. Cogan expands on these cornerstones by giving out new facts gradually, repeating the main point again and again.

One subject Cogan is concerned with early in the book is Bunchi’s marriage and divorce. She explores the question of whether Norihira left Bunchi or she left Norihira, and she spends some space considering possible answers. After the divorce, Norihira remarried, but he never reached the position of chancellor, regent, or minister as other members of his family did. Since the highest court positions were rotated for short periods among the men of sekke (the five top noble regental families), Cogan concludes: “Norihira...