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C H A P T E R 1 Introduction More than a century after the decriminalization of nikujiki saitai, marriage by Buddhist clerics is now a familiar part of Japanese life. According to a rough estimate made by Kanaoka Shûyû, today approximately 90 percent of the Buddhist clergy in Japan are married.1 A comprehensive 1987 survey of the Sôtô Zen school, which has been among the most statistically selfconscious of all the Buddhist denominations in Japan, similarly found that more than 80 percent of Sôtô clerics inherited their temples from a family member and that more than 80 percent of them are married.2 Surveys of other denominations, for example, the Buzan sect (Buzanha) of Shingon, show that as early as the end of the Taishô era there were similarly high proportions of married clerics and patrimonial inheritance of temples.3 Today the Buddhist clergy universally keep their surnames after ordination , are listed in a household register (koseki), and are subject to the same laws as any other Japanese citizen. As with many small, family-run businesses in Japan, temple succession is largely a domestic affair, frequently with great pressure being brought to bear on the son deemed the most likely successor to the father-abbot. Family ties and issues of inheritance have so thoroughly intermingled with the teacher-disciple relationship that potential successors to the abbacy, even if they are already formal disciples, often additionally become a yôshi (adoptive son) of the abbot before assuming control of the temple. In contemporary Japan, marriage and the family have permeated life at all but the small minority of temples that are reserved for monastic training. Again using the Sôtô Zen school as an example, of some 14,000 temples, only 31 remain reserved for strict monastic training.4 The overwhelming majority of Sôtô temples are inhabited by a cleric and his family. The same ratio between training monasteries and local temples is true for most other Buddhist denominations today as well. Buddhist clerical marriage has become so entrenched in Japanese life that the majority of the laity prefer having a married cleric serve as abbot of their temple. As a 1993 Sôtô denomination survey demonstrated, only 5 percent of the Sôtô 1 Kanaoka (March 25, 1990, 4). 2 Sôtôshû shûsei sôgô chôsa hôkokusho, cited in Reader (1993, 155, n. 2). The original is unavailable to me at this time. 3 Hikita (1991b, 280–81). 4 Foulk (1988, 164). 2 C H A P T E R 1 laity explicitly preferred an unmarried cleric. An overwhelming 73 percent expressed a preference for a married cleric, with the rest of the survey group not expressing a preference.5 Although I have not seen similar statistics for other denominations, given the broad similarities between the various denominations when it comes to the distribution of married and unmarried clerics, it is likely that this statistic reflects a general Japanese attitude toward the Buddhist clergy. The presence of the temple wife is now so taken for granted that today, along with the usual Buddhist doctrinal texts, histories, and popular religious manuals found in Buddhist bookstores, one can also find pan-sectarian works like Jitei fujin hyakka (Encyclopedia for temple wives).6 Written by a Buddhist priest, the book is an instruction manual for temple wives, providing basic information concerning the role of the temple in the local community, the training of one’s son to be a future abbot, management of the temple cemetery, and basic Buddhist teaching. Similarly, the Sôtôshû Shûmuchô has issued a guidebook for temple families, Jitei no sho (Handbook for temple families), in which the denominational leadership describes how the temple family should serve as a shining example of Buddhist domestic life, with the abbot performing Buddhist rituals and sermons, the wife caring for the education of the children and helping with the parishioners, and the children helping in general temple maintenance.7 By following the instructions provided in this Sôtô-approved manual, those who have “left home” can become the model of Japanese domesticity for their parishioners. Even more recently, the Sôtô headquarters published a retrospective, containing surveys, discussions, and a brief historical sketch, on the temple family in an ongoing effort to establish legitimacy for a practice toward which the Sôtô leadership itself has had a long history of animosity.8 The departure of Japanese Buddhism from the...

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