1 - Ise in Japanese Culture: Kenkō Hōshi's Essays in Idleness at the Intersection of Literature and History

This presentation uses a collection of historical and literary essays to explore the religious and cultural resonance of the Ise-Shima region, which is probably best known for having one of Japan's most sacred sites from the Shinto religious tradition.  It focuses on depictions of Ise in one of Japan’s most beloved classical texts, Kenko Hoshi’s14^th-century Essays in Idleness. Scholars have paid considerable attention to Kenko’s incorporation of key concepts associated with the Buddhist worldview, and from the perspective of intellectual history, the text is considered an eloquent expression of Japanese views on impermanence.
   In contrast to the emphasis on Buddhist thought in the text, this presentation highlights connections made by the author to the Shinto tradition in relation to Ise. In particular, it considers a passage about a close unmarried female relative of the emperor tasked with performing ritual services at the Ise Shrine complex on behalf of the emperor and another section that introduces an anecdote about an oni (demon) woman from Ise. This presentation aims to deepen our understanding of the initial medieval religio-social context for the passages, reevaluate how Kenko’s medieval textual depictions of Ise were received in subsequent centuries, and consider how gender and other themes have been interpreted in both written and visual culture from the early modern period to the present.