JJRS >Volume 43 Issue 1A Rite of Their Own: Japanese Buddhist Nuns and the Anan kōshiki

Ambros, Barbara

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This article presents a history of theAnan kōshiki, a chanted lecture dedicated to the Buddha’s disciple Ānanda. After briefly discussing its precursors in ancient India and China, I examine this ritual in three moments of time—its medieval Japanese origins, its early modern revitalization, and its contemporary performances and a contemporary commentary on the ritual. The ritual has been performed exclusively by Buddhist nuns in honor of Ānanda’s role in convincing the Buddha to admit women to the monastic order. I argue that the ritual has functioned polysemously for nuns, affirming their marginalization and lesser status vis-à-vis the male clergy, while also serving as a means for nuns to celebrate their gender difference as female monastics. The full translation of theAnan kōshiki appears in the online supplement of thisJJRS issue.