Buddhist Renunciation and the Female Life Cycle: Understanding Nunhood in Heian and Kamakura Japan

Abstract

Observing that elite Japanese women of the Heian, Kamakura, and Muromachi periods were expected to spend their final years as Buddhist lay renunciants, L ORI M EEKS examines why nunhood came to be defined as a stage in the life cycle of Japanese women and how literary expectations of lay renunciants changed over time. Although Heian sources discuss lay renunciation as a practice undertaken by members of both sexes who sought to make spiritual preparations for death, texts of the late Kamakura and Muromachi periods valorize nunhood as a marker of the loyal widow. Analyzing the dress, hair, and religious activities associated with women's retirement into renunciate life, Meeks shows how many of the practices associated with female renunciation remained constant, even as the meaning of nunhood shifted from a domain associated with death preparation to one associated with widowhood.

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