Of Separate Places: Bessho in Early Medieval Japan

Bessho, or “separate places,” were hermitages—places for Buddhist reclusion—occupied by reclusive monks in medieval Japan. Bessho spread throughout the Japanese archipelago from the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. They were remarkably diverse in their institutional status, associated religious practices, and personnel. Previous interpretations have focused on the role of bessho in relation to major sects and institutions, which has limited our capacity to explain their diversity and its impact. Through examining descriptions of bessho in relation to the wilderness in medieval primary sources, this article argues that bessho can be understood as a discourse about places of distance. As places of distance, bessho afforded opportunities for monks to engage in a wider variety of activities and forms of social engagement than were possible at major monasteries. This approach enables me to explain the diversity of this phenomenon and the role of bessho in the development of medieval Japanese Buddhism.