A Rite of Their Own: Japanese Buddhist Nuns and the "Anan kōshiki"

This article presents a history of the Anan 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 the Anan kōshiki appears in the online supplement of this JJRS issue.