<div>This is the first monograph-length study in English of Kamo no Chomei, one of the most important literary figures of medieval Japan. Drawing upon a wide range of writings in a variety of genres from the Heian and Kamakura periods, Pandey focuses on the terms kyogen kigo (wild words and fancy phrases), shoji soku nehan (samsara is nirvana), hoben (expedient means), and suki (single-minded devotion to an art). She shows how these terms deployed by writers in an attempt to reconcile literary and artistic activities with a commitment to Buddhism. By locating Chomei within this broad context, the book offers an original reading of his texts, while at the same time casting a light upon intellectual preoccupations that were central to the times.</div> <div>Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan is an important contribution to a growing body of work that challenges the rigid distinction between the religious and literary--a distinction that would have made little sense to medieval writers, many of whom were poets as well as priests--and sheds light on the particular ways in which a religio-aesthetic tradition came to be articulated in medieval Japan. Through an examination of records left by Chomei's contemporaries, the book also traces the life of Chomei, particularly his activities as a court poet and the circumstances that led to his taking the tonsure.</div>

Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: The Works of the Poet-Priest Kamo no Chomei (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies)

Literature & Fiction

Pandey, Rajyashree

History & Criticism

U of M Center For Japanese Studies

Perfumed Sleeves and Tangled Hair explores the possibilities and limits of terms such as "body," "woman," "gender," and "agency"―categories that emerged within the context of western philosophical, religious, and feminist debates―to analyze texts that come out of altogether different temporal and cultural contexts. Through close textual readings of a wide range of classical and medieval narratives, from well-known works such as the Tale of Genji to popular Buddhist tales, Rajyashree Pandey offers new ways of understanding such terms within the context of medieval Buddhist knowledge. 
 Pandey suggests that "woman" in medieval Japanese narratives does not constitute a self-evident and distinct category, and that there is little in these works to indicate that the sexed body was the single most important and overarching site of difference between men and women. She argues that the body in classical and medieval texts is not understood as something constituted through flesh, blood, and bones, or as divorced from the mind, and that in the Tale of Genji it becomes intelligible not as an anatomical entity but rather as something apprehended through robes and hair. Pandey provocatively claims that "woman" is a fluid and malleable category, one that often functions as a topos or figural site for staging debates not about real life women, but rather about delusion, attachment, and enlightenment, issues of the utmost importance to the Buddhist medieval world.
 Pandey's book challenges many of the assumptions that have become commonplace in academic writings on women and Buddhism in medieval Japan. She questions the validity of speaking of Buddhism's misogyny, women's oppression, passivity, or proto-feminism, and points to the anachronistic readings that result when fundamentally modern questions and concerns are transposed unreflexively onto medieval Japanese texts. Taking a broad, interdisciplinary approach, and engaging widely with literature, religious studies, and feminism, while paying close attention to medieval texts and genres, Pandey boldly throws down the gauntlet, challenging some of the sacred cows of contemporary scholarship on medieval Japanese women and Buddhism.

Perfumed Sleeves and Tangled Hair: Body, Woman, and Desire in Medieval Japanese Narratives

University of Hawaii Press

Perfumed Sleeves and Tangled Hair explores the possibilities and limits of terms such as "body," "woman," "gender," and "agency"―categories that emerged within the context of western philosophical, religious, and feminist debates―to analyze texts that come out of altogether different temporal and cultural contexts. Through close textual readings of a wide range of classical and medieval narratives, from well-known works such as the Tale of Genji to popular Buddhist tales, Rajyashree Pandey offers new ways of understanding such terms within the context of medieval Buddhist knowledge. Pandey suggests that "woman" in medieval Japanese narratives does not constitute a self-evident and distinct category, and that there is little in these works to indicate that the sexed body was the single most important and overarching site of difference between men and women. She argues that the body in classical and medieval texts is not understood as something constituted through flesh, blood, and bones, or as divorced from the mind, and that in the Tale of Genji it becomes intelligible not as an anatomical entity but rather as something apprehended through robes and hair. Pandey provocatively claims that "woman" is a fluid and malleable category, one that often functions as a topos or figural site for staging debates not about real life women, but rather about delusion, attachment, and enlightenment, issues of the utmost importance to the Buddhist medieval world. Pandey's book challenges many of the assumptions that have become commonplace in academic writings on women and Buddhism in medieval Japan. She questions the validity of speaking of Buddhism's misogyny, women's oppression, passivity, or proto-feminism, and points to the anachronistic readings that result when fundamentally modern questions and concerns are transposed unreflexively onto medieval Japanese texts. Taking a broad, interdisciplinary approach, and engaging widely with literature, religious studies, and feminism, while paying close attention to medieval texts and genres, Pandey boldly throws down the gauntlet, challenging some of the sacred cows of contemporary scholarship on medieval Japanese women and Buddhism.

This is the first monograph-length study in English of Kamo no Cho¯mei, one of the most important literary figures of medieval Japan. Drawing upon a wide range of writings in a variety of genres from the Heian and Kamakura periods, Pandey shows how the terms kyo¯gen kigo (wild words and fancy phrases), sho¯ji soku nehan (samsara is nirvana), ho¯ben (expedient means), and suki (single-minded devotion to an art) were deployed by writers in an attempt to reconcile literary and artistic activities with a commitment to Buddhism. By locating Cho¯mei within this broad context, the book offers an original reading of his texts, while at the same time casting light upon intellectual preoccupations that were central to the times. 

Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: The Works of the Poet-Priest Kamo no Chomei (Volume 21) (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies)

Religion & Spirituality

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pandey, Rajyashree. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Pandey, Rajyashree

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Pandey, Rajyashree. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: The Works of the Poet-Priest Kamo no Chomei (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies)

Perfumed Sleeves and Tangled Hair: Body, Woman, and Desire in Medieval Japanese Narratives

Perfumed Sleeves and Tangled Hair: Body, Woman, and Desire in Medieval Japanese Narratives

Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan: The Works of the Poet-Priest Kamo no Chomei (Volume 21) (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies)