The Gates of Power : : Monks, Courtiers, and Warriors in Premodern Japan / / Mikael S. Adolphson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Adolphson, Mikael S.,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2000]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2000
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (480 p.)

The political influence of temples in premodern Japan, most clearly manifested in divine demonstrations-where rowdy monks and shrine servants brought holy symbols to the capital to exert pressure on courtiers-has traditionally been condemned and is poorly understood. In an impressive examination of this intriguing aspect of medieval Japan, the author employs a wide range of previously neglected sources to argue that religious protest was a symptom of political factionalism in the capital rather than its cause. It is his contention that religious violence can be traced primarily to attempts by secular leaders to rearrange religious and political hierarchies to their own advantage, thereby leaving disfavored religious institutions to fend for their accustomed rights and status. In this context, divine demonstrations became the preferred negotiating tool for monastic complexes. For almost three centuries, such strategies allowed a handful of elite temples to maintain enough of an equilibrium to sustain and defend the old style of rulership even against the efforts of the Ashikaga Shogunate in the mid-fourteenth century. By acknowledging temples and monks as legitimate co-rulers, The Gates of Power provides a new synthesis of Japanese rulership from the late Heian (794-1185) to the early Muromachi (1336-1573) eras, offering a unique and comprehensive analysis that brings together the spheres of art, religion, ideas, and politics in medieval Japan.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Maps and Figures -- Acknowledgments -- A Note on Translation and Japanese Names -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Monastic Developments in the Heian Age -- 3. Capital Politics and Religious Disturbances in the Shirakawa Era (1072-1129) -- 4. Temples as Allies or Divine Enemies during the Tumultuous Years of Go-Shirakawa (1155-1192) -- 5. Religious Conflicts and Shared Rulership in the Late Thirteenth Century -- 6. Protesting and Fighting in the Name of the Kami and the Buddhas -- 7. Religious Elites and the Ashikaga Bakufu: Collapsing the Gates of Power -- 8. Epilogue: Religious Power and the Power of Religion in Premodern Japan -- Appendixes: Conflicts Involving Enryakuji and Kòfukuji, 1061-1400 -- Notes -- Glossary of Terms and Names -- References -- Index