Mourning the Unborn Dead A Buddhist Ritual Comes to America

by Wilson, Jeff

• ISBN13: 9780195371932
• ISBN10: 0195371933
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-01-21
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Many Western visitors to Japan have been struck by the numerous cemeteries for aborted fetuses, which are characterized by throngs of images of the Bodhisattva Jizo, usually dressed in red baby aprons or other baby garments, and each dedicated to an individual fetus. Abortion is common inJapan and as a consequence one of the frequently performed rituals in Japanese Buddhism is mizuko-kuyo, a ceremony for aborted and miscarried fetuses. Over the past forty years, mizuko-kuyo has gradually come to America, where it has been appropriated by non-Buddhists as well as Buddhistpractitioners. In this book, Jeff Wilson examines how and why Americans of different backgrounds have brought knowledge and performance of this Japanese ceremony to the United States. Drawing on his own extensive fieldwork in Japan and the U.S., as well as the literature in both Japanese and English, Wilson showsthat the meaning and purpose of the ritual have changed greatly in the American context. In Japan, mizuko-kuyo is performed to placate the potentially dangerous spirit of the angry fetus. In America, however, it has come to be seen as a way for the mother to mourn and receive solace for her loss.Many American women who learn about mizuko-kuyo are struck by the lack of such a ceremony and see it as filling a very important need. Ceremonies are now performed even for losses that took place many years ago. Wilson's well-written study not only contributes to the growing literature on AmericanBuddhism, but sheds light on a range of significant issues in Buddhist studies, interreligious contact, women's studies, and even bioethics.

Table of Contents

Introduction: "Different Meanings, Different Ends,"	p. 3
"Carried with Jizo Bosatsu": Mizuko Kuyo in Japanese-American Communities	p. 19
"A Shadow in the Heart": Mizuko Kuyo in Convert American Zen	p. 55
"We Need to Free Ourselves": Adaptations of Convert Mizuko Kuyo	p. 79
"Branching Streams Flow On in the Dark": Rethinking American Buddhism in Light of Mizuko Kuyo	p. 107
"Without Biblical Revelation": Rhetorical Appropriations of Mizuko Kuyo by Christians and Other Non-Buddhist Americans	p. 129
"Thank You Getupgrrl for Giving Me My Mizuko": Therapeutic Appropriations of Mizuko Kuyo by Non-Buddhist Americans	p. 163
Postscript: "Where Is Buddhism?"	p. 193
Convert Zen Centers Performing Mizuko Kuyo	p. 199
Notes	p. 201
References	p. 237
Index	p. 255
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