Pregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians

Court physicians (<i>ishi</i> or <i>kusushi</i> 医師), officials in the Bureau of Medications, were responsible for the well-being of court aristocracy since the establishment of a centralized state on the Japanese archipelago in the eighth century. Despite an increasing intere...

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Autor principal:	Alessandro Poletto
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	physicians ritual hemerology pregnancy <i>onmyōdō</i> Japan Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1064e56b80e745a4b7e64ccff9c3d03a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1064e56b80e745a4b7e64ccff9c3d03a2021-11-25T18:52:26ZPregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians10.3390/rel121109072077-1444https://doaj.org/article/1064e56b80e745a4b7e64ccff9c3d03a2021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/11/907https://doaj.org/toc/2077-1444Court physicians (<i>ishi</i> or <i>kusushi</i> 医師), officials in the Bureau of Medications, were responsible for the well-being of court aristocracy since the establishment of a centralized state on the Japanese archipelago in the eighth century. Despite an increasing interest in the therapeutic arena of premodern Japan, scholars have tended to emphasize an epistemic divide between physicians and technicians employing other healing modalities, such as Buddhist monks and onmyōji 陰陽師, so that the former would be concerned with the physical body while the latter would not. However, this study focuses on the ritual and hemerological dimensions of the activities of court physicians within the crucial context of pregnancy and childbirth. By the twelfth century, court physicians affixed land-leasing talismans (<i>shakuchimon</i> 借地文) in the birthing room, pacified the birthing bed through incantations, and partook in the adjudication of a pregnancy-related hemerological notion known as <i>hanshi</i> (Ch: <i>fanzhi</i>). These practices appear in <i>Ishinpō</i> 医心方, which is a compendium of Chinese classics on therapeutics, hygiene, divination, and ritual that was compiled by Tanba no Yasuyori and presented to the court in 984. <i>Ishinpō</i> incorporates elements from multiple continental traditions, and some of the ritual practices discussed in this paper have at times been framed as “Daoist”. Since Daoist texts and institutions were never systematically brought or established in Japan, this study will rather stress the necessity of examining how Chinese textual traditions and ritual regimes were transmitted and distributed among institutions and technical groups within the Japanese state, in particular physicians from the Bureau of Medications and onmyōji from the Bureau of Yin and Yang.Alessandro PolettoMDPI AGarticlephysiciansritualhemerologypregnancy<i>onmyōdō</i>JapanReligions. Mythology. RationalismBL1-2790ENReligions, Vol 12, Iss 907, p 907 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	physicians ritual hemerology pregnancy <i>onmyōdō</i> Japan Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790
spellingShingle	physicians ritual hemerology pregnancy <i>onmyōdō</i> Japan Religions. Mythology. Rationalism BL1-2790 Alessandro Poletto Pregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians
description	Court physicians (<i>ishi</i> or <i>kusushi</i> 医師), officials in the Bureau of Medications, were responsible for the well-being of court aristocracy since the establishment of a centralized state on the Japanese archipelago in the eighth century. Despite an increasing interest in the therapeutic arena of premodern Japan, scholars have tended to emphasize an epistemic divide between physicians and technicians employing other healing modalities, such as Buddhist monks and onmyōji 陰陽師, so that the former would be concerned with the physical body while the latter would not. However, this study focuses on the ritual and hemerological dimensions of the activities of court physicians within the crucial context of pregnancy and childbirth. By the twelfth century, court physicians affixed land-leasing talismans (<i>shakuchimon</i> 借地文) in the birthing room, pacified the birthing bed through incantations, and partook in the adjudication of a pregnancy-related hemerological notion known as <i>hanshi</i> (Ch: <i>fanzhi</i>). These practices appear in <i>Ishinpō</i> 医心方, which is a compendium of Chinese classics on therapeutics, hygiene, divination, and ritual that was compiled by Tanba no Yasuyori and presented to the court in 984. <i>Ishinpō</i> incorporates elements from multiple continental traditions, and some of the ritual practices discussed in this paper have at times been framed as “Daoist”. Since Daoist texts and institutions were never systematically brought or established in Japan, this study will rather stress the necessity of examining how Chinese textual traditions and ritual regimes were transmitted and distributed among institutions and technical groups within the Japanese state, in particular physicians from the Bureau of Medications and onmyōji from the Bureau of Yin and Yang.
format	article
author	Alessandro Poletto
author_facet	Alessandro Poletto
author_sort	Alessandro Poletto
title	Pregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians
title_short	Pregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians
title_full	Pregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians
title_fullStr	Pregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians
title_full_unstemmed	Pregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians
title_sort	pregnancy, incantations, and talismans in early medieval japan: chinese influences on the ritual activities of court physicians
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/1064e56b80e745a4b7e64ccff9c3d03a
work_keys_str_mv	AT alessandropoletto pregnancyincantationsandtalismansinearlymedievaljapanchineseinfluencesontheritualactivitiesofcourtphysicians
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Pregnancy, Incantations, and Talismans in Early Medieval Japan: Chinese Influences on the Ritual Activities of Court Physicians

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