BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:"Unraveling the Stories of Mugai Nyodai" A Book Talk featuring Authors of "Mugai Nyodai: The Woman Who Opened Zen Gates" X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada) BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260711T144943Z UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_49048078473175 DTSTART:20250415T230000Z DTEND:20250416T000000Z DESCRIPTION:This is a virtual event. Click here to register for the Zoom li nk. \n\n \n\n \n\nThe thirteenth-century nun Mugai Nyodai (1223–1298) is associated in the minds of many with an endearing poem expressing her epi phany on a bright full moon night when the bottom falls out of her water b ucket and the moon vanishes. That poem\, however\, and the entire story th at leads up to it—a story of how a simple maiden trained herself to do Z en meditation—has nothing to do with the historical figure of Mugai Nyod ai. It belongs in the fictional story of Chiyono. The real Nyodai\, when s tripped of Chiyono and freed from the military Kamakura parentage belongin g to another woman\, Mujaku\, emerges as a dynamic religious figure from w ithin the Kyoto nobility. Nyodai received transmission from the immigrant Chinese Zen priest\, Wuxue Zuyuan (Mugaku Sogen\, also Bukkō Kokushi\; 12 26–1286)\, and founded two temples\, one for training nuns\, Keiaiji\, a nd one as the Kyoto center of Mugaku Sogen’s teachings.\n\n \n\nThe rece nt bilingual publication Mugai Nyodai: The Woman Who Opened Zen Gates reco nstructs the life of the historical Nyodai based on close readings of prim ary sources. It establishes Mujaku as a woman in her own right with her ow n biography distinct from Nyodai’s and posits how and where the identiti es of the three women fused into a single legend. It also describes the ce nturies of continued veneration of Nyodai as practiced by Zen nuns and pri ests in five surviving temples (three descendant from Keiaiji) that regard her as their founder.\n\n \n\nThe webinar features two of the book’s au thors\, Monica Bethe and Patricia Fister\, who will discuss aspects of the book and share some of the extant portrait statues and paintings of Nyoda i and other material objects associated with her.\n\n \n\nMugai Nyodai The Woman Who Opened Zen Gates is available for international shipping at ama zon.co.jp.\n\n \n\nMonica BETHE\n\nProfessor Emerita\, Otani University\; Director of the Medieval Japanese Studies Institute/Center for the Study o f Women\, Buddhism\, and Cultural History\, Kyoto. Fields: Textiles\, Japa nese culture.\n\n \n\nPublications: “Of Surplices and Certificates: Trac ing Mugai Nyodai’s Kesa” in Women\, Rites\, and Ritual Objects in Prem odern Japan (Brill\, 2018). Co-author\, Transmitting Robes\, Linking Minds : The World of Buddhist Kasāya (Kyoto National Museum\, 2010). Co-editor\ , Amamonzeki\, A Hidden Heritage: Treasures of the Japanese Imperial Conve nts (Sankei Shinbun\, 2009).\n\n \n\n \n\nPatricia FISTER\n\nProfessor Eme rita\, International Research Center for Japanese Studies\; Director of Re search at the Medieval Japanese Studies Institute/Center for the Study of Women\, Buddhism\, and Cultural History\, Kyoto. Fields: Japanese art hist ory\, women artists\, imperial convent culture. \n\n \n\nPublications: “ The Auspicious Dragon Temple: Kyoto’s “Forgotten” Imperial Buddhist Convent\, Zuiryūji\,” in Japan Review 36 (2022). Co-editor\, Amamonzeki \, A Hidden Heritage: Treasures of the Japanese Imperial Convents (Sankei Shinbun\, 2009). Art by Buddhist Nuns: Treasures from the Imperial Convent s of Japan (Medieval Japanese Studies Institute\, 2003). Kinsei no josei g akatachi: Bijutsu to jendā (Shibunkaku Shuppan\, 1994). LOCATION: SUMMARY:"Unraveling the Stories of Mugai Nyodai" A Book Talk featuring Auth ors of "Mugai Nyodai: The Woman Who Opened Zen Gates" URL;VALUE=URI:https://calendar.usc.edu/event/unraveling-the-story-of-mugai- nyodai-a-book-talk-featuring-authors-of-mugai-nyodai-the-woman-who-opened- zen-gates CATEGORIES:Lecture / Talk / Workshop END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR