Journal Article

In the Dragon Girl’s Footsteps

Jacqueline I. STONE

2025

Overview

In the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, the movementknown as Nichirenism sought to realize an ideal Japan based on the LotusSutra and the teachings of the medieval Buddhist figure Nichiren (1222–1282). In pursuing this goal, leaders within the movement sought to mobilizethe efforts of women. They formulated a female gender ideology that drewboth on Nichiren’s egalitarian reading of the dragon girl episode in the LotusSutra and on the contemporary discourse of “good wives, wise mothers” asexemplifying women’s proper social roles. This article has two major aims. One is to provide a preliminary overviewof women in Nichiren Buddhist history, considering women in Nichiren’searly community and introducing examples of women practitioners from latermedieval and early modern times. The second aim is to analyze how modernNichirenist advocates crafted and legitimated female gender norms, focusingon writings by the lay leader Tanaka Chigaku (1861–1939) and the elite nunMurakumo Nichijō (1896–1962). The ongoing influence of Nichirenist genderideology is also addressed. Finally, the article touches on the possibility ofalternative readings of Nichiren’s teaching with regard to women.

• Publisher: International Research Center for Japanese Studies