The Lotus Sūtra and the Rhetoric of Legitimization in Eleventh-Century Japanese Buddhism

Authors

William E. Deal, Case Western Reserve UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1993

Abstract

Thia paper explores the “rhetoric of legitimation,” that is, the use of religious discourse based on an authoritative text in order to legitimate political and social agendas. Specifically, I will examine two eleventh-century Japanese works, the Hokke genki ÀTàz of the Buddhist monastic ascetics known as hokke hijiri ÀT¸, and the Eiga monogatari ¼P]B of lay Buddhist aristocrats (kizoku {Ÿ).

Keywords

Nichiren, Lotus Sutra, rhetoric, Japanese Buddhism, legitimation

Publication Title

Japanese Journal of Religious Studies

Rights

© 1993 Japanese Journal of Religious Studies

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Recommended Citation

Deal, William E. "The Lotus Sūtra and the Rhetoric of Legitimization in Eleventh-Century Japanese Buddhism." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (1993): 261-295.