Mothers of The Buddhas - The Sutra On Transforming Women Into Buddhas

Mothers of the Buddhas: The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas (Bussetsu
Tennyo Jōbutsu Kyō)

Author(s): Heather Blair
Source: Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 71, No. 2 (2016), pp. 263-293
Published by: Sophia University
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Mothers of the Buddhas
The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas

(Bussetsu Tennyo Jöbutsu Kyö)
Heather Blair
" I i very woman's body: these are all the mothers of the buddhas
rH times. Like the great sea or the great earth, for example, a wom
JL^the matrix of the thus-come ones." These lines appear in a sutra
included in the Buddhist canon and that was almost certainly written n
nor in China, but rather in ninth-century Japan. Despite its lack of
ally canonical pedigree, literate elites accepted this text, the Sutra on
Women into Buddhas (Bussetsu tennyo jöbutsu kyö as an
tive Buddhist scripture during the Heian period. In this respect, the s
attention to the creative, open-ended quality of scriptural culture. Ind
tionally reframes discourse on the relationship between women's sex
enlightenment by making unusual, and in some ways radical, change
conceptualizations of women's religious status.1 Many Mahayana Buddh
assert that women are morally and socially inferior to men; some illu
ter's progress toward enlightenment with miraculous episodes of fem
change, which is often referred to as the "transformation of women"
The author is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Ind

She owes thanks to many people for their help on this project. Gina Cogan, Manl
Oxenbell, Joannah Peterson, Edith Sarra, and Jacqueline Stone provided helpfu
earlier versions of this article. Nishiguchi Junko MPMîP generously shared resou
mation; Jan Nattier kindly provided a copy of her forthcoming study of Mahayan
mation narratives; and Paul Harrison patiently gave feedback on an earlier version of
included here. Audience members at presentations at Yale University (2009), Colu
(2010), and the University of Iowa (2012) offered useful questions and comments.
research was extended by the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship of Scholars in the Hu
ford University and the College Arts and Humanities Institute at Indiana Universit
1 For the two copies of the sutra known to be extant, see Bussetsu tennyo jöbu
National Museum; Bussetsu tennyo jöbutsu kyö, Historiographical Institute. U
noted, all translations in this article are the authors.
2 See, e.g., Nattier forthcoming; Schuster 1981; and Paul 1979, pp. 166-232.
Monumenta Nipponica 71/2: 263-293

© 2016 Sophia University
264 Monumenta Nipponica 71:2 (2016)
By incorporating this phrase, both the title and the text of the Sutra on Transformin
Women into Buddhas clearly allude to sex change, and yet this scripture does not
rate such a transformation. Instead, it maintains that awakening is readily availa
to women through straightforward ethical and textual practices. More provocativ
it argues that women make enlightening activity possible because they are the m
ers of the buddhas and matrices for good deeds.
This article asks how the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas became
viable option among multiple scriptural discourses during the Heian period. Fol
ing this introduction, I first provide a brief discussion of the apocryphal status
extant manuscripts of this sutra, together with its research history. The ensuing
tion introduces examples of the trope of the transformation of women in cano
cal Mahayana sutras that were familiar to audiences in ninth-century Japan, w
the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas was likely composed. Against
intertextual backdrop, I then provide a close reading of the apocryphal sutra itse
Like a traditional commentary, this section pairs a rendering of the text—in t
case, a translation—with interpretive and explanatory comments.3 The next sect
examines the career of the sutra in Heian-period religious culture, based on evid
from devotional texts and courtiers' journals. The conclusion offers some reflect
on how our own attention to the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas
the potential to impact the ways in which we think about sex, gender, and Budd
scriptural culture during the Heian period and beyond.
In the absence of clear evidence, arguments about the authorship of the Sutr
Transforming Women into Buddhas must remain speculative, but it is possible t
the text was actually composed by a member—or members—of the lay elite. At
very least, those who copied and used the sutra were laymen and laywomen—an
also aristocratic nuns. It is important to note that high-ranking nuns were obl
to live within domestic, lay social structures due to the attenuation of Buddhist
vents at the beginning of the Heian period.4 Therefore, for the purposes of this artic
I treat them together with members of the surrounding lay society.
Often lay Buddhists are portrayed as the passive recipients of watered-down
sions of scriptural exegesis performed by learned male monastics, but they did
fact craft their own doctrinal worlds. By providing glimpses into the complex
cesses of the dissemination, and indeed the creation, of new religious ideas, the S
on Transforming Women into Buddhas reminds us that historical circumstance
3 Although a translation is readily available in Meeks 2010, pp. 303-304,1 have included a lit
rendering here for the sake of transparency and ease of use.
4 For lists of Heian-period references to the sutra, all of which occur in texts written by
people, see Nishiguchi, 2014, pp. 261-65. As Nishiguchi's itemizations show, the earliest evid
for male monastics engaging with the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas dates to
Kamakura period (Nishiguchi 2014, pp. 264-67). On women's household renunciation as a form
authentic nunhood configured within a courtly (rather than monastic) social context, see M
2006.
Blair: Mothers of the Buddhas 265
impinged upon doctrinal production. Dogmas are not given but made
duced at different times by specific constituencies, sometimes in direct
one another. As Liz Wilson and Susanne Mrozik have noted, in tim
other than Heian Japan, Buddhist discourses on women's bodies (and
eral) have been polyvocal and even contradictory; similarly, Rajyashr
shown that medieval Japanese writers expressed their notions about t
and impurity of human bodies in ways that served a range of diverge
We should bear in mind, then, that Buddhist doctrine is in fact diverse
and female laypeople, and also nuns, have been active agents in the sel
pretation, reproduction—and perhaps even the composition—of script
Canonicity and Scriptural Status

Measured against conventional standards of canonicity, the Sutra on
Women into Buddhas is apocryphal, for it does not appear in the Eas
taka (the "three baskets" of the Buddhist canon). No evidence has been
circulated in the Chinese cultural sphere, but it did enjoy a degree of
premodern Japan: forty-odd references to it have been found in histo
ary sources dating from the late ninth through the fifteenth centurie
apparent absence in China, together with its comparative success in Ja
that it is a Japanese composition; as such, it is quite rare. As the "land of t
birth," India seemed to East Asian Buddhists to be the most authentic s
trine. Therefore, scriptures produced in Central Asia and China often
Indie origins and were then integrated into the Chinese Buddhist can
nered such widespread acceptance that it makes more sense to call the
scriptures than to label them apocrypha.7 And yet, precisely because t
that defined the canon were imported from China, any sutra produce
Japan had only a slim chance of making it into the official lists of Buddhi
Despite its historical career as an unusual and comparatively success
apocryphal scripture, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddh
unknown to the modern scholarly community until the opening years
first century. Historical and literary references to it were long taken to b
sions to the Sutra on Transforming Women's Bodies (Ch. Foshuo zhuan
Jp. Bussetsu tennyoshin gyö), a canonical text that is attribu
translator Dharmamitra (Ch. Tanmomiduo Jp. Donmamitta
5 Wilson 1996; Mrozik 2007; Pandey 2016.

6 For a list of premodern references to the scripture, see Nishiguchi 2014, pp. 260-
7 For an overview of the roles played by indigenous scriptures within the Ch
landscape, see Buswell 1990. For analyses of influential scriptures that are likel
China, see, for instance, Chou 2004; Groner 1990; Nattier 1992.
8 Japanese canons were, however, comparatively flexible and did sometimes inc
had not been deemed canonical in China (Lowe 2014).
9 Foshuo zhuan nüshenjing, T 56414:9^2-92103.
This sutra advances what I call the impurity hypothesis: it assumes that any and
women are inherently impure, both physically and morally. In 2006, however, N
guchi Junko ffiPMT1, the doyenne of women's history in Japanese Buddhism, p
lished a paper demonstrating that the apocryphal Sutra on Transforming Wom
into Buddhas is not the same as the canonical Sutra on Transforming Women's
ies (hereafter referred to as Transforming Bodies for the sake of disambiguatio
Indeed, the two texts are very different. The Sutra on Transforming Women
Buddhas is much shorter, features a different plot and characters, and is far m
optimistic about women's soteriological potential than its canonical doppelgänger
In her research, Nishiguchi drew attention to and transcribed the two curre
known extant copies of the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas. The fi
which is held by the Tokyo National Museum, probably dates to the late H
period. This copy is a palimpsest: the sutra is written in golden ink on top of a
strate of joined and trimmed pages bearing black calligraphy in running script
figures r and 2, which reproduce the entire substrate; the sutra itself occupies o
the first half, as seen in figure i).1! The second copy is a mounted photograph ow
by Tokyo University's Historiographical Institute. It reproduces a manuscript f
the collection of Asabuki Eiji (r849-r9r8), a noted Meiji-period art co
tor and employee of the Mitsui Corporation.12 According to the Historiograph
Institute's online holdings database, the photograph was taken on r5 December r
The manuscript it pictures may have dated to the Kamakura period, but its curr
whereabouts are unknown.13
In the wake of Nishiguchi's work, Lori Meeks translated and briefly discussed
Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas in her monograph on the Kamak
period revival of the convent Hokkeji It remains, however, to provi
sustained analysis of this provocative text in light of the circumstances under w
it first entered Japanese religious culture. Although its origins remain obscure,
sutra was clearly in use by the 88os: the first extant references to it appear in liturg
prayers {ganmon WcX) written by the famous litterateur and statesman Sugawar
Michizane HJEÛH (845-903) in 884 and 886.15 In order to identify the sutras d
10 Nishiguchi 2006. Nishiguchi later revised and expanded her work; see Nishiguchi 2009, 2
" In print, see Kokushi daijiten, color plate 26, inserted between p. 556 and p. 557. Based on
museum's old card file, which is accessible in the Research and Information Center (Shiryôka
ftffi), the Tokyo National Museum image archives date the manuscript to the thirteenth cen
and attribute the calligraphy to Dharma Prince Shukaku (1150-1202). Although this att
tion has been superseded in recent exhibitions and publications, it is certainly a subject for fu
research.
12 Bussetsu tennyo jöbutsu kyö, Historiographical Institute manuscript. The photograph is
logued as no. 271-2746 and is labeled "from the collection of Asabuki Eiji in Tokyo." On Asabu
position in collecting circles, see Guth 1993, pp. 140-51.
13 Fujiwara and Nukui 2015.
14 Meeks 2010, pp. 303-304.
15 Kanke bunsö 657, Gangyö 7n® 8 (884).4.10 (p. 605); 660, Ninna CfQ 2 (886).7.i3 (pp. 607-6
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trinal interventions, as well as the arc of its career in Heian ritual and socie
turn to its relationships to its canonical intertexts, together with eviden
during the Heian period. This analysis will contribute to our understa
religiosity, scriptural reproduction, and the dynamic (rather than stati
the formation and interpretation of doctrine.
Why Write a New Sutra?

Hie timing of the entry of the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddha
nese devotional culture is significant. Female social roles grew more res
ing the ninth century, while at the same time discourses about women's imp
immorality intensified.16 The disappearance of Buddhist convents speak
tutional realities of this shift. Whereas nuns had enjoyed comparative e
monks during the Nara period, support for female monastics plummete
Heian period. Ordination lineages for women attenuated, and as a conse
ceased to officiate in state-sponsored rites, their religious practice beco
private matter.17 In the sphere of Buddhist doctrine, the ninth century
by the emergence of the doctrine of the five obstructions (goshö, or itsutsu
Slit). Although the veracity of the obstructions is contested in the sa
most famously rehearses them—the Lotus Sutra's "Devadatta Chapter"
daduo pin Jp. Daibadattabon)—they gained credence during
period and cast a long shadow over women's religious and literary lives.1
The historical record suggests that the Sutra on Transforming Women
came into use, and may even have been composed, as a response to new
about women's inferiority during the early Heian period. In fact, the f
reference to the five obstructions occurs in the same milieu as the ear
for the sutra. An 883 prayer written by Michizane for a laywoman men
obstructions, and prayers he wrote for other laypeople in 884 and 886
Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas.19 In the discussion that fo
16 Obara Hitoshi 'MEC has pointed to the role of Confucianism in popularizin

women ought to be socially subordinate, whereas Katsuura Noriko IS fit ■has e
roles played by Daoism and Buddhism in promulgating visions of women as catego
and soteriologically impaired (Obara 1990; Katsuura 2006, 2007, 2009). In terms of
it is important to note that the number and prominence of women officials fell as eli
increasingly excluded from the public sphere (Yoshikawa 1990; for a brief discussi
see Heidt 2008, pp. 90-101).
17 Groner 2002a, pp. 68-71; see also Meeks 2006.
18 For the list of five obstructions, see Miaofa lianhuajing (Jp. Myöhö ren
after cited as Lotus Sutra), T 262 9:3509-11. Note that although sets of "the five o
appear in other canonical sutras, they are not always consistent, as indicated by a w
(goshö) in the SAT Daizökyö Text Database (T); see also Kamens 1993, p. 394;
41-42. On the establishment of the obstructions as a trope, see Kamens 1993.
19 For the obstructions, see Kanke bunsö 654, Gangyö 7 (883).3.i8 (p. 603). For
Transforming Women into Buddhas, see n. 15.
on scriptures copied and used by Michizane's patrons. My aim is to explore texts
against which the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas was read, and per
haps written, especially the "Devadatta Chapter" of the Lotus Sutra; the canonical
sutra Transforming Bodies; and the Vimalakïrti nirdesa (Ch. Weimojing, Jp. Yuimagy
hereafter referred to as the Vimalakïrti Sutra. The differences among these
texts call our attention to the dynamic and sometimes contradictory qualities of dis
course on women's religious potential found at the level of scriptural authority, as
well as in ritual application and vernacular interpretation. To borrow a musical meta
phor, in Heian Japan the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas played one par
in a doctrinal fugue, with multiple sutras entering into a complex polyphony of poin
and counterpoint. The significance and strategies of the apocryphal sutra become
clearer when we take account of its canonical intertexts—the equivalent of a fugues
contrapuntal melodies.
The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas was clearly conceived in dialogue
with canonical treatments of sex change. Not only does it include the phrase ten
nyo in its title, but in its opening lines it also has the Buddha's learned discipl
Säriputra ask how women can "quickly transform their female bodies and realize
unsurpassed awakening." Whereas female-to-male sex change featured commonly
in non-Buddhist narrative literature produced in India, it took on a special twist in
Mahayana narratives, including those that gained popularity in Japan.20 On the one
hand, Mahayana doctrine insists that the true goal of Buddhist practice is to attain not
the enlightenment of an arhat but the perfect enlightenment of a buddha. This is, for
instance, one of the key refrains of the Lotus Sutra. On the other hand, Mahayanists
tended to accept the classical assumption that any buddha is distinguished by thirty
two physical marks, one of which is a sheathed penis. This conviction is rehearsed
for example, in the Dazhidu lun T; TV So m (Jp. Daichidoron), which was important in
Japanese Tendai doctrine and of interest to at least some members of the educated
Heian elite/' If one accepts that any buddha has the thirty-two marks, it follows log
cally that a woman would have to be reborn male or change sex in her present life
before she herself could become a buddha. And yet many Mahayanists have also felt
compelled to take account of the doctrine of emptiness, which holds that phenom
ena, being impermanent, are empty of any inherent existence or essence. Viewed
through the lens of emptiness, sex, genitals, and gender are of only conventional
significance.
20 For sex-change narratives in Indian literature, see Brown 1927; Doniger 1999, p. 281-92. On
Mahayana sex-change narratives, see especially Nattier forthcoming; Schuster 1981; see also Pau
1979. PP-166-232; Gross 1993, pp. 67-73; Hae-ju 1999.
21 On the thirty-two physical marks and the Buddha's masculinity, see Powers 2009, esp. pp
13-14. See Dazhidu lun, T 1509 25:9oa27-9iai9, for the physical marks as taken up by this text
For the use of this commentary by the man of letters Minamoto no Tamenori MijM. (d. 1011), se
Kamens 1988, pp. 52-53.
Broadly speaking, Mahayana sex-change narratives negotiate the pa

tionship between the soteriological necessity of male bodies and the on
tivity of those bodies by making a choice: they either reinscribe the super
corporeal and social male, or they valorize emptiness. These two option
doctrinal horizons for the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas. He
examine a scripture representative of each position. The first, Transfo
adheres to the impurity hypothesis, insisting that all women are cat
luted and must therefore become male as they progress along the Bud
By way of contrast, the Vimalakirti Sutra advances what I call the e
ment, which maintains that sex, like any other phenomenal character
of inherent reality or meaning.23 Finally, I examine the Dragon Girl
"Devadatta Chapter," a well-known passage that has been interpreted
hand, as evidence that women can and do attain enlightenment, and, o
as proof that they cannot.24 In this respect, the "Devadatta Chapter" e
abiding polysemy of scripture, which in turn supports, and even dem
tive work from lay and ordained audiences alike.
As already noted, all three of these canonical texts—Transforming
Vimalakirti Sutra, and the "Devadatta Chapter"—circulated in the
milieu as the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas: they are
in prayers written by Michizane at the behest of lay patrons in the la
tury. Although Transforming Bodies never achieved great popularity,
been copied at court during the Nara period.25 And, as a prayer writ
zane shows, in 892 the children of Princess Hanshi SE2?- (833-9
empress consort at the time, had the same sutra copied and dedicated
her.26 The Vimalakirti Sutra was loosely associated with the Fujiwara
the Vimalakirti Assembly ( Yuima-e If®?#), an annual rite of state pr
held at Köfukuji üli^F, the Fujiwara lineage temple.2' Members of the
the scripture for their own benefit, as seen in the case of an 886 pray
22 Foshuo zhuan nüshen jing, T 564 14:91502-92103; the passage from 919326 to
what is wrong with women's bodies.
23 Weimojie suoshuo jing $tJS|pßff!££l (Jp. Yuimakitsu shosetsu kyö), T 475 14
especially 548C2-9.
24 For the entire chapter, see Lotus Sutra, T 262 9:34023-35026; for the Dragon G
35318-025. On interpretation, which I discuss further below, see, for instance,
2003, pp. 91-118.
25 As Katsuura Noriko has pointed out, a document in the Shösöin lEia K arch
Transforming Bodies was copied at the order of a nun and then forwarded to th
in 743. Presumably, this project was carried out under the auspices of Empress
(701-760) or Crown Princess Abe (718-770), who later reigned as Empress
and again as Empress Shôtoku (Mt Katsuura 2000, pp. 273-74; DNK Hennen 2
(742).12.3 (p-171)
26 Kanke bunsö 664, Kanpyö HUT 4 (892).12.21 (pp. 610-11).
27 For more on the Vimalakirti Assembly and its politics, see Groner 2002b, 129-35
Michizane for Fujiwara no Shigeko ÜUfdËT1 (n.d.), who had the sutra copied an
dedicated to generate merit for her father, the former regent Fujiwara no Motot
HHRHH (836-891).28 As for the "Devadatta Chapter," it is important to note that
constituent parts of the Lotus Sutra have substantially different textual and inte
tive histories. The "Devadatta Chapter" was a late addition to the sutra, interpola
into the popular Kumärajiva translation around the end of the fifth century. Sig
cantly, it failed to draw the attention of Japanese exegetes or devotees up through th
Nara period, a time when other sections of the Lotus were in active use.29 In fact
people were in the interpretive vanguard in this case. Although monastic writers
begun to take an interest in the "Devadatta Chapter" during the early Heian peri
Michizane's 883 prayer (mentioned above) provides the earliest evidence for any
cussion of the infamous doctrine of the five obstructions in Japan.30
What do these scriptures say? Transforming Bodies is one of a number of sutras tha
testify to what Jan Nattier has called the non-negotiable quality of the associa
between maleness and buddhahood in the Mahayana.31 According to this sutra, o
upon a time a pregnant Brahmin woman named Pure Sun went to hear the Bud
preach in Räjagrha, whereupon she gave birth through her side to a fully develo
little girl. This paradigmatically pure birth, free from polluting contact with the
nal canal, is reflected in the name Pure Sun gives her daughter: Immaculate Radi
(Ch. Wugouguang Wfcit, Jp. Mukukö). Immaculate Radiance demonstrates her
ternatural wisdom by winning a debate with Säriputra, traditionally said to be
Buddha's wisest disciple but often pilloried in Mahayana texts as an arrogant ped
She then asks the Buddha what good practices enable one "to part from a fema
body, speedily become a male, and generate a mind for unsurpassed awakening."3
reply, the Buddha expounds a series of ten numerically grouped practices, conc
ing that any woman who "can in truth contemplate the faults of a woman's body
be able to generate a sense of aversion, will speedily part from the ills of her fem
body, and will become a male."33 The sutra then launches into a typical sex-cha
28 Kanke bunsö 659, Ninna 2 (886).2.20 (pp. 606-607). Along with the Vimalaklrti Sutra, Shig
dedicated a copy of the Brahma's Net Sutra (Ch. Fanwang jing fp. Bonmökyö) and a Bu
dhalocana mandala.
29 See Groner 1989, pp. 58-61, for a concise overview of the history of the chapter. For
absence of the chapter from Nara-period religious culture, see Sone 2000. One Nara-period
gete, Myöitsu Hfl— (728-798), did make passing mention of the Dragon Girl in his Hokke ryak
(T 2188 56:i4ob2i), but did not comment on her sex.
30 Saichô M?È (767-822) was one of the first exegetes to write about the Dragon Girl, an
interpretation, which emphasized the capacity of anyone—even a nonhuman female—to be
a buddha in this life {sokushin jôbutsu BP#liStfA), did not take up the question of the five ob
tions. See Hokke shûku, pp. 261-67, as well as Ökubo 2006; Groner 1989.
31 Nattier 2003, p. 98; see also Nattier forthcoming.
32 Foshuo zhuan nüshenjing, T 564 14:91802-5.
33 Foshuo zhuan nüshenjing, T 564 14:91805-919327; for the quoted phrase, see lines 326-27
practices the Buddha describes resemble behavioral standards for novices (Hae-ju 1999, p.
Also note that the term translated here as "sense of aversion" (Ch. yanli xin URSt-D, Jp. enri
narrative as seventy-five matrons come forward from the audience to p

dha's explanation of the "faults and evils" of women's bodies. After their hu
inspired to take monastic vows, the women all miraculously change sex
to become monks themselves.34 When the narrative returns to Immacul
the Buddha informs Säriputra that the girl has been born in a female bo
mic recompense for past misdeeds but as a skillful means for teaching
her history as a bodhisattva revealed, Immaculate Radiance performs an
by declaring, '"Among all existents there is no male nor female.' If th
true, may my female body change, making me a male!" The manifold w
and Immaculate Radiance changes sex.35 As the story draws to a close,
charges his disciple Ananda with preserving the sutra and notes that wo
their faith in the scripture or make offerings to the Buddha will be able to
their female bodies.36
It is certainly possible to tollow Nancy Schuster in reading this and

change accounts as expressions of a "transcendence of ordinary worldly
sex distinctions that are part of it": after all, Immaculate Radiance is p
when she declares that in truth there is no male nor female.37 Yet su
ignores what is most central to the story the scripture tells. This narra
the impurity hypothesis as axiomatic, hewing to longstanding conventi
the ideal monastic body as male and associate women with negative char
such as lust and jealousy.38 As Reiko Ohnuma has put it, the transfor
female to male appears as a "natural and necessary karmic progression
a female body "stands for worldly human bondage and suffering, wh
body stands for perfect enlightenment."39 When Immaculate Radiance r
female body in order to advance along the Buddhist path, she vividly d
that ultimate truth is, in fact, male.40
Not all Buddhists would agree, however.41 Indeed, other scriptures l

change narratives to produce very different understandings of the si
of sex and gender. The Vimalakïrti Sutra, which celebrates the career o
is a form of samvega, that is, an emotional and cognitive shock stemming from r
what one had thought to be desirable is in fact not. On aversion to women as a form
see Wilson 1996, esp. pp. 15-39.
36 Foshuo zhuan nüshenjing, T 564 14:92^20-28.
37 Schuster 1981, p. 55.
38 Wilson 1996; Mrozik 2007.
39 Ohnuma 2000, p. 131.
40 On the triumph of the male body as the vehicle for supposedly universal enli
other Buddhist narrative settings, see Ohnuma 2000, esp. pp. 124-31; Nattier 20
Nattier forthcoming.
41 On the Chan school's insistence that awakening is not marked by sex (or anyt
Levering 1982; Faure 2003, pp. 127-42.
bodhisattva of the same name, famously uses the emptiness argume

prejudices against women. A number of episodes in the sutra vividly
ously—skew conventional Mahayana narrative tropes; one of these cen
goddess who resides in Vimalakirti's house.42 When Säriputra, who on
the role of narrow-minded misogynist, challenges the goddess, she ro
him in debate. Affronted, Säriputra remarks acidly that if she were
would make herself male. He then asks, "Why do you not transform
body?"43 The goddess promptly transforms both herself and Säriputra
of them appears to be the other. She (now he) asks the same question
her). Having confounded the monk, the goddess instructs him: wom
to be women. Like other phenomena, women exist only provisionally,
essentially female, much less feminine. To sum up she says, "Thus th
taught that all existents are neither male nor female."44 Although th
virtually the same words as Immaculate Radiance, she does so to very d
She returns to her original sex, restores Säriputra to his male body,
tinues her discourse on the emptiness of all phenomena, while the mo
silenced. Here the wise one remains a woman, without any indication
have to change sex to attain perfect enlightenment.
The impurity hypothesis and the emptiness argument conjoin in a sin
the "Devadatta Chapter," which features a well-known account of the r
miraculous sex change, and enlightenment of the daughter of the Dra
Säriputra once again seeks to dampen what he sees as the pretension
interlocutor. After hearing the bodhisattva Manjusri praise the wisdom
Girl, Säriputra sneers in disbelief: "A female body is filthy and poll
be a vessel for the Dharma. How could a woman attain unsurpassed a
He then proceeds to outline more specific limits on female capacities
body also has five obstructions: first, she cannot become a Brahma; se
third, a Mära; fourth, a wheel-turning sage king; or fifth, a buddha-body.
caps Säriputra's statements with an ambivalent sex-change narrative
site for considerable hermeneutical activity because it proves Säriput
and right. After offering a jewel to the Buddha, the Dragon Girl enact
designed to amaze: she completes "all the practices of a bodhisattv
wonderful moment; "changes into a male" (henjö nanshi an
42 Vimalakïrti Sutra, T 475 14:547023-548027. Readings of this passage abound:

Paul 1979, pp. 217-23; Schuster 1981, pp. 41-42,46; Nattier forthcoming.
43 Vimalakïrti Sutra, T 475 14:548022.
44 Vimalakïrti Sutra, T 475 14:54805. Note the minimal difference between the aff
respectively, by the goddess and by Immaculate Radiance: —-0JI#(issa
hinyo), Vimalakïrti Sutra (T 475 14:54805), and —Kilt(issai shohö mun
Foshuo zhuan niishen jing (T 56414:92^11-2).
45 Lotus Sutra, T 262 9:3507-8. The usage here, xvushang dao *±11 (Jp. mujöd
translated "unsurpassed Way" but does refer to awakening, i.e., enlightenment.
46 Lotus Sutra, T 262 9:3509-11.
buddha. Many interpreters, both past and present, have read the enlig
the Dragon Girl as a testament to women's religious potential and a re
notion of the five obstructions. Others have taken it as an endorsement of women's
socioreligious subordination, focusing on the fact that the Dragon Girl does become
male before becoming enlightened.47
Rather than unfolding in a sequence such that one supersedes another, these pro
foundly divergent readings circulated in Japan at the same time. As Ryùichi Abé has
pointed out, medieval Japanese monastic exegetes tended to read this passage as a
confirmation of the impurity hypothesis, whereas writers of engi ÛÉ3 (origin sto
ries), dramatists, and sutra copyists and illuminators—groups Abé collectively refers
to as "raconteurs"—interpreted the scenario as a brilliant example of a female char
acter's wisdom, skillful means, and enlightenment.481 would like to emphasize that
these raconteurs, many of whom were not ordained, operated within semivernacular
idioms. They might have engaged with scholastic doctrine, but they were not wholly
governed by it.
Indeed, an implicit logic of supplementation drove the ritual use of scripture. As
discussed later in this article, liturgical prayers and diary entries written by laymen
show that throughout the Heian period, the Sutra on Transforming Women into
Buddhas was routinely copied and dedicated together with the Lotus Sutra. The latter
is known for its self-aggrandizement: it repeatedly extols itself as a source of infinite
benefit, asserting, for instance, that anyone "who hears, causes others to hear, holds,
causes others to hold, copies, [orj causes others to copy [the sutra] or makes offer
ings" to it will enjoy "merit fathomless and limitless." Capable of all types of knowl
edge, a devotee of the Lotus will be able to "give rise to the unsurpassed wisdom of a
thus-come one."49 By its own testimony, then, this sutra ought to have been enough
for anyone, and yet Heian laypeople consistently augmented it. This habit indicates
that they deemed other sutras to be effective—if not equally, then differently.
The assumption that doctrinal plurality was both appropriate and useful made
it comparatively easy for the creators of the Sutra on Transforming Women into
Buddhas to intervene into scriptural discourse. As my close reading below shows,
the apocryphal sutra charts a third path between the impurity hypothesis and the
emptiness argument. Unlike Transforming Bodies, the new sutra declined to endorse
the male body as the pure and proper vehicle for enlightenment. And, whereas the
Vimalakirti goddess had advanced the idea that the sex of any body is insignificant,
the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas sought to invest women's bodies
with positive religious value. Finally, it avoided the specificity of the Lotus Sutra,
47 For emancipatory readings, see, for instance, Levering 1982, pp. 22-27,30-31; Hae-ju 1999. On
the historical career of the Dragon Girl in the Japanese religious imagination and the tendency of
Japanese monastic exegetes to emphasize the inferiority of the female body, see Abé 2015; Faure
2003, pp. 91-118; Yamamoto 1993, pp. 225-88; Yoshida 1989.
48 Abé 2015.
49 Lotus Sutra, T 262 9:451111-16.
which spelled out exactly what happened to the Dragon Girl (she transformed into
a male). Instead, the creators of the new sutra manipulated the trope of the transfor
mation of women to new ends.
The Third Path: Women as Matrices

We now turn to the text of the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas. In the
following translation and commentary, I provide a close reading of the text in order
to consider how it created a new strand within Japanese scriptural discourse. I have
replicated the order of the text from the extant manuscripts, but divided it into sec
tions for the sake of topical clarity.50 As I demonstrate below, the sutra articulates a
reproductive soteriology, that is, a theory in which salvation is predicated on one's
sexual organs and ability to reproduce. It lays this soteriology out through four con
secutive rhetorical strategies: engagement with the trope of women's transformation,
use of reproductive imagery and nuance, description of practices that will enable
women to achieve enlightenment, and praise of its own intercessory power.
Like most sutras, this one opens with the genre-specific phrase "Thus have I heard,"
followed by a narrative frame:
The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas, as Taught by the Buddha
Thus have I heard: at one time the Buddha was in the country of Sràvastï in a great assembly
of bhiksus [i.e., monks], fully 1,250 people. Säriputra addressed the Buddha and said, "Con
sider the bodies of women within the trichiliocosm:51 their impure practices are innumer
able, as are the eons through which they suffer. Thus, what are the causes and conditions
through which they may quickly transform their female bodies and realize unsurpassed
awakening?"52
Together, the title and Säriputra's question create a ruse that ushers in the scripture's
most apocryphal claims. The phrase "transformation of women" ( tennyo), conven
tionally used to denote female-to-male sex change, appears twice here. Furthermore,
Säriputra, who features in well-known sex-change episodes from the Vimalakirti,
Lotus, and other sutras, introduces the equally familiar impurity hypothesis. These
allusions invite the reader to expect a story of sex change, when in fact the sutra
delivers something else.
At that time, the Buddha told Säriputra: "You would do well to keep in mind my explana
tion of the causes and effects of women's bodies. Why? Because every woman's body: these
are all the mothers of the buddhas of the three times.
50 My translation is based on the Historiographical Institute and Tokyo National Museum

manuscripts, with significant divergences between these two versions noted. Reference has also
been made to Nishiguchi's transcription (Nishiguchi 2014, pp. 259-60). As mentioned earlier
(see p. 266), this sutra has previously been translated into English in Meeks 2010, pp. 303-304.
51 "Trichiliocosm" designates the set of three thousand thousandfold worlds that make up a
major world system in Buddhist cosmology.
52 The usage of mujödö—here translated as "unsurpassed awakening"—matches that in the
Dragon Girl episode; see n. 45.
Here the sutra begins an apocryphal turn that works to shift discourse on t
tion. Whereas Immaculate Radiance, the Dragon Girl, and the goddess al
(albeit to different effect), the Sutra on Transforming Women into Bud
from narrating sex change. By sidestepping Säriputras question, the Bu
that women's (im)purity is not the most pressing issue. What matters is
are the mothers of the buddhas, past, present, and future.
This claim departs markedly from canonical norms. As Diana Paul has n
erhood tends to represent "suffering, bondage, and dependency" in th
although in some cases gynomorphized virtues are said to generate awak
cording to the Sutra of the Great Perfection of Wisdom, for instance, "t
perfection of wisdom [in Sanskrit, the grammatically feminine prajhäpä
mother of the buddhas."54 The Sutra on Transforming Women into Bud
both negative and metaphorical depictions of motherhood in favor of
on universality and somaticity. The assertion that it is the bodies of all
make them buddha-mothers is the linchpin for the text's reproductive s
In the ensuing sentences, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Bud
duces a telling synecdoche, in which a part (womb) stands for a whole
This rhetorical figure pivots on the graph M (Ch. zang, Jp. zö), which
tiple times in quick succession following the declaration that women's b
mothers of the buddhas. Like the Sanskrit garbha, which it conventional
zö M means womb, embryo, store, and/or treasury; I translate it as "matrix
both the reproductive and the abstract nuances:
Like the great sea or the great earth, for example, a woman's body is the matrix
come ones. For the response-buddhas' bodies, it is the matrix of the ten thous
And for the great bodhisattvas, it is the matrix of the ten thousand good dee
matrix of great merit.
In this passage, the sutra draws on tathàgatagarbha (Ch. rulaizang

nyoraizô) thought, which exerted a profound influence on East Asian
but also adds an apocryphal twist by playing on the sexed, reproducti
of the term garbha/zö.55 Here translated "matrix of the thus-come on
tathàgatagarbha denotes the idea that enlightenment inheres in every se
Its somatic nuances imply that for the unenlightened, an inner buddh
53 Paul 1979, p. 61.
54 Da bore boluomiduo jing (Jp. Dai hannya haramitta kyö), T 220

For a nuanced discussion of the grammatical and figurative gender of doctrinal terms
see Cabezôn 1992.
55 The most likely sources for tathâgatagarbha thought in early Heian aristocrat
Shengman jing (Jp. Shömangyö), T 353 12:2173-223!), and Shömangyö gi
T 2185 56:13-190, a commentary popularly attributed to Shötoku Taishi who
to have lived from 574 to 622.
or "thus-come one") is enclosed like an embryo (garbha) within a womb (garbh

delusive consciousness and karmic hindrances.56
In a series of parallel formulae immediately following the equation of women
tathägatagarbha/nyoraizö, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas ampl
its claims that women engage in soteriologically effective reproduction. "Respo
bodies" (usually ökeshin Sk. nirmänakäya, here expressed more awkward
even amateurishly, as öke busshin JSltfAJf), are the forms buddhas take in orde
meet the needs of particular groups of sentient beings.57 The Buddha Sàkyamuni
example, took on a human response body so that he could effectively commun
with beings in our degraded world. According to the Sutra on Transforming Wo
into Buddhas, as "the matrix of the ten thousand things" women produce all p
nomena, including the sentient beings for whom response-body buddhas mani
The sutra follows this innovative claim with another: women provide the substa
of bodhisattvas' saving activities, for their bodies are "the matrix of the ten thou
good deeds" and "the matrix of great merit." These statements are tantamount
declaration that women enable the buddhas and bodhisattvas to fulfill their func
tions, that without women there would be no enlightenment.

In a pronounced shift, the second part of the sutra expounds upon ritual and ethi
cal practices that will enable women to attain unsurpassed awakening—that is, to
transform into buddhas. At the outset of this segment, the text concedes that expia
tion lays the foundation for awakening:
And yet when one accumulates58 [the misdeeds of] the breaking of the precepts, lack of
faith, laziness and negligence, malice and foolishness, envy and jealousy, arrogance and
boastfulness, and wrong views, one obtains a body as a woman.59 Having expunged the
karmic results of misdeeds from their past lives, [women] will attain the fruit of the great
bodhisattva, transform their female bodies, and realize unsurpassed awakening.
The first part of this passage confirms the established dogma that women are born
female precisely because they have done bad things in their past lives. But rhetorically,
it serves to create a tension vis-à-vis the positive evaluation of women (or women's
bodies) offered in the preceding lines. The sutra sets out to resolve this tension by issu
ing a prediction that women who undertake expiation will surely become buddhas.
Although this promised enlightenment is to occur after women have transformed their
bodies, the nature of the required transformation is left provocatively undetermined.
56 On the terms retention of corporeal valences, see Zimmerman 2002, p. 45.

57 The phrase öke busshin is rarer than ökeshin and is in fact rather marginal. For instance,
searches for these terms in the SAT Daizökyö Text Database (T) show that whereas the latter was
common in the sutra literature, the former was used in only a handful of commentaries.
58 The graph M, construed here as a verb, is absent in the Historiographical Institute manuscript.
59 The Tokyo National Museum and Historiographical Institute manuscripts diverge some
what here. The former has (shitto, kyöman, jaken), whereas the latter has
{nyonö jamanken)-, furthermore, at the end of the sentence, the former has 1" # k (toku shinnyo),
whereas the latter has simply ( tokunyo).
Whereas readers familiar with canonical sutras such as Transforming Bod

took the phrase "transform their female bodies" as a reference to sex ch
ers may have engaged in less docile—or less informed—reading practices
row a term coined by Susanne Mrozik, Buddhist ethics are physiomoral: o
state is understood to correlate to and demonstrate one's moral condition. Ethical
cultivation is thus inseparable from physical change, such that moral progress results
in increased beauty, serenity, and other desirable bodily qualities.60 Narrative litera
ture indicates that Japanese Buddhists did indeed see devotion—and especially the
reading, recitation, and transcription of sutras—as exerting positive bodily effects,
in both this life and the next.61 Given that the Sutra on Transforming Women into
Buddhas claims to provide for the transformation of women but steadfastly avoids
telling any sex-change stories, the promised transformation might plausibly be taken
to be a more general physiomoral turn toward enlightenment. It would certainly not
require difficult or unusual practices, as the sutra makes clear:
If there should be women who uphold the three refuges, five precepts, and ten inexhaust
ible precepts, without breaking them, whether for seven days or for three-times-seven days,
or for a month or two months, or for forty-nine days, or else for three months or up to half
a year or three years, if they maintain them for six calendar-cycles without being licentious,
then the women will emit radiant light from their bodies at the end of their lives. They will
be reborn in the Western Pure Land. They will quickly realize unsurpassed awakening.
The central observances advocated here—upholding the three refuges, five pre
cepts, and ten inexhaustible precepts—involve the cultivation of faith and morality
and are open to anyone. Both laypeople and monastics may participate in repeatable
ceremonies in which they formally take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the
sangha. They may do the same with the ritual pledge to observe the five precepts,
namely, to refrain from killing, stealing, engaging in sexual misconduct, lying, and
drinking alcohol. The ten inexhaustible precepts, which are to be found in the Brah
ma's Net Sutra (Ch. Fanwangjing ÄIHIl, Jp. Bonmökyö), set a key standard for ethical
action across East Asia. These require adherents to refrain from killing; stealing; sex
ual misconduct; lying; selling liquor; discussing the faults of members of the sangha;
praising oneself and denigrating others; practicing stinginess; bearing ill will; and
criticizing the three treasures.62 Again, these precepts can be (and are) observed by
both lay and ordained Buddhists of both sexes.
The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas invests these moral strictures
with wonderful power, asserting that women who uphold behavioral standards for
even a week will be reborn in Amitäbha [Amida]'s Western Pure Land and achieve
enlightenment. Notably, this formulation differs from the sutras earlier statements
on expiation: in this case, there is no proviso that women will "transform" prior
60 Mrozik 2007.
61 Eubanks 2011.
62 Fanwang jing, T 1484 24:1004011-1005315.
to enlightenment. Although other sutras maintain that there are no women in

Pure Land, James Dobbins has pointed out that medieval Japanese interpreters m
have ignored—or not even noticed—such limiting assertions.63 By first opting n
define the transformation of women and then eliding it altogether, the Sutra on Tra
forming Women into Buddhas leaves the door open to the idea that women migh
born into the Pure Land and then attain enlightenment as women. Furthermore
downplaying the time and trouble so often assumed to be prerequisites for aw
ing, this text outdoes the Lotus Sutra's gestures of assurance to its female audie
For instance, when the Lotus encourages women to read, copy, and otherwise de
themselves to its "Medicine King Chapter" (Ch. Yaowangpin HcEnn, Jp. Yakuöb
it promises that those who do so will not be reborn as women and that any wo
who hears it after the Buddha has died and the Dharma is coming to an end w
reborn in Amitäbhas Pure Land and thereafter enjoy a career as a great bodhisatt
By contrast, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas omits any stipula
that defer women's buddhahood until a far-distant future, thereby permitting reader
to imagine that "transformation" may simply mark the turn into enlightenment.
In closing, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas arrogates to itself statu
as a powerful tool for expiation and salvation:
If women write out a copy of this Mahayana sutra, or read or recite it, or explain it for oth
people, or cause others to copy, read, or recite it, or make offerings for this sutra, or giv
gifts and make obeisance to a Dharma-master who upholds it, then these women shall
completely expunge the serious misdeeds from innumerable millions of eons of birth a
death. Together they shall realize buddhahood.
Then, when the Buddha had finished teaching this sutra, everyone in the great assembly o
1,250 was very delighted.
The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas
In this passage, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas conform

established Mahayana norms of self-praise. It also complements its articulation
reproductive soteriology with a method of expiation rooted in the reproductio
scripture. Women, whose religious potential it earlier describes in terms conno
sexual reproduction, are to rid themselves of karmic burdens by reproducing te
this text. In doing so, they will become matrices not only of buddhas, bodhisatt
and good deeds, but also of the sutra itself.
The rhetorical strategies employed by this apocryphal sutra accomplish several
cific aims. First, by borrowing the language of female-to-male "transformation"
out actually narrating a sex change, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Bud
avoids making the claim that a male body is a prerequisite for buddhahood. Seco
by stating that women's bodies make them mothers of the buddhas, and by creat
63 Dobbins 1995. See Harrison 1998 on women's absence from the Pure Land.
64 Lotus Sutra, T 262 9:5^27-07.
adapting gendered language drawn from tathägatagarbha thought, the

a reproductive soteriology in which women's bodies are of religious val
their fecundity. And, finally, by directing its audience toward moral and
tices available to nonmonastics, the sutra lays out a path of practice f
to laywomen. Overall, it shifts discourse on the transformation of wom
sex change to imply that transformation is more a matter of precepts and
bodily sex. True to its title, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Budd
buddhahood, not maleness, as the target in the transformation of wom
Ritual Use of the Scripture

Although documentation of the use and interpretation of the Sutra on
Women into Buddhas is comparatively limited, what little is availab
us with some understanding of what the sutra meant to those who us
perhaps even created it during the Heian period. The relevant sources
types. A single reference to the sutra occurs in a waka, and a handful
in noblemen's journals (kanbun nikki iÜHffi), but the majority appe
(ganmon) that were designed to be read aloud as statements of ritual
large-scale Buddhist rites. Here I give a synoptic view of these sources
in more or less chronological order to explore who used the Sutra on
Women into Buddhas, how they did so, and why.
The earliest reference to the Sutra on Transforming Women into Bu
fies patterns that endured throughout the Heian period: it speaks to t
cratic social milieu, close ritual relationship with the Lotus Sutra, and
rites. In 884, Fujiwara no Takatsune JUSifjH (835-893), then a male off
aristocrat, commissioned a prayer from Sugawara no Michizane for
vices marking the first anniversary of his mother's death. According
some years previously Takatsune had taken leave of his family in ord
ernment post in the provinces, resulting in a conflict that Michizane
fucian terms: "loyalty is not united with filiality; parents and lord are
After several years, the prayer tells us, Takatsune received a letter inform
his mother had fallen ill. He hastened back to the capital, but his mother
him in a state of grief and affliction. To secure her posthumous well-bein
dedicated a set of nine images of buddhas and bodhisattvas centering u
Buddha.65 In addition, he dedicated a set of sutra manuscripts: sing
Lotus Sutra and its "opening" and "closing" scriptures (the Sutra of M
ings and the Sutra on Contemplating Samantabhadra); four copies of
Sutra; and single copies of the Sutra of the Dhärani of the Lord's Usnïs
Transforming Women into Buddhas, and the Heart Sutra.
65 The images seem to form a mandala: they resemble, but do not match, an A
adumbrated in the twelfth-century iconographie commentary Besson zakki
28o Monumenta Nipponica 71:2 (2016)
Several of these scriptures belonged to the standard repertoire of sutra-copying

projects, whereas others were tailored to particular purposes. The ever-popular Lotu
Sutra offers myriad blessings to those who revere and copy it; accordingly, it was th
most copied scripture among Heian elites, who used it together with its opening and
closing sutras to pray for aims ranging from a good rebirth to cures for present ills
The Heart Sutra was probably the next most common choice for copying. In additio
to distilling the central Mahayana concepts of emptiness and nonduality into a few
potent lines, it ends with a mantra that gives it a strong apotropaic quality. It is also
easy to copy because it is so short. The Amitâbha Sutra tended to be copied by those
who hoped to attain rebirth in the Pure Land, which it describes—but it, too, was
a stock element in sutra-copying projects, in part because Pure Land devotion was
so pervasive. By contrast, the Sutra of the Dharani of the Lord's Usnisa and the Sutr
on Transforming Women into Buddhas were used less often because their promise
effects were more specific. The former is an esoteric scripture that promotes longev
ity and promises to clear away the karmic residues of past misdeeds, whereas the la
ter, as we have seen, ensures women's enlightenment.
Although Takatsune listed all of his offerings, he singled out only a few for explan
tion when he commented on his aims in the last portion of the prayer:
The twenty-second of this month is the night when my deceased mother departed from
the world. Therefore, I, your disciple, reverently bow down before the image of [Amitâbha]
the Lord of Immeasurable Life and place my faith in the great vehicle of the Lotus. I am
of one mind only: to assist my deceased mother. Furthermore, with the [images of] the
bodhisattvas Avalokitesvara, Mahästhämapräpta, and Ksitigarbha, the Measureless [Mean
ings], [Contemplating] Samantabhadra, and Amitâbha Sutras, again, I have no other
thought than to assist my deceased mother. Though there are many pure realms, I only
pray that she will [ultimately]66 dwell in the Land of Ease. Though the causes for good for
tune range widely, I only pray that she may in truth become the Dharma body. As for the
remaining merit, I extend it everywhere to all. Having hereby generated an unobstructed
mind, I take it as a cause for my deceased mother to attain awakening.67
Takatsune's hopes clearly centered on his mother's rebirth in the "Land of Ease," an
epithet the Lotus Sutra uses to refer to Amitäbha's Pure Land. Clearly, he saw the
Lotus's opening and closing sutras as supporting that aim, along with the images o
Avalokitesvara and Mahästhämapräpta, bodhisattvas who act as Amitäbha's atten
dants in Pure Land texts and images. Since Kçitigarbha, the third bodhisattva men
tioned here, assists the dead, Takatsune may have hoped that he would help his
mother along her way to positive rebirth. More abstrusely, Takatsune expressed a
prayer that his mother would "become the Dharma body" (hosshin to naru JjSciiJf).
Although the term hosshin /£# (Ch. fashen, Sk. dharmakäya) has variously been
framed as a body proper to a buddha or as the corpus of his teachings, it retains a
66 The text at this point includes one illegible character.

67 Kanke bunsö 657, Gangyö 8 (884).4.10 (pp. 605-606). The term rendered here as "attain awak
ening" is tokudö #Ü.
close association with the fully awakened.68 Thus it appears

effect praying that his mother would become a buddha. Alt
ment specifically on the Sutra on Transforming Women into Bud
ises exactly this metamorphosis; it therefore fit perfectly w
agenda. Indeed, his funerary offerings demonstrate that layp
phal sutra within flexible doctrinal and material repertoires
the enlightenment of women.
The same factors—its application in funerary rites, its combi
and its promotion of the reproduction of scripture as an enli
tinued to govern the use of the Sutra on Transforming Wome
mid-Heian period. For instance, Fujiwara no Sanesuk
known courtier and diarist, described two memorials held du
the summer of 1017. Regarding the first, Sanesuke noted that
Senior Grand Empress (taikö taigö ±M±ln) Fujiwara no Junsh
dedicated an Amitâbha triad and copies of the Lotus Sutra, He
Transforming Women into Buddhas on the occasion of her for
service. Two days later, Grand Empress (kötaigö M Hip )
(988-1074) sponsored a memorial rite on the one-year annive
her maternal grandmother, Fujiwara no Bokushi MWM-T (93
cated copies of the same set of scriptures, as well as a set of
mandalas.69 On these occasions, men and women from the h
ety were undertaking rites built around the apocryphal script
who copied it (or, by extension, women to whom the merit fr
dedicated) would become buddhas. In this respect, we should
sponsors augmented the Lotus Sutra, so often touted as a key
with an apocryphon. They may have done so because the Sut
Women into Buddhas offered more certitude than the Lotus,
who hear even a portion of it in the years following Sâkyamu
prediction of buddhahood.70 The Sutra on Transforming Wom
women a more direct promise of awakening.
Though evidence is scant for how laypeople might have exp
ship of the Lotus and the Sutra on Transforming Women int
of Princess Senshi ü)P (964-1035), who lived at the same tim
sense of how an elite woman handled multiple, even contrad
the feasibility of her own liberation. With the first and secon
wakashü (Collection of Verses on Generating a Mind f
Senshi declared her embrace of the bodhisattva vows. After citing
("Defilements are boundless; I vow to end them") in the h
68 On the term dharmakâya, compare Harrison 1992 to Abé 1999, pp. 2

69 Shöyüki, Kannin jÈt 1 (1017).7.19, 22 (pp. 210-11).
70 Lotus Sutra, T 262 9:3ob29-c9. For a fuller discussion of what th
offer women, see Nattier 2009.
verse, she made an unmistakable reference to the five obstructions. Her engagem
with the obstructions marks the beginning of their canonization as a topos in w
poetry, as Edward Kamens has shown.71 In her verse, Senshi commented on her k
awareness of these barriers:
kazoubeki There is no way

kata mo nakeredo to count them all,
mi ni chikaki but those that are closest to me
mazu wa itsutsu no are certainly those
sawari narikeru Five Obstructions.72
By referring to her bodily self (mi), Senshi emphasize

inherent quality of the five obstructions. And yet, as
have been suggesting that the very idea of the obstruct
tion.73 Certainly, Senshi portrayed herself as resolute.
the bodhisattva vow as her own: she might face barrier
not be deterred.
In the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas Sen

would indeed achieve her aim—the perfect enlightenm
from the apocryphal scripture in the headnote to h
expunged the karmic results of misdeeds from their pa
the fruit of the great bodhisattva, transform their fem
passed awakening." The corresponding verse reads:
toriwakite Since I have encountered

tokareshi nori ni this teaching given specially for me,
ainureba it is certain
mi mo kaetsubeku that my body will be transformed—
kiku zo ureshiki what joy to hear it!74
Like the sutra from which she quoted, this poem refrains from specifying
its author thought her body might be transformed. If she anticipated that s
become male in her next life, she was not alone, for other women certainly pray
reborn male.75 Then again, it is possible that she used the Sutra on Transforming
into Buddhas to reframe transformation as a shift into enlightenment. In an
71 Kamens 1993, p. 397.

72 The translation of the verse is from Kamens 1990, pp. 78; the Japanese text appears on
73 Kamens 1993, p. 397.
74 Again, the translation is from Kamens 1990, pp. 90-91; the Japanese text is on p. 143.
75 For instance, sixteen years after Princess Senshi died, a female donor who identified
a woman of the Ki iS lineage offered a votive bronze to the gods of Kinpusen a m
known for its prohibition on women (nyonin kekkai k. A&n ?jt). Expressing her desire to
the presence of the mountain gods, she explained in an inscription that she dedicated th
in hopes that in her next life her female body might become male. See Blair 2015, pp. 88
for her, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas yielded a sen
regarding her own soteriological potential.
Other than Senshi's verse, we have minimal evidence for how wom
apocryphal scripture. We do know, however, that its use as a ritual me
ating posthumous enlightenment continued and may even have incre
course of the Heian period. Gö totoku nagon ganmonshü iE®#I
lection of liturgical prayers authored by Öe no Masafusa ioIMM (1041
served as Acting Middle Counselor and Governor-General of Daza
eleven prayers mentioning the Sutra on Transforming Women into Bu
of these involves an unidentified nun who sponsored advance memor
(gyakushu 1ËII) for herself while she was still alive. She explained—or
fusa explained on her behalf—that she copied the Sutra on Transformin
Buddhas along with several other sutras seven times, one for each week
nine-day period in which the spirit of the deceased remains unsettle
This prayer is remarkable in that it includes comments on the patro
choices: "As for the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas" she
refers to women's bodies as the mothers of the buddhas."77 Obviously this
others like her were taking the sutras claims seriously, including the charg
The Tokyo National Museum manuscript of the Sutra on Transformin
Buddhas vividly illustrates a synergy linking the process of ritual transcri
scripture's own reproductive soteriology. As mentioned in the introdu
article, the Tokyo National Museum manuscript—reproduced above in
two-layer palimpsest in which the sutra, written in Chinese characters
makes up the top layer. The base layer comprises one or more trimm
manuscripts written with black ink in running script and in "woman's
~k^). To date, the text of the substrate, which is exceedingly difficult
has not been transcribed or interpreted.78 Nonetheless, its meaning w
central to the sutra-copying project, for the constituent sheets were j
trimmed in ways that disrupt and truncate the flow of the words.
Rather than semantic intelligibility, the central concern with the sub
the Tokyo National Museum manuscript appears to have been somatic
likely the woman who penned the substrate was deceased at the time
added, with her family using her textual remains as the material base for
ect undertaken for her posthumous benefit. Other similar sutras have been
indicating that this kind of memorial recycling was not idiosyncrat
stemmed from a broader conviction that manuscripts retain physical a
76 Nishiguchi 2014, pp. 262-63; f°r the prayers, see Öe no Masafusa 2010, 2:14 (p
(pp. 589-95). 57-5:8 (pp. 600-610), 5:19 (pp. 661-64), 5:21 (pp. 667-69), 5:25-5:2
5:32 (pp. 720-25), 6:1-6:2 (pp. 739-51)
77 Öe no Masafusa 2010, 5:26, Ôtoku JSJÈ 2 (1085).8.24 (p. 690).
78 Nishiguchi Junko, conversation with the author, July 2013.
with their creators.79 As I have shown elsewhere, the literate Heian elite concep
ized the process of writing as an exercise in leaving physical traces; consequent
manuscripts figured as ritually potent body-doubles for their writers.80 With re
to scripture, both sutras and vernacular texts include claims that the process of
ing out a sutra affects the copyist's body and, moreover, that the fate of a manuscrip
can influence that of its copyist. This interdependence, which Charlotte Eubank
characterized as a symbiosis between fleshy and textual bodies, impacted mater
practices of sutra copying.81 Patrons for sutras copied around the same time as
Tokyo National Museum manuscript, for instance, not only recycled the writing
the deceased but also mixed their loved ones' hair into the paper used for the cop
project.82 In such cases physical analogues for women's bodies quite literally beca
matrices for scripture.
Although we have no statement of ritual intent for the Tokyo National Muse
manuscript, we may infer that it was meant to cause the enlightenment of its b
eficiary. More specifically, the original manuscript's transformation into scrip
through its use as the substrate mediated the deceased woman's physiomoral m
morphosis into a buddha, much as the Sutra on Transforming Women into Budd
had promised. Building on the sutras insistence that women ought to reproduce t
ritual practice used text to produce women (as) buddhas.
One of the earliest sources to mention the Sutra on Transforming Women in
Buddhas elegantly articulates verbally what the Tokyo National Museum manuscr
instantiates materially: the mutuality between scriptural reproduction and wom
enlightenment. In 886, the former royal consort Minamoto no Saishi Wfê-f- (n
sponsored memorial services on the forty-ninth day after the death of her belo
grandmother. Saishi dedicated one copy each of the Lotus Sutra, Measureless M
ings, Contemplating Samantabhadra, and the Heart Sutra, as well as two copies of
Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas. As mentioned above, the first four text
were standard choices for Heian-period sutra-copying initiatives; it was the last
distinguished Saishi's project. At several points in an exceptionally expressive pr
written by Michizane on her behalf, she conveyed her worries over her grandmot
location in the cycle of rebirth. For Saishi, the process of reproducing scripture offer
her consolation precisely because it enacted her grandmother's awakening: "Ever
I am pure. I give clouds of compassion, and with them guide her honored spirit,
ing the gate to enlightenment. I give rains of wisdom, that I may assist her hon
spirit. Indigo and lapis paper change into the ground of realizing bodhi. Letters in
79 For two examples of similar sutras, see Kokushi daijiten, color plates 7 and 25, inserted betw
p. 556 and p. 557.
80 Blair 2015, especially pp. 181-84.
82 Eubanks 2011, especially pp. 58-59; Lowe 2012.
82 Chüyüki, Höen f£ü£ 3 (1136).7.20 (p. 204); see also Eubanks 2011, pp. 119-120; Nishiguchi 2
p. 420.
of yellow gold scatter and become flowers of achieving perfect awakening.

the grandmother's body recedes into the unknowable, paper and ink t
and the stuff of the sutra becomes the dead woman's awakening.
Conclusion
Although monks certainly officiated in rites dedicating sets of scriptures that

included the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas, the evidence indicates
that during the Heian period it was laypeople who reproduced, and perhaps even
composed, the sutra. Those who copied it did so with the explicit purpose of trans
forming their mothers, wives, and grandmothers—and sometimes themselves—into
buddhas. During the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, however, a shift occurred,
with male monastics becoming more involved in the interpretation and use of the
sutra. This trend appears to have begun with the Agui line, a group of monks
known for their preaching. For instance, when Kujö Kanezane tlkk-k (1149-1207)
attended a sermon at the very end of the Heian period in 1182, he was surprised
to hear the preacher and Agui founder, Chöken (1126-1203), conclude that
"women are superior to men." According to Kanezane, Chöken had said: "All women
are the true mothers of the buddhas of the three times, but all men are not their true
fathers."84 This monk may well have been working from the Sutra on Transforming
Women into Buddhas; at the very least, references to the scripture in Agui texts show
that it was known to men of this circle.85 Perhaps more tellingly, Kanezane later per
petuated established patterns in lay religious practice by participating in a dedication
of sutras on the anniversary of the death of his sister, Kökamon-in JUKPIK (Fuji
wara no Seishi HHitSl-?", 1122-1181). These sutras had been written out on paper cre
ated by recycling Kökamon-in's own writings; they also included a copy of the Sutra
on Transforming Women into Buddhask Kanezane, then, may have been surprised
by Chöken's forceful interpretation of the scripture, but he also reaffirmed the text's
ritual use.
As time wore on, men associated with Pure hand movements leveraged the sutra
in their own discussions of the salvation of women. In one colorful example iden
tified by Nishiguchi Junko, the Muromachi-period Daibutsu kuyö monogatari kit,
ftlftla (Tale of the dedication of the Great Buddha) features a fictionalized episode
in which Hônen (1133-1212) quotes from a number of virulent scriptural con
demnations of women in order to glorify Amitäbha, who is able to assist even such
benighted creatures as females. Hönen then declares with apparently unintended irony
that insulting women is tantamount to slandering the buddhas, a claim he supports
83 Kanke bunsö 660, Ninna 2 (886).7.13 (pp. 607-608).

84 Gyokuyö, Juei #7K 1 (1182).11.28 (vol. 2, p. 584).
85 Nishiguchi 2014, p. 264, notes that the [Bussetsu] tennyo jöbutsu kyö is listed in Agui shödöshü
cÜ!IS "Iii 1ft and Tenbörinshö mokuroku $Kï£îm#ifl.
86 Gyokuyö, Kenkyü 1ÊX 2 (1191)012.5 (vol. 3, p. 767).
with a garbled but recognizable reference to the Sutra on Transforming Women into
Buddhas.87
In light of this sort of co-option into invidious arguments that even women can be
saved, it is important to remember that what made the Sutra on Transforming Women
into Buddhas so unusual was its positive, liberal take on reproductive soteriology. In
other cases, linkages between sexual reproduction and salvation were much darker,
even damning. Most notoriously, in the late medieval and early modern periods, the
cult of the apocryphal Blood Bowl Sutra (Xuepen jing Jp. Ketsubonkyo) pro
mulgated the notion that when women die they necessarily fall into a special hell
as karmic recompense for having menstruated and given birth.88 The much earlier
Nihon ryöiki a collection of didactic Buddhist tales compiled circa 800,
also located women's morality in their sexed bodies, as Raechel Dumas has noted.89
For example, in one tale a deceased woman appears to a monk in a dream with her
breasts swollen and dripping pus. She explains that during her life she neglected her
children for her own sexual gratification, behavior she characterizes as wicked and
licentious (jain üM£).90 In contrast to the nasty karmic retribution visited upon the
most visibly female parts of this "bad" woman, the Nihon ryöiki commended other
female characters for their sacrifices in the name of maternal duty. Thus, whereas the
stories framed men's religious practice as a matter of mind and speech, they treated
women's in terms of bodily, reproductive labor, "suggesting that it is only therein that
female spiritual practice maybe actualized."91 The Sutra on Transforming Women into
Buddhas shared the assumption that for women reproduction and salvation were
bound together, but it stood out, both within its more proximate historical context
and amid the broader sweep of East Asian Buddhist doctrine, for giving that bond a
positive inflection.
As I have argued, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas, together with
its success among literate Heian elites, speaks to a pronounced flexibility and creativ
ity in scriptural culture. It also suggests that we may need to adjust our assumptions
about the ways in which canonicity does and does not overlap with scriptural author
ity. Indeed, the actual process of canonization—the cataloguing, classification, and
reproduction of "all the sutras" (issaikyö —ÇUÛ)—was an ongoing, variable process.
87 Daibutsu kuyö monogatari, pp. 324-25; Nishiguchi 2014, pp. 268-69.

88 In his foundational study, Michel Soymié traced the origins of the Blood Bowl Sutra to the sec
ond half of the twelfth century in China (Soymié 1967, p. 132); Japanese manuscripts date from th
mid-Muromachi period onward (Takemi 1983, p. 238). On late medieval archaeological evidence
for the simultaneous use of the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas and the Blood Bowl
Sutra, see Nishiguchi 2014, pp. 270-72.
89 Dumas 2013.
90 Nihon ryöiki 3:16 (pp. 151-52); see also Dumas 2013, pp. 263-64.
91 Dumas 2013, p. 264. Dumas's conclusions resemble those found in Ohnuma 2000—which
examines jâtaka collections. Both researchers show that Buddhist narratives of exemplary wom
en's religious practice tend to focus on physical sacrifice, and in particular on the sacrifice of sexed
body parts (breasts, vaginas, and uteruses).
In Japan, projects to reproduce the Tripitaka were colored by the aims

ticipants, such that there was less a singular canon than canons in the plura
The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas expands our view of
bodies of scripture by calling our attention to texts that orbited the c
entering it. Strikingly, no indication has yet been found that this sutr
heterodox or specious by its Heian readers. Rather, they accepted it with
fact equanimity that to us may seem surprising. As its comparative po
cates, not only could a sutra that had not been formally included in th
the attention and devotion of literate elites, but it could do so even without
support of monastics. In the process, it could advance new ideas and su
juxtapositions, providing something more akin to doctrinal counterpo
dissonance—than to conventional harmony.
Lowe 2014.
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Mothers of The Buddhas - The Sutra On Transforming Women Into Buddhas

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Mothers of the Buddhas: The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas (Bussetsu

Tennyo Jōbutsu Kyō)

The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas

The author is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Ind

Monumenta Nipponica 71/2: 263-293

Canonicity and Scriptural Status

5 Wilson 1996; Mrozik 2007; Pandey 2016.

0" :saH Wvj J

BPs fi->! ut: ■ C&, )- V _.

o 'i " - '

vSt 1 T-—> .'3i"""*%v—rf—y-L f"V .X^A"

' "V "7 I i Jr

Why Write a New Sutra?

16 Obara Hitoshi 'MEC has pointed to the role of Confucianism in popularizin

Broadly speaking, Mahayana sex-change narratives negotiate the pa

narrative as seventy-five matrons come forward from the audience to p

It is certainly possible to tollow Nancy Schuster in reading this and

Not all Buddhists would agree, however.41 Indeed, other scriptures l

bodhisattva of the same name, famously uses the emptiness argume

42 Vimalakïrti Sutra, T 475 14:547023-548027. Readings of this passage abound:

The Third Path: Women as Matrices

The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas, as Taught by the Buddha

50 My translation is based on the Historiographical Institute and Tokyo National Museum

In this passage, the sutra draws on tathàgatagarbha (Ch. rulaizang

53 Paul 1979, p. 61.

54 Da bore boluomiduo jing (Jp. Dai hannya haramitta kyö), T 220

or "thus-come one") is enclosed like an embryo (garbha) within a womb (garbh

tions, that without women there would be no enlightenment.

56 On the terms retention of corporeal valences, see Zimmerman 2002, p. 45.

Whereas readers familiar with canonical sutras such as Transforming Bod

to enlightenment. Although other sutras maintain that there are no women in

The Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas

In this passage, the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas conform

adapting gendered language drawn from tathägatagarbha thought, the

Ritual Use of the Scripture

Several of these scriptures belonged to the standard repertoire of sutra-copying

66 The text at this point includes one illegible character.

close association with the fully awakened.68 Thus it appears

68 On the term dharmakâya, compare Harrison 1992 to Abé 1999, pp. 2

kazoubeki There is no way

By referring to her bodily self (mi), Senshi emphasize

In the Sutra on Transforming Women into Buddhas Sen

toriwakite Since I have encountered

71 Kamens 1993, p. 397.

of yellow gold scatter and become flowers of achieving perfect awakening.

Although monks certainly officiated in rites dedicating sets of scriptures that

83 Kanke bunsö 660, Ninna 2 (886).7.13 (pp. 607-608).

87 Daibutsu kuyö monogatari, pp. 324-25; Nishiguchi 2014, pp. 268-69.

In Japan, projects to reproduce the Tripitaka were colored by the aims

Saichö flSïf. Hokke shüku In vol. 3 of Dengyö daishi zenshü ed.

Sugawara no Michizane ifHtlliJE. Kanke bunsö NKBT 72.

tXii'JT 59 (2006), pp. 1-29.

Sone Masato ftfJtlEÀ. Kodai bukkyökai to öchö shakai lËfftfXifcUtTiSWizs. Yoshikaw

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