Nobumi Iyanaga
Tokyo Centre of the École française d’Extrême Orient, Tokyo, Japan
The latter half of the last century saw important progress in mythological studies thanks to the works of such scholars as Lévi-Strauss and Georges Dumézil. In the field of Buddhism, however, the conscious study of mythology was rare, although the late Prof. R. A. Stein, the great historian of religion in Tibet and in China, wrote some very illuminating articles on the subject. I tried to follow his methodology, in applying it to the narratives of certain prominent Buddhist deities, such as Avalokiteśvara and Mahākāla. In the process, I encountered some theoretical problems, that I would like to present in this paper. On the other hand, a cycle of traditions that circulated in medieval Japan is now commonly called “Japanese medieval mythology.” It was created in active interaction between Buddhist ideas and indigenous traditions. I will try to explain how this mythology could be created with some examples of its narratives.
(Presented in the International Conference – Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond, 9-11 August 2010, Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University with support from The Thailand Research Fund (TRF), in co-operation with Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Institute of Asian Studies, The Confucius Institute, Chulalongkorn University and l’École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO))