Mothers in Sin and Salvation: Examining Agency in Mizuko KuyÅ and Women\u27s Use of the Blood Bowl SÅ«tra

This paper examines the controversial Japanese ritual mizuko kuyÅ in light of implications from the Chinese KetsubonkyÅ or Blood Bowl SÅ«tra as it was used in Edo-period Japan (1603-1867). Mizuko kuyÅ, a memorial ritual for aborted fetuses or stillborn or miscarried babies, became popular among Japanese women in the 1970s and 1980s. Although often associated with Buddhism and offered by Buddhist temples, the ritual was partly popularized through sensationalistic advertising by the Japanese new religions and independent institutions, leading to criticism of mizuko kuyÅ for victimizing female participants. However, examining the way in which the motherhood ideology of 20th century Japan may have influenced women\u27s voluntary participation in the ritual, I join other scholars of mizuko kuyÅ in asserting that women express active agency through participation in mizuko kuyÅ. In order to strengthen this interpretation and to address unsatisfying aspects of it, I examine the attitudes towards women present in the KetsubonkyÅ and Edo culture, noting both the ability of Edo-period women to exercise agency in their engagement with the sÅ«tra and the way that female identity was devalued in this context by women and men alike. This analysis helps to complicate understandings of agency, while emphasizing the way in which participants in mizuko kuyÅ are able to positively affirm their female identities. Examining the way in which even constraining definitions of womanhood can be self-affirmed through participation in mizuko kuyÅ helps to expand existing interpretations of agency in the ritual