Dojoji

Image: http://www.geocities.jp/noharakamemushi/Koshaji/Nanki2/Doujouji2.html

The first known versions of Dojoji were written in the Hokke Genki and the Konjaku Monogatari as setsuwas during the Heian period. The version that is told to us in the Konjaku Monogatari is about a woman who falls in love with, or arguably becomes obsessed with, a Buddhist monk who is stay at her lodging while he is on his way to Kumano to visit shrines and deities. Kumano spans through Wakayama and Mie prefecture. “For over 1000 years people from all levels of society, including retired emperors and aristocrats, have made the arduous pilgrimage to Kumano” (tb-kumano.jp). The woman makes advances onto the monk while he was sleeping saying how attractive she finds him and that she is a widow. However, the monk turned down her advances saying that they would both be committing a sin if he did not attend to his duties in Kumano. She becomes upset with his response so the monk tells her that he will come back to her to fulfill her wishes when he is done with his duties the at Kumano. However, when the monk does not come back to her, she goes out to find people coming from Kumano where she asks if they have seen the monk. A person tells her that the monk left Kumano days ago. After hearing this, she goes mad with anger, passion, and love. She goes back to her house where she turns into a snake and rushes around to find him to get her revenge. Snakes are often found in Japanese mythology and have connections to death. The monk hears about her turning into an anger filled snake to find him so he runs until he arrives at Dojoji in Kii province where he hides. The Dojoji mentioned in the story is assumed to be an actual temple that still has the same name “Dojoji” that is located in the lower end of Wakayama prefecture in the Kansai region. The monks at Dojoji help him get into the large bell at the temple by lowering it so he can hide while the others hide elsewhere together. This bell is one of the most significant objects in the story and it plays an important role in the later plays of Dojoji. The woman is not fooled though and finds where he is quickly after ripping through the door at Dojoji. She goes up to the bell where she hits it multiple times while she cries hot blood filled tears. Her tears and the heat of her body are said to represent her burning love for the monk even though he went against her. After several hours, she rushes off. When the monks of Dojoji go to lift the bell up, they realize that the monk had been burned alive by the snake’s heat and nothing but ashes are left.

As mentioned before, there are other variants of Dojoji but they do tend to end in the main moral of not trusting a woman because they will turn on you if you do not give them what they want. Another version of Dojoji where this can especially be seen is in the Noh and Kabuki versions where a woman dancer lies to temple servants in order to enter Dojoji during the day when Dojoji was meant to put up a new bell after not having one for a long time. The Abbot tells his servants to not let any women into Dojoji but they fail as they let what they though was a dancer into the temple, making her something different from a regular woman to them. She distracts the servants with her dancing while she begins to strike the bell. She wraps around the bell but then disappears and the bell is left lying on the ground after it had been put up. The servants tell the Abbot what had happened and he tells them the legend of the woman who turned into a snake for a monk she was lusting over. Afterwards, they rise the bell up again.

The Bell

Image: http://enmokudb.kabuki.ne.jp/repertoire_en/the-maiden-at-dojoji-temple

As mentioned above, one of the most important objects in the story is the bell that the monk tries to hide in. It should be brought up that dotoku are Japanese bronze bells of central Japan that were famous during the Yayoi period. It is thought that they were mainly used as ritual items rather than functional bells because of their thin walls which would not allow for them to reverberate. This is noteworthy because there were more than ten dotoku found in the site of Dojoji, one of these being buried under the spot where a three-tiered pagoda was being repaired (Hesselink). The top of temple bells where you hang the bell from are appropriately called “ryuuzu” meaning “dragon head” which is important because we see the snake wrapped around and coming above the top of the bell in one of the most well-known pictures of Dojoji. The dragon-shaped bell top is referenced in a Kabuki version of the play also, where the woman grabs at it. A bell actually exists at the real Dojoji also, which has brought entertainers to Dojoji to pray for their success their performances (the NOH).

Apart from the history and build of the actual bell, the bell used in Noh and Kabuki plays is one of the biggest props that they use in the theaters and could possibly end in injury in some cases if the actor interacting with the bell is not experienced enough. In the Noh version of the play, the actor playing the woman has to jump inside of the bell where she turns into a snake inside afterwards. Junior actors in Noh theater are not able to play this role because it could result in injury. The actors that drop the bell and the actor that jumps inside has to do so at the correct time. Because of this, only the senior actors are able to fulfill this role. The use of the bell in Noh is surprising too because Noh rarely uses props as they often just pretend as though they are using a prop. In Dojoji though, they use a huge bell that the actor can hide under though. Seeing such a huge prop in Noh can be eye-catching because of the lack of props Noh usually uses. Dedicated Noh stages also have a metal hook at the center of the stage along with a metal loop at the upper left side of the stage just for the Dojoji play. The hook and loop are used to keep the bell in place during the play and so the actors can hold the bell up before the woman actor has to jump in. Another factor that brings a lot of attention to the bell is that the actor inside of it has to change their costume to make their appearance as a snake. This is complicated because the costume change is done in the dark in a cramped space and also by the actor’s self. Multiple people are usually required for costume changes but for this part it is required for the actor to do everything themselves.

The Serpent

Snakes are a common animal that appears in mythology from over the world. Japan is no expectation to this as well. Snakes appear frequently within Japanese mythology with Dojoji being a well-known example of the use of symbolism through a snake. It is a common belief that women and snakes have a connection in Japanese mythology. “Snakes feature prominently in Japanese myth, usually in one of three forms: as messengers or avatars of the dragon deity Ryūjin, as shape­changers who entice and threaten people, or as thunder deities” (Ashkenazi). From this quote, we can see that Dojoji uses two out of three of these characteristics. The woman was first trying to entice the monk to get him to receive her romantic advances. After the monk tries to escape her though, we see the woman change shape into that of a serpent and then threatening his life while he hides inside of the bell. It can also be argued that the serpent in Dojoji is made to represent a thunder deity in the adaptions where she is seen hitting the bell whether as a snake or as a human. This is because of the sound the bell would give off from her hitting it, mimicking the sound of thunder. Additionally, there is an association of death that snakes have in Japanese mythology. Only when the woman turns into a serpent is she able to kill the monk, making a connection with serpents and death. In some adaptions of Dojoji, the monk also appears as a snake in the dream of the monk of Dojoji. “Buddhist conceptions of the part played by the snake in the cycle of reincarnations do not allay dislike of the snake for "if a person is deceitful all through his life or does something extremely bad, he will be reborn as a snake after is death””(Opler). The deceitful action that the monk did was tell the woman that he would be back to fulfill her wishes to be with him. This lie ultimately gets him killed and then turned into a snake in his afterlife.

Dojoji in Kabuki

Image: http://www.nogaku.jp/en/nohgaku

Musume Dojoji, the full title being Kyouganoko Musume Dojoji, is the best known version of Dojoji in the Kabuki theater. Similar to noh’s version of Dojoji, the play also has noteworthy portions that go beyond other plays in the repertory. In the noh version of the story, the most significant part of the play is the bell. In the kabuki versions, the most significant part is the extensive dance that the woman performs. The shosagoto, or dance drama in kabuki theater, in Dojoji is said to be the “single most important dance piece in the kabuki repertory” (Brazell). The dance is performed for nearly an hour while the woman talks about her lost love and interacts with the bell. Similar to the popular illustration of Dojoji, the woman climbs on top of the bell also and strikes a pose. Throughout the dance, multiple costume changes are made also. The actor changes from a black kimono to a red one. Stage attendants help some of the costume changes by adding tiaras and removing threads to reveal a blue kimono under the previous red one. After exiting for another costume change, the actor returns with the top part of the kimono was pulled down to reveal a light blue underkimono with a flat red hat. The woman later puts on a lavender kimono but later comes out on the stage again with the previous kimono’s sleeves that have been slipped off of her shoulders to reveal a yellow underkimono. The actor ends of the dance switching into either a red or purple underkimono. In a different ending, the actor ends with changing into a bushy wig, kumadori makeup, and divided skirts to indicate that she is an evil spirit. Because the colors of kimonos tell us different traits about the characters in the play, one can assume that the woman’s multiple costume changes that varied in color indicates that her true self, a snake, is being disguised from the audience. The multiple costume changes can also tell us that the woman has gone mad with emotions that is expressed through the different colors she puts on. Props are also used throughout the dance such as a fan, pocket mirror, red hats, tenugui, and the actor even plays small drums and one point. Through these actions, we can see how the woman was interpreted to be mad through this kabuki play.

Morals And Buddhism

One main moral that is seen in Dojoji, as well as many other traditional Japanese stories, is the lesson of not trusting a woman. In Japanese traditional tales, women are often made out to be the villains or have simply gone mad in the stories. In Buddhism it was believed that only men could become enlightened. This is because women were thought to have various physical limitations because of their gender. The main moral in Dojoji is to concentrate on Buddhism. Another big moral in the story is to not to give into the lust of a woman. The monk displays these morals by rejecting her at the lodge when she tries to make advances on him. He tells her that he must pay his duties to the deities at Buddhist temples so he cannot accept her love. This part specifically sends a message to the audience that Buddhism is more important than desires such as lust. At the end of some adaptions of Dojoji, the since deceased monk appears as a snake in the monk of Dojoji’s dream and asks him to pray for him with the Lotus Sutra. When the monk does this, the other monk shows up again in his dream in his regular human form as well as the previous snake woman. This part is significant because it tells the moral that everyone can be saved with Buddhism. Both the man and the woman appear happy together in their human forms as a couple, showing that love can be had in the afterlife in Buddhism. These messages make Buddhism be seen in a good light and encourages others to participate in the religion.

Conclusion