Includes bibliographical references (p. [401]-458) and index.

Introduction: "Soaring and settling" : too soon? -- The cultural approach -- Gender revisited -- Gendering Buddhism -- Pt.1 Buddhism and women. The second order. The evolution of the female sangha -- The female order in Japan -- The issue of ordination -- Sociological context(s) -- Sorely missed -- Nunhood and feminism -- The rhetoric of subordination. A theodicy of disprivilege -- The five obstacles and the three dependences -- A case of blood poisoning -- Drinking from the blood bowl -- The "facts" of life -- The red and the white -- The rhetoric of salvation. The legend of the naga-girl -- Becoming male -- Interpretative divergences -- Amida's vow and its implications -- A feminine topos -- The rhetoric of equality. Gender equality in Mahayana -- Gender equality in Vajrayana -- Chan/Zen egalitarianism -- Pt.2 Imagining Buddhist women. Monks, mothers, and motherhood. Bad mothers -- The ambivalent mother -- Mater dolorosa -- The forsaken mother -- The changing image of motherhood -- Varieties of motherly experience -- Mad mothers -- The law of alliance -- Conflicting images. Women in the life of the Buddha -- Queens, empresses, and other impressive ladies -- Eminent nuns -- Femmes fatales -- Of women and jewels -- Pt.3 Women against Buddhism. Crossing the line. The utopian topos -- Stopped in their tracks -- Kukai's mother -- The Kekkai stone -- Conflicting interpretations -- The symbolic reading of transgression -- The kekkai and the logic of muen -- Women on the move. The "nuns of Kumano" -- What's in a name -- Down by the river -- The monk and the bayadere -- The discourteous courtesan -- Paradigms -- The power of women. The myth of Tamayorihime -- The Miko and the monk -- Women on the edge -- Women, dragons, and snakes.

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