Okakura Tenshin’s The White Fox (1913), an opera manuscript, is based on a "Kuzu-no-ha" legend, but Tenshin’s story includes another factor seen in the preceding Kuzu-no-Ha versions, the idea of Nirvana. Nirvana is a controversial notion, and some scholars of southern Buddhism see it negatively as a void of soul, which I believe E. M. Forster symbolizes as the space beyond the wall of the Marabar Cave in A Passage to India.
In Tenshin’s Buddhist drama we find a different idea of Nirvana, which is dramatized as it occurs between two lovers who experience a "Nirvana of Love", in which thoughts vanish in the supreme thought, and passions are merged in the eternal passion. Their love is sublimated through their ideal mutual projective identification and mutual selflessness. We also find the depth of Tenshin’s vision of a Buddhist transcendence of selfish desire through Kolha’s (a snow fox’s) transfiguration, which leads her to transcend her desire. Kolha suggests that the way of Nature’s selflessness and sacrifice should be the way to Nirvana. The “Nirvana of Love” is also figured in nature’s innocent selflessness, a notion that Tenshin found in the work of Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism.
My methodology combines historicism and close reading. I believe this paper will contribute to a deeper appreciation of the artistic and historical importance of The White Fox.

Authors:
Eiko Ohira, Otusma University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Eiko Ohira is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at Otusma University in Japan

See this presentation on the full schedule – Schedule

Bookmark