The Awakening From The Buddhist Setsuwa And A Long Tale For An Autumn Night Analysis

Two texts, The Awakening, from the Buddhist Setsuwa, and A Long Tale for an Autumn Night, oddly run parallel to each other. Both texts include a protagonist who fails to live up to his religious ideal, a god that adopts a human form for the purpose of communication, and a god who ultimately reveals him/herself within a dream. Furthermore, one could argue that the gods use deception in both texts as a tool to instill piety. Yet, this outlook encourages a negative understanding of the nature of religious faith in these texts. From such a perspective, religious faith is insincere because the Japanese are duped, and religious faith is hypocritical because the Japanese are expected to display unwavering devotion to gods whose forms change frequently. With that said, I adamantly disagree with this polemical reading of religious faith in these texts.
In The Awakening, the Monk fails to commit himself to studying his religion, which results in another trip to pray for scholarly success to the Kokuzo of Horinji (253). The Monk’s past attempts at prayer were unsuccessful, and on this ninth moon, he happens to stay
As previously stated, Keikai could not leave Mt. Hei or stop thinking about fame. Yet, in the end, he moves into a thatched hut (150), which represents his departure from Mt. Hei, and he becomes popular among visiting priests, and the various others he inspires faith into (150-151). Now, his “fame” spreads his religion and no longer impedes it. Thus, Keikai’s original flaws were always helpful tools in regards to his religious faith, he simply needed to experience the “trial” to repurpose those tools for the good of his