Symbolic subject,subjected symbol: Mizuko Kuyo,gender and the social order in Japan

The term mizuko kuyo describes a relatively new (mid‐19th century) Japanese ritual performed by women who have had abortions or have lost infants in childbirth. The ritual, which takes place in Shinto, Buddhist, new‐ and new‐new‐religious settings, involves propitiatory offerings to the bodhisattva Jizo, believed to be the protector both of the pregnancy‐childbirth process, and of fetuses and infants themselves. This study classifies the existing literature on mizuko kuyo according to Robert Wuthnow's (1981) consistency‐coherence typology. Following a re‐examination of English‐language primary source literature based on Caroline Walker Bynum's (1986) gendered structural‐symbolic methodology, it offers a reinterpretation of the ritual process, which suggests that mizuko kuyo rituals do not signal a more egalitarian relationship between the sexes, but rather serve to reinforce traditional Japanese gender roles.