Unprecedented musical offerings were conducted in honor of Abbess Mugai Nyodai, including not only a world premier of Mind in Mirror: Nyodai's Dream composed by Yuriko Hase Kojima for shakuhachi, pipa and bass koto, but also an offering of songs composed by the medieval German Catholic nun, Hildegard von Bingen, performed by members of Columbia's Collegium Musicum.

Dr. Peter Haskel (First Zen Institute of America) chanted The Heart Sutra, and words and poetry were offered by Prof. Barbara Ruch (Institute Director); Dr. George Rupp (Columbia University President); Ambassador Seiichiro Otsuka (Consul General of Japan in New York); Rev. T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki (Buddhist Council of New York); The Very Rev. James Parks Morton (Interfaith Center of New York); and High Priest Shunsho Manabe (Kanagawa Prefectural Kanazawa Bunko Museum). (The full text of these remarks can be seen in the Program of the Memorial Service.)

The entire ceremony took place in front of a Buddhist altar arranged before an exact replica of the thirteenth-century chinso portrait statue of Abbess Mugai Nyodai. The replica, the original of which is designated an Important Cultural Treasure and enshrined in a Kyoto convent, was lent to the memorial service by its owner, the Kanagawa Prefectural Kanazawa Bunko Museum.

Led by Abbess Shozui Rokujo of Domyoji Convent, the nuns' rituals included a rare performance of the scattering of paper lotus petals in a circumambulation to gagaku music.

At the conclusion of the two-hour service, more than 200 guests from around the world offered incense at the altar in honor of Abbess Mugai. Following the memorial service, the Buddhist clergy and special memorial service guests participated in a traditional tea ceremony provided by the Urasenke Chanoyu Center of New York in the Rotunda Gallery of Low Memorial Library.

International Symposium

Beginning that afternoon, scholars, students and Buddhist nuns and monks gathered for three days in Kellogg Conference Center at the international symposium, The Culture of Convents in Japanese History, which was the central academic core of the commemoration. A direct outgrowth of the Institute's ongoing Imperial Buddhist Convent Survey Project, the international symposium enabled the Institute's team of scholars to report to a broader audience on heretofore unexamined materials that have been emerging in the survey since its inception in 1993, some of which date back to the thirteenth century.

The symposium provided an unprecedented forum in which scholars from Japan, Australia, Europe, Canada and the United States who are interested in Buddhism and the role of women in Japanese religious history were able to share and discuss their research methods and results. Members of the Institute's Imperial Buddhist Convent Survey Project shared with the public their first-hand experience archiving the historical documents, diaries and artwork in several Imperial Buddhist Convents. At the same time, while meeting with the scholars in New York, the Buddhist clergy informally offered insight into their unique convent lifestyle. One aim of the Convent Survey Project will be to publish portions of the archives as primary sources on the rituals and beliefs of religious women.