Paper short abstract:

This paper will highlight some aspects of the sacredness of rice grains in medieval Japanese esoteric Buddhism by focusing on their place and role in a network of practices related to relic worship.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will attempt to clarify some aspects of the sacredness of rice grains in medieval Japanese esoteric Buddhism. Grains of rice, a rather common material, sometimes fulfilled a rather important and sacred function in medieval esoteric Buddhist practice and worship. Concretely, rice grains were used in certain cases as the primary icon in esoteric Buddhist relic rituals or inserted inside small wooden stūpas. As the substitute of the Buddha's relics, rice grains were thus given special metaphysical meaning due to their close association with the relics of the Buddha, which in themselves are the center in a rich and dense network of esoteric Buddhist concepts and beliefs. The present paper intends to explain the rationale and context behind the use of rice grains in esoteric Buddhist ritual and worship. More concretely, it will focus on the following questions: What doctrines supported the substitution of rice grains for relics? For what purposes were they used? What was the nature of the social network in which the practice occurred? In this endeavor, it will be argued that much of the sacredness of rice grains depended not only on their connection to relic beliefs but also on dragon worship, embryology, and Buddhist beliefs related to the cycle of life and death.