Paper short abstract:

The presentation examines the transposition of the imperial ritual stage, as orchestrated by Daigoji monks, to the cultic reality and literary landscape of Kinpusen in the Kinpusen Himitsuden, an esoteric Buddhist text written in 1337 by Monkan Kōshin for the legitimation of the Yoshino court.

Paper long abstract:

The presentation examines the transposition of the imperial ritual stage, centered on the wish-fulfilling jewel, to the cultic reality and literary landscape of Kinpusen in a medieval esoteric Buddhist text. Entitled the Kinpusen Himitsuden (‘The Secret Transmission of the Golden Peak’), it was compiled by Monkan Kōshin in 1337, soon after the establishment of the southern court’s refuge palace in Yoshino. As the colophons indicate, the text was written for the protection of the state, the glorification of Zaō, the tutelary god of Kinpusen, and for the emperor’s ritual practices (referring to Go-Daigo). The presentation attends to the question of how the intertwinement of distinct ritual and literary/cultic traditions within the text produced this structure of legitimation in direct relations to the reality of the war.

On the one hand, the text is grounded in the cultic structure of Ōmine and it narrates well-known legends that circulated in the area at the time of its composition, revealing Monkan’s concern with local knowledge as a source of legitimation. On the other, as part of Monkan’s corpus on the sanzon gōgyō rite, the text is ingrained in esoteric Buddhist discourses on attainment and in a ritual system that first developed from the interaction between the Heian emperors and esoteric Buddhist monks, most prominently of the Ono lineage of Daigoji.

I focus on a section of the text that articulates Zaō as an embodiment of the central Buddha of the imperial Nyohō sonshō rite, and the mandala incorporated in the text, as a Sonshō mandala, comprising Dainichi/Sonshō and the two Wisdom Kings, Fudō and Gōzanze. According to 13th century texts describing the ritual platform of Daigoji, this tripartite structure represents, the non-duality of acquired and inherent enlightenment, of the Kongōkai and Taizōkai mandalas. The text further associates Zaō with the wish-fulfilling jewel, the central object of worship upon the imperial ritual stage and the honzon of the Nyohō sonshō rite. This section of the text demonstrates not only the dissemination of secret knowledge and the interfusion of distinct ritual realities but also the innovative potential embedded in moments of crisis.

Paper short abstract:

This paper offers a new perspective on the royal consecration rituals of Daigoji. Uncovering hitherto unknown facts about the temple’s Esoteric Buddhist tradition, the paper highlights the importance of the perfection of wisdom as both “mother” and “consort” of enlightened kings in these rituals.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reinvestigates the nature of royal consecration rituals (sokui kanjō) that were transmitted within the Shingon Esoteric Buddhist tradition of the Daigoji temple in medieval Japan. It is known that two different types of sokui kanjō were developed at Daigoji. One type was a Dakiniten ritual transmitted at the Hōoin-ryū lineage (and at Ise) and the other was a ritual seemingly centered on Kangiten (Skt. Vināyaka) which was passed on at the Jizōin lineage. Both types of rituals were built on intricate mantras and mudras, as well as on symbolic notions of non-duality, which were ought to be performed and known by the new emperor when ascending the throne during the enthronement ceremony. While little is known about the early history of this esoteric practice, the rite is cursorily mentioned by the Tendai prelate Jien in his famous Dream Record (1203), which proves its previous existence. In the same Record, Jien further underscores the role of various deities, such as Ichiji Kinrin (Ekākṣara-usnīṣacakra) and the Buddha-Mother Butsugen (Buddhalocanā), in connection to the sacred nature of the emperor.

In this paper, I will provide a new hermeneutical perspective on the sokui kanjō by highlighting a few significant facts. First, the paper will explicate Daigoji’s complex Buddhist-Shinto hybrid dragon cult and point out the connection of one of the cult’s primary deities, the Buddha-Mother Aizen’ō (Rāgarāja), to kingship. Then, the paper will demonstrate through textual analysis that the central deity in the sokui kanjō of the Jizōin lineage was the same Aizen’ō and not Kangiten. After illustrating the canonical interconnection between the concepts of Buddha-Mother (butsumo), perfection of wisdom (prajñā-pāramitā), dragon, and kingship, the paper will uncover the hitherto unknown fact that Shingon prelates regarded Aizen’ō not simply as a Buddha-Mother but also as the consort of bodhisattvas and kings. Thus, since the close affinity between Aizen’ō and Dakiniten is well established in Buddhist scholarship, this paper proposes that what laid at the basis of the royal consecration rituals of Daigoji tradition was the concept of prajñā-pāramitā as both “mother” and “consort” of enlightened monarchs.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the Fugen Longevity and Soul Summoning Rite held at Daigoji in the Heian and Kamakura periods. It highlights the creativity of Sanbōin ritualists, who enhanced their liturgy by incorporating a renowned Onmyō technique and reflects on the temple’s unique intellectual environment.

Paper long abstract:

This paper takes the Fugen Longevity Rite (Fugen enmyōhō 普賢延命法) of Daigoji as emblematic of the creativity and interlocking of multiple religious discourses which, this panel argues, characterized medieval esoteric ritual culture.

Generally known as one of the main Taimitsu liturgies for the protection of the emperor and the state, the practice was well known across esoteric circles for its healing and life-lengthening efficacy. As such, records show that, throughout the medieval period, it was also consistently sponsored by aristocratic patrons. Sanbō-in clerics, however, devised a unique version of the rite, which set Daigoji’s performances apart from those of other temples, by including a new section, called the Soul Summoning Method (shōkon hō 招魂法).

In the first part of the paper, I examine this segment, assess what it was meant to achieve and how. To do so, I first outline the Longevity liturgy and the Soul Summoning, as presented in a selection of documents discussing three performances conducted by Daigoji’s prelate Seigen 成賢 (1162-1232) in the early thirteenth century. These occasions are significant not only because they represent the earliest extant records of the actual performance of the Longevity at Daigoji and of the Soul Summoning. They also indicate the reasons why this liturgy was held. Sponsored following ominous visions and dreams by women close to retired emperor Gotoba 後鳥羽天皇 (1180-1239), the purpose of the rite was lengthening life or, rather, avoiding death, by recalling a departed soul.

In this regard, as I discuss in the second part of my paper, the rite had a hybrid heritage, drawing from Buddhist, onmyō, as well as continental beliefs and technologies. Here, I will turn to the way Daigoji ritualists conceptualised key elements of this practice, how they construed their efficacy, and how they justified its rationale along Buddhist lines.

In the concluding part of my paper, I argue that this rite was the product of a creative and vibrant intellectual environment, which welcomed and facilitated the circulation of ritual knowledge, while also valuing and capitalising on the skills and charisma of its practitioners.

Paper short abstract:

This paper reconstructs a little-understood advanced initiation, known as yugi kanjo, which spread as suddenly as widely across esoteric lineages. Pointing out the links to continental yogic practices, it suggests to reconsider medieval developments beyond Japan within broader Tantric trends.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reconstructs a little-understood advanced initiation, mostly known as yugi kanjō, and its related practices, such as a so-called bodaishin kanjō, which were created anew in the medieval period as the ultimate consecration of a Tantric practitioner. Rather than being distinctive of a specific lineage, the yugi initiation spread as suddenly as widely across the esoteric world, attesting to a broad interest in the conceptual and performative connotation of the Tantric subject that the ritual conveyed. No longer performed or performed in a different format, the yugi kanjō poses several interpretative problems when reconsidered in the context of other advanced initiations documented in illustrated manuscripts that have come to light in recent years. The paper discusses these connections and the unexpected links that these practices appear to entertain with continental (Indo-Tibetan) yogic practices. While historical questions remain as to why the yugi kanjō and the textual exegesis that supported it developed exactly in the medieval period, the source material unveiled recently emphatically point to the need of reconsidering the history of medieval esoteric Buddhism beyond Japan, within the larger context of Asian Tantric Buddhism.