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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.