- Convenors:
-
Andrea Castiglioni
(Nagoya City University)
Natsumi Niki (Kyoto Prefectural University)
Tsuyoshi Kawasaki
Send message to Convenors
- Chair:
-
Carina Roth
(University of Geneva)
- Discussant:
-
Carina Roth
(University of Geneva)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Religion and Religious Thought
Short Abstract
This panel aims to problematize and redefine the concepts of center and periphery within the premodern Shugendō religious tradition, highlighting the structural fluidity, cultic polyphony, and doctrinal hybridity that characterize the worship of sacred mountains and their institutional networks.
Long Abstract
Drawing on Foucault’s definition of heterotopia as a space that reverses all preordained relationships, this panel examines the negotiation between centers and peripheries within the premodern Shugendō religious tradition through four disciplinary perspectives. In the literary field, the first paper analyzes how—in the Heian period—the lexical strategies of the Minōdera engi in describing both En no Gyōja, the mythical founder of Shugendō, and the mountainous landscape of the archipelago were based on a rearticulation of borrowings from famous Chinese texts. This paper argues that Shugendō occupied a hybrid space between Chinese and Japanese ascetic and literary imaginaries. In a meta-historical perspective, the second paper focuses on strategies of rewriting origin stories concerning Mount Kongō in the mid-Kamakura period, developed to attract imperial funds for the renovation of the mountain’s temples. It demonstrates the fundamental role played by the peripheries around Mount Kongō in investing this mountain with the function of protector of both imperial authority and Buddhist Law. In the field of material culture, the third paper shows how, in the Heian period, both statuary and sacred mounds built in the peripheries surrounding Mount Kazuraki contributed to the dissemination of the cult of the mountain to marginal areas and, at the same time, to its centralization as the principal hub of ascetic practices. Finally, in the field of religious history, the fourth paper examines the transmission of the Kumano Sanzan cult from the Kii Peninsula to peripheral areas of Tōhoku through an analysis of two origin stories concerning Mount Yudono in the early Edo period. It emphasizes the interplay of the concepts of center and periphery as they relate to sacred mountains such as Kumano and Dewa Sanzan, highlighting their ongoing reinvention depending on the geographic location of the social actors engaged in these devotional practices.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
This paper explores the mythological origins of the cult of Mount Yudono, beginning with two engi from the Genroku era and analyzing the transmission of the cult of the Three Mountains from the Kumano in Kii Peninsula to Dewa in the Tōhoku region from the medieval to the early modern period.
Paper long abstract
This paper examines the two extant oldest origin stories (engi)—Kontai ryōbu Dainichi godenki and Yudonosan Dainichi Nyorai gohonji—dating back to the beginning of the Genroku era (1688–1704) and concerning the genesis of Mount Yudono in present-day Yamagata Prefecture. I concentrate on the first two sections of the texts, which describe Kongō Dōji’s mythical journey on the back of his Golden Lion from the kingdom of Magadha in India to the Tōhoku region. Arriving in front of Gohōzen, the volcanic rock covered with hot spring water embodying the god of Yudono, Kongō Dōji met his sister Kontainyo, who regained her human form after having transformed herself into a butterfly to show both her brother and the lion the way to the Three Mountains of Dewa. These opening scenes do not merely allude to the esoteric interpretation of Gohōzen as the rocky body of the kami of Yudono (Yudono Daigongen), whose original ground (honjibutsu) corresponds to the Two Worlds Dainichi Nyorai (Kontai Ryōbu Dainichi Nyorai), whose halves are embodied by Kongō Dōji as the Diamond World (Kongōkai) and Kontainyo as the Womb World (Taizōkai). The sequence of the approach of the Indian deities with their mythical animals evoked, especially in the Tōhoku devotees of Dewa Sanzan, the lion dance (shishi mai) executed since the thirteenth century by the Kumano guides (Kumano sendatsu) as a ritual performance (kagura) to transfer the cult of the Three Mountains of Kumano (Kumano Sanzan) from the Kii Peninsula to northern Honshū. Furthermore, the subsequent sections of these engi already reflect the hegemonic conflict between Yudono and Mount Haguro for control of Dewa Sanzan, weaving a political dimension into the mythological one. Elaborating on Jacques Derrida’s notion of trace as an entity that continually exceeds the truth it seeks to convey and is therefore inevitably condemned to reveal itself by fading away, I analyze the initial dis-placement and subsequent re-placement of the cult of the Three Mountains from Kumano to Dewa during the medieval period, while also considering the later cult transformations and institutional conflicts of the early modern period.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines the lexical strategies of the Minōdera engi, a Heian-period origin story about En no Gyōja. Comparing Minōdera engi and Chūbunshō, a coeval children’s literature text, I clarify its departures from orthodox Chinese-style writing and identifies its position within the spectrum.
Paper long abstract
This paper examines lexical strategies of the Minōdera engi (Origin story of the Minō Temple), a Heian-period temple-shrine origin story that not only recounts the founding of Minō Temple (present-day Osaka Prefecture) but also provides a hagiography of En no Gyōja. I compare the lexical and idiomatic strategies of the Minōdera engi with those of the Chūbunshō, a children’s literary text that presents lessons on filial piety and etiquette in parallel verse form. Chūbunshō’s preface attributes its authorship to Bai Juyi (772–846), the Middle Tang poet who profoundly influenced Heian-period Sino-Japanese poetry and prose. Although the attribution to Bai Juyi is clearly a forgery used to boost the authority of the text, its widespread readership is evident from its citation in various collections of Buddhist tales such as the Hōbutsushū (Collection of treasures). Whereas previously known quotations from the Chūbunshō were literal—for instance, “In a text called Chūbunshō ...”—the Minōdera engi incorporates its lexical and idiomatic expressions in multiple passages related to the hagiography of En no Gyōja without naming the Chūbunshō as its source. This noteworthy linguistic strategy treats the Chūbunshō not as a didactic text, but as a collection of literary exempla. In the Heian period, Chinese prose and poetry—such as the Wenxuan (Selections of refined literature)—were actively received, and Japanese scholars composed Sino-Japanese texts modeled on them. However, if these are regarded as the orthodox and central forms of classical Chinese poetry and prose, then texts such as the Chūbunshō and the Minōdera engi can be interpreted as highly self-aware peripheral literary experiments in relation to this orthodox tradition. Moreover, these two works are crucial for understanding the modes through which En no Gyōja, the founder of Shugendō, was represented in connection with the centrality of the classical Chinese literary world.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 本報告は、平安時代後期に成立したとみられる箕面寺（現大阪府箕面市）の由来を伝える寺社縁起であり、役行者伝の一つでもある「箕面寺縁起（みのおでらえんぎ）」の表現について、主に同時期の幼学書（子供など初学者向けのテキスト）「仲文章（ちゅうぶんしょう）」との比較を行うものである。「仲文章」は序文に作者として「白舎人」すなわち中唐の詩人で、平安時代の日本漢詩文に多大な影響を与えた白居易（はく きょい）（772～846）の名前を掲げ、孝養や礼法についての教訓を対句の形式で説く書である。白居易の作というのはもちろん権威付けのための仮託であるが、『宝物集（ほうぶつしゅう）』のような説話集に引用されるなど、広く読まれたことが知られる。従来知られていた「仲文章」の引用が「仲文章と云ふ文には…」のような文字通りの引用であったのに対し、「箕面寺縁起」は役行者伝の一部として複数の箇所で「仲文章」の名前を挙げずにその表現を取り込み、利用しており、「仲文章」を教訓書ではなく、文例集として利用している点が注目される。平安時代の日本では、『文選（もんぜん）』や唐詩のような中国の漢詩文が受容され、また、それらに学んだ日本人の学者による漢詩文が作られていたが、それらを正統的・中心的な漢詩文と考えるならば、「仲文章」やそれを利用する「箕面寺縁起」のようなテキストは、それらを意識しつつも周辺的なものと言え、役行者という修験道における聖なる存在がどのような表現で語られたのかを伝える重要な意義を有している。 |
Paper short abstract
This presentation demonstrates that during the mid-Kamakura period, a large-scale renovation project prompted the reinvention of Mount Kongō’s origin stories within the frameworks of Japanese mythology redefining Mount Kongō as both peripheral and central to Buddhist doctrine and imperial authority.
Paper long abstract
This presentation clarifies how during the mid-Kamakura period, the origin stories (engi) and history of Mount Kongō were recreated within the framework of Japanese mythology and Buddhist history, coinciding with a large-scale renovation project. From the late Heian period onward, among the sacred mountains linked to mountain asceticism, the most revered were Mount Ōmine and Mount Kazuragi, whose main peak was Mount Kongō. In the late Heian period, Mount Kongō was empowered by: ① its identification with the “Vajra Mountain” of the Avataṃsaka sūtra, ② Lotus sūtra related devotional practices, and ③ faith in the mountain’s founder, En no Gyōja. During the mid-Kamakura period, when large-scale renovations were undertaken with substantial imperial support, it is presumed that a new set of origin stories and historiographical strategies were created to justify the significant public funding. These new origin stories and historical visions were recorded in the Kongōsan Kanjinchō (Mount Kongō fundraising ledger) and the Kongōsan engi (Origin story of Mount Kongō). Specifically, in addition to the previous narratives about this mountain, the following elements were newly recorded: ④ Mount Kongō identification with the Inner and Outer Courts of Tuṣita Heaven, ⑤ the descent of various deities from Ise, Kasuga, Hachiman, and Kumano in response to En no Gyōja’s invocation, ⑥ imperial pilgrimages by successive emperors, the performance of ascetic practices by high priests from various sects, and the renovation works they undertook. These narratives greatly influenced the peripheral areas surrounding Mount Kongō and were widely accepted as authentic history. Consequently, Mount Kongō was redefined both as a periphery supplying special power to the center and as a central hub of the Buddhist Law, closely intertwined with the imperial authority of the time.
Paper short abstract
This paper demonstrates that the late Heian period Buddhist statues preserved at local cultic centers near the main sutra mounds of Katsuragi Shugendō played a symbolic role in sanctifying the periphery of the Katsuragi mountain range during the formative period of the Katsuragi Shugendō tradition.
Paper long abstract
Katsuragi Shugendō formed around the veneration of Mount Kongō and Mount Kazuraki, later establishing twenty-eight sutra mounds corresponding to the twenty-eight chapters of the Lotus Sūtra along the coast from Tomogashima to Kamenose. The Shōzan engi (Origin story of various mountains), compiled in the early Kamakura period, outlines the overall layout of these ascetic sites. However, the precise timing and methods involved in the creation of each sutra mound and ascetic site remain unclear. This paper examines those Buddhist statues that were transmitted to temples adjacent to major ascetic sites. By identifying a distinct period of statue production in the late Heian period at these local cultic centers, I aim to obtain clues for inferring the formative phase of Katsuragi Shugendō. One subject is the late Heian period Amida Nyorai triad and the seated Fudō Myōō statue transmitted to Gokurakuji Temple (Nakatsugawa Gyōja-dō) near the seventh sutra mound. Located on the northern edge of the Kokawadera Temple domain, this site appears to have been established as a sacred place for mountain ascetic practices by the holy-man Kokawa Hijiri, who was also revered at court. Another focus is the Buddhist statues transferred from Jinpukuji Temple, adjacent to the second sutra mound, to the nearby Sainenji Temple. Recent investigations have confirmed the presence of a late Heian period standing statue of the Eleven-faced Kannon, a seated statue of Daiitoku Myōō, and a standing statue of Jizō Bosatsu (transmitted as a kami-statue of Hachiman). A document placed inside the seated statue of Daiitoku Myōō (early Edo period) records a tradition attributing its creation to En no Gyōja himself. The creation and enshrinement of these Buddhist statues, crafted by Buddhist sculptors active in central areas, can be understood as having played a symbolic role in sanctifying—and thereby centralizing—the peripherality of the Kazuraki mountain range. Moreover, this may have been instrumental in the formation of Katsuragi Shugendō ascetic sites.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 葛城修験は、金剛山・葛城山における山岳信仰を基軸に、のちに友が島から亀の瀬までの間に法華経二十八品に対応した経塚28か所が設定され形成された。鎌倉時代初期ごろ成立の『諸山縁起』にその行場の全体像が示されるが、各経塚や行場の地がいつ、どのように設定されたかについては不明である。本報告では、主要な行場に隣接する寺院に伝来した仏像を検討し、それら在地の信仰拠点において平安時代後期に造像の画期があることを確認することで、葛城修験形成期を推測する手がかりを得たい。 対象の一つが、第七経塚近隣の極楽寺（中津川行者堂）に伝来した平安時代後期の阿弥陀三尊像と不動明王坐像で、粉河寺領内の北辺に位置し、中央にも知られた粉河聖の山中修行の場として聖地形成がなされたとみられる。もう一つが、第二経塚に隣接した神福寺から近隣の西念寺に移された仏像で、近時の調査により平安時代後期の十一面観音立像と大威徳明王坐像、地蔵菩薩立像（伝八幡神像）が確認された。大威徳明王坐像の像内納入文書（江戸時代前期）には役行者自作の伝承が記される。これら中央仏師の手になる仏像の造像と安置は、葛城山系の周縁部を聖地化（中心化）するための象徴的役割を果たしたものと捉えられる。そしてそれは葛城修験の行場形成と連動している可能性がある。 |