Accepted Paper
Paper short abstract
An Onmyōdō altar and related materials were recently discovered in Nara. This sheds new light on saimon that have been transmitted there. I use these saimon to reconstruct the rituals that they pertained to, and reflect on the evolution of new saimon in this and other contexts.
Paper long abstract
Saimon are liturgical texts used during rituals. Saimon that have been transmitted in folk performances and faith traditions such as the hanamatsuri, various kagura, and Izanagi-ryū have attracted much attention as texts of “medieval Shinto” that offer narratives about syncretic deities. These are “living saimon” that manifested themselves in front of the eyes of folklorists and scholars of religion in modern times.
The origin of these saimon can be traced to liturgical texts in Chinese, transmitted from the Asian continent in the ancient period. These texts were used in rituals as early as the eighth century. Later, they were incorporated in various ritual settings in Buddhist, Onmyōdō, and Shugendō contexts. However, much remains unclear about the historical processes behind these developments. When and how did these classical Chinese texts end up in so many different ritual settings?
I this talk I will focus on Onmyōdō saimon. These saimon were used in Onmyōdō rituals at the imperial court in the Heian period. Later, up to the Edo period, new saimon were created in worship of a wide range of deities, in response to the proliferation of new rituals. In the Edo period, Onmyōdō saimon were transmitted within the urban population of Nara, and these documents still exist today. These documents have as yet received little to no attention because the Onmyōdō rituals of which they were a part have disappeared, and because they lack the narrative contents of, for example, the saimon of the Izanagi-ryū.
The recent discovery in Nara of an Onmyōdō altar and visual charts of Onmyōdō rituals now makes it possible to recreate the ritual spaces in which these saimon were once used. It should now be possible to reconstruct these rituals through a close reading of the texts. My goal is to recover the ritual functions of these saimon texts, and to categorize them based on the names of the deities and the contents of the prayers. This will be helpful in gaining a clearer understanding of Onmyōdō worldviews, and also shed new light on the evolution and construction of saimon as ritual texts.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 祭文は、祭祀における祈祷文である。とくに花祭や神楽・いざなぎ流など民俗芸能・民間信仰において伝承されてきた祭文は、習合的な神々を語る中世神道のテクストとして注目されている。これらは、近代の民俗学・宗教学研究者の目の前に立ち現れていた、いわば「生きた」祭文であった。 これら祭文の源流は、古代に大陸から受容した漢文祭祀文書である。8世紀には祭祀に用いられ、その後、仏教・陰陽道・修験道などそれぞれの祭祀の場で受容されていった。一方、この両者の間を結ぶ長い時代の伝播過程や成立に関わる歴史的過程については不明な点も多い。 本報告では、陰陽道祭文に注目する。陰陽道祭文は、平安期に朝廷の陰陽道祭で用いられ、以降江戸時代まで祭祀の多様化に応じて様々な祭神を祀る祭文が作られた。江戸時代には、奈良の町人社会でも陰陽道祭祭文史料が残る。しかし、陰陽道祭が消滅してしまったこと、五行祭文やいざなぎ流祭文のような神話的物語性を欠くことから、これまで注目されることは少なかった。こうしたなか、近年、新たに発見された陰陽道祭壇や陰陽道祭を描いた祭場図などを手がかりに、祭祀の状況を空間的に復元することが可能になった。また、祭文の記述から、祭祀の手順も復元しうる。こうした祭祀の復元をふまえて祭文を読み解き、祭神の名称や祈願の内容による分類や体系化を進めたい。こうした試みは、陰陽道の世界観を解明するだけでなく、祭文という祭祀テクストの水脈を辿る素材となるだろう。 |
Saimon recitations: Onmyōdō lore in ritual contexts