1999 Meeting Abstracts A72: Probing the Traces: Reevaluating the Relationship Between Buddhism and 'Shinto' in Premodern Japan

A72 Heavenly Tempter and the Precepts: the worship of kami as the focus of Myoe's reform movement
Ryuichi Abe, Columbia University

Myoebo Koben (1173-1232) is among leading Buddhist figures who warned their followers against dangers posed by the Heavenly Tempter (Tenma), the ruler of the celestial realm Takejizaiten, and his activity of derailing Buddhist practitioners from their religious pursuit and enticing them into his demonic realm (makai). This paper studies Myoe's creation of the worship of Kasuga and other kami as an effective method to be employed by the members of his order to halt the evil intention of the Tempter. By comparing Myoe's approach toward kami worship with that of Jokei, Hohen, Eizon and Shinran, the paper suggests that the Tempter was a religious-cultural icon that rose to importance as a result of conflicting views within the Buddhist community of the Kamakura period on issues such as the efficacy of the precepts for salvific purposes, the validity of clergy worship of kami and the participation of women in clerical organization.

A72 Hunting for the Buddha: The Shinto-Buddhist Negotiation of Hunting Practices at Suwa Shrine
Lisa Grumbach, Stanford University

During the medieval period, Suwa Shrine's hunting rituals presented a problem within the doctrinal system of honji suijaku. How could a kami who loved hunting and meat offerings be a manifestation of a Buddhist deity who should revile such offerings? The propriety of these practices as part of shrine rituals was contested by many Buddhists, but not all agreed they should be eradicated. Instead, hunting grounds and offering tables became arenas where Buddhism and local cultic centers sometimes vied and sometimes worked together for the salvation of both people and animals. At Suwa, a creative manipulation of Buddhist doctrine resulted in the development of the "Suwa-no-mon," a mantric formula used to provide Buddhist salvation to animals killed for offerings. This paper examines how Suwa used honji suijaku theory to contain Buddhist influence and redefine the relationships between animals and humans, gods and buddhas.

A72 The Labor of Traces: Miwa Rituals for Professionals
Fabio Rambelli, Williams College

This paper presents some broader implications of honji suijaku systems by analyzing a number of rituals for professionals (carpenters, craftsmen, merchants, farmers etc.) developed by the Miwa shrine-temple between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Miwa rituals for professionals show a sophisticated combination of "Buddhist" and "Shinto" elements especially in their attribution of a "honji" to all professional tools and in their theories about labor, which is envisioned as a collaboration of men and deities with an ultimate soteriological goal. These rituals suggest that the honji suijaku paradigm was operating not only on a religious (doctrinal and ritual) plane, but also affected several important aspects of Japanese premodern culture and society at large. This paper discusses the symbolic and structural roles of honji suijaku as one of the root metaphors in the fields of ideology, economy, and social practice.

A72 Pearl in the Shrine: A Genealogy of the Buddhist Jewel of the Japanese Sovereign
Brian D. Ruppert, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This paper examines the question of the relationship between the Japanese imperial regalia -- the so-called mirror, sword, and jewel -- and Buddhism by analyzing representation of the jewel in the medieval era. Through tracing the genealogy of the conception that the jewel of the emperor is equivalent with the wish-fulfilling jewel of exoteric Buddhism, I argue that esoteric Buddhists -- particularly those of the Shingon school -- provided through the idea of the wish-fulfilling jewel both a narrative and an object that interpreted the emperor as a legitimate sovereign of Buddhist tradition and as the heir to an imperial lineage of enlightenment. In this way, I suggest that the developed notion of the imperial jewel was Buddhist in character, and that modern claims that the regalia are purely products of a native Shinto erase a tradition of Buddha-kami amalgamation (shinbutsu shugo) which had an indispensable role in the production of imperial charisma.

A72 Esoteric honji suijaku practices around Amaterasu
Mark Teeuwen, University of Oslo

Many doctrinal writings from the late Heian period onwards identify Amaterasu as an emanation of "World Buddha" Dainichi, benevolent Kannon, or ruler of the world, Bontenno, and discussions of honji suijaku theories around this deity usually trace only the development of these associations. However, analysis of some esoteric rituals focusing on Amaterasu that evolved in the course of the Kamakura period reveals that in a ritual context, these associations receded into the background, and gave way to more "spectacular" alternatives. In these rituals, we find that Amaterasu appears as Enma, the King of Hell; as Aizen Myoo, the King of Desire; and as the flesh-eating Dakini, as well as in the guise of witch animals -- as a fox, a snake, or even a "dragon-fox." This presentation explores the relationship between such ritually potent, esoteric associations, and the exoteric doctrines that are more widely discussed in current honji suijaku literature.