Elizabeth N Tinsley | University of California, Irvine (original) (raw)
Books by Elizabeth N Tinsley
Talks by Elizabeth N Tinsley
Ca'Foscari University of Venice, October 25th, 2018. On exile, soul-summoning, and the retent... more Ca'Foscari University of Venice, October 25th, 2018.
On exile, soul-summoning, and the retention of embodied teachings. Accounts of the mid-thirteenth century exile of monks from Kōyasan paint a bleak picture of political violence, and cynical attempts by its monastic perpetrators to justify their acts in sacred terms. However, tracing citations in their writings both to Japanese literature of the time and to ancient Chinese song cycles concerning exile and soul-summoning reveals an intense and genuine fear of the loss of teachings embodied by the banished figures who could (and indeed did) die in exile, a dangerous state for a spirit to inhabit. Losing or dispersing teachings (and spirits) severed lineages, disrupted communities, and brought about their decline. Recognising this, I reject cynical readings of the exile's laments, pinpoint a factor in the rise of textualisation of orally transmitted (embodied) teachings, and also account for the convergence of the themes of exile and "shamanic" practices in certain texts of the time in Japan.
* See link here for video of talk * https://youtu.be/_dM5b1iSZV0
Public talk at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Arts of Memory and Image Making from Asia to the Mediterranean (Fellows Colloquim), April 2017.
The year 2015 saw the opening of the exhibition now in its fourth rotation in the Japanese galler... more The year 2015 saw the opening of the exhibition now in its fourth rotation in the Japanese galleries here at The Met, "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: the Mary Griggs Burke Collection". One item in Mary Burke’s astonishing bequest of over 300 pieces is an early 14th century painting of a goddess. Niu Myojin, whose name means the “the bright god of cinnabar production,” was a pre-Buddhist, “Shinto” god, and was a localised focus of worship in the mountains of Koyasan on the main island of Japan. She was related to cinnabar, mercury mining, and water, and was incorporated into the doctrine and the rituals practiced at the monastic complex and meditation site of the esoteric Buddhist school of Shingon when it was established in the early 9th century at Koyasan.
The worship of Niu Myojin preceding the importation of this type of Buddhism from China would have been based around agriculture, mineral acquisition, irrigation, and ancestral reverence, and these most likely involved possession and invocation practices. We will return to the ways in which these latter were woven into the fabric of Buddhist practice and art as it developed over the centuries at Koyasan: it is my intention in this talk to show how an image -- a painting -- can be a medium through which viewer and viewed can commune and communicate. For purposes of contact, and for acquisition of aid, supernatural power, or knowledge, an otherworldly being can be just as well anchored in the material support of a visual representation as in the embodiment of a spirit-possessed human.
The mid-thirteenth century Henmyōin Daishi Myōjin Go-Takusen Ki (Record of the Oracle of Daish... more The mid-thirteenth century Henmyōin Daishi Myōjin Go-Takusen Ki (Record of the Oracle of Daishi Myōjin at Henmyōin [Cloister]) is attributed to the monk Dōhan (1179–1252), a Shingon monk regarded as one of the “eight great scholars” by the Kōyasan Buddhist tradition in Japan. Still lauded today for his prolific output of commentaries, ritual instructions, and records of teachings and lectures, Dōhan also wrote and compiled works on the “secret teachings” of Kōyasan; the oracle record is an example of this genre. While few scholars have paid attention to this work (with Abe Yasurō and Ōyama Kōjun being two notable exceptions), as an example of the “secret transmissions” that proliferated during the thirteenth century and which were produced by and circulated among scholar monks active at the great centers of Japanese esoteric Buddhism, it invites closer exploration. In addition to this, the fact that it was compiled within and contains information about the Chūinryū branch of esoteric Buddhism makes it, historically, of particular importance.
In this talk, after discussing the content of the Record, I will look at the way in which the mondō-(“question-and-answer”)-like structure served as a means for acquiring knowledge and for constructing institutional prestige and legitimacy within the network of Kōyasan Shingon Buddhist texts, and will also address the function of this structure in practices related to contemporaneous oracles and yōgō (manifestation of a god) encounters. I will then turn my attention to the character of the deity Daishi Myōjin, from whom the oracle was issued, and who is explained in the text itself as being an amalgamation of apotheosized East Asian Shingon patriarchs and two local, territorial gods. The deification of Kōbō Daishi Kūkai (founder of Kōyasan) alone had already taken place, and involved attributions of the past lives of great Indian masters as well as the bestowal of a bodhisattva title. This fourfold entity is a development beyond that, though, and it partook of the jigi (字義) type of exegesis that Dōhan employed and that is itself characteristic of the semiotic strategies of the time in scholarly esoteric circles. The resultant character of this deity, who can also be observed in texts such as written oaths (kishōmon) and those that refer to treasure names (hōgō), and “name mantras” (myōgō shingon), and which was similar, I argue, in composition and function to other "amalgamated" divinities (e.g., Kasuga Daimyōjin of the Kōfukuji-Kasuga complex in Nara), endowed it with a particular kind of doctrinal as well as political authority.
This text appeared during a time when the phenomena of both induced and spontaneous oracular possession was not uncommon. It was also a time characterized by an increase in the production of new branch-specific teachings, ritual practices, textualized secret oral transmissions (kuden), none of which cannot be strictly categorized as "canonical" so long as we cleave to a notion of authenticity that depends upon the earliest Buddhist sutras and practices, even those of the esoteric sects in Japan. On the other hand, the Record emerges too at a time when counterfeit documents that were intended to instantiate or reinforce legitimacy of various kinds were being issued. Kōyasan was one such producer, and its texts legitimized land ownership and lineage, matters that were inextricably linked, and linked too, to the worship of and narratives round patriarchs and local gods.
Given such contexts, to determine the identity of the "author" of this oracle text that originated with a patriarch-god, was channeled through an acolyte, and was said to have been verified via yet another encounter with the god is to raise important questions about the production of sacred Buddhist texts. Was this a common procedure for producing new texts? What is/was the function of the human amanuensis (Dōhan)? What of the child monk through whom the oracle was transmitted? Why was the "transcription" necessary; what needs did this oracle address that other means could not? Perhaps we can find clues to guide us by looking to the use of earlier narratives about the earlier production/appearance/discovery of Mahāyāna/Vajrayāna texts more broadly. And yet the fact that the record itself threatens punishments for anyone who dares to question its validity behooves us to consider the reasons behind the production of new works, the criteria by which they establish their legitimacy, and the ways in which they were received and interpreted.
In 1911 the British scholar Elizabeth Anna Gordon (1851-1925) had a replica of the so-called “Chi... more In 1911 the British scholar Elizabeth Anna Gordon (1851-1925) had a replica of the so-called “Chinese-Nestorian monument” consecrated at Kōyasan, the mountain-based centre for the Shingon school of esoteric Buddhism in Japan. In this talk I examine Gordon’s relationship with Japan and with Shingon and its practitioners, along with her writings and her interest in replica-making. I present the political background to these subjects (the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902-1922) and the educational exchanges and missionary activities that took place over the period. I propose that the impetus behind her monument replica was rooted in the notion not only of Christian universalism, albeit a mystically-inclined one, but also in that of tolerance and interfaith existence, and in an Alliance-related imperative to regard Japan as a modern nation.
Buddhist kusōzu (Images of the Nine Aspects of the Decaying Body) and literary kusōkan descriptio... more Buddhist kusōzu (Images of the Nine Aspects of the Decaying Body) and literary kusōkan descriptions explicitly or implicitly involve at least three temporal or spatial progressions or disintegrations: that of the decay of the body; that of the journey of corpse viewer to the site of the corpse; and that of the corpse from its home to a wasteland site. The mental kusōkan contemplation posited as the subject of and/or reason for these images is another form of progression and disintegration: a series of visualizations intended to detach the practitioner from delusions. The power of the images and narratives originates not only in the graphic nature of the primary subject but is galvanized by content and key compositional methods that powerfully convey the notion of marginality and exclusion from any mental or material “centre" - cultural, territorial, masculine, pure, alive - and which signifies a fear of the violable border in all its manifestations. The horror of these images is not merely the horror of bodily gore: it is the fear of the border and of marginality. In this talk I will be drawing on examples from the Edo period, the postwar period, and from contemporary art in order to elucidate the previously neglected significance of the time-space relationship in these images.
"Tinsley's work focuses on the role of the kami in the doctrinal debates (rongi) at Kōfuku-ji an... more "Tinsley's work focuses on the role of the kami
in the doctrinal debates (rongi) at Kōfuku-ji and Mt. Kōya, sites that borrowed from each other various elements in the performance of this important ceremony. Focusing on the period, during the preparation of the candidates for the debates, devoted to kami worship and possession,Tinsley discussed the complex interrelated identities of the major deities involved in these debates.The identities overlap, merge, and separate again, showing us that these identities (and their iconography) were modified in function of the specific concerns of the institution carrying them out at any particular time. Amidst the variation, though, Tinsley recognized that a common element in
these types of Buddhist kami worship is the superimposition of patriarch figures over these kami, turning the ceremony into a form of patriarch worship." (From Report: Andrea Castiglioni and Marco Gottardo,http://www.columbia-cjr.org/images/upcoming-events/2011_ccjr_buddhist_dynamics_in_east_asia_graduate_student_conference_report.pdf)
In 1407, the Rissei Rongi, an annual ritual debate, was established at Koya-san. A year-long Go-h... more In 1407, the Rissei Rongi, an annual ritual debate, was established at Koya-san. A year-long Go-honjiku “preparatory practice” qualified its practitioner to display his scholarly aptitude in this debate, and completion of the debate placed him on the hierarchical ladder toward eventual promotion to Hoin, the highest clerical position at Koya-san. However, while attainment of priestly rank was a public matter, the worship involved was an intensely private practice, and this contrast is indicated by the treatment of the paintings of mountain deities used as icons. These were hidden from anyone other than the practitioner and also covered during ritual. After the period of worship they were wrapped and transported in a public procession to the temple of the candidate designated for the following year’s debate. This procession made visible to the monastic community the organization of ranking and status at the temple complex. Through an examination of the content, composition, meanings and ritualistic treatment of these kami icons I hope to cast light on the nature of kami worship and Shingon ritual practices at medieval Koya-san, and to consider the issues of concealment and display that these practices suggest.
"法流を伝えるテキストの問題を考えれば、それは空間的・時間的なコンテキストの問題であると考えられる。これについて、デイビド B. グレイ氏は「法を教えるテキストの伝え方は、歴史上の仏陀という存在... more "法流を伝えるテキストの問題を考えれば、それは空間的・時間的なコンテキストの問題であると考えられる。これについて、デイビド B. グレイ氏は「法を教えるテキストの伝え方は、歴史上の仏陀という存在から続く、断絶されやすい血脈を通じてのみ伝えられるものではなく、啓示を通じても可能である」＊と指摘した。 「霊験」などを通じて法・教えを伝授するという現象は、神秘的な現象だけとして見なすべきではなく、広い視野で見ると、大乗仏教の相承の問題でもある。
しかし、日本真言宗の場合、このような現象を辿ると、空海の神聖化と関係していることが分かる。日本の真言宗草創にあたり、教えは釈迦からではなく、大日如来から授けられるものであるという主張は、他宗にとって大きな問題であった。そして、中世に分派・秘伝が増えるなか、空海も神格化されていた。空海の神聖化・本地垂迹・大日の一体などの諸説も多くでてきた。大師信仰が展開するなかで、１２５１年の『遍明院大師明神御託宣記』（以下『託宣記』と省略する）に「大師明神」という尊格が現れる。当テキストに、この呼称は「恵果・大師・高野明神・丹生明神」という字釈が挙げられている。そして、『託宣記』に記録された尊格から下された大事は秘伝として扱われたようである。つまり、この場合、託宣は、上に述べたような啓示を通じた伝授の方法であったと考えられる。他の高野山の託宣を検討すれば、それらも秘伝として扱われていたと思われる。託宣という現象、そして文字化されたテキストを通じて、１３世紀高野山における神々に対する信仰の形が把握できる。今回の報告では、その中に現れる「大師明神」の神格・信仰・意義・について述べたい。
当該時期に分派が激増し、それに伴い秘伝も多くなる中で、神の託宣も秘伝として認識されたことは、まさしく「神仏習合」の要素である。またこの時期は本格的に権門寺院として寺領を拡大するための活動が始まる時期であった。その面では、金剛峯寺道場を築くために山神から弘法大師に高野山の領域を譲られたという縁起の存在は、その時期に新たな意義があったといえる。
史料検証に際し、起請文に多くあらわれる「大師明神」という尊格を「大師ならびに明神」と解釈する従来の説は、必ずしも相応しいわけではないと思われる一方で、『遍明院大師明神御託宣記』にみられる「大師明神」の説明（記述、そして定義）は例外のほかならないとも考えられる。しかし、その時期の道範が中心となった中院流の文献である縁起、字釈・釈義としての、その神は一つの尊格という説明は典型的になってくる。また、『託宣記』にある「大師明神」、そして他の史料に見られる同神は、当該時期中院流の浄土と念仏・宝号念誦にめぐる思想とも関係があるといえる。
発表では、まず神々の託宣について当該時期の学僧の考えを簡潔に述べた後、高野山の神像の色紙に書かれた託宣を紹介する。託宣にみられる僧侶達の神に対する信仰背景に考察を加えながら、『託宣記』に現れる「大師明神」について述べたい。また、浄土思想の背景を踏まえてその尊格を考察する。そして、「大師明神」は遍明院で重んじられたことを述べ、最後に、上述した法・教えの伝授としての託宣という考えの問題に戻りたい。
＊“Texts … need not solely descend through time from the historical Buddha via lineages that are fragile and easily disrupted, but are accessible via revelation as well.”David B. Gray, “Disclosing the Empty Secret: Textuality and Embodiment in the Cakrasawvara Tantra,” Numen Vol.52, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2005:423
"
Papers by Elizabeth N Tinsley
Interlacing Networks: Aspects of Medieval Japanese Religion, Special Issue, Religions, 13(7), 586, 2022
A survey of the history of medieval Kōyasan, an important mountain-based headquarters for esoter... more A survey of the history of medieval Kōyasan, an important mountain-based headquarters for esoteric Shingon Buddhism since the early ninth century, cannot omit significant developments in the worship of kami (tutelary and ancestral gods) from the end of the Heian period (794–1185) to the Muromachi period (1333–1573). A fundamental aspect of kami worship at Kōyasan was the regular offering to the kami (shinbōraku 神法楽) of mondō-kō 問答講 (catechism/dialogue form, or ‘question and answer’ ‘lectures’) and rongi (debate examinations in the form of mondō). The relationship between Buddhist scholarship and kami worship has not been fully elucidated and such will enrich understanding of both subjects. The identities and meanings of the two oldest kami enshrined at Kōyasan, Niu Myōjin 丹生明神 (also called Niutsuhime) and Kariba Myōjin 狩場明神 (also called Kōya Myōjin), were delineated in texts produced by scholar monks (gakuryo 学侶) during a period when the debates were re-systematized after a period of sporadicity and decline, so the precise functions of this cinnabar goddess and hunter god in the related ritual offerings deserve attention. In this paper I examine ideas about the Kōyasan kami that can be found, specifically, in the institution and development of these mondō and rongi 論義. Placing them in this context yields new information, and offers new methods of understanding of not only related textual materials, but also of the icons used in the debates, and the related major ceremonies (hōe 法会) and individual ritual practices (gyōbō 行法) that were involved. Given that the candidates of a major ritual debate examination—to be discussed—that has been practiced from the Muromachi period up to the present day are said to ‘represent’ kami, and are even referred to by the names of kami, the history of the precise relationship between the kami and the debates invites more detailed explanation that has so far been largely lacking in the scholarship.
![Research paper thumbnail of The Twin Miracle: The Two-Headed Aizen Myōō [Ryōzu Aizen] in Exorcistic Shugendō Practice at the Japanese Tantric Buddhist Complex of Kōyasan](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/109332683/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](The Oxford Handbook of Tantric Studies, 2022
This chapter examines the Ryōzu Aizen icon, a combination of two Wisdom Kings, and its possible c... more This chapter examines the Ryōzu Aizen icon, a combination of two Wisdom Kings, and its possible connections to possession and exorcism rituals at thirteenth-century Kōyasan, a major community of Shingon monks. This icon appears to be unique to Japanese tantric Buddhism and has been used by the Shingon school. An examination of a branch-exclusive oracular text produced by the Chūin-ryū reveals that at Kōyasan it seems to have been ritually employed in an attack in 1242 on a rival within the community, during a period of sectarian con ict. The possible meanings of Ryōzu Aizen, as expressed in the branch's texts, are explored along with an explanation of origins, its demonic and demon-slaying associations, and its transmission to Kōyasan.
『大谷大学大学院研究紀要』【第27号] 2010年12月 Otani Daigaku, Otani Daigaku Daigakuin Kenkyū Kiyo 27, December 2010... more 『大谷大学大学院研究紀要』【第27号] 2010年12月
Otani Daigaku, Otani Daigaku Daigakuin Kenkyū Kiyo 27, December 2010: pp. 141-172.
The Eastern Buddhist, New Series, 2014
While no traces of Henmyōin 遍明院 cloister remain today at its original location, there is a thirte... more While no traces of Henmyōin 遍明院 cloister remain today at its original location, there is a thirteenth century Japanese oracle record that attests to its intriguing past and significance at the Shingon 真言 esoteric Buddhist monastic complex Kōyasan 高野山. The document reports that on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month in the third year of Kenchō 建長 (1251), a young chigo 稚児 (child acolyte) resident at Henmyōin suddenly began to exhibit alarming behavior. After declaring himself a former master of the temple and messenger of the deity “Daishi Myōjin” 大師明神, he proceeded to deliver a stream of information for a period of twelve days. This was transcribed by the eminent scholar-monk (gakuryo 学呂) Dōhan 道範 (1178–1252), and after being verified in consultation with the same deity later invoked for that purpose, the text was secreted away as a set of branch-exclusive teachings that were categorized as one of the cloister’s shōgyō 聖教 (sacred works). It was lent out to monks related to the cloister for limited periods of time for reading (and presumably, copying). The incident itself was later explained by Kōyasan scholar-monk Yūkai 宥快 (1345–1416) as having been a transmission of specific teachings necessary for the legitimization of a monk named Yūshin 祐信 (n.d.–1287) as Henmyōin head priest. Yūshin became the seventy-second head (kengyō 検校)1 of Kōyasan some years after the incident.
The incident itself attracts exploration and explanation. In what way could a possession-oracle function to transmit religious teachings and how standard was it? How might this incident be explained in terms of Kōyasan branch history and its strategies of acquiring legitimacy? How does it relate to broader issues concerning the nature of transmission in Buddhism? Focusing on the function of the oracle, the record, and several related commentaries, this paper proposes that although this specific possession-oracle was in some ways an unusual occurrence for its community, it largely conformed to general procedures and practices of knowledge transmission and legitimization of authority in pre-modern Japan and to a broader, even orthodox Buddhist context.
In Buddhist culture, the young and beautiful female as corpse has often been presented as a sight... more In Buddhist culture, the young and beautiful female as corpse has often been presented as a sight of soteriological potential, a demonstration of the illusions of beauty, permanence, and identity coherence. A series of paintings by Matsui Fuyuko 松井冬子 (b. 1974) is only the most recent example of the genre known as “kusōzu” 九相[想]図 (Pictures of the Nine Stages [of a decaying corpse]) (henceforth kusōzu), which depicts the subject. Some half-century earlier, Itō Seiu 伊藤晴雨 (1882-1961) had also produced a substantial corpus of kusōzu. This essay examines the ways in which these artists treat the theme and how the work of Seiu and the visual culture of his time are discernible in the art of Matsui. Matsui distinguishes her series from the genre as it is generally understood by presenting the nine states of decomposition as the results of nine motives for suicide. This, in addition to a number of other aspects of her work makes the series considerably different from its purported model, and links it to an alternative cultural genealogy. To show this, I will summarize the general understanding of kusōzu as it has been presented so far in scholarship and discuss the erotic and grotesque aspects of kusōzu, before introducing the works of Seiu, with a brief explanation of eroguro. I then position Matsui’s series against both premodern kusōzu interpretations and within modern Japanese visual culture. The introduction serves to support my suggestion that her visual influences, which I locate in the cultural history and images of anatomical dissection, the nude in Japanese art, and of self-mutilation/suicide, are all what we might call, if not Buddhist “corpse contemplations,” “dismemberment contemplations” of one kind or another. By reconceiving the genre within this broader category we can release it from a hermeneutics that confines it to a “religious” framework. Other works of her oeuvre support this, and help to shift interpretation of her kusōzu series away from the contention that it is a simplistic reworking of Buddhist imagery. The origins of this “contemplation of dismemberment” are to be found not only in Buddhist thought and practice, but in the aesthetic of the grotesque, which was properly developed in Japan, especially as eroguro エログロ (“erotic-grotesque”), during the modern period and which engages all three visual influences—anatomical dissection, the nude in Japanese art, and self-mutilation/suicide—I mention above. Thus, we find a convergence of Buddhist ideas and visual culture with those of the grotesque, a convergence that helps us to reappraise both. I additionally propose that while the gazes prompted by the subjects of depictions of bodies of the dissected, of the nude, of suicide, and the grotesque, and the functions of those gazes appear to be significantly different, they in fact present similarities with those ideally galvanized by the kusōzu. The principle similarity is the treatment of unstable boundaries and [dis]memberment. They also present comparable anxieties concerning the act of looking.
Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, 2010
Book Reviews by Elizabeth N Tinsley
In The Eastern Buddhist, NEW SERIES, Vol. 39, No. 2 (2008), pp. 180-185
Conferences by Elizabeth N Tinsley
The history of religion is a history of movement. But what happens when religion is on the move? ... more The history of religion is a history of movement. But what happens when religion is on the move? Studies of religion and migration have often treated religion as a resource for people who are coping with the shock of displacement in a foreign world. In this conference, however, we are interested in examining how an interdisciplinary approach to migratory experiences might illuminate the dynamic interplay between the limited possibilities in which people find themselves and the capabilities they nonetheless possess for creating viable, even vibrant, forms of social life. By treating religion as an embodied and spatial phenomenon that intersects with political and economic structures in complex and often unexpected ways, this conference aims not only to contribute to the nascent field of religion and migration but also to deepen its theoretical and methodological repertoire for future studies.
Ca'Foscari University of Venice, October 25th, 2018. On exile, soul-summoning, and the retent... more Ca'Foscari University of Venice, October 25th, 2018.
On exile, soul-summoning, and the retention of embodied teachings. Accounts of the mid-thirteenth century exile of monks from Kōyasan paint a bleak picture of political violence, and cynical attempts by its monastic perpetrators to justify their acts in sacred terms. However, tracing citations in their writings both to Japanese literature of the time and to ancient Chinese song cycles concerning exile and soul-summoning reveals an intense and genuine fear of the loss of teachings embodied by the banished figures who could (and indeed did) die in exile, a dangerous state for a spirit to inhabit. Losing or dispersing teachings (and spirits) severed lineages, disrupted communities, and brought about their decline. Recognising this, I reject cynical readings of the exile's laments, pinpoint a factor in the rise of textualisation of orally transmitted (embodied) teachings, and also account for the convergence of the themes of exile and "shamanic" practices in certain texts of the time in Japan.
* See link here for video of talk * https://youtu.be/_dM5b1iSZV0
Public talk at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Arts of Memory and Image Making from Asia to the Mediterranean (Fellows Colloquim), April 2017.
The year 2015 saw the opening of the exhibition now in its fourth rotation in the Japanese galler... more The year 2015 saw the opening of the exhibition now in its fourth rotation in the Japanese galleries here at The Met, "Celebrating the Arts of Japan: the Mary Griggs Burke Collection". One item in Mary Burke’s astonishing bequest of over 300 pieces is an early 14th century painting of a goddess. Niu Myojin, whose name means the “the bright god of cinnabar production,” was a pre-Buddhist, “Shinto” god, and was a localised focus of worship in the mountains of Koyasan on the main island of Japan. She was related to cinnabar, mercury mining, and water, and was incorporated into the doctrine and the rituals practiced at the monastic complex and meditation site of the esoteric Buddhist school of Shingon when it was established in the early 9th century at Koyasan.
The worship of Niu Myojin preceding the importation of this type of Buddhism from China would have been based around agriculture, mineral acquisition, irrigation, and ancestral reverence, and these most likely involved possession and invocation practices. We will return to the ways in which these latter were woven into the fabric of Buddhist practice and art as it developed over the centuries at Koyasan: it is my intention in this talk to show how an image -- a painting -- can be a medium through which viewer and viewed can commune and communicate. For purposes of contact, and for acquisition of aid, supernatural power, or knowledge, an otherworldly being can be just as well anchored in the material support of a visual representation as in the embodiment of a spirit-possessed human.
The mid-thirteenth century Henmyōin Daishi Myōjin Go-Takusen Ki (Record of the Oracle of Daish... more The mid-thirteenth century Henmyōin Daishi Myōjin Go-Takusen Ki (Record of the Oracle of Daishi Myōjin at Henmyōin [Cloister]) is attributed to the monk Dōhan (1179–1252), a Shingon monk regarded as one of the “eight great scholars” by the Kōyasan Buddhist tradition in Japan. Still lauded today for his prolific output of commentaries, ritual instructions, and records of teachings and lectures, Dōhan also wrote and compiled works on the “secret teachings” of Kōyasan; the oracle record is an example of this genre. While few scholars have paid attention to this work (with Abe Yasurō and Ōyama Kōjun being two notable exceptions), as an example of the “secret transmissions” that proliferated during the thirteenth century and which were produced by and circulated among scholar monks active at the great centers of Japanese esoteric Buddhism, it invites closer exploration. In addition to this, the fact that it was compiled within and contains information about the Chūinryū branch of esoteric Buddhism makes it, historically, of particular importance.
In this talk, after discussing the content of the Record, I will look at the way in which the mondō-(“question-and-answer”)-like structure served as a means for acquiring knowledge and for constructing institutional prestige and legitimacy within the network of Kōyasan Shingon Buddhist texts, and will also address the function of this structure in practices related to contemporaneous oracles and yōgō (manifestation of a god) encounters. I will then turn my attention to the character of the deity Daishi Myōjin, from whom the oracle was issued, and who is explained in the text itself as being an amalgamation of apotheosized East Asian Shingon patriarchs and two local, territorial gods. The deification of Kōbō Daishi Kūkai (founder of Kōyasan) alone had already taken place, and involved attributions of the past lives of great Indian masters as well as the bestowal of a bodhisattva title. This fourfold entity is a development beyond that, though, and it partook of the jigi (字義) type of exegesis that Dōhan employed and that is itself characteristic of the semiotic strategies of the time in scholarly esoteric circles. The resultant character of this deity, who can also be observed in texts such as written oaths (kishōmon) and those that refer to treasure names (hōgō), and “name mantras” (myōgō shingon), and which was similar, I argue, in composition and function to other "amalgamated" divinities (e.g., Kasuga Daimyōjin of the Kōfukuji-Kasuga complex in Nara), endowed it with a particular kind of doctrinal as well as political authority.
This text appeared during a time when the phenomena of both induced and spontaneous oracular possession was not uncommon. It was also a time characterized by an increase in the production of new branch-specific teachings, ritual practices, textualized secret oral transmissions (kuden), none of which cannot be strictly categorized as "canonical" so long as we cleave to a notion of authenticity that depends upon the earliest Buddhist sutras and practices, even those of the esoteric sects in Japan. On the other hand, the Record emerges too at a time when counterfeit documents that were intended to instantiate or reinforce legitimacy of various kinds were being issued. Kōyasan was one such producer, and its texts legitimized land ownership and lineage, matters that were inextricably linked, and linked too, to the worship of and narratives round patriarchs and local gods.
Given such contexts, to determine the identity of the "author" of this oracle text that originated with a patriarch-god, was channeled through an acolyte, and was said to have been verified via yet another encounter with the god is to raise important questions about the production of sacred Buddhist texts. Was this a common procedure for producing new texts? What is/was the function of the human amanuensis (Dōhan)? What of the child monk through whom the oracle was transmitted? Why was the "transcription" necessary; what needs did this oracle address that other means could not? Perhaps we can find clues to guide us by looking to the use of earlier narratives about the earlier production/appearance/discovery of Mahāyāna/Vajrayāna texts more broadly. And yet the fact that the record itself threatens punishments for anyone who dares to question its validity behooves us to consider the reasons behind the production of new works, the criteria by which they establish their legitimacy, and the ways in which they were received and interpreted.
In 1911 the British scholar Elizabeth Anna Gordon (1851-1925) had a replica of the so-called “Chi... more In 1911 the British scholar Elizabeth Anna Gordon (1851-1925) had a replica of the so-called “Chinese-Nestorian monument” consecrated at Kōyasan, the mountain-based centre for the Shingon school of esoteric Buddhism in Japan. In this talk I examine Gordon’s relationship with Japan and with Shingon and its practitioners, along with her writings and her interest in replica-making. I present the political background to these subjects (the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902-1922) and the educational exchanges and missionary activities that took place over the period. I propose that the impetus behind her monument replica was rooted in the notion not only of Christian universalism, albeit a mystically-inclined one, but also in that of tolerance and interfaith existence, and in an Alliance-related imperative to regard Japan as a modern nation.
Buddhist kusōzu (Images of the Nine Aspects of the Decaying Body) and literary kusōkan descriptio... more Buddhist kusōzu (Images of the Nine Aspects of the Decaying Body) and literary kusōkan descriptions explicitly or implicitly involve at least three temporal or spatial progressions or disintegrations: that of the decay of the body; that of the journey of corpse viewer to the site of the corpse; and that of the corpse from its home to a wasteland site. The mental kusōkan contemplation posited as the subject of and/or reason for these images is another form of progression and disintegration: a series of visualizations intended to detach the practitioner from delusions. The power of the images and narratives originates not only in the graphic nature of the primary subject but is galvanized by content and key compositional methods that powerfully convey the notion of marginality and exclusion from any mental or material “centre" - cultural, territorial, masculine, pure, alive - and which signifies a fear of the violable border in all its manifestations. The horror of these images is not merely the horror of bodily gore: it is the fear of the border and of marginality. In this talk I will be drawing on examples from the Edo period, the postwar period, and from contemporary art in order to elucidate the previously neglected significance of the time-space relationship in these images.
"Tinsley's work focuses on the role of the kami in the doctrinal debates (rongi) at Kōfuku-ji an... more "Tinsley's work focuses on the role of the kami
in the doctrinal debates (rongi) at Kōfuku-ji and Mt. Kōya, sites that borrowed from each other various elements in the performance of this important ceremony. Focusing on the period, during the preparation of the candidates for the debates, devoted to kami worship and possession,Tinsley discussed the complex interrelated identities of the major deities involved in these debates.The identities overlap, merge, and separate again, showing us that these identities (and their iconography) were modified in function of the specific concerns of the institution carrying them out at any particular time. Amidst the variation, though, Tinsley recognized that a common element in
these types of Buddhist kami worship is the superimposition of patriarch figures over these kami, turning the ceremony into a form of patriarch worship." (From Report: Andrea Castiglioni and Marco Gottardo,http://www.columbia-cjr.org/images/upcoming-events/2011_ccjr_buddhist_dynamics_in_east_asia_graduate_student_conference_report.pdf)
In 1407, the Rissei Rongi, an annual ritual debate, was established at Koya-san. A year-long Go-h... more In 1407, the Rissei Rongi, an annual ritual debate, was established at Koya-san. A year-long Go-honjiku “preparatory practice” qualified its practitioner to display his scholarly aptitude in this debate, and completion of the debate placed him on the hierarchical ladder toward eventual promotion to Hoin, the highest clerical position at Koya-san. However, while attainment of priestly rank was a public matter, the worship involved was an intensely private practice, and this contrast is indicated by the treatment of the paintings of mountain deities used as icons. These were hidden from anyone other than the practitioner and also covered during ritual. After the period of worship they were wrapped and transported in a public procession to the temple of the candidate designated for the following year’s debate. This procession made visible to the monastic community the organization of ranking and status at the temple complex. Through an examination of the content, composition, meanings and ritualistic treatment of these kami icons I hope to cast light on the nature of kami worship and Shingon ritual practices at medieval Koya-san, and to consider the issues of concealment and display that these practices suggest.
"法流を伝えるテキストの問題を考えれば、それは空間的・時間的なコンテキストの問題であると考えられる。これについて、デイビド B. グレイ氏は「法を教えるテキストの伝え方は、歴史上の仏陀という存在... more "法流を伝えるテキストの問題を考えれば、それは空間的・時間的なコンテキストの問題であると考えられる。これについて、デイビド B. グレイ氏は「法を教えるテキストの伝え方は、歴史上の仏陀という存在から続く、断絶されやすい血脈を通じてのみ伝えられるものではなく、啓示を通じても可能である」＊と指摘した。 「霊験」などを通じて法・教えを伝授するという現象は、神秘的な現象だけとして見なすべきではなく、広い視野で見ると、大乗仏教の相承の問題でもある。
しかし、日本真言宗の場合、このような現象を辿ると、空海の神聖化と関係していることが分かる。日本の真言宗草創にあたり、教えは釈迦からではなく、大日如来から授けられるものであるという主張は、他宗にとって大きな問題であった。そして、中世に分派・秘伝が増えるなか、空海も神格化されていた。空海の神聖化・本地垂迹・大日の一体などの諸説も多くでてきた。大師信仰が展開するなかで、１２５１年の『遍明院大師明神御託宣記』（以下『託宣記』と省略する）に「大師明神」という尊格が現れる。当テキストに、この呼称は「恵果・大師・高野明神・丹生明神」という字釈が挙げられている。そして、『託宣記』に記録された尊格から下された大事は秘伝として扱われたようである。つまり、この場合、託宣は、上に述べたような啓示を通じた伝授の方法であったと考えられる。他の高野山の託宣を検討すれば、それらも秘伝として扱われていたと思われる。託宣という現象、そして文字化されたテキストを通じて、１３世紀高野山における神々に対する信仰の形が把握できる。今回の報告では、その中に現れる「大師明神」の神格・信仰・意義・について述べたい。
当該時期に分派が激増し、それに伴い秘伝も多くなる中で、神の託宣も秘伝として認識されたことは、まさしく「神仏習合」の要素である。またこの時期は本格的に権門寺院として寺領を拡大するための活動が始まる時期であった。その面では、金剛峯寺道場を築くために山神から弘法大師に高野山の領域を譲られたという縁起の存在は、その時期に新たな意義があったといえる。
史料検証に際し、起請文に多くあらわれる「大師明神」という尊格を「大師ならびに明神」と解釈する従来の説は、必ずしも相応しいわけではないと思われる一方で、『遍明院大師明神御託宣記』にみられる「大師明神」の説明（記述、そして定義）は例外のほかならないとも考えられる。しかし、その時期の道範が中心となった中院流の文献である縁起、字釈・釈義としての、その神は一つの尊格という説明は典型的になってくる。また、『託宣記』にある「大師明神」、そして他の史料に見られる同神は、当該時期中院流の浄土と念仏・宝号念誦にめぐる思想とも関係があるといえる。
発表では、まず神々の託宣について当該時期の学僧の考えを簡潔に述べた後、高野山の神像の色紙に書かれた託宣を紹介する。託宣にみられる僧侶達の神に対する信仰背景に考察を加えながら、『託宣記』に現れる「大師明神」について述べたい。また、浄土思想の背景を踏まえてその尊格を考察する。そして、「大師明神」は遍明院で重んじられたことを述べ、最後に、上述した法・教えの伝授としての託宣という考えの問題に戻りたい。
＊“Texts … need not solely descend through time from the historical Buddha via lineages that are fragile and easily disrupted, but are accessible via revelation as well.”David B. Gray, “Disclosing the Empty Secret: Textuality and Embodiment in the Cakrasawvara Tantra,” Numen Vol.52, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2005:423
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Interlacing Networks: Aspects of Medieval Japanese Religion, Special Issue, Religions, 13(7), 586, 2022
A survey of the history of medieval Kōyasan, an important mountain-based headquarters for esoter... more A survey of the history of medieval Kōyasan, an important mountain-based headquarters for esoteric Shingon Buddhism since the early ninth century, cannot omit significant developments in the worship of kami (tutelary and ancestral gods) from the end of the Heian period (794–1185) to the Muromachi period (1333–1573). A fundamental aspect of kami worship at Kōyasan was the regular offering to the kami (shinbōraku 神法楽) of mondō-kō 問答講 (catechism/dialogue form, or ‘question and answer’ ‘lectures’) and rongi (debate examinations in the form of mondō). The relationship between Buddhist scholarship and kami worship has not been fully elucidated and such will enrich understanding of both subjects. The identities and meanings of the two oldest kami enshrined at Kōyasan, Niu Myōjin 丹生明神 (also called Niutsuhime) and Kariba Myōjin 狩場明神 (also called Kōya Myōjin), were delineated in texts produced by scholar monks (gakuryo 学侶) during a period when the debates were re-systematized after a period of sporadicity and decline, so the precise functions of this cinnabar goddess and hunter god in the related ritual offerings deserve attention. In this paper I examine ideas about the Kōyasan kami that can be found, specifically, in the institution and development of these mondō and rongi 論義. Placing them in this context yields new information, and offers new methods of understanding of not only related textual materials, but also of the icons used in the debates, and the related major ceremonies (hōe 法会) and individual ritual practices (gyōbō 行法) that were involved. Given that the candidates of a major ritual debate examination—to be discussed—that has been practiced from the Muromachi period up to the present day are said to ‘represent’ kami, and are even referred to by the names of kami, the history of the precise relationship between the kami and the debates invites more detailed explanation that has so far been largely lacking in the scholarship.
The Oxford Handbook of Tantric Studies, 2022
This chapter examines the Ryōzu Aizen icon, a combination of two Wisdom Kings, and its possible c... more This chapter examines the Ryōzu Aizen icon, a combination of two Wisdom Kings, and its possible connections to possession and exorcism rituals at thirteenth-century Kōyasan, a major community of Shingon monks. This icon appears to be unique to Japanese tantric Buddhism and has been used by the Shingon school. An examination of a branch-exclusive oracular text produced by the Chūin-ryū reveals that at Kōyasan it seems to have been ritually employed in an attack in 1242 on a rival within the community, during a period of sectarian con ict. The possible meanings of Ryōzu Aizen, as expressed in the branch's texts, are explored along with an explanation of origins, its demonic and demon-slaying associations, and its transmission to Kōyasan.
『大谷大学大学院研究紀要』【第27号] 2010年12月 Otani Daigaku, Otani Daigaku Daigakuin Kenkyū Kiyo 27, December 2010... more 『大谷大学大学院研究紀要』【第27号] 2010年12月
Otani Daigaku, Otani Daigaku Daigakuin Kenkyū Kiyo 27, December 2010: pp. 141-172.
The Eastern Buddhist, New Series, 2014
While no traces of Henmyōin 遍明院 cloister remain today at its original location, there is a thirte... more While no traces of Henmyōin 遍明院 cloister remain today at its original location, there is a thirteenth century Japanese oracle record that attests to its intriguing past and significance at the Shingon 真言 esoteric Buddhist monastic complex Kōyasan 高野山. The document reports that on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month in the third year of Kenchō 建長 (1251), a young chigo 稚児 (child acolyte) resident at Henmyōin suddenly began to exhibit alarming behavior. After declaring himself a former master of the temple and messenger of the deity “Daishi Myōjin” 大師明神, he proceeded to deliver a stream of information for a period of twelve days. This was transcribed by the eminent scholar-monk (gakuryo 学呂) Dōhan 道範 (1178–1252), and after being verified in consultation with the same deity later invoked for that purpose, the text was secreted away as a set of branch-exclusive teachings that were categorized as one of the cloister’s shōgyō 聖教 (sacred works). It was lent out to monks related to the cloister for limited periods of time for reading (and presumably, copying). The incident itself was later explained by Kōyasan scholar-monk Yūkai 宥快 (1345–1416) as having been a transmission of specific teachings necessary for the legitimization of a monk named Yūshin 祐信 (n.d.–1287) as Henmyōin head priest. Yūshin became the seventy-second head (kengyō 検校)1 of Kōyasan some years after the incident.
The incident itself attracts exploration and explanation. In what way could a possession-oracle function to transmit religious teachings and how standard was it? How might this incident be explained in terms of Kōyasan branch history and its strategies of acquiring legitimacy? How does it relate to broader issues concerning the nature of transmission in Buddhism? Focusing on the function of the oracle, the record, and several related commentaries, this paper proposes that although this specific possession-oracle was in some ways an unusual occurrence for its community, it largely conformed to general procedures and practices of knowledge transmission and legitimization of authority in pre-modern Japan and to a broader, even orthodox Buddhist context.
In Buddhist culture, the young and beautiful female as corpse has often been presented as a sight... more In Buddhist culture, the young and beautiful female as corpse has often been presented as a sight of soteriological potential, a demonstration of the illusions of beauty, permanence, and identity coherence. A series of paintings by Matsui Fuyuko 松井冬子 (b. 1974) is only the most recent example of the genre known as “kusōzu” 九相[想]図 (Pictures of the Nine Stages [of a decaying corpse]) (henceforth kusōzu), which depicts the subject. Some half-century earlier, Itō Seiu 伊藤晴雨 (1882-1961) had also produced a substantial corpus of kusōzu. This essay examines the ways in which these artists treat the theme and how the work of Seiu and the visual culture of his time are discernible in the art of Matsui. Matsui distinguishes her series from the genre as it is generally understood by presenting the nine states of decomposition as the results of nine motives for suicide. This, in addition to a number of other aspects of her work makes the series considerably different from its purported model, and links it to an alternative cultural genealogy. To show this, I will summarize the general understanding of kusōzu as it has been presented so far in scholarship and discuss the erotic and grotesque aspects of kusōzu, before introducing the works of Seiu, with a brief explanation of eroguro. I then position Matsui’s series against both premodern kusōzu interpretations and within modern Japanese visual culture. The introduction serves to support my suggestion that her visual influences, which I locate in the cultural history and images of anatomical dissection, the nude in Japanese art, and of self-mutilation/suicide, are all what we might call, if not Buddhist “corpse contemplations,” “dismemberment contemplations” of one kind or another. By reconceiving the genre within this broader category we can release it from a hermeneutics that confines it to a “religious” framework. Other works of her oeuvre support this, and help to shift interpretation of her kusōzu series away from the contention that it is a simplistic reworking of Buddhist imagery. The origins of this “contemplation of dismemberment” are to be found not only in Buddhist thought and practice, but in the aesthetic of the grotesque, which was properly developed in Japan, especially as eroguro エログロ (“erotic-grotesque”), during the modern period and which engages all three visual influences—anatomical dissection, the nude in Japanese art, and self-mutilation/suicide—I mention above. Thus, we find a convergence of Buddhist ideas and visual culture with those of the grotesque, a convergence that helps us to reappraise both. I additionally propose that while the gazes prompted by the subjects of depictions of bodies of the dissected, of the nude, of suicide, and the grotesque, and the functions of those gazes appear to be significantly different, they in fact present similarities with those ideally galvanized by the kusōzu. The principle similarity is the treatment of unstable boundaries and [dis]memberment. They also present comparable anxieties concerning the act of looking.
Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, 2010
The history of religion is a history of movement. But what happens when religion is on the move? ... more The history of religion is a history of movement. But what happens when religion is on the move? Studies of religion and migration have often treated religion as a resource for people who are coping with the shock of displacement in a foreign world. In this conference, however, we are interested in examining how an interdisciplinary approach to migratory experiences might illuminate the dynamic interplay between the limited possibilities in which people find themselves and the capabilities they nonetheless possess for creating viable, even vibrant, forms of social life. By treating religion as an embodied and spatial phenomenon that intersects with political and economic structures in complex and often unexpected ways, this conference aims not only to contribute to the nascent field of religion and migration but also to deepen its theoretical and methodological repertoire for future studies.