Japanese Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic: Mikkyō and Sukuyōdō (original) (raw)

Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic in the Tang Dynasty (PhD Dissertation)

This study surveys the introduction of astrology into East Asia with a primary focus on the Buddhist experience of Indian and Iranian astrology during the eighth and ninth centuries. It is argued that prior to the introduction of Esoteric Buddhism during the 8th century, the Chinese sangha had no pressing need to observe astrology. However, following the rising popularity of Tantric rituals, which require proper timing according to non-Chinese astrological conventions, Chinese Buddhism took a deep interest in astrology. This in turn prompted a wider interest in astrology among Chinese elites, encouraging the translation of more foreign works on astrology, even outside of a Buddhist context. It is shown that around the year 800 there was a shift from Indian to Iranian sources of astrology, most likely as a result of ethnic Iranians working at court. Iranian astrology, which included a rich system of horoscopy rooted in the earlier Hellenistic tradition, prompted a booming popular interest in astrology. Buddhists subsequently took up practice of horoscopy for themselves. Chinese Buddhist astrology was then exported to neighboring countries, most notably Japan where it influenced medieval religious and court cultures.

On the Religious and Cultural Aspects of Divination in Japanese Society

Orientālistika : Starpkultūru komunikācija: Āzija, Eiropa, Latvija, 2016

This article presents an overview of the multifaceted history of divination and astrology in Japan. The questions addressed in this paper are the following: What was the place of divination in the traditional Japanese society and within ancient bodies of knowledge? What part of traditional science and cosmology does it form? What are the main methods of divination used in Japan? How was divination related to the Shinto and Buddhist worldview and religious practices? What elements of Indian astrology and divination have been introduced by the Buddhist monks to Japan? And which forms of divination are of Chinese origins? Finally, which of the mantic practices are likely to persist even nowadays and why? These and similar questions are discussed, emphasizing some resumptive cross-cultural and hermeneutic methodological considerations. The hermeneutical examinations of those practices are significant for the comparative history of ideas and also for understanding of contemporary religious practices and beliefs. Such approach can also assist in revealing the local modes of cultural transmission of knowledge in Asia, methods of social control, and the nature of the cultural norms, that shaped the traditional epistemic field. The author considers divination to be a unifying factor in Japanese religious life, and fortune-telling practices played an important role in mediating social tensions. The analysis of the history and transformations of divination in Japanese society helps to solve some theoretical and methodological issues and to state that the dominant function of divination needs to be understood in its motivational context.

Japanese Religions and the Global Occult: An Introduction and Literature Review

Japanese Religions, 2019

As with the relationships between shūkyō and “religion” and supirichuariti and “spirituality,” the Japanese term okaruto is embedded in a global network of practice and discourse around “occultism,” but is also informed by the politics of local practitioners and the media, and by scholarly narratives that try to make sense of them. In this introduction, we present: 1) an overview of the varied relationships between Japanese religions and “the global occult,” 2) an analysis of the Japanese-language scholarship on occult phenomena from sociological, cultural studies, and intellectual historical perspectives, and 3) a brief chronology of modern Japanese occultism. We conclude with some theoretical considerations about how to conceive of the Japanese occult vis-à-vis a transnational community of practice, including the roles of media, translation, and affect.

Inside Tokugawa Religion: Stars, Planets and the Calendar-as-method

2007

The study of religion in early modern (Tokugawa) Japan has failed to keep pace with the study of religion in the periods that preceded and followed it. What has been lacking particularly are explorations of religious praxis. The present study proposes a novel approach to this subject with its critical focus on the Tokugawa calendar and its almanac commentaries. Calendars, and their multiple prescriptions for particular types of action and non-action, informed as they are by the cosmic wisdom of yin yang (onmyō) and five-phases-of-matter thinking (gogyō shisō), offer unique insights into precisely the neglected field of religious practice. This study sets out to decode the calendar and explore the ways in which it determined religious practice in early modern Japan. It discloses the centrality of the worship of stellar kam

The Sinicization of Indo-Iranian Astrology in Medieval China

This study explores the introduction and development of foreign systems of astrology in medieval China (Tang to Ming periods), in particular the practice of horoscopy, and how such models were implemented within a Chinese astronomical framework. It is argued that the basic character of such horoscopy was in large part Dorothean, rather than Ptolemaic. It is furthermore demonstrated that Chinese horoscopy was as much an heir to Persian systems of horoscopy as was the Islamicate, a point that has yet to be recognized. The paper also demonstrates the enduring impact of horoscopy within the culture of Chinese divination. “The Sinicization of Indo-Iranian Astrology in Medieval China.” Sino-Platonic Papers 282 (2018): 1–95.