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The Beginnings of Esoteric Buddhism in Japan: The Neglected Tendai Tradition*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Stanley Weinstein
Affiliation:
Yale University
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Abstract

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Type
Review Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1974

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Footnotes

*

Kukai: Major Works, translated, with an account of his life and a study of his thought. By Yoshito S. Hakeda. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1972. xiv, 303 pp.

References

1 For the sake of simplicity the titles of Buddhist texts mentioned in this article will be given only in their Japanese pronunciation.

2 See, for example, the comments by the learned Shingon monk Kōhōbr (1306–1362) in his Akishashō,b4 fasc. 10, Shingonshū zensho, Vol. 21, p. 80.

3 Gyŏnen, , Sangokfi Buppŏ denzŭ engibt (written in 1311), fasc. 3, Dai Nihon Bukkyŭ zensho (hereafter cited as BZ), Vol. 101, pp. 121122.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., pp. 110–111. The Sanron school is said to have reached Japan from China in three “;transpmissions.” The first two transmissions were made by monks of foreign origin and had relatively little impact.

5 Gomyō's memorial is quoted by Saichō in his Kenkaironbu,,bu fasc. I, Dengyō Daishi zenshū (here-after cited as DZ), Vol. 1, pp. 3435.Google Scholar

6 Ryōkō, Kushida, Shingon Milikyō seiritsu kfitei no kenkyū (Tokyo, 1964), p. 9.Google Scholar

7 I-hsing's commentary has come down to us in two versions: the twenty fascicle Dainichikyōsho by (Taishō daizōkyō \hereafter cited as TD] no. 1796) and the fourteen fascicle Dainichikyōgishaku bw (Dai Nihon zokuzōkyō no. 364).

8 Shunkyō, Katsumata, Mikkō no Nihontekitcnkai (Tokyo, 1970), p. 9.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., p. 10.

10 Raiyu, , shakugishō, Goyuigō,bx quoted in Ōyama Kōjun, Mikktyōshi gatsetsu to kyōri (Kōyasan, 1961), p. 67.Google Scholar

11 Sangoku Buppō denzŭ engi, p. no.

12 Enchin, Dainichikyō gishaku mokuroku engi (written in 884), BZ, Vol. 26, p. 701. Ōyama believes that Saicho began his study of I-hsing's commentary around the year 797 (“Dengyō Daishino Mikkyō ni tsuite,” in Dengyō Daishi kenkyū, ed. Gakkai, Tendai [Tokyo, 1973], p. 160).Google Scholar

13 Kōjō,by Denjutsu isshinkaimon bz (written in 834), fasc. 3, DZ, Vol. 1, p. 638.

14 The lchiji butchō rinnōkyō (TD no. 951) was translated into Chinese by Bodhiruci in 708. It is first mentioned in Japan in a document dated 748 in the Dai Nihon komonjo, Vol. 10 (Tokyo, 1915), p. 325.Google Scholar

15 The text of the certificate is quoted in the Eizan Daishi den ca (DZ, Vol. 5, Bekkan, p. 23), a biography of Saichō written by his disciple Ninchū.Google Scholar

16 Saichō's letter to Kūkai dated “the fifteenth day of the first month” (no year is indicated) in Dengyō Daishi shōsoku,cb DZ, Vol. 5, pp. 451452.Google Scholar

17 The earliest and most reliable biography is the stele inscription composed by the T'ang emperor Hsüan-tsung (685'762), the text of which is ineluded in Kūkai's Ryaku juhōden,cd Kōbō Daishizenshū (hereafter cited as KZ), Vol. 1, pp. 63–65. For the identification of the monk “Chen” menLotustioned in the inscription (the punctuation in the KZ edition is faulty) with the Tendai scholar Hui-chen see Zenryū, Tsukamoto, Tō-chūkj no ōdokyō (Kyoto, 1933),Google Scholar p. 23. His discipleship under Hung-ching is discussed in the Shih-shih yao-lu,cd quoted in Saichō's Naishō Buppō sōjō kechimyakufuce (DZ, Vol. i, pp. 239240).Google Scholar For I-hsing's visit to the T'ien-t'ai mountains see his biography in the Sung kao-seng-chuan cf (comzenshfi pleted in 988), fasc. 5, TD, Vol. 50, pp. 732c–733a. Śubhākarasimha's attainment of the “Lotustioned trance” (Hokke zammai)cgGoogle ScholarPubMed is reported in his bioggraphy in ibid., fasc. 2, p. 714b.

18 Dainichikyō gishaku, fasc. 5, Dai Nihon zokuizōkyō, First Section, Case () 36, Vol. 4, p. 338 verso.

19 Tōketsu:, Shūei kettō,ch Nihon daizōkyō. Vol. 46, p. 415. For Ennin's relationship with Tsungying see the Order of the Great Council of State (daijōkampu) issued in 848 in the Ruijū sandaikyaku,c1 fasc. 2, Shintei zoho Kokushi taikei (hereafter cited as KT), Vol. 25, p. 70.Google Scholar

20 Tōetsu, : Kōshū kcttō,ci Nihon daizōkyō, Vol. 46, p. 365;Google Scholar Tōketsu, : Yuiken kettō ckGoogle Scholar Ibid., p. 394.

21 Naishō Buppō sōjō kechimyakuju, p. 246.

22 Saichō, Taishūroku,cl TD, Vol. 55, p. 1057D-C. His EsshĻrokju,cm however, states that heacquired 128 texts in the T'ien-t'ai mountains (Ibid., p. 1058b).

23 A paraphrase of Saichō's request to the Chinese authorities for permission to travel to Yüeh-chou is contained in his passport, the text of which is included in his Kenkairon engi, fasc. 1, DZ, Vol. 1, pp. 277–278. Ninchūcn specifically states that the purpose of Saichō's visit to Yüeh- chou was to acquire Esoteric texts (Eizan Daishi den, p. 19).

24 Saichō, Kenkairon, fasc. i, p. 35.

25 Raijū Koktishi co (completed 892), fasc. 178, KT, Vol. 6, p. 228.

26 For the text of Saichō's memorial see his Kenkairon engi,cd DZ, Vol. 1, pp. 292–293.

27 Nihon kirayaku: Zempen sq (compiled in the late Heian period), fasc. 13, KT, Vol. 10, p. 278.

28 For the text of these two documents see the Kenkairon engi, pp. 293296.Google ScholarPubMed

29 See, for example, Saichō's letters numbered 32, 34, and 38 in the yuionshū, Rankei,cr KZ, Vol. 5. pp. 353386.Google Scholar

30 Letter no. 23 in ibid., p. 367.

31 Letter no. 18 in ibid., pp. 364–365.

32 Most pre-modern biographies of Saichō, beginning with the earliest one, Ninchū's Eizan Dmshiden, are silent about Saichō's having received aninitiation from Kūkai. One of the very early Tendai documents to mention the initiation is Kōjō's Denjutsu isshinkaimon (DZ, Vol. 1, p. 529).

33 The statement that Kū;kai received an Esoteric initiation from Saicho occurs for the first time in an early Kamakura work, Enryakuji gokoku engi cs (BZ, Vol. 126, pp. 446–447). According to a dubious letter dated the fourteenth day of the fourth month of 812, the text of which is included in the nineteenth century compendium Tendaikahyō ct (BZ, Vol. 125, p. 17), Kūkai requested Saicho to resolve his doubts about the Shittan al phabet.

34 See Hakeda, p. 43, n. 2.

35 The text has been published in KZ, Vol. 3, Shapp. 620–628.

36 Letter no. 51, Rankei yuionshū, p. 383.

37 Shōkō, Watanabe and Yūshō, Miyasaka, Shamon Kūkai (Tokyo, 1967), p. 112.Google Scholar

38 Letter no. 16, Rankei yuionshū, p. 363.

39 Letter no 39, ibid., p. 377.

40 Shugo kokkaishō cu (written in 818), DZ, Vol. 2, pp. 231 and 287.