#esoteric buddhism

[zabagar]

Cosmological Mandala with Mount Meru. China. 14th century.

[makapatag]

The swordgendered, non-binary MC of THE KNIGHT VAGRANT. Raxri Uttara, The Once-Dead, for they were murdered, betrayed by Heaven and the Earth. Shorn of all memory and all cultivation, they must claw their way up the rungs of power once again until their fingers are bloody and raw.

"Stop! Stop! It is better to give up! It will take a million years to get back from where you were!" No matter to Raxri Uttara. Their vengeance is their meditation. One step at a time, until all beings are free. Until the world's mysteries are revealed. Until their will is done.

What is a hurricane to an ant? They are inextricably connected, Raxri would say. They are both immovable and unstoppable. A monsoon of swords.

Unassuming by nature, they are nonetheless wracked by a deep, indescribable sorrow, depression, guilt, and anxiety, which they push through by taking things one step at a time. Extremely versatile, Raxri is not one to master a single Violent System or Magickal Praxes, choosing instead to learn as many different systems as they can.

Name: Raxri Uttara Epithets: Once-Dead, The Heaven Dancer, The Swordhand, They Who Danced Against The Heavens Cultivation Level: 4 Mortal State (Accumulation Stage of the Desire Domain) Arcana: The Holy Fool Star Omen: The Water Bearer Blood Type: Air Violent Systems: Whorl Hand, Adamantine Sword Magickal Praxes: Mantra, Mudra Signature Technick: << ADAMANTINE SWORD: ADAMANT LIGHTNING STRIKES >> Likes: All food (especially rice meals), betel nut chewing, smoking, reading manuscripts, learning new Cultivation Systems, killing, stronger opponents, learning new technicks and magicks Dislikes: Poetry, writing, too sweet pastries, those that willingly misinterpret the Law, philosophy

THE KNIGHT VAGRANT?

THE KNIGHT VAGRANT is a spiritpunk progression ultrafantasy web novel in the universe of HINGSAJAGRA, a world wrought from Monsoon Asia and Esoteric Buddhism. Monsoon Asia Disco Elysium Xianxia.

Art by: @coldhazzard!

[journeytothewestresearch]

More on the Origins of Sun Wukong's Golden Headband

I've previously suggested that the Monkey King's golden headband (jingu, 金箍; a.k.a. jingu, 緊箍, lit: “tight fillet”) can be traced to a ritual circlet mentioned in the Hevajra Tantra (Ch: Dabei kongzhi jingang dajiao wang yigui jing, 大悲空智金剛大教王儀軌經, 8th-century). This is one of the "Five Symbolic Ornaments" or "Five Seals" (Sk: Pancamudra, पञ्चमुद्रा; Ch: Wuyin, 五印; a.k.a. "Five Buddha Seals," Wufo yin, 五佛印), each of which is associated with a particular Wisdom Buddha:

Aksobhya is symbolised by the circlet, Amitabha by the ear-rings, Ratnesa by the necklace, Vairocana by the hand ornaments, [and] Amogha by the girdle (Farrow, 1992, p. 65). [1] 輪者，表阿閦如來；鐶者，無量壽如來；頸上鬘者，寶生如來；手寶釧者，大毘盧遮那如來；腰寶帶者，不空成就如來。

Akshobya is known to have attained Buddhahood through moralistic practices (Buswell & Lopez, 2014, p. 27). Therefore, this explains why a headband would be used to rein in the unruly nature of a murderous monkey god.

The original Sanskrit Hevajra Tantra calls the circlet a cakri (चक्रि) or a cakrika (चक्रिका) (Farrow, 1992, pp. 61-62 and 263-264, for example), both of which refer to a "wheel" or "disc." The Chinese version uses the terms baolun/zhe (寶輪/者, "treasure wheel or ring") and just lunzhe (輪者, "wheel" or "ring").

One of the more interesting things I've learned is that these ornaments were made from human bone. One source even refers to them as "bone ornaments" (Sk: asthimudra, अस्थिमुद्रा) (Jamgon Kontrul Lodro Taye, 2005, p. 493, n. 13). [1]

Can you imagine Sun Wukong wearing a headband made from human bone?! How metal would that be? Finger bones would probably do the trick.

Note:

1) Another section of the Hevajra Tantra provides additional associations:

The Circlet worn on the head symbolises the salutation to one's guru, master and chosen deity; the ear-rings symbolise the yogi turning a deaf ear to derogatory words spoken about the guru and Vajradhara; the necklace symbolises the recitation of mantra; the bracelets symbolises the renunciation of killing living beings and the girdle symbolises the enjoyment of the consort (Farrow, 1992, p. 263-264). 謂頂相寶輪者，唯常敬禮教授阿闍梨及自師尊；耳寶鐶者，不樂聞說持金剛者及自師尊一切過失、麁惡語故；頸寶鬘者，唯常誦持大明呪故；手寶釧者，乃至不殺蠕動諸眾生故；腰寶帶者，遠離一切欲邪行故。

2) For more info on the association between Hindo-Buddhist practices and human remains, see "charnel grounds".

Sources:

Farrow, G. W. (1992). The Concealed Essence of the Hevajra Tantra: With the Commentary Yogaratnamālā. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Jamgon Kontrul Lodro Taye (2005). The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Four: Systems of Buddhist Tantra (The Kalu Rinpoche Translation Group, Trans.). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion.

[alephskoteinos]

Tantric synthesis

There's a heuristic coming along that feels close to something I've been wanting to find for a long time. It all comes down to hongaku (original enlightenment) on the one hand, and Tantric and theurgic non-dualism on the other hand, and from there I think I have a way of making some interesting connections possible.

When I read Hellenic Tantra during the last week or so I noticed that Gregory Shaw tries repeatedy to establish a connection between the concept of the theurgist and the jivanmukta at least on the grounds that both meant that the individual practitioner would become divinised while embodied and alive (though only fully joining the gods after death). Well, it turns out there's a Japanese Buddhist concept that's at least somewhat similar to the premise of the Tantric jivanmukta and Neoplatonist theurgy, or at least the way Shaw presents them. The Japanese term "sokushin jōbutsu" means to "become a Buddha in this body", and it seems to have originated in Shingon Buddhism.

"Sokushin jōbutsu" refers to the Shingon doctrine that buddha-nature could be realised in your own present lifetime, in your present body, in your present appearance (maybe now even). This idea is often attributed to Kukai, the founder of Shingon himself, who may have adapted it from Chinese esoteric Buddhism. Different versions of the concept were proposed by Saicho, another Shingon scholar, who accepted a partial realisation of buddhahood, and Annen, a Tendai scholar, who viewed it as the full attainment of buddahood in this life.

For Kukai this involved the practice of mudras, mantra recitation, mental concentration, and visualisations, which were supposed to lead to unification or mutual identity with the Buddha Mahavairocana. If this sounds like how Gregory Shaw talked about Tantra, well...

Maybe it's to do with the fact that Shingon has its roots in Tantric Buddhist traditions, or Kukai's own background in that tradition studying the tantras, or that at a certain point the Japanese concept of Mikkyo (esoteric Buddhism) generally denoted a kind of Tantric Buddhism. That Tantric Buddhism was also very obviously, to some extent, inspired by Hindu Tantra, with its inclusion of Hindu gods and often centrally centering the gods of Shaiva Hinduism. This seems to have been especially true for medieval Tendai given the role of deities like Mahakala and Kojin.

The doctrine of "sokushin jōbutsu" also seems to have involved collapsing any difference between physical and "ultimate" reality, the human body and the "dharma body", and positioning the body (and matter) itself as the site of realisation and a symbol of the entire universe. This form of nondualism probably did align with Tantric Hinduism to some extent. In fact, as Faure notes, Hindu Tantra itself developed from the Vedic tradition and inherited an originally Vedic conception of the human body as a microcosm of the universe.

It is on this basis that Tantra proposed the mutual identity of the human and the universe, and so Faure interprets Tantric Buddhism as having returned to the Vedic micro-macrocosmic vision. The Shingon doctrine of buddhahood involving Mahavairocana seems to match this vision. Faure also interprets this as a departure from earlier and more ascetic forms of Buddhism. In fact, he suggests that, in India, Tantric Buddhism assimilated the gods of Hinduism so successfully that it ended up losing distinctions from Hinduism, and folding back into Hinduism.

This obviously did not happen with Japanese or Chinese esoteric Buddhism. But, in Japan, Tantra can still be seen at the root of Mikkyo, and, as Nobumi Iyanaga observed, Shaiva Hindu deities played a special role in medieval esoteric Buddhism.

Both Tendai and Shingon are accepted as developments of Tantric Buddhism, in the sense that esoteric Buddhist derived from the larger Tantric tradition, and in that sense it seems the concept of hongaku seems was just part of Japanese Tantric Buddhism.

Although the formal concept of original/innate enlightenment did not originate (at least in these terms) in Tantric Hinduism, it seems to have definitely been part of the Tantric Buddhist milieu in Japan. And if you think about it, that makes sense given the logic of hongaku. Tendai hongaku establishes a collapse of the boundaries between ignorance or passion and enlightement or dharmarata, and therefore the distinction between the demons and the buddhas/gods, but it also logically connects to Mikkyo notions of matter as a symbol of the universe or the Buddha-mind. In that sense, it's hard to not connect hongaku to Tantric philosophy and its nondualist logic. And from there you can access the larger significance of the demon gods in Tantric terms. I'd even argue you have all you need for a kind of "Tantric synthesis".

And what's more, you can get to a sense of that kind of cosmic vision in the way Shaw describes theurgy or for that matter its goetic origins and correspondence as elaborated by Kent, and then there's extent to which can actually apply them to each other. After all, in pagan Neoplatonism, the body of the theurgist, while embodied and alive, is to be figured as a synthema for the divine or the creative activity of the Platonic Demiurge or Helios, and in a way you can kind of parallel that with what sokushin jōbutsu entails.

What comes next, of course, is the erotic significance. In Japan, Tantric esotericism that at least allegedly involved outright sexual rituals was called sadō mikkyō, which basically meant heterodox esoteric Buddhism, or "left-handed esotericism", as in the Left Hand Path. That the Left Hand Path should be directly defined by eroticism or sexual ritual is not surprising: it logically follows from the way the terminology was applied in Hinduism. But, in Japan, it also allowed some esoteric Buddhist schools to single out their rivals as heretics. It probably also dovetails nicely with efforts of some schools to define themselves as "pure" schools, focused only on Buddhahood, as opposed to "mixed" schools, allegedly only focused on worldly goals: a line functionally identical to Iamblichus' on theurgy versus goetia.

But this is an area where, real or imagined, the Left Hand Path points to the possibility of religious and magical eroticism as a vital if not fundamental element of the body as the site of spiritual realisation, which is critical to understand socially as a realm of freedom. The heuristic of "Tantric synthesis" here would function as a backdrop for the Left Hand Path as a pursuit of supra-cosmic individualism through an autonomous embrace of eroticism and mystical transgression, divinising the self by collapsing extant normative distinctions.

[falseandrealultravival]

Dainichi Nyorai (the sun) also dies - Esoteric Buddhism 2 (essay)

In 1995, Shoko Asahara, the founder of Aum Shinrikyo, who caused the subway sarin gas attack in Japan that killed and injured thousands of people, said that Esoteric Buddhism was a superior sect within Buddhism. In Japan, there is a tendency to praise Kuukai, who introduced esoteric Buddhism, as an exceptional religious figure. Is that so? The supreme deity of Esoteric Buddhism is Dainichi Nyorai, the incarnation of the sun. Kuukai has been certified as Dainichi Nyorai through rituals, so he is a hardcore figure.

The blazing sun is a being that never rests for a moment, emitting energy of light and heat and giving blessings to all things. However, science teaches: ``The sun also has a lifespan, and someday it will burn out and die.''Currently, the sun is in its prime, but the teaching of Buddhism is that everything that exists is subject to ``birth, old age, illness, and death.'' This is the fundamental point, and the Buddha made his argument from there. It would be foolish to think that only the sun can escape birth, old age, disease, and death. It is irrational to think that the sun will live forever by capturing only a fleeting moment of life.In that sense, the teachings of Esoteric Buddhism go against the entire teachings of Buddhism and are laughable.

By the way, as proof of the worship of light and heat, there is a strange practice in Esoteric Buddhism called ``burning goma,'' in which a pedestal is made of wood and a fire is lit inside. It seems like they want to imitate the energy of the sun's light and heat, but even if they repeat this childish behavior, certain death will come to them. It would be a wasted effort. You could say that Kuukai was an idiot.

Rei Morishita

大日如来（太陽）も死ぬー密教２（エッセイ）

１９９５年、日本で地下鉄サリン事件を起こし、数千人を死傷させたオウム真理教の教祖：麻原彰晃は、密教が仏教のなかで優れた宗派であるとしていた。確かに日本では密教を伝えた空海を格別な宗教���として称える風潮がある。そうなのだろうか？密教の最高神は大日如来であり、太陽の化身である。空海自身、儀式で大日如来であると認定されているから、筋金入りである。

燃え盛る太陽、一瞬たりとも休まず光や熱のエネルギーを発散し、万物に恵みを与える存在。だが、科学は教える：「太陽にも寿命があり、いつかかならず燃え尽き、死ぬ。」今現在太陽は壮年期であるが、存在するものには必ず「生老病死」があるというのが、仏教の教えの根本であり、仏陀はそこから論を立てた。太陽だけが「生老病死」から逃れられると考えるのは、愚かだと言えよう。生の一瞬のみとらえて太陽が永遠に生きると考えるのは不合理だ。

その意味で、密教の教えは仏教の教え全体に背くものであり、笑止である。

ちなみに、光と熱を崇めるという証拠に、密教では「護摩を焚く」といって、木を組んで台座を作り、その中で火を燃やすという奇習がある。よほど太陽の光と熱のエネルギーにあやかりたいのだと思われるが、こんな児戯に類する行為を繰り返しても、確実な死が、その者たちにやってくるのだ。無駄な努力であろう。空海は、馬鹿だと言ってよいだろう。

[raffaellopalandri]

Book of the Day - Mind Beyond Death

Today’s Book of the Day is Mind Beyond Death, written by Dzogchen Ponlop in 2007 and published by Snow Lion. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is a prominent Tibetan Buddhist teacher and scholar, and a meditation master. He is an abbot of Dzogchen Monastery, founder and spiritual director of Nalandabodhi, and founder of Nītārtha Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies. He is one of the highest tülkus in…

[originalbuddhas]

Manjushri

Manjushri is one of the most important iconic figures in Mahayana Buddhism and is known as the Bodhisattva of Great Wisdom. He is worshipped as the "Meditational Deity" in Esoteric Buddhism. The Sanskrit name of Manjushri is "Prajna," which means "gentle glory," "He who is noble and gentle," "soft glory," "Wondrous Auspiciousness," and so on. Buddhist monasteries' meditation halls, libraries, and study rooms often consist of images of Manjushri Bodhisattva. Manjushri is a famous Bodhisattva respected greatly in Chinese, Esoteric, Tibetan Buddhism, etc. Read more at: Manjushri Bodhisattva | Four Great Bodhisattva in China (originalbuddhas.com)

[makapatag]

my post-christian, zizekian, lacanian take on fantasy religions for Hingsajagra

This conception of faith and religion comes from a long deep dive into the Philosophy of Religion, the formation of religion, and, sociopolitical philosophy. The formation of religion creates a sort of separation of religion from the rest of life, whereas other regions of the world consider religion to be intricately woven into their social and cultural mores. The Utter Islands, at the end of the world, begins to understand the nonduality of culture and religion as the social structures that once put up this separation crumble. Therefore, religion, political theory, social theory, and even science is raised to a single stage: the stage of Ideology.

Of course, all of this is not a thing universally agreed upon by all the philosophers across the vaunted Utter Islands. However, the categorization has become a useful lingua-franca to use and has risen to popularity in the end of the world, and is now being used by survivor-philosophers and ruin-savants to think of the most important question yet: what will the new world be?

closeups

[alephskoteinos]

I think I'm getting into a kind of madness with this one.

[alephskoteinos]

Holy shit I've been looking for that image ever since I saw it in one of Bernard Faure's books! I'd like a tatoo that's basically that but also the lotus tattoo from Nana.

A hanging scroll of Aizen Myōō (愛染明王) in theriomorphic form as a snake of the rice fields

For use during the Shintō Consecration Rite (神道��頂) from the collection of Henjōzan Saifukuji Temple (遍照山 西福寺) in Ide, Kyoto Prefecture

Image from the temple’s official twitter account

[falseandrealultravival]

Kuukai and the Rishukyo: It’s meaningless- This guy is an idiot (Esoteric Buddhism-1)

The sect that Kuukai founded is a major sect of esoteric Buddhism called Shingon Buddhism, and its temples are scattered throughout Japan. One time, I went to see a Shingon sect festival in my area. One word: gorgeous! It was a truly spectacular ceremony that made effective use of lanterns.

Now, after looking at it and thinking about it, I concluded that it was "too gorgeous!!" The Shingon sect seems to hold extravagant festivals without exception. Looking back, the scene when Kukai received the transmission ceremony from his master Huiguo in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty where esoteric Buddhism was popular, can only be described as gorgeous. Surrounded by brightly colored ornaments, Kukai threw flowers at the Buddhas, and childishly, the Buddha would unite with the guardian deity of the Buddha whom he had thrown. He became a Tathagata.

If you want to convey the state of enlightenment, a more modest ceremony should be sufficient. Not doing so seems like a desire to "protect the nation," a desire to bypass personal salvation (enlightenment) and become involved in the fate of the nation. Shingon Buddhism is the perfect way to demonstrate the power of the nation. In other words, it's a "bluff".

Another point of contention is the strange description of Rishukyo, one of the fundamental scriptures of the Shingon sect. What it says is that when a young man and woman get to know each other, love develops, and they embrace each other with feelings that reach heaven, they are at the ``bodhisattva level'' (purity). In normal Buddhism, romantic feelings between men and women are usually excluded, so the description in the Rishūkyō stands out.

When it comes to human love, it's normal for two people to end up on the other side, and the scary situation of a love triangle often occurs. The moment a loved one of the opposite sex is abducted by someone of the same sex, the person concerned falls into hell instead of heaven. A bodhisattva quickly turns into a sinner in hell. As someone who has experienced this bitter love triangle, I declare that the Rishukyo sutra is falsehood. Kuukai is an idiot who made this the basic scripture.

Rei Morishia

[cosmicportal]

Mingun Pahtodawgyi - Myanmar

[cyberianpunks]

mutuals enter the mountain together

[alephskoteinos]

I think I should check out this lecture some time. I like Bernard Faure's work a lot, and I am definitely interested in the subject of the "hidden god" in play here.

Tenshō Daijin: the many guises of medieval Amaterasu (part 2)

It wasn’t initially my intent to split this article in two, but I didn’t realize I have exceeded every possible limitation of the tumblr post editor. While part 1 introduced the various figures Amaterasu could be identified with, part 2 focuses on various adversaries she acquired in medieval myths, from new interpretations of Susanoo to Mara. It also includes the shared bibliography.

Special thanks to my friend @just9art who helped me with the mini-section introducing the uniquely complex figure of Kōjin. Additional thanks to everyone else who was asked for their opinion about countless drafts of individual sections of this article.

Amaterasu and Susanoo revised

Amaterasu confronting Susanoo (Kamigraphie; reproduced here for educational purposes only)

Since I already brought up classical myths about the conflict between Amaterasu and Susanoo in the final section of part 1, it is impossible not to discuss briefly what implications the transformations of the former had for the latter. In the new classification of kami employed at Ise, Susanoo came to be one of the  “kami of delusion”. He was even identified with Devadatta, the archetypal ideological opponent of the Buddha. However, due to complex developments in medieval Buddhism, he was essentially rehabilitated anyway. Evil thoughts, it was argued, if properly channeled, can still lead towards enlightenment. 

Ushimatsuri, the most famous festival dedicated to Matarajin, here portrayed riding on an ox (wikimedia commons)

The conflict itself was also retold multiple times. For instance, there is a version where Susanoo is assisted by Matarajin and an army of demons commanded by the latter, and Amaterasu hides from them in a fortress located in Utano in the historical Yamato Province. Utano is also the site of their confrontation in an account of it given by Urabe no Kanekazu (卜部兼員) in the fourteenth century, though in this case Matarajin is not involved and it is Susanoo who hides in a fortress. Amaterasu after her cavernous retreat besieges it, and all of Susanoo’s minions turn into snakes and disappear, so that ultimately he is left alone and has to wander until he reaches Izumo.

However, Bernard Faure stresses that ultimately Amaterasu and Susanoo were not too different from each other in medieval theology. Obviously, they had distinct roles and cult centers, but they were not necessarily portrayed as contrasting figures. Amaterasu too could be described as a wrathful or ambivalent figure, and in some peripheral areas she even came to be perceived negatively (more on that later). In a way, you could say they really feel like siblings. The monk Jihen (慈遍) argued that there is no point in making a distinction between Amaterasu and Susanoo in present times (for him that meant the 1300s, for clarity) and that both are worthy of reverence. The image of Susanoo as an “evil kami” (悪神) was formed not by medieval theologians, but rather by nineteenth nativist authors, who saw him as an antithesis of Amaterasu and little more beyond that (given what interpretation of Susanoo followed in the Meiji period and beyond, this was not actually quite the worst page in his history, sadly). If Amaterasu, and thus the imperial house, were the epitome of all that is good, Susanoo, her rival in the “canon” they established, had to be the opposite, as they argued. There was little room for the more nuanced, elaborate representations of both figures common through the middle ages.

The myth of the Demon King of Sixth Heaven

A serpentine depiction of Mara from Hokusai's Shaka-goichidai-zue (wikimedia commons)

While the connection between Amaterasu and Susanoo kept being redefined, perhaps an even more important development was the acquisition of a new antagonist: Buddha’s most famous adversary Mara, known in Japan as Dairokuten Maō (大六天魔王; “Demon King of the Sixth Heaven”) or Tenma (天魔; “heavenly demon”) for short. It is well known that Buddhist doctrine presents Mara as the king of the world. In Japanese context, this led to redefining him as a “landholder deity”(地主, jinushi). While most other “landholders” were linked to specific locations, in Mara’s case these prerogatives were basically universal. This, in turn, created new opportunities for him to be relevant. Among them, there was arguably the defining example of a “medieval myth” - the account of the creation of Japan, in which he confronts Amaterasu.

The oldest version of the narrative about this conflict likely formed before 1191. While no manuscripts of it are actually that old, allusions have been identified in the Nakatomi Harae Kunge, where Dainichi manifests as Amaterasu in order to obtain a symbolic seal representing rule over Japan from Mara. Since the summary is quite vague, it can be assumed that the myth was already in circulation, and that the compilers of this ritual text expected their audience to be familiar with it.

While there are multiple variants, the core of the story is ultimately the same. It starts with an affirmation that Mara is the king of the world. However, he learns that Amaterasu is about to create a new land, and realizes Buddhism will flourish there. Since that means risking a loss of subjects, as with proper Buddhist guidance people would move towards enlightenment, he instantly intervenes, hoping to hinder Amaterasu’s efforts. Amaterasu, however, manages to deceive him: she reassures him she will not tolerate Buddhism, as reflected by the taboos from Ise I’ve discussed before. At the same time, she secretly remains a protector of Buddhism.

Mara is effectively defeated through deception. Granted, he doesn’t always leave with nothing. In some variants, Amaterasu promises that in return for fulfilling his side of the agreement he will be rewarded by being worshiped as Kōjin (荒神) and Kenrō Jishin (堅牢地神). Both of these figures warrant some explanation.

Kōjin (wikimedia commons)

The former is probably one of the most complex deities to emerge over the course of history of Japanese religions. The name designates both an individual deity and an entire category of them. Kōjin’s main role in Buddhism can best be understood as a god or demon of obstacles that impedes one's efforts towards enlightenment unless property placated, sort of like a Japanese take on Mara so to speak, though paradoxically the seventeenth century Chōseiden (窕誓伝) by Ikū Shōnin (以空上人) he is described as the honji of Amaterasu, as opposed to a form of Mara.  However, it would be a disservice to limit Kōjin just to that. He (they?) spanned the entire spectrum of Japanese religions, taking roles as diverse as those of a “raging deity” (araburugami - written with the kanji as his name), and even that of a domestic "stove god". Due to the sheer volume and complexity of the material there is simply no way of doing Kōjin justice here. You will have to depend on other sources if you want to find out more. Avoid the wikipedia article though, it’s dreadfully bad. A more reliable treatment can be found in Bernard Faure’s recent monograph Rage and Ravage.

Kenrō Jishin (via Bernard Faure’s Rage and Ravage; reproduced here for educational purposes only)

Kenrō Jishin is at least in origin the Buddhist form of Hindu Pṛthvī, a divine representation of the earth, though the name sometimes designates a male deity whose character was more influenced by Chinese Tu Gong. His perception in medieval Japan was ambivalent, and he had to be placated with special rituals to prevent harm, for example during building activities

Speaking of earth, it has also been pointed out that describing Mara as an earthly deity creates a dichotomy between him and Amaterasu in some ways analogous to that between her and the earthly deities lead by Okuninushi in classical mythology. This argument has already been made in the middle ages, with Reikiki Shishō outright identifying Mara with Okuninushi. 

References to conflict between Mara and Amaterasu are quite common in medieval literature. For example, the Taiheiki, one of the best known Japanese historical epics, states that Mara sealed a contract with Amaterasu with his own blood, guaranteeing that her descendants will rule Japan with his permission and will be protected by his 180000 servants. The antagonism is also referenced when the monk Jōkei on his pilgrimage to Ise has a vision of Mara and his minions plotting the Jōkyū Disturbance, and concludes it was sent to him by Amaterasu. The same monk encounters Mara in the noh play Dairokuten (第六天), also on his way to Ise. In this case the demon king physically appears in front of him, only to be repelled by Susanoo, here evidently not plying his classical role as his sister’s rival. While obviously the intent of the myth was to portray Mara as the villain and Amaterasu as the protagonist, as one can expect in the light of their roles elsewhere, a different interpretation kept reemerging every now and then.

Taira no Masakado (wikimedia commons)

Among opponents of either the imperial court, the Buddhist authorities, or both, especially in the east of the country, Mara could sometimes be recognized not as a vanquished enemy, but rather than as a legitimate ruler deposed through lies and trickery. Both the most famous rebels, like Tairo no Masakado, and entirely obscure ones, like fourteenth century noble from the Tsugaru peninsula, Tsugaru Andō (津軽安藤), could be linked, if not outright identified, with him. Bernard Faure notes that this image of Mara as an “anti-establishment” figure seemingly persisted as late as WWII, as prayers to him were reportedly held to spare one from conscription. 

Mara at Ise, or how Izanagi became Ishanaten

While as far as I am aware the Amaterasu version of the medieval Japanese myth of Mara was the most widespread and influential, and it is also the most often discussed in modern scholarship, it is worth noting at least one more kami could take the role of a protagonist making a pact with the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven: Izanagi.

A Japanese depiction of Ishana from the twelfth century (wikimedia commons)

An early account of this tradition can be found in the record of the Ise pilgrimage of the monk Tsūkai (通海; 1234–1305), the Tsūkai Sankei Ki (通海参詣記). Reportedly a shrine attendant told him that Izanagi and Izanami were only able to create Japan after getting the permission of Mara, which required promising him Buddhism would be forbidden at Ise. Tsūkai was not enthusiastic about this idea, and by own account destroyed the attendant with facts and logic pointed out that doesn’t seem to line up with classical mythology. In response he heard that it all makes sense when you take into account Mara is Ishana (伊舎那天; Ishanaten), and Ishana in turn is Izanagi. This argumentation didn’t win him over, and he retorted by pointing out it is unexpected a creator deity would need a permit, and furthermore that Ishana is a protector of Buddhism and would not seek to have it banned in any place. We are not told whether the argument continued past that. Elsewhere, variants which largely resemble the Amaterasu narrative are recorded. One example is the kagura play Tenshō Daijin no Yamatorikoe (天照大神の山取り越), where Izanagi finds Mara when he lowers his spear into the sea, and manages to trick him into relinquishing a map granting symbolic rule over Japan. Interestingly, while this is rather obviously an adaptation of the classical myth known from Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, in which Japan is created by Izanagi and Izanami after they lower the spear Amenonuhoko into the sea, Izanami is absent, and Izanagi stands on Mount Sumeru in the beginning, rather than on a bridge linking heaven and earth. It’s worth noting that while unconventional in some regards, the shrine attendant’s explanation preserved by Tsūkai does reveal some historical truth. It is agreed today that the incorporation of Izanagi into speculative Buddhist theology depended on wordplay. The name indeed has an obvious phonetic similarity to that of Ishana, who is one of the Buddhist directional deities. On top of that, Ishana rules over the northeast, which happens to be Japan’s location relative to India. Since before the failed Mongol invasions, the dominant view was that Japan was a small, peripheral kingdom far away from the religious centers of the world, it is quite likely that medieval Buddhist thinkers might have believed Izanagi was an allusion to Ishana all along.

Amaterasu’s other adversaries

Not only the protagonist could change in the Mara myth. Keiran Shūyōshū, which I’ve already mentioned in the Dakiniten sub-section of part 1, seems to allude to a version where instead of Mara, Amaterasu makes a deal with an anonymous king of the asuras. That’s pretty remarkable, since save for the astronomical Rahu and Ketu asuras are rather sparsely represented in medieval Japanese sources.

Gozu Tennō (wikimedia commons)

Another figure who might have been viewed as Amaterasu’s rival, though much less commonly, was Gozu Tennō, who you might remember from my Susanoo article (though there is a lot left to cover some day still). It is possible that narratives from medieval Tsushima in which Gozu Tennō acts a jinushi and explains his role in creation of Japan to Amaterasu represent a tradition which competed with the more widespread Mara myth. While Tsushima was a stop on the Ise pilgrimage, it has been suggested that the main local shrine might have actually viewed Ise as a rival at the time. 

Pangu (wikimedia commons)

Amaterasu and Gozu Tennō are also referenced together in a myth about the children of “king Banko” (an adaptation of Chinese primordial figure Pangu, in this context identified as a Buddha), in which the protagonist, Gorō (五郎), is identified with Gozu Tennō, and learns she(!) cannot claim any part of her inheritance because in a past life she was Susanoo, while one of her older brothers was Amaterasu. The latter explains that while Susanoo has atoned for his misdeeds, they were still bad enough to incur dire consequences after reincarnation.

A Japanese depiction of the dragon king Sāgara (wikimedia commons)

Finally, there is a unique myth in which Amaterasu is similarly portrayed as the creator of Japan, though the events unfold completely differently. It is only preserved in a single source, Shintō Saimon (神道祭文) from 1695. While not quite “medieval”, I figured it’s worth discussing here too. Instead of Mara, the opposing force are unexpectedly the dragon kings, with Sāgara (娑竭羅竜王) singled out in particular. In the beginning, Amaterasu suggests destroying Mount Sumeru and using the rubble to create islands. The dragon kings are not keen on this, because they assume it would make their domain, the ocean, too narrow for their liking. Sāgara enlists the help of a “serpent-like demon king”, who coils thrice around Mount Sumeru to put an end to Amaterasu’s plan. Alas, she figures a way around that. With the power of the kanju jewel, she dries up the ocean and destroys the dragon palace. She then moves Mount Sumeru to a freshly created island. Part of it then breaks off and falls apart, creating numerous smaller islets around.

Kokugaku and its consequences, or why the medieval sources deserve more spotlight

While the selection of figures associated with Amaterasu listed in both parts of the article is relatively extensive, it’s supposed to be only a sample, not the sum of her (or their) medieval networks. There are many more which I simply cannot cover in detail, either because they aren’t relevant to these I decided to focus on, or because I don’t know enough or couldn’t find enough sources to offer coverage of similar quality.  I also largely limited myself to figures identified directly with Amaterasu, or at least those who were (or still are) closely associated with Ise, like Toyouke or Sankoshin. To delve into every single connection would be a gargantuan task. To attempt to insert new additions into Amaterasu’s family tree was hardly uncommon, for instance. To give you just a few examples: in the Awashima Saimon, Awashima Myōjin is described as her sixth daughter. However, as evidenced by the Nihon Shoki, a tradition presenting them as sisters existed too, with the Awashima deity identified as Wakahirume (on yet another note, in a distinct tradition Awashima Myōjin is a male deity identified with Sukunahikona). In yet another tradition, though, Wakahirume was identified with Niu Myōjin (丹生明神像) of Mount Kōya, who similarly came to be seen as a sister of Amaterasu as a result.

Niu Myōjin (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Ultimately what the case of Amaterasu proves is that through much of Japan’s recorded history “Japanese mythology” was much more than just Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Why are the medieval sources so obscure, then? This is just one aspect of a broader issue. It has been explored, among others, by Mark Teeuwen, who in a review concluded that “Kokugaku-type view of history has led Shinto scholars to focus heavily on the ancient period, to give scant regard to the medieval period, and to draw a straight line from ancient kami practice to modern Shinto.” Only over the course of the past few decades this started to change, and even though both in Japan and abroad there are now numerous researchers investigating the medieval sources, publications aimed at general audiences, let alone popculture, have yet to catch up. Kokugaku, as you may know, was a style of “proto-nationalist” or more accurately “nativist” scholarship which developed in Japan in the Edo period. Its adherents believed in an imaginary untainted, pristine age of Japanese history which had to be recovered by purifying culture from foreign influence, defined by them as Chinese or Buddhist. Note that kokugaku itself originally arose, ironically, in neo-Confucian circles, obviously heavily influenced by Chinese culture. The kokugaku movement, even by the standards of its times, had an incredibly authoritarian inclination, with its figureheads arguing that “graceful submission to higher power” is the “essential virtue of man,” as noted by Mark Teeuwen. This “higher power” was, obviously, the imperial family. That’s where the intellectual roots of later Japanese imperial project ultimately lie, as you can easily guess. Some kokugaku enthusiasts additionally lamented the loss of primal “manliness” which was purportedly an inherent attribute of the ancient Japanese spirit.  All around, they were not too dissimilar from modern marble bust profile pic social media traditionalists, down to dubious, at best selective, knowledge of history. Norinaga Motoori and other kokugaku luminaries argued that the Japanese “middle ages” were a “corrupt” era unworthy of study, during which the righteous primordial ways had been forgotten due to nefarious foreign influence. This imaginary past was centered on the Kojiki, and by extension on the imperial family. In Motoori’s imagination it has existed since times immemorial, long before Buddhism. Obviously, while we cannot actually tell for sure for how long a centralized Japanese state existed before the earliest records, it is safe to assume it was younger than Buddhism by a few centuries.

It should be noted that while Japan has a rich archeological record predating the advent of Buddhism on the archipelago, the early textual sources do not show full continuity with it. An obvious example are the haniwa figures, which appear frequently in burial mounds from the Kofun period. Hundreds if not thousands have been excavated, and they have been hugely influential when it comes to depicting kami in art from the 19th century onward. You’ve likely seen such depictions even if you’re not fully aware of their origin. 

However, while haniwa were evidently an important part of life in the Kofun period, as early as in the Nihon Shoki they appear to be a rather vague memory, and their origin story presented in that volume does not match any tangible evidence. It is therefore hard to argue that Kojiki and Nihon Shoki are absolute historical truth: all they actually provide us with is information about what was the desired image of the past according to the imperial court in the early eighth century. As such they are obviously a valuable resource. However, can’t be treated as universal, and their importance doesn’t warrant suppression of anything that came later, contrary to what the kokugaku school wanted. Ultimately, each myth reflects a specific historical context, and to fully understand history sources from all periods need to be analyzed.

As I tried to illustrate in this article, the medieval myths reflected broader social phenomena: economic turmoil, theological advances, a fundamental curiosity about the world and more. And while obviously they have straightforward artistic merit as works of literature, with unexpectedly nuanced characterization of Amaterasu and Mara in the new creation myth standing out in particular to me, that is ultimately the main reason why I think they deserve more spotlight.

Bibliography

Anna Andreeva, Assembling Shinto. Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan

Idem, “The Karmic Origins of the Morning-Bear Mountain”:Preliminary Research Notes on Asamayama Engi

Idem, Itō Satoshi, Chūsei Tenshō Daijin shinkō no kenkyū (Medieval worship of Tenshō Daijin [Amaterasu Ōmikami]), 2011 (book review)

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Idem, The Elderly Nun, the Rain-Treasure Child, and the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: Visualizing Buddhist Networks at the Grand Shrine of Ise

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Idem, Medieval Shintō as a Form of 'Japanese Hinduism': An Attempt at Understanding Early Medieval Shintō

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Asuka Sango, Buddhist Debate and the Production and Transmission of Shōgyō in Medieval Japan 

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Idem (with Hendrik van der Veere), Nakatomi Harae Kunge