Honji suijaku
The term honji suijaku or honchi suijaku (本地垂迹) in Japanese religious terminology refers to a theory widely accepted until the
The theory was never systematized but was nonetheless very pervasive and very influential.
The term honji suijaku itself is an example of the Japanese practice of Yojijukugo, a four-character combination of phrases which can be read literally or idiomatically.
History
Early Buddhist monks did not doubt the existence of kami but saw them as inferior to their buddhas.[1] Hindu deities had had the same reception: They were thought of as non-illuminated and prisoners of saṃsāra.[1] Buddhist claims of superiority, however, encountered resistance; monks tried to overcome it by deliberately integrating kami in their system.[1] Japanese Buddhists themselves wanted to somehow give the kami equal status.[1] Several strategies to do this were developed and employed, and one of them was the honji suijaku theory.[1]
The expression was originally developed in China
A different but equivalent explanation, the idea that Buddhist deities choose not to show themselves as they are, but manifest themselves as kami, was expressed in a poetic form with the expression wakō dōjin (和光同塵), which meant that to assist sentient beings, deities "dimmed their radiance and became identical to the dust of the profane world."[1] Their brightness would otherwise be such to destroy mere mortals.[1]
In the 10th and 11th centuries there are numerous examples of Buddhist deities and kami pairings: The deities are usually
As the theory gradually spread around the country, the concept of
Practice
The honji suijaku paradigm remained a defining feature of Japanese religious life up to the end of the
Nothing was fixed: A deity could be identified both as a honji and a suijaku in different parts of the same shrine, and different identifications could be believed to be true at the same time and place.[1] The religious situation during the Middle Ages was, therefore, confused and confusing. Historians have tried to concentrate on the reformers of that age with a clear philosophy and little interest in kami questions because they are easier to understand.[1] The theory was ultimately beneficial to the kami, which went from being considered unilluminated outsiders to actual forms assumed by important deities.[1] The ultimate expression of this shift is Ryōbu Shintō, in which Buddhist deities and kami are indivisible and equivalent like the two sides of a coin.[1]
The use of the honji suijaku paradigm was not limited to religion—it had important consequences for society in general, culture, art and even economy.[10] Buddhism, for example, proscribed fishing, hunting, and agriculture because they involved the killing of living beings (insects, moles and the like in the case of farming), but the honji suijaku concept permitted people to void the prohibition.[11] If one fished for oneself, the reasoning went, you were guilty and should go to hell. However, if the catch was offered to a kami that was a known emanation of a buddha, the gesture had an obvious karmic value and was permissible.[11] The idea allowed the forbidding of individual, and therefore uncontrolled, economic activity.[11] Applied as it was to all major economic activities, this interpretation of honji suijaku allowed a thorough control of popular dissent.[11]
How important the concept was can be understood from how the idea that some local phenomenon may be somehow linked to an absolute and sacred object found extensive application in the medieval and early modern periods.[10] It was often said that temple lands in Japan were local emanations of Buddhist paradises or that an artisan's work was one with the sacred actions of an Indian Buddha.[10]
Art
The honji suijaku paradigm found wide application in religious art with the Honji Suijaku Mandara (本地垂迹曼荼羅) or Songyō Mandara (尊形曼荼羅).[12] The Honjaku Mandara (本迹曼荼羅) (see image above) shows Buddhist deities with their kami counterparts, while the Honjibutsu Mandara (本地仏曼荼羅) show only Buddhist deities, and the Suijaku Mandara (垂迹曼荼羅) show only kami.[12]
The Sōgyō Hachiman (僧形八幡), or "Hachiman in priestly attire", is one of the most popular syncretic deities.[13] The kami is shown dressed as a Buddhist priest and is considered the protector of people in general and warriors in particular.[13] From the 8th century on, Hachiman was called Hachiman Daibosatsu, or Great Bodhisattva Hachiman.[13] That he is dressed like a Buddhist priest is probably meant to indicate the sincerity of his conversion to Buddhism.[13] By the 13th century, other kami would also be portrayed in Buddhist robes.[13]
Shintōshū
The Shintōshū is a book in ten volumes believed to date from the Nanboku-chō period (1336–1392).[14] It illustrates with tales about shrines the honji suijaku theory. The common point of the tales is that, before reincarnating as tutelary kami of an area, a soul has first to be born and suffer there as a human being.[15] The suffering is mostly caused by relationships with relatives, especially wives or husbands.
The book had great influence over literature and the arts.[14]
Inversion
The dominant interpretation of the buddha-kami relationship came to be questioned by what modern scholars call the inverted honji suijaku (反本地垂迹, han honji suijaku) or shinpon butsujaku (神本仏迹) paradigm, a theology that reversed the original theory and gave the most importance to the kami.
Yoshida Kanetomo was influenced by these ideas and brought them further, making a clean break with the past, becoming the creator of Yoshida Shintō and bringing inverted honji suijaku to maturation.[17]
While it is usually claimed that inverted honji suijaku was a reaction of native cults to the dominance of Buddhism, it also came out of Buddhist intellectualism.[16] The theory is not per se anti-Buddhist and does not question the existence of buddhas but simply seeks to invert the established order of importance between kami and buddhas.[18] Why Buddhists should develop such a theory to the detriment of their own divinities is unclear, but it is possible that it was developed by shrine monks, or shasō, who took care of the shrine part of temple-shrine complexes to enhance their status.[16]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Bernhard Scheid
- ^ Breen and Teeuwen (2000:95)
- ^ a b c d e Satō Masato (2007)
- ^ a b c Basic Terms of Shinto
- ^ Satō Makoto
- ^ Josephson, Jason Ānanda, The Invention of Religion in Japan (University of Chicago Press, 2012), 25-26
- ^ Sueki (2007:24)
- ^ Teeuwen, Rambelli (2002:6)
- ^ Breen, Teeuwen (2000:194)
- ^ a b c Teeuwen, Rambelli (2002:1-2)
- ^ a b c d Breen and Teeuwen (2000:88-89)
- ^ a b Songyō Mandara
- ^ a b c d e Sōgyō Hachiman
- ^ a b Iwanami Kōjien (広辞苑) Japanese dictionary, 6th edition (2008), DVD version
- ^ Murakami, Manabu. "Shintōshū". Shogakukan Encyclopedia (in Japanese). Yahoo Japan. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Teeuwen, Rambelli (2002: 35-36)
- ^ a b c d e Shirayama Yoshitarō
- ^ Breen and Teeuwen (2000:119)
References
- Scheid, Bernhard (2008-04-16). "Honji suijaku: Die Angleichung von Buddhas und Kami" (in German). Retrieved 2008-11-04.
- Shirayama, Yoshitarō (2007). "Han-Honji Suijaku Setsu (Anti-Honjisuijaku thought)". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
- Satō, Masato (2007). "Honji Suijaku Setsu". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
- "Sougyou Hachiman". JAANUS. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
- "Songyou Mandara". JAANUS. Retrieved 2008-11-07.
- ISBN 978-4-634-54320-1.
- ISBN 978-0-415-29747-9.
- Satō, Makoto (2006). "Shinto and Buddhism —Development of Shinbutsu Shūgō (Combinatory Religion of Kami and Buddhas)". Encyclopedia of Shinto. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
- ISBN 978-0-8248-2363-4.
- Encyclopedia of Shinto, Basic Terms of Shinto, Honji Suijaku Setsu, accessed on November 2, 2008
- 本地垂迹資料便覧