Buddhist Debate and the Production and Transmission of Shōgyō in Medieval Japan

Abstract

Medieval scholar-monks produced and transmitted a massive body of texts known as sacred works or shogyo. This article focuses on the Todaiji monk Sosho (1202-1278), who produced almost five hundred texts. How and for what purposes did a scholar-monk come to generate such a massive body of texts? First, Sosho produced most of his texts in the process of preparing for and participating in state-sponsored debate rituals (rongie). Since scholarmonks' participation in these rituals guaranteed their promotion, they produced their shogyo first and foremost for advancing their positions in the ecclesiastical community. In addition, copying shogyo was the main method of learning and advancing doctrinal studies. The transmission of shogyo also contributed to a significant institutional change in temple society in medieval Japan-the development of cloisters (inge). This article reveals the undeniable importance of liturgical tradition and the resultant production of shogyo in medieval Japan.KEYWORDS: Buddhist debate (rongi)-scholar-monks (gakusho)-Sosho-Todaiji- shogyo-cloisters (inge)(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)In medieval Japan (roughly from the twelfth to the early-sixteenth century), scholar-monks (gakuryo ... or gakusho ...) produced and transmitted various texts (shogyo ...)1 as part of their efforts to establish the authenticity of their doctrinal knowledge, ritual techniques, and cloisters (inge...).2 In this article, I analyze this process by examining texts that the Todaiji ... monk Sosho ... (1202-1278) produced to prepare for participating in Buddhist debate rituals (rongie ...) sponsored by the state.3 Unlike one-time polemical debate, these state-sponsored debate rituals were held annually and provided an elite scholar-monk such as Sosho with opportunities to gain knowledge of Buddhist doctrines and to build his credentials as a scholar. A monk's successful debate performance in state-organized debate rituals not only increased his fame, but also guaranteed his promotion to a high position in the ecclesiastical office of sogo .... In order to prepare for debate, Sosho copied, edited, or compiled vast amounts of shogyo, and he later transmitted these texts to his disciples who also were to attend debate rituals. Furthermore, the transmission of shogyo contributed not only to the education of his disciples but also to his lifelong ambition of reinvigorating Kegon ... studies at his cloister within Todaiji.Despite the voluminous corps of texts that he leftand the significance of his pedagogical and scholarly achievements, Sosho has not attracted major scholarly interest, especially in the English-speaking world, for several reasons. First, there are certain technical difficulties; most of Sosho's shogyo texts have not been published, and still remain in the form of handwritten manu- scripts. In addition, Sosho usually copied these texts very quickly; therefore, he used a rather peculiar shorthand style, which is not easily decipherable to the untrained eye.4 Finally, Sosho was more interested in copying, editing, and commenting on what others had written than authoring his own work. A Todaiji monk once half-jokingly said to me that Sosho was a mere copyist (kopi man). This view, however, is premised on the modern notion of authorship, which is not always applicable to premodern texts.5 In this article, I show that the act of copying, and its products-the texts themselves-facilitated a scholar-monk's desire for academic accomplishment, salvific attainment, and political empowerment.In addition, scholarly paradigms in the field of premodern Japanese religions that are currently dominant tend to neglect or obscure the intellectual and social activities of elite scholar-monks of Nanto6 temples such as Sosho-especially Kuroda Toshio's characterization of and Buddhism (kenmitsu ...). Kuroda largely equates exoteric with doctrinal learning-what elite scholar-monks of Nanto temples devoted their life to-while contrasting it with esoteric Buddhism that focused on thaumaturgical rites (shuho . …