The Invention and Reception of the Mino'odera engi

Abstract

In this article, I attend to creative processes involved both in writing and reception of jisha engi, through example of a twelfth century Shugendo engi called Mino'odera engi. First, I examine how Mino'odera engi contributed decisively to hagiographic evolution of En no Gyoja, seventh-century figure whom Shugendo practitioners chose as their founder. Then I focus on way in which this text was used and received, both at Mino'odera and in a broader, regional context. Through comparison with historical, literary, and religious sources, I argue that documents like Mino'odera engi played an instrumental role in restructuring spatial and temporal imaginaire of their surroundings and of Japanese Buddhism. Overall, my aim is to draw attention not only to composition and contents of engi-type documents, but also to their use and circulation in early medieval period.KEYWORDS: spatial and temporal imaginaire-Mino'o-En no Gyoja-yamabushi-sangoku denrai-Kanjo-Ninnaji-Shichi tengu-e(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)AS DISCUSSED in introduction to this special volume, jisha engi ... narrate origins, which is to say invention, of sacred sites. Although in many cases research on engi has attended primarily to circumstances surrounding initial process of textual composition, more creativity is involved in reception of these texts. My objective in this article is to illustrate this assertion through an analysis of Mino'odera engi.Religious practice in mountains (sanrin shugyo ...), which was an integral element in religious culture of Mino'o, had been common among both semi-lay figures and official monks (kanso ...) even earlier than Nara period (Tsuji 1991, 1-6). In Heian period, monks who had acquired marvellous powers (genriki ...) through practice in mountains joined specialists in esoteric ritual as persons of power (genja ...) who served emperor or high-ranking aristocrats by performing healing treatments (Tokunaga 2001). During insei period, yamabushi ..., literally men who lie down in mountains, who were not necessarily fully ordained, gained public recognition for their special powers. Yamabushi were employed among guardian monks (gojiso ...), who were charged with ritually protecting emperor's person (Wakamori 1972, 108-10). It was also during insei that pilgrimage to Kumano became popular among royalty and aristocracy (Moerman 2005); when retired emperors traveled to Kumano, they employed yamabushi as their pilgrimage guides (gosendatsu ...), rewarding them with honorary monastic rank and office (Miyachi 1954, 93-129, 147-69; Tokunaga 2002).As a corollary to their new recognition in social sphere, yamabushi also began to make a place for themselves as important participants in history of Japanese Buddhism. The legitimacy of Japanese Buddhism was grounded in understanding that Buddhism had been transmitted in an unaltered state from India to China and then Japan: this concept is known as through three countries (sangoku denrai ...). Therefore yamabushi, who did not trace their dharma lineage back to India, were situated outside of Japanese Buddhist orthodoxy. During insei period, yamabushi for first time appear to have felt need for a founder of their own.1 En no Gyoja ..., most famous historical mountain practitioner, was chosen and vene- rated in this role. Importantly, En had long been known as an upasaka (ubasoku ...), that is, as a religious specialist who had not been officially ordained as a Buddhist monk. In time, En no Gyoja's apotheosis as a founder figure was so successful that, based on temporal and spatial imaginaire of Japanese Buddhism, which had been shaped by notions of transmission through three countries, temporal and spatial imaginaire of sacred mountains around (that is, Kyoto) and the southern capital (nanto . …