Two Mediaeval Manuscripts on the Worship of the Stars from the Fujii Eikan Collection

Abstract

A large number of mediaeval documents addressing specific liturgies directed to stars and planets and their iconographical and ritual representation have been preserved in Japanese private and public collections. The Fujii Eikan Archives, kept at the Art Research Centre of Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, comprises five manuscripts related to the worship of stars, including some hitherto unpublished material. They are essential texts for the study of star-related rituals and the nature of stars in the early medieval period. This article offers an analysis and translation of two of these texts, which represent different genres of ritual manuals devoted to celestial bodies. The first text consists of the liturgical prescriptions for a ritual dedicated to the Personal Star; the second outlines divinatory practices associated with the Nine Luminaries.