Vocalizing the Lament over the Buddha's Passing: A Study of Myōe's Shiza kōshiki

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)In contemporary Japan the most famous observance of a koshiki ... is the Shiza koshiki (Koshiki in four sessions), which is performed annually during the Jorakue ???, the commemoration of the death of the Buddha, at Kongobuji ???? on Koyasan. Similarly, the Shiza koshiki, or excerpts from it, are performed at other Shingon temples on the memorial day of the Buddha. At Kongobuji, more than one hundred clerics conduct this elaborate, nightlong ritual, starting in the late evening of 14 February and ending shortly before noon on 15 February. The performance also attracts many lay attendees and tourists. Because of the special layout of the hall in which this ritual is performed, lay attendees cannot see much of the ritual activities or the area around the altar. For them, the ritual unfolds its power through its rich chants and recitations. Like any long composition, the Jorakue takes the participants on a musical journey.1The Shiza koshiki was composed by the Kegon-Shingon monk Myoe ... (1173-1232), who is today mostly known for his dream diary and as a strong critic of the monk Honen ?? (1133-1212); but he was also very influential in the development of Japanese Buddhist liturgy and composed many ritual texts.2 With twenty-three koshiki attributed to him, Myoe is one of the most accomplished koshiki authors, second only to the Hosso monk Jokei ?? (1155-1213).3 Myoe composed koshiki for a wide range of objects of veneration, such as Sakyamuni, Buddha relics, Maitreya, the Sixteen Arhats, Bodhidharma, the Kasuga and Sumiyoshi deities, and the Avata?saka Sutra (Jp. Kegonkyo ???). These works reflect the wide range of Myoe's devotional objects, as well as the pluralistic veneration in the Nara in contrast to the so-called new Kamakura schools, which tended to favor a single form of devotion. Myoe's koshiki include many outstanding compositions that were widely performed across sectarian boundaries. The best-known and most often performed koshiki by Myoe, as well as of the koshiki genre in general, is the Shiza koshiki.In this article, I study the performance practice of the Shiza koshiki during Myoe's lifetime in the early thirteenth century and in the Tokugawa period and analyze this koshiki from several different perspectives, including realization, ritual structure, lay participation, scale of performance, and ritual change. While these might appear to be divergent angles of interpretation, I show that they are fundamentally interrelated. Indeed, to focus on only one dimension of koshiki performance is to potentially obscure the multi-dimensional nature of this ritual genre. Such a multi-faceted approach also enables us to see the diversity within the genre as well as to understand its evolution over time.Only in recent years have Western scholars of Japanese religions discovered koshiki as a valuable research field. The first book-length publication on koshiki in a European language was Niels Guelberg's (1999) monograph about the development of koshiki and its influence on Japanese literature. Since this landmark, several studies of koshiki have been published. For example, James Ford has offered the first detailed work on koshiki in English with his study of Jokei's Miroku koshiki ???? (Ford 2005 and 2006). Lori Meeks (2010) has explored the role of koshiki at the convent Hokkeji ???, while David Quinter (2011) has analyzed two Monju koshiki ????, one by Jokei ?? and the other by Eison ?? (1201-1290). Western studies of koshiki, however, have tended not to examine the dimension despite its central role in performances.4 This article examines this overlooked facet of koshiki and demonstrates that various styles of Buddhist vocal music formed a rich sonic landscape. In ritual handbooks and documents that describe the ritual form of koshiki, titles of shomyo pieces signpost the ritual structure of koshiki. Therefore, I also analyze the form of rituals centering on koshiki. …