Find in Library

A survey of the history of medieval Kōyasan, an important mountain-based headquarters for esoteric Shingon Buddhism since the early ninth century, cannot omit significant developments in the worship of <i>kami</i> (tutelary and ancestral gods) from the end of the Heian period (794–1185) to the Muromachi period (1333–1573). A fundamental aspect of <i>kami</i> worship at Kōyasan was the regular offering to the <i>kami</i> (<i>shinbōraku</i> 神法楽) of <i>mondō-kō</i> 問答講 (catechism/dialogue form, or ‘question and answer’ ‘lectures’) and <i>rongi</i> (debate examinations in the form of <i>mondō</i>). The relationship between Buddhist scholarship and <i>kami</i> worship has not been fully elucidated and such will enrich understanding of both subjects. The identities and meanings of the two oldest <i>kami</i> enshrined at Kōyasan, Niu Myōjin 丹生明神 (also called Niutsuhime) and Kariba Myōjin 狩場明神 (also called Kōya Myōjin), were delineated in texts produced by scholar monks (<i>gakuryo</i> 学侶) during a period when the debates were re-systematized after a period of sporadicity and decline, so the precise functions of this cinnabar goddess and hunter god in the related ritual offerings deserve attention. In this paper I examine ideas about the Kōyasan <i>kami</i> that can be found, specifically, in the institution and development of these <i>mondō</i> and <i>rongi</i> 論義. Placing them in this context yields new information, and offers new methods of understanding of not only related textual materials, but also of the icons used in the debates, and the related major ceremonies (<i>hōe</i> 法会) and individual ritual practices (<i>gyōbō</i> 行法) that were involved. Given that the candidates of a major ritual debate examination—to be discussed—that has been practiced from the Muromachi period up to the present day are said to ‘represent’ <i>kami</i>, and are even referred to by the names of <i>kami</i>, the history of the precise relationship between the <i>kami</i> and the debates invites more detailed explanation that has so far been largely lacking in the scholarship.