Creating Heresy: (Mis)representation, Fabrication, and the Tachikawa-ryū Takuya Hino Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2012 © 2012 Takuya Hino All rights reserved ABSTRACT Creating Heresy: (Mis)representation, Fabrication, and the Tachikawa-ryū Takuya Hino In this dissertation I provide a detailed analysis of the role played by the Tachikawa-ryū in the development of Japanese esoteric Buddhist doctrine during the medieval period (900-1200). In doing so, I seek to challenge currently held, inaccurate views of the role played by this tradition in the history of Japanese esoteric Buddhism and Japanese religion more generally. The Tachikawa-ryū, which has yet to receive sustained attention in English-language scholarship, began in the twelfth century and later came to be denounced as heretical by mainstream Buddhist institutions. The project will be divided into four sections: three of these will each focus on a different chronological stage in the development of the Tachikawa-ryū, while the introduction will address the portrayal of this tradition in twentieth-century scholarship. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations……………………………………………………………………………...ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………iii Dedication……………………………………………………………………………….………..vi Preface…………………………………………………………………………………………...vii Introduction………………………………………………………………………….…………….1 Chapter 1: Genealogy of a Divination Transmission……………………………………….……40 Chapter 2: The Mutual Independence of Imperial, Religious, and Local Institution…………..101 Chapter 3: Kanmon, Star Worship, and Divining the Future……………………………….…..168 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...225 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………236 i ABBREVIATIONS DNKC Dai Nihon Kokiroku, Chūyūki DNKD Dai Nihon Kokiroku, Denryaku DNKG Dai Nihon Kokiroku, Gonijō moromichiki DNKIK Dai Nihon Kokiroku, Inokuma Kanpakuki DNKK Dai Nihon Kokiroku, Kyūreki DNKM Dai Nihon Kokiroku, Minkeiki DNKMK Dai Nihon Kokiroku, Midō Kanpakuki DNKS Dai Nihon Kokiroku, Shōyūki DNS Dai Nihon Shiryō GR Gunsho Ruijū HI Heian Ibun KK Kokusho Kankōkai ND Nihon Daizōkyō NKBT Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei NST Nihon Shisō Taikei SHG Shiryō Hensan, Gonki SNKBT Shin Nihon Koten Bunka Taikei SZKT Shintei Zōho Kokushi Taikei SZKTA Shintei Zōho Kokushi Taikei, Azuma kagami SZKTK Shintei Zōho Kokushi Taikei, Kugyō bunin T Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō ZGR Zoku Gunsho Ruijū ZZGR Zoku Zoku Gunsho Ruijū ZST Zōho Shiryō Taisei ZSTC Zōho Shiryō Taisei, Chōshūki ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my dissertation committee coordinators—Professors Shirane Haruo, Michael I. Como, Chün-fang Yü, D. Max Moerman, and Hank Glassman—for their generosity and advice concerning my both the content and structure of my dissertation. Without their guidance and support during my time at Columbia University I would not have been able to complete this dissertation, and I regard them as my academic parents. I would also like to thank Professors Donald Keene, Barbara Ruth, Robert Hymes, Tomi Suzuki, Paul Anderer, David Lurie, Feng Li, Robert Thurman, Mark Taylor, Jonathan Schorsch, Miwa Kai, and Sachie Noguchi, all of Columbia University. In addition, I would like to thank my colleagues, my academic brothers and sisters as it were, at Columbia University: Luke N. Thompson, Andrea Castiglioni, Hsuan-Li Wang, Stephanie Lin, Hsin-Yi Lin, Sujung Kim, Jimin Kim, Susan Andrews, Gregory Scott, David Monteleone, Rafal Stepine, and Kevin Buckelew. They have provided me with much support during my graduate studies. Luke and his family (Cindy and Eléa) greatly enhanced my ability to understand the strange ways of American culture in the context of my own “Japanese” framework. Without their generosity, this work would not have been finished. I would like to thank my instructors at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley- —Professors Judith A. Bering, Richard K. Payne, David Matsumoto, Lisa Grumbach, and Don Drummond—for encouraging me to pursue the humanities and the study of East Asia. I would also like to thank Ryūkoku University faculty members—Professors Shōryū Katsura, Yukio Kusaka, Mitsuya Dake, and Eishō Nasu—for their encouragement. Under their influence, I iii began to explore Buddhist Studies as an academic field and to focus in particular on the Tachikawa-ryū and Original Enlightenment thought (hongaku shisō 本覚思想). I would like to thank my mentors at the Pacific Lutheran University: Professors Charles and Margaret Anderson, Seiichi and Yōko Adachi, Paul and Regina Ingram, Robert L. Stivers, David Keyes, Douglas E. Oakman, and Craig Fryhle. Their support and kindness throughout my time in the United States will remain with me until my dying days. I was completely lost during my first few years in this country, and they dedicated many hours and much effort to training and counseling me, much as one would with one’s own child. I shall never forget their generosity and patience. I can only hope that I am able to inherit and continue their passion for teaching and research, and transmit that passion to future generations as I set out on my academic career somewhere in this impure world. I would like to thank my family members—Masahiko, Kuniko, and Yukie Hino—for their support of my studies and understanding of my ambiguous status as a student, which has lasted almost fifteen years now. I am an undutiful son, and since my father, Masahiko Hino, passed away in June 2008 after suffering from advanced stomach cancer, my mother, Kuniko Hino, and my old sister, Yukie Hino, have shown nothing but constant warmth and generosity towards me. Without their kindness, this work would not have been written. Finally, I would like to thank Rie Yamashita, who fought against the demon of an untreatable disease and maintained a passionate desire to live; it was her guidance that led me to a new theory, which I hope to have explained coherently in the present work. Although we experienced a sad farewell, due to my naive suggestion that she trust me, and although I have iv struggled with my terrible “Buddhist karma” for fifteen years, I have finally finished this work and through it been able to begin to grasp the true significance of her life. I would like to respectfully express my gratitude and appreciation for her and the bond (goen ご縁) we shared from the moment we met at a small restaurant somewhere in Kamakura one sunny day years ago. v Dedicated to the Memory of Rie Yamashita, Masahiko Hino, and Seiichi Adachi Without their determination to fight their terminal illnesses and to live their lives as fully as possible, this work would not have been written. vi PREFACE This dissertation will examine the so-called “heretical” teachings and practices of the Tachikawa-ryū 立川流 that proved to be popular among medieval Japanese religious practitioners in the Nara 奈良 and Kantō 関東 areas. Recently, Japanese and Anglophone scholars of Buddhist studies have begun to realize the significance of the Tachikawa-ryū, a sub-branch of the principle Japanese esoteric Buddhist school that experienced a sudden growth and rise in popularity during the tenth to fifteenth centuries. No one, however, has yet studied it in any systematic manner, and since most of the Tachikawa-ryū texts and records were destroyed as a result of religious and political suppression, this Japanese Buddhist trend remains largely unknown or, in some cases, misunderstood. The argument in this thesis will challenge some commonly held concepts about this puzzling Japanese religious tradition and offer a critical analysis of the history of the scholarship—both modern and medieval—that produced these concepts. During the Japanese medieval period, the Tachikawa-ryū was dismissed for its supposedly heretical doctrines and practices, and it was commonly held that its adherents enshrined a skull as the principle image of Mahavairocana and advocated some sort of religious sexual union between males and females as part of their practices. It was believed that this school taught that sexual practices would lead to enlightenment and awakening of buddhahood “in this very body” (J. sokushinjōbutsu 即身成仏), and that these rituals and practices would bring one great benefits, religious awakening, and purity of mind and body when practiced in front of the main object of veneration. One might wonder whether these highly charged vii depictions present an accurate portrayal of the school and its teachings. In fact, this historically inaccurate depiction of the Tachikawa-ryū provides us with an example of the uncritical acceptance of polemical portrayals of the Tachikawa-ryū as positivist historical accounts. This is not to say that the target of the polemics did not exist; it is simply to hint at what I hope to demonstrate in this dissertation, namely, that what we have come to accept as representative of the Tachikawa-ryū is but a marginal and oft misunderstood aspect of a larger phenomenon. viii 1 INTRODUCTION After having been largely ignored by modern scholarship, the Tachikawa-ryū 立川流 has recently enjoyed increased scholarly attention by Japanese and non-Japanese academics alike. This is due to a growing awareness of the important role that this sub-branch of Shingon Buddhism played in the history of Japanese Buddhism, a role that has yet to be fully clarified. Despite this interest, there has yet to be any systematic study of the Tachikawa-ryū in English or Japanese, and many of the previous misconceptions about this tradition