Shin Buddhist Attitudes Towards the Kami from Shinran to Rennyo

Shin Buddhist Attitudes towards the Kami From Shinran to Rennyo

Robert F. Rhodes

One of the most fascinating topics in the study of Japanese religions is the complex history of the interaction between Buddhism and the native Japanese religion, Shintō.1 After the introduction of Buddhism to Japan in the sixth century, attempts were made to unite Buddhism with the indigenous religion, a phenomenon often referred to as shinbutsushūgō 神仏習合, or “unification of the kami (the native Japanese gods) and buddhas.” This attempt at unification was advantageous to both sides. Shintō priests could increase their status by allying themselves with the prestigious foreign religion, while Buddhists re- alized that their authority and influence over the populace could be readily enhanced by incorporating the worship of the local kami into their religion. As Kuroda Toshio has noted, this Buddhist-Shintō unification proceeded by absorbing the worship of the kami into Buddhism. Between the late eighth and the eleventh centuries, a number of theories were developed to explain the relationship between the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the Buddhist pantheon with the native Japanese kami. Kuroda explains:

As is already well known, between the late eighth century and the eleventh century Shintō and Buddhism gradually coalesced with one an- other … or, more precisely, veneration of the kami was absorbed into Buddhism through a variety of doctrinal innovations and new religious forms. Among the doctrinal explanations of the kami were the following: 1) the kami realize that they themselves are trapped in this world of samsāra and transmigration and they also seek liberation through the Buddhist teachings; 2) the kami are benevolent deities who protect Buddhism; 3) the kami are the transformations of the buddhas manifested in Japan to save all sentient beings (honji-suijaku); and 4) the kami are the pure spirits of the buddhas (hongaku).2

Source: Rhodes, Robert F, “Shin Buddhist Attitudes Towards the Kami: From Shinran to Rennyo,” Eastern Buddhist 27(2) (1994): 53–80.

1 Important works in Japanese include Murayama 1957 and 1974. The standard work in English is Matsunaga 1969. 2 Kuroda 1981:9.

Kuroda further notes that during the late eighth and early ninth centuries, the first two theories—that is to say, the theories that (1) the kami are unen- lightened beings who need to seek liberation from the cycle of birth-and-death through the practice of the Buddhist teachings, and (2) the kami are protectors of the Buddhist teachings—were dominant.3 However, from the mid-ninth century, the third theory—that the kami are the Japanese manifestations of buddhas and bodhisattvas—came to hold an increasingly important place in the Japanese view of the kami.4 This honji-suijaku 本地垂迹 theory, or the theory that the kami are “traces” ( jaku) which the buddhas and bodhisattvas (honji or the “original ground”) manifested (sui) in Japan to save the beings of this nation, became the most influential theory during the medieval period. By the twelfth century, the major kami had been correlated to the central figures of the Buddhist pantheon.5 To repeat, by the end of the Heian period, the honji-suijaku theory that the Japanese kami are the local manifestations of buddhas and bodhisattvas became widely accepted by Japanese Buddhists, and the worship of various kami had become an integral part of Buddhist practice. However, during the Kamakura period, important Pure Land figures, most notably Shinran (1173– 1262), rejected the worship of the kami, arguing that the sole source of salvation during the age of the Latter Dharma is Amida Buddha. Although recognizing that the kami often serve as protectors of Buddhism, these Pure Land thinkers did not interpret them as being manifestations of the buddhas. This position represents a break with the earlier syncretic tendency of Japanese Buddhism and marks an important epoch in the history of the Buddhist-Shintō interaction in Japan. However, after Shinran’s time, Shin Buddhist thinkers began to incorporate the honji-suijaku theory into their discussion of the Japanese kami, resulting in an important modification of Shinran’s original interpretation. This was the result of the need to temper the radical Shin Buddhist emphasis on exclusive reliance on Amida Buddha in order to make its teachings socially more ac- ceptable. In the following pages, I will trace the development of Shin Buddhist attitudes towards the kami, focusing on the four figures: Shinran, Kakunyo, Zonkaku and Rennyo. But before considering them, it will be necessary to out- line briefly the view of Hōnen, Shinran’s master.

3 Kuroda 1981:9. 4 Matsunaga 1969:227–28. 5 Matsunaga 1969:231–59.