The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sohei In
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OF Japanese history THETEE A DOLPHSON “This is, in many ways, the best book we are likely to have on violence and its political and social origins T among the early medieval Buddhist/Shinto clergy for quite some time. Comprehensive, lucid, and HE authoritative, The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha examines the interconnections among the members of BUDDHA Japan’s ruling trifunctional elite in a way that contributes rich insights into the very nature of Heian and T THE TEETH AND CLAWS Kamakura society. This study is long overdue and establishes Adolphson as one of a handful of scholars HAND CLAWS who have dealt with religious protests and violence in an intelligent and captivating way.” —W. Wayne Farris, University of Hawai‘i OF THE BUDDHA “Mikael Adolphson has presented the first cogent explanation of the role of violence in Japanese monas- teries, interrogating the much-misunderstood role of the so-called warrior monks. Based on a wide and deep knowledge of primary sources, Adolphson has both advanced the scholarly understanding of the broader configurations of the samurai and has also done a fine job of dispelling many myths that persist in Japanese and Western popular culture. This is our first true picture of the various types of men who Monastic Warriors and Sōhei in Japanese History wielded arms on behalf of religious institutions—few of whom were actually monks.” —G. Cameron Hurst, University of Pennsylvania Mikael Adolphson is associate professor of Japanese history in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University. Cover art: Mounted armed monks in the Kasuga gongen kenki e. Courtesy of Tokyo National Museum. Image by TNM Image Archives (source: http://Tnm.Archives.jp) Cover design: Kaelin Chappell Broaddus MIKAEL S. ADOLPHSON University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96822-1888 www.uhpress.hawaii.edu THE TEETH AND CLAWS OF THE BUDDHA THE TEETH AND CLAWS OF THE BUDDHA Monastic Warriors and Sōhei in Japanese History MIKAEL S. ADOLPHSON University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu © 2007 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 12 11 10 09 08 07 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Adolphson, Mikael S. The teeth and claws of the Buddha : monastic warriors and sohei in Japanese history / Mikael S. Adolphson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-8248-3064-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) isbn-13: 978-0-8248-3123-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Buddhist monks as soldiers—Japan—History. 2. Buddhism—Japan—History—To 1185. 3. Buddhism—Japan—History—1185–1600. 4. Japan—History, Military—Religious aspects. I. Title. II. Title: Monastic warriors and sohei in Japanese history. BQ680.M65A36 2007 306.2´70952—dc22 2006025432 University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Designed by Kaelin Chappell Broaddus Printed by Edwards Brothers For Silvia, Mauricio, and Alexander CONTENTS List of Maps and Figures ix Acknowledgments xi Terminology and Translation xv one Discourses on Religious Violence and Armed Clerics 1 two The Contexts of Monastic Violence and Warfare 21 three The Fighting Servants of the Buddha 57 four The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Noble Monks and Monk-Commanders 87 five Constructed Traditions: Sōhei and Benkei 116 six Sōhei, Benkei, and Monastic Warriors— Historical Perspectives 157 Notes 163 References 187 Index 201 MAPS AND FIGURES Map 1. Provinces and Highways of Premodern Japan xvii Map 2. Central Japan xviii Figure 1. Shitennō deity, eighth century, Tōdaiji 22 Figure 2. Fudō Myōō, Daikakuji, late Heian period 23 Figure 3. Statue of Benkei and his supposed father, Tanzō, on the grounds of Tōkei Jinja, Kii Tanabe 49 Figure 4. Taira warriors attacking Onjōji barricades during the Genpei War, according to the fifteenth centuryAki no yo nagamonogatari 81 Figure 5. Government forces attack worker-monk barricade at Hachiōji on Mt. Hiei in 1203, according to the Hōnen shōnin eden 82 Figure 6. Enryakuji clergy meeting according to the Tengu sōshi 118 Figure 7. Enryakuji clergy meeting according to the Hōnen scrolls 119 Figure 8. Hooded clerics and visitors assemble during Retired Emperor Shirakawa’s pilgrimage to Kasuga in 1093, according to the Kasuga gongen kenki e 121 Figure 9. Hooded visitor accompanied by monks and warrior, according to the Kitano Tenjin engi 123 Figure 10. Kitano jinja silk screen painting from the mid-thirteenth century, showing a bugaku performance, with armed clerics attending 125 Figure 11. Heisenji armed monks according to the Yugyō scrolls 126 Figure 12. Monastic warrior in the Tengu sōshi 128 Figure 13. Ishiyamadera engi scene showing two monastic warriors driving away hunters from the temple precinct 129 x maps and figures Figure 14. Temple warriors chasing hunters away from the temple domain, according to the Ishiyamadera engi 129 Figure 15. Naginata play at Enryakuji, according to the Ishiyamadera engi 130 Figure 16. Temple warriors according to the Yugyō scrolls 131 Figure 17. Naginata usage in the 1113 confrontation, according to the Kasuga scrolls 134–135 Figure 18. Mounted armed monks in the Kasuga gongen kenki e 134–135 Figure 19. Daisenji protest of 1094, as represented in the Daisenji engi 136 Figure 20. Monastic warriors in the Kiyomizudera engi 139 Figure 21. Heike monogatari folding screens showing a gōso 141 Figure 22. Long spear demonstration at Kōfukuji, September 26, 2004 142 Figure 23. Enryakuji protests, according to a Kanō school folding screen 143 Figure 24. Monk-warriors attack the Jōdo shinshū headquarters at Ōtani in Kyoto, according to the Rennyo shōnin eden 144 Figure 25. Benkei ema from the early Edo period 145 Figure 26. Painting by Maeda Seison, as represented on the ticket stub in a 2001 exhibit 149 Figure 27. Sōhei representation from around the year 1100, according to Turnbull 150 Figure 28. Benkei statue, featured in clogs, in Kii Tanabe during the Benkei festival 151 Figure 29. Members of Team Kumano Suigun Yōheitai at the Benkei festival in Kii Tanabe, October 1, 2004 152 Figure 30. Yunoyama sōhei sold at stores in celebration of the Sōhei matsuri 153 Figure 31. The evil-battling Ana Ishikawa of the comicShi 155 Figure 32. Benkei as depicted in the NHK Taiga dorama: Yoshitsune 156 AcKNOWLEDGMENTS his study is an extension of and complement to my first book, The TGates of Power, which dealt primarily with the political, judicial, and ideological powers of religious institutions. I therefore remain indebted to the same colleagues and friends who encouraged me during my years at Stanford as a graduate student and the early years of my life as a teacher. I would be remiss, however, if I did not again express my gratitude to my mentor, Jeffrey P. Mass, whose unwavering support made all the difference in a young scholar’s life. His premature passing in 2001 has left a void of scholarship, academic passion, and sagely advice that many still miss. For this manuscript, I have been fortunate to receive continued guid- ance and support from many colleagues. Above all, I benefited from the ex- pertise and advice of Karl Friday to interpret and contextualize many terms on weaponry and warfare. Thomas Conlan’s works and knowledge were also instrumental in my endeavors to understand how the monastic forces fought. In short, without their works, the Heian and Kamakura worlds of violence and battles would have been considerably more difficult to grasp. I should also like to thank the participants for their insightful questions and comments at talks I was privileged to give at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, Aoyama Gakuin, International Christian University in Tokyo, University of Oregon, at the annual meetings of the Association of Asian Studies in 1998 and 2003, and at the meeting of the European Association of Japanese Studies in 2005. For their support and interest dur- ing those occasions, I am especially indebted to G. Cameron Hurst III, Asai Kazuhiro, Ken Robinson, Andrew Goble, Mark Unno, Brian Ruppert, Roy Ron, and Paul Varley. I should furthermore like to express my profound gratitude to Hurst and William Wayne Farris for their careful reading of and suggestions to an earlier version of the manuscript. xii acknowledgments At Harvard I have benefited from the support of colleagues in several departments, but would like to express my thanks in particular to the mem- bers of the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Harold Bolitho and Andrew Gordon have been particularly supportive during the last several years of this project, and Sun Joo Kim kindly assisted me with the Korean material. I am also indebted to Melissa McCormick and Yukio Lippit for their advice and suggestions concerning many of the works of art that appear in this book. I have additionally been helped by a generation of young scholars with various sections and would like to extend my thanks to Marjan Boogert, Jeffrey Moser, and Jungwon Kim. Ivan Grail deserves spe- cial mention for his careful reading and helpful comments. I should also like to acknowledge the staff at the Harvard-Yenching Library, as well as Gustavo Espada and Susan Kashiwa at my department, for their kind assis- tance whenever I needed help with various aspects associated with research. With the encouragement of such colleagues and friends, it has been a joy to complete this project, and I owe each and every one my gratitude. I have many Japanese scholars to thank for their interest and advice but will limit my acknowledgments to those I have pestered the most. Kondō Shigekazu has unselfishly spent hours, days, and even weeks discussing the reading and translation of important sources, as well as the general charac- ter of monastic forces in premodern Japan.