ABSTRACT
The Shingon and Tendai sects go naturally together and form a pair. They were introduced into Japan at the same tim e: they borrowed from one another: they both enjoyed the favour of the Court and combined to form the new religion of the new capital, with the establishment of which their introduction coincided. The Tendai from the very beginning claimed to be the State religion, or rather the State in a religious form. Its political and military pretensions drew upon it later the vengeance of Nobunaga. Shingon was more modest but not wholly dissimilar in its aspirations. Its centre was fixed at Koyasan at some distance from Kyoto and removed from the tumults and intrigues of the capital. This was, no doubt, a wise precaution and a source of religious as opposed to political strength. Yet it did not avoid entirely the dangers which brought ruin to Hieizan. Its great branch monastery of Negoro in the same region as K5yasan became so wealthy and powerful, and with the aid of its army of Sohei1 was so successful in asserting its independent jurisdiction over the surrounding territory, that Hideyoshi thought it prudent to destroy it in 1585. Yet this blow by no means destroyed the religious influence of the Shingon sect. I t still is the third largest religious corporation in Japan, coming after the Shinshu and the Soto 2 and owning about twelve thousand temples. I t possesses many qualities which are valuable to a religious sect and are not often found united. No one can accuse it of being wanting in mysticism, philosophy, or whatever name we give to the deeper side of religion, and these profundities are illustrated by a lavish and on the whole successful use of art. But it also appealed to the common man, especially in the Heian period. Its elaborate ritual was not only pleasing as a spectacle and added an attraction to pilgrimages but also provided magical methods of obtaining one’s desires. If any one wanted power or fame, children or wealth, to help his friends or to injure his enemies,
an appropriate ceremony could be found with special deities, gestures, ornaments, and formulae warranted to bring about the wished for results. The reformers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries naturally denounced such things as low superstitions and not true religion, but they appeal to a side of human nature and are also connected with a practice to which Shingon owes much of its influence, that is, that it takes under its protection the shrines of popular deities. A Shingon temple is very often not an edifice built for the performance of a particular kind of religious service like a Hongwanji or Nichiren temple (or for the matter of that churches or mosques), but a shrine dedicated to the worship of some special deity who has perhaps selected that spot to manifest himself or show his power, and the deity is often not well known except locally and from the point of view of strict Buddhism may be of doubtful antecedents. Another advantage enjoyed by the Shingon sect is the personality of its founder Kukai, or to call him by the posthumous name by which he is best known, Kobo Daishi. In all the annals and legends of Japanese Buddhism there is no more celebrated name than this, and whether as saint, miracleworker, writer, painter, or sculptor he is familiar alike to the most learned and the most ignorant of his countrymen. The equivalent of our phrase “ Homer sometimes nods ” is in Japanese “ Kob5 mo fude no ayamari; Even Kobo sometimes makes a slip of the pen ” . His exploits are celebrated in a popular religious ballad called Namudaishi which has been translated by Lloyd.1
