ABSTRACT
Most of the chapters in this book examine facets of the culture of secrecy in medieval and early modern Japanese religious phenomena and institutions. But if we look at medieval artistic institutions we find that similar forms of esotericism were widely practiced. The simultaneous development of a culture of secrecy in both religious and artistic institutions is not, of course, unrelated, and is not a simple matter of religion “influencing” art. For one thing, the same social, economic, and political forces that encouraged the development of secrecy within religious institutions were at work in artistic traditions as well.1 And in medieval Japan, religion and the arts were by no means separate areas. Much artistic production was in the service of religious institutions. On a personal level, it was common for artists to have taken religious vows of some kind; a number of the foremost medieval poets also held high-ranking ecclesiastic positions. Not surprisingly, therefore, the issue of how the path of artistic creation might mesh with the path of religious vocation was of vital concern.
