ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a story that describes the evil machinations of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and his attempt to dislodge the Tokugawa shogun. The story illustrates how a continuous protection of the bakufu and its loyal servants was confidently to be expected from the god Toshogu-daigongen, and how this expectancy was widespread to suggest itself as a useful ploy for introducing a work of popular literature dating from the Shotoku period. The Toshogu-daigongen is a divine power on par with the other gods and Buddhas, and when he cannot help, the help of the others, too, will prove to be in vain. The chapter presents Tenkai's description of Ieyasu’s deification in terms of the traditional ryobu-shinto of the Tendai-sect, albeit with a few twists: Ieyasu is an avatar of a Buddha, and this incarnation has been made possible through the vows of a (spurious) ancestor to Sanno-gongen, a secret teaching of the Tendai-sect and the merit accumulated during previous existences.
