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THE JOURNAL

OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF

BUDDHIST STUDIES

E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F

Roger Jackson

Depl.

of Religion

Carleton College

Northfield, MN 55057

E D I T O R S

Peter

N.

Gregory

University

of Illinois

Vrbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA

Alexander W. M acdonald

Universitede Paris X

Nanterre, France

Steven

Collins

Concordia

University

Montreal, Canada

Ernst Steinkellner

University of Vienna

Wien, Austria

Jikido Takasaki

University

of Tokyo

Tokyo,Japan

Robert Thurman

Amherst College

Amherst,

Massachusetts,

USA

Volume 12

1989

Number 1

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CONTENTS

I . ARTICLES

1. H od gso n's Blind Alley? O n th e So-called Schools of

Nepalese Buddhism by David N. Gellner 7

2.

Tr uth , Contradict ion and Ha rm on y in Medieval Ja pa n:

Empero r Hanazono (1297-1348) and Buddh i sm

by Andrew Goble

21

3.

T h e Categories of

T'i, Hsiang,

and

Yung:

Evidence that

Pa ramar tha Composed t he

Awakening of Faith by

William H. Grosnick

65

4.

Asariga 's U nd ers ta nd ing of M adhyam ika: Notes on the

Shung-chung- lun by

John P. Keenan

93

5.

Mahayana

Vratas

in New ar Budd hism

by Todd L. Lewis

109

6. T h e Kathav at thu Niyama Debates

by James P McDermott

139

II. S H O R T P A P E R S

1. A Verse from the Bhadracaripranidhdna in a 10th C en tury

Inscription found at Nalanda

by

Gregory

Schopen

149

2.

A Note on the O pen ing Formula of Buddhis t

Sutras

by

Jonathan A. Silk

158

I I I .

BOOK REVIEWS

1. Die Frau imfriihen Buddhismus, by Renata Pitzer-Reyl

(Vijitha Rajapakse) 165

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Alayavijndna: On the Origin and the Early Development of a

Central Concept of Yogacara Philosophy by Iambert

Schmithausen

(Paul J. Griffiths) 170

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

178

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Truth, Contradict ion and Harmony in

Medieval Ja p an : Em pero r H anazo no

(1297-1348) and Buddhism

by Andrew Goble

I. Introduction

The th i r teenth century wi tnessed an explos ion of Buddhis t

thought that ar t icula ted two qui te dis t inct phi losophical ap

proaches. One, represented by the two schools of Zen (Rinzai

and Soto) , s t ressed self -discipl ine and the quest for enl ighten

ment ; the o ther , r epresented by var ious popula r sec ts (Pure

Land, True Pure Land, Lotus Sec t , /* or T imely) a r t icula ted the

phi losophy of sa lva t ion through exte rna l grace .

1

Both of these

deve lopments represented a move outs ide of the f ramework

within which the t radi t ional schools , with their enormous sacral

and secula r inf luence , had conta ined these phi losophies as sub

s id ia ry cur rents wi th in the i r own teaching t radi t ions . Nonethe

less,

the "o lder B ud dh ism " (as it is of ten referre d to) , par t icular ly

that of the Tendai school centered a t Enryakuj i on Mt. Hiei ,

actual ly wea the red the assaul t ra th er well . T ru e , Enryakuj i ' s

defense of i ts posi t ion was sometimes conducted in the basest

secula r te rms ( the desecra t ion of Honen ' s tomb and the a t tempt

to d ismember the body and throw the p ieces in to the Kamo

River be ing perhaps the most graphic example) ; but the temple

complex as a center of theory managed to mainta in i ts overal l

eclect ic ism and cont inued to exercise a s t rong inf luence as a

viable and integral par t of the phi losophical world. In other-

words , Kam akura Bu ddh i sm was no t mono pol i zed by the new er

schools which have t radi t ional ly drawn the a t tent ion of western

scholars.

2

T h e ph i losophica l wor ld of med ieva l Ja p an (here the 12 th

21

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22

JIAB SV OL . 12 NO . 1

through 16th centur ies , though o ther per iodiza t ions are poss i

ble) was a rich and multifaceted one. In the political and ethical

rea lms Chinese though t con t inued to exe rc i se an ex t remely

s t rong in f luence ; "na t ive" Sh in to though t exper ienced a s t rong

resurg ence ; nu m ero us s t reams of B udd h ism (as no ted) were in

full flow; and in addition there were several widely acknow

ledged "cultural" concepts— mappd, the age o f deg ene ra t ion ;

mujo, t h e id e a o f im p e rm a n e n c e ; a n d

michi,

the idea and practice

of following a par t icu lar path t h ro u g h wh ich is revealed univ er

sa l t ru ths and unders tanding—which could eas i ly take on l ives

of their own (this is particularly evident in literature). It is pos

sible , for heurist ic purposes, to regard each element on i ts own,

but i t is evident that , even should we come across dissonance

and contradic t ion among any of these , they were regarded by

medieval Japanese as coexis t ing without inherent contradic t ion

since i t was genera l ly assumed tha t each represented an equal ly

val id approach to the t ru ths of the world which could be ap

prehended by humans in the i r re la t iv i ty .

While the subtle interweaving of al l of these elements in

the medieval mind provides immense in te l lec tua l fasc ina t ion ,

the re s till rema ins th e quest ion of ju s t how peo ple w ould ap

p rehend and incorpora te a p le thora o f a l t e rna t ives . The Bud

dhist world provided a mult ipl ici ty of choice; but how would

one respond to this when seeking to discover the essence of

Buddha 's teaching and how would one apply these to one ' s own

beliefs? In contrast to this observation, we might also note that

for most peop le th is may not have been an in te llec tua l ly de m an d

ing problem: those outside of the educated el i te were essential ly

unaware of the varying subt le t ies of doctr ine ; the ar is tocracy

combined, according to abi l i ty and preference , a mixture of

ceremony, esoteric r i tual , s tudy, and Amidist fai th with some

facil i ty in order to confront existential rel igious matters; and i t

is certainly evident that many clerics, even if they studied widely,

d id not advance the ir comprehension of doctr ine too far beyond

the parameters of the teaching t radi t ion in which they were

tra ined , a s ta te of a f fa i rs not enhanced with the emergence of

the new schools which, given the strong tradit ion of factionalism

an d res t r ic tion on the d issem inat ion of kno wled ge which charac

ter ized Japanese in te l lec tua l l i fe , served to res t r ic t communica

t ion and discussion even further .

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EMPEROR HANAZO NO AND BUDDHISM 23

O n t he oth er h an d, i t is evid ent th at the majori ty of th e

seminal re l igious f igures of the 13th and 14th centuries (Honen,

Shinran, Nichiren, Dogen, Muso Soseki, to name a few) had a l l

rece ived extens ive textua l t ra in ing—important ly , in the Tenda i

t radi t ion—from which they had been moved to pursue or em

phasize specif ic e lements of the wider corpus in response to

what they separate ly defined as the major re l igious and

philosophical concerns of their age. However, while the writ ings

of these f igures may be s tudied in an effort to understand the

deve lopment of the i r thought , the c r ises or turning points in

their growth, there are very few sources available to help us

unders tand how educa ted individua ls incorpora ted, re jec ted or

modified the re l igious and philosophical heri tage to which they

were he ir . This i s unfor tuna te s ince , among other th ings , i t

prevents a fu l l unders tanding of the ac tua l manner in which

Buddhis t thought came, through individua l minds , to exerc ise

i ts undisputed and enormous inf luence on medieva l Japan. I t

is possible to recreate these influences through an examination

of extant materia ls , and some recent original and creative work

in this area has provided some idea of both the "f inger" and

the "moon" .

3

What I propose to do in this paper is to take some

pre l im inary s teps in a com ple m enta ry a rea ; tha t is , exa m ine the

response to Buddhism—how i t came to be s tudied, what texts

were engaged, what was unders tood f rom those texts , and what

were some result ing inte l lectual acquisi t ions—of an art icula te

inte l lectual with a deep philosophical interest who is not re

garded as a th inker

per se,

but whose activi t ies lef t an enduring

legacy on medieva l cu l tu re , emperor Hanazono (1297-1348) .

/ / . Hana zono and H is Quest

Hanazono 's l i fe spanned a per iod of momentous in te l lec

tual, political and social changes which in many areas served as

the cata layst for the high point of the medieval age. ' He acceded

to the Im per ia l rank in 1308, an d rem ain ed em pe ro r unt il 1318

when he was forced to " transfer sovereignty" because of a major

succession dispute then wracking the Imperia l family. In the

last th re e dec ad es of his life h e play ed a m ajor r ole in th e cu ltu ral

and l i terary spheres as he sought answers to pressing exis tentia l

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24

J IABSVOL.

12

NO. 1

an d e th ica l ques t io ns . His cont r ibu t ion s in these areas we re sem

inal . He was one of the few l i terary f igures of the fourteenth

century to react to social changes and seek to produce a new

poet ic form tha t would encompoass those changes , and thereby

attempt to retain for the ar is tocracy i ts leadership in the cul tural

realm; his act ive patronage of one s tream of Rinzai Zen Bud

dh ism , the Oto ka n school , played a m ajor role in i ts ear ly gro w th,

an d t hu s con t r ibu ted to its la te r em erg en ce as the lead ing Rinzai

school; and i t is to Hanazono that we owe the ar t iculat ion of

what has come to be seen as the prevai l ing concept of medieval

sovereignty.

5

Hanazono, un l ike o ther medieval f igures whose

contr ibut ions to the per iod can be more readily identif ied, did

not produce (as far as we are aware) a corpus of l i terary or

re l ig ious wr i t ings , o r someth ing tha t could be regarded as a

seminal work . However , he was a ta len ted , wel l -connected and

prol if ic poet ; as we know, this was an area of endeavor in

m edieval Ja p a n in which th e l i terary an d the rel igious we re

inextrica bly b ou nd ." H e has also left us a fascina ting dia ry

( 1 3 1 1 -

1332),

7

a text that is one of the most complete sources avai lable

for the s tudy of the philosophical and psychological develop

m en t of an ind ividua l pr i or to th e 16th cen tury . I t is a lso on e

of the pr ime cu l tura l and h is tor ica l documents of the en t i re

medieval age .

Ha nazo no ' s s ta tus a s em pe ro r ( and ex -em pero r ) enab led

him to establish contact with almost all traditions, schools of

thought , and wi th a wide var ie ty of mas ters , teachers and men

tors tha t was probably wi thout para l le l . The assumpt ions under

lying the acquis i t ion and transmiss ion of knowledge—that i t

ought to be secret , res tr icted and res tr ict ive, and place s tress

up on h e red i t a ry p re roga t ives to tha t know ledge— m ean t tha t

most people could become direct ly famil iar with only par ts of

the i r cu l tura l her i tage . By contras t , Hanazono was one of the

few med ieval Ja p an es e with vir tual ly un res tr ic ted access , sho uld

he choose to exerc ise tha t prerogat ive , to a lmos t the en t i re cor

pus of knowledge tha t compr ised h is in te l lec tua l her i tage .

Hanazono took fu l l advantage of th is oppor tuni ty . In seeking ,

in essence , a key to und er s ta nd h imsel f an d th e wor ld tha t w ould

provide him with a sure guide as he passed through l i fe ,

Hanazono read extensively (over 100 separate works) in

Ja pa ne se an d Chine se h istor ica l an d l ite rary tex ts an d in Chin ese

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EMPEROR HANAZONO ND BUDDHISM 5

and Buddhis t ph i losophica l works . He pursued more than one

area a t a t ime , and was thus s imul taneous ly and cons tant ly sub

jec t to a var ie ty of informat ion, t radi t ions and in te rpre ta t ions .

I have gone into aspects of this e lsewhere ,

8

but i t ought to be

borne in mind tha t Buddhism was not the only pa th he took in

order to d iscover e te rna l ly va l id t ru ths . Never the less , Buddhism

was never anything but centra l to h is ques t .

More than 40 of the over 100 identif iable works that were

read by H an az on o were B ud dh is t ones .* T o n am e ju s t a few,

he pe r us e d the Dainichi kyo (Great Sun Sutra), th e Hoke kyo (The

Lotus Sutra),

th e

Saishoo kyo (Sutra of

the

Golden Light),

th e

Shin

kyo (Heart Sutra),

the works of Kukai, Chih-i 's

Mo-ho-chih-kuanl

Maka shikan (Great Calming and Contemplation),

th e

Hekiganroku

(Blue Cliff Record),

th e

Chiatai Puteng lu (Chiatai Record of the

Universal Lamps), th e Shosan Jodd kyo (Sutra in Praise of the Pure

Land), th e

Amida kyo (Amitdbha Sutra),

H o n e n ' s

Senjaku [hongan

nembutsu] shu

Collection

of

Passages [on

the Original

Vow

of

Amida]),

and works on Sanskr i t and Chinese Buddhis t t e rmino logy . Th is

is not an unimpressive l is t . The inclusion of both the c lassics of

J a pa ne s e Budd h i s m a nd m or e r e c e n t , e ve n c on te m por a r y ,

works sugges t tha t h is s tudy was dy nam ic ra th er than a rca ne .

But as wil l become evident, not a l l of the texts which he read

were to exe r t an equa l inf luence on him . U p to a po int of course

this is wh at we wo uld expec t w hen co ns id er ing th e gen era l p roc

ess of individua l in te l lec tua l deve lopment . In addi t ion to th is ,

how ever , in Han azo no 's case th ere is an extra po int to cons ider ;

namely, the fact that as a member of the Imperia l family i t was

incumbent upon him to become normat ive ly famil ia r wi th cer

ta in bas ic texts , and the cumula t ive , unconsc ious ly re inforc ing,

inf luence exer ted by such wri t ings needs to be ba lanced by the

more consc ious inf luence tha t der ived f rom texts tha t Hanazono

chose to s tudy for h is own persona l edif ica t ion and enl ighten

ment . In shor t , the re were d i spa ra te purposes beh ind

Hanazono ' s s tudy . Th is a l so meant tha t Hanazono pursued sev

era l in te l lec tua l s t reams a t one and the same t ime , an ongoing

dia logu e in which he was cons tan t r e -eva lua t ing h i s un de rs ta nd

ing and his progress . As va luable and na tura l as th is was to

Hanazono , we wi l l pursue h i s encounte r wi th Buddhism f rom

a more heur is t ic perspec t ive .

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26

JIABSVOL. 12 NO . 1

/ / / . The Early Period

H an az on o began form al s tudy of Bu dd hism in 1 313, a t the

age of 16, w hen he rece ived ins t ruc t ion in Sh ingo n do ct r ine

and on

sutras

such as the

Jizo hongan kyo (The Sutra of the Original

Vow of Ksitigarbha).

w

I t is a lso from this pe rio d that H an az on o

ini t ia ted the dai ly pract ices for amassing meri t that he was to

pursue di l igent ly for the rest of his l i fe . Every morning (except

when he was sick) he would, before eating any fish (that is,

animal f lesh), perform his devot ions, which consisted of reading

sutras

an d en ga gin g in ch an t ing and th e rec i ta tion of m an t ras ;

and when he inadvertent ly ate f ish he would abstain from read

ing the

sutras.

" For the f i rst decade or so he skip-read

(tendoku)

th e

Lotus Sutra

and the

Saishookyo,

and then in the th i rd month

of 1322 he t ransferred his at tent i t ion to the

Vimalaklrti (Yuima)

a n d

iMnkdvatdra (Ryoga) sutras

because , as he noted , he wanted

to t ry and read the en t i re corpus

(issaikyo)

o f Budd h i sm.

1 2

In

addi t ion to these speci fic prac tices , th ro u gh o ut h is life H an az on o

par t ic ipa ted in the re l ig ious observances and events tha t were

a customary par t of the ceremonia l l i fe of the Imperia l sphere ,

such as readings and lectures on specified sutras (notably the

Saishookyo),

lecture s on variou s aspects of the Law, de ba tes be

tween representat ives of different schools, and exposi t ions by

members of part icular schools. '* While i t i s not clear precisely

what Hanazono (or anyone e l se for tha t mat ter) may have incor

pora ted through th is process , h i s occasional record of the ques

t ions addressed gives us some idea of his concerns. Accordingly,

we can a t the minimum assume tha t poin ts of doct r ine were in

this way made famil iar to him, as would have been the bel ief

tha t Buddhism was in tegra l to the cont inuing exis tence of both

the pol i ty and the nat ion.

T h ro u g h 1318 Ha nazo no ' s con tac t w i th Bu ddh i sm followed

th is s ta nd ard pa th : no excep t ional t ra in ing , no par t icu lar inkl ing

of a des i re to inqui re more deeply in to under ly ing doct r ine , and

no recorded contact with the leading figures of the rel igious

wo rld . H an az on o was, a f te r a l l, qu i te you ng , an d as E m pe ro r

had h is days f i l l ed wi th the demands of pro tocol and ceremony

that usual ly so exhausted sovereigns that they were only too

glad to abdica te and enter in to a fu l f i l l ing re t i rement . Indeed ,

as wi th most young emperors , Hanazono was rare ly , i f ever ,

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EMPEROR HANAZONO

AND

BUDDHISM 27

consulted on decisions that directly affected his l i fe . Normally

th is was not of major import . However , Hanazono l ived in tur

bulent t imes , and h is per iod in the Imper ia l rank was bese t wi th

en tang lements and d i ssens ion—with in Hanazono ' s J imyo- in

branch of the Imper ia l family , be tween tha t branch and the

Daikakuj i branch of Go-Uda and Go-Daigo, be tween both

branches and the heredi tary nobi l i ty , and be tween the Court

a n d th e Ka ma k u ra

bakufu

— that w ent far be yo nd the ra ng e of

normal pol i t ica l compet i t ion , and were u l t imate ly to prove

epochal . I t cannot have been a par t icu lar ly enjoyable per iod for

the sensi t ive and re t i r ing Hanazono, and the t ra in of events

which culm ina ted in his forced abd ication in 1318 w ere, des pite

his efforts to convince himself otherwise, c learly quite trau

matic.

14

His d iary an d som e of h is poetry im m edia te ly there af ter

indica te tha t he was bese t by a pronounced mood of pess imism

in the depths of which he sought despera te ly to def ine h is own

exis tence . Some measure of h is mood may be ga ined f rom the

following entry from his diary. '

r>

Last night my beri-beri broke out once again and today it

became increasingly worse . . . Even though I have been taking

treatment for the past two or three years, I have not yet noticed

that it has been doing any good. For many years I have been

afflicted by illness; certainly there is much illness in my body.

By nature I am retiring. Though from when I was a young child

I have much desired to retire from the world

1

have not yet been

able to accomplish that which is pent up in my breast. What

could compare to this for the depth of disappointment? My vit

ality is exceedingly weak. Since I think that this body will have

but a short life, in my heart I think that I will study the

Dharma,

yet my actions and my hea rt are at odds

.

. . Nevertheless it would

not do to suddenly flee the world. My grieving at the depth of

my foolish nature knows no limit. Certainly with the floating

existence of evanescence and transience, who lives as long as the

pine or the camellia? Even a fish in insufficient water has this

impressed upon its liver. Even though my desire to leave lay life

deepens with the years, futilely I am drawn into the affairs of

the world. Though feelings of shame and remorse arise of them

selves, these feelings are not enough to accomplish this [goal].

If my faith was deep, how would worldly matters weary me? It

is said that famous retirees from the world whose faith cannot

be ground down are to be found in the morning markets. [But]

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28

JIABSV OL . 12 NO . 1

for someone stupid like myself my resolve is too shallow and

pitiful. The dust of the world easily bothers me. Often, because

I am ill, I consider fleeing the world, yet my resolve is not up to

this. How saddening T he B uddhas and H eaven with their clear

vision must wonder what it is that I want to do. The day ends

and I have aimlessly accomplished nothing. I relate what is pent

up in my heart.

C lear ly , Han azo no was a t roub led y ou ng m an lack ing m uch

confidence in himself. However , the c i rcumstances of h is abdi

ca t ion an d h is new s ta tus as ex -em pe ro r prov ided h im wi th bo th

the t ime and the p redi lec t ion to de lve in to the bro ad er que s t ions

of l ife. In view of Hanazono's state of mind it comes as no

surpr ise perhaps tha t he would seek refuge in the teachings of

the Buddha, and that he would be receptive to the possibl i ty

tha t h is pro blem s could be so lved by som eth ing ou ts ide himself.

Just af ter New Year of 1319 the gloom began to l i f t :

16

Today at daybreak I had an auspicious dream that I shall

achieve rebirth

djo)

[in the Pure Land]. This is the most funda

mental desire in my heart. On two occasions in previous years I

have had this felicitous dream. And now I have had it yet again.

But, does this m ean that the time is near? My feelings of joy are

without limit. From this day I shall in particular think of the

future life (gose). This dream I dare not speak about with others,

since my joy is so g reat.

As Hanazono notes, this was not the f i rs t t ime he had had

int imations of such a favorable future.

1 7

But why was it so signif

icant? On one level educated Japanese subscr ibed to the Bud

dhis t (and Chinese) not ion tha t the d is t inc t ion be tween "rea l"

an d "u nre a l" was an am big uo us o ne ; tha t is , both w ere equal ly

rea l (or unrea l ) . Accordingly , dreams provided ent i re ly va l id

guides to contac t wi th the non-phenomenal wor ld , and to the

order ing of one 's l i fe . Dreams could provide the ra t ionale or

impetus for major changes in one 's l i fecourse , and indeed rec

ords of the dreams of major f igures were considered to be quite

profound tex t s .

18

T h u s , qui te ap ar t from his ow n par t icula r s ta te

of mind, it was entirely natural for Hanazono to give this dream

(and o th ers we will en co un ter ) c red en ce . An d the fo llowing day,

having decided to s tudy some " inner texts" (naiten), he s tar ted

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EMPEROR HA NAZON O

AND

BUDDHISM 29

reading one of the mos t impor tan t Amidis t works , Genshin ' s

Ojydshu (Essentials of Rebirth).

19

Over the course of the next n ine months Hanazono ac

quainted himself with this text , possibly with others as well , and

ap pa ren t ly discussed A midis t bel iefs wi th repres entat ive s of that

sect . As at tractive as the promise of salvation must have been,

Hanazono became qui te d i s turbed by the broader impl ica t ions

of Am idis t th ou gh t for the Ja pa ne se inte l lectual an d cu l tural

tradit ion: i t was, he realized, unashamedly exclusive in i ts ap

proach to t ruth . His react ion to this provides considerable in

sight; it also sugg ests th at his basic at t i tu de tow ards th e diversi ty

of Bu ddh is t thou gh t , an d the imp or tan ce of in te l lec tua l enga ge

ment of i t s doctr ines , had been formed by this t ime:

T h e nembutsu sect which is currently popular is called the

Ikko senshu. Solely they have abolished all other practices and

their only one is the nembutsu. Even though the principle of

reliance upon external salvation is certainly a most appropriate

one, [they hold that] teachings and practices of the Greater and

Smaller vehicles, their exp edien t an d their secret teachings

(gon-

kyo mitsukyo), their exoteric and the esoteric teachings, are all

useless and should be discarded. How sad How sad For this

reason I am desirous of restoring both sects of Tenda i and Shin-

gon . How ever, I have not yet been able to achieve the med itation

practices of the five-fold meditation goso) or the three esoteric

practices {sanmitsultri-guhya), nor have I yet developed the power

for wisdom and concentration [necessary] to pursue the middle

path of focused intellect

shikari chudo no chijo

ryoku). C onsequently

for the present I shall make the nembutsu my activity for salvation.

Meeting with the Amida I shall carry out the depths of the Law.

But I will not discard training and devotion entirely, and should

I become able to contemplate undistractedly I shall discard the

nembutsu.

T h u s ,

whi le Amidism provided one answer to the problems

of existence, i t did so at the cost of doing violence to a much

m o r e f u n d a m e n t a l belief, namely, that var ious teachings were

equal ly valid man ifes ta t ions of the B ud dh a 's t ru th s , an d to re ject

this no tion was, in effect, to invalida te Ja p a n 's en tire intel lectual

heritage. Accordingly, Amidism could in this context only be

regarded as a t emporary sp i r i tua l and in te l lec tua l p rop; and

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3

J IABSVOL. 12 NO . 1

Hanazono ' s dec i s ion , in b roader t e rms , to l imi t the immedia te

possibl i ty of his own salvat ion marked the f i rs t major turning

point in h is in te l lectual development . This i s not to say that

Hanazono r e j ec t ed nembutsu ent i re ly for , as might be expected

from Hanazono 's d ispos i t ion to see value in any teaching or

school of thought , he s t i l l cons idered

nembutsu

doc t r ine wor thy

of s tudy. He a lso appears to have bel ieved that there had to be

s ome t h i ng mor e t o

nembutsu

t han he had been l ed to u nd e r s t an d ,

and h e s us pe nde d j u dg em en t wh il e he l ea r ned m or e abo u t t he

unde r l y i ng doc t r i ne .

To th i s end he began ins t ruc t ion under the p r ies t Nyoku ,

wi t h whom he r ead Honen ' s

Senjakushu,

and whose l ea rn ing he

came to regard so highly that he fel t that the sect might not

weather his death successful ly.

21

Over the year s he con t inued

to a t tend lectures on Amidis t texts such as the

Kammuryojukyo

(Sutra of Meditation on Amida B uddha),

and main ta ined an ac t ive

interes t in debates a t cour t ( some of which las ted two or three

days) a t which Amidis t teaching was discussed in some depth

by people who were ful ly versed in doctr ine.

2 2

(Parenthet ical ly ,

one of the more in teres t ing answers in one debate was that

wom en who pe r f o r m ed t he i r devo t ions shugyo) wo uld be r eb orn

at the highest of the nine levels of the Pure Land . )

2 3

H a n a z o n o

meanwhi le con t inued h i s Amidi s t s tud ies under the tu te lage of

Hondo, who would exp la in bo th eso te r i c and exote r i c aspec t s

of Amidism, and on one occas ion spent four consecut ive days

exp l a i n i ng Pu r e L and

manfala

to him.

2 4

As a resul t of this s tu dy ,

by mid-1322 Hanazono fe l t tha t he now had a good grasp of

the ful l depth of

nembutsu

teaching. In a d iary ent ry f rom the

f i f th month of that year Hanazono notes that nembutsu t each i ng

is of s ignif icance, that in i ts profoundest teachings i t was not al l

tha t d i f f e ren t f rom the mains t ream of Mahayana thought , and

tha t the m ain pr ob lem was th at it is u nd er sto od no t in i ts totali ty

but in a "shal low and abbreviated form" by "base and s tupid

people . "

2 5

Still, study of

nembutsu

appears not to have sat i s f ied

Hanazono ' s ques t fo r an unders tand ing of the t ru ths o f Bud

dhi sm. No doubt h i s ea r l i e r skep t i c i sm about the b roader va lue

of the teachings contr ibuted to th is ; but in addi t ion he had a lso

in ear ly 1319 determined to pursue ins t ruct ion in the esoter ic

teach ings o f Sh ingon and Tenda i .

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EMPEROR HAN AZON O AND BUDDHISM 31

IV. The Esoteric Path

Late in the f i rs t month of 1319 Hanazono received a visi t

f rom the pr iest J ig en , des t ined to beco m e on e of H ana zo no 's

pr ime tu tors over the years , who happend to have wi th h im the

Shittanji ki, a guide to the Sanskri t ic Shittan (Siddham) a lphabe t

used in esoter ic Buddhism. This marked the beginning of

Hanazono 's s tudy of the esoter ic , and one month la ter the two

spen t severa l days rea din g th ro ug h the text whi le J ig en d is

coursed on the e lements of Sanskr i t . They then moved on to

th e

Inkyo,

a guide to the pronuncia t ion of Chinese which had

been br ou gh t to Ja p a n only a cen tury ear lie r.

2 6

H a n a z o n o a p

pears no t to have s tud ied Sanskr i t /w

se

at any stag e but to have

l imi ted h is inquiry to Sanskr i t te rminology tha t he encountered

in the course of his s tudy, and over the years Hanazono was to

seek Jig en 's advice, or be direc ted to add it iona l releva nt g uid es,

on matters Sanskri t ic whenever he fel t the need.

2 7

In this

H an az on o was no d i ffe ren t f rom any o th e r s tuden t o f B udd hism

in Ja p a n , s ince the texts used w ere those in Chin ese t rans la t ion .

(I here except works, pr imari ly in the Pure Land schools , wri t ten

in Ja p an for a Ja pa ne se po pu lar a udie nce ) . S till, no ser ious

student could afford not to recognize at least some Sanskri t .

However , Hanazono 's in teres t in " res tor ing both schools of

Tendai and Shingon" was one tha t he took qui te ser ious ly . To

that end he fel t i t incumbent upon himself to become famil iar

wi th a r ide range of wr i t ings . Thus we f ind Hanazono acquir ing

(courtesy of a priest from the Shingon headquarters of Mt.

Koya) a number of Kukai 's major wri t ings, such as the Hizo

hoyaku ron (The

Precious Key to

the

Secret

Treasury) and the Sokushin

jobutsu gi (Attaining E nlightenment in This Very Existence).

2

* W e

also f ind him having occasional contact with priests who could

explain to him the teachings of the Sanron sect ,

2

' ' which was

somewhat unusual s ince this sect had died out as a major force

in the phi loso phica t wor ld som e 150 years ear l ie r an d ha d the re

after sought to preserve i tself by advocating a melding of Sanron

and Shingon teaching.™ What Hanazono gained f rom these

effor ts is, un for tu nate ly , not app ar en t , in par t since they a pp ea r

not to have been cent ra l to h is endeavors . Of more impor t was

his resolve to study Chih-i 's

Maka shikan,

o r

Great Calming and

Contemplation, the work most cent ra l to an unders tanding of

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32

J IABSVOL.

12

NO . 1

Te n d a i d o c t r in e .

S l

Hanazono 's dec is ion in the four th month of 1319 to s tudy

th e

Maka shikan

received a very warm response from the aged

Te n d a i p r i e s t Ch u g e n .

3 2

Chugen 's dea th a shor t whi le la ter

caused a s l ight in terrupt ion to the program, but by the end of

the n in th m on th H an azo no had begu n hi s s tudy wi th C hu gen ' s

d isc ip le Chusei . The Firs t recorded meet ing be tween the two

involved (unspecif ied) major poin ts of Tendai teachings and

the pr inc ip le of regarding the myriad Dharma with clear in tellect.

The meet ing was a successfu l one for Hanazono, for Chusei

assu red h im th a t wha t he (H anazo no) reg a rd ed as the p r inc ip le

accorded fu l ly wi th Chugen 's comment tha t "with respect to the

fundamentals of the texts of the Law, firstly distance [yourself]

f rom a t tachment , then p rac t ice the idea tha t phenomena a re

not real".™ It was an auspicious start, and for the next three

years Hanazono appears to have looked towards Chuse i , whom

he regarded as the most ta lented of the younger genera t ion of

pr ies ts an d wh ose exposi t ions on th e

Dharma

he cons ide red m ar

ve lous , for s up p or t /

4

Yet Hanazono did not f ind i t easy to work on the

Maka

shikan.

Even though on occas ion he would "without car ing

w he th er i t is day or nig ht" reflect on the

Dharma

and read the

text , he was s t i l l unable to obta in permiss ion f rom ex-emperor

Go-Fush im i (12 88-1 336 ) , h is e lde r b ro th e r and head o f the

Jimyo-in branch of the Imperial family, to lead a l ife of ret ire

ment, making him pessimist ic that he would ever get r id of the

a t tachments to the vu lga r wor ld tha t were imped ing h i s p rog

ress.

sft

In th is context i t became a l l the more important to h im

tha t his teac he rs be able to give him satisfactory a nsw ers. U nfor

tun ately , he starte d to find his con fiden ce m isplaced .

In the n in th month o f 1322 Hanazono asked Chuse i to

c lar i fy some poin ts tha t had been ra ised in recent debates . The

answers were less than clear , which led Hanazono to feel that

despi te Chusei ' s be ing a leading f igure , and not someone who

was untra ined , he had now begun to neglec t h is t ra in ing and

that his heart was no longer seeking the path i t ought. As

Hanazono recorded the ep isode :

M

As for the middle contemplation

chukan)

[of the threefold

contemplation,

sankan]

destroying fu ndam ental ignoranc e, I

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EMPEROR HAN AZONO

AND

BUDDHISM 33

asked and said "The import of Tendai is that three minds equiv

alent to one

isshin sankari)

is something which cannot be d eparte d

from for even one moment. But what of the term 'middle'?"

Chusei answered and said "From the beginning the import of

true teaching jitsukyo) [has been] thre e minds equivalent to on e.

But this question is something from distinct doctrine

(bekkyo).

I

though about this later, and nonetheless as to destroying funda

mental ignorance or not, on what can there be any doubts? I

looked at this with the ability of true teaching, and this [answer]

is already [as much as saying] there are teachings w ithout peo ple.

If one holds that there are no people, how can one have the

destruction of fundam ental ignorance Th is is quite dubio us. At

some later date [I] must dispel this misconception {himo) . . .

I t should be noted that Chusei ' s observat ion was perhaps an

accurate one," but Hanazono 's d issat isfact ion was equal ly val id

since Chusei d id not answer his quest ion. Hanazono 's fol lowing

quest ion, about the meri t of wri t ten vows, met with an "exceed

ingly shallow" answ er, and left him with a feeling of co ns ide rab le

resen tment ; and even though he sugges ted tha t the unsa t i s fac-

tor iness of the exchange may have been due to Chusei ' s re lying

upon some secre t tex t (hitsuzo), a ra t iona le tha t H an az on o was

to suggest on at least one other similar occasion,

18

he could not

help but lament that th is was the way Buddhism was in recent

t imes.

(In fact Hanazono felt this way about many fields of

endeavor tha t he encoun te red ) .

4

"

Impor tan t ly , however , Hanazono d id no t be l ieve tha t the

problem lay with the texts, for the Law was itself efficacious

(and had ju s t p reven ted an ec lipse o f the m o on) . T o H an azo no ,

the tex ts and the t ru th they conta ined were more endur ing than

the prac t i t ioners themselves , and accord ing ly even in a degen

era te age such as th e pre se nt , in to which he ha d had the misfor

tune to be born ,

4 0

one must believe in it. In fact the Maka shikan

gave h im some confor t in th is regard : "The thoughts to which

it gives rise are truly wonderful. I t says in the text that the

e leva ted and the honored have e leva ted concent ra t ion , whi le

the base and the in fe r io r have in fe r io r concent ra t ion . How can

scholars of recent t imes not be base and infer ior?"

4 1

Fo r H an az o no i t was c lear ly an ar tic le of fai th tha t an un d er

s tan ding of the t ru th s of Bud dh ism could no t be rea l ized s imply

through tex ts , nor s imply th rough prac t ice , nor could one hope

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34

JIABSVOL. 12 NO. 1

to approach an unders tand ing by assuming tha t one ' s l i fe cou ld

be conducted without mindful at tent ion to the way in which

one's activity melded with a broader, ongoing process. I t is pos

sib le that Hanazono, as a sovereign, had some advantage over

the average person in coming to th is po in t , fo r Tendai thought

in part icular had devoted considerable at tent ion to the quest ion

of the relat ionship between the Dharma of the

LM,W

(buppo) and

the Dharm a of the King (obo), and to the mu tua lly in te rde pen de n t

nature, the essent ial uni ty , of the two elements .

1 2

Certain ly

Hanazono was famil iar with J ien ' s Jichin Kasho muso ki (Records

of a Dream),

the mos t recen t Jap an ese

locus classicus

on the ques

tion.

1

* How he might address these various quest ions is

suggested in an extended diary entry from 1323.

Hanazono was in formed tha t a schedu led ou t ing to copy

the Lotus Sutra, an act which was designed to amass meri t and

which, a t least as far as Hanazono was concerned, should not

be re ga rd ed as just so m eth ing to do , was to be cancel led on the

grounds that i t would have caused too much t rouble to people.

The Buddhis t ra t ionale pu t to Hanazono was tha t good deeds

consist in not causing t rouble to the populace; that the t ru th of

Buddhism cannot be sought in external objects (such as copying

sutras); tha t to govern the s ta te and nur tu re the peop le i s the

peni tence of the sovereign and enl ightened lay person; that the

practicing of exoteric Buddhist services did not accord with the

principle of things; and that i t was an evil habit of recent t imes

to conduct Buddhist activit ies which lay outside the sovereign 's

dharma. I f H an az on o had been m ore cyn ical he migh t have no ted

that tho se in ch arg e of the sched ul in g ju st could not be b oth er ed

travell ing all day in order to copy a sutra. However , s ince the

matter had been rat ional ized in Buddhist terms, he fel t com

pel led to quest ion the explanat ion he had been given. And,

since he had only come into contact with the Ijotus Sutra in any

significant way ju st over ha lf a year earlier,

44

the occasion also

p rov ided H an az on o with the opp o r tun i ty to dem ons t ra t e ( a t

least to himself) his own progress with the text. Yet again he

rea l ized tha t a fu l l unders tand ing o f Buddhism had escaped

those a round h im.

45

As for myself, from the outset I have not sought the

Dharma

outside of my heart, [yet] I wholly cannot wait for the copying

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E M P E R O R H A N A Z O N O A N D B U D D H I S M 3 5

of the iMus Sutra. Through the text wri t ten out in the copying

of the

Lotus Sutra

one be c om e s a wa r e o f one ' s Buddha - na t u r e ,

an d th ro ug h this achieves majestic pen an ce . This is the g rea t

impor t o f medi t a t ion upon the

Lo tus Sutra.

A ccordingly , na tura l ly

and wi thout negl igence when one plans exoter ic prac t ices , one

na tura l ly summons fa i th in the inhe rency of the Buddha-na ture .

Th i s fu r the r is the usual me th od of the o rd ina ry pe rso n . T h u s

to hold tha t there i s no Buddha Dharma outs ide of the mind and

[on that grounds] not pract ice devotions, then at what t ime wil l

the Bu dd ha -n a tu re ap pea r? Th i s is confusion ab out p r io r r igh t s

and wrongs, and a t the same t ime i t does not inc l ine towards

el im ina t ing false disc rim inat io n. W ha t this m ea ns is f irst ly no t

to make burdens fo r people and [on ly then] pe r form devot ions ;

and secondly i f one wishes to encourage the mind of negl igence

wri te up the method of the way and use i t as a companion.

Certainly to state that i t is a bother to people and [ thus] not

perform prac t ices , th is , fur ther , re turns to the process of the

causa t ion of negl igence . Grea t inconvenience , even though the

deed is one which is a root of meri t

{zenkon),

i s unacceptable .

[But] where minor mat ters a re concerned, i f one a t ta ins grea t

prof i t then what m at ter i s it? Th is is so m ethin g w her e the

Dharma

and the law of the world are to be weighed very careful ly and,

on special occasions, decided. First and foremost , the secular law

and the t ru th o f Buddhi sm cannot be two sepa ra te th ings . The

Lotus Sutra states that "in both rul ing the world and discussing

medi t a t ion (jo/samadhi) a ll is pa t te r ne d on th e True T eac hin gs

(shobo). The import of th is i s par t icular ly something of which a

sovere ign should be cognizant .

H a n a z o n o g o e s o n , u s i n g a Z e n e x a m p l e (f r o m t h e Hekiganroku)

t o b u t t r e s s a T e n d a i p o s i t i o n o n t h e n e c e s si ty o f c o m b i n i n g

r e l i g i o u s w i t h e v e r y d a y p r a c t i c e , t o n o t e t h a t , a s B o d h i d h a r m a

h a d l o n g a g o i n f o r m e d E m p e r o r W u o f t h e L i a n g , a n d d e s p i t e

t h e be l i e f i n J a p a n i n it s e f f ic a c y , t h e r e is n o B u d d h i s t m e r i t i n

s i m p l y b u i l d i n g t e m p l e s ; r a t h e r o n e h a s t o f i r s t a c k n o w l e d g e

t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f B u d d h i s t p r a c t i c e .

T h e

Lotus Sutra

a s a n o b j e c t o f s t u d y w a s b r o u g h t t o

H a n a z o n o ' s a t t e n t i o n b y J i g e n , w h o h a d m a i n t a i n e d r e g u l a r

c o n t a c t w h i l e H a n a z o n o h a d b e e n p u r s u i n g h is i n s t r u c t i o n w i th

o t h e r t e a c h e r s . J i g e n w a s a v a i la b l e to t a lk g e n e r a l l y , t o a n s w e r

q u e s t i o n s a b o u t p o i n t s o f d o c t r i n e , a n d w h e n n e c e s s a r y to d i r e c t

h i m t o f u r t h e r t e x t s . I t w a s p e r h a p s a t J i g e n ' s s u g g e s t i o n t h a t

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36

JIABSV OL . 12 NO . 1

Hanazono a t t ended l ec tures dea l ing wi th a commentary to the

Dainichi kyo, th e Dainkhikyd sho, used in Shingon.

4 6

By late 1322

J igen ev iden t ly deemed Hanazono suf f i c ien t ly advanced tha t

he d r ew h i s a t t en t i on t o ano t he r commen t a r y , t he

Da inichikyd

gishaku, used in Tenda i ; and a month l a te r p rov ided h im wi th

the in t roductory por t ions of both th is sutra and of the Lotus

Sutra. ( It m ight a lso be no ted tha t Ha na zo no regu la r ly a t t e nd ed

Cour t l ec tures (Hokke hakko) on the Lotus Sutra and would con

t in ue to d o so in th e future) .

4 7

In o th er wo rds , p r io r to emb ark ing

upon s tudy of the ac tua l s c r ip tura l bas i s o f Tenda i , Hanazono

had spen t a per iod of p repara t ion s tudying commentar ies ( in

c lud ing the Maka shikan) that fami l iar ized him wi th the content

and s ignif icance of those scr iptures .

In l ight of the impor tance of the

Lotus Sutra,

i t is somewhat

surpr is ing that Hanazono makes only two references in his d iary

to his s tudy of tha t work. Yet he m ust have dev oted con s iderable

t ime to reading i t , for one of his only two wri t ings on Buddhist

texts deals with the Lotus Sutra. This work , the Commentary on

the Chapters of the Lotus (Hokke Honshaku)

is co m po sed of an

in t roduc t ion , and , fo r each of the 28 chap te r s , a comment o f

three to seven l ines on i ts meaning. I t is thus not a philosophical

work per se, bu t one des i gned t o i nd ica te wh a t H an azo no un de r

s tood to be the s ignif icance of the text , and to at tes t that the

unsurpassable wisdom of i t s contents makes i t ext remely val

uable . Hanazono 's in t roduct ion i s as fol lows:

48

This the Lotus is the basic heart of the Buddhas of the three

periods, the categories of existence of all beings. The five flavors

of milk, cream, and butter [curds, butter, and clarified butter]

take clarified butter and make it into wonderful medicine. The

three carts of shee p, deer and ox meet with a great carriage and

correspond to the complete vehicle. As to the meaning of the

innate ordinary stage, it indicates the palm of the hand as the

distant origin of one's lifespan. As to the truth of encompassing

three and returning to one, the correct explanation of skillful

devices is in the eye. Hearing this correct path, who dares breed

doubts? And those who now tread on the elevated traces of the

T a i peak, further they have lost the pa th; those who draw from

the remaining streams in thorny valleys further stagnate in the

m uddied watering holes of oxen. H ence even th oug h [they] wait

for the words to strike their eye they do not yet know that the

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EMPEROR H AN AZONO AND BUDDH ISM 37

meaning lies in their mind (kokoro). Or else, thinking that they

are renowned for their immense talents, large numbers have lost

the true route of Buddhahood. As for those with elevated schol

arly achievement, their attachment to sentience deepens more

and more. If one clothes oneself in medicine, illnesses multiply,

and here the wondrous techniques of the Bhaisajyaraja

bodhisattva

(Id)

are perplexed . How painful How sad I for a

long time have dyed my mind in the Tendai teachings and in

small measure have studied the extant works

(isho).

Even though

my nature is stupid and shallow, at least I know that the truth

of complete reality does not emerge in the sentient heijo) mind.

Truly, as to this, [I] do not fall into the doctrines that I get from

the various teachers, and accordingly it is sufficient to gladden

the mind [that exists] in the period of deg en erate law after extinc

tion metsugo

mappo).

T hus 1 note the essentials of each chapter,

and further compose clumsy praise which I add on the left. In

any event, those who speak do not know and those who know

do not speak. Simply, I dare not stir up transgressions tsumi) in

front of the masters.

Confident in the eff icacy of pract ice and s tudy, and of the

val id i ty of the teachings themselves , Hanazono cont inued his

pursui t of the esoter ic in al l i ts forms. An added dimension to

this was pro vid ed by his ini t iat ion in to the w orld of the

martflala.

As is well known, the mandala is central to esoteric ri tual,

and so i t was natural that Hanazono would received t ra ining in

this area, specifically in the Taizokai (Womb, Mat r ix ) and Kon-

gohai

( D i amond)

manfalas.™

T hi s t ra in ing was s l ight ly co m pli

cated (or en r ich ed ) by the fact that the Ja p an es e esoter ic t radi

t ion contained two major s t reams, one in Shingon ( the Tomitsu) ,

and one in Tendai (Taimi tsu) . In addi t ion, each s t ream was

fur ther d ivided in to two branches .™ Hanazono received in i t ia

t ion in to a t leas t three of these . In 1322 under the guidance of

Soki he was ini t iated into the dual marj^ala in te rp re ta t ion of the

Enchin (Chisho) branch of Taimi tsu; h is t ra ining under Soki

cont inued , though apparen t ly sporad ica l ly , bu t Hanazono was

permit ted to par t ic ipate in the chant ing of the most secret

dhdranl of the Miidera s t ream of Taimi tsu . Also in 1322,

Hanazono was ins t ruc ted in the in te rpre ta t ion of the Diamond

mav ala followed by the Ninnaji (Hirosawa) branch of Tom itsu.

Hanazono fel t that al l of this made him a vessel of the esoter ic

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38

JIABSVOL. 12 NO . 1

Dharma™

However , he does no t appear to have rega rded these

first two init iations as of sufficient consequence to elaborate

upon them when they occur red , bu t men t ions them in pass ing

when he received what he fel t was the more important third

ini t ia t ion from Jigen. I t was important not necessari ly because

of the con tent of the teaching , but becau se J ige n had b een in

frequent contac t and , though young, was "most assuredly a

vessel of the Dharma /'

2

I n m i d - 1 3 2 3 " H a n a z o n o c o m m e n c e d

the p repara to ry p rac t i ces

(kegyo)

re qu ire d to en te r th e f irst of

four stages (shido) which whe n com ple ted br in g the r ight to be

considered a master. We have l i t t le further information unt i l

nea r ly a yea r l a t e r when Hanazono commenced p repara t ion

(sui tably shortened in durat ion in considerat ion of his being a

Son of Heaven) for the second stage.

54

In the fol lowing years Jig en , as befo re, con t inu ed to guid e

H ana zon o fu r the r in e so te r ic s tudy . J igen in t roduc ed H ana zon o

to Tendai six-syllable dharani (such as those r elat in g to M anjusri

an d Avaloki tesvara [" thousand arm "]) , exp la in ing the i r p ur po se

and efficacy, and incidental ly providing Hanazono with the op

po rtu ni ty to see that s ince the m ind is fun dam enta l ly not self

and not other i t ought not be difficult to abide in

non-self;

J igen

a l so in t e rp re t ed Hanazono ' s d reams abou t Fugen and Kannon

appear ing as one body, and d i rec ted h im to works wri t ten by

his

Dharma

predecesso rs and those which conta ined " the essence

of the Lotus a n d Great Sun sutras and the essentials of the two

sects of Shingon and Tendai . "

M

Some idea of the nature of their

contact is suggested by the following diary entry:™

For a little while we discussed the

Dharma,

concerning the differ

ence between exoteric and esoteric. We discussed [the passage

in the Dainichi kyo dealing with the triple formula for wisdom

that] "the mind of enlightenment is the cause, its root lies in

grea t com pasion, and skillful m eans are the result." Consequen tly

the practices of exoteric teachings ar e to be transcen ded . We also

discussed the fact that current practitioners of Shingon do not

know the Truth. The import of attaining enlightenment in this

very existence has not yet touched their minds. Thus it is noted

in the original text [Dainichi kyo}] that the common and stupid

do not see the various heavens but gallop around like slaves in

a wealthy househould. Foolish priests practice the Dharma and

this must have [some] efficacy.

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EMPEROR HAN AZON O AND BUDDHISM 39

Hanazono's diary for the next few years is unfortunately

not extant , but seems that the re la t ionship between the two

beg an to d ro p off after 1326 ; cer tainly H an az on o's let ters to

Jigen in the late 1320's suggest that the contact was much less

f requent than Hanazono would have l iked . Undoubted ly th i s

was in pa rt rela ted to J ig en 's r ise in the rel igious hiera rchy an d

to his growing l inks to Go-Daigo, ei ther of which could have

made J igen less access ible to Hanazono." Nonetheless ,

Hanazono did not le t th is impede his progress , for he acted

up on J ige n ' s advice an d delved fur ther in to esoter ic tea ching .

From some t ime af ter 1325 unt i l ear ly 1329 Hanazono

studied esoter ic teachings under pr iests ful ly (and hereditar i ly)

versed in one of the exclusive Tendai esoter ic s treams, the Eshin

school l ineal ly descended from Genshin.™ How Hanazono f irs t

came in contact with the Eshin school and i ts then head Shinso,

and the frequency of the contact , is unknown; cer tainly i t could

not have been accidental , and J igen, the r i s ing Tendai s tar , may

well have faci l i tated the enterprise. Hanazono's contact with this

school came at a propit ious t ime, for i t was coincident with a

ch an ge in em ph as is in T en da i f rom scholas ticism to the do ct r ine

of or iginal en l ig ht en m en t w hich, in addi t ion to its phi losophical

inf luence on seminal rel igious f igures of the Kamakura period,

s tressed direct master- to-disciple esoter ic t ransmission (kuden,

or "oral hermeneut ics" ) of the t ru th , and in Hanazono 's day the

Eshin school was at the height of i ts fortunes. As in so many

"secret t radi t ions" the teachings were suff icient ly pr ized, and

some physical proof of the secret t radi t ion evidently considered

desirable, that the school did acquire a textual basis ( the Itchosho)

for its doc t r ines . H an az on o p rove d an ade pt pup i l , and in the

first m on th of 1329 de m on s t ra ted h is un de rs tan d in g by presen t

ing Shinso with what is his second textual work, the Oral Trans

mission of

the

Seven Gates to the Dharma (Shichi ka hom on kuketsu),

in con sequ enc e of which H an az on o received the seal of transm is

sion of the esoteric Dharma/'

9

T h e

Seven Gates to the Dharma,

as the ti t le implies, is com

prised of seven main sect ions, t i t led respect ively: "Three Views

in a S ing le Thought" ; "The Meaning of Focus ing One ' s Mind

on a S ing le Thought" ; "The Grea t Impor t o f Ca lming and Con

templa t ion" ; "The Deep Meaning of the Lotus (Hokke) ; " T h e

Meaning of the Land of Eternal ly Tranqui l Light" ; and "The

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4

J I A B S V O L . 1 2 N O . 1

L o t u s

(Renge)

C a u s e " ; p l u s a b r i e f p o s t s c r i p t . T h e l e n g t h i e s t

s e c t i o n , t h a t d e a l i n g w i t h c a l m i n g a n d c o n t e m p l a t i o n (shikan) is

o f p a r t i c u l a r i n t e r e s t , g i v e n H a n a z o n o ' s e a r l i e r s t u d y o f t h e

Maka shikan a n d t h e c e n t r a l i t y i n T e n d a i o f t h e c o n c e p t of shikan.

I t is a d d i t i o n a l l y n o t e w o r t h y b e c a u s e i n it H a n a z o n o e n c a p s u

l at es h is u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e p h i l o s o p h i c a l u n d e r p i n n i n g s o f

t h e w o r l d , o f n a t u r e , a n d o f h u m a n so c ie t y. T h e " G r e a t I m p o r t

o f C a l m i n g a n d C o n t e m p l a t i o n " is a s fo llo w s:'

5 0

This cannot be explained in words; in cannot be gauged by the

sent ien t consciousness . I t is som eth in g tha t c learly t ransc end s

[divisions of] doctr ine and meditat ion and that far surpasses de

bates of relat ive and absolute. I t does not look back on the past

and [nei ther] does i t look to the future. Consequently i t is said

that i t is impossible for i t to have breadth and impossible for i t

to have height . Hence, the mind of a s ing le thought i s beyond

speech and thus c lear . With in each thought calming and contem

plat ion manifests

itself.

However, is this the mind? And even so,

what are these thoug hts? A nd w hat is mani fes t? O ne doe s not

see the thou gh ts , and the m anifes t i s no t descr ibable . Even tho ug h

the words ha nd ed dow n f rom the pas t do not s top in thei r t races ,

they drop into logic and resemble giving r ise to wisdom and

understanding. In the great void i t gives bir th to clouds and mist ,

in the broad oceans it gives rise to waves and billows. But i t is

without a name. Is this the t rue core of objects? If a person asks

about calming and contemplat ion i t b locks up the ears and i s

gone. Even great teachers do not g ive explanat ions—but i s th is

what is spoken of? But even though thought does not reach i t

no r words a t t a in it, t h ro ug h inna te an d un fa thom ab le compas

sion it im pa rts non aris ing benefi t for sent ien t bein gs. T h e f lowers

of the mountains pass th rough spr ing and open the br i l l iance of

the myriad b ranch es , the leaves of the forest pass th r ou gh au tu m n

an d dye the re im bu ed cr im sons. T h a t is , even tho ug h the dual i ty

of capaci ty and truth is not seen, each and every one has the

essence of appropr ia te capaci ty and benef i t .

As for doct r inal teachings , there are correct explanat ions

and correct pract ices; the various teachings of the one age [of

the Buddha] and the f ive per iods cannot no t const i tu te correct

teachings. But since when one t raps f ish or rabbits one forgets

the t rap s on e use d, th e great ne t of the tea chin gs is re nt . Relat ive

and absolu te are one, p ract ice and in terpreta t ion are a l ready not

d i f fe ren t i a t ed . Thus th ink ing abou t the t ru th under ly ing , t he re

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EMPEROR HANAZON O

AND

BUDDHISM 41

is not the duality of sentient evaluation. There are the three

thousand realms and therefore no impediment. Thus it is said

fact and principle are interfused, and thus it is termed supreme

understanding. At such a time how can there be increase of fact

and principle? And since unenlightened man and the Buddha,

further, exist, one cannot possibly pass beyond the ground of

supreme understanding. The vault above guides, the palanquin

below carries. Th is is the w onderful working of heaven and earth .

A lord is a lord, a minister a minister, a father a father, a son a

son; externa lly the re is loyalty, internally th ere is filial piety. Th is

is the wonderful working of human ethics. The peach season

creates scenery, the fragrant grasses impa rt the ir beauty. This is

the wonderful working of trees and plants. The wild geese in

autumn depart the cold, sheep and cattle in the evening descend

to the

villages.

This

is

the wonderful working of birds and animals.

Where facts and objects are in accord, do not walk on the path

of underlying principle, do not permit sentient disposition.

By 1329, then , a f te r near ly a decade of cont inuous s tudy,

it ap pe ars tha t Ha na zo no had com ple ted h i s ques t fo r u nd er

s tanding of the tex ts , prac t ices and t ru ths of esoter ic Buddhism.

As som e le t te rs to J ig en suggest , th is by no m ea ns m ea nt tha t

he achieved deta i led knowledge of every s ingle poin t . However ,

it is ev id ent tha t he had com e to a s t ro ng ly-g rou nd ed , an d

genu ine ly acknow ledged , un de rs ta nd ing of T en da i (and

perhaps Sh ingon) ph i losophy . Had Hanazono l imi ted h i s Bud

dhi st inq uiry ju st to this it w ould st il l hav e been a m ajor achieve

me n t . Ho we v e r , t h ro u g h th e s a me d e c a d e Ha n a z o n o h a d b e e n

pu rsu ing a pa ra l le l ques t for en l ig h te nm en t in on e o the r schoo l,

that of Zen.

V.

Hanazono and Zen

Even th ou gh Zen had beco m e wel l -es tablished in J a p a n by

the end of the th i r teenth century , Hanazono 's contac t wi th th is

sect did not take on any viable (or even visible) form until 1320,

the year a f te r he had begun ser ious s tudy of esoter ic Buddhism

and had also effectively rejected

nembuisu

teachings as a vehicle

th ro u g h wh ic h h e c o u ld u n d e r s t a n d Bu d d h i sm. A l th o u g h th e re

is certainly n o evid en ce from his diary tha t pr io r to this Zen

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42

J1ABSVOL. 12 NO. 1

had raised i ts presence on his intellectual horizon, there is no

reason not to take him at his word when he remarks in a diary

entry from 1321 that he had had faith in Zen from an early age

but , because he had been unable to f ind a good instructor , " the

years had passed fruitlessly."'

11

It is not c lear w he the r H an az on o

had t r ied ins t ruc tors and had found them want ing or had jus t

been u nab le to obta in an ins t ruc tor . S ince he would un do ub tedly

have mentioned the fact if the former had been the case, i t is

more l ikely that the reasons are to be found in the latter . While

this may st r ike an odd note in l ight of Hanazono's posi t ion and

his dem on strab ly eclectic interests , th ere are ready exp lana t ion s.

In the f irst place, of the two Zen tradit ions in Japan (Rinzai and

Soto) ,

one would have been l i tera l ly beyond Hanazono's reach.

The Soto school had f rom the beginning eschewed contact with

the capi ta l , and i ts teachers and wri t ings accordingly were not

readily available ( in fact the one major

lacuna

in Hanazono ' s

reading was the l i tera ture produced by the Dogen school) . In

the second place i t is impossible to overlook the fact that the

rival Daikakuji branch of the Imperial family had been in the

forefront of con tact with Zen m asters an d ha d built u p a jealo usly

gu ard ed ne two rk of contac ts an d pa t ro na ge ; by cont ras t , J imyo-

in leaders such as Fushimi and Go-Fushimi, in whose shadow

Hanazono spent his ear ly decades, evinced l i t t le interest in Zen.

Accordingly i t would have been diff icult for Hanazono by him

self to make contacts in the Zen world.

T h a t this was inde ed so is bo rn e out by the m an n er in which

he f irst had signif icant contact. Bypassing any formal procedures

or inquiries as to the possibil i ty of obtaining a Zen tutor ,

Hanazono 's f r iend and in te l lec tua l conf idant Hino Suke tomo,

who at the t ime was contr ibut ing so great ly to Hanazono's s tudy

of the Chinese inte l lectual t radi t ion, took i t upon himself one

evening to in t roduce Hanazono pr iva te ly to a Zen pr ies t . Tha t

the in t roduc t ion came through Suke tomo was s igni f icant , for

Suketomo was one of a group of young inte l lectuals in the

forefront of a movement chal lenging prevai l ing socia l and inte l

lectual values, an d h e was accordingly m uc h inte rested in ha vin g

contac t wi th those with dem ons t rably new ideas. '* T h e m eet ing

was to prove a major turning point in Hanazono's l i fe . Firs t , as

we shal l see . it be ga n th e process which led to Ha na zo no 's a t ta in

m e n t oisatori some years la ter . Second, i t meant that Hanazono's

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EMPEROR HANA ZONO AND BUDDHISM 43

contact with Zen would be with a school of Rinzai Zen (the

O tokan school , which had or ig ina ted w i th N am po Jo m in) tha t

most es teemed a spare and in te l lec tua l ly demanding "Sung-

style"

Zen. '* T his a t t i tude m elded perfec tly wi th H ana zo no ' s

own great respect for both the Chinese intel lectual t radi t ion

over the Jap anese on e , and h is prefe renc e for s tudying teaching s

in the i r "un adu l t e ra t e d" an d o r ig ina l fo rms . Indee d , so ada m an t

was Hanazono tha t d i f ferent schools and t rad i t ions should be

kept dist inct that he once remarked unfavorably upon the fact

that some people were, in imitat ion of the pract ices of the Sung

court , using Zen terminology to explain Confucian concepts. ' "

In any event , ear ly in 1320 Hanazono was brought in to

contact with Myogyo (or Gatsurin Doko). So taken was

Hanazono with the profundi ty and lucidi ty of Myogyo's in

terpretat ions of doctrine ("should he be cal led a dragon?") that

he sp en t the ent i r e nig ht discussing Zen.''

5

How ever , H anazo no ' s

contac t wi th Myogyo appears to have been somewhat sporadic

for the next year and a

half,'*

perhaps par t ly because Myogyo

may not have been convinced tha t Hanazono was prepared to

embark upon Zen t ra in ing . Never the less , Hanazono ' s quest con

t inued, and began to bear frui t la te in 1321 when, in the course

of expla in ing h is unders tanding of the accuracy or inaccuracy

of var ious tex tua l in terpre ta t ions (Hanazono does not say what

tex ts were involved) , Myogyo indica ted tha t Hanazono ' s under

sta nd ing was corre ct . Overjoyed tha t a t last he was get t ing s om e

w he re ("w ithout sea rch ing for a brig ht jew el on m y col lar I have

gained i t by mysel f) , Hanazono averred tha t '

17

The skill of the Buddha Law and the utmost principle of mental

attitude lie solely in this one sect of Zen. The teachings of none

of the othe r sects of the Grea ter and Lesser Vehicles can co mpare

with it. In particular I fasten my thoughts on its subtle import;

in moments of haste and when I stumble [I hold to it].

Hanazono ' s de l ight was no doubt enhanced by the fac t tha t h i s

discovery of both teacher and teaching had been his first really

independent intel lectual foray. Yet for the same reasons

Hanazono was d i f f ident about adver t i s ing h is progress . I t was

n o n e t h e l e s s a n o t h e r i m p o r t a n t t u rn i n g p o i n t , a n d H a n a z o n o

was to consider Zen h is pr ime vehic le of unders tanding and

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44

JIABSVOL. 12 NO. 1

enlightenment for the rest of his l i fe , i f for no other reason that

tha t h is d iscover ies here preceded h is progress in Tendai and

Shingon .

From th is poin t Hanazono threw himself en thusias t ica l ly

in to h is Zen s tudies , and in the twelf th month encountered h is

first

kdan

when he and Myogyo read together the f irs t Case of

th e

Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Record).

Unfor tunate ly , two weeks

la ter th is prom is ing s tar t was cut shor t wh en M yogyo a nn ou nc ed

plans to visi t China. Before leaving, however, Myogyo bestowed

upon Hanazono secre t teachings and a robe , s ignify ing a t the

minimum a wi l l ingness to acknowledge Hanazono as a fu l l -

f ledged d isc ip le . T h e cerem ony w as brief, private , and sl ightly

irregular , s ince the two did not know when they would meet

again , and Hanazono fe l t tha t i f i t were made known he would

be heavily criticized, if only because most people did not know

just how profound Zen teachings were /

18

T h e next day , over

joyed, Hanazono wrote to Myogyo tha t they would remain c lose

despi te be ing separa ted by grea t d is tance and rough seas , and

that his only regret was that he could not personally bestow the

title

ofkokushi

(Nat ional Te ach er) on som eon e wh o so obviously

deserved it . '

w

Myogyo 's depar ture for China " in search of the Law" no

doubt conf i rmed in Hanazono a be l ie f tha t "pure" Zen was the

only acceptable type, but i t a lso left him without a teacher to

guide h is e f for ts . Hanazono 's in teres t d id not wane, however ,

for a few months later he records having a vivid dream in which

he met with Kobo

daishi

(Saicho) and Dengyo

daishi

(Kukai) and

discussed Buddhis t tex ts wi th them. Oddly , however , the two

great pr ies ts , the founders of Tendai and Shingon in Japan,

gave al l their answers in terms of Zen, and bestowed upon him

the seal of transmission. Slightly perplexed, s ince he fel t that

he had a l ready rece ived the sea l f rom Myogyo, Hanazono in ter

pre ted th is to mean tha t the known exoter ic and esoter ic teach

ings had fa i led to enl ighten the world and tha t t rue enl ighten

ment would come f rom Zen.

70

Som e t ime after th is H an az on o acquired h is second teach er ,

Shuho Myocho ( la ter Dai to kokushi). Like Myogyo, he be longed

to Daio ' s s t ream, and i t had perhaps been Myogyo who recom

mended Hanazono to his fel low disciple . Myocho, "a fearless

and exceptional man whose teachings were not easi ly grasped,"

7 1

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EMPEROR HANAZO NO

AND

BUDDHISM 45

was to become one of the most eminent Zen pr iests of the four

teenth century , and i t was wi th Myocho tha t Hanazono 's s tudy

of Zen began in earnest.~* Picking up where Myogyo had lef t

off , though clear ly not bel ieving that Hanazono had a lready

ea rne d the seal o f t r ansmiss ion , Da i to gu ided H an azo no th ro ug h

m ore de ta i led s tudy. T he y would med i ta te tog e th er ( somet imes

a t n ight wi th dr iv ing ra in and thunder as an accompaniment ) ,

7 3

discuss the law, and Hanazono would be tes ted on his in te rpre

ta t ions of teaching drawn f rom the

Jiatai Record of

the

Universal

lamps, th e Mumonkan and the Hekiganroku. H a n a z o n o m a d e

rapid progress , and his in te rpre ta t ion of the Tokusan kban of

th e

Mumonkan

was deemed so good by Myocho tha t the la t te r

a l lowed tha t Hanazono 's grasp of the Grea t Way was "pro

found."

74

La te r in 1323 Myocho gave Hanazono the pr iv i lege

of an audience with himself and Zekkai Sotaku, the most senior

of Nanpo Jomin ' s d i sc ip les . The occas ion proved to be a mixed

success, for while i t provided an oppor tuni ty for s tudying the

Hekiganroku, Hanazono was less than enthus ias t ic about h i s ex

changes wi th Sotaku:

75

I questioned Sotaku and asked "What is the great truth of this

Bu dd ha Law?" [S6]taku answered [that it is] "Pearls scattered on

the back of a notebook bound in pearls." I further asked and

said "Simply is this [answer] the rope or is [the truth] somewhere

else?" [S6]taku said "I cannot depart hanarezu) from what his

majesty questions." I thou gh t that this answer

was

quite contradic

tory. Some days later I asked [My6]cho and he said that this was

indeed the case.

Howeve r , o the r o f Hanazono ' s encounte r s we re more in

s t ruc tive . W hi le H an az on o ra re ly records subs tant ive exch ang es ,

th e

Chron icle of Daito Kokushi

has several episodes that give some

flavor of the playful respect that appears to have character ized

re la t ions be tween him and Myocho. One episode wi l l perhaps

suffice.

76

[Hanazono] said to the Master, "I won't ask about the

chrysanthemums blooming under the fence, but how about the

fall foliage in the forest?" The Master said "Even thousand eyed

Kuan-yin is unable to see it." The Emperor gave a shout. Then

he said "Where has she gone?" The Master bowed respectfully

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46

JIAB SV O L. 12 NO . 1

and replied "Please observe for

yourself.

The Emperor said

"You must not go through the night but you must arrive there

by dawn." The Master indicated his assent .. .

I f Hanazono was ever in any doubt about Myocho 's br i l

l iance and insight, his concerns were fully laid to rest in early

1325 when Myocho, a cent ra l f igure in one of the most

signif

icant re l ig ious deb ates of the fou r tee nth cen tury, ran in te llectual

and doc t r ina l r ings a round h i s Tenda i opponents in a deba te

he ld before Emperor Go-Daigo .

77

This success of an unti l - then

ju n io r figure imm ediate ly cata pu l ted M yocho to the front rank s

of the Zen world, a r ise unfortunately assis ted by the death of

Myocho ' s mentor Tsuo Kyoen on the way home f rom the de

bate.

78

This s tar t l ing coincidence of success and great loss in the

Zen world ("Has the period when the Law wil l be destroyed

been reached? '

1

) p r o d d e d H a n a z o n o to s tep outs ide the purely

intel lectual realm and into the fray of rel igious patronage: a

month l a te r he bes towed upon Myocho ' s home temple o f

Dai tokuj i the s ta tus of Imper ia l invocatory temple , suppor t

which Hanazono was to give also to Myocho's successors unti l

h is own d ea th in 1348, an d which he otherw ise gave to no ot he r

rel igious inst i tut ion.

7

" An added impetus , i f any were needed ,

was that i t became clear to Hanazono dur ing that same year

that the generous suppor t being lavished upon Muso Soseki ,

another notable Rinzai pr ies t , by Go-Daigo and the Kamakura

bakufu was no t at all de serv ed . In M uso's case th e br oa d er pic ture

is some wh at mo re com pl ica ted than H an az on o an d Myocho 's

character izat ion of him as having only a

stiff,

bookish under

s tan din g of w hat Zen would sugge s t , bu t the re is cer ta inly som e

just if icat ion, even al lowing for Hanazono's puris t perspect ive,

for h is concern that the Zen wor ld was populated by infer ior

intel lects that were doing great harm to the Zen tradi t ion.** And

it is proba bly th is con cern that lay be hin d H an azo no 's untypical

wi l lingness to co un ten an ce a de pa r tu re f rom Zen t radi t ion a nd

support Daitokuji as a "closed" temple, an exclusive preserve

of members of Daito 's l ineage.

81

At any ra te , Hanazono, who occas ional ly berated himsel f

for h is lack of d i l igence, cont inued meet ing Myocho and focus

ing his mind on the

Hekiganroku,

and " t he mor e t he E mper o r

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EMPEROR HANAZO NO

AND

BUDDHISM 47

qu est ion ed th e Ma ster , th e m o re his ar do r intensified."** Finally,

probably some t ime in 1326, Hanazono achieved

satori.

As re

corded in the Chronicle of

Daito Kokushi™

the seminal exchange

proceeded as follows:

The Master composed a statement of the Dharma for the

Emperor:

Separated for a million eons, yet not apart for an instant

Face-to-face throughout the day, but not encountered for

a moment

Each person has this truth.

Tell me, in a word, the nature of this truth.

The Emperor wrote his answer directly on the Master's let

ter: "Last night, jus t before da wn , the temp le pillar answerd the

master." The Emperor then offered his enlightenment poem to

the Master:

The man who endured hardship and pain for 20 years

Does not change his old [life of] wind and smoke when

spring arrives.

Wearing clothes and eating meals are still like this.

Did the great earth ever contain even one speck of dust?

"This is what your disciple has understood. How will you

test me Master?" The Master wrote his response directly on the

Emperor's letter. "I have already tested you. Look "

Whi le

satori

do es not re qu ire an y specif ic pe rio d b efore it

can be achieved, tha t Hanazono (who is genera l ly regarded as

havin g been o ne of Myocho 's most outs tan din g d isc ip les)

81

could

reach it after only a few years, during which time he was also

actively en ga ge d in a wide variety of pu rsu its rel igious an d oth er

wise, is a s tron g te sta m en t to his abil it ies , an d to th e seriou sness

of his pursuit of Zen.

In Zen, then , Hanazono f i rs t found answers to h is ques t

for un de rs ta nd in g tha t we re phi losophica l ly and psychologica l ly

sa t is fy ing; and, as suggested by h is cont inuing t ra in ing under

Zen teach ers (M yocho unti l his de ath in 1337, an d M yocho's

successor unt i l Hanazono 's dea th in 1348) Hanazono was to

look to Zen and its discipline as his prime (but not sole) vehicle

for personal understanding for the rest of his l i fe .

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48


VI. Using the Acquisitions

By the end of the 1320 ' s Hanazono had achieved what he

an d h is teach ers con side red a high level of insight into th e t ru th s

of Buddhism. Hanazono ' s subsequent endeavors ref lec ted th is

acquisi t ion, and Hanazono was able to integrate successful ly his

unders tanding in to h is wri t ings .

89

As no ted ea r l i e r , Hanazono

was one of a very few li terary figures of the fourteenth century

who real ized the need to produce a new poet ic form capable of

maintaining, in the face of pronounced social and pol i t ical

ch an ge s, the posi t ion of the t radi t ion al cul tural e l ite as the arb i ter

of Ja pa n ' s aes the t ic her i ta ge .

Hanazono, l ike all major poets since at least the t ime of

Fuj iwara Shunzei (1114-1204), bel ieved that the wri t ing of

poetry was an act of rel igious devot ion; concomitant ly, i t was

impo ssible for po etry to pro pe rly reflect the t ruth s tha t info rm ed

it as a michi or rea lm of end eav or unless the po et un de rs to od

Buddh i s t t ru ths .

8 6

In h is ob i tua ry o f Kyogoku T am ek an e (1 2 54 -

1332),

o n e of th e towe ring figures o n the m edieval l i terary lan d

sc ap e ," in a passage tha t suggests jus t how im po rtan t B ud dh ism

was to the medieval aesthet ic , Hanazono expl ici t ly recognizes

the re la t ion ship , and th e va lue an d p ur po se of h is own s tudies .

8 8

At the time of [Kyogoku Tamekane's] exile [1315] he en

trusted me with n inety lines of poetry . . . At tha t time I was still

young and was not deeply aware of the Way of Poetry. In recent

years I have often thought on these teachings

(kuden),

and,

further, I have reflected on the deep import of esoteric and

exoteric scriptures . . . Ord inary people are n ot cognizant [of the

true principles] ... In recent years I have met with Shuho

[Myocho] shonin and have learnt the essentials of the sect; I have

had audiences with Shinso hoin and have heard the doctrines of

Tendai; I have perused the Five Classics and grasped the Way

of Confucius. With this insight I have thought about this Way

[of Poetry]. Truly th e profoun d differences between error a nd

correctness [in poetry] are akin to those of Heaven and earth.

With this [understanding], around last year ... I sent one

roll of poems [I had composed] in recent years [to Tamekane,

who noted that] "The tone of your poetry is truly marvellous.

You've achieved a de ep und erstan ding of

its

princ iple s. . ." With

this he certified me [as a master of poetry]. My feelings of joy

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were without parallel. I myself feared from the outset that these

poems would be of shallow merit, and I had doubts whether

their meaning would accord with the import of the esoteric and

exoteric scriptures. But now the imp ort of his acknow ledgement

is that [my work exhibits] the true essence. With this I will learn

mo re and mo re about the truth s of the Bu ddh a Law . . .

Lord Tamemoto [who had brought news of Tamekane's

death] related that "Lord Tamekane stated to me that 'Although

I knew that His Majesty [Hanazono] had ability in poetry, given

that the teachings I had imparted to him at the time of my exile

did not touch upon the innermost principles, it is remarkable

that he should attain such profound subtlety (yusui).' Tam emoto

replied 'Although there is no such thing as a sermon on poetry,

his mind and spirit are as one with th e Dharma. Perhaps it is for

this reason.' [Tam ekane ] replied that i f this is the case then o ne

can have no doubts [that Hanazono's poetry reflects the true

essence, for] there cannot be any sense of distinction between

th e

Dharma

and poe try."' Wh en I heard this my faith was

strengthened all the more.

I t i s thus clear that Hanazono's poet ic inspirat ion, cer tainly

from the ear ly 1330 's , der iv ed in gre at me as ure from his exte n

s ive s tudy of Buddhism. The fusion of Hanazono's rel igious

unders tanding and h i s sense of poet ry enable h im to in terweave

image, f reshness and Buddhis t a l legory to craf t poems that could

be apprec ia ted on more than one level : as an innovat ive poem,

as a rel igious al legory, or as a work that coherent ly melds both.

Whi le de ta i l ed s tudy of Hanazono ' s poet ry—and h i s more than

130 poems demons t ra te tha t he was a g i f t ed poet—is beyond

the scope of this paper , we can useful ly touch on some that

were composed speci f i ca l ly on Buddhis t themes . Hanazono has

six poems in the Buddhis t poem sect ion of the Fugashu, the

Imper ia l poet ry an thology tha t was compi led under h i s d i rec

tion.

8

" O ne is wr i t t en in referenc e to Ga tsur in D oko ; ano th er

bewai ls the decl ine of the world and Buddhism; one al ludes to

concepts in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment', in two others al lu

sions to koan in the Hekiganroku inform the poem. '

K

' One of the

lat ter, evoc ative in its t ran qu il i ty yet subtle in its al lusion s, ad ep tly

refers to the "Kyosei ' s 'Voice of the Raindrops '"

koan

to address

the Tendai concept tha t the th ree t ru ths of vo id , media ted and

provis ional real i ty and the one t ruth encompassing al l are

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5

JIABSVOL. 12 NO . 1

ne i the r t h r ee nor one .

91

T h e sixth of th e poem s is an out sta nd in g effor t that som e

scholars regard as one of the most "perfect and precise" of i ts

type . T h e topic of the poem com es f rom ch ap te r 23 (Th e F orm er

Affairs of the Bodhisattva Medicine King) of the Lotus Sutra.

m

The sun at dusk

Fades in brightness from the eaves

Where swallows twitter;

And among the willows in the garden

Blows the green breeze of the spring."*

T h e story of ch ap ter 2 3 is that of the B odh isat tva Seen W ith

Joy By Al l L iving Things who, de te rmined to immola te h imse l f

as an of fe r ing to the Buddha in gra t i tude for having heard the

Buddha preach, spends a lengthy per iod par taking of the f ra

grance of a l l f lowers, anoint ing his body, and bathing in per

fumed oil , and then by willpower sets his body ablaze with such

br igh tn ess th at i t i l lum inates all w orlds. I t is certainly no easy

mat te r to conver t th i s in to a s imple poem. But , by employing

the sun to represent the body of the Bodhisat tva , swal lows for

humans , wi l lows for exis tence , and the breeze for the Buddha-

spir i t , Hanazono achieves his purpose: " j ] ]ust as the poem

suggests that the evening scene is more beaut i ful af ter the l ight

fades, so, too, allegorically i t means that the spir i t of the

Bo dhisat tva Seen W ith Joy By All Living T h in g s is even m or e

beautiful after his body is gone. '""

VII. Conclusions

To return to the quest ion of how inte l lectuals may have

ap pr eh en de d B udd hi sm in medieva l Ja pa n , and bea r ing in mind

tha t th i s pa pe r has not sou gh t to co m m en t up on the que s t ion

of doc t r ina l un de rs ta nd in g ( tha t is , d id H an az on o ge t it right

or not , and was there a "r ight" to get) several points may be

no ted .

First , at least for H an az o n o , it is ev ide nt th at ov er t ime th e

inte l lectual quest took precedence over the psychological one,

th ou gh it is adm it tedly diff icult to sep arate the two ent i re ly. I t

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is a lso evident tha t a teaching needed to be wel l -grounded, cap

ab le o f p rov id ing an encompass ing exp lana t ion o f Buddhis t

t ru ths whose broader re levance could be d iscerned, and be ar

t icula ted by teach ers wh o could m ainta in the in te llec tua l res pect

of their pupil ; af ter a l l , s tudy was a dynamic process, the pupil

p rogress ive ly acqu i r ing enhanced in te rp re ta t ive powers and un

wi l ling to accept exp lana t ion s a t face va lue . S tudy of B ud dh ism ,

in shor t , en ta i l ed fa r m ore than m as te r ing wha t had been ha nd ed

down.

Se co nd , it is ev id en t th at i t is (an d was) ex tre m ely difficult

to predic t a t the outse t what course of s tudy might be taken.

There were several possible choices of texts , of teachers , and of

in terpre ta t ive t radi t ions . Likewise , more than one pa th could

be taken a t the same t ime for d i f ferent in te l lec tua l purposes .

The choice of any teacher , even def in ing th is as a mat ter of

serendipi ty, was influenced by a range of social and poli t ical

factors to which the student had to give heed, and this in turn

affec ted both s tudy opt ions and the type of unders tanding of

Buddhis t t ru ths tha t would be acqu i red . To ex tend th i s po in t

fu r the r , to s t a te tha t somebody s tud ied "Buddhism," o r tha t

"B ud dh ism " was im po r ta nt , is , as Professor Pol lack 's s tudy a lso

demonst ra tes , by i t se l f an inadequate bas is for address ing the

q u e s t i o n o f wh a t "B u d d h i sm" me a n t t o me d ie v a l J a p a n e se .

T h ir d , it is no neth eles s a lso ap p ar en t tha t the m ul t ivar ia te

na tu re o f Buddhism was accep ted , and tha t no t each ing was by

i tse l f considered inherent ly inval id ; concomita tn ly , as Hanazono

shows even whi le d iscover ing h is own in te l lec tua l medium, i t

was a basic ar t ic le of fai th that there was no one ul t imately

p re f e r a b l e p a th t o u n d e r s t a n d in g t h e B u d d h a ' s t r u th s . A t t h e

same t ime i t a lso seems that very strong views could be held

regard ing the qua l i ty o f in te rp re ta t ion and the dangers to Bud

dh ism as a system of tho ug h t w here ex po nen ts exh ib it ed in fe rio r

unders tanding. Yet even here evaluat ions were not necessar i ly

abso lu te : a s Hanazono no ted , in an obse rva t ion which acknow

ledge d tha t d i f ferent t r u th s are un de rs t oo d a t d i f ferent s tages

at the same t ime that i t revealed a high level of insight on his

par t , there was no such th ing as teachings wi thout people . Put

brief ly, the concept of a mult i-faceted and mult i- layered

phi losophica l f ramework was an in tegra l par t of the medieval

in te l lec t , and i t encouraged a r igh var ie ty of approaches tha t

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52

JIABS VO L. 12 NO . 1

together molded the medieval in te l lect and aes thet ic .

Pe rh ap s a fou r th poin t to m ake is tha t resea rch on me dieval

Buddhism could wel l examine the Tenda i t r ad i t ion (and the

for tunes of "older Buddhism") in more deta i l ; cer ta inly i t de

serves cons iderably more a t tent ion than i t has received to date .

El i te pat ronage assured Zen a s t rong niche in medieval cul ture ,

an d po pu lar ap pe al obvious ly was crucia l to the sp rea d of sa lva

t ion teachings ; both have wi th good reason been extens ively

s tudie d. B ut i t is evide nt from H an az on o 's case— and h e was

not a minor f igure in the l i terary and cul tural wor ld—that Ten

dai teachings, in al l their forms, contr ibuted a great deal to the

J a p a n e s e u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f " B u d d h i s m / ' T e n d a i t e a c h e r s h a d

unr iva led access to Ja p an ' s ed uc ate d e l i te , pe rh ap s to the ex ten t

of exercis ing some degree of in te l lectual hegemony, and i t i s

p robable tha t u l t imate ly , ce r t a in ly th rough the mid- four teen th

cen tury , many new deve lopments were f i l t e red th rough them.

A f inal point br ings us back to Hanazono, and s l ight ly

bey on d t he i ssues dea l t wi th in th is ar t ic le . His con cern to u nd er

s tand Bu dd his t teac hin g tho rou gh ly, h is wi l lingness to have con

tact with a wide variety of s treams, and the obvious effor t he

pu t in to the endeav or , sp ran g f rom m ore than jus t p er sona l

spi r i tual mot ives . As his unders tanding evolved, so too did the

sophis t icat ion of h is a t t i tude towards the role of Buddhism in

Ja pa ne se in te llectual l ife. A ma jor conclus ion re ach ed by

Hanazono was tha t the in tegra t ive wholeness o f Buddhis t t ru th

provided the ra t ionale and metaphor for the socia l and cul tural

role of the Imperial family

itself,

a role that , while int imately

bound wi th ques t ions o f pa t ronage , ves ted in te res t , and doc

tr inal divis ion (secular manifestat ions of s tages of enl ighten

ment ) , had a t the same t ime to overcome them and prov ide an

ov era rch ing a nd uni f ied f ram ew ork (as befi ts the t ru ly en

l ighte ned ) for Ja p an ' s cul tural t radi t ions . Th is form ulat ion was

a major con t r ibu t ion to Jap an ese t ho ug ht on its own te rm s a nd

in what i t meant for the Imperial family. With the unsuccessful

e f for t o f H ana zon o ' s co n tem po rary E m pe ro r Go -Daigo (1288—

1339) to inform a s imilar ly overarching view of the role of the

Imperial family with absolute poli t ical content as well , i t was

Hanazono ' s approach tha t p rov ided the theore t i ca l jus t i f i ca t ion

for the exis tence of the Imper ia l fami ly that endured long af ter

i ts loss of poli t ical and economic leadership.

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N O TES

** An ear l ie r vers ion of th is pap er was pre sen ted a t the Col loquium on

Buddhis t Thought and Cul ture a t the Univers i ty of Monteval lo , Apri l 28 /29 ,

1988.

1. For an in t rodu ct ion to the d imen sions of the top ic see : A. Ma tsunag a

& D. Mat sunaga , Foundation of Japanese Bu ddhism, vol. 2 (Los An geles & Tok yo :

Bud dhis t Books In ter na t io nal , 1976); J . H . Foa rd , " In Search of a Lost Refor

ma t ion : A Recons ide ra t i on o f Kamakura Buddh i sm," Japanese Journal ofRelig

ious Studies, 7.4 (1980), 2 6 1 - 2 9 1 ; M. Collcut t , Five Mountains (Cambr idge :

H arv ard Universi ty Press, 1981); K. Kraft , "Zen Mas ter Da i to" (Doctoral Dis

sertat ion, Princeton Universi ty , 1984); Hee-Jin Kim, Dogen Kigen: Mystical

Realist

(Tu cson : U niversi ty of Arizona Press , 1987); T.J . Ko dera ,

Dogen's For

mative Years in China (Boulder: Prajna Press, 1980); H.H. Coates & Ishizuka

Ryugaku , H onen the Buddhist Saint (Kyoto, 1925); A. Bloom, Shinran's Gospel

of Pure Grace (T uc son : Un iversi ty of Arizo na P ress, 1965) an d "T he Life of

Shinran Shonin : Journey to Se l f Acceptance ," Numen, 16 (19 68), 1-62; L.R.

Rodd , Nichiren: A Biography (Tempe: Univers i ty of Arizona Press , 1977); J .H.

Foa rd , " Ippen Shon in and Popu la r Buddh i sm o f t he Kamakura Pe r iod" (Doc

toral Dissertat ion, Stanford Universi ty , 1977).

2 . The en t i re quest ion of the cont inu ing re levance and v i ta l i ty of the

older sec ts th rough the th i r teen th and four teen th centur ies has been unac

countably neglected by Western scholars. For a recent effort to redress the

imbalance see R. Morrel l , Early Kamakura Buddhism: A Minority Report (Ber

keley: Asian Humanit ies Press, 1987).

3. W. LaF leur , The Karma of Words (Berke ley: U niversi ty of Cal ifornia

Press,

1983); D. Pollack, The Fracture of Meaning (Pr ince ton: Pr ince ton Univer

sity Press, 1986).

4. See A. Goble , "Go-Daigo and the Kemmu Restora t ion ," (Doctora l

Dissertat ion, Stanford Universi ty , 1987); H.P. Varley, Imperial Restoration in

Medieval Japan

(New York: Columbia Universi ty Press, 1971); M. Collcut t ,

Five Mountains.

5. E. Miner, "The Collect ive and the Individual : Li terary Pract ice and

Its Social Implicat ions," in E. Miner (ed.) , Principles of Classical Japanese Liter

ature (Pr ince ton: Pr ince ton Univers i ty Press , 1985) , 50-52; the Otokan school

based at Dai tokuj i has come to be the pre-eminent Rinzai st ream; Miura

Kei 'ichi, Chusei minshu seikatsu sh i no kenkyu (Toky o: 1982), 118 ff. h as del in eate d

the essen t ia l e lements of the medieval concept ion of sovere ignty , though he

sees i t as a formulat ion of the fi f teenth, not the fourteenth, century.

6. For an informative discussion in English see LaFleur, 88 ff. In a

related vein see G. Ebers ole, "B udd hist Ri tual Use of Linked V erse in Medieval

J a p a n , " Eastern Buddhist, 16.2 (1983 ), 5 0 - 7 1 .

7. Hanazono tenno shinki [here inaf te r HTS] (Zo ho shiryo taisei, 2 vols,

Kyoto , 1965; Shi ryo sansh u , 3 vo ls , To ky o, 198 2-1 986) .

8 . A. Goble , "Chinese Inf luences in the Emperor Hanazono Diary"

(pap er read a t South E astern Conference/Associa t ion for Asian Studies , annu al

con fe rence , Cha r lo t t e , Jan ua r y 1988) , and "Em per o r H ana zon o (129 7-134 8) :

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54


An Intel lectual 's Response to Social Change" (paper read at Associat ion for

Asian Studies, annual meeting, San Francisco, March 1988) . In a related area,

see a lso Waj ima Y oshio , "H an az on o ten no no jub uts u b un r i ron n i t su i te , "

Bukkyo shigaku.

10.1 (1962) ,

3 5 - 5 1 .

9. Hanazono provides l i s t s o f the works he had read th rough the end

of 1325 in

HTS

1324/12/last , 1325/12/30. Ho w ever some works not ed in the

diary (such as the

Bonmokyd

and the

Senjakushu)

do not appear in these l ists .

10.

HTS

1313/1/6, 1313/5/22, 1313/10/19.

11.

HTS

1322/5 /24 , 1322/8 /24 , 1323/12/16 . H ana zon o 's respec t to r the

works he read was no t l imi ted to Buddhism: "When I read th is book [ the

I-ching] I wash my hands, do not take off my belt , and do not take off my

cap .

The reason for this is that it is the work of a sage, a book on the will of

Heaven , and [hence] I am respec t fu l . "

HTS

1325/6/17.

12 .

HTS

1322/3/17.

13.

Fo r example ,

HTS

1322 /8/28 for sutra rea din gs; 1322/5/3 for lec

tu r e s ; 1322/9/1, 1322/10/10, 1324/3/12, 1324/8/28-9/3 for debates. Many lec

tu res and debates took the form of formal p resen ta t ions on the

Lotus Sutra,

t h e Hokke hakko, tha t were an impor tan t par t o f Cour t l i fe . On the growth

and variety of the

Hokke hakko

see W.J . Tanabe , "The Lo tus Lec tu re s :

Hokke

Hakko

in the Heian Per iod ,"

Monumenta Nipponica,

39 (1984) , 393-407 .

14. See A. Goble , "Go-Daigo and the K em mu Restora t ion ," 3 1 - 4 1 ;

HTS

1317/3/3.

15.

HTS

1319/1/20. See also 1319/9/6, 1319/10/26.

16. HTS 1319/1/9.

17. HTS

1317/2/19 . T h e o th er d ream may have occu r red in 1318 , for

most of which the diary is not extant .

18. Han azono ' s a t t i tude towards d r eam s was somew ha t amb iva len t . H e

noted a t one po in t tha t they embodied bo th t ru th and fa lsehood and hence

should not be given credence (1325/6/17) , yet on other occasions (e .g . 1324/12/

13, 1325/12/5) he regarded them as qu i te revea l ing . Nonethe less , as a t tes ted

by such prom ine nt re l ig ious f igures as J ie n , Sh inra n and M uju Ich ien , d re am s

could mark s ign i f ican t tu rn ing po in ts . The en t i re a rea of d reams and the i r

signif icance in this context has barely been addressed by Western scholars;

for a b rie f in t roduc t ion , see M. St r ickm ann, "D ream wo rk of Psycho-

Sinologists," in Brown, C. ed,

Psycho-Sinology

(La nha m , Univers ity Press o f

Amer ica , 1988) , 25-46 .

19 . HTS 1319/1/10 . T h e Ojoyoshu has bee n transla ted by A.K. R eisch aeur ,

"Genshin 's Ojo Yoshu: Collected Essays on Bir th into Paradise,"

Transactions

of the Asiatic Society of Japan,

2d. ser ies, 7 (1930) , 16-97. For a study of the

work see A. Andrews,

The Teachings Essential For Rebirth: A Study of Genshin's

Ojoyoshu

(Tokyo, 1973) .

2 0 .

HTS

1319/9 /18 . Ha nazo no 's p red i lec t ion for accord ing grea tes t va lue

to doct r ine s tha t were in te llec tua l ly de m an di ng i s ev iden t th r ou gh ou t the

d iary and in forms a wide var ie ty of comments on prac t ices and people . For

example, in his obituary of Saionji Sanekane

(HTS

1322/9/10

bekki)

he notes

that "by nature [Sanekane] was simple and his l i terary talents few," and that

"at first he studied the

Dharma

[Zen] sect but he did not excel. In his later

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years he turned exclusively to the [AJmida [Pure Land]. Diligently he per

fo rmed nembutsu.

2 1 .

HTS 1320/12 /16, 1321/3/7 . O n the la t ter occasion Ha na zo no re

marked tha t "Las t n igh t Nyoku

shonin

passed away . Approach ing the end he

correctly recited the nembutsu. H e is the pe rson wh o has con tr ibu ted to the

rise of the nembutsu sect. Is i t possible that [his death] will be the beginning

of the decline of this sect?" Nyoku was frequently involved in Court religious

ceremonies : see Kinpira koki (Shiryo sans hu, Tok yo , 196 8-6 9) , 1315/5/24.

Many of Hanazono ' s ob i tuar ies o r comments on the dea ths o f con temporar ies

leave li t t le doubt of his sense of what is of most value. Figures in the the

inte l lectual and cu l tural realm s (e .g . 1321/6/23, 24 Sugaw ara A rikan e, 1325/

intercalary 1/28 Kyoen) are accorded praise and their passing a sense of loss

that is generally not extended to polit ical figures of the day (e.g. 1322/9/10

Saionj i Sanekane, 1324/6/24 emperor Go-L 'da) .

2 2 .

HTS 1322/5/3-7, 1322/10/10, 1323/9/2.

2 3 . HTS 1325/7/15.

2 4.

HTS 132 1/9/2 1-2 4, 1321/10/8. I t is not c lear wh at manaala H a n a z o n o

viewed , o r whe ther the re was more than one .

2 5 .

HTS 1322/5/12.

2 6.

HTS 1319/1/26, 131 9/2 /28 -30, 1319/3/2, 1322/10/2, 3 . J ig en , born

in 12 98, was the son of To in S aneyasu a nd full br oth er of To in Kim ikata ,

both p ro m ine nt m em be rs of the nobil ity . I t is not known w hen J ig en died ,

but he was sti l l alive in 1352 when he resigned as Tendai zasu.

2 7. HTS 1322/10 /2 , 1322/10 /3 ; un da ted bu t p robab ly 1331 /8 Ha naz ono

joko shosoku (Shinkan eiga [Tok yo, 1944] ,

1:155).

2 8 . HTS 1320/9/14. T h e works received by H an az on o were the Ben

kenmitsu nikyo ran, Sokushin jobutsugi, Joji jissogi, Shinkyo hilsuhen, Hizo hoyaku,

Sango shiiki, a n d Unji gi. For t ransla t ions of these see Y.S. Hakeda, Kukai:

Major Works (New York: Co lum bia U niversity P ress, 1972).

2 9 .

HTS 1323/7/10, 1325/7/15, 1325/9/2.

30.

Ma t su n a g a ,

Foundation of Japanese Buddhism,

1 : 64-75 , 2 : 274 .

3 1 .

T h e Maha shikanlMo-ho chih-kuan of Chih-i (538 -59 7) and the con cept

of shikan—"calming an d co nt em pl ati on " (very lucidly discussed by La Fleu r,

The Karma of Words, 88) or " the im m ovab le mind funct ionin g in wisdo m"

(Ma t su n a g a , 1:157)—was cen t ra l to Tenda i tho ug ht , and th r ou gh th is exer

c ised an en or m ou s inf luence on Ja pa ne se in te l lects . The full d ime nsio ns of

this inf luence have only jus t beg un to be discussed in the West : see LaF leur ,

50ff. For an overview of Tendai , see Matsunaga, 1 :139-171. On Chih-i ' s

thought see L. Hurvi tz , Chih-i {Melanges Chinois et Bouddhiques, 12, 1960-62) ,

especia lly 18 3-3 72 , and D. Ch app el l (ed. ) ,

T ien-tai

Buddhism: An Outline of the

Fourfold Teachings

(Tokyo, 1983). I have also found it useful to refer to D. B.

Stevenson, "The Four Kinds of Samadhi in Early T ' ien- t ' a i Buddhism," in

P.N. Gregory (ed. ) , Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism (Ho n o lu lu :

Universi ty of Haw aii Press , 1986) , 4 5 -9 7 ; an d R.E. Buswell , The Korean Ap

proach to Zen (Honolulu: Universi ty of Hawaii Press , 1983) .

32 .

HTS 1319/4/7.

33 . HTS 1319/9/last.

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56

JIABSVOL. 12 NO. 1

34 . HTS 132 0/3/11 , 1321/9/7.

3 5 . HTS 132 1/10/17, 1322/10 /16. Ha na zo no 's desir e to be rid of un

wa nted involv em ent in the worldly affairs that h ad so t rau m atize d h im is a

pers i s tent th em e in th e d ia ry . It is a l so evident tha t o ther s , notably Ha nazo no ' s

e ld er bro th er G o-F ush im i, saw in this pre fere nce an abdicat ion of responsibi li ty

that on occasion sorely exercised them. For a good example of this see

HTS

1323/4/9 , 4 /11 , 4 /15; (1323/4/9) Go-Fushimi joko shojo (Kamakura Ibun

[Takeuchi Rizo ed . , Tokyo, 1971- ; he rea f te r Kl], 36:283 75) ; 1323/4/9 Go-

Fushimi joko yuzur i jo (KI, 36 :28376) .

36 . HTS 1322/9/14.

37. D. Ch app e l l (ed . ) , T ien-tai Buddhism: An Outline of the Fourfold Teach

ings (Tokyo, 1983) , 1 4 0 - 1 4 1 , note 22, notes that at the level of Distinctive

doc t r ine the three t ru ths of empt iness , provis iona l exis tence , and the middle

view (or mediated real i ty, Pol lack, 80) are seen as independent , while in the

Comple te doc t r ine they a re in te rfused.

38 . For e xa m ple ,

HTS

1324/9/2.

39 . See Coble , "Emperor Hanazono (1297-1348) : An In te l lec tua l ' s Re

sponse to Soc ia l Change ."

4 0 .

HTS

1317/3/3.

4 1 . HTS 1322 /10/15, 16.

42 . Exp lora t ion of th i s im po rtan t poin t is beyon d the scope of th i s pape r .

Kuroda Toshio has addressed this quest ion extensively. For a brief synopsis ,

see his fisha seiryoku (To kyo , 1980), 4 4 -4 7 . In this con text , i t is re levan t that

Ha na zon o would re fe r to them on ano the r occas ion. As recor ded in the Chroni

cle ofDaito Kokushi, one exchange be tween Hanazono and Myocho (see be low)

was "The Emperor began, 'The Buddha ' s Law face to face wi th the King ' s

Law— how inco nceivable ' T h e M aster repl ied 'T he King's Law face to face

with the Buddha 's Law—how inconceivable ' " ( t ransla ted by Kraft , "Zen Mas

ter Dai to," 277).

4 3 .

HTS

1321/1 /21 , 22 , and 1324/12 /21 . J ien ' s

Record of a D ream (Jichin

Kasho muso ki) is discussed in D. Brown & Ishida Ichiro, The Future and the

Past (Berkeley. Universi ty of Cal i fornia Press, 1979), 412ff. Also, Akamatsu

Toshihide, "Jichin kasho musoki ni tsui te ," in his

Kamakura bukkyo no kenkyu

(Kyo to, 1957), 31 7- 33 5. In no t ing this I d o not mea n to suggest that a work

such as J ie n 's ha d to be read in or de r for m em be rs of the Im per ia l family to

be aware of the doctrine , which was after a l l a wel l known one. (See for

example Go-Uda ' s unda ted pos thumous ins t ruc t ions to Da ikakuj i , in Naka-

mura Naoka tsu ed . , Daikakuji monjo [Kyoto, 1980],

1:9-18).

H ow e ve r ,

Ha naz ono ' s acqua intance wi th J ien ' s wri t ing does sugges t se r ious a t tent ion to

the under ly ing subt le t ie s .

4 4 . HTS 1322/12/5.

4 5 . HTS 1323/6/26 . Han azon o ' s re fe rence to Bo dh idh arm a is probably

taken from the commentary to the f i rs t Case in the

Hekiganroku,

" The H ighe s t

M e a n ing o f t he H oly Tr u th s . " Se e Th om a s 8c J .C . Clea ry , The Blue Cliff Record

(Bo ulder & Lo nd on : Sha m bhala Press , 1977), 1 -9.

4 6 . HTS 132 0/1/21 , 22 , 132 2/5/11 , 1322/10/2, 3; 1319/10/2, 1321/8/7,

1322/7/18.

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EMPEROR HANAZONO

AND

BUDDHISM 57

47.

HTS 132 2/11 /19, 11/28, 12/5, 12/28. See also note 13 above. T he

basic commentary on the Great Sun Sutra, th e Dainichikyo sh o in 20 fascicles

that was used in Shingon, was written by Amoghavajra with supplemental

comments by the T'ang monk 1-hsing. A 14 fascicle edition of this, the

Dainichikyo

gishaku,

was edited by Chih-yen and Wen-ku, and was used in

Tendai .

48 . For the Hokke honshaku see Ressei Zenshu, Onsenshu, vol 6 (To kyo ,

1917),

87-103; Iwahashi Koyata, H anazono tenno (Toky o, 1962) , 13 9-1 40 . For

further information on concepts such as the five flavors or encompassing

three and returning to one, see Chappell , especial ly 55-82.

49 . For concise discussions, see Minoru Kiyota, Shingon Buddhism (Tokyo

8c Los An geles: Budd hist Books International, 1983) , 81 -1 04 ; M atsunaga,

Foundation

of

Japanese

Buddhism, 1:

184—193;

Yamasaki Taiko , Shingon: Japanese

Esoteric

Buddhism

(Boston and Londo n: Shambhala Press, 1988) , 12 3- 15 1.

50 . Follow ing Iwahashi,

Hanazono tenno,

136-137 .

51.

HTS

1323/7/11, 1324/3/25, 1324/6/16.

52. HTS 1323/7/15.

53. HTS 1323/7/11, 7/14, 7/15, 7/18. Also Iwahashi, Hanazono tenno,

136-138 .

54 .

HTS

1324/6/16.

55.

HTS

1324/8/20, 21 , 23 , 24 , 1325/5/19; 1324 /12/21.

56 .

HTS

1325/8/21.

57.

For Hanazo no's letters to Jigen th rou gh 1331 , see Shinhan eiga,

1:149-155. J igen became head betto) of Kitano shrine in 1328. H e was ap

pointed Tendai abbot

zasu)

by G o-D aigo in 133 0/4 (resigning in 1 330/11 ),

just after the Imperial progress to Enryakuji and in the middle of the period

wh en Go -Da igo w as actively wo rking to build his links with Enryakuji. Jigen's

sympathies were sufficiently with the Emperor that he was arrested by the

bakufu in the wake of Go-D aigo's m ove against it (the Genko Incident) in 1331

{HTS 1332/2/6).

58.

T h e informa tion in this section is drawn from Iwasa M iyoko,

Kyogoku

ha waka no

kenkyu (Tokyo , 19 87) , 1 00 -1 12 . I am indebted to Professor Robert

Huey of the University of Hawaii at Manoa for bringing this work to my

attention.

59. T h e work appea rs in print for the first time in Iwasa, 1 12 -1 17 . Iwasa

presents a convinc ing argum ent that the work was authored by H anaz ono ,

whereas previous biographers (such as Iwahashi, 140-141, who had been

unable to examine the text) have been reluctant to acknowledge that more

than the postscript was written by Hanazono. Confirmation of Hanazono's

autho rship, and that in conse qu enc e h e was given the seal of esoteric transmis

sion, buttresses Iwahashi's view (Iwahashi, 138), based on a letter from

Ha nazon o to Jigen sent around 1331/8

Shinkan eiga,

1:155), that Hanazono

must have received the esoteric transmission prior to that date. Iwahashi

implies that the seal was granted by Jig en , and it is of cou rse by no m eans

impossible that Hanazono received the seal from more than one teacher. At

any rate it is clear that he did receive it from Shinso.

6 0 . Iwasa, 113-114.

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58

JIABSVOL. 12 NO. 1

6 1 .

HTS 1321 /8/19. H er e we m ust ma ke allowa nce for the fact tha t the

diary has full year entries prior to this only for 1313 and 1319. Stil l , the total

absence of references to Zen is striking.

6 2 . For H an azo no 's fulsome praise of Suk etom o's ta lents see

HTS

1319/

intercalary 7/4 . For a discussion of Suketomo and his t imes, see Inoue

Yosh inobu , "H ino Suke tom om sho ron ," in Kyoto da igaku bun gak ubu kokush i

kenkyushi tsu ed. , Akamatsu Toshihide kyoju taikan kinen kokushi ronshu (Kyoto,

1972),

581-595; Goble , "Go-Daigo and the Kemmu Res tora t ion , "

6 2 - 7 3 .

6 3 .

N an po Jom in (1235 -1308 ) s tud ied un de r Ranke i Doryu (Lan-ch i

Tao-lung, 1213-1278) , went to China, and upon his re turn establ ished his

own flourishing school, initially at Sufukuji in Chikuzen. He was later recog

nized as a nat ional master with the t i t le Daio Kokushi . The Zen teachers

Hanazono is known to have met were , with one except ion, f rom this l ineage:

Shuho Myocho (1238-1338, Daito Kokushi) ; Zekkai Sotaku (d . 1334); Tsuo

Kyoen (1257-1325 , Fusho Daiko kokush i ) , and Kanzan Egen (1277-1360 ,

Muso da ish i ) . The excep t ion i s Myogyo (Gatsur in Doko , 1293-1351 , pos thu

mously Kenko Daito kokushi) , Hanazono 's f i rs t teacher . Myogyo had ini ta l ly

been a disciple of Koho Kennichi (1241-1316) in Kamakura , but af ter Koho 's

death he went to Kyoto and developed very close ties to Myocho.

6 4 .

See Goblc , "Chinese In f luences in the Emperor Hanazono Diary . "

For some of the intellectual tensions involved in the reception of Zen in Japan,

see Pollack, The Fracture of Meaning, 111-133. For Ha nazo no ' s com m ent see

HTS 1322/7/27.

65 .

HTS 1320/4/28. For biographical inform ation o n M yogyo see Tsuj i

Z e n n o s u k e , Nihon bukkyoshi, chusei 2 (Kyoto, 1949) , 244-247, and notes 63

above and 69 below.

66 .

T h e diary reco rds only two m eetings between 1320/4/28 and 1321/8/

19:

1320/10/12, 1320/10/24.

6 7 . HTS 1321/8/19.

6 8 .

HTS

132 1/12 /11, 12/14, 12/25.

69 .

(1321/12/26) H an az on o jo ko shojo (A7, 36:27 927 ) . Alt hou gh by the

t ime of Myogyo 's re tu rn in 1330 H an azo no was a disc iple of Myocho , the two

did remain in con tac t , and Hanazono gave some suppor t to Myogyo when

the latter was successfully turning Kyoto's Chofukuji into a Rinzai temple.

Ind eed , Ha na zon o even com posed a poem pra is ing Myogyo . See a l so 1346/12/

25 Hanazono- in shosoku (Shinkan eiga,

1:157.

T h o u g h Kamakura ibun,

3 6 : 2 7 9 2 8 ,

suggests that this letter should be dated 1321/12/26, I have elected

to follow Shinkan eiga). In recognition of his work, in 1357 Myogyo was post

humously granted the nat ional master t i t le of Kenko Daito kokushi .

70.

HTS 1322/3/10.

7 1 . T h e Chronicle of Daito Kokushi, entry for 1316, in Kraft, "Zen Master

Daito ," 277.

72 .

HTS 1323/5/23, 1323/9/14, 9 /16. T ho u g h the f irst rec ord ed m eet in g

took place on 1323/5/23, H an az on o notes that th eir d iscussion was "as before ,"

though he does not g ive any indicat ion of how long before . For a discussion

of the con tac t be tween H ana zon o and Myocho , see a lso T am am ur a Take j i ,

"Hanazono tenno to Dai to kokush i , " in h is Nihon zemhushi ronshu (Kyoto,

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1976) , 303-314. For a s tudy of Dai to, see Kraf t , "Zen Master Dai to."

73. HTS 1323/7/19.

74.

HTS

132 3/10/18, 1323 /12/14. Tsuj i ,

N ikon bukkyo shi,

249, sugges ts

that the Mumonkan r eference i s to nu m be r 13 , the "To ku san C ar r i ed His

Bowls"

koan.

See also Shibayama Zenkei

Zen Comm ents on the Mum onkan

(New

York: Harper and Row, 1974) , 99-100.

75. HTS 1323/12/14. "Pea r ls scat tered on the back of a no tebo ok bo un d

in pear ls" i s more l i teral ly "Pear ls scat tered on the back of a notebook bound

in th in purple c lo th ." The word for " th in purple c lo th" i s shira, which was

also an older term for "pear ls ." Accordingly the reply contains a wordplay

which 1 hav e t ran s lated in the text s ince it gives pe rh ap s a bet ter f lavor for a

Zen

mondo.

Zekkai Sotaku (d. 1334) was Nanpo Jomin's oldes t disciple, and

Myocho's senior . He began his t raining at Manjuj i in Bungo, then s tudied

un de r Jo m in at Sufukuji in C hiku zen unt i l 1306 wh en he w ent to Kyoto to

become the 7th abbot of Manjuj i . He later served as 2nd abbot of Ryushoj i ,

four th abb ot of Nan zenj i , and f rom ear ly 1333 unt i l his de ath the following

year was hea d of Jochi j i in K am ak ura .

76. Kraft , 282 . T h e exc han ge is in the Chronicle of

Daito

Kokushi for the

year 132 1, but th e dat in g is clear ly wro ng . T h e Chronicle (Kraft , 27 7) has

ano t he r exchange under t he yea r 1316 : "On ano t he r ocas i on t he Emper o r

asked the Mas ter , 'W ho is the m an w ho does not acco m pany the myr iad

dharmasY The Mas ter waved the f an in h i s hand and sa id 'The Imper ia l wind

will fan the earth for a long t ime." '

77. Discussed in Kraf t , 113-119.

78. Kraf t , 117. Kyoen's death clear ly shocked people. As Hanazono

notes , reveal ing an interes t ing s idel ight on condi t ions of the t ime, "Some say

that he was ki l led by a robber , others say that he was murdered on the road.

I t is not known who did i t . I t is jus t inexp l icable. (I la ter he ar d that his b eing

m ur d e r e d was an empt y r um or . H e si mply d ied s udden l y ) . "

(HTS

1325/int

1/28).

Kyoen (12 57 -13 25 ) , an oth er d isc ip le of Na np o Jo m in, s tudied a t

Sufukuji in Chikuzen, then, l ike Zekkai Sotaku, went to Manjuji and later , at

E m pe ror G o-Daigo ' s ins t ruc t ion , be cam e e ighth a bbot of Nanzenj i . In h i s last

years he served as Zen master to Go-Daigo, who bes towed upon him the t i t le

Fusho Daiko kokushi .

79 . 132 5 /2 / 2 9 Ha naz on o j oko inzen (Dai Nihon Komonjo, Daitokuji monjo,

[ com p. To ky o Daigaku Shi ryo Hensa njo , 14 vols , To ky o, 194 3-19 85] 1:12);

1337/8 /2 6 H ana zon o j ok o s h i nkan o k i bumi (DNK, Daitokuji monjo, 1:2). For

Hanazono ' s cont inuing contac t wi th Dai tokuj i and Myoshin j i through h i s pa

t r onage o f Kanzan Egen ( 12 77- 1360) , who became Hanazono ' s Zen t eache r

af ter Myocho's death, see Kraf t op. cit., especially 107ff., an d 1347/7/22

H a n a z o n o j o k o s h i n k a n o k i b u m i (Shinkan eiga,

1:162),

1347 / 7 / 2 9 Hanazono

j oko s h i nkan ok i bumi (Shinkan eiga, 1:163).

80 . 1325/10/2 , 1325/10/10 . T h e ques t ion of M uso Soseki' s (127 5-13 51)

competence has a t t r ac ted the a t t en t ion of many commenta tor s , but h i s c ruc ia l

role in the ins t i tut ional izat ion of the Rinzai Zen monast ic ins t i tut ion i s beyond

di spu te . See Ak am atsu To shih ide &: Phi l ip Yampolsky, "Mu rom ach i Zen a nd

the Goza n Sys tem," in J .W . H all & To yo da Tak eshi , Japan in the Mu romachi

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6

J I A B S V O L . 1 2 N O . 1

Age,

322-324; Col lcutt ,

Five Mountains,

84 ff., 15 1- 16 5; Pollack,

The

Fracture

of Meaning,

1 1 1 - 1 3 3 .

81.

T he d ecision to designate Daitokuji as a closed temp le was actually

made by Go-Daigo (1334/1/28 Go-Daigo tenno rinji , DN K, Daitokuji monjo,

1:15) but Hanazono also accepted the decision (1337/8/26 Hanazono joko

shinkan okibumi) DN K, Daitokuji monjo, 1:2). For the context of Go-Daigo's

patronage, see Goble, Go-Daigo and the Kem mu Restoration, 11 2-1 20 ,

28 8- 30 7; Collcutt, 84 -9 7; Kraft, 12 5-1 37 ; Akamatsu Yampolsky, 324 -3 25 .

82. H TS

1323/11/1, 11/20, 12/10, 12/14 , 1325/2/9 ,2/23,4 /29,7/17,8/24 .

Also Kraft, 133-134.

83.

T h e translation is Kraft's, Zen Ma ster Daito, 29 9 and 35 3 no te 50 .

Also Shinkan eiga,

1:158

159; DNK, Daitokuji monjo, 13:3207.

8 4 .

Kraft, 111.

85. Ha naz ono 's explicitly political and social views, as no ted m ost suc

cinctly in his Adm onitions to the Crown Prince Kaitaishi sho), written in 133 0,

will be the subject of a later study.

86. LaFleur,

88ff.

87.

See R. Huey,

Kyogoku

Tamekane:

Poetry and Politics in Late Kamakura

Japan

(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989)

88. HTS 1332/3/24.

89. T h e Fugashu FGS), com piled aroun d 1347 , was the 17th Im perial

poetry anthology. Though formally compiled under the direction of

H ana zon o, who wrote the Ch inese and Jap anese introd uctions to the collec

tion,

much of the actual work was done by ex-Emperor Kogon and Reizei

Tamehide (d. 1372). I have used the edition of Tsugita Kosho Iwasa Miyoko,

Fugaivahashu (Tokyo, 1974).

90. FGS,

20 63 , 207 3, 205 1, 2057 & 206 7. Th e latter two contain the

Hekiganroku references, repectively to cases 46 (see following note) an d 100

(the Haryo's Sword Against Which A Hair is Blown koan). Both are contained

in Sekida, Katsuki, Two Zen

Classics;

Mumonkan and Hekiganroku (New York

& To ky o: Weatherhill , 1977).

91 . FGS,

2057. For the Hekiganroku reference, see Katsuki Sekida, 273-

277. R. Brower E.

Miner,

Japanese Court Poetry (Stanford: Stanford University

Press, 1961), 388, provide a translation of this poem, but have attributed it

to ex-Emperor Fushimi (1265-1317).

92 . See L. Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (New

York: Columbia University Press, 1976), 293-302.

93 . FGS, 2046 . Translated by Brower Miner, 36 7.1 h ave drawn heavily

on their interpretation. For a slightly different rendering of the poem, see

G. Sansom,

A H istory of Japan: 1334-1615

(Lo ndo n: Cresset Press, 1961 ), 131 .

Sansom incorrectly suggests that the poem was included in Tamekane's

Gyokuyoshu of 131 2, leading him to note that H an azo no was still a you th but

older than his years.

94 .

Brow er & Miner, 36 8.

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EMPEROR HANAZONO AND BUDDHISM

Proper Names

Chih- i

v#

Chisho «t t

C h u g e n « *

Chusei ««

Daikakuj i *«*

Daio kokush i asses

Daito kokushi * « H «

Dai to kokushi

* « H W

Daitokuj i ***

D en gy o da ish i ««**w

Ddgen a TC

Enchin n*

Enryakuji ffi»*

Es h i n j»-ti>

Fujiwara Sh un zei «m *«

Gatsur in Doko

£**«

Genshin **

Go-Daigo «««

G o- F us h i mi

*<*•*

G o- U da »**

H a n a z o n o * «

Hieizan itRib

H i n o S u k e t o m o

B » * «

Hirosawa »»

H o n d o * «

H o n e n £ «

I kko s e ns hu - « * #

16 ft i

Ji if

J ie n (Jichin ) »ni <««>

J igen *«

Jimyo-in ft •aw

K ob o da ishi &&*»

Kongokai **ff

Kukai 2*

K y o g o k u T a m e k a n e

M i ide ra H # #

M uso Soseki a»«as

Myocho »«

Myogyo <*»

N a n p o j o m i n * * « w

N i c h ir e n B I

Ninnaj i c*#

Nyoku *D2

Otokan e»«m

Rinzai

a»

Saicho ittt

S a n r o n = »

S h i ngon * t

Shinran m«

Shinso l ie

Soki us

Soto »**

Ta imi t su a«

T a i z oka i »«*

T e nda i *a

Tomitsu *a?

T s uo K yoe n

J « M B

Zekkai So taku * • * *

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62

J IABSVOL.

12

NO . 1

Texts

Amida kyo

R » K H

B om m o kyo s ine

Ch ia- ta i p u d e n g lu « # * « «

Dainichi kyo * a «

D ain ich i kyo gi sh ak u *9tsi*iR

D ainichi kyo sho *Q «it

F u g a s h u » « *

H e k i g a n r o k u VMU*

Hitsuzo hoyaku ron

K « $ M M

H ok ke kyo *»ts

H o k k e h o n s h a k u

**A?R

Inkyo ««

I t c h o s h o - « »

J ic h in k a sh o m u so ki emftiM9Kie

J izo ho ng an kyo % «*««

Kammu ryo ju kyo

m.***«

Maka sh ikan « » ± »

Mo-ho sh ih -kuan

» H ± H

M u m o n k a n * n «

Ojo yoshu a ± » a

R yog a kyo fflfln«

Sa ishoo kyo u n i t s

Sen jaku ( h on g an ne m b ut su ) kyo >aiK (*•*»> *

Shichi ka ho m on kuketsu tas ttncm

Sh in kyo c«

Shittanji ki .««*«

Sho san jo d o kyo *. M a

±

«

Y uim a kyo tuna

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EMPEROR HANAZONO AND BUDDHISM 63

Terms

bekkyo

n

ft

b u p p o mm

c h u k a n + H

gonk yo mitsuk yo ««&»

gose ?**

goso Effl

hokke hakko mmiun

issh in sa n kan --ivriis

j i t sukyo *«

jo *

kegyo m'a

kuden 110;

m a p p o *&

m et su g o m a p p o ******

michi a

mujo

mm

obo l i t

ojo tt 4.

sankan :«9

sa nm its u a?

satori is

shikan chudo no chijo ryoku ±n*M.i.vvi>

shugyo ^fi

t endoku ««

yondo H*

yusui «»

zenkon »«

budism

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