5
The World of Religion in Ryojin hisho

Religion is at the heart of the extant Ryojin hisho . In all, songs on overtly religious themes constitute close to two-thirds of the anthology; and when related songs are factored in, the collection easily qualifies as a religion-oriented work. These songs can be roughly broken into three categories: those of Buddhist inspiration, those expressing Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, and those of Shinto origin.

Most of the songs having to do with Buddhism are concentrated in the homon uta section, though some are also scattered among the shiku no kamiuta , and a few examples are niku no kamiuta .^[1] Songs of a Shinto-Buddhist syncretic vein, by contrast, are predominantly shiku no kamiuta , with a smattering among the niku no kamiuta . Finally, Shinto songs are localized among the niku no kamiuta , especially in the jinja uta subsection. Given not only this distribution of religious thematic concerns, but also the physical organization of the anthology proper, we can say that shiku no kamiuta provides a transition from homon uta to niku no kamiuta .

In these songs various poetic responses elicited by religious concerns are articulated, sometimes in a sophisticated manner but often with child-like simplicity. The outcome of such a confrontation with the transcendental sometimes emerges as a happy affirmation of Amida's grace, though sometimes a deep inner turmoil at the realization of spiritual impairment counterbalances the mood. In the case of Shinto shrine songs, spiritual contact with the sacred is understood to be the source of a rich life here and now. In short, the religious songs in Ryojin hisho create a space in which the question of human spirituality is raised, its conditions are revealed, and certain messages are communicated, whether to resolve conflicts or to provide assurance and comfort.

Buddhism

The predominance of Buddhist themes in Ryojin hisho gave the anthology a reputation as "a miniature encyclopedia of Heian Buddhism seen through the form of songs."^[2] Indeed, because the songs were created to inform listeners about the fundamentals of Buddhism—the Buddhist canon, creeds, and precepts, as well as legends and stories about the pioneers in the history of the faith—most present these facts in expository rather than lyrical, and prescriptive rather than expressive, modes: a public rather than a private voice prevails.

In some cases, the songs are extremely elementary in their content. This does not necessarily mean simple; certain songs, particularly among the homon uta on the Lotus Sutra, are merely poetic quotations or paraphrases from Buddhist scripture devoid of emotional or subjective interpretation. This tendency is somewhat relaxed in the "Miscellaneous" subsection of homon uta , which contains a few songs (but only a few) that present personal religious sentiments, musings, or reflections. The exclusive bent toward the theoretical and ideational aspects of Buddhism, which is reinforced by the proselytizing spirit of the poems—especially those included in the homon uta section—makes the verses rather strained and unwieldy. This quality becomes understandable when we recall that homon uta derived mainly from wasan , various sutras, and other Buddhist oral traditions, all of which share in didacticism, and that some of their predecessors were performed in a religious ritual context where personal elements were eschewed.

Such requirements placed inevitable limits on the thematic range of the Buddhist songs in Ryojin hisho . Therefore, the uniqueness of any given song rests on the choice of the source text, the way it was appropriated, and the elements that were emphasized, rather than on any boldness or originality in exploring new thematic ground. Even so, it is important to remember that these songs, which may sound like platitude or naiveté when judged according to modern poetic standards or sensibilities, were accompanied by imayo music, which may have been as appealing and satisfying to late-Heian listeners as modern gospel music is to its audience.

Paeans of Buddhas

The Buddhist songs in Ryojin hisho present major luminaries in the colorful Buddhist pantheon, describing the divinities' abilities, powers, and spheres of activity. Indeed, these figures appear in bewildering number. Included are the Buddha and his two attendants, Monju (Skt., Manjusri, representing perfect wisdom) and Fugen (Samantabhadra, standing for truth and practice); Amida (Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light,

the Buddha of the Pure Land), also with his two attendants, Kannon (Avalokitesvara, Bodhisattva of Compassion) and Seishi (Mahasthamaprapta, Bodhisattva of Wisdom); Miroku (Maitreya, the Future Buddha), Yakushi (Bhaisajya-guru-vaidurya-prapbhasa, the Buddha of Medicine and Healing), and Jizo (Ksitigarbha, a bodhisattva who saves the souls suffering in hell); the Dainichi Nyorai (Mahavairocana, the Cosmic Buddha of the Shingon sect); and other divinities of the Shingon sect, such as Fudo(myoo) (Acala, the Immovable One), a messenger of Dainichi, and Kongosatta (Vajrasattva, Diamond-Being). Even more obscure deities such as Myoken (Sudrsti, Wondrous Seeing, Bodhisattva of the Pole Star) make an appearance.^[03] Strictly speaking, however, only the historical Buddha and Amida play a large role in the divine world of Ryojin hisho . These songs also provide a survey of the principal schools and cultic practices that developed in Japanese Buddhism over the centuries until the end of the Heian period, including both the Tendai, Shingon, and Amidist sects and the Kannon, Yakushi, and Jizo cults.

The Saga of Sakyamuni . The historical Buddha is a dominant presence in the Ryojin hisho Buddhist songs. This ubiquity may indicate the pedagogical purpose of the songs, that is, to direct the audience's attention to the basics of Buddhism, beginning with its founder. But a more likely explanation is that most of the songs are extracted from the Lotus Sutra, in which the Buddha is the central figure presiding over the divine assembly gathered on Eagle Peak to hear his ultimate teaching of the sutra. Inevitably, many songs operate on the assumption that the audience knows this background. The following song, which describes the very beginning of the Buddha's teaching of the Lotus Sutra on the mountaintop, is a case in point:

The immensity of the assembly on Eagle Peak and the vast power of the Buddha as a supernatural being are conveyed indirectly in the next

song, taken from the "Hotohon" (Apparition of the Jeweled Stupa), chapter 11 of the Lotus Sutra:

The rare, blissful state of mind attained by revelation of the transcendent Buddha is conveyed in two unusual examples of personal lyricism in Ryojin hisho Buddhist songs:

With the omnipresent cosmic Buddha as a backdrop, ever darkly making his presence known, it is nevertheless the Buddha as a historical being on which the Buddhist songs in Ryojin hisho focus. More than thirty songs, scattered irregularly among the homon uta and shiku no kamiuta , deal with the earthly life of the Buddha from his birth to his nirvanic entrance, including his genealogy and his relations with close disciples as well as stories drawn from the repertoire of jataka , which exalt his deeds in his previous incarnations. We see the person of the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, in human time and space; his humanity is what emerges most forcefully, rather than a remote and unapproachable divinity. The story-telling or anecdotal style attempts to hold the attention of the audience by

establishing narrative interest, within which framework essential personal facts about the Buddha can be communicated. The following song, which establishes the identity of the Buddha as a human being bound in a secular familial relationship, is one such example:

Another song relates the landmark decision by which Prince Siddhartha renounced the princely life and sought the way to the ultimate truth. Here again, the event is presented as a drama that unfolds within the context of the human network centering on the historical Buddha:

Some homon uta celebrate the historical Buddha's human origin by highlighting stories from his former existence. These are taken from the jataka story tradition, usually emphasizing the salutary karmic effect of his deeds in the previous life. In this way, the historical Buddha's life acquires additional moral dimension. The following homon uta , based on the sacrificial story about Prince Satta (Sattva or Makasatta) from the Konkomyo saishoo Sutra (Suvarna-prabhasa-uttamaraja sutra , Sutra of the Most Victorious Kings of the Golden Light),^[8] is one such example:

The first couplet comes from the story in the sutra in which Prince Satta, the youngest son of King Makarada, flung his body from a bamboo-covered cliff as food for a famished tigress with seven cubs. When his parents arrived at the forest in search of him, all they found was his robe hanging on the bamboo branches.^[9] As a poetic version of the jataka story, the song relates the sacrificial feat performed by the prince for the sake of an animal, not even for a human being, thereby illustrating the profound compassion of the historical Buddha in his previous incarnation. The second couplet, like song no. 207 cited above, derives from the story about Prince Siddhartha's departure from his father's palace to seek enlighten-ment. What is remarkable about this song is the parallelism used in presenting two momentous events in the lives of the Buddha. Also, by dwelling solely on the personal belongings left behind, the song plays on the popular Japanese concepts of katami (memento) and ato (trace). Katami are personal objects, places, or even progeny that served to recall the memory of a deceased person; they are found throughout Japanese literature, from Man'yoshu to Genji monogatari .^[10] Indeed, one of the earliest examples of Buddhist poetry in Japan, the so-called "Buddha's Footprints Sequence" of the mid-eighth century, uses this notion of making what is lost present by dwelling on what has been left behind.^[11] In the present homon uta , the simple objects left behind—robes and sandals—become poignant metaphors for the grief of the prince's parents and carry the emotional burden of the song.

Prince Siddhartha's ascetic practices that followed his renunciation of the world are chronicled in yet another homon uta :

Sakyamuni's enlightenment and his attainment of buddhahood, the climax of his religious pursuit, are captured in the following song, which brings them into sharp relief through the contrast between the cosmic darkness around him and the implied inner light of his awakening:

The Buddha's teaching career, which ensued from his awakening, figures in another homon uta about the fabled site of his retreat, the Jetavana Monastery, popularly known in Japan as the Gion Temple:

This poetic synopsis of the legend surrounding the foundation of the monastery is a tribute to the Buddha's persuasive religious influence during his teaching career.

The humanization of the historical Buddha is also evident in the following song, which relates the warm and legendary relationship between him and his cousin Ananda, who accompanied him as personal attendant throughout his teaching career until the Buddha's death:

Ananda's devotion to the Buddha was indeed proverbial.^[15] His constant presence near the Buddha and his superb power of memory later helped the Buddhist community commit the Buddha's oral teachings to writing through Ananda's recitation, thereby contributing invaluably to the formation of Buddhist written canon.^[16] By presenting him and the Buddha in terms of their intimate familial ties, however, the song calls attention to the human side of the Buddha.

Songs in the homon uta section include some details about the circumstances surrounding the Buddha's last days. Like other songs about the

life of the Buddha, these contain a setsuwa flavor, presenting the event in terms of human interaction and quasi-historical facts. The following song is adopted from the popular story that the Buddha's illness and eventual death were caused by food he took from Cunda, a smith, in Pava:^[17]

Upon eating the food, which was conjectured to be pork, the Buddha was taken violently ill. But, mindful of the blame Cunda might get, he told Ananda that Cunda should feel no remorse for what had happened.^[19]

Mortally ill, the Buddha, in the company of the ever-present Ananda, now headed toward Kusinagara, the ultimate destination of his earthly journey, and entered the Sala Grove. There, after teaching one last time, he passed away. The following song narrates this final moment of the historical Buddha's passing into nirvana, bringing his hagiography to a close in the homon uta section:

After the Buddha's mortal passing, the homon uta focus briefly on ensuing events, especially those involving his disciples of the first order: Mahakasyapa (or Kasyapa) and Ananda. Mahakasyapa, one of the Four Great Disciples, is traditionally credited with having convened the "First Council of Elders" and with having played a key role in the establishment of Sangha as a religious institution.^[21] From the council presided over by Mahakasyapa, it is believed, the basic canons of Buddhism evolved, clarifying the Buddhist community's disciplinary guidelines and ideological framework.^[22] Mahakasyapa was, in this sense, the first patriarch of the Buddhist ecclesia. The homon uta , however, are mute about Mahaka-

syapa's heroic achievements in Buddhist officialdom. Rather, a less glorious landmark in his career—the disastrous fact that he was the only important disciple to miss the moment of his master's death—is presented. It seems as if the song found Mahakasyapa's failure and his hidden personal anguish more appealing:

A similarly frustrating incident in the lives of the Buddha's disciples is presented in another song about Ananda. According to popular anecdote, Ananda, despite his close association with the Buddha, was not immedi-ately admitted to the First Council of Elders because he had not yet attained the status of arhat . Thus rejected by the Sangha and put to task by Mahakasyapa, Ananda exerted himself all night long and, at dawn, finally achieved awakening, whereupon he was accepted by the council and proceeded to participate in the formation of the canon.^[24] The song, based on this quasi-legend, empathizes with the initial shame and insult Ananda personally suffered—all too human and understandable:

The continuing chronicles of the Buddha and his close associates end with the following song, a poetic adoption of apocryphal stories about Mahakasyapa. According to these sources, after his official work was completed, Mahakasyapa, carrying the robe that the Buddha had given him as a token of his mandate to preach Dharma, retired to Mount Kukkutapada (Cock's Foot) in Magadha, where he is said to have entered into a nirvanic state waiting for the coming of the future Buddha, Mai-

treya.^[25] This cultic veneration of the leading disciple of the Buddha is encapsulated thus:

The narrative impulse behind the homon uta on the Buddha, some of which are based on popularly known stories, makes the most of the setsuwa style.^[28] Although dominant in these biographical songs is the desire to inform and educate the audience, it is mediated by a concern to engage the interest of the audience. Consequently, the songs impart knowledge not abstractly, but through concrete and entertaining narratives. Their enumeration of basic facts, moreover, suggests an original catechist setting. They met the needs of their audience for simple, fundamental religious information by putting it in question and answer form, easy to memorize and recall. Most important, they show the Buddha as a temporal being, existing in historical human time, space, and relation-ships. The final purpose of the setsuwa technique as it is used here, in other words, is to collapse the gap between the sacred person of the Buddha and ordinary men by demonstrating his humanity.

The following homon uta announces this identity of the Buddha with common humanity, thereby giving ordinary men hope for achieving a spiritual status like his:

The Grace of Amida . Next to the historical Buddha, Amida dominates the religious world in Ryojin hisho , providing another leitmotif and an additional spiritual dimension to the anthology. In fact, some of the most memorable songs in Ryojin hisho are related to Amida pietism, their central concern being the question of salvation. The few religious songs with personal lyricism belong to this category. In some cases, as in the following homon uta , the religious sentiment reaches a level of profound nobility in its conception and overtone:

Metaphorically, of course, dawn is a time of spiritual awakening. The appeal of the song comes from the speaker's ability to face his or her spiritual infirmity calmly and without illusion.

Another song is more explicit in voicing the same concern about salvation, this time from a pronounced Amidist perspective. These songs stand apart from other homon uta in that they personalize the issue of salvation, in sharp contrast to the impersonal teaching found in a number of homon uta .

The unconditional proposition of Amidism, which offers salvation through the simple verbalization of one's faith in Amida's grace, had a special appeal for the masses. The common people, who lacked the time and means enjoyed by aristocrats to pursue elaborate religious practices, were powerfully drawn by the compassion embodied in Amida's vows. The popularity of Amidism gained further momentum during the latter part of the Heian period as the idea of the mappo (the age of the Degenerate Dharma) spread, fanned by political and social upheavals. This influence of Amidism on the popular mind is clear in the songs of Ryojin hisho , as in the following homon uta on the essence of Amida's soteriological proposition:

The "vows" here refer to Amida's original forty-eight vows, especially the eighteenth, in which he pledges to postpone his buddhahood until he receives all living beings into his Western Pure Land—the fundamental basis for Amida pietism.

Echoing the same formulaic phrase of the preceding song, tanomoshiki (trustworthy), another song reaffirms the unconditional salvation to be achieved by simple trust in Amida:

This song expresses the epitome of Amidism: the contrast between the potential magnitude of the human infraction and the simplicity of the requirement for salvation. The Amida cult proposes a boundless expansion of the radius of salvation. This formulation radically changes the conventional notion of salvation by one's personal effort (jiriki ), posing instead reliance on other-power (tariki ) as the means to salvation.

As a variation on the same theme, the following niku no kamiuta describes the result of refusing to put one's trust in Areida:

The speaker of this homon uta pleads for assurance of Amida's salvation at his or her death:

A wistful longing for salvation purely through Amida occupies the mind of the speaker in another niku no kamiuta :

The following song approaches Amida pietism by means of several concrete metaphors drawn from nature in an attempt to naturalize the supernatural and render the sacred in concrete and familiar terms. By equating Amida's physiognomy with what each season offers as its most pleasing features, the song suggests the felicity to be derived from faith in him:

The invaluable spiritual riches to be had in the heavenly realm by salvation through Amida's compassion are projected into a sketch of Amida's palace decorated with precious gems in this homon uta :

In a fanciful flight, the speaker in the following shiku no kamiuta even discovers the praise of Areida in the chirping of insects:

The song plays on the word hataoru mushi (weaving insect), a variant of hataorimushi , which is an old form of kirigirisu (grasshopper). Since hataoru is an engo of koromo (clothes, robe), grasshoppers are associated with weaving. By equating the urgency of the short-lived insects' chirpings with nembutsu chanting by Areida followers, the speaker suggests the prevalence of Areida pietism in his time, which embraces even lowly creatures.

In a radically different mood, the following niku no kamiuta invokes Areida's protection from ghosts at night. The repetition of namu ya (hail) adds an incantatory urgency to the song. The song displays an amalgam of folk belief and Amidism, and perhaps a sense of humor as well:

Amida songs in Ryojin hisho , which range from fine personal lyricism to childlike chants, serve as an index to the variety of poetic responses to religious issues. In so doing they demonstrate the scope of Amidist influ-

ence throughout Heian society and the delight its members take in singing about their faith. The songs as a unit provide a new strain in Ryojin hisho , less abstract and much closer to the heart of their audience than doctrinal or pedagogic homon uta .

The Cults of Kannon, Yakushi, and Jizo . What pulses through the songs of praise to Kannon, Yakushi, and Jizo in Ryojin hisho is the spirit that is also central to Amidism: the notion of salvation through dependence on other-power rather than on personal merit. Although constituting only a handful, these songs continue the populist interpretation of salvation as something given, not striven after, and therefore all the more to be praised and to be grateful for. Underlying the cultic veneration in these songs is a keen awareness of the infirmity, weakness, and helplessness of human beings, which can be overcome only by divine intervention. In turn, their human limits require of believers absolute surrender to the power that willingly takes up the task of setting them free. This continuing interest in the intercessory role of the divine strengthens the other-power leaning in Ryojin hisho .

The following song about Kannon, one of Amida's two attendants, praises his compassionate readiness to help men gain spiritual emancipation:

Kannon is believed to assist people in distress, especially seafarers, by leading them to safety from his residence on Mount Potalaka.^[33] Although here Kannon's saving grace is set against an exotic Indian cosmology, it is made concrete and immediate by the metaphor of the "raft," something commoners can easily identify with.

The following homon uta conveys the same sentiments:

Among the various forms of this divinity, the Thousand-armed Kannon is a special object of veneration. In another homon uta , his revitalizing power is praised through the image of rejuvenated plant life:

In contrast to the other-worldly character of Amida's salvation, which usually occurs after death, that of Yakushi, "Master of Medicine," is this-worldly and corporeal. The following two homon uta forthrightly extol the healing power of Yakushi:

The word tanomoshiki links these songs to other Amida songs with the same rhetoric and theme—that is, the importance of relying on other-power.

In the following homon uta , the recognition of one's sinfulness and

need for salvation is this time addressed to Jizo, who is powerful enough to set even those in hell free:

The speaker, knowing the gravity of his or her transgressions, understands that salvation can be realized only through Jizo's compassionate help. The persuasiveness of the song comes from the speaker's frank admission of hopelessness and of the necessity that an outside power intercede. All these cultic songs are thus based on the realization of the believer's unregenerated condition and trust in the redemptive power of the divine, which, though often magnanimous, operates on the believer's extremely simple faith in such possibilities.

Buffhshood for All

The message of universal salvation is the main thrust of the Lotus Sutra itself. Similarly, the religious songs in Ryojin hisho reaffirm the avail-ability of buddhahood to all who aspire to that ideal. All forms of human effort and activity have validity as means of achieving this goal. The following homon uta , based on the "Expedient Devices;' chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, suggests that even frivolous actions like children's play can become a means for achieving buddhahood:

Salvation is open to all. Side by side with the disciples of the Buddha, men of limited knowledge and low status also receive the same promise. In another homon uta , this one based on the "Jukihon" (Bestowal of Prophecy), chapter 6 of the Lotus Sutra, in which the Buddha prophesied

that his Four Great Disciples would attain buddhahood, we find a celebration of this privilege of universal salvation:

The contrast between the august shidaishomon (Four Great Disciples), imposing and high-sounding in Chinese loan-words, and the humble,. anonymous warera (we) in Japanese vernacular drives the message home.

The wish of ordinary men to benefit from universal salvation is ex-pressed in the next homon uta . It draws upon chapter 5 of the Lotus Sutra, "Yakusoyuhon" (Medicinal Herbs), in which the Dharma is likened to a shower of rain, falling equally on all vegetation to bring it to bloom and bear fruit:

The use of the word bonbu (common men), unprecedented even in imayo and here reinforced by the pronoun warera , conveys the collective religious aspiration of the common people. The same word warera connects this song to the preceding one conceptually as well as linguistically.

One issue of crucial importance to universal salvation is that of evil. We considered this problem briefly with regard to the intervention of Amida and other divine powers, yet the concern persists throughout Ryojin hisho . The following three songs raise the subject of transgression openly. In particular, they address the quandary faced by common people engaged in occupations such as fishing and hunting, which by their nature require violation of the Buddhist prohibition against taking life. Here, the problem of evil and salvation is not abstract, but part of life's ordinary

reality. The speakers' plights are revealed in these confessions, some of the most frank and direct in Ryojin hisho :

The impact of these songs comes from the intensity of religious self-awareness, as expressed in the gripping sense of guilt and fear. Cormorant fishermen use a peculiar method, alluded to in these songs: they tie the necks of cormorants with strings to keep the birds from swallowing their catch; once the birds return to the boat, the fish are forced out of the cormorants' throats and become the fishermen's own catch. The fishermen in turn kill turtles to feed their birds. Because turtles are associated with longevity and hence are considered a felicitous symbol, killing them is in

a way breaking a taboo.^[38] Given the Buddhist injunction against taking lives, the actions of the fishermen in any event constitute a transgression. Yet only in exchange for other animals' lives can they sustain their own. These Ryojin hisho songs capture that hapless dilemma. Similar songs were no doubt performed at special rites such as Kumano hakkoe (eight lectures on the Lotus Sutra in Kumano), held for the expiation of sins for those employed in taboo or polluting occupations associated with animal killing. It is believed that mountain ascetics (yamabushi ) with some Tendai training played an important role in performing this ritual for the fishermen and hunters in the Kumano region.^[39]

The concern with the relationship between evildoing and salvation in Ryojin hisho is evidenced by the large number of songs related to the twelfth chapter of the Lotus Sutra, "Daibahon" (Devadatta or Datta)—eighteen, more than for any other chapter.^[40] Devadatta, a cousin of Sakyamuni, represents a diabolical and irredeemable sinner. Estranged in his youth from Sakyamuni, Devadatta became his archenemy, relentlessly seeking to destroy him and disrupt his teaching. Eventually he was found guilty of five cardinal sins and was thrown into hell while still alive.^[41] Yet, as illustrated by the following song, he is assured of salvation:

Even more paradoxical is the fact that in a previous incarnation Devadatta had been the Buddha's mentor:

This claim is given more specificity and humanity in another song, which cites a jataka story describing the various arduous ways the Buddha served Asita:

The case of Devadatta represents the ultimate in the Mahayana interpretation of salvation. It proclaims the absolute certainty of universal salvation, even completely reversing the process of karmic retribution. It cancels the dichotomy of reality versus appearance, virtue versus vice, past versus present, sacred versus profane, and transgression versus sal-vation. This rejection of the conventional dualism nurtures the philosophy of tolerance that enables even the vilest of evildoers to achieve buddha-hood.

The need to recognize nirvana in samsara (the realm of transmigration) and the relative nature of perception is upheld in the following homon uta :

In conjunction with Devadatta, the personification of evil, Ryojin hisho deals with the salvation of women—who in Buddhism were considered no better off than transgressors. The focus is on the Naga Princess, daughter of the Dragon King Sagara, whose story occupies the second half of the Devadatta chapter.^[43] According to this account, Sariputra, the most brilliant of the Buddha's disciples, flatly rejected the possibility of women's attaining buddhahood on the basis of the "five obstacles," a concept stipulating the innate inferiority of women.^[44] Despite his objections, how-ever, the eight-year-old Naga Princess succeeded in attaining buddha-hood but only by relinquishing her sexuality and changing her body into male form, as symbolized in her offering of a jewel to the Buddha. This aspect of the story obviously reflects lingering reservations about women's potential to achieve salvation. But the fact that the Lotus Sutra addresses the issue at all, and even provides one successful case, was significant, for it represented a radical change from the centuries of prejudice against women enunciated by Buddhist scriptures and institutional practices.

Women, who were considered a necessary evil, had long posed an irksome problem to the Buddhist institution. An antifemale attitude arose early on, especially with the establishment of the vow of celibacy.^[45] Women ultimately came to represent the very entity against which the Buddhist order as a whole had to wage war:

Woman was portrayed as the purely sensual with uncontrollable de-sires in a number of early sectarian Buddhist texts.... Women represented limitations of human nature in much the same manner as Eve and Pandora, but woman glowed with a more intense sexual vitality and was the primeval force of fecundity, as she was in the Hindu religion. Unlike the Hindu Mother Goddess, however, the sexual energy was unequivocally repugnant in early Buddhist sects such as the Theravadin sect. What was feminine or sensual was samsara, the world of bondage, suffering, and desire, which led to cycles of rebirths. This world of the feminine had to be vanquished at all costs.^[46]

Early Buddhist texts like the Nirvana Sutra condemn women in the following terms: "The sum total of all men's sufferings put together from three thousand universes amounts to one single woman's sin." The same sutra says elsewhere: "Women are the devil's chief devouring all men; while in this world they coil around men, and, thus blocking men's path, they become men's bitterest enemy and foe in the next world."^[47]

Some scriptural sources went a step further and categorically denied

women any hope of salvation. The Shinjikankyo , for example, proclaimed that "although all the myriad buddhas' eyes from the three worlds of past, present, and future fall down onto the ground, there will come no time for women to become buddhas."^[48] It was within this conceptual framework that the notion of the "five obstacles" developed to finally obliterate women's chance for salvation altogether.^[49] Thus they were condemned to the realm of unenlightened existence, that of the six paths (the realm of gods, humans, devils, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell), caught in the continual process of birth, suffering, and rebirth with no hope of ever escaping these transmigrational cycles.

Seen against this backdrop, the message brought by the Lotus Sutra that women might achieve buddhahood would have been revolutionary. Ordinary women of Heian Japan certainly had little inkling of just how the theoretical arguments against women had evolved. But considering the fact that they were barred even from entering major temples, not to mention subjected to numerous other religious taboos, songs such as these would have had considerable impact on them. The following homon uta no doubt offered and confirmed such an altered religious vision for women, compressing the drama of the Naga Princess into four lines:

A shiku no kamiuta recaptures the same story, but with a colloquial verve befitting its origin in folk song:

The same message is repeated in two homon uta , but here the emphasis is on the power of the Lotus Sutra in helping one to achieve such a goal:

The following song expressly salutes the Naga Princess as an exemplar who was still relevant to Heian women and was to be emulated. At the same time, it challenges the Buddhist theories and prejudices against women by insisting that women do possess an inborn buddha nature:

To the common women of Heian Japan with their low social standing, not to mention the female performers of these imayo , who were of decidedly marginal social status, the message embodied in the narrative of the Naga Princess must have been welcome. Especially those asobi who made their living on the water's edge likely found poignant resonance in the story of the princess and her heroic feat.^[51] And it is presumably from songs such as these that women of the period learned possibilities for their spiritual salvation.

In Praise of the Lotus Sutra

The lofty tone in Ryojin hisho owes much to the group of songs that pay tribute to the power and efficacy of the Lotus Sutra. Together these songs exalt the absolute necessity of the scripture to the lives of its believers. Often the sutra provides miraculous benefits, both spiritual and material, a fact that reinforces undivided devotion to the holy text. There is a noticeable cultic streak in this veneration. In the following song, for instance, the lyric voice, knowing the rewards, expresses joy at having the rare privilege of hearing the sutra preached:

The following homon uta eulogizes the indispensable guiding role of the Lotus Sutra for its followers, using the symbolic contrast of the moon (the historical Buddha in nirvanic extinction) and sun (Maitreya, the future Buddha):

Another homon uta likewise underscores the centrality of the Lotus Sutra as a guide to its believers:

This song stands out among homon uta by virtue of its imagery and lexicon. One innovation is the use of the Japanese vernacular hachisu no hana in place of the sinicized renge for lotus blossom, a common motif in homon uta . Also, here we find a unique instance of plain and ordinary images such as ita (plank or board), kuki (stalk), and tsue (stave or staff) in homon uta songs of this nature. Finally, the lines are relatively free of Buddhist terms with their cacophonous clash; the result is a lightness of tone and an unstilted, smooth flow from one line to the next.

The practice of honoring the sutra is emphatically advised in chapter 19, "Hosshi kudokuhon" (The Merits of the Dharma-Preacher), where the text lists miraculous rewards that come to those who venerate the sutra:

If any good man or good woman shall accept and keep this scripture of the Dharma Blossom, whether reading it, reciting it, interpreting it, or copying it, that person shall attain eight hundred virtues of the eye, one thousand two hundred virtues of the ear, eight hundred virtues of the nose, one thousand two hundred virtues of the tongue, eight hundred virtues of the body, and one thousand two hundred virtues of the mind, by means of which virtues he shall adorn his six faculties, causing them all to be pure.^[52]

In short, the five activities of preserving, reading, chanting, explaining, and copying the sutra are primary forms of expressing veneration for the sutra. All these practices are considered equal in value and effect. Essentially, they stem from the desire to deify the sutra and hence ensure the propagation of the sutra, oral and otherwise. The following homon uta expresses the same message:

Some Ryojin hisho songs further illustrate direct and beneficial con-sequences of carrying out these counsels; for example:

The formulaic expression tanomoshiki (trustworthy) harks back to the homon uta on buddhas. Here, its use elevates the Lotus Sutra on a par with the Buddhist divinities.

In the following homon uta , a poetic conceit associates the merit of copying the Lotus Sutra with deer, introducing an unusual and pleasant change of pace:

Carrying out the fivefold practices, however, required economic means, time, and a certain degree of literacy and learning. In early Japan, there-fore, only the upper classes—imperial family, courtiers, priests—could follow the recommended procedures.^[53] Copying the sutra was an especially expensive proposition, and explaining the scripture, which presupposes

not only scholarship but also supreme dedication, was difficult even for aristocrats to do. Gradually, observance of the five practices began to be known among commoners, but their participation was necessarily limited. The basic option open to them was to attend occasional lecture meetings on the sutra, an activity that became increasingly popular during the Heian period.^[54]

In Ryojin hisho , the efficacy of listening to the sutra is stressed.^[55] Such an emphasis on listening, a passive and rudimentary act that does not even appear in the five prescribed measures, signifies a sharp lowering of the threshold for acquiring merits. Likewise, the playing down of the virtue of copying or explaining the sutra supports the view that the songs were aimed specifically at the unlettered laity, including women and commoners.^[56] The virtue of listening as a means of achieving salvation is proclaimed in the following song:

And this song strikes the same note:

The following song also celebrates the merits of listening to the Lotus Sutra, but in a more lyrical manner:

Unlike the more eulogistic homon uta , the next song expresses an overt cultic vision of the Lotus Sutra. It proclaims the value of the sutra in terms of its power to grant concrete, physical benefits, even medical help:

Another song, with its graphic details and bold pitch, proclaims the kind of reverence that the Lotus Sutra commands:

The importance that Ryojin hisho gives to the Lotus Sutra reflects the prevailing religious trend during the Heian period.^[59] The hokke-e (meetings on the Lotus Sutra) ritual, which revolved around the sutra, began to develop as early as 746 during the Nara period, when the abbot Ryoben (689-773) of Todaiji conducted the first such meetings. This was even before the establishment of the Tendai school, which is based on the Lotus Sutra. Not until the mid-Heian period, however, did interest in the Lotus Sutra begin to grow rapidly; sponsored by the nobility, Lotus Sutra-related events proliferated.^[60]

The most popular and widespread event was the hokke hakko , centering on the recital of the eight scrolls of the Lotus Sutra, usually in conjunction with memorial services for the dead. Fujiwara Michinaga was one of the

most famed promoters of such meetings; the hokke hakko held at his residence, Hojoji, were clear displays of his political and financial power. He is also believed to have performed the first ritual interment of copies of the Lotus Sutra text, in 1007 on Mount Kinbu, a practice that later became fashionable among the nobility during the insei period. Most important, Michinaga is thought to have created an entire subgenre of waka praising the Lotus Sutra.^[61] Other noble families vied with one another to conduct similar rites in the name of that hallowed sutra. Even Shinto shrines joined in, thereby contributing sizably to the syncretic interaction between Buddhism and Shinto.^[62] In this way the Lotus Sutra became an integral part of the upper classes' ritual practices during the Heian period.

Eventually hokke-e ritual activities filtered down to the common classes. The earliest such events performed for commoners reportedly took place in the Rokuhara Mitsuji Temple around the time of Kuya Shonin, in the latter half of the tenth century. These gatherings, which lasted several days and were open to all regardless of gender or social status, drew several hundreds of thousands. During the day priests lectured on the Lotus Sutra, while at night both clergy and the assembled masses engaged in chanting. The objective was not so much to memorialize the dead, as was the case with the aristocratic rites, but to teach the audience how to achieve spiritual salvation. In one gathering that lasted four days, the audience was divided into four groups—priests, men, women, and children—with one day allotted to each. Instead of expensive offerings to the temples, an integral part of the nobles' ceremonies, it was common for flowers to be dedicated. In the early decades of the eleventh century, the priest Gyoen (fl. 1018) is known for carrying out the same popular hokke hakko tradition in the Gyoganji Temple in the Heian capital.^[63]

Paralleling these gatherings in the capital, another type of hokke hakko designed for commoners began to be held in the countryside, particularly in the Kumano region. These Kumano hakko , called kechien hakko (eight lectures on the Lotus Sutra to establish ties with buddhas), supplemented chanting of the Lotus Sutra with ablution rites for fishermen and hunters, who made their living by killing animals. It is believed that yamabushi with some Tendai training played an important role in popularizing both the Lotus Sutra and kechien hakko among common people.^[64]

Thus the prominence of the Lotus Sutra in Ryojin hisho mirrors a broad religious trend of the Heian period. The poetry of the Lotus Sutra cult that appears in the songs is in fact an important cultural expression of the Heian Buddhist religious consciousness, especially designed for the instruction of those who might not otherwise have an opportunity to hear the good news contained in the sutra.

The following homon uta , filled with visionary calm, is representative of the reverence for the Lotus Sutra that resounds through Ryojin hisho :

The Ryojin hisho songs that relate to Buddhism endeavor to make the religion easy to understand and to show how to come closer to the divine. Such proselytizing efforts take the form of exhortation, coaxing, persuasion, and exemplification; they remove obstacles, arouse interest, and make listeners learn. In the end, the songs affirm the hope and possibilities of spiritual rebirth, as well as the need to let the message make its way into more hearts and minds. Belief in the oneness of human beings and the Buddha shines forth, as in this song:

Shinto-Buddhist Syncretism

The syncretic blend of Shinto and Buddhism, evolving from the Nara period on, represents an important development in both the religious consciousness and the history of Japan. While aiming at the harmonious coexistence of the two distinctive religious systems, the one indigenous, the other imported, the syncretic approach bred an array of new beliefs and observances based on what each component could offer. In this cross-fertilization, innovative notions about the divinities in both the Shinto and the Buddhist pantheon were spawned, with new dimensions being added to their nature, attributes, and power. New cults emerged focusing on ever more complicated combinations of these supernatural beings. The syncretic interaction caused the yamabushi and hijiri (holy men) traditions

to proliferate, which in turn accelerated the process of amalgamation of the two religions.^[66] Pilgrimage was similarly reinforced and also began to thrive, firmly establishing itself as an integral part of Japanese religious practice.

Syncretic advancement, however, was not limited to the religious realm. Its influence spread to other areas of culture, including the arts and liter-ature. The pictorial representation of sacred geography in terms of syncretic mandala is one distinctive by-product in the field of fine arts, for example, while the engi (origin myths of temples and shrines) experienced a similar efflorescence in the literary sphere.^[67] Ryojin hisho too, especially the shiku no kamiuta , reveals how the poetic imagination was inspired by the syncretic movement and how that energy was harnessed in lyrical modes.

Among motifs related to Shinto-Buddhist syncretism in Ryojin hisho , three occur with marked frequency: the concept of honji suijaku (original nature/trace manifestation), pilgrimage, and yamabushi and hijiri cults. Occupying considerable space in shiku no kamiuta , these topics convey another layer of religiosity embodied in the anthology.

Honji Suijaku

According to honji suijaku , indigenous Japanese deities are manifestations (suijaku , the traces left behind) of Buddhist divinities (honji , the original nature). Practically speaking, this meant selecting important gods from the Buddhist tradition and matching them with Shinto gods (kami ), then endowing the latter with the functions and capacities of the former. The deliberate effort to establish a correlation between Shinto and Buddhism resulted in the native kami being elevated to a metaphysical status they never had prior to contact with Buddhism. Simultaneously, it naturalized or acculturated Buddhism to the existing Japanese religious framework and outlook.

In what manner does the philosophy of honji suijaku find expression in Ryojin hisho ? We begin with a shiku no kamiuta that is in itself a poetic abstract of the concept:

This song establishes a correspondence between the powerful Shinto shrine of Hie and Enryakuji Temple, the center of the Tendai Buddhist sect in Japan. To present this syncretic relationship, the song plays on two phrases. The first one, consisting of ato (trace, jaku ) and tare (to drop, descend, sui ), renders honji suijaku in the Japanese vernacular. The second one is based on wako dojin (softening the radiance and becoming one with dust), a phrase used to explain the Buddha's historical appearance as a manifestation of the cosmic principle.^[69] In the third line of the song, namely, we find the words ko (light, hikari), wa (to soften, yawarage ), and jin (dust, chiri ), incorporating the meaning of wako dojin in one line. Thus the song suggests that the buddhas, having relinquished their transcendental existence (wako ), incarnated themselves as Shinto divinities (dojin )—synonymous with honji suijaku —and are working to spread the Buddha's teaching.

Of the diverse forms of syncretism found in Ryojin hisho , the Tendai-Hie correspondence, in which both major and subsidiary shrines in the Hie complex were matched with various Buddhist temples, is most conspicuous.^[70] Its prominence may in part reflect the strength of the actual alliance between the Tendai establishment and the Hie Shrine.

Traditionally, the Hie Shrine complex has been known as the Sanno (mountain king) system because of its links to the worship of nearby Mount Hiei. It consisted of twenty-one shrines, which were ranked ac-cording to primary, secondary, and tertiary status. With the rise of syncretism, all these shrines and their respective kami were matched with Buddhist divinities. The primary shrine of Omiya (Nishimotomiya), for instance, was linked with the historical Buddha; Ninomiya (Higashimotomiya) was identified with Yakushi; Shoshinji (Usamiya), with Amida; Hachioji (Oji or Ushiomiya), with Thousand-armed Kannon; and Ichido (Hayao), with Fudo.^[71] The Hie complex thus came to embody a comprehensive and elaborate systematization of Shinto-Buddhist syncretic inter-actions. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Sanno system was well represented in the jinbun (songs sung to Shinto deities) subsection of the shiku no kamiuta.

The following shiku no kamiuta , which identifies a number of shrines from the Hie complex as major Buddhist divinities, is a classic example of the Tendai-Sanno syncretism:

The song approximates a syncretic mandala in verse. First, the focus is on the top-ranking shrine of Omiya, where the most important ritual activities in the Hie complex were conducted. Accordingly, it is matched with Eagle Peak, the fabled site of the Buddha's preaching of the Lotus Sutra. The attention then shifts to the eastern base—that is, Ninomiya—which is identified with the Bodhi tree under which Sakyamuni achieved bud-dhahood. By specifically naming Sakyamuni and Yakushi (Buddha's attendant on his left), the verse reinforces that the two shrines are Omiya and Ninomiya. The third shrine, mentioned but not specified, is thought to be Shoshinji, which is paired with Amida. And the song ends by identifying Hachioji with the Thousand-armed Kannon, rounding out the Sanno syn-cretic mandala.^[73]

In contrast to that sweeping presentation of the entire Sanno system, the next song dwells at some length on each of a handful of shrines within the Hie complex:

Here, the phrase shujo (all living beings), a Buddhist diction, is appropriated to express the importance of the Shinto deity Ichido in the lives of the people, thereby establishing the Shinto-Buddhist correspondence through lexical borrowing.

The following song explicitly equates the main shrine of the Sanno complex, Omiya, with the Buddha, and its precincts with the Eagle Peak:

In some songs, the process of equation is reversed and Buddhist gods become part of the Shinto pantheon. In the next song, although the shrine in question is not specified, we can presume it is the Marodo Shrine in the Hie complex, which is identified with the Eleven-headed Kannon:

Syncretic rhetoric operates even in songs that praise the beauty of nature. In the following shiku no kamiuta , the scenic beauty of Lake Biwa in Omi region is praised from a Tendai-Sanno point of view. Here, the lake is described as a pond in the paradise of Yakushi, who supposedly resides on Mount Hiei (called Mount Tendai). The rich imagery is drawn from the usual Buddhist description of paradise, resulting in the Buddhistic sacralization of the Japanese secular landscape:

Similarly in another shiku no kamiuta , Mount Kinbu, the center for mountain asceticism, is perceived as the Tusita Heaven, the abode of Maitreya, and becomes a setting for the syncretic interaction of a female shaman (the speaker) and a pair of Buddhist monks:

The song depicts syncreticism in action. When the female shaman failed in her performance of the Shinto ritual task, the Buddhist priests took over and successfully carried it through. In this cooperation, Shinto and Buddhism are melded—though the song may seem to suggest the sha-man's surprise and wonder at the superior power of the monks.

Syncretism marks the Shinto shrines in the Kumano area as well, whose major divinities likewise were matched with those in the Buddhist pantheon. The Kumano sanzan (Kumano triad), for example—Hongu (Ketsumiko-gami), Shingu (Hayatamamiya), and Nachi (Yui no Miya)—were paired with Amida, Yakushi, and the Thousand-armed Kannon, respectively. Accordingly, the triad was also called Kumano sansho gongen (the three avatars of Kumano).^[75] Here, the term gongen means the Buddha's incarnation in the borrowed form of kami and so is equivalent to suijaku . Gradually, the Kumano syncretism absorbed nine additional locally worshiped Shinto divinities, allotting to each of them a Buddhist counterpart; they were called Kumano juni gongen (the twelve avatars of Kumano).^[76] Knowledge of this syncretic development in Kumano is reflected in the following shiku no kamiuta on Nyakuoji, who corresponds to the Eleven-headed Kannon:

The light tone and even the meaning of the song derive from two key words: waka (young), in the name of the bay, appears also in its sinicized version, nyaku , as part of the name of the shrine. The semantic interplay between the two words lends further depth to the song: we now see "a young lord, residing on the young bay, who will not be affected by the passage of time."

The next shiku no kamiuta is based on an implied correspondence

between the Shinto deity of the Nyakuoji Shrine and the compassionate Kannon:

This song is reminiscent of homon uta no. 37, in which Kannon is compared to a rafter.

Given the dominance of the honji suijaku concept in Ryojin hisho songs, especially in shiku no kamiuta , we can see that by the late Heian period the syncretic view of Buddhism and Shinto was spreading rapidly among the masses.^[78] To their credit, some shiku no kamiuta display a firm command of honji suijaku and even manage a certain degree of poetic conceit—no small feat, considering the difficulty of establishing correct correspondence between the various divinities, particularly in such a limited space. These shiku no kamiuta highlight the double religious world in which their poets lived and sang—their own religious internationalism, so to speak.

Popular Pilgrimage

Like many religious practices, the pilgrimage is a mechanism created to bring men into close contact with the divine. What makes the pilgrimage unique is its requirement that devotees physically separate themselves from their familiar, mundane environment and subject themselves to a ritualistic regimen in specific locations far from home. That is, whereas other religious observances, such as prayer, scripture reading, and fasting, can be carried out at home, a pilgrimage is not legitimate until a believer has left home and stayed in sacred sites.

Devotional journeying has a long history in Buddhism. The earliest significant historical precedent for pilgrimage in the Buddhist tradition is generally attributed to King Asoka (ca. 268-233 B.C. ) of India, who reportedly erected numerous sacred stupa and paid homage to them through periodic visits.^[79] Other celebrated Buddhist pilgrims in East Asia include Hsüan-tsang (596-664) of T'ang China, who went to India, and Saicho, Kukai, Ennin, and Enchin of the early Heian period, all of whom endured difficult journeys to China and then made numerous pilgrimages to sites

within that country. By their personal examples, these Japanese priests are believed to have begun the Buddhist pilgrimage tradition in Japan.

The practice of pilgrimage in Japan combined native mountain worship with the Buddhist focus on visiting sacred locales. It was further reinforced by the honji suijaku notion, in which the mountain kami took on the physical manifestations of Buddhist divinities. Therefore, "pilgrimages to these mountains, accompanied and guided by the experienced mountain ascetics, were believed to bring favours from both the Shinto and Buddhist divinities simultaneously."^[80] The making of pilgrimages reached its zenith toward the end of the Heian period, coinciding with the wide spread of Amidism, which, as we have seen, identified the Kumano area with Ami-da's Pure Land and the southern seashore of that region with Kannon's Mount Potalaka. Even within the sacred compounds, syncretic religious vision regulated the view of the holy ground:

In these mountains, certain areas around the temple are designated as representing jigoku ("hell") and gokuraku ("pure land" or "paradise"); worshipers are expected to go through the former before entering the latter. In this manner the historic Buddhist notion of perpendicular cosmology, consisting of the three levels of heaven, earth, and underworld, has been reinterpreted to fit into the indigenous religious view of the Japanese.^[81]

As a rule, pilgrimage sites in Japan were tucked away deep in the mountains or perched on nearly inaccessible precipices, as in the mountains of Yoshino and Kumano to the south of the capital. These forbidding locations required of the pilgrims determination, physical strength, firm belief in the undertaking, and sometimes even their lives. The popular expression mizu no sakazuki (the farewell cup of water), referring to the last drink shared by a pilgrim with those left behind, emerged from this recognition that the traveler might not return alive.^[82]

In Ryojin hisho , various aspects of pilgrimage are revealed. One dominant theme concerns the physical hardship of such journeys; this is exemplified in four clustered songs in the shiku no kamiuta section, all of which are related to Kumano pilgrimage. For instance:

Here the play on the honji suijaku relationship between the avatar (Kumano Hongu) and Amida, conjured up by the reference to lotus-blue eyes, makes the pilgrim's plea doubly beseeching, hinting at the difficulties he or she expects to encounter along the way.

Another shiku no kamiuta on the pilgrimage to Kumano expresses the pilgrim's hardship but with an imaginative conceit:

Even a short pilgrimage from the capital to the Yawata Shrine, another name for the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, was not easy, as this song suggests:

Here, too, we find evidence of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism, this time in the speaker's address of Hachiman, the powerful Shinto military god, as "Great Bodhisattva."^[84] Furthermore, the speaker's qualms about the pilgrimage expressed in the phrase mairan to omoe do mo (though I would like) connects this shiku no kamiuta with the preceding song in terms of mood and content.

The best-known pilgrimage sites, besides those on the way to Kumano, were on the long circuit routes of the Saikoku Thirty-three Pilgrimage (Saikoku sanju-san reijo ) and the Shikoku Eighty-eight Pilgrimage (Shikoku hachiju-hachi reijo ).^[85] The Saikoku pilgrimage, which comprehended thirty-three temples of Kannon, was especially popular among common-ers.^[86] As they traveled, the pilgrims sang rhythmic chants, which often

included lists of holy sites they had visited or intended to visit.^[87] In Ryojin hisho , the shiku no kamiuta subsection called reigensho uta (songs on miraculous places) is noted for its collection of such songs. For example the following song lists in catalog fashion some of the stops along the Saikoku pilgrimage route:

The longest song in Ryojin hisho , no. 314, is in fact such a pilgrimag route "guide map." It lists important sites and objects on the way to the Kiyomizu Temple, one of the stops on the Saikoku circuit. Although some names and places are unidentifiable now, the list suggests that the rout was something quite memorable:

Occasionally pilgrimage route songs focus on places for sightseeing or secular diversion along the way—including even locales where asobi -type female entertainment could be found. Apparently, the boundary between the sacred and profane was rather fluid for the pilgrims. The following song, which details the route to Horin Temple, located in Arashiyama in the western outskirts of the Heian capital, a pleasure resort known for its cherry blossoms and autumn leaves, is one example:

Some pilgrimage songs emphasize the positive by outlining the material rewards resulting from the difficult undertaking:

By emphasizing this-worldly, concrete benefit, this and similar shiku no kamiuta may have sought to encourage the act of pilgrimage by relieving the travelers of worry about both physical and mental hardships. Like the Buddhist songs that stress the historical, human aspect of the Buddha and the cultic power of Kannon, Yakushi, and Jizo, these songs emphasize the secularly or more pragmatically meritorious side of religion.

Cults of Hijiri and Yamabushi

Those who made pilgrimages and observed asceticism as part of their profession were hijiri (holy men), yamabushi (mountain ascetics), and shugyoja (those who undergo austerities; also known as shugenja , exor-

cists), all practitioners of shugendo , mountain asceticism.^[92] Historically as a group they shunned the official Buddhist establishment, which was closely allied with the ruling class, choosing instead to serve the common people. Their unorthodox attitude toward their religious calling was ex-pressed in their refusal to receive formal ordination, which only the official Buddhist institutions administered. Many of them, including such charismatic leaders as En no Shokaku (or En no Gyoja, b. 634) and Gyogi (668-749), to whom the origin of the hijiri tradition is usually traced, concerned themselves exclusively with the welfare of the masses.^[93]

The ascetics' practice was to retreat into the rugged mountains and suffer extremely harsh privations to become empowered with supernatural abilities. The term yamabushi , meaning "one who lies down on a mountain," alludes to these trials. Underlying this form of asceticism is a fusion of magico-religious mountain worship and Buddhism, as Ichiro Hori enunciates:

The mountain is ... believed to be the world of the spirits and of the deities, buddhas, or bodhisattvas, where shamans and ascetics must undergo the austerities of hell to receive the powers and blessings of paradise and where souls of the dead also must undergo initiation in order to enter paradise or Buddha's Pure Land. Shugen-do ... was built on just these primitive but fundamental common beliefs in mountains.^[94]

Thus, shugendo is yet another expression of the Shinto-Buddhist syncretism.

In fact, the mountain ascetics made use of various Buddhist and Shinto practices and worshiped numerous divinities whose interrelationships were established by the honji suijaku discourse. For instance, one of the main gods of shugendo , Fudo, is appropriated from the Shingon pantheon. And Kongozao gongen (the Diamond Zao Avatar), who is said to have endowed En no Gyoja with magical power on Mount Kinbu, is worshiped as a primary divinity by yamabushi in the Mount Kinbu area; moreover, he is supposed to have as his original bodies the Buddha, Kannon, and Mai-treya.^[95] The syncretic sacred geography also plays a large role in shugendo , providing the sites for these ascetics' trials. The whole mountain range from the Yoshino to Kumano, the cradle of shugendo , for example, is considered the dual mandala of Kongokai (the Diamond Realm, representing the wisdom of Dainichi and his efforts to destroy all kinds of illusion) and Taizokai (the Matrix Realm, symbolizing the teachings of Dainichi), the two diagrammatic schemes of the cosmos central to esoteric

Shingon symbolism and ritual practices.^[96] En no Gyoja, ascribed as the founder of mountain asceticism in Japan, is linked to a number of shugendo practice sites as well, and Ryojin hisho songs that deal with the subject of hijiri or yamabushi have him as an almost indispensable presence. The following song, for instance, which mentions important Heian-period centers of asceticism, features this combination of syncretic sacred geography and cultic worship of En no Gyoja:

Omine is known as the center of the mountain ascetics, with its highest peak, Mount Kinbu, associated with En no Gyoja. Mount Shosha refers to Enkyoji Temple in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, founded by Shoku Shonin and considered to be the Tendai center in western Japan. The temple is the twenty-seventh stop on the Saikoku pilgrimage route. During the insei period its reputation as an ascetic center became widely known; and incidentally, its refectory was built by Emperor Go-Shirakawa in 1174.^[97]

A number of songs in Ryojin hisho , especially among the shiku no kamiuta , exhibit keen interest in hijiri and yamabushi , the characteristic attitude being one of curiosity, fascination, and occasionally awe. In a manner quite different from its treatment of Buddhist figures, the an-thology considers this group of nameless people as a class rather than as individuals, closely examining their modes of life, favorite haunts, and the nature of their asceticism. A common technique is to list ascetic centers, usually with little subjective comment; frequently the names are obscure or refer to places that no longer exist, though they may have been thriving gathering places for yamabushi at the time when these songs were com-posed. The task of deciphering these songs is therefore often far from straightforward. A pair of companion songs, which present the extensive network of ascetic centers, illustrates this point:

Mino refers to Takianji Temple, located in Mino City, Osaka Prefecture, said to have been founded by En no Gyoja. Katsuo refers to the Katsuo Temple, also located in Mino City; it is the twenty-third stop on the Saikoku pilgrimage route and is known for its scenic beauty. Wanifuchi refers to Gakuenji Temple, located in Hirada City, Shimane Prefecture. Legend has it that the temple was founded by the priest Chishun Shonin at this location after the water from its valley miraculously cured the eye disease of Empress Suiko (r. 592-628). The name of the temple, which means "Crocodile Pool," originated in a story that when Chishun Shonin accidentally dropped a Buddhist utensil into the pool, a crocodile emerged from the water and brought it back to him. Hi no Misaki Shrine is also located in Shimane Prefecture, to the northwest of Izumo Shrine. Consisting of two shrines, with Susano o no Mikoto (the upper shrine) and Amaterasu (the lower shrine) as the main deities of worship, it competed for prestige with Gakuenji Temple.^[98]

Katsuragi is a rugged mountain range between Osaka and Nara prefectures on which En no Gyoja exercised asceticism. Ishi no Tsuchi, located in the eastern part of Ehime Prefecture, is the highest mountain on Shikoku Island. It, too, is associated with En no Gyoja, and sources relate that Kukai practiced asceticism here also.^[99]

These two songs map out the ascetic centers in the south and west of Japan; they also point to the prominence of Kumano in mountain asceticism. The sites mentioned embrace all three types of pilgrimage classified

by Joseph Kitagawa: pilgrimage to a sacred mountain, pilgrimage based on faith in certain divinities, and pilgrimage based on faith in charismatic figures.^[100] The juxtaposition of shrines and temples on such a grand scale not only portrays the Japanese landscape as a sacred mandala, in the Shinto-Buddhist syncretic mode, but also conveys the wide spread of mountain asceticism during the Heian period.

A greater consecration of the Japanese national geography occurs in songs that cover far larger areas, extending from remote corners of the eastern regions to the far western provinces. Some of the sacred places are associated with unusual natural features, such as hot springs or volcanoes, or with supernatural events from Japan's mythico-historical past. Thus a pilgrimage was not simply a religious exercise, but a cultural and historical journey into the national heritage. On the level of artistic craft, the following song is distinctive in its consistent listing of provinces, with one ascetic center per province being singled out, as if it were representative of the whole province:

Hashiriyu (meaning "hot running water") refers to the Izusan Shrine located on Mount Izu in Shizuoka Prefecture, its name being derived from a hot spring in the mountain. The Togakushi (Hidden Gate) Shrine is located on Mount Togaku in Nagano Prefecture. Mount Togaku is considered to be the rock gate that Ame no tachikara o no Mikoto removed from the rock grotto in which Amaterasu was hiding and hurled down to the lower world. Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture has long been regarded as a sacred realm because of its sporadic volcanic eruptions. Daisenji Temple, located on the precipitous Mount Daisen in Tottori Prefecture, is said to have been founded by Gyogi. Nariai Temple, located in Kyoto-Fu, is the twenty-eighth stop on the Saikoku pilgrimage route and is known as one of its most scenic spots. The name of the temple has its origins in a miraculous story related to Kannon. A monk who was living on the mountain was on the brink of starvation owing to a heavy snow, when

suddenly a deer appeared before him and died. The monk ate it and was brought back to life; but to his horror, he discovered that the wooden Kannon statue he worshiped had fallen to the ground bleeding. As the monk wept in utter shame, realizing that he had eaten part of the statue, Kannon's wound was healed and the statue was restored to its former state (nari-au )—hence the name of the temple. Muroto refers to Hotsumisaki Temple located on the seashore of Muroto City at the southeastern tip of Kochi Prefecture facing the Pacific Ocean. As the celebrated site of Kukai's enlightenment, it is the twenty-sixth stop on the Shikoku pilgrimage route. Shido Temple, located in Kagawa Prefecture facing Awaji Island across the straits, is the oldest temple in the eastern Sanuki area and the eighty-sixth stop on the Shikoku pilgrimage route.^[101]

With these songs one gains an understanding of the complex religious vision of the late Heian period, which sees the country in terms of syncretic sacred manifestations and epiphanic contact points. At the time they were circulated, they may have helped the audience view their lives in the broader setting of religious and cultural tradition. In addition, they may have spurred curiosity about geographic areas beyond the capital or the listeners' home regions.^[102] In the larger context of the Japanese literary tradition, songs about ascetic centers may have been the forerunners of Muromachi-period pilgrimage songs such as "Kumano sankei" (Kumano Pilgrimage), which were presented on a much larger scale than shiku no kamiuta .^[103]

Songs on hijiri and yamabushi often take the audience to the hidden side of their austerities. These ascetic exercises included fasting, abstention from drinking water, gathering firewood, hauling water from the mountaintop, standing under a frigid waterfall, and even hanging upside down by a rope over a mountain precipice.^[104] Sometimes solitary confinement for extended periods in a cave was prescribed. The underlying goal of all this physical discipline was to gain control over one's own body and spirit, thereby gaining complete freedom from limiting human conditions.

Among the trials thus endured, the severest and most demanding occurred in the mountains in the depths of winter. It was often thought that unless an ascetic spent a winter undergoing self-privation in a mountain cave, he could never be a full-fledged yamabushi .^[105] The following song offers a glimpse of the extreme hardships of winter asceticism that push human endurance to its limit:

Here nature, once the ascetic's source of support, has become a most exacting testing ground, demanding utter stoicism. The song depicts the state of complete physical deprivation through which the yamabushi ac-quires supramundane power.

The next song reveals that the ascetics also faced more insidious spiritual temptations initiated by the devil. The power of evil was presumably so overwhelming that the ascetics prevailed over it only with difficulty, whereupon they obtained their supernatural potency:

As this song suggests, the invincibility often associated with holy men came from their successful struggle against powers at odds with their spiritual goals.

The pilgrimages made by hijiri and yarnabushi , another mandatory component of ascetic exercises, is the subject of a number of shiku no kamiuta . The degree and circumstances of hardship encountered surpassed those of occasional pilgrims. In the following song, the ordeals ascetics confront in traveling through rough and isolated regions in the Noto Peninsula are conveyed plaintively:

Another song includes more specific details about the harsh regimen of asceticism and the ascetics' physical appearance:

Two points in this song are noteworthy. First, the group is obviously undergoing a form of water asceticism. These austerities, at first conceived as a preparatory cleansing, eventually came to be regarded as an effective means of obtaining ascetic power in itself and so found a regular place in ascetic ritual.^[108] Second, "walking," indicated here by the word fumu (to walk), was a prerequisite and indeed the very soul of ascetic practice, as it constitutes a symbolic negation of the profane.^[109] The song, by presenting the image of a group of ascetics constantly on the go, in robes bleached by the blazing sun and salty seawater, vividly evokes the painful process of self-negation that ascetics routinely underwent.

The interest of Ryojin hisho poems in hijiri and yamabushi extends into taking detailed stock of their personal belongings and paraphernalia—all eccentric, and sometimes even comical. Characteristically, attention is paid largely to the physical side of the ascetics' existence. Three songs, all sharing the same formula, konomu mono (favorite things), reveal the preferences of mountain ascetics in personal gear and foodstuffs; they also show the subsistence level of their existence, for their possessions are crude items taken directly from nature:

A yamabushi clad in the full apparatus was supposed to symbolize one of shugendo's main divinities, Fudo, as well as the Diamond and Matrix Realm mandalas.^[111] The peculiar appearance of these mountain men aroused a sense of awe and curiosity in onlookers, and likely played a large part in perpetuating the mystique about their supernatural powers.^[112]

The following pair of songs list mountain ascetics' food items, which may have medicinal or magical qualities to give their consumer unearthly powers. Yet the primary message of these songs concerns their grim asceticism based on the bare necessities of life:

Most of these items grow in the wild, and items such as the mushrooms are rare delicacies with distinctive aroma. Others, such as taro root, and possibly parsley and burdock, possess medicinal value and must have been eagerly sought after, since many hijiri were involved in healing practices.^[114] Some items may have been associated with the esoteric magical powers of mountains, the secrets of which were known only to hijiri .

The lifestyles of these charismatic hijiri and yamabushi were bound to

create awesome impressions on those who had contact with them. The following two songs succinctly express the uncanny and even eerie sensations they aroused, as if they led a ghostly life:

The enduring interest in hijiri and yamabushi in Ryojin hisho may owe much to the singers of the imayo . Among them, the miko were known to have been intimately linked to the ascetics; some worked with yamabushi as their assistants or were married to them,^[115] and thus would have had ample opportunity to observe the ascetic life-style and outlook or even take part in it. No doubt they injected their firsthand knowledge into imayo , which they then circulated. Therefore, one should not necessarily identify the speaker of a poem with the ascetics themselves; rather, the lyric voices of the songs may well be those of miko who stepped into the yamabushi's lives and sang in their place. The following song, fraught with amorous innuendo and flirtation, throws light on the intimacy binding miko and mountain ascetics:

Since the time is early spring, the yamabushi must be about to emerge from the harsh regimen of winter asceticism to renew a more mundane life—a liminal time when an invitation like this might be especially tempting.

The attraction a woman feels toward a young mountain ascetic is also the subject of this shiku no kamiuta :

The spectacle of the pure mountain ascetic seduced by the miko has its whimsical side, but it fits the complex syncretic world of religion in Ryojin hisho , where the line between sacred and profane, physical and spiritual, religion and art, and singers and their subjects is not always clear. Rather, these dualities often form a seamless whole, overlapping, coexisting, and interpenetrating.

Shinto Congratulatory Songs

Some of the songs grouped under the rubric of jinja uta , a subsection in niku no kamiuta , provide yet another tier of religious sentiment in Ryojin hisho . As previously mentioned, these songs are basically recycled from waka of known authorship, composed mostly in the congratulatory Shinto ceremonial context.^[116] The rites in question were aimed at ensuring the private and exclusive group interests of the aristocracy, and as a consequence the songs contents tend to dwell on the felicitous and propitious. Indeed, the unseemly side of life treated in other songs—grief, anxiety, death—is deliberately avoided. It seems as if emphasis on the auspicious is expected to lead to good fortune all of itself.

By far the largest number of jinja uta are songs of praise or prayers dedicated to Shinto shrines related to the imperial household or illustrious

noble families like the Fujiwara or Minamoto. These eulogies, presumably intended for the limited elite class, are characterized by a this-worldly concern for the welfare and prosperity of aristocratic clans. This upper-class orientation of jinja uta forms a sharp contrast with both homon uta and syncretic shiku no kamiuta. Jinja uta , unlike homon uta , do not preach religious messages intended for public edification; they totally lack the pulpit consciousness that often informs homon uta . Nor are they concerned with commoners' religious practices, as are some of the more pious shiku no kamiuta . Rather, largely secular interest in worldly blessings is what dominates jinja uta .^[117]

Jinja uta are deferential and often obliging in tone. In terms of both content and rhetoric, they are formulaic, repetitious, and predictable. Recurrent rhetorical devices include such stylized phrases as chihayaburu (awe-inspiring), kimi ga (mi)yo (my lord's august reign or world), and yorozu yo (myriad generations), which set the incantatory tone of the songs rather quickly.

In the congratulatory mode of expression, however, the songs can be divided into roughly three categories. The first approach is to praise the beauty of the particular shrine or objects within the sacred precincts; in so doing, the speaker in effect expresses reverence for the shrine itself:

Praise is obliquely offered through the eye-catching color contrasts of green pine trees and crimson fences. The aesthetically pleasing aspect of the surroundings is equated with the felicitous sentiment the speaker feels in the shrine sanctuary. The next song takes a similar approach, indirectly attributing the speaker's feeling of well-being to the scenic beauty around the shrine:

A song on the Iwashimizu Shrine expresses through images of tranquillity the speaker's deferential attitude toward the shrine's sacred, life-giving water:

This song plays on the word iwashirnizu on two levels, using it both as the shrine's name and in its literal meaning, "rock-clear water" thus skillfully economizing the poetic space. The water gushing out of the spring in the shrine compound is perceived as a sacred locus; in the ritual gesture of making contact with it, the speaker venerates the shrine.

The second celebratory mode found in jinja uta captures the bounteousness of nature and projects them onto the shrines. Fecundity, growth, and vegetal luxuriance are posed in opposition to depletion, death, and decay. Through this imagery the ever-increasing prestige, value, and well-being of the songs' subjects are solicited. The focus on the bounteous and copious in nature may also indicate a fertility cult at work.

The next song refers to the vitality of nature and its inexhaustible energy as a way of blessing the Kamo Shrine:

In the following song on the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, the focus shifts to animal life. The sacredness and prosperity of the shrine are expressed through the image of doves, the messengers of the Hachiman divinity, which swarm in the shrine compounds, taking the pine trees as their nests:

Some of the songs in this category express blessings and admiration by focusing on the very timelessness of nature. By alluding specifically to this constancy, the songs implicitly raise the converse notion of the passage of time and the potential for growth. In turn, the continuity between nature and humans can be discerned. With the establishment of such an affinity, the speaker hopes to apply auspicious natural signs to human affairs. The following song is a typical example. The wish for the prosperity of the Kamo Shrine is expressed through praise of the young pine trees, which symbolize longevity and endurance:

A similar technique is used to present wishes for a long imperial reign, by invoking the luxuriant vegetation on the sacred mountain of gatsuno-o:

The following song makes use of the luxuriant image of fuji (wisteria), emblem of the Fujiwara clan, in full bloom and thereby expresses the speaker's loyal wishes for the good fortune of the clan:

The last poetic mode found in congratulatory songs is a straightforward statement of felicitation, stripped of rhetorical adornment. The inclusion in some of such formulas as kimi ga yo or miyo combined with chihayaburu makes these songs sound elevated in tone but at the same time extremely ritualistic and perfunctory:

Jinja uta are largely direct quotations or adoptions with minor changes of waka that served the Shinto ritual purposes of the ruling classes. They are therefore quite limited in lyrical flexibility, with many remaining on a formulaic or strictly ceremonial level. The congratulatory songs reveal a conservative religious consciousness that is fundamentally inclined to preserving and maintaining the existing order by expanding it to its optimal state. In essence, they are endorsements and affirmations of the here and now.

The presence in Ryojin hisho of jinja uta gives the anthology a comprehensive coverage in terms of Heian-period religious practices, showing the ritual life of the aristocracy as well as Buddhist evangelism and the folk observances of commoners. At the same time, these songs demonstrate how thoroughly the popular music of imayo penetrated the nobles' ceremonial activities, was fostered by the upper classes, and finally con-tributed to the enhancement of the critical moments in their celebration of life.