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Apr. 25th, 2005 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spokeETA: excerpts from : Samurai Warlords - The Book of the Daimyo, by Stephen Turnbull. I love this guy, all the dedications are to his wife and 3 kids, whom he seems to have dragged along with him. ^^
An inset describing the picture here, which I was lazy and only scanned half of.
pg135. This plate is an attempt to reconstruct the appearance of the Shugendo sect, the yamabushi, as they would have appeared in the sixteenth century. They are on pilgrimage in the Yoshino mountains and are paying homage to a statue of Fudo. Fudo is always represented with a fierce expression and surrounded by flames. In his right hand he holds a sword to strike down demons, and in his left he holds a rope with which to bind them. The yamabushi themselves look unkempt, which is supported by contemporary descriptions of them, but they wear their traditional skull-cap and carry staffs. These, with the details of the robe, symbolize various aspects of Buddhist doctrine.
pg 140-1, Communication with the spirit world.
Although the living had a duty to perform to the recently dead, there were benefits to be gained from the departed spirits, who could pass the barrier between our world and theirs. The Japanese medium, or miko, allowed the spirit to possess his or her body, and transmitted messages to the living. Closely related to the miko was the notion of the ascetic who acquired special powers, the best known of whom were the yamabushi, the followers of the religious sect of Shugendo. Yamabushi means ‘he who lies in the mountains’ and the term has often been applied erroneously to the armies of warrior monks who plagued Kyoto during the twelfth century. Yoshitsune’s companion, the warrior monk Benkei, disguised himself and his companions as yamabushi to avoid detection during their flight from Yoritomo’s vengeance in 1185.
The figure of the wild-looking, wandering yamabushi is one that crops up regularly in Japanese art and literature, and we noted earlier how Hojo Soun recruited a yamabushi as his horagai blower. A yamabushi was endowed with magical powers, acquired as a result of fasting, onerous climbs of sacred mountains, and various ascetic exercises, such as standing naked under waterfalls. The initiate was believed to have the power to cast out demons, speak with animals, and to overcome fire. By the recitation of prayers, yamabushi could overcome and exorcism any onryo, the above-mentioned angry ghosts, that were causing trouble in a locality.
The yamabushi thus reflected a blending of the Buddhist, Shinto and animistic traditions which were outlined above. To a yamabushi, a mountain was not just the abode of the kami (the gods of Shinto) : it was a Buddhist mandala - a sacred space separated from ordinary space and time. His climb was a spiritual journey as well as a physical one , and the disciple passed symbolically through the ten worlds of transmigration. Each of these states was negotiated by means of a rite, the ordeal representing hell being vividly described during the sixteenth century by a former yamabushi who had become a Christian. The ritual, called gohyo, or ‘weighing one’s karma’, consisted of the disciple being tied and seated on a beam projecting over a cliff, with a large rock as a counterweight. In this terrifying position, he was required to confess his sins to his fellow yamabushi. If he confessed all, his karma was lightened. If he refused, he would be tipped off into the valley below. The rite of the Hungry Ghosts, which followed, was fasting; of the Beasts, abstinence from water; and of the Asuras, sumo wrestling. Following the final rite for heaven, a sacred dance, the climber received a form of baptism, confirming his powers as a yamabushi.
The rituals of the yamabushi lasted, with little change, right through the time of the samurai, but with some reduction in the severity of the disciplines. Shugendo all but ceased to exist with the Meiji Restoration, but has since been revived, and I was privileged to join some modern yamabushi on an ascent of their holy Mount Omine in 1986.
There are numerous references in war chronicles to daimyo consulting yamabushi, and more orthodox priests. It was, in fact, quite common for daimyo of the Sengoku period to become monks while continuing the profession of warlord. Takeda Shigen and Uesugi Kenshin are the prime examples, and their banners with Buddhist prayers were among their most treasured possessions. Other daimyo took a more skeptical view of religion. ‘Fearing neither gods nor Buddhas’ is a frequent phrase used to describe such iconoclasts, as in the legend of ‘Hideyoshi’s Bridge’ :
On the sacred mountain of Koya-san, where lie the mausoleums of numerous daimyo, there are three bridges on the road that leads to the tomb of the saint Kobo Daishi. According to tradition, the third bridge cannot be crossed by anyone whose morals are unacceptable to Kobo Daishi, and a sinful person could not proceed further. After Hideyoshi had risen to the highest position in the Empire he made a ceremonial pilgrimage to the tomb of Kobo Daishi. Knowing that during his career he had commited many acts of violence, Hideyoshi went to the third bridge the night before and made a trial crossing. Nothing happened, and relieved of the anxiety that he would be publicly embarrassed Hideyoshi returned to the bridge the next day and marched over it in a grand and contemptuous manner.
An inset describing the picture here, which I was lazy and only scanned half of.
pg135. This plate is an attempt to reconstruct the appearance of the Shugendo sect, the yamabushi, as they would have appeared in the sixteenth century. They are on pilgrimage in the Yoshino mountains and are paying homage to a statue of Fudo. Fudo is always represented with a fierce expression and surrounded by flames. In his right hand he holds a sword to strike down demons, and in his left he holds a rope with which to bind them. The yamabushi themselves look unkempt, which is supported by contemporary descriptions of them, but they wear their traditional skull-cap and carry staffs. These, with the details of the robe, symbolize various aspects of Buddhist doctrine.
pg 140-1, Communication with the spirit world.
Although the living had a duty to perform to the recently dead, there were benefits to be gained from the departed spirits, who could pass the barrier between our world and theirs. The Japanese medium, or miko, allowed the spirit to possess his or her body, and transmitted messages to the living. Closely related to the miko was the notion of the ascetic who acquired special powers, the best known of whom were the yamabushi, the followers of the religious sect of Shugendo. Yamabushi means ‘he who lies in the mountains’ and the term has often been applied erroneously to the armies of warrior monks who plagued Kyoto during the twelfth century. Yoshitsune’s companion, the warrior monk Benkei, disguised himself and his companions as yamabushi to avoid detection during their flight from Yoritomo’s vengeance in 1185.
The figure of the wild-looking, wandering yamabushi is one that crops up regularly in Japanese art and literature, and we noted earlier how Hojo Soun recruited a yamabushi as his horagai blower. A yamabushi was endowed with magical powers, acquired as a result of fasting, onerous climbs of sacred mountains, and various ascetic exercises, such as standing naked under waterfalls. The initiate was believed to have the power to cast out demons, speak with animals, and to overcome fire. By the recitation of prayers, yamabushi could overcome and exorcism any onryo, the above-mentioned angry ghosts, that were causing trouble in a locality.
The yamabushi thus reflected a blending of the Buddhist, Shinto and animistic traditions which were outlined above. To a yamabushi, a mountain was not just the abode of the kami (the gods of Shinto) : it was a Buddhist mandala - a sacred space separated from ordinary space and time. His climb was a spiritual journey as well as a physical one , and the disciple passed symbolically through the ten worlds of transmigration. Each of these states was negotiated by means of a rite, the ordeal representing hell being vividly described during the sixteenth century by a former yamabushi who had become a Christian. The ritual, called gohyo, or ‘weighing one’s karma’, consisted of the disciple being tied and seated on a beam projecting over a cliff, with a large rock as a counterweight. In this terrifying position, he was required to confess his sins to his fellow yamabushi. If he confessed all, his karma was lightened. If he refused, he would be tipped off into the valley below. The rite of the Hungry Ghosts, which followed, was fasting; of the Beasts, abstinence from water; and of the Asuras, sumo wrestling. Following the final rite for heaven, a sacred dance, the climber received a form of baptism, confirming his powers as a yamabushi.
The rituals of the yamabushi lasted, with little change, right through the time of the samurai, but with some reduction in the severity of the disciplines. Shugendo all but ceased to exist with the Meiji Restoration, but has since been revived, and I was privileged to join some modern yamabushi on an ascent of their holy Mount Omine in 1986.
There are numerous references in war chronicles to daimyo consulting yamabushi, and more orthodox priests. It was, in fact, quite common for daimyo of the Sengoku period to become monks while continuing the profession of warlord. Takeda Shigen and Uesugi Kenshin are the prime examples, and their banners with Buddhist prayers were among their most treasured possessions. Other daimyo took a more skeptical view of religion. ‘Fearing neither gods nor Buddhas’ is a frequent phrase used to describe such iconoclasts, as in the legend of ‘Hideyoshi’s Bridge’ :
On the sacred mountain of Koya-san, where lie the mausoleums of numerous daimyo, there are three bridges on the road that leads to the tomb of the saint Kobo Daishi. According to tradition, the third bridge cannot be crossed by anyone whose morals are unacceptable to Kobo Daishi, and a sinful person could not proceed further. After Hideyoshi had risen to the highest position in the Empire he made a ceremonial pilgrimage to the tomb of Kobo Daishi. Knowing that during his career he had commited many acts of violence, Hideyoshi went to the third bridge the night before and made a trial crossing. Nothing happened, and relieved of the anxiety that he would be publicly embarrassed Hideyoshi returned to the bridge the next day and marched over it in a grand and contemptuous manner.