Decentering Mañjuśrī: some aspects of Mañjuśrī’s cult in medieval Japan

ABSTRACT

Many scholars have studied Mañjuśrī’s role as bodhisattva of wisdom. However, while Buddhist deities have usually been studied ‘individually,’ I believe that they can only be understood in a broader context. A deity is not an individual, but the salient part of a network that includes, first of all, his acolytes, his entourage, but also his mount, his various manifestations, as well as a number of functionally similar deities. Indeed, all of the above can be seen as ‘emanations’ of an elusive, multifaceted and metamorphic fundamental power. To this end, the texts of the Japanese esoteric Buddhism give us precious indications of Mañjuśrī beyond the popular representation of the bodhisattva of wisdom: his fundamental ambivalence and his central importance in rites of subjugation.

KEYWORDS:

• Mañjuśrī
• esoteric
• Japan
• Wutaishan
• medieval
• honji 本地
• suijaku 垂迹

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. de la Vallée-Poussin, ‘Mañjuśrī,’ 406. See also Lamotte, ‘Mañjuśrī’; de Mallmann, Étude iconographique sur Mañjuśrī; and Birnbaum, ‘Studies on the Mysteries of Mañjuśrī.’

2. Lin, Building a Sacred Mountain. For the spread of the cult in Japan, see Andrews, ‘Representing Mount Wutai’s Past.’ For its influence in Tibet and Central Asia, see Chou, ‘The Visionary Landscape of Wutai Shan.’

3. Andrews, ‘Representing Mount Wutai’s Past’; Quinter, ‘Creating Bodhisattvas.’

4. See Monju zuzō, T. no 6, fig. 14. See also Bukkyō zuzō shūsei, fig. 2068 and 2120–2122.

5. Andrews, ‘Representing Mount Wutai’s Past,’ 207–238.

6. Faure, The Fluid Pantheon; Young, Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China, 186–216.

7. T. no 6: 112, fig. 17.

8. Keiran shūyōshū, T. 76, 2410: 582a.

9. Birnbaum, ‘Studies on the Mysteries of Mañjuśrī,’ 92.

10. Byakuhō kushō, T. no. 6, 461a; quoted in Birnbaum, ‘Studies on the Mysteries of Mañjuśrī,’ 123.

11. T no. 21, 1299.

12. Notice in passing the influence of Western astronomy/astrology on Chinese and Japanese astrology. The term huoluo/kara, transcription of the Sanskrit hōra, comes from the Latin hora, and designates the fifteen degrees of the earth’s revolution in one hour. These divisions of time are the basis of the Western ‘horo-scope.’

13. Keiran shūyōshū, T no. 76, 2410: 581b.

14. On the latter, see Faure, The Fluid Pantheon, 51–114.

15. Jindaikan hiketsu, 177.

16. Faure, The Fluid Pantheton.

17. See, for instance, Keiran shūyōshū, T no. 76, 2410: 572a.

18. T no. 21, 1304: 422b.

19. Liang, Dunhuang shiku yishu, fig. 124.

20. Wang, ‘The Thousand-armed Mañjuśrī at Dunhuang.’

21. Kim, ‘Transcending Locality, Creating Identity.’

22. On this deity, see Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 312–313; and Dudbridge, Hsi-yu chi, 18–23.

23. Daikoku tenjin-hō, T no. 21, 1287: 356a.

24. Keiran shūyōshū, T no. 76, 2410: 636a.

25. Sange yōryakki, in Shintō taikei, Tendai shintō, vol. 2: 94.

26. The name of this mandala, Izuna mandara, is misleading since it has nothing to do with Izuna Gongen.

27. Shintōshū, 72–77.

28. Inari Daimyōjin saimon, quoted in Nanami, ‘Nanto-bon Heike monogatari Tsunemasa Chikubushima mōde,’ 77.

29. Juhō yōjinshū, in Moriyama, Tachikawa, 530–571. See also Sanford, ‘The Abominable Tachikawa Skull Ritual.’

30. Iyanaga Nobumi, personal communication.

31. Bukkyō zuzō shūsei, fig. 2072.

32. See figs. 5.4 to 5.7 in Faure, The Fluid Pantheon, 203–206.

33. On Skanda, see Peri, ‘Le dieu Wei-t’o’; Mann, ‘The Early Cult of Skanda in North India’; and Kim, ‘From the Son of Śiva to the God of Shaman.’ On Skanda and Mañjuśrī, see Institute of Traditional Cultures (ed.), ‘Tamil Murukan, Hindu Skanda-Kārttikeya and Buddhistic Mañjuśrī – Their Interrelations’; and Mukherjee, ‘An Illustration of Iconographic Contact,’ 138–141.

34. Complete title: Foshuo zhutongzi tuoluoni jing 佛説諸童子陀羅尼經, T no. 19, 1028A.

35. Faure, The Red Thread, 254–258.

36. Keiran shūyōshū, T no. 76, 2410: 569b.

37. T no. 76, 2410: 569c.

38. On this question, see Granoff, ‘Tobatsu Bishamon’; and Faure, Protectors and Predators, 2016: 32–39.

39. See fig. 1.22 in Faure, Protectors and Predators, 37.

40. See, for instance, Quinter, From Outcasts to Emperors.

41. Quinter, ‘Creating Bodhisattvas,’ 441.

42. Amino, Muen, kugai, raku, 254–259.