A Year in Seventeenth-Century Kyoto: Edo-Period Writings on Annual Ceremonies, Festivals, and Customs 9780824894658

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A YEAR IN SEVENTEENTHCENTURY KYOTO

A YEAR IN SEVENTEENTHCENTURY KYOTO Edo-Period Writings on Annual Ceremonies, Festivals, and Customs

Gerald Groemer

University of Hawai‘i Press Honolulu

© 2023 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First printing, 2023 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Groemer, Gerald, author, translator. | Sakauchi, Naoyori, active 17th century–18th century. Yamashiro shiki monogatari. English. | Namura, Jōhaku, 1674–1748. Nenjū chōhōki. English. Title: A year in seventeenth-century Kyoto : Edo-period writings on annual ceremonies, festivals, and customs / Gerald Groemer. Description: Honolulu : University of Hawai‘i Press, 2023. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022043611 (print) | LCCN 2022043612 (ebook) | ISBN 9780824892975 (hardback) | ISBN 9780824894658 (pdf) | ISBN 9780824894665 (epub) | ISBN 9780824894672 (kindle edition) Subjects: LCSH: Sakauchi, Naoyori, active 17th century–18th century. Yamashiro shiki monogatari. | Namura, Jōhaku, 1674–1748. Nenjū chōhōki. | Festivals—Japan—Kyoto—History—17th century. | Kyoto (Japan)—Social life and customs—17th century—Calendars. Classification: LCC GT4884.K9 G76 2023 (print) | LCC GT4884.K9 (ebook) | DDC 394.269521/1864—dc23/eng/20220920 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022043611 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022043612

Cover art: An Inari Festival parade in early eighteenth-century Kyoto. The festival was celebrated annually on the first “day of the horse” during the third month. On the right, participants carry a mikoshi (portable shrine); others are dressed as foxes (messengers to the deity Inari) and sport balloon-like arrow protectors (horo) on their backs. From Hōei karaku saiken zue, published in 1704. Kyoto sōsho, vol. 8, pp. 178–179. University of Hawai’i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources.

Contents

Preface and Conventions Abbreviations Chapter 1

The Time of Annual Events in Kyoto Chapter 2

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto Chapter 3

Recording Annual Events Chapter 4

Tales of the Four Seasons in Yamashiro Province (山城四季物語, 1674) Chapter 5

A Handbook of Annual Events (年中重宝記, 1694)

ix xiii

1 12 38 60 172

Appendix: Important Japanese Religious Institutions Mentioned in This Book

313

References

333

Index

353

v

Map 1.  Major temples, streets, and geographical locations. Spots outside the city, especially temples, are often indicated far closer to the center than their actual position. Based on Kyō ō-zue, a map published by Hayashi Yoshinaga in Kyoto in 1686.

Map 2.  Major Shinto shrines, Nijō Castle, and the Imperial Palace. Based on Kyō ō-zue, a map published by Hayashi Yoshinaga in Kyoto in 1686.

Map 3.  Temples, shrines, cities, rivers, and regions in and around Kyoto. Shaded designations refer to general regions.

Preface and Conventions

At the end of the seventeenth century, Kyoto experienced an unprecedented economic and cultural efflorescence that generated outstanding examples of Japanese literature, poetry, art, theater, dance, and music. Behind this thriving culture stood a regular schedule of annually celebrated rituals, ceremonies, commemorations, and festivals. Such events were collectively referred to as nenjū gyōji 年中行事.1 They included everything from solemn rites at Buddhist temples, formal ceremonies at shrines dedicated to the kami (Shinto deities), and stiff banquets celebrated by the court and bakufu, to boisterous festivals and intoxicated merrymaking enjoyed by the commoner majority. Throughout the year Kyoto citizens, high and low, listened to sutra readings at temples, gazed at sacred Buddhist relics, or feasted their eyes on cherry blossoms, the moon, or fireflies at famous spots in and about the city. At shrines, which until the late nineteenth century remained closely linked to Buddhist temples or even stood within their grounds, men and women of all social stations witnessed sacred dances, thrilling horse races, or entertaining theatricals. On holidays even the stay-at-home relished this or that mouthwatering morsel, hung up decorations or displayed commemorative items within the home, or offered rice, herbs, and prayers to whatever deity stood in need of veneration. Nenjū gyōji drove out demons, ushered in good luck, and marked high points in the course of a year. Some nenjū gyōji were shrouded in 1. More recently the ideographs are also read nenchū gyōji. Important non-Japanese approaches to the subject include Titsingh’s late eighteen-century observations (Illustrations of Japan, pp. 115–144); Humbert’s “Les fêtes du calendrier” (Le Japon Illustré, vol. 2, pp. 191– 204); Barghoorn’s largely ethnographic Kokumin Nenju Gyoji; and Casal’s more historically informed The Five Sacred Festivals of Ancient Japan. For a far more nuanced treatment of medieval nenjū gyōji see Blümmel, Hofzeremonien im japanischen Mittelalter, pp. 109–148. Shirane discusses some nenjū gyōji in relation to literature in Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, pp. 153–174. A roster of major court nenjū gyōji can be found in Miner, Morrell, and Odagiri, The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature, pp. 408–414. In his Emperor and Aristocracy in Japan, pp. 78–80, Butler also conveniently summarizes important events listed in 1422 by Ichijō Kaneyoshi (Kanera).

ix

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secrecy, appealed to arcane significances, and remained entirely somber; others allowed throngs of onlookers to gain so much enjoyment and satisfaction that the regime had to promulgate laws seeking to contain the gaiety. Seventeenth-century writers and publishers issued a large number of works regarding nenjū gyōji in order to allow Kyoto citizens to appreciate and comprehend the historical and social significances of what everyone knew from experience and usually took for granted. This volume contains annotated translations of two such books. Although the character of the two volumes differs considerably, both writers sought to furnish their readership with edification rather than captivating reading. The point of this translation is thus not so much to keep the Anglophone reader spellbound or entertained, even if here and there one stumbles on remarkable information and mildly amusing anecdotes, but to provide a resource for grasping more firmly the nature of a large swath of Japanese culture whose importance has often been underestimated. An Edo-period (1600–1868) perspective on this subject comes with the advantage of granting the modern reader a far more comprehensive overview of the terrain than most earlier writings, which tend to limit their scope to the court or to major religious institutions, and were designed chiefly for an already erudite aristocratic or clerical readership. Late seventeenth-century accounts, by contrast, were normally drafted for a literate, if often not a particularly well-informed, commoner class. In consequence, the authors cast their nets more widely. The first volume, Tales of the Four Seasons in Yamashiro Province (hereafter TFS), focuses on the grandest temples and shrines in and around the emperor’s capital. The author discusses the lives of great priests and temple founders, elucidates astounding dreams, oracles, and miracles experienced by the clergy, ponders the divine purport of such happenings, and explains the meaning of nenjū gyōji chiefly on the basis of such extraordinary occurrences. The second translation, A Handbook of Annual Events (hereafter HAE), constitutes something of an almanac that takes up everything from court rituals (downsized versions of which had sometimes already spread to the populace) to temple and shrine ceremonies, including even a handful staged in nearby Ōtsu, Nara, Uji, Sakai, and Osaka. The author explicates the etymology, origins, and significances of common calendrical designations, describes everyday customs and habits, and clarifies basic propositions of Daoist, yin-yang, and “five phase” (wŭxíng) thought. He suggests schemes for foretelling the future, registers the dos and don’ts of nutrition, and even offers advice on such homely topics as stain removal and moxibustion. For today’s reader, many such matters may appear entirely unrelated to the calendar and annual events, but the writer, a trained physician, was convinced that celestial correspondences should guide all doings in daily life.

Preface and Conventions   xi

In the three introductory chapters preceding the two translations I have sketched out some of the major intellectual and historical resources on which the two Kyoto writers relied. This prefatory matter is designed only to supply the basic conceptual armory necessary for withstanding the barrage of foreign terms, unfamiliar concepts, and Edo-period common sense that assault the reader in the translated texts. I have transliterated Japanese terms in a modified Hepburn system and Chinese ones in the Pinyin system. The Chinese term qi (J. ki 気 or 氣), which, depending on the context, may be rendered “spirit,” “air,” “energy,” or something else, has been left untranslated. Japanese personal names are given in the standard Japanese order: family name, given name. Most Edo-period Japanese writers, artists, priests, officials, and others assumed pseudonyms, heteronyms, and a multiplicity of titles, so I have often noted alternate appellations in parentheses. Buddhist temple names generally end with the syllable -ji, -in, or -dera (I have added a hyphen for names longer than two syllables); the names of shrines dedicated to the kami typically end with the syllable -sha or -gū. For easier comprehension I have sometimes translated such suffixes as “temple” or “shrine.” The reader should keep in mind that in premodern times, temples and shrines, as well as buddhas and kami, were commonly mixed and combined. Dates are also indicated in the normal Japanese order: year/month/day; if no year is given, then: month/day. I have omitted designations of the Chinese zodiac (e-to) in dates when I judged them inconsequential. Intercalary months are identified by an asterisk. Western year numbers correspond to the Japanese “era name,” “reign title,” or “period” (nengō or gengō) into which the bulk of the days of a given year fall. The sign “+” after a Western year signals that a day falling near the end of a traditional Japanese year spilled into the following calendar year on the Gregorian calendar. The names and dates of historical eras are as follows: Heian: 784–1185 Kamakura: 1185–1333 Muromachi: 1392–1573 Edo: 1600–1868 Meiji: 1868–1912 I have placed in parentheses Japanese equivalents of translated terms, modern geographical locations, beginnings and endings of eras, birth and death dates of historical figures, short editorial additions, and brief factual glosses. In the plural, ancient tennō are referred to as emperors, even though half a dozen of

xii   Preface and Conventions

them in the sixth and seven centuries, and then two later ones, were in fact empresses. Details on temples and shrines can be found in the glossary. Readings of Japanese terms in the sources generally adhere to the furigana glosses found in the original, but when a gloss is misleading, odd, useless for modern readers, or clearly erroneous, I have often altered or corrected it in silence. More problematic readings are discussed in footnotes. In the citations I have generally preferred recent editions over older ones, but in order to allow readers to track down a passage more easily, I have occasionally referred to timeworn but still serviceable texts available online. For citations from Chinese-language classics I have frequently resorted to online versions, fully aware that the transcriptions presented there may be studded with errors. Sinologists will no doubt shudder at this strategy, but most will also know where to turn for better texts, ones to which I have no access. Sites of major Buddhist temples, Kyoto streets, and geographical spots in Kyoto in the 1680s are indicated on map 1. Map 2 presents the position of shrines on the same map. The third map indicates various important temples, shrines, rivers, and regions in the broader Kyoto area, with vaguely defined areas indicated by the gray shading of the name. I would like to thank Olivia Milburn, Peter Knecht, Stephanie Chun, and the ever-helpful and patient staff of the University of Hawai‘i Press, especially Bojana Ristich, my eagle-eyed copy editor. My gratitude also extends to friends, colleagues, and two anonymous readers who made countless useful suggestions. And, as always, I remain grateful to Sayuri for discussing with me knotty and puzzling problems in the texts. Without all their helpful hints, corrections, and questions, this volume would certainly bristle with even more errors than it no doubt still contains.

Abbreviations

GR Gunsho ruijū 群書類従 HAE A Handbook of Annual Events (Nenjū chōhōki) NKBT Nihon koten bungaku taikei 日本古典文学大系 NKZ Nihon koten zenshū 日本古典全集 NSSSS Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei 日本庶民生活史料集成 SZKT Shintei zōho kokushi taikei 新訂増補国史大系 (Included writings are separately paginated.) TFS  Tales of the Four Seasons in Yamashiro Province (Yamashiro shiki monogatari) ZGR Zoku gunsho ruijū 続群書類従 ZGRK Zoku Gunsho Ruijū Kanseikai 続群書類従完成会, publisher ZZGR Zoku zoku gunsho ruijū 続々群書類従

xiii

C HA P T E R 1

The Time of Annual Events in Kyoto

When one day is like all the others, then all of them are like one. If complete uniformity prevailed, the longest life would be experienced as very short and as having passed away quite suddenly. —Thomas Mann, Der Zauberberg (p. 145; my translation)

Nenjū gyōji were by definition temporal. Whatever else they might mean or do, they marked, commemorated, or celebrated yearly occurrences. For this reason, the proper determination of nenjū gyōji required accurate and reliable technologies of temporal reckoning, ones in short supply in ancient Japan. Because of this lack, in its formative years the Japanese nation—to the extent that it was a nation—relied largely on measuring systems introduced from the continent, though imports were typically soon blended with indigenous knowhow. The resultant unsystematic process of borrowing, modification, and accretion led to techniques of chronological computation brimming with heterogeneous conceptions, unalike measuring units, esoteric correspondences, obscure connotations, arcane analogies, and impressive incomprehensibilities. To the modern observer, accustomed to the relatively homogeneous and linear arrangement of years, months, days, and hours, traditional Japanese concepts and processes for naming and gauging the passage of time may appear hopelessly tangled and cluttered, even naively mistaken. To Japanese observers prior to 1873, however, traditional schemes felt obvious, necessary, and fully natural, so much so that decades after the new streamlined calendar had been introduced, illegally published “ghost calendars” (obake-goyomi お化け暦), replicating the old designations and correspondences, continued to be snapped up by the public. For the average Japanese, the impenetrable intricacies and inscrutable densities of the Edoperiod chronometric system indicated not so much clueless confusion as the inherently multifaceted and mysterious nature of a boundless, internally differentiated cosmos in which each detail stood in an intimate, albeit rarely obvious,

1

2  Chapter 1

relation to every other, and in turn to the individual human being that might hope to understand the grand scheme of the universe. Dates and points on the calendar never signified mere abstract numbers; the progress of time always implied more than the advance of an empty unidirectional flow. Celestial and terrestrial realms constituted heterogeneous, complexly configured orbs within orbs, gyrating at different velocities, pointing to different scales, and harboring unalike significances while remaining interconnected, interdependent, and susceptible to each other’s influence. For the Japanese, as for all peoples, the main purpose of a calendar and other chronometric contrivances was, in the first place, to permit humans to coordinate, manage, and put to use the real or imagined relation of their own concerns to celestial events and forces. Astronomical calculations and hemerological teachings introduced from the continent suggested how such interactions and correspondences might be conceived, fixed, and implemented, if not necessarily for benefits equally distributed to all. By invoking various ingeniously designed schemata, astronomers and diviners hoped to validate or even predict the majestic movements of the firmament and then relate these to more modest earthbound affairs. The discovered, calculated, or proposed regularities typically suggested that certain years, seasons, months, days, or clock hours demanded special attention or differential treatment. Not only were some times of year more suitable for planting or harvesting than others—a fact that even the neolithic cultivator already knew from experience—but also certain dates were particularly conducive or ill-omened for starting a war, performing nuptials, erecting a house, or eating onions. Pruning away what may today appear as useless conceptual excrescences would not so much have generated greater calendrical elegance, order, or rationality but would rather have eradicated the very possibility of a proper alignment of superlunary and sublunary realms. Human beings would thereby have been deprived of their ability to regulate the all-important relation of the heavens to the well-being of the individual, family, community, and state.

The Appearance of Calendars Long before astronomical science from the mainland had been fully assimilated, Japanese observers had probably detected the regular but not readily synchronizable movements of the sun and moon, the constant number of days separating solstices, and the repeated, if frustratingly unpredictable, occurrence of eclipses.1 Yet most inhabitants of the archipelago parsed the year not by gazing 1. See Bumbacher, “Yamato im neuen Lichte.”

The Time of Annual Events in Kyoto   3

awestruck at the nighttime sky but by glancing at more prosaic nearby circumstances such as the alternation of night and day, the sequence of the tides, or climatic regularities. Humble observational insights may even have generated the Japanese name for winter (fuyu) from the word “cold” (hie) or secured the term “summer” (natsu) from the designation “hot” (atsu), though no one knows for sure. What is certain is that the determination of four distinct seasons and the imposition of a computational, semiotic, and ideological grid on continuous temporal and meteorological processes did not signify, as one is so often told today, that the Japanese seasons are particularly well defined. Nor did it confirm that the Japanese people possessed a mysterious inborn sensitivity to the minute vicissitudes of natural phenomena.2 Instead it points to a desire to dominate more efficiently the physical environment and to regulate more rationally the metabolic relation of humans to nature. In fact, for much of the land a simple quadrisection of the year blithely ignored a fifth, empirically well-demarcated span of time: that of the rainy or monsoon season, usually commencing in the old fifth month.3 Moreover, as at least some seventeenth-century Japanese had already perceived, the act of quartering the annual body overlooked the natural and meteorological diversity of the land as a whole. Even if a scheme of four fixed seasons coupled to intricate temporal and calendrical determinations was thus no product of nature, it did provide a useful tool for timing or synchronizing actions. Accurate time reckoning supplied the social elite with tools demonstrably advantageous for sustaining an exploitable agricultural base, acquiring political advantage, reinforcing military might, heightening socioreligious authority, and bolstering cultural hegemony. It was therefore no accident that those at the hub of political power—from 794 until 1603, Kyoto—also set the standards of astronomical and temporal calculation for more than eight centuries. Until the early modern period, when the Tokugawa bakufu, established in Edo, took calendrical matters into its own hands, it was the court that decreed the definitive schedule of annual events. This act indicated, among other things, that it was the emperor who oversaw the progress and division of time and that imperial words and deeds conformed to the very rotation of the universe. It suggested, too, that the court stood at the center of the cosmos and that it therefore knew best how to control the doings of the myriad 2. For a detailed study of the seasons and literature, see Shirane, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons. Shirane (pp. 27, 29) notes that before the eighth century little seasonal poetry is found in Japan and that its origins had much to do with the influence of Chinese verse. 3. This pseudo-season is explained at the end of the text regarding the fifth month in HAE.

4  Chapter 1

deities, spirits, and demons to which the gyration of the heavens was so closely linked. If the Nihon shoki (“Chronicles of Japan,” completed 720) may be taken at its word, already in 553/6 Emperor Kinmei had Baekje scholars well versed in Chinese calendrical science dispatched to Japan, and several professors of temporal accounting duly arrived the following year.4 Nearly half a century later, in 602/10, Baekje books on calendar making were formally presented to the court.5 By 675/1/5 a Japanese astronomical observatory had been established, and when one reads that on 676/9/1 clouds prevented the emperor from announcing the first day of the month, one may assume that such monthly proclamations had by then become the rule.6 In 690/11/11 an imperial edict mandated the use of the Chinese “Yuanjia” 元嘉 (J. Genka) and “Yifeng” 儀鳳 (J. Gihō) calendars, thereby effectively synchronizing Japanese and Chinese chronometric schemes.7 After the seventh century the local production of calendars was relegated to the Japanese imperial court’s Bureau of Yin and Yang (Onmyōryō 陰陽寮), and the presentation of this treasured document, a solemn act that the ritsuryō codes of the late seventh and early eighth centuries decreed as proper for 11/1, counted as a palace ritual of the greatest consequence.8 The “Xuanming” 宣明 (J. Senmyō) calendar, devised in Tang China in 822, was introduced in 859 (official promulgation occurred in 862) and remained in effect until 1684. This timetable was thereafter revised by the Tokugawa bakufu’s Bureau of Astronomy (Tenmongata 天文方), an act finalizing the transfer of the control of time to the Edo-based shogunate.9 4. Nihon shoki, ge, pp. 105, 109; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, pp. 68, 72. 5. Nihon shoki, ge, p. 179; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 126. 6. Nihon shoki, ge, pp. 417, 425; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, pp. 326, 334. 7. Nihon shoki, ge, p. 507; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 400. The “Yuanjia Calendar” was in use in China from 445 and in Baekje from c. 523. The “Yifeng Calendar,” which offered corrections, was originally known as the “Linde Calendar” (麟德曆) in China. It was transmitted to Japan, perhaps from the Korean peninsula, during the Chinese Yifeng period (676–678) and officially in use in Japan from 697 to 763. For a discussion of the arrival of various calendars from China, see Sugimoto and Swain, Science and Culture in Traditional Japan, pp. 46–52. For a detailed discussion of the Chinese calendars that supplied much of the basis for the production of Edo-period Japanese ones, see Martzloff, Astronomy and Calendars, and Cullen, Heavenly Numbers. 8. Ritsuryō, p. 476 (zatsuryō, no. 6). On the production and presentation of the calendar, see Engi shiki, vol. 16; translated in Bock, Classical Learning and Taoist Practices in Early Japan, pp. 29–48. For details of the ceremony, see Dairi shiki, pp. 50–51, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 178–179. 9. The Bureau of Astronomy was originally overseen by the magistrates of temples and shrines in Edo, but on 1747/3/4 it was placed under the control of the office of “junior elders” (waka-doshiyori). The calendar revision, announced in 1684/10 and implemented from 1685,

The Time of Annual Events in Kyoto   5

Years and Months In premodern Japan the term “year,” most commonly written with the ideographs nen 年 or sai 歳, referred not so much to the 365.2422 days of a tropical annum as to a period encompassing twelve (in leap years thirteen) months (月, tsuki, gatsu, or getsu). Each month could be “small” (shō no tsuki 小の月, twentynine days) or “large” (dai no tsuki 大の月, thirty days), and until the Bureau of Yin and Yang, or later the Bureau of Astronomy, deigned to announce the order of months for the upcoming year, hardly anyone could guess which months were destined to be long or short, even if the sequence was repeated every forty-three years. The number and frequency of “small” and “large” months was calculated to allow the mean length of the synodic month of 29.53 days to be approximated with tolerable exactness. Whatever disadvantages such a system might have harbored, it conformed to Japanese common sense by rendering the phases of the moon clearly visible: the new moon consistently fell near the beginning or end of a month, while the full moon appeared roughly on the central fifteenth day. Since twelve “small” and “large” months did not adequately fill out a tropical year, something already noticed by Chinese astronomers as early as the fourth century BCE, a thirteenth intercalary month (urūzuki 閏月), either “small” or “large” in duration and named according to the month that preceded it, was inserted into a twelvemonth seven times every nineteen years. Japanese years until 645 were normally identified by counting the time elapsed since an imperial accession. Thereafter emperors or empresses, relying on the counsel of specialists, began to issue era names or reign titles (nengō 年号 or gengō 元号), and years were counted from the point that a nengō had been promulgated. Dates within a nengō could also be specified by reference to a sexagenary cycle based on a combination of Chinese-style determinations: ten celestial or heavenly “stems” (kan 干, Ch. gān); and twelve terrestrial or earthly “branches” or horary signs (J. shi 支; Ch. zhī).10 The ten stems were divided into “major” (or “senior,” J. e) and “minor” (or “junior,” J. to) constituents of pairs reflecting the putative yang or yin nature of each corresponding stem. Each of the ten “celestial stems” could thus be correlated to one of five elements in Chinese “five phase” cosmology (wǔxíng 五行; short for wǔ zhǒng liúxíng zhī qì 五種流行之氣, “five sorts of qi in motion”). The phases of was chiefly the work of Shibukawa Shunkai (Harumi, 1639–1715). The new calendar was known as the “Jōkyō Calendar” 貞享暦 in reference to the Jōkyō period (1684–1688). This calendar, too, was later revised. On Shunkai, see Frumer, Making Time, pp. 61–67. 10. For a listing of the sixty designations, see Frumer, Making Time, p. 215. For explanations, see also HAE, Book 6, nos. 1 and 2.

6  Chapter 1

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water, corresponding respectively to one of the known planets, directions on the compass (plus “center”), musical pitches, colors, seasons, and the like, represented stages of “mutual generation” and “mutual overcoming” within a universe conceived in a state of perpetual flux.11 Stems, and by extension years, could accordingly be listed in an alternating sequence: “Wood/ major” (ki-no-e 甲), “Wood/minor” (ki-no-to 乙)¸ “Fire/major” (hi-no-e 丙), “Fire/ minor” (hi-no-to 丁), “Earth/major” (tsuchi-no-e 戊), “Earth/minor” (tsuchi-no-to 己), “Metal/major” (ka-no-e 庚), “Metal/major” (ka-no-to 辛), “Water/major” (mizu-no-e 壬), and “Water/minor” (mizu-no-to 癸). The ten celestial stems were in turn wedded to a cycle of twelve “terrestrial branches” named after animals of the Chinese zodiac: rat 子, ox 丑, tiger 寅, rabbit 卯, dragon 辰, snake 巳, horse 午, ram 未, monkey 申, cock 酉, dog 戌, and boar 亥. Permutations of “stems” and “branches” generated a sixty-year cycle that was applied to the calendar. Since a new era name (nengō) was normally decreed on multiple occasions within a sixty-year period, it was generally possible to assign a unique designation to each year by specifying the nengō, celestial stem, and terrestrial branch in question. Most of 1674, for example, the year that TFS was published, corresponded to the second year of the Enpō period, a ki-no-e year of the tiger; most of 1694, when HAE was issued, fell into the seventh year of the Genroku period, a ki-no-e year of the dog. By the same manner of reckoning, the year 2022 corresponds to the fourth year of the Reiwa period, a mizu-no-e year of the tiger. For dates preceding 1873 one must add the caveat “most of” because traditional Japanese years did not commence on January 1 and terminate on December 31 of the Gregorian calendar. Instead, a Japanese year carried over into the first few weeks of what the Western calendar defines as the ensuing year. Because of this misalignment, dates of nenjū gyōji mentioned in premodern Japanese texts typically fall three to seven weeks later than they would according to modern schemes of time reckoning. New Year’s Day of Enpō 2 (1674), for instance, fell on February 6, 1674, of the Western calendar; New Year’s Day of Genroku 7 (1694) fell on January 25, 1694. Consequently, when old writings speak of, say, the first month, one usually does better to imagine today’s February than January.

Seasons, Phases, Annual Divisions, and Celebratory Occasions During the Edo period the seasons were most commonly defined by reference to three-month units, with spring commencing on 1/1 on the lunar calendar. Since 11. See also Cullen, Heavenly Numbers, pp. 76–79.

The Time of Annual Events in Kyoto   7

seasons normally embraced three months of unequal length, and twelve months added up to 354 or 355 days (or 383 to 385 days when an intercalary month was decreed), such quarters did not correspond precisely to four annual divisions calculated on the basis of the solar calendar. Hence the solar term of risshun (立春; literally “start of spring”), which fell on or near today’s February 4, rarely coincided exactly with the first day of the first lunar month. Such calendrical untidiness, which might even cause the new solar “start of spring” to fall within the old lunar year, was abolished at the end of 1872, when seasons were redefined according to the Gregorian calendar, and spring always began on the day of the vernal equinox. Since the traditional calendar recognized only four seasons while yin-yang thought required “five phases,” ancient astronomers and diviners squared this calendrical pentagon by defining a distinct eighteen-day portion at the termination of each season. This period was known as doyō 土用, an abbreviation of doō yōji 土旺用事, signifying roughly “governance by the Lord of Earth” (J. Dokujin 土公神). Whereas the lion’s share of spring, summer, autumn, and winter was governed by Wood, Fire, Metal, and Water, respectively, the final eighteen days of each season were dominated by Earth—logically enough, for all seasons revealed themselves on earth.12 Doyō periods, adding up to a total of seventy-two days (approximately as long as each of the four seasons without the doyō), served as a transitional period between the seasons, one in which the power of Earth increased in magnitude. The old Japanese calendar also split the solar year into twenty-four solar terms (setsu 節, Ch. jié; or sekki 節季, Ch. jié qì), each about fifteen days in length and based on the solar meridian as determined by the angle of the sun. Every solar term could in turn be partitioned into three segments or pentads (kō 候, Ch. hòu).13 These twenty-four terms (or, if trisected, seventy-two segments) were then associated with traditionally designated changes in the natural world— ”hibernating insects awake,” “white dew,” and the like—descriptions usually far more appropriate for northern China, where they originated, than for Kyoto or Edo. The eve preceding the first day of each solar term was labeled Setsubun 節分 (“seasonal partition”), though in a more restricted sense this designation indicated only the onset of each of the four seasons as governed by the sun’s position in the firmament. Defined even more narrowly, Setsubun signified the last day of 12. For details, see HAE, 6/30, I; and Book 6, no. 3. 13. For listings, see Sugimoto and Swain, Science and Culture, p. 68; Cullen, Heavenly Numbers, pp. 66–68; and Frumer, Making Time, p. 211. Twelve of the twenty-four solar terms were sometimes considered “true terms” (seisetsu), and twelve others, alternating with the former, “intermediate terms” (chūki).

8  Chapter 1

the solar term known as daikan 大寒 (“major cold”) or, put differently, the eve preceding the solar term risshun. The entry for 12/30 in HAE indicates, however, that in this last sense, by far the most common one, Setsubun was popularly conceived as falling on or near the last day of the twelfth lunation, even if, depending on the year in question, it might occur slightly before or after this day.14 At any rate, as the harbinger of a new and hopefully propitious year, Setsubun was deemed a suitable occasion for driving out misfortune, demonical potencies, and all manner of malevolence. The most important days for celebrating seasonal changes were known as “days of division” (sechibi or sechinichi 節日). In ancient China the ideograph setsu 節 alone could already denote such dates, but archaic Japanese texts tended to wed this character to ku 供 (“offering”) to form the terms sechiku or sekku, pointing primarily to the offerings tendered on each occasion rather than the day. Eventually, however, the ideograph 供 gave way to the homophonous 句 (“occasion”) so that the term sekku again referred more strongly to a temporal dimension. Many sechibi or sekku came to be observed on Chinese-inspired “doubled dates” (jūnichi 重日), in which the numbers of the day and month, as calculated on the lunar calendar, were identical.15 Already a “miscellaneous civil law” (zatsuryō) of the Yōrō ritsuryō (compiled 718, promulgated 757), a legal code representing a revision of the epoch-making 701 Taihō ritsuryō, states, “sechibi fall on 1/1, 1/7, 1/16, 3/3, 5/5, 7/7, and the day of the imperial eleventh-month accession ceremony (ōname 大嘗).”16 As we shall see in more detail in the following chapter, on such days lavish banquets and splendid ceremonies, where invited officials might receive seasonal bonuses of silk or other valuable items, were staged by the court.

Days and Clock Hours Traditionally, and sometimes still today, the months were divided into three tenday periods (or, for twenty-nine-day months, two of ten days and one of nine) known as “upper,” “middle,” and “lower” jun 旬. Days of the month were also numbered and identified according to their celestial stem and terrestrial branch. Each of the twelve branches occurred at least twice and usually three times a month, so recurrences were distinguished as the “upper” (first), “middle” 14. For a discussion of Setsubun, see HAE, 12/30, nos. 2–5. 15. In China these days were originally associated with certain horary signs but over time turned into a matter of numerical doubling. 16. Ritsuryō, p. 484 (zatsuryō, no. 40).

The Time of Annual Events in Kyoto   9

(second), and “lower” (third or last) day of a particular beast in the zodiac. Since a calendar day was generally acknowledged to end at sundown, festivals typically commenced in the evening with a “night festival” (yoi matsuri). Activities continued until the ensuing morning, when the “main festival” (hon matsuri) began. Days and nights were each divided into six hours (toki or koku 刻), and from perhaps the seventh century these were again identified according to the twelve branches to generate the “twelve hours.”17 Each toki could in turn be split into four equal divisions (koku) or trisected (jō, chū, ge). Yet shorter intervals were typically measured by burning incense.18 Designated Buddhist temples announced the midpoint of each toki by pounding out its proper number on a large bell, with each sounding preceded by several preparatory strikes.19 Since days and nights were defined according to the rising and setting sun, the absolute length of day and night, and hence the duration of the toki it embraced, varied. In winter, when nights were long, daytime toki and their divisions were comparatively brief; in summer the reverse held true. A recalculation into modern clock hours thus represents at best an approximation for all days save the equinoxes (see table 1.1).20 Armed with these terminological and conceptual weapons, Edo-period Japanese set about conceiving, designating, measuring, calculating, and making sense of their temporal universe. The historical accumulation of various concepts, systems, and technologies of time reckoning meant that overdetermination prevailed, so that any yearly event might be stipulated according to the four seasons, the month, an annual division, a solar term, a numerical date, or a horary sign. Some reference points, such as the accession of emperors, represented entirely contingent historical occurrences; others, such as the cycle of celestial stems, remained immutable ontological structures. The “now” of an annual event was conceived neither as the opposite of eternity nor as a forwardmoving point subsisting against an abstract, homogeneous Newtonian temporal background. Least of all was it subject to a phenomenological or psychological reduction to the being or consciousness of the individual. Instead, the temporal cosmos within which nenjū gyōji were performed assumed a fundamentally relational nature. Time was explained as a multivalent product of heterogeneous 17. For more detail, see Frumer, Making Time, pp. 19–22. 18. Alternately, though never in everyday life, the twenty-four-hour day could be divided into one hundred equal sections (again koku). See Frumer, Making Time, pp. 22–27. For a description of a “fire clock” (incense clock) by the late sixteenth-century Jesuit missionary João Rodrigues, see Cooper, They Came to Japan, pp. 230–231. 19. On time bells, see also Frumer, Making Time, pp. 32–35. 20. See also HAE, Book 6, no. 2.

10  Chapter 1 Table 1.1  The Twelve Toki of the Japanese Day Toki or koku

Approximate time

Signal sounded on temple bells

Rat

11 p.m.–1 a.m.

C. midnight, “9 bells of dawn (akatsuki)”

Ox

1 a.m.–3 a.m.

C. 2 a.m., “8 bells of dawn”

Tiger

3 a.m.–5 a.m.

C. 4 a.m., “7 bells of dawn”

Rabbit

5 a.m.–7 a.m.

C. 6 a.m., 30 minutes before sunrise, “6 bells of sunrise (ake)”

Dragon

7 a.m.–9 a.m.

C. 8 a.m., “5 bells of morning (asa)”

Snake

9 a.m.–11 a.m.

C. 10 a.m., “4 bells of morning”

Horse

11 a.m.–1 p.m.

C. noon, “9 bells of daytime (hiru)”

Ram

1 p.m.–3 p.m.

C. 2 p.m., “8 bells of daytime”

Monkey

3 p.m.–5 p.m.

C. 4 p.m., “7 bells of daytime”

Cock

5 p.m.–7 p.m.

C. 6 p.m., 30 minutes after sundown, “6 bells of evening (kure)”

Dog Boar

7 p.m.–9 p.m. 9 p.m.–11 p.m.

C. 8 p.m., “5 bells of night (yoru)” C. 10 p.m., “4 bells of night”

forces generating differential polysemic relationships and correspondences that relied on diverse schemata and conceptions, ones that had evolved over centuries of accretion, revision, and adjustment. Even if contemporaries generally considered each postulated unit or correlation necessary, universal, and eternally valid, the relationships in question and their effects on the individual, who was neither the center of the universe nor excluded from it, had in fact always been introduced, enforced, and maintained by the political elite—usually the Kyoto court but, from the late seventeenth century, also the Tokugawa bakufu. The inseverable link of time to power was most dramatically demonstrated on 1872/12/3, when the new regime suddenly replaced most of the ancient scheme of temporal determination—only the nengō remained, but they were reduced to one per imperial reign—by a radically different system based not on the old Christian calendar with its saints, martyrs, holy days, movable feasts, and even dietary restrictions, but on a more abstract, anodyne calendar of 365.24 days and twenty-four clock hours. This swept away more than a millennium of chronometric history and with it the temporal foundations and metaphysical underpinnings of most nenjū gyōji. Some festivals were rescheduled on convenient days, others were celebrated on days corresponding to the numbers of the old dates,

The Time of Annual Events in Kyoto   11

and yet others were summarily abolished. What was resolved depended on local circumstances, economic considerations, or the desires, interests, and arguments of those who had a say in the matter. Many festivals and nenjū gyōji continued to be celebrated, but time would never be the same again.

C HA P T E R 2

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto

Nenjū gyōji required not just specific times but also determinate locations for their proper observation or enactment. For this reason annual events played an important role in the cognitive mapping of space. Each instance endowed the locus of its presentation with a sacred significance, a holy aura, or a mysterious potency. Even when a ceremony or ritual was performed at a spot with which it was not normally associated, conceptual or customary links to its “proper,” “original,” or best-known site, as often as not located in or around Kyoto, continued to affect its meaning.

Kyoto: The City’s Position and Scale On 794/10/22 the Japanese capital was moved from Nagaoka-kyō to an area some eight kilometers northeast. The Imperial Palace complex (the “Greater Palace” or Daidairi) now lay approximately ten kilometers north of the confluence of the Kamo and Katsura rivers.1 Although the new city was at times dubbed Heiankyō, literally “Capital of Peace and Tranquility,” it was more often simply referred to as “the capital” (Kyō, Miyako, Kyōto; below I have uniformly rendered the name Kyoto). Kyoto stood in the province of Yamashiro, a name signifying “behind the mountain,” probably because from the perspective of older capitals the territory lay behind Mt. Nara. Later, however, Yamashiro came to be written with ideographs for “mountain citadel,” and this appellation survived into the early Meiji period. Ancient Kyoto was laid out on a symmetrical Chinese-style grid, a feature well suited for the display of public and private pageantry. The original city proper, measuring approximately 3.8 kilometers wide and 4.4 kilometers long, was broadly divided into nine lateral zones, belts, or bands (jō 条). During the Heian period, northern city regions of the first zone (Ichijō), near the upper perimeter, and the second zone (Nijō), immediately to the south, were dominated 1. For a lucid discussion of Kyoto’s shape and its transformation over time, see Stavros, Kyoto.

12

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto   13

by the Imperial Palace complex, which occupied a mighty 80 chō (町; c. 1.2 kilometers east/west and 1.4 kilometers north/south).2 This spacious swath of the city, which embraced most residences and palaces of families of power and pedigree, was called the “upper capital” (Kamigyō). Further to the south, stretching all the way down to the ninth zone (Kujō), lay the “lower capital” (Shimogyō), peopled largely by the commoner class with its innumerable shops and dwelling houses. The city was initially not enclosed by a wall, but in 1591 a rampart-like structure (odoi) went up in order to separate the “city interior” (rakuchū) from the “city exterior” (rakugai). In the ensuing years, however, as civil wars drew to a close, this barrier was progressively dismantled.3 Geomantic considerations and directional taboos determined much of the capital’s layout. The position or orientation of shrines and temples, for instance, was calculated to shield the emperor, the state, the citizenry, and various congregations of parishioners from every conceivable form of evil lurking in terrestrial or celestial realms. On the largest scale, the Imperial Palace was safeguarded from such postulated malevolent forces by the huge Enryakuji complex on Mt. Hiei, founded in 788, six years before the city was built. Mt. Hiei was most happily situated to protect the court and the capital, for the northeasterly direction constituted the “demon entrance” (kimon), thought to be the most perilous point of the compass. On the opposite side of the city, the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine secured the palace against any malicious fiends who might conspire to encroach through the “rear demon entrance” (ura-kimon). More generally, northern regions of Kyoto were linked to the horary sign of the rat and the Kamigamo Shrine, southern areas to the ox and the Jōnan Shrine, eastern locations to the rabbit and the Gion (Yasaka) Shrine, and western districts to the cock and the Matsunoo Shrine. Yin-yang considerations, political expediency, the easy availability of huge plots of real estate, and later Hideyoshi’s grandiose urban planning schemes meant that the greatest shrines, no different from the most majestic Buddhist temple complexes, tended to rest in suburban regions.

Streets, Wards, and Administration By the standards of its day Kyoto was vast. Thirty-nine roads traversed the classical city horizontally. The principal thoroughfares, numbered sequentially from 2. For a detailed description of the design and features of the Greater Palace, see W. McCullough and H. McCullough, A Tale of Flowering Fortunes, vol. 2, pp. 833–853. For the palace during the Kamakura period, see Blümmel, “Der Kaiserpalast der Kamakura Zeit.” 3. The odoi extended far to the north of the area occupied by the classical Heian-kyō but did not encompass the western third of the original city. A good portion of it is still indicated in map 1.

14  Chapter 2

the northern extremity downward, were called ōji (“major roads”); smaller ones were known as kōji (“minor roads”). In due course other streets, again typically suffixed by the term -kōji (later -dōri), appeared hither and thither, and after the late sixteenth century additional minor ways split the old blocks. Quite confusingly, some roads shared the name of the zone that lay to their immediate north, though use of the suffixes -kōji or -dōri helped mitigate confusion. Hence when one spoke of Shijō (“fourth zone”), one usually meant the tract of land running between Shijō-ōji (=Shijō-dōri) and Sanjō-ōji (=Sanjō-dōri) to the north, though “Shijō” also served as an abbreviation for Shijō-ōji. Spots could be pinpointed by stating that they lay either “above” (agaru = northward; i.e., toward the Imperial Palace, conceptually the “uppermost” area) or “below” (sagaru) a road traversing the city from east to west. Thirty-three major roads also ran through the classical city vertically. At dead center—by the Edo period this had long become the western periphery— stood Suzaku-ōji (or Shujaku-ōji, today approximately Senbon-dōri), the foremost “major road,” an enormous eighty-two meters wide and designed with an eye to staging attention-grabbing parades and other public occasions centering on the loftiest echelons of the aristocracy. Suzaku-ōji divided the metropolis into two geographical and administrative units: the “Left Capital” (Sakyō), comprising the eastern half of the city, and the “Right Capital” (Ukyō), embracing the western sector. Eight other major north/south thoroughfares, along with many smaller ones, provided supplementary lines of reference useful for pinpointing one’s east/west bearings. Accordingly a specific site could be indicated with reasonable accuracy by noting that it lay “eastward” (higashi-iru) or “westward” (nishi-iru) of a given road. This ingenious scheme did not long prove itself in practice. Incrementally the geometric ideals of the planners gave way to the chaotic realities of the citizenry. By the eleventh century the western half of the city had reverted chiefly to agricultural production and scarcely figured as part of the capital at all. From an early age machi (wards or blocks) were increasingly defined not by squares on the ancient grid but rather by the facing sides of a street. These trends were accelerated by incessant wars and natural disasters, whose tangled vicissitudes and wide-ranging effects cannot be detailed here. During the Edo period, neighborhood addresses typically reflected connections across streets rather than between them and usually refer to a site’s past or present economic activity, salient geographical feature, the presence of a historical landmark, and the location’s spatial relation to the city in general. As a result, place names often turned into strings of heterogeneous designations that made them perhaps the longest addresses in the nation.

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto   15

After the start of the seventeenth century, Kyoto, like Nara, Sakai, and Osaka, came under the direct governance of the Tokugawa bakufu. Administrative matters were overseen by a daimyo-rank governor (or shogunal deputy: Kyōto shoshidai). From 1668, however, most duties of this official were split among eastern and western city magistrates (machi bugyō) and a Kyoto attendant (Kyōto daikan). The attendant supervised especially the rustic regions controlled by the bakufu, the court, and retired emperors. Officials of a lesser order managed specific wards. A 1715 census recorded 282,719 souls inside the city proper (132,468 in “upper Kyoto,” 150,251 in “lower Kyoto”), 20,036 on eastern and western Honganji property, 1,818 on land belonging to other temples, and 57 at various city shrines. In addition, 41,624 commoners, 8,056 hinin outcastes, and 2,714 eta outcastes resided in the “city outside,” while 12,733 persons called nearby religious institutions home.4 Most nenjū gyōji took place at sites that may be conveniently grouped into five divisions, frequently encountered in Edo-period guides to the city: the Imperial Palace; shrines dedicated chiefly to kami worship; Buddhist temples; sites associated with the shogunate; and the dwelling houses, streets, and immediate geographic environment of the citizenry. These categories were, of course, anything but watertight, but to gain a better overview of nenjū gyōji in Kyoto in general, let us examine each sort of location and its typical events one by one.

The Imperial Palace Classical Kyoto distinguished itself over all other Japanese cities by the extravagant Imperial Palace compound, with its gates, moats, embankments, bureaus, ministries, ceremonial halls, plazas, gardens, living spaces, woods, streams, and storehouses. Much of what the Edo-period writers viewed as “traditional” about nenjū gyōji ultimately derived from practices originating in this awe-inspiring region of the city. Yearly events taking place at court, originally within the Imperial Palace complex and later at substitute palaces elsewhere, included ceremonial banquets, kami worship and Buddhist rites, exorcisms indebted to yin-yang thought, magical rituals related to agriculture or disease prevention, jimoku ceremonies (in which officials were awarded rank and title), and gatherings devoted to scholarship, poetry, architecture, dance, music, or martial arts (including archery, sumō, and equestrianship). Additional ceremonies, not always annual in nature, addressed the manifold political, symbolic, and practical needs of the court. 4. Kyōto oyakusho-muki taigai oboegaki, vol. 1, pp. 214–221.

16  Chapter 2

For the palace aristocracy, if not for the lower strata of society, annual events, just like other ceremonies and rites, represented nothing “extraordinary.” They were not phenomena that Japanese ethnologists often dub hare and contrast to more “ordinary” (ke) moments of everyday existence. Instead, such occasions functioned as a central, omnipresent, standardized, and thoroughly regimented component of court life. Nenjū gyōji rendered visible, audible, and even edible the conventions, imperatives, and hierarchies through which the state reproduced critical power relations and weighty political structures. In carefully choreographed ritual actions, every courtier in attendance found his or her rank, position, and role in the dominant order demonstrated to everyone else. The political status quo as a whole was thereby confirmed, reinforced, and furnished with overtones of divine necessity. Moreover, court events embodied the ideology that the interests of the emperor and his family, and by extension the court and the nobility, fully corresponded to those of the subjects over whom the sovereign ruled. Viewed through the lens of nenjū gyōji, the relation of high and low was based on a proper and necessary give and take, even if everyone knew that, at least as far as material production and labor were concerned, it was the low that usually gave and the high that invariably took. Supposedly shared interests were demonstrated in celebrations such as the kinensai (or toshigoi no matsuri; literally “annual prayer ritual,” though toshi here refers to rice), performed by the emperor or empress on 2/4. In this event the kami were invoked for the sake of a bountiful harvest that simultaneously guaranteed ample state revenues and satisfactory peasant sustenance.5 Since high-born and low equally needed to fill their bellies and since disease, as Samuel Johnson once said, generally begins that equality that death completes, a homogeneity of interests could also be represented in the eleventh-month imperial niinamesai harvest ritual (often translated as “Celebrations of the First Taste” or “First Fruits Festival”) and in the third-month disease-quelling chinkasai (or hana-shizume no matsuri), supposedly originating during the times of Emperor Sūjin (conventionally assigned as reigning 97–30 BCE).6

5. This rite was already stipulated in the ritsuryō code as proper for the second month (Ritsuryō, p. 211) but later declined. After the Ōnin Wars (1467–1477) it entirely disappeared from the court program of annual events. 6. The niinamesai is already mentioned as performed in Nintoku 40 (352 CE), two centuries before a calendar was introduced. See Nihon shoki, jō, p. 407, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 292. On what may be a chinkasai, see Nihon shoki, jō, p. 249 (Sūjin 12 [86 BCE]/3/11), and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 160 (86 BCE/3/11).

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto   17

The court marked many of its nenjū gyōji with banquets designated in early records as 宴, an ideograph read en, utage, or even toyo[no]akari (“plentiful radiance,” implying faces flushed from drinking). From the mid-eighth century the character 宴 was often prefixed by setsu or sechi 節 to form the term sechien (“banquets at annual divisions”), which typically referred to celebrations at New Year’s, on 3/3, and on 5/5.7 At the start of the ninth century the term sechie 節会 (“assemblies at annual divisions”) begins to appear, initially in conjunction with events on 1/7 and 1/14–16.8 In time, the following eight occasions represented the most significant court-sponsored nenjū gyōji. 1. The “New Year’s Banquet” on 1/1 (gannichi no sechie).9 For this celebration emperors invited their subordinates to the Burakuin (“Compound of Abundant Pleasures”) or in later years the Shishinden (“Purple Palace Hall”; also called Naden, “Southern Hall”).10 At this site the sovereign was ritually apprised of auspicious signs presaging a bountiful harvest and was presented with the new calendar by the Ministry of the Center. Palace officials reported on the condition of ice stored in the imperial ice vaults, and “red-bellied fish” (trout) were delivered and presumably sliced up and devoured.11 A formal banquet ensued. 2. The “Blue Roans Banquet” (aoba [or aouma] no sechie) on 1/7. The seventh day of the new year was known as jinjitsu (Ch. rénrì, “day of humans”), nanuka [or nanoka] shōgatsu (“seventh day of New Year’s”), or nanakusa no sekku (“festive occasion of seven herbs”). A banquet (en) on this day is already mentioned in 121 CE—quite preposterously, for this was nearly half a millennium before calendars were introduced to Japan—and again, 7. For examples of the term sechien, see Shoku Nihongi, Tenpyō Hōji 3 (759)/1/7, Enryaku 9 (790)/3/4, Enryaku 10 (791)/5/6. 8. Ruijū kokushi, p. 457: sechi, entry for Daidō 2 (807)/1/7 and 1/16, and sechie, entry for Daidō 4 (809)/1/7 and 1/16; also Nihon kōki, vol. 5 (kan 17), p. 124 (Daidō 4 [809]/1/10 on the sechie of 1/7 and 1/16). On the historical transformation of banquets to sechie, see Yamanaka, Heian-chō no nenjū gyōji, esp. pp. 19–31. 9. Already the ritsuryō code deemed this day proper for imperial audiences and banquets (Ritsuryō, p. 348, “Gisei-ryō”). See Dairi shiki, pp. 25–32, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 120–137; also Kurabayashi, Kyōen no kenkyū (Girei-hen), pp. 189–242, and Yamanaka, Heianchō no nenjū gyōji, pp. 109–112. For fourteenth-century descriptions by Emperor Go-Daigo, see Kenmu nenjū gyōji, pp. 429–435 (Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 30–42, and commentary on pp. 113–114). 10. The Burakuin complex contained the Burakuden, a “Hall of Abundant Pleasure,” which hosted many events until it burned down in 1063. 11. See Dairi shiki, p. 30, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, p. 132.

18  Chapter 2

more credibly, in 612 CE (shuen).12 The 1/7 festivity counted as one of the oldest court-sponsored nenjū gyōji, and a relation to “blue roans” (horses with a dark underlying coat that endows them with a bluish cast) is traceable to 834.13 In this ceremony emperors typically inspected steeds displayed by the Bureau of Horses. The Chinese had conceived the notion that a blue roan possessed apotropaic qualities, so even if in Japan white horses were normally considered sacred—and it was these beasts that were exhibited at the Imperial Palace on 1/7—the ideographs used to designate the banquet continued to refer to “blue roans.”14 A feast followed the display, and, as in distant Cathay, rice porridge flavored with seven herbs or vegetables was devoured to ensure the future safety and good health of those who partook of it.15 3. The “Banquet of Step Songs” (tōka no sechie) usually on 1/14 (men’s dancing) and 1/16 (women’s dancing). The arts presented on this occasion were known as arare-bashiri (or arare-hashiri, “running with felicitous shouts”) or tōka (“step songs” or “stamping songs”). This genre may once have served to pacify earth spirits.16 The history of tōka reached back to an era when squads of boisterous dancers, perhaps of Chinese ancestry, raced around town shouting, “[Luck be with you] for ten-thousand years [yorozu yo arare]!” Eventually such performers were invited to the imperial court, and on 693/1/16 the Nihon shoki chronicles “men of Aya” (=descendants of

12. Nihon shoki, jō, p. 313 (121 CE); Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 211. Nihon shoki, ge, p. 197 (612 CE); Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 142. For other early examples of 1/7 banquets, see Nihon shoki, ge, pp. 367 (668 CE, en), 411 (673 CE, shuen), 417 (675 CE, en), and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, pp. 287, 321, 326. A reference to a 1/7 setsu or sechi can be found as early as 679 (Nihon shoki, ge, p. 433; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 340), though setsu may here just refer to a temporal juncture (toki). For details, see Kurabayashi, Kyōen no kenkyū (Girei-hen), pp. 258–280, and Yamanaka, Heian-chō no nenjū gyōji, pp. 132–139. For descriptions by Emperor Go-Daigo, see Kenmu nenjū gyōji, pp. 439–442 (Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 49–54, 117–118). 13. Shoku Nihon kōki, p. 34 (Jōwa 1 [834]/1/7). On the event, see Dairi shiki, pp. 32–37, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 137–150. 14. For a discussion of the etymology, which puzzled even a medieval shogun, and its relation to Ichijō Kaneyoshi and his Kuji kongen, see Carter, Regent Redux, pp. 24–26. For citations thematizing the occasion, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 385–426. In English, see W. McCullough and H. McCullough, A Tale of Flowering Fortunes, vol. 1, pp. 382–383. See also HAE, 1/7, no. 1. 15. See Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, p. 68. 16. The term arare-bashiri is already found in the Man’yōshū (see verse no. 6115).

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto   19

Chinese immigrants) exhibiting tōka.17 During the Heian period this style of song and dance, no doubt extensively refined for the occasion, became a component of regular state banquets. Young virtuoso singers and dancers of either sex assembled at the Seiryōden (the sovereign’s private living quarters) or Shishinden and offered their tōka to musical accompaniment.18 Until 983 the men among the performers also sallied into the city to entertain exalted nobles. In the succeeding centuries such music and dance sharply declined, but it experienced a slight revitalization during the Edo period. 4. The jōshi (or jōmi) (“first ‘day of the snake’ ”) sechie on 3/3. This date was also called chōsan (“double three”) or momo no sekku (“festive occasion of peach blossoms”). The ancient Chinese once celebrated a luck-inducing ritual on the first “day of the snake” of the third month, but after the Six Dynasties (220 CE–589 CE) this event came to be observed on 3/3 with no regard to horary signs. In Japan, the court and aristocratic families characteristically performed a waterside ritual on this day. This was followed by a “Winding Stream Banquet” (kyokusui [or gokusui] no utage [or en]; Ch. qǔshuǐyàn), based on Chinese precedent and featuring lacquerware sake cups floating down a garden rivulet.19 Courtiers were compelled to compose a poem before the cup drifted past their seating position. Eventually 3/3 became a popular festival for girls in which dolls and herbal or tricolored rice cakes (kusamochi, hishimochi) were displayed. At parties accompanying the festival, participants drained cups of health-conveying “peach-blossom liquor” or sweet white sake.

17. See Nihon shoki, ge, p. 519, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 411 (Jitō 7[693]/1/16). “Step songs” were also performed at court on 730/1/16 and 742/1/16 (Shoku Nihongi, Tenpyō 2/1/16, Tenpyō 14/1/16) and thereafter. See also Dairi shiki, pp. 38–39, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 154–156. For a listing of early performances, see Ruijū kokushi, pp. 453–464. For details, see Kurabayashi: Kyōen no kenkyū (Girei-hen), pp. 280–311; Kyōen no kenkyū (Saishi-hen), pp. 417–427; and Yamanaka, Heian-chō no nenjū gyōji, pp. 153–160. 18. For descriptions by Emperor Go-Daigo, see Kenmu nenjū gyōji, p. 448, and Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 64–65, and commentary on pp. 122–123. 19. Such a banquet already took place on 485/3/“day of the snake [2]” (see Nihon shoki, jō, p. 521; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 388). It also appears in the Man’yōshū (compiled after 759 CE but containing far earlier poems; see Book 19, verse 4153), the Shin kokin waka-shū (compiled 1205; see Book 2, verses 151, 152; for an English rendition, see Laurel Rasplica Rodd, trans., Shinkokinshū, vol. 1, pp. 67–68), and other literary sources. For a detailed history, see Kurabayashi, Kyōen no kenkyū (Girei-hen), pp. 348–376. For Chinese precedent, see Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, p. 104. See also HAE, 3/3, no. 3.

20  Chapter 2

5. The “Tango Banquet” (tango no sechie) on 5/5, a date also called tango no sekku (“festive occasion on the first ‘day of the horse’ ”), gogatsu sekku (“festive occasion of the fifth month”), or chōgo (“double five”).20 In ancient China a ritual took place on the first (Ch. duān; J. tan 端) “day of the horse” (Ch. wŭ; J. go 午), but this event was later celebrated on 5/5, again with no reference to the horary sign in question. In 747 the date 5/5 is listed as a sechi, and in 791 it appears as a sechien.21 At the Japanese court 5/5 had already been designated as a festival day by 611, but the content of the event may have varied, or incorporated multiple elements. Practices included the gathering of medicinal herbs (in 611–614, 668, 669), equestrian archery (642 CE), or a banquet with rustic dances (671 CE).22 Emperors were typically presented with medicinal sweet flag (shōbu, Acorus calamus) by the Bureau of Medicine, while other participants received “medicine balls” (kusudama).23 Courtiers, both male and female, decorated their hair or headgear with magically effective garlands of sweet flag.24 Aristocrats bathed in salutary water infused with fragrant, apotropaic sweet-flag leaves and roots, and the plant was also attached to apparel or placed on rooftops. Horse races took place both at court and at the Kamo Shrine.25 In the ninth century, equestrian archery was inspected by the sovereign and eminent state officials on 5/5 and 5/6.26 In addition, from 885, if not earlier, stylish sacred dances (kagura) were performed on 5/6 below the stairs of the Butokuden, a hall within the Greater Palace.27 The public and nobility alike surfeited themselves on glutinous-rice dumplings known as chimaki, long associated with 5/5 in China and held to ward off disease and evil.28 Centuries later the date 5/5 20. For details, see Yamanaka, Heian-chō no nenjū gyōji, pp. 196–207, and Obinata, Kodai kokka to nenjū gyōji, pp. 40–90. 21. Shoku Nihongi, Tenpyō 19 (747)5/5; Enryaku 10 (791)/5/6. 22. See Nihon shoki, ge, pp. 195, 197 (611 CE, 612 CE), 201 (614 CE), 239 (642 CE), 369 (668 CE), 371 (669 CE), 377 (671 CE), and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, pp. 141, 143, 145, 173, 288, 290, 296. On the equestrian archery on 5/5 and 5/6, see Dairi shiki, pp. 45–48, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 167–173. 23. See Dairi gishiki, pp. 11–12, and Dairi shiki, pp. 46–47. The link of the 5/5 festival to the sweet flag is also evident in the Shoku Nihongi (Tenpyō 19 [747]/5/5). 24. Shoku Nihongi, Tenpyō 19 (747)/5/5. 25. Shoku Nihongi, Taihō 1 (701)/5/5. 26. During the ninth century 5/5 archery exhibits and 5/6 horse races were typically presented at the Butokuden (“Hall of Martial Virtue”), in the western region of the Daidairi. 27. Nihon sandai jitsuroku (completed 901), vol. 10, p. 384 (Ninna 1[885]/5/6). 28. See, for instance, the Sui-period Yuju baodian, fifth month, no. 23.

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto   21

came to be linked to boys and the glorification of samurai machismo. During the Edo period youths displayed figures of fighters, armor, and banners; flew kites; and delighted in horse races, equestrian archery, and rock fights. 6. The “Sumō Banquet” (sumai no sechie) on 7/7. Along with archery, equestrian archery, and horse racing, sumō counted as an important and auspicious martial art. Already in 23 BCE a brutal 7/7 wrestling match ending with the death of the loser is recorded as having been commissioned and viewed with consummate pleasure by the emperor.29 This suggests, if nothing else, that at the time of writing during the seventh century sumō tournaments were associated with 7/7, a date that ritsuryō laws had already designated as a “day of an annual division” (sechibi) somewhat earlier.30 Sumō bouts and banquets are also recorded as taking place at court on 642/7/22 and 710/7/7.31 According to the early ninth-century Dairi shiki, court-sponsored matches of twenty men on 7/7 and 7/8 were staged at the Shinsen’en (Sacred Spring Garden) and in the yard facing the Shishinden during the following century.32 As a state-supported event, however, this practice seems to have melted away after the twelfth century. Inspired by other continental traditions, 7/7 was known in Japan as “Tanabata” (“weaving maid”), shichiseki or shisseki (“seventh night”), and kikō or kikōden (“[offerings as an] appeal for skill [in embroidery, weaving, etc.]”).33 According to a Chinese legend, on 7/7 a celestial “weaving maid,” represented by the star Vega, met her lover, the heavenly “cowherd boy,” represented by the star Altair on the other side of the Milky Way.34 Tanabata, already repeatedly mentioned in verses included in the eighthcentury Man’yōshū poetry anthology, was eventually associated with the consumption of thin, twisted noodle-like wheat-flour sticks (sakubei), though by the eighteenth century this item had largely disappeared from 29. Nihon shoki, jō, pp. 265, 267; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 173–174. 30. Ritsuryō, p. 484 [zatsuryō, no. 41]). 31. Nihon shoki, ge, p. 241; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 174; Shoku Nihongi, Wadō 3 (710)/7/7. 32. See also Dairi shiki, pp. 48–49, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 174–177. For a detailed analysis of the sumai no sechie see Obinata, Kodai kokka to nenjū gyōji, pp. 91–131. 33. The date 7/7 is given as that of the festival of weaving maids in vol. 30 of the 927 Engi shiki (p. 672). 34. In China a weaving maid and cowherd boy already appear in the “Book of Odes” (Shijing; “Dadong” 5 and 6), with reference to stars and the number seven. On Tanabata, see also Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, pp. 356–358; Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, pp. 130–132; and Casal, The Five Sacred Festivals of Ancient Japan, pp. 80–94.

22  Chapter 2

the Japanese court menu.35 During the Edo period 7/7 was commemorated not just at the Imperial Palace, but also by the commoner class, which offered cucumbers or eggplant to the deities, hung up greenery or strips of bamboo whereupon verses and wishes were inscribed, displayed needles, thread, and cloth, and discharged prayers for gaining skill in sartorial and calligraphic arts.36 7. The “Chrysanthemum-Blossom Banquet” or “Chōyō Banquet” of 9/9 (chōyō no sechie). This date, known as chōyō (“double yang”), chōkyū (“double nine”), or kiku no sekku (“festive occasion of chrysanthemums”), took the number nine as a force of yang and thus as apotropaic. When the original Chinese festival, with its sumptuous bill of fare and delicious “chrysanthemum liquor,” was transmitted to Japan, the court styled the event into a “chrysanthemum banquet” (kikkaen or kikka no en).37 The ritsuryō code did not specify 9/9 as a day for an official banquet, but a chōyō festivity (sechi) at court is recorded as taking place in 831.38 By pouring cups of “chrysanthemum liquor” down their gullets, Japanese courtiers partook of the flower’s purported healing or life-extending properties.39 To amplify the effect they also moistened their physiques with a cloth (kiku no sekiwata) saturated with chrysanthemum dew. In

35. For Man’yōshū verses, see nos. 1520, 1545, all the verses from nos. 1996 to 2093, and no. 3900. For a discussion of 7/7, see Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, p. 137. Sakubei (later these were taken as identical to sōmen noodles) were ordered to be incorporated into the court tradition by Emperor Uda in 890 (see Uda tennō gyoki, pp. 11–12, Kanpyō 2 [890]/2/30). 36. For more detail, see Shirane, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, pp. 158–159. 37. This perhaps occurred as early as 685, though it is not stipulated as an annual event of 9/9. Moreover, since Emperor Tenmu died on Shuchō 1 (686)/9/9, the event was perhaps not celebrated at court until this taboo was lifted in 791. See Shoku Nihongi: Tenpyō-Hōji 2 (758)/3/10 and Enryaku 10 (791)/3/23. For a discussion, see Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 138–139. 38. Ruijū kokushi, p. 519 (Tenchō 8 [831]/9/9). See Gishiki, pp. 194–196, and Dairi shiki, pp. 49–50 (Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 177–178) lists it as “Chrysanthemum-Blossom Banquet” with music, dance, and the presentation of gifts. Engi shiki also calls it a sechi (pp. 660, 682, 729, 790; kan 30, 31, 35, 39). For a listing of early celebrations, see Ruijū kokushi, pp. 517– 527. Also useful are Kuji kongen, pp. 90–91, and the many citations in Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 728–759. 39. The Nihon shoki states that on Tenmu 14 (685)/9/9 the emperor staged a banquet (en). See Nihon shoki, ge, p. 471, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 370. “Chrysanthemum liquor,” known as kikuzake or kikkashu, was made by brewing watery sake in which chrysanthemum petals, stems, or leaflets were decocted and perhaps left to float. For a general discussion, see Casal, The Five Sacred Festivals, pp. 95–105.

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto   23

time 9/9 was also associated with archery exhibits and contests for composing Chinese verse. 8. The “Banquet of Flushed Faces” (toyo[no]akari no sechie). This eleventhmonth nighttime feast may have been celebrated at court as early as 482.40 It was normally observed on the second “day of the dragon,” the day after the imperial harvest ritual (shinjōe, shinjōsai, niinamesai), though in years with a daijōe (a special service conducted only once after an imperial enthronement) it occurred on the subsequent “day of the horse.” In the shinjōe, emperors offered the season’s new rice to the kami by sampling it at the Burakuin (later at the Shishinden) and offering a portion to the crown prince and other noble personages.41 This was followed by a bestowal of sinecures and promotions and by a lavish banquet where the muchlauded “Gosechi Dances” were performed to elegant musical accompaniment.42 During medieval times, the “Banquet of Flushed Faces” experienced a gradual decline. Though it was revived in part in 1688 and fully in 1740, neither work translated in chapters 4 and 5 below mentions it. In its treatment of sechiku or sekku (“offerings at an annual division” or “[days of] seasonal occasions”) the tenth-century Engi shiki enumerated five sechi: a group of three associated with the New Year’s season (1/1, 1/7, 1/14 and 16); and individual ones on 5/5 and 9/9.43 Over the next centuries, the occasions on 1/1, 1/7, 1/14 and 16, 5/5, and the “Banquet of Flushed Faces” were commonly referred to as the “five sechie” by the court. In even later years, especially among the warrior class and the public, 1/7, 3/3, 5/5, 7/7, and 9/9 were typically labeled the “five sekku,” annual events ordinarily accompanied by banquets or similar celebrations. Other important annual court events, some already stipulated in the ritsuryō code, included the presentation of firewood (mikamagi) on 1/15, jarai archery 40. Nihon shoki, jō, p. 507 (Seinei 3[482]/11/18, “day of the dragon”); Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 376. For details, see Yamanaka, Heian-chō no nenjū gyōji, pp. 253–262. 41. See Dairi shiki, pp. 51–53, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 180–184. 42. For the Gosechi Dances, which were performed at court on several occasions during the year, four or five girls of aristocratic houses were meticulously selected and trained to perform at imperial banquets. These dances, to which Heian-period writers frequently allude, had become extinct by the fifteenth century, but were resuscitated in slightly altered form in 1753. 43. Engi shiki, pp. 789–791 (kan 38). This work classifies annual observances into “major” (taigi) ones, such as New Year’s imperial audiences; “middle” (chūgi) ones, such as those on 1/7, 5/5, and the eleventh month; and “minor” (shōgi) ones, such as the “Banquet of Step Songs” and others. See Engi shiki, pp. 868–884 (kan 45–47).

24  Chapter 2

exhibits on or near 1/17,44 the sekiten (or shakuten, sakuten) ceremonies honoring Confucius at the school of higher learning on the initial hi-no-to day in the second and eighth months, several dozen rituals performed by officials in the Ministry of Kami Affairs (Jingikan), the pardoning of criminals during the sixth and twelfth months, a year-end rite of purifications and offerings (ōharae), and many more.45 The end-of-year “Tsuina” exorcism, imported from China but not explicitly mentioned in the ritsuryō code, also counted as a consequential court custom transmitted from ancient times.46 In the eighth-month imperial “pony inspection” (komahiki or komabiki), recorded from the mid-ninth century, the emperor scrutinized colts driven to Kyoto from various regions of the land.47 Now and then even newly contrived ceremonies were incorporated into the annual court calendar. On 809/8/30, for instance, Emperor Saga (r. 809–823) visited his parents and held a banquet to commemorate the occasion. By 834 this practice had turned into a nenjū gyōji in which the sovereign regularly visited immediate ancestors shortly after New Year’s (chōkin no gyōkō).48 Assorted Buddhist ceremonies were also staged within the walls of the Imperial Palace. An observance called urabon’e (for honoring the deceased spirits of one’s ancestors), already mentioned in old Chinese records for 7/15 and celebrated by Japanese temples from at least the seventh century, was marked by the court on 7/14 from the eighth century.49 Likewise from 766 or 768 until the 44. First-month archery at court is already recorded on Kōtoku 3 (647)/1/15 (Nihon shoki, ge, p. 301; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 226) and was stipulated as a proper mid-first-month court ritual in the ritsuryō code (see Ritsuryō, p. 484 [zatsuryō, no. 41]). See also Dairi shiki, pp. 39–41 (for 1/17), and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 156–161. For details on jarai and archery at court, see Kurabayashi, Kyōen no kenkyū (Girei-hen), pp. 312–348, and Obinata, Kodai kokka to nenjū gyōji, pp. 7–39. On the history of archery exhibits, see Guttmann and Thompson, Japanese Sports, pp. 45–53. 45. Ritsuryō, p. 481 (zatsuryō, no. 26), p. 484 (zatsuryō, no. 41), p. 262 (gakuryō, no. 3), pp. 211–213, 215 (jingi-ryō, nos. 1–9, no. 18). On the sekiten ceremonies, see the translation of Engi shiki, vol. 20, in Bock, Classical Learning, pp. 49–71, and Kurabayashi, Kyōen no kenkyū (Saiji, sakuin-hen), pp. 301–495. 46. See Shoku Nihongi, Keiun 3 (706)/12/30; Dairi shiki, pp. 53–54; Charlier, Das Dairishiki, pp. 185–187; and Bock, Classical Learning, pp. 44–46 (Engi shiki, vol. 16). For a study, see Obinata, Kodai kokka to nenjū gyōji, pp. 184–220. 47. See Obinata, Kodai kokka to nenjū gyōji, pp. 132–183. 48. Ruijū kokushi, p. 230 (Daidō 4/8/30); Shoku Nihon kōki, p. 33 (Jōwa 1/1/2). For a chronological listing, see Ruijū kokushi, pp. 230–232. 49. Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, pp. 359–361; Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, pp. 136–138. Buddhist ceremonies held at temples on 4/8 and 7/15 are mentioned for 606/4/8 (Nihon shoki, ge, p. 187; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 134) and 657/7/15 (urabon’e at Asukadera; see Nihon shoki, ge, p. 331, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 251).

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Muromachi period, week-long gosai-e services commencing on 1/8 were presented at the Daigokuden (the great audience hall), and in later ages at the Seiryōden. On this occasion eminent priests arrived to lecture on the “Golden Light Sutra” (Konkō myōkō; Skt. Suvarṇa-prabhāsa sūtra), a text protecting the land and the head of state. Then on 1/14, the last day of the gosai-e period, invited clerics engaged in question-and-answer sessions known as uchi rongi (“internal debates”).50 From the tenth century the Imperial Palace burned down so frequently that emperors normally resided at temporary palaces (sato dairi) belonging to noble families close to imperial kin. Court nenjū gyōji were also celebrated at these alternate venues, even if the surviving edifices of the original Inner Palace complex might still be used for major public ceremonies. By the twelfth century, however, the Daidairi had been largely abandoned in favor of sites such as the Kan’in complex, once the private residence of Fujiwara no Fuyutsugu (775– 826).51 In 1227 the entire Imperial Palace complex went up in smoke and was not rebuilt. From the early fourteenth century it was often replaced by the Tsuchimikado Palace (Tsuchimikado Higashi-no-tōin dono) of the Fujiwara clan, a compound at Sakyō Hokuhen Shibō Nichō, which was also repeatedly ravaged by fires.52 After reconstruction by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1401 it was carefully designed to replicate the facilities of the former Daidairi.53 During the Ōnin Wars Kyoto contracted to a fraction of its original size. For over a century a dearth of funds and the lack of a suitable palace effectively ruled out full-scale performances of most nenjū gyōji. In 1479 one witness remarked that though the emperor’s palace was being reconstructed, it remained a mere shell of its former self. Denuded of proper entry gates and standing in an area bare of all other edifices, the structure permitted the visitor to gaze unobstructed all the way to the mountains in the east and west.54 In 1517 the courtier Nakamikado Nobutane (1442–1525) lamented, “Tonight celebratory New Year’s banquets [sechie] are to take place. Recently, in the second year of Bunki [1502], they were held once, but thereafter they waned, and in the intervening fourteen years they have been canceled altogether.”55 At its nadir, during the mid-sixteenth century, 50. For numerous relevant documents, see Koji ruien, vol. 33, pp. 395–399. 51. On the palaces and ceremonies therein after the Kamakura period, see Blümmel, “Der Kaiserpalast der Kamakura Zeit.” 52. The Tsuchimikado Palace was also called Tsuchimikado Higashi-no-tōin dono, Tsuchimikado-dono, or Ōgimachi-dono. 53. See Sakkaiki, vol. 2, pp. 194–195, Ōei 32 (1425)/8/1. 54. Daijōin jisha zōjiki, vol. 7, p. 66 (Bunmei 11 [1479]/10/19). 55. Nobutane kyō ki, vol. 2, p. 251 (Eishō 14 [1517]/1/1). Already at New Year’s in 1489 Nobutane had lamented that annual events were not being performed on account of a dearth

26  Chapter 2

the palace was said to be “puny, no different from a rural commoner’s den, surrounded not by a tiled earthen wall but only by bamboo paling that appears to be tied together with brambles.”56 Soon after entering Kyoto in 1568, Oda Nobu­ naga signaled his respect for imperial traditions by financing a reconstruction. Later, between 1589 and 1591, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sought to raise a seemly compound on grounds measuring some 250 meters from east to west and 450 meters from north to south (the site of today’s “Kyōto Gosho”). During the Edo period major rebuilding efforts gradually restored essential palace structures. Thus when seventeenth-century writers refer to nenjū gyōji taking place “at court” or “in the Imperial Palace” during their day, it was the erstwhile Tsuchimikado Palace, rebuilt nine times throughout the Edo period, they had in mind.

Shrines For the bulk of recorded history Japanese religious thought and practice was markedly syncretic. Already the scribes of the Nihon shoki registered that in 585 CE, two years preceding the victory of the Buddha-supporting Soga clan over the Buddha-skeptical Mononobe, the newly installed Emperor Yōmei “believed in the law of Buddha and reverenced the way of the kami.”57 Whatever may have actually been the case, such a statement indicates that eighth-century court historians, just like most subsequent generations of Japanese, rated such a binary faith wholly commendable, a judgment that later often puzzled observers coming from, of all things, a Judeo-Christian tradition. Buddhist sites of prayer and practice would come to stand on the grounds of major shrines, while sanctuaries dedicated to every imaginable kami bespeckled the precincts of nearly all Buddhist institutions.58 Meantime, miscellaneous yin-yang notions and Daoist concepts laced the kami-Buddha mix. Even individual deities commonly represented a fusion of heterogeneous sacred forces. The Chinese Daoist deity Taishan Fujun (“Lord of Mt. Tai”), for instance, held to superintend the registers of life and death, was taken to be a relative or subordinate of Enma, the Buddhist overseer of the underworld. He simultaneously denoted a visible trace of the Jizō bo­dhisattva and was perhaps identical to, or at least came under the sway of, the of funds. See Nobutane kyō ki, vol. 1, pp. 213–214 (Chōkyō 3[1489]/1/1); in English, see Butler, Emperor and Aristocracy, p. 84. For nenjū gyōji performed during the era of civil wars, see ibid., pp. 82–89. 56. Rōjin zatsuwa, p. 29. 57. Nihon shoki, ge, p. 155; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 106. 58. The literature on the combinatory nature of Japanese religion is vast. For a good overview, see Teeuwen and Rambelli, Buddhas and Kami in Japan, introduction.

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto   27

kami Susanoo-no-mikoto. In Kyoto he was enshrined at Sekizan Zen’in and revered as Sekizan Myōjin, a tutelary deity of Enryakuji. Countless other admired divinities, including the highly popular and fearsome Hachiman, simultaneously a bodhisattva and kami, represented such a thorough amalgam of spiritual forces that any venture to classify them as either Buddhist or Shinto is pointless. All the same, Edo-period guides to urban areas consistently differentiated sacred institutions, today usually labeled “Shinto shrines” in English and jinja in Japanese, from Buddhist temples (bukkaku, jiin, tera, etc.). The grandest shrines served the imperial family, and their practices were indissoluble from those of the shaman-in-chief, the emperor. Shrines were typically identified by their geographical location and a metonymic reference to the most prominent or puissant deity enshrined. These institutions dedicated themselves primarily to indigenous sacred practices that would over time commonly be called the “way of the kami” (usually shindō or shintō). This “way” comprised not just solemn rituals and pious worship, but everything from kagura dances to elegant or raucous festivals (matsuri) with their lively and colorful parades. In such recurrent, often annual, events, priests and monks demonstrated their power to manipulate the kami and verified their own occupational hierarchies. Kyoto residents, just like Japanese everywhere else, flocked to shrines throughout the year. The first month started off with the year’s “first pilgrimage” (hatsumōde). The middle of the year was marked by the “great summer-passing lustration” (nagoshi ōharae), in which one passed through a huge ring of woven cogon grass in order to ensure oneself a long life and plenty of good luck. During the ninth month some shrines celebrated the kanname-sai, closely associated with the Ise shrines and the court, in which newly harvested grain was presented to the Amaterasu Ōmikami, the Sun Goddess, as an act of thanksgiving. At the end of the year shrines were spiritually and physically cleansed in rites known as susuharai (sweeping away soot), and visitors came to receive mochi rice cakes at Setsubun. Shrines performed rituals, conducted planting rites (taue), offered kagura, staged pieces from the nō drama, and presented ritual archery and horse races that pleased worshipers and fun-seekers alike. But it was matsuri that counted as the nenjū gyōji par excellence. Such festivals were usually kicked off by removing portable palanquin-like shrines (mikoshi) from their storerooms. Then, on days known as saijitsu (“day of a matsuri”) or iwaibi (“day of felicitations”), the festival proper commenced. At times the cumbersome cargo was toted by parishioners to an interim sanctuary (tabisho, otabi), where it could be displayed, admired, and purified. In other cases the mikoshi were hauled directly through the wards in which parishioners lived in order to drive out malevolence and spread good luck to all. Matsuri—often

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accompanied by copious drumming, fifing, dancing, gesticulation, and shouting—connoted an instance of pious supplication and an invigoration of the honored kami. A matsuri advertised the presence and authority of the shrine, contributed to a sense of local pride, and fostered a fleeting sense of solidarity among parishioners. To obtain all available spiritual benefits, patrons—mostly commoners but also a number of aristocrats or warriors—funded the upkeep of the mikoshi and supplied the manpower for hauling the holy freight about town and through the parish. The grandest Kyoto matsuri enjoyed national renown and spawned copycat festivals far and wide; numberless smaller festivals were staged in tiny villages nestled in such remote hills and valleys that they attracted only locals. Outstanding examples of renowned Kyoto matsuri, to which almost all Edo-period descriptions of nenjū gyōji refer, included the elegant and serene Aoi Festival of the two Kamo shrines, the Provisional Festival (rinjisai) and Releasing-of-Life Ritual (hōjō-e) of the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, the uproarious Gion Festival of the Gion Shrine, the Inari Festival of the Fushimi Inari Shrine, and the Kitano Tenjin Festival of the Kitano Tenman Shrine. Of these five, the most distinguished, if not necessarily the most boisterous and amusing, was the fourth-month Aoi Festival—in medieval times simply “the matsuri” or “Kamo no miare”—sponsored on three closely spaced dates by the two Kamo shrines.59 The Kamo complex, resting on the banks of the Kamo River in the city’s northern region, originally constituted a single tutelary shrine of the Kamo clan, one antedating the founding of Kyoto. By 698 its signal event, said to have arisen either in the sixth century or in 667, featured an equestrian archery exhibit so popular that spectators had to be prohibited from stampeding to the site to view it.60 The division of the institution into an “Upper” (Kamigamo) and a slightly older “Lower” (Shimogamo) shrine probably occurred in the mideighth century.61 The Upper Shrine stood on some 690,000 square meters of real estate; the Lower Shrine, situated at the spot where the Kamo River met the Takano River approximately two kilometers to the south, once covered as many as 5 million square meters. After 794 these shrines were designated divine 59. See Ema, “Kamo-sai no kenkyū,” and Kurabayashi, Kyōen no kenkyū (Saishi-hen), pp. 299–382. In English, see W. McCullough and H. McCullough, A Tale of Flowering Fortunes, vol. 2, pp. 408–410. Aoi (more accurately futaba-aoi, Asarum caulescens Maxim) is an ivy-like plant with heart-shaped foliage. 60. See Ichidai yōki, p. 22 (Tenchi Tennō 6 [667]), and Shoku Nihongi, Monmu 2 (698)/3/21 and Taihō 2 (702)/4. More regulations were issued during the first half of the eighth century. On the festival origins, see “Hata-uji honkei-chō” (late eighth century?), cited in Honchō gatsuryō, pp. 268–271; also Kamo chūshin zakki, p. 590. 61. The division is first mentioned in 781 CE. See Shoku Nihongi, Ten’ō 1 (781)/4/20.

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protectors of the Imperial Palace, and in 819 the festival was officially classed a “ritual of middle importance” (chūshi), a ceremony so momentous that participants had to undergo three days of abstinences and ritual purification beforehand.62 The Dairi shiki of 821/833 speaks of an imperial inspection of honor guards posted at the festivities, and imperial envoys were apparently dispatched there as well.63 In later years warfare and fires led to frequent cancellations of this great matsuri, though readers of the detailed accounts presented in the two works translated in chapters 4 and 5 below would never suspect that it was suspended entirely from 1502 to 1694.64 The Kamo Festival began with a preparatory event on either the “day of the horse” or “day of the ram” during the fourth month, when the imperial princess (the “Kamo Priestess,” saiin), the central figure of the festival, proceeded from the Imperial Palace to her official residence at Murasakino and then to the banks of the Kamo River, where she was subject to ample lustrations.65 The matsuri climaxed on the “day of the cock” with a grand parade in which the saiin was conveyed from Murasakino to the Upper Kamo Shrine, where she spent the night. A less spectacular return cortege took place the following day. For the main parade the priestess, imperial envoys, and courtly officers of state, along with a choice assortment of ladies-in-waiting, shrine functionaries, pages, palanquin-bearers, and others bedecked in their finest finery, proceeded down the streets from the palace to the Upper and Lower Kamo Shrines, either on foot or tucked away in ox-drawn gilded carriages. Everyone in Kyoto, down to the humblest servant or peasant who chanced to be in town, sought to catch a glimpse of this marvelous pageant. The third-month “Provisional Festival” of the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, also called the “Southern Festival” in contradistinction to the northern Kamo Festival, celebrated the reappearance of peace after the insurgencies of Taira no Masakado (?–940) and Fujiwara no Sumitomo (?–941).66 The Iwashimizu 62. See Nihon kiryaku, zenpen, p. 308, Kōnin 10 (819)3/16. The Lower Shrine was already visited by an imperial emissary on Daidō 2 (807)/4/16 (Nihon kiryaku, zenpen, p. 286). 63. Dairi shiki, pp. 44–45; Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 164–165. 64. See Tokugawa jikki, vol. 6, p. 195, and Genroku shichi-nen Kamo-sai ki; Shiryō Kyōto no rekishi, vol. 5, p. 468. Details of the 1694 revival are also found in two versions of a diary from that year of Fujiwara no Sadamoto in Rekidai zanketsu nikki, vol. 32, pp. 156–216, 217–246. 65. On the saiin, whose role probably dates from the early ninth century, see W. McCullough and H. McCullough, A Tale of Flowering Fortunes, vol. 1, pp. 386–388; on the festival, see ibid., vol. 2, p. 408. For a vivid twelfth-century illustration, see Nenjū gyōji emaki, pp. 96–99 (scroll no. 9 in the Kyoto University copy). 66. Though the origin of the Provisional Festival is often dated to 942, Ōe no Masafusa (1041–1111) dates it to the Anna period (968–970). See Gōdanshō, p. 311.

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Hachiman Shrine, more fully known as the “Great Hachiman Bodhisattva of Iwashimizu” (Iwashimizu Hachiman Dai-bosatsu), or more compactly as the “Hachiman Shrine-Temple” (Hachiman Gūji), was perched on acreage covering nearly the entirety of Mt. Otoko, a hill in what is today Yawata-shi some thirteen kilometers southwest of central Kyoto. Although TFS (eighth month, no. 1) offers a slightly different account, historical records suggest that in 859 or 860 CE the kami of the Usa Hachiman Shrine (today in Usa-shi in Ōita Prefecture) was enshrined near Mt. Otoko at a site where in due course the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine would stand. A yearly “Provisional Festival” marked this enshrinement.67 From perhaps 863 the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine also initiated an eighth-month “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” that had for ages been executed at the parent Usa Hachiman Shrine in Kyushu.68 This event, which no doubt received its animus both from the Buddhist prohibition of the taking of life and the horror of death that came with kami worship, was replicated by sacred institutions throughout the land. Incessant civil wars required both occasions to be called off from the latter half of the fifteenth century until 1679, when the “Releasing-ofLife Ritual” was at length resuscitated.69 The Provisional Festival, however, would not be restored until 1813. Hence neither of the authors of the volumes translated below had ever clapped eyes on it.70 By contrast, the Gion Shrine’s famous sixth-month “Gion Festival” was certainly experienced by both writers.71 This grand jubilee traced its roots to ninthcentury exorcistic “services for august spirits” (goryō-e), in which malevolent, angry, or discontented divinities were appeased through prayer, sutra readings, and the presentation of diverse performing arts.72 This program ultimately turned into the bacchanalian “Gion Festival,” thus named because the sponsoring shrine (which enshrined the combinatory “ox-head heavenly king” Gozu Tennō) stood in the Gion area of central Kyoto. Unlike a good number of other 67. For a brief account dated 863, see “Iwashimizu Hachimangū Gokokuji ryakuki.” 68. On the origins of the “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” at the Usa Hachiman Shrine, conceivably dating from 720, see Tsuji, Hachiman gūji seiritsu-shi no kenkyū, pp. 275–304. 69. See HAE, 8/15. From the 1580s the shrine’s fortunes experienced a steep rise thanks to unstinting support from Hideyoshi’s regime. 70. See Zoku Tokugawa jikki, vol. 1, pp. 702, 710. 71. For collections of important early records concerning the Gion (Yasaka) Shrine and its festival, see Shinshū Yasaka jinja bunsho, chūsei-hen; Shinpen Yasaka jinja bunsho; and Shinpen Yasaka jinja kiroku. For detailed studies of the festival, see Yamaji, Kyōto, pp. 29–154; Kawauchi, Gion matsuri to sengoku Kyōto and Gion matsuri no chūsei. 72. For a study of such deities and their festivals, see Herbert Plutschow, Matsuri, pp. 72–89.

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impressive festivals at least partly underwritten by the aristocracy, the Gion Festival counted as an event of, by, and for the commoners of the “lower capital.” The matsuri of the Fushimi Inari, Kitano Tenman, Hirano, Imamiya, Matsunoo, Atago, Yoshida, and Upper and Lower Goryō Shrines could not hope to rival the Gion Festival in terms of passionate citizen support, but the matsuri of the Fushimi Inari Shrine, presented on the first “day of the rabbit” during the second month, was sufficiently popular to extend its influence to all areas of the land.73 It honored Inari, perhaps the kami with the broadest popular following of any deity in Japan. Inari, who was closely associated with Shingon-school Buddhism, relied on a fox as a messenger and served as the divine patron of blacksmiths and men at arms, and as a protector of rice, sake, and industry. Even today the Fushimi Inari Shrine occupies a sprawling plot of land a trifle short of a million square meters at the base of Mt. Inari in the southern reaches of the city. It represents the godfather of the tens of thousands of Inari shrines dotting the nation. Another Kyoto matsuri known to all, and eagerly reproduced throughout Japan, was that of the Kitano Tenman Shrine, a holy site that in the early modern period lay roughly two kilometers west of the Imperial Palace. Every year on 9/4 (in earlier ages on 8/4 or 8/5) the festival honored the spirit of the slandered and ill-fated courtier Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), a statesman representing the divine personification of wisdom and still today held to be worthy of enshrinement in over ten thousand shrines nationwide.74 In addition to these gala occasions, untold lesser shrine festivals in and about Kyoto celebrated, invigorated, and appeased other kami. Numerous revered divinities forestalled calamities, served as a genius loci (sai-no-kami, jinushigami, dōsojin, etc.), safeguarded a clan (ujigami), or commanded natural forces such as fire (hi no kami, kamado no kami). Local festivals and rituals taking place here and there guaranteed a plenteous harvest (ta-asobi, “field rituals”), drove away insects (mushi-okuri), or caused much needed rain to fall (amagoi).

Buddhist Temples Kyoto Buddhism was dominated by Enryakuji, which served as the national headquarters of Tendai Buddhism and influenced the sacred practices of the 73. On the “Fushimi Inari Festival,” see Kurabayashi, Kyōen no kenkyū (Saishi-hen), pp. 383–416; see also TFS, fourth month, no. 2, and HAE, fourth month, no. 1. 74. For documents regarding the Kitano Tenman Shrine, see Zoku gunsho ruijū, vol. 3, jō, pp. 33–48. On its festival, see TFS, ninth month, no. 1, and HAE, 8/4, no. 2.

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Gion and Kitano Tenman shrines. The Enryakuji multiplex, standing on Mt. Hiei northeast of the city and reaching into Ōmi Province (today Shiga Prefecture), swarmed with temples divided into three broad regions. The edifices known as the “Western Towers” (Saitō) centered on the Shakyamuni Hall (Shakadō), a structure functioning as the main hall (hondō) of what was also known as the “Northern Valley” (Kitadani). The Saitō district lay about one kilometer northwest of the even older “Eastern Towers” (Tōtō or Tōdō), which embraced the Konpon Chūdō (“Basic Central Hall,” founded 788), the Daikōdō (“Grand Lecture Hall,” founded 824), and other important Enryakuji structures. Even further north lay the Yokawa (literally “riverside”) area, with its Yokawa Chūdō Hall and other imposing buildings. Enryakuji also maintained a host of affiliated subsidiary Kyoto temples and shrines. Other Buddhist schools and sects also set up their headquarters in or around the capital, where they could readily cater to wealthy sponsors. Leading institutions included the Kurama Temple, some ten kilometers to the north, which oversaw its own brand of Tendai-school Buddhism. Tōji (whose construction was funded directly by the regime), Sennyūji, Ninnaji, and Chishakuin served as the head offices of specific sects of Shingon-school Buddhism. Chion’in administered the national web of Pure-Land (Jōdo-shū) temples, the Eastern Honganji controlled Shin-school (Jōdo Shin-shū) institutions, and Myōmanji figured as the heart of Hokke-school Buddhism. Moreover, numerous Zen-school temples also dotted the city. Temples such as Kiyomizu-dera, the Eikan Hall (Zenrinji), Tōfukuji, Daitokuji, Sanjūsangen-dō, Mibudera, Seiryōji, Daihōonji, Injōji, Shinnyodō, and Rokuharamitsuji, all occupying much territory and lording over a welter of subtemples and shrines, sponsored innumerable nenjū gyōji, no doubt because the head priests knew that, as Benjamin Franklin once put it, holidays were easier to keep than commandments. In addition, annual events allowed temples to broadcast their own control and authority over holy objects and mysterious forces, indeed often over life and death itself. Ritual performance, in which every cleric was accorded a proper function, also permitted monks and nuns to demonstrate to themselves the social and professional order governing life within their institution. One attraction sure to lure crowds to temple precincts was the “Amida-invocation dance” (nenbutsu odori), also known as the “mantra dance” (daimoku odori), staged at Gokurakuji (the Kūya Hall), Hon’yūji (at Matsugasaki), and elsewhere. Theatricals, with parts played by amateur thespians, were also produced by Seiryōji, Injōji, and Mibudera. No year elapsed without well-attended “rolling readings” (tendoku) of the “Dai-hannya (haramitta) kyō” at the Eikan

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Hall of Zenrinji. In such examples of speed reading, monks allowed the pages of a sutra or another holy text to glide accordion-like from one hand to the other while calling out section titles or a few lines of text, thereby representing a recitation of the whole. A more dispersed and plebeian event, paralleling the urabon’e celebrated at court and at temples, was the 7/15 “bon festival,” informed by Buddhist notions of the transmigration of souls.75 This occasion, with lively extempore dancing by the commonfolk, counted as a species of segaki (or segaki-e), commemorations that in more cheerless circumstances centered on sutra readings and the presentation of offerings for departed souls aimlessly roaming the realm of hungry spirits. More muted Buddhist occasions memorialized temple founders, notable deceased priests, hallowed saints and deities, and of course the Shakyamuni Buddha himself. An almost limitless array of largely interchangeable terms designated such incense-laden displays of piety, usually taking place on ennichi, literally “related days” with karmic connections to a crucial deity, temple founder, or famed abbot. The holy day—one may as well translate it “holiday”—marking the Buddha’s birthday, for instance, falling on 4/8, typically featured a “bathing the Buddha service” (kanbutsu-e; see HAE, 4/8, no. 1). On the opposite end of Shakyamuni’s remarkable career stood his death and entry into a state of nirvana, an event observed on 2/15 at “nirvana services” (nehan-e) staged at temples throughout the realm. As a rule, the mortal end of lesser saints, on days often known as “avoidance days” or “taboo days” (kinichi, imibi, meinichi, etc.), was memorialized in services called hōe (“service of the Dharma”), hōyō (“essence of the Dharma”), or eshiki (“service ritual”) in which participants subjected themselves to protracted sutra readings. Individuals or families funded memorial services (nenki, shūki, kaiki, nenkai, etc.) marking the expiration of a loved one, typically one, two, three, seven, thirteen, seventeen, twenty-five, twenty-seven, thirty-three, fifty, and one hundred years after the sad event. Temples also presented appreciative services known as kuyō (deriving from the Skt. pūjanā) in which offerings and prayers were directed at someone’s afterlife or even at inanimate objects such as discarded sewing needles that had toiled long and hard in this vale of tears for negligible reward. A more vivacious mood accompanied moments when temples aired their holy treasures, usually during the balmy sixth or seventh months. On such occasions throngs arrived to ogle the awe-inspiring items and revere the institutions 75. On the Kyoto bon festival and dancing, see Yamaji, Kyōto, pp. 269–310. For descriptions of bon festivals during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, see Cooper, They Came to Japan, pp. 358–360.

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lucky enough to possess them. Temples also promoted public exhibits (kaichō; literally “unveilings”), typically on days counting as ennichi, where visitors could feast their eyes on wondrous or mysterious holy displays—a statue, a painting, or some other breathtaking rarity. During a kaichō, temple precincts turned into fairgrounds stocked with temporary teahouses set up by fly-by-night entrepreneurs who seized the opportunity to profit from commonplace cravings. At intervals some temples also presented services known as shari-e in which shriveled relics of the historical Buddha or of eminent monks were accorded special veneration. On 6/20 the Kurama Temple hosted its ferocious “bamboo cutting” ritual, an action-packed demonstration that always mesmerized the crowds. On yet other occasions temple priests enacted mysterious fire rituals (goma) where the public may not have understood precisely what was going on but was nonetheless convinced that it was witnessing a deed of stupendous consequence. On 7/15 holy fires in the shape of the character “great” (大) were kindled on Mt. Nyoi and viewed by spellbound citizens from a safe distance. If these attractions did not lure in multitudes, events such as “1,000-day pilgrimages” (sennichi mairi) or “46,000-day pilgrimages” were sure to do so, for on such a day a single temple visit allowed one to accrue as many karmic benefits as thousands of stopovers on more humdrum occasions.

Shogunal Nenjū Gyōji On the battlefield, armies were best arranged according to functional hierarchies that heightened the likelihood of a military victory. Once a conquering general became the de facto head of a state, however, distinctions of superior and inferior, or commander and commanded, became more abstract, symbolic, and contentious. For the warrior elite nenjū gyōji thus supplied an expedient means for demonstrating the legitimacy and necessity of what remained at base a largely arbitrary political order. Even after military regimes headed by a shogun had been established in Japan, this order normally continued to refer to the emperor, who served as the lynchpin of political legitimacy, cultural traditions, and religious authority. No powerful general dared to set at naught this symbol of historical continuity and national unity; no mighty lord slept soundly unless he had acquired proficiency in court ceremonial and gained appropriate aristocratic rank. Indeed, genuine calm often arrived only after the coveted titles had been awarded posthumously. The Kamakura shoguns of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries celebrated New Year’s banquets in grand style and observed with due propriety the “five festive occasions” long cultivated at the Imperial Palace. Yet the bakufu revised

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imperial ceremonies, procedures, and etiquette to suit circumstances in Kama­ kura or at the military headquarters at Rokuhara in Kyoto.76 New Year’s salutations of 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/7, and 1/15 now gained in importance, for at these junctures exalted nobles reiterated their unswerving fealty to His Magnificence, the shogun. At formal first-month feasts known as ōban, a reconfigured remnant of late Heian-period customs from eastern Japan, powerful families offered rice and the like to his eminence and then partook of choice refections. From the twelfth century, the Tsurugaoka Hachiman multiplex in Kamakura was turned into a center of solemn ceremonies, and at least during the bakufu’s early years, this institution hosted first-month visits by the first three shoguns. These ritual pilgrimages were succeeded by a 3/3 Buddhist service with elegant bugaku performances, the compassionate 8/15 “Releasing-of-Life Ritual,” grand archery exhibits on 8/16, and the 9/9 festival with its fragrant “chrysanthemum liquor.” Many occasions concluded with thrilling equestrian archery and sumō tournaments.77 On 8/1 elite men of war also celebrated the preparatory harvest festival known as hassaku, whose stature was raised considerably by the bakufu.78 With the usurpation of power by the Ashikaga clan in the fourteenth century, Kyoto regained its status as the hub of nenjū gyōji. Now both the emperor and shogun dwelt within the capital as neighbors, and an elaborate calendar of annual events indicated the spiritual proximity, if not the full unity, of these two hemispheres of state power. After the completion of the gala New Year’s ōban banquets, modeled on the ways of Kamakura, the shogun vouchsafed his underlings a New Year’s audience. This rite of spring was succeeded by an elaborate program of first-month events, of which the 1/14–1/15 sagichō ritual bonfires at court signaled the apogee.79 Several weeks after the shogun had conducted his first-month “initial consultation” (hyōjō-hajime), everyone celebrated the “opening of the archery gallery” (yuba-hajime). Then, in the third month, mounted archers launched arrows at ill-fated dogs (inuou-mono) and commemorated the “opening of the riding grounds” (baba-hajime). In summer, shogunal officials inspected the sixth-month Gion Festival, on 8/1 they celebrated hassaku, and on 76. See Kamakura nenjū gyōji, in NSSSS, vol. 23, pp. 777–778; Fujiki, “Kamakura Kubō no haru”; and Blümmel, “Die Riten des Kriegeradels,” pp. 62–65. For a general study of annual events staged by the Kamakura bakufu, see Futaki, Buke girei kakushiki no kenkyū, pp. 193–217. 77. Countless entries can be found in the fourteenth-century Azuma kagami. See also Kamakura nenjū gyōji. For a good study of the link of the “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” to Hachiman shrines, see Tsuji, Hachiman gūji seiritsu-shi no kenkyū, pp. 275–304. 78. See Tanabe, “Nenjū gyōji ni miru Kamakura-fu. 79. See, for instance, Chōroku ni-nen irai mōshitsugi-ki, p. 213 ([Chōroku 2]1458/1/16), and Denchū mōshitsugi-ki, pp. 257–258 ([Eishō 13–18]1516–1521/1/15).

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8/15 the regime sponsored a “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” at the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine.80 Buddhist temples received particularly generous support from the upper ranks of the warrior class, in part because shrines dedicated to the kami had always enjoyed closer ties to the emperor and his clan. Shoguns commonly funded the construction of new temples, and Ashikaga Takauji even had Tōjiji erected adjacent to his palace grounds.81 Formal Buddhist funeral commemorations of deified ancestors, to which kin and allies were summoned, demonstrated the stability of the regime and allowed participating warrior-class nobles to dream of permanent, divinely backed legitimacy. Shogunal sponsorship of Daoist rituals and yin-yang practices was also robust. The Muromachi bakufu prized yin-yang divination beyond measure, and individual shoguns sponsored Daoist rituals. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, for instance, subsidized monthly private performances of a rite (taizan bukun-sai) dedicated to the abovementioned deity Taishan Fujun. In addition, the regime enthusiastically promoted a Daoist ceremony (tensō chifu-sai) that functioned as a prayer to an incorporeal being in the underworld. Through this ritual, participants hoped that warriors who had tragically fallen in battle would be granted a blessed afterlife.82 After the seventeenth century and the establishment of the Tokugawa bakufu, the focus of state-sponsored nenjū gyōji shifted to Edo Castle. Here the regime marked the opening three days of the year with much ritual activity and then celebrated the usual festive occasions on 1/7, 3/3, 5/5, 7/7, and 9/9. Many of these events, and others as well, were replicated at daimyo mansions, over a hundred of which lay in Kyoto.

Citizen Households and City Streets For as long as anyone could remember, Kyoto merchants and artisans had marked the course of the year by procuring sake and toothsome edibles, placing suitable celebratory items on display, and making appropriate offerings to the kami and buddhas. At New Year’s most citizens visited relatives and presented heartfelt 80. On these celebrations and events, see Futaki, Chūsei buke girei no kenkyū, pp. 11–172. An especially useful sources is the Kaei sandaiki (A Record of Three Generations at the Muromachi Palace). On yuba-hajime and inuou-mono, see also Guttmann and Thompson, Japanese Sports, pp. 45, 50–51, 52. 81. For an excellent English-language study, see Stavros, “The Sanjō Bōmon Temple-Palace Complex.” 82. Murayama, Nihon onmyōdō-shi sōsetsu, p. 351.

The Space of Annual Events in Kyoto   37

greetings. Then residents made the rounds to customers and superiors for obsequious salutations, empty promises, and wishful resolutions that, in the words of the old joke, went in one year and out the other. Even the poorest Kyoto townsperson would not have allowed the four seasons to elapse without celebrating, no matter how superficially, 1/1, 3/3, 5/5, 7/7, and a handful of other nenjū gyōji. In annual festivities, domestic order could be demonstrated, with men and women and young and old all accorded carefully codified functions and roles. In the home, just like in the palaces of the emperor or the shogun, seating order, apportionment of duties, and the sequence of entrances, salutations, prayers, and exits indicated rank and status. But if the stiff rituals and formalities performed by the court or shogunate afforded genuine pleasure to only a handful of straitlaced participants, for the Kyoto citizenry, cheerful celebrations, tasty cuisine, and lively festivals supplied some of the most joyous moments that city life could offer. At the end of the old year and the start of the new, itinerant hawkers plied the streets selling woodblock prints of the “Seven Dieties of Fortune.” Urban residents all vied to obtain a specimen, for when these depictions were placed under a pillow, luck might surreptitiously attach itself to the sleeper. Picture peddlers shared their turf with a wide variety of season-specific street musicians, dancers, mummers, and reciters who performed a wild assortment of lucky songs and auspicious texts. New Year’s “Yakuharai,” for instance, promoted pocket-sized exorcisms for anyone willing to fork over a few coins for spiritual sanitization. Other types, called “Sekizoro,” wore singular garb and hats while presenting a bracing brew of music, dance, and propitious words smacking of good luck and happiness. Duos of “Manzai,” buoyant of heart and light of toe, scuttled from door to door with perpetual joy radiating from their countenances, while reproducing popular variants of ancient felicitous prose, song, and dance. In the early seventeenth century, even Emperor Go-Mizunoo mentioned the existence of such figures at the Imperial Palace, though he insisted that “beggars,” such as “blind men (zatō), bowlbeaters (hachitataki), street sekkyō (kado sekkyō), singers of Amida invocations (uta nenbutsu), gong-circle percussionists (hatchōgane), Sekizoro, female buskers (torioi), and chest beaters (munetataki),” had no business pestering the nobility and could hardly be permitted to enter the exalted zone he called home.83 He thereby indicated once again that the spatial dimensions of nenjū gyōji, just like the temporal framework guiding the timing and performance of annual events, always reflected the power relations structuring all of social life.

83. Go-Mizunoo-in tōji nenjū gyōji, p. 237.

C HA P T E R 3

Recording Annual Events

Although the preservation and continuity of Kyoto nenjū gyōji relied largely on oral transmissions, writing helped establish precedents, determine significances, cement orthodoxies, and ensure continuity. Even if the dominant nenjū gyōji were ultimately always the nenjū gyōji of the dominant social class, written records exhibited an expansive range of interests and perspectives. Authors of an ethnographic bent might take up the writing brush to register current customs in order to prevent them from being forgotten or to turn them into a creditable future standard. Writers more preoccupied by history tended to elucidate the past to vindicate or revise current ways. Scribes in positions of power often drafted prose that extolled ceremonies or rituals buttressing the cultural hegemony of their own social class. Through writing, emperors, courtiers, bakufu officials, monks, and eventually even commoners all endeavored to style nenjū gyōji into traditions suiting their own assumptions, conceptions, and aspirations. As the centuries wore on, texts treating annual events were created and consumed by a widening sector of the Japanese public. An examination of the genealogy of such chronicles thus remains indispensable for grasping the social and historical contexts within which nenjū gyōji were performed, interpreted, and transmitted.1

Early Chinese Records of Annual Events On the whole, the Kyoto court took ancient Chinese prose regarding nenjū gyōji as authoritative. Celebrating an event in accordance with continental instructions indicated not just that Japanese court habits and norms harmonized with Chinese views of nature, heaven, and earth, but also that aristocratic concerns and determinations were anchored in an ageless continental history. Such a foundation endowed a practice with precedence over any contending tradition and its associated forms of power and privilege. 1. On this topic Torigoe’s 1977 Saijiki no keifu remains valuable, even if separate studies now present a far more detailed picture for individual events.

38

Recording Annual Events   39

Perhaps the oldest source from which Japanese imperial scholars may have culled information on annual observances, though the date of its first arrival in Japan remains obscure, was the 463-character Xia xiaozheng (“The Small Calendar of the Xia”), included as the sixth section of the Da Dai liji (“Book of Rites by Dai the Elder”). This work already existed in China during the Spring and Autumn periods (770–fifth century BCE) and possibly reflected the content of even earlier texts.2 Its short, often confusing and fragmentary prose connects months to astronomical events, phenological relations, and matters of farming and politics. Whatever else the piece reveals, it suggests that in China calendrical science, ritual practice, and astronomy had long been linked to agriculture and material production, which in turn anchored economic, military, and political might. Chinese writers never wearied of stressing the efficacy of rites, etiquette, or modes of propriety (Ch. lǐ; J. rei or miyabi) for regulating society and the state. The classic on this subject, one to which early Japanese court ritualists routinely turned for inspiration and instruction, was the Liji (“Book of Rites”), compiled during the times preceding the Warring States (475–221 BCE) and the early Han (206 BCE– 220 CE) periods, but referring to practices of the earlier Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 BCE). By at least the sixth century, and perhaps even earlier, the Liji, along with the Zhouli (“Rites of Zhou”) and Yili (“Etiquette and Rites”), collectively known as the sanli (“three Rites”), were industriously being studied by Japanese court officials, whose interpretations helped shape administrative practices in their own land.3 The “Book of Rites” became so central for the Japanese state that during the eighth century the ritsuryō code designated it required reading for the national academy of learning.4 Meantime, in China the investigation of rites continued unabated, peaking in 722, when Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756) ordered the compilation of a grand new ritual code, the Da Tang Kaiyuan li (“Ritual Code of the Kaiyuan Period in the Great Tang,” 732/9), which mostly updated classic texts.5 The Liji contained an important section entitled Yueling (“Monthly Ordinances”), of unknown authorship, treating the solar terms that would come to be 2. See juǎn 2, piān 47. The work was probably compiled roughly concurrently with the Liji. 3. In 644 the Nihon shoki (ge, p. 255; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 185) notes that the courtier elite was studying the Rites of Zhou and the doctrines of Confucius. Already the “SeventeenArticle Constitution,” which Nihon shoki dates to 604/4/3 (much doubt surrounds this dating, which may be a century too early), stipulated that ministers and functionaries should consider lǐ the “basis” (moto). See Nihon shoki, ge, p. 183, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 129. 4. Ritsuryō, p. 263 (“Gakuryō”). 5. This code determined five categories of ritual: “auspicious rites” (jílǐ), which embraced offerings to supernatural powers and rites for imperial ancestral temples; “guest rituals” (bīnlǐ), suitable when envoys were received; “military ceremonies” (jūnlǐ), which included military

40  Chapter 3

recognized as universally valid in both China and Japan.6 The Yueling also touched on seasonal foodstuffs, medicinal herbs, banquets, music and dance, astronomical phenomena, and a welter of other topics. In addition, it engaged in a good deal of yin-yang cosmological speculation, issued statements on the topic of the mutual influence of man and climate, and insisted on the desirability of harmony throughout the universe. This text would go on to inspire scores of successor works, including the influential agricultural treatise Simin yueling (“Monthly Ordinances of the Four Social Classes”), authored by Cui Shi (?–c. 170 CE), a late Han-period Confucianist scholar and governor of Wuyuan.7 Cui organized his prose in a month-by-month fashion but dwelt less on grand cosmological guesswork than on humble terrestrial matters such as raising agricultural output, improving infrastructure and education, warding off bandits, and conducting proper ritual sacrifices and family observances. Not all early Chinese records concerned with rites and annual events were as prescriptive as the Yueling or Simin yueling. A more ethnographic treatise, regularly cited by subsequent writers in both China and Japan, was the sixth-century Jingchu suishiji (“Record of Seasonal Events of Jingchu”), which listed festivals, observances, rites, and customs prevailing in an area now lying mainly in Hubei and Hunan Provinces.8 The author of this piece largely sidesteps Confucian rites and ideals in favor of yin-yang thought and emphasizes the constructive power of yang in overcoming the degenerative forces of yin. He notifies readers that rehearsals, hunting expeditions, and reports of victories on the battlefield; “felicitation rituals” (jiālǐ) such as rites of passage, coming-of-age ceremonies, and marriages; and “rituals of ill omen” (xiōnglǐ), centering on deaths, crop failures, illnesses, and other baleful occasions. 6. See, for example, the opening section of each of the first twelve chapters of Lüshi chunqiu (“Spring and Autumn of Mr. Lü”) from the third century BCE. 7. This book, still extant during the Tang dynasty, was probably lost in the thirteenth century. Today it survives only as a later reconstruction derived from citations found in various encyclopedias and agricultural treatises. For a German-language translation and study, see Herzer, “Das Szu-min yüe-ling des Ts’ui Shih.” 8. This text, whose original is lost (current versions are reconstructions), was based on Zong Lin’s (498–561) Jingchuji (“Records of Jingchu”), whose source has also not survived. The Jingchu suishiji was later subject to a commentary by Du Gongzhan (?–after 590), whose words are not plainly distinguishable from the primary text. For a detailed analysis of the history of these texts, see Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, pp. 48–130. For a German-language translation and discussion, see Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi. For excerpts in English, see Swartz et al., Early Medieval China, pp. 473–493. Other early proto-ethnographic writings include the Huayang guozhi (“Chronicles of Huayang,” 347 CE); the collection of writings on the ancient kingdoms of Wu and Yue entitled Yue jue shu (“Documents on the Excellence of Yue,” 52 BCE); and Zhou Chu’s (236–297) gazetteer Yangxian fengtuji (“Record of Local Customs in Yanxian [modern-day Yizing in Jiangsu Province]).”

Recording Annual Events   41

good luck thrives only when human actions are suitably coordinated with the order of heaven and its five phases, directions, and colors. He also mentions a handful of Buddhist ceremonies, explains a number of exorcistic rituals and magical practices, and enlarges on the general relation of the calendar to matters of diet and well-being. In the following years many more records of Chinese yearly ceremonies, festivals, and customs appeared, including the important, though only partly extant, Yuzhu baodian (“Treasure Canon of Jade Candles”), written by the Suiperiod (581–618) scholar Du Tingqing (Du Shaoshan).

The Establishment of Japanese Nenjū Gyōji To forge a schedule of nenjū gyōji, ancient Japanese scholars and chroniclers could also draw on a large repertory of native ceremonies and customs. Some of the earliest indigenous components of yearly programs are already mentioned in the first national histories, gazetteers, and poetry collections, though detail is rare. The 713 Harima fudoki, for instance, speaks of farmers celebrating a fifthmonth rice-planting banquet (en’yū or utage).9 This occasion may be related to a still extant rural custom linking 5/5 to planting or to celebrations for sending off the kami after the completion of this burdensome task. The verses and comments of the Man’yōshū, assembled after 759, also allude to autochthonous rites, festivals, and ceremonies but again provide few specifics. By this era the creed that even poetic sensibilities ought to be coordinated with the course of the year seems to have been gaining traction. Hence the poetry in volumes 8 and 10 of the Man’yōshū, and again in the first six volumes of the Kokin waka-shū (c. 905) is grouped by season. Rites and festivals imported from China or Korea were often recorded with more care than native celebrations because for the ruling class they represented a noteworthy innovation. According to the Nihon shoki, in the fifth century a number of continental intellectuals familiar with the habits and customs of their native lands were summoned to Japan. In 513 a Baekje embassy including a scholar of the “Five Classics” (including the “Book of Rites”) arrived, and this man was replaced three years later by a similar Baekje professor.10 Somewhat earlier, the transmission of Buddhism, which the Nihon shoki dates to 552 CE (other 9. Fudoki, pp. 294, 304–306; Aoki, Records of Wind and Earth, pp. 193, 201. 10. Already in 285 CE (correctly probably 405) Wani, a scholar of Chinese learning, had supposedly arrived in Japan from Baekje. See Kojiki, p. 248; Nihon shoki, jō, p. 373; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 262–263; and Aston, “Early Japanese History,” pp. 64–66. On the 513

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sources suggest 538 CE), also supplied the court and the clergy with a proliferating menu of rituals, ceremonies, and observances. In addition, Buddhism fostered reflection on indigenous kami worship, the practices that centuries later would commonly be called Shinto.11 Japanese Buddhist temples marked the Buddha’s birthday on 606/4/8, and celebrated the “Festival of Departed Souls” on 606/7/15, both evidently for the first time.12 In 646 CE New Year’s salutations and greetings (mikado ogami), no doubt fortified by Daoist notions, “five phase” thought, and Chinese calendrical science, are recorded as taking place at court.13 This meticulously choreographed annual event would eventually serve as the model for standardized “morning salutations and felicitous greetings” (chōhai chōga) practiced throughout the land. Daoist thought also informed customs such as the first-month “tooth firming” (ha-gatame; see HAE, New Year’s Day, no. 8); the marking of the “three beginnings” (“Sangen”—i.e., 1/15, 7/5, and 10/15; see HAE, New Year’s Day); the purification of 3/3 (originally on the first “day of the snake”); and the ritual cleaning (susuharai) and “Tsuina” exorcisms performed at the end of the year.14 These celebrations, and many more, were normally accompanied by the consumption of appropriate victuals. Devouring this or that tasty item was taken as apotropaic in both China and Japan and permitted nature to be matched to culture in a most tangible and delectable manner. In an economy dominated by rice production, food was political enough from the start, but the manner in which the nobility utilized comestibles to express economic privilege, political status, and social differences elevated the phrase that “you are what you eat” to an entirely new level. Already in an entry of the now apparently lost Gekkyūki (“Old Record of the Months”) one reads that on 753/1/4 the empress was apprised by several Japanese scholars of the Chinese wellsprings of a yearly event in which an adzuki-bean porridge was slurped up on 1/15 as an effective prophylactic against embassy and 516 replacement, see Nihon shoki, ge, pp. 29, 35, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, pp. 9, 14. At the time plenty of other material regarding calendar making, astronomy, divination, and medicine imported from the continent was already meticulously being studied in Japan. See Bock, Classical Learning, pp. 3–6. 11. Nihon shoki, ge, p. 101; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, pp. 65–67. 12. See chapter 2, note 49. 13. Nihon shoki, ge, pp. 281 (646 CE); Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 206. These salutations are often recorded thereafter. See Nihon shoki, ge, p. 305 (648 CE), p. 307 (649 CE), and p. 319 (652 CE), in Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, pp. 230, 231, 241. See also HAE, 1/1, no. 4. 14. The late Kamakura-period Bunkanshō, an unpublished book of the Kamo family of diviners, lists over forty Daoist or yin-yang ceremonies performed for the regime at various sites. See Murota Tatsuo, “ ‘Bunkanshō’ henja ni tsuite no kentō.”

Recording Annual Events   43

mischievous tengu demons.15 Similarly in 890 the emperor informed the government official and scholar of Chinese learning Miyoshi no Kiyotsura (or Kiyoyuki, 847–918+) that “the seven-herb porridge [nanakusa-gayu] of 1/15, the peachblossom rice cakes [tōka-mochi] of 3/3, the five-color glutinous rice wrapped in broad leaves [chimaki] of 5/5, the wheat noodles [sakubei] of 7/7, and the glutinous rice cakes [mochi] of the first ‘day of the boar’ in the tenth month, all common among the folk in their annual events [saiji], shall henceforth be duly colored prior to being presented and relished at court.” This edict probably only formalized existing bills of fare. A screen of yearly events dated 885 (of which more below) also alludes to the 1/15 porridge and the tenth-month “piglet rice cakes” savored within Imperial Palace walls on these dates.16

Heian-Period Writings on Nenjū Gyōji: Consolidation, Compilation, and Validation Since most court rituals, observances, ceremonies, and festivals were designed to indicate or ensure the prosperity, health, and everlasting dominance of the ruling elite, it was hardly a coincidence that many aristocrats busied themselves compiling and sanctioning prescriptions regarding such grave matters of state. To aid them in performing the correct rite at the correct moment and at the proper spot, lawmakers and administrators designated strict “procedures” or “formalities” (shiki), conceived largely as supplements or amendments to the civil or religious provisions of the ritsuryō legal code. This was necessary because civil laws rarely went beyond naming and dating several of the most important court nenjū gyōji.17 Precursors of shiki can already be found in the Yōrō Code (720, enacted in 757). During the time of Emperor Saga (r. 809–823) ritual practices, ceremonies, 15. Nenjū gyōji-shō (p. 271) records extracts from many Chinese and Japanese sources up to the late twelfth century. Kuji kongen, pp. 28–29, explains the Chinese event as the source of the “seven-herb porridge.” On the Edo-period adzuki-bean porridge, see HAE, 1/15, no. 2. 16. Uda tennō gyoki, pp. 11–12 (Kanpyō 2[890]/2/30). Also cited in Nenjū gyōji hishō, p. 482. The “seven-herb porridge” eventually became a custom of 1/7 (see HAE, 1/7, no. 2). In later years “peach-blossom rice cakes” seem to have become the mugwort rice cakes and “peach-blossom liquor” often consumed on 3/3 (see HAE, 3/3, nos. 1, 2). On chimaki, see HAE, 5/5, no. 2; on wheat noodles, see HAE, 7/7, no. 1; on the “piglet rice cakes,” see HAE, 10/1. On sweets and annual events in general, see Shirane, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, pp. 160–161. 17. For the listing of the thirteen rituals or festivals overseen by the “Department of Divinities,” see Ritsuryō, pp. 211–216 (“Jingiryō”).

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and events executed at court began to be systematically stipulated and standardized by imperial committees. One of the earliest compilations of shiki was the forty-volume Kōnin shiki (“Procedures of the Kōnin Era” [810–823]) promulgated in 820 and revised in 830 and 840.18 This work was perhaps succeeded by the ten-volume Kōnin gishiki (“Ceremonies of the Kōnin Era”), apparently never completed.19 The Kōnin shiki was slated to include shiki promulgated from 701 to 819, but it was soon followed by the more influential Dairi shiki (“Procedures of the Court,” completed 821). According to the explanation opening this landmark collection, its compilation was motivated by a sense that even though much had already been determined in earlier years, recent practice had wrought confusion.20 Though by no means exhaustive, and extant only in its 833 revision, the Dairi shiki sought to mitigate such uncertainty by stipulating procedures for twenty-four important regular court ceremonies and rituals. Entirely excluded are Buddhist services, shrine festivals besides the Kamo festivals, and irregular occasions such as imperial accession ceremonies. Nothing is said of the significance of the events, presumably because to participants the relevant meanings were obvious.21 Compendia of shiki continued to appear for another 130 years. The Jōgan shiki (“Procedures of the Jōgan Era [859–877]”), compiled around 871 and based in part on the Kōnin shiki, takes into account procedures dating from 820 to 868. Some of its entries, such as the ones pertaining to the Kamo and Ōharano festivals, move beyond palace gates. This work was succeeded by the single-volume Dairi gishiki (“Ceremonies of the Imperial Court”; late ninth century). Then in 905 Emperor Daigo (r. 897–930) commissioned the far more comprehensive fiftyvolume Engi shiki (“Procedures of the Engi Period” [901–923]; completed 927, 18. Besides excerpts or citations in later works, this code has been lost. See Zoku zoku gunsho ruijū, vol. 6, pp. 481–528. A table of contents is found in the Honchō hōka monjo mokuroku (p. 150), presumably a tenth-century work. 19. Charlier (Das Dairi-shiki, pp. 66–67) hypothesizes that such a work was planned but unrealized and that the initial Dairi shiki was a preparatory study for it. 20. Dairi shiki, p. 23; Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, p. 117. 21. The composition and revision of the Dairi shiki occurred against a background of a flurry of commissions and compilations of many historical, legal, and poetic works. In 815, for instance, the Shinsen shōjiroku, a compendium of genealogies of aristocratic houses, was completed, and this was followed by a collection of edicts and administrative statutes entitled Kōnin kyaku (820; rev. 830). From 819 to 841 scholars designated by the emperor scribbled away at the Nihon kōki, the third of the six national histories. Roughly simultaneously the Ryōunshū (814), Bunka shūreishū (818), and Keikokushū (829), three important collections of Chinese-language verses (kanshi) authored by Japanese poets, appeared. The year 833 also saw the completion of the Ryō no gige, a voluminous exegesis of the civil code of 701.

Recording Annual Events   45

promulgated in 967), which treats shiki as a component of more extensive administrative matters. Not only does the Engi shiki offer much detail on practices current within the palace, but it also describes the Ōharano, Hirano, Kamo, Matsunoo, and other major shrine festivals associated with the court. Similarly, seventy-eight events inside and outside the Daidairi are elucidated in the tenvolume Gishiki (“Ceremonies”; afterward called Jōgan gishiki, or “Ceremonies of the Jōgan Era [859–877],” compiled c. 930).22 The procedures listed in these works were updated in the Shin gishiki (“New Ceremonies”; compiled 963), and with this effort the compilation of shiki draws to a close.23 By the ninth century so many yearly events had accreted over time that even court insiders had to be reminded of their existence. Accordingly in 885, a sumptuous bulletin board, unpretentiously called a “screen of annual events” (nenjū gyōji shōji), was commissioned by the court. For centuries this partition, where the term nenjū gyōji appears for the first time, stood on the hirobisashi, a sunken area with a slatted floor located below the eaves at the upper entrance of the sovereign’s living quarters (Seiryōden).24 This screen featured inscriptions concerning no fewer than 284 yearly events and nine monthly ceremonies observed by the court.25 Besides the Kamo festivals it mentioned the Ōharano, Imamiya, Iwashimizu Hachiman, Yamashina, Hirano, Taima, Umenomiya, Yoshida, and Kitano festivals of Kyoto, as well as Buddhist rituals such as the “Bathing the Buddha” ceremony of 4/8, the “Festival of Departed Souls” of 7/14 and 7/15, and a wide spectrum of memorial services and sutra readings. It also recorded events directly linked to welfare policy, such as the fifth-month donation of rice and salt to the Kyoto poor, and the sixth-month bestowing of alms on destitute Buddhist monks. Over the years the notice board was revised by indicating which practices had been abandoned and which had been newly invented. Similar billboards were deposited in the houses of the regents (sesshō and kanpaku), who from the late ninth century until the conclusion of the eleventh century effectively ruled the land.

22. Dairi shiki, pp. 44–45; Dairi gishiki, p. 11; Gishiki, pp. 66–71. 23. Shin gishiki, of which only vols. 4 and 5 out of an original total of five or six survive, is also known as Seiryōki. On the dating, see Gō shidai shō, p. 605. 24. Kinpishō, p. 371. 25. See Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon. The screen was commissioned by the regent Fujiwara no Mototsune (836–891) in 885/7, and the text was subject to annotation and explanation between 1190 and 1293 by an unknown author (see Nenjū gyōji hishō). More recently it has been supplemented with relevant corroborating texts and elucidations by Kōda in his Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai.

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Courtiers pining to know more about matters so tersely listed on the 885 screen could soon turn to relevant sections of the two-hundred-volume (sixtyone of which are extant) Ruijū kokushi (“National History, Categorized”; completed 892).26 This encyclopedic Chinese-inspired compilation was created at the behest of Emperor Uda, and its composition was overseen by none other than the scholar and politician Sugawara no Michizane, who would later become a deity worshiped in a nenjū gyōji of his own. Before long, Kyoto aristocrats enjoying no imperial mandate also roused themselves to document court etiquette and regular observances. These “men of knowledge” (yūsoku)—the expression would later come to signify the knowledge of precedent itself—typically relied on shiki codes, oral transmissions, and diaries recording the proceedings of the Great Council of State. Eminent yūsoku included Fujiwara no Saneyori (900–970) and Fujiwara no Morosuke (909–960), both sons of the Engi shiki compiler Fujiwara no Tadahira (880–949). Saneyori and his adopted son Sanesuke (957–1046) composed the Ononomiya nenjū gyōji (“Ononomiya Annual Events”), while Morosuke drafted the slightly more detailed Kujō nenjū gyōji (“Annual Events of the Kujō House”). These endeavors anchored respectively the “Ononomiya school” and the “Kujō school” of annual events and etiquette within the Fujiwara clan, but roughly four centuries later Emperor Go-Daigo would consider the two schools to differ only in detail.27 Roughly simultaneously the illustrious scholar and poet Minamoto no Takaakira (914–982+; also known as “Nishinomiya Minister of the Left”), son of Emperor Daigo, and son-in-law of Fujiwara no Morosuke, was assembling his Saikyūki (or Saigūki, Seikyūki; “Records of Nishinomiya”), a vast collection of historical data and precedent evidently designed to nail down tradition once and for all. Takaakira’s exertions would eventually spawn the “Nishinomiya school” of court etiquette. Similarly Koremune Kinkata (?–?), about whom next to nothing is known, was industriously formulating his Honchō gatsuryō (“Monthly Ordinances of This Nation”), written in either four or six volumes.28 The term gatsuryō (“ordinances”) in the title plainly refers to the Chinese Yueling, and Kinkata may have been seeking to create something of a Japanese analogue to this venerable classic. His labors in turn influenced the Seiji yōryaku (“Digest of Governmental Administration”), compiled by his grandson, Koremune 26. See Ruijū kokushi, esp. pp. 413–557, 1097–1116. 27. See Kenmu nenjū gyōji, p. 459, and Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, p. 86. On Morosuke and Saneyori see Yamanaka, Heian-chō no nenjū gyōji, pp. 79–88. See also TFS, fifth month, no. 3. 28. Only vol. 2 is extant. For a study of the composition of this book and Seiji yōryaku (see below), see Shimizu, “Honchō gatsuryō to Seiji yōryaku no hensan.”

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Masasuke (?–?). From 1002 to 1010 the latter toiled on a mammoth compendium (only 25 out of the original 130 volumes survive) in which yearly events represent one of seven constitutive categories.29 Thereupon Fujiwara no Kintō (966–1041), a celebrated poet and musician, compiled his Hokuzanshō (“Extracts of Kitayama”; from c. 1026), which holds a wealth of information on the Ōharano, Iwashimizu Hachiman, Hirano, Yoshida, Matsunoo, Taima, Umenomiya, and Kamo festivals. Detailed verbal pictures of Heian-period practices and a mix of excerpts from older Japanese and Chinese dissertations on the subject are also incorporated into the Unzushō (“Extracts of a Depiction of the Imperial Palace”), probably by Fujiwara no Shigetaka (1076–1118), and the Gōke shidai (“Practices of the Ōe House”; nineteen of twenty-one volumes survive), by the courtier, poet, and scholar Ōe no Masafusa (1041–1111). In the ensuing century a steady stream of writings, often by members of the Nakahara clan, a family known for its expertise in ritsuryō legal studies (myōbōdō), continued to document the ancient roots, salient characteristics, and accepted orthodoxies of annual events, including Buddhist observances staged at major and minor Kyoto temples.30 The aforementioned volumes supply little captivating reading, nor were they intended to do so. The purpose of listing dessicated facts, supplemented here and there by a shred of sapless prose, was chiefly to validate and fortify the practices on which each chronicler’s notion of a correct and authoritative tradition relied. For juicier portrayals of yearly events in Heian Japan one may turn to works of literature such as the late tenth-century Utsuho monogatari (or Utsubo monogatari, “Tales of the Hollow Tree”) and slightly later to Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu) and Makura no sōshi (The Pillow Book, by Sei Shōnagon).31 What attracted the authors of these works to nenjū gyōji was less often the political function and ideological significance of annual events than their brilliant surfaces: the dazzling attire of the performers, the charming decorations of the mise-en-scène, the lovely dances and splendid music. One result of the insight that nenjū gyōji harbored not just a political, religious, or medical value, but also an aesthetic force was Emperor Go-Shirakawa’s 29. See Seiji yōryaku, pp. 1–250, which supplies information on annual events from the eighth to the twelfth months. 30. Examples include the late Heian-period Tōgū nenjū gyōji, which documents annual events associated with the Crown Prince’s quarters; Morotō nenjū gyōji, by Nakahara Morotō (1070–1130); Moromitsu nenjū gyōji, by Nakahara Moromitsu (1077–1130); and Moromoto nenjū gyōji, by Nakahara Moromoto (1109–1175). 31. In English, see Uraki, The Tale of the Cavern; Waley, The Tale of Genji; and McKinney, Sei Shōnagon: The Pillow Book, esp. p. 6 (no. 2), pp. 41–43 (no. 36), pp. 87–88 (no. 84), pp. 140–143 (no. 135), and pp. 187–190 (no. 205).

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(r. 1155–1158) request that Tokiwa Mitsunaga (fl. latter half of the twelfth century) paint a set of sixty handscrolls depicting ceremonies taking place during the period 1156–1159. Only partial copies of the resulting Nenjū gyōji emaki (“Handscrolls of Paintings of Annual Events”) survive, but they present vivid portraits of a number of the most imposing yearly events: the Kamo festivals, the Umenomiya Festival, the “Bathing the Buddha” ritual, and the “Peaceful Flower Festival” of the Imamiya Shrine.32 Aesthetic concerns also dominate works such as the Shiki monogatari (“Tales of Four Seasons”)—by the poet Kamo no Chōmei (1155?–1216) or possibly another author assuming the persona of this man— which emphasize the beauty of the flow of the seasons and the elegant doings of the aristocracy.33 This piece, whose title is echoed in the first work translated below, would go on to spawn an extended line of sequels and imitations. Despite the intellectual efforts of Heian-period historians, philologists, and chroniclers to secure an ever-valid tradition of nenjū gyōji, writing alone could hardly hope to stem the ravages of time or put an end to human depredations. By the late years of the era, economic hardship and political unrest, whose tangled origins and far-reaching effects need not concern us here, obliged the court to shrink the number of events it supported, abbreviate a good number of rituals, and place officials of scant consequence in charge of weighty proceedings. At the same time, sites were regularly relocated to the inner quarters of the palace, and ritual formalities were increasingly divorced from lawmaking and administration.

Kamakura-Period Writings on Nenjū Gyōji: Transfer and Maintenance In 1192 the warrior Minamoto no Yoritomo founded a new regime in Kamakura. Even if the court was thereby consigned to the role of second fiddle in the ensemble of state power, the emperor and Kyoto aristocracy still controlled the traditions that warrior-class parvenus needed to found, sustain, and broadcast their own legitimacy. Yoritomo, like Taira no Kiyomori (1118–1181) before him and a succession of shoguns trailing behind, did what he could to appropriate and preserve palace rituals useful for buttressing the image of his regime. Other elite 32. See Nenjū gyōji emaki. 33. Two different lineages of this work exist. The first, also called Chōmei shiki monogatari or Kamo no chōmei shiki monogatari, circulated mainly in hand-copied versions; the second, Karin shiki monogatari, usually refers to a printed book published in 1686. On the emergence, authorship, and dating of these works, see Inada, “ ‘Tsurezure-gusa’ to ‘Shiki monogatari.’ ”

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warriors, too, strove to learn proper etiquette, of which they had seen little enough in theaters of war. The most detailed record of Kamakura bakufu annual events is the Kamakura nenjū gyōji (or Denchū ika nenjū gyōji; “Kamakura Annual Events,” 1454 or 1456), drafted long after the fact by Ebina Suetaka (?–?). In this piece the author, apparently an insider of the Muromachi bakufu, sought to itemize the practices of the Kamakura regime in order to establish a precedent-based paradigm for the nenjū gyōji of his own day.34 He thereby revealed that Kamakura shoguns placed a particular emphasis on New Year’s salutations, ōban banquets, pilgrimages to the Tsurugaoka Hachiman multiplex, and other events already mentioned in chapter 2 above. Meantime, an enfeebled Kyoto court continued to support nenjū gyōji as best it could.35 In 1221 Emperor Juntoku (r. 1210–1221) personally set about drafting the Kinpishō (“Extracts from Palace Secrets”), a chronicle of court ways that included a short section on yearly observances, festivals, and Buddhist ceremonies.36 A roughly contemporaneous volume of a rather different character was the Nenjū gyōji hishō (“Digest of Annual Events,” author unknown), based largely on manifold citations from texts of antiquity, especially ones drafted by Chinese writers. Most court nenjū gyōji during this era continued to be overseen by the Ministry of Kami Affairs (Jingikan), whose leadership was now hereditarily assumed by a member of the Shirakawa family and whose doings are recorded in the Jingikan nenjū gyōji (“Annual Events of the Ministry of Kami Affairs”).37 This document indicates that the court continued to sustain close relations to Kyoto shrines, and sent offerings and emissaries to the Ōharano, Iwashimizu, Inari, Yamashina, Matsunoo, Nakayama, Murasakino Imamiya, Kamo, and other festivals. Confucian rituals, too, remained of great significance, as Fujiwara no

34. For details on the dating, writing, and purpose of this work, see Nagatsuka, “ ‘Kama­ kura nenjū gyōji’ to Ebina Suetaka,” and Futaki, Buke girei kakushiki no kenkyū, pp. 193–215. For German-language studies of nenjū gyōji cultivated by the medieval warrior class, see Blümmel: “Die ‘Fünf Feste’ beim Kriegeradel” and “Die Riten des Kriegeradels.” 35. Kyoto shrines such as the Iwashimizu Hachiman also set about putting to paper the details of nenjū gyōji they hoped to transmit to posterity. See, for example, Iwashimizu Hachimangū gūji narabi ni Gokurakuji kōrei butsu-shinji sō shidai, from 1244, and Hachiman gūji nenjū sanki, from 1275. 36. See Kinpishō, pp. 381–383. 37. This record was probably drafted in the mid-thirteenth century but contains entries from a century earlier (see Kubota, “ ‘Jingikan nenjū gyōji’ ni tsuite”). The buildings housing the Ministry of Kami Affairs burned down during the Ōnin Wars and were not reconstructed, so during the Edo period the Yoshida Shrine in Kyoto served as a substitute. On the Jingikan, see Bock, Engi-shiki, vol. 1, pp. 17–24.

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Teika (1162–1241) shows in his account of sekiten ceremonies at the palace, occasions at which the Sage and his most important disciples were piously venerated.38 The court also scrupulously documented appointment ceremonies (jimoku), regular events presented at the start of the year and in the fall, when Kyoto functionaries and provincial officials were conferred positions and status.39 All the while the Bureau of Yin and Yang issued annotated calendars (guchūreki), which frequently invoked yearly rituals and festivities.40 In 1227 the Imperial Palace was razed by fire. It was not to be rebuilt until 1334. Yet even in turbulent times participation in court-sponsored nenjū gyōji could become a matter of life and death. Thus when in 1221/5, at the onset of the Jōkyū War, a campaign in which forces loyal to retired Emperor Go-Toba unsuccessfully challenged an army backing the Hōjō regents, the emperor wished to ascertain the trustworthiness of his avowed supporters, he beckoned one and all to the annual fifth-month “equestrian archery” event (yabusame) at Jōnanji.41 In a gesture of protest the warrior Iga Mitsue (?–1221) abstained. This so enraged the emperor that the recusant general was ordered to commit suicide.

Muromachi-Period Writings on Nenjū Gyōji: Preservation and Restoration The return of the shogunate from Kamakura to Kyoto after Go-Daigo’s abortive attempt at direct imperial rule in 1333 meant that court traditions took on a new immediacy. Age-old court practices were now subject to further evaluation, documentation, and systematization. Even if the number of annual events commemorated by the social elite had dwindled to a fraction of the almost three hundred listed on the 885 screen, the securing, codification, and acknowledgement of orthodoxy remained of paramount importance to both the court and the warrior class. Already before his botched coup, Go-Daigo had apparently worried about the paucity of proper documentation of contemporary ceremonies, rituals, and annual events. Perhaps because he understood that such records might prove advantageous in underpinning any future claim of political legitimacy, around 1327 he set about chronicling what he had experienced at the Imperial Palace 38. See Sekiten shidai. 39. See, for instance, Jimoku-shō, written in the thirteenth century. 40. The annual events listed in such a calendar from Genkō 4 (1324) were later styled into the Genkō yonen saiji kasshi nenjū gyōji (1789). 41. See Jōkyū heiran-ki (or Jōkyūki), p. 46.

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roughly two decades earlier.42 One product of his toil was a brief piece that posterity entitled (Kenmu) nitchū gyōji (“[Kenmu Era, 1333–1336] Daily [Court] Events”). In keeping with the style of Emperor Juntoku’s 1221 Kinpishō, GoDaigo outlined daily court routines and touched on events such as the fourthmonth Kamo Festival and the Buddhist “six days of abstinence.” 43 Soon thereafter he spun forth yet another narrative, one later known as Kenmu nenjū gyōji (“Kenmu-Era Annual Events”), in which he chronicles the purport and proper performance of a total of eighty-seven occasions. In addition to specifying what transpired within the palace, he portrays the Ōharano, Iwashimizu, Kamo, Hirano, and Yoshida festivals, as well as an assortment of Buddhist observances staged in Kyoto and environs. Go-Daigo humbly notes—in smooth Japanese, rather than in the stiffer kanbun of most earlier efforts—that he intends to produce not a “mirror for the future” but merely a report of “how things stood at that time”—the years he had dwelt within the Imperial Palace.44 This declaration of a disinterested historical intent suggests that he may have been seeking to nip in the bud any suspicion of an attempt to employ nenjū gyōji for upgrading his own future authority. The aestheticizing impulse, one rarely entirely divorced from didactic and political intentions, was current among many members of the Muromachiperiod social elite, much like it had inspired Heian-period courtiers. One famous work fueled by such sensitivities was the Nenjū gyōji uta-awase (“A Poetry Match of Annual Events,” 1366). The occasion lurking behind this creation was a matchup of twenty-three courtier- and warrior-class poets, who contributed a total of fifty pairs of verses. The competition, heir to a long line of similar contests that often featured seasonal topics, was sponsored by the poet, courtier, and shogunal adviser Nijō Yoshimoto (1320–1388). Yoshimoto explains his motivations by noting that poetry normally “speaks of flowers or birds, and sings of the moon or the snow” but only rarely takes up “subjects that ought to be of interest,” 42. For a good discussion regarding the dating of Go-Daigo’s output, see Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 12–13. 43. On these days, known as rokusainichi, see HAE, Book 5, no. 33. 44. Kenmu nenjū gyōji, p. 426. The Imperial Palace in question was the Nijō Tominokōji Palace, the erstwhile residence of the nobleman-poet Saionji Saneuji (1194–1269). This complex had already served earlier emperors. In 1312, six years after it had burned down, the Kamakura bakufu supplied funds for building a complex modeled on the Inner Palace. Construction took place from 1315 to 1317. This facility was in use for some two decades before burning down in 1336. Another facsimile of the Inner Palace was not built until 1402. Today the Nijō Tominokōji Palace would lie on the western side of Tominokōji-dōri between Nijōdōri and Ebisugawa-dōri.

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such as yearly court events and other public or political occasions. Yoshimoto was certainly not suggesting, as Bertolt Brecht would insist six centuries later, that speaking of nature is tantamount to a crime because it squelches talk of rampant injustice. Rather he wished to underscore the importance, even within the realm of poetry, of ruling-class notions of good governance and principled morality.45 The first thirty-five verses of the contest treat, in order, New Year’s salutations (shihōhai), the “Blue Roans Banquet,” the Kasuga Festival, the Ōharano Festival, the Hirano Festival, the Matsunoo Festival, the Umenomiya Festival, the “Bathing the Buddha” ritual, the fourth-month Kamo Festival, rice handouts to the needy, the midsummer bon festival, sumō tournaments, the Kitano Festival, the “Releasing-of-Life Ritual,” the Yoshida Festival, the eleventh-month Kamo “Provisional Festival,” and year-end exorcisms (“Tsuina”). Yoshimoto and the no less aristocratic poet Reizei Tamehide (1303–1372) served as arbiters for this contest and judged nearly half the bouts a draw.46 Politically this was no doubt the most prudent path, for in such matchups courtiers and warriors vied to display their literary discernment, and nobody took kindly to being rated the inferior party. In later years, too, the aesthetic potential of nenjū gyōji continued to inspire a variety of genre paintings.47 The writer who perhaps knew more about court nenjū gyōji than anyone else was Ichijō Kaneyoshi (or Kanera, 1402–1481), a polymath who racked up not just a long list of impressive intellectual and poetic attainments, but also counted as an authority on palace etiquette.48 Already at age twenty Kaneyoshi drafted his highly influential Kuji kongen (“The Origins of Court Ceremony,” 1422), which contained descriptions of 179 annual events, far more than what Go-Daigo had mustered in his Kenmu nenjū gyōji, a copy of which was in Kaneyoshi’s possession.49 Unlike the emperor, Kaneyoshi relied largely on historical texts ranging from the Nihon shoki and Engi shiki to the Gōke shidai. In his hardly less appealing Seigen mondō (“Dialogue on Worldly Notions,” supplemented by Ichijō Kanefuyu) Kaneyoshi broadened his horizons and responded to questions about the nature and etymology of yearly Kyoto events and customs such as New Year’s 45. Nenjū gyōji uta-awase, p. 573. 46. On this work and its relation to annual events, see Blümmel, “Der Beitrag des Nenjūgyōji-utaawase zur Zeremonialtradition.” 47. For a brief discussion, see Shirane, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons, pp. 162–165. 48. For a detailed English-language biography, see Carter, Regent Redux. 49. Lee Butler summarizes the Kuji kongen in his Emperor and Aristocracy, pp. 78–81. Other relevant works by Ichijō Kaneyoshi include the Nenjū gyōji taigai; the Gō shidai shō (1439); and the San sechie shidai, which details the New Year’s banquet, the “Blue Roans” banquet of 1/7, and the “Banquet of Step Songs” of 1/14–1/16.

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pine-branch ornaments at doorways, comestibles presented on selected days, firecrackers, cockfights, the Gion Festival, and much else. During the tumultuous Age of Civil Wars (1467–1580s) the number and scale of court annual events again severely contracted. Inconsequential or particularly costly festivals were habitually canceled, truncated, or postponed. Since bakufu finances were in desperate straits, little cash could be earmarked for courtly luxuries. Even Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado’s attempt in 1490 to stem the downhill slide of festivities by commanding that underlings scour the land for benefactions conveyed no long-term relief.50 Yet court life went on, and so did an emaciated sequence of nenjū gyōji. Noble families still possessing the means to do so even commissioned standing screens illustrating monthly activities, regular festivals, and annual ceremonies. Downsized versions of such screens were also maintained by an expanding spectrum of society.51 Matters concerning nenjū gyōji maintained by the clergy and the social elite of this age are perhaps most tellingly divulged in diaries fashioned by heads of religious institutions and in chronicles drafted by members of the mōshitsugishū, bakufu adepts at ritual and ceremony who doubled as messengers to the Kyoto court.52 The prose of these authors typically resembles the sort found in volumes of kojitsu (precedent), writings designed mostly to enlighten warriors regarding apposite decorum and ceremony in public and private life. For the high-ranking man of arms, New Year’s audiences with the shogun on 1/7 and 1/8 remained of overriding importance. Vassals and underlings often presented gifts 50. See Tomita, “Muromachi dono to tenno,” pp. 42–43, and Butler, Emperor and Aristocracy, pp. 82–89. 51. See, for instance, the colorful illustrations of the eight-panel screen Tsukinami fūzoku byōbu (“Genre Scenes of the Twelve Months”), designated a national treasure and probably dating from the late sixteenth century. 52. For examples of such diaries, see Kanmon gyoki, by Prince Sadafusa (entries from 1416–1448); Mansai jugō nikki, by the abbot of the Rinzai-sect Daigoji (entries from 1411– 1434); and the Kitano shake nikki, by the head of the Kitano Tenman Shrine (entries for certain years from 1449 to the early seventeenth century). For examples of writings by mōshitsugi-shū, see Nenjū jōrei-ki, by Ise Sadayori (1455–after 1529), and Denchū mōshitsugi-ki, by Ise Sadatō (fl. 1460s–1480s). Both authors stemmed from the Ise house of mōshitsugi-shū and describe conditions during the reign of the tenth shogun Ashikaga Yoshitane (r. 1490–1493, 1508–1521). See also Chōroku ni-nen irai mōshitsugi-ki and Jishōin-dono nenjū gyōji, both written in 1509 by Andō Masafuji. For a study, see Ietsuka, “Muromachi bakufu no nenjū gyōji.” Nenjū kōrei-ki, by an unknown author probably from after the mid-sixteenth century, is more prescriptive and seeks to explain nenjū gyōji antecedent to the Ōnin Wars. For a discussion, see Futaki, Buke girei kakushiki no kenkyū, p. 195. Morimoto, Zōtō to enkai no chūsei, pp. 38–127, analyzes Muromachi bakufu nenjū gyōji and the custom of gift giving.

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(typically precious swords) to the supreme commander and could expect to receive valuable textiles or the like in return. On or before 1/7, major shrine officials offered select herbs to the nation’s ruler, performers exhibited their virtuosity, and drug dealers tendered their choicest pharmaceuticals.53 Among the samurai the old double-dated occasions, characterized by opulent court banquets, tended to take a back seat to events scheduled for the first day of the month, a day on which superiors typically granted formal interviews to underlings.

Edo-Period Writings on Nenjū Gyōji: Revitalization and Dissemination According to legend, Tokugawa Ieyasu triumphantly entered the Kantō region on 1590/8/1. That this event fell on hassaku, a happy day long associated with the warrior class, was hardly an accident. On other days as well, Ieyasu, who possessed multiple court titles and ranks, exhibited a consummate respect for Kyoto palace etiquette and court ritual. While dwelling at Nijō Castle near the end of 1614, for example, he ordered several prominent nobles and Buddhist priests to investigate whether ancient ritsuryō practices concerning court ceremonial were properly being upheld. The emperor’s underlings presented seven articles treating only the three key New Year’s palace feasts: the “New Year’s Banquet,” the “Blue Roans Banquet,” and the “Banquet of Step Songs.” Ieyasu was so displeased with the insolent brevity of this report that he announced he would investigate the matter himself, and from his retirement stronghold in Sunpu (today Shizuokashi) proclaimed appropriate measures to be taken.54 Shortly thereafter, when in his 1615 “Regulations for the Palace and Nobility” he famously stipulated that the emperor’s primary duty was to study and transmit old scholarly and poetic traditions, he also implied that a rehabilitated court was to conserve archaic customs, including, of course, all relevant nenjū gyōji.55 Subsequent Tokugawa rulers continued to display much reverence toward customary annual events, whose orthodox forms were shored up by the wisdom of the Ise and Ogasawara houses. Over the centuries these two esteemed families had dominated the codification and transmission of proper etiquette, archery, 53. On such practices and many others, see Blümmel, “Die ‘Fünf Feste’ beim Kriegeradel,” pp. 58–59. For descriptions of New Year’s ceremonies during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, see Cooper, They Came to Japan, pp. 355–358. 54. Sunpu-ki, pp. 292–293 (Keichō 19[1614]/12/23, 12/29). 55. “Kinchū narabi ni kuge sho-hatto” (pp. 14–15), as translated in de Bary et al., Source of Japanese Tradition, vol. 2, pp. 14–18. See also Butler, Emperor and Aristocracy, pp. 205–209.

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and equestrianship. They were joined in their efforts by the Kira, Hatakeyama, and other kōke (literally “lofty families”), as well as some twenty protocol officers (sōjaban), who oversaw matters of ritual, ceremony, decorum, and precedent. The latter also served as masters of ceremonies at Edo Castle and hosted imperial envoys dispatched from Kyoto to what had become the new national center of military power.56 By and by the Tokugawa bakufu also supported the revitalization of abandoned Kyoto-based customs and rituals. In 1647, regular 9/11 emissaries from the imperial court to the Ise Shrine were reinstated, and in 1679, the bakufu financed the resuscitation of the “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” at the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine. In 1694, the long-defunct Kamo festivals were restored, and in 1740, the “Banquet of Flushed Faces” was given a new lease on life. Four years later, from 1744, court representatives once again paid annual visits on the distant Usa Hachiman Shrine.57 Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1670+), grandson of Ieyasu and prominent daimyo of the Mito domain, was so intrigued by timehonored ceremonial that he ordered the compilation of the Reigi ruiten (“Encyclopedia of Rites and Ceremonies”), a vast compendium of court practices whereupon a team of scholars slaved until 1710. Within the Kyoto Imperial Palace retired Emperor Go-Mizunoo (r. 1611– 1629), an indefatigable scholar since his teens, displayed an absorbing interest in nenjū gyōji. From perhaps 1644 to 1652 he set about drafting what came to be known as the Go-Mizunoo-in tōji nenjū gyōji (“Current Annual Events, by Retired Emperor Go-Mizunoo”).58 In the well-known preface to this treatise he spells out his motivations, noting first that Emperor Juntoku’s Kinpishō—not coincidentally a work that Ieyasu had designated as orthodox and authoritative in his 1615 laws to the court—and Emperor Go-Daigo’s Kenmu nenjū gyōji had set an eternal standard (despite Go-Daigo’s explicit instructions that it did no such thing). Yet times had changed, and these works no longer corresponded to 56. Many writings, typically still unpublished, document shogunal nenjū gyōji and other types of etiquette and practices. For an example, see Ryūei hikan (“Secret Conspectus of the Shogunal Quarters,” 1743), esp. fascicles 5 and 6. 57. On the rekindled toyo no akari no sechie, see Clark and Cobcroft, Ueda Akinari, Tandai shōshinroku, pp. 142–143. Revitalized non-periodic events included the investiture of a crown prince (rittaishi) in 1683, the Rite of Great Feasting (daijōsai) in 1687, and the purification of the sacred mirror room (naishidokoro no kiyoharai) in 1691. For a study of Edo-period court ritual (especially the sending of envoys to the Ise Shrine), see Fujimori, “Kinsei shotō no kyūtei saishi”; on the relation of court and bakufu in the context of ceremonial practices, see Hirai, “Chōgi no kinsei-teki tenkai.” 58. The question of authorship has been treated by Sakai in his “Kenkyū hōkoku.” Sakai suggests that the text may have been composed chiefly by female experts on ceremonial stationed within the Imperial Palace.

56  Chapter 3

contemporary realities. Go-Mizunoo’s motives differed from those of Juntoku and Go-Daigo, for court ceremonies now stood in little danger of vanishing. Nor, at least as far as anyone knew, was the emperor nursing a dream of fomenting an insurrection and launching a new court. Rather Go-Mizunoo’s chief objective appears to have been to teach the current sovereign, the still adolescent Go-Kōmyō (1633–1654), that court traditions, and not the Chinese learning to which the young man was so beholden, deserved to be sustained and fostered. Soon thereafter an increasing number of cognoscenti and bookworms, usually with scant court or bakufu connections, fell to drafting and publishing their own accounts of nenjū gyōji. Commoner literacy was rising, and commercial publishers were on the prowl for manuscripts that might profitably be issued in woodblock editions. The resurrection of the court, the spread of warrior ways, and the revival of old habits all piqued the curiosity of readers, so disquisitions on nenjū gyōji proved to be eminently marketable commodities. In fact, many of the events themselves were experiencing wholesale commercialization and channeling cash into commoner coffers. Kyoto shops stocked their shelves with beautiful dolls, decorative armor, billowing streamers, and other paraphernalia for celebrating whatever occasion a purchaser might wish to mark. Procuring such an item naturally also indicated that a family could afford a commodity of suitably conspicuous quality. A nervous bakufu responded by issuing sumptuary regulations curbing the acquisition and consumption of pricey articles.59 Yet this hardly altered the fact that Kyoto residents were now far less likely to herald the arrival of spring or fall by planting, harvesting, and praying than by shelling out gold and silver to procure the year’s first specimen of a delicious item or by purchasing box-seat tickets to the eleventh-month “face-showing” (kaomise kyōgen) and “early spring” (hatsuharu kyōgen) kabuki performances. Even the court was ordering its chimaki rice cakes from the Kyoto confectioner Kawabata Dōki rather than producing them on site. Poets, too, though typically boasting of delicate instincts that allowed them to respond to minute seasonal fluctuations, snapped up handbooks offering advice regarding the requisite lyrical vocabulary for specific times of the year. One popular early example of such a volume was Yama-no-i (“Mountain Springs”; pub. 1648), in which the young poet-scholar Kitamura Kigin (1625–1705) listed seasonal expressions together with a brief explanation and several model verses for each occasion.60 59. For examples of sumptuary laws, see Ofuregaki Kanpō shūsei, pp. 999–1000 (no. 2037, 1656/2), and p. 555 (no. 1063, 1699/12). 60. With this piece Kigin established himself as a standard-bearer for the coterie surrounding Matsunaga Teitoku (1571–1654), the dean of Kyoto haikai poets and teacher of Matsuo Bashō. Later Kigin continued his effort in the two-volume Zō yama-no-i (“Mountain Springs,

Recording Annual Events   57

This sort of information, similar to what manuals for renga poetry had already supplied during an earlier age, would thenceforth be replicated in countless almanaclike saijiki, a genre whose name replicated the second half of the title of the ancient Chinese Jingchu suishiji. The endeavor to shackle poetic vocabulary to times of year and to corresponding nenjū gyōji climaxed with Takizawa Bakin’s encyclopedic 1803 Haikai saijiki (“Haikai Almanac”; expanded edition pub. 1851), which lists over 2,600 seasonal terms and topics.61 By the mid-seventeenth century bibliophiles in Kyoto, Osaka, or Edo could pore over a large assortment of published manuals concerning nenjū gyōji. So strong was the public appetite for historical knowledge regarding such matters that already in the Genna period (1615–1624) Ichijō Kaneyoshi’s classic Kuji kongen was issued in a woodblock edition. This work, reprinted many times thereafter, was repeatedly cited in later books (including TFS) and in 1694 was even outfitted with detailed annotations by Matsushita Kenrin (1637–1704), who had earlier drafted a kanbun volume entitled Kokuchō kasetsu-roku (“A Record of Beautiful Occasions in Our Land,” 1688).62 In 1660 Kaneyoshi’s other definitive chronicle of yearly events, the Seigen mondō, was similarly carved onto woodblocks, printed, and sold. Judging from the fact that it was republished in 1663, it must have been welcomed by the reading public. In subsequent decades a long series of works elucidating nenjū gyōji inundated the market (see table 3.1).63 One of the first Edo-period attempts to grasp Kyoto nenjū gyōji in a popular, comprehensive, and ethnographic manner was Annaisha (“The Guide,” 1662) by Nakagawa Kiun (San’ōshi, 1636–1705), a physician, fiction author, and student of Enlarged Edition”; pub. 1663), which lists nenjū gyōji by month and offers more detailed explanations of seasonal customs, habits, and expressions but no sample verses; and in Zoku yamano-i (“Mountain Springs, Continued”; pub. 1667), which supplies mostly model poems. 61. On this book, more fully titled Zōho haikai saijiki shiori-gusa, see Shirane, Japan and the Culture of Four Seasons, pp. 190–191; for an English-language listing of seasonal terms, see ibid., pp. 271–285. 62. See Kuji kongen shūshaku. Kaneyoshi’s 1472 Kachō yosei, a commentary on the Tale of Genji, was also widely read and cited by writers on nenjū gyōji (see, for instance, TFS, fifth month, no. 1). 63. Nenjū gyōji were also often listed within Kyoto gazetteers or guidebooks. See, for instance, Kyō habutae, vol. 2, pp. 70–77; Kyō habutae oridome (1689), vol. 1, pp. 341–360; Miyako suzume annaisha (1708), vol. 2, pp. 105–109; and Miyako meisho-guruma (1714), vol. 5, pp. 518–522. Writers of this age often ignored contemporary realities. Thus the Kamo Festival is typically mentioned, even though it had been abandoned for centuries and was only reanimated in 1694. Nor, despite the illustration he presents, had the author of TFS ever seen the “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” at the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine in Kyoto, for this ceremony was revived only in 1679.

58  Chapter 3 Table 3.1  Important Publications Concerning Kyoto Nenjū Gyōji, 1662–1697 Title

Date

Author

Language

Annaisha

1662

Nakagawa Kiun

Japanese

Nensai shūda

1663

Ekū

Japanese

Minkan saijiki

1668

Nagoya Gen’i

Kanbun

Yamashiro shiki monogatari

1674

Sakauchi Naoyori

Japanese

Hinami kiji

1676

Kurokawa Dōyū

Kanbun

Setsujo kigen

1679

Fukuzumi Dōyū

Kanbun

Seji kongen

1686

Hyōkyoshi

Japanese

Nenjū fūzoku-kō

1687

Unknown

Japanese

Nihon saijiki

1688

Kaibara Ekiken

Japanese

Tohi saijiki

1688

Kaibara Ekiken

Japanese

Kokuchō kasetsu-roku

1688

Matsushita Kenrin

Kanbun

Nenjū chōhōki

1694

Namura Jōhaku

Japanese

Nenjū koji yōgen

1697

Shitomi Yūen

Japanese

Matsunaga Teitoku. Kiun, only twenty-six at the time of writing, offers the reader, evidently a hypothesized ignorant visitor to the imperial capital, a Baedeker-like account of celebrations and festivals sponsored by the court, Buddhist temples, and Shinto shrines. A year later a more historically informed piece entitled Nensai shūda (“Plagiarized Primer on Yearly Rituals”) was brought out by the twenty-one-year-old Buddhist monk Ekū, who scoured classic Chinese sources for material documenting the genealogy of particularly well-known annual events.64 His exertions were succeeded in 1679 by the Setsujo kigen, a kanbun treatise based on excerpts from 115 archaic sources (largely Chinese) thematizing forty-eight occasions, and the 1686 Seji kongen, which elucidated sixteen events on the basis of forty-one Chinese and Japanese texts such as the Jingchu suishiji and Kuji kongen. The most widely read discussion of Kyoto-based nenjū gyōji was probably Kaibara Ekiken’s 1688 Nihon saijiki (“Record of Seasonal Events in Japan”).65 Ekiken, who fortified his assertions with copious citations 64. Ekū’s title alludes to the twelve-volume manual for learning, Qunshu shituo (“Plagiarized Categorized Writings”; pub. 1652), by Zhang Jiushao. Ekū once even explicitly refers to this work (Nensai shūda, pp. 21, 30). 65. The brief Tohi saijiki (“Record of Seasonal Events in the Capital and Countryside”) was also published in 1688 as an addendum to Nihon saijiki.

Recording Annual Events   59

plucked from older Chinese and Japanese writings, relates specific dates to customs and habits, expounds the socioreligious significance of certain days, and offers advice on foods and pharmaceuticals best consumed or properly shunned on specific days or months. Since readers usually believed that specific dates correlated to matters of personal welfare, handbooks frequently sought to explicate such relationships, most often by invoking hemerological theories imported from China. Thus in the kanbun piece entitled Minkan saijiki (“Record of Seasonal Events among the Populace,” 1668; repub. 1681) the author, a Kyoto physician named Nagoya Gen’i (1628–1696), reached back to Chinese classics such as the Jingchu suishiji to remind readers that no matter how enjoyable and entertaining certain nenjū gyōji might be, the essence of such occasions was not found in the pleasure they provided but rather in their embodiment of the negative and positive forces of yin and yang—which could then be properly nurtured or suppressed by readers edified by reading his manual.66 Gen’i and an impressive line of successors, including the trained physicians Kaibara Ekiken, Namura Jōhaku, Kitamura Kigin, Nakagawa Kiun, Fukuzumi Dōyū, and Matsushita Kenrin, were all firmly convinced that health and well-being were mostly a matter of the calendar and its determinations. Unlike their Heian-period and medieval predecessors, these authors did not so much seek to safeguard the emperor and the state as to aid purchasers in enjoying longer, healthier, and more agreeable lives. In time, handbooks treating nenjū gyōji extended their reach far beyond Kyoto, with authors hailing from Edo, Osaka, regional cities, or even rural towns. This did not, however, alter the chief function of such writings: that of bringing the deities and their mysterious forces down to earth so that readers might act in harmony with the rotations of heaven, harness salubrious forces, and snare every available blessing. The information supplied in such volumes might even motivate a purchaser to visit remote byplaces of civilization, where an annual event was said to reveal divine significances, auspicious powers, or aesthetic charms. By relating certain days to Buddhist, Shinto, or Daoist notions, reconnecting old habits to ancient court or bakufu traditions, and explaining the delights of happy celebrations and solemn rituals, a variety of polemicists, historians, poets, doctors, priests, ethnographers, and harmless drudges turned the abstract flow of time into a series of discrete moments that could be anticipated, enjoyed, and eventually remembered as having been significant. The life of the individual was thereby prevented from having passed away quite so suddenly.

66. Minkan saijiki, p. 71.

C HA P T E R 4

Tales of the Four Seasons in Yamashiro Province (1674) (Yamashiro shiki monogatari 山城四季物語)

This work was authored by the Kyoto-based scholar of “national learning” Sakauchi Naoyori (坂内直頼, c. 1644–c. 1711), who also assumed the pseu­do­ nyms San’unshi, Settei, and Nyozesō, as well as the Buddhist name Hakue. Since he at times identifies himself as Hayama-no-inshi, “the retiree of Hayama,” he presumably lived in Hayama-chō in Kyoto (today Sakyō-ku). Naoyori seems to have gained fame for his 1685 Honchō shosha ichiran (“A Catalogue of Japanese Shrines,” 8 vols.), but he was also known as the compiler and editor of collections of Chinese and Japanese poetry, treatises on Buddhism, and books regarding historical sites in or near Kyoto. The six-volume Yamashiro shiki monogatari, issued in Kyoto in 1674 with illustrations by Yoshida Hanbee (?–?), a renowned Kyoto artist who also illuminated many of Ihara Saikaku’s fictional creations, represents an early Japanese example of a saijiki (“record of seasonal events”). In fact, when the work was republished in 1721, the title was revised to Miyako saijiki (“Record of Seasonal Events in the Capital”). Much of the information presented in Tales of the Four Seasons in Yamashiro Province was gleaned from older historical writings to which the author occasionally refers. To these resources Naoyori added personal observations and information apparently based on oral assertions of contemporaries. Though generally accurate, his writings rarely treat sources critically, and some of his statements are not supported by recent research. I have not ventured to challenge every dubious contention or pinpoint the provenance of each assertion, though when the origin of an account seemed to me obvious, I have indicated this in footnotes. The point of this translation is not to present scintillating new insights regarding ancient priests or profound Buddhist truths but rather to indicate how a respected Edo-period intellectual interpreted the nenjū gyōji against which so much of Kyoto culture unfolded. I have often revised readings of names of persons, deities, temples, shrines, and places, for glosses in the original text are studded with errors and misprints, and the author anyhow tends to refer to historical personages by titles or pseu­do­ nyms that have now become thoroughly unfamiliar. He also often reads the names of temples or historical sites in a manner unlikely to be much help to the 60

Tales of the Four Seasons in Yamashiro Province   61

modern reader. All added terms, dates, place names, alternate readings of names, guesses, supplements, or explanations have been placed in parentheses. I have also supplied captions to the illustrations, which stem from the original printing. Each of the six volumes contains a table of contents reproducing section headings. I have judged this duplication superfluous and have eliminated it. All place names refer to Kyoto unless otherwise indicated.

Preface by Sakauchi San’unshi Since olden times the limpid waters of the Mimosuso River, springing from the shadows of Mt. Kamiji, have been auspiciously conveyed to this land of bountiful grain, where they illuminate imperial rule.1 The great aristocratic families of the left and the right, which trace their ancestries to the kami of the Kasuga Shrine, support the government of the imperial house. Each and every wise imperial retainer emulates the virtues of the thirty kami and upholds their ancient ways. The four oceans rest at peace, the blessed rain nourishes the great ocean currents and all else everywhere, while the ancient kami of the Imperial Palace command supreme reverence. Of the countless cherished events celebrated from the start of spring to the end of winter, I have chosen and assembled only those that appear to possess a long history. I entitle my work “Tales of the Four Seasons in Yamashiro Province.” It excludes the awe-inspiring official ceremonies performed at the imperial court, for the details of these are recorded in the Kuji kongen (“The Origins of Court Ceremony”) and other chronicles of annual events. Although I elucidate only local events concerning the buddhas and kami, I do not take my work lightly. I have considered histories, biographies, and old records obtained from here and there and have limited myself to events whose derivation is certain. Ceremonies of kami whose places of enshrinement are unclear or whose Buddhist manifestations are doubtful are omitted, as are occasions celebrated beyond the borders of Yamashiro Province. Nevertheless, is there not more? In spring one encounters the cherry blossoms at Mt. Otowa near the renowned Jishu Shrine on the grounds of the Kiyomizu Temple, at the Gion Shrine, at Kōdaiji, and by the hall of Daikokuji (Chion’in). In the western hills, Saigyō (1118–1190) once gazed at the twigs (of his cherry tree).2 At Narabi-no-oka and Ninnaji, too, one finds such blossoms.3   1.  Mt. Kamiji is located in Mie Prefecture, south of the grand shrines of Ise. The sixteenkilometer Mimosuso River (Isuzugawa), a metaphor for the imperial bloodline, runs through the shrines’ grounds and terminates in Ise Bay.   2.  The poet Saigyō supposedly determined to become a monk at Sagano Nishiyama, where, according to Zeami’s nō play Saigyō-zakura, he built himself a small hermit’s hut by a beautiful cherry tree.   3.  Narabi-no-oka (or Narabi-ga-oka) stands approximately one kilometer south of Ninnaji.

62  Chapter 4

Within the northern hills of Ōhara stands the hermitage for court ladies, where cherry trees grace the water’s edge.4 To the south lie Mt. Inari and the blossoms at Sumizome in Fukakusa Village; recently trees bloom at Kōshōji in Uji.5 By contrast, those at Hanazono (“blossom garden”)—merely a place name—or at (the famous Yamato Province blossom-viewing sites of) Yoshino and Hatsuse (Hasedera) can hardly compete. Kyoto’s nickname, “the flowering capital,” seems appropriate indeed when one encounters hither and thither the colorful outfits worn by the crowds that amble through the city streets and mingle with the cherry blossoms. In summer, residents wander by shrine brooks or stop off at the Ōi and Katsura rivers to catch and savor sweetfish (ayu) or gobies (ishibushi).6 Oblivious to the sun and blistering heat, visitors swarm to the riverbanks at Uji to observe the fireflies. In fall, they adore the moon from the shores of the Ōsawa and Hirosawa ponds or flaunt brocades from unseen Cathay while inspecting the maple leaves at Ogura and Takao.7 At Arashiyama they hear the forlorn cry of the deer, and at Sagano they “love the sound of the name” of the maidenflower and dream of times long past.8 At Mt. Otoko, they enjoy themselves while uneasily glancing at   4.  The “hermitage” in question is probably Jakkōin at Ōhara, near a tributary of the Takano River. It is said to have been established either in 594 or during the late eleventh century. The spot is known as the scene of the nō play Ōhara gokō. The original 1686 map on which map 1 is based erroneously identifies the location as Jakkōji, a different temple. 5.  Sumizome (literally “charcoal-colored”) refers to a legendary tree at Fukakusa Sumi­ zome. It is referred to in the early tenth-century Kokinshū (poem no. 832), in a waka composed after the burial of the Horikawa chancellor: “If you have feelings, flowering cherries in the fields at Fukakusa, will you not just this one year put forth charcoal-colored blooms” (Fukakusa no nobe no sakura shi kokoro araba, kotoshi bakari wa sumizome ni sake). See Kokin waka-shū, p. 266, and H. McCullough, Kokin Wakashū, p. 182. Kōshōji (here written with incorrect ideographs) was reestablished in 1648. The road leading to the temple was famous for its cherry blossoms and maple leaves.   6.  The type of brook (mitarashi-gawa) in question leads to spots suited for ritual purification of mouth and hands (see sixth month, no. 3, below). In Kyoto the Kamo shrines were especially famous in this regard. The northern Katsura River was called the Ōi River. 7. Ōsawa Pond lies westward within the grounds of Daikakuji. Hirosawa Pond, also known as Henshōji Pond, stands some seven hundred meters to the east. Ogura (particularly Jōjakkōji, though an Ogura Pond exists as well) and Takao (particularly Jingoji) to the west were famous and popular maple-viewing spots.   8.  In classical poetry the cry of the deer, usually that of a young male deer pining for a mate, was often associated with arashi (storm). Sagano or Saga, northwest of the city, includes many scenic temples, but the reference to the name of the maidenflower (ominaeshi) relates to the opening of poem no. 226 in the Kokin waka-shū: “I have but plucked you, maidenflower, because I love the sound of your name.” See H. McCullough, Kokin Wakashū, p. 56. Omina (later onna) means “woman,” or even “beautiful woman.”

Figure 4.1.  Activities during the four seasons in and about Kyoto.

64  Book 1

the sacred sites.9 During the tenth month, when the skies clear, they ask, “Whose truth is it?” and imagine the “autumn-shower pavilion” of times long ago.10 The “snow of the Kyoto Fuji (i.e., Mt. Hiei) at dusk” and much else has been left out. I have presented only an outline, thinking that it might serve as a guide for the young. Written from the start of the month of summer clothing (=fourth month), 1674 Preface by the author, San’unshi of the Sakauchi house.

Book 1 First Month 1. On Setsubun, visits to the (Gojō) Tenjin (Shrine)11 The shrine located at Gojō (near the intersection of) Nishinotōin(-dōri) and Matsubara-dōri is called Tenshin (“Heavenly Kami”).12 Kyoto locals voice the word and say “Tenjin.” The pronunciation “Tenshi” (“Heavenly Messenger”) is erroneous. The kami enshrined here is Sukunahikona-no-mikoto.13 Long ago, during the age of the kami, he and Ōnamochi-no-mikoto (also Ōkuninushi, “Great Land Master”) combined their power and unified their spirit to create the world and the five grains. Sukunahikona-no-mikoto shielded animals, sentient beings, and of course humanity from disease, and determined the ways of acupuncture, moxibustion, curative spells, and pharmaceuticals. As a result, on Setsubun, which marks the start of the year, many persons visit this shrine to pray for peace throughout the land. They obtain glutinous rice cakes and okera (Atractylodes

  9.  Mt. Otoko (Otokoyama, Kyōto-fu Yawata-shi), south of Kyoto, is the site of the Iwashimizu Hachiman multiplex. 10.  An allusion to a famous poem by Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241) (verse 2305 of the Shūi gusō, compiled 1216; hinting at verse 712 of the Kokin waka-shū): “The real world tells no lies, so whose truth is it that showers begin in the ‘Month of No Kami?’ ” (Itsuwari no naki yo nari­ keri kaminazuki ta ga makoto yori shigure somekemu). The tenth month was the “Month of No Kami” as the deities had allegedly all departed for the Izumo Shrine (see HAE, tenth month). It was also called “month of showers” (shigure-zuki). The “Autumn-Shower Pavilion” (Shigureno-chin), location unknown, was Teika’s retreat. 11.  See also Seigen mondō, p. 686; Hinami kiji, p. 132; Kyō habutae, p. 77; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 263. 12.  The bridge over the canal at this crossing is purportedly where Benkei famously lost his contest with the young Minamoto no Yoshitsune (Ushiwaka-maru, 1159–1189). Hideyoshi moved the bridge two streets southward, so that location became the new Gojō. 13.  On the tiny kami Sukunahikona-no-mikoto (or Sukunabikona-no-mikoto) and his powers, see, for instance, Nihon shoki, jō, p. 129, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 59–60.

First Month  65

Figure 4.2  The sacred gateway (torii) and façade of the Tenjin Shrine.

japonica) to exorcise illness and evil spirits.14 They thereby revere the virtues of this kami. This shrine was granted senior first rank in 1378, during the reign of the onehundredth emperor, Go-En’yū (r. 1371–1382). It enshrines the local tutelary kami of the ward north of Matsubara-dōri. A festival takes place on 9/10.15 On this 14.  Okera or ukera is a perennial plant growing about 30–100 centimeters tall, with white or pale pink flowers. The rhizome has a medicinal use, and consuming rice cakes roasted with okera protects one against pestilences, perhaps on account of the pungent smell. See also the last section of the twelfth month below. 15.  On the Gojō Tenjin Festival, see also Annaisha, p. 304; Hinami kiji, p. 99; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 69–70.

66  Book 1

night, visits are also undertaken to the Naishidokoro (the “Sacred Mirror Room” of the Imperial Palace), which stands northeast of the Shishinden (“Purple Palace Hall,” the main palace administrative building). This room holds one of this nation’s three sacred objects.16 Commoners are not permitted to enter, so they pray while arraying themselves on the white gravel below.

2. On the first “day of the tiger,” visits to the Kurama Temple17 On the (first) “day of the tiger” during the first month, visitors come to the Kurama Temple (literally “Temple of the Saddled Horse”), for it enshrines Bishamon.18 Callers petition for ten sorts of good fortune and pray for good luck. The “day of the tiger” is regarded a “holy day” (literally “related day,” ennichi) thanks to the popular saying, “The tiger can run (hashiru) a thousand leagues.” When merchants earn gold and silver in profits, this is called washiru and is thus associated with the tiger. Moreover, since this buddha (Bishamon) protects the directions of the rat (north), ox (north-by-northeast), and tiger (east-by-northeast), this again supposedly relates to the tiger. There are reasons for this, but they remain an undisclosed Shingon-school secret. The Kurama Temple, called (in its Sino-Japanese reading) Shōbi-san Anbaji, was founded thanks to a revelation involving a saddled white horse. The name of Kurama Village may even predate the temple’s founding. According to a written source, in the year 672, Crown Prince Ōtomo proposed to defeat the forces of Emperor Tenmu (r. 673–686).19 In Yamashiro Province, as the latter’s army was retreating to Iga Province (Mie Prefecture), the emperor was struck in the back by a stray arrow launched by the pursuing troops. The location was thus named

16.  The Shishinden contains a replica of the sacred mirror, whose top-secret original (in fact lost several times to fire) is stored at the Ise shrines. 17.  See also Annaisha, p. 236; Hinami kiji, p. 25; HAE, 1/1, no. 42; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 5; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 249. 18.  Bishamon or Bishamon-ten (Skt. Vaiśravaṇa) is the chief of the four heavenly kings in Indian Buddhism. 19.  In 672 Crown Prince Ōtomo (648–672) became Emperor Kōbun. He took his own life after less than a year on the throne because during the brief “Jinshin War” he was pressed by forces loyal to his younger brother Prince Ōama, who became Emperor Tenmu (631–686). The following passages appear to rely mostly on information found in sources such as the twelfthcentury Fusō ryakki, pp. 111–112; the twelfth-century Shūi ōjō-den (vol. 3, pp. 265–266); and the apparently far earlier Anbagaiji engi.

First Month  67

Figure 4.3  Isendo’s horse gallops to the location where the Kurama Temple would be founded.

Yase (“Arrow Back”). The spot was dubbed Kurama (“Saddled Horse”) after an escaped saddled horse was tethered there. The Kurama Temple was founded in 797 during the reign of Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806), the fiftieth emperor, by the head of the Ministry of Civil Administration, Fuji(wara) no Isendo (759–827).20 He was a pious Buddhist who, 20.  Isendo’s title is here given as “Jibu-no-daibu.” See also HAE, 6/20.

68  Book 1

whenever he secured a valuable parcel of land, unfailingly desired to have monasteries erected and statues of Kannon (Kanzeon; Skt. Avalokiteśvara, the goddess of mercy) enshrined. One night he dreamt that on heading to Kitayama (north of) the imperial capital, he met a white-haired wizard who informed him: “This mountain is an extraordinary holy spot. It is shaped like a three-pronged ceremonial pestle (sanko) and eternally issues five-colored clouds.21 If you erect a Buddhist monastery at this site, you will accumulate boundless divine boons.” Isendo asked the old man his name. The latter responded, “I am the holy protector of the imperial capital, the kami Kibune.”22 After Isendo woke from his reverie, he yearned to discover the area in question. He saddled a white horse and announced: “In ancient times (c. 67 CE) (the two Indian monks) Kashōmatō (Skt. Kāśyapa Mātaṅga; Ch. Jia Yemoteng) and Jikuhōran (Skt. Dharmaratna or Gobharana; Ch. Zhu Falan) used a white horse to transport the Buddha’s bones, Buddhist sculptures, and sutras to China (J. Shintan; Skt. Cīnasthāna).23 In those days, a white steed must have been considered a holy beast. Surely (such a horse) would fathom the location I saw in my dream and reveal it to me.” Accordingly, he let loose the horse, accompanied by a lad. The animal trotted to Kitayama near the imperial capital and then halted in the midst of a patch of cogon grass. The lad returned and informed Isendo of the location. Isendo set out to inspect this hilltop site and recognized it as the spot in his nocturnal vision. This he reckoned as quite astonishing. He obtained a figure of Bishamon for the patch of grass and eventually built a temple to house the statue. Then, however, he realized that even though he had intended to enshrine a figure of Kannon, he had acquired a Bishamon. He had thus not yet realized his quest. That night a lad came to him in a dream and said, “You obtained a statue of Bishamon when you aspired to enshrine a Kannon. Yet despite their different names, Bishamon and Kannon are in truth a unity.” When Isendo awoke, he was overjoyed to know that his wish had indeed been fulfilled. He built another hall

21. A sanko or sankosho is a symbolic article of esoteric Buddhism, usually made of gilt bronze and with three prongs at each end. The central grip is often encircled by demons’ eyes, and above and below is a lotus-flower design. The implement represents the indestructibility of the Dharma and symbolizes the power of Buddhism over evil. Five-colored clouds are taken as auspicious in Japanese Buddhism. In the “Western Paradise” Amida rides such clouds. 22.  Today Kibune usually refers to the geographical area and Kifune to the shrine located there. 23.  They founded the first Chinese Buddhist temple, the Baimasi (“White Horse Temple”), near Luoyang, c. 68 CE. Here the two monks allegedly translated a number of sutras, including the “Sutra in Forty-Two Sections.”

First Month  69

and enshrined a “thousand-arm Kannon,” the Kannon west of the (Kurama Temple’s) main sanctuary.

3. On 1/15, a public exhibit (kaichō) of a holy object at the Saga Shakyamuni Hall (Saga Shakadō or Seiryōji)24 At the Saga Shakyamuni Hall, (more formally) called Godaisan Seiryōji, public exhibits take place on the fifteenth day of the first, fifth, and ninth months. The displayed holy buddha, more sacred than any other in India, China, or Japan, depicts Shakyamuni exactly as he appeared while alive and incarnate in this world. Its origins are as follows.25 Māyā, Shakyamuni’s mother, died seven days after giving birth and was reborn in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. When Shakyamuni attained Buddhahood, he ascended to this heaven from the Jetavana monastery (J. Gion Shōja) and preached the Dharma to Māyā. Through the ninety days of summer, the Buddha’s four classes of companions (men, women, sacred, and profane) saw nothing of Shakyamuni in this world. All were sad and woeful, like children who have lost their parents. At this, the highly devout King Udayana (J. Udennō) assembled sculptors from throughout the land and commissioned them to fashion a likeness of Shakyamuni for the purpose of worship. When the deity Viśvakarman (J. Bishukatsuma) heard of this scheme, he transformed himself into a craftsman in order to create the Buddhist statue the king desired. From a storehouse he selected fragrant wood of the purple bead-tree (sendan; Melia azedarach). This he delivered to the royal sculptors. Then with divine skill Maudgalyāyana (J. Mokuren Sonja, one of Buddha’s closest disciples) drew a picture of the Buddha within a circle and awarded it to the royal sculptors, who hewed the wood with their axes. The sounds rang forth to the heaven in which Buddha resided and penetrated the bowels of the earth.26 Everyone whom it reached was absolved of all sins and endowed with Buddhahood. The statue was enshrined at the Jetavana monastery. Shakyamuni had now ended his period of seclusion and preaching of the Dharma, so he returned to earth. From the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven to the Jetavana monastery Jōgoten lowered three stairways, one each of gold, silver, and 24.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 17, and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 16, which mention that the same event also occurs on 5/15 and 9/15. Kaichō, which I usually render as “public exhibit,” literally means “unveiling” or “curtain opening.” Such displays of holy objects often turned into lively fair-like occasions. 25.  Much of the tale appears to be taken from Seiryōji engi. 26.  Literally it reached the “gold wheel” (konrin) below, considered the highest of the three-layered wheels supporting the earth above the primordial void.

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Figure 4.4  The divine wooden statue welcomes the incarnate Buddha.

crystal.27 The Buddha, accompanied by countless disciples, descended the golden stairs. Brahmā (J. Bonten, the supreme deity), leading the other deities of the eighteen heavens of the “form realm” (shikikai; Skt. rūpa-dhātu), descended the silver stairs. Śakra (J. Taishaku), conducting deities from the six heavens of

27.  Jōgoten, the “Heaven of Pure Inhabitants,” is actually the fourth dhyāna heaven in the world of form, inhabited by beings who will never return to the world of desire. The author was perhaps referring to Gobujō (or Gobujōgo-ten), a being that personifies this heaven. He is also sometimes considered one of the twenty-eight attendants of Kannon.

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the “desire realm” (yokukai; Skt. kāma-dhātu), descended the crystal stairs and encircled the Buddha. At this moment, the wooden statue strode to the stairway and welcomed the incarnate Buddha. Shakyamuni told the carving, “I shall shortly enter nirvana, and all future generations shall be saved.” Together with the statue, he entered the Jetavana monastery. This (statue of the Buddha) is the one now in the temple (the Saga Shakyamuni Hall in Kyoto). Records distinctly recount that this figure, which passed through India, China, and Japan, is divinely efficacious. It arrived in Japan on 1011/3/13, during the reign of Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011), the sixty-sixth emperor. From Tōdaiji the monks, high priests, and the priest Chōnen (938–1016) accompanied the statue and enshrined it at the (Shakyamuni) Hall, built in 987 during the reign of said emperor.28

4. On 1/16, a “rolling reading” (tendoku) of the “Dai-hannya (haramitta) kyō” at the Eikan Hall29 This sutra reading takes place in the first, fifth, and ninth months and serves as a prayer for national safety and a perpetual imperial reign. The temple, known as the Eikan Hall of Shōju Raigō-san Zenrinji, is located southeast of Kurodani at Higashiyama.30 It was founded by the eminent priest (sōzu) Shinjō (797–873) at the request of Emperor Seiwa (r. 858–876), the fifty-sixth emperor. Eikan Hall

28.  Chōnen evidently had a copy of the Indian statue made while in China, and this was initially enshrined at the Shingon-school Jōbonrendaiji in Kyoto. On Chōnen’s return to Japan in 986, see Fusō ryakki, p. 257 (Kanna 2[986]/8/25 and Kanna 3/Eien 1[987]/2/16). 29.  The name of the hall is more commonly pronounced “Eikandō” than “Yōkandō” (the gloss given by the author), but the priest after whom the hall is named is properly read “Yōkan” (the author plays it safe and offers no gloss). “Eikan Hall” popularly referred to the entire temple complex. Even though the temple name contains the character “Zen” (zenrin originally signified “profound secret”), Zenrinji started as a Shingon temple and later became a Pure-Land temple. The “Dai-hannya-kyō” (fully: “Dai-hannya haramitta kyō”; Skt. Mahāprajñāpāramitā sūtra; Ch. Mohe bore boluomiduo jīng), a title occasionally translated as “Great Sutra on the Perfection of Wisdom,” is a lengthy Buddhist text attributed to the Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher Nāgārjuna. It was translated into Chinese in 663 by Xuanzang. See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 220; for an English-language translation, see Conze, The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom. See also Annaisha, p. 232; Hinami kiji, p. 18; and HAE, 1/16, no. 3. 30.  Kurodani (today Sakyō-ku, Kurodani-chō) in Kyoto, not to be confused with the identically named region of Mt. Hiei, was an area to which medieval monks often withdrew to avoid becoming involved in temple affairs and to devote themselves to religious practice, in particular the chanting of Amida invocations. The Pure-Land temples Konkai Kōmyōji, Ryūkōin, and Saiun’in (Shiunseki) were all located here.

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derives its name from the righteous priest (risshi) Yōkan (1033–1111), founding patron of the revitalized temple, who was divinely inspired by the temple’s main object of worship, an Amida Buddha. This buddha is called the “Amida that looks back” (mikaeri honzon).31 This name dates to the night of 1082/2/15, when Yōkan was chanting Amida invocations (nenbutsu) with unusual reverence and at full volume while circumambulating the statue. When he briefly hesitated while facing northwest, the statue supposedly descended from its pedestal (glanced over its shoulder) and ordered, “Yōkan, get going!” Yōkan was the disciple of the eminent priest Jinkan (1001/1003–1050), son of retired Emperor Kazan (r. 984–986), the sixty-fifth emperor. In 1062, during the reign of Emperor Go-Reizei (r. 1045–1068), Yōkan was employed as a fundraiser by Tōdaiji in Nara. At age forty-two he retired here (at Zenrinji) and unceasingly prayed for rebirth in the Pure Land. He is the author of the book Ōjō jūin (“Ten Causes of Salvation”) and other works.

5. On 1/19, visits to the kami of calamity (yakujin)32 Those of an inauspicious age this year visit this kami, whose shrine (i.e., the Iwashimizu Hachiman) is located at the base of Mt. Otoko at Yawata.33 According to the Engi shiki (“Procedures of the Engi Era [901–923],” c. 927), a kami of calamity is enshrined at the border between the provinces of Yamashiro and Settsu (Ōsaka-fu). 34 The kami in question is the one at the (Iwashimizu Hachiman) shrine. On this day, pieces of wood, bearing the words “Somin Shōrai,” and furnished with a red tag are sold here. 35 When the small fry wear this charm on the shoulder, it protects them from serious illnesses. Toy bows (hamayumi) sold here apparently exorcise any harmful demon that would possess a child.

31.  The head of this statue is turned to the left, as if the figure were glancing over its shoulder. The carving is 77 centimeters tall, with the left side facing forward. Mikaeri can also mean to be rewarded for an action. 32.  See also Annaisha, p. 234; Hinami kiji, pp. 19–20; and HAE, 1/19, no. 2. 33.  Traditionally everyone gained a year at New Year’s. On inauspicious ages, see HAE, 12/30, no. 4. 34. See Engi shiki, p. 41 (kan 3); Bock, Engi-shiki, vol. 1, pp. 106–107 (Book 3). Festivals also took place at the boundary between Yamashiro Province and Ōmi, Tanba, Kawachi, Yamato, and Iga and at boundaries dividing other provinces. 35.  Somin Shōrai is already mentioned in the early eighth-century Fudoki (pp. 488–490, Bingo no kuni, itsubun). According to legend, he was a man of meager means but assisted a needy wayfarer. The guest turned out to be a kami and protected Somin Shōrai against bad luck and disease. See also Seigen mondō, p. 671, and HAE, 1/19.

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6. On 1/25, memorial services of the death of Hōnen (1133–1212), held at the four main Pure-Land temples36 Buddhist ceremonies (hōji) take place at Pure-Land temples throughout the land but especially in Kyoto. (Monks of) branch temples in and about the capital assemble at (the city’s) four main Pure-Land temples: Chion’in, (Konkai) Kōmyōji in Kurodani, Jōkein (Shōjōke-in), and Hyakumanben (Chionji). Here they conduct splendid memorial services. The wondrous sounds of flutes and strings beckon the purple clouds (whereupon the Buddha rides), and the temple halls are saturated with the scent of Ranja incense. How very precious are these ceremonies for anyone who truly pines for rebirth in the Pure Land! Audiences highborn and low pack the temple halls; even the belfries and spaces below the verandas are filled. Not an inch remains empty, and nobody can budge. Day and night, for the week between 1/19 and 1/25, visitors arrive continually to cultivate the root of virtue as they see fit. Standing temple lamps and hanging lanterns illuminate the streets, turning the gloom of night into the glare of day. Among these temples, Ōtani-dera Chion’in at Higashiyama, where Hōnen retired and passed away, is reckoned by his latter-day followers as a holy site of paramount karmic significance.37 Hōnen stemmed from Nanjō Inaoka(-no-shō) in Kume of Mimasaka Province (Okayama Prefecture, Kumenan-chō). His father was the military commander Uruma no Tokikuni from Kume; his mother was a woman of the Hata clan. The couple lamented that they had not been blessed with a child and united their hearts in praying to the kami and buddhas. The wife conceived after dreaming that she had swallowed a razor. She relaxed, avoided all physical stress, drank no liquor, ate no flesh or spicy foods, and piously consigned her faith to the “Three Jewels of Buddhism” (Skt. triratna: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the priesthood). Finally, at noon on 1133/4/7, she was effortlessly delivered of a boy. Purple clouds wafted through the sky; two white banners dropped from heaven and became entangled in the Muku tree (J. muku;

36.  Hōnen was considered the founder of Japanese Pure-Land Buddhism. See also Annaisha, p. 234; TFS, first month, no. 6; Hinami kiji, p. 21; Kyō habutae, p. 71; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 109 (Konkai Kōmyōji), 111 (Chionji), 116–117 (Chion’in), and 137 (Shōjōke-in) (all kan 4); and HAE, Book 5, no. 7. 37.  The author reads “Ōtani-dera” as “Daikokuji.” The information below appears to be taken from various biographies of Hōnen, including Kurodani Genkū shōnin den (possibly by Seikaku or Shōkaku, 1167–1235); Hōnen shōnin denki (of unknown authorship and vintage); and Hōnen shōnin gyōjō ezu (compiled by Shunjō, 1255–1335). See also Genkō shakusho, pp. 92–93 (kan 5).

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Figure 4.5  Two white banners drop from heaven and become entangled in a Muku tree at the moment of Hōnen’s birth.

aphanatanthe aspera) west of the house. Large and small jingle bells echoed from the four directions, and a rainbow shimmered around the sun. After a lapse of seven nights, the Muku tree ascended to heaven. Beholders assessed this a marvel and dubbed the tree “the birth Muku.” This is where the Buddhist temple Tanjōji (“Temple of Birth”) was built. It still exists today. The child born on that day was named Seishi.38 He was a spirited lad and demonstrated prodigious intellect from the days when he was still riding a hobby horse. Yet (in the house) he always somehow seemed to wish to face the western 38.  In reference to Daiseishi-bosatsu (Skt. Mahāsthāmaprāpta), an attendant of Amida symbolizing wisdom.

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wall (the direction of the Buddha and paradise). When he turned nine, he entered Bodaiji, a temple in Mimasaka Province headed by Kangaku (?–?), a younger brother of Seishi’s mother and thus Seishi’s uncle. There his talent for scholarship advanced like a rushing stream. When Kangaku observed the boy’s abilities, he knew that this was no ordinary child and felt it a shame for Seishi to squander his days in such a rural by-place. He thus sent his pupil to study with Jihō-bō Genkō (fl. mid-twelfth century) at the “Western Towers” (Saitō) of Kitadani on Mt. Hiei. In his letter of introduction to Genkō, Kangaku wrote, “Sir: I am sending you a likeness of Monju (Skt. Mañjuśrī, the bodhisattva of transcendent wisdom).” He thereby indicated the degree of Seishi’s sagacity. Seishi arrived in Kyoto on 1147/2/13. When Genkō was presented with Kangaku’s letter, he read it and asked, “Is it a statue of Monju?” But the messenger replied, “No, it seems only to be a youngster who has come to Kyoto.” Genkō immediately grasped that the boy must be exceptionally astute. On the fifteenth day of the month Seishi entered the monastery. As a test, Genkō first gave Seishi a copy of the Sijiaoyi (J. Shikyōgi, “The Meaning of the Four Teachings”).39 He marked certain problematic spots and questioned the boy, who responded to all doubts with arguments based on the profoundest Tendai-school teachings. Genkō was stupefied and wondered how he, with his limited abilities, could accept such a pupil. On 1147/4/8 he took Seishi to master Kōen (1074?–1169) of Kudokuin (on Mt. Hiei) to become the latter’s disciple.40 When Kōen heard of the boy’s exceptional astuteness, he was astonished and joyfully declared, “Last night I dreamt that the full moon shone into my window. It must have been a premonition that I should meet this boy.” On 1147/11/8 Seishi took the tonsure and offered his “great oath” at Kaidan’in.41 Relying on his natural insight, he reflected on how the Buddha’s teachings should best be divided into four doctrines and five periods. He perfected his knowledge of the threefold contemplation of the “subtle essence” and surpassed his master in his understanding of recondite teachings.42 39.  By Zhiyi (538–597), considered the founder of the Tiantai (J. Tendai) school of Chinese Buddhism. 40.  Kōen, the younger brother of the courtier and poet Fujiwara no Suketaka (?–?), was one of the authors of Fusō ryakki, a thirty-volume history of Japan from the earliest times (sixteen volumes are extant), compiled after 1094. 41.  The great oath (daijōkai) is a threefold Mayahana Buddhist vow to curb vice, secure virtue, and aid others. Kaidan’in, the hall where one takes such vows, is located in the “Eastern Towers” region of Enryakuji and supposedly dates to 828. 42.  The doctrine of “threefold contemplation” or “three aspects” (isshin sangan) teaches that phenomena are empty, that they are provisional, and that they are both empty and

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Time and again master Kōen ardently encouraged his disciple to study diligently, accomplish great deeds, and become a prominent figure in Tendai Buddhism. Yet to Seishi such learning seemed merely a matter of personal honor and benefit. Hence he abruptly resigned his post as a teacher. On 1150/9/12, at age eighteen, he sought out Shigenbō Eikū (?–1179) (near) the “Western Tower” (Saitō) region of Kurodani on Mt. Hiei.43 He informed Eikū that since childhood he had been profoundly disposed to withdraw from the world. Eikū felt that such a youthful yearning for seclusion indicated the presence of a holy man of the “Buddhist law as such” (hōnen dōri), so he granted Seishi the name Hōnen-bō. For Seishi’s personal name (jitsumei) Eikū took the character gen (“source”) from Genkō and the character kū (“emptiness”) from Eikū to form “Genkū.” Genkū secluded himself at Kurodani and fervently sought to free himself from this world. As he searched for the path leading to the transcendence of the distinction between life and death, he read everything in the five sutras, added commentaries to all, and deeply deliberated their most irrefutable and valuable dogmas. At last he accepted the teachings of Eshin (Genshin, 942–1017) in the Ōjō yōshū (“Essentials of Salvation”) and the commentaries of the (Chinese Pure-Land) priest Shandao (J. Zendō, 613–681). Shandao’s commentary judged that even ordinary persons with confused thoughts could eventually achieve rebirth in the Pure Land if they but invoked the name of the Amida Buddha. Every time Genkū scanned the Tripiṭaka, he noticed that all three parts of the work suggested this. Shandao had explained that “If one invokes the name of Amida with all one’s heart, whether moving, standing, sitting, or lying down; if one pays no heed to the passing of time and persistently bears this in mind at all times, one will certainly obtain salvation, for this was the wish of the Amida Buddha.” 44 This convinced Genkū that if in this final degenerate age ordinary persons chanted Amida invocations, they would, thanks to the Buddha’s wish, provisional at once. What I have compactly rendered as “recondite teachings” is shoryū no gi, a complex doctrine explaining that suffering is not skandha (the five elements summing up the whole of an individual’s mental and physical existence), that the twelve stimuli or senses are not real, and the like. 43.  The text glosses the name “Jiganbō.” The temple where Eikū resided was Kurodani Seiryūji (Saitō Bessho), located at Kurodani, about 1.5 kilometers from the “Western Towers” region of Enryakuji. 44.  From Shandao’s [Foshuo] guan wu-liang-shou jing shu (see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 1753), a commentary on the “Meditation Sutra” (Ch. [Foshuo] guan wu-liang-shou jing; Skt. Amitāyurdhyāna sūtra; J. Kanmuryōju-kyō; see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 365), of which no Sanskrit original is known to exist. For a translation and detailed study, see Pas, Visions of Sukhavati.

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surely be reborn in the Pure Land. Thus in the spring of 1175, after turning fortythree, he abandoned the ascetic life and devoted himself wholly to the chanting of Amida invocations. By degrees his thinking diffused throughout Japan. Although the monks of Mt. Hiei opposed him and staged debates at Ōhara (close to Yase, on the northwestern foot of Mt. Hiei), in due time all had to own the truth of Hōnen’s creed. In the spring of 1191 Hōnen incurred the wrath of Emperor Go-Toba (r. 1183–1198) and was exiled to the island of Shikoku, but in 1207/12 he was granted an imperial pardon and returned to Kyoto, where he retired at Ōtani(-dera) at Higashiyama, today’s Chion’in. At noon on 1212/1/25, fourscore years of age, he passed away like the Buddha, head to the north and face turned westward. When he knew his end was near, he wrote on a single page, at the request of his pupil Seikan-bō, the essence of finding peace in the Pure Land (by invoking the Amida Buddha). This would come to be known as the “one-page vow” (ichimai kishō[mon]). It is also said that the kami of the Kamo shrines descended to earth and begged for this inscription so that it might serve all humanity during this final degenerate age.

Second Month 1. On the first “day of the rabbit,” the festival at Ōharano (the Ōharano Shrine)45 This festival supposedly originated on 851/2/1(12?), a ka-no-to year of the ram, during the reign of Montoku (r. 850–858), the fifty-fifth emperor. It appears in the official national histories.46 The Ōharano Shrine is located in Otokuni County and just like the Kasuga Shrine enshrines four kami: Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto; Iwainushi-no-mikoto; Amatsukoyane-no-mikoto; and Hime-daijin. Two explanations exist regarding their enshrinement (kanjō).47 According to the Jingi seisō (“The True Purport of the 45. Kōda (Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 112–113) and the author of Annaisha (p. 242) also place the Ōharano Festival on the first “day of the rabbit” of the second month, but in ancient times it was evidently also staged on the second “day of the rat” of the eleventh month (see Kōda, p. 332). Hinami kiji, p. 36, places it on the “first day of the monkey,” perhaps in error; HAE dates it to 2/22. Kyō habutae oridome, p. 343, indicates that a preparatory “nighttime festival” took place on 2/21, that the main festival was staged on 2/22, and that nō plays were performed on both occasions. Today the festival falls on April 8. 46. See Nihon Montoku tennō jitsuroku, p. 41 (Ninju 1[851]/2/12). Nihon sandai jitsuroku also contains many entries of the festival’s celebration in subsequent years. 47.  Kami were considered infinitely divisible, and kanjō, translated below as “enshrined,” refers to the act of welcoming and consecrating the manifestation a deity derived from such a division.

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Figure 4.6  The Ōharano festival with its mikoshi.

Kami”) in 850, during the reign of the fifty-fourth emperor, Ninmyō (r. 833–850), the (late) Minister of the Left, Fujiwara no Fuyutsugu (775–826) of the Kan’in residence requested that these kami be enshrined to protect the imperial capital.48 Another explanation maintains that the kami were enshrined in 851, during the time of Emperor Montoku, on account of the prayers offered by the emperor’s grandmother. This shrine is of senior first rank. In olden days, the emperor’s wives, women of the Fujiwara clan, unfailingly paid the shrine a visit. During the times when Lady Nijō (Fujiwara no Kōshi/Takaiko, 842–910, consort of Emperor Nijō) was still known as the “lady of the crown prince’s palace” (tōgū no miyasu-dokoro), she called on the shrine and granted stipends to those who attended to her. (On that occasion) Ariwara no Narihira (825–880) composed the following poem: On this special day even the deities of Mt. Ōhara and Mt. Oshio recall the events of the age of the kami49 48. See Jingi seisō, p. 62. Fuyutsugu’s abode was later used as an alternate imperial palace. It burned down in 1259. 49.  Ōhara ya Oshio-no-yama mo kyō koso wa kamiyo no koto mo omoizurame, poem 871 of the Kokin waka-shū. The kami of Mt. Oshio guarded Mt. Ōhara. See also H. McCullough, Kokin Wakashū, p. 191. Narihira may have had a love affair with Fujiwara Takaiko.

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2. On the first “day of the horse,” visits to the (Fushimi) Inari Shrine50 Visitors call on this shrine on the first “day of the horse”’ in the second month because on 711/2/11, a “day of the horse” during the reign of Empress Genmei (r. 707–715), forty-third in the line of imperial succession, (a buddha) became a local manifestation (suijaku) of the kami Uka-no-mitama-no-mikoto (“Deity of Rice in Storehouses,” or “Inari”).51 The day became one on which everyone prays to be fortified by good luck. Numerous theories exist about Inari. Originally, the protector kami of the mountain was the kami of Kada. When Uka-no-tama-no-mikoto was enshrined (kanjō) at the spot where this kami resided, the second character used to write “Uka” (稲, read ina) was merged with the first character of “Kada” (荷, read ni or ri) to produce the name “Inari.” Visits to Inari shrines taking place on this day are also known as “visits to the holy peak” (midake mairi), or “first ‘day-of-the-horse’ visits” (hatsu-uma mairi). Minamoto no Akinaka (1058–1138), of junior third rank, composed the following poem on a “first ‘day-of-the-horse’” : I called on the Inari Shrine to visit the “signifying cedar”; today visitors must all be wearing its twigs52

50.  See also Annaisha, pp. 242–243; Hinami kiji, p. 36; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 90–91 (kan 3); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 24–25; Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 251; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 295–296. 51. This assertion is probably based in part on the fragment “Inari-sha” from the Yamashiro no kuni fudoki (see Fudoki, pp. 419–420), cited in Yoshida Kanetomo’s Engi-shiki jinmyōchō tōchū, a 1503 commentary on the 927 “Engi-shiki jinmyō-chō” (“Register of Deities,” Books 9 and 10 of the Engi shiki; see Bock, Engi-shiki, vol. 2, p. 116). According to later writings, Inari was revealed or enshrined here on the first “day of the horse” in 711/2 (see Inari Taisha yuishoki shūsei, vol. 1, shinkō chosaku-hen, pp. 171, 198). See also HAE, second month, no. 4. 52.  Inariyama shirushi no sugi o tazune kite amaneku hito no kazasu kyō kana. The verse is from the “Spring” section in the Eikyū yonen hyakushu (“A Hundred-Poem Sequence of the Fourth Year of the Eikyū Period [1116],” p. 182), a collection ordered compiled by Emperor Toba. From the late Heian period, visitors to the Fushimi Inari Shrine commonly broke off twigs of the “signifying cedar” (shirushi no sugi) to wear on their person. If the twig remained fresh, this was taken as a sign that one’s wish would be fulfilled.

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3. From 2/8 to 2/15, reading of the “Yuikyō Sutra” (“Legacy Teachings”) and Buddha invocations (shaka nenbutsu) at the Senbon Shakyamuni Hall (Daihōonji)53 On 2/15 the Buddha entered nirvana.54 The sutra is read in Japanese, and the name of the Buddha is intoned as recompense for the matchless favors bestowed. This sutra, declaimed at the moment he entered nirvana, constitutes the Buddha’s eternal legacy for the world after his death. According to the “Yuikyō Sutra,” the Shakyamuni Buddha transmitted his teachings to all of his disciples, from the first, Ājñātakauṇḍinya, to the last, Subhadrā. Every disciple who accepted his teachings awaited his passing into nirvana as he lay between two śāl trees. It was the dead of night, and all was still. There the Buddha preached the essence of his teachings to his disciples. The Tsurezure-gusa (“Essays in Idleness,” c. 1330–1332) states that the tradition of reciting the name “Shakyamuni Buddha” at the Senbon Shakyamuni Hall was initiated by the high priest Nyorin during the Bun’ei period (1264–1275), but Nyorin’s biography remains obscure.55 Senbon (“one-thousand staffs”) is a place name. The Shakyamuni Hall counts as (part of) Daihōonji, whose main object of worship is a statue of Shakyamuni carved by Unkei (c. 1151–1223+). The temple’s founding patron is uncertain. Construction may have been funded by Nijō (r. 1158–1165), the seventy-eighth emperor. (From 1221) the founding patron was the high priest Guhō (Gikū, 1172–1241) from Dewa Province.56 The temple name may have been conferred by retired Emperor Go-Toba

53.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 30; Kyō habutae, p. 71; and HAE, 2/9, no. 1. The short and popular “Butsu yuikyō-gyō” (“Buddha’s Legacy Teachings”; Ch. Wei jiao jing) was translated into Chinese by Kumārajīva (c. 344–413). See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 389. The sutra mandates control over the five senses and the mind and recommends devotion to Buddhist practice. Readings at the Shaka Hall of Daihōonji at Senbon perhaps began during the Bun’ei period (1264–1275). 54.  “Nirvana services” (nehan-e) on 2/15 lauded the Buddha’s attainments and reminded participants of the value of Buddhist teachings. For many citations from Japanese historical sources, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 475–482. See also HAE, 2/14 and 2/15. 55.  Nyorin Shōnin was the son of Fujiwara no Moriie (1172–1238). He served as the second head of Daihōonji. See Tsurezure-gusa, p. 273; Keene, Essays in Idleness, pp. 187–188 (no. 228). Here and below I have rendered the term shōnin (here written with the first character hijiri rather than the more usual ue, “above”) as “high priest,” though the term “saint” would perhaps better indicate the degree of reverence accorded to such a figure. 56.  Gikū was the grandson of Fujiwara no Hidehira (1122?–1287), the third head of the Fujiwara clan in Ōshū (Mutsu Province, in the far north). He had studied Tendai-school Buddhism with Chōken (1126–1203) on Mt. Hiei.

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Figure 4.7  The Shakyamuni Buddha preaches to his disciples, evidently of the clerical and courtier classes.

(r. 1183–1198). Some allege that according to an inscription on a beam, the temple’s founding patron was the high priest Gikū, and that Emperor Go-Horikawa (r. 1221–1232) had the Shakyamuni Hall built during the Antei period (1227– 1229).57 (Daihōonji) was a Tendai temple, but from the era of shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (r. 1603–1605) it became a Shingon one. Today it is governed by the head priest of Chishakuin. 57.  Reconstruction work on the main sanctuary in 1951 uncovered a letter by Gikū that specified that the building was erected in 1227. Go-Horikawa (1212–1234) was only fifteen years old at the time.

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Figure 4.8  Inspecting the wondrous “nirvana picture” at Tōfukuji.

4. On 2/15, the “Nirvana Picture” at Tōfukuji58 This “nirvana picture” is the brushwork of Chō Densu (1352–1431), a student of (the Rinzai-sect monk) Daidō(-Ichii) (1292–1370). It is a depiction unequaled by any other portrait in the land, so visitors arrive at this temple especially (to see the picture). Densu, posthumously known as Minchō, adopted the pseudonym Kichizan (or Kissan, Kichisan, Kitsusan). His paintings are all so wondrous that one cannot begin to describe them. When he painted a dragon, it seemed poised to soar

58.  See also Annaisha, p. 239; Hinami kiji, p. 32; Kyō habutae, p. 71; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 28; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 250. HAE gives the event as starting on 2/14.

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into the heavens; when he sketched the deity Fudō, it appeared to be aflame. Once when he determined to paint a dragon, he realized that he had never seen a live specimen. He thus tenaciously appealed to the buddhas and kami to disclose to him an animate example. The waters of the temple pond swelled, and a giant live dragon appeared before his eyes, thus fulfilling his wish. He mined the pigments he used to paint throughout his life at Mt. Inari (southeast of Tōfukuji), guided by divine inspiration. It seems many of his colors were transmitted to no other artist. According to an inscription in the margin of this “nirvana picture,” Densu painted the work in 1408/6, when he was fifty-seven years old. This temple also owns many other drawings and paintings (by Densu). The paintings of “five-hundred arhats” and “forty-eight founders,” as well as the thirty-three Kannon scrolls, are of unparalleled excellence. The temple, (formally) known as Enichi-san Tōfukuji, was built in 1242 during the reign of Shijō (r. 1232–1242), the eighty-sixth emperor. The ex-regent Kujō Kōmyōbuji (Michiie, 1193–1252) funded the construction.59 The temple’s founding patron was Enni (1202–1280; also Enni Ben’en or Shōichi Kokushi). Details can be found in biographies of Kokushi.60

5. On 2/16, the “stupa-building” (shakutō) ceremony of blind men61 The (origin of this) event is uncertain. According to some theories, when Amayono-miko, the daughter of the fifty-eighth emperor, Kōkō (r. 884–887), lost her vision, she summoned blind women throughout the capital to her side to keep her company.62 Low-born women were granted ranks, and because they served her

59.  Michiie served as regent from 1228 to 1231. He was known as the “Kōmyōbuji Regent” because in 1237 he founded Kōmyōbuji, which may have stood near Tōfukuji. 60.  See, for example, Tōfuku kaizan Shōichi Kokushi nenpu (“A Chronology of Shōichi Kokushi, the founder of Tōfukuji”). 61.  See also Annaisha, p. 240; Hinami kiji, pp. 32–33; Kyō habutae, p. 71 (which gives the date 2/17); Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 375–376, 391–392 (kan 10); HAE, 2/16, no. 1; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 29; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 309. The ceremony once took place on the banks of the Kamo River, where blind men constructed tiny “pagodas” of river rocks. By 1634, however, the “old regulations” (ko-shikimoku) of the guild of blind men (tōdō) describe the ceremony as consisting of readings of the “Heart Sutra” (Hannya shingyō; Skt. Prajñā pāramitā hṛdaya; Ch. Xinjing; see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 251), prayers for peace and prosperity, and recitations of the Tale of the Heike. See Atsumi, Maeda, and Ubukata, Tōdōza, Heike biwa shiryō, pp. 68–69. 62.  Amayo-no-miko, of ambiguous gender, is also often referred to as Amayo-no-mikoto. The author glosses the ideographs shinnō (“imperial prince”) as miko, and in other legends Amayo is said to have been a prince who, in divine form, served as the guardian kami of

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(mimae), they were called gozen.63 Thereafter blind men were also conferred the rank of zatō or (the even higher) ranks of kōtō and kengyō. They maintain the lineage of Amayo-no-miko. The sixteenth day of the second month is the memorial day of Amayo-no-miko. Guild members gather and worship a depiction of her. They proceed to the eastern riverbank (at Shijō) and stack up stones. This is evidently the reason that the event is called “stupa building.” 64 On 6/24 they meet again in a “cooling-off” (suzumi) ceremony (by the river). This may again serve as a commemoration of Amayo-no-miko’s death. One does not, however, encounter the name Amayo-no-miko in genealogies from the eras when emperors ruled. After Amayo-no-miko passed away, the hungry and cold must have been pitied, and to care for them rowhouses were built in the capital at Sameushi(-kōji). The children’s adage “A blind person from Ameushi walks by with a cane” perhaps refers to blind people at Sameushi.65

Book 2 Third Month 1. On 3/10, dances at the Imamiya Shrine at Murasakino66 These (dances) are presented by performers from this and the Kamo (shrines). They wear formal robes (suō) with courtier’s hats (eboshi) and carry swords as they parade from Murasakino through western Kamo to the Imamiya Shrine. At their destination, they promenade around shrine grounds chanting, “Peacefully blossom!” (Yasurai-bana yo).67 This is called the “dance of peaceful blossoms.” Its origins are uncertain. According to one explanation, long ago, whenever a Hokke visually disabled men and women in Japan. Yet other legends identify him as Prince Saneyasu, the son of emperor Ninmyō (r. 833–850). 63.  The ideographs mimae may also be read gozen, an honorific second-person designation. The latter term was later pronounced goze and became the most common word for referring to visually disabled women. 64.  Usually three men of kōtō rank engaged in this activity at dawn on 2/17. 65.  Ameushi mekura ga tsue tsuite tōru. Sameushi-dōri, a street in ancient Kyoto, was positioned approximately where Hanaya-chō (Kyū Hanayamachi-dōri) and Horikawa-dōri are located today. 66.  See also Annaisha, p. 248; Hinami kiji, p. 40; Kyō habutae, p. 72; HAE, 3/10, no. 2; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 317–318. Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 34 (pub. 1717), dates the event to 3/11 but states that in earlier years it took place on 3/10. 67. Or Yasurai-bana ya. Today the dance and ceremony take place on the second Sunday of April.

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Figure 4.9  Performers wearing red animal-hair wigs (shaguma) and playing gongs, drums, and perhaps a flute, arrive at the Imamiya Shrine with a parasolwielding attendant.

ceremony was presented at Jingoji on (Mt.) Takao, calamities ensued.68 Prayers offered at the Kamo and Imamiya shrines for appeasing the (culpable) malevolent spirits became the source of a dance. For this reason it was an error to alter the original calls of the Hokke ceremony at Mt. Takao from “Peacefully come to an end!” (Yasuraka ni hate yo) to “Peacefully blossom!” or “Fleetingly blossom!” (Asunai-bana yo).69 Yet if this had truly been the case, what should have been 68.  The Shingon-school Jingoji (Jingo Kokuso Shingonji) emerged in 824 when two older temples were amalgamated. See also third month, no. 6, below. Yōshūfu-shi, p. 202 (kan 5), cites an unnamed historical source regarding a “dance of peaceful blossoms,” staged on the last day of the third month at Injōji, and notes that this dance was imitated by other temples and served as the source for Nenbutsu ceremonies at Injōji and Mibudera (see third month, no. 3, below), as well as for the 3/10 “dance of peaceful blossoms.” For a study, see Yamaji, Kyōto, pp. 197–220. 69.  Asunai hana is not standard Japanese, though it may hint at Buddhist-flavored impermanence (blossoms with “no tomorrow”).

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performed at Mt. Takao (Jingoji) would have been staged here (at the Imamiya Shrine). This is entirely unlikely. According to another explanation, in springtime, kami of pestilence (yakujin) habitually proliferate and torment the populace. At the Imamiya Shrine, which enshrines these kami of pestilence, dancing serves to invigorate them and exorcise disease.

2. From 3/6 to 3/15, the Saga Amida-invocation ceremony 70 At the Saga Seiryōji the local laity assembles and intones Amida invocations for ten days. During this period, (masked) pantomimed comic plays (kyōgen) are staged several times a day. Modern pieces are not performed, nor does the program change from year to year. As performances appropriate for the occasion, they inspire reverence, so visitors throng here to see them. This ceremony is known as the “great Amida invocation” (dai nenbutsu). Similar performances also take place at Mibudera and at Injōji at Senbon.71 All of these events were initiated by the high priest Engaku (Dōgo or Dōgyo, 1223–1311), whose origins are as follows. Engaku was the son of one Hiromoto from Uematsu in the Hattori district of Iga Province (Mie Prefecture).72 Hiromoto was over thirty years of age and despondent because he had no offspring. He and his wife visited the Kasuga Myōjin (Shrine) at Nara to pass the night in prayer. The radiant kami (myōjin) of the shrine appeared to them in a dream and informed them that in an earlier incarnation they had harmed living beings countless millions of times. Hence they had remained childless. If, however, they now prayed fervently, they would have a child between them, a life that would 70.  See also Hinami kiji, pp. 40, 41 (which gives the dates as 3/9 to 3/15, perhaps in error); HAE, Book 5, no. 8; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 33. Seiryōji (also known as the Saga Shakyamuni Hall, see first month, no. 3), devotes itself to the practice of the “universal Amida invocation” (yūzū nenbutsu), which, as its slogan, “One for all and all for one,” indicates, supposedly benefited not just the chanter, but also the entire world. This type of invocation was promoted by the Tendai priest Ryōnin (1072–1132). 71.  On the nenbutsu kyōgen, see Yamaji, Kyōto, pp. 155–174, and Ueki, Butai geinō no denryū, pp. 219–250. On Mibu kyogen, see also Annaisha, p. 249; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 35. On the kyōgen at Injōji, see Saitō, “Senbon Enma-do Dai-nenbutsu kyōgen kō.” 72.  Other sources give the site of Ōtori Hiromoto’s residence as Ise (Mie Prefecture) or Yamato Province (Nara Prefecture). Engaku was adopted by the monks of Tōdaiji, became a disciple of Shōgen (1220–1292) of the Ritsu-school Tōshōdaiji, and took the tonsure at age eighteen. The tale of the sighting of his mother is also recounted in Zeami’s nō play Hyakuman (“Million,” a revision of Kan’ami’s Saga monogurui). Some of the information below may have been taken from Mibudera engi, pp. 283–285, but the author must also have relied on other sources.

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turn out to be a treasure. Since this was exactly what they had always craved, the two single-mindedly prayed to be vouchsafed their wish. Shortly thereafter, the woman conceived and gave birth to a son whom they named Imawaka-maru and who would later become the high priest Engaku. When the child was three years old, Hiromoto said to his wife, “We were informed at Kasuga that if we had a child between us, this life would ‘turn out to be a treasure,’ but Imawaka-maru is now three years old, and I see no sign of it. That divine prophecy must have been false.” This wicked scoffing seems to have been accurately transmitted to the holy mirror (at the Kasuga Shrine), so Hiromoto’s house was struck by lightning. Instantly his home and all its contents went up in smoke. The entire family fell victim to a dreadful plague in which not just Hiromoto, but also his entire kin perished. Only the wife survived, but she was blinded. No one dared approach her since she had been cursed by the kami. Thoroughly impoverished and clutching Imawaka-maru, she wandered the streets, pondering deeply about how disobedience to the kami had led to this. Yet clinging to her child might provoke additional terrible divine retribution. She might raise it, but what was she to do next? Perhaps if she abandoned the boy, she thought, somebody would take him in. Since the lad had been a bequest of the kami, she forsook the child in the fields of Kasuga. Just then a Nara monk named Umenoki-bō was on his way home from a pilgrimage to Kasuga. He picked up the child and reared it. At age fifteen, the lad took the tonsure and changed his name to Shukō. As time passed, Shukō pined for his mother, so he offered prayers to Prince Shōtoku (574–622), enshrined at Ryōzen’in on the grounds of Hōryūji. In a divine dream he was informed that he should proceed to the capital, advocate Buddhism to the laity and clergy of both sexes, fashion a list of participants (in dai nenbutsu ceremonies) past and present, and bestow Buddhist precepts on the populace. While behaving in superficially eccentric ways, he should dance and cavort and invoke Amida. If he did so, he would surely chance upon his mother. Shukō thus made his way to the capital and assembled crowds at Senbon, Mibu, and here (at the Saga Seiryōji). Then he performed Amida-invoking comic plays (kyōgen nenbutsu) in an odd manner. At last he spied his mother within the multitude. Possibly because Shukō met his mother there, locals who today participate in Amida-invocation ceremonies chant, “I saw mother” (haha mita).73 Shukō died on 1311/9/29, age eighty-nine, and was posthumously designated “high priest Engaku” by Emperor Go-Uda (r. 1274–1287). 73.  More likely the words derive from the term haramitta (Skt. pāramitā), signifying “perfection” or “transcendence.” See also HAE, note 108.

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Figure 4.10  Shukō sheds tears on meeting his aged mother.

3. From 3/14 to 3/24, Amida invocations at Mibu74 These invocations last eleven days, and just like at Seiryōji, the local laity performs Amida-invoking comic plays. In addition, a tightrope is strung under the eaves of the hall, and men costumed as monkeys sure-footedly cross it and exhibit stunts of all descriptions. Because they appear annually, they are dubbed the “Mibu monkeys.” The Amida invocations, identical to those of Seiryōji, were initiated by the high priest Engaku. At Mibudera it is said, however, that the invocations signify not Engaku’s quest for his mother, but rather karmic benefits for everyone. A written petition of an Amida invocation at this temple states: “The ‘universal Amida 74. Mibu was a place name and Mibudera the famous temple located there. See also Annai­sha, p. 249; Hinami kiji, p. 41; Kyō habutae, p. 72; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 160–161 (Shinjōkō-in, kan 5) and p. 202 (kan 5); the 1704 Karaku saiken-zu, p. 611; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 35.

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Figure 4.11  Jōchō piously carves his statue of Jizō.

invocation’ (yūzū nenbutsu) represents the ultimate truth of Mahayana Buddhism, the profundity of sudden enlightenment, and direct evidence of beneficial karma. If one hundred thousand persons now invoke the name of Amida for themselves and others, this affects one hundred thousand additional mortals; if they invoke Amida ten times, day and night, it is as useful as if they chanted it a million times. When others chant Amida’s name, it becomes an appeal for oneself; when one chants it for oneself, it simultaneously aids others in purifying themselves.” Mibudera was founded by the eminent priest Kaigen (?–1051) of Mii(dera) (Onjōji) in 991, during the reign of Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011).75 Kaigen was a 75.  This and much of the following relies on Mibudera engi, pp. 271–278.

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descendant of the regent Awata (Fujiwara) Michikane (961–995) and died on 1051/11/16, during the reign of Emperor Go-Reizei (r. 1045–1068). Mibudera possesses four names. The first is Mibudera; the second is Ko-miiji (“Small Miidera”); the third, granted by Emperor Shirakawa (r. 1072+–1086+) during the Jōryaku period (1077–1081), is Jizōin. Finally, during the reign of Emperor Go-Fukakusa (r. 1246–1259+), Taira no Munehira (fl. thirteenth century) and Taira no Munehira (?–1271), who were temple benefactors and stewards of the regent family, renamed the temple Hōdō-sanmai-ji. The temple’s main object of worship, (a statue of) the bodhisattva Jizō (Skt. Kṣitigarbha), was sculpted by the worthy Buddhist priest Jōchō (?–1057). Jōchō united his faith with that of Kaigen, and with the utmost piety carved the statue in one thousand days. He was awarded the clerical rank of “worthy priest” (hokkyō; literally “bridge of the Dharma”), the first time this title was granted to an artisan. According to temple histories and records of Jizō’s miraculous deeds, this enshrined object endows vast benefits and advantages to those who consign their faith to it.76

4. On 3/19, the ceremonial wiping of the Shakyamuni (statue) at Saga77 The Shakyamuni at Seiryōji has been described above (see first month, no. 3). In the “ceremonial wiping” the red camphor-wood statue of the Buddha is wiped. This custom dates from olden times, when the man responsible for the construction of this hall retreated here for seven days and nights of prayer. One night the holy figure appeared in a dream and spoke: “Your father, in his current incarnation, has turned into the ox that hauls lumber for this hall. Are you, the son of this man, not saddened by this? You must strive to engage in righteous deeds and to accumulate the fruits of Buddhist virtue.” On awakening, the man took this divine revelation to heart and moistened his clothing with profuse tears of sadness. He immediately begged to be awarded the ox, which he hitched to a spot next to the hall. There he cared for the animal, always with his father in mind. On 3/19, the beast expired. Hoping that it would prove a virtuous Buddhist deed, he took the blanket that covered the ox and wiped it over the Shakyamuni statue at the temple in order to transfer to the cloth the scent of camphor wood. Then he covered the ox with this cloth and buried the animal. If even beasts can be the subject of such revelations, how much more must this be true for humans! 76.  The “report of Jizō’s miraculous deeds” (Jizō kenki) possibly refers to Jizō bosatsu reigen-ki, a Heian-period collection of tales compiled by the monks Jitsuei (fl. eleventh century) and Ryōkan (Ninshō, 1217–1303). Regarding the Jizō of Mibudera, see pp. 420–428. 77. See Seiryōji engi, pp. 406–407. For Edo-period reports, see also Annaisha, p. 250; Hinami kiji, p. 42; and TFS, third month, no. 4.

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Figure 4.12  The Seiryōji ox with its coverlet feeds from a tray.

Thereafter each year on this day, the mysterious scent of Shakyamuni is transferred to humanity, which is cleansed of the grime of suffering. Another temple, called Seikaji, stands east of this hall. It was built on the spot where Minister (Minamoto no) Tōru (822–895), a son of Emperor Saga, constructed (a villa he named) “Seikakan.”78 Several burial mounds lie before Seikaji. The one on 78. Minamoto no Tōru, also known as Kawara no Sadaijin (Minister of the Left of Kawara), figures most famously in the nō play Tōru. He also appears in the Konjaku monogatari (see Dykstra, The Konjaku Tales, Japanese Section [III], pp. 71–72 [vol. 27, tale no. 2]), the Kokin wakashū (poem 724), and other sources. A year after Tōru’s death, his son had an Amida statue enshrined at a hall called Seikaji. This later became the Amida Hall within the grounds of Seiryōji. In 945 a new hall (devastated by fire in 1637) with a life-sized figure of the

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the northern end is that of Emperor Saga (786–842). The central one is of the emperor’s wife, Danrin (Tachibana no Kachiko, 786–850). The one to the south is of Minister Tōru.

5. Amida invocations at Senbon79 Amida invocations at this temple take place after the “Fugenzō” cherry tree here begins to bloom.80 These invocations, like those at Mibu(dera), were initiated by the high priest Engaku. This temple is known as the “Enma Hall” (Enmadō) of Injōji. Its main object of worship is a statue of Enma (Skt. Yama, the lord of hell), carved by Jōchō. It contains an inscription of the true name of the sculptor and the date (of carving). Kyoto residents err when they say that the statue is a work of the courtier Ono no Takamura (802–852+; see seventh month, no. 3). Records of the temple’s history have been lost, but an inscription on the temple bell suggests that it was founded by the high priest Jōgaku (1147–1226). I do not know from where he stemmed, but it seems he lived at Mt. Takao.81 The Genkō shakusho (“Genkō-era [1321–1324] History of Buddhism”) states: “Myōe of Toganoo was instructed by Jōgaku of Mt. Takao in reading the “Treasury of Metaphysics” (Abidatsuma kusha-ron).”82 Legend has it that the name “Senbon” (“One Thousand Staffs”) refers to ancient times, when the high priest Nichizō (905?–967/985?) traversed a cave called “Shō-no-iwaya” to reach the underworld. There he witnessed a certain

Shakyamuni Buddha was erected. This would later become the main sanctuary of Seiryōji. On Seikaji, see Seiryōji engi, pp. 402–403, and Nison’in engi, p. 416. 79.  See also Annaisha, p. 252; Hinami kiji, p. 44; Kyō habutae, p. 72; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 31–32. 80. The late-flowering Fugenzō cherry (Prunus serrulata var. lannesiana [Carrière] Makino) has whitish pink blossoms with two long pistils. The tree is named either after the color of the white elephant ridden by the bodhisattva Fugen (Skt. Samantabhadra Viśvabhadra) or after the trunk-like shape of the pistils. 81.  The Shingon priest and poet Jōgaku (Gyoji) was the son of the general Yuasa Muneshige of Kii Province (Wakayama Prefecture), the student of the Shingon priest Mongaku (1139– 1203), and the uncle of the far better known Kegon and Shingon priest Myōe (1173–1232). Toganoo was the site of Tōzanji, founded by Myōe in 1206. It was here that a branch temple of Jingoji had once stood. 82.  Genkō shakusho, p. 96 (kan 5). The 1332 Genkō shakusho, compiled by the Rinzai priest Kokan Shiren (1278–1346), was the first comprehensive history of Japanese Buddhism. Abidatsuma kusha-ron (Skt. Abhidharma-kośa-bhāṣya; Ch. Apidamo jushe-lun) is a fourth- or fifth-century treatise by Vasubandhu regarding the study of the Dharma. It was translated into Chinese by Xuanzang (600/602–664 CE).

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Figure 4.13  Amida invocations are offered at Injōji.

emperor endure appalling suffering.83 The emperor turned to Nichizō and exclaimed, “I must endure such terrible torture because I am guilty of having the blameless minister Sugawara no Michizane (845–903) exiled to Dazaifu (in Kyushu). Please rush back to the world above and set up one thousand (senbon)

83.  Nichizō (also Dōken) was a “mountain ascetic” (shugen) who adhered to esoteric Shingon practices and served as the first head of the Nara Nyoirinji. The cave in question is located on the Daifugen-dake, a mountain today in Kami-kitayama Village, Yoshino County, Nara Prefecture. The emperor suffering in the underworld was Daigo (r. 897–930). This passage is perhaps based on Fusō ryakki, pp. 219–222 (Tengyō 4[941]/3).

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funerary staffs (stupas) for the repose of my soul so that I may be relieved of this agony.” Between his tears he composed the following poem: They say that in the depths of hell, nothing distinguishes warriors (kṣatriya) from outcastes (śūdra)84 When Nichizō perceived His Highness’s predicament, he drenched his sleeve with tears and hurried back to the world, as the emperor had demanded. But it had all been a dream. He reported its purport to the court and had an impressive funerary display of a thousand stupas erected on Mt. Funaoka (Kita-ku). In consequence, the area next to the mountain was named Senbon.

6. On 3/21, memorial services for Kōbō (Kūkai, 774–835) at Tōji, Ninnaji, and Jingoji85 This event marks the day and month on which Kūkai sank to rest. At Buddhist ceremonies at Ninnaji, Tōji, and Jingoji on Mt. Takao a portrait-worship service (eigu) for Kūkai takes place. All three temples are holy sites for the esoteric ways of Shingon Buddhism. Ninnaji was built in 888/8 at the behest of Emperor Kōkō (r. 884–887).86 The practice of calling imperial princes who hereditarily serve in a clerical function “temple intendants” (monzeki) seems to have originated at this temple. In 901/12, after Emperor Uda (r. 887–897) had taken the tonsure, an imperial refuge known as “the Imperial Hermitage” (Omuro) was constructed on this site. In 952 the emperor of the Jōhei era (931–938; Emperor Suzaku) took the tonsure and settled at this location. Tōji (“Eastern Temple”) stands at (what was originally) the court’s “Kōrokan,” a facility for lodging foreign visitors. Such buildings were once located in eastern and western Kyoto. Just as the property of the Han Dynasty’s guesthouse was (later) conferred onto the Tripiṭaka master Bukong (705– 774; Skt. Amoghavajra; J. Fukū Kongō) for building the Dashingshan Temple, in 813/1 the eastern (Kyoto guesthouse) was ceded to Kūkai for erecting Tōji, 84.  Iunaraku naraku no soko ni hairanureba sechiri mo shuda mo kawarazarikeri. The poem is often attributed to the priest Prince Takaoka (799–865?), third son of Emperor Heizei (r. 806–809), who sent the verse to Kūkai (774–835). See, for example, the 1113 Toshiyori kuden (more commonly known as Toshiyori zuinō), p. 186. 85.  See also Annaisha, pp. 250–252; Hinami kiji, p. 42; Kyō habutae, p. 72; and Yōshūfushi, p. 163 (kan 5, Jingoji) and p. 186 (kan 5, Tōji and Ninnaji). 86.  For information on Ninnaji the author may have been relying on Ninnaji goden, compiled by Sonkai (1472–1543).

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while the western one was granted to Shubin (?–?) for the construction of Saiji (“Western Temple”).87 Today the latter has become a ruin, and only Shubin’s tomb remains. The statue of Kūkai at Tōji was carved by Kūkai himself. Jingoji was constructed in 774, after Emperor Kōnin (r. 770–781) received a divine revelation from Hachiman.88 In 825 Emperor Junna (r. 823–833) renamed the temple Jingo-kokuso-shingonji (“Shingon Temple That Divinely Protects the Flourishing Land”) and granted it to Kūkai. Even though women are ordinarily not allowed onto temple grounds, on this day they are free to pay the temple a visit. Kūkai was born in Byōbu-ga-ura in Tado County of Sanuki Province (Zentsūji-shi, Kagawa Prefecture).89 His father was Saeki no Matōji (Tagimi, ?–?); his mother hailed from the Ato clan. One night Kūkai’s mother dreamt that an Indian priest visited her and entered her bosom. She conceived, and in 774, during the reign of the forty-ninth emperor, Kōnin, she gave birth after a twelvemonth pregnancy. When Kūkai was eighteen years old, he matriculated in the school of higher learning to study the Buddhist sutras. Eventually he took the tonsure. In 795 he took (Kegon) Buddhist vows at Tōdaiji, accepted the complete precepts (gusokukai; Skt. prātimokṣa), and changed his name to Kūkai. Facing the altar he once confessed, “In my heart I still have doubts about the three vehicles of Buddhism and the twelvefold classification of the texts of the Dharma (jūnibu-kyō; Skt. dvādaśāṅga-dharma-pravacana). I am not fully convinced. Oh, one hundred thousand buddhas of the three worlds, divulge the true law to me!” That night a monk visited him in a dream and announced, “There exists a great sutra scroll called the ‘Mahāvairocana Sutra.’ It contains the truly essential secret.”90 When Kūkai awoke, he estimated the dream quite mysterious. Wherever he went, not a soul had heard of this sutra. Finally, at a seminary below the region of the “Eastern Towers” of Kume(dera) in Takaichi County of Yamato Province (Nara 87.  Some sources indicate that Tōji was constructed in 796 and that Kūkai headed it from 823. The date 813 may be the result of a miscopying of the year “Kōnin 14” as “Kōnin 4.” On Tōji, see the 1352 Tōbōki, by Gohō (1306–1362). The Dashingshan Temple stood in Chang’an, today south of Xi’an in Shanxi Province. 88. See Fusō ryakki, p. 106 (Jingo-keiun 3[769]/6/15), and Jingoji kyūki, pp. 368–369. 89.  The information on Kūkai was probably taken from Genkō shakusho, pp. 36–39 (kan 1). 90.  The author gives the Japanese title of this classic of esoteric Buddhism, central to Shingon Buddhism, as “Dai Birushana jinben kaji.” More fully it reads “Dai Birushana jōbutsu jinben kaji-kyō” (Ch. Da Piluzhena chengfo shenbian jiachi jing); more compactly it becomes “Dai-nichi kyō” (“Great Illuminator Sūtra”). The text was translated into Chinese in 725 by Śubhakarasiṃha (637–735) and Chinese monks. No Sanskrit original seems to have survived. See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 848. For English-language translations, see Giebel, The Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi-sūtra, and Hodge, The Maha-Vairocana-Abhisambodhi Tantra.

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Prefecture), he succeeded in obtaining a copy.91 However, he found its message unintelligible, so in 804/5 he voyaged to Tang-dynasty China, where on 805/2/11 he was conferred an audience with master Huiguo (746–805) of Qinglongsi (“Green Dragon Temple,” in Chang’an). From him he ascertained the profound meaning of the secret true word (shingon himitsu) disclosed by this sutra. In 806/10 Kūkai returned to Japan and spread the secret law that he had been taught. On one occasion, Emperor Saga ordered Kūkai and famous priests of all sects to the Inner Palace and had them expound the essence of their doctrines. Kūkai professed that his creed (shū) was the true word (shingon) of the Great Celestial Buddha (Dainichi Shinben; Skt. Mahāvairocana). As soon as one had obtained insight into the original sound (“a” in the Siddhaṃ alphabet) of the Dainichi Buddha, one would become a buddha in this life. The priests of all the other sects immediately took to refuting this notion. Arguments flew. Finally, the emperor commanded that Kūkai present evidence of “becoming a buddha in this life.” Kūkai immediately placed his five viscera (gozō) into a state of meditative absorption (Skt. samādhi). A jeweled coronet of the five buddhas sprung from his head, his body radiated a five-colored light, his visage glowed with a golden sheen, and he became the Vairocana Buddha. The emperor descended from his throne, and the priests of all the other sects fell to the ground and prayed. All argumentation ceased. Kūkai’s teachings spread throughout Japan. In 816 he was granted Mt. Kōya in Kii Province (Wakayama Prefecture), where he had Kongōbuji built.92 On 835/3/21, during the reign of Emperor Ninmyō (r. 833–850), Kūkai passed away on Mt. Kōya at age sixty-two. In 921 the emperor granted him the posthumous name Kōbō Daishi.93 Kūkai is said to be one of three Japanese men whose births and deaths are mysterious. Kūkai was born but never died; Tenjin (Sugawara no Michizane, 845–903) died but had no birth; and (the poet) Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (?–c. 708), had neither a birth nor a death.94 91.  Kumedera, allegedly founded by Prince Shōtoku’s younger brother Kume-no-miko (?–603), is renowned as the location where Kūkai set about establishing Shingon Buddhism. Its main object of worship is a Yakushi Buddha. 92.  Mt. Kōya is located in northeastern Wakayama Prefecture and is considered holy by Shingon-school Buddhists. Along with Tōji, Kongōbuji in Wakayama Prefecture counts as one of the most important Shingon institutions in Japan. 93.  Kōbō means “to spread the Dharma,” so Kōbō Daishi signifies the “Great Master” or “Great Priest” who “spreads the law.” 94.  On Sugawara no Michizane, who is deified in many Tenjin shrines throughout Japan, see ninth month, no. 1. Over the centuries Kakinomoto no Hitomaro was styled into a quasidivine poet. The Kakinomoto Shrine in Hyōgo Prefecture was founded in 887 to enshrine his spirit.

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Figure 4.14  Pilgrims commemorate Kūkai’s death.

Fourth Month 1. On 4/9, the Kiyomizu Festival 95 This is the location of the so-called Jishu Gongen (the local tutelary kami of the Kiyomizu Temple) at Mt. Otowa in Otagi County. Records concerning divine matters indicate that the kami worshiped is Ōnamochi-no-mikoto, but the date of enshrinement is not stated. This day’s festival is that of the Kiyomizu Slope and the Yasaka area. 95.  See also Annaisha, pp. 256–257; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 65 (kan 2); Karaku saiken-zu, p. 609; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 42. After the Meiji period, the shrine sponsoring this festival became an independent institution, the Jishu Shrine.

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Figure 4.15  A mikoshi is paraded about during the Inari Festival.

2. On the first “day of the rabbit,” the Inari Festival Mt. Inari is located in Kii County (Fushimi-ku). This festival takes place south of the lower side of Matsubara-dōri near Gojō. On the last “day of the horse” of the third month, (the kami from the Fushimi Inari Shrine) are moved to an interim sanctuary (otabi-dokoro or otabisho) near Aburanokōji(-dōri) in Kujō (Minamiku, Nishi-Kujō Ikenouchi-chō). On the festival day, mikoshi are taken to the grounds of Tōji and holy offerings presented. The mikoshi are then paraded up Ōmiya-dōri, eastward on Matsubara-dōri at Gojō, and finally (southward) to Mt. Inari on Daibutsu-dōri.96 The procession features five mikoshi, followed by portable displays, warriors in armor, and participants in singular masquerades. Five kami are worshiped: (1) Uka-no-mitama (“Kami of Rice in Storehouses”); (2) Tsuchi-no-mioya-no-shin (“Ancestral Earth Spirit”); (3) Ōyama kami-no-musume (“Divine Maiden of Ōyama”); (4) Tanaka-no-yashiro (“Shrine in the Fields”); and (5) Shi-daijin (or Shi-no-ōkami, “Four Great Kami”).97 (The Fushimi Inari Shrine) was granted junior first rank on 940/8/21, during the reign 96.  Daibutsu-dōri is presumably the road passing before Hōkōji. 97.  Some theories turn the “Four Great Kami” into one; others view them as four discrete beings, while not necessarily agreeing on which four are included.

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of the sixty-first emperor, Suzaku (r. 930–946).98 The main sanctuary was built in 908 under the auspices of Fujiwara no Tokihira (871–909), posthumously designated Chancellor of the Realm. The shrine is venerated by smiths because long ago Sanjō no Kokaji (Munechika, fl. 987–989), a renowned swordsmith who revered the local protector kami (dōsojin), had a holy dream in which he was told to add clay from this location to the water (for differential quenching) used to forge the blade.99 This purportedly allowed him to produce a sword of indescribable excellence. In later years, his fame spread throughout the world, and his work remains matchless. As a result, metalworkers, especially smiths, consign their faith to this shrine.

3. On the first “day of the snake,” the Yamashina (Shrine) Festival100 This festival was initiated in 898, during the reign of the fifty-ninth emperor, Uda (sic; r. 887–897). The shrine stands in Yamashina Village of Uji County. Two kami are worshiped: Amatsukoyane-no-mikoto (an ancestor of the Nakatomi clan); and (Ama-no) Futodama-no-mikoto (an ancestor of the Inbe clan). The shrine is called Moroha Daimyōjin (Moroha Shrine).

4. On the Second “Day of the Horse,” the Kamo Festival101 This is the festival of the upper and lower Kamo shrines, held on three days during the fourth month: the second “day of the horse”; (two days later) the “day of the 98.  Other sources state that the shrine was granted senior first rank in 942. 99. The nō play Kokaji recounts a tale in which Emperor Ichijō (980–1011) orders Sanjō Munechika to forge a sword. The latter could not do so until praying for aid at the Fushimi Inari Shrine. 100.  According to Honchō gatsuryō, p. 259, a festival of the Yamashina Shrine first took place in 898. Hokuzanshō, p. 278, also mentions that this event, as well as the Hirano, Matsunoo, Kamo, and other festivals occurred in 960. By the fourteenth century, a Yamashina Festival was regularly being staged in the fourth month. Two shrines were involved: the Iwaya Shrine and the Yamashina Shrine (see Hinami kiji, p. 54). By the Edo period, many shrines were simultaneously presenting festivals in this area, including apparently the Moroha Daimyōjin Shrine (Shinomiya), which enshrined the two kami listed. See also Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 158–159. 101.  This was the main festival of the Kamo Shrine, in contradistinction to the “Provisional Festival,” which died out during the Ōnin Wars and was not revived until 1814 (abolished in 1870). See the end of this section, as well as Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 87–88, 103–104; Annai­sha, p. 268; Hinami kiji, p. 53; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 49–51 (kan 2); ibid., 313 (kan 8, first “day of the cock”); HAE, fourth month, no. 12; ibid., vol. 5, no. 5; Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 336–338; Karaku saiken-zu, pp. 601–603; and the 1794 Kamo matsuri, pp. 279–287. Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 182–185, cites other early sources. At the time of writing of TFS the main Kamo festival did not take place. It was revived in 1694 (see Genroku shichi-nen Kamo-sai ki).

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monkey”; and (the following day) the “day of the cock.” This sacred event is also known as the “Aoi Festival.” Aoi vines are affixed to divine sanctuaries, the exquisite reed screens of the Imperial Palace, and to dwelling houses everywhere. This custom evidently has its mysterious reasons, and (aoi vines) are attached to many other things as well. A poem by Eiga (Asukai Masachika, 1417–1491) reads: Today aoi is not just tied to screens but even wrapped around old writings102 In olden times this was a splendid festival. When the displays were paraded down the spacious Ichijō Road, they were apparently viewed by high and low alike. This is recorded in (old) tales and prefatory remarks to poems. It seems that on each occasion, reviewing stands for the emperor (in) were constructed at Muromachi.103 The festival was initiated in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Kinmei (567 CE), the thirtieth emperor. Of the two shrines, the Lower Kamo Shrine enshrines two ancestral kami: Tamayori-hime (“Divine Bride”) and Ōnamochino-mikoto (also known as Ōkuninushi, “Great Master of the Land”). The Upper Kamo Shrine enshrines one kami: Wakeikazuchi-kōdaijin (“Thunder Emperor”), also called Takezumi-no-mikoto.104 Both shrines are of senior first rank.105 A “provisional festival,” first staged in 891, takes place on a “day of the horse” during the eleventh month.106 The main sanctuary (of the Upper Kamo Shrine) was built in 678/2.

5. On the first “day of the monkey,” the Hirano Festival107 (The Hirano Shrine is located at) Hirano in Kadono County and enshrines four kami that serve as the respective (tutelary) deities of the Gen (Minamoto), Hei (Taira), Takashina, and Ōe clans. The first kami is Imaki-no-kami (or 102.  Kyō to ieba sudare nomi ka wa aoi-gusa furuki fumi ni mo makizoe ni keri. A similar poem can be found in Eiga’s Akai-shū, p. 267. 103.  The shogun’s Muromachi residence stood immediately northwest of the Imperial Palace. Muromachi-kōji (later Muromachi-dōri) ran vertically through the middle of the city. 104.  Taketsunumi-no-mikoto, enshrined at the western hall of the Lower Kamo Shrine, is rarely considered identical to Wakeikazuchi-kōdaijin (which the text renders Wakezuchikōdaijin, perhaps an orthographical error). The former was rather the father of Tamayorihime. On the rituals of the Kamo shrines, see Engi shiki, pp. 111–120; Bock, Engi-shiki, vol. 2, pp. 9–26 (Book 6). 105.  They were granted this rank on Daidō 2 (807)/5/3. See Nihon kiryaku, zenpen, p. 286. 106. See Nihon kiryaku, zenpen, p. 538 (Kanpyō 3[891]/11/24). Other sources date its origins to 889. 107.  See also Annaisha, p. 263; HAE, fourth month no. 9; and Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, p. 84.

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Imakisume-ōkami), (associated with) Yamato Take-no-mikoto (Yamato Takeru, a mythical warrior) and the Minamoto clan. The second is Kudo-no-(ō)kami, (associated with the mythical) Emperor Chūai, and the Taira clan. The third is Furuaki-no-(ō)kami, (associated with) Emperor Nintoku (early fifth century) and the Takashina clan. The fourth is Hime-no-(ō)kami, (associated with) Amaterasu Ōmikami (the sun goddess) and the Ōe clan. Moreover, a (subsidiary) local shrine enshrines Amanohohi-no-mikoto (or Amenohohi-no-mikoto), which serves as the (tutelary) kami of the Nakahara, Kiyohara, Sugawara, and Akishino clans. The Hirano Shrine was built in the Enryaku period (782–806) during the reign of Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806). On 864/7/10 it was granted senior first rank by Emperor Seiwa.108

6. On the second “day of the monkey,” the Iwagami (or Nakayama) Festival109 (The Iwagami Shrine is) located on Iwagami-dōri at Rokkaku(-dōri). The festival originated in 1053, during the reign of Emperor Go-Reizei (r. 1045–1068). The kami worshiped is Toyoiwamado-no-mikoto. The construction of the (main sanctuary of the) Iwagami (or Nakayama) Shrine was (completed) on 1050/6/16.110 In 1051/11 the shrine was granted junior third rank.

7. On the second “day of the cock,” the Matsunoo Festival111 (The Matsunoo Shrine stands in) Matsuo Village in Kadono County. Two kami are enshrined: Ōyamakui-no-kami and another alleged to be mysterious.112 On the day of the festival, seven mikoshi are presented by the following shrines (within the Matsunoo Shrine multiplex): the Tsukiyomi Shrine, the Ichiidani 108. See Nihon sandai jitsuroku, vol. 9, p. 221 (Jōgan 6[864]7/10). 109. See Kyō habutae, p. 73. Hinami kiji, p. 53, gives the Nakayama Festival as falling on the second day of the rat. 110. See Kuji kongen, p. 60, and Hyakurenshō, p. 24 (Eishō 5[1050]/6/16). 111.  See also Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 162–164. The name of the shrine in question is today usually pronounced “Matsunoo Taisha” or “Matsuo Taisha”; the name of the village seems to have been commonly read “Matsuo.” Hokuzanshō states the festival occurs on the first “day of the rabbit” (p. 239) or the first “day of the monkey” (p. 275). Annaisha, p. 264; Hinami kiji, p. 53; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 39, all give it as falling on the first “day of the cock”; Kuji kongen, p. 54, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 84 (kan 3), record it as occurring on the first “day of the monkey.” Hinami kiji states that the festival of the Koromode Shrine, a branch shrine of the Matsunoo Shrine, fell on the second “day of the cock.” 112.  Ōyamakui-no-kami is the kami of Mt. Hie in Shiga Prefecture and is known as the kami of brewing. The other kami in question is Nakatsushima hime-no-mikoto, possibly another name for Ichikishima hime-no-mikoto, enshrined in Munakata-shi in Fukuoka Prefecture.

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(Ichitani) Shrine, the Sannomiya Shrine, the Munekata Shrine, and the Koromode Shrine. The main sanctuary was constructed by Hada (or Hata) no Tori in 701, during the time of Emperor Monmu (r. 697–707). On 866/11/21 the shrine was granted senior first rank.113 Interim sanctuaries (for the mikoshi) stand west of Shichi-jō and at Suzaku.114 From there the mikoshi are paraded to the Matsunoo Shrine. Since the location is not far from the city, the procession and outfits of the parishioners are worth seeing.

8. On the same day (second “day of the cock”), the Umenomiya Festival115 (The Umenomiya Shrine is located in) the hamlet of Umezu in Kadono County. Four kami are enshrined: Sakatoke-no-kami (the originator of sake); Sakatokego-no-kami (his daughter); Ōwakago-no-kami (her husband); Kowakagono-kami (their child). These kami were enshrined in the Tenpyō-Hōji era (757–765), during the reign of Empress Kōken (r. 749–758), forty-sixth in the line of imperial succession. During the Kashō era (848–851) the fifty-fourth emperor, Ninmyō (r. 833–850), enshrined his maternal grandfather, Lord Tachibana no Moroe (684–757), and his mother, Empress Danrin (Tachibana no Kachiko, 786–850).116 The shrine accordingly became the mausoleum of the Tachibana clan. It was granted senior first rank in 1180/12 by the eightieth emperor, Takakura (r. 1168–1180). Pregnant women take sand from this shrine and insert (pouches of) it (into their kimono) where the vertical front border (eri) crosses the waist wrapper (obi). This custom began when Emperor Saga’s wife, Empress Danrin, came to pray at this shrine because she was disconsolate over remaining childless. Thereupon she received a holy sign and conceived. She took sand from the Umenomiya Shrine, placed it beneath herself, and gave birth to the boy who would become Emperor Ninmyō. This is why sand from this location is efficacious in appealing for a safe birth and for ensuring an easy delivery.117

113.  According to Nihon sandai jitsuroku, vol. 9, p. 326, the rank was granted on Jōgan 8(866)11/20. 114.  The Nishi-shichijō otabisho stands at today’s Nishi-shichijō, Minami-Nakano-chō; the Suzaku otabisho is located at today’s Sujaku urahata-chō. 115.  Annaisha, p. 264; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 89 (kan 3); and HAE, fourth month, no. 11, all give the Umenomiya Festival as falling on the first “day of the cock.” Hokuzanshō, p. 239, states that it occurs on the first “day of the rabbit.” 116.  In fact Emperor Ninmyō’s maternal grandfather was Tachibana no Kiyotomo (758–789), and it is he who is enshrined at the Umenomiya Shrine. 117.  See also HAE, fifth month, no. 26.

Fourth Month  103

Figure 4.16  A mikoshi is hauled from Mt. Atago to the Nonomiya Shrine.

9. On the second “day of the boar,” the Saga Festival118 This is a festival of the “upper” and “lower” Saga areas. The kami celebrated is the Atago Gongen.119 Festival mikoshi are paraded from Saga (southward) to the Nonomiya Shrine, where holy offerings are made.120 118.  See also Annaisha, p. 268; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 40; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 344. HAE, fourth month, states that the festival falls on the first “day of the boar.” 119.  The Atago Shrine, located on Mt. Atago (924 meters in elevation), is a multiplex dedicated chiefly to the Atago Gongen, a combinatory entity in which a buddha manifests itself in the form of a kami. Hakuunji is the main Buddhist institution attached to this shrine. 120. The Nonomiya Shrine was relocated whenever a new emperor was enthroned. It served for ritual purifications for priestesses entering the grand shrines of Ise. The Nonomiya

104  Book 2

In shindō (Shinto) parlance the kami worshiped at the Atago Shrine, two in number, are referred to as Izanami-no-mikoto (the kami of creation) and Ho(no) musubi-no-mikoto (Kagutsuchi-no-mikoto, the creator of fire). In olden times the shrine stood in the Takagamine area. In 781, during the reign of Emperor Kōnin (r. 770–781), the priest Keishun (Kyōshun; also Wake no Kiyomaro, 733–799) founded the shrine on Mt. Atago and worshiped its kami. (Izanami at the Atago Shrine) was taken as a manifestation of the Jizō bodhisattva enshrined at Hakuunji on Asahi Peak.121 The twenty-fourth day (of the fourth month), on which this deity reveals itself as a kami, is considered a holy day. On 6/24 so-called thousand-day pilgrimages take place.122 From sundown (of the previous day) crowds flock to the scene. Disregarding the heat of the glaring summer sun, they fight their way to the mountaintop. How divinely inspired and valuable this is!

10. Regarding the second “day of the rat” at the Yoshida Shrine123 The Yoshida Shrine is located at the base of Kaguraoka at Mt. Higashi in Otagi County. The four kami enshrined there are identical to those of the Ōharano Shrine (see second month, no. 1, above). They are the four kami of the Kasuga Shrine, and consequently the Yoshida Shrine is revered by the Fujiwara clan.124 Two theories exist concerning the enshrinement (kanjō) of these kami. According to the Nihon shoki shō (“Extracts from the Chronicles of Japan”), it was Urabe no Kanenobu who had them enshrined.125 Alternately, they were enshrined in 860 by the counselor of middle rank (Fujiwara no) Yamakage (824– 888), during the reign of Seiwa (r. 858–876), the fifty-sixth emperor. The (Yoshida) Shrine was granted senior first rank on the last day of 1360/6, during the reign of Go-Kōgon (r. 1352–1371), the ninety-ninth emperor. Shrine appears in the “Sakaki” chapter of the Tale of Genji (chapter 10; in Waley’s translation, “The Sacred Tree”) and also figures as the title of a famous nō play. 121. See Genkō shakusho, p. 207 (kan 14). Asahi Peak (Asahi-mine) stands roughly 3.7 kilometers north-northeast of the Atago Shrine. 122.  See also HAE, 4/24. A single visit on this day is worth a thousand visits on other days. 123.  HAE gives the festival as falling on the first “day of the boar” during the fourth month, probably in error. A kindred festival was staged by the shrine on the second “day of the monkey” during the eleventh month (see Annaisha, p. 320). 124.  The Kasuga Shrine was the tutelary shrine of the Fujiwara. The kami enshrined are Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto, Iwainushi-no-mikoto, Amatsukoyane-no-mikoto, and Himedaijin. 125.  Kanenobu was a late tenth- to early eleventh-century shrine priest. See Nihon shoki shō (here called Nihongi shō), p. 74. This work is a commentary on the Nihon shoki (Nihongi) by the courtier and scholar Kiyohara no Nobukata (1475–1550). The Urabe clan would later call itself Yoshida.

Fifth Month  105

The Daigen Shrine, at the apex of this multiplex, enshrines 3,132 major and minor kami, the result of an imperial order of 905/12/26. On the twenty-eighth day of the same year and month, (similar) enshrinements occurred throughout Japan.

Book 3 Fifth Month 1. On 5/5, horse racing at the (Upper) Kamo Shrine126 Shrine priests ride horses after undergoing a seven-day period of holy rituals, austerities, and lustrations. Twenty steeds are readied on the first day of the month and pairs of riders determined. On the fifth day of the month the jockeys, divided into two groups, dress in red or black outfits. At the left of the racing grounds stands a maple called “the tree of victory” (shōbu no ki). The rider who is slow to reach this tree, or who falls from his mount, is the loser. In the reviewing stands, the onlookers all rise to their feet. Spectators standing in the middle of the riding grounds block the course of the galloping horses. While clutching (so many) bamboo poles that they resemble the bristles of a brush, the viewers maneuver themselves behind the steeds. Some use these poles to leap up higher and catch a better glimpse of the running horses. Suddenly a charger dashes into their midst or careens onto the side of the track. The jockey tumbles off, and spectators are trampled, choke, and lose consciousness. Even though each rider has undergone strict austerities and lustrations, he infallibly topples from his mount if he has unwittingly been sullied by the spectators. In olden times, horse racing and equestrian archery were performed on the fifth and sixth days of this month at the Butokuden (equestrian grounds) of the Inner Palace. The Engi shiki (completed 927) notes that “running horses” are presented by courtiers of the fifth rank or higher.127 The Kachō yosei (“Evocations of Flowers and Birds,” 1472) records that on the 5/5 festival the emperor wears an (apotropaic) sweet-flag coronet (ayame no kazura) and visits the Butokuden, where equestrian archery is presented by men from the six imperial guard headquarters. On the fifth day of the month, horses presented by courtiers of the fifth rank or higher are ridden; on the sixth day, steeds from the imperial “Bureau of Horses” are raced.128 126. See Annaisha, p. 271; Hinami kiji, pp. 56–57; Nihon saijiki, pp. 489–490; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 50 (kan 2); HAE, 5/5, no. 4; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 44; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 354–355. 127. See Engi shiki, p. 113 (kan 6); Bock, Engi-shiki, vol. 2, p. 14 (Book 6). 128.  Kachō yosei, p. 25 (vol. 2).

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Figure 4.17  Horse racing at the Kamo Shrine.

Nowadays the horses for the Kamo races are readied on 5/1, and the contest takes place on 5/5. The event may be an ancient equestrian archery and horse racing ritual.129

2. On 5/5, the Fukakusa (Fujinomori) Festival130 This is the festival of Fukakusa Village in Kii County (Fushimi-ku, Fukakusa Toriizaki-chō). The parishioners parade around the area in an unusual guise. 129.  Horse racing at the Upper Kamo Shrine was evidently initiated by Emperor Horikawa in 1093, though similar races had accompanied the Aoi Festival and the eleventh-month Kamo Provisional Festival from a far earlier date. 130.  See also Annaisha, pp. 271–272; Hinami kiji, p. 57; Nihon saijiki, pp. 490–491; Yōshūfushi, pp. 91–92 (kan 3); HAE, 5/5, no. 5; Karaku saiken-zu, p. 611; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 355–363.

Fifth Month  107

Figure 4.18  Horse races at the Fujinomori Shrine on 5/5.

(Shrine officials) in armor race horses within the precincts.131 Since the capital is near at hand, crowds gather to watch. (One of) the kami worshiped is Prince Yado (Toneri, 676–735), the son of Emperor Tenmu (r. 673–686). The Shoku Nihongi states that in 759/6 the prince, though never enthroned, was posthumously granted the title Emperor Sudōjinkei (or Sudō-jinkyō).132 Armor is worn in these races because in 781, during the reign of Emperor Kōnin (r. 770–781), news arrived that the foreign Mongol army was invading. The emperor 131.  The shrine is reputed to be the site where 5/5 celebrations originated. See also HAE, 5/5, no. 5. 132.  Shoku nihongi, vol. 3, pp. 316–317 (Tenpyō-Hōji 3[759]/6).

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appointed his second son, Prince Sawara (750?–785), to lead the forces repelling the enemy. The prince offered prayers at this (Fujinomori) shrine and set out to do battle on 5/5. As a divine sign, a typhoon suddenly commenced. Huge waves surged up on the sea, and the Mongols could not engage in a single fight. They drifted on the waves and drowned to the last man.133 Apparently (the horse races) mimic the departure of the prince’s forces. In imitation of this festival, boys in town and country amuse themselves on this day with helmets made from sweet flag (shōbu) and with swords fabricated from sweet-flag leaves.134 (The Fujinomori Shrine) is of senior first rank. Prince Sawara rebelled against the court in 785 and was exiled to Awaji Province, where at last he expired.135 He became an angry malevolent spirit that refused to be placated until it was granted the status of a kami. The prince was named “Emperor Sudō-(jinkei)” and became one of the “august spirits of eight locations” (goryō hassho) (see eighth month, no. 4).

3. On 5/8, the Uji Festival136 This is the festival of Uji Village. Its shrine (the Uji Shrine), is called the “Detached Palace” (rikyū).137 Thus villagers are in error when they refer to it as the 133. Confusingly enough, Prince Sawara was posthumously called emperor Sudō. No Mongol invasion took place in 781. This legend no doubt refers to the invasions and destructive typhoons of 1274 and 1281. The 780s were, however, times of revolt by the Emishi in northern Mutsu Province. The information of this section and some of the following may have been obtained from “old records” cited in the “Fuji(no)mori-sha engi,” p. 279, by Yoshida Kane­tomo (1435–1511). The tale of an attempted eighth-century foreign invasion was often repeated in later years. See, for instance, Nihon saijiki, p. 490; HAE, 5/5, nos. 3 and 5; Hinami kiji, pp. 57, 91–92; and the 1745 Ebisu-gusa, p. 232. 134.  Shōbu is a homonym of “victory or defeat.” 135. See Nihon kiryaku (zenpen), pp. 260–261 (Enryaku 4[785]/9/28). Prince Sawara opposed the transfer of the capital from Nara to Nagaoka-kyō. In 785 he was accused of plotting against Fujiwara no Tanetsugu, the designated administrator of the new capital. Prince Sawara was exiled but on the way to his destination supposedly starved himself to death. 136.  This festival consists chiefly of a “divine procession” (shinkōsai) of the Uji Shrine. According to Hinami kiji, p. 60, the event was also called the “Uji Detached Palace Festival” (Uji Rikyū Matsuri), and after Tokugawa Ietsuna died on 1680/5/8, it was moved to 5/15. The 5/15 festival was popularly called “Gingari,” roughly “sparkling” (HAE, 5/15, no. 2; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 45). Yōshūfu-shi (p. 94, kan 3) mentions ceremonial staffs (hei) with (strips of) gold or silver foil “erroneously called gingari by the attendants.” See also Annaisha, p. 273, and Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, pp. 292, 293. 137.  The complex in question enshrines chiefly the mythical ancient courtier Uji-no-waki Iratsuko-no-mikoto. The shrine appears in the 927 Engi shiki, where two unnamed kami are said to be enshrined (see Engi shiki, p. 157 [kan 9]; Bock, Engi-shiki, vol. 2, p. 116 [Book 9]).

Fifth Month  109

Figure 4.19  Crossing the Uji River on the way to the Uji Shrine Festival.

“Hachiman Shrine.” A Rikyū Hachiman Shrine does in fact stand at Yamazaki, but the Uji Shrine served as the detached palace of Minister of Civil Affairs Fujiwara no Tadabumi (873–947), and his spirit is worshiped here.138 According to a certain document, in 933/3, during the reign of Suzaku, the sixty-first emperor, the emperor appointed the generals (Fujiwara no) Hidesato (?–?), (Taira no) Sadamori (?–989), and (Fujiwara no) Tadabumi to crush (the rebellion of) Taira no Masakado (?–940).139 The three easily routed Masakado 138.  In fact Fujiwara no Tadabumi is enshrined at the tiny Matafuri Shrine at Uji. 139. This passage seems to be based mostly on the early thirteenth-century Kojidan, pp. 126–127.

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and were to be conferred imperial rewards. Nevertheless, Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Saneyori (900–970) declared that dubious merits should remain unrewarded.140 To this (Saneyori’s rival and younger brother), Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Morosuke (908+–960), retorted that even if suspected crimes should not be rewarded, dubious merits should be.141 In the end, however, Tada­ bumi was conferred no distinction. He was so bitterly disappointed that he left the scene clenching his fists so violently that his fingernails protruded from the back of his hands, which bled as if wringing safflowers. After perishing from his distress, he immediately became a malevolent spirit. And so Fujiwara no Sane­ yori had no descendants, and the Ononomiya lineage was transferred to another family. The mother of Emperor Murakami’s (r. 946–967) first son, Prince Hirohira (950–971), was Tadabumi’s daughter. But since Hirohira’s younger brother, (Norihira, later Emperor) Reizei (r. 967–969), was the son of the empress (Yasu­ko, the daughter of Fujiwara no Morosuke), he instead became the crown prince, much to Tadabumi’s dismay. After Tadabumi’s death, Emperor Reizei went mad. Reizei’s (eldest) son, (Morosada, who would eventually become) Emperor Kazan (r. 984–986), soon abandoned the throne and took the tonsure. (Emperor Reizei’s second son) Emperor Sanjō (Okisada, r. 1011–1016) went blind. Emperor Sanjō’s (first) son, Prince Atsuaki (994–1051), gave up on ascending the throne and hastily retired, taking the name “Koichijō-in” (in 1017). That none of Emperor Reizei’s descendants could readily preserve the line of succession must be ascribed to the actions of Tadabumi’s spirit. Emperor Sanjō’s (third) daughter, Princess Teishi (1013–1094), who during the reign of Emperor Go-Suzaku (r. 1036–1045) would become the emperor’s consort, bore (the child that would become) Emperor Go-Sanjō (r. 1068–1072+). She was (later) called Yōmeimon’in. Only this line of descent would persist to the present day. The male lineage of Emperor Sanjō was extinguished; only the female side yielded heirs. Tadabumi served as imperial adviser, head of the Office of Palace Repairs, and director of guards of the right. On 1067/10/7, during the era of Emperor Go-Reizei (r. 1045–1068), he was (posthumously) granted senior third rank.

140.  Saneyori is identified by the alternate pseudo-surname Ononomiya and his pseudoChinese posthumous name Seishinkō. He represented the Ononomiya school of etiquette. 141.  Morosuke is identified by his title, Suga-no-ujōshō. He represented the Kujō school of etiquette.

Fifth Month  111

Figure 4.20  At the interim sanctuary of the Imamiya Shrine three mikoshi, one for each enshrined kami, are displayed.

4. On 5/15, the Imamiya Festival142 The (Imamiya) Shrine is located in Murasakino, north of the capital in Kadono County. The festival is that of the Nishijin (district), bounded by the Horikawa Canal.143 (In the past) a single kami, one of pestilence, was worshiped. Now, 142.  See also Annaisha, p. 274; Hinami kiji, p. 59; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 71 (kan 2); HAE, 5/15, no. 1; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 364. Hinami kiji, p. 59 (5/14), states that the event was preceded by a “night festival” (yomiya) well attended by both sexes. HAE, 5/7, indicates that the mikoshi were taken out a week before the festival and transferred to an interim sanctuary (on its location, see Yōshūfu-shi, p. 71). 143.  The Nishijin area, famous for its textile manufacture, was bounded in the east by the Horikawa Canal (running north/south immediately east of Nijō Castle), in the west by Shichihonmatsu-dōri (west of Senbon-dōri), in the south by Ichijō-dōri, and in the north by Kita-ōji (the northernmost area of map 1).

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however, the three kami of the Gion Shrine are enshrined (kanjō) here. On 994/6/27, during the reign of Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011), (the Imamiya Festival) was celebrated on the summit of Mt. Funaoka.144 On 1000/5/9, during the reign of this emperor, a revelation in a dream led to (the festival’s) relocation to its present site. The following poem was composed by Fujiwara no Nagatō (Nagayoshi, 949–1009?): The priests wield their sacred wands and make ample offerings, as the festival at Murasakino begins145 The shrine was granted senior first rank in 1360/4/22 by retired Emperor Kōgon (1313–1364; r. 1331–1333), the ninety-fifth emperor. Northeast of this spot (at Daitokuji) stands a Zen Buddhist hall called Taigen’an. Long ago this was the site of the residence of Minamoto no Yoshitomo (1123–1160), and it was here that Lady Tokiwa (1138?–?) gave birth to (Minamoto no) Yoshitsune (1159–1189).

Sixth Month 1. On 6/7 and 6/14, the Gion Festival146 This is the festival of the region extending from the southern side of Nijō(-dōri) to the northern side of Matsubara-dōri at Gojō. The festivals on both the seventh and fourteenth days of the month feature many floats, appropriately named yama (literally “mountains,” typically shouldered floats) and hoko (literally “pikes,” often wheeled carts with tall displays). They continue to astonish even after one has become used to seeing them. For the hoko a covered stage (yatai), open on all sides, is placed upon a cart and a pike pierces the peak of the roof (see figure 4.21). On the stage, a seated boy, wearing headgear adorned with artificial flowers, plays a (small) double-headed horizontal drum (kakko). He is flanked by exquisitely clothed lads with bobcuts who wave fans and beat time on gongs (fushō) and large drums (taiko) to a strictly set rhythm. 144.  The text gives the year Enryaku 5 (786), an error for Shōryaku 5 (994). 145.  Shirotae no toyo mitegura o torimochite iwai zo somuru Murasakino no ni. From Goshūi waka-shū, p. 379 (poem no. 1164). In a gloss the poet remarks that the world is in turmoil (evidently from an epidemic). 146.  Countless records describe the Gion Festival in the course of its long history. For Edoperiod descriptions, see Seigen mondō, pp. 676–677; Annaisha, pp. 278–284; Kyō habutae, pp. 77–79; Hinami kiji, pp. 62–66, 68–70; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 57–59, 60–61, 73 (all kan 2); ibid., p. 129 (kan 4); ibid., p. 254 (kan 7); ibid., pp. 328, 331 (kan 8); HAE, 6/7, no. 1; ibid., 6/14, no. 1; Karaku saiken-zu, pp. 606–608; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 50–52; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 368, 379–382.

Sixth Month  113

Figure 4.21  A hoko with its stage.

Yama (see figure 4.22) are interleaved into the parade between the hoko. On the fourteenth day of the month only yama are presented. The construction of both yama and hoko conforms to old traditions. After the parade reaches the Kyōgoku area at Shijō-dōri (i.e., the wards east of Teramachi-dōri), it turns west and marches down Matsubara-dōri at Gojō. Then each party heads back to its respective residential area. Those riding the hoko and yama, as well as the spectators, shout phrases such as, “Next year, oh next year—how sad it is to say farewell!”147 Early in the evening on the final day of the fifth month, a “mikoshi washing” (mikoshi-arai) takes place. The Shōshōi mikoshi is brought to the river at Shijō, where it is ritually purified with river water.148 From the seventh to the fourteenth days of the month, the (three) mikoshi are brought to the interim sanctuary in the Kyōgoku area of Shijō, and everyone throngs to this spot (to inspect 147.  Myōnen no myōnen no ara nagori-oshi ya. 148. Shōshōi was originally a famous Kyoto well (today at Chūō-ku, Karasuma-dōri Takeya-chō-sagaru). It was also the site of the interim sanctuary that accommodated one of the floats of the Gion Shrine during the parade. See also Annaisha, p. 276; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 59 (kan 2); HAE, 5/30; Karaku saiken-zu, p. 608; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 368, 393. The event also featured floats and entertainment.

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Figure 4.22  A shouldered yama accompanied by a drum, gong, and flute.

them). When darkness sets in, seating platforms are assembled at the shallows of the Shijō River for taking in the cool throughout the night. So many lanterns are lit on the eastern and western riverbanks that while amusing oneself, one forgets that night has fallen. This festival originated on 970/6/14, during the reign of En’yū (r. 969–984), the sixty-fourth emperor. Gion is located in Yasaka Village of Otagi County. The Gion Shrine enshrines three kami. Gozu Tennō (the “ox-headed heavenly king,” identified with the kami) Susanoo-no-mikoto, is enshrined in the central sanctuary. The “eight heavenly princes and princesses” (offspring of Gozu Tennō), three female kami and five male ones, are enshrined to the east. The female ones are Tagori-hime (or Tagiri-bime), Tagitsu-hime, and Ichikishima-hime; the male ones are Masaya-akatsukatsu-hayahi-ama-no-oshihone-no-mikoto, Amanohohino-mikoto, Amatsu hikone-no-mikoto, Ikutsuhikune-no-mikoto, and Kumano kusubi-no-mikoto.149 Shōshōi, (associated with) Inada-hime (or Kushi-inadahime, kami of agriculture and consort of Susanoo-no-mikoto) is enshrined to the west.

149.  These three female kami are today enshrined at the Utsukushi-no-gozen Shrine east of the main sanctuary.

Sixth Month  115

Kaireki zatsujiki (“Miscellaneous Records on the Calendar”) notes, “In 868 (Gozu) Tennō was relocated (here) from Banshū (Harima Province, today Hyōgo Prefecture).”150 He was transferred to Gion from Mt. Hiromine (today in Himejishi) in Harima Province. After Minister Kibi no Makibi (695–775) had returned from China on 733/3/18, during the reign of Emperor Shōmu (r. 724–749), he visited (Gozu) Tennō on Mt. Hiromine in Harima Province and worshiped him there. Thereafter, this kami was also enshrined (kanjō) at Gion in order to safeguard the Heian capital. (The branch shrine called) “Ushiromi-dono” (“Backward-Looking Lord”) enshrines Ōnamochi-no-mikoto (or Ōkuninushi-no-mikoto), the son of Susanoo, borne by Inada-hime. (The branch shrine called) “Utsukushi-no-gozen” (“Three Comely Ladies”) enshrines three daughters of Susanoo. The shrines of Somin Shōrai, Yokan (“Granting Rank”), and Jufuku (“Receiving Happiness”) are all branch shrines surrounded by mysterious legends. The Gion (Shrine) enshrines the kami of pestilence, so the talismans it issues are often fastened to children. Pilgrimages to the shrine are undertaken during epidemics that afflict youngsters. According to the Nakatomi no haraeshō (“Excerpts from the Grand Purification Ceremony”), in 876, during the time of Emperor Seiwa, a curse by the kami of pestilence caused a disastrous pandemic.151 On 6/7 and 6/14 Hiramaro (807–881), the founding ancestor (of the Urabe clan), led all Kyoto men and women in an effort to drive the kami of pestilence into the Shinsen’en (“Sacred Spring Garden”).152 In the ensuing year, when the kami again issued a curse, the peasantry carried mikoshi to the Shinsen’en. This turned into an annual 6/7 event known as the “Gion Ceremony” (Gion-e). The mikoshi were stowed at Kanshin’in, a temple in Yasaka Village, but as this site possessed no sanctuary, they were taken to the residence of Shōsenkō 150.  Kaireki zatsujiki (before the late Muromachi period, also Kaireki zōjiki), frame 33 (Seiwa Tennō 11[868]). 151. Here and below, see Nakatomi no harae-shō, p. 244 (the author glosses the title Nakaomi harai-shō). This volume was said to have been authored by Yoshida Kanetomo and explains the “Grand Purification Ceremony.” Many copies and variants exist, and not all contain the relevant passage or a reference to 6/14. 152.  On Hiramaro, possibly the head priest of the Hirano Shrine, see Scheid, Der Eine und Einzige Weg der Götter, pp. 71–72. Shinsen’en was an imperial garden first built in 794. From 824 it housed a Shingon temple founded by Kūkai. After a major pestilence in 863 it enshrined a pantheon of “angry spirits,” including political victims such as Moronobe no Moriya (killed in 587), Prince Sawara (who starved himself to death in 785), Prince Iyo (executed in 807), Fujiwara no Nakanari (executed in 810), Tachibana no Hayanari (executed in 842), and Bunya no Miyatamaro (executed in 843).

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(Fujiwara no Mototsune, 836–891), which was put to use as a sanctuary. Hence (initially) the Gion (Shrine) was a typical dwelling house. Because of this history, in the 6/14 festival the Shōshōi mikoshi is paraded westward at Shijō and then up Ōmiya(-dōri) to the Shinsen’en, where holy offerings are made. According to the Zoku kojidan (“Accounts of Ancient Events, Continued”),153 The tabernacle (hōden) at Gion allegedly contains a “dragon pit” (ryūketsu). At the time of a conflagration during the Enkyū period (1069– 1074), the abbot of the “Nashimoto” temple tried to sound the depth of this pit, but at 150 meters, he still had not reached bottom.154 In 1123, when Buddhist priests were being persecuted, many of them supposedly fled into this tabernacle and plummeted down the chasm within.155 During the age of Emperor Go-Reizei (r. 1045–1068), an era of social instability, a divine instruction announced that if a shrine were constructed at Narabi-no-oka (Ukyō-ku, Omuro Narabigaoka-chō), peace should prevail. Tokishige and other members of the headquarters of palace guards erected a shrine, later known as the Hanazono Shrine, and there conducted a ceremony for august spirits.156 The first imperial visit (to the Gion Shrine) took place on 1072/3/26 by Emperor Go-Sanjō (r. 1068–1073).

153.  Zoku kojidan, p. 253. This volume, by an anonymous author, dates from 1219. 154.  The fire occurred on 1070/10/14. “Nashimoto” (literally “base of the pear tree”) refers to a tree planted at En’yūbō (the original name of Sanzen’in) and by extension to En’yūbō itself. In 1070 its head, named Myōkai, also served as the abbot of Enryakuji and thus oversaw Tendai-school Buddhism in all Japan. In fact Myōkai had died on 1070/3/18, before the fire in question occurred. The head of Japanese Tendai Buddhism at the time of the fire was named Shōhan. 155.  The incident in question occurred when the governor of Echizen Province (Fukui Prefecture), Taira no Tadamori (1096–1153), had a monk from the Hiyoshi (or Hie) Shrine taken into custody on suspicion of murder. During transport, warrior-monks from Enryakuji seized the suspect. The arrest of these warrior-monks sparked a violent protest in which Enryakuji friars stormed into Kyoto carrying a mikoshi. Taira no Tadamori and Minamoto no Tameyoshi (1096–1156), backed by retired Emperor Shirakawa (r. 972+–1086+), headed the forces suppressing the revolt. 156.  Although the Hanazono Shrine is also known as the Imamiya Shrine, it should not be confused with the Imamiya Shrine at Murasakino. The Hanazono Shrine was apparently already constructed in 1015 as a pestilence-preventing institution (Hyakurenshō, p. 15), but it was not properly kept up. In 1052 it was rebuilt and served as the site of the abovementioned ceremony.

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Figure 4.23  Ganjin confronts a serpent on Mt. Kurama.

2. On the eve of 6/20, the “bamboo cutting” at the Kurama Temple157 I have already written of the Kurama Temple above (see first month, no. 2). For the “bamboo cutting” on the eve of 6/20, the local laity assembles at the main temple hall and the western Kannon Hall. Fresh bamboo about a foot in circumference from near the two halls is cut to a length of three meters and set in place. The main temple hall is called the “Ōmi side”; the Kannon Hall is known as the “Tanba side.” The temple monks conduct a Buddhist ritual. Thereafter a collective signal cry is sounded from both sides, and (the men) exit the hall, turn, and race to the stone cutting blocks as fast as their legs will carry them. Vying to finish first, they hack each bamboo pole into three sections. 157.  See also Annaisha, p. 286; Hinami kiji, p. 70; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 142 (kan 4); HAE, 6/20; Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 255; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 393–394. For a detailed study, see Nochi, “Kurama-dera no takekiri-kai.”

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The origin of this event may be traced to the remote past, when the great priest Ganjin (Ch. Jianzhen, 688–763) at the Nara (Tō)shōdaiji first entered Mt. Kurama and found the region blocked by giant male and female serpents.158 He briefly invoked a Buddhist spell, and one of the beasts immediately fell dead. Then Ganjin faced the other serpent and announced, “Henceforth thou shalt not trouble anyone; ensure that the springs of this mountain never dry!” The beast was suffered to live, and thereafter water for the Buddha gushed from the northern area of the main temple hall. Even in times of drought it continued to flow, and the temple flourished. Since then, in imitation (of Ganjin’s act), bamboo representing the serpents has been hewn to pieces in order to exorcise demons. After nightfall, one member of the local laity is seated in the center of the main temple hall. The monks then summon the powers they have gained from their Buddhist practices and “pray him to death.” Afterward he is “prayed alive” again. Divine instructions regarding the Bishamon enshrined at the temple are transmitted to the layman beforehand. Prayers to the latter occur in accordance with these instructions, and he is also informed about the end of his role. It is all quite mysterious, but everything is kept secret and unspoken.

3. From 6/20 to the last day of the month, the Mitarashi Festival159 For ten days from 6/20, persons of every rank and station flock to the banks of the Mitarashi River at Shimogamo to enjoy themselves all day long. This event is called the “Mitarashi Festival” (Mitarashi-e). On 6/29 and the last day of the month, nō plays are performed at the Upper Kamo Shrine. In the distant past this occasion was considered the “festival of the hottest days” (sanpuku no matsuri). Citizens arrived at riverbanks to purify themselves in “nagoshi (‘summer-passing’) lustrations” or “sixth-month lustrations,” where “sixth month” can also be written with the characters “month of no water.”160 In the Man’yōshū (compiled after 759) nagoshi is written with the characters for “harmonious” 和 and “exorcism” 儺祓.161 According to the Yakumo mishō 158.  For a different version of the tale about slaying serpents, see HAE, 6/20. 159.  See also Annaisha, pp. 286–287; Hinami kiji, p. 70; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 52 (kan 2); HAE, 6/19 and 6/30; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 57; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 393. “Mitarashi” refers both to purifying water and to a festival at the Lower Kamo Shrine. This event includes “foot-bathing rituals” (ashitsuke shinji) in which worshipers enter the pond on shrine grounds to rinse away impurities accumulated during the year. 160. On sanpuku, see HAE, sixth month, VIII. A “great exorcism” (ōharae) was also performed at court and great shrines on the last days of the sixth and twelfth months (Ritsuryō, p. 215; Gishiki, pp. 145–146). The ritual vanished after the Ōnin Wars (1467–1477) but was revived in 1871. See also Annaisha, pp. 288–289, and Hinami kiji, p. 73.

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(“Imperial Excerpts of Poetry”), nagoshi lustrations derive their name from the act of exorcising and appeasing (nagomuru) malevolent kami (jashin).162 The Entairyaku (“Chronicle of Senior Minister of State Nakazono”) states, “When Sumemima (or Ninigi-)no-mikoto, the grandchild of the kami Amaterasu Ōmikami, was to become the ruler of the Central Land of Reed Plains, that land contained kami shining with a firefly-like luster, and many evil demons buzzed around like flies. Wicked kami were flying about like summer mosquitos. To exorcise and appease them, a sixth-month lustration was conducted.”163 According to the Kuji kongen, “On the last day of the sixth month all courtiers of high station assemble at the Suzaku Gate (of the Imperial Palace) and perform a lustration. This occurs twice a year, in the sixth and the twelfth months. (This ritual) originated during the time of Emperor Tenmu (r. 673–686).”164 Lustrations may also have taken place on 6/13. A (mid-tenth-century) poem reads: Shall we go to the summer lustration to see the moonlight sparkle in the depths of the Kamo River?165 In his gloss (Fujiwara no) Teika (1162–1241) writes: “This lustration takes place on 6/13.” Furthermore, on this day people purify themselves by passing through a large flaxen hoop.166 According to an (early eleventh-century) poem: Those who undergo the sixth-month lustration are said to lengthen their lives a thousand years167 161.  Although numerous verses of the Man’yōshū mention nagoshi, this poetry collection was written in syllabary, so it remains uncertain what spot the author had in mind. In fact, this contention is probably taken from vol. 6, p. 62, of Entairyaku, the diary of the courtier Tōin Kinkata (1291–1360). 162.  Yakumo mishō, p. 296 (vol. 3 of original). This treatise on poetics was written in 1221 by Emperor Juntoku. 163.  Entairyaku, vol. 6, p. 62 (Enbun 2[1357]/6). The citation is noted in Entairyaku as stemming from Nihongi, but the last sentence is not found there. See Nihon shoki, jō, p. 135, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 64. 164.  Kuji kongen, p. 75. 165.  Kamogawa no minasoko kiyoku teru tsuki o yukite minu to ya natsuharae suru. From Gosen waka-shū, p. 227 (Summer, no. 215). 166.  Like the second poet below, the author writes asa no wa (“flaxen hoop”), but it is now more commonly called chi no wa (“reed hoop”). Chi-gaya (a cogon grass) is fashioned into a huge ring through which one passes to purify oneself. 167.  Minazuki no nagoshi no harae suru hito wa chitose no inochi nobu to iu nari, verse 292 (p. 47), of unknown authorship, in the Shūi waka-shū (or Shūi-shū, c. 1006).

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Figure 4.24  Midsummer fun at the Mitarashi River within the grounds of the Lower Kamo Shrine.

Those who passed through the hoop seem to have voiced this verse. A poem cited in the diary of the Regent of Hosshōji (Fujiwara no Tadamichi, 1097–1164) reads: Saying, “Come to an end, my worries!” I chop up leaves of flax to purify myself 168 168.  Omou koto mina tsukine tote asa no wa o kiri ni kirite mo haraetsuru kana. Most of Fujiwara no Tadamichi’s diary (Hosshōji kanpaku-ki or Gyokurin) is lost, and no modern edition of what remains seems to exist. In a Chinese verse, Fujiwara no Tadamichi does once refer to the sixth-month lustration (see Hosshōji kanpaku gyoshū, p. 245), but the poem in question

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He writes that this verse should be voiced (while passing through the hoop). Regarding the brook named “Mitarashi” the Kakai-shō (“Digest of Rivers and Seas”) states, “The Mitarashi Brook is a rivulet that springs from Kamiyama (literally “mountain of kami”) and flows through the (Upper) Kamo Shrine, the Kifune Shrine, and the Kataoka Woods.”169 Some verses treat mitarashi as (brooks) flowing in front of other shrines as well, and the Nōin utamakura (“Nōin’s Guide to Poetic Terms”) states, “Water (flowing) before the kami is called mitarashi.”170 In a poem by (Taira no) Kanemori (?–990+) one finds the words “a shallow mitarashi brook.”171 The creek at the Tadasu Woods, which flows merely a block away from the waters of the Lower Kamo Shrine, is called the Semi Brook (Semi no Ogawa).

Book 4 Seventh Month 1. On 7/7, flower arrangements at Ikenobō of the Rokkaku Hall and at Honganji172 Rokkaku (“hexagonal”) Hall is the name of (the main sanctuary of) Chōhōji Unrin’in.173 The hall is located on Rokkaku-dōri east of Karasuma(-dōri). According to traditions transmitted by Ikenobō flower arrangers, sixteen here, in the 1087 Goshūi waka-shū (vol. 20, p. 431, verse no. 1206, but no. 1204 in the online version), is by Izumi Shikibu (c. 976–c. 1036). It relies on several untranslatable puns. Mina­ tsuki suggests both “sixth month” and “completely go away”; kiri ni kirite suggests both the cutting of flax leaves, the auspicious 6/30 cutoff point, and the kirinusa ritual in which cut flax is mixed with rice and offered to the gods. 169.  Kakai-shō, pp. 110–111. Kakai-shō is a volume of glosses on The Tale of Genji, by Yotsutsuji Yoshinari, dating from the 1360s. A lesser shrine called the Mitarashi-sha also stands within the grounds of the Lower Kamo Shrine. The Kataoka Woods are located on a hill east of the main sanctuary of the Upper Kamo Shrine. 170.  Nōin utamakura is a volume on poetry by the priest and poet Nōin (Tachibana no Nagayasu, 988–1050/1058). I cannot find such a definition in the Nihon kagaku taikei edition or elsewhere. 171.  Kanemori-shū, verse no. 136. 172.  “Ikenobō” originally referred to a monk’s dwelling (bō) by the temple pond (ike) and later the man who lived there. See also Annaisha, p. 293; Hinami kiji, p. 78; and Kyō habutae, p. 74. According to HAE, Book 5, no. 40, Ikenobō flower arrangements took place on the seventeenth day of each month. 173.  Unrin’in is in fact a different Kyoto temple, located at Murasakino. The Hagadera engi (p. 460), from c. 1524, notes in passing that the Rokkaku Hall was also called Unrinji. On the origins of the Rokkaku Hall, see Genkō shakusho, pp. 419–420 (kan 28).

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Figure 4.25  Ikenobō flower arrangements at the Rokkaku Hall.

generations of monks earlier, the monk (Ikenobō) Senkei (fl. late fifteenth century) so dearly loved flower arranging that when he busied himself with his twigs, he even forgot to eat.174 He often searched (for suitable specimens) on lofty peaks and in deep ravines. So great was his fascination that in a dream Kannon, the main deity of Chōhōji, taught him the techniques of flower arranging. Thus Senkei earned renown throughout the land. His transmission was passed down through generations and revitalized by Ikenobō Senkō (1536?–1621), who made the art his profession and revised the style. Urban and rural connoisseurs enrolled as his pupils, and the tradition reached the world at large. On 7/7, when flower arrangements are offered to two stars—the celestial “cowherd” (hikoboshi, Altair) and the “weaving maid” (orihime, Vega)—members of the Ikenobō school assemble at the abbot’s residence (hōjō) and compete in skill. They exhibit flowers in vases of thin metal (usubata) or in dishes with sand (sunamono). When flowers extend from water, they look pleasantly cool; when colors are mixed, the arrangements resemble a meadow in bloom. Strolling among the 174.  Flowers or other botanical specimens were originally arranged as decorations for the Buddha. Senkei is mentioned as having attracted attention for his arrangements in Kyoto in 1462/2/25 (see Hekizan nichiroku, p. 254). Ikenobō flower arranging was codified in the 1542 Ikenobō Sen’ō kuden, recording the transmission of Ikenobō Sen’ō (1482–1543).

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arrangements is a true delight. No pleasure issues from moss-covered timber rotting unnoticed in deep gorges or among cliffs, but if twigs from hither and thither are gathered and skillfully arranged, they become incomparably beautiful. On the veranda of the audience halls of the Eastern Honganji and Western Honganji, subordinates from subsidiary temples also arrange and exhibit real and artificial flowers.175 Here, too, they compete to create not just floral displays but imaginatively crafted mock flowers. Exhibits set on stands present a boundless variety of seasonal blossoms and grasses, either shaped to resemble birds, beasts, and plants, or arranged to allude to ancient events and poems. On the same day, the Asukai house presents its kickball amusements.176 I shall discuss the origins of Honganji later (see eleventh month, no. 3). The Rokkaku Hall enshrines a Nyoirin Kannon, fifty-four centimeters in height. Long ago, when Prince Shōtoku (574–622) was thirteen years old, a great luminous entity appeared in Iwaya Bay in Awaji Province (Hyōgo Prefecture, Awaji-shi Iwaya). Locals were perplexed. To determine the nature of the effulgence they lowered fishing nets into the water and hauled up a vermillion Chinese chest topped with the inscription “Contents: One statue of the completely enlightened Nyoirin, humbly presented to the King of Nippon.” The court was immediately informed, and when Prince Shōtoku threw open the chest and peered in, there lay a statue of Nyoirin Kannon, which he thenceforth always retained close to his person. Then (Prince Shōtoku) had Shitennōji (“Temple of Four Heavenly Kings”) constructed in Tsu Province (Osaka-shi) as a grand appeal to the Buddha, and lumber was procured from diverse locations. (In search of wood) Prince Shōtoku entered the mountains near Tsuchiguruma Village in the Kushida region of Otagi County in Yamashiro Province, today the site of the Rokkaku Hall. When he descended into a deep ravine to conduct ablutions in a stream, he sought to suspend the aforementioned statue of Nyoirin Kannon from an angelica tree. However, when he then grasped the figure, it became so heavy he could not raise it. 175.  In 1602 the shogunate split Honganji into an eastern (Higashi Honganji) and a western (Nishi Honganji) temple to reduce the influence of Shin (Jōdo Shinshū) Buddhism. On the flower exhibits, see also Annaisha, p. 293; Hinami kiji, p. 78; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 60. Illustrations of the displays can be found in Karaku saiken-zu, p. 614, and Book 1 of the 1799 Miyako rinsen meishō zue (pp. 82–83, 86–87). Pages 6–7 of the latter volume also depict the kickball event of 7/7. 176.  See also HAE, 7/7, no. 10, and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 421–422. The aristocratic Asukai house guarded and transmitted the courtly “kickball” tradition, a non-competitive sport in which formally garbed men kicked a small deerskin ball-like object from one person to another, seeking to keep it aloft as long as possible.

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That night the same Kannon appeared to him in a dream. It announced, “I have been guarding you for seven reincarnations, but karmic ties still bind me to this spot. I wish to be here for the benefit of humanity.” Consequently, the prince resolved to construct a hall at the site and enshrine the statue. At that moment an old man appeared out of the east.177 The prince related to him the course of events and spoke of his wish to procure lumber. The old man returned, “Nearby stands a massive cedar. It is truly sacred timber, enveloped each morning by purple clouds.” The prince went to reconnoiter and found it to be just as the old man had declared. He felled the tree and constructed a hexagonal hall solely from this wood, adulterating it with no other sort. There he enshrined the Kannon. Over 250 years later (sic), when Emperor Kanmu (r. 781–806) relocated to Kyoto (from Nagaoka-kyō, in 794), the magistrate of construction measured the dimensions of the capital and determined an urban grid with major and minor thoroughfares. It was discovered, however, that the Rokkaku Hall lay in the center of a street. Officials were disappointed, but since the hall had been erected by Prince Shōtoku, it could not easily be repositioned. As the issue was being debated, a black cloud descended onto the hall and moved it fifteen meters to the north. Now the street could pass freely through the site, and it became part of the capital.

2. On 7/10, “THousand-day pilgrimages” to Seisuiji (the Kiyomizu Temple)178 Visits to Kannon on this day are called “thousand-day pilgrimages” because they confer as many benefits as a thousand visits on regular days. Some even say they are worth 66,640 visits. The ancient miraculous efficacy of the Kiyomizu Temple’s Kannon is animated on this occasion. The callers are the usual ones, but the sea of people is so vast that one cannot hope to avoid it. If one unexpectedly loses sight of one’s compeers, one must despair of ever finding them again. To be sure, this is the capital, but the sheer number of persons remains astounding. This temple stands on Mt. Otowa. Its chief object of worship is a “thousandarm Kannon,” which is flanked by Bishamon and a Jizō bodhisattva. The origins of the temple are as follows.179 In the summer of 778 the monk Kenshin of the Kojima Temple in Yamato Province (Nara Prefecture) had a 177.  Some versions of the tale give the figure as an old woman. See Zoku kojidan, pp. 264–265. 178.  See also Annaisha, p. 294; Hinami kiji, p. 79; and HAE, 7/10. 179.  This passage resembles what is recounted in the Kiyomizu-dera engi (in the Dai Nihon bukkyō zensho edition, pp. 231–233) and the Konjaku monogatari (see Dykstra, trans., The Konjaku Tales, Japanese Section [I], pp. 79–82 [11:32]).

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Figure 4.26  Visitors come to the Kiyomizu Temple for “thousandday pilgrimages”; a vendor sells fern fronds, some of which are attached to a sacred rope.

dream.180 (In accordance with it) he traveled to the banks of the Yodo River, where he spied a golden refulgence in the flowing water. He immediately sought the source of the scintillation upriver, where he struck upon a waterfall. This he judged quite curious. When he glanced to the side, he spotted a hermitage with a roof of reeds. The hut was inhabited by an old man swathed in white robes. Kenshin entered the shelter and asked the old-timer his name and how long he had lived there. The aged man replied, “I call myself Gyōei and have already dwelt here for two centuries. While awaiting you, I have continuously intoned the divine spell of the 180.  Some sources give the name “Kenshin” as “Enchin” (?–821?), the Hossō-sect priest usually viewed as the first abbot of the Kiyomizu Temple.

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thousand-arm and thousand-eye Kannon. I have always wished to journey eastward to make an appeal for erecting a sacred hall (shōja) at this spot, for I desire to enshrine a statue of the great merciful Kannon. Reside here while I am gone. If I am late in returning, please fulfill my wish on my behalf.” Since a prophecy in a dream had led him here, Kenshin could not refuse. He acceded to the old man’s request. The latter joyfully left the hermitage and set out for the east, while Kenshin lived at the hut. Later Kenshin found the elder’s sandals at the eastern peak of Yamashina (Kyoto). Now he realized with gratitude that the old man must have been a manifestation of the great merciful Kannon. Kenshin thus yearned all the more to enshrine a statue of Kannon, but he lacked the power to do so. Time passed. In 798 the general Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758–811) was fighting his way up Mt. Otowa while hunting deer for his pregnant wife. When he reached the hermitage, he met Kenshin, who revealed to him the aged man’s instructions. Tamuramaro thoroughly interrogated Kenshin, and on returning home informed his wife about the matter. She declared, “For the sake of easing my ailment you have slaughtered many living beings. That counts as a serious crime. Act in accordance with what you have been told, and enshrine the Kannon. This will undoubtedly beget limitless benefits.” Husband and wife cooperated to have a Buddha hall constructed, one that would house the statue. Yet the spot in question was small and stood on a precipice. That night, while they were pondering what to do next, herds of deer arrived and quietly leveled the ground. Thus a Buddha hall enshrining the great merciful Kannon was erected. In 801, when the emperor ordered Tamuramaro to quell the eastern barbarians, the latter prayed to this holy statue. Kannon, Bishamon, and the Jizō bo­dhisattva revealed their presence on the battlefield, and Tamuramaro succeeded in fully routing his foes. In 805 the Grand Council of State mandated him to build a spacious Buddhist hall and granted him several plots of temple property (for its support). In 807 this edifice was reconstructed on an even more imposing scale and named the Kiyomizu Temple.

3. From 7/10 to 7/12, pilgrimages to Rokudō181 This site stands northeast of Rokuharamitsuji. According to legend, it was from here (through a well at Rokudō Chinnōji) that a path led (the poet) Ono no 181.  Most sources give the date as 7/9. See Annaisha, p. 293; Hinami kiji, p. 79; Kyō habutae, p. 74; HAE, 7/9; Karaku saiken-zu, p. 610; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 257. Rokudō (“Six Realms”) refers to the regions of hell, hungry ghosts, animals, asura, humans, and heaven. These regions were characterized by the painful and frustrating condition of saṃsāra, a beginning-less and perpetually repeated cycle of birth, life, and death. Chinnōji was believed to stand at the point dividing the present world from these six realms.

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Figure 4.27  Pilgrims visit the Rokudō Chinnōji.

Takamura (802–852+) to the underworld, where he came upon the spirits of the dead.182 Swarms flock to this spot night and day. Here too stands the ancient cemetery of the Heian capital. Records chronicling city relocations indicate that in 794, when Emperor Kanmu moved the capital from Nagaoka-kyō to Kyoto, this site was designated as the people’s graveyard. The area is also called Otagi, and the Tale of Genji relates that here the Kiritsubo Consort was buried with the utmost pomp.183 182.  See, for example, Dykstra, The Konjaku Tales, Japanese Section [II], vol. 2, pp. 230–232 (20:45). See also HAE, 7/9. 183.  Genji monogatari, vol. 1, p. 32; in English, see Waley, The Tale of Genji, p. 7, though Waley incorrectly renders “Otagi” as “Atago.”

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In olden times a temple called (Rokudō) Chinnōji stood on this spot. Kūkai (774–835) may have succeeded in placing Chinnōji under the governance of Tōji, but now it barely survives as a hermitage. Its main object of worship is a Yakushi Buddha (the buddha of healing; Skt. Bhaiṣajyaguru), carved by Dengyō (Saichō, 766/767–822) and reckoned as one of (the city’s) “seven medicine buddhas.”

4. On 7/15, fires of the character “great” (大) on Mt. Nyoi (Nyoizan or Nyoigatake)184 This takes place at Jōdoji Village, at the foot of Mt. Nyoi at Higashiyama.185 Legend has it that the image of Amida serving as the main object of worship at Jōdōji was fashioned at Kasuga. Once it emitted a radiance. Kōbō (Kūkai), who beheld this, indicated that the light should be transmitted to posterity so that those who witnessed it would be granted a karmic link to rebirth in heaven. The character “great” was drawn thirty meters square on the mountain so that the luminescence could be worshiped. Wood was heaped onto the tracks, and when it was set ablaze, the ideograph brilliantly lit up the heavens as if a golden letter had appeared out of celestial clouds. Not to be outdone, (the villagers at) Matsugasaki, Funaoka, and Kitayama also kindled such fires.186 But these were merely lit by persons impressed with the light of the character “great,” so they are of no interest.

5. On the nights of 7/15 and 7/16, dancing at Matsugasaki, Nagatani, Iwakura, and Hanazono (Village)187 At Matsugasaki, before the hall of Hon’yūji, men and women, young and old, some even shouldering their children or grandchildren, all dance together while

184.  See also Annaisha, pp. 295–296; Hinami kiji, pp. 77, 82; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 28 (kan 1); ibid., pp. 107–108, 141 (kan 4); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 61–62. 185.  Jōdoji Village included the sixteen wards in Sakyō-ku whose names now begin with “Jōdoji,” a temple now called Jōdoin. See also HAE, 7/16. The character “great” is lit on the mountainside about two kilometers west of Mt. Nyoi. 186.  At Matsugasaki the characters for myō 妙 (“mysterious”) and hō 法 (“law,” Dharma) are lit (today on 8/16). The character myō, ninety meters wide, is kindled on the “Western Mountain” (Mandoro-yama or Nishiyama, elevation 133 meters); the character hō, sixty meters wide, is set ablaze on the “Eastern Mountain” (Daikokuten-yama or Higashiyama, elevation 186 meters). Myō was supposedly inscribed by Nichizō (1269–1342), the founder of Myōkenji; hō was inscribed during the early Edo period by Nichiryō of Daimyōji. 187.  See also Annaisha, p. 296; Hinami kiji, pp. 81, 82; Kyō habutae, p. 74; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 141 (kan 4); HAE, 7/15, no. 1, and 7/16, no. 3; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 61. At Matsugasaki, at the Nichiren-school temple today called Yūsenji (a merger of Myōsenji and Hon’yūji), men and women dance in a circle to the accompaniment of drums and small gongs while chanting

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Figure 4.28  Dancing at Matsugasaki on the nights of 7/15 and 7/16.

intoning the mantra “namu myōhō renge kyō” (“hail to the mystic law of the Lotus Sutra!”) to a melody and accompanying themselves with rhythms. The founding patron of this temple was Nichizō (1269–1342), the last disciple of Nichiren (1222–1282).188 It serves as a hall for studying the precepts for perfect and immediate enlightenment (endon) as expounded in the “Lotus Sutra.” namu myōhō renge kyō. The Nagatani Shrine is today known as the Nagatani Hachiman Shrine. On 7/15 the shrine once staged a lavish festival that included circle dances known as “lantern dances,” in which the participants wore fringed upside-down box-like headgear topped with herbage, boats, small shrines, or other items (see illustration 4.28). For a study of this now extinct genre, which seems to be rooted in the furyū dances of the late medieval period, see Fukuhara, “Rakuhoku ni okeru bon no furyū tōrō odori.” 188.  Hon’yūji was probably turned into a Nichiren temple by Nichizō’s disciple Nisshō. The author may have intended “this temple” to refer also to Myōsenji, which was converted into a Nichiren-school institution by Nichizō’s disciple Jitsugen (or Jitsugan).

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At (the villages of) Nagatani, Iwakura, and Hanazono the six characters of the invocation (namu Amida-butsu, “hail Amida Buddha!”) are intoned to a melody. The performers dance while decorated with assorted flowers and wearing on the head ingeniously contrived ornamented square lanterns. They dance with such emotion and elegance that even city dwellers need not be ashamed to find it charming. Dancing begins before the local guardian kami and proceeds to homes where someone has died that year. The dances and processions last deep into the night. Since this event takes place yearly, it must be heir to a long history, but apparently nobody knows anything certain about it. At noon on 7/15, at the so-called main shrine (sōja) of Himeji in Harima Province (Hyōgo Prefecture), a perilous dance is exhibited in which lanterns are worn on the head and the men brandish unsheathed rapiers and long swords. The history of this dance is evidently also uncertain, but the kami worshiped is Ōnamochi- [or Ōnamuchi-] no-mikoto.189

6. From 7/15 to 7/17, a public exhibit of the New Zenkōji Amida statue within the grounds of Sennyūji190 In bygone times a “New Zenkōji” stood at (the intersection of) Ichijō(-dōri) and Ōmiya(-dōri) in Kyoto. After the Ōnin Wars (1467–1477) it was transferred to Sennyūji at Higashiyama. It is called the “New Zenkōji” because it houses a casted copy of the Buddha statue at the (old) Zenkōji in Shinano Province (Nagano Prefecture). Because the casting replicates the appearance of this Buddha, the temple was granted the name “New Zenkōji” by Emperor Go-Saga (r. 1242–1246). According to a temple history, in 1243/8 a supplicant named Nensai and the beggar-monks Chigan and Meiichi-bō were distressed over how profoundly everyone in this final degenerate age of sin and wickedness was lost while drifting in the darkest depths of the realms of life and death.191 To supply humanity

189.  The “main shrine of Himeji” is the Itate Hyōzu Shrine, which, however, as the name indicates, enshrines two kami: Itate-no-ōkami and Hyōzu-no-ōkami. A source from 1717 mentions a festival here on 7/15 in which soldiers gathered at night and demonstrated their martial valor. See also Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 61, and Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 303. 190.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 81, and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 61. 191.  Some of the following information is also presented in the 1711 Yamashiro meishō-shi (vol. 2, p. 269), where the source is also said to be a temple history. Nensai may refer to Hitachi Nyūdō Nensai, who appears in historical records from 1189. He was a military leader, lay monk, retainer of the Kamakura bakufu, and alleged founder of the Date clan.

Seventh Month  131

Figure 4.29  The Buddha statue at the New Zenkōji.

with a vessel of the Buddha’s promise of salvation, one that would lead to the “shore of enlightenment” (higan), they had a cast made of the Zenkōji Buddha. This, they held, would allow more people to establish a karmic affinity (kechien, ultimately leading to salvation) to the Buddha, to pray to his countenance, and appeal to the bodhisattvas. The Buddha image of (the old) Zenkōji originated when Gakkai, an Indian magnate, received a directive from the Buddha.192 Gakkai called upon the “buddha of the deity dimension” (hōshin; Skt. saṃbhogakāya) in the peaceful Pure 192. See Fusō ryakki, p. 29 (Kinmei 13[551]). The originally faithless Gakkai (also Gatsugai; Skt. Somachattra) from Vaiśālī saved his city from pestilence by invoking Kannon.

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Land and had Mokuren Sonja (Skt. Maudgalyāyana, a disciple of Buddha with preternatural powers) procure the finest gold (Skt. Jambūnada-suvarṇa) from the Dragon King. The golden cast of the Buddha’s likeness was transmitted from India through China to Japan, where this secret holy image was worshiped with unparalleled devotion. Emperor Go-Saga was repeatedly informed that his people were suspended in the depths of excruciating suffering, so he mercifully permitted that a casted copy of the Buddha be fashioned in order to regain the good fortune of the founders, restore peace in the land, and impart the teachings of ancient Chinese sages. At last, chief artisan Fujii Tameyuki commanded his assistants, the monk Kyōbutsu, Fujii Tamenaga, and Fujii Tomonaga, to cast the copy. To indicate that the emperor had commissioned the work, a chrysanthemum crest was reproduced on the lapel of the Buddha’s robe. The statue is a complete full-sized replica of Gakkai’s Buddha, a likeness unequaled by any other in India, China, or Japan. At first it was enshrined at the Imperial Palace, but so that Buddhists throughout the land, especially the populace of Yamashiro Province, could make appeals and allow themselves to be guided by it, the emperor now ordered officials to construct a monastic hall at (the intersection of) Ichijō(-dōri) and Ōmiya(-dōri). This hall, which enshrined the figure, was called the “New Zenkōji.” Now the deeply moved urban and rural residents, noble and base, could obtain all the holy benefits they coveted. For this reason, since the age of Emperor Go-Hanazono (r. 1428–1464) and shogun Ashikaga Takauji (r. 1338– 1358), generations of highly pious shoguns have lavished valuables on the temple; contributed several pieces of property; and donated funds to pay for lamps, incense, and flowers. Ashikaga Takauji was so overcome with devotion that in commemoration of Amitabha’s forty-eight vows, he ordered forty-eight replicas of the new Zenkōji Buddha cast for this temple at Ichijō-Ōmiya.193 Besides this temple’s main object of worship, no Buddha statue exhibits a chrysanthemum crest. Unhappily, the temple burned to the ground during the great Ōnin Wars. Thereafter (in 1473) it was relocated to (the grounds of) Sennyūji, and the Buddha statue was enshrined there. Later yet, Emperor GoKashiwabara (r. 1500–1526), a highly devout Buddhist, had temple halls and ancient traditions restored. Truly this Buddha is of unprecedented holiness. 193. The forty-eight vows of Amitabha (in the earlier person of a monk named Dharmakāra) are explained in the “Larger Sūtra of Immeasurable Life” (or “Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra”; J. Bussetsu muryōjukyō; Ch. Foshu Wuliangshou Jing). See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 360; Inagaki, The Three Pure Land Sutras, pp. 1–62 (for the forty-eight vows, see pp. 12–18).

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7. On 7/24, pilgrimages to the “six Jizō bodhisattvas”194 The “six Jizō bodhisattvas” are positioned at six spots around Kyoto: the Mizoro Pond, Yamashina, Fushimi, Toba, Katsura, and Tokiwa. Originally all six Jizō stood at a site known as “the Six Jizō” (Roku Jizō or Jōmyōin) in Fushimi Village. In 1157, Taira no Kiyomori (1118–1181) had the statues transferred to their locations at the six entrances of the capital. This would allow the rural and urban clergy as well as the laity to establish a karmic affinity (kechien). On 852/12/3, during the reign of Emperor Montoku, Ono no Takamura (802–852+) journeyed to the underworld (see seventh month, no. 3), where for the sake of sinners the Jizō bodhisattva was experiencing much distress. When Ono was informed that suffering was the natural result of karma, he repeatedly prayed to the sight of (Jizō) taking upon himself all sin and suffering of the world. Then, in order for humanity to establish a karmic affinity (to Jizō), Ono no Takamura shaped a piece of wood into six figures of Jizō, the savior (nōge) of the six realms of illusion. When on the twenty-second day of the month he finished his work, he perished at age fifty-one. As a death memorial to him, Emperor Montoku had a Jizō Hall built at Fushimi Village. This became the current “Six-Jizō Hall” or Jōmyōin Hōunzan, which was once a Tendai temple but later converted to Pure-Land Buddhism and adopted the name Daizenji. As the “Jizō Sutra” explains, out of a vast sense of benevolence and mercy the Jizō bodhisattva traverses the six realms of illusion to deliver humanity. Since every living being ought once to kneel in prayer before this bodhisattva, it follows that all should make the rounds to the six locations on this single day. Rest areas for pilgrims are prepared at each village and refreshments served. For children, stone Buddhas called Jizō are customarily assembled at roadsides and at intersections. The faces of these Jizō are painted white, and the statues are offered handpicked flowers in a “Jizō Festival.” As an incarnation of the star Alkaid, Ono no Takamura supposedly moved freely in and out of the underworld. He was the eldest son of Minemori, a fourthgeneration heir of Emperor Bidatsu (r. 572?–585?), and an imperial adviser of lower senior fourth rank. As a man of peerless abilities, he was later worshiped as a kami 194.  See also Annaisha, p. 297; Hinami kiji, pp. 84, 135 (in intercalary months); Yōshūfushi, p. 204 (kan 5); and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 413. To pray for health and safety, the faithful hiked a forty-kilometer circuit of six Jizō placed at Kyoto entrances. The six Jizō are usually identified as the following: (1) Ōkamidani (more correctly Ōkamedani) Jizō (the Fushimi Roku Jizō at Daizenji at the Nara Kaidō); (2) Toba Jizō at Jōzenji (Saigoku Kaidō); (3) Katsura Jizō at Jizōji (Tanba Kaidō); (4) Tokiwa Jizō at Genkōji (Shūzan Kaidō); (5) Midorogaike (or Mizorogaike) Jizō (Wakasa Kaidō); (6) Yamashina Jizō at Tokurin’an (Tōkaidō). Hinami kiji, p. 84, calls the Tokiwa Jizō “Uzumasa (Jizō).” For a good discussion, see Yamaji, Kyōto, pp. 291–295.

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Figure 4.30  Appeals are made to Jizō.

and enshrined at Sugisaka Village in the Ono-no-shō of Kadono County.195 His grave stands at Unrin’in at Murasakino, east of the tomb of Murasaki Shikibu.

Eighth Month 1. On 8/15, the “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” (Hōjō-e) at the (Iwashimizu) Hachiman Shrine196 According to the Fusō ryakki, in 720/9, during the reign of Empress Genshō (r. 715–724), forty-fourth in the line of imperial succession, a campaign took place to quell the barbarians (of southern Japan). The provinces of Ōsumi (Kagoshima 195.  Probably a reference to the Tōfū Shrine, which, however, enshrines Ono no Takamura’s grandson Ono no Tōfū (894–966+). 196.  This section is based on Fusō ryakki, p. 83 (Yōrō 4[720]/9). See also Seiji yōryaku, pp. 45–46; Kuji kongen, pp. 86–88; Seigen mondō, pp. 680–682; Annaisha, p. 300; Hinami kiji,

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Prefecture) and Hyūga (Miyazaki Prefecture) had risen in revolt. Prayers of the Inner Palace were offered at the Usa Hachiman Shrine in Tsukushi (Kyushu). The shrine priest, Karashima no Kachihazume, heading the divine imperial forces, subdued the two provinces and easily crushed the enemy. Subsequently an oracle of the Hachiman Shrine revealed that since many lives had been lost in battle, a “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” should be performed. This ritual was presented in all provinces. As a result, 8/15 became the day of the Hachiman Festival, and even today a “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” is celebrated.197 The Hōjō River (“Releasing-of-Life River”) flows at the foot of Mt. Yawata (the site of the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine). A “provisional festival,” known as the “Southern Festival,” is presented at Mt. Yawata in Iwashimizu, Kuze County, on the second “day of the horse” of the third month. The three kami worshiped are Emperor Homuda (Homutawake, Hondawake, or Hachiman, another name for Emperor Ōjin, r. 270–310), Princess Tamayori, and Empress Jingū (r. 201–269; Emperor Ōjin’s mother). According to the Nihongi, Emperor Homuda was the fourth child of Emperor Tarashi Nakatsu-hiko, also known as Emperor Chūai.198 His mother was Okinaga Tarishi-hime-no-mikoto (Empress Jingū). In the section on the “age of the kami” (in the Nihongi) it says, “Hiko-nagisa-take-u-gaya-fuki-ahezu-no-mikoto took his aunt, Princess Tamayori, as his consort and had by her Kamu-yamatoihare-biko-no-mikoto (and three other male children).”199 Regarding Empress Jingū, the Nihongi states, “Okinaga-tarashi-hime-no-mikoto was the greatgrandchild of Emperor Waka-yamato-neko-hiko-ohohihi—also called Emperor Kaika—and the daughter of Prince Okinaga-no-sukune.”200 The enshrinement of these kami at this location occurred on 860/6/15, when the monk Gyōkei (or Gyōkyō, ?–?) of Daianji in Yamato Province (Nara Prefecture) had a holy sanctuary built.201 He traveled to the Usa Hachiman Shrine in p. 86 (8/1), 90 (8/15); Yōshūfu-shi, p. 98 (kan 3), and p. 359 (kan 9); HAE, 8/15, no. 1; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 64–65; Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 258; and the 1820 Saiken Otokoyama hōjō-e zuroku, pp. 288–299. The ceremony was celebrated at the shrine from 863 but was canceled between the late fifteenth century and 1679. See Vollmer, “Tötungsverbot.” For a detailed study of the relation of the Muromachi bakufu to the ceremony, see Futaki, Chūsei buke girei no kenkyū, pp. 135–172. 197.  For a detailed description of such an event on 1393/8/15, see Iwashimizu hōjō-e no ki. See also Hachiman gūji nenjū sanki, p. 689. 198.  Nihon shoki, jō, p. 363; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 254. 199.  Nihon shoki, jō, p. 187; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 108. 200.  Nihon shoki, jō, p. 331; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 224. 201. See Genkō shakusho, p. 152 (kan 10).

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Figure 4.31  Fish are released at the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine.

Kyushu and confined himself therein for the ninety days of summer. During the day, he intoned Mahayana Buddhism sutras; at night, he chanted mantras (shingon) as a ceremonial. An oracle of the Hachiman Shrine ordered him to move to a location by the imperial capital, protect the emperor, and defend the land. That night Gyōkei found seven stoles in his case of vestments. These stoles revealed not ideographs, but likenesses of the trinity of Amida, (Kannon, and Seishi).202 Gyōkei copied these images to create the picture now found in the shrine’s inner sanctuary. The wooden statue housed in the outer sanctuary was sculpted by Prince Atsuzane (893–967). 202.  Seishi (Skt. Mahāsthāmaprāpta) represents the power of wisdom.

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After Gyōkei left Kyushu and arrived at Yamazaki, he was told in a dream, “Rivet your eyes on the location where I, the great bodhisattva Hachiman, reside!” When he awoke, Gyōkei descried an incandescence on Hato Peak of Mt. Otoko. He reported this to the court, and an imperial envoy informed him he was to enshrine the kami of Usa at this location.

2. On 8/15, the Hachiman Festival at Tōjiji 203 The (Gosho Hachiman) shrine stands between the intersection of Sanjō Bōmon(kōji) and (the area between) Takakura(-kōji) and Madenokōji.204 Like Mt. Yawata (Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine), it enshrines Emperor Ōjin. The enshrinement at Tōjiji by shogun Ashikaga Takauji took place in 1344, during the reign of Kōmyō (r. 1336–1348), the ninety-seventh emperor.

3. On the same day (8/15), the Hachiman Festival (originally) at Sameushi 205 This shrine, the Wakamiya Hachiman, is (now) located five blocks east of the Gojō Bridge. It enshrines the same three kami as the Iwashimizu (Hachiman) Shrine. In 1053, during the reign of the seventieth emperor, Goreizei, Urabe Kanechika (the third head of the Yoshida house of Shintoists) enshrined these deities at imperial request. (At the time), Minamoto no Yoriyoshi (988–1075) served as magistrate.

4. On 8/18, the “Services for August Spirits” (Goryō-e) 206 This is a festival of the “upper capital” (Kamigyō) north of Nijō(-dōri), west of Horikawa(-dōri), and east of Suzaku(-dōri)(=Senbon-dōri). 203.  See also Hinami kiji, pp. 86–87, 90–91. 204.  Tōjiji is often confused with Tōjiin, a mortuary temple of the Ashikaga shoguns. Even if by the time of writing Tōjiji had been vacated, the small “Gosho Hachiman Shrine” (Gosho, signifying residence or palace, referring to the residence of shogun Ashikaga Takauji) stood on what were once Tōjiji grounds. On a map of 1686 (see map 2) the shrine is indicated as “Gozen Hachiman.” Bōmon refers to the middle of three minor east/west roads (kōji) running laterally between the major roads (ōji) south of Nijō. Sanjō Bōmonkōji thus stands halfway between Sanjō-ōji and Nijō-ōji. From 1336 until 1431 the Sanjō Bōmon palace and the adjacent Tōjiji became the residence of the Ashikaga shoguns, but the location of the complex was altered in later years. See Stavros, “The Sanjō Bōmon Temple-Palace Complex.” 205.  Until 1584 the shrine stood near the intersection of Sameushi-dōri and Nishinotōindōri. See also Hinami kiji, p. 91, and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 65. 206. See also Seigen mondō, pp. 679–680; Annaisha, pp. 301–302; Hinami kiji, p. 92; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 66–67 (kan 2); HAE, 7/18 and 8/18; Karaku saiken-zu, p. 615; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 65.

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“August spirits” (goryō) of eight locations (hassho) are enshrined at “upper” and “lower” shrines. The Upper Goryō Shrine stands above the Kyōgoku area; the Lower Goryō Shrine stands north of the Ōi-no-Mikado house at Kyōgoku. The Middle Goryō Shrine, which serves as the interim sanctuary of the “upper” shrine, is positioned in the Kyōgoku area three blocks down from Imadegawa(-dōri). From 7/18 two mikoshi of the “upper” shrine are brought here (to the “middle” shrine), and the single mikoshi of the “lower” shrine is carried to its worship hall. On the day of the festival, the mikoshi of the “upper” shrine are transported from Imadegawa down Karasuma(-dōri) to Nakachōja-machi, then up through Muromachi, and back to the “upper” shrine. The mikoshi of the “lower” shrine is hauled up Higashinotōin(-dōri) to Demizu(-dōri) and down Muromachi to Nijō. Next it heads west, up Aburanokōji to Shimo-tachiuri, and finally back to the shrine. The parishioners parade about in gorgeous costumes. This area lies at the heart of the capital, so indescribably vast crowds assemble. The appeased kami, also known as “august spirits,” of the “eight locations” are: (1) Emperor Sudō-(jinkei); (2) Prince Iyo; (3) Lady Fujiwara; (4) Bun’ya no Miyatamaru; (5) Tachibana no Hayanari; (6) Fujiwara no Hirotsugu; (7) Minister Kibi; (8) Karaijin.207 These kami were enshrined in 939, during the reign of the sixty-first emperor, Suzaku. On 1384/9/18, during the reign of Go-Komatsu (r. 1382–1412), the one hundred and first emperor, all eight were granted senior first rank. General information on the “eight locations”: 1. Emperor Sudō-(jinkei, ?–785), (initially called) Prince Sawara, was the second son of Emperor Kōnin (r. 770–781). In 785/9 he plotted to overthrow the court, and when this was revealed, he was exiled to Awaji Province. When he reached Takase in that province, his life force left him, and he expired.208 He turned into an angry spirit, so in 800/7 he was posthumously granted the title Emperor Sudō-(jinkei).209

207.  The identities of the spirits have changed over time, though all eight are in theory enshrined at both “upper” and “lower” shrines. Today at the Upper Goryō Shrine, however, Princess Inoue (or Igami, 717–775, daughter of Emperor Shōmu) and Prince Osabe (761–775, son of Emperor Kōnin) seem to have replaced Prince Iyo and Fujiwara no Hirotsugu. 208. Takase was probably a spot near the Takase Shrine at Ōsaka-fu, Moriguchi-shi, Baba-chō 1–1–11 (slightly west of today’s Takase-chō). 209.  Nihon kiryaku (zenpen), p. 275 (Enryaku 19[800]/7/23). See also fifth month, no. 2, above.

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2. Prince Iyo (783?–807) was the son of Emperor Sudō-(jinkei). In 807/10, during the reign of Emperor Heizei (r. 806–809), when his plot to rebel was divulged, he was imprisoned at Kawara-dera. There he starved himself to death. 3. Lady Fujiwara (783–807) was Emperor Sudō-(jinkei)’s wife Yoshiko, the mother of Prince Iyo. 4. Bun’ya no Miyatamaru (?–?; also Fun’ya or Fumiya no Miyatamaro) was the first son of (Fujiwara no) Umakai (694–737).210 In 843/12 he plotted a revolt and was banished to Izu Province (Shizuoka Prefecture), where he perished. 5. Tachibana no Hayanari (782?–842) was the son of (Tachibana no) Irii (?–800), middle officer of the Controlling Board of the Right, of lower junior fourth rank. Hayanari was a celebrated calligrapher during the reign of Emperor Saga (r. 809–823). In 834/7, during the reign of Emperor Ninmyō, a rebellion occurred and he too was exiled to Izu Province, where he died on (842)/9/12.211 6. Fujiwara no Hirotsugu (?–740) (who was demoted to vice governor general) of Dazaifu (in Kyushu), plotted to rebel.212 The emperor (Shōmu, r. 724–749) ordered Ōno no Azumabito (?–742) to hurry to the scene and confront Hirotsugu in battle. When the latter was defeated, he beheaded himself with his own sword. The head flew into heaven and turned into a red mirror that slew all who gazed into it. His spirit is also worshiped at the Kagaminomiya (“Mirror Shrine”) in Bungo Province (Ōita Prefecture) and the Itabitsu Myōjin Shrine in Hizen Province (Saga Prefecture).213 7. The abilities of Kibi (no Makibi, 695–775), minister of the right and of senior second rank, were unmatched in Japan. He was appointed envoy to China by Empress Genshō (r. 715–724). There he sought to make sense of 210.  This appears to be incorrect. The first son of Fujiwara no Umakai (in the text “Ugō”) was Fujiwara no Hirotsugu (see no. 6 below). Several other names are also glossed in odd or erroneous ways that I have not reproduced. Miyatamaro was the first son of Mimoro no Ōhara (?–806). 211.  Other sources give the date of death as 842/8/13 and the location as Tōtoumi Province (western Shizuoka Prefecture). 212.  The text erroneously gives “Tachibana” for “Fujiwara.” 213. Although a Kagaminomiya, a minor sub-shrine of Yatsushima Jinja, is found in Bungo Province (Ōita-ken, Hiji-machi, Toyooka 5414), I can locate no “Mirror Shrine” in this province that enshrines Fujiwara no Hirotsugu. The Itabitsu Myōjin Shrine, was, however, also known as Kagaminomiya, so possibly this is the shrine intended.

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an incomprehensible ancient Japanese inscription (yabatai no bun). In his heart he appealed to the Kannon bodhisattva enshrined at Hase(dera) in Japan, and a spider appeared. It dragged a thread (spelling out a message) that allowed him to read the passage with ease. In 733 he returned to Japan, and in 775, during the age of Emperor Kōnin (r. 770–781), he breathed his last.214 8. Karaijin (Hono-ikazuchi-no-kami) is a heavenly kami (tenjin; of thunder and lightning).

Book 5 Ninth Month 1. On 9/4, the Kitano Tenjin Festival In the past this festival took place on 8/5.215 According to old shrine records, the outfits of the participants were so dazzling that they defied description. Mikoshi taken to the interim sanctuary west of Shimo-tachiuri(-dōri) were hauled down a path covered with Chinese brocade for more than two kilometers.216 Attendants flaunting gorgeous silk robes filed through city streets, and the sound of musical instruments echoed throughout the heavens. The main sanctuary enshrines three kami. At center stands the “heavenly kami” of Tenman (Tenman Tenjin), who is Kan Shōjō (Sugawara no Michizane, 845–903). To the east stands Chūjō-dono (“Middle Captain”), the child of Kan Sanbon (the scholar Sugawara no Fumitoki, 899–981).217 To the west stands Kichijōnyo (or Kisshōme), the wife of Sugawara no Michizane. The book Kyō warabe (“Children of Kyoto”) errs when it takes her to be Kisshō (Kichijō) Tennyo (Skt. Mahādevī, the great goddess of heaven).218 Her name refers to the fact that she lived at Kisshōin (Tenmangū) in the southwestern region of the capital (Minami-ku, Kisshōin Mandokoro-chō). 214.  He was probably sent to China from 717 to 735 and again from 751 to 754. Disliked by Fujiwara no Hirotsugu, he was twice banished to Dazaifu but otherwise had a successful career. Why he became an angry spirit remains unclear. 215.  Or 8/4. See Seiji yōryaku, pp. 1–6. The shrine’s history and information on Sugawara are recorded in Kitano engi. See also Hinami kiji, p. 97, and HAE, 9/4. 216.  The interim sanctuary is today known as the Kitano Jinja otabisho. 217.  This is probably an error. Chūjō-dono refers to Sugawara no Takami (876–913), the son of Sugawara no Michizane. 218.  Kyō warabe is a 1658 guide to Kyoto by Nakagawa Kiun. Although Kichijō Tennyo is mentioned (p. 71), she is not identified with Kichijōnyo here nor in the section regarding the Kitano Tenman Shrine (pp. 38–42).

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The “heavenly kami” Sugawara no Michizane is widely known, so the details need not be repeated here.219 During the times of Emperor Daigo (r. 897–930), when Michizane served as minister of the right, he aided the minister of the left (Fujiwara no) Tokihira (871–909) in all matters of state and demonstrated matchless wisdom. He earned such imperial favor that Tokihira slandered him out of jealousy. On 901/1/20 Michizane was demoted to the position of provisional governor-general of Dazaifu, where on 903/2/25 he died at age fifty-nine. He was interred at Anrakuji (in Fukuoka Prefecture) and became an angry spirit. This ushered in so many disasters that in 923 his demotion was retracted. He was restored to his original position and granted senior second rank. In 940/7, during the reign of Suzaku, the sixty-first emperor, (a medium) at Ukyō Shichijō named Ayako received a divine communication from Michizane’s spirit.220 The spirit announced that it dwelled at the Ukon riding grounds at Kitano and that pines would grow throughout that region. Sure enough, in a single night one thousand pines sprung from the ground. On 947/6/9, during the reign of Murakami, the sixty-second emperor, a shrine was constructed there, and Michizane was reenshrined. In 993/5, during the reign of Ichijō, the sixtysixth emperor, an imperial envoy was sent to Anrakuji in Dazaifu, and Michi­ zane was (posthumously) awarded the position of prime minister of senior first rank. The subsidiary shrine (of the Kitano Tenman Shrine), called Funenomiya, is where, according to mysterious shrine legends, the thousand pines supposedly sprang up in one night. Tenjin shrines are found throughout the land. Heading the list is the Tenjin Shrine in Dazaifu, the region to which Michizane was exiled. The Tsunaba (“Rope Place”) Tenjin Shrine in Hakata (Fukuoka Prefecture) marks the spot where Michizane rested on his way to exile. Illustrations indicate that no seating area was granted at Tsunaba, so he rested on ropes from the ship.221 Overnight all his hair turned gray. At the Sone Tenman Shrine in Harima Province, where the vessel carrying Michizane to exile stopped off, Michizane broke a branch from a pine and stuck it into the ground. He vowed that if the emperor should ever realize the untruth of his vassal’s slander and Michizane returned to the imperial city, the branch

219.  Much of the explanation below seems to rely on Genkō shakusho, pp. 271–272 (kan 18). 220.  Tajihi (no) Ayako (?–?) was a shamaness and the wet nurse of the infant Michizane. The Kitano Tenjin engi (ge, frames 47–48) notes that she lived at Saikyō Shichijō. It dates the augury to 942 and the construction of the shrine to 946. 221.  Some legends claim that residents wove seating mats from such ropes.

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Figure 4.32  Presumably an imperial visit to the interim sanctuary of the Kitano Tenjin with its mikoshi on display.

should never perish. It grew and grew and developed into the inexpressibly wonderful tree that survives to this day. The Tenjin Shrine at Yaide in Mimasaka Province (Yaide Tenman Shrine, Okayama Prefecture) supposedly indicates the spot where Michizane rested for eight days en route to exile. Before being enshrined at the Kitano (Tenman Shrine), Michizane’s spirit was worshiped at the Kaminomiya Tenjin (Jōgū Tenman Shrine) in Takatsuki in Settsu Province. On the way to exile, Michizane invited the villagers and sketched a self-portrait at the Kajiori Tenjin Shrine in Kanmaki Village of the same province.

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In Kyoto at Nishi-daishōgun (today Kita-ku), next to the house where Ayako received her divine message, worship occurs at the Ayako Tenjin (Ayako Tenman Shrine). The Kan Daijin Shrine (“Shrine of Minister Sugawara”) on Gojō Bōmon(kōji) marks the site of Michizane’s residence when he was still called Mamichi.222 Here also stood the plum tree that one night flew to Dazaifu (to remain close to its master).

2. On the same day (9/4), the Kohata Festival 223 A single kami, named Yanagi Daimyōjin (“Great Radiant Kami of the Willows”), is enshrined at Kohata Village (Kohata Shrine) in Uji County.224 The shrine is of senior first rank. As stated in the “age of the kami” sections of the Nihongi, the kami is identified with Masaya (or Masaka)-akatsu kachi-hayahi ama-no-oshihomimi-no-mikoto.225 This kami, the son of Susanoo-no-mikoto, is taken to be the son of Amaterasu Ōmikami.

3. On 9/8, a ceremony of Buddhist relics (shari, Skt. śarīra) at Sennyūji 226 The incomparable holy relic of this temple is a tooth of the Buddha. In ancient times, the śāl-tree smoke (from the Buddha’s cremation) did not mix with the waves of the Acirvati River (flowing by the site of his death), so the Buddha’s remains endured. Consequently, if one visits this commemoration (at Sennyūji), one may worship the Buddha as if encountering him in his perfect living and physical form of former ages. In olden times, when Shakyamuni came to Bōdh Gayā (in Bihar, India), no one in this metropolis of three hundred thousand had ever heard his name. Hence nobody had established a karmic relation to him. Then Buddhism spread eastward from India for two millennia, finally reaching scattered and distant

222.  The shrine marks the birthplace of Michizane, who does not, however, seem to have been called “Mamichi.” The author or his sources may have confused him with the statesman Sugano Mamichi (741–814). 223.  Hinami kiji, p. 97, dates the festival to 9/5, but Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taisei, p. 307, indicates that at least in later years the event extended over two days, with the mikoshi hauled to the interim sanctuary on 9/4 and the festival proper occurring on 9/5. See also HAE, 9/4, no. 2. 224.  It has also been called “Yanagi Jinja.” 225.  Nihon shoki, jō, pp. 107–111, and elsewhere; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 35–37, 39, and elsewhere. 226.  See also Annaisha, p. 303; Hinami kiji, p. 98; HAE, 9/8, no. 1; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 68. For a collection of studies of Buddhist relics, see Germano and Trainor, Embodying the Dharma (especially Bernard Faure’s contribution, “Buddhist Relics and Japanese Regalia,” pp. 93–116).

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lands thousands of leagues across the sea. How much more difficult would it now be for persons who had not cultivated virtue throughout multiple reincarnations to forge a karmic affinity to the Buddha without encountering his immediate living presence? Hence the immense advantages to be gained from the relic at Sennyūji are praised as inestimable and boundless. The history of the Buddha’s tooth is as follows. When the Buddha entered nirvana, a swift-footed Rakshasa demon spied an opportunity to seize the tooth, but (the bodhisattva) Idaten (Skt. Skanda) overcame him and stopped him short. Idaten worshiped the tooth day and night and never kept it far from his person. More than sixteen hundred years after the Buddha’s death, during the Great Tang dynasty, Idaten revealed himself to Dao Xuan (596–667), a virtuous priest of the White Lotus Temple (Ch. Bailiansi). Dao Xuan, who may have been blessed with divine grace, was a man of unyielding principles and faultless integrity. Idaten appeared to him and granted him this tooth as a reward for having accepted the “Three Jewels of Buddhism” (the Buddha, the Dharma, and the priesthood) and the eight Buddhist precepts. From there the tooth was transmitted to humanity at large. It was deposited at the White Lotus Temple, apparently concealed in a treasure chest within a golden pavilion. This is recorded in Songdynasty biographies of Buddhist priests.227 The tooth was later transmitted to a temple in Japan because Tankai (?–?) trekked to the White Lotus Temple in China. Tankai was the last disciple of Shunjō (Gachirin Daishi, 1166–1227), the patron who revitalized (Sennyūji). Pining to replicate the deeds of his master, Tankai crossed to the continent just like Shunjō had done. He visited the White Lotus Temple, opened the doors of the golden pavilion housing the relic, offered fragrant red sandalwood, venerated the Buddha’s tooth, and worshiped the immensity of its holiness. The boundless faith and virtue he had cultivated in earlier incarnations moved him to speak confidentially to the temple’s wisest elder and explain his desire to obtain the relic. The elder replied that nothing in the realm inspired more faith than the Buddha’s tooth, and nothing in the entire world was more venerable than this divine manifestation. Unlike other auspicious items enshrined at the temple, the court revered and strictly guarded the tooth. Hence Tankai grasped the futility of his wish and despondently retreated to Japan. 227.  A tale, though not precisely this one, of Dao Xuan and the Buddha’s tooth is found in volume 14 of Song gaosengzhuan (“Biographies of Eminent Monks of Song”; see “Ming lü 4/1”), completed in 988. During the seventh century Dao Xuan had himself already compiled a similar collection of legends (Xu gaosengzhuan, “Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks”), the extension of an even earlier work.

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Figure 4.33  A Rakshasa demon is chased by Idaten to regain the Buddha’s tooth.

He did not, however, simply give up. Instead, he arranged for a second journey to China. Freighted with (material for building) a two-story gate and a threetiered stupa, he once again set sail across the boundless sea. After readily reaching the naval port of Jiangyin, he soon completed his construction project at the White Lotus Temple. The monks sensed the enormity of his ambition and found it most unusual. Since his virtue was not that of a common man, they all concurred that the proper reward should be determined by the visitant himself. Tankai painstakingly explained that his true motivation for traversing vast distances over the ocean was to procure the Buddha’s tooth. The divine benefits supplied by this relic had animated him to voyage to China yet again and present his petition. He was promptly permitted to retain the Buddha’s tooth, and while suppressing tears of joy, he sailed for home. (In 1255) the relic was transported to

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Japan without further ado, and Tankai was revered as the great master (of Sennyūji). In 1275, the tooth was stolen by thieves, but an eight-year-old girl augured that if it were not hastily restored to the temple, the bandits would suffer a great calamity. They were apparently so alarmed that they promptly returned it to the temple. The details are recorded in Entairyaku.228 Minister of the Left (Fujiwara no) Otsugu (774–843) had Sennyūji built for the high priest Jinshū. At first it was called Hōrinji and its founding patron was Kōbō (Kūkai). Thereafter it became a Tendai temple and changed its name to Sen’yūji (“Hermit Amusement Temple”) since it was here that hermits made merry. Under the patron Shunjō the temple was revitalized. It supported the concurrent study of four schools of Buddhism: Ritsu, Zen, Shingon, and Tendai. When a fresh spring gushed forth within the precincts, the temple name was again altered to Sennyūji (“Temple of a Bubbling Spring”). The monk (with the clerical) name Shunjō assumed the courtesy name Gazen and was posthumously called (Daikō) Shōbō Kokushi. He was born in Akita County in Higo Province (Kumamoto Prefecture) on 1166/8/10, during the reign of Rokujō (r. 1165–1168), the seventy-ninth emperor. At age four he became the pupil of Chingyō at the Tendai-school Chihenji (Kumamoto Prefecture). At eighteen he took the tonsure; the following year he gained full monkhood at Kanzeon-ji in Dazaifu (Fukuoka Prefecture). When he turned thirty-three, he traveled to Song-dynasty China in order to transmit Buddhism (to Japan). He returned to Japan on 1211/2/28, age forty-six. In 1218 during the reign of Juntoku (r. 1210–1221), the eighty-fourth emperor, the governor Nakahara (Utsunomiya) Nobufusa (1156–1234) of Yamato Province (Nara Prefecture) was so moved by reverence and devotion that he had Sennyūji (re-)established. On 1227/*3/8, during the reign of Go-Horikawa (r. 1221–1232), the eighty-fifth emperor, Shunjō died at age sixty-two. The righteous efficacy of his life is recounted in detail in his biography.229

4. On 9/9, the festival at Fushimi Village230 The festival of this day embraces the Fushimi area as a whole. Many parishioners parade around, and the hordes of spectators dress just as nicely as their Kyoto counterparts. The (sponsoring) shrine is the Gokōnomiya Shrine, located in Fushimi Village in Uji County, east of Kyōmachi(-dōri). 228. See Entairyaku, vol. 6, p. 241, where the rascality is dated to Enbun 4(1359)/3/12. 229. Possibly Sennyūji fukaki hōshi-den, from which some of the above information appears to be taken. For studies of Shunjō, see Ishida, Shunjō risshi. 230.  See also Annaisha, p. 304, and HAE, 9/9, no. 3.

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A single kami is celebrated: Empress Jingū (r. 201–269), the mother of Hachiman. Needless to say, she is the one who directed the military campaign against the three Korean kingdoms of Baekje, Goguryeo, and Silla.231 In ancient times she manifested herself as kami at this spot (in Fushimi), but the year of her enshrinement remains uncertain. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598) had a castle built at Fushimi, this shrine, today called the “old Gokōnomiya Shrine,” was moved to the east of Ōkamedani (Fushimi-ku, Fukakusa Ōkamedani Furu-gokō-chō).232 Since it was such a profoundly sacred shrine, it was later restored to the original site. It remains a splendid edifice.

5. On the same day (9/9), the festival of Kurama Village 233 The shrine (guarding the Kurama Temple) is located within the main gate of the Kurama Temple in Otagi County. The single kami celebrated is Ōnamochi-nomikoto. In the Tengyō period (938–947), during the reign of Suzaku (r. 930–946), the sixty-first emperor, this kami was enshrined (kanjō) and named “Yugi” (or Yuki). During this era of instabilities the emperor was beset by great worries, so the shrine was said to connote the (protective) imperial “arrow box” (yugi).

6. On the same day (9/9, chōyō), Kyoto children parade about with the “Kibune mikoshi” 234 On Chōyō (9/9), Kyoto juveniles tote about downsized mikoshi called “Kifune (or Kibune) mikoshi.” During the era of Go-Nara (r. 1526–1557), the one hundred and sixth emperor, many youngsters in the capital perished from a coughing disease. The emperor pitied them and mandated diviners to conduct auguries. They determined that the epidemic arose from a curse of the kami of Kifune, and on 1556/9/9 the emperor ordered the pestilence driven out. Thereafter Kyoto children have apparently appeased the kami by staging a festival in which they march about with mikoshi. 231.  Nihon shoki, jō, pp. 335–343; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 228–236. 232.  The shrine, founded before 862, was relocated to within Hideyoshi’s castle compound in 1592 or 1594. There it served as the guardian of the northeastern gate, deemed by yin-yang diviners to be the most vulnerable direction. Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 308, states that until the shrine was restored to its earlier site, repeated calamities ensued. 233.  This festival, also known as the Kurama “Fire Festival” (Hi-matsuri) and featuring huge torches, is sponsored by the Yuki or Yugi Shrine. See also Hinami kiji, p. 98, and HAE, 9/9, no. 6. 234.  See also Hinami kiji, pp. 96 (9/1), 97 (9/4), 98 (9/9); Yōshūfu-shi, p. 70 (kan 2); HAE, 2/9, no. 3; ibid., 9/9, no. 2; ibid., vol. 5, no. 10; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 68. According to the Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 308, the 9/9 Kifune Shrine festival took place north of KamiOgawa(-chō) in what is today Kamigyō-ku. For a study of these palanquins and festivals, see Yamaji, Kyōto, pp. 255–268.

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Figure 4.34  Kyoto children carry miniature mikoshi.

7. On 9/13, the Nii-Tamatsushima Festival235 The (Nii-Tamatsushima) Shrine stands at Nii-Tamatsushima-chō, west of (the intersection of) Matsubara-dōri and Karasuma(-dōri) at Gojō. One kami is enshrined: (Sotohori [or Sotoori]-no-Iratsume), of the Tamatsushima Shrine in Kii Province (Wakayama Prefecture). Because it is the kami of waka poetry it was enshrined by (the renowned poet) Sanmi (Fujiwara no) Toshinari (Shunzei, 1114–1204). The spot marks the site of Toshinari’s abode. Toshinari also enshrined a “New Sumiyoshi” at Takatsuji(-kōji) in the Gojō area. 235.  See also Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 70; Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 259; and Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 309. Hinami kiji, p. 117, and Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 64–65 (kan 2), date a festival at this location to 11/13 or 11/12–13.

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A verse from the time of the enshrinement at (Nii-)Tamatsushima is included in the Shin shoku kokin waka-shū (comp. 1439): Is this shrine not lofty? Now that Princess of Tamatsushima is brought here from her coastal abode 236 The kami (of Tamatsushima) is named Princess Sotohori. She was the consort of Emperor Ingyō (mid-fifth century?), the younger sister of Oshizaka no Ōnakadomi (sic), and a peerless beauty.237 Since her loveliness penetrated even her clothing, she was called Sotohori-hime (“Raiment-Penetrating Princess”). One of her verses reads: From this puny crab-spider I know, surely my beloved will come to me tonight 238 Ono no Komachi (fl. ninth century) may have imitated her style of poetry.

Tenth Month 1. From 10/6 to 10/15, ten nights of Amida invocations at Shinnyodō 239 For a ten-day period from 10/6 to 10/15 invocations are made day and night to the temple’s Amida Buddha. For this reason the ceremony is called “ten nights” (jūya). 236.  Ima koko ni utsusu mo takaki miyai kana moto no nagisa no Tamatsushima-hime. From Shin shoku kokin waka-shū, p. 395 (vol. 20, jingi, verse no. 2141). The verse is by Asukai Masayori (1358–1428), the father of the compiler Asukai Masayo (1390–1452). TFS erroneously identifies the source of the verse as Shoku kokin-shū. Perhaps it was quoted from its (correctly identified) citation in the 1658 Kyō warabe, p. 28, a volume the author clearly knew (see ninth month, no. 1). The original Tamatsushima Shrine in Wakayama Prefecture was located immediately next to the seashore. 237.  On Sotohori-hime, see Nihon shoki, jō, pp. 441–447, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 318–322. She was apparently the younger sister of Oshisaka no Ōnakatsuhime, who may have been the wife of Emperor Ingyō (see Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 313–315, 328, where “Oshisaka” is read “Osaka”). The latter became empress in the year Ingyō 2(413)/2/14. Kojiki (p. 290) gives a different account. 238.  Waga seko ga kubeki yoi nari sasagani kumo no furumai kanete shirushi mo. From the 905 Kokin waka-shū, but a similar poem can be found in Nihon shoki (jō, p. 443; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 320). The spider was taken as an auspicious sign. See Kokin waka-shū, pp. 332–333 (verse no. 1110). In English, see H. McCullough, Kokin Wakashū, p. 248. The poem is preceded by the gloss, “Composed by Sotohori-hime when she was alone and longing for the Emperor.” 239.  See also Annaisha, p. 310; Hinami kiji, pp. 108, 111 (gives the end as 10/16); Yōshūfu-shi, p. 138 (kan 4); HAE, 10/6, no. 1; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 76.

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Legends concerning the event abound. According to one, the tenth month marks the season in which the obscurity of yin culminates and the brightness of yang is obscured. This is associated with a concealment of the genuine enlightenment revealed by the radiance of the Amida Buddha. Because ten kalpas ago Amida became a buddha (who promised the world salvation), Amida invocations serving as prayers for rebirth in the Pure Land are fervently intoned for ten days and ten nights during the tenth month. In olden times this event took place only at this temple, but from some time on, other Pure-Land temples followed suit. Shinnyodō is located below (at the southeastern corner of the intersection) of Kyōgoku-dōri (=Teramachi-dōri) and Imadegawa(-dōri). It is a Tendai temple (formally) named Reishōzan Shinnyodō Shinshō Gokuraku-ji. Originally it stood in the Kaguraoka area, but in 1477 it was relocated to its current site.240 Reishōzan (“Mountain of Jingle-Bell Sounds”) refers to the fact that in olden times the temple was situated at the foot of Kaguraoka (“sacred-dance hill”). In the remote past, when the sun goddess, Amaterasu Ōmikami, retreated into the “Celestial Cave,” the eight million kami all assembled for divine deliberations and performed for her a sacred dance (with jingle bells).241 These sounds were heard at this spot. The temple’s main object of worship, carved by the high priest Jikaku (Ennin, 794–864) and venerated by all townspeople and countryfolk alike, is of a miraculous efficacy unlike any other. During the Tenchō era (824–834), Jikaku encountered the Nōka Myōjin (“Radiant Kami of Nōka”) at a shrine in Shiga County of Ōmi Province.242 There the kami granted Jikaku one of the shrine’s oak pillars, which each night emitted a radiance that he found quite wondrous. He split the wood, and (in the grain) he spied dazzling figurations of a seated Buddha on one piece and a standing Buddha on the other. Now he realized that this wood was mystical indeed. At first he sculpted the seated Buddha figure that became the main object of worship at the Nenbutsu Hall of the Hiyoshi Shrine. Then, with the profoundest piety and devotion, he carved from the other piece a statue of the 240.  Most of the rest of this passage is based on or quoted from Shinnyodō engi (postface 1524). The temple burned down in 1468 during the Ōnin Wars. In 1484 Ashikaga Yoshimasa donated land east of Kaguraoka, and the temple was rebuilt more or less at its former site. In 1503 it was relocated to Ichijō (Kamigyō-ku, Moto-shinnyodō-chō), but in 1521 it was returned to its earlier spot. In 1587, at the behest of Hideyoshi, it was moved to the location of which the author seems to speak here (southeast of Imadegawa). In 1693 it was moved back to its old site, where it remains today (Sakyō-ku, Jōdoji Shinnyo-chō). 241.  For one version of this myth, see Nihon shoki, jō, pp. 111–113, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 40–45. 242.  The author erroneously glosses the characters “Myōka” rather than “Nōka.”

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standing Amida Buddha measuring three shaku and three sun (c. one meter) in height. It displays the nine mudras (used by Amida when) welcoming (the dead into the nine levels of) the Pure Land. This statue, containing a tiny secondary Amida statue at its midriff, became the main object of worship of Shinnyodō. In 838, during the reign of Emperor Ninmyō (r. 833–850), Jikaku traveled to Tang China. At (sacred Buddhist sites at) Mt. Tiantai (Zhejiang Province) and Mt. Wutai (Shanxi Province) he discerned the profoundest truths of disclosed and undisclosed Buddhist teachings and learned the “Amida invocation with a prolonged voice” (inzei Amida-kyō). He returned to Japan in 847/10.243 (While sailing back,) he forgot one phrase of the Amida invocation with a prolonged voice, but when he faced west to pray, a miniature Amida materialized out of the incense smoke, surmounted the ship’s sail, and chanted the words seiju josha kōtoku sōgen (“The land of perfect bliss brims with splendor and virtue”).244 While restraining rapturous tears of thanks, Jikaku recorded the phrase on his monk’s stole. On coming home, he inserted this stole into the Buddhist statue, which during his lifetime was enshrined in the Jōgyō Hall on Mt. Hiei. Jikaku died on 864/1/14, age seventy-one. The name Jikaku Daishi (“High Priest Jikaku”) was awarded posthumously. In the spring of 984, during the reign of Emperor En’yū (r. 969–984), the high priest Kaizan (963–1053) of Mt. Hiei dreamt that an old monk had appeared and declared, “I have come from the Jōgyō Hall. For everyone’s karmic benefit (its Amida statue) must be transferred to the city. Hasten and move it down the mountain.” Kaizan repeatedly had this holy dream. Initially he transported the statue to the Jizō Hall on the Kirara Slope of Mt. Hiei. The following night the old monk again appeared in Kaizan’s reverie and announced, “You will find that tonight a thousand cypress trees, each slightly more than a foot tall, will have sprung up around Kaguraoka in Yamashiro Province. This location maintains a karmic relation to the Dharma.” In accordance with the dream, Kaizan sent one of his disciples down Mt. Hiei to investigate. Sure enough, on the grounds of the Detached Palace of the imperial lady, cypresses had sprouted.245 That night the 243.  On Jikaku, see Reischauer, Ennin’s Diary. 244.  Usually read jōju nyoze kudoku shōgon. The phrase occurs four times in the “Amida Sutra” (Amida-kyō; Ch. [Foshuo] Amituo jing). What is known as the “smaller” or “shorter” Sukhāvatī vyūha was rendered into Chinese by Kumārajīva in 402. It counts as one of the most important texts of the Pure-Land school. See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 366. 245.  The “imperial lady” (nyōin), or later “imperial lady of Shirakawa,” refers to Fujiwara no Senshi (or Akiko, 962–1001+), wife of Emperor En’yū. She was also known as Higashi no Sanjōin and was the first woman to be accorded the title nyōin. She is viewed as instrumental in the founding of Shinnyodō.

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imperial lady of Shirakawa dreamt that a monk informed her, “I am from the Jōgyō Hall of Mt. Hiei. I have come down to the city to fulfill my wish to save humanity, and I visit your residence first.” The statue was transferred to her palace, where the priests of Mt. Hiei assembled and performed a solemn ritual. In the fall of 992, during the reign of Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011), the emperor ordered the construction of a Buddhist hall (for housing the statue). This edifice at Higashiyama, now known as the “original Shinnyodō,” is a beautifully ornamented and imposing edifice that stood at the site of the imperial lady’s palace. Afterward, on 1477/3/29, the hall was moved to its present location. Next, on 1484/6/1, it was restored to its old site (at Ichijō) thanks to the pious intentions of Ashikaga Yoshimasa of Higashiyama. On 1503/4/7, after Yoshimasa’s death (in 1490), the main temple hall was once more rebuilt and relocated. During the Ōnin period (1467–1469) a humble nun from the village of Tanaka (Sakyō-ku, Tanaka Satonouchi-chō) paid daily visits to the holy object of worship at Shinnyodō. Rather than intoning Amida invocations, she only ardently recited the “Heart Sutra.” One day when she nodded off at the temple hall, the holy object deep within the building voiced the following verse: Time passes by and the Dharma is tossed aside as useless. For whom did Amida make his vow after five kalpas of meditation?246 The statues of the “thousand-arm Kannon” and Fudō, tucked away inside, are holy representations of the divine fulfillment of Kaizan’s wish. According to a report from the Bun’an period (1444–1447), during the era of Emperor Go-Hanazono (r. 1428–1464), Arikiyo, a distant descendant of the great prognosticator Abe no Seimei (921–1005), reported to the court that the Fudō at Shinnyodō belonged to his ancestors. Since after Seimei’s death this renowned Fudō was to proceed to the castle of Enma (the king of the underworld), where it would plead for the restoration of Seimei’s life, an anguished appeal was made to obtain an imperial order to restore the statue to Seimei’s descendants. An inviolable imperial command was issued, and the carving was packed into a vermillion Chinese trunk. The eminent priest Chūjun, abbot (of Shinnyodō), sealed the case in the presence of the envoy, and the statue was returned to the capital. First the figure was to be inspected by the court, but to everyone’s surprise, when the case was unsealed and flung open, no statue lay inside. The envoy was questioned but had noticed nothing. He only explained that at the outset the case had been heavy, but from Kamogawa it had abruptly lost weight. Priests and monks were 246.  Toki sugite ekinaki nori wo sute yokashi, gokō shiyui wa taga tame zo somo.

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Figure 4.35  The Amida Buddha reminds Jikaku of the holy phrase he had forgotten.

interrogated, but nobody knew anything about the matter. The holy altar-case (mi-zushi) of Shinnyodō was ordered searched, and when after consultations it was inspected, there sat the statue. Originally it had faced east, like Amida. Now, however, it sat to Amida’s right, facing north, and with its sword in its lap. These mysterious occurrences were duly reported, and the court responded that divine meanings were profound, that the intention of the Buddha remained an enigma, and that henceforth no further appeals by Abe no Seimei’s descendants would be considered. This course of events indicates that Fudō pledged to sit alongside Amida, protect Shinnyodō visitors, stave off misfortune, and bestow pilgrims with holy benefits. (It is said that) “Fudō’s sword resembles Amida invocations: one sound purges the world of all evil.”247 Thus Amida’s powers granted (by Fudō) are great and profound. Thereafter the Fudō (at Shinnyodō) was left holding his sword in 247.  In Japanese the citation reads riken soku ze Mida gō, isshō shō nenzai kaijo. It is a 7–7 character dictum from Shandao’s one-volume commentary Banzhouzan (J. Hanjusan; see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 1981).

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his hand, but for some reason it reverted to his lap and remains there today. The “thousand-arm Kannon” was carved by Dengyō (Saichō, 766/767–822). The palm of each of its “thousand hands” contains an eye. The high priest Kaizan died on 1053/1/27, age ninety-one.

2. On 10/13, memorial service for Nichiren248 These memorial services, which commemorate the death of Nichiren (1222– 1282), are performed at Nichiren temples in town and country alike. In Kyoto these profound sacred services are staged at twenty-one Nichiren temples and mark gratitude for received benefits. The sound of music wafts over the snow, while scattered blossoms decorate the halls. Nichiren, a descendant of Emperor Shōmu (r. 724–749), stemmed from the Mikuni clan.249 His father, Shigetada, was the second son of the regional official Nukina no Shigezane of Tōtomi Province (Shizuoka Prefecture); his mother was of the Kiyohara clan. Nichiren’s mother worshiped the sun. One day she dreamt that sunbeams had illuminated her chest, and thereupon she conceived. Nichiren was born at high noon on 1222/2/16, during the reign of the eighty-sixth emperor, Go-Horikawa (r. 1212–1232), at the port village of Kominato in Awa Province (Chiba Prefecture). As he matured, his appearance became ever more noble. The Buddha had passed away on 2/15, and Nichiren had sprung to life on 2/16. This indicated that Nichiren must be a reborn buddha. On 1233/5/12, during the reign of Shijō (r. 1232–1242), the eighty-fourth (correctly eighty-seventh) emperor, Nichiren, age twelve, entered Seichōji, a temple in Awa Province, to study Shingon Buddhism. On 1239/10/8, at age eighteen, he took the tonsure and was granted the name Zeshō, though in later years he called himself Nichiren. He had demonstrated pronounced intelligence from childhood and prayed for wisdom to (the bodhisattva) Kokūzō (Skt. Ākāśagarbha). On one occasion an old monk, sixty-odd years of age, appeared to him in a dream. In his hands the monk held a (rosary of) jewels that glistened like the stars. This he offered to Nichiren, who drew wide-ranging conclusions from such a hint. Nichiren assimilated the doctrines of many schools of Buddhism. He studied the teaching that one ought to devote oneself solely to rebirth in the Pure Land, and the clanging of his gong echoed through the mountains and forests. Then he 248.  See also Annaisha, p. 311; Hinami kiji, p. 110; Kyō habutae, p. 76; HAE, 10/13, no. 1; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 77. 249. The information on Nichiren’s life may rely on the biography Nichiren shōnin chūgasan, by Nitchō (or Nichichō, 1441–1510).

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was trained in Ritsu Buddhism and carried about a begging bowl while wearing his three clerical robes. He visited Zen temples to savor the dew dripping from the flower the Buddha had held in his hand.250 He journeyed to Nara and fought his way through the snow to the northern peaks (Mt. Hiei). There he entered Onjō(ji) (Miidera) and collected firefly-like flickers of wisdom at its (Tendaischool) study halls. Yet while successively learning the principles of all these schools, he saw that the sects adhered to teachings at odds with the teaching of the Buddha and contradicting the sutras. Nichiren could not rid himself of misgivings or emerge from his confusion. Only when he scrutinized sutras at temple libraries did he encounter the golden words of the “King of all the Teachings” (the “Lotus Sutra”), which he realized could serve as the basis for the salvation of all humanity. He determined to devote his life to what the Buddha had here commanded. Thus on 1253/3/28, at age thirty-two, during the reign of Go-Fukakusa (r. 1246–1259+), the eighty-ninth emperor, Nichiren turned for the first time to the morning sun and prayed by uttering the mantra of seven holy characters: namu myōhō renge kyō (“hail to the mystic law of the Lotus Sutra!”). On the southern side of Seichōji he preached the “Lotus Sutra” to the assembled monks and Tōjō no Sakingo Kagenobu (?–?), the local lord. He elucidated the meaning of the sutra, the arguments (of Indian scholars), and (Chinese and Japanese) interpretations. Then he established his four famous criticisms, arguing that Amida invocations lead to the Avīci hell, that Zen is demonic, and the like. Thereafter his teachings began to spread. These ideas grated on the ears of members of other sects. On 1261/5/12 Taira no Shigetoki was apprised of the matter and exiled Nichiren to the harbor of Itō in Izu Province (Shizuoka Prefecture).251 Later he ordered that Nichiren be executed on the shore of Tatsunokuchi in Sagami Province (Kanagawa Prefecture, Fujisawa-shi Katase). Nichiren sat on a sheet of leather and prayed to the buddhas and kami. Immediately the skies clouded over, and from Enoshima in the southeast an incandescent object soared through the heavens and disclosed itself above Nichiren. Lightning and thunderclaps shook the earth, and the executioner, Ochi no Saburōzaemon Naoshige, collapsed blinded, his great sword shattered. The terrified guardsmen toppled from their steeds or cowered on horseback. A huge meteorite crashed into the palace of Hōjō Shigetoki, governor 250.  Perhaps a reference to the legend that the Buddha once held up a flower to his audience with the result that his disciple Mahākāśyapa was suddenly enlightened. Zen Buddhism took this as a representation of a transmission beyond language. 251.  Taira no Shigetoki, below often referred to by his title, “Governor of Sagami” (Sagami-no-kami), was the Kamakura regent Hōjō Shigetoki (1198–1261).

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Figure 4.36  Thunderbolts terrify Nichiren’s would-be executioner and guards.

of Sagami, shaking the ground. Out of the thunder and lightning an invisible angry voice announced, “If this devotee of the true Dharma is lost, your descendants shall be extinguished and the land destroyed!” Shigetoki was utterly dumbfounded and distressed. He hastily dispatched an envoy to Tatsunokuchi to stop Nichiren’s execution. At Kanearaizawa this courier encountered a messenger racing from Tatsunokuchi to report the course of events.252 Nichiren’s life was immediately spared, and on 5/13 he was taken to the residence of Honma Rokurōzaemon Shigetsura in the Echi area of Aikō County, Sagami Province.253 On 1271/10/10 he was exiled to the island of Sado, but natural 252.  Kanearaizawa is today Shichirigahama, Kamakura-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture. 253.  Today in Atsugi-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture.

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disasters continued to plague the land, so at last, on 1274/2/14 Shigetoki conveyed to Sado a letter of amnesty granted by (Taira no) Yoritsuna (c. 1241–1293).254 Thus more than two thousand years after the Buddha’s death, the school of Buddhism founded by Nichiren spread the sound of the “Lotus Sutra” to every nook and cranny of the land. On 1274/4/8 (on the way back from Sado), Nichiren was granted an audience with Shigetoki (in Kamakura) and was welcomed with the deepest reverence. On 5/12 he left Kamakura, and on 5/17 he reached Mt. Minobu in the Hakii region of Kai Province.255 There he built himself a simple hermitage. His life was no different from that of (the legendary recluse) Xu You (fl. twenty-fourth century BCE) at Mt. Ji, of Bo Yi and his brother Shu Qi (fl. eleventh century BCE) at Mt. Shouyang, or of the “Four Hoaryheads” (Ch. sìhào, c. third century BCE) at Mt. Shang.256 At his mountain retreat the Tenshigatake Peak shaded him from the eastern sun; the surging currents of the Fuji River rushed by the mountain’s base; southward the clouds enveloped the summits of Takatori Peak. For miles and miles the plains and hills stretched into the distance. In the west, Nanaomote Peak raised its lofty, perpetually snow-covered crests, and mountaintops unfolded in succession, leading at last to Shirane Peak. In the north Mt. Minobu dispersed the clouds. The dew from ancient oaks moistened his door, and the luxuriant pine boughs intruded under his eaves. On lonely mornings, when the rain was falling in streams, Nichiren picked flowers to offer the Buddha. On cloudless autumn nights he waited for the moon to rise above the mountains and illuminate his books of sutras and classics. When he heard the cicadas chirping in the forest, he fancied it an accompaniment to his sutra chanting. With no company but the cry of the deer and the chattering of monkeys, he led an unspeakably solitary life. One night when the rain pounded against his window, he composed the following poem: Within the heart the rain falls straight and true, only the outside wind twists it toward dark windows 257 254.  Yoritsuna was the deputy chief of the Office of Military and Police Affairs of the Kamakura shogunate and stood in charge of handling Nichiren’s punishment. 255.  Today Yamanashi Prefecture, Minamikoma-gun, Minobu-chō. 256.  The “Four Hoaryheads” or “Four Erudites” were Dongyuan Gong (Yu Xuanming), Xia Huanggong (Cui Guang), Luli Xiansheng (Zhou Shu), and Qili Ji. They retired to the Difei Mountains. 257.  Kokoro to wa yokoshima ni furu ame wa araji, kaze koso yoru no mado wa utsurame. Most versions of the poem give mizukara (“on its own”) in lieu of kokoro to wa (“within the heart”). Presumably the point is that (human) nature would allow things to occur straight and true, but a benighted society twists the path.

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On 1282/10/13, during the reign of Emperor Go-Uda (r. 1274–1287), Nichiren passed away under the roof of (the warrior and supporter) Ikegami Saemondaibu Munenaka (?–?) in the Ebara region of Musashi Province (today Tōkyō-to). He was sixty-one.

3. On 10/16, the commemoration of the death of the founding priest of Tōfukuji (Kokushi or Enni, 1202–1280) 258 The death of the founding priest is commemorated by countless adherents of many schools of Buddhism, perhaps because of Kokushi’s paramount virtue. On this day holy objects, sacred treasures, calligraphy, and paintings in the temple’s possession are placed on display. One such item is a rare exemplar of calligraphy by (the Chinese Zen Buddhist monk) Wuzhun (Shifan) (1177–1249). The founding priest of Tōfukuji was Shōichi Kokushi, whose (clerical) name was Ben’en.259 He was born in Warashina of Suruga Province (Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka-shi, Aoi-ku). From age ten he studied Tendai Buddhism, and by age fifteen he had mastered the three great Chinese Tiantai (J. Tendai) classics.260 At age eighteen he took the tonsure at Onjōji (Miidera) and was fully ordained at Tōdaiji. Thereafter he left Miidera for Chōrakuji in Kōzuke Province (Gunma Prefecture), where he studied another tradition (=Rinzai Zen Buddhism) from (the priest Shakuen) Eichō (1165–1247).261 Wishing to plumb the depths of these teachings, in 1235, during the reign of Shijō, the eighty-sixth (correctly eightyseventh) emperor, he journeyed to Song China and became the disciple of Wu­zhun at Jingshan.262 In the autumn of 1241, after six years, he returned to Japan. In 1243 he came back to Kyoto and was granted the position of abbot of Tōfukuji by Prime Minister Kujō Kōmyōbuji (Kujō Michiie, 1193–1252). Kokushi died on 1280/10/16, age seventy-nine. His last words were, “For seventy-nine 258.  See also second month, no. 4, above, as well as Annaisha, p. 312; Hinami kiji, p. 111; Kyō habutae, p. 76; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 189 (kan 5, date given as 10/17); HAE, 10/16; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 77–78. 259.  The following information is probably based on Genkō shakusho, pp. 109–119 (kan 7). 260. The three works in question are the Mohe zhiguan (“Great Concentration and Insight”), Miaofa lianhua jing wenju (or Fahua wenju; “Words and Phrases of the ‘Lotus Sutra’ ”), and Miaofa lianhua jing xuanyi (Fahua xuanyi; “Profound Meaning of the ‘Lotus Sutra’ ”), all by Zhiyi (538–597). 261.  Here and in Genkō shakusho, p. 109 (kan 7), Chōrakuji is erroneously identified as standing in Yashū (Shimotsuke Province). During the Edo period the temple was converted into a Tendai institution. 262.  Jingshan is a mountain located northeast of the Taimushan region of Zhejiang Province in China. At its foot lies Wanshouchansi, one of China’s “five Zen temples,” also known as Jingshansi (presently called Jiangtiansi).

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years I have sought Buddha’s path to salvation; knowledge of the Buddha cannot be obtained at once.”263 The day that Kokushi passed away, the bamboo and timber of Tōfukuji blanched, and a pair of trees withered and died.264 During the early Shōwa period (1312–1317), Hanazono, the ninety-fourth emperor, granted him the posthumous title Shōichi Kokushi (“First Saint and Teacher of the Nation”). He was the first person to receive the title “Kokushi.”

Book 6 Eleventh Month 1. Bonfires (o-hitaki or hotaki) 265 Festival days of many kami fall in this month. Bonfires are lit at shrines, and parishioners in and about the capital kindle fires as holy rituals. Such bonfires are called “courtyard fires” (niwabi). Since kami are a force of yang, they are suppressed by yin. Because the force of yin peaks during the tenth month, and because Izumo is a region of Japan highly charged with yin, during the tenth month the kami supposedly all assemble in Izumo Province (Shimane Prefecture).266 When during the eleventh month the forces of yang reemerge, the kami all leave Izumo and return to their original locations. Since fire is a force of yang, it relates to the act of welcoming the kami. Reverent considerations of the ancient “age of the kami” suggest that the kami Izanami-no-mikoto perished in the tenth month (when she gave birth to Susanoo-no-mikoto, the kami of fire). Her child, Susanoo-no-mikoto, grieved because it was still so young. Eventually it traveled to Izumo, the province of Amaterasu Ōmikami’s birth. It had heard that a serpent inhabiting the upper reaches of the River Hi harmed humans, so it singlehandedly slew this serpent.267 263.  Rishō hōben shichijū-kyū nen, tanteki wo shiran to hosseba busso tsutaezu. Here busso (“knowledge of the Buddha”) may also mean “knowledge of the Buddha and the founder(s) of Zen.” 264.  “Pair of trees,” written sōju, perhaps implies a link to the pair of śāl trees (sara sōju) between which the Buddha reclined when he died. 265.  Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 81, refers to bonfires at Inari shrines on 11/8; Hinami kiji, p. 122, specifies bonfires as taking place on eleventh-month “days of the cock.” See also Seigen mondō, pp. 684–685, and HAE, eleventh month, no. 2. 266.  Seen from Kyoto, Izumo lies to the northwest, a direction associated with the force of yin and the ingress of demons and malevolent potencies. When the kami travel northwest, their force of yang helps regenerate life. 267.  Nihon shoki, jō, p. 123; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 52–53.

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Figure 4.37  Bonfires are kindled and offerings made during the eleventh month.

Due to this, on a “day of the rabbit” during the tenth month, young plum-tree branches are used to fish yellow-bellied sea snakes out of the ocean at (the Izumo promontory) of Hinomisaki. The snakes are offered to the (Izumo) Shrine, the shrine of Susanoo-no-mikoto.268 Izanami-no-mikoto is the revered mother of all the kami, so all the deities of heaven and earth assemble in this province to express filial piety. 268.  In fact the main kami enshrined at the Izumo Shrine is Ōkuninushi-no-kami. Susanoo-no-mikoto is enshrined at the smaller, ancient Susa Shrine and Yaegaki Shrine (formerly Sakusa Shrine).

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2. For forty-eight days from 11/13, “bowl beaters” (hachitataki)269 On Shijō Bōmon(-kōji), east of Horikawa(-kōji), stands a hall known as the Kūya Temple (Kūya Hall).270 Its occupants, who labor at carving (and vending) tea whisks, are called “bowl beaters.” From 11/13 for forty-eight days (until the end of the year) they assemble at this hall and intone Amida invocations.271 They beg throughout Kyoto while sounding small metal gongs; at night they make the rounds to cemeteries near Kyoto and intone their chants. On 2/15, at bon (7/15), and on the days of solstices, they bang on gourds and indicate to the ignorant the fact of universal transience. While soliciting alms they chant only these (invocations), which are neither sutras nor songs. Kindred types also live at Mizoro Pond and around Tokiwa.272 The origin of the “bowl beaters” relates to a deer that came to and played about the hermitage of the high priest Kūya (also Kōya or Kōshō, 903–972). One day it encountered a hunter and was killed. This so saddened Kūya that he begged for the antlers, which he always kept on his person as a memento. Today these antlers have become a sacred treasure of the Kūya Temple. Kūya invited the hunter in and taught him that the taking of life was a grievous offense. He alerted him of the transience of all things, and eventually the hunter determined to adhere to the way of the Buddha. “Bowl beaters” may be the descendants of this hunter.273 The reason they strike gourds is that they disliked the outward appearance (gegi) of Kūya’s (practices). Thus they struck whatever was available and engaged in Amida invocations. Kūya was a great hermit who did not divulge his ancestry.274 In 948 he ascended Mt. Tendai (=Mt. Hiei) and became a monk under the guidance of the priest Enshō (880–964). He lived at Unrin’in at Murasakino. Once on venturing 269.  See also Seigen mondō, pp. 685–686; Annaisha, p. 315; Hinami kiji, pp. 117–118; Kyō habutae, p. 77; HAE, 11/13; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 82. The memorial day of the high priest Kūya fell on 11/13. 270.  The author is here referring to the Kūyadō, a hall that counts as part of the Kūya Temple (Kūyaji). The Kūyadō, adhering to an independent “Kūya branch” of Tendai Buddhism, is said to have been founded c. 939 by Kūya himself. Its main object of worship is a statue of Kūya. 271.  For a later illustration of such a “dancing Amida-invocation ceremony” (odori-nenbutsu) within the temple, see Shūi miyako meisho zue, p. 60. 272.  The pond, also known as Mizoro-ga-ike or Midoro-ga-ike, lies at today’s Kita-ku, Kamigamo. Several places in and about Kyoto were called Tokiwa. On other “dancing Amidainvocations” of the second-month solstice, see Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 120–121 (kan 4, Shōbōji), and pp. 127–128 (kan 4, Shin-Zenkōji). 273.  See also HAE, 11/13. The tale is also recounted in Yōshūfu-shi, p. 421 (kan 10). 274.  Much of the following is based on Genkō shakusho, pp. 211–212 (kan 14).

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Figure 4.38  “Bowl beaters” bang on gongs and invoke Amida.

into the city, he met an old man who appeared to be shivering from the cold. Kūya noticed his condition and asked him his name and whether he was not cold. The old man replied, “I am the radiant kami (myōjin) of the Matsunoo Shrine. Recently I have received the sweet holy offering of the ‘Hannya Sutra,’ but I have not yet partaken of the true essence of this wonderful wisdom. I am thus wasting away and the wind chills my bones. Will you not aid me by means of the ‘Lotus Sutra,’ which you so often intone?” When Kūya heard this, he shed his coat and put it on the old man with the words, “Here you go. I have been reciting the ‘Lotus Sutra’ for forty years, and its miraculous scent suffuses the coat.” The old man was elated and put on the coat. Apparently much warmed, he headed westward.

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Kūya founded Rokuharamitsuji at Higashiyama. Long ago, an epidemic struck the capital and surrounding regions, and corpses littered the mountains and plains. Kūya was so distressed by this prospect that he carved an elevenfaced Kannon Buddha three meters tall. When this figure was worshiped to halt the epidemic, the outbreak abated. Kūya encouraged everyone (to be virtuous) and had a Buddhist hall built that became Rokuharamitsuji. There he lived until his death on 972/9/11 at age seventy. Rokuharamitsuji is also known as Saikōji. Its guardian kami is the Matsunoo Myōjin. Nearby stand the vestiges of the residence of Jōkai of the Heike clan (Taira no Kiyomori, 1118–1181) and of the Rokuhara office of (Hōjō) Yasutoki (1183–1242), one of the two shogunal commissioners. The figure west of the Buddha Hall depicts Jōkai. The shrine north of the hall apparently enshrines the Princess Goō, the beloved of the noble Ushiwaka-maru (the young Minamoto no Yoshitsune, 1159–1189).275

3. On 11/28, memorial service of Shinran (come to an end) 276 The eastern and western Honganji at Rokujō serve as the main temples of followers of Shinran (1173–1262+). Buddhist memorial services at these temples commence (on 11/22), seven days before 11/28. When such ceremonies are staged (at other temples) after the onset of the tenth month (in order not to conflict with the 11/28 ceremony at Honganji), they are called “advance services” (o-torikoshi). Notwithstanding the frigid season, visitors of all stations from remote provinces or islands, and of course from Kyoto, all arrive and vie to fill the grounds and halls of Honganji to hear sermons on the Dharma. The crowds of people good and evil (nin-pinin) are so vast that they boggle the mind. Honganji was initially Shinran’s mausoleum. In 1272, eleven years after Shinran’s death, Emperor Kameyama (r. 1259+–1274) had it constructed near Daikokuji at Higashiyama.277 On 1591/8/5 it was relocated to Rokujō. Shinran’s name was Zenshin.278 He was born in 1173, during the reign of Emperor Takakura (r. 1168–1180), as a descendant of the great statesman 275. According to a jōruri piece already performed during the late sixteenth century, Princess Goō was the younger sister of the warrior Kamata Masakiyo (1123–1160). 276.  See also Annaisha, pp. 315–316; Hinami kiji, pp. 119, 121; Kyō habutae, p. 77; and HAE, 11/22, no. 2; Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 83, notes that analogous ceremonies took place in Edo. 277.  Shinran’s mausoleum is the Ōtani Mausoleum, but “Ōtani” can be read “Daikoku.” In 1321 the Ōtani Mausoleum was renamed Honganji and became a Buddhist temple. The establishment of Honganji in Kyoto then experienced a long and tangled history. 278.  Much of the following information relies on the 1352 Saishu kyōjū ekotoba (pp. 81–82).

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Figure 4.39  The faithful arrive for Shinran’s memorial service from 11/22 to 11/28.

(taishokukan, Fujiwara no Kamatari, 614–669) and son of the lay monk (Hino) Arinori (?–?), the director of the empress’s palace. In 1181, at age nine, during the reign of Emperor Antoku (r. 1180–1185), Shinran became a disciple of the priest Jichin (Jien, 1155–1225) at Shōren’in, where he studied Tendai Buddhism and took the tonsure. At age twenty-nine, in 1201, during the reign of Emperor Tsuchimikado (r. 1198–1210), he undertook a hundred-day retreat at the Kannon of the Rokkaku Hall and prayed to be shown the Buddha’s law related to karma and to gain genuine knowledge. At the end of the ninety-ninth night, a divine dream revealed to him that nothing equaled Amida invocations for clearing humanity’s eternal path to salvation. He learned that the high priest Hōnen was currently seeking to deliver others from this world of suffering and that Shinran

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should seek him out and ask him about the necessary resources. Shinran abided by this holy instruction. At the time Hōnen was living at Yoshimizu in Higashiyama.279 Shinran met Hōnen at this hermitage and explained his situation. Hōnen appreciated Shinran’s indefatigable desire for enlightenment and recognized the latter’s extraordinary degree of piety. Hōnen personally guided him in understanding the difference between the complexity of the “way of the saints” (shōdō) and the simplicity of the Pure Land.280 He transmitted without delay the paramount and profoundest principles of steadfast faith and correct practice (anjin kigyō). Thenceforth Shinran fully accepted the doctrine of full devotion to the Pure Land, and later his followers founded the Ikkō sect (Jōdo Shinshū). He died on 1252/11/28 at age ninety, during the reign of Kameyama, the eighty-ninth emperor, ending his life at a spot south of (the intersection of) Madenokōji and Oshikōji. The Monto-shū (“Sect of Adherents,” also Ikkō sect) was established on 1203/4/5, when Shinran engaged in an all-night vigil at the Kannon of the Rokkaku Hall. 281 At around four o’clock in the morning the Kuze bodhisattva (Kannon), revealed itself in the form of a saintly priest with a solemn mien, wearing a white stole, and sitting in a formal pose on a huge white lotus. It turned to Shinran and announced, “Though you have not been entirely chaste, you have accumulated karma through Buddhist practice. Thus I shall take on splendid feminine form and permit sexual relations. If you display true earnestness throughout life, after your death I shall guide you to rebirth in paradise.” The new sect’s doctrines were apparently founded on this divine revelation. According to one written source, a 1424 booklet entitled “His Karma” (Go-innen), states that Fujiwara (or Kujō) no Kanezane (1149–1207) of the Kujō clan’s Tsukinowa Palace once visited the high priest Hōnen. 282 All day 279.  Today An’yōji. 280. This refers to the doctrine of the Chinese priest Dao Chao (562–645), who later became an important Pure-Land scholar. The “way of the saints” signifies an attempt to reach salvation through one’s own efforts, as in Tendai and Shingon Buddhism. Pure-Land doctrine, by contrast, relies solely on the power of the Amida Buddha. 281.  The following passage is taken from the 1295 Honganji shōnin Shinran den’e (also known as Godenshō), pp. 66–67. 282.  This information and some of the following information is found in Shinran shōnin go-innen hiden-shū (or hiden-shō), perhaps written by Zonkaku (1290–1373).

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long they spoke of the Buddhist law. (Hōnen stated that) among his threehundred-odd disciples only Enshō (Kanezane) had remained a layman. When (Kanezane) asked, “Are my Amida invocations different from those of a holy man?” Hōnen explained that Amida’s vow applied to ordinary mortals and saints alike. 283 He clarified that (only by having recourse to the karmic power of the Amida Buddha’s great vow) will all ordinary beings, good and evil, attain rebirth and that no distinction between the two existed. 284 (Kanezane) interposed that among Hōnen’s disciples one monk had never sinned, but was there such a person among the laity? Hōnen was not the least perturbed and replied that it made no difference. Zenshin (=Shinran, who was also present) was told that henceforth he should adhere to this teaching, and this great priest thus wept copious tears. When he resolutely promised to renounce (his earlier convictions), Hōnen notated the famous four phrases. 285 Since these represented a divine revelation of Kannon and could hardly be contravened, Shinran was left so shaken that he had to ride to Nishinotōin (-dōri) at Gojō in a carriage together with the regent Kanezane. Eventually he married the regent’s seventh daughter, Princess Tamahi, who was eighteen years old.

283.  A doctrine already found in the Jingtu lun (“Essay on the Pure Land”; see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 1963), a collection of twenty biographies by the seventh-century Chinese Pure-Land priest Jiacai. 284.  See Shinran’s 1224 Kyōgyō shinshō (“The True Teaching, Practice, and Realization of the Pure-Land Way”) in Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 2646; in English, Inagaki, Kyōgyōshinshō, p. 38. This doctrine was first developed by Shandao, who inf luenced Hōnen. Shinran’s view that “Even a good person will be born in the Pure Land; how much more so an evil person!” represented a reversal of Hōnen’s formulation and was explained in books such as the third chapter of Tannishō (“Digest of Lamentations on Heterodoxy”), a late Kamakura-period book probably by Shinran’s disciple Yuien, and Kudenshō (“Digest of Oral Transmissions”), a 1331 book by Kakunyo, one of Shinran’s grandsons. 285.  Probably the four phrases in which Hōnen recycles the opening of what the Buddha utters in section 8 of the “Larger Sūtra of Immeasurable Life” (J. Daimuryōju-kyō): “I have made vows, unrivaled in all the world; I shall certainly reach the unsurpassed Way; if these vows should not be fulfilled, may I not attain perfect enlightenment.” See Inagaki, The Three Pure Land Sutras, p. 18.

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Twelfth Month 1. (Reading of the) “Buddha Proclaims the Names of Buddhas Sutra”; 286 Sacred dances (mikagura) in the Sacred Mirror Room; 287 visits to the Gion Shrine on the last day of the month 288 This is the final month of the year. Everyone is busy and distracted, and the weather is harsh, so few people visit the kami and buddhas. Since the occasions celebrated are poorly known, there is little to explain, and I shall sketch only the outlines. For the three days from 12/19 to 12/21 the “Buddha Proclaims the Names of Buddhas Sutra” is recited at Mt. Makinoo (Saimyōji). This temple lies some eight kilometers from the capital. To get there one passes by Ninnaji and the Narutaki area and proceeds into the depths of Mt. Takao. Here traffic is normally sparse but even sparser during this month of deep snows, when scarcely any pilgrims arrive from the capital. Buddha-name sutras include the “Sanzen (sankō) butsumyō-kyō” (“Three Thousand Buddha-Names Sutra”) and the “Jūni butsumyō-kyō” (“Twelve Buddha-Names Sutra”).289 These sutras invoke the names of past, present, and future buddhas. The immensely virtuous act (of intoning the sutras) is said to eliminate the barriers to salvation arising from the six senses. In former times such sutra readings seem also to 286.  The “Butsumyō-kyō” (Ch. [Foshuo] fomingjing) was translated into Chinese c. 520 CE by Bodhiruchi (see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, nos. 440, 441). It names 11,093 buddhas and bodhisattvas and describes their blessings. The event was designated as an official court occasion in 846. After 858, or perhaps even earlier, it was staged annually. Penitential “Buddha-name assemblies” (butsumyō-kō or butsumyō-e) also took place at Chishakuin, Sennyūji, Saimyōji, and other Kyoto temples. For details on such occasions at court, see Yamanaka, Heian-chō no nenjū gyōji, pp. 277–281. See Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 106–107, 145–146. For Edo-period celebrations of the ceremony, see also Hinami kiji, pp. 124–127 (12/1, 12/8, 12/14, 12/16); Kyō habutae, p. 77; HAE, 12/1 and 12/19; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, pp. 262–263. 287.  The Sacred Mirror Room is the Imperial Palace’s Naishidokoro (literally “Inner Service Site”). For other Edo-period sources, see Annaisha, p. 322; Hinami kiji, p. 130; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 262. Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011) had a “sacred dance [mikagura] of the Naishidokoro” performed, initially perhaps in 1002. The presentation took place in the space lying between the Naishidokoro and the Ryōkiden, a banquet hall to the west. The biennial (after the 1070s, annual) event became an important twelfth-month nenjū gyōji, presented at historically varying sites within the palace complex (see Gōke shidai, p. 344; Kuji kongen, pp. 111–113; Ichidai yōki, p. 160; and Koji ruien, vol. 12, pp. 126–136; see also Müller, Kagura, pp. 131–142). 288.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 129; HAE, 12/30; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 86. 289. The translator of the former sutra (also “Kako shōgonkō senbutsumyō kyō”; see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 446) is not known. To ensure the salvation of all humanity the sutra invokes names of past, present, and future buddhas. The latter sutra, more fully “Jūni butsumyō jinju kyōryō kudoku joshō metsuzai-kyō” (see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 277), was translated into Chinese by Jñānagupta (523–c. 600), a monk of Gandhara in northwestern India who had traveled to China around the mid-sixth century. By invoking the names of twelve buddhas, the sutra seeks to eliminate barriers to salvation.

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have taken place at the Imperial Palace. This first occurred in 775/12.290 During the Jōwa period (834–848), an imperial decree was issued to all provinces banning the taking of life during the “three days of Buddha names.” Long ago, a (Hossō-sect) monk named Jōan (790–844) intoned the “Twelve Buddha-Names Sutra” at Mt. Hira (Shiga Prefecture).291 His worshipful repentance was noticed at court and throughout the land, so in 838 the emperor was informed and a wintertime “Buddha-names repentance ceremony” (butsumyōsan) was apparently staged at the palace. The sacred dances (mikagura) of the Sacred Mirror Room are also presented during the twelfth month, but the day of the performance varies from year to year. Such dances first took place during the times of Emperor Ichijō (r. 986–1011). As an official Imperial Palace function, they constitute an indescribably profound sacred ritual. Eminent officials and nobles seat themselves, and when the emperor arrives, the performers pay obeisances on the white gravel below the stage, play their instruments, and sing songs called saibara. The nights are clear, so the lamplight in the various hallways, the guards’ bonfires fanned by the wind, and the costumes illuminated by firelight all present a tableau seemingly taken out of a work of art. “How elegant are the sounds of the auspicious jingle bells of the dancers in the Sacred Mirror Room”—words to this effect by Prime Minister Tokudaiji Kintaka (1253–1305), reported in the Tsurezure-gusa, are fitting indeed.292 On New Year’s Eve the Gion Shrine presents a “rolling reading” of the “Daihannya kyō.” This exorcises evil and pestilence in the upcoming year and celebrates peace and prosperity throughout the land. Exalted kami reside at this shrine, and the crowds are even larger than the usual ones. Youngsters of this area clutch kezurikake, whittled sacred wooden sticks some 24–27 centimeters in length (with the tip split). They taunt each other in ways that grate on the ear and cavort until after midnight, banging on the doors of dwelling houses. Perhaps they do this to acknowledge that the year is ending. No one seeks to stop them, and nobody knows the source of this custom.293 290.  This date is given in Seiji yōryaku, p. 173 (vol. 28), from c. 1009, which presents excerpts regarding the legal system. The text cited regarding the “Buddha-names ceremony” stems from the now lost Kansō jirui, a thirty-volume text of 803. 291.  Jōan resided at Gangōji, a mighty Nara temple, but maintained a hermitage at Mt. Hira. Information on him and his deeds is probably taken from Genkō shakusho, p. 147 (kan 9). 292. See Tsurezure-gusa, p. 109; Keene, Essays in Idleness, p. 24 (no. 23). 293.  The custom in question, the conclusion of the Okera Festival, is called kezurikake no shinji. After dark, visitors of the Gion Shrine verbally abuse each other. Six holy willow sticks and okera roots are then burned, and the fire is used to kindle a bonfire before the worship hall. The direction of the smoke augurs the future and the quality of the harvest. Visitors transfer the fire to their own match-cords, take these home, and kindle the hearth, on which they boil a lucky soup of rice cakes and vegetables. On okera, see Seigen mondō, pp. 686–687.

Twelfth Month  169

Addendum Waka poems concerning the orientation of famous sites in Yamashiro Province.294

East: Kaguraoka, Okajima, Awada, and Shirakawa lie east of the capital Yamashina, Iwakura, Otowa, and the Ausaka barrier lie east of the capital West: The Katsura River, (M)umezu, Ōi, and Mt. Matsunoo are west of the capital Arashiyama, Narabi-no-oka, and Mt. Tonase are all west of the capital North: Mt. Tokiwa, and the villages of Ōhara, Shizuhara, and Yase are north of the capital Mt. Kurama, Mt. Kibune, and Matsugasaki are also north of the capital South: Toba, Takeda, Yodogawa, Mitsuno-misaki lie south of the capital Shiga-no-hara, Minase-gawara, and Komano lie south of the capital Mt. Yawata, also known as Mt. Otoko, also lies south of the capital The Namida River, Mt. Koromokase, and Kashiwabara also lie south of the capital Southeast: Kiyomizu, Fushimi, Fukakusa, and Serikawa also lie southeast of the capital In fact, two places named “Serikawa” (“Seri River”) exist. The Serikawa of the above verse lies southeast of the capital, between Takeda and Fushimi. In earlier times, the Fukakusa emperor (Ninmyō, r. 833–850) deigned to visit this site, and the zither plectra he carried on his person were lost. He summoned his retainer, Lord Shōsen (Fujiwara no Mototsune, 836–891), and ordered him to search for them. Lord Shōsen prayed to the kami and buddhas and at last apparently

294. The following lines all assume the classic tanka (5–7–5–7–7-syllable) form, even though their content merely indicates the direction of various spots around Kyoto.

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succeeded in retrieving the plectra in the Fukakusa area.295 The Serikawa of this imperial visit lies southeast of the capital. A verse in the Shoku kokin waka-shū (comp. 1265) reads, “The waves of the Seri River return to the past/the mountain breezes of (Emperor) Saga have never ceased.”296 This refers to the Serikawa at Sagano, a river located north of the Nonomiya Shrine and running eastward. Mt. Inari, Mt. Kasatori, and Mt. Asahi also lie southeast of the capital. Uji Village, Makinoshima, and Mt. Mimuro all also lie southeast of the capital. Hashihime, the Iwase Woods, Ukifune, and Kojima all lie southeast of the capital.

Southwest: Koizuka, the Kuga area, and the temples of Yamazaki stand southwest of the capital. Northwest: Kameyama, Saga, Atago, and Mt. Takao all lie northwest of the capital. Narutaki, Hirosawa Pond, and Ōsawa Pond all lie northwest of the capital. The aptly named Kiyotaki (“Clear Falls”) River and Tsukinowa Village lie northwest of the capital. The Kamiya River, Hirano, Kitano, and the Sakuranomiya Shrine all lie northwest of the capital.297 Northeast: Ōbie Peak, Yokawa, Sakamoto, and the Tadasu River stand in the northeastern part of the capital. Mt. Kamiyama, Mt. Hikage, and Mt. Futaba are famous locations near the capital.

295.  For the source of this tale, see Ōkagami, pp. 238–239 (in English, H. McCullough, Okagami, p. 207). 296.  Serikawa was renowned for visits by Emperor Saga. The poem, no. 1750 in the collection, was composed by the courtier and statesman Kujō Yoshitsune (1169–1206). The author appears to misquote the close of the verse. Correctly it reads Serikawa no nami mo mukashi ni tachikaeri miyuki taesenu Saga no yamakaze. 297.  The writer gives “Sakurabanomiya,” probably in error.

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Sugahara, Konoha Village, and Shigureno are near the capital, as are the Koromode Woods. Tenarai Plain, Karine Hill, etc. lie near the capital. The waters of Itokoi and Ebisujima at Konoya also lie near the capital.298 Ibukeno, and the Tamamizu Nonomiya Shrine at Ide also lie near the capital.299 (Published by) Honma Chōbee and Ōsumi Hachirōbee Enpō 2 (1674), ninth month, ki-no-e year of the tiger

Afterword San’unshi Naoyori is a dear friend of mine with whom I have long exchanged light verse (haikai). While engaging in his studies and considerations of national learning, he has collected information on the sources of annual customs in Yamashiro Province. This yielded some dozen volumes, which were divided into the four times of year and entitled “Tales of Four Seasons.” This six-volume work, which treats and portrays only things that are easy to ascertain and comprehend, he intended for rural youngsters. I pleaded repeatedly, however, that this was more than just a treasure for the youth. If it should circulate widely, the origins of the kami and buddhas would become known, rural residents would learn of holy benefits without traveling long distances, and people in the capital could grasp the genesis of the deities. If they then undertook pilgrimages to holy sites, this would surely contribute to the accumulation of virtue. The book will now be printed and disseminate widely. Today, on 1674/3/10, I remove the rattan window shade to let in gentle rays of sunlight, grind my ink with dew collecting on flowers by the hedge, and compose this afterword. Fūrinken Tomomatsu300

298.  Perhaps Ebisujima Shrine, about eight kilometers south of Kyoto. 299.  Possibly the Tamatsuoka Shrine, some ten kilometers south of Kyoto. 300.  Perhaps the literati, poet, and lord of Iwaki Province (Fukushima Prefecture) Naitō Yoshimune (Fūrinken or Fūko, 1619–1685).

C HA P T E R 5

A Handbook of Annual Events (1694) (Nenjū chōhōki 年中重宝記)

This six-volume work, also known as E-iri nenjū chōhōki (“Illustrated Handbook of Annual Events”), treats yearly Kyoto festivals, ceremonies, customs, and traditions, as well as selected events and observances from the surrounding regions of Ōtsu, Nara, Uji, and Osaka. Each of the first four books takes up three successive months of the calendar, while the last two books explain practices of a more general nature, including matters related to moxacautery and calendrical divination.1 The work, with a preface dated 1693, ends with lines referring to the publication date of 1694. It must have sold moderately well, for a five-volume version was reissued in Osaka in 1746. This reprint was entitled Honchō saiji kojitsu (“Historical Facts about Annual Events in Japan”) and came with new illustrations supplied by Nishikawa Sukenobu (1671–1750).2 The identity of the artist who illustrated the first edition remains obscure. The author, Namura Jōhaku (苗村常伯, ?–after 1694), who also passed as Sōdenshi, Sōden, Sōdensai, Kaidō, and Keizanshi, was a trained physician from Hikone in Ōmi Province.3 For a number of years he served the lord of the Hikone domain. Jōhaku had apparently also absorbed the wisdom of the famous Kyoto Confucianist Itō Jinsai (1627–1705), from whom he may have acquired a taste for historical information and archaic meanings. After a stint of fiction writing in the 1660s, he turned to the production of medical books, primers, dictionaries, and commentary on Japanese classics and Chinese poetry. From 1692 to 1694 he issued a series of handbooks (chōhōki) such as the one translated below. The first of these manuals instructed women how to behave, speak, wear makeup, and handle pregnancy and childbirth (Onna chōhōki, pub. 1692). A second one tutored men about society, scholarship, leisure pursuits, and etiquette (Otoko 1.  For more English-language information on divination books during this era, see Hayek, “From Esoteric Tools to Handbooks ‘for Beginners.’ ” 2.  Another Osaka republication of unknown vintage exists in a copy from 1783. 3. For biographical information, see Ōta, “Namura Jōhaku no ryakuden”; Ichiko, “ ‘Rikutsu monogatari’ sakusha kō”; and Nihon koten bungaku daijiten, vol. 4, p. 554.

172

A Handbook of Annual Events   173

chōhōki, pub. 1693). Yet another furnished the warrior with information regarding weapons, horses, and the like (Buke chōhōki, pub. 1694). During this era the chōhōki was experiencing a surge in popularity, and dozens of specimens were published in rapid succession.4 The genre’s history seems to have commenced in Osaka in 1689 with the appearance of Kanai chōhōki (“Handbook for the Home”), an almanac-like work that explained celestial stems and branches, seasonal matters, the relation of foodstuffs to certain dates, stain removal, arithmetic, Japanese geography, and much else. Some of the wisdom appearing in the pages of this pioneering opus bears a striking resemblance to what Jōhaku reiterates near the end of “A Handbook of Annual Events.” As Jōhaku candidly admits, he also freely harvested material from other earlier Chinese and Japanese sources. Nihon saijiki, by Kaibara Ekiken, is often recycled, and especially Book 5 below lifts many passages from Yōshūfu-shi (“Records of the Province of the Imperial Capital,” 1686, by Kurokawa Dōyū) and the Kyoto guidebook Kyō habutae oridome (“A Bolt’s End of Kyoto Silk,” 1689). All illustrations reproduced below stem from the original edition, but I have added captions.

Author’s Preface The waves of the four seas are calm and the world rests at peace. In this age of righteous rule, myriad unalike events of ancient heritage lie scattered about like the stars in the firmament. As the 360-odd days pass by each year, countless popular occasions follow each other in a regular succession. No day elapses without a temple ceremony or shrine festival; no month goes by in which the old ways and ancient traditions are not performed or exhibited. Such events usually count as little more than humdrum customs taking place throughout the year, and nobody fathoms the truth of the matter. At worst, the relevant month or day is not even recognized. Accordingly, in this work I have culled the essence of such topics from my collection of old Japanese and Chinese treatises. I have assembled, ordered, and explained in plain words facts regarding the four seasons, the twelve months, and the 360-odd days of the year. Anyone throwing open the covers of my work will find its subject crystal clear and well defined. The author would be supremely delighted if readers of this book took to heart and cherished its contents. Twelfth month of 1693, mizu-no-to, “year of the cock” By Sōdenshi in Kyoto 4.  Many such works are reproduced in Chōhōki shiryō shūsei.

174   Book 1: Spring 

Book 1: Spring 5 Regarding Spring in General When at dawn of the start of the year the bright spring sky once more reveals itself, some say that nothing has changed from the previous day. In fact, however, on that morning the heavens are suffused with a gentler sunlight, the chirping birds sound so truly vernal, and one’s sentiments are much invigorated.6 Truly spring has revealed itself. When in a poem Ki no Tsurayuki (c. 868–c. 945) writes, “As New Year’s Day dawns, all the world feels a change from the day before, for spring seems to have sprung in the heart,” one must admit that he has well captured the essence of spring.7 Yet none of the four seasons is inferior to the others: plum-blossom boughs are displayed (in spring); the cry of the first cuckoo (hotogisu) is heard (in summer); maple leaves are gathered (in autumn); and snow may be observed (in winter). Nevertheless, spring marks the start of the four seasons. Now qi of a yang nature begins to stir, and everything comes alive. In mountain depths, trees sprout new shoots; at hedges grasses begin to grow. Insects awaken and emerge; birds and beasts mate. And so it is for human beings. (In this sense), spring is truly superior to summer, fall, or winter and ought to be prized above the other three times of year. As the old adage has it, “A day’s task should be set ere the cock crows; a year’s task should be set in spring.”8 Everyone from the emperor on high to the samurai, farmer, artisan, and merchant below ought to resolve in spring all that they wish to accomplish in the forthcoming year.

I. (First Month). The Origin of the Name of the First Month The reason that the first of the twelve months is called “Shōgatsu” (正月, “Right Month”) rather than “Ichigatsu” (一月, “First Month”) is that it tops the 5.  This line is preceded by a table of contents that merely repeats section headings. I have omitted this, as well as analogous sections for the other Books below. 6. This passage draws on phrases from Kenkō’s fourteenth-century Tsurezure-gusa, pp. 104–105; Keene, Essays in Idleness, p. 19 (no. 19). 7.  Kyō akete kinō ni ninu wa, minabito no kokoro ni haru zo tachinuberanaru, verse no. 411 from the mid-tenth-century Tsurayuki-shū. The author cites a slightly different version. 8.  This derives from a Chinese notion regarding “four plans” (Ch. sìjì; J. shikei): “A day’s plan should be determined in the morning; a year’s plan, in spring; one’s life plan, by one’s work; one’s family’s plan, by one’s health.” The Nihon kokugo daijiten and other Japanese resources contend that this maxim is found in the Yueling guanyi (“Extended Annotations of Monthly Ordinances”; J. Getsurei kōgi), a work by the Chinese scholar Feng Yingjing (1555– 1606), but I cannot locate it there. It appears rather to be an old, oft-repeated, Chinese proverb of uncertain origins.

First Month  175

(lunisolar) year and may thus be likened to the presence of a right ruler. Such usage dates to the times of the (mythical Chinese emperors) Tang (Taotang or Yao) and Yu (Youyu or Shun).9 The determination of the “Right Month” relates to the fact that each of the four cardinal directions is associated with three horary signs.10 Spring stands for the east, which corresponds to the signs of the tiger, rabbit, and dragon. In consequence, the month of the tiger denotes the start of the year. Which month is to count as the first is also determined by the position of the Big Dipper.11 During the Xia dynasty (c. 2070–c. 1600 BCE) the first month was reckoned as the one in which the dipper’s handle points in the direction of the tiger. Then, during the Yin dynasty (or Shang dynasty, 1600–c. 1046 BCE) the first month was designated as the one in which the handle points in the direction of the ox—this is now the twelfth month. Thereafter, during the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 BCE), the first month was defined as the one in which the handle points in the direction of the rat—nowadays this is the eleventh month. Japan adhered to the ways of the Xia dynasty and designated the first month as that of the tiger. According to the (1446) Ainōshō, the name “Shōgatsu” (正月; Ch. zhēngyuè) originated during the age of the first emperor of Qin (Shihuangdi or Chin Shi Huang, 259–210 BCE), who was born during the month of the tiger. Since during this month the emperor thus descended to terrestrial realms solely to govern, the month was (first) labeled “Governing Month” (政月; Ch. zhèngyuè; J. seigatsu). This was later revised to (the nearly homophonous) “Right Month.” Since the component 文 (the right half of 政) signifies “kazari” (ornament), something not “right” (i.e., essential), it was expunged from the ideograph 政 to form the term “Right Month” (正月). This would help foster what is “right” on earth.12 The “Right Month” is also called “Mutsuki” (“Month of Affection”) because during this month both highborn and low go to and fro and in the process become

9.  See also Annaisha, p. 236. For a more plausible explanation, see Martzloff, Astronomy and Calendars, pp. 69–70. For Japanese historical sources regarding the name of the first month, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 5–8. On Chinese New Year’s festivals, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, pp. 45–220. 10.  The middle horary sign indicates the compass direction; it is flanked by horary signs each spanning a thirty-degree range. 11.  On various Chinese definitions of the start of the year, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, pp. 45–47. Bodde continues with an extended discussion of each type of New Year. 12.  Ainōshō, p. 287 (kan 8, no. 1). Note, however, that the ideograph “right” 正 in reference to the first month already appears in the Chunqiu (“Spring and Autumn Annals,” covering the period 722–481 BCE). See, for example, the first year of Duke Yin.

176   Book 1: Spring 

Figure 5.1  New Year’s ceremonies, music, and dance, with courtiers, warriors, and a priest participating.

more affectionate (mutsumajiku). As is explained in the Ōgishō (“Extracts of the Deepest Meanings”) by (Fujiwara no) Kiyosuke (1104–1177), what should properly be pronounced mutsubi-zuki was then abbreviated to “Mutsuki.”13 The first month is also known as “Mōshun” (“Start of Spring”), “Tangetsu” (“Boundary Month”), and “Sūgetsu” (“Month of Assembling”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (system of pitches) it corresponds to taizoku (or taisō; Ch. tàicù, “large collection”).14

13.  Information on the origins of month names here and below is based on the poetry treatise Ōgishō (compiled 1124–1144), p. 252, which considers most such abbreviations misusage. 14.  The twelve ritsu (Ch. lǜ) form an ascending chromatic pitch set from which scales may be derived. Japanese and Chinese forms and nomenclature of the ritsu or lǜ differed, but for correlations to the calendar, Chinese names were normally employed. According to the Hou Han shu (compiled in 445 CE and treating the history of the Han dynasty from 6 CE to 189 CE; in this book, see Zhi, “Lü li, shang”), the fundamental pitch was determined by blowing into a pitch pipe nine sun (c. twenty-seven centimeters) in length. Tàicù was the third pitch of the scale, a major second above the fundamental. The practice of relating the months to pitches (and much else) is already found in the Chinese Yueling, a source with which Namura Jōhaku was evidently familiar.

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New Year’s Day.15 Called “Day of the Cock” (Keijitsu).16 (Unlike the first day of other months) this day is not called tsuitachi (“calends”) or ichinichi (“first day”) but rather “Ganjitsu” (“Beginning Day” or “Fundamental Day”). The first day of the first month is also known as the “day of three beginnings” (“Sangen No Hi”) because it marks the beginning of the year (toshi), the (beginning of the succession of) days (hi), and the (beginning of the succession of) hours (toki).17 In Japan the two ideographs of “Sangen” may be reversed and read “Ganzan” (or “Gansan”). 1. “First water” (wakamizu).18 Drinking the year’s first well water before dawn on New Year’s Day offers year-round protection from pestilential qi. Such water is drawn by a man born in a year whose horary sign corresponds to the year in question. In China such a “man of the year” is known as fāngxiàngshì (J. hōshōshi or hōsōshi).19 At the (Japanese) imperial court an official from the Water Bureau (Mondo no Tsukasa or Shusuishi) fetches the water and offers it to the emperor. 2. Medicinal sake (tososhu or toso).20 From New Year’s Eve a dose of tososan medicinal powder is placed into a vermilion pouch that is suspended into a well. Then at daybreak on New Year’s the pouch is pulled up and the contents are steeped

15.  For citations from Japanese sources concerning New Year’s Day customs, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 203–317. 16.  Also Keitan, perhaps analogous to the cry of the cock announcing the arrival of the morning. The source of Chinese associations of the first six days of the year with animals, and 1/7 with humans, seems to be a book of divination (zhan shu) by the Daoist magician and author Dongfang Shuo (154–93 BCE). This conception is presented in the Jingchu suishiji (no. 8) as the thought of Dong Xun in his third-century Wen lisu (“Questions on Rites and Customs”) (see Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 330, and Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u suishih chi, p. 68). See also Nensai shūda, p. 4, and Nihon saijiki, p. 451. 17.  As the author explains below for 10/15, “Sangen” more commonly referred to the days 1/15 (“Jōgen”), 7/15 (“Chūgen”), and 10/15 (“Kagen” or “Gegen”). See also note 80 below. 18.  See also Kuji kongen, p. 14; Seigen mondō, pp. 668–669; Ainōshō, p. 164 (kan 4, no. 27); and Nihon saijiki, p. 443. 19.  In China, the fāngxiàngshì was a ritual exorcist, either officially employed by the court or working in a private capacity. See Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 366, and Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, p. 150. For a discussion, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, pp. 77–80, and https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Fangxiangshi. In Japan the hōsōshi assumed multiple functions, including that of exorciser (or the demon himself) in “Tsuina” rituals, which were performed on the last day of winter at court (see 12/30, no. 2, below). 20. On toso and other New Year’s medicinal preparations, see Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 3–9; Seigen mondō, p. 667; Nensai shūda, p. 3; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 205 (kan 6); and Nihon saijiki, pp. 444, 544, 546–547.

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in sake.21 The resulting liquor is consumed by every member of the family, starting from the youngest. Once the seniors have finished their share, no one in the house will suffer from a pestilence throughout the year. This custom originated in China. In Japan it dates from the Kōnin period (810–824), during the reign of Emperor Saga (r. 809–823). At the Imperial Palace, toso is presented to the emperor only after being imbibed by unmarried damsels known as “medicine girls” (kusurigo).22 3. Praying to the four directions (shihōhai).23 At the hour of the tiger (c. four o’clock in the morning) on New Year’s Day, the emperor prays to heaven and earth and to each of the four cardinal directions with their hills and mountains (and the kami residing therein). Non-aristocrats should also purify themselves from the end of the year, perform ablutions, and pray to various deities in heaven, on earth, and in the four directions. 4. Morning obeisances and salutations (chōhai chōga).24 On New Year’s Day vassals of the court offer auspicious greetings and pay their respects to the emperor. Non-aristocrats also don formal garments (kamishimo) and extend felicitous New Year’s greetings: vassals pay respects to their lords, children to their fathers, and friends to each other. This is popularly called “making the rounds of greeting” (rei ni ariku). 5. New Year’s banquets (gannichi no sechie); 25 the “presentation of the ice report” (hi no tameshi [no sō]); the “presentation of a red-bellied fish” (haraka no nie [or sō]). These are all court rituals. After the conclusion of morning obeisances in the palace, the master of ceremonies (naiben daijin) seats himself in the assembly hall (Jinnoza) and supervises the New Year’s banquet (sechie).26 For the “presentation of the ice report,” the condition of the ice in diverse locations is 21.  A safflower dye rendered the pouch an auspicious vermilion. Tososan, purportedly first transmitted to Japan from Tang China, was typically concocted from a blend of ingredients including Atractylodes macrocephala (White Atractylodes Rhizome; Ch. báizhú), Japanese pepper (Zanthoxylum piperitum), Chinese bellflower (Platycodon grandiflorus), cinnamon, siler (Ch. fángfēng; Saposhnikovia divaricata), and tangerine rind. 22.  See also Kuji kongen, pp. 2–4, and Ainōshō, p. 162 (kan 4, no. 22). 23.  This ancient custom eventually became a regular New Year’s court ritual. See Dairi gishiki, p. 3; Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon, p. 142; Gōke shidai, pp. 1–4; Hokuzanshō, p. 243; Kuji kongen, pp. 1–2; and Ainōshō, pp. 161–162 (kan 4, no. 21). 24.  See also Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 11–12; Kuji kongen, pp. 4–5; and Ainōshō, pp. 162–163 (kan 4, no. 23). 25.  For detail on these ceremonies, see Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 12–15; Gōke shidai, pp. 9–32; Kuji kongen, pp. 7–12; and the 1446 Ainōshō, pp. 163–164 (kan 4, no. 25), from which the information presented here was probably taken. 26.  The Jinnoza, near the Shishinden, was built for the imperial bodyguards and served chiefly as a room for discussing affairs of state.

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described, and a piece of last year’s ice is tendered at the banquet. For the “presentation of a red-bellied fish,” trout from Tsukushi (Kyūshū) is offered.27 6. Hōrai.28 This refers to an offering stand loaded with chestnuts, Japanese nutmeg kernels (J. kaya; Toreya nucifera), tangerines, smooth-fruited orange (J. kōji; Citrus leiocarpa), and lobster. These are presented to guests and admired. The offering stand used to celebrate good luck is called hōrai because Mt. Hōrai (Ch. Penglai-shan) on a (mythical Chinese) island is inhabited by holy hermits. The Chinese (call such an offering stand) a “spring plate” (Ch. chūnpán; J. shunban) and sample its items at the start of the year. 7. The “great draught” (ōbuku). This refers to tea drinking on the morning of New Year’s Day. In his Classic of Tea, Lu Tong (790–835) celebrates good luck by noting, “With the sixth cup I commune with the immortals.”29 The ideograph of “draught” (服, fuku or -buku) is homophonous with “luck” (福, fuku), so the term ōbuku connotes “great luck.” Moreover, if a pickled plum is added to a cup of tea, this relates to spring. Cooling hot tea (by diluting it with cold water) is called mumeru, so this too is believed to relate to the plum (mume). In a hokku composed by (a poet from the school of Matsunaga) Teitoku (1571–1654) one reads, “Is it the heat of the great draught, Friar Plum?”30 8. “Tooth firming” (ha-gatame).31 For this one faces (an offering stand laden with) round, mirror-shaped glutinous rice cakes (kagami mochi). “Hardening teeth” signifies rejuvenation. In China, on New Year’s Day, a gummy candy (Ch. jiāoyáxíng; J. kōgatō; literally “sticky tooth sugar”) is consumed.32 This term 27.  Thick ice in the imperial ice vault or on ponds implied a bountiful harvest during the upcoming year; thin ice, the opposite. The trout was supplied by the Dazaifu, the government headquarters in Kyūshū. The fish was presented to the emperor by the Imperial Table Office (Naizenshi). See Dairi shiki, p. 30, and Charlier, Das Dairi-shiki, p. 132. 28.  See also Nihon saijiki, p. 441. 29.  The citation is from Lu Tong’s poem “Seven Bowls of Tea” (“Qiwanshi”) rather than the Chajing (“Classic of Tea,” by Lu Yu, 733–804). For a translation see Okakura, The Book of Tea, pp. 34–35. 30.  Ōbuku no cha no atsusa ni ya mume-hōshi. From Enoko-shū, p. 67 (kan 1), a collection of haikai published in 1633. The verse is by one “Gudō.” Hōshi refers to a humble cleric, and mume-hōshi mimics and personifies the pickled plum (umeboshi). Such a plum is a flaming red, thus perhaps resembling a monk who has emerged from scalding water—or is (dissolutely) drunk. For more on ōbuku, see Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 247–248. 31.  See also Seigen mondō, pp. 667–668; Nihon saijiki, pp. 443–444; and Book 6, no. 12, below. Ha in the term ha-gatame may refer to age (yowai or rei) and by implication, longevity, while katame can also mean to fortify, protect, or guard. 32.  Kōgatō is here glossed as kōgasei. The source of the information may be the entry for New Year’s Day in Jingchu suishiji (no. 5; see Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 324, and Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, p. 56).

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denotes “congealed glue” (Ch. jiāogù; J. kōko or nikawa-katashi) and is of a piece with the Japanese ha-gatame. 9. Glutinous rice cakes (zōni).33 Cakes thus named are boiled (in a soup or stew) and eaten on this morning. The cakes of ha-gatame should be consumed.34 When glutinous rice cakes called kagami mochi are shaped to resemble round mirrors and offered to the kami in the morning, this replicates the moment when a mirror was hung before the “Celestial Cave” to entertain (and lure out the sun goddess) Amaterasu-ōmikami with performances of divine dances (kagura).35 This became the precedent for the popular custom of boiling and reverently eating mirror-shaped glutinous rice cakes, later known as zōni. The theory that the practice imitates the consumption of the entrails of (the mythical half-beastly bronze-headed Chinese tyrant) Chiyou (J. Shiyū) is baseless. In China, “spring pancakes” (Ch. chūnbǐng; J. shunbei) (into which edibles are wrapped) are offered on the first day of spring. Long ago, residents of Ōtachi (Ōita) County made their way to a spacious plain in Kusu County of Bungo Province (Ōita Prefecture), where they built houses and rice paddies and settled down.36 Families flourished and life was joyous. Once, when the residents wished to practice archery, they found they had no proper target. Hence they tied up glutinous rice cakes and launched arrows at these, but the cakes promptly turned into swans that flew away. Afterward, the settlement steadily declined, and finally it faded away. Nothing remained save a barren plain. During the Tenpyō period (729–749), a man named Kuni from Hayami County came to this spot and constructed rice paddies, but soon his seedlings withered and died. He was stunned and frightened, gave up on growing rice, and abandoned the area. Glutinous rice cakes are a source of auspiciousness, but since they are propitious kami, they naturally weaken (over time). Glutinous rice cakes seem to be prized at the start of the year because they signify good luck. Two persons may face one another and pull apart a cake in what is popularly called “pulling for

33.  Written with the ideographs “miscellany” and “boiled.” See also Nensai shūda, pp. 2–3, and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 248–249. 34.  See no. 8 above. 35. See TFS, note 242. 36.  This tale is based on the Bungo no kuni fudoki, as cited in the encyclopedia Chiribukuro, vol. 2, pp. 612–614 (kan 9), written between 1271 and 1284. See also Fudoki, pp. 514–515.

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luck” (fukubiki).37 According to the Ainōshō, at the Inner Palace, glutinous rice cakes are called “lucky life sweets” (fukushōka).38 10. Pine-branch ornaments (kadomatsu).39 When the kami Susanoo-nomikoto journeyed to the southern provinces, he begged (the wealthy) Kotan Shōrai for lodging but was rebuffed. The kami was incensed and slew Kotan.40 In Hoki naiden (“The Inner Transmission of the Sacred Bowl”), by (the prognosticator Abe no) Seimei (921–1005), one reads that New Year’s pine-branch ornaments replicate the pine that grew on Kotan’s tomb, but this explanation does not warrant credence.41 At New Year’s, pine and bamboo are probably displayed at doorways to celebrate that they endure for a thousand years. 11. Fern fronds (shida) and yuzuriha (the ornamental shrub Daphniphyllum macropodum).42 These items are used because the ideographs for “fern” 歯朶 (shida) may be read “age branches” (yowai no eda), which in turn relates to the term “to bequeath” (yuzuru, as in yuzuriha or yuzuruha).43 Ferns typically grow deep in the mountains and do not succumb to snow or frost. Apropos yuzuriha, one says “as ever-youthful as yuzuriha” (yuzuriha o toko-manzai), so thanks to this Japanese expression, the plant serves as an auspicious item. 12. Sacred ropes (shimenawa).44 Such ropes originated when Amaterasuōmikami emerged from the “Celestial Cave” and two kami, Nakatomi and Inbe 37.  The participant who ends up with the greater portion is considered the lucky winner for the upcoming year. 38.  Such an entry does not appear in the 1446 dictionary Ainōshō but only in its 1532 expanded version (with 201 additional entries), entitled Jinten ainōshō (p. 62, kan 3, no. 27). The entry in fact already surfaces in the thirteenth-century Chiribukuro, vol. 2, p. 614 (kan 9), on which the Jinten ainōshō often relies. 39.  Apotropaic New Year’s pine branches are already mentioned in the Chinese Jingchu suishiji (no. 4; see Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 323, and Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, p. 54). See also Seigen mondō, pp. 665–666, and Nihon saijiki, p. 444; in English, see Casal, The Five Sacred Festivals, pp. 3–6. 40. See TFS, note 36, and Nihon saijiki, p. 445. 41.  Hoki naiden, p. 379. 42.  These items are used in kadomatsu displays (no. 10 above) or are attached to sacred ropes (no. 12 below). In English, see Casal, The Five Sacred Festivals, pp. 7–8. 43.  Yuzuriha symbolized the process of bequeathing something to a succeeding generation (see, for example, the 1712 encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue, vol. 15, pp. 244–245; Book 84 in the original), for on its branches the young leaflets grow to a healthy size before the old leaves drop off. This symbolizes that the parent relegates its position to its mature offspring. Yet the plant may originally have been considered auspicious simply on account of its being an evergreen. On ferns, see Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 230–231. 44.  Such rice-straw ropes are hung above entryways. See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 444–446; in English, see Casal, The Five Sacred Festivals, pp. 8–11.

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Figure 5.2  Above: auspicious “pinebranch ornaments,” bamboo, ferns, and a sacred rope decorate a shrine entrance, while a priest offers a stand laden with “mirror rice cakes.” Below: an indoor warrior-class New Year’s celebration with trays and boxes of edibles.

(Imibe), roped off the cavern with a rice-straw cord to stop her (from reentering).45 (In a sacred rope) three, five, and seven strands are twined, for the celestial deities (tendō) are fifteen in number. The rope is twisted to the left because celestial realms rotate in a counterclockwise manner. On New Year’s Day, the Chinese hang a sacred rope, known as lúsuǒ (J. rusaku), above the door (to deny entry to demons).46 45. See Nihon shoki, jō, p. 113, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 45. 46.  Apotropaic rush ropes suspended above doorways are already mentioned in the Jingchu suishiji (no. 4; see Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 323, and Turban, Das ChingCh’u sui-shih chi, pp. 53–55). See also the section Sidian, the eighth chapter of the book Fengsu tongyi (J. Fūzoku tsūgi, “Comprehensive Meanings of Customs and Mores”), written by Ying Shao around 195 CE.

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13. Charcoal sticks (sumigashira). These accompany New Year’s pine-branch displays. According to Bencao gangmu (J. Honzō kōmoku; “Classified Materia Medica”), if charcoal is placed within the house on New Year’s Eve, malevolent forces will be kept at bay year-round.47 14. The year’s auspicious direction (toshitoku ehō). Of the ten celestial stems, the five e stems exhibit a yang effect, and the five to stems, a yin effect.48 The five e directions are considered the basic directions and are the lucky ones of that year. They are not kami. 15. From the first to the fourth days of the year, New Year’s ceremonies (shūshōe, “renewal assembly” or “assembly for making amends”) at Buddhist temples of the “Eastern Towers” of Mt. Hiei. At the temples of the “Western Towers” and the Yokawa region these ceremonies continue until the third day of the year. 16. On the first day of the year, a nighttime Goō prayer ritual (kaji) at Ninnaji in the Kitano area.49 17. From the first to the third days of the year a self-portrait of Ganzan Daishi (Ryōgen, 912–985) is displayed at a public exhibit (kaichō) at Hanjūin.50 18. On New Year’s Day a self-portrait of Tenjin (Sugawara no Michizane, 845–903) is displayed at a public exhibit at the Rokujō Dōjō (Kankikōji). 19. On this month’s first “day of the tiger” everyone undertakes pilgrimages to the Bishamon at the Kurama Temple.51 47.  Bencao gangmu is a fifty-two-volume work compiled by Li Shizhen (1518–1593) and completed c. 1587. It later underwent numerous revisions and was republished in various guises and editions in both China and Japan. For a discussion, see Marcon, The Knowledge of Nature, esp. pp. 55–74. For the effect of charcoal, see Bencao gangmu, Book 6 (vol. 6, frame 25 of the online version). 48.  Ki-no-e, hi-no-e, tsuchi-no-e, ka-no-e, and mizu-no-e are associated with forces of yang and represent, in order, east, south, center, west, and north. Ki-no-to, hi-no-to, tsuchi-no-to, kano-to, and mizu-no-to are considered forces of yin. The lucky direction of the year is the one from which Toshitoku-jin, the goddess of that year’s luck, arrived. Because to years are by nature unlucky, each was associated with a respective e year. For more on the ten celestial stems, see Book 6, no. 1, below. The writer uses the ideographs “fundamental direction” (元方) to write ehō, but the ideographs “blessed direction” (恵方) or “lucky direction” (吉方) are more common. 49.  Goō refers to Gozu Tennō (“Heavenly Ox-Head King”), a syncretic Japanese divinity. In conjunction with this esoteric apotropaic ritual, temples throughout the land issued lucky amulets known as Goō hōin. See also TFS, sixth month, no. 1. 50.  Ryōgen was the eighteenth abbot of Enryakuji and, by extension, the head of Tendaischool Buddhism in all Japan. He was popularly known as Ganzan Daishi (“Great Master of the Third Day of the Year”) and was awarded the posthumous name Jie Daishi. In addition to his contributing much to the revitalization of Enryakuji, his spirit was widely revered as apotropaic. 51.  For details, see TFS, first month, no. 2.

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20. On the second “day of the monkey,” a planting ritual (taue) at the Kasuga Shrine in Nara. 21. On this month’s last “day of the rat,” a “lantern-grass ritual” (nentōmatsuri or nentō-sai) at the Upper Kamo Shrine.52 22. On the four days from this month’s first “day of the monkey” to the “day of the boar,” a sacred ritual (shinji) at Hasaso-no-mori (Hōsono Shrine).53 Second day. Called “Day of the Dog” (kujitsu). 1. “First equestrian flights” (hime-hajime). This refers to the first time that warriors ride their horses each year. For warrior houses it is the day of the first archery; for farmers, the first tilling; for merchants, the first sale; for sailors or boatmen, the first boat ride. 2. Water showers (mizukake). Men who have newly married during the previous year are showered with water. This custom dates from the Eiroku period (1558– 1570), when Matsunaga Danjō (Hisahide, 1508–1577), a retainer of the Mi­yoshi clan in Awa Province (Tokushima Prefecture), gave his niece in marriage to a favored liegeman. In Kyoto, however, the practice was prohibited during the days when Itakura served as the Kyoto deputy, and today the custom has died out.54 3. The “first cutting board” (manaita hajime). The Takahashi and Ōsumi houses both serve at the Imperial Palace.55 4. “Pine ensemble music” (matsubayashi), performed at the Western Honganji and Eastern Honganji.56 52.  Today this ritual occurs on the second “day of the rat” in February. A group of shrine priests first ventures out to pick pine seedlings. After returning, the priests arrange the branches, add mountain coronate sawwort (J. nentōgusa, “lantern grass,” now called tamura-sō; Serratula coronata var. insularis), and offer the sheaf to the deities. 53.  Every year the shrine presents a three-day “seclusion ritual” (igomori-matsuri; see Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 275–276). The first day features a secret nocturnal service in which a priest intones spells at a wooded spot called Furoi. On the second day, the monks perform a nighttime torchlight planting ritual (onda no gi) employing a diminutive wooden plow. The third day is marked by a tug-of-war with a huge rope fashioned from straw and bamboo. 54.  Itakura Katsushige (1545–1624) was the first Kyoto deputy, serving from 1601 to 1619. His son Shigemune held the same post from 1619 to 1654, as did the latter’s son, Shigenori, from 1668 to 1670. During the early Edo period, the custom of water showers seems to have spread to the populace, but it eventually died out. See Groemer, trans., Portraits of Edo, pp. 153–154. 55.  For details on these two houses of chefs, see Ishii, Nihon ryōri-hō taisei, pp. 23–54. Manaita hajime was also known as hōchō hajime (“first knife”) or manaita-biraki (“opening the cutting board”). The event in question was no doubt more a formal ceremony than the practical preparation of a meal. 56.  For the meaning and history of this felicitous New Year’s genre, see Rath, The Ethos of Noh, esp. pp. 42–47.

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5. Tengu drinking party (tengu no sakamori). At the Otagi (Nenbutsu) Temple, “bow-string makers” (tsurusashi) of the Kiyomizu Slope stage a drinking party. It is called a tengu drinking party because they make a racket beating on drums and sounding conch shells.57 Third day. Called “Day of the Boar” (chojitsu). 1. “Third-day assembly for the great master” (Ganzan Taishi-e), at the Yokawa and “Western Towers” on Mt. Hiei.58 2. Linked verses written on the front side of paper (urajiro renga). This takes place at Shōbaiin of the Kitano (Tenman Shrine).59 Fourth day. Called “Day of the Ram” (yōjitsu). “First kickball performance” (shukiku hajime or kemari hajime) at the Asukai house.60 Fifth day. Called “Day of the Ox” (gyūjitsu). 1. “First carpentry” (kozukuri hajime), a (ceremony) at the Imperial Palace. Senzu manzai and sarugaku are performed.61 2. A depiction of the Five-Hundred Arhats (Gohyaku Rakan), painted by Chō Densu (1352–1431), is displayed at Tōfukuji.62 Sixth day. Called “Day of the Horse” (bajitsu). 1. Sacred nō of Sannō (Sannō shinji-nō) at the Ninomiya Shrine (of the Hiyoshi Shrine multiplex) in Sakamoto of Ōmi Province. Hiyoshi-daifu performs.63 57. The tengu (“heavenly dog”) is a dangerous mythical creature with both human and avian features. Tsurusashi, also known as tsurumeso, were a class of humble temple servitors who originally manufactured bow strings. Nowadays the festival is held in fall. Monks wearing long-nosed tengu masks launch arrows into the sky and strike drums. 58.  The occasion commemorates the death of Ryōgen (see note 50 above). 59.  Some one hundred linked verses were composed at such an assembly. Normally verses were written on both the front and back of four sheets of paper, but on this occasion eight sheets of paper were employed, perhaps so that a new piece of paper could be used if a mistake had been made at the outset. The term urajiro also refers to a fern (Gleichenia japonica) whose fronds were an auspicious New Year’s decoration. See also Book 5, no. 2, below, and Yōshūfushi, pp. 77–78 (kan 3). 60.  See also TFS, 7/7, no. 1, and 7/7, no. 10, below. 61.  Senzu manzai (here glossed senju manzai) was an auspicious popular performing art in which two performers, usually of low social status, sang and danced. See Rath, The Ethos of Noh, pp. 46–47, 66–67. Sarugaku refers to the nō drama or its predecessors. 62.  On Tōfukuji and Chō Densu, see TFS, second month, no. 4. Tōfukuji owns a set of forty-five scroll-paintings of the five hundred arhats. 63.  For a detailed study of Hiyoshi-daifu, a member of the Kanze school, see Miyamoto, “Edo-ki no Hiyoshi-daifu.” In fact, Hiyoshi-daifu (Gondayū) was fired by the shrine in 1689 for tarrying too long in Edo, and thereafter nobody was hired permanently to present the sacred nō. Sannō, literally “Mountain King,” is the central kami of the multiplex on Mt. Hiei and is worshiped throughout the land.

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2. Lottery at the abbot’s hall (hōjō) of Kōdaiji.64 Seventh day. Called “Day of Humans” (jinjitsu). This counts as the first of the “five festive occasions” (go-sekku). 1. The “Blue Roans Banquet” (Aoba [or Aouma] no Sechie). The horse is a beast of yang, and blue (aoi) is a color of spring.65 One reads in the classics that if one views a blue roan (on this occasion), malevolent qi will be dispelled throughout the year. The emperor inspects (such horses) on this day. Exceptionally white horses exhibit a bluish hue, so the emperor reviews white horses. (The genre called) “spring pony” (harugoma) (performed by) youngsters begins at this time.66 2. “Seven herbs” (nanakusa) and “young greens” (wakana). Today a rice porridge with seven herbs is consumed.67 On the month’s first “day of the rat,” young greens and seven herbs are presented as offerings. This practice began during the reign of Emperor Uda (r. 887–897). As a poem puts it, Parsley, shepherd’s purse, purslane, chickweed, henbit, turnip, and giant white radish are the “seven herbs” 68

64.  At Zen temples the hōjō is the main temple edifice where the abbot lived and where statues of the Buddha or temple founders were often displayed. The current hōjō of Kōdaiji was rebuilt in 1912. 65.  The paragraph relies on Kuji kongen, pp. 21–22; Seigen mondō, p. 669; and Ainōshō, p. 171 (kan 5, no. 2). The ideographs “white horse” 白馬 are here glossed “blue horse” (aoba, aouma), but, as the Kuji kongen notes, the word was sometimes written with the ideographs “blue horse” 青馬. According to Chinese wǔxíng philosophy, 青 (ao, which includes shades that would in the West be considered green) represents a color of yang and is associated with spring. For Edo-period sources concerning this banquet, see also Annaisha, p. 228; Hinami kiji, p. 13; Nihon saijiki, p. 452; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 269–270. 66.  Harugoma was an auspicious art in which performers, usually of very low social status, sang and danced before doorways while holding a small prop in the shape of a horse’s head. See Groemer, “Who Benefits?,” pp. 356–364. 67.  This custom is already mentioned in the Jingchu suishiji (no. 8; see Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 330, and Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, p. 68). See also Seigen mondō, p. 669; Nensai shūda, p. 4; Nihon saijiki, p. 452; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 271–273. 68.  Seri nazuna gogyō hakobera hotokenoza, suzuna suzushiro kore zo nanakusa, a verse that arranges the herbs into a 5–7–5–7–7-syllable waka format. Two similar verses are cited in Ainōshō, p. 13 (kan 1, no. 2). A listing of herbs can also be found in Kuji kongen, p. 15. Shepherd’s purse is Capsella bursa-pastoris; purslane is Portulaca oleracea; chickweed is Stellaria media; henbit is Lamium amplexicaule. See also Kuji kongen, pp. 28–29; Annaisha, p. 229; Hinami kiji, p. 13; Nenjū gyōji hishō, p. 482; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 271.

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3. “‘Day-of-the-rat’ entertainment” (ne-no-hi no asobi). In olden times the populace went into the wilds and “did the rat day” (ne-no-hi suru) by pulling up (auspicious) pine saplings.69 The emperor participated too, but nowadays the custom has died out. 4. On this day, a morningtime sacred ritual (shinji) at the (upper) Kamo Shrine.70 5. At Mt. Minoo (Ryūanji, Settsu Province), crowds gather at the “lottery of Benzaiten-nyo.”71 6. From today until the sixteenth day of the month, the year’s first Amida invocations at Saga (and the) “Enma Hall” (Enmadō).72 Eighth day. Called “Day of Grain” (kokujitsu). 1. From today until the fourteenth day of the month, a “purification ceremony” (gosai-e) and a “second-week esoteric ritual” (go shichinichi no mishihō [or mishuhō]) at the Imperial Palace.73 2. At the Kūya Hall “bowl beaters” (hachitataki) conduct a ceremony marking the start of their activities.74 69.  This quotes Kuji kongen, p. 15. See also Nihon saijiki, p. 453. On the first “day of the rat,” pulling up of pine seedlings supplied auspicious twigs for adorning one’s house or person. Herbs were also picked, and the Shoku Nihongi (vol. 2, p. 416) reports that courtiers already participated in a banquet with music and song on this day in the Tenpyō 15 (743/1/12). 70.  Again a white horse was led around the grounds and exhibited (see also no. 1 above). Then in a “festival of young greens” (wakana-sechi) a porridge with the “seven herbs” was cooked, offered to the deities, and consumed. See also Kuji kongen, pp. 14–15. 71. See Kyō habutae, pp. 70–71. This temple, purportedly the originator of Japanese lotteries, seems to have awarded only special talismans rather than cash prizes. The temple also possesses what it touts as the oldest statue of Benzaiten (Myōon Benzaiten; Skt. Sarasvatī) in Japan, reputedly dating to 658 CE. 72.  The author writes “Saga Enmadō,” but no “Enma Hall” is found at Saga. The reference may thus be to the Saga Shakyamuni Hall (Seiryōji) and the Senbon Enma Hall (Injōji). See TFS, third month, no. 2. 73.  At the gosai-e or misai-e, possibly originating in 766 CE (see the fourteenth-century Shoreishō, p. 21) but abandoned after the Ōnin Wars, worthy monks came to the Daigokuden (later Seiryōden) of the Imperial Palace to consume vegetarian fare, recite the “Golden Light Sutra” (J. Konkōmyō-kyō; Ch. Jin guang ming jing; Skt. Suvarṇa-prabhāsa sutra; see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 663), and engage in discussions or debates. This occasion, long considered one of the grandest of the year, guaranteed national security and bountiful harvests. See Kurabayashi, Kyōen no kenkyū (Saiji, sakuin-hen), pp. 213–267, 395–429; in English, see De Visser, Ancient Buddhism in Japan, vol. 1, pp. 471–479. The Go shichinichi no mishuhō, which dates from Jōwa 1 (834) (see Genkō shakusho, p. 347 [kan 23]), disappeared during the late Muromachi period but was reinstated in the early Edo period. It was a secret Shingon Buddhist ritual designed to ensure the personal health and safety of the emperor and the fortunes of the state. See Lillehoj, Art and Palace Politics in Early Modern Japan, pp. 108–111. 74.  On the Kūya Hall and hachitataki, see also TFS, eleventh month, no. 2.

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Figure 5.3  A priest at Ryūanji manufactures lottery tickets for the Benzaiten lottery.

Tenth day. At the Imamiya (Ebisu) Shrine in Settsu Province (Ōsaka-shi), “Pilgrimages to Ebisu” (Ebisu Mairi). This is popularly called “tenth-day Ebisu” (tōka Ebisu).75 Eleventh day. 1. (Eating) “armor rice cakes” (gusoku mochi[-biraki]).76 Originally this event was celebrated on the twentieth day of the month (see below), but because that 75. The tōka Ebisu celebration of 1/10 at the Imamiya Ebisu Jinja is still attended by crowds today. Rice, sake, and seafood are offered to the divinity. Ebisu counts as one of the “Seven Deities of Fortune” (Shichi Fukujin). He is often paired with Daikokuten (another of the Seven Deities of Fortune, specifically of grain) and the team is said to protect shopkeepers and merchants and elevate their profits. For a study of these deities, see Casal, Die sieben Glücksgötter. See also Annaisha, p. 230; Hinami kiji, p. 15; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 276–277. 76.  See also Nihon saijiki, p. 454. Warrior houses displayed armor and helmets at New Year’s, in front of which they placed round “mirror rice cakes.” These were consumed on 1/11.

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date fell on the day of the death of shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604–1651), in 1652 it was moved to the eleventh day of the month. 2. At night, the “first assembly” at Yamazaki.77 Thirteenth day. At Kōfukuji in Nara, a reading of the “Heart Sutra” (Hannya shingyō). Fourteenth day. 1. On this night Kyoto inhabitants kindle outdoor bonfires and revel until dawn. The same practice is found in China, and in the Wudiji (“Records of Wu Prefecture”) one finds it called xiāng nuǎn rè (J. sōdannetsu, “mutual warmth”).78 Long ago (in Japan) tug-of-war competitions were also staged. 2. At the (Upper) Kamo Shrine, presentation of offering stand(s) (of items donated by parishioners) (otana-kazari).79 Fifteenth day. Called “Jōgen.”80 1. “Exploding bamboo” (i.e., firecrackers).81 According to the Shenyijing (J. Shin’i gyō, “Classic of Deities and Wonders”), deep in the western mountains 77.  According to Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 287–288, this meeting took place at the residence of the priest of the Rikyū Hachiman Shrine. It included food, dance, a reading of rules, and a conferral of licenses on oil sellers. The shrine had long managed the guild of lamp-oil producers and vendors (Ōyamazaki abura-za). During the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, the association enjoyed a monopoly on the manufacture and vending of oil, but its power had largely disappeared by the Edo period. Hinami kiji, p. 15, gives 1/10 as the date of the “first meeting” (which it labels kai-hajime rather than kaigō-hajime) and explains that locals make offerings and stage a banquet, but Kyō habutae oridome, p. 343, also dates the event to the night of 1/11. For a detailed study of lamp-oil merchants in this region, see Gay, “The LampOil Merchants of the Iwashimizu Shrine.” 78. The Wudiji is a gazetteer of Wu Prefecture, an ancient name used during the Qin and Han (221 BCE–220 CE) for the seat of Guiji (today Suzhou). It was drafted by the Tang-period scholar Lu Guangwei and contains a supplement by an anonymous author dated 876 CE. The work does not seem to include a reference to xiāng nuǎn rè, but the term with a different but similar middle ideograph is found in Shihu shiji (vol. 30), a collection of poetry by Fan Chengda (1126–1193). This suggests that such bonfires were indeed a New Year’s custom of the Southern Song dynasty. 79.  For details, see Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 286. 80.  A Daoist designation, “Jōgen” (“Upper Beginning”) was one of the three “beginnings” (“Sangen”) of the year, along with “Chūgen” (“Middle Beginning,” 7/15) and “Kagen” or “Gegen” (“Lower Beginning,” 10/15). See also 10/15, no. 3 below. In ancient China various offerings were presented at doorways (see Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, pp. 78–80). In Japan 1/15, which fell on the first full moon of the year, was also celebrated as “minor New Year” (ko-shōgatsu). “Chūgen” was an important date for awarding gifts and doubled as the day of the “Bon” festival. “Kagen” was never observed in Japan. On “Jōgen” and its events, see Nensai shūda, pp. 5–8. 81.  The term 爆竹, usually read bakuchiku, is here glossed sagichō (see note 83 below). In China, firecrackers made of sections of bamboo filled with gunpowder were usually associated with 1/1 rather than 1/15. For citations from Japanese sources regarding firecrackers on this

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(in China) one encounters a being called a shānsào (J. sansō), which stands slightly over a foot tall.82 Whoever assaults it will be afflicted with chills and fever. It is alarmed by the sound of exploding bamboo and runs away. The din of firecrackers also dispels congested yin qi and in many cases frightens off other sources of evil (jaki, malevolent qi). This is the origin of the sagichō ritual. Some say that sagichō is properly written with the ideographs “left, honor, and chief” (左義長) or “three, bamboo container, pole” (三笈杖), but these theories are not tenable.83 On the night of 1/15, pine-branch ornaments, sacred ropes, and the like are incinerated (signaling the end of the New Year’s season). 2. Rice porridge with adzuki beans (azuki-gayu) is consumed on this day.84 This custom originated during the Kanpei (or Kanpyō) period (889–898). The Kuji kongen states that when in China the daughter of Gaoxin Shi (the mythical emperor Ku, r. 2436–2366 BCE) died (on 1/15) her spirit tormented the populace.85 The girl had always relished rice porridge with adzuki beans, so (to stave off misfortune) there arose a custom of preparing and offering such a porridge. 3. At the Saga Seiryōji, a public exhibit of an image of the Shakyamuni Buddha. Repeated on the same (fifteenth) day of the fifth and ninth months.86 Sixteenth day. 1. Banquet of “step songs” (tōka no sechie).87 This is also called “banquet of flushed faces with ‘running songs’ ” (arare-bashiri no toyo no akari). In the past occasion, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 344–357. See also Seigen mondō, p. 670; Nihon saijiki, pp. 456–457; and Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 55 (kan 2) and 254 (kan 7). 82. See Shenyijing, section 41; also Jingchu suishiji (no. 3; see Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 322; Swartz et al., Early Medieval China, p. 474; and Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u suishih chi, p. 51). Shenyijing is often attributed to the Daoist scholar Donfang Shuo from the former Han period (206 BCE–8 CE) but was more likely written during the fifth or sixth centuries. The shānsào is described as having a human countenance and the body of a monkey. The Japanese sub-species was often called yamawaro. 83.  Sagichō refers to bonfires kindled at the Shinsen’en garden and elsewhere in Kyoto. Mochi rice cakes were occasionally roasted in the flames, and eating these cakes warded off illness in the upcoming year. The event is explained in many sources including no. 180 of the Tsurezure-gusa (pp. 137–138; Keene, Essays in Idleness, pp. 155–156); Annaisha, pp. 231–232; Hinami kiji, p. 17 (where it is noted as also taking place at the Upper Kamo Shrine and throughout town); and Ihara Saikaku’s 1692 Seken mune san’yō (p. 283; in English, see Taka­ tsuka and Stubbs, This Scheming World, p. 104). 84.  See also Seigen mondō, pp. 669–670, and Nihon saijiki, pp. 457–458. 85.  Kuji kongen, pp. 28–29. The author refers to the book as Kuji kongen-shō. 86.  See also TFS, first month, no. 3. 87.  This section recycles a passage from Kuji kongen, pp. 29–31. See also Seigen mondō, p. 670; Annaisha, p. 232; and Hinami kiji, pp. 17–18. Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 72–79, presents early sources.

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Kyoto men and women with good voices were summoned (to court) and ordered to compose auspicious New Year’s texts (shūshi) and dance. Thus (the genre) was called “step songs.” 2. Homecoming (yado-i). Employees are awarded time off, and they return to their parental homes to enjoy themselves. This so-called yado-i is popularly mispronounced yabuiri (“entering the bushes”). It is also commonly called “sixteenth-day entertainment” (jūrokunichi asobi). In China it is dubbed zǒubǎibìng (J. sōhakuhei, “walking off one-hundred maladies”). 3. At the Eikan Hall (Zenrinji) in Higashiyama, “rolling readings” (tendoku) of the “Dai-hannya kyō.”88 4. Ritual archery at the (Upper) Kamo Shrine.89 5. At Hyakumanben (Chionji) prayer beads are taken out.90 This is also done on (the same day) during the fifth and ninth months. 6. Pilgrimages to the Enma Hall at Senbon (Injōji). 7. Visits to the “Stone Fudō” (Ishi Fudō, within Rokuonji) in the Kitayama region.91 Seventeenth day. (The emperor) views dances exhibited by court performers (reijin). (Before the dances) the flesh of a crane is ceremoniously sliced.92 The chefs of the Ōsumi and Takahashi houses serve in a yearly alternation. Eighteenth day. 1. At the Yamazaki Takara-dera (Hōshakuji) demons (are driven out) at night.93 2. Court bonfires (sagichō; see 1/15, no. 1). The ashes are discarded at the interim sanctuary of the Tennō Shrine (otabisho) at Shōgoin Village (immediately south of Shōgoin).

88.  See also TFS, first month, no. 4, and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 249. 89. This still takes place today on January 16. Archers at the shrine shoot at a target marked with the ideograph “demon” (oni) in order to dispel malevolent spirits. 90.  See also 2/3. In this observance monks seated in a circle collectively intone prayers while fingering a huge rosary. The event supposedly dates to the year 1331, when the temple was granted the name “A Million Times” (Hyakumanben) by Emperor Go-Daigo, after the priest Zenna Kūen VIII invoked the Buddha a million times in the space of seven days and nights to drive off a pestilence. 91.  Stone representations of the guardian deity Fudō Myōō (Skt. Acala) stood throughout Kyoto. 92.  See also Annaisha, p. 232, and Hinami kiji, p. 18. 93.  The ritual in question is the so-called oni-kusube (“smoking out demons”), in which sacred fire is used to drive out five demons of various colors.

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Nineteenth day. 1. Memorial services for the high priest Hōnen (1133–1212). From today until 1/25, Buddhist services at the four main Pure-Land Buddhist temples.94 2. Visits to the kami of calamity (yakujin) at Yawata (i.e., the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine).95 (The statesman) Take(shi)uchi-no-sukune (84 CE–?), also known as Kōra and worshiped as the kami of pestilence, lived to become more than three hundred years old.96 Pilgrims to the Hachiman Shrine take the opportunity to purchase miniature bows. Or they buy talismans known as “Somin Shōrai.”97 Somin Shōrai granted lodging to the kami Susanoo-no-mikoto and was granted such a talisman as an (apotropaic) sign to pass on to his descendants. Twentieth day. Women’s “mirror stand” celebration. “Mirror rice cakes” are taken down and consumed.98 It is done on the twentieth day became hatsuka o iwau (“celebrating the twentieth day”) is a pun on hatsukao-iwai (“celebration of the first time the face is seen [in a mirror]”). Twenty-second day. 1. At the “Prince Shōtoku Hall” (of Kōryūji) at Uzumasa, a Buddhist memorial service.99 2. The Kasuga Festival of the Ōharano Shrine.100 Nō plays are performed. Twenty-third day. At Zenshōji at Higashiyama, a public exhibit of a Buddha statue.101 Repeated in the fifth and ninth months. Twenty-fourth day. The Kawashima Festival near the Matsunoo (Shrine). Twenty-sixth day. At (the Gosha Shrine) of Shimotsubayashi, near Katsura Village (Nishikyō-ku, Katsuranozato-chō), sacred performance of nō plays. Twenty-eighth day. 1. The Ushigase Festival in Nishi-no-oka (County) (Nishikyō-ku, Ushigase). Nō plays are performed. 2. At Sennyūji, a service of Buddhist relics (shari-e). 94.  On Hōnen, see TFS, first month, no. 6. 95.  See also TFS, first month, no. 5. 96.  In the Nihon shoki (jō, p. 317; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 215), Take(shi)uchi is said to have been born on the same day as Emperor Seimu. 97.  On Somin Shōrai, see TFS, first month, no. 5, and first month, no. 10, above; and Book 5, no. 11, below. 98.  See also 1/11 above; Annaisha, p. 234; and Nihon saijiki, p. 460. 99.  According to the Nihon shoki (ge, p. 181; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 127), on 603/11/1 Hata-no-Kawakatsu received a wooden statue of the Buddha from Prince Shōtoku. Kōryūji was built to house this holy image. 100.  See also TFS, second month, no. 1. 101.  The temple possessed a thirty-centimeter statue of the seated Buddha supposedly fished out of the sea at Higo Province (Kumamoto Prefecture) in 1615.

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Thirtieth day. 1. At the Kiyomizu Temple linked verses are composed in accordance with the original rules (hon-shiki[moku]).102 This takes place monthly. 2. Confessional practices (fusatsu; Skt. upavasatha) of Ritsu-school monks. In addition to what is listed above: first-month visits to shrines located in this year’s lucky direction (ehō-mairi); sunrise and moonrise vigils;103 (celebrations of the) first kōshin day;104 banquets with relatives; and kindred events. From the first to the last day of this month, everyone parties. This signifies peace under heaven.105

II. Second Month According to the Ōgishō, the second month is called “Kisaragi” because during this month extremely frigid temperatures linger, and additional (sara) clothing (kinu) must be worn (-gi). The term kinu-sara-gi was abbreviated to “Kisaragi.” The second month is also called “Chūshun” (“Mid-Spring”), “Jogetsu” (or “Nyogetsu,” “Like the Moon”), and “Reigetsu” (“Lovely Moon”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to kyōshō (Ch. jiázhōng, “interspersed bell”).106

102.  “Original rules” (or “fundamental rules”) contrasted to the “new rules” (shin shiki; also ōan shikimoku). The latter were compiled by the statesman and poet Nijō Yoshimoto and associates in 1372. The “original rules,” drafted during the late thirteenth century by figures such as the priest-poet Zenna, are no longer extant. 103.  See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 462–464 104.  See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 464–465. The kōshin day is a “day of the monkey” falling on a ka-no-e stem. It was associated with Taishakuten (Skt. Śakra-devānām Indra, a potent Buddhist protector deity ruling the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven) and often featured pilgrimages to temples enshrining the deity. Believers stayed up all night to purge themselves of the “three parasites” of the spirit (see Book 5, no. 32, below). 105. For all other months the author supplies lists of foodstuffs to be consumed and avoided during the month. Such a first-month listing is found in Kaibara Ekiken’s Nihon saijiki (p. 469). Jōhaku perhaps derived some of his own inventories from Ekiken, though he may have turned to sources such as the late sixteenth-century Chinese Yueling guanyi, which he evidently knew (see 8/15 below). Nihon saijiki also mentions recommendations and taboos found in Chinese works such as Zunsheng Bajian (“Eight Treatises on Following the Principles of Life,” completed 1591 by Gao Lian) and the anonymously authored Shouyang congshu (“Collectanea for Prolonging Life,” late sixteenth century). 106.  The author glosses the ideographs kōshō. In the modern edition, the first ideograph is incorrectly rendered. Jiázhōng is the fourth of the twelve basic pitches of the scale, a minor third above the fundamental.

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1. The equinoctial period (higan; literally “that riverbank”).107 The midmonth solar term of the second month is called shunbun (literally “spring division,” March 20–21). The (period embracing) three days (before and after) shunbun is called higan. In Japan higan designates a node (setsu, sechi) and is marked as such on calendars, but this is not the case in China.108 The fourth day of higan is labeled “middle day” (chūnichi) or the “correct hour” (jishō), for on this occasion the length of the day and night is “correct” (=approximately equal). The reason that the eighth-month higan (centering on September 22–23) is also called higan is that days and nights are again of equal length, like the right and left banks of a river of equal length, like the right and left banks of a river. According to the Ainōshō, these days are called higan because sunrise and sunset resemble “this” and “that” bank of a river.109 In the writings of Nāgārjuna (J. Ryūju Bosatsu, c. 150–c. 250 CE) one reads that a tree stands next to a “spirit observatory” (reishodai) located next to the Tuṣita Heaven (J. Tosotsuten).110 This tree blooms during the second month, but its blossoms drop after a lapse of seven days and seven nights. In the eighth month, the tree bears fruit for a week. During this period, (the deities) Maheśvara, Brahman, and Indra assemble here and ascertain the names of all good and evil persons. This is the riverbank (beyond) life and death, the riverbank of nirvana. Consequently, one should strive to accumulate virtue throughout this week. To this end, sermons are delivered at temples visited by pilgrims. The midmost day of higan is said to be well suited for planting, but one may consider this the case for shunbun, since shunbun marks the border between cold and warm weather.

107.  Higan is a translation of the Sanskrit term pāramitā (“perfection”), relying on an etymology in which pāra means “beyond” or “the further bank,” and mita signifies “that which has arrived.” This generates the meaning “that which has gone (or goes) beyond”—in short, “transcendent.” In Buddhism “that riverbank” (in contradistinction to “this riverbank”) is the one where the distinction of life and death has been transcended. Higan was also a period of Buddhist ceremonies more fully called higan-e (“equinoctial assembly”), first recorded as celebrated in Japan in Daidō 1 [Enryaku 25](806) (Nihon kōki, vol. 5, pp. 81–82 [Daidō 1/3/17]). On higan, see also Nensai shūda, pp. 26–29; Annaisha, p. 244; and Book 6, no. 14, below; on shunbun, see Nihon saijiki, pp. 471–474. For other historical citations, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 483–490. 108.  On the vernal equinox in China, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, pp. 243–261. 109.  Ainōshō, pp. 378–379 (kan 10, no. 9). 110.  The Tuṣita Heaven is the fourth of the six heavenly realms of Kamadhatu. It is located between the “Yāmā deva” and “Nirmanarati deva” realms.

Second Month  195

Figure 5.4  In the Tuṣita Heaven, deities assemble by the tree of the “spirit observatory” to notate the good and evil deeds of earthlings.

2. On the first “day of the rat,” the festival of the Great Kasuga Shrine (in Nara).111 3. On the first “day of the rabbit,” the festival of the Ōharano (Shrine).112 4. On the first “day of the horse,” Inari pilgrimages.113 Visits to Inari on the first “day of the horse” originated during the era of Empress Genshō (r. 715–724), 111.  For details, see Gōke shidai, pp. 150–154, which, like many other sources, specifies the first “day of the monkey.” See also Yamato meisho zue, pp. 663–665, 667. 112.  For details, see Gishiki, pp. 66–67; Hokuzanshō, pp. 265–266; Gōke shidai, pp. 148–150; Annaisha, p. 242; TFS, second month, no. 1; and esp. the 1742 Kasuga ōmiya wakamiya gosairei no zu, pp. 301–339. 113. See TFS, second month, no. 2.

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when this kami revealed itself at the (Fushimi Inari) Shrine. This occurred on the first “day of the horse” of the second month, so everyone undertakes pilgrimages on this day. On the same day, thirty-three images of the Kannon bodhisattva painted by Chō Densu are displayed at the abbot’s hall (hōjō) at Tōfukuji.114 5. Trees should be transplanted during this month, which is also most suitable for grafting trees.115 Pear trees are grafted ten days before the vernal equinox, persimmon trees ten days after the equinox. Cuttings flourish if planted during second-month rains. Fruit-tree cuttings thrive if they are first stuck into potatoes, giant white radish, or turnips and then planted in the ground during the first ten days of the month. This is more effective than growing them from seeds. During the vernal equinox, yomegahagi (Aster yomena) and field horsetail (J. tsukushi; Equisetum arvense) are picked.116 After this date, yin qi rises and the skies are windy, so urban and rural children fly kites. First day. From today until the fourteenth day of the month, a Buddhist ritual exercise (gyōbō) at the Nigatsudō (the “Second-Month Hall” of Tōdaiji) in Nara.117 Similarly, a Buddhist ceremony (eshiki) at the Yakushi (Hall of Tōdaiji). Second day. For reasons I know not, 2/2 and 8/2 are deemed lucky days for moxacautery, and everyone receives such treatment on these two days.118 It seems that in times gone by, the vernal equinox fell on 2/2, and this fortified yang qi, so this became the rule. Moxacautery was apparently also carried out on 8/2. Third day. Prayer beads are taken out at Chionji at Hyakumanben.119 Fourth day. 1. At Rokuharamitsuji, a memorial service for (the general) Taira no Kiyomori (1118–1181).120 2. At the five great halls within Tōfukuji, talismans inscribed with the ideograph are dispensed.121 These are plastered on the gates of domiciles before the temple and are said to dispel disease. 114.  See also 1/5 above. 115.  Nihon saijiki, pp. 467–468, explains that the first month is best for transplanting trees. 116.  Aster yomena is a perennial flowering plant growing up to 1.5 meters tall. The young leaflets and plants may be cooked and eaten. Field horsetail is a herbaceous perennial whose buds are consumed in spring. 117.  The Nigatsudō was originally built during the eighth century, but the current building dates from 1669. For details, see 2/7, no. 2, below, and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 304–305. 118.  In his Saijiki no keifu (pp. 143–144), Torigoe suggests that 2/2 and 8/2 were common days for hiring new laborers and that moxacautery was meant to fortify them for work. 119.  See also the entry for 1/16 above. 120.  On Rokuharamitsuji, see also TFS, eleventh month, no. 2. 121.  This pseudo-ideograph consists of two elements: “earth” on top of “power.”

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Seventh day. 1. From today until the fourteenth day of the month, bonfire nō in Nara. Actors of the “four nō troupes” perform in a biennial rotation.122 2. At night, the “ritual water-fetching exercise” (mizutori gyōbō) at the Nigatsudō (of the Nara Tōdaiji).123 When the priest Jitchū (726–?), a disciple of the high priest Ryōben (689–773+, Kegon school), was passing by Naniwa Bay (at Osaka), a vessel for holy water (Skt. argha) drifted in on the waves. This vessel held a copper statue of an eleven-faced Kannon bodhisattva, twenty-one centimeters in height. To the touch it felt as warm as a human body. Emperor Shōmu (r. 724–749) had the statue enshrined at Todaiji, and starting from the first day of the second month, Jitchū conducted an annual two-week Buddhist exercise (okonai) facing this Kannon. Hence this practice came to be known as “exercise of the Second-Month Hall” (Nigatsudō no Okonai). Jitchū summoned all the kami by reciting their names and received divine instructions from the “radiant kami” (myōjin) of Onyū (at the Onyū Myōjin Shrine) in Wakasa Province (western Fukui Prefecture). The kami announced: “I shall supply holy water!” Instantly two cormorants, one black, one white, pierced the stony ground, and a sweet spring appeared. But the liquid desiccated during a year of drought, so no holy water was available for the second-month assembly. The monks all sat at the edge of the (erstwhile source of the) water and prayed facing Wakasa Province. In an instant, water surged forth, while the flow of the river before the “radiant kami” of Onyū disappeared. Hence the latter is called “River of Soundless Water” (Otonashigawa).124

122.  Annaisha, p. 238, notes that performances began on 2/8. The four troupes were the Kanze, Hōshō, Kongō, and Konparu troupes, collectively known as the “four troupes of Yamato” (Yamato shiza). See also Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 306, and Yamato meisho zue, p. 665, both of which treat or depict performances at Kōfukuji 123.  This ritual, the high point of the shunie festival of Tōdaiji, now takes place March 1–14 at the Nigatsudō. It consists of fetching “fragrant water” in the dead of night from the “Wakasa Well,” located in a hut (akaiya or wakasaiya) within temple precincts, and offering the liquid to the eleven-faced Kannon. The water from the well supposedly originates in Wakasa Province. This act constitutes part of a shunie ceremony, allegedly initiated by Jitchū in 752, in which eleven monks who have undergone proper ritual purification pray and confess their transgressions to the eleven-faced Kannon. 124.  Versions of this legend can be found in the 1545 Nigatsudō e engi, pp. 128–129, and the 1106–1134 Tōdaiji yōroku, pp. 62–63 (kan 4). The kami of Onyū, who had been out fishing while all the other kami had promptly responded to Jitchū’s summons, offered this water in penance for arriving late.

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Ninth day. 1. From today until the fifteenth day of the month, a reading of the Yuikyō Sutra (“Legacy Teachings”) at Daihōonji at Senbon.125 (Monks from) Chishakuin serve. 2. From today until the fifteenth day of the month, a public exhibit of Buddhist relics (J. shari; Skt. śarīra) at Sennyūji.126 A picture of the Buddha entering nirvana (nehan-zō) is displayed. 3. At Kibune (the Kifune Shrine), the festival of five grains.127 Tenth day. The festival of the Kitano Tenjin (Kitano Tenman Shrine).128 Shrine priests launch arrows at targets. Eleventh day. Today and the following day, a banquet for both eastern and western parishioners of the Kamo (shrines). Both the eastern and western contingents maintain their own heads of ceremonies (tōya). Twelfth day. The great torch procession (ō-taimatsu) at the Nigatsudō (at Tōdaiji) in Nara.129 Fourteenth day. At Tōfukuji, today and the following day, a “nirvana service” with the display of an image by Chō Densu (depicting the Buddha’s entrance into nirvana).130 Fifteenth day. 1. “Nirvana services” at various temples.131 2. At Daiun’in, a memorial service for Princess Chūjō (747–775 or 753?– 781?).132 3. At the Saga Seiryōji, (a “nirvana service” at which) large torches are lit.

125.  See also TFS, second month, no. 3. 126.  See also TFS, ninth month, no. 3. 127.  See also Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 27–28, which notes that “small mikoshi” (sasakoshi) were paraded around. See also 9/9, no. 7, and Book 5, no. 10, below. 128.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 80 (kan 3). 129.  In this spectacular show, the monks carry large pine torches while running along the veranda of the Nigatsudō and showering auspicious embers on spectators. 130.  See also TFS, second month, no. 4. 131. See TFS, second month, nos. 3 and 4. See also Annaisha, p. 239; Hinami kiji, p. 32; Nihon saijiki, pp. 470–471; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 308. 132. The legendary Chūjō-hime (“the Middle-Captain’s Princess”), often considered a paragon of filial piety, is usually said to have been the daughter of the courtier Fujiwara no Toyonari (704–765+). In order to escape the torments of her cruel stepmother, she took the tonsure at the Taima Temple in Nara Prefecture. Kyō habutae, p. 73, speaks of a memorial service for her at this temple on 4/14.

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4. At the Yamazaki Hall (Yamazaki-dō, Hōshakuji), public exhibits of two images of Kannon, one of the bodhisattva Gyōki (668–749), and each of the great priests Kōbō (Kūkai, 774–835) and Jie (Ryōgen, 912–985).133 5. Court music and dance (bugaku) at Tennōji (Shitennōji) in Osaka. Sixteenth day. 1. At Seijuin, located in a ward at Takakura(-kōji), south of Ayanokōji, blind men celebrate a “stupa-building” ritual (shakutō).134 2. At Honmanji, public exhibit of an image of the high priest Nichiren (1222– 1282). Eighteenth day. At Bujōji, inside the Kurama region, a Buddhist ceremony (eshiki) for the Kannon bodhisattva.135 Twenty-second day. 1. At Tennōji in Settsu Province (Osaka), the “Shōryō-e” (“Assembly for the Spirit of the Saint [i.e., Prince Shōtoku]”). Court dancers perform on the righthand stage.136 2. At Kōryūji at Uzumasa, a Buddhist ceremony (eshiki) commemorating Prince Shōtoku.137 3. The Matsunoshita house of (the Upper) Kamo (Shrine) serves at a memorial service for Emperor Go-Toba (1180–1239).138 4. At the mausoleum at Minase (in Ōsaka-fu) the monks of Kannonji at Yamazaki perform a Buddhist service commemorating the death of Emperor Go-Toba.139 133. See Yōshūfu-shi, p. 176 (kan 4). Gyōki was a Nara-period Buddhist priest known for his charitable deeds. Kōbō was the founder of the Shingon school of Buddhism in Japan. On Ryōgen, see note 50 above. 134.  For details, see TFS, second month, no. 5. Aya-no-kōji dōri runs east-west immediately south of Shijō-dōri. The setting in question may be Bukkōji, whose precincts once included a “Seijuan” that served as the kengyō kaisho, the office of the head of the guild of the blind. 135.  Bujōji, which the author glosses “Hōjōji,” enshrines a “thousand-hand Kannon.” See also Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 143–144 (kan 4), and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 250. 136.  This ceremony retains minimal vestiges of what is possibly the oldest music preserved in Japan. On the bugaku performance, see Tsurezure-gusa, pp. 267–268, and Keene, Essays in Idleness, p. 182 (no. 220). A comparable ceremony was performed at Kōryūji in Kyoto on 8/22 because on 2/22 all the musicians had gone to Tennōji. See Yōshūfu-shi, p. 159 (kan 5). 137.  See also Annaisha, pp. 240–241. 138.  Possibly a reference to the Matsu[no]shita house of shrine priests, which ranked as one of the “seven houses” of priests of the Kamo Shrine (Kamo shichike). See also 7/7, no. 6, below. 139.  In 1239 Emperor Go-Toba died in exile on the island of Oki. The mausoleum in question is the Minase Shrine, standing at the site of the emperor’s detached palace. It also enshrines Emperors Tsuchimikado (1195–1231) and Juntoku (1197–1242). See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 345.

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Twenty-fourth day. In Ōmi Province, the “Eight Lecture of Hira” (“Hira Hakkō”).140 Twenty-fifth day. 1. At the Kitano Tenjin (Kitano Tenman Shrine), a memorial service (for Sugawara no Michizane, who died on 903/2/25).141 At night, residents of western Kyoto present offerings. This service was first held on 1109/2/25 during the reign of Emperor Toba. 2. At Dōmyōji in Kawachi Province (eastern Ōsaka-fu), a public exhibit of an image created personally by Tenjin (Sugawara no Michizane). It is said that great benefits accrue from eating leeks (nira) during this month. If one devours rabbit, this will harm the deities (shin, kami). If one eats eggs, this will damage one’s spirit (shin). If one partakes of citron daylily (J. kōkasai; Ch. huánghuācài; Hemerocallis citrine Baroni) or stale pickles, one will be afflicted with a stubborn ailment. One should not dine on pears. Eating garlic (ōbiru or rokutō) blocks vital human energy. Consuming garlic (ninniku) breaks one’s willpower.142 Flowing water from shady areas should not be drunk, for it will cause intermittent fevers and spasms (gyakushō).143 One must avoid making a meal of raw chilled items.

III. Third Month According to the Ōgishō, this month is called “Yayoi” because (during this period) renewed rains and winds cause plants and trees to grow all the more (iyaoi). The term “month of iya-oi” was then abbreviated to “Yayoi.” The initial solar term of this month is called “Seimei” (c. April 5; “Clear and Bright”); the midmonth solar term is “Kokuu” (c. April 20; “Grain Rain”). Other names for the month are “Kishun” (“Spring Season”) and “Sangetsu” (“Silkworm Month”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to kosen (Ch. gūxiǎn, “momentary cleansing”).144

140.  These took place at the Shirahige Shrine (also known as “Hira Myōjin”), where monks of Mt. Hiei read the eight volumes of the “Lotus Sutra” in eight sittings. 141.  See also Annaisha, p. 241; Hinami kiji, p. 34; Kyō habutae, p. 71; and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 77 (kan 3). On Michizane, see TFS, ninth month, no. 1. 142.  The author glosses the ideographs read kobiru or mebiru (Allium macrostemon, a long-stamen chive) as ninniku, a term that today signifies garlic. Perhaps he meant gyōja ninniku (Allium victorialis, ascetic’s garlic), sometimes used as an alternate name for kobiru. 143.  The ideographs given are probably reversed and should be read shōgyaku. 144.  Kosen is the fifth of the twelve basic pitches of the scale, a major third above the fundamental.

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1. On the first “day of the rabbit,” the “exit (of the mikoshi)” (oide) at the Matsunoo Myōjin (Shrine).145 2. On the second “day of the rabbit,” the Mio Myōjin (Shrine) Festival in Ōmi Province. 3. On the second “day of the horse,” the “exit” (of the mikoshi) in the (Fushimi) Inari (Festival).146 4. On the second “day of the dragon,” the “Southern Festival.”147 5. Starting from the first “day of the rabbit” nō plays are staged for a week as sacred entertainment (hōraku) at the interim sanctuary of the Matsunoo Shrine. 6. At Injōji at Senbon, Amida invocations (nenbutsu).148 When the (cherry) trees come into bloom, an image of the Fugen bodhisattva (Skt. Samantabhadra) is displayed. 7. At Uji tea-leaf picking commences, and everyone turns out to watch. Many also arrive to behold the yamabuki blossoms (Kerria japonica) at Kōshōji.149 Third day. This day is known as “Jōshi” (“First ‘Day of the Snake’ ”).150 In times of antiquity the first “day of the snake” fell on the third day of the month, so 3/3 was labeled “Jōshi.” Supposedly from the time of the Wei state (403–225 BCE), the third day of the month was observed even when it did not fall on a “day of the snake.” This day is popularly called a “festive occasion” (sekku) and deemed an auspicious day. 1. “Herbal rice cakes” (kusamochi).151 These cakes are said to date from the times of King You of Zhou (r. 781–771 BCE). Long ago, on 3/3, both Chinese and Japanese added the juice of Jersey cudweed (J. hahako-gusa; Gnaphalium affine) to glutinous rice cakes. Eventually Japanese mugwort (J. yomogi; Artemisia indica var. maximowiczii) came to replace cudweed. 145.  In such an “exit” the mikoshi were sent off to their interim sanctuary. See TFS, fourth month, no. 7. 146.  See also Kyō habutae, p. 72, and Karaku saiken-zu, pp. 610, 621. On the festival, which took place on the first “day of the rabbit” during the fourth month, see below (fourth month, no. 1), and TFS, fourth month, no. 2. 147. This refers to the “Provisional Festival” (Rinjisai) of the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine. For details regarding earlier ages, see Kenmu nenjū gyōji, pp. 452–457 (Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 76–82). The appellation “Southern Festival” (Minami Matsuri) contrasts to the “Northern Festival” of the Kamo shrines. 148.  See also Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 252. 149.  Kerria japonica is a deciduous shrub, 1–2 meters tall, with bright yellow, five-petaled flowers. 150. See Nensai shūda, pp. 8–10, for Chinese sources and associated customs of this day. For citations from Japanese historical sources, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 491–507. 151.  See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 476–477, and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 313–314. These small, soft green cakes, also known as yomogi mochi, have a fresh, spring-like taste.

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Figure 5.5  Picking tea leaves at Uji.

2. “Peach blossom liquor” (tōkashu or momo-no-hanazake).152 If on this day one drinks sake in which peach blossoms are soaked, this supplies relief from disease and one’s face flushes with health.153 Single-petal peach blossoms ought to be used for soaking, for if “thousand-leaf” ([hana] sen’yō) peach blossoms are imbibed, persistent nosebleeds result. (These flowers) are depicted in herbals (honzō).154

152.  See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 444, 476–477. Such liquor was also drunk at New Year’s. 153. See Ainōshō, p. 10 (kan 1, no. 1), which quotes an unidentified Chinese herbal (honzō). 154.  For a splendid latter-day illustration of the bright red “thousand-leaf” peach blossom, see vol. 59, frame 16, of Honzō zufu, a ninety-six-volume herbal published in 1828.

Third Month  203

3. “Winding Stream Banquet” (Kyokusui no En).155 On this day, the ancient Chinese made merry at the waterside. In what was known as qǔshuǐyàn (J. kyoku­ sui no en) they staged parties in which poetry was composed while (lacquerware) sake cups were set afloat in a rivulet. In Japan this practice began during the times of Emperor Kenzō (late fifth century CE), but later it died out.156 4. Cockfights.157 These take place at the Imperial Palace. Emperor Xuanzong (685–762) of Tang China staged cockfights for his amusement. Soon after he ascended the throne (in 713), he supposedly selected five hundred youngsters, had a “cock pen” (Ch. zhìjīfáng) built, and commanded the youths to raise the birds. In Japan, too, cockfights have taken place since olden times, and nowadays they still occur annually.158 5. Playing with dolls (hina asobi).159 This is already mentioned in The Tale of Genji, indicating that it is archaic and not confined to our times.160 On this auspicious day girls play with dolls. Some say that this occasion originated at the Awashima Daimyōjin (Shrine), but this theory is false.161 6. Because this day counts as a day off, everyone goes to Sakai Bay in Izumi Province (Ōsaka-fu) on the pretense of “low-tide shellfish foraging” (shiohi[gari]). High tide occurs after the twentieth day of the month.162 7. A sacred ceremony at the (Upper) Kamo Shrine. 8. A festival in western Matsugasaki (at the Matsugasaki Shingū Shrine). 155.  Also Gokusui no En or Kyokusui no Utage. See also Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, pp. 346–348; Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, p. 104; Annaisha, p. 245; Nihon saijiki, pp. 477–479; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 316–317. 156.  See chapter 2, note 19. 157.  See also Seigen mondō, pp. 673–674; Annaisha, pp. 245–246; Hinami kiji, p. 83; and Nihon saijiki, p. 479. Chinese cockfights trace back to 517 BCE, but the information given below is found in Chen Hong’s Tang-dynasty tale Dongcheng laofu zhuan (“The Tale of the Old Man of the Eastern City”). For a detailed study of Chinese cockfighting, see Cutter, The Brush and the Spur. Nihon shoki (jō, p. 475; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 348) dates Japanese cockfighting to 463 CE. 158. See Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 316. Cockfights staged by youngsters became so common (even on days other than 3/3) that on 1714/5 the Tokugawa bakufu prohibited them. See Ofuregaki Kanpō shūsei, p. 1285 (no. 2843). 159.  See also Nihon saijiki, p. 480, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 284 (kan 7). 160. See Genji monogatari, vol. 1, p. 278; Waley, The Tale of Genji, p. 134. 161. This shrine and its kami have long been associated with women. In a 3/3 ritual (nagashi-bina) performed on shrine grounds, a doll is placed in a tiny boat and set out to sea. This custom is also mentioned in The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari, vol. 2, p. 52; Waley, The Tale of Genji, p. 251). 162.  Annaisha, pp. 246–247, supplies a detailed description. See also Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 314–316.

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9. The “Ishiyama Festival” in Ōmi Province (Ishiyama Temple). 10. The “Awazu (Shrine) Festival” in Ōmi Province.163 Fifth day. 1. The Tennō Festival at Ichijōji.164 2. The festival of Sekizan Myōjin (at Sekizan Zen’in) at the Shugakuin (Imperial Villa). 3. The festival of Takano Village.165 Eighth day. A memorial service for the founding priest of Sennyūji.166 Ninth day. 1. Festivals at Mizunoo.167 2. Great Amida invocation at Saga (Seiryōji).168 Tenth day. 1. At Mt. Takao (Jingoji), a sermon ceremony of the “Lotus Sutra” (hokke-e), instigated (in 802) by Dengyō Daishi (Saichō).169

163.  At the Awazu Shrine, offerings are made in a building called “Awazu no go-ku.” An important ritual is staged on a ship on Lake Biwa as part of the Hiyoshi Sannō Festival (see below, fourth month, second “day of the monkey”). 164.  See also Annaisha, p. 247 (nō performances on 3/6); Hinami kiji, p. 39; and Yōshūfushi, p. 54 (kan 2). Ichijōji, named after a Heian-period Tendai-school temple, is an area in northeastern Sakyō-ku in Kyoto stretching from the southwest to the northeast of the Shugakuin Imperial Villa. The festival in question is that of the Hachi Dai Tennō Shrine, which protects seven villages lying at the base of Mt. Hiei (indicated on map 1 as “Ichijōji”). On the festival day, mikoshi from these villages assemble at the Tennō Shrine at Shugakuin to celebrate the “Festival of Seven Hamlets” (Nanasato Matsuri). 165.  Takano Village was one of seven villages located at the base of Mt. Hiei. The festival concerned was that of the Sudō Shrine, an institution dating to the ninth century and counting as the “main shrine of Takano” (Takano-gō Sōja) from the late medieval era. Mikoshi from Takano Village also participated in the “Festival of Seven Hamlets” (see note 164 above). 166.  According to legend, Sennyūji or its predecessor was founded either by Minister of the Left Fujiwara no Otsugu (774–843) or by Kūkai (774–835). The person commemorated at this service was, however, Shunjō (1166–1227), who in 1218 saw to the temple’s reconstruction. 167.  The festival of Mizunoo Village in the Mizunoo (or Mizuo, Minoo) area (today Saga Mizuo in Ukyō-ku) seems to have been dedicated to Emperor Seiwa (r. 858–876), who in 880/3 entered the nearby Tendai-school Mizuosan-ji to conduct austerities. This temple or mausoleum was later amalgamated with the Pure-Land Enkakuji. See Nihon sandai jitsuroku, vol. 10, p. 205 (Gangyō 4[880]/3/19); ibid., p. 222 (ibid., 12/4); ibid., pp. 288–289 (Gangyō 6[882]/12/4); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 251. 168. See TFS, third month, no. 2. 169. See TFS, third month, no. 1. Saichō (766 or 767–822) was the founder of Japanese Tendai-school Buddhism.

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2. At (the Imamiya Shrine at) Murasakino, the “Yasurai-bana” (Festival of “Peaceful Blossoms”).170 The name arose when crowds assembled at Murasakino and shouted out “Yasurai-bana,” which was a mispronunciation of the phrase “let the Lotus Sutra sermon ceremony at Mt. Takao end peacefully (yasura ni hate yo).” Eleventh day. At Jindōji in the village of Ide, the festival of the “Radiant kami of Katsute” (Katsute no Myōjin).171 Twelfth day. On this and the following day, an all-day Tendai-school ceremony of worship (raihaikō) at the Hachiōji worship hall of the Hiyoshi Shrine multiplex.172 Thirteenth day. 1. At the Chōkō Hall at Shimodera-machi, a memorial service for Emperor Go-Shirakawa (1127–1192).173 A tray (of offerings) is presented by the Retired Emperor’s Office (In-no-chō). 2. At the great Buddha of the Sanjūsangen Hall, the Rengeō-in, a public exhibit of a carved statue of Emperor Go-Shirakawa.174 Fourteenth day. 1. From today until the twenty-fourth day of the month, the first Amida invocations at Mibu(dera).175 2. At Zenrinji (Eikan Hall) and Chionji, memorial services for the great (Chinese Pure-Land school) priest Shandao.176 170. See TFS, third month, no. 1. During the cherry blossom season, costumed performers wielded outsized, lavishly decorated umbrellas while dancing and parading to song and music. Originally, these processions probably served to appease pathogenic spirits. For a more detailed explanation, see Hinami kiji, p. 40. 171.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 195 (kan 5), and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 34. Jindōji stood southeast of Ide Village (today Ide-chō), north of Kyoto. The main Katsute Myōjin, enshrined at what is today Katsute Jinja (once popularly known as Kita Yoshino), serves as a guardian kami of Mt. Ōmine in Nara Prefecture 172.  See also 3/24 below; Annaisha, pp. 248–249; Hinami kiji, p. 41; and Kyō habutae, p. 72. The Hiyoshi Shrine’s unique combinatory raihaikō (also Sannō raihaikō), dating from 1025 and today staged on May 26, features exorcisms, prayers, and dialogues regarding the Lotus Sutra. It originated from a hokke hakkō (see note 375 below) and is performed by Enryakuji monks. 173.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 41, and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 34. 174.  The formal name of the Sanjūsangen Hall (“Hall Thirty-Three Ken in Size,” c. sixty meters square) was Rengeō-in. Its “great Buddha” is a gilded wooden statue of a seated Kannon more than three meters tall. See also Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 125 (kan 4) and 372 (kan 10), which specifies that the exhibition took place at Hōjuin (Hōjuji), east of Rengeō-in. 175. See TFS, third month, nos. 2 and 3. Kyōgen were presented. 176.  On Zenrinji, see TFS, first month, no. 4.

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Fifteenth day. At the Shōgoin Woods, the Kumano Gongen Festival.177 Nineteenth day. At Saga (Seiryōji), the ceremonial wiping of the Shakyamuni Buddha.178 Twenty-first day. At Tōji and Ninnaji, a portrait-worship service (mieiku) for the great priest Kōbō (Kūkai).179 In addition, at Jingoji on Mt. Takao, such a portrait-worship service takes place. Only on this day are visits by women permitted. Twenty-fourth day. Today and the following day, a ceremony of worship (raihaikō) at the Ninomiya Shrine of the Hiyoshi Shrine multiplex.180 This is known as the “original” ceremony of worship (hon raihaikō; see 3/12). Twenty-fifth day. 1. At Ninose, the festival of the “mountain kami” (yama-no-kami).181 2. At Hannyaji of Nara, a service for Monju (Skt. Mañjuśrī).182 Twenty-eighth day. At Mt. Hiei boughs of sakaki (the evergreen Cleyera japonica) are cut and gathered for the Sannō Festival. Blossoms peak seventy-five days after “Risshun” (“Start of Spring” on the solar calendar, c. February 4). The Tsurezure-gusa (c. 1310–1330) also notes that this is generally the case, but nowadays it appears that residents of town and country take cherry blossoms to peak sixty days after “Risshun.”183 At Yoshino they peak sixty-five days after spring commences, and in Nara and Kyoto doublepetaled cherries bloom more than ten days after the single-petaled variety. The time varies somewhat depending on the year’s temperature, the elevation, and whether the spot is located north or south. The cherry trees at Ninnaji bloom a little later than those in the Kyoto city proper, and those of Kurama and Mt. Takao bloom later yet.

177.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 56 (kan 2). Shōgoin served as the headquarters of the Honzan Shugen sect and maintained strong ties to the Kumano shrines in what is now Wakayama Prefecture. A local Kumano Shrine functioned as the protector of the Shōgoin Woods (Shōgoin-no-mori), southwest of the temple. 178. See TFS, third month, no. 4. 179. See TFS, third month, no. 6. 180.  The Hiyoshi Shrine was also called the “Ninomiya of Ōmi Province,” but the ceremony probably took place at the Higashi Hongū (eastern main shrine), also known as the Ninomiya Shrine. 181.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 43, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 69 (kan 2). Festivals dedicated to this kami took place at various locations. The one at Ninose may have been sponsored by the Moriya Shrine, which enshrined Prince Koretaka (844–897), son of Emperor Montoku. 182.  The Monju bodhisattva, a deity of wisdom, is the main object of worship of Hannyaji. 183.  Tsurezure-gusa, p. 222; Keene, Essays in Idleness, p. 141 (no. 161).

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No garlic (ninniku) or eggs should be eaten during this month. Raw scallions (rakkyō), venison, or water deer should not be devoured.184 If one partakes of stale pickles, this will result in a syphilitic fever. If green onions (or garlic chives; J. nira; Allium tuberosum) are eaten, this obscures the kami. One should not consume citron daylily. If one eats and metabolizes fish or tortoise, one will be afflicted with a persistent ailment. During this month one should plant vegetables, grasses, flowers, and medicinal herbs. Trees should be grafted in this month. Bitter orange (J. daidai; Citrus aurantium), tangerines (J. mikan; Citrus unshiu), king orange (J. kunenbo; Citrus nobilis), yuzu (Citrus junos), and Buddha’s hand (J. bushukan; Citrus medica var. sarcodactylis) are best grafted around “Seimei” (April 5).

Book 2: Summer IV. Fourth Month In his Ōgishō, (Fujiwara no) Kiyosuke asserts that the fourth month is known as “Uzuki” (“U-Month”) because the deutzia (literally “U-flower,” unohana) blooms in profusion during this month. What was properly called “month of the deutzia” (unohana-no-tsuki) was abbreviated to “Uzuki.” The initial solar term of the fourth month is “Rikka” (“Start of Summer,” c. May 5); the mid-month term is called “Shōman” (c. May 21; “Minor Fullness”). The fourth month is also called “Mōka” (“Onset of Summer”), “Yogetsu” (“Remaining Month”), or “Kengetsu” (“Dry Month”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to chūryo (Ch. zhònglǚ, “middle lǚ”).185 1. On the first “day of the rabbit,” the Inari Festival. For twenty-odd days, from the (second) “day of the horse” (of the third month) until today, the mikoshi that have exited Inari-yama (the Fushimi Inari Shrine) (are displayed) at the southern interim sanctuary at (the intersection of) Shichijō and Aburanokōji.186

184.  Here and below the ideograph noro in norojika (a species of deer, Capreolus capreolus) is glossed kujira shika (“whale and deer”). The corresponding passage in Nihon saijiki (p. 482; see also pp. 517, 540) glosses the ideograph kujika, an archaic term for kibanoro, a water deer (Hydropotes inermis). Here and below I take the gloss kujira as erroneous and presume that the ideograph refers to kujika. 185.  Zhònglǚ was the sixth pitch of the scale, a perfect fourth above the fundamental. 186.  Correctly probably “Kujō” rather than “Shichijō.” See also Annaisha, p. 261; third month, no. 3, above, and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 333–334. For details of the parade route, see Hinami kiji, p. 53, where the festival is noted as taking place on the second “day of the rabbit.” See also TFS, fourth month, no. 2.

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2. On the same day, the Yamazaki Festival.187 3. On the same day the Hachiman Shrine of Ōmi Province celebrates its festival with five mikoshi, which ford the Echi River.188 4. On the middle (=second) “day of the dragon,” the festival of the Yase Tenjin (Tenman Shrine).189 If (only) two “days of the dragon” occur in this month, the festival takes place on the first one. 5. On the same day, the Mukō-no-myōjin (Mukō Shrine) Festival. 6. On the first “day of the snake,” the Katata Festival of Ōmi Province; the Hayao Festival at Mii(-dera); the Taga Festival in Ōmi Province; the Yamashina Festival; the Modo(ro)ki-no-myōjin Festival at Kitayama; the Kuze Festival.190 7. On the first “day of the horse,” the Ikadachi Myōjin Festival at Kitayama; the Sugenomiya Festival in Ōmi Province.191 8. On the second “day of the horse,” the Kamo Festival.192 9. On the first “day of the monkey,” the Ōhara Festival; the Hirano Festival; the Taima Festival in Yamato Province; the Wani Festival in Ōmi Province.193 187.  This festival was presented at the Yamazaki Tennō Shrine, which enshrined Tenjin Hachiōji (Gozu Tennō). According to Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 287, it took place on the “second day of the rabbit”; Annaisha, pp. 255–256, gives 4/8. 188.  The shrine on which the festival centers is the Himure Hachiman Shrine. Parishioners from adjoining areas participate. The Echi River lies some eight kilometers northeast of the shrine. See also Annaisha, pp. 264–265, which gives “second day of the rabbit,” and the 1815 Ōmi meisho zue, p. 576. 189.  For details, see Annaisha, pp. 261–262. 190.  The Katata Festival is celebrated by the Izu Shrine. The Hayao Shrine was the guardian shrine of “Northern Temples” (Hokuin) of the Miidera (Onjōji) complex. The Taga Festival takes place at an ancient Taga Shrine (Taga Taisha), which enshrines Izanagi-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto (see Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 341–343). On the “Yamashina Festival” see Annai­ sha, pp. 262–263, and TFS, fourth month, no. 3. For Modoroki Myōjin (Modoroki Shrine) the author erroneously writes “Modoki.” The Kuze Festival (according to Hinami kiji, p. 53, staged on the second “day of the dragon”) was presented by what is today the Kuze Shrine. 191.  “Ikadachi Myōjin” probably refers to the deity of the Tōru Shrine; the Sugenomiya Festival is sponsored by the Ozu Shrine. Hinami kiji, p. 54, gives the celebration as falling on the second “day of the horse.” 192.  The Kamo Festival of the Upper and Lower Kamo shrines was held on three days during the fourth month (see also no. 12 below and the explanation given in chapter 2). Participants and bystanders decorated their headgear and festival oxen or horses with kidney-shaped aoi leaves and kazura vines (see Book 5, no. 6, below). The Kamo Festival was not celebrated from 1502 until its revival in 1694, the year that HAE was published. See also TFS, fourth month, no. 4; Hinami kiji, p. 53; and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 52 (kan 2, first “day of the monkey”). 193.  The Ōhara Festival in question here is that of the Ebumi Shrine. Hinami kiji, p. 53, notes that horse races took place. On the Hirano Festival, see TFS, fourth month, no. 5. The Taima (the author writes “Taema”) Festival was no doubt a festival associated with the Taima

Fourth Month  209

10. On the second “day of the monkey,” the Hiyoshi Festival; the Kamo Festival of the entire province (Kamo-no-kuni matsuri).194 11. On the first “day of the cock,” the Umenomiya Festival; the Matsunoo Festival; the Uzumasa Festival; the Kido Festival of Ōmi Province.195 12. On the second “day of the cock,” the Kamo “Aoi Festival”; the following day, the Toge Festival; the Iwagami Festival.196 13. On the first “day of the boar,” the Ōtsu Festival; the Saga Festival; the Yoshida Festival.197 First day. From today until 5/4, one changes into lined kimonos (awase), so this day is known as “change of clothing” (koromogae).198 The term commonly appears in ancient poetry. 1. The sacred ceremony of the Kifune Shrine. Mounted parishioners of the Kamo shrines pay a visit to the Kifune Shrine. On their return they vie to pick knotweed (J. itadori; Fallopia japonica) at Ichiharano.199 This is called the “knotweed contest” (itadori-kurabe). Temple (see also 4/14 below). The Wani Festival was sponsored by what is today the Tennō Shrine in Wani (see also Hinami kiji, p. 54). 194.  The Hiyoshi Festival is the Sannō Festival staged by the Hiyoshi Shrine. This day was considered appropriate because Sannō’s messenger is reputedly a monkey. For details, see Annaisha, pp. 266–267; Hinami kiji, p. 54; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 70 (kan 2); Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 343; and Ōmi meisho zue, pp. 567–576. The Kamo-no-kuni Matsuri, occasionally considered the main Kamo festival, was once overseen by the head of the province (kokushi, kuni-no-mikotomochi or kuni-no-tsukasa), appointed by the central government. See Annaisha, p. 267. 195.  On the Umenomiya and Matsunoo festivals, see TFS, fourth month, nos. 8 and 7, respectively. Which shrine sponsored the Uzumasa Festival remains unclear. Perhaps it was the Ōsake Shrine, associated with Kōryūji. This shrine also sponsored the more famous and grander “Ox Festival” (Ushi Matsuri) on 9/12 (see below). The Kido Festival was probably that of the Juge Shrine. 196.  See also chapter 2; TFS, fourth month, no. 4; and note 192 above. The festival at issue here was the main festival. The Toge Festival was a spring/summer festival of the Upper Kamo Shrine. “Toge” originally referred to a defrosting and loosening of the earth once the sun’s rays had strengthened. On the Iwagami Festival, see TFS, fourth month, no. 6, where it is given as falling on the second “day of the monkey.” 197.  The Ōtsu Festival was sponsored by the Tenson Shrine. On the Saga and Yoshida festivals, see TFS, fourth month, nos. 9 and 10, respectively; and on the Saga Festival (given as “second ‘day of the boar’ ”), see Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 344. The Yoshida Festival is usually recorded as occurring on the second “day of the rat.” 198.  See also Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 83, 131–132. Lined kimonos contrasted to warmer winter ones padded with cotton. 199.  Ichiharano is today Sakyō-ku, Shizuichi Ichihara-chō. The ceremony in question, known as Kifune Gokōsai (“Change-of-Clothing Festival of Kifune”), or more simply as Kibune Matsuri, also took place on 11/1. Knotweed grew near the Kifune Shrine (an auxiliary

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Figure 5.6  At the Tsukuma Festival an immodest woman trips and reveals the number of pots she has concealed on her head.

2. The Tsukuma (or Chikuma) Festival in Ōmi Province.200 In this festival unmarried parishioner women who had secretly met lovers offered “confessions” (zange) by parading around while wearing (upside-down metal) pots on the head. Once upon a time, an unchaste woman, ashamed that she had consorted with so many men, paraded while wearing a large pot into which she had stacked several smaller ones, but when she stumbled and fell, her secret was revealed. The Tales of Ise states: “Would that the Festival of Tsukuma in Ōmi take place soon, for I should like to count a cruel lady’s pots.”201 Such things may have occurred at the time of (Ariwara no) Narihira (825–880), but they are no longer done today.

shrine of the Upper Kamo Shrine), and as the priests made the rounds to various halls, they competed to see who could pick the most and heftiest plants. As a result, the festival was also known as “Knotweed-Picking Festival” (Itadori Matsuri). 200.  See also Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 330, and Ōmi meisho zue, p. 577. 201.  Ōmi naru Tsukuma no matsuri wo toku senan, tsurenaki hito no nabe no kazu min. See Ise monogatari, p. 179, and H. McCullough, Tales of Ise, p. 147 (no. 120). Narihira was taken to be the central figure or even the author of Tales of Ise. The festival is nicknamed “PotWearing Festival” (Nabe-kanmuri Matsuri or Nabe-kaburi Matsuri).

Fourth Month  211

Second day. 1. In Nara, “Mizuya nō” performances until the fourth day of the month.202 2. At the Ogura Myōjin Shrine near Yamazaki, sacred nō performances. 3. The festival of Chōshi Village (Kyōto-fu, Nagaokakyō-shi Chōshi), near Yamazaki. Fifth day. The Kōtari (Shrine) Festival. Eighth day. 1. On this day a ceremony called “Bathing the Buddha” (Kanbutsu), in which (an image of) the Buddha is rinsed in “water of five fragrances,” takes place at all temples.203 This imitates the act of a heavenly dragon who, when the Shakyamuni Buddha was born at Kapilavastu, descended and poured water on the Buddha to bathe him.204 The ceremony is also called Busshō-e (“Buddha’s Birthday Celebration”). In the Gaosengzhuan (J. Kōsōden; “Memoirs of Eminent Monks,” compiled by Hui Jiao c. 530) one reads that for pouring over the Buddha’s head the Chinese used Eupatorium fortune (J. toryōkō) for blue water, tulip (J. ukonkō) for red water, qiūjiàngxiāng (J. kyūkōkō) for white water, nut grass (J. kōbushi; Cyperus rotundus) for yellow water, and the Gum Benjamin tree (J. anzokukō; Styrax benzoin) for black water.205 In Japan the ritual originated during the time of Empress Suiko (r. 592–628), and a “water of five fragrances” was employed at the Imperial Palace.206 In the Shin shoku kokin (waka-)shū (“New ‘Poems Old and 202.  The Mizuya Shrine was an auxiliary shrine of the Kasuga Shrine multiplex. Nō and other arts were staged there as apotropaic rituals. See also Annaisha, p. 254. 203.  For citations from Japanese sources, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 541–552. See also Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 174–178; Nensai shūda, pp. 10–11; and Blümmel, Hofze­ remonien, pp. 85–87, 132–133. 204.  The author writes “Kubira-jō,” as does the author of Kuji kongen (see p. 57), from which this sentence is a citation. Both probably intended to write “Kapira-jō,” the Japanese name of the ancient city of Kapilavastu, either in Nepal or India. 205.  This assertion, often repeated in later Japanese works, does not seem to be found in the Gaosengzhuan (see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 2059, and its sequel, no. 2060) or latter-day continuations of it. I have not been able to locate qiūjiàngxiāng  丘降香 (Dalbergia odorifera?) in any herbal. The Fayuan zhulin, a one-hundred-fascicle Buddhist encyclopedia compiled in 668 by Dao Shi, names only three colors of water and their components (Fayuan zhulin, vol. 33, “Xiseng bu, 8”): Eupatorium fortune; patchouli (Pogostemon cablin); and Ngai camphor (Blumea balsamifera). On the festival and the five colored waters in China, see also Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 349, and Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, pp. 114–115. 206.  The source of this statement is probably Nihon shoki (ge, p. 187; Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 134), which, however, only states that from the year Suiko 14 (606 CE) a festival was celebrated at all temples on 4/8. The Shoku Nihon kōki, p. 162, records that on Jōwa 7(840)/4/8 a Buddha-bathing ceremony was performed at the Seiryōden Hall of the Imperial Palace by the high priest Jōan.

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New,’ Continued”; compiled 1439) a verse by (the Buddhist monk) Jichin (Jien, 1155–1225) reads: Behind the sacred rope at the miare rite of the great Upper Kamo Shrine, will not the figure of the Buddha be bathed as well?207 2. At the Kaidan Hall of Mt. Hiei, a public exhibit (of a holy object).208 Also, flowers are picked. 3. The Yamazaki Tennō Festival.209 4. The Minase (Shrine) Festival (in Osaka). 5. At Kōfukuji in Nara, the “Buddha’s Birthday Celebration.” Court musicians (reijin), popularly called “long noses” (hananaga), participate.210 Ninth day. At the Kiyomizu Temple, the festival of the local protector deity (Jishu Gongen).211 Fourteenth day. At the Taima (Temple) of Yamato Province (Nara Prefecture), the “procession service” (neri kuyō).212 Fifteenth day. 1. From this day, Buddhist monks enter their “summer period of binding” (ketsuge), which lasts until 7/15. Its conclusion is called kaige (“summer release”). During these ninety days the monks engage in a retreat (ango) and do not venture outside. Laypersons also pick flowers and make one-day pilgrimages to the Buddha. 207.  Shin shoku kokin waka-shū (verse 2060): Momoshiki no Kamo no miare no shime no uchi ni hotoke no mi wo mo nao susugu kana. Jōhaku or his source seems to have altered the phrase susugu kana to arau kana with no important change in meaning. The miare is a divine manifestation rite occurring before the “Aoi Festival” in which the kami are believed to inhabit five sakaki trees set up for this purpose. Normally Buddhist ceremonies were avoided on this occasion. 208.  The author gives the location as Kaidandō, but presumably he means Kaidan’in, the Ordination Hall of Enryakuji. Women were not allowed on Mt. Hiei except on 4/8, when they picked flowers to present to the Buddha. The Buddha’s birthday celebration was also commonly called “flower festival” (hana matsuri). See also Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 328–329. 209.  This was the festival of the Yamazaki Gozu Tennō Shrine on Mt. Tennō. See also Annaisha, pp. 255–256; Hinami kiji, p. 48; and the 1711 Yamashiro meishō-shi, vol. 1, p. 297. 210.  They were so called perhaps either because bugaku dancers wore masks of long-nosed goblins or as a pun on “long(-lasting) flowers.” 211. See TFS, fourth month, no. 1. 212.  See fourth month, no. 9, above. For more detail, see also Annaisha, pp. 257–258. The ceremony marks the rebirth in paradise of the legendary Chūjō Princess (see note 132 above), said to have woven the famous mandala of the Taima Temple. The procession reenacts her entry into paradise, guided by the Amida Buddha and many bodhisattvas.

Fourth Month  213

2. At the Imakumano (Shrine) at Higashiyama, “rolling readings” of the “Dai-hannya (haramitta) kyō.” 3. At the “Five Major Zen Temples” (Gozan) of Kyoto the priests deliver sermons.213 In some years Buddhist exercises (shugyō) take place. Sixteenth day. At Miidera in Ōmi Province, the Gohō Myōjin Festival of Kishimojin (Skt. Hārītī).214 Petitioners of the deity manufacture and offer one thousand diminutive rice-flour dumplings, popularly known as sen dango. Young girls who visit the temple receive these dumplings and carry them home. In Kyoto this event takes place at Anchindera, located at Kokiri-machi Nijōsagaru chō.215 Seventeenth day. At Sakamoto in Ōmi Province, the (Hiyoshi) Tōshōgū Festival.216 Twentieth day. 1. At Unryūin within Sen(n)yūji, from this day until the final day of the month, a ceremonial copying of the “Lotus Sutra” (nyohōgyō).217 2. The Takagamine Festival.218 Last day of the month. A sacred ceremony at the Kitano (Tenman Shrine). (Cooked rice wrapped in) green oak leaves (ao-kashiwa) is presented as an offering. Dry spells during the fourth-month days are popularly known as “boundary days” (sakai-bi or sakai-nichi), for they constitute a boundary between the 213.  The Kyoto “Gozan” (literally “Five Mountains”) were Tenryū-ji, Shōkoku-ji, Kennin-ji, Tōfuku-ji, and Manju-ji 214.  See also Annaisha, p. 258; Hinami kiji, p. 50; Kyō habutae, p. 73; Kyō habutae ori­ dome, p. 349; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 346. Miidera possesses a 160-centimeter twelfth-century wooden statue of Gohō Zenjin (“Virtuous Protector-Deity of the Dharma”). It is the main object of worship at the Gohō Zenjin Hall, where the “thousand dumpling” festival is celebrated. Gohō Zenjin is revered as a child-protecting manifestation of Kishimojin. 215.  Anchindera is probably Myōmanji, which possesses the temple bell of the ancient Dōjōji in Hidakagawa (Wakayama Prefecture), made famous in nō and kabuki plays. In these works the beautiful Kiyomi falls in love with a young monk named Anchin. When Anchin refuses her, she becomes furious and pursues him, but he conceals himself under the Dōjōji temple bell. She then turns herself into a dragon and breathes fires that melt the bell, roasting the hapless Anchin beneath. 216.  This was the date of Tōshōgū festivals in many areas of the land. 217.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 51; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 125 (kan 4); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 43 (the temple is here named Urin’in, probably in error). 218.  According to Yōshūfu-shi, p. 403 (kan 10), Itakura Katsushige (1545–1624), the shogunal deputy (shoshidai) of Kyoto, was ordered by the bakufu to command the artist and tea master Hon’ami Kōetsu (1558–1637) to develop the Takagamine area. Kōetsu’s residence later became Kōetsuji, which included a shrine to Katsushige, taken as the divine protector of Taka­ gamine. His memorial day (given as 4/29) was celebrated by the villagers.

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springtime “forest rains” (rin’u) and the fifth-month “plum rains” (baiu). When rain falls during the fourth month, this is called “welcoming the plum rains” (gei-baiu). Fallen deutzia blossoms are popularly considered to have been “rinsed away.” This month is the season for planting black soybeans, soybeans, adzuki beans, sesame, carrots, etc. Ingesting “Rokumigan” (“Six-Ingredient Pill”) during this month helps sustain one’s energy.219

V. Fifth Month According to the Ōgishō, the reason that the fifth month is called “Satsuki” is that this is the peak time for (trans)planting rice seedlings (sanae) (to paddies). The term sanae-zuki (“rice-seedling month”) was abbreviated to “Satsuki.” The month is marked by the solar term called “Bōshu” (“Grain in Ear,” c. June 6) and the mid-month term is called “Geshi” (Summer Solstice, c. June 21). The fifth month is also called “Chūka” (“Midsummer”), “Kōgetsu” (“Bright Month”), or “Jungetsu” (more commonly read “Uzurazuki,” “Quail Month”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to suihin (Ch. ruíbīn, “delicate guest”).220 First day. 1. Horses are readied for the races at the (Upper) Kamo Shrine.221 2. In Ōmi Province, the Matsumoto Myōjin Festival of the Hirano Shrine. Second day. In Nara, at Mikenji, a public exhibit of an image of Emperor Shōmu (r. 724–749).222 Fifth day. This day is called “Tango” (tan, “first” or “limit”; go, “horse”), possibly because in the past it fell on the first “day of the horse.”223 Or else the day was called “Tango” because “first” here means “correct,” and “horse” refers to the

219.  The six ingredients were typically the root of Rehmannia glutinosa, the fruit of Cornus officinalis, the dried tubers of Dioscorea oppositifolia, the bulb of Sagittaria trifolia, the mushroom Wolfiporia extensa, and peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andrews) root bark. 220.  Ruíbīn was the seventh pitch of the scale, a tritone above the fundamental. 221.  A rehearsal (ashizoroe-shiki) of the races attending the 5/5 festival confirmed the condition and speed of the horses and determined the order of the contestants. See TFS, fifth month, no. 1; Annaisha, p. 269; and Hinami kiji, p. 55. 222.  Mikenji, whose main object of worship was a Jizō bodhisattva that stood next to the mausoleum of Emperor Shōmu, was abandoned in 1862. Its holy objects were transferred to Tōdaiji. 223.  For citations from Japanese historical sources thematizing the occasion and its attendant customs, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 553–607. See also Nensai shūda, pp. 11–15.

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fact that the fifth month is the “month of the horse.” Since it is the fifth day of the fifth month, it is also called “double five” (chōgo). 1. Japanese mugwort (yomogi) and sweet flag (shōbu; Acorus calamus) are inserted under eaves (as ornaments). According to the Suishiji, on 5/5 mugwort is braided into anthropomorphic objects, and when these are positioned athwart doorways, they drive away poisonous qi.224 For this reason, they also decorate halls of the Inner Palace Keeper’s Bureau at the imperial court and dwelling houses in town. Moreover, “sweet-flag liquor” (shōbu-zake) is consumed at the Imperial Palace, and so-called medicine balls (kusudama), in which mugwort and sweet flag are strung together with five-colored thread, are suspended from the arm at the elbow.225 Women of all ages wrap mugwort and sweet flag onto their hairpins, or drape the plants around the waist. This staves off diseases caused by febrile pestilences and harmful poisons. On this day one bathes in “sweet-flag water” (shōbu-yu, bathwater spiced with sweet-flag leaves or roots).226 Moxibustion with dried mugwort (moxa) is performed because it supports yang qi and thereby prolongs life. In Japan these practices began in 747.227 2. Eating chimaki (glutinous rice wrapped in cogon grass or other broad leafage).228 According to the Xu qixieji (J. Zoku seikai-ki; “Continued Records on Universal Harmony”),229 this custom originated when on 5/5 a Chinese man named Qu Yuan (J. Kutsugen, 343–278 BCE) drowned (himself) in the Miluo River (J. Bekira).230 Local residents pitied him and worshiped him annually on 224.  See the entry for 5/5 of Jingchu suishiji (Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, p. 352; Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, pp. 120–121). For other remarks in old Chinese texts concerning 5/5, see Swartz et al., Early Medieval China, pp. 479–480. 225.  See also Seigen mondō, p. 674; Nihon saijiki, pp. 488–489; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 248 (kan 6). and 282 (kan 7); and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 350–351. 226. See Nihon saijiki, p. 489. 227.  On the origins of the use of sweet flag, see Shoku Nihongi, Tenpyō 19 (747)/5/5 (vol. 17). See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 234 (kan 6). 228.  In 890, during the times of Emperor Uda (see Uda tennō gyoki, pp. 11–12, Kanpyō 2[890]/2/30), chimaki, described as a 5/5 folk custom, were ordered incorporated into the court tradition. The item is explained in the 931–938 dictionary Wamyō ruijūshō (vol. 4, fol. 44r) as glutinous rice wrapped in leaves and steamed with lye (as a preservative). See also Seigen mondō, pp. 674–675; Annaisha, p. 270; Nihon saijiki, pp. 486–487; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 352. For detailed historical studies, see Nakayama, “Tango no sekku to chimaki no shiteki kōsatsu,” and Kobayashi and Tomiyasu, “Chūsei ni okeru chimaki denshō to nenjū gyōji.” In English, see Rath, Food and Fantasy, pp. 31–35. 229.  Xu qixieji, section 13. This work, written by Wu Jun (469–520) and transmitted only fragmentarily, contains seventeen stories of weird happenings or mysterious persons. 230.  The Miluo River is the largest tributary of the Xiang River in northern Hunan Province. Qu Yuan, who suffered much from political intrigues and exile, was a poet and minister

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5/5 by filling bamboo tubes with rice and throwing these into the river. During the age of Emperor Wu of Han (157–87 BCE), a certain Ouhui (J. Ōkai) passed by the riverbank and Qu Yuan appeared. Qu said: “Even though I am worshiped every year, the victuals offered are stolen by dragon larvae (Ch. jiaolong; J. kōryū). Dragons allegedly shun chinaberry (J. ōchi; Melia azedarach) leaves and fivecolored thread, so henceforth the food should be thrown into the river after wrapping it in chinaberry leaves and binding these with five-colored threads.” Today’s chimaki replicate this action. Alternatively, according to a theory of (the prognosticator) Abe no Seimei (921–1005), chimaki are modeled on an evil demon. When (the wrapper is) cut open and untwisted and the contents consumed, this resembles the act of subjugating the fiend.231 3. (Displaying) battle helmets and streamers. In the year 781, during the reign of Emperor Kōnin (r. 770–781), news arrived that Japan was about to be assaulted by foreign forces.232 To repel the attack, the emperor allegedly appointed his second son, Prince Sawara (750?–785), to serve as general. On receiving the imperial command, the prince made an appeal to the kami of the Fujinomori (Shrine). Then, on 5/5, he set out to do battle and easily routed the enemy. In imitation, on this day, battle helmets and streamers are displayed at residences, and boys wielding “sweetflag swords” (shōbu-gatana) and wooden swords stage rock-throwing battles.233 This symbolizes the auspiciousness of peace in Japan. 4. Horse races. These take place at the (Upper) Kamo Shrine in Kyoto.234 Seven days before riding the horses, the shrine-priest jockeys engage in austerities and lustrations (kessai). Twenty horses are used. The jockeys are divided into two teams, wearing, respectively, black and red riding habits. Pairs of competitors are determined, and the horses are raced. A maple, called the “tree of victory” stands at the western extremity of the riding grounds. Any rider who falls from his horse north of the state of Chu during the Warring States period. The reasons for his suicide are controversial, but he may have been despondent about politics or seeking to indicate his innocence. 231.  I cannot ascertain the source of this contention, but in the Hoki naiden (p. 379) Abe no Seimei writes that eating chimaki on 5/5 signifies consuming the beard and hair of Kotan, a wicked figure that offended Gozu Tennō. 232.  On this pseudo-historical event, see TFS, fifth month, no. 2. 233.  Such playing at war was called inji-uchi. The boys formed battalions and pelted each other with pebbles or fought with wooden swords whose hilts were wrapped in sweet-flag leaves. In Kyoto this often took place at the Kōjin Riverbank (Kōjin-gawara), east of the Kiyoshi Kōjin. See Annaisha, p. 272; Hinami kiji, p.56; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 300 (kan 8); Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 353–354; and Groemer, Portraits of Edo, pp. 90, 95–97. 234.  See note 221 above.

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Figure 5.7  Chimaki are served, while Qu Yuan’s ghost, a river dragon, and Ouhui hover above.

of this tree, or who is slower than his opponent, is considered the loser. Hordes of spectators appear. In olden times, when on 5/5 the emperor visited the Butokuden, equestrian archery was exhibited by the six contingents of palace guards.235 This was the origin of horse races, first staged during the reign of Empress Suiko (r. 592– 628).236 Nowadays the races no longer take place (at the palace), but they still occur at the (Upper) Kamo Shrine. 5. The Fujinomori (Shrine) Festival of Fukakusa Village.237 Horse races are staged. The armor (of the jockeys) replicates the outfits worn when Prince Sawara

235. See Kachō yosei, p. 25 (volume 2). 236.  Shoku Nihongi, Taihō 1 (701)/5/5. 237.  See also TFS, fifth month, no. 2.

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repelled the aforementioned foreign foes. The kami worshiped is Mahataki.238 In addition, three imperial descendants of Prince Sawara, Prince Iyo (783?–807; possibly the third son of Emperor Kanmu), and Princess Inoue (717–775; eldest daughter of Emperor Shōmu) are also worshiped here. 6. The Shingū Daimyōjin Festival of Miidera (Onjōji).239 7. The Seki-no-myōjin Festival of Ōmi Province.240 8. The Ōtsu Kibune Festival.241 9. From this day until the final day of the eighth month, unlined summer garments (katabira, made of cotton, hemp, or ramie) are worn. 10. On this day mugwort and a host of other medicinal herbs are gathered. These are processed into pharmaceuticals. Seventh day. The mikoshi for the Imamiya (Shrine) Festival exit (for their interim sanctuary).242 Eighth day. The Uji (Shrine) Festival.243 Thirteenth day. Bamboo should be transplanted on this day.244 The day is called “day drunk with bamboo” (chikusuinichi) or “day confused by bamboo” (chikumeinichi). According to the Jinshu (“Book of Jin”), bamboo planted on this day is sure to thrive.245 238.  In earlier years the Fujinomori Shrine stood where the Fushimi Inari Shrine stands today. Its present-day location was once occupied by the Mahataki Shrine, which owned a naval battle flag supposedly used by Empress Jingū (r. 201–269) on her alleged invasion of Korea. 239.  The shrine responsible is the Nagara Shrine, located roughly halfway between Onjōji and the Seki Semimaru Shrine. 240.  This was a festival of the Seki Semimaru Shrine multiplex at Mt. Ausaka in Ōmi Province. The complex consists of three separate shrines, all dedicated to the legendary blind poet and biwa performer Semimaru, who lived nearby and figured as a divinity of music. The Seki-no-myōjin is considered the “upper shrine.” See also Annaisha, pp. 272–273. 241.  Several Kibune (or Kifune) shrines are found in Ōtsu and are not to be confused with the Kifune Shrine at Sakyō-ku in Kyoto. The one in question here is apparently no longer extant but was once associated with the now defunct Kōsanji (its cemetery still exists), some two hundred meters south-southeast of the Seki Semimaru Shrine, which maintains a branch Kifune Shrine of its own. 242.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 349. This sanctuary stood slightly south of the main shrine, today at Kamigyō-ku, Wakamiya Yokochō. 243. See TFS, fifth month, no. 3, TFS, note 137; and 5/15, no. 2, below. 244.  See also Nihon saijiki, p. 492. 245.  I cannot locate such an assertion in the vast Jinshu, a work that covers the years 265– 420. In the Sunpu (“Treatise on Bamboo Shoots”), however, the monk Zanning (919–1001) remarks that bamboo planted on this day thrives. Yueyang fengtuji (“Gazetteer of Yueyang”), by the provincial official Fan Zhiming (?–1119), identifies 5/13 as the “day drunk with bamboo.”

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Fifteenth day. 1. The Festival of the Imamiya Shrine at Murasakino (see 5/7). This festival is for the kami of epidemics.246 In the years 994 and 1000, when disturbances plagued the land, worship took place at this shrine. (The statesman and poet) Fujiwara no Nagayoshi (949?–?) apparently composed two verses (concerning the festival, included in the) Goshūi (waka-)shū (compiled 1087): 247 While priests wield their bright white sacred staffs the festivities proceed at the Murasakino Plain May no more violent spirits (kokoro) subsist, for now a shrine has been established in the flourishing capital The office of the Kyoto shogunal deputy contributes five koku of rice to underwrite the festival. 2. At the Uji “Detached Palace Shrine,” a holy ritual (shinji) in which gold and silver sacred staffs (hei) are wielded. This event is called gingari.248 Sixteenth day. 1. At the Eikan Hall of Zenrinji, “rolling reading” of the “Dai-hannya kyō.”249 2. “Rosaries of a million repetitions” are taken out at Chionji.250 Twenty-third day. 1. At Seisuiji (Kiyomizu Temple), a memorial service for (the general Sakanoue no) Tamuramaro (758–811).251 2. The festival of the Ryōsha (Shrine) at Sakamoto (Ōtsu-shi). 246.  This passage, including the two poems, is cited from Kuji kongen, p. 65. On the festival, see also TFS, fifth month, no. 4. 247.  Goshūi waka-shū, verses 1164 and 1165: Shirotae no toyo mitegura wo torimochite iwai sosomuru Murasakino no ni and Ima yori wa araburu kokoro mashimasu na hana no miyako ni yashiro sadametsu. 248.  See 5/8 and note 243, above. Today the event begins on May 8, when the mikoshi are taken to their interim sanctuary; it climaxes on June 8, when they are hauled back. 249.  See also 1/16, no. 3, above, and TFS, first month, no. 4. 250.  These enormous rosaries were used by congregations to count a million Amida invocations. Members, linked by the rosary, could “transfer” their invocations to each other and thereby hasten the completion of the task. 251.  Legend had it that in 798 Tamuramaro aided the eighth-century priest Enchin in founding the Kiyomizu Temple. See Kiyomizu-dera engi (p. 200 in the Gunsho ruijū edition), compiled by Fujiwara no Akihira (989?–1066); and Fusō ryakki, p. 113 (Enryaku 17[798]/7/2), compiled by the Tendai monk Kōen (?–1169); also see TFS, seventh month, no. 2, and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 364.

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Twenty-eighth day. In the “lower capital” (Shimogyō), the festival of the original Chūdōji.252 Twenty-ninth day. Planting ritual at the Sumiyoshi Shrine of Settsu Province.253 Thirtieth day. The (ritualistic) “mikoshi washing” of the Gion Festival.254 Many paper lanterns are displayed. Regarding the rainy season (baiu; literally “plum rains”). This month of “gloomy rains” (in’u) is known as tsuyu (also written with the ideographs whose Sino-Japanese reading is baiu); tsuyu may also be written as kabi-ame (“mildew rains”). A range of theories concerns (the proper dating of) the beginning and end of the rainy season.255 The most convincing one maintains that the rainy season begins on the first mizu-no-e day falling after the solar term of “Bōshu” (c. June 6) and ends on the first mizu-no-e day following the solar term “Shōsho” (“Minor Heat”; c. July 7). The humidity from the precipitation of this period penetrates everything, so mildew grows even on robes stored in wooden cases. According to the Chapu (“Treatise on Tea”; J. Chafu), tea brewed with rainwater collected in a pot during this season is especially delicious.256 The Shiwu bencao (“Materia Dietica”; J. Shokumotsu honzō) states that if sufferers of scabies wash with such water, no scars will remain, that such water fosters fermentation when used to manufacture soy sauce, and that it functions like lye when used to launder clothing.257 The day falling eleven days after the middle of the fifth month is called hangeshō (“summer half-born”; c. July 2), popularly mispronounced hagesho.258 252.  “Original Chūdōji” probably refers to an earlier location of the Pure-Land temple once standing at what is now Yabunouchi-chō (southwest of the intersection of Gojō-dōri and Ōmiya-dōri). In the late sixteenth century it was moved to a nearby site east of the intersection of Takatsuji-dōri and Horikawa-dōri; then in the late seventeenth century it was relocated to a spot west of this intersection. Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 294, notes that the festival took place west of Ōmiya Matsubara, again a nearby location. 253.  The lavish summer festival of the Sumiyoshi Shrine, once staged on 6/30 (see below), is now celebrated on July 31. See also Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 366–367, where the date is given as 5/28. 254.  See also TFS, sixth month, no. 1. 255.  See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 492–493. 256.  This statement does not appear in the 1541 Chapu, by Gu Yuanqing (1487–1565), and Chinese tea masters generally did not recommend the use of such water. The author apparently cited the passage (and the rest of this section) from Nihon saijiki, p. 492. 257.  Several books entitled Shiwu bencao exist, but the one in question here is by Li Gao (1180–1251). See vol. 1, fol. 2r (frame 114). Japanese authors probably derived their information from an abbreviated 1651 Japanese publication of the same book (see Shokumotsu honzō, p. 7 [Book 1 of the original]). 258.  See also Nihon saijiki, p. 493. Hangeshō was counted eleven days after the summer solstice.

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Impure or lewd actions should be avoided on this day, and no alcohol, flesh, or “five pungent items” (goshin) should be consumed.259 Poisonous frost falls on this day, so it is said that one should not eat leafy green vegetables (harvested at this time). According to the Hoki no shō (“Offering-Vessel Digest”), the term “summer half-born” refers to the time when Queen Māyā (Skt. Māyādevī; J. Maya-bunin; mother of the Buddha) was halfway through a mourning period, so virtuous deeds are accomplished and vice dispelled.260 Yet this is a baseless theory. Hangeshō derives its name from the fact that the year is divided into seventy-two segments (kō), and the day falls in the third segment of the (fifteenday) solar term (beginning with) the summer solstice (geshi, June 21–22). The fifth-month summer solstice is called geshi (“peak of summer”). It is thus named because on this day yang qi peaks and then gives way to yin qi. According to the Liyizhi (J. Reigishi), if (standing) well water is replaced on this day, one can forestall febrile pestilences.261 The Qianjinfang (J. Senkinpō; “Remedies Worth Their Weight in Gold”) states that on hi-no-e and hi-no-to days immediately following the summer solstice, sexual relations between man and wife are extremely deleterious.262 During this month eating green onions (nira) will diminish energy and damage the eyes. One should not drink stagnant water accumulating by a stream at the bottom of a gorge. According to Jinkui yaolue (J. Kinki yōryaku), fish and tortoises carry their “kidney essence” (Ch. jīng) in their saliva, and swallowing this produces abdominal distensions (katamari).263

VI. Sixth Month The sixth month is called “Minazuki.” The Ōgishō states that this month’s heat dries up water, resulting in a “month of no water” (mizu-nashi-tsuki), which was 259.  Japanese Buddhism often discouraged the consumption of leeks, garlic, onions, scallions, ginger, and Japanese pepper (sanshō). 260.  Hokishō or Hoki no shō was often believed to be authored by Abe no Seimei but was probably a later forgery. For the relevant section, see Hokishō, vol. 2, fol. 22v (frame 25). 261.  Liyizhi probably refers to division 3 (zhi, “records”), sections 4–6 (liyi) of the Hou Han shu. Section 5, paragraph 7, speaks of replacing well water on the occasion of the summer solstice but does not mention pestilence. On the summer solstice and midsummer festivals in China, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, pp. 289–316. 262.  Qianjinfang (full title: Beiji qianjin yaofang) is a thirty-volume medical book written in 652 by Sun Simiao (?–682). See Beiji qianjin yaofang, vol. 13 (xīnzàng, heart), section 12, which does not, however, bring up sexual relations. 263.  Jinkui yaolue (“Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Cabinet”) is a Chinese medicinal classic written by Zhang Zhongjing (150–219). Various forms and excerpts of the text were later reprinted in Japan. The reference is probably to section 40 of volume 24,

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abbreviated to “Minazuki.”264 It also states that the name may signify that all (mina) agricultural labor has been completed (shi-tsukitari). Alternate names for the sixth month are “Kika” (“Summer Season”), “Shogetsu” (“Hot Month”), and “Fukugetsu” (“Month of [the Three] Fuku [sanpuku, the three hottest summer days]”). The month is marked by the solar term “Shōsho” (“Minor Heat”; c. July 7); the mid-month term is called “Taisho” (“Great Heat”; c. July 23). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to rinshō (Ch. línzhōng, “forest bell”).265 During this month one can view lotus blossoms at Shina in Ōmi Province.266 Throughout this month’s middle ten-day period, Ninnaji airs out its possessions, and holy treasures are taken out.267 During this month’s final ten-day period, Chion’in airs its possessions. First day. On this day, ice from the Imperial Palace’s “ice vault” is presented (to the court).268 According to the Nihon shoki, during the fifth month of the sixtysecond year of Emperor Nintoku (374 CE) Prince Nukata no Ōnakatsuhiko set out on a hunting expedition to an area called Tsuge.269 When he scaled a mountain and surveyed the plains below, he spied a structure resembling a large hut. He sent somebody to reconnoiter and was informed that the object was a pit (iwaya). When persons of the area were summoned for questioning, they explained that it was an “ice vault.” The prince enquired how it was used to store ice. They responded that more than three meters of ground had been excavated. The cavity was thatched, and rush and reeds were collected so that the ice would not melt even during the most severe drought. This allowed the vault to be put to use (even) during the hottest months. The prince presented the ice to Emperor Nintoku, who was overjoyed. This was the origin of the (imperial) “ice vault.” Thereafter, every winter season, ice vaults were built in many other provinces. It is said that until recent times one such vault survived deep in the “Qinshou Yuchong Jinji Bin Zhi” (“Taboos on Poultry, Animal Flesh, Fish, Insects, and the Healing of Diseases [resulting from their consumption]”), which does not, however, state exactly what the author here contends. 264.  Other theories hold that the ideograph na(shi) is used here (as in Kannazuki, the tenth month) for its phonetic value (na) and functions as a possessive particle. Hence the meaning of minazuki becomes “month of water,” referring to water used to flood rice fields. 265.  Línzhōng was the eighth pitch of the scale, a perfect fifth above the fundamental. 266.  The Shina area lies along the eastern bank of Lake Biwa, near what is today Shina-chō in Kusatsu-shi. The Senrenbina Pond next to Renkaiji was famous for its lotus blossoms. 267.  Mushiharai (or mushiboshi) means “driving out” or “drying out” vermin or mildew. 268.  See also Nensai shūda, pp. 15–16; Annaisha, pp. 277–278; Hinami kiji, p. 64; Nihon saijiki, p. 495; Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 254; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 374. 269.  Tsuge (or Tsuke) is today’s Tsuge-mura in Nara Prefecture. See Nihon shoki, jō, p. 413, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 297–298.

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Figure 5.8  Prince Nukata no Ōnakatsuhiko stumbles on the “ice vault.”

mountains of Tanba Province (Kyōto-fu). Ice is also presented (to the emperor) from Mt. Fuji, Mt. Daisen in Hōki Province (western Tottori Prefecture), and elsewhere. On this day, to imitate ice consumption, the public feasts on mochi rice cakes laid aside from the previous winter. Third day. From today until the ninth day, Mt. Takao (Jingoji) airs its possessions. Fifth day. The shouldered floats (yama) and wheeled carts with tall displays (hoko) of the Gion Festival begin to be paraded around town. Sixth day. 1. At Karasuma-dōri Tako-yakushi-sagaru-chō, the Gion “Hand-Washing Well” (Chōzu-no-i) is unsealed.270 270. This well (today called Yasaka Jinja Mitarai-i), at what is now Nakagyō-ku, Tearaimizu-chō, was usually sealed with a lid that was opened for a purification ceremony.

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2. This is the day best suited for manufacturing the drug “Shinkyoku” (“Divine Melody”).271 Doctors ought to be aware of this. Seventh day. 1. The floats of the Gion Festival are taken to their interim sanctuary, where they remain from today until the fourteenth day of the month.272 Eight carts with tall exhibits (hoko, “pikes”) and fourteen shouldered floats (yama, “mountains”) are paraded around. On the previous day, minor town law-enforcement officials (zōshiki) assemble at the Rokkaku Hall, and the exhibits are transferred here.273 To determine the sequence of the carts and floats (in the parade) townspeople draw lots that designate a numerical order and are endorsed with the seal of the Kyoto shogunal deputy. On the festival day these lots are handed to the minor officials. In olden times, reviewing stands for seating members of the shogunal house were set up facing northeast at (the intersection of) Shijō-dōri and Takakura(-kōji). The minor officials guarded the zone before the float reviewing area. Nowadays no trace of these stands remains, but each year, on days of holy rituals, the minor officials still customarily seat themselves in a row at this location. After rituals (matsuri) are completed, the three mikoshi exit the (Rokkaku) grounds (yama) and head for the interim sanctuary. From this night until the eighteenth day of the month, everyone delights in the river cool at the Shijō waterfront.274 Platforms are built over the water, and Kyoto residents of all social classes relish the cool breezes, drink sake, play string and wind instruments, sing, recite poetry, and stage banquets. The resulting commotion would overturn mountains and redirect rivers, while the wind wafting smoke from broiled eel descends on all like a fog. Teahouse lanterns, as plenteous as the stars in the firmament, shine as brightly as the moon. At archery ranges, flare-like rockets are fired into the sky, and thinly sliced fresh red snapper glistens (on eating trays). Nowhere else is such entertainment to be found. This season truly indicates how much Kyoto flourishes.

271.  “Shinkyoku” was a digestive aid made by fermenting a mix of wheat flour, wheat bran, sweet sagewort, Polygonum flaccidum, and other ingredients. 272.  In ancient times two interim sanctuaries existed: the Ōmandokoro Interim Sanctuary (at Shimogyō-ku, Ōmandokoro-chō) and the Shōshōi Interim Sanctuary (at Nakagyō-ku, Shōshōi-chō). In 1591 these sites were combined into a single sanctuary located in the Kyōgoku area of Shijō. 273.  On the Rokkaku Hall, see TFS, seventh month, no. 1. 274.  For citations from Japanese historical sources thematizing “taking in the cool,” see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 608–616.

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2. A Buddhist ceremony (eshiki) at Hokkeji in Nara.275 Ninth day. At the Kitano Tenman Shrine, “ninefold worship” (kudo-mairi).276 It is called “ninefold worship” because pilgrims exit the grounds through the southern gate and then return to worship again at the main shrine nine times. Long ago, on 947/6/9, during the reign of Emperor Murakami (r. 946–967), the kami of the Kitano (Tenman) Shrine were first relocated to this site. The “ninefold worship” that occurs only on this day is a vestige of this event. Tenth day. 1. At Eshin’in of Mt. Hiei, a memorial service for (the Tendai-school priest) Genshin (Eshin, 942–1017). 2. At Yoshida, the start of the “Western Heavenly King Festival.”277 Thirteenth day. Myōrenji airs its possessions. Fourteenth day. 1. Ten shouldered floats (yama) are presented at this day’s Gion Festival. On the preceding day, lots are drawn, just as they are on 6/7. Once the parade of floats (yama) is completed, sacred rituals (sairei) commence. (A branch of) the Gion Shrine is nestled behind dwelling houses of the citizenry east of (the intersection of) Sanjō-(dōri) and Ōmiya-(dōri).278 On this day the three mikoshi are set down at a spot before these houses, where a dais is built and three sacred staffs (gohei) erected.279 The mikoshi are placed upon this dais and the kami (from the main shrine) transferred to them. Offerings are presented by families from the locale. As a result, this city ward is called “Holy Offering Ward” (Mi-goku-chō; today Ontomo-chō). 2. At the Matsunoo Shrine, sacred performance of nō plays. Fifteenth day. 1. At Yoshida, the (completion of the) “Black-Eyed Pea Festival,” of the so-called Western Heavenly King (Nishi Tennō).280 275.  Hokkeji possesses a renowned statue of an eleven-faced Kannon. On the temple’s history, see Meeks, Hokkeji. 276.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 67; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 78 (kan 3); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 50. 277. The event in question is the “Black-Eyed Pea Festival” (Sasage Matsuri or Sasagi Ma­tsuri; see 6/15 below; sasage is homophonous with “to offer”). It is staged by what is today the Suga Shrine. The author renders “heavenly king” as (the homophonous) “heavenly emperor.” See also Annaisha, pp. 283–284; Hinami kiji, p. 67; and Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 55 (kan 2) and 299 (kan 8, tabisho). According to Hinami kiji, p. 69, one mikoshi and five hoko (tall floats on carts) were presented. 278.  The Matatabi Shrine or Gokū-sha (“Holy-Offering Shrine”) functioned as a sanctuary where on their return path the mikoshi stopped off for receiving offerings. 279.  What I render as “dais is built” seems garbled in the original: dan wo tsute. I assume that tsu should read ta. 280.  See 6/10, no. 2, above.

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Figure 5.9  The three Gion mikoshi are displayed and offerings made.

2. At Hannyadera in Izumidani, a memorial service for (the Shingon priest) Kangen (854–925).281 3. At Saionji, an assembly (kō) honoring Myōon Benzaiten.282 4. Jōkein airs its possessions. 5. In Ōmi Province pilgrimages to Chikubushima.283 Sixteenth day. What is called “Kajō” falls on this day.284 According to the Shiki monogatari (“Tales of the Four Seasons”), in the Jōwa period (834–848), 281.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 162 (kan 5). The ceremony was performed by priests from the nearby Ninnaji. 282.  This so-called myōon-kō featured recitation accompanied on biwa. 283.  This was the day of the Tsukubusuma Shrine festival. See also Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 386. 284. See Shiki monogatari, p. 439; Nihon saijiki, pp. 495–496; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 392. For many citations from Japanese historical sources regarding Kajō (or Kashō) and its attendant customs, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 616–627. For a study of the Tokugawa bakufu’s celebration of Kajō, see Futaki, Buke girei kakushiki no kenkyū, pp. 352–380.

Sixth Month  227

during the times of Emperor Ninmyō (r. 833–850), 6/16 was divined to be an auspicious day. At the Kamo Shrine, prayers for the dynasty and purifications were performed, and the era name was changed to the “Kajō period” (848–851). This allegedly became the yearly auspicious event celebrated on this day. It is also popularly said that during the age of the Muromachi shoguns, the public bet on miniature archery (yōkyū) contests while basking in the sixth-month river cool. The loser was obliged to treat the winner to edibles purchased with sixteen “Kajō coppers.”285 (In China) “Jiādìng” (J. Kajō) also names an era, one that lasted seventeen years (1208–1224) during the reign of Emperor Ningzong (r. 1194–1224) of the (Southern) Song dynasty. The year number, from one to sixteen, was stamped onto currency minted throughout that era. This supposedly counts as the source of today’s custom of accumulating sixteen coppers to purchase a treat for one person, an item popularly known as a “Kajō treat” (kajō-gui). This theory has no solid foundation, but today’s practice has been established on the basis of such a notion. “Kajō” also refers to a celebratory event at the imperial court, similar to what is related in the Shiki monogatari. Seventeenth day. 1. On this day and the following one, a public exhibit of a holy image at Higashimukai Kannon(ji) in Kitano. 2. At Shōkokuji, a ritual practice of repentance (kakusenbō).286 3. Tōjiin airs its possessions.287 4. Performances of nō plays at a nighttime celebration at Katsuragawa.288 Eighteenth day. 1. At Katsuragawa, sacred performances of nō plays. Monks from Mt. Hiei pre­ sent a drum parade (taiko-nori). 2. The mikoshi of Gion are restored (to their repositories), (in an event) just like the “mikoshi washing” on the last day of the fifth month.289 3. At Takara-dera (Hōshakuji) in Yamazaki, a public exhibit of an image of Kannon. 285.  From the Muromachi period sixteen rice cakes or other edibles were typically offered to the deities on 6/16 to ward off disease. Commoners imitated this custom by spending sixteen coppers to buy snacks and insisted that in order to gain full protection everything had to be gobbled down without laughing. 286.  Kyō habutae, p. 74, notes that this is called “Matsukaze” and that the monks sound metal bowls (hachi). 287.  For a detailed study of this temple, see Stavros, “The Sanjō Bōmon Temple-Palace Complex.” 288.  The Katsuragawa in question here and in the next entry is probably Myōōin and, some one hundred meters to the south, the Jishu Shrine in today’s Ōtsu-shi. Both institutions sustained ties to the Enryakuji complex. 289.  See also Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 393.

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Nineteenth day. 1. The “cooling down ceremony” (suzumi) of (the guild of) blind men.290 2. From this day until the last day of the month, the Mitarashi Festival of the Lower Kamo Shrine.291 Visitors return home after purchasing the famed “Mitarashi dumplings” and cattail spikes (Typha latifolia).292 Twentieth day. “Bamboo cutting” at the Kurama Temple.293 The main object of worship of the Kurama Temple north of the capital is Bishamon-ten. The temple was founded by the high-ranking nobleman (taichū taifu) Fujiwara no Isendo (759– 827).294 Later (c. 889–898), when the priest Buen (841–920) resided at this temple, a giant serpent vexed mountain travelers. Once when Buen was conducting a purificatory fire ritual (goma), the serpent appeared from the northern peaks. Buen intoned Bishamon spells, and straightaway the beast was slain and hacked to pieces. When Isendo saw (the dead serpent), he had fifty men discard it on Mt. Shizuhara, at the spot known as the “Peak of the Great Serpent” (Ōmushi no take).295 The socalled bamboo cutting that takes place annually on 6/20 replicates the act of chopping up the beast. Twenty-first day. Daiun’in airs its possessions. Twenty-second day. 1. Festival of the Zama Myōjin Shrine in Osaka.296 2. From today until the twenty-seventh day of the month, the Toganoo (temple; i.e., Kōzanji) airs its possessions.

290.  See also Annaisha, pp. 285–286; Hinami kiji, p. 70; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 376, 392 (kan 10); and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 393. Men from the guild of the blind (tōdō) assembled at the Seijuan, a hall within the grounds of the guild’s Kyoto headquarters at Bukkōji, to stage a memorial service for the empress dowager of their deified founder, Amayo-no-mikoto. See also 2/16 and note 134 above. 291.  See also TFS, sixth month, no. 3. 292.  Today usually five small spheres of rice-flour dough are skewered, grilled, and covered with a sweet-salty soy sauce glaze. The name supposedly derives from a resemblance to the bubbles of the purifying water (mitarashi) at the Kamo Shrine. 293.  See also TFS, sixth month, no. 2. 294.  The author specifies that Isendo was “Taichū Taifu,” a court title borrowed from China referring to anyone positioned above junior fourth rank. For details, see TFS, first month, no. 2. Anbagaiji engi, p. 314, states that he ranked below junior fourth rank. 295.  The tale of Buen is found in twelfth-century sources such as the Fusō ryakki, p. 112, and Shūi ōjō-den, vol. 3, pp. 265–266, which in turn may rely on Anbagaiji engi, pp. 315–316. Mt. Shizuhara probably refers to a hill in what is now Sakyō-ku, Shizuichi Shizuhara-chō, close to the Kurama Temple. 296.  Today the festival takes place on April 22. See also Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 384.

Sixth Month  229

3. At the Minase (mausoleum and shrine in Osaka), a public exhibit of an image of Emperor Go-Toba. Calligraphy by this emperor is aired.297 Twenty-third day. At the Matsunoo (Shrine), sacred performances of three nō plays.298 Twenty-fourth day. 1. On this day, “thousand-day” pilgrimages (sennichi mairi) to Mt. Atago.299 2. At the Matsunoo (Shrine), sacred performances of five nō plays. 3. At Tōji on this day and the following one, a memorial service for Emperor Go-Uda (1267–1324) and a public exhibit of (calligraphy by) the great priest Kōbō (Kūkai).300 4. At Yoshida, the Kiuri Myōjin Festival.301 Twenty-fifth day. 1. (Temples in the) Kurodani area (today Sakyō-ku Kurodani-chō) air their possessions.302 2. Myōkenji airs its possessions. 3. Honnōji airs its possessions. 4. Yōbōji airs its possessions.303 5. Seiganji airs its possessions. 6. In Osaka at the Tenman Tenjin Shrine, an exorcism (oharai).304 Twenty-seventh day. 1. Honkokuji airs its possessions. 2. At Shōzuiji in Katada of Ōmi Province, a memorial service for Kasō (Sōdon, 1352–1428) of Daitokuji.305 Twenty-eighth day. The abbot’s hall (hōjō) of Myōshinji is aired.

297.  On the Minase mausoleum, see 2/22. Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 395, dates annual sacred entertainment (hōraku) at Minase to 6/20. 298.  Annaisha, p. 287, adds that such performances also took place the following day. 299.  See also Annaisha, p. 287. If one visited the Atago Shrine on this day, one obtained as many benefits (in this case protection from fire) as from one thousand visits on other days. 300.  On Tōji and Kūkai, see TFS, third month, no. 6. 301.  On the Yoshida Shrine, see also TFS, fourth month, no. 10. 302.  See also Annaisha, p. 288, and Hinami kiji, p. 72. 303.  In the 1686 original on which map 1 is based, Yōbōji is indicated only as an empty lot. 304.  See also Annaisha, pp. 287–288; Hinami kiji, p. 72; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 383–384. The shrine, now known as the Ōsaka Tenman Shrine, enshrines Sugawara no Michizane, who was born on 6/25. Nowadays the so-called Tenjin Festival, which counts as one of the “three great festivals” of Japan, takes place on July 24–25. 305.  Kasō Sōdon (the text glosses the name “Kesō”) was a great Rinzai-school Zen priest and twenty-second head of Daitokuji. He founded Shōzuiji in 1406.

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Thirtieth day. 1. In Settsu Province (Ōsaka-shi), an exorcism (oharai) at the Sumiyoshi (Shrine).306 2. “Thousand-day” pilgrimages to the Karasaki (Shrine) in Ōmi Province.307 3. At the (Upper) Kamo Shrine, sacred performances of nō plays. Yata tayū from Tanba Province (Kyōto-fu) performs.308 4. At Kenninji and Sennyūji, monks meet to confess their wicked deeds and reconfirm their vows (fusatsu-kai; Skt. upavasatha). This is the day of “sixth-month lustrations” (minazuki-barae). In bygone times, court officials all assembled at the Suzaku Gate (of the Imperial Palace) and conducted lustrations.309 This custom originated during the era of Emperor Tenmu (r. 673–686) but has now disappeared. Moreover, on this day families pass through a (large cogon-grass) hoop. They sing a traditional song transmitted as, “Those who undergo the sixth-month lustration / are said to lengthen their lives a thousand years.310 In the writings of the regent of Hosshōji (Fujiwara no Tadamichi, 1097–1164) the poem, “Saying, ‘Come to an end, my worries!’ / I chop up hemp leaves to purify myself” reveals what is to be voiced.311 The Yakumo (mi)shō (“Imperial Excerpts of Poetry”) explains that “summer lustrations” (nagoshi no harae) are thus named because they dispel and placate malevolent kami (jashin).312 Sacred bamboo sticks (igushi) are set up at the riverside, and leaves of hemp and the like are used. At the Lower Kamo Shrine the “Mitarashi Festival” nowadays visited by city residents no doubt derives from a minazukibarae.313 Furthermore on this day tiny dumplings of glutinous rice and glutinous wheat flour (komugi mochi) are popularly consumed, but I do not know why.

306. See Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 400–401. 307.  Today a “Mitarashi Festival,” with rituals and fireworks over the lake, is celebrated on July 28–29. 308. This performer no doubt headed the Yata troupe (Yata-za) of nō (sarugaku). It counted as one of the three “Tanba sarugaku troupes” active in Kyoto during the early fifteenth century. For a detailed study, see Konishi, “Tanba Yata sarugaku ni tsuite.” 309. This minazuki-barae was the nagoshi treated in TFS, sixth month, no. 3. 310. See TFS, note 167. On the cogon-grass hoop (chi no wa), see also Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 402–404. 311.  See also TFS, note 168. 312.  Yakumo mishō, p. 296. On the book, see TFS, note 163. 313.  On the “Mitarashi Festival,” see TFS, sixth month, no. 3. See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 52 (kan 2, on the Lower Kamo Shrine); ibid., pp. 220–221 (kan 6, on dumplings); ibid., p. 341 (kan 9, on monks from Kōryūji coming to Mitarashi River to perform lustrations); and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 399–400.

Sixth Month  231

I. Regarding doyō. A doyō period falls not just in summer, but also in each of the four seasons. Its force dominates the conclusion of the month of the dragon, which is the third month; the month of the ram, which is the sixth month; the month of the dog, which is the ninth month; and the month of the ox, which is the twelfth month. On each occasion it lasts for eighteen days, for a total of seventy-two days annually. The summer doyō period occurs between the phases of Fire (summer) and Metal (autumn), but since Earth is not generated by Fire, the summer doyō period is correctly considered a period strongly dominated by Earth. Since Earth often generates Metal, the Metal phase that is autumn is considered to be generated by Earth. The month of the ram (sixth month) is located between periods of Fire and Metal.314 Moreover, since it falls halfway through the year, it stands as the central doyō. The theory of “intermediate days” (mabi) is not found in China.315 During the doyō period one should diet and not damage the spleen/Earth.316 Since Earth overcomes Water, one should take care that no kidney/Water escapes. According to popular notions, consuming garlic (ninniku) or adzuki beans on the first doyō day of the sixth month forestalls febrile pestilences. One comes across this notion in the “Broom Tree” chapter of The Tale of Genji, so it appears to be of ancient provenance, but I do not know its foundation.317 (Analogously), as one reads in herbals (honzō), partaking of the “five pungent items” (goshin) at New Year’s forestalls frigid pestilences.318 Likewise, according to the Zhouhoufang (J. Chūgohō, “A Handbook of Emergency Prescriptions”), if one swallows seven adzuki beans at New Year’s, this serves as an antidote to disease.319 These all seem to be magical New Year’s practices (majinai). Perhaps they are performed during the sixth month because they were incorrectly transmitted. 314.  The fifth month was understood as being one of Fire; the seventh, one of Metal. 315.  See also Book 6, no. 3, below. Since the force of Earth ascended during each doyō period, it was thought inauspicious to engage in digging or construction work during this time. On the four or five “intermediate days” within each period, however, the lord of Earth was invited to heaven by the Monju bodhisattva, and this absence rendered such labor unproblematic. 316.  Traditional Chinese medicine considers the spleen an organ governed by Earth. The kidneys were associated with Water (and by extension secretions related to sexual arousal) and regulated by the spleen. Health was a matter of suppressing excess strength and fortifying debility. 317. See Genji monogatari, vol. 1, p. 83, and Waley, The Tale of Genji, p. 33. 318. See Bencao gangmu, Book 3 (“Baibing Zhuzhi Shang”), Book 27 (“Cai Zhi Yi”), and elsewhere. 319.  Zhouhoufang (more fully Zhouhou beiji fang) is a medical book by the Daoist philosopher and physician Ge Hong (283 or 284–343 or 363, 364). See vol. 2, section 15.

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Figure 5.10  Clothing and books are aired during the summer doyō.

II. For so-called doyō airings (doyō-boshi) one should take out all clothing and utensils that have accumulated mildew during the rainy season and expose them to sunlight.320 1. Colored clothing should be washed after moistening with the sap of winter gourd (kamo-uri; Benincasa hispida), or it may be laundered with loquat kernels ground into a powder. 2. Attire that has accumulated mildew during the rainy season should be washed with boiled plum leaves.

320.  This section appears to rely much on Nihon saijiki, pp. 499–500, or the Chinese sources cited therein.

Sixth Month  233

3. When silk is soiled, stains should be removed by repeatedly rubbing the spot with fresh Arisaema japonicum (tennanshō). Scraping a spot with a pickled plum (umeboshi) and then washing it is also effective. 4. For ink stains on garments, one should finely grind the casing of apricot kernels (kyōnin), mix this with an equal amount of powdered green tea (hikicha), work it into the stain, moisten the area with hot water, and scrub the spot very well while washing. 5. For oil stains on clothing, one should dust the spot with equal amounts of powdered talc and snakegourd-root starch (tenkafun; Trichosanthes japonica Regel). Also kofun should be worked into the stain and (the cloth) ironed.321 Laundering (the cloth) with honey is also effective. 6. For removing lacquer stains on clothing, one should mix equal parts of apricot kernels and Japanese pepper (sanshō), rub it in until the stain has decomposed, and rinse. 7. For bloodstains on garments, one should thinly shave ginger, place it onto the stained spot, cover it with paper, and draw out the stain by poking it with a toothpick. 8. When one launders white fabrics, they will turn out brighter if one adds the juice of boiled giant white radish (daikon) or powdered sweet flag to the water. III. Regarding the airing out of items. This should be accomplished during the sixth-month doyō period. 1. According to Jujia biyao (J. Kyoka hitsuyō; “Essential Arts for Family Life”), one can shield books from insect damage by inserting (leaves of) common rue (unkō; Ruta graveolens), which is nowadays called shichirikō.322 The leaves of common rue resemble those of the ginkgo tree, so ginkgo leaves are often erroneously placed into books. It is also effective to insert musk, camphor, or the like to stop insects from consuming a volume. 2. For picture scrolls, the area near the (wooden) roller and the back should be well dried. 321.  The ideograph glossed as ko in kofun is extremely unusual and of uncertain meaning. The gloss is conceivably read gofun, a white pigment made of ground clamshell (calcium carbonate). The “iron” (hinoshi) in question was usually a small round metal container with a long wooden handle. Charcoal was placed into the receptacle to heat up the vessel. 322.  Shichirikō was another name for the winter daphne (jinchōge; Daphne odora Thunberg), which was also occasionally called unkō, but which is a different plant from the one to which the Chinese text refers. Jujia biyao was written by an anonymous author c. 1350. A twenty-volume Chinese-language edition of the book was published in Japan in 1673 and again in later years. In the Chinese text, see Book 6, section 125; in the Japanese edition, see vol. 10, fol. 65v.

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3. The tips and stems of writing brushes should be soaked in the juice of boiled Japanese goldthread (J. ōren; Coptis japonica) to which calomel has been added. Brushes should be replaced in their cases after drying. This method is transmitted by (the Chinese poet, painter, and calligrapher) Dong Po (J. Tōba; pseudonym of Su Shi, 1036–1101). According to what has been conveyed by (the Chinese calligrapher, artist, scholar, and poet) Shangu (J. Sankoku; pseudonym of Huang Tingjian, 1045–1105), Japanese pepper (sanshō) should be boiled with Japanese goldthread and the resulting liquid used to grind ink. The brush should be allowed to soak this up and left to rest. Alternatively, if brushes are saturated with the juice of green onions (nira) or the juice of the Amur cork tree (J. ōbaku; Phellodendron amurense) and left to dry, they will not become infested with bugs. IV. Regarding spoilable foodstuffs. According to the Nongsang yishi cuoyao (J. Nōsō ishoku satsuyō; “Fundamentals of Agriculture and Sericulture for Food and Clothing,” 1314), in order to keep rice and similar items from spoiling during the hottest seasons, one should cover them with the leaves of edible amaranth (hiyu; Amaranthus tricolor). Such food will not spoil, even if kept overnight.323 For preventing fish and flesh from spoiling over extended periods of time, one ought to wrap them in kneaded wheat flour and submerge this in oil. V. Repelling mosquitos, flies, and fleas.324 According to Jujia biyao, take 150 grams of sōjutsu (Atractylodes lancea), twenty seeds of Gac (J. mokubetsuniku; Momordica cochinchinensis), 9.4 grams of orpiment (yūō; an orange-yellow arsenic sulfide); pulverize it, mix with honey, and shape into balls.325 According to the Qianjinfang, if one burns the bones of a soft-shell turtle, eel, or river fish, all mosquitos will die. One can also repel mosquitos by burning a mix of duckweed (J. ukigusa; Spirodela polyrhiza) and (the root of the perennial herb) kyōkatsu (Otopterygium incisum) or orpiment.326 Jujia biyao explains that if one smears bat blood onto duckweed, sun-bleaches it, and then pulverizes and burns it, mosquitos and gnats will be repelled.327 Likewise smoke from burning hemp leaves allegedly drives off mosquitos. When fleas abound, the tips of sweet flag should be twisted into the underside of rush mats or sweet-flag leaves gathered and spread on the floor. 323.  Nongsang yishi cuoyao (which Jōhaku abbreviates to Nongsan cuoyao) was a work of Li Heng (1100–1178). For the relevant entry, see vol. 2 (juan xia), seventh month. 324.  See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 504–505. 325. See Jujia biyao, Book 10, sections 1014–1017; in the Japanese edition. see vol. 18, fol. 82v. 326.  Beiji qianjin yaofang, vol. 26, part 5, asserts only that eel kills all chóng (vermin, insects, pests). 327.  Jujia biyao does not seem to include this statement.

Seventh Month  235

VI. During this month one should not devour an excess of oriental melon (makuwa-uri; Cucumis melo L. var. makuwa Makino). If one’s stomach is upset from overconsumption, one should eat a pickled plum and drink musk. This effectively breaks down the melon. According to herbals, one may also roast and consume croaker (ishimochi), for this too breaks down the melon and liquifies it.328 Eating green onions (nira) during this month clouds one’s vision. One should not partake of wild duck (kamo), wild goose (gan; anser), domestic duck (ahiru), or silverberries (gumi; Eleagnus). Eating Japanese horseradish (wasabi) will lead to hydraulic abdominal distentions (katamari). VII. The concept of kyūka sanpuku (“nine [ten-day periods] of summer and three concealments”) refers to the fact that the three summer months total ninety days.329 Fuku (in the term sanpuku; Ch. sānfú) signifies days in which the qi of Metal is concealed. Whenever one of the four seasons changes to another, mutual generation takes place. Spring, the season of Wood, changes from winter, the season of Water; thus Water generates Wood. Summer, the season of Fire, changes from spring, the season of Wood; thus Wood generates Fire. Winter, the season of Water, changes from autumn, the season of Metal; thus Metal generates Water. Autumn, the season of Metal, however, changes from the Fire of summer. Since Fire overcomes Metal, the latter fears Fire. In consequence, when a ka-no-e day (during the ninety days of summer)—ka-no-e is associated with Metal—is reached, Metal necessarily conceals itself. The “three concealments” refer to the “first concealment” (shofuku), occurring on the third ka-no-e day after the summer solstice; the “middle concealment” (chūfuku), occurring on the fourth ka-noe day after the summer solstice; and the “final concealment” (mappuku), occurring on the first ka-no-e day after the (solar term) “Beginning of Autumn” (Risshū; c. August 8). Together these are known as the “three concealments.” For some forty days the weather is extremely hot. This parallels the severe cold of the solar term “Daikan” (“Major Cold”), occurring during the final month of the year (today c. January 20).

Book 3: Autumn VII. Seventh Month The seventh month is called “Fuzuki” (“Letter Month”). According to the Ōgishō, letters are opened when Tanabata is celebrated on 7/7, so the month was called 328. See Shokumotsu honzō, p. 64 (Book 6). 329.  See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 497–498. On the “days of concealment” in China, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, pp. 317–325.

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fumi-zuki. This word was subsequently abbreviated to “Fuzuki.” “Risshū” (“Autumn Begins,” c. August 8) is the solar term of the seventh month; “Shosho” (“Heat Withdraws,” c. August 23) is the mid-month term. Alternate names for the seventh month are “Sōgetsu” (or “Shōgetsu,” “Aspect Month”), “Mōshū” (“First Month of Autumn”), and “Ryōgetsu” (“Cooling Month”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to isoku (yízé, “barbarian regulation”).330 First day. At the (Upper) Kamo Shrine, “next-day nō performances.”331 Second day. At Anrakukōji at Toba, a memorial service for Emperor Toba (1103–1156).332 Third day. At the Shōōken Hall of Shōkokuji, a memorial service is offered for (the imperial consort) Chūwamon-in.333 Fifth day. At Kenninji, a memorial service for the founding priest. Holy treasures are taken out.334 Sixth day. 1. The holy shrines at Kitano are cleansed (susuharai).335 2. At Kōdaiji, a segaki ritual. Temple treasures and old paintings are displayed.336 Seventh day. 1. For this day’s festive occasion (sekku) at the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Table Office supplies thin wheat noodles (sōmen).337 On this day, sōmen are also consumed by the populace. In China the child of (the mythical emperor) Gaoxin Shi (Emperor Ku) died on 7/7. Its ghost became a demon spirit (kijin) and 330.  Yízé is the ninth of the twelve basic pitches of the scale, a minor sixth above the fundamental. 331.  These took place on the day following the last day of the sixth month, the “month of no kami.” 332.  “Anrakukōji” is probably an error for “Anrakujuin,” the site of Emperor Toba’s tomb. 333.  Chūwamon-in (Konoe Sakiko, 1575–1630), the adopted daughter of Toyotomi Hide­ yoshi, was a consort (nyōgo) of Emperor Go-Yōzei (r. 1586–1611) and the mother of Emperor Go-Mizunoo (r. 1611–1629). 334.  Kenninji was first headed by the Rinzai priest Kyōan Eisai (1141–1215/7/5), known for revitalizing the tradition of the Japanese tea ceremony. 335.  See also Yōshufu-shi, p. 78 (kan 3). 336. The segaki ritual, literally “feeding the hungry spirits,” ameliorates the suffering of gaki, departed spirits tormented by insatiable hunger. It typically consists of offerings, prayers, and the burning of pieces of paper inscribed with the names of the dead or with a participant’s wicked deeds. 337.  Most of this paragraph appears to rely on Kuji kongen, p. 78. Similar information is presented in Seigen mondō, p. 678, and Nenjū gyōji hishō, p. 528, a work perhaps predating the late thirteenth century. For citations from Japanese historical sources thematizing 7/7 and its attendant customs, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 629–662.

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tormented the populace by causing fever attacks. Since the emperor’s child had always relished sōmen while alive, this item was used to worship the spirit on the day of its death. According to the Jissetsu-ki, later generations ate sōmen this day to avoid being plagued by spasmodic fevers.338 The popular notion that one (eats) sōmen to worship the two stars (Vega and Altair) is erroneous. 2. Tanabata falls on the night when the celestial cowherd (kengyū or hikoboshi) meets the weaving maid (shokujo or orihime), (as represented by the) two stars (Vega and Altair). According to Huainanzi (“The Writings of the Masters of Huainan”; before 139 BCE), a magpie comes to the Heavenly River and spreads its wings to form a bridge over which the weaving maid crosses.339 In a book entitled Xu qixieji (“Continued Records on Universal Harmony”), one also reads that Wu Ding, a man from the city of Guiyang who had learned the ways of hermit-wizards, explained to his younger brother that on 7/7 the celestial weaving maid crosses the Heavenly River. The younger brother asked, “Why does she do so?” (Wu Ding) replied, “For a brief visit to the cowherd.” This was popularly transmitted as the night on which the weaving maid marries the cowherd.340 Tanabata is also called kikkō (or kikō; Ch. qǐqiǎo, “begging for skill”). On the eve of 7/7 (at the imperial court) fragrant flowers are presented, offerings made, papers (with poems) placed in gardens, and five-colored cords tied onto the ends of bamboo poles. Prayers will supposedly come true in the succeeding three years.341 On these grounds the occasion is also known as kikkōden (or kikōden; Ch. qǐqiǎodiàn, “offerings for begging for skill”). A verse in the Shin 338.  No copy of Jissetsu-ki (apparently also known as Jissetsu-roku) seems to have survived. The book is listed in the section of “miscellaneous excerpts” in the late thirteenth-century Honchō shojaku mokuroku, p. 178. The author of HAE probably cited the passage from Ainōshō, p. 9 (kan 1, no. 1), but the same information, with no reference to Jissetsu-ki, is also found in Kuji kongen, p. 78. See also Nihon saijiki, p. 511. 339.  Huainanzi (also Huainan honglie, “Great Words from Huainan”). According to the appendix (“Huainanzi yiwen,” vol. 2, pp. 758–759) of Liu Wendian’s 1923 Huainan honglie jijie (“Collected Explanations of the Huainan honglie”), this elucidation is not found in any extant version of Huainanzi but is cited as such in later works. Nensai shūda, pp. 16–18, offers information on Chinese sources. On the Huainanzi, see Cullen, Heavenly Numbers, pp. 33–44. 340. See Xu qixieji, section 11. Wu Ding (c. fourteenth century BCE) was the legendary founder and wise ruler of the Shang dynasty. Guiyang is the capital of Guizhou Province in southwestern China. 341.  “Begging for skill” refers primarily to women’s prayers to Vega and Altair for gaining expertise in embroidery or weaving. The ceremony had been introduced to Japan from Tang China by the late seventh century and was celebrated at court after 755. When it diffused to the populace, it was linked to the legend of the weaving maid. This section mostly quotes Kuji kongen (pp. 78–80)

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Figure 5.11  The weaving maid and cowherd meet in the heavens, while items are presented on offering stands in terrestrial realms.

chokusen-shū (1232) speaks of poetry offerings written with ink ground with dew collecting on yam leaves and inscribed on leaves of the paper mulberry (J. kaji; Broussonetia papyrifera): This morning, when for this morning’s letter I seek leaves with herbal dew, I find even the last ones gone from the mulberry by the eaves 342 3. At the Mitarai (festival of the) Kitano (Tenman Shrine) an offering of paper-mulberry leaves is placed atop “Shinpō Matsukaze” (“Spirit-Praising Pine Wind”), (Sugawara no Michizane’s favorite) ink-stone case. 4. Flower (exhibits) at the western and eastern Honganji.343

342.  Kusa no ue no tsuyu toru kesa no tamazusa ni nokiba no kaji wa moto tsu ha mo nashi. In Shin chokusen-shū, verse 216, by Fujiwara no Ietaka (1158–1237). This poem alludes to an older verse by Sone no Yoshitada (fl. tenth century) in the 1087 Goshūi waka-shū (no. 169): Sakaki toru uzuki ni nareba kamiyama no nara no ha kashiwa moto tsu ha mo nashi (“In the fourth month, when I seek to gather sakaki leaves [for the Kamo Festival], I find even the last ones gone from the oaks of Mt. Kamiyama”). 343. See TFS, seventh month, no. 1.

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5. At Ikenobō of the Rokkaku Hall, numerous displays of flowers in pots filled with sand.344 6. Possessions are aired at the Matsunoshita house of (shrine priests) at the (Upper) Kamo Shrine.345 Calligraphy by Emperor Go-Toba (1180–1239) is taken out. 7. Daitokuji airs its possessions. 8. Tenryūji airs its possessions. 9. Isshin’in airs its possessions. 10. Kickball performances by the Asukai and Nanba houses.346 Eighth day. At Tōji, a memorial service for the Monju bodhisattva. This originated in 833 during the reign of Emperor Ninmyō (r. 833–850).347 Ninth day. From tonight until the following day, “pilgrimages of the six realms” (rokudō mairi).348 South of Kenninji at Higashiyama stands a temple called (Rokudō) Chinnōji. It is governed by Daishōin, (a sub-temple) located within Kenninji precincts.349 Chinnōji was originally a graveyard whose founding patron was the great priest Kōbō (Kūkai). In one of its smaller halls stand a statue of the Buddha of healing and an image of the king of hell (Enma-ō; Skt. Yamarāja). Stone statues of Jizō abound in the garden, and the region is popularly known as the “six realms.” On 7/9, visitors arrive and sound the so-called welcoming bell (mukai-kane). They collect sprigs of the yew-plum pine (maki; Podocarpus macrophyllus) since the souls of the deceased are believed to ride the leaves of such a tree. This is probably because sutras state that the souls of the departed dwell in plants and trees while awaiting rebirth. After Ono no Takamura (802–852+) died, he went to examine the underworld and returned. He is said to have been resurrected at this location, a spot about 1.8 meters square and covered with grass. Tenth day. “Thousand-day” pilgrimages to Seisuiji (Kiyomizu Temple). Thirteenth day. 1. A nighttime segaki ritual at the Ōbaku temple (Manpukuji). Also, in what is known as the “Water-Lantern Ceremony” (Suitō-e), paper lanterns are lit and set afloat in the Uji River. 344. See TFS, seventh month, no. 1. 345.  See also 2/22, no. 3. 346. See Annaisha, pp. 292–293; Hinami kiji, p. 78; and Nenjū koji[-ki], pp. 421–422. 347. See Shoku Nihon kōki, p. 24 (Tenshō 10 [833]/7/1), though here the indicated service apparently did not take place at Tōji. In earlier centuries the event seems to also have been staged at Saiji. See Kuji kongen, p. 80, and Kōda, Nenjū gyōji go-shōjimon chūkai, pp. 138–140. 348. See TFS, seventh month, no. 3, and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 426. 349.  Legend had it that the courtier Ono no Takamura entered the underworld through a well at Chinnōji. See TFS, seventh month, no. 7, and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 397.

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2. In what is known as the “Festival of Souls” (Shōryō Matsuri), taking place from this night until the sixteenth day of the month, families present a range of offerings to welcome and fête the dead. In olden times this was a semiannual feast also celebrated at the end of the year, but nowadays it occurs only during the seventh month. Preceding the event, in an observance called “seeing living spirits” (ikimitama), children present their parents with steamed glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves, sake, fish, and suchlike.350 The seventh month is a time for worshiping deceased parents, but the celebration on 7/13 expresses the joy of seeing one’s parents alive. On this account the occasion is termed “seeing living spirits.”351 Fourteenth day. 1. Today and on the following day, lanterns (tōrō) are viewed at the Imperial Palace and at the eastern and western Honganji temples. The day also counts as the closing date for merchants to collect the semiannual debts that customers have incurred since New Year’s. 2. On this day at the Imperial Palace, an Urabon ceremony (urabon’e; Skt. ullambana), first observed [at court] in 733 during the reign of Emperor Shōmu (r. 724–749), takes place.352 “Urabon” is a Sanskrit term that may be translated as “tōken kuki.” Tōken (Skt. ullam) means being hung upside down, for the agony of hungry ghosts is tantamount to being suspended in an inverted position. Kuki (Skt. bana) refers to the vessel that affords these spirits relief from this agony. As one reads in the “Ullambana Sutra,” when Mokuren (Ch. Mulian; Skt. Maudgalyāyana), a disciple of the Buddha, first attained the six supernatural powers, he discovered that his mother dwelt among the hungry ghosts. He was so saddened that he paid the Shakyamuni Buddha a visit and begged him to save her. The Buddha informed him that if he made offerings (kuyō) to monks, who on 7/15 completed their summer retreats, his mother would find relief.353 3. On this day, lanterns are lit and visits undertaken to the sepulchers of ancestors. During this month lanterns are also kindled at private homes. According to Meigetsu-ki, by (Fujiwara no) Teika (1162–1241), the custom of lighting 350. On iki-mitama, see Nihon saijiki, pp. 512–513, and Groemer, Portraits of Edo, p. 88. 351. The mi (“seeing”) of mitama as written here is in fact more commonly written with the ideograph for “honorable” or “body,” turning the word into “honorable living spirits.” 352. See Shoku Nihongi, Tenpyō 5 (733)/7/6 (vol. 11). Here and below the author relies on Kuji kongen, pp. 80–81. For Japanese historical sources, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 662–698. 353.  The “Ullambana Sutra” (Ch. Yulanpen jing; J. Urabonkyō), said to be a translation of an Indian Buddhist text, was probably written in China in the mid-sixth century. Mokuren was one of the Buddha’s ten great disciples. See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, nos. 685 and 686; in English, see Apocryphal Scriptures, pp. 15–23. For remarks on 7/15 in medieval Chinese texts, see Swartz et al., Early Medieval China, pp. 480–481.

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lanterns originated around the Kangi period (1229–1232), during the reign of Emperor Go-Horikawa (r. 1221–1232).354 Fifteenth day.355 1. “Lantern dances” (tōrō-odori) at the Nagatani (Hachiman Shrine) at Iwakura.356 2. At Chion’in, a grand segaki ritual is performed by monks from Mt. Hiei. 3. On this single day, Miidera (Onjōji) allows women to visit and worship. 4. Today and the following day, “thousand-day” pilgrimages to Mt. Iwaya (Shimyōin). 5. At Sennyūji, from today until the seventeenth day of the month, a public exhibit of an image of the Amida Buddha from Shin-Zenkōji. Sixteenth day. 1. Visits to the Enma Hall at Senbon (Injōji). 2. Each year during this night, at Jōdoji Village and Jishōji Village in the Higashiyama area, more than four hundred persons ignite torches and illuminate the character “great” (dai 大) on Mt. Nyoi, above (i.e., east of) the Jōdoji temple.357 This is popularly known as “fires for sending off spirits” (shōryō no okuri-bi) and is considered a segaki ritual within an urabon ceremony. According to legend, the character “great” was drawn by the great priest Kōbō (Kūkai). In the distant past the Amida that serves as the main object of worship at Jōdoji emitted a radiance. This light was revered by Kōbō, and witnesses took it as karmically linked to heavenly rebirth. The radiance was subject to magical incantations and turned into the character “great,” which was then inscribed onto the mountain in dimensions thirty meters square. This character remains in place currently. If one scales the mountain to examine it, one notices that the inscription passes through high and low elevations and depressions. Across this uneven topography, slight stones indicate the outlines of the ideograph, which is so immense that seen on the mountain it bears no resemblance to the

354.  Meigetsu-ki (“Bright Moon Diary,” the title is not Teika’s) records events from 1180 to 1235. See the entry for Kangi 2(1230)/7/14 (vol. 3, p. 226). 355.  Though not indicated here, this day was also known as “Chūgen.” On the associated customs, see Nensai shūda, pp. 18–21; Hinami kiji, p. 81; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 234 (kan 6, on the use of the lotus); ibid., p. 282 (kan 7, lanterns); ibid., p. 332 (kan 8, lacquered hats); and Nihon saijiki, pp. 513–515. 356. See TFS, seventh month, no. 5. 357. See TFS, seventh month, no. 4, and Karaku saiken-zu, p. 604. Jōdoji Village stood near the temple once called Jōdoji (today Jōdoin); Jishōji Village was located near the famous temple of the “Silver Pavilion” (Jishōji).

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Figure 5.12  Torches are carried up Mt. Nyoi to illuminate the character 大.

inscription of the character “great.” If one beholds it from the foot of the mountain, one realizes that this inscription cannot possibly have been the work of an ordinary man. Also (on this day) families in town head for the Kamo River, where asagi (or ogara, hemp stalks from which the skin has been peeled) is ignited as illumination for sending off (the spirits). 3. At Matsugasaki, a “mantra dance” (daimoku odori).358 4. At the (Kawai Shrine in the) Tadasu Woods, an “Amida invocation dance” (nenbutsu odori).359

358. See TFS, seventh month, no. 5. 359.  Here also Kamo no Chōmei famously had his “ten-foot square hut.”

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5. On Mt. Funaoka at Matsugasaki the characters myō 妙 (“mysterious”) and hō 法 (“law,” Dharma) are lit.360 6. At the Yamazaki Takara-dera (Hōshakuji), a public exhibit of (a holy object).361 Seventeenth day. Honpōji airs its possessions.362 Eighteenth day. The mikoshi for the “festival of august spirits” (goryō matsuri) of the upper and lower Goryō shrines head for their interim sanctuary.363 Twentieth day. 1. Shōden’an within Kenninji airs its possessions. 2. Today and on the following day, the monks of Mt. Takao (Jingoji) intone incantations (darani; Skt. dhāraṇī) facing a wooden statue of the high priest Mongaku (1139–1203, Shingon school). Twenty-first day. At Mt. Takao (Jingoji), a memorial service for the high priest Mongaku. Twenty-fourth day. 1. “Pilgrimages of the six Jizō.”364 2. The Jizō Festival and market of Daigo (Village).365 3. Sumō at the hamlet of Tokiwa.366 Twenty-fifth day. Myōkakuji airs its possessions. Twenty-eighth day. Memorial services for the linked-verse poet (Iio) Sōgi (1421–1502/7/30).367 Twenty-ninth day. At Honryūji, a memorial service for the temple founder (Nichishin, 1444–1528/4/28), and the airing of possessions. During this month one should not eat watershield (J. nunawa; Brasenia schreberi), for it harbors vermin. Consuming green onions (nira) damages the eyes. Devouring venison or water deer activates qi. Dining on silverberries 360. See TFS, seventh month, no. 4. 361.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 176 (kan 5). 362.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 144 (kan 4). 363.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 66 (kan 2). On the shrines involved, see also TFS, eighth month, no. 4. 364.  See also TFS, seventh month, no. 7. 365.  This village, today Daigo in Fushimi-ku, was the site of Daigoji or Shimo-Daigo. On map 1 it would stand slightly beyond the border of the lower right corner. 366.  Tokiwa-no-sato may be the area today in Ukyō-ku east of Tokiwa Station, though other possibilities exist. Hinami kiji, p. 84, states that a Jizō festival and nighttime sumō took place here. The term “Jizō festival” suggests Genkōji (at Tokiwa), which possessed one of the famous “six Jizō” of Kyoto. On seventh-month sumō, see also Kuji kongen, pp. 81–82. For a brief discussion, see Torigoe, Saijiki no keifu, pp. 205–206. 367.  In fact, such commemorative ceremonies probably took place on 7/30.

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(gumi) will diminish divine qi (shinki). Partaking of wild duck (kamo) is injurious (hito o yaburu). Eating water chestnuts (hishi) activates qi. If one consumes too much honey, one will suffer from heat exhaustion.

VIII. Eighth Month According to the Ōgishō, the reason that the eighth month is known as “Hazuki” is that during this month leaves turn color and fall from trees. “Falling-leaf month” (ha-ochi-zuki) was abbreviated to “Hazuki.” This month’s solar term is “Hakuro” (“White Dew”; c. September 8); the mid-month term is the autumnal equinox (shūbun, September 22–23). Other names for the eighth month are “Sōgetsu” (“Robust Month”) and “Kisshun” (“Mandarin-Orange Spring”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to nanryo (Ch. nánlǚ, “southern yin-pitch”).368 Regarding the equinox, see what I have stated above concerning the second month. First day. Today is popularly called hassaku. The first day of this month is known as a day of requests (tanomi; homophonous with “fruits of the fields”), so one sends gifts to others and celebrates. The Kuji kongen states: This event has no real foundation and represents no officially designated (court) ritual. It is (merely) a popular custom. According to a record composed in syllabary, it originated during the Kenchō period (1249–1256)— (Jōhaku’s gloss: “the era when Go-Fukakusa [r. 1246–1259+] was emperor”).369 At first, rice may have been placed onto wooden or earthenware trays and sent to others as “fruits of the fields.” In writings of the Bun’ei period (1264–1275) by the retired regent of Enmyōji (Ichijō Sane­ tsune, 1223–1284) one reads that especially after the seventh or eighth year of the era (1270 or 1271) the custom supposedly spread among the populace, so perhaps it did in fact originate in the Kenchō period.370 According to another theory, when Emperor Go-Saga (1220–1272) was still young and dwelling at the residence of his maternal great uncle, Lord (Nakanoin) Michikata (1189–1238+), men and women in his service secretly awarded him (such a tray) as amusement for his simple life. Later he was to have a wondrous destiny, so within the palace this seems to 368.  Nánlǚ was the tenth pitch of the scale, a major sixth above the fundamental. 369.  Perhaps a reference to Ben no naishi nikki (p. 143, Kangen 5[1247]/8/1), which does not, however, use the name hassaku. For Japanese historical sources, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 699–718. 370.  Ichijō Sanetsune retired as regent in 1267. I could locate no other writings by him regarding hassaku, though he wrote much poetry.

Eighth Month  245

have been considered an auspicious symbolic act. But none of this warrants credence. Nor are the facts or date of origins of this (tradition) unambiguous. Hassaku may indeed have commenced during the times of Emperor Go-Saga (r. 1242–1246), but it is certainly no orthodox court ceremony.371 According to the Shiki monogatari (“Tales of the Four Seasons”), by Kamo no Chōmei (1155?–1216), the morning of the first day of the (eighth) month was known as a “festivity of requests” (tanomu no o-iwai), but in olden days few gifts were sent.372 The Komatsu emperor (Kōkō, r. 884–887) began to offer (such gifts) prior to ascending the throne. After the emperor’s enthronement, Shōsenkō (the regent Fujiwara no Mototsune, 836–891) did so as well for many years. Five-colored rice cakes were also manufactured and offered along with the first ears of rice. 1. On this day the court sends gifts to the shogunal house, and the latter pre­ sents ceremonial offerings to the former. Members of the commoner class also pay their respect for the shogunal house. The (Kyoto) chief city elder (sō-doshiyori) travels to Edo.373 2. At the Matsunoo Shrine, sacred sumō.374 Third day. In Sakai, the Tenjin festival (of the Sugawara Shrine). Fourth day. 1. At the shrine of the two Daimyōjin of Kajūji, “Lotus Sutra” lecture readings (hokke hakkō) and an assembly.375 2. The Kitano Tenjin (Kitano Tenman Shrine) festival, initiated by Emperor Ichijō (980–1011).376 Fifth day. Public exhibit at the Shirahige Daimyōjin in Ōmi Province. The monks serve.377 371.  Kuji kongen, pp. 83–84; see also Seigen mondō, p. 680. 372.  Karin shiki monogatari, p. 478. 373.  The Kyoto city administration did not include a sō-doshiyori but only a shogunal deputy (shoshidai), town officials (machidai), townsman elders (toshiyori), and after 1688 a town magistrate (Kyōto machi-bugyō). The position of sō-doshiyori did, however, exist in Osaka and several other cities. 374.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 86, and Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 159–160 (kan 5). Reviewing stands for spectators were built by the monks of Kōryūji. 375.  The shrine in question is today the Miyaji Shrine south of Kajūji (the author glosses the ideographs “Kanjūji”). The former enshrined the two founding kami of the Miyaji clan. Hokke hakkō were daily lecture readings, regarding, in sequence, the eight volumes of the “Lotus Sutra.” 376.  For details, see Kuji kongen, pp. 84–85, and TFS, ninth month, no. 1. 377. See Annaisha, pp. 299–300. A Yakushi Buddha carved by Saichō was exhibited for a day.

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Fifteenth day. This night is known as “mid-fall” (chūshū) because it marks the midpoint of the ninety days of autumn.378 The moon assumes the full golden radiance of autumn and shines ever so brightly, so poets and lyricists praise this night as that of the “radiant moon.” In Tang-dynasty China this eve was first designated the “night of the radiant moon.”379 1. The “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” (Hōjō-e) of Yawata (the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine).380 In 720/9, during the reign of Empress Genshō (680–748, r. 715– 724), forty-fourth in the imperial succession, the provinces of Ōsumi (Kagoshima Prefecture) and Hyūga (Miyazaki Prefecture) rose in revolt. In response, the empress’s court commanded Karashima no Kawazume, priest of the Usa Hachiman Shrine in Kyushu, to lead the imperial forces and subdue these provinces. He readily crushed the enemy. Thereafter an oracle of the Hachiman Shrine revealed that since many lives had been lost in battle, a “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” should be performed. Thanks to this oracle, the rite was staged in all provinces. For (approximately two hundred) years this “Releasing-of-Life Ritual” was suspended. In recent times (1679), however, Tanaka, a priest of the (Iwashimizu) Hachiman Shrine, appealed to the shogunate to reconnect the pieces of a severed tradition and revitalize abandoned practices. It has now become an annual occasion. 2. At various locations, Hachiman festivals.381 3. At Hata Village, north of Hirosawa, the “Hataeda Festival.”382 4. At (Mt.) Takao, the “Seiryū Gongen Festival.”383 5. The “Nagatani Festival” (of the Nagatani Hachiman Shrine).384 According to the Yueling guanyi, peonies should be replanted on this day, but their roots should first be well washed in sake, and poppies sown on this night will produce ample blossoms and much fruit.385 378.  For relevant historical texts regarding the night of 8/15 and its attendant customs, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 718–728. 379. Already in the tenth-century Tale of the Bamboo Cutter the mysterious “Kaguya Princess” flew back to her lunar home on 8/15 (see Taketori monogatari, pp. 59–60), a date surely not chosen randomly. 380.  In this paragraph the author relies on Fusō ryakki, p. 83 (Yōrō 4[720]/9). See also Kuji kongen, 86–89, and TFS, eighth month, no. 1. Jōhaku erroneously renders the era name as “Yōtoku” instead of “Yōrō.” 381.  For a sampling, see Hinami kiji, pp. 90–91. 382.  Hataeda Village lay north of Hirosawa Pond in northwestern Kyoto. The Hataeda Hachiman Shrine sponsored the festival. 383. Seiryū (or Seiryō) Gongen refers to the protective goddess of the Shingon-school Daigoji. She is most notably enshrined on the grounds of Daigoji at Kiyotaki-no-miya (“Kiyotaki” is the Japanese reading of “Seiryū”). The same divinity also protected Jingoji at Mt. Takao. 384.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 69 (kan 2). 385.  Yueling guanyi, vol. 8 (8/15).

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Sixteenth day. The “Kan Daijin (Sugawara no Michizane) Festival.” In Kyoto, at Bukkōji-dōri Shin-machi Nishi-iru-chō, stands a shrine (called the Kan Daijin Shrine). It marks the spot of the former residence of Kan Shōjō (Sugawara no Michizane). Eighteenth day. 1. The “festival of august spirits” (goryō matsuri) of the upper and lower Goryō shrines.386 2. The festival of the (Kami-)Katsura Goryō Shrine, with sumō. 3. From today until the twenty-fourth day of the month, Buddhist services (eshiki) at Saidaiji in Nara commemorate Hachiman Tarō Yoshiie (the warrior Minamoto no Yoshiie, 1039–1106). Twenty-second day. At Uzumasa (Kōryūji), a public exhibit and Buddhist service (eshiki) commemorating Prince Shōtoku. Twenty-fourth day. At Yoshida, the festival of the “Kiuri Daimyōjin.”387 Twenty-sixth day. At Kanshōji at Higashiyama, a memorial service for Emperor Sutoku (1119–1164/8/26) and a public exhibit of the emperor’s portrait.388 Do not eat garlic, pheasant, roe-deer, parsley, honey, eggs, or crab during this month.

IX. Ninth Month According to the Ōgishō, the reason that the ninth month is known as “Nagatsuki” (“Protracted Month”) is that during this month the nights gradually lengthen (yo-naga-tsuki), and this was abbreviated to “Nagatsuki.” The solar term of this month is “Kanro” (“Cold Dew”; c. October 8); the mid-month term is “Sōkō” (“Frost Descends”; c. October 23). Other names for the ninth month are “Kishū” (“Autumn Season”), “Gengetsu” (“Obscure Moon”), and “Kikugetsu” (“Chrysanthemum Month”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to bueki (Ch. wúyì, “no shot”).389 First day. From today until the eighth day of the month, lined kimono (awase) should be worn. Second day. At Tōdaiji in Yamato Province, the Hachiman Festival and bugaku (court dance and music) performances. 386.  See also 7/18 above and TFS, eighth month, no. 4. 387.  “Kiuri” is more often read “Kouri.” See also 6/24 above and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 55 (kan 2), which states that the kami is the local protector deity of the Kaguraoka area and may be identical to Gozu Tennō. 388.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 94; Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 115 (kan 4) and 376 (kan 10); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 66. On map 1 Kanshōji would lie immediately east of Kenninji. 389.  Wúyì was the eleventh pitch of the scale, a minor seventh above the fundamental.

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Fourth day. 1. The Kitano Festival.390 2. The Kohata Festival.391 Fifth day. At Hino in Yamashiro Province, the Kayao Daimyōjin (Shrine) festival.392 Sixth day. A memorial service for the governess of Kōdaiji.393 At the abbot’s hall (hōjō), a penitential sutra reading (senbō). Eighth day. 1. At Sennyūji, a memorial ceremony of Buddhist relics.394 2. The Biwanoshō Festival (of the Biwanoshō Tenman Shrine). 3. The Tamamizu Festival.395 Ninth day. This day is known as “Chōyō” (“Double Yang”) since both the month and day correspond to the number rōyō (=nine).396 It is also called “Chōkyū” (“Double Nine”). Cotton-padded kimono are worn from this day, rice with chestnuts is eaten, and “chrysanthemum liquor” is drunk. The imperial court holds a “chrysanthemum-blossom banquet” (kiku[ka] no en), also known as the Chōyō Banquet. “Chrysanthemum liquor” originated when the Chinese (Daoist) hermit Fei Changfang (fl. sixth century) proclaimed to Huan Jing of Runan, “This year, on 9/9, disaster will befall your house. Sew red pouches, fill them with silverberries, wear them from the elbow, climb a mountain, and sip chrysanthemum liquor. This will counteract the disaster.” Huan Jing took this advice and remained unharmed, but all the chickens, dogs, cattle, and sheep of his house perished.397 Thenceforth “chrysanthemum liquor” was drunk (on 9/9). 390.  See also TFS, ninth month, no. 1. Although this may refer to the Kitano Tenjin festival, Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 307, states that the event counted as the “Zuiki Festival” of the Kitano Tenman Shrine. Mikoshi adorned with locally grown vegetables were paraded to the shrine grounds, and then the procession exited the western gate and marched through neighboring areas. 391.  See also 9/24, no. 1, below; TFS, ninth month, no. 2; and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 354 (which glosses the name “Kowata,” as does the Miyako suzume annaisha, p. 108). 392.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 97, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 94 (kan 3). 393.  Kōdaiin (?–1624/9/6) was Hideyoshi’s wife. In 1606 she established Kōdaiji to pray for her husband’s afterlife. 394.  See also TFS, ninth month, no. 3. 395.  Perhaps a festival of the Tamatsuoka Shrine, of which the residents of Tamamizu Village were parishioners. 396.  Rōyō (Ch. lǎoyáng) refers to two unbroken yang lines in Chinese yin-yang thought, and these may denote the number nine. See also Seigen mondō, pp. 682–683. 397.  Runan is today a county in Zhumadian, Henan Province. Fei Changfang was the compiler of the Lidai sanbaoji (“Chronological Record of the Three Jewels”), a Buddhist work

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Figure 5.13  Penitential sutras are read by Kōdaiji monks.

1. The Daigo(ji) Festival, with nō performances.398 2. The Kibune Festival.399 3. The Gokōnomiya Festival at Fushimi.400 of 597. The following information is based on Xu qixieji, section 9. The contents of the pouch(es) are given as shuyu (Ch. zhūyú), which Jōhaku glosses as gumi (silverberry) but is probably Tetradium ruticarpum (Euodia) or Cornus officinalis (Japanese cornel dogwood). 398.  The Daigoji Festival was closely linked to that of the Hino Nagao Shrine (see below, no. 10). Daigoji nenjū gyōji (late fifteenth or early sixteenth century; see p. 649) speaks of lion dances (shishi dengaku) rather than nō. See also Annaisha, p. 304. 399.  See also TFS, ninth month, no. 6. 400.  See also TFS, ninth month, no. 4.

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4. The Tennō Festival at Shishigatani.401 5. The Yamashina Festival.402 6. The Kurama Festival.403 7. In the “upper capital” (Kamigyō), small mikoshi (sasakoshi).404 8. The “spanking” (shiri-tataki) of northern Iwakura.405 9. The Osaka Ikutama Festival.406 10. The Tenjin Festival of the Nagao (Tenman) Shrine at Hino.407 11. The Nakamura Festival at Nagatani.408 This takes place at night, so it is popularly known as the “Thief’s Festival” (Nusubito Matsuri). Tenth day. 1. The Shinomiya Festival (of the Tenson Shrine) at Ōtsu. 2. The mikoshi for the Awataguchi Tennō Festival exit for their interim sanctuary.409 3. At the Gokōnomiya Shrine, sacred nō performances. 4. The Gojō Tenjin (Shrine) Festival.410

401.  Hinami kiji, p. 98, identifies this as the festival of the Higashiyama “Shishigatani Ōtoyo Myōjin.” The sponsoring shrine must have been the Ōtoyo Shrine. Annaisha, p. 307, lists a “Shishigatani Festival” for 9/23. 402.  This was the festival sponsored by the Moroha Shrine. Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 308, states that the event involved eighteen villages in the Yamashina area. On the shrine, see also TFS, fourth month, no. 3. 403.  See also TFS, ninth month, no. 5. 404. These mikoshi served as float-like displays for the Kifune Shrine. See also TFS, ninth month, no. 6; 2/9, no. 3, above; Book 5, no. 10, below; and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 70 (kan 2). 405.  This was a festival of the Yamazumi Shrine. At night, newly married women with holy offerings on the head were chased around while being struck on the rear with poles in the hopes this would increase fecundity. 406.  The Ikutama Shrine festival is still staged on 9/9 today. 407.  This festival was sponsored by the Nagao Tenman Shrine, an institution enshrining the protector deity of the Daigo area as a whole and Daigoji in particular (see also no. 1 above). Hinami kiji (pp. 98, 99) identifies the event as the “Daigo Tenjin Festival” and states that from the previous night three nō plays were performed before the Seiryū Gongen (Kiyotakinomiya) at Daigoji. See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 94 (kan 3). 408.  This was probably the autumn nighttime festival of the Nagatani Hachiman Shrine, of which the villagers of Nakamura were parishioners. 409.  This was the festival of the Awata Shrine. The festival proper took place on the fifteenth day of the month. See Annaisha, p. 305; Hinami kiji, p. 102; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 56 (kan 2); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 259. 410.  See also Annaisha, p. 304; Hinami kiji, p. 99; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 69–70.

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5. The festival of Shimo-Toba.411 6. The Wakamiya Festival of Kōsanji in Ōtsu. Eleventh day. 1. Imperial envoys make offerings at the Ise and Yoshida (shrines).412 2. At Ryōzen (Shōhōji), a memorial service for high priest Kokua (1314–1405, Jishū school).413 Several vases with flowers are offered. Twelfth day. 1. At night at Uzumasa, the “Ox Festival.” 414 2. At Fushimi, the Misu (Shrine) Festival.415 (Huge) torches are lit and rockthrowing battles staged. Thirteenth day. 1. The festival of the Nii-Tamatsushima Shrine, located in the “lower capital,” in a ward (south of) Matsubara(-dōri) and west of Karasuma(-dōri).416 2. The Tennō Festival at Shirakawa.417 3. The festival of Jōdoji Village.418 4. The festival of Kisshōin.419 5. In Settsu Province (Osaka), the Sumiyoshi market. 411.  Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 308, specifies that this was the festival of Yoko-ōji. It was perhaps sponsored by the Tanaka Shrine, which enshrined the protector kami of Yokoōji Village. 412.  This custom, first mentioned in 721, largely died out during the late medieval era but was reinstated in 1647. The sending of offerings marked the start of the kannamesai, a set of elaborate rituals in which on 9/17 newly harvested rice was offered to the sun goddess at the great Ise shrines. See also Kuji kongen, pp. 91–92, on the envoys to Ise; also Annaisha, p. 305; Hinami kiji, p. 100; and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 28 (kan 1). 413.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 101, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 121 (kan 4). 414.  This once popular but no longer extant festival is sponsored by the Ōsake Shrine, located within the precincts of Kōryūji. The masked deity Matarajin rides an ox to the temple and then loudly recites saimon texts to an odd melody while demons seek to interrupt him. See Hinami kiji, p. 101. Annaisha, p. 305, notes that sumō also took place. 415.  The festival disappeared after World War II but was revived (with no rock throwing) in 1989. The author glosses the ideographs as “Misumi Matsuri,” perhaps in error. The gloss is not found in Kyō habutae oridome, p. 355. 416.  See also TFS, ninth month, no. 7. 417. The festival, also known as “Shirakawa Matsuri” (see Miyako suzume annaisha, p. 108), was sponsored by the Kita-Shirakawa Tenjin Shrine. Hinami kiji, p. 101, specifies that one mikoshi and five floats (hoko) participated. 418.  Jōdōji Village is today Sakyō-ku Jōdoji. The festival was sponsored by the Hachi Shrine, which enshrined the protector kami of Jōdoji and Jishōji. 419.  Today the Kisshōin Tenman Shrine. This was the site where in 845 Sugawara no Michizane was allegedly born and where he lived until age eighteen.

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In Japan this night is popularly said to be that of the “radiant moon” (meigetsu), and the moon is viewed, just as it is on 8/15. In his Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa) Kenkō of the Yoshida [house] writes, “The fifteenth day of the eighth month and the thirteenth day of the ninth month are governed by the asterism Lóu.420 Because this asterism is particularly bright, moon viewing takes place on these two nights.” 421 I have never heard of moon viewing during the night of 9/13 in (pre-Ming) China. In ancient times it was perhaps not practiced in Japan either, and one does not encounter it in verses of the “three imperial anthologies.” 422 Some contend that the date 9/13 appears in a Chinese-language poem by Kan Shōjō (Sugawara no Michizane), but the verse (“Autumn Night”) included in the Kanke kōshū (“Latter Collection of the Sugawara House”) indicates that it was composed on the night of 9/15.423 The “Yūgiri” chapter of The Tale of Genji mentions moon viewing on this night (9/13).424 Poems concerning the night of 9/13 also appear in the Kin’yō (waka-)shū (c. 1124), the Fūga (waka-)shū (c. 1346), and elsewhere.425 It seems that nowadays the moon is also viewed on 9/13 in China, for references to this event are found in many Ming dynasty (1368–1644) verses. Fourteenth [sic; correctly: Fifteenth] day. 1. The Iwakura Festival.426 2. The Awataguchi Tennō Festival.427 3. The Tennō Festival of the wards before Myōshinji.428 4. Each year Tōji celebrates an esoteric initiation ritual (kechien kanjō).429 420.  This counts as one of the twenty-eight “lunar mansions” of the traditional Chinese astronomy and is located in the constellation Aries. 421.  Tsurezure-gusa, p. 285; see also Keene, Essays in Idleness, p. 198 (no. 239). 422. The Kokin waka-shū (905), Gosen waka-shū (951), and Shūi waka-shū (1005–1007). 423.  Kanke kōshū, pp. 499–500. 424. See Genji monogatari, vol. 4, p. 106, and Waley, The Tale of Genji, p. 713. In fact, the date is not clearly indicated. 425.  See, for example, Kin’yō waka-shū, verses nos. 256, 257, 261, 274, 284, 289, 292, and Fūga waka-shū, nos. 556, 590, 602, 603, 606, 609, 620, 624, 625, 1556, 2165. It is rarely possible to tell whether the relevant date is 8/15 or 9/13. 426.  The Iwakura Shrine enshrined the protector kami of Iwakura Village and several adjacent locations. The festival included lit torches in the shape of snakes or dragons. Annaisha, p. 306, notes that nocturnal sumō took place. 427.  See 9/10 above. 428.  See also Annaisha, p. 306. 429.  This ritual of esoteric Buddhism was designed to allow the laiety to establish a karmic affinity (kechien). The faithful threw flowers on a mandala, and the deity on which the flower landed was taken to relate to the fate of the tosser.

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Sixteenth day. 1. At Fushimi, the Festival of the Misu Tenmu Tennō Shrine. 2. The Tennō Festival at the Okazaki (Shrine).430 3. At Shirutani, the Mishima Gongen Festival.431 4. At the Eikan Hall (of Zenrinji), a “rolling reading” of the “Dai-hannya kyō.” 5. At Chionji at Hyakumanben, prayer beads are taken out.432 Eighteenth day. 1. At the Kanda Myōjin Shrine (in Edo) in Musashi Province, sacred nō. Hōshō-tayū performs.433 2. At Ikeda in Settsu Province, the Kureha (Shrine) Festival.434 Nineteenth day. At Nanzenji, a memorial service for (the temple founder), Emperor Kameyama (1249–1305). Twentieth day. 1. Festival of the Hanjō Shrine.435 (The shrine) is located at a ward (north of) Takatsuji-dōri and west of Muromachi(-dōri). 2. At the Kenninji ward, the Ebisu (Shrine) Festival.436 3. The Jōnanji Festival.437 4. The Takeda Festival.438 5. At (Mt.) Daigo, the Kasatori Festival.439

430.  The Okazaki Shrine takes the rabbit as a messenger to the kami. Seven floats and a mikoshi were paraded about. See Annaisha, p. 306; Hinami kiji, p. 102; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 56 (kan 2); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, p. 259. 431.  The Mishima Shrine protected southeastern Kyoto. “Shirutani” refers to the nearby thoroughfare now known as Shibutani-dōri or Shibutani kaidō. 432.  See also 1/16, no. 5, above. 433.  Hōshō-tayū was the head of the Hōshō school of nō, which dates back to a brother of Kan’ami (1333–1384). 434.  See also Annaisha, p. 306. 435.  See also Annaisha, p. 307, and Hinami kiji, p. 104. On the shrine, see also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 62 (kan 2). 436.  On the festival, see Annaisha, p. 307; Hinami kiji, p. 104; and Shokoku nenjū gyōji kōmoku, pp. 259–260. 437.  Although in the twelfth century a temple called Jōnanji stood at what is now ShimoToba in the Fushimi area, the festival in question is that of Jōnangū, a shrine perhaps serving as that temple’s guardian. When in 1086 Emperor Shirakawa (r. 1072+–1086+) had his detached palace (Toba Rikyū) built, Jōnangū protected the premises. See also Hinami kiji, p. 104. 438.  Annaisha, p. 307, states that this festival was identical to the Jōnanji Festival. 439.  Zōho Nihon nenjū gyōji taizen, p. 310, specifies that this event occurred near Mt. Iwama in Uji County, so it may refer to a festival of the Seiryūgū (also read “Kiyotaki-nomiya”) at Daigo-yama in today’s Uji-shi.

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Twenty-first day. At Kuze, the Haigata Festival.440 Twenty-second day. In Osaka, the Zama (Shrine) Festival. Twenty-third day. 1. The Yodo (Shrine) Festival.441 2. In Ōmi Province, the Sakagami Festival.442 Twenty-fourth day. 1. The Kohata Festival.443 2. The Jōdoji Festival.444 3. In Ōmi Province, the Sekishimizu Myōjin Festival.445 Twenty-fifth day. 1. At Uji, the Tawara Festival.446 2. At the Ōsaka Tenman Shrine, equestrian archery (yabusame).447 Twenty-sixth day. 1. The sacred ceremony of the Kitayama Tenjin Shrine. A performance of (the ritual play) Sanbasō at the worship hall. 2. At Narutaki, the Daimyōjin Festival of the Fukuōji (Shrine).448 3. The festival of the Abe-no-Seimei Shrine. 4. In Osaka, the Gongorō Festival.449 Thirtieth day. At Tenryūji, Shōkokuji, and Tōjiin, a memorial ceremony for Musō Kokushi (the Zen priest Musō Soseki, 1275–1351).

440.  This was a festival of the Ōtoshi Shrine. See also Hinami kiji, p. 104. 441.  For details, see Annaisha, p. 307. 442.  Sakagami was the younger sister of the legendary musician Semimaru. This festival was celebrated at the “upper” shrine of the Seki-Semimaru Shrine complex in Ōtsu. See also Hinami kiji, p. 104. 443.  Perhaps an error, copied from Kyō habutae oridome, p. 356, which glosses the name “Kowata.” See 9/4, no. 2, above. 444.  Hinami kiji calls this the Jūzenji Gongen Festival of Jōdoji Village at Higashiyama. Jūzenji is the tutelary kami of the Jūzenji Shrine, one of the twenty-one Sannō shrines on Mt. Hiei. One of his Buddhist manifestations is Jizō. 445.  The Sekishimizu Daimyōjin is the “lower” shrine of the Semimaru Shrine complex. Annaisha, p. 307, also lists a Seki-no-myōjin festival. See also Hinami kiji, p. 105, and 5/5, no. 7, above. 446.  This was a festival of three shrines (sanja) of the Tawara area in Uji: the Mikurusu, Ōmiya, and Sannomiya shrines. 447.  See also Annaisha, p. 308. 448.  Narutaki is the neighboring ward west of the Fukuōji Shrine. 449.  Gongorō was the common name of the general Kamakura Kagemasa (or Taira no Kagemasa, 1069–?). His spirit is enshrined at the Osaka Goryō Shrine.

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During this month one should eat no ginger, for it will cause illness. One should not consume wild onions (kobiru; Allium victorialis), as they destroy kami and harm what is auspicious (kotobuki). Do not partake of nettles, pheasant, or chicken. If one devours dog meat, this diminishes divine spirits (shinki).

Book 4: Winter X. Tenth Month According to the Ōgishō, the tenth month is known as “Kaminazuki” (“Month of No Kami”) because all kami under heaven go to (the great shrine at) Izumo, so no kami remain in the provinces. In consequence, the month was called kaminashi-zuki (“Month of No Kami”), which was abbreviated to “Kaminazuki” (also “Kannazuki”).450 Many other old theories regarding Kaminazuki exist, and it is difficult to decide which is correct or to fathom why sacred rituals are avoided during this month. According to Shinrin saiyō shō (“A Dictionary of Selected Verses, Extracts”), in Izumo Province the “Month of No Kami” is known as “Month of Present Kami” (“Kamiari-zuki”) or “Month of Kami” (“Kami-zuki”).451 At “Kamiari Bay” (“Bay of Present Kami”) stands a Kamiari Shrine and all the kami assemble there (during the tenth month). When they have descended from heaven to Kamiari Bay, countless tiny boats of bamboo grass, of the sort that children craft for amusement, are set upon the waves. The kami congregate at the Kamiari Shrine at this bay and do not advance to the great (Izumo) Shrine. In the word kijin (“demon spirit”), (the poet Matsunaga) Teitoku (1571– 1653+) interprets the ideograph ki (“demon”) as meaning the soul (tama) of yin and the ideograph jin (spirit or kami) as meaning the soul of yang.452 The apex of yin occurs in the tenth month, so yang is absent throughout the realm. If one examines the eight trigrams (of the Yi Jing), the ninth and tenth months are represented by the northwest corner, known as “Kenkairen.” The province of Izumo, too, stands in northwestern Japan. Probably on the basis of this, the tenth month 450.  Alternately, as in Minazuki (the sixth month, “month of water”), the ideograph na (“none”) may have been used for its phonetic value to indicate a possessive. This would render the meaning “month of kami.” 451.  Shirin saiyō shō is a 1366 commentary on the Man’yōshū by the Jishū-school priest Yua (1291–c. 1379). The text goes on to state that the shrine in question stands on Mt. Furō and is known as the Sada Shrine. This institution, in today’s Shimane Prefecture, served as the “Ninomiya” (“Second Shrine”) of Izumo Province. It is located some thirty-two kilometers southeast of the Izumo Shrine. For the relevant passage, see Shirin saiyō shō, p. 65 (kan 6). 452.  I have not been able to locate the precise source of this assertion.

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Figure 5.14  At the Kamiari Shrine miniature boats dance upon the waves.

is called the “Month of No Kami” and is taken as the one in which the kami all assemble at Izumo. According to a theory of the Urabe house (of diviners), (the kami) Susanoo (-no-mikoto) concealed himself during the tenth month in winter.453 For this reason an imperial edict announced that the tenth month was properly governed by Susanoo. Since all the kami assembled at Izumo, in this province the tenth month was called “Month of Present Kami.” Otherwise one hears that the tenth month is called “Month of No Kami” because during this month the “kami of yin,” Izanami(-no-mikoto), perished.454 Another theory states that in the ritsu (pitch system) the tenth month corresponds to the pitch kami-mu (上無, “no upper”).455 Hence the tenth month is 453.  Susanoo was banished once for wishing to visit his mother in the underworld and again after causing Amaterasu to conceal herself in the “Celestial Cave.” See Nihon shoki, jō, pp. 97, 117, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, pp. 28, 48. 454.  According to the Kojiki, she was buried on Mount Hiba, at the border of Izumo and Hōki Provinces. 455.  The term refers to the fact that this pitch, approximately C#, is the eleventh, and thus uppermost, pitch of a scale used chiefly in gagaku and Buddhist chant. The term kami signifying “up” is homophonous with kami signifying “deity,” and mu can be read na, so this elaborate pun suggests the word Kamina(zuki).

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“Kaminazuki” (written as “no upper month”), and it is wrong to write kami with the ideograph for “deity” (rather than “upper”). According to yet another explanation, the forces of yang reappear only during the eleventh month. The tenth month is the apex of yin, and the label “Month of No Kami” indicates a lack of yang kami. The ideograph for yin may be read “oni” (demon) and that of yang, “kami,” so “yin-yang” becomes “oni-gami” (=yin kami). “Kaminazuki” as the tenth month thus means “Month of No Yang Kami.” Among these diverse theories perhaps the last-mentioned ought to be accepted. In his Essays in Idleness Kenkō writes: There is no documentary evidence to support the belief that during the tenth month, the “Month of No Kami,” one should abstain from sacred ceremonies. Nor are references ever cited. I wonder if the name came into being because no festivals were celebrated during this month. Some hold that during the “Month of No Kami” the kami all gather at the Great Shrine of Ise [rather than Izumo], but this is an unfounded theory. If this were the case, the month should especially be one of festivities at Ise, but again, no records to that effect exist. Imperial visits to shrines during the “Month of No Kami” have been plentiful, but most were inauspicious.456 Kenkō—that was his secular name—was a priest of the Yoshida Shrine. He was born into the Yoshida house and must have understood Shinto.457 Yet when he thus interprets the matter of all the kami assembling at Izumo, his claims are empty and untenable. 1. “Rittō” (“Start of Winter”; c. November 7) is the solar term of the tenth month; the mid-month term is “Shōsetsu” (“Light Snow”; c. November 22). Alternate names for the seventh month are “Mōtō” (“Top of Winter”), “Yōgetsu” (“Yang Month”), and “Ryōgetsu” (“Good Month”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it is associated with ōshō (Ch. yìngzhōng, “corresponding bell”).458 2. “Inoko.” The first “day of the boar” during the tenth month is celebrated by pounding glutinous rice.459 According to the Kuji kongen, “Glutinous rice cakes 456. See Tsurezure-gusa, p. 254, and Keene, Essays in Idleness, pp. 169–170 (no. 202), translation amended. 457.  Kenkō’s true lineage remains vague at best, with most information based on forged writings of Yoshida Kanetomo. 458.  Yìngzhōng is the twelfth of the twelve basic pitches of the scale, a major seventh above the fundamental. 459.  The glutinous rice cakes consumed for “Inoko” or “Inoko-no-iwai” are known as inoko mochi (“piglet rice cakes”). Regarding such cakes, the Seiji yōryaku (p. 97) invokes a

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are tendered as offerings by the Treasure Bureau (Kura-ryō) and are consumed by the emperor for breakfast. It is said that consuming glutinous rice cakes on tenth-month ‘days of the boar’ forestalls illness. This is a well-grounded theory, found in books on the ‘five phases.’ It remains unclear when the custom originated, but it may be archaic, as it appears in the Engi shiki (c. 927).” 460 In the Karin shiki-monogatari one reads: At first “Inoko” rice cakes from Tajima Province were offered (to the court). According to the national histories, this supposedly occurred during the tenth month of the second year of the reign of Emperor Kaika (r. 158–98 BCE). Moreover, a book entitled Ziyexing (J. Shiyagyō, ‘The Midnight Lay’) states that the tenth month is considered the month of the boar. The reason for this is that a sow bears as many piglets as there are months in a year, and in a leap year it bears thirteen. This is highly auspicious, and as a result, girls and ladies celebrated the day.461 This seems plausible. According to another popular explanation, in China (the legendary beauty) Yang Guifei (719–756), the favorite of Emperor Xuangzong (685–762), was born on a “day of the boar” during the tenth month. Women of all ages wished to partake in this good luck and celebrated “Inoko.” The source of this explanation remains uncertain. Warrior-class families celebrate “Inoko” because this day is a holy day (ennichi) at the Atago Shrine, celebrated as a “day of the boar” in the “month of the boar.”462 The Atago Shrine is the site of the “Shogun Jizō” and commands the faith of the warrior class. “Inoko” is also called “Gencho” (“Black Boar”). work authored during the second half of the ninth century. This citation appears in many historical texts after the early eleventh century. For other sources, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 759–780. See also Nensai shūda, pp. 22–23; Annaisha, pp. 312–313; Nihon saijiki, pp. 532–533; and Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 100, 141–144. 460.  Kuji kongen, p. 93. I can locate neither “piglet rice cakes” nor the term “Gencho” in the Engi shiki. This absence suggests that until the tenth century their presentation and consumption constituted no official court event. The Muromachi bakufu celebrated all three tenth-month “days of the boar” with five-colored “piglet rice cakes,” but the Tokugawa bakufu presented only two-colored ones on the first of these days. 461. See Karin shiki-monogatari, pp. 491–492, which, however, cites something slightly different from what is presented here. The only national histories documenting the times of Emperor Kaika are the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, but neither includes such a statement. I have also been unable to locate a Chinese book entitled Ziyexing  子夜行. 462.  The boar is considered a messenger to the kami of the Kyoto Atago Shrine and is often depicted on the premises.

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3. On the second “day of the rat” during this month “No’se glutinous rice cakes” (nose mochi) from No’se in Settsu Province (Ōsaka-fu, No’se-chō) are presented to the Imperial Palace.463 4. In this month at Mt. Hiei a major meeting takes place in certain years.464 5. At Mt. Takao, maple-leaf viewing. At the garden of Jizōin the public amuses itself by throwing clayware objects into a ravine many meters deep.465 First day. 1. In China, where this day is known as nuǎnlúhuì (J. danrokai; “assembly at the brazier”), the populace entertains itself roasting meat and heating wine in a brazier. In Japan braziers are readied at this time of year (for the winter months).466 2. At Chishakuin, debates from today until the twelfth day of the month.467 Third day. At Mt. Hiei, a display of an image of Ganzan Taishi (Ryōgen). During the second month of each year this is exhibited at Imuro; in the tenth month it is displayed at Yokawa.468 On this day much commotion surrounds the lottery held during the months of both these displays. Fifth day. 1. Zen temples all commemorate Daruma.469 2. From today until the fifteenth day of the month, Pure-Land temples conduct a “ten-night service” (of continuous Amida invocations).470 Sixth day. 1. From this day until the sixteenth day of the month, Shinnyodō conducts a “ten-night service.” 471 463.  For a discussion, see Torigoe, Saijiki no keifu, pp. 257–258. The item, an offshoot of “piglet rice cakes,” was later also supplied to the bakufu. 464.  Probably the Hokke dai-e, a major Tendai-school ceremonial assembly at Enryakuji held every five years during the first week of the tenth month. Tenets of the ten books of the Lotus Sutra were debated and acolytes examined. 465.  The Jizōin in question is a hall standing in the western area of the precincts of Jingoji at Mt. Takao. At an open area before this hall, visitors throw objects resembling “clay pigeons” into the “Kin’unkei” ravine, carved out by the Kiyotaki River. This gesture keeps evil at bay. 466. See Hinami kiji, p. 107. 467.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 107, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 123 (kan 4). 468.  Imuro, the area around the Imuro Fudō Hall, is located in the eastern region of Mt. Hiei. Yokawa, to the west, is the site of the Ganzan Daishi Hall, built on the property where Ryōgen (see note 50 above) once lived and prayed. 469.  Daruma is the Japanese name of Bodhidharma, the fifth- or sixth-century monk credited with spreading Chan (J. Zen) Buddhism from India to China. He served as the first patriarch of the Chan school in China. 470.  See also Annaisha, p. 310, and Hinami kiji, p. 108. 471. See TFS, tenth month, no. 1. Kyō habutae oridome, p. 357, notes that the ceremony lasts until the hour of the dragon (c. 7 a.m.–9 a.m.). Jōhaku calls the ceremony jūya no hōji, but it is more commonly called jūya hōyō or simply jūya.

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2. At Kōfukuji in Nara, a Buddhist memorial service for (Fujiwara no) Uchimaro (756–812).472 Seventh day. At Daitokuji, a commemorative ceremony for (Xutang) Zhiyu (J. Kidō, 1185–1269).473 Eighth day. The Imakumano (Shrine) Festival. Tenth day. At the Nara Kōfukuji the “Vimalakīrti Sūtra” is read from today until the sixteenth day of the month.474 This is because the sixteenth day of the month counts as the memorial day of Taishokkan (the “holder of the grand crown,” Fujiwara no Kamatari, 614–669). Although Kōfukuji, also known as Yamashina-dera, was a request of the Taishokkan, it was in fact erected by his son, Tankaikō (Fujiwara no Fuhito, 659–720).475 When the Taishokkan was plagued by illness and sensed that his end was near, he encountered a Baekje Buddhist nun named Pŏpmyŏng (J. Hōmei).476 She told the Great Minister, “I bring you the Great Vehicle (for salvation) called the ‘Vimalakīrti Sūtra.’ This sutra contains a chapter called ‘Monshitsubon’ (“The Visitation”). If you recite it, you will recover from your illness.” The Great Minister began to read this chapter, and before he had completed his recitation, his affliction had vanished. The Great Minister bowed low, folded his hands in prayer, and vowed that throughout all his existences he would consign his faith to the Great Vehicle (Mahayana Buddhism).477 Readings of the “Vimalakīrti Sūtra,” first sponsored by Tankaikō in 714, have continued without interruption to the present day and evidently enjoy a reputation even in China. Even a Chinese-language verse at the Kitano 472.  The grounds of Kōfukuji enclose an octagonal pavilion-like hall known as Nan’endō. It was constructed under the auspices of the courtier and poet Fujiwara no Fuyutsugu (775– 826) in memory of his father, Fujiwara no Uchimaro. The ceremony presumably took place there. See also Annaisha, pp. 310–311. 473.  Xutang Zhiyu was a Song-dynasty priest of the Linji (J. Rinzai) school of Buddhism. He taught countless pupils, including Nanpo Shōmyō (1235–1308+), who in turn taught Shūhō Myōchō (1282–1338), the founder of Daitokuji. 474.  This section is largely a citation from Kuji kongen, pp. 95–96. The “Vimalakīrti Sūtra” (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa; Ch. Weimo jiesuo shuojing; J. Yuima kitsusho sekkyō) explains many things, including the meaning of śūnyatā (emptiness), non-dualism, and the wordless teaching of silence. The sutra was translated repeatedly, with Japanese versions usually based on a Chinese translation by Kumārajīva (334–413). See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, nos. 474, 475, 476; for a multilingual translation, see Vimalakīrtinirdeśa. See also the 900 Kōfukuji engi, p. 413, on which Kuji kongen probably relied; Annaisha, p. 311; and Hinami kiji, p. 109. 475.  Yamashina-dera refers to the predecessor of Kōfukuji. 476.  This tale probably relies on Fusō ryakki, p. 56 (Saimei Tennō 2, 656 CE). 477.  See “Monshitsubon,” chapter 5 of fascicle II of the “Vimalakīrti Sūtra” (see note 474 above). This has been translated as “Manjuśrī’s Condolence Visit” or “The Consolation of the Invalid.”

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Figure 5.15  The ailing Fujiwara no Kamatari listens to recitations by the Baekje nun Pŏpmyŏng.

Tenman Shrine states, “Though it takes place at Kōfukuji, its fame extends throughout Japan, China, and India. Thanks to the power of this (sutra-reading) assembly, Japan has become what it is.” 478 This is related in the Kuji kongen. Eleventh day. From this day until the fifteenth day of the month, monks from Miidera (Onjōji) conduct eight daily “Lotus Sutra” lecture readings (hokke hakkō) before the deities of the Matsunoo Shrine. Twelfth day. At Toganoo (Kōzanji), today and the following day, a service for the souls of insects (mushi kuyō).479

478.  Glossed as: Na was kikoe sangoku ni, e wa todomaru kōbuku ni, chō no taru wa chō, kedashi kono e riki nari. 479. See Hinami kiji, p. 110, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 164.

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Thirteenth day. 1. (At Hokke-school temples), displays of images of the high priest Nichiren. This is popularly known as “ceremony of the revered name” (omei-kō).480 Here and there at Hokke-school temples, offerings are made, and Buddhist ceremonies are staged. 2. At Myōkōji in Kitayama, a memorial service for the temple’s founding priest, Hōtō (Shinchi Kakushin, 1207–1298).481 Fifteenth day. 1. At Rokuōin in Saga, a memorial service of Buddhist relics.482 Twenty-eight scroll-paintings by Chō Densu (1352–1431) are exhibited. 2. Public exhibit of Buddhist relics at the Matsunoo (Shrine). 3. This day is known as “Gegen” (also “Kagen,” “Lower Beginning”). The fifteenth day of the first month is called “Jōgen” (“Upper Beginning”); the fifteenth day of the seventh month, “Chūgen” (“Middle Beginning”); and the fifteenth day of the tenth month, “Gegen.” Collectively the three days are called “Sangen” (“Three Beginnings”). Sixteenth day. At Tōfukuji, a memorial service for the founding priest.483 This constitutes a ritual funeral procession for Shōichi Kokushi (Enni, 1202– 1280). Seventeenth day. Sacred dance (mikagura) takes place at the Naishidokoro (of the imperial court).484 Twentieth day. 1. On this day, merchants worship (the deity) Ebisu at so-called Ebisu-kō.485 Residents all visit the Shōshun Shrine, located within the premises of the Gion interim sanctuary (otabisho) at Shijō in Kyoto, and pray away their (mendacious) vows of the past year.486 The Shōshun Shrine, a branch of the Gion Shrine, enshrines the kami called Kanjadono. According to a popular theory, the spirit of Shōshun is celebrated because (the warrior-monk Tosanobō) Shōshun 480.  Omei-kō is more correctly written with the ideographs “revered life.” The ceremony takes place on the day that Nichren died. For details, see TFS, tenth month, no. 2. 481.  Hōtō is actually a Buddhist title (“Light of the Dharma”) rather than a proper name, but Shinchi Kakushin was posthumously often called Hōtō Zenshi or Hōtō Enmyō Kokushi. 482.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 110, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 169 (kan 5). 483.  For details, see TFS, tenth month, no. 3. 484.  Nighttime performances accompanied by winds and strings took place in the forecourt of the Naishidokoro, the room where the Sacred Mirror was enshrined. 485.  See also Annaisha, p. 312; Hinami kiji, p. 111; Kyō habutae oridome, p. 357; and Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 61–62 (kan 2; on p. 61 the prayers at Kajadono are erroneously dated as 11/20). 486.  In particular, promises made to hoodwink customers.

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(1141?–1185) deceitfully vowed to kill Yoshitsune. A kami to which one appeals for praying away false promises is a “malevolent kami” (jashin). But the kami are upright, not wicked. This observance is misguided and wretched. 2. At Tenryūji, a memorial service for Bukkoku Kokushi (Kōhō Kennichi, 1241–1316). Twenty-fifth day. A memorial service at Nanzenji for Issan (or Ichinei; the Chinese priest Yishan Yining, 1247–1317). Twenty-sixth day. Since olden times a memorial service has been held at Daiun’in for Enchō (772–837) of Enryakuji. Nowadays it takes place at Unmon’in. Twenty-eighth day. From this morning until the following day, debates by the monks of Miidera (Onjōji) at the temple’s Chishō Daishi Hall.487 Twenty-ninth day. A memorial service for Chishō Daishi. Eating yams during this month is highly beneficial. One should not consume boar meat. Japanese pepper (sanshō) should not be eaten, for it damages the blood vessels. Devouring green onions (nira) promotes nasal discharge. Eating frost-damaged cooked vegetables (jukusai) causes one’s complexion to lose its color. Consuming venison activates qi.488

XI. Eleventh Month According to the Ōgishō, the Japanese name for the eleventh month is “Shimo­ tsuki” (“Frost Month”) because frost (shimo) often falls (furi) during this month (tsuki). Shimo-furi-tsuki was abbreviated to “Shimotsuki.” “Taisetsu” (“Heavy Snow”; c. December 7) is the solar term of the eleventh month; the mid-month term is “Tōji” (“Winter Maximum”; c. December 22). Alternate names for the eleventh month are “Chūtō” (“Midwinter”), “Kogetsu” (“Sacrificial Month”), and “Fukugetsu” (“Month of Reversion”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to ōshō (huángzhōng, “yellow bell”).489 1. Three theories exist regarding the winter solstice. One of these states that yin qi peaks on this day, and yang qi returns (ichiyō raifuku). Another one maintains that in this month yang qi begins to arrive. According to a third, in the eleventh month the sun arrives at its southernmost position. This day marks the start of the revival of yang qi, and the days lengthen. It is said that starting from the winter solstice, Han-dynasty court ladies sensed the lengthening days after the winter solstice from the single strain of silk they were 487.  Chishō Daishi refers to the priest Enchin (814–891). 488.  Here again the ideograph for noro (roe-deer) is glossed kujira, normally signifying whale. 489.  Huángzhōng is the fundamental of the twelve basic pitches of the scale.

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reeling.490 When the winter solstice falls on the initial day of the eleventh month, this is known as a “first-day solstice” (sakutan tōji). This occurs once every twenty years and is taken as an auspicious sign. During such a year, the emperor appears at the Southern Hall (Naden; also Shishinden, the Throne Hall) and conducts the Regular Ceremony (Shun). Thereupon the courtiers offer felicitous greetings.491 In the national histories one reads that in 725/11 the emperor appeared at the “Daian Hall” and delivered an auspicious speech on the occasion of the winter solstice.492 On the day of this solstice, the priests of the Gozan (Zen Buddhist) monasteries deliver sermons (hinhotsu). 2. Fire festivals (o-hitaki or hotaki). Fire festivals during this month, staged by many shrines and the populace, imitate the time when the Sun Goddess concealed herself in the Celestial Cave and all the kami performed kagura and lit bonfires to amuse her.493 She fancied such entertainment fascinating and exited the cave.494 The reason that this event occurs only during the eleventh month is that this month marks the revival of the yang qi. Steel and flint are struck together and new fires kindled. 3. On this month’s “day of the rat,” Daikokuten is worshiped in what is called the “rat festival” (ne-matsuri).495 On this day, everyone purchases lampwicks called “rat lampwicks” (ne-tōshin). It is hard to grasp why this is the case, but it is a national custom. 4. On the first “day of the rabbit,” sacred dances (mikagura) at Yawata (Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine).496 5. On the first “day of the monkey,” the Ōmiya Gongen Festival.497 490.  On Chinese festivals attending the winter solstice, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, pp. 165–188. 491.  In the “Regular Ceremony” the emperor granted sake to his subordinates and saw to affairs of state. Normally these ceremonies were held only on 4/1 and 10/1, but when the winter solstice fell on 11/1, they were conducted once again. Sakutan-tōji in Japan is first mentioned in the Shoku Nihongi (vol. 5, p. 304) in Enryaku 3 (784)/11; for details on the earliest years, see Shin gishiki, p. 252. See also Sakutan tōji burui-ki, which details medieval customs for sakutan tōji. 492. See Shoku Nihongi, Jinki 2(725)/11/1. The above explanation of sakutan tōji relies on Kuji kongen, p. 98. The “Daian Hall” (“Hall of Great Peace”) was later called “Daigoku (or Daigyoku) Hall,” perhaps merely an older name for the Naden. 493.  See also TFS, eleventh month, no. 1, and Karaku saiken-zu, p. 600. 494.  See also TFS, note 242. 495.  On Daikokuten, see note 75 above. 496. On such performances at this site during the second and eleventh months, see Hinami kiji, pp. 36, 122; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 98 (kan 3); Shokoku nenjū gyōji, p. 24 (which states that they take place from eight to ten o’clock at night) and p. 80; and Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 295. 497.  This was perhaps a festival of what is now the Kasuga Shrine in Nara. See Nenjū koji(ki), p. 300.

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6. On (the first) “day of the monkey,” the Agata Shrine Festival at Ōkitayama.498 7. On the second “day of the cock,” the special (rinji) festival of the Kamo shrines.499 First day. On this day the Ministry of the Center (Nakatsukasa-shō) presents the emperor with the calendar for the upcoming year.500 In the past, the emperor appeared at the Southern Hall (Naden) to inspect this document. In China during the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 BCE) the eleventh month was considered the “right month” (=the start of the year). Calendar makers called it the “rightheaven month” (Ch. tiānzhēngyuè). During the Yin dynasty (or Shang dynasty, c. 1600–1046 BCE) the twelfth month was taken as the “right month” and called “right-ground month” (Ch. dìzhēngyuè). During the Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BCE) today’s first month was considered the “right month” and called the “righthuman month” (Ch. rénzhēngyuè). The calendar is probably devised and presented to the emperor during the eleventh month because this month marks the revival of yang. In Japan the first calendar seems to have been presented by Baekje diviners in the fourteenth year of the reign of Emperor Kinmei (553 CE).501 (Nowadays) calendars are printed with woodblocks and sold to the public from this day (11/1) by the Daikyōji Takumi.502 498.  The author glosses the name of this shrine “Agata (no) shiro,” but it should probably read “Agata (no) yashiro.” Yōshūfu-shi, p. 80 (kan 3), which dates the festivals to the first “day of the monkey” in the fourth and eleventh months, explains that the shrine stood at Ōkitayama; that it was founded during the Enryaku period (782–806); and that it served as a shrine of the ancestors of the Nakahara, Kiyohara, Sugawara, and Akishino families. The reference is thus almost certainly to the Agata Shrine that is an auxiliary shrine within the grounds of the Kyoto Hirano Shrine. See also Nenjū koji[-ki], p. 363. 499.  On the “special festival,” see H. McCullough, trans., Okagami, pp. 295–296, and Müller, Kagura, pp. 124–131. The event was initiated in 889 on the last “day of the cock” during the eleventh month. For details, see Gōke shidai, p. 324; Kamo chūshin zakki, p. 592; and Kuji kongen, pp. 105–106. See also Annaisha, p. 320; Yōshūfu-shi, p. 51 (kan 2); and Shokoku nenjū gyōji, pp. 80–81. 500.  Most of this paragraph is taken from Kuji kongen, pp. 97–98, which states that its historical contentions regarding China are based on Bai Hu tong, a volume perhaps compiled by Ban Gu (32–92 CE). Presumably the reference is to statements in vol. 7, sanzheng, or vol. 10, fumian. 501.  See chapter 1, note 4, above. The term I translate as “diviner” is problematic. It is given as shōshi with two ideographs usually signifying warriors but here glossed as hase. Perhaps hakase (diviner) was intended, for the first ideographs of shōshi and hakase are very similar when written by hand, and the second is identical. 502.  The Daikyōji was in the service of the court and headed the guild of picture mounters. Each year he also received the new calendar from yin-yang diviners of the Kamo and Kōtokui houses and manufactured so-called Daikyōji calendars. “Takumi” refers to an artisan in the service of the court.

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Second day. A memorial service for (the priest) Yōkan (1033–1111) at Zenrinji (Eikan Hall). Eighth day. 1. At the (Fushimi) Inari (Shrine), a fire festival popularly known as the “Bellows Festival” (Fuigo Matsuri).503 This is celebrated especially by smiths and metalworkers. 2. At Nichiren temples, fire festivals of the “Ten Demon Women” (Jūrasetsunyo; Skt. rāksasī). Tenth day. 1. At Mt. Hiei, daily lecture readings of the eight volumes of the “Lotus Sutra” (hokke hakkō). Temple monks proceed to the Lower Kamo Shrine, where they fetch holy water (mitarashi) for purifications. On this day, shrine officials appear at the Kamo Shrine worship hall clad in formal outfits. 2. At Kamo, the Ōta (Shrine) Festival. Eleventh day. 1. At Myōshinji, a memorial service for (the founder) Emperor Hanazono (r. 1308–1318). 2. (At Ise), the fire festival of the Inner Great Shrine (overseen by) masters of court ceremonies (gyōjikan). Hot water is offered. Thirteenth day. A memorial service for Kūya. This is presented at the Kyoto Gokurakuji (Kūya Hall), located on Shijō Bōmon(-kōji), between Horikawa(dōri) and Aburanokōji.504 The service takes place at noon. Night after night the high priest Kūya wandered through Kyoto intoning Amida invocations.505 When he lived at Kibune for some time, a deer of which he was always very fond visited him every night and cried. Then one night it failed to appear. The following day, a man named Taira no Sadamori admitted to Kūya, “Last night I killed a deer at this spot.” The high priest wailed loudly and pleaded 503.  See also Hinami kiji, p. 116. 504.  The Kūya Hall was more correctly called Gokurakuin, not Gokurakuji, which properly referred to Shinnyodō. On its inhabitants and rituals, see Annaisha, p. 315; Hinami kiji, pp. 117–118; and TFS, eleventh month, no. 2. On the dates of Kūya death commemorations, see Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 178 (kan 5) and p. 421 (kan 10), which erroneously gives 12/13. Kyo habutae, p. 77; Kyō habutae oridome, p. 358; and other sources state the date correctly. 505.  The following apparently rewrites information in the 1686 Yōshūfu-shi, p. 421 (kan 10) and the 1689 Kyō habutae oridome, p. 401, though the fact that the tale is also recounted in the 1674 TFS (see eleventh month, no. 2) indicates that the source must be of an even earlier vintage. A famous wooden statue of Kūya, in the possession of Rokuharamitsuji, in which the priest is portrayed with a walking stick crowned with deer antlers, was carved by Kōshō, a sculptor active in the early thirteenth century.

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Figure 5.16  Kūya confronts Taira no Sadamori, the hunter who slaughtered his favorite deer.

to be granted the deer’s hide and antlers. Out of the hide he fashioned a coat; the antlers he attached to the end of his walking stick. These became his cherished keepsakes. Sadamori deeply regretted killing the deer, so he shaved his head and became a monk. The eighteen houses of “bowl beaters” (hachitataki) of Goku­ rakuji are the descendants of Sadamori. They dress in secular garb, marry, and have children. Their vestments retain the style of Sadamori’s “hunting attire.” On forty-eight winter days beginning from 11/13, members of these eighteen houses circulate through Kyoto from dawn and visit graveyards and funeral halls. As an ascetic practice they intone in a high pitch Buddhist verses regarding the notion of transience. In the old days they banged on bowls (hachi), but recently they use gourds. Fifteenth day. (At Murasakino), the fire festival of the Imamiya Shrine. Eighteenth day. The fire festival of the (upper and lower) Goryō shrines.

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Twenty-first day. A memorial service for Jōzō (891–964) of Ungoji.506 Twenty-second day. 1. At Mibudera, from today until the twenty-fourth day of the month, readings of the “Buddha Proclaims the Names of Buddhas Sutra” (butsumyō-e).507 2. From today until the twenty-eighth day of the month, memorial services for the high priest Shinran (1173–1262+), the founder of the eastern and western Honganji. These services are called hōonkō (“assemblies for repaying gratitude”).508 Twenty-fourth day. The “Assembly for the Great Master” (Daishikō). A memorial service commemorating the Tendai priest Chisha Daishi is conducted at Atago under the auspices of Miidera (Onjōji) of Mt. Hiei.509 Red adzuki beans are boiled (to make “Daishi porridge” [daishi-gayu]). Twenty-fifth day. From today until the twenty-eighth day of the month, the festival of the Kasuga Shrine in Nara.510 Twenty-eighth day. At Seisuiji (Kiyomizu Temple), a memorial service for Gyōei (fl. eighth century).511 Thirtieth day. The Uga (Shrine) Festival. If one eats tortoise during this month, one will suffer from edematous diseases. Consuming venison activates qi. Eating Mandarin duck (oshidori; Aix galericulata) will induce nausea. If one devours raw green onions (nira), this promotes nasal discharge. One should not consume animals with a carpace or shell, for this will harm divine spirits (shinki) and cause carrion beetles (Ch. shīchóng) to breed. Do not partake of stale dried meat, as it makes one suffer nausea, dizziness, and impotence. One ought not dine on raw greens for this intensifies chronic ailments. Raw wild green onions (yamanira; Allium thunbergii) should not be consumed.

XII. Twelfth Month According to the Ōgishō, in Japan the twelfth month is known as “Shiwasu” (“Running Masters”) because Buddhist priests (shi) race around (haseru) in all 506.  The great Tendai priest Jōzō died at Ungoji. According to Hinami kiji, p. 119, the service took place at the small Yamaibuse (“Disease Suppressing”) Shrine. 507. See TFS, twelfth month, no. 1. 508. See Annaisha, pp. 315–316; Hinami kiji, p. 119; and TFS, twelfth month, no. 3. 509.  For more detail, see Hinami kiji, p. 120. Chisha Taishi (Ch. Zhiyi; J. Chigi, 538–597) was the founder of Tiantai Buddhism in China. 510.  This grand and ancient festival, often known as the Kasuga On-matsuri, is described in many sources. See, for instance, Annaisha, pp. 316–317, and Hinami kiji, p. 120. 511.  Legend had it that in 778 Gyōei persuaded the priest Enchin to found Seisuiji and install a statue of Kannon. See also 5/23 above.

Twelfth Month  269

directions when commissioned to stage “Buddha-name (assemblies)” or to recite sutras.512 “Month of racing priests” (shi-haseru-tsuki) was pronounced “Shiwasu.” Another theory contends that the meaning of “Shiwasu” derives from the fact that during this month the four seasons (shiki) have become exhausted (hatsuru). The word should be read “Shihatsu,” but the syllables tsu and su are taken as interchangeable. A Mt. Shihatsu 四極山 (“Mountain of Four Endings”; hatsu is related to hateru, “to end”) stands in Bungo Province (Ōita Prefecture).513 The name “Final Month” (“Kyokugetsu” 極月; kyoku, the same ideograph read hatsu in the case of the mountain) for the twelfth month points to an identical meaning. The solar term of the month is “Shōkan” (“Minor Cold”; c. January 6); the mid-month term is “Daikan” (“Major Cold”; c. January 20). Other names for the twelfth month are “Kitō” (“Winter Season”), “Jogetsu” (“Month for Removing [the old year]”), and “Gengetsu” (“Severe Month”). In the ritsu (Ch. lǜ) (pitch system) it corresponds to tairyo (dàlǚ, “great lǚ”).514 First day. At Uzumasa (Kōryūji), a reading of the “Buddha Proclaims the Names of Buddhas Sutra.”515 Sixth day. From today until the twelfth day of the month, a memorial service for Kakuban (1095–1143+), the founding priest of Chishakuin.516 These services are called hōonkō (“assemblies for repaying gratitude”). Eighth day. At Chishakuin, debates followed by drinking parties. Twelfth day. 1. At Myōshinji, a memorial service for the founding priest (Kanzan Egen, 1277–1360+). 2. At Nanzenji, a memorial service for Taimei Kokushi (1212–1292+).517 Fourteenth day. At Sennyūji, from today until the sixteenth day of the month, a reading of the “Buddha Proclaims the Names of Buddhas Sutra.” Nineteenth day. At Makinoo (Saimyōji), from today until the twenty-first day of the month, readings of the “Buddha Proclaims the Names of Buddhas Sutra.”518 512. See TFS, note 287. 513.  This mountain, standing some 624 meters tall, is today called Takasaki-yama. 514.  Dàlǚ is the second of the twelve basic pitches of the scale, a semitone above the fundamental. 515. See TFS, twelfth month, no. 1, and note 287. 516. In 1130 Kakuban founded a temple in what is today Wakayama Prefecture, and Chishakuin counted as a subsidiary. Chishakuin, whose founder remains unknown, was revitalized by Gen’yū (1529–1605) around 1598. Kakuban promoted the sort of reformed Shingonschool Buddhism for which Chishakuin stood. See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 123 (kan 4). 517.  Taimei Kokushi (Mukan Gengo or Mukan Fumon) was the temple’s founding abbot. 518. See TFS, twelfth month, no. 1.

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Twentieth day. At the Saga Shakyamuni Hall (Seiryōji), the (year-end) cleansing (susuharai) and a public exhibition (of a holy object). Twenty-second day. At Daitokuji, a memorial service for the founding priest (Shūhō Myōchō, 1282–1338). Twenty-third day. Memorial service for the high priest Yūgyō Ippen (Ippen, 1239–1289).519 Twenty-eighth day. “Bowl beaters” (hachitataki) petition the Buddha by performing Amida-invocation dances (odori nenbutsu) at the main hall of Goku­ rakuji (Kūya Hall). Thirtieth day. Before the deities of the Gion Shrine, a nighttime “rolling reading” of the “(Dai-)hannya kyō.” At the “hour of the rat” (c. midnight), the sacred ritual of wooden sticks (kezurikake) at the worship hall of this shrine.520 1. The night of 12/30 is known as joya or joseki (“eve eliminating the old year”). It is said that in the past, rituals were performed on this night to worship the souls of the deceased, but nowadays this custom has died out. Nevertheless, persons dress in formal garb and offer victuals and sake to the ancestors, and year-end rituals are conducted. Everyone quietly awaits the dawn of the New Year. At dusk, family members light and set out lanterns as offerings to the kami. The illumination fortifies yang qi. 2. Regarding Setsubun (“Seasonal Partition”).521 Setsubun marks the boundary between the wintertime solar term “Daikan” (“Major Cold”) that has just passed and (the solar term) “Risshun” (“Start of Spring”).522 During certain years, Setsubun falls within the old (lunar) year; in other years spring begins during the new (lunar) year. In any case, at the imperial court the “Tsuina” (“Demon Exorcism”) ritual is conducted during the last night of the year.523 The Kuji kongen reports that on this night an exorcism (nayarau) takes place. After dark, an official from the Bureau of Imperial Attendants (Ōtoneri-ryō) plays the role of a demon (oni), and men from the Bureau of Divination (Onmyō-ryō) stationed near the “Southern Hall” (Naden) intone prayer-spells (saimon). The director of ceremonies and his 519.  Kyō habutae oridome, p. 360, adds, “Services take place at various Jishū-school temples.” 520. See TFS, twelfth month, no. 1. 521.  See also Nensai shūda, pp. 23–24. For Japanese historical sources, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 797–813. 522.  “Risshun” falls fifteen days after “Daikan.” See Nihon saijiki, p. 448. 523.  “Tsuina,” with ancient Chinese roots, was properly observed on the last day of the twelfth lunation (ōmisoka), but in Japan it popularly came to be celebrated at Setsubun. For Japanese historical sources, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 781–797. See also Blümmel, Hofzeremonien, pp. 108, 147–148.

Twelfth Month  271

subordinates drive the demon out. Courtiers with the right of attendance upon the emperor position themselves by the building (miya) and launch reed arrows (at the demon) with a peachwood bow. They pass through the Senka Gate (southeast of the Seiryōden) into the Eastern Courtyard (before the entrance of the Seiryōden) and emerge from the entry at Takiguchi (northeast of the Seiryōden). On this night, myriad lanterns illuminate the palace. At the front of the imperial breakfast-preparation kitchen (asagarei daiban-dokoro) of the Eastern Courtyard a continuous array of lamps is set up and lit. The “Tsuina” ritual serves to drive out pestilence throughout the year. The demon is (played by) a four-eyed hōsōshi, who wears a fearsome mask and wields a shield and spear. Twenty valets called shinshi wear dark blue hoi (linen outfits), brandish implements, and guard the four gates of the Inner Palace.524 This ritual originated in Keiun 2 (705)/12 because that year much of the peasantry throughout the land succumbed to a pestilence.525 Today’s popular custom of tossing beans on this night to drive out demons mimics the “Tsuina” ritual.526 A comment to the Hou Han shu regarding bean tossing states, “On this night a mix of red beans (chìwán) and the five grains is scattered about.”527 An old verse written in Chinese also speaks of tossing beans at a demon in order to destroy its eyes: “In the darkness we freely toss them about again and again to knock out the spirit of the demon’s eyes.”528 A poem in Japanese by (Ōshikōchi no) Mitsune (859?–925?) reads: “In the palace (or capital) a demon is visible—might even this being have shed its straw cape and hat?”529 524.  Kuji kongen, p. 114, gives the less likely “make the rounds to” (mawaru) rather than “guard” (mamoru). Four eyes allowed the demon to view all four directions simultaneously. 525.  This is probably an error for Keiun 3 (706)/12. See Shoku Nihongi, Kyōun 3 (706)/12. For the entire passage, see Kuji kongen, pp. 113–114. 526.  The act of scattering beans may be traced to Chinese precedent but was not recorded at the Japanese court until Ōei 32 (1425)/1/8 (see Kanmon gyoki, vol. 3, p. 470; for the bakufu, see Kaei sandaiki, p. 138). It was associated with Setsubun, calculated on the solar calendar, and tended to fall close to New Year’s Eve, calculated on the lunar calendar. Especially after the court “Tsuina” ritual declined, the dates of two rituals were often conflated. See also Nihon saijiki, pp. 545–546. 527.  Hou Han shu (“Liyi zhong”) contains a description of the Chinese ritual from which the Japanese “Tsuina” probably derived. The comment in question was probably taken from Duduan (“Solitary Decisions,” ascribed to Cai Yong, 132–192 CE), which includes a similar statement. 528.  According to glosses supplied by Jōhaku, read (in Japanese) Anchū te ni makasete shikiri ni hōteki su, dachaku shohō kigan sei. The verse was apparently composed by the Zen monk Sūsan Kyochū (1277–1345). It is cited in Tōkenki (“Records of Seeing the East”), a zuihitsu by the Confucianist Hitomi Bokuyūken (1599–1670). See fol. 12r (frame 20 in the online version; no modern edition exists). 529.  Oni sura mo miya(ko) no uchi tote mino kasa wo nugite ya koyoi hito ni miyuramu. Verse 187 of the collection Mitsune-shū, dating from 918.

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Figure 5.17  Above: a demon is driven out of the Imperial Palace by an archer. Below: A room adorned with a sacred rope from which pine sprigs are suspended. At the entrance (bottom right) hangs what appears to be a magic protective kaguhana ornament made of a sardine head and a sprig of holly. Inside a warrior tosses beans to keep demons at bay.

This too refers to the demon of this night. This demon, sprouting horns, is not a “nature spirit” (yasha; Skt. yakṣa) but rather a malevolent yin spirit (inja). The ideograph on (=yin) may be read oni in Japanese, just as the ideograph sen (“copper coin”) is read zeni. It is said that with the arrival of spring at the start of the year the oni (written “yin demon”) is exorcised because yang is revered and yin despised. The Ainōshō states:

Twelfth Month  273

The practice of tossing beans on the night of Setsubun began during the days of Emperor Uda (r. 887–897). Two demon spirits (kijin) named Ranba and Sōju once dwelt in a cave by the abbot’s hall at Sōjō-ga-tani within (i.e., northwest of) Mt. Kurama, at the end of Mizoro Pond.530 When these two demons set out to intrude into the capital, Bishamon(ten) imparted a divine revelation, which the temple intendant duly reported to the emperor. When the latter heard this, he sent a missive to the Law Department (Myōbōdō, a division of the Bureau of Education). Seven diviners (hakase) assembled and received objects from seven times seven—a total of forty-nine—families, with which they sealed the cave. Three koku and three to of soybeans were roasted and tossed at the eyes of the two demons, whose sixteen (sic!) eyes were thereby destroyed.531 This explanation is quite dubious. “Tsuina” is called Oni-yarai, signifying to exorcise (yarau) a demon (oni). It is also known as “Nayarau,” which means to exorcise na.532 On the night of Setsubun a sardine head and sprig of holly (Osmanthus heterophyllus) are hung up at entryways. This is called kaguhana (“smelling nose”).533 The Ainōshō relates that Bishamon delivered a divine revelation that if broiled skewered sardines were hung out, man-eating demons would not seize mortals. The Tosa Journal (Tosa nikki, 935) speaks of the head of a mullet (used in such a manner), so the practice must already have existed in olden times.534 3. On the night of Setsubun, one visits the Gojō Tenjin Shrine and receives mochi rice cakes and (the medicinal plant) okera to take home.535 The Gojō Tenjin enshrines Sukunahikona-no-mikoto, a kami vowing to safeguard the world from disease, so one comes here to pray against illness throughout the year. Okera is a moisture-dispelling herb that drives out rheumatic diseases. Callers receive it at the holy shrine, take it home, and roast it. 530.  Ranba is one of the “Ten Demon Women” (jūrasetsu-nyo). What I have rendered “cave by the abbot’s hall” (hōjō no ana) may well have been a proper name. 531.  Ainōshō, p. 60 (kan 3, no. 61). 532.  This makes little sense, since na already means to exorcise. Perhaps the writer took na to mean oni. Or else he thought it a synonym of nan (trouble or disaster), an ideograph that resembles na in appearance. 533.  See also Ainōshō (p. 60; kan 1, no. 83), and Nihon saijiki, p. 546. 534.  See H. McCullough, A Tosa Journal, p. 268. Some have speculated that the use of the iwashi (“sardine”) stems from a mispronunciation of nayoshi (“young mullet”). This talisman, often called yaikagashi, panicked the demon, who was both disgusted by the fishy smell and terrified by the holly thorns that might poke out his eyes. Other pungent items such as garlic or green onions also did the trick. 535. See TFS, first month, no. 1, and 9/10, no. 3, above.

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4. On the night of Setsubun, evil is exorcised (yakuharai). Men and women of an inauspicious age thereby purify themselves.536 Evils known as “the seven troubles and nine calamities” (shichinan kuyaku) are calculated by adding (multiples of) nine from age seven up to age sixty-one, generating the inauspicious ages of seven, sixteen, twenty-five, thirty-four, forty-two (sic), fifty-two, and sixty-one. Multiples of nine are used because nine represents “old yang.” After yang peaks, it is transformed into yin.537 5. On the night of Setsubun, a sheet of paper with a picture of a treasure boat is placed beneath the pillow.538 In his “Eulogy to the Mò” (Mo ping zan) Bai Juyi (772–846) writes (of the mythical beast called “mò”; J. baku), “Its hide dispels humid pestilences, and its depiction dispels malevolent spirits.”539 Accordingly, if a picture of a mò is placed under one’s pillow, humid malevolent spirits will not draw near, and nightmares may be avoided. In imitation of this, pictures of treasures and auspicious kami are placed under pillows. 6. On the last night of the year, many lanterns are lit, and Kōjin (the “rough deity”) is worshiped.540 In China this occurs on the eighth day of the twelfth month.541 The Chinese worship Zhurong, the son of Zhuan Xu (one of the five legendary emperors, r. 2513–2435 BCE), as the deity of the hearth (or fire). In Japan the pair Okitsuhiko-no-kami and Okitsuhime-no-kami are considered the kami of the hearth. They are listed in the (ninth-century) Sendai kuji hongi (“The Original Record of Old Events in Earlier Ages”).542 536.  Particularly unlucky ages were (and continue to be) viewed as twenty-five, forty-two, and sixty-one for men, and nineteen, thirty-three, and thirty-seven for women. As usual, according to traditional count, one’s age changed at New Year’s. 537.  Qi, in its yin and yang modes, undergoes a cyclical process of transformation in which “young yin” is transformed, in turn, into “old yin,” “young yang,” and “old yang,” after which the process begins anew. See also 9/9. 538.  On the baku and treasure-boat pictures, see also Nihon saijiki, pp. 547–548. 539. See Mo ping zan (“bing xu”). Bai Juyi describes the mò, which lives in mountains and valleys of the south, as having the nose of an elephant, the eyes of a rhinoceros, the tail of an ox, and the legs of a tiger. In Japan the mò was perhaps confused with the bóqí (J. hakuki), a creature recorded in the Hou Han shu and elsewhere as devouring dreams. 540.  Kōjin, a deity of awesome power, is often depicted with six arms, three faces, and an angry countenance. Among other capacities, he protected Buddhism and exorcised evil. For Japanese historical sources thematizing the last day and night of the year and its attendant customs, see Koji ruien, vol. 2, pp. 813–846. 541.  This was the day listed for the “La or People’s New Year” in Jingchu suishiji (no. 45). See Moriya, Chūgoku ko-saijiki no kenkyū, pp. 365–366, and Turban, Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, pp. 148–152. For an extended discussion of the festival, see Bodde, Festivals in Classical China, pp. 49–75. 542.  Sendai kuji hongi, p. 47 (kan 4).

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7. Concerning the consumption of mochi rice cakes at the start of winter (on the solar term of “Shōkan,” “Minor Cold”; c. January 5): these are eaten because they retain a warm essence that staves off cold. 8. Concerning adzuki beans. See 1/15, no. 2, above. In addition to what is listed above, numerous activities occur solely at the end of the year. Taken together, these include house cleaning (susuhaki), mochi rice pounding, and the rounds of (auspicious street performers known as) sekizoro and ubara.543 At the close of the year, Buddhist priests scuttle about and bring gifts of nattō (fermented soybeans) and sencha (green tea leaves) to parishioners. Merchants clutching their lanterns and weighing scales race through town collecting debts far into the night. Only at dawn does the clamor finally abate, and one senses nothing but the forlorn echo of the previous year. When the sun slowly rises in the sky, nothing seems to have changed from the day before, yet a contrasting feeling of something extraordinary prevails. On major thoroughfares pine-branch ornaments are set up, and a bright, cheerful, and auspicious atmosphere prevails. During this month no items with a shell or carpace, such as crabs or tortoises, should be consumed. One should eat no flesh of water deer, pork, or wild boar. Do not partake of frost-damaged fruits or vegetables or excessive amounts of fresh ginger or green onions. Eat no sinews or bones. No beef should be devoured, for this destroys the kami. Do not dine on oysters and shrimp. Taro should be consumed only during this month. It should be avoided in other months, for if one partakes of it, then it will provoke illnesses.

Book 5: Miscellaneous and Remnants, Part 1 In the first four books of A Handbook of Annual Events, dedicated respectively to spring, summer, autumn, and winter, I have treated matters regarding events falling on specific days, but I have omitted some occasions. Moreover, certain events do not fall on a determinate day of the year. In the following two books of miscellanea I have selected material (regarding such occurrences), to produce a total of six books. Below I have also collected and recorded information unrelated to annual events but convenient to know. In a sequel I intend to take up other excluded material.544 543.  Sekizoro are explained in Hinami kiji, p. 128, and Yōshūfu-shi, p. 302 (kan 8). For a detailed study, see Yamaji, “ ‘Sekizoro’-kō,” and Wenderoth, Sekizoro. On sekizoro and ubara in Edo, see also Groemer, Street Performers and Society in Urban Japan, pp. 76–79. 544.  Such a sequel was apparently never issued.

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1. Before the Kyōdō (“Sutra Hall”) at Kitano stands a “pine of advent” (yōgō no matsu).545 According to an ancient divine oracle, with the first snowfall of the year, the spirit of Suga(wara no Michizane) always reveals itself at the top of this pine. Consequently, after the first winter snow arrives, the Buddhist monks of Shōbaiin (within the Kitano Tenman Shrine multiplex) pay their respects by presenting offerings below the boughs of this tree. 2. On the fourth day of the new year, an annual (gathering for composing) “linked verse on paper with the reverse left blank” (urajiro renga) takes place at the aforementioned Shōbaiin in Kitano.546 Four sheets of paper are used for the verses. In ancient times a scribe (charged with recording the composed verses) mistakenly wrote solely on the front of each sheet of paper. Thereafter it became a custom to leave one side blank. Furthermore, an extra sheet is added for a total of five folios. Hence the gathering is called “linked verse on paper with the reverse left blank.” 3. Visitors of the aforementioned (Kitano Tenman) shrine knock on the northern gate with small stones.547 On 1252/8/18, during the reign of Emperor Go-Fukakusa (r. 1246–1259+), the eighty-first emperor, a fire broke out near the shrine. The priests were startled and put out the blaze. Then, on returning home, each of them knocked on the northern gate with a small stone and reported the course of events. This became a custom (for ensuring) that future fires would also be controlled and extinguished. Visitors who call on the shrine (today) do not make this appeal, but they still knock upon the gate with small stones. 4. A Sakaki Shrine stands at Yanagihara in upper Kyoto.548 At this spot one comes upon the residence of the master of ceremonies (saishu) of the Ise (shrines). From here these shrines are worshiped at a distance. Nowadays the Sakaki Shrine encompasses sanctuaries of both great shrines at Ise.549 On the side stands a gigantic sakaki tree. On the first, eleventh, and twenty-first days of each month, the master of ceremonies offers holy sake at this location. The site has served as the residence of the master of ceremonies since olden times, and this tradition continues to the present day. 5. On the second “day of the cock” during the fourth month, the priests and parishioners of the Kamo shrines stage a ceremony in which they embellish their 545.  The pine now stands within the precincts of the Kitano Tenman Shrine. A pine by the same name can also be found within the Kasuga Shrine in Nara. This section mostly repeats Yōshūfu-shi, p. 339 (kan 9), and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 363. 546.  See also 1/3 above. This section cites Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 77–78 (kan 3). See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 342, which dates the event to the third and fourth days of the first month. 547.  This section repeats Yōshūfu-shi, p. 78 (kan 3), and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 394. 548.  The Sakaki-no-miya no longer exists. This section is probably based on Yōshūfu-shi, p. 68 (kan 2), or Kyō habutae oridome, pp. 397–398. 549.  The Kōtai Jingū or “Naikū” and the Toyo-uke Daijingū or “Gekū.”

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Figure 5.18  At the Kitano Tenman Shrine visitors holding stones rap on the northern gate.

raiments with aoi vines.550 The event is known as the Aoi Festival. In accordance with old traditions, the aoi presented annually comes from a location known as Nakamura (Village), situated between Kita-iwakura (Village) and Nagatani (Village).551 On consideration, this location must once have been property of the Kamo shrines. Aoi vines are also gathered and brought in from Shizuhara Village southeast of Kurama.552 6. Lord Taira no Yorimori (1131–1186), known as Grand Counselor of the Pond (Ike-no-dainagon), had a son who became the eminent priest (sōzu) Jōhen (1166–1224), initially a monk at Ninnaji.553 Jōhen later dwelled at the Eikan Hall of Zenrinji. When after the death of Genkū (Hōnen, 1133–1212) Jōhen read the former’s Senchaku (hongan nenbutsu) shū (“Collection of Selected Works Concerning the Hongan Nenbutsu”), he converted to the practice of seeking salvation 550.  See fourth month, no. 8 above, and TFS, fifth month, no. 4. This section is probably based on Kyō habutae oridome, p. 396. 551.  Nakamura Village is located at today’s Sakyō-ku, Iwakura Nakamachi. The inhabitants were supposedly relocated to this spot from Kurusuno Village (today Kita-ku), which came under the control of the Lower Kamo Shrine. Today the aoi is harvested at Kita-ku, Kumogahata. This section cites Kyō habutae oridome, p. 396. 552.  Shizuhara Village is located in what is today Sakyō-ku, Shizuichi-shizuhara-chō. See Yōshūfu-shi, p. 70 (kan 2). 553.  This section relies on Yōshūfu-shi, p. 114 (kan 4), and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 397.

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exclusively through Amida invocations and changed his name to Shin’en-bō.554 Lord (Minamoto no) Yoritomo (1147–1199) was deeply devoted to Shin’en-bō and commissioned “rolling readings” of the “Dai-hannya kyō” at this temple (Zenrinji) as a prayer for everlasting military victory. Thanks to this tradition, such readings are today presented during the first, fifth, and ninth months. 7. Chionji at Hyakumanben was originally a shrine temple (jingūji) of the Kamo shrines.555 Long ago, a Kamo Shrine priest invited the Buddhist high priest Hōnen to reside at this temple, and in later years Hōnen’s disciple Seikanbō Genchi (1183–1238+) became its abbot. He turned the temple, later renamed Chionji, into one dedicated to Pure-Land Buddhist practice. For this reason Kamo Daimyōjin is enshrined there. Each year, Kamo Shrine officials proceed to this spot to serve on the day of the eleventh-month Kamo Daimyōjin fire festival. This is an old custom. 8. Amida invocations at the Senbon Enma Hall of Injōji were initiated by the high priest Nyorin (Myōzen, ?–?).556 In the garden of the abbot’s hall (hōjō), one finds a Fugenzō cherry tree (Cerasus Lannesiana Carrière). Every year during the third month, when this tree blooms, the abbot snips off some flowering boughs and presents them to the Kyoto shogunal deputy. He thereby announces that Amida invocations will commence. In accordance with old customs, the shogunal deputy grants him more than three koku of rice to fund the ten-day Amidainvocation ceremony. This assembly is identical to the ceremony of Jizōin of Mibu (Mibudera), and both constitute offshoots of “universal Amida invocations” (yūzū nenbutsu).557 During the Ōei period (1394–1428), in the times of Emperor Gokomatsu (r. 1382–1412), many people died from starvation.558 Numerous temples practiced Amida-invocation dances (yuyaku nenbutsu), and Jishinbō Ryōkai presented a blossom memorial service (chinka hōe). The Amida invocations of Senbon and Mibu are a legacy of these events.559 554.  Senchaku hongan nenbutsu shū was compiled by Hōnen in 1198. See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 2608. 555.  This section relies on Yōshūfu-shi, p. 314 (kan 8), or Kyō habutae oridome, p. 397. 556.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 395. Nyorin is considered the revitalizer or restorer of Injōji. 557. On yūzū nenbutsu, see TFS, third month, no. 3. 558.  This sentence and the rest of this section relies on Yōshūfu-shi, p. 202 (kan 5), which cites “old records.” However, the same source states, “When Jishinbō Ryōkai conducted a blossom memorial, Ichijō Tsunetsugu (1358–1418, regent from 1394 to 1398) allegedly offered blossoms.” The great famine of the Ōei period occurred in 1420–1421, so the dates here appear to be confused. 559.  When blossoms fell from boughs and scattered, this foretold the spread of epidemics. Preventative festivals were staged at court and at some shrines (for instance, the Yasurai Festival at the Murasakino Imamiya Shrine). In the case mentioned here, the ceremony appears to

Nos. 6–12  279

9. During the first month of each year, rice-flour balls (dango) and mochi (rice cakes) are stacked up at Mibudera and offered to the Jizō bodhisattva that is the temple’s main object of worship.560 A Buddhist New Year’s ceremony (shūshō-e; here shūshō no hōji) takes place. Worshipers bring rice and exchange it for mochi known as “victory cakes” (kachi no mochi). Eating these cakes, it is said, secures victory in all matters. In my humble opinion, this may allude to the “Shōgun Jizō” (written here as “victorious-army Jizō”).561 10. During the reign of Emperor Go-Nara (r. 1526–1557), the 106th emperor, Kyoto children were plagued by a “coughing sickness” (gaigyaku; possibly influenza).562 Countless numbers fell ill and perished. Divination concerning this disease was performed, and the illness was determined to be a curse of the kami of the Kifune Shrine. Accordingly, on 1556/9/9 the epidemic was exorcised, and the “coughing sickness” subsided. Each year on 9/9, Kyoto juveniles carry around downsized mikoshi. The practice of toting these sasakoshi (“small mikoshi”) of the Kifune Shrine about town is a legacy of this (epidemic). 11. In the past, when Susanoo-no-mikoto journeyed to the southern provinces, the sun began to set, so he begged Somin (Shōrai) for lodging.563 Somin’s family was poor, and the divinity was offered millet (rather than rice). Hence every sixth month, on the day of the sacred service of the Gion (Shrine), millet is offered to the mikoshi within the interim sanctuary at Shijō in the Kyōgoku area. This is an old custom. The Gozu Tennō of Gion is (a form of) Susanoo-no-mikoto. 12. The Hifuri-zaka (“Descending Sun Slope”) is located at eastern Nakayama, west of the Yoshida Shrine.564 This is allegedly the spot where in olden times the sun deity (Nichirin) descended from heaven. Moreover, on the last night of the old year have been a Buddhist one. In 1300 Engaku (see TFS, third month, no. 2, and Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 159, 160–161 [kan 5]), a priest of Mibudera instrumental in spreading yūzū nenbutsu staged an apotropaic blossom memorial service or nenbutsu dance performance that supposedly gave rise to Mibu kyōgen. On Mibudera and its kyōgen, see also TFS, third month, no. 3. 560.  The term tatemotte, which I render as “stacked up,” should probably read takaku morite (see Kyō habutae oridome, p. 401). For a study of the Kyoto shūshō-e, see Yamaji, Kyōto, pp. 323–330. 561.  This Jizō is the main object of worship at Hakuunji at the Atago Shrine. On dango and mochi of all descriptions, see Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 220–222 (kan 6). 562.  This section cites Yōshūfu-shi, p. 70 (kan 2), or Kyō habutae oridome, pp. 400–401. See also TFS, ninth month, no. 6. 563.  This section is based on Yōshūfu-shi, p. 59 (kan 2), or Kyō habutae oridome, pp. 395–396. See also 1/19, no. 2 above. 564.  This section is based on Yōshūfu-shi, p. 298 (kan 8), or Kyō habutae oridome, p. 362. Nakayama was the area extending from Kurodani to Kaguraoka. Hi means either “sun” or “fire”; furi means either “descend” or “brandish.”

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and during the purification rituals (kiyobarai) on the night of 1/19, visitors (to the Yoshida Shrine) brandish burning torches. For this reason too (the declivity) is called Hifuri-zaka (written “Fire-Brandishing Slope”). 13. Three summits, known as “Sanpō,” one next to the other, are located on Mt. Inari.565 This is where the kami named Inari first appeared. The spot is popularly known as odan (“holy platform”).566 A “cedar of advent” (yōgō no sugi) stands there now. Annually on 1/5, shrine priests all venture to the location in a “pilgrimage to the holy mountain” (oyama mairi). 14. Ōgi-no-shiba (“Fan Lawn”) is a garden within Byōdōin at Uji.567 On the order of Prince Korehito (sic; correctly Mochihito) Takakura-no-miya (1151–1180), Gen Sanmi Yorimasa (Minamoto no Yorimasa, 1104–1180) staged a rebellion. He remained luckless in battle and committed suicide on a fan spread on the ground at this site. Later those who pitied him preserved the mark of his fan. Annually on the night of 5/23, particularly abundant fireflies buzz around the Uji River. The date 1180/5/23 is popularly taken to be the day on which Yorimasa died. His spirit is said to have been transformed into fireflies. 15. In the woods of a temple named Hōjuin, located at Zaimoku-chō in ShimoSaga, stands a small shrine called Sakuranomiya.568 It enshrines Kiyohara no Mahito Yorinari (1122–1189). This shrine is popularly known as “Godō-nomyōkan,” but this is an error.569 Yorinari was the seventh generation in a line of scholars serving the emperor and was known far and wide as a talented man of letters. When Emperor Kameyama (1249–1305) paid a visit to Arashiyama and passed by this shrine, his carriage came to a halt and would advance no further. The baffled emperor thereby came to know of the existence of this shrine. He descended from his carriage, seated himself upon a roadside stone, and had the carriage move on. 565.  The three “summits” (Mt. Inari is only 233 meters tall) each have a small shrine (the Ichinomine, Ninomine, and Sannomine) attached to the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which stands about one kilometer to the west. This section is based on Kyō habutae oridome, p. 363, which glosses the name “Sanbu” rather than “Sanpō.” See Yōshūfu-shi, p. 356 (kan 9). 566.  I take it that the ideograph 檀 here (also in no. 20 below) is an error for 壇 (“platform”). See Yōshūfu-shi, p. 356. 567.  This section is based on Yōshūfu-shi, p. 360 (kan 9), and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 376. Yorimasa, famed as both a poet and archer, has his grave at Byōdōin. 568.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 83 (kan 3) and 413 (kan 10), and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 416. Today the shrine is usually referred to as the Kurumazaki Shrine. 569.  The author uses ideographs signifying “the official of hell who protects the way.” More correctly “protects the way” should be written with the homophonous “five ways,” which refers to “beings of the five realms” (godō no shujō; the five realms are those of hell, hungry ghosts, beasts, humans, and heaven). The official is the one who adjudicates the sins or crimes of these beings.

Nos. 12–16  281

Figure 5.19  Pilgrims visit Sakuranomiya, pick up small stones, and replace them with ones they stack up in the enclosure at top left.

The stone whereupon he sat outside the shrine gate is called “the rock before the carriage” (kurumazaki no ishi). Petitioners visiting the location collect pebbles before the shrine and carry them home to ensure that their entreaties will be fulfilled. Customarily a stone is later brought to the shrine to replace the one removed. The fourteenth day of each month represents the shrine’s holy day (ennichi). Everyone arrives on this day, so the shrine comes alive. The edifice is now more splendid than it was in times of yore. 16. The word kanbatsu (drought) is written with the ideographs kan (Ch. hàn 旱), meaning “dry spell,” and batsu (Ch. bá 魃), the name of a deity. In China, when the “Yellow Emperor” (Huangdi, r. 2698–2598 BCE) was battling (the bronze-headed god) Chi You on the Plain of Zhuolu, the wind and rain so

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darkened the skies that one could not tell east from west. At that moment, a redcolored, short-haired tot three feet tall appeared and announced to the emperor, “I am the babe of drought and will save you.” Then it scampered off. In a flash, the rain and wind subsided, and the skies completely cleared. Hence the emperor could prevail in battle. According to the Gujinzhu (“Notes to Things Old and New”), this is the source of bá.570 In a pronounced dry spell in the spring of 824, farmers lost the water they needed to grow their crops. Kūkai was commanded by the emperor to enshrine (kanjō) Zennyo Ryūō (“Virtuous Female Dragon-King”) at Shinsen’en and pray for rain. For three days and three nights it rained in streams.571 Still today, when droughts ravage the land, the people pray for rain by beating on drums to startle the Rain-God Dragon. 17. Regarding floods. Every year during the fifth-month rainy season, floods occur throughout the land. Especially in Kyoto, the Kamo River floods annually during this month, sweeping away habitation and toppling stone walls. Emperor Go-Daigo (r. 1318–1339) allegedly admitted that the two things he could not control were the waters of the Kamo River and the monks of Mt. Hiei.572 In 1228, during the reign of Emperor Go-Horikawa (r. 1221–1232), rains from a typhoon caused the Kamo River to flood.573 The magistrate of Seta (today Ōtsu-shi), (Nakahara) Tamekane (?–?), was ordered to stem the river waters, but since the floodplain was so vast, he could not hope to check them. At that moment a strange monk arrived and declared, “If you wish to stop these waters, on the eastern bank of the Kamo River build a mausoleum for King Yu of the Xia dynasty (2070–1600 BCE) in the south and a shrine of the deity Benzaiten in the north.”574 Thereafter the monk disappeared into his temple, the current Chūgenji, a temple of the “Eye-Disease Jizō” (Meyami Jizō). During those days the Shijō 570.  Gujinzhu is an encyclopedia in three volumes attributed to Cui Bao of the Jin period (265–420). The first volume of this book does refer to the Yellow Emperor’s battle with Chi You, even if it does not state exactly what Jōhaku here relates. 571.  The Shinsen’en embraces an extensive pond and water garden. On Kūkai’s feat, see the 1060 Shingon fuhō san’yō shō in Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 2433. 572. This refers to Emperor Shirakawa’s (r. 1072+–1086+) well-known lament that he could not control “the waters of the Kamo River, the fall of the dice in backgammon, or the monks of Mt. Hiei.” See Heike monogatari, vol. 1, p. 129, and Kitagawa and Tsuchida, The Tale of the Heike, vol. 1, p. 61. 573.  In fact the typhoon struck the area not during the fifth month but on 1228/7/20. Much of the following narrative is cited from Kyō habutae oridome (pp. 414–415) and Yōshūfushi (p. 61, kan 2). Chūgen is written with ideographs also read “Nakahara.” 574.  Yu the Great (c. 2200–2100 BCE) established the Xia dynasty. He and his father, Gun, were renowned for beginning to control the floods of the Yellow River.

Nos. 16–19  283

region east of the Kamo River was one of rice paddies, so the Jizō was called the “Jizō on the Rice-Paddy Ridge” (Kuro no Jizō). The strange monk must surely have been a manifestation of this Jizō. Tamekane thought it all quite singular and had the two edifices constructed. It is said that the waters subsided instantly. I do not know the location of today’s site of the (Kyoto) mausoleum of King Yu of the Xia dynasty. According to one theory, until recently a so-called Seimei Mound (Seimei-zuka, referring to the diviner Abe no Seimei) was located at the Gojō riverside, and it was here that the mausoleum of King Yu stood. The shrine of Benzaiten is located north of the Yamato Bridge by the (eastern) riverbank at Shijō, but this shrine no longer exists.575 Today the area has become a city ward named Benzaiten-chō. Abe no Seimei prayed for Kamo River floods to desist and on the basis of a divine instruction had a temple called Hōjōji 法城 built at this site.576 (The temple’s name derives from the fact that) if one splits the ideograph hō 法 one obtains the terms “water” 氵 and “remove” 去, while the ideograph jō 城 divides into “earth” 土 and “become” 成 (thus implying “remove the water and become earth”). At first the temple adhered to Shingon Buddhism, but later it converted to the Pure-Land school and altered its name to Shinkōji. In 1607 it was relocated to the east of Sanjō Bridge.577 After Seimei died, he was buried there (at Hōjōji). In consequence, until recently the Seimei Mound stood at the Gojō riverside. 18. During the middle of the second month a famous plum tree in the garden of the Kyoto Seiganji sprouts red blossoms.578 Before the buds open, they are bright red. That is why the tree is called “red before opening” (mikaikō). Kyoto residents compose verses in Chinese and Japanese and fasten the paper on which they record them to the branches. Recently a second tree has been planted. 19. The cherry trees at the Kiyomizu Temple at Otowa bloom at the start of the third month; the ones at Ninnaji at Omuro bloom at the end of the third month.579 Because Ninnaji stands to the northeast, the site is cooler, and thus its cherries bloom later. Kyoto inhabitants partition seating areas with curtains, bring along box lunches, and stage parties. At this time of year the capital comes alive.

575.  This bridge spans the Shirakawa, a tributary of the Kamo River. It stands at Higashiyama-ku, Tokiwa-chō Yamato-ōji-dōri. Today a shrine of Benzaiten is found fifty meters west of the bridge. 576.  Much of the following is taken from Yōshūfu-shi, p. 129 (kan 4). 577.  Ironically, Shinkōji was often destroyed by floods. 578.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 390. 579.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 389.

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20. A spot in the hills south of the Upper Kamo Shrine is called the “Dan” (Platform).580 From the close of spring to the start of summer, azaleas, known as “Dan azaleas,” bloom here in profusion and present a matchless sight. Kyoto residents arrive to view them. 21. At the end of the third month wisterias bloom in the garden of Shinshōin of the Yasui temple intendant (monzeki) at Higashiyama behind Kenninji.581 The blossoms of what everyone calls the “Yasui wisteria” swathe the heavens in purple clouds and crown the firmament with their beauty. 22. Every year before the fifth month’s solar term, fireflies are viewed at Seta in Ōmi Province, and (downriver) at the Uji River.582 At Seta tens of thousands of fireflies appear at the “valley of fireflies” near the foot of Mt. Ishiyama. Fireflies are also very numerous downriver, at Nyūdō-ga-fuchi and Shishitobi. Night by night they follow the current downriver until they reach the Uji River. 23. During the night from 8/15 to 8/16, moon viewing takes place at the “Hirosawa Pond” north of Saga and west of the old Chiyo Road.583 A moon-viewing platform is located on the western side of the pool. Kyoto citizens come here to take in the view and enjoy themselves. When the moon emerges from behind Higashiyama, its reflection is visible on the water’s surface, so two or three moons appear to shine at once. This is because the moon is reflected at spots not covered by floating weeds. 24. At the close of autumn, when frost begins to settle, maple trees at Nishiyama, Mt. Takao, Higashiyama, and at the Tsūten Bridge within the grounds of Tōfukuji all turn color.584 The Kyoto public beholds them with awe. The verse “Frosted leaves as red as spring flowers” refers to such a sight.585 580.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 313 (kan 8), and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 390. 581.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 390. The location in question is the multiplex today known as the Yasui Konpira Shrine or Kōmyōin Kanshōji (or Yasui Kanshōji Kōmyōin). It was founded as a temple by Fujiwara no Kamatari (614–669), and so many wisterias were planted that it came to be known as the “Wisteria Temple” (Fujidera). Thereafter the institution underwent a tangled history of changing governance, closure, restoration, and renaming. A monzeki is an imperial prince who serves as a temple intendant (see TFS, third month, no. 6). 582.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 390. 583.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 390. The old road was the one used by courtiers on their way to northern Saga. The pond, covering some thirteen hectares at what is now Ukyō-ku, Saga Hirosawa-chō, was excavated either in the eighth century or in 989 with the establishment of Henjōji. 584.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 390. 585.  Part of the verse “Shanxing” (“Going to the Mountains”) by the Tang-dynasty poet Du Mu (803–852); Jōhaku, however, slightly misquotes it. See “Shanxing” in Quantangshi, vol. 524.

Nos. 20–26  285

Figure 5.20  Firefly viewing near Seta at the foot of Mt. Ishiyama.

25. When winter arrives, assorted birds, including mandarin ducks and wild ducks, flock to and swim in the pond constructed long ago on the grounds of Ryōanji at Nishiyama by (the daimyo) Hosokawa Katsumoto (1430–1473).586 It is a truly amazing Kyoto sight. 26. City residents go to the Umenomiya Shrine in Umezu Village west of Kyoto to get white sand for women in their last month of pregnancy.587 A safe birth is ensured by placing (pouches of) this sand (where the) vertical front 586.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, pp. 390–391. The pond in question is the Kyōyō-chi (Kyōyō Pond) within Ryōanji temple grounds, once more famous than the sand and rock garden that everyone knows today. 587.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, p. 400. This usually took place in the fourth month. See also TFS, fourth month, no. 8.

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kimono border (eri) (crosses the) waist wrapper (obi). When Emperor Saga (r. 809–823), the fifty-second emperor, deeply lamented that his consort, Empress Danrin (Tachibana no Kachiko, 786–850), would not bear a crown prince, she offered prayers to the kami Sakatoke at this shrine. This appeal was answered by the kami, and the consort soon found herself with child. The white sand of the shrine was spread under the seating mat whereupon she bore the crown prince, the future Emperor Ninmyō (r. 833–850). In accordance with this precedent, the public also makes use of such sand. 27. Petitioners visiting the Nanano Shrine leave white sand before the shrine.588 This custom began when the consort of Emperor Uda (r. 887–897), who had lost the emperor’s favor, offered prayers here. In a divine dream she learned that if she took white sand and shaped it into a semblance of Mt. Mikasa in Yamato Province, she would regain the emperor’s favor. The Nanano Shrine is located in northern Kyoto, southeast of Mt. Funaoka. 28. The reason that pilgrims to Mt. Atago avoid visiting the Kitano Tenman Shrine on their way home is that next to its Interior Hall (Oku-no-in) allegedly stands a stupa dedicated to the chief minister (hon’in no otodo), Lord (Fujiwara no) Tokihira (871–909), who slandered Kan Shōjō (Sugawara no Michizane).589 This is a popular misconception. A stupa was built there because ashes from fire rituals (goma) are discarded next to the Interior Hall. Thus the area is extremely defiled and must be avoided. It is also erroneous to consider Lord Tokihira the avatar of flint and steel.590 29. In Kyoto at (the intersection of) Shijō(-dōri) and Shinmachi(-dōri) (shops sell) playthings used by children throughout the year.591 These include mallets (gitchō) and paddles (hagoita) for New Year’s (games), battle helmets for the tango festival (of 5/5), and decorative lanterns (kiriko[-dōrō]) for the bon festival (of 7/15). In olden days, lacquered hats tightened with a cord were manufactured and sold here too, so the area was called “Cord Shops” (“Koyui-no-tana”). Calling it “Love Shops” (“Koi-no-tana”) is an error. 30. Smallpox breaks out here and there every spring, fall, and winter.592 It is effective to pray to the kami of the Tsukiyomi (Shrine) southeast of the Matsunoo Shrine. From the spring to the summer of 853, much of the land was struck 588.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 77 (kan 3), and Kyō habutae oridome, pp. 402–403. 589.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, pp. 428–429 (kan 10), and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 404. 590.  The Atago Shrine complex once contained a sub-shrine dedicated to Hiuchi Gongen (the kami of fire, Homusubi-no-mikoto). The Oku-no-in is today called Wakamiya and enshrines a long-nosed demon (tengu) named Atago Gongen Tarōbō. 591.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 332 (kan 8), and Kyō habutae oridome, pp. 406–407. 592.  See also Kyō habutae oridome, pp. 415–416.

Nos. 26–32  287

by a smallpox epidemic and many children died. When the aggrieved emperor prayed to the kami, one of them revealed itself and spoke: “I am the kami of Tsukiyomi, of the shrine on the Ōi riverbank. Because my abode stands near the river, it is plagued by floods. If you relocate it to the south of the Matsunoo (Shrine), this sort of epidemic shall not reoccur.” The emperor was overjoyed and had the shrine transferred to its present site. This is recounted in the (Nihon) Montoku (tennō) jitsuroku (“The Authentic Record of Emperor Montoku”).593 31. During the eleventh month, three-year-olds perform a “hair retaining” (kamioki) ritual and pay visits to the shrine of the tutelary kami of their birthplaces (ubusuna).594 Ubusuna is not the name of a kami but a reference to the place of one’s birth (written “to bear” 産 and “life” 生). In the Nihongi the term is written with the ideographs “original” (hon 本) and “residence” (kyo 居).595 In Wakaguri Village in Haguri County of Owari Province (Aichi Prefecture) stands a shrine known as the Ubusuna Shrine, named thus because it was the birthplace of Princess Iori.596 Nowadays this shrine dispenses “Goō (‘Ox-King’) amulets.”597 If one takes the uppermost (horizontal) stroke of the ideograph for “king” 王 and places it at the bottom of the ideograph for “ox” (牛), one obtains the ideographs “birth” 生 and “soil” 土 (read ubusuna). Consequently shrine parishioners avert calamities by pasting on their doorways pieces of paper imprinted with the sign of the ubusuna kami. 32. “Kōshin” is celebrated six times a year.598 Nobody sleeps that night. Humans are born with three (imaginary) parasites (sanshi no mushi) in the gut (fukuchū). These never leave the body and seek to cause injury. During a Kōshin night the parasites report a person’s wicked deeds to heaven. The “upper parasite” (jōshi) resides in the head. It debilitates one’s vision, wrinkles the face, and whitens the hair. The “middle parasite” (chūshi) thrives in the intestines. It damages the five 593.  See the entries in Nihon Montoku tennō jitsuroku for Ninju 3(853)/4/10, 4/18, 4/25 (pp. 78–79). An entry for Saikō 3(856)/3/15 (p. 122) states that the Tsukiyomi Shrine in Kadono County was moved to a hill south of the Matsunoo Shrine but says nothing of the kami’s revelation to the emperor. 594.  After the kamioki ritual, children, whose pates remained shaved until their third birthday, were allowed to grow their hair. 595. See Nihon shoki, ge, p. 211, and Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 154. 596.  Princess Iori was the daughter of the legendary Emperor Keikō, the seventh emperor, who ascended the throne in 71 CE. See Nihon shoki, jō, p. 285 (Aston, Nihongi, vol. 1, p. 191), where she is named Ihoki-no-iri-hime. 597.  On these amulets, see New Year’s Day, no. 16 above, and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 426. 598. The kō of Kōshin (Ch. gēng), is written with the ideograph also read ka-no-e, originally referring to the Evening Star and indicating the seventh of the ten celestial stems. Shin is the horary sign of the monkey. See also Nensai shūda, pp. 29–30.

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internal organs, provokes nightmares, and revels in food and drink. The “lower parasite” (geshi) dwells in the feet. It shortens one’s life span and drains one’s vitality. According to Laozi’s “Three Parasite Classic,” if during a Kōshin night one remains awake and calls out the name of the three parasites, calamities can be forestalled and good luck encouraged.599 After midnight one must face south, bow twice, and say thrice: “The jōshi or hōzoku is blue; the chūshi is white; the geshi or hōkyō is red; hōkō, hōshō, myōji, all leave my body—off with thee to the lowest realms!” If one maintains Kōshin by uttering this three times, the three parasites will supposedly be overpowered; if one does so seven times, the three parasites will be annihilated. This is called “supporting the seven Kōshin.” I have already alluded to Kōshin above.600 33. The “six days of abstinence” (rokusainichi) fall on the eighth, fourteenth, fifteenth, twenty-third, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth days of the month.601 According to sutras and commentaries, one ought to cultivate virtue especially on these days.602 In 578, the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Bidatsu (r. 572–585), the crown prince first reported to the emperor that no life should be taken on the “six days of abstinence.” The (Dai) chido-ron (“Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom”; Skt. Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra; Ch. Dazhidu-lun) explains that the “six days of abstinence” are inauspicious days on which malicious demons slay human beings.603 For this reason one should be disciplined and seek to act virtuously. 34. The “days of eight kings” (hachiōnichi; Ch. bāwángrì) are the first day of spring, the day of the vernal equinox, the first day of summer, the day of the summer solstice, the first day of autumn, the day of the autumnal equinox, the first day of winter, and the day of the winter solstice. On these days the deities of heaven and earth rotate their determined turns in superintending the conduct of 599.  Such a classic does not appear to exist. The true source, probably accessed via another Japanese text, may be the Tang-dynasty “Taishang sanshi zhong jing,” included in vol. 81 of the Daoist anthology Yunji qiqian (“Seven Tablets in a Cloudy Satchel”), compiled by the scholar Zhang Junfang (961?–1042?), or the “Taishang chu sanshi jiuchong baosheng jing,” also from the Tang dynasty. In Japan the three parasites are often named Hōko, Hōshitsu, and Hōkyō. 600.  See the paragraph following the entry for 1/30. 601.  A prohibition on the taking of life on rokusainichi is already found in the ritsuryō code (see Ritsuryō, p. 475). See also Nensai shūda, pp. 25–26. 602. See, for example, chapter 43 of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra (J. Makahannya haramitsu kyō), usually attributed to Nāgārjuna and translated into Chinese by Xuanzang (fl. c. 602–664) and his assistants. See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 223. This sentence and the next two are cited from Ainōshō, p. 378 (kan 10, no. 8). 603. See chapter 22 of Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra, a commentary also attributed to Nāgārjuna, on the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra. See Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 1509.

Nos. 32–35  289

Figure 5.21  During a Kōshin night, when wicked deeds are reported to heaven, men seek to remain awake by playing board games and smoking.

human beings. Hence it is said to be particularly important to cultivate the root of virtue on these days, etc. etc. 35. The first, fifth, and ninth months count as “months of abstinence” (imizuki or iwaizuki).604 According to the sutras, during these months Taishaku(ten) turned to the world of humans (J. nan’enbudai; Skt. Jambu-dvīpa) south (of Mt. Sumeru) and revealed what he thought of human vice and virtue. 604.  See also Nensai shūda, pp. 24–25.

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36. The thirty days of the month and (their relation to) various buddhas and kami:  1. First day: Jōkō-butsu (sometimes also called Nentō-butsu; see next entry); Atsuta Daimyōjin (at the Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya)   2. Second day: Nentō-butsu (Skt. Dīpankara); Suwa Daimyōjin (the Suwa shrines in Nagano Prefecture)  3. Third day: Tahō-butsu (Skt. Prabhūta-ratna); Hirota no Daimyōjin (Hirota Shrine, in Nishinomiya-shi, Hyōgo Prefecture)  4. Fourth day: Ashuku-butsu (Skt. Akṣobhya);605 Kehi no Daimyōjin (Kehi Shrine, in Tsuruga-shi, Fukui Prefecture)  5. Fifth day: Miroku Bosatsu (Skt. Maitreya); Keta Daimyōjin (at the Keta Shrine, in Hakui-shi, Ishikawa Prefecture)606   6. Sixth day: Niman-tōmyō-butsu (Skt. Candrasūryapradīpa); Kashima Daimyōjin (Kashima Shrine, in Kashima-shi, Ibaraki Prefecture)   7. Seventh day: Sanman-tōmyō-butsu (often taken as identical to Nimantōmyō-butsu); Kitano Tenjin (Kitano Tenman Shrine in Kyoto)   8. Eighth day: Yakushi Nyorai (Skt. Bhaiṣajyaguru); Ebumi Daimyōjin (Ebumi Shrine in Kyoto)  9. Ninth day: Daitsū-chishō-butsu (Skt. Mahābhijnājnānābhibhū); Kifune Daimyōjin (Kifune Shrine in Kyoto) 10. Tenth day: Nichigatsu-tōmyō-butsu;607 Tenshō-kōtaijin (Naikū of the Ise Shrine in Ise) 11. Eleventh day: Kangi-butsu (or Kangiten; Skt. Vināyaka, Gaṇapati, or Nandikeśvara); Hachiman Daimyōjin (Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine in Kyoto) 12. Twelfth day: Nanshō Nyorai (or Nanshō-butsu; Skt. Duṣprasaha); Kamo Daimyōjin (Upper and Lower Kamo Shrines in Kyoto) 13. Thirteenth day: Kokūzō Bosatsu (Skt. Ākāśagarbha or Gaganagañja); Matsunoo Daimyōjin (Matsunoo Shrine in Kyoto) 14. Fourteenth day: Fugen Bosatsu (Skt. Samantabhadra); Ōhara Daimyōjin (Ōharano Shrine in Kyoto) 15. Fifteenth day: Amida-butsu; Kasuga Daimyōjin (Kasuga Shrine in Nara) 16. Sixteenth day: Darani (Skt. Dhāraṇī) Bosatsu; Hirano Daimyōjin (Hirano Shrine in Kyoto) 605.  The text gives “Aiibutsu,” probably in error. 606.  The author glosses “Keta” as “Kita.” 607.  The author glosses the name “Jikketsu-tōmyō-butsu.”

Nos. 36–38  291

17. Seventeenth day: Ryūju Bosatsu (Skt. Nāgārjuna); Ōhie Gongen (Hiyoshi Shrine, Nishi Hongū, in Ōtsu-shi, Shiga Prefecture) 18. Eighteenth day: Kanzeon Bosatsu (Skt. Avalokiteśvara); Obie Gongen (Hiyoshi Shrine, Higashi Hongū, in Ōtsu-shi, Shiga Prefecture) 19. Nineteenth day: Nikkō Bosatsu (Skt. Sūryaprabha); Shōshinji Gongen (Hiyoshi Shrine, Usa-gū, in Ōtsu-shi, Shiga Prefecture) 20. Twentieth day: Gakkō Bosatsu (Skt. Candraprabha); Kyakujin Gongen (Hiyoshi Shrine, Shirayama-hime Shrine, in Ōtsu-shi, Shiga Prefecture) 21. Twenty-first day: Mujin’i Bosatsu (Skt. Akṣayamati); Hachiōji Gongen (Hiyoshi Shrine, Ushio Jinja, in Ōtsu-shi, Shiga Prefecture) 22. Twenty-second day: Semui (Skt. Abhayadāna) Bosatsu;608 Inari Daimyōjin (Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto) 23. Twenty-third day: Tokudaiseishi Bosatsu (Skt. Mahāsthāmaprāpta); Sumiyoshi Daimyōjin (Sumiyoshi Shrine in Osaka) 24. Twenty-fourth day: Jizō Bosatsu (Skt. Kṣitigarbha); Gozu Tennō (Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto) 25. Twenty-fifth day: Monjushiri Bosatsu (Skt. Mañjuśrī); Akayama Daimyōjin (Sekizan Myōjin in Kyoto) 26. Twenty-sixth day: Yakujō Bosatsu (Skt. Bhaiṣajyasamudgata); Takebe Daimyōjin (Takebe Shrine, Ōtsu-shi, Shiga Prefecture) 27. Twenty-seventh day: Rushana Nyorai (Skt. Rocana); Mikami Daimyōjin (Mikami Shrine, in Yasu-shi, Shiga Prefecture) 28. Twenty-eighth day: Dainichi Nyorai (Skt. Mahāvairocana); Hyōzu Daimyōjin (Hyōzu Shrine in Yasu-shi in Shiga Prefecture) 29. Twenty-ninth day: Yakuō Bosatsu (Skt. Bhaiṣajyarāja); Nōka Daimyōjin (Nahaka Shrine in Ōtsu-shi, Shiga Prefecture) 30. Thirtieth day: Shaka Nyorai (Skt. Śākyamuni); Kibi Daimyōjin (Kibitsu Shrine, in Okayama-shi, Okayama Prefecture) 37. Intercalary months are necessary because “large” (thirty-day) and “small” (twenty-nine-day) months exist. “Small months” lack a day, and the shortfall eventually adds up to an intercalary month, which is inserted (approximately) once every four years. 38. The ideograph 蝕 (shoku), in the terms “solar eclipse” (nisshoku) and “lunar eclipse” (gesshoku), is also read “worm-eaten” (mushibamu). In an eclipse the missing section of the sun or moon seems to have been chewed away by worms, so it is called shoku. Solar eclipses occur on the first and last days of a 608.  Often viewed as a form of Kanzeon Bosatsu.

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month; lunar eclipses take place on the fifteenth or sixteenth day of the month. Details may be found in the first chapter of my book Koreki benran bikō (“Remarks on a ‘Handbook of Old Calendars,’ ” 1692).609 39. Thunder during the summer months results from the violent clash of yin and yang. According to Buddhist theories, thunder is positioned in the four compass directions.610 In the east it is called akada; in the south it is called setteiro (satteiro); in the west it is called shudakō (shutakō); in the north it is called sodamani. According to such explanations, if one places inscriptions of these four words at the four ends of one’s house, thunder need not be feared, and no harm will result. 40. Days of Kyoto meetings for practicing diverse arts:611 Linked verse (renga): Tenth day of the month: at Kyōgoku-dōri Shijō-agaru-chō, at the Rokujō Dōjō (Kankikōji). Twenty-fifth day of the month: at the meetinghouse of the Kitano (Tenman Shrine).612 Light verse (haikai): Ninth and twenty-third day of the month: at Shinmachi(-dōri) Rokkakusagaru-chō, at the (home of) Ikenishi Gonsui (1650–1722). Sixteenth and twenty-fifth day of the month: within the Shijō Dōjō (Konrenji), (led by) Saitō Josen (1644–1715). “One-hundred stanza meetings” (manku) are held on dates including the numbers four and eight. They occur six times a month. “One-hundred stanza meetings,” on dates including the numbers five and zero: at Higashi-no-tōin(-dōri) Bukkōji-agaru-chō, (led by Nakao) Gakoku (1640–1710).613 609.  The title of Jōhaku’s work refers to the 1648 Koreki benran (“A Handbook on Old Calendars”), which contains astrological explanations and calendars starting from Keichō 1 (1596). For a translation of the preface, see Hayek, “From Esoteric Tools to Handbooks ‘for Beginners,’ ” p. 304. 610.  The following theory is expounded in vol. 5 of the Rinzai-school Sho-ekō shin-gishiki, written in 1566 by Tenrin Fūin and published in a woodblock edition in 1657. 611.  This section largely replicates the 1689 Kyō habutae oridome, pp. 360–361, but appears to have been updated. 612.  See also Yōshūfu-shi, p. 78 (kan 3), and Kyō habutae oridome, p. 344. The twenty-fifth was the day of Sugawara no Michizane’s birth and death. 613.  After this entry Kyō habutae oridome, p. 360, gives: “Monthly, on the twenty-fourth day, at Ainomachi(-dōri) Nijō-sagaru-chō, (led by) Kitamura Koshun (1650–1697).” Perhaps

Nos. 38–40  293

“One-hundred stanza meetings,” on dates including the numbers three and nine: at Shinmachi-dōri Rokkaku-sagaru-chō, (led by) Nakamura Ryōzen. Besides the above, various meetings take place here and there. Nō chant: Twenty-second day of the month: Kanze school, at Rin’ami’s (house) within Sōrinji.614 Seventeenth day of the month: Shindō school and the school of (Shindō) Isan.615 At Shōjun’in (a sub-temple) within Kōdaiji. Flower arranging: Seventeenth day of the month: at Ikenobō of the Rokkaku Hall. Kickball: Sixth and twenty-first day of the month: at Chūshōin within Myōmanji. Seventeenth day of the month: at the Keishōan of the Shijō Dōjō (Konrenji). Besides the above, daily at the kickball meetinghouse (kemari kaisho). Koromonodana(-dōri) Nijō-sagaru-chō, (led by) Hanabusa Sōjun.616 Gion-machi, (led by) Sanjūrō. Kuramaya-chō(-dōri) Oike-agaru-chō, (led by) Ikyū.617 Shinmachi(-dōri) Rokkaku-sagaru-chō, (led by) Sakon. Shinmachi(-dōri) Oike-agaru-chō, (led by) Fujitsugu. Shijō(-dōri) Naginataboko-no-machi, (led by) Kagoya Seibee.618

Jōhaku eliminated this entry because Kitamura had left for Edo in 1689 to take up the bakufu post of poet laureate. 614.  Located immediately north of Kōdaiji. 615.  The Shindō school of nō, founded by Shindō Kyūemon Tadatsugu (1552–1635+), specialized in supporting roles (waki) and performed together with the Kanze school. It died out in the early Meiji period. Tadatsugu’s son Isan set up his own branch in Kyoto. 616.  Kyō habutae oridome, p. 360, gives “Sōsaku” instead of “Sōjun.” 617.  Kyō habutae oridome, p. 360, gives “Anekōji” instead of “Oike.” 618.  In place of this entry Kyō habutae oridome, p. 360, gives: “Seibee, at Muromachi Nishiki-agaru-chō.”

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Daily go meetings: Shijō(-dōri) Kankoboko-no-machi, (led by) Ishimaru Sanzaemon.619 Daily shōgi meetings: Koromodana(-dōri) Sanjō Ryōton no zushi, (led by) Izumiya Ichiemon.620 Shijō(-dōri) Takakura Higashi-e-iru-chō, (led by) Tashiro Ichizaemon.621 Miniature-archery (yōkyū) ranges: Ōmine-no-tsuji Kokawa (Ogawa-dōri) Nijō-agaru-chō Kurumaya-chō(-dōri) Anekōji-agaru-chō Nishi-no-tōin(-dōri) Takoyakushi-agaru-chō Shimabara

Book 6: Miscellaneous and Remnants, Part 2 1. The ten celestial stems Ki-no-e, ki-no-to, hi-no-e, hi-no-to, tsuchi-no-e, tsuchi-no-to, ka-no-e, ka-noto, mizu-no-e, and mizu-no-to are called e-to (干支 “celestial stems”) or jikkan (十干 “ten stems”). The term e-to results from combining the last syllables of, say, ki-no-e and ki-no-to. The “twelve branches” (jūni-shi 十二支; also “twelve horary signs”) sprout from the ten stems like lesser branches sprouting from greater ones. Hence the latter are known as the ten stems. Ki-no-e and ki-no-to are Wood (ki); hi-no-e and hi-no-to are Fire (hi); tsuchi-no-e and tsuchi-no-to are Earth (tsuchi); ka-no-e and ka-no-to are Metal (kane); mizu-no-e and mizu-no-to are Water (mizu). Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water are known as the “five phases” (gogyō; Ch. wǔxíng 五行). When these five phases subsist in heaven, they are qi and thus formless. They correspond to the five climates (goun; Ch. wǔyùn 五運): cold, hot, dry, damp, and windy. Coldness is the qi of Water; heat is the qi of Fire; dryness is the qi of Metal; dampness is the qi of Earth; wind is the qi of Wood. When these five 619.  Kyō habutae oridome, p. 361, gives the address as “Ryōton-zushi,” a popular name for Koromodana-dōri. 620.  This entry is not found in Kyō habutae oridome. 621.  Kyō habutae oridome, p. 361, gives the address as the “Rokujō Dōjō.”

Nos. 1–2  295

climates subsist in terrestrial realms (chi), they assume the form (katachi; Ch. xiàng) of the five phases of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. When qi and forms sense each other’s presence, they generate all being and becoming. 2. The twelve horary signs The signs of the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, cock, dog, and boar are known as the “twelve branches” (jūni shi) or the “twelve hours” (jūni toki). They are born from the five phases of the ten celestial stems. Hence the boar and the rat are associated with Water and the north; the tiger and rabbit are associated with Wood and the east; the snake and horse are associated with Fire and the south; the monkey and cock are associated with Metal and the west; the ox, ram, dragon, and dog are associated with Earth and govern the center. Since (the last-mentioned) are not endowed with a true position, they are each placed in the corners (thirty degrees clockwise) of the four directions. This means that each of the four seasons contains a doyō (see 6/30, I, and no. 3 below). The “twelve hours” are as follows: the hour of the rat is the ninth hour of the night (c. 11 p.m.–1 a.m.); the hour of the ox is the eighth hour of the night (c. 1 a.m.–3 a.m.); the hour of the tiger is the seventh hour of the night (c. 3 a.m.–5 a.m.); the hour of the rabbit is the sixth hour of the morning (c. 5 a.m.–7 a.m.); the hour of the dragon is the fifth hour of the morning (c. 7 a.m.–9 a.m.); the hour of the snake is the fourth hour of the day (c. 9 a.m.–11 a.m.); the hour of the horse is the ninth hour of the day (c. 11 a.m.–1 p.m.); the hour of the ram is the eighth hour of the day (c. 1 p.m.–3 p.m.); the hour of the monkey is the seventh hour of the day (c. 3 p.m.–5 p.m.); the hour of the cock is the sixth hour of the evening (c. 5 p.m.–7 p.m.); the hour of the dog is the fifth hour of the night (c. 7 p.m.–9 p.m.); and the hour of the boar is the fourth hour of the night (c. 9 p.m.–11 p.m.). Regarding the months, the eleventh month is the month of the rat.622 The ideograph for this month (子), read shi, relates to shi (孳, to give birth or to strive).623 During the eleventh month yang qi is active. The world is fecund and strives to bring forth everything, so this corresponds to the rat. The twelfth month is the month of the ox. The ox (丑), read chū, relates to being bound (紐, chū), so during this month everything is tied up and cannot move forward. This corresponds to the ox. The first month is that of the tiger. Tiger (寅), read in, 622.  The derivations and explanations in this paragraph appear to derive from Shuowen jiezi, a second-century Chinese dictionary compiled by the government official and philologist Xu Shen (c. 58–148 CE). 623.  The following correspondences take into account both pronunciations and the visual presence of one ideograph as an element of another.

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relates to kneecap (髕), read hin. This signifies that during the first month yang qi truly seeks to surge forth and leave the earth, but it cannot reach the height of a kneecap. This corresponds to the tiger. The second month is that of the rabbit. The rabbit (卯), read bō, relates to being assaulted (冒, bō). During the second month everything issues from and assaults the earth, so this corresponds to the rabbit. The third month is that of the dragon. The dragon (辰), read shin, relates to shaking (振, shin). During the third month yang qi is in motion, thunder and lightning quiver, and farm labor takes place, so this corresponds to the dragon. The fourth month is that of the snake. The snake (巳), read mi, relates to ki (己), which signifies i (已, “already”). During the fourth month yang qi is already issued, and yin qi already lies concealed. Everything reveals its character (bunshō), and this corresponds to the snake. The fifth month is that of the horse. The horse (午) relates to defiance ( ).624 During the fifth month, yang qi seeks to assault the earth against a defiant yin qi, so this corresponds to the horse. The sixth month is that of the ram. The ram (未), read mi, relates to mi (味, “flavor”). In the sixth month plants and trees become lush and (their fruit) flavorful, so this corresponds to the ram. The seventh month is that of the monkey. The monkey (申), read shin, relates to shin (神 “divinity”). The seventh month turns into one of yin qi, so it naturally promises to stretch and control the world.625 Thus it corresponds to the monkey. The eighth month is that of the cock. The cock (酉), read yū, relates to shū (就, “to ripen”). In the eighth month millet ripens, so it is the appropriate time for brewing sake, and thus it corresponds to the cock. The ninth month is that of the dog. The dog (戌), read shutsu, relates to metsu (滅, “to diminish”). During the time of the ninth month yin qi diminishes and faint yang qi is born; thus it corresponds to the dog. The tenth month is that of the boar. The boar (亥, gai) relates to 荄 (kai, “root”). In the tenth month a trace of yang qi is born, and plants and trees evince traces of sprouting, so this corresponds to the boar. The “twelve hours” mentioned above momentarily adopt the names of living beasts to determine their form. But they are certainly not animals. 3. Regarding doyō All four seasons contain what is known as a doyō period. Each season includes eighteen such days, for a total of seventy-two days during the four times of year. 624.  Normally this ideograph is written with the “ox” radical, but here it is written in an unorthodox manner with the very similar “horse” radical. 625.  This phrase relies on the term shinsoku (申束), normally meaning “promise,” but is here glossed as nobitsukanu (申 relates to 伸, to stretch or expand; tsukanu or tsukaneru implies to bundle or place under control). Other texts gloss this nobi-chijimi, to stretch and shrink.

Nos. 2–3  297

Figure 5.22  The twelve “branches” in their divine bestial form. Reading from right to left and alternating top and bottom: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, cock, dog, and boar.

If, however, an eighteen-day period includes metsu (滅) days (metsunichi; Ch. mièrì) or motsu (没) days (motsunichi; Ch. mòrì), these are not included in the total.626 They would produce a nineteen-day doyō. But because such days are of a malevolent nature, a nineteen-day doyō would cause everyone difficulties. One year has 360 days. Quadrisecting this yields the seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, which correspond in turn to Wood, Fire, Metal, and Water. Since none of the seasons are governed by Earth, eighteen days are subtracted respectively from the ninety days of spring, summer, autumn, and winter and are allotted to Earth. In this manner spring, summer, autumn, winter, and doyō each last seventy-two days, and all five phases are balanced and of equal duration. Each of the four seasons contains a doyō period since everything is born of the earth, and Earth is the mother of everything. The (doyō periods) correspond to the four compass directions of the ox (north northeast), ram (south 626.  On these days, which seek to adjust for the difference between the length of the solar year and the 360-day calendrical year, see Martzloff, Astronomy and Calendars, pp. 219–238, and Selin, Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, vol. 1, p. 323 (“Yixing”).

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southwest), dragon (east southeast), and dog (west northwest). The five grains mature during a doyō, indicating that everything reaches fruition (within such a period). Particularly during the summer doyō everything increases, so human pain and suffering (peaks as well). Because doyō is a time that governs Earth, construction work is not undertaken and no graves are built. It is inauspicious to move earth during a doyō, though not during its “intermediate days” (mabi). “Intermediate days” occur as follows: in spring, days of the snake, horse, and cock; in summer, days of the rabbit, dragon, and monkey; in autumn, days of the ram, cock, and boar; in winter, days of the tiger, rabbit, and snake. 4. Regarding the “eight single-phase days” (hassen; Ch. bāzhuān)627 The twelve-day period from the beginning of a mizu-no-e “day of the rat” to the end of a mizu-no-to “day of the boar” is known as hassen. Four “intermediate days” fall within this period. Eight “single-phase days” (senjitsu) occur during this (twelve-day) interval, so they are called the “eight single-phase days.”628 The “intermediate days” are the four days of the ox, dragon, dog, and horse. The mizu-no-e “day of the rat” is also called Enmaten kangie (joyous ceremonies of the deity Enma [Skt. Yama], the king of hell); the ki-no-e “day of the tiger” is also called Chiten kangi-e (joyous ceremonies of the deity of the earth, Chiten); the ki-no-to “day of the rabbit” is also called Suiten Hannya-e (Suiten and Hannya celebrations);629 the hi-no-to “day of the snake” is also called Katen shoten-e (ceremonies of the deity of fire and other deities); the tsuchi-no-to “day of the ram” is also called Rasetsuten Fudō-e (ceremonies of Rasetsu deities [Skt. rākṣasa; cannibalistic enemies of Buddha] and Fudō); the ka-no-e “day of the monkey” is also called Fūten kangi-e Niō-e (joyous ceremonies of the wind deity [Fūten] and Niō [Skt. Vajrapāni]);630 the ka-no-to “day of the cock” is also called Kichijōten Hōrakuten (ceremonies for the deity of luck [Kichijō; Skt. Śrī-mahādevī] and deities of pleasure [Hōrakuten]); the mizu-no-to “day of the boar” is also called Tamonten jōbutsu-e (ceremonies for Tamon [or Bishamon; Skt. Vaiśravaṇa, one 627.  These days are determined by a type of chronomancy known as xuǎnrì (“choosing days,” J. senjitsu, written with different ideographs from “single-phase days”). 628.  Senjitsu (Jōhaku reads the term sennichi) are days on which both the celestial stem and branch fall on the same phase of the “five phases,” thus compounding good or bad luck. 629.  Suiten was originally a deity of water but was worshiped in Japan mainly as a divinity of childbirth and protector of children. Hannya (Skt. Prajñā), originally signified ultimate wisdom but also came to mean a horned female demon who represented rage and jealousy. She also appears in nō plays and other arts. 630.  These two wrathful and muscular guardians of the Buddha are also known as Kongō Rikishi.

Nos. 3–6  299

of the four heavenly kings] and attained Buddhahood). These constitute the “eight single-phase days.” On such days the divinities from the lower realms all ascend to heaven, so they do not reveal themselves as holy figures at Buddhist ceremonies in the world below. The S[h]ukuyōkyō (Ch. Xiuyaojing or Suyaojing) states that as a result, since 957, a tsuchi-no-e year of the snake, the “eight singlephase days” are shunned in China by the “Three Jewels of Buddhism” (the Buddha, the Dharma, the priesthood).631 Moxacautery and acupuncture are popularly avoided on these days. 5. Ten’ichi tenjō (“Nakagami ascends to heaven”) This refers to the sixteen-day period between a mizu-no-to “day of the snake” and a tsuchi-no-e “day of the dog.” The deity Nakagami (Ten’ichi) counts as a vassal of Taishakuten.632 Nakagami is commanded by Taishakuten to descend to the world, wander in all directions for forty (sic) days, notate human vices and virtues, and reascend to heaven on the forty-sixth day, a day called ten’ichi tenjō. For the sixteen days of ten’ichi tenjō, Nakagami’s vassal Nichiyūjin (“PlayingSun Deity”) descends to earth and resides in the home. On these grounds, if women are to bear a child during the sixteen days of ten’ichi tenjō, they should be sent to a separate house to give birth.633 During this period it is taboo to tear down a house, take life, or marry. 6. Regarding uke/muke This is written as “spirit/no spirit” 有気無気 or “joy/no joy” 有慶無慶.634 Human beings have twelve fates (jūni un; Ch. shí’èr yùn) corresponding to the acts of conceiving, gestating, growing, immersing, maturing, strengthening, peaking, weakening, ailing, dying, interring, and vanishing. Among these, the seven fates of conceiving, gestating, growing, immersing, maturing, strengthening, and peaking constitute a series of good fates; their ideographs have good connotations. These fates are called “seven years of joy” (uke shichinen). The series of five fates of weakening, ailing, dying, interring, and vanishing is one of 631.  This is unlikely, for the sutra (see Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, no. 1299) was written by the Indian Buddhist monk Amoghavajra (705–774) in China in 764. It explains the Indian twenty-eight “lunar lodges” (Skt. nakṣatra) or sectors along the ecliptic, the seven luminaries (sun, moon, and five planets), and cognate phenomena. The work was introduced to Japan during the Heian period. 632.  Nakagami or Ten’ichijin (“First Deity of Heaven”) is the leader of the twelve divine generals (jūni shinshō). He is said to proceed in each of the four directions for five days and in intermediate directions for six days, for a total of forty-four days. Nakagami was the deity of “changing directions” (kata-tagae), a practice for avoiding a tabooed direction on a given day. While Nakagami resided in heaven (tenjō), such taboos did not apply. 633.  If the inside of a house was “impure,” this would provoke Nichiyūjin’s curse.

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bad fates; their ideographs have bad connotations. The latter fates are known as “five years of no joy” (muke gonen). The twelve fates, as combinations of the seven fates and five fates, encounter each other and determine the fortunes and misfortunes of human lives. For this reason, auspicious (signs) should be celebrated as good, and inauspicious ones as bad. Wood nature: cock, dog, boar, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit; “seven years of spirit”: good. dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey; “five years of no spirit”: bad. Fire nature: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse; “seven years of spirit”: good. ram, monkey, cock, dog, boar; “five years of no spirit”: bad. Earth nature: horse, ram, monkey, cock, dog, boar, rat; “seven years of spirit”: good. ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake; “five years of no spirit”: bad. Metal nature: rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, cock; “seven years of spirit”: good. dog, boar, rat, ox, tiger; “five years of no spirit”: bad. Water nature: horse, ram, monkey, cock, dog, boar, rat; “seven years of spirit”: good. ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake; “five years of no spirit”: bad. 7. Regarding chishigo Chishigo signifies “knowing the time of birth and death.” The time of birth falls on the beginning of chishigo; the time of death falls at the end of chishigo.635 Chishigo may be reckoned by reciting the following table: First ten days of the month 1, 2, 9, 10: ninth hour, rat (midnight); ninth hour, horse (noon); sixth hour, rabbit (6 a.m.); sixth hour, cock (6 p.m.)

634.  This yin-yang concept is also written “divination sign/no divination sign” 有卦無卦. 635.  Chishigo was related to the tides, so this statement implies that humans tend to be born around high tide and die at low tide. The table below evidently seeks to calculate semidiurnal tides (two nearly equal high and low tides each day). The link of natality and mortality to phases of the moon, though still often popularly accepted in Japan today, has been debunked by modern scientific statistical inquiry (see Gans and Leigh, “Does the Lunary Cycle Affect Births and Deaths?”).

Nos. 6–7  301

Figure 5.23  A felicitous gathering in a warrior-class parlor.

3, 4, 5: eighth hour, ox (2 a.m.); eighth hour, ram (2 p.m.); fifth hour, dragon (8 a.m.); fifth hour, dog (8 p.m.) 6, 7, 8: seventh hour, tiger (4 a.m.); seventh hour, monkey (4 p.m.); fourth hour, snake (10 a.m.); fourth hour, boar (10 p.m.) Middle ten days of the month 1, 2, 9, 10: eighth hour, ox (2 a.m.); eighth hour, ram (2 p.m); fifth hour, dragon (8 a.m.); fifth hour, dog (8 p.m.) 3, 4, 5: seventh hour, tiger (4 a.m.); seventh hour, monkey (4 p.m.); fourth hour, snake (10 a.m.); fourth hour, boar (10 p.m.) 6, 7, 8: ninth hour, rat (midnight); ninth hour, horse (noon); sixth hour, rabbit (6 a.m.); sixth hour, cock (6 p.m.)

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Final ten days of the month 1, 2, 9, 10: seventh hour, tiger (4 a.m.); seventh hour, monkey (4 p.m.); fourth hour, snake (10 a.m.); fourth hour, boar (10 p.m.) 3, 4, 5: ninth hour, rat (midnight); ninth hour, horse (noon); sixth hour, rabbit (6 a.m.); sixth hour, cock (6 p.m.) 6, 7, 8: eighth hour, ox (2 a.m.); eighth hour, ram (2 p.m.); fifth hour, dragon (8 a.m.); fifth hour, dog (8 p.m.) The numbers 1, 2, 9, and 10 in the (first section of the) table above signify the first, second, ninth, and tenth days of the first ten-day period. This may be recited “rat, horse, rabbit, cock; nine-nine-six-six.” The numbers 1, 2, 9, and 10 of the middle ten days represent the eleventh, twelfth, and nineteenth days of the month. The numbers 3, 4, and 5 (of the middle ten days) stand for the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth days of the month. The numbers 1, 2, 9, and 10 of the final ten days of the month refer to the twenty-first, twenty-second, twentyninth, and thirtieth days of the month. The numbers 3, 4, and 5 (of the final ten days) indicate the twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth days of the month. All three ten-day periods of the month should be memorized in accordance with this example. 8. Regarding “blood-shunning days” (chi-imibi) “Blood-shunning days” mark the days on which the Devil King (maō)636 of the sixth heaven (in the world of desire) takes blood from his body and offers it to Taishakuten. Blood should not be taken from humans or beasts, and acupuncture and moxacautery are taboo. Consequently these days are called “blood-shunning days”: First month, days of the ox; second month, days of the ram; third month, days of the tiger; fourth month, days of the dragon (sic; correctly: monkey); fifth month, days of the rabbit; six month, days of the cock; seventh month, days of the dragon; eighth month, days of the dog; ninth month, days of the snake; tenth month, days of the boar; eleventh month, days of the rat; twelfth month, days of the horse.637 9. Regarding the calculation of (the direction of) Alkaid (the seventh star of the Big Dipper; J. Hagunsei; Ch. Pòjūnxīng, “Army-Destroying Star”).638 636.  This Devil King was often called Tenma or more specifically Hajun (Skt. Pāpīyas). 637.  See vol. 2B, pp. 177–178, of the Japanese Ishinpō (“Formulas from the Heart of Medicine”), completed in 984. 638.  According to yin-yang thought, facing the direction in which the handle of the Big Dipper (conceived as a spear) stands before one is inauspicious, while having Alkaid behind one is auspicious. Directions were conceived like a pie divided into twelve pieces (segments).

Nos. 7–10  303

First month: five directional segments; second month: six segments; third month: seven segments; fourth month: eight segments; fifth month: nine segments; sixth month: ten segments; seventh month: eleven segments; eighth month: twelve segments; ninth month: one segment; tenth month: two segments: eleventh month: three segments; twelfth month: four segments. Alkaid is an exceedingly malicious star. Since it debilitates one in competitions, it is avoided for lawsuits. “First month: five directional segments” means that during the first month one should count (clockwise) five directional segments.639 Thus if during the first month one enters a contest at the hour of the rat (c. midnight), one counts five segments (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon) to arrive at the direction of the dragon. The tip of the Big Dipper (literally “the tip of the spear of the destroying army [hagun]”) will be located in the direction of the dragon (east southeast). One should memorize “first month, five segments” (and add one month and one segment until one reaches) “ninth month, one segment” (and continue in this manner). 10. Regarding the Mallet (tsuchi)640 “Mallet” refers to the auspiciousness or inauspiciousness of the day on which one was born. The period of seven days after a ka-no-e “day of the horse” is considered the “Great Mallet” (Ō-tsuchi or Ō-zuchi).641 The (following) hi-no-to “day of the ox” is a “Middle Mallet” (Naka-no-tsuchi) and counts as an “intermediate day” (mabi). The period of seven days after the succeeding tsuchi-no-e “day of the tiger” is called “Small Mallet” (Ko-tsuchi). This results in a total of fifteen days. If (one’s birth) falls within the Great Mallet, one’s life will be short. (The effect of) the Small Mallet is weaker than that of the Great Mallet. “Mallet” refers to the days whereon Konjin (“Metal Deity”) moves about, and these days are of a malevolent nature.642 A child born within a “Mallet” period should be named “Tanin” (“Other Person”) or “Tsuchi” and ought to worship the deity. The name “Tsuchi” for these days derives from the use of a mallet to smash things since the deity commits “Konjin’s seven murders” (Konjin shishisetsu) by breaking and 639.  To determine the direction one should face, one counts clockwise, starting from and including the segment in which one is located. 640.  The author writes 槌 (glossed tsuchi), but the ideographs 椎, 土, 地, or 犯土 and the reading tsui were also common. In yin-yang philosophy this notion also referred to the taboo on construction work in the direction of Dokūjin (see no. 13 below) or on the “mallet” days as explained here. 641.  Here as elsewhere the first day is included in the counting of days. 642.  Konjin is a violent deity of directions (hōijin) who shifts his position. The direction in which he has moved was considered unlucky (see Hoki naiden, pp. 381–382; also no. 12, below). Construction work, repairs, and trips in this direction were taboo.

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damaging things. A child born on the “intermediate day” will have a protracted life span, be intelligent, and gain a fortune. 11. The “year’s luck” (toshitoku) The “lucky deity of the year” (toshitoku-jin) is the daughter of the dragon-god (ryūō) Sāgara, who lived in southern lands. Since she was the most becoming deity under heaven, Gozu Tennō begged for her hand in marriage and turned her into his queen. She bore eight princes, known as the “Eight Divine Generals” (Hasshōjin): Taisai, Daishōgun, Taionjin, Saikyō(-shin), Saiha, Saisetsu(-shin), Ōban(-shin), and Hyōbi(-shin). The Eight Divine Generals each govern a certain direction that changes with the year. The deity determining the year’s luck corresponds to this. In ki-no-e and tsuchi-no-to years (the lucky direction lies) between that of the tiger (east northeast) and that of the rabbit (east); in hi-no-e, tsuchi-no-e, ka-no-to, and mizu-no-to years it lies between the snake (south southeast) and the horse (south); in ka-no-e and ki-no-to years it lies between the monkey (west southwest) and the cock (west); in mizu-no-e and hi-no-to years it lies between the boar (north northwest) and the rat (north). Each direction is known as “the year’s luck” or “basic direction” (ehō). If at the start of the year one faces in this direction and worships the deities, this serves as a celebration for the upcoming year. This theory is recorded by Abe no Seimei in his Hoki naiden. An orthodox explanation is given in Book 1, in the section on New Year’s.643 12. Regarding Konjin and the 6/1 “tooth firming” ceremony Regarding Konjin, the Hoki (naiden) states that some thirty thousand ri to the south lies a country known as the Yasha (Skt. Yakṣa) Kingdom.644 The ruler of this land is a malevolent demonic deity named Kontan, also called Konjin, who is constantly vexing humans and is the enemy of Japan. Thus when Gozu Tennō was returning from the southern lands, he sent out the Eight Divine Generals and had Kontan defeated and rendered harmless. Because Kontan is of a metallic nature, he is called Konjin (=“Metal Deity”). He has seven metallic souls. These souls are found in the seven injurious locations known as “Konjin’s seven murders” (Konjin shichisetsu). The ideograph setsu is read “to kill,” so if someone goes on the offensive in that direction, seven persons are sure to perish. This is why one speaks of “seven murders.” If one’s family does not include seven members, neighbors will be slain. One should thus take inordinate care to shun this.

643. See Hoki naiden, pp. 380–381. 644.  Hoki naiden (pp. 381–382) does speak of Konjin, but the version of the text presented in Gunsho ruijū (GR) does not contain most of what is mentioned below. The author was perhaps relying on a secondary source.

Nos. 10–12  305

Figure 5.24  Gozu Tennō, his comely wife, and their eight sons.

Activities associated with the “five festive occasions” (go-sekku) serve as rituals for overpowering Kontan. First, at New Year’s, red and white “mirror rice cakes” (kagami mochi) represent Kontan’s flesh and bones. Herbal rice cakes (kusa no mochi) of the third day of the third month represent Kontan’s skin. Chimaki (glutinous rice wrapped in) sweet-flag leaves represent Kontan’s topknot. Thin wheat noodles (sōmen) consumed on the seventh day of the seventh month represent Kontan’s sinews and veins. Chrysanthemum liquor drunk on the ninth day of the ninth month represents Kontan’s blood and secretions. Ball-like objects used in games played on Tanabata (7/7) represent Kontan’s head. It is said that targets (for archery on 5/5) represent Kontan’s eyes and that pine-branch decorations (set up at New Year’s) represent his sepulcher. When Gozu Tennō returned from the southern lands, he overpowered Kontan at the Gion Shrine between the first and the thirtieth days of the sixth month. As a result, even

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today the “tooth firming” ceremony celebrated on the first day of the sixth month is considered a New Year’s ritual. Thus it is stated, etc. etc. 13. Regarding (the Daoist divinity) Dokūjin (Dokushin or Dokōshin; Ch. Tǔgōngshén; “Divine Lord of the Earth”) Regarding Dokū, the Hoki (naiden) states that this deity governs the three thousand worlds and is Kenrōji-shin (“Deity of Solid Earth”).645 It is called Sanbō kōjin (or Sanpō kōjin; “Rough Deity of the Three Jewels of Buddhism” [the Buddha, the Dharma, and the priesthood]”). It bears the world on its head, is exposed to its impurities, and suffers from the “three heats.”646 Hence its spirit is bold and energetic, it takes on a fearsome form, and it is often censorious. For this reason too the (deity of the) hearth at each house is called Kōjin and is worshiped. In spring, Dokūjin resides in the hearth; in summer, at the entryway; in autumn, at the well; and in winter, in the yard. 14. Theories concerning higan (equinoctial period)647 (The two annual) higan begin four days anterior to the (first day of the) midmonth solar term of the second and eighth months and last for seven days.648 According to the Hoki (naiden), these periods begin three days prior to the (first day of the) two solar terms.649 On commonly used calendars the start of higan is indicated three days after the middle of the month, but this is an error. Higan signifies that on the midmost day of the second and eighth months, days and nights are of equal length and therefore correspond to the “correct time” (jishō). The sun and moon rise from the true east and set in the true west. The east is known as “this riverbank” (shigan); the west is called the “other riverbank” (higan). Higan also refers to the Pure Land (of Buddhism). Since at this time, all deities and benevolent kami cultivate the root of virtue, during the equinoctial period human beings also engage in Buddhist worship. According to the “Meditation Sutra,” when one perceives the Pure Land for the first time, one speaks of a “sun sense” (nikkan), which refers to the act of seeing the sun.650 (The 645.  Hoki naiden, p. 395. Kenrōji-shin is an alternate name for Jiten (“Deity of the Earth”; Skt. Pṛthvī), who in some ancient Indian and esoteric Tendai sources is considered female. 646.  The Buddhist notion of “three heats” refers to torments suffered by beings in the “realm of beasts.” Hot winds scorch their flesh and bones, injurious winds rob them of their housing and clothing, and the fabulous giant bird called Garuḍa (J. Konjichō) devours them. 647.  See also second month, no. 1 above. 648.  “Four days anterior” if each discrete day is counted. 649.  Hoki naiden, p. 395. 650.  According to the words of the Buddha cited at the start of part 2 of this sutra, one should seat oneself, gaze westward, and engage in concentrated meditation on the sun, especially when it is about to set. Nikkan is an abbreviation for nissōkan and derives from the notion that when one sees the sun setting, one senses the presence of the Pure Land in the west.

Nos. 12–15  307

Figure 5.25  Moxacautery is performed on a patient’s back.

Chinese Pure-Land priest) Shandao explained that one should engage in concentrated meditation during the middle of the second and eighth months. This holds true regardless of the calendar used. The day falling at the midpoint of the second and eighth months should be taken as the central day of higan. Other theories regarding higan have already been presented in Book 1 above. 15. On the theory that moxibustion should occur during the second and eighth months Beneficial medicines exist for most diseases. Some ailments respond well to acupuncture, others to moxibustion. Moxibustion by itself is useful not just for treating illnesses caused by wind, cold, heat, and moisture, but is also effective

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for many other ailments. When a person’s yang qi is depleted, the damp qi present in the heat of moxa may supplement and fortify the source of yang (gen’yō; Ch. yuányáng). When qi is blocked, it may be dispersed by the qi of fire (in moxibustion). If the blood is depleted, the meridians can be warmed up and circulation improved. Moxibustion can cool an “empty heat” (kyonetsu) and warm up what is cold. If one sets moxa in an upper area of the body, it will elevate descending qi; if one sets it in a lower area, it will cause blood to circulate and depress ascending qi. Moxibustion truly balances qi and benefits humans. Moxibustion may be practiced at any time because diseases do not strike according to the seasons, the months, or the days. Performing moxibustion during the second and eighth months is indispensable for promoting future well-being. Yang qi peaks during the second month; yin qi peaks during the eighth month. Neither season is marked by excessive cold or heat, so the effect of moxibustion remains unobstructed. However, in Japan it is popularly said that on “days of affliction for the human spirit” (ninjin unkōnichi) and on certain other days, moxibustion should not be performed. The following is presented for those who may find it useful.

(A) The position of the “human spirit” (Ch. rénshén; J. ninjin) and the four seasons651 Rénshén signifies “human spirit” (tamashii). This circulates throughout the body, day and night. Moxibustion and acupuncture at a spot where the “human spirit” resides must be strictly avoided. 1. In spring it is found at the left side of the torso. Moxibustion should not occur at the ninth vertebra. 2. In summer it is found at the navel. Moxibustion should not occur at the fifth vertebra. 3. In autumn it is found at the right side of the torso. Moxibustion should not occur at the third vertebra. 4. In winter it is found at the waist. Moxibustion should not occur at the fourteenth vertebra. 5. In doyō periods it is found at the elbows. Moxibustion should not occur at the eleventh vertebra. 651.  References to the concept, and to the iatromantic consequences of rénshén, which shifts position in the human body, are found in Sun Simiao’s 652 Beiji qianjin yaofang and its 682 sequel, Qianjin yifang (J. Senkin yokuhō, “Supplemental Remedies Worth Their Weight in Gold”). See also Ishinpō, vol. 2B, pp. 185–234; for similar listings of the location of the “human spirit” during specific seasons, see ibid., p. 165.

Nos. 15(A)–(E)  309

(B) The position of the “human spirit” and the ten celestial stems On ki-no-e days: in the head; on ki-no-to days: in the throat; on hi-no-e days: in the lips; on hi-no-to days: in the shoulders and chest; on tsuchi-no-e days: in the chest; on tsuchi-no-to days: in the abdomen; on ka-no-e days: in the liver; on kano-to days: in the thighs and waist; on mizu-no-e days: in the back; on mizu-noto days: in the neck.

(C) The position of the “human spirit” and the “twelve horary signs” On “days of the rat”: in the eyes and ears; on “days of the ox”: in the jaw and nose; on “days of the tiger”: in the back and chest; on “days of the rabbit”: in the abdomen and nose; on “days of the dragon”: in the thighs and waist; on “days of the snake”: in the hands and tongue; on “days of the horse”: in the chest and abdomen; on “days of the ram”: in the head and feet; on “days of the monkey”: in the waist and shoulders; on “days of the cock”: in the ears and back; on “days of the dog”: in the knees and head; on “days of the boar”: on the top of the head, in the abdomen, and in the nose.

(D) The position of the “human spirit” on each day of the month652 1. feet and big toes; 2. outer ankle joints; 3. inner thighs; 4. left side of the waist; 5. mouth and tongue; 6. fingers; 7. inner ankle joints; 8. feet/legs and arms; 9. buttocks and tailbone, bottom of the feet; 10. back, waist, sides of the torso; 11. nose; 12. hairline; 13. teeth; 14. stomach; 15. forehead; 16. chest and nipples; 17. the area below the navel; 18. thighs and abdomen; 19. hands and feet; 20. inside of thighs and knee joints; 21. small toes and fingers; 22. the area below the navel, eyes, chest, ankle joints; 23. ninth vertebra, the outer ankle joints; 24. hands and sides of the abdomen; 25. legs/feet; 26. chest, feet, hands; 27. knees; 28. a spot that is concealed; 29. knees, shins; 30. the area from below the navel to the feet.

(E) Days for shunning moxacautery according to the five phases (goshō) (On days of a) Wood nature shun days of the ram; of Fire nature, shun days of the dog; of Earth nature, shun days of the dragon; of Metal nature, shun days of the ox; of Water nature, shun days of the dragon. 652.  The following determinations conform to what is expounded in Ishinpō, vol. 2B, pp. 211–221, based on the methods of the Chinese doctor Hua Tuo (c. 140–208).

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(F) “Days of affliction” (unkōnichi), on which moxacautery should strictly be avoided First month: days of the ram; second month: days of the dog; third month: days of the dragon; fourth month: days of the tiger; fifth month: days of the horse; sixth month: days of the snake; seventh month: days of the cock; eighth month: days of the monkey; ninth month: days of the boar; tenth month: days of the rat; eleventh month: days of the ox; twelfth month: days of the rabbit. Other than the above days, moxacautery should be avoided on “blood-shunning days” (chi-imi[bi]), “polluted days” (kue-nichi), and “black days” (kurobi). Men should also avoid it on nozoku days; women, on yaburu days.653

(G) Times when moxacautery should be shunned654 Times of strong wind; times of heavy snowfall; times of heavy rains; times of fog; times of thunder and lightning; times of heat; times when rainbows appear; at lunar or solar eclipses; after overeating; after drinking too much alcohol; after being famished; after hot baths; after being sad or angry; after exhaustion from labor; after hiking great distances; after crossing waters; after sweating; after sexual intercourse. Moxacautery should be avoided three days before and seven days after sexual intercourse.

(H) How to prepare (and perform) moxacautery In the Bencao gangmu (“Materia medica”) (Li) Shizhen (1518–1593) writes that moxa grows on the ridges of rice paddies or in the wild.655 Its stalks are four or five feet long, and its plentiful foliage is a verdant green on the front and white in back. It should be cut, stems and all, on 5/5, or 3/3, early in the morning before roosters begin to cry. Afterward it should be allowed to dry in the shade, pounded with a wooden pestle in a stone mortar, and strained with a fine sieve. The resulting powder must be pounded a second time until it is as soft as cotton and of a pale color. The finished product is known as “ripe moxa” (jukugai). 653.  Nozoku and yaburu days refer to the system of “twelve correspondences” (jūnichoku) of calendar signs, based on the position of the stars in the Big Dipper. Nozoku, meaning “to rid,” refers to auspicious days purged of all misfortune; such days are good for visiting a doctor, beginning a cure, or sowing seeds but inauspicious for weddings or construction work. Yaburu, meaning to “break” or “injure,” refers to days good for breaking down a foe (in a lawsuit or negotiations) but inauspicious for weddings or worship. 654.  Similar listings are found in Ishinpō, vol. 2B, pp. 163–165. 655. The following is a summary with additional material from the sixteenth section (“Grasses, Part Four”; Ch. “Cao Zhi Si”) of Bencao gangmu (vol. 12 in the nineteenth-century Japanese edition).

Nos. 15(F)–(J)  311

For performing moxacautery, the moxa should be placed into an earthen vessel for roasting and drying before application. Old moxa is considered the choicest. New moxa damages the skin, flesh, blood, and veins. In recent years, Japanese shops stock an article called “well-pressed moxa” (mominuki mogusa). This fake product is often adulterated with limestone and pounded to render it white and endow it with the semblance of being well pressed. It contains so much limestone that on ignition it emits a noise and flies off. Moxa that includes such limestone generates poison, damages the skin and flesh, and causes painful cautery lesions. It is thus best to manufacture moxa oneself. It should be lit by using a spherical lens to focus the sun’s rays and handled with carved, dried peach-tree twigs that have faced the east and were severed and trimmed on 3/3.

(I) Regarding the amount and number of moxa (portions) Medical books such as the Qianjinfang or Mingtan jiu jing (Huangdi mingtang jiu jing; “Moxa Classic of the Mintang Palace”) note that if the base of a portion of moxa does not measure at least nine millimeters in diameter, it is worthless and imparts no benefits.656 Yet depending on a patient’s physical strength or debility, or the severity of the ailment, distinctions of amount are in order. If a portion of moxa is tiny, the heat will miss the meridian point and not penetrate sufficiently. Yet little children or the aged, who are thin and frail, cannot bear the heat (of the same moxa) and will merely end up exhausted. For patients of this sort, it is best to use a portion the size of a sparrow dropping or a grain of wheat. Medical books old and new discourse on how many portions should be set at a specific meridian point, but one need not adhere to this rigidly, for depending on the severity of the ailment, adjustments must be made to the amount. Harm results from countering a severe malady with weak moxibustion or a light one with strong moxibustion. Even if a book states that moxibustion should be performed fifty times, treatment of an exhausted or feeble patient should be concluded after a mere seven times. Or else, if an illness is acute, one should perform it fifty times, even if treatises prescribe only seven. The number of treatments recommended by various medical books merely refers to an approximate figure for an otherwise healthy patient.

(J) Regarding what is to be done before and after moxacautery Everything originates within the lofty realms of celestial qi, which descends to the realm of terrestrial qi. For the human body, heated moxa should 656.  Huangdi mingtang jiu jing is an extract regarding moxibustion from the Taiping shenghui fang (“Formulas of Great Peace and Sagely Benevolence”), compiled by Wang Huaiyin and published in China in 992 and later in Japan, where it was widely known.

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correspondingly first be placed on the left side and later on the right side, first on the back of the body and later on the abdomen. For the head, face, hands/arms, and feet/legs, too, moxa ought always first be placed on the upper areas of the body. It should certainly not be allowed to ascend from a lower point to an elevated one. However, for ailments in which blood rises to the head and dizziness results, moxa may first be set in a lower region and subsequently in upper regions. A small number of cones ought first be used and the quantity gradually increased. In this volume I have responded only to the most common questions concerning the days of the calendar and have ignored everything else. Moxacautery is performed in all months and seasons, so I have extracted information from medical books and related it to the course of the year in order to produce a handbook for all. Seventh year of Genroku (1694), ki-no-e “year of the dog,” first month, auspicious day

A PPENDIX

Important Japanese Religious Institutions Mentioned in This Book

Religious institutions are listed by the name used in this volume, followed by common current or former appellations, the school or sect to which the institution presently adheres (in earlier ages affiliation was often quite vague), the date of founding (typically according to dubious legends), and the current address. Unless otherwise noted, all locations are in Kyoto. An asterisk before a name indicates a site indicated on one of the three maps at the start of this volume; “f.” stands for “founded.” Abe-no-Seimei Shrine. Abe-no-Seimei-sha 安倍晴明社; today Seimei Jinja 晴明神社; f. 1007. Kamigyō-ku, Seimei-chō 806–1. Agata Shrine. Agata [no] yashiro 縣社. Auxiliary shrine within the precincts of the Kyoto Hirano Shrine. Anrakuji安楽寺. Abandoned during the early Meiji period, but the Dazaifu Tenmangū 大宰府天満宮 continues to stand on the same site. Fukuoka-ken, Dazaifu-shi, Saifu 4–7–1. *Anrakujuin 安楽寿院. Shingon; founded 1086 as an Amida Hall but reestablished in the Keichō period (1596–1615) as Anrakujuin. Fushimi-ku, Takeda Nakauchihata-chō. An’yōji 安養寺. Jishū, c. 782–806. Higashiyama-ku, Yasaka-torii-mae, Higashi-iru Maruyama-chō 624. Asuka-dera 飛鳥寺. Also known as Hōkōji 法興寺 or Gangōji 元興寺; f. c. 587, relocated from Asuka to Nara in 718. Nara-ken, Asuka-mura, Asuka 682. *Atago Shrine. Atago Jinja 愛宕神社, formerly Atago Gongen 愛宕権現 or Hakuunji 白 雲寺; f. 701–704 on Mt. Atago. Ukyō-ku, Saga-Atago-chō 1. Atsuta Shrine. Atsuta Jingū 熱田神宮. Formerly Atsuta Daimyōjin 熱田大明神; f. 113. Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi, Atsuta-ku, Jingū 1–1–1. Awashima Daimyōjin 淡嶋大明神. Awashima Jinja 淡嶋神社. Wakayama-ken, Wakayamashi, Kada 116. *Awata Shrine. Awata Jinja 粟田神社; f. 1113–1118. Higashiyama-ku, Awataguchi Kaji-chō 1. Awazu Shrine. Awazu Jinja 粟津神社. Formerly Awazu Sannō Gongen 粟津山王権現. Ōtsu-shi, Nakashō 1–21–17. Ayako Tenman Shrine. Ayako Tenmangū 文子天満宮 or Ayako Tenjin 文子天神, f. 942?; see TFS (ninth month, no. 1). Today at Shimogyō-ku, Ainomachi-dōri, Hanaya-chōsagaru Tenjin-chō 400, near the Kitano Tenman Shrine. 313

314  Appendix *Biwanoshō Tenman Shrine. Biwanoshō Tenmangū(-sha) 枇杷庄天満宮(社); f. 1627. Kyōto-fu, Jōyō-shi, Biwanoshō Ōbori 1–1. Bodaiji 菩提寺. Jōdo; f. 692. Okayama-ken, Nagi-chō Kōen 1528. Bujōji 峰定寺. Honzan Shugen; f. 1154. Sakyōku, Hanaseharachi-chō 772. *Bukkōji 佛光寺. Jōdo Shinshū; f. 1212. Shimogyō-ku, Bukkōji Shinkai-chō 397. *Byōdōin 平等院. Tendai/Jōdo; f. 1052. Kyōto-fu, Uji-shi, Uji-renge 116. Chihenji 池辺寺. Tendai; early eighth century. Vestiges at Kumamoto-ken, Kumamotoshi, Ikenoue-machi 3079. *Chinnōji 珍皇寺. See Rokudō Chinnōji. *Chion’in 知恩院. More fully Tōzan (Higashiyama) Daikokuji (Ōtani-dera) Chion’in 東 山大谷寺知恩院. Jōdo; f. 1175. Higashiyama-ku, Rinka-chō 400. *Chionji 知恩寺. Popularly: Hyakumanben Chionji 百万遍知恩寺. Jōdo. Founded during the Heian period to house a statue carved by Ennin (794–864). Functioned as a temple associated with the Upper Kamo Shrine. Named Chionji in the thirteenth century and reestablished at its current location 1662–1675. Sakyō-ku, Tanaka monzen-chō 103. *Chishakuin 智積院. Shingon. Predecessor (Negoroji 根来寺); f. 1132. After a long and tangled early history, established at its current location in 1598. Higashiyama-ku, Higashi-ōji Shichijō-sagaru Higashi-kawara-chō 964. Chishō Daishi Hall. Chishō Daiji dō 智證大師堂 or simply Daishi dō 大師堂. At Onjōji. Chōhōji 頂法寺. See Rokkaku Hall. *Chōkō Hall. Chōkōdō 長講堂. Jōdo; f. 1183. Shimogyō-ku, Tominokōji-dōri Gojōsagaru Moto-shiogama-chō. Chōrakuji 長楽寺. Tendai; f. 1221. Gunma-ken, Ōta-shi, Serada 3119–7. Chūdōji 中堂寺. Jōdo; f. 1015? Burned down in 1788. Once located east of Takatsuji Horikawa. Today at Shimogyō-ku, Chūdōji Nishidera-chō 25. Chūgenji 仲源寺. Jōdo; early eleventh century? Higashiyama-ku, Gion-chō Minamigawa 585–1. Daianji 大安寺. Shingon; seventh century? Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Daianji 2–18–1. Daigen Shrine. Daigengū 大元宮. Originally at the Yoshida family’s residence; removed to the Yoshida Shrine grounds in 1484. Daigoji 醍醐寺. Shingon; f. 874. Fushimi-ku, Daigo higashi-ōji-chō 22. *Daihōonji 大報恩寺. Popularly known as Senbon Shakadō 千本釈迦堂 (“Senbon Shakyamuni Hall”). Shingon; f. 1221. Kamigyō-ku, Imadegawa-agaru Mizomaechō 1035–1, Imadegawa Shichihonmatsu agaru. *Daikakuji 大覚寺. Shingon; f. 876. Ukyō-ku, Saga Ōsawa-chō 4. Daikokuji 大谷寺 or Ōtani-dera. Later renamed Chion’in. Daimyōji 大妙寺. Nichiren; f. 1340. Nishikyō-ku, Katagihara Hakaridani-chō 15–4. Daishōin 大昌院. A sub-temple within the grounds of Kenninji. Originally a graveyard founded by Kōbō Daishi (Kūkai, 774–835). Around 1368–1375 it became a temple established by the Rinzai-sect priest Monkei Ryōsō (?–1372). *Daitokuji 大徳寺. Rinzai; f. 1325. Kita-ku, Murasakino Daitokuji-chō 53. *Daiun’in 大雲院. Jōdo; f. 1587 near Nijō Castle (Karasuma Oike) as the resting place of Oda Nobutada (1555 or 1557–1582), whose posthumous Buddhist name was

Appendix  315 Daiun’in. The same year Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered it relocated to Shijō (today Shimogyō-ku, Teianmae-no-chō). In 1973 it was removed to Higashiyama-ku, Gionmachi Minamigawa 594–1. Daizenji 大善寺. See Jōmyōin Hōunzan. Dazaifu Tenjin Shrine. Dazaifu Tenmangū 太宰府天満宮; f. 919. Fukuoka-ken, Dazaifushi, Saifu 4–7–1. Dōjōji 道成寺. Tendai; f. 701. Wakayama-ken, Hidakagawa-chō, Kanemaki 1738. Dōmyōji 道明寺. Shingon; late sixth century. The surrounding area was once associated with Sugawara no Michizane’s ancestral Haji clan. Ōsaka-fu, Fujiidera-shi, Dōmyōji 1–14–31. *Eastern Honganji. Higashi Honganji 東本願寺. Jōdo Shinshū; founded 1272 as the Ōtani Mausoleum (Ōtani Byōdō 大谷廟堂), in 1321 as Ōtani Honganji 大谷本願寺, and in 1602 as Higashi Honganji. Shimogyō-ku, Karasuma-dōri Shichijō agaru Tokiwa-chō 754. Ebisu Shrine. Ebisu Jinja 恵美須神社; founded in 1202 at Kenninji as the temple’s protector shrine. Higashiyama-ku, Komatsu-chō 125, Yamato-ōji-dōri Shijō-sagaru 4. Ebisujima Shrine. Ebisujima Jinja 蛭子島神社. Uji-shi, Makishima-chō, Ishibashi 28. *Ebumi Shrine. Ebumi Jinja 江文神社. Formerly Ebumi Myōjin 江文明神 or Ebumi Daimyōjin 江文大明神. Sakyō-ku, Ōharanomura-chō 643. *Eikan Hall. Eikandō 永観堂. See Zenrinji. *Enryakuji 延暦寺. Tendai; f. 788. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Sakamoto Honmachi 4220. En’yūbō 円融房, an earlier name of Sanzen’in 三千院. Tendai, 782–806; often relocated. Sakyō-ku, Ōhara Raikōin-chō 540. Eshin’in 惠心院. Shingon; founded 822 by Kūkai, restored by Genshin (942–1017) during the early eleventh century. Kyōto-fu, Uji-shi, Uji-yamada 67. *Fujinomori Shrine. Fujinomori Jinja 藤森神社. Formerly Fujinomori Tennō-sha 藤森天 王社. Founded 203 by the mythical empress Jingū. Originally where the Fushimi Inari Shrine stands today. Fushimi-ku, Fukakusa Toriizaki-chō 609. Fukuōji Shrine. Fukuōji Jinja 福王子神社; founded Heian period, refurbished 1644. Ukyō-ku, Utano-fukuōji-chō 52. Funenomiya 船宮. Also known as Ichiyamatsu-sha 一夜松社 or Ichiyamatsu Jinja 一夜松神社. A subsidiary shrine of the Kitano Tenman Shrine. *Fushimi Inari Shrine. Fushimi Inari Taisha 伏見稲荷大社, 708–715. Fushimi-ku, Fukakusa Yabunouchi-chō 68. Gangōji 元興寺. Shingon-risshū; f. 593. Nara-shi, Chūin-chō 11. Genkōji 源光寺. Rinzai; f. 811. Ukyō-ku, Tokiwa Umazuka-chō 1. *Gion interim sanctuary. Gion Otabisho 祇園御旅所, today Yasaka Jinja Otabisho 八坂 神社御旅所; f. tenth century? Shimogyō-ku, Teianmae-no-chō, Yasaka Jinja Otabisho. *Gion Shrine. Gion Jinja 祇園神社; f. 656. Before the Meiji period often known as Gion Shōja 祇園精舎, Gion-sha 祇園社, and the like. Later called Yasaka Jinja 八坂神社. Higashiyama-ku, Gion-machi Kitagawa 625. *Gojō Tenjin Shrine. Gojō Tenjinsha 五条天神社; f. 794. Shimogyō-ku, Matsubara Nishinotōin-nishi-iri, Tenjin-mae 351.

316  Appendix *Gokōnomiya Shrine. Gokōnomiya Jinja 御香宮神社; f. 862. Fushimi-ku, Gokōgū monzen-chō. Gokurakuji. See Kūya Hall. Goryō Shrine (Kyoto). See Upper Goryō Shrine, Middle Goryō Shrine, Lower Goryō Shrine. Goryō Shrine (Osaka). Goryō Jinja 御霊神社; f. ninth century. Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Awaji-machi 4–4–3. *Gosha Shrine. Gosha Jinja 五社神社. Nishikyō-ku, Shimotsubayashi Kusunoki-chō 103. *Gosho Hachiman Shrine. Gosho Hachimangū 御所八幡宮. Nakagyō-ku, Oike-dōri, Takakura Higashi-iru Kikkōya-chō 594–1 (the old Tōjiji grounds). Hachi Dai Tennō Shrine. Hachi Tennō-sha 八大天王社. No longer extant. In 1872 amalgamated with the Hachidai Jinja 八大神社 (f. 1294); today at Sakyō-ku, Ichijōji Matsuhara-chō 1. Hachi Shrine. Hachi Jinja 八神社; f. ninth or tenth century. Sakyō-ku, Ginkakuji-chō 26. Hakuunji 白雲寺. Shingon and Tendai; founded by the shugendō priest Taichō (682–767). Served as a temple of the Atago Shrine. Abolished when the Meiji regime separated Shinto and Buddhism. *Hanazono Shrine. Hanazono Jinja 花園神社. Also Imamiya Jinja 今宮神社, 2025. Not identical with the Imamiya Shrine at Murasakino. Ukyō-ku, Hanazono Imachi 17. *Hanjō Shrine. Hanjō Jinja 繁昌神社; f. 901–922. Also Hanjōnomiya 繁昌の宮 or Kyō no Benzaiten 京の弁財天. Formerly Hannyo Jinja 班女神社. Shimogyō-ku, Takatsujidōri, Muromachi nishi-iru Hanjō-chō 308. *Hanjūin (or Hanshūin) 般舟院. Tendai, late fifteenth century. Kamigyō-ku, Imadegawadōri Senbon Higashi-iru Hanshūin-mae-chō 151. Hannyadera 般若寺. Shingon; founded early tenth century by Kangen (854–925). Once stood at today’s Ukyō-ku, Narutaki Shirasuna-chō (near Narutaki Izumidani-chō). Refurbished during the seventeenth century by wealthy Kyoto merchants; abolished in 1868. Only a small Inari shrine remains. Hannyaji 般若寺. Shingon Risshū; f. 629. Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Hannyaji-chō 221. Hasaso-no-mori 柞の杜 (“The Woods of Hasaso”). See Hōsono Shrine. Hasedera 長谷寺. Shingon; early eighth century. Nara-ken, Sakurai-shi, Hase 731–1. Hataeda Hachiman Shrine. Hataeda Hachimangū 幡枝八幡宮. Formerly Ōjiyama Hachimangū 王子山八幡宮, 894. Sakyō-ku, Iwakura-hataeda-chō 1118. Hayao Shrine. Hayao Jinja 早尾神社. Nishikyō-ku, Ōharano Ishizukuri-chō Haitani Maruo 1. Henjōji 遍照寺. Shingon; f. 989. Ukyō-ku, Saga Hirosawa Nishiura-chō 14. *Higashi-mukai Kannonji 東向観音寺 (literally “Temple of the Eastward-Facing Kannon”). Shingon; f. 806; from the tenth century the Buddhist temple of the Kitano Tenman Shrine. Kamigyō-ku, Kannonji monzenchō 863. Himure Hachiman Shrine. Himure Hachimangū 日牟禮八幡宮, f. 131. Shiga-ken, Ōmihachiman-shi, Miyauchi-chō 257. *Hirano Shrine. Hirano Jinja 平野神社. Formerly Hirano Daimyōjin 平野大明神, Enryaku period (782–806). Kita-ku, Hirano Miyamoto-chō 1.

Appendix  317 Hirano Shrine. Hirano Jinja 平野神社, f. mid-seventh century; moved to current location in 1574. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Matsumoto 1–8–25. Hirota Shrine. Hirota Jinja 廣田神社; f. 201. Formerly Hirota Daimyōjin 廣田大明神. Hyōgo-ken, Nishinomiya-shi, Taisha-chō 7–7. *Hiyoshi Shrine (Hie Shrine). Hiyoshi Taisha 日吉大社. Formerly also Hie-sha 日吉社 or Sannō Gongen 山王権現. Includes countless sub-shrines such as the Ōhie Gongen 大比叡権現 (Nishi Hongū 西本宮 or Ōmiya 大宮); Obie Gongen 小比叡 (Higashi Hongū 東本宮 or Ninomiya 二宮); Usa-gū 宇佐宮 (Shōshinji [or Shōshinshi] Gongen 聖真子権現); Ushio Jinja 牛尾神社 (Hachiōji Gongen 八王子権現); and the Shirayama-hime Jinja 白山姫神社 (Kyakujin Gongen 客人権現). Shiga-ken, Ōtsushi, Sakamoto 5–1–1. Hiyoshi Tōshōgū 日吉東照宮. Tendai; founded 1623 by Tenkai (1536–1643) as a subsidiary of Enryakuji enshrining Tokugawa Ieyasu; since 1876 it counts as a branch shrine of the Hiyoshi Shrine. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Sakamoto 4–2–12. Hōjōji 法成寺. Jōdo. A private temple of Fujiwara no Michinaga (966–1027); erected in 1020 as Muryōjuin 無量寿院 and renamed Hōjōji in 1022. It existed, at least in ruins, until the Muromachi period at today’s Kamigyō-ku, Kōjinguchi-dōri Teramachi higashi-iri Kitagawa. Hōjōji 法城寺. Old name of Shinkōji. Hōjuin 宝寿院. HAE gives the second ideograph as 珠, but since the name derives from the Buddhist name of the courtier-Confucianist Kiyohara no Yorinari, this is incorrect. Founded in 1189 on Yorinari’s death as his mortuary temple. Thereafter it became the site of Kuramazaki Shrine. Ukyō-ku, Saga Asahi-chō 23. Hōjuji 法住寺. Tendai; f. 988. Once the location of retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa’s palace, it later served as the temple guarding his mausoleum. Within its vast territory stood the Sanjūsangen Hall and other structures. Higashiyama-ku, Sanjūsangen-dō mawarimachi 655. *Hokkeji 法華寺. Shingon-risshū; f. 745 as a nunnery by Empress Kōmyō (701–760). Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Hokkeji-chō 882. *Hōkōji 方広寺. Tendai; f. 1595. Higashiyama-ku, Yamato-ōji-dōri Shichijō-agaru, Chayamachi 527–2. Honganji 本願寺. See Eastern Honganji and Western Honganji. *Honkokuji 本圀寺. Nichiren; founded 1253 in Kamakura by Nichiren (1222–1282), moved to Kyoto (Rokujō) in 1345. Since 1971 at Yamashina-ku, Misasagi-ōiwa 6. Honmanji 本満寺. Nichiren; f. 1410. Kamigyō-ku, Teramachi-dōri Imadegawa-agaru 2, Tsuruyama-chō 16. *Honnōji 本能寺. Hokke; f. 1415. Nakagyō-ku, Teramachi-dōri Oike-dōri sagaru, ShimoHonnōji-mae-chō 532. *Honpōji 本法寺. Nichiren; founded 1436 by Nisshin (1407–1488). Kamigyō-ku, Honpōjimae-chō 617. *Honryūji 本隆寺. Hokke; f. 1488. Kamigyō-ku, Chiekōin Itsutsuji-agaru Mon’ya-chō 330. *Hon’yūji 本涌寺. Nichiren; founded 1547 by Nisshō as a study hall of Myōsenji. In 1918 merged with Myōsenji and renamed Yūsenji 涌泉寺. Sakyō-ku, Matsugasaki Hori machi 53.

318  Appendix Hōrinji 法輪寺. Earlier name of Sennyūji. Hōryūji 法隆寺. Hossō; f. 607. Nara-ken, Ikoma-gun, Ikaruga-chō Hōryūji Sannai 1–1. *Hōshakuji 宝積寺. Popularly Takara-dera 宝寺, “Treasure Temple,” or “Yamazaki Hall” (Yamazaki-dō) 山崎堂. Shingon; f. 724. Kyōto-fu, Ōyamazaki-chō, Ōyamazaki Zenihara 1. Hōsono Shrine. Hōsono Jinja 祝園神社; Nara period. Kyōto-fu, Seika-chō, Ōaza Hōsono Koaza Hasaso-no-mori 18. Hyakumanben 百万遍. See Chionji. Hyōzu Shrine. Hyōzu Jinja 兵主神社 or Hyōzu Taisha兵主大社; f. fourth century? Shigaken, Yasu-shi, Gojō 566. Ichiidani (Ichitani) Shrine. Ichitani Munakata Jinja 櫟谷宗像神社. Branch shrine of the Matsunoo Shrine. Nishikyō-ku, Arashiyama Nakao-shita-chō 61. Ikutama Shrine. Ikutama Jinja 生玉神社; today officially Ikukunitama Jinja 生國魂神社. Ōsaka-shi, Tennōji-ku, Ikutama-chō 13–9. *Imakumano Shrine (“New Kumano Shrine”). Imakumano Jinja 新熊野神社. Founded 1160 under the auspices of Emperor Go-Shirakawa (r. 1155–1158). Higashiyama-ku, Imagumano Naginomori-chō 42. Along with the Kumano Shrine (Kumano Jinja 熊 野神社, founded 811 at Sakyō-ku, Shōgoin Sannō-chō 43) and the Kumano Nyakuōji Shrine (Nyakuōji 若王子, founded 1160, at Sakyō-ku, Nyakuōji-chō 2) it counts as one of the “three Kumano shrines” of Kyoto. All three shrines were related to the older Kumano shrines in Wakayama Prefecture. Imamiya Ebisu Shrine. Imamiya Ebisu Jinja 今宮戎神社; f. 600. Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Naniwa-ku, Ebisu-nishi 1–6–10. *Imamiya Shrine. Imamiya Jinja 今宮神社; f. 994. Kita-ku, Murasakino Imamiya-chō 21. *Injōji 引接寺. Popularly called Senbon Enma Hall (Senbon Enma-dō 千本ゑんま堂). Shingon; f. 1017. Kamigyō-ku, Senbon-dōri Kuramaguchi-sagaru Enma-maechō 34. *Interim sanctuary of the Fushimi Inari Shrine. Fushimi Inari Taisha Otabisho 伏見稲 荷大社御旅所. Minami-ku, Nishi-kujō, Ikenouchi-chō. *Interim sanctuary of the Matsunoo Shrine. Matsunoo Taisha Otabisho 松尾大社御旅 所. Shimogyō-ku, Nishi-shichijō, Minami-nakanojō 81. Ise Shrine. Ise Jingū 伊勢神宮. Includes an “inner shrine” (Naikū 内宮) allegedly founded 4 BCE, at Mie-ken, Ise-shi, Ujitate-chō 1; and an “outer shrine” (Gekū 外宮) founded 478 at Mie-ken, Ise-shi, Toyokawa-chō 279. *Ishiyama Temple. Ishiyama-dera 石山寺. Shingon; f. 747. Ōtsu-shi Ishiyamadera 1–1–1. *Isshin’in 一心院. Jōdo; f. 1548. Higashiyama-ku, Rinka-chō 457. Itabitsu Myōjin Shrine 板櫃明神. Kagami Jinja 鏡神社. Saga-ken, Karatsu-shi, Kagami 1827. The kami enshrined was shared with a Kagami Jinja in Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Takabatake-chō. Itate Hyōzu Shrine. Itate Hyōzu Jinja 射楯兵主神社. Hyōgo-ken, Himeji-shi, Sōsha Honmachi 190. *Iwa Fudō (or Ishi Fudō). See Rokuonji. Iwagami Shrine. Iwagami Jinja 岩上神社. Also Nakayama Shrine (Nakayama Jinja 中山 神社); f. 794. Nakagyō-ku, Iwagami-chō 748.

Appendix  319 *Iwakura Shrine. Iwakura Jinja or Sekiza Jinja 石座神社; f. before 880. Sakyō-ku, Iwakura-agura-chō 302. *Iwashimizu (Hachiman) Shrine. Iwashimizu Hachiman(gū) 石清水八幡(宮); f. 860. Kyōto-fu, Yawata-shi, Yawata-takabō 30. Iwaya Shrine 岩屋神社. Formerly Higashi Iwaya Daimyōjin 東岩屋大明神; f. 343. Yamashina-ku, Ōyake-nakakōji-chō 67. Izu Shrine 伊豆神社; f. 892. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Hon-katata, 1–19–26. Izumo Shrine. Izumo Taisha 出雲大社. Shimane-ken, Izumo-shi, Taisha-chō Kizukihigashi 195. *Jakkōin 寂光院. Tendai-school nunnery; f. 594. Sakyō-ku, Ōhara Kusao-chō 676. Jakkōji 寂光寺. Kenpon-hokke; f. 1578. Sakyō-ku, Kitamonzen-chō 469. Jindōji 神童寺. Shingon; founded 596 by Prince Shōtoku (574–622) or somewhat later by Gyōki (668–749). Kyōto-fu, Kizugawa-shi, Yamashiro-chō Jindōji, Fusedani 112. *Jingoji 神護寺. Shingon; f. 824 (774/1 according to TFS). Ukyō-ku, Umegahata Takaochō 5. *Jishōji 慈照寺. Also Ginkakuji 銀閣寺, “Silver Pavilion,” referring to a Kannon Hall that is its most prominent structure. Rinzai; founded 1490 under shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Sakyō-ku, Ginkakuji-chō 2. Jishu Shrine. Jishu Jinja 地主神社; earlier Jishu Gongen 地主権現; f. 701. Higashiyamaku, Kiyomizu 1. Jishu Shrine. Jishu Jinja 地主神社. Founded early Heian period; relocated to its current site in 1502. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Katsuragawa-bō-mura-chō 116. Jizōji 地蔵寺. Jōdo; f. 1157. Nishikyō-ku, Katsura-kasuga-chō 9. Jōbonrendaiji 上品蓮台寺. Shingon; f. 960. Kita-ku, Murasakino Jūnibō-chō 33–1. Jōdoji 浄土寺. Today Jōdoin 浄土院. Tendai; f. 1019. Sakyō-ku, Ginkakuji-chō 30. *Jōgū Tenman Shrine. Jōgū Tenmangū 上宮天満宮; f. 993. Osaka-fu, Takatsuki-shi, Tenjinmachi 1–15–5. Jōgyō Hall. Jōgyōdō 常行堂 or Jōgyō Zannmai-dō 常行三昧堂. Tendai; f. 851. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Sakamoto Honmachi 4220. Jōjakkōji 常寂光寺. Nichiren; f. 1595 or 1596. Ukyō-ku, Saga Ogurayama, Ogura-chō 3. *Jōkein 浄華院. Also Shōjōke-in 清浄華院. Jōdo; supposedly founded 860 but does not appear in historical records until the early fourteenth century. Kamigyō-ku, Teramachi-dōri Hirokōji-agaru Kitanobe-chō 395. Jōmyōin Hōunzan 浄妙院法雲山. Also “Six Jizō Hall” (Rokujizō no dō 六地蔵の堂); later Daizenji 大善寺. Originally Tendai, later Jōdo; f. 705. Fushimi-ku, Momoyamachō Nishimachi 24. Jōnan Shrine. Jōnangū 城南宮. Destroyed during the Ōnin Wars; rebuilt during the Edo period. Fushimi-ku, Nakajima Toba-rikyū-chō 7. Jōnanji 城南寺. Founded before 1160; no longer extant. Fushimi-ku, Nakajima Toba-rikyūchō 7. Jōzenji 浄禅寺. Also Toba Jizō 鳥羽地蔵. Jōdo; f. 1647. Minami-ku, Kami-Toba Iwanomotochō 93. Jōzenji 上善寺. Jōdo; f. 863. Kita-ku, Kurama-guchi-dōri, Teramachi higashi-iru Jōzenji monzen-chō 338.

320  Appendix Jufuku [Shrine] 受福. Branch shrine (massha) of the Gion Shrine. Juge Shrine. Juge Jinja 樹下神社. Founded 1348 as the protector shrine of the Kido estate and rebuilt in 1578. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Kido 680–1. Jūzenji 十禅師. Or Jūzenji Gongen 十禅師権現; today Juge Jinja 樹下神社, an auxiliary shrine (sessha) within the grounds of Higashi Hongū of the Hiyoshi Shrine. Kaidan’in 戒壇院. Built in 827; reconstructed in 1678. Stands within the Enryakuji complex. *Kajadono Shrine. Kajadono-sha 官者殿社. See Shōshun Shrine. *Kajiori Tenjin Shrine 梶折天神. Kanmaki Kasuga Jinja 上牧春日神社. Osaka-fu, Takatsukishi, Kanmaki-chō 2–12–12. *Kajūji 勧修寺. Shingon; f. 900. Yamashina-ku, Kanshūji-niōdō-chō 27–6. Kakinomoto Shrine. Kakinomoto Jinja 柿本神社; f. 887. Hyōgo-ken, Akashi-shi, Hitomaru-chō 1–26. *Kami-Katsura Goryō Shrine. Kami-Katsura Goryō Jinja 上桂御霊神社. Nishikyō-ku, Kami-Katsura Nishii-chō 45. Kamo Shrine. See Upper Kamo Shrine and Lower Kamo Shrine. *Kan Daijin Shrine. Kan Daijin Jinja 菅大臣神社 (“Shrine of Minister Suga[wara]”). Formerly Kan Daijin no Yashiro 菅大臣社. Shimogyō-ku, Bukkōji-dōri Shinchō Nishi-iru Kan-daijin-chō 187–1. Kanda Myōjin Shrine. Kanda Myōjin 神田明神; f. 730. Tōkyō-to, Chiyoda-ku, Sotokanda 2–16–2. Kankikōji 歓喜光寺. Jishū; founded 1291 as Zendōji 善導寺; relocated eight years later to Rokujō Higashi-no-tōin and amalgamated with the Kankiji 歓喜寺, a temple standing on the property once belonging to Sugawara no Michizane’s father Koreyoshi (812–880). Thereafter often relocated. Yamashina-ku, Ōyake Okudayama 10. *Kannonji 観音寺. Yamazaki Shōten 山崎聖天. Shingon; f. 899. Ōyamazaki Shiromisai 62. Kanshin’in 感神院 (earlier Gangyōji 観慶寺). Tendai temple of the Gion Shrine; perhaps late ninth century. Kanshōji 観勝寺. Kōmyōin Kanshōji 光明院観勝寺. Shingon; no longer extant; founded 1275–1277 on the grounds of what after 1695 became the Yasui Konpiragū 安井金比 羅宮 at Higashiyama-ku, Higashiōji Matsubara-agaru Shimo-Benten-chō 70. Kanzeonji 観世音寺 (TFS gives Kannonji 観音寺). Tendai; f. 746. Fukuoka-ken, Dazaifushi, Kanzeon-ji 5–6–1. *Karasaki Shrine. Karasaki Jinja 唐崎神社; supposedly f. 697. Ōtsu-shi, Karasaki 1–7–1. Kashima Shrine. Kashima Jingū 鹿島神宮. Formerly Kashima Daimyōjin 鹿島大明神. Ibaraki-ken, Kashima-shi, Kyūchū 2306–1. *Kasuga Shrine. Kasuga Taisha 春日大社; f. 768. Served as the tutelary shrine of the Fujiwara clan. Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Kasugano-chō 160. Katsute Jinja 勝手神社. Formerly Katsute Myōjin 勝手明神. Nara-ken, Yoshino-chō, Yoshinoyama 2354. Kawai Shrine. Kawai Jinja 河合神社. An auxiliary shrine of the Lower Kamo Shrine. Sakyō-ku, Shimogamo Izumigawa-chō 59. Kawara-dera 川原寺. Shingon; f. c. 670; no longer extant. Later became the site of what is today Gufukuji 弘福寺. Nara-ken, Asukamura Kawara 1109.

Appendix  321 *Kayao Shrine. Kayao Jinja 萱尾神社. Formerly Kayao Daimyojin 萱尾大明神, the protector shrine of the nearby Shingon-sect Hōkaiji 法界寺. Fushimi-ku, Hino-hatadechō 3. Kehi Shrine. Kehi Jingū 氣比神宮; f. 199. Fukui-ken, Tsuruga-shi, Akebono-chō 11–68. *Kenninji 建仁寺. Rinzai; f. 1202. Higashiyama-ku, Yamato-ōji, Shijō-sagaru 4-chōme, Komatsu-chō 584. Keta Shrine. Keta Taisha 氣多大社. Formerly Keta Daimyōjin 氣多大明神; f. first or second century BCE. Ishikawa-ken, Hakui-shi, Jikemachi ku-1. Kibitsu Shrine. Kibitsu Jinja 吉備津神社 or Kibitsu Hiko Jinja 吉備津彦神社. Formerly Kibi Daimyōjin 吉備大明神. Okayama-ken, Okayama-shi, Kita-ku, Kibitsu 931. *Kifune Shrine. Kifune Jinja 貴船神社. First rebuilding in 666. Sakyō-ku, Kurama Kibune-chō 180. *Kisshōin Tenman Shrine. Kisshōin Tenmangū 吉祥院天満宮. Minami-ku, Kisshōin Mandokoro-chō 3. Kitano Jinja Otabisho 北野神社御旅所. A Mikoshigaoka Shrine (Mikoshigaoka Jinja 御輿 岡神社) stands within this interim sanctuary of the Kitano Tenman Shrine; f. c. 947. Nakagyō-ku, Nishinokyō Mikoshigaoka-chō 6. Kitano Kyōdō 北野経堂 (“Kitano Sutra Hall”). Formally Kitano Kyōōdō Ganjōjuji 北野 経王堂願成就寺; it stood before the Kitano Tenman Shrine. During the Edo period Ganjōjuji 願成就寺 fell into disrepair, and in 1671 it was disassembled, scaled down, and rebuilt within the grounds of the nearby Daihōonji. *Kitano Tenman Shrine. Kitano Tenmangū 北野天満宮 or Kitano Tenjin 北野天神; f. 947; rebuilt in 1607. Kamigyō-ku, Onmae-dōri, Imadegawa-agaru Bakurochō. *Kita-Shirakawa Tenjin Shrine. Kita-Shirakawa Tenjingū 北白川天神宮; founded before the tenth century. Sakyō-ku, Kita-shirakawa Shibuse-chō 8 Kitayama Tenjin Shrine. Kitayama Tenjin 北山天神. See Jōgū Tenman Shrine. Kiuri Myōjin 木瓜明神. Also Kiyuri Daimyōjin 木瓜大明神. Local protector kami (and by extension shrine name) of the Yoshida area, enshrined at an Imamiya Shrine (Imamiya Jinja 今宮神社), a branch of the Yoshida Shrine within the latter’s precincts. Already mentioned in 1215 but moved to the location where it now stands (west of the main Yoshida Shrine) in 1816. *Kiyomizu Temple. Kiyomizu-dera or Seisuiji 清水寺. Hossō; f. 778. Higashiyama-ku, Kiyomizu 1–294. Kiyoshi Kōjin 清荒神. Popular name for Gojōin 護浄院, a Tendai temple; f. 771; originally built as a shrine for the kami Sanbō Kōjin-no-mikoto 三宝荒神尊. Kamigyō-ku, Kōjinguchi-dōri Teramachi higashi-iru Kōjin-chō 122. Kiyotakinomiya (or Seiryūgū) 清滝宮. Formerly Seiryū Gongen 清滝権現; founded c. 1089 on the grounds of Daigoji as the temple’s protector shrine. Rebuilt 1434. *Kōdaiji 高台寺. Rinzai; f. 1606. Higashiyama-ku, Shimokawara-chō 526. Kōetsuji 光悦寺. Nichiren; f. 1656. Kita-ku, Takagamine, Kōetsu-chō 29. *Kōfukuji 興福寺. Founded 669 as Yamashina-dera 山階寺 in today’s Yamashina-ku in Kyoto; after 672 Umayasaka-dera 厩坂寺 in Fujiwara-kyō; from 710 Kōfukuji in Nara. Hossō. Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Noboriōji-chō 48.

322  Appendix Kohata Shrine. Kohata Jinja 許波多神社. Formerly Yanagi Daimyōjin 柳大明神; f. 645. Before the Meiji period near Ōbaku Park (Uji-shi, Gokashō Sanbanwari 25–1), thereafter at Uji-shi, Gokashō Furukawa 13. Kojima Temple. Kojima-dera 子嶋寺. Shingon; f. Nara period? Nara-ken, Takaichi-gun, Takatori-chō, Kangakuji 544. Kōkizan Bodaiji 高貴山菩提寺. Jōdo; f. 691. Briefly abandoned during the Meiji era; its main sanctuary was rebuilt in 1881. Famous for its giant nine-hundred-year-old gingko tree. Okayama-ken, Nagi-chō, Kōen 1528. Kōmyōbuji 光明峯寺. Founded 1237; no longer extant. Originally at Higashiyama-ku, Imagumano Minamidani-chō, slightly east of Tōfukuji. Built under the auspices of Kujō Michiie (1193–1252), a follower of the Kegon-school priest Myōe (1173–1232). Kōmyōin Kanshōji 光明院観勝寺. Founded 1177; destroyed during the Ōnin Wars and later the site of the Yasui Konpira Shrine. Higashiyama-ku, Shimo-Benten-chō 70, Higashi-ōji-dōri Matsubara-agaru. Kongōbuji 金剛峯寺. Shingon; f. 816. Wakayama-ken, Kōya-chō Kōya-san 132. *Konkai Kōmyōji 金戒光明寺. Jōdo; founded in 1175 by Hōnen (1133–1212). Sakyō-ku, Kurodani-chō 121. Konrenji 金蓮寺. Also known as Shijo Dōjō 四条道場. Jishū; f. 1311. Kita-ku, Takagamine Fujibayashi-chō 1–4. *Koromode Shrine. Koromode Jinja 衣手神社. Branch shrine of the Matsunoo Shrine. Ukyō-ku, Nishi-kyōgoku Higashi-koromode-chō. *Kōryūji 広隆寺. Shingon; f. 603. Ukyō-ku, Uzumasa Hachioka-chō 32. Kōsanji 高山寺. Hokke; f. 1406. After the mid-Edo period no longer extant, but a graveyard at the location remains at Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Otowadai, 1–12. *Kōshōji 興正寺. Jōdo Shinshū; founded 1212, perhaps by Shinran (1173–1262). Shimogyō-ku, Horikawa Shichijō-agaru Hanazono-chō 70. Kōshōji 興聖寺. Sōtō; founded 1233 by Dōgen; reestablished in 1648. Uji-shi, Uji Yamada 27. *Kōtari Shrine. Kōtari Jinja 神足神社 or Kōtari Daimyōjin 神足大明神; f. later eighth century. Kyōto-fu, Nagaoka-kyō-shi, Higashi Kōtari 2–5. *Kōzanji 高山寺. Also Toganoo-dera 栂尾寺. Shingon. Legendarily founded 774 but reestablished by the Kegon-school priest Myōe (1173–1232) in 1207. Ukyō-ku, Ume-ga-hata Toganoo-chō 8. Kudokuin 功徳院. The residence of the monk Kōen (1074–1169) on Mt. Hiei. Later part of Chionji. Kumedera 久米寺. Shingon; f. perhaps seventh century. Nara-ken, Kashihara-shi, Kumechō 502. *Kurama Temple. Kurama-dera 鞍馬寺 or Shōbi-san (or Matsunoo-yama) Anbaji 松尾山 鞍馬寺; f. 770. Originally Shingon; from twelfth c., Tendai. Sakyō-ku, Kurama Honmachi 1074. Kureha Shrine. Kureha Jinja 呉服神社; f. 389. Ōsaka-fu, Ikeda-shi Muromachi 7–4. Kurodani Seiryūji. See Seiryūji. *Kurumazaki Shrine. Kurumazaki Jinja 車折神社; f. 1189. Formerly Sakuranomiya 桜の 宮. Ukyō-ku, Saga Asahi-chō 23.

Appendix  323 *Kūya Hall. Kūyadō 空也堂. Popularly called Gokurakuji 極楽寺 (TFS gives Kūyaji 空也 寺); more fully Kūyadō Gokurakuin 空也堂極楽院 or Shiun’zan Gokurakuin Kōshōji 紫雲山極楽院光勝寺. Tendai; f. 939. Nakagyō-ku, Kameya-chō 288. *Kuze Shrine. Kuze Jinja 久世神社. Formerly Nyakuō-sha 若王社 or Shiratorinomiya 白鳥宮. Jōyō-shi, Kuse Shibagahara 142. *Lower Goryō Shrine. Shimo-Goryō Jinja 下御霊神社; f. 833–850. Nakagyō-ku, ShimoGoryō-mae-chō, Teramachi-dōri Maruta-chō sagaru Higashigawa. *Lower Kamo Shrine. Shimogamo Jinja 下賀茂神社. More formally: Kamo Mi-oya Jinja 賀 茂御祖神社; f. 91 BCE. The Eastern Hall enshrines Kamo Takemi-no-mikoto; the Western Hall, Tamayori Hime-no-mikoto. Sakyō-ku, Shimogamo Izumigawa-chō 59. Mahataki Shrine. Mahataki Jinja 真幡木神社. Perhaps transferred from the grounds of the Fujinomori Shrine to the present location c. 1438. Today within Jōnangū 城南宮. Fushimi-ku, Nakajima Toba-rikyū-chō 7. Makinoo. See Saimyōji. Manjuji 万寿寺. Rinzai; f. 1097 as Rokujō Midō 六条御堂 within Tōfukuji grounds and became a Zen temple in the 1250s. Higashiyama-ku, Honmachi 15–786. *Manpukuji 萬福寺. Headquarters of the Japanese Ōbaku Zen school. Founded 1661 by the Chinese monk Yinyuan Longqi (J. Ingen Ryūki, 1592–1673) and built in a Ming Chinese style. Kyōto-fu, Uji-shi, Gokashō Sanbanwari 34. Matafuri Shrine. Matafuri Jinja 末多武利神社; f. after 947. Uji-shi, Uji-Matafuri 47. *Matatabi Shrine. Matatabi-sha 又旅社. Also Gokū-sha 御供社. Today a branch shrine of the Gion Shrine. Nakagyō-ku, Ontomo-chō Sanjō Kuromon. *Matsugasaki Shingū Shrine. (Matsugasaki) Shingū Jinja (松ヶ崎) 新宮神社. Formerly Ōhie Daimyōjin 大比叡大明神. Matsugasaki Hayashiyama 33. Once associated with Myōsenji 妙泉寺 (Matsugasaki Higashi-machi 31), a Nichiren-school temple enshrining Daikokuten. Its kami protected western Matsugasaki Village. *Matsunoo (Myōjin) Shrine. Matsunoo Taisha or Matsuo Taisha 松尾大社; f. 701. Nishikyō-ku, Arashiyama Miyamachi 3. *Mibudera 壬生寺. Also Ko-miiji 小三井寺, Jizō-in 地蔵院, Hōdō-sanmai-ji 宝幢三昧 寺, Shinjōkō-in Hōdō Sanmaiji 心浄光院宝憧三昧寺. Shingon-risshū; f. 991. Nakagyō-ku, Bōjō-dōri Bukkōji-agaru Mibu Naginomiya-chō 31. *Middle Goryō Shrine. Naka-Goryō Jinja 中御霊神社. Once located three blocks from Imadegawa[-dōri] in the Kyōgoku area. Midorogaike Jizō 深泥池地蔵. In 1869 the Jizō statue once in its possession, also known as “Kurama-guchi Jizō,” was transferred to Jōzenji at Kita-ku. Kita-ku, Kami-gamo Midorogakike-chō 46. Miidera. See Onjōji. Mikami Shrine. Mikami Jinja 御上神社; f. 718. Shiga-ken, Yasu-shi, Mikami 838. Mikenji 眉間寺. Ritsu; f. Nara period; abolished c. 1875. Once stood at what is now Naraken, Nara-shi, Hōren-chō 2059–1. Mikurusu Shrine. Mikurusu Jinja 御栗栖神社. Uji-shi, Tawara-chō, Ōaza-minami Koaza-Miyanokami-nishi 76–1. Minase Shrine (or Minase mausoleum). Minase Jingū 水無瀬神宮; f. 1240. Ōsaka-fu, Shimamoto-chō, Hirose 3–10–24.

324  Appendix Mio Shrine. Mio Jinja 三尾神社. Main sanctuary built in 1426. Ōtsu-shi Onjōji-chō 251. *Mishima Shrine. Mishima Jinja 三嶋神社. Formerly Mishima Myōjin 三嶋明神 or Mishima Gongen 三嶋権現; f. 1150. Higashiyama-ku, Kamiuma-chō 3, Higashi-ōjidōri higashi-iru. *Misu (Tenmu Tennō) Shrine. Misu (Tenmu Tennō) Jinja 三栖(天武天皇)神社. Also “Emperor Tenmu Shrine” (Tenmu Tennō-sha 天武天皇社). Fushimi-ku, Yoko-ōji Shimo Misujō-no-mae-chō 82. Mitarashi-sha 御手洗社. More formally: Inoue-sha 井上社. Stands within the grounds of the Lower Kamo Shrine. Sakyō-ku, Shimogamo Izumigawa-chō 59. Miyaji Shrine. Miyaji Jinja 宮地神社. Formerly Miyaji Daimyōjin 宮地大明神 or Nisho Daimyōjin 二所大明神; f. 898. Located south of Kajūji. Mizuya Shrine. Mizuya Jinja 水谷神社. See Kasuga Shrine. Modoroki Jinja 還来神社. Modoroki Myōjin 還来明神. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Igatachi Tochū-chō 518. Moriya Shrine. Moriya Jinja 森谷神社; f. ninth century. Sakyō-ku, Kurama Ninose. *Moroha Shrine. Moroha Daimyōjin 両羽大明神; Moroha Myojin 両羽明神; today Moroha Jinja 諸羽神社 (also Shinomiya 四宮); f. 862. Yamashina-ku, Shinomiya Chūzaiji-chō 17. *Mukō Shrine. Mukō Jinja 向日神社. Ancient origins but reorganized in 1275. Kyōto-fu, Mukō-shi, Mukō-chō Kitayama 65. Munekata (Munakata) Shrine. Munekata Jinja 宗像神社; see Ichiidani Shrine. Branch shrine of the Matsunoo Taisha. *Myōkakuji 妙覚寺. Nichiren, f. 1378. Kamigyō-ku, Kami-Goryō-mae-dōri, Ogawa higashi-iru, Shimo-Seizōguchi-chō 135. *Myōkenji 妙顕寺. Nichiren; f. 1321. Kamigyō-ku, Teranouchi-dōri Shinmachi nishi-iru, Myōkenji Monzen 514. Myōkōji 妙光寺. Rinzai; f. 1285. Ukyō-ku, Utano Kaminotani-chō 20. *Myōmanji 妙満寺. Nichiren; f. 1389. Contained a hall called Chūshōin 中松院. Initially at Chūkyō-ku, Enoki-chō; today at Sakyō-ku, Hataeda-chō 91. Myōōin 明王院. Formally Ado-san Kassenji Sokushōmyōōin 阿都山葛川寺息障明王院. Tendai; f. 859. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Katsuragawa-bō-mura-chō 155. *Myōōin Fudōji 明王院不動寺 (Minami-iwakura Myōōin Fudōji 南岩倉明王院不動寺). Also known as Ishi Fudō (石不動). Shingon; f. 691. Shimogyō-ku, Matsubara-dōri Ishifudō-no-chō. *Myōrenji 妙蓮寺. Hokke; f. 1294. Kamigyō-ku, Teranouchi-dōri, Ōmiya-dōri Higashiiru, Myōrenji-mae-chō 875. Myōsenji 妙泉寺. Dates to the tenth-century Tendai-school Matsugasaki-dera; later renamed Kankiji 歓喜寺. In 1306 or 1307 renamed Myōsenji and turned into a Nichiren-school temple by Nichizō’s disciple Jitsugan or Jitsugen. In 1918 merged with Hon’yūji. *Myōshinji 妙心寺. Rinzai; f. 1342. Ukyō-ku, Hanazono Myōshinji-chō 64. *Nagao Tenman Shrine. Nagao Tenmangū 長尾天満宮. Fushimi-ku, Daigo Garan-chō 18. Nagara Shrine. Nagara Jinja 長等神社; f. 667 or 860. Designated as the guardian shrine of Miidera. Moved to its current location in 1054. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Miidera-chō 4–1.

Appendix  325 *Nagatani Hachiman Shrine. Nagatani Hachimangū 長谷八幡宮, Iwakura Nagatani Jinja 岩倉長谷八幡神社; f. 857. Sakyō-ku, Iwakura-nagatani-chō. Nahaka Shrine (or Nabaka Shrine). Nahaka Jinja 那波加神社. Formerly Nōka Daimyōjin 苗鹿大明神; f. 668. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Nōka 1–8–1. *Nanano Shrine. Nanano Jinja 七野神社; today Ichiidani Nanano Jinja 櫟谷七野神社. Kamigyō-ku, Yashiro-yokochō Ōmiya-dōri Rosanji-agaru Kitagawa. *Nanzenji 南禅寺. Rinzai; f. 1291 by Emperor Kameyama (r. 1259+–1274) and the priest Mukan Fumon (1212–1292). Sakyō-ku, Nanzenji Fukuchi-chō 86. *New Sumiyoshi. Sumiyoshi Jinja 住吉神社. Formerly Shin-sumiyoshi-no-yashiro 新住 吉社; f. 1157. Shimogyō-ku, Samegai-dōri Takatsuji-dōri-sagaru Nishi Takatsujichō 481. New Zenkōji. Shin Zenkōji 新善光寺 (Raikōdō来迎堂). Shingon; f. 1243. Sub-temple of Sennyūji. *Nii-Tamatsushima Shrine. Nii-Tamatsushima Jinja 新玉津島神社. Founded 1186 as the residence of Fujiwara no Toshinari. Shimogyō-ku, Matsubara-dōri Muromachi-iru, Tamatsushima-chō 309. *Ninnaji 仁和寺. Shingon; f. 808 (888/8, according to TFS). Ukyō-ku, Omuro-ōuchi 33. Ninomiya Shrine. Ninomiya Jinja 二宮神社. Today Higashi Hongū 東本宮 or Sannō Sō-hongū 山王総本宮 of the Hiyoshi Shrine (Hiyoshi Taisha). Legendarily f. 91 BCE; certainly dating to before the early seventh-century records of the Kojiki. Dedicated to the kami Ōyamakui-no-kami, also known as Sannō. Nishi Tennō 西天王. See Suga Shrine. Nōka Myōjin 苗鹿明神. Nahaka Jinja 那波加神社; f. 668. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Nōka 1–8–1. *Nonomiya Shrine. Nonomiya Jinja 野宮神社; f. 809. Ukyō-ku, Saga-Nonomiya-chō 1. Nyoirinji 如意輪寺. Jōdo; f. Engi period (901–922). Nara-ken, Yoshino-chō, Yoshinoyama 1024. *Ogura (Myōjin) Shrine. Ogura Jinja 巨椋神社 or 小倉神社; f. early ninth century. Kyōto-fu, Uji-shi, Ogura-chō Terauchi 31. *Ōharano Shrine 大原野神社; f. 784. It re-enshrines the kami of the Kasuga Shrine in Nara and is popularly known as the “Kyoto Kasuga.” Nishikyō-ku, Ōhara-no Minami-kasuga-chō 1152. *Okazaki Shrine. Okazaki Jinja 岡崎神社; also Higashi Tennō-sha 東天王社, Higashi Tennō東天王; f. 794. Sakyō-ku, Okazaki Higashi-tennō-chō 51. Ōmiya Shrine. Ōmiya Jinja 大宮神社. Uji-shi, Tawara-chō, Ōaza-araki Koaza-tennō. *Onjōji 園城寺, commonly known as Miidera 三井寺. Tendai; f. seventh century. Shigaken, Ōtsu-shi, Onjōji-chō 246. Onyū Myōjin Shrine. Onyū Myōjin 遠敷明神; f. 714. Today the “upper shrine” is called Wakasa Hiko Jinja 若狭彦神社; the “lower shrine,” Wakasa Hime Jinja 若狭姫神 社. Fukui-ken, Obama-shi Ryūzen 28–7 (“upper shrine”) and Fukui-ken, Obamashi Onyū 65–41 (“lower shrine”). *Ōsaka Tenman Shrine. Ōsaka Tenmangū 大阪天満宮; f. 949. Ōsaka-shi, Kita-ku, Tenjinbashi 2–1–8. Ōsake Shrine. Ōsake Jinja 大酒神社. Ukyō-ku, Uzumasa, Higashi Hachioka-chō.

326  Appendix Ōta Shrine. Ōta Jinja 大田神社. Already listed in the tenth-century Engishiki. An auxiliary shrine of the Upper Kamo Shrine, outside the grounds of the latter; today at Kita-ku, Kami-gamo Motoyama 340. Otagi Nenbutsu Temple. Otagi Nenbutsu-ji 愛宕念仏寺. Tendai (initially Shingon or Nenbutsu); f. 766. Once stood at Higashiyama-ku, Matsubara-dōri Higashi ōji Nishi-iru Yumiya-chō; removed 1922–1925 to Ukyō-ku, Saga Toriimoto Fukatanichō 2–5. Ōtani Mausoleum. Ōtani Honbyō 大谷本廟. Jōdo shinshū, Shinran’s mausoleum; f. 1272. Higashiyama-ku, Gojō-hashi Higashi 6–514. See also Nishi Honganji. Ōtoshi Shrine. Ōtoshi Jinja 大歳神社. Formerly Kayanomori-sha 栢杜 or Kayanomori Myōjin 栢明神; f. 718. Nishikyō-ku, Ōharano Haigata-chō 575. Ōtoyo Shrine. Ōtoyo Jinja 大豊神社; f. 887. Sakyō-ku, Shishigatani Miyanomae-chō 1. Ozu Shrine. Ozu Jinja 小津神社. Shiga-ken, Moriyama-shi, Sugie-chō 495. Renkaiji. 蓮海寺; f. 789. Once Tendai, now independent. Shiga-ken, Kusatsu-shi, Shinachō 936. *Rikyū Hachiman Shrine. Rikyū Hachimangū 離宮八幡宮; f. 859. Kyōto-fu, Ōyamazakichō, Ōyamazaki Nishitani 21–1. *Rokkaku Hall. Rokkakudō 六角堂. Tendai; f. 587. Popular name of Shiunzan Chōhōji 紫雲山頂法寺. Nakagyō-ku, Rokkaku-dōri Higashinotōin nishi-iru Dōnomae-chō 248. *Rokudō Chinnōji 六道珍皇寺. Rinzai; f. 836(?). Higashiyama-ku, Yamato-ōji-dōri Shijō-sagaru 4-chōme Komatsu-chō 595. Rokuharamitsuji 六波羅蜜寺. Initially Saikōji 西光寺. Shingon; f. 951 or 963. Higashiyama-ku, Gojō-dōri, Yamato-ōji higashi-iru 2, Rokuro-chō 81–1. *Rokujō Dōjō 六条道場. “Rokujō Hall.” Popular name of Kankikōji. Rokuōin 鹿王院. Rinzai; founded 1380 by shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408). Ukyō-ku, Saga Kitahori-chō 24. *Rokuonji 鹿苑寺. Popularly known as Kinkakuji 金閣寺 (“Temple of the Golden Pavilion”). Rinzai; founded 1397 under Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. The premises contain a “Stone Fudō” (Iwa Fudō or Ishi Fudō 石不動). Kita-ku, Kinkakuji-chō. *Ryōanji 竜安寺. Rinzai; founded 1450 under the auspices of Hosokawa Katsumoto (1430–1473). Ukyō-ku, Ryōanji Goryōshita-chō 13. *Ryōsha Shrine. Ryōsha Jinja 両社神社 (literally “Double Shrine”). Formerly Ryōsha Gongen 両社権現 or Ryōsha Daimyōjin 両社大明神; f. c. 1225. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Shimo-Sakamoto 3–10–29. Across the street stands the Sakai Jinja 酒井神社; f. 813 (Shimo-Sakamoto 4–9–18). The two shrines are often considered southern and northern components of a single institution. *Ryūanji 瀧安寺. Also Minoo-san 箕面山. Honzan Shugen; f. 658. Ōsaka-fu, Minoo-shi, Minoo-kōen 2–28. Ryūkōin 龍光院. Rinzai; f. 1606. Kita-ku, Murasakino Daitokuji-chō. Sada Shrine. Sada Jinja 佐太神社; f. 717. Shimane-ken, Matsue-shi, Kashima-chō Sada­ miyauchi 73. Saga Shakyamuni Hall. Saga Shakadō 嵯峨釈迦堂. See Seiryōji. Saidaiji 西大寺. Shingon-risshū; f. 765. Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Saidaiji Shiba-machi 1–1–5.

Appendix  327 *Saiji 西寺. Built at government expense; initially no sectarian affiliation, then Shingon. Founded before 797 at today’s Minami-ku, Karahashi Saiji-chō. It soon declined and by the thirteenth century was probably no longer extant. The name meant “western temple” and referred to its location west of Rajō Gate. *Saimyōji 西明寺. Popularly known as Makinoo-san 槇尾山. Shingon; f. 824–834. Ukyō-ku, Umegahata, Makinoo-chō 2. *Saionji 西園寺. Jōdo; founded 1224 by the courtier, musician, and poet Fujiwara no Kintsune (1171–1244), who after moving to Saionji was called “Saionji-dono.” Kamigyō-ku, Teramachi-dōri Kuramaguchi-sagaru Kōtokuji-chō 362. Saiun’in 西雲院. Also Shiunseki 紫雲石. Jōdo; f. 1616. Sakyō-ku, Kurodani-chō 121. Sakaki Shrine. Sakakinomiya 榊宮. No longer extant. According to the 1711 Sanshū meiseki-shi, p. 527 (kan 22), it stood at Muromachi-dōri and Yanagihara-kita at Shinmei-no-tsuji. Today this would be Kami-Yanagihara-chō or Shimo-Yanagihara Kitahan-chō, north of the intersection of Muromachi-dōri and Teranouchi-dōri in Kamigyō-ku. Sakuranomiya Shrine. Sakuranomiya Jinja 桜宮神社; f. 910. Kamigyō-ku, Nishishinmei-chō 337–1. *Sanjūsangen Hall 三十三間堂. Also Rengeō-in 蓮華王院. Tendai; f. 1163 or 1165. It stood within the territory of Hōjūji. Higashiyama-ku, Sanjūsangendō mawari-chō 65. Sannomiya Shrine. Sannomiya Jinja 三宮神社. Branch shrine of the Matsunoo Shrine. Ukyō-ku, Nishi-kyōgoku Kitaura-chō. Sannomiya Shrine. Sannnomiya Jinja 三宮神社. Uji-shi, Tawara-chō, Ōaza-Tachikawa Koaza Tachikawa. Sanzen’in 三千院. Tendai; f. Enryaku period (782–806); often relocated. Sakyō-ku, Ōhara Raikōin-chō 540. Seichōji 清澄寺. Also Kiyozumi-dera. Tendai, Shingon, since 1949, Nichiren; f. 771. Chiba-ken, Kamogawa-shi, Kiyosumi 322–1. *Seiganji 誓願寺. Jōdo; f. 667. Nakagyō-ku, Shin-kyōgoku-dōri Sanjō-sagaru Sakura-nochō 453. Seijuin 清寿院. See Bukkōji. Seikaji 棲霞寺. Also Seikakan 栖霞観, the villa of Minamoto no Tōru. See Seiryōji. *Seiryōji 清涼寺. Also Godaisan Seiryōji 五台山清涼寺 and popularly Saga Shakadō 嵯 峨釈迦堂. Jōdo; f. 987. Ukyō-ku, Saga Shakadō Fujinoki-chō 46. Seiryūgū 清滝宮. Kyōto-fu, Uji-shi, Higashi-kasatori, Hirade 47. Seiryūji 青龍寺. Also Kurodani Seiryūji 黒谷青龍寺. Tendai; f. second half of twelfth century. Sakyō-ku, Yase Akimoto-chō. *Seki Semimaru Shrine. Seki Semimaru Jinja 関蝉丸神社; f. 822. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Ausaka 1; and Ōtani-chō 23–11. *Sekizan Myōjin 赤山明神. In the narrow sense this refers to the deity enshrined at the Sekizan Zen’in 赤山禅院 at Nishi-Sakamoto (Tendai, f. 888; Sakyō-ku, Shūgakuin Kaikonbō-chō 18). The temple functioned as a tutelary institution of Enryakuji and eventually stood on the grounds of the Shugakuin Rikyū 修学院離宮 (Shugakuin Imperial Villa, at Sakyō-ku, Shugakuin Yabusoe), a major garden at the base of Mt. Hiei, built from the 1650s under the auspices of retired Emperor Gomizunoo.

328  Appendix *Sekizan Zen’in. See Sekizan Myōjin. Senbon Shakyamuni Hall. Senbon Shakadō 千本釈迦堂. See Daihōonji. *Sennyūji 泉涌寺. Initially Hōrinji 法輪寺, subsequently Sen’yūji 仙遊寺. Shingon; f. 856. Higashiyama-ku, Sennyūji Yamanouchi-chō 27. Sen’yūji 仙遊寺. See Sennyūji. *Shijō Dōjō 四条道場. Popular name for Konrenji. Shimyōin 志明院. Also known as Iwaya-san Shimyōin 岩屋山志明院, Kinkōhōji 金光峰 寺, or Iwaya Fudō 岩屋不動. Shingon, seventh century, but more often thought founded 829 by Kūkai (774–835). Kita-ku, Kumogahata Detani-chō 261. Shinkōji 心光寺 (formally: Hōjōzan Semei-dō Shinkōji 法城山晴明堂心光寺). Jōdo; founded by Abe no Seimei (921–1005). Today at Sakyō-ku, Chōshōji monzen-chō 80–1. *Shinnyodō 真如堂. More fully: Reishōsan Shinnyodō Shinshō-Gokuraku-ji 鈴聲山真如 堂真正極楽寺. Tendai; f. 984. Sakyō-ku, Jōdoji Shinnyo-chō 82. Shi-no-ōkami Shrine. Shi-no-ōkami no yashiro 四大神社. Branch shrine of the Matsunoo Taisha. Shinsen’en 神泉苑. Imperial garden and Shingon temple once headed by Kūkai (774–835). Nakagyō-ku, Oike-dōri, Shinsen’en-dōri Higashi-iru monzenchō 166. Shin-Zenkōji 新善光寺. Shingon; f. 1243. Sub-temple located within the grounds of Sennyūji. As the faith in the original Zenkōji in Nagano Prefecture diffused throughout the land, various “new Zenkōji” (half of which are Jōdo temples) were built throughout Japan. Higashiyama-ku, Sennyūji Yamanouchi-chō 31. Shirahige Shrine. Shirahige Jinja 白鬚神社. Also Hira Myōjin 比良明神 or Shirahige Daimyōjin 白鬚大明神. Shiga-ken, Takashima-shi, Ukawa 215. *Shitennōji 四天王寺. Washū; founded 593 by Prince Shōtoku (574–622; see Aston, Nihongi, vol. 2, p. 123). Osaka-shi, Tennōji-ku, Shitennōji 1–11–18. *Shōbaiin 松梅院. Tendai. One of three Buddhist temples of the Kitano Tenmangū. No longer extant. Shōden’an 正伝庵. Probably Shōden’in 正伝院, a sub-temple slightly to the north of and outside the premises of Kenninji. Founded during the Bun’ei period (1264–1275) by the Kenninji’s twelfth head, it fell into disrepair but was refurbished by the daimyō and tea master Oda Nagamasa (Urakusai, 1547–1621), who retired here and built himself a tea hut he called “Jo-an.” After the Meiji period a Shōden-Eigen’in 正伝永源院 was founded at Higashiyama-ku, Yamato-ōji-dōri Shijō-sagaru Komatsu-chō 586. *Shōgoin 聖護院. Honzan Shugen; f. 1090. Sakyō-ku, Shōgoin Nakamachi 15. *Shōhōji 正法寺. Also Ryōzen 霊山. Initially Tendai; founded eighth or ninth century; restored in the fourteenth century by the Jishū-school priest Kokua. Higashiyamaku, Seikanji Ryōzan-chō 35. *Shōkokuji 相国寺. Rinzai; founded 1382 by shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408) on an entire block at Kamigyō north of Ichijō. Kamigyō-ku, Shōkokuji Monzen-chō 701. Shōōken 松鷗軒. A sub-temple (tatchū) of Shōkokuji. Hōnen (1133–1212) once lived here, and Shōōken was renowned for its well with “Hōnen water.” Shōren’in 青蓮院. Tendai; f. 1150. Higashiyama-ku, Awadaguchi, Sanjōbō-chō 69–1. *Shōshun Shrine (glossed Shōjunnomiya 昌俊の宮). Also Kajadono Shrine (Kajadono-sha 官者殿社). A branch shrine of the Gion Shrine thought to enshrine the spirit of the

Appendix  329 warrior-monk Tosanobō Shōshun (1141–1185). It stands outside the Gion Shrine at Shimogyō-ku, Teianmae-no-chō 609, Shijō-dōri Teramachi Higashi-iru Minamigawa. Shōzuiji 祥瑞寺. Rinzai; f. 1406. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Hon-katata 1–27–20. Somin Shōrai [Shrine] 蘇民将来. Branch shrine (massha) of the Gion Shrine. Sone Tenman Shrine. Sone Tenmangū 曽根天満宮. Hyōgo-ken, Takasago-shi, Sone-chō 2286–1. Sōrinji 雙林寺. Tendai; founded 805 by Saichō (766/767–822). Higashiyama-ku, Shimogawara Washio-chō 527. Sudō Shrine. Sudō Jinja 崇道神社; f. 859–877. Sakyō-ku, Kami-Takano Saimyōji-yama 34. Suga Shrine. Suga Jinja 須賀神社. Founded 1142 at Nishi-tennō-zuka (today within the grounds of Heian Jingū 平安神宮) as the protector shrine of Kankikōji. Once called the “Western Heavenly-King Shrine” (Nishi Tennō-sha 西天王社) in contradistinction to the “Eastern Heavenly-King Shrine” (Higashi Tennō-sha 東天王社) at Okazaki (today Sakyō-ku, Okazaki Hitashi-tennō-chō 51). Later relocated to Yoshida Kagurazaka (today Sakyō-ku, Yoshida-Kagurazaka-chō), to what is now the site of the San’in Jinja 山蔭神社, a branch shrine of the Yoshida Shrine. In 1924 relocated to Sakyō-ku, Shōgoin Entomi-chō 1. Sugawara Shrine. Sugawara Jinja 菅原神社; f. 997. Sakai-shi, Sakai-ku, Ebisu-no-chō 2–1–38. Sumiyoshi Shrine. Sumiyoshi Taisha 住吉大社. Formerly Sumiyoshi Daimyōjin 住吉大 明神; f. 211. Ōsaka-shi, Sumiyoshi-ku, Sumiyoshi 2–9–89. Susa Shrine. Susa Jinja 須佐神社. Shimane-ken, Izumo-shi, Sada-chō Susa 730. Suwa shrines. Suwa Taisha 諏訪大社. Formerly Suwa Daimyōjin 諏訪大明神. Found at four locations around Lake Suwa in Nagano Prefecture. Two “upper shrines” (Kamisha 上社): the Honmiya 本宮 in Suwa-shi, and the Maemiya 前宮 in Chino-shi; and two “lower shrines” (Shimosha 下社): Akimiya 秋宮 at Shimo-Suwa-machi Takei, and Harumiya 春宮 at Shimo-Suwa-machi Shimonohara. Taga Shrine. Taga Taisha 多賀大社. Formerly Taga Myōjin 多賀明神. Shiga-ken, Tagachō, Taga 604. Taima Temple. Taimadera 當麻寺. Shingon and Jōdo; f. 612. Nara-ken, Katsuragi-shi, Taima 1263. *Takebe Shrine. Takebe Taisha 建部大社. Formerly Takebe Daimyōjin 建部大明神; f. 116. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Jinryō 1–16–1. *Tamatsuoka Shrine. Tamatsuoka Jinja 玉津岡神社; f. 540. Formerly also known as Hachiōji-sha 八王子社 and by many other names. Kyōto-fu, Ide-chō, Higashi Gaito-uchi 63. Tamatsushima Shrine. Tamatsushima Jinja 玉津島神社. Wakayama-ken, Wakayamashi, Wakaura-naka 3–4–26. Tanaka Shrine. Tanaka Jinja 田中神社. Fushimi-ku, Yoko-ōji Tennōgō 51. Tanjōji 誕生寺. Jōdo; said to have been erected by the warrior Kumagai Naozane (1141– 1207) in 1193 to commemorate Hōnen’s birth. Okayama-ken, Kumenan-chō, Tanjōji Satokata 808. Tennō Shrine (interim sanctuary, otabisho) at Shōgoin Village. Shōgōin-mura Tennō otabisho 聖護院村天王御旅所. Sakyō-ku Shōgoin Nakamachi.

330  Appendix Tennō Shrine. Tennō Jinja 天皇神社; f. 966. Until 1876 Wani Gozu Tennō-sha 和迩牛頭 天王社. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Wani-naka 146. Tennōji. See Shitennōji. *Tenryūji 天龍寺. Rinzai; f. 1345. Repeatedly destroyed by fire. It was particularly famous for its library. Ukyō-ku, Saga-tenryūji Susuki-no-baba-chō 68. Tenson Shrine. Tenson Jinja 天孫神社. Before the Meiji era, Shinomiya Jinja 四宮神社. F. late eighth or early ninth century. Ōtsu-shi, Kyō-machi 3–3–36. *Tōdaiji 東大寺. Kegon; f. early eighth century. Contains the Nigatsu Hall (Nigatsudō 二月堂). Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Zōshi-chō 406–1. *Tōfū Shrine. Tōfū Jinja 道風神社; f. 920. Also Takeaki Jinja 武明神社. Kita-ku, Sugisaka Tōfū-chō 1. *Tōfukuji 東福寺. Enichi-san Tōfukuji 慧日山東福寺. Rinzai; f. 1236 (or 1242 according to TFS). Higashiyama-ku, Honmachi 15–778. Toganoo. See Kōzanji. *Tōji 東寺. Built at government expense and initially with no sectarian affiliation, but from 823, Shingon; f. 796 (813, according to TFS). The name meant “eastern temple,” referring to the temple’s location east of Rajō Gate. Minami-ku, Kujō-chō 1. *Tōjiin 等持院. Rinzai; founded c. 1334 northwest of Kyoto at the base of Mt. Kinugasa by shogun Ashikaga Takauji (1305–1358) as an Ashikaga family mortuary temple. Around 1339 the name was transferred to a temple at Shimogyō, adjacent to Ashikaga Tadayoshi’s palace at Sanjō Bōmon (buildings of the extant Jōkain 浄華院 were confiscated), which was renamed Tōjiji c. 1342. The original Tōjiin continues to stand at Kita-ku, Tōjiin Kitamachi 63. Tōjiji 等持寺. Rinzai; the renamed Tōjiin after 1342. No longer extant. A plaque at Nakagyō-ku, Oike-dōri, Takakura-agaru, marks its erstwhile location. Tokurin’an 徳林庵. Rinzai; f. 1550. Yamashina-ku, Shinomiya Sensui-chō 16. Tōru Shrine. Tōru Jinja 融神社. Formerly Tōru Daimyōjin 融大明神. Founded in 986 and enshrining Minamoto no Tōru. Shiga-ken, Ōtsu-shi, Ikadachi Minamishō-chō. Tōshōdaiji 唐招提寺. Risshū; founded 759 by Ganjin (Ch. Jianzhen). Nara-ken, Nara-shi, Gojō-chō 13–46. Tōzanji 高山寺. Shingon; founded by Myōe (1173–1232) in 1206 at the site of a ruined branch temple of Jingoji. Ukyō-ku, Umegahata Toganoo-chō 8. *Tsukiyomi Shrine. Tsukiyomi Jinja 月読神社. Branch shrine of the Matsunoo Taisha. Nishikyō-ku, Matsumuro Yamazoe-chō 15. Tsukubusuma Shrine. Tsukubusuma Jinja 都久夫須麻神社. Also Chikubu Shrine (Chikubu-jima Jinja 竹生島神社), on Chikubu Island in Lake Biwa (Shiga-ken, Nagahama-shi Hayazaki-chō 1665). Supposedly founded in 420. Enshrines Ichikishima-hime-no-mikoto (Benzaiten) and two other kami. Tsukuma Shrine. Tsukuma Jinja 筑摩神社. Shiga-ken, Maibara-shi, Asazuma Chikuma 1987. Tsunaba Tenjin Shrine 綱場天神. Tsunashiki Tenmangū 綱敷天満宮. Fukuoka-ken, Fukuoka-shi, Hakata-ku, Tsunaba-machi 5–7. Ubusuna Shrine. Ubusuna Jinja 宇夫須那神社. Aichi-ken, Ichinomiya-shi, Shimamura Kami-fukada 84.

Appendix  331 *Uga Shrine. Uga Jinja 宇賀神社; f. seventh century. Minami-ku, Higashi-kujō Higashifudanotsuji-chō 33. *Uji Shrine. Uji Jinja 宇治神社. Also Rikyū Myōjin 離宮明神 (“Radiant Deity of the Detached Palace”). Kyōto-fu, Uji-shi, Uji Yamada 1. *Umenomiya Shrine. Umenomiya Taisha 梅宮大社; f. Heian period? Umezu Fukenokawachō 30. Ungoji 雲居寺. Tendai; f. 837. Once stood near Kōdaiji in what is now Higashiyama-ku but was destroyed in the Ōnin Wars (1467–1477). Unmon’in 雲門院. Apparently a subsidiary temple of Nanzenji. *Unrin’in or Urin’in 雲林院. Once Tendai, later Rinzai; f. ninth century. Kita-ku, Murasakino Unrin’in-chō 23. Unrinji 雲林寺. See Rokkaku Hall. Unryūin 雲龍院. Shingon; founded 1372 as a branch of Sennyūji. Higashiyama-ku, Sennyūji Yamanouchi-chō 36. *Upper Goryō Shrine. Kami-Goryō Jinja 上御霊神社; f. seventh or eighth century. Kamigyō-ku, Kami-goryō Tate-chō 495. *Upper Kamo Shrine. Kamigamo Jinja 上賀茂神社. More formally: Kamo (no) Wake Ikazuchi Jinja 賀茂別雷神社; f. 678. Kita-ku, Kamigamo Motoyama 339. Usa Hachiman Shrine. Usa Jingū 宇佐神宮 or Usa Hachimangū 宇佐八幡宮; f. 725. Ōita-ken, Usa-shi Minami-usa 2859. Ushiromi-dono 後見殿. Branch shrine (massha) of the Gion Shrine. Utsukushi-no-gozen 美御前. Branch shrine (massha) of the Gion Shrine. *Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine. Wakamiya Hachimangū Sha 若宮八幡宮社. Also known as Sameushi Hachiman 佐女牛八幡; f. 1053. Once located on the grounds of Minamoto no Yoriyoshi’s residence near the intersection of Sameushi-dōri and Nishinotōin-dōri. Relocated to the east of Gojō Bridge in 1584. Today at Higashiyama-ku, Gojōhashihigashi 5–480. *Western Honganji. Nishi Honganji 西本願寺. Jōdo Shinshū; founded 1272 as the Ōtani Mausoleum. Relocated to its current site in 1591. Served as the head temple of the Ryūkoku branch of Jōdo Shinshū. Shimogyō-ku, Horikawa-dōri Hanaya-chō sagaru, Monzen-chō 60. Yaegaki Shrine 八重垣神社. Formerly Sakusa Shrine 佐久佐神社; founded before ninth century. Shimane-ken, Matsue-shi, Sakusa-chō 227. Yahata Shrine. Yahata Jinja 八幡神社 or Sōsayakujin Hachiman Jinja 宗佐厄神八幡神 社; f. 749. Hyōgo Prefecture, Kakogawa-shi, Yahata-chō Nomura 580. Yaide Tenman Shrine. Yaide Tenmangū 八出天満宮. Okayama-ken, Tsuyama-shi, Yaide 357. Yamaibuse Shrine. Yamaibusenomiya 疫伏宮. Originally a yamabushi temple; today probably the Eki Jinja 疫神社 standing within the grounds of the Gion Shrine. *Yamashina Shrine. Yamashina Jinja 山科神社. Formerly Nishi Iwaya Daimyōjin 西岩屋 大明神; f. 897. Yamashina-ku, Nishinoyama Iwagatani-chō 1. Yamashina-dera 山階寺. See Kōfukuji. Yamazaki Tennō Shrine. Yamazaki Tennō-sha 山崎天王社. Today Tamadeyori-matsurikitaru-sakatoke Jinja 自玉手祭来酒解神社. Stands on the summit of Mt. Tennō at Kyōto-fu, Ōyamazaki-chō, Ōyamazaki Tennō 46.

332  Appendix Yamazumi Shrine. Yamazumi Jinja 山住神社. The original site of the Iwakura Shrine (c. 1 kilometer to the north) and also known as the latter’s interim shrine (otabisho). Sakyō-ku, Iwakura Nishi-gawara-chō. Yasaka Jinja 八坂神社. See Gion Shrine. Yase Tenman Shrine. Yase Tenmangū 八瀬天満宮; f. late ninth or early tenth century. Kyōto-shi, Sakyōku, Yase Akimoto-chō 639. Yasui Konpira Shrine. Yasui Konpira-gū 安井金比羅宮. See Kōmyōin Kanshōji. *Yōbōji 要法寺. Nichiren; f. 1308. After 1583 at Teramachi Nijō. Today at Sakyō-ku, Shintakakura-dōri Magohashi-agaru, Hōōji-chō 448. Yodo Shrine. Yodo Jinja 與杼神社; f. 961–964. Fushimi-ku, Yodo Honmachi 167. Yokan [Shrine] 与管. Branch shrine (massha) of the Gion Shrine. *Yoshida Shrine. Yoshida Jinja 吉田神社; f. 859. Sakyō-ku, Yoshida Kaguraoka-chō 30. Yuki Shrine. Yuki (or Yugi) Jinja 由岐神社. Formerly Yuki Myōjin 由岐明神 or Yuki Daimyōjin 由岐大明神. Founded 940 as the guardian shrine of the Kurama Temple. Sakyō-ku, Kurama Honmachi 1073. Yūsenji 涌泉寺. Nichiren; f. 992. Sakyō-ku, Matsugasaki Hori-chō 53. Zama (Myōjin) Shrine. Zama Jinja 坐摩神社 (also read Ikasuri Jinja). Formerly Zama Myōjin 坐摩明神. Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Kyūtarō-machi 4, Watanabe 3. Zenkōji 善光寺. Tendai/Jōdo; f. 644. Nagano-ken, Nagano-shi, Motoyoshi-chō 491. Zenrinji 禅林寺. More formally: Shōju Raigō-san Zenrinji 聖衆来迎山禅林寺. Jōdo; f. 853. Named Zenrinji in 863. Sakyō-ku, Eikandō-chō 48. *Zenshōji 善正寺. Nichiren; f. 1600. The funerary temple of Toyotomi Hidetsugu (1568– 1595). Sakyō-ku, Okazaki Higashi Fukunokawa-chō 9.

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References  349 Meeks, Lori. Hokkeji and the Reemergence of Female Monastic Orders in Premodern Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2010. Miaofa lianhua jing wenju 妙法蓮華經文句. buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw›BDLM/sutra/chi_ pdf/sutra16/ T34n1718.pdf. Miaofa lianhua jing xuanyi 妙法蓮華經玄義. buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/ chi_pdf/sutra16/T33n1716.pdf. Miner, Earl Roy, Robert E. Morrell, and Odagiri Hiroko. The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985. Mo ping zan [bing xu] 貘屏賛(并序). In Shinshaku kanbun taikei 新釈漢文大系, vol. 101 (Hakushi monjo 白氏文書, 5), pp. 9–11. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin, 2004. Mohe zhiguan 摩訶止觀. buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/BDLM/sutra/chi_pdf/sutra19/T46n1911 .pdf. Müller, Gerhild. Kagura: Die Lieder der Kagura-Zeremonie am Naishidokoro: Übersetzung und Erläuterungen (Veröffentlichungen des Ostasiatischen Seminars der Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/Main, Reihe B. Ostasienkunde, Band 2). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1971. Nongsang yishi cuoyao 農桑衣食撮要. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%BE%B2%E6 %A1%91%E8%A1%A3%E9%A3%9F%E6%92%AE%E8%A6%81. Okakura Kakuzō. The Book of Tea. London: J. B. Putnam’s Sons, 1906. Pas, Julian F. Visions of Sukhavati: Shan-tao’s Commentary on the Kuan wu-liang-shouFo ching. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Plutschow, Herbert. Matsuri: The Festivals of Japan. Surrey: Japan Library, 1996. Qianjin yifang 千金翼方. https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=358699. Qianjinfang 金要方. See Beiji qianjin yaofang. Quantangshi 全唐詩, vol. 524. https://ctext.org/quantangshi/524. Qunshu shituo 羣書拾唾. In Siku quanshu cunmu congshu 四庫全書存目叢書, vol. 171. Jinan: Qilu Shushe, 1995–1997. Rath, Eric C. The Ethos of Noh: Actors and Their Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. ———. Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2010. Reischauer, Edwin O., trans. Ennin’s Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law. New York: Ronald Press, 1955. Rodd, Laurel Rasplica, trans. Shinkokinshū: New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2015. Scheid, Bernhard. Der Eine und Einzige Weg der Götter: Yoshida Kanetomo und die Erfindung des Shinto. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2001. Selin, Helaine, ed. Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. 2nd ed. New York: Springer, 2008. Shenyijing 神異経. https://ctext.org/shenyijing. Shihu shiji 石湖詩集. https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=906475. Shijing 詩経. https://ctext.org/book-of-poetry. Shirane, Haruo. Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

350  References Shiwu bencao 食物本草 (J. Shokumotsu honzō). http://dbrec.nijl.ac.jp/KTG_W_4392387. Shouyang congshu 壽養叢書. https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&res=81097. Shuowen jiezi 説文解字. https://ctext.org/shuo-wen-jie-zi/zh. Sijiaoyi 四教義. http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T46/1929_001.htm. (The last number corresponds to the volume, for a total of 12 volumes.) Simin yueling 四民月令. https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=913478&remap=gb. For a critical edition in Japanese see Shimin getsurei 四民月令 (Tōyō bunko, 467). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1987. Song gaosengzhuan 宋高僧傳. http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T50n2061. Stavros, Matthew. Kyoto: An Urban History of Japan’s Premodern Capital. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016. ———. “The Sanjō Bōmon Temple-Palace Complex: The First Locus of Ashikaga Authority in Medieval Japan.” Japan Review 22 (2010): 3–29. Sugimoto, Masayoshi, and David L. Swain. Science and Culture in Traditional Japan. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1989. Sunpu 筍譜. https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E7%AD%8D%E8%AD%9C. Swartz, Wendy, et al., eds. Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. Taiping shenghui fang 太平聖惠方. https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=682523. “Taishang chu sanshī jiuchong baosheng jing 太上除三尸九虫保生経.” https://ctext.org /wiki.pl?if=gb&res=997344&remap=gb. Takatsuka, Masanori, and David C. Stubbs, trans. This Scheming World. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1965. Teeuwen, Mark, and Fabio Rambelli, eds. Buddhas and Kami in Japan: Honji Suijaku as a Combinatory Paradigm. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. Titsingh, Isaac. Illustrations of Japan, Consisting of Private Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Reigning Dynasty of the Djogouns, or Sovereigns of Japan. Translated from the French by Frederic Shoberl. London: R. Ackermann, 1822. Turban, Helga. Das Ching-Ch’u sui-shih chi, ein chinesischer Festkalender. Augsburg: W. Blasaditsch, 1971. Uraki Ziro, trans. The Tale of the Cavern: Utsuho monogatari. Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin, 1984. Waley, Arthur, trans. The Tale of Genji. Tokyo: Tuttle, 2010. Wudiji 吳地記. https://ctext.org/wiki.pl?if=gb&res=919256. Vimalakīrtinirdeśa. https://www2.hf.uio.no/polyglotta/index.php?page=volume&vid=37 and www.bdk.or.jp/document/dgtl-dl/dBET_Srimala_Vimalakirti_2004.pdf. Vollmer, Klaus. “Tötungsverbot (sesshō kindan 殺生禁断) und Freilassungszeremonien (hōjōe 放生回)–Geschichte und Interpretation buddhistischer Rituale in Japan.” In Klaus J. Antoni, ed., Rituale und ihre Urheber: Invented Traditions in der japanischen Religionsgeschichte, pp. 77–104. Hamburg: LIT, 1997. Wenderoth, Ingrid. Sekizoro: Geschichte und Wandel einer Straßen- und Bettelkunst marginalisierter Gruppen im vormodernen Japan. Hamburg: Gesellschaft für Naturund Völkerkunde Ostasiens, 2008. Xia xiaozheng 夏小正. https://ctext.org/da-dai-li-ji/xia-xiao-zheng/ens.

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Index

Abe no Seimei 安倍晴明, 152–153, 181, 216, 221n260, 254, 283, 304 Alkaid (Hagunsei 破軍星), 133, 302–303 aoba [or aouma] no sechie. See Blue Roans Banquet Aoi 葵 Festival. See Kamo festivals archery, 15, 21, 23, 24n44, 27, 35, 54, 180, 184, 191, 224, 305; equestrian archery (yabusame 流鏑 馬), 20, 21, 28, 35, 50, 105, 106, 217, 254; jarai 射礼, 23–24; yōkyū 楊弓, 227, 294 Atago Shrine and festivals, 31, 103–104, 229, 258, 268, 279n561, 286 azaleas, 284 bamboo cutting ritual, 34, 117–118, 228 Banquet of Flushed Faces (toyo[no]akari no sechie 豊明節 会), 23, 55, 190–191 beans, 190, 214, 231, 268, 271–273, 275 Bellows Festival (fuigo matsuri ふいご 祭), 266 birds, 51, 105, 123, 174, 203, 285 blind men, 83–84, 199, 218n240, 228

Blue Roans Banquet (aoba [or aouma] no sechie 白馬の節会), 17–18, 52, 54, 186 bon (盆, urabon’e 盂蘭盆会), 24, 33, 42, 45, 52, 161, 189n80, 240–241, 286 branches. See horary signs Buddha-names ceremonies, 166–168, 268, 269 Buddhist monks/priests: Buen 峯延, 228; Bukkoku Kokushi 仏国国 師 (Kōhō Kennichi 高峰顕日), 239, 254, 263; Chisha Daishi 智 者大師, 268; Chishō Daishi 智 証大師 (Enchin 円珍), 263; Chōnen 奝然, 71; Chūjun 忠淳, 152; Eikū 叡空, 76; Enchō 円澄, 263; Engaku 円覚 (Shukō 修広, Dōgo 道御, Dōgyo 導御), 86–88, 92, 279n559; Enni 円爾 (Shōichi Kokushi 聖一国師, Ben’en 弁円), 83, 158–159, 262; Eshin 恵心 (Genshin 源信), 76; Ganjin 鑑真, 117–118; Genkō 源光 (Jihōbō Genkō 持宝房源 光), 75–76; Genkū 源空 (see Hōnen); Guhō 求法 (Gikū 義 空), 80, 81; Gyōei 行叡, 268; Gyōkei (Gyōkyō 行教) 135–137; Hōnen 法然, 73–77, 164–166, 353

354  Index

192, 277, 278; Hōtō 法灯 (Shinchi Kakushin 心地覚心), 262; Ikenobō (Senkei, Senkō) 池坊(専慶,専好), 122; Ippen 一 遍, 270; Issan Ichinei 一山一寧, 263; Jichin 慈鎮 (Jien 慈円), 212; Jikaku 慈覚 (Ennin 円仁), 150–151, 153; Jinkan 深観, 72; Jishinbō Ryōkai 慈真坊良快, 278; Jōan 静安, 167–168; Jōchō 定朝, 89, 90, 92; Jōgaku 定覚, 92; Jōhen 静遍 (Shin’enbō 心円 房), 277–278; Jōzō 浄蔵, 268; Kaigen 快賢, 90–91; Kaizan 戒 算, 151–152, 154; Kakuban 覚 鑁, 269; Kangaku 観覚, 75; Kanzan Egen 関山慧玄, 269; Kasō Sōdon 華叟宗曇, 229; Kenshin 賢心, 124–126; Kōen 皇円, 75–76, 219n251; Kokua 国 阿, 251; Kūkai 空海 (Kōbō Daishi 弘法大師), 94–97, 115n152, 128, 146, 199, 204n166, 206, 229, 239, 241, 282; Kūya 空也 (Kōya, Kōshō 光勝), 32, 161–163, 187, 266–267, 270; Mongaku 文覚, 243; Musō Kokushi 夢窓国師 (Musō Soseki 夢窓疎石), 254; Myōe 明恵, 92; Nichiren 日蓮, 129, 154–158, 199, 262; Nichizō 日像, 92–94, 128n186, 129; Nyorin 如輪 (Myōzen 明善), 80, 278; Ryōgen 良源 (Ganzan Daishi 元三大師; Jie 慈恵), 183, 185, 199, 259; Saichō 最澄 (Dengyō 伝教), 128, 154, 204, 245n377; Seikanbō (Genchi) 勢 観房(源智), 77, 278; Shakuen

Eichō 釈円栄朝, 158; Shandao 善導, 76, 153n247, 166n284, 205, 307; Shinjō 真紹, 71; Shinran 親鸞 (Zenshin 善信), 163–166, 268; Shubin 守敏, 95; Shūhō Myōchō 宗峰妙超, 270; Shunjō 俊芿 (Daikō Shōbō Kokushi 大興正法国師), 146; Taimei Kokushi 大明国師, 269, Tankai 湛海, 144–146; Xutang Zhiyu虚堂智愚, 260; Yōkan 永 観, 71n29, 72, 266 bugaku 舞楽, 35, 199, 212n.210, 247 Bujōji, 199 Byōdōin, 280   calendar, presentation of, 265 cedar of advent (yōgo no sugi 影向の 杉), 280 celestial stems, 5–6, 9, 173, 183, 287n598, 294–295, 309 charcoal sticks, 183 cherry trees and blossoms, ix, 61, 62, 92, 201, 205n170, 206, 278, 283 chi no wa 茅の輪, 119–121, 230 chi-imibi (血忌日 “blood shunning days”), 302, 310 chimaki 粽, 20, 43, 56, 215–216, 217, 305 Chinese zodiac. See terrestrial branches chinkasai 花鎮祭, 16 Chinnōji (Rokudō Chinnōji), 126– 128, 239 Chion’in, 32, 61, 73, 77, 222, 241 Chionji, 73, 191, 196, 205, 219, 253, 278 Chishakuin, 32, 81, 167n286, 198, 259, 269 chishigo 知死期, 300–302

Index  355

Chō Densu 兆殿司, 82–83, 185, 196, 198, 262 Chōyō 重陽, 22, 146, 248 chrysanthemums, 22–23, 35, 132, 247, 248, 305 Chūgenji, 282 cockfights, 203 Confucius, 24, 39n3, 40, 49 Daigoji, 53n52, 243n365, 246n383, 249, 250n407 Daihōonji, 32, 80–81, 198 Daikokuji, 61, 73, 163 daimoku odori (“mantra dance”), 32, 242 Daitokuji, 32, 112, 229, 239, 260, 270 Daiun’in, 198, 228, 263 dance of peaceful blossoms, 84–86, 205 disease, 15, 16, 20, 64, 65n14, 72n35, 86, 147, 111, 115, 116n156, 131n192, 147, 168, 177, 178, 191n90, 192, 196, 202, 215, 221, 227n285, 231, 268, 271, 273, 274, 279, 282, 286–287, 307–308 Dokūjin 土公神, 7, 303n640, 306 dolls, 19, 56, 203 Dōmyōji, 200 dōsojin 道祖神, 31, 99 doyō 土曜, 7, 231–234, 295, 296–298, 308; airings, 232–234; mabi 間 日, 231, 298, 303 droughts, 118, 197, 222, 281–282   Ebina Suketaka 海老名季高, 49 Ebisu 恵比寿, 188, 253, 262 eclipses, 2, 291–292, 310 Eiga 栄雅 (Asukai Masachika 飛鳥井 雅親), 100

eight single-phase days (hassen 八専), 298–299 eigu 影供, 94 Eikan Hall (Eikandō 永観堂), 32–33, 71–72, 191, 205, 219, 253, 266, 277. See also Zenrinji Ekū 恵空, 58 Enma Hall. See Injōji ennichi 縁日 (holy day, related day), 33, 34, 66, 104, 258, 282 Enryakuji, 13, 27, 31–32, 75n41, 116nn154–155, 183n50, 205n172, 212n208, 227n288, 259n464, 263. See also Mt. Hiei equestrianship, 15, 55; baba-hajime 馬 場始, 35 equinoxes (higan 彼岸), 7, 9, 194, 196, 244, 288, 306–307 Eshin’in, 225 e-to 干支. See celestial stems, horary signs   ferns, 125, 181, 182, 185n59 fire festivals, 147n233, 264, 266, 267, 278 fireflies, ix, 62, 280, 284 five festive occasions (go-sekku 御節 句 or sechi, sechie), 23, 34, 36, 37, 186, 305 floats. See hoko; yama floods, 282–283, 287 flower arranging, 121–123, 238, 239, 293 Fujinomori Shrine and festivals, 106–108, 216, 217–218 Fujiwara no Isendo 藤原伊勢人, 67–69, 228 Fujiwara no Kamatari 藤原鎌足, 260–261

356  Index

Fujiwara no Kanezane 藤原兼実 (Kujō Kanezane 九条兼実, Enshō 円証), 165–166 Fujiwara no Tadabumi 藤原忠文, 109–110 Fujiwara no Uchimaro 藤原内麻呂, 259 Fujiwara Teika 藤原定家, 50–51, 64n10, 119, 240, 241n354 Fukakusa Festival. See Fujinomori Shrine and festivals Fukuzumi Dōyū 福住道祐, 59 Fushimi Inari Shrine, 28, 31, 79, 98, 99n99, 196, 201, 207, 218n238, 266, 280n565, 291 gingari ぎんがり, 219 Gion (Yasaka) Shrine, 13, 28, 30–31, 32, 61, 67, 166, 168, 261, 262, 270, 279, 304 Gion Festival, 35, 53, 112–116, 220, 223, 224, 225, 226, 227 go 碁, 294 Gohō Myōjin Festival, 213 Gojō Tenjin (shrine and festival), 64–66, 250, 273 Gokōnomiya (Fushimi Festival), 146–147, 249, 250 Gokurakuji (Gokurakuin), 32, 266, 267, 270 goma 護摩 (“fire rituals”), 34, 228, 278, 286 Gongorō Festival 権五郎祭り, 254 goryō hassho 御霊八所, 108, 138–140 goryō-e 御霊会, 30, 137–138 Goryō shrines and festivals, 31, 137–140, 243, 247, 267 gosai-e 御斎会, 25, 187 Gosechi 五節: dances, 23

go-sekku. See five festive occasions Gozan 五山, 213, 264 gozen 御前, 84 Gozu Tennō 牛頭天王, 30, 114, 115, 183n49, 208n187, 212n209, 216n231, 247n387, 279, 291, 304–306 guchūreki 具注暦, 50 hachiōnichi (八王日, “days of eight kings”), 288–289 Hada (Hata) no Tori 秦都理, 102 ha-gatame (歯固, “tooth firming”), 42, 179–180, 306 haikai 俳諧, 292–293 hamayumi 破魔弓, 72, 192 Hanazono Shrine, 116 Hanjō Shrine, 253 Hannyaji, 206 harugoma 春駒, 186 hassaku 八朔, 35, 54, 244–245 hatchōgane 八丁鉦, 37 hatsuharu kyōgen 初春狂言, 56 Hiramaro (Urabe no Hiramaro 卜部 平麻呂), 115 Hirano Shrine and festival, 31, 45, 47, 51, 52, 99n100, 100–101, 115n152, 208, 214, 265n498, 290 Hiromoto (Ōtori 大鳥広元), 86–87 Hōjōji (Shinkōji), 283 hokke hakkō 法華八講, 205n172, 245, 261, 266 Hokkeji, 225 hoko (festival floats), 223, 224, 225n277, 251n417 Honganji, 15, 32, 121, 123, 163–166, 184, 238, 240, 268 Honmanji, 199 Honryūji, 243

Index  357

horary signs, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 19, 20, 173, 175, 177, 287n598, 294, 295– 296, 297, 309 horse races, ix, 20, 21, 27, 105–106, 107–108, 208n193, 216–217, 217–218 Hōshakuji, 191, 199, 227, 243 Hōsono Shrine (Hasaso-no-mori), 184 human spirit (rénshén), 308–309 hyōjō-hajime 評定始, 35 ice vault, 17, 179n27, 222–223 Ichijō Kaneyoshi (or Kanera) 一条兼 良, ixn1, 18n14, 52–53, 57. See also Kuji kongen Iga Mitsue 伊賀光季, 50 Imamiya (Ebisu) Shrine (in Osaka), 188 Imamiya Shrine and festivals, 45, 48, 49, 84–86, 111–112, 116n156, 205, 218, 219, 267, 278n559 Imperial Palace (daidairi 大内裏), 12, 13, 14, 15–26, 29, 37, 43, 50–51, 61, 78n48, 96, 132, 135, 167n287, 240; rituals and ceremonies, 4, 17–25, 34, 45, 48, 50–51, 52, 54, 55–56, 66, 100, 105, 119, 167, 168, 178, 181, 184, 185, 187, 203, 211, 215, 217, 222, 230, 236, 259, 271–272 Inari 稲荷 festivals, 28, 31, 49, 78–79, 98–99, 159n265, 195–196, 201, 207, 280, 291 Injōji, 32, 85n68, 86, 92–94, 187n72, 191, 201, 241, 278 Inoko 亥の子 (Gencho 玄猪), 257–258 insecticides, 233–234 intercalary months, xi, 5, 7, 291 inuou-mono 犬追物, 35

Ise shrines, 27, 55, 61n1, 66n16, 120n120, 251, 257, 266, 276, 290 Ishiyama Festival, 204 Isshin’in, 239 Iwagami 岩上 (Nakayama 中山) Festival, 101, 209 Iwakura Festival, 252 Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, 13, 28, 29–30, 36, 45, 47, 49n35, 55, 57n63, 64n9, 72, 134–137, 192, 201n147, 246, 264, 290 Izumo Shrine, 64n10, 159–160, 255–257 jimoku 除目, 15, 50 Jindōji, 205 Jingoji, 62n7, 85–86, 92n81, 94, 95, 204, 206, 223, 243, 246n383, 259n465 Jishu Gongen 地主権現 (Jishu Shrine), 61, 97, 212 Jizō 地蔵, 26, 89, 90, 104, 124, 126, 133–134, 151, 214n222, 239, 243, 254n444, 258, 278, 279, 282–283 Jizōin (Jingoji), 259 Jōnan Shrine, 13 Jōnanji, 50, 253 kado sekkyō 門説経, 37 kadomatsu 門松 (pine-branch ornaments), 53, 181, 183, 190, 275, 305 kaguhana, 272, 273 kagura 神楽, ix, 27, 150, 180, 262; mikagura 御神楽, 20, 166, 167n287, 168, 262, 264 Kaibara Ekiken 貝原益軒, 58, 59, 173, 193n105

358  Index

kaichō 開帳 (“public exhibit”), 34, 69, 130–132, 183, 190, 192, 198, 199, 200, 205, 212, 214, 227, 229, 241, 243, 245, 247, 262, 270 Kajō (or Kashō) 嘉承, 226–227 Kakinomoto no Hitomaro 柿本人麻 呂, 96 Kamiari Shrine, 255–256 (Kami-)Katsura Goryō Shrine, 247 kamioki 髪置, 287 Kamo no Chōmei 鴨長明, 48, 242n359, 245 Kamo River, 28, 29, 83n61, 119, 242, 282–283 Kamo shrines, 13, 28, 62n6, 77, 84–85, 100n104, 121n169, 209, 239, 277n551, 278, 284, 290; Aoi festival, 28–29, 51, 52, 99–100, 106n129, 209, 212n207, 276– 277; festivals and ceremonies, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 51, 55, 57n63, 105–106, 118–121, 184, 187, 189, 190n83, 191, 198, 199, 201n147, 203, 208, 209, 210n199, 212, 214, 216–217, 227, 228, 230, 236, 238n342, 265, 266 Kan Daijin Festival, 247 kanbutsu-e 灌仏会 (“bathing the Buddha ritual”), 33, 42, 45, 48, 52, 211–212 Kanda Myōjin Shrine (Edo), 253 Kankikōji (Rokujō Dōjō), 183, 292 kanname-sai 神嘗祭, 27, 251n412 Kannonji, 199 Kanshōji, 247, 284n581 kaomise kyōgen 顔見世狂言, 56 Karasaki Shrine, 230 Kasuga Shrine, 52, 61, 76, 86, 87, 104, 128, 184, 192, 195, 211n202, 264n497, 268, 276n545, 290

Kawabata Dōki 川端道喜, 56 kechien kanjō 結縁灌頂, 252 Kenninji, 230, 236, 239, 243, 253, 284 kezurikake, 168, 270 Kibi no Makibi 吉備真備, 115, 139 kickball, 123, 185, 239, 293 Kifune (Kibune), 68, 121, 147–148, 198, 209, 218n241, 259n404, 279, 290 kinensai 祈年祭, 16 Kitamura Kigin 北村季吟, 56, 59 Kitano Tenjin (Kitano Tenman) Shrine (and festival), 28, 31–32, 45, 52, 140–143, 198, 200, 213, 225, 236, 238, 245, 248, 260–261, 276–277, 286, 290, 292 Kitayama Tenjin, 254 Kiyomizu Temple (Seisuiji), 32, 61, 97–98, 124–126, 193, 212, 219, 239, 268, 283 kō 候, 7 Kōdaiji, 61, 186, 236, 248, 249, 293 Kōfukuji, 189, 197n122, 212, 260–261 Kohata Festival, 143, 248, 254 Kōjin 荒神, 274, 306 Konjin 金神 (Kontan 巨旦), 303–306 Konrenji, 292, 293 Kōryūji, 192, 199, 209n195, 230n313, 245n374, 247, 251n414, 269 Kōshin 庚申, 193, 287–288, 289 Kuji kongen 公事根源, 52, 57, 58, 61, 119, 190, 244–245, 257–258, 261, 270 Kurama Temple, 66–69, 117–118, 183, 206, 228, 250, 273, 277; village festival, 147 kusudama 薬玉, 20, 215 Kyokusui no En (or Kyokusui no Utage). See Winding Stream Banquet kyūka sanpuku 九夏三伏, 235

Index  359

lıˇ (J. rei) 礼, 39 lucky directions, 13, 41, 66, 168n293, 183, 193, 302–304 Manpukuji, 239 Manzai 万歳, 37, 185 maple-leaf viewing, 62, 174, 259, 284 matsubayashi 松囃子, 184 Matsugasaki, 32, 128–130, 203, 242, 243 Matsunaga Teitoku 松永貞徳, 56n60, 58, 175, 254 Matsunoo Shrine (and festival), 13, 31, 45, 47, 49, 52, 99n100, 101–102, 162, 192, 201, 209, 225, 229, 245, 261, 262, 286–287, 290 Matsushita Kenrin 松下見林, 57 Mibudera, 32, 85n68, 86, 87, 88–90, 92, 205, 268, 278, 279 Miidera. See Onjōji Mikenji, 214 mikoshi 神輿 or御輿, 27–28, 78, 98, 101, 102, 103, 111, 138, 140, 142, 143n223, 201, 204nn164– 165, 207, 208, 218, 219n248, 243, 248n390, 251n417, 253n430; Gion Festival mikoshi, 113, 115–116, 224–226, 227; Kifune mikoshi 貴船神輿, 147–148, 198n127, 250, 279; mikoshi arai 神輿洗 い, 113–114, 220, 227 Minamoto no Yoritomo 源頼朝, 48, 278 Minamoto no Yoshitsune 源義経, 64n12, 112, 163, 263 Misu (Shrine) Festival, 251, 253 Mitarashi Festival, 118–121, 228, 230, 266

Miyoshi no Kiyotsura (or Kiyoyuki) 三善清行, 43 mò 貘 (baku 獏), 274 mochi 餅 (glutinous rice cakes), 19, 27, 43, 56, 64, 65n14, 168n293, 190n83, 201, 223, 227n285, 245, 257–259, 273, 275, 279; kagami mochi 鏡餅, 179, 180–181, 182, 188n76, 192, 305; no’se mochi 能勢餅, 259; zōni 雑煮, 180 momo no sekku (桃の節句 “festive occasion of peach blossoms”), 19, 43, 202 months of abstinence (imizuki 忌月, iwaizuki 祝月or 斎月), 289 moon, and moon viewing, ix, 51, 62, 119, 193, 246, 252, 284 moxibustion, 307–312 Mt. Hiei (比叡山), 64, 71n30, 75, 76, 77, 80n56, 151–152, 155, 161, 183, 185, 200n140, 204nn164– 165, 206, 212, 225, 227, 241, 254n444, 259, 266, 268, 282. See also Enryakuji Mt. Nyoi (Nyoigatake 如意ヶ嶽), 34, 128, 241–242 munetataki 胸叩, 37 Myōkenji, 128n186, 229 Myōmanji, 32, 213n215, 293 Myōrenji, 225 Myōshinji, 229, 252, 266, 269 Nagatani (Iwakura) Hachiman, 128–129, 130, 241, 246, 250, 277 nagoshi no harae 夏越の祓, 27, 118–121, 230 Nagoya Gen’i 名古屋玄医, 59 Nakagawa Kiun 中川紀雲 (San’ōshi 山桜子), 57–58

360  Index

nanakusa (七草 seven herbs), 17–18, 43, 186–187 Nanano Shrine, 286 Nanzenji, 253, 263, 269 nehan-e 涅槃会, 33, 79, 81–82, 198 ne-matsuri 子祭, 264 nenbutsu 念仏 (Amida invocations), 71n30, 76–77, 86–87, 88–89, 92–94, 130, 149–152, 155, 161, 164, 165, 187, 201, 204, 205, 219n250, 259, 266, 277, 278, 279n559 nenbutsu odori 念仏踊 (daimoku odori 題目踊; odori-nenbutsu 踊念仏), 32, 130, 161n271, 242, 270, 279n559 nenjū gyōji shōji 年中行事障子, 43, 45, 46, 50 New Year’s celebrations and ceremonies, 35, 36, 37, 42, 49, 52–53, 168, 174–186, 188n76, 189n78, 189n80, 190, 191, 202n152, 231, 240, 270, 271n526, 274n536, 276, 279, 286, 304, 305–306; banquets, 17–19, 23, 25, 34–35, 54; chōhai chōga 朝拝朝賀, 42, 178; chōkin no gyōkō 朝覲行幸, 24; mikado ogami 御門拝, 42; shihōhai 四方拝, 52, 178. See also Blue Roans Banquet; ha-gatame; ōban banquets; sagichō; Setsubun; tōka New Zenkōji. See Sennyūji niinamesai 新嘗祭 (shinjōe 新嘗会), 16, 23 Nii-Tamatsushima Festival, 148–149, 251 Nijō Yoshimoto 二条良基, 51–52, 193n102

Ninnaji, 32, 61, 94, 167, 183, 206, 222, 225n281, 277, 283 nirvana pictures (nehan-e 涅槃絵, nehan-zō 涅槃像), 82–83, 198 nirvana services (nehan-e 涅槃会), 33, 80, 198 nō 能 (sarugaku 猿楽), 27, 118, 185, 192, 197, 201, 204n164, 211, 213n215, 225, 227, 229, 230, 236, 249, 250, 253, 293; Sanbasō 三番叟, 254 Nonomiya Shrine, 103, 170, 171 noodles (sakubei 索餅, sōmen 素麺), 21, 22n35, 43, 236–237, 305 ōban banquets (ōban-burumai 椀飯振 舞), 35, 49 Ōharano (festival), 44, 45, 47, 49, 51, 52, 77–78, 192, 196 o-hitaki 御火焚 (or hotaki 火焚, bonfires, fire festivals), 159–160, 264 okera 朮, 64, 65n14, 168n293, 273 Onjōji, 155, 158, 208n190, 213, 218, 241, 261, 263, 268 Ono no Takamura 小野篁, 92, 126–127, 133, 134n195, 239 Ōtani-dera. See Chion’in; Daikokuji Ox Festival, 251 peach-blossom liquor, 19, 43n16, 202 pine of advent (yōgō no matsu 影向の 松), 276 plum trees and blossoms, 143, 160, 174, 283 Pŏpmyŏng 法明, 260–261 pregnancy, 95, 102, 126, 172, 285 Reizei Tamehide 冷泉為秀, 52

Index  361

Releasing-of-Life Ritual (hōjō-e 放生 会), 28, 30, 35, 36, 52, 55, 57n63, 134–135, 246 renga 連歌, 57, 185, 276, 292 Rikyū Hachiman Shrine, 109, 189 Risshun, 6, 8, 206, 270 Rokkaku Hall (Chōhōji), 121–124, 164, 165, 224, 239, 293 rokudō mairi 六道参り, 126–128, 239 Rokuharamitsuji, 32, 126, 163, 196, 266n505 rokusainichi (六斎日 “six days of abstinence”), 51, 288 Ryōanji, 285 Ryūanji (Mt. Minoo), 187 Saga Amida invocation, 86 Saga Festival, 104–195, 209. See also Atago Shrine and festivals Saga Shakadō. See Seiryōji sagichō 左義長, 35, 189n81, 190, 191 Saidaiji, 247 Saiji 西寺, 95 saijiki 歳時記, 57, 58–59, 60, 173 Saimyōji, 167, 269 Saionji, 226 Sakaki Shrine, 276 Sakuranomiya, 170, 280–281 Sangen (三元, “three beginnings”), 42, 177, 189n80, 262 Sanjō no Kokaji 三条の小鍛冶 (Sanjō Munechika 三条宗近), 99 Sanjūsangen Hall, 32, 205 Sannō Festival, 206 sechie (or sechien), 17–23, 25, 55n57, 178, 186, 190 segaki 施餓鬼 (segaki-e 施餓鬼会), 33, 236, 239, 241 Seiganji, 229, 283

Seijuin (Seijuan?), 199 Seikaji, 91–92 Seiryōji, 32, 69–71, 86–88, 90–92, 187n72, 190, 198, 204, 206, 270 sekiten 釈奠, 24, 50 Sekizan Myōjin, 27, 204, 291 Sekizoro 節季候, 37, 275 sekki (setsu), 7, 8 sekku (sechibi), 8, 17–23, 186, 201, 236, 305 Senbon Shakyamuni Hall. See Daihōonji sennichi mairi 千日詣り (“thousandday pilgrimages”), 34, 104, 124–126, 229, 230, 239, 241 Sennyūji, 32, 130–132, 143–146, 167n286, 192, 198, 204, 213, 230, 241, 248, 269 Setsubun, 7–8, 27, 64–66, 270–274 Seven Deities of Fortune (Shichi Fukujin 七福神), 37, 188n75 shakutō(-e) 積塔(会), 83–84, 199 shari-e 舎利会, ix, 34, 143–146, 192, 198, 249, 262 shiki 式, 43–45, 46 shimenawa 注連縄 (sacred ropes), 125, 181–182, 190, 212, 272 Shimyōin, 241 Shinnyodō, 32, 149–154, 259, 266n504 Shinsen’en, 21, 115–116, 190n83, 282 Shirahige Daimyōjin, 200n140, 245 Shitennōji (Tennōji), 123, 199 Shōbaiin, 185, 276 shōgi 将棋, 294 Shōgōin, 191, 206 Shōkokuji, 227, 236, 254 Shōryō Matsuri 精霊祭 (“Festival of Souls”). See bon

362  Index

Shōsenkō 昭宣公 (Lord Shōsen, Fujiwara no Mototsune 藤原基 経), 45n25, 116, 170, 245 Shōshun Shrine, 262–263 shūshōe 修正会, 183, 279 Somin Shōrai 蘇民将来, 72, 115, 192, 279 spanking, 250 stain removal, 232–233 Sugawara no Michizane 菅原道真, 31, 46, 93, 96, 140–143, 183, 200, 229n304, 238, 245, 247, 251n419, 252, 259, 286, 292n612 Sumiyoshi Shrine, 220, 230, 291; market, 251 sumō 相撲, 15, 21, 35, 52, 243, 245, 247, 251n414, 252n426 susuharai 煤払い, 27, 42, 236, 270 suzumi 涼み (cooling down), 84, 114, 224, 227, 228 sweet flag (shōbu 菖蒲), 20, 105, 108, 215, 216n233, 233, 234, 306   Tadasu Woods, 121, 242 Taima Temple and festival, 45, 47, 198n132, 208, 212 Taira no Kiyomori 平清盛, 48, 133, 163, 196 Taira no Masakado 平将門, 109–110 Taira no Sadamori 平貞盛, 109, 161, 266–267 Taishan Fujun 泰山府君, 26–27, 36 Tanabata 七夕 (kikkōden 乞巧奠), 21, 235–236, 237–238, 305 tango 端午, 20, 214–215, 286 taue (田植え, planting festivals), 27, 41, 56, 184, 194, 214, 220

tendoku 転読 (“rolling reading”), 32–33, 71–72, 168, 191, 213, 219, 253, 270, 278 Ten’ichi tenjō 天一天上, 299 tengu 天狗, 43, 185n57, 287n590 Tenman Shrine (Osaka), 229, 254 ten-night service (jūya hōyō 十夜法 要), 259 tensō chifu-sai 天曹地府祭, 36 terrestrial branches, 6, 89 thunder, 155, 156, 292, 296, 310 Tōdaiji, 71, 72, 86n72, 95, 158, 196, 197, 198, 214n222, 247 Tōfukuji, 32, 82–83, 158–159, 185, 196, 198, 262, 284 Toganoo (Kōzanji), 92, 228, 261 Tōji, 32, 94–96, 98, 128, 206, 229, 239, 252 Tōjiin, 137n204, 227, 254 Tōjiji, 36, 137 tōka (踏歌 “step songs”), 18–19, 23n43, 52n49, 54, 190–191 toki (or koku), 9 Tokugawa Mitsukuni 徳川光圀, 55 torioi 鳥追, 37 toshitoku-jin 歳徳神 or 年徳神, 304 toso 屠蘇 (or tososhu 屠蘇酒, medicinal sake), 177–178 toyo[no]akari no sechie. See Banquet of Flushed Faces toys, 72, 286 tsuchi (mallet), 303–304 Tsuina 追儺, 24, 42, 52, 176n19, 270–273 Tsukuma Festival, 210 Tsurugaoka Hachiman(-gū) 鶴岡八 幡(宮), 35, 49 tsuyu (or baiu 梅雨), 214, 220

Index  363

ubara 姥等, 275 Uji, 108–109, 201, 202, 218 uke/muke, 299–300 Umenomiya Shrine and festival, 45, 102, 209, 285–286 Ungoji, 268 Urabe no Kanenobu 卜部兼延, 104 uta nenbutsu 歌念仏, 37 Wakamiya Hachiman, 137 Winding Stream Banquet (Kyokusui no En, or Kyokusui no Utage 曲 水の宴), 19, 203 wisterias, 284 Yakuharai 厄払, 37, 274 yakujin 厄神, 72, 86, 192

yama (festival floats), 112, 113, 114, 223, 224, 225 Yamashina (Shrine) Festival, 99, 208 yasurai-bana やすらい花. See dance of peaceful blossoms Yoshida Hanbee 吉田半兵衛, 60 Yoshida Shrine and festival, 31, 45, 47, 49n37, 51, 52, 104–105, 209, 229, 247, 251, 257, 279–280 yuba-hajime 弓場始, 35 Yuikyō Sutra (遺教経, “Legacy Teachings”), 80, 198 Zama Shrine, 228, 254 zatō 座頭, 37, 83 Zenrinji, 32, 33, 71–72, 191, 205, 219, 253, 266, 277, 278

About the Author

Gerald Groemer, who specializes in Edo-period cultural history, is professor of music at the University of Yamanashi, Kōfu, Japan. His recent English-language books include Goze: Women, Musical Performance, and Visual Disability in Traditional Japan (2016); Street Performers and Society in Urban Japan, 1600–1900 (2016); The Land We Saw, the Times We Knew (2019); and Portraits of Edo and Early Modern Japan (2019), which was awarded the 2020 Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature.