”Religious Traditions of Japan” by Richard Bowring:
summary for personal observation
MS, in the words of Richard Bowring
June 2020
About this summary
Sometimes paraphrased, sometimes directly cited. This is not schoolwork, so I didn’t put too much
effort into adding quotes around direct citation. Assume that almost everything that is written is
from Bowring...
Ce n’est pas de la vulgarisation !
Notes
†
est utilisé pour dire qu’il y a beaucoup plus de détails à ce sujet dans le livre.
Kanji found in the book: 社
Did a careful verification of kanji display (particularly 旧字体 which tend to be rendered wrongly
by web browser & other software...)
TODO
• Introduction on Buddhist terms: Śākyamuni (voir pour les intégrer au fur et à mesure plutôt
que uniquement dans un tableau ? avec un encart tableau dans le texte ?)
• Explain polity
GLOSSARY
• Mahāyāna
1
Part 1: The arrival of Buddhism and its effects
(c.538–800)
1
The introduction of Buddhism
1.1
Gifts from Paekche
The only available texts relating the introduction of Buddhism in Japan have been written almost
200 years after the related events.
The Nihon shoki (日本書紀)1 , sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, reports the
introduction of Buddhism in Japan in 552, when the king of Paekche (Korean peninsula) offered a
statue of Śākyamuni Buddha along with various sūtra and documents to the Yamato court2 . The
veracity of the details of this text is doubted for many reasons† . For instance, it is thought that the
date does not reflect historical accuracy, but rather the tradition that places the beginning of the
”decline of the Dharma”3 in the year 552, exactly 1500 years after the death of Śākyamuni in 948
BCE4 .
Another text5 contemporary with the Nihon shoki, suggests that Buddhism was introduced in
Japan in 538 as requested by the Soga family (蘇我氏), an influential clan at the Yamato court. It
could also be a diplomatic offensive from Paekche to ensure support from the Yamato court.
It is possible that the Japanese were exposed to Buddhist ideas before these events, as evidenced
by the Buddha figurines which have been found along the Japanese coast facing Korea, but we cannot
assume that Buddhism had been long established in Japan.
1.2
Patronage at court
The first introduction of Buddhism in Japan related by these texts failed in the face of opposition
from the military, in the shape of the Mononobe clan (物部氏), and the ritualists, in the shape of
the Nakatomi clan (中臣氏). Still, a constant influx of priests, artists and architects devoted to the
foreign god known as ’Buddha’ (佛神) continued to enter Japan. The pro-Buddhist Soga pressed
ahead and crushed the pro-Shintō Mononobe in 5876 . Soga no Umako (蘇我馬子, 551?–626) started
the construction of the Asukadera temple (飛鳥寺), thought to have been the first temple built in
Japan7 . One presumes that most of the priests of this temple came from Paekche.
During the long reign of Empress Suiko 推古天皇8 , Buddhism gradually became entrenched. As
an example, the building of large tomb mounds came to an end at this time, replaced by smaller
mausoleums, temples and pagodas. The figure most closely associated with this whole process is
Suiko’s nephew Prince Shōtoku 聖徳太子 (572-622), who acted as a Regent. He can be counted as
the inspiration behind some of the most outstanding architecture of the period. Some of the earliest
Buddhist scholarship are sometimes attributed to Shōtoku himself, like the Lion’s roar of Queen
Śrı̄mālā. This sūtra, laid out as a discussion between a young queen and Buddha himself, depicts
the queen as a wise and compassionate ruler responsible for spreading the Buddhist Dharma, echoing
Suiko’s central role and influence at this time.
The first moves towards regulation came in 624, with the beginnings of a Buddhist establishment
and regulation by the authorities, instituted by Suiko. The newly established saṅgha prefect (sōjō
僧正), saṅgha administrator (sōzu 僧都) and the lay office of Dharma Master (hōzu 法頭) would
later develop into the Saṅgha Office (sōgō 僧綱), which was to remain the chief instrument of state
control for centuries. Within less than a hundred years of its arrival, Buddhism had gained enough of
a presence among the ruling elite for it to be treated as an institution in its own right. The pattern
was already a familiar one in both China and Korea.
1 Book
of classical Japanese history finished in 720 CE, and major source of information about these times
Yamato court (Yamato chōtei 大和朝廷) was the centre of the archaic Japanese polity (c. 4th – c. mid-7th
centuries), situated in Yamato (modern-day Nara Prefecture)
3 mappō 末法, or ”end of the Śākyamuni Buddhism” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Ages_of_Buddhism
4 Before Common Era
5 History of the Gangōji monastery with a list of its treasures, 747
6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soga-Mononobe_conflict
7 It will later be known as Hōkōji 法興寺, and renamed Gangōji 元興寺 when it was moved to Heijō-kyō c.716
(modern-day city of Nara)
8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Suiko
2 The
2
When Suiko died in 628, disputes over the succession lead to the destruction of the Soga clan
by Natakomi no Kamatari and Prince Naka no Ōe. Patronage for Buddhism shifted from private
(Soga) hands into those of the monarchy and the newly emerging bureaucratic state. A long edict
was proclaimed in which the principle of central control was made explicit, and ten ’learned masters’
(jisshi 十師) were appointed to run Buddhist affairs. This particular administrative system would
however soon revert to the pattern established by Suiko.
Prince Naka no Ōe was de facto ruler from 655 to 671, only ascending the throne as Tenji Tennō 天
智天皇 in 668. During this period, the ties between Paekche and Yamato were strongly felt. Japanese
forces were sent to help Paekche, but eventually crushed by the Tang. Until 676 and the Tang
withdrawal from the peninsula, Japan felt under constant fear of invasion. When Tenji died, the civil
war known as Jinshin no ran 壬申の亂 broke out, and his younger brother took power in 673 to rule
as Tenmu Tennō 天武天皇. It was under Tenmu that the ruling family was finally to stake its claim
to divine status.
1.3
The ’Beetle-wing’ cabinet
To understand how the Buddhist message was understood at court, one of the only way is to look
at the material culture it produced, mainly Buddhist temples and images. The temple that today
contains the most informative material from this period is Hōryūji 法隆寺, begun by Prince Shōtoku
in 607. Although it was destroyed by fire in 670 and then rebuilt, a few precious objects were saved
from the fire, among which the ’Beetle-wing’ cabinet or Tamamushi-zushi 玉虫厨子, created between
640 and 650 (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Tamamushi Shrine
Source: Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai 国際文化振興会, 1937, public domain
The most remarkable feature of the cabinet is an ornament composed of thousands of green iridescent wing-sheaths from a species of native beetle, kept in place by metal strips. But many of these
have now fallen off. This feature, of course, is the provenance of the name ’Beetle-wing’.
This cabinet is important because it tells us how far its sponsors had moved towards understanding
the basic tenets of Buddhist teaching.
3
(a) Front
(b) Back
(c) Left
(d) Right
Figure 2: ’Beetle-wing’ cabinet lower section paintings
4
The subject depicted on the right-hand side panel (Figure 2d) undoubtedly comes from Chapter
17 of the Sūtra of golden radiant wisdom. Entitled ’Casting away the body’, it is a retelling of a
familiar story of how the Buddha once sacrificed himself for the sake of a starving tiger and her cubs.
In this story, Mahāsattva, youngest son of a king called Mahāratha, once went out into the forest and
encountered a tiger who had given birth to seven cubs just seven days ago. Both the tiger and the
cubs were starving. Later coming to an awareness of the insubstantiality of his own body, Mahāsattva
returned to the tiger, removed his upper garments and hanged them on a tree, before casting himself
from a cliff to feed the hungry tiger and her cubs. The tiger ate Mahāsattva, leaving only his bones,
which were later found by his brothers. Mahāsattva’s father and mother deposited their son’s bones
as relics in a large seven-jewelled stūpa9 . The message of this panel is a fairly simple one. The first
of the six perfections of the bodhisattva is that of ’giving’. Compassion for others was always seen by
advocates of Mahāyāna to be what best characterised their beliefs.
The front panel (Figure 2a), entitled ’The workship of relics’, depicts two monks on each side of
what looks like a relic box, among other Buddhist symbols. Chapter 17 of the Sūtra of golden radiant
wisdom might be helpful again here. Before the story of Mahāsattva and the tiger, the chapter has
a preliminary scene in which the goddess Bodhisattvasamuccaya asks the Buddha about the occasion
when in a former life he sacrificed his own body. In reply the Buddha stamps on the earth, which
disgorges a seven-jewelled stūpa, explaining that herein lie his own relics. Not all the elements in the
painting are explained by this story alone, but in the absence of any better suggestion, it would seem
to be a good candidate. This painting is about the importance of relics.
The panel on the left (Figure 2c), entitled ’Indra as a devil’, illustrates yet another scene of selfsacrifice. The source this time is Chapter 14 of the Nirvān.a sūtra entitled ’On holy actions’. Again
it is a story that deals with the activities of the Buddha in a former life, when he was a brahmin
undergoing ascetic practice in the Himalayas and the gods decided to test him. Indra10 transformed
himself into a devil, descended to where the brahmin was practising, and proclaimed the first half of
a key verse that encapsulated Buddhist thinking. The brahmin realises that the devil has the key
to enlightenment, and begs him to give him the second part. The devil agrees, on condition that
the brahmin gives himself up to be eaten. The brahmin agrees and then hears the second part of
the verse. Having promised to give up his life for the message, the young brahmin writes down the
verses wherever he can, then climbs a tell tree and casts himself down to die. In that instant the devil
changes back into Indra and the brahmin is helped gently to the ground, and praised and worshipped
as the future Buddha. The message here is twofold: self-sacrifice is a central Buddhist virtue and
enlightenment is open to all, even to what appears to be a devil.
On the rear of the cabinet (Figure 2b) is a painting of Mt Sumeru, which was thought to lie at
the center of the Indian universe. On top of the mountain is Indra’s palace, which links this panel to
the last one. In the sea at the bottom stands the Palace of the Dragon King. In the middle sits the
Buddha, with a woman on either side. There are at least two sources for this panel. The first is a
passage from the ’Devadatta’ chapter of the Lotus sūtra. The crux of this chapter is the example of
the Naga (Dragon) King’s daughter who manages to achieve enlightenment, giving hope to all women.
This has been augmented by the painter with reference to the Sūtra of the dragon king of the sea.
Immediately before preaching on Vulture Peak, the Buddha causes Mt Sumeru to appear and the
Dragon King comes up out of the sea to hear his message, and then allows the Buddha to preach in
his palace. The women depicted are the king’s wife and his daugter. The Buddha informs them that
there is no distinction between the genders when it comes to enlightenment and that the daughter
will clearly achieve her goal.
To what use was this shrine put and why was it created? It may have been used as a centerpirece for
oral explanation. It is the correct height and holds within its panels many of the central propositions
of Mahāyāna Buddhism: the possibility of enlightenment for all, compassion for others as the first of
the six perfections to be practised by the aspiring bodhisattva, and the concept that the Buddha was
not a man who has ’already gone before’ but an eternal presence. The use of the ’Devadatta’ chapter
of the Lotus sūtra suggests that the intended audience were the women at court. It shows us that
despite the fact that the Buddha was being worshipped by priests as a deity, the central tenets of the
Buddhist message were beginning to be understood and honoured by the elite at court by the middle
of the seventh century.
9 Hemispherical
structure containing śarı̄ra (Buddhist relics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupa
10 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra
5
2
Creating a dynasty
2.1
The problem of succession
Emperor Tenmu took the first major step in the direction of government stability based on a law of
succession and smoother transitions, by ordering the compilation of written records, and particulary
of lineages. This process came to fruition fifty years later in the first chronicles, whose mission it was
to reveal an unbroken line of succession leading back to the beginning of time and the earliest gods.
When Tenmu died in 686, he left two possible heirs, Prince Ōtsu 大津 and Prince Kusakabe 草
壁. The first was quickly eliminated, but the second died before he could be proclaimed as the next
sovereign. His mother Jitō 持統 took his place, and her greatest contribution to the survival of the
Japanese monarchy was to introduce the concept of abdication, which made it possible to control
succession and maintain a dynasty. She abdicated in 696, replaced by Kusakabe’s son Karu (who
ruled as Monmu Tennō 文武天皇). When he died, he was replaced by his mother Genmei 元明, who
was in turn replaced by his sister Genshō 元正 who reigned until 724. It was also during that time
that the capital was moved to Heijō-kyō 平城京 (Nara 奈良), and that Kojiki (”Records of Ancient
Matters”, 712) and Nihon shoki were written down and made public.
In order to secure the future, the ruling family had to be able no only to control local cults and the
rapidly expanding presence of Buddhist institutions; it also needed to put in place a rule of law. In 684,
the old titles had been abolished and replaced by new ones which reinforced the importance of lineage.
Penal and administrative codes based on Chinese models were promulgated. The administrative
framework that emerged had the soverign nominally in control of two main councils, the Council of
State (Daijōkan 太政官), and the Council for Affairs of the Deities of Heaven and Earth (Jingikan 神
祇官). The latter was entrusted with the delicate task of extending central control over all local and
tutelary deities in the land11 .
2.2
Native beliefs
What were the indigenous beliefs in Japan before the arrival of Buddhism? There are, by definition,
no native sources that predate the introduction of writing into Japan, so an early text such as Nihon
shoki of 720 is already heavily ’contaminated’ by Chinese influence and Buddhist presence. Things
are made doubly difficult because it is precisely during the two hundred years that stretch from the
early sixth century to the eighth that Buddhism was accommodated and indigenous beliefs adapted
to this powerful intruder. Attention is usually more focused on how Buddhism succeeded, by being
so responsive to every new environment it faced. But it is equally true that indigenous cults changed
radically in turn. The problem is in measuring this change with little evidence other than the content
of tomb mounds, which date mainly from 300-600.
It would appear that in the earliest times the Japanese, like most early societies, had a strong
sense of the sacred nature of certain places and objects. The term used to describe such elements is
kami 神, a word that can refer to both an object or to the presence represented by that object. A
kami can be an oddly shaped rock, tree or mountain, or any other phenomenon or place that had
important connotation for a particular group. They were therefore held sacred and it was considered
important that they be kept clear of this-wordly pollution through constant and regular observation
of rituals, in order to avoid dire consequences, as kami were the source of all that was unpredictable,
of life and health, but also of misfortune and disaster. We have here the beginnings of the shrines or
yashiro 社.
It is probable that by the sixth century the Nakatomi family group (uji 氏) had become hereditary
ritualists for those shrines that had particular significance for the rulers of central Yamato. It is
reasonable to assume that others performed similar duties in other areas. This presupposes a process
by which a divine presence, specific to a local area, became the ancestral deity of an uji, symbolising
its identity. Developments at a later stage suggest that once the link between local deity and family
had been created it was difficult to break, so that a group might find it necessary to maintain such
ties even when it moved far away from its ’original’ home. This could be done either by creating a
legend that deity X had moved from A to B at some stage in the past for some good reason, or by
making sure that one important member of the family was resident in the shrine as a representative.
11 i.e.
Shintō deities
6
One important corollary to the localised nature of cults was that they were essentially unrelated to
each other.
The most unfortunate gap in our knowledge about pre-Buddhist Japan concerns attitudes to death.
There seems to have been a concept of psyche (tama 靈 or 魂) that gave the body life but also might
wander away on occasions such as sleep, dreamtime or death. But what seems to have happened is
that during the sixth and seventh centuries, Buddhism appropriated the question of death, creating
the illusion that it simply filled a void as far as the rites of death were concerned, which cannot be
correct.
2.3
The Jingikan
In order to carry out the strategy of legitimation wanted by Tenmu, an administrative framework was
needed to impose a hierarchy on all these disparate, localised cults. Early statutes outlined the duties
of the Jingikan council, mainly concerned with certain key rites: observance of natural agricultural
cycles, prayers for the avoidance of natural disasters and the health of the monarch. Nothing in
those statutes was said about the activities of priests or about the organisation of any shrine system,
possibly because no such system existed. Very few shrines are mentioned by name, which suggests
that the process of creating a hegemony was only just beginning. We have to wait until well into the
eighth century before we see an appreciable increase in the number of official shrines receiving such
offerings. For ceremonies like the Daijōsai 大嘗祭, that takes place at the beginning of a new reign in
celebration of the enthronement, the whole country was expected to participate to the preparations,
so it was designed to emphasize the hegemonic role of the monarch.
It is however striking to find that those sections of Nihon shoki that cover the reigns of both Tenmu
and Jitō contain surprisingly few entried devoted to cult affairs. There are very few references to the
shrines at Ise, which are famous for being the home of the ancestral deity of the ruling family. Exactly
why the tutelary deity of the rulers should be based at Ise is not known† . It is thought that Ise may
have been adopted as late as Tenmu’s reign. As for the deity itself, we know that they adopted a sun
deity, anthropomorphised it at some stage, and placed it at Ise. In Kokiji the name is written 天照大
御神, which could be read either Amateru ōmikami or Amaterasu ōmikami. In Nihon shoki we find
both Ōhirumenomuchi 大日孁貴 which suggests the female gender and Tenshō daijin 天照大神 which
is genderless. The name Amaterasu only becomes fixed in the sixteenth century.
Having a divine ancestor is one thing. Being divine oneself is another. The edict read out at
Monmu’s accession to the throne in 697 show that the rhetoric of divine lineage was by now fully
developed. There is however no sign in the chronicles that monarchs like Tenmu were considered to
be divine. But in the late eighth century, we find poems that make such claims. First an hyperbole,
many poems transferred directly the divinity of the ancestor to the reigning monarch. It did not take
long for this hyperbole to be transformed into norm.
2.4
Inventing the past
The process of inventing the past came to fruition with the completion of Kojiki in 712 and Nihon
Shoki in 720. Although these chronicles were to be treated as sacred texts to be revered and studied,
they were never recognised as having been ’revealed’. They were written by court scribes as history,
the aim of which was to legitimate the pre-eminence of the ruling family by explaining its divine roots
in prehistory. Their aim was also to explain the status quo by illustrating how contemporary power
relationships at court and within the country were a direct reflection of relationships established in
the distant past between different ancestral deities. They were therefore intensely political products.
Kokiji covers the story of Japan down to the death of Suiko in 628. It traces the genealogy of the
ruling family back to the very beginning of the world. Concerned mainly with domestic affairs, it hardly
mentions China or Korea, and ignores the introduction of Buddhism completely. The suggestion that
it was largely a product of the Jingikan is entirely plausible. However, very soon after its compilation,
Kokiji disappeared and was not read or studied again until the eighteenth century. Although it can
tell us a great deal about the ideology and intentions of the early state, when discussing the application
and growth of such an ideology post-720, it must always cede precedence to Nihon shoki.
Nihon shoki is quite different. As opposed to Kokiji ’s hybrid style between native Japanese and
Chinese, Nihon shoki is written in classical Chinese, with careful dating and cross-references to Korean
sources and other accounts. The historical account is brought down to the abdication of Jitō in 697,
7
and the sections that cover the last seventy years are seen to be increasingly reliable. The earlier
sections cover similar mythical material as Kokiji, but with much more critical mind, and different
and often contradictory versions of events.
Although it is possible that a written version of anything has been influenced by three hundred
years of Buddhism and Chinese thought and institutions, careful analysis of both texts can give us
a brief glimpse of a Japanese vision of the world that predates the introduction of Buddhism. For
our purposes the most important sections of the chronicles are those that cover the ’Age of the gods’
(jindai no maki 神代巻) : Book One of Kokiji and Book One and Two of Nihon shoki.
The Kokiji narrative begins by recording the names of several single deities who came into existence, followed by deities in pair, among which the male-female pair Izanagi and Izanami. Together,
as brother and sister, they create the land (of Japan). Descending to the island, they discover their
sexual difference and conjoin to produce offsprings. They give birth to all the islands of the Japanese
archipelago, followed by thirty-five more deities, each one representing a natural phenomenon. Izanami
dies giving birth to the fire deity. Izanagi tries to follow his sister into the underworld (Yominokuni
黄泉國), but chased by hags and by his own sister, he flees and blocks the way with a large boulder.
They agree to part for ever. Returning to this world, he purifies himself by washing and in the process
produces a stream of further deities, among whom are the Sun Goddess Amaterasu (’she who lights
the heavens’), and two males, Tsukiyomi (’he who understands the moon’) and Susano-o (’the raging
male’)† . Nihon shoki contains a large number of variants at this point.
If one does believe that unadulterated myth can at least be approached, this is the closest we will
ever get to it. The lack of creator is marked and there is no attempt to identify an absolute origin.
With the discovery that death must be a final parting and that the dead must be barred from re-entry
into life, the proper circle of birth and death is proclaimed† . Nothing like this kind of narrative has
been found in sources from the continent, so it probably betrays the existence of an earlier stratum
of myth, unconnected to either Chinese or Buddhism. Kokiji also manages successfully to hide from
the reader the truth of its genesis: the act of naming deities is of course intensively human, but what
is being described is the emergence of the world prior to the emergence of man. It is important for
its impact as a statement of fact and truth. Here we find one of the greatest difference with Nihon
shoki, whose compilers did not try to hide the human act of composition.
In another kind of myth, marked by political intent, political realities such as the status quo are
presented as eternal truths. At this stage, the main deities begin to assume quasi-human characteristics. Izanagi tells Amaterasu she will rule Takamanohara 高天原, dwelling place of the heavenly
gods12 . The moon is never mentioned in the narrative again, but Susano-o becomes a central figure in
what follows. Refusing to accept the fact of his mother’s death, he continues to mourn her, his weeping causing rivers and sea to dry up. Malevolent deities and calamities arise, as Susano-o’s behaviour
threatens to destroy the whole world. Banished by Izanagi, Susano-o visits Amaterasu to take his
leave. Amaterasu thinks he has come to threaten her too, and after claiming victory at a challenge
destined to prove his good intent, Susano-o breaks into an orgy of destruction. Terrified, Amaterasu
hides herself in a cave, plunging the universe into darkness. The other deities perform an elaborated
ritual to purify Susano-o, who is sent away to Izumo, where he founds a dynasty of rulers† .
Appears here the Izumo myth cycle, which contains the majority of the most memorable folktales.
As soon as we enter the cycle, we find Susano-o completely transformed. Although he eventually ends
up in charge of the underworld, he is fêted as the bringer of agriculture and metallurgy (which Nihon
shoki makes clear he brought from the Korean peninsula), and credited with having created the first
Japanese waka poem13 . The cycle continues with the grand exploits of Susano-o’s descendant in the
sixth generation, Ōkuninushi.
However, Amaterasu decides that the sovereignty of Japan should lie with one of her offspring
(Kokiji, Chapter 32). After much diplomacy, Ōkuninushi and his sons accept to surrender his land to
the deities of heaven, in return for which a shrine is raised in their honour. This part of the narrative,
known as kuniyuzuri 國譲, was to become a central element in the continuous attempts to justify the
sovereign’s hegemonic rule over the whole land. Amaterasu’s son Ninigi14 then descends from heaven
to a mountaintop in Kyūshū, to claim his inheritance. Some generations later his descendants conquer
the central region of Yamato, where they settle. Izumo then reappears and is eventually incorporated
12 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takamagahara
13 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka_(poetry)
14 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninigi-no-Mikoto
8
under Yamato sovereignty† .
This illustrates the complexity of these chronicles. At one level we are being told about mythic
generalities, but at another level we slip into history as myth with political intent, as the late seventhcentury ’present’ erupts into the narrative, and explains why Izumo’s eventual subjugation was inevitable. But are all the myths we find here necessarily inventions of sixth- and seventh-century
idelogues? We must take care not to reverse the whole picture and end up by reducing all such
narratives to the wily strategmes of those who rule.
3
3.1
Buddhism and the early state
The emergence of a religious organisation
Jingikan
9
4
Monuments at Nara
Part II. From Saichō to the destruction of Tōdaiji (800–1180)
5
The beginnings of a ’Japanese’ Buddhism: Tendai
6
The beginnings of a ’Japanese’ Buddhism: Shingon
7
Buddhism and the state in Heian Japan
8
Shrine and state in Heian Japan
9
The rise of devotionalism
10
A time for strife
Part III. From the destruction of Tōdaiji to the fall of Godaigo
(1180–1330)
11
For and against exclusive practice of the nenbutsu
12
Religious culture of the early ’middle ages’
13
Chan Buddhism
14
Zen Buddhism
15
Reform from within and without
16
The emergence of Shintō
17
Taking stock
Part IV. From the fall of Godaigo to the death of Nobunaga
(1330–1582)
18
Two rival courts
19
Muromachi Zen
20
The end of the medieval
21
Appendix: reading Shingon’s two mandala.
10