105. The notion of the state of mind at the exact moment of death being a crucial factor in determining one’s rebirth dates back to early Buddhism. Moreover, the Lotus Sutra, enormously influential in Japan, relates numerous laudatory tales of Buddhists who expressed their zeal by gestures such as setting themselves alight to make “human offering lamps” of their own bodies. Under the influence of the Lotus Sutra and such texts as Genshin’s Essentials of Salvation (Ōjōyōshū), the practice of deliberately taking one’s own life while one’s mental faculties were still clear gained considerable currency as a means of both ensuring a favorable rebirth and demonstrating one’s spiritual commitment. By the late eleventh century, this kind of religious suicide, especially by drowning, had developed into a fad of sorts and at the same time had become the subject of some controversy.
106. The demon Tenma (Skt. Devaputramara) is an evil trickster who here personifies the various temptations, obstacles, doubts, and distractions that can seduce the Buddhist practitioner away from the true path.
107. “The ascetic practices of the heretics” (gedō no kugyō) refers to radically ascetic religious practices, such as the near-total abstinence from food and bathing and sleeping on spike mattresses. The practice of such austerities was widespread among spiritual seekers in India in the time of the Buddha, who vigorously repudiated them, preaching instead a “middle way” between the two extremes of self-mortification and self-indulgence. “Perverse views” (J. jaken) may refer specifically to denial of the reality of karmic cause and effect or, more generally, to various heterodox misapprehensions of reality, which are viewed as impediments to spiritual liberation.
108. By this period, the term shōnen (literally, “right mindfulness”) had come to encompass a range of meanings, including “a mind of unwavering faith in the Amida Buddha.”
109. The author seems to suggest that one’s actions, their causes and effects, and the question of whether or not the Buddha would extend his protection all boil down to a single issue: one’s present spiritual condition.
110. This refers to the host of bodhisattvas who attend the Amida Buddha in the Pure Land and who are said to accompany the Amida when he comes, at the believer’s moment of death, to escort and welcome the believer to the Pure Land.
111. In Uji, on the outskirts of and to the southeast of Kyoto.
112. The priest was a naigu(bu), one of the “Ten Chosen Buddhist Priests.” His identity is obscure, although one theory is that he was a great-grandson of Murasaki Shikibu’s husband.
113. Fudō Myōō (Skt. Acala) was one of the Five Great Guardian Kings and a figure of particular importance to esoteric Buddhism.
114. Zōga (917–1003) was the son of Tachibana no Tsunehira, the “consultant” (saishō) mentioned later. After becoming a Tendai monk, he lived for a while on Mount Hiei and then settled on Tōnomine, a mountain on the southern edge of the Nara basin. Known as an eccentric, he is the subject of many setsuwa found in collections such as the Konjaku monogatari shū and Hosshinshū.
115. That is, the Enryaku-ji temple on Mount Hiei, the headquarters of the Tendai sect.
116. Jie Daishi (Master Jie) was the posthumous name of Ryōgen (912–985). He is noted for his treatise Sōmoku hosshin shugyō jōbutsu ki, which teaches that nonsentient things, such as plants, possess buddhahood. He appears in many setsuwa.
117. Yuishiki, “Consciousness Only” or “Mere Ideation,” is the teaching of the Hossō sect, which attributes the existence of the outer world to inner ideation. Shikan, “Concentration and Insight,” is a teaching propounded by Zhiyi (538–597), founder of the Tiantai (Tendai) sect, according to which meditation allows insight and the realization of truth.
118. A clear stream that flows through the Ise Shrine. Visitors rinse their hands and mouth in its waters as a ritual of purification.
119. Eguchi, a heavily frequented port on the Yodo River near Osaka, was famous for its brothels, and the composer of the reply is one of the women of pleasure (yūjo). Later legends say that the pleasure woman Tae was actually the bodhisattva Fugen in disguise, which explains the Buddhist qualities of her reply. Saigyō rebukes Tae for not letting him in, but she rebukes Saigyō for letting his mind dwell on something so trivial as a little shelter from the rain.
120. “Darkly dyed sleeves” refers to the dark robes of a monk.
121. By this, he means that his tears prevent him from seeing. The darkness does not have negative connotations.
122. “Wild words and decorative phrases” (kyōgen kigo) was a phrase coined by the eighth-century Chinese poet Bo Juyi.
123. She means that she has become a nun, cutting her hair and wearing dark robes.
124. The implication is that the robes have been dyed a darker hue than before. To highlight the contrast between the changed color of the robes and the unchanged heart, the verb somu (to dye) has been translated here as “change.”
125. The narrator is paraphrasing the words of the yūjo from the conversation they had earlier, in which she said: “… in the evening I think to myself, ‘What will become of me when this night passes?’ And with the break of dawn I think, ‘Once this night has passed I’ll take on a nun’s appearance and make my resolve.’”
126. According to Buddhist legend, the Gion monastery, which was built by a rich merchant in a famous garden in India, was the first monastery in the Buddhist order. It is also said that the temple complex included a building known as the Impermanence Hall, which contained four silver and four crystal bells.
127. The Buddha is said to have died under sala trees, at which time the trees’ blossoms, ordinarily yellow, turned white to express their grief.
128. Pines, turtles, and cranes are symbols of longevity.
129. This is an allusion to Ariwara no Narihira’s death poem, which appears in both the Kokinshū (no. 861) and the final section of The Tales of Ise: “I had heard there is a path that all must follow but didn’t think yesterday that I’d be going today.”
130. The Five Deadly Sins are killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing a Buddhist saint (arhat), injuring the body of a buddha, and harming the Buddhist ecclesiastical community.
131. Saga is an area to the immediate west of the capital.
132. The lovers, two stars known as the Herd Boy and the Weaving Maiden, are permitted to meet on only one night a year, when the Herd Boy crosses the River of Heaven, or the Milky Way, in his boat. Another version of the legend has him crossing over a bridge formed by sympathetic magpies. The occasion, known as Tanabata, takes place on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month, at which time celebrants write their wishes on leaves and dedicate them to the lovers.
133. This is a reference to Chengui, a Tang-period ethical text.
134. According to Buddhist cosmology, the Devil of the Sixth Heaven is the lord of the highest of the six realms of desire and, together with his followers, hinders people from adhering to Buddhism.
135. By becoming the father of an empress, Fujiwara no Fuhito (659–720) was one of the first of his clan to rise to great power in the aristocracy.
136. Emperor Shōmu (701–756, r. 724–749) was famous for his acts of Buddhist piety.
137. The protuberance and the tuft of hair are two of the thirty-two distinguishing marks of the body of the Buddha.
138. The Ten Evil Actions are killing, stealing, commiting adultery, lying, using duplicitous language, slandering, equivocating, coveting, becoming angry, and holding false views.
139. The Kōfuku-ji temple and the Tōdai-ji temple were centers for Hossō school and Sanron school studies, respectively.
140. According to Buddhist mythology, King Udayana was the creator of the first Buddhist statue. Vishvakarman is the patron god of artisans.
141. A phrase used in China to refer to provinces in all four directions.
142. This refers to the Great Buddha of the Tōdai-ji Temple.
143. The Three Treasures of Buddhism are the Buddha, the Buddhist
law, and the community of Buddhist priests.
144. Otagi is a famous crematorium and cemetery in the eastern part of Kyoto.
145. Fujiwara no Shunzei (1114–1204) was a famous poet, scholar, and judge of waka contests.
146. Senzaishū (1187) is the seventh imperial waka collection, edited by Shunzei.
147. In 1271 GoFukakusa was a twenty-nine-year-old retired emperor, and Lady Nijō, fourteen years old, was one of his ladies-in-waiting. According to the lunar calendar, the first day of the new year came in late January or February, marking the beginning of spring.
148. On the first three mornings of the new year, various kinds of spiced saké, specially prepared by the Bureau of Medicine and tasted by young maidens, were formally served to the emperor and certain officials. This ceremony, known as the medicinal offering (onkusuri), was performed to ward off illness in the coming year.
149. The retired emperor suggests that Lady Nijō become his concubine by alluding to The Tales of Ise, sec. 10, in which a mother asks the protagonist to marry her daughter. In the poems they exchange, a wild goose is used as a metaphor for the girl.
150. This seems to be from Akebono, whose relationship to Lady Nijō at this point is unclear. Lady Nijō’s reaction to his gift suggests that their future affair is still in its early stages.
151. Court ladies took turns sleeping outside the room of their master or mistress at night.
152. Kawasaki was an area on the northeastern edge of the capital, just west of the Kamo River.
153. To satisfy complex taboos pertaining to the avoidance of unlucky directions, people were often forced to spend a night away from their permanent residences. This was especially common on the eve of spring, a date determined by a solar calendar rather than the official lunar one.
154. A girl wore shoulder-length hair parted in the middle until her coming-of-age ceremony, when a section of it was tied up on top of her head.
155. This poem from Akebono alludes to The Tales of Ise, sec. 12: “After many earnest declarations of devotion to a certain man, a lady fell in love with someone else. The first man composed this poem: ‘Captured by the gale, the smoke from the salt-fires of the fisherfolk at Suma has drifted off in an unforeseen direction.’”
156. Fujiwara no Masatsune, Shinkokinshū, Love 2, no. 1094.
157. An allusion to Kokinshū, no. 712: “If this were a world without lies, how happy your words would make me.”
158. An allusion to the “Suma” chapter of The Tale of Genji, from a poem Genji composed in exile at Suma when he shed tears of bitterness and affection as he thought about the emperor who had banished him.
159. An allusion to the “Evening Faces” (Yūgao) chapter of The Tale of Genji, from the poem of foreboding that Yūgao composed when Genji, without revealing his identity, took her to a deserted mansion where she later died: “Unaware of the shape of the mountain peak, the moon courses through the sky. Will its light be blotted out?”
160. This was one of the buildings on the grounds of GoFukakusa’s Tomi Street Palace.
161. Fujiwara no Kiyosuke, Shinkokinshū, no. 1843: “Will I live to cherish memories of these days too? What once was sad now seems dear.”
162. Emperor GoToba was banished in 1221 to Oki Island in the Japan Sea for his part in the Jōkyū rebellion.
163. The dawn of salvation, a time in the immensely distant future when Miroku Buddha is to descend to earth to teach salvation.
164. This congratulatory ceremony expressed the father’s recognition of the unborn child.
165. These phrases are from the Chinese poet Bo Juyi’s poem “The Song of Everlasting Sorrow,” which describes the love of the emperor for his concubine Yang Guifei.
166. The eldest son and heir of Nakatsuna, Masatada’s faithful steward.
167. Adashino was a crematorium in the northwest of the capital. The word adashi (impermanent), contained in the place-name, accounted for the frequent use of Adashino in poetry as a symbol of impermanence. The dew also is often used with that meaning.
168. Toribeyama was also another major crematorium in the capital.
169. Mono no aware (literally, “the pathos of things”) is here translated as the “power [of things] to move us.”
170. The holy man of Kume, a legendary figure dating back to the tenth century, had the ability to fly through the air.
171. Fujiwara no Sanesada (1139–1191), a poet.
172. Saigyō (1118–1190), a noted waka poet.
173. Another name for the Tendai temple Myōhō-in.
174. The prince was a son of Emperor Kameyama (1249–1305) and was also known by his Buddhist name, Shōe.
175. According to the Japanese poetic tradition, the scent of orange blossoms (tachibana) was believed to bring back old memories.
176. Sometimes translated as “kerria roses,” a yellow flower.
177. On the eighth day of the Fourth Month, the birthday of Shakyamuni, his statues were anointed with perfumed water. The Kamo Festival was held in the middle of the Fourth Month. Both were summer events because, in the lunar calendar, summer began with the Fourth Month.
178. On the last day of the Sixth Month, the last day of summer, palace officials sent little floats down the Kamo River, intended to symbolize sins accumulated during the year.
179. Tanabata, a feast celebrated on the seventh night of the Seventh Month, commemorated the annual meeting of two stars.
180. Bush clover. The lavender or white flower is traditionally associated with the autumn rains. The turning of the colors of its underleaves is often mentioned in poetry as a sign of approaching winter.
181. For three days, beginning on the nineteenth day of the Twelfth Month, rites were performed at the Seiryōden to purify the sins of the six senses. The names of the Buddhas of the Three Worlds were invoked. Messengers were sent from the provinces in the middle of the Twelfth Month with offerings of the harvest for the imperial tombs.
182. The Expulsion of the Demons (Tsuina) took place on the last day of the year. The next morning, the emperor worshiped the Four Directions and the imperial tombs and prayed for a safe and prosperous year.
183. The last night of the year was one of six times during the year when the dead were believed to return. The Bon Festival preserves that belief today.
184. The Asuka River, a stream near Nara, figures prominently in Japanese poetry. Reference is made here to an anonymous poem in the Kokinshū, “In this world what is constant? In the Asuka River yesterday’s pools are today’s shallows.”
185. These phrases are borrowed from the Japanese preface to the Kokinshū.
186. From a kanshi by Sugawara no Fumitoki (899–981), Wakan rōeishū, no. 548.
187. The palace of the powerful Fujiwara no Michinaga (966–1027).
188. Michinaga lived in this temple after retiring from public office in 1018.
189. The era lasted from 1312 to 1317. The date of the burning of the gate is not known.
190. The formal name of the Amida Hall within the Hōjō-ji, which burned down in 1331, indicating that Kenkō wrote this section before then.
191. Each statue represented one level of paradise.
192. Sixteen feet (jōroku) was the legendary height of the Buddha.
193. Fujiwara no Yukinari (972–1027), known by his artistic name of Kōzei, was a celebrated calligrapher.
194. A building used by Tendai priests for contemplation on the Lotus Sutra.
195. The phrase is borrowed from a Chinese poem by Bo Juyi containing the lines “Even if, by the time you die, you have amassed gold enough to support the North Star, it is not as good as having a cask of wine while you are alive.”
196. The expression is from Zhuangzi, a Daoist philosopher, whose works were widely read by Zen monks of Kenkō’s time.
197. This sentence, too, is from Zhuangzi.
198. A kind of mathematical puzzle. Fifteen white and fifteen black stones are so arranged that eliminating the tenth stone, counting i
n one direction, will result after fourteen rounds in only one white stone remaining. If the count is then resumed in the opposite direction, all the black stones will be eliminated, leaving the one white stone. The Japanese name mamagodate (stepchild disposition) derives from the story of a man with fifteen children by one wife and fifteen by another; his estate was disposed of by means of the game, one stepchild in the end inheriting all.
Chapter 4
THE MUROMACHI PERIOD
The late medieval period extends from the beginning of the Kenmu restoration (1333–1336) to the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, roughly 270 years that can be further subdivided into the Northern and Southern Courts (Nanboku-chō) period (1336–1392), the Muromachi period (1392–1573), and the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573–1598).
In 1333 the Kamakura shogunate was overthrown by warrior forces that rallied to the royalist cause of Emperor GoDaigo (r. 1318–1339). GoDaigo saw the overthrow of the Kamakura shogunate as a mandate to revive what he believed to be the direct imperial rule that had existed before the rise of the Fujiwara regents in the mid-Heian period, the powerful retired emperors in the late Heian period, and the bakufu (military government) in the Kamakura period. The “imperial restoration,” known as the Kenmu restoration, lasted for only three years, until 1336, when a struggle broke out between Nitta Yoshisada (1301–1338) and Ashikaga Takauji (1305–1358), the leaders of two branches of the Minamoto, both of whom had initially rallied to GoDaigo’s cause. In 1336 Takauji defeated Yoshisada and captured Kyoto. GoDaigo fled to Yoshino, in the mountains to the south. Takauji then had a member of another branch of the imperial family named as emperor in Kyoto, making two emperors, one in the north (Kyoto) and one in the south (Yoshino), a situation that was not resolved until 1392 when the two lines were rejoined. Meanwhile, Takauji established a new shogunate, known later as the Ashikaga or Muromachi shogunate (1336–1573), with its offices in the Muromachi quarters of Kyoto.
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