CENTERS OF CONSECRATION: JAPAN

Izumo Taisha

Kumano Sanzan

Kasuga-Kofukuji

Dewa Sanzan

Koyasan

INTRODUCTION

This site focuses on five examples of the numerous large-scale temple-monastery-shrine complexes of Japan. The hyphenated term is intended to make a point: to emphasize the interconnectedness of beliefs, practices and multi-referenced figures that developed at these sites. The bridging of Buddhist, Shinto, Shugendo, and individual-focused cults reveals preferences for both inclusivity and exclusivity. To classify Japanese sacred sites in English, scholars have generally reserved the categories "temple" (-ji and tera) and "monastery" for Buddhism and "shrine" (taisha, jinja, daijingu, miya, etc.) for Shinto (the way of the kami). In Japanese, the distinction of tera (-ji) and jingu, jinja, or omiya, etc, is significant, but does not indicate the many and different ways elements from many traditions are combined and interwoven at these "centers of consecration".

The use of tera indicated the intended Buddhist affiliation at a site's founding. Although the main icons and foci of worship may have changed over time, the founders of temples and the various forms of the Buddha consecrated are usually historically verifiable. The world of shrines is much more diverse. The founding of some shrines, such as Meiji Jingu, is clearly known, but for many others, it is difficult and often impossible to document precisely when and by whom they were established. The iconographic world of Buddhism is also much more clear cut. The vast number of sacred figures in Buddhism are represented anthropomorphically, while kami, the central presence(s) at a shrine, most often are not depicted as human figures. The symbols used in shrines have multiple referents that bridge their realities or forms from natural object to unembodied energy. Often their form is an element in nature such as a tree or rock, that is in a space demarcated by a rope. The tree or rock, etc. is the body of the kami called the "shin" (kami) "tai" (body)." Shrines can be temporary or permanent and do not necessarily require buildings at all. They may be only a shelf or offering stand set outdoors and surrounded by a border. The first shrines or places where kami were interacted with were probably sites in the forest. In terms of size, the place/body of kami (shintai) may be vast, such as a mountain, the sun, or a man-made complex with multiple buildings and a large campus. On the other end of the spectrum, there are also 6-inch shrine-altars one can purchase at a center of consecration to place in one's home or business. A shrine is a place where what is "above" (kami) comes down and is honored or recognized.

Since Japanese language has no words for "the" or "a" there is no distinction made between the specific and the "block" noun for kami, kami as object and kami as flowing energy. The plural is indicated by doubling kami to "kamigami." Locating kami is/are indicated by bordering which makes the signifier or symbol used for borders important visual elements in the way of the kami. Anthropomorphic kami are distinguished as male or female, but the gender of kami in general is an interesting question. Mountains, as kami, are primarily thought of as female, as is the sun. The storm kami is male and at Yaegaki Jinja dedicated to the storm kami and his consort, there are numerous phallic images of various sizes. The grounds of Buddhist temples have always included shrines to kami, if only to honor the kami of the particular area in which the temple was constructed. Ceremonies at the death of the body have historically been handled by Buddhist ritual. The spirit that survives is provided a tablet within the Buddhist temple or on the home altar. It is believed that after a specified period of time the spirit will become a kami so symbols used to denote the presence of kami are often found at Buddhist sites. Buddhism introduced the idea/practice of ritually sending the spirit to a Buddha realm or heaven-like world where the spirit would be happy. Angry, unfulfilled spirits are believed to cause many kinds of disasters and have to be propitiated. Devoted followers of Buddhist figures, such as Kannon (the Bodhisattva of Compassion), Amida (the Buddha of the Pure Land) or Lochana (the Great Sun Buddha), pray to be taken into these realms at death. In the case of the death of children, the Bodhisattava Jizo-sama is implored to look after the child in the afterlife of the spirit. The role of Buddhism in providing for the future after death became an inalienable part of Japanese society and customary ritual. The combining of Buddhist and kami elements began at least 1400 years ago. Most people maintain household altars to both Buddhist figures and kami today.

The forced separation of shrine and temple life was in the mid-19th century by the Meiji government at the time they restored the Emperor to the throne. The Meiji program and the political use of Shinto in the first half of the 20th century has had a profound effect on how the Japanese regard "religion' or shukyo. Most Japanese state that they have no membership in shukyo. Another term, shinko, refers to groups who through their faith in a person/deity share a common identity and join in practices. These five sites were chosen because they illucidate and demonstrate more fluid interpretations of "religion/ritual" and approaches to the physical and metaphysical realities that may be more in line with Japanese culture ahistorically and historically. The choice of the phrase "center of consecration" establishes location as the first defining characteristic and allows for spatial and temporal notions that create new understandings of topography, practices, and beings. Each site has been the object of "consecration," whether that denotes the creation of a Buddha realm (Amida, Dainichi or Kannon's world, for example) by ritual demarcation, the recognition of the intrinsic existence of kami at a location, or the invoking of kami into a purified spot or object. Places, as well as spaces, can be seen as having "presence" or "power" as they are. Humans may discover or "feel" this presence and mark it off or bind it behind a line or gateway. As a state or condition (a state of kami presence), the location may be avoided or perhaps entered into or the power intensified and a reciprocal relationship created with it through offerings. Levels of "pollution" and "purity" become operative and regulate the behaviors of religious professionals and worshippers. The act of "consecration" can be defined as a performance that may acknowledge inherent sacredness or may be seen as transforming a thing or place or person through ritual acts, such as purification, sacrifice, treatment of the body, dance/music or offerings.

In a ritual sense, these centers are defined as places of power where divine beings or energies exist. This kind of power can be manipulated, embodied, subdivided, absorbed and transferred. It is sought for healing, protection, or other benefits. The bordering ropes (shimenawa) or other borders of a precinct keep pollutants out and kami energy inside the space. Authority to hold offices, professional religious roles or institutional stewardship at sites has often been established through mytho-histories and belongs to particular families or to lineages of instruction. Extending back in time to an adept or figure of divinity, the claim of relationship with the divine ancestor is supported by ceremonies, practices, and patronage and provides an idiom of empowerment. The imperial family's descent from the sun kami Amaterasu-o-mikami and her center of consecration at Ise Daijingu probably represents the most well-known lineage-based center of consecration and link to divine ancestry. Many other sites, as well, have founding clans who claim descent from a kami at the time of the "age of the gods." The general belief in mountains as other worlds where supernatural beings (ancestors, kami or buddhist figures) exist also supports centers of consecration. A mountain may have been the site of practices before a particular lineage established a center that incorporated the mountain. Shugendo, especially, is named for its association with mountains. Its adherents are called yamabushi or those who sleep on the mountain. Three of the centers of consecration have "mountain" (-san) as part of their names, and the other two have mountains that define them.

The constituency of a center of concentration can be universalized when its kami becomes the object of devotion of people who do not share descent with the original lineage who offered to that kami as their lineage ancestor. In the case of Kasuga Taisha, (the) Daimyojin became the center of such a cult. This kami is a fascinating example of changing identities and the coalescence of several sacred figures. Kumano sanzan also represents a universalization that expanded the reach of divine personages resulting in the consecration of home altars and satellite cultic sites. In such cases the original central site becomes an important object of pilgrimage or part of a linked pilgrimage circuit geographically creating a socio-ritual network over a large area. For example, the Kannon Temple at Nachi is the first in the circuit of 33 Kannon temples in Saigoku (Kansai). These thirty-three temples are both independent and also part of a whole dedicated to Kannon. All five centers of consecration (and there are many others in Japan) have been important pilgrimage centers and loci of ritual practice in Japanese history. Some may have existed for thousands of years as sites of ascetic practices or funerary rites. One theory argues that mountains were locations where bodies of the dead were left and thus were seen as "other worlds" where spirits reside.

All five centers exhibit patterns of ritual practices, political associations, religious tourism, and artistic expression in artifacts, architecture, mythologies and visual arts. They share aspects as well and are linked in different ways. Kumano Sanzan (Nachi Taisha) and Dewa Sanzan (Haguro shrine) share a history as subdivisions of Shugendo or the mountain ascetic tradition of the yamabushi. Izumo Taisha, considered one of the oldest shrines in Japan is historically and mythologically related to Kumano sanzan by association with the kami Susano and the underworld of the dead known as Yomi which stands opposite of the realm of the sun and brightness. Kasuga Taisha and Kofukuji are the shrine-temple complex of the Fujiwara, one of the wealthiest and most influential families in Japanese history. Members of the Fujiwara (a branch of the ancient Nakatomi clan) wrote law codes, held the office of "regent," and were the consorts, mothers, and grandfathers of many emperors in early and medieval Japan. Koyasan, the site consecrated by the Buddhist saint Kobo Daishi to the Buddha Mahavairocana, the Great Sun Buddha (Japanese, Dainichi or Birushana), is the headquarters of Shingon or Esoteric Buddhism and the location of the tomb where Kobo Daishi is said to still be asleep. Residing near him in the mountain necropolis are the spirits of many famous historical figures who are waiting for him to wake up at the coming of the future Buddha, Miroku (Maitreya).

Each center of consecration is understood as a demarcated spiritual-natural world associated with sacred beings and ritual performance. The following are shared: 1) they reveal concepts about and treatment of energy (ies) in relation to space and/or form; 2) they are domains that have been based in estates and lineages or religio-familial relationships, and 3) they express their histories and ethos through myths, legends, and art (painting, poetry, landscape, music, symbolic implements, amulets, costume and/or theater). Underlying the diverse visual forms and prescribed customs are paradigmatic processes of assimilation, re-creation, localization, identification and belonging. The sites function as "territories of culture" or cultic focus where cultural meanings are defined and expressed. The management and structures of the centers have been negotiable over time and rooted in the creation of a world of symbols, customs, roles, patron-client relationships, practices, and economic realities. The beauty of the sites, both natural and designed, is as much a part of the pilgrim's religio-aesthetic experience as the purchase of amulets, catered meals, wearing and use of symbolic clothing, and sharing of time in ritually prescribed customs.

Particularly significant at these sites are patterns of interreligious penetration, synthesis, and invention that interweave long-lived traditions of practice with new historical realities. The belief in gongen (manifestations or avatars) provides the underlying conceptual structure for honji suijaku. Honji (original source) suijaku (generated manifestation), an idea or theory developed in medieval Japan, is a model of and for assimilation by supporting the linking together of figures (cosmic or human) in different traditions. The belief in gongen (divine beings born into this world) and honji suijaku organized the plethora of divinities that by the late Heian period (10th-12th c.) occupied the landscape of sculpture, painting, ritual performance and text. According to this model, kami and divinized humans understood as indigenous to Japan were defined as incarnations of Hindu-Buddhist beings who originated in India. This specific combining of a huge number of beings provided the basis for inter-traditional synthesis at many of the centers of consecration. It also indicated the intercultural awareness of the Japanese, their recognition of the Asian continent, and their desire to fit Japan into a broader view of the world that included China and India. In a ritual sense, it argued for a fluidity of physio-spiritual identity in beings and in physical locations. Local sites were transposed to universal levels of reality and seen as dual and triple realms. And a bewildering number of deities had multiple referents in ryobu shinto (dual Shinto). This assimilation was possible because of the nature of the concept of kami and of the non-exclusivity of Buddhism which incorporated local deities wherever it encountered them. As the myth of the sun kami Amaterasu at her loom symbolizes, kami spirit-energy, the life energy that flows in natural sites, people, animals and things, weaves through and supports all. Trees have abundant kami energy and certain varieties are highly significant for use in ritual and in shrine construction. Any being or thing can be understood in terms of kami so it ontologically provides a gateway and platform for a general pattern of absorption, claiming and indigenizing.

In addition to the kami and other sacred figures whose power defines these sites, they are also supported materially by wealth from devotees and political figures who donated lands and other valuable objects. As institutions, these centers then developed into influential, semi-independent domains or estates with extensive land holdings that were tax-exempt and free from corvee labor requirements. Many of the "mansions" given to the Kumano cults were located along the coast and were tied together not only through cultic practices, but also through the shipping of goods produced on their lands. Remote from Kumano itself, lands and gifts from devotees provided the economic base and network that supported Kumano at the center. Others centers were more loosely organized and focused mainly on ascetic practices by itinerant adepts who remained outside the control of the government or authorized monasteries. The sense of continuity, sacrality and community of practitioners at these sites was rooted in the belief in the intrinsic power of the site itself and practitioners who identified themselves with it.

Another form of relatedness and continuity can be seen in specific religio-economic roles. For example, when a family controlled a center of consecration, its family members often became the head priests or monks. Some centers attracted populations of practitioners or ascetics who became identified with a site and aided pilgrims. In his book Shugendo, Miyake Hitoshi explains the development of the sendatsu at Kumano Sanzan who functioned as a broker in the world of pilgrimage and religious tourism starting in the 11th century. Sendatsu combined their ritual knowledge with expertise in creating relationships with patrons interested in visiting Kumano. This eventually expanded to other mountain sites. The patrons supplied the financial support and the sendatsu originally set up the guides (oshi) for the ritual tours. The patrons as pilgrims needed specialized knowledge about behaviors regarding purification, protocols, how to pray, routes of travel, accommodations, ritual accoutrements, and sacred beings. They then became client-pilgrims seeking healing, benefits, or solutions to difficult problems. The more the Kumano sanzan gongen cult spread in medieval Japan, the greater the necessity for the sendatsu and oshi to shepherd the local villager or aristocratic warrior family or the temple priest and nun through the Kumano pilgrimage experience. Permanent relationships between patron families and sendatsu and oshi families developed even to the point that the rights to guide specific patrons became contractual. These contracts extended over time, could be sold, and could serve as collateral. Some sendatsu had their own disciples and acted as spiritual masters. Family members of sendatsu spread out around the country creating a network for marketing the Kumano pilgrimage and the gongen cult. For instance, they could be invited to set up a Kumano shrine in a devotee's house or on their estate.

The sendatsu eventually organized into institutional groups. Their power was based in their religio-economic role which was outside government or monastery control until, in 1613, the Tokugawa Shogunal government passed the Shugendo Hatto (Shugendo Law) that applied to Kumano which recognized only two Shugendo groups, the Honzan sect of Shogoin and the Tozan sect of Daigo Sanboin. This law required that all shugenja or yamabushi practitioners be members of one of the two sects. The model for the institutionalizing process for Shugendo began at Kumano with the professional sendatsu as broker with his knowledge and experience in ritual practice, his relationships with patrons who wanted to participate in activities in the highly charged "other world" of Kumano, and the spread and solidification of links among sendatsu families.

Another integrating factor of the centers of consecration is the mandala, a sacred diagram that portrays physical space and/or cosmic space visually. In actuality, at centers of consecration the physical place is understood as cosmic space. And mandalas, too, were sacred space. There were various kinds of mandalas. Some were geometric schemes of spatially organized sacred beings set according to the cardinal directions. (see Gallery 2) Others used symbols, glyphs or letters to represent the sacred beings. Pilgrimage mandalas, such as the 16th-century Nachi Pilgrimage Mandala, were painted maps that depicted the layout of buildings, topographic features, and divine and historical figures involved in numerous activities. The pilgrimage mandalas were portable and carried by intinerant holy people who engaged listeners in the beliefs, codes, and personages of the pilgrimage site by using the mandala as illustration. The mandala provided a basis for narratives and sermons. Generally rooted in a totalizing vision, mandalas sometimes represented the unified cosmic world of a divine figure, such as the Womb Mandala of Shingon with the Dainichi Buddha (Great Sun Buddha) at the center and the many figures surrounding him. Other mandalas were a visual means of presenting honji suijaku by including various figures that were identified across traditions. A third type of mandala presented a unified view by collapsing time and portraying all figures who had an important relationship with a site regardless of historicity or era. As paintings, mandalas could be very literal or very stylized. The Kasuga Taisha Mandala shows the five kami that make up Kasuga Daimyojin as gigantic figures standing before their separate shrine buildings. (see Gallery 2)

A major reason for focusing on the these centers of consecration is to point out the impact of the Meiji Government program (mid-19th through the early 20th centuries) on the diverse world of sites, large and small, in centralizing and redefining the religio-political landscape in regard to personnel, estate ownership, conventions of practice, and affiliation. The Meiji Government created a calendar of national ritual observances and criminalized practitioners and behaviors that were outside their control. It wasn't the first time in Japanese history that the central government was concerned with controlling independent and powerful religious individuals, groups, and sites and using their organizational structures for its own ends. The interrelationship of religious and political goals and institutions is a consistent theme from ancient times. Throughout Japanese history many powerful religious leaders have been exiled and their followers killed.

The Meiji program 1) prohibited worship of gongen (avatars) which had provided the conceptual and ritual basis for accepting the multiple identification of figures across traditions, 2) enforced the separation of Buddhism and Shinto, 3) defrocked Buddhist priests, 4) forbade "monks" (officially ordained and independent) from officiating at shrines as they had done for centuries, 5) forbade yamabushi from managing shrines, 6) made registration at Shinto shrines compulsory (eventually lifted), 7) forced all Shugendo sects to become either Tendai or Shingon Buddhist, 8) abolished performance by the imperial household of Buddhist ceremonies (for centuries a new emperor was consecrated as a Dharma king responsible for supporting Buddhist Law), and 9) encouraged Shinto funerals. Funerals had been performed primarily in Buddhist contexts. The Meiji Department of Shinto planned and carried out a forceful shaping of a new (but "ancient") State Shinto and 13 Sect Shinto groups. Forming a "sect" was a way to adjust to government control. Izumo Taisha developed a kyo (church) called Izumo Oyashirokyo which was defined as a Shinto sect. In the newly organized Shinto, Meiji bureaucrats gave all sermons and decided who could be licensed as kannushi (priests) and miko (female oracles).

In the 19th c. the impact on temples, shrines and Shugendo/Yamabushi sites was dramatic. Power to control and make decisions was usurped by the government. Since the Meiji constitution guaranteed freedom of religion to its citizens, the cult of the emperor had to be declared a "non-religious," nationalistic, moral system along the lines of Confucian social philosophy. Membership in shrines became a "civic" duty. By government edict the Meiji re-designed education to emphasize propriety, duty and loyalty to the parental leader of the country (the Emperor). The Emperor was declared as equal to Heaven, not serving under Heaven as the Chinese emperor did. Ryobu Shinto (the Shinto-Buddhist amalgam), and its 1000-year history, was officially banned. The goal of the Meiji program was to create a unified civic religion centered on a divine monarch. It feared the power of independent charismatic healers and adepts and their ritual practices. Buddhism and Shugendo interfered with the single focus on kami and the centralizing discourse of the divine imperial institution. To recreate the religio-political role of the emperor, the Meiji constructed a hierarchy of shrines that supported him. With the separation of religious and governmental institutions at the end of WWII and the subsequent enforcement of the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom, many groups that had been suppressed, revived and expanded and new charismatic leaders arose creating a new generation of New Religions.

Some scholars categorize the practices of mountain worship and popular pilgrimage, important at these five centers of consecration, "folk religion." Healers and oracles and ritual access to powerful beings were certainly very popular. However, the term "folk" in English may not be as useful as it might seem at first. "Folk" is often contrasted with "aristocratic" or "cultured," and refers to the people taking part in or inventing an art or practice. In Heian and Kamakura Japan all segments of the population from court aristocrats to emperors to merchants and fisherman took part in pilgrimage and visits to these centers. Kasuga Taisha may represent a more aristocratic case because it is the shrine of the ancestor of the Fujiwara family who were an important court lineage. These centers of consecration could be looked at as defining a kind of religiosity, a way of participating in an environment of power. All the sites can be seen as arenas of struggle between the institutional and the non-institutional or between the authority of the properly initiated and the independent practitioner. A large number of independent adepts called hijiri traveled the countryside. Japanese history is a study in the rise of independent charismatic religious healers with strong political agendas who became threats to the court or shogunal powers. The founders of the New Religions in the 19th and 20th centuries continued this pattern. The founders created their own pragmatic combinations of elements of the old and the new, often from multiple traditions. Their teachings and rituals helped their adherents in specific instrumental ways. As "inventors" of a cultural idiom with a popular following these religio-social leaders skillfully applied an understanding of the processes of change and renewal through assimilation, redefinition, and reciprocity. They became sites of power themselves and formed their own centers.

Over time, these five centers of consecration have provided the opportunity for direct contact with renewing, healing, or saving power whether that is seen as derived from kami, Buddhist figures, or divine-human ritual experts. In the spirit of honji suijaku, these sites provided an integrated and complex pantheon of beings to aid clients and pilgrims. The determination of the sources and manifestations of these beings was fluid. The same manifestion of power could be seen as derived from different sources. And the same original form could take more than one appearance. Moreover, at the same site, the origin claimed for a local kami could differ according to opinion over time. (see Kasuga-Kofukuji) The Meiji program of modernization tried to use this pattern of renewal but from the top down. Their taking of control required redefinition and change in the socio-political use of Buddhism which by the Meiji era was inseparably woven into Japanese culture and society. The Meiji response was to incorporate a new order with a strong Confucian emphasis on scholarship and duty and to articulate a new model for/of Shinto identity. These five centers of consecration had already existed through centuries of political relationships and economic vicissitudes. At times, such as in the medieval period, sites like Kumano were tremendously popular and were visited by so many people that the pilgrims were likened to a long line of ants. Religion, ritual, politics, and economics, and family were all interrelated. These sites have often represented an impetus to assimilate and connect traditions, people, geography and ideology. At the same time, the sites show differing levels of inclusivity and exclusivity. What is assimilated and what is kept out? If the external is allowed inside how can it be controlled and represented? How can assimilation occur without losing an "original" self? An exploration of these sites may illuminate aspects of Japan's religious culture that are enduring and fundamental and comtinue today.

Click on the thumbnails at the top for a description of each site and more photos. The eventual goal is to design a course and a monograph based on centers of consecration. And to expand the number of examples. Apologies for the lack of diacritics for the Japanse and Sanskrit. Not sure how to do it on the web yet.

poems & prayers