The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Preface
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction: Japan’s culture of secrecy from a comparative perspective
	Secrecy in religions: Strategy or contents?
	Cultures of secrecy and historical change
	Secrecy in Japan
	Social practices of secrecy
	The essays in this book
	Notes
	References
Part I: Prologue
	2. Secrets and secrecy in the study of religion: Comparative views from the Ancient World
		The comparative study of religion(s)
		Definitions of secrecy
		The Ancient World
		Final considerations
		Note
		References
	3. The problem of secrecy in Indian Tantric Buddhism
		The difficult analysis of secrecy
		Classical Mahāyānist contributions
		Esoteric Buddhist ritual
		The rhetoric of secrecy
		Conclusion
		Notes
		References
	4. Myth and secrecy in Tang-period Tantric Buddhism
		Esoterism or secrecy?
		What made the “secret teachings” secret?
		“...not to lose words...” – a story of loss
		“... all on board took refuge in me...” – exclusiveness and secretion
		“... it is called secret signs...” – recognitionand words of truth
		Concluding remarks
		Notes
		References
Part II: Japan’s medieval culture of secrecy
	5. Secrecy in Japanese esoteric Buddhism
		The status of the “secret” in esoteric Buddhism
		The esoteric Buddhist episteme
		Transmitting the secrets: The education process of Shingon scholar-monks
		Shittan study and transmission rituals
		Transmission lineages of the esoteric episteme
		Conclusion
		Notes
		References
	6. Reconsidering the taxonomy of the esoteric: Hermeneutical and ritual practices of the Lotus sutra
		Non-esoteric notions of the “secret” in Chinese Buddhism
		The non-esoteric nature of quintessential Tantric concepts
		The esoteric–exoteric secret according to Annen: A Taimitsu synthesis?
		From secret teaching to esoteric teaching: The esoterization of the Lotus sutra
		Esoteric liturgies of the Lotus (hokke hō)
		The Lotus mandala and Taimitsu “threefold Tantrism”: An alternative system of the esoteric?
		“The secret of the kenmitsu”: Closing remarks
		Notes
		References
	7. Knowing vs. owning a secret: Secrecy in medieval Japan, as seen through the sokui kanjō enthronement unction
		Introduction
		The Nijō lineage and the sokui kanjō
		Secret documents and Dharma lineages
		Discussion
		Conclusion
		Notes
		References
	8. Secrecy, sex and apocrypha: Remarks on some paradoxical phenomena
		Introduction
		Juhō yōjin-shū and Tachikawa-ryū: What Tachikawa-ryū is not
		Heresy, forgery and secrecy
		Cross-transmission and the spread of secrecy
		Conclusion
		Notes
		References
	9. Esotericism in Noh commentaries and plays: Konparu Zenchiku’s Meishuku shū and Kakitsubata
		Introduction
		The scholarship on secret Noh treatises
		The historical context
		Esoteric allegoresis in Zenchiku’s treatises on Noh
		Allegoresis in a Zenchiku play
		Conclusion
		Notes
		References
	10. The elephant in the room: The cult of secrecy in Japanese Tantrism
		Vināyaka/Shōten as demon/deva
		Vināyaka as Kōjin, lord of obstacle
		Vināyaka as placenta deity (ena kōjin)
		Notes
		References
	11. Myths, rites, and icons: Three views of a secret
		Introduction
		The Three Sacred Regalia
		The Ten Sacred Treasures
		The Ten Sacred Treasures and the Three Sacred Regalia
		The Sacred Treasures as a mandala
		The end of the Sacred Treasures
		Conclusion: Myth, rite, and icon
		Notes
		References
	12. Two modes of secrecy in the Nihon shoki transmission
		Historical setting
		The Urabe philology of Japanese myths
		Text analysis
		Conclusion
		Notes
		References
Part III: The demise of secrecy
	13. When secrecy ends: The Tokugawa reformation of Tendai Buddhism and its implications
		The intellectual milieu of Tokugawa Buddhism
		The political setting of Tendai Buddhism
		The Anraku reform movement
		Reiku’s Repudiation
		The loss of secrecy
		Concluding remarks
		Notes
		References
	14. Hiding the shoguns: Secrecy and the nature of political authority in Tokugawa Japan
		Shoguns and the power of the dead
		Ceremonies for daimyo
		The reception of the foreign envoys
		The shogun’s women and the culture of secrecy
		Commoners and shoguns
		Conclusion
		Notes
		References
	15. “Esoteric” and “public” in late Mito thought
		Reclaiming esoteric territory
		The efficacy of public ritual
		Efforts at implementation
		Dilemmas of practice
		Notes
		References
Index