En no Gyōja

En no Gyōja in a manga by Hokusai (ca.1819)

Statue of En no Gyōja at the Kimpusen Temple (Kimpusen-ji), Yoshino (Nara Prefecture). On the left the male demon Zenki with an ax, on the right the female demon Goki with a water vessel

Figure group with Shōbō alias Rigen Daishi (left), En no Gyōja with the pair of demons serving him and Zaō Gongen (right)

En no Gyōja ( Japanese 役 行者 , dt. " Asket En"; * 634 in the province of Yamato ; † about 700), also called En no Ozunu / Ozuno ( 役 小 角 ), is a legendary ascetic, healer and magician of the Japanese Antiquity . The Buddhist name E no Ubasoku ( 役 の 優婆塞 , "lay monk En") arose after his death. In 1799 he was given the posthumous name Jinben Daibosatsu ( 神 変 大 菩薩 ) by the Tennō Kōkaku . The Japanese mountain ascetics ( Yamabushi ) revere him as the ancestor of Shugendō .

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The only sources that give the figure of En no Gyōja a certain historicity are the Shoku Nihongi (continuation of Nihongi from the eighth century) and the Nihon Ryōiki (Record of Miracles in Japan) from the ninth century. All other texts give later classifications and narratives.

According to the Nihon Ryōiki , En no Gyōja was said to be in the village of Kayahara, Katsuragi no Kami no Kōri (Upper Katsuragi District), Yamato Province ( 大 和 国 葛 木 上郡 茅 原 村 ; today Gose , Nara Prefecture ) as a child of the Kamo no E family no Kimi ( 加 茂 役 公 , also 賀 茂 役 君 ) have been born. His family, who later provided the priests of Kamo Shrine , had produced herbalists and healers for generations. He also continued this tradition.

He is said to have later gone to the Katsuragi Mountains and climbed numerous holy peaks during his exercises, which took him to the region around Yoshino and Ōmine . According to the Shoku Nihongi , he subjugated two fierce demons ( 鬼神 , kijin ) who fetched water and collected firewood for him. After one of his students named Karakuni no Muraji Hirotari (韓国連 広 足 ) accused him of causing unrest among the people with harmful magic, he was exiled to the province of Izu in 699 . The exile and its background are recorded in the Shoku Nihongi . Possibly the story goes back to a dispute over mercury deposits in the mountain region he used.

Although there is no historical evidence for this, En no Gyōja is considered the founder of Shugendō , a syncretistic religion shaped by Shintoism , Daoism and Shingon - Tendai Buddhism. The followers of this school, called Yamabushi , refer to his practices for their ascetic exercises in the mountains . The contribution of the monk Shōbō , called Rigen Daishi, is historically significant not only because of his connection between Shugendō and the concepts of esoteric Shingon Buddhism, but also because of his founding of temples and exercise paths ( Ōmine Okugakemichi ) in the region around Yoshino-yama .

Influential legends

In the Katsuragi Mountains En no Gyōja comes across a skeleton that comes from him from a previous existence. Maitreya reveals to him the mantra of Kujaku Myōō ( 孔雀 明王 ), with which he releases the vajra from the hand of the skeleton.

On the "Gold Summit Mountain" (Kimpusen) the avatar Zaō Gongen reveals himself to him , who later became one of the main deities of Shugendō. The name of the Kimpusen Temple ( Kimpusen-ji ) refers to this revelation.

Mantra

on gyakugyaku ennōbasoku arankya sowaka ( 唵 虐 虐役 優婆塞覧 佉 莎 訶 オ ン ギ ャ ク ギ ャ クエ ン ノ ウ ウ バ ソ クア ラ ン キ ャ ソ ワ カ )

literature

• Hartmut O. Rotermund: The Yamabushi: Aspects of their faith, life and their social function in the Japanese Middle Ages
• Japanese Journal of Religious Studies , 1989, Vol. 16, No. 2/3 (Shugendo and Mountain Religion in Japan)
• Thomas Immoos: The Yamabushi dance ritual and a ritual of rebirth in the Yamabushi-Kagura . In: Communications of the German Society for Natural and Ethnological East Asia ， Volume L. Tokyo 1968 ， pp. 1–25.
• Hakim Aceval: Cyber-Yamabushi: En-no-Gyôja in the Japanese-language Internet (www): Traditional religious concepts on the Internet using the example of an ancient Japanese founder of religion . Vdm Verlag, 2007, ISBN 3-8364-5090-9

Web links

• Mark Schumacher: Shugendo. AZ Photo Dictionary of Japanese Sculpture and Art ; including detailed discussions of Japanese religious history
• Bernhard Scheid: The En no Gyōja legend. Religion-in-japan

Remarks

1. ↑ Originally, the group of figures was in a cabinet with shoulder straps (jap. Oi ) that the Yamabushi carried around during their retreat in the mountains.
2. ↑ Gyōja ( 行者 ) means something like "walking", ascetic.
3. ↑ Another name E no kimi ozunu ( 役 君 小 角 ) mentioned in Shoku Nihongi is out of use today.
4. ↑ From Sanskrit upāsaka ; a non-ordained devout Buddhist. This designation is also interpreted as an indication of his outsider position in Buddhist circles.
5. ↑ About as much as "miraculous, great Bodhisattva "
6. ↑ The pictures therefore usually show him together with these two demons, Zenki ( 前 鬼 , lit. front demon) and Goki ( 後 鬼 , lit. rear demon).
7. ↑ Shoku Nihongi, maki 1, Monmu Tenno 3rd year, 5th month, Hinoto ushi ( 『続 日本 紀』 巻 第一 文 武天皇 三年 五月 丁丑 条 ). The description originated about a century after the death of En no Gyōja.
8. ↑ One of the Kings of Wisdom, Sr. Mahāmāyūrī