Gannin-bōzu

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The Gannin-bōzu ( Japanese. 願 人 坊 主 ) or Gannin for short were, during the Tokugawa era in Japan, a group of mostly urban ascetic wandering monks who, on a donation basis, carried out ritual practices and wanderings and the like. earned merit in the Buddhist sense for their clients through their actions on behalf of others .

history

The group traced its founding hagiographically to Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159–1189). Even contemporaries suspected this assignment. They were probably created in the years immediately before 1640.

The Tokugawa- Bakufu , who divided society into groups with a fixed status , were suspicious of any kind of traveling people, which was usually assigned to the "subhumans" ( Hinin , 非人 ). The group achieved minimal social recognition through the "Buddhist paintwork". The connection to the Kurama-dera was probably ordered during the Kambun era (1661–79). With their generally very sparse clothing with headbands and loincloths (or only straw rope , 注 連 縄 ), they caused offense, especially in later times. From the eighteenth century onwards, the spiritual part of their activities faded into the background, the Gannin were seen more as wandering (satirical) entertainers of the common people.

The group disappeared like much from “old” Japan in the first years of the Meiji era . The government lifted its special status on August 23, 1873. Numerous gannins had already taken up ordinary professions beforehand. Some of their dances and chants are still practiced today in the Kabuki theater. At some temple festivals , they are re- enacted in historical costumes.

organization

In the late 17th Christian century the group in Edo was 20-30 strong. Its membership is unlikely to have exceeded 4-500 nationwide at its peak around a hundred years later.

The headquarters were in the esoteric Tendai-shū belonging, Kurama-dera ( 鞍馬 寺 ) in the province of Yamashiro . This temple was especially fond of Bishamonts . For the gannins residing in eastern Japan, the subordinate Tōeizan ( 東 叡 山　=  Kan'ei-ji ) was in Edo . Since the Kyōhō reforms (from 1723) all wandering monks had to carry permits.

The control exercised by the superiors in the Kurama-dera was rather nominal. Every three years the functionaries met in the two temples assigned to the group. The Tōeizan sent annual reports for its area of ​​responsibility. Outside the headquarters there was Furegashira ( 触頭 , two for Edo and the eight Kanto provinces). Below were the "group leaders" ( kumigashira ) in places with smaller groups. These leaders also exercised intra-group jurisdiction after a member was punished by secular authorities. Other functionaries with regional responsibilities were "deputies" ( daiyaku ), ōmetsukeyaku ("superintendent") or toshiyori ("elder") and gonin-gumi. The gannin troops usually appeared in groups of 4-6, extremely lightly clad. In the early 19th century, many gannins were married.

In the Kansai

In western Japan, most of the gannins lived in Osaka. In the Nagachi Makihombō district they had accommodation for up to 100 men at the end of the 17th century. A hundred years later, 208 practitioners have been registered. After 1820 they were no longer resident in Kyoto .

In Edo

Inner courtyard of the Tōeizan (c. 1786)

In Edō, the gannin's accommodations were initially in the Bakuro-chō ( 馬 喰 町 ) district. Its registration began at the time of the reconstruction after the Meireki fire (1657). After the group grew, most lived in or around the Shōan-ji ( 正 安 寺 ), Hashimoto-chō District in the 18th century . Travelers and newcomers from the countryside also found comparatively cheap accommodation in their guest houses. Towards the end of the Tokugawa period, groups also lived in Egawa-chō, Shiba Shin'ami-chō (later Kanesugi-chō), Shitaya Yamazaki-chō and the Yotsuya-Tenryūji. The regional officials met twice a year in Tōeizan.

In the countryside

The practices of the gannin wandering in rural areas often approached those of the Yamabushi . Theoretically them, however, the simultaneous membership in a was Shugendō -Orden prohibited. In the provinces the transition of the practices to other types of wandering begging monks was fluid. The surviving documents are sparse, but for the province of Suruga are known gannin associated with the local enko-in in the 18th century. In the province of Kai (Yamashiro) mountains and fields were protected for the farmers. In Owari in the 1820s around 100 gannins lived without a temple connection.

Practices

The distribution (sale) of the talismans ( fuda or hifu ) of the main temple, especially around the New Year, was one of the most important activities. In order to acquire karmic merit for others , they went on pilgrimage ( daisan, 代 参 ), often to Atago, Karasaki and, from the fourth to sixth month, usually to Sumiyoshi Taisha (in Osaka ) or Ōyama. At Ōbon (7th month) the “feeding” of the preta (hungry spirits) was taken care of . Their cleansing rituals ( suigyō ) were very much appreciated : on the thirty coldest days of the year, they bathed naked or doused themselves with ice-cold river water to purify the soul of their client ( dai-gori ). During their begging rounds, during which they did not carry any images of saints with them, they often moved on shoes with high, stilt-like heels ( taka-ashida, 高 屐 ), while at the same time balancing a full bucket on their heads. Other common activities were:

  • Striking gongs ( 鉦 ) often with a Nembutsu invocation.
  • Invocations and prayers to Buddha or Kōjin.
  • Showing statues of Enra ("Lord of Hells"), Awashima Daimyōjin or Buddha, the latter to be poured over ( kambutsu-e, 灌 仏 会 ) on the fourth day of the eighth month.
  • Reading, explaining and / or copying sutras against donations.
  • "Fire insurance:" Houses were symbolically splashed from buckets.
  • Fortune telling ( hakke 八卦 or bokuzei 卜筮 )
  • Writing and delivering intercessions.
  • Performing the Ise ondo singing ( 伊 勢 音 頭 ).
  • Sumiyoshi dance ( 住 吉 踊 り ), Shinto provenance (4th - 6th month)
  • (Mocking) storytelling, often accompanied by music and dance, of the chobokure or chongare type, with the narrator accompanying with two wooden block drums e.g. B. satirical sūtras ( ahodarakyō, 阿 房 陀 羅 経 ) sings.
  • Fundraising for statues to be erected, etc. The focus was on the "eight guardian bodhisattvas" or Fudō .

literature

  • Groemer, Gerald; Authors and Publishers of Japanese Popular Song during the Tokugawa Period; Asian Music, Vol. 27 (1996), No. 1, pp. 1-36
  • Groemer, Gerald; The Arts of the Gannin; Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 58 (1999), pp. 275-320.
  • Groemer, Gerald; A Short History of the Gannin: Popular Religious Performers in Tokugawa Japan; Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 27 (2000), No. 1/2, pp. 41-72.
  • Shinno Toshikazu; Nenzi, Laura; Journeys, Pilgrimages, Excursions: Religious Travels in the Early Modern Period; Monumenta Nipponica , Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 2002), pp. 447-471

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ z. B. in the pieces Bandō Mitsugorō ( 坂 東 三 津 五郎 ) and Keisei Ide no Yamabuki. [1]
  2. ↑ Up to the Meiji era with 19 secondary temples in the area. The Gannin initially used Taizō-in as their headquarters, and after around 1674 Shōsen-in (= later Kichijō-in). Groemer (2000), p. 46f.
  3. ↑ Their control room also worked as police informants. By 1820 there were 800-900 residents of these houses, although it is not clear how many gannins there were (STRGTK, vol. I [as MF in the National Diet Library]). In 1869 there were 550 residents in the Kanda-Hashimoto district ( Shiryō-shū: Meiji shoki hisabetsu buraku; Osaka 1986, p. 70). Since 1662, wandering monks were only allowed one night's accommodation in temples in the capital .
  4. ↑ In what is now Kanagawa Prefecture . There the shrine of Ōyama Sekison and in Taisanji the statue of Fudō Myōō . Open to the public only 6/28 to 7/17, the high point of the pilgrimage on the last three of these days.
  5. ↑ A description from 1691 in Fushimi can already be found in Engelbert Kaempfer .
  6. ↑ Japanese calendar
  7. ↑ On the genre see: Groemer (1996)