Kakuban
Kakuban ( Japanese 覚 鑁 ) alias Kōgyō-daishi ( 興 教 大師 ) (* July 21, 1095 ( Japanese calendar : Kahō 2/6/17) in Fujitsu-no-shō , Hizen province ; † December 12, 1143 ( Japanese. Calendar : Kōji 2/12/12) in the Negoro Temple , Province Kii ) was a Buddhist monk of the Japanese Shingon School, whose reform efforts to split between “Old Shingon Doctrine” ( Kogi Shingon-shū , 古 儀 真言 宗 ) and “New Shingon teachings ”( Shingi Shingon-shū , 新 義 真言 宗 ). He is also known for introducing esoteric invocation formulas ( Shingon-Nenbutsu ).
Life
Kakuban was born about three centuries after the founding of the Japanese Shingon school by Kūkai in Fujitsu-no-shō (Hizen Province; today part of the city of Kashima, Saga Prefecture) as the third of four children and was given the name Yachitose-maro ( 弥 千 歳麿 ). The father, Isa-no-Heiji Kanemoto, was responsible for the administration of an estate that belonged to the Ninna Temple in Kyoto. However, he died when Yachitose-maro was ten years old, which is why he moved to Ninna Temple three years later . His teacher was the renowned Shingon monk Kanjo ( 寛 助 ). On his advice, the young novice dealt with a. with the teachings of Kusha- and Hossō-shū Buddhism in the Kofuku Temple in Nara . At the age of sixteen he received the religious name Shōgaku-bō Kakuban ( 正 覚 坊 覚 鑁 ) from Kanjo and, after further studies in the Tōdai Temple in Nara, full ordination at the age of twenty.
He then moved to the temples in the Kōya Mountains , the most important base of the Shingon school after the Tō temple in Kyoto. Thanks to his scholarship, he attracted the attention of influential families in Kyoto in the following years and was allowed to build the temple Denbō-in ( 伝 法院 , "Hall for the transmission of the doctrine") at the age of 30 under the patronage of Tennō Toba the following year to Dai-Denbō-in ( 大 伝 法院 ) expanded.
Attempts at reform and the schism
Five years later, Kakuban was introduced to the higher areas of Shingon Buddhism through the Abhisheka initiation ritual ( 灌頂kanjō ) . He had probably long been offended by the decline in discipline and corrupted lifestyles of many monks in the Kōya temples. At 36 he felt strong enough to take the initiative. He managed to become chief priest ( zasu , 座 主 ) of the Kongōbu Temple ( Kongōbu-ji ). So he was at the top of the monastic hierarchy of all temples in the Kōya Mountains. But the radicalism of his approach aroused fierce opposition. Kakuban therefore had to give up this position soon and retired to the Mitsugon Hall ( Mitsugon-in , 密 厳 院 ). The conflicts, however, continued.
In 1139 armed opponents burned the Dai-Denbō-in ( 伝 法院 ) temple and a number of subordinate temples, including the Mitsugon Hall. Kakuban and his followers fled to the south of the Kii Peninsula to the Negoro Temple ( Negoro-ji ), which belonged to the lands that the Tennō Toba had given him in 1132. There he died a little later at the age of 49. Subsequent attempts to resolve the conflict, which continued for almost a century, were unsuccessful. In 1288 the monk Raiyu ( 頼 瑜 , 1226-1304) finally transferred the two temples Dai-Denbō-in and Mitsugon-in to Negoro and completed the separation of the "New Shingon Doctrine".
In 1690 Kakuban received from Tennō Higashiyama the posthumous honorary title Kōgyō-daishi ( 興 教 大師 , roughly as much as "Great Teacher of Prosperous Teaching").
Teaching
During his time in the Mitsugon-in Temple, Kakuban wrote a violent complaint about the state of the Shingon School under the title "Religious Confession from the Mitsugon Hall" ( 密 厳 院 発 露 懺悔 文 Mitsugon-in hotsuro zange no mon ). He also wrote numerous papers on the teachings of Kūkai. In his view, the invocation practice of the competing schools of the Pure Land contained elements that he examined in the book "Esoteric Interpretation of Amida" ( 阿 弥陀 秘 釈 Amida hishaku ). He did the same with the mantras used in Shingon Buddhism and introduced the "Esoteric Nenbutsu Ritual" ( 秘密 念 仏 Himitsu Nenbutsu ), later also called Shingon Nenbutsu .
Also known were the writings "Mondliche Meditation" ( Gachirikan , 月 輪 観 ) as well as the "Declaration of the Wonderful Secrets of the Five Rings and Nine Signs" ( Gorin kuji myō himitsushaku 五 輪 九 字 明 秘密 釈 ), which was published in 1141 the "five-step stupa" ( Gorintō , 五 輪 塔 ) strongly stimulated.
Works
- Miyasaka Yūshō (Ed.): Kōgyō Daishi senjutsu-shū. exp. u. verb. Output. Sankibo Busshorin, Tōkyō 1989, OCLC 79598543 . ( 宮 坂 宥 勝 編 注 『興 教 大師 撰述 集』 山 喜 房 仏 書 林 )
literature
- Rolf W. Giebel, Dale A. Todaro; trans .: Shingon texts (PDF) Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley CA 2004, ISBN 1-886439-24-9 .
- Henny van der Veere: A study into the thought of Kōgyō Daishi Kakuban - with a translation of his "Gorin kuji myō himitsushaku" . Hotei, Leiden 2000, ISBN 90-74822-23-1 .
- Miyasaka Yūshō: Kōgyō Daishi no shōgai to shisō. [The life and thought of Kōgyō Daishi]. Sankibo Busshorin, Tōkyō 1992, ISBN 4-7963-0310-3 . ( 勝 又 俊 教 『興 教 大師 の 生涯 と 思想』 山 喜 房 仏 書 林 ).
Remarks
- ↑ Like the European monasteries, the Japanese temples owned lands that in some cases stretched over large areas and also gave the temple in question political influence.
- ↑ Literally as much as "Truly enlightened monk Kakuban". The drawing ban ( 鑁 ) is the Sino-Japanese representation of the mantra Vam .
- ↑ 大 dai means "big".
- ↑ What is meant is a quiet state like the full moon
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kakuban |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Yachitose-maro (childhood name); Kakuban (religious name); 覚 鑁 (religious name, Japanese); Kōgyō-Daishi (posthumous honorary title); 興 教 大師 (posthumous honorary title, Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese Buddhist monk, trigger of a schism in Shingon Buddhism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 21, 1095 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Fujitsu-no-shō (Hizen Province, now Saga Prefecture) |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 12, 1143 |
| Place of death | Negoro (Kii Province, now Wakayama Prefecture) |