Ryogen
Ryōgen ( Japanese 良 源 ; born October 15, 912 in Torahime, Azai-gun , Ōmi Province (now Nagahama , Shiga Prefecture ); † January 26, 985 ) was a monk of the Japanese Tendai school , who was the 18th abbot and Renewer of the famous Enryaku Temple ( Enryaku-ji ) made a name for itself and has enjoyed religious veneration in popular belief since the Japanese Middle Ages.
Life
Ryogen was born in the 12th year of the motto Engi as the son of the wealthy Kozu family ( 木 津 ). In his childhood he was called Kannonmaru ( 観 音 丸 ) or Hiyoshimaru ( 日 吉 丸 ). At the age of 12 he entered the Tendai School on Mount Hiei ( Hiei-zan ), from where he could overlook both his homeland and the imperial city of Kyoto . Thanks to his intelligence and art of disputation, he quickly rose in the hierarchy above the rank of Naigubu ( 内 供奉 ) and Tendai shuza ( 天台 座 主 , 966) to the highest position of Daisōjō ( 大 僧 正 ) in 981.
The Enryaku Temple, which is important for Tendai Buddhism, lost its main hall and other important buildings due to fires in 935, 941 and 966. In the course of the rapid expansion of the school, the discipline of the monks had also decreased. Ryogen won the support of important personalities at the court of Tennō Murakami and managed a considerably expanded reconstruction of the plant. In 970 he enforced 26 disciplinary rules, which accelerated religious renewal and increased the number of committed novices.
This expansion of forces was vital in the 10th century, because the struggle between the temples and schools for the appointment of the highest temple in the country was bitter and fought out by all means. In 970 Ryogen set up a kind of standing force - initially probably mainly with mercenaries, because one of his disciplinary rules forbade monks to carry weapons. As a result, however, monks also took up arms, especially those who belonged to the lower-ranking 'hall crowd ' ( 堂 衆 , dōshū ). Ryōgen had his entire life with considerable effort to keep this initiated by him militarization under control. The monk warriors ( sōhei ) of the great temples exerted a great influence on the political development of Japan in the following centuries.
Among Ryogen's writings, the treatise on 'Nine Ways to Achieve Rebirth in the Pure Land' ( Gokuraku Jōdo kubon ōjō gi , 極 楽 浄土 九品 往生 義 ) is the first text on the ' Pure Land ' written by a monk of the Tendai school . Ryogen is also known as the teacher of Genshin . He died at the age of 73 and was buried on Mount Hiei.
The imperial court gave him the posthumous name Jie ( 慈 恵 , 'mercy and wisdom'). The rank of daishi (great teacher) was not granted to him, but he rose to Jie Daishi in the course of the history of worship among the population . Since the award took place on the third day of the first month ( gan-getsu ), the name Ganzan daishi ( 元 三 大師 , 'Great Teacher of the Third First') spread.
Ryogen as protector
The veneration of Ryogen, which was already considerable during his lifetime, took on more and more religious traits after his death. Since the Middle Ages he has been ascribed magical powers under many different names, thanks to which he kept disaster away from home and family, and he was classified among the 'disaster-warding great teachers ( Yakuyoke Daishi , 厄 除 け 大師 ). Two forms in particular are common:
'Great Teacher with Horns' ( Tsuno Daishi , 角 大師 ): According to legend, Ryōgen carried out a ceremony to drive away an epidemic deity so intensely that he was emaciated to the skin and bones and finally assumed the shape of a yaksha ( 夜叉 ). Even today, paper amulets with the image of Ryogen in the shape of a horned demon are available in temples of the Tendai School. These are stuck to the house entrance to ward off evils.
'Bean master teacher' ( Mame Daishi , 豆 大師 ): According to other ideas based on the Lotus Sutra , Ryogen is one of the 33 manifestations which the deity Kannon adopts to help people. On these amulet pictures you can see 33 pictures of Ryōgen about the size and shape of a bean, on which the use of the relevant character ( mame , 豆 ) is based. This symbol for bean, in turn, once replaced an identical name mame ( 魔 滅 ) with the meaning 'weeding out the devils / demons / doom'. This probably happened during the Muromachi period , when the custom spread to drive away the disaster in the form of a devil / demon by throwing beans on the occasion of the change of season ( Setsubun ).
A total of 35 statues of the meditating Ryōgen have survived, especially from the Kamakura period; 11 of them have been declared an important cultural asset of Japan .
literature
- Paul Groner: Ryogen and Mount Hiei - Japanese Tendai in the Tenth Century. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 2002 (Studies in East Asian Buddhism 15).
- Daigan Lee Matsunaga, Alicia Orloff Matsunaga: Foundation of Japanese Buddhism; Vol. I; The aristocratic age . Buddhist Books International, Los Angeles / Tokyo 1974.
- Yamada Etai: Ganzan daishi . Daiichi Shobō, Tokyo 1959.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Corporal punishment was forbidden as well as interrupting religious ceremonies and leaving Mount Hiei during the 12-year training.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ryogen |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kannonmaru (childhood name); Hiyoshimaru (childhood name); Jie Daishi (posthumous honorary title); Ganzan Daishi (posthumous popular name); 元 三 大師 (posthumous honorary title, Japanese); 慈 恵 大師 (posthumous honorary title, Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese Buddhist monk, innovator of the Tendai school |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 15, 912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Torahime, Azai-gun , Ōmi Province , now Nagahama , Shiga Prefecture |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 26, 985 |
| Place of death | Enryaku Temple , Hiei-zan , now part of Ōtsu , Shiga Prefecture |