ruben l.f. habito - tendai hongaku doctrine and japan’s ethnocentric turn - p. 374

Tendai Hongaku Doctrine andJapan’s Ethnocentric Turn

Ruben L. F. HABITO

ONE OF HAKAMAYA NORIAKI’S early essays presenting his thoughtson Critical Buddhism was given as a talk at a Buraku LiberationCenter in Osaka.1 In it he examines discriminatory attitudes and

language within the Sõtõ Sect and traces their roots to hongaku shisõ, orthe doctrine of originary enlightenment.2 He has ampli³ed thesethoughts in subsequent essays, and his position can be summarized as fol-lows: hongaku shisõ is to be rejected as a pernicious way of thinking thatharbors and abets attitudes not only of social discrimination but also ofcultural chauvinism and ethnocentrism.3

The surge of militaristic nationalism in the late nineteenth and earlytwentieth century, which motivated Japan to invade and colonize neigh-boring Asian countries and which eventually led her to an aggressor’s rolein the Second World War, can be seen as an outcome of these attitudes.Further, these problematic attitudes were not eradicated with Japan’sdefeat in the war, but were even further fanned by the economic successesJapan has enjoyed since the postwar years, continuing up to the present.

This same set of attitudes also serves to bolster and maintain the hier-archical structure of Japanese society, often depicted as a pyramid withthe Tennõ4 at the top. It is within this hierarchical structure that certaingroups (such as Koreans, Chinese, and Southeast Asians residing in Japan,as well as members of the groups traditionally treated as outcasts in soci-ety, namely those who come from the hisabetsu-buraku or discriminatedcommunities) are treated as second- or third-class citizens.

The key point here is that these problematic attitudes of culturalchauvinism, ethnocentrism, and social discrimination, connected withmany of Japan’s past and present social ills, ³nd their roots in a mode ofthinking nurtured in the Japanese Buddhist tradition, that is, the doctrine

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of originary enlightenment (hongaku shisõ). Developed in medievalTendai circles, this doctrine and the way of thinking associated with itcontinued to inµuence various aspects of Japanese culture and societyfrom the medieval period on.5

Here we will not take up the intricate philosophical arguments pre-sented by Hakamaya. Rather, this essay is offered as an excursus that mayshed light on possible historical connections between Japanese ethnocen-tric attitudes and Tendai hongaku shisõ. The ³rst section will present arough outline of this Tendai doctrine of originary enlightenment. Thesecond section will highlight the shift in Japanese consciousness thatoccurred around the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, a shiftthat we may call an “ethnocentric turn,” discernible from a comparison oftwo texts dealing with Japan’s imperial lineage: the Gukanshõ (written bythe Tendai monk Jien around 1219) and the Jinnõ shõtõki (written byKitabatake Chikafusa between 1339 and 1343). The third section willexamine other late-thirteenth-century texts that corroborate this shift inthe understanding of Japanese identity. Our fourth (³nal) section willoffer reµections on the possible link between this ethnocentric turn andthe Tendai doctrine of originary enlightenment.

TENDAI HONGAKU DOCTRINE IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN

It was the work of Tamura Yoshirõ, who held the Chair of JapaneseBuddhism at the prestigious University of Tokyo in the 1970s, thatbrought wide attention to the signi³cance of the Tendai doctrine of orig-inary enlightenment (hongaku) in Japanese cultural, social, and religioushistory. Here we will present only the barest outline of the subject.6

In brief, the doctrine of hongaku shisõ involves an absolute af³rma-tion of this world of phenomena—this world of birth-and-death—as thevery embodiment of the perfection of Buddhahood itself. The followingpassages illustrate this kind of af³rmation.

As one thinks of attaining Buddhahood, of inevitably becoming born inthe Land of Bliss, one is to think this way: My very mind—this itself isthe truth of Suchness. As one thinks that the Suchness that pervadesthroughout the Dharma-realm is my own body, then I myself am theDharma-realm, and one is not to think that there is anything other thanthis. As one is enlightened on this, the myriad Buddhas of the Dharma-realm and all the bodhisattvas all dwell within my very body. Apart from

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my own body, looking for Buddha elsewhere is to lack the realizationthat my very own body is Suchness itself. If I realize that Suchness and Iare one and the same thing, Š„kyamuni, Amit„bha, Bhai¤ajya-guru, andall the myriad Buddhas of the ten directions, Samantabhadra, Mañjušr‡,Avalokitešvara, Maitreya, and the myriad bodhisattvas are not apart frommy very own body.7

Therefore, we are the body of Suchness: as one thinks thus, in theevening and in daylight, in action, standing still, sitting and lying down,without forgetting, and keeps it in one’s mind, there is no doubt aboutthe fact that this very body itself is the Buddha. If so, then, believing inthe teaching of the Esoteric (Shingon) sect, wherein one is enjoined tothink: “I am Mah„vairocana,” this very body itself is Buddha. All myactions and movements become the sign of Suchness. Therefore, everyutterance of the tongue, every word, is itself true mantra. Every form ofthe body, every movement, is itself the secret mudra. Every thought andevery memory is the Central Point of Veneration (honzon). Every delu-sive idea and thought is itself Esoteric contemplation. Have this mind inyou, do not forget: keep it in mind, this very body itself is Buddha. Imyself am Suchness. I myself am Mah„vairocana.8

The doctrine of originary enlightenment expressed in its most extremeform is an af³rmation of this ordinary human being as such, full of desiresand delusions and imperfections, as nothing less than the perfection ofBuddhahood itself. In other words, it af³rms that this very self is Buddha,that there is nothing that is not Buddha, and that what is called “attain-ment of Buddhahood” is nothing but realizing the fact that one already isBuddha just as one is. Consequently, to aspire to Buddhahood in the con-ventional sense, that is, by leaving home, entering a monastery, taking uprigorous discipline and religious practice of meditation, is to pursue a mis-guided ideal if one does so thinking that one could thereby become whatone is not (that is, a Buddha).

On the basis of this logic, Š„kyamuni—the historical Buddha whowas born in India and who attained enlightenment after years of arduouspractice, who taught the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path andestablished the sangha—is considered only a “provisional” Buddha, aswith the other Buddhas named in the sutras. This very body, here andnow—this is the real Buddha.

This extreme form of the doctrine of originary enlightenment couldeasily (and has) become an excuse for religious laxity or the abandonmentof practice altogether, or could lead to rationalizations of immoral or irre-

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sponsible behavior. The doctrine thus came under severe criticism fromserious Buddhist practitioners, such as the Tendai monk HõchibõShõshin (twelfth century) and Zen Master Dõgen (1200–1253).9

Tamura Yoshirõ has demonstrated how the founders of the newBuddhist movements of the Kamakura period (notably Hõnen, Shinran,Dõgen, and Nichiren), having spent part of their religious careers asmonks at the Tendai training center on Mt. Hiei, came to know of thisdoctrine in some way or other, and formulated their core teaching eitheras a reaction to or under some form of inµuence of this doctrine, and howit was indeed a pervasive inµuence in Japanese medieval society.10 KurodaToshio has noted how this doctrine came to serve an ideological buttressfor the religiopolitical establishment (kenmon taisei) of the medieval period,characterized by an intertwining power structure involving mutuallyadvantageous ties among elite groups, including the imperial court andruling families, the military class, and religious leaders based in their tem-ples with huge landholdings (shõen).11 In short, the absolute af³rmationof this-worldly reality that was the central thrust of this doctrine of origi-nary enlightenment served to provide religious legitimation to the politi-cal and economic structure of the time, bolstering an “orthodoxy” basedon the convergence of political, economic, and religious interests of theruling elite.12

In the next two sections we will look at historical documents thatreµect features of Japanese mentality from around the thirteenth to earlyfourteenth centuries, as a basis for considering the role of hongakuthought in Japanese history.

THE GUKANSHÕ AND THE JINNÕ SHÕTÕKI

The Gukanshõ and the Jinnõ shõtõki, written roughly a century apart, bothdescribe the reigns of Yamato rulers and emphasize their continuity in theline of succession. Both provide a list of the successive Japanese Tennõwith descriptions of their reigns, but each in its own way is written with aparticular intent, that is, to demonstrate a particular theme or argue a casein point addressing issues faced by its author’s contemporaries.

The running theme in the Gukanshõ is the elucidation of the cosmicprinciples (dõri) for the governance of the land of Japan, based on fol-lowing the will of the gods. The “will of the gods” being argued for inthis case is in favor of a policy of cooperation between the imperial


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courtiers and the military rulers who have set themselves in positions ofpower in Kamakura.

The point to note here is that the gods are depicted as taking specialconcern for the welfare of the inhabitants of this land ruled in direct suc-cession by the descendants of Jinmu Tennõ. It is in this connection, thatis, referring to Japan as a country especially under the protection of thegods, that the term shinkoku is used. In short, the special favor the godsconfer over the land of Japan is directly linked to the fact that it continuesto be ruled by a descendant of Jinmu, at whose service many of the pre-sumed intended readers of the Gukanshõ (that is, imperial courtiers andothers sympathetic to the court in Kyoto) ³nd themselves to be.

The guiding concern of the Jinnõ shõtõki, on the other hand, is thelegitimation of the lineage of the Southern court ruled by the TennõGodaigo, at that time set in direct political and military conµict with itsNorthern rival. In other words, the emphasis on the direct line of succes-sion of Tennõ since ancient times up to Godaigo is linked with the claimthat “the gods are on our side,” as opposed to the usurpers in theNorthern court.

The following are some notable features of the Gukanshõ:First, its geographical view is very much based on traditional

Buddhist cosmology, which places the center of the world at Mt. Sumeru.The Buddhist dharma is depicted as spreading outwards from this center,from Jambudv‡pa (the Indian subcontinent), eastwards to China, andthen to Japan. Thus Japan is presented as on the outer fringes of this cos-mos, as a “peripheral land” (hendo).

Second, its view of history is based on the Buddhist notion of theLatter Age of Dharma (mappõ). There appears also a view that Japanwould have a hundred rulers (hyaku-õ) before the coming of the end. It isin this light that the opening lines of the treatise can be understood:“Now we are on the eighty-fourth reign and not many more are left.”13

The implication here is that the movement of history is that of decline,and that the only way to stem the decline temporarily is to manage theaffairs of the state according to cosmic principles (dõri) as ordained by thegods. It is to elucidate these principles and to persuade the reigningauthorities to abide by them, and thus bring the chaotic states of affairscharacteristic of the times to some semblance of order, that served asmotivating factors in the writing of the Gukanshõ.

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In sum, in this treatise, the term shinkoku does not appear to presentany signi³cant development in meaning since its use in the Nihon Shoki,wherein it simply referred to Japan as a land that the gods favored andwhose governance they took an active interest in as it continued to beruled by a direct descendant of Jinmu.14

With the Jinnõ shõtõki written a century later, however, we ³nd amarked change in the image of Japan. First, Japan is no longer describedas in the periphery of the Buddhist cosmology, but is now depicted as atthe center of the world, still using the imagery from the same cosmologybut now reversing it in Japan’s favor:

Japan is in the ocean off the continent of Jambu. The Great TeacherDengyõ of Mt. Hiei and High Priest Gomyõ of Nara both wrote thatJapan is the “central land.” This would make it the land of C„marabetween the southern and eastern continents. Yet the Avata½saka Sutrasays: “In the ocean to the northeast is a mountain. It is called Diamond(kongõ) Mountain.” This seems to refer to Mt. Kongõ of Japan, andtherefore indicates that our country is situated in the ocean to the north-east of both India and China. As a land apart, it has been independentlyruled by a divinely descended line of sovereigns.15

Secondly, the view of the future based on the acceptance of decline inthe Gukanshõ gives way to an optimistic prospect of an eternal reign ofthe descendants of Amaterasu. For example, dispelling a popular“(mis)conception” that the imperial regalia had been destroyed or lost inthe past during those troubled times in which the reigning Tennõ werebesieged by enemies, the Jinnõ shõtõki af³rms:

People must be clearly informed about the nature and history of theimperial regalia. One hears that those not so informed believe the mirrormet destruction in either the Tentoku or Chõkyð eras of the ancient age,and that the Kusanagi sword was lost in the sea at Dannoura. This isabsolutely untrue. We regard the original regalia as absolutely vital to thevery existence of our country and as the seed bed of its virtue. So long asthe sun and the moon continue to traverse the heavens, we can be securein the knowledge that none of the regalia is missing. How can there beany doubt about this when Amaterasu in her mandate has stated: “Theimperial institution shall prosper eternally with heaven and earth them-selves”? We must continue to have absolute faith that there will be suchprosperity in the future.16


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This is a signi³cant point to note, in that the Jinnõ shõtõki appears to havecast aside the consciousness of the Latter Days of Dharma that character-ized twelfth- and thirteenth-century thinking, and that lay in the back-ground that led to the rise of the noted new Buddhist movements of theKamakura period. In place of this consciousness of a degenerate age, we³nd an optimism toward the future that is grounded in the faith that thegods will continue bestowing their favor on this land.17

On the above two points, then, namely in the shift in Japan’s place inthe cosmological scheme from periphery to center, and in the displacementof the pessimistic sense of the “latter days” giving way to an optimisticvision of a prosperous future for Japan, we ³nd the marked difference inthe view of Japanese identity in the Gukanshõ and the Jinnõ shõtõki.

Another aspect that shows a marked difference in the attitude to self-identity that sets the Jinnõ shõtõki apart from its predecessor is thatshinkoku Nippon is also understood as including the sense of sacrednessboth of the land as well as of the people inhabiting it. In other words, inthe Gukanshõ as well as in previous writings that refer to the termshinkoku, it is presented on rather abstract terms as based on the favoraccorded by the gods toward the land of Japan and on the fact that thedescendant of the gods continues to “rule” the land (as Tennõ).18 TheJinnõ shõtõki in contrast presents a very concrete and vivid picture of thisdivine blessing, describing the sacredness of the land itself, with all thegifts of nature therein, as well as the divine lineage of the inhabitantsthemselves.

The rice we daily eat is an imperial bene³ce, and the pure well water wedrink each day is a blessing from the gods.19

The people of the land (tenka= literally, “under heaven”) are all childrenof the gods. The gods have thus made it their earnest wish (hongan) tobring people’s lives to true peace and contentment.20

This sense of sacredness of the land and the people is a new feature in theunderstanding of the term shinkoku. This is a sense referred to in theJinnõ shõtõki that we can also ³nd expressed in other writings composedaround this time, one that was not fully manifest in previous writings.21

There is another difference to be noted: although the term shinkokuappears in both treatises, the latter presents it as an expression that pro-claims Japan’s superiority over other countries known at the time. Forexample, the author compares Japan with India and China, and refers to

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the creation stories and the vicissitudes of history characteristic of each.

In our country alone, the imperial succession has followed in unbrokenline from the time when heaven and earth were divided until the presentage. Although, as inevitable within a single family, the succession has attimes been transmitted collaterally (katawara yori), the principle has pre-vailed that it will invariably return to the direct (sei) line. This is entirelythe immutable mandate of Amaterasu, and is the reason why Japan dif-fers from all other countries.22

To summarize, there is a marked shift in attitude that has taken placebetween the Gukanshõ and the Jinnõ shõtõki regarding the understandingof Japan and its place in the world. From being in the periphery (hendo)of the known world, Japan is now placed at the center of the cosmos.From being in a “latter age of the dharma” that is only heading towardfurther degeneration, the land of Japan is af³rmed as going toward a glo-rious and prosperous future with the blessing of the gods. Further, themeaning of Japan as divine land has now advanced one signi³cant step: inaddition to the understanding of shinkoku as a land favored by the godsand as a land wherein the descendants of the gods “rule” in unbrokensuccession, the sense of the sacredness of the land and the people of Japancomes to the fore in the latter treatise. These three aspects in the under-standing of shinkoku Nippon become the basis for af³rming Japan’s supe-riority over other countries in the world.

Great Japan is the divine land. The heavenly progenitor founded it, andthe sun goddess bequeathed it to her descendants to rule eternally. Onlyin our country is this true. There are no similar examples in other coun-tries. This is why our country is called the divine land.23

This raises a question: is the difference in the view of Japanese self-identity between the Gukanshõ and the Jinnõ shõtõki as described abovesimply a difference in the individual perspectives of the respective authorswho happened to write a century apart, or is this difference one thatreµects at least to some degree a change in the social awareness of thetime? If the latter is the case, a concomitant question is: what were thefactors that brought about this change?

A thorough examination of the events and features of Japanese societyaround this period from the early thirteenth to the early fourteenth cen-tury based on available evidence is necessary to answer the above ques-tions properly. My suggestion is that the difference was more than an


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individual one between Jien and Chikafusa, and that it is indicative of achanging awareness of Japanese self-image reµected in other textualsources as well. The next section will offer support for this suggestion.

JAPANOCENTRISM IN LATE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY DOCUMENTS

Thirteenth-century Japan was a tumultuous period in many ways. It was aperiod of sociopolitical and economic upheaval, as well as one of religiousand cultural ferment, and in many ways was a pivotal period.24

A singular element stands out as a likely factor in the change inJapanese self-image around this time: the sense of national crisis broughtabout by the Mongol invasion threats, and the widespread jubilation afterthe double defeat of the Mongols as they approached Japan’s shores,greatly aided by auspicious storms that devastated the invading µeets(1274 and 1281). These storms were dubbed kamikaze (divine winds),bolstering the belief that Japan was indeed a land favored by the gods.

The Hachiman Gudõkun, a treatise describing the prayer rituals con-ducted at the Hachiman Shrine at Iwashimizu, composed during thereign of Hanazono (1308–1318), glori³es the “noble and wise divineland of Nippon,”25 whose populace joined in earnest prayer and ritualobservance imploring the gods and buddhas for help against the invader.The same treatise gives an account of an invocation supposedly offeredby the respected monk Eison (Shien Shõnin) of Saidai-ji in Nara during apublic prayer service, including the following:

As a foreign country threatens to invade us, men and women from highand low all lament in sorrow…. “Are the gods now about to destroy thisdivine land? Have the buddhas all abandoned it?”…

The promise made by the god Hachiman, “as the authority of thenoble rulers weakens, and the power of the people comes to naught (Iwill come to their aid)”—is this not precisely for this moment? We implore,then, quickly send your divine power and dispel the hateful enemy.

If we compare foreign countries with this our land, the Mongols aredescendants of dogs, while on the other hand the people of Japan aredescendants of the gods. The difference between these is as great as thedistance between heaven and earth. How can one compare gods withdogs?26

The very ³rst page of this same treatise already indicates the tenor of thewhole regarding its view of the land of Japan:

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The ³ve provinces and seven paths of this island of Akitsu (Japan), as wellas the drifting clouds and rains that fall, are all shrines and altars. Eachand everyone of its people, from the ruler to the masses, are all descen-dants of the heavenly and earthly deities. This land is outside the reign ofthe great Brahma, the deva king. It is separated from the MiddleCountry (China) and from other foreign regions. The three Koreas haverecognized fealty to this land, but our country has never belonged toanother. The gods of the three thousand thrones and the hundred devakings all protect its gates…. The gods are never derelict in their protec-tion. The buddhas never cease to extend their invisible aid. Who woulddare go against this divine land (shinkoku)?27

This Hachiman Gudõkun, written by a priest or priests of a Shrinededicated to the war-god Hachiman some years prior to the Jinnõ shõtõ-ki, reports of the concerted efforts of the whole populace at invoking thehelp of the gods in a time of national crisis. It is one further testimony ofthe new self-understanding of shinkoku that includes the sense of sacred-ness of the land and of its people, coupled with a sense of superiority toother countries.

Another document of extreme interest is the Keiran Shðyõshð,reportedly written in the year 1318 by a Tendai monk named Kõshð. Thisis a voluminous work that presents in encyclopedic form the various facetsof Tendai Buddhism practiced and taught at Mt. Hiei at the time. On thebasis of what is written in an introductory section of the document, theauthor was a monk who was not only schooled in the Tendai andShingon traditions, but also learned in other Buddhist schools such asZen, Kegon, Sanron, Hossõ, Kusha, and Jõdo, in addition to being well-versed in Shinto doctrine and ritual.

The following passages are noteworthy:

Since our country (Japan) is a divine land, there are numerous appear-ances of the gods. This being the case, the god that is the appearance ofthe Great Teacher Š„kyamuni for our times is Hie, the GreatManifestation.28

The gods are no other than Dainichi (Mah„vairocana). Š„kyamuni is anappearance of Buddha. Now at this present time our country is the homecountry of Dainichi. Saiten (India) is the country of the provisionalBuddha, Š„kyamuni. Therefore, the tree of enlightenment that is theplace of the coming into the world of the Mountain King (Sannõ) is thishome land of Dainichi (Nippon).


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The bodhi tree in Saiten (India) is a place of the manifestation of theprovisional body.29

Our country is the center of the Three Thousand Great Worlds.Therefore it receives the protection of the gods. Because of this it cannever be invaded by a foreign country.30

The last passage is particularly worthy of note in that it places emphasis onJapan’s invulnerability to “foreign invasions”—an obvious reference tothe experience of recent decades, which from all indications has made astrong imprint in the popular mind.

The two previous passages call attention to the reversal of traditionalBuddhist cosmology, where the Indian subcontinent (as the birthplace ofthe Buddha) was at the center and Japan at the periphery.31 Japan is nowregarded as the center of the cosmos, and the Mountain King Hie (god ofthe shrine at Mt. Hiei, seat of the Tendai school) is identi³ed as the veryembodiment of Š„kyamuni. The Š„kyamuni who was born in India isregarded as a (mere) provisional body, whereas the home of the trueDharma-body identi³ed with Dainichi (Mah„vairocana) is this land ofJapan.32

Another set of writings that offer testimony to a new understandingof the self-image of Japan are the works that laid the foundations of IseShinto, the Shintõ Gobusho, or “Five Treatises of Shinto.” Attributed to theWatarai family (Watarai Yukitada, 1236–1305; Watarai Ieyuki, 1256–1362;Watarai Tsunemasa, 1263–1339), these were most likely written in themiddle part of the Kamakura era, that is, the late thirteenth century.

The Yamatohime no Mikoto Seiki, one of the ³ve treatises (probablywritten between 1177 and 1180),33 proclaims:

Thus I have heard: The Great Country of Nippon is a divine land.Receiving the protection of the gods, the nation (kokka) attains peaceand well-being (anzen). Receiving the worship and devotion of thenation, the gods increase in power and majesty.34

These ³ve Shinto treatises develop this basic idea and present the detailsof the establishment of the country by the gods, and of the continuedmaintenance of the same under divine protection. Two notable featureshere are, ³rst, the use of the term “nation” (kokka), and, second, thedescription of the mutual bond of give-and-take between the nation andthe gods. In other words, the gods bestow protection and ensure thewell-being of the nation, and the nation accords its worship and devotion

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to the gods, glorifying them and increasing their power and majesty.“Nation” here can be read as the populace as a whole—from the rulingTennõ and the nobility, the religious functionaries, to the masses of peo-ple, united in mind and heart. Needless to say, this union of mind andheart in worship and devotion toward the gods was the experience real-ized in the prayer services and rituals performed vis-à-vis the threat ofMongol invasion.

There are many more documents from this period that corroboratethe above ³ndings regarding the change in Japanese self-image thatoccurred from the latter part of the thirteenth century.35 Here I haveintroduced only a few salient examples that support the suggestion thatan “ethnocentric turn” happened at this point in Japanese history.

HONGAKU SHISÕ AND JAPANESE ETHNOCENTRISM

In the above sections we have highlighted a period in Japanese history,namely, the early thirteenth to the early fourteenth century—the periodbetween the writing of Jien’s Gukanshõ (1219) and Kitabatake Chika-fusa’s Jinnõ shõtõki (1339). Taking our cue from the noticeable differencein the view of Japan’s place in the cosmos between the latter and the for-mer, we took a look at some other documents written within this period,looking for corroboration of the thesis that the difference was more thanjust between the two individual authors. We have called this change inawareness an “ethnocentric turn,” based on the difference in the view ofhistory, of Japan’s place in the cosmos, and on the difference in theunderstanding of the term shinkoku.

Our hypothesis, then, is this: the kind of logic operative in the doc-trine of originary enlightenment provided a theoretical basis for the shiftin the placement of Japan from the periphery to the center of the cosmos.Our clue is in the mode of thinking that af³rms that “this very body is the(real) Buddha” and that regards the historical (Š„kyamuni) Buddha bornin India as merely a “provisional” Buddha.

This logic could be called a “reverse Copernican turn,” as it invertsthe respective places of the sun and the earth in the scheme of things. Thesun (Dainich i= the “real” Buddha, the dharmak„ya) is located in thisvery place, that is, Japan (Nippon = “the source of the sun”), and theearth (the historical Buddha who walked this earth and lived in India) is“over there” on the other side. Needless to say, this involves the reversal


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of the traditional Buddhist cosmology that places Mt. Sumeru at the cen-ter (with Jambudv‡pa, or India, as the southern subcontinent contiguousto the center) and locates Japan at the periphery (hendo). The passagecited above from the Keiran Shðyõshð presents a clear example of thislogic put in application: Dainichi (Mah„vairocana), whose home is Japan,is the real Buddha; Š„kyamuni, who was born and lived in India, is only aprovisional Buddha.

Underlying this logic of reversal is the mode of thinking that distin-guishes “real” (honmon = genuine, originary, true) from “provisional”(shakumon = appearance, trace, vestige), a key feature of the Tendai tra-dition originating from the works of T’ien-t’ai Master Chih-i (538–597).This is a mode of thinking applied in the interpretation of the Lotus Sutra,wherein the ³rst half is considered “provisional teaching,” that is, theteaching of the historical Buddha in India based on skillful means of guid-ing sentient beings to awakening, and the second half is regarded as the“real teaching,” the teaching of the Tathagata of Immeasurable Life thattranscends history and continues to work on behalf of all sentient beingsthroughout all ages. This real-provisional distinction is a thought categoryin the Tendai tradition that had great inµuence in many circles.

This category also came to be a pivotal one as Buddhism spread itsinµuence in Japan, as it served a useful function in addressing the ques-tion of the nature of the relationship between the gods who protect Japanand the Buddhas named and described in the sutras that came from India,China, and Korea. Thus, the theory that the Japanese divinities are (pro-visional) manifestations of the (real) Buddhas from the Western lands(India)—the honji-suijaku theory—served as a framework for under-standing the relationship between the gods and the buddhas. This theory³nds frequent mention in writings that date from the late Heian periodon, and it became an accepted framework for several centuries.

In writings that date around the latter part of the thirteenth century,however, we begin to see a reversal of the roles of buddhas and godswithin the framework: the gods are now viewed as “real”(honji) and thebuddhas as “provisional” (suijaku). This reversal has been called the han-honji-suijaku theory, and we ³nd its fuller development in the writings ofYoshida Kanetomo (1435–1511)36 and subsequent Shinto theorists.37

Here again, the role of the Tendai doctrine of originary enlightenmenthas been identi³ed as quite signi³cant in grounding and encouragingsuch developments.

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CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS

Japanese ethnocentrism found unequivocal of³cial expression in theKokutai no hongi, issued by the Ministry of Education under the mili-taristic Japanese government in 1937.38 The fervent nationalism thatswept the whole country in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth cen-tury, coupled with the militarism that drove Japan to invade its neighbor-ing Asian countries, eventually plunging her head-on into the SecondWorld War, can be seen as concrete manifestations of the ethnocentricmentality that took shape and developed through the earlier centuries ofJapan’s history.

After its disastrous defeat in the Second World War, Japan undertooka remarkable program of reconstruction, and within a generation suc-ceeded in achieving the status of a world economic power. At this pointof history, various indications point to the continuance, and arguably theresurgence in different forms, of those same ethnocentric attitudes thathave informed the Japanese self-image and their ways of relating to therest of the world.39

Critical Buddhism has raised a sharp socioethical critique against theJapanese Buddhist establishment and Japanese society as a whole, for har-boring and abetting attitudes of social discrimination, cultural chauvinism,and ethnocentrism. This critique has touched a sensitive nerve, felt notonly in Japanese Buddhist circles but also in the wider public arena. Thediscussion deserves to be pursued on various levels, to include the histor-ical as well as the philosophico-religious and sociopolitical aspects of theissue. This paper is but one modest attempt to contribute to the discus-sion, considering the putative link between Japanese ethnocentrism andthe Tendai doctrine of originary enlightenment.


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ruben l.f. habito - tendai hongaku doctrine and japan’s ethnocentric turn - p. 374

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