Question about repentance rituals in Japan

[Maya Stiller]

Dear colleagues,

I have a question about the veneration of 53 Buddhas during repentance
rituals in Japan. I am currently working on Koryŏ/Chosŏn period
Buddhist halls dedicated to the 53 Buddhas and am wondering about
their East Asian context.

In Avatamsaka Buddhism in East Asia (2012), Manabe Shunshō briefly
mentions a miniature assembly ritual (“hina eshiki” 雛會式) conducted in
745 at Hokke metsuzaiji 法華滅罪之寺 in Nara, in which the nuns made
offerings to small wooden statues of Sudhana and his teachers. Manabe
also writes that on April 24, Todaiji observes the “rite of the Kegon
masters”, in which paintings of the 55 teachers from the Avataṃsaka
are hung in the Founders’ Hall, and Todaiji monks lecture on the
Avataṃsaka Sūtra and read from the Practices and Vows of
Samantabhadra. At the end, participants chant the names of the 55
teachers and offer prostrations. I agree with Manabe who suggests that
the latter ritual is a three-dimensional form of Sudhana's pilgrimage,
but the ritual setting also reminds me of the characteristic features
of a repentance ritual. Would you agree/disagree?

Any comments or suggestions for further readings about Buddhist
repentance rituals in Japan and/or the veneration of the 53 Buddhas
would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Best wishes,
Maya Stiller



Maya Stiller, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Korean Art and Visual Culture, University of Kansas
Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation/ACLS Program in Buddhist Studies
Post-doctoral Fellow 2016-18
Korea Institute, Harvard University
CGIS South, Room S223
1730 Cambridge St
Cambridge, MA 02138

[Ross Bender]

Repentance rituals (keka 悔過) were common in Nara Japan. There are 15 instances in Shoku Nihongi for the period 749-770. When Hachiman arrived in Nara, 40 Buddhist priests carried out a keka for seven days.The Kichijōten keka 吉祥悔過 was especially popular and the Empress performed it in the palace on one occasion.

I'm interested in the 745 instance you mention and am curious to know the source for that detailed description.

Attached is a page with some Shoku Nihongi excerpts.

Ross Bender

https://independent.academia.edu/RossBender

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[Maya Stiller]

Dear Ross Bender,

Thank you very much for providing this information, this is very
helpful for my research.

According to Manabe, an Avataṃsaka ritual is recounted in Sanbō
ekotoba 三寶繪詞 compiled by Minamoto no Tamenori (?-1011) in 984, please
see p. 210 in Manabe Shunshō. “The development of images depicting the
teaching of the Avatamsaka-sutra.” In Avatamsaka Buddhism in East
Asia: Huayan, Kegon, flower ornament Buddhism: origins and adaptation
of a visual culture, ed. Robert Gimello, Frederic Girard and Imre
Hamar. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012.

Manabe does not provide a reference for the original text.

Maya Stiller


On 7/30/16, Ross Bender <rosslyn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Repentance rituals (*keka *悔過) were common in Nara Japan. There are 15

> instances in Shoku Nihongi for the period 749-770. When Hachiman arrived in

> Nara, 40 Buddhist priests carried out a keka for seven days.The *Kichijōten
> keka *吉祥悔過 was especially popular and the Empress performed it in the

> palace on one occasion.
>
> I'm interested in the 745 instance you mention and am curious to know the
> source for that detailed description.
>

> Attached is a page with some *Shoku Nihongi* excerpts.

[jan]

Sanbō ekotoba has been translated into English by Edward Kamens (The Three Jewels, Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1988). The reference may be to the Penance of Śrīmahādevī, section 3:2, page 251. A note identifies this as the Kichijō keka.

Janet Goodwin

[Ruppert, Brian Douglas]

Dear All,

I'm in Japan and so don't have access to Kamens' excellent translation currently, but the account seems to be distinct from that on Kichijo keka and so on, but is rather the depiciton of the Hokkeji Kegon'e of nuns. I'm looking at the Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei ed of Sanboe (新古典文学大系本『三宝絵　注好選』), pp. 169-170, on the Hokkeji Kegon'e 法花寺華厳会 (reading glossed here as ほうくゑじくゑごむゑ). There's no suggestion of a repentance rite from what I can see--at least not directly--but rather the three-dimension reproduction of Sudhana's pilgrimage through the nuns' production and veneration of dolls representing the fifty-some (53 presumably) teachers of Sudhana (the so-called zenchishiki 善知識), though here I do see that the depiction describes the rite as additionally including nuns' taking of the precepts, quoting from a jataka about a nun (woman) who met the Buddha Kasyapa, decided to take the tonsure and turning toward the path to enlightenment, noting that in taking tonsure she overcame her own transgression (罪 gloss: つみ), recognizing the danger otherwise of birth in hell; she now meets Shaka and notes the good roots she planted previously. In that sense, it does have a repentance theme though I'm not sure about other elements that otherwise might resemble Keka/Repentance rituals. The text and the notes of this standard edition do not make such a direct claim. The only Keka/Repentance rites in this work seem to be limited to the Kichijoten Kika and Anan(da) Keka accounts.

Brian Ruppert

________________________________________
From: pm...@googlegroups.com [pm...@googlegroups.com] on behalf of jan [j...@cs.csustan.edu]
Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2016 7:52 PM
To: pm...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Jan Goodwin
Subject: Re: [PMJS] Question about repentance rituals in Japan

[Cynthea Bogel]

Dear Maya,
I think Brian is right on this (naturally-- I defer!) and I am also concerned that for Goryeo and Jeoson periods that Nara keka, which in terms of surviving content description are very slim anyway, are not going to be appropriate comparisons for you.

I list all the Nara keka and some content matters in my dissertation; I'll try to scan some pages for you if helpful.

veneration of 53 Buddhas during repentance

rituals in Japan. I am currently working on Koryŏ/Chosŏn period

Buddhist halls...

Any comments or suggestions for further readings about Buddhist

repentance rituals in Japan and/or the veneration of the 53 Buddhas

would be greatly appreciated.

Today's Yakushiji Yakushi 悔過 keka,   today called  花会式 because of the flowers involved in its ritual origins and a  修ニ会 may,  if you seek  EA rites closer to your time periods,  be helpful as it apparently holds to the structure of the 1107 performance for the ill-disposed empress of Emperor Horikawa. I have only attended once and I don't recall if there are 53 Buddhas worshipped but it maybe worth checking for the text. It is dedicated to Yakushi but many Buddhas are mentioned in the rite. 

Best wishes and good luck, Cynthea 

Cynthea J. Bogel
Kyushu University 

May-June 2016, CASVA Visiting Senior Fellow

http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/research/casva/members/current-members.html

Composed with voice dictation software, apologies for any typos or infelicities.

Sent from my iPhone

[Yasuhiro Kondo]

Dear All,

Thank you for your interesting information.

Thera are clear photos of current Hokke-ji temple (Hokke metsuzaiji
法華滅罪之寺) in Nara.
The nuns make offerings to small wooden 55 statues of Sudhanakumara
(55 styles that he was wearing when he met his 55 teachers) at present.

I'll show the URL for your information.

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/aoniyosinarayamatoji/e/06869714d8241bd0dfa1a4e6196e6b78




Yasuhiro KONDO, Ph.D
Director, University Library
Prof. of Japanese linguistics
Aoyama Gakuin University
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

[Kamens, Edward]

Dear Brian, Janet, Ms. Stiller et al.:

Ms. Stiller’s main question is about repentance rituals per se. I can’t add anything specifically about that, but will note that the tradition of setting up doll-size models based on the Kegon-kyo passage (referred to by Brian and others) is described in section 3.13 of Sanboe (“The Kegon Service at Hokkeji.”) I would assume that it is to this section that Manabe refers in the passage mentioned by Ms. Stiller.
Also, for what it’s worth, my translation of Sanboe is out of print but available as a PDF for free download at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cjs/1077715.0001.001/--three-jewels-a-study-and-translation-of-minamoto-tamenoris?view=toc

Yours, Ed Kamens

On 7/31/16, 5:33 AM, "yhk...@gmail.com on behalf of Yasuhiro Kondo" <yhk...@gmail.com on behalf of yhk...@cl.aoyama.ac.jp> wrote:

Dear All,

Thank you for your interesting information.

Thera are clear photos of current Hokke-ji temple (Hokke metsuzaiji
法華滅罪之寺) in Nara.
The nuns make offerings to small wooden 55 statues of Sudhanakumara
(55 styles that he was wearing when he met his 55 teachers) at present.

I'll show the URL for your information.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__blog.goo.ne.jp_aoniyosinarayamatoji_e_06869714d8241bd0dfa1a4e6196e6b78&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=yNueOg9q4O7JPgkP2moteB-js-kaY3QOQFMnDTl9ojM&m=OXGxPi-bbElFYxy45kyPYfO3WDRYZO5Ovp_rHaitHEk&s=pVxY5-FcblbQ9ziKc2mYN2GGQtnSGWsB562zGMS0moQ&e=

> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.nga.gov_content_ngaweb_research_casva_members_current-2Dmembers.html&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=yNueOg9q4O7JPgkP2moteB-js-kaY3QOQFMnDTl9ojM&m=OXGxPi-bbElFYxy45kyPYfO3WDRYZO5Ovp_rHaitHEk&s=lIDqvmvSLxKc_TljHxBtwhMCY_o2-m2DSQPjal8F4mw&e=

> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__independent.academia.edu_RossBender&d=CwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=yNueOg9q4O7JPgkP2moteB-js-kaY3QOQFMnDTl9ojM&m=OXGxPi-bbElFYxy45kyPYfO3WDRYZO5Ovp_rHaitHEk&s=eBFT8ckW_kpXN6qHqPwi4icVXzROak_oAb23XU7FBMg&e=

[Maya Stiller]

Dear Ed Kamens et al,

Indeed, I am primarily interested in finding out more about repentance
rituals from the later periods (Kamakura, Momoyama, Edo).

One of the Korean cases I am working on is a sculptural set of 56
Buddhas (53 Buddhas + the trikaya Buddhas) dated 1684. Donor records
found inside the sculptures reveal that they were used in the context
of repentance rituals; so apparently they were NOT a three-dimensional
reproduction of Sudhana’s pilgrimage like the examples mentioned
earlier in this thread.

In any case, Cynthea is right in that I should not compare apples with
pears; the Nara keka and Chosŏn repentance rituals obviously occurred
in very different contexts.

Thanks again for all your insightful suggestions and comments,
Maya