“A small country called China”: sannō shintō and the development of honji suijaku

Emanuela Sala (SOAS)

Abstract

Sannō shintō is the ancient and medieval cultural discourse centred on the deities of the Hie shrine, at the foothills of Mt Hiei, in Sakamoto (Ōtsu), the most prominent centre of kami worship in the Biwa lake region.

In sannō shintō , the identities of the deities of Hie are primarily conceptualised within the vocabulary and semiotic framework of Tendai Buddhism, and in relation to lineages residing at the Enryakuji 延暦寺, on Mt. Hiei. One of the ways in which this relation is understood is through the paradigm of honji suijaku , the salvific project undertaken by Buddhist deities who choose to appear in Japan as “local” deities to convert the Japanese populace.

In my talk, I firstly introduce sannō shintō , a heretofore neglected discourse. I then investigate a mythical tale on honji suijaku present in the Yōtenki (13-15th century), a collection of traditions related to the Hie shrine and one of the main texts on sannō shintō . While most medieval material explains honji suijaku as an entirely Japanese doctrinal development, the Yōtenki frames it as an elaboration of continental models, by entirely retelling the history of China so that it becomes a blueprint for the apparition of Buddhas-as-local-deities in Japan.

The Yōtenki discusses at length the relation of Japan to the wider Buddhist atlas and to world history, and explains in detail how the identities of deities were conceptualised. My talk demonstrates that it can change the way we look at medieval kami worship, thereby making a strong case for the necessity of lengthy studies on sannō shintō material.

Bio

Emanuela Sala is a third-year PhD candidate at SOAS, in the department of Religions and Philosophy. Her supervisor is Dr. Lucia Dolce.

Her research focuses on how the identities of medieval deities were constructed through mythical discourses. She works on sannō shintō , a discourse connected to the priestly lineages at the Hie shrine and to Tendai Buddhism, and especially on a text called Yōtenki (13-15th century). In 2018-2019 she was in Japan, where she conducted archival research (mostly at Eizan bunko, in Sakamoto), and studied Buddhist texts in classical Chinese under the supervision of Prof. Ōkubo Ryōshun, at Waseda University.

Organiser: Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions

Contact email: es27@soas.ac.uk