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Hachiman › Ancient History
Definition and Origins
Hachiman is the ancient Shinto god or kami of war, divination, and culture. He is famously credited with sending the kamikaze or 'divine wind' which twice dispersed the invading fleets of Mongol ruler Kublai Khan in the 13th century CE and which earned Hachiman the title of protector of Japan. In the typical crossover seen in Shinto and Buddhism in ancient Japan, Hachiman is also considered a bodhisattva and protector of temples. The god was and continues to be worshipped at thousands of shrines of both faiths around the country, including the Todaiji in Nara and Hachiman shrine in Kamakura.
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS
Hachiman grew in importance during the latter half of the Heian Period (794-1185 CE) when many Buddhist shrines were established in his honour. The kami or spirit of Hachiman, especially the aspect representing culture, was particularly associated with two semi-legendary rulers: Empress Jingu and her son the deified Emperor Ojin (r. 270-310 CE); both were thought to have been avatars of Hachiman such were their great feats in warfare and culture in general - Jingu for invading Korea, and Ojin for inviting Chinese and Korean scholars to Japan. The first link between Hachiman and Emperor Ojin, figures which often become interchangeable in later times, appears in the Hachimangu mirokuji engi, composed c. 840 CE.
In the 11th century CE, Hachiman was selected as the symbolic head and patron of the powerful Minamoto clan, who could then claim lineage back to Emperor Ojin. Yorinobu (968-1048 CE) was the first Minamoto to make this claim in 1046 CE, and his son Yoriyoshi strengthened the family ties to Hachiman by citing the god as the reason for his victory in the Earlier Nine Years War in 1062 CE against the Abe clan. Yoriyoshi built a shrine at Yui-no-go in Sagami (moved to Kamakura in 1191 CE), and from that point on ever more shrines were built, all funded and protected by the Minamoto.
HACHIMAN'S STATURE GREW IN THE KAMAKURA PERIOD WHEN HE WAS WORSHIPPED BY THE GROWING BANDS OF SAMURAI WARRIORS.
Yoriyoshi's son Yoshiie (1042-1103 CE) was an equally formidable warrior and he came to be known as Hachimantaro or 'First Son of Hachiman'. The legendary hero was named after the god following a dream by his father where Hachiman gave the youth a sword. Hachimanto was a famed archer, credited with being able to fire an arrow through three men at once and he was the main reason the Japanese defeated the Ezo people of northern Honshu.
KAMIKAZE
Hachiman's stature grew even greater in the Kamakura Period (1185-1333 CE) when he was worshipped by the growing bands of samurai warriors. Then the god enjoyed his greatest triumph when he was called upon to help save Japan as it faced its greatest ever threat from Mongol China. The god was credited with responding to these prayers and sending the kamikaze or 'divine wind', actually typhoons in the often treacherous waters between Japan and the Asian mainland, which dispersed two Mongol-Chinese-Korean invasion fleets sent by Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281 CE. This miraculous escape from a numerically superior foe gave the Japanese priesthood plenty of ammunition for their sermons and sutras which led to a boom in conversions to Buddhism.
The notion of kamikaze, which had twice saved Japan, held such a strong hold on the public imagination that during the latter stages of WWII it was revived as the name for suicide pilots who were thought to be, like Hachiman, providing a last ditch effort to save Japan from imminent invasion.
SHRINES & WORSHIP
Hachiman was first worshipped locally and then more formally at the Shinto Usa shrine in northern Kyushu, founded in 725 CE. Quite why Usa was the first temple to honour Hachiman is not known. A figure of the god was transferred with great ceremony from Usa to the new Buddhist Todaiji monastery in Nara in 747 CE, ready to become its guardian spirit ( chinju ) when it officially opened two years later. In gratitude, the imperial court gave the Usa Hachiman shrine an exemption from taxes and a high court rank. Another important large temple complex was built in the god's honour at Iwashimizu, south of the capital Heiankyo (Kyoto) in 859 CE. A later temple but today significant is the Tomioka Hachimangu in Tokyo, founded in 1627 CE. Today there are some 25,000 Hachiman shrines across Japan.
Hachiman
The Hachiman cult, like many others, included belief in an oracle of the god in the form of female priestesses who, possessed of the kami of Hachiman, uttered sounds which were then interpreted by a male priest or saniwa. A compendium of the god's oracle proclamations, the Hachiman Usagu gotakusenshu was compiled in the 14th century CE by a Buddhist monk called Jinun.
The most famous declaration from an oracle of Hachiman was to the warrior Taira no Masakado (c. 903-940 CE). After defeating a number of warlords in the eastern provinces, Masakado made the remarkable claim in 939 CE that Hachiman had spoken to him through his oracle and declared that he should be made emperor. Naturally, the current emperor proved unwilling to step down or even share his throne and instead sent an army to defeat Masakado. The head of the 'new emperor' ( shinko ) as he called himself was sent to the capital Heiankyo and normal service resumed in the Japanese court. The tale was preserved for posterity in the mid-10th-century CE Shomonki ('The Story Of Masakado'). After this incident, Hachiman came to be considered the special protector of the imperial line.
In Buddhism Hachiman was officially made a bodhisattva, that is an enlightened one who remains on earth to guide the faithful, in 937 CE, the first of many kami from Shinto to be given that status in the crossover of faiths that was so typical of religion in ancient Japan. In time, the interpretation of Hachiman's oracular proclamations was entrusted specifically to male Buddhist monks. A celebrated wood statue of Hachiman as a bodhisattva, carved by the artist Kwaikei in 1201 CE, resides in the Todaiji monastery. Hachiman came to be worshipped not only as a daibosatsu or Great Buddha but also as the protector of Buddhist temples. In the Medieval Period Hachiman was considered an avatar of Amida (Amitabha) the Buddha of the Pure Land.
Hachiman is associated with doves, which are his messengers, and his symbol is the bow and arrow, traditional weapon of choice (and not the sword) of the ancient gentleman Japanese warrior. Consequently, the sacred object ( go- shintai ) representing the god in his shrines is usually a bow and arrow, and sometimes stirrups too. A few temples have a calligraphy brush as their go- shintai to represent the god as patron of culture. Indeed, as Hachiman is also the kami of all things cultural, his shrine complexes often include secondary shrines dedicated to Tenjin, the Shinto god of scholarship and learning.
Festivals and ceremonies still held at Hachiman shrines include the popular omiyamairi ritual where young babies, especially boys, visit a shrine for the first time in their lives and receive purification surrounded by their family. Finally, Hachiman's Buddhist connections are evidenced in the Hojo-e festival, which began in 720 CE, where the faithful release animals and fish back into the wild.
This article was made possible with generous support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
To-ji › Ancient History
Definition and Origins
The To-ji Shingon Buddhist temple complex is located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 796 CE, its five-storey wooden pagoda is the largest in Japan, a symbol of the city, and listed as a National Treasure. The complex includes other examples of ancient architectural styles such as the Kondo Main Hall and Kodo Lecture Hall, as well as many important figure sculptures.To-ji is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and remains the centre of Shingon (Esoteric) Buddhism in Japan.
To-ji (meaning East Temple) was founded as a more modest building in 796 CE when it stood at the east side of the Rashomon gate of Heiankyo (Kyoto), then the capital of Japan. It was and continued to be the most important state-funded temple in Heiankyo. In 823 CE it was enlarged under the supervision of the scholar monk Kukai (aka Kobo Daishi), the founder of Shingon Buddhism in Japan. To-ji, thus, became a monastery complex for the study of that faith. It was the first Japanese Buddhist temple complex to be dedicated to one sect only, and its number of Shingon monks was limited to 50, led by an abbot or choja.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF TO-JI'S PAGODA ARE SAID TO CONTAIN A RELIC OF THE BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI THAT KUKAI BROUGHT BACK FROM TANG CHINA.
KONDO (MAIN HALL)
The Kondo building or Main Hall (aka Golden Hall) is the largest structure at To-ji and a National Treasure of Japan. It was first built in the 8th century CE but destroyed by fire in 1486 CE, eventually being reconstructed in 1603 CE. It has a double roof in the irimoya style, but it also includes elements from the Indian tenjiku style making it an excellent example of Momoyama Period (1573-1600 CE) architecture. It appears to have two storeys from the outside but really has only one, the interior ceiling being 12 metres (39 ft) high.
Inside the hall is a gilded wooden statue of Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of medicine and healing, which stands an impressive 2.9 metres (9.6 ft) tall with a large aureole or halo behind which has seven miniature figures of the Buddha. The pedestal on which the figure stands is supported by small standing sculptures of the Twelve Heavenly Generals who act as Yakushi Nyorai's guardians. On either side are figures of Nikko Bosatsu and Gakko Bosatsu, the sun and moon deities, respectively.This pair and the Yakushi Nyorai statue were sculpted by the celebrated Buddhist sculptor Kosei in 1603 CE and are all listed as Important Cultural Properties.
Main Hall (Kondo), To-ji
KODO (LECTURE HALL)
Kodo, To-ji
PAGODA
To-ji's famous five-storey pagoda, another National Treasure of Japan, was built from 826 to 883 CE but it has been destroyed by fire no fewer than four times, a couple of times due to lightning strikes. The last rebuilding took place in 1644 CE under the auspices of the Edo shogun Tokugwa Iemitsu. The pagoda, with its internal interlocking structure, has since proved admirably resistant to earthquake damage. It stands around 55 metres (179 ft) tall, making it Japan's tallest wooden pagoda, and, like many other pagodas, it was not simply designed as an architectural highlight of the temple complex but as a repository for important Buddhist relics. The ground floor of the pagoda contains statues of four Buddhas arranged around the central square column and each facing a different direction. The interior walls and column carry paintings of the most important bodhisattvas and the founders of Shingon Buddhism while the foundations are said to contain a relic of the Buddha Shakyamuni that Kukai brought back from his visit to Tang China between 804 and 806 CE.
To-ji Pagoda, Kyoto
OTHER BUILDINGS
Other structures at the complex include the Great South Gate (Nandaimon), next to which is a shrine to Hachiman, the Shinto god of war and culture, and the east Higashidaimon Gate which leads to the Hyotan Pond and gardens. The Miedo (aka Taishido) memorial hall, which contains a 1223 CE statue of Kukai, was once the residence of the famous monk. The wood statue is 83 cm tall and was made by the artist Kosho; it is the oldest surviving portrait of Kukai. The building, like the statue within, is a National Treasure of Japan but was yet another victim of fire in 1379 CE, and so rebuilding began the following year to be completed in 1390 CE. The roof of the Miedo is covered with cypress-bark shingles. The Homotsukan museum at the site houses many important figure sculptures and has examples of calligraphy attributed to Kukai himself in the form of letters he wrote to his fellow monk Saicho, founder of the rival Tendai sect. The whole To-ji complex is enclosed in a wall with moats at the northern and southern sides.
LATER HISTORY
To-ji was used as a base by Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358 CE), the Muromachi shogun, during the violent rivalry between Japan's northern and southern courts of the 14th century CE. Unfortunately, worse was to come when the temple site was largely destroyed during the 15th-century CE Onin War (1467-1477 CE), but it was rebuilt early in the following century following the same ground plan as previously. In this endeavour, the scholar Goho's Tobo - ki, an eight-volume history of the site written in 1352 CE, came in useful. Nevertheless, the current grounds of 10 hectares (24 acres) are only a quarter of what they once were. To-ji is still a working monastery and is the headquarters of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. A popular visitor attraction, To-ji also hosts antiques and crafts stalls on the 21st of each month, continuing the tradition of holding a market at the site, which goes back 700 years.
This article was made possible with generous support from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
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