Special issue: Vernacular Buddhism and Medieval Japanese Literature. Noriko T. Reider is associate professor of Japanese Language and Literature in the Department of German, Russian, and East Asian Languages at Miami University, Ohio.
摘要
Tsukumogami are animate household objects. An otogizōshi (“companion tale”) titled Tsukumogami ki (“Record of tool specters”; Muromachi period) explains that after a service life of nearly one hundred years, utsuwamono or kibutsu (containers, tools, and instruments) receive souls. While many references are made to this work as a major source for the definition of tsukumogami, insufficient attention has been paid to the actual text of Tsukumogami ki. The work is entertaining, and I believe that the principal motivation of the author(s) in writing it was to spread the doctrines of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism to a variety of audiences, ranging from the educated to the relatively unsophisticated, by capitalizing upon pre-existing spiritual beliefs in tsukumogami. In this article I examine Tsukumogami ki and the popular practices and beliefs that are reflected in its text and illustrations. A complete translation of the work is included as an online supplement to this issue of the JJRS, at www.nanzanu.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/jjrs/jjrsMain.htm.
