Author Affiliations: Research Center for World Buddhist Cultures at Ryukoku University
關鍵詞
esoteric Buddhism; five stages within the womb; red and white drops; Kakuban; embryology; Gorinkuji myō himitsu shaku
摘要
In this article, I discuss the significance of embryological knowledge, such as the red and white drops and the five developmental stages of the embryo, in medieval Shingon esoteric Buddhism. Specifically, I examine the writings of Kakuban, an eminent Shingon Buddhist monk in early medieval Japan, and point out that, according to Kakuban, embryological knowledge was connected with the six elements, which were fundamental to Shingon conceptions of ontology. In other words, by constructing embryological theories, medieval Shingon monks such as Kakuban attempted to make a correlation between abstract and distant cosmologies and the life and death realities of their daily lives.
目次
The Five Developmental Stages of the Embryo in the Uchigikishū 88 Embryological Theory in the Gorinkuji 91 The Six Elements and Kakuban’s Embryological Theory 95 Conclusion 98 References 99
