元禄五年の東大寺大仏開眼万僧供養に於ける真宗と時宗・融通念仏宗の対比=Comparison of Shin-shu (sect), Ji-shu (sect) and Yuzu Nembutsu-shu (sect) on the Consecrative Ceremony of the Great Buddha by Ten Thousand of Monks at the Todai-ji Temple in 1692
In this article, I will report on the consecrative ceremony of the Buddha Vairocana, which was viewed by ten thousand monks. The ceremony was housed at the Todi-ji temple in the Great Buddha Hal1.
At frst, I surveyed the overall flow of the Buddhist memorial service’s program and considered the various events on the list. Each of these events may overlap in content, but there are parts that compensate for each other’s shortcomings. I clarified and summarized the differences then arranged them accordingly. I also considered the meaning that each event had.
With the program in hand l thought, “It may be difficult to see the whole picture but if we can change our perspective a bit we may be able to understand it better.” So I did not examine the program in the traditional way, from top to bottom, but considered a random approach.
Next, when I compared the three sects; Shin-shu《真宗》, Ji-shu《時宗》, and Yuzu Nembutsu-shu《融通念仏宗》, Shin-shu took a more passive stance. In the last memorial service (1688) Kyoto City was magnificent but this time its neighbor Koriyama《郡山》City was also phenomenal. Big central temples is very active in Kyoto in contrast to Jodo-shu《浄土宗》. Comparing the previous ceremony with this ceremony, you could see the continuity between the present priests and the monks. However, in this ceremony the differences could be seen in the events between East and West Honwgan-ji temple. In addition, it seemed that the East and West’s program followed the last memorial service which created a good precedent.
The Buddhist sects were overwhelmed by the number of people this time as well, even though most of the sect were only in the two-digit range, the mass total came to 250. However, this total was off balanced by the Chion-in temple《知恩院》and the Obaku《黄檗》monks, combined there were l70 to 200 members.
Also it was noteworthy that we were able to see the name of the Dojo《道場》. In particular, the temple represents the foundation of the temple. It is well known that the existence of the Dojo is the common soil between Shin-shu and Ji-shu sects. In addition, the characteristics of the Buddhist sects are represented in the Turtle’s bell《亀鐘》and in the Yuzu Nembutsu. Ji-shu sect attended on the 29th and on the 30th, two consecutive days. Furthermore, the Kuya《空也》statue of the Kuya-do temple《空也堂》was also present. Unfortunately, the image that Ji-shu and “Dancing Nembutsu《踊躍念仏》” go hand in hand was spoiled. Also the Yugyo《遊行》and Fujisawa sects《藤沢派》did not have the “Dancing Nembutsu” on their program. Only the Ryozen《霊山》and the Kuya sects performed it. The non-performances of “Dancing Nembutsu” might have been caused due to time constraints, but it is an important event.
In conclusion, we were able to compare sects, which was the main point of the ceremony, and collectively we were able to compare this memorial service with the last one.
