Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T02:23:47.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - Religious practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Allan G. Grapard
Edited by
Donald H. Shively  and
William H. McCullough
Allan G. Grapard
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
Donald H. Shively
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
William H. McCullough
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Get access

Summary

Upon arising, first of all repeat seven times in a low voice the name of the star of the year. Take up a mirror and look at your face, to scrutinize changes in your appearance. Then look at the calendar and see whether the day is one of good or evil omen. Next use your toothbrush and then, facing West, wash your hands. Chant the name of the Buddha and invoke those gods and divinities whom we ought always to revere and worship. Next make a record of the events of the previous day. Now break your fast with rice gruel. Comb your hair once every three days, not every day. Cut your fingernails on a day of the Ox, your toenails on a day of the Tiger. If the day is auspicious, now bathe, but only once every fifth day.

As these Testamentary Admonitions of Fujiwara no Morosuke (908–60) indicate, the life of aristocrats during the Heian period was punctuated by a plethora of practices and precautions of a ritual character. What appear on the surface to be common practices, such as washing one's hands or brushing one's teeth, were directly related to the daily performance of specific rites dedicated to various kami and buddhas and bodhisattvas. These rites were related to Taoist practices, to various ritual elements of Buddhism, or to beliefs and practices subsumed under the category of yin and yang. Yet other ritual practices were of a political character, or appear to be outside any immediately identifiable framework. This complexity of the ritual and liturgical world was part and parcel of life among aristocrats during the Heian period.

Keywords

religious practicesnatural occurrenceskamiBuddhist templesShinto shrinesritual procedures
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Japan , pp. 517 - 575
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akihisa, Shigematsu . Hachiman Usa-gū gotakusen-shū. Tokyo: Gendai shichōsha, 1986.
Bock, Felicia G. Classical Learning and Taoist Practices in Early Japan: With a Translation of Books XVI and XX of the Engi-shiki. Tempe: Arizona State University Center for Asian Studies, Occasional Paper No. 17, 1985.
Bock, , Felicia, , trans. Engi-shiki: The Procedures of the Engi Era. 2 vols. Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1970–72.
Borgen, Robert . Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court. Harvard East Asian Monographs, 120. Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1986.
Duquenne, Robert . “Daigensui.” Hōbōgirin 6 (1983).Google Scholar
Duquenne, Robert . “Daiitoku myōō.” Hōbōgirin 6 (1983).Google Scholar
Earhart, Byron . A Religious Study of the Haguro Sect of Shugendō. Tokyo: Sophia University, 1970.
Frank, Bernard . “Kata-imi et kata-tagae: Étude sur les interdits de direction à l'époque Heian.” Bulletin de la Maison Franco-Japonaise, Nouvelle Série, Tome 5, No. 2–4. Tokyo and Paris: 1958.Google Scholar
Grapard, Allan . “Enmountained Text, Textualized Mountain: The Lotus Sutra in the Kunisaki Peninsula.” In The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture, edited by Tanabe, George and Tanabe, Willa . Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Grapard, Allan . “Japan's Ignored Cultural Revolution: The Separation of Shinto-Buddhist Divinities and a Case-study: Tōnomine.” History of Religions 23.3 (1984).Google Scholar
Grapard, Allan . “Kūkai: Stone Inscription of the śramana Shōdō, who Crossed Mountains and Streams in His Search for Awakening.” In The Mountain Spirit, edited by Tobias, Michael and Drasdo, Harold . New York: Overlook Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Grapard, Allan . “Lotus in the Mountain, Mountain in the Lotus.” Monumenta Nipponica 14.1 (1986).Google Scholar
Grapard, Allan . “Patriarchs of Heian Buddhism: Kūkai and Saichō.” In Great Historical Figures of Japan. Tokyo: Japan Culture Institute, 1978.Google Scholar
Grapard, Allan . The Protocol of the Gods. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.
Groner, Paul . Saichō: The Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School. Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press Buddhist Studies Series, 1985.
Hakeda, Yoshito S. Kūkai: Major Works. New York: Columbia University Press 1972.
Hatayoshi, Nakano . Hachiman shinkō-shi no kenkyū. 2 vols. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1975.
Hatayoshi, Nakano . Usa-gū. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1985.
Hiromu, Kitanishi sensei kanreki kinenkai , ed. Chūsei shakai to ikkō ikki. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1985.
Ichirō, Hori . Kūya. Jimbutsu sōsho. Vol. 106. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1963.
Izumo, Yamagami . Nihon geinō no kigen. Tokyo: Yamato shobō, 1977.
Junjirō, Takakusu , Kaigyoku, Watanabe, and Gemmyō, Ono , eds. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō. 100 vols. Tokyo: Taishō issaikyō kankōkai, 1924–34.
Kazuo, Osabe . Ichigyō zenji no kenkyū. Kobe: Kōbe shōka daigaku, 1963.
Kichirō, Akimoto , ed. Fudoki. Vol. 2 of Nihon koten bungaku taikei. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1958.
Kōjun, Ōyama . Shimbutsu kōshō-shi. Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1975.
Kyōkai, , comp. Nihon ryōiki. Edited by Yoshimoto, Endō and Kazuo, Kasuga . Vol. 70 of Nihon Koten bungaku taikei. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1967.
Masaaki, Ueda , ed. Sumiyoshi to Munakata no kami. Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1988.
Minoru, Hirano . Kōshin shinkō. Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten, 1969.
Minoru, Shibata . Chūsei shomin shinkō no kenkyū. Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten, 1966.
Misaki, Ryōshū . Mikkyō to jingi shisō. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1992.
Mitsuji, Fukunaga , Dōkyō to Nihon bunka. Kyoto: Jimbun shoin, 1982.
Mitsuji, Fukunaga, Masaaki, Ueda, and Shumpei, Ueyama , eds. Dōkyō to kodai no tennōsei. Tokyo: Tokuma shoten, 1978.
Mitsukuni, Yoshida . Hoshi no shūkyō. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 1970.
Mitsuo, Kagawa and Seiichi, Fujita , eds. Usa. Tokyo: Mokujisha, 1976.
Needham, Joseph , ed. Science and Civilization in China. Vol. 2. History of Scientific Thought. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
Nobumi, Iyanaga . “Daijizaiten.” Hōbōgirin 6 (1983).Google Scholar
Noritada, Tsubo . Kōshin shinkō no kenkyū. Tokyo: Nihon gakujutsu shinkōkai, 1961.
Noritada, Tsubo . Kōshin shinkō. Tokyo: Yamakawa Shuppansha, 1956.
Osamu, Kubota . Chūsei Shintō no kenkyū. Kyoto: Shintō-shi gakkai, 1959.
Pearson, Birger A. , ed. Religious Syncretism in Antiquity. Missoula: Scholars Press, 1975.
Renondeau, Gaston . Le Shugendō: Histoire, Doctrines et Rites des Anachorètes Dits Yamabushi. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1965.
Renondeau, Gaston . Les Moines Guerriers du Japan. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1965.
Rotermund, Hartmut O. Die Yamabushi: Aspekte Ihres Glaubens, Lebens und Ihrer Sozialen Funktion im Japanischen Mittelalter. Hamburg: Kommissionsverlag Cram, De Gruyter & Co., 1968.CrossRef
Ryōshū, Misaki . Nihon Chūgoku Bukkyō shisō to sono tenkai. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1993.
Ryōshū, Misaki . Taimitsu no kenkyū. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1988.
Ryōshū, Misaki . Taimitsu no riron to jissen. Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1994.
Saitō, Tsutomu . Ōchō-jidai no ommyōdō. Tokyo: Sōgensha, 1947.
Sansom, George . A Short Cultural History of Japan. Rev. ed. New York: Appleton-Century, 1943.
Schipper, Christofer . “The Taoist Body.” History of Religions 17 (1978).Google Scholar
Seidel, Anna . “La Divinisation de Lao-tseu dans le Taoisme des Han.” Publications de l'Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient. Vol. 71. Paris: Ecole Française d'Extrême-Orient, 1969.Google Scholar
Sekiyo, Shimode . Dōkyō to Nihonjin. Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1975.
Sekiyo, Shimode . Nihon kodai no jingi to Dōkyō. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1972.
Shintō, taikei hensankai , ed. Shintō taikei. Vol. 22. Tokyo: Seikōsha, 1984.
Shōkō, Watanabe and Yūshō, Miyasaka , eds. Sangō-shiiki. Seireishū. Vol. 71 of Nihon koten bungaku taikei. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1965.
Shūichi, Murayama and Haruki, Kageyama . Hiei-zan. Tokyo: NHK Bukkusu NHK, 1970.
Shūichi, Murayama . Honji suijaku. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1974.
Shūichi, Murayama . Nihon ommyōdō-shi sōsetsu. Tokyo: Hanawa shobō, 1981.
Shūichi, Murayama . Shimbutsu shūgō shichō. Kyoto: Heirakuji shoten, 1957.
Shūichi, Murayama . Yamabushi no rekishi, Tokyo: Hanawa shobō, 1970.
Shunkyō, Katsumata , ed. Kōbō Daishi zenshō. 3 vols. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1968.
Shunshō, Manabe . “Seishuku bijutsu—hoshi mandara.” Kobijutsu 35 (1971).Google Scholar
Staal, Frits . “Indian Concepts of the Body.” Somatics (Autumn/Winter 1983–84).Google Scholar
Taisha, Nachi , ed. Kutnano Sanzan to sono shinkō. 3 vols. Tokyo: Meicho shuppan, 1984.
Tanabe, Willa . “The Lotus Lectures: Hokke hakkō in the Heian Period.” Monumenta Nipponica 39.4 (1984).Google Scholar
Tarō, Wakamori, Shūichi, Murayama, Shigeru, Gorai, Yasuakira, Tokawa, and Tokutarō, Sakurai , eds. Sangaku shūkyō-shi kenkyū sōsho. 18 vols. Tokyo: Meicho shuppan, 1977
Tarō, Wakamori . Shugendō-shi kenkyū. Tokyo: Tōyō bunko, 1972.
Tasuku, Hayami . Heian jidai kizoku-shakai to bukkyō. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1975.
Tatsunosuke, Ōno . Jōdai no Jōdo-kyō. Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1972.
Tatsuo, Inoue . Kodai ōken to shūkyō-teki bemin. Tokyo: Kashiwa shobō, 1980.
Tōkō, Kon, Takeshi, Kobayashi, and Shigeru, Gorai , eds. Rokuharamitsuji. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 1969.
Toshinao, Yoneyama . Dokyumento Gion matsuri-toshi to matsuri to minshū to. Tokyo: NHK bukkusu NHK 1986.
Toshio, Fukuyama . Chūsei no jinja kenchiku. Tokyo: Shibundō, 1977.
Toshio, Kuroda . “Chinkon no keifu.” In Toshio, Kuroda . Nihon chūsei shakai to shūkyō. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1990.Google Scholar
Toshio, Kuroda . “Historical Consciousness and Hon-jaku Philosophy in the Medieval Period on Mt. Hiei,” trans. Grapard, Allan . In The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture. Edited by Tanabe, George and Tanabe, Willa . Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Toshio, Kuroda . “Shinto in the History of Japanese Religions.” Journal of Japanese Studies 7–1 (1981).Google Scholar
Toshio, Kuroda . Ōbō to buppō. Kyoto: Hōzōkan 1983.
Toshio, Kuroda . Jisha seiryoku. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1980.
Tyler, Royall . The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Wheatley, Paul, and Thomas, See. From Court to Capital: A Tentative Analysis of the Japanese Urban Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Yoshio, Miyai . Fujiwara-shi no ujigami-ujidera shinkō to sobyō saishi. Tokyo: Seikō shobō, 1978.
Yoshio, Miyai . Jōdai no shimbutsu shūgō to Jōdo-kyō. Tokyo: Seikō shobō, 1980.
Yutaka, Nishimoto . Sumiyoshi taisha. Tokyo: Gakuseisha, 1977.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×