Shinnyo-En and the Formulation of a New Esoteric Iconography
In 1936, Ito Shinjo established the modern lay esoteric Buddhist group known today as Shinnyo-en, The Garden of Truth. This article surveys the ways in which Ito used image and text to reimagine Japanese esoteric Buddhism throughout the twentieth century. It examines not only Ito's iconographic...
| Published in: | Material religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2019]
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| In: |
Material religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Shinnyo-En
/ Esotericism
/ Iconography
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| IxTheo Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
Ito Shinjo
B Doctrine B Ritual B text-image analysis B Icons B Esoteric Buddhism B Shinnyo-en B Gender B Mandalas |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | In 1936, Ito Shinjo established the modern lay esoteric Buddhist group known today as Shinnyo-en, The Garden of Truth. This article surveys the ways in which Ito used image and text to reimagine Japanese esoteric Buddhism throughout the twentieth century. It examines not only Ito's iconographic innovations, but also his own autobiographical account called The Path to Oneness (Inchinyo no michi) in order to chart the major institutional, ritual, and doctrinal developments of Shinnyo-en. Specifically, this article argues that Ito's veneration of the King of Immovable Wisdom, Fudo Myoo, from 1935-1936 onwards, as well as Fudo's two acolytes (ryodoji), helped him to make doctrinal sense and personal meaning out of the tragic death of his own two sons. It also argues that his addition of gendered dharma protectors and the Diamond and Womb World mandalas further expanded Ito's personalized worldview, and that his addition of the Buddha in Nirvana in 1957 and the Eleven-Headed Kannon Bodhisattva of Compassion in 1979 further filled out the so-called three wheel bodies of esoteric Buddhism. These images, and the institutional and ritual developments associated with them, reinforced Ito's remarkable doctrinal claim that Shinnyo-en represents the third culminating sect of esoteric Buddhism in Japan. This case study thus provides rare insight into the use of image and text to imagine, illustrate, and shape the major contours of a "new" religious movement in the modern period. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2019.1568756 |