The Mountain as Mandala: Kūkai’s Founding of Mt. Kōya
This article considers the sociocultural significance of Kūkai’s understanding of Mt. Kōya as a mandala. Locating the context for his formulation of this understanding in his efforts to found Mt. Kōya in the mid-Kōnin era (809-823), it seeks to elucidate its disclosive function. The interpretation i...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Nanzan Institute
2020
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| In: |
Japanese journal of religious studies
Year: 2020, Volume: 47, Issue: 1, Pages: 43-83 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Kūkai 774-835
/ Saichō 767-822
/ Kōyasan
/ Temple
/ Mandala
/ Social culture
/ Religious policy
/ History 800-900
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| IxTheo Classification: | BL Buddhism KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
mountain temple
B Kūkai B disembedding B Mandala B temple Buddhism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article considers the sociocultural significance of Kūkai’s understanding of Mt. Kōya as a mandala. Locating the context for his formulation of this understanding in his efforts to found Mt. Kōya in the mid-Kōnin era (809-823), it seeks to elucidate its disclosive function. The interpretation is put forward that Kūkai’s mandalic understanding of the mountains disclosed the possibility of a disembedded form of Buddhist life, one in which the human agent is understood to exist outside the social world of the Heian court and the divine cosmos on which it was believed to be grounded. Particular attention is paid to the sociopolitical effects of this disclosure, suggesting specifically that it contributed to the differentiation of religious authority from political power in Japan. To elucidate this process, Kūkai’s founding of Mt. Kōya is situated in a genealogy of monks who founded mountain temples that operated relatively autonomously vis-à-vis the state. Kūkai’s erstwhile collaborator, Saichō, is given special consideration. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Japanese journal of religious studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.18874/jjrs.47.1.2020.43-83 |