いま、思うこと

抄録

This is a report dealing with the current state of my thoughts concerning the Buddhist service kekae. In this service, which is generally held in early spring, the emotional state of repentance and supplication is expressed through the praise of, and repetition of the name of the principal image of worship, which may be one of the various nyorai (buddhas), bosatsu (bodhisattvas) or ten (devas). It appears that the annual celebration of this service in Japan was established in the late Nara period, during the reign of the Empress Koken (r. 749-758), and that the principal image to be worshipped as stipulated by government order was Kissho-(or Kichijo-)ten (the goddess Srimahadevi). The service also performed the important function associated with folk belief of welcoming spring and praying for peace and prosperity during the coming year.
Surviving examples of the kekae service in Japan have a very limited geographical range; they are not found at all in eastern Japan, and only in three areas of western Japan. The first of these regions is the strip running north to south through the Kinki area, encompassing the ancient provinces Wakasa, Omi, Yamashiro, Kawachi, Yamato and Kii; the second the strip running east to west along the north coast of the Setonaikai (Inland Sea), encompassing Settsu, Harima and Bizen; and the third the area centered around the Kunisaki peninsula of Bungo, in northern Kyushu. These three areas were also the three major centres of civilization in ancient Japan. The process and route by which observance of the service spread is a complicated topic, since the forms of the service that can be observed in those regions that were in closer contact with the mainland (such as Wakasa on the Japan Sea Coast, and the Bungo region in northern Kyushu) contain elements that suggest a provincial breakdown of forms more correctly observed in the central areas, especially Yamato, and one must accordingly take into consideration the possibility of the reintroduction of patterns stabilized during the Heian period in areas nearer the seat of power.
One would assume that the reason why celebration of the service spread, became established, and in some cases survived to this day, would be associated with the fact that it was initially sponsored by the central government. However, although the principal image chosen for worship in official services was Kissho-ten, an examination of the surviving examples of the service shows that the majority have as their image of worship two other figures, the bodhisattva Kannon (Avalokitêsvara, Goddess of Mercy) and the buddha Yakushi (Bhêchadjaguru, Physician of Souls). The purpose of the service remains unchanged, and the order of the service is not substantially different, but it would seem that strong elements associated with the folk tradition of welcoming the new year, not necessarily of an official nature, may be responsible for the spread and tenacity of this type of service.
The central part of the kekae service is known as the keka hoyo, and the basic order and procedures of this rite have been shown to be closely related to that described in a work by the Chinese Tang-period monk Zhisheng _??__??_, Ji-zhu-jing-li-chan-yi _??__??__??__??__??__??_. Though there is no direct evidence that the service in Japan was based on this, one can assume that foreign models served as the basis for the procedures of the service. The surviving services are all built largely on a single pattern, in which texts differ greatly according to the image worshipped. Rather than all of these texts being continental imports, it seems possible that some of them were written in Japan as variations on a single structure. If this is so, the problems of who was responsible for the texts, when and where they were put together, and the power behind the creation of the new texts, are all matters that will require further investigation.