The Shingon monk Jiun (1718–1804), who was active in the late Edo period, achieved prominence as a scholar of Siddam studies and worked toward the revival of the precepts. A prodigious scholar, he devoted himself to doctrinal matters, for instance, by advocating the correct dharma and vinaya as they were understood at the time of Shakyamuni’s life in this world, as well as using the Ten Good Precepts that Kūkai brought from Tang China as the essence of the precepts to preach the path of becoming a person for priest and layperson alike; Shintō was also a part of that project. Toward the end of his life, as he neared his seventies, he became particularly devoted to the study of Shintō classics such as the Kojiki and Nihon shoki.
The generative (nōsashō) (wish-fulfilling) jewel directly conveyed by Master Huiguo to Kūkai (774–835) during the latter’s visit to Tang China was used in the Ritual of the Latter Seven Days (goshichinichi no mishiho) observed at Shingon-in temple in 834. As a result, esoteric incantations using the wish-fulfilling jewel, such as the Prayer for the Spiritual Protection of the State (chingo kokka shigan), the Peace of the Emperor (gyokutai annon), and the Prayer Service for the Fertility of the Five Cereals (gokoku hōjō no shigan hō-e) became more widespread. Moreover, after his visit to Tang China, Kūkai was commanded by Emperor Saga to copy the “Image of the Ten Treasures” (tokusa no kandakara-zu) at Ise Jingū and, in particular, to regard the longevity gems (ikutama) among these Shintō treasures as also being generative jewels.
In this paper, based on the “Image of the Ten Treasures” transmitted in Unden Shintō from Jiun’s kikigaki and other works, I want to examine Jiun’s “Mandala of the Two Realms”-style interpretation, which melds Japan’s mythical deities with Taoism, the I Ching, Confucianism, and the yin–yang wuxing doctrine (in’yō gogyō-setsu), and to think about his views on the wish-fulfilling jewel toward the end of his life.
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